Back Issues

Announcing Outliers: Theorizing (Homo)Eroticism in Africa

2008-05-30

http://www.irnweb.org/siteFiles/Publications/3475FB49E91EA345023F0FC29F259DDC.pdf

The IRN is proud to announce that first issue of OUTLIERS, the e-journal of IRN-Africa. OUTLIERS is a collection of essays and creative work on sexuality in Africa. This issue is entitled 'Theorizing (Homo)Eroticism in Africa', and contains works by Sybille N. Nyeck, Terna Tilley-Gyado, Crispin Oduobuk-Mfon Abasi, Rudolph Ogoo Okonkwo, Shailja Patel, Cary Johnson, and Bernadette Muthien, among others.

The committed intellectual: reviving and restoring the National Project

Yash Tandon

2008-05-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/48446

A man or woman with no passion has no heart; one with no power of reasoning has no mind, writes Yash Tandon. It is the combination of heart and mind that produces the balanced person who uses their mind to pursue their passion. Let us speak truth to power, but let us also speak the existential truth of our people’s world to the negotiated truth of the diplomatic world. Our collective efforts, he continues, will lead to a new vision of a better world, one that is fair, just, peaceful and bountiful to all the peoples of the world.


The National Project began before countries in the South achieved their independence from colonial rule, continued for several years after political independence and then, in the era of globalisation, died a sudden death. It needs to be revived.

However, let me first address the issue of what I call the ‘South intellectual’. Is it artificial to describe certain scholars and intellectuals by their geographical domain? We talk about ‘an Indian scholar’, ‘an African intellectual’, or a ‘Caribbean scholar’. Does it make sense to go beyond the nation and the region? Is there something distinctive about a ‘South scholar’ or a ‘South intellectual?’[1]

My answer is yes. There was something in the writing and engagement of Caribbean scholars and writers – such as Norman Girvan, Arthur Lewis, M.G. Smith, C.L.R. James, V.S. Naipaul, Walter Rodney and Clive Thomas – with which those of us at universities in East Africa in the 1970s easily identified. Something in common pulsated in our hearts. How else could we in East Africa have resonated so ardently with intellectuals thousands of miles away in the Caribbean? Of course, the writing of many others from Asia, Africa and Latin America contributed to our lively debates. All these scholars were trying to define the specificity of peoples who had gone through the colonial experience.

Intellectuals were only a small part of the National Project. Political leaders such as Nehru, Nkrumah, Nasser, Sukarno, Manley, and Nyerere were the real inspiration. Politicians and intellectuals alike sought answers to some critical questions of self-identity and collective destiny: Who are we as a ‘nation? What do we do with our hard-won independence? How do we build our nation in ways that answer to the needs of our own peoples rather than those of colonising powers? In challenging the claims of neo-classical economics and neo-liberal policies to universal validity, Professor Girvan writes, significantly, that the objective of ‘policy autonomy’ in the South is self-determination [2]. This, in my view, is the crux of the National Project: self-determination.

What does the National Project mean for the engagement of Southern intellectuals today? In my view, three passions should steer or motivate their intellectual creativity: to critique the dominant imperialist ideology, to critique the dominant structures of power (speaking truth to power), and to provide ideas for a future vision of global society. I will first address the larger question of the relationship between ideas and political practice, and then outline an alternative vision or strategy to the dominant neo-liberal paradigm. Finally, I will take one aspect of this strategy, which is close to my heart, and that is integration in the regions of the South as a counterweight to globalisation. CRITIQUE OF THE DOMINANT IMPERIALIST IDEOLOGY

The language of discourse of the dominant imperialist ideology is economics. Economics has an aura of the scientific, although we know that its scientific pretensions are based on make-believe (much of it self-motivated) rather than rigour. Furthermore, when economics is bolstered with mathematics and graphics, it acquires an added aura of ‘authority’, which is often quite spurious. Does it then follow that the language of counter-ideology must also be economics? Our own economists have answered the orthodox economic theory of mainstream economists and trade theorists with what is called ‘heterodox’ economic theory. Like its adversary, this is largely an abstraction from the reality of power and politics; substantial political analysis is lacking. None of the heterodox economists that I know deal with the issue of imperialism; it is not in their vocabulary. Furthermore, I am not sure what real impact heterodox economics has made on the ground. Even in the realm of ideas it has not made as much impact as it might have.

