Doing Business in Kenya: Construction & IT

An overview of doing business and starting a business in Kenya. Among other prospective areas, construction and IT services can be profitable.
Benjamin Okyere

With a population of approximately 39 million, Kenya is slowly recovering from the fallout of the 2008 postelection violence. Furthermore, persistent droughts have slowed economic growth for 2010/2011. The real GDP growth for 2011 is estimated at 4.2 up from 3.6 in 2010. Kenya is a hub for East African countries, and will benefit from further integration of the East African Community (EAC), which has a combined population of 132 million, which plans to have a common central bank and common currency to further enhance trade within the region. The country’s strategic location, its international access with the port of Mombasa and Nairobi airport, and its well-developed financial and services sectors facilitate international business. The two fiber-optic cables (TEAMS and SEACOM) that came into operation in 2009 increased bandwidth sevenfold, placing Kenyan businesses, especially those operating in the developing information and computer technology sector, in strategic positions for major expansion and economic growth.

Major Economic Sectors
Th Africa Economic Outlook maintains that agriculture accounts for approximately 25% of Kenya’s GDP and employs more than 50% of the labor force. Main agricultural products include cereals (maize and wheat), horticulture, industrial crops (sugar cane and pyrethrum), permanent crops (coffee and tea) and livestock. Manufacturing is dominated by food processing, processing of consumer goods, and refining of crude petroleum into petroleum products, which are all mainly consumed locally. Tourism accounts for approximately 5% of GDP, and is a major foreign currency earner. Recently the building and construction sectors have been important contributors to economic growth. Government initiated an infrastructuredevelopment program, which contributed to this growth, and has increased investments in road networks and the provision of affordable housing.

Starting a Business
According to the World Bank, in 2009, the cost of business start-up procedures in Kenya was 36.50% of GNI per capita. There are 12 procedures to start a business in Kenya according to the Kenya Investment Authority:
1. Obtain approval for the company name from the Registrar of Companies (3 days)
2. Stamp the memorandum and articles and a statement of the nominal capital (8 days)
3. Pay stamp duty at bank (1 day)
4. Declaration of compliance (Form 208) is signed before a Commissioner of Oaths/notary public (1 day)
5. File deed and details with the Registrar of Companies at the Attorney General’s Chambers (7-14 days)
6. Register with the Tax Department for a PIN (1 day)
7. Register with the VAT office (1 day)
8. Apply for a business permit (1 day)
9. Register with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) (1 day)
10. Register with the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) (1 day)
11. Register for PAYE (Pay As You Earn) with the Kenya Revenue Authority (1 day)
12. Make a company seal after a certificate of incorporation has been issued (2 days).

The World Bank states that doing business is easier in the cities of Narok, Malaba, and Thika. It is more difficult in Kilifi, Nairobi, and Isiolo. Although the capital city Nairobi has the fastest time to start a business, it lags behind in the time needed to register property or enforce a contract before the courts. Another major business center, Mombasa, is the best locality in registering property and it is relatively easy to start a business here. Starting a company would be fastest and least expensive in Nairobi, as it takes approximately 34 days and costs 36% of income per capita. In Nyeri, it would take 80 days and cost 42% of income per capita. Obtaining all the permits to build a new warehouse and link up utilities would take approximately 69 days in Narok, similar to Hong Kong, China and in Denmark according to World Bank 2010 estimates. It would take approximately 111 days in Malaba, and 127 days in Isiolo. Processing a construction permit costs less in Nyeri (132% of income per capita), however, in Kilifi, it will cost more than twice as much (284% of income per capita).

Prospective Business Development Areas
Kenya has been pioneering the mobile banking revolution, according to the Africa Economic Outlook, by allowing mobile phone owners to make person-to-person transfers and pay bills regardless of distance. This has been a successful model of mobile banking and Safaricom’s M-Pesa service, after being launched in March 2007, broke the 9 million customers mark in January 2010. Therefore, the good communications infrastructure can support mobile, networking, call center and IT businesses. Although Kenya is a major hub for the rest of East Africa, it suffers from an important infrastructure deficit which requires more investment in housing and road networks. Currently only 18% of Kenyans have access to electricity in their homes, with only 3% of families in rural areas having access. More development and investment is required in this sector.

References
African Economic Outlook, “Kenya”
Kenya Investment Authority, “Procedures for Starting a Business in Kenya”
World Bank (2010), “Doing Business in Kenya 2010,” New York.

Doing Business in Ghana: Oil & Gas

Doing business in Ghana in the emerging oil and gas sector as well as other sectors.
Benjamin Okyere

Ghana is an economic and political pioneer in Africa and thus doing business in Ghana will benefit from these qualities. The first country to gain independence in Sub-Saharan Africa from colonial rule, and the origin of pan-Africanism and the African Union through the efforts of Africa’s man of the Millennium and first president Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. At independence Ghana was considered to be the former British colony with the highest literacy rate of all other colonies, and this has translated to a well educated workforce today. The country also has a rich cultural heritage, which the tourism industry benefits from, together with a warm and welcoming population and popular historical and environmental tourist locations. Economic and Political Stability In a West African region fraught with political and economic instability, Ghana has been an oasis of economic and political progress and stability. Ghana attained a Middle Income Economy state in 2010, and GDP in Ghana was growing at an average of about 6% annually over the last five years according to the African Economic Outlook. Furthermore, economic growth is expected to reach 8.3% in 2011 in line with the global economic recovery, government investment in the developing oil sector, and the expected revenues from the new oil discoveries. Businesses can exploit this emerging sector when doing business in Ghana.

