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By Paul Ndiho
February 25, 2011
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in Washington has opened its doors to an exhibit showcasing African and Brazilian art.
“Artists in Dialogue Two (II)” chronicles works by artist Sandile Zulu from South Africa and Henrique Oliveira from Brazil. Karen Milbourne, museum curator says the interaction between the artists began a year ago, when they met at the museum to survey the gallery space.
“An artist who works with what we’d consider to be very transitional idioms of art history. Here you have an artist like Sandile Zulu who is working in the vocabulary of the minimal list… He’s work is very clean, it’s very essential, it’s real just the essence of a very profound message and yet he’s using it instead of the classical painting but doing it with fire.”
Zulu makes designs on his white canvases using fire, water, and earth, his trademark technique. His muted color patterns are seen near the entrance of the gallery, while Oliveira’s dynamic forms emerge from the back. Oliveira’s two giant, wood installations bulge out from the wall like snarled tree roots, looking like two elephants.
Milbourne says Henrique Oliveira was inspired by Zulu’s use of fire.

“He has taken this unyielding material and also worked in this vocabulary also something very familiar of painting but taking you to someplace else… So you have these classical starting points and yet there is nothing classical about these two artists.
“Arts in Dialogue Two (II)” is a way to celebrate ties between Africa and the African Diaspora, according to Museum Director Dr. Johnnetta Cole:
“A museum is at its best is in the story telling business, but I think it’s a mistake if we think that there is only one story to be told, and we got it memorized and just hope that everybody who leaves the museum has the same story. But the extra- ordinarily thing about being in a relationship with this continent is that it will then take you into the Diaspora, it will then take you into the rest of the world, and that’s a lot of stories.”
Oliveira builds his paintings in layers, much like a collage, splattering different colors. His paintings are busy with abstract shapes, popping with bright colors. “Artists in Dialogue Two” is on display at Washington’s Museum of African Art through December. So if you are in DC, after many hours of braving the cold weather, shopping, sight-seeing…! You might want to pass at the museum and see for yourself.

By Paul Ndiho
February 18, 2011

Uganda’s opposition presidential candidate, running for the third time, has called on people to take to the streets if there is evidence of election rigging.
Today’s presidential elections in Uganda are widely expected to hand President Yoweri Museveni a fourth term in office against his opponent, opposition front runner Dr. Kizza Besigye. General Museveni, who has ruled the East African country for over two decades, is running for the fourth time as the candidate of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), seeking a continuation of his 25-year rule. General Museveni took power in 1986, (and) changed the constitution in 2005 to end presidential term limits.
Besigye has twice tried and failed to beat Museveni at the ballot box. He wants street protests if the poll is deemed rigged, and plans to release his own tally of results alongside the official vote count.

Shortly after casting his vote Besigye said East Africa’s third largest economy is ripe for an Egypt-style uprising amid mounting frustration Museveni has been at the country’s helm since 1986. Museveni has said he would clamp down on any protests.
“If the electoral commission eventually announces something different or if there is massive fraud from incidents like those I have described, then we shall be advising the country so, that this is not an election and letting the citizens decide what next to do, because this time we are not going back to the courts, our people are the courts, they should decide what to do with the next elections,”
European Union observers said voting had so far been peaceful, but were concerned some voters were being turned away from polling stations despite being registered and that they had seen a number of improperly sealed ballot boxes.
Many Ugandans complain of widespread corruption and a lack of investment in basic public services and infrastructure, but others respect Museveni for bringing stability to a country once plagued by brutal regimes.
The discovery of oil along the country’s western border has upped the stakes. The vote’s winner will be tasked with charting Uganda’s emergence as a top-50 oil producer and managing the resulting petrodollars and foreign investor interest.
President Museveni defeated Besigye in 2001 and 2006 in elections that the Supreme Court ruled were marred by accusations of widespread fraud. Uganda’s opposition criticizes the Museveni government, calling it corrupt and repressive.
Political analysts say attempts to sway voters had been more subtle this time to avoid alarming foreign donors and investors eyeing the country’s oil.
The the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) has spent a “phenomenal” amount of money and that the state coffers were clearly dug into to support Museveni.
Analysts feel a public uprising is not likely to succeed in Uganda, where a population less educated and less Internet-savvy than that of Egypt is afraid of an army with a history of violently suppressing dissent.

