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A hydropower dam in the Stiegler Gorge in Tanzania is being built at a cost of $4 billion. With an output of 2.1 gigawatts it will double Tanzania's electricity production. More electricity should result in less felling of trees to burn for charcoal to do cooking. According to UNDP only 10% in rural areas have electricity in Tanzania. At a practical level this means a child cannot have a light bulb at night to create the light in which to read. Darkness descends on villages in rural areas with bita and fragments of light - solar and lamps. German aid for the project was debated in parliament because of the work on the Rufiji river and disruption for the Selous Game Reserve used by tourists. The area for work to be done is 1000 square kilometres and the Game Reserve is covering 50,000 square kilometres so that efforts can be made to meet electricity goals and maintain the Reserve in its new form. President Magufuli is moving forward with the project with Tanzania's pressing needs for electricity. In recent years, Brazil, China and India have also placed these concerns as a priority in developing their hydropower resources. This also reduces the need to burn coal because of its effects on health.   ...

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As this report in WSJ shows underreporting of coronavirus cases is a serious problem for Africa, and the figures from Africa's CDC, part of the African Union, do not show the magnitude of the problem. It shows that health workers in places from Yaounde in Cameroon to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, to cities in Somalia, are reporting a situation quite different from what the CDC shows, with hotspots emerging in some places with little in the way of resources.

Only 1 million tests have been done and half are in SOuth Africa and Ghana. WIthout the testing it is hard to know how many cases there are. Capetown area in South Africa is emerging as a hotspot and hospitals are expected to be overwhelmed within weeks. Officially Tanzania a country with 56 million has 509 cases and 21 deaths, yet this contrasts with reports from health experts. Cameroon and South Sudan are also possible emerging hotspots in addition to Tanzania says this report in WSJ.

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Retailer Nakumatt copied the K Mart concept. It is the leading retailer in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Nigeria's GT Bank operates in five English speaking countries.

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This report in The Economist magazine cites the success of Ethiopian Airlines with 10 million passengers a year going through Addis Ababa airport. Other newer airlines such as Uganda Airlines are being started with the idea of helping the economy and providing reliable connections to other countries at reasonable prices. Tanzania is following Uganda with its own airline.

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This report in DW.com shows pictures and podcasts from Africa's National Parks and Wildlife Centers. Africa's tourism industry brings in billions of dollars from international visitors with each traveler bringing in about $7000 to the local economy. Most affected are hotels, tour companies and small business. There is a sense that government could do more to protect small business in Uganda, Kenya,Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana and other countries. Also being considered is finding ways to shift focus from high paying foreign tourists to a a larger local visitor population in African countries. Today Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, Amboseli National Park in Kenya at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Kruger National Park in South Africa, Victoria Falls National Park in Zimbabwe, Sanganeb Marine National Park in Sudan, and Tassili n'Ajjer National Park in Algeria with Tuareg nomads in the desert deep in the Sahara, are some of the National Parks with few international visitors. Local are working in alternative occupations. There is a sense that a better focus would be to a less paying but dependable tourist influx from within African countries.  ...

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Bond issuance for African countries will continue in 2015 at a slower pace with the expectation of U.S. Fed raising interest rates in late 2015. In 2013 African countries raised $11 billion, and in 2014 $8 billion, compared to $1 billion in 2000, as these countries from Nigeria to Ghana raised money to finance infrastructure development. Ivory Coast plans to raise $1 billion in coming months, Tanzania plas to issue a dollar denominated bond. Senegal, Angola, Kenya and Ethiopia are issuing bonds to western investors and competing with other developing countries such as Bolivia, Guatemala and Romania for investors. Analysts say countries such as Ivory Coast, with a growth rate of 8% and prudently managed finances are considered "good issuers" in today's market.

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Abdulrazak Gurnah, a native of Zanzibar and Tanzania writing in English wins the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature. His prose has inflections of Arabic, Swahili and German. He left Zanzibar at age 18 years after a violent uprising in 1964. In "Admiring Silence" he reflects on the experience of migrant refugees caught betwen two cultures and remaining silent about their true feelings. The prize is given at a time of migrants reaching Europe in large numbers from Africa and the Arab countries of North Africa to Germany.

