“Ngeria can change, but it is the young people that can make the changes. I believe the change has started already. What is required to make a change is in the hands of youths. Rwanda is ready to work with Nigeria and failing to do what is necessary will make prosperity a major challenge on the continent.”

This is a great statement, coming from a leader of an African country which has actually made a stunning progress when it comes down to literacy rates and educational programs. In Rwanda, 71% of all citizens are literate.  However, school enrollment plummets when it comes down to secondary and tertiary enrollment (with only 36% of all students continuing their education past primary school). For more details on education statistics in Rwanda, go here.

Tanzania, one of Africa’s poorest countries, has some of the greatest natural wonders in the world. Mount Killimanjaro is guarding the country’s northern frontier, located not too far from its “pal” across the border, namely Mount Kenya. And then, there’s the Serengeti – the famous national park spanning over the territory of two countries, home of the largest terrestrial migration in the world. South of this natural treasure, there’s the famous Zanzibar island, with its enchanting Stone Town, the imposing tortoises on the Prison Island and the gorgeous beaches  on the Indian Ocean. And if you didn’t have enough excitement after this, you can always go south to Selous National Park – only the largest faunal reserve in the world where there’s almost impossible to miss the Big Five.

With all these attractions to show for, how is it that Tanzania only receives a minuscule share of the world tourism arrivals of about one  million people  out of the staggering one billion people expected to travel in 2012? Well, there are explanations that include factors such as infrastructure, flight costs, well-equipped hotels, local tourist industry, reasonable prices for the attractions offered on site.

Each of these factors has somehow taken its toll on Tanzania at one point or another.

Yet needless to say, the Tanzania that I visited for the first time in 2007 (and almost every year since then) is not the same as the Tanzania of 2012. First, whereas back in the day the drive from Dar es Salaam to Arusha (the stopover for the Serengeti Park) used to be a constant struggle to avoid crater-like potholes, today drivers are mesmerized by the smooth, top of the class, Chinese-built highway.

Again, only 5 years ago the number of affordable, Western-inspired lodges in the country was very small and a tourist on a budget who still desired a modicum of quality would have had to look long and hard for the right place at the right cost.

Today, the tourism industry in the country is changing, and, for once, for the better. Adding to this momentum is the recent exciting news that the US-based Tudor Investment Corporation (TIC), one of the largest hedge fund management companies in the world, has agreed to build an airport in the immediate vicinity of the Serengeti National Park. The TIC’s announcement follows its preexisting investments in the country as the company already owns a number of luxury lodges in the area.

Now it is well-known that tourism development produces value of sorts. What is less clear is where and how this value is distributed. In the current scenario, for example, the development of the airport will bring in a new influx of tourists, who will spend quite a lot of money on their trip with some, less impressive funds being directed toward the purchasing of souvenirs and other services rendered by locals (performance shows, village visits, home-stays, etc).

However, with respect to the new airport some questions remain:

1. There’s already one airport in the region – Kilimanjaro National Airport ( only 80 miles or so away from Serengeti). How will that airport be affected if the new airport is built? Since that airport was designed to serve the Arusha region, what would happen to the people working there, the management and the assets of the parent company?

2. With the Tudor Investment Company owning both the airport and the lodges in the area, one can rightfully speak of tourism vertical integration – that is, foreign companies charging tourists for most services from airfares to accommodation with very little money ever reaching Tanzania. The effects of such a vertical integration have yet to be studied.

I will, however, close on an optimistic note. Tourism development has clear potential to improve the livelihood of the people where such development occurs. For all its criticisms, when a tourist site springs up, it requires a solid infrastructure, a wide-variety of services being rendered and a certain number of experiences made available to tourists. Inadvertently,  local jobs are created, new opportunities for both and formal and informal labor engagements promoted. The development of the Arusha region, and the Serengeti National Park in particular has been rising exponentially, though at a lower rate than the tourist market demands. The recently announced investment made by the Tudor Investment Corporation in building a new airport has the potential to bring revenue, business and development to a region that is in dire need of it. Should the Tanzanian government take a direct interest in mediating local demands/resources with the desires and business goals of the investor, then this endevor might finally be the financial and social catalyst required for northern Tanzania to develop.

