Back Issues

This week's highlights

2007-06-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/highlights/42002

FEATURES: Robtel Pailey questions the legitimacy of the special court for Sierra Leone and the trial of Charles Taylor
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
-Wazir Mohammed reflects on the legacy of Walter Rodney
-Annwen Bates on the visual representations of the spectacle of aid in Africa
-Doreen Lwanga on DeBeers and blood-free diamonds
LETTERS:
- Takwa Suifon on Ochieng's article critically analysing poverty
- Matarr Njie on last week's Pan African Postcard 'Death of Nkrumah’s widow'
OBITUARY: Farewell, Sembene Ousmane
BLOGGING AFRICA: Review of East African blogs
BOOKS & ARTS: Poem by Annie Quarcoopome 'Unfinished Business'
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: response to the G8; interview with Bougouma Diagne

PAN AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen says Khartoum is fooling the world - again
WOMEN AND GENDER: Women activists arrested in Zimbabwe
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Ethiopian troops attacked in Somalia
HUMAN RIGHTS: Focus on child labour in agriculture
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: Nigerian court frees Delta dissident
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Cost of conflict in Western Sahara
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Comorian island hold elections
AFRICA AND CHINA: Zoellick wants Beijing to heed the West
CORRUPTION: Deadline looms for Nigeria’s ex-governors
DEVELOPMENT: IMF calls for clearer Africa aid timetable
HEALTH AND HIV/Aids: New microbicide trials in South Africa
EDUCATION: Will e-learning make teachers redundant?
LGBTI: Namibia’s Gay Week set to attract straight community
ENVIRONMENT: East Africa bans plastic bags
LAND & LAND RIGHTS: Land returned in World Heritage site
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Leading Congolese journalist gunned down
NEWS FROM THE DIASPORA: Barring Winnie Mandela form Canada
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Zimbabwe’s exiles turn to the Web
PLUS: e-newsletters and mailings lists; courses, seminars and workshops, jobs and books and publications

*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

Even former warlords deserve a fair trial

Charles Taylor rebuffs the ICC and the UN special court for Sierra Leone

Robtel Neajai Pailey

2007-06-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/41988

Robtel Neajai Pailey questions the legitimacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the international criminal justice system, which, she states: 'serves as a band-aid imprint of appeasement from the West, which is just as complicit in Africa’s civil wars as the warlords who have been indicted, Taylor included'.


The long awaited trial of fast-talking, charismatic warlord-turned-Liberian president Charles Ghankay Taylor was a dramatic tour de force in the complexities of international justice. Though Taylor is being tried on 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international law committed during Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war, the defendant himself was nowhere in sight for the first day of the trial, causing heads to turn, brows to furrow, and feathers to be ruffled. Taylor’s lawyer read a letter to the court in which his client called the trial a charade, riddled with deficiencies in representation for the defence team and inadequate resources. Taylor said the court has proven itself incapable of delivering justice because of blatant infringements on his rights, as evidenced by 'the insidious presence of a camera in conference facilities in the Detention Unit, overseeing meetings between lawyer and client that are supposed to be privileged and confidential'. The camera issue persisted for several months, without any safeguards from the Special Court administration, which has shown its inefficiency in performing the basic functions of legal proceedings. The obvious result was Taylor’s indignant absence: 'I choose not to be the figleaf of legitimacy for this process...', he wrote defiantly in his letter.

As I sat in the public gallery and media news room at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague on June 4, I could not help reminding myself that the events unfolding were not a melodramatic farce, but rather a foreshadowing of months to come in the complicated web of accusations and counter-attacks in the case of one of Africa’s most notorious warlords.

While some believe Taylor’s rebuff of the court de-legitimised the prosecution’s evidence against him, others, like Human Rights Watch, believe that the case sends a strong message that impunity will no longer be tolerated in Africa, or elsewhere.

Whatever your perspective, Taylor’s absence from the prosecution’s opening statements is symptomatic of broader issues of restorative justice, the power of representation, and an international system structured in dominance. Is Taylor a scapegoat for the international criminal (in) justice system, which still has a strong Western influence and funding channel? Who really bears the greatest responsibility for the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone? What about the crimes committed in Liberia? Why was the trial relocated to the Hague, when the crimes were allegedly committed in Sierra Leone? These and many more questions need to be explored adequately for a holistic picture to be drawn.

Background to the case

The Sierra Leone civil war began in 1991, initiated by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) led by corporal Foday Sankoh, who exploited the country’s diamonds to fund his push against government forces. Civilians were targeted in an act of irrational retribution, in which tens of millions of thousands died, rapes and mutilations were rampant, and more than 2,000,000 people were displaced because of the 11-year conflict.

The UN backed Special Court for Sierra Leone was mandated in 2002 to try those who bear the greatest responsibility for the war that destabilised much of West Africa and stunted economic/political activity. Taylor’s indictment materialised in 2003 before he was granted political asylum by President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. It is alleged that in exchange for diamonds, Taylor provided the RUF with much needed arms and ammunition, manpower, military training, security and a safe haven in Liberia, as well as strategic and tactical advice, enhancing the junta’s ability to continue the war. The prosecution’s opening statements proposed to lay out the foundation of their case, stating that witnesses and documents will eventually present damning evidence that Taylor was responsible for the development and execution of a 'common plan' that led to death and destruction in Sierra Leone. 'The plan, formulated by the Accused [Taylor] and others, was to take over political and physical control of Sierra Leone in order to exploit its abundant natural resources and to establish a friendly or subordinate government there to facilitate this exploitation', said chief prosecutor Stephen Rapp, as he gazed pointedly at an empty seat that Taylor would have inhabited.

Some believe that Taylor should have remained in West Africa to face the victims of his alleged campaign of carnage. Others, however, believe that Taylor’s international network of contacts could have posed a threat to the stability of the region if his trial had remained in Sierra Leone. These concerns are legitimate, considering Taylor’s Houdini antics throughout the years. He 'mysteriously' escaped from a Boston jail in the mid-1980s and ended up in military training in Libya. In 2005, he 'disappeared' from his asylum residence in Calabar, Nigeria only to be found at the Nigeria-Cameroon border, before facing arrest in late March 2005. Supported by those who fear Taylor’s stronghold in the region, a swift overhaul of the trial to the Hague has proved problematic anyway, even though the Special Court for Sierra Leone requested the move. Whether on West African soil or within European jurisdiction, this case is complicated and sensitive.

Leading to the trial: A complex web of manoeuvres and counter-maneouvres

The capture of Taylor ricocheted a message across Africa that impunity will no longer be tolerated. After nearly two years of asylum in Nigeria, Taylor — handcuffed and scowling — was transported by UN military police to Sierra Leone at the end of March 2005. He appeared at the UN Special Court for the first time on April 3 to face charges for supporting Sierra Leone’s civil war. As I watched Taylor on screen after his capture at the Nigeria-Cameroon border, I could not help noticing that the warmonger looked visibly pissed, like he had been duped by a humiliating practical joke gone awry.

Except no one was there to say 'Just kidding, Chucky!' All of his playmates had disappeared, leaving the indicted prisoner in UN custody alone and crestfallen. Flashback to the summer of 2003, and a different vignette materialises altogether. Taylor stood draped all in white like a king on the tarmac of Liberia’s Roberts International Airport, waving and promising to return someday 'by God’s grace'. He was headed for political asylum in Calabar, Nigeria after being forced into exile by international condemnation and rebel factions campaigning for his departure.

The fact that Taylor briefly landed on Liberian soil three years later only to be transported to a UN military jet for an oh-so-eventful journey to Sierra Leone, and then the Netherlands to face war crimes charges, is one of the most twisted ironies of our time. In fact, the past two decades of Taylor’s life would be an intriguing epic. In a recent discussion with my cousin Edward Dillon, we managed to concoct a skeletal memoir filled with twists and turns that could land Taylor on somebody’s bestseller list. We figured that such a book would more importantly hold the key to his misadventures. It would serve as an exposé of sorts, explaining the extent of his ties to some of the big wigs of African politics and non-Africans alike. Taylor has been connected to Libya’s Muammar al-Gaddafi, Burkina Faso’s Blaise Campaore, Cote d'Ivoire’s late president Felix Houphouet-Boigny, former Ghanaian head-of-state Jerry Rawlings, and even US evangelist Pat Robertson, who signed a deal to mine an area in southeastern Liberia in exchange for Taylor’s 10 per cent share in the company. Taylor was armed with charisma, a West African entourage of cohorts and international connections to boot.

The indictments of Taylor’s West African networks were many. Sankoh died in prison from a heart attack and failing health while he was awaiting trial. Johnny Paul Koroma, who wielded control of the Sierra Leoneon Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) that overthrew president Tejan Kabbah in a coup in 1997, is still at large. Notorious RUF field commander Sam Bockarie, who was killed in Liberia allegedly by Taylor’s command for fear of reprisal, was also indicted. Samuel Hinga Norman, former Sierra Leone Minister of Interior and head of the Civil Defence Force, was months away from a verdict, when he mysteriously died in prison. Though Kabbah eventually testified in front of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone, some argue that he was equally complicit in committing atrocities as Norman. Why was he not indicted? Similarly, Gaddafi of Libya has ingratiated himself into the favour of the US once again. Like most African leaders whose records are dubious in activist circles, he continues to receive the golden shield of impunity. Why was he not indicted for participating in the 'common plan'? It seems as if Taylor is the last man standing, and must be made an example of. But was he the most culpable? Enquiring minds want to know.


What about Liberia?

An ironic turn of events proves that it was the international criminal (in)justice system that enabled Taylor to commit crimes in both Liberia and Sierra Leone in the first place. Hurling a surprise critique at the UN for its mismanagement of the Taylor debacle early on, Liberian attorney Philip A. Banks said that 'if not for the UN, Mr. Taylor would have seen the jailhouse in 1992' for orchestrating the notorious 'Carter Camp Massacre' in which children and defenceless bystanders were killed in Liberia. Personally heading the investigation, Banks reported his findings to the UN in the early 1990s, after which the international body ruled that Taylor was not responsible. 'Under our law [Liberian law], Taylor would have been tried and brought to justice' long before he became president of Liberia in 1997, said Banks, who served as a lead drafter of the current Liberian constitution.

A conflict resolution arbiter during Liberia’s conflicts from 1990-1996, Banks censured the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone for its limited mandate. 'The authority granted to the court is circumscribed only to the crimes in Sierra Leone', he said in April 2006 at a press conference in Washington DC. According to Banks, the crimes that Taylor committed during his rebel war in Liberia from 1989-1996 were more extensively grotesque. 'Liberia is not getting out of the international intervention what it deserves', said Banks. He added that there needs to be a tribunal set up for Liberia to prosecute Taylor and his cronies, many of whom hold positions in the current Liberian government headed by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Activists argue that Taylor’s case is part and parcel of Liberia’s future post-conflict reconstruction development, especially if his accumulated stolen wealth - estimated at over US$2.5 billion - is returned to the country’s treasury.

More than meets the eye

Most coverage of the Taylor trial is devoid of critical engagement with the complex questions that bedevil the Special Court for Sierra Leone in particular, and the international criminal justice system, in general. Are truth and reconciliation commissions a Western conception of restorative justice? What about the gachacha courts in Rwanda, which serve as local mechanisms for prosecuting crimes? Just as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, another UN-backed court system, is riddled with deficiencies, so too is the Special Court for Sierra Leone illegitimate in the eyes of many because it does not spring from the bowels of Africans themselves. Instead, it serves as a band-aid imprint of appeasement from the West, which is just as complicit in Africa’s civil wars as the warlords who have been indicted, Taylor included. After all, the same arms that were used to destabilise both Liberia and Sierra Leone can be traced to international networks in the US, Russia, and elsewhere.

Taylor’s fall from grace is reminiscent of a pantheon of notorious strongmen who have had to face the international criminal (in)justice system, among whom have been Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and Saddam Hussein of Iraq. What these three men have in common is one self-perpetuating node: an imprint of Western metaphysical guilt and disapproval. Once an enemy of the West, always an enemy of its court superstructure. Yes, Taylor’s trial serves as a precedent in its own right in Africa. But it should not be manipulated to serve the needs of legitimising an internationally funded and controlled criminal court thousands of miles away from the continent of Africa itself. Even African warlords-turned-presidents-turned-defendants deserve a fair trial.

* Liberian native Robtel Neajai Pailey is a graduate student at the University of Oxford, and a multi-media producer for Fahamu/Pambazuka News.

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

Walter Rodney lives! People's power - no dictator!

Wazir Mohammed

2007-06-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/41976

Wazir Mohammed reflects on Walter Rodney’s continuing relevance in Guyana and the Caribbean, 27 years after his assassination in Guyana on June 13, 1980.


The stalled Rodney inquiry and the racial dimension of Guyana

It is necessary that the questions are asked: What happened to Walter Rodney, why was he assassinated, and who was responsible? After years of stops, starts, and inaction on this issue, in 2005 it seems as though an international inquiry into Rodney’s assassination was finally on the cards. The Guyanese parliament on June 29, 2005 passed a unanimous resolution authorising the creation of a commission of inquiry, whose terms of reference were to be ironed out among representatives of the government, the Rodney family and others. This year, as we mark 27 years since his passing, we ask, what has happened to this decision for the inquiry?

It is now 27 years since Walter Rodney, 'the prophet of self-emancipation', was murdered in a dark corner, at a dark moment of Guyana’s history. That day in June 1980 is arguably the saddest of modern Guyana. I was 22 years old at that time, but my life was already enmeshed in the struggle, which Walter Rodney defined in terms of a battle for 'people's power – no dictator'. Dictatorial rule was the hallmark of the Burnham presidency which ruled Guyana for more than two decades. Yet, for many years until his death in 1985, Burnham was revered in the corridors of power in the region, Cuba, the Soviet Union, and all the Eastern bloc countries.

My own observations are derived from my political history with Guyana’s working people and the experience of the Walter Rodney period in Guyana. I grew up in the period of anti-colonial nationalist ferment. While still in school, I became an active member of the Progressive Youth Organization (PYO-Youth arm of the ruling party) and later a member of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP). However, at the end of 1979, I left the PPP to join forces with Walter Rodney and the Working Peoples’ Alliance (WPA), and became one of the young full-time activists in the civil rebellion movement.

The inquiry into his assassination, in my view, cannot skirt around the root of Guyana’s problems – the deep seated racial division in Guyanese society, which Walter identified as the main barrier to forward movement and progress. In his view, Guyana could not embark on any true development unless the issue of ethnic and racial insecurity was resolved. Today, racial healing and multiracial unity remain the prerequisite for democracy and development in Guyana.