The chair of the Nobel Committee Anders Olsson says about Gurnah- "He ha consistently and with great compassion penetrated the effects of colonialism in East Africa, and its effects on the lives of uprooted and migrating individuals."

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The CDC Africa says Africa has recorded over 100,000 confirmed cases for a continent of 1.3 billion people, but as the WSJ reports on May 23 there is a high degree of underreporting. The number of cases the CDC says is about the same this week on May 22, as the cases were last week.The most cases are in South Africa at 19,000. 

Three countries have an increase of 100%, making it a situation that will need vigilance. So far 1.3 million tests were conducted. This report in DW.com contrasts with the WSJ report on May 23 which sees major problems developing in hotspots in Africa from Tanzania to Cameroon, in South Sudan to the Cape town area in South Africa. Cape Town hospitals are expected to be overwhelmed in weeks.

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Extreme mismanagement of the economy led to the situation of currency notes of 100 trillion in Zimbabwe being issued by the central bank of this African country, unbelievable as it may sound. The situation has deteriorated over two decades. Before independence this country was called Southern Rhodesia run by a small community of white British settlers from the nineteenth century. After a independence war by a liberation front organization this country entered a new phase in which the mismanagement of the country's economy became a serious problem for all communities, in a nation of 15 million people which could attract tourists with diverse African habitats and Victoria Falls. It is an example of how the hopes of a generation  that experienced independence in 1980 in these parts of British East Africa have been waylaid by autocratic leaders and mismanagement. This region includes Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya. 

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In some countries such as Tanzania and Chad the vaccination drives have not even begun says this report in the DW.com. A new surge now underway in Africa as cases increase by 30% in June comes at abad time with African vaccination drives stalled. Only 31 million doses adminstered in Africa for a population of 1 billion people. Less than 1% of world vaccine supplies are going to poor countries in Africa and Latin America.

Vaccine companies chose to sell their vaccines to the highest bidders, putting Covax  behind. Aims of Covax are also coming down and watered down to vaccinating 20% or 30% of the population in poor countries, says this report in DW.com.

This means new variants could develop and move back to Asia and Europe, the US in 2022. It means the coronavirus could affect African economies in 2022 and beyond.

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Eri Machii, founded AfriMedico, a nonprofit organization designed to deliver medicine to remote regions in countries in Africa. She worked in Niger under a Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers program after two years working as a pharmacist. There she learned about the dangers in Africa in remote villages where travel and delivery expenses were high and infrastructure lacking. She devised a method of Okigusuri for Africa where as in traditional Japan medicines were left in a kit in villages and people paid only for what they used. Payment is done by cell phone using the M-Pesa money transfer system. Maichii learned about okigusiri as a system used in Japan throughout its history in places where infrastructure was lacking, lack of universal health insurance, and large families living together. She found that this was true for distant villages in countries like Tanzania where she implemented the system under AfriMedico. 20 volunteers helped found the organization and Tanzania pharmacist network helped guide them in setting it up. Large amounts of medicine taken at one time reduce the cost of transport. Use of the system of medikits in urban areas helped subsidize the village use. This is a system that has great potential for medicine delivery in many parts of Africa and Asia that have the same problem of access to basic medicine kits- so that treatment can be done earlier in the process for quicker less costly recovery, improving general health conditions. One can think of Indonesia, Philippines, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, West and East African countries as having potential for wider use of this system. As people pay for only the medicines used using cell phones the system has wide applicability from cost and access point if supported by private and governmental agencies in these countries.   ...

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Kamala Harris returns to Zambia after a visit to that country to meet her grandfather Gopalan almost 50 years earlier. At that time Gopalan, from the Indian Civil Service, was given as as an advisor to Zambian president Kenneth Kuanda, helping organize the settling refugees from Southern Rhodesia. This was the period of apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Kamala as a young girl learned about democracy and political participation from these visits to both Zambia and India. During this visit Kamala Harris visits Zambia, Tanzania, and Ghana, parts of British West and East Africa. Not only is this visit a way to revive relations with these countries, it also marks the end of a period after the Cold War ended in 1990, when the US did not engage with Africa and South East Asia in the way it had done during the Cold War when democratic institutions modeled on the British parliamentary system competed with Soviet Bloc Marxist systems.

