An illiterate grandmother from a small village in Malawi, Stella, found it hard to picture what lay ahead when she arrived at the Barefoot College of India.

Six months later she emerged as one of 25 trained African solar technicians, ready to electrify her home village for the first time.

?I never imagined that technical knowledge like this would be open to women who were illiterates, like us,? she reflected at the end of her training in Tilonia, in the state of Rajasthan. ?But coming to Tilonia has given us this confidence that we can learn about new things and make our lives better.?

By collaborating with the Barefoot College and its NGO partners, UN Women is supporting a programme to empower marginalized women across the world, and help them start to drive their local green economies.

The programme, running since 2004, teaches engineering skills to illiterate older women from rural communities ? a particularly vulnerable group worldwide ? before equipping them with solar lamp kits to assemble and install in their own and nearby villages.

During this training session, which ran from September 2011 to the following March, women travelled from across Africa, from countries like Uganda Liberia and South Sudan, to take part. Each were selected or nominated by their local community and supported by a variety of local and international organisations, and in some cases, their governments.

The purpose of the training is to empower the women, many of whom have laboured in agricultural work for most of their lives, to gain a skill more age appropriate, while affording them a new position of respect in their communities.

Bawor Mamma, for example, has spent years recovering from the lingering effects of civil war and economic dislocation in Liberia. At 53 she prefers assembling solar lanterns to the physical strain of farming. ?I am not just a farmer like everyone else,? she says with a clear sense of pride. ?I am a solar engineer now and I want to electrify my village and other neighbouring villages.?

?What Barefoot College has effectively demonstrated is how the combination of traditional knowledge (barefoot) and demystified modern skills can bring lasting impact and fundamental change when the tools are in the control and ownership of the rural poor,? confirms Dr Bunker Roy, the Director of the Barefoot College.

The women are also supporting a greener form of energy usage. Many live in villages without any electricity at all, where kerosene usage is high. Yet kerosene is not a sustainable resource, nor is it cheap or healthy. Barefoot College estimates that the initiative now saves around 160,000 litres of kerosene a month across South America, Africa and Asia.

To ensure the sustainability of the project, the new technicians are also taught how to train other villagers in the maintenance of these lamps, and encouraged to set up electronics repairs shops, which will generate a regular income.

The programme can be a formidable challenge for the women. ?In the beginning, many women face problems, since it is the first time they have left their children and village,? says Leela Devi, a teacher in the solar engineering department. ?But we have to be like their sisters, and constantly remind them of the advantages of being here and learning solar engineering.? Their trainers, who mostly speak Hindi, must cut across linguistic and cultural barriers using gestures and signs.

Yet the desire to light up their communities and empower the women in them, has proven a unifying bond. With just six months training in the college, students have shown that they can transcend tremendous barriers, and emerge as self sustaining solar engineers, and change-makers.

Source: United Nations

Joyce Banda?s swearing in as president of Malawi last month made her the second female head of state in Africa - following Ellen Johnson Sirleaf?s election victory in Liberia in 2005. Many see this as a key advance for women on a continent that has been dominated by male political figures.

Joyce Banda

John Kapito, chairman of the Malawi Human Rights Commission, has been following Joyce Banda?s career for many years. He watched in 1990 as Banda founded the National Association of Business Women, which provides training and loans to women wanting to start up small-scale businesses.  

He also followed the creation of the Joyce Banda Foundation, a charity that helps orphans and low-income children in Malawi get an education. In 1997 Banda was awarded the Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger - conferred by the U.S.-based Hunger Project. 

Banda?s slow but steady climb to the top has not been easy. She walked away from an abusive marriage in 1981 at a time when most women stayed in such situations. Much later, as vice president of Malawi and also deputy president of the ruling party, she lost her party position after refusing to support then-president Bingu wa Mutharika in his bid to have his brother take over the presidency.

Becoming president

So, after Mutharika died suddenly at the beginning of April, Vice President Joyce Banda became President Joyce Banda.

Malawi Human Rights Commission chairman Kapito says Banda is a role model for women and the nation as a whole - well able to ensure that the rights of the poor, especially rural women, are respected.  

?As a woman I think she has demonstrated that, one, she can be listened to," said Kapito. "She cannot be manipulated quickly. Most of the businesses in Malawi are run by the male, and they are dominated by the male. And that, I think, will be a test where she can put her foot down and say, I would want to transfer all these resources to the rural people, to the poor people in the rural areas.?

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Skip over to the other side of the continent, where Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is enjoying her second term as president of formerly war-torn Liberia. 

