When Allan Paton penned his novel, “Cry the Beloved Country,” it was hailed for clearly mirroring the racial divide against a downtrodden populace. For centuries, Africa was described by the garrulous west as the “Dark Continent” and least of all capable of sustaining a decent life, leave alone hosting the best of football in the world. The coming to Africa of the World Cup, coupled by the sterling hosting, have illuminated the continent in the eyes of diehard apologists of racial doubtfulness, but far from successful hosting, several issues still beg our indulgence.

The symbolic titihoya bird in South African fables as highlighted by Paton in his novel, was known to sing in high places where land was fertile, and food and water was abundant; in contrast, it was unable to sing in the valley where blacks lived in extreme poverty, suffering, exploitation and the reign of brutality. In fact, in the lowly valley, the titihoya did not sing, it rendered a forlorn cry! After independence, the titihoya definitely stopped singing or crying, and this year, because of the World Cup, it was fittingly replaced by the vuvuzela.

If the vuvuzela began by singing at the onset of this World Cup; it was in high spirits, and held the aspirations of a continent clamouring for a football liberation, the hype was that this was the time to awaken, arise, and exhibit a new dawn for which the song was deafening, to the point of inviting discomfiture from players of the west, but alas; ask anyone who still has honesty in them, and the truth is that the vuvuzela ended up crying, that forlorn cry of the hopeless, debased and beaten hands down. For sure, unlike the titihoya, the vuvuzela cries on, and here is why.

Football like all major disciplines, ceased to be a mere sporting activity years back. It is unfortunate that we in Africa still consider football as a social and sporting activity only. This is where our Achilles heel lies- period. This game is trapped in two major concerns- politics and money. Football is the biggest industry in countries where it has excelled, and governments have known the political reparations surrounding it. Governments in Europe and South America, have specific ministries if not whole government departments running football, which obviously means governmental sponsorship, and budgetary priority.

The governments where football is a political concern are usually also run transparently and are dully answerable to the people, which explains the astuteness with which the game is managed, add this to the vibrant economies, and you have a multi- billion industry. This is why transfers of football stars involve what in Africa, appear like obscene figures. The story of the late Pablo Escobar, the drug baron from Colombia, illuminated how big business (legal and illegal), can be tied to football, and shake political establishments.

In Africa, football is used as a launching pad to political leadership, after which the ladder is withdrawn and forgotten; remember Kenneth Matiba, Joab Omino, Alfred Sambu, Peter Kenneth, Adams Karauri and you can gauge Titus Kasuve’s intents among others, as football ails. Prospective politicians look to this popular sport as the reflection of their aspirations; they also hanker for the little money that comes from gate takings and the massive FIFA quotas.

Ironically, the seventh continent in the world called FIFA, readily overrides good intents like those of President Good Luck Jonathan of Nigeria, and it for a moment seems the official position of FIFA, to abet the crippling of a continent known for graft, bad governance and poverty. Care must be taken to confine Africa into the doldrums of underachievement, and disorganization is the fodder for it.

As a sport, football has attained a technical character that calls for serious business mindedness, sacrifice, national pride and selflessness. These qualities are hard to marry into one character, and here also, Africa lags. Many of our football stars thrive on the common rags to riches tales, and owe more allegiances to foreign clubs over their national teams. The stars are unfortunately the bench mark for budding footballers, who soon hanker for, and actually join the fray.

Look at our representative in South Africa this year. South Africa never fought to play in the final, granted this is the tradition, but was it a tested team? What type of trophy closet do they keep? Cameroon was banking on the old history of a lion that has been beaten so much, that there in nothing indomitable about them anymore, they must cease to fight only to qualify; they must match the desire with a corresponding deserving character. Ivory Coast, Algeria and Ghana, have imbued the European habit of dribbling, footwork and good ball passing, but unlike them, cannot finish.

At one time, watching Ghana and Ivory Coast, both trained by foreigners, one wonders if these coaches deliberately train our boys to do all that appertains to good football but on reaching the goal, teach them to blast directly onto an oncoming goalkeeper, pass the ball to him, blast wide, or pass it backward to the opposing defender! This does not in anyway support the blanket demand for local coaches. Some of our coaches have not grown enough, truth be said. In Kenya, we have recycled the same locals for so long that they will never change.

