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By Paul Ndiho
July 7, 2011
Final preparations are underway in South Sudan’s Capital, Juba, ahead of Saturday’s independence celebrations on July 9TH. The National Anthem Choir in Juba is working on the coming nation’s new anthem, and residents of Juba are treated to rehearsal parade. With just a few days left before the official declaration of the independence of South Sudan, members of the National Anthem Choir are practicing hard for an historic performance. The choir has been rehearsing for four months. There are 200 members of the choir, selected for their vocal abilities and their command of English.
There are two versions of the national anthem — English and Arabic — and the government intends to translate it into all south Sudanese indigenous languages.
Composer and choir master, Edison Arkanjiro says the anthem’s tempo is similar to that of a march — to commemorate and symbolize the final march to freedom of the people of south Sudan.
“First of all, we think of the culture here in South Sudan, the songs in South Sudan. We have many different types of songs here, we have reggae, we have Reggaetone, we have hip-hop music, we have R’n’B, we have African music here. So we say, let this music, let this tune mention, speak of the culture here in South Sudan.”
Arkanjiro is a member of the Juba university team that won the X-Factor-type singing type competition to write the music for the national anthem, titled ‘God Bless South Sudan’.

The lyrics were composed last year by a collaboration of 49 poets, academics and musicians. In three short stanzas, the words praise the motherland, God and the martyrs.
The Republic of South Sudan was born from a referendum in which more than 98 percent of southerners voted for secession from the north. The vote was a product of a 2005 peace deal, following decades of war.
“I feel like an angel. Because I feel the pain, the 21 [years] of paining of war… and I feel, I feel really, I don’t know, it is like a dream.”
The National Anthem Choir will perform in front of thousands guests and a swarm of media. Juba residents witnessed a rehearsal parade ahead of independence celebrations this weekend.

There was a flag raising exercise, and the new flag of the Republic of South Sudan was raised.
SOT: Barnaba Benjamin Marial, Southern Sudan Minister of Information
“The flag will be raised and the Sudanese flag will be brought down and we will equally, there will be off cause the signing of the constitution, the transitional Constitution by the president and then the president will take an oath as the first president of the Republic of south Sudan. President Bashir is expected to make his statement finally as the president of the Republic of the Sudan with his national anthem playing for the last time in southern Sudan, and then our president will speak finally.”
High emotions were on display at the celebration grounds, and this student says he is too excited to rest or stay home.
“I am very happy today, that day I cannot sleep, I will sleep on the streets here I cannot go home because we have been waiting for so long, so many years and we lost many people, so this day is a very important day for us southern Sudanese, I am very happy today.”
South Sudan’s independence celebration is slated to start at midnight on Friday 8 July. Church bells and drums will sound marking the birth of the Republic of South Sudan. At least 3,500 dignitaries from all around the world are expected for the event.

BY Paul Ndiho, Washington DC
JULY 7, 2011
Sudan’s south will mark independence from the North on Saturday, July 9, and the South’s government says it has thrown open its borders to foreign traders to supply goods, labor and expertise to help build its economy.
After the Comprehensive Peace Deal for Sudan was signed in 2005, foreign traders filled the gap left by the departure of many northerners. Neighboring vendors rushed to Southern Sudan, hoping to cash in on opportunities there.
The south’s After decades of conflict, Southern Sudan has almost no capacity to manufacture essential goods, and almost everything needs to be imported.
South Sudan is due to declare independence from the north on Saturday, and authorities are eager to build a robust environment for business to build the economy.