By Paul Ndiho
February 17, 2011

Millions of Ugandans head to the polls today with mixed feelings as they vote in presidential and parliamentary elections.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday re-iterated his threat to arrest main opposition leader, DR. Kizza Besigye, if Besigye carries out his vow to contest the election not in the courts, but in the streets. General Museveni has ruled the East African country for over two decades, and is running for the fourth time as the candidate of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).
“If he does not want to go to court will be in order as it will mean our lawyers won’t be paid any money to feed themselves for free, but to say that he will come into power through violence, there is no other way for us but to arrest him.”
Most political analysts expect General Museveni will win, because he’s large sums of money on his campaign – tens of millions of dollars in state funds, according to critics, and paying people to go to his rallies. But General Museveni dismisses claims that Uganda might explode with street chaos if the poll is not fair.
“There will not be any Egyptian-like revolution here, because we are freedom fighters, we are not office people, there is nobody who can use extra- constitutional means to take power here, that one is out of the question.”
54 year-old Kizza Besigye, who is facing former ally Museveni for the third time, says a popular uprising in Uganda was “even more likely” than in either Egypt or Tunisia after what he says are years of corruption. Besigye is the leader of the Inter-Party Cooperation or IPC Party, which intends to release its own polling results. The IPC says that if their results do not match the official figures, supporters will protest.
Besigye unsuccessfully appealed to the Supreme Court after losing in the last two polls, but says this he will appeal to the public instead. He says he has been threatened with arrest before by General Museveni:

“Am not surprised, that’s the way he behaves whenever he is seriously threatened with the defeat. Actually he arrested me the last election and it will not come as a surprise that he is threatening, rattling and generally losing his composure as head of State.”
Besigye and Museveni are going head-to-head at the ballot box for the third time. An urban-rural divide has emerged in Uganda, with Besigye enjoying strong support in urban areas and making inroads into Museveni’s rural base of support. Besigye says that like Egypt, Uganda is looking for change:
“Egypt I think is not a situation that is unique to Egypt where the population is frustrated with institution of state they take the power back to themselves and use it to cause the changes they need and I think we are approaching that situation here.”
Museveni and Besigye took to the streets on the final day of campaigns urging their supporters to turn up in large numbers at the polls.
At Museveni’s rally, the grounds were swamped with supporters wearing yellow as the party colors and Besigye’s were all in blue.
Car horns blared, people bashed drums and stereo speakers pumped out songs in support of both candidates – and six other hopefuls – drowning out the afternoon election chatter as many escaped the noise and the sun in dark cafes.

By Paul Ndiho, Washington DC
February 15, 2011

Stakes are high in Uganda as the nation prepares to vote in presidential and parliamentary elections this week. Despite 25 years of economic growth and relative stability, many Ugandans are concerned about the state of democracy in their country.
Ugandans will go to the polls to elect their president on February 18 for the fourth time since the reinstitution of democracy. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the East African country for over two decades, is running for the fourth time as the candidate of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), seeking a continuation of his 25-year rule. General Museveni took power in 1986, (and) changed the constitution in 2005 to end presidential term limits. Earlier this month, he began an airborne political campaign; flying planes blasting music across the country. This tactic has come under fire from Museveni’s critics, who say he is spending taxpayer money for his own purposes, but Museveni dismisses those claims.

“NRM’s 25 years heritage to Uganda is a solid foundation for a progressive nation. What this means is while we have achieved recovery we are now going to take off.”
The election pits General Museveni against his closest rival, Dr. Kizza Besigye, in the third face-off between the two men. Analysts say it is a test of democracy in a country about to start producing oil. Besigye is the leader of Inter-Party Cooperation (IPC), a coalition of four parties.
President Museveni defeated Besigye in elections in 2001 and 2006 in elections marred by accusations of widespread fraud. Uganda’s opposition criticizes the Museveni government, calling it corrupt and repressive. Kizza Besigye says that there is a lot anger in Uganda and if upcoming elections are not free and fair, Uganda might be ripe for unrest.
“There is a lot of anger, frustration in our society without doubt, whether the rigging of the elections is what will trigger off that kind of public riots is one that I think is open to speculations, these things can be triggered by anything and normally it is the smallest thing that triggers of the beginning of such riots, but the ground is certainly set for that kind of public expression.”
Democratic Party leader Norbert Mao is another presidential candidate who is worried about the credibility of Uganda’s upcoming presidential elections.
“If we don’t have free and fair elections, we are going back to the cycle of violence that we thought was now behind us.”
Olara Otunnu, Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) presidential candidate is another newcomer to the Ugandan political scene. He’s the former United Nations Undersecretary for Children in Armed Conflict Zones. Otunnu returned to Uganda last year after 23 years in exile to run for president.
Other presidential contenders include Dr. Abed Bwanika of the Peoples’ Development Party (PDP), Betty Kamya, Uganda Federal Alliance (UFA) presidential candidate, Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) presidential candidate, and Samuel Lubega, an Independent.

