Through the voices of the peoples of Africa and the global South, Pambazuka Press and Pambazuka News disseminate analysis and debate on the struggle for freedom and justice.
Features
RSS FeedHiroshima and Nagasaki: Time for sanity and healing
Horace Campbell
2010-08-12, Issue 494
cc B NIt is 65 years this August since the US dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of unarmed Japanese civilians, writes Horace Campbell. Although US history books say that thousands of servicemen were saved as a result of those two bombings, the reality, says Campbell, was different.
The threat and consequences of nuclear war
Message to the National Assembly: Year 52 of the Revolution
Fidel Castro
2010-08-12, Issue 494
cc Carolonline‘Given the fact that Iran will not give an inch to the demands of the United States and Israel, which have already mobilised several of the means of warfare to their disposal, they will have to launch the attack as soon as the date agreed by the Security Council on June 9, 2010 – with the established rules and requirements – expires. There is a limit to all what man hopes to achieve, which he cannot surpass. In this critical case, President Barack Obama is the one who would give the order to start the so much announced and publicised attack, following the rules of the gigantic empire,' proclaims Fidel Castro.
Pakistan’s flooding: A tragedy of failed humanity
Yash Tandon
2010-08-12, Issue 494
cc OxfamAs the Pakistani people face up to the effects of terrible flooding, Yash Tandon expresses solidarity and stresses that if nature is cruel, a civilisation which puts ‘profits before humanity, and military security before food security’ is surely crueller.
What now, after the referendum?
Yash Ghai
2010-08-12, Issue 494
© S 1The referendum result ‘puts beyond doubt the wishes of Kenyans to bring about fundamental social and political changes’, writes Yash Ghai. Although the new constitution sets both a framework and a timetable for its implementation, Ghai says it’s crucial that Kenyans are not sidetracked by talk of ‘reconciliation through further negotiations on “contentious issues”’ from elites ‘determined to sabotage reform agendas’. ‘The whole point of a referendum is to see which side has greater support, and to bring the debate to closure,’ says Ghai.
Kenya: Don't waste the new constitution
The safeguarding role of civil society
Jill Cottrell Ghai and Yash Pal Ghai
2010-08-12, Issue 494
cc DemoshKenya is awakening with the realisation of a new constitution. Jill Cottrell Ghai and Yash Pal Ghai warn that Kenyan society must not now allow the silence of complacency to take hold and obstruct the path to democratic and transparent governance. The commitment of the nation’s civil society organisations and movements able to secure the universal implementation of the constitution will ensure its survival, and the upholding of the rights and responsibilities it enshrines for the benefit of Kenyans, write the authors.
Kenya says ‘Yes’ to the constitution
Sokari Ekine
2010-08-12, Issue 494
cc E PResponses to the results of Kenya’s referendum, Haitian musician Wyclef Jean’s decision to run for president and the dangers of Bill Gates and his foundation dabbling in Africa’s development are among the topics discussed in this week’s roundup of the African blogosphere, brought to you by Sokari Ekine.
Banks, blood and chocolate
Khadija Sharife
2010-08-12, Issue 494
Rudolf Elmer, whistleblower and former CEO of Swiss bank Julius Baer’s Cayman Island operations, reveals the secrets of the murky world of offshore banking to Khadija Sharife. ‘Mauritius is in many ways the Switzerland of Africa,’ says Elmer, but there is another African nation vying to be the ‘golden’ financial gateway: Ghana.
Crying fowl: KFC and the World Food Programme
Alex Free
2010-08-12, Issue 494
cc AnanthGiven the negative impact of the fast food industry on food sovereignty and security, isn't it a little odd that the World Food Programme has teamed up with KFC to fund its hunger relief efforts, asks Alex Free. Fast food's methods of production and perpetual drive to lower costs work to undermine ‘environments, biodiversity and local people’s access to land’, says Free, while tackling world hunger demands the exact opposite: ‘Working towards sustainable access to food; recognising local expertise; promoting biodiversity; and putting people before profits.’
Decolonising African feminism
Let us focus on African women’s agency, not just their oppression
Jenn Jagire
2010-08-11, Issue 494
cc J HThe fight to stop violence against women in Africa must diverge from the dominant Western feminism that implants alien perspectives and methods into an African struggle, writes Jenn Jagire. Jagire urges Africa’s feminists to regain agency and ‘deEuropeanise’ African feminism, avoiding perpetuating neo-colonial mentalities and development models that see Africa's women as victims rather than the drivers of their own destiny.
Sexual equality and the NCC draft Zambian constitution
Mwila Agatha Zaza
2010-08-12, Issue 494
cc L U SZambia’s new draft constitution, created by the National Constitution Conference, discriminates against members of the LGBT community, depriving them of their rights to live freely and equitably, writes Mwila Agatha Zaza. The inclusion of unspecified Christian values into the constitution, vaguely defined laws on family and a woman’s right to marital freedom, and a prohibition of abortion except under already defined circumstances means this new constitution does little to progress sexual equality in Zambia, Zaza argues.
