Poli 4078 Course Notes

January 14, 2014

1. “Sense of Despair”

1. AFRICA has to remain the focus of study

1. What is Africa?
2. How is its Politics?
3. Why is it plagued by so many problems?
4. What has been done to fix it?
5. Why waste time to study it?

1. “Learning experience”

1. Politics

1. Government’s leadership isn’t easy

1. Constraints

1. Domestic weakness
2. External weaknesses

1. Examining Africa South of the Sahara

1. Gadhafi brought Africa back by creating the Africa Union in 2002

1. Happened because organization of Africa of Unity in 1963 wasn’t performing very well
2. AU is okay but not perfect
3. Problems still linger even though the AU has been created

1. Take Home

1. Was South Sudan a mistake?

1. Heartwarming that Sudan hasn’t been involved in the war
2. They were seen as bad guys
3. John Garan was known for forming SPLA

1. Wanted basic rights to be given to the people of South Sudan
2. Peace Treaty with South Sudan in 2005
3. US pushed them to go get independence, now the US is quiet on the situation

1. NYT/BBC

1. Will see how the outside world ties into Africa

1. Iraq 2003-2008
2. Go to Africa and help out
3. This declined b/c there were continuous crises

1. TH- sources on the subject on whether South Sudan was an error?
2. Mid.- History, events leading up to leadership,  civil war, one prism, military rule

January 16, 2014

1. Africa

1. African Union has a long history
2. Before 2002 AU Gadhafi Libya 1969-2011, in 1963 the Org. of African Unity Kwame Nkrumah 1957-1963 (first black president to e president outside of union)
3. He wanted to create the United States of Africa, or one single country
4. The United States of Africa came to be known as the OAU

1. Was not very strong or effective, and did not perform very well
2. Before it ended it gave itself some credit, and they brought about an end to white rule in Africa
3. UN takes credit for ending the Cold War, IMB takes credit for Somalia, and the OAU takes credit for Apartheid.
4. From 1963-2002 this wasn’t very effective so Gaddafi decided to come up with something more effective called the AU.
5. As a result, he helped many countries w/ their resources
6. He took interest in Africa because he was in the UN sanctions
7. Most of the support came from the African countries

1. We can still feel Gaddafi’s reign some leaders inspired by him

1. Leader of Chad, Uganda, CAR, Burkina Faso

1. Harvard for Tyrants

1. Gaddafi Came to power at the age of 29
2. He was low in mil. Rank but climbed up the pole
3. Après moi deluge-After me there will be trouble

1. Sources-Global Studies Book/Our kind of People/A continent’s challenge A country’s hope/ Channel 215 (African Network); 266 TV 5 Monde 530-540 News Solely for Africa; Africa Confidential

1. News Stories

1. Country of S. Africa

1. Southern Africa (Anglo, Namibia, Sesotho, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique)

1. Africa Confidential

1. Poll Shock Alarms the ANC

1. African National Congress, group who started the fight against apartheid
2. The poll suggests the group is losing support from 73% to 63%
3. Now that Mandela’s gone what’s going to happen?
4. Jacob Zuma President of S. Africa, very corrupt, been married 6 times.

1. Rwanda (Paul Kagame)

1. He is famous for maintaining order in the country after the horrible genocide
2. Strongman (one you don’t mess with)
3. Kagame belongs to the Tutsi who is in the minority but he was able to maintain control over the majority the Hutus

1. ABC Democrats

1. Anything but communists

1. Events in the Central Africa Republic

1. Violence in the country is resembling genocide
2. They sent troops to help from Rwanda
3. Very unsafe in this country

1. Kenya

1. Pres. And VP are not getting along
2. The INT’L Criminal Court accused both of crime that happened.

1. Nigeria, Congo, S. Africa

1. Three countries in Africa that will determine what the future of the country will be. 1994
2. Since then it doesn’t look good. Congo is declining (Kony). Nigeria, fighting inside of the country. S. Africa is also declining.

