In my country II

This is Ifo Paul from Benin. He is sitting in the fancy $11.00 all-you-can-eat cafeteria. Only a lone chick pea on the table remains as evidence of the earlier feasting that occured.

Where is Benin?

Fine question, and here's the answer:

Benin is that little green country in West Africa squeezed in there between Togo and Ghana, just to the left of Nigeria. During the period of the slave trade (300 years) up to 20,000 people per year were 'exported' from Benin. The last ship to carry slaves away, a Portugese ship, departed for Brazil in 1885.

In 1991 Benin was the first country in Africa to make the transition from dictatorship to democracy.

What precipitated the transition?

Paul said the most significant event was the fall of the Berlin wall. People in Africa saw it was possible for political change to occur, and took to the streets. The public servants went on strike for a year. In the end, the economic crisis became so extreme that the unelected leader, Kerekou, stepped down. He came back again a few years later, elected this time, but reached the end of his term in 2006, and stepped down willingly while Yayi Boni took office. Paul says there is now freedom of speech, constitutional government, with multiple political parties contesting the last election, although corruption is still rife.

This is Ernest from Cameroon. It borders Nigeria to the North, Chad and the Central African Republic to the East, and Congo, Equatorial Guniea and Chad to the South.



It hasn't yet made the same transition as Benin. Freedom House ranks Cameroon as 'Not Free': http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&country=7149&year=2007. Transparency International, which ranks countries according to how corrupt they are, ranked Cameroon 138 out of 163 countries.






And, here is Godfrey, also enjoying the cafeteria's abundance. He is from Sowetto, but teaches now at a university in Johannesburg. He also traded in some of his university pension to buy a nightclub, so he lectures politics and philosophy by day, and supervises the club at night.



When Rita asked him if he were married he said he could not marry as he cannot sleep.



He was evasive on the question of how many children he has, giving the impression that he has many.



His research is focused on AIDS in South Africa. Although the government claims 10% of the population has AIDS, he estimates it to be more like 25%.



On the American election he says Africans have very high expectations of Obama, should he get elected. Most of all, they would like the U.S. to forgive the massive debts which Africa owe to the U.S. These are not expectations he thinks will be met.