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Featured this week

2007-03-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/40442

FEATURES: Jacques Depelchin challenges global citizens to make links between poverty across the world
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Activist group Sokwanele: Talkin' about a revolution in Zimbabwe?
- Chenjerai Hove on the lack of leadership vision in Zimbabwe
- There is rising hostility towards China’s investments in Africa, says Peluola Adewale
LETTERS: On Mugabe and solidarity
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen wonders who our friends and who are our foes in Kenya
BLOGGING AFRICA: Nigerian elections, global warming in Africa, Miss Landmine 2007 in Angola
CULTURE & ARTS: News about Fespaco 2007, a poem by Khadija Heeger

WOMEN AND GENDER: Ghanaian women call for change
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Fighting in DRC Capital
HUMAN RIGHTS: Djibouti court jails rights activist
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: Toward an Africa without borders
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Burundi massacre survivors resettled
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Nigerian court delays Vice-President’s case
AFRICA AND CHINA: Chinese money flows in Angola
CORRUPTION: Algerian bankers jailed for fraud
DEVELOPMENT: Initiative to improve remittance services launched
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Rising TB cases in Tanzania link to HIV/AIDS
EDUCATION: All children must be educated together
LGBTI: Online exhibition on Sexuality and Social justice
RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: Rising racial discrimination undermines development goals
ENVIRONMENT: Freak waves swamp southern coastal areas
LAND & LAND RIGHTS: Namibian government gives Bushmen long-lost land
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Somali journalist arrested
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Google moves into Rwanda, Kenya
PLUS: Courses, Seminars and Workshops and Jobs

*Pambazuka News now has a Del.icio.us page, where you can view the various websites that we visit to keep our fingers on the pulse of Africa! Visit http://del.icio.us/pambazuka_news

In solidarity with Cité Soleil in Haiti

Jacques Depelchin

2007-03-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/40431

Jacques Depelchin challenges global citizens to make links between poverty across the world both historically and in the present day: From Cite Soleil in Haiti; to Abalhali in Durban, South Africa; Kibera, in Nairobi, Kenya; Maroko in Lagos, Nigeria; and Ndjili in Kinshasa, DRC.


In the age of globalisation why do we not see, on a world scale, cases of twinning in solidarity with cities such as Cité Soleil in Haiti; Abalhali in Durban, South Africa; Ndjili in Kinshasa, DRC? All are places, like favelas the world over, brimming with youth and creativity, but confronted with easily eradicable unhealthy conditions of living.

Why, given its namesake, does Sun City in South Africa not come out in solidarity with the poorest of the poorest in the alleged poorest country of the Western Hemisphere?It may sound childishly naïve, but would not such a move be immanently expected from a city in the country that got rid of apartheid thanks, in part, to the selfless work of millions around the world?

From the inhabitants of all these places, there seems to only be one call that could, should bring us all together: Fidelity to Haiti, 1804.Thought through, away from nation state ideologies, away and against the corporate models of accumulation, such a call has the potential for healing humanity, taking it to the level many dreamed of while battling apartheid in South Africa.

Sun City in South Africa is known as the capital of gambling, where fortunes are spent in hopes of making even bigger fortunes. To those who would rather visit Sun City in South Africa than Cité Soleil in Port-Au-Prince, poverty is something to be running away from, not something to embrace. Even if these same people will make sure that their admiration for the one who epitomised poverty, Francis of Assisi, is well advertised and known. Should not such ongoing contradictions lead one to ask why more and more people are getting poorer and poorer, while a few accumulate wealth?

Since the end of apartheid, South Africa now boasts black billionaires, just like other African countries. Is it not possible to ask what would happen if the mindset which drives gambling turned to eradicate the differences between the Cités Soleil and Sun City?

Cité Soleil means Sun City in French, and that is where President Jean-Bertrand Aristide trained himself, beyond the reach of the mindset of the Haitian elite and beyond the bureaucratized seminarian teachings of love which sterilize at the same time as the teachings are going on.

But it was through such tight embracing solidarity with the poor people of Haiti, and not just those of Cité Soleil that President Aristide broke the comforting and comfortable chains of charity. Which is also why politician theoreticians, theologians and ideologues of all stripes, and from opposite corners, do not, or pretend not to, know where he belongs. Why, one hears them thinking, does he side with losers?

Of the admirers of Francis of Assisi we may ask: if your idol were to come back to earth, say in Haiti, where would he most likely go to ask for hospitality? Isn’t condemning poverty from the confines of billions in wealth and property the surest way of intensifying poverty and increasing the ranks of the poor? Canonised, Francis must be good to have on one’s side.

The mindset, which has been in place among the owners of capital, which led them to treat human beings as a means of further accumulation, is still as entrenched as ever: capital reigns supreme, not only through its own corporate structures, but also through subservient nation states which have become so submissive that they willingly dissolve themselves in front of it; and not just in the countries where structural adjustment programmes of the World Bank and the IMF were pioneered, such as in Mobutu’s Zaïre.

Although invented by the military for military purposes, low intensity warfare against the poor can best be conducted using both economic, financial and real weapons, especially if, as is the case in Cité Soleil, it is done through hired soldiers from such places as Sri Lanka, Brazil, Jordan and Nigeria. Black on black violence has always been easier to defend and ignore ideologically than the white on black kind, especially in Haiti.

1. From Haiti to South Africa: 1804-1994-2004

For 13 years, 1791 to 1804, people from various parts in Africa, about 500,000 people, half of whom had been born in Africa, decided that slavery was inhuman. Rather than live under it, it was better to fight it, to death, if necessary. Without generals trained in military academies, without outside help of any kind. The Wretched of the Earth gave a 13 year long lesson in organisation, discipline, solidarity in order to bring about equality, fraternity and liberty. They did so without the help of human rights. Indeed, as will be argued below, this massive and successful trespassing played a crucial role in triggering human rightism as we know it today, a charitable way of helping, while preventing the kind of solidarity called for by the revolutionary slogan 'equality, fraternity and liberty'.

The slaves went further than the enlightenment philosophers ever thought possible. They went further then the leaders of the French Revolution were prepared to go in 1789. It was not until 1792-94, during the period of the Convention (known as the Terror) that slavery was finally abolished. The slaves had done the improbable, the impossible, the forbidden. In short, they had surpassed themselves and, in the process, they also trespassed.

The overthrow of slavery is still difficult to comprehend today. It does not fit easily into the ideological narratives of the left or the right. Aside from CLR James’ The Black Jacobins, that feat was so exceptional, given the times and probability of success, that it has not received the attention it deserved from historians, philosophers, theoreticians. At the same time, it receives persistent negative attention from the powers that be in the form of imposition of debt repayments (so-called compensation for the slave and plantation owners), invasions, occupations, international kidnapping of an elected president, prison, torture, and collective punishment of people from all walks of life whose only crime was fidelity to 1804.

With president Jean-Bertrand Aristide currently in involuntary exile in South Africa, it is difficult not to examine the relationship between anti-slavery and anti-apartheid, two battles which unfolded at different times, under different conditions, both with the common objective of seeking freedom.

Given the quasi house arrest under which Aristide is held in South Africa, is it unreasonable to ask oneself how the South African political leadership sees its role in the battle to bring Haiti to where it should have been, in the first place, since 1804? Could it be that Mbeki sees his role as reasoning with Aristide to accommodate to the demands of those who are in charge of the world today? The question may sound unfair and unreasonable. But is it? After all, Mbeki was the lone African head of state at the 200th independence anniversary in January 2004. The entire South African white owned press was rabidly against it.

Too many questions which should be raised, are not being raised. Why such a deafening silence only after President Aristide was given asylum in South Africa? Could it be that the two centuries of punishment, which has been inflicted on Haiti, has dampened the enthusiasm of those who might be tempted to stand by in solidarity?

Final question, how can any country, let alone an African one, lend its services to a process which included the kidnapping of a democratically elected president? It bears striking similarity to what happened more than 200 years ago when Toussaint L’Ouverture, the leader of the Haitian Revolution, was taken prisoner by the country which is known in history for its 1789 Revolution. By then, in 1802, everything was being done to quash what the Africans had done. Could it be that the leadership of South Africa has become so subservient to the powers that be (US, France, Canada, Vatican) as to allow itself to be seen as a willing participant in an operation more reminiscent of the times when Steve Biko was arrested?

From our collective histories, we might look at the role being performed by the South African leadership as similar to the one performed by Tshombe in Katanga, when the West needed to get rid of Lumumba.

2. From trespassing to collective, relentless, punishment (1825-1938/46)

With the rise of Napoléon, the process of collective punishment was initiated. Military attempts to reverse the victory of the Africans in Haiti failed. The Africans were able to repel the three best armies of the day: French, Spanish and English. By 1825 however, the Haitian government was forced by France, with the help of the US, Canada and the Vatican, to agree to pay compensation to the slave and plantation owners, in exchange for being accepted as a nation state. Repayments for the liberty of the former slaves were made until 1938, according to some, to 1946, according to others. Having lost militarily and politically, the former slave owners sought to reassert their authority, in the international arena, where their control was unchallengeable.

From the viewpoint of the former slave and plantation owners, they had to show that emancipation by the slaves, in their own terms, could not be acceptable, regardless of whether those terms (emancipation) replicated ideological tenets held by the slave and plantation masters.

The collective and severe punishment which followed 1804 is in line with the syndrome of discovery, which can be stated as follows: discoverers shall always be discoverers, and should discovered ones discover anything, especially something universally acceptable such as emancipation, they shall be put back in their place.

In the case of the slaves overthrowing slavery in Haiti, the virulent vengeance of the response has not abated, two centuries after the event. Indeed, the arsenal has grown bigger, multi-headed, more sophisticated.

Opponents of the eradication of slavery are still being corralled by the United States which has seen itself as guardian of the treasures and resources accumulated by and through their discoveries: USA, France, Canada, the Vatican; and they are not the only ones. The resort to the political and financial punitive measures mentioned above, combined with secular and religious ideological orthodoxies, were meant to divide the Haitian people.

As it has been observed in many post-colonial situations, a small privileged elite saw itself as the only worthy Haitians. The syndrome of discovery has remained as virulent as ever: slaves must not free themselves; the poor must not end poverty on their own terms. The poor of Sité Soley, by definition, according to the elite, must not have a voice, except as filtered or reframed by the media controlled by the elite.

3. From Full rights to human rights

The slaves wanted to be treated as full human beings with the same full rights available to the masters. In their battle, there was no plan B, no halfway to freedom. From the 1804 event, those who continue to suffer from injustices, structural and circumstantial, have been told the same message, over and over: only the discoverers can discover the solutions to injustices. Whereas the slaves battled for full rights, their descendants in Haiti and all over the planet are being told that their way out of oppression and exploitation can only take place through the charitable detours of Human Rights. The average person in the world can see for herself that the 1804 event has been followed by institutionalising processes aimed at sterilising all the possible consequences which could, and should, have led to more and more emancipation from the shackles born out of the capital accumulated through slavery, land theft in North America and colonial occupation.

Despite the pious mantras coming out of political, religious and financial centers of power, the majority of humanity continues to be enslaved by a dominant economic system which thrives on poverty. When US defence secretary McNamara left the Pentagon for the World Bank after the Vietnam debacle, he vowed to end poverty within a decade.

Having lost, the slave masters, the plantation owners and their allies did everything to ensure that the process of change should never be set by those who had suffered and been dehumanised the most.

The 100 plus years of repayments were about denying the Haitians the ability to invest in their future. And so it has been since: in the US, the abolition of slavery went hand in hand with measures aimed at ensuring that former slaves did not think they could just walk away from their masters. Angela Davis, in Are Prisons Obsolete?, highlighted what other writers before her had noticed: abolition gave way to the introduction of legislation aimed at keeping the former slaves in check, leading seamlessly to what has become known as the Prison Industrial Complex. In the south, the majority of the prison population turned, almost overnight, from white to black. It took a century for the former slaves to get the right to vote, but this voting has come with all kinds of institutionalised limits.

During colonial rule in the DRC, the end of colonial rule could only be envisioned as a series of half measures. The colonial subjects were forced or indoctrinated to think of themselves through the legal, administrative, social and political prism of the subjugators. By now, it should be clear: there must always be a sharp and unbridgeable gap between the rich and the poor, as there had to be between the coloniser and the colonised. Visible and non-visible 'no trespassing' signs are everywhere with the result that the poor keep getting poorer and the rich, richer.

4. From Kongo to Haiti to DRCongo: 1706-1757-2007

The way world history has been written by the victors had one prerequisite: make sure that the vanquished have no doubt about their vanquished status. It is not just that given episodes have different names (eg enlightenment, civilization, Cold War, development, globalisation). It is above all the erasure of the mindset of those who, against all odds, refused to submit to dehumanisation, not just in their own name, but in the name of the larger community, including those who were dehumanising them.

If the French government has finally passed a law acknowledging that slavery had been a crime against humanity, why then, have those who did fight it not been acknowledged as heroes, heroines, saints? Not just in France, but also in their own countries? Why hasn’t Kimpa Vita, (Dona Beatrix), burnt at the stake for denouncing the Kingdom of the Kongo's King for allowing the slave trade and slavery to continue, not been considered for sainthood by the hierarchy of the Catholic church? What prevents the current Congolese government from declaring her, and explaining in detail why, she is a national heroine?

In 1757, in Haiti, a man known Makandal was caught and burned at the stake in 1758 because he had been accused of having killed, by poisoning, many slave owners. A generation later, in 1791, another slave, Boukman, played a crucial role in the ritual which is considered as the start of the uprising which led to the 1804 victory. These are the well known names, but over and above them, millions of anonymous people battled dehumanisation, often falling into dehumanizing violence, but holding on to the conviction that slavery was a crime against life, against humanity. Why do we not see schools, hospitals and research institutes, from Mozambique, around the Cape to Senegal bearing the above names, as a way of reintroducing the way they thought and fought into our collective consciousness?

Haitian elites, generally, with a few exceptions, have ended up siding with the descendants of the slave owners, and it is these elites who worked hard to comply with the repayments. Theoretically, Aristide was a bona fide promising member of the elite, but he veered away from the elite and the Catholic Church hierarchy to follow a course reminiscent of that of Reverend Beyers Naude in South Africa, when he refused to go along with the Dutch Reformed Church's support of apartheid. The virulence with which some members of the Haitian elite have attacked Aristide makes one wonder whether it is less of a crime to discriminate against the poor in Haiti than to discriminate against the blacks in South Africa.


5. From Toussaint L’Ouverture to Patrice Lumumba to Samora Machel

These three leaders are national heroes in their own country. At the same time, it is not difficult to see that the current elites in those countries would rather maintain some distance from them. In all three cases, there has been reluctance on the part of those states responsible for their death to go beyond formal apology.

In the case of France and Toussaint, Louis Sala-Molin suggested that full recognition of responsibility and apology, say during the 1989 bicentenary of the French Revolution, could have been followed with placing Toussaint’s remains next to Napoleon’s sarcophagus in the Pantheon in Paris. Later on, the French state gave itself another opportunity to do exactly that by proclaiming slavery a crime against humanity. We are still waiting.

Following Ludo de Witte’s book The Assassination of Lumumba, coming after Adam Hochshild’s King Leopold’s Ghost, the Belgian state showed the same kind of cowardice. Again, it is not difficult to suspect the reasons: fear that people would seek revenge. This is the same mindset which prevented white South Africans from opening up for a long time: if they - the blacks - win, they will throw us into the sea. But, at the same time, just as in Haiti, a black South African elite has emerged which finds itself closer to those who have always vilified the likes of L’Ouverture, Lumumba or Machel. All the while, of course, singing the praises of Nelson Mandela.

