Focus on Africa

Drought causing hunger in southern Africa

An El Nino induced drought is intensifying across southern Africa and has left almost 70 million people in urgent need of aid. Countries affected include Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Malawi and Zambia. We hear about the devastating impact it's having on a community in Northern Zimbabwe.

Also the Gambian government wants to make ammendments to the country's constitution..but does it enjoy the support of all its citizens?

And the African athletes going for gold at this year's Paralympics!

Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers: Yvette Twagiramariya, Nour Abida, Rob Wilson, Joseph Keen and Bella Hassan in London Techincal Producer: Jonny Hall Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi

Duration:: 29m
Broadcast on:: 28 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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For a limited time, get $50 off your purchase of $500 or more with code "Listen" at Blunile.com. That's $50 off with code "Listen" at Blunile.com. Hello, I'm Audrey Brown and today in Focus on Africa, millions of people in Southern Africa are staring hunger in the face due to a major drought. We've gone from eating what we want and when we want to limiting meals. The older girl understands and accepts that we don't have enough. But at times, I can see that my youngest is hungry. Gambians are debating a new constitution to close the chapter on the dictatorship of Yaya Jame, who ruled with an iron fist for 22 years. We are talking about never again and the aspiration basically is to ensure that we create a society that evolved from one man to one where everybody participated in a more transparent, accountable process. So basically ending the legacy of Yaya Jame. And the Paralympics are about to start in Paris. We'll take a look at the continent's medal hopefuls. It's Wednesday, the 28th of August. First, we go to Harare. Several countries in Southern Africa have declared emergencies in the wake of a devastating drought. The Southern African development community, or SADEC for short, is appealing for funds to help about 68 million people who are going hungry as we speak. SADEC says it needs around $5.5 billion to overcome the disaster, brought on by the weather phenomenon El Nino, which leads to heat waves and falling rains in parts of Africa. The drought started in early 2024 and since then has hit both crop and livestock production, causing food shortages, and damaging regional economies. The BBC is Shinga Inoka, travelled to Moudzi in Northern Zimbabwe, which is one of the region's worst hit by the crisis. What was it like before the drought and what is it like now? Well, Moudzi is traditionally one of the drier areas in Zimbabwe. It's an agricultural area in the sense that there's a lot of horticulture. People rely on the dams and the rivers to be able to produce their vegetables that they consume, but they also on sell to the Harare markets. At this time of the year, the rivers and the dams should still be flowing ahead of the real heat in October. But at the moment, the majority of the water sources have completely dried up. We went to one particular river, the Vombozi, where it's supposed to be a perennial river, but there's absolutely nothing. We found people that were digging the floor of the river bed to try to find water. There are three little points where they're animals, they're people, they're children barfing, doing their laundry. Just the whole entire community just dependent on that one water source. There was one woman who I met at the water source, who was shoveling buckets of water, buckets of brown water from that particular pit, but she was concerned about the impact that that water would have on the health of herself and her family. As you can see, the cattle are drinking from the same pit as us. The urine is right there. It's not very healthy for our families. I have never seen anything like this. And that's gracious Peery. And she has to walk further away to fetch water as well, right? Tell us a little bit about what other people told you in Mudsi. Similar stories everywhere. I met Tambor Zaimaha, she a 36-year-old mother, who was struggling to find food. And she went from being self-reliant. In October, she planted acres of maize, of cow peas, and peanuts, and harvested absolutely nothing, not even a plate. And so when I met her, she had been given some wheat by a neighbour and was boiling that as breakfast for her children. We've gone from eating what we want, and when we want, to limiting meals. The older girl understands and accepts that we don't have enough. But at times, I can see that my youngest is hungry. These are heartbreaking stories. Tambor Zaimaha, there in Mudsi, talking about hunger, real hunger, talking to the people who live there. Are there any measures in place, Chingai, to help the people in this district and also people in other parts of Zimbabwe? Yeah, and quite right that this is not just in the northern part of Zimbabwe. This is across the entire country where crops, up to 80% of the crops were devastated. And you know, this is happening not just in Zimbabwe, but also in the rest of the region. And in Zimbabwe, the government has asked for about two billion U.S. dollars in aid to be able to overcome the effects of drought. A lot of that will be for importing food aid. Half of Zimbabwe's population will need assistance in the coming months, about seven and a half million people. But the reality is that the money just isn't coming in. And this is a problem that we've heard not just in Zimbabwe, but elsewhere, where