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. 
Letters & Opinions
RSS FeedThe World Bank and transparency
David Shaman
2010-04-15, Issue 477
History suggests that the World Bank’s management believes transparency is something that should apply to its clients and other external stakeholders rather than to itself, writes David Shaman. He invites readers to share their own experiences and observations at his new blog.
Still fighting for freedom
A response to ‘South Africa’s forgotten intellectuals’ by Marion Grammer
Z. Pallo Jordan
2010-04-01, Issue 476
Z. Pallo Jordan asks whether Marion Grammer’s claims about the role played by Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM) in South Africa’s liberation are ‘not a little extravagant?’
Residency opportunity for a Haitian writer
Judith Bowman
Robey Theatre Company
2010-04-01, Issue 476
The Robey Theatre Company is interested in offering a short-term writing residency to an emerging writer with permanent residency in Haiti, writes Judith Bowman.
Freedom birthday remembrance for Mumia Abu Jamal
2010-04-01, Issue 476
Mumia Abu Jamal’s birthday is on April 24 and ‘we would like to celebrate the whole month of April with a gigantic Freedom Birthday Remembrance for him’, write his friends and family. Please join all who love and admire Mumia by avalanching him through the month of April with birthday wishes. ‘Mumia has already done 32 years and is still on death row because of prosecutorial misconduct. Yet he is innocent! Act now before it is too late.’
Don’t let injustice flourish in Lubango
Rosario Advirta
Christian Aid
2010-03-25, Issue 475
Why hasn’t Pambazuka News covered the violation of human rights during the recent demolitions and land evictions in Lubango municipality in Angola, Rosario Advirta asks. If there is silence even in the independent media, says Advirta, then ‘injustice and repression will probably grow'.
Abahlali baseMjondolo is no ‘spent force’
A response to ‘Eulogy to Fatima Meer’ by Ashwin Desai
Jared Sacks
2010-03-25, Issue 475
Ashwin Desai’s recent ‘backhanded swipe’ at South African shackdwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo in his eulogy to Fatima Meer is ‘not only uncalled for, it is also completely inaccurate’, writes Jared Sacks.
Is buying guns really better than buying food?
Sza Sza Zelleke
2010-03-25, Issue 475
In response to Richard Dowden’s article ‘Get real Bob – buying guns might have been better than buying food’, Sza Sza Zelleke writes: ‘It is clear that guns, and the men who sell food aid to buy them, are not the solution to Africa’s problems. What Africans needs is more accountability and less arms.’
Checking the figures on Chinese investment
A response to ‘China in Africa: Realism conquers myth’ by Stephen Marks
Deborah Brautigam
2010-03-25, Issue 475
As important as China’s investment in African manufacturing is, writes Deborah Brautigam, I don't believe I say anywhere in my book ‘that it has been higher than China's investment in mining over the past five years.’
For the love of God stop the killing!
Joseph Kaifala
2010-03-25, Issue 475
Reflecting on Jos, Joseph Kaifala writes: ‘Africa has always received recognition for the compassion and love of its people, in spite of all other negative issues. To fight for tangible things within human control is a different matter altogether, but to murder in the name of God is a vein assumption of demi-godly role that no one should be allowed to proclaim.’
Hiding behind homophobic rhetoric
A response to ‘Homophobia is the problem, not homosexuality’
2010-03-11, Issue 473
When times are tough it’s easier to pick on people than to fix the economy, says solomonsydelle.
The first crime committed is colonisation
A response to ‘Staggering from pillar to post: Zimbabwe’s "unity" government'
Lloyd Whitefield Butler, Jr
2010-03-11, Issue 473
Mary Ndlovu's article is well-written, says Lloyd Whitefield Butler, but it doesn't address the root causes of the present Zimbabwe crisis.
Our souls are no longer for sale, Mr Evil
Our spirit is defeating you
Charo Mina Rojas
2010-03-04, Issue 472
American televangelist Pat Robertson was 'partially right' in saying that 'black people’s souls were compromised by evil', Charo Mina Rojas writes from Haiti. But it's not because people of African ancestry sold their souls to evil, it's that the evil of colonialism took their souls and 'traded with them'.
A sad story that affects thousands of women
Responses to 'Who killed Lillian?'
Caroline & Susan
2010-03-04, Issue 472
'The story of Lillian is very sad and its just one example of the thousands of women who die at child birth,' writes Caroline, while Susan says that it 'is sad that our people die out of preventable circumstances'.
