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| ELSIE GEORGINA DIXON |
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On this day, 28th May,1905 my dear Mum Elsie Georgina Dixon (nee Beckman) was born - 110 years ago. You were the first born child of the young German immigrant Edward Toby Leonhardt Wilhelm Beckmann and his Australian born wife Louisa of English stock.
You grew to be a beautiful young lady, not only in looks but also in heart and spirit - and that is the way you lived your life selflessly caring for those you loved no matter how your " heart full of love" was treated.
You were taken Home in 1971, and, I reckon Birthdays don't matter in Heaven, but anyway, Happy Birthday Mum. I think of you and pray for the repose of your soul every day.Thank you for all you gave to me in love and lessons taught by wonderful example - I am the product of your gentle loving care.
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| MALI |
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| AFRICA |
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BACKGROUND :
Africa covers 6 per cent of the surface of the Earth and provides 20.4 per cent
of Earth’s landmass. Occupying this massive and significant territory there are
1.1 Billion people. Africa is the second largest and second most populous
continent on Earth.
MALI
The Republic of Mali is yet another landlocked country. it is bordered to the North by a small part of Mauritania, to the North East by Algeria, to the East and South by Niger, and to the South by Burkina Faso and Cote d Ivoire and to the West by Guinea and Senegal and then to the North and West by Mauritania completing its encirclement.
Mali is the 24th largest country in the world and the 8th largest country in Africa . (It is interesting to note that Mali is almost twice the size of it former colonial power France which ranks 42nd in the world.) However, with a population of only 16 .2 millions , Mali is only the 66th most populous country in the world, and the 17th most populous country in Africa ( the former Colonial power France has a population of 66 millions and ranks 20th in the world.)
The fact that Mali's Northern reaches extend deep into the Sahara Desert, goes along way toward explaining the disparity between the size of Mali and its population.
Mali is yet another country whose long history has been largely a product of the trans Saharan trade routes, and the interactions of the historic African powers that vied to influence that trade : the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire and the Songhai Empire.Mali to-day is formed out of parts of those Empires. The zenith of the civilisation in the area was reached in the 1300s when there is evidence of flourishing mathematics, astronomy, art and literature.
The trans Saharan trade was in gold, salt, slaves and precious goods.
The slave trade was feeding North African Mohammedan Arab demand - which was at the same time preying on Christian sources in the Mediterranean area.
The trans Saharan trade remained significant until the European powers' sea borne trading efforts and their larger volumes and possibilities made it ineffective and redundant. Following a Mohammedan invasion of Moroccan origin, the Songhai Empire which originated in North Western present day Nigeria, collapsed and the region's trade crossroads role was at an end.
In the period from the late 1600s the whole of West Africa was afflicted by recurring drought and by devastating plague locusts. So bad was it, that in the period 1738-1756 half the population of fabled Timbuktu was killed by the effects of drought and plague locusts. Thus weakened, the region was ripe for invasion when , in the wake of the European " scramble for Africa" following the Berlin carve-up, the French took control in the late 1800s. By 1905 the area was integrated firmly into French Sudan. But in the post World War II period in 1959 French Sudan changed its name to the Sudanese Republic and joined with Senegal to form the Mali Federation which gained its independence from France in 1960. But in that same year, Senegal withdrew and the Sudanese Republic became the Republic of Mali. Its first President quickly turned it into a one party state and turned his back on the West. In 1968 he was overthrown in a military coup led by Moussa Traure. After prolonged and growing violent opposition, the coup Government was itself overthrown by part of the military forces alienated by Traure's harsh efforts to suppress opposition.
A new Constitution was created and democratic multi-party elections were held. This led to a period of stable government.
But there are sad facts recorded about Mali , for example there are said to be 200,000 slaves in the country owing obedience to a master. A significant factor in all the later violence in the country, has been a very large number of well-armed Tuaregs who had gone to Libya to fight in the Civil War there and returned to Mali with the idea of creating their own nation in the North of the country which they named Azawad.
In all of this violence and warfare it should be remembered that the parties involved are all Mohammedans fighting one another. As it happened the Malian forces held out against the Tuaregs who finally gave up on their demands.