Walter did not equate liberation and development with the mere replacement of expatriate rulers with local versions. His determination as a scholar-activist propelled him to argue that transformation and true human development can only be achieved through the common struggle of all peoples to recognise the necessity for a single humanity. In this stead, at the time of his death, he was deeply involved in mobilising to unite the six racial/ethnic groups in Guyana who constitute the Guyanese working people, a period now popularly known as the 'civil rebellion of the 1970s'.

This was a moment of mass mobilisation in a struggle to replace and reshape the neo-colonial state, under the control of Forbes Burnham and his minority PNC government. He was convinced that the racial conflict between African workers (former slaves) and Indian workers (former indentured labourers) was part of a political strategy of divide and rule. Being first contrived by the colonial planter-class and later on by Britain and America to derail the progressive anti-colonial movement headed by the PPP. According to George Lamming, in the foreword to Walter’s History of the Guyanese Working People, 'it was Walter Rodney’s tireless opposition to this betrayal of a people which finally cost him his life'.

While Walter’s assassination may have deep seated implications for the struggles for freedoms everywhere. Its significance must, first and foremost, be understood in the context of the struggle to unify the working people of Guyana. His work with colleagues in the WPA and in the wider Guyanese society between his return to the country in 1974 up until the time of his death was dedicated to nurturing a new political culture, and establishing common grounds for joint action of the people.

While Rodney’s assassination on June 13, 1980 dampened and in many ways silenced the mass movement for people’s power in Guyana. It removed an important voice for a new grassroots politics in the region. This was only a temporary setback in the struggle for people’s power. As current experience shows, similar ideas are now taking root and springing up all over Latin America.

What made Rodney special?

Walter Rodney’s way of life stands as an exceptional example to the international movement. His drive to combine original historical scholarship with involvement in the day-to-day struggles of the oppressed serves as a model to academics and activists the world over. Thus he could switch from researching and writing about the devastation wrought by outside forces on African societies in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, through intervening in the pan-African movement in Tanzania, to discussing with Rastafarians in Jamaica in Grounding With My Brothers.

But Rodney’s later political work in his home country of Guyana was of equal or possibly greater significance. His rejection of racial politics in favour of struggling for unity of all the oppressed was in the finest traditions of Malcolm X. It came not from some abstract theory – Walter was not a prisoner of political orthodoxy - but from the concrete reality in Guyana, where racial politics had been used by the colonialists and imperialists to split the progressive movement and prevent the people from securing their rightful shares. Walter was neither interested in the corruption readily available from the Afro-Guyanese PNC government, nor in joining the Indo-Guyanese embrace of the PPP. Instead, he called for a new kind of politics based on the grassroots, or the 'street force', as he used to call it.

People’s power in Latin America is Walter Rodney’s legacy

Walter anticipated the movements that are now flowering all over Latin America: the fusion of the struggles for collective land rights with the struggle for women’s equality and human rights – represented by the horizontal and unemployed workers' movement in Argentina; the struggles of indigenous and black people, landless workers and trade union movements in Brazil; the indigenous Amerindian and water justice movements in Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru; the Zapatistas of Mexico; and, of course, Chavez’s Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela. These movements, like Rodney’s, are a rejection of traditional party politics, which have failed the peoples of the region. Instead, people are moving to take power into their own hands.

Walter Rodney’s slogan of 'People’s Power' was at the core of his vision for a new Guyana. If he were here today, he would smile to see what is happening across Latin America. Especially in Venezuela where Hugo Chavez is championing the idea of popular power and campaigning for its implementation, not only there, but throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

Time for the Caribbean to join the party

So far, the rising tide of democratic action in Latin America has found few echoes in the Caribbean (with the obvious exception of Cuba). No doubt, language and cultural differences are a barrier. But greatly reinforcing this have been the hostility and distortions in the Caribbean media, which is largely a servant of imperial US and European interests, and their multinational news agencies.

This is a disservice to what is happening in our region. The initiatives for continental cooperation that are being announced on a weekly basis are specifically aimed at Latin America and the Caribbean. But a significant number of our countries are not responding in kind.

We in Guyana, have special reasons for developing cooperation with our revolutionary neighbours. For instance, there has never been a better time to make progress on our border dispute with Venezuela. If we Guyanese were to stretch our hands across the border, it is more than likely that we would receive a warm welcome on the Venezuelan side. In this context, we could work towards an amicable understanding about the Guyanese Essequibo region, which is claimed by Venezuela. We could also explore the possibilities for joint development of the region - perhaps Venezuela could provide investment that we do not have towards the environmentally safe development of the rich resources of the area. So too, on the issue of electrification we should be working with our neighbours to link the grid and bring an end to our energy problems, the high cost of which continues to bedevil Guyanese life and industry.

On a wider scale, developing regional programmes for energy integration, industrial and agricultural cooperation, low interest finance, technology transfer and sharing of resources offer us a great chance to finally get out from under the yoke of American and European economic domination. This is our opportunity to leave behind the curse of neoliberal economics and get back on track towards our original hopes of a progressive regional federation so strongly held by C.L.R. James (the self-made working class intellectual and revolutionary from the Caribbean) and others in the anti-colonial movement.

People's power is on the march in our continent and we must get on the wagon without delay. We cannot wait for our governments to start the ball rolling. As C.L.R. always argued, change must start at the grassroots. We could imitate our Latin cousins and develop more grassroots movements like the 'Red Thread' women’s organisation in Guyana, whose leading members include Andaiye, formerly a leader of the WPA.

I conclude with the ever relevant words of Walter Rodney: 'Only the people can make a revolution. And the day has come when the real revolution will begin - the revolution in the economy, the revolution in the society, the revolution to bring us back to a level where we can hold our heads up high. And it is that day that we need the participation of people.'

The above is the first of a two part piece. Part two will be published at a later date.

* Wazir Mohamed is former Co-Leader of the Working Peoples’ Alliance of Guyana, now PhD Candidate in Sociology-Binghamton University, New York. www.democracyunlimited.org

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

Africa: through the lens of Western bourgeois mythology

Annwen Bates

2007-06-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/41974

Africa, 'the continent of terra incognito was, and continues to be, constructed as "nothing" and corpulent darkness'. Annwen Bates on the visual representations of the spectacle of aid in Africa.

You are a celebrity humanitarian and guest-editor of a well-circulated glossy. The territory is Africa. The topic is staving its demise. In the 1980s this would have been a famine. Today it is poverty and HIV/Aids. Readers will judge your cause by the cover, so select the visuals with care. What will you choose: an outline of an uninhibited continent, an abandoned toddler or a panic-eyed, skeletal mother clutching her dying baby? Do not feel limited by this empty outline of the place and its people, the abandoned children and wilting women. They are quite interchangeable, even mix'n matchable. Just this morning, I read about Bob Geldof’s recent guest-editorial of the German magazine Bild. Online, I found an image of the cover: a skeletal creature that looks more alien than human, crying out, in a silent Munch-like scream, for help. A white outline of the continent frames the child - just in case the reader is at a loss of the child’s origin. Here is the innocent victim, says the ‘chalk’ outline. This is the latest tragic embodiment of Africa’s lack. As I listened to this tale of human woe, I heard the name recur with frightening frequency.

Africa! Africa! Africa! (Thabo Mbeki). Lack has been Africa’s crime for centuries. The continent of terra incognito was, and continues to be, constructed as ‘nothing’ and corpulent darkness. What is of particular interest is the visual representations of this mythology of lack. During the colonial project, Africa's nothingness was the absence of Christianity, science, education, medicine and civility. Today, indeed for the last 30 or 40 years, nothingness is the darkness of disease, civil war, disorganisation, corruption and an inevitable decline into apocalyptic demise. (Africa has been in this state of demise for the last 400 years or thereabouts.)

Visual historian Deborah Kaspin suggests, like many who have studied representations of the continent, that the pervading standardised images of Africa are not fundamentally of Africa at all. Rather they 'arise from a Western bourgeois mythology of any and all wilderness, inhabited by creatures who are, alternatively, innocent and savage, naked and hairy, dark-skinned and ghostlike. The mythology is ubiquitous'.

Consider the child of Geldof's cover. Innocent in its form of child, yet savage as the embodiment of a ravaging disease mixed with poverty. Vulnerable in nakedness, but strangely inhuman. The child is dark-skinned, but also vanishes ghostlike into its own skeleton. Captured for posterity in a photograph, it is saved from its own terra incognito African wilderness to become the poster child of Geldof's cause. 'Postcolonial imagery presents the Third World as spectacle', writes image scholar Jan Nederveen Pieterse.

The Bild magazine cover is an example of a genealogy of the spectacle of Africa, which extends as far back as ethnographic and anthropological photography, as well as the trade and progress exhibitions of the 19th century, such as the Grand Exhibition of 1851 in London. Professor Annie Coombes writes in Reinventing Africa, the live subjects were set up in tableaux with 'authentic' huts, clothes (or lack thereof) and, at set times, performed 'authentic' activities, such as hunting. The German word Bild, means picture, and has an added meaning from theatre, scene. Uncanny that the image is also a scene. The spectacle of Africa is photograph and production still from the tableau of 'authentic' Africa and Africans readying themselves to be played out.

Granted, in this continent of 53 countries there are problems which cannot just be waved away as false naming. Even thinking of the image staves my typing. How dare I write in the sight and deafening appeal of another human being? Problems are the dilemma of our world, not just of Africa. Yet, it is curious that Western myths about their potency and power over Africa's primitive incompetence persist in 2007. Is Africa, the place and the people, concealed by the suggested false delineation?

Perhaps it is helpful to think of false in connection with the word's origin falsus, as related to 'fail'. Africa (I still want to question this blanket geographic label 'Africa' and its use for everything from place to people) is left with a deceitful or unfaithful cartography, portraiture and name. Why? Most of the colonial empires made fat on these myths collapsed, we believe, more than 30 years ago. Much post-colonial theory suggests the condition of Other-ing. Historians, psychologists, psychoanalysts, cultural theorists suggest that to assert self, one must stand in opposition to an Other.

For white, bourgeois, educated European males of late 18th through to the 20th century, this was the black, uneducated African woman who, by virtue of her primitivism, existed in some ahistorical moment, most definitely not that contemporary moment in time. 'The image formation of outsiders is determined primarily by the dynamics of one’s own circle' (Pieterse). Of colonial project representations of Africa and Africans, he observes, '[w]hat was really at stake in all these perspectives on "the savage" was European positions and programmes'.

In 2007, an age filtered by the lenses of post-colonialism, feminism, post-structuralism and the general questioning of white, bourgeois, educated European male supremacy, it is interesting that those who embody their Otherness are once again on all sorts of pages. From women selling chocolate in fair trade advertisements to Aids orphans abandoned in fields, what do these images potentially reveal about European positions and programmes?

Lack, ahistoricity, references in setting an arcadia rendered anarchic hint at a world so different to the wealthy, 21st century, urban world of those on the other side of this paper-thin reality. At the end of his study Pieterse concludes, 'The images of aid to the Third World are variations on this formula; fundamentally patronising, they are ahistorical, preoccupied with symptoms and oblivious to causes, and, not for all their global scope, parochial'. Why is post-independence Africa still newsworthy and cause-worthy to European humanitarian crusaders?

Paula Treichler offers Aids in the Africa (the Third World) as the 'latest incarnation of the "darkly unknowable"'. This is neo-colonialism with intrepid explorers. However instead of searching for the source of the Nile, they seek to bring the universals of health and material justice. For 'Europe is the light of the world, and the ark of knowledge: upon the welfare of Europe hangs the destiny of the most remote and savage (sic) people'. Let us replace 'savage' with words that have more currency in 2007; words like uneducated, oppressed or suffering. The words from the Edinburgh Review seem to belong not in the early 1800s, but could be on Bild page today. Geldof's partner in making poverty history is U2's Bono. He is to guest-edit the July edition of the magazine Vanity Fair (the US edition). It will be interesting to see the 'Africa in 2007' that he covers. It may include articles about cellphone entrepeneurs, print media franchises, tertiary research, but I suspect it is more likely to be yet another programme for the ever continuing show: Africa: the lacking continent.


References
Kaspin, Deborah, 2002, Conclusion: Signifying Power in Africa. In Landau, P.S. And Kaspin, D.D.
Images and Empire: Visuality in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa. Berkeley, University of California Press.
Mbeki, Thabo., 2002, Africa: Define Yourself. Cape Town, Tafelberg.
Nederveen Pieterse, Jan, 1992, White on Black: Images of Africa and Blacks in Western Popular Culture. London, Yale University Press.
Treichler, P.A., 1999, How to Have Theory in an Epidemic: Cultural Chronicle of AIDS and HIV Infection in the Third World. Durham, North Carolina, Duke University Press.

Links: http://original.divinechocolate.com/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=90484&strAreaColor
http://www.africacentre.org.uk/+ve-ve.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v34u3KSnKSE
tinyurl.com/2d9qkc

* Annwen Bates is a research student at the University of Western Cape.

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

Bloodless diamonds at DeBeers

Doreen Lwanga

2007-06-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/41975

Doreen Lwanga visits the DeBeers Venetia mine complex in South Africa and comes away impressed by their social programmes for employees.


Earlier this month, I had the privilege of visiting DeBeers Venetia Mine in the Limpopo province at the invitation of a colleague Mr Khathutshelo ('K2') Mapasa, the Ore-Processing Manager at Venetia Mines. K2 and I met in 2005 when we were graduate students in Boston, where he was pursuing the Executive Development Program at Harvard Business School. Since then, we have stayed in touch and exchanged views on the behaviour of corporate entities and corporate social investment/responsibility. Since I was going to South Africa on vacation, K2 proposed that I visit Venetia Mine to get a visual tour of diamond mining, understand DeBeers’ corporate working world and its contribution to the communities where Venetia Mine is located in Musina, and Blouberg, which is also a major labour-sending area to the mine. This visit was a timely follow-up to my previous response to Del Hornbuckle’s review of the film Blood Diamonds in Pambazuka News (www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/39472) which I actually watched on my British Airways flight into Johannesburg.

Coming from a social activist/scholarly research background, I must say that the visit to Venetia Mine was an eye opener. I had the opportunity of interacting with K2’s colleagues at Venetia in the Financial Management department, the Public and Corporate Affairs (PCA) and the HIV/Aids programme. I spent most of the day with two ladies, Tebogo Rametse and Nicolette Willemse of the PCA Department at Venetia Mine who took me on a whole day trip into the mine, and to Mapungubwe National Park that DeBeers supports to preserve.

