Back Issues

Featured This Week

2007-02-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/39800

FEATURES: Doeba Bropleh outlines a new paradigm for Liberia’s reconstruction
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- International NGOs: Mukoma Wa Ngugi examines the threat to African democracies?
- An open letter to President Mbeki from South African feminists
- Selome Araya on the misrepresentation of Africa by the international media and assorted humanitarian campaigns
LETTERS: on the rejection of a new PM by the Guinean people and the furore over China in Africa book
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem writes on religion and the ideology of hope
BLOGGING AFRICA: Harnessing wind power in the Niger Delta and other Nigerian stories
BOOKS & ARTS: Carbon trading exposed and a homage to Nuruddin Farah
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: AU remains hopeful and hesitant
PODCASTS: Live from death row by Mumia Abu-Jamal

CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Change or chaos in Guinea?
HUMAN RIGHTS: Rights groups call for Nlandu's release in DRC
WOMEN AND GENDER: Liberian women decry post-war violence
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Liberian refugees in plea to Israeli government
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Nigerian VP to be barred from poll
AFRICA AND CHINA: South African firms take on the Dragon
DEVELOPMENT: AFRICOM – Opening the Third Front
CORRUPTION: “Vulture Funds” threaten Developing World
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: 3GSM Cell-phones to fight AIDS
EDUCATION: Choice between school and survival in Mozambique
ENVIRONMENT: Caught between drought and guns in Uganda
LGBTI: Human rights failures in Nigeria
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: Dozens killed in Kenya land clashes
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Zimbabwe courts abandon case against Ncube
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Social development portal launched in Kenya
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops and Jobs

A Cultural Paradigm for Liberia's Reconstruction

Doeba Bropleh

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/39759

As Liberia emerges as a new nation with competing resource priorities it needs to look back to it’s past cultural traditions particularly in the area of education, in order to move forward. Children should be taught “traditional arts, music, literature, religions, languages” and most importantly the ancient and modern history of Liberia, argues Doeba Bropleh.


There are many competing resource allocation priorities for Liberia as the country emerges from years of corruption, political instability, and civil conflict: education, shelter, food, economic revitalization, reintegration of former refugees and combatants, security, rebuilding infrastructure… the list is long. While each of the listed elements is important, for Liberia to develop, it has to use a foundation that includes an “expanded cultural perspective”. My premise is that economic growth, without a unifying cultural base, will lead to a bland society, one suffering from a lack of character and susceptible to further degradation.

As Liberia rebounds from the socio-economic and political carnage wrought by corruption, instability, and war, the country needs to reverse the dilution of its heritage. The Liberian identity should be reshaped to include more aboriginal cultural markers: there was learning before western-styled education; religion before the missionaries; and an economy before capitalism. Cultural truth is where salvation resides – Liberia needs to reach back in order to leap forward. This process may be uncomfortable at the onset, but, like birth, first there is pain, then joy.

Liberian identity, forged primarily from two disparate groups – freed American slaves (settlers) and indigenous people – developed in a lopsided manner because of the dominance of the settlers, even though they were the minority. Wrapped in western culture, which is all they knew, the settlers collided with and distorted the prism of the country’s “pre-settler” value systems. Various degrees of “westernization” were demanded from the natives before they were granted access – albeit limited – to the corridors of society, which were all controlled by the settlers. In the process, textured indigenous tradition and mores were shunned for foreign/imported ones.

Though Liberia was never directly colonized, the weakening of its native tradition was accelerated by the intrusion of western nations. The neo-colonialists’ “dark continent” outlook had insidious ramifications. In his book “Decolonizing the Mind”, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the esteemed Kenyan writer, discussed the “cultural bomb” of imperialism. He stated that: “The effect of a cultural bomb is to annihilate a people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves.” In her essay “Africa”, Maya Angelou, the renowned American writer outlined that: “The slaves too soon began to believe what their masters believed: Africa was a continent of savages.” It was some of these same slaves – armed with their altered worldview – that eventually resettled in what we now know as Liberia. Conflict was inevitable. Culture, however, provides a homogenizing glue that helps bind a multi-ethnic society, such as Liberia’s, creating a collective conscience buttressed by self-love and pride. Shared experiences and commonality work to humanize members of a community; thereby, moderating tensions which may arise. An “expanded cultural perspective” could aid in neutralizing the settler-versus-native rift that has plagued the country since its inception.

The sewing of cultural fabric does not require the suppression of intra-group differences however. On the contrary, the quilt should be expansive and inclusive enough to showcase the best from its various sub-groups, while respecting their idiosyncrasies. Such an approach acknowledges the contributions of all and signals equanimity between members of a society. This, in turn, fosters “buy-in” from each sector and gives people a product they can, and want to identify with. Many sub-groups (Ibo, Hausa, Yoruba, to name a few) influence Nigerian culture, yet each maintains a distinctive heritage of its own. While Liberian culture does have facets of this phenomenon, it could use more. This fabric though, only becomes durable if customs, traditions, history are truly shared, and if there is an awareness of these mutual elements. Hence, my proposed cultural paradigm for Liberia’s reconstruction calls for a holistic approach, plus aggressive, focused teaching and subscription to Liberian culture and history. This orientation will help Liberia develop the nationalistic audacity to question foreign socio-economic, political, legal, and religious systems, instead of accepting them carte blanche. Respect, especially from outsiders, is reserved for a people imbued with self-knowledge and pride.

One medium that can be used to jump-start this cultural awakening is the formal education system. Traditional arts, music, literature, religions, languages… should be taught in schools. The teaching of Liberian History – an integral part of cultural development – needs to be broad and rigorous, not the truncated version I was fed in junior and high school. The historical time line should be stretched to include the Liberian moment prior to the American Colonization Society’s resettlement plan for a select group of freed American slaves, which began in the 1820’s. Every person who attends school in Liberia should be aware of how the various tribes got to the area now known as Liberia, and what occurred in the territory before the arrival of Portuguese explorers in 1461. Instead of the romanticized, revisionist stories of settlers-repelling-natives”, former combatants – my young brothers and sisters, exploited as pawns in Liberia’s recently ended 14-year civil war – need to learn about the tribal internecine conflicts of yesteryear. The adage continues to hold true: a people unaware of the mistakes of the past are bound to repeat them.

Language is a cultural agent that needs to be strengthened in Liberia. S. Kpanbayeazee Duworko II, an instructor at the University of Liberia, addressed this issue well in his essay, “Literary Education and Canon Formation: The Liberian Experience.” In that piece he wrote that: “There is a need to create schools of Liberian languages and performing arts at the University of Liberia as a means of promoting Liberian culture.” Duworko went on to argue that students from elementary to high school should also be exposed to Liberian languages and literary works. He stated: “This exposure will give them a broad view of their own culture and will help them to have a sense of pride in their heritage.” Ngugi wa Thiong’o, (who now primarily writes in his native Gikuyu instead of English), asserts that the loss of language is a loss of culture. He declared that: “Language carries culture, and culture carries, particularly through orature and literature, the entire body of values by which we perceive ourselves and our place in the world.” The politics of language and its role in the preservation of culture reminds me of the late Liberian President William Tolbert’s much-ridiculed “Kpelle” effort, which was implemented in the late 70’s. This was when it was made policy for Kpelle – an indigenous Liberian language – to be taught in schools. For most of us in school at that time, learning Kpelle was our first and only exposure to a written aboriginal language. History will judge President Tolbert as a visionary for mandating the teaching of a traditional language. Now is a good time to reconstitute native language programs in schools.

In addition to the formal education component, the country’s heritage can also be brought to the fore through the promotion of traditional dress (current Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s simple, but highly visible act of wearing African attire sends positive self-esteem messages), food, visual arts, music, dance, literature and orature. The heritage needs to be accessible to people in their everyday lives. The South American country of Venezuela recently implemented a program that calls for the inclusion of traditional content in various outlets (television, radio, theaters, museums). Liberia could use that idea to create its own cultural content programming. While strong cultural cognizance alone will not prevent conflict, it is a practical way to reduce the chances of recidivism into lawlessness. And, if knowledge of the total “Liberian Self” cannot stop the outbreak of future hostilities, it can at least help lessen the resulting devastation. Greed will always be a threat, but it makes sense that a people connected by an “expanded” knowledge of self is less likely to destroy that which it loves. A people, bound by common purpose and drenched in homegrown pride – requirements for cohesive nationalism, collective conscience – would think before ruining their collaborative creation.

This new paradigm assumes more relevance given the exponential growth of the Liberian Diaspora since 1980, when many Liberians began relocating out of the country due to its civil and political conflict. The cultural renaissance suggested in this article could work to lure some citizens back, who could help with the country’s reconstruction. The shift to include a wider, more representative swath of Liberian tradition benefits the country three-fold: a) reduces the potential for a return to conflict; b) gives citizens the confidence to discriminate as to what is placed in the country’s “cultural canon”; and c) provides the foundation to move the country forward.

Many people have and continue to be dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Liberian culture. A few of the voices that have agitated in this realm are: Miatta Fahnbulleh; Fatu Gayflor (singers); Joseph Gbaba; Peter Ballah; Womi Neal; Konah Khasu (dramatists); Bai T. Moore; Dr. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley; Wilton Sankawulo; and K-Moses Nagbe (writers and teachers). Let the teachers teach it, writers chronicle, singers harmonize about it, medicine men, and yes, the preachers preach about Liberia’s cultural vitality. I am beginning to feel better about myself just by thinking about it.

* Doeba Bropleh is a Liberian currently based in California, USA

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

African Democracies for Sale

Mukoma Wa Ngugi

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/39755

Mukoma Wa Ngugi argues that one of the major threats to African Democracy comes from international NGOs such as the IRI, NED and USAID. These organizations act in the interest of the United States by attempting to and often succeeding in effecting regime change and influencing political outcomes in African countries.


Some of the most important threats to democracy in Africa are the International Republican Institute (IRI), USAID and other international NGO’s that are directly funded by the United States Congress. These are US foreign policy institutions that masquerade as philanthropic organizations of good-will all the while furthering American foreign policy. They are currently operating in over 40 African countries including Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

A brief history of the IRI is as follows: In a bid to make the world friendlier to US interests, President Ronald Reagan (a supporter of Apartheid South Africa) called for the creation of the National Endowment for Democracy in 1983. The US, he claimed, needed an organization that would “foster the infrastructure of democracy--the system of a free press, unions, political parties universities--which allows a people to choose their own way, to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.” As a result the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which spawned the International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) were formed. NED receives about $50 Million from the US Congress. USAID requested a staggering $9.3 billion for 2007.

Out of these three organizations, the IRI and USAID are the most active in the promotion of a world safe for US Democracy. The IRI at first “focused on planting the seeds of democracy in Latin America,” according to its website. After the “Cold War, [it] has broadened its reach to support democracy and freedom around the globe.” USAID states that U.S. foreign aid helps in “furthering America's foreign policy interests in expanding democracy and free markets while improving the lives of the citizens of the developing world.” Through what NED terms Consolidating Democracy, democratic principles and sovereignty are being violated. The NED, IRI and USAID attempt to unify opposition against a target government. They provide strategic and monetary support to the opposition. They also infiltrate university student organizations, women’s and youth groups, trade unions, teacher associations and other sectors of civil society which they then into supporting the opposition parties that they have effectively turned into a coalition. Worse than instigating a coup (a top down mechanism of change), the IRI and USAID infect the very blood lines of the country by affecting “regime change” through civil society.

Consolidating Democracy was successfully used in what the IRI refers to as the color revolutions in Ukraine (Orange), Georgia (Rose) and Kyrgyzstan (Tulip). In Haiti, democratically elected Aristide was overthrown using the same methods of unifying a rag-tag opposition and then mobilizing civil society behind it. But some countries such as Venezuela remain a failed target. The IRI’s 2005 Programs in Africa webpage states that it “provided training for political parties in Angola to establish a strong and stable political party system, and reinforce the national reconciliation process.” In Kenya it “worked with political parties to teach them how to develop positions and communicate them to voters.” In Nigeria they “focused on strengthening and preparing political parties for the 2007 elections and fostering partnerships between the parities and civil groups”. And in Liberia the IRI “sponsored the first-ever formal presidential candidate debates.”

In September 2006, when receiving the IRI 2006 Freedom Award together with Laura Bush, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf thanked the IRI which “was particularly active in promoting [the] elections.” She added that: “Very quickly an office was established. They came, they did workshops. They brought political groups together. They worked with the media. They educated. They instructed. They supported. They assisted the process.” She was in fact recounting the steps taken to consolidate democracy in Liberia by the foreign NGO.

President Mbeki has in the past questioned to what extent South African civil society makes independent choices. This concern can be extended to the continent. For example, a Boston Globe survey “identified 159 faith-based organizations that received more than $1.7 billion in USAID prime contracts, grants and agreements from fiscal 2001 to fiscal 2005” as part of President Bush’s Faith Based Initiative. The implications here are obvious. USAID has also tied acceptance of Genetically Modified food to foreign aid even in terms of disaster as in the case with Zambia in 2002. Organizations such as Oxfam have showed that GM foods in Africa would in the long run be harmful to the small scale African farmer, lead to the destruction of local food economies, create a cycle of dependency and cause more acute starvation. It was an absurd case of stopping starvation today by creating conditions for more starvation tomorrow. And in even more direct interference with the internal economy and politics of African countries, USAID, has worked in concert with the World Bank to promote the now infamous Structural Adjustment Programs. But it is the hijacking of democratic processes by using civil society that should be of the most concern to Africans concerned with genuine democracy.

The IRI and USAID don’t have to win every African election they participate in – each parliamentarian and each political organization that gets a seat in the government becomes their lobbyist. In effect, they become shareholders in the new government. And as the American proverb says, “whoever pays the piper calls the tune.” To understand the absurdity of what Africans have accepted as a norm, imagine African countries financing a third party in the United States. And in addition they also train student leaders, trade unionists, journalists and the rest of American civil society how to oppose or overthrow the US Government. Americans wouldn’t stand for it.

African election processes should be monitored by the African Union, the African Peer Review Mechanism and the international community to ensure opposition candidates get equal time in the media. Campaign finance laws should make it illegal for both the opposition and the sitting government to accept foreign funds. Taxpayer money (with a reasonable ceiling) could even be allocated to opposition parties, depending on the number of legally registered voters.

Sitting governments in Africa have access to state money, state television and newspapers and easily attract business money to line their pockets, while the opposition feels compelled to take foreign money. But foreign money perpetuates the goals of the donor. As a matter of democratic principle, alternatives have to be found. With governments that don’t address debilitating inequality, growing majorities living in absolute poverty, and opposition parties whose foreign funding sets the political platform instead of focusing on the causes of the marginalized, the gains made by those who fought for democracy with content are under threat.

* Mukoma Wa Ngugi is the author of Conversing with Africa: Politics of Change and Hurling Words at Consciousness. He is the coordinator of Toward an Africa Without Borders and a political columnist for the BBC Focus on Africa Magazine where a shorter version of this article first appeared.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

A Feminist critique of President Mbeki

Gender & Trade Network in Africa

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/39753

The Gender and Trade Network in Africa (GENTA) write an open letter to President Mbeki of South Africa criticising his failure to address gender issues in his economic development and poverty alleviation policies.


Dear Mr. President,

We as African women awaited your speech with interest and with open minds. We hoped that you would speak to our aspirations and make significant pronouncements on interventions intended to advance our citizenship as South African women during the mid term of this government. When you spoke of the ‘stench of living’ we could relate because many of us live with this stench. What sounded like a robust recommitment to tangible poverty eradication was weighed down by the market driven imperatives obscured by a pretty but ultimately empty rhetoric. An excellent opportunity to leave an outstanding legacy to the women and men of this country has been lost.

There is no doubt that the economy is growing. There is also no doubt that South Africa is an environment attractive to investors. However this growth is not translating into improved lives for the majority of people in this country especially women who are largely the least skilled, the lowest paid and the ones whose labour is the easiest to barter to foreign investors. It is extremely worrying that in the same breath President you speak of eradicating poverty and then suggest that a more flexible investment environment is needed to make doing business easier. In real terms this means consigning women to poorly paid, often risky employment conditions, with no union protection to produce profits that will be repatriated overseas. Your constant use of the “two economies” partition reflects the need by the state to accommodate both the demands of business for a non-interventionist state with the explicit requirement for state led intervention to tackle the burgeoning needs of the economically excluded.

Women are explicitly mentioned only once during the State of the Nation Address and that is in the context of indigent women. In mentioning this particular group of women, you have not in any way suggested any mechanism of enabling them to participate significantly in the economy and make the quantum leap from the so-called second to the first economy. If government persists in its own propaganda, enabling this dualism will certainly cause deepening poverty and destitution as the ‘first’ economy continually ejects those superfluous to its requirements. Moreover objectifying our poverty serves no function other than to further dehumanise women.

Much has been said in this speech about strengthening SMEs. In so doing it is important to address the supply side constraints, the financial environment particularly to access to credit, small business mentoring, child care, skills development and the many other factors which inhibit women’s ability to fully benefit from the opportunities available. Fluctuations in capital flows and cyclical instability disadvantage women more than men. There is a strong case for re-regulation of capital of international capital flows, especially portfolio flows. This is because they are 'gendered' institutions and structures. That is, they are institutions created, dominated and controlled by men. Institutions like DTI are therefore being shaped by a particular gender and class of people. They are expressions and vehicles of the preferred vision aspirations and assumptions of this particular group in South Africa. This occasion would be an opportunity to articulate the aspirations of citizens across gender, income and class lines.

The speech thus ignores the question of gender issues in economic development. It is not simply one of economic or social problems. It involves social relations of gender and the problems of deconstructing the ideology of gender relations, which includes a redistribution of power. Access to basic services are lauded as meeting Millennium Development Goals. The President states that access to water follows a rights approach in this country. Mr. Mbeki you fail to mention that millions of the most vulnerable people in this country –most of whom are women - still have to contend with water and electricity cut-offs, many of which are not legal. The rights based paradigm would not force the most economically vulnerable to pay for services that they cannot afford. The rights based paradigm would ensure that water, sanitation and electricity were readily available by subsidising the most impoverished households and charging the ‘haves’ greater amounts. This is the difference between poverty alleviation and poverty eradication. Poverty eradication requires a radical and consistent re-alignment and redistribution of resources across sectors and a complete shift in thinking. If we are to see the evidence of Ubuntu, this requires considering and rescinding the negative consequences of state policy on the most vulnerable particularly women. It is not comfortable and it requires more profound and accelerated impetus than government has hitherto shown. Is this a shift that you and the government are willing to make?

The speech speaks vociferously about increasing the personnel numbers and capacity in the criminal justice machinery, mentions violent crime in passing and highlights poaching, cash in transit heists and animal trafficking. More puzzling is the omission of rape and gender based violence. Given the ongoing reports of these crimes, this is reprehensible. In a country with the highest incidence of rape in the world it is a shameful lapse. We recognise the sterling efforts of many police, judges, prosecutors, district surgeons and other public servants. However no mention is made of the collusion of some criminal justice personnel in allowing certain dockets to go ‘missing', the trauma that many women and children face when they give evidence, the non-responsiveness and insensitivity of police in dealing with domestic violence. Equally worrying is that the speech mentions nothing abut the trafficking of women and children in and out of South Africa yet this is a global crisis. Considering all this, should we conclude that poaching is a higher priority than rape or human trafficking or domestic violence?

Social welfarism is a laudable component of State policy, particularly when there are such deep schisms and social inequalities. However it is disingenuous to present a speech full of promises as though the status quo is a result of forces other than Government policy of the last 13 years. GEAR (Growth, Employment and Redistribution economic strategy) and now ASGISA (Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa) are objects of contestation not only because their origins are not clear but because they do not offer a clear social contract with the nation. Despite the fact that the GEAR failed to meet its targets on most of its goals, including increased levels of local and foreign investment and employment creation, government for its part continues to hail the success of GEAR based on the attainment of two narrow indicators which are the reduction of the budget deficit, and the reduction in inflation. ASGISA has so far failed to address these contradictions and has so far kept women invisible from the policy constructs and processes. Moreover you have not told the nation that many of the 500,000 new jobs that have been created are short term or temporary and that these figures include self employed people in the informal sector. And most critically for African women, you have not told us how many of these jobs are for women who comprise the biggest group of unemployed people.

In defining a common national identity it is critical to be cognisant of the totality of the nation. The character of the Nation State, Mr. President, is linked to the manner in which the state relates to all in those within Her borders. It is connected to the nationhood that enables, that protects and that nurtures. As citizens we must challenge the role of the state as protector, provider, enabler and defender especially when this role is all but vacated. We must as women interrogate the nationhood that ignores us or replicates all that is reactionary, patriarchal, gender blind and hostile to our development in the name of ‘growth’ , of ‘investment’ or hidden under a gender desk. The greatest irony is that the resumption of the Doha Round of the WTO negotiations reduces the role and notion of the State to a moot point and rescinds any progressive domestic policy cutting across access to and provision of services, agriculture, investment policy, intellectual property rights and non agricultural market access.

This multilateralism promotes a supra state accountable to none and yet keeping all in its grip. Added to this is the threat of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) which many of our neighbours are being bludgeoned into by the European Union with indecent haste and almost sinister opaqueness. There are inevitable consequences on South Africa through dumping and trade diversion. In all this, Mr. President, we urge you to remember that in order to remove ‘the stench of living ’ nationhood must restore our dignity, must enforce an authentic pro Africa agenda, must promote intra Africa trade which does not replicate colonial relationships. Nationhood in this era requires courageous leadership, Mr. President, which enables social cohesion without threats to dissenters, which makes us all feel safe physically, economically, socially and financially without selling our interests to foreign capital and which can relate to the mighty women in this country as more than vote fodder.

* For more information contact GENTA on: Liepollo Lebohang Pheko [084
881 9327] or Mohau Nthisana Pheko [082 670 2505]

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The misrepresentation of Africa

Selome Araya

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/39756

Africa continues to be misrepresented as a continent of victims of poverty, violence and ridden with HIV/AIDS. Selome Araya says campaigns such as "Save Darfur", the Red Campaign by GAP and the "I Am An African" AIDS campaign all contribute to the stereotyping of the continent as a place of despair.


Ask anyone what they think of “Africa” and you may receive a response related to poverty, AIDS, hunger, ‘tribalism’ or animals. Trails of pity might linger in their words as a hint of disgust shimmers in their eyes. They may give an example of how they helped to “Save Darfur” or dreamed of adopting an “African orphan”. Most likely the view of the continent is that it is not a continent at all, but one large country, where everyone speaks the same language, eats the same food, wears the same type of clothing, and creates the same type of art. Yes, in their eyes, “Africa” is a homogeneous place of simple people with simple activities.

But, for someone who has never been to the continent, can they be blamed for this ignorance? The media and “humanitarian” agencies do an incredible job of misrepresenting the birth of civilization and projecting it as a down-trodden place of mishaps and has-beens. A place of disease, poverty, and chaos, and a place devoid of any history or future. Even today, it is still depicted as “The Dark Continent”, with dark tales of gore and war. And it’s not just the media. So-called “experts”, practitioners, and scholars perpetuate these stereotypes to no end, continually feeding the misrepresentation engine.

This cynicism is not to be taken lightly. “Africa” has been placed at the bottom of every pole on the international scale. It is deemed as possibly one of the worst regions on earth, and this notion is perpetuated continually with images and language, misinformation and racism, and media blitz and negative attention. Very few media outlets provide their viewers and readers with positive information about the plethora of countries and events occurring on the continent. For that would be mundane and not “sexy”. Yes, it seems that “Africa” is sexy these days. A crisis in “Africa” gets more response, more money, and more attention than a positive occurrence.