The African mentality of biased national team selection to meet sectional, political, tribal or club inclinations contribute to poor performance.

National pride comes with this sport, one cannot fail to loud the boys from Ghana for their resilience, but Gyan had scored the penalty before kicking it!, calmness, composure and level headedness, all culminate in the difference between wanting a win and needing it. The Uruguayans badly wanted the win, and the handball was one such gamble, it paid off, in war, everything is fair they say. Ghana for their part proved that all they needed was to make history, nothing about wanting the win, the proverbial pot breaks at the door steps they say.

Africa must quickly redefine football, know what it entails the world over, and adequately play in the same league; let us not only hanker for the sport, and lose sight of the politics and money that drive this business. Added to this must be a change in attitude, character, and purpose. With open wounds, Africa has some licking to do, we can now watch the “Kaburu” stride the Soccer City against Spain, for indeed, the vuvuzela cries on.

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Low HIV education means sexual encounters at 'rusha roho' parties often happen without a condom. Photo: IRIN

MKINGA, Tanzania – It is six o’clock in the evening in the village of Mabukweni, in northeastern Tanzania’s Mkinga district, where Mbaruku*, 21, is looking forward to celebrating a friend’s wedding at an all night party; he is sure he will meet a girl there to have sex with.

“For us who are not married, the wedding [party] is an opportunity to get somebody for the night,” he told IRIN/PlusNews. At the party – known locally as a ‘rusha roho’, Swahili for ‘make your heart happy’ – alcohol flows freely and men and women start mingling; in dark corners, young men smoke marijuana while others chew khat, a mild stimulant.

It doesn’t take long for Mbaruku to get lucky; Aisha agrees to spend the night with him. “At the weddings, you leave without a girl because you didn’t want one, not because the one you wanted refused,” he said. “This is a fishing pond – all you need to do is throw your hook.”

Mbaruku sees the liaison as fun, but Aisha’s motive is economic. “I have a child and when I go with a man like him, he can give me something to buy milk for the child.” She fell pregnant after a similar meeting at a previous rusha roho and has since dropped out of school.

Mbaruku is unlikely to use a condom tonight. “The ones made for the poor, like us, leak; I just eat it [have sex] the way I get it,” he said. “If I get HIV then it is an accident, and in any job there is an accident.”

Dr Ernest Haraka, the district medical officer of health, said night wedding parties in rural Mkinga – where HIV prevalence is 3.5 percent, lower than the national average of 5.7 percent – are rife with risky sexual behaviour.

Cultural causes

“Cultural issues are the main drivers of HIV infection in Mkinga, and night wedding parties are one of them,” he said. “They are free [of charge] and the music they play attracts many youths.”

Haraka said a low level of HIV education perpetuated rumours and myths about condoms. “People will tell you that condoms are laced with chemicals that make men impotent. This is due to lack of information; we are now trying to introduce continuous HIV education [in schools].”

A low perception of risk accounted for the poor uptake of HIV counselling and testing – the district has the country’s lowest usage. An HIV and Malaria Indicator Survey (2008) found that an estimated 45 percent of new HIV infections in Tanzania occurred in people aged between 15 and 24.

A 2008 study found that rusha rohos – originally only for women but now also attended by men – increased the vulnerability of girls; aside from alcohol and drugs, young girls did not always have the skills to say, ‘No’, when asked for sex.

“They have to be careful about how they refuse any proposition, as too categorical or demeaning a refusal can lead to rape,” the researchers said. “On the other hand, many girls agree, which leads to them losing direction and dropping out of school.”

Cultural practices like early marriage give the district one of the country’s highest school drop-out rates among girls. “Ten girls can fall pregnant in just a single term,” said Obeid Madonga, head teacher at Mabukweni primary school.

“What is worrying is the community sees these pregnancies as very normal. We have talked to parents to stop girls from going to these night ceremonies, but we have not been successful.”

Driving the message home

Madonga has now sent two of the school’s teachers for HIV prevention training, and intends incorporating HIV prevention education into the school curriculum. “We can’t stop them from having sex, but we can stop risky sexual behaviour amongst them,” he said.

He may need to do more than sex education. A recent Tanzanian study found that sexual and reproductive health education in primary schools had a “clear and consistent beneficial impact on knowledge, but no significant impact on reported attitudes to sexual risk, reported pregnancies, or other reported sexual behaviours”.

