SENEGAL, MALI , SOUTH AFRICA ,GHANA

I am driving along Johannesburg’s William Nicol Highway on a warm, bright Friday afternoon. The sun is shining on the gleaming Porsches, BMWs, Mercedes and Ferraris, multicoloured symbols of this city’s extraordinary affluence. I have spent an hour with Danny Jordaan, the man in charge of South Africa’s organizing committee for soccer’s World Cup this summer, and he has filled me with tales of optimism and joy.

Like all patriotic South Africans, he easily fell into a eulogy about this beautiful country’s great assets, this “beloved country,” as the South African author Alan Paton would have it.

It has eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the Cape Floral Region, one of the smallest and richest of the world’s six floral regions with more than 9,500 plant species thriving in a narrow coastal strip, and the Cradle of Humankind in Sterkfontein, where the earliest known hominid fossils were found. It has wine-tasting tours in the Cape, microlight trips in KwaZulu-Natal, shark diving in Gansbaai, the most dramatic golf hole anywhere, and one of the most diverse populations of wild animals on the African continent in Kruger National Park. In short, this will be sports tourism with a multitude of extras.

According to Jordaan, whose serious demeanour befits a former anti-apartheid activist and parliamentarian, South Africa is perfectly poised to stage a smooth, successful and relatively crime-free World Cup.

Crime, of course, is on everyone’s mind, particularly as South Africa is second only to Colombia in world murder statistics. Crime and event security, Jordaan told me emphatically, were two entirely different issues, “but I can assure you that crime in South Africa is falling, and we have invested 1.3 billion rand ($180 million) in event security.”

As the World Cup host, South Africa has increased the police force by 41,000 members and has instituted a tough policy to deter would-be carjackers, muggers, armed robbers and murderers.

For all the concerns about safety and security and whether the infrastructure can cope with the forecast arrival of more than 400,000 soccer fans, I expect South Africa to stage a massively successful and extremely enjoyable World Cup.

In the 20 years since Nelson Mandela made those first steps to freedom, this country has staged a string of international sporting events, including the Rugby World Cup in 1994 (the subject of a Clint Eastwood-directed film) and the Cricket World Cup in 2003. All have been hugely successful, smoothly organized and well policed.

That there is nowhere else in sub-Saharan Africa capable of staging an event on the scale of the football World Cup is a compliment to a country whose thoroughly modern cities are connected by air, road and rail networks that would not be out of place in Europe or North America.

These networks take you deep into territories occupied by the many nations that make up modern South Africa - into KwaZulu-Natal, the home of the Zulus; into the Eastern Cape, home of Mandela’s Xhosa people; into the far reaches of Limpopo province where Shangaans live alongside scatterings of Transvaal Afrikaners; and into the Cape hinterland where Huguenots, Malays, Cape Coloureds, Cape Afrikaners and any number of African tribes live side by side.

South Africa has 11 official languages, a reflection of the diversity of its citizens more than an expression of the complex bureaucracy that emerged when the so-called Rainbow Nation was born. So, it requires some patience and perseverance to begin to comprehend the socio-political hues of the people you encounter.

The wild beauty of this vast country is more accessible. Extraordinary landscapes are within easy reach of all the major soccer venues. From Cape Town, some of the world’s most beautiful wine lands (Stellenbosch, Franschhoek) are an hour away by road, as are perhaps the best places in the world to view whales and sharks (Gansbaai, Hermanus). A few hours inland from Durban are the Drakensberg mountains, not only beautiful but fascinating for anyone interested in Anglo-Zulu history, for it was not far from here (Isandlwana, Rorke’s Drift) that British soldiers fought great battles against Cetshwayo’s Zulu army. And a short light-aircraft flight from Johannesburg is Kruger National Park, home to a huge diversity of flora and fauna - including 147 species of mammals, more than 500 types of birds and 336 types of trees.

First-time visitors will doubtless be taken by the physical beauty of the country; but they will also be blown away by the range, quality and prices of food and drink - usually a big expense on any tour. All of the principal cities have restaurants from Michelin-star standard through to those offering cheap-and-cheerful pub food. Johannesburg and Cape Town are particularly good, with a huge choice of style and price.

