Issa G. Shivji (2009) Where is Uhuru?.
Comment & analysis
RSS Feed8th Pan African Congress needed to redeem movement
Vincent Nuwagaba
2009-07-02, Issue 440
cc xrichxThe Global Pan African Movement is a ’dying institution’, writes Vincent Nuwagaba, and the whole continent and Africans in the diaspora must ‘rededicate their efforts to revive it’. Dismayed by its half-hearted commemoration of the day of the African child, Nuwagaba writes that the problem is that the Uganda-based ‘global’ secretariat ‘has been reduced to a branch and extension of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and State House’. In order to de-link a mass movement from a partisan movement, argues Nuwagaba, ‘all Africans of goodwill must demand the holding of the 8th Pan African Congress and a shift of the ‘global’ secretariat.’
Why I love-hate Euro-America
Chambi Chachage
2009-07-02, Issue 440
cc catface3Chambi Chachage doesn’t hate America, he actually loves it ‘a lot’. It ‘could be a model for deracialising the continents’, Chacage believes, as ‘probably the only habitable continent for humans that is not really seen as a continent that belongs to a particular “race”.’ But says Chachage, America is also haunted by what President Obama describes as the 'original sin of slavery and racism', epitomised by the Atlantic slave trade and the genocide of native Americans. Chacage concludes that what he feels is actually what historian Colin Legum describes as a ‘disappointed love’ – the colonised ‘believe there has been no proper recognition of, nor retribution for, the injury of colonialism’, while the colonisers ‘feel let down because Africa has not lived up to the expectations of European liberal values.’
Joe Slovo residents let down by court
Kate Tissington
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc Jerome Love‘A better life beckons for the people of Joe Slovo informal settlement,’ the South African government has said, following a decision by the Constitutional Court that the settlement’s 20,000 residents will be evicted to Delft make way for the N2 housing project. Describing the statement as ‘utter nonsense’, Kate Tissington writes a personal reaction to the judgement, which, she argues, ‘has effectively allowed government to get away with a national project that was misconceived from the start’. Relocation from the settlement would ‘severely disrupt the lives of residents’, increasing their commute to work and essential services and damaging the existing community and social networks upon which they rely, says Tissington, pointing to government's failure to understand people’s needs. While it is unlikely that the eviction will go ahead as envisioned, says Tissington, the court’s judgment is ‘technical, cowardly and naive in the face of the obvious’.
Sustainable development for all
Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP)
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc Katie Freeland: klf photographyEfforts to increase domestic revenue and reduce dependency on foreign donors and the allocation of substantial resources to education and health are among the aspects of the new budget welcomed by the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme's (TGNP) budget analysis task team. Critical of plans to privatise water and the government's prioritisation of large-scale producers over peasant and small-holder farmers in its response to the economic crisis, TGNP has called for more measures to ensure that the budget 'adequately serves the majority of Tanzanians, especially poor and marginalised women, children, and the disabled'.
'Supporting right and opposing wrong'?: Uganda's NRM
Vincent Nuwagaba
2009-06-11, Issue 437
cc P PriceWhile Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni remains keen to stress his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party's increasing popularity in the country's north, Vincent Nuwagaba decries the deliberate fusing of party and state activities. With the NRM able to command all the financial resources the state's coffers will allow, Nuwagaba laments the discrimination directed at Ugandans supporting opposition parties and stresses the need for the country to become a genuine meritocracy.
The future of the Kenyan constitution
Kenyans Eyes From The Diaspora Group
2009-06-11, Issue 437
cc Tom Maruko'It is a practical impossibility to have in place in Kenya a good constitution with the current breed of leaders, because most of them are tainted with corruption and do not have any value for human lives'' Kenyans Eyes From The Diaspora Group has said in an open letter to the Kenyan prime minister and president. The group says that the reason reforms of the country's constitution have taken so long to implement is because those in power fear that amendments would jeopardise their political careers. The letter, which also includes extracts from a draft constitution developed by the group, pleads with the African Union to put in place peacekeeping forces well in advance of Kenyas's 2012 elections.