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A series of attacks against foreign businesses takes place in South Africa. High unemployment and the failure of the African National Congress governments under recent presidents Mbeki and Zuma to tackle deep inequalities and poverty have aggravated tensions. The violence was seen in Johannesburg and Pretoria. This has worsened relations between South Africa and Nigeria, Tanzania. My Cyril Ramaphosa of the African National Congress was elected president after the dismissal of the former president. Ramaphosa in a national address recalled the support received from African nations in the struggle against Apartheid. Slow growth and high unemployment with corruption, in Nigeria and South Africa two dominant economies in Africa, have increased tensions and rivalry between the two countries. For South Africa trading ties to the continent are important. About 44% of agricultural exports of $3.9 billion go to African nations, increasing from 30% in the prior decade.  ...

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The mass transit system in Dar es Salaam, capital of Tanzania, cost $150 million and provides transport connections cutting commutes by 2 hours for 400,000 people. 
Dar es Salaam has population 6 million and has grown eightfold since 1980. Four of five people live on the sprawling fringes in informal settlements that take a commute of over 2 hours to city centre. Dar es Salaam has chosen a bus system with dedicated lanes and areas instead of a metro which is costlier to build. The city has only four arterial roads with 2 lanes each way. Most of the growth is on the periphery and unplanned. The Dart System now in place separates the bus lanes from other traffic to reduce stoppages. The average journey from the centre to the terminus at Kimara is now down from 2 hours each way to 45 minutes.saving 50 hours each week for the average bus passenger.

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India is a major partner for Africa in the areas of energy and healthcare. India is a critical partner for Africa during the coronavirus pandemic in providing medical supplies and maintaining the critical supply chain. Indian oil and gas firms have invested $7 billion in Mozambique. India is Africa's third largest export market and India has $54 billion in investments in Africa. Foreign minister Jaishankar called India a reliable partner for Africa interested in developing the region. In fact Gandhi first started his nonviolent struggle in South Africa on behalf of miners in the region and fought for rights of African and Indian people in British South Africa. As a leading member of the British Commonwealth of nations India has a long history of ties with South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and other former parts of the British Empire. Indian workers and merchants played a large role in development in Africa after and during British rule. There are also older ties with Portuguese ruled Africa (Mozambique and Angola) with Portuguese settlements on the east coast of India. The Indian Ocean ties go back to the 15th century. ...

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Oil importing countries in East Africa will benefit from lower oil import bills. Measured as a percentage of GDP the oil imports will go down from 6.3% to 3.7% of GDP for Tanzania, from 6.2% to 3.7% for Mozambique, from 6.0% to 3.6% for Kenya and from 4.8% to 2.8% for South Africa. For the oil exporting countries for revenue decline as a percentage of GDP, Ghana goes from 2.7% to 1.6%, Nigeria from 15.7% to 9.3%, and Angola from 56% to 33%. About 80% of Nigeria's budget comes from oil revenues which will result in spending cuts. About 14% of GDP in Nigeria is dependent on the oil sector, because of the growth in retail and telecommunications. Nigeria's finance minister estimates the decline in GDP growth by 1% to 5.3% for 2015. Benefits from lower oil prices are offset by decline in the price of iron ore and other commodity exports for South Africa, and from the decline in the South African currency, the Rand. Drop in the value of iron ore exports affects other parts of West Africa such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Projects for large investments by large oil companies in Uganda and Angola may be delayed as oil prices decline. ...

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An economic solution to the Congolese war between Rwanda and the Congolese government in Kinshashafor the eastern provinces that are a1000 miles from Kinshasha. The proposal is from Herman Cohen who was assistant Secretary of state for Africa from 1989 to 1993. It call for a economic common market for the east African nations of Congo eastern provinces andRwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Africa that have trading relations through the Indian ocean ports and payment of royalties to the Congolese government for use of forests and lands in the east which are in the proximity of these eastern African countries. The US and the EU have to take the lead.