The case of Samora Machel is the most interesting because it is the most recent. His figure is in the process of being erased from the historical conscience of Mozambique. Having died in a plane crash on 19 October 1986, the 20th anniversary was a low key celebration. And the reason why is obvious: 20 years after his death, things going on in Mozambique which would have been unacceptable to Samora Machel.

6. An open letter to world citizens

Dear friends,

203 years since the slaves of Saint Domingue overthrew slavery, against the most formidable armies of the day, humanity, not just the descendants of slaves, should be celebrating that event. But instead of celebration, one sees almost the exact opposite. UN troops, in Haiti are carrying out regular killings of babies, women, old people in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Port-Au-Prince, Cité Soleil. We should do better than just to stand by, shaking our heads, protesting occasionally. Should we not change gear in our daily lives and vow not to stop till Haiti is completely free as it was meant to be in 1804?

Instead of outraged solidarity, there is a massive silence, aside from a few solitary voices expressing solidarity, in various cities around the world. Sadly, some of the most well known anti-apartheid leaders, outside and inside South Africa have been ingenious at explaining the apathy, which really boils down to refusing solidarity with the inhabitants of a small island.

Why? One well known and courageous anti-apartheid leader (non-South African) went for the generic, easy, comment: 'until Haiti has an ANC type party which could be supported, it is not worth doing anything'.

Then there has been the vicious attacks against Jean-Bertrand Aristide, by members of the Haitian elite, who had no shame in publishing a letter in the white owned press of South Africa saying that Aristide is no Mandela. Well, thank God for that. Because even Mandela himself would hope that there are others from the continent and beyond, to carry on from the point reached in the battle against South African apartheid.

When looking in the rear mirror of history, from the surrounding extremes of wealth and poverty, of stupendous spending on weapons systems as against the avariciousness for caring for people, it is easy to ask oneself: whether slavery, or more precisely, the mind set unleashed by the system, was ever abolished? More and more, it appears that slavery was simply modernised to get rid of the aspects standing in the way of cheapening labour.

With Auschwitz and Hiroshima/Nagasaki, it is not just labour which became cheaper. Life lost its sacredness and became dispensable on a massive scale. Leading Einstein to say, right after Hiroshima/Nagasaki that with the splitting of the atom, everything changed completely - except the way we think. Surely, my friends, it is high time to change the way we think if we are going to move on from that mindset. The same preoccupation could be asked differently: 'When did thinking as humans began to disappear?'

7. Who defines terror?

From the viewpoint of the discoverers, terror is only terror when it terrorises them, their descendants or their friends. Never, or so it seems, are they willing to imagine the terror which was experienced by the anonymous couple which, on any day in the 18th century, somewhere on one of those slave routes to the atlantic, armed mercenaries coming out of nowhere kidnapped them in the middle of the night and dragged them, screaming and crying at the same time.

Their terror can only be comparable to what would happen later during WW II, in Europe, when people would be dragged out of their houses to be put on cattle trains and sent to an unknown destination. The Africans were taken like cattle to waiting ships, packed like sardines. How would one document the terror they felt? Through their numbers, costs, bills of lading? Conceivably and imaginatively, the only archives where their terror could be found would be in the archives lying at the bottom of the Atlantic, and retrievable only through specially conducted healing ceremonies. Such terror, if it could be brought back to life for healing purposes, might help the monopolisers of terror and violence see for themselves the roots where it all begun.

Retaliating against terror with more terror can only mean the triumph of the terrorizing mindset, of terror as the best possible weapon. Fighting terror with terror is another way of taking us back to the mindset of the Cold War, which is but a continuation of the mindset which underlay slavery. It is a mindset which leads to death, not to life.

The anonymous couple was quickly separated: women on one side and men on another. Their peaceful lives had been violated, but what was to follow was beyond anything they thought other human beings could inflict onto others. Soon, their separation would be completed when she found herself on one ship; he, on another. Still, like any human being, she began to look on the positive side of things: she was still alive, in relatively good health, and, with a new life inside her womb, she had with her a bit of her husband: her duty was to protect this new life to the best of her ability. Being at peace in a context of violence is one of the most stressful tasks ever.

To summarise, it suffices to say that the ship captain had spotted her among the others, and informed the sailors to prepare her as one of his travel companions. The question is how, and who will ever tell the story of how she was raped repeatedly. How, she eventually decided to take her life by throwing herself off the ship.

More to the point, where and how to heal from such massive individual and collective indescribable wounds which are still rippling across the descendants, centuries later?

8. Who defines poverty?

Haiti, 'the poorest country of the, so-called, "Western" hemisphere' reads the lamentation billboards of the Western media. As if Haiti and its poverty is a stain on the image expected to be projected by the West. Or a tortuous way of warning those who might be interested in following the same route? You shall be crushed so badly that no one else would be tempted to think outside of the path traced by the discoverers and abolitionists.

The so-called poor of Cité Soleil do not see themselves as the poor framed by the crocodile tears shed by humanitarianists. The triumph of the slaves in 1804 happened because they did not dwell on being slaves; and so it is with the poor. The poor see themselves as being endowed with the capacity to overthrow the mindsets which keep insisting that they, the poor, can only be helped out of poverty by charitable gestures and structures.

Overthrowing poverty, like overthrowing slavery, can only be tackled, and succeed, as a political gesture. But because everything has been done and continues to be done by those who did not want the slaves to succeed, the battle over slavery, and its history, continues to this day. It extended into colonial rule, with the same message: do not ever trespass over the boundaries of power. If you do, expect the worse kind of punishment.

From 1804 to this day, the history of Haiti continues to unfold along two distinct paths: the one left by Toussaint and those who did overthrow the system; and the one which the slave owners, plantation owners and their allies could never ever let go, at the risk of losing more than their own possessions.

With globalisation, the stakes have not changed: on the one hand, there are those who state that the slaves were wrong. They did not know what to do with what they achieved, economically, politically. They inherited the economic jewel of the French colonial possessions, and 'ruined' it. Those who had lost that battle in Saint Domingue resorted to their allies to impose conditions on the new state which ensured that whatever economic gains the former slaves made would be siphoned off to those who had insisted on compensation.

In today’s world where everyone is being called to globalise or else in the wake of a system which has relentlessly modernised itself since the days of industrialised Atlantic slavery, should we not be proud to have amongst us people who are saying no to such a call? In these times of addiction to wealth seeking, is it not admirable to have people, known and unknown, who are refusing to be seduced by the promises of a system, the annihilating capacity of which, physical and spiritual, has reached incomensurable proportions?

We face today the same odds that the slaves in Haiti faced against the system, then in its infancy. Is it not true that we keep hearing that the only way to improve the lot of humanity is to forget our humanity in order to save ourselves later, by following the very mindset which has brought us to such a precarious point? Is it not true that, individually and collectively, we are being asked to stop exercising our capacity to think? Is it not true that we are being trained to look, with fear and mistrust at some of our best, non-violent life instincts?

The process of destroying humanity over the last 500 years never stopped. Now and then, it slowed down, but on the whole, from trespassing life to trespassing living, the system which emerged out of glorifying itself by attrition, against existing damning evidence, has now reached an unprecedented level of domination. By pretending that one suffering was worse than another, by pretending that comparing suffering was insulting to those who considered themselves the worse sufferers, that which was indivisible was cut to pieces.

Contemplating the disaster of Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Albert Einstein is alleged to have said: 'With the splitting of the Atom, everything changed except the way we think'. Should we not change the way we think? Should we not trace back some of the thinking which was ignored?

From Hispaniola to Hiroshima, the splitting mindset did not just attack the atom. Long before the physicists got their turn, the process had proceeded, practically unopposed, against so-called savages and barbarians, with occasional defenders. The native Americans' land was taken away from them, with it, a way of thinking diametrically opposed to splitting the atom. From Hispaniola to Saint Domingue, the Arawaks were wiped out and replaced with people stolen, highjacked, terrorised away from their homes, their land, their fields in Africa. And yet, in Saint Domingue, the spirit of refusing to be split from humanity rose again, and against all the odds, triumphed, briefly, before revenge and collective punishment started again.

9. Who is the enemy?

The arsenal in place to eradicate humanity is visible everywhere: the armament industry could wipe out life on the planet and the planet itself several times over. Yet still, it keeps growing and being modernised. Have we not heard the argument before: if we shut down this or that factory, we would be taking jobs away from working people? But is it right to have a mindset which is always looking for enemies, even though such enemies only exist in the mindset of warmongers seeking to make sure that their products shall always have buyers?

Do we not live in a world dominated by advertising and entertainment industries living off the by products of warfare? It has been shown that war fought with weapons has become obsolete. That it is possible to annihilate your enemy by just manipulating the market. Has the triumphant mindset, such as it is, left only one exit for those looking for freedom? Have we not realised that this exit, framed by such a lethal mindset shall take us to a variation of something we have already seen, but only this time, worse? Could it be that little by little, by attrition, humanity has completely given itself and its capacity to think, and its sense of balance between the spiritual and the material, over to the market?

10. Is there really any interest in wiping out poverty?

It is not difficult to see that the poor are the potential enemies of the global system, as run by the corporations and their crumbling nation state allies. A social, political and economic system which has prospered on the basis of dividing, discriminating to death and thriving on competition is wired to reproduce competition and discrimination. There will be conventions against poverty, just as there has been conventions against genocide. Charitable structures shall be used to spread some of the dispensable, tax reducing profits. The system’s growth has thrived on generating poverty. But, ideologically speaking, it must present itself as wanting to do something about poverty.

The abolitionist mode did not work with slavery. There is no reason why it would work in abolishing poverty, unless anchored in building greater social solidarity between all members of humanity. In short, fidelity to humanity as affirmed at turning points such as in 1804 in Haiti would be the way of seriously getting rid of poverty. Such fidelity will not happen overnight, but can grow out of healing processes initiated away from corporations and states, between members of humanity.

* Jacques Depelchin, Ota Benga Alliance for Peace, Healing and Dignity

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

Talkin' about a revolution

Sokwanele

2007-03-22

http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/

Sokwanele present a moving and shocking account of last week's brutal attack on Zimbabwean pro-democracy activists, the 'Save Zimbabwe Campaign', by Mugabe's government forces.


A week ago, Zimbabwean pro democracy activists, campaigners, political leaders and supporters tried to attend a rally in Harare, organised by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign. Their purpose was to come together and collectively, peacefully, protest against the terrible conditions in Zimbabwe. The government's forces were lying in wait for them.

Riot police surrounded the venue and many of those trying to attend were arrested en masse. Gift Tandare, a young NCA and MDC activist was killed, shot by the police, whilst running to escape. Those taken to Machipisa were viciously tortured and many suffered serious injuries. In fact, the attacks were so brutal and callous, that those being beaten struggled to comprehend the enormity of what was actually taking place. Tendai Biti, who witnessed the attack on Morgan Tsvangirai, described the experience as 'like being in an old bad violent movie, surreal, but where you find that you are one of the actors'.

International audiences learned of all these atrocities within a relatively short space of time, the news spreading like wildfire through the international media; images and interviews prompting analyses, comment and endless interpretation. By the time the news - our news - filtered through Zimbabwe, it was already 'old news' in neighbouring countries and abroad. Zimbabweans held hostage by Robert Mugabe's repressive AIPPA laws (Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act) struggled for information and updates.

Tracey Chapman famously informed us in song that 'Talkin' about a revolution sounds like whisper". Zimbabweans could add that 'talking about a revolution looks like an sms message'. The first message I received from Harare read 'mass arrests @ rally. 1 killed. lots beaten by police. v v bad. r u ok where u r?' It was the first of many sms messages that day. The details of our collective experience filtered down slowly via texts, emails, and phone calls from concerned family and friends in the diaspora who have blissful access to extensive information.

Those involved with, or on the fringes of, activist work benefit from a network of trusted friends who freely share their information among themselves. Those outside the network, occupied with the daily business of trying to survive in Zimbabwe, exchange the information they have in guarded language - eager to find out more, but careful or fearful of whom they can trust. The majority of people in Zimbabwe do not have the luxury of an internet connection or a cell phone, and they rely on second or third hand information, constantly re-cycled and checked. On their way to work they walk pas newspaper billboards broadcasting disinformation and blatant lies. If they are lucky enough to have a radio, the state controlled media brings more of the same to their ears.

On Monday 12 March, the day after the torture and assaults, The Chronicle's headline was 'Mugabe ready to stand in 2008 poll'. On Tuesday, as the news started to trickle down, the headline changed to 'State warns MDC against lawlessness'. The article emotively and deceptively informed its readers:

'Tsvangirai and Mutambara were actually commanding (hooligans) using children as shields". Wednesday's headline: "Suspected cop killer appears in court.'

On Thursday, the propaganda machine kicked in with an article titled 'Govt warns MDC on violence'. A lengthy article consisting mostly of quotes by Zanu PF Minister of Information and Publicity, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, ducked all mention of torture by deftly sweeping it under a sentence that described the police action as an 'appropriate response from officers of law and order'. The images of Morgan Tsvangirai with a swollen battered face, so widely circulated in the international media, have still not been seen by the majority of people in our country. But by Thursday, a tiny minority of Zimbabweans with DSTV subscriptions had seen the footage and images on their screens of the government's barbarity - most notably in the 24 hour news programmes (BBC World, Sky News and CNN International) - and the detailed descriptions will have started filtering down. Note the channels that horrified Dr Ndlovu the most; note too how any condemnation of violence and brutality is re-written in the Zanu PF lexicon to be an 'unconditional statement of support' for the opposition:

'Government has noted with utter dismay the unconditional statements of support to the violent MDC by a number of western governments, including those of Britain, America and New Zealand. It also notes the role played by big western media networks, led by the British Broadcasting Corporation and Cable News Network, in seeking to absolve and whitewash the MDC from obvious and inescapable blame of public violence.'

Information threatens Mugabe. Days after the attacks, Grace Kwinje and Sekai Holland were prevented from leaving the country to receive specialist medical attention on the spurious grounds that they required a letter from the ministry of health granting permission to leave Zimbabwe; Arthur Mutambara was arrested while trying to leave Zimbabwe to visit his wife in South Africa. Violence was shamelessly used to stop Nelson Chamisa from attending an EU-ACP meeting in Brussels - he was viciously attacked at Harare International Airport by men with iron bars.

This is the Zanu PF regime's way of silencing their voices. Kept within the country, their first hand accounts of torture and brutality can be moderated by limited access to the international media. Outside the country, the press would be queuing up to interview and speak to them.

The fight for information is key to the looming non-violent revolution in Zimbabwe. A colleague described how she had watched the BBC News footage with all her friends and associates assembled together. The footage concluded with a statement by one of the opposition leaders that Zimbabweans were angry and ready to take action. There was silence in the room until someone said, 'I'm ready, but how?'

'How' to get the message of the revolution to the people is one of the biggest challenges facing the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, how to synchronously organise and mobilise a nation from within an information vacuum. Information will also help ensure a non-violent revolution; chaos is Mugabe's friend and his excuse. Ordinary Zimbabwean can help too. The message to them is to be less careful, to share information more freely. If you have not signed up to mailing lists delivering information by email, then do so now. Share with others. Print out articles and images and leave them in a public toilet as reading matter for the next occupier of the cubicle.

Think about how we can collectively fill the silence with sound.

Zimbabweans are ready. The initial shock at the brutality is wearing off and has been replaced with outrage and anger at the regime's vicious tactics. Perhaps the single most important outcome from the recent events are the strong messages of unity emanating from the opposition movement. Morgan Tsvangirai has said:

'They […] brutalised my flesh. But they will never break my spirit. I will soldier on until Zimbabwe is free" and Arthur Mutumbara has said: "I can assure Robert Mugabe that this is the end game. We are going to do it by democratic means, by being beaten up and by being arrested - but we are going to do it.'