Tired of 'leaders of the people'
A letter of protest to governments and politicians in Africa
Lord Aikins Adusei
2009-06-11, Issue 437
cc Tom MarukoIn a lyrical letter of protest to politicians in Africa, Lord Aikins Adusei writes that people are tired of their self-proclaimed leaders. 'You have consistently ignored all our cry for help even though you know our plights very well', Adusei says, chronicling the challenges faced by people across the continent from poor housing and education to torture and war. 'Aren't you ashamed that after all these years of independence your people cannot feed themselves; cannot read and write; rely on handouts from Europe and America; and the youth are in a hurry to leave the continent for you?', Adusei asks, before closing with the words of caution:'We are watching.'
Pan-Africanist inspiration: The Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week
Gacheke Gachihi
2009-06-11, Issue 437
From left, Olivier Fanon, Gacheke Gachihi
and an Algerian diplomat in Tanzania
(cc Gacheke Gachihi)Following his attendance at the Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week from 13 to 17 2009 in Dar es Salaam, Gacheke Gachihi discusses the engaging talks given by speakers like Issa G. Shivji, Oliver Fanon and Adebayo Olukoshi and the inspiration he draws from the Pan-Africanist struggle.
'A new beginning'?: Questioning Obama in Cairo
Mumia Abu-Jamal
2009-06-11, Issue 437
cc barackobamadotcomFollowing Barack Obama's historic speech in Cairo last week, Mumia Abu-Jamal of San Francisco's Prison Radio [external site] questions Obama's choice of destination. Underlining that Obama 'benefitted more by who he wasn't than who he was', Abu-Jamal acknowledges the US president's success in 'evok[ing] passion' where past presidents would simply have seemed arrogant. But with Egypt 'as far from a democracy as a mouse is from the moon' and benefitting from extensive US aid, America's trust in democracy looks highly dubious when its main allies across the region remain dictatorial regimes, Abu-Jamal contends.
They’d love to be in our shoes
Kenyans have benefitted from opportunities countries like Haiti can only dream of
Anne M. Khaminwa
2009-06-04, Issue 436
cc R MillerHaiti may have been the first black republic, but Anne Khaminwa is unconvinced by Kimani Waweru’s call for Kenya to learn from and emulate its history. Today Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, beset by environmental problems, violence and lawlessness says Khaminwa. Kenyans on the other hand ‘have benefited from education and development opportunities that countries like Haiti can only dream of’. Instead of remaining stuck in the colonial discourse of earlier decades, Kenyans should be fired up with ambition and vision of what we can make of the future given all the opportunities we have already had, Khaminwa argues.
Some things we know about genocide
10 years, 10 lessons
Gerald Caplan
2009-05-21, Issue 433
cc David BlumeHaving been asked in 1998 to write a report on Rwanda's 1994 genocide by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), Gerald Caplan outlines a series of 10 broad lessons about genocide. Stressing his conviction that the ultimate purpose of knowing about genocide should be to have something to say about its prevention, the author argues that there should be no hierarchy when considering genocides committed around the world. Citing the ultimate conclusions of Primo Levi, a Jewish–Italian survivor of Auschwitz, Caplan underlines the troubling reality that rather than increasing the resolve not to see history repeated, the existence of one genocide merely affirms the possibility of future tragedy elsewhere in the world. While history suggests that there is ample reason for cynicism, Caplan concludes however that committed action on the part of the public and civil society represents a genuine means of forcing the UN Security Council to put the welfare of those suffering above its members' interests.
Speaking like Narkissos again?
Godwin Murunga
2009-05-21, Issue 433
cc Wikimedia CommonsIn the wake of Kenya and Uganda's confrontation over the small island of Migingo in Lake Victoria, Godwin Murunga argues that the actions of Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni are very much in keeping with an essentially paradoxical nature. While in broad agreement with Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem's contention that the Migingo conflict should be settled both legally and politically, Murunga stresses that the Ugandan president's default mode is invariably militaristic and rooted in a belief in 'individual destiny'. Suggesting that Museveni's essential narcissism and unerring faith in military solutions completely dominate his political approach, the author argues that it will be the extent to which the Kenyan leadership cares for Kenyans and Ugandans alike which will determine a settlement.
Report on Gaza conflict: Audio interview
John Dugard
2009-05-21, Issue 433
cc flickr.comIn an audio interview [mp3] about an independent fact-finding report into the war in Gaza commissioned by the League of Arab States, John Dugard, the former special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories and the head of the investigation, discusses the findings of the report. Comprised of the contributions of individuals from six non-Arab countries, Dugard's report comes to the conclusion that the Israeli defence forces were responsible for a number of war crimes and crimes against humanity in their offensive earlier this year. This was a verdict also reached about the activities of Hamas forces, but the report regards those of Israeli to have been far more severe. While the report found potential suggestions of genocide on the part of the Israeli forces to be too strong, Dugard nevertheless emphasises Israeli's 'wish to impose collective punishment on the people of Gaza' and the minimal cooperation from the Israeli authorities his team received when investigating the actions of both sides.
