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Pambazuka News seeks Editor

2007-10-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/43614

Pambazuka News is a prize-winning electronic newsletter on social justice. It is produced by a pan-African community of some 300 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators. We are seeking an a dynamic and energetic editor whose primary task will be leading on the development of Pambazuka News as the principal platform of progressive and critical political analysis in Africa.

For further details see the link below.
Pambazuka News is a prize-winning electronic newsletter on social justice. It is produced by a pan-African community of some 300 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators. Established in 2000, now with an audience of hundreds of thousands of readers and with content reproduced widely by other websites, news services and the mainstream media, it has become an influential advocacy tool for women's rights, media and freedom of expression, accountability and good governance. The newsletter is distributed by email twice a week (Thursdays and Fridays) and its content is reproduced on the Pambazuka News website (www.pambazuka.org).


EDITOR: PAMBAZUKA NEWS

We are seeking an editor whose primary task will be leading on the development of Pambazuka News as the principal platform of progressive and critical political analysis in Africa.

Reporting to the Director of Fahamu, the editor of Pambazuka News will be responsible for:

* Contributing to the overall policy of the publication
* Deciding the principal themes to be addressed each week
* Deciding on the content of the newsletter each week
* Ensuring that the publication provides a platform for diverse views within the movements for social justice in Africa
* Commissioning articles from potential writers and contributors in Africa or the African diaspora
* Writing periodic editorials
* Planning publication of a series of special issues over the year
* Ensuring that articles are commissioned in a timely manner and ensuring the quality of copy of materials to be published
* Commissioning interviews for podcasting
* Recruiting, managing and overseeing the development of staff
* Contributing to resource mobilisation
* Contributing to the development of a print edition of Pambazuka News

Essential requirements

You must:
* Be committed to Pan-Africanism and to vision and values of Fahamu and Pambazuka News;
* Be an experienced journalist (at least 5 years in an African or Africa related publication);
* Have an substantial knowledge of political developments in Africa;
* Have established working relationships with key commentators and analysts in Africa;
* Have an established track-record in publishing on Africa, preferably in politics or the social sciences or similar;
* Have an established track-record as an activist and participated actively in pan African coalitions;
* Demonstrable ability to work as part of a team;
* Have strong communications skills;
* Have an ability to summarise complex information in everyday language;
* Have an ability to nurture the development of potential contributors to Pambazuka News;
* Be fluent in written and spoken English;
* Be able to work under pressure and to tight deadlines;
* Be highly organised.
* Have some experienced in radio journalism.
* Be a national of an African country;
* Be experienced with the internet and with common office programmes.

Optional requirements
You will also: * Be located preferably in an African country where broadband internet connection is available; * Have a working knowledge of French and/or Portuguese and/or Arabic; * Be proficient in at least one other African language

This is a full-time position. Salary depending on experience.

To apply, please send a detailed CV together with a letter of at least two pages explaing how you fulfill the essential requirements of the post described above.

Short-listed candidates will be invited to complete a series of assignments designed to test your ability to perform the work. Applications should be sent to fahamujobs@googlemail.com to reach not later than 09.00 GMT on Friday 9 November 2007.

Pambazuka News wins award

Firoze Manji

2007-10-10

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/43629

We are pleased to inform you that, for the third consecutive year, Pambazuka News has been voted by subscribers and voters around the world to be amongst "The Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics" in an award organised by PoliticsOnline and World E-Gov Forum.

http://www.politicsonline.com/content/main/specialreports/2007/top10_2007/

The judges stated: "This prestigious award seeks to recognize the innovators and pioneers, the dreamers and doers who bring democracy online. This year marked the toughest year ever in choosing the 20 finalists."

Thank you to all of you who voted for Pambazuka News, our readers, writers and contributors. This is your award. Congratulations to you all.

Thomas Sankara: Chronicle of an organised tragedy

Cheriff M. Sy

2007-10-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/43671

It is 20 years since a great combatant for African dignity, integrity and human liberation, Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, was assassinated. Widely recognised as pivotal to his death, his incumbent, Blaise Compaoré, meanwhile, has been in power for 20 years. Frequently compared with such dictators as Mbotu at home, his legitimacy resting solely on orchestrating the military coup that murdered Sankara.

On the commemoration the anniversary of his death that will be mourned in Burkina Faso and marked by the popular leader’s supporters throughout the world, Cheriff M. Sy, editor of the progressive and independent Burkinabe weekly political and cultural affairs journal, Bendré, recounts the assassination of one of Africa’s most important independence leaders, and assesses the legacy for his country and continent.

The tragic fate of Thomas Sankara is tied to the struggle for a social democracy. The ‘Africa mafia’, the businesspeople and their collaborators who control Africa, did not like the struggle. Therefore, he had to be exterminated. They found armed hands among the local ranks. The killing machine splurged into motion.

Reflecting on the causes of a dark Thursday

‘In favour of the meandering direction of history, this autocrat heaved himself up to the head of our revolution to choke it from the inside. This high treason was illustrated by his derision of all the organisational principles, the various denials of the noble objectives of the RDP [Rassemblement Démocratique et Populaire: ‘democratic and popular rally’], the personalisation of power, the mystical vision. As for bringing solutions to the concrete problems of the masses, everything engendered demobilisation at the heart of the militant people.’ – Extract from the Proclamation of 15 October 1987

‘People of Burkina Faso…the tragic moments that we lived through on 15 October belong to the exceptional events that often make up the history of the peoples. As revolutionaries, we must have the courage to assume our responsibilities. We did so through the proclamation of the Popular Front. We will continue…with determination, for the triumph of the objectives of the August revolution. This brutal denouement shocks us all as human beings, and me more than most, for having been his comrade in arms, moreover, his friend. For us too, he remains a revolutionary comrade who got things wrong.’ – Extract from the message to the nation delivered by the president of the Popular Front, comrade captain Blaise Compaoré, 19 October 1987

On Thursday 15 October 1987, the democratic and popular revolution in Burkina Faso was brutally arrested on the strike of 4pm. After the onslaught of the kalashnikovs, which lasted all the evening, the signed Proclamation of the Popular Front fell down like thick rain mixed with hail, surprising the RDP militants as much as those uninterested in and distanced from the revolution.

For a while, it had been known that there was a serious crisis in the national revolutionary council. Its principal leaders, formerly united, no longer agreed about orientation and strategy for action. Increasingly, the four historic leaders, Thomas Sankara, Blaise Compaoré, Boukary Lingani and Henri Zongo, appeared to be ‘too many’ to lead the revolutionary movement.

But the serious crisis that shook the RDP leaders remains mainly concealed from the grass-roots militants, to the extent that they will be surprised by the magnitude and the brutality of the October denouement.

Additionally, many sincere militants still regret the outcome of the 15 October, as it has been presented, telling themselves there had been no lack of opportunity for debates about ideas to avoid this tragic event. But those responsible for the coup ran a significant risk by giving Thomas Sankara a voice, because he was such a convincing speaker that he may have emerged victorious.

His same capacity for persuasion led to certain decisions, which have retrospectively been judged as wilful or spontaneous, whereas in his time, he did not receive such constant criticisms. And this same personality trait of the late president saved the skin of more than one soul, whom close collaborators wanted to sacrifice, over-and-over, on the alter of the counter-revolution.

In fact, we can ascertain that the interventions of 15 October and the subsequent adjustments were precisely because the comrades who had started the RDP with Thomas Sankara were already exhausted. They had neither the strength nor the heart to continue. As there were influential enemies within and outside of the revolution, they had no difficulty in rallying to their side a whole world of people to counterbalance the RDP. The invented reasoning of ‘betraying the initial path’ was rapidly conjured up.

Now, captain Thomas Sankara was the first to realise the need to democratise, which he professed in his speech of August 1987 in Bobo Dioulasso: ‘Burkina Faso needs a people of conviction, not a vanquished people subjugated to their fate.’

He thus began the genuine rectification of the RDP, otherwise marked by the release of several political and common law prisoners. The wrongly sanctioned would be able to restart their careers.

But this policy, initiated by Thomas Sankara, was quickly short-circuited by the events of 15 October, and claimed by the Popular Front. The image of Sankara as closed and hostile to openings had to stick.

Things accelerated after the speech of reconciliation on August 87 in Bobo Dioulasso, when Sankara said: ‘in recent years, we have sometimes made errors. They must not re-occur in the scared land of Burkina Faso…we must prefer to take one step together with the people rather than ten steps without the people’.

After this speech, it was necessary for his opponents to take power. Leaving Thomas Sankara time to initiate democratisation of the RDP would deprive them of a justified pretext for the plot.

The political crisis that had prevailed for some time, as is customary, benefited the military, and from then on, arms had to speak to unlock it. Such have the tactics of politicians in Bukina Faso always been. Thomas Sankara opposed this, asserting that the soldier must ‘live amongst the people’, and preaching ‘a quarter of chicken per day per soldier’.

During regular meetings with their chief, he constantly made this complaint. To which the chief in question responded that he did not see a problem, except that ‘Sankara is opposed to us’. The soldiers replied: ‘why don’t we remove him?’ By force of repetition, he was finally removed on 15 October 1987.

What happened on that day?

According to Gilbert Diendéré’s book, ‘on 15 October, with the meeting of the officers, elements in the palace accused the soldiers of Pô of organising a coup. The atmosphere was heated…we went our separate ways without reaching an agreement…we knew that Sankara had a council meeting at 4pm and we decided to wait for him there…shortly after 4pm, Sankara’s Peugeot 205 and his guard’s car arrived at the pavilion. A second security car went to park a bit further on. We encircled the cars. Sankara was in sports gear. As always, he held his weapon, an automatic gun, in his hand. He immediately shot and killed one of our people. At this time, all the men broke loose, everyone fired and the situation got out of control…after the events, I telephoned the house of Blaise to inform him. When he arrived, he was extremely disappointed and dissatisfied, above all, when he established there had been 13 deaths’.

So the coup was apparently made without the knowledge of Blaise Compaoré! He declared ‘when I arrived at the council, after the shooting and that I saw the body of Thomas lying in the ground, I failed to have a very violent reaction towards his killers. That would undoubtedly have been a monster carnage, which I would certainly not have got out of alive. But when the soldiers provided me the details of the business, I was disappointed and disgusted…when I asked my men why they had arrested Sankara without informing me, they answered me that if they had done so, I would have refused them. And it is true. I knew that my political camp was strong. Thomas did not control the state any longer. I did not need to enact a coup d’état. But, my men became frightened when they learned, after midday, that we would be arrested in 24 hours’.

However, the truth is that on that day, Thomas Sankara was in a work meeting with some of his collaborators in a room at the council. Always in the council, 70 metres away, there was a white [Peugeot] 504 with seven people. A vehicle arrives at the meeting. The few elements of the guard in front of the room do not worry, because the passengers of the vehicle are their colleagues. The vehicle pulls over; the passengers open fire immediately. A police officer and two drivers are shot dead. They collapse. Thomas Sankara is in the room when he hears the shooting. He stands up, his gun in the hand and said to his collaborators ‘stay, stay, they want me!’ Just after crossing the door, he is shot. He collapses. Do they stop there? No. The attackers entered the room and killed his collaborators.

In short, let us suppose – and it is difficult – that the thesis that captain Blaise wanted to impose on the fait accompli were true. Would that however exonerate him? Would he not have been indirectly at the root of the tragic events of 15 October? Is he not the main beneficiary of the plot?

The man, even if he had never been really thirsty for power, as he claims, leaves any observer of political life in Burkina Faso sceptical all the same. Effectively, after 15 October, he proved that the power cannot be shared. The entire cohort of intellectuals that constituted the insurrectionary committee that psychologically prepared for 15 October with a series of filthy leaflets and intrigues of the lowest order will learn this at their own expense. Commander Boukary Lingani and captain Henri Zongo will learn at theirs.

Today, 20 years later, what should we remember?

Beyond the rhetoric, Sankara died because of his patriotic and progressive convictions, but also because he prevented some of his civilian and military comrades and soldiers from eating luxuriously and spending handsomely, to the detriment of the people.

When he arrived, his country was a ‘mournful synthesis of the sufferings of all humanity’, held the world record on infant mortality, and had permanently negative trade and agricultural balances and extremely high public debts. He wanted to make his country a land of dignity and freedom.