PS: I’m still waiting for the ridiculous Tanzanian government national park fees that are the highest on the entire freaking continent to drop down:

Ngorongoro (Serengeti):
Fee for 24 hours – $50 per person
Crater fee – $200 per vehicle
Camping – $30 per person in the park
Guide fee: $20 per day

In contrast, South Africa’s renowned Kruger National Park charges a flat fee of approximately 23 US dollars (192 rand) per day per visitor. No other fees imposed as of August of 2012.

VOA’s Vincent Makori talks to VOA State Department correspondent Scott Stearns about U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Africa trip. The discussion includes an analysis of Clinton’s comments on China’s surging interested in Africa.

So why did this happen and in what context?

Sino-Zambian history in a minute

Zambia is one of a few select African nations that share a very long history of close ties with the Chinese state. Back in the 1970s, the Chinese state built the TAZARA railway connecting the city port of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) with the town of Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia’s copper belt.

Starting with the third wave of China’s engagement in Africa[i], various Chinese companies have invested heavily in Zambian copper mines. The most notable such investment occurred in 1998, after China Non-Ferrous Metal Mining Group bought the Chambishi copper mine (for 20 million US dollars) and invested 100 million dollars in its rehabilitation.

After the mine was opened in 2001, hundreds of locals were hired in the service of the Chinese management. In addition, the Chinese company that invested in Chambishi benefited from the pro-China policy put in place by the then president of Zambia, Mr. Levy Mwanawasa. However, the rosy love story between Chinese managers and Zambian employees crumbled (some would argue, showed its ugly face!) in 2005 after an explosion killed 46 locals.

Following 2005, various local politicians and representatives of the Zambian labor unions have been pressing (or, at times, lobbying) the Chinese state and the Chinese businessmen in the country to increase the safety standards in the mines and to also increase the salaries that local miners get (a meager 65 dollars in 2005, and a meager 175 dollars in 2012).

Among the most vocal anti-Chinese politicians was, surprise, surprise, the current president of the country Michael Sata. Back in 2006, when he was running against Mwanawasa for president, Sata declared: “Zambia is becoming a province – no a district – of China.” If elected, Sata pledged to switch the country’s recognition back to Taiwan. Sata lost the elections but won an overwhelming majority of the votes in the region north of Lusaka (the country’s capital) where the copper mines are located.

But guess what? Since Sata became president in 2011, he is a born-again devoted supporter of the Chinese state and its strategic interests in the country. Halleluiah!!!

The once again betrayed miners

While Sata pledged to work closely with the Chinese due to strategic considerations, the miners working for Chinese businesses in the country continue to suffer (more or less) in silence. Working under daunting and flatly dangerous conditions, the miners have seen very few benefits from their hard-earned, yet meager salaries. Contrary to what the Chinese managers have promises, the living conditions for the thousands of people living in the area have not dramatically improved.

What’s going on in Zambia?

1. 1.       The miners

When Sata became president last year, the majority of the Zambian miners thought that their lives were about to change. That the man who promised to punish the Chinese businessmen in the country for their mishaps and for the disregard for their employees’ work conditions, will, for sure, deliver.

The recent riots are the direct result of the fact that nothing much has changed since Sata came to office (who didn’t see that coming?) and the fact that Chinese businessmen in the country have failed to increase the salaries and packages of their employees.

People in the mining communities are literally desperate. In an era of soaring inflation, the workers who decided to riot last week against their employers, received a paycheck that was under the minimum wage of US$227.

Imagine working in the dark for 12-14 hours a day. The sun has not yet risen when you get to the mine and has long set when you leave it. And that all that you have to show for all that time is a 5 dollar bill (25000 Zambian kwachas).

1. 2.       The Chinese businessmen in the country

There is no doubt that Chinese businessmen in the country have responded to Zambian outcries and frustrations over the years. After the regrettable accident in 2005, new safety protocols were put in place, the families of the victims were compensated for their losses (10,000 us dollars per household) , worker’s salaries were increased and many employees were allowed to join labor unions. Chinese companies in the country need to receive credit for that.

The problem is isn’t that the Chinese have not paid attention to local conditions.