Ebrahim Faqir, manager for governance at the South African-based Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa, notes that both Presidents Banda and Sirleaf have had strong track records in promoting women?s rights as well as holding positions in the corporate and private sector - skills, knowledge, and experiences that they brought to their presidencies.

President Sirleaf, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, was an executive in the international banking community and a former economist working for The World Bank and Citibank in Africa. 

Like Joyce Banda, Sirleaf has taken heat for some unpopular stances, including a crackdown on corruption, stringent debt-reduction measures, and what some considered an over-reliance on foreign aid.

Living up to hopes 

Faqir says he thinks Sirleaf has largely lived up to the great hope that surrounded her 2005 election.

?She instituted a truth and reconciliation commission," said Faqir. "She announced very drastic policy changes - the most key among them free education at least for children up to a certain age. She introduced some kind of policy change for revitalization in the health sector and in the economy, and trying to stem the tide of corruption.?

Faqir says Sirleaf?s and Banda?s successes come at a time when child-rearing and domestic chores still limit many women from pursuing high-level positions in public office - and that a lack of support for women in these areas is a world-wide phenomenon. He says in many parts of Africa, there is still a clash between traditional and modern views of women?s role in public life - but that is changing rapidly.

Role of women in Africa

?There are massive shifts taking place across the African continent," added Faqir. "There is a rise of a civil society, a rise of direct citizen action. And I think much of this does find in evidence an increasing role for women, not just among civil and political actors, but also in the economy.?

In the opinion of Elisha Attai, founder of the African Women in Leadership Organization, the Sirleaf and Banda presidencies highlight qualities inherent in women that seem to suggest they can be better leaders in places like his home country, Nigeria.

?Most of these positions that have done so well - whether in government, whether in national industry - are being manned by women; and you do not have issues," said Attai. "But most of the corrupted offices that we had problems with, are being handled by men. So I just feel naturally a strong woman, who is well-educated, is not really corrupt.?

In addition to possibly being less corrupt, he says he thinks women are less likely to go to war or to get caught up in politically-motivated wrangling.

By Cathy Majtenyi

Source: VOA News

Farmers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are embracing a new variety of cassava which, in combination with improved agricultural techniques, easily outperforms yields from other popular types of this important crop.

Cassava is a staple food in many parts of DRC, and farmers disappointed with harvests of the popular F100 variety, which has proved vulnerable to a plant disease called mosaic, have turned to a newer strain with great success.

"We produced 58 tonnes of TME 419 cassava from a two hectare field in 2011," said 27-year-old Romain Twarita. "That's a yield of 29 tonnes per hectare, compared to the 10 or 12 tonnes per hectare of F100 that we harvested in 2010."

Twarita, the coordinator of Action Jeunes Pour le Développement de Nkara (AJDN), an association of 22 young farmers at Nkara, 90 kilometres from Kikwit, the capital of the southwestern DRC province of Bandundu, says the 2011 crop brought in more than 25,000 dollars for AJDN, against 10,000 dollars the year before, and just 3,000 dollars in 2009, the year the association was established.

He said AJDN has also adopted "binage", a new method of hoeing which maximises the benefits of irrigation ?"worth two waterings", as Twarita put it. Binage calls for the surface of the soil to be broken up, to allow more rain to soak into it. The young farmers also use compost and manure to enrich the soil with organic and mineral matter.

"The big problem is a shortage of farm implements, and the lack of understanding from landowners who ask so much money for a plot ? 40 or 50 dollars for half a hectare, depending on location," he told IPS.

"The cassava is bought from farms here by traders, then sent to the capital, Kinshasa, where it sells fast," said Jacques Mitini, president of the provincial network of small farmers' organisations in Bandundu, which includes 255 smallholder associations, nearly a third of these representing young farmers between the ages of 21 and 33.

In the west of DRC, in Bas-Congo province, the Comité de Développement de Kakongo (CDK) is planting trees to create windbreaks and maintain soil moisture, boosting production of other crops on a three-hectare plot.

"We are using intercropping, that's why there are these wind-breaks of moringa trees which also fertilise the earth without us needing to use chemical fertilisers. Irrigation is also important," said Espérance Nzuzi, president of Force Paysanne du Bas-Congo, a network of 264 smallholder farmers associations, including 87 created by youth.

"The 84 tonnes of TME 419 cassava harvested last year earned us 39,960 dollars, compared to just 6,160 dollars from 14 tonnes of F100 in 2010," said Nzuzi.

On two hectares on the outskirts of Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, another youth association, Jeunes Dynamiques de Malulku (JDM), has also found success with the adoption of new techniques.