Thus courageously, he redefined the sum total of all the possible and the thinkable ways in which the development of a country among the most denuded in world could be envisaged.

On the evidence that underdevelopment and dependency could not be resolved without the integration of the marginalised, he engaged his country in progressive social transformation.

Sankara’s revolution was simple: work more, spend less and spend better, produce more, be concerned with the priority needs of the country. He said ‘our revolution is and must be permanent; the collective action of the revolutionaries to transform reality and improve the concrete situation of the popular masses our country. Our revolution will only have a value, if, looking back, we will be able to say that the people of Burkina are a little happier because they have clean drinking water, sufficient food, good health, education, decent housing and more freedom, more democracy, more dignity. Our revolution will have a right to exist if it can answer these questions concretely.’

Within a few years, he had achieved a qualitative jump for his country. But he remained aware that the essential questions of his people were those of his whole continent and of all the exploited and oppressed people. Pan-Africanist and anti- globalisation activist, he knew how to be the voice of the voiceless.

One afternoon, bullets of the assassins shot Sankara dead. He fell, but had had time to sow the seeds and sprinkle them with his blood, time to break a link in the chain and free the oppressed youth of Africa.

He was a precursor of an alternative policy to the dependency and enslavement that the global economic institutions continue to impose by their model of development based on indebtedness.

Most importantly he has contributed to the understanding of his people and all the oppressed that a credible alternative cannot come from outside to save them. It is only by relying on themselves and their intrinsic capacity that they may ‘dare to invent the future’ and find the keys of their development and freedom.

Today, in each of our movements for social, political and cultural advancement, Sankara, the man, lives on in us. He will remain forever in the collective consciousness. He will be an example to those struggling for the liberation of humankind.

Link: Thomas Sankara - www.thomassankara.net/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=27

* Cheriff M. Sy is director of the weekly Bendré publication providing information and reflection on Burkina Faso, www.journalbendre.net

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

* Translated and adapted from the original by Stephanie Kitchen.

Thomas Sankara Lives!

Mukoma Wa Ngugi

2007-10-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/43669

Mukoma Wa Ngugi celebrates the lives of Thomas Sankara and Che Guevara, and in doing so, asks us to remember all our other leaders and heroes who died at the hands of colonialism and apartheid.

In April this year, we celebrated 50 yrs of Ghana’s Independence. This October, in addition to remembering the revolutionary promise of Che Guevara executed forty years ago, we will also be remembering that twenty years ago, Thomas Sankara was assassinated – a stark reminder that we are still in the state Odinga Oginga called Not Yet Uhuru. We will be remembering that if Africa suffers today, it is because yesterday its best political minds, and its most fiery and committed sons and daughters were assassinated. All for thirty pieces of silver, for tea, coffee, oil, diamonds, gold, cobalt, uranium and African sweat.

But we should also remember the living. Aziz Fall, the co-coordinator of the International Justice Campaign for Sankara (ICJS) has been receiving anonymous death threats since December 2006. They tell him “stop or be stopped” “commit suicide or face execution” and in the last one, he was informed that his family would be targeted. His crime? Coordinating 22 lawyers dedicated to using legal means to find the truth behind Sankara’s assassination.

The ICJS helped Mariam Sankara, Thomas Sankara’s widow, take her case to the United Nations after, predictably, the legal system in Burkina Faso stalled each time she appeared in court. Finally, in March 2006, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that Sankara’s family has “the right to know the circumstances of his death.” The Committee also argued that failure to correct the natural death entry on Sankara’s death certificate, refusal to investigate his death, and “the lack of official recognition of his place of burial” pointed to “inhumane treatment of Ms. Sankara and her sons” contrary to Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Dictators and your torturers all over the world take note! Article 7 declares: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” In a strange way, the death threats against Aziz further validate the UN ruling.

Victoria Mxenge, Ruth First, Steve Biko, Amilcar Cabral, Samora Machel, Chris Hani, Mhodlane, Kimathi and many others dead at the hands of colonialism and apartheid. But what makes the assassinations of Sankara, Lumumba or Maurice Bishop of Grenada all the more painful is knowing that they were betrayed by those closest to them Then, without exception, they were succeeded by less able people- to say the least. Their successors are egregiously guilty of violently pulling back their societies miles behind the starting line.

After Lumumba, Mobutu –a common thief who under the guise of a shallow nationalism - maimed, killed and stole in the Congo. In Grenada, Bernard Coard’s bloody counter-revolution allowed a predatory U.S. to invade Grenada. And in Burkina Faso, each day we see what President Blaise Compaore has done with the Sankara revolution.

Life expectancy is 47.9 years, adult literacy, 21.8 percent and Burkina Faso now has the dubious distinction of being ranked the 3rd poorest country in the world with 80 percent of its 13 million people living on less than two dollars a day. In November of 2007, Compaore will be running for presidency, again. I say give him five more years to see if he can do it – Let him get Burkina Faso the coveted first place title of poorest country in the whole world!

For a nation to heal, it must know and come to terms with the truth of its past. And it must make good with the promise of that past. In Kenya Dedan Kimathi was hanged and buried in an unmarked grave in Kamiti Prison by the British in 1957 where the post-independence government left him. Having set Kenya on neo-colonial rails and rewarded the collaborators with land, then turned their backs on Mau Mau veterans, both Kenyatta and Moi wanted what Kimathi stood for forgotten. Compaore is afraid of the truth because Sankara is a reminder of how far he has fallen from the promise of the revolution. Compaore knows we know he cannot make good on Sankara’s promise.

We have to remember our dead. But our presidents prefer gold monuments and statues. Sometimes they cultivate heroes’ acres without growing freedom. Better the monument be societies that are free and egalitarian. Instead of grand monuments, it is better we have nations that would welcome the revolutionary dead. Because truth be told, Nkrumah would not have been welcomed to Ghana’s 50 year celebrations. Kimathi would not be welcomed in today’s Kenya and Sankara would be assassinated again in today’s Burkina Faso.

What if Sankara had grown old with us? Would he have become a dictator as we have seen with many? We do not know. But we know how he lived, we know what he died for and his promise. That is what should matter.

Koni Benson, a friend and agitator, named her son Sankara because, she said, “What Thomas Sankara did, tried to do and what happened to him, should not be forgotten. Sankara is the history and the future of the continent. He dared us to invent the future.”

As we remember our dead – Let us also remember the living. We have to dare to dream again. We have to dare to remember the past. And we have to dare to act.


* Mukoma Wa Ngugi is the author of Hurling Words at Consciousness (AWP, 2006) and Conversing with Africa: Politics of Change (KPH, 2003), and editor of the forthcoming, New Kenyan Fiction (Ishmael Reed Publications, 2008). He is a political columnist for the BBC Focus on Africa Magazine where a shorter version of this essay first appeared.

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

Redifining the Feminist Agenda in Post Conflict Zimbabwe

Chipo Mutuma

2007-10-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/43666

“The democratic forces in Zimbabwe will not be sincere if we conclude that the problem of women is the same as that of men. The same stereotypes that should have been buried with past generations are rekindling and this is not an allegation but an honest observation.” Chipo Mutuma warns that unless women’s rights are integrated into all aspects of society in the post-conflict era, “freedom will have to wait for another day”

THE challenge that has affected black people at large and Africans in particular has always been that of gender equity. Like the wording itself, the question of gender has belonged to varying morphology or should I say the various interpretations of that morphology. Words such as gender streamlining, gender sensitivity etc have been used as the rallying call for the fight for the advancement of women in a particular society.

Yet the struggle for the advancement of women has historically and unfortunately been hosted in other more pronounced often generic struggles for emancipation. Thus historically the universal suffrage movement tended to give effect to the rights of the commoner to vote and yet in so doing it became a precursor to the right to be extended to women as well.

Similarly the rights of black women in America in the 1960s found itself concealed if not cocooned or even totally eclipsed in the black consciousness movement of that time which in essence was the debate for the rights of black men to be accepted as equals in the American society……in itself largely androcism and not feministic.

Although women like Rosa Parks became the immediate and posterior symbolism of the struggles of that time her heroism was within the fighting for the generic rights of all black people. Her heroic figure translated later into the change of belief among black American males that black women were in fact capable of equalling them in several spheres of life. Well it came much late in the day though as women in black communities would still be subjected to violence even as America was opening up to Afro-Americans.

Similarly in the Zimbabwean context we have women who have come to symbolise heroic struggles against oppression. Mbuya Nehanda easily comes to mind and so other than iconic figures such as the late Pedzisai Mazorodze, Sally Mugabe, Joice Mujuru, Grace Kwinjeh, Margaret Dongo and others. Their roles mainly were on an agenda that sought to bring change to the entire community rather than one section.

Yet in some instances people often forget to accommodate the other views that they may represent; and to me this is where the feminist agenda comes in. On so many occasions I have had the chance to speak to my cousin Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa on how the issue of women is being tackled in the transitional period between now and the new Zimbabwe given that he is senior in the Movement for Democratic Change.

One of the issues we have touched on is the danger that these issues can easily be diluted or totally forgotten in negotiations as people tend to look specifically at broad themes such as in Zimbabwe's case land; citizenship rights, the economy etc all of which are important but are still not free from the inherent risk that if they do not address the pieces within they will explode with unfulfilled yet important constituent issues that were not addressed on time.

I have two cases in point. The Chilean case and the Iranian case, both of which represent strong women participation during the revolutions yet after the revolution women found themselves worse off than they were during the dictatorships. In Iran women were better during the time of the Shah as he was opening up the space for genuine participation of Iranian women in the governance of the country.

Ironically it was Iranian women who kick-started the revolution that expelled the Shah but as soon as the Islamic Revolution succeeded they found themselves having to operate within the confines of Sharia law that allows them to be killed for adultery while the adulterous man only has to make do with a little canning. It is total injustice and bad salaries for heroes! Similarly I am not so sure whether the issue of women was ever discussed at the Lancaster House Conference.

The delegates were predominantly male and the women cadres were in fact represented by the late Josiah Magama Tongogara for ZANLA and Lookout Masuku and Dumiso Dabengwa for ZIPRA. Worse still ZANU's Women's Wing was a very late phenomenon with the effect that its voice may not have been heard at that time. Issues that purely affected women as represented by cadres and those in war zones were not addressed and the chimbwidos who had ended up carrying unwanted babies from the struggle were left alone, abandoned in a society that quickly developed new stereotypes for women who had participated in the war.

Wearing jeans and trousers for the first time in predominantly black communities they were prostitutes first and foremost and parents discouraged their sons from having affairs with ex-combatants, a problem that later faced Umkhonto we Sizwe women in South Africa in 1994. Those who had babies were worse off as they did not know their babies' fathers. Confined to the unshakable stereotypes of an unforgiving society they found themselves filling beer-halls as prostitutes as they could not get jobs and unlike their male counterparts it was very difficult for one to be employed in the then integrating army or police force if you were a mother.

These stereotypes continue even in this era. The democratic forces in Zimbabwe will not be sincere if we conclude that the problem of women is the same as that of men. The same stereotypes that should have been buried with past generations are rekindling and this is not an allegation but an honest observation. For example it is people's mentalities that those girls and women who are active in politics and Civil society in Zimbabwe and at the Vigil and MDC UK and Ireland here in the UK are loose yet this is an unfortunate stereotype.

We will need an intervention from the Party that recognises this fact and approach issues of equity within this sphere of thinking. One hopes that the leadership of women in the Party will be able to consult widely to get input and then transform that into any post-conflict arrangement that shall emerge through whatever processes. The feeling that one has is that the legacy of the MDC should be that almost every issue was tackled.

This calls us to action and address as a matter of urgency unfortunate abuses that are going on in Zimbabwe as the social fabric falls apart, cases of women who are abandoned by husbands who flee to seek greener pastures but in most cases end up founding other families, cases of daughters who are being sacrificed by families seeking to survive the current scourge of economic hardships and all other related issues.

My feeling is that these things need to be discussed now and not tomorrow; an approach is needed that sets the tone for the future and realistic development of a truly equitable Zimbabwean society which has as its focus the total development of both men and women. Unless this is done it is my feeling that this current transition will be incomplete and total freedom will have to wait for another day.

