Return to Transcripts main page
INSIDE AFRICA
UNICEF Heals Child Victims of War; Pro-Obama Hip Hop; Kenyan Bus Drivers Attract Customers by Remodeling Their Buses
Aired January 17, 2009 - 19:30:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Isha Sesay. Welcome to INSIDE AFRICA's new digs for the new year. On the program this week, UNICEF uses art and music to help heal the wounds of child victims of war. Somali Canadian hip-hop artist K'naan waxes poetic about Barack Obama. And some Kenyan bus drivers pimp their rides to attract customers during tough times.
But first, some things never seem to change. The political and humanitarian crisis grinds on in Zimbabwe, South Africa's Jacob Zuma is in legal hot water, and pirates still roam the seas off Somalia. Our correspondents on the continent are closely following all three stories. Here's a quick look at recent developments.
A Zimbabwean political activist who says he was abducted by the Mugabe government is telling his own personal horror story. Our Nkepile Mabuse got his account first hand.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOTHWELL PASIPAMIRE, OPPOSITION ACTIVIST: There was a small chair in that room, and that chair was electrified, and so you would admit to (inaudible)...
NKEPILE MABUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bothwell says he managed to escape with the help of a sympathetic soldier. The government of President Robert Mugabe has dismissed his allegation as, quote, "rubbish."
Zimbabwe is in a state of decay. The World Health Organization puts the death toll from a cholera outbreak that began in August at more than 2,000. Oxfam says more than half the population face starvation. Most stores are now trading in U.S. dollars and refuse to accept the country's worthless currency.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: A nation that was once the breadbasket of the region now sits in ruins with its people depending on handouts. Nkepile is also following the legal trouble swirling around South African ruling party president, Jacob Zuma.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MABUSE: South Africa's Appeals Court has cleared the way for Jacob Zuma to be prosecuted for corruption. The judge dismissed a previous ruling that found his prosecution invalid. Zuma argued that because he was not given an opportunity to make representations to the prosecuting authority, the case should be thrown out.
JUDGE LOUIS HARMS, SOUTH AFRICAN SUPREME COURT OF APPEAL: He had been told that he could make representations. He did nothing of the sort. Instead, he resisted all attempts by the inquiry to further their investigation.
MABUSE: (inaudible) ruling and avoid standing trial before elections in a few months time. And his party, the African National Congress, has publicly declared him as its presidential candidate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is innocent, because he is our president.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: We'll certainly be keeping our eyes on that case.
The eyes of the world had been on a hijacked Saudi oil tanker and its crew. The Somali-based pirates who captured it got their bootie after several weeks, but many of them never made it back to shore: David McKenzie got a play by play from a pirate who says he was there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He says the group of pirates left a tanker for shore in a small skiff like this one with their share of the ransom money, but the seas were high.
LIBAAN JAAMA, SOMALI PIRATE (through translator): Other pirates on the shore wanted a tip from the pirates on the Sirius Star, so they started to fire in the air as our pirates approached the land. When our pirates heard the shots, they thought they would be robbed, so they tried to return to the tanker. In that quick turn, the boat capsized.
MCKENZIE: Five pirates were lost at sea, and over half a million dollars went down with them, Jaama says.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Maritime analysts say there are plenty more pirates ready and willing to risk the same fate.
Up and coming musician K'naan knows all too well the perils of life in Somalia. He lived in one of Mogadishu's toughest neighborhoods until he was 15. Now he is quickly making a name for himself in the hip-hop music world, and he has a few things to say about America's new president.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: The conflict between Gaza and Israel set off an outcry in many parts of the world, including in Africa. I-Reporter Mohammad Mandi Karim (ph) sent us this image of a protest by Muslims in Tanzania. He says Sunni and Shia marched side by side to show support for Palestinians.
Share your corner of Africa with us, send us your photos, video and comments. Just go to cnn.com/insideAfrica and click on the "I-Report" logo, or send your photos from your phones to I-Report at cnn.com. Come on, show us what you've got.
Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA. The United Nations Children's Fund says women in the least developed countries are 300 times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than women in developed countries. The findings are published in UNICEF's latest report on the state of the world's children. It also says a child born in a developing country is almost 14 times more likely to die in the first month of life.
CNN's Robyn Curnow sat down with UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman to discuss the implications for African countries, and some possible solutions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The statistics are absolutely shocking. For women in these countries, having a baby is a bit like playing Russian roulette.
ANN VENEMAN, UNICEF: If you are a woman in Sierra Leone, you have a 1 in 8 lifetime risk of dying from having a child. If you live in a developed world, you have a 1 in 8,000 lifetime risk of dying. Some of these women are living in countries with such poor health systems that they put their own lives at risk by becoming pregnant and having a child.