I do not want to be misunderstood. I think that heterodox economics has provided a valuable and necessary critique of orthodox economics. In my own writings I find that, among some audiences, quoting Joseph Stiglitz or Dani Rodrick gives me a better punch than all my efforts to rally data and evidence on behalf of my arguments. My point is that heterodox economics is good up to a point but that it is not good enough. It must move beyond the realm of economics to the realm of political economy. In other words, I endorse the theme of this conference – ‘Reinventing the Political Economy Tradition of the Caribbean’.

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER AND A REALITY CHECK FOR THEORY

I shall start this discussion with a quote from none other than the late Michael Manley:

‘Those who have to face the challenge of action may make mistakes. Meantime, those who reside permanently in the world of ideas, alone and untested, do not help anyone when they refuse that reality is more complex than theory’ [3].

I must say that I sympathise, even empathise, with Manley. Academics can speak truth to politicians, but when do politicians get an opportunity to challenge the academics with a reality check? We who research, write and critique have an obligation to speak truth to power – to say how things are and how they should be, from the vantage point of some distance from political power and authority. That vantage point is extremely important: it gives a larger perspective to the drama of daily politics. At the same time, however, we cannot escape the question of what we would have done were we in power at the time that difficult decisions had to be made. Theoreticians speak truth to power. Politicians, in return, provide theory with a reality check. The coin has two sides.

The challenge is how political leaders and theoreticians meet and work together when it matters rather than after the event. When there is a separation between, as it were, the philosopher and the king, how do we create a synthetic ‘philosopher-king’? The Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, gave a partial answer to this question in his concept of the ‘organic intellectual’. For Gramsci, an organic intellectual arises as part of society and in the midst of struggle for liberation from oppression and exploitation. An organic intellectual is always in the midst of struggle, always on the move, drawing strength from history and from the society in which they are embedded and that nurtures them.

Let me go a step beyond Gramsci. There is also an ‘organic institution’, held together by a shared vision of society and long-term strategy among a group of organic intellectuals. Both organic intellectuals and organic institutions are involved in daily struggles, not from the privilege of distance, as academics do, but in the heat of battle. There are many research and academic institutions in the South, but they mostly remain on dry ground. Organic institutions, on the other hand, have to swim in the middle of the ocean.

SPEAKING ‘EXISTENTIAL TRUTH’ TO ‘DIPLOMATIC TRUTH’ AND THE ROLE OF THE SOUTH CENTRE

Truth, of course, has many dimensions. The kind of truth that we at the South Centre deal with on a daily basis is what I call ‘diplomatic truth’, or truth as negotiated between asymmetrical power relationships, in our case between the North and the South.

Let me give an example of diplomatic truth. Globalisation is defined in the course of negotiations between contending political forces in a particular context. Africans might argue, for example, that they have seen few benefits from globalisation; that they have only seen its negative consequences. They would present it as a “challenge”. On the other hand the North might argue that many of the benefits of globalisation have not permeated Africa because of problems with internal governance and corruption, and the failure to create the conditions for investments to flow; that globalisation is an “opportunity” that Africans have missed. The “negotiated” or “diplomatic” truth about globalisation is thus a compromise between these views and presented as both an opportunity and a challenge. This compromise camouflages huge differences in ideology and policy that obscure the reality on the ground.

As organic intellectuals and organic institutions we have a moral obligation to speak truth as we know and experience it to the diplomatic truth that is negotiated by our governments in the forced circumstances in which they find themselves. In the South Centre we have often taken positions against those that some of our governments have been compelled to take because of the pressures put on them by powerful forces in the North.