* Chipo Mutuma is the secretary for the MDC UK and Ireland Women's Branch. She is writes in her own capactity. Email|: chipomutuma at yahoo dot co dot uk

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

Link to Remove Robert Mugabe Campaign - http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_cause/7654

Jena, Resistance and Self Defense

Lumumba Akinwole-Bandele

2007-10-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/43667

In the Black American experience the act of defending one's community has always been viewed as subversive and any attempt to assert your own justice in self-defence will be criminalised. The case of the Jena 6 is one that has been repeated throughout the history of Black America from lynching whether as a genocidal act or in this case a symbolic one.

One of the main implications of the case of the Jena 6 is one that has sent countless activists to prison. The implication—if you dare to remove yourself from the role of a victim and attempt to assert justice yourself, you will pay a heavy price. The notion that six young Black men responded appropriately by not allowing an environment of terror to exist in their lives and their community enrages a society that does not want to see Black people recognizing and acting on the understanding that we alone will change our conditions. This case would have made countless people considerably more comfortable if these young brothers did not engage in a physical encounter with the white student. Many would have been appeased if we as a community continue to appeal to a legal system that has made it clear that it doesn't place much, if any value on the lives of Black people.

The Jena 6 engaged in an act of self-defense and their actions reflect our reality. Lynching, a genocidal act that occurred with the consent of the government, has long been a part of Black Experience in North America.
In a petition submitted to the United Nations in 1951, titled "We Charge Genocide", Paul Robeson and other prominent Blacks, documented that at least 10,000 Black people had been lynched since the abolition of slavery.
The exact number of people murdered can never be known. The horrendous act of lynching did not stop with the Civil Rights movement and our communities remain intimately familiar with the legacy of the noose.
Countless numbers of Black people have been killed throughout recent history with the legal system failing to prevent similar cases from reoccurring.

The call for justice in this case must include the dismissal of all charges against the Jena 6 and the immediate termination of prosecutor Reed Walters. Any call for decreased charges affirms the notion that Black people can do anything to struggle against white supremacy/racism except for physically defending ourselves.

Our history of struggle in North America has always had the importance of defending our lives as a fundamental pillar. The act of defending ourselves as a community has always been criminalized. This process of criminalization is an attempt to dissuade communities at large from becoming self sufficient in their own security. Former Black Panther Party member, Jalil Muntaqim stated, "We are our own Liberators"; our path to liberation must be decided and executed by us in the manner that we determine. It is this act of self-determination that is considered to be the most dangerous by government officials. The legacy of the Black Liberation Movement was rooted in this ideology and was responded to viciously by all levels of law enforcement, which routinely attacked and murdered activists. Thus we have the many political prisoners and prisoners of war in the united states today. Nationally we have a responsibility to call for the freedom of all political prisoners in the united states who have been found guilty of simply defending the lives of Black people.

We are pleased to hear the many calls for people to pay attention to Jena 6s in our own towns. We must recognize that we all live in Jena. The same people who boarded buses from all corners of this country must organize against the mass criminalization of our youth, militarized law enforcement and participate in the work for self-determination and the unconditional release of the political prisoners and prisoners of war in the United States.

Self Respect, Self Defense and Self Determination We will defend our freedom fighters To find out how you can participate in the movement to free political prisoners, please contact:

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Jericho amnesty campaign
Hands Off Assata campaign
Free the San Francisco 8 campaign
Justice for the Jena 6

* Lumumba Akinwole-Bandele is a member of the of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

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

Taking a Stand for Poverty

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem

2007-10-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/43687

"Taking a stand against poverty on October 17th - Let us all join hands and say no to poverty" Tajudeen Abdul Raheem argues why we should support of the Millennium Development Goals and join the "Stand Up Against Poverty" Campaign.

Are you one of those overwhelming majority of the peoples of the world who only read of about the Guinness World Records but never has a clue how they are set and have ruled out the possibility of ever setting any of those records? Until last year I had never thought I could be part of the Guinness records myself and doing so for a very worthy cause.

Between 9.00pm (GMT) Tuesday 16th of October and 9.00 pm (GMT) on Wednesday the 17th of October 2007 you could also become a Guinness record holder. All you have to do is join millions of other peoples across the world to beat the record set last year for the largest number of people ever to 'Stand Up against poverty' and in support of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

It all began very humbly last year. The UN Millennium Campaign Communications group had suggested to Guinness that we could set a record of people standing up for a particular cause in a 24 hour period. Guinness had never done that before. So they set a target of 10, 000 across the world. When I heard about the 10,000 target, I was amused because and even boasted to my colleagues that I could raise more than that just by mobilizing my extended family in Funtua, Katsina State, Northern Nigeria! By the 18th of October when the results were announced my boast proved right because almost 50, 000 people stood up in Funtua, the small town where I was born, joining over 3.6 million people across Africa. Interesting even bigger numbers across the world bringing the total to: over 23.5 million in more than 80 countries.

Both the UN Millennium Campaign and its partners including the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) and its various National partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe were pleasantly surprised. Even the Guinness recorders were taken by surprise that so many people could show their solidarity with the poor in such huge numbers.

It is not just the numbers that were staggering but the range of activities and broad coalition of peoples, social classes, individuals, groups and associations that took part: schools, churches, mosques, temples, synagogues, government officials, community groups, professional associations, NGOs, CBOS, , Trade Unionists, Political parties, legislatures including local councillors, etc. They took part in cities, towns, rural areas, hamlets and town halls. at peoples homes, town centres, cinema halls, Theatres, on the streets, parks and Gyms. For instance in Abuja, Nigeria a group of Lepers in an isolated community organized a STAND UP Moment in their community telling the National GCAP Coordinator that no one in authority had ever asked for their view on anything. in Kenya an elderly grassroots mobilize wearing a Sikh-like turban stormed the offices of the Millennium Campaign demanding nothing more than leaflets and banners and went on to stun us by mobilizing over 10, 000 people to Stand up in Kariobangi!

The idea is so simple and at the same time most empowering. You can do it anywhere you are. You are not powerless. You can at least say NO to extreme poverty in the midst of global plenty. More than saying NO you can also support the MDGs as a means of eradicating global poverty and hunger, redressing the imbalances between the rich and poor countries, the rich and the poor in all societies, educating our children , treating and caring for those sick amongst us and all the other goals.

The MDGs have been criticized by many since they were adopted in 2000 but implementing them has led to better living standards for millions who were without hope seven years ago. A disproportionate focus on what has not been achieved may actually make one lose sight of the progress being made and what more could be done. For instance, millions of children who could not have passed by the gates of a school are now in school. In some countries they are moving access beyond primary school to secondary school.

In a country like Kenya the provision of mosquito nets has dramatically brought down the number of people, especially children, dying from malaria. Malawi today is only second to Peru globally in the most dramatic reduction of infant mortality. In the past four years infant mortality has come down by more than a third.

The MDGs are not cocktails that states and communities can cherry pick as they go along. Progress in one goal must demand progress in others if the success is to be sustainable. Hence Campaigners in all our countries have to focus on some of the sad paradoxes. For example, as infant mortality is coming down maternal mortality remains scandalously high in many African countries. How can we achieve the lofty goals on gender and women’s empowerment if so many women continue to die in childbirth?

In general there has been slow and patchy progress in many African countries but this does not mean that the outcome is necessarily doomed. More can be done. But this depends on citizens demanding that their governments meet their commitments made on the MDGs. Seven years may be short but it is long enough for all states to meet these goals if citizens insist and continue to put pressure on the policy makers, whether government or parliamentarians or politicians at all levels. Indifference is the enemy of delivery and a great ally of insensitive politicians.

If you think demonstrations do not make a difference please read Nelson Mandela's LONG WALK TO FREEDOM. Whatever snippets of information that the censors of the apartheid jails allowed to spill in to the prisoners cheered them up. One of the first places that Mandela first visited after his release was London. He had refused to see any body in the official government of Britain instead he had a people’s reception at Trafalgar Square to thank the people of Britain for their demonstrations, pickets, protests in support of the liberation of South Africa.

Every little bit counts. It is the small steps of ordinary people that lead to extraordinary events in human quest for freedom and liberation. Poverty is the greatest enemy of freedom today for more than a billion people mostly in Africa and Asia.

On October 16/17 every one of us will have the opportunity to show how much we care about the poor by Standing Up against Poverty and supporting the MDGs . Help us beat the Guinness record that we set last year. Over 23.5 millions of people participated then. Make it even bigger this year. You can do so anywhere you are. Look at www.standagainstpoverty.org/ or [url] ]http://www.millenniumcampaign.org[/url] for details of contacts and activities in the country where you are. You may also organise your own event and register it independently.

But more than just standing up, we are asking you to SPEAK out and Take Action.

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

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

Norton Anthology of Feminist Literary Theory

Susan Gingell

2007-10-10

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/43625

I appreciated Dr Adesanmi's imaginative way of offering a critique ( see Disappearing Me Softly: An Open Letter to Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar ) of the absence of African feminist/womanist thought from the Norton Anthology of Feminist Literary Theory: A Reader, but I'm not sure how it would sit with Sartje to know that when she is given voice in the twenty-first century, she is not allowed to speak the names of her continental sistren unless they have relocated to the States. I wonder if Ms Bjartman would like it that when she speaks from Canada, her countrywoman Rozena Maart is not mentioned. I'm sure she would like the world to know about her sister's book: The Politics of Consciousness: The Consciousness of Politics. When Black Consciousness Meets White Consciousness. Volume One. The Interrogation of Writing. Awomandla Publishers 2006

Book Review: The Disillusioned African by Francis Nyamnjoh

Louise Cuming

2007-10-10

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/43627

Some time ago, in 1993, a forum of Anglophone Cameroon writers held under the auspices of the Goethe Institute of Yaounde produced, among many excellent articles, a reflection by Tatah H. Mbuy on "The Moral Responsibility of the Writer in a Pluralist Society". Every such writer, says Mbuy, is to see himself as a spokesman for his society. He must seek the truth, propagate it and defend it. He is to be the prophet and soothsayer of his society, pricking the consciences of all and trying to correct faults where these are to be found. Elsewhere in this forum other participants described present-day Anglophone writing as concerned with "deconstructing victim hood", through a discourse revolving around shared values or reference points.

This also entails the need to move on, into reconstruction of heritage that Cameroonians, and indeed all Africans, are clinging to precariously, in the pluralist era of Africa's democratisation.

It is in the new, post-election scene, which Nyamnjoh has described elsewhere as "a decline to one-dimensionalism", that "The Disillusioned African" takes his bearings on the world. Its framework is the ongoing politico-economic process of the 1990's with its own peculiarly African 'fin-de-siècle' flavour, seen from the distancing haven of an imaginary trip to Britain. The vehicle of communication is the letters of the philosopher-hero to his friend Moungo back home. The air-flight and touch-down, the first sight of London, the brief stay in academic Manchester, and an interlude in hospital, laid low with malaria, provide the author with a variety of jumping-off points from which to view both British society and his own.

Part One, situated in the "Mandela Hotel", evokes reflections on leadership, class systems and the universal greed for wealth - or what may be called "officially-sponsored theft".

Part Two provides much paradoxical comment on the foibles and attitude of what Nyamnjoh refers to throughout as the "Queendom" of Britain.

Part Three chronicles life as the only student of a university department of philosophy, bringing in its train wry observations on the ambiguous cross-cultural influences that followed in the wake of colonisation and including an appalling, scarcely credible specimen of official memoranda from the Belgian government to the departing missionaries to what is now Zaire.

From his hospital ward in Part Four, the narrator muses on the demise of Communist autocracies and their effects on the world balance of power: "Today, people have got to find new enemies, which isn't easy... The truth is, people have simply got to have something they fear, for people are united more by FEAR than by LOVE." After drawing a parallel between leftist dictatorships such as that of the Ceasuscus, and the present modes of government of various African leaders, the book takes a helter-skelter, tumble-down free fall to the present day, to the chicanery of the 1992 Cameroon elections, and the hero's flight from the central critical arena into his native Grasslands village.

The book was written before the accession to power of Nelson Mandela, the Rwandan genocide or the depredations of devaluation in the economies of francophone Africa could provide further examples of both the best and the worst scenarios for a problematic future.