Granted, there are many issues affecting numerous countries in Africa. But I’m appalled at the fact that every time I hear of this place my family and ancestors call home, it is in a negative light, in a pitiful light, in a savagery light, in a deadly light. What I fail to understand is how all other elements of life are negated for the sake of a “good story” and a dramatic plea for funds. I have seen with my own eyes many elements of life that are beautiful beyond explanation, and I beg someone to explain to me why these elements aren’t projected.

Recently I was skimming Elle Magazine (yes, clearly not a place to be reporting on affairs of an international nature) and was deeply disturbed by the only two pages dedicated to “Africa”. The article disturbed me so much that I had to write a letter to the Editor expressing my utter disgust at their depiction. Africa was [mis] represented as a place where everyone is dying, has AIDS, or who is thirsty and hungry. There was no context provided, nor was there any balance that spoke of the positive elements of the continent. There was no mention of how people are responding to their own needs. All that was discussed were ways in which Europeans are “saving” this dreadful place from falling further into its cave of darkness. I couldn’t help but wonder how many readers of this pretentious high-fashion magazine walked away with a haunting perception of a place that they have never been to. If I were reading about “Africa” for the first time, I surely would think of it as a place that is just a hot mess of hell.

As a graduate student at Columbia University, where so-called “experts” teach aspiring public health students about “Africa”, I experience the same generalizations and stereotypes being perpetuated. These “experts” have dedicated their lives to joining the “saviour” movement that’s happening in certain circles of humanitarian assistance. And so, “women” are all victims and need outsiders to help them do everything. “Child soldiers” need to be rehabilitated by people from European countries. “Women and children” need outsiders to intervene and “save” them from the heathens that are the men in their lives. Everyone is dying of some disease. Every home seems to be in a dilapidated state with no food, water, or electricity. Almost everybody is in need of a program designed from abroad. People don’t know (or remember how) to grow their own food, so they need continual food aid packets dropped in their “communities”. And everyone belongs to a “culture” and has traditional ways that they live their lives, in their villages.

“Health” must be shaped from a Western point of view. It sickens me to hear how excited they become as they talk about the next country they are travelling to, to implement their pre-designed projects on people. They are the Lords of Poverty and aren’t even conscious of the stereotypes they carry with them as they lecture. And they’re producing an entire pedigree. Many of the students make drastic generalizations and proclamations about the countries they have lived in (for three months) and become self-proclaimed spokespersons for this region of the world.

There are also many campaigns today that continue to project negative perceptions of Africa onto the world. For people who have no exposure, direct contact, or knowledge of Africa, these campaigns are down right dangerous and counter-productive. Instead of “raising awareness” about important causes, they invoke pity for “the other” and perpetuate the concept that Africa is backwards and in need of saving. The campaigns I am referring to are the “I am African” campaign, the “Red” campaign from The Gap clothing company, and the numerous “Save Darfur” campaigns occurring in the world. As I walked down the streets of Manhattan today, I retained some of the advertisement for the “Red” campaign at the Gap. It pleads for people to help end AIDS in Africa and to save women and children from dying. Again, another universal representation of Africa for all of the Gap Corporation consumers. The millions of Gap Corporation consumers.

The “I am African” campaign is one that may have good intentions, but is grossly offensive and appalling. Appalling because an African woman is behind it, offensive because of the feathers, face paint, and European superstars posing as “Africans”. So now we have Gwyneth Paltrow with striped paint on her cheek, a plethora of jewellery on her neck, with the phrase “I am African” across her chest. I understand the point is to educate people on the AIDS crisis on the continent, but could it not have been done in a more respectful, tactful, and tasteful manner? But more importantly, what these campaigns do is make “AIDS in Africa” a commodity, something that is fashionable and marketable, and makes the only reference people have to the continent one that is linked to death and poor health. To have celebrities (who are not of African descent) say that they are “African” is to imply that since they are now “African” they also somehow have AIDS. It’s sending a message that being African is synonymous with AIDS.

International Non-Governmental Organizations who do business in “Africa” are no better. They spend much of their time and resources depicting the continent as a place that only they can “fix”, and spew out endless facts to justify their own causes. Yes, they are there to save the lowly Africans, and the more dramatic the picture or story, the more support they receive. And more importantly, the longer they stay in business. What people fail to understand is that, while it is imperative to raise awareness about the global poverty that is the reality for billions of people around the world, it is not helpful in the least to project an entire continent through a one-dimensional lens that is lined with despair and imbalance.

If people are going to campaign and discuss such despair, they need to provide context and background information, and underlying root causes of issues like AIDS and other poverty-related concerns. To simply present them independent of any other information is to represent people as helpless, hopeless victims who need saving. It is time for a change. It is time for “Africa” to be uplifted more often in the media. We need to hear more about the other dimensions of life for “Africans”; those that are not living in abject poverty and dying every second from whichever health concern is “hot” at the moment.

There’s music, there’s movement, there’s knowledge, there’s progress, there’s love, there’s tradition, there’s strength, there’s beauty, there’s nature, there’s power, there’s wealth, there’s health, there’s humanity, there’s history, there’s unity, there’s peace, there‘s LIFE. Sometimes, wouldn’t it be great to hear about these elements too? Because the “Africa” that I know is much more than death.

* Selome Araya is a community activist and freelance writer who is currently finishing her Master's degree in Forced Migration and Health.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

It's about time god issued a disclaimer

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2007-02-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/39796

I spent New Year with two visiting friends, both of them Ugandan, who have been living outside of the country for most of their lives. One is more Nigerian than I can ever claim to be. He is married to a Nigerian, and I am not. He has lived in the country for the past 30 years, which I have not done. Having left home at 22, I could not go back for a decade and a half. I have never spent more than one month there since 1999, when I was ‘allowed’ back. The other friend crossed over to yankee-land, studied, worked and became famous - though he has never lost his Kabale roots. The former is Professor Okello Oculli and the latter is ‘Mr Terrific’, the hugely popular anchorman of VOA’s mass audience programme, Straight Talk Africa.

We were invited to dinner by an Eritrean sister, the immediate director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Nairobi, Aki Aseghedech, and her visiting brother, the former long-term minister in the EPLF government of Eritrea, Tesfaye. Tesfaye - like a few other prominent refugees from president Afworki’s one-man rule - is now working with the UN.

They say opposites attract in marriage but there are more opposites than cupid could conjure up between these two siblings. Aki is a hot-blooded radical who sometimes makes me seem like a ‘moderate’! But the brother is more sedate - though no less a revolutionary. He is one of those stoics who can keep his brains on ice while his heart is on fire.

You can just imagine the kind of conversation, intellectual and political exchanges around that dinner table that night. Five widely travelled and politically committed Africans, none of them in their country of birth, but feeling no less African. All angry because they know that their individual countries and Africa as a whole can and deserves to do better than it is doing at the moment. Our heated conversations and passionate exchanges over all kinds of topics and themes from the global to the local gave me more hope than anything that although this continent might be down, it is not out: not yet, and it will not be, so long as there are many Africans not giving up on themselves, and on Africa. But it also confirmed to me the necessity to heed Karl Marx’s advice and move from ‘interpreting the world’ to ‘changing it’.

I had promised a friend that I would come to their church. So soon after honking in the New Year, we left Aki’s beautiful home in one of the most posh areas of Nairobi - which residents call Nairobbery - because of the high rate of crime! Since I was the driver, my two guests had no choice but to go to where I was going. And that’s how we arrived at the Parklands branch of the Nairobi Pentecostal Church, joining the faithful in their midnight service for the New Year. There were hundreds of worshippers who had been keeping vigil all night, pouring out their hearts to God in anticipation of good tidings. One would have thought that I, being born a Muslim, would be the most uncomfortable in the church. But thanks to my missionary education, lifelong love of Christmas carols and Christian choirs, I acquitted myself well. But one of my guests was more uncomfortable. He cannot remember when he was last in a church. Just imagine a scenario in which a Muslim was trying to placate the nerves of a person born and christened in a church! But that’s another story, to be continued another time. Anyway, we survived the service.

Okello has again been visiting Nairobi, and we got involved in church-related conversations again. A few days ago, in my office, we were engaged in a half day discussion about God in Africa. A firebrand Anglican reverend, responsible for mobilising 45 million Anglicans on this continent, came to my office to say hello. We were still halloing three hours later. Our discussions soon veered towards the church in Africa. The context is a Kenya that has been gripped by the story of a very popular born-again reverend, Rose Wanjiru whose desire to marry another Charismatic priest from South Africa had been the subject of a very public legal tussle. It turns out that this self-proclaimed bishop has been married before and had children. The husband in question went to court to stop the marriage, and also demand ‘his conjugal rights’ from a woman he had married under customary law and had never divorced! The courts stopped the marriage. The battle continues both in the law courts and the court of public opinion. However it has raised questions about the role of the church, and the ever-growing born-again, Pentecostal charismatic church across the continent.

Okello, our Anglican reverend sister, and I spent hours discussing this. There were no conclusions to our exchanges, though a number of issues are becoming clear. First, the Pentecostals are occupying a vacuum created by the established churches, which focus more on delivering their herd to heaven. Whereas, the Pentecostals offer God’s kingdom on earth. Second, while the established churches preach humility, poverty and guilt, the born-again (or mulekole as they are called in Uganda) preach prosperity and ‘feel good’ ideologies. For instance Bishop Wanjiru admits to fornication, children outside marriage, witchcraft and all kinds of failings, but then says, ‘see what God has done in my life, if I can make it so can you’.

These ideologies offer hope to the hopeless in a way that no government, president or CSO activist can do. We know many of them are fraudulent but their supporters believe they are God’s ‘little angels’ with all kinds of miracle prayers that can solve their immigration problems, marriage and other relationship challenges, barrenness, even HIV/Aids. And even but more importantly: their poverty. They offer bargain priced prosperity, as captured in one of their more popular slogans, 'a giver never lacks'. The more you give to God the more you are entitled to expect. They proclaim ‘Jesus is the answer’; but never quite tell their believers what the question is. What can or should we do about it? It is not enough to say ‘religion is the opium of the masses’, because it is both the rich, the very rich, the poor and poorest who are flocking to be saved. It is not just the ‘uneducated’ masses, but our highly educated and professional classes who are seeking salvation and refuge from the helter-skelter rat race of their lives.

And it is not only these churches that are witnessing revivals, but all religions. Many Muslims are becoming radicalised thanks to Bush and Blair’s ‘wars on terror’, that has made Islam and Muslims targets. Are the manmade problems of the world so out of control that ‘Only God’ can solve them? Or are we inventing God as a shield and convenient excuse to avoid facing up to these problems, both personally and politically? What has God got to do with poverty? What has he got to do with rapacious globalisation, intolerance, Iraq, the Niger Delta, Darfur, Palestine and Lebanon? It is about time God issued a disclaimer!

* Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is the Deputy Director for the UN Millennium Campaign in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes this article in his personal capacity as a concerned Pan-Africanist.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Guinea: People reject appointment of Eugene Camara as PM

Mariam Tendou

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/39762

You may know by now that President General Lansana Conte has responded to the call by the Union Workers Leaders to nominate by Monday (February 12th) a new Prime Minister with independent powers to form a new government (Gouvernement d union nationale).

So, yesterday, Friday Feb 9th, at 19:45 pm it was announced that Eugene Camara, the current Minister of Presidential Affairs - who was nominated just a few weeks ago at the height of the first call for strike in replacement of Fode Bangoura - has been nominated as the new prime minister by presidential decree.

Unfortunately, just as the news spread people started reacting to this nomination. The mood in the streets is clear: Emotions are quite high, most are saying that Eugene Camara is no new face to Guinea's politics. He was moved from the Ministere du Plan to his last post by presidential decree. And now to Prime Minister.

People are asking for change and this nomination is not perceived as "change". Today, most taxis were parked, and there was almost no public transportation. Most businesses were closed. People were at home. Some groups started going into the streets but most streets down town were peaceful, with military men patrolling here and there. I have not been outside of my neighbourhood (down town).

Earlier it felt quite unsafe to take the highway as there were reports of cars being stopped, of tires burning . There have been reports of clashes with patrol men in suburban and popular areas ( Gbessia, Hamdallaye, Taouyah, Koleah, Matoto). Also reports of clashes in other cities inland. People are saying that it is time for the change they have long waited for: a glimpse of hope in their daily lives. Already a few successes from the first strike call have allowed in the reduction in prices of gas, and the Guinean France exchange rate has also gone down, merchants are slowly lowering their prices in market places. People feel that with more pressure they might get more. Although the families of those who lost their lives on January 22 are still mourning. Major international radios such as RFI and BBC are also covering the events.

Airlines cancelled their flights today inbound and outbound including Air France, Snairlines, Air Ivoire. But no reports yet that the airport is closed. So, I was supposed to leave tonight to attend a Forum in Paris, this coming Monday. Maybe tomorrow I will leave if the flights are not cancelled.

Afrisoc-RSSAF Statement regarding Fahamu's China in Africa book

Jeni Whalan

2007-02-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/39744

Afrisoc and RSSAF have declined the offer to sell copies of ‘African Perspectives on China in Africa’, published by Fahamu Press, for the following reasons: 1) to facilitate an exchange of ideas rather than an endorsement of any single approach; 2) to emphasise debate rather than commercial transactions; and 3) to comply with the requirements of the event venue that no cash transactions take place. In no way does this represent an evaluation, critique or censorship of the publication in question. Afrisoc and RSSAF encourage the presentation of diverse perspectives, and welcome the participation of all at the upcoming event.

The event China’s Involvement in Africa is the second in a series of panel discussions hosted by the Africa Society and the Rhodes Scholars’ Southern African Forum (RSSAF), two student organisations at the University of Oxford. This collaboration aims to bring the Oxford community together to discuss pressing issues in contemporary African society. Researchers and practitioners are invited to provide diverse perspectives on a specific issue in order to promote debate and facilitate an exchange of ideas.

On 30 January 2007, the event organisers were approached by Fahamu Press about the possibility of promoting their publication ‘Perspectives on China in Africa’ via book sales at the event. After discussion with the organising committee, it was decided that this request would be declined, for the following reasons:

1) It compromised the central purpose of the event: to facilitate the exchange of ideas by promoting a diversity of perspectives. We sincerely hope that the perspectives contained in the book will be raised in the panel discussion. However, we believe that the endorsement of a single book at the event would compromise the neutrality of the panel, given that there are many relevant books on the topic. 2) Commercial transactions, such as book sales, are not currently part of our vision for the panel. This does not rule out that possibility in the future, but multiple books and multiple publishers on a topic would always be offered to promote a diversity of ideas. 3) Our agreement with the event venue, Rhodes House, includes the condition that no cash transactions take place in the building. Book sales would contravene this agreement.

These reasons were openly communicated, and the suggestion that the sale of the book in question was declined for reasons of its content, authors or publisher is an unfortunate misunderstanding.

We deeply regret the misrepresentation of our response as “censorship”, and that those making allegations to this effect did not seek adequate clarification before publishing such erroneous comments. In no way do Africsoc and RSSAF engage in or support censorship, and accusations of such conduct are simply incorrect, misleading, and damaging to the credibility of these student-run organisations.

We believe our decision is fully justified, and indeed crucial to the facilitation of an open exchange of diverse ideas at the event. The planning committee reserves the privilege to decide whether book sales are part of the events we hold.

EDITOR'S RESPONSE: Thank you for accepting our invitation to you to respond to Fahamu's letter about this matter. If the reasons now provided by you had been expressed in the first instance, an entirely different discussion would have ensued.

Instead your committee wrote to inform Fahamu on 30 January that the only reason that the book would not be permitted at the seminar was because - quote:

"Undoubtedly the book enriches dicourse (sic) on this pertinent issue and is a very valuable contribution. We however feel it is (sic) represents one view of the relationship between China and Africa."

Leaving aside, for the moment, the fact that this opinion was formed without evidence (as the book was not yet available in the UK), your current statement is clearly at odds with the committee's original reasons for prohibiting the display of the book. Fahamu sought clarification of your committee's decision and were informed that that the committee stood by their decision. It is not, therefore, entirely accurate to state now that "These reasons were openly communicated" to Fahamu.

Response to Jeni Whalan, Convenor, RSSAF

Irungu Houghton

2007-02-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/39774

The following letter, addressed to Jeni Whalan, Convenor, RSSAF, is reproduced here with the permission of the author.

Dear Jeni,

Really glad that you have decided to clarify where Afrisoc and RSSAF lie on this issue and that censorship of the book is not your intention.

Not sure about the portrayal of the book as one sided, but in any case, is this necessarily a bad thing? If you held to this principle, I am not sure whether we would be able to display very many books, including that of the Chinese Government's own perspective on contributing to development in Africa.

I am disappointed that you have held to your earlier decision. Displaying the book should not imply endorsement, the organisers could make this clear and even go as far as disassociating the organisers from the perspectives contained in the book if you feel so strongly. It clearly sets a bad precedence to refuse to display materials that are central to the discussions being planned. The more commercial issues are less controversial given Fahamu's non-profit mission. I am sure you could work out something with Firoze Manji.

I would urge you to reconsider and not block the book from being displayed. In so doing, you would uphold rather than violate a fundamental freedom, the freedom of expression. Perhaps there are other books on China and Africa that could be displayed as well.

I have no vested interests in the book, sit 4,500kms away in Nairobi but feel these small decisions create the climate for more fundamental victories and failures. Closing down the space for any perspective, any view on such a significant development in Africa's political economy will hurt us as Africans and Africanists in the long run.

Global Response and Yala Swamp, Lake Victoria

Executive Director Global Response

Paula Palmer

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/39760

Global Response organizes international letter-writing campaigns to support local communities that are engaged in struggles to stop environmental destruction. Most often the local communities are indigenous peoples whose struggle is for human rights and land rights as well as environmental protection. For example, our current campaign supports indigenous and Garifuna communities in Belize that are trying to stop oil development in a wetland area where they live. If you’d like to write a letter in solidarity with them to the Prime Minister of Belize, please see the action alert at www.globalresponse.org

I’m developing a new campaign now, based on meetings I had in Nairobi with residents of the Yala Swamp region on the shores of Lake Victoria. You might have heard the Yala Swamp residents present their case at the Peoples’ Tribunal during the Forum. I’ll send you our action alert for this campaign as soon as it’s ready.

If you have networks or listserves, I wonder if you would send the Yala Swamp alert to your lists? It would be great if you would also send them a link to www.globalresponse.org and ask them to register to receive our campaign alerts and updates directly. This would be a great way for us to expand our international network of citizen activists.

Carbon Trading

A critical conversation on privatisation, climate change and power

Heather Bartram

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/39745

"From Uganda to Guatemala, the book provides shocking case studies of carbon offset project after project that went wrong. Land grabbing, human rights violations and illegal evictions."


According to Tony Blair recently – it is possible to combine having a good time with taking care of apocalyptic climate change. He was responding to criticism that he had set a bad example by jetting off to Florida for the annual Blair family holiday. His answer to the spoil-sport environmentalists was to pay a carbon offset company Climate Care to 'neutralise' the emissions from the air travel. Carbon offsets allow a polluter (Blair in this case) to continue life as usual (flying cheaply) by paying an intermediary (Climate Care) to invest their money (minus administration costs of course) in a project that reduces emissions of greenhouse gases somewhere else. This in turn caused a secondary furore because the concept of carbon offsets is a pretty controversial one. In the background of this media frenzy, the highly respected Dag Hammerskjöld Foundation published their new book “Carbon Trading: a critical conversation on privatisation, climate change and power” edited by Larry Lohmann that does a comprehensive demolition job on Blair's fun-loving approach to the end of the world as we know it.

From Uganda to Guatemala, the book provides shocking case studies of carbon offset project after project that went wrong. Land grabbing, human rights violations and illegal evictions, the collection of essays catalogues the abuses perpetrated in the name of 'saving the planet'. In Uganda, the Dutch FACE Foundation tree-planting project in the Mount Elgon national park is an example of the occupying force that Northern polluters can have in a Southern country. Since 1994 the Foundation have been planting trees on 25,000 hectares of land where the carbon 'rights' have been given over to them for the next 100 years. This is for the primary purpose of offsetting carbon dioxide emissions. The land within the boundaries of the park is hotly contested and 300 families were evicted in 2002. Communities living on the borders of the park who previously relied on the wood, herbs and animals of the forest now risk being shot at by guards if they trespass. The book argues that because land is politically contentious across the South, the exclusion of local people from this resource to protect 'carbon offsets' of rich Northern polluters can only be seen as an exercise in neo-colonialism.

However it is not only the dubious projects that the book takes issue with but also the wider system of carbon trading into which they fit. Carbon trading lies at the heart of the international treaty on climate change – the Kyoto Protocol. It is the mechanism through which corporate polluters and industrialised governments can trade greenhouse gases instead of reducing their own emissions. It works on the same principle as offsets but with the added bonus that countries and companies can trade credits between themselves rather than invest directly in a project. In this way it acts as a kind of currency. The chapter on the history of its birth onto the UN scene from US fossil fuel lobbyists via the Clinton administration is a fascinating insight into the horse-trading and brinkmanship that goes on at international negotiations. It is also a disturbing glimpse into the machinations of corporate power and neoliberal infiltration of the environmental sphere.

In the conclusion, the book's editor Larry Lohmann gives a stirring analysis of the political dangers of carbon trading by pointing out that in the short life of the climate negotiations, discussion of the precise details of the mechanism has become a “dangerous sideshow”. This has served to distract and confuse environmentalists and policy makers. In fact, for Lohmann, the resignation of policy makers to accept carbon trading as the only show in town is quitters talk. This desperate diplomacy ignores the plethora of existing tried and tested strategies that create dramatic social change. For him change does not occur in small rooms by planners but by move and counter move by all social actors in a slow and painful process of political democratisation of the issues. What climate change needs is a process of “decentring”. Shifting the solutions away from top-down entities such as the World Bank and international diplomacy and more towards grassroots movements that are already making headway on keeping fossil fuels in the ground.

If you thought carbon trading was a dull subject, think again. This book not only demonstrates that it is on the front-line of the conflict with neo-liberalism and corporate power but has infused the issue with the thrill of inspiring social justice movements across the South. If the topic intimidates you, the question and answer style of the book makes it accessible and informal. When you feel you're getting lost, the conversation steps back and gives a chance to reflect and regroup. Plus it's not all doom and gloom, the many strategies Lohmann lays out for tacking climate change from a social justice perspective are inspiring and dare I say they sound like fun! So I guess it all comes down to what your idea of a good time is after all Mr Blair.

You can order the book at www.dhf.uu.se

Hommage to Nuruddin Farah, the man who writes powerful women

Annie Quarcoopome

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/39754

Farah’s second trilogy, Blood in the Sun, is made up of three works (two of which I know to be excellent) Maps, Secrets and Gifts. Obviously, this is an author interested in concepts. Generally, his works are amazingly lyrical, incorporating such unconventional elements as the use of first, second and third person narrative voices for the same character in the same novel, and the vivid and yet vague recounting of dreams whose meanings are not easy to decipher. The supernatural plays a significant role, but instead of overwhelming us, it draws us deeper into the narrative. I can imagine that many a reader has been found absorbed in this book with furrowed brow, engaging with the musical quality of the language, at the same time trying to find meaning within the text.

