Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 2,600 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators who together produce insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses and make it one of the largest and most innovative and influential web forums for social justice in Africa. 
Advocacy & campaigns
RSS FeedSwazi youth to launch campaign against ‘undemocratic elections’
Peter Kenworthy
2013-03-28, Issue 623
The youth describe the upcoming elections as undemocratic and meaningless because they will simply consolidate the monarch’s absolute power
The festival of Pesach (Passover): our freedom is unfulfilled while others are oppressed
Press statement from Jewish South Africans during Pesach/Passover
Jewish South Africans
2013-03-28, Issue 623
Jewish people will be celebrating ‘freedom’ whilst complicit in the oppression of the Palestinian people
Egypt held to account for failing to protect women protesters
2013-03-28, Issue 623
Commission tells Egyptian government to compensate women as well as to investigate the assaults and punish those responsible
Kenya: An open letter to IEBC chairman Isaack Hassan
Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice
2013-03-13, Issue 621
Various technological measures required by law to protect the integrity of Kenya’s elections failed massively in the recent polls. But the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission proceeded with tallying the result. IEBC must explain to Kenyans what happened
Legal help by and for sex workers
Jonathan Birchall
2013-03-13, Issue 621
Sex work is criminalized in South Africa, and sex workers face routine harassment, intimidation, and even abuse from police. One organization is helping them gain the legal skills they need to fight back. Please take a moment to view a photo essay about the Women's Legal Centre, a grantee of the Open Society Foundations based in South Africa that provides legal services by and for sex workers.
Statement on Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s comments
GALZ
2013-03-13, Issue 621
The statements fuel public prejudice against LGBTI individuals and contradict the very preamble of a draft constitution that the PM is seemingly promoting
An open letter to Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne
Action speaks louder than words!
Ajamu Nangwaya
2013-03-13, Issue 621
Network for Pan-Afrikan Solidarity puts forward five propositions that would give concrete form to the Premier’s claim that ‘government exists to make people’s lives better’
Enough is Enough
A call to end violence against women and children
African Monitor
2013-03-07, Issue 619
Archbishop Ndungane urges particularly men and boys to say enough is enough, and to give dignity back to South Africa’s women and girls
A petition to leaders, police and citizens
It is everyone's responsiblity to condemn and stop rape
Center for Domestic Violence Prevention
2013-03-07, Issue 619
Although Ugandan laws are clear that everyone has a right to dignity and safety, increasing numbers of rape and defilement are being reported
The authority to rape?
Laila Ali
2013-03-07, Issue 619
'I’ve interviewed too many women who live in constant fear of getting shot or raped, often by the very people charged with protecting them'
Sudan: The Deadly Silence of the International Community
Osman Naway
2013-03-07, Issue 619
The regime in Khartoum is killing its own people through bombardment, starvation, detention and torture. Someone needs to stop this tragedy, now.
Fighting forced repartriation
Callixte M Kavuro
2013-03-07, Issue 619
Rwandan refugees in South Africa make a presentation on cessation clause to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs
Breakthrough enables individual complaints on economic, social and cultural rights
2013-02-20, Issue 617
The Protocol makes a strong and unequivocal statement about the equal value and importance of all human rights and the need for strengthened legal protection of economic, social and cultural rights in particular
Statement concerning assassination of Chokri Belaid
2013-02-20, Issue 617
This assassination aims at silencing voices fighting for dignity, freedom and social justice; it aims to create a climate of fear and hatred and to push Tunisia towards a cycle of violence
Eradicating dissent in post-Mubarak Egypt
Civil society face new repressive laws
2013-02-20, Issue 617
International NGOs would not be allowed to settle and activate in Egypt without prior authorisation. Receiving foreign government funding, directly or indirectly, would be flatly prohibited
Africa Contact condemns severe punishment of Saharawi human rights activists
Africa Contact
2013-02-20, Issue 617
Africa Contact strongly condemns the harsh and unjust sentences given February 17 by a Moroccan military court to 24 Saharawis - Western Sahara's indigenous population - just for demanding the right to live in their own country without Moroccan occupation and discrimination
Burundian government must stop harassing civil society and media
CIVICUS and LDGL
2013-02-20, Issue 617
CIVICUS, the global civil society network, and the Ligue des Droits de la personne dans la région des Grandes Lacs (LDGL), warn about rising levels of harassment of civil society activists and journalists in Burundi. They urge the Government of Burundi to respect its constitutional and international law obligations on human rights.
British MPs: Sentencing of Western Sahara activists “travesty of justice”
2013-02-21, Issue 617
Several British MP’s have joined prominent campaigners including film director Ken Loach in condemning the sentencing of 24 Saharawi activists by a military tribunal in Morocco at the weekend. In a letter published in the Guardian newspaper, the Members of Parliament describe the sentences, most of which ranged from 20 years to life imprisonment as “a travesty of justice”.
Towards a Pan-African network of inhabitants organizations
Mike Davies and Jules Dumas
2013-02-14, Issue 616
There is a growing consensus to establish a continental network of organised inhabitants that will solidify linkages between activist groups across Africa
Jailing of Somali journalist and alleged rape victim a blow to fighting sexual violence
Office of the United Nations High Commisssioner for Human Rights
2013-02-07, Issue 615
Journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim, who did not even publish any article based on his interview, was jailed for one year along with Lul Ali Isman, the young woman who had alleged she had been raped by members of the security forces
Rights violations follow government directive on refugees
Lucy Kiama
2013-02-07, Issue 615
Many refugees and asylum seekers have complained about arbitrary arrest and harassment by security officers
Constitution emboldens citizens to take part in budgeting
George Jaramba and Salim Changani
2013-02-07, Issue 615
Fahamu is carrying out a participatory budgeting project in two counties in Kenya. In Kwale at the Indian Ocean coast, citizens are in the process of drawing up budgets for their priorities in public spending
Who are we? What do we want?