The trade negotiations in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are a case in point. Ever since the WTO was formed, the countries of the South, especially the smaller and vulnerable ones, have been subjected to enormous pressures to conform to agreements entered into by the bigger trading powers such as the USA and the European Union. These powerful trading blocs divide and rule the South. To the poorer countries of the South they offer ‘technical assistance’ and incentives such as ‘quota-free’ and ‘duty-free’ access to their markets. Once these smaller countries are taken out of the loop of negotiations with promises of technical and financial assistance and privileged access to their markets, the Northern power blocs then face the bigger countries of the South in hard bargaining over the technical details. Once the big powers, including the larger trading nations of the South, have agreed to a compromise deal in which they have taken care of one another’s interests, this jointly agreed formula is then imposed on the smaller countries. They are forced to surrender the illusory and temporary ‘concessions’ that they were earlier given and accept full reciprocity as, so to speak, ‘equal’ partners in the negotiations. This is the existential truth of the global trade negotiations.

In the case of the negotiations between the EU and ACP countries over Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) the diplomatic truth put out by the European Commission and some governments in Africa and the Caribbean confounds all logic and evidence. The European Commission (EC) argues that EPAs are good for ACP countries. Our analysis in the South Centre shows that the agreements in their present form will further de-industrialise African countries. They may even threaten their food security and policy options for endogenous development. The EC has systematically practiced a policy of divide and rule in Africa, especially in Eastern and Southern Africa, where older, indigenous efforts at regional integration within the context of SADC, COMESA and the East African Community are now in shreds.

Fortunately, there is growing resistance from some African governments to this old-style, colonial policy. Civil society social movements in Africa are also very active in this area. On 23 March 2008 50 of them called for a stop to the EPAs, saying that they will destroy the economies of African countries, lead to a substantial loss in government revenue accrued through tariffs, and a loss of jobs and policy space. They demanded that the interim agreements must be nullified. In the Caribbean context, Norman Girvan has argued that the Cariforum-EC EPA negotiations have been subject to lesser disclosure, debate and parliamentary oversight than legal and constitutional changes of lesser importance, and that the agreements must be subject to full public disclosure and debate, and possible review.

This, in my view, is the most challenging issue of our time that those engaged in the National Project must address, one in which all social and political forces from Jamaica to Cape Town and Vanuatu must join. They must invite bigger countries in the South, such as China, India and Brazil, to fight in solidarity against this European aggressive effort to recolonise a significant and vulnerable part of the South.

Other examples of the struggles of Southern countries in today’s globalising world, in which the South Centre is involved, include: - The struggle for access to knowledge and innovation, protection of indigenous knowledge, and flexibilities in intellectual property and copyright laws that would permit the diffusion of knowledge as a public good.

- The importance of resurrecting the original mandate and vitality of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

- The ‘aid effectiveness’ project of the OECD, called the “Paris Declaration” which will be the subject of negotiations in September 2008 in Accra, and which we must oppose. Many of our countries have become so dependent on aid that it is impossible to talk about self-reliance or the National Project unless effective exit strategies from aid are offered to them.

- The debate on finance for development and the so-called Monterrey Consensus, which will be the subject of further negotiations in Doha towards the end of this year, and which has acquired an entirely new dimension in the wake of the financial crisis in the North.

AN ALTERNATIVE VISION

Let me now come to the third task of the South intellectual, that of offering alternative visions of a future society. It is not enough to critique the present system without offering an alternative vision of where one would want to go.

I give below the elements of an alternative vision taken from an initiative of activist trades union leaders in Southern Africa called the ANSA project - Alternatives to Neoliberalism in Southern Africa [4]. 1. A people-led political and social strategy, as opposed to one led by the IMF/World Bank/WTO/donors.

2. Grassroots-led regional integration, as opposed to the current fragmentation of the region by the Empire.

3. An alternative economic production system, based on domestic demand, human need and the use of local resources and domestic savings, as opposed to the present export-oriented strategy based on foreign investments.

4. A phased withdrawal from globalisation, rather than further deepening of integration within the existing iniquitous global system.