Major Economic Sectors
According to the African Economic Outlook, agriculture accounts for approximately one third of GDP, while the industrial sector contributes 28%. Growth in services dropped from 9.3% in 2008 to 4.6% in 2010. Consequently, growth in industry in 2010 was also about 4.3 percentage points lower than in 2008. Exports are a major part of Ghana’s GDP but are not diversified in terms of products and destinations. Ghana is a major gold and cocoa exporter, accounting for over 70% of exports in 2009 and 42% and 30% of exports respectively. Manufacturing accounts for only 9% of output, despite the rhetoric of successive governments to encourage industrialization. The Jubilee oilfield which is reported to contain up to 3 billion barrels of light oil was discovered in 2007 and many more discoveries are being made after many years of speculation and exploration. When doing business in Ghana, all these economic sectors can also be exploited. With an estimated population of 24 million, Ghana is often viewed as the gateway to the West African region with an estimated population of 245 million in 2002. Furthermore, the seaports of Tema and Takoradi are often used for shipping goods to the country and the sub-region. Therefore, businesses should consider this when doing business in Ghana.

Starting a Business
There are 7 procedures to start a business when doing business in Ghana, which take up to 7 days and costs approximately 20.3% of income per capita. According to the World Bank when doing business in Ghana these procedures include:
1. Check for availability of company name and submit company documents to obtain a incorporation certificate (1 day). GHC 5 per search; complete set of Incorporation forms – GHC 10; GHC 50 for registration of a limited company; GHC 10 filing fee for Forms 3 and 4; GHC 2 per certification of regulations (3).
2. A Commissioner of Oaths authenticates forms required for the certificate to commence business (1 day simultaneously with other procedures). This costs GHC 2.
3. Obtain from the Registrar-General’s Department the certificate to commence business (2 days simultaneously with other procedures). 0.5% of the stated capital as commencement tax + GHC 10 (registration fee with the Internal Revenue Service).
4. Deposit paid-in capital in an account (1 day).
5. Apply for business licenses at the Metropolitan Authority (7 days). GHC 91.5 (varies, depending on the nature of the business).
6. Inspection of work premises by the Metropolitan Authority (1 day simultaneously with other procedures).
7. Apply for social security (1 day simultaneously with other procedures).

Prospective Business Development Areas
In the communication sector, the African Economic Outlook maintains that the government is facilitating the development of reliable, cost-effective and world-class communications infrastructure and services, for a knowledge-based environment when doing business in Ghana. Furthermore, government continued to provide the enabling environment to promote competition among telecommunications operators in the sector resulting in tremendous growth in telephone subscriptions of fixed line and mobile telephone sub-sectors according to the African Economic Outlook. This sector continues to enjoy growth and competition, with more opportunities for investment for doing business in Ghana. There have been major infrastructure projects in rural and urban water supply and sanitation with the government as the main investor; construction of affordable housing; flood control programs; and coastal protection programs, which all require private sector investment. Major projects are also underway in the transport sector, including rail, maritime and aviation, which government is seeking more private investment. Therefore, these sectors together with the agricultural sector, which requires more industrialization and diversification, and the emerging oil and gas industry, will still require major investment and private sector competition when doing business in Ghana.

References
World Bank (2010), “Doing Business in Ghana 2011,” New York.
African Economic Outlook, “Ghana”

The Revolution Over Land Ownership

The revolution over land ownership is still active in many countries despite gains in North America and Europe. Why is land ownership still so contested?
Benjamin Okyere

Those in societies where land ownership regimes have been solidified and well codified have difficulty in understanding the plight of peasants striving to have access to and own land. Philip Raikes writes: “On average, land is more abundant in Africa than in other continents, but most Africans have only very small plots and an increasing number are landless.” Parker Shipton and Mitzi Goheen further add to this statement: “If a single lesson emerges from recent scholarship on African landholding, it is that it is complex, variable, and fluid.” Therefore, however complex the land ownership regimes that exist in Africa, land reform and access to the ownership of land is important for poverty alleviation and economic development. Furthermore, a review of the historical and social development of an inequitable distribution of land in certain societies reveals grave imbalances that were historically institutionalized and are inappropriate for the present day realities and thus need to be rectified.

The Market-Driven Approach
One factor that has both hindered and promoted land reform initiatives has been the global pressure for the free market promoted by the World Bank in the 1990s, which also effectively promoted market-driven land reform as a means to improve the access of poor households to land ownership. However, as in Zimbabwe, these market-driven approaches, inevitably pushed land prices beyond the reach of poor beneficiaries, while governments lacked the funding to acquire land on behalf of the rural poor. Furthermore, market-driven strategies slowed the transfer of land to landless beneficiaries, as land owners played the market to sell their land at high prices and had the option of keeping their land.