In more recent times, Mali has become less hostile to Western connections and more pragmatic.Many Government enterprises have been privatised, and new private enterprise projects have been approved.
80 % of Malian workers are in agriculture - many only seasonally employed and 15% are in the services sector.
Mali has a very sorry record in infant mortality with 106 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2007.In that same year 48% of Malians were less than 12 years old. 90 % of Malians are Mohammedans, 5% Christians (2/3rds Catholic) and 5% follow indigenous religious practices. The Mohammedans - except in the North in recent years have had no adverse effect on non-Mohammedans. But the return of the Tuaregs from Libya did introduce severe persecution of Christians in that region.
There we have it - Mali. It is interesting that in my childhood the name Timbuktu was proverbial - as a place unthinkably " lost" - if you were told " you might as well be in Timbuktu" you were going into very deep trouble!
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| NIGER |
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| AFRICA |
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BACKGROUND :
Africa covers 6 per cent of the surface of the Earth and provides 20.4 per cent
of Earth’s landmass. Occupying this massive and significant territory there are
1.1 Billion people. Africa is the second largest and second most populous
continent on Earth.
NIGER
The Republic of Niger is yet another land-locked African country. It is bordered to the North by Algeria and Libya, to the East by Chad, to the South East by Lake Chad and to the South by Nigeria and Benin and to the South West by Burkina Faso and to the West by Mali.
Niger is the 22nd largest country in the World, being about 1/6th the size of Australia.It is the 60th most populous country in the World with 19.26 million people( Australia 52nd with 23.8 millions).
The great FACT about Niger is that 80% of its land area is part of the Sahara Desert. The population is therefore concentrated in the South.The people are predominantly Mohammedan.Niger ranks 187th in the United Nations " Human Development Index", it is thus shown to be an underdeveloped nation.
The country's history since it won independence from France in 1958 has been turbulent and it is now into its 7th Republic that history includes 4 Military Regimes.
The economy is largely based on subsistence agriculture . However, there are limited exports to surrounding countries - such foreign exchange earnings as there are come from food and cattle - all unprocessed, save for some hides and skins and handicrafts.There are also mining and oil exports.The former have prominently featured uranium exports. A little more than one fifth of the roads in the country are paved. 574 Kilometres of railway are being built to connect the capital Niamey to Parakou in neighbouring Benin is due to be completed by 2016.
The history of Niger's territory is long and varied, with human habitation dating back to 5,000 B.C. But it was the period around 500 B.C. before substantial activity can be identified, and this seems related to the trans Saharan trade routes. This also led to the introduction of the Mohammedan religion. From A.D. 600 to 1591 the Songhai Empire ruled and this became Mohammedan after the Mohammedan wars of expansion began around A.D. 700. From the mid 14th Century the Songhai were displaced by the various Mohammedan Hausa Kingdoms which multiplied throughout the region.
In this period also there were intrusions by the Mali Empire and the Kanem - Bornu Empire.
Following the notorious 1885 Berlin Conference in which the European Powers decided on how Africa should be carved up for the purposes of colonisation, the French set-up what became known as the Voulet - Chanoine Mission to explore the possibilities in the Chad Basin and to unify all French territories in West Africa. It set out from Senegal in 1898. Nine Europeans led the Mission which was composed of an aggregation of some 1,300 men - 800 of whom were porters. The two leading men, Voulet and Chanoine were , to say the least of an unstable psychological make-up (the term psychopaths has been used by a British historian). In fact it seems that they were callous and even blood-thirsty. armed with artillery, machine guns , hundreds of rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition, and led by such characters the worst could be expected. They came to reject orders from Paris and proceeded in a scandalous manner. The expedition was adversely effected by scarcity of supplies in the region and an outbreak of dysentery which soon killed 148 of the porters. Voulet's troops proceeded pillaging, raping, looting and killing.On 8th January, 1899 they attacked a village and killed 101 people including 30 women and children - to set an example for the region, after a couple of his soldiers were wounded in a fray! In May the same year in a similar reprisal he led his men in the massacre of another village in which it seems thousands were killed - on account of the earlier killing of 4 of his soldiers.