the international community is burdened with problems elsewhere. And so only a fraction of that money is coming in, which means that only a fraction of the food that's required will be sourced. And so that means that in the coming months, which are getting hotter, getting drier, the little food that is there is running out. And the little water that's there is running out. It'll be really difficult for families like tambled zais, like gracious, to be able to find food. Zimbabwe made a specific appeal to help the people in Zimbabwe, but there's also a regional appeal of $5.5 billion to help with the effects of the drought because the entire region is suffering. Just tell us about the other countries facing similar challenges and what they're doing about it. Well, it's a similar picture throughout the region. This drought started in Botswana in October last year. There was low rainfall there, high temperatures. And the El Nino induced weather pattern has been intensifying over the last couple of months, moving eastwards. And so now we have countries like Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and all the way to Madagascar. And at least half a dozen countries in the Southern African region have declared a state of disaster. And so that's why we've seen this joint effort, the coordination, this appeal for $5.5 billion from the international community. The World Food Program has also put out an appeal for $400 million for emergency assistance to seven countries, people that are worst affected there. But they've only received 15% of that money. And so there's a real concern about what that means for the entire region. There's a shortage of maize entirely. And so that maize will have to be imported. And you ask about what's happening in different countries. In Namibia, for example, we're hearing today that the government is planning to slaughter 700 animals, including over 80 elephants in its national parks and communal areas to ease the strain of grazing and to help feed communities that are suffering food shortages. Namibia itself will also need food aid. About half of its population doesn't have food. And so this really is a regional crisis. This is one of the worst droughts in living memory. Shinga Inoga in Zimbabwe. Gambians are debating a new constitution. They believe it is an important project to re-establish their republic following years of dictatorial leadership, which culminated in Yaya Jame's ousting after he lost elections in 2016. Jame had been in power for 22 years, flouting human rights and setting death squads on anyone who disagreed with him. He had once said he will rule for a billion years. The former president had seized power in a coup from Sir Dauda Jawara, who drowned the country for 30 years until 1995. Now until Jame was forced to concede the 2016 election, there had not been a peaceful transfer of power in the Gambia since it had become independent from Britain in 1965. Jame is now in Equatorial Guinea in exile, and Adama Baro has been president since he won the election in December 2016. To draw a line under the past, Gambians got busy with drawing up new rules by which to run their country, a new constitution, in other words. But there have been stumbling blocks along the way, as I've been hearing from site Mattie Jaw, executive director of the Center for Research and Policy Development. I think for most people is the issue of term limits. As you know, the 1997 constitution does not have the provision for time limit, and that's why President Jame was there for 22 years, and so it is still now the constitution that is born in the country. But also outside the term limits, there have been a lot of issues that were changed. The simple majority was introduced, why absolute majority was removed, and so people also thought to win election. You don't need just simple majority, but you need the absolute support of the population. Just explain very quickly, simple majority and absolute majority. Yeah, so now we have the first part of the post-system, any candidate with one more vote can win, while people prefer, unless the candidate must have 50 plus 1 percent to win the elections. So those are the issues where the citizens now want that kind of system to be in place instead of the simple majority. So they want a higher bar for somebody to get in. Exactly, exactly. And what about the term secular? I believe that that's also an issue. Well, yeah, initially it was an issue, because in the 1997 constitution, Jame inserted it wrongly, and I think there was a court case event to ensure that there was no secular included in the constitution, but of course it was reprinted, and people even today, if you look at our constitution, it says that the Gamba is a secular sovereign republic, and so would this draft for constitution, this was also removed. So why do people want in place of that, of secular? Do they not want to be a secular republic? I think the debate is more like a fair sort of between the Christian minority, basically prefer that for protection, but of course the Muslim majority, especially a group of concerned Muslims, were arguing that including secular might lead to promotion of LGBT and other issues that are on this time, given the fact that Gamba is a majority Muslim country as well. So in 2020, there was a first attempt to change it. We know that 2020 was a particularly horrendous year for the world, but the Gambian MPs voted against the new constitution. So why did they vote against it? Well, they had many many reasons. Well, of course, they advanced many reasons, they said, and one of them was the fact that the draft constitution counted