Pro-poor Land Reform
Land policies that are more human centered and pro-poor and less driven by economic prescriptions are being promoted by the World Bank. Nonetheless, ongoing land reforms are diversified in approach such as from ‘state-instigated’ as in Zimbabwe, to ‘peasant-led’ as in Brazil, to ‘state/society-driven’ as in the Philippines, to ‘market-driven’, as in some pilot programs in Colombia, Brazil, South Africa and the Philippines. According to Klaus Deininger and Hans Binswanger, the World Bank pro-poor approach has been initiated in South Africa, where efforts were under way to reduce administrative requirements for ‘livelihood projects’ that involve very limited subsidies, so as to strengthen incentives for beneficiaries’ to make their own contributions, and decentralize the implementation of the land reform program. In Colombia, beneficiaries purchased large tracts of relatively unproductive (pasture) land that often generated less revenue than necessary to service interest on their debt (30 per cent of the land value) incurred to purchase the land.

Criticism of the Market-Driven Approach
In the research by Klaus Deininger and Hans Binswanger, in Brazil, allowing market-based acquisition of land by beneficiaries accomplished a faster land reform than expected. Decentralization ensured that the program was targeted to the poor, that it was economically viable, and that it provided incentives for repayment of the land credit. Recent papers by World Bank research staff now accept the advantages of communal tenure and redistributive land reforms over formal individual titles regarding cost effectiveness and equity. Furthermore, Abhijit Banerjee has pointed out that redistributive politically driven reform probably promotes equity as well as efficiency. Market-driven reforms according to Abhijit Banerjee are very expensive, and such a program will not achieve substantial redistribution in the near future. While officially states such as South Africa, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Columbia, and Brazil, to the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, India, and countless others, have accepted the World Bank ceiling programs, they have rejected them in practice. In India, for example,
appropriation of surplus land was carried out only after compensating the owners of the land. The landlords were often successful in receiving more than equitable compensation. However, Monica Das Gupta, Helene Grandvoinnet and Mattia Romani maintain that this placed a huge burden on the public budget, and only a fraction of the land intended for redistribution was acquired.

References
Banerjee, Abhijit, (1999). “Land Reforms: Prospects and Strategies.” Paper presented at the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics: Washington DC.
Borras, Saturnino Jr. (2001). “State-Society Relations in Land Reform Implementation in the Philippines,” Development and Change, Vol. 32 (3): 545–75.
Das Gupta, Monica, Grandvoinnet, Helene, and Romani, Mattia, (2004). “State-community synergies in community-driven development.” Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 40: 27-58.
Deininger, Klaus and Binswanger, Hans (1999). “The Evolution of the World Bank’s Land Policy: Principles, Experience and Future Challenges.” The World Bank Research Observer, Vol. 14 (2): 247–76.
Franco, Jennifer, (2005). “Making Property Rights Accessible: Movement Innovation in the Political Legal Struggle to Claim Land Rights in the Philippines.” IDS Working Paper Series, no. 244 (June, 2005) Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Brighton.
Moyo, Sam (2000), “The Political Economy of Land Acquisition and Redistribution in Zimbabwe, 1990-1999,” Journal of Southern African Studies.
Palmer, Robin (2000). “Mugabe’s ‘Land Grab’ in Regional Perspective,” in T.A.S. Bowyer-Bower and C. Stoneman (eds.) Land Reform in Zimbabwe: Constraints and Prospects, Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 15-23.
Petras, James (1998). “The Political and Social Basis of Regional Variation in Land Occupations in Brazil,” Journal of Peasant Studies, 25 (4): 124–33.
Raikes, Philip, (2000). “Modernization and Adjustment in African Peasant Agriculture.” In Deborah Bryceson, Cristobal Kay and Jos Mooij (eds.) Disappearing Peasantries? Rural Labour in Africa, Asia and Latin America, London: Intermediate Technology Publications, pp. 64– 80.
Rosset, Peter (2001). “Tides Shift on Agrarian Reform: New Movements Show the Way,” Backgrounder, 7 (1): 1–8. Berkeley: Foodfirst Institute.
Shipton, Parker and Mitzi Goheen, (1992). “Introduction: Understanding African Land- Holding: Power, Wealth, and Meaning.” Africa, 62 (3): 307–25.
Toulmin, Camilla and Julian Quan, (eds.), (2000). Evolving Land Rights, Policy and Tenure in Africa. London: DFID/IIED/NRI.
Wolford, Wendy (2003) “Producing Community: The MST and Land Reform Settlements in Brazil,” Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 3 (4): 500–20.
Worby, Eric (2001) “A Redivided Land? New Agrarian Conflicts and Questions in Zimbabwe,” Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 1 (4): 475–509.
Wright, Angus and Wendy Wolford (2003). To Inherit the Earth: The Landless Movement and the Struggle for a New Brazil . Oakland, CA: Food First Books.