In my opinion, the crucial problem Chinese business owners in Zambia are guilty off is realizing that times are slowly changing and that their response to urgent local issues must adapt accordingly. I have no doubt that many of the Chinese businessmen are under the same illusion that the government is behind them the way it was under the leadership of the former president. But make no mistake – Sata might never live up to his empty promises of waging war against the Chinese. Yet at the same time, he’s not going to do anything to help them either. Gone are the days when president Mwanawasa was showing up in public to defend the presence of the Chinese businessmen in the country. The propaganda that was once favoring the Eastern foreigners is all but defunct (though somebody should probably inform the Chinese managers of that reality!).

Worse yet, many Chinese entrepreneurs in the country are currently operating under the wrong premise. They think that Zambians will work, just like their Chinese counte rparts, on meager salaries simply because they don’t have any other option. What they discount is that as foreigners, the local Zambians always factor in the politics of difference that comes with working for people coming from another country. The Chinese, as far as the locals are concerned, are only in the country to exploit the mineral resources and its people. They don’t care for their employers, for the environment or for the local culture.

From these popular beliefs, a crisis of legitimacy and trust has emerged, combined with a very real desperation on behalf of the miners who work so much and earn so little. When Chinese laborers in their won country choose to comply with their work conditions they might very well believe there is no other choice. They might also believe they owe it to their country to work hard so that collectively China could prosper. The Zambians have no allegiance to the Chinese workers in the country  - and one could argue, no respect for them either. And why would they? All those benefits their former president was talking about (more jobs, more money,more business, more opportunities) have somehow been lost on the way from Lusaka to  the Collum Coal Mine. And since no one seems to care or do something, who are they to take their issue to?

The times are changing, and I have no doubt, the Chinese will change with them. For now, the ignorance of those Chinese capitalists who still cling to the idea that they can do business as usual in Zambia turns the Chinese into an easy target. It makes them a perfect enemy the masses of disfranchised Zambians are slowly rallying against. The Chinese manager who lost his life to the frantic Zambian workers was a victim of opportunity. He represented the empty promises coming from both the Zambian and the Chinese governments. And the miners, fully aware of the lies and the deceit they have been fed needed to react. They wanted to crush the injustice the way they often do with the mosquitoes who claim their blood.

It is unfortunate the Chinese manager who lost his life last week was the one who had to pay so dearly for the popular outrage. But his death was no random accident or unpredictable event as many might think. He was a foretold story, a cry of desperation and disgust coming from a group of people who have just had enough.

Chinese worker in Zambia

Journalist Louise Redvers ran a story called “China’s stake in Zambia’s election” for BBC International. The article itself is pretty slim when it comes to concrete evidence – it’s primarily based on rumors and accusations coming from various competing politicians.

The background story of China’s involvement in Zambia is fairly straightforward. Back in the 1970s, the country benefited from Chinese foreign aid through the construction of the TAZARA railway, connecting the Tanzanian sea port of Dar es Salaam with Zambia’s Copper belt. Though a technological success, the railway never proved profitable, with many local entrepreneurs along the route preferring the traditional, colonial-based system of using the imperial roads as means of transportation for their merchandize. But ideologically, the construction of the railway was a true success story.

In the last ten years, however, China’s interests in the country rose to unprecedented levels. Redvers gives a figure which exemplifies the rapid increase in trade between the two countries. Trade between the two countries grew from 60 million dollars in 2000 to 2.8 billion dollars last year.

China’s main economic interests in the country follow the same pattern as their British counterpart during colonialism – investing in copper, cobalt and nikel mines – though the nature of the investment is quite different. Like in other parts of Africa, Chinese entrepreneurs are investing in the mines, while the Chinese government offers low-interest loans for infrastructural programs which are subsequently built by Chinese workers.

Now, the big fuss – and the main point of the article – is the allegation that the Chinese government is financially backing the incumbent presidential candidate Rupiah Banda and his party the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) in the upcoming elections against the opposition leader Michael Sata and his party, the Patriotic Front. If you may recall, four years ago, during the first confrontation between the two Zambian politicians, Sata received a stunning support from voters in the Cobalt Belt due to his anti-Chinese remarks. At the time, Sata lost the elections by only 35,000 votes.