5. A science and technology policy that harnesses people’s collective knowledge and wisdom, instead of blind emulation of techno-science rooted in the commodification for profit of nature, human labour and social structures.

6. Alliance-building and networking with progressive forces at national, regional and global levels, rather than their co-option by capital-led globalisation.

7. Politically governed redistribution of wealth and opportunities from the so-called formal sector to the informal sectors, instead of the misallocation of resources and the integration of informal sectors through their provision of cheap inputs and semi-employed labour.

8. Women’s rights as the basis for a healthy and productive society, replacing the present system based on the exploitation of women`s labour.

9. Education linked with production and improvements in the technical, managerial, research and development skills of workers and those directly in control of matters of production and governance, as opposed to education for a bureaucratic and technocratic elite.

10. Peoples’ demonstrations in support of the evolving ethical and developmental state regarded as embodying the democratic strength of society and creating a dynamic, participatory and radical democracy, rather than the present system in which mobilisation is seen as a threat and in which the representative democracy can sign away people’s future rights.

The ANSA project aims to evolve into a mass movement, a renewed liberation struggle, through sustained education, consultation, debate and action. It is fully compatible with and an extension of the National Project.

THE CASE FOR INTEGRATIVE REGIONALISM IN THE SOUTH

One of the major challenges that the National Project and the ANSA project face is the question of how we in the South integrate our own countries in the face of continuous fragmentation and balkanisation by the forces of globalisation. I identify four main types of regional integration. The first type is what I call distributive regionalism between countries that are roughly equal in economic and political strength. The gains and losses are closely tabulated and calculated. No state surrenders anything unless it gets something of equal value in return. When this kind of distributive regionalism takes place between roughly equal partners that share borders, and when these relations stabilise over a long period of time, it can lead to the second type: integrative regionalism. States are perceived to have compatible interests. Conflicts are sublimated by consideration of the common good that comes from integrating into a single economic or political unit. The best example of this type is the European Union.

A third type is what I call enforced regionalism, where one country is subject to the diktat of another largely because of an asymmetrical power relationship. In theory the weaker partner could walk out of the arrangement, but in practice walking out may be even more costly than a bad bargain. The African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) is an example of this. The fourth and final type is structured regionalism where the outcome is determined not by negotiation but by historically created conditions or institutions in which asymmetry is embedded. One example of structured regionalism is the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement, signed in Cotonou in June 2000.

It is hardly necessary to make the case for integrative regionalism. The economic case based on market size and the benefits of large-scale production is obvious enough. However, the argument that must be reiterated here is the political one, i.e. that only through integrative regionalism can the populations of the region acquire a negotiating clout in the global fora of trade and investment negotiations.

The biggest hurdle to integrative regionalism in the South is forced or structured regionalism imposed on them from above by the dominant economic and power blocs, namely the United States and the European Union. Their interventions result in the disruption and disintegration of efforts that Southern countries have been making to move towards genuine integrative regionalism.

CONCLUSION

A man or woman with no passion has no heart; one with no power of reasoning has no mind. It is the combination of heart and mind that produces the balanced person who uses their mind to pursue their passion. Let us speak truth to power, but let us also speak the existential truth of our people’s world to the negotiated truth of the diplomatic world to which many of our governments have surrendered their people’s mandate and trust. Let us hope that our collective efforts will lead to a new vision of a better world, one that is fair, just, peaceful and bountiful to all the peoples of the world.


*Yash Tandon is the Executive Director of the South Centre, an Intergovernmental think tank of the developing countries.

* This essay was edited and summarised by Izzy Birch of Fahamu from the keynote speech given by Professor Yash Tandon in honour of Professor Norman Girvan at the 9th annual conference of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), Kingston, Jamaica, March 2008. The fuller version may be requested from Professor Yash Tandon at director@southcentre.org

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


For further notes, please follow this link:
1. I use the terms ‘scholar’ and ‘intellectual’ interchangeably for now, but I prefer the term ‘intellectual’.