Bagat Minyang Chan, with Ivory Bank in Juba, says Juba has become a budding area of commerce.
“They (southerners) have been marginalized even in terms of there was no investment in the south before. People did not find themselves with the trade, not many people were trading because trade was in the north. Here you know before the agreement most of the traders were northerners.”
Chan says business people from neighboring countries are cashing in on supplying goods to the south.
“They (business people) are hopeful… there is investment and especially after the north closed the borders with the south, a lot of people have come to us for investment to bring goods, to bring goods from East Africa.”
Elizabeth Mungai from Kenya came to South Sudan in 2007 and now owns a shop selling imported general provisions in downtown Juba. She says she has no plans to leave and hopes for even bigger profits after July 9.
“Because I’ve been here for all that time, through the referendum, the elections I’ve been here, through separation …all those things I’ve been here so I proved there is no problem.”
Not only small traders are grabbing opportunities in South Sudan – banks, construction and agriculture companies, telecoms and financial firms are cashing in as well.
Gihad Ghalayini, a Lebanese businessman who came to South Sudan in 2008 and contracts with the government to supply vehicles. He operates across south Sudan and employs more than 30 people. But Ghallayini says investors have one need in particular:
“If we have land with proper land documentation, proper layout, proper titles then loads of investors will come, buy land, lease land, develop,”
South Sudan’s government says it aims to attract 500 billion dollars in Foreign Direct Investment over the next five years. South Sudan becomes the world’s newest country on July 9 and the 54th Nation on the African continent.

By Paul Ndiho, Washington DC
July 5, 2011
When the award winning novel “Roots: The Saga of an America Family” was first released more than 33 years ago, it generated a lot of interest in Africa. “Roots” author Alex Haley traced his family’s heritage back to Juffure, a small village in the West African Nation of the Gambia. In a similar voyage of discovery, a group of Africans in the Diaspora is organizing an ocean cruise that will retrace the journeys of their ancestors.
The United Nations proclaimed 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent. Over the years, people of African heritage have attempted to find out what really happened to their ancestors who were taken out of Africa and enslaved. Lamin Sarr, originally from the Gambia, is one of the organizers of the cruise and says this cruise, the “Heritage Revival Caribbean Cruise,” will complete the cycle of freedom and its goals are to promote greater understanding among peoples of African descent.

“When we talk about organizing this cruise, it is not just a simple cruise. It is a platform that will do three things: One, it will help us to celebrate 2011 as the international year for people of African descent. I prefer for people of African heritage, it will also help to launch a program of a dialogue which we call the rejuvenation of the broken African family.”
Mr. Sarr says that the cruise is meant to give people of African descent an opportunity to go back to their ancestral land.
“It will be a voyage that will reverse the very routes of the trans-Atlantic slave trade routes. What we plan to do is actually have a cruise ship and have a lot of people in that ship and we’ll move from the East Coast of the United States and we’ll stop in the Caribbean. Stop in Brazil and cross from Brazil to West. Africa basically the first voyage will be to Senegal. Because form Brazil to Senegal is the shortest route across the Atlantic Ocean, so that will shorten the length of the cruise. “
While the cruise is a kind of cultural heritage tourism, Sarr notes the cruise will also have the ability to transform people’s consciousness:
“When that ship arrives in West Africa, we’ll go through the door of no return and by doing that we’ll enter the land and be welcomed by their African brothers and sisters. In doing that they will have debunked the myth of the door of no return because original

By Paul Ndiho
July 1, 2011
The African Union Mission in Somalia, or AMISON, says that most of the population in the country’s capital is returning to normalcy. AMISON is encouraging Somalis living in the areas controlled by militants to join the government side.
The African Union Mission in Somalia says it’s making some progress in stabilizing the security situation in Mogadishu, but a lot more needs to be done in the fight against al-Shabaab. Aid agencies in Somalia are also concerned with Somalis displaced due to drought, which only adds to the nation’s ongoing humanitarian crisis.
An AMISOM spokesman says that there has been a lot of change in the Somali capital and people there can now go on with their business without fear.