The Global Economy and Land Ownership

Economists have debated over the viability of redistributing land in small units to the landless. Land ownership is also important to poverty alleviation.
Benjamin Okyere

Economists such as Sam Moyo have questioned the viability and authority of any land reform exercise and breaking up land into small units to redistribute to the landless. However, land reform has been made difficult by the shift of the global economy to an industrial based economy, challenging the political (re)organization of land ownership. Adding to this, the modern economy has become more driven by industry than agriculture and thus equitable land reform is suspected of leading to an nonviable agricultural economy.

The Growing Battle for Land Ownership
The resurgence of land ownership conflicts throughout the world from Southern Africa, South America, Asia and East Europe is in light of the growing inequalities in the distribution and exploitation of natural resources. In agro-based economies like Zimbabwe, with a largely smallholder resettled farming community, access to and exploitation of land resources is a central issue to development and poverty alleviation. However, as there is no argument against land reform in Zimbabwe, the execution of this exercise needed to be sensitive to economic stability and agricultural diversification. This sadly was not taken into account during the Zimbabwean land reform exercise. Governments need political, judicial and financial support to ensure that land transfers are lawful and economically viable. However, as this exercise serves to correct agro-ecological imbalances due to historical injustices, concessions from large land holders might avoid the political and social upheaval. Agrarian reform can be economically viable if the agro-economy is not severely destabilized and land beneficiaries are provided with the needed support to maximize agricultural productivity.

Small vs. Large Farms
Redistributing land into smaller units in itself poses many economic and logistical challenges. Griffin, Khan and Ickowitz have argued that small farms, given the factor proportions and the social opportunity costs of capital and labor, high mechanization would be an inefficient use of resources against economies of scale. However, Sender and Johnston have argued that the empirical support for this ‘size–efficiency relationship’ in Africa is weak, and that the poor rural population is unlikely to benefit from the policies based on these ideologically motivated arguments for land reform. They suggest not only that the poorest often do not acquire land, but also that they are subjected to declines in rural wage earning opportunities, crucial for their survival.

Viability of Subsistence Farms
Small-scale farming, especially subsistence farming, and farming for domestic needs rather than commercially, is more effective if there is a diversified agricultural practice. However, most land reforms have focused on policies which favor land holding consolidation and individual titling, based on the assumption that large-scale commercializing agriculture requires land use ‘specialization’ rather than ‘diversification’, for growth to occur. Arthur Hazelwood maintains that there is the assumption that equity considerations may be overlooked, given the presumed abundance of agricultural land in most African countries. Following the argument of Saturnino Borras Jr. for redistributive reform that can address equity and historical injustices, focusing on diversification of the agricultural sector and land holding, ‘diversification’ rather than ‘specialization’, Griffin, Khan and Ickowitz further argue, can be efficient and socially just. Furthermore, it is important that government maintain its support to beneficiaries throughout this process to successfully initiate this ‘diversification’ of the agricultural sector.

References
Borras, Saturnino Jr. (2001). “State-Society Relations in Land Reform Implementation in the Philippines,” Development and Change, Vol. 32 (3): 545–75.
Griffin, K., A.R. Khan and A. Ickowitz, (2002). “Poverty and the Distribution of Land,” Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 2 (3): 279–330.
Hazlewood, Arthur, (1985). “Kenyan Land-Transfer Programmes and their Relevance for Zimbabwe,” The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 23 (3): 445-461.
Moyo, Sam (2000). “The Political Economy of Land Acquisition and Redistribution in Zimbabwe, 1990-1999,” Journal of Southern African Studies.
Sender, John and Johnston, Deborah, (2004). “Searching for a Weapon of Mass Production in Rural Africa: Unconvincing Arguments for Land Reform,” Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 4 (1 and 2): 142–164.

Reforming Inequitable Land Ownership

In countries that have historical inequitable land ownership, the redistribution of land can be an important factor for pro-poor economic development.
Benjamin Okyere

The relationship between land ownership and the accumulation of wealth has been long researched. However, in post-colonial or countries with a biased land ownership regime, this relationship can either maintain the dominance of land owners over peasant workers or when challenged inadequately cause more economic and social upheaval than maintaining the status quo. Nonetheless, an unbiased land distribution policy and increased agricultural productivity could guarantee food security, foster agricultural growth and help expand the industrial and service sectors, leading to overall economic growth, at least these should be the objectives of any land reform policy.

Land Reform in Theory
Solon Barraclough has stated that reforming land tenure relations consequently benefit tenants, landless workers and near landless peasants, as it implies a change in power relationships in favor of those who work the land at the expense of those who accumulate wealth from control over land and labor . As argued by Sam Moyo, the pretense that private land ownership is the only basis upon which commercial agriculture is feasible and on which collateral credit can be based has been institutionalized and formalized, justifying the inequitable concentration of land resources. It would be pertinent to add that these processes of land reforms have been systematic, institutionalized and politicized. The only means to rectify this situation in a pro-poor manner would be through similar political and institutional processes in the interest of equitable land redistribution. With this theoretical framework, agrarian reform should attempt to ensure access to land, and its efficient use, to foster equitable resource distribution and induce poverty alleviation.

