Dorothy-Grace Guerrero and Firoze Manji (ed) (2008) China’s New Role in Africa and the South: A search for a new perspective. 
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Pambazuka News 353: African Agriculture and the World Bank: Development or impoverishment?
The authoritative electronic weekly newsletter and platform for social justice in Africa
Pambazuka News (English edition): ISSN 1753-6839
With nearly 500 contributors and an estimated 500,000 readers Pambazuka News is the authoritative pan African electronic weekly newsletter and platform for social justice in Africa providing cutting edge commentary and in-depth analysis on politics and current affairs, development, human rights, refugees, gender issues and culture in Africa.
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CONTENTS: 1. Announcements, 2. Features, 3. Comment & analysis, 4. Pan-African Postcard, 5. Letters, 6. Obituaries, 7. Books & arts, 8. Blogging Africa, 9. Zimbabwe update, 10. Women & gender, 11. Human rights, 12. Refugees & forced migration, 13. Elections & governance, 14. Africa & China, 15. Corruption, 16. Development, 17. Health & HIV/AIDS, 18. Education, 19. LGBTI, 20. Environment, 21. Land & land rights, 22. Media & freedom of expression, 23. News from the diaspora, 24. Conflict & emergencies, 25. Internet & technology, 26. Fundraising & useful resources, 27. Courses, seminars, & workshops, 28. Jobs
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Highlights from this issue
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Shailja Patel wins the FannyAnn Eddy Poetry Award
FEATURES: Researchers look at the ways in which the World Bank has impacted food production in Africa.
COMMENTS & ANALYSIS:
- Edward Ball on slavery and the George Bush family
- Salma Maoulidi on gold mining in Tanzania
- Merti Range Users Association on oil prospecting in Kenya
- Physicians for Human Rights petition on the G8
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem on the Millennium Development Goals
LETTERS: Readers' comments and announcements
OBITUARIES: Tribute to Fidelis Wainaina
BOOKS AND ARTS:
- Girma Berhanu reviews the book IQ and the Wealth of Nations
- Mo(ve)ments call for submissions
BLOGGING AFRICA: Sokari Ekine and Dibussi Tande round up African blogsANNOUNCEMENTS: Shailja Patel awarded the Fannyann Eddy Poetry Award
ZIMBABWE UPDATE: Police chief warns puppets
WOMEN AND GENDER: Ghana's Queen mothers hold court on abortion
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Chad, Sudan agree to end cross-border attacks
HUMAN RIGHTS: Shock testimony at Taylor trial
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Cash grants for Burundi returnees
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Kenya's killers to face the law
AFRICA AND CHINA: Lending, policy space and governance – new study
CORRUPTION: Zuma tries to block court evidence
DEVELOPMENT: Biofuels: An assault on the world's poor
HEALTH AND HIV/Aids: Chad refugees waiting for HIV services
EDUCATION: Semblance of education for Chad's displaced
LGBTI: Egypt condemns homosexuals as Aids carriers
ENVIRONMENT: Hundreds of Kenyans ill after toxic leak
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: South African court issues removal order to settlement residents
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Nigerien editor sentenced to prison
NEWS FROM THE DIASPORA: Letter from Aristide to Haitian people
INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY: APC supports SA regulator against monopoly
PLUS: e-newsletters and mailings lists; courses, seminars and workshops, and jobs
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Announcements
Shailja Patel awarded the FannyAnn Eddy Poetry Award
2008-03-13
Pambazuka Editors'
Pambazuka News is pleased to announce that one of its writers, Shailja Patel has been awarded the FannyAnn Eddy Poetry Award, from the International Research Network (IRN -Africa), for her poem, "Screaming."
FannyAnn Eddy, fearless leader of the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association, was brutally raped and murdered in 2004.
The awardees said that "Screaming" is striking because it illustrates how damage to the body is one of the many weapons patriarchy uses against those who dare assert dissident sexualities. One way of theorizing eroticism is exceptionally demonstrated through this poem.
Screaming" will appear in IRN-Africa's forthcoming collection of writing on alternatives to heteronormativity in Africa, "Outliers".
Features
African Agriculture and the World Bank: Development or impoverishment?
2008-03-11
Kjell Havnevik, Deborah Bryceson, Lars-Erik Birgegård, Prosper Matondi & Atakilte Beyene
Kjell Havnevik, Deborah Fahy Bryceson, Atakilte Beyene and Prosper Matondi look at the destructive role the world bank has played in African agriculture and food production
Agriculture’s dominant role in Sub-Saharan Africa’s local, national and regional economies and cultures throughout pre-colonial history has been foundational to 20th century colonial and post-colonial development. No other continent has been so closely identified with smallholder peasant farming. Nonetheless, smallholder farming has been eroding over the last three decades, perpetuating rural poverty and marginalizing remote rural areas. Donors’ search for rural ‘success stories’ merely reinforces this fact. Certainly many farmers have voted with their feet by increasingly engaging in non-agricultural livelihoods or migrating to urban areas. In so doing, the significance of agriculture for the majority of Africa’s population has altered.
The World Bank has played a prominent role in shaping agricultural policy in Africa. Under structural adjustment conditionality of the 1980s, the World Bank’s prescriptions became largely mandatory for the debt-ridden national economies of the continent. Its influence over a country’s policies is now generally in direct inverse proportion to that country’s economic strength. Thus, most African countries have to greater or lesser degrees espoused and implemented World Bank development policy for the last 25 years, and African agricultural sectors, in effect, demonstrate through continuous low growth rates and deepening rural poverty, the impact of World Bank policies.
A recent evaluation of the World Bank’s research output, chaired by Angus Deaton, challenged the institution’s reputation as the world’s ‘knowledge bank’ referring to its habit of taking ‘new and untested results as hard evidence that its preferred policies work’, singling out the flagship World Development Reports published annually as a medium through which advocacy of the World Bank’s favoured policy recommendations sometimes takes precedence over balanced analysis.
On the face of it, the WDR 2008 espouses a continuation of World Bank rural policies of the last quarter century. First, it argues that agriculture is key to poverty alleviation, especially for African smallholder farmers. The majority of Africa’s poor live in rural areas and farm to varying extents. Second, it stresses that liberalized national markets will remain the primary force for achieving productivity increases and poverty alleviation.
Accelerated growth will be achieved through agricultural productivity improvement but the ‘green revolution’ model of state investments and subsidized support for agricultural inputs are discounted. African states are seen to be seriously flawed and therefore best restricted in scope and decentralised to preclude government intervention in the national economy. Smallholder households will participate in commodity, capital, land and labour markets, to seek multiple pathways out of poverty; either through encompassing agricultural production, rural non-agricultural enterprises or out-migration.
Beneath these entirely business-as-usual policies, there are starkly contradictory objectives: the humanitarian concerns of poverty alleviation clash with a Darwinian market fundamentalism. ‘Market fundamentalism’ is defined here as the unshakeable belief in the innate nature of the market as a prime mover of exchange and optimizer of production without regard for the political imbalances and social biases of markets as historical institutions. States are seen as potential concentrations of vested interests and power in stark contrast to markets as neutral forums of exchange.
Will African peasant farmers’ lot improve or decline further? The report has a casual way of not distinguishing the radically different policy needs of small as opposed to large-scale agriculture. In global agricultural commodity markets, African smallholder producers have been losing market share continually over the last three decades. Africa’s traditional export crops, the beverage crops: coffee, cocoa, tea, as well as cotton, tobacco, cashew, etc. have steadily declined to now quite negligible export levels. The comparative advantage that African smallholders held in these crops has been undermined by far more efficient producers elsewhere. There is no evidence provided to suggest that the broad masses of African small-scale peasant farmers will experience anything other than continuing difficulties in meeting the rigours of global commodity market chains with their highly regulated standards and time schedules.
Paradoxically, the World Bank has a long tradition of championing smallholder farmers. Structural adjustment policies were implemented in the name of ‘getting the prices right’ to promote market efficient resource allocation for the benefit of smallholders. Consistently World Bank agricultural policies have displayed contradictory tendencies and a glaring discrepancy between stated objectives and actual outcomes. Nonetheless, the World Bank has rarely been held to account. Peasant farmers have been too dispersed and without a voice whereas heavily indebted African governments are too dependent on the World Bank’s conditional aid to criticize the policies it enforces.
WORLD BANK POLICY AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY
African agriculture was in the World Bank’s spotlight 25 years ago with the publication of the Berg report entitled Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Agenda for Action (1981) and the World Development Report 1982 on the theme of agriculture. These reports identified African state policy intervention, particularly in the form of producer subsidies and parastatal marketing, as key problems to resolve in order to achieve higher agricultural productivity. The encouraging improvements in maize yields from the improved input and fertilizer packages that several African governments were distributing on a subsidized basis went unacknowledged, while the dramatic change in terms of trade following the oil crises of 1973/74 and 1979 and the subsequent world market economic shocks that the continent experienced were largely sidestepped – internal rather than external causes of the African economic crisis were stressed.
In the aftermath, as African countries one by one fell into heavy debt and SAP conditionality was imposed, the blooming of a potential green revolution fostered by policies of several African states during the 1970s was nipped in the bud. Unlike the green revolution of India, Indonesia and the Philippines, which had afforded its farmers several years of state-supported input subsidy, Africa’s green revolution was stillborn.
In stark contrast to Asia, Africa remains seriously food insecure. The investment in improved agricultural input packages and extension support tapered and eventually disappeared in most rural areas of Africa under SAP. Concern for boosting smallholders’ productivity was abandoned. Not only were governments rolled back, foreign aid to agriculture dwindled. World Bank funding for agriculture itself declined markedly from 32 per cent of total lending in 1976-8 to 11.7 per cent in 1997-9.
But some form of an agricultural revolution is vital to the future of today’s African smallholders. This is not because of their need to remain in the agricultural sector, although this may be the desire of many. Rather it is because the food security afforded by a green revolution provides the necessary foundation and insurance for individuals, rural households and nation-states to develop non-agrarian occupational specializations as well as constituting an important impetus for the growth of other sectors.