We toured the open–pit mining operations at Venetia Mine, observed the process of extracting kimberlite from the ground, and the entire treatment plant complex where machines crush, re-crush, refine and liberate the diamonds from the kimberlite. Mapungubwe National Park has a wide variety of game including varieties of flora useful to the local inhabitants for medicinal purposes. Within Mapungubwe Park sits the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape and the Mapungubwe World Heritage Site discovered in 1933, and the royal tombs of the K2 People (no relationship to K2 Mapasa) preserved by the South Africa Department of Arts and Culture.

Apparently, three different groups are claiming rights to the Mapungubwe Archaeological site, including the land on which Venetia Mine is located, allegedly because each of them lived in the area at the same time. The Mapungubwe collection consists of a variety of materials, including the famous golden rhino, gold sceptre, gold bowl, other gold ornaments, copper, iron, ivory, trade glass beads, Chinese celadon and ceramic ware is on permanent exhibit at the Mapungubwe Museum at the main campus of the University of Pretoria. North of Mapungubwe Park is the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers where the southern most tip of Botswana and Zimbabwe meet the North of South Africa at the Limpopo River. Here, many Zimbabwean migrants, afraid of being intercepted by the South African border police, swim across the Limpopo River braving the crocodiles, and traverse Mapungubwe National Park at the risk of being eaten by lions, to enter South Africa.

After our tour of the mines and the National Park, I chatted with Kefilwe Mokgoko, in-charge of the HIV/Aids programme at Venetia Mine to learn about DeBeers HIV/Aids policy, in light of my professional work on HIV/Aids and higher education in African universities. DeBeers has an impressive HIV/Aids and ARV programme, which is perhaps the only comprehensive programme established by any corporate entity for employees and their spouses/life partners. DeBeers began its engagement with HIV/Aids as a 'morally right' thing to do. The programme has since evolved into an economic investment in its employees’ welfare given the impact of consistent sickness and absence from work on mining operations. In 2005, Venetia Mine started its HIV/Aids Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) programme, and 95 per cent of the workforce has since benefitted. All employees that are tested HIV positive including their spouses and life partners are offered free ARV treatment and counselling. The challenges are to monitor adherence to treatment for HIV positive employees and their spouses/life partners, ensure that HIV negative employees remain so, and fight stigma, myths and negative beliefs surrounding HIV/Aids. Steps have been taken to train HIV/Aids peer-educators who then conduct HIV/Aids education sessions during working hours. Ultimately, the team at Venetia Mines plans to roll out the counselling and testing programme as part of the usual medical procedure all Venetia Mine employees undergo.

There is also high emphasis on safety and security of employees, particularly in the operations of the mine, not only because every accident hurts the productivity of the mine but also because it hurts the family fabric that Venetia Mine sees itself. The management team endeavours to plough back financial rewards for high performance with the team instead of banking all of it into shareholders’ pockets. K2 explained to me that in February 2006, the company declared a gainshare or bonus of 94 per cent of annual benefit value income for all employees due to outstanding performance of Venetia Mine in 2005.

Employees testified that there were able to meet those needs they had put off for a long time, and some were able to build or complete their houses. Besides participating in research and preservation of Mapungubwe National Park, Venetia Mine also supports education programs, teacher training and retention in local schools, skills development and community health and welfare. For instance, the company provides matching grants to strengthen learning at Early Childhood Learning Centres in Musina and Blouberg municipalities. There is a concerted effort of recruiting labour from surrounding communities, unlike most mining operations that create 'mining towns' and import labour from far. As one management staff explained to me, not only do most employees come from within the Musina and Blouberg towns, but also for the first time a member of the Venetia Mine Management Executive - the Ore-processing Manager Mr. Mapasa originates from the surrounding region of Venda.

At the end of my trip, I suggested to the Venetia Mine PCA team to increasingly engage the public and social activists with information on DeBeers’ social investments/response. This is particularly important for the diamond industry where we hear less about the 'unbloody' diamonds mining and mostly about the cruel mining conditions, conflict diamonds and corporate greed. To date, DeBeers has kept an internal communication strategy and shied away from making public statements about their social engagements to avoid being seen as bragging about their social investments. Fortunately, this attitude is changing within the company and PCA team is designing more strategies to bring its 'corporate social facts’ to the public. To its credit, Venetia Mine won the National Productivity Award in 2006 from South Africa’s National Productivity Institute. It is ranked the biggest diamond producer in South Africa and the third producer for DeBeers globally after Orapa and Jwaneng in Botswana. As for the intersection of diamonds with my professional work on higher education in Africa, the Oppenheimer Foundation, in partnership with Ford Foundation office in Southern Africa, has ploughed some profits from DeBeers diamonds to create an Endowment Chair for the Centre for Human Origins at the University of Witwatersrand.

* Doreen Lwanga’s writings focus on the intersection of African political, human and economic security and pan-Africanism.

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

Khartoum is fooling the world again

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2007-06-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/42065

As someone who believes in ‘African solution to African problems’ I should be excited as everyone seem to be about the so called break through between the African Union and the UN on the one hand and the Government of Sudan on the other, on ending the genocidal war in Darfur. But I am not excited at all. I am not excited because we have been down this road several times before.

Khartoum has been taking everyone for a ride for so long that we take every sign of compromise as a breakthrough even if it will lead to yet another road bloc.

Khartoum has perfected the art of talking while continuing to kill its own citizens either directly or indirectly through its Janjaweed militia.

The timing of this latest breakthrough is very significant. An African Union summit is only three weeks away. The UN human Rights Council is sitting in Geneva and the Bush Administration has recently announced a raft of ineffectual sanctions.

Khartoum has played the Pan Africanist card very well, insisting on an ‘African only’ troops which satisfies our Pan Africanist instincts but knowing fully well that logistical, political and other technical challenges may make it ineffectual. It believes that an African force is more amenable to its delay tactics than a force that included other armies and with a UN command. It has exploited the understandable anti–American sentiments across the world and in Africa especially to hoodwink people into believing that any UN involvement will mean a proxy American war in yet another ‘Muslim’ , ‘Arab’ or ‘poor Third world’ country. It needs the shield Africa and the AU in order for it continue to fend off a more effective international involvement. It can also count on other shields in the Arab League and Muslim countries and in diplomacy with other Third world countries.

In proclaiming African solutions Khartoum has been counting on African incapacities as evidenced from the various challenges that the AU Force has been facing since its deployment. It has a very restricted mandate that limits it to ‘protecting civilians’ many of whom it can only reach after the Janjaweed and Khartoum forces have done their worst. Even on occasions when it had had early warning about impending attacks on innocent civilians it had been slow in responding or unable to do so.

The situation has not been helped by many of the rebels who seem to be more interested in their own egos and exaggerated political importance than the suffering of their own people. Their clamor for ‘international’ force (which in their colonial mindset means US or other western intervention) has consistently played into the hands of Khartoum. It helps Khartoum’s image laundering as an African country standing up for African solutions and sovereignty portraying the rebels as ‘agents’ of extra continental powers. The rebels have not learnt from the bitter lessons of the MDC in Zimbabwe whose struggles have been made difficult among many Africans because of the West’s support for them.

Just check your diary and see how many times Khartoum has looked very reasonable before an AU summit and only to return to its belligerency soon after. I am not sure this is not yet another of such deliberate rising of false hopes of a peaceful settlement.

Khartoum has been talking to any body that cares to talk about Darfur. That is why it has been involved concurrently in half a dozen of peace initiatives!

The problem with these talks is that they do not stop Khartoum and its allied killers in Darfur from continuing their violence against the people of Darfur but they hold those involved in the talks in check. You cannot be advocating tougher measures against a government that you are negotiating with. In the face of a fractious and faction –ridden opposition and rebel movements the government become reasonable and many peace brokers become more sympathetic to it as their frustration against the rebels grow.

However there is a wider issue relating to the mandate of the peace keeping force itself on which the Khartoum government has been giving the whole world a merry-go round. AU forces on the ground are not delivering not just for technical and logistical reasons or lack of numbers alone. There is no peace to keep since neither the government Janjaweed and the rebel factions have in practice committed themselves to ceasefire for any length of time.

You can increase the numbers of troops but without enlarging the mandate the butchering of Darfurians will continue. What everyone is now calling a breakthrough has been on the cards right from the start. Even the limited AU mandate envisaged an African leadership but did not exclude collaboration with the UN and contribution of troops from outside Africa. But Khartoum bogged everyone down in logistical issues for several months. Everyone is feeling so guilty at the horrible pictures from Darfur that we become desperate for any sign, no matter how vague that Khartoum is about to relent. Hence we are now supposed to jump that the government of Omar Al Bashir has agreed to a ‘hybrid force’. What is inherently good in a hybrid force? What is so new about it anyway? Any Peace keeping force is by definition ‘hybrid’. The people of Darfur have been under the attack of a hybrid of Sudan’s regular forces and their Janjaweed killers. Africa and the UN must really stand up to Khartoum and say : enough is enough, we will do everything possible to stop you from further killing your own citizens. It is peace making, peace enforcement before talking of peace keeping.

* Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is the deputy director of 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

Ochieng's critical analysis of poverty

Takwa Suifon

2007-06-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/41977

Ochieng's critical analysis of poverty and the way we perceive it have ignited some deep thoughts in me. Africans must take this debate everywhere and must start reversing the false trend we have institutionalised in the name of poverty alleviation. Just see how we have condemned ourselves to perpetual enslavement even by accepting the fact that what we should do is just alleviate poverty! As Ochieng says, eradication (a word strongly opposed by the beneficiaries of our poverty) would deliberately be geared at eradicating the poor.

The capitalist version of development is becoming a zero-sum game (it has so been everywhere) and thus a developed Africa would entail 'large holes of poverty' in the developed world. I once argued that if there were a way to secure a patent right for air, Africa would be suffocated in a twinkle of an eye. With the millions of plant and tree species that are being tested in Western pharmaceutical laboratories, no single African country has a patent right. Let this generation of Africans rise up and claim what is theirs before it is too late.

* Takwa Suifon is an 'Africanist' and Conflict and Peace Analyst from Cameroon

Nkrumah's widow

Matarr Njie

2007-06-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/41978

Dear Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem: What can I add to your well-written article? Not much since you said it all. My heart was full of sadness after reading the article. I wish to congratulate you. Keep it coming!

Farewell Sembene

Firoze Manji

2007-06-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/obituary/42035

It is with an angry sadness that we learned of this giant's death over the weekend. If there was one book that I could name that had such a profound effect on my thinking, it was God's Bits of Woods. We named our son after Sembene Ousmane. We have long wanted to interview Sembene Ousmane in these pages, but somehow didn't manage to work up the courage to speak with such a giant. His contribution to our understanding of the struggle for emancipation in Africa is unmeasurable. His memory lives on in his films and his writing. It is for us to make certain that future generations in Africa will study his works, and by studying them, find the pathway to freedom.

The following select list may help those less familiar with his work:

Selected filmography:
Borom Sarret (1963)
Niaye (1964)
La Noire de...(1966)
Mandabi (1968)
Xala (1974)
Ceddo (1977)
Camp de Thiaroye (1988)
Guelwaar (1992)
Faat Kiné (2000)
Moolaadé (2004)


Books:
Le docker noir, 1956, Paris: Debresse, novel, new edition: Présence
Africaine, Paris, 2002,
- engl. The Black Docker, London: Heinemann, 1987.
O pays, mon beau peuple! 1957.
Les bouts de bois de Dieu, 1962.
- engl. God's Bits of Wood, London: Heinemann, 1995.
Voltaïque, Paris: Présence Africaine, 1962, short stories.
L'Harmattan, Paris: Présence Africaine, 1964, novel.
Le mandat, précédé de Vehi-Ciosane, Paris: Presence Africaine, 1966,
- engl. The money-order: with, White genesis, London: Heinemann, 1987
Xala, Paris: Présence africaine, 1973.
Le dernier de l'Empire, L'Harmattan 1981, - 'a key to Senegalese
politics', Werner Glinga, engl. The last of the Empire: A Senegalese
Novel, London: Heinemann, 1983.
Niiwam, Paris: Presence Africaine, 1987, engl. Niiwam and Taaw: Two
Novellas, Oxford and Portsmouth, N. H.: Heinemann, 1992.

Tribute to Sembene Ousmane

2007-06-13

http://www.screenafrica.com/news/stop_press/956682.htm

One of Africa’s most respected and famous filmmakers Ousmane Sembene, also known as the Father of African Cinema, passed away on 9 June. Messages of condolence have been pouring into the office of the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI), an institution that Sembene co-founded in 1969.

He did not spare African rulers. He remained critical of post-colonial Africa for failing to meet many of her peoples’ expectations, where injustice continues to prevail. Sembene Ousmane is recognised as the Father of African cinema and has received countless awards and distinctions. As with his books, he used the medium of film as a critical and an educational tool, without compromising on aesthetics and the artistic impulse. His work promoted freedom and social justice, and aspired to restoring pride and dignity to the African people. He was a founder member of FAPACI (Pan African Federation of Film Makers) 1969-1970. South Africa joins the rest of Africa and the world in paying our deepest respects to a great revolutionary artist, Sembene Ousmane.

Poem: Unfinished Business

Annie Quarcoopome

2007-06-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/41971

We are the results of letters unfinished
When someone immortalized an idea, etchings on paper
Hands cuffed in mid-word
We were born to only half the story
Blaming someone else for telling our history
And we go to fight once in a while
But we stop and think maybe we should sing instead of our stinking present and the blinging future we would like to have

For the worst words we could have heard were the truncated hand-me-downs of leaders cut down in their prime
Once proud baobabs over whom the woodcutter stands, axe in hand, black mask on white face and past and present and no future and emergence of us

The generation whose senses have been lulled by shiny things and skinny people

We are the results of books unread
Because anything that does not bring immediate gratification is not worth our quick-time texting apple-software instant-messaging quicker-than-fast-food moments
We are the children who were not taught to pause
Writhing-crawling-walking-running
Never stopping
And now we will not fight because we have not used that pause to think things over
Our tongues run over words quicker than you thought we could say them
We will leave you the hearer of words unsaid
We are after all the results of wisdom unheard
Comforters of tears unshed
Fighters in a war
That will not fight itself
Murderers of the silence that only wanted to scream
STOPWAIT

Pause
Bloody knife in hand
Heart racing faster than I have been running all my life
You are dead
And I am your child, the survivor
Of patience unfulfilled
Demons not exorcised

Angerhatefrustration
Rage

I am the result of that letter you did not finish

© A Quarcoopome

The Little Theatre: A home away from home for Kenya’s talent

Dipesh Pabari

2007-06-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/41972

Two months ago, Mombasa was given a rare treat to Eric Wainana live at the Little Theatre Club in a bid to revive and restore this jaded cultural monument. In addition to Eric’s dynamic performance, the crowd were elated to see and hear the captivating voice of a rather unique talent in Kenya. Barefooted and hair-plaited, the young man walked on stage with his guitar and was welcomed by a frenzied crowd. His ability to reach every musical pitch coupled with the smooth simplicity of his songs had me mesmerised. I claimed ignorance and asked who it was:'“Harry Kimani of course!'

