Grand Inga Project: Another White Elephant for Black Africa

The Inga Dams are a series of hydroelectric dams located on the Congo River in Inga of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, approximately 225 km (140 mi) southwest of Kinshasa. The current two existing dams, Inga I and Inga II, are rated at 351 MW and 1,424 MW respectively. While the other two under development, Inga III and Grand Inga, are planned to rate at 4,500 MW and 39,000 MW respectively in installed capacity.

The current two hydroelectric dams, Inga I and Inga II, operate at low output due to lack of maintenance. The existing dams are famous white elephants of the former President Mobutu Sese Seko. They also served a political purpose, by allowing Kinshasa to control the energy supply of the sometimes rebellious Shaba province. The Inga Dams are part of the Inga-Shaba project. The largest dam project in the world being planned for Africa in a hydro-electric configuration “I find it interesting that for a project that would affect so many African countries, as it also involves 7 African countries with the intention of distributing electricity from DR Congo to Egypt in the North, Nigeria in the West and South Africa down South is coordinated by the World Energy Council in London.”

Burma Boy

Biyi Bandele

A few months ago fourteen-year-old Ali Banana was apprenticed to a whip-wielding blacksmith in his rural hometown. Now its winter 1944, the war is entering its most crucial stage and Ali is a private in Thunder Brigade. His unit has been given orders to go behind enemy lines and wreak havoc. But the Burmese jungle is a mud-riven, treacherous place, riddled with Japanese snipers, insanity and disease. "Burma Boy" is a horrific, vividly realised account of the madness, the sacrifice and the dark humour of the Second World War's most vicious battleground. It's also the moving story of a boy trying to live long enough to become a man.

United Kingdom
2008
ISBN-13: 978-0-09-948898-9