Reviving African attempts to rekindle African green revolution efforts, are ruled out. The World Bank’s refusal to endorse a concentrated state-coordinated and international donor supported effort to raise African productivity is likely to preclude the African rural poor’s agriculture from expanding beyond basic subsistence. There is, however, one notable concession in the WDR 2008. African smallholders may be allowed ’smart’ producer subsidies, which must be restrictively targeted and delimited primarily to fertilizer. Considering that farmers in OECD countries have kept their agricultural subsidies relatively intact throughout the last 20 years as African farmers saw their far more modest subsidies whittled away, this is a small consolation. The average support to OECD agricultural producers fell from 37 per cent of gross value of farm receipts in 1986-88 to 30 per cent in 2003-2005. While this represented a 7 per cent decline, the total amount of support increased over the same period from $242 billion a year to $273 billion a year (WDR 2008).
LARGE VERSUS SMALL-SCALE AGRICULTURE: CONTRACT FARMING AND RURAL WAGE LABOUR
Under current market fundamentalist thinking, large-scale agriculture is deemed to be competitive, not small-scale family production. The WDR 2008 infers that the lack of competitiveness of African smallholder commodity production will necessarily catapult many farmers into contract farming or agricultural wage employment. The wider relevance of contracting in an African context lies in its potential for increasing economies of scale and assuring quality.
Contract farming and agricultural wage labour are recommended when accompanied with fair remuneration and working conditions. The question remains how such just conditions are to be secured. Large-scale farms and agri-business are not charities. A deluge of farmers, exiting the smallholder sector as ‘refugees’, and flooding rural labour markets, will meet with extremely low returns and harsh working conditions.
Contract farming is usually selective in its outreach, often restricted to locations near big cities or major roads. Socially, over time it tends to exclude smaller, poorer producers, and the crops grown are primarily export cash crops rather than food staples. It constitutes a top-down take-it-or-leave-it approach with limited technical transfer. Undoubtedly it can benefit some farmers, but it is not an omnibus solution to low productivity and food insecurity for the majority of African peasant farmers.
Similar arguments are made for the efficiency of large-scale farm and plantation production. In relinquishing their autonomy, do smallholders gain in terms of income and security of employment? Smallholders’ bargaining power in contract farming can be very limited particularly in relation to the increasing influence of supermarket value chains. Agricultural wage labourers tend to have even less room for manoeuvre with casualization of the agricultural wage labour a common tendency. The WDR 2008 admits that agricultural wage labourers have been known to face highly exploitative working conditions.
Meanwhile, African states have initiated a host of incentives (tax rebates, physical and moral security) for foreign investors to attract foreign currency into the country. Historically, the majority of investors and European settler farmers were concentrated in Southern Africa producing commercial export crops as well as food products such maize, wheat and beef. More recently, they have ventured into horticulture, safari ranching and tourism.
The WDR 2008 suffers from a logical inconsistency between its acclaimed goal of poverty alleviation for African smallholder farmers and its conviction that large-scale commercial farming is the inevitable future of farming. African small-scale family farmers must meet the productivity levels, rigorous product standards and delivery schedules of international value chains to compete effectively, yet without necessary support.
At present hundreds of millions of African peasant smallholders are not competing successfully in global commodity markets. The World Bank adopts a matter-of-fact position that they will relinquish their autonomy as agricultural producers and work as contract farmers or wage labours in large-scale agribusiness or alternatively leave agriculture to seek their livelihood elsewhere. Their sanguine attitude towards peasant labour redundancy does not tally with their professed concern for the African rural poor. Beneath the WDR 2008’s public relations spin about poverty alleviation, they are conferring carte blanche support to a ‘survival of the fittest’ economic trajectory in which the grossly imbalanced commercial interests of large-scale OECD subsidized farmers, supermarket chains and agribusiness have full scope to compete against unsubsidized peasant farmers engaged in rural ways of life that that have managed hitherto to endure for millennia.
LAND FOR THOSE LEFT BEHIND
African smallholders have a ‘loser’ status in the WDR2008, but the World Bank appreciates that allowing the global market to fully decimate African peasant agriculture would spell political and human disaster in the weak African national economies where farmers’ only option is to join over-crowded rural and urban informal sectors where average levels of capitalization, skills and productivity are exceptionally low. Thus the African countryside of the future is in effect likely to be relegated to a large ‘holding ground’ to ensure basic welfare of the rural population and provide labour for other sectors of the economy as and when needed.
In a significant departure from the World Bank’s otherwise consistent efforts to promote the extension of market relations throughout African commodity, labour and capital exchange the World Bank now stresses that a rural pro-poor agenda requires attention to customary tenure rights and land management systems. The World Bank position is now supportive of evolutionary land tenure, seeing customary tenure as central for ensuring the poor’s security as local tenure regimes evolve towards market-based practices. To stave criticism that it is supporting traditionalism, the World Bank has tried to press for reforms of the traditional authorities safeguarding customary land tenure, and in so doing asserts that customary land tenure can strengthen women’s land rights, promote decentralized land institutions, and raise productivity – features rarely if ever formerly identified with customary tenure in the past.
The reality is that customary land rights are no longer the central issue in many African countries. Smallholder farmers are often in competition with large-scale farmers who receive preferential state support. Small farmers have already been or are currently being pushed into vulnerable ecological areas outside their traditional home areas.
SMALL HOLDER MARGINALIZATION
The World Bank has not been held accountable for the agricultural policy misjudgements and blunders they have enforced in Africa over the last 25 years through structural adjustment policy and debt conditionality. Now, with impunity, they are throwing their weight behind the rapid redundancy of a potentially massive number of peasant smallholders in the name of African development.
The World Bank is recommending global capital’s destruction of an independent smallholder agricultural sector in the absence of clear employment prospects. This is radically different from the rapid depeasantization process currently underway in China. There, members of rural households are leaving the farm to work in booming industrial and service sectors of the national economy. Given the constricted parameters of African national economies, smallholder alternative options outlined by the World Bank are not convincing.
Rural non-agricultural activities are performed primarily on the basis of self-employment. The risks are high and financial capital and over-supply are the over-riding constraints. The rural informal sector is already heavily over-subscribed and known for its low, unreliable fluctuating levels of remuneration. Finally, there is the option to migrate to an urban area to seek employment. In most cases the outcome is very similar to that of participating in rural non-farm activities without the safety net of having farming members of the family nearby.
The WDR 2008 advocates the above listed options as escape routes to avoid directly experiencing the disintegration of peasant smallholder farming, but there is a realization that not all African rural dwellers will manage to join the exodus. For those who are left behind, the policy will have to be ‘social protection’ rather than ‘economic development’. In this sense the WDR 2008 marks a major departure in World Bank rural policy – African rural development policy will no longer centre on smallholder agency. Rather those who constitute the ‘relic population’, could be availed, a continued subsistence farming base, facilitated by the World Bank’s recent switch to acceptance of the historical evolution of customary tribal-based land tenure.
In other words, those left in the countryside live on tribal communal ‘holding grounds’, akin to the Bantustans of the apartheid period of South African history, eking out an existence on the basis of exceptionally low-yielding, uncapitalized agriculture. Like the Bantustans, these holding grounds could function as labour reserves for the mainstream national economy and would most likely be based on conservative tribal customary legal frameworks not only with respect to land but in wide array of other spheres as well. It is indeed an irony that such a possibility resurfaces little more than a decade after South Africa managed to rid itself of this ‘separate and unequal’ model of rural exploitation in the name of development.
*Kjell Havnevik is a Senior Researcher with the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala
*Deborah Fahy Bryceson is a Research Associate at the African Studies Centre, Oxford University
*Atakilte Beyene has a PhD in Development Studies, and is affiliated with The Stockholm Environment
Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
*Prosper Matondi works in the Centre for Rural Development, University of Zimbabwe
**Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Comment & analysis
The Bush family's slaveholding past: Was their dynasty built on slavery?
2008-02-19
Edward Ball
Edward Ball argues that in addition to a troubled Bush Africa legacy, Bush's family owned slaves
The image most people have of slavery involves a cotton plantation with a big white house, a black village where 300 people live in cabins and a cruel overseer in the wings. This was not the model followed by the ancestors of President George W. Bush when, 175 years ago, they enslaved about 30 people on the shores of the upper Chesapeake.
A new book by Jacob Weisberg, The Bush Tragedy, mentions in passing that at one time some of the president's family owned slaves. Weisberg doesn't dwell on the links between the White House and the antebellum past except to say the Bush clan's story is a long-held "family secret." The Bush Tragedy, a revealing book about family dynamics in the Bush political dynasty, treats the slavery matter only briefly, focusing instead on the "spectacular, avoidable flame-out" of the receding administration. But the story that joins the 43rd president to predecessors who held title to dozens of people bears retelling in detail.
The skeletal facts surfaced in April 2007, when an amateur historian named Robert Hughes published his research in the IllinoisTimes, a small paper out of Springfield. Hughes found census records showing that during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, in Cecil County, Maryland, five households of the Walker family, the president's ancestors via his father's mother, Dorothy Walker Bush, had been slaveholding farmers. The evidence is simple but persuasive: genealogies of the Bush family match up with census data that counted farmers who used enslaved workers. With this, the president joins perhaps fifteen million living white Americans who trace their roots to the long-gone master class.
It's not as though the president is the only politician whose family owned slaves. Of the first eighteen presidents, from George Washington to Ulysses Grant, twelve owned people, eight of them while in office. At one time, Andrew Jackson was even a slave trader. Since Emancipation in 1865, a number of presidents have come from families that once contained slave masters. Even the current presidential hopefuls are likely to have slave owners among their ancestors. The descendants of slaveholders do not wear special tattoos or announce themselves in secret handshakes, but most know who they are.
