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INSIDE AFRICA

Mugabe Causes Stir at World Food Summit; Kenyans Celebrate Obama's Nomination

Aired June 7, 2008 - 12:30:00   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, your weekly window to the continent.
On the program this week: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe causes a stir at a global food summit as his security forces detain political opponents and Western diplomats back home.

World leaders grapple with the global food crisis. What are the implications for Africa's already insufficient food supply?

And a son of a Kenyan economist makes U.S. history by taking a big step towards the White House.

We begin in Rome, where leaders from Africa and around the world gathered to discuss the soaring cost of food. Participants at the U.N.-sponsored summit pledged more than $1 billion in emergency food aid, but let long- term plans for future discussions. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says food production must increase by 50 percent by 2030 to keep pace with demand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BAN KI-MOON, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: Nothing is more degrading than hunger, especially when it is man-made. It breeds anger, social disintegration, ill health and economic decline. I urge all of you to act together now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Ban also says it will cost $15 to $20 billion more each year to ward off a global food catastrophe. The World Bank says food prices have doubled over the last three years.

Now, hunger, of course, is a major hindrance to education, which only exacerbates the problem of poverty. The World Food Program's school feeding campaign draws hungry children to the classroom by giving them one square meal a day. The rising costs are putting the project in jeopardy. David McKenzie visited a school in Kenya where young students depend on it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 13-year old Francis Matui (ph) is an eager student with big dreams. He hopes to be a pilot, but he's battling against difficult odds at this school in a slum in Kenya's capital city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My mother died when I'm nine years old. And my father -- I don't know about him.

MCKENZIE: This is a community school for some of the most vulnerable children in Kenya. The majority of these children are orphans, left with grandmothers and caregivers, often because of the ravages of AIDS. While the kids have an appetite for knowledge, it's a real hunger that drives them. This school has a well-established feeding program. Since food became available, attendance doubled. For a growing boy like Francis, it's his favorite part of being in school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I get food here at school to help me (inaudible) healthy and strong.

MCKENZIE: He even takes some of his own food from school to give to his aging grandmother, who takes care of him.

But these could be the last months of these meals. Rising food prices are to blame. School feeding is a lifeline for these children. For many of them, this is their only proper meal of the day. In Kenya, over a million children are on programs like this, but the cost of the simple assistance has almost doubled, and the World Food Program might have to cut hundreds of thousands from the school feeding program.

Commodities in Kenya have gone up by 50 percent, hampering United Nations feeding efforts. There is plenty of food available in Kabira, but many people can't afford to buy it. The price of maze, a staple here, has doubled in the past year. And Kenyans are fed up. They staged protests in the capital, blaming the government for mismanaging the food crisis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is what we're saying, these rights (inaudible) for them to be in the government, to (inaudible) be taken care of.

MCKENZIE: They were tear-gassed for their efforts.

The government of Kenya contends that rising food prices are a global phenomenon that is out of their control. But the rises are also manmade. Thousands of farmers were displaced in the post-election violence at the beginning of the year. Many couldn't till their fields in the most fertile areas of the land.

National politics and global economics aren't much of a concern for these children, but they are the victims. School feeding in (inaudible) school is in real danger of being downsized to make up for funding shortfalls, unless there is a massive increase in donations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rising food prices really affected the World Food Program's operations. We're trying to sustain these levels, but we don't think we can manage it.

MCKENZIE: For children like Francis, it would spell disaster as he'd have to give up school to find food. And cutting back on school cuts back on his dreams.

David McKenzie, CNN, Kabira slum.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe takes the world stage as his security forces arrest opponents and diplomats back home. Still ahead, what he said and how he was received at the world food summit in Rome.

Plus, U.S. presidential candidate of Kenyan heritage makes history. Stay with INSIDE AFRICA.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA. For Zimbabwe's ruling party, direct intimidation of critics and political opponents seems to be standard operating procedure. Security forces detained a convoy of American and British diplomats that included U.S. ambassador James McGee. He says police held his people for several hours without cause.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES MCGEE, U.S. AMBASSADOR: We must say that this is -- Zimbabwe's become a lawless country. They're not following their own laws; they're not following international laws. And the government is now trying to intimidate diplomats from traveling into the countryside to witness the violence that has been perpetrated against their own people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Zimbabwe's deputy information minister said the diplomats failed to comply with police and tried to run a roadblock. The U.S. State Department called the incident "outrageous" and "unacceptable."

Police also detained opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai multiple times and banned him from holding political rallies. In March of the last year, Tsvangirai was arrested and brutally beaten. He is due to face President Robert Mugabe in a runoff election in less than three weeks.

Mr. Mugabe received a less than warm welcome at the World Food Summit in Rome. He was left off the invitation list for an official dinner hosted by Italy's prime minister, and some of his stronger critics said he had no place at the meeting at all. Undeterred, Mr. Mugabe took the podium to defend his policies and lash out against opponents who he says destroyed his country's economy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe arrived at the U.N.-sponsored global food summit in Rome to the disgust of many Western officials.