Unified messages like these reinvigorate hope and bolster flagging spirits. The excessive violence was designed to instil fear in the population and to intimidate the opposition leaders. But by being so extreme, Robert Mugabe also revealed his fragile position, and for the first time looked weakened. Rather than being his usual despotic self, using dirty tactics to stay one-step ahead, Mugabe looks increasingly like a crazed dictator cornered and fighting his last fight. He is a man surrounded by battles and by enemies he has created for himself. They are coming at him from within his own party, from the opposition, from Zimbabwe's civil society, and from the international community; but, his biggest enemy is the economy.

People who are struggling to survive, talk openly and endlessly about their daily battle to feed, educate and care for their families. People who are careful about 'talkin about a revolution' are less careful about talking about the internal succession battle within the Zanu PF party. We are looking for someone to be accountable for our misery. The combination of poverty, Zanu PF conflicts and outrage at the torture inflicted on our leaders has left ordinary Zimbabweans feeling a little more emboldened.

Mugabe is famous for once saying: 'absolute power is when a man is starving and you are the only one able to give him food'. But what happens to the person holding the reins of power when the food runs out and the cupboard is bare?

Mugabe is on the brink of finding out.

* Sowkwanele - This is Zimbabwe is a Civil Action Support Group based in Zimbabwe. In order to protect themselves under the repressive brutal regime of Robert Mugabe they have to remain annoymous. http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/

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

Zimbabwe: A time of deafness

Chenjerai Hove

2007-03-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/40404

Mugabe – leadership without vision or a brutal power-drenched dictator who has lost all sense of reality and humanity?


Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe, once said the problem of Africa is a problem of leadership without vision. That cannot be truer than recent events in Zimbabwe have proven.

Battered bodies, broken bones, bleeding human flesh. That is all President Robert Mugabe has been able to give to the people he is supposed to protect and lead, in the past few weeks, even before. The president can only offer brutal violence to a nation suffering from so many human catastrophes: economic collapse, shortages of food and fuel, massive unemployment, unprintable inflation figures, and finally, national hopelessness.

'Our people have bad eating habits. They should eat rice and potatoes', he said in the midst of a critical shortage of the staple maize in a country which produces neither.

For President Mugabe, the national vision ends with him. 'L'etat, c'est moi', the leader seems to say. The state is him, and he believes he owns every citizen, and so can do whatever he wants with them. The outside world must not interfere in the 'domestic affairs' of Zimbabwe. The president's vision ends with his own power and self-preservation. Inflicted with deafness and blindness, the president has lost the capacity to see anything else around him. 'He has lost the plot,' as some have said. But the reality is that he has lost any sense of reality. He is totally out of touch with the real world around him.

Zimbabwe introduced a massive education programme in the 1980s, enabling every child to go to school. And the children did. Mugabe's ambition was to have a secondary school in every cluster of villages. He almost succeeded. With such a high thirst for education, the children and teachers flooded the countryside and the cities. Almost every secondary school acted as two: one group comes in the morning, and another in the afternoon, two schools in one.

The educational yields were unbelievable. Zimbabweans still believed in the power and efficacy of education. It was the only way they knew that would take them and their children out of poverty and ignorance. From school, the child would get a job, thus help to save the whole family, including uncles and the whole village. Parents would sell the last chicken, goat or cow to send the child to school, their economic saviour. Teachers, too, were trained in guerrilla-style courses. Those of us already qualified to teach were assisting new teachers to train on the job. This went on until the late 1980s when the World Bank intervened, claiming that Mugabe was giving Zimbabweans too much education which would flood the country with educated but jobless people.

Mugabe had not realised that the education system was producing people who would begin to think for themselves without being necessarily grateful to him. Who could analyse the problems of society on their own, including the root causes of those problems. Unfortunately, they discovered that the Mugabe government had made no plans for a concrete skills programme to equip them to enter the economy at a productive level. Students then started to revolt, and Mugabe was furious. That was when he declared that he had 'degrees in violence', challenging the students and calling them hooligans. If Mugabe had realised the importance of his education programme, he would also have realised that the youths were being given skills to analyse everything and everyone, including him. Now he hates the youth of the country, except those he hires to kill and break the bones of his critics.

Mugabe would have preferred all Zimbabweans to remain illiterate. That is his biggest regret. Even when he addresses villagers, he uses impeccable English, better than Tony Blair and George W. Bush - his arch-enemies.

Like most African leaders, Mugabe hates the situation in which the citizens know their rights and are able to demand them. His philosophy on democracy is what he calls 'guided democracy', which means, as one of his vice-presidents, the late Simon Muzenda, once said, 'If Zanu PF gives you a monkey as a candidate, you have to vote for it'. This arrogance is typical of the Mugabe government since he seriously believes that he is the most intelligent leader in Zimbabwe and the rest of the continent. Mugabe's rule is arrogance - 'arrogancocracy', if such a word exists. His ministers have also taken the cue. And it flows down the ladder to his members of parliament and village leaders who hardly ever visit or consult their constituents.

The current violence in Zimbabwe has also to be understood in the context of the 'liberator mentality'. No liberation war has ever produced a democrat of substance.

'If you don't vote for me, there will be war', Mugabe declared during the presidential campaign of 2002. And being the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the army commanders were soon to appear at a press conference in which they declared that they will never salute a president who did not come out of the liberation war. That was a silent military coup. So, even if the opposition leader had won the presidency, he would never have been allowed to go to state house.

The 'liberator' mentality also produces the 'father of the nation' mentality. Mugabe intensely hated Joshua Nkomo because Nkomo was establishing himself as 'the father of the nation' long before anyone knew Mugabe. Hence the violence in the southern provinces from 1983 to 1987. The purpose was to destroy Nkomo's political base and make his supporters realise that Nkomo was vulnerable and easy to destroy. The image had to be destroyed, even if it meant destroying the man himself.

'I liberated you, so I can subdue you and rule as I wish. You must be forever grateful to me', is the thinking. When Mugabe attacks his opponents and critics, he uses the liberation war as a licence to subdue all and sundry, by whatever means.

Former liberation war leaders love things and places named after them. In every town in Zimbabwe, there is a Robert Mugabe street, usually cutting through the centre of the city. In every government building and office, the framed picture of Mugabe looks down at you as if you are under the omnipresent eye of the President. It becomes a god-like symbol reminding every citizen that the demi-god, Mugabe, is watching you, day and night.

In the quest for glory and grandeur, the presidential palace is full of charlatans, praise-singers and flatterers. First they used to call him 'the son of God', and then one minister publicly said 'Mugabe is our Jesus Christ'. Next the minister of education and culture has recently designed and installed a 'throne' in parliament, for 'king Mugabe.' Then the minister of local government would not be outdone. He has decided to build 'a shrine' in Mugabe's home village. A shrine is a place of worship. So the president has become a god who deserves a 'shrine.' Thus, from VaMugabe ndibaba' (Mugabe is our father) to 'the son of God' to 'Jesus Christ' to a 'shrine' a place of worship, God.

When a mortal human is elevated to the status of a god, what can he not do? In biblical terms, God said, 'I am the God of war. I punish children for the sins of their fathers.' Hence President Mugabe, having elevated himself to that level, does not hesitate to inflict pain and death on men, women, children and the rest. All the problems of the country have nothing to do with him. It is all because of the West, Tony Blair and George W. Bush. Were he to admit a mistake, he would lose his infallibility. So, when he was asked many years ago, if he had made any mistake in the governance of the country, he answered, with a straight face: 'none at all'. The violence in Zimbabwe is Mugabe's 'rightful' demand to rule like a god.

African leaders have developed the capacity to transform themselves from elected leaders to royals, then to demigods and finally gods, from a presidential medal to a royal throne to a shrine, in their own lifetime.

Unfortunately, Africa is an extremely religious continent. We love to worship, even if it means creating our own gods in the name of a president. Religious hymns initially meant to praise gods are soon adapted to praise The President. Church uniforms normally depicting angels and Jesus Christ are soon flooded with images of The President. Bank notes are also soon covered with pictures of The President.

Africa is a continent of love and generosity, so we always believe. But somehow it produces such these monstrosities of political and financial power that it boggles the mind. We have a reputation of creating laughter at every occasion, including death. We have the capacity to produce an Idi Amin, a Bokassa, a Mobuto, a Banda, a Mugabe, at the same time that we laugh and dance. Could it be that we laugh and dance too much at the expense of serious business? All one can think of is: if Africa did not laugh, it would be crying all the time. 'We laugh in order not to cry', an African once said.

Not many African leaders have ever bothered to develop the language of democracy. President Mugabe is known to be probably the most foul-mouthed president in the world. There is no word he will not use against the opposition. At one time they are 'dogs', at another they are 'stooges', 'terrorists', 'tea boys,' 'traitors', 'sell-outs', and many other vulgarities only the mother tongue can pronounce. The ethics of language usage do not exist for President Mugabe and his cronies. He has no capacity to realise the implications of using a certain vocabulary in the political arena. When he says 'we will crush the opposition', he does not seem to realise that his youths will physically 'crush' the heads and limbs of his opponents.

'Power is a desolating pestilence,' an Indian scholar once observed. Power consumes human memory and conscience. President Mugabe has been so totally consumed by power that his memory does not seem to be about to rescue him. By training youths to murder and maim, he has destroyed a whole generation which has to be brought up again so they can learn to respect human life, freedom, dignity and compassion. All this in the insane pursuit of power for its own sake, power to loot and plunger the material and spiritual resources of a country.

The powerful in Africa seem to be infected with the diseases of deafness, blindness, and lack of vision of a past, and a future without them. They will kill their own mothers, sisters and brothers, if it makes them remain in power. When they inherit the instruments and technology of torture and oppression, they seem to be so grateful to their colonial masters whom they take pleasure in blaming for other convenient things: 'As Africans peacefully walked to the townships in the afternoon, just as they had walked to work in the morning, they were beaten up, and dogs were let loose on women and children', words of the late Zimbabwean nationalist, Maurice Nyagumbo, as he remembers the colonial rulers' treatment of Africans in Southern Rhodesia in the 1950s.

History, especially in Africa, seems to repeat itself, in different colours of skin and flag.


* Chenjerai Hove is a Zimbabwean writer living in exile in Norway.

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

China: A new partner for Africa’s development?

Peluola Adewale

2007-03-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/40407

Peluola Adewale examines China’s investment expansion into Africa and the impact on local markets and industries. However, alongside this massive investment exists a rising hostility by the Africans workers due to China’s appalling anti-labour practices, low wages and disregard for the environment.


'The need for a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, and establish connections everywhere.' With these words, Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto capture the basis for the expansionist instinct of capitalism. Perhaps, so far in this millennium, no state, the organ of the ruling class of a nation, has more aptly characterized this exposition than China, an ex-Stalinist-Maoist state on the irreversible transition to capitalism.

As for its predecessor, the western imperialism, Africa provides the choicest place for China’s products: oil to fuel its growing economy, natural resources to feed its industries and of course market for its manufactured goods. China dated its relations with Africa to 1956 when it supported liberation movements in the continent - Angola, Mozambique, etc. But that relationship was driven, in that 'cold war' era, by rivalry with both imperialism and Moscow's rival Stalinist regime. Often the Beijing and Moscow elites would back rival liberation movements not for ideological reasons, but to gain points of support. This time around the motivation is primarily business - a classical pursuit of naked economic interest.

With the visit to the Seychelles on 10 February, Chinese President Hu Jintao completed a 12-day tour of Africa. This visit, which had earlier taken him to other seven countries - Cameroon, Liberia, Sudan, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa and Mozambique - was his second to the continent in just nine months and the third since assumed office in 2003. This underscores the strategic importance of Africa to the phenomenal growth of China.

Quest for Africa's natural resources

China, the second biggest consumer of oil after the US, having overtaken Japan, is responsible for 40% of growth in global oil demand. It gets one-third of its imported oil from Africa. This is in addition to raw materials - minerals, farm products and timber - it gets in abundance from the continent. More than 50 per cent of China's investment abroad is in extractive resources and Africa has a fair share of it. It invested hugely in the exploration, production infrastructure and transportation of oil in Sudan. In return it gets almost 80 per cent of the Sudan's oil export. In a similar vein, it imports 25 per cent of Angola's oil. In Nigeria, last year it secured $2.3bn 45 per cent stake in an oilfield which will produce 225,000 barrels per day when coming on stream in 2008.

To guarantee supply of copper from Zambia, on the top of already over $500 million investment in Zambia, China is setting up a new economic partnership zone in Zambia's Copperbelt province expected to draw in $800 million in the next three years. The zone is expected to create 50,000 jobs in addition to 10,000 jobs already created by Chinese investment.

China earns concessions from Africa governments in oil and mining rights through aid, preferential loans and construction projects. At the end of the last November Sino-African Summit, Beijing announced the provision of $5bn in loans and credits for a three year period, the establishment of $5bn China-Africa development fund to encourage Chinese companies to invest in Africa and the cancellation of debt in the form of all the interest-free government loans that matured at the end of 2005 owed by the heavily indebted poor countries and the least developed countries in Africa that have diplomatic relations with China. Five African countries: Gambia, Burkina Faso, Sao Tome, Swaziland and Malawi do not have diplomatic relations with China for recognizing Taiwan, an independent state considered a renegade part by China. While preparing to set for the journey to Africa, Hu announced that 33 African countries would benefit from the debt write-off.

No free lunch

China does not however give free lunch. Its aid also has strings, though of much lesser degree than that of the West, and mostly commercial. For instance, in 2004 China granted Angola a $2bn credit for rebuilding infrastructure destroyed during the civil war, but in return Beijing would receive 10, 000 barrels of oil per day. On top of this was a condition that only 30% of the construction project would be subcontracted to Angolan firms. Similarly, last year after the visit of Hu, China gave Nigeria $2.5bn loan for infrastructure development, but secured an $8.3bn contract for modernization of the Nigeria's primitive railway. The Chinese firm handling what is called a "design, construct and maintain" project said 50, 000 Nigerians would be employed in the work. Ordinarily, this job promise would have been welcome with hurrah, but for the horrid experience of Nigerians working in Chinese companies, which are the worst forms of sweatshops in the country. Also attached to the loan is the control stake of the 110, 000 barrel per day refinery in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria, that has been won by China.

It is not only China that sees the Sino-Africa cooperation as a strategic partnership for development, the African leaders also do. They jointly formed Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which had its maiden summit in 2000. The trade between China and Africa rose from $10bn in 2000 to $55.5bn last year and projected to hit $100bn by 2010. Of course, oil, minerals, other raw materials and Chinese made goods make up most of the trade. Largely connected to this trade, Africa, for instance in 2005, witnessed 5.5% growth in its economy, though concentrated among the mineral-rich countries. Besides, on the surface, the trade is more favourable to Africa which records surplus in relation to China. However, in reality Africa is the net loser. While it imports raw materials particularly oil to enhance its growth, China floods the continent with cheap goods that contribute to killing of local industries, particularly the textile and clothing. This is a major element in the growing hostility against China's presence in Africa, which will be addressed in a greater detail later on.

The West frightened

The West has appeared green with envy on the China's success in Africa. Though it still trails the West in term of investment and trade in the continent, China has overtaken Britain to become Africa's third biggest trading partner after the US and France. This new situation has allowed some African regimes some limited room to play off different foreign powers against one another. The western imperialism is worried about increased diplomatic and economic competition from China as regards access to resources. The US which at present gets 15% of its imported oil from Africa, in the face of the growing geo-political threat to oil supply in the Middle East, has projected to secure 25% of oil import from Africa, particularly the Gulf of Guinea, within a decade. Achieving this target may be threatened by China. But to protect its interest the US has constituted the oil-rich countries in the Gulf of Guinea into what is called Gulf of Guinea Energy Security.