The tragic story of America's slave days inspires disabling levels of fear among whites and anger among blacks. Probably neither the 43rd president nor his father, the 41st, possesses the introspection needed to grasp the relationship between the Bush family's slaveholding past and its present circumstances without escaping into defensiveness. Still, President Bush has talked about slavery from several microphones, most memorably in a 2003 speech on Gorée Island, one of the "slave castles" in West Africa from which captive youth and children were dispatched to the Americas. Speechwriters likely supplied the words on that occasion when the president said, "slavery was one of the greatest crimes of history." But the words fell short of an accounting by the White House for America's role in the Middle Passage, and they came before the revelation of the Bush family's own link to the slave past.
As for the African Americans in this tale, the Walker family slaves, neither names nor biographical details about them have survived. According to the genealogist who uncovered the records, Robert Hughes, the census accounts show that they lived at four different farms in Cecil County, Maryland, on a string of land called Sassafras Neck, which separates two slender rivers that empty into upper Chesapeake Bay. There, in 1790, William and Sarah Davis, direct ancestors of the president, owned seven people, while another branch of the family owned five. Twenty years later, in 1810, a third couple in the president's ancestral clan were counted as masters to eighteen people. The last appearance of the family as slaveholders of record comes in 1830, when George E. and Harriet Walker, great-great-great grandparents of President George W. Bush, owned 321 acres and two slaves, a female between 10 and 24 and a male between 24 and 36. The namelessness of the slaves is the fault of the so-called slave schedules used in the census, which called for nothing more than approximate ages.
With their small farms, the Walkers and their cousins did not belong to the class of oligarchs, whose vast plantations held scores or hundreds of workers. I've looked, and there were dynasties in Cecil County, places like Cherry Grove, former residence of a Maryland governor, and Mt. Harmon, a vast tobacco estate with a Georgian mansion. The president's forebears probably saw themselves as little people in competition with these fat-cat neighbors.
Still, all slaveholders were also slave traders. The president's family had to avail themselves of a slave auction on at least two occasions: initially, to buy people, and later, when a Walker farm failed, to sell some of the same people, much the way a stockholder liquidates an investment. No story has surfaced about how it happened, but in the mid-1830s, it appears that George E. Walker, the president's third great-grandfather, lost his land. After that, in 1838, he packed his family into a wagon and went west, settling in southern Illinois on a homestead near the town of Bloomington. It is from this branch of migrants that the current Bush clan descends.
Since the Walkers, in effect, declared bankruptcy, and there is no evidence they kept slaves after 1838, it is difficult to follow a money trail from the family's commercial stake in slavery to the White House. However, before he took his family west, it's likely that George Walker sold the people he owned, handing them off to a speculating slave dealer; thereby financing the family's fresh start in Illinois. Things get worse when you contemplate the probable circumstances. In the 1830s, the old tobacco economy of Maryland and Virginia was waning, while the new king, cotton, had caused Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to boom. The tobacco states were selling tens of thousands of slaves to the cotton states, and sending these people south. It is quite possible the Walker slaves were marched 500 miles from Maryland to Alabama to end up on a giant cotton plantation, where the work regime - large crews on vast, unshaded fields - was crueler than the one they'd left behind.
The Walkers eventually quit farming and made a fortune as dry goods wholesalers in Missouri; later, they made another as investment bankers in New York. Nearly all the Bush/Walker family money dates from this more recent period, after the Civil War.
The family, nevertheless, seems to have looked back with nostalgia on their old slave hold. There are two pieces of evidence for this. In The Bush Tragedy, Jacob Weisberg refers to one of the later patriarchs, David Walker, as "a believer in eugenics and the 'unwritten law' of lynching," and cites as proof a letter Walker published in the St. Louis Republic in 1914. Black people, he wrote at the time, were more insidious than prostitution and "all the other evils combined."
The second piece of evidence is within living memory. In 1930, when they could afford it, the family again embraced the antebellum lifestyle. That year President Bush's great-grandfather, George Herbert Walker, bought Duncannon plantation, an old cotton estate in South Carolina, to use as a hunting retreat and vacation home. His namesake, George Herbert Walker Bush, the current president's father, spent many youthful vacations on Duncannon, where teams of black cooks, valets, and drivers served him and opened doors when he approached. The Bush heirs no longer own Duncannon plantation; but for a time, the estate provided a version of the baronial life, to which the antebellum Walkers aspired, but never achieved.
The heirs of slaveholders are not responsible for the past; but in a better world, they would be accountable for that past. They would make an effort to deal with the slave story, talk about it, and try to come to terms with it.
At present the Bush political dynasty seems to be dying in misrule, finished off by a president who, as Weisberg writes, is "driven by family demons, overflowing with confidence, and lacking any capacity for self-knowledge." The Bush clan may not be capable of reckoning personally with the tragic inheritance of the slave days. But this week, on a state visit, the president sets foot in three countries that sent hundreds of thousands of captives to America. Today, some of the tens of millions of descendants of those captives want a White House that is accountable. In West Africa President Bush had a superb opportunity, like one presented to a physician attending a wound. A sound physician would have chosen instinctively to apply medicine, not simply turned away in denial and neglect.
*Edward Ball is the author of Slaves in the Family and, most recently, The Genetic Strand.
***Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Tanzania activists and religious communities launch critical mining research
2008-03-10
Salma Maoulidi
Salma Maoulidi looks at the mining research report, "A Golden Opportunity? How Tanzania is failing to benefit from Gold Mining” and argues that it builds a powerful case for continued activism in trade and economic justice in line with various Human rights instruments that call for a country’s wealth and natural resources to benefit primarily local communities.
Following intense scrutiny over suspect investment contracts by the government and investment companies, a consortium of activist organization and religious communities launched in Dar es Salaam a research titled “A Golden Opportunity? How Tanzania is failing to benefit from Gold Mining”. The report is authored by Tundu Lissu, a lawyer and long time environmental activist from Tanzania and Mark Curtis and independent author and journalist affiliated to a number of academic institutions in Europe.
The research in a critical policy area is a product of a year long initiative by activists and religious leaders to add moral weight to the mining tragedy that looms in Tanzania. Various human rights violations have been recorded including killings and displacements mainly resulting from conflicts between small miners and large scale multinational miners over mining rights. “It is not just about the mining companies but also highlighting the role of rich governments who remain silent over this injustice and in some instances have invested heavily in these companies reaping the benefits from an immoral tax structure”, says Fredrik Glad Jernes, Norwegian Church Aid Tanzania Country Representative.
The report makes grim reading about the governance and practice of mining companies in Tanzania. Mining is the fastest growing sector in the Tanzanian economy but the growth of the sector is not comparable to its contribution to the GDP at just about 3%. Part of the problem lays in the structure of the tax laws that is overly favourably to mining companies and not to Tanzanians.
The situation is attributed to the World Bank financed sectoral reform project begun in the mid nineties which became the basis of laws that inform the tax and mining regimes in the country. The royalty paid to the Government for gold is only at 3%. Tanzania posses around 45m ounces of gold which at the current gold prices means the country is worth USD39 billiion yet it is categorized as one of the poorest countries in the world. In the last 5 years Tanzania exported gold worth more than USD2.5 billion but whereas the government has only received an average of USD21.7million in royalties and taxes on the exports Mining Companies record handsome profits out side of Tanzanian on their websites and company audits presented to shareholders.
Two main companies were scrutinized on the basis of activist work done by the Lawyers Environmental Action Team headed by Tundu Lissu- Barrick Gold a Canadian Company operating mines in Bulyanhulu, North Mara and Tulakawa and AngloGold Ashanti a South African company with British links which operates mines in Geita, the largest gold deposit in the country. The researchers estimate that mining companies have earned about USD2.5 billions from exports but Tanzania only records about USD100 million from gold earnings. The researchers estimate that Tanzanian is loosing more than USD400 billion from tax concessions as well as tax evasion e.g. non payment of corporation tax and waivers on income tax on expatriate workers.
The impunity reigns in part because there is no parliamentary scrutiny over mining contracts. Also the government does not have the capacity to adequately monitor the sector. For example, there are wide discrepancies between statistics published by the companies and those issued by the government pertaining to the sector suggesting discrepancies in record keeping. In some instances the researchers have found under reporting of earning to local governments but the tendencies to inflate the amounts of investments made. Rarely is there an indication of the environmental hazards committed and likely to be committed from mining operations. In addition the investments to local communities are negligible with companies being obliged to contribute not more than USD200, 000 to local governments.
The research is published by the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) the National Council of Muslims in Tanzania (BAKWATA) and the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC). It was funded by the Norwegian Church Aid and Christian Aid, the latter having done similar research in Zambia looking at the Copper Sector leading to the Zambian government declaring its intention to review the terms of investment contracts governing its mining sector. This is the first time the religious community in Tanzania have been involved in high profile advocacy against the government and multinationals.
The Bomani Commission, a presidential commission created to investigate the mining sector is expected to publish its findings by the end of March. “The report will provide us with sound reference on some of the recommendations” declared Hon. Zitto Kabwe who attended the launch. The Commission was constituted following the call in parliament by opposition member Zitto Kabwe for a probe committee into the suspect dealing of the Ministry with regards to Buzwagi Mine where Barrick Gold plans to open another mine in the midst of a review process of the mining sector. This triggering uproar from civil society organizations and opposition parties creating the impetus that ultimately saw the former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa resigning and his cabinet being dissolved a few weeks ago.
While the report can be criticized for lacking a gender analysis, and narratives (not just descriptions) of how mining operations are devastating lives in local communities where mining operations take place, it provides a powerful reading. It also builds a powerful case for continued activism in trade and economic justice in line with various Human rights instruments that call for a country’s wealth and natural resources to benefit primarily local communities.
* Salma Maoulidi is an Activist/Executive Director of the Sahiba Sisters Foundation in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
*Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
No to oil for land!