Maps tells the story of a Somali orphan raised by an Ethiopian maid in the highly contested Ogaden region in the Horn of Africa. The question of the map is an intriguing one and important to us all, especially to those of us who have to deal with issues of representation in heterogenous places that need to be made homogenous because of the political structures it is assumed we must strive towards. For democracy sake, different groups of people enclosed within such arbitrarily drawn boundaries as our colonial masters left us with, must find enough commonality to regard themselves as a nation, or at least as a state. But what is most fascinating to me is the recurrent imagery of blood in this text. The macrolevel concept of national identity, especially relevant to the Ogaden whose national identity has alternated between Ethiopian and Somali, is played out in the familial arena. And so blood becomes important. Blood shed is crucial. Bloodlines even more so. And then there Misra, the protagonist’s foster mother, who reads his future in blood…and I am still deciding where to go with that.

Gifts is equally fascinating, if not more so for those who want to extrapolate Farah’s Somali context to cover Africa as a whole. Gifts presents even stronger characters (if this is possible), and I say this because they are characters who remain with me even after I have put the book down, even after I have read other works including Farah’s Links. This narrative is a love story that is completely not sappy. It is a love story in which the act of giving and consequently of receiving are very controversial. Duniya is leery of gifts offered by anyone because she recognizes the power dynamics at play. And yet in her love affair with Bosaaso, one must compromise, because the game of courtship cannot be divorced from the act of giving. It is highly ironic that the power dynamics of benevolence are played out in the arena of courtship, because this novel is really about the “courtship” of Africa by the West and the so-called Asian giants. And so weaving the story around Duniya’s dysfunctional family which includes her children from two previous marriages and an abandoned foundling which her daughter brings home, we see the shamed face of Africa lurking in the wings, arms outstretched, cupped beneath those of our benefactors, our “development aid” givers. They give and we receive, and our “love” affair begins. Issues of dependence, of misuse of “aid” to prop up corrupt, unpopular governments, arise in the setting of a war-ravaged Somalia, a raped continent.

I’m yet to read the final book in the trilogy, but be assured that I will track it down and I will add it to the millions of books and characters and authors, their creators, swimming around in my head. But let me say that one cannot write about Farah without acknowledging his unique take on women, especially as a male, African author. He has apparently received mail addressed to Ms. Farah, Mrs. Farah etc. for who would think that a man would have such a unique understanding of women, of their power, of the hypocritical social tenets that condemn trivialities and gloss over crucial questions of the woman’s place in Somalia, in Africa, in the world!

* Annie Quarcoopome is a student of Comparative Literature at Williams College in the US. She is also a contributor to Black Looks Blog.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o: Still de-colonising the mind

2007-02-13

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=298008&area=/insight/insight__comment_and_analysis/

Last month, Kenya’s most celebrated literary icon, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, gave a series of lectures entitled Re-Membering Africa at the University of Nairobi. Rasnah Warah reports for the Mail& Guardian Online, on this historic moment, marking Ngugi’s first lecture in his homeland in nearly three decades, delivered at the very institution that stripped him of his professorship after he was detained without trial by the Jomo Kenyatta regime in 1977.

Manual on Advancing Justice and Reconciliation for the ICC

Centre for Justice and Reconciliation

2007-02-14

http://www.cjr.nl/

The Faith and Ethics Network for the ICC has drafted a Manual for African Religious leaders and faith-based communities on ‘Advancing Justice and Reconciliation in relation to the ICC’. A preparatory meeting was held in May 2005 in Nairobi. Participants of the meeting included representatives from the Muslim, Hindu, Bahaí, Catholic and Anglican communities from around Africa. A representative of the Victims Participation and Reparation Section of the ICC also participated.

FGM

Abdi-Noor H. Mohamed

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/39746

Birth of a baby must be a blessing event
But mine was nothing short of a curse
Daddy's face didn't shine. Drums didn't make noise
No shots were fired. No ceremony was held
The new born was me. I am a girl
In my culture, gender counts most.
A girl is not as welcome as a baby boy
Raising camel in the rangeland
is family's highest priority
They believe a girl has no hands for that
Harsh combat against the enemies
is family's highest priority
They believe a girl has no heart for that
Reconciliation in the aftermath of a clash
is family's highest priority
They believe a girl has no head for that
At five I had to face the worst
A knife cut across my genitals
A midwife circumcised me
Stitched me. Infibulated me
Where I used to have a clit
I have a black scar now
Why inflict me with this pain?
This real Pain of primitive cultures
In tears I am, at every stage of my life
Mom and Dad, I'm I not a daughter?
Dear Brother, I'm I not a sister?
Dear mankind, wherever you are
I'm I not a human being?
Tears, Tears, Tears

Review of African Blogs

Sokari Ekine

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/39761

African Architecture suggest that the abandoned oil rigs in the Bright of Benin could be put to use by erecting wind turbines to generate electricity to local delta communities. Not only would this provide electricity and recycle the abandoned rigs but as AA writes:

“Wind energy is the most promising carbon-free, nonnuclear alternative to fossil-fueled grid power. But regions with enough space and breeze for land-based wind farms—mostly in the Midwest—are far from coastal population centers; the cost of running transmission lines between generators and users is a major disincentive. That’s why wind-power entrepreneurs have set their sights on coastal waters. In the Atlantic, off Cape Cod, the 450-megawatt Cape Wind installation has been in the works for five years.”

Black Star Journal has a series of reports and commentary on Guinea starting with the rejection by the unions of Eugene Camara as the country's new prime minister and head of government. The country has been declared “in a state of siege” and the army are patrolling the streets having been given full police powers. In addition the media has been severely restricted and all cyber cafes in Conakry shut down. The Unions are demanding the removal of head of state, Gen. Lansana Conté. Black Star Journal also reports that:

“Mobs there have attacked suspected members of the former Liberian rebel movement ULIMO. Lansana Conté had backed that faction during that country's 1989-97 civil war and some accuse the general of calling in the militiamen to help put down the general strike. Yet members of the Guinean army have sided with the residents, who provided the soldiers with food and drink. Apparently young soldiers at the Alpha Yaya military camp were angry that only a handful of their colleagues were rewarded during the latest round of promotions. Internal divisions inside the Guinean military are one of the reasons many observers fear a messy transition to the post-Conté era.”

Kikuymoja's Realm writes of his time in Kenya where he grew up and has just spent the past four months. Now he has had to return to Germany but finds he is still writing and posting his photos of Kenya. Kikuymoja’s Blog is well known in the Kenyan blogosphere for his wonderful photos of daily life and innovative ways of using recycled goods to photos of things you would never find like:

“...the last two remaining copies of the loooooong time out-of-print “Wilderness Guardian” handbooks, which are selling for Ksh. 1700/=, and which I really recommend to anyone who diggs such manuals. (story goes that in around 1999, I tried to get a copy of it from an online bookshop based in the UK, and after 3 months they informed that this thing wasn’t available anymore.”

Africa’s best music blog by Steve Ntwiga always manages to find rare tunes from way back. Like Kikuymoja’s, no one knows where he finds these gems but thankfully he does and shares them with the world. Here he shares the music of:

“Les Kilimambogo Brothers, Victoria Jazz and some Taarab” ….. If you don’t know whom these people are, that tells you how old I am...if, on the other hand, you are thinking, “wow, I thought XYZ was dead!” then, maybe you might be a little older than I am...And, believe it or not somewhere in there, we get Ladysmith Black Mambazo doing a solo! (hint: go to 2:11)”

Nigerian blogger, Chxta's World comments on Nigeria’s “OBJ” factor. Despite being told that Nigeria’s economy is performing better than ever in the last 10 years, for the ordinary person it has never been worse. If worse is possible it would be Obasanjo retaining his involvement with running the country after the up coming elections. Chxta wonders where exactly the President is heading with statements that he won't hand over to criminals:

“I think that like many other statements that Obasanjo has made over the last few years, this one is way out of line, and extremely undemocratic. What utter nonsense! I am of the strong opinion that Obasanjo has something to hide, and he is of the view that Mr. Yar'Adua would be the best bet to cover his tracks for him. As we all know, Obasanjo and Yar'Adua's late brother were buddy buddies..."

Passion of the Present comments on the continuing civil war taking place in Chad with numerous rebel fractions fighting to remove President Idriss Deby.

“The rebel alliance still under arms includes the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD), the Rally of Democratic Forces (RAFD), and the Platform for Change, National Unity and Democracy (SCUD)...Their fighters recently attacked and briefly occupied several eastern towns, piling pressure on Deby's forces after a wave of ethnic violence which killed hundreds and forced the government to declare a state of emergency last month.”

As the fighting intensifies, the civilian population are caught up in the middle and recently it was reported that Janjaweed type militias were attacking refugees from Darfur. Chad accuses Sudan of backing the rebels and Sudan accuses Chad of backing the people of Darfur and so it goes on, more death and misery for civilians.

Nigerian blogger, Ijebuman's Diary publishes what he believes are the “top ten signs that elections will not be fair and free".

Annie writing on Black Looks discusses the basic criteria for identifying the African Diaspora:

“Some scholars have identified four basic criteria: 1. there must be a dispersal to at least two locations. 2.There must be self-awareness as a group. 3. It must be multi-generational. 4. There must be some relationship, real or imagined, with the “homeland.” Now obviously, this last one is what I am most interested in. The relationship with the homeland. I’m interested in first thinking about the relationship of two broad groups, with Africa: African Americans and Africans living abroad. With the former, there have historically been impressive strides made towards imagining a “black” nation, where black at different times has included African people and people of African descent even outside the US.”

She goes on to ask what is “our” – the Diasporan relationship with the homeland especially as the middle classes in the Diaspora have a habit of what she describes as “whitewashing the continent”:

“What is our relationship with the “homeland” now? If we all (and I come full circle to include both groups I mentioned) have found such ingenious ways to slowly but surely sever ourselves from a reality that should be ours...all ours, then that’s one criteria gone. And if I were a scholar, my conclusion would be that the African Diaspora cannot survive.”

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, www.blacklooks.org and is Online News Editor of Pambazuka News.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Radio Essays "Live from Death Row"

Mumia Abu-Jamal

2007-02-15

http://mumiapodcast.libsyn.com/

Listen to radio esssays by activist journalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal "Live from Death Row" in the United States. Abu-Jamal was on death row after having been convicted of the murder of a Philadelphia Police Officer, but is now serving life in Pennsylvania Maximum Security State Prison.
For further information on the campaign to secure Mumia Abu-Jamal's release vist The Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition.

Africa: South African firms take on the Dragon

2007-02-15

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/10/AR2007021001216.html

China's foray into Africa in search of much needed raw materials, natural resources and new markets for its booming economy has elicited controversy and disquiet amongst African political leaders and policy analysts. Granted that much of the expansion in trade between Africa and China has been in the latter's favour, China's domination of African markets is now being viewed in some circles as some form of " latter day economic imperalism" under which Africa serves as a source of raw materials and provides a market for Chinese end products. But now, South African firms are taking on the dragon in its own turf as this article published recently in the Washington Post shows.

Great expectations: AU remains hopeful and hesitant

Gichinga Ndirangu

2007-02-14

http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/

Africa’s 53 Heads of State ended their first summit of the year in Addis Ababa with a strong pledge to foster democratic culture and respect for fundamental rights. But these commitments were made beneath an avalanche of concern over an apparent reluctance to reign in errant members complicit in the violation of fundamental rights and freedoms.

In recent times, this concern has revolved mostly around the deteriorating situation in Darfur. The tenuous discussion on Sudan’s suitability to chair the AU and adoption of the charter on democracy at this last summit indicated a renewed but cautious sense of affirmation by the African Union to break new ground. But it also showed the lack of clear determination to reign in members not playing by the rules and violating organizational principles clearly evident in the failure to exert clear demands on Sudan.

The decision to devote the forthcoming summit in Accra to a consideration of the proposal on Pan Africa federalism has reinforced a sense of optimism and steer that the AU is intent on breaking new ground towards consolidating continental unity. Even then, there are serious questions on the viability of some of this and other proposals. The democracy charter has for instance faced reservations from several countries while southern Africa countries have expressed strong sentiment on the union government proposal. In the circumstances, a lot of backroom negotiations will need to take place before harnessing consensus on contested issues.

The recent AU summit took place at a significant moment when the African Union Commission prepares for the homestretch on its current mandate, which expires at the end of the year. A new commission will be constituted in 2008 following the election of new commissioners with a clear mandate to steer the AU into its next phase. The summit was also the penultimate session for the current chairperson, Professor Alpha Konare, whose term expires this September. Professor Konare, a former president of Mali, is not expected to bid for a second term setting the ground for a new set of eyes to steer the organisation’s overall strategic vision and mandate.

AU needs to reflect on its performance as it seizes itself for new demands and expectations and the hankering over Sudan best exemplified the dilemma facing the AU at this critical moment rather than the new thresholds of ambition being set for the organisation. The concern to stave off a diplomatic standoff with Sudan obscured the imperative to reign in Sudan and wrench out clear commitments from Khartoum on Darfur following months of negotiations with the AU.

Hence, even though the new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon described Darfur as “the world’s worst humanitarian disaster” and promised to make it a key priority of his leadership, the AU failed to deal tough with Sudan. Once Sudan’s bid to lead the AU was dispensed with, the Darfur crisis slowly tapered off. Here, the AU was squarely in focus over the limited capacity of its peace monitors to stem the killing and suffering of thousands of civilians in the hands of the government-backed janjaweed militia. Even though the AU has expended much energy in seeking resolution to the Darfur conflict, Africa’s leaders gathered in Addis Ababa could not extricate themselves from their collective failure to exert sufficient political pressure on Sudan. What was clearly worrying though is that as the curtains came down on the summit, no substantive ground was broken to ensure that the ill-equipped AU peace monitors were equal to the task. Neither was the contested question over the deployment of a hybrid protection force involving the African Union and UN within an agreed timetable thrashed out.

The summit also failed to win an unequivocal commitment from Khartoum to halt its military scale-up in Sudan and disarm the janjaweed even as questions abound over whether the membership of a complicit Sudan is not anathema to the AU’s determination to raise the threshold against which its members must be judged by.

Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu was spot on warning that “the African Union [had] before it a stark choice on Darfur. Be bold and stand by the people of Darfur or be weak and stand by the politicians who are making that corner of Africa a graveyard”.

The decision on Sudan’s bid was clearly a bold statement. A Sudanese presidency would have compromised the neutrality and independence of the AU’s operations in Darfur. Alioune Tine, a member of the Darfur civil society Consortium spoke for many when he warned that “African opinion will never accept a choice of Mr Bashir as president of the African Union. Such a move will discredit the institution and diminish the image of the African Union as an independent arbitrator in the eyes of the world”.

In the aftermath of the summit, and in the wake of a multiplicity of new and resurgent conflicts, it is feared that the AU could be fatigued and steer its energy and focus away from its priorities and visioning. In many ways, the new theatres of conflict – Chad, Comoros, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Somalia – have excised the AU’s undertaking to respect territorial sovereignty without being indifferent to systematic violation of fundamental freedoms and rights. This is in sharp contrast to its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) which turned a blind eye to conflicts under the guise of respecting the sanctity of territorial sovereignty and non-interference in the affairs of sovereign states. But a lot more is expected of the AU. The period leading up to the summit showed that the AU is increasingly being called upon to provide leadership in reaching a pedestal where governments respect the organisation’s principles in the best interest of their people.

But now the AU must audit itself to determine whether its structures fit the task before it. The organisation clearly faces a raft of internal institutional challenges which impact on its efficiency and effectiveness. The caveat is that the AU may not live up to the billing due to existing institutional constraints, which potentially impede on its capacity to deliver at this critical moment.

A substantive assessment of the AU contained in a newly published report titled Towards a People-Driven African Union: Current Obstacles and New Opportunities cites some of the internal challenges facing the AU as ” the sheer number of AU ministerial meetings, ordinary and extraordinary summits each year, commission budget shortfalls and multiplicity of national legal frameworks, incoherent institutional arrangements and unclear policies and procedures”.

Significantly, the report which was commissioned by the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP), the African Forum & Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) and Oxfam GB warns that the AU is only as strong as its weakest link. It warns that “most African Governments have not reformed their national institutions and processes to respond to the new continental architecture. Consequently, only a few states prepare adequately by engaging across ministries, national assemblies or civil society organisations for the AU summits”.

The creation of the African Union in 2001 created a renewed sense of optimism, which must continue to inform its future by addressing internal and external challenges, which could potentially undermine its vision.

* The writer is the acting editor/policy analyst of the AU Monitor, an e-communication facility managed by Fahamu

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Eritrea: Government says Campaign against FGM ‘is working’

2007-02-15

http://newsite.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70174

The Eritrean government and civil society have expressed optimism that efforts to combat female genital mutilation (FGM) were bearing fruit, saying the campaign against the practice was gaining support in rural villages where excision was most common.

Global: Gender mainstreaming and peacekeeping - new report

2007-02-16

http://womenscommission.org/pdf/dpko.pdf

The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children has released the report "Room to Maneuver: Lessons from Gender Mainstreaming in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations." The report seeks to share lessons and learning on the diverse approaches and methodologies used by various UN agencies to implement former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's directive to mainstream gender in all UN agencies.

Liberia: Government, women's groups decry post-war sexual violence

2007-02-15

http://newsite.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=64306

Rising levels of rape and sexual exploitation of women and teenage girls in Liberia have sparked concern by both the government and women's rights groups. Despite a peace agreement in 2003, these types of violent abuse were still common, according to Lois Bruthus, head of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia (AFELL), a leading advocacy group.

Liberia: Liberian Women Articulate Priorities for the Reconstruction of the Country

2007-02-15

http://tinyurl.com/3b8wsm

According to a symposium report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Liberian women have identified the enhancement of national security as a key area of focus in the reconstruction of Liberia alongside the revitalization of the economy, strengthening governance and the rule of law, and the rehabilitation of the infrastructure.

SOAWR Public Forum in Addis Ababa launches women's rights book

2007-02-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/39729

The Solidarity for African Women’s Right (SOAWR) Public forum in collaboration with the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) was held on 25 January 2007 in Conference Room 4 of the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It had the following objectives: 1) To popularise the protocol on the rights of women in Africa 2) Discuss some of the provisions of the protocol in the context of Ethiopia 3)To provide space for interaction with the participants to contribute ideas and actionable recommendations towards the struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa and Ethiopia in particular 4) Launch “Grace, Tenacity and Eloquence: The struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa". Representatives of UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, members of the public and the press attended the forum. The full report is available here.
REPORT OF THE SOLIDARITY FOR AFRICAN WOMEN’S RIGHT (SOAWR)
PUBLIC FORUM IN COLLABORATION WITH INTER-AFRICAN COMMITTEE ON TRADITIONAL PRACTICES AFFECTING THE HEALTH OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN


HELD ON 25 JANUARY 2007,

IN CAUCUS ROOM 4, UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE CENTER, (UNCC)

ADDIS ABABA ETHIOPIA



INTRODUCTION

The Solidarity for African Women’s Right (SOAWR) Public forum in collaboration with the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) was held on 25 January 2007 in Conference Room 4 of the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The public forum tagged: “Breathing life into the African Union’s Protocol on the Rights of Women and launching of Fahumu/SOAWR book titled: Grace, Tenacity and Eloquence: The Struggle for Womens’ Rights in Africa had the following objectives: 1) To popularise the protocol on the rights of women in Africa 2) Discuss some of the provisions of the protocol in the context of Ethiopia 3) To provide space for interaction with the participants to contribute ideas and actionable recommendations towards the struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa and Ethiopia in particular 4) Launch “Grace, Tenacity and Eloquence: The struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa. Representatives of UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, members of the public and the press attended the forum.

OPENING CEREMONY
The Forum started at 9.00 a.m with the registration of the participants. At exactly 10.10 a.m, it was declared open by the Chairperson, Mrs Diariatou Korouma, Programme Officer, IAC. She called for a self-introduction by the participants after which she gave her welcome remarks. She chronicled the activities carried out by IAC in ensuring that women and girls take their rightful position in Africa pointing out that IAC has championed several strategies aimed at stamping out all forms of harmful traditional practices especially Female Genital mutilation (FGM) at the national, regional and international levels. Mrs Korouma mentioned some of the significant achievements to include symposiums for the religious leaders, the youth forums for the eradication of FGM and the collaboration with the African Union Commission (AU) in the drafting of the Protocol on Peoples Rights, which has been ratified by some African heads of states and governments. She thanked SOAWR for the bold step taken to highlight the plight of women and the need to incorporate these concerns in the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and ensure that the Maputo Protocol is ratified. She expressed her appreciation to all the participants for responding to the call.


OPENING REMARK
The Opening Remark was given by Mr Patrice Vahard, Officer in Charge of the Eastern Africa Regional Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Addis Ababa. He thanked SOAWR for making the forum possible as a channel to further help put things in order for women in Africa. He pointed out that it was gratifying that the UN always partnered with NGO’s in worthy causes such as the one embarked upon by SOAWR.
Mr Vahard mentioned that by accepting to be at the forum, he was doing part of the job expected of him and also functioning in his capacity as an associate member of Fahumu. He spoke on some provocative issues among them the role of men on the equality issue, the role of women in wealth production, the need for men to see tradition in positive light and the need to behave differently and pointed out that we cannot preach equality and act differently. He made a passionate call for change and hoped for the day when equality with men would be achieved by women rather the situation “where inequality is the norm and equality the exception.”
Mr Vahard considered the Protocol as the most progressive instrument that demands the onerous task of adjusting positively through good governance and sustainable action to offer our sons and daughters a good environment, combat poverty, utilize space to work rather than depending on charity and pursue action rather than rhetoric. He viewed it equally as an asset, an appropriate working tool for breaking down barriers, and reaching out to our parents to drop the negative and inhibitive actions entrenched in our tradition. Blaming others, he opined, is a victim’s attitude, which should be discarded if genuine progress is to be made and positive changes effected. He applauded the initiative of SOAWR and highlighted the need to get boys, and girls out of ignorance and called on participants to use the forum to work together to effect the much-desired change and breathe life into our society and continent.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY Irungu Houghton, OXFAM
The chairperson, Mrs Diariatou Korouma noted with regret the inability of the AU Commission representative to present the keynote address due to the on-going AU Summit taking place at the same time. She called on Mr Houghton to present the keynote address.
In his keynote address entitled, Grace, Eloquence and Tenacity (GET) in Ethiopia, Mr Houghton described Grace, Eloquence and Tenacity (GET) as three very powerful words in the English Language. He viewed Grace as dignity, a sense of culture, present but not dominating on others; Eloquence as the ability to powerfully communicate and touch, move and inspire others; and Tenacity as persistence, perseverance and ‘stubbornness.’
With these words in view, he went on to posit three weapons blocking the rights of Ethiopian women and girls namely; violence, negative cultural practices and mental disempowerment. However, with GET in place, he offered that there would be dramatic change for the better in the lives of girls and women, Ethiopian laws, policies and budgets would be aligned to protect, promote and guarantee international and regional instruments like the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and that the Ethiopia state and non-state actors (CSOs, peoples mass associations, private sector companies etc) would behave differently to outlaw all forms of discrimination to women and promote affirmative action.
On what could possibly be done in Ethiopia, he offered that since the African heads of state and governments visit Addis Ababa at least twice a year, there was the need to capitalize on this and make meaningful contributions. He maintained that learning from the experiences of other African countries, would secure stronger linkages between women associations and NGO’s and of course, using the 8th Ordinary Summit of the AU Commission to remind the Prime Minister, His Excellency Meles Zenawi of his promise to ratify the Maputo Protocol would raise the stakes higher. This, he said, will ensure that countries in the ‘yellow zone’ move into the ‘green zone’ and make Grace, Eloquence and Tenacity, a reality in Ethiopia.
INTRODUCTION TO THE MAPUTO PROTOCOL by Roselynn Musa FEMNET, Nairobi, Kenya.