France is also feeling the heat on its tracks. The effect of China on the France’s influence in Africa has become an issue in the on-going campaign for the forthcoming presidential elections. The two leading candidates, Segolene Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy have promised to improve on the relation with Africa where France’s traditional influence has come under threat from China red-hot quest for resources. Apparently trying to incite African leaders against China, French President Jacques Chirac, at this year biennial France-Africa summit in February whose one of the themes was "how to tap and protect Africa's natural resources", admonished, "Africa is rich, but Africans are not. The continent holds one-third of the planet's mineral reserves. It is a treasure trove. But it must be neither pillaged nor sold off cheaply". Good talk! But it is a kettle calling pot black. The West including France is the worst culprit, however not the only one, in rendering Africa underdeveloped and poverty stricken in the midst of its colossal wealth. Right from trans-Atlantic slave trade through the colonial epoch to the current era of neo-liberal capitalism and multinational domination, the West has continued to pillage the resources of the continent.

While it can only make murmur on the China's 'encroachment' on its sphere of influence, the West ostensibly hinges its grumble on the Beijing's lack of qualm about dealing with dictatorial regimes rendered pariah by the West like Sudan and Zimbabwe. Of course this does not prevent the West fully backing the oil rich feudal Saudi dictatorship. China a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council has severally prevented sanction against Khartoum for its role in Darfur conflict where government sponsored militia has killed some 200, 000 people and left 2.5 million homeless since 2003. Paul Wolfowitz a former US Deputy Secretary of Defence in the Bush Jnr administration and currently President of World Bank has reportedly accused China of ignoring human rights in Africa. But China is treading the path already charted by the West. Thus, the west does not have moral authority to condemn China's support for repressive regimes. History is replete with several instances of the West supporting repressive regimes all over the world out of economic and strategic interest. The US and Britain have severally vetoed criticisms against the belligerent Israeli government over its repression of Pakistani and Lebanese people. The New York Times in its editorial of February 19, 2007 aptly captured the point, 'China is not the first outside power to behave badly in Africa. But it should not be proud of following the West’s soory historical example'.

Who ruined Africa's local industries?

Inside Africa it is not all a pat on the back for China on its economic expedition in the continent. Workers and poor masses have protested the flooding of Africa with Chinese cheap goods that kills local industry particularly textile and clothing, and makes hundreds of thousands to lose jobs in Zambia, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa and elsewhere in the continent. The opposition has already taken to the street thousands of South African textile workers where about 100 manufacturing units have been closed and close to 100,000 jobs lost. In Nigeria though there has not been political action, textile trade unions have been grumbling over closure of about 100 factories and loss of about 200, 000 jobs in the last eight years.

But can one reasonably blame the collapse of local industry in Africa solely on cheap Chinese goods? Let's take Nigeria as an example. Despite being blessed with the world 10th largest reserve of gas in addition to vast availability of coal and hydroelectric potentials, Nigeria generates only 3,000 MW of electricity. Even recently this dismal output has plummeted to ridiculous 1,500 MW for a population of over 140 million. Yet, the government claimed to have spent over $2bn on the power sector in the last six years. The attendant inadequate and epileptic power supply has meant that companies are run on generating set powered by expensive fuels that are sometimes scarce commodity in spite of the country being the seventh largest producer of crude oil in the world. As a result the cost of doing business is dearly and products are expensive. Yet, the anti-poor neo-liberal economic policies have meant that the purchasing power of workers and poor masses are low. Factories are closed and workers thrown into labour market. In January, Michelin, a tyre manufacturing company that had over 2,000 Nigerian workers in its workforce, announced closure of its operations in Nigeria citing high cost of energy that makes business unprofitable. Chinese cheap apparel has only worsened the situation in textile industry.

Rising hostility against China

But the Chinese anti-labour practices and contemptuous disregards for rights, safety and improved living and working conditions of workers have attracted to the Chinese the deep-seated odium of workers and poor masses in the continent. Chinese companies are characterized by unsafe working conditions and poor environmental practices. In 2005, 51 workers died in explosion at the Chinese run mine in Copperbelt while 5 workers were shot dead during a protest over working condition at the same mine last year. Similarly, in Lagos Nigeria, 29 workers were roasted alive in inferno at a Chinese firm in 2002. The workers in the firm were always locked inside without emergency exit. The affected workers died because they could not escape.

Chinese firms do not respect minimum wage and labour laws of the host country. The workers are usually engaged as casuals on low pay and with no benefits and rights to form or belong to a trade union. Some of the firms also bring to Africa their own low-paid Chinese workers who however earn much more than the average African worker. But it is important for African workers to see that workers in China could be one of their strongest allies, their common enemy is capitalism. Today the Chinese working class is the largest in the world and when it starts to struggle for democratic rights and better living conditions this will be in the interests of workers and poor around the world.

While in Zambia President Hu himself had a taste of bitterness against Chinese by ordinary workers and the poor. To avoid being embarrassed by a planned protest over poor working conditions by workers at the Chinese mine, he had to cancel at the last minute his scheduled visit to Copperbelt province, the economic heartland of Zambia, where china has heavily invested and planned to build a stadium. For the same reason, the University of Zambia was heavily cordoned off with the armed police for the two days the visit lasted.

In the same Zambia, the Chinese investment became an issue in the last year general election with the main opposition leader, Michael Sata capitalizing on the growing hostility against the Chinese. He promised to chase away the Chinese and recognize Taiwan if he won. Though, the incumbent, Levy Mwanawasa won the presidential election, the Sata's party, Patriotic Front, swept the parliamentary seats in Lusaka, the capital, and Copperbelt province.

In apparent attempt to launder its image in Africa, the China on the eve of the last Sino-Africa summit issued 'nine principles' to 'encourage and standardize enterprises' overseas investment'. The principles require Chinese companies operating overseas to abide by local laws, bid contracts on the basis of transparency and equality, protect the labour rights of local employees, protect the environment, etc. But can the Chinese give what they do not have? The Beijing government is undemocratic and does not accord any rights to workers in China. Implementing the 'nine principles' will be a tall order, though they could be forced by circumstance to shift ground to an extent.

Some African leaders like Thambo Mbeki of South Africa have also warned against Africa relations with China assuming colonial relations. Mbeki told a youth conference in Capetown in December 2006 that, 'China cannot only just come here and dig for raw materials and then go away and sell us manufactured goods'. He opined such arrangement could condemn Africa to underdevelopment. However Mbeki himself is not concerned about the plight of African workers, he is worried about the future of the South African ruling class.


Who underdeveloped Africa?

Agreed, on the basis of logic of capitalism, any economy rested on primary commodities, which are usually non-renewable, is doomed. But, it is shameless for any leader of mineral-rich Africa to impute continent's underdevelopment solely to China and other industrialized nation, which need raw materials for their economies. Nigeria, for instance, has realized about $400bn from the sales of crude oil alone since 1958, yet there is nothing to show for it, besides being looted by its thieving capitalist ruling elite. This huge revenue, a study reveals, is six times what the US spent through the Marshal Plan to successfully rebuild the Western Europe devastated by the Second World War. The primitive accumulation was so alarming that the World Bank was forced to reveal in 2004 that only 1 per cent Nigerian thieving elite consumes 80 per cent of the country's oil and gas revenue. If the resources rich countries had used the enormous wealth to provide infrastructure and industrialize, they themselves could as well become net importer of raw materials. China is oil-rich and only import 40 per cent of its oil consumption.

However, it is apposite to state that besides the parasitic nature of African leaders, the western imperialism created the pre-condition for the underdevelopment of Africa. The World Bank that was originally established to assist in reconstruction and development of the war-devastated Western Europe through state interventionist economic model today prescribe to Africa and the third world the market oriented neoliberal economic policies for their development. The African leaders are encouraged by the Western imperialism to cut social spending on basic needs like education, health care, housing etc, and thus left with huge but loose resources for looting. But they are advised to provide infrastructures not for the sake of their populace but in order to make their economies more easily exploitable. In its Newsletter of November 9 2006, the World Bank Group stated, 'Africa is enjoying economic resurgence but a focus on social spending means poverty-stricken lack sufficient roads and communication to attract foreign firms.' The dictate of World/IMF explains why workers and poor masses in Africa have not seen improvement in their living condition despite the increased wealth and economic growth brought about by rise in commodity prices occasioned by China's growth and other factors.

Genuine path to development

To set stage for development the African countries have to commit their huge resources to build viable industrial base that could produce manufactured goods of international standards and engender diversification of economy. But to mobilize adequate resources to finance its industrialization along with the provision of basic needs for its populace, the commanding heights of the economy have to be nationalized and put under democratic management and control of the working masses. This however entails attack on the rapacious interest of multinationals and greed of the local capitalist elite. Therefore, achieving this will require a mass struggle of workers and poor masses of Africa, with the international working class solidarity including with Chinese workers, aimed at defeating capitalism and enthroning genuine socialism on the continent.

* Peluola Adewale writes for the Socialist Democracy, Lagos Nigeria

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

Kenya: Who are our enemies and where are our friends?

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2007-03-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/40447

I have been living in Kenya for almost a year. I did not know that there would be so many cultural and political differences from Uganda, which was once my home for more than a decade. I was only moving across the borders of a East Africa that was definitely uniting, albeit slowly. In any case, for all the years I had been in Uganda, even in the most difficult periods of tensions and suspicions between Museveni and Baba Moi (when Moi could close the border at will), we had no alternative but to pass through Nairobi which was, and still remains, the regional communications and transport hub.


In those days there were not many direct flights from Entebbe, so we had to transit through Nairobi whether we liked it or not. There was a time when many senior members of the Pan-African Movement (PAM) in Uganda (Col Otafiire, Late Lt. Col. Serwanga Lwanga, Late Major Ondoga ori Amaza, Lt. Noble Mayombo, Mzee Chango Machyo, others and myself) were regarded as agents of destabilisation by the Moi/KANU government. In those days you stopped over in Nairobi with anxiety. At one time The Kenya Times, the government/KANU mouth piece, published a series of articles claiming that PAM was created by Museveni to foment troubles among his neighbours and across Africa in general. In my particular case I was not only persona non grata in Nigeria but had been closely associated with the Kenyan exile opposition in the United Kingdom, initially through the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners in Kenya, and later UMOJA. It was true too that many senior people in the NRM had sympathies and solidarity with different elements of the opposition to the Moi/KANU dictatorship.

A particular kind of understanding of Kenya flowed from these experiences. One had a sense of who were our friends and who were our enemies. Consequently, even as relations between Uganda and Kenya improved, forced by economic realism and the increasing isolation of Moi's regime by its erstwhile foreign backers, and the confidence and perseverance of the democratic opposition, the view from Kampala was that Moi and Museveni were in mutual embrace for reasons of realpolitik only. The bulk of the opposition remained 'our friends'. It was no secret that Uganda supported the NARC opposition in the run up to the 2002 historic electoral revolution that saw off four decades of political monopoly.

We were all jubilant that 'our friends are in power', but since that euphoria, the reality of power and alliances based on the negative unity of 'Moi must go' has shown their limits. You may remove individuals, but dealing with the structural relations of power skewed against the majority of the people requires more than merely getting rid of the incumbent. Within two years of NARC taking power, the unity of the opposition that won the election was cashed in for all kinds of opportunism, factionalism and sectarianism and accusations of betrayal.

So it was not a familiar country that I settled in last year. It is really not clear who our friends and our enemies are anymore. They are all at logger heads. For instance, veteran opposition politician Raila Odinga, son of the even more famous Mzee Oginga Odinga, along with others, including Kalonzo Musyoka and former Vice President George Saitoti, quit KANU because Moi imposed the son of the former president, Uhuru Kenyatta, as the KANU presidential candidate. They teamed up with Mwai Kibaki and others to form the NARC which booted out KANU. Today, Uhuru Kenyatta is part of the ODM-Kenya, an alliance of parties and personalities who were formerly in NARC but are now opposed to Kibaki. Musalia Mudavadi who became Moi's vice president after Saitoti is now in ODM-K too, while Saitoti is firmly with Kibaki.

Are you confused? There is more in store. No one is even sure which party the president belongs to because the DP, which was the basis of his partnership in NARC, is all but dead. But there is another coalition, NARC-KENYA, which is effectively the party of the president while he is still presiding over a NARC 'Government of Unity' that theoretically includes those NARC members who did not flee with Raila and co, such as Charity Ngilu and Ford People. But listening to Ngilu and other ministers who are not part of NARC-Kenya, you wonder what they are still doing in Kibaki's government. Let me stop there because I will not only be confusing you, but will lose the plot myself as the names and parties become incestuously intertwined.

Kenya is the worst example of a farcical multi-party democracy, because political parties have become so easily disposable depending on the personal ambitions of their leaders who own them, and can literally do what they please with them. Essentially they rely on assumed or assured ethnic constituencies, which makes national politics a club of ethnic notables.

The manipulation of ethnicity, religion, region and race by the political elite to secure support from the masses is not uniquely Kenyan or African. Electoral politics involves such manipulation even in the so-called matured democracie. Ask yourself why John F. Kennedy was, and still remains, the only Catholic to have been elected president of the USA? Why is there no labour or conservative party in Northern Ireland rather than Irish parties that are allied to the mainland parties?

My surprise in Kenya - even for a Nigerian where all kinds ethno-religious and regional manipulations are common currency in the battles between different sections of the ruling classes - is the shameless way in which ethnicity is flaunted and ethnic prejudices proclaimed even, especially, among the 'enlightened classes'.

Nowhere is this more prominently in evidence than in the current electioneering campaigns which everybody agrees will be a two-way battle between President Kibaki (standing under NARC-K) and whoever emerges the opposition candidate in ODM-K. In ODM-K the final duel is between the two leading aspirants, Raila Odinga and Musyoka.

If other Africans had a vote in Kenyan elections, Raila would have won hands down because he is the better known figure; not just because of his old man status, but as a veteran opposition figure who spent several years in prison for his political activities. However, come to Kenya and ask many people, aside from his fanatical supporters, and you get a different picture. Unfortunately most of Kenyans who are anti-Raila will give you no other reason why he cannot be president, than the fact he is Luo. The same Kenyans who are hysterical about Barrack Obama, a Luo man running president of America, will not vote for his Luo uncle in Kenya. Why is a Luo good for America but not for Kenya?

* 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

Mugabe and African politics

Kioi wa Mbugua

2007-03-20

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/40394

I am impressed by the amount of space your online magazine has given to the Zimbabwean case. It is true that the economy of Zimbabwe is in shambles. It is true that Mugabe has overstayed his welcome as head of state of Zimbabwe. It is not true that all the economic problems in Zimbabwe are Mugabe's making. It is not true that to create land for blacks from whose ancestors land was taken by force, is a bad policy. It is not true that the SADC countries just sit and watch and they don't understand the politics of Zimbabwe.

Who is Mugabe?

One of the African heroes of the independence movement. One of the only black African head of states who cannot be manipulated by the West including the 'only' super power on the scene The man who stood against the 'West's' evil plan in the DRC by taking 10,000 armed men to the battle field. The only African head of state who courageously faced a white privileged class and dispossessed them of their ill gotten wealth Mugabe takes lesson from doyens of liberators of the world's poor such as Fidel Castro, Frantz Fanon and lately Hugo Chavez. Mugabe says there is no freedom in South Africa as long as 'economic apartheid' prevails. Is this the man your publication and the West think the 'foolish' African citizens will turn against? Sekou Toure once said 'we prefer poverty in freedom rather than riches in slavery'. Dedan Kimathi, Kenya's freedom fighter said: 'It is better to die in the struggle than to live on our knees'.