President Adam Abara's first term, and they felt that the constitution should not be attractive, that should not be included, it should start fresh. And I think that was one of the major issues, because the population wanted that, because that's how also President Barack came into power from his into a self-perpetuating rule. As I told you before, the 1997 constitution does not have family, and so people wanted his first term to be part of it, but MPs close to him, did not want that. And so they voted down the case. Right. So he was going to be a one-term president, wasn't he? That is what he had promised anyway. Initially, he promised three years to come up with a broad transition, where they have to reform the issue of self-perpetuating rule, but of course, they were argument that the constitution does not allow for search, and so it went for the full time, five years. And then one second election, and now we're discussing again, you know, even these two terms that he has been already will also count. Tell us why this matters. Well, I think Gambians generally, you know, if you look at historically, I mean, we have never had electoral turnover until 2016, actually, when Barrell defeated Jame. So our first president also was there for 30 years, and Jame also for 22 years. And so Gambians, especially this generation, one political parties to change, and not just to have one person controlling. So this way, also, what we've seen across the supply chain in terms of the issue of gambling. So you can see also that there's a very strong support for timeliness within the conversation. Speaking of conversation, you've been doing research into how Gambians feel about the new constitution. What have you found in your research, and how did you conduct it? So the research is the Afro-Barometer Survey. As you know, it's the Pan-African Survey Research Network. And so in Gambia, we conducted the survey in May, April 2024, and some of the specific questions that we asked had to do with the constitution reform. And we saw that 71% of Gambians think that the country needs a new constitution. But they were also not very happy, you know, more than half, so that they were not happy with the National Assembly rejecting the draft. But at the end of the day, also, we saw that the commitment, according to people, the commitment of the political parties, they don't think that political parties, both the ruling MPP, National People's Party, and also the opposition union EDP are committed to this constitutional process. And also the issue of timeliness was also highlighted, 86% of the population, that is nine out of 10 Gambians, saying that they won timeliness in the constitution. Did people say what they, some of the more nebulous but powerful sentiments to be written into a constitution? Because the constitution is not just about the laws, right? It's about the aspirations of a country. I think the main point is ending self perpetuating rule, also ensuring that democracy is entrenched. And I think this is also the issue of the product transitional justice that we have undergone through with the constitutional process is also part of it, where we are talking about never again. But we generally, especially among young people, and the aspiration basically is to ensure that we create a society that evolved from one man rule to one where everybody participates in a more transparent, accountable process. So what is the process the latest draft would need to go through to be made law? And what's the timeline you're looking at? The constitution will get to parliament by December. And so in parliament, it can take some time there, especially if it goes to the second stage, you might see broad base consultation. So that might go for maybe another three months, and then eventually after that. So I'll say maybe by June or August, next month, if everything goes, we might be heading for some sort of a referendum. Do you think the people will get what they want? They want secularity, they want clearly defined term limits. They want a new vision for the country sketched out in the constitution. Will they get that? With the current draft, there's the issue of term limit. And I am not hearing more debate around the issue of secularity because also one of the issues that was also very controversial was the issue of marriage between man and woman. But with the current draft, we've seen that that issue has kind of been addressed, has been addressed by the cabinet. And so therefore, we we're not seeing that debate coming up again. So they are this debates, but I think if it goes to parliament, grandparents will have more opportunity to discuss this issue and see how to to navigate it. What do you mean about the marriage? You said between man and woman? The initial driver thing, it has that the marriage should be between man and woman, but in the 1997 constitution, it was very clear in terms of it says a man and a woman. And so the the debate on secular was basically the fear that if we include secular in our constitution, then it will allow for gay marriage and all those different issues. And so the concerned Muslims basically argue against that. And so within the current draft, we've seen that that has been addressed. And it is very specific in terms of that marriage in our country can only exist between the man and woman. That was Said Matijau, executive director of the Center for Research and Policy Development in the Gambia. This is Focus on Africa from the BBC World Service. Hey, Prime members. Are you tired of ads interfering with your favorite podcasts? Good news. With Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts, included