One of the other things that I think is so significant is that there is over 500,000 women dying of maternal causes every year. For every one that dies, there is another 20 who have severe complications that could significantly impact their health for a lifetime.
CURNOW: Why is sub-Saharan Africa so vulnerable?
VENEMAN: Again, much of it is because there aren't good, functioning health systems. When you look at the numbers of women who die every year in childbirth, 500,000 women estimated per year die in childbirth.
CURNOW: That's about 1,500 a day.
VENEMAN: Yes. And 21 percent of that 500,000, 21 percent are in three countries -- the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and Ethiopia.
CURNOW: Why is this such a problem? What can be done about protecting the most vulnerable women when they're pregnant and when they're giving birth?
VENEMAN: It's getting access to services. Prenatal services, attended births. It really helps if women have skilled birth attendants when they have a child. And you can measure against those areas where women have skilled birth attendants, and see significant increases.
Where the mother gets in trouble is when there is a complicated birth. So if there is no access to services where she can potentially have a cesarean section, have a skilled birth attendant to deal with a breach birth or something else that may cause significant complications.
CURNOW: Let's talk about Zimbabwe.
VENEMAN: The health systems are really breaking down very quickly. UNICEF is now providing 70 percent of the medicines that are going into that country. 70 percent of the medicines are provided by UNICEF. And this is a country that used to have a functioning health system. So that's of great concern. Water and sewer systems are breaking down. This week was the week that children were supposed to start school, and school has been delayed. It's -- we're not sure when it is going to start. So that's another concern with regards to children.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: UNICEF is also helping child victims of conflict around Africa. CNN's Kyra Phillips looked at a program that uses art and music to heal deep wounds.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are some of the last images captured of refugees in North Kiwu, Congo before their camp was destroyed in the latest round of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. What was already a desperate situation became another frightening chapter in a story that has continued far too long.
With the help of UNICEF, a program called "The Art of Humanity" brings music and art to the shelters, helping child victims to share their stories with the rest of the world. Just listen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So this first picture here shows the day I was going to school. The second picture now shows the time I left the school and I was obliged to get in the army.
PHILLIPS: This is Pipa (ph). At 10 years old, he was recruited into the armed forces. By the time he was 12, he was already forced to kill and rape.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So when I'm going to say, (inaudible) is true in the eyes of God and the people, I think I might have killed something like 20 persons.
PHILLIPS: The child victims of violence, rape and armed conflict continue to seek shelter. With little emotional expression, this young girl's story of rape is not uncommon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They threw the basket, and they told me, well, look, since now on, you'll become our wife, so we bring you to the forest. Some lifted me from the legs, others from the head, others from the arms, and then this is all -- they brought me, they said, OK -- they started raping me.
PHILLIPS: Now, these young victims of war have a voice, sharing their stories through music and art, hoping the world will see the bigger picture.
Kyra Phillips, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Turning now from conflict to commerce. Many small African businesses are struggling in these difficult economic times. We'll look at what some Kenyan bus drivers are doing to attract customers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Welcome back. As the United States inaugurates its first black president, we here at INSIDE AFRICA are pondering the significance of this historic milestone in political circles and in pop culture. I recently caught up with rising hip hop sensation K'Naan, who views Barack Obama's presidency from African and Western perspectives. He grew up in Somalia, and now lives in Canada. K'Naan says Barack Obama's presidency is pretty amazing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
K'NAAN, HIP-HOP ARTIST: To me, it says that America is looking to try and regain its political sanity, you know. That is -- that is what it says more than anything else. I mean, many of the scenarios that has shaped black people's history in America have changed, and many things have not. And so, these few years aren't so different than the last few years, when everyone couldn't imagine having a black president. But I definitely think it does give a lot of people a lot more things to aspire to be, you know. And so when that kind of energy-based kind of dialogue is going on between people, I think artists tend to take on those energies a little quicker. And I think that's being -- being that hip-hop is very much directly involved in this process, because this was the young vote that really ...
SESAY: Indeed.
K'NAAN: ... had won it, and the young vote is really hip-hop. I think it's a very interesting place for hip-hop to be, because now it's going to have to re-examine itself.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: K'Naan is generating a lot of buzz with his upcoming sophomore album "Troubadour." "The Telegraph" newspaper in the U.K. calls him "incendiary" and "wryly humorous." And "The Los Angeles Times" calls him "a 2009 artist to watch."
You can watch much more of him right here, in the full half-hour interview. That's next week on INSIDE AFRICA.
