How Africa Tweets – Portland and Tweetminster analyzed more than 11.5 million geo-located tweets sent across Africa during the last three months of 2011. Here’s what they found.
Source: pulitzercenter
In defense of industrial policy
A couple of days ago, Shanta Devarajan, World Bank chief economist for Africa, posted this interesting piece on industrial policy in Africa:
Like others, I have been skeptical about industrial policy in Africa, where the government selects certain industries for support in order to trigger a process of structural transformation. It’s been tried before—with disastrous results.
The selected industries were captured by political elites who continued to receive subsidies without generating anything close to labor-intensive growth (the Morogoro shoe factory in Tanzania never exported a single pair of shoes). Furthermore, most of the constraints to industrial growth in Africa are man-made: policies or regulations that stand in the way of poor workers’ employment prospects.
[…] A recent study by my colleagues Hinh Dinh and Vincent Palmade on light manufacturing in Ethiopia confirms the point that the constraints to the apparel and leather goods industries are largely existing policies and regulations—trade policies that inflate input costs by creating local monopolies, and land and financial regulations that favor large firms. But they also show that, should Ethiopia remove these constraints, it could expand employment in these industries by two orders of magnitude.
[…] This is the best case for industrial policy that I have seen. By focusing on particular sectors and showing the employment benefits of addressing some of the government failures, there is a better chance that the government will undertake these reforms.
I think he has a good point here. I agree that government failures are frequently more serious impediments for growth than market inefficiencies, since they are notoriously difficult to correct and its economic consequences may be dismal for the civil society. I am not sure, however, whether the expansion of employment is an incentive strong enough for a corrupt government to change its behaviour. It may well be (and I hope so), but I would like to see more empirical evidence of that. Nevertheless, like Mr Devarajan, I also have a feeling that the main cause of the low economic performance in developing countries is actually crony capitalism. In other words, it is not capitalism per se, but rather the lack of it.
Paul Collier: “Africa Must Liberalize Internally”
In a recent interview, Paul Collier discusses the pros and cons of trade liberalization in Africa, the efficacy of economic sanctions and the importance of solid democratic institutions to conflict-stricken countries. Since he is one of the most important authors in civil war studies, it is always good to know what he is thinking about.
You can read the interview on The European Magazine website.
Source: marginalrevolution.com
The Swazi Bull
For traditionalists, King Mswati III’s troubled year, the rapid collapse of Swaziland’s economy and the surge in pro-democracy protests has little to do with South Africa’s revision of [the regional] Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) disbursements late last year. It has its roots, instead, in an unfortunate variation in the mystic, and private, Incwala ceremony last December.
The ceremony is cloaked in secrecy and marks the king’s return to public life after a period of withdrawal and spiritual contemplation.
Among its highlights is a symbolic demonstration by the king of his power and dominance in a process involving his penetration of a black bull, beaten into semi-conscious immobility to ensure its compliant acceptance of the royal touch. The royal semen is then collected by a courtier and stored, for subsequent inclusion in food to be served at Sibaya – traditional councils – and other national forums.
But last year’s selected bull, according to a recent account from a whistle-blowing Incwala initiate, objected strongly, and threw off Africa’s last absolute monarch.
The symbolism was not lost on those who witnessed it. Mswati survived popular attempts to remove him, and the near-collapse of the Swazi economy in 2011 – but does not intend to risk another year like it.
Read more on Africa is a Country. Evan Lieberman also wrote a good piece on Swaziland a few days ago.
Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Announces 2012 Election Bid
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said Saturday he will not retire, but instead will lead his Zanu-PF party in elections that he announced will take place early next year.
The 87 year-old president appeared fit after a four day annual conference of Zanu-PF where his leadership of the party was reconfirmed. As leader of the party, he will be its candidate in the next legislative and presidential elections.
More than 4,000 delegates attended the conference in Bulawayo, a city where many opposed Zanu-PF and Mugabe for decades.
Source: dynamicafrica
Rights group abandons ‘blood diamonds’ scheme
Global Witness says the Kimberley Process, a global diamond regulatory project, ignores links between gems and violence.
Source: dynamicafrica
Anthropologist John Comaroff spoke at The Graduate Institute in Geneva about the themes that lie at the heart of (the introduction to) the latest book he co-wrote with Jean Comaroff, and which carries the same title as the lecture: ‘Theory from the South: Or, How Europe is Evolving Toward Africa.’ (Keynote starts 5 minutes into the recording; there’s a Q&A in the last third, including some words about Lionel Messi.)
(From Africa is a Country)
Wikipedia and oral knowledge
From Africa is a Country:
Verifiability and no original research are two core contents policies for contribution to Wikipedia. You need to back entries with citations from printed sources. What does that policy means for societies with rich, oral knowledge cultures. Achal Prabhala, a Wikimedia fellow and a member of the Foundation’s advisory board, and some of his colleagues in South Africa and India, have other ideas for that policy. Check out the film “People are Knowledge” (directed by Priya Sen and Zen Marie).
People are Knowledge (subtitled) from Achal R. Prabhala on Vimeo.
Master of Arts in Political Science at the University of São Paulo. 
