AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL VOLUME 47 NUMBER 21
  NOW ONLINE AT WWW.AFRICA-CONFIDENTIAL.COM 
  The Ballroom
Mandarin Oriental Hotel
Knightsbridge,
London 
  26 October 2006 

  Dear Confidants,
  Africa is having a good media week. It's hardly been out of the global headlines but the stories are not the usual diet of war and disaster served by our very own corps of flyblown, weary hacks or the hard-core market analysis purveyed by enthusiastic, besuited bankers.  No, it's time for the celebrity hack to touch down in Africa, the latest exotic backdrop.
  Leading the charge is Madonna Louisa Ciccone, whose instant adoption in Malawi of 13-month-old baby David Banda is the story that runs and runs, easily eclipsing the column inches and airtime devoted to Africa's development crisis or to the latest Bob Geldof initiative.  The adoption yarn outrages some, inspires others and bores the rest of us. Landing a preemptive strike as human rights activists sought to have the adoption rescinded in Malawi this week, Madonna poured her heart out to United States' talk show queen Oprah Winfrey.  She says there are no laws governing adoption in Malawi.  Well, that's up for argument in the Lilongwe courts this week. 
  However, film stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have already beaten Madonna to the African canvas.  Jolie has already adopted an Ethiopian son - and with far less brouhaha.  She also chose to bring her biological son into the world in Namibia in May.  Namibia is having a good run.  Action movie hero Wesley Snipes is filming there this week too.  His presence has an added frisson: the USA's Internal Revenue Service has issued a statement alluding to a disagreement over the star's income tax liabilities.  Should he wish to stay on in Windhoek, Snipes will get a good reception.  As Africa Confidential reported last week, businessman Koby Alexander, who has an ongoing dispute with the US Department of Justice, has been warmly welcomed into the Namibian fold.
  While the initiatives, tours and visits to benighted villages of Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Bono keep up the message and the philanthropy levels, the critics of international aid are gaining ground in the big debate about how much foreign assistance has helped or can help Africa.  As the Sudan government launches its latest mass offensive against rebels and civilians in Darfur, the credentials of Darfur campaigners and Hollywood stars Danny Glover and George Clooney will be tested.
  The event of the week on the grand celeb circuit, however, was surely the gathering of some 300 great and good  together with sundry hacks to listen to Sudanese telecoms tycoon Dr Mohammed Ibrahim and his eminent team extol the virtues of their good governance prize for African leaders.  African headlines might make the timing propitious for the launch of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and its leadership prize. 
  BBC News
  The offer is simple, on the face of it. The world's biggest individual prize - US$5 million spread over 10 years - is to be offered to the retiring African leader who is judged to have run the best government.  That judgment is to be made by Dr Mo's fellow board members, Graça Machel, South Africa's Dr Mamphela Ramphele, former Organisation of African Union Secretary General Salim Salim and former Irish President Mary Robinson, and based on an index of good governance developed by Professor Robert Rotberg of Harvard University.
  It looks like a lavish pension for well-meaning, well-doing African leaders - or, less politely, a fat bribe to make sure they quit on time.  Many are horrified that the wealthy power elite in Africa should be offered even more money simply to leave when their term of office ends.
  Yet the edgily energetic Dr Mo thinks that he has hit on a way to solve Africa's governance problems, to help the continent's leaders deal with life after power.  For now, he says, these presidents face three choices: relative poverty, extending their term in office or building a vast pension through corrupt contracts.  Dr Mo says that his prize will offer Africa's leaders a fourth choice: 'Govern well - and win a substantial prize'.
  Many remain to be convinced.  Some African leaders cause problems but so do its weak institutions that allow personal rule.  The $5 mn. incentive would only be of interest to a narrow group, somewhere between those effective leaders who stick to their countries' constitutional term limits and those venal, oppressive leaders for whom $5 mn. is less than a contract kickback.
  More questions still are being asked about Professor Rotberg's index of good governance.  Will the Professor and his team of two researchers at Harvard complete their full governance rankings for 48 African states by the middle of next year as promised?  How much will they rely on the notoriously inaccurate statistics of the World Bank, IMF and UN agencies?  How much field work will they do in Africa?  How many African institutions and academics will they involve?
  All these issues are under consideration, Dr Mo and Professor Rotberg assured me.  Clearly, there is much preparatory work to be done and big decisions to be taken if the 'Ibrahim index', as they call the African governance rankings, are going to have the hoped-for impact.  In one respect, the Foundation is already succeeding: more people than ever are talking about standards of government in Africa, its institutions and leaders.  'Governance has come out of the closet in Africa,' as Dr Mo says.

Yours confidentially,


Patrick Smith,
Editor   

  There's even more analysis and inside news now, in the new-look, 12-page Africa Confidential.
 
AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL VOLUME 47 NUMBER 21
KENYA: The anti-corruption collapse
The failure of Justice Ringera's investigations reinforces the growing criminalisation of the state
ZAMBIA: The Titanic sails at dawn
The opposition offered its voters refuge on Noah's ark, but it sank and Mwanawasa is back
NIGERIA: All for one, not yet
Under threat of corruption charges, state governors are losing their nerve
SOUTH AFRICA: The ANC's toughest election ever - in December 2007
It will be the fiercest-fought election the African National Congress has faced since coming to power
COTE D'IVOIRE: Diamonds, gold and guns
Both sides in the divided country exploit the underground economy to pay for fresh weapons
EAST AFRICA: No EASSy rider
There is heated dispute over a fibre-optic cable to surround the continent and link it to the world by 2008
GABON/EQUATORIAL GUINEA: No man an island
A 35-year-old territorial dispute defies even UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's best efforts

  POINTERS 
SUDAN/SAUDI ARABIA: Signal from Saudi
NAMIBIA: Kobi's refuge
UGANDA: Riek's battalion
COTE D'IVOIRE: Toxic trials
AFRICAN UNION/NePAD: Contretemps
  To read these and other articles, visit www.africa-confidential.com or subscribe to Africa Confidential, the world's leading fortnightly bulletin on African affairs.


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