African women’s rights: Mobilisation and implementation
Marie-Claire Faray speaks to Pambazuka News
Marie-Claire Faray
2010-08-12, Issue 494
cc Javic‘Women should refuse to die or live in abject poverty or endure violence: They should be angry, mobilising and taking to the streets to demand concrete actions which will improve their lives and the wellbeing of their children.’ Marie-Claire Faray, vice president of UK WILPF (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom) speaks to Pambazuka News about the African Women’s Decade and what women – and men – can do to help fulfil its promise to defend women's rights and reduce gender inequality.
Kenyan constitution: History in the making
The challenges of implementation
Yash Ghai and Jill Cottrell Ghai
2010-08-05, Issue 493
© S 1Provisional results of the referendum in Kenya indicates a landslide victory for the new constitution - at last a home grown one. Yash Ghai and Jill Cottrell Ghai discuss the challenges of implementation and the importance of Kenya’s people ‘proclaiming their sovereignty’ through a constitution ‘made by the people, for the people’.
Democratic dreams and nightmares in Africa
Dibussi Tande
2010-08-06, Issue 493
As Kenyans go to the polls to vote on a new constitution, Dibussi Tande reviews reactions across the African blogosphere. Tande also looks at lessons for Kenya from Ghana, and humorous calls for a new Malawian flag.
The ANC turns on the press (again)
Richard Pithouse
2010-08-05, Issue 493
cc Z I G TSouth Africa’s media could soon be working under tighter restrictions if a new ANC bill restricting press freedom is approved, writes Richard Pithouse. The bill proposes to give government bodies the right to withhold information from the media, the creation of media tribunals and the publication of a new pro-ANC newspaper, removing the right of any media to critique government policies and leaders. ‘If the ANC was committed to the democratisation of society it would be working to democratise the media by legislating for real diversity, generous subsidies for autonomous community media and serious state support for genuinely public broadcasting. What they are doing, instead, is trying to bully the media into submission to an increasingly authoritarian and conservative regime,’ says Pithouse.
The Gambia: A dictator’s anti-media war
Alagi Yorro Jallow
2010-08-05, Issue 493
cc N BSince the 1994 coup d’état that saw President Yahya Jammeh rise to power, the Gambian media has been forced to work under repressive and restrictive conditions. The disappearance of editors and journalists, destruction of property and threat of imprisonment and harm by Jammeh’s National Intelligence Agency officers mean Gambian media outlets must either praise the ruling party or close their doors. Alagi Yorro Jallow, once an editor of a now closed private Gambian publication, discusses the Gambian government crackdown on the media and regulations under which a Gambian journalist must work.
The Angolan presidency: The epicentre of corruption
Rafael Marques de Morais
2010-08-05, Issue 493
cc N CResponding to Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos's call for a zero-tolerance policy on corruption on 21 November 2009, Rafael Marques de Morais reports on the business dealings of three figures representing a 'triumvirate that today dominates Angola’s political economy': General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior “Kopelipa”, General Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento “Dino” and Manuel Vicente. Though government figures, these individuals make no distinction between public and private affairs and represent the apex of a state-business empire based on 'illegal self-enrichment for the top state officials', Marques de Morais writes.
Petroleum: Blessing or curse for Ghana?
Cameron Duodu
2010-08-05, Issue 493
cc R N WAs Ghana gears up to develop its petroleum industry, Cameron Duodu strongly laments the absence of greater public sharing of information around the sector. Duodu stresses that Nigeria’s tumultuous history with petroleum ‘is a rehearsal of what could be waiting for us’ and that Ghana should pay particular attention to its neighbour’s experience if it is to avoid ‘so much cheating and thievery’.
What is so African about anti-homosexuality and anti-terrorism?
Chambi Chachage
2010-08-05, Issue 493
cc R W P‘Any attempt to strictly define Africa and Africans in terms of one race or culture without acknowledging its diversity is discriminatory,’ writes Chambi Chachage. ‘What we now know as Africa is such a complexity. A cursory look at its history shows that it has always contained a variety of practices and peoples. Its dynamic nature – for every cultural and geographical entity is not static as the theory of relativity shows us – has allowed it to give and take from other continents.’
Malawi has an app for that: Charting the nation’s IT future
Steve Sharra
2010-08-05, Issue 493
cc D ZReflecting on discussions at a Malawian ‘unconference’ on information technology, Steve Sharra considers IT’s future role in the lives of Malawians. With ‘billions of kwacha’ leaving the country in the form of software licences to northern companies, considerable Malawian taxpayer money ends up being spent on proprietary software, despite governmental indifference. As Sharra emphasises, Malawian ingenuity around application development and the use of open source software should be much better supported in the struggle to improve the country’s education system.