In a paper titled, The Promise of the Protocol to African Women, Ms Musa drew the attention of the participants to the fact that the keyword, “promise” denotes expectation and clearly signifies a positive outcome. The great importance attached to the protocol, she noted makes it imperative for all to be familiar with the full title: The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, otherwise called, The Maputo Protocol.
She addressed equality as the cornerstone of all societies but noted that African women are enveloped in inequality, subjected to inequalities in law and practice and outlined several causes, consequences and manifestations of these. Backing it up with statistics, she showed the percentage of women and girls in Africa disadvantaged in conflicts, sexual violence, refugee, internal displacements, politics, literacy, employment, wage earnings and HIV/AIDS which she summed up as precarious.
Ms Musa submitted that the formation of the United Nations in 1945 and the International Bill of Rights affirmed the dignity and worth of the human person and women should be treated based on these. Using PowerPoint presentation, to highlight Article 2 to Article 24 of the Maputo protocol, she sequentially and analytically explained the relevance of the articles in the charter to women and what could possibly be done. She mentioned the issue of signing, ratification and domestication and pointed out the initial challenges since the adoption of the Maputo protocol in 2003 as the fact that by 2004 only one country had ratified it and it was not until November 2005 that 15 other members of the AU ratify it for domestication .the protocol with the number presently at 20. She maintained that the Protocol was just an addition to the Charter, which gave room for NGOs to specifically address the needs of women. She called for a concerted effort on the part of women, men, NGO’s, women organizations, citizens, Human, Rights Activists, civil organizations and members of parliaments to join hands to campaign and lobby for countries that have not yet ratified the protocol to do so and those that have been ratified to go ahead and domesticate it.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE SOLIDARITY FOR AFRICAN WOMEN’S RIGHT (SOAWR) CAMPAIGN by Ms Caroline M. Muriithi, Equality Now, Nairobi, Kenya.

Ms Muriithi explained that SOAWR was born in September 2004 following the coming together of Oxfam, GB, FEMNET and Fahumu to speed up the process for the adoption, signing, ratification and domestication of the Maputo Protocol when it became obvious that only one country, The Comoros had ratified the Protocol. She mentioned that it now has several organizations as members with its secretariat currently hosted by Equality Now, Nairobi, Kenya.
The exigency of the situation, she asserted prompted the SOAWR to adopt campaign strategies to ensure that those countries yet to ratify the protocol did so. The strategies included the following, Pambazuka Newsletter, a booklet, “Not Yet a Force of Freedom”, press conferences, television/radio programmes, dialogue with member states at the national level and during AU Summits, mobile phone campaign titled: “Text Now” to popularise the protocol, coloured cards campaign, Green, Yellow and Red distributed to delegates during summits, outreach campaigns, and Pan African Women’s Day as a way to hold various governments accountable.
Ms Muririithi listed some of the challenges faced by SOAWR in carrying out its campaign to include conflicts in Africa – Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Liberia, cultural and religious reservations, national elections in Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique. She also mentioned the issue of ratification with reservation citing Gambia as an example, though it had ratified the protocol did so with reservations but later had those reservations lifted.
Despite this she mentioned some gratifying results. She pointed out that this was the fastest ratified protocol with 20 African countries having done so. SOAWR, she pointed out mobilized women rights groups in 13 African countries and has been visible within the AU and elsewhere and also worked towards Gambia removing its reservations on the protocol. She reminded the participants that the next phase of the struggle involves continuing with the campaign to ensure that those countries that are yet to ratify the protocol do so and then ensure that the domestication process is carried out.
PANEL DISCUSSION
EXPERIENCE OF ETHIOPIA ON ELIMINATION OF HARMFUL PRACTICES THAT VIOLATES THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND THE GIRL CHILDREN by Mr, Abebe Kebede, Executive Director, EGLDAM

Mr Kebede opined that Ye Ethiopia Goji Limadawi Dirgitoch Aswogaj Mahiber (EGLDAM) was formed in 1987 to eradicate Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs), which he considered quite numerous. To implement this, he posited that it had to work closely with women leaders and groups, men, religious leaders, youth and circumcisers with ICT materials produced in local languages including videos and films to help in propagating the message
To ensure that its mandate was achieved, Mr Kebede disclosed that EGLDAM played an advocacy role at the national and regional levels to raise awareness on the importance of carrying out key actions against harmful traditional practices. In addition, it was also involved in lobbying, which led to legislation being instituted against HTPs in July 2003 and enforced in May 2005. With this landmark result, he offered that EGLDAM was engaged in making sure that the people were familiar with the law and its implementation by working closely with the government and other NGOs. He noted with delight the decline in early marriage and FGM as a product of awareness and equally mentioned that through awareness creation 30 fistula patients from different parts of Ethiopia were rescued and given medical attention and they now serve as change agents. In the same vein, students were made aware of the functions of the reproductive system and offered information on the age at which they could possibly get married to stem early marriage.

2. ELIMINATION OF HARMFUL PRACTICES IN ETHIOPIA
by Ms Sehen Bekele Organization for Social Justice in Ethiopia (OSJE)

Ms Bekele indicated that the Organization for Social Justice in Ethiopia (OSJE) is a public law organization established to grant women and girls access to justice and has been playing this key role successfully through policy research and public litigation and assistance in bringing accused persons to court. She stressed that the organization is focussed on the principle of non-discrimination of women in all aspects of life and has been working with youths, traditional rulers, women and schoolgirls to create awareness of their rights under the law.
She mentioned that women issues and problems came to light more in 1948 during the Human rights struggle and that OSJE maintains constant touch with women to rescue them from acts of inequality and harmful traditional practices that run counter to the UN declaration on Human rights. Ms Bekele indicated that a lot has been done by the organization to bring culprits to book and still more needs to be done to assist women and girls get their rights in the law court and that the organization is still poised to give legal aid to women to stem rape, injustice and other harmful traditional practices.
She considered the forthcoming Ethiopian millennium as a veritable ground for highlighting the protocol and ensuring that the ideas expressed are part of governments in Africa with reinforced institutional framework to ensure that women seek and achieve justice in all spheres of human endeavour in addition to securing the financial resources for its implementation. She mentioned the need to seize the regional integration initiative advocated for in Africa in building a viable continent and harped on the need for the African Parliament to work assiduously towards securing legal rights for women and girls not only in Ethiopia but in Africa.

Discussion, Observation and Comments
The chairperson, Mrs Diariatou Korouma asked participants to fully participate in the discussion, and offer their observation and comments where necessary.
Mrs Berhane Ras-Work, President of IAC stressed the need to embrace advocacy and lobbying as a way to ensure that the protocol is ratified based on the wealth of experience she has garnered in the fight against HTP’s especially FGM. She pointed out that the effort IAC put into these areas presented the opportunity for IAC to draft Article 5 of the protocol, which remains the beacon of hope for women and girls in Africa. This statement was greeted with applause. She also took the opportunity to inform participants that FGM is the officially recognized terminology when addressing the issue of female circumcision following a meeting held in Geneva in 2006. She thanked everyone for being a part of the struggle to actualise women’s rights
The participants appreciated the presentations. On what experience would have been handled differently in the last five years, Mr Kebede mentioned the fact that several harmful traditional practices were taken together which would be the most reasonable now to focus on just a few
The effort of EGLDAM was applauded for working closely on the issue of HTPs and assurances given that churches were working closely to help spread the message by ascribing FGM to sin and that the knowledge offered has benefited women, men and girls at the grassroots. The participants emphasized the need to use influential leaders, legal bodies, policy makers, curriculum developers and national baseline surveys as credible instruments for change.
It was agreed that advocacy initiatives be stepped up towards a change of attitude while employing the top to bottom approach but with a strong understanding of the bottom-up approach in effecting change at the grassroots. Equally, the plight of women with disability received attention as a crosscutting issue that should be addressed in the protocol bearing in mind that a special problem requires a special attention.
NGO’s were charged to use the media- radio, television, newspapers etc to offer women and girls knowledge of their rights, interpret the protocol into the different languages coupled with advocacy and lobbying.
The protocol was seen as truly African and therefore more binding on all Africans to see to its domestication. The need to work together, learn from experiences and fill gaps through best practices was emphasized as viable for reinforcing what needs to be done and a concerted effort put in place to ensure sustainability. SOAWR offered itself as a rallying point for a more purposeful campaign to ensure that the protocol is ratified and domesticated and urged more organizations to join in making this dream a reality.

“Grace, Tenacity and Eloquence: The struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa Edited by Patrick Burnett, Shereen Karmali and Firoze Manji. An Overview by Wangari Kinoti (ECWD).

Ms. Kinoti offered that the book narrates the traditional perception that women toil day and night amidst grinding poverty while facing harsh cultural, traditional and social prejudices like their counterparts elsewhere in the world, which does not offer them the much-required equality. The book she pointed out depicts African women fighting for their rights and doing so with grace, tenacity and eloquence. It brings out the story and narrows it down to the African protocol by gathering articles from Pambazuka Newsletters covering several topical issues that affect women to provide an easy-to-read introduction to the struggle for the rights of women in Africa.
She pointed out that the book is in seven chapters with each chapter addressing key issues that affect women and made headlines in most cases drawing public interest into a carefully woven network of facts and updates.
Chapter 1: Campaigning for Women’s Rights: Showcases articles that represent the voices of women involved in the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights SOAWR) campaign, a coalition of women’s rights organization driving for the ratification of the Protocol on the Rights for Women in Africa.
Chapter 2: Moving the Protocol from Paper to Reality: The articles see adoption of the protocol as kick starting the process and implementation of the protocol as reality for the enforcement of change.
Chapter 3: Women, Health and Food Security: It views the protocol as a veritable tool for guaranteeing the health and food security of women on the African continent.
Chapter 4: Women and Conflict: It highlights what women go through in time of conflicts and endorses that at all levels of peacemaking women need to be included if the effects of war is to be ameliorated.
Chapter 5: Women and Islam. It deals with women’s rights and Islam, women’s reproductive rights within Islam and the compatibility of Islamic laws and the Protocol on Women’s Rights in Africa
Chapter 6: Women and The Jacob Zuma Trial. Records the antecedents of the Jacob Zuma Trial and what the ruling means to women.
Chapter 7: Comments and Analyses; It deals generally with various women issues and the need to give urgent attention to them.

Lastly, she pointed out that the array of contributors at the end of the book gives a birds eye view of women issues in Africa and epitomizes the grace, tenacity and eloquence in the struggle. The book, she assured, cuts the profile of a must-read for everyone keen on seeing the rights of women maintained and sustained.


BOOK LAUNCH
The book, Grace, Tenacity and Eloquence: The struggle for Women’s Right’s in Africa was launched by Mrs Thokozile Ruzuidzo, Director, African Centre for Gender and Social Development (ACGSD), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). She pointed out that she was delighted to be part of the struggle even at short notice and endorsed it as one laced with hope and light at the end of the tunnel. She advised that the book be placed on the web and popularised for men and women to read. She gave kudos to the editors and wished SOAWR more fruitful campaigns in future.

DISCUSSION, OBSERVATION AND COMMENTS
Copies of the book were distributed to all participants who showed great excitement and admiration of the quality of production. A participant described the book as one attired in a woman’s colour with appropriate contents and wonderful flow of ideas and facts that would breathe life into the struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa.
SOAWR indicated that a lot had gone into the production of the book and urged participants to alert people on its activities and be encouraged to join hands with SOAWR to ensure that the rights of women in Africa becomes a reality. Organizations wishing to be members were advised to contact SOAWR C/O Equality Now, P. O .Box 2018, 00202 KNH, Nairobi, Kenya or visit the websites: www.fahamu.org and www.pambazuka.org
Participants expressed their joy that the objectives of the public forum had been realised because it had accorded them the opportunity to contribute ideas for actionable recommendations on the protocol to be made to the heads of states and governments as the gather for the 8th Ordinary Summit of the African Union Commission on 29 – 30 January 2007.
VOTE OF THANKS by Ms Roselynn Musa
Ms Musa started the vote of thanks with a Nigerian proverb: “When two people ride a horse one has to be in front” to indicate that her vote of thanks wasn’t necessarily in order of importance. With this in mind, she thanked IAC for its help and support in holding the public forum at short notice and expressed sincere gratitude to Global Fund for Women for funding it. She equally thanked the resource persons, moderators, facilitators, the rapporteur, the chief launcher of the book, staff of UNCC, members of SOAWR, editors of the book, “Grace Tenacity and Eloquence: The Struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa” for a job well done and all the participants for making time to honour the worthy cause and a call for solidarity in the struggle which she spiced with another Nigerian proverb; “when spiders unite they can tie down a lion.”

ANNEX
Program of Work
Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) Public Forum in Collaboration with the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC)
25 January 2007, Caucus Room 4, UNCC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.


Time
Description of Activities
Facilitators/Presenters
9.00-9.30 Registration Secretariat
9.30-9.40 Welcome Remarks IAC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
9.40-9.50 Opening Remarks Mr Patrice Vahard, Officer in charge of the Eastern Africa Regional office of the United nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Addis Ababa
9.50-10.00 Keynote Address Irungu Houghton, OXFAM
10.00-10.30 Tea/Coffee Break
10.30-10.50 Introduction to the Maputo Protocol Ms. Roselynn Musa, FEMNET,
Nairobi
10.50-11.10 An Overview of the SOAWR Campaign Ms. Caroline Muthoni Muriithi, Equality Now, Nairobi
11.10-12.00 Panel discussion on the experience of Ethiopia on the elimination of harmful traditional practices that violates the Rights of Women and Girl Children
Panelists: 1) Mr. Abebe Kebede
Executive Director, EGLDAM
2).Mrs. Ejegayehu Teferra,
Gender Coordinator, Nowegian Church Aid
3).Ms. Sehen Bekele,
Program Officer, Organization for Social
Justice in Ethiopia (OSJE)
Inter-Afrcan Committee
12.00-1.00 Discussion, observation and comments Participants
1.00-2.30 Lunch
2.30-3.00 An overview of the book: “Grace, Tenacity and Eloquence: The struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa.” ECWD, Nairobi
3.00-3.10 Book Launch: “Grace, Tenacity and Eloquence: the Struggle for Women’s Rights in Africa.” SOAWR
3.10-3.30 Discussion, observation and comments Participants
3.30-3.45 Vote of Thanks and Evaluation Ms. Roselynn Musa, FEMNET
3.45-4.15 Refreshments and End of Program
Keynote address at the joint Inter Africa Committee and SOAWR Conference, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 25th January 2007

Grace, Eloquence and Tenacity in Ethiopia
By Irng Houghton on behalf of Solidarity for African Women’s Rights Coalition (SOAWR)

The power of Grace, eloquence and tenacity (GET)

Grace, eloquence and tenacity (GET) are three of the most powerful words in the English language.
Grace – dignity, a sense of culture, present but not dominating of others.
Eloquence – ability to powerfully communicate and touch, move and inspire others
Tenacity - persistence, perseverance and “stubbornness”

Three weapons blocking the rights of Ethiopian women and girls

Violence, negative cultural practises and mental disempowerment are three weapons currently being used to block the rights of Ethiopian women and girls.
Violence
Despite legal reform criminalizing violence against women and girls, spousal rape and rape within the family continues to be characteristic of many marriages and homes. In Addis, 1000 cases of rape are recorded every year.
Negative cultural practises
Despite national laws, too many girls are still being forced into early marriages through abductions sometimes at the age of 7. Yet, the work of the state and non-state agencies is bearing fruit. We are seeing 10% decrease in the incidences of female genital mutilation and a 50% decrease in the number of women and girls willing to support this process.
Mental disempowerment
Attitudinal studies show that nine in every ten (90%) rural women believe that husbands have the right to beat their wives or that there is nothing that can be done about it. In urban areas, 7 in every 10 women (70%) agree with their rural counterparts.

What would GET look like in Ethiopia?

1. The reality of girls and women’ lives dramatically change for the better
2. Ethiopian laws, policies and budgets are aligned to protect, promote and guarantee international and regional instruments like the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa
3. The Ethiopia state and non-state actors (CSOs, peoples mass associations, private sector companies etc) behave differently to outlaw all forms of discrimination to women and promote affirmative action.,
What could we do here in Ethiopia?

1. Organisations should continue to anchor the reality of the Ethiopia in the African context – learning from the experiences of female and male feminists in The Gambia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia and Botswana on how they have ensuring the permanent dismantling of these three weapons.
2. Lastly, stronger linkages between women’s associations and NGOs should be built to ensure that others do not divide them. Together they can make a unified call underpinned by unified actions for the full realisation of all rights and the elimination of all forms of discrimination.
3. Before the upcoming 8th Ordinary Summit, Ethiopian organisations and regional women’s associations should remind the Head of State, H.E. Meles Zenawi of his promise to ratify the Protocol.

Lets work together to make Grace, Eloquence and Tenacity a reality in Ethiopia

Thank you

















THE PROMISE OF THE PROTOCOL
By
ROSELYNN MUSA

Introduction
Equality is the cornerstone of every democratic society, which aspires to social justice and human rights. In virtually all societies and spheres of activity women are subject to inequalities in law and in practice. In Africa while the causes, consequences and manifestations may vary from sub-region to sub-region; country-to-country, and even province-to-province, discrimination against women is widespread. The situation is both caused and exacerbated by the existence of discrimination in the family, community and workplace and perpetuated by the survival of stereotypes, cultural and religious practices and beliefs detrimental to women.

Recent efforts to document the real situation of women in Africa have produced some alarming statistics on the economic and social gaps between men and women.
Women are the majority of the poor. Women are the majority of Africa’s illiterate, African women work several hours a week more than men and are mostly unpaid, African women earn less than men for doing equal work, women make up less than 2 per cent of Africa’s heads of state, women’s unpaid house work and family labour, if counted as productive work, would increase measures of total output by almost half.

ARTICLE CEDAW PROTOCOL
1 Right to be free from all forms of discrimination Definitions
2 Obligations of state parties to enact legislation/ policies to ensure equality between women and men Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
3 Right to equality between women and men Right to dignity
4 Right to affirmative action by the state parties Right to life, integrity and security of person
5 Right to choose professional or marriage partners Elimination of harmful practices
6 Right to non- exploitation i.e. trafficking in women Marriage
7 Right to equality in national laws Separation, divorce and annulment of marriage
8 Right to equality in International laws for example international representation and participation Access to Justice and equal protection before the law
9 Right to nationality i.e. conferring citizenship/ change in nationality Right to participation in the Political and Decision- making process
10 Right to equality in education Right to Peace
11 Right to employment and labour i.e. gender segregation of waged workforce Protection of Women in Armed Conflict
12 Right to equal access to health Right to Education and Training
13 Right to financial and social security Economic and Social Welfare Rights
14 Right to participate in implementation of development planning by rural women Health and Reproductive Rights
15 Equality before the law Right to Food Security
16 Right to legal and civil matters and right to equality in family law Right to Adequate Housing
17 Right to Positive Cultural Context
18 Right to Healthy and Sustainable Environment
19 Right to Sustainable Development
20 Widows Rights
21 Right to inheritance
22 Special Protection of Elderly Women
23 Special Protection of Women with Disabilities
24 Special Protection of Women in Distress

The United Nations (UN), since its formation in 1945 has been at the forefront of advocacy for equal rights and the enjoyment of rights and freedoms hence the entrenchment of the principle of equality and non- discrimination in its international and universal human rights instruments. Equality of right of women is a basic principle of the United Nations. The Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations sets as a basic goal “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women” The International Bill of human rights strengthen and extend the emphasis on the equal rights of women. For example, the UDHR, the first ever proclamation on the rights and freedom of women and men reiterated the fact that all human beings are born equal and equal in dignity and rights and that everyone is entitled to all rights and freedoms set forth in the declaration without distinction based on sex among other conditions. It forms the ethical and legal basis of human rights and provides the foundation upon which the international system for the protection and promotion of human rights has developed.

One of the most significant developments in the field of human rights was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in 1948. Based on the equal right of every human being, the declaration proclaims the entitlement of everyone to enjoy human rights and fundamental freedoms “without distinctions of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political and other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth and other status.” When a state becomes party to the covenant it undertakes to guarantee to all individuals in its territory or under its jurisdiction, without any discrimination, all the rights specified in the declaration without any discrimination and to provide for effective remedies in cases of violations. In additions state parties specifically undertake to ensure the equal rights of men and women to the enjoyment of all rights set forth in each article.

Despite these Provisions women in Africa and elsewhere in the world continue to suffer blatant discrimination in the political, social, economic and cultural spheres, to such an extent that even legal institutions that could have helped in promoting and protecting women’s rights condone practices that impede the advancement of women.

Consequently, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrmination Against Women (CEDAW), a landmark convention and in fact a global action towards redressing the existing inequalities evolved with very systematic and far reaching consequences for women’s human rights globally. The convention sets out, in legally binding form, internationally accepted principles on the rights of women which are applicable to all women in all fields. The basic legal norm of the convention is the prohibition of all forms of discrimination against women.

WHY A SEPARATE PROTOCOL FOR WOMEN?
The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), also referred to as the Banjul Charter was adopted by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now African Union (AU) in 1981. It has a set of rules or guiding laws or articles about peoples’ rights to freedom, safety and improved lives. This document affirms both individual and collective rights and this distinguishes it from other international human rights treaties. It recognises African values and cultures and also emphasises both rights and duties. It provides for special protocols or agreements, if necessary, to supplement the provisions of the African Charter. This serves as a legal basis for creating the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (The Protocol).

The Protocol lays down a comprehensive set of rights to which all African women are entitled. Why then was it necessary to have a separate instrument for African women considering that the existence of the ACHPR. Additional means of protecting the human rights of African women were seen as necessary because the ACHPR has not been sufficient to guarantee African women the protection of their rights. The ACHPR, just like other international human rights instruments before it did not deal effectively to redress the disadvantages and injustices experienced by African women by reason only of their being women, nor was it constructed to take into account women’s situations. Historically, human rights discourses started in the fields of political and civil rights- rights to life, freedom of association, etc. In this regard, the fundamental significance placed on human rights was directed towards the public rather than the private realm. Since men have largely dominated the public domain, this meant two things: that human rights came to be defined by men; and that these rights protected mostly men. Meaning that despite the existence of the ACHPR and other human rights instruments, women still do not have equal rights with men. Discrimination against women continues to exist in all African societies.

The Protocol came from the initiatives of NGOs across Africa who initially faced the resistance and were confronted with the argument that women in Africa did not need a Protocol, but an added clause on non- discrimination against women in the ACHPR. The strengths of the Protocol include the fact that it came after many other treaties, e.g. the CEDAW and that makes it possible to draw the best options from others and take into account, developments from CEDAW. It is culture specific and so it is useful for challenging negative traditional practices replete in Africa.

The recommendation of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to elaborate a protocol on the rights of women in Africa was endorsed by the Assembly of Heads of States and Government of the Organisation of African Unity in its thirty- first Ordinary session in June 1995. The drafting of the Protocol started in 1996. It was adopted by the second ordinary session of the Assembly of the Union in Maputo, Mozambique in July 2003. It came into force in November 2005, after receiving its fifteenth ratification.