District health officials are looking at cultural occasions like rusha rohos to distribute condoms. “We can’t fight culture, but we can use it to get people with HIV prevention services,” said medical officer Haraka.

“You will get more young people here and not only give them condoms, but also teach them how to use them, and stress the need for their use, and encourage them to go for testing.”

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Poverty drives child labour. Photo: IRIN Film

STONETOWN, Tanzania – Malindi fish market in Zanzibar’s Stonetown is a bustle of economic activity, but the prospect of a quick buck attracts too many children who should be in school, say activists.

“The children want to go to school but they have to [work to] support their parents,” Mubarak Maman, Zanzibar Programme Manager for Save the Children, told IRIN.

In the market, they are mostly seen serving tea or selling snacks in the morning and early afternoon when the fishermen arrive with the day’s catch.

The situation is replicated across East Africa’s spice islands. Despite a global reputation as a major tourist destination, the semi-autonomous Zanzibar islands are poor – fuelling child labour and exploitation.

“When you go to Pemba [one of Zanzibar's constituent islands], there is a large number of children involved in fishing and rock-breaking for gravel,” Maman said. “The parents say they cannot afford to send the children to school.”

However, according to a 2001 assessment by the International Labour Organization (ILO), children in Zanzibar face a tougher time working in clove plantations and seaweed farms, as well as in the hotel and tourism sector. Many are also engaged in child prostitution.

More than 100,000 children between the ages of five and 17 are employed in Zanzibar, according to a 2006 government survey.

Hamza, 15, a juice seller for a year, said he works six hours daily, earning about 7,000 Tanzanian shillings (US$5), most of which goes to his older brother. The remainder is sent off to his parents on the mainland.

“My parents are poor, they could not afford to keep me in school,” he said, adding that he would like to return to school. “I am afraid that if I ask my brother to take me back to school he may send me back home to my parents.”

Education

Basic education in Zanzibar is compulsory for 10 years – six years of primary and four of secondary school – but there are no legal provisions for enforcement. There are also other costs, such as uniforms, which lock out the poor.

A large number of children are involved in fishing. Photo: Ann Weru/IRIN

The perception of low returns on education means parents and children value short-term gains from child labour at the expense of education, according to Zanzibar’s 2009-2015 National Action Plan (NAP) for the elimination of child labour.

“For the majority of children who do not go beyond Basic Education, the prospects for gainful employment are minimal,” it stated. This contributes to low demand for schooling and high drop-out rates.

Maman of Save the Children said it was not easy to draw a line between working children and domestic labour. “This is because some of the children work and then go to school; others are not working but are in exploitative situations,” he explained.

Some residents also consider it a form of training for the children to take on future roles, such as fishing.

Raising awareness

Fatma Rashid, a liaison officer with ILO in Zanzibar, told IRIN that while child labour was a big problem, community awareness about its effects was low.

“We use mass media for awareness, conduct seminars… we invite parents and shehas [community leaders] to go back and educate others,” said Rashid.

ILO is developing a school curriculum so that children in schools are aware of the issues, she said.

According to the NAP, weak implementation capacity and lack of coordination among agencies, together with poor awareness of child rights and weak enforcement of laws and regulations, need to be addressed.

The application of labour laws mainly in the formal sectors has left informal and traditional sectors – the main employers of children – unregulated.

The NAP expects to address these issues and undertake a review of the school curriculum to enhance relevance in addressing local community needs with a view to improving enrolment and retention.

A child labour steering committee, comprising officials from relevant agencies, will provide implementation guidance.

“The child protection issue is overlapping; it is the responsibility of many departments. There is a need for national coordination among the various actors as well as awareness-raising to encourage people to report cases of child abuse,” said Maman.

“There should be a legal framework to make it mandatory to report for whoever comes across such a case.”

Asha Aboud Mzee of the NGO, Catalyst Organization for Women Progress in Zanzibar, said women should be involved. “If something happens, they [the women] do not know where to report,” she said.

