Pambazuka News 864: Decolonising African minds

The author offers his views on how to solve the current socio-economic and political problems currently preventing Zambia from achieving its potential. 

In this article, the author believes that South Africa's current President, Cyril Ramaphosa, is serving the interests of the British Empire and its capitalist allies and not those of his people, especially Black people who overwhelmingly support the ruling African National Congress. 

Pan-African News Wire Editor Abayomi Azikiwe interviews Brazilian woman artist Marcela Florido on a range of issues including race, gender and identity as well as on her recent work on Lamu Island, Kenya. 

The article uses the Eco Marxist perspective to look at deforestation and the impact it has on Earth in terms of soil erosion, air pollution and the threat it places on plant and animal life.

Pambazuka News 863: People power and on-going struggles

Five human rights organisations working on advancing the rights of women and girls in Sierra Leone, are urgently calling on the leadership of Sierra Leone, and all political actors to take immediate action to address the increase in incidents of sexual and gender based violence across the West African country. 

This paper offers an aspirational and prescriptive analysis to the the current political trajectory that Dr. Abiy Ahmed, the new prime minister of Ethiopia, has embarked on, as a young, dynamic, forwarding looking, and Pan-African, peace and security analyst. However, it is too early to tell what his political and economic performance will be in the years to come, as Ethiopia remains an enigmatic polity that defies clear-cut categorisation and conceptualisation. 

Social media has been abuzz of late with responses to comments that rapper Kanye West made during a radio interview in which he opined that slavery was a “choice” for slaves. The vast majority of social media users, who weighed in on this topic, including a host of celebrities, came out strongly against West and either sought to dismiss these comments by attributing them to his allegedly unbalanced mental state or to educate him on how horrible the system of slavery was. Ergo, it was not a choice.

Kwame Nkrumah’s loyal and long-standing literary executive, June Milne passed away on 9 May 2018 at the age of 98. Of Australian origin, June was a staunch Pan-Africanist and committed to Nkrumah and ensuring his prolific writings were published. As Nkrumah grew ill in Guinea-Conakry where he lived following the coup of 24 February 1966 that ousted him from power, he wrote his will entrusting June Milne with the publication of all his writings. She took up this task with utmost quiet and steely diligence for almost 50 years.

On 11 May 2018, more than two hundred people occupied unused land in Germiston, on the East Rand in Gauteng, South Africa. We laid out our design for the occupation in the afternoon, built throughout the night and slept on the occupied land. Around 350 stands have been marked out via a democratic and carefully planned process. The new occupation has been named the Zikode Extension in honour of S’bu Zikode.

Most regular folks of Western nations are ignorant of the true state of Africa, and the role their respective countries play in the du jour underdevelopment of Africa, which forces African migrants to risk their lives to make it to the West, only to generate increasing acrimony among their hosts.

Friday 4 May 2018 was not just another normal day in Namibia and Angola. Upon invitation by Namibian President Hage Geingob, the President of Angola, João Lourenço paid a state visit to Namibia to participate in the commemorations of the Cassinga Massacre. The two heads of state later announced plans to build two historical monuments to honour those who lost their lives during the massacre. 

I never thought that getting my new book reviewed would prove as hard as it has turned out to be.  Don’t get me wrong; I was not expecting the ranks of the corporate media to descend en masse chez moi, begging for review copies and interviews with yours truly.

In March 2018, Awaaz carried an article by Ramnik Shah titled “Jayaben Desai: A Legend”. I don’t know how many people in East Africa and beyond read this excellent homage to Jayaben.  I take the occasion of the celebration of the May Day this year to write a small piece to remember the struggle of the migrant workers – mostly Asian women from East Africa – in a small factory in England, a struggle that eventually encompassed the whole country. I try, also, to learn from that experience to reflect on the situation with the struggle of the working classes in East Africa today.

Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza has intensified his brutal campaign to stay in power by stifling international news reporting of his government’s repressive actions, events ahead of his controversial referendum to extend presidential term limits.

The authors argue that the on-going negotiations around the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the East African Community (EAC) and the European Union (EU) should solely focus on: 1) economic benefits for EAC member states and 2) sustainability of the region’s commitment to the agreement’s provisions. 

An insightful analysis on the current debates in South Africa to have a national minimum wage and its implication to the wider working class. 