A month later, we were surprised to find out that Harry would be playing at the Bamburi Forest Trails over the Easter weekend. We immediately postponed our travel plans and made our way to the venue. Despite the rather unfortunate turn out, Harry was not dissuaded in the least. Dressed in a full 3-piece tuxedo, he stood firm and gave us a virtually private showing with all his heart and voice. There is something nostalgic about his music that leaves you beckoning to relive a special moment in your life. There is no clatter or distraction which leaves a lot to be admired, for he has to live up to his talent to make it a successful performance. But it is his version of the National Anthem that really triggers my emotions, leaving me with a tearful pride in being a Kenyan.

Weeks later, he reappeared at the Little Theatre Club but this time there was no evidence of a big star playing in our town. Harry Kimani is undoubtedly one of Kenya’s most popular upcoming musicians who in addition to having record sales amongst the top five in the country, has also performed in several countries around the globe. Yet, he retains his modesty everywhere he goes just like the first time I saw him playing barefoot. I asked him what’s keeping him at the Coast: 'I’m trying to teach music and put a CD together with the children from Wema Centre so I will be around for a while and I love this place.' Through his work with Wema, Harry was so inspired that he is now establishing a foundation to teach music to less privileged children. I was sold. Not many Nairobi residents can stand our relaxed sea pace beyond their beach holiday and dedicate their time to something as meaningful as this.

Once again he performed to a much smaller regular crowd giving it all his soul. Under the dim coloured bulbs, we sat on the ageing couches and listened to his magical voice. He has become a regular face at the Theatre Club and is always willing to pick up his guitar and play a song or two. There is unquestionably a lot of talent in this country and plenty from within Mombasa. It is only a question of seeking it out and opening up our minds to what is truly Kenyan.

Review of East African blogs

Sokari Ekine

2007-06-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/41968

Jackie Tumwine blogs primarily about the tobacco industry. An excellent resource as she monitors and reports on tobacco related issues from across the continent. In this piece she reports on the plight of tobacco farmers in Uganda’s West Nile region

'It reiterates Uganda’s Vice President’s recent plea for alternative crops to tobacco and highlights the fact that tobacco is labour intensive, environmentally destructive and impoverishes the tobacco farmer.'

One noteworthy mention is that the 'WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC),” supports the development of alternatives for tobacco farmers and the report will be ready in July 2007 so check back on Jackie’s blog for more news.

Country Boyi tells us why Idi Amin is his hero. Growing up he was repulsed by an Idi Amin presented as a wicked, torturing, human flesh eating dictator. Boyi takes issue with these stories of Amin and finds justification for making him a hero because he encouraged Ugandans to work with determination and there were more women managers in the country than elsewhere in Africa.

'He wanted Africa for Africans...He sent a telegram to Julius Nyerere that said, 'I want to assure you that I love you very much, that if you were a woman I would have considered marrying you'. Long after his death (2003), Uganda continues to reap big from his friendship with Libyan leader Muammad Gaddafi.

Further, he gave full economic independence to the people of Uganda after expelling 80.000 Asians. His attempted Islamisation of the country was aimed at uniting a citizenry that are known to tear each other on religious grounds.'

I think you need to find another hero Boyi!

Afro Musing was one of the African bloggers present at the recent TED-Africa held in Arusha, Tanzania.

'How to help Africa? Do business there TED Global felt like a seminal moment in Africa. I may have said this already but i will say it again. It was unlike any conference i have ever attended. Stupendous, challenging, interesting, eye-opening, heart-opening literally with Dr. Seyi Olesola and figuratively with Binyavanga Wainaina, Chris Abani and the music of Vusi Mahlasela. It was not uncommon to see people quietly wiping away tears during some of the talks. I would be curious as to the psychology behind the organization of the conference, it literally does something to your brain, sort of like neuron shock-therapy. By this i mean the speed, content, superb production, entertaining ‘mental breaks’ and the mix of amazing people. Its like being given knowledge speed in an engaging syringe with extra tablets of wonderful food.'

Sounds pretty grim, like a revival meeting of entrepreneurial evangelists using sleek media and marketing presentation – Who is the 'God' here? I just hope its not catching via cyberspace. For sure it is the talk of the African blogosphere everyone that attended has nothing but praise – my only regret is missing Vusi Mahlasela who would bring tears to my eyes!

Mental Acrobatics raises an interesting set of questions around the responsibilities of bloggers in reporting news events. In reporting the bombing in Nairobi this week he like other bloggers is full of qualifiers as the news is updated by the hour via Reuters and other news sources. Mental argues that this is an example of why blogs are an important news source

'I would argue that it is stories like this that rather than showing the danger of blogs, HIGHLIGHT the importance of blogs and other citizen media. While the MSM was stuck in its procedures, bloggers wrote about what they had heard, seen or were told. There is nothing wrong with quoting primary sources. The historians amongst us can confirm the importance with which primary sources are regarded on any historical event. The eyewitness account, the man on the street as it were. If you wanted to know what Kenyans were thinking and feeling at the time the blogs were a very good place to start...As for waiting for an official police statement before commenting on this blast, to that I would ask: where is the lengthy police statement on the Mungiki crisis? Where is the lengthy police statement on the Mount Elgon clashes? Both were major incidents in the past month which claimed more lives that the blast this morning, yet we haven’t seen the same coordinated response to dishing out information as we have on this blast. Are we to await the official statement on those events as well before stepping in with our take on events? How long are you prepared to wait?'

Metty'z Reflections - Tanzania in Focus comments on Tanzania and globalisation and refuses to attribute blame for Tanzania’s debt or lack of development to globalisation. His post is in response to comments on globalisation and that 'industrial countries impose barriers on agricultural products from Africa' and he concludes he is not 'willing to jump on the ‘we are not developing because of the West’ bandwagon'. Much easier to blame Tanzania’s and Africa’s 'bad attitude' whatever that is.

'With regards to ballooning of the African debt, we can’t simply run and attribute that to globalization. First of all, how that does globalization, which is pretty much a free market concept, cause African countries to acquire more debt? I would seriously need more education on that. As far as I know, the expansion of debt is an outcome of strategies, vision and policies. Case in point: the United States’ debt , which has grown over time, but has increased or decreased based on whether Democrats of Republicans are in power. All that happens when the country is a capitalist country. So why would one tell us the African debt has grown because of globalization?'

Black Looks writes on World Walls – apartheid walls of segregation built to keep out the unwanted and protect the wanted internally and externally.

'Insiders, outsiders anyone from a different world or who is trying to make a different world. Will you be inside the wall living as a caged animal or outside, excluded and destitute? The G8 wall has shown that WALL BUILDERS are capable of constructing internal walls - walls that criminalise the poor, migrants, unwanted people and to keep them away from the the acceptable amongst their nations. The walls are symbols of a concrete and metal apartheid as nation after nation seeks to divide those who are legal and those who are illegal; those who are the right religion, colour, class, gender, have the right sexual preference. For the preferred insiders there is the superiority of knowing you are inside looking out. You have what THEY, the other, want as in Castillo’s diagram. The newer walls include sophisticated surveillance technology that can sense people approaching the fence/wall and prepare for attack. One wonders if the Spanish walls in Ceuta and Melilla will be able to pick up the colour of the approaching people and trigger some sort of automated reaction of bullets to shoot would be wall jumpers.'

Africa: Zoellick wants Beijing to listen to West

2007-06-15

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3884662

World Bank presidential nominee Robert Zoellick would try to get China to listen to western concerns that it was exploiting investment opportunities in Africa while ignoring corruption in the region, he said yesterday. China has used its economic weight to invest in Africa, but has drawn criticism from western aid groups that it fosters misrule by failing to demand accountability.

Countdown Calendar Updated

2007-06-14

http://tinyurl.com/33xcfh

Please visit the civil society and AU Summit calendar.

All civil society and African Union meetings and events will be regularly updated before and during the Accra Heads of States. Details of each event will appear on your screen as you click the title of the event. Please refer to the AU-Monitor Countdown Calendar throughout the summit.

To add events or meetings to the calendar, please email hakima at fahamu.org.

CIDO Pre-Summit Civil Society Forum Programme Now Available

2007-06-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/aumonitor/42027

The draft programme for the African Citizens Directorate (CIDO) Pre-Summit Civil Society Forum in Accra, Ghana on the 19th -21st June 2007 is now available at http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/index.php/AUMONITOR/comments/cido_pre_summit_civil_society_forum_programme_now_available/

GCAP Africa Joins the CSOs Coalition to Engage AU on the Continental Union Government

2007-06-14

http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/index.php/AUMONITOR/comments/gcap_africa_joins_the_csos_coalition_to_engage_au_on_the_continental_union/

The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is a worldwide alliance of trade unions, community groups, faith groups, youth and campaigners working together across more than 100 national platforms. GCAP is calling for action from the world’s leaders to meet their promises to end poverty and inequality. In particular, GCAP demands solutions that address the issues of public accountability, just governance and the fulfilment of human rights as well as trade justice, aid quality and quantity, debt cancellation and gender equality. In Africa, 34 national coalitions are active and participate in GCAP mobilisations and events. For details of actions planned in 2007 go to www.whiteband.org

Africa: Continental government by 2015?

2007-06-14

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=38168

Debate on the prospects for continent-wide government in Africa is heating up ahead of the African Union (AU) summit that is scheduled to begin on 25 June in the Ghanaian capital, Accra. The gathering will focus on plotting a course towards full political and economic integration on the continent, a central goal of the AU. The dream of a 'United States of Africa' also underpinned the creation in 1963 of the union's predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity.

The AU Debate is On

The Statesman

2007-06-14

http://www.thestatesmanonline.com/pages/news_detail.php?newsid=3774&section=1

It was a fitting tribute to Ghana’s first president and pioneer of the formation of the Organisation of African Unity, forbear of the African Union, that on the day the mortal remains of his wife Fathia were interred beside him, Ghanaians from all walks of life gathered at the Teachers” Hall, Accra, for a non-partisan debate on the goal of achieving Africa’s integration by 2025.

African Body Mulls Continent’s Borders

Addis Ababa, June 4 (AFP)

2007-06-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/aumonitor/42032

Experts from the 53-member African Union met in Addis Ababa Monday to work on precisely marking out Africa’s borders by 2012, officials said. “The time has come to properly and accurately delineate borders in Africa,” the bloc’s Peace and Security Council (PSC) Commissioner Said Djinnit told AFP. “A precise and proper demarcation of the borders will be the cement of integration in Africa.” African borders drawn by colonialists often split ethnic groups between countries, as well as sparking conflict over access to resources and other feuds. The two-day talks were to be followed by a ministerial meeting on Thursday.

Ghana CSOs Push for Union Government to Effectively Deal With Development Challenges

Ghana AU Civil Society Coalition

2007-06-14

http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/index.php/AUMONITOR/comments/ghana_csos_push_for_union_government_to_effectively_deal_with_development_c/

Participants at an interactive session on the AU Grand Debate on the Continental Union Government have called for the adoption of the Union Government proposal to be tabled at the African Union’s July Summit in Accra, Ghana. Under the theme “Informing Ghana’s Position on the AU Grand Debate”, the forum organized by the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) and the Ghana AU Civil Society Coalition with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and NEPAD had three main objectives: (a) to find out Ghana’s official position, if any, on the Grand Debate; (b) collect and collate civil society’s views on the matter; and (c) to provide a platform for civil society-Government engagement on the issue, aiming to impact the formulation of Ghana’s official position on the Debate.

Ghana civil society proposes elected African Parliament

The Statesman newspaper- Ghana

Ayuure Kapini Atafori

2007-06-14

http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/index.php/AUMONITOR/comments/ghana_civil_society_proposes_elected_african_parliament/

Ghanaian civil society groups have proposed the setting up of a legislating African Parliament directly elected by universal suffrage based on proportional representation as one of the means of establishing and consolidating United States of Africa.

The convener of Ghana- African Union Civil Society Coalition, Emmanuel Akwetey, on behalf of the coalition, also proposed the expansion of the Executive Council of the African Union to include chairpersons of the ministerial conferences.

Group Cautions on Africa Union Government Formation

This Day (Lagos), 5 June 2007

Abimbola Akosile

2007-06-14

http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/index.php/AUMONITOR/comments/group_cautions_on_africa_union_government_formation/

Various civil society groups in Nigeria have raised the need to look critically at available infrastructure in the African continent before a consensus is reached on the formation of an African Union Government or a United States of Africa.

This was raised at a recent one-day roundtable organised by ActionAid, Nigeria in Abuja. Participants at the roundtable, who were drawn from the civil society organisations, media, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Labour Movement, the academia, ECOWAS, the private sector and other stakeholders, noted that the United States of Africa is a desirable vision.

Without Free Trade and Free Movement, No Need for Africans to Unite

Interview with George Adhanja, The Kenya National Council of NGOs

2007-06-14

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

George Adhanja is based in Kenya and works for the Kenya National Council of NGOs. In March, Saloman Kebede interviewed him on the upcoming Grand Debate on the Continental Government during the next African Union Summit, June – July 2007. This interview is one of several interviews with African citizens and CSO leaders on the AU proposal for Continental Government. Emily Mghanga of Pan Africa Programme Oxfam edited this interview.

Salomon Kebede: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current proposal?

George Adhanja: If the heads of states continue to meet and work together in one spirit then this strengthens the proposal. However, the relationship that still exists between countries across this continent is challenged by dishonesty and mistrust. This may weaken this proposal and in the end, hamper the success of a Continental Union.

Salomon Kebede: Should it be adopted in Accra in July 2007, what would you like to see the African Union Commission achieve within the first phase (2007-2009)?

George Adhanja: The AU Commission should bring an end to civil wars in Africa.

Salomon Kebede: And why would this form of continental Union be important to African citizens & particular the poor and marginalized?

George Adhanja: African citizens will enjoy free movement and free trade across the continent that will be of great benefit to the poor and marginalized in particular. We need to see a unity that will uphold and respect citizen rights.