"We've only been practicing binage since we started this venture in 2010. We produced 15 tonnes of TME 419 from a single hectare that year, but in 2011 we harvested 28 tonnes from a hectare and a half, applying a little bit of chemical fertiliser," said Anne Mburabata, 32, president of the association.

"Before we started popularising TME 419 cassava, we tested it carefully," said Didier Mboma, who heads the technical innovation service at the Impresa Servizi Coordinati (ISCO), an Italian NGO which is making free cuttings of the new cassava variety available to farmers.

"Since the tests in 2008, we have planted 3,000 cuttings, and we have harvested 30,000."

Mboma said that young farmers are strongly establishing themselves as productive farmers, while contributing to the country's food security.

"Young farmers must move towards professionalisation, and take control of the entire value chain from production, to processing, to marketing," said Dr. Christophe Arthur Mampuya, from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Livestock.

"The TME 419 variety is a high-yielding one. It's also among the best varieties being promoted," he said.

Mampuya said emerging young farmers must also plant woodlots, as adoption of the new cassava variety is scaled up.

"TME 419 is more popular in the west of DRC than in the east, but step by step, the variety could spread across the country," said Paluku Mivimba, president of the National Confederation of Agricultural Producers of Congo.

By Badylon Kawanda Bakiman

Source: IPS News

When Kenya?s newly announced geothermal power generation project comes online, it will turn the East African country into an economic powerhouse in the region.

In April, the government launched the Menengai Geothermal Development Project, the first initiative of its newly formed Geothermal Development Company, which has been set up to fast track the development of geothermal resources here.

According to its chief executive officer, Dr. Silas Simiyu, by 2016 the first phase will generate 400 MW, which is enough to light up 500,000 households and run 300,000 small businesses.

"It is situated 180 kilometres northwest of Nairobi, and will have a capacity to produce 1,600 MW of electricity by the time we implement all three phases in 2030," said Simiyu.

According to Nashon Adero, a policy and economic analyst at the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, the first phase of the project will have a significant impact on the country as it moves towards industrialisation.

"At the moment, the country consumes 1,600 MW," Adero said. "Four hundred MW is therefore an additional 25 percent. And given that the country has embarked on other ambitious projects of green power generation, such as the Lake Turkana Wind Power project, which will generate an additional 300 MW, Kenya will become an economic giant within the region."

Construction on the Lake Turkana Wind Power project will begin in June, and when completed it will be sub-Saharan Africa?s largest wind farm.

Generally, Kenya is perceived as eastern and central Africa's financial, communication and transportation hub, with the country?s GDP increasing by four to five percent in the last 10 years.

"Kenya?s GDP is currently the largest in the (East African) region given its strong agricultural industry, particularly in tea and coffee production, and floriculture," said Ezekiel Esipisu, Habitat for Humanity?s regional operations manager for East Africa and the Middle East. "This, coupled with investments at the Nairobi Stock Exchange and the manufacturing industry, means that the country is one of the leading economies in Africa."

Esipisu told IPS that the country?s investment in power production would propel economic development further.

"All of Kenya?s neighbours have power deficits. The roadmap towards further power production will definitely boost development. We will see Kenya move closer to industrialisation, and it will become a real economic giant in the region."

About 60 percent of Kenya?s power is hydroelectric, which is generated when falling water from a dam is used to drive turbines. However, the supply is unsteady, as Kenya has been subjected to perennial drought and erratic rainfall. And the power cuts have hampered the country?s growth.

From July to August 2011, the government was forced to implement power rationing after the water levels in the country?s major dams dropped. At the time Kenya was generating about 1,200 MW of power, while demand increased at an average rate of eight percent a year, according to the Ministry of Energy.

The 2011 power cuts reportedly cost the country over 96 million dollars. However, the worst period of power rationing was between 1999 and 2001, which resulted in an estimated loss of four percent of Kenya?s GDP ? about 400 million dollars.

"Hydroelectric power generation is solely dependent on climatic conditions," said John Omenge, the chief geologist at Kenya?s Ministry of Energy. "During a drought, for example, the water levels will definitely drop, reducing the amount of power generated.

"Geothermal power generation is therefore the answer. It is one of the most reliable methods of producing electric energy, because such sources are not affected by environmental calamities such as drought," he said.

In volcanically active places like the Rift Valley region, water is pumped down an injection well, and then filtered through the cracks in the hot volcanic rocks. The resultant pressurised steam that is formed is used to drive turbines.

Kenya is the first African country to diversify into geothermal power. The country is already generating 209 MW of electricity from the Olkaria Geothermal Projects, which are located in the Rift Valley and are operated by the Kenya Power Generating Company.