For a long time Africa has been the West's 'cake on the table' since the days of the Berlin's conference. There are a few African thinkers and leaders who want to stop this trend. Mugabe is their apostle. Next time you write on Zimbabwe, please include divergent opinions like mine. I am not a Zimbabwean, I am a Kenyan who has interacted with Zimbabweans. Aluta continua against imperialism of both government and the media.
Long live Zimbabwe
Long live Mugabe
Long live African freedom

Sekai Holland - battered by Mugabe's thugs

Jim Holland

2007-03-20

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/40402

My wife, Sekai Holland, is a 64-year old grandmother. For the crime of being a member of the opposition MDC in Zimbabwe she has suffered one of the most brutal attacks imaginable at the hands of the ZANU PF regime's sadistic thugs.

Sekai's ordeal began when she and fellow activist Grace Kwinjeh went to Harare's Highfield police station looking for those who had been arrested for trying to attend a Zimbabwe prayer vigil last Sunday. When they arrived they were told the others were in the yard at the back, and they were then taken to the yard and locked in with those already detained. Then the beatings started. Initially there was a mass beating of everyone there - over a hundred people who were forced to lie on the ground while they were viciously attacked. Later Sekai and the other members of the MDC leadership were called in one by one to the charge office where they were made to repeatedly run a gauntlet of thugs who beat them mercilessly.

Sekai was first hit in the face, her glasses being smashed to start with. Her earrings and watch were ripped off. Then she was hit with a variety of weapons, including clubs and batons. They kept accusing her of being Tony Blair's girlfriend - to which she responded 'No - he is my son - how can you call me his girlfriend?' That naturally didn't go down well. The beatings went on and on over a period of hours. A woman repeatedly jumped on her with booted feet - fracturing or breaking three of her ribs. Her clothes were covered in blood - both her own and that of others suffering the same brutality. She passed out several times.

At one stage one of the torturers left the room and was then called back by another who said 'What about her legs?'. He then used some instrument to break her leg, after which they forced her to stand up and hobble around on it. When satisfied that they had indeed broken it they left. The team of torturers was apparently trying to break her spirit by inflicting the maximum amount of pain.

From Highfield Sekai was taken first to Central Police Station and then to the suburban Avondale station. At Avondale when she was ordered to get out of the high prison truck she replied that she was unable to do so due to her injuries, so they pushed her out and she fell and landed hard on her head, adding to the injuries she already had.

Sekai spent two full days in detention without medical treatment. She suffered filthy conditions without proper sanitation, and with numerous injuries. When the courts finally forced the police to take the injured for medical treatment, it was first thought that she had a broken arm and foot, as well as the massive bruising over most of her body. Later on they discovered that she in fact had a broken leg not foot, and that she also had three broken or fractured ribs as well as a fractured knee.

I managed to get back to Harare from Tanzania on the evening of the day Sekai was admitted to hospital. The place was still crawling with riot police, and the atmosphere was very tense. However a local human rights organisation, Amani Trust, had managed to negotiate proper treatment for all the injured and Sekai was put into very good medical hands.

A doctor friend of ours from Australia paid her a visit before I arrived. However he was arrested and interrogated by the police for many hours before being released without charge. Apparently they thought he was a journalist. Sekai was in excellent spirits when I finally saw her, in spite of being so sadistically brutalised. She said that neither she nor any of the other leaders she saw being battered uttered any cries - and that must have infuriated the torturers. In the end the sadists were the ones who failed. In frustration they apparently made the bizarre boast that they were being paid a million dollars (admittedly only US$100 or so now) by Reserve Bank Governor Gono to carry out the beatings, plus an extra $100,000 a day for their meal allowances. That gives you an indication of the mentality of those hired by the regime.

Since her admission to hospital Sekai has had surgery to insert pins in her broken leg and arm. That operation went well, but she will need specialist treatment outside the country for the fractured knee.

I think that the regime has massively miscalculated with this brutality. Messages of solidarity have been coming in from all over the world, and I can see this leading to real pressure on the neighbouring African countries who have shielded Mugabe and his regime for so long.

The most moving development of all for us has been to hear of the support coming from so many members of the Australian Aboriginal community with whom Sekai campaigned over the elimination of apartheid and other colonial systems in Africa, and in support of Aboriginal Land Rights back in the
1970s. They say they are not going to let this pass without action that may surprise everyone.

Update 17 March 2007

It was agreed that it was essential to evacuate Sekai and fellow MDC activist Grace Kwinjeh from hospital in Harare to South Africa, where the atmosphere was calmer and safer and where medical facilities were better than in Zimbabwe. Arrangements were therefore made for them to be taken by air ambulance from Harare airport to Johannesburg. However when their ambulance drew up next to the aircraft on the tarmac they were met by members of the CIO (Central Intelligence Agency) who refused to allow them on board. Discussions with our lawyer followed, but he was told that the injured women required a clearance letter from the Minister of Health before they could leave the country. That of course was a total fabrication as there is no such provision in the law or indeed in practice. The ambulance was ordered to proceed under police escort to the Central Police Station.

At Central, the lawyer was advised that the women were not allowed to leave the country but should return to hospital under police escort. No justification or explanation was given. They were taken back to hospital and placed under the guard of four uniformed police officers - two fully armed men and two women. No explanation was forthcoming for another hour or so, at which time they were informed that they were under arrest as they were to be charged with some unspecified offence to be determined in due course by the CID (Criminal Investigation Division of the police).

It should be noted that on the day of their appearance before the court last Tuesday the magistrate ordered that everyone should be released from custody and that no further arrests should be made, and that if the police wanted to proceed against any of those arrested at a later stage it should be by way of summons and not arrest. The treatment they received today is in direct violation of that court order.

Solidarity with the Egyptian novelist and writer Nawal El Saadawi

Petition

Dennis Brutus

2007-03-20

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/40401

International campaign for freedom of thought and creativity and for solidarity with the Egyptian novelist and writer Nawal El Saadawi.

The Egyptian writer and novelist Nawal El Saadawi, well known both in the Arab world and internationally, is facing a political and religious campaign mounted against her by the authorities of Al-Azhar. Basing themselves on her play entitled God resigns at the Summit Meeting published during January 2007 in Cairo, they are accusing her of apostasy and disrespect for the principles of Islam.

The stage play is a work of fiction and should be judged by the men and women who read works destined for the theatre and not by religious dignitaries whose areas of concern are totally different. To bring a writer to trial before a court relying on dangerous accusations of this kind is a license for her assassination and can encourage any mad man who might cross her path to kill her.

Accusations such as this which remind us of the era of slavery and the Middle Ages, and which hardly correspond to the values which should hold sway in the 21st century are being levelled against a woman of letters, a woman from the medical profession who has given to the Arab world 45 works ranging from novels, plays, short stories, autobiography to scientific and intellectual studies, which have served the cause of women's liberation and that of men, and have been translated into 30 languages covering different regions of our globe.

This is not the first time that Nawal El Saadawi has had to face campaigns of this kind. A case was raised against her, attempting to separate her forcibly from her husband. The accusation here also was that of apostasy and her name figured for many years on a death list.

We the signatories of this petition demand that this repressive campaign come to an end immediately. We call upon all men and women of conscience all over the world, in the Arab countries and in Egypt, to take the action they see fit in order to defend freedom of thought and creativity. We call upon all the associations and organisations of civil society, unions of workers, journalists, all free women and men in the different countries, on the associations and organisations of women and on democratic progressive political parties to join us in our efforts to defend freedom.

To support our action you can:

-sign this petition and distribute it as widely as possible;
-send messages of protest to the Egyptian embassies in your country, to Sheikh Al Azhar, to the President of the Republic, the President of the Peoples Assembly, and the Prosecutor General in Egypt.

FESPACO 2007: the African cinema lion roars!

Del Hornbuckle

2007-03-22

http://www.dogonland.com

A biannual source of tremendous local pride, the largest cultural event on the continent, and the premiere pan-African film festival worldwide, FESPACO (Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou), is the destination of African film cinephiles, film and media industry professionals, actors, journalists and film critics, festival programmers, film students and filmmakers. The festival was created in 1969 and always held in Ouagadougou but after a government decree in 1972, FESPACO became an institution. The theme for the 20th edition of the 2007 festival is 'The Actor in the Creation and Promotion of African Films'.

Ouaga, a bustling, moped-saturated, smoldering capitol city is a paradise for lovers of African cinema. The city is awash with moviegoers and they get to intensely do it for almost ten days, the duration of the festival. The cinemas are filled with the Burkinabe (men, women and children) and visitors or festivaliers, a term coined by locals, soaking up African images and stories that will rarely be seen again albeit art-house programmes in the West or international African-themed festivals. The city is filled with wonderful statues and art work commemorating the spirit and history of FESPACO, most notably, the Place des Cineaste, a beautiful statue of film reels in the middle of a busy street. There are movie posters everywhere and festival t-shirts and memorabilia for sale on many corners. There is a FESPACO center that administers registration, fees and badges but it is utter confusion and a process that may mean an entire day in long queues, limited bilingual assistance and technological support. The process is frustrating and made worse by Western management visions of operating as if we are in Paris or New York, so given the lack of reliable technological infrastructure and specialized skills in the city, it is unfair and again, overlooking the benefit of being absorbed in an African cinephile city that despite many limitations, strives to continually showcase African filmmakers more than any other city in the world so be prepared to grab a Brakina or Castel (very good local beers) and chill.

This was my first FESPACO, and my first visit to this land-locked nation with such cinematic pride. There are two lasting impressions. The first is how the festival is so incredibly male-dominated and after all these years no programming has developed to showcase African women directors, provide a forum or special film retrospective of the few African women directors who have a body of work. The second is the reality of the heavy Francophone weight pervasive throughout the festival, informing its structure; almost exclusively funded by largely French (France) and European resources, the tension between the Anglophone and Francophone cinema and television community is evident. French global television network TV5Monde, ARTE, Organisation International de la Francophonie, and Radio France International were everywhere; and a lack of fluency in French is a critical deficit, reducing film screening choices almost in half because few movies have English subtitles. The lack of a translation mechanism and financial resources for subtitling is an ongoing issue and greatly diminishes the 'international' perspective considerably. The dominance of France was evident everywhere with the legions of French youth; French television news media types running around with microphones and television camerapersons in tow; and those 'teeth-sucking' moments during the film trailer when, for many of the films screened, a beautiful black woman with a bright smile walks down the street, singing and casually handing white passerby’s chilled bottles of Coca-Cola from a large shoulder bag then the screen goes to a slick TV5Monde graphic! Every screening I attended, the audience made their distaste loud and clear. And I thought only Americans were bombarded with trailers of crass junk food commercials at the cinema!

Thus the 'pan' in pan-African does not completely exist and has been a constant complaint since FESPACO’s beginning. Francophone African countries dominate the film programme and there are even fewer films representing the diaspora. The Paul Robeson Initiative, now known as Promoting Reel African Images (PRAI) was launched in recent years to address this issue and fill the gap and films included in the programme compete for the FESPACO Diaspora Prize, the Paul Robeson Award. The entire PRAI program was screened at CENASA (Centre national des arte du spectacles et de l’audiovisuel) but the same issue existed—the majority of the films were in English language with no French subtitles plus the location seemed to be segregate the programme from the more popular, centrally located cinemas which the Burkinabe frequented.

But the opportunity to witness thousands of African film lovers in one place is a sight to behold. The magnitude of the pride is evident during the opening and closing ceremonies where visitors and the Burkinabe filled the stadium to capacity and enjoy live music, drummers, traditional dancers, horseback riders in honor of the Yennega Stallion legend, awards presented and ending with glorious fireworks.

There are five air-conditioned, technically-equipped cinemas with small bars and cafes throughout Ouaga to view the festival programme: Cine Neerwaya; the Centre Culturel George Melies, the French Cultural Center (CCGM) which houses the International Market of African television and cinema (MICA) during FESPACO; CENASA; and my favorite, Cine Burkina, right on a busy shopping street in the heart of town. Films are running concurrently so the day and evening is spent walking along the dusty streets, stopping to eat and drink while waiting for the next film to start. And when a new film opens, two very young FESPACO representatives walk out on stage accompanied by a drummer and the director. The film, and director are introduced in French and English and the director is allowed to speak about the movie before the screening. That’s the spirit!

Hotel Independence is the unofficial headquarters and where the majority of festivaliers lodge; it has enjoyed much better days, the food is overpriced and not very good; tiny rooms; the lobby is cramped and filled with local vendors, a currency exchange booth and four terminal business centers so it is hardly conducive to the swell of people wanting to hangout and network; and poolside is poorly lit with bats swooping around at night. But the evening entertainment on a small band stage near the pool was not to be missed; a wonderful band featured a drumming troupe, excellent female vocalists and a dancer on stilts grooving to the beautiful acoustic guitar, high life, bossa nova, R&B and American pop music.

Alongside the film screenings were a number of workshops and screenings sponsored by La Guilde Africaine Des Realisateurs Producteurs (The Guild of African Directors and Producers) known as 'La Guilde', an initiative of young, progressive African filmmakers, many living in Europe and Africa, defining a new and alternative approach and strategy to the old-guard, pan-African Federation of Filmmakers (FESPACI); workshops included panels and roundtables on African film distribution, technology and cinema, globalisation and cinema and the role of women in African film. And to further demonstrate Burkina Faso’s commitment to sustaining FESPACO and supporting, teaching and training African filmmakers—on the continent and throughout the diaspora—Gaston Kabore, the eminent Burkinabe director and former Secretary General of FESPACO, established Imagine Film Training Institute a multi-story building described as a space for the transmission of knowledge and expertise that houses an African film repository, screening and conference rooms, editing decks and beautiful outdoor eating and lounge areas. A huge portrait of Paul Robeson—a lifelong pan-Africanist and champion of celebrating African culture worldwide.

The highlight and a somewhat tongue-in-cheek moment since I had visited the gravesite of assassinated former President, Thomas Sankara earlier in the week, was the celebration at the Presidential Palace at Kos-Yam of Blaise Compaoré, current President of Burkina Faso, given the well-known rumors about his role in the death of his predecessor. Many people throughout the diaspora refuse to attend the festival or even visit the country for this reason. The 'Palace' based far outside of the city, features manicured green grounds, waterfalls and formidable contemporary buildings (I was informed that this was not his only residence!), rivaling anything in Chicago or Los Angeles. The contrast, from the surrounding arid, drought-prone landscape, enormous poverty and lack of basic services is upsetting. But guests dined on roasted suckling pig, goat, champagne, very good wines and trays of fruits and fancy desserts as Compaoré and his wife Chantal and dignitaries seated in the dais as we were all entertained by various singers and musicians. Well known, jazz saxophonist, Manu Dibango, honorary president of FESPACO was honored during the event.

The FESPACO film programme included many categories of film: feature length, short, animation, documentary and special programmes: Focus on Morocco; Retrospective of Malian Cinema; Focus on South African Documentaries; and TV & Video—Series and Sitcoms.

The 2007 FESPACO Grand Prize Winners, Ezra, directed by Newton Aduaka, was the only Nigerian film in competition and was the winner of the Golden Stallion of Yennenga. The film is the heartbreaking story of a child soldier on trial and suffering memory loss and the realisation that he may have murdered his parents.

Les Saignantes directed by Jean-Pierre Bekolo won the Silver Stallion of Yennenga. Besides Bamako, Les Saignantes was my FESPACO favorite. Bekolo, Cameroonian-born and living in Paris is an active member of La Guilde and created the most provocative, visually stunning story of corruption, sexuality and supernatural power all taking place in Yaoundé in 2025. Nothing like his work has been done on screen from an African director. Les Saignantes is groundbreaking and represents a new cinematic form and a completely different way of telling a universal story.

