This past week Africa Action participated in the United States Social Forum (USSF) in Detroit.  It was an exciting opportunity for Africa Action to come together in solidarity, sharing experiences and struggles across social justice movements.

One of Africa Action’s key events at the USSF was the Detroit to Dakar (D2D) People’s Movement Assembly.  This Assembly represented an opportunity to bring together activists both within the U.S. and African countries to connect their struggles, build solidarity and come up with recommendation to the continent’s development and fight for human rights.  Briggs Bomba, Africa Action’s Director of Campaigns, along with Emira Woods, Africa Action’s Board Chair, led a vibrant discussion, strategizing action plans.  Participants recommended certain themes to be included in the action plan including; neocolonialism, AFRICOM, internal displacement and the political economy of relationships with Africa countries.  The Assembly resulted in a resolution with recommendations that was presented to the USSF and built momentum for the World Social Forum to be hosted in Dakar, Senegal, February 7-11, 2011. (see D2D USSF Thematic Papers for more information).

Meryl Zendarski, Africa Action’s expert consultant on the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), held a workshop titled “International Financial Institutions and Climate Change: The Inga Dam and Community Impacts in Congo.”  The Grand Inga Dam is a World Bank project along the Congo River (Nzadi River) that could produce upwards of 44,000 MW of electricity. This workshop highlighted possible social impacts and environmental concerns surrounding the Grand Inga Dam, as well as the complex implications that the Grand Inga Dam could have for both the local communities in Congo and our global ecosystem. 

We learned that there is no plan to provide Congolese household with electricity and many people will lose their farmland and their livelihoods in order to build this dam.  There is not much confidence that Congolese people will be compensated for their displacement since people were never paid for Inga I and Inga II, and over 9,000 people still live at “Camp Kinshasa” without electricity and running water near these project sites.  Additionally, the Grand Ingo Dam will flood the Bundi Valley.

The building of the Grand Inga Dam will have both local and global environmental implications, including:
  • Clear cutting swaths of rainforest will be necessary to create paths for transmission lines.  This rainforest is the second largest rainforest in the world, and is crucial for balancing our world’s ecosystem-
  • Loss of fish populations and destruction of river ecosystems are common outcomes of river damming and turbines.  Currently the Congo River has the second richest diversity of fish on earth-
  • The Congo River serves as a vital conduit of terrestrial minerals and carbon to the ocean floor in the Atlantic Ocean-
  • Finally, if there was local access to electricity from the dam this could decrease deforestation in DRC, because people would be less likely to cut wood for fuel and building-
Briggs Bomba, Director of Campaigns, was part of the panel, “Power-sharing Deals in Africa: Implications for Democracy – The Case of Zimbabwe & Kenya.”  The panel consisted of Briggs Bomba (Zimbabwe), Esther Mwarua (Kenya), Hopewell Gumbo with the Debt Cancellation Coalition of Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe), and Dr. Stanford Mukasa, Assistant Professor at the University of Indiana in Pennsylvania (Zimbabwe).  All four speakers agreed that power-sharing deals in Kenya and Zimbabwe are a positive step in the short-term, since they appear to decrease violence and helped put economies back on their feet.  Nevertheless, the group disagreed on other factors.  This workshop was a vibrant exchange of ideas and opinions, and was moderated by Emira Woods.  Below are some comments made by the panelists in the discussion;
  • Hopewell Gumbo remarked that the power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe meant two things, “1)violence was going to stop and 2) economic relief.”  
  • Esther Mwarua also agreed on these points but questioned whether in the long-term sharing power can be sustained. 
  • Dr. Stanford Mukasa believes that power-sharing in Zimbabwe is a mixed blessing, as in his opinion the latest developments in the country reveals not only struggles between the parties but also a class struggle, in which there is less rhetoric on human rights and more about bringing in more resource to the country.
  •  Briggs Bomba introduced the international dimension of power-sharing, remarking that the U.S. and British governments helped broker the power-sharing deal in Kenya.
You can find more information regarding power-sharing agreements in Zimbabwe and Kenya in an article written by Briggs Bomba titled, Ballots versus Bullets in Kenya and Zimbabwe, http://www.fpif.org/articles/ballots_vs_bullets_in_kenya_and_zimbabwe

Written by Meg Armstrong and Marieka Walsh
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