with your Prime membership. To start listening, download the Amazon Music app for free, or go to amazon.com/adfreepodcasts. That's amazon.com/adfreepodcasts to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads. Jewelry can say many things on your wedding day. As a wedding band, it can say, "This is a forever symbol of our forever love." As a gift to your wedding party, it can say, "Thanks for standing up there with us. Blue Nile can help you find the peace that says it all and says it beautifully. With expert guidance and a wide assortment of jewelry of the highest quality at the best price, go to bluenile.com and experience the convenience of shopping Blue Nile, the original online jeweler since 1999. That's bluenile.com. The Olympics are over, so get ready for the Paralympics. The games get underway in Paris today with a bit less of the fanfare and media attention that the other Olympics got earlier this month, but the athletes are no less accomplished in their fields, their supporters, no less enthusiastic. Our continent is represented by 200+ athletes, and many of them are serious contenders with the potential to return home with bronze, silver, and gold medals. So let's take a closer look at our medal hopules with Rob Stevens, BBC Africa's sports correspondent. Well, there are 44 teams here from Africa, total of about 312 competitors. The main competitors come from Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Tunisia, and Algeria. Those are considerably probably the strongest African nations in terms of Paralympics. All of those nations won four gold medals each at the last games, excluding Egypt, that is actually so Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tunisia. All won four gold medals at the last games with Ethiopia, one gold. And out of those 44 countries, nine countries have sent just one participant here to Paris, including Eritrea, who are going to be making their debut this time round at the Paralympics. So there are plenty of athletes on show, 4,400 athletes in total, but just about 312 from across the continent. It would be nice to know from the sort of lesser known countries, but who should we be looking out for and which countries do they come from? Well, as mentioned there, a lot of the medal winners from last time round were from North Africa. Two particular stars that we should be looking out for are from Tunisia, Raara Talili. She won last time in the women's F-41 shot put and F-41 discus. Those are events for people with short stature. She's got eight Paralympic medals overall. That's a joint national record for Tunisia. And six of those medals are Paralympic golds. So she will be looking to defend her title. Also her compatriot, Walid Khartila. He won last time in the T-34, 100 meters and T-34, 800 meters. He's won five Paralympic gold medals. So he'll be trying to defend those titles as well as going a couple of other distances. So last time around 45 of the 63 medals that Africa won came in para athletics. So there are three defending champions from Algeria. There are four from Morocco, one from Nigeria and one from Ethiopia. So para athletics is the main place that we're going to be looking for Africa to get its medals. Also there's the para cycling as well. Pieta de Pries. He's from South Africa. He won the H1 cycling road race last time. And the other big sport that Africa excels in is powerlifting. There were about 10 medals I think it was last time in para powerlifting. Nigeria had three champions last time round and there's also a big contingent from Egypt in para powerlifting. So that's where we might see the bulk of medals for Africa. Because the terminology is so new, what's T-34? Basically the classification works where each para athlete is given sort of a assess on what their disability is. It may be for the visually impaired. It may be for someone with who's had an amputation depending on sort of if it's leg, if it's upper body. There are different classes for short stature. So there's a ranking given. It depends on the sport but it could be the higher number is greater the impairment or the lower the number the less of the impairment. So the idea is para athletes compete along people of their same class. Tell me this. I became aware of the Paralympics in 2012 when the Olympics were here in London. Does it generate the same kind of excitement that the other Olympics does? Yeah well I think this is probably one of the big issues in terms of the Paralympics because it's obviously timed here 17 days after the Olympics ends. And the question is in a way where to hold it in the calendar. Originally the International Paralympic Committee said that they didn't want to be held before the Olympics because then it's almost sort of a curtain razor. I guess it's a question of visibility and representation. During the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022 the para athletics events were held alongside those able bodied athletes. One would say there were events that were running one after the other in terms of you could buy a ticket to the stadium and you'd see able bodied athletes running 100 metres and then later on you might see a wheelchair race. But obviously there's a distinction between the Olympics and the Paralympics. So the question is in future whether they could hold the events together but of course it's tricky in terms of some of the venues you have to adapt them to be able to for para athletes compete. You've been talking there about the chances that African athletes have. There has been criticism that African athletes are not all that prepared or very specifically these athletes. Is that