Daratt ('dry season') directed by Mahammat Salleh Haroun (Chad) won the Bronze Stallion of Yennenga.

Le president a-t-il le Sida, ('does the President have Aids?') directed by Arnold Antonin (Haiti) won the FESPACO Paul Robeson Diaspora Prize.

Other standouts for me were:
Shoot The Messenger directed by Ngozi Onwurah (United Kingdom); one of the few women directors represented at FESPACO. She has a brave, satirical and controversial comedy examining race and self-image set in London, England.

La Vague Blanche ('the white wave') directed by Mohamed Ali El Mejoub (Morocco); beautifully shot, mesmerising, and weaves two doomed, desperate men together. In Arabic with English subtitles.

The Mother House directed by François Verster (South Africa); a poignant and troubling but ultimately hopeful documentary of a young girl, Miché, who is followed along with her HIV positive mother and grandmother for four years.

The JuJu Factory directed by Balafu Bakupa-Kayinda (France); an excellent film that provides a slice of life in the contemporary Congolese community of Brussels and the story of a writer who refuses to give into a 'European-African-village-travel-guide'.

Bamako directed by Abderrahmnane Sissako (Mauritania); also an active member of La Guilde has given us one of the most important African films in years. Sissako tells a very simple story of a marriage falling apart against the backdrop of a court trial indicting the World Bank. A masterpiece! Danny Glover produced the film and has a small role.

Salud! Directed by Connie Fields (USA)
Barakat! Directed by Djamila Sahraoui (Algeria)
Teranga Blues by Senegalese director Moussa Sene-Absa (Senegal)
Homeland directed by Jacqueline Kalimunda (Rwanda)
Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican directed by Claire Andrade-Watkins (USA)

FESPACO is amazing, overwhelming at times but fulfilling on many levels, I’ll sum it up in the words of director Newton Aduaka, stated during his emotional speech upon winning the Grand Prize, 'I produced the film (Ezra) in a pan-Africanist spirit'. Most of us attended FESPACO in a pan-Africanist spirit.

Unfortunately, the majority of the films will not be seen beyond the continent. But they hold a special place and moment in time for us—each FESPACO is a visual documentation of African history and contemporary life and times and I am immensely proud of having been a part of the 20th Edition. Fewer and fewer movie theatres exist in sub-Saharan Africa, distribution outlets are elusive and drying up, as are funding streams, but an indelible film spirit endures and a maverick group has emerged: insistent, bold, pan-Africanist, transnational and unwilling to do things as they have been done - the African cinema lion is ready to roar!

* Del Hornbuckle is a writer, jazz/electronica-head and librarian lives in Washington, DC.

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

* FESPACO website

Home

Khadija Heeger

2007-03-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/40405

Home
I have to draw maps
I have to ride my feet like chariots
I have to see like water
I have to speak like stone and rock
I have to love like mother tongue
I have to wrestle with the bones of my dead
I have to wade through the sand, leap through the dungeons
So I feel
So I feel as I wander through my life
Not knowing me, not knowing now
See my mirrors and my footprints dance,
My mirrors and my footprints dance
Behind me
Me my back to the wind posing
in the cracks of my winded smile
see me search my trembling,
gut my spine a knot, my life not knowing
see my questions barren black shoving marks
against my wall
burning holes in charcoal dreams
I am here but seldom seen
I am here
I am…

I have to draw maps
I have to ride my feet like chariots
I have to speak like stone and rock
I have to see like water
I have to love like mother tongue
I have to wrestle with the bones of my dead
I have to wade through the sand, leap through the dungeon
So I know
So I know the duststamp footfall
A murmuring earth call
Knowing where, knowing how
Knowing me, knowing now
I have to draw maps
To make the swindler mute
To sound the horn
To speak by using my own tongue
And annihilate the mutant words

I have to ride my feet like chariots
To win her back
To find her soles/souls and grow my own
In the new places
I call home

I have to wrestle with the bones of my dead
So I may live here in their stead
Carrying their wisdom on the lean road
Carrying the lesson by which I am lead

I have to wade through the sand, leap through the dungeon
To find her footprint, to find her footprint
To make a footprint, to make a footprint
Of my own
So I will know
That I
am home.

New titles from Africa Books Collective

Strife by Shimmer Chinodya

2007-03-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/40409

Strife by Shimmer Chinodya is a rich and densely written novel that provides a dark exposé of the tension between modernity and tradition, and deep insights into culture in Zimbabwe in the 21st century.


Strife is a rich and densely written novel that provides a dark exposé of the tension between modernity and tradition, and deep insights into culture in Zimbabwe in the 21st century. Chinodya explores the powerful draw that conflicting ideologies exercise over an emerging middle-class that at once yearns for autonomy and unconsciously desires the irresponsibility of an all-pervading destiny. Tracing the Gwanagara’s roots back over a century, Chinodya interweaves past and the present, juxtaposing incidents never forgotten or resolved, revealing how memory becomes an actor in lived time.

A large family grows up in Gweru. Their father aspires to be an enlightened Christian man; he sees his children through school and college where they do well. But as adults, they are struck by illness. Who is to blame? Who is to cure these ailments? What wrongs have they committed to offend the ancestors? How can atonement be made? Can education, science and medicine provide any solution? Their mother, the moon huntress, seeks out the answers and the cures in traditional beliefs and customs.

Shimmer Chinodya is one of Zimbabwe’s most celebrated post-independence literary writers. He won The Commonwealth Writers Prize, Africa region in 1990, for his critically acclaimed novel, Harvest of Thorns. His works of fi ction include Chairman of Fools (Weaver Press 2005) Dew in the Morning (1982), Tale of Tamari (2004) and Can we Talk and Other Stories (1998), which was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2000. Chinodya has received numerous writing fellowships. From 1995- 1997, he was visiting professor in creative writing and African literature at the University of St Lawrence.

Review of African Blogs

Sokari Ekine

2007-03-21

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/40406

African Shirts - comments on global warming and what he as an individual is prepared to do to 'save his own skin'. – 'Stop flying, stop driving, stop tumble drying?'

Flying is a particularly pollution filled activity but nonetheless Nkem states he is not prepared to give it up and I have to agree with him to some extent. How else can you travel from Spain to South Africa? by boat - how many weeks? By road – the cost of a specialised vehicle will be 10 times if not more the cost of a flight not to talk of the dangers involved. One of the comments though makes a good point.

'I don't think that the intention is to ban you from flying. I think the idea is to make you think about whether you really need to fly or not - perhaps it would be better to take a holiday where you live rather than flying half-way across the world? Or perhaps that meeting is best held via videoconferencing facilities?'

We do have the technologies available now that can reduce the amount of business travel and conference hopping and yes we can all take holidays nearer our homes and travel by train or bus or if you are really fit by cycle.

Black Star Journal - writes that Europeans are becoming more conscisous of the issue of climate change and the need to make changes in their behaviour such as buy local goods and holiday closer to home and Euro governments have made a commitment to reduce green house gases.

However despite the fact that Africa is the continent most affected by climate change, some people are complaining about the European campaign harming Africa’s tourist industry. As BSJ states some people will whine about everything.

'Some people will whine about whatever's done or not done. The west is blasted for contributing to climate change that hurts Africa, but when Europe tries to take actions to mitigate this problem, it's blasted for that too...Maybe the populist whiners can figure out what they want the west to do. But I guess it's easier to instead of criticizing everything instead of coming up with constructive solutions.'

I completely agree – you cannot have your cake and eat it. Africa like the rest of the world will have to make some serious and sometimes uncomfortable decisions around the issue of climate change which will require innovative thinking and as BSJ states “constructive solutions”


Africa Unchained - posts on an organisation called “Self Help” whose

'philosophy is to help:...people to help themselves. Innovative and appropriate technologies and techniques are employed by Self Help's staff, who work in partnership with beneficiary communities and government agencies to create a real and lasting change'.

Grandiose Parlor - receives an email alerting him to a website for the presidential candidate and VP, Governors Umar Yar’adua and Goodluck Jonathan . GP comments that it is a

'Great idea, but with about one month to the elections, this is a bit too late!'

He also provides a useful list of websites by other Presidential candidates as well as Gubernatorial ones. I note that Goodluck Jonathon did set up a blog some time ago when he was hoping to be a Presidential candidate himself but I have not been able to find it so I am not sure whether it is still running.

Thysdrus - comments on an article written by an American woman visiting Tunisia asking 'is she aware of her platitudes?' She writes:

'As an independent American woman, I have never felt inferior because of my gender. I have never been treated as less of a person than the man standing next to me, until I went on vacation to Northern Africa. As a tourist in Tunisia, I was exposed to much more than beautiful beaches, warm weather, and bustling markets. The male-dominated, largely Muslim population opened my eyes to gender inequality we have all heard so much about...'

She continues in this vein stating 'The deeper we went into the culture of the country, the more we noticed about the gender inequality' and ends up by saying how wonderful it is to be free to walk the streets (presumably in the US) and be free – of course we all know that the US and the West women don’t get sexually harassed on the streets, in their offices, in shops, parks and son on – this is something that only happens in the lands of the 'OTHER' .

Adventures of a Retired Armchair Traveller - Congo Girl - comments on the $128 million just allocated to rebuild Kinshasa by the World Bank.

'I am curious to find out who gets the contracts on this one. Halliburton just moved to Dubai, is it? Are there connections between Cheney and Wolfowitz that we don't know about yet? Or will most of the funds be channelled through contracts to companies based in other northern (previously colonizing) countries? ...Millions of people live in Kinshasa (estimates are as high as 9 million), and roads, medical facilities, water infrastructure are sorely needed. But what about the rest of the country? This situation vaguely reminds me of New Orleans - post Hurricane Katrina, the first spots to get attention were not the most populous or needy, but the most likely to be on a parade route or downtown where the conventioneers go. Is the World Bank considering the dense population as a primary weight, or the idea that refurbishing the capital will lead to more (perceived) stability, and therefore a better presentation and (perceived) environment for investors?'


Black Looks - comments on a beauty pageant in Angola to highlight survivors of landmines called Miss Landmine 2007.

'my gut reaction to this is that it is highly offensive, disgusting exploitation of African women. In the background of some of the photos there are these white people smiling and glowing as they make up and dress the women - like mannequins. Putting the issue of beauty pageants aside and the patronising comments on Western opinions and African cultural traditions etc, it is still an inappropriate tool which objectifies women beside landmine survivors are men as well as women. Even the use of the words Miss Landmine is horrible. And who the hell is going to be buying these glossy magazines and wearing these fancy clothes? Certainly not the women survivors who are poor unemployed women?'


* Sokari Ekine is author of Black Looks blog and Editor of Pambazuka News

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

Angola: Govt sidesteps IMF's transparency concerns as oil money pours in

2007-03-23

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70839

A welter of multi-billion dollar projects to rebuild Angola's devastated roads, airports and administrative buildings are part of a post-war reconstruction boom that is changing the face of the country. Much of the development has been dependent on oil-backed commercial credit agreements from countries such as China.

Africa: Scourge of child sexual abuse takes toll on girls

2007-03-23

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/01/news/africa.php

Even as Africa races to adopt many of the developed world's norms for children, from universal education to limits on child labor, child sexual abuse remains stubbornly difficult to eradicate. In much of the continent, child advocates say, perpetrators are shielded by the traditionally low status of girls, a view that sexual abuse should be dealt with privately and justice systems that constitute obstacle courses for victims.

Gambia: Women entrepreneurs in the Gambia: challenges and opportunities

2007-03-22

http://www.id21.org/society/s4amd1g1.html

Although there are many women-headed enterprises in Africa, it is important to understand the nature of these businesses and the conditions under which they operate. To promote enterprises to reduce poverty and also improve the situation of women, policymakers must be sensitive to the impact of gender relations on women entrepreneurs.

Ghana: Women call for real change

Ama Achiaa Amankwah

2007-03-20

http://allafrica.com/stories/200703040121.html

The Women's Movement in Ghana has said that it is time for government and the people of Ghana to recognize and support women's struggle for full citizenship on the auspicious occasion of the 50th independence anniversary celebrations.

South Africa: Report rules out 'child farming' for social grants

2007-03-22

http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Document-2027.phtml

Contrary to widespread public perception, arising largely from moral and cultural concerns, there is no evidence that provision of the Child Support Grant (CSG) is a cause of increased youth fertility, conclude Monde Makiwane and Eric Udjo in an Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) report prepared for the Department of Social Development.

Africa: A tribute to Chris Ubani

Ike Okonta

2007-03-20

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/40398

The late Chima Ubani, foremost pro-democracy activist and former Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) will spring back to 'life' on Saturday, 17 March, at the University of London.
The late Chima Ubani, foremost pro-democracy activist and former Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) will spring back to 'life' on Saturday, 17 March, at the University of London.

On that afternoon, Friends of Africa, one of the students' societies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, a college of the University, will pay tribute to Chima with a programme of events including talks, poetry reading, and filmic and photo presentations - all celebrating the life and work of this incomparable Nigerian. The event is being coordinated by Eki Gbinigie of the African Liberation Support Campaign Network, (ALISC Network). Guest speakers include Dr Raufu Mustapha, a lecturer in African Politics at the University of Oxford, Dr Paul Okojie who teaches law at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Dapo Awosokanre, formerly of the CLO.

'Chima in Pictures' will present photographs of Chima at work and with his family. 'Chima Speaks' will offer those who were not privileged to meet him while he was alive a rare opportunity to hear the late activist in film footage. Dike Chukwumerije, a rising Nigerian poet in the United Kingdom, will read poems dedicated to Chima. There will also be messages and eulogies from the late activist's friends, colleagues, and comrades.

At the time of his death in a car crash on 21 September 2005, Chima Ubani was the Executive Director of Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Nigeria's premier rights advocacy group. He had worked in CLO in various capacities since 1989 when he joined the organisation after his national service, eventually to take over from Mr. Abdul Oroh as Executive Director in 2003.

But Chima did not restrict his labours on behalf of Nigeria's oppressed and downtrodden to CLO. Indeed, he had begun his work as an advocate for civil rights and political liberty at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in the mid 1980s where he was General Secretary of the Students Union. To this day, UNN students and alumni remember that period in the university's political history as the 'golden years' and the name 'Chima' is synonymous with vibrant, honest and dedicated politics committed to enhancing students' welfare. Chima also brought this dynamism to bear on the wider Nigerian universities student body, playing a key role in the 1989 nation-wide students' protest of General Babangida's punishing Structural Adjustment Programme.

Chima was actively involved in shaping political events in Nigeria, a country he loved almost to distraction. He held a number of key positions: general secretary, Campaign for Democracy (CD), 1992-1994; joint secretary, United Action for Democracy (UAD), 1997-1998; general secretary, Democratic Alternative (DA), 1994-2001. A mass organiser, political thinker, and strategist of the finest pedigree, Chima brought humour, empathy, and the common touch to the difficult and often dangerous work of rousing ordinary Nigerians to stand up to their military oppressors.

He was harassed, calumniated, and detained by Nigeria's unaccountable rulers several times during his career. But not for a single moment did he give in to despair or anger towards his tormentors. Indeed, he radiated love and optimism, focussing only on the brighter side of things. Chima always insisted that that there were no political 'enemies' in the struggle to win liberty for Africa's oppressed, but only opponents, who, he was convinced, would change their ways when they were properly educated about the beauty of democracy, human rights, and life more abundant for all.

Chima Ubani's last months on earth were taken up with coordinating the response to another increase in the price of petrol introduced by the Federal Government. Plans included the organisation of 16 rallies across Nigeria. He was killed in a car crash on the way back from a rally in Maiduguri on 21 September 2005.

