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Pambazuka News 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.

Latest titles from Pambazuka Press

From Citizen to Refugee

From Citizen to Refugee Uganda Asians come to Britain
Mahmood Mamdani
'On the face of it, life in the camp presented a sharp and favourable contrast to the open terror of living in Uganda. But it was the Kensington camp, and not Amin's Uganda, which was my first experience of what it would be like to live in a totalitarian society.' Mahmood Mamdani
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African Awakening

African Awakening The Emerging Revolutions
The tumultuous uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have seized the attention of media but what about the rest of Africa? With incisive contributions from across the continent, "African Awakening" presents the 2011 uprisings in their African context.
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Demystifying Aid

Yash Tandon

Demystifying Aid This pamphlet from Pambazuka Press shows that 'development aid' is not what it purports to be - the effects of actions of well-meaning allies in the North who support aid to Africa for reasons of ethics or solidarity are, unfortunately, the opposite of their good intentions.
Buy now

To Cook a Continent

To Cook a Continent Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa
Nnimmo Bassey
Exploiting Africa's resources has delivered huge profits to the North and huge damage to Africa's environment and economies. Overcoming the crises of environment and climate change means also addressing corporate profiteering and resource extraction.
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Earth Grab

Earth Grab Geopiracy, the New Biomassters and Capturing Climate Genes
Diana Bronson, Hope Shand, Jim Thomas, Kathy Jo Wetter
As greedy eyes focus on the global South's resources this book 'pulls back the curtain on disturbing technological and corporate trends that are already reshaping our world and that will become crucial battlegrounds for civil society in the years ahead.
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Pambazuka News Broadcasts

Pambazuka broadcasts feature audio and video content with cutting edge commentary and debate from social justice movements across the continent.

See the list of episodes.

AU MONITOR

This site has been established by Fahamu to provide regular feedback to African civil society organisations on what is happening with the African Union.

Perspectives on Emerging Powers in Africa: December 2011 newsletter

Deborah Brautigam provides an overview and description of China's development finance to Africa. "Looking at the nature of Chinese development aid - and non-aid - to Africa provides insights into China's strategic approach to outward investment and economic diplomacy, even if exact figures and strategies are not easily ascertained", she states as she describes China's provision of grants, zero-interest loans and concessional loans. Pambazuka Press recently released a publication titled India in Africa: Changing Geographies of Power, and Oliver Stuenkel provides his review of the book.
The December edition available here.

The 2010 issues: September, October, November, December, and the 2011 issues: January, February, March , April, May , June , July , August , September, October and November issues are all available for download.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Books & arts

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Angola wins, but German magazine wonders: Where is Angola?

Safia Dickersbach

2013-06-12, Issue 634

It would be very interesting to find out which hidden agendas "ART" is pursuing with its lopsided coverage of Angola's success in Venice

Adichie’s Americadabra

Biko Agozino

2013-06-06, Issue 633

Adichie appears to be trying to demonstrate that all novels are full of lies but that readers prefer delightful lies to inconvenient truths. That is why novels sell millions of copies while boring scholarly tomes manage a few hundred copies in sales

'Today na today'

Biko Agozino sings from abroad in Naija creole

Emmanuel Boyinta

2013-05-30, Issue 632

With the release of his latest poetry book, entitled ‘Today na Today’, an anthology of poems written in Naija langwej (pidgin English), a waning subsector of Nigerian literature gains a vent

‘The post-colonial state in Africa’

Okello Oculi

2013-05-30, Issue 632

Crawford Young succeeds brilliantly and seductively in inciting a yearning for “another history” of governance in Africa in the last 50 years

Ken Harrow’s ‘Trash: Garbage In Garbage Out’

'If you consider your friend to be an animal he considers you to be shit' (Tshi proverb, Ghana).

Biko Agozino

2013-05-16, Issue 630

‘His detailed plot summaries of the movies in the book are so well written that readers may no longer need to see the films after reading his book’

Where is homeland?

Nick Edgeworth

2013-04-25, Issue 627

The collection of poems tells a story on many levels. It is an autobiographical account of a black child growing up within the private fostering system. But the story extends back to the lives of the poet’s African grandparents and outwards to the experiences of other immigrants to the UK

When artists die...