Salomon Kebede: How could states and non-states ensure that continental Union efforts are transparent, participatory and driven by an appreciation of political and economic rights?

George Adhanja: Let the member states become the engine that will run the continental Government devoid of western influence. The only way we will move forward in a Union Government, is by focusing entirely in doing what is right for the African people.

Salomon Kebede: What obstacles must the AU overcome for the continental Union to be successful?

George Adhanja: We must be financially independent in order to be self –reliant and stop depending on the west.

Salomon Kebede: In what policy area, would you like to see greater convergence and unity across Africa and why?

George Adhanja: I strongly would advocate for free trade and free movement. Without these, there is no need for Africans to unite.

Salomon Kebede: Do you have anything that you would like to add?

George Adhanja: Yes. Let us have a Union that respects civil society. It is fundamental for the civil society to be given more room to engage without discrimination as seen in some countries.

The views expressed here are the perspectives of the interviewee. George Adhanja can be reached at Email: admin at ngocouncil.org

Popularise the Union, It’s Time Has Come

Interview with Bougouma Diagne, Cultural Association for Social and Educational Self-Promotion.

2007-06-14

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

Bougouma Diagne is based in Senegal and works for the Cultural Association for Social and Educational Self-Promotion . In March, Saloman Kebede interviewed him on the upcoming Grand Debate on the Continental Government during the next African Union Summit, June – July 2007. This interview is one of several interviews with African citizens and CSO leaders on the AU proposal for Continental Government. Emily Mghanga of Pan Africa Programme Oxfam edited this interview.

Salomon Kebede: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current proposal?

Bougouma Diagne: The current essence of the proposal is that if we unite, we become stronger and will realise the same objectives and goals. A weak point to note is that many African countries are dependant and in-directly controlled by stronger economies in Asia, North America and Europe.

Salomon Kebede: Should it be adopted in Accra in July 2007, what would you like to see the African Union Commission achieve within the first phase (2007-2009)?

Bougouma Diagne: The African Union Commission should first popularize that decision across the continent in order to involve all citizens in the process.

Salomon Kebede: Why would this form of continental union be important to African citizens & particular the poor and marginalized?

Bougouma Diagne: The AU Commission has to create ways of African citizens to participate. It is most acceptable to have organs that ignore or unaccountable to public opinion.

Salomon Kebede: How could states and non-states ensure that continental union efforts are transparent, participatory and driven by an appreciation of political and economic rights?

Bougouma Diagne: The main objective should be to implement the AU charter and particularly sections that safeguard the rights of people. This will ensure citizen involvement in the AU agenda. That way we can be sure that people will have an interest in continental union.

Salomon Kebede: What obstacles must the AU overcome for the continental union to be successful?

Bougouma Diagne: The AU has to take cultural diversity into consideration and plan so that we are all accommodated. This will bring harmony and acceptance from all citizens in the continent.

Salomon Kebede: In what policy area, would you like to see greater convergence and unity across Africa and why?

Bougouma Diagne: Education is the main problem in Africa, because an illiterate society is undermined in many ways.

The views expressed here are the perspectives of the interviewee. Bougouma Diagne can be reached by email: capes at sentoo.sn/acapes at acapes.org

2007 Pan Afrikan Movement (PAM) Summit

2007-06-14

http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/index.php/AUMONITOR/comments/2007_pan_afrikan_movement_pam_summit/

Join the delegation of African veteran leaders, intellectuals, activists, faith leaders, entrepreneurs, dignitaries and students in the 2007 Pan Afrikan Movement (PAM) Summit at the University of the West Indies, Kingston Jamaica on July 11-18, 2007. The theme of the 2007 Summit is “Political Determination for Cultural and Economic Rebirth”. Some of the key goals are to (1) Build a political structure for an African Diaspora Union (ADU) as part of establishing a (6th) sixth region of a unified African continent; (2) organize cultural campaigns and institutions for African people to promote African values, heritage, history and spirituality; and (3) promote economic initiatives for businesses, trade and commerce amongst Africans in the Diaspora and Africa.

Signature Campaign for Peace and Security in Darfur

Citizens for New Ghana

2007-06-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/aumonitor/42026

We the undersigned Africans and friends of Africa hereby petition the African Union (AU) at its historic Summit, in Accra, Ghana, July 2007 to take all necessary steps in collaboration with the United Nations to bring to an immediate end to the genocide ravaging Darfur.

The rape of women and girls, the burning and destruction of villages and settlements, and the consequent mass displacement of millions and murder of tens of thousands, including women and children, in Darfur constitute an affront to humanity and an indictment of leadership on the continent. The people of Darfur have a right to life, peace and security. The AU must act decisively and deploy adequate troops with effective military ware to protect the people of Darfur from the murderous forces supported by the Sudanese government. In today’s global world, it is impermissible for the AU to look on helpless as the genocide in Darfur continues.

The people of Darfur have an inalienable right to life, security, peace and development.

Join the campaign to end the genocide in Darfur! Send your name, address, email address and institutional affiliation (if any) Citizens for New Ghana at citizensghana at yahoo.com, to add your name to the petition.

African Monitor Response to the G8 Summit Declaration

Archbishop Njongo Ndungane

2007-06-14

http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/index.php/AUMONITOR/comments/african_monitor_response_to_the_g8_summit_declaration/

11 June 2007, Cape Town - Leaders of the G8 countries met in Heiligendamm, Germany between the 6th and 8th June 2007 to deliberate on the worlds’ problems. Chancellor Merkel’s efforts to ensure that Africa is central to the agenda of this summit is appreciated. Furthermore, the efforts to strengthen the partnership with Africa by ensuring that the G8 supports activities that have been targeted and prioritized by the African governments is a progressive step. Despite this however, the outcomes of this summit have been disappointing.

Guinea: Girl workers 'face abuse'

2007-06-15

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6755277.stm

Thousands of girls in Guinea are facing abuse as domestic workers, a new report has concluded. The report by Human Rights Watch says many girls are forced to work up to 18 hours a day for no pay and are physically abused by employers. The girls often live in conditions akin to slavery and many are victims of people trafficking, it says.

Mozambique: Safe abortions may soon be legal

2007-06-14

http://www.afrol.com/articles/25706

Abortion could be soon legal in predominantly Catholic Mozambique if the Maputo parliament endorses a new bill recently approved by the Council of Ministers. If passed into law, this bill will be "a landmark victory for women, as they will have legal backing to terminate unwanted pregnancies," gender activists hold.

Southern Africa: Media urged to give fair and adequate coverage for women

2007-06-14

http://www.sardc.net/editorial/newsfeature/07330607.htm

Oppah Muchinguri, the Zimbabwean Minister of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development has challenged SADC journalists to give women fair and adequate media coverage and thus contribute to the achievement of gender commitments in the region. She urged that, where progress has been made, this should be highlighted in the media to “motivate those who are working hard to make a change in people’s lives.”

Tanzania: Fistula aggravated by inadequate resources and ignorance

2007-06-15

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72732

Poverty, inadequate investment in healthcare services, lack of knowledge about maternal health and pregnancy-related emergencies are some of the limitations aggravating the problem of obstetric fistula in Tanzania, according to a new report. Obstetric fistula is a hole that forms between the bladder and vagina or between the rectum and vagina during prolonged and obstructed childbirth.

Zimbabwe: Police arrest dozens of women activists

2007-06-15

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=310940

Zimbabwean police on Monday arrested dozens of women as they staged a demonstration in south-western Zimbabwe, a statement said. The women, all members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza) had "tried to gather to hold a march in a small administrative centre in Insiza district but were arrested", the group said.

Global: Focus on child labour in agriculture

2007-06-14

http://tinyurl.com/2h24vq

This year's World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June is to focus on the elimination of child labour in agriculture, which accounts for a staggering percentage of the world's working children and is one of the most dangerous forms of work for children and adults like.

Global: OSI consultant imprisoned in Iran

2007-06-14

http://www.freekian.org/

Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh, a dual citizen of the United States and Iran and an internationally-respected scholar, social scientist, and urban planner, was arrested and imprisoned in Iran on May 11, 2007. Along with several other Iranian-American scholars, Dr. Tajbakhsh has been charged with acting against national security and espionage.

Ethiopia: Urgent Call for the Release of the Ethiopia 38

Adebayo Olukoshi

2007-06-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/42068

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) invites the urgent attention of the membership of the Council, the wider African and global social research community, all believers in the democratic ideal, and all persons of good will to the serious developments in Ethiopia bearing on the lives of 38 persons, all citizens of Ethiopia, who had been arrested in the aftermath of the street protests that greeted the manipulation by the authorities of the results of the 2005 general elections. The 38 are part of a total of 111 persons – including 25 persons who had already been forced into exile – initially charged with an assortment of offences arising from the elections.
CODESRIA Programme on Academic Freedom An Urgent Call for the Release of the Ethiopia 38

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) invites the urgent attention of the membership of the Council, the wider African and global social research community, all believers in the democratic ideal, and all persons of good will to the serious developments in Ethiopia bearing on the lives of 38 persons, all citizens of Ethiopia, who had been arrested in the aftermath of the street protests that greeted the manipulation by the authorities of the results of the 2005 general elections. The 38 are part of a total of 111 persons – including 25 persons who had already been forced into exile – initially charged with an assortment of offences arising from the elections. They are mostly intellectuals drawn from the academy, the media, and civil society organisations. It will be recalled that in the elections, the opposition, organised under the banner of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) scored important gains which, through various desperate measures, the ruling EPRDF of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, speedily thwarted and annulled. The ensuing popular protests were brutally suppressed by the security forces and the leading figures of the opposition, many of them intellectuals and election winners, were arrested and clamped in prolonged detention under conditions that were, to say the least, harsh and inhumane.

Acting on the strength of the 1990 Kampala Declaration on Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility, CODESRIA joined many other institutions and organisations in protesting the deliberate actions of the government in subverting the will of the peoples of Ethiopia freely expressed at the ballot box, arresting key leaders of a resurgent political opposition, and deploying extreme violence to the quell popular protests, resulting in the deaths of scores of people, among them students of Addis Ababa University cut down in their prime right on their campus. The Council also appealed to the government to release all those who were arrested and detained unconditionally. But all the appeals made fell on deaf ears and the government, after holding the opposition figures in detention without trial for a prolonged period, proceeded, in its own time, to charge them with treasonable actions before a tribunal of doubtful independence. It is that tribunal that has now suddenly abridged the judicial process and pronounced a guilty verdict on the 38 who are to be sentenced in July 2007. There is well-founded concern within and outside Ethiopia that some or all of them could be handed the death penalty.

CODESRIA invites all its members and other researchers and persons concerned about the freedom of the intellectual and the principles of justice and fair play to join in the protests which the Council is mobilising for the attention of the Ethiopian authorities and the African Union. The expressions of concern should be addressed to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Mr. Meles Zenawi and copied to the Chair of the Commission of the African Union, Mr. Alpha Omar Konare, and sent directly to CODESRIA at the following e-mail address: academic.freedom@codesria.sn The Council intends to collate all letters of expression of concern and solidarity and forward these to the appropriate quarters in Addis Ababa. The letters will also be distributed for campaigning purposes at the upcoming summit of the African Union holding in Accra, Ghana, in July 2007 where, in concert with other organisations and networks, CODESRIA is determined to make the fate of the Ethiopia 38 an issue that has to be addressed and resolved in the only viable way available: Their total and unconditional freedom.

The Council invites a full and enthusiastic response to this call for solidarity with the Ethiopia 38 and for an expression of outrage at the behaviour of the Ethiopian authorities. In acting, let us all be reminded that at this critical point in time, silence and/or indifference are not options to be exercised and duty demands that we muster our collective solidarity to make a difference in the fate of colleagues, courageous men and women from the academy and civil society who dared, in accordance with the spirit of the 1990 Kampala Declaration, to be socially engaged, won an uncommon victory, and are being persecuted by a ruling oligarchy that is unwilling, no matter the cost, to accept the popular verdict returned by the people of Ethiopia.

As a reminder, the 38 individuals who have been pronounced guilty by the government are: Berhanu Alemayehu, Mamushet Amare, Andualem Aragie, Hailu Araya, Waltanigus Asnake, Andulem Ayele, Abayneh Berhanu, Tadios Bogale, Daniel Berihun, Mesfin Debesa, Wudneh Dechi, Befikadu Degife, Debebe Eshetu, Muluneh Eyuel, Melaku Fantaye, Nigist Gebrehiwot, Dawit Fasil, Assefa Habtewold, Gebretsadik Hailemariam, Yacob Hailemariam, Beruk Kebede, Aschalew Ketema, Getachew Mengistie, Bertukan Mideksa, Yeneneh Mulat, Anteneh Mulugeta, Berhanu Nega, Hailu Shawl, Gizachew Shiferraw, Tamrat Tarekegn, Tesfaye Tariku, Sileshi Tenna, Mesfin Tesfaye, Melaku Uncha, Abyot Waqjira, Mesfin Woldemariam, Mulugasho Wondimu, Wonakseged Zeleke.

Adebayo Olukoshi, Executive Secretary.

Lesotho: Fertile ground for human traffickers

2007-06-14

http://www.afrol.com/articles/25742

Despite being a signatory to the United Nations Protocol against trafficking in persons, Lesotho is still seen as a fertile ground for human traffickers, migration bodies hold. All the countries in the southern Africa region except Angola, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, had ratified the protocol.

Kenya: Amnesty condemns Kenya police's 'execution' killings

2007-06-15

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=311058

Rights group Amnesty International condemned Kenyan police on Tuesday for the execution-style killing of more than 30 people in last week's crackdown on the deadly Mungiki gang in a Nairobi slum. Hundreds of police officers went into the Mathare shanty-town on two raids, shooting dead at least 33 people they said were suspected members of the Mungiki criminal ring that runs extortion rackets and beheads its enemies.

SUDAN: Essential new guidelines on role of ICC released

2007-06-14

http://www.redress.org/reports/SudanICCGuideEnglish.pdf

REDRESS, the international NGO working to obtain justice and reparation for torture survivors, has released the long-awaited Guide “Accountability and Justice for International Crimes in Sudan - A Guide on the Role of the International Criminal Court.”

Zimbabwe: Government moves ahead with controversial security law

2007-06-14

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN423035.html

The lower house of Zimbabwe's parliament passed a bill on Wednesday allowing the government to monitor phones, mail and the Internet to protect national security. While conceding the country needed to protect itself against terrorism, opposition members said they feared the bill would pave the way for President Robert Mugabe's government to curtail freedom of speech and breach privacy.