By Paul Ndiho
February 10, 2011
Sexual violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has left thousands of victims in need of greater assistance. The United Nations is trying to reach out to women who bear the brunt of war. The U.N. recently opened new community center for women survivors of gender violence in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Rape has been used as a weapon of war in the Eastern Congo for more than a decade. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of women have been raped by war-hardened rebels and government soldiers. The U.N.-funded “City of Joy” is Congo’s first rehabilitation center for victims of sexual violence. The center opened its doors just weeks after a new spate of mass rapes in eastern Congo. Wabiwa-Mutulinwa is a spokesperson for sexual violence victims.
“We had said before and we are still saying that we need a committee to look after our needs, how are we expected to live? We are oppressed, when we are raped, everyone laughs at us saying we are mothers and asking if we are really using our heads properly.”

City of Joy will provide hundreds of women each year with survival skills training, therapy, storytelling and comprehensive sexuality education.
On the center’s opening day, United States Ambassador on global women’s issues, Melanne Verveer, told participants that they need to work together for Eastern Congo.
“We work in many levels with our partners here, with all of you to end the conflict to end the atrocities of systematic rapes that is nothing less than a crime against humanity.”
The City of Joy center will try to help Congolese women turn their pain and anger to hope, and become leaders in Eastern Congo.
But Wabiwa-Mutulinwa says Congo’s women need help to stop the violence.
“We really suffer too much with the problem of rape, and we are requesting all of you who are here to help us as if this was to happen to your country it would be stopped very fast, we ask ourselves what mistake have we done?”
Last month more than 100 women, men and children were sexually abused in separate attacks carried out by the Congolese army and FDLR rebels in and around the South Kivu town of Fizi. U.N. Special Envoy on Sexual Violence, Margot Wallstorm.
“Women are so strong. Women carry children, they carry water, they carry produce, they carry firewood, they carry responsibilities and now they have to carry the shame of being raped. This has to stop.”
The DRC has one of the highest incidences of sexual abuse. There were an estimated 11,000 rapes in Congo in 2010 alone, according to the United Nations.

By Paul Ndiho, Washington DC
February 7, 2011

Uganda is believed to have the largest onshore oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa, but there are mounting concerns that an influx of petrodollars could lead to corruption.
Energy experts say Uganda will start producing crude oil this year, reaching peak production of 150-thousand barrels a day by 2015. Some of the oil will be used for power production, but the bulk will be sold domestically and in the region. The government says revenue will be used for infrastructure development Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni is reaching out to international investors.
“The oil industry in Uganda has potential of providing a lot of investment opportunities to oil companies and other related businesses. You are all welcome to invest in Uganda, to invest in this emerging industry, I am confident that with these interventions, Uganda will be a good destination for investment in the mining, petroleum and energy sectors.”
Within Uganda, there have been concerns that oil revenue sharing agreements between energy companies and the government have not been made public. Dr. Kizza Besigye, Uganda’s leading opposition figure, says that this lack of transparency could lead to high levels corruption and warns that some contracts may have to be renegotiated. Other critics say that Museveni, who has ruled for more than two decades and is standing for a fourth presidential term, will not tolerate a handover of power with petrodollars about to flow.
“The secret contracts that have been negotiated with the current regime will have to be reviewed because we don’t know what they are. It will have to be reviewed and a review can lead to any kind of outcomes; could lead to a re-negotiation, it could lead to cancellation; it could lead to any form of outcome depending on what we find. We don’t know. This country does not know what our leaders are negotiating on our behalf.”

Last year, a Ugandan court dismissed a case that local NGOs had filed to compel the government to disclose details of oil-sharing agreements it signed with four companies. Tom Balemesa, an oil researcher and Peace Corp Fellow, says that since the discovery of oil, expectations are high and life of ordinary people is being transformed in one of the remotest regions in western Uganda.
“With the discovery of Oil more people are coming into Hoima District and more people are expecting a lot of benefits in terms of jobs.”
Balemesa is also concerned that Uganda’s local population will not be able to get jobs in the oil industry.
“The whole idea is looking at it from a humanistic approach to the person on the lower side… Yes the road has been contracted but what are the alternatives for this person on the ground who has not been to school because most of them have not been to school, so are they going to resettle them, are they going to give them some compensation, or are they going to encourage them to go to school and get skills?”
Analysts say Uganda has the potential to produce as many as 200-thousand barrels of oil per day. This would place Uganda among the top 50 biggest producers in the world and among the top 10 in Africa.

