Benin

Earlier today I took to Twitter to join the brotherly people of the great nation of #Benin as they celebrated 60 years fo freedom from #French colonialism.

According to the Government of the Republic of Benin Website, present-day Benin (see Map) was occupied by several kingdoms. The most prominent were Danhomé (Abomey), Xogbonou (Porto-Novo), Allada, Nikki, Kouandé, Kandi…. The first rulers of Abomey and Porto-Novo came from the Adja-Fon migration, from neighbouring Togo (Tado). The other peoples come from present-day Nigeria, Niger or Burkina Faso. Thus, the country was once a hotbed of ancient and brilliant civilizations, built around these kingdoms: city-states. These well structured political entities had functional urban centres. They had developed a local trade, based from the 17th century slave trade, then on oil palm after the abolition of  slave trade in 1807.

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the Peoples Republic of Benin consists of a narrow wedge of territory extending northward for about 420 miles (675 kilometres) from the Gulf of Guinea on  which it has a 75-mile seacoast, to the Niger River, which forms part of Benin’s northern border with Niger. Benin is bordered to the northwest by Burkina Faso, to the east by Nigeria, and to the west by Togo. The official capital is Porto-Novo, but Cotonou is Benin’s largest city, its chief port, and its de facto administrative capital.

Writing in African Studies Review (Volume 17, No. 3: December 1974), Augustus A. Adeyinka[1] provides a rich historical account of the Dahomey Kingdom focusing on the exploits of King Gezo (1818-1858). Renowned for being ‘war like’, the Kingdom was founded in the first half of the seventeenth century, circa 1620. Dogbagri Genu (Dako) is recognised as its founder. Like most other Kingdoms, Dahomey had its ups and downs. At the height of its power in the eighteenth century, Dahomey demonstrated expansionist tendencies particularly as it needed a direct route to the coast for purposes of trade.

Advent of Colonial Subjugation

The expansion to the coastline not only brought the inland kingdom face to face with English, Danish, Portuguese and French slave traders and merchants opening up trading relationships. It also had far-reaching if more nefarious consequences, for example, with initial encounters giving way to power dynamics that forced local power elite to gravitate towards the soon-to-become colonial masters. France was the first to extract some concession from Dahomey when they were granted authority to build a port at Ouidah in 1704. But the vulnerability of the local fiefdoms was to be laid bear as the following  examples demonstrate. In 1863, the French protectorate was established with King Toffa of Porto-Novo who sought help in the face of claims of the King of Abomey and attacks by the English living in Lagos. The same year, Glèlè, King of Abomey authorised the French to settle in Cotonou.

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[1] Adeyinka, A.A., 1974. King Gezo of Dahomey, 1818-1858: A Reassessment of a West African Monarch in the Nineteenth Century. African Studies Review, 17(3), pp.541-548

Celebrating Africa Women's Day

I decided to educate myself about women's rights as a way to commemorate Pan Africa Women's Day 2020, a day that was set aside in 2019 to mark the 57th anniversary of the Pan-African Women’s Organisation, the Specialised Agency of the African Union (AU) dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

To do this, I have just completed reading the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Right of Women in Africa that was adopted by the Second Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of States and Government of the African Union (AU) in Maputo on 11th of July 2003, and entered into force on 25th of November 2005. It is a wonderful document. I would recommend it to anyone interested in gender equality.

For the avoidance of doubt, “RIGHTS of WOMEN” include the following 13 rights, among others:

1. The Right to Life, Integrity and Security of the Person (Article IV)
2. Equal Rights in MARRIAGE (Article V)
3. [Rights of] Access to Justice and Equal Protection before the Law (Article VII)
4. Right to Participation in the Political and Decision-Making Process (Article IX)
5. Right to Peace (Article X)
6. Right to Education and Training (Article XII)
7. Economic and Social Welfare Rights (Article XIII)
8. Health and Reproductive Rights (Article XIV)
9. Right to Food Security (Article XV)
10. Right to Adequate Housing (Article XVI)
11. Right to a Healthy and Sustainable Environment (Article XVIII)
12. Right to Sustainable Development (Article XIX)
13. Right to Inheritance (Article XX).