The fallacies of identity politics
Audrey Mbugua
2009-05-21, Issue 433
cc Liz HenryDeeply concerned about the profound discrimination experienced by Kenya's transgender community, Audrey Mbugua berates Kenyan society for its unjust treatment of a marginalised group. Rather than creating 'transgender rights' per se, Mbugua calls upon the country to view transgender people as human beings like any other group. Deeply scathing of Kenya's entrenched 'trans-phobia' and the divisive nature of different groups' competing for recognition, the author implores those marginalised to see themselves as part of a wider struggle for justice that transcends identity politics.
Forcible repatriation threat for Burundian refugees
Leave or 'be beaten and forced to run empty-handed to Burundi'
Zachary Lomo
2009-05-21, Issue 433
cc AnduzeAround 40,000 Burundian refugees face involuntary repatriation when Tanzania’s Mtabila refugee camp is closed at the end of June, writes Zachary Lomo. Officials have told refugees that ‘if they are still in the camp after 30 June, they will be beaten and forced to run empty-handed to Burundi’. Although the camp schools have been closed and the markets destroyed, very few refugees have registered to return home. There is no longer fighting in Burundi but many refugees fear the reprisal killing of anyone suspected of supporting opposition groups, as well as disputes over property. Tanzanian field officers claim they have no plans to force the refugees to return to Burundi and will negotiate the integration and naturalisation of those unwilling or unable to go back with the Tanzanian government.
Kenya: An unprecedented state of violence
ACHPR urged to take action on human rights violations
Kenya Human Rights Commission
2009-05-21, Issue 433
cc flickr.comThe Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has urged the ACHPR to adopt a resolution to address the Kenyan government on its obligations to protect and promote the rights of all people and its duty to hold violators to account through criminal prosecution. The criminalisation of peaceful demonstrations and the rise in extra-judicial killings are evidence of the government’s failure to act on recommendations made by commissions of inquiry into the presidential elections and post election violence, say KHRC. The body also wants ACHPR to send a fact-finding mission to Kenya including special rapporteurs on human rights and human rights defenders, women, freedom of information and refugees; and to ‘address and inform the AU summit on the factual situation and risks in Kenya’.
Should aid to Africa come to an end?
Dambisa Moyo's Dead Aid has caused a stir but its argument is incorrect
Ronald Elly Wanda
2009-05-21, Issue 433
cc Alessandro PucciDambisa Moyo’s argument that aid is detrimental to Africa’s development has made her a star on the literary and academic circuit, writes Ronald Elly Wanda, but it isn’t true. Moyo’s recent book Dead Aid, Wanda says, makes no ‘correlation between Africa’s development and its accompanying social and historical conditions’ nor does it explore the possibility that ‘exogenous factors have and continue to hamper development in Africa’. If Moyo’s argument that Africa’s culture of dependency is to blame for its woes was true, writes Wanda, the economies of countries which have received virtually no foreign aid – such as Eritrea, Mauritania and Somalia – should have improved notably, which is not the case. The real problem, Wanda argues, is not aid itself but the way in which it is structured and delivered.
In praise of brotherhood – and sisterhood too
Wandia Njoya
2009-05-21, Issue 433
cc flickr.comIt is ‘not enough for men to plead that they are not as bad as some of their brothers’, writes Wandia Njoya in reply to Godwin Murunga’s response to her ‘tirade on Kenyan masculinity’. Of course there are exceptions to the men I describe, says Njoya, ‘I simply used the male callers as icons of values I know to be still entrenched in Kenyan society after a century of colonialist, traditionalist and racist patriarchy’. Airing Kenyan men’s dirty linen on an international stage may have been inappropriate but some sort of ‘collective responsibility for what some do in the name of an identity that includes many’ is necessary, Njoya argues. Concerns with 'personal righteousness' are largely irrelevant when talking about 'structuralised oppression', says Njoya. ‘Men who believe they treat women responsibly and humanely must tell their brothers and teach their sons to do the same’.