Okachikwu Dibia

2013-04-18, Issue 626

Upon the death of an artist society loses sorely. But their works provide a continuing reflection on how to refine ourselves

My Husband is a Cuckoo

Review of ‘My Husband is a Cuckoo and Other Poems of My Youth’ by Esther Lamnyam. Createspace Independent Publishing, 2012, 76 pp. Paperback, $15.00. ISBN 147762340X

Peter Wuteh Vakunta

2013-04-18, Issue 626

Lamnyam’s book of poems is a tribute to penmanship. She contends that poets are not dead wood, and attributes much leverage to the weight of her pen

Review of Biko Agozino’s ‘Today na Today’

Noel A. Ihebuzor

2013-04-18, Issue 626

The poems treat a broad range of contemporary social issues in Nigeria. The author has certainly enriched the literary world

Fictionalizing Camfranglais

A Review of Moi Taximan by Gabriel Kuitche Fonkou

Peter Wuteh Vakunta

2013-03-13, Issue 621

This book is highly recommended to people who know nothing about Camfranglais and who wish to one day visit Cameroon. It really is a must read.

African-Caribbean Communist defied racism, sexism and class oppression

Review of ‘Claudia Jones: Beyond Containment’ (2011), edited by Carole Boyce Davies, Ayebia Clarke Publishing (241 pages)

Abayomi Azikiwe

2013-02-06, Issue 615

This book makes a tremendous contribution to the literature on left, feminist and Pan-African struggles during the 20th century

Africa and the drug problem

Review of ‘Africa and the War on Drugs’ by Neil Carrier and Gernot Klantschnig/, (London: Zed Books 2012)

Lansana Gberie

2013-02-06, Issue 615

The undoubted merit of this book is in its providing of historical depth to understanding the drug menace. But readers should beware of the danger of substituting one’s irritation with some of the awkward policies of western governments with concern for the African predicament.

What is Haiti to me?

Ama Biney

2013-01-17, Issue 613

The heartbeat of Africa cloned to the Caribbean; A nation of defiant and valiant freedom fighters who dared to rise up Against the French, Spanish and British colonial overlords against the chains of slavery; Who desired freedom and were prepared to wage a 13-year-long guerrilla war against European overlords who did not believe in ‘liberté, fraternité, equalité’ for blacks; A nation of half a million Africans who cherished their African-ness in the Vodun religion Against the caricatures and demonization of this religion by Hollywood; A people who believed their freedom was worth paying the French 150 million francs – Yet were to be squeezed and punished in other ways by American occupation And deathly neo-liberalism that fails to trickle down growth; A people who know the meaning of struggle, pain, suffering, tragedy – But remain in spite of hurricanes and tornadoes that cannot quench their spirits and hopes for a dignified life A people who profoundly know the meaning of dictatorship lived during the Duvalier era That ‘disappeared’ thousands, killed many who spoke out against kleptocracy, corruption, and inequality; A people who know the meaning of neo-colonialism; that house negroes remain in the land; A people who know that uncle toms and aunt jemimas are a powerful minority in collusion With Uncle Sam wearing a black face and their neo-colonial brothers and sisters across in the neo-colonial Dominican Republic; A people who know that colorism remains in the land and the ruling elite are not safe Under a genuine democracy but with their US supplied automatic rifles The presence of the Tonton Macoutes that they support and the various military attachés Uncle Sam funds to allow the rich to sleep easily at night; It is a people who have recovered their agency and voted for a radical priest in two genuine elections Only for the US and their detractors to deny this electoral victory on account that they did not like what the radical priest represented; It is the masses who see the rich minority seated at a ‘vast table covered with white damask and overflowing with good food’ whilst the people are ‘hunched over in the dirt and starving’ [1] – waiting once more to knock down that table and construct a new one in which all will equitably eat. ENDNOTE 1. Words of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

A real life Django

Margaret Kimberley

2013-01-17, Issue 613

Audiences cheering the exploits of the Django fictional character do so in part because they mistakenly believe that this work of fiction has no historical basis in it at all

Démissionnez! A call for President Biya to step down

A review of Lapiro’s latest musical composition

Peter Wuteh Vakunta

2013-01-09, Issue 612

There is no question that the new song is a rap on the face of President Biya by a valiant dissident musician who views the Cameroonian leader as undeserving of the public office he holds

Mugabe: Villain or Hero?

Ama Biney

2012-12-20, Issue 611

This new film exposes the truth behind President Robert Mugabe’s troubles with the West. But it lacks the nuances, complexities and critical questions (other than ‘the land question’) that are key to understanding Mugabe’s legacy

A child’s life for €375: My life has a price

Fahmida Khan

2012-12-13, Issue 610

In the raw testimony of her torture and abuse, Tina Okpara paints an unforgettable portrait of a child determined for a better life. This powerful memoir will force any parent to think twice before disposing of essential responsibilities for their child.