Satirical writing has an honourable history among Anglophone Cameroonians, whose use of language as a political instrument is as powerful as any polemicist in nineteenth century England. Readers of Nyamnjoh's previous work have grown to expect, beneath the racy, humorous style, an incisive and merciless analysis of social ills. Here is indeed a seeker after truth. However, where the previous book, Mind Searching, adopted the light-hearted and hilarious device of an extended daydream taking place in church, as a vehicle for his observation of the Yaounde bureaucratic and religious scene, this work seems to fish in murkier waters altogether. By the medium of an apparent, tongue-in-cheek naivety, by repeated digressions and diverse literary and historical parallels, Nyamnjoh's subversive intent remains constant: to strip pretensions, to explode phoniness and humbug, to expose the sores that underlie the veneer of Africa modernity, particularly among the elites and their sad counterparts, the under classes. The vigour of expression reveals the bitterness that underpins the author's surface urbanity:

The African elite today loves kingly life so much that, at independence, what mattered to him most was political power, not economic power. The economic power was largely retained by the Europeans and expatriates, which is why the leaders suck the peasants like ticks in order to sustain their kingly appetites. Had the African leaders been sensible enough to think seriously of economic power as well, African countries today would certainly not be this dependent upon the unmechanised efforts of the peasants. And they would also be in a position to carry out their own development efforts, without necessarily posing as "les Mendiants du monde"."Beggars of the world, unite," Marx is likely to have written, had he been born in Africa." As he remarks elsewhere: "Nothing man-made is neutral, and this includes language..."

A counterpart to the African dimension is the book's extended commentary on life in the UK. Here is no innocent anthropologist. Charles's uproarious tour of London, in the company of those unlikely twins, Thompson and Thompson, and compared by him to circumcision or an initiation rite, occasions a mixed bag of comments on the British world view. A few well-worn themes come up for comment: the behaviour of the British on trains; the national meal of fish-and-chips; and, inevitably, the weather:
"The sun has not shone since I arrived in this Queendombut the English say this is the best summer they've had in decades."

Many in his host country would share his reaction to instant foods, to the paradoxical attempts on both sides of the racial divide to change the colour of one's skin. Though they might be puzzled by other assertions, such as the inferiority of the Queendom's methods of washing-up, or the supposed inability of its subjects to dance? No doubt many a Dark Continental visitor will have suffered the same frustration at the Western doctor's ignorance of malaria; even in the "Hospital for Tropical Diseases." Better not to go in the first place, but to stick with the traditional healers!

Keba, like many other tourists, is ambivalent about Britain; not without his own 'idées reçues '. At times, indeed he could be regarded as throwing the baby out with the bathwater: when, for example, he deplores the impact on Africa of Western education, or is disgusted by the publicity methods of aid agencies launching Third World disaster funds. In his search for inconsistencies, everything is grist to Charles's mill; but one cannot be a universal sender-up without falling at times into inconsistencies of one's own.

In the wide spectrum of contemporary Anglophone writing Nyamnjoh's genre stands somewhere between the sardonic humour of the political lampoonist and the anguished cry of prophecy. Bernard Fonlon, in his open letter to African students, declares:

"Still I persist in the belief that it is necessary, even imperative, that at least some intellectuals should steel their will and brace themselves and enter the arena of politics in order to usher in and further though and conscience and righteousness and integrity in the conduct of public affairs."

Is Charles's withdrawal, at the end of the book, into his Menchum peasant community an admission of defeat, or a case of 'reculer pour mieux sauter'? Is there hope for the future? Does Nyamnjoh, in the terms of his fellow-authors quoted above, provide any ways forward to the reconstruction of the African heritage? Coming as it does at a moment of even greater economic peril, political passivity and mendacious propaganda than that prevailing at the beginning of the story, one is bound to say that the vision is indeed sombre, the sense of despondency profound.

Yet this is a fighting literature and the analysis of victimhood is not wholly pessimistic. As witness the final, dream-letter from Keba to Moungo's wife:

"What we are witnessing are the signs of a crumbling system, one deaf and blind to the needs and wishes of our people. One in which the stomach has for thirty years been the only political compass. The violence and bloodshed show the tyrant as cornered and desperate, and with a little more effort and coordination on our part, tyranny would have met its Waterloo. Whenever the rays of change do at last penetrate the darkening thickness of our suffocating jungles, it shall be the result of a massive all-involving effort, the fruit of our collective suffering."

Whatever the imagined future for Africa, this courageous book will certainly provide, for both its foreign readers and the young generation of Cameroonians, a provocative insight into the complex web of despair, frustration, paradox and hope that, on the eve of the twenty-first century, constitutes the "downtrodden and forgotten bulk of the Darkened Continent."

One such young man, recently encountered in the North-West province, voiced his surprised discovery, rapidly growing into a conviction, that the liberation of Africa was not, as he had always thought, a process that would come upon it from outside, but a deep transformation to be wrought by each one from within.

To all who have Africa's interests at heart, the heartfelt cry of "The Disillusioned African" will come as a powerful incentive to set about the task of 'redeeming the time' and, whether from without or from within, of building a better future for the Continent.


* Published by Langaa Publishers, 2007 and available on amazon.com

* Reviewed by Louise Cuming - Catholic University of Central Africa, Yaounde

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

Global: 'Golden Notebook' author Lessing wins Nobel Prize

2007-10-12

http://tinyurl.com/2rhnue

Doris Lessing, author of dozens of works from short stories to science fiction, including the classic ‘The Golden Notebook,’ won the Nobel Prize for literature on Thursday. She was praised by the judges for her “scepticism, fire and visionary power.” Because of her criticism of the South African regime, and its apartheid system, she was prohibited from entering the country between 1956 and 1995. Lessing, who was a member of the British Communist Party in the 1950s, had also campaigned against nuclear weapons.

Global: The African Diaspora in Europe: Black British Literature since Windrush

2007-10-12

http://www.zeleza.com/blogging/u-s-affairs/african-diaspora-europe-black-british-literature-windrush

The history of African Europeans is little known, but this is beginning to change as more research is conducted on the subject. In this essay, Onyekachi Wambu, film maker, journalist, and editor of the recently published, Under the Tree of Talking featuring several African intellectuals including Chinua Achebe, Ali Mazrui, Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Chinweizu, William Gumede, Wangui wa Goro, Kimani Ngoju, Martha Chinouya, Eva Dadrian, Marianna Ofosu and others, explores the work of black writers in Britain since the 18th century.

Zimbabwe: Future depends on peace:Children's art

2007-10-12

http://zimbabwe.africancolours.net/content/14750

At a time when the world is largely embroiled in conflicts, triggering human catastrophes of alarming proportions, a myriad of lights-of-hope are flickering in various corners of the planet in search for peace and stability. One such light is currently flickering in Harare through a child-oriented project titled “Peace In Our Communities”, 22 September to 14 October 2007, at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

Review of African Blogs

Dibussi Tande

2007-10-10

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/43628

Writing on The Zelela Post Pius Adesami adopts the persona of Sarah Baartman, the so-called "the Hottentot Venus", to ask why no African feminist theorist is included in the recently published Feminist Literary Theory and Criticism: A Norton Reader (by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar) which traces the evolution of feminist writing from the middle ages to the 21st century:

“I am interested in the stories told – or untold – by your editorial choices and options, the instinct to include and the impulse to exclude. I am interested in the conscious and the subconscious processes that led you to the conclusion that Africa, an entire continent of fifty-four countries and over a billion people, has contributed nothing, absolutely nothing, to five centuries of feminist theorizing. After all, as seasoned academics in the United States, you both know that exclusions tell much louder stories than inclusions. I know we are on the same page here.
..
Could it be that you imagined that the voices of the African American women you selected adequately speak for those of their continental sisters? Possibly. If this is the case, I must tell you that African American women cannot be made to stand in and speak for continental African women. According to an African proverb, the monkey and the gorilla may claim oneness, monkey is monkey and gorilla gorilla.”

In the first part of an article on the peculiarities of the Kenyan political system, Thinker’s room looks at the Kenyan electoral system and political parties:

“During elections the incumbent expects to be challenged by the leader of the Official Opposition and h(is/er) Government In Waiting...But in Kenya we have a situation where the official opposition will support the incumbent in the next elections…

Political Parties in Kenya are largely meaningless entities. Very few political parties if any actually have a coherent vision and manifesto. Only a handful can actually describe what they are all about. At last count there are 144 currently registered political parties. 144. A good chunk of these are briefcase parties, hoping to cash in at some point in time when the correct political wind blows.”

Stood in the Congo worries that the already unstable situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo will only get worse after recent reports that Hutu militias have teamed up with the Congolese Mai Mai militia to create the “Front for the Liberation of North Kivu” (FLNK) and that the Congolese army has made incursions into Uganda:

“The Congolese military aren't exactly well known for their discipline, but if the FLNK story continues to run in the world's media, and more stories like this emerge about Congolese military raiding Ugandan border towns, then it's goodbye to the, already rather fragile, credibility of the Congolese Government (and MONUC), and hello foreign invasion.”

Rosemary Ekosso takes a swipe at the West’s “vilification” of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, arguing that western criticism is less about democracy and more about anger over Mugabe’s “anti-white” land distribution campaign:

“Mr. Mugabe is not the most popular man in the world at present. I have previously written on his land reforms and was as a result erroneously considered to be his supporter. In so far as Mr. Mugabe's actions mirror those of other African leaders in terms of his attitude to real democracy, I do not agree with him.

But his vilification, though couched in terms calculated to appeal to all lovers of freedom and democracy (or those who imagine themselves to be so), was and is based on the fact that he took land from white people and gave it to black people. The redistribution may have its problems, but it had to happen. For that alone, I consider him a hero. Shortcomings similar to those he is projected as suffering from are evinced by many other leaders, and yet they are not the victims of the degree of opprobrium that has been visited upon him.”

The Literary and Arts blog, Wordsbody, reviews the eagerly-anticipated second edition of the pan-African literary magazine, African Writing, which is now available online:

“The new issue of African Writing is now online, in a bumper package that you will read and read and read and hardly ever finish. Literary news, interviews, profiles, fiction, poetry, reviews, and stunning visual art. And where do we start with the contributors? Best not to start.”

Sotho returns to the controversial and widely condemned decision by officials of the University in St. Thomas to bar South African Nobel Peace laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, from speaking at that university because he has been critical of Israel:
“It is indeed a pity that those who made the decision to bar him from speaking at the school feel Israel cannot be criticized, or that people’s faith cannot be questioned.

A professor at the university who was pushing for the invitation to be accepted by the school has been “removed as director [of] the university’s justice and peace studies program.” Someone was very strongly against inviting Tutu to the school, which says that Tutu “has been critical of Israel and Israeli policy regarding the Palestinians, so we talked with people in the Jewish community and they said they believed it would be hurtful to the Jewish community, because of things he’s said.”

Scribbles from the Den joins the Tutu debate by posting the complete transcript of Archbishop Tutu’s 2002 speech which sparked off the controversy:
“In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were Jewish people. They almost instinctively had to be on the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones, fighting injustice, oppression and evil. I have continued to feel strongly with the Jews. I am patron of a Holocaust centre in South Africa. I believe Israel has a right to secure borders...
What is not so understandable, not justified, is what it did to another people to guarantee its existence. I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about...

Israel will never get true security and safety through oppressing another people. A true peace can ultimately be built only on justice. We condemn the violence of suicide bombers, and we condemn the corruption of young minds taught hatred; but we also condemn the violence of military incursions in the occupied lands, and the inhumanity that won't let ambulances reach the injured...
If peace could come to South Africa, surely it can come to the Holy Land? ...”

* Dibussi Tande, a writer and activist from Cameroon, produces the blog Scribbles from the Den, dibussi.com

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

DRC: IMF worried over China's $5 bln loan to Congo

2007-10-11

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL03119345

The International Monetary Fund has warned Congo to beware of the macroeconomic effects of a planned $5 billion loan from China to modernise the vast African country's decrepit infrastructure and mining industry. President Joseph Kabila's government announced plans last month for the huge loan from China, which would be paid back partly in mining concessions and tolls from road and railways.

LAUNCH OF THE PEOPLES’ AUDIT OF THE AU

Urgent call for contributions

2007-10-10

http://www.aumonitor.org

This week, the AU Monitor is calling for your contributions toward a Peoples’ Audit of the African Union (AU) (www.aumonitor.org/comments/413/).

