OIC conference: Arab and Muslim aid in Africa

The 57-nation Organization of Islamic Conference got underway Thursday, March 13, in Dakar and the conferees’ first order of business is to find a path to reduce poverty and attempt to reduce the divide between the rich and poor in their countries.

“What is important here is that [the 57 member states of] the OIC are amongst the richest and the poorest in the world,” said Senegalese Foreign Affairs Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, according to a story by IRIN.

Tidiane Gadio explained that conferees won’t be looking for different ways to send charity – zakat – to poorer states, but want to create a new mechanism which Islamic states can donate to other countries. Presently, the OIC-sponsored anti-poverty fund first announced in May 2007 has only $2.6 billion of its $10 billion target.

Emphasis on Africa?
One reason for holding this summit in Senegal is to hope to put an emphasis on African development. “The holding of this summit in Senegal must be remembered as a landmark for [when Islamic countries started seriously getting involved in] Africa, just as the summit held in Malaysia [in October 2003] was a landmark for Asia,” he told IRIN.

In many ways, aid from Arab states resembles larger Western-country aid where a complex system of national and international agencies has been set up to disburse and oversee the assistance. One could make the argument that Arab aid – or Muslim world aid – is a largely parallel structure of Western aid, especially when taking into account multilateral aid from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. (Although the major Arab donors are members of Bretton Woods institutions.)

Bilateral loans make up the bulk of aid from the Gulf States, which often come at the detriment of the both Western and Arab-based multilaterals and regional aid institutions. A large share of these bilateral loans is channeled to other Arab countries, according to a study from the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway. Yet the funds to Arab states – mostly Egypt, Morocco and Syria – have recently been dropping in proportion to other states like Sudan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Up until 2005, only 15.5 percent of Arab financial aid went to sub-Saharan Africa, while Asia received 23 percent. The countries of Senegal, Mali and Guinea have received a greater share than other African states south of the Sahara. This is the opposite for Western Countries, which spread aid more thoroughly around the continent.

The largest three Gulf State lenders – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates – primarily disburse funds through the states’ finance ministries, making them the most important aid institutions in the region. On the other hand, the Muslim world’s smaller donors like Libya, Algeria and Qatar do not have national aid offices. They prefer to channel money through multilateral groups. It should be noted that Saudi – by far the Gulf State’s most benevolent donor – and Kuwait are among the nations that give the most Official Development Assistance in the world.

A Common Word Between Us and You
While Western government donors may trumpet good governance and economic conditionality as a precondition to receiving aid, the Arab states, like the Chinese, are not very interested in a recipient’s governmental or economic affairs. However, Arab donors do focus on corruption, perhaps as a way to increase efficacy of their investments (and boost the chance the recipient country will pay them back). It should be noted that recipient countries who receive harsh conditions from multilateral lenders like the World Bank have often turned to the Arab world for money.

The Arab countries have also created multilateral organizations to increase the flow of money, like the Arab Fund or the Islamic Development Bank, which can only lend to OIC members. Like the World Bank, these multilaterals lenders have been criticized in the past for a lack of transparency, but (like the World Bank) have moved to make their decisions and work more open to the public. (The finance ministries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and U.A.E. have been tightlipped about the amount of aid and donors.)

Finally, like Western-style aid, Arab donors are interested in supporting their own commercial interests, especially as the Arab world has developed a larger manufacturing base.

The prospectus
The underlying issue with Arab benevolence is its volatility, which often follows the ebbs and flows of the world price of oil.

Another aspect of Arab aid is its emphasis on infrastructure like transport, energy and telecommunications, according to a story (from 1979) on Saudi Aramco World magazine. In more developed countries, investors search for businesses ties or the chance to build factories. In countries where infrastructure is poor, Arab states try to steer away from more Western-style “prestige projects,” instead focusing on practical ventures that help the countries develop themselves.

Examples of these projects include building airport terminals (in hopes of increasing tourist trade) in Lesotho, or Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Tunisia. Dams are also popular, like hydroelectric projects in Cameroon and Ghana and a dam in Mali. Roads have been built in Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia and the Congo. The Kuwaitis built a sugar factor in Tanzania.

Looking at the list, and pointed out in a study by Eric Neumayer published in World Economy, is that in sub-Saharan Africa, Arab states tend to focus on middle-income countries, rather than spending a lot on the very poorest countries. (Niger is a classic example.) However, one complaint about Arab aid is that it doesn’t do much to alleviate poverty, which is a current a cause célèbre (literally) in the West. In fact, stand-alone social projects were pretty much ignored by Arab philanthropists until about a decade ago.