Fake news, propaganda, public relations, advertising — it goes by many names, but at the core of all these terms, is the idea that powerful institutions, primarily governments and corporations, strive to manipulate our understanding of world affairs. The most effective such shaping of opinion is invisible and therefore unquestioned.

This piece is a memo to the Nigerian Left. In an ideal situation, on account of the importance I attach to the subject, the document would have appeared, first, as an internal memo to an appropriate organ of the movement. For the same reason of importance, it would not have stopped at the organ or leadership level. The memo would have passed to the movement as a whole and, thereafter, to the public. 

19-year-old Noura Hussein was sentenced to death on 10 Thursday by a court in Sudan. The court found her guilty of murder after she killed her “husband” in self-defence. She had been forced to marry him by her father and when she refused to consummate the marriage, the man came with a group of relatives who held her down while he violently raped her. He returned the next day to rape Noura again and in the struggle he was fatally stabbed.

Pambazuka News 862: Renewed struggle to defeat austerity

The current challenges in South Sudan require drastic reforms beyond the call for President Salva Kiir to resign. South Sudan needs politicians, men and women, whose motivation is the wellbeing of the people of South Sudan and not self enrichment. 

On 17 November 2017, the Minister of Labour of South Africa announced the state intends to carry out a new round of attacks on workers and their rights. The attacks come in the form of three labour bills currently being considered by parliament: the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill, the National Minimum Wage Bill and the Labour Relations Amendment Bill. If passed, the changes to the labour laws these bills propose will be a major attack on workers’ rights, won through decades of struggle, and will further deepen and entrench inequality and roll back important democratic gains.

Ethiopia's new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has shown some signs of wanting to change the political landscape in the country. Can he resist pressure from "deep-state" forces and bring about needed change in the country? Or will he just be like old wine in a new bottle? The article attempts to address these questions. 

Somaliland’s government perceives the talks as an opportunity to gain recognition; Somalia’s federal government, on the other hand, envisages recognition as a process of tearing the “Somali Republic” apart. Whatever the myths surrounding any rational decision, the world is watching to see whether Somalis mend or break the fence that has divided them for decades.

President Trump’s late night Twitter rants and the seemingly arbitrary manner in which he hires and fires high-ranking bureaucrats have led many commentators and members of the public alike, including prominent members of his own party, to question his fitness to hold office. According to his detractors, his actions hint at mental instability, cast doubt on his mettle and thus his ability to steer the ship of state.

It has been over 57 years since the Union Jack went down in Nigeria. However, the indigenous leaders, who replaced the British colonial “masters” have yet to pass muster, prompting average Nigerians, to nostalgically cry out whimsically for a return to colonial times, when things supposedly worked. And now with a lady of African ancestry joining the royal family on 19 May 2018, the plebs may be on to something.

The recent vote of no confidence against former Speaker of the People's House of Somalia, Mohamed Osman Jawari, in very troublesome circumstances, is a clear indication of the gangsterism nature of the country's politics.  To exit from being a failed state, there is need for strict adherence to the constitution, democratic values, and rule of law by all citizens. 

On this May Day 2018, mass demonstrations across the United States of America and the world focus on the current economic crisis and workers’ struggle to defeat austerity. 

In view of the historic May Day, 1st May, analysts from Monthly Review, the famous independent socialist magazine, identify tasks the working classes should press with. In the following interviews, conducted in early-April, John Bellamy Foster, Professor and Editor of Monthly Review; Fred Magdoff, Professor Emeritus, and one of Monthly Review’s closest associates, and Michael D. Yates, Professor Emeritus and Associate Editor of Monthly Review, provide answers (presented in alphabetical order) to a number of questions as well as slogans to be raised by the working classes on May Day in 2018. 

General Roméo Dallaire has gone from shaking hands with the devil to promoting Africa’s most blood-stained ruler.

Pambazuka News 861: Another look at Western imperialism

This article discusses about on-going efforts to return Benin artefacts that were stolen more than a century ago and are now on display in Western countries including Germany and France among others. 

18 March 2018, marked exactly seven years since Haiti’s former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Mrs. Aristide returned to Haiti from forced exile in South Africa, where they lived following the 2004 coup d’état that overthrew Haiti’s democratic government. On their return, they began to rebuild the University of the Aristide Foundation whose land and buildings had been appropriated, converted to military barracks and trashed by US and Brazilian troops during the coup.