The Audit Review panel was set up by the African Union in July in order to identify the areas where significant improvement has to be made to accelerate the African integration process. Having launched an official invitation for contributions to the review, the AU Monitor is asking our readers to contribute to this important review. We have uploaded the official terms of reference of the review as well as a background summary for your attention.

We ask that you forward this invitation for submissions, contributions, debate and discussion far and wide so that CSO, including and particularly social movements, grassroots organizations, trade unions and women’s rights groups etc., as well as citizens’ perspectives on the African Union and the Union Government influence the policy recommendations of the Review Panel.

Please submit all contributions directly to aumonitor.editor@gmail.com with the subject heading “Peoples’ Audit” before October 26th, 2007.

Weekly Roundup of AU Monitor

Issue 107, 2007

2007-10-10

http://www.aumonitor.org

This week’s AU Monitor brings you analysis of South Africa’s role in Darfur from the Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre. Abdelbagi Jibril argues that by South Africa “providing unconditional political and diplomatic support to the government of Sudan in its attempts to cover up the crimes it has wilfully committed in Darfur amounts to certain complicity in the commission of these crimes”.

In news and analysis from Pan-African civil society, Nanjakululu Wasai urges the East African Community to use TRIPS flexibilities as enshrined in the WTO 2001 Doha declaration to ease access to HIV treatment in the region. Further, a network of Freedom of Information advocates has launched a regional centre in Nigeria to galvanize the campaign for the adoption of access to information laws on the continent. The International Civil Society Steering Group for the Accra High Level Forum launches a policy paper aimed at providing the basis for further discussions about the aid effectiveness agenda towards regional and national consultations planned for September-November 2007. It is hoped that these discussions will help to develop and prioritise the positions and recommendations of CSOs on aid effectiveness. The South African Institute for International Affairs also launches downloadable resources on the African Peer Review Mechanism for civil society to effectively engage the process. With two weeks until the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, mobilization against poverty and inequality and in support of the Millennium Development Goals is geared to take place in almost 90 countries. Lastly, the Coalition for an Effective African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights provides an update from the sixth session of the Court which was held in Arusha on the 17-28th of September.

At the conclusion of the “Mobilizing Aid for Trade: Focus on Africa” conference convened by the African Development Bank in Dar es Salaam, delegates called on African countries to include trade in their national development plans. Also in official AU news, the draft agenda for the eighth ordinary session of the Pan-African Parliament to be held in Midrand, South Africa between October 15 and 26th, 2007 is now available for download. While the ECOSOCC credentials committee has launched an urgent call for applications from African civil society groups in twenty-three African countries from the Central, Northern and Southern regions for elections to the ECOSOCC Assembly.

Global: Call for investment in women to end global poverty

2007-10-11

http://www.wunrn.com/news/2007/10_07/10_01_07/100707_unifem.htm

UNIFEM, the women’s fund at the United Nations, and the Women’s Funding Network, a global network of 124 women’s funds, have called for greater investment in equal opportunities for women as a key to combating global poverty. The UNIFEM-Women’s Funding Network collaboration is in response to increasing evidence that women hold critical — yet often untapped — potential in helping to improve the economic prospects of communities and societies as a whole. The partnership will centre on a public awareness campaign on October 17, World Poverty Day.

Senegal: New senate doubles women in chamber

2007-10-08

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070921-114320-9969r

President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal Friday named 65 new senators, more than half of them women, for the predominantly conservative Muslim country in West Africa. Wade, who names two-thirds of the revamped parliament, released a list of 65 senators, 36 of them women. Added to four from the 35 elected members, there are now 40 women in the 100-strong chamber, more than double the previous one that had only 18.

Africa: Economic security for women fights AIDS

2007-10-08

http://data.unaids.org/pub/BriefingNote/2006/20060308_BN_GCWA_en.pdf

AIDS, like poverty, has a disproportionate impact on women and girls. Worldwide, of the 1.2 billion people living on less than $1 a day, 70% are women. Women own a minority of the world’s land, and yet produce two thirds of the food in the developing world, are the primary caretakers for children, orphans, and the sick, and represent almost half of those living with HIV globally – nearly 60% in sub-Saharan Africa.

Global: Focusing on prevention of and response to sexual violence in emergencies

2007-10-08

http://www.unfpa.org/publications/detail.cfm?ID=342&filterListType=

The primary purpose of these guidelines is to enable communities, governments and humanitarian organizations, including UN agencies, NGOs, and CBOs, to establish and coordinate a set of minimum multi-sectoral interventions to prevent and respond to sexual violence during the early phase of an emergency Twenty-five action sheets have been developed in 10 functional/sectoral areas.

Global: Study on prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation in England and Wales launched

2007-10-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/43658

Over 20,000 girls under 15 at high risk of FGM in England and Wales A study published by FORWARD, the UK charity which leads the campaign to eliminate female genital mutilation (FGM), reveals that over 20,000 girls under 15 could be at risk of FGM in the UK.
Press release:

Over 20,000 girls under 15 at high risk of FGM in England and Wales A study published by FORWARD, the UK charity which leads the campaign to eliminate female genital mutilation (FGM), reveals that over 20,000 girls under 15 could be at risk of FGM in the UK.

Funded by the Department of Health and in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Department of Midwifery, City University, the study reveals that nearly 66,000 women with FGM are living in England and Wales (2001) and that there are nearly 16,000 girls under the age of 15 at high risk of WHO Type III FGM and over 5,000 at high risk of WHO Type I or Type II.

Efua Dorkenoo, OBE, the Principal Investigator of the study, said "The United Nations has recognised female genital mutilation (FGM) as a human rights violation and the practice is prohibited in the UK under the FGM Act (2003), Children Act and other legislations. Yet lack of reliable data on FGM prevalence has until now marginalised the issue. This study represents a major first step to fill the gap in available data on FGM. The estimates of FGM provided in this study highlight the need not only to enhance health care for girls and adult women who have already undergone FGM but calls for systematic actions to prevent FGM being passed on to the younger generation." The findings of the study highlight the urgent need for greater partnership work between the statutory agencies and the third sector to eliminate FGM in the UK.

Maureen Salmon, FORWARD's Interim Director said "Through partnership working, FORWARD aims to roll out its work with young people and practising communities on a national scale, so that more people from practising communities will be engaged in the campaign to end FGM." The Department of Health's response to the study states that "The Department is pleased to have supported and funded this important study that continues to profile FGM issues, a key objective of which is bringing an understanding to practising communities that such mutilation is unacceptable".

October 9th 2007 sees the launch of this study at the House of Lords.

FORWARD is a UK registered charity led primarily by African women that campaigns against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Child and Forced Marriage (C&FM) and related sexual rights violations in the UK and Africa. Over the last 25 years, FORWARD has demonstrated a track record of achievements locally and globally through: strong leadership and advocacy, partnerships, programme delivery and developing a solid infrastructure of support.

www.forwarduk.org.uk <http://www.forwarduk.org.uk> The World Health (WHO) classifies FGM into four types:
Type I involves the excision of the prepuce with or without excision of part or all of the clitoris. Type II excision of the prepuce and clitoris together with partial or total excision of the labia minora. Type III excision of part or all of the external genitalia and stitching or narrowing of the vaginal opening, also known as infibulation. This is the most extreme form and constitutes 15 per cent of all cases. It involves the use of thorns, silk or catgut to stitch the two sides of the vulva. A bridge of scar tissue then forms over the vagina, which leaves only a small opening (from the size of a matchstick head) for the passage of urine and menstrual blood. The results reported here included only the above three types of mutilation but WHO recognises a fourth category:

Type IV includes pricking, piercing or incision of the clitoris and/or the labia; stretching of the clitoris and or the labia; cauterisation or burning of the clitoris and surrounding tissues, scraping of the vaginal orifice or cutting ( Gishiri cuts) of the vagina and introduction of corrosive substances or herbs into the vagina.

The Department of Health has provided funding for this research

East Africa: September Women's Lexis

2007-10-11

http://www.eassi.org/documents/ENDOFSEPTEMBERLEXIS.pdf

The East African Sub-regional Support Initiative for The Advancement of Women (EASSI)is proud to announce the publication of the September edition of Women's Lexis.

Southern Africa: Call to survivors of gender violence

2007-10-11

http://www.genderlinks.org.za/page.php?p_id=379

Gender Links is inviting submissions from women and men across Southern Africa who have survived gender violence, or are reformed perpetrators, to tell us their stories as part of this year’s Sixteen Days of Activism on Gender Violence. We will select an assortment of these experiences and life stories to be included in a special series of “I Stories,” that will be published on the GL website and in the mainstream media across the region as part of the campaign.

Global: Gender and Indicators - Overview report

2007-10-11

http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports_gend_cep.html#Indicators

Gender-sensitive measurements are critical for building the case for taking gender (in)equality seriously, for enabling better planning and actions by gender and non-gender specialists, and for holding institutions accountable to their commitments on gender. This IDS/Bridge Overview Report examines conceptual and methodological approaches to gender and measurements of change with a focus on indicators, examining current debates and good practice from the grassroots to the international levels.

Burundi: No protection from rape in war and peace

2007-10-11

http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGAFR160042007

Amnesty International and ACAT -- Burundi (Action des Chrétiens pour l’Abolition de la Torture) have called on the Burundian government to take immediate action to protect women and girls from rape and other sexual violence in Burundi. Despite the fact that the rape of women and girls is widespread throughout the country, the Burundian authorities have systematically failed to take concrete steps to prevent, investigate and punish these crimes. As a result, perpetrators regularly escape prosecution and punishment by the state and victims are left without protection.

Egypt: Anti-torture activists detained

2007-10-12

http://www.afrol.com/articles/26910

Two Egyptian rights activists, Mohammed al-Dereini and Ahmed Sobh, have been arrested and detained for promoting the rights of the country’s Shi’a minority and criticising the prevalence of torture in Egyptian prisons. Mohammed, who heads the Supreme Council for the Care of the Prophet’s Family, was taken away from his home by security agents before dawn on Monday. Ahmed, the Imam of Ali Center for Human Rights, was arrested on 28 August but was not questioned by the state prosecutor until 29 September.

Sierra Leone: Former CDF militia leaders sentenced by Special Court

2007-10-11

http://www.sc-sl.org/Press/pressrelease-100907.pdf

Two former leaders of Sierra Leone’s Civil Defence Forces (CDF) militia have received prison sentences following their convictions in August for war crimes committed during the country’s decade-long civil conflict. Justice Itoe said that while both Prosecution and Defence had recommended single, “global” sentences, the Court had decided to hand down separate sentences on each count for which the two accused had been found guilty.

Global: An appeal for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty

2007-10-11

http://www.worldcoalition.org/petitions/?petition=3

On October 10th, 2007, the World Day against the Death Penalty focuses on the proposed UN General Assembly resolution for a universal moratorium on executions. The proposal would save lives and give the population of retentionist states an opportunity to see for themselves that a pause in death sentences does not lead to higher crime rates.

Global: US-Based sex-ed program challenged in international human rights case

2007-10-12

http://www.reproductiverights.org/pr_07_1010CroatiaSexEd.html

The Center for Reproductive Rights along with partners filed the first human rights legal challenge to a faith-based sex-education program based in the U.S. The program, TeenSTAR, promotes abstinence, discourages the use of contraception, reinforces gender stereotypes, and fosters discrimination against the LGBT community. If the case is successful, it could lay the groundwork for more successful challenges against similar faith-based programs (including those funded by the U.S.-government) in other countries around the world.

Zimbabwe: MDC demands compensation for freed activists

2007-10-12

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news111007/mdcdemands111007.htm

The MDC has demanded compensation from the Robert Mugabe regime now that terrorism charges have been dropped against dozens of activists who spent nearly four months in custody. Supporters of the opposition party were rounded up in raids in March when the police claimed to have thwarted plans for a campaign of petrol-bombings. The arrests came days after security forces broke up a planned opposition rally and assaulted MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and scores of supporters and party officials.

Botswana: Government crackdown on Bushman hunters

2007-10-12

http://www.survival-international.org/news/2511

Six Bushmen have been arrested for hunting in New Xade resettlement camp, according to First People of the Kalahari, a Bushman human rights organisation. The latest arrests bring the total number of Bushmen arrested for hunting since last year’s landmark court ruling to at least forty-eight, with most being arrested since June this year.