The barbarity of wage-slavery
The workers at this hotel have no working hours, they work from dawn until 'there is no business'
Mphutlane wa Bofelo
2009-05-21, Issue 433
cc Alvise ForcelliniMphutlane wa Bofelo comments on the ‘barbarity of wage-slavery’, after confronting working conditions at a hotel in Mauritania, where staff work long hours for meagre wages. This situation prevails in the restaurant and hotel industry throughout the world, writes wa Bofelo, with big South African companies ‘paying their workers as little as three hundred rand per month and some who do not give a salary at all, paying their labourers with the tips from their clients’. Wa Bofelo is disturbed that ‘even Muslim-owned businesses have resorted to this… practice of employing people without a salary’. Halaal certification, wa Bofelo argues, should take into account labour-relations practices, labour rights and human rights culture, not just whether a enterprise is Muslim-owned or has prayer facilities.
No to AfDB neoliberalism
Forum on the African Development Bank
2009-05-14, Issue 432
cc World BankAs the African Development Bank (AfDB) holds its 44th annual assembly, African civil society groups met at a forum in Dakar to express their deep dissatisfaction with the bank's policies. Forum participants allege that the bank does not fully understand the implications of the global financial crisis for Africa and that it has done nothing more than peddle the neoliberal line of institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). They also say that it has failed to come up with a single initiative of its own to tackle the African debt crisis. The forum stressed the need for the AfDB to be an institution committed first and foremost to the welfare of the African people if it is to promote sustainable development and food sovereignty successfully.
The power of example: Lessons from South Africa’s election
Mammo Muchie
2009-05-14, Issue 432
© OryxmediaIn a piece considering the broader implications of the recent South African election for Africa at large, Mammo Muchie celebrates the calmness with which South Africans have consistently expressed their democratic and human rights. Encouraging other African parties to follow South African groups' example in ensuring political rivalries never descend into violent confrontation, Muchie salutes the country's ability to maintain a free and fair election process. Reflecting on the wider lessons for the African continent and his native Ethiopia in particular, the author stresses that the example of a free press and the right to criticise underpinning South Africa's success should be replicated across the continent.
Donors won’t cough up without change
Zim future in jeopardy amidst Unity government impasse
Richard Kamidza
2009-05-14, Issue 432
cc FOCOZimbabwe’s new lease of life is under threat, as signatories to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) fail to implement the deal, writes Richard Kamidza. Fresh farm invasions, the re-arrest of political prisoners and disrespect for the pluralistic processes of democracy set out in AU and SADC statutes are sending out the wrong signal to investors and damaging the Unity Government’s ability to unlock financial and technical assistance from global donors and western governments, Kamidza argues. The Harare administration needs US$8 billion to revive the country’s social and economic sectors. Zimbabwe has a monthly public sector wage bill of US$400 million and revenue of just US$30 million.
Congo: We should be Africa’s Brazil
Give us a fighting chance to live up to our potential
Ali M. Malau
2009-05-14, Issue 432
cc WikipediaIt's true that Congo is a disappointment, says Ali M. Malau, responding to There is No Congo, an article which advocates carving up the country described as ‘a collection of peoples, groups, interests, and pillagers who coexist at best’. But that’s no reason to write off its potential to succeed as a nation-state of a country that should rival rising powers like South Africa and Brazil with its wealth of natural and human resources. Malau argues that Congo’s failure is the result of a Western campaign to weaken it in order to ‘perpetuate the systematic plunder of Congo's resources’ by foreign interests. Since 1885, says Malau, the affairs of the Congo have never truly been left to the Congolese people. With a great deal of work and investment from its people, Malau believes Congo could still become a ‘powerful engine for the development, and the industrialisation of the entire continent’.
Full speed in the wrong direction
Has the world made real progress since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit?
Nnimmo Bassey
2009-05-14, Issue 432
cc CodaCSD-17 presents a unique opportunity for global governance to rise above the selfish interests of individual countries and regional blocks to work towards sustainable development worldwide, writes Nnimmo Bassey. But, he warns, a complicated negotiation text lacking in ideas to galvanise nations into acting in solidarity, is likely to maintain the status quo. Bassey expresses dismay at G-77 references to ‘national laws and cultural contexts’ when the Commission for Sustainable Development ‘should be raising the bar, not subjecting universal ideals to parochial local regimes’. Bassey suggests that restoring confidence in global governance and democracy is an important part of tackling the food, climate and economic crises on every delegates’ mind. What is even more problematic to the negotiations, however, is the lack of unanimity in defining what ‘sustainability’ actually is.