Statement of the Network for Pan-Afrikan Solidarity on identity and resistance
Network for Pan-Afrikan Solidarity
2013-02-07, Issue 615
INTRODUCTION This statement was delivered at a public education forum organized in response to a comment made Dr. Rinaldo Walcott who was one of the panelists at the event. Rinaldo Walcott is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education. His areas of specialization are cultural studies and cultural theory; queer and gender theory, and transnational and diaspora studies. He is the author of Black like Who?: Writing Black Canada and the editor of Rude: Contemporary Black Canadian Cultural Criticism. (See video) THE STATEMENT The Network for Pan-Afrikan Solidarity (NPAS) called this public education event because we believe that identity matters. As Afrikan people, our individual and collective identities are consequences of our history. We cannot speak of Afrikan history without speaking of the ways in which the Western/colonial world has tried to interrupt it. For this reason, topics of enslavement and ongoing colonial violence remain heated discussions. Tonight, we encourage fruitful discussions on these things in relation to how we understand ourselves as Afrikan people. We also want to share NPAS’ vision of Afrikan identity and struggle. We believe that as Afrikan people, our identities matter because they are shaped by rich naming practices, creation stories, ethics, relation to the land and traditions of liberatory struggle, resistance and celebration and revolution. Our identities matter because they reach across the oceans and borders that separate us to find a global oneness. Our identities matter because out of diversities in sexuality, gender, gender identities, ethnicity, age, producer class status and ability. We remain a single people. Our identities matter because they continue to survive and facilitate the lives and experiences, as well as organizations and liberatory strategies and tactics, which we build in opposition to and that imagine and move beyond the violence inflicted by enslavement, genocide, global colonialism or imperialism and capitalism. Our identities matter because our history expresses a tendency towards and necessitates anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal, anti-racist, anti-colonial and anti-heterosexist politics. Lastly, our identities matter because, being shaped by the present world and the foundation of the past, they have equipped us with the insight, courage, inspiration and imagination necessary to create the liberated and just future. NPAS asserts that our identity as Afrikan people informs our histories of liberatory struggle, resistance, survival and achievement. In the present stage of the struggle, we view the parallel institutions of enslavement and colonial genocide as running counter to our transformative conceptions of the world. These institutions have attempted to divide our people; to sever us from our Indigenous homelands and values; to make us ashamed of our Afrikaness ; and to instigate internal violence and rivalries. But these institutions of domination have also offered us instructive lessons. From enslavement and genocide we’ve learned that a world shaped by white supremacy, labour theft and exploitation, sexual violence, environmental warfare, and state violence is one that seeks to destroy us and the broader humanity. Therefore, we stand in permanent opposition to this world. We continue to survive in spite of the forces that oppress us. We strive to recognize and resist all forms of oppression, including those in which we remain complicit. We endeavour to root our identities within the legacy of revolutionary ancestors, histories, people, and ideologies. The preceding approach to liberation will ensure our active, careful[3], and successful resistance to and healing from colonialism, capitalism, white supremacist doctrine, and all forces of oppression that disconnect us from our personhood. In short, if who we are is Afrikan people, then what we want is the full and complete emancipation of our people - a liberation that necessitates and entails the liberation of all peoples. This orientation is the foundation for both the Network for Pan-Afrikan Solidarity and the approach to Pan-Afrikanism through which we continue to organize, resist, and reaffirm our value as Afrikan people. END NOTES [1] Delivered at the “Who am I? What am I doing?: Identity, Pan-Afrikanism and White Domination” public forum at the University of Toronto (Canada) on January 19, 2013. [2] Members of the working-class and peasantry and the revolutionary petty bourgeois who have committed Cabralian class suicide and become one with the people. [3] Not simply in the sense of 'cautious/prudent', but also in the sense of 'with care' - it is absolutely indispensable that we strive to learn to care deeply enough about liberation to live for it, whether or not we're ready yet to talk about those things and people we're willing to die for. we'll die someday anyway, and until then there's work to do.
French imperialism out of Mali!
2013-01-24, Issue 614
Black is back Coalition for Reparations and social justice and the Patrice Lumumba Coalition are calling for a demonstration outside the French embassy
No to planned US military intervention on terrorism in Nigeria!
Labour and Social Justice Institute
2013-01-24, Issue 614
Imperialism and neo-liberal policies imposed by the west are the basis of terrorism
SA toy store ends support for Israeli firm in protest
2013-01-24, Issue 614
Last year, hundreds of South Africans of all races and religions protested against the company’s support for the firm and its complicity in Israel's forced removals of the Palestinians
Anglo Plats crisis demands decisive steps
Nationalise mines for climate jobs
Democratic Left Front
2013-01-24, Issue 614
The move is part of the bosses’ counter-offensive to break the new spirit of labour militancy
African voices of legal empowerment
Chi Mgbako
2013-01-17, Issue 613
With the cost of a lawyer quite high in Africa, leaving poorer individuals to navigate the winding road to justice alone, community paralegals are helpind individuals and communities demand and realize their rights
Sudan: End the crackdown on NGOs
Amnesty International
2013-01-17, Issue 613
Working on development, human rights and peace has become increasingly difficult in Sudan. In the last month, at least three NGOs have been closed and their staff harassed and questioned by the National Security Service (NSS). This crackdown is expected to continue in the coming weeks. Take action to stop the crackdown. Sign the action here and an email will be sent directly to the Sudanese government demanding that they allow the NGOs to reopen, end harassment of their staff and respect freedom of association.
Government policies behind Cape Town shack fires
Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape
2013-01-09, Issue 612
The government denies shackdwellers the basic things they need to live healthy and safe lives
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