Case Studies of Land Reform
While the Zimbabwean case may well be the worse, agrarian reforms have had limited success in postcolonial Africa for example. Their approaches have included: a) The individualization approach, tried in Kenya in the 1960s, aimed “to overcome the insecurity of customary tenure.” This approach was implemented either on public or occupied land, with the co-operation of current landholders hoping to gain land title deeds. This process required the introduction and use of new technologies in agriculture, or the intensification of capital intensive ones. b) The privatization approach tried in Uganda in the early to late 1960s went one step further, moving to full private property. Farmers who gained access to land titles could use them as collateral to gain access to bank and government loans. They also needed technical services from the government. For example it would have been foolhardy to grow meat animals without proper veterinary services or egg-laying hens without roads in good shape. In Uganda such farmers were labeled “progressive farmers”. In c) the politicized approach in the late 1990s, there was an attempt to revise the individualization approach to deliver secure land tenure through agricultural diversification coupled with land expropriation. In Zimbabwe and Namibia, this involved the expropriation of landholdings from the large-scale white farming communities for redistribution to indigenous farmers. As land beneficiaries were landless in the implementation of this approach, the land titling was individualized and not privatized. Intensive agriculture did not receive the mechanical and technical support necessary to ensure a successful agricultural sector. Furthermore, land titling in Zimbabwe was insecure. Depending on their success as farmers, as defined by the authorities, the farmers could still lose their land.

References
Barraclough, Solon L., (1999). “Land Reform in Developing Countries: The Role of the State and Other Actors,” UNRISD Discussion Paper No. 101.
Moyo, Sam, (1995). The Land Question in Zimbabwe, Harare: SAPES Books.
Moyo, Sam, (2000) “The Political Economy of Land Acquisition and Redistribution in Zimbabwe, 1990-1999,” Journal of Southern African Studies.

Land Ownership and The Crisis in Zimbabwe

Many are unaware about the history and dynamics involved in the crisis in Zimbabwe. News reports are not enough to fully understand. Here is an analysis.
Benjamin Okyere

Zimbabwe may have lost up to twenty years of development due to the current political and economic crisis. There is a political ping-pong of apportioning blame for the Zimbabwe crisis, as the international community has opted to isolate and demonize the government of Robert Mugabe. The latter claims that it is championing the cause against neo-colonialism and an historical injustice, whereas the international community seems more engaged with the battle against the Zimbabwean regime than addressing the developmental, social and economic challenges in Zimbabwe and resolving the crisis in Zimbabwe.

Introduction to the Zimbabwe Crisis
Zimbabwe numbers approximately 13 million people, of which 98 per cent are African, with the Shona as the dominant ethnic group. Since independence in 1980, the white settler population fell under 100,000 as many emigrated. Within the century from 1890 to independence, the white settler community, 1 per cent of the population, had taken over more than 80 per cent of the land holdings, a situation which still persisted 10 years after independence in 1980. Agriculture accounts for a substantial share of value-added, employment, and export earnings in Zimbabwe. In 1995, the agricultural sector provided employment to 70 per cent of Zimbabwe’s population and accounted for 40 per cent – 45 per cent of the country’s merchandise exports. There was widespread agreement about the need for equitable redistribution of land holdings, to reduce poverty and environmental strain on the land, but little agreement on how this should be designed and implemented. This is what has precipitated to crisis in Zimbabwe.

Land Ownership and the Zimbabwe Crisis
In pre-independent Zimbabwe, then called Rhodesia; the colonial regime initiated a racially biased land distribution policy. The indigenous population was forced into subsistence farming – farming for their sustenance and only selling the excess. Therefore, as landholdings distribution was biased along racial lines, communal agriculture could not be diversified and Zimbabwe became characterized by a customary communal land tenure system, whereby land is considered communal property while its cultivation is usually done on an individual basis. Further complicating the situation and leading to the crisis in Zimbabwe, colonial and post-colonial legal codes vested ultimate land ownership with the state or private landowners, thereby effectively placing the responsibility for changing this situation with these entities. The legal codes were patterned after the colonial British model, they contradicted customary land tenure norms, and were altered by land reform programs to address pressing political, socio-economic and economic pressures. Thus, the customary land tenure systems were subordinated to national land codes, creating land tenure insecurity for communal landholders. It is therefore important to keep in mind that the agents for change are the state and private large land owners. This in itself precipitated the crisis over land reform in Zimbabwe, as the white large landholding farmer community legally and politically challenged the political reforms enacted to redistribute land in a more equitable manner.

References
Herbst, J., (1990). State politics in Zimbabwe, University of Zimbabwe Publications: Harare: Zimbabwe.
World Bank (1995). “Zimbabwe: Achieving Shared Growth.” Country Economic Memorandum. The World Bank, Washington D.C.
World Resources Institute (WRI), (2004). “EarthTrends: The Environmental Information Portal.” Washington DC: World Resources Institute.

Africa: 10 History Facts

Ten historical facts about Africa you should know that shaped the continent as it is known today.
Benjamin Okyere

The history of Africa is a dynamic one that helped shaped the world today, including present global economic and industrial power. This is an introduction and an analysis of how the continent was shaped through time, and but a sample of the facts that shaped the narrative of Africa.