One of the areas of focus of the Protocol is the continuing discrimination against women and inequalities that exist between women and men. It identifies many specific areas where there has been notorious inequality and discrimination against women. For example with regard to political rights, marriage and the family etc, the Protocol spells out specific goals and measures that are to be taken to facilitate an Africa in which women enjoy full equality with men and the full realisation of the guaranteed human rights.

To combat gender-based discrimination the Protocol requires state parties to recognise the important economic and social contributions of women to the family and to the society as a whole. It emphasises that discrimination will hamper economic growth and prosperity. It also expressly emphasises the need for a change in attitudes, through education of both women and men to accept equality of rights and responsibilities and to overcome prejudices and practices based on stereotyped roles.

SUBSTANTIVE PROVISIONS OF THE PROTOCOL

Article 2 Elimination of discrimination against women
In many African communities women are denied their basic legal rights, either implicitly or explicitly, including the right to participate fully in politics and right to own property. Such instances of entrenched discrimination can easily be identified as discrimination. At the same time, not all every differentiation will constitute discrimination. The Protocol does not give a detailed explanation of what constitutes discrimination against women however it is provided in the ACHPR (to which it is an appendage), article on non- discrimination states that

“Every individual shall be entitled to the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms recognised and guaranteed by the Charter, without distinction of any kind such as race, ethnic group, colour, SEX, language, religion, political and any other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or other status.”

Everyone has a right to be treated equally, and protected equally, by agents and instruments of the law, such as the courts and the police. In addition to establishing the criterion of differentiation, which in this case is sex, it is also necessary to consider the outcome of the differentiation. If the result is a nullification or impairment of equal rights as set out in article two of the ACHPR, then the differentiation is discriminatory and therefore negates the provision of the Protocol.

In most African societies, culture and tradition have been used by men to justify discrimination against women. Male dominated ideologies in Africa have tended to use culture to justify oppressive gender relations. African governments could use the standards of the Protocol to remove all negative stereotyped cultures that discriminate against women and hinder their full advancement. In this regard African states are obligated to

“commit themselves to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of women and men through public education, information, education, and communication strategies with a view to achieving the elimination of harmful cultural and traditional practices and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for women and men.”

It is not enough to merely insert anti- discrimination clauses into the legislation, the Protocol also requires State parties to protect women’s rights effectively and provide women with opportunities for recourse and protection against discrimination. They should incorporate sanctions into legislation that deter discrimination against women. States party to the Protocol must take steps to eliminate discrimination in both public and private spheres. It is not enough to strive for equality for women vis-à-vis public authorities; states must also work to secure non-discrimination even within the family.

Article 3 Right to dignity
Every human being has an inherent right to be treated with dignity. This provision makes it incumbent for states to strive to remove the social, cultural and traditional patterns, which perpetuate gender- role stereotypes and to create an overall framework in society that promotes the realisation of full rights for African women. The prevalence of gender- role stereotypes is seen most particularly in the traditional concept of African women’s role in the domestic sphere.

The family as an agent of socialisation assigns different statuses, values and roles to boys and girls. In many countries in Africa discrimination against women starts before birth with parental and social attitudes that promote a preference for sons over daughters. Children of both sexes should be accorded equal opportunities to grow and develop to their full potential as equal partners for sustainable development and peace.

Many African women are denied an education because their role is considered primarily as one of caring for the family. Besides, the role is often viewed as unimportant and not, in itself worthy of an education. This article therefore seeks to reform social and cultural traditions and practices and create a common civil system that upholds the dignity of women as equal partners with men in society.

Article 4 The Rights to Life, Integrity and Security of the Person
Despite the efforts of women’s human rights activists, the spate of both public and private violence against women in Africa has not abated. Women are subject to violence and to threats of violence in their daily lives, physically and psychologically. Violence deprives women of their ability to achieve full equality. It threatens their freedom, safety and autonomy. Many cases of violence against women go unreported, particularly when they take place in the home, because of fear or shame. The psychological, emotional and economic conditions of women often alter their perception of reality such that they see themselves as completely helpless and unable to make choices. In some cases the abused women do not even see themselves as victims. This is against the background of dominant perception in the society that a certain kind of violence against women is possibly desirable as discipline and certainly inevitable, defences of wife battering for example.

Although governments across Africa are now more concerned with the issue than in the past, few have taken legal, constitutional steps to stop the practice. The Protocol enjoins state parties to 'enact and enforce laws to prohibit all forms of violence against women including unwanted or forced sex, whether the violence takes place in private or public'. Unless this is done African women will not be able to enjoy fully the rights guaranteed in the Protocol.

This article charge state parties to take appropriate and effective measures to address issues of peace education, punishment for perpetrators of violence against women, rehabilitation of victims of such violence, trafficking in women, unauthorised medical and scientific experiments on women, opposition to death penalties on pregnant or nursing women, and provide adequate budgetary and other resources for the implementation and monitoring of action aimed at preventing and eradicating violence against women.

Article 5 Elimination of Harmful Practices
Some cultures in Africa perpetuate traditional practices that are harmful to the health of women and constitute a direct violation of their fundamental human rights. Examples of such practices include Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), maltreatment of widows, male child preference, domestic violence, early/ forced marriage etc. In this connection, the Protocol has provisions that aim to improve the image and role of African women by improving public awareness through formal and informal education and outreach programmes.

Articles 6 and 7 Marriage, separation, divorce and annulment of marriage
Women are discriminated against in marriage and family law, sometimes as wives and sometimes as daughters. In all categories of marriage in Africa (statutory, customary and religious) the husband is assumed to be the head of the family and the provider (and hence able to make decisions and receive benefits for the family). Wife battering (called ‘chastisement’) is accepted as a norm in some cultures and there is no minimum age for marriage. Furthermore, wives have lesser rights in choice of marriage partner, divorce or child custody and have lesser right to inheritance.

The Protocol provides that women and men should enjoy equal rights and be regarded as equal partners in marriage. Marriage will take place only with the full consent of both parties. Cases of forced and early marriage persist in Africa and the situation of the girl child remains a matter of concern. The Protocol also requires that marriages are registered in accordance with national laws in order to be legally recognised. In cases of separation, divorce or annulment, women and men should have the right to an equitable share of the joint property deriving from the marriage.

The minimum age set for marriage is eighteen years and monogamy is encouraged as the preferred form of marriage. Women and men shall have the same rights to seek separation, divorce or annulment of a marriage and in which case women and men shall have equal rights and responsibilities towards the children, while the interests of the children will be paramount. In the same vein women and me shall have equitable sharing of the joint property deriving from the marriage.

Article 8 Access to Justice and Equal Protection by the Law.
Some forms of discrimination against women stem from the varying understandings and beliefs about what society or culture prescribes for women. Since most family issues never go to court for resolution, it is the often conservative and restrictive everyday beliefs of husbands, brothers, fathers, cousins, uncles and nephews, which govern women’s lives. In this regard the Protocol provides that women and men are equal before the law and shall have the right to equal protection and benefit of the law. States parties are to ensure effective women’s access to judicial and legal services, including legal aid, sensitise everyone to the rights of women and reform existing discriminatory laws and practices in order to promote and protect the rights of women.

Article 9 Right to Participation in the Political and Decision-Making Processes
Women’s equal rights to participate in decision-making are beyond a question of democracy and good governance; it is also a necessary condition for the effective recognition of women’s interests, without which the objectives of sustainable equality and development will never be achieved. The involvement of women in parliament is a measurable statistic of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Caution is needed, however, as the participation of women in government does not necessarily translate into pro-woman policies. The value of this aspect of the Protocol is therefore predicated not only on taking part in government, but in doing so in a way that is consistent with the specific needs of women. Some African countries have provisions, which enforce quotas for the number of women in parliament, and so have high numbers of women in government (Rwanda, for example). This decision-making involvement is imperative to the Protocol, which states that women must be able to participate in government and politics. While women are prominent in grassroots organisations, they are left out of the vitally important decision-making at policy level, and so their specific concerns and needs are ignored.

The Protocol requests states to take specific positive steps to promote equal participation of women in the political life of their countries through affirmative action and equal representation of women in the electoral processes, and increased representation and participation of women at all levels of decision- making.

Article 10 Right to Peace
Women are rarely included in decision-making on conflict prevention, resolution and management, or even in peace-building initiatives. Women’s voices go unheard during formal peace negotiations, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration, the creation of new constitutions, elections, reconstruction, rehabilitation, and the establishment of judicial systems. This occurs even though the violence perpetuated against women is exacerbated during times of conflict, and they make up the majority of all victims. Women and children are the most vulnerable and at the receiving end of the most of the worst excesses and abuses in situations of conflicts. Yet despite their marginalisation, African women have played very important roles in conflict situations to bring about change.

The Protocol defends the right of women to a peaceful existence and the participation of women in the promotion and maintenance of peace. State parties are to take appropriate measures to ensure the increased participation of women in the peace process through promotion of peace culture; protection of refugees, asylum seekers, returnees, and displaced persons; and reduce military expenditure in favour of spending on social development.

Article 11 Protection of women in armed conflict
Conflict is a critical part of transformation and change, restructuring the social relationship between peoples and also within their own groups. Generalised and unnecessary suffering result when latent conflicts escalate into confrontation. Several African countries have been, and some still are, embroiled in war, civil strife and conflict caused by a combination of factors including massive violations of human rights and ethnic violence. These situations usually impact heavily on women and children, resulting in violence, involuntary displacement and flight from their country of origin.

Violations of the fundamental rights of women and girls are widespread during times of armed conflict. These include torture, rape and murder and should not be condoned. In many cases, the countries they flee to as refugees are unable to absorb the extra burden and may not be able to provide essential services for them. The absence of a special support system to deal with internally displaced people render this group, especially women and children, particularly vulnerable and makes it less likely they will receive attention from the international community. It is therefore vital that this group is recognised and prioritised.

Towards this direction state parties are to respect the rules of International Humanitarian Law applicable in conflict situations and protect women affected by conflicts making sure that perpetrators are brought to justice before a competent criminal jurisdiction. State parties shall also ensure that no child, especially girls under eighteen years take part in hostilities.

Article 12 Education and Training
African women face a sombre scene filled with economic and socio-political problems, which hinder their efforts at meeting basic needs. The lack of education for a considerable number of African women prevents society as a whole from facing these problems with vigour and determination. As a result of the worsening of international economic crisis social spending on health, education and other services by government has been cut and the governments have left responsibility for schooling solely to families. This development has had a negative impact on educational opportunities for girls. If the situation of women in Africa is to change for the better the quality of education must not only be improved, but women and girls should have easy access to education, while overcoming every hurdle that hinders their active participation at the educational process like prejudices and stereotypes.

To this regard the Protocol guarantees and education for women and girls with the intention of breaking down social and cultural barriers, which have discourages and even excluded women and girls from the benefits of regular educational programmes as well as promoting equal opportunities for them in all aspects of life.

Article 13 Economic and social welfare rights
Poverty in Africa manifests itself in various forms and has its origin in a lack of income, the unequal distribution of wealth and income, economic recession, drought, heavy debt burdens and unfavourable conditionalities tied to borrowing from international financial institutions, armed conflict, civil strife, etc. More than a third of the people of Africa are unable to meet their most basic needs.

The heavy burden of poverty falls disproportionately on women, especially female-headed households. The feminisation of poverty is an ugly reality. Although generally speaking women constitute more than half of the population, they have limited access to and ownership of land and housing yet they provide the greater percentage of food supply.

Women are the backbone of the agricultural sector and produce cash crops as well as engage in subsistence farming, yet their non-marketed productive and reproductive labour is neither marketable nor recognised as an economic output. They are therefore confronted by considerable discrimination that is a major obstacle to increasing their productivity. They also face varying degrees of vulnerability, isolation, dependence, and a sense of powerlessness. Men and women have different roles and responsibilities most of which are socially constructed as a result of which they experience poverty differently. And they become poor through gender- differentiated processes. African women bear a disproportionate burden of poverty compared to men, a phenomenon that has been described as the ‘Feminisation of poverty’ Social norms often justify hierarchical social relationships and often generate inequalities of power, resources, status and capabilities through a rigid definition of appropriate roles and behaviour for men and women. These types of constraints often limit women’s scope for independent activity.

In both rural and urban areas in Africa women are poorer than men. Women’s poverty is related to lack of access and control of economic resources such as land ownership and inheritance, lack of access to economic opportunities and education; lack of credit and other support services. Even when a household does not fall within the absolute poverty line, women and female children may be relatively poorer than other household members as a result of inequality in the distribution of resources and income. Such forms of gender disparity coupled with a wide prevalence of gender- based violence and marital instability push large number of women and children into destitution. In addition to material deprivation, poor women experience the qualitative dimensions of poverty such as lack of free time (this is related to ‘time poverty’ whereby women spend hours fetching water and fulfilling intensive household chores), poor self-esteem and dependency much more than poor men. Household maintenance and childcare consume large amounts of women’s time and energy due to low investments in basic infrastructure such as water and sanitation systems, energy and transport.

Studies have shown that women and girls spend three hours daily just fetching water, and travel over a kilometre in rural areas expending more than a third of their daily food intake. In turn such forms of overwork reduce their time and opportunities for farming, education, non- agricultural income- generating activities while they tend to increase ill health.

In the absence of roads and accessible and affordable transportation, women and girls are also allocated the role of household transporters and are responsible for the bulk of carrying such as head-loading agricultural produce from farms to the household or to markets.

A large body of studies has shown that gender inequalities have significant negative impact on economic growth in Africa. The goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015 in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) cannot be achieved without a concerted effort to improve women’s access to economic opportunities and the returns of their effort. Increasing women’s access to assets and income, while reducing their workload has been shown to result in increased spending on food, and children’s education, including increased spending on girls’ education. It also results in higher rate of savings. Thus a gender-aware and pro-poor poverty reduction strategy is likely to result in higher growth rates and human development.

The point here is that a gender aware pro-poor poverty reduction strategy is likely to result in higher growth rates and enhance human development. One way forward is to focus of the domestication of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and follow-up with different African governments to make good their commitment so that opportunities it offers African women is assessable and how African women’s poverty could be addressed if they can access it.

Women in Africa need to be empowered to participate in economic structures and policy formulation in the production process itself. Women’s empowerment will enhance their capacity to realistically alter the direction of change for their well being and that of society as a whole. In this regard, the Protocol recommends promotion of equality of access to employment and equal remuneration for women and men, and ensures transparency in the recruitment, promotion and dismissal of women. It also combats and punishes sexual harassment in the workplace. It ought to be emphasised here in the case of ensuring equal employment opportunities that it is not sufficient that states outlaw discriminatory hiring practices without providing equal opportunities in preparing for employment through education and vocational training. It is only then that same hiring criteria for women and men will be just.

The state is to guarantee women the freedom to choose their occupation. Not only must women have the right to free choice in their selecting a profession, they must not be automatically channelled into traditional ‘women’s work’. To discharge this obligation state parties must work towards the creation of social and cultural patterns which allow all members of the society to accept and work towards the presence of women in many different kinds of career.

Furthermore, women in the workplace must have the right to equal remuneration and all work- related benefits. State parties must guarantee equal pay for equal work, as well as equal treatment for work of equal value and equal treatment in evaluating the quality of work. Women are also to enjoy the provision of social security.

Article 14 Health and Reproductive rights
Women’s health and reproductive rights are central to the realisation of their potential. Their ability to exercise control over their fertility is a crucial step in enabling them to make the necessary choices in other areas. Women’s, and particularly adolescent girls’, sexuality and fertility pose a high health risk. They contribute significantly to girls’ inability to attain high levels of education and unsafe abortions lead to maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS.

The subordinate position of women and adolescent girls, with younger women being the least empowered, and their lack of access to information, education and communication, health facilities, training, an independent income, property and legal rights, make them particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection. They lack adequate knowledge about the disease and the measures that have been taken to prevent them from infection.

Consequently, education and information campaigns, which target the sexual and reproductive health of women must be increased and strengthened and made more accessible and culturally appropriate. In this regard the Protocol provides women with the right to control their fertility, choose any method of contraception and to have family planning education, while state parties have, among other things, to protect the reproductive rights of women by authorising medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape and incest and where continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or foetus.

If states are to ensure the equality of women and men in access to health care services as is expected of them they would have to remove any legal or social barriers which may operate to prevent or discourage women from making full use of available health care services. Concrete steps therefore needs to be taken to ensure access to healthcare services for all women, including those whose access may be impeded through poverty, illiteracy or physical isolation

Equal rights in participation and access to sporting and recreational facilities and other cultural activities presume the existence of real equality to access. To achieve this states should ensure that all legal and social obstacles to the full participation of women in these areas are removed.

Article 15 Right to food security
The struggle against poverty, the economic empowerment of women and the promotion of sustainable livelihoods for women is a moral, political and economic obligation and the responsibility of national governments and the international community. Women and other people living in poverty represent an under-utilisation of productive potential. Women’s deprived rights to development should be recognised. This requires policies that are gender sensitive including gender-based anti-poverty policies. Besides income poverty, other areas of deprivation for women include social discrimination, exclusion, desertion, physical disability, vulnerability and deprivation. There is also poverty associated with wars, famine, displacement and refugees, unbalanced trade relations and structural adjustment programmes (SAPs).

Some of the measures recommended by the Protocol to combat this are to provide women with access to clean drinking water, sources of domestic fuel, land and the means of producing nutritious food and also adequate systems of supply and storage to ensure food security. One point that is clear however is that unless states parties guarantee women financial independence, they will not have true equality with men because they will not be able to head their own households, own their own homes, or start their own businesses. Many private businesses discriminate against women employees by not giving them the same family benefits and insurance as male employees; similarly, loan and mortgage companies often impose higher standards on women and require higher premiums or deposits for obtaining credit. Social security measures may discriminate against single mothers by presuming dependence on a man. States must therefore steps to ascertain that women have equal access with men to credit and loans and that they also have equal access to family benefits.

Article 16 Right to adequate housing
Despite the active role of African women in the management and creation of urban and rural environments, they are discriminated against in their access to adequate housing and control of land and property. In some countries, legislation, tradition and harmful religious practices prevent women from inheriting and having control over property and so deprive them of their rights to adequate housing. Considering the challenges faced by women in both rural and urban areas governments should consider that households and household members move from one end of the continuum to the other and it is necessary to provide infrastructure and services along the continuum without putting undue emphasis on one at the expense of the other. In most parts of Africa infrastructure and services are inadequate and in both urban and rural areas. While urban households rely on rural areas, but on a comparative note, the rural areas are worse off. This, in addition to the traditional myth of industrialisation and its potential offer of employment has attracted more households and household members to move to urban centres as opposed to smaller towns and rural trade and production centres.
Compared to men, women are more burdened with the rural-urban linkages. They have to move between the extreme ends of the continuum trying tom make ends meet for their households. Supporting women’s efforts in under the circumstances requires making their daily routine activities such as ensuring availability of water, energy and food easier, be it in the rural, or urban areas. This assurance makes it possible not only to engage in long term economic planning but also avails time fro critical thinking and engagement in socio- economic and political life of their communities. These measures are required if the states are to keep the promise of the Protocol to provide African women equal access to housing and to acceptable living conditions in a healthy environment.

Article 17 Right to a positive cultural context
African societies are products of historical evolution, enriched by diverse cultures. Individuals within those societies have their collective identities as members of families, communities, religious groups, etc. The delicate balance between the rights of the individual and society and the groups within society should be respected. Women, being among the most vulnerable and marginalised, need to be integrated in order to reconnect them with the community by making all the institutions of society more accessible to them. This article addresses discrimination against women in the private sphere, including discrimination in the area of family law.

Much discrimination against women takes place in their own homes, by their own husbands, their families and communities. In many areas of Africa, married women are not permitted to equally in deciding how many children they will bear, how these children will be brought up, and when or whether they themselves should work. Even in few places where women ‘enjoy’ a greater say in their family life, deeply ingrained stereotypes regarding the ‘proper’ role of women as being that of housewife and home maker may prevent them from pursuing other careers or prevent them from taking part in important decision-making with their husbands. In this regard, the Protocol provides that women will have the right to live in a positive cultural context and to participate at all levels in the determination of cultural policies. We should not be oblivious to the fact that this area of discrimination, based on long- standing cultural and religious practice is one of the most difficult areas to penetrate and one of the most resistant to change. Yet the drafters of Protocol realised that change in this area is essential in order for African women to attain full equality.

Article 18 Right to a healthy and sustainable environment
Poverty is a major cause and consequence of environmental degradation and is compounded by scarcity, depletion and the mismanagement of resources. Environmental degradation has had, and continues to have, an adverse impact on the population as a whole. Women experience this impact particularly in the traditional divisions of labour. This has resulted in an increase in their workload of domestic chores. Often, women have no choice other than to exploit natural resources in order to survive even when they know about the importance of protecting the environment and its sustainability.

In many part of Africa, women living in rural areas bear a disproportionate amount of the burden of labour. Moreover, they often receive little or no recognition of their participation, nor are they allowed to enjoy the fruit of their work or share in the benefits of development.

Natural resources are central to the livelihood of poor rural households and it is women who are responsible for growing and processing agricultural products. Women are key environmental managers with profound knowledge of plants and ecological processes. Such knowledge should not be lost to future generations of women, so the Protocol has made room for, among other things, the protection and development of women’s indigenous knowledge systems.

As the majority of the world’s poor, women play decisive roles in managing and preserving biodiversity, water, land and other natural resources, yet their centrality is often ignored or exploited. This means that a chance for better management of those resources is lost, along with opportunities for greater diversity, productivity for human sustenance and economic development. Moreover, while environmental degradation has severe consequences for all human, it particularly affects women and children.

Towards this end the states shall ensure greater involvement of women in planning, management and preservation of the environment and the sustainable use of natural resources at all levels.

Article 19 Right to sustainable development
Recently, African governments have slowly begun to see the political and socio-economic participation of women as a key factor and catalyst for the accelerated advancement of women and the society as a whole. In this respect, some African governments have established national machineries to be responsible for coordinating the gender perspective in overall national development activities. However, governments still have a lot to do to see that women fully enjoy their right to sustainable development.

For example, in many countries women still do not have the same property rights as men. Traditional property law often discriminate against women in that only male children are able to inherit the family land and husbands have automatic ownership over all of their wife’s property upon marriage. Similarly, legislation in a number of countries establishes that the administration of family property is to be undertaken by the male head of the family.- thereby excluding women.

The Protocol enjoins governments to take tangible steps to ensure the participation of women at all levels of decision-making, implementation and evaluation of development policies and programmes, to promote their access to credit, training and skills development and also to ensure that the negative effects of globalisation are reduced to the minimum for women.

Articles 20 Widows’ rights
The need to address the plight of widows cannot be overemphasised. In many African cultures, widows have suffered from a regressive heritage that results in their being ostracised from their communities at worst or being discriminated against at best. It is not uncommon for a widow to be labelled 'a witch' who is responsible for the death of her husband. She is consequently dispossessed of all her family’s assets, denied property rights, and left to grapple alone with her liabilities.

Also in many communities women are required to undergo harsh and burdensome rites at widowhood in order to prove that they did not kill their husbands. This is despite constitutional requirements that the dignity of the human person should not be subject to torture and degrading and inhuman treatment. Yet widowers are not subject to similar treatments.

The Protocol states that widows should not to be subjected to inhuman, humiliating or degrading treatment, that they should automatically become the custodian of their children, unless this is contrary to the children's interests and welfare, and that they should have the right to marry the person of their choice. It also states that women and men shall have the right to inherit in equitable shares, their parent’s properties.