CAR: Supplies rushed to new Sudanese arrivals

2007-06-14

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/466ec5284.html

The UN refugee agency and sister organizations are rushing supplies to 2,650 newly arrived Sudanese refugees living under desperate conditions in north-eastern Central African Republic (CAR). As part of a convoy of UN humanitarian aid that left the CAR capital of Bangui on Sunday, UNHCR sent shelter materials – including 600 pieces of plastic sheeting, clothes, soap and 600 jerry cans – to help the refugees in Sam Ouandja located near the border with Sudan.

Chad: Solidarity march for displaced persons

2007-06-14

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/46701b6b4.html

Some 300 people took part in a march through the Chad capital, N'Djamena, on Wednesday to express solidarity with the country's almost half-a-million refugees and internally displaced persons. The UNHCR-organized event was one of many activities planned by UNHCR around the country to mark World Refugee Day on June 20.

DRC: Conflict causes state of permanent displacement

2007-06-15

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72700

Intermittent clashes and frequent attacks on civilians by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have created a state of permanent displacement in the volatile central African country, an official of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said. "There are a million internally displaced persons [IDPs], but each time there is a successful return of IDPs, there are new displacements because of conflicts elsewhere," said Judy Cheng-Hopkins, UNHCR's assistant high commissioner for operations.

Uganda: War victims embark on new start

2007-06-15

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=310457

Nine years ago, Santonino Otok fled his home in the green fields of northern Uganda for a refugee camp, fearing attack by marauding rebels. Now he is back under his old mango tree. "My parents are buried here and my parents' parents, so it's a blessing to return," said a beaming Otok (66), surveying the birthplace he thought he might never see again.

Western Sahara: The cost of the conflict

2007-06-15

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4892&l=1

This report by the International Crisis Group addresses the human, political and economic price of the impasse. For the peoples concerned the costs have been varying degrees of displacement, exile, isolation, poverty and denial of political freedom; for the countries, there have been, variously, financial and diplomatic costs, slower national development, and border security tensions.

Nigeria: Court releases Delta dissident

2007-06-15

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/world.aspx?ID=BD4A492714

In a move that may cut abductions in the volatile Niger Delta, a Nigerian high court yesterday freed on bail a former militia leader considered one of the country’s most dangerous men. The court freed treason accused and former Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) leader Mujahid Dokubu Asari on health grounds, meeting a key demand of the group.

Nigeria: Impending nationwide strikes and protests

2007-06-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/socialmovements/42049

JOINT Action Forum (JAF), umbrella body for civil societies that formed the Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO), has called on Nigerians to fully participate in next week's planned strike to force the government to revert the hike in fuel price and the Value Added Tax (VAT), amongst others, even as it charged Labour leaders not to disappoint Nigerians during the struggles ahead.
JOINT Action Forum (JAF), umbrella body for civil societies that formed the Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO), has called on Nigerians to fully participate in next week's planned strike to force the government to revert the hike in fuel price and the Value Added Tax (VAT), amongst others, even as it charged Labour leaders not to disappoint Nigerians during the struggles ahead.
The strike, expected to commence Tuesday June 19, is also targeted at putting pressure on government to reverse the sales of Port Harcourt and Kaduna Refineries, Egbin Power Plant, and other national monuments, immediate implementation of the 15% salaries increases to workers at all levels, immediate payment of arrears of monetisation benefits, immediate halt to the retrenchment of workers and reform in the public sector.
JAF, in a statement by its President and General Secretary, Dr. Dipo Fashina and Comrade Abiodun Aremu, respectively, noted that leadership of JAF met with Labour to review the the May 28 and 29 sit-at-home and mass protests against the conduct and outcome of the April general elections and pointed out that the actions were declared as part of the dress rehearsals not only to express the disapproval and opposition of Nigerians on the illegitimacy of governments arising out of the April 2007 elections, but to rally Nigerians towards a culture of sustained resistance against all forms of political and economic injustices.
The statement read in part: “The leadership of the Joint Action Forum, led by its President, Dr. Dipo Fashina, on Thursday, June 7, 2007 at Abuja, met with the leadership of the two Labour centres – Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) under the platform of Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO). Central to the meeting which were: review of the sit-at-home and mass protests declared by LASCO for May 28 and 29; and resolutions by the principal organs of Labour with respect to the latest wicked and anti-people increases in the prices of the fuel and VAT and the illegal sales of the refineries and other national assets. With respect to the first issue, JAF states that the 2-day actions successfully held despite the disinformation and blackmail by government, the threats, harassment, arrests and, subsequently, the detention by the Police and security agents of some of the LASCO activists, most especially at the mass rallies and protests in Lagos , Benni, Osogbo, Owerri, Jos, Onitsha and Abuja.
The May 28 and 29 sit-at-home and mass protests were declared as part of the dress rehearsals not only to express the disapproval and opposition of Nigerians on the illegitimacy of governments arising out of the April 2007 Electoral Robbery, but to rally Nigerians towards a culture of sustained resistance against all forms of political and economic injustices.” Only choice for Yar’Adua “JAF fully endorsed the positions of NLC and TUC on the two weeks ultimatum given to the Yar’Adua government that is still grappling with problems of legitimacy to reverse the anti-people, anti-Labour and unconstitutional economic policies that were executed through administrative fiat in the last 96 hours of the exit of the ignoble dictatorial regime of General Obasanjo. The demands are clear: Reversal in the increases of fuel prices – Petrol from N75 to N65 and Diesel and Kerosene to the prices before the hike.
Reversal of the 100% increase in VAT which was increased from 5% to 10%. Reversal of the sales of Port Harcourt and Kaduna Refineries, Egbin Power Plant, and other national monuments. Immediate implementation of the 15% salaries increases to workers at all levels. Immediate payment of arrears of monetisation benefits. Immediate halt to the retrenchment of workers and reform in the public sector. JAF wishes to affirm its confidence in the leadership of Labour to prosecute the above demands to its logical conclusions.” The statement added: “Alhaji Umar Yar’Adua's illegitimate government is advised to rid itself of the afflictions of the Obasanjo's dictatorship by acceding to the legitimate demands made by Labour. Doing so will be consistent with Section 16 of the 1999 Constitution which states the economic objectives of Government in 16(2) that “the State shall direct its policy towards ensuring that - (16(2) (c) economic system is not operated in such manner as to permit the concentration of wealth; or means of production; and exchange in the hands of few individuals or of a group. Section 16 (2)(d) suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum living wage, old age care and pension, unemployment benefits, sick benefits and welfare of the disable”.
Equally, JAF enjoins Nigerians to support the strike and mass actions that Labour and civil society, under the platform of LASCO, may be compelled to declare if, after the expiration of the 2-weeks ultimatum which expires on June 18, the illegitimate government of Yar’Adua failed to reverse the anti-people policies that are aggravating untold hardships on Nigerians. JAF also strongly restates its confidence in the leadership of LASCO comprising Abdulwaheed Omar, (President NLC), Peter Esele (President TUC) and Dr. Dipo Fashina (President JAF).”

Sudan: Four dead in dam protest

2007-06-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/socialmovements/42066

Four people were killed and at least 10 wounded when police dispersed residents in north Sudan protesting a dam project which they say will destroy their community, local press reported on Thursday.
Four people were killed and at least 10 wounded when police dispersed residents in north Sudan protesting a dam project which they say will destroy their community, local press reported on Thursday.

News reports said that police used live rounds on demonstrators after they tried to attack construction equipment being used to build the dam in the Kijbar region.

In a statement, police said they fired live rounds in self defence after tear gas failed to prevent protesters attacking their positions.

Residents of the Kijbar region are protesting the dam project, fearful of having their lands in Sudan's Northern State confiscated.

The protest comes after the government recently agreed to pay compensation to residents of the Merowe region further south, where a controversial Chinese-built dam threatens to wipe out surrounding Nile valley communities. - Sapa-AFP

(The region is also known as Kajbar; for a 1998 article on this proposed dam and the resistance to it, published in IRN's magazine World Rivers Review, see http://www.irn.org/pubs/wrr/9802/sudan.html)

Comoros: Anjouan defies poll order

2007-06-14

http://tinyurl.com/3xmphf

The Comorian island of Anjouan has held elections for its presidency, defying a national one-week delay and putting fresh strain on the archipelago's national union, according to a Al-Jazeera report. The government had ordered the delay over security fears after police shot three people during protests on Tuesday against the national president, Ahmed Abdullah Mohamed Sambi.

Egypt: Ruling party wins 69 of 88 parliament seats

2007-06-14

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN424288.html

Egypt's ruling party won 69 out of 88 seats outright in Monday's parliamentary election while the opposition Muslim Brotherhood got none, a government statement said on Wednesday. The Brotherhood, rights groups and journalists reported many voting irregularities, including multiple voting and ballot stuffing. In some places where the Islamists hold a strong popular base, police denied voters access to polling stations.

Mauritania: President takes pay cut

2007-06-14

http://tinyurl.com/32a4kb

The new president of impoverished Mauritania and his cabinet have taken 25 per cent pay cuts because of a drop in oil production. Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi took power in landmark democratic elections in March after power was handed to the civilian government after more than a year of military rule.

Nigeria: South Africa’s Role in Nigeria and the Nigerian Elections

Shawn Hattingh

2007-06-14

http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,40,5,1337

From the very start, the recent Nigerian elections, which saw Olusegun Obasanjo placing his hand picked successor, Umaru Yar’ Adua, into the Presidential palace, were mired in controversy. The ballot papers for the election, which were printed in South Africa, contained no counter foils or serial numbers – features which would have made vote rigging difficult.

Zimbabwe: Election Bill undermines talks - Tsvangirai

2007-06-15

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=311225

The Zimbabwe government's plan to change the Constitution ahead of 2008 elections undermines efforts to broker an end to political turmoil in the African nation, the country's main opposition leader has said. President Robert Mugabe's government has proposed a Bill that would pave the way for joint presidential and parliamentary polls next year and amend the rules for electing a new president should the post become vacant before an election.

Nigeria: Deadline for ex-governors

2007-06-15

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6733997.stm

Nigeria's anti-graft agency has given 15 ex-governors wanted for corruption until the end of Friday to turn themselves in or face arrest. Five of the former governors have already been quizzed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), an official has told the BBC.

Uganda: $10 million injected in war on corruption

2007-06-15

http://www.monitor.co.ug/news/news06156.php

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has toughened his talk on corruption saying that every public servant keen on pilfering public resources must now expect severe repercussions. The American government has boosted Mr Museveni’s anti-corruption efforts with a $10.2 million grant (Shs16 billion), Finance Minister Ezra Suruma has announced.

Africa: Africans speak out against EPAs as unwelcome

2007-06-14

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=38099

When European campaigners suggest that a free trade deal could harm the poor, they typically encounter a frosty reaction from civil servants in Brussels. Still, no one tries to muzzle them. Yet when a Namibian trade analyst insinuated that the European Union was trying to browbeat southern African governments into signing an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) before they had a chance to analyse its consequences, he found himself out of a job.

Africa: Annan leads drive to reverse Africa's farming decline

2007-06-15

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=311321

Former United Nations chief Kofi Annan took the helm on Thursday of an alliance of African government and business leaders seeking to reverse a decline in the continent's agricultural output. Sub-Saharan African food production was declining year-on-year as a third of the continent's population suffers from hunger, Annan told reporters at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town.

Africa: IMF calls for clearer Africa aid timetable

2007-06-14

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN424172.html

Rich countries' pledges of more aid to Africa are undermined by the lack of a delivery timetable which prevents the world's poorest nations from planning development, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday. Abdoulaye Bio-Tchane, director of the IMF's Africa department, welcomed the $60 billion pledged last week in Germany by leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

Global: Summit falls short on Africa aid, hedge fund regulation

2007-06-14

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=38096

The Group of Eight industrialised countries (G8) agreed to allocate 60 billion dollars in new aid to Africa in "the coming years", to beef up the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and to improve primary education across the continent. But the summit of the heads of government of the G8 failed to satisfy its own commitment, made at the 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, of doubling aid to Africa by 2010.

Zambia: Zambians demand benefit from copper boom

2007-06-15

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=310927

The Zambian government is under increasing pressure from business and labour to increase its mineral taxes in the wake of surging copper prices on the world market but, ­analysts say, a revision could lead to litigation. Copper prices on the London Metal Exchange have shot to record highs of about $8 000 per metric tonne -- from the average of $1 200 six years ago -- in what is considered the biggest base-metal bull market in 50 years, fuelled by strong demand from China and India.

Africa: Africa's AIDS epidemic slowing - World Bank

2007-06-14

http://go.worldbank.org/W5DE0SQQY0

A new World Bank report on HIV/AIDS launched in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, says the mobilization of empowered 'grassroots' communities, along with delivering condoms and life-saving treatments, are beginning to slow the pace of the continent's epidemic, which last year killed more than 2 million African adults and children, and left another 24.7 million Africans struggling to live with its deadly effects.

South Africa: AIDS Conference signals new unity, chance for progress

2007-06-14

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/1E6497BB-37B5-41BE-A361-9E63636ACC53.asp

South Africa has crossed a Rubicon in the past few months in relation to HIV and the ball is now in civil society’s court to achieve progress, Mark Heywood of the AIDS Law Project told the closing session of the Third South African AIDS Conference in Durban on June 8.

South Africa: New microbicide for trial

2007-06-14

http://www.scidev.net/content/news/eng/south-africa-to-trial-new-microbicide.cfm

Researchers have begun recruiting women in South Africa for the first trials worldwide of a vaginal gel containing an antiretroviral drug, which they hope will protect women from HIV infection. The trials of the microbicide — a gel containing the antiretroviral drug tenofovir, a proven anti-HIV drug in its oral form — are being conducted in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Uganda: Minister wants to prevent HIV among women

2007-06-14

http://www.iolhivaids.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=&fArticleId=3882165

Ugandan Minister of State and Gender Rukia Nakadama on Friday at the opening of a forum on gender and preventive technologies in the country's capital, Kampala, called on leaders to strengthen efforts and increase resources to prevent the spread of HIV among women. "New and long-term [HIV] prevention methods are needed, particularly methods that are within the realm of women's control," Nakadama said.

Zimbabwe: US to provide ARVs

2007-06-14

http://www.iolhivaids.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=1609&fArticleId=3879984

US ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell and Zimbabwe Health and Child Welfare Minister David Parirenyatwa in a joint announcement on Thursday said that the U.S. will provide the country with $18 million (about R130-million) over three years for antiretroviral drugs and rapid HIV testing kits.

Africa: Will e-learning make teachers redundant?