Religious leader's death offers insight to Mouride brotherhood

From Reuters:

The leader of Senegal's powerful Mouride Muslim brotherhood has died at the age of 92, throwing into mourning a movement that holds huge influence and whose trade networks span the globe.

The brotherhood is the biggest centre of religious, economic and political influence in the mainly Muslim country in West Africa, and counts among its followers octogenarian President Abdoulaye Wade.

Caliph Serigne Saliou Mbacke died on Friday in Senegal's holiest city Touba, known to some as "little Mecca".

The Mourides
There are a couple takes on Mourides who follow the teachings of Cheikh Amadou Bamba, a Senegalese mystic and spiritual leader who died in the 1920s. This “Servant of the Prophet,” as he is known amongst his followers, led a pacifist struggle against French rule while “renewing” Muslim traditions through a series of poems, writings on meditation, work and Koranic study. His main beliefs include that one does not fight with weapons, but through submission to marabouts – Islamic teachers – and hard work.

More orthodox Muslims claim the group’s hazy teachings and veneration of Amadou Bamba, sometimes to the neglect of the Prophet Muhammad, skirts the fine-line of heresy. Also, some of the Mourides’ minor sects worry believers. For example, the group Baye Fall whose members wear dreadlocks, dress in rags and can be exempt from Muslim edicts of praying five times a day and fasting during the month of Ramadan.

Social reformers in West Africa have begun questioning the increase of talibés (garabouts elsewhere in West Africa), young male Koranic students who spend their days walking with large tomato paste cans begging for food and money, which go directly to their marabouts. As population (and poverty) increases in rural Sengal, more families send their children to these marabouts, some of whom are not interested in teaching koranic verses, but earning a livelihood through the talibés’ money through begging.

Anti Colonial
While he never engaged the French militarily, the colonial rulers wearied of Amadou Bamba’s growing power and exiled him to Gabon and later Mauritania. Eventually he was allowed to return home, after the authorities realized Bamba was not interested in fighting their power (he eventually helped enlist followers in the French cause during World War I).

Many commentators note that the group’s insistence on hard work allowed them to control many aspects of economic life in Senegal, where believers make up nearly one-third of the population. For example, much of the country’s groundnut market was controlled by Mourides for decades. When prices of the crop bottomed out, followers left the countryside for Senegal’s cities (and some went abroad).

However, the group keeps its faith in hard work, leading one news organization to claim that the group is financially supported by followers selling fake Prada bags from Hong Kong to Rome to New York. This dedication to work and commerce has turned Amadou Bemba’s birthplace, Touba from a dusty village into the capital of a global business network. Each year, an estimated one million people make a pilgrimage to Touba.

Mourning period
Caliph Serigne Saliou Mbacke was the last living son of Amadou Bemba. His body was buried in Touba before his death was announced. President Abdoulaye Wade called for a three-day mourning period, which ends today. The Associated Press reports that an estimated four million people will visit Mbacke’s grave.

Bird flu found in Benin; Worries abound for voodoo practitioners

Officials in Benin have confirmed the presence of the H5N1 avian flu virus on two poultry farms.

VOA reports:

Agriculture Minister Roger Dovonou says tests from a laboratory in Italy confirmed the virus has struck one farm in the city of Cotonou and another in the town of Adjarra, outside the capital Porto Novo.

Benin reported its first suspected cases of bird flu on December 7th. Workers slaughtered several hundred chickens at the two farms as a precautionary measure, and also disinfected the sites.

H5N1 mainly affects birds but is capable of infecting humans. The virus has killed more than 200 people around the world, mostly in Asia, since 2003.

The country has banned all poultry imports and limited poultry movement around the infected areas.

The voodoo problem
The lead in the Reuters story mentions that Benin is home of the “ritual voodoo sacrifice,” which seemed an odd announcement. But, there’s a reason for the notice. On to Reuters!

Health experts have said they fear Benin's Voodoo priests could be particularly at risk because of their practice of tearing out the throats of live chickens in ritual sacrifices.

Voodoo "convents" are found across Benin and the ancient religion was also carried to the Caribbean, especially Haiti, by slaves shipped to the Americas by European captains and traders.

According to one source, 60 percent of Benin's population practice a form of this indigenous religion, generally called Vodoun. (The CIA claims less than one in five people are adherents.) Regardless, the government officially recognizes its practice and the country celebrates Voodoo Day on January 10.

Here is a link to a story on last year's Voodoo festival.