Some months before one of Voulet's Officers had resigned - disgusted at the slaughtering , he returned to Franc and wrote a detailed account of the first massacre which via his fiancee got into the hands of the Government Minister responsible. He promptly ordered the Governor of Timbuktu , Governor Klobb, to take control and arrest Voulet. Klobb set out with 50 troops and a French Officer.
After travelling 2,000 Kms in pursuit of the villains, Klobb received reports he was very close to them and sent ahead A Sergeant and two soldiers demanding Voulet's immediate return to Paris, In his reply Voulet reminded Klobb that he had 600 guns against Klobb's 50 and declined to obey. He and Chanoine were careful to keep Klobb's letter from the other French Officers. He kept on raiding and on July 13 after a villager killed one of his men, he massacred 150 women and children at another village. He sent a second letter to Klobb warning him to come no closer.
Klobb came on. Voulet ordered his own men to fall back so that they would not know the true nature of Klobb's mission. Klobb proceeded boldly on his own , whilst wearing his Legion d'Honneur - Voulet insisted he stop, but Klobb ordered those with Voulet to be loyal to their duty. Voulet ordered them to fire a warning volley in the air , but as Klobb kept coming he ordered him to be shot. He fell dead after having ordered his troops not to return fire. They in fact fled.
Voulet and Chanoine tried to rally their men in the coming days , to help them set up their own "kingdom" abandoning French association altogether. Within a few days both were dead at the hands of the troops. In due course, under other officers, despite much strife, order was restored and the original mission was completed in a civilised manner( as much as that can be said for dispossessing people of their independence and property.)
Ultimately it was decided by the Ministry of Colonies in Paris that the outrages committed under the direction of Voulet and Chanoine were due to a "Sudanese sickness and the dreadful heat sending the two mad."
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| CHAD |
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| AFRICA |
BACKGROUND :
Africa covers 6 per cent of the surface of the Earth and provides 20.4 per cent
of Earth’s landmass. Occupying this massive and significant territory there are
1.1 Billion people. Africa is the second largest and second most populous
continent on Earth.
CHAD
The Republic of Chad is yet another landlocked country. It is bordered by Libya to the North,Sudan to the East, the Central African Republic to the South , Cameroon and Nigeria to the South West and Niger to the West. Chad is the fifth largest country in Africa and the 21st largest in the world. With a population of 13,606,000 it is the 71st most populous country in the world. Chad ranks second to South Sudan in Maternal Mortality with 1,100 deaths per 100,000 Live Births.(Remember Australia has ...5!) Chad has 91.94 infant deaths per 100,000 Live Births ( Remember Australia has ...4.49 !) Average life expectancy at birth is 51 yrs the 182nd highest rank in the world ( Remember Australia is 83 yrs the 9th highest in the world Japan is No.1 at 87 yrs.)
The country is religiously diverse with 55% Mohammedans of three different groups, 22% Catholics, 18% Protestant and 5% Animist & other.
There are 200 identified ethnic groups.Most people are said to be more aware of their regional grouping than of National identity. In the North of the country the people are mainly Toubous nomads, in the South the main national ethnic group the Sara live stable lives side by side with nomads such as Arabs.
Official business is conducted in French or Arabic, but over 100 languages are in use in the country.
The legal system is based on French Civil Law and Local customary law as long as that does not conflict with modern concepts of justice and equity.
With a literacy rate of only 33%, Chad has one of the lowest literacy rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. Interestingly in 2010, it was recorded that 24.3 % of the population had mobile phones.
The
Southern third of the country , the Sudanic zone, is rich in wildlife
and plant life. All the major species of African wildlife are to be
found here and elephant poaching has been a major problem.