One of the great aesthetic successes of the post-apartheid years has been the flourishing of the wine industry. The old white Nationalist edifice ruled the industry with the same unsmiling severity with which it ruled the country, and the wine industry responded by producing overripe, overrated wines that were not nearly as good as those of its New World rivals, Australia and New Zealand.

With democratization came free access to the outside world, new ideas and new young winemakers. Today, South Africa’s wines match those of the Antipodes and, as World Cup visitors will discover, they are great value for money.

So, too, the hotels. Whereas once there were only formulaic chains offering poor food and lousy service, now there is a range of everything for everyone - from luxury boutique hotels favoured by international celebrities such as Elton John and Bono to 400-room properties that easily pass as affordable luxury. At least they are usually good value - indications are that rates will be high during the soccer championships. This usually happens during such big international events, but that doesn’t make it any more palatable.

This is an extraordinary country, one of the most physically beautiful I have visited and certainly one of the most fascinating politically and socially. For World Cup visitors who wish to look beyond the sporting field, there is a trip of a lifetime in store.

Getting there: Many airlines offer flights to South Africa but travel from Montreal would require a change of planes in New York or London, for example. Contact South African Airways (www.flysaa.com) or your travel agent.

For more information on South Africa, check out the country’s official tourism and travel website at www.southafrica.net.

The World Cup will run June 11 to July 11, and games will be played in nine cities, including Johannesburg, Durban, Nelspruit, Pretoria and Cape Town. For details: go to www.fifa.com.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

By Pascarella, Matt

Youssou N’Dour is one of the most famous musicians on the planet. “A singer with a voice so extraordinary,” Rolling Stone has said, “that the history of Africa seems locked inside it.” Born in 1959 in Dakar, Senegal, N’Dour absorbed many musical and cultural influences, including American jazz, rock, and soul. But the driving force behind his life’s work remains firmly situated within his birthright as a griot - a descendant of a long line of oral historians cherished for their ancient tradition of telling their people’s history through song.

Griots, his grandmother would tell him, “are the keepers of our stories,” he says in I Bring What I Love, a new documentary by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. It was his grandmother who taught him early on that music “is not just a way to have fun and celebrate life.” Music, she would say, is “a sacred vehicle for portraying, shaping, and even changing society.”

Growing up in Medina, one of Dakar’s poorest neighborhoods, N’Dour defied all odds to make a career in music. “My father had a big radio,” N’Dour tells me, “and we would sit together and listen to Umm Kulthum sing live every week from Cairo.” The Egyptian singer’s intoxicating voice poured from the speaker, inspiring him for years to come. “I was very surprised when I began to understand the songs of Umm Kulthum. She sang about love.”

When Kulthum passed away in 1975, N’Dour was fifteen. Her funeral marked one of the largest public gatherings in the history of the Middle East. N’Dour saw what he already sensed: that one person could have the ability to bring together a volatile region - divided politically and culturally - by harnessing the power of music.

He attended school but quickly fell in with the music scene. Unable to tell his father that he was pursuing music, he decided to flee Dakar. “It was a paradox because when I was young, my father loved music, but he didn’t want me to be a musician,” he says in the film. “My parents, like all parents, wanted me to go to school.”

So, along with Mbyae Dieye Faye, a childhood friend and percussionist, he set out for Gambia. Upon reaching Gambia, the duo happened upon a music club and made an arrangement to clean its dressing rooms in exchange for a place to sleep. Before they knew it, they were meeting and performing with some of the most popular musicians of the day. “It was the chance of a lifetime,” he says in the film.

N’Dour’s adventure in Gambia came to a halt when his father sent the police after him and he was swept back to Senegal. Determined to return to Gambia, he sold his shoes and scraped up enough money to purchase the boat fare. After subsequent run-ins with the authorities and having the dismay of his parents weighing on him, N’Dour decided he would have to make his future in music come true back home in Dakar.