And the Menengai Geothermal Development Project is just a small part of the country?s "Vision 2030", a development blueprint that aims to transform Kenya into an industrialised and middle-income country by 2030 by generating 5,000 MW of electricity from geothermal resources at various sites across the country.

"Power supply is key to any form of development," said Gabriel Negatu, the director of the East Africa Resource Centre at the African Development Bank. The bank is providing funding for the first phase of the Menengai Geothermal Development Project.

"This project is therefore crucial for a country like Kenya because it is becoming the economic heartbeat of the continent. It is due to such high prospects that the regional office for the African Development Bank is now based in Nairobi. Many other organisations are following suit, making the city a regional economic hub," he said.

By Isaiah Esipisu

Source: IPS News

The extreme energy poverty in most African countries is a major opportunity for them to leapfrog into electricity via renewable energy technologies indicates Ansgar Kiene, Coordinator of the African Renewable Energy Alliance. Africa?s leapfrog to mobile technology when landlines were constrained provides an example of what could happen with renewable energies.

Read more...

The West African man is dressed in the khaki uniform and red fez worn by French colonial soldiers of the era. But he wasn?t a French soldier ? he was a famous Senegalese dancer based in Paris at the time, Francois Benga.

Now immortalized in James A Porter?s 1935 painting, ?Soldado Senegales,? his portrait today hangs among the many art works on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum?s ?African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era and Beyond? exhibit. Though not all of the exhibit?s works claim African influence, the portrait by Porter is one of the many examples of the close relationship between the U.S.-based Harlem Renaissance and the Negritude movement in France.

The Harlem Renaissance, which began in the U.S. around 1919, emerged as a movement to challenge racism and stereotypes through the arts. Just a decade later, Africans living in France, who were influenced by the Harlem Renaissance, developed their own style --  Negritude -- as a way to use art to throw off French colonial racism.

?There?s a very close relationship, because these artists, particularly those who are in France in the 1930s and into the 1940s, were very much connected with what was going on in French art, literature, thought,? said Virginia Mecklenburg, a Senior Curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. ?The poet Langston Hughes is also talking about things like tradition and heritage and how something that was originally African, how it transforms in a sort of river as it flows into and is the source really for culture in other countries in the diaspora, including in the United States.?

The exhibit?s 100 works - photographs, sculptures and paintings - span a variety of eras and ideas. Mecklenburg said that in two of the self-portraits on display, the artists chose to highlight their African heritage.

Loïs Mailou Jones placed African sculpture in her piece and Malvin Gray Johnson chose to paint African masks next to himself. ?These self-portraits are a way of saying who they are as artists as they look out at us, and there are things in the background of their studio rooms that give indications of how they want to identify themselves. In both instances, they want to talk about being African-American in terms of Africa.?

The exhibit will run through September 3 in Washington, and afterward it will travel to additional U.S. venues through 2014.

By Ricci Shyrock

Source: VOA News

The Egyptian revolution sent the country?s economy into a tailspin. Egypt was already plagued by high unemployment, particularly among those under the age of 30. Amid ongoing unrest, foreign investors have put projects on hold. Once-reliable industries like tourism are struggling. But several dozen technology entrepreneurs think they have what it takes to spur job creation, despite political uncertainty. They are taking part in a competition sponsored by Google, which will award a $200,000 prize to one business. 

In a conference room at the elegant Fairmont Hotel in Cairo, two young men are playing a fierce game of table tennis. Around them, youthful entrepreneurs slouch in bean bag chairs, pecking furiously at their laptops. Hundreds of Egyptians are jammed into small booths around the perimeter of the room. Each one is ready to explain how his or her tech business has the potential to be the next big thing. 

"With IntaFeen,you can share your location with friends and family on the go. Whether you are in a restaurant, watching a movie, eating ice cream, in a park, you share this information with your friends and family," said Adel Youssef, the founder and CEO (chief executive officer) of Wireless Stars. He said spent five years working in the United States but moved back to Egypt because he saw unexploited opportunity. He and his team have created a mobile application called IntaFeen. It?s a location-based social network. Users write reviews of restaurants and movies. 

They earn ?badges? for places where they check in frequently. Youssef says the idea is based on the popular ?Foursquare? application, but has a different cultural sensibility. "If you see the badges of Foursquare they are designed for U.S. culture or West culture. My favorite badge is gym rat. A gym rat in the U.S. is someone who is actively working in the gym. If you see someone here and you give him this badge, that is insulting," he said. 

About 110,000 people from Egypt to Ghana to Pakistan have downloaded the IntaFeen app.  

