Africa

This is a story written by a 14 year old child, a victim of the Zanu PF government's Operation Murambatsvina.We give it to you here, literally in her own words. We've obscured some details to protect the child from potential reprisals.

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We asked an activist living in Harare to start our day of blogging by writing a piece on the day in a life of someone living in our capital city. We wanted to highlight typical day to day experiences of living in our country, a place where democracy is something we fight for, and wish for, daily battle.

Our activist works in a middle management position in a large organisation, and in this blog he assumes the viewpoint of a church mouse, comparing the lives of two people he works with, and knows well. The disparity in income and position in our country is wide, and it is very obviously so in Harare where government officials, foreign diplomats and big business live alongside the unemployed struggling to survive in an informal sector. The disparity in this item is nothing compared to the vast gulf between them and government elite.

Had our blogger taken on the task of comparing the Zanu PF elite to the director, it would be the director who looked impoverished.

Living in the capital city of any African town is supposed to be fun and superior to that of the provincials. Londoners, Parisians and Hararians normally look down upon their "poorer" cousins from the provinces. Whether it is true or not, Hararians no longer have a reason to look down upon their fellow countrymen.

We all know that the traditional media outlets often provide biased coverage of Africa, if at all. So where do you go if you want to get a more nuanced picture of the continent?

Blogs, of course.

Some of my recommendations on where to get started:

• African Path: The uber-blog for African news, featuring some of the top bloggers and writers from across the continent. Sign up to their mailing list to receive regular updates.
• Global Voices Sub-Saharan Africa coverage - the BEST place to get an introduction to the range of bloggers in Africa.
• Afrigator: an aggregator of African blogs.
• Blog Africa: another aggregator of African blogs.
• African Women Blogs: an aggregator focusing specifically on women bloggers.

Amidst all the stories about democracy faltering in Africa it is important to remember the gains that are being made around the continent, especially in post-conflict countries.

It's almost two years since President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson came to power in Liberia. Progress as far is rebuilding the country is slow but ongoing, and perhaps the big news story is that there is no big news story. A quick search of BBC news website, reveals headlines about revealing clothes being banned in school and the discovery of ghost workers - a far cry from the days when the devastating civil war dominated the headlines.

Let's not forget the peaceful elections in Sierra Leone and the historic first democratic elections in DRC.

My message, yes - there is still a lot of work to be done, but progress is being made and we are increasingly seeing African countries finding solutions to their own problems.

The future can only be brighter, no?

The Parliament of Zimbabwe passed a constitutional bill that will allow current President Robert Mugabe to pick his own successor. Furthermore, the new constitutional amendment enables early parliamentary elections in 2008.

Zimbabwe's political and human rights situation is critical. Therefore, UK's Prime Minister Gordon Brown challenges the up-coming summit of the African Union and the EU. He will not attend the meeting if President Mugabe is present.

Read more about PM Brown's announcement in The Independent and find related articles in our del.icio.us-archive.

Join the global debate in our forums: Are dictators ever good?

Find out how other African leaders face today's problems by watching our documentary Iron Ladies of Liberia!

Morocco's King Mohammed VI announced Abbas el Fassi as Morocco's next prime minister and successor of former prime minister Driss Jettou.

Read more about Morocco's democratic transition and the background of this year's elections in a feature by Al Jazeera and in an article in the International Herald Tribune.

Find related articles in our del.icio.us-archive.

Join the global debate in our forums: Is democracy good for everyone?

Yesterday the speaker of Lebanon's Parliament, Nabih Berri, announced that he supports a plan to desolve the political apathy in Lebanon. His proposal includes the appointment of a new head of state by September 25th, overcoming disagreements on a general political level as well as within  the political factions.

Read more about the difficult plans in the International Herald Tribune and discuss in our forums: What would make you start a revolution?

Due to a new law passed earlier this year, the Mozambican President Armando Guebuza dismissed all six of the country's assistant Attorney-Generals yesterday. The law changed the procedure of appointment of such posts significantly, but so far has no corresponding body.

Read more about the situation at AllAfrica.com

and discuss in our forum: What is wrong with democracy?

This weekend Sierra Leoneans voted for a new head of state. Now, 50 percent of the votes have been counted and it seems like opposition candidate Ernest Bai Koroma is still ahead. This year's election in Sierra Leone is widely recognised as fair and transparent but there was some tension during the campaigning period. The national electoral commission has therefore appealed for all sides to be patient and stay calm until the final results are presented.

Read more about the historic elections in Sierra Leone on BBC News online and the New York Times join the debate in our forums: Why bother to vote?

On Saturday Sierra Leoneans voted on the run-off poll after the first round of presidential elections did not presented a clear winner. Although violence and tension in Sierra Leone increased during the campaign, the polls are widely accepted as free and fair. Due to preliminary results, the opposition leader Ernest Berewa won the poll in a tight race.

Read more about the election on BBC News online, as well as on the Mail and Guardian, on iol and on Al Jazeera. Join the debate in our forums: Why bother to vote?