To N’Dour and Faye, it wasn’t enough to excel at the popular music of the day. They wanted to transform music, to create something new. So in 1979 they emerged with a new band, Etoile de Dakar, and unleashed a form of music called mblax that took Senegal by storm.

N’Dour was twenty years old, and within six months the band earned enough money to purchase new instruments and to pay his father back for borrowing his car. But that was just the beginning. The band became instantly popular in Europe and then skyrocketed to international acclaim.

In September of 1988, N’Dour began performing with Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, Sting, and other megastars on Amnesty International’s “Human Rights Now!” benefit tour. It was during this tour, he tells me, that he “experienced how lyrics have power and can change things.” Yet N’Dour had also been working on social issues for some time. For example, three years earlier, in 1985, he had organized a concert that demanded the release of Nelson Mandela.

Then in 1989, N’Dour released an album called The Lion, which included a track, “Shaking The Tree,” featuring Peter Gabriel. The song’s lyrics declare a new era where women are now free to make their own choices. The song endows its listeners with the responsibility to break their preconceived notions of women. It hit #9 on the U.S. modern rock chart.

N’Dour’s following album, Set, came out only one year later, in 1990. Conveying themes ranging from runins with love to battling the brutal realities of toxic dumping in underdeveloped nations, the album is mind-blowing. And what makes the songs even more compelling is the fact that many are sung in N’Dour’s native language, Wolof.

The song that sticks out the most is the album’s title track. “Have a clear mind,” he sings, “Be pure in your heart/Be sure in your actions.” The Senegalese heard this song and took it literally to mean that they need to clean up their acts - starting with the garbage that was piling up in the streets. Set, N’Dour says, “speaks about cleaning and purifying the spirit, but the Senegalese applied it also [to] their streets, houses, walls. It was [an] incredible, very deep moment for me.”

By the late ’90s, N’Dour had toured the world and had released nearly a dozen albums. He had opened a recording studio and music venue, started his own record label, came to own Senegal’s largest newspaper and a radio station, was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and dedicated much of his time working tirelessly to end malaria. N’Dour is also involved in Project Joko, an initiative to open Internet cafes throughout Africa; the Stock Exchange of Visions Project; and Darfiir relief.

But all of his work, in one way or another, could be said to tie back to listening to that big radio with his father when he was a boy.

“Umm Kulthum was something that we could all share - throughout the Muslim world, despite our differences, her music brought people together,” he says. “Although I haven’t done anything close to what Umm did in music, Fm trying to be part of that musical tradition. For me, through Umm, Egypt became more than a country, it is a concept of meeting, of sharing what we have in common.”

By 2000, it was that concept that N’Dour became compelled to further explore in a new album.

He decided to launch a new recording project, called Egypt, which would be his most personal and intimate project to date. The songs would honor Sufi Muslim saints who were at the heart of post- independence, post-colonial life in Senegal-saints and their stories, which had always remained at the center of his own life. He wanted to use the project to bring people together to understand a more tolerant view of Islam. “The Egypt album was my homage to Umm’s legacy, as well as my way of celebrating the Sufi guides of Senegal,” he tells me. The album was completed in 2001. But then, a few months before it was to be released, the United States was attacked. N’Dour decided he had to delay the release of the album indefinitely.

N’Dour was scheduled to embark on a highly anticipated, thirty- eight concert spring tour throughout North America in 2003. But only months before the tour began, the United States began its Shock and Awe campaign. “I cancelled my tour in protest of the U.S. invasion of Iraq,” he tells me. The tour was set to be the most extensive series of performances in North America in his entire career. N’Dour believed that the responsibility for disarming Iraq should have rested with the United Nations.

The prospect of losing big-ticket venues and a large source of revenue did not deflate N’Dour’s mood. “It was impossible,” he says, “to go party in a country which just declared war on another country.”

Finally in 2004, N’Dour released Egypt. N’Dour originally thought he would face criticism from Western authences, but the West fell in love with the album. What he did not expect was that the project would wind up being heavily criticized as blasphemous and widely rejected throughout Senegal. People thought he had disrespected the Sufi saints.