“We are now talking of over 80 percent of the population in Mogadishu in AMISOM controlled areas. I think it’s an indicator of returning normalcy, people are going about their businesses in AMISOM controlled areas and we encourage the population that is still in the areas under the Al-Shabbab to come over to the government side.”
Mr. Ankunda adds that Somalis are becoming aware that there is better security in the areas controlled by AMISOM.
“Change is coming. What we need now is for the people themselves to rise up completely against the insurgents, and tell them that enough is enough, that they would want to live in peace and go about their normal lives uninterrupted. This is the time.”
Mogadishu’s Mayor Mahamud Ahmed is calling on all Somalis abroad to come and invest in their country.
“Any Somali that wants to build a factory, or a hospital, or anything that creates more than 500 jobs, I am ready to give them land, freely, to build it. So, this is the chance before they become too late, come and invest in your country.”
Aid agencies have voiced their concerns over the tens of thousands of Somalis displaced by drought and conflict.
A Red Cross delegate says that after two seasons without rain, Somalia is entering its worst drought in recent years, and aid agencies are unable to feed the majority of people in need.
“The worst situation that you could face is exactly the situation they are facing this year: is that the drought is happening in the same time all around the country, so that prevents people to move from one place to another safe place. They really have to make long journeys to find a safer place.”
The African Union Mission in Somalia is striving to help Somalia restore peace and stability after decades of lawlessness and factional warfare. Political divisions between Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government and the interim Parliament have further hampered the country’s peace process.

BY Paul Ndiho
JUNE 30, 2011

On July 9, Juba will become the capital city of the world’s newest nation, the Republic of South Sudan. Residents of Juba, fondly known by locals as the world’s largest village, are working improve their city as South Sudan’s Independence Day draws near.
Ravaged by 22 years of civil war with the north that ended with the signing of Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, Juba has seen little development.
Nevertheless, since the peace deal, the city has been growing rapidly but analysts say it has expanded without planning.
Many southern Sudanese say Juba is not fit to be the capital. Some have gone as far as to suggest building an entirely new capital elsewhere. Now a cleaning and beautification surge is underway in Juba.
“Surely, Juba is changing for the better because, as you move around, you can see how people are feeling free and how people are enjoying being a citizen of this area.”
Locals and officials want a city worthy of their new nation, and to proudly welcome visiting heads of state and dignitaries to Juba in July.

Juba’s cleanup started six weeks ago and government officials say the process will continue after Independence.
“I think it’s not only geared towards independence but setting up a system that will continue. I think that is the most important.”
The city cleaning is carried out mostly by volunteers who are paid $7 dollars a day.
The project’s main goals are to clean the streets of rubbish and dust, plant trees and paint the roads, demolish structures, install solar street lamps and set up a sustainable system of keeping Juba clean.
The landmark John Garang memorial site is also undergoing a facelift as it will be the focus of independence celebrations.
But authorities say they are hard pressed to have the renovations ready for Independence Day, now just weeks away. Jokmadut Jok is an Undersecretary at the Ministry of culture.
“The narrow timeframe and the urgency of the situation, some companies have hired hundreds of people so that they can accomplish the work in the course of a few weeks. We began this process about six weeks ago.”
A South Sudan government official says millions of dollars have been dedicated for Juba’s cleaning. But authorities also say that once the July 9 Independence Day celebrations are over; the real work of building the new country begins.

By Paul Ndiho
June 23, 2011
Monday, June 20, was World Refugee Day, a day to focus global attention on the most marginalized of populations, those who have been driven from their homes by violence and disaster. Communications and information technology is helping some of these refugees, and refugee agencies have developed new software to help displaced families find their loved ones using a mobile phone application.

There are over 11 million refugees in the world today, and conflict has created some 26 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). In Africa, many of them don’t know where their loved ones are.
The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, together with other partners, has launched a program to help refugees find their families and friends again.
In Kenya, mobile phone service provider, Safaricom has started a new service in Nairobi. Sanda Ojiambo, is the head Corporate responsibility at Safari com.
“Today Safaricom has launched in partnership with Ericsson, UNHCR and Refugees United a mobile phone based WAP internet based system whereby refugees can log on, register in an anonymous database, provide relevant information that will help them track, as well as be found by their family and friends. This is for refugees and displaced persons.” The program will enable millions of refugees to use S-M-S, mobile enabled browsing and the Android cell phone market to find relatives and friends. Refugees will be able to register and search for lost relatives through a database. Okoyi Ojulo is a refugee Ethiopia.
“Yeah, it’s a good service, because I can be able to get a chance to meet with my families who I have lost for a very long time, yeah almost for seven years now, yeah.”
Dagabrel Okoth, a Sudanese refugee, says the refugee registry is perhaps the best thing that can happen to a refugee camp:
“It is a good thing because if we are today talking of, saying that, we will find your friends we will find your families who are lost I think that is great I can also contribute I can inform my friends to actually come and register. I have friends and many other colleagues especially in south Sudan also Rwanda, Somali guys, I can also inform them especially those who have not heard of this information, I can personally go and tell them UNHCR has done this and this, can you guys come and register.”
The refugee registration service that was launched in Uganda in September 2010 has already registered some 41,000 refugees.

