Stories about Republic of Congo from April, 2007
Republic of the Congo: Biometric Identity Cards
Demain Le Congo Brazzaville thinks President Sassou won't stand a chance winning the upcoming election unless he manages to rig it. Sassou plans to create biometric identity cards, but DCB warns against putting too much faith in an electronic voting system (Fr), which may simply encourage a different kind of...
The French Presidential Election: A View From Outside the Metropole
This weekend, more than 60 million French cast their ballots in the first round of the French presidential election, narrowing the list of candidates to two: conservative UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Party candidate Segolene Royal. Both face a run-off vote on May 6th. In the five years since...
African Journalists on Franco-African Relations
African journalists working in France are calling on the two remaining French presidential candidates, Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal, to begin a new chapter in Franco-African relations (Fr), according to the blog of the Alliance for Democratic Progress. “We have to reconsider everything, make a fresh start, a sort of...
France: A War of Memory
French Congolese poet Alain Mabanckou posts some reflections by Abdourahman Waberi (Fr), a French Djiboutian writer, on the upcoming French presidential elections. Waberi had thought France had “finally woken up” to the concerns of its non-white citizens, but that from the banlieues to the overseas departments rage and resentment remain...
Congo-Brazzaville: Florence Arthaud, Tourism and Corruption
Vous Reprendrez Bien Un Peu d'Humanisme is upset [Fr] that veteran sailor Florence Arthaud has accepted the Sassou-Nguesso government's offer to participate in a sailing event there in less than 2 weeks for an event that is designed to boost local tourism. Says the blogger: “Are French sailors naive? Does...
Africa, France: Suing African Leaders for Embezzlement
Demain le Congo Brazzaville posts [Fr] a complaint lodged in the French accusing of embezzlement African leaders such as Omar Bongo of Gabon, Denis Sassoun Nguesso of Congo-Brazzaville and Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso. The complaint acknowledges that a French judge cannot adjudicate on salaries of African dictators but emphasizes...