Gambia: Time to stop the abuse
Popular criticism of Jammeh government swells
Abena Ampofoa Asare
2009-05-14, Issue 432
cc WikimediaState-sanctioned witch-hunts in March have triggered growing popular criticism of Gambia’s repressive Jammeh government on the ground as well as internationally, writes Abena Ampofoa Asare. Detailing the failure of regional and continental mechanisms from the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) court to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) to respond effectively to human-rights abuses in a deteriorating political situation, Asare calls for the issue to be addressed at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights annual meeting on 13 May.
Beyond mere 'brotherhood' and 'sisterhood'
Godwin Murunga
2009-05-14, Issue 432
cc J FrancisIn a response to 'Kenyan men should zip up and grow up' in last week's Pambazuka, Godwin Murunga charges that Wandia Njoya's letter smacks of intellectual laziness. Suggesting that Njoya's argument ignores entirely the attitudinal gains in gender relations made over previous years, Murunga emphasises that it is highly misleading to cast all men as equal recipients of 'patriarchal dividends'. Stressing that the problem of 'flawed masculinity' is in some respects actively fuelled by women themselves, Murunga underlines the inherent destructiveness of short-sighted generalisations.
The KwaZulu Natal Slums Act: Bloody legislation against the expropriated
Richard Pithouse
2009-05-14, Issue 432
cc Arne BoellWith South Africa's Constitutional Court today set to hear the efforts of the Abahlali baseMjondolo shackdweller movement to have the KwaZulu Natal Slums Act declared unlawful, Richard Pithouse reflects on the state's routine willingness to evict occupiers of informal housing in contravention of the protection afforded by the country's constitution. Stressing the destruction engendered through forcing people out of their communities, Pithouse discusses the state's flawed assumption that blindly razing settlements without fully accommodating their inhabitants amounts to progress. Highlighting the similarities of the 2007 Slums Act with apartheid-era legislation, the author criticises a technocratic act that regards the poor as the problem rather than the material and political realities they face, and proposes the implementation of measures aimed at privileging the social value of urban land over commercial concerns.
Food sovereignty: A new model for a human right
Vía Campesina and Friends of the Earth International
2009-05-14, Issue 432
cc OxfamFollowing UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter's comments at the 17th session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), Vía Campesina and Friends of the Earth International give their response to the special rapporteur's comments. While highlighting the recommendations and broad understanding that they share with De Schutter, the authors' statement emphasises the centrality of 'food sovereignty', namely, the right of different communities and peoples to control their own territories. This the authors contend is a process that goes beyond producers' mere 'participation' in high-level decision-making; it is one which actively positions farmers and peasants at the centre of agricultural production and control.
Pan-Africanism in Mwalimu Nyerere’s thought
Being both king and philosopher
Issa G. Shivji
2009-05-07, Issue 431
cc WikimediaOutlining the essential differences between the respective approaches of Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah, Issa G. Shivji discusses the gradualist and radical positions of two pillars of the Pan-Africanist movement. Underlining the notion of an independent African state as a ‘national liberation movement in power’ as being at the very core of the movement, Shivji stresses that genuine African nationalism can only ever be Pan-Africanism. As both a head of state and leading Pan-Africanist intellectual, Nyerere found himself supporting contradictory ideas around contesting the imposition of colonial borders while emphasising the centrality of states' sovereignty, Shivji notes. While admitting that he is without a complete answer to the question of what intellectuals' role will be in the development of a new Pan-Africanism for today, Shivji stresses that the challenge will be to push forward a 'new nationalist insurrection', one which perhaps ultimately recognises African unity as a dream rather than a vision.
Why I refuse to condemn Mugabe
Adolf Mkenda
2009-05-07, Issue 431
cc WikimediaIt is clear why Zimbabweans want a change of government, writes Adolf Mkenda, but it isn’t clear why the West has been more critical of Mugabe than other leaders with worse records on human rights and democracy. Mkenda argues that two key factors sparked this response: The international connections of white Zimbabweans, and Mugabe’s reneging on the IMF’s structural adjustment program in favour of nationalisation and land seizure, in contradiction with the neo-liberal thinking of the time. ‘International efforts to promote democracy and human rights must be accepted and encouraged, but these must not be allowed to be used abusively as a selective instrument of punishing governments that chart out an independent path for their own people,’ writes Mkenda.
