Isobel Coleman on Joyce Banda, Malawi’s Transition, and Female Leadership in Africa

Malawian then Vice-President Joyce Banda addressed a media conference in the capital Lilongwe on April 7, 2012, the day before she was sworn in as president (Courtesy Reuters). 

This week, Joyce Banda took office in Malawi as Africa’s second female president (Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was the first). She has her work cut out for her: Malawi is one of the world’s poorest countries with almost three-quarters of its population living below the poverty line. It has one of the fastest growing populations in the world – women on average have 5.5 children, and according to UN estimates, the country is tracking toward a population of 40 million by 2040 (up from 15 million today); Banda’s predecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika, was a disaster. He became increasingly autocratic during his tenure, and managed to alienate Malawi’s most important donors – the United Kingdom, the United States, and the IMF – which supplied 40 percent of the county’s budget.

Banda, however, is a remarkable person who despite the odds, just might be able to put Malawi on a positive path. When I first met her six years ago, she was serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but those around her predicted with confidence that she would be president someday. Her personal story is compelling, and gives some indication of how she might approach the challenges she now faces.

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AFRICAN DEMOCRACY: A glass half-full

Representative government is still on the march in Africa, despite recent hiccups

Mar 31st 2012 | FREETOWN AND JOHANNESBURG | from the print edition

WHICH way will African politics go? The way of Senegal, where the president conceded electoral defeat on March 25th to a younger rival, extending a democratic tradition unbroken since independence in 1960? Or is nearby Mali a more troubling bellwether? A few days before Senegal’s vote, junior army officers stormed and looted the presidential palace in the Malian capital, Bamako, abruptly ending a 20-year stretch of democracy that had raised hopes for the wider region (see article).

Sad tales like Mali’s dominate news from Africa, yet in the longer term its political norms have evolved more towards politicians in suits than mutineers in battle fatigues. Democracy south of the Sahara may be sloppy and haphazard, but electoral contests and term limits are increasingly accepted as fixed rules, to be flouted at a would-be ruler’s peril, rather than distant ideals. Today only one African state, Eritrea, holds no elections. Even Mali’s coup-plotters have sworn to hold them soon. Tellingly, the country’s neighbours united in a storm of protest. “We cannot allow this country endowed with such precious democratic instruments, dating back at least two decades, to leave history by regressing,” said Alassane Ouattara, the president of Côte d’Ivoire.

Democracy in Africa: A glass half-full

Gaddafi is gone; what are Africans mourning? | The Rwanda Focus

Gaddafi is gone; what are Africans mourning?

Many news reports liked to refer to the late Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi as “the maverick leader.” That obviously was some conscious editorial decision on the part of the media houses to be more diplomatic than would be the case if they used apt words, for instance: the stark raving lunatic of Tripoli.

The late Muammar Gaddafi. (Internet photo)

Gaddafi’s behaviour, especially in the later years of his rule, wasn’t that of a sane person. Far from it. And that fact became obvious for anyone who came in touch with him. The foreign affairs minister of Kenya Moses Wetangula for example, in a recent interview on the BBC told of his astonishment – and that of a number of other dignitaries at an African Union meet – when Gaddafi slapped his foreign affairs minister, Abdelati Obeid accrss the face in full view of everyone.

Reports of the man’s eccentricities are many. There was the all female guard of voluptuous brunettes who went everywhere with “the guide of the Libyan Revolution.” There were the cam­els they transported everywhere the guide went, to provide him the favourite ingredient of his breakfast – fresh camel milk. There were the numerous headaches he gave his hosts, with his insis­tence on pitching a tent in the middle of whatever city he visited, preferably in the main square; the man even tried to pitch a tent in a New York City square a year ago during the annual UN Gen­eral Assembly.

Gaddafi was as disruptive as he was eccentric. I was a journalist in South Africa in 2002 and I remember news reports the week the African Union was inaugurated to take the place of the defunct OAU. That was to take place in the South African coastal city of Durban. Every other head of state observed the normal proto­cols: bringing in pre-agreed upon numbers of members of their entourages; proscribed numbers of personal bodyguards with agreed-upon amounts of small weapons, and so on. Well, Gaddafi wouldn’t have been Gaddafi if he instead didn’t see an opportunity to display a sample of the firepower at his command. Six Boeing jumbo jets flew into Durban from Tripoli, positively bristling with machine guns, SMGs, assault rifles, RPGs…, as well as several mem­bers of the Libyan military.

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Gaddafi is gone; what are Africans mourning? | The Rwanda Focus

Libya: New Era Needs Focus on Rights | Human Rights Watch

Libya: New Era Needs Focus on Rights | Human Rights Watch

Gaddafi not the only victim of Libya's revolution - Channel 4 News

The Gaddafi regime may not be the only casualty of events over the past six months. Africa's most powerful nations may have been compromised by their dealings with Libya under the discredited colonel.

The fall of Muammar Gaddafi has shed a harsh light on those who may or may not have done business with his regime over his 42 years in power.

This week saw British Prime Minister David Cameron promising to look into accusations that British secret services helped with the kidnapping of Gaddafi's opponents.

And on 31 August Channel 4 News Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson reported on the links between Colonel Gaddafi and the firm General Dynamics UK, which makes and exports sophisticated command and control systems.

Discredited reputations

In the course of more than four decades, the colonel also established relations with governments, and the political opponents of governments, across the African continent.

After failing to assume Colonel Nasser's mantle as leader of Arab nationalism, he turned to Africa, where he went on to support to a range of leaders whose reputations have been discredited in the west, from Uganda's Idi Amin to Mengistu Haile Mariam of Eritrea and Liberia's Charles Taylor.

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Gaddafi not the only victim of Libya's revolution - Channel 4 News

AU proposes Ceasefire, NATO protects Misrata, Ajdabiya | Informed Comment

Professor Juan Cole on Gaddafi impact on Africa.

AU proposes Ceasefire, NATO protects Misrata, Ajdabiya | Informed Comment