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Everything you might want to know about coffee, where it comes from, how cultivation is changing with climate change and higher temperatures, and the effort to map the coffee genome. With higher temperatures the farming of coffee moves to higher altitudes in coffee growing countries in the tropics, but it is easier to cross breed the 124 varieties to produce a plant that can withstand the change in temperatures and one that can resist fungus.  A coffee fungus and higher altitude rains destroyed much of the crop in Central America including Guatemala. This led to increased migration to Mexico and U.S. of farmers leading up to Mr. Trump's plan to have the National Guard of Mexico police Mexico's border with Guatemala.  Coffee is a sensitive plant and needs cooler weather and water which is found more in the tropics. Growing it in California or in Italy makes it very costly leading to Frinj coffee being sold in California at $16 a cup. Climate change could reduce the area where coffee can be grown by about 50% in the tropical countries from South east Asia to African countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia, and in south America Colombia and Brazil, says Climate Institute, Washington DC based climate change experts.   ...

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Slavery was banned by the 19th century in Britain and its Empire, it took the US till 1861 to do this and till 1961 to end racial segregation. By contrast Britain followed a policy in China throughout the nineteenth century that brought enormous pain and suffering to the Chinese people through the Opium wars and opening up of ports for opium trade in China. And the US under presidents Wilson, Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt, and the American people followed a policy of respect for the Chinese people during this period with the idea fervently America believed of a modern nation emerging from the chaotic period of Manchu monarchy's decline by 1900 and warlords civil war + Japanese invasion from 1900-1945. For Britain and the European colonizers Chinese and Indian people were for the most part "coolies." Joe Stilwell, FDR's Supreme Commander of American Forces in China was the ultimate free of racism. A order from the Republican Coolidge administration in the 1920's was for any American soldier to be courtmartialed for so much as laying a hand on a Chinese coolie. A modern nation did emerge as the American people hoped and fought for in China, and in India over the 25 year period in the 21st century, with Britain having failed to bring the same level of understanding that America had for the Asian people.  Britain's monarch Charles tells Commonwealth leaders his government is not paying reparations for slavery yet is determined to create anew understanding to work with other nations in the future, to discuss issues with openness and respect. There are 56 nations in the British led Commonwealth, the largest of which is India. It includes South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania in East Africa and Nigeria, Ghana in West Africa.    ...

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A riverside project on the banks of the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad gives the city of 10 million a new look. The project is similar to ones on the Thames in London and Seine in Paris bringing new park space and areas for of public space for a rapidly growing city. Guardian Cities is looking at 15 new cities with population growing to exceed 10 million by 2035- from Tehran, Iran, to Luanda, Mozambique, Hyderabad, India, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Surat, India, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Chengdu, China, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The way this was done was to develop a self financing model. This was the work of architect Bimal Patel who proposed selling 14% of riverfront land of 200 hectares to recover costs. The Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation spent 161 million dollars to build new housing for 11,000 displaced families who worked in squatter type housing on the riverbanks as domestic workers, clothes washers. The riverbed had become for decades a dumping ground for city waste. The goals were to provide access for public to the river front and clean up the water with water treatment plants. Bimal Patel calls the project one of three generations as  will take another three years for new water treatment plants. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation bears the cost of about $220 million. The famous Sabarmati Ashram of Mahatma Gandhi lies along this riverfront and it gives this sacred space in India's history, the home of Mahatma Gandhi for many years in the struggle for independence, a healthier, brightened space along the river. ...

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A group of 7 blind climbers and 4 sighted companions climb up to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro at 18800 feet in Tanzania. It took 9 hours facing high winds and freezing temperatures to climb the last 3000 feet.

The group was selected from hundreds of volunteers from Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya and went through 2 weeks of training.  This is a project of John Wilson of Britain's Sightsavers designed to "help create a new image of of blindness in Africa." Geoffrey Salisbury of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind describes the difficult trek and conditions. Three pairs of worn boots of the hikers can be seen in the Ugandan National Museum. See pictures of the hikers and trek in the high altitude of Mount Kilimanjaro.