CAR: Last of Congolese refugees return home – UN

2007-10-12

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24233

The United Nations refugee agency today announced the end of an organized repatriation programme which over the past three years has brought nearly 5,000 Congolese refugees home from the Central African Republic (CAR). The last convoy traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) this weekend carrying just over 130 returnees leaving the CAR capital Bangui. In total, 4,994 Congolese refugees have returned home from CAR.

Sudan: Deportation of Ethiopian refugees draws criticism from UN agency

2007-10-12

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24266

The United Nations refugee agency has condemned the recent deportation of at least 15 Ethiopian refugees by the authorities in Sudan, calling it a breach of the country’s international legal obligations. Sudanese officials handed over the refugees to Ethiopian authorities at the Metema border crossing, about 500 kilometres southeast of Khartoum, on 27 September, but the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement issued in Geneva that it had only learned of the deportations this week.

DRC: UN refugee agency works to register displaced Congolese fleeing North Kivu

2007-10-12

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24268

The United Nations refugee agency is working to register displaced people fleeing confrontations between the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and troops of ex-General Laurent Nkunda in the volatile North Kivu province, where human rights abuses such as rape are reportedly on the rise. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported today that it has started registration of all internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the five camp sites in the Mugunga area some 15 kilometres west of Goma. Over 27,500 internally displaced have been identified.

Chad: Foreign mission raises hopes for better security in eastern Chad

2007-10-12

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/470e485e4.html

Tens of thousands of uprooted people have welcomed plans for the creation of a UN-mandated multi-dimensional mission to protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid in volatile parts of Chad and Central African Republic. But many fear it will come too late to prevent more attacks on refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs).

Algeria: Candidate lists finalised for elections

2007-10-12

http://tinyurl.com/ytrwny

Algerian political parties and independents have been busy putting the finishing touches on their candidate lists for the November 29th local elections. The possibility of greater flexibility in governing at the local level has sparked more interest in the elections.

Sudan: Southerners withdraw members from government

2007-10-12

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnMCD178533.html

Former rebels in southern Sudan have withdrawn their members from a national coalition government, party officials said on Thursday, to pressure their northern partners to reignite a stalled peace process. "The SPLM (Sudan People's Liberation Movement) has recalled all ministers and presidential advisers from the government of national unity," SPLM Secretary-General Pagan Amum told reporters in the southern capital Juba.

Zimbabwe: Opportunity Knocks for Zimbabwe

2007-10-12

http://www.zeleza.com/blogging/african-affairs/opportunity-knocks-zimbabwe

While the Zimbabwean crisis is deepening, the continued focus on the description of the crisis at the expense of finding solutions to it has been unhelpful, writes Trevor Ncube. That the main protagonists in the crisis have dug themselves into entrenched positions from which they are unwilling or incapable of extricating themselves also is unhelpful.

DRC: DRC's economic war

Zahra Moloo

2007-10-12

http://www.otabenga.org/node/91

In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, first published in 1899 and years later subject to a polemical but much-needed critique by one of Africa’s most prolific writers, King Leopold’s colonial project in the Congo is described as “the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience.” More than a century later, writes Zahra Moloo, after a protracted war in which an estimated 4.2 million citizens perished and the nation’s stability was invested in the UN’s largest peacekeeping force to date, Conrad’s oft-repeated phrase is, tragically, just as pertinent.

Global: Letter to new IMF MD addresses policies that undermine development in Africa

2007-10-11

http://www.africaaction.org/campaign_new/docs/0710_CSO_Letter_FINAL.pdf

This week 125 civil society organizations sent a letter to Dominique Strauss-Khan, the incoming International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director, calling on him to address IMF policies that undermine developing nations' ability to increase health and education spending. The former French Finance Minister was selected to head the IMF starting November 1.

Global: Nobel laureate praises Chavez's plan for South American bank

2007-10-12

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/11/america/LA-FIN-Venezuela-Nobel-Laureate.php

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has said that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's plan to create a regional lending bank will be beneficial for South America. The former World Bank economist said the Bank of the South, due to be founded in Caracas next month, is an important initiative aimed at helping boost Latin America's development.

Global: World Bank tribunal in The Hague

2007-10-12

http://www.bicusa.org/en/Article.3529.aspx

On October 15th, a public hearing on the World Bank will take place in The Hague. The hearing aims to raise the debate on the legitimacy of the World Bank and influence the aid distribution process. The World Bank Campaign Europe, a coalition of more than 70 non-governmental organizations, is preparing a public hearing titled “World vs. Bank,” in co-operation with the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal. It will take place on October 15, 2007 in The Hague, Netherlands, at the beginning of the week of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank/IMF.

South Africa: One man’s undeterred vsion for transformation

2007-10-12

http://tinyurl.com/2j42sq

The African Business Leadership Conference 2007 will be held in Accra, Ghana, October 17-19, 2007. Among the renowned speakers at the conference, writes Carole Muchendu, will be Jerry Vilakazi, whose passion for transformation, social equality and the economic development of the entire African Continent is evident in his current role as CEO of Business Unity of South Africa (BUSA).

Africa: African countries join the patent game

2007-10-12

http://tinyurl.com/378e4d

Researchers in six African countries can now better protect their rights and benefit from the commercialisation of their research as a result of a project to improve their countries' capacity to address intellectual property issues.

Kenya: Treatment literacy lagging behind ARV rollout

2007-10-12

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/0C46AA10-98C6-48C4-B9DE-18C5AF1C01AD.asp

The Kenyan government's free antiretroviral (ARV) programme has reached more than 160,000 people in need of the life-prolonging therapy, but experts say unless this momentum is accompanied by an equally aggressive treatment literacy campaign, widespread drug resistance could result. "The ARV programme has not been well-matched with [a] crucial treatment literacy campaign," said Ken Odumbe, ActionAid Kenya's HIV coordinator for Western and Nyanza provinces, which have been hit hard by the pandemic.

Africa: Duke Foundation announces $100 million African Health Initiative

2007-10-08

http://www.ddcf.org/doris_duke_files/download_files/070927PressRelease.pdf

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) has announced a major new initiative to address the most critical obstacles to the delivery of effective and essential health services in sub-Saharan Africa: fragile and fragmented health systems and a dire shortage of health care workers. The foundation’s African Health Initiative (AHI) will provide $100 million over five to seven years to African-led partnerships working on innovative strategies to overcome barriers to integrated primary health care delivery.

Africa: Malaria battle making progress, needs aid boost

2007-10-12

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN224314.html

An expanded World Bank malaria program has shown major progress in fighting the mosquito-borne disease, but more funding is needed if a target of reducing the disease by 75 percent by 2010 is to be reached, the bank's head for Africa said on Thursday.

Uganda: factory to boost ARV rollout

2007-10-12

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/A3D805A7-E6FE-4271-836D-19B8CD9F4B0F.asp

A new Ugandan pharmaceutical factory has begun producing antiretroviral medication drugs locally, something the government says will significantly increase the number of HIV-positive people accessing the life-prolonging drugs across the country and the East African region. The US$38 million factory is the first in Africa to produce full triple-therapy generic antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), and is based in a suburb in the south of the capital, Kampala.

Africa: Online education for Africa’s development

2007-10-12

http://www.sardc.net/Editorial/Newsfeature/07421007.htm

Institutions of higher education around the world are embracing the concept of online education as technological developments continue to cement their role in global development. The United Nations University has also embraced the idea of providing online education through the Global Virtual University (GVU), currently headquartered at GRID-Arendal in Norway. Launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in September 2002, the UNU-GVU offers short and masters-level online courses in environment and development issues.

Kenya: Researcher! Leave those gays alone…

Dipesh Pabari

2007-10-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/lgbti/43668

A few months ago the leading dailies reported an event about unknowingly gate crashing a conference on various health issues surrounding the gay population in Mombasa. Apparently, a reporter took a fancy to one of the participants until he realised that ‘she’ was indeed a ‘he’. The media where around to cover some other talk shop in the same hotel and ‘coincidentally’ bumped into this closed door session. Of course this gave rise to much more interesting reportage and the next day an article appeared with the journalists stating their homophobia and reinforcing the Muslim Council’s views that Mombasa should be purged of these mutant humans.

It is no secret that our coast is not only well known for its white sand and plethora of sexy commercial working girls but also for its time immemorial reputation of being a hub of male sex workers (I have been informed that the term, ‘prostitute’ is no longer politically correct as it is too loaded with negative connotations – I wonder when and what they are going to replace ‘CEO’ with). It is also no secret that homosexuality has always been present in all societies for as long back as we have historical documentation but until very recent, eyes, ears and mouths have been shut in Kenya with an attitude that we know exists (big surprise?!) but it’s illegal (bigger surprise?!!) so we’ll just pretend that it’s not there.

Then came HIV and AIDS. People starting dropping dead; mortality rates shot up; orphans increased by the dozen and the President finally declared it a national disaster. The donor dough started to pour in and 4wd sales rocketed.

CODE ECHO: We now have yet another donor epidemic on our hands and many stand to die while others stand to thrive. Proposals are being churned out at unprecedented rates as the body count ticks away. Time is of essence…

While in the northern hemisphere the virus entrenched itself predominantly in minority populations, particularly intravenous drug users and the homosexual population, the virus in our part of the world hit hard and straight at the majority – the heterosexuals. Nobody was immune.

And until recently, not many people were liberal minded or brave enough to talk about sex but this time we had to; for the sake of our sons and daughters. The campaign took all sorts of forms with the cool and famous stating they use protection, to the rich and infamous holding hands and stating that we need to fight this together.

And the dollars continued to flow in...Hold on for a second: donors are always looking for new, unique and creative ideas to throw cash at, and what could fit the tick box more than a homosexual population in a politically and social hostile environment. After all (and rightly so), they too needed public health attention, they too are at risk and perhaps even more at risk. Some have even been brave enough to publicly address this issue and projects and programmes were formed to increase sexual awareness issues amongst homosexual populations and investigate what the rate of incidence might be. Some organisations have even gone as far as to open public drop-in centres. Hands down to them!

Let’s go back to the beginning: until recently, the gay population lived in closets and still continue to; but with an additional extension that is a little more exposed – it’s called, “homo health matters too.” Initially, I was elated to know that even in Kenya where certain populations are persona non-gratis, that at least, they can get the occasional human right.

So out our fellow citizens come to talk about their problems and of course the first thing that happens is the equivalent of a fatwa. Regrettably, this sort of thinking is expected - but what I am really concerned about is the thinking behind those that are supposed to be helping with health issues but also feel that this is a golden opportunity to launch a salvation crusade and not only reduce people’s risk of HIV but also help them to become ‘normal’ again. Unfortunately, I have been privy to several statements from all sorts of medical professionals who ‘feel sorry for them’ because ‘they are not normal’ and ‘if we can just help them to become normal again’ then ‘we might sleep better.’ God, I am told never intended for same sex creatures to indulge in lascivious acts (I can’t quite seem to get that into my cat’s head though who hasn’t quite figured out what to mount, let alone which sex). Perhaps, our dear do-gooders might want to start with their own attitude change before they commence dealing with other people’s medical matters.

South Africa: Simon Nkoli’s book remembers the hero’s struggles

2007-10-12

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=southafrica&id=1718

With the view to preserving the history of black gay people in South Africa, Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (formerly Gays and Lesbians Archives of South Africa [GALA]) published a book entitled Till the time of trial – The Prison letters of Simon Nkoli. The book was launched a week ago in Johannesburg at Constitution Hill. While celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action contributes to the development of human rights and democracy in the country by sharing its archived information about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) affairs with communities.

South Africa: Pride week of stimulating workshops

2007-10-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/lgbti/43753

The Johannesburg Pride week took off at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, on Monday 01 October with educational workshops by gay and lesbian organisations such as OUT LGBT-Wellbeing (OUT), Forum for Empowerment of Women (FEW), Behind The Mask (BTM) and some other affiliates. Sexual and mental health, sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community and voluntary testing were central issues of discussion leading to the Johannesburg Pride Parade.