This paper seeks to examine Somaliland’s foreign policy goals and decision-making as they evolved under the leadership of Somaliland’s previous four presidents. Doing so involves presenting how these respective administrations dealt with Somaliland’s neighbouring states as well as regional and other global organisations. The paper will also focus on the present foreign policy challenges. It will conclude by offering recommendations with respect to current foreign policy arrangements.

By and large the film industry everywhere is a dedicated supporter of the political establishment; Bollywood, more than a manifestation of the pan-Indian cultural industry, takes the cake. 

South Africa is running out of water, yet every day the push is to export more. Most of South Africa’s exports outside of mining are agricultural produce; most going overseas to the rich countries and through out that production process, goes South Africa’s (and Africa’s) water. 

This is a rejoinder to The Land Is Ours: South Africa’s First Black Lawyers and the Birth of Constitutionalism by Tembeka Nqcukaitobi.  Contrary to the name of the book, “the land belongs to us” is not about land dispossession or land reform. It is about constitutionalism; the first generation of black lawyers; and how they used their “colonial education” experience to advance the struggle against discrimination and inequality in South Africa.

On 28 April 2018, a day after Freedom Day, 90 years old struggle stalwart and anti-apartheid activist affectionately known as the “Mother of Azania”, Mama Zondeni Veronica Sobukwe, will be awarded the Order of Luthuli: Silver by South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, at the Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guest House in Pretoria. Her son and the Executive Director at the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Trust, Dini Sobukwe, will receive the award on her behalf due to old age.

The severity of Lula’s sentence in comparison to the banality of his alleged crime is all the more remarkable in a country where the current president of Brazil and his party have escaped prosecution for far more serious charges, backed by ample evidence. This political execution was demanded by a broad section of the ruling class as reflected in the media owned by its handful of leading families, and, under their baton, a significant section of the traditional middle classes. Whatever the various political agendas behind it, this step opens the way for the advance of naked fascism and has awakened frightful memories of the way a military junta ruled the country from 1964 to 1985.

One major problem limiting the national effectiveness and impact of the Nigerian Left in the country’s politics—at least since the end of the (1967-1970) Civil War—has been the contradictions (or “disconnect”) between organisation and programme. Put more concretely: The inability of the organisations of the Left to fully and satisfactorily accomplish the tasks they assign themselves through the employment of the structures, means and methods fashioned by them—and therefore available to them—has been a major limiting factor in its national effectiveness and impact in Nigerian politics. 

“Because it bothers me, and I couldn’t sleep.  And I kept thinking about it…” –Lieutenant Columbo, police detective

This is an introduction to a new book The Dialectic & the Detective: The Arab Spring and Regime Change in Libya Julian Samboma. The book is not an ode to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, nor is it a lament for his passing.  Despite his anti-imperialist trappings, Gaddafi was a self-serving dictator.  He called himself a socialist, but stifled the self-activity of his people.  He called himself a Pan-Africanist, but was a racist.  

Pambazuka News 860: Working on Africa’s self-reliance

The African National Congress Western Cape Provincial Secretary Comrade Faiez Jacobs, Muslim Judicial Council Deputy President Mawlana Abdul Khaliq Allie, Chairperson of the National Coalition 4 Palestine Reverend Edwin Arrison and others held a press conference, which, among others things, announced that there would be a public protest march on 15 May 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa to the Parliament of South Africa. The march will be in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s #GreatReturnMarch as well as in protest against Israel’s recent killing of over 30 Palestinians including youth and journalists. We will be demanding decisive action to be taken by our government starting with the implementation of the downgrade of the South African Embassy in Israel to a liaison office. 

The majority of Africa Union member states, 44 out of 55, have signed a free trade agreement whose aim is to create a single African market of economic cooperation thus creating the biggest economic zone in the world. 

Britain is hosting the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in an attempt to revive its Empire after Brexit. African countries need to be vigilant to avoid any trade agreements with Britain that do not serve the interests of ordinary African citizens. 

Imperialism again carries on a direct aggression against Syria. And, with its bloody claws, heinous imperialism again asserts its age-old axiom: Everything is and will be dominated; no effort for a peaceful life will be allowed.