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER, BRITISH DELEGATE: I regard Robert Mugabe's attendance at this summit as quite frankly obscene. This is a man who has impoverished his own country, a country that was universally regarded as the bread basket of Africa.

SESAY: Mr. Mugabe in turn blamed his country's former colonial masters for its economic collapse.

ROBERT MUGABE, PRESIDENT, ZIMBABWE: Over the past decade, Zimbabwe has democratized the land ownership patterns in the country with over 300,000 previously landless families now proud land owners. In retaliation for the measures we took to empower the black majority, the United Kingdom has mobilized her friends and allies in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand to impose illegal economic sanctions against Zimbabwe.

SESAY: A technicality allowed Mr. Mugabe to be here. He's been banned from traveling to European Union countries since 2002, but he's free to attend the United Nations gatherings like this one. And when he does, he and his entourage travel in style. He stayed at one of Rome's finest hotels.

Back in Zimbabwe, his people struggle to pay for basic needs like cooking oil, wheat and rice. Vendors commonly repackage these staples in tiny portions, portions that just keep getting as inflation skyrockets. Independent economists say the annual inflation rate now tops 150,000 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The prices are higher as compared to the last time. Things are just going up by the day.

SESAY: But there is one constant for Zimbabwe -- Mr. Mugabe's refusal to bow to his critics.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: The Mugabe government has ordered all aid agencies, including those that provide food and health care, to seize operations until after the June 27th runoff.

I discussed the political atmosphere in Zimbabwe with Pamela Scully. She is the director of the African Studies program at Emory University.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

PAMELA SCULLY, EMORY UNIVERSITY: I mean, I would imagine outrage on the part of Zimbabweans can't get much more. The question is how they can mobilize. I mean, they have tried to mobilize against Mugabe, and what you do when you have a government that is controlling literally with access to food, is willing to kill opponents, and regional governments like South Africa, the most powerful, are not -- still not yet willing to come out and say Mugabe, it is time to go. You wonder what else can be done.

SESAY: Well, indeed, where does it leave the opposition, the MDC at this time as they approach the runoff? We're reading reports where they say conservatively, according to MDC officials, 60 of their officials have been killed.

SCULLY: Yes.

SESAY: Where does it leave them?

SCULLY: It's terrible. Possibly, the crisis have become so great that with their back against the wall, there's nothing else to do but to really go out and protest, and that maybe what you're seeing is things coming to a head, including the return of Zimbabwean refugees from South Africa. That maybe what we're seeing here is a time when people are going to be willing to face a really, you know, terrible government and do what's required. But I really feel for Zimbabweans, because they've tried the democratic process, they've tried to lobby the international community. They have really done all they can to bring the world's attention to their plight.

SESAY: The fact that he was a liberation hero, how does that play so strongly still to African leaders of the ilk of Mbeki? And, you know, what does that tell us about how far Africa is going -- it's almost as if they haven't let go of the pain of the past.

SCULLY: And I think that's it. I mean, I think it is hard to understand from outside, but I think it is actually a form of loyalty to brothers, indeed, in the struggle for -- to end colonialism in Africa, Southern Africa in particular, who in particular, you know, ZANU-PF, Zimbabwe did help the ANC. I think there's a great sense of loyalty.

SESAY: I want to get your sense of President Mugabe's appearance at the food summit in Rome and just whether or not it makes a mockery of the United Nations.

SCULLY: The sanctions on his travel are not U.N. sanctions. In that sense, it doesn't make a mockery. I think the U.N. is clearly fairly outraged, as are member states. I think it is a mockery that he is at a food summit, and I actually think discussing Robert Mugabe with relation to the food crisis is actually a very interesting way of talking about him, because it relates I think both to the issue of land reform. One can talk about structural adjustments and one can talk about his control of politics through food. Actually, the issue of food I think is a really interesting way of thinking about Robert Mugabe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: That was Pamela Scully, director of Emory University's African Studies Department.

Rising food prices have set off protests around Africa. Coming up, we'll examine the impact of a growing crisis in South African agriculture.

And still ahead, an American politician gives Kenyans reason to celebrate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Making business news in Africa this week. Business and political leaders from around the continent met in Capetown for the World Economic Forum on Africa. Among the issues discussed, the effects of recent violence on the continent's business climate. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said his country has recovered from its post-election violence and is quote, "ready to do business". Nigeria's President Umaru YarAdua also took part in the forum and called his first official state visit to South Africa a watershed. He met with South African President Thabo Mbeki to discuss strengthening economic and political ties between the two countries.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: You're watching INSIDE AFRICA. Welcome back.