Gabon: Gabon's greens fret over China iron ore project

2007-10-12

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11744826.htm

Environmental groups in Gabon demanded on Thursday the government reveal the terms of a $3 billion iron ore mining deal with China, saying they feared the huge project could damage an area of virgin forest. The project, awarded to state-owned China National Machinery & Equipment Import & Export Corp., is for the construction of an big iron ore mine in the Belinga mountains of Gabon's remote northeast Ogooue-Ivindo province. The Chinese group expects to complete the mine in three years.

Global: Deforestation and double standards

2007-10-11

http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art-557184

The World Bank is preparing to launch its Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) which aims to catalyse the market for carbon emissions credits from avoided deforestation, according to watchdog organization, The Bretton Woods Project. However many forestry experts are unconvinced, given the possibility that this framework will benefit industrial scale logging and in light of previous IFI-induced forestry disasters, for example in the DRC.

Kenya: Nairobi dump harming children

2007-10-12

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/129A590D-4816-4379-8EFA-E79F0DD1EBB1.htm

One of Africa's largest rubbish dumps is harming the health of children living nearby and polluting the Kenyan capital Nairobi, according to a report from the UN. The study, commissioned by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), based in Nairobi, found that half of 328 children tested near the Dandora dump had amounts of lead in their blood exceeding internationally accepted levels.

Africa: Hindsight on African rainfall forecasts

2007-10-12

http://tinyurl.com/2lksfr

In 1997, the first regional Climate Outlook Forum (COF) took place in Zimbabwe. Forums have since been created in East and West Africa, providing seasonal climate forecasts for each region. The COF forecasts predict rainfall 3–6 months in advance. Initially, efforts to use forecasts were not promising, with inaccuracies leading to lack of trust.

Africa: Independent review of land issues, Eastern and Southern Africa

2007-10-11

http://tinyurl.com/2mccgh

This independent review of land issues in twenty countries in Southern and Eastern Africa is the third since 2004. The idea of conducting a regular review arose in an informal meeting of land rights activists in Pretoria in 2003. They were drawn from NGOs, research and teaching institutions and/ or were working on assignments for international agencies and/ or African governments.

West Africa: The World Bank and the West Africa Gas Pipeline Project

2007-10-11

http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art-557175

The $600 million West African Gas Pipeline project (WAGP) aims to deliver gas from Nigeria via a 680 kilometre pipeline to a terminal point in Takoradi, Ghana. This pipeline cuts across and impacts communities in the states of Ogun and Lagos in southwestern Nigeria. Local communities and civil society groups in Nigeria, Ghana, Togo and Benin had from the conceptual stages of this project in 2000 at an information consultative workshop hosted by Environmental Rights Action argued that this project would further impoverish them, intensify the degradation of the local environment and divert attention and resources from the very vital issue of gas flare reduction.

Senegal: IFJ demands immediate release of editor

2007-10-12

http://www.ifjafrique.org/anglais/index.php?page=lire&id=396

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the Senegalese authorities for the release of Moussa Guèye, Editor of the private daily newspaper L’Exclusif, detained for four days after the publication of articles having allegedly offended the President of the Republic and his Principal Private Secretary. Another journalist of L’Exclusif, Justin Ndoye is wanted by the police.

Niger: IFJ Calls on president to end media repression after arrest of second journalist

2007-10-12

http://www.ifjafrique.org/anglais/index.php?page=lire&id=397

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the President of the Republic of Niger to intervene to put an end to the repression on the media after the recent arrest of Ibrahim Manzo Diallo, the editor of a private newspaper accused of “working with Radio France Internationale” and the detention of journalist Moussa Kaka on charges of endangering the safety of the state for suspected links with Tuareg rebels. He faces life imprisonment.

Global: New York opens slave burial site

2007-10-08

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7031142.stm

A burial ground for African slaves, which had been forgotten for almost two centuries, has been opened to the public in New York. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and poet Maya Angelou attended a dedication ceremony for a monument at the site. The late 17th Century burial site was gradually built over as New York expanded, but was rediscovered during an excavation in 1991.

Africa: The devastating cost of Africa's wars - New report

2007-10-11

http://tinyurl.com/26gq8n

Conflicts in Africa since the end of the Cold War have cost the continent $306-billion, equivalent to all the foreign aid it has received over the same period, according to a report released by The research released on Thursday by Oxfam, Saferworld and the International Action Network on Small Arms, estimates that conflict shrinks economies by 15% on average. The study, Africa's Missing Billions, says that almost half of the countries on the continent have been involved in some form of conflict since 1990.

Sudan: New wave of violence and displacement in Darfur

2007-10-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/43675

Since 3rd October 2007, the government of Sudan, supported by the Janjaweed militiamen, are conducting massive military operations in Darfur. Deployment of large numbers of government troops was observed all over Darfur. Heavy military equipment and aerial bombardments were used against civilian targets in Haskanita and Muhajariya localities, South Darfur State.
Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre

Press Release 10.10.2007

New Wave of Violence and Forced Displacement in Darfur

Since 3rd October 2007, the government of Sudan, supported by the Janjaweed militiamen, are conducting massive military operations in Darfur. Deployment of large numbers of government troops was observed all over Darfur. Heavy military equipment and aerial bombardments were used against civilian targets in Haskanita and Muhajariya localities, South Darfur State. As a result of this operation Haskanita town has been burned to the ground. Few public buildings have been spared from destruction while residential areas were deliberately targeted. The military operation has caused the death of about 200 persons in Haskanita and its immediate environs. Information we received indicated that at least 15 thousand civilians from Haskanita and the surrounding villages have been forced out of their homes. They have become internally displaced persons either as a result of direct attacks against their villages or because of fear of such attacks.
The army and the Janjaweed militiamen usually target markets places and private dwellings with the single aim of destroying and stripping the victims of their belongings including money, livestock and foodstuff.

A joint African Union and United Nations (AU/UN) inspection team, which visited Haskanita on Saturday, 6th October 2007, concluded that: "the town, which is under the control of the government, was completely burned down, except for a few buildings." The inspection team added that: Haskanita's market had been looted and most of the town's civilian population had fled. Just a handful of townspeople had returned to scavenge for food and water. On 29th September 2007, Haskanita was the scene of the killing of 10 AU soldiers when unknown attackers assaulted the AU military base in the area. The authors of that abhorrent attack against AU soldiers are yet to be identified. Intensive government military operations were reported in the Haskanita area during the last two months. It seems that the attack against AU soldiers have been carried out because the assailants suspected that some AU elements collaborate with government army and pass intelligence about their whereabouts. The recent destruction of Haskanita by the government is believed to be in retaliation to the attack against the AU soldiers. The increased violence and military operations in Darfur are being reported while the AU/UN-sponsored political negotiations between the government of Sudan and the Darfur insurgent movements are scheduled to start in Tripoli (Libya) on 27th October 2007.

On 8th October 2007 government forces and Janjaweed attacked Muhajariya area about 80 from Nyala. Aerial bombardment and heavy artillery were used in this attack. At least 50 individuals were killed inside Muhajariya and hundreds of houses were burned down. The attackers destroyed and looted the main market place. Hundreds of people were forcibly displaced as a result of this attack. The attack against Muhajariya represent a serious development in the conflict because this area is under the control of forces loyal to Mr. Minni Minawi, the only Darfur insurgent leader who signed the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) in Abuja on 5th May 2006. More than 5 soldiers from Mr. Minni Minawi's faction were killed in this attack and over 10 others were injured. Following this attack Mr. Minni Minawi threatened to abandon the DPA altogether. The attack against Muhajariya has also forced the humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to evacuate its team of medical workers and close down the only hospital that serve the people of the area.

The resurgence of large-scale violence in Darfur mocks the binding commitment made by the parties to the conflict to negotiate a political solution for the crisis of the region. Escalation of military operations in Darfur were reported at a time when the United Nations and African Union are preparing for a fresh round of political negotiations between the government and the Darfur insurgent movements. These talks are scheduled to take place in Tripoli, Libya, on 27th October 2007. The parties to the conflict in Darfur should be forced to respect the existing ceasefire agreement and arrest all military operations before they embark on any political negotiations.

DRDC strongly condemns the recent military offensives against Haskanita and Muhajariya as they represent senseless collective and indiscriminate punishment against civilian population in Darfur. The massive violations of human rights and humanitarian law associated with these attacks should escape the world scrutiny. Targeting of civilians has characterised Sudan's reaction to the armed rebellion in Darfur since February 2003. This latest incident is reminiscent of the scorched-earth campaign introduced by the government of Sudan in the summer of 2003. Attacking civilians in this manner violates Sudan's obligations under regional and international human rights and humanitarian law.

DRDC calls on the UN Security Council to seize itself of the ongoing developments and take further measures to ensure that the government of Sudan and other parties to the conflict in Darfur put a halt to all military operations in the region immediately. What is needed urgently is the deployment of a robust UN/AU hybrid force with full political backing as well as capability, mobility and firepower in order to protect civilians from the widespread war crimes and crimes against humanity in the region.

Sudan: Darfur: UN envoy warns surge in violence must end ahead of peace talks

2007-10-12

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24270

The United Nations Special Envoy to Darfur has called for an end to the “vicious cycle of violence” engulfing the war-torn Sudanese region ahead of major peace talks later this month, warning that any delay to the negotiations between the Government and the rebels would only lead to further bloodshed.

East Africa: Ban Ki-moon urges restraint by Ethiopia and Eritrea as tensions rise

2007-10-12

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24269

Voicing his concern at escalating tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on the two East African neighbours to show maximum restraint and abide by the accords that ended their border war seven years ago. Of particular concern are “recent shooting incidents, as well as the building up of military forces in the border area,” according to a statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson.

DRC: Army recaptures villages as Nkunda appeals for new ceasefire

2007-10-12

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/037f981ab08860ef021df3a45e83ebee.htm

Dissident Congolese general Laurent Nkunda has called for a fresh ceasefire, claiming that the army's artillery fire in North Kivu province was hitting civilians. Government forces have retaken several villages from troops loyal to Nkunda, according to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), MONUC.

South Africa: All miners rescued

2007-10-12

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9C3083B2-A023-4AED-896B-7E776E841AEE.htm

The last of the 3,200 miners trapped deep in a South African gold shaft for more than 24 hours has been rescued. Buyelwa Sonjica, South Africa's minister for minerals and energy, said that the operation finished on Thursday as the last group was brought to the surface.

Sudan: Breaking the Abyei deadlock

2007-10-12

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=5122

Mounting tensions in the oil-rich Abyei region are the most dangerous threat to reignite that war, as the latest report from the International Crisis Group, Sudan: Breaking the Abyei Deadlock,* demonstrates. It examines the dispute over Abyei, the most volatile aspect of the CPA, the deal that ended the country’s twenty-year civil war in which over two million people died. The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) is violating the CPA by refusing the “final and binding” ruling of the Abyei Boundary Commission, leaving an administrative and political vacuum.

Africa: African digital villages receive a boost

2007-10-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/43746

Telecommunications equipment supplier Ericsson in partnership with Columbia's University's Earth Institute has set aside Sh600 million to connect African villages to the information super highway.
Highway Africa News Agency

Telecommunications equipment supplier Ericsson in partnership with Columbia's University's Earth Institute has set aside Sh600 million to connect African villages to the information super highway.

The Millennium Villages project as the initiative is known is currently underway in different African countries.

The African digital villages' project is taking the form of mobile telephony and the roll-out of internet facilities.

The pilot phase of the project involves 80 villages in 10 African countries whose long-term ambition is to take mobile telecommunications and the internet to more than 400,000 people living in rural African communities.

With Africa already lagging behind in bridging the digital divide between the rural and urban dwellers, minimal economic growth can only be expected.

In a wider perspective, upcoming companies cannot expect to make a mark in the market if they continue to sideline rural populations.

Ericsson Country Manager for East Africa Thomas Sonesson says that his firm's intention is to lift the standards of the rural populace in East Africa and the dream can only be achieved through digitising rural societies.

"Providing these villages with mobile telecommunications should not only help improve the provision of basic services such as health care, education and safety but also act as a foundation for fostering economic growth and development."

Sonesson says that his firm's commitment to the Millennium Villages project is in line with their vision to be the prime driver of the information society in Africa.

"It will allow us to apply technology for social, economic and environmental benefits while at the same time stimulating new business development in emerging markets," he said.

Ericsson has for a long time enjoyed the competitive advantage of being a dominant telecoms supplier in Africa and this will help it create a healthy rapport with African operators to provide connectivity to the villages.

On the other hand, the Columbian-based Earth Institute has given high prominence to mobile phone network coverage in different African countries. A case example is in Kenya where the institution has helped roll-out mobile telephony in the Kenyan village of Dertu.

Jeffrey Sachs, President of the Earth Institute and a former Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General cites the mobile phone as an effective tool in the fight against poverty, particularly for poor communities across Africa.

"Mobile technology will not only facilitate communication across and beyond borders, but will also be an engine for economic growth."

He added that the partnership between his institute and Ericsson is underlined in the four pillars of the Millennium Development Goals, and will work with its mobile division Sony Ericsson to provide applications and services needed for the Millennium Villages project.

In Kenya the digital villages' project has already taken root after Safaricom and Celtel proposed to develop a comprehensive end-to-end telecommunication strategy in the villages through increased mobile phone connectivity and coverage.

South Africa: Internet 'connectivity' goes rural

2007-10-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/43744

The Legaletlwa High School has opened a new computer centre to allow school going kids access to the web. The centre was opened by the Minister of Public Service and Administration, Ms Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi. Present at the launch of the centre were Mec of education in Limpopo Dr Aaron Motswaledi, Mayor of greater Sekhukhune municipality His Excellency Namane Masemola, Makhuduthamaga mayor Queen Mkhabela, and the Chief Executive Officer of TSS (Tactical Software Systems) Mr. Danny Mackay.
Highway Africa News Agency

The Legaletlwa High School has opened a new computer centre to allow school going kids access to the web. The centre was opened by the Minister of Public Service and Administration, Ms Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.

Present at the launch of the centre were Mec of education in Limpopo Dr Aaron Motswaledi, Mayor of greater Sekhukhune municipality His Excellency Namane Masemola, Makhuduthamaga mayor Queen Mkhabela, and the Chief Executive Officer of TSS (Tactical Software Systems) Mr. Danny Mackay.

Addressing the pupils of Legaletlwa, Fraser-Moleketi said " I am deeply moved to be here today at the opening of your new computer centre, under the apartheid system Legaletlwa existed on the periphery, poorly resourced and mostly disregarded."

Jubilation was the order of the day when the centre was handed over officially to the school's administration. Moleketi further pointed out that "The possibilities and opportunities that will present themselves to you as learners, and to you as teachers, are infinite and with these enabling tools, you should be well on the way to becoming a 'connected' learning institution and an established centre of knowledge and excellence".

Legaletlwa was started in 1977 and has been one of the historically disadvantaged high schools in the Limpopo Province. Currently Legaletlwa has 644 students 59 of them are registered matriculants.

In the past 3 years Legaletlwa improved its matric pass rate significantly. The opening of the computer centre is a generosity of TSS (Tactical Software systems) and State Information Technology Agency. Moleketi said "Today marks the beginning of a new era at Legaletlwa High School - an era of opportunity and new knowledge and new learning horizons - to be grabbed robustly by all learners".

Meanwhile, Mr S.S.Makola the principal of Legaletlwa said that "I plan to open a computer centre at our sister schools in the province as well as for the community of Limpopo."

Moleketi encouraged the students and community to make use of the computer centre wisely and make sure that it works for the advancement of the community as a whole.

Togo: High Court rules against SMS

2007-10-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/43745

The High authority of audio-visual and communication (HAAC) of Togo has criticesed the use of SMSees in Togo's election campaign. In a watershed decision the High Court on Tuesday denounced the publication of short messages by a member of the RPT which is the rulling party in Togo to send SMS messages to potential voters.
Highway Africa News Agency

The High authority of audio-visual and communication (HAAC) of Togo has criticized the use of SMS in Togo's election campaign.

In a watershed decision the High Court on Tuesday denounced the publication of short messages by a member of the RPT which is the ruling party in Togo to send SMS messages to potential voters.

The decision was based on information collated from mobile phone subscribers about unsolicited messages from politicians to vote for them during the country's legislative elections on October 14, 2007.

The SMS message that the public have been complaining about reads in part that "to maintain the current dynamics of reconciliation and economic growth and social stability, vote RPT". The HAAC ruled the SMSing of messages to potential voters as unfair propaganda and as an illicit practice which does not give potential voters an opportunity to make up their minds about who to vote for.

The judge said the court had taken into consideration the country's political climate and the political wishes of many Togolese voters.

According to the HAAC the court has asked the senders of SMS to be sensitive to the wishes of the public. The has asked the country's political parties to follow the law or face the wrath of the law.

According to the HAAC, only television, radio broadcasting and newspaper adverts are the only legal means that the parties must use to get access to the voters.

Africa: Call for Papers - The Educational Research Network for West and Central Africa

2007-10-08

http://ernwaca.org/panaf/jera/en/index.htm

The Educational Research Network for West and Central Africa (ERNWACA) calls for scientific articles in all areas of education for the maiden edition of the Journal of Educational Research in Africa (JERA), a social science review. JERA, a long time objective of ERNWACA, will help promote quality research relevant to African contexts and should help teachers, educational administrators and policymakers gain analytical in-depth understanding of contemporary educational issues.

Africa: Connect Africa Summit - Expanding Africa’s Broadband Capacity

2007-10-11

http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2007/Advisory-11.html

Some 500 participants are expected to attend the Connect Africa Summit. Participants include the patrons of the initiative, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Ghana’s President John Kufuor, who is also the African Union Chairman. High-level participants include International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré; Chairman of the African Union Commission Alpha Oumar Konare; President of the African Development Bank Donald Kaberuka; and Intel Corporation Chairman Craig Barrett, who is also the Chair of the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development.

Africa: Invitation for Applicantions for WLPPFP/LAWA Fellowships

2007-10-08

http://www.wlppfp.org/lawa/

The Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA) Fellowship Program was founded in 1993 at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., in order to train women's human rights lawyers from Africa who are committed to returning home to their countries in order to advance the status of women and girls throughout their careers. Over 50 women's human rights advocates from across Africa have participated in the LAWA Program, and we hope to include Fellows from additional countries in the future. The application deadline for the 2008-2009 LAWA Fellowship Program is November 30, 2007.

Africa: Practical Solutions To Small Arms Control In Africa 2007

2007-10-08

http://www.saferafrica.org/events/IQPC/IQPC_Small_Arms_Conference_Nov_2007.pdf

SaferAfrica is proud to partner with the International Quality and Productivity Centre (IQPC) on the presentation of the Practical Solutions To Small Arms Control In Africa 2007 Conference. It will take place from 14 to 16 November 2007 at the Holiday Inn, Pretoria, South Africa. The theme of the conference is how to practically tackle the scourge of small arms and light weapons in Africa.

Lesotho: "Promoting Gender Equality in Cooperatives"

2007-10-10

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/43626

The Regional Office for Africa of the International Cooperative Alliance (http//www.ica.coop) is organising a Co-operative Gender Forum on November 12 to 16, at the Maseru Conference Centre in Lesotho.
The Regional Office for Africa of the International Cooperative Alliance (http//www.ica.coop) is organising a Co-operative Gender Forum on November 12 to 16, at the Maseru Conference Centre in Lesotho.

The theme of the Forum is: "Promoting Gender Equality in Cooperatives to enhance sustainable economic development".

The Forum aims to foster the sharing of knowledge and experiences on gender integration that will lead to enhanced women participation at all levels.

Participants (women, men and youth) are expected to come from the cooperative movement in Africa, but also from governmental organisations, regional integration bodies, and the international development community at large.

For further information, please call the ICA Regional Office at +254- 20 – 2711959 or send an email to the Co-ordinator of the Forum at dz.eugenie@fasonet.bf

South Africa: Practical Solutions To Small Arms Control In Africa 2007

2007-10-11

http://www.saferafrica.org/events/IQPC/IQPC_Small_Arms_Conference_Nov_2007.pdf

SaferAfrica is proud to partner with the International Quality and Productivity Centre (IQPC) on the presentation of the Practical Solutions To Small Arms Control In Africa 2007 Conference. It will take place from 14 to 16 November 2007 at the Holiday Inn, Pretoria, South Africa. The theme of the conference is how to practically tackle the scourge of small arms and light weapons in Africa.

Uganda: Reproductive Health in Emergencies Conference 2008

2007-10-12

http://www.raiseinitiative.org/conference/

We are pleased to announce a Call for Abstracts for the Reproductive Health in Emergencies Conference 2008 being organised by the RAISE Initiative in collaboration with the RHRC Consortium. The Conference is being held on 18-20 June 2008. Reproductive Health (RH) in Emergencies Conference 2008 will bring together a wide range of actors from the fields of RH in emergencies, reproductive health, humanitarian assistance and development to contribute to the expansion of comprehensive RH services in crisis settings. Abstracts are now being accepted. The due date for submission is January 31, 2008.

Zimbabwe: Auxillia Chimusoro HIV and AIDS awards

2007-10-10

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/43624

Auxillia Chimusoro HIV and AIDS awards 200: Call for nominations Individuals and organizations who have excelled in their contributions to mitigate HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe have a chance to win awards at the annual Auxillia Chimusoro HIV and AIDS Awards ceremony to be held in Harare on November 29th 2007.
Supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Auxillia Chimusoro HIV and AIDS Awards aim to honor and celebrate outstanding community leadership and action that has helped curtail the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS.

The deadline for nominations is November 2nd 2007. Details of the various categories of the nomination, and the nomination process are available at http://harare.usembassy.gov

Contact: The Secretariat, Auxillia Chimusoro Awards 2007, P.O. Box EH
306, Emerald Hill, Harare OR Block E, Emerald Office Park, 30 The Chase West, Harare. Email:
auxilliachimusoro@partnership-project.org.zw

Global: Country Programme Managers (CPMs) - Oxfam

2007-10-11

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/43677

Oxfam’s Country Programme Managers never cease to amaze. They make decisions that affect the lives of millions in whole countries and provide solutions that bring lasting changes to all sorts of communities the world over. Right now, we’re looking to build a pool of candidates from a wide range of backgrounds with humanitarian and relief experience to take on these roles So if you can bring direction to some of the world’s most challenging environments in humanitarian, development and advocacy work, read on.
Oxfam GB

Country Programme Managers (CPMs)
Worldwide

What we are looking for

With relief and emergency experience like no other, you’ll have demonstrable knowledge of development and humanitarian issues. You’ll be on top of political, economic and social trends, too, able to tailor your solutions to meet the individual needs of diverse populations. And you’ll have the confidence to work innovatively to your own guidelines, combining your programme management skills with the ability to motivate and inspire your team.

Just as importantly though, you’ll be sensitive to a broad range of cultures. We work hard to make sure Oxfam GB represents the communities in which we work and are especially keen to speak to candidates with southern experience working in Africa and Asia.

Who we are

Oxfam is a worldwide organisation that employs over 6,000 people in more than 80 countries to overcome poverty and suffering. We believe that in a world rich in resources, these aren’t facts of life, but injustices which must be overcome. Through worldwide recognition we strive to even this balance - a balance we all feel responsible for. If you share this vision and commitment, then you’re exactly what we’re looking for.

To apply

At Oxfam, we believe that every aspect of our work can lead to a positive outcome. Make the most of this considerable challenge and scope for personal fulfilment by visiting www.oxfam.org.uk/jobs/cpmrec to find out more and register your interest. We’re after motivated individuals able to work as a Country Programme Manager at some point in the future, so please remember that you’ll not be applying to a specific vacancy.

Nigeria: Project Manager, Maiduguri, Borno State - IITA

2007-10-11

http://www.iita.org/cms/details/job_details.aspx?articleid=1161&zoneid=85

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), with headquarters in Ibadan (Nigeria), is seeking candidates for a Manager of the project “Promoting Sustainable Agriculture in Borno State” (or PROSAB) funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and is implemented with a broad range of local stakeholders and regional partners. The position will remain open until a suitable candidate is found.

Ethiopia: Post Doctoral Fellow - IFPRI

2007-10-12

http://careers.ifpri.org/DetailIFPRI.asp?ifpri07-157

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks a Postdoctoral Fellow for a two year, fixed-term, renewable appointment with its Environment and Production Technology (EPT) and International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) divisions.

Fahamu