fair? I don't necessarily think so. I think one of the problems with Tokyo was the COVID-19 pandemic which really hit preparations and the amount of competitors that some countries could send. So in terms of Rio de Janeiro, Africa won 97 medals overall. In Tokyo it was 63 medals. So the question is whether that the continent can improve on that number of medals this time round. Obviously there have just been three years of preparation in terms of the cycle since Tokyo because that was delayed by a year. So I think the first target for Africa will be to match that level in terms of medals. The difficulty is when it comes to funding across Africa. Obviously we've even heard this of athletes at the Olympics that some of them were self-funded. Some didn't get enough support from their governing bodies or their countries or their home nations. I think that will definitely be the case again with the Paralympics because there isn't the money necessarily to be funding para sport, para coaches and the equipment and the different things that they need. You know you can just see that in the amount of countries that have sent teams. There are 10 African countries that haven't sent teams. So the delegations are a lot smaller than they might be compared to the Olympics and part of that is funding. So for example there are 312 competitors from Africa. China is sending 284 itself. The USA is sending 220. Great Britain is sending 213. Those three nations will be at the top of the medal table just because of the funding, the facilities that they have. So I guess that is the next challenge for Africa as much as it is in a Olympic sport to be funding Paralympic athletes and improving the quality, improving the facilities and everything that they have, their disposal that will then improve results and improve the number of medals. Now when we talk about the other Olympics we often talk about where athletes train. They go to certain countries for long distance running or for high altitude or whatever. With the Paralympics is it the same? Where do the athletes train? Do they do that kind of specialized level of training? Well so in terms of the preparations it all depends on the athlete and the sport that they're doing. Many of the para athletes might have enough facilities to train at home but for others it might be the case that if they have the resources they might go abroad or away from the continent in order to train in better circumstances. For example the Nigerian para table tennis team they've got a quite a strong para table tennis contingent they train in Lagos. If you look at another sport Sean Anderson he's a para archer from South Africa. He's built his own archery range at his home in the country outside of Johannesburg so that he can train there. So that's someone who's in a way so funded and put much of their own money into their discipline in order to compete at the highest level whereas others might well have gone abroad to train. So Braheem Guendous is a para canoeist from Algeria. He won a World Bronze in the World Championships last year and he's actually been training in Spain this year in a bid to try and win a medal here in Paris and that would be Algeria's first medal in the para canoe event. But you know it kind of depends so if they're athletic facilities that are good enough in your country so you're looking at the strong nations like Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia they're very strong. So the likes of Wally Katila and Rara Tulele they would probably have enough facilities to train at home in Tunisia without having to go abroad. So it very much depends on the athlete and the amount of support they're getting and what the facilities are like back home. Have you seen the Olympic Village? I'm wondering what kind of modifications they would have had to make to deal with the ways in which disabled athletes or Paralympians can live their lives. Have you had a look at that? I'm sure that the Olympic and Paralympic bodies when they constructed that athletes village near Sandini which is up in the north of the city it will have been fully wheelchair accessible. Meanwhile there's been plenty of work in here in Paris to get parts of the city accessible for those with disabilities because obviously things like the Paris Metro which was built a hundred odd years ago would have been wheelchair I'm friendly with plenty of steps and everything like that to get in and out so there have been some lifts going in and they spent about 22 million euros which is about 24.5 million US dollars to make bus lines more accessible through through the city. We've only been in a couple of bits of the city so far so we're yet to see how accessible bits of the city are but that's definitely one of the challenges especially for an old capital city like Paris so that's going to be the big challenge to see how people can get around the city. Rob Stevens, BBC Africa's sports correspondent in Paris. Focus on Africa was put together by Joseph Keene, Bella Hassan and Yvette Twaghera Maria Kani Sharpe was the senior journalist in charge. Johnny Hall was our technical producer André Lombard and Anna Smudengi are our editors. I'm Audrey Brown, we'll talk again next time. Hey, I hear you think podcasts are all about true crime, huh? Well wise guy, the iHeartRadio apps got all kinds of podcasts. We got stuff you should know and stuff they don't want you to know. We got Bobby Bones, Big Boy and Lou Lader. We got SpongeBob, Binge Pants and Exotic erotic story time. We got doe boys, two dudes in the kitchen, green eggs and Dan. Hey, we got Elf Quest. 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