By Paul Ndiho, Washington DC
June 20, 2011

Ahead of elections next year, there is a youth movement in Senegal which is drawing inspiration and energy from a popular hip hop group.
“Enough is enough” is spearheaded by two popular rappers from the group, Keurgi Crew, and a journalist who say they are fed up with Senegal’s current leadership. The group says that it believes the government is actively seeking to discourage young people from voting in the country’s elections early next year. One of their slogans is “My card is my weapon”:

“We thought it was time to find a voluntary popular movement for the citizens that above all have had enough, in which people who are fed-up with everything that has happened here for the last 50 years, with this system, can come together, get involved and find the cure needed to improve their lives.”
Using a mix of concerts, demonstrations and civic education, the group says it is fighting to prevent the exclusion of Senegal’s burgeoning youth from February’s presidential election.
Barro says ahead of the poll, the group will analyze potential candidates and, perhaps endorse one, but not the incumbent, octogenarian Abdoulaye Wade, whom they say must not be allowed a third term in power.
“Enough is enough will not vote for one man, enough is enough will put together a program and after the elections, will oversee the implementation of this program. The candidate who would have been elected based on our criteria, enough will supervise and will make sure the program for which he (the candidate) was elected will be fully implemented.”
Analysts say that the movement could have a great influence in Senegal’s upcoming vote. Keurgi Crew draw thousands of people to concerts to spread their message about the power of the vote:
“It is true that there is a cocktail that can explode anytime and ”enough is enough” understands this and has tried from the very beginning to turn those frustrations, those negative energies that can blow off and set ablaze the whole country. “enough is enough” is trying to take all the negatives energies and turn them into positive energy by telling people: ” Your weapon is your voting card.”
Some members of “Enough is Enough” were arrested in March this year as they called for protests which gathered some 5000 people.
February’s vote will take place amid simmering social tension. Daily power cuts, a high cost of living, and rocketing youth unemployment clash with grandiose government projects, such as a 28 million dollar statue of President Wade unveiled last year.

By Paul Ndiho, Washington DC.
June 13, 2011

Uganda’s leading opposition figure, Dr. Kizza Besigye, says the “Walk to Work” protests will continue despite a government crackdown. Besigye was recently here in the United States seeking medical treatment for his eyes, which were temporarily blinded when police detained his vehicle, smashed its windows, and fired pepper spray inside.
Uganda’s main opposition leader recently made international headlines after he was shot and arrested by the Ugandan military and police during a modest street demonstration over rising commodity prices. He says the broad based “Walk to Work” protests are a civil movement for change, and dismisses claims that the protests have died down.