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The maps show the location of more than 160 clinics across Africa. Photo by Maplecroft

NAIROBI/DAR ES SALAAM, East Africa – New maps pin-pointing the exact location of “wellness centres” in sub-Saharan Africa are improving truck drivers’ access to treatment and care for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Oil giant Shell, with risk specialist Maplecroft and the North Star Alliance, which builds roadside clinics at truck stops, have developed and printed 20,000 maps for distribution to truck drivers in Kenya, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana, Guinea, Mali and Namibia. The maps show the locations of more than 160 clinics.

“Many of us want treatment but at times you might not know where to get it when you are on the road but these maps can help us now,” Eliud Musili told IRIN/PlusNews at Mlolongo, a truck stop in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. “Now you can even advise other drivers where to get [health services].”

In East and Central Africa, the maps are being distributed to truckers at “SafeTStops” where wellness centres provide a range of services, including screening of STIs, HIV testing and counselling and tuberculosis screening, for truck drivers and communities with whom they interact.

“The wellness centres have been put up in areas where these high-risk groups converge to provide information about HIV and other STIs, prevention methods like condoms, diagnosis of STIs and testing and counselling,” says Dorothy Muroki, project director for the Regional Outreach Addressing AIDS through Development Strategies II, a project of the NGO, Family Health International (FHI). “For high-risk groups, information is critical.”

There are eight SafeTStops serving an estimated 230,000 people annually in Djibouti, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda.

Living dangerously

For more than six years now, Julius Mwapele*, 35, a father of five, has worked as a loader at Dar es Salaam port; three months ago, he visited a clinic to treat a persistent rash on his penis.

“At first I wanted to [ignore] it but when it continued, I decided to go to a clinic here at the port,” he told IRIN/PlusNews. “At the clinic, they told me I had gonorrhoea; I was afraid but they told me it can be treated.”

While his job is not particularly well paid, compared with many of the residents around the port, Mwapele is well-to-do. He suspects that he contracted the STI from a local woman.

“I have three mistresses here – I buy food from them,” he said. “I get into sexual relationships with them so that at times I can get free food when I don’t have money but when I get money, it is my turn to give them a treat.”

Sex stops

Sex work is widespread at truck stops along sub-Saharan Africa’s transport corridors; a 2006 University of Manitoba study found an estimated 8,000 female sex workers on the trans-Africa highway from Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa to the Ugandan capital, Kampala. It also reported that truckers and their assistants had high rates of reported STIs and many exhibited high-risk sexual behaviour.

The SafeTStops aim to provide truck drivers and sex workers with information and other services in a non-judgmental way. “Women do not get into commercial sex work for fun but due to economic needs, just like truck drivers seek sexual services from commercial sex workers because they are rarely with their spouses,” said FHI’s Muroki.

The centres are also a source of entertainment. “We provide facilities like pool and offer reading material and TV so when one walks in, nobody knows for sure what has brought them except the clinic personnel,” said Victoria Jonathan, head of the wellness centre in the port of Dar es Salaam. “This gives a sense of privacy; the uptake of the services is very impressive.

Alcohol a factor

“The centres are alcohol-free to send the message that alcohol abuse is one of the key drivers for risky sexual behaviour,” she added.

Ben Manyala, an HIV-positive trucker in Dar es Salaam, agreed that alcohol was an important factor in HIV transmission among truck drivers.

“Alcohol is contributing [to the spread of HIV]; we have a joke that after five bottles of beer, every woman is beautiful,” he said.

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The government intends to expand the programme across the country. Photo by Kenneth Odiwuor/IRIN

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania – Elias Sempindo, 72, thought he would spend his twilight years doting on his grandchildren; instead, the retired medical officer is back treating patients at a clinic in Morogoro, 190km west of Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.

“When I first served as a medical officer, I used to deal with ordinary diseases, but today I am dealing with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, which are very complicated,” he told IRIN/PlusNews at a clinic in Morogoro. “I can’t pretend it is easy, but it is what I have to do… it is a calling.”

Sempindo, a clinical officer who retired in 1992, is part of a pilot project, “Retired but not tired”, run under the Tunajali – Swahili for “we care” – programme by the NGO, Family Health International (FHI) and accounting firm Deloitte, funded by USAID.

“The increased uptake of HIV counselling and testing brought about by increased HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns has come with increased pressure on government health facilities,” said Elisanguo Shao, director of the project. “If we have been that successful in encouraging people to go for HIV testing, then we must also find ways of ensuring they are treated.”