That being said, a lot has changed in the Chinese camp and its policy towards Zambian workers. Salaries have gone up, unions were brought to the negotiation table and deals have been struck to step up the salaries and the quality of life for the miners working for Chinese companies. Has the situation improved for workers? Yes, to some degree. Is it perfect? Not by a long shot.

Now the article obliquely suggests the Chinese are interfering in Zambian affairs. That might be the case. But what pisses me off is the racist undertones of articles like this, and the complete disregard for a historical understanding of engagements between African statesmen and their foreign counterparts. Africa has a long history of convoluted affairs, with the United States, Britain, France and Russia constantly interfering in local affairs. The entire Cold War was an ideological battle between the two blocks with both the US and Russia competing for African leaders’ allegiance to them. As such, if China is backing one candidate over another, it does so by following, once again, the pattern that emerged back in the ‘60s and one which unfortunately continues to date. But when an article that this, mischievously entitled “China’s stake in Zambia’s election”, is published, uninformed readers tend to take it as is – aka China is this menacing power doing all these immoral things to Africa. In fact, it’s business as usual, but who cares, right?

Another issue that disgusts me with an article like this is the second faulty presumption – that China’s efforts are met with open arms by African leaders. In fact, during the Cold War and in the aftermath, African leaders were more often than now very astutely playing the international political game by constantly switching sides and using the world rivals in their pursuits for financial support from other developed countries and International Organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank.

At the same time, naturally, there were also leaders who indeed profiteered from one side by amassing impressive wealth at the expense of their own people (who can forget Mobutu Sese Seko for example).

However, by in large, African politicians, on all sides of the political spectrum, reached out to international actors in an attempt to support their political bids. Most likely, Sata is doing the same and if he isn’t, probably he is not the right man for the job. After all, these types of strategic partnerships are quintessential to African and world leadership. Once again, singularizing China is detrimental of a practice that is endemic in world politics. When the businessmen of a country invest in another foreign nation, they put pressure on their own governments asking them to safeguard their interests. One certainly doesn’t have to approve of this practice. But having yet another panic attack about Chinese politicians probably engaging in this practice is somewhat immature and shortsighted. Why? Because I bet no matter who wins the elections, China will remain a major player in the country.

The Chinese are there to stay.

Politicians, in Africa or elsewhere are transitory.

For those who don’t know, a corrective rape is an attempt by a group of, generally, adult men who try to cure lesbian women of their homosexuality.

Given the publicity around this case, the National Prosecuting Authority announced it will investigate the case and bring perpetrators to justice.

Lesbian activist Noxolo Nogwaza was stoned to death last month near Johannesburg

This incident occurs only one month away from the brutal public murder of Noxolo Nogwaza, a 24-year-old member of the Ekurhuleni Pride Organizing Committee. She was publicly stoned to death in a township outside Johannesburg.

These issues speak volumes not only of the social tensions in the country but also of the crisis of sexuality that some South African men are experiencing.

With rampant poverty cutting across ethnic and racial lines, many men feel their own sexuality and authority are being threatened.

The link between poverty and sexuality is rather subtle. In the past, families followed local logics of social and familial reproduction. In brief, the patriarch of the family dictated most of the social rules by which the members of the household lived. In exchange for recognizing his authority, the family received good care, education, properties and other social, symbolic and material benefits. Moreover, the wealth accumulated by a patriarch was subsequently redistributed among his children upon his death.  That wealth was often used by men in the family to get married, pay the bride wealth and start a new life.

But with the rise of poverty, this logic of social reproduction no longer follows its expected track. Families are torn part, children often migrate towards the city, while many men, especially the older ones, are threatened by these social changes and witness their social empire falling apart.

Lesbians constitute only the latest additions of threats among a changing social order in South Africa. In some cases, they become the easiest target for revenge for disgruntled men who are becoming increasingly incapable of controlling the social reality they inhabit.

Some human rights activists have voiced they opinions, blaming the government for not doing enough to protect the sexual minority’s rights in the country. I tend to agree with this analysis.

It’s not enough to be a progressive country on paper. The true challenge comes when laws have to be sanctioned and followed in the field.