Dust, spittle and wind

Sonwabiso Ngcowa

2012-12-13, Issue 610

In Sanya Osha’s suspense-filled novel, society is on the verge of irreparable breakdown but manages somehow to pull itself back up from the abyss

'Restless City' wins at Colours of the Nile International Film Festival

Kevin Kriedemann

2012-11-21, Issue 607

While the films dealt with diverse subject matter, the jury was struck by a common thread – that of the displacement involved in migrant and immigrant lifestyles.

A retort to white racists

Review of Wole Soyinka’s ‘Of Africa’

Biko Agozino

2012-11-15, Issue 606

Soyinka presents ‘Of Africa’ as a long overdue retort to a white supremacist who had challenged him in Germany to admit that Africans are inferior, otherwise Europeans and Arabs could not have enslaved and colonised them for centuries.

Uncommon diplomat: Peter Penfold and Sierra Leone

A review of ‘Atrocities, Diamonds and Diplomacy: The Inside Story of the Conflict in Sierra Leone’ by Peter Penfold. Published by Pen and Sword, UK 2012

Lansana Gberie

2012-11-15, Issue 606

This ‘superbly well-written, well-documented and passionate book’ reveals tragic failures of the international community in tackling the civil war in Sierra Leone.

Colours of the Nile film festival to feature the best

2012-10-30, Issue 604

The inaugural Colours of the Nile International Film Festival (CNIFF) will run in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 7-11 November 2012, introducing the best of African cinema to African audiences.

Biafra: A lesson not learned

Reflections on ‘There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra’ by Chinua Achebe, Allen Lane, 333 pp.

Tarila Marclint Ebiede

2012-10-31, Issue 604

Achebe’s new memoirs should be a source of inspiration and an advocacy guide for those calling for a new Nigeria that confronts the mistakes of its past; a Nigeria where members of the different nations have an equal place no matter their size.

We’re all social democrats now

A review of ‘My First Coup d’ Etat: Memories from the Lost Decade of Africa’ by John Dramani Mahama; Bloomsbury, 2012, pp 318, £14.99.

Napoleon Abdulai

2012-10-24, Issue 603

Ghana’s new president has surprisingly found the time to pen his memoirs, which trace his eventful journey to the highest office of his country.

‘Dear Mandela’: The struggle of shack dwellers

Susan Majek

2012-10-10, Issue 601

South African producers Dara Kell and Christopher Nizza made the award-winning documentary ‘Dear Mandela’ to inform the world about the struggles of shack dwellers. Here Dara speaks about the film and continued suffering of slum dwellers in post-apartheid South Africa.

Chinua Achebe: A man and his people

Dust raised by war memoirs will not settle soon

Abdulrazaq Magaji

2012-10-10, Issue 601

In rehashing well-known but better forgotten facts to whip up sentiments, Achebe runs the risk of stoking the fires of antagonism among Nigerians. It is a controversy he can ill-afford given his age and fame.

Crossing borders in search of a better life

A review of ‘The Outsiders’ by Caroline Adhiambo Jakob. Authors House, 2012.

Sokari Ekine

2012-10-03, Issue 600

The new novel follows the lives of two women, a German executive and a Kenyan victim of sexual abuse living in poverty on the streets of Nairobi who decides to escape to Europe as an illegal immigrant.

The need for diversity and transformation of legal systems

Arnold Minors

2012-10-03, Issue 600

This book exposes the reality that the legal system is not intended to produce justice, except by accident, and then largely to the benefit of the agents of the system and to rich and powerful users of that system.

From the outside looking in

An unconventional review for an eccentric book

Nicholas Kariuki Githuku

2012-09-19, Issue 598

Miguna succeeds in peeling back the mask of his former boss Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and several other high-ranking actors in the national political drama. But Miguna also hides his own failings behind the mask of many words.

Taking civilization to the whiteman’s land

A review of ‘Love under the Kola-Nut Tree’ by Esther Lamnyam, Author House, 2009, 279 pp. Paperback $19. 95. ISBN 978-1-4392-1823-5

Peter Wuteh Vakunta

2012-09-20, Issue 598

This is a revolutionary novel in several respects but what captures the reader’s attention from the onset is how the author turns the tables by portraying an African woman as the herald of civilization to the benighted West.

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