It is thought that significant human population in Northern Chad dates back as far as 7,000 B.C. - this may be a tad romantic. However there exist in Chad some of the more significant African archaeological sites. These date back to around 2,000 B.C. For more than 2,000 years the area has supported stable agricultural populations . However for more than 700 years the Kanem Empire reaching from parts of Libya through much of Chad and into Nigeria and Cameroon was dominant in the region.It overcame the well-established and developed Sao civilisation which had grown up in the Lake Chad region since around 700 B.C. Kanem had strongly developed the slave trade by raiding the Southern grasslands, not only to satisfy their Mohammedan trading partners to the North but also for themselves. The Kanem population was around 30% enslaved.
The Kanem Empire thus controlled the trade routes across the Sahara into central Africa. But along with material goods, there came in due course, the Mohammedan religion, which took over Kanem. But over the centuries its influence produced the same in-fighting and dynastic struggles that were characteristic of the Mohammedan world. By the end of the 14th Century Kanem had effectively fallen apart.
By 1900 Chad had become a fully integrated colony of France. By 1920 it was known as French Equatorial Africa. But French administration of the colony did not even match standards of modernity the French were achieving in other colonies. The principal production was originally raw cotton and in 1929 this was very much expanded.
After WW II the colony was granted independence in 1960. A government of Southern Sara people was elected. But in 1965 the Mohammedan Northerners asserted themselves, starting a civil war. The Government collapsed in 1979 and the Mohammedans continued to fight the civil war among their own factions. Libya sought to supplant French influence in Chad, but this adventure ended in disaster when a French backed President rallied the Chad population in a manner no-one had done before and the Libyans were driven off in a humiliating retreat. This President -Habre - established a harsh dictatorship, allegedly killing thousands and advantaging his own Daza ethnic group. He was overthrown by his deputy Idriss Deby in 1990. He has ruled the country since then. Despite repeated attempted coups , his " Patriotic Salvation Movement" remains securely in power. The country is reputedly one of the poorest and most corrupt in the world. Since 2003 crude oil has been the country's principal source of export earnings, overtaking the traditional cotton trade.
France has continued to exercise a significant influence in Chad, partly because the approx. 1,000 soldiers she stationed there repeatedly help to support the President against the Government's enemies. However this influence was not sufficient to stop Chad giving oil rights to the American EXXON corporation in 1999 - a decision bitterly resented by the French.
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| SUDAN |
BACKGROUND :
Africa covers 6 per cent of the surface of the Earth and provides 20.4 per cent
of Earth’s landmass. Occupying this massive and significant territory there are
1.1 Billion people. Africa is the second largest and second most populous
continent on Earth.
SUDAN
The very location of the former Sudan suggests trouble : there can be few countries with such volatile borders - to the North West Libya, to the North Egypt to the East, the Red Sea, Eritrea and Ethiopia, to the South Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,to the South West the Central African Republic and to the West Chad! But as if having nine counties often in turmoil on her borders were not enough trouble, Sudan herself has been ravaged by civil war for nearly 50 years and has only in more recent times been divided into two countries Sudan and South Sudan at a democratic referendum.
Sudan
Sudan proper , that is the Northern half, is the 16th largest country in the world and has a population estimated at 37.29 millions - the 35th largest in the world. 97% of the population is Mohammedan and the remainder is Coptic, Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant. The official languages are Arabic and English.
Membership of the United Nations, the African Union ,the Arab League and the Non-Aligned Movement and observer status at the World Trade Organisation make the country seem quite normal. However Membership of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, the fact that the legal system is based on Islamic Law , a poor Human Rights record especially regarding ethnic cleansing and slavery (!) reveal a darker picture.
The Capital is Khartoum, which conjures up British colonial images of "Chinese" Gordon and his death fighting the forces of the Mahdi. This fighting was inspired by the Mahdi's opposition to European efforts to wipe out slavery. Sudan claims much older origins, going back to the Nubians and Upper Egypt of around 3,000 B.C. Sudan was a Christian country by A.D. 600 but as the newly-invented Mohammedan project grew more and more bloodily aggressive, it became Mohammedan by A.D. 700. In 1821, after centuries of various forms of primitive rule, Sudan was to fall under the control of Egypt. The Egyptian control was administratively heavy and there was continuing intermittent resistance.They introduced systematic Mohammedan religious instruction and built numerous mosques. The main trade in Sudan was slavery and this was entirely to the Egyptians' satisfaction.But under European pressure it was gradually suppressed in the 1860s. In 1899 England and Egypt reached an agreement which effectively made Sudan a British Colony with a Governor General appointed by Egypt subject to British consent.The British systematically sought to frustrate any union of Sudan and Egypt.