But when it won a Grammy, people in his country began to accept the album.

“The Grammy certainly changed things,” he tells me. “People were proud that a Senegalese artist had brought back a Grammy to the country.”

Last fall, I had the chance to catch N’Dour’s live performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Mayor Michael Bloomberg explained that the concert was the kick-off event for a weeklong citywide festival. “Muslim Voices” would be the largest celebration of Islamic cultures to ever take place in the United States, Bloomberg said.

Before you knew it, the entire audience of New Yorkers was dancing and clapping to a song chanting “Allah, Allah.” I stood up from my own seat, clumsily swaying and clapping off rhythm to the music and kept looking around amazed at what an incredible melting pot New York can be.

But more than that, I was amazed that a single man from Senegal had the ability to bridge cultural, political, and religious divides.

“I want to demonstrate that Africa is more than the continent of disease and war,” he tells me. “I’d like people to understand my life’s work better-my music, and especially what Islam means to me. Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance, and if authences retain this from the film, I will be very happy.”

Copyright Progressive Incorporated Feb 2010

(c) 2010 Progressive, The. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.
Source California Chronicle

http://www.ibringwhatilove.com/

It’s not unusual in Africa to see kids wearing David Beckham jerseys, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a pick-up game or anything emblazoned with a Lakers or Bulls logo. Amadou Fall is the man in charge of changing that. In January, the Senegal native was named vice president of development for the NBA in Africa after 12 years working as director of player personnel and vice president of international affairs for the Dallas Mavericks. Fall will be in charge of opening the NBA’s office in Johannesburg this spring. This week, Fall is in Dakar to announce the eighth annual Basketball without Borders camp in Africa. I caught up with him by telephone.

You’ve arrived in Africa. What’s the first item on your to-do list?
On this trip, we’re first in Senegal to plan for Basketball without Borders. We’ve held events in Johannesburg since 2003, but we’re having the event in Senegal for the first time. Once we get to Johannesburg, the first item on the agenda is to hunt for office space. We’ll have some meetings, then get back to New York, where we’re working now. We’ll then be back to open up the office. Speaking in general terms, our agenda starts with engaging all the basketball stakeholders in Africa.

Who are some of those stakeholders?
First and foremost, the basketball federations and the local entities. At the end of the day, in every country, the basketball federation is the local authority. You also have the governmental authorities and the minister of sports. These are bridges we have to build. There’s been sound groundwork laid before us. Let’s remember that the NBA has had a presence in Africa for nearly 20 years now. Dikembe Mutombo, Patrick Ewing, Wes Unseld were in South Africa in 1993. A year later, the commissioner was part of a trip. Even before Basketball without Borders, there were trips to Kenya. Opening the office in Johannesburg is just the next step in this two-decade long relationship. Now we have the chance to go and have a physical presence.

Is the goal of opening the office to extend the NBA brand into Africa or is it to develop more African players for the NBA?
The goal is to grow the game of basketball at the grassroots level. The exciting thing is this: Without much of an infrastructure on the ground, there have still been 22 people who have made their way to the NBA. You have Hakeem Olajuwon, one of the top 50 players ever. Dikembe had a Hall-of-Fame career. We’ve got some young guys: Luol Deng, DeSagana Diop and Luc Mbah a Moute, who attended our camp back in 2003. You see all this tremendous potential coming out of places where there is little infrastructure. As basketball has grown over the last few years, it has truly become a global game. Africa is on the map and now we’re really going to grow the game here and increase participation, but one of the biggest issues we’re up against is the lack of infrastructure.

When I was in West Africa, one of the things I found surprising was that few people — adults and kids — had any interest in talking hoops. You couldn’t find anyone wearing NBA gear, which isn’t the case in Asia. In West Africa, it was all soccer, all the time.
There’s really no point of reference, so to speak. There just isn’t that connection to the game. Also, the lack of infrastructure is a big factor. Basketball isn’t a game you can just pick up. In soccer, when kids start walking, they start kicking anything that’s in their way. You don’t need much to create a soccer pitch. So now we’re going in and focus on making the game accessible by creating platforms for kids to play.