Additionally, the Charter provides for Protection of Women in Armed Conflicts (Article XI), Special Protection of Elderly Women (Article XXII), Special Protection of Women with Disabilities (Article XXIII), as well as Special Protection of Women in Distress (Article XXIV).

Happy Africa Women's Day 2020

Viva Gender Equality! Viva Non-Discrimination! 

Source: https://au.int/sites/default/files/treaties/37077-treaty-charter_on_rights_of_women_in_africa.pdf 

  

Dear Mother

Twenty one years is a long time! I mean, even our eldest daughter hasn’t attained the age of 21. Yet, that is the length of time gone by since we beheld our dear mother last. It was July 16, 1999 to be precise when Mama Esther – as she was affectionately known – took her last breath in this world only to enter another, more glorious one I suppose. Life has never been the same without her. But, in equal measure life was materially different when mama Ester was present. Today, I borrow the lyrics of Prince Mbarga’s song Sweet Mother[1] to express the love I had (and still have) for her.

Sweet mother I no go forget you

For dey suffer we you suffer for me yeah [2x]

When I dey crry my mother go carry me
She go say my pikin wetin you dey cry yeah yeah
Stop stop! stop stop!! stop stop!!!
Make you no cry again oo

When I wan sleep my mother go pet me
She go lie me well-well for bed
She go cover me cloth say make you sleep
Sleep sleep my pikin oooo

When I dey hungry my mom go run up and down
She dey find me somthing we I go chop
Sweet mother eeeeee…sweet mother oooo…eee

When I dey sick my mother go cry cry cry
She go say instead wey I go die make she die
She go beg God, God help me, God help me, my pikin oo

If I no sleep, my mother no go sleep
If I no chop, my mother no go chop
She no dey tire ooo
Sweet mother I no go forget dey suffer wey you suffer for me yeah yeah
Sweet mother eeeeeeeeeeee
Sweet mother oooo....eeeee

(Interlude...instrumental...)

You fit get another wife
you fit get another husband
but you fit get another mother? No!

(Interlude...instrumental...)

when I dey hungry my mom go run up and down
she dey find me somthing we I go chop
sweet mother aaaaaa...sweet mother oooo..eee

When I dey sick my mother go cry cry cry
she go say instead wey I go die make she die
she go beg God, God help me, God help me, my pikin oo

If I no sleep, my mother no go sleep
If I no chop, my mother no go chop
she no dey tire ooo
sweet mother i no go forget dey suffer wey you suffer for me yeah yeah
Sweet mother aaaaaaaaaaaaa
Sweet mother eeee…ooooooo
Sweet mother aaaaaaaaaaaaa
Sweet mother eeee…ooooooo

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[1] Released in 1976, Sweet Mother is a highlife song by the Nigerian and Cameroonian singer Prince Nico Mbarga and his band Rocafil Jazz. The song is a celebration of motherhood, sung in Nigerian Pidgin English. The music is West African highlife, with Congolese Soukous-style guitar finger-picking. [Source: WikipediA – Free Encyclopaedia. Accessed on 16 July 2020]

Public Participation during Covid-19

Public participation is a key national value and principle of governance ingrained in the Kenyan Constitution (2010). 

Under Chapter 69, for example, the state is obligated to “encourage public participation in the management, protection and conservation of the environment. 

Parliament is required under Chapter 8 (118 (1) b) to “facilitate public participation and involvement in the legislative and other business of its committees”.  

At the sub-national level, County Assemblies are required to “facilitate public participation and involvement in the legislative and other business of the assembly and its committees” (Chapter 14 (196 (1) b)). 

Much remains to be seen how creative legislatures will be in fulfilling theses constitutional mandates under Covid-19.