In World War II Sudanese forces served with the British in a variety of campaigns in North Africa . British policy was to run Sudan via a Northern Mohammedan region and a Southern Christian region.In 1956, after a polling process, the British and Egyptians both gave up their claims to sovereignty and Sudan became independent. However in 1969 there was a military coup and the Parliament and political parties were abolished. But in 1971 Communist elements in the Army led a further coup - but this lasted only days before an anti-Communist group in the Army displaced them. From then for about 10 years, there was a virtual hiatus in the North vs South civil war.
In 1989 Mohammedan elements in the Army led another coup, suspending political parties and introducing an Islamic Legal Code. There was a purge and executions of opposing military leaders and banning of independent newspapers and jailing of leading political figures and journalists.The next years were turbulent with Mohammedan fundamentalism on the rise.War broke out along the 1,000km border with Chad between 2005 and 2007.The hostilities in the Darfur area were so intense as to make the hitherto obscure name a major news item around the world. 2.8 Million civilians were displaced and 300,000 people were said to have been killed in the course of the trouble.
The latest stage in the country's evolution was the division establishing South Sudan.
SOUTH SUDAN
The Republic of South Sudan was established in 2011 when its separation from Sudan was achieved following a referendum. The country has an estimated population of 8,000,000 which would make it the 94th largest country in the world. It has an area ranking 42nd largest in the world. Since independence a bloody civil war has broken out between ethnic Dinka and Nuer peoples. President Kiir's Dinka people have the support of Government forces which have also been aided by Ugandan troops. It is said that up to 10,000 people have been killed in the fighting, 1,000,000 displaced and 400,000 have fled as refugees to neighbouring countries.There have been moves toward a federal structure to try to heal the troubles.
The official language of South Sudan is English.
Like so many other aspects of South Sudanese life it seems, the religion of the people is a subject difficult to determine for certain. Broadly speaking the religions followed seem to be indigenous " animist", Christian, and Mohammedan. The variation in claimed percentages of each is verging on the insane. Some U.S. Government sources say that Christianity is only 10% (Library of Congress) others a substantial minority (State Dept.) While the Pew Research Center says 60.5 % are Christians, 32.9 % Animist and 6.2 % Mohammedan. The World Christian Encyclopedia says there are 2,700,000 Catholics which is 33% of the population.
South Sudan has placed heavy reliance on oil exports, developed with Chinese assistance, to fund up to 98% of its budget. The oil has to traverse a pipeline through Sudan and this has caused disagreements over costs of pipeline use.The IMF is anxious over the decline in reserves which are expected to halve by 2020.
More than half the population does not have access to improved water supply. Health indicators are seriously adverse with the highest maternal mortality rate in the world : 2,053.9 per 100,000 live births.The equivalent figure in Australia is.....5 per 100,000... 5! Infant mortality is 69.97 per 1,000 well below the world's worst (Mali at 106.9). In Australia the figure is 4.49.
SUMMARY
I started off this Africa project as a matter of self -education: to make good deficiencies in my knowledge of the vast Continent and its many countries, and, to write about what I find in as entertaining and interesting a way as I can.
But I have to admit that the knowledge that I am gaining is undermining, and disturbing the enjoyment I had expected from the exercise. The troubles of the Sudans are appalling and, in an exercise like this, it is impossible to come to grips with the peoples involved to any meaningful degree, especially when even usually reliable sources contradict one another over simple facts that elsewhere would be indisputable. As for any thought of making what I write entertaining , that would be obscene in this case - like an "entertaining" account of an air crash.
To tell the truth, I feel guilty for leading the comfortable life that I do whilst contemplating the wretchedness of the Sudanese people. Yet, at 75 years of age and living on an Aged Pension, the only practical thing I can do is to write and help bring their plight to notice.
