Food raids, pickpockets... fun!
By L. Muthoni Wanyeki 
www.nationmedia.com
The World Social Forum is over. Fewer people attended than had been anticipated. And the chaos and cheer of raucous demonstrations and intense discussions were marred by protests by Kenyans who felt the costs of registration, the fees for stands and the price of food excluded them from participating.
The result was that the gates were finally flung open--enabling a good number of Nairobi's impoverished (of the unorganised kind) to have a field day. Food stands incongruously supplied by the Windsor and the Norfolk Hotel were raided, several participants were relieved of their mobile telephones and other small items in the interests of redistribution of wealth and, worst of all, the WSF's media centre suffered an armed robbery which saw its computers and other equipment vanish.
This happened in the midst of squabbles in the local organising committee, which were (as with all things Kenyan) presented as being ethnically and politically partisan. And amid accusations of corruption related to procurement of services for the WSF. All in all, not a good showing.
Their African Social Forum counterparts maintained a brave face in solidarity. Because, of course, the expectation had been of failure -- the feeling among some of the WSF's International Committee members being that Africa has yet to develop strong social movements (as opposed to conglomerates of externally-financed non-governmental organisations).
But, truth be told, many of the failures of the WSF had nothing to do with its happening in Africa. There is nothing intrinsically disorganised about us. We simply were not as organised as we should have been. For example, to import radios for interpretation purposes from India without checking their technical viability here is a simply being slack.
AND SLACKNESS IS NOT MERELY AN African problem -- activists everywhere are known for concentrated attention to the most minute detail of political correctness but pay far less attention to the basic details of mobilisation and logistics. Discipline, order and rigour are almost bad words -- reeking as they do of authoritarianism and hierarchy.
Still, once the frustration of registration was over, everyone found their groove and proceeded to enjoy themselves. For Kenyans, highlights were certainly the alternative Citizens' Social Assembly, held in Jevanjee Gardens. And, of course, the major coming out of the Coalition of Kenyan Lesbians and Gays --who have since been on heated discussions on almost every Kenyan radio talk show.
Personal highlights for me were the women's rally at the WSF site. And, most notably, the session on China-Africa relations, hosted by Fahamu and the Focus on the Global South. Fahamu used the occasion to launch its new book, Africa Perspectives on China in Africa -- arguably the first collection of African academic and activist theorising on the subject.
OBVIOUSLY, CHINA IS INTERESTED in taking advantage of its bilateral relationships in Africa to advance its own interests -- those interests including oil exploration, arms sales, markets for its relatively cheap products and subsidised labour export in the form of foreign direct investment. That is, however, no different than any other non-African state interested in Africa. What is different is China's clarity and lack of apology for this self-interest. The point then is for each African state engaging with China to be equally clear and unapologetic about its own interests in the relationship.
In short, China in Africa is a complex and nuanced discussion -- just like the WSF discussion itself. Neither is an outright failure. And unconstructive critique will not change a thing, let alone our world.
L. Muthoni Wanyeki is a political scientist based in Nairobi