What percentage of kids in Africa play basketball?
It’s tough to put a number on. Maybe it’s about 30 million. You could dispute that, but now that we’re on the ground we’ll be able to impact that number rapidly. With training, grassroots events and instruction we can encourage kids to pick up a basketball.

If you live in Africa and you want to follow the NBA, how do you go about doing that?
Right now, with the internet and technology, it’s becoming accessible. The NBA has been seen in 54 countries in Africa. There are television partners. Part of making the game accessible is making sure that people are able to watch our games. There are avenues. We have satellite television and the internet. It’s not as far off as we might think from a distance, and that’s only going to increase. As that happens, the rest of our business will grow naturally.

Can we speak about some of the impediments that exist getting a kid with talent and an inclination to play from Africa to the NBA?
Again, making the game more accessible will alleviate a lot of those roadblocks. There’s a lot of misinformation, but we think accessibility –

Isn’t it more than just “accessibility,” though? I’m not suggesting this is unique to Africa — we could be talking about Baltimore or Los Angeles. But it seems like there are often people around a talented young player — a “trainer” or a “minister of athletics” or a “village leader” — who all want their pockets filled. Isn’t this bigger than the fact that it’s easier to build a soccer field than a basketball court? These issues are real, aren’t they?
Yes, they’re real. But by training teachers of the game, by creating the infrastructure, by developing the right type of expertise, I think it will put a lot of these myths in a different light.

They’re myths?
No. What I mean is that when someone can come and sell a kid a bill of goods or a pipe dream, these kids will have a better understanding of what’s realistic. We’ll get involved in teaching the basics. At the same time, we’ll make sure that kids understand that this is more than just a game. It can be utilized to achieve great things in life and not just playing in the NBA. Our goal is not just to come find the Next Great One. That will happen, I believe, out of the work we’ll put into training, and giving people who want to do that training opportunities to do so. By having the right kind of people around the game and around these young people, you alleviate a lot of those problems. And these problems exist in America too, where you have misguided people in it for their own personal gain.

But I don’t think we’re going to be in Africa to police that. But if we do it our way, do what we do best, we’ll grow the game. The game is what’s at the core of our business. Engaging these communities, making sure we give back, emphasizing the importance of getting involved — our guys are doing that. Luc Mbah a Moute had his camp in Cameroon. Guys like DeSagana Diop and Boris Diaw are giving kids opportunities they didn’t necessarily have in their native countries. These players are taking a stake, and that will move the needle in the right direction. But we won’t come in and act like we’re the police. That’s not our mission. But we’re committed to growing the game and teaching the right values so that young people who have a hunger for the game will have an opportunity to succeed.

Looking five years down the road, how are you going to gauge success?
By how much the game has grown and by how much participation has increased. You asked me earlier what percentage of kids in Africa play the game. My hope is that we’ll be talking about a significant number. We’ll have better-trained coaches and a better quality of basketball. You can gauge that now. This past summer, when I was in Tripoli for the African championships. You could see a big difference in the level of play. Basketball without Borders has had an impact. I look around the national teams and see players who went to the camps. There are also players who have been through American universities who are taking back what they’ve learned by going back to their countries and getting involved with their national team. So five years down the road, competition between African nations will be a good indication. In soccer, you see all these pros go back and play for their native countries.

Can you give me the names of a few young African players who will be playing in the NBA one day?
Our mission is so broad, I don’t want to focus on specific players. Why don’t you come to Basketball without Borders? That would be a great place for you to see them!

Oh, the travel request to Dakar is already in. Haven’t heard anything back!
Tell them to send you!

I’m totally into it. I could hit the beach in Cape Verde on my way back.
There are some good players in Cape Verde, too!

Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife has denied criticising the former South African president in a newspaper interview over his decision to accept the Nobel peace prize.

The Evening Standard ran an interview with Winnie Madikizela-Mandelaon Monday in which she accused Mandela of having “let us down”.