By Paul Ndiho
January 01/25/2011
Millions of Southern Sudanese have lived in northern Sudan for decades. Some had jobs, others were married and their children were born there. But it was never quite home. In days leading up to the referendum, tens of thousands started going back home to the South. The UNHCR estimates that more 180,000 southern Sudanese have returned. VOA’s Paul Ndiho caught up Dominik Bartsch, UNHCR’S program coordinator for Sudan and Chad, who says much of the area remains devastated and undeveloped. And that many of returnees will continue to depend on assistance to rebuild their lives.

BY PAUL NDIHO, WASHINGTON D.C
JANUARY 01, 25, 2011

Power blackouts, also known as “load shedding,” are one of Africa’s biggest challenges in the 21st century as the demand for energy is at all time high. Experts say more than 75% of African nations are facing serious electricity shortages. Paul Ndiho has more:
Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the fastest growing economies in the world. About one-seventh of the world’s people live in Africa but the continent generates only 4% of global electricity. More than half of the total population in sub-Saharan Africans has no access to power. But in central Mali, that situation is about to change:
“It has changed a lot to have electricity. Before, I needed a generator and it was expensive to pay for its fuel. I use the electricity also in the daytime for the fridge.”
Maimouna Sacko owns this small restaurant in the city of Seribala in central Mali. Until recently, she served breakfast and lunch in the dark.
She now gets electricity from a nearby power station, thanks to a national energy project and the World Bank.
“It is not even comparable to before. Now I work at night and also in the daytime I can sell cold drinks so I am selling more now than before.”
But still, only 24 percent of Mali’s population has access to electricity. That rate is even lower in rural areas like Seribala.
The energy project is reversing that by paying local private companies to operate off-grid power stations, such as the one providing energy to Seribala.
“All development depends on electricity. We can’t progress in obscurity. The people were in obscurity before we came. Now the city is doing well.”

The Mali project funds almost 50 private companies to manage about 80 power stations across the country. The stations provide power to 650,000 people and hundreds of public places. Shop owner Amadou Drame.
“We are happy. Even if the bill is sometimes expensive, I do all I can to pay and if there is a problem, the company comes and fixes it immediately.”
Amadou says since getting electricity he does business until 2 o’clock in the morning, and is able to provide for his family. Amadou’s success story could be repeated elsewhere on the continent – analysts say having reliable power could add more than 2 percent to the annual growth rate of the worst-hit African countries.

By Paul Ndiho
January 13, 2011

Following a ban on mining activities in a large part of eastern Congo, business in the surrounding areas is coming to a halt. Businessmen and officials fear the ban could damage other economic sectors.
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s mining-driven economy has been crippled by the global economy’s drop in demand for minerals. Income from mining and other exports make up more than 60 percent of state revenues. To put an end to illegal mining, last year the government banned all mining activities in Eastern Congo. Political analyst Yussa Bunzigiye Prosper says the mining ban has had a detrimental effect on working people:

“I think the government in Congo is running away from their responsibility. The primary duty of the government is to provide security for the people, irrespective of whatever activity. The Government cannot prevent people from trying to make a living or to have something to eat. And those people depend on any activity which have been used to, be it mining.”