“The protest and what drives the protest suddenly has not died, and will not die. That is the injustice that I was talking about. As you realize, indeed the whole protest was met with unprecedented brutality…. But the protest will not die and for sure, we shall continue protesting. I’ll continue participating in all the protest. It is our fundamental right to show dissatisfaction, to demonstrate against what we don’t want, and we should exercise it until we get the results that we deserve.”
Kizza Besigye – one of East Africa’s most popular politicians – has become the face of the protests that take place twice a week which have urged people to leave their cars at home to highlight soaring fuel and food prices. The protests started small, but were boosted by the violent arrest of Besigye. Besigye says that he was not surprised by the way the government unleashed this terror on him and his supporters.
“I mean it would be, deceitful to say I am happy about what has been going on. It is not fun to be treated the way I was treated. But, I fully know that there are even many more people who have undergone much worse than I have. I am actually among the lucky ones. And I also recognize all of this is happening in the process of struggle for the people of Uganda to assert themselves so that they have a government that they control that works for them. And I am very alive to the fact that no freedom, no positive changes come without a cost.”
Besigye was President Yoweri Museveni’s personal doctor during Museveni’s days as a bush rebel, and now Besigye has lost three elections against his former friend, including the latest presidential vote in February, which opposition leaders say was rigged. General Museveni’s critics argue that images of security personnel smashing car windows with guns or pointing weapons at people is something that reminds Ugandans of previous brutal regimes. Besigye says that he fell out with Museveni after they disagreed on which the direction the country was moving.
“Our meeting point was to work on an agenda for democratic change in our country, to have a government that would precisely be best for the people’s will and to work for the common good. The moment he veered away from that, I expressed my opposition to him and I think that’s where the contradiction begun. You may remember that even before I came to the public elective arena, I simply penned a critical document which was explaining out what had gone wrong, and he responded to it violently saying I should be court marshaled and no one should discuss what I had written and that’s where the whole thing started.”
General Museveni has been in power in Uganda for 25 years, and until recently was respected internationally for his handling of the economy, for stabilizing a once chaotic country and for intervening in regional hotspots such as Somalia. But critics are growing in number and say he marries these achievements with domestic repression.
Museveni accuses Besigye and other opposition figures of trying to start another Arab spring-type of uprising in Uganda, and vows to crush the protests, blaming rising food and fuel costs on drought and global increases in oil prices.

Human Rights Watch is calling on the Ugandan government to conduct a prompt, independent, and thorough investigation into the use of lethal force by security forces to counter recent demonstrations and rioting throughout the country. The violence took place over several days in April and May when demonstrators protested against wasteful government spending and rising commodity prices

By Paul Ndiho, Washington DC.
June 8, 2011
Gabon’s President Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba says his country has a key role to play on the world stage as that central African country assumes the presidency of the U.N. Security Council. And Mr. Ondimba says that Gabon will stand with NATO on Libya, because of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s continued refusal to step down.
In a keynote speech on U.S.-Africa relations at the United Nations, President Ondimba said that Africa is becoming more active on the world stage and with regard to Libya.
“As a member of the United Nations Security Council and surest chairman of the rotational presidency, Gabon has a key role to play. The Arab Spring and in particular the events in Libya have demonstrated clearly the developmental challenge that faces Africa as a whole. The obvious failures of governments to deliver a true social contract for their people are the root cause of the events we have witnessed.”
President Ondimba says that Africans expect their leaders to govern with a vision and to understand that democracy today is not about just having elections but about building democratic institutions. But he says the full realization of this democratic ideal can be sometimes difficult.

“You should encourage and support those of us who generally respect democratic principles and rule of law. Respect for national institutional principles cannot be separated from the respect for individuals. While we leaders are expected to govern with vision our respect for institutions is the ultimate safeguard for stable and strong democracies and the ultimate security for citizens to know that their collective will is taken into account. “
Historically, Gabon has depended on timber and manganese until oil was discovered offshore in the early 1970s. Gabon is trying to diversify its economy amid declining oil production.
President Ondimba said that the telecommunications industry in Africa is more important than ever before.
“Telecommunications is probably the most widely known success story on the African continent and at the same time directly contributed to the revolution in N. Africa. Today a rural farmer or herder can use his mobile phone to call ahead to market towns and find out where he can find the best price for his goods. He can leverage this information to bargain with buyers. In the same way social activists can communicate and coordinate dissent circumventing the requirement for physical contact and making it difficult for governments to quell opposition.”
Gabon has long been dependent on oil and gas as its main source of income. The Central African country is ranked third largest producer of oil in Africa but the country’s petroleum output has been declining for years.
On paper, Gabon enjoys a per capita income four times that of most sub-Saharan African nations, but because of income inequality, a large proportion of the population remains poor, and President Ondimba acknowledges that the development of Gabon still has a long way to go.