2007-06-14

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=38077

Does electronic learning (eLearning) threaten to displace the teacher? This question emerged at an international conference held in Nairobi last week, attended by 1,400 people from 88 countries. The latest in information communication technology (ICT) with a focus on education, training and development was showcased.

Gambia: New Gambian academy puts science centre stage

2007-06-14

http://tinyurl.com/38bpx3

The Gambia has announced the creation of its first science academy, which will address the shortage of scientists in the country. The academy will prepare students at primary and secondary level for university-level science, technology and mathematics courses.

Niger: UN says education sector ready for more donor attention

2007-06-15

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72692

Niger’s government along with two United Nations agencies have called on donors and NGOs to restart assistance for education in Niger following a corruption scandal last year which led to the freezing of most funds. “[We] call on all development partners to pool their resources to improve access to quality education in Niger,” Niger’s ministry of education said in a joint statement with the World Food Programme and the UN Children’s Agency (UNICEF).

South Africa: New study on the effect of labor migration and remittances on children’s education

2007-06-14

http://www.ccpr.ucla.edu/ccprwpseries/ccpr_001_07.pdf

In South Africa, black people are much more likely to migrate for work and to send remittances home than any other group. This paper published by the California Center for Population Research studies the effect of those remittances on black children’s schooling, using data from household and labour force surveys.

Namibia: Gay week set to attract 'straight' community

2007-06-14

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=namibia&id=1607

Straight talk with straight friends’ is The Rainbow Project’s (trp) LGBTI Week’s theme this year with the event taking place between 27 and 30 June. The Namibian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) organisation – trp – endevours to raise awareness and educate the public about diversity.

South Africa: Exhibition by Zanele Muholi

2007-06-14

http://www.michaelstevenson.com/contemporary/exhibitions/muholi/being.htm

A prominent activist in empowerment organisations, Zanele Muholi (b. 1972) is concerned with the intimate portrayal of the lives of black lesbian women in South Africa. Of this new body of colour and black-and-white work, she writes, "Being is an exploration of both our existence and our resistance as lesbians/women loving women, as black women living our intersecting identities in a country that claims equality for all within the LGBTI community, and beyond."

Africa: Climate caught in red tape

2007-06-15

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72733

The residents of Umkhanyakude, a poor rural district in northeastern South Africa, say they have been producing less food over the past few decades because the rains have become more erratic. Unable to grow enough food, many have been forced to seek work away from home for long periods of time. HIV then rose, said development agency Oxfam Australia, which has been working with the community since 2005, and has tried to help the people of Umkhanyakude understand the link between their altered lifestyle and climate change.

Africa: Human cost will force countries to focus on climate change

2007-06-15

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72687

If the "human cost" of climate change is calculated, countries will be forced to sit up and take notice, according to a former senior United Nations official. "Most people are unable to relate to the projections of increase in temperature or the impact of climate change on the economy, but if the climate change forecasts are linked to possible deaths, then countries will be forced to contemplate prevention plans," said Yvette Stevens, the former UN Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator.

East Africa: Ban on plastic bags

2007-06-15

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6754127.stm

Kenya and Uganda have banned the use of thin plastic bags in an effort to curb environmental damage. Ugandan Finance Minister Ezra Suruma banned the importation and use of the thinnest bags and imposed a 120% tax on thicker ones in his new budget. The Kenyan finance minister imposed similar restrictions in his budget, following Rwanda and Tanzania.

Zimbabwe: Forests felled for firewood

2007-06-15

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72688

Firewood has become Zimbabwe's hottest seller, with demand shooting up since the introduction two weeks ago of widespread and prolonged power outages to give the irrigation of winter wheat fields a priority allocation of dwindling energy supplies.

South Africa: Back to the land of our parents

2007-06-15

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=38169

‘‘Today we are here to say never again shall our people lose their land rights because they are black,'' said Lulama Xingwana, South Africa's minister of agriculture and land affairs. She was speaking at the handover of a section of land in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi National Park about one hour's drive from the mining and industrial town of Richards Bay. Richards Bay is about eight hours by car from South Africa's commercial hub of Johannesburg.

South Africa: Land Returned in World Heritage Site

2007-06-15

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=38170

A section of the world heritage site the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, Africa's largest estuary, has been returned to its rightful owners, who have in turn undertaken to manage the land in accordance with the country's environmental laws. The park, situated in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province adjacent to the Indian Ocean, was proclaimed in 1999 as a world heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Algeria: Blogger charged with criminal defamation

2007-06-15

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/84107/

The Algerian government has laid a defamation charge against blogger "Abd el Salam Baroudy", administrator of the "Bilad Telmesan" blog, for criticizing an official in an article published in February 2007. Baroudy is scheduled to face the Telmesan First Degree Court on 11 June 2007. In his article, Baroudy criticized the chair of Religious Affairs and Endowment in Telmesan province for banning cooperation between imams (religious leaders) from mosques and local broadcasters.

Algeria: Opposition leader withdraws charges against journalists

2007-06-15

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/84119/

The chairman of the opposition Popular Front political party, Ch'bih Ould Cheikh Malainnie, has withdrawn complaints of defamation he filed against three journalists from privately-owned Nouakchott-based newspapers. The journalists, managing editor of the daily newspaper "L'Authentique", Oumar Moctar, managing editor of the daily "Al Vejr", Tah Ould Ahmed, and managing editor of the daily "Al Alem", Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Bakar, were on 28 May interrogated by police for about one and a half hours, following a complaint against them made by Malainnie.

DRC: Leading journalist gunned down

2007-06-14

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=22539

Journalist Serge Maheshe, who was news editor of the Bukavu office of UN-backed Radio Okapi, was shot by gunmen as he was about to get into his UN-marked car in a residential neighbourhood. “A great journalist, who did honour to his profession in a country that has suffered terribly, has been the victim of a targeted murder by determined men who were waiting to kill him,” Reporters Without Borders said.

Senegal: Radio station mired in technicalities

2007-06-14

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=38163

For a while it appeared as if Madiambal Diagne might have found a way around the Senegalese government's apparent determination to keep him away from the airwaves. The well-known journalist and head of "Avenir communications" (Future Communications) had tried since 2003 to start a radio station, only to be told that frequencies were at saturation point -- this as pro-government persons succeeded in setting up stations, Diagne told IPS.

Somalia: Minister lifts ban on three radio stations

2007-06-14

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=22473

Somalia's transitional federal government has decided to allow three privately-owned radio stations - HornAfrik, Shabelle and Quran Kariim (Holy Koran) - to resume broadcasting, four days after it ordered them to suspend operations. "This decision was to be expected, as the high-handed fashion in which the stations were closed was both abusive and counter-productive," Reporters Without Borders said.

Africa: The politics of coevalness and the creation of a Black counterpublic sphere

Zine Magubane

2007-06-14

http://tinyurl.com/262axu

In this article, Zine Magubane explores the complex range of issues raised by Oprah’s philanthropy. Chief among them are the power relations that inform charitable acts; the racial politics and history that structure Oprah’s relationship to her viewers; the images of Africa in contemporary culture and how they help to frame her acts of charity; and the significance of Oprah as a trans-racial, trans-cultural, and trans-national cultural icon.

Barring Winnie Mandela from Canada

Global Afrikan Congress

2007-06-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/diaspora/41969

The triumph of ending political apartheid in South Africa is at the doorstep of the Rt. Honourable Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. When the racist and murderous apartheid regimes in South Africa and Namibia forced many freedom fighters into exile, and/or otherwise silenced them, they could not succeed in getting Winnie Madikizela-Mandela to compromise her principles, even in the face of death threats, bullying and coercion.
The triumph of ending political apartheid in South Africa is at the doorstep of the Rt. Honourable Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. When the racist and murderous apartheid regimes in South Africa and Namibia forced many freedom fighters into exile, and/or otherwise silenced them, they could not succeed in getting Winnie Madikizela-Mandela to compromise her principles, even in the face of death threats, bullying and coercion.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s record as a freedom fighter is impeccable and she stood her ground under siege, harassment, wiretaps and all the apartheid dirty tricks in the world to degrade, humiliate, disrupt and create chaos in the African National Congress (ANC) when she was the voice and face of the ANC.

She is feared by the white world- inside and outside of South Africa- because economic, social and cultural apartheid in South Africa is alive and yet to be dismantled. She carries this message every where she goes and to whomever she speaks. White control of the commanding heights of the South African economy and social institutions is the reason why Winnie Madikizala-Mandela is demonized and vilified inside and outside of South Africa by powerful corporate media conglomerates. Quite the opposite view of her is held by the downtrodden masses of African people.

The recent spate of barring of African justice campaigners from entry into Canada by the Canadian government, has everything to do with the growing consciousness of African Canadians with respect to their daily experience of racial discrimination, negative profiling, denial of access and opportunities and deprivation of rights and entitlements under the law.

African Canadians are organizing to fight the injustice they have faced from the period of European enslavement of Africans inside of Canada and its current day legacy that continues to blight the lives of Blacks, especially our youth. This sacred duty is embedded in the struggle for reparations and restitution within a framework of law and justice.

The barring of Bobby Seale, Malik Zulu Shabazz, and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is a straightforward case of anti-Black racism long advocated and articulated by members of the “New Conservative Party of Canada”, the former “Reform Party of Canada”, that forms the present government of Canada. Many in the present governing political party have disdain for Black people and have said so openly. They are now implementing such a policy in various ways.

One of these ways is under the guise of Law and Order, to build bigger top- security prisons as opposed to joining Black community leaders in the crusade against poverty.

Responsible and progressive leaders in the African Canadian community are cognizant of the interrelatedness between poverty and the increasing violent behaviour in our community and told this to all three levels of governments in Canada. To date, the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has refused to meet with members of the Coalition of African Canadian Community Organizations to discuss this problem and search for practical, workable, solutions in the crusade against poverty.

A senior Cabinet minister in the present government did not have any problem giving his personal telephone number and returning telephone calls to a few leaders in the African Canadian community while in opposition. He is nowhere to be found today. Telephone calls placed to him are not answered either personally, or by ministry staff. Why is this Cabinet minister no longer available to work with the African Canadian community to address the removal of structural racism embedded in the Canadian society? Why is Prime Minister Stephen Harper fighting for Human Rights in Russia and China and not ensuring such rights for African Canadians at home?

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Whatever affects the African Canadian community directly, affects all communities indirectly. The narrow provincial view of the “outside agitator” educating young people to understand their plight and inciting them to rebellion is a superficial social analysis that is avoiding the underlying causes of social alienation of African Canadians.

Freedom of speech is a right enjoyed by most white Canadians. Why should the African Canadian community have their rights guaranteed under the constitution taken away? Why do white societies think they can determine what information Black people should have and not have? Why do white societies think Blacks are incapable of deciding what to accept and what to reject?

Barring Bobby Seale, Malik Zulu Shabazz, and Winnie Madikzela-Mandela from coming to Canada is anti-democratic, racist and an affront to the sensibilities of African people. As Gandhi has said, “Freedom does not drop from the sky. One has to struggle and be willing to die for it.” This is something Black people understand and do not need any of the banned persons to tell them.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is one of our heroines, belonging to the pantheon of African heroes and heroines such as Harriet Tubman, Nanny (Maroon resistance leader against British slavery in Jamaica 1680-1750), Sojourner Truth, Marcus Garvey, C.L.R James, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Toussaint L’Overture, Antonio Maceo, Kwame Nkrumah, Malcolm X, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Ture, Alfie Roberts, Walter Rodney -.the long list of Africans who fought against the turbulent history of slavery, and freedom from political and economic oppression.

How ironic that Nelson Mandela is revered all over the world because he was able to overcome his anger and bitterness at the apartheid regime’s crimes of murdering thousands of women, children, and men; Bantustan Laws (learned from Canada) and numerous crimes against humanity, including his imprisonment for 27 years? What lesson has the Stephen Harper government learned from Nelson Mandela’s political and life experiences?

Throughout the history of war there have always been casualties of war, and the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela-led ANC war against the criminal apartheid regimes in South Africa had its casualties.

The 2003 fraud conviction was related to bank loans while she was president of the ANC women’s league to assist women and children excluded from access to bank loans because of the criminal policy of the apartheid structure still waiting to be eradicated. The fraud was not for personal gain and benefit, unlike the British Royal family’s participation in the trade of Africans as slaves and slavery. The same can be said for the many Canadian government financial scandals where government officials’ participation was for personal gains.

African Canadians must lament and take action in relation to what is happening to their communities inside of Canada. It was Martin Luther King, Jr. who reminded us that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressors; it must be demanded by the oppressed. The Global Afrikan Congress is not afraid to speak truth to power and we will. We encourage other African Canadian organizations to do the same.

The Stephen Harper government is ideologically committed to further marginalizing and excluding African Canadians from the mainstream of Canadian society. In November of 2006, at the United Nations debate on the bicentenary of the so-called abolition of the trade in Africans as slaves, this government said slavery was legal, in defiance of the United Nations World Conference against racism that declared the slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity. The Canadian government is leading the white world against paying reparations and repairing the damage of slavery.

The government’s intensification of oppression and the abuse of human rights of African Canadians must be exposed and resisted. The Global Afrikan Congress submitted a report to the United Nations Convention on the Eradication of all Forms of Racial Discrimination in January 2007 and will seek out organizations like the Organization of American States (OAS) and the British Commonwealth of Nations to do the same. It is our blood responsibility and principles to defend the rights of African people, and we are proud to do so. We are not for sale and we will continue to inform and educate, speaking truth to power always with malice towards none.

Cikiah Thomas
Co-Chair
Global Afrikan Congress

Toronto, Canada
June 12, 2007

DRC: African nations seek to end 'theatre of violence'

2007-06-15

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=311140

Delegates from 20 African countries began talks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday on the process of disarming and reintegrating former combatants to boost peace and development on the violence-wracked continent.

East Africa: South Sudan suffers from Uganda's LRA rebels - report

2007-06-14

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN423940.html

Security forces in southern Sudan are in desperate need for training and funding to protect civilians against attacks by Ugandan rebels, aid agency World Vision said in a report on Wednesday. Civilians and officials in Western Equatoria state, where Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels had been staying under a Sudanese-brokered truce with the government in Kampala, have blamed the guerrillas for looting, raping, killing and abducting children in the area.

Somalia: Somali gunmen attack Ethiopians, kill official

2007-06-14

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN426315.html

Somali insurgents shot dead a local official on Thursday and attacked Ethiopian troops overnight just hours after a second attempt to start a peace conference was postponed, residents said. Islamist-led insurgents have been fighting the Somali government and its Ethiopian allies since the New Year when they were ousted from Mogadishu in a two-week offensive.