A doctor pushing for the legalisation of FGM told a court on Thursday that she was tired of "unending expert witnesses".Tatu Kamau told a Machakos court that she had been receiving affidavits from these witnesses by email almost every day. It has become difficult to respond to them, she said when the case was mentioned, noting they have been sent since she filed her petition.

The aim here is to summarise my current position on the question of geopolitical restructuring of Nigeria. I say “current” because as far as I can remember, I started thinking seriously—and then debating and writing—about restructuring from 1986 as a member of the Political Bureau. Today, 32 years later, I am still thinking and writing on the subject. The present piece is implicitly a draft memo on this important political subject to the Nigerian Left. And, for the avoidance of doubt, the category “Nigerian Left” means the aggregate of socialism and popular democracy in Nigeria today.

An exceptionally interesting debate about how imperialism is now behaving.

A tribute to the African icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. 

Since President Nana Akufo-Addo launched his “Ghana Beyond Aid” agenda we have been treated to the same partisan responses. Sadly, none of it goes beyond the usual partisan debate that we are used to hearing from our learned parliamentarians.

Morocco has recently been engaged in an unprecedented, frenzied media and diplomatic campaign of misinformation and propaganda in which it has threatened to take military action to forcibly annex the Liberated Territories of the Sahrawi Republic (SADR), alleging that the Frente POLISARIO had violated the terms of the 1991 UN-supervised ceasefire in Western Sahara.

Blacks are being incarcerated at disturbingly high rates for seemingly minor infractions in the United States. The cost of posting bail is often relatively exorbitant for indigent blacks, who end up remaining in jail, as their rights are further infringed on. Despite the disproportionately high incidence of black arrests, African Americans do not necessarily violate the law more than other ethnic groups, but may in fact, be victims of over-policing and prejudice exhibited by rogue members of law enforcement. Having more black lawyers may save black men from jail.

After more than 40 years since the Arusha Declaration, initially published in Kiswahili, was declared on 5 February 1967, it feels as though, before levelling any critique or disagreements one might have, difficult not to simultaneously acknowledge the sheer optimism, ambition and ingenuity in its underpinning that now seem dreams away from what could be expected from a present day government. 

Among the titans of dignified defiance to white settler apartheid rule, was Winnie Madikizela-Mandela  – who not only kept the name of Nelson Mandela alive in the international public consciousness for 27 years – but was a charismatic leader in her own right who remained committed to the people of Azania/South Africa. 

Pambazuka News 859: The question of land in South Africa

The sting in the comments by erstwhile British Prime Minister, David Cameron, describing Nigeria as “fantastically corrupt” will linger for a long time. Perhaps what makes the animadversion more jarring was that it was made within hearing distance of Nigeria’s supposed incorruptible leader, President Buhari. The throng of hierophants eager to define Nigeria’s identity before its youth can shape their own destiny, capitalised on the nation’s perceived weakness. Nigeria was described as a nation of huts (Donald Trump) and unflatteringly categorised under sh*thole countries (Donald Trump).

This is a reflection on a public lecture by Professor Horace Campbell, Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies, University of Ghana at the occasion of the University's 70th anniversary. 

The property relations of a city in South Africa are a phenomenon that has its roots on the colonial interruption of our history and they, today, affect the political economy of higher education generally and the living experiences of students in particular. The fact that universities, old and new, are buildings with a physical address stationed in cities, they are, therefore, not immune from the overall economic challenges facing the nation and how these structurally impact the daily life of a people. 

A demographic dividend is not only contingent on a rapid decline in fertility and mortality. It also requires strategic investments in promoting equality, health and family planning, education and skills development, and job creation. When countries harness the demographic dividend, their young people become more empowered, healthier, better educated and have more equal access to opportunities.

“Robeson may have joined the ancestors but his example, his intelligence, his political acumen remains as a lodestar we would all do well to study—and exemplify”, Gerald Horne.

 

The response to the anniversary of martyrdom of Martin Luther King, Jr. continues to conceal the historical truths.  

Almost 24 years after the creation of “New South Africa,” there are loud and angry voices that the constitution of South Africa must be amended and there is a strong demand that there be expropriation of land without compensation. If the constitution is amended, the author demonstrates why it is important that another mistake is not made with regard to the country’s constitution on the fundamental issue such as land. 

The author argues that arable land that is used for entertainment and other recreational activities in South Africa could be used for agriculture to feed millions of South Africans who cannot afford a decent meal. Trying to "safeguard" the interests of the middle class by keeping that land for leisure instead of using it for the general good will not protect the interests of the middle class either.