1. The name ‘Africa’
There are several theories for the origin of the name ‘Africa’. Nonetheless, most etymologists believe the name is derived from ‘Afri’, the name of several Semitic peoples in North Africa located near Carthage under Roman rule in modern Tunisia in the third century B.C. The suffix ‘ca’, is the Roman suffix for ‘country’ or ‘land’. Ancient Greeks and the Romans originally referred to ‘Africa’ to apply only to the northern region of the continent, and in Latin, ‘Africa’ means ‘sunny’, and ‘Aphrike’ in Greek means ‘without cold’.

2. Literary history
The Pharaonic civilization of ancient Egypt is known to be the oldest literate civilization in Africa. Ancient Egypt is one of the world’s oldest and longest-lasting civilizations dating from 3300 B.C. to its fall from influence in 343 B.C. Africa’s modern languages are composed of four major language groups namely, the Afro-Asiatic languages (spoken primarily in North and East Africa, approximately 240 languages and 250 million people, subfamilies are Chadic, Berber, Egyptian, Semitic, Cushitic, and Omotic), the Niger-Congo languages (spoken primarily in West Africa and Central Africa, which includes Bantu languages Swahili, Xhosa, and is spoken by 120 million people throughout Central and East Africa) the Nilo-Saharan languages (spoken by peoples of the Nile and Chari rivers, including Nubia), the Khoisan languages (spoken in the Kalahari Desert in south-western Africa). Scholars maintain that the Afro-Asiatic language group originating from Ethiopia was mixed and moved by tribal migrations comprising many of the diverse modern languages such as Semitic languages spoken in the Middle East. Ugarit originated from a Phoenician Afro-Asiatic speaking city in the Middle East and is the origin of writing from which the Greeks developed the Ugarit alphabet, which became the parent of modern alphabets.

3. The first known explorers
European exploration of Africa began with the Ancient Greeks and Romans, who first began exploring the northern coast of Africa around 332 B.C. Alexander the Great came into Egypt and established the city of Alexandria during this period, and the Roman Empire later integrated much of North Africa’s Mediterranean coastline into their system.

4. The ‘discovery’ of Africa
Portuguese explorer Henry the Navigator, was the first European to methodically explore Africa navigating the oceanic route to the Indies and to eventually reach India. In 1420, Henry sent an expedition to secure the uninhabited but strategic island of Madeira, less than 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands but failed to secure the Canary Islands in 1425. In 1433, the Portuguese built one of their first fortresses on the island of Arguin, in modern day Mauritania. This fortress was used in the trading of European wheat and cloth for African gold and slaves.

5. Early slavery
Many African societies historically recognized slaves merely as property, or as dependents eventually integrated into the families of the slave owners, other societies allowed slaves to attain positions of military or administrative power. These traditional African practices of slavery would be altered beginning in the 7th century by Arab Muslims and Europeans. Arab Muslim slave traders raided and traded for black African slaves in West, Central, and East Africa, sending thousands of slaves each year to North Africa and parts of Asia from the 7th to the 20th century. From the 15th to the 19th century, the European slave traders traded in millions of slaves in West, Central, and East Africa and sent them to Europe; the Caribbean; and North, Central, and South America.

6. The slave trade
The trans-Atlantic slave trade was established by Europeans exploring and establishing trading posts on the Atlantic west coast of Africa in the mid-15th century. The first Portuguese were the first European slave traders, followed by the British and the French. The trans-Atlantic slave trade was spurred by these European trading powers establishment of plantation agriculture of sugar, tobacco, rice, indigo, and cotton in their expanding colonies in the New World (North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean islands), across the Atlantic Ocean in the 16th and 17th centuries. The African slaves had a higher life expectancy on the tropical plantations of the New World than European laborers who were more susceptible to tropical diseases and Native Americans who were also susceptible to the diseases brought by the Europeans from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Furthermore, African slaves were inexpensive by European standards and therefore became the major source, and eventually the only source, of New World plantation labor. It is estimated that European and American slave traders purchased approximately 12 million slaves from West and west central Africa and between 1.5 and 2 million slaves died during the journey to the New World. Slavery was eventually abolished in Britain in 1772 and was outlawed with the Slave Trade Act in 1807. In America however, not until 1865 with the passing of the 13th amendment was slavery formally abolished in the United States.

7. The ‘scramble for Africa’
The modern colonialization of Africa can be traced back to the 15th century after the Portuguese sailors discovered the Atlantic islands of Madeira, Azores, and Cape Verde. They pressed progressively further along the west African coast until Bartolomeu Dias sailed around Africa by rounding the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) in 1488, paving the way for Vasco da Gama to reach India in 1498. Eventually the Portuguese exploits were challenged by other up and coming European powers, primarily the Netherlands, France and England. After numerous wars and revolutions in the Americas, Caribbean and Asia, Africa remained mostly unoccupied by the Western powers as late as the 1880s. Eventually, Africa became central to the “new” imperialist expansion or the Scramble for Africa. This would reach a climax with the Berlin Conference (1884–1885) to mediate the imperial competition among Britain, France and Germany. The conference was convened to define “effective occupation” as the criterion for international recognition of colonial claims and codifying the imposition of direct rule through armed force. France and Britain would later collide in the 1898 Fashoda
Incident in south east Sudan, and war was barely avoided as both imperialists were colonizing the continent at a rapid pace, France from the Atlantic and Britain from southern Africa.