Food prices are soaring across South Africa, as they are around the world. According to the "Mail & Guardian" newspaper, the price of a loaf of bread rose by almost 20 percent between January of last year and this year. And the price of cooking oil rose by 66 percent during the same period. Contributing to the problem, major declines in South African agriculture. The Department of Labor reports South Africa has about 400,000 fewer farmers and farm workers than it needs. So what is driving South African farmers out of the business and dragging down crop yields? I asked "Mail & Guardian" reporter Sello Alcock who's written about the problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SELLO ALCOCK, SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNALIST: We get a sense that there is a sense of disillusionment among farmers, basically around what they've always considered their way of life, you know, farming for them very much had always been a way of life. They're finding the restitution process to be a bit of a frustration. I think the overall sense is that we're seeing a lot of them either getting out and also not encouraging any of their kids to actually get into farming anymore.

SESAY: You pointed to the restitution and the land claim issue repeatedly, and it's one that in reading have come up over and over again as the source of the disillusionment, one of the reasons for it. What went wrong?

ALCOCK: I think that government actually let people down on both sides, because we've also seen, Isha, on the other side land claimants who were left on the lurch. They were given this piece of land, and then all of a sudden money is not coming in for support, or training for that matter. Because, as you well know, farming is quite specialized, and it's one of those things that, you know, people have been doing for ages and they've acquired skills.

And the other thing is that -- is that there is such large-scale corruption that's actually hampering. You know, we have instances of people asking some guy because they have an inside track on (ph) a piece of land claim. They say you claim it, and then, you know, under your name, and then -- yes. So there was corruption, I think, also played a major (ph) role. But implementation, more importantly.

SESAY: Is there a danger that South Africa's farming industry will go the way of Zimbabwe?

ALCOCK: There is a perspective among certain white farmers that it is. This is -- this is the (inaudible) to Zimbabwe, this is the way Zimbabwe started happening (ph). And then there are black farmers on the other hand who are trying to make it work, who said to us during interviews, to me and my colleagues, that just because they wanted to go that way, and again that deep distrust coming across there.

SESAY: So, just -- just to bring things to a close. What is your forecast in terms of what the future holds for South Africa's farming industry?

ALCOCK: I think it's time that everybody around wakes up, and especially government, and starts to get a really competent land affairs department, a really competent agriculture department, and then -- before it's too late. But I do think that the government has an opportunity now to start to grab the bull by the horns and make sure that we get the farming to the way it was.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: That was Sello Alcock of the "Mail & Guardian" newspaper in South Africa.

Experts say developments in biotechnology, including genetic engineering, could play an important role in solving the world food crisis. Christian Purefoy visited a research center in Nigeria that's dedicated to feeding the poor and helping them prosper.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHRISTIAN PUREFOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With an old hoe and his mismatching clothes, Tola Adepomola is farming like the generations before him, except he's using the latest in kasava biotechnology..

TOLA ADEPOMOLA, NIGERIAN FARMER: The improved varieties of kasava that we have. We're producing more that we used to produce. It's just to the advantage of the farmer.

PUREFOY: The new kasava varieties are provided by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, or IITA. Based in Nigeria, it's internationally renowned researchers are using science as a bulwark against Africa's food crisis. For 40 years, much of their work has been unseen. For example, small predator parasites introduced to kill foreign parasites that threatened the crops of millions of sub-Saharan farmers. But now the institute's director general sees the global food crisis as the opportunity Africa must seize.

JAN HARTMANN, INTL. INSITUTE OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURE: Crisis is, like I said earlier, a wake-up call. It could really change and transform how Africa uses its assets. Its land assets, its crop assets, its ecologies, its climates. These are fantastic assets. If you don't have them, things are very difficult.

PUREFOY: Experts say African agriculture has been way down from neglect by its own governments and cheap subsidized agricultural produce from the West.

The old global food system based on agriculture from Europe and the Americas is struggling to supply global demand. Food production in Asia is soaring, but with all this empty space and cheap labor, many here are hoping Africa will also have a role to play in the new global food system. But it won't be the IITA that can convince African governments to change, but instead, their own people.

ADEPOMOLA: A hungry man is an angry man. Because (inaudible) the next thing is, somebody who has no food becomes desperate. He can cause trouble, because he care if he dies (ph).

PUREFOY: But Tola has a lot to care about, not least the benefits science has brought to his new crop.

Christian Purefoy, CNN, Ibida (ph), southwest Nigeria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: A historic moment in American politics sets off celebrations in Kenya. After a short break, Barack Obama takes a big step closer to the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA. The son of a Kenyan economist has made U.S. political history.

Kenyans celebrated into the wee hours as the U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama became the presumptive Democratic Party nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm excited because of Obama, because he's a Kenyan. He's a half-Kenyan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible) black man to rule (ph) America so that you can see the change that Obama had (ph) (inaudible), to see the change.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obama is (inaudible) man, fit to lead the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: The results of the last two state primary elections helped Obama edge out Senator Hillary Clinton for the required number of delegates. Senator Obama still must be confirmed as the nominee at the Democratic Convention in August.

And now we must leave this week's show. I'll be back next week with the brand new edition of INSIDE AFRICA. Thanks for watching.

END