February 2008
2008-03-06
Merti Range Users Association
The following memorandum was prepared by members of the Merti Range Users Association in northern Isiolo, Kenya. It expresses their concern about concessions recently granted to a Chinese company to prospect for oil in the rangelands. It illustrates the potential threats of this kind of external investment on the ecosystem and local livelihoods, and the lack of transparency in the negotiations.
Memorandum submitted by the Merti Range Users Association of Isiolo, Kenya, in relation to a Chinese company undertaking oil prospecting activities in the area
To: Hon. Kiraitu Murungi, Minister for Energy
Hon. Mohamed Abdi Kuti, MP Isiolo North
The Director, NEMA
The District Commissioner, Isiolo District
All Councillors, Isiolo County Council
Whereas Rangeland Users Association is an institutional framework developed for the purpose of the welfare of the pastoralist people living in Merti division of Isiolo district;
Recognizing that pastoralism is the mainstay of the economy of the area and thus the majority of the population are therefore members of the association;
Further noting that a Chinese company is now said to engage in undertaking oil prospecting activities in the heartland of the rangeland on which the pastoralists raise their livestock and manage the environment, its fauna and flora;
Apprehensive that the said prospecting activities will lead to massive environmental destruction, thereby destabilizing an already fragile ecosystem that is constantly pressurized by the vagaries of ever-changing climatic conditions;
Further noting that the said Chinese company is undertaking these activities in total exclusion of the local people and its leadership;
Realizing that this oil prospecting activity will ultimately lead to not only destroying the existing ecosystem, its economy and the people depending on it but have serious long-term negative effects on the environment on which we derive our livelihood;
And having further realized that the said Chinese company is not willing to engage the local population, its leadership and institutions on any of the issues,
We therefore submit the following:
1. That an urgent immediate action be taken by the elected leadership to engage the relevant government organ/department to ensure the above-raised concerns are addressed in the following manner.
2. That the Chinese company is practising unethical labour procedure in total contravention of international labour conventions, Kenyan labour laws and rules of natural justice. This they do by engaging persons without any signed papers, not informing them of their renumerations, working long extensive hours without commensurate overtime payments, tight social restrictions bordering on enslavement and human rights abuse. This is all supposedly happening in your own country and village. This must be urgently redressed and corrected.
3. That any further employment opportunities must be given to the local people unless such expertise cannot be sourced locally.
4. All sourcing of goods and services must also be given to the local people as propriety.
5. That the oil company should pay for the havoc they will cause to the local economy in view of the destruction their activities are going to occasion to the environment, economy and infrastructure in the area such as roads.
6. That the process of granting concessions and rights by the government must involve the local pastoralist communities whose livelihood depends wholly on this land and the natural resources found thereon.
7. That these are grave matters touching on lives and livelihoods and should be addressed with the urgency they deserve.
*Signed for and on behalf of 68 elders representing all the localities of Merti division, Diba Golicha Galma, Chairman, Range Users Association, Merti.
**Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Call to action: G8 should deliver promised monies
2008-03-13
Physicians for Human Rights
Here below is an organizational sign-on letter to G8 leaders calling for the $60 billion committed last year to AIDS, TB, malaria, and health system strengthening to be apportioned about the G8 countries to help make that commitment real, as well as for technical and financial support, through an agreed framework again apportioning responsibility among G8 countries, to support national health workforce plans designed to meet health goals. The Health Workforce Advocacy Initiative (http://www.healthworkforce.info/HWAI/Welcome.html), a civil society-led network affiliated with the Global Health Workforce Alliance, circulated this letter for signature last week at the First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health in Kampala, Uganda, where it received considerable support. We now seek supplementary organizational signatures to support this call. If your organization is able sign, please email Amanda Cary (acary@phrusa.org) with your organization’s name and country by Tuesday, March 18.
Dear Prime Minister Fukuda,
We are health workers, non-governmental organization representatives, people living with HIV/AIDS, global health leaders, government ministers, health professional association presidents, academics, and other citizens from around the globe who are committed to a healthier world. We recognize that the health workforce is central to achieving the human right to health, and [many of us] have gathered in Kampala, Uganda, for the First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, March 2-7, 2008. Our presence in Kampala symbolizes the global consensus on the need for unprecedented action to respond to the global health workforce crisis. Only then can the unconscionable level of death and disease in much of the developing world – such as the 1 in 16 chance lifetime risk that a woman in sub-Saharan Africa has of dying in childbirth – be overcome.
We write to you as the host of this year’s G8 summit. Japan has a recent history of supporting global health, including by launching the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria following the G8 Kyushu-Okinawa Summit, Japan’s Okinawa Infectious Diseases Initiative, and more recently the Health and Development Initiative. At the half-way point towards MDG health commitment, many countries are falling far behind. Thus it is critical for the 2008 summit to become be a landmark in fulfilling commitments to global health.
In your World Economic Forum speech in January, you recognized the massive shortage of health workers. Sub-Saharan Africa needs an estimated 1.5 million new health workers. Inadequate human resources for health is a fundamental obstacle to scaling up of services to address HIV/AIDS, other infectious disease, and maternal and child death.
Therefore, we urge you to lead the G8 members this year to commit to fully meet their responsibilities under the Global Action Plan for Human Resources for Health adopted at this First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, including to provide predictable financing sufficient (combined with other sources) to enable national health workforce plans to be fully implemented; to ensure that international financial institutions relax macroeconomic constraints; to adhere to ethical recruitment practices and strive for self-sufficiency in their own health workforces; and to provide technical support. We too commit ourselves to meeting our collective responsibilities in the action agenda, since, as you have correctly noted, changing the current crisis cannot be shouldered by the G8 alone, but requires actions from all stakeholders.
To help implement the Global Action Plan for Human Resources for Health, you can lead the G8 to the historic step of turning joint past commitments an agreed framework of individual country action by G8 countries. In particular, at the 2007 G8 Summit, G8 countries committed to spend $60 billion in the coming years for AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and health system strengthening. We urge you to turn this pledge into concrete action. The first essential step is a G8 plan where the $60 billion is apportioned among each G8 country, pursuant to a timeline that is consistent with the pace and scale of investments required to achieve universal access to HIV/AIDS services by 2010 and the MDG health goals. The 2008 G8 Summit should also fully fund the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at $6-8 billion annually. We urge you lead a G8 strategy to apportion funding for the G8 commitment by launching negotiations among the G8 countries and seeking to conclude such negotiations by the end of Japan’s G8 Presidency.
The 2008 G8 Summit should also ensure that countries can secure technical support to develop health sector strategies and national health workforce plans aimed at achieving the health-related MDGs, and that no sound strategy or plan should lack funding needed for full implementation. The G8 should develop a framework – such as that used for the $60 billion – to ensure that the G8 invests its fair share in these health workforce plans. We urge the G8 to begin to fund implementation at country level on an urgent basis, particularly in the countries that are furthest behind towards achieving the MDGs.
We look forward to a Hokkaido Summit that will help turn the ideal of human security that Japan has championed into reality for untold millions of people around the world, including through the commitments and concrete actions required to secure for every person, in every part of every country, access to skilled health workers who are equipped, motivated, and supported.
*To sign, please email the name of your organization and country to Amanda Cary at acary@phrusa.org no later than March 18.
**Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Pan-African Postcard
Africa can meet and go beyond MDGs
2008-03-13
Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem looks at where Africa is, in regards to meeting the Millennium Development Goals and argues that Africa should try to meet and exceed them.
Can Africa fulfil the MDGs by 2015? That's a question that is often asked anytime there is a discussion about MDGs. It was on many lips during the celebration of the International Women's day last Saturday. Behind the question of course is a lot of cynicism by the questioner(s). There is a generalised doubt that the MDGs may not be met on schedule in a majority of African states. Official reports and anecdotal evidence suggest that at the current pace even by 2050 the goals may still remain unmet by these states.
The situation is not helped by the fact that most of the reports available are usually aggregated. Hence the negative conclusion is that Africa's progress is at best very slow and patchy. Like all generalisations and aggregated statistics they hide the specific, more positive picture of steady progress on a number of the goals in quite a few countries across Africa. It also panders to the fashionable Afro pessimism that caricatures events in Africa promoting embedded attitudes of 'Hopeless Africa'. A 'helpless people and continent' that needs the help and handout of everybody else except its own peoples and leaders.
The truth is mostly to the contrary but 'good stories' are boring, they do not make headlines. Without bad stories from Africa how can the hordes of humanitarian agencies and organisations, local and foreign, who operate as latter day missionaries or mercy mercenaries make their fund raising successful? How can the compassion industry survive without the back drop of Kwashiokored children, diseased mothers and other suffering Africans?
It is rather late in the day to be asking if Africa can meet the MDGs or not. Still more pointless are the criticisms of the goals as being too minimal. All of them are more than 7 years out of date. We are half way through and those questions are unhelpful especially among campaigners who are committed to holding their governments to account for these commitments. The problem with asking the wrong questions is that you get the wrong answers that may divert you from the tasks in hand. A more proactive way of looking at this is to ask what can be done to fill the obvious gaps that still exist that may prevent countries from meeting the goals. The desirability of the goals is no longer debatable. Meeting them will not hurt anyone. If you can half poverty nobody will stop you from eradicating it.
Answering the more proactive type of questions also requires one to look at the progress that has been achieved instead of just looking for the challenges. An appreciation of progress so far will then open one's eyes to the challenges of what remains to be done. Then we will ask what more needs to be done to make sure that there are no excuses for not meeting these goals and even surpassing them in many cases.
Almost in all African countries there has been remarkable progress in education in terms of enrolment in schools. There is universal access to education across many countries that have allowed millions of girls and boys who would not have seen the inside of classrooms to do so. Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and others are good examples of the rapid enrolment in schools. On child mortality Malawi is only second to Costa Rica in the dramatic drop in child deaths (over 30%) in the past three years. The same Malawi that used to rank as the 'poorest country in the world', a country that was recipient of Food Aid a few years ago, has now become a food donor to some of its poorer neighbours including Zimbabwe. On controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS Uganda used to be a lone star but a few other countries have become even more aggressive in fighting the disease.