Article 21 Right to inheritance
In adjudicating on inheritance rights for women there is a wide gap in both law and practice. This is especially so where it allows for the application of customary law under which a marriage was enacted which varies from community to community. In most communities, a woman takes nothing with her upon dissolution of marriage. The fact remain that the legal system allowing application of customary law upon divorce puts women in very vulnerable situations because cultural norms are mostly discriminatory towards women. They therefore get a raw deal even when it comes to legal redress because the outcome will be based upon gender- biased cultural practices and the whims and caprices of gender- blind judges who are themselves products of a predominantly patriarchal culture

Gender insensitivity of laws has negatively impacted on African women in regard to access to, ownership and control of property. This is because women are either not entitled to property ownership and where they are entitled to it, they are not aware of their rights or the court proceedings are too cumbersome for them to pursue legal redress.

The protocol senses the dire need for gender responsive policies to ensure equitable access to and ownership and control of (both movable and unmovable property) as a step towards achieving the goal of women’s empowerment. It will also be a critical step towards ensuring equitable distribution of resources, poverty alleviation and overall national development.

Article 22 Special protection for elderly women
Today women it is believed that women live longer than men, since their life expectance has increased. The difference between male and female in life expectancy is a result of a combination of biological differences, such as low susceptibility to heart disease before menopause, and cultural influences, such as greater male exposure to occupational hazards. While women can look forward to longer life than men, they are expected to continue suffering from gender discrimination even in their old age.

Widowhood is more prevalent among women because they live longer and usually marry men older than themselves. Women suffer from high rates of disability at older ages because of their lack of good health care, education and nutrition in earlier life. While a longer life is said to be one of the achievements of the 20th and 21st Centuries quality of life to the extended life is a major challenge.

The rights of elderly women are being violated without them getting ant redress in many African countries. Older women are leaving their communities in fear of being killed, and, if not killed, rejected by their own families. It is not uncommon to find elderly women wandering in town and living as beggars with nobody to care for their sustenance. They sleep in corridors and are threatened by cold and other types of diseases. They are even subjected to sexual harassment.

It is sad to say that in spite of the burgeoning women’s rights movement worldwide, many elderly women, poor and nowhere to get help, suffer and are killed for mere suspicion of witchcraft. Older women in some communities deeply rooted in superstitious beliefs are being turned to scapegoats for sickness, poverty and under- development, which should have been the responsibility of governments. It is relieving to know that the Protocol puts the plight of this category of women into perspective recommending state protection for them and ensuring their right to freedom from violence including sexual abuse, discrimination based on age and the right to be treated with dignity.

Article 23 Special protection of women with disabilities
State parties are to take special measures to ensure the protection the protection of women wit disabilities and take specific measures to facilitate their access to employment, professional and vocational training as well as their participation in decision- making and also make sure they are free from violence and discrimination based on their disability.

Article 24 Protection of special women
These include women in detention, poor women and women heads of family. State parties are to ensure their protection from marginalisation and provide an environment suitable to their condition and their special physical, economic and social needs.

THE AFRICAN COURT
The promises in the Protocol cannot be actualised merely by the enactment of gender- neutral laws alone, measures have to be put in place to ensure that African women are able to enjoy the promise of the Protocol. In article 27 of the Protocol, The African Court is bestowed with the responsibility of interpretation of matters arising from the application or implementation of the Protocol. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights is to take on the duties of adjudicating matters of the Protocol pending the establishment of the African Court. The African Court was constituted in February 2006. However, it is sad to note that of the eleven Judges appointed to the court only two are women.

ENTRY INTO FORCE
The Protocol entered into force in November, 2006, thirty days after the deposit of the fifteenth Instrument of ratification. Eighteen States have presently ratified the protocol, though a few states did with reservation. The interdependence and indivisibility of all rights is a long- accepted and consistently re-affirmed principle. In practice this means that respect for one proviso cannot be separated from the enjoyment of another proviso. That means for example that genuine economic and social development requires political and educational development to participate in this process. In as much as states can make reservations to some articles before ratification, universality is a desirable principle that should guide African states in ratifying the Protocol. The fact that states could ratify with reservations is a situation of accepting the better of two evils, while none of them is desirable, the lesser evil can be tolerated. While historical, cultural and religious differences must be borne in mind, it is the duty of every state, regardless of its political economic and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights, especially the human tights of women because that is the most abused. I use this opportunity to call on states that have ratified with reservations to emulate the good example set by the Gambia and lift their reservation thereby cleansing their ratification.

Conclusion
The concept of equality means much more than treating all persons in the same way. Experience has shown that equal treatment of persons in unequal situations will operate to perpetuate, rather than eradicate injustice. True equality can only emerge from efforts directed towards addressing and correcting these situational imbalances. Overall, therefore, despite regional and individual efforts made by the international community and local and international NGOs to improve the status of African women, only modest progress has been made and the Protocol seems to be the light at the end of the tunnel for African women. A lot of women's human rights violations have been inadequately addressed in the Protocol and promises to be an extremely useful framework for advancing the rights of women in Africa. Only time will tell if it will actually fulfil these promises or not. But we are very expectant and that is why, as women’s human rights activists, we have been taking these giant steps that we are confident will get to the destination the protocol promises to take us. However, we must bear in mind that in the final analysis it is the responsibility of all of us, not just he government and its institutions to ensure an Africa where women enjoy their full human rights on the basis of equality with men.

Thank you

References

A Simplified Version of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), 2004, BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, Lagos, Nigeria

Advancing Women’s Status: Gender, Society and Development, Women and Men Together, Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

African Union and SOAWR, Breathing Life into the African Union Protocol on Women’s Rights in Africa, (unpublished)

African Union, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights

African Union, Protocol to the Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa

Arusa Mahin Karim, 1998, Human Rights Protection in the African Regional System, Pretoria, South Africa

Asma Abdel Halim et al, Claiming Our Place, Institute of Women, Law and Development, Washington, USA

Barbara K (2002), Gender and Debt, AFRODAD, Harare, Zinbabwe
Edward O. et al, (2000) The Cost of Globalisation, Geneva, Switzerland

http://www.awid.org

http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk

http://www.globalrights.org

http://www.international-alert.org

http://www.siyanda.org

http://www.twnafrica.org/gera.asp
http://www.unhcr.ch

http://www.unifem.org

http://www.unifenpacific.org/gender_tradehtml

http://www.unorg/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/armed.htm

Margaret S. et al, African Women and Development (1995), Johannesburg, South Africa

Patricia A. Made et al, Beyond Beijing: Strategies Towards Women’s Equality, 1999, Harare Zimbabwe

The African Union Commission, (2004) The Road to Gender Equality in Africa: An Overview, Ethiopia

United Nations Convention on Discrimination Against Women, 2000, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Kampala, Uganda

United States Research for Social Development, 2005, Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World, Paris, France





An Overview of the SOAWR Campaign by Caroline Muriithi, Equality Now. Nairobi,Kenya


The Birth of SOAWR

The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa was adopted in July 2003, after numerous debates and deliberation between the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Civil Society Organisations across Africa. However after one year it was noted that only one country, The Comoros, had ratified the Protocol. This led to a number of debates and consultations among the organisations regarding the next step of action. In an effort to safegaurd the gains made for women within the Protocol four organisations namely Oxfam GB, FEMNET, Fahamu and Equality Now came together to work on a joint campaign to speed up the ratification of the Protocol. In September 2004, the coalition, the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) was formed and now has a total membership of 25 organisations from across the continent.

The Campaign Strategies
• Coalition produced advocacy materials through various media such as the Special issues of Pambazuka (online newsletter), the publishing of a booklet titled 'Not Yet a Force for Freedom' and other publications.
• Press conference via TV/radio interviews and press releases were held as a way of consistently holding governments accountable while also popularizing the Protocol.
• SOAWR engaged in dialogue with member states about the progress of ratification at national level and during AU summits and learned what obstacles if any were inhibiting the progress (Nigerian Ambassador and Chair of the Permanent Representatives Committee chairs dialogue between SOAWR and Addis based Ambassadors on the status of ratification)
• In addition SOAWR used mobile phone campaign “ Text Now 4 Women’s Rights” to popularise the Protocol . The technology, used for the first time in Africa, enabled hundreds of African cell phone users to join the campaign and be updated on the progress of ratification via their mobile phones.
• Colored cards Campaign: cards were issued to member states during AU meetings (GREEN for countries that had ratified, YELLOW for countries that had signed but not ratified and RED for countries that had not signed the protocol) to encourage them in their commitments or to remind them of their lack of real commitment.
• SOAWR also established a good rapport with the AUC legal department and the AUC Directorate of Women, Gender, and Development in order to track the progress of the ratification by member states.
• SOAWR used opportunities to consistently hold governments accountable such as Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, the Pan African women's day (29th September), the Beijing +10 review process and the treaties week of the AU Commission (which is a period that member states are urged to ratify pending protocols) to campaign for the ratification of the Protocol
• Conducted outreach activities to various women’s organisation in countries that have not ratified the Protocol for them to join the SOAWR campaign and carry on the advocacy and popularisation campaigns in their respective countries

Challenges
1. The ongoing conflicts and insecurity in many countries in Africa, such as Somalia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Liberia Despite these challenges countries like Somalia and Liberia have recently signed the Protocol
2. Cultural and religious conservatism and fundamentalism have hindered the campaign. In Niger, where after the government ratified the Protocol, the Parliament rejected it stating that it conflicted with Islamic teachings and withdrew the ratification, expressing concern about reproductive rights, abortion and inheritance rights.
3. Countries that were engaged in national elections such as Uganda, Mozambique, and Tanzania were mostly concerned with campaigning for the elections at the time and the Protocol was not a priorty causing a delay in ratification. Despite this set back, Mozambique ratified the Protocol
4. Ratifications with reservations- E.g the Gambia which entered four reservations at the time of ratifying the protocol however Gambia has since removed the reservations
5. Lastly weak institutional mechanisms for implementation and confusion at country level as to which ministries are responsible to ensure that the Protocol is ratified




RESULT
The Protocol became the fastest ratified HR instrument in AFRICA.

“The speed with which the Protocol came into force on 25 November 2005 set a new record for the ratification of pan-African rights standards for the continent. It is a remarkable success for all of us that have campaigned at pan-African, national and local levels to make this a reality. … In doing so we give life to the vision of the African Union as people-driven and inclusive”

H.E. Alpha Oumar Konare, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, African Union Headquarters, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

To date 20 countries have ratified the Protocol and more are expected to ratify in the near future. SOAWR has mobilised women right organisations in 13 countries to campaign for the Protocol and these are actively engaged in the campaign in their respective countries. SOAWR has been successful in making its presence visible within the AU and elsewhere. Gambia has removed its reservations on four articles.

The campaign has now moved to the second phase, which makes an additional call for the domestication and implementation of the Protocol at the National level for those countries that have ratified it in order to ensure that its progressive provisions are incorporated into domestic/national law. SOAWR has broadened its membership base to include NGO’s involved in legal activities as well as women lawyers to encourage them to familiarize themselves with the Protocol and to campaign for its implementation at the national level.

In conclusion, the objectives of our campaign have been focused and clear and our collective energies and actions were therefore harmonized at realizing our objectives. We invite all of you to join our campaign to popularize the Protocol and to advocate for the ratification, domestication and implementation at the national level in your respective countries. Only through our consorted efforts can we ensure women throughout Africa enjoy their rights and freedoms

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Sudan: Government of South Sudan reaffirms its commitment to women's rights and justice

2007-02-15

http://tinyurl.com/2v7kcw

According to high-ranking officials speaking at a UNIFEM-sponsored Gender Justice Workshop for South Sudan, the government of Southern Sudan has provided policy instruments designed to protect women and girls and ensure that women's concerns are addressed. What remains to be done is translating these policy instruments into laws and implement them.

Botswana: Bushmen arrested and beaten despite court ruling

2007-02-15

http://www.survival-international.org/news.php?id=2217

Six Bushmen have been arrested, starved and held for six days after police and wildlife guards accused them of hunting in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana. They were then released without charge. The arrests come only two months after the Bushmen’s landmark court victory.

DRC: Rights Groups Call for Marie Therese Nlandu's Release

2007-02-13

http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/2670.cfm

The president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is being urged to release human rights lawyer and former presidential candidate Marie Therese Nlandu and her associates from prison. The calls come following the resumption of Nlandu's trial before a military tribunal in the Congo capital, Kinshasa, on January 24. The former presidential candidate and her associates have been charged with illegal possession of firearms and with organizing an "insurrectionary movement."

Sudan: Sudan demands U.N. removes rights envoy

2007-02-13

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L12892139.htm

Sudan will not allow a U.N. human rights team to visit unless they replace a member of the delegation who Khartoum says is biased, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday. A six-member U.N. rights team was due to arrive this week in Sudan to investigate rights abuses in Darfur. But the government has said they will not get visas.

Zimbabwe: Student leader held by police for second day

2007-02-15

http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2007-02-14-voa73.cfm

Police in Harare continued Wednesday to hold some 14 students arrested Tuesday for trying to organize a demonstration in the Zimbabwean capital, sources said. Sources in the Zimbabwe National Students Union said the 14 were denied food and legal counsel until late Wednesday.

Africa: Migrants disembark in Mauritania

2007-02-13

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4EDB28A3-31F1-40CD-A0F4-DB7FC15B7F41.htm

Up to 400 African and Asian migrants have begun disembarking in Mauritania from a freighter intercepted by the Spanish coastguard over a week ago. The migrants were handed over to Spanish police after Mauritania and Spain reached a deal following prolonged diplomatic wrangling over responsibility for the migrants.

DRC: UNHCR appeals for funds to repatriate refugees

2007-02-15

http://newsite.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70175

At least US$62 million is required to repatriate 98,500 Congolese refugees and to provide aid for 1.1 million internally displaced persons in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the United Nations.

Liberia: Refugees appeal to government to extend stay

2007-02-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70198

Members of the small Liberian community in Tel Aviv have appealed to the Israeli government to allow them to extend their stay in Israel. The appeal comes seven months after the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) representative in Israel wrote to all Liberian refugees directing them to return to Liberia by 31 March 2007.

Somalia: At least 30 people dead as smugglers' boat capsizes

2007-02-15

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/45d1d9134.html

A smugglers boat capsized off the coast of Yemen earlier this week leaving at least 30 people dead amid a recent spike in people smuggling across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia. Chief UNHCR spokesperson, Ron Redmond, told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday that at least 30 Somalis and Ethiopians died when the boat – carrying 120 people – foundered as it approached the Yemeni coast on Monday.

Angola: Elections continue to elude hopeful Angolans

2007-02-15

http://newsite.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70179

Angola appears to be in no hurry to hold its first elections in more than a decade, political observers commented, but many voters are hoping that casting their ballot will translate into improved living standards. President Jose Eduardo dos Santos last week explicitly referred to 2008 as the year legislative elections would be held, with a presidential ballot to follow in 2009.

Kenya: An unequal poll from the start

2007-02-13

http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/Opinion/Opinion1202077.htm

It is abundantly clear that this is an election year. L. Muythoni Wanyeki reports that the media are consumed with stories of how the Orange Democratic Movement intends to select its presidential candidate. Even further in the shadows, however, are the disturbing and profound issues of what would make the upcoming elections truly free and fair.

Kenya: Judges' outrage over 10 pending election petitions

2007-02-15

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=91816

The Daily Nation reports that at least 10 election petition cases remain unresolved with less than 11 months to the General Election. And as the country moves closer to elections, there are fears that some of the incumbent MPs could take advantage of loopholes in the existing petition laws as a tactic to delay the cases until Parliament is dissolved, thereby allowing them to serve the full five-year term.

Lesotho: Tight race expected for landlocked Lesotho election

2007-02-15

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/world.aspx?ID=BD4A386805

The tiny mountain kingdom of Lesotho heads into its fourth general elections on Saturday with the ruling party trying to fight off a concerted challenge from one of its former leading lights.

Nigeria: Government to bar Vice-President from elections

2007-02-15

http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2007-02-15-voa1.cfm

Nigeria’s government says it will ban all political leaders, including Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who have allegedly been indicted by the economic and financial crimes commission (EFCC), from participating in April’s presidential elections.

Senegal: Violence on the increase ahead of presidential vote

2007-02-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70212

With presidential elections looming, many in Senegal are concerned that the country’s largely peaceful history at the polls is about to be shattered. So far no one has been killed or suffered major injuries ahead of the 25 February vote.

Africa: 'Vulture funds' threat to developing world

2007-02-15

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/6362783.stm

A high court judge in London is due to rule whether so-called vulture fund can extract more than $40m from Zambia for a debt which it bought for less than $4m according to a BBC report. There are concerns that such funds are wiping out the benefits which international debt relief was supposed to bring to poor countries.

South Africa: Anti-Corruption Chief Warns South Africa

2007-02-16

http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2007-02-14-voa46.cfm

Global Integrity (GI) director, Marianne Camerer, has said that despite South Africa making notable gains in its fight to stem graft, opportunities still existed for high-level corruption in the country.

Sudan: Plea to curb corruption in South Sudan

2007-02-16

http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article20272

Unite States' special envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios said in Washington DC recently that southern Sudan’s leaders were struggling to implement good governance practices, and that there appeared to be substance to allegations that some donor funds that had been allocated to development in the region had been misappropriated.

Africa: Opening the Third Front

Joshua Ogada

2007-02-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/39882

With the establishment of the Africa Command (Africom) slated for 2008, the Pentagon is becoming as important a player as the State Department in as far as relations between the US and Africa. This latest move, the details of which are not yet clear, but could involve increased US troop deployments and bases, should be raising more eyebrows than it already has on the continent. This especially so since Africa was previously well covered between the European Command (EUCOM), Central Command (CENTCOM), and the Pacific Command (PACOM).

A worrying aspect to this latest development is that it has received bi-partisan support in Washington. – As Sen. Russ Feingold (D), chair of the Senate committee on Africa puts it, "An Africa Command would help the U.S. military focus on a continent that is essential to our national security…An Africa Command is vital to strengthening our relations with African nations and preventing them from becoming staging grounds for attacks against the U.S. or our allies." This would mark a shift towards increased militarization of the US approach to Africa.

Africom covers countries that have strategic interests for the US in Africa. Nigeria is an obvious choice to fall under the umbrella of Africom as a major supplier of oil to the US. The other countries covered by AFRICOM are Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Morocco. All these countries have indicated some links between internal dissent and Al-Qaeda activity.

The recent events in Somalia involving both the US and Ethiopia have raised interesting questions about the global war on terror, such as the origin of the intelligence reports citing presence of Al-Qaeda, which led to US intervention.

Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq provide valuable lessons about the lasting internal effects of ill-considered external intervention. The latest involvement in Somalia portends to a worrying trend of baiting US intervention by alluding to the presence of Al-Qaeda linked groups. Nigeria, Chad, Algeria and Mauritania are dealing with internal tensions that could be further worsened by US involvement. The potential impact of Africom on democracy in Africa is significant.

In a paper published by the Center or International Policy, Paul Lubeck et al point to the contradictory and flawed reasoning behind seeking to bolster security in Africa as an alternative source of petroleum to replace over-reliance on the Middle-East which is an increasingly unstable supply. The nature of US involvement through Africom could seed the very same tensions and instability that the US is eager to avoid in the Middle East.

The Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI) involves bolstering of continental militaries ostensibly to enable them better deal with “terrorist” activity in their territories. Given the continent’s bad history of militarism and the use of force against citizens, the implications for the future of democracy and civilian rule may be further jeopardized.

Further Reading:
Center for International Policy
http://www.ciponline.org/nigeria_summary.html

The Guardian – US Moves in on Africa
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2009098,00.html

US State Department
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2007&m=February&x=20070206170933MVyelwarC0.2182581

Africa: U.S. Energy Security and the "securing" of Nigerian democracy

2007-02-15

http://www.ciponline.org/NIGERIA_FINAL.pdf

A report by the Center For International diplomacy analyzes the links between the establishment of an African military command (AFRICOM) by the US department of defense and the need to secure strategic oil interests in Nigeria as part of a so-called "Oil Triangle" centered on the Gulf of Guinea. The report raises questions about the US government's Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI).

Liberia: Sirleaf Seeks Help with Debt, Security, Roads

2007-02-15

http://www.cgdev.org/content/article/detail/12622/

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf described the achievements of her year-old government in recovering from a prolonged civil war and called upon the U.S. and other Liberian partners to drop the debt inherited from past governments, continue security assistance, and step up development assistance, especially road building.

South Africa: Blanket grant for poor not envisaged

2007-02-13

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=6&art_id=vn20070211235124305C359096

President Thabo Mbeki has firmly discarded any suggestion that a basic income grant was on the cards for impoverished South Africans. With a basic income grant, the government would effectively be "abandoning" its citizens, he said. However, a "more targeted, more precise" comprehensive social security system would definitely be implemented.

Tanzania: High growth still to benefit the poor

2007-02-15

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=36543

Just more than a year after Jakaya Kikwete was elected president of Tanzania his name was mentioned in the halls at the Africa Union (AU) summit in January in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as the possible new chairperson of the AU. As IPS reports, the fact that Kikwete's name was mentioned made delegates take note of the progress Tanzania has made under his leadership , not least towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Africa: 3GSM-Cell phones mobilised to fight AIDS in Africa

2007-02-13

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L12696906.htm

Mobile phones are being harnessed to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa under a new $10-million scheme announced on Tuesday with the backing of leading companies and the U.S. government. The "Phones-for-Health" project will use software loaded on to a standard Motorola handset to allow care workers in the field to enter critical health information into a central database in real time.

South Africa: Call to make HIV-Positive teachers and nurses a 'priority'

2007-02-15

http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=2557153

The head of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Olive Shisana, has called on government to prioritize treatment for HIV-positive teachers and nurses, saying the country cannot afford to let these key service providers die.

South Africa: Rural orphan-care programmes struggle

2007-02-13

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/3bdc8338e31879cc4f4cd186592ba9d2.htm

The lush hills in the Tzaneen Municipality of South Africa's Limpopo Province may seem a better place to spend a childhood than the dusty, overcrowded townships of Johannesburg, but living in the countryside can add to the hardships of children who are HIV positive or have lost parents to AIDS.

South Africa: South Africa alters AIDS plan after extreme TB threat

2007-02-15

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15753247.htm

South Africa is overhauling its AIDS strategy in a bid to counter the rise of extreme drug resistant tuberculosis which is proving a serious threat to those suffering HIV/AIDS, a senior official has said.

Togo: Outbreak of Yellow Fever

2007-02-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70213

Health authorities in Togo are carrying out a vaccination campaign in the north after the first outbreak of yellow fever in that region in more than 20 years. The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed four cases of the disease in the regions of Savanes and Kara in December and January.

Zimbabwe: Donors give $70 million for AIDS orphans

2007-02-16

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15748862.htm

Foreign donors gave $70 million on Thursday to help Zimbabwe cope with growing numbers of AIDS orphans in what officials said was a rare show of unity among the government, donors and non-governmental organisations.