It is often said that individuals may make history, but that ultimately, important political victories are the handiwork of people and social movements. This may be true, but exceptional individuals make a most valuable contribution as their complete dedication, honesty, and leadership skills fuse people together to achieve these victories.

The late Chima Ubani was one such exceptional political leader. It is therefore fitting that tribute is being paid to a life lived for others at the University of London.


Dr Ike Okonta, Department of Politics, University of Oxford

For and behalf of:The Organizing Committee, Tribute to the Late Chima Ubani.
friendsofafrica_soas@yahoo.co.uk

Botswana: Bushmen banned from using water

2007-03-22

http://www.survival-international.org/news.php?id=2289

The Botswana government has banned the Kalahari Bushmen from using their own water , even as the world commemorates UN World Water Day. A Bushman leader is travelling to London this week to protest against the ban.

Djibouti: Court jails rights critic

2007-03-22

http://tinyurl.com/ytzaes

Al-Jazeera reports that a Djibouti criminal court has convicted a human rights activist of defamation, sentencing him to six months in prison and fining him 480 euros. Jean-Paul Noel Abdi, chairman of the Djibouti League of Human Rights, was found guilty on Sunday of falsely accusing a presidential guard soldier of rape, according to an unnamed judicial source.

Global: The Human Rights Record of the US in 2006

2007-03-21

http://english.people.com.cn/200703/08/eng20070308_355613.html

On March 6, the U.S. Department of State released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006. As in previous years, the State Department pointed the finger at human rights conditions in more than 190 countries and regions, including China, but avoided touching on the human rights situation in the United States.

North Africa: Integrated human rights education mooted

2007-03-22

http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2007/03/21/feature-01

The African Union and the Algerian Ministry of Family and the Status of Women held a Sub-Regional Workshop on human rights education for North Africa in Algiers, between March 17th and 20th. At its conclusion, delegates agreed that the concept of human rights should be taught to children by integrating it within school texts.

Zimbabwe: Activists barred from leaving the country

2007-03-23

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=302351

Zimbabwean police say opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara and more than 40 other activists arrested last week are not allowed to leave the country until their case is finalised in court, a newspaper reported Monday. Mutambara, who leads a breakaway faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was arrested at Harare International Airport on Saturday as he tried to leave the country to visit his wife in South Africa.

Africa: Gangs profit from smuggling of illegal immigrants into Europe

2007-03-23

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/20/news/crime.php

The nearly 400 migrants who thought they were sailing to Europe from the West African nation of Guinea ended up ill, stranded and broke in Mauritania. Not that the gang smuggling them much cared. By the time the engines on the migrants' rust-eaten vessel, Marine I, failed far from European shores, the gang had long since cleared hundreds of thousands of euros in cash.

Chad: Refugees moved due to insecurity

2007-03-22

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=21918

The United Nations refugee agency is helping to move hundreds of Chadians from a volatile border area to a camp deeper in Sudan at the refugees’ own request because of ongoing insecurity.

DRC: Refugees resettled in the US

2007-03-22

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=21925

The United Nations refugee agency has helped a first group of 35 Congolese who survived a massacre that killed 160 of their fellow countrymen in Burundi to start a new life in the United States, the vanguard of some 500 others who will head to US cities such as Denver, Louisville and San Francisco in the next few months.

Egypt: Egypt evicts neighbours of the pharaohs

2007-03-23

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/22/news/luxor.php

The Egyptian authorities have evicted hundreds of peasants from a village in southern Egypt because their mud-brick houses, which have sat atop some of the world's most treasured and ancient tombs for centuries, were leaking sewage onto priceless antiquities. The families have been resettled in a nearby planned community with running water and telephones.

Malawi: Irrigation scheme could transform lives of refugees

2007-03-23

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/460291904.html

A stream that has sliced a narrow channel down the side of a rocky plateau in southern Malawi represents the best hope for making the refugees of Luwani Camp self-sufficient. If the UN refugee agency succeeds in finding the funds it seeks, a 15-metre-high dam will be built to block the gap through the extremely hard hornblende rocks and a portion of the Nkhombe River will be diverted into a pipe to transform agriculture at the refugee camp some 12 kilometres away.

South Africa: Africa Without Borders

2007-03-22

http://www.towardanafricawithoutborders.org/home.html

Toward an Africa Without Borders is dedicated to opening borders, both physical and metaphorical, and to promoting unity and solidarity between groups in the Diaspora and Africa by facilitating strategic alliances and discussions that lead to partnerships for positive action in the name of Pan-Africanism. The conference [to be held in Durban from 5th-8th July] will feature discussions on issues such as “Activism Across Borders”; “Africa and the Media: Borders of Perception”; South Africa's Role in Africa and the World; Literature of Africa and the Diaspora; African Women: Struggle and Strength; Language and Africa; Religion, Ethnicity, and Identity in Africa and the Diaspora; and much more.

Egypt: MPs protest "anti-democratic" laws

2007-03-22

http://www.afrol.com/articles/24761

The Egyptian government's quest to push through constitutional laws expected to entrench the ruling party National Democratic Party (NDP) of President Hosni Mubarak to cling to power caused annoyance among the opposition deputies. Over 100 of them walked out of parliament in protest on Sunday.

Nigeria: Court delays VP's case

2007-03-22

http://www.afrol.com/articles/24759

The case of the Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who needs to be cleared from corruption charges to stand as a presidential candidate, could not proceed following the absence of a presiding judge, the court announced. The judge for the case, who flies from Lagos to Abuja, is expected to preside over the case on Tuesday

Sierra Leone: Media code for elections adopted

2007-03-22

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=21948

The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists, with assistance from the United Nations, the National Election Commission of Sierra Leone and other civil society groups has agreed on a media code of conduct to guide the electoral campaign leading to presidential and parliamentary elections set for this July.

Algeria: Bosses jailed in Algeria bank fraud

2007-03-22

http://tinyurl.com/2ya4ul

Al-Jazeera reports that an Algerian court has sentenced several former banking executives to jail after finding them guilty of corruption following the collapse of the country's largest private bank.

Benin: Anti-graft fight led to attack, leader says

2007-03-23

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19614933.htm

Benin's President Thomas Boni Yayi has said he believes an attack by gunmen on his convoy last week was an assassination bid by enemies opposed to his campaign to stamp out corruption in the small West African state. Yayi, a technocrat banker who was elected last year on a platform promising change, escaped unhurt when unidentified attackers opened fire on Thursday while he was campaigning in the north for parliamentary elections to be held on Sunday.

Nigeria: Obasanjo, deputy 'used Nigerian oil funds illegally'

2007-03-23

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=302667

Stepping into a contentious election-year issue, a Nigerian Senate panel said on Wednesday that President Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy-turned-political-foe both illegally used funds from the country's massive oil industry. Both officials are currently immune from prosecution. The full Senate must approve the findings for them to have effect, but no debate is scheduled till after April 21 presidential elections meant to secure civilian rule in coup-prone Nigeria.

Zambia: President sacks ally in graft crackdown

2007-03-23

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=302385

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has sacked his junior Lands Minister, a close ally, in a corruption crackdown aimed at stopping illegal allocation of housing plots, a presidential aide said on Monday. Deputy Lands Minister Moses Muteteka, who is married to a niece of Mwanawasa's wife Maureen, was sacked over allegations of illegal allocation of housing plots, press spokesperson David Kombe said.

Angola: Oil-rich, but dirt-poor

2007-03-23

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/20/business/angola.php

Angola, which recently shared the stage with the world's most powerful oil-producing nations at its first OPEC meeting, is an unlikely candidate to be the darling of the global oil industry. Angola, underdeveloped, war-scarred and foundering for decades under corrupt leadership, is one of the poorest nations on earth.

Global: Free trade enslaving poor countries - Oxfam

2007-03-22

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37010

The new free trade agreements being signed up between rich and poor countries are proving far more damaging to the poor than anything envisaged within WTO talks, Oxfam said in a report issued on Tuesday 20 March.

Global: Initiative to improve remittances services launched

2007-03-23

http://www.ifad.org/media/press/2007/23.htm

The United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has announced the launching of a global initiative to improve remittances services that allow foreign workers to send money back to their families in rural areas around the world.

Global: Liberalisation may boost growth, but not jobs

2007-03-22

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37015

According to Mohammed Ali Rashid, economics professor at the School of Arts and Social Sciences at the North South University in Bangladesh, even if trade openness boosts economic growth, such growth may not create jobs or alleviate poverty. Therefore the much-vaunted Aid for Trade concept should be redesigned so that "the major focus is shifted from simply creating more trade to the more important objectives of poverty reduction".

Burkina Faso: Mass vaccinations as meningitis strikes more than 10,000 people

2007-03-23

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70852

Health authorities in Burkina Faso have launched a mass vaccination campaign in the capital, Ouagadougou, to combat a rapidly spreading meningitis epidemic that has claimed more than 800 lives. “Ouagadougou has been hit to an extent that we did not expect,” said Jean Gabriel Wango, secretary general of the country’s health ministry.

Ethiopia: Urban farming boosts families affected by HIV

2007-03-23

http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=6740

Twelve-year-old Woinishet Wujura's dedication to her gardening duties would be surprising in someone her age, but the land she is tilling has been a lifeline for her and her family because the farm is run exclusively by and for women and children affected by AIDS. The farm, called 'Gordeme', is part of a successful urban gardening project that started in 2004 and now has several farms across Ethiopia, all managed and maintained by about 10,000 women or children.

South Africa: Measuring new HIV infections offers new insights

2007-03-22

http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Document-2067.phtml

In an article by Thomas Rehle et al. in the March 2007 edition of the South African Medical Journal (SAMJ), an unparallelled large sample of 15 851 blood specimens was analysed to estimate HIV incidence on a national scale for South Africa, indicating that the availability of laboratory-based tests for recent HIV infection now offers a direct measure for tracking the epidemic and evaluating the impacts of prevention interventions.

Sudan: Fighting ignorance and stigma on a shoestring

2007-03-23

http://www.plusnews.org/aidsreport.asp?reportid=6731

Health workers in Malakal, capital of Upper Nile State in southern Sudan, face great odds in trying to counter the ignorance and stigma that prevents people benefiting from available HIV/AIDS services. Despite the presence of a voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) site in the city, little is known about HIV.

Tanzania: Rising TB cases linked to HIV/AIDS

2007-03-23

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70865

The number of tuberculosis cases in Tanzania has risen from 39,000 a decade ago to 64,200 in 2005, a trend blamed on high HIV/AIDS prevalence, the Health Minister, David Mwakyusa, said on Thursday. "Research conducted in many parts of the country by the Ministry of Health between 2003 and 2004 established that HIV/AIDS contributes to increased TB cases by about 60 percent," the minister said.

Zambia: Zambians lured by fake cures for Aids

2007-03-23

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=302411

Aids patients in Zambia are abandoning their life-prolonging drugs in exchange for bogus cures that have hit the market in recent weeks, a leading HIV/Aids advocacy group said on Monday. The Network of Zambian People Living with HIV/Aids (NZP+) said it has received reports that some of its members were stopping the use of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for fake cures being promoted in the media.

Africa: Education sector responses to HIV and AIDS

2007-03-22

http://tinyurl.com/2vl4zo

A new report by the Commonwealth Secretariat summarises the key issues regarding HIV and AIDS and the education sector and is based primarily on a review of published literature and the findings of the recently held regional workshop organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA).

Global: All children – regardless of differences – must be educated together

2007-03-22

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=21941

Children with disabilities have the right to an inclusive education and United Nations Member States must increase efforts to ensure that all children, regardless of differences, learn together, the United Nations independent expert on the right to education has said.

Nigeria: Muslim students beat teacher to death

2007-03-23

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=302668

An angry mob of Muslim students in northern Nigeria beat their teacher to death on Wednesday for allegedly desecrating the Qur'an, police and witnesses said. Oluwatoyin Olushekan was attacked and killed by the mob in Gandu Secondary School in Tudun Wada district, northern Gombe state.

Global: Online exhibition: Sexuality and Social Justice

2007-03-22

http://www.pambazuka.org/blogs/wsf2007/?p=41

Sexuality and Social Justice is an exhibition of 10 portraits with audio and text based interviews from the World Social Forum in January 2007. The exhibition pays tribute to activists who are doing brave work with sexuality and social justice in diverse ways.

Global: Rising racial discrimination undermines development goals, UN warns

2007-03-22

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=21935

Although the world has made significant strides in the battle against racial discrimination in recent decades, recent reports point to “a disturbing rise” in incidents of a practice that constitutes a formidable obstacle to national development, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned.

Africa: Key development goals stagnating

2007-03-22

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36992

Halfway to 2015, the year when the globally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are supposed to be reached, the crisis in water and sanitation as well as in water resources management remains among the great human development and environmental challenges.

Africa: Rich nations urged to help Africa tackle ecological challenges

2007-03-23

http://english.people.com.cn/200703/23/eng20070323_360185.html

Kenya has called on developed nations to extend support to developing countries to strengthen their capacity in tackling environment challenges. Addressing a two-day international conference on sustainable development underway in Nairobi, President Mwai Kibaki said African governments could not contain the enormous challenges of energy and environmental conservation on their own.

Mozambique: Call to ensure sustainability of Mozambique forests

2007-03-23

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=302729

More than 18-million cubic metres of wood are indiscriminately cut down in Mozambique, mainly for firewood, each year, according to a report presented by Mario Falcao, a researcher at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, at a debate on the state of the country's forests held in Maputo.

Southern Africa: Region is a hot spot for climate change

2007-03-22

http://www.sardc.net/Editorial/Newsfeature/07170307.htm

The frequency and intensity of dry spells and flooding in southern Africa is expected to increase as weather experts warn of a surge in world temperatures. A report recently released by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that drying of the land has been observed in southern Africa, the Sahel, the Mediterranean and parts of southern Asia over the last century.

Uganda: Row over threat to Uganda forest

2007-03-22

http://tinyurl.com/33o63t

Uganda's prime minister has approved a plan for thousands of hectares of a rain-forest to be replaced by a sugarcane plantation, a state-owned news agency told Al-Jazeera on Wednesday. Government officials said they were not aware of Apolo Nsibambi's decision to give part of Mabira Forest to a local sugar company.

Namibia: Government gives bushmen long-lost land

2007-03-23

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL23603203.html

Namibia has purchased two commercial farms near the Etosha National Park on behalf of a tribe of bushmen who were evicted from their ancestral lands inside the famed game reserve 100 years ago, a minister said.

Liberia: Publisher in hiding seeks assistance following raid on his home

2007-03-23

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/81904/

On 15 March 2007, Sam Dean, publisher of "The Independent", a Monrovia- based privately-owned newspaper currently facing a ban, alleged that his life is in danger due to continuous threats on his life by agents of the state security. He has therefore been in hiding.

Mauritania: Presidential election coverage skewed, says Reporters Without Borders

2007-03-22

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21367

Reporters Without Borders have reported that it had uncovered a major imbalance in election coverage of the two candidates to the presidential election run-off, ex cabinet minister Ould Sheikh Abdellahi and long-time opposition figure Ould Daddah, after a third week of monitoring state-run media.

Mauritania: Supporters of unsuccessful candidates threaten al-Jazeera staff

2007-03-23

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/81914/

On 20 March 2007, journalists working in al-Jazeera's Nouakchott offices received death threats by phone. Then, at about 4:00 p.m. (local time), eight people marched into the premises. Journalist Mohammed Nema Oumar, head of communications for Rashid Mustapha, a failed first round candidate, was among this group. Police arrested four people and opened an investigation to find the other assailants.