Huge numbers of African children today have better chances of survival than 10 years ago. More and more are likely to live beyond their 5th birthdays and have hope going to primary school and even better chances of going on to higher education as countries upscale their investments in education and move beyond universal primary education to secondary education.
It is not all smooth sailing. There are issues around quality, retention in schools, drop out rates between boys and girls etc, however quantitative changes are important steps as countries deal with the issues of quality. We cannot say that more children should not go to school until all schools are of the same quality. Both go hand in hand.
The external environment is also changing as international partners are held to more scrutiny and challenged to walk the walk as fast as they talk the talk. Debt relief has not been universal and a majority of African states have not become beneficiaries, but the minority (Uganda, Mozambique, Ghana, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, etc) that have got it are generally transforming the gains into meaningful dividends on a number of MDGs. Those not qualified like Nigeria, but who have renegotiated discounts on their National Debt, have not only increased the country's financial credibility but also Nigeria now also has a virtual fund of more than 1 billion Dollars that is devoted to MDGs. In many countries the MDGs are being localised with targets that are more ambitious than those of the Millennium Declaration.
So the question is not whether we can meet the goals or not, but why country X is doing well on a number of goals and country Y is not performing. By concentrating on 'can't meet' we are letting political leaders off the hook of accountability for commitments they made voluntarily to their own citizens. 7 years may not be long but it is certainly long enough for all the countries to change their policy direction and resource allocation that prioritise the needs of the poor and marginalised and accelerate the fulfilment of the MDGs. African citizens have a duty to remind their leaders about these commitments and be vigilant in demanding that they are met and even go beyond them where possible. If the goals are not met it will not just be because of government insensitivity but also citizen complacency or indifference.
* Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is the Deputy Director of the UN Millennium Campaign in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes this article in his personal capacity as a concerned Pan-Africanist.
** Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Letters
Africa is ours
2008-03-11
Dora Brown
(The US ‘War on Terror’ Exported to Rwanda) http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/46217)
Rwanda and Burundi, the fight between the Hutu and Tsutsi, have always been their own unique legacy of the preferences exercised by their former colonial masters and the consequences of that preference for the lighter and more European looking Tsutsi over the Bantu Hutu. I remember once first hearing of this was in the fifties when we, in Southern Africa heard of the 7'Tsutsi been shortened at the knees by the Hutu, I do not know if it was a myth, but that is my first recollection of hearing about the Hutu and Tsutsi, unless my memory serves me wrong, the two were once one country. One watched the unfolding saga of what is now termed by those who were directly responsible for the disaster the "genocide in Rwanda". One was wondering why the calls for action by France and the then commander in the region for intervention by the United Nations was blocked by the US and its allies calling this a cynical move by France.
The US Ambassador, who, just female, as the the Ambassador in Iraq before the first Gulf War, (both women who had sinced passed away) also asked for assistance. None was forthcoming, as one watched this nightmare unfold, one began to see the purpose to the madness. This was a carefully orchestrated move to include DRC in the Master plan that now, includes Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda, a recolonization of the North Eastern and Central African region. Mombasa and the the cost of Tanzania and let us not forget Djibouti would then allow control of the waterways and ocean at the Horn of Africa, the recolonization of Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia would provide a foothold in the Gulf of Guinea.
When one hears the Security Council is now acting as the League of Nations did before WWII, supporting so called members of the international community, "civilized world" euphemisms for former and current Aryan Power flirts and 21st Century fascists. They are now, with a weak and ineffective African Union, to lay claim to our natural resources and rights. Tsutsis never were or are part of DRC, they now have a country that was created and supported by the so called "civilized world" the "market" that was just opened by Kagame, is being set up to be the the clearing house of wall that is now, supposedly, since we Africans seem incapable of preventing what our fathers, mothers and elders have gifted to us, the recolonization of Africa. The destruction of the rail links and the disruption of the trade network between those countries has caused the panic, since all that we hear about assisting Africa has nothing to do with Africa and Africans but the pillaging and rape of our continent.
We need to confront the Kagame, Museveni, Nkunda, the gentleman in Ethiopia and what now is appearing to be the inclusion of Kenya and Tanzania, we need to demand that those who claim to represent and lead our countries be held accountable by those who have had the luxury of an education, especially legal education. We need Africans to speak up for Africa. Why are we having alleged hollywood movie stars, and irish singers and many ngos and the rest speaking for us? What happened to all of us who were educated after decolonization? Why are we stuck in the West, driving taxis, doing jobs that just keep us alive when we could have those of us on the continent agitate for the return of the skilled workers, Africans abroad? Why are we saddled with so many foreign "aid workers" who really are members of foreign intelligent agencies taking care of our most vulnerable populations?
Something is seriously wrong with US, AFRICANS. We need to take a good look at ourselves, sons and daughters of the soil and ask ourselves are we worthy of the name African? After all, we can see how, with the Fortress Europe and the closing of all the avenues of immigration in the West, and the fish food that our fellow brothers and sisters are becoming attempting to flee the nightmare that life has become in most of our countries, that we have nowhere to run, Africa is OURS, there seems to be a problem with both us and those who would rule us of this truth, this reality, Africa belongs to us, sons and daughters of the soil. There is nowhere else to run, so it would behoove us to start looking at the reality we have allowed, and start implementing African solutions for African problems. Not bush, sarkozy, brown or any other white person, but African solutions to African problems. Time is running out, they have already devoured and exhausted all they stole from the indigenous peoples of the lands they claim as theirs, are we going to allow them back into Africa?
Cameroon lagging on the Protocol
Njoya Hilary Tikum
2008-03-11
I just ratified the petition and was completely surprised when I saw Cameroon as one of the red flagged countries that have refused to sign this incredible petition.
I am a Cameroonian and from the North West Province and really ashamed of my country. We have a female population of almost 3/4 the total population and relies heavily on the works of these ladies to keep the Socio-economic landscape of the country vibrant. Yet the dictatorial regime in power has decided to place Cameroon at the forefront of every bad thing happening in world. Cameroon is now well known for its Pro corruption and Anti-Human Rights stands in the world. US State Department Country Reports and Amnesty International depict a Cameroon where Women are still consider as second class citizen and highly discriminated against.
We (Cameroon) now pride ourselves to be among the very few countries resisting the protection of Women's rights. We the citizens of Cameroon deserves better. I have four sisters and do not see why they should have less protection than I do in many aspects in life. I am calling on the good youths of Cameroon to challenge Mr. Biya and his puppet Parliament to do the right thing at this defining period in history by signing the PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES' RIGHTS ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA.
I personally applaud your initiative and will do my utmost best to make my parliament see reason to sign the petition.
Please do well to let me know if there is any thing we the youths of Cameroon in and out of the country can do, to bring this issue on the media table.
Obituaries
A Tribute to Nyar Okuyu - Daughter of the Kikuyu
Fidelis Wainaina
2008-03-12
Sukuma Kenya
http://sukumakenya.blogspot.com/2008/03/tribute-to-nyar-okuyu-daughter-of.html
Fidelis Wainaina passed away from cancer as our country's own cancer dug itself deeper into our entrails. Personally, I think she lost her faith - not in her God - but in humanity. She had worked relentlessly for over 15 years in rural Luo land to bring back the rewards of agriculture.
Books & arts
Black intellectual genocide
An essay review of "IQ and the Wealth of Nations"
2008-03-11
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/articles/787
Girma Berhanu reviews the book IQ and the Wealth of Nations, written by Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen. He critiques the authors’ major assertion that a significant part of the gap between rich and poor countries is due to differences in national intelligence. The authors claim that they have evidence that differences in national IQ account for substantial variation in per capita income and growth of a nation. This essay review debunks their assumptions that intellectual and income differences between nations stem from genetic differences.
New Literary Magazine:Call For Submissions
2008-03-11
Cebound Projects and Ditiro Productions
Cebound Projects and Ditiro Productions are calling for submissions of poems, essays, reviews, stories and artworks for a new literary journal called Mo(v)ements.
Mo(ve)ments is an annual journal of prose, poetry and visual arts focused on writers and artists from Free State and Kwazulu-Natal writing in English, Sesotho, Isizulu, Isixhosa, Afrikaans, Setswana, Sepedi and isiswati.
MISSION
To create a platform for the exposure of budding and established artists in Free State and KZN and to promote greater interaction between writers, artists and readers from these two provinces, and to expose their works to the rest of the country.
AIMS
[1] Provide a platform for writers and artists to reach a wider audience and readership.
[2] Promote the culture of reading and writing
[3] Encourage writers to write in all South African languages
[4] Increase the body of literature written in these languages
[5] Appreciation of the beauty of the languages and literature.
EDITORIAL AND SUBMISSION POLICY
Copyright in the works submitted shall belong to the writers and artists themselves. All contributors shall receive two free copies of the issue of Mo(v)ements in which their works appear. Contributors should include a self-addressed and stamped envelope (SASE). It is recommended that submitted works be typed but hand-written works shall be accepted provided they are readable. Works by writers and artists from Free State and Kwazulu-Natal shall be given first priority, as there are no other literary magazines in these provinces.
Editors reserve the right to decide which submitted works to publish in the magazine. Submissions should be sent by e-mail to iceboundspsyche@yahoo.com or ditiroproductions@yahoo.com or by post to Ditiro Productions PO BOX 48002 Qualbert 4078.
Reclaiming the Resources for Health - Equinet
Review by Gregg Gonsalves (Arasa)
2008-03-12
Reclaiming the Resources for Health, a new book by the Regional Network for Equity in Health in Eastern and Southern Africa is a godsend and could not come at a better time. It offers analyses of many key issues in an easily-accessible format, digesting complex concepts into pictures, graphs and bullet points, but without leaving out the "meat" of its research from the text. Thus, the book will be a valuable resource for the average activist, but also those who want to go deeper and more fully understand what is happening in the region.
