This is Africa

Here in Africa, it has been a difficult January for South Africa. Not anywhere as difficult as the January that Kenya has just been though, or the February it seems Chad will be having. We are merely having an energy crisis over here, with six hour long power cuts that leave me frightened about robbers because the security systems get knocked out without electricity. Still, swatting mosquitoes in the dark beats being flooded in Mozambique and Malawi, or experiencing earthquakes in Rwanda and the DRC.

Pardon me if I sound despondent about Africa today; it is the result reading one too many articles that’s start out asking “What is wrong with Africa”, and end by saying, “… and Kenya continues to burn …. is there something wrong with this continent?”*

Is it even worth trying to answer that one? Kenya was the stable stalwart of East Africa. It took one flawed election to split it along tribal and ethnic lines. Makes one worry about other African greats and their upcoming electoral processes. And frankly, one doesn’t need to go as far as the 2009 SA election to feel worried. The fact that Jacob Zuma is ANC president is worrying enough. Or that the Scorpions, SA’s FBI-like corruption fighting unit, may be disbanded due to political pressures. Or that we don’t have electricity to cook food, much less power the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Ah, TIA.

*http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/percyzvomuya/2008/01/31/1454/