Organizers say the point of the competition is not just for Egypt?s young techies to show off, but to address one of Egypt?s most pressing problems: unemployment. Egypt?s official unemployment rate is 12-point-4 percent, but many believe it to be much higher. Around 90 percent of the unemployed are young, under the age of 30.  But can tech companies really create jobs?  

Maha Elbouennein, the head of communications for Google in the Middle East and North Africa, said "These are 50 companies that didn't exist six months ago. In order to be participating in the program, they have to be registered, legal entities. This isn't a business plan competition. So the evidence in itself, that 50 companies exist today that didn't six months ago is evidence enough about how it?s helping the economy and it?s growing. It?s creating jobs."

Elbouennein says, of course, Google has its own financial interests in the region. "Google basically wants people to live on the Internet," he said. 

If technology businesses get bigger in Egypt, inevitably, so will Google. 

Some of the entrepreneurs have set their sights beyond North Africa and the Middle East.  Yasmin Elayat is the CEO of Groupstream, a storytelling platform that lets users interact with one another by adding photos, tweets and blog posts into an online ?stream.? Groupstream is going to launch in the United States, first.  "The idea started when we noticed that during the Egyptian revolution, Egyptians were documenting our country?s history in real time on social media and Facebook and Twitter and on photos and videos on cell phones and cameras," she said. 

Elayat turned that initial spark of an idea into a crowd-sourced documentary project called 18 Days in Egypt. But she says she soon realized that the same technology could be useful for those who did not have anything quite so dramatic as a revolution to document. "It doesn't even have to be news. I see my cousin, she?s like 11 and her whole life is on social media. She doesn't even know what it feels like to hold a photograph anymore," she said. 

Google has narrowed a list of 4,000 entrants down to 20 businesses and will pick a winner in May. But win or lose, many of the entrepreneurs share the same hope: that Egypt?s youth, which have been at the forefront of so much political change and upheaval in the last year-and-a-half might now become the leaders of a technological revolution.

By Noel King

Source: VOA News

The actor saunters onto the stage. His eyes bulge, then dart from side to side, exploring a dark corner as if for a hidden enemy. Then, he smiles. Suddenly, he grimaces; then his lips curl as if in disgust, or contempt.

His audience is on tenterhooks, clearly unsure of what?s going to happen next. 

Mpho Osei Tutu is a man of many faces, a man of many personalities. He has to be. In his latest show, Convincing Carlos, he alone plays 12 different characters and uses many different accents to portray them credibly. 

?In a way, my transient life so far has prepared me for this because I?ve had the good fortune to live in many different places and to experience many different cultures and people,? Tutu explained. 

The actor and writer, the winner of many awards, was born in Paris, France, to a father from Ghana and a mother from Lesotho. Tutu?s lived in both of these countries, as well as Togo and South Africa. 

?I consider all of these places to be home for me, although these days I spend more time in Johannesburg because it?s such an important hub of Africa?s TV, film and theater sectors,? he said. 

Infatuation 

Tutu described Convincing Carlos as a ?tragi-comedic reflection? on ?one of the craziest times? in Africa?s sporting and cultural history ? the build-up to the 2010 football World Cup in South Africa.

His show is grounded in real life events surrounding the South African Football Association?s (SAFA?s) desperate, and ultimately successful, bid to reemploy one of the world?s leading soccer coaches to train South Africa?s team in the World Cup finals.

Brazil?s Carlos Alberto Parreira had quit managing the team, known as Bafana Bafana, in 2008, but SAFA lured him back to South Africa before the finals with promises of massive cash payments. 

Tutu said Convincing Carlos is his attempt to explore South Africa?s ?infatuation? with Parreira, even though he had only delivered a few good results for Bafana Bafana and had abandoned the team when it needed him most. 

Parreira had won the 1994 World Cup coaching Brazil, but his 2010 tenure with Bafana Bafana failed, with South Africa becoming the first host nation in the tournament?s history to be knocked out of the tournament in the first round. 

?The absurdity of the whole situation for me felt like a great premise for a comedy,? Tutu said. ?Of course, what we got was more than a comedy ? it was a real human story about a character and quite tragic in many senses.? 

?Omens? lead to tragedy

Tutu?s referring to his show?s main character, a South African football fan called Sechaba Mofokeng. Through his words and actions, Tutu satirizes not only Africa?s but also the globe?s obsession with the sport and the lengths that some people are willing to go in order to ?win at all costs? in soccer.

In the play, Mofokeng receives several ?omens? in nightmares telling him to travel to Brazil to convince Parreira to return to South Africa to coach Bafana Bafana in the 2010 finals. A deranged Mofokeng eventually ends up breaking into the coach?s home in Rio de Janeiro and is deported back to his homeland.