President Zuma, proudly Zulu
A response to 'Polygamy, promiscuity and progressive leadership'
Alfred Mafuleka
2010-03-04, Issue 472
President Zuma is 'not a saint', writes Alfred Muleka, but as a proud Zulu man, a traditonalist and a nationalist, he deserves 'protection and respect under the constitution'. Polygamy is not illegal in South Africa, says Muleka, so let's respect this right rather than judging it by Western stanadards.
Insightful analysis on Africa’s structural exploitation
Responses to Samir Amin's ‘Dead Aid’: A critical reading’
Lisa Vives, Joan Nimarkoh, Vikas Nath
2010-02-25, Issue 471
Lisa Vives, Joan Nimarkoh and Vikas Nath respond to Samir Amin's critique of Dambisa Moyo's 'Dead Aid'.
Cheap settlement with lasting consequences
A response to ‘Shell in Nigeria: The struggle for accountability’
UCT GSB
2010-02-25, Issue 471
'Shell was held accountable, but can this really be considered justice?' asks UCT GSB.
Hickel is right about the technocrats
A response to 'Africa, geology and the march of the development technocrats'
Michael
2010-02-18, Issue 470
'I couldn't agree more with the assertions made' in Jason Hickel's article, writes Michael.
China: A hyena out to con Africa?
A response to 'Trade, investment, power and the China-in-Africa discourse'
Julius Gatune
2010-02-18, Issue 470
'If Africa is the antelope in the global jungle it must learn that just because the leopard is beautiful does not make it less dangerous than the hyena', writes Julius Gatune.
Yar’Adua has NOT improved democracy
A response to 'How Yar'Adua has improved Nigerian democracy'
Beauty
2010-02-18, Issue 470
None of the arguments in Funmi Feyide's article support the title, writes Beauty.
Why didn’t you mention the sanctions?
A response to 'Statement on the first anniversary of the Government of National Unity'
Mike
2010-02-18, Issue 470
Pambazuka's failure to mention ten years of sanctions against Zimbabwe with a statement on the first anniversary of the Government of National Unity is a crime against the country's people and humanity, writes Mike.
Zuma scandal will hurt the ANC
A response to 'Shift flawed leader aside or suffer the consequences'
Peter Townshend
2010-02-18, Issue 470
For the sake of the ANC, Jacob Zuma should come clean, apologise, ask for forgiveness - and resign from the national presidency, writes Peter Townshend.
Solidarity for Haiti from Louisiana
Kwaku O. Kushindana
2010-02-04, Issue 468
'I was very happy to read "The hate and the quake" by Hilary Beckles because it exposed a reality that the vast majority, and even African-Americans have no idea of,' writes Kwaku O. Kushindana.
Doubts on the veracity of Mutsinzi report
René Lemarchand
2010-01-28, Issue 467
Anyone familiar with the basic provisions of the Arusha accords of 18 August 1992 is impelled to call into question Gerald Caplan's credentials in commenting on the merits of the Mutsinzi report, writes René Lemarchand.
The evidence points in one direction only
Gerald Caplan
2010-01-28, Issue 467
Gerald Caplan responds to Professor René Lemarchand's criticism of his article on the Mutsinzi Report into the assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana in 1994.
Rwandans deserve better than this
Susan Thomson
2010-01-28, Issue 467
Given Rwanda's history of the elite manipulation of the past for political gain, Gerald Caplan's analysis of the Mutsinzi Report is dangerous and thoughtless, writes Susan Thomson.
We are no longer at ease
An open letter from Nigerian writers
2010-01-21, Issue 466
Nigeria's failure to make the progress commensurate with 50 years of nation-building is not just a failure of leadership. It is first and most catastrophically, a failure of followership.
Angolan government was foolhardy to host tournament
Sonia Maria
2010-01-21, Issue 466
It does not take a political scientist to infer that it was foolhardy of the Angolan government to agree to host a tournament of this magnitude in a country that has been at war for more than three decades, writes Sonia Maria, a lawyer and civil rights activist from Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
No transparency in Kenya’s examination board
Isaac Newton Kinity
2010-01-14, Issue 465
Isaac Newton Kinity asks if a ‘political, secret shadow examination board’ is ‘still alive in Kenya’.
They were giants too
Marion Grammer
2010-01-07, Issue 464
Marion Grammer is surprised that Leslie Dikeni’s roll-call of South African intellectuals makes ‘not a single mention of the many so-called “coloured” and Indian intellectuals who were so prominent during the Apartheid years.’
Celebrity intellectuals and social movements
Ann Eveleth
2010-01-07, Issue 464
Ann Eveleth asks if South Africa is in danger of losing its political discourse to a 'spectacle of the commentator'.
Previous ... 91-120 | 121-150 | 151-180 | 181-210 | 211-240 | 241-270 ... Next