We've also been asking African government officials for their thoughts on the election of Barack Obama. I recently sat down with Nigeria's foreign affairs minister. He calls the event truly transcendental.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHIEF OJO MADUEKWE, NIGERIAN FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER: I think beyond the song and dance and celebration that someone of my skin color is in the White House, and whose father was from my continent, is a realization by African political elite that we are quickly running out of excuses for failure. Because Obama didn't become president of the United States -- just 11 percent of the population in America is black -- as a result of a decision by the Democratic Party, or indeed the electorate just said, now we're looking for a black man to be president.
He got there because of merit. He got there because of fair play. The rules were observed, and so on, and so forth.
And so, the best way we can really celebrate Obama's victory, those of us who are from the continent of his father, is to do a lot more than we've done before now to entrench the values of democracy, which are about inclusiveness, respect for minorities, freedom of expression, and let Africa, which have been a left-behind continent, now be the world's best model. It looks like a tall order, that it can't be done. Yes, we can! It can be done! Let it be the best model for those kinds of (inaudible) that made it possible for Obama to emerge in America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: For ordinary Africans, the new year brings with it many new challenges, and many old ones. We wanted to know what some of them thought the big issues would be this year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In 2009, we expect the Africans to -- to come up with ways of helping themselves and to stop depending on outside, you know, countries, like Europeans countries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're expecting peace and prosperity in Kenya. We want to see (inaudible) changing. You know, Kenya has been a country that many people, many nations have been coming here to -- for refuge.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This year, I expect a better government, having gone through in the year 2008, expect our politicians to give us a good -- a better thing this year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: With the inauguration of Barack Obama, a new, more hopeful era is born, here in the United States and right around the world. Given his promise of change throughout the election campaign, the hopes, dreams and in some cases the very survival of so many people are resting on the actions of the 44th president and his administration. But change requires courage and the commitment to make tough decisions. People in Africa are waiting to see just how committed this latest resident of the White House really will be to helping them climb out of the world of poverty and end the cycle of violence millions are trapped in.
For the people of war-torn eastern Congo, the recent news of a rift between rebel leader Laurent Nkunda and his chief of staff, Bosco Ntaganda, potentially heralds an intensification of the conflict there. In Somalia, the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops, coupled with a hamstrung government, creates a vacuum that will likely be filled with more bloody chaos.
For these people and others like them, living and dying in misery in places like Darfur and Zimbabwe, there is a need for urgent engagement by Obama and his team. My fear is, with the recent explosion of violence in the Middle East and the downturn in the global economy, Africa will be shunted further down the agenda, and the urgency so many require may suddenly be lacking.
But if I could say just one thing to the new president, it would be to urge him to keep Africa's issues on the front burner. Constructive engagement with the continent's challenges and conflicts would go a long way towards helping America rehabilitate its image abroad, which is something Mr. Obama himself has acknowledged his country so greatly needs. And that's just my two cents.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA. Business people are forced to get creative during tough economic times, but that does not seem to be a problem for some enterprising bus drivers in Kenya. David McKenzie examines the trend of pimping one's matatu.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daily commute can be tiresome anywhere across the world. In Nairobi, people catch matatus, and they serve their purpose, but in Kenya, not all matatus are created equally. These have been pimped, say their drivers. They can be naughty, or nice, and they're suiting (ph) the industry.
So, to really know what these pimped-out matatus are alike, we actually have to get on to one, so let's go. Flat screen TVs, detailed decals, and luxury seats. The man at the business end of the bus says the thrills bring in the business.
JACK, CONDUCTOR (through translator): I used to work in an old matatu, and people weren't liking it, and it was hard to fill it. So I got promoted to a better one, and the customers like it.
MCKENZIE: It costs less than $1 to take one of these around town. That's why they're so popular. But pimping out matatus is a million-dollar business in Kenya.
RAHAB WACHIRAH, DODI AUTOTECH: He is now doing the artwork.
MCKENZIE: Rahab Wachirah has cashed in on the trend. She runs Dodi Autotech. In these tough economic times, the company employs more than 10 contractors for each matatu. Rahab entered the male-dominated world of a top shop four years ago, and hasn't looked back.
WACHIRAH: There were no people who were doing such jobs. So we decided now is the time (ph). You know, it's always good to start something new.
MCKENZIE: To change the old into the new costs a buyer an extra $10,000. And the weak economy could indicate trouble ahead.
But on the road, that doesn't seem to matter yet. The passengers are still cramming into their multimedia commute. When the usual routine becomes more like a night on the town, it's hard not to crack a smile.
David McKenzie, CNN, Nairobi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Surely, a revolution in public transportation. Thank you, David McKenzie, for that report.
And there we must leave it. Be sure to tune in next week for my full half- hour interview with up and coming hip-hop sensation K'Naan. You'll find out why he considers himself a dusty foot philosopher, what he thinks of Somali pirates, and why he couldn't care less about bling. Until then, take care.
END