Another of the main characters in Convincing Carlos is Khalo, a struggling writer who tracks Mofokeng down for a book he?s penning about ?football fanaticism.? It emerges that the fan?s passion for soccer has cost him his family, friends, job and self-respect. 

?That?s the tragedy of this story ? that the main character?just completely loses track of all of that stuff that is important in his life, because of his obsession with football,? Tutu told VOA. 

?Ginormous? football fan

His work is largely fictional, but the actor insisted that the world is filled with millions of people who are ?carbon copies? of Sechaba Mofokeng. ?There are stories of African football fans, like number one fans of clubs, that have lost their families because of their mad love for football, and these all fed into the Sechaba character.?

?For me that was the tragedy of it,? Tutu continued,? that something as beautiful as the ?beautiful game? (as it?s called around the world) can have such tragic things connected to it. What you would think is a game to one person is like life and death to another.? 

Tutu maintained that he understands people?s sometimes ?over the top? love of football as he, too, is a ?ginormous? soccer supporter. ?I support France, I support Ghana, I support Lesotho, and when I?m in South Africa I support (Soweto club) Kaizer Chiefs,? he said. ?I hardly ever miss games in which these teams are involved.? 

Singing show tunes 

Critics have praised Tutu for his use of multiple accents and facial expressions in Convincing Carlos. At one point in the show he plays a South African colored, or mixed race, drug courier. The colored dialect is notoriously difficult to imitate, but Tutu managed it with aplomb.

He ascribed his skill at speaking in different accents to his diverse upbringing and the fact that he travels a lot throughout the world. ?So I get to hear a lot of different people speaking their languages, and I seem to pick up on the ways in which they speak very quickly.? 

Tutu added, ?Vocally, as a child, I would always sing show tunes. I would always try and play around with accents. Even then, they seemed to come easily to me.?

But he described doing a one-man show as the hardest thing he?s ever done. ?One man on stage?is quite nerve-wracking.?

But, inspired by South African actors and directors Craig Morris and Matthew Ribnick, whom Tutu calls masters of one-man theater, he decided to challenge himself. ?A piece of me just wanted to see if I could do it, you know,? he commented. ?And then I finally decided on the one-man format because there?s a piece of me in each one of the different characters.? 

Tutu said Convincing Carlos works as a one-man show ?as it?s ultimately about the journey of one man,? Sechaba Mofokeng.

Tutu acknowledged that his latest work also represented his biggest step so far on his personal journey to fulfill himself as an actor and writer. 

By Darren Taylor

Source: VOA News

A new era of electricity production and distribution is set to open in Kenya after the World Bank Board of Directors endorsed an innovative way to deploy Bank Group instruments and leverage private sector investment to help meet Kenya?s urgent power generation needs.

The Kenya Private Sector Power Generation Support Project will help bring a reliable power supply to Kenyans in their day-to-day lives, as well as to manufacturing and service companies that help the economy grow and create jobs.

In a country hard-pressed to finance such major infrastructure investments, the key was to mobilize financing from the private sector, initially hesitant to invest in the energy sector in the country. A US$166 million series of Partial Risk Guarantees was put in place to reassure commercial financiers concerned about the state-owned electricity utility and its obligations towards them.

Mobilizing private sector capital is a major component in the Bank?s Africa strategy for infrastructure. Johannes Zutt, World Bank country director for Kenya, says ?the approach used has demonstrated how the Bank Group can leverage its resources and bring much needed private investments in the region, while at the same time paving the way for low carbon development. This approach can be expected to be replicated in other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with well-performing energy sectors.?

For Pankaj Gupta, manager of the Bank?s Financial Solutions Group, the project shows the power of International Development Association (IDA) partial risk guarantees to mobilize private sector financing in difficult markets.

?Our group works with financial market actors every day on structuring deals,? he said, ?so we think we have a good understanding of what the private sector is looking for when it considers investing in projects such as this. I?m glad that we?ve been able to work across the Bank Group in a pragmatic and complementary way to bring a consolidated solution to private financiers and investors and, ultimately, to Kenyans who will benefit directly from this project.?

Power solutions

The harmonized project that will now get underway consists of three thermal power generation projects and one geo-thermal project. Kenya has been facing severe power shortages, putting pressure on the country?s economic growth and its efforts to improve the day-to-day lives of Kenyans. Only 25 percent of the population has access to electricity, and rural grid access is only about 5 percent.

Scaling-up access to electricity and ensuring reliable power supply are key elements of Vision 2030, the government?s national development strategy to promote economic development, growth and competitiveness, and create jobs. The government has an ambitious goal: to achieve 40 percent energy access by 2030 by increasing electricity generation capacity to 11,510 MW by then from the current installed capacity of 1,473MW.