She went on to condemn his decision to accept the 1993 Nobel peace prize alongside FW de Klerk, the president of South Africa in 1990 whotook the decision to release Mandela.

The remarks were noted in South Africa, where the country’s governing party, the African National Congress, announced on Wednesday that its leaders would talk to Madikizela-Mandela when she returned to the country.

The story took a new turn today when the 73-year-old rejected the inflammatory comments attributed to her.

“I did not give … an interview. It is therefore not necessary for me to respond in any detail to the contents of a fabricated interview,” she said in a statement distributed by the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

“I will in the coming days deal with what I see as an inexplicable attempt to undermine the unity of my family, the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the high regard with which the name Mandela is held here and across the globe.”

Madikizela-Mandela was travelling abroad when the interview, conducted by Nadira Naipaul – wife of the Nobel literature laureate VS Naipaul – was published this week.

The Evening Standard released a statement this afternoon saying it “cannot understand” Madikizela-Mandela’s version of events.

“Nadira Naipaul is a distinguished journalist who visited Winnie Mandela at home and spoke to her at length about her experiences,” the statement read.

“Nadira and her husband, the writer Sir VS Naipaul, are photographed with Winnie Mandela and this picture was printed with the article.

“We cannot understand Winnie Mandela’s denial of an event and conversation which clearly took place.”

In the article, Madikizela-Mandela was quoted as calling Archbishop Desmond Tutu a “cretin” as well as criticising her ex-husband.

“Mandela let us down. He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks,” the Standard quoted her as saying.

“Economically we are still on the outside. The economy is very much ‘white’. It has a few token blacks, but so many who gave their life in the struggle have died unrewarded.”

The quotes continued: “I cannot forgive him for going to receive the Nobel [peace prize in 1993] with his jailer De Klerk. Hand in hand they went. Do you think De Klerk released him from the goodness of his heart? He had to. The times dictated it, the world had changed, and our struggle was not a flash in the pan, it was bloody to say the least and we had given rivers of blood. I had kept it alive with every means at my disposal”.

Madikizela-Mandela said she had spoken to Archbishop Tutu about the Evening Standard story and would be speaking to Mandela and his wife, Graca Michel.

“Finally I repeat that I did not give Ms Naipul any interview,” she said.

“Any further questions about the content of that fictitious interview should be addressed to her.”

LONDON — Britain announced Tuesday one million pounds in aid to South Africa for the purchase of condoms to tackle HIV and AIDS in the world’s worst-affected country ahead of the 2010 World Cup.

The money, equivalent to 1.1 million euros or 1.5 million dollars, is to bolster the host’s condom supplies, a move health officials predict will be necessary amid the tournament’s “spirit of festivity.”

Britain said the aid, announced shortly after a visit to London by South African President Jacob Zuma, would help the country’s aim to buy one billion condoms at a time the AIDS fight has been hit by the economic downturn.

“As a consequence we face the very real prospect that progress on tackling HIV will go into reverse,” said international development minister Gareth Thomas.

“That is why (Britain) is supporting South Africa’s leadership and drive to turn the tide on their epidemic.”

An estimated 5.7 million of South Africa’s 48 million people have HIV, including 280,000 children, according to the UN AIDS agency.

A top medical officer unveiled plans last month to increase condom supplies ahead of the football tournament, due to start in less than 100 days.

“There’s going to be a large number of people who will be descending onto the country,” said Victor Ramathesele, general medical officer for South Africa’s 2010 organising committee.

“There’s going to be a spirit of festivity and… there could be a more than usual demand for measures such as condoms,” he said.

Zuma left Britain Friday after a three-day state visit, which was marred by a row over British media coverage of his polygamy and a failure to agree on Zimbabwe.

His administration has stepped up the battle against AIDS, and South Africa now boasts the world’s largest anti-retroviral programme after years of government failure to roll out the life-saving drugs.

South Africa hosts the continent’s first World Cup in June and July.

Tags: South Africa, WORLD CUP 2010