8. Colonialism
European colonial policies varied with their mode of rule. Britain in southern Africa, implemented at least three approaches during the 19th century: Natal (separate legal and political systems for whites and Africans; exemption from Roman-Dutch law for Africans and subjection to ‘Native law and custom’; the use of some African authorities for administration), the Cape Colony (policy of assimilation and no differentiation to civilization and Christianity), and Basutoland (indirect rule and no assimilation without white settlers and with an African hierarchical rule). French colonial administration is characterized as more ‘direct rule’ and a metropolitan approach compared to the British as traditional authorities were largely ignored and this approach was fashioned according to the French revolution ideals of equality, fraternity and freedom to apply to anyone who was French, regardless of race or color. France’s ‘mission civilisatrice’ meant that ‘barbarian’ people were to be civilized and turned into Frenchmen. The Congo Free State was created as a private empire of King Leopold II of Belgium, in the 1880s. Belgian colonial policies in the Congo was to change and transform, through paternalistic-racist methods the Africans and rather than to produce an elite, a proletariat rather as they viewed the capabilities of the Africans as being very limited to cheap labor. The Portuguese were less prejudice than other European colonial powers and had a higher tendency to intermarry as young sailors in the colonies often did not have wives, creating the large mixed race population that had a higher status to the Africans. The Portuguese government after WWII adopted a version of the metropolitan approach as France as the colonies became a part of greater Portugal and a criterion was set for those who could become Portuguese citizens according to race.

9. The colonies
Ethiopia and Liberia were the two countries relatively spared from colonialism. The major European colonies in Africa were: Belgian – Belgian Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo); Ruanda-Urundi (Rwanda and Burundi). Britain – Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (Sudan); Basutoland (Lesotho); Bechuanaland (Botswana); British East Africa (Kenya); British Somaliland (northern Somalia); British Togoland (eastern Ghana); Cameroons (split between Nigeria and Cameroon); Egypt; Gambia; Gold Coast (Ghana); Nigeria; Northern Rhodesia (Zambia); Nyasaland (Malawi); Sierra Leone; South Africa; South-West Africa (Namibia); Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe); Swaziland; Tanganyika (mainland Tanzania); Uganda; Zanzibar (insular Tanzania). France – Algeria; Cameroon (91% of Cameroon); Chad; Dahomey (Benin); French Congo (Republic of Congo); French Guinea (Guinea); French Upper Volta (Republic of Upper Volta, Burkina Faso); French Somaliland (Djibouti); French Sudan (Mali); French Togoland (Togo); Gabon; Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire); Mauritania; Morocco (89% of Morocco); Niger; Oubangui-Chari (Central African Republic); Senegal; Tunisia; Zanzibar (Tanzania). Germany – German East Africa (Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania); German South West Africa (Namibia); Kamerun (split between Cameroon and Nigeria); Togoland (split between Togo and Ghana). Italy – Eritrea; Italian Somaliland; Libya. Netherlands – Angola (Luanda, Sonyo and Cabinda); Arguin Island (in Mauritania); Dutch Gold Coast (settlements along coast of Ghana, including El Mina); Goree (in Senegal); Mozambique (Delagoa Bay); Sao Tomé; South Africa. The Dutch Cape Colony (Kaapstad / Cape Town). Portugal – Ajuda (Whydah, in Benin); Angola; Goree (in Senegal); Mombasa; Morocco enclaves; Mozambique; Portuguese Gold Coast (settlements along coast of Ghana); Portuguese Guinea (Guinea-Bissau); São Tomé and Príncipe; Zanzibar. Spain – Jerba; Port Guinea; Rio Muni (mainland Equatorial Guinea); Spanish Morocco; Spanish Sahara.

10. Independence
After WW2 the struggle for independence in Africa intensified with only Egypt, Liberia and Ethiopia being independent at that time. The Indian struggle for self-rule triggered the momentum leading to independence for African colonies. In 1951 Libya gained independence from Italy, and Egypt renounced its control over Sudan. Britain granted full independence to Sudan in 1956, and Morocco and Tunisia became independent of France. The first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence was Ghana in 1957 from Britain. President Kwame Nkrumah with his pan-Africanism vision would later sponsor and instigate the independence of other African colonies. In 1960, most of the French colonies would gain their independence: Cameroon, Senegal, Togo, Mali, Madagascar, Congo (Kinshasa and Brazzaville), Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, and Mauritania. The British colonies of Nigeria and Somalia gained their independence also with these French colonies in 1960. Many other countries would gain their independence soon after. In Southern Africa, namely South Africa, Rhodesia, Mozambique and Angola, however, European settlers lobbied and fought to cut the ties with Britain and Portugal, but retain white minority rule, excluding the African population. Consequently, the independence wars resulting from this move were more violent and destructive to the infrastructure of the countries involved and their independent neighbors. South Africans under the rule of Apartheid were the last people on the continent to attain majority rule in 1990. Independence, however was soon overshadowed by political and economic crisis as well as territorial disputes in various countries as Africans were thrust into political and economic management of countries they were once discriminated from positions of authority and administration.