Nigeria: IFJ urges President to sign Freedom of Information bill

2007-03-23

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/81922/

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is urging the President of Nigeria to sign into law the freedom of information bill that will allow Nigerian citizens, researchers and the media to have access to information on government business, from government agencies or from private bodies performing public functions.

Somalia: Security forces arrest radio journalist and driver

2007-03-22

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21391

Radio Shabelle reporter Mohammed Bashir Sheik Abdirahman and his driver Osman Qoryoley were arrested at Mogadishu international airport when they arrived for a news conference which Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi was supposed to give there. Muhiadin Omar Jimale, another radio journalist, was also stopped and would probably have been arrested, but he managed to escape.

Zimbabwe: Intelligence agency silencing independent media

2007-03-22

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21366

Scheming by Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is killing off the few remaining independent news media while the government-controlled Media Information Commission (MIC) continues to use obligatory press accreditation as way to pressure journalists in an entirely unacceptable fashion, Reporters Without Borders have reported.

CAR: Nearly 14,000 flee burned-out town

2007-03-22

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=21937

Nearly 14,000 inhabitants have fled the burned-out wreck of the main town in north-eastern Central African Republic (CAR) since this month’s resumption of fighting between Government and rebel forces, United Nations officials have reported.

DRC: Ex-rebel leader's forces defy order to disarm

2007-03-22

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L21502910.htm

Fighters loyal to Congolese ex-rebel leader and former presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba will defy a government order to disarm until his security is assured, a top advisor said Wednesday.

DRC: UN evacuates residents after battles in capital

2007-03-23

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22192939.htm

U.N. peacekeepers in Congo evacuated more than 450 civilians from part of the capital Kinshasa on Thursday after gunbattles between a former rebel faction and government troops, a senior U.N. official said.

Somalia: Ethiopian tanks open fire in Somalia fighting

2007-03-22

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2266903.htm

Ethiopian tanks guarding a Somali government base in Mogadishu opened fire on unidentified attackers on Thursday as clashes broke out in the capital for a second straight day.

Uganda: Next meeting with rebels expected mid-April

2007-03-23

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23382587.htm

The next round of talks between Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army and the government is expected in the second week of April in an attempt to end a 20-year-old insurgency, a U.N. envoy said. Joacquim Chissano, the former president of Mozambique, told reporters on Thursday the talks would be a preliminary discussion to resuming the stalled negotiations in the southern Sudanese town of Juba.

Africa: Africa to attend Commonwealth E-partnership summit

2007-03-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/40411

African Commonwealth countries are attending the inaugural meeting of Commonwealth ICT ministers and industry experts taking place in Delhi this week. The ministers will discuss five key areas of ICT development including policy and regulatory capacity, modernising education and skills development, entrepreneurship for poverty reduction, promoting local access and connectivity, improving regional networking and local content and knowledge.
Highway Africa News Agency

African Commonwealth countries are expected to attend the inaugural meeting of Commonwealth ICT ministers and industry experts taking place in Delhi this week.

The ministers will discuss five key areas of ICT development including policy and regulatory capacity, modernising education and skills development, entrepreneurship for poverty reduction, promoting local access and connectivity, improving regional networking and local content and knowledge.

According to the Chairperson of Commonwealth Connects, Dr Michael Frendo, the meeting is aimed at facilitating the transfer of technology and expertise across the Commonwealth to enhance telecommunications and capitalise on globalisation opportunities for socio-economic and political progress.

There are about sixteen African countries on the Commonwealth. Frendo also said that, "these efforts will support the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals by all Commonwealth countries." The Commonwealth Connects 2007 International e-Partnership Summit, will also bring together 200 industry experts, private sector organisations, government representatives, civil society and key players from organisations such as the World Bank, Intel, Cisco and Vodafone.

Frendo, who is also Malta's Foreign Minister, said Commonwealth Connects is a programme mandated by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta to assist member countries to develop capacity for advancement in ICT software, hardware, infrastructure and human capacity. Malta hosted CHOGM in November 2005. The next CHOGM summit is to be hosted by Uganda in November this year.

"We're bringing together the expertise from parts of the Commonwealth which have it, to other parts of the Commonwealth which need it," Frendo said.

To date, three projects have been established under the Commonwealth Connects programme. The pilot project launched in Sri Lanka last year includes web-based platforms for information exchange, co-ordination and collaboration that complement existing reconstruction efforts in India, Sri Lanka and other countries affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The other two projects involve the provision of radio-based business training for women in Cameroon to help them engage professionally in micro-enterprise, and the distribution of refurbished computers donated by Caribbean governments and citizens to schools and communities within the Caribbean.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon is slated to address the event.

The meeting is jointly organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Business Council and the Government of India with the aim of bridging the deepening digital divide across the 53 countries of the Commonwealth.

Africa: Call for CVs of African Women in Science and Technology

2007-03-20

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/40393

The African Union Commission is calling for African women in the area of Science and Technology to submit their CVs. For further information contact: masheleni@africa-union.org

Africa: Governments urged to invest in ICT content development,

2007-03-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/40422

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Commonwealth Telecom Organisation (CTO), Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, has urged African governments to invest, alongside private entities, in the creation of suitable content that will facilitate Africa's development, rather than rely on foreign entities to develop most of the content currently consumed in Africa through various information and communication technologies (ICTs).
Santec Newsletter

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Commonwealth Telecom Organisation (CTO), Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, has urged African governments to invest, alongside private entities, in the creation of suitable content that will facilitate Africa's development, rather than rely on foreign entities to develop most of the content currently consumed in Africa through various information and communication technologies (ICTs). The CEO also recommended the early establishment of an African regulatory body, to help reduce the costs of telecommunications in Africa. He was contributing to a panel discussion on the liberalization and regulation of African telecoms at a conference still underway in Johannesburg on Satellite Communications (SATCOM 2007).

According to Dr. Spio-Garbrah, although considerable liberalization has taken place in Africa's ICT policies and and regulatory practices over the last ten years, which has led to a rapid expansion of access to ICTs on the Continent, Africa was still quite far from bridging the "digital divide" because most of the content currently being developed for use through ICTs consumed in the region is foreign. He noted, for example, that whereas the explosion in mobile communications growth has excited that segment of the telecom industry to begin promotion of 3Gs (mostly audiovisual content transmitted on 3 gigahertz frequency), much of the content of 3G transmission could be characterized as involving "Girls, Games and Gambling"—meaning pornography, sports and entertainment—whereas the real needs of Africa were for three Es, that is Education, Employment and Empowerment. "In order to bridge this widening content divide", said Dr. Spio-Garbrah, "we need serious partnership between the government (public), entrepreneurial content develop (private) and consumers (people)-- a Public-Private-People's Partnership—aimed at creating suitable content that meets the developmental aspirations of African people."

Attending the SATCOM Conference are some 500 leading ICT practitioners from throughout Africa, including Ministers, regulators, senior civil servants, CEOs of operating companies and manufacturers, and other industry suppliers such as consultants, researchers and academics. Associated with the conference is an exhibition by some 50 leading suppliers of satellite and related services to Africa.

In his contribution to the discussion on liberalization in the African ICT sector, the CTO CEO—a former Minister of Communications of Ghana-- commented that most discussions of sector liberalization failed to take into account that liberalization and competition in the ICT sector in Africa has been aided by considerable liberalization across whole economies. As such, it was necessary to take into account liberalization decisions take in other spheres, such as in business registration, foreign ownership limitations, exchange controls, capital markets development, taxation of imports of ICT products, provision of expatriate work permits, in addition to the usually-cited liberalization of licensing regimes, access to international telecom gateways or even spectrum ownership and allocation. He argued that amongst the driving forces for telecom sector liberalization has been the realization of the great impetus and contribution that efficient communications plays in the development process. In this regard, he said. most African countries are committed to the promoting national ICT plans or e-strategies, which invariably required close attention to the merits of satellite communications in supporting especially remote and rural communication, and as well as some specialized needs, in the areas of geographic information systems, disaster early warning systems and management, meteorological information, land use management, civil aviation, maritime communications as well as radio and television broadcasts. Dr Spio-Garbrah agreed with earlier speakers who had highlighted the potential of satellite communications to make significant contributions to such areas as telemedicine, distance learning. e-governance and e-agriculture, and indicated that as long as the content for these were developed with Africans and by Africans they could be of immense value.

In separate comments at the Conference, Dr Spio-Garbrah re-iterated his long-standing view about the merits of a supranational ICT regulator for Africa. He stated that for African countries to reduce significantly the cost of satellite communications to the people of the continent, a Pan-African regulatory body which could be responsible for certain kinds of multi-country licensing and equipment approvals would be helpful to the industry. He recalled that he had first made this suggestion in 1997 when as Ghana's Minister of Communications he, along with other African ministers, were contemplating at another conference in Johannesburg the strategic potential of telecommunications for Africa's development. He clarified that such a Pan-African regulatory body will not replace or usurp the functions of existing country ICT regulatory agencies. In his vision, while African national regulators would continue to regulate those aspects of ICTs that were of purely domestic application, such as licensing most mobile and broadcast operations, the African regulator would concentrate on only those aspects of Africa's ICT issues that involved multi-country approvals. He suggested that while such an initiative would have to come from African ministers, it was proper for the satellite and other interested segments of the ICT industry to promote such a concept and put pressure on policy makers, as African ministers and regulators were unlikely to move quickly enough in this direction without considerable encouragement from interested stakeholders.

SATCOM 2007 is the tenth anniversary of the conference series dedicated to satellite communications in Africa, and it has received considerable support from the satellite manufacturing and provisioning industry.

East Africa: Google moves into Rwanda, Kenya

2007-03-23

http://whiteafrican.com/?p=454

The White African blog reports on a move by Google to provide free access to their Google Apps to Kenya and Rwanda. "Google is starting to stake a claim in Africa by giving away software applications to educational elements. I wouldn’t be surprised if this effort spreads to more African countries very quickly. This is good news for students, and will really increase awareness for Google’s non-search products in Africa. Overall, a very strong strategic move," says the blog.

Global: How the $100 laptop will aid the Third World

2007-03-22

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=4&no=346198&rel_no=1

The XO laptop is intended as an incredibly cheap and remarkably robust tool to aid children, particularly in developing countries, improve their education. Although the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) is branded as "an education project, not a laptop project," the technical specifications of the XO laptop deserve some mention

South Africa: New blog tracking site

2007-03-23

http://www.amatomu.com

The Mail & Guardian Online has created a new service that tracks the South African blogosphere.

Global: Introduction to Nkrumah Legacy Politics Series:

2007-03-20

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/40400

VENUE : School of Oriental & African Studies, Main Building , Thornhaugh Street, London WC1.

SATURDAY 24 MARCH, 2pm to 5pm .
1)Background To Kwame Nkrumah's Journey To North America And Europe . Room G52
SATURDAY 31 MARCH, 2pm to 5pm.
2)Kwame Nkrumah in North America And Europe.Room G52, SATURDAY 14 APRIL, 2pm to 5pm.
3)Kwame Nkrumah In Anti-Colonial Movement in The Gold Coast And Politics Until 6 March 1957. Room G52
SATURDAY 21 APRIL, 2pm to 5pm.
1)Kwame Nkrumah As Prime Minister And President Of Ghana. (Room to be announced later)
SATURDAY 5 MAY, 2pm to 5pm.
1)Kwame Nkrumah From 24 February 1966 To 27 April 1972. Room L67
SATURDAY 19 MAY, 2pm to 5pm.
1)Kwame Nkrumah Legacy Politics From 27 April To Today. Room 67

Sierra Leone: Workshop for women and political participation

2007-03-20

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/40396

WOMEN OF SIERRA LEONE - IT'S YOUR PARLIAMENT TOO!!!
Workshops to Get More Women Successfully Involved in the July 2007 Elections
Theme: 'Women and Men in partnership in Sierra Leone - the politics of the
future.'
Venue: British Council Freetown Sierra Leone
Date: Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 March 2007
For further information: Willmelia.okrafor@sl.britishcouncil.org or 50/50 Group Email: fifty_fiftygrp2000@yahoo.com

Africa: Senior Africa advocacy advisor- World Vision

2007-03-20

http://www.wvi.org

The Africa Advocacy Advisor will lead in developing and implementing a comprehensive advocacy strategy targeting the main Regional Economic Block in the Area. The Africa Advocacy Advisor reports to the Senior Africa Advocacy Advisor. As a member of the World Vision (WV) Area Office, the Africa Advocacy Advisor also has a dotted line reporting commitment to the Area Director. The Africa Advocacy Advisor is expected to operate with a high degree of independence, under the broad strategic direction of the Senior Africa Advocacy Advisor.

For further information: http://www.wvi.org/

Global: Legal Officer, International Economic Relations Programme - ICJ

2007-03-22

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/40410

The ICJ's international secretariat in Geneva is seeking to recruit a Legal Officer for its recently launched International Economic Relations Programme. Applications close on close on 6 April 2007. Applicants from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East are particularly encouraged.
VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
March 2007

Legal Officer International Economic Relations Programme The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is a worldwide network of judges and lawyers united in affirming international law and rule of law principles that advance human rights. The ICJ's international secretariat in Geneva is seeking to recruit a Legal Officer for its recently launched International Economic Relations Programme. The Legal Officer will take on the ICJ's dynamic programme of work for the legal accountability of corporations for the impact of their conduct on human rights, including effective remedies and redress for victims, under national law and directly under international law and standards.

RESPONSIBILITIES Under the supervision of the Deputy Secretary-General (until such time as a Director for the Programme is appointed), the Legal Officer for the International Economic Relations Programme has the following responsibilities:

- Develop and implement innovative ICJ advocacy strategies to shape the emerging human rights legal accountability of business and other international economic actors at the international and national levels;
- Develop and implement the legal thinking and advocacy strategies to further ICJ's work on international human rights standards relating to business;
- Through the preparation amicus curiae briefs and other legal interventions support selected strategic litigation at the national, regional and international levels;
- Carry out a programme of advocacy to build on the work of the ICJ's Expert Legal Panel on Corporate Complicity in International Crimes;
- Lead on the ICJ's advocacy relating to international economic relations at the United Nations and other intergovernmental fora;
- Inform and mobilise the ICJ's network composed of Commissioners, National Sections and Affiliated Organisations, in support of the organisation's advocacy strategies;
- Identify, establish and maintain effective working relationships with counterparts in relevant international, regional and national human rights organisations with the aim of developing networks, alliances and coalitions where useful;
- Assist in the development and maintenance of relations with donors. Assist in the drafting of project and programme proposals and budgets;
- Supervise the work of relevant consultants and interns;
- Manage the progress of the programme of work, including: regular monitoring and internal reporting on progress, budget management and drafting of external narrative reports.

The successful applicant will have:

At least eight to ten years experience as an international human rights lawyer. Demonstrated understanding of issues related to international economic relations. A degree in law. Further academic studies in international and human rights law highly desirable.

Excellent knowledge of international human rights law, the United Nations human rights system and one or more regional human rights systems essential. Knowledge of international humanitarian law and international criminal law highly desirable. Practical experience of human rights standard-setting in the United Nations and in regional organisations highly desirable.

Sound political judgment and the ability to develop and implement innovative advocacy strategies.

Demonstrated commitment to human rights.

Fluent written and spoken English. Working knowledge of Spanish and French highly desirable.

Proven interpersonal and communication skills and ability to work as part of a multi-cultural team.

Applicants from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East are particularly encouraged.

APPLICATIONS close on 6 April 2007 and should be addressed with your resume and the names and contact details of at least two referees to: Ref: Legal Officer, International Economic Relations Programme.

By email: recruitment@icj.org
Or by post:
International Commission of Jurists,
P.O. Box 91, 33 rue des Bains,
1211 Geneva 8
Switzerland
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. No calls please.

Fahamu