In the interim, Kenya plans to add new generation capacity of about 2,000 MW, developed by the public sector as well as by the private sector through Independent Power Producers (IPPs), and utilizing low-carbon resources such as wind and geothermal. Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC), the public distribution company, is the key Kenyan institution in the Project. Over the next 12 - 18 months, KPLC expects to contract over 600 MW of new generation capacity through IPPs with financing requirements of almost US$1 billion.

The financing challenge

Mobilizing the resources needed to finance these investments over a short time period was a key issue, especially in the wake of the global economic recession and the financial crisis. The traditional security package offered to IPPs by KPLC was not considered sufficient by investors due to their perception of high political risk.

This was combined with a low risk appetite on the part of project developers and commercial banks. To overcome this challenge, and given the tight macroeconomic environment and debt ceiling agreed upon as part of an IMF program, the Kenyan government approached the Bank to explore alternative options that would address these constraints.

Under the approved structure, IDA will leverage its ongoing sector engagement through the Partial Risk Guarantees. They provide liquidity support to the projects by backstopping three months of KPLC?s ongoing payment obligations. IDA support is complemented by MIGA political risk insurance covering the equity and commercial lending for the projects.

The structure offered was able to provide the necessary comfort to investors and commercial lenders. IFC stepped in to provide long-term financing for two of the four IPPs, funding generally unavailable for long-term infrastructure projects. Moreover, IFC?s engagement reassured and supported South-South investors with an appetite for investments in Africa but with relatively limited structuring and project implementation ability.

Bernard Sheahan, IFC?s director for infrastructure in Africa and Latin America, said working on the initiative was a win-win situation.

"IFC is very pleased to join with our Bank Group partners in supporting these projects,? Sheahan said. ?The extensive capital commitments from private investors, lenders, and from the Bank Group reflect the solid and consistent drive of the Government of Kenya for regulatory reform, creating a conducive investment environment, and expanding access to basic services for the people of Kenya."

Edith Quintrell, MIGA?s director of operations, notes MIGA?s longstanding commitment to mobilizing private investment into Kenya?s power sector. ?We have been supporting Kenya?s first geothermal independent power plant since 2000. This Bank Group collaboration represents a great step forward in our ability to mobilize even more private investment in infrastructure, and we hope this is the first of many examples.?

The Kenyan government says it intends to use a similar risk mitigation framework deployed in this project towards facilitating additional IPPs, which includes the proposed 300MW Lake Turkana wind project, currently under preparation. As Country Director Zutt notes, ?Bank Group engagement has set a new benchmark for long-term commercial financing for infrastructure in Kenya, and more broadly for the region?.

The project is benefitting from long-term debt from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and political risk guarantees for commercial financiers from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), as well.

Source: World Bank

Hand-dyed polished cotton ? called bazin ? is the mainstay of Malian fashion.

Popular blind singers Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia extolled the fabric in a song ?Beaux dimanches? (?Beautiful Sundays?), on their award-winning 2005 album Dimanche a Bamako.

The song?s scintillating lyrics include the lines: ?Sunday in Bamako is the wedding day / Men and women put on their best boubous / The bazins are waiting for you / This is the wedding day.?

It became the hit song on an album that won two prestigious BBC awards the following year, including one for best world music album.

There is an engaging paradox in two blind people singing about the beauty of bazin, and the floral patterns and alluring colours that make young women look so elegant that bachelors hastily vow marriage. Amadou and Mariam are married.

Intensive production process

Hand-dyeing bazin can be labour-intensive for the women who produce it.

First, they import the fabric ? mostly white cotton, but sometimes silk or wool ? from Germany, the Netherlands or China. Then they cut it to standard sizes.

Next they knot tissues tightly into parts of the fabric so that those parts remain undyed when the cloth is dipped into buckets of pigment and fixative. When the fabric emerges it bears coloured spirals, rings or patterns. So it will have a glittering appearance, it is then soaked in a starch solution and hung on fences to dry.

?To hand-dye a bazin takes a lot of real effort,? says Djénéba Diarra, who lives in Badalabougou West, the neighbourhood in Mali?s capital famous for high-quality dyeing.

Maureen Gosling, a US filmmaker, is collaborating with anthropologist Maxine Downs on a film on bazin called Bamako Chic: Threads of Power, Colour and Culture. According to Downs, the duo wants want to show how ?self-empowered African women turned their artistic creativity and resourcefulness into a force for alleviating their own poverty.?

Downs visited Mali several times to meet some of the women in the burgeoning industry.