Tanzania is a unique country in sub-Saharan Africa in having a single, widely used and accepted African national language that connects its entire population. Kiswahili – a language estimated to have at least 100 million speakers across the continent is mostly spoken there; it is also the only official international language of Africa that is really indigenous to the continent. Tanzania boasts highest proficiency in the language, although there is a craze amongst the country’s population threatening to take that pride away.

In this piece, I argue that there is a historical continuity that should be put into perspectives that in times of difficulty, capitalist interests find ways to reconcile ideological differences to cohesively self-correct. Using this dialectical materialism approach, I conclude that the ANC-led government has been its own impediment on land redistribution through a combination of bureaucratic lethargy, corruption and dogmatic adherence to artificial constructs of the “market”.

The withdrawal, this week, by the Emmerson Mnanagwa government of the tender awarded to Geiger International for the dualisation of the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu Highway, reveals shocking levels of corruption by the Zimbabwean authorities, which awarded the tender to an undeserving company in the first place. The US $2.7 billion tender was awarded to Geiger International in 2016 and close to three years later, no construction has started. The government has cited lack of progress on the project, as the reason for the cancellation of the tender, while the contractor has remained mum. But what could be the reasons for the lack of progress?

Pambazuka News 858: Struggles of the exploited and oppressed

The following are three political incidents/developments from two matured bourgeois democracies.

Winnie Mandela is the incarnation of black spirit and pride. She was the incarnation of the struggle of oppressed black South African under the apartheid regime. She is truly an inspiration to the younger generation. 

Recently in Zimbabwe, the new administration, which has taken power from Robert Mugabe, has been on an aggressive drive to seek re-engagement with its erstwhile enemies under the aegis or mantra that “Zimbabwe is open for business”. What is yet to be known is to what extent is Zimbabwe opening up to global capital.

In just over a year, Nigerians will exercise their vote to determine their leader. China’s erstwhile leader Mao Tse-Tung once said, “To occupy a high office, one must first be master of the low office.” However, the path to the top job in Nigeria has been predominantly through violence. Historically, service and meritocracy were alien to assuming the office of the Nigerian presidency. But, the youth of Nigeria now clamour for change. It is pertinent to study the path to the United States presidency as a model, and view the son of Africa, who changed the path to the most powerful office in the world. We can learn a thing or two from President Barack Obama.

The author, recalling his life experience as a young activist of the Left, calls on the Nigeria political Left to unite and prepare for the 2019 presidential in Nigeria.

The fishermen of Kabarole District appear to have blown the whistle on an audacious act of bio-piracy. They brought to the attention of the authorities that they were being barred from access to the 53 crater lakes that they have fished in from time immemorial. In law this is known as a customary right. It cannot be extinguished simply by putting up barbed wire or waving guns about. But that is just what the District Fisheries Officer of Kabarole tried to do when he leased all 20 lakes to Ferdsult Engineering Services who then proceeded to “re-stock” some lakes and claim ownership of all them.

Organisers of the upcoming Women’s March on the Pentagon are calling on the Democratic Party-sponsored Women’s March and March for Our Lives to expand their message to include the eight billion lives on the planet, all of which are imperilled by US weapons and wars. I spoke to Riva Enteen, a former National Lawyers Guild Programme Director and a member of the steering committee for the October Women’s March on the Pentagon.

East African Community member states must stand with Rwanda in its fight against US imperialism and its unfair trade system. 

This contribution draws on time spent interviewing, walking with villagers and witnessing the eroding base of women’s security and empowerment in rural and informal sectors in some African countries, a trend that has heightened in the last decade. The countries in question share some common features: a colonial legacy of peoples displaced from their ancestral lands; vast and valuable natural resources; high illiteracy rates among rural populations; patchy rural infrastructure; the vestiges of weakened traditional accountability systems; and investment policies that significantly favour the industrial commodity chain [*] over peasant-based food sovereignty.

The author argues that origins of the global economic crises are to be found within the capitalist and imperialist system. 

Despite the Western mainstream media presenting the 2011 uprisings in Africa's North as "protests against autocratic regimes", the author argues that those streets demonstrations were anti-imperialist in nature and were a continuation of similar protests that have been occurring since the late 1960s. 

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