Tin ore, or cassiterite, is in huge demand worldwide for its use in electronics. Congo’s eastern Walikale district is home to most of the country’s cassiterite, and where more than 300 rapes took place in a rebel attack in July and August. The rising insecurity prompted the government in September to ban mining in North Kivu, South Kivu and Maniema provinces. But local business people say the ban is hurting them more than it is improving security.
”Since the president suspended cassiterite mining, we are not selling. The cassiterite miners used to come from the Goma bush and would bring cassiterite to be sold. After that, they would buy other materials for their own environment. Since this problem however, there is no circulation of money. We are not selling at all.”
An estimated 5 million people are believed to have been killed in the Congo since the start of civil war. The Congolese government and U.N. forces are still struggling to uproot various rebel groups active in the region.
Business people in Eastern Congo say that the mining ban only leads to smuggling of minerals, and hurts everyone:
“The consequences are serious. Soon, we wouldn’t have worked for four months. Can you imagine what kind of an impact this will have? Go speak to the bankers, go speak to businesses, go speak to the aviation sector, go see the people that are in the petrol business, everything is moving at a very slow pace”
Yusser Prosper says that President Joseph Kabila’s decision to ban mining in the eastern DRC diverts attention from real problems:
“Are you suggesting that President Joseph Kabila is part of the corruption, part of the scam to steal away from his own people?
“You cannot say that the whole country has bee has been mismanaged as a result of the illegal mining. No, you go in other parts of the country which have nothing to do with illicit mining in Congo and you still see the same thing…You still see insecurity, You still see violence against women and those are the failures of the government, and the corruption. The corruption is the one, which is the foundation of all this wrong things which are happening in the Congo.”
Congo’s cassiteriate made up about 5 percent of world production this year. More than 50,000 people were affected after exports worth $10 ten million dollars came to a halt. Many mining companies have tons of ore sitting in warehouses or in the bush, waiting for the freeze to be lifted. And United Nations experts say that tin mines previously run by rebels have mostly been taken over by the army.

By Amra Alirejsovic & Valer Gergely

Italian photojournalist Enrico Dagnino at his “War Zone” exhibit
Twenty-five years of war around the world are on display at a new exhibit in Washington, DC, called the “War Zone.” It’s a collection of still photographs by Italian photojournalist Enrico Dagnino – powerful images that shine a spotlight on the cruelty of war. Dagnino has covered all the recent conflicts in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. His pictures tell stories which echo the thoughts of other journalists who also were there. And they tell a tale of war and survival.
Born in Italy and based in Paris, photographer Enrico Dagnino has gone to the heart of conflicts around the world: Bosnia, Croatia, Chechnya, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Kenya, Somalia. He has been arrested, beaten and threatened many times while covering wars. We reached him in Kenya, before his next assignment in Sudan.
“The moment I take the picture is like I am almost not there. It slowly starts coming later and growing inside you,” he says.
Please be advised that some of the images are extremely graphic in nature and may not be suitable for all viewers.
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The stories of war are also the stories of survival. One of the most cruel conflicts in recent history was the one in Chechnya in the mid-1990s, which unofficially claimed about 300,000 lives. Many people are still missing, including the husband of journalist Fatima Tlisova. Tlisova herself was arrested seven times, and even poisoned, because of her reporting.
“When you report from the war, you see human flesh everywhere,” she says. “In the winter it is corpses half eaten by dogs on the streets, in the summer it is mostly the smell. It is penetrating your lungs.”

More than 100,000 people were killed in the war in Bosnia between 1992-1995. 2.2 million people were displaced and over a million ended up as refugees. Sixteen-hundred children alone were killed during the siege of the capital, Sarajevo.

“One had to have enough strength and courage to go out in the street and not look around, because there was not a single day that I did not see a dead body around me,” says Mladen Bosnjak, who covered the seige for Radio Sarajevo.

Enrico Dagnino was there too. He says the brutality of one Serbian paramilitary leader, Zeljko Raznatovic, was almost too much for him to handle.

“At the beginning of the Sarajevo siege I saw a soldier running on a bridge,” he says. “That was the only moment when I was a little bit scared to press the shutter. But I did press it, and they arrested me, confiscated the film, beat me.”

Dagnino says the images of war he most vividly remembers are from Bosnia – and from the wars he covered in Africa.
Fierce fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo in 2000 was the widest multi-national war in modern African history. Paul Ndiho was another journalist who took great personal risks there.

“I have never been in a situation where I had seen so many people killed in one night,” he says. “People were massacred in large number, especially women and children. I saw several mass graves, people who were buried, fresh bodies being taken out of their houses.”

French photographer Jean Louis Atlan is the owner of the Zone 2.8 gallery, which is hosting the “War Zone” exhibit. He also covered events in Afghanistan, Iran, Poland and the Middle East — and covered the White House for 10 years as well.

“You do not see those pictures in magazines,” he says. “You see them maybe once from time to time. The difficulty of taking a photograph is to try to get in one photograph the whole story.”

Enrico Dagnino says his images can be seen as question marks for human behavior. He says that he does not trust humanity as he did before. Other journalists feel the same way. Fatima Tlisova says that “it can’t be true, but it is.” And Paul Nidho adds that he is haunted by the voices of conflicts he covered, and that he sometimes hears them in his dreams.

But Dagnino says he has no regrets. Given the option, he would do it all over.

“In my next life I will be a photojournalist again…. For sure…,” he says.