Kenya: Computer literacy vital for secondary schools, says Minister

2007-02-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/education/39851

Increasing computer literacy in Kenya's secondary schools is a prerequisite for improving ITs in the education system, education minister Prof. George Saitoti has said. And if Kenya wants to attain the Millennium Development Goals of reducing literacy levels, the government education policies must embrace the spirit of "technology" by introducing an ICT syllabus in all secondary schools.
Kenya: Computer literacy vital for secondary schools, says Minister
Source: Highway Africa
www.highwayafrica.ru.ac.za

Increasing computer literacy in Kenya's secondary schools is a prerequisite for improving ITs in the education system, education minister Prof. George Saitoti has said. And if Kenya wants to attain the Millennium Development Goals of reducing literacy levels, the government education policies must embrace the spirit of "technology" by introducing an ICT syllabus in all secondary schools. This, the minister says will put Kenya at par with the rest of the world as regards ICTs. Speaking HANA, the minister emphasized the government's plan of increasing computer literacy at the secondary school level to at least 70% of those who complete secondary school. "Kenyans should know that computers are no longer a luxury. We must intensify ICT training in order to leapfrog into the digital age and compete effectively with the rest of the world," he said. Kenya is among the African countries that benefit from refurbished 8-bit personal computers donated by the International Development of Computer Education (IDCE) program based in Japan. This initiative aims at widening access to basic computers for educational purposes in developing countries, where most often than not there is no public access to computer technology. In the long-term this program will increase basic computer skills and encourage computer education in Kenya. But realizing this dream in Kenya needs full government commitment particularly in the areas of accessibility to ICTs. Reducing low access levels to secondary school education, irrespective of gender, socio-economic class or geographical location takes center stage in the government's ICT policies. "This strategy will also aim at bridging the rural-urban digital divide. We don't want a situation where students from the rural areas are left in the cold. Resources need to be distributed equally." He said. In Kenya today, academics believe that the spread of education in science and technology is the only key to the country's future economic independence and prosperity. But not everyone agrees with that because the majority of the people are poor and have different priorities other than ICTs. However, the majority of the poor believe that; what they urgently require is not computers, but water and clothes and other necessities of life. Kenyans have a great desire to learn and to utilize the tools of modern technology. Currently plans are underway to have selected secondary school teachers undergo intensive ICT courses and impart the skills to the students.

Mozambique: Orphans' Choice: School or Survival?

2007-02-15

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=36501

The school year kicks off in Mozambique with more children enrolling for primary school than ever in the past. But, as Ruth Ansah Ayisi of IPS reports, educational prospects remain bleak for orphans like Regina Massango.

Rwanda: Students spearhead efforts to build public library

2007-02-15

http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2007-02-13-voa37.cfm

An American student and his Rwandan colleagues in the U.S. and Rwanda have joined forces to build a public library in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. The American Friends of the Kigali Public Library (AFKPL), a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, is committed to working with the Rotary Club of Kigali-Virunga, Rwanda, to spearhead the construction of the library.

South Africa: Cell Phones in Schools

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/education/39751

Amidst debates on whether or not to allow the use of cell phones in schools, the Meraka Institute has put its expertise in information and communications technology (ICT) to work in an effort to use these devices positively in a teaching and learning environment.
South Africa: Cell Phones in Schools
The Meraka Institute

The Meraka Institute is a national research centre managed by the Pretoria-based Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in collaboration with the Helsinki University of Art and Design in Finland and the University of Pretoria. The researchers have, over the past 18-months, been working on a project dubbed MobilED, where they are investigating the use of mobile technologies and services for formal and informal learning. The project is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

Schools involved in the pilot include Cornwall Hill College and Irene Middle School. The project will run for a further two years.

“The first module we developed was the audio-Wikipedia - an online encyclopaedia - from which anyone can receive and upload information. Children send a short text message (SMS) with a key word to a cell phone number.

In response, they receive a call-back and a speech synthesiser “reads” an article on the subject. Both the fast forward or rewind functionalities can be used, almost like the old analogue tape recordings,” explains Merryl Ford, CSIR research group leader for ICT in Education, Youth and Gender. “An important addition is that children can also dictate information to the service to add their unique knowledge on a particular subject.” The group is also busy developing an MMS content-addition and - delivery module. All the innovations are being tested in real classroom situations at schools with direct feedback from the children and teachers.
Ford says: “To date, children have used cell phones as communication devices and we are aware of the controversy that currently rages about the [mis]use of cell phones in schools.” Today's high-end mobile phones have the computing power of a mid-1990s PC, while consuming only one-hundredth of the energy.
Even the simplest, voice-only phones have more complex and powerful chips than the on-board computer that landed a spaceship on the moon in 1969. Many learners in South Africa have access to these powerful devices.

“It seems a great pity that our children and teachers are not using one of the most accessible, affordable computing devices in the developing world in more positive ways. We asked ourselves whether innovations around this technology and its applications can ultimately lead to it being embraced as a learning support tool in a school environment.” “MobilED has proven that cell phones can be very useful where there’s no other access to information sources. Libraries or internet connections no longer need to be the sole access point for educational information for children,” says Ford.

Meanwhile, researchers are still busy probing sustainability models. “This is part of our investigation: assessing potential business models that will make it a viable implementation in schools,” says Ford. In the pilot project, the SMS service costs are being covered by the CSIR project. The idea is to make the facility affordable to all schools in South Africa.

Asked whether this new tool will not infringe school policies on usage of cell phones, Ford says: “The internet has resulted in immensely powerful, positive business applications, but is also used in not-so noble applications. While the irresponsible use of cell phones by learners has caused an uproar, we should not ignore the untapped latent applications and benefits. Since we live in the new digital age, it is imperative that teenagers are taught life skills for this digital age,” says Ford, noting that it is the role of parents and teachers to inform children of the issues that may be faced. “We warn children at a young age not to speak to strangers - this needs to be translated to the online world too.” Ford says one researcher at the Meraka Institute has started a school “Doctor Maths” on MXit - a popular instant-messaging service. Ford says the researcher is offering maths support for high school learners using the chat facility. “With a reported million school-going children having subscribed to MXit, one can hardly ignore this tool. We know that South African teenagers use MXit on a daily basis, so in order to reach them, we supply the services of a 'doctor' to help them with their school work through this application.” Ford emphasises that the institute does not advocate any particular chat engine and that “Doctor Maths” will be available via other platforms as well.

“I am extremely excited by the results of this pilot project, it has been hugely successful,” says Ford.
The project will be piloted internationally by countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines and Finland. Interest has also been shown by New Zealand, Mexico, Colombia and Mozambique.

For further information:
Mzimasi Gcukumana CSIR Communication Tel: (012) 841 3525 Cell: 083 999 7832 Email: mgcukumana@csir.co.za

Nigeria: Human Rights Failures in Nigeria

Okumephuna Chukwunwike

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/lgbti/39757

Considering all of Nigeria’s problems it is unfortunate that the National Assembly has the audacity to welcome the homophobic bill presented to it by the Presidency to punish lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transvestites (LGBTs) . But it is a shame that the National Assembly went along to give a precious time to giving consideration to this obnoxious Bill despite the fact that there are many other issues that demand urgent national attention.

Part of the expectation of the Bill is to punish severely whoever is canvassing for same sex marriage, promoting it, sponsoring it or taking part in the marriage either in Nigeria or abroad and to punish severely LGBTs who exhibit their sexuality with punishment of up to five years in the prison. I have no doubt that issues surrounding sexual affairs should be left for individuals and theologians to decide upon with the state setting only the guidelines on how it should be conducted.

For instance, though I have got the right to marry any girl of my choice, the state in as much as they are morally obligated to respect this my choice, should be able to provide me with a guideline on how this should be done to avoid infringing on the fundamental human right of the girl I so much desire to marry. In this case the state is expected to come up with regulations on how this should be conducted. For instance the state in a bid to safeguard the right of the girl child to teenager is morally justified to come up with a law that would prevent me from marrying that girl if she is below 18 years and should also punish me if I contravene this law.

In the same vein two same sex adults who agreed to have sex, should not be punished for their choice but should be protected by the state since the main locus of the sex is a prior agreement and consent between two of them. The state can only punish this form of relationship in the event of rape or when one has a carnal knowledge of his same sexual partner who is below the age of consent for sex in the state or having carnal knowledge of someone without their consent.

A nation like Nigeria is made up of various interest groups ranging from religious, commercial, ethnic, sexual and many other groups and therefore the state is under obligation to protect all these interests and especially to ensure that the minorities are not unduly victimised. The state should also protect the interest of religions but should not allow religious groups to impose their beliefs upon those who agreed not to believe in anything or do not share their beliefs. The state should also go a step further to uphold that right if I choose to be an atheist. Religion and religious matters should be made to be a very private and personal issue and the state should be ready to protect me from whoever wants to infringe on this my fundamental human right.

The argument the National Assembly advanced forward in going forward with the Bill is that being a LGBT is not part of Nigerian culture. These we have heard over and over again but how does one explain that even though this is not part of Nigeria culture, we still have gays, bisexuals and lesbians in different parts of the country and in every aspect of its life including the Executive, Legislative and Judicial arms of the Government, churches and in a nutshell everywhere. What then could be referred to as Nigerian culture? Maybe corruption is?

In the middle of the 1980’s when the first case of HIV and AIDS was reported in Nigeria, the first reaction of the then Government and of course the nation was to completely deny its existence claiming that it was a Whiteman’s disease. Before we could know it, the so- called Whiteman’s disease had affected about 3.5 million Nigerians and continues to wreak havoc on our young population. But the most agonising part of the whole drama is that despite huge human resources we have both here and abroad, no single person has had the audacity to sue the Federal Government for the initial denial that led to this present day AIDS and HIV epidemic in the nation. It is also a shame that this single episode has not taught Nigerians a good lesson. Bearing then in mind the bitter lesson we are learning from our initial responses to the HIV and AIDS epidemic, it is a shame that no single Nigerian has mustered the courage to challenge both the Presidency and the National Assembly on the effect their homophobic stand would have on the future of the nation, especially as it relates to the war against HIV and AIDS.

The impact of this proposed legislation on the LGBTI community is that many LGBTs would have their fundamental human rights trampled upon simply because they are gays, lesbians or bisexuals. Many of them could lose their lives in the future either by being attacked by homophobic people or by committing suicide since their lifestyle does not have any form of protection under the law. But the most agonising part is that the current fight against HIV and AIDS is likely to be a complete failure, if nothing is done to accommodate gays, lesbians and bisexuals under the law. Let me illustrate this in a very simple term, a bisexual who indulges in sexual intercourse with both men and women is likely to end up transferring the virus from his male partner to unsuspecting female partner.

Research conducted in countries with a very strong homophobic attitude, noted that it is only a microcosm of gays, lesbians and bisexuals that are ever identified or known due to their strong tendency to deny their sexuality throughout their entire life for fear of public opprobrium towards them. In addition, due to high levels of illiteracy and ignorance in homophobic and third world countries, many gays, lesbians and bisexuals have a strong culture of unprotected sex amongst themselves. This is partly because they believe that same sex love can never transmit Sexually Transmitted Diseases. The implication of this is that so far they are forced to live in the closet putting themselves and others at risk.

There is no point in denying the reality that the nation is not yet ready for same sex marriage or civil partnership but to completely deny the existence of gay life and culture in Nigeria or use stringent measures and laws against them would never help the situation but would only go a long way to aggravate the already bad situation. By the way how are we convinced that putting them in prison for five years would return them non gays or lesbians at the end of their incarceration? On the contrary the Government should at least be working towards creating a conducive environment for LGBTs by providing them with legal protection under the law.

It is the function of the Government to break down all the walls of barriers and discrimination that still exist in the nation by emphasising what people can contribute towards the nation building rather than who they are. And for Nigerians who do not see anything wrong in discriminating against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transvestites, they should also not be offended or shocked when they are denied employment based on their ethnic group, religion or any other stereotype.

A number of Nigeria’s religious leaders headed by the Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, Rev. Peter Jasper Akinola, have continued to inculcate the minds of their congregations with a fascist victimisation, annihilation and hatred against LGBTs. Akinola by spearheading this has positioned himself as the most holy one but he forgets one thing, that his life style may not be compatible with his office. The question we must ask ourselves here is how is Akinola and his cohorts living up to the expectation of their model, Jesus Christ.

The essence of this article is therefore never to cast aspersions on religion or anybody representing it but to point out that things are not going the way they should go. And for those who are going to crucify me for the stand I have taken, I have just one message for them. I do not care for I am a staunch believer in that yet to come Nigeria and world where and when individuals should no more be classified based on their colour, race, ethnic group, religion, creed, belief or sexual orientation but on what they can contribute to the development of the nation and the entire human race.

And the quickest way to break all these artificial boundaries and barriers is by creating a Commission that should be charged with the power to severely punish any individual, group or establishment engaged in promoting any form of discrimination. This Commission could be called Commission For Equality or Equal Opportunity Commission or whatever name we chose at the end of the day. It should have a tribunal status with the responsibility of trying and bringing to justice those promoting these discriminations and hatred.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

South Africa: Not enough gay coverage in the media

2007-02-15

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=southafrica&id=1476

A number of South African media organizations have agreed that the findings of a research project, saying there is limited coverage, as well as a lack of in-depth reporting about LGBTI issues by media are true. The research was conducted by the
Gay and Lesbian Archives of South Africa (GALA), in conjunction with Community Media for Development (CMFD).

Tanzania: gay question is ‘not central to faith’ says bishop

2007-02-15

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=religion&id=1463

The Bishop of Central Tanganyika, the Rt Revd Godfrey Mdimi Mhogolo, has said that the issue of homosexuality was not fundamental to the Christian faith. “We share the sufferings and hurts of the people we serve...We also work for the hope of glory in trying to transform the lives of our people, regardless of their colour, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and social status”, he added.

Cote D'Ivoire: Company settles over toxic waste scandal

2007-02-15

http://newsite.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70185

The Dutch-based multinational Trafigura has agreed to pay the equivalent of US $198 million to the Cote d’Ivoire government in a settlement over a toxic waste scandal. In exchange, Ivorian officials have agreed to abandon legal action against the company.

Kenya: Kibera "Slum Tourism" stirs controversy

2007-02-15

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12206

Kibera is the de rigeur stop off for caring foreign dignitaries. It reached a worldwide audience as a backdrop to the British blockbuster "The Constant Gardener". Andrew Cawthorne reports for Reuters that any journalist wanting a quick Africa poverty story can find it there in half an hour. And now at least one travel agency offers tours round Kenya's Kibera slum, one of Africa's largest.

Uganda: Caught between drought and guns

2007-02-15

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12217

Drought cycles are coming more often to northeastern Uganda: every two years instead of every five, according to a Reuters report. This year, crops dried out when the rains failed, leaving about half a million people dependent on United Nations food aid.

Kenya: Dozens killed and thousands displaced in land clashes

2007-02-15

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70178

At least 30,000 people have been displaced and 60 killed in continuing clashes over land in the western Mt Elgon District of Kenya, the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) said on Wednesday.

South Africa: White farmers, black land hunger: sparks fly in the tinder box

2007-02-15

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2001529,00.html#article_continue

With one eye on the chaotic and violent land transfers in Zimbabwe which has left the country unable to feed itself, South Africa has sought an orderly redistribution. But even supporters say the reform is failing, with just 4% of white-owned land transferred so far, Chris McGreal reports for The Guardian.

Sudan: Merowe Dam: Attempted assassination of community leaders

2007-02-16

http://www.irn.org/programs/merowe/

Two prominent leaders of the Manasir, one of three groups being displaced by the Merowe Dam in Sudan, have narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by security personnel employed by the Merowe Dam Implementation Unit on 10th February 2007.
The Merowe Dam, funded by the China Ex-Im Bank, is currently under construction on the River Nile, 350 kilometres north of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
MEROWE DAM: ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF COMMUNITY LEADERS

Leaders of the affected community escape assassination attempt by the security unit at China Ex-Im funded dam.

LOHAP, 14 February 2007 - Two prominent leaders of the Manasir, one of three groups being displaced by the Merowe Dam in Sudan, have narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by security personnel employed by the Merowe Dam Implementation Unit on 10th February 2007.
The Merowe Dam, funded by the China Ex-Im Bank, is currently under construction on the River Nile, 350 kilometres north of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

The attempted killings took place in Abu Hamad town in Nile State.
Husain Ali Zaidan (a member of the Executive Committee of the Manasir) and Gasim Allha Abadallah Zaidan (Head of Manasir Association, Khartoum North) were taking part in a peaceful protest during the visit of the Chief Executive of the Dam Implementation Unit to the town when shots were fired at them by dam security personnel.

According to eye-witness accounts, Colonel Adil Awad, head of the dam security unit, repeatedly fired at the two Manasir leaders, whom the dam authorities apparently targeted in the belief that they had organized the protest.

The two leaders were not hurt. However, following the incident, scuffles broke out and at least one car belonging to the National Conference Party was set alight.

The Manasir are the largest tribal group affected by the Merowe project, which will displace a minimum of 55,000 people: the two other affected groups are the Hamadab and the Amri.

The dam authorities plan to resettle the Manasir at Al Fidha, some 45 kilometres from the River Nile in the Nubian Desert. The Manasir, however, have repeatedly stated that they will not move from their lands. In June 2006, the Governor of Nile State, responding to concerns over the plight of the affected communities, reached an agreement with the Manasir, under which the Manasir would not be moved to Al Fidha but would be allowed to continue living on their land around the proposed reservoir. The agreement was backed by a series of Presidential Decrees.

Despite the June Agreement, the dam authorities have pressed ahead with construction work at Al Fidha. The Chief Executive of the Dam Implementation Unit was visiting Abu Hamad to inaugurate the resettlement project. The Manasir were holding a peaceful protest to express their opposition to being forcibly displaced to the desert .

The protesters demanded that the Government of Nile State honour its commitments under the June 2006 agreement with the Manasir. According to the leaders of the affected communities, the agreement stipulates that no work in Al Fidah project should start before the completion of the local resettlement projects around the dam's reservoir. The protesters maintained that the inauguration of Al Fidah represented a blatant violation of the June agreement.

The Merowe Dam project has been marred by gross human rights violations. Since its start in 2003, a number of community leaders have been repeatedly subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention. In September 2003, dam security forces used live bullets to disperse a peaceful protest organized by the Hamadab people. In April 2006, the dam security forces fired without warning on a peaceful gathering of Amri affected communities in school courtyard, killing three and injuring 47 others.

Merowe dam on the fourth cataracts of the River Nile is being implemented by Chinese and European contractors. Major contracts have been awarded to three European companies: Germany's Lahmeyer International (project management), France's Alstom (hydroelectric equipment), and Switzerland's ABB (transmission). The Lahmeyer contract is worth $34 million, Alstom's $300 million and ABB's $60 million.

Report by LOHAP, bertait@fareah.fslife.co.uk

Guniea: Presidential guards raid Conakry radio station, arrest presenter and technician

2007-02-13

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=20993

Reporters Without Borders have condemned the closure of privately-owned radio FM Liberté by members of the presidential guard, who ransacked the Conakry-based station, roughed up employees and arrested a journalist and a technician. A unit of presidential guard “Red Berets” burst into the studios of FM Liberté in the Conakry district of Kaloum at 11:40 a.m.on Tuesday while the “Matinée Plurielle” programme was being broadcast.

Kenya: Court upholds media freedom

2007-02-15

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=91743

The High Court yesterday rejected a requirement by the Government that broadcasting houses seek State approval before airing some of their programmes. The landmark verdict was delivered in a case filed six years ago in the Constitutional Court by Nation Media Group, challenging the directive issued by the minister for Information, Transport and Communication at the time.

Somalia: UN rights expert calls for release of arrested journalists in Somalia

2007-02-13

http://www.app.com.pk/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3742&Itemid=2

An independent U.N. human rights expert Monday called for the release of three journalists arrested in Somalia and voiced “deep concern” at the closing of radio and television stations. “Threats to journalists and media outlets constitute serious violations of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, Ghanim Alnajjar, said in a statement, released at UN Headquarters in New York.

Zimbabwe: Court abandons case against Ncube

2007-02-15

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=296932&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

Zimbabwe's government "abandoned" its court case against Mail & Guardian chief executive Trevor Ncube on Thursday after it had prevented him at the end of last year from renewing his passport, claiming he was not a citizen of Zimbabwe.
Ncube publishes the Standard and the Zimbabwe Independent in that country.

Chad: Disaster threat hangs as ethnic strife spreads

2007-02-15

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6362597.stm

UK aid agency Oxfam has warned a new humanitarian catastrophe, like that in Darfur, could happen in Chad if ethnic conflict is not brought under control. Inter-ethnic fighting along the border with Darfur has displaced tens of thousands of Chadians in the past year.

Guinea: Change or Chaos

2007-02-15

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4661&l=1

A report released by the International Crisis Group examines the political crisis faced by Guinea following the appointment of close Conté associate Eugene Camara, as prime minister, and the ensuing opposition strikes that have plunged the country into chaos.

Liberia: US offers debt-relief

2007-02-15

http://newsite.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70189

IRIN news reports that the United States has promised to write off US $391 million of debt to help Liberia recover from its 14-year civil war, although this is a fraction of the $3.7 billion that the nation owes international lenders.

Rwanda: Flood victims face food insecurity

2007-02-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70206

Hundreds of people in Rwanda's northwestern region displaced by floods are suffering from food insecurity, a local government official has said. "The term 'disaster' cannot really capture the suffering of the people here," Pénélope Kantarama, the governor of Western Province, said on Wednesday.

Somalia: Return of Somalia's Warlords

2007-02-13

http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/2668.cfm

The Islamic Courts Union (I.C.U.) regime, which had progressively taken control of much of Somalia, was overthrown in December by an Ethiopian invasion force backed—financially and militarily—by the United States. In theory, the Transitional Federal Government—a United Nations-supported body that for most of its existence has led only a nominal existence—is now in control of the country.

Uganda: Army kills 'warriors' in northeast

2007-02-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70205

Fifty-seven people, including four soldiers, have died since Monday in clashes pitting the army against warriors belonging to the Karamojong community in Uganda's northeastern district of Kotido, the military said.

Global: UNESCO supports refurbishing PCs

2007-02-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/39850

UNESCO will support the refurbishment of Personal Computers as long as they benefit the end-users, adding that in most countries of the world, PC refurbishing initiatives are now active - covering a whole range of tasks from mobilizing donors of second-hand PCs to procurement, refurbishment, transportation, distribution, installation, maintenance and training on the use of refurbished PCs.
Source: Highway Africa News Agency
http://highwayafrica.ru.ac.za

The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), has given its support for refurbished Personal Computers (PCs).

UNESCO in its weekly Communication and Information (CI) bulletin made available to HANA's correspondent, said that in most countries of the world, PC refurbishing initiatives are now active - covering a whole range of tasks from mobilizing donors of second-hand PCs to procurement, refurbishment, transportation, distribution, installation, maintenance and training on the use of refurbished PCs.

The organisation said that shared experience in the past proved that there was a need for improvement of these overall programmes to make them holistic, sustainable and scalable.

"UNESCO strongly believes that much is to be gained from exchanging experiences, improving PC quality standard, sharing know-how, validated processes and tools to enhance access of local populations in the developing countries to low cost or free quality hardware," the agency stated.

According to the bulletin, UNESCO is fostering international cooperation in this field to enhance impact and further sharpen economical models behind the PC refurbishment pipelines, saying "it's at the core of UNESCO's concern."

The UN agency also pointed out that it has created a portal on PC refurbishment so that people could understand further the process of refurbishing PCs.

UNESCO also pointed out that part of it's Observatory on the Information Society, was that this portal was meant to be a clearinghouse of activities, resources, best practices, research and open content in the field of PC refurbishment, between NGOs, associations, private industry and governments.