Congo-Kinshasa: New evidence shows US role in Lumumba’s death
Stephen R. Weissman
2010-08-05, Issue 493
cc WikimediaFollowing an extensive parliamentary inquiry in 2002, the Belgian government assumed a portion of responsibility for the murder of Patrice Lumumba, writes Stephen R. Weissman. But ‘controversy has continued to swirl over allegations of US government responsibility’, despite a 1975 investigation concluding that it was not ‘in anyway involved in the killing’. ‘It is now clear,’ writes Weissman, ‘that conclusion was wrong.’
Human rights in Ethiopia: Can Obama deliver?
Steel vices, clenched fists and closing walls (Part III)
Alemayehu G. Mariam
2010-08-05, Issue 493
cc A HThe Obama administration must hold Meles Zenawi to account for gross human rights abuses against his people in Ethiopia, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam. Mariam argues that although the US has instilled a hope for a better future in the vision of the oppressed, without a realignment of US foreign policy and subsequent pressure against the regime in Ethiopia, belief will deteriorate into despair and anti-Americanism in the country. ‘It is time for the US to fish or cut bait in Ethiopia’, writes Mariam.
South Africa loses its ‘War on Poverty’
Patrick Bond
2010-08-05, Issue 493
© abahlali.orgNow two years in the making, the South African state's War on Poverty (WoP) is ‘one of the most clandestine operations in South African history’, writes Patrick Bond.
The politics of penises: Myths about transgender people
Audrey Mbugua
2010-07-28, Issue 492
cc Irina SlutskyThe struggle against gender oppression in Kenya endures. Following the recent unlawful arrest and assault of a transgender woman in the country, Audrey Mbugua voices the subordination of those who do not comply with the restrictive gender-based identities adopted by society at large. Mbugua unlaces these societal constructs that tie their subjects to an existence of marginalisation and abuse. Mbugua suggests ignorance and bureaucratised discrimination amongst Kenyan society is to blame.
Somalia’s rough road to peace
Abena Ampofoa Asare
2010-07-28, Issue 492
cc OM: PessoaFollowing the al-Shabaab bombing in Kampala, current plans to send more AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) troops into Somalia will simply jeopardise the possibility of a new moderate leadership emerging in the country, writes Abena Ampofoa Asare. Observers in the African Union, UN and international community at large would do well to look at Somaliland to the north, the author stresses. Solutions to Somalia’s civil war will not emerge in Kampala, Washington DC or Addis Ababa, Asare contends, underlining that a key lesson of Somaliland’s experience is that ‘effective government must come from within’.
Food crisis in the Sahel: Real problem, false solutions
Tidiane Kassé
2010-07-29, Issue 492
cc liquidslvFollowing food crises in 2005 and 2008, Niger is once again reeling under a famine that has reached Chad and northern Mali, with repercussions for other countries in the Sahel region. As appeals for solidarity increase, Tidiane Kassé cautions that by tackling the consequences rather than the causes of the crisis, the region’s people are likely to remain vulnerable to hunger.
Treasure islands: Mapping the geography of corruption
Khadija Sharife
2010-07-29, Issue 492
cc ThierryNeither the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nor the country’s government agree that Mauritius is a tax haven, but Khadija Sharife’s investigations suggest otherwise.
Serving our life sentence in the shacks
Abahlali baseMjondolo
2010-07-29, Issue 492
cc rabbleAs people all over South Africa ask why the government continues to ignore the demands of shack dwellers, not just for the right to the city but for their basic human needs to be met, Abahlali baseMjondolo reply: ‘Everybody knows that we are the people who do not count in this society…the truth that must be faced up to is that we have been sentenced to permanent exclusion from this society.’ But, write Abahlali, ‘we have recognised our own humanity and the power of our struggle to force the full recognition of our humanity. Therefore we remain determined to continue to refuse to know our place.’
Abahlali baseMjondolo: Full and independent enquiry vital
Rubin Phillip
2010-07-28, Issue 492
cc InkaniBacked by strong support both domestically and from abroad, the South African shackdwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo continues to push for a full and independent enquiry into the violence suffered by the Kennedy Road settlement in September 2009, writes Bishop Rubin Phillip.
Leave new oil in the soil in Africa
Oilwatch Africa
2010-07-29, Issue 492
cc fsgmThroughout the continent, ‘oil has correlated with imperial subjugation, local authoritarianism and flagrant human rights abuses’, writes Oilwatch Africa. Citing examples of the devastating consequences a growing global hunger for energy has had for communities and ecosytems in oil-bearing regions, the advocacy group calls for the world to start weaning itself from its ‘addiction to oil’ by ‘investing more in renewable energy, energy efficiency, better public transportation and small decentralised energy projects.’
Bishop Tutu: Using moral methods for moral ends
Sokari Ekine
2010-07-29, Issue 492
cc Lewisham HeritageBishop Desmond Tutu, a book about four African women taken to Belgium to become commercial sex workers, a chance encounter with a ‘white Yoruba aunty’ on a train in London and Kenya’s revolt against tacky ‘traditional’ dance displays for tourists are among the topics talked about in this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere, compiled by Sokari Ekine.