References
BBC World Service, “The Story of Africa”
Fage, J.D. & William Tordoff. (2002), A History of Africa, New York, NY: Routledge.
Gates, Henry Louis Jr. (1999), Wonders of the African World, New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
Hooker, Richard (1996), “Civilizations in Africa: The Iron Age South of the Sahara.”
Nurse, Derek , (2006), “Bantu Languages”, in The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.
Wright, Donald R. (2000), “Slavery in Africa,” Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia.

Africa: 10 Geography Facts

Ten geographical facts about African geography. Ten geography facts about African geography you should know if you did not know.
Benjamin Okyere

Africa as a continent is often viewed to lack development and fraught with challenges and crisis. For those who have a more positive and favorable view of the ‘dark’ continent here are ten geographical facts about African geography. These facts about the geography of Africa contribute and challenge development theories concerning the continent. From geopolitics to geology, these ten geography facts of Africa come with detailed explanations. These ten geographical facts of Africa should help you better analyze and understand the geography of Africa. Nonetheless, these important ten geographical facts of African geography may be the most important but still a sample.

1. Africa, and in particular central eastern Africa, is scientifically regarded to be the origin of humans. The earliest Homo sapiens (modern human) were discovered in Ethiopia being dated to circa 200,000 years ago.

2. In terms of area Africa is the world’s second largest continent, after Asia. The continent’s area is approximately 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi) including the adjacent islands (Mauritius, Mayotte, Réunion, Seychelles, Sao Tome and Principe, Cape Verde, Saint Helena), it covers 6% of the Earth’s total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area.

3. Africa is the second most populous continent after Asia. The total estimated population of Africa in 2009 is 1.0 billion people in 61 territories, and this accounts for approximately 14.72% of the world’s human population.

4. The continent of Africa is the most centrally located of all the continents. The prime meridian or also known as the Greenwich meridian (longitude 0 degrees) passes through the Atlas Mountains (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia) and cuts through the coast of West Africa close to Accra, Ghana while the Equator (latitude 0 degrees) also divides the continent into 2 equal parts North and South.

5. The climate of Africa is the most tropical of all continents, as it straddles the equator and incorporates both the Tropic of Cancer (the circle of latitude that marks the most northerly position at which the sun may appear directly overhead at its zenith) and the Tropic of Capricorn (the most southerly latitude at which the sun can appear directly overhead). The climate south of the equator mirrors that of the north of the equator but the shape of the northern half of Africa reduces any maritime influence.

6. Africa is the most compact of all the continents in terms of shape and comprises the oldest rocks pertaining to the Pre-Cambrian Era.

7. The Sahara desert, is the world’s largest hot desert and is over 9,400,000 km² (3,630,000 sq mi). It covers most of Northern Africa, and is almost as large as Europe or the United States.

8. Mainland Africa’s ten richest countries with annual per capita GDP over $3,500 often lie partly or entirely within its temperate zones: Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco in the north; and Swaziland, South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia in the south. However, Nigeria, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritius, Ethiopia and Angola are Africa’s only tropical countries to rarely make this list. Temperate zones are either of two regions of the Earth of intermediate latitude. The North Temperate Zone is between the Arctic Circle and the Tropic of Cancer. The South Temperate Zone is between the Antarctic Circle and the Tropic of Capricorn. History and economics indicate that modern civilization originates and is possibly best suited for temperate climates, and often fails in the tropics. This is evident as the majority of the world’s population and wealth is found in the temperate zones. Historically Eurasia, almost entirely in the temperate zone, was linked by land routes, allowing technologies and ideas to spread from one area to the other over time, thereby aiding innovation. This stimulated the spread of technologies among those in the temperate zones and everything from agricultural techniques to medicines were more often made to address the concerns of the northern climes, but often fail when transferred to the south.

9. 15 out of 47 countries entirely enclosed by land, or whose only coastlines lie on closed seas in the world are in Africa, which is nearly a third of landlocked countries: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho (an enclave and landlocked in South Africa), Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

10. The Nile River is the only African river navigable from the ocean for long distances inland and is generally regarded as the longest river in the world. There are two major tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile begins in the Great Lakes region of central Africa, located in between Rwanda and Burundi. It then flows north through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and southern Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast. The two rivers then merge near the Sudanese capital city of Khartoum.

References
de Blij, Harm J. and Cole Roy (2006) Survey of Subsaharan Africa: A Regional Geography, Oxford University Press.
Jurmain, Robert, Lynn Kilgore, and Wenda Trevathan. “The Earliest Dispersal of the Genus Homo: Homo erectus and Contemporaries.” Introduction to Physical Anthropology, 10th ed. Wadsworth, 2005.
Sayre, April Pulley (1999) Africa, Twenty-First Century Books.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, population division “World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision”

Welcome to the Truth x Vision Blog!

Thanks for taking the time to check out this blog. Every 1-2 weeks we will post a philosophical or spiritual concept, and then present our ideas for how to make that idea culturally relevant in today’s world. The posts will be short and sweet, but hopefully inspiring or perhaps even controversial enough to spark some good discussion. Stay tuned!