Whenever a great tragedy occurs in the USA and media coverage is everywhere, there’s always a nagging thought in the back of my mind that can’t help but wonder why we don’t express similar moral outrage at evil in other parts of the world. AIDS kills 6,000 people every day in Africa- that’s like 2 9/11’s. Every day.
Yet because it’s not our own back yard I think we often forget about the sufferings of the millions that live there. The past week has been especially difficult, even by African standards.
 The Kenyan presidential election may have been rigged by current president Mwai Kibaki. Kibaki won by a narrow margin over opposition leader Raila Odinga. Like most African political conflict, this one is enormously complex. There is a tribal aspect to the conflict since Kibaki and Odinga are from rival tribes. Additionally, Kibaki received significant financial support from Daniel Arap Moi, who is widely regarded as a corrupt, ineffective leader. In the week since the election there have been riots throughout Kenya. Yesterday, Odinga supporters burned a church where members of Kibaki’s tribe were hiding, killing 30 of them. Today, there is a greater push for a peaceful resolution, although both sides continue to blame the other for the continued violence. Some westerners are concerned that this may become a Rwanda-like conflict and are attempting to quell the violence before it gets worse. You can learn more about the conflict here, here, and here.
Meanwhile, in South Africa recently-elected ANC leader Jacob Zuma, who has already been charged and acquitted of rape and corruption, is now facing more charges of corruption. Zuma, as the new ANC leader, is also in prime position to become president at the end of current president Thabo Mbeki’s term in 2009. The ANC is the national ruling party of South Africa. It was the anti-apartheid party during the apartheid years from 1948-1991. Apartheid had a sort of galvanizing effect on black South African politicians and as a result the ANC is a bit of an amalgamation. It’s members include radicals and conservatives, socialists and capitalists, pro-Westerners and those who want nothing to do with the west. The ANC is already strongly divided between the current president, Thabo Mbeki (who succeeded Nelson Mandela) and Zuma.
Additionally, though this may be a note of hope, the peacekeeping coalition stationed in Darfur is now being led by the UN, rather than the African Union. The AU force had 7,000 men, who were meant to patrol a region the size of Texas and prevent the violent raiding of villages by the Janjaweed. The new UN force will have 26,000 men, although the Sudanese government under Omar al-Bashir (perhaps the worst dictator in the world) is demanding that all 26,000 must be African Muslims. Additionally, other nations have been reluctant to offer the helicopters that would be needed to transport the peacekeepers.
There have also been terrorist attacks in Algeria and Mauritania, both of which are believed to be instigated by al-Qaeda. However, I know very little about either and it’d be better to just refer you to the two BBC articles discussing those events.
Remember to keep the people of Africa in your prayers. And try to be as knowledgeable about the conflicts there as is possible given the amount of time you have to learn about them. Our brothers and sisters are over there, many of them dying from treatable diseases or corrupt governments.