This UNESCO noted, enables the emphasis of refurbished computers to be focused on the low cost of hardware solutions, open content for off-line PC, programmes, quality requirements for refurbished PC, research, training as well as volunteer services.

It would be recalled that governments at the end of electronic waste confab held last December agreed with the support of the United Nations to work towards the minimisation of e-waste globally.

In particular it aims to foster international cooperation and facilitate collaboration and partnerships (logistics, funding, resource sharing, and capacity building) between NGOs, associations, private industry and governments.

The e-waste confab was an outcome of the first international meeting of PC refurbishment specialists on "New Synergies for Recycling Information Technology Equipment", which took place in UNESCO's headquarters in Paris in March 2003.

Kenya: DevInfo launches portal for social development issues in Kenya

2007-02-13

http://www.kabissa.org/ict/devinfo_kenya.html

DevInfo Kenya has launched a new web-based information portal designed for development organisations, academia and individuals interested in social development issues in Kenya. This portal provides the opportunity to both access and share information about social development initiatives in Kenya.

Nigeria: Boost in electronic airtime vending services

2007-02-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/39849

Airtime selling vendors are to be introduced in Nigeria to meet the growing demand by mobile phone users in the country.
Source: Highway Africa News Agency
http://highwayafrica.ru.ac.za

About 10,000 point of airtime sales terminals are to be deployed into the Nigerian market by a Nigerian firm, J.D. Kutons Nigeria Limited to promote electronic vending service.

The firm said in a press conference in Lagos on Wednesday that it will be working with major telecommunications firms in the country for the deployment of the PoS terminals which would vend airtime wirelessly all across the country at the first stage..

According to the Chairman of the firm, Mr. Ajibade Oke, the electronic vending service called Everlasting is designed to make it easy for electronic transactions to take place in the country and as a result the system would work with General Packet Radio Service available on the networks of mobile phone operators. He added that besides vending of airtime, Everlasting would add other services including money transfer in the course of the development of solutions for the public.

GPRS is a mobile data service available on GSM networks allowing for various applications including Internet, Multimedia Message Service and Short Message Service.

Ajibade said based on GPRS, the requirement of special connection had been removed and as such airtime vending can be done at every place there as GSM network coverage.

He added that the project has taken over 15 months to conceive due to the detailed work that had gone into it and also required investment of about N2 billion(2 billion Naira) by the time it would be complete.

The firm said it had also entered into a partnership with Globacom for the service because it has GPRS coverage in all the states of the federation and had also signed a partnership with all other GSM firms and other fixed wireless firms.

Speaking at the briefing a representative of Globacom Mr. Benjamin Akinteye, said the project was timely considering the dearth of infrastructure occasioned by the limited number of independent service providers.
He said the move by J.D. Kutons was welcome as it would help increase the ease with which airtime gets into the hands of users throughout the country.

Akinteye added that in order to ensure the success of the scheme, Globacom would be dedicating a link on its network to J.D. Kutons.

Uganda: ICTs to Improve health in rural areas

2007-02-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/39848

The introduction of tele-medicine facilities in two of Uganda's rural hospitals will close the distance between patients and doctors.
Source: Highway Africa News Agency
http://highwayafrica.ru.ac.za
Uganda has entered into a partnership with Portugal, Germany and Kazakhstan among other European countries to introduce a telemedicine project for rural hospitals.

The project referred to as the TeleInViVo project involves the establishment of integrated workstations which use techniques like Internet, ISDN, phone lines, and GSM mobile systems to allow one physician to collect three-dimensional ultra-sound data of a patient and to send this data to another physician who is a specialist in the particular disease that a patient is suffering from.

Telemedicine is the use of Informationand Communication Technologies (ICTs) for medical diagnosis and patient care when the provider and client are separated by distance.

Data transmission can occur online, that is, while both doctors are connected, or offline, for instance, overnight, through narrowband channels.

In the latter case, waiting times are minimized, and whereas in the former case additional scans may be requested by the remote expert during the tele-consultation to hone in on the diagnosis. It includes pathology, radiology, and patient consultation from the distance.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Georgios Sakas of the European Union (EU), told Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) that in Uganda the devices, to be used initially for the project will be at Nakaseke Hospital, a hospital in an isolated, rural area of Uganda and another Mulago Hospital, the biggest hospital in Uganda located in the capital Kampala.

Sakas said this is intended to foster communication between physicians who specialize in certain diseases and physicians who work in isolated areas such as islands, rural areas, and crisis situation areas in Uganda.

The purpose of this program is to improve general health services in Nakaseke Hospital as well as to garner access for health workers to medical support from colleagues across the country. A larger goal is to reduce referral from Nakaseke to Mulago Hospital, he said.

Currently, the Nakaseke Hospital has no telephone lines and is completely isolated by both distance and communication channels from other health centers.

Doctors from the Mulago Medical School have been trained to spear head this project - they have in turn trained a number of doctors from Nakaseke and Mulago Hospital.

According to the partners who include, the Portuguese Hospitais da Universidade de Coimbra, the Hospital de Ponta Delgada of Portugal, UNESCO Paris, France and Computer Graphics Center (ZGDV) in Darmstadt, Germany, this project will be built and tested in other African countries with similar socio-economic conditions like Uganda.

It will be later be adjusted to meet the needs of developing countries and countries in transition. It currently comes in two versions: a fully portable, self-contained device, and a workstation version (a PC attached to an ultrasound scanner for internal hospital use).

A fixed station for expert diagnosis support will be situated at the Coimbra University Hospital in Portugal. The field test sites include Azores and Canary Islands; UNESCO will evaluate EU-TeleInViVo in Uganda and Kazakhstan at two different sites for each country.

By the time of the project's completion, it is hoped that a medical tele-conference emergency workstation will be available in Europe as well as in other regions of the world that provide health care services to underserved areas like ecological disaster areas, remote rural areas, and isolated islands.

Africa: Female Circumcision - Multi-cultural perspectives

2007-02-15

http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14221.html

In "Female Circumcision: Multicultural Perspectives" Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf (Ed) brings African women's voices into the discussion on female circumcision, foregrounds indigenous processes of social and cultural change, and demonstrates the manifold linkages between respect for women's bodily integrity, the empowerment of women, and democratic modes of economic development.

Africa: New book on Child Soldiers in Africa

2007-02-15

http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14183.html

In her new book "Child Soldiers in Africa", Alcinda Honwana draws on her firsthand experience with children of Angola and Mozambique, as well as her study of the phenomenon for the United Nations and the Social Science Research Council, to shed light on how children are recruited, what they encounter, and how they come to terms with what they have done.

South Africa: Community organizers' manual and paralegal tool-box

2007-02-15

http://www.etu.org.za/toolbox/

The Education and Training Unit runs a free website with over 80 guides for development activists in South Africa. ETU is a non-profit training organisation committed to development and democracy. The guides are simple and practical and written by experienced community organisers. The site is used by more than 100 000 people per month from all over the world.

Global: Call for Papers: Kanem-Borno: Continuity and Change

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/39750

The celebration of one thousand years of the existence of famous Kanem-Borno Dynasty coincides with the one hundred years of the establishment of the city of Yerwa, the capital of modern Borno State of Nigeria. The Organising Committee of the Celebrations is convening an international conference of scholars, both from within and outside, scheduled for August 2007 at Maiduguri.
The celebration of one thousand years of the existence of famous Kanem-Borno Dynasty coincides with the one hundred years of the establishment of the city of Yerwa, the capital of modern Borno State of Nigeria. According to some historical sources, the Dynasty was established in about 9th century and its influence was felt far and wide, in the Central Bilad-al-Sudan. Though expansive and imperial, Kanem-Borno had always revolved around its capital as the fulcrum of Islamic civilisation, administration and commerce.

Located in the Central Bilad-al-Sudan, the State supported a diverse and heterogeneous population, fauna and flora, and a vibrant and rich culture. Islam remained the most important focus of its successive rulers since the Sayfuwa. The local peculiarities of Kanem-Borno and the universalistic appeal of Islam have combined to produce a highly cosmopolitan world-view. The history of Kanem-Borno is therefore a history of the peopling of the Lake Chad basin and the utilisation of its resources over a long period.

The Organising Committee of the Celebrations is convening an international conference of scholars, both from within and outside, scheduled for August 2007 at Maiduguri. The theme of the conference is: KANEM-BORNO: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

Sub-themes are as follows:
1. State, Society, Politics, Governance and Foreign Relations
2. Religion and Inter-Group Relations
3. Education and Scholarship
4. Arts and Culture
5. Economy and Prospects of Oil and Gas in the Lake Chad Basin
6. Health and Environment
7. Gender relations

GUIDELINES:
Abstracts not exceeding 250 words should be sent to any of the addresses below on or before 30th April 2007. Full length papers accepted for presentation should be sent in by 15th June 2007. Both hard and electronic copies of the papers are required. Any paper that exceeds these dates may not be accepted.

The Foundation will be responsible for the return air ticket, accommodation, per diem of US$ 200, local transport expenses and feeding of the commissioned paper writers from the overseas. Nigerian scholars will be given honorarium of N 50,000.00. All interested scholars should sponsor themselves.

Papers written in Arabic, French and German languages are also welcomed.

Abba Gana Shettima
(The Secretary, Colloquium Sub-committee)
Department of Sociology
University of Maiduguri
PMB 1069
Maiduguri NG-600004
Borno State, Nigeria

E-mail:
agshettima@gmail.com
agshettima@yahoo.co.uk

Mobile Phone: 08023623815 Town Delivery:
The Secretary, Main Committee
Kanem-Borno Historical and Cultural Foundation
No. 12, Lafiya Road opposite Children’s Home, Old GRA
Maiduguri NG-600211
Borno State, Nigeria.

Postal Delivery:
Kanem-Borno Historical and Cultural Foundation
P.O.BOX 1863
Maiduguri NG-600001
Borno State, Nigeria

E-mail: adam_a_abatcha@yahoo.co.uk
Konto1075@yahoo.com

Mobile Phone line: 08036502975

Global: Free online training on Freedom of Information

Fahamu and ARTICLE 19

2007-02-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/39743

Fahamu, the pan African social justice organization, and the freedom of expression organization ARTICLE 19, have announced the release of a free, online training material on how to campaign effectively for freedom of information.
Fahamu, the pan African social justice organization, and the freedom of expression organization ARTICLE 19, today announced the release of a free, online training material on how to campaign effectively for freedom of information. Combining the freedom of information campaigning expertise of ARTICLE 19 with the extensive distance learning experience of Fahamu, this course outlines why access to information is important, what an access to information law should contain, and how to set about campaigning for one.

The training materials were originally developed as a distance learning course to support the growing movement for freedom of information in African countries.

“We have long wanted to make all our training materials available for free online,” said Fahamu’s director, Dr Firoze Manji, “This is the third course we have launched as a free resource. We are particularly pleased to be able offer this course as part of the OpenCourseWare Consortium (http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html) involving more than a hundred universities and learning institutions worldwide, including MIT, who are making their course materials available free online.” At a time when many countries of Africa are consolidating democratic gains, “we envision the free on-line course as a handy tool for broadening civil action for access to information as a vital resource,” says John Barker, ARTICLE19 Africa Programme Director.

The course materials are made freely available to the public at http://rightstraining.fahamu.org/ocw/learning-for-change/campaigning-for-access-to-information alongside ‘An Introduction to Human Rights’, a course jointly developed by Fahamu and the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford.

Background
ARTICLE 19 is a human rights organisation with a specific mandate and focus on the defence and promotion of freedom of expression and freedom of information worldwide.

We believe that all people have the right to freedom of expression and access to information, and that the full enjoyment of this right is the most potent force to achieve individual freedoms, strengthen democracy, and pre-empt repression, conflict, war and genocide. For more information contact ARTICLE 19 (www.article19.org).

Fahamu (www.fahamu.org) supports the struggle for human rights and social justice in Africa by: supporting social justice advocacy through the innovative use of information and communication technologies; stimulating debate, discussion and analysis; distributing news and information; developing training materials and running distance-learning courses. Fahamu focuses primarily on Africa, although it also work with others to support the global movement for human rights and social justice.

Fahamu has developed a wide range of distance learning materials for human rights organizations in cooperation with institutions such as the University of Oxford, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and others. The course materials have won international prizes including Silicon Valley’s Tech Museum Award for the ‘best of the best technologists whose innovations benefit humanity’.

Fahamu also publishes the prize-winning electronic newsletter ‘Pambazuka News’ (www.pambazuka.org).

The word Fahamu means ‘understanding’ or ‘consciousness’ in Kiswahili.

About the Access to Information course:
The course focuses in particular on the state and status of freedom of information in Africa. While several countries in southern Africa have draft laws to access to information in place, South Africa is the only country in the region that has a proper access to information law. The material illustrates how even when a law or a draft law is in place, it is important to ensure it includes the best provisions, and that the law is implemented properly.

For further information:

Firoze Manji,
Fahamu
51 Cornmarket Street, Oxford OX1 3HA Tel: 01865-727006 www.fahamu.org
info@fahamu.org
http://rightstraining.fahamu.org/

Global: The Shell Fellowship in Media Law and Policy

2007-02-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/39731

The Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies,Oxford University is pleased to invite applications for the position of Shell Fellow. The Shell Fellow will work within the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. The post is available from June 2007 for three years in the first instance, with the possibility of extension. The closing date for applications is the 2nd March 2007; it is planned to hold interviews in the week beginning 12th March.
The Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies,Oxford University is pleased to invite applications for the following position:

The Shell Fellowship in Media Law and Policy

The Shell Fellow will work within the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies.
The Fellow will be expected to divide his or her time between research within the agenda of PCMLP and the project work of PCMLP:
managing projects, fundraising work and training activities.

The successful candidate will be qualified at doctoral level or equivalent, have the ability to develop a research agenda that attracts funding for its implementation, and the ability to prepare and research funding proposals. The successful candidate will also have a willingness to contribute to teaching and graduate training within the CSLS.

The post is available from June 2007 for three years in the first instance, with the possibility of extension.

Please quote CX07002 in all correspondence.

For full details of the post please see: http://www.csls.ox.ac.uk/word-docs/shell-fellowship-jan-07.doc or contact Elizabeth Anderson, Manor Road Building, Manor Road, Oxford, OX1 3UQ (email elizabeth.anderson@csls.ox.ac.uk tel. 00 44 (0)1865 284223).
Informal enquiries are welcome and should be directed to Professor Denis Galligan (denis.galligan@csls.ox.ac.uk or 00 44 (0)1865
284231). The closing date for applications is the 2nd March 2007; it is planned to hold interviews in the week beginning 12th March.

The University is an equal opportunities employer.

Best regards Programme in Comparative Media Law & Policy http://pcmlp.socleg.ox.ac.uk/

Is the WSF in Crisis

2007-02-15

http://www.socialistworker.org/2007-1/619/619_11_WSF.shtml

THE 2007 WORLD Social Forum in Nairobi highlighted some of the strengths--but also problems and limitations--of the international conferences. In fact, questions remain over the future of the WSF, with no meetings scheduled for 2008 and no location announced for the next planned event in 2009.

Global: Head INASP Publishing support

2007-02-14

http://www.inasp.info

INASP IS looking for a talented individual to contribute to the management INASP and to lead our support in local publication and information exchange activities. The successful candidate will work with partners worldwide to enable access to the research and knowledge produced in developing and transitional countries, ensuring that it reaches its target audiences in the most appropriate and effective way. A description of the position is attached and further information about our organisation and activities can be found at www.inasp.info

Global: Lecturer in Comparative African Politics - Oxford Univeristy

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/39748

The Department of Politics and International Relations proposes to appoint a University Lecturer in Comparative Politics with special reference to the African Politics. The post is tenable from 1st September 2007 or as soon as possible thereafter and will be held in conjunction with a Tutorial Fellowship at St Peter’s College for which further information is given in Section 8. The closing date for applications is 12:00 NOON (UK time) on Tuesday 6th March 2007. The post-holder will be provided with support facilities and office space in St Peter’s College.
The appointment will be made on a combined University and College scale which is currently between £38,018 - £51,095 p.a. In addition, the appointee will be eligible for College allowances to a total value of £5584.. There are also opportunities for earnings from consultancy without loss of salary. The post holder will be eligible to apply for sabbatical leave; generally one term of sabbatical leave is available for each six terms of qualifying service. More details on this can be found in Section 6.

1. DUTIES OF THE POST

The general duties of the University post, under the Direction of the Head of Department of Politics and International Relations, are:

(i) To engage in research;
(ii) To co-operate in the work of the Department in both term and vacation under the direction of the Head of Department. This will include teaching for the Department;
(iii) To supervise graduate students;
(iv) To engage in University examining.

The amount of teaching under (ii) and (iii) normally must not exceed an average of 192 departmental teaching units per year without approval by the Divisional Board.

The Department expects to appoint a candidate capable of contributing to undergraduate prelims teaching in politics, to lecturing in comparative and African Politics, and to the teaching of core paper for the MPhil in Comparative Government, as well as the MPhil optional subject in African Politics. A capacity to contribute to the teaching of qualitative and/or quantitative methods would also be an asset. He or she will supervise both MPhil and doctoral students, undertake examining duties, and will participate in the intellectual and administrative activities of the Department.

The Department welcomes candidates with an established reputation or the potential to develop one in African politics.

The duties of the College post include a requirement to provided tutorial teaching for up to a maximum of 6 notional hours per week annualised over the year , covering in particular the first year Politics course, the core paper in International Relations, and for one or more Final Honour School option papers in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), and History and Politics (HP). The person appointed will be expected to assist in the management of Politics teaching in the College, and to take part in the intensive undergraduate admissions exercise at the end of each Michaelmas Term. Fellows of the College share in its administration and governance.

The Head of Department will liaise with the Head of the College to ensure an appropriate balance of College and departmental administrative duties.

Copies of the relevant syllabuses can be found on the departmental website at www.politics.ox.ac.uk/teaching/

2. SELECTION CRITERIA

The selection committee is looking for the candidate who most fully meets the following criteria:

• A doctorate or equivalent and a record of research achievement at an international level in the academic study of African Politics or the potential to develop one;
• The skills and commitment to contribute effectively to the administration of the Department as a leading centre of teaching and research;
• The ability to teach politics for the preliminary examinations in History and Politics (HP) and PPE, and for the core paper in Comparative Government, and the optional paper in Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa in the Final Honour School of PPE and HP;
• The ability to offer teaching in Comparative and African Politics at the graduate level;
• The ability to supervise research students in African Politics;
• The ability to relate well and appropriately to high-achieving and challenging students in tutorial teaching, in graduate supervision and in pastoral situations;
• Good oral communication skills;
• A record of success in obtaining research funding would be desirable.
• The ability to collaborate effectively with colleagues within the University in order to coordinate tuition arrangements for the College’s students.
• Commitment to and enthusiasm for the ethos and aims of the College, and a willingness to play a constructive role in its administration and governance.

Please email or post your application to our Personnel Office, Department of Politics and International Relations, Manor Road, Oxford OX1 3UQ (Email: vacancies@politics.ox.ac.uk, tel: +44 1865 278700, fax: +44 1865 278725). Applications must be received by 12:00 NOON (UK time) on Tuesday 6th March 2006. Please quote reference number CT07003 on all correspondence and state where you saw this post advertised

South Africa: Editor in Chief - Open Society Institute

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/39747

Job title : Editor in Chief for public broadcasting survey. The Open Society Institute, an international grant making foundation, seeks an Editor-in-Chief for a survey of public service broadcasting in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Open Society Institute

The Open Society Institute, an international grantmaking foundation,seeks an Editor-in-Chief for a survey of public service broadcasting in sub-Saharan Africa, a joint initiative of its Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP) and Network Media Program (NMP).

The Editor-in-Chief will be responsible for the intellectual and practical leadership of the survey, which will culminate in a report at the conclusion of the research period. Responsibilities will include refining survey focus ; development of research methodologies ; working
with network foundations in Africa to identify regional editors and national researchers in ten to twelve countries ; editing drafts into the final product ; development of recommendations to policy-makers; writing comparative overview for final report ; and engaging in appropriate interventions with regard to policy development during the
course of the project.

Initially, this may be a part time position, gradually becoming full time until project completion, which is expected to take 2 - 3 years. The position may be based in one of the OSI network locations, preferably Johannesburg or London.

The successful candidate will be a college graduate with relevant prior experience, a highly motivated self-starter, with in-depth knowledge of African broadcast media and international debates surrounding the role of public service broadcasting and regulation of private media ; will have complete fluency in English and ideally a good knowledge of French, with knowledge of a regional language highly desirable ; superb English language writing and editing skills ; high level project management and interpersonal skills ; strong research and analytical skills ; superior
level of computer literacy ; ability to adhere to strict deadlines ; and available to travel extensively. Remuneration commensurate with experience.
DEADLINE PASSED

South Africa: Project Officer - Community Education Computer Society

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/39749

The Community Education Computer Society (CECS), an ICT training NGO, seeks to fill the position of Project Officer and Content Editor on a fixed-term contract basis.
=Position Purpose=
The Project Officer will oversee the implementation and tracking of CECS projects

=Responsibilities=
* Execute projects according to the project plan
* Develop forms and records to document project activities
* Set up files to ensure that all project activities and information is appropriately documented
* Monitor the progress of projects and make adjustments as necessary to ensure the successful completion of projects
* Establish a communication schedule to update staff and stakeholders on the progress of projects
* Review the quality of the work completed on a regular basis to ensure that it meets the project standards
* Write reports on the projects
* Provide administrative support

=Requirements=
* A relevant university degree will be advantageous
* At least 2 years project management experience
* Excellent communications and interpersonal skills
* Knowledge of open source applications
* Report writing skills
* Able to take initiative and work independently
* Working knowledge of an indigenous language
* Some knowledge of open source and open content licenses will be advantageous


Please send a letter of motivation (covering past experience and speaking to the job requirements) and your CV (no certificates) with 2 references to: vacancies@cecs.org.za or fax: 0118349054 by Friday, 23 February 2007

South Africa: Short-Term Researcher Associateships 2007

2007-02-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/39758

Short term researcher for the African Gender Institute with an interest in feminism, gender and sexuality.
The AGI has received funding from the International Development Research Centre and from the Ford Foundation to support a programme of intensive capacity-building for African-based researchers, with an interest in feminism, gender and sexuality. The aims of the programme are to stimulate strong, African-based, research which takes issues of sexuality and gender seriously and to support current African research initiatives through offering in-depth opportunity to develop conceptual and methodological tools for African feminist writers and researchers relatively new to issues of sexuality.

The Researcher will be hosted for a short period (3 weeks) at the African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town. During this period, Associates will participate in an intensive teaching seminar, in which they will be offered (a) in-depth exploration of contemporary theories concerning issues of feminism, gender, and sexuality with African contexts (b)sustained engagement with issues of research methodology relevant to work in sexuality and gender in diverse contexts.

The CV MUST include all your contact details, including phone numbers, fax numbers, and all e-mail addresses.- An example of research-based writing you have recently completed, or with which you are still working (no more than 10 pages in length). Deadline: February 19,2007. Successful applicant swill be notified by e-mail in the week of March 12th - 18th. Applications and accompanying documents should be sent electronically to: agi-research@uct.ac.za Or by mail to: Karen Flowers African Gender Institute All-Africa House University of Cape Town PO Rondebosch Cape Town 7701South Africa For further information, please visit <http://web.uct.ac.za/org/agi/> or send any queries to jbennett@humanities.uct.ac.za_______________

Fahamu