2. ‘Search for Policy Autonomy in the South: Universalism, Social Learning and Role of Regionalism’. (UNRISD, October 2005)

3. Reclaiming Development: Independent Thought and Caribbean Community, Kari Levitt, 2005, p. 302.

4. www.ansa.org

China’s ‘openness’ has African echoes

Stephen Marks

2008-05-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/48440

China’s media and official reaction to the devastating Sichuan earthquake has been given generally positive coverage by Western media and governments, writes Stephen Marks. It may be a coincidence, but the earthquake and the allegedly more open reaction happen to follow soon after the coming into force of sweeping new Chinese government regulations on transparency - which could be a useful lever for activists seeking greater transparency in tracking the impact of China’s African footprint.


China’s media and official reaction to the devastating Sichuan earthquake has been given generally positive coverage by Western media and governments - both by contrast with the Burmese military junta’s handling of the recent floods, and also with Beijing’s reaction to previous natural disasters.

The Shanghai-based blog ‘Shanghailist’ reviews and discusses the generally favourable global and Western reaction.

It may be a coincidence, but the earthquake and the allegedly more open reaction happen to follow soon after the coming into force of sweeping new Chinese government regulations on transparency - which could be a useful lever for activists seeking greater transparency in tracking the impact of China’s African footprint.

May 1 saw the entry into force of the Measures on Open Environmental Information (for Trial Implementation), issued by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection. According to Ma Jun, Director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Chinese environmental NGO, ‘the measures require environment agencies to disclose 17 different kinds of environmental information, including regional environmental quality, amounts of discharge and the records of polluters in various regions’.

The categories of information which the new measures require to be made available to the public include:

- A list of enterprises violating discharge standards or exceeding discharge quota limits;

- Letters, visits and complaints filed about pollution caused by enterprises; and the result of their disposal;

-Administrative punishments, reviews, lawsuits and enforcement;

- A list of enterprises causing major and extremely large pollution accidents and incidents;

- Enterprises that refuse to comply with the effective administrative punishment decisions.

Enterprises listed for environmental violations must publish detailed discharge data within 30 days, on pain of a fine, and members of the public have a legal right to require environmental agencies to publish the list of polluting firms.

In addition, enterprises are encouraged to publish a much wider range of information regarding their environmental impact, and firms agreeing to do so will be rewarded with priority in the allocation of contracts for government-funded environmental projects.

All of which dovetails significantly with the conclusions reached last month in Nairobi at a strategy meeting of some 20 civil society activists and researchers from across Africa organised by Fahamu to discuss China’s growing African involvement.

A central theme to emerge from the meeting was the lack of direct links between Chinese and African civil society; While most African civil society groups are not explicitly concerned with China (and vice-versa) they are very much concerned with issues with a strong China dimension, and high on that list are issues connected with the environment.

Could African civil society groups pressure Chinese companies in Africa to raise their game, in ways which Chinese activists could use as leverage back home? This possibility might well be reversed if the new Chinese regulations prove to have teeth - African campaigners could press Chinese firms to be as open in Africa as they may yet be required to be in China.

The Chinese Government has a declared policy that where local laws are lacking or deficient, Chinese companies should abide by the relevant Chinese legislation. So participants at the Nairobi meeting agreed that better knowledge of China's own domestic laws, both on environmental regulation and on issues of employee rights and broader social responsibility, would help.

If the new regulations on disclosure prove to have teeth they could prove a useful basis for closer co-operation between environmental activists in China and in Africa. But how effective are the new rules likely to prove in practice?

As Ma Jun points out ‘It is well-known that there is weak enforcement of laws and regulations in China. As a law that reflects new thinking, the implementation of the measures is expected to be even more challenging’.

On the plus side, the regulations are launched by the energetic and radical Environment Minister Pan Yue whose State Environmental Protection Administration [SEPA] has since the last Party Congress, been officially retitled and promoted to the status of Ministry of Environmental Protection [MEP].