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This NYT report on Mohamed Bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates, who comes from Abu Dhabi one of the 7 emirates in the Gulf Coastal region, is rare and unusual. It provides stories the prince loves to tell that make a point about how he sees the world. Here he tells them to Robert F. Worth, in the only interview Mohamed bin Zayad has ever given to a journalist from US or Europe. It took a year just to get the interview. The title about a Dark Vision is inappropriate as Mohamed Zayad simply reflects what is a British way of looking at things- valuing the Constitution, keeping religion private even its deeply held beliefs and cultural traditions such as Bedouin's practice, and a general tolerance that characterizes British society and similar societies throughout the history of Europe and Asia that were sitting on shipping lanes and practiced trade for a livelihood. It is also important because the other Mohamed, Mohamed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is seen as someone influenced by the ideas of Mohamed Bin Zayad of Abu Dhabi. President Biden plans a trip to the region in coming months to continue on building a narrative of development for the region. This provide an insight into the coastal regions that include Gujarat across the Gulf in India, that for centuries traded with the Gulf kingdoms. They have a trading mentality and with it comes a tolerance that is also seen in trading nations such as England. This is what brought Britain to India (and China) says Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi went so far as to say that if there was trade on the moon you would find a British shopkeeper was first to setup shop there. Zayed has as a minister in his cabinet, a woman who is minister of Tolerance, Sheikha Lubna al Quasimi.  Zayed is unique for three reasons. He has embedded in his views the spirit of tolerance. As Worth puts it in NYT, Zayed has grasped what is true to the spirit of the Gulf region. The country's location on an ancient shipping lane has bred a type of Islam in the Gulf region, that is open to the world and tolerant.  His father Zayed Nahyan's  tendencies to openness and frank demeanor combine with this tolerance to provide a different kind of leadership. His father had the pluralist instincts that combined traditional Bedouin attitudes with a rare liberal mindedness. He died at age 86 in 2004. Zayed bin Nahyan MBZ's father was selected for these very reasons by the British in 1966 to rule the small Gulf kingdom of Abu Dhabi. In 1966, says this NYT report, the country was mostly illiterate, half of all children died during childbirth and one third of the women during childbirth, there was a complete lack of western medicine. Zayed Nahyan's brother was averse to development making the British select Zayed Nahyan at the request of Abu Dhabhi families. These early years shaped Mohamed Bin Zayed's views of how to see the world. Zayed the son loves to tell stories, and this one in the NYT shows how Mohamed bin Zayed the son and Mohamed bin Nahyan the father share a sense of what it means to be human and support all people's aspirations for a better life. This is the narrative in India and the region of 1.8 billion people that extends from India to Indonesia and Vietnam. This was seen at the G7 when leaders of India and Indonesia were invited to meet with the G7 in Munich, Germany and taken as utterly serious participants in the discussions to shape the Free World. To see the difference- UAE has signed agreements to increase trade with India to $100 billion over 5 years and was thanked by prime minister Modi for treatment of 8 million Indian workers in the Gulf region during the pandemic. Saudis are now stabilizing the Turkish and Egyptian economies with aid and providing some of the funding assistance for Siemens to modernize the entire Egyptian rail system with the latest technology over the next 5 years. Projects of this size that have never been undertaken since 1945. Sometime in the 1980's when Zayed was a young military officer having completed training at the Royal British Military Academy at Sandhurst, England, and educated in Scotland, he went to the grasslands of Tanzania. During his visit to Tanzania he went to several villages to see the Masai tribes. When he returned he sat with his father crosslegged on the floor in traditional Bedouin and Asian style and told him about his travels. His father asked Zayed about all the details- the wildlife, the Masai people and their customs, the extent of poverty in the country. After hearing it all his father asked Zayed what he had done for the people he had encountered. In response Zayed shrugged and answered, the people he met were not Muslims. Zayed still recalls his father's reaction, sudden, forceful and indelible from memory. Zayad says his father took a sudden hold of his arm and spoke to him in a harsh tone and stern demeanor- " We are all God's children."     ...

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In this exceptional report from Monrovia and the countryside, NYT's Helene Cooper shows why the Ebola outbreak could occur in Liberia. Basic healthcare, functioning schools, electricity and running water were all scarce in Liberia following the civil war and military misrule in the country. Liberia was barely recovering from the severe breakdown when the Ebola outbreak occurred in 2014.