As many as 1.5 million Tanzanians are HIV-positive; close to 300,000 are currently on HIV treatment, says the government.

According to the World Health Organization, Tanzania has one of the worst physician-to-patient ratios in the world, with just 0.02 doctors and 0.35 nurses and midwives per 1,000 people.

“Tanzania has a relatively young retirement age and this means many of those retired still have the energy and the skills to serve in various sectors, including the medical sector – this is the opportunity we have utilized within the retired officers’ programme,” said Dr Eric van Praag, FHI Tanzania country director.

Tanzanian health workers now retire at the age of 60; until 1999, they retired at 55.

Easing the burden

FHI facilitates the employment of the retired workers but they remain government employees and are recruited through government systems. Once employed, their pensions are suspended; they earn about 10 percent more than they would if they were directly employed by the government.

They work exclusively in HIV care and treatment clinics, freeing up regular medical staff to handle other illnesses. According to Shao, nearly half of all hospital visits in Tanzania are HIV-related.

“We train them in different aspects of HIV care, management and treatment so that they are up to speed with current requirements in managing the disease and other opportunistic infections that come with it,” he said.

“They have greatly relieved staff and they have also imparted skills because they have the experience,” said Meshack Massi, Morogoro regional medical officer. “They are a source of motivation to younger staff; now HIV patients and others do not have to wait for long to be served.”

New challenge

For many of the older health workers, returning to work has been a refreshing change. “I think I made the best decision… I am delighted to see we are a source of encouragement for others,” said Martha Ng’habi, a nurse at Morogoro hospital. “The desire to serve gives the strength to go on, even when your age is advanced.”

So far, the pilot project – undertaken at the government’s request – has hired 30 clinical officers and nurses in five regional hospitals in Iringa, Dodoma and Morogoro, areas with some of the highest HIV prevalence levels in Tanzania; the five facilities have more than 5,000 HIV-positive people under their care.

“Initially, the response wasn’t overwhelming because many of these retired people resort to a quiet life and others join agriculture or they just want to run their businesses after retirement, but we have managed to get some of them,” Van Praag said.

Expansion

Following the success of the pilot, the Tanzanian government has directed regional authorities to put aside funds to re-employ retired health workers to manage HIV care and treatment centres.

“The government is very enthusiastic about the programme and it will put money aside in its health budget to continue this programme once the donors and other private stakeholders pull out,” Shao said.

“The government further has promised to recruit more healthcare workers and there are plans to increase the retirement age to deal with the health worker shortage,” he added.

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Floods damage in East Africa: At least 28,000 people in Tanzania's central regions of Dodoma and Morogoro are dependent on emergency food and other relief supplies following flooding in the regions. Photo by Edward Kale/IRIN

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania – At least 28,000 people are dependent on emergency food and other relief supplies in the central Tanzanian regions of Dodoma and Morogoro following floods, which also damaged transport infrastructure, according to officials.

As of 15 January, some 24,860 flood-affected in the Morogoro region had been registered, Morogoro Regional Commissioner, Issa Machibya, told IRIN by telephone on 21 January.

“We are giving food and shelter to the victims. All is going well,” said Machibya.

He said the rains, which have pounded Kilosa District since the last week of December 2009, had affected some 5,867 households. Those affected were initially sheltered in schools and other public facilities; regional authorities later set up 24 camps to accommodate 10,585 of the homeless.

Some 1,146 houses were also extensively damaged by the floods and 4,702 others submerged, according to regional officials.

Tanzania’s Vice-President, Ali Shein, who visited the regions on 20 January, appealed to Tanzanians and the international community to continue assisting the flood-affected.

Photo by IRIN

Earlier this month, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete warned that the El-Niño-related rains were set to become a major destructive force to the country’s infrastructure.

“Already, in the two weeks of rain since Christmas, the damage to the central railway line and roads in Dodoma and Morogoro regions requires 6.7 billion shillings [about US$4.8 million] to repair and rebuild,” Kikwete said.

The money, he said, would be raised through the re-allocation of government funds. “This means many of our development plans will have to be postponed or foregone to enable us respond to emergencies.

“We are at a loss [as to] how many more times [we] shall we have to do this if the rains persist at this pace until the end of the rain[y] season at the end of May,” said Kikwete.

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