Pan Yue is on record as connecting China’s environmental crisis with the uncritical adoption of Western capitalist models of industrialisation, and the consequent widening of social inequality . This in its turn he sees as connected to the need for continuing democratisation and political reform .

So it is not surprising that his Ministry was among the first to issue transparency regulations in line with a more general directive requiring all Chinese government agencies to adhere to ‘open government’ principles, and which also came into force in 1 May.

On the other side of the balance sheet, Pan Yue himself is well aware, as his own articles and interviews show, that many previous well-intentioned and strongly-worded central directives on the environment have been frustrated by local officials determined to boost the economic growth of their provinces, or of enterprises and industries with which they are connected.

And in central government too, politicians and officials can be willing to talk the green talk, but less willing to walk the green walk if it leads along paths that conflict with conventional measures of economic growth - a problem in no way confined to China.

A useful and unexpectedly objective watch on these and other matters is kept by the ‘Virtual Academy’ of the US Congress Executive Commission on China, which has provided a balanced analysis of the open environmental information regulations.

Which brings us back to the issue of government and media reaction to the earthquake crisis. Some of the positive Western comment has explicitly linked the greater openness about the scale of the disaster and even of inadequacies in the response, to the new directives on openness - Melinda Liu in Newsweek is one example.

But there have also been indications of a possible crackdown on news reporting. The Financial Times reported last week that:

‘In spite of wall-to-wall coverage of the earthquake in Sichuan province, the ruling Communist Party has been working hard to shape the news.

'A meeting of the party’s most powerful propaganda officials on Tuesday stressed the importance of “correct guidance of public opinion” and ordered a strengthening of political consciousness among journalists.

'All frontline coverage of the disaster should “uphold unity and encourage stability” while “giving precedence to positive propaganda”, ordered Li Changchun, a member of the party’s supreme Politburo standing committee, the People’s Daily reported.’

Just what these central edicts will mean in practice is still not clear. In the same issue of the Financial Times Mure Dickie analysed the implications in a piece headed ‘Media edicts recall China’s Maoist past’. But the body of the story described a more nuanced reality than the headline suggested.

The well-informed and diligent China Media Project [CMP] at Hong Kong University reports that:

‘CMP has confirmed with sources inside China’s media that the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department (...) has issued “numerous” directives on coverage of the Sichuan earthquake, including a directive against “critical reporting” on the disaster. The general atmosphere for coverage, however, seems to remain relatively open. While media have been instructed to follow the lead of central party media – Xinhua News Agency, CCTV and company – regional commercial media can and are, for the moment, pursuing the story with intensity.’

CMP illustrates the point with a comparison of the coverage in the official Xinhuanet, site of the official Xinhua news agency, and Caijing, the leading independent business and current affairs magazine.

So where does that leave us? Central government agencies that issue commendable regulations, which will not be implemented by sluggish and self-interested officials unless, perhaps, they are forced to by energetic popular pressure. And politicians who encourage press openness - as long as it is ‘positive’ and avoids ‘irresponsible sensationalism’.

Sound familiar? Clearly Chinese and African civil society activists will have a lot of common experiences to share in future.


*Stephen Marks is research associate with Fahamu.

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

China’s Environmental Footprint in Africa

Peter Bosshard

2008-05-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/48442

China has great strategic interests in Africa, and Africa will benefit from a continued strengthening of its cooperation with China, says Peter Bosshard. Such South-South cooperation will promote growth and much-needed investment. However, economic growth should not come at the cost of environmental destruction. China has a self-interest in strengthening the rules on the social and environmental impacts of its overseas projects. African governments can learn from China’s experience by being selective in the types of investments which they invite, and by making sure that investments do not undermine the long-term environmental foundations of growth and prosperity.



China and Africa have rapidly expanded their political and economic relations since the turn of the century. China – ‘the world’s factory’ – is trying to secure access to resources in Africa which it lacks at home. Africa also offers a welcome market for Chinese companies facing stiff competition at home. The Chinese state supports this investment in African resources and creation of