Sudan: U.N. Seeks African troops for new hybrid force

2007-06-14

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=38162

The United Nations is saddled with the arduous task of raising a 17,000 to 20,000-strong peacekeeping force for the politically troubled Darfur region in Sudan following a long-awaited agreement for the creation of a joint U.N.-African Union (AU) mission for that country.

Sudan: UN lauds Darfur pact but implementation difficult

2007-06-14

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnBAN423645.html

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Sudan's agreement on a large force for Darfur "a milestone" on Wednesday but U.N. envoys acknowledged challenges on command structures and finding enough troops. "It was a milestone development," Ban said. "Even though slow, we have been making steady progress ... and we are now moving toward the right direction." Sudan accepted the agreement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Tuesday.

Africa: Options for terrestrial connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa

2007-06-14

http://eldis.webcrossing.com/docs/SidaBackbonefinal.pdf

Mobile GSM operators in Sub-Saharan Africa are rapidly covering most populated areas with telephone services. A new report by SIDA makes an inventory of existing transmission backbones in 18 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and discusses issues related to solutions for improved utilization of such networks.

Kenya: Telecentre network kicks off

2007-06-15

http://community.telecentre.org/en-tc/node/28636

The steering committee for the Kenya Telecentre Network (KTN) held its first meeting at Ugunja Community Resource Centre (UCRC), a telecentre located in the western part of Kenya. The main aim of the UCRC meeting was to review both the Uganda and Benin deliberations and chart a way forward on how to strengthen the Kenya Telecentre Network with a view to bridging the digital divide between rural and urban communities in Kenya and most importantly, managing and sustaining telecentres in rural areas.

Uganda: Phone-tapping to be legalized?

2007-06-14

http://tinyurl.com/26neod

Government security agencies in Uganda will start tapping phones freely should the Bill seeking to legalise interception of information get approval from Parliament. The Regulation of Interception of Communication Bill 2007, which has passed the Cabinet, was tabled before the NRM caucus late in May by Security Minister Amama Mbabazi.

Zimbabwe: Exiles turn to the web

2007-06-15

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=311156

Inflation in Zimbabwe is soaring, and its citizens abroad are pitching in to help relatives at home -- giving part of their earnings in South Africa, for example, to Zimbabwean businessmen there, who then truck food, cooking oil and other scarcities across the border. Now a high-tech solution has arrived, with internet-based companies allowing Zimbabweans across the globe to go online to buy their loved ones everything from fuel and food to generators.

Africa: Call for workshop on trade and health

2007-06-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/42048

This call invites applicants from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe to participate in a programme of skills training and national advocacy on trade and health. It involves a workshop on Policy Advocacy for health and trade being held on August 31-September 1 2007 in Tanzania, and a mentored follow up programme of research, advocacy and report back on specific trade and health issues at country level. The call closes On July 3, 2007.
Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) with Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC)in The Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET)


Call for applicants
Training and advocacy on trade and health

Call Closes On July 3, 2007!


This call invites applicants from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe to participate in a programme of skills training and national advocacy on trade and health. It involves a workshop on Policy Advocacy for health and trade being held on August 31-September 1 2007 in Tanzania, and a mentored follow up programme of research, advocacy and report back on specific trade and health issues at country level

Background

SEATINI with TARSC under the EQUINET umbrella are carrying out work on the health and trade theme (see www.equinetafrica.org and www.seatini.org) . This work involves skills building, research and information exchange on the effects of trade agreements on health. In 2007 this work focuses on key trade and health issues, including Intellectual Property Rights protection in the TRIPS agreement and access to medicines, the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) being negotiated between East and Southern Africa countries and the European Union and their implications for health and trade agreements promoting the liberalisation of health care services.

Within this programme SEATINI / EQUINET will host a training workshop on policy engagement and advocacy to promote health in trade agreements in Bagamayo, Tanzania, August 31 and Sep 1 2007. The workshop will cover general issues of trade and health, and a deeper review of TRIPS and use of TRIPS flexibilities, the EU-ESA EPA, and health services liberalisation. It will include 2 people from each of the following countries: Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, one each from health and trade backgrounds.

The workshop will develop proposals for follow up national work between September 07 and December 07 to take forward measures to protect health goals within the TRIPS and EPA, including dialogue using materials developed on these issues with officials, parliamentarians, civil society and other key stakeholders and dialogue to support informed media as a means to achieve agreed outcomes on TRIPS and EPAs on health. The programme will provide training and information materials. SEATINI will monitor and support the implementation of the national advocacy plans and give support to the trainees, in co-operation other institutions in EQUINET.

We invite interested organisations and individuals with either a health or a trade background to submit an application to participate in the programme. Applicants must be available for both the workshop and to carry out and report on agreed follow up activities between September and December 2007. The follow up activities will not require full time work and will be supported through a grant. EQUINET will sponsor accepted delegates for airfares and full board for the workshop. Participants of existing EQUINET programmes are welcome to apply.

Interested applicants from Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda are asked to send in by July 3 2007
- a personal CV clearly showing health and/ OR trade qualifications, expertise, experience and publications
- brief information on the institution that they work in, their own position and work, and any work they have done themselves related to trade and / or health
- confirmation that they are available for both the workshop and the follow up work.

Applicants are welcome to apply as teams of two people (one trade and one health person), or to apply singly as individuals from one or other of these areas of work.

Applicants should submit this information by 3 July 2007 to the EQUINET secretariat admin@equinetafrica.org and copy it to percy@seatini.org Accepted delegates will be notified by Monday 16 July 2007.

The focal point for queries on this programme is Mr Percy F Makombe, SEATINI. Please send queries through admin@equinetafrica.org and copy to percy@seatini.org

While this initial training is focused on the four countries above in the first stage, the work on trade and health will extend to all countries in ESA. Those interested in the areas of focus for the programme should please contact the EQUINET secretariat at admin@equinetafrica.org for further information, including possible participation in the workshop as fully self sponsored delegates.

Africa: Grant call: Impact of private capital flows in health care

2007-06-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/42047

This project explores the manner in which private capital flows are impacting on the health care sector within the region, and the effect this has on national health systems and equitable access to health care. The programme is making a call to researchers from east and southern Africa to apply to participate in the programme. Research teams will be expected to show evidence of expertise in health systems, trade, economics through one or more members of the team. The call closes on 28 June 2007
Rhodes University Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC) and, Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institution (SEATINI) in the
Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET)

CALL FOR RESEARCHERS

Capital flows in the health care sector in east and southern Africa: Implications for equity and access to health care

Call closes: 28 June 2007

Project focus

This project explores the manner in which private capital flows are impacting on the health care sector within the region, and the effect this has on national health systems and equitable access to health care.

Background

The SADC region has identified the combating of poverty as a priority, through building up the capital assets of the poor, reducing inequalities, and promoting knowledge and health in poor areas. The profile of health in east and southern Africa shows a high prevalence of diseases of poverty. While access to health care has expanded, there are continuing problems of lowest income groups having poorer access to health care. The region has also in the past decade experienced reductions in financing for public services and a growth in commercialised services, from informal sector primary care level services through to specialised private hospitals. Proponents of private for profit sector expansion in health care have argued that the private sector is cost effective, provides quality care, is able to complement government in expanding coverage and relieves pressure on public funding. The private sector has, however, had a mixed record in health systems in the region, with report of poor quality of care, limited reach beyond higher income groups, barriers to access due to user charges and fragmentation of risk pools. Despite these problems there is evidence that privatisation of health care services is expanding and new pressures for liberalised trade in health care services are being exercised through global and bilateral trade agreements.

This three year research programme seeks to better understand the flows of private capital that lie behind the growth of the for profit health care sector in the region, particularly as it is being effected through,
- Changes in ownership from public to private of medical infrastructure and of the anciliary and health related services that support health care: the clinical aspects- drug procurement, laboratory services, etc - the ‘hotel’ aspects– accommodation, food, waste and hygiene; the transport and communications services- ambulances, communications- and the health worker and knowledge support - medical and other training schools, health worker recruitment and deployment etc
- Changes in ownership and share of financing by private for profit financing- voluntary health insurance, medical aid, prepayment schemes and health management schemes

The programme is being implemented under the umbrella of the Regional network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa led by the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), South Africa, with the Training and Research Support Centre, Southern and East African Trade and Information Negotiations Institute (SEATINI), and in co-operation Health Economics Unit, UCT and York University, Canada. It is supported by Southern Africa Health Trust and from EQUINET through IDRC Canada and SIDA Sweden. The programme will over two years 2007-9
Review literature on capital flows and develop the analytic frameworks and methodologies for the work.
- Identify four country teams for background mapping of current capital flows and select three countries for follow up work
- In early September hold a workshop for selected country teams and research institutions on the research methodologies and work-plans.
- Implement in 2008 fieldwork in three countries
- Compile evidence from the region and provide web accessible reference materials on trends in capital flows, the impact on health systems and policy responses
- Integrate the evidence and analysis into existing capacity building and research programmes in EQUINET and into web based training on social policy
- In 2009 prepare reports on the evidence gathered and review these with key stakeholders at national and regional level to identify potential policy responses
- Prepare scientific reports, briefs, leaflets on the findings to disseminate to policy, official, parliamentary and civil society actors in ESA.
- Hold a regional meeting in ESA on the findings involving key stakeholders

The call

The programme is making a call to researchers from east and southern Africa to apply to participate in the programme. Research teams will be expected to show evidence of expertise in health systems, trade, economics through one or more members of the team.
The research teams are invited to submit concept notes to carry out an initial mapping and review of the capital flows outlined above in the health sector in their own countries drawing only from secondary evidence that will present documented evidence on:
- The current composition of the health sector, particularly showing the public-private mix and detailing the nature of the private for profit sector
- The current situation and trends over time post 1995 in private capital flows to the health sector (differentiating sources and targets of capital flows)
- The key entry points for capital (eg construction of health facilities, contracting out, PPP, management contracts etc) including within the public sector and distribution by area, level of health service of capital invested
- Documented evidence on the impact on the health care sector, in terms of financing, resource allocation, service provisioning, and access
- The arguments used to support private flows, the role of trade agreements, and the policy, regulatory, institutional and public responses to the capital flows
- Issues arising in relation to methods used to analyse capital flows and their impacts, including data availability and bias
The concept notes should detail in brief the major areas of analysis, the key sources of evidence and any expected difficulties in preparing the review.

The reviews will be prepared in July 2006, first complete drafts submitted by 3 August 2007 and final drafts by 20 August 2007. The first drafts will be used to select three countries for follow up field work and participation in the methods workshop to be held in Tanzania in September 2-3 2007. A grant of US $5 000 will be given for the production of each of the reviews and applicants for the workshop will have full costs met for the workshop and a grant for follow up field work in 2007/8.

This is an open call. Applications should be emailed to be received by 5pm June 28 2007 with:
- CAPITAL FLOWS in the subject line
- A brief one-two page concept note as above
- CVs and contact information including email of the project leader and the names and qualifications of any team members
- The names and contact information of two referees
- A sample of an output that the applicant has produced in an area closely related to that of the case studies

Applicants should submit this information to admin@equinetafrica.org AND to Katie Farrington k.farrington@ru.ac.za at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER). Accepted delegates will be notified by Thursday 5 July 2007 on the outcome of their submission. For further enquiries, please contact admin@equinetafrica.org AND Katie Farrington, ISER at k.farrington@ru.ac.za

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe: Biafra Revisited

New titles from Africa Books Collective

2007-06-14

http://tinyurl.com/2vkgol

It is now forty years since the beginning of the genocide of the Igbo people, a holocaust of unprecedented proportions in recent African history. According to the author of this study it was the ‘foundational genocide of post-conquest, European-occupied Africa’. This text demonstrates that the Biafran War, 1967-1970, was the second phase of the Igbo genocide, following the initial massacre of 100,000 Igbo across the principal towns and cities of northern Nigeria.
ISBN: 978-0-9552050-0-2 183pp. 2006 African Renaissance
$29.95/£19.95

Orders
North America - Michigan State Univ. Press, www.msupress.msu.edu
Elsewhere - African Books Collective, www.africanbookscollective.com

Joe Ebiegberi Alagoa: The Practice of History in Africa. A History of African Historiography

New titles from Africa Books Collective

2007-06-14

http://tinyurl.com/2g3h75

A history of African historiography from an African perspective, attempting to answer questions concerning the practice of history from the civilizations of ancient Egypt, through the varied cultures and regions of the continent, to contemporary times. The book presents the philosophy of the oral tradition as co-existent with the written traditions of ancient Egypt, the Islamic tradition, and the western European historiographical traditions.
ISBN: 978-97837314-7-9 312pp. 2006 Onyoma Research Publications
$29.95/£19.95

Orders
North America - Michigan State Univ. Press, www.msupress.msu.edu
Elsewhere - African Books Collective, www.africanbookscollective.com

Nigeria: Chinua Achebe lands Man Booker

2007-06-15

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=311174

Nigeria's Chinua Achebe, hailed as the father of modern African writing, has been awarded the £60 000 Man Booker International Prize. His award capped a triumphant month for Nigerian authors as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie last week landed the Orange Prize, one of the literary world's top awards for women writers.

Wole Soyinka. The Invention & The Detainee

New titles from Africa Books Collective

2007-06-14

http://tinyurl.com/yqxnxw

The first formal publication of two early plays by Soyinka, with a foreword by Abiola Irele. Widely regarded as Soyinka's first play, The Invention (1959) reflects the obsession with race that marked the apartheid regime, and prophetically depicts the beginnings of the crumbling of the apartheid system in the futuristic setting of Johannesburg in 1976. It expresses the concern of the African diapsora with apartheid, which was felt to be an affront to the entire race. The Detainee (1965) is a radio play. The plot foreshadows the writer's own imprisonment and his now familiar concerns about the vagaries of African politics.

'...these plays take us back to the first manifestation of a creative genius that was soon to flourish.' - Abiola Irele
ISBN: 978-1-86888-329-5 94pp. UNISA Press 2005
$19.95/£14.95

Orders:
Africa - UNISA Press - http://tinyurl.com/ytwu5h
North America - Michigan State Univ. Press - www.msupress.msu.edu
Elsewhere - African Books Collective www.africanbookscollective.com

Global: Project coordinator - Remember Ken Saro-Wiwa Project

2007-06-14

http://www.remembersarowiwa.com/jobs.htm

PLATFORM is looking for a Project Co-ordinator for the Remember Saro-Wiwa project, working to drive forward this unique initiative that combines the arts, human rights and the environment. Deadline for applications is 6pm Thursday 21st June 2007.

Fahamu