1. Tell anything that happened in Africa after the break.

x.  Things that happened in the Africa

-Police due killed -4 people in S. Africa to lack of water protests

-Rare Blue Diamond found in Africa

-Gov. troops recaptured town of Bor in South Sudan

-13 people were killed

-Was a political battle now it’s ethnic Nuers v. Dinkas

-Central Africa Republic

        -Christians vs. Muslims

        -Muslim militia burned down thousands of homes in Bouzom

-Sectarian violence in CAR

        -In Bangui, two muslims were killed and set on fire

        -Mob rule on the streets

        -African Peacekeepers trying to keep the peace

-Ugandan Army sets up rapid response center

        -To help with problems in South Sudan

        -Also in Somalia

-Ethiopia joins AU forces making them 22,000 strong

-Rabbit in Nelson’s statue

January 22, 2014

Paper-Somalia What’s different about it from other countries

1. Hery Rajaonarimampianina

1. President of Madagascar declared in 2014
2. Previous President Ratsiraka 70s-90s (came from military establishment, and organized free elections), and Ravolomanana governed for one term ran again and lost (owned ice cream, richest man in the country), Rajoelina (was a DJ and was mayor of the Capital City) happened at about 2006 up until 2013 the country has been ungovernable
3. The AU was sanctioned and membership of Mada. was suspended
4. Some deals were made in 2011-2012 where elections would be held again
5. Only new candidates were able to run
6. Madagascar has been on the left in African politics

1. C.A.R. has a new pres.

1. Catherine Samba Panza (Mayor of Bangui)
2. New President is a Christian
3. Old Pres. was Muslim, which caused problems
4. Forced djotadia to leave office because he governed the country badly in 2013
5. She’s going to use female charm to win over the country
6. How can muslims and Christians reunite
7. Also rebuilding the country will be a factor of hers
8. This new Pres. studied in France, has a degree in Insurance Law
9. Her father is Cameroonian and mother is CAR but, grew up in Bangui, married to CAR politician who served as minister of several governments.

1. Our kind of People: A Continent’s Challenge        

1. A country’s hope
2. Deals with the plague of AIDS in Africa

1. Africa Superlatives Kaphoya

1. One can find many good things to identify and attach to the African continent

1. Africa is a continent, second largest continent in the world
2. A vast continent that overwhelms the rest of the world in its diversity of people, the complexity of its cultures, the majesty of its geography, the abundance of its resources, and the resiliency (hang tough) despite all adversity they still find a way to make it and vivacity of its people        

1. Vivacity-Exciting, they make and create pleasure: they laugh and create something special

1. Ex. Komla Domour, how he made things so exciting, comes from Ghana

1. Issue concerning diversity of complexity of the country

1. Not all of the countries are exactly alike

1. Need to be aware of the Constraints

1. Need to be aware of:

1. 90% of the African soils are unsuitable for agriculture
2. Rainfall varies form 0% in the Sahara desert to 9.5 mm in the Mount Cameroon area
3. 250m people suffer from chronic malnutrition
4. There is water scarcity in Africa
5. Productivity has declined in Africa over the last fifty years
6. Over 30% of land and forests in Africa is/are moderately or heavily degraded

1. Ugly aspects

1. Aspects

1. 40% of adults are illiterate 2/3 are women
2. 25m people are HIV positive
3. 17m have died from the disease
4. The war in Congo claimed 5.4m people in the 90s, second deadliest conflict since WWII
5. There are fewer people with intimate connection
6. 90% of malaria cases occur in Africa
7. Accounts for 24% of all child deaths

1. Mixed (other people exploit them)

1. About Africa

1. World’s hottest continent
2. Has 30% of the world’s mineral resources
3. Nigeria is the fourth largest oil exporter that exists in the world
4. The continent of Africa has the largest reserves of precious med1als like 40% of all gold reserves is in Africa, 60% of cobalt is in Africa, 90% of platinum is in Africa

1. More Int’l facts about Africa

1. About Africa

1. China is Afr. Top trade partner
2. Afr./China trade is 200 billion per year
3. China has become the new colonial power in Africa
4. France seems to be the military new colonial power in Africa

News Stories

Ceasefire

Joseph Kony

Tunisia accepted Constitution

Egypt will have military leader

Thomas Friedman argued in NYT that US does not help

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