?When I went to Mali, I was shocked by the women?s resilience, their ability to create something out of nothing. I was instantly impacted by the amount of cloth dyers that I saw,? she told Africa Renewal.

Malians have historically been good at making fabric and used to compete with Yorubas in Nigeria. In the 1960s, when synthetic dyes arrived in West Africa, Malians learned how to use colorants on fabrics to reflect their aesthetic tastes. Nigerians have since established a niche for themselves in embroidery, allowing Malians to claim the bragging rights for high-quality hand-dyed fabrics.

Growing industry

Bazin, Downs elaborates, is not just a fashion statement. The women make a profit. And the industry has turned them into a close-knit social group, with a common socio-economic purpose.

?It is like a collective enterprise, very communal,? she said. ?The women work with their children, friends and other family members to dye the fabrics. They hang them on their neighbours? fences to dry, turning the whole community into a huge advertisement.?

The involvement of textile importers, dye sellers, tailors, bankers and, ultimately, consumers further enlarges the industry.

This is good news for a country ranked by the World Bank as one of the poorest in the world. Life expectancy is just 51 years, while the average gross domestic product per person is $691.

The country ranked 175 out of 187 countries in the UN Development Programme?s 2011 Human Development Index.

The bazin industry is still informal. There is no registration of those involved, according to Hannah Larsson, who has studied textile dyeing in Mali. However, the entrepreneurial successes of the women depend on micro-loans from NGOs such as the US-based Freedom from Hunger.

The group?s Saving for Change programme in Mali, which began in 1989, has so far reached more than 350 000 Malian women, with cumulative financing of nearly $7.5-million.

Some of those women are in the bazin business, according to Christopher Dunford, a senior research fellow with the NGO. The programme provides affordable credit and saving services, while repayment terms are flexible.

To access the loans, Dunford adds, groups of women come together to overcome their limited collateral.

?They are like joint solidarity groups. They vouch for each other and they jointly repay the loans.?

The NGO channels all micro-credit support through local credit institutions, which also help organise the women into groups.

Market risks

As good as the business appears today for Malian women, they fear that a moribund indigenous textile industry could hold back progress.

Mali?s two leading textile companies, Comatex and Batexci, both privately owned, are gasping for breath as they face competition in their own market from cheaper and better products from Europe and Asia.

In addition, depressed world cotton prices have made it difficult for West Africans to compete internationally. Cotton production in Mali declined from 600 000 to 240 000 metric tons between 2004 and 2011, and cotton growers are paid as little as 30 cents per kilogramme.

Less than 2% of Mali?s cotton is processed locally, with the rest exported to developed countries and Asia, where it is processed and resold to dealers, including West Africans.

There are also health and environmental concerns about bazin production.

?The women continue to develop respiratory illnesses,? says Downs. ?They are exposed to sulphur that they use to help colours stick to the fabrics.?

The leftover colour baths are discarded in the Niger River, street gutters or soakaway pits in housing areas, causing the ?transport of a substantial amount of compounds to surface water and groundwater,? Larsson writes in her study of Malian textile dyeing.

The government?s environmental agency has had little success in dealing with the environmental impact of hand-dyeing.

Sub-regional opportunities

As bazin?s popularity spreads beyond Mali?s borders, the women are motivated to work even harder. Many are already exporting to countries such as Senegal and Nigeria, and more traders from other countries are coming into Mali to make purchases.

?In Mali, you come into the market and you will hear different West African languages,? says Downs.

It makes good business sense to set sights on the enormous West African market of 252-million people. West Africans are proud, traditional dressers. As in other African regions, including Southern Africa, the leaders of Nigeria, Mali, Liberia and other countries often wear traditional attire at official functions, for example.

A variety of fabrics and styles feature regularly at weddings, red carpet events and in African films. At the UN General Assembly in October 2011, Mali?s Prime Minister Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé was the centre of attention in a flowing bazin.

Increasing demand for bazin has triggered innovation, as Malian women introduce more exotic colours and products of higher quality. But the challenge is that a fast-growing and profitable business may attract people with more interest in profit than quality.

?Why can?t these women just get machines that will support production?? asks Oumar Damba, a Bamako-based fashion designer.

Not so fast, cautions Downs. Machine production may affect the unique character of the bazin designs and, perhaps, the style consciousness of the producers.

?Since the 1960s, there has been the question of whether the hand-dyeing industry can be modernised. It is hard for me to answer that question,? she adds.

As Malian politicians campaign for the April 2012 presidential election, there also seems to be a contest over which one could wear the best bazin on billboards, on posters and even in Facebook pages.

Meanwhile, Malian women are smiling all the way to the bank.

By African Renewal