Back in the late 1970s, at a conference on primary health care in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, health experts made a bold call for "health for all" by the year 2000. Now thirty years later, health for all seems an elusive goal as inequities across the globe deepen the divide between the sick and the well. Nowhere are these great divides more apparent than in Southern and Eastern Africa, which has been hit with tremendous force by HIV/AIDS, and which has exacerbated already existing gaps in health.
AIDS activists have been successful around the globe and in Southern and Eastern Africa in resurrecting the fight for health services-the enormity of the epidemic has led thousands and thousands of people to rise up to claim their right to health.
However, AIDS is only one of the many ailments that face Africans on a day-to-day basis and the future of the AIDS response depends on strengthening access to primary care around the region. We need "health for all" and we need it now.
Reclaiming the Resources for Health, a new book by the Regional Network for Equity in Health in Eastern and Southern Africa is a godsend and could not come at a better time.
As activists struggling with how to respond to the health crises in Africa, we often have little access to the information and analyses we need to make evidence-based decisions about our work. Simply put, we often can't answer the question: what are the policies we should be pushing for to ensure that poor people receive the care they need?
Reclaiming the Resources for Health will become a bible for many of us-it offers analyses of many key issues in an easily-accessible format, digesting complex concepts into pictures, graphs and bullet points, but without leaving out the "meat" of its research from the text. Thus, the book will be a valuable resource for the average activist, but also those who want to go deeper and more fully understand what is happening in the region.
AIDS activists and health advocates have often been at odds-the former arguing for the exceptionality of the epidemic and the latter arguing for the need to jettison "special treatment" of HIV/AIDS in favor of support for primary health care in general. One of the innovations of Reclaiming the Resources for Health is that it doesn't fall into these counter-productive dichotomies and makes a case for the synergies between disease-control programmes and health systems development.
Finally, over the past few decades health and development has become the terrain of experts and technicians, divorced from the struggle for social and economic justice, from the politics of our countries.
Reclaiming the Resources for Health, reclaims the field as one about the rights of poor people, about a struggle to see that all Africans receive the care and services they need to lead healthy, productive, happy lives. The book is also a call for participatory democracy in the governance of health, in the way our countries work. Instead handing our future over to bureaucrats from donor countries and our own government elites, Reclaiming the Resources for Health makes the case for a truly, people-driven, ground-up process in the design and delivery of services. We can only hope that this book is read by our presidents, our ministers, our parliamentarians in Africa and in the countries that seek to promote better health on the continent.
-- Gregg Gonsalves
AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa
c/o AIDS Law Project Westminster House, 4th Floor
122 Longmarket Street Cape Town, 8001 South Africa
Mobile: +27-78-456-3848
Landline: +27-21-422-1490 x1
Email: gregg.gonsalves@gmail.com
More...
Blogging Africa
Africa Blogging Roundup
International Women’s Day, African billionaires, guerrilla entrepreneurs and racism in South Africa
2008-03-12
Sokari Ekine
Kenyan Pundit reports on Kenyan Women’s March for piece as part of the International Women’s Day celebrations last Saturday.
“Kenyan women have endured tragedy in the past two months. Too many of us have lost family members and homes. Others of us have done what we can to help them. Regardless of how we have fared, none of us feel we have done enough to ease the anguish of our nation. It is time to stand up and be counted. No matter who we are or which part of Kenya we come from. Put your best foot forward to unite in solidarity and march for peace.”
London, Kenyan blogger, Mshairi is back blogging after a long sabbatical. She celebrates International Women of Colour Day, March 1st with a post on Magdalene Odundo, Professor of Ceramics at the University College for the Creative Arts. Ms Odundo’s ceramics are simple, female and exquisite. Mshairi remembers fondly one of Magdalene Odundo’s workshops she attended and writes
“Magdalene’s work has been exhibited in many places including the Crafts Council at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg and the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire. Her work is also found in museums worldwide including the Smithsonian, the Gardiner Museum and in private collections. Due to their uniqueness and excellence, the works are sold for quite large sums of money – in 2006, for example, a piece of art was sold for £28,405.”
Black Looks marks International Women’s Day by celebrating the lives of African lesbians through the works of South African photo activist, Zanele Mutholi exhibition titled, “Faces and Phases”.
“The essence of each of the women is captured through their faces which together with stance and clothing are expressions of their sexuality. The photos [both this exhibition and others by Zanele] give an insight into how we create meaning of ourselves and the world around us, the feelings from inside which drive us to being who we are. I can’t express where these feelings come from, I just know they are deep inside and the only relief is to let them out by expressing them physically and emotionally. When those meanings - attitudes, beliefs, expectations, dreams, everything that is YOU - challenge patriarchy and social mores they become stigmatised and hold painful consequences for those who dare to release their inner selves. In such hostile environments, coming out is an act of resistance and creating meaning through community is a further act of resistance and also one of survival.”
Clement Nyirenda celebrates South Africa’s first Black billionaire, Patrice Motsepe. His only lament is that the publishers of the billionaire list, Forbes Magazine have not published any information on Motsepe rise from well being a normal working man to being worth a billion! I have to say I don’t share Nyrienda’s excitement over this and would like to have some figures around jobs created and investment in local communities, charitable foundations and so on.
“am excited because we now have the first black South African Billionaire, Patrice Motsepe, on the list. He is on position 503 with a net wealth of $2.4 billion. As a person who used to stay in South Africa and really loves the Rainbow Nation, in spite of the crime wave, I would like to congratulate Mr Motsepe for a job well done.”
Nigerian talk show host and blogger, Funmi Iyanda publishes her interview with former US Secretary of State, Madeline Albright. The interview is also on YouTube on the New Dawn site. Although the interview is never really challenging it does touché on a host of issues from the US elections, to 9/11, Muslims, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and “trade dealing in Africa” and you guessed right “poor people are not stupid” and even more interesting the markets in African cities are full of traders selling everything from spark plugs to tins of milk – what revelations! But then it’s possible that many Americans including Secretary’s of State, think we live in barren lands, surrounded by flies, living off food hand outs.
“As long as I live I will not forget this, we were in Nairobi and went to the slum there and to a place called the 'toy market', and it has nothing to do with toys, but it's just called that. It was filled with people selling in stalls, selling...with mud up to my hips, basically, but stores where people where selling spark plugs to each other, t-shirts to each other and they came and we had a semi formal meeting and I was so impressed - poor people are not stupid, poor people are entrepreneurial and that is the part that was so good. You know what happened? And I will describe it to you…it was so incredible. First of all they did a performance about HIV/AIDS, but mostly what they were explaining to me was that they had set up their own credit system. And they had trust enough to put one Kenyan dollar a night into a pot, which is about 10 cents American money. And they then had system whereby they lent money to each other. They created a credit bank and were able to lift themselves up as a result of that.”
YBlog ZA comments on the disgusting racist video produced by students of the University of the Free State in which Black workers were subjected to eating pissed on food and other horrible acts. Yblog responds to a statement by “among others, Nadine Gordimer, Andre Brink, John Perlman, Max du Preez, Arthur Chaskalson, Zapiro and Phillip Tobias.”that states this most never happen again. As Yblog writes, these kind of racist violations and worse happen every day all over the country. Nonetheless I don’t agree that with his submission that they and the media are dehumanizing the whole episode by blowing it out of all proportion. The fact that this kind of racism well any kind exists daily is no reason not to publish and be outraged at this particular incident.
“Quite frankly, people, I think you’re dehumanising the whole episode by blowing it out of all proportion. First, I'd like to hear from the workers involved. They've been conveniently airbrushed from the story. Have they no opinion (untutored)? Are they not able to speak for themselves?
I guess not. They are, after all, mindless peasants who just happen to be black. Not that we have anything against mindless peasants. Or black people, for that matter. Some of my best friends...
Secondly, I wish to God you'd put your names to documents worthy of such pious indignation. What of the rape and pillage of our country by all and sundry? Violence, corruption, gangsterism, racketeering, substance abuse, and income disparity all combine to form a lethal cocktail, the kick of which we have yet to feel. What of our kids — violated, butchered or disappeared at an increasingly alarming rate? What of our refugees — hounded as amakwerekwere countrywide and denied local citizenship unto succeeding generations?”
African Loft reports on Henry Okah - the “Guerrilla Entrepreneur” of Niger-Delta, not yet a billionaire but possibly making his way up the steps. My only hope is that if he does get there he will share his wealth with the people and put electricity in my home town and other towns and villages in the ND....... please, ah beg ohoooo!
“The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (“MEND”) is a militant indigenous people’s movement dedicated to armed struggle against the exploitation and oppression of the people of Niger Delta and the degradation of the natural environment by foreign multinational corporations involved in the extraction of oil in the Niger Delta and the Federal Government of Nigeria. MEND has been linked to attacks on foreign owned petroleum companies in Nigeria (source: Wikipedia).
Henry Okah is rumored to be the founder of MEND and the master strategist behind the militant operations that have cut Nigeria’s oil production by 25 percent. In February this year, Okah was arrested in Angola while on a business trip, he’s presently in government detention on treason charge”
* Sokari Ekine blogs at www.blacklooks.org
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/
Political Turmoil in Cameroon: What the African Blogosphere is saying
2008-03-12
Dibussi Tande
For close to two decades, Cameroon was considered a bastion of stability in Africa, that is, until last week when that veneer was shattered by four days of widespread rioting. The riots were triggered by a hike in fuel prices amidst ongoing attempts by the Biya regime to scrap presidential term limits. Here is a review of some of the blogs that wrote about these events.
African Notes goes beyond the immediate cause of the riots to look at the broader issues at stake:
“Cameroon on media? Nothing special! It's not about soccer or les indomitables. This time around it is about riots and Biya…
Seen in the wider perspective, the riots are rather reflections of the public's resentment towards the administration of President Paul Biya. Though he downplayed the demonstrations as a mere game of apprentice sorcerers. That is a typical African big man allegation.
Whenever there is a public anger the leaders rarely try to see the real issue. It is rather a custom to seek a lame excuse for that and scorn the usual suspects like the opposition and human right activists or even neighboring countries. The same thing is happening here. Cameroon is said to be a notoriously corrupt country. The administration should take responsibility for condoning the practice.”
Pascal Zachary also blames the Biya regime for the uncharacteristic violence that rocked the country last week:
“The unrest in Cameroon… makes me weep. Among the best endowed nations in the world — both in terms of landscape, fertility of its soil, and talents of its people — Cameroon has been condemned to suffer awful political rule. Even by African standards, Biya’s 25-year reign over this picturesque West African country has been a disaster. While he has rarely organized killing sprees, he quietly has demolished country that ought to be among the most successful, not only in Africa, but in the developing world. Instead of planning a permanent retirement somewhere in Europe (where he seems to spend a great deal of time anyway), Biya wants to inflict more wounds on his long-suffering countrymen. What a shame. Biya is a president who rarely holds meetings with his ministers and he refuses to allow his government to even publish a phony budget. He is indeed a ghost (his nickname in the country). I am sad at the thought he may haunt Cameroon for years more.”
Prince Hamilton wonders what exactly President Biya hopes to achieve with another term of office when he has little to show for after a quarter of a century in power:
“I am just appalled that President Paul Biya still thinks he will do something despite not having achieved much in his 26 years. I think that with the president’s recent speech and policies, it shows that he has run out of inspiration that never existed in the first place. It is high time he hands over the presidency to another person.
Cameroon is blessed that no Cameroonian has been able to infiltrate the country with weapons, if not the story would have been different. Notwithstanding, you can only suppress a people for a time but at a given time they will look for means to break their shackles than live as eternal slaves.
The government has been using sports as the opium of the people but this time it failed woefully. The raising of gas prices after the Lions won their semi final match against Ghana during the recent African Cup of Nations was a miscalculated opportunism.”
Cameroon Goon appeals to the Cameroonian community in the US to show up in great numbers for planned demonstrations at the Cameroon embassy in Washington DC:
“Please come out and let's remind Paul Biya and his accomplices that after 25yrs of tyranny, subjection, poverty and intimidation, we are tired and want him to leave peacefully in 2011. He should park out of Etoudi, heading straight to his palace in Mvomeka (his village). Let us come out and remember the 17 people already killed. Let us come out and pray for Cameroonians the world over. Let us pray for our children and remind the Cameroonian government that Democracy means: government of the people, by the people and for the people. We don't want any other forms of democracy, be it 'avancée' or 'moderne'. We just want democracy; the simple type. The type of democracy that would mean there is some form of sustainable economic development ahead for Cameroon and it's people!”
Prince Report publishes the reaction of the “British Southern Cameroonians Restoration Government” (one of the movements advocating for the independence of Anglophone Cameroon) to last week’s events:
“The brutality that was carried out against our citizens this past week adds a sweltering sense of urgency to the restoration of our stolen sovereignty. The most important thing you should do at this time is refraining from involving yourselves in the political affairs of the foreign country next door to us and east of the Mungo River. For these matters in the Cameroun Republic are veritable distractions from our total focus on restoring our independence. Paul Biya's brutality on our citizens this past week should make it even clearer and even more urgent that we should not waver for a single moment from our determination to take our national sovereignty.
[...]
To our neighbors suffering the brutal weight of this Biya regime, we offer our sympathy--since we fully share your grief--and we rise to stand with you as you fight to reclaim your God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Biya's heavy handedness with you continues the state terrorism that Ahidjo directed against your parents in the 1960s. Time has not erased from human memory Ahidjo's genocide which killed more than half a million of your patriotic parents in the first decade of your independence “almost all of them Bassas and Bamileke. Time is not going to erase memory of the massacre that Paul Biya is now carrying out against your children today in 2008. Have no doubt that the world is witnessing that only the name has changed, for Biya's regime is a mere continuation of Ahidjo's 1960s regime.”
Ken Opalo is simply incensed at Biya’s determination to hang on to power no matter the cost:
“The 75 year old has had over 25 years to make the lives of Cameroonians better but failed miserably. Over 40% of his country people still live below the poverty line. Official unemployment figures show that about 30% of the labor force is unemployed. Real figures are much higher than this (knowing how incompetent African statistics bureaus are). One wonders what more this old man has to offer to his country after he gives himself another seven years in office in 2011.
Whatever happened to basic decency? Why is it that our leaders feel that they can do whatever they want and get away with it? Do these people have any shame?
If anyone close to Biya reads this please tell him that third term amendments are kind of last-century. Obasanjo ought to have been the last shameful attempt at this. Africa will not claim the 21st century and indeed not even the fourth millennium if we keep up with this third term amendment nonsense. So get real President Biya. Competition breeds excellence, so let competition thrive.”
In the same vein, Scribbles from the Den publishes an appeal by a group of Cameroonian writers to MPs of the ruling CPDM, asking them not to go along with attempts to amend the constitution:
“It is not only dangerous but also criminal for the Head of State to play games with the Constitution. Attempting to amend Article 6 of the Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon which limits presidential tenure to two terms is, undoubtedly, one of those crimes for which our country shall pay an onerous price in the future.
[…]
For once show some courage; steer clear of infamy! Our future is priceless; do not gamble with it! Most importantly do not play with fire! Amending Article 6 of the Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon would weaken the institutions that protect Cameroonian citizens against act of barbaric abuse. For too long, we have lived as if we do not see the mishaps that have befallen our neighbors. Suffice it to say that recent incidents in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Somalia, not forgetting Chad, testify to the fact that a single foul play with the Constitution could plunge the entire nation into insurmountable chaos. The civil strife that these countries have experienced lends ample credibility to our conviction that Cameroon’s social stability is fragile, very fragile indeed. Cameroonians are peace-lovers; do not compromise it! Otherwise, you shall be judged in front of the tribunal of History.”
* Dibussi Tande, a writer and activist from Cameroon, produces the blog Scribbles from the Den
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/
Zimbabwe update
Police chief warns 'puppets'
2008-03-14
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=334661
Zimbabwe's police chief says his force will not allow British and American "puppets" to take power in Zimbabwe, sending an ominous signal to opposition leaders ahead of March 29 polls, reports said on Friday. Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri told officers at Police General Headquarters in Harare he was sending "a warning" to "puppets", echoing President Robert Mugabe's label for his opponents.
Mugabe approves indigenous ownership law
2008-03-14
http://tinyurl.com/27la5a
President Robert Mugabe has signed a law requiring all foreign companies operating in Zimbabwe to give majority equity to black Zimbabweans, a move analysts see as the final nail in the coffin of the country's economy. More than 200 British and South African firms that have invested heavily in Zimbabwe will be affected, including Lever Brothers, Barclays Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Standard Bank, Stanbic Bank, Impala Platinum, Angloplat, Mettalon Gold, Rio Tinto, Edcon, Merchant Bank of Central Africa and several enterprises owned by Anglo American.
5 MDC members hospitalised after Mbare attack by ZANU-PF youth
2008-03-14
http://www.swradioafrica.com/news130308/mdchospitalised130308.htm
Violence against officials and members of the opposition has intensified, despite the arrival of a regional observer team in Harare on Wednesday. At least 5 supporters of the Tsvangirai MDC were hospitalised on Wednesday after they were attacked by a gang of youths known to be ZANU-PF members in Mbare high-density suburb of Harare. One of the victims, Simba Maringwa, is reported to be in intensive care battling for his life.
Women & gender
Ghana: Queen Mothers hold court on abortion
2008-03-14
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3519/context/cover/
Traditional female leaders in Ghana are beginning to open their communal gatherings to discussions of women's legal rights to abortion. The country has one of the most liberal abortion laws in the continent, but women are dying in ignorance of it.
Global: Fund to end gender violence puts donors to the test
2008-03-12
http://www.ipsterraviva.net/europe/article.aspx?id=5825
The UN "Trust Fund to End Violence against Women" has risen significantly over the last year: from 3.5 million dollars in 2006 to over 15 million dollars in 2007. The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which manages the Trust Fund on behalf of the UN system, has now set an ambitious goal: to raise about 100 million dollars a year by 2015. Since it was set up in 1997, the Trust Fund has received over 33 million dollars, nearly half of it last year.
Global: Women call for greater role in conflict resolution
2008-03-12
http://tinyurl.com/ysbs3g
Leading female power-brokers from around the world have appealed for a larger political role for women in solving conflicts and poverty. Over 50 participants, including leaders, foreign ministers, lawmakers, first ladies and top European Union and U.N. officials participated at the talks to promote women's empowerment ahead of International Women's Day.
Global: COHRE statement on International Women's Day
2008-03-13
http://www.cohre.org/view_page.php?page_id=291
Governments must take active steps to protect the rights of women to housing and land, and integrate these protections into their strategies to ameliorate the negative effects of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, according to the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE)
DRC: Support the women of Congo
2008-03-14
http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/reports/women.php
The suffering of the women in the Congo, particularly in the east of the country has long reached biblical proportions, yet and still the silence continues throughout the global community. Hundreds of thousands of women have been violently raped, mutilated and terrorized by a host of culprits (Rebel Groups, Rwandan Soldiers, Congolese Soldiers, civilian population and even the United Nations).
Zambia: Make defilement non-bailable offence, urges Women’s Lobby
2008-03-14
http://www.times.co.zm/news/viewnews.cgi?category=4&id=1204617186
The Zambia National Women’s Lobby Group (ZNWLG), men’s wing has called on the Government to stiffen the law against defilement and make the offence non-bailable. ZNWLG men network coordinator, Isaiah Munali, said this in an interview in Lusaka recently after a briefing over awareness campaign ahead of the women’s International day.
Global: Global Employment Trends for Women 2008
2008-03-14
http://tinyurl.com/2fp8s9
More women are working than ever before, but they are also more likely than men to get low-productivity, low-paid and vulnerable jobs, with no social protection, basic rights nor voice at work according to a new report by the International Labour Office (ILO) issued for International Women’s Day.
Human rights
Liberia: Shock testimony at Taylor trial
2008-03-14
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0A28CA1E-3421-410F-9825-ED37CF2405B9.htm
Charles Taylor celebrated his rise to power in Liberia with a ceremony involving a human sacrifice, burying a pregnant woman alive in sand, one of his former military commanders has testified. The admission came during a trial at The Hague where the former president is accused of war crimes.
Global: Principles of Partnership - A statement of commitment endorsed by the Global Humanitarian Platform
2008-03-12
The Global Humanitarian Platform, created in July 2006, brings together UN and non-UN humanitarian organizations on an equal footing.
- Striving to enhance the effectiveness of humanitarian action, based on an ethical obligation and accountability to the populations we serve,
- Acknowledging diversity as an asset of the humanitarian community and recognizing the interdependence among humanitarian organizations,
- Committed to building and nurturing an effective partnership, … the organizations participating in the Global Humanitarian Platform agree to base their partnership on the following principles:
Principles of Partnership
A Statement of Commitment Endorsed by the Global Humanitarian Platform,
12 July 2007
The Global Humanitarian Platform, created in July 2006, brings together UN and non-UN humanitarian organizations on an equal footing.
- Striving to enhance the effectiveness of humanitarian action, based on an ethical obligation and accountability to the populations we serve,
- Acknowledging diversity as an asset of the humanitarian community and recognizing the interdependence among humanitarian organizations,
- Committed to building and nurturing an effective partnership, … the organizations participating in the Global Humanitarian Platform agree to base their partnership on the following principles:
• Equality Equality requires mutual respect between members of the partnership irrespective of size and power. The participants must respect each other's mandates, obligations and independence and recognize each other's constraints and commitments. Mutual respect must not preclude organizations from engaging in constructive dissent.
• Transparency Transparency is achieved through dialogue (on equal footing), with an emphasis on early consultations and early sharing of information. Communications and transparency, including financial transparency, increase the level of trust among organizations.
• Result-oriented approach Effective humanitarian action must be reality-based and action-oriented. This requires result-oriented coordination based on effective capabilities and concrete operational capacities.
• Responsibility Humanitarian organizations have an ethical obligation to each other to accomplish their tasks responsibly, with integrity and in a relevant and appropriate way. They must make sure they commit to activities only when they have the means, competencies, skills, and capacity to deliver on their commitments. Decisive and robust prevention of abuses committed by humanitarians must also be a constant effort.
• Complementarity The diversity of the humanitarian community is an asset if we build on our comparative advantages and complement each other’s contributions. Local capacity is one of the main assets to enhance and on which to build. Whenever possible, humanitarian organizations should strive to make it an integral part in emergency response. Language and cultural barriers must be overcome.
www.globalhumanitarianplatform.org
More...
Global: UBUNTU Statement on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
2008-03-12
http://www.ubuntu.upc.edu/index.php?lg=eng&pg=2&ncom=24#form
On this 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and at the initiative of the World Forum of Civil Society Networks — UBUNTU, we wish to emphasize that all Human Rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent, in full accordance with the Declaration of the World Conference on Human Rights made in Vienna (United Nations, 1993).
Burundi: The Batwa quest for equality
2008-03-13
http://www.irinnews.org/InDepthMain.aspx?InDepthId=9&ReportId=58632&Country=Yes
In Burundi, land is a source of power. Many members of the Batwa pygmy community blame their subordinate status on the fact that they do not own property. Having once enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the rainforest environment, most Batwa today have been squeezed out of their hunter-gatherer existence and work as casual labourers on other people’s land.
South Africa: Housing report by special UN rapporteur
2008-03-13
http://tinyurl.com/2ynzud
In this report, the Special Rapporteur acknowledges the legislative achievements of South Africa, such as the Constitution that is often cited as an example for the protection of economic, social and cultural rights, including for the right to adequate housing. He notes that South Africa has put in place a number of progressive legislative measures and policies aimed at fulfilling the right to adequate housing. Yet, a significant number of South Africans do not have access to this basic human right.
South Africa: Death penalty referendum call
2008-03-14
http://www.ipsterraviva.net/europe/article.aspx?id=5845
Jacob Zuma, the president of the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party in South Africa, has of late been called a chamaeleon who adapts his speeches to what his audience wants to hear. It's a tactic that has proved controversial, not least when Zuma took up the issue of the death penalty. Since his recent election as head of the party in December, Zuma has indicated that he is in favour of opening a debate on the issue of capital punishment.
South Africa: National carrier branded a human right violator
2008-03-14
http://tinyurl.com/295u54
SAA has been branded a human rights violator for failing to provide adequate boarding equipment for disabled passengers at airports. The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) revealed that disabled passengers were transported to and from SAA aircraft in adapted catering vehicles and manually loaded on to and off planes. On Sunday, a group of disabled people were forced to crawl out of the plane or be carried out at OR Tambo International Airport.
Uganda: Peace hopes stir debate over justice
2008-03-14
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13818569.htm
Lillian Akwero and her friends lived through some of Uganda's worst violence, fleeing rebel attacks in which their relatives were kidnapped or killed and villages torched. Now that their lives are about making ends meet rather than basic survival, their hope is that a deal to ensure lasting peace will not be wrecked by the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants against rebel leaders for savage atrocities
Botswana: ‘Bushman women dying for diamonds’
2008-03-14
http://www.survival-international.org/news/3141
Botswana’s Attorney General, the Governor of the Bank of Botswana and the CEO of De Beers Botswana were greeted outside Chatham House in London this week by protesters holding blown-up photographs of Bushman women who have died due to the eviction of the Bushmen from their land.
Refugees & forced migration
Africa: Cash grants help Burundian returnees rebuild their lives
2008-03-14
http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/47d9651c2.html
The UN refugee agency's introduction last August of cash grants for Burundian returnees appears to have both encouraged more people to go back home and eased their reintegration. In the months since the 50,000 Burundian Francs (about US$45) grant per person was introduced for Burundians in Tanzania, some 35,000 refugees have returned to their country.
Kenya: IDPs return home in North Rift
2008-03-14
A reconciliation meeting held on February 29, 2008 in Kachibora, Trans-zoia district between the Marakwet and the Kisii communities saw the first batch of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the area return home on Monday March 3, 2008.
Election Violence Response Initiative (EVRI) Issue 10
A reconciliation meeting held on February 29, 2008 in Kachibora, Trans-zoia district between the Marakwet and the Kisii communities saw the first batch of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the area return home on Monday March 3, 2008.
The last batch is scheduled to be resettled on Monday, March 10, 2008.
The reconciliation meeting was convened by the special District Commissioner deployed to oversee peace situation in the area following the post-election violence that led to eviction of hundreds of people, mainly from Kisii ethnic group, deemed to be outsiders in the area dominated by the Marakwet.
During the meeting, a peace committee was established comprising six members from each community (three elders and three youth) to oversee the reconciliation efforts are achieved.
It is reported that the IDPs were happy to return to their homes and carry on their normal activities. It is reported that the attack meted against them was carried out by people from far flung areas and not their immediate neigbours.
More...
Africa: Eastern Chad under severe humanitarian strain, UN official says
2008-03-14
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=25971
The swelling numbers of Darfur refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in eastern Chad is seriously straining the capacity of both the arid local environment and the region’s basic infrastructure, a United Nations aid official said today, warning that the humanitarian situation remained extremely precarious.
Senegal: Voluntary repatriation of Mauritanian refugees
2008-03-14
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/UNHCR/cf4c8381b9ebeace8570f9165db19aa2.htm
UNHCR is picking up its repatriation operation from Senegal with a second convoy on Thursday bringing home more than 250 Mauritanians. We plan to step up the pace of voluntary returns and organize bi-weekly convoys to reach a target of 3,000 returns per month.
Central Africa: Aid workers struggle to deal with influx from CAR
2008-03-14
http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/47d94bba4.html
Their makeshift shelter of branches and leaves is only 800 metres from Chad's border with the Central African Republic, but for Josephine and Veronique it could be 800 kilometres. The two women finally feel safe on this side of the border, where they have joined almost 14,000 other refugees, including some 3,000 of whom arrived over the past two weeks. Most have left Central African Republic (CAR) since mid-December to escape attacks by rebel fighters and bandits on their villages.
Elections & governance
Kenya: Poll chaos: Killers to face law
2008-03-14
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=118632
The days of people who killed others and destroyed property during the post-election violence are numbered, Attorney General Amos Wako has warned. "Kenyans feel that the culture of impunity is going on. But let me assure you that we must now ensure that this culture is dealt with once and for all," he told the annual Law Society of Kenya dinner at the weekend.
Kenya: OCHA situation report
2008-03-14
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/ASAZ-7CPKFA?OpenDocument
While there is optimism for permanent peace in Kenya due to the power-sharing pact signed between the Party of National Unity (PNU) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), a new row is brewing over the powers of the president, vice president, prime minister and deputy prime ministers.
Zimbabwe: MDC wants observers deployed to rural areas
2008-03-14
http://www.swradioafrica.com/news120308/mdcobservers120308.htm
The MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai wants most regional and foreign observers coming for the elections to be deployed to all rural areas, usually the flash points of political violence in the country. In the past observers have visited rural areas associated with the opposition parties, but have rarely set foot in the Zanu-PF strongholds of the three Mashonaland provinces.
Zimbabwe: More vote buying as Mugabe hikes civil servants’ salaries
2008-03-14
http://www.swradioafrica.com/news120308/votebuying120308.htm
Just days after handing over millions of US dollars worth of agricultural equipment, buses and generators at his weekend rallies, Robert Mugabe has announced large salary increases for civil servants, including teachers. According to the state-controlled Herald newspaper, Mugabe announced the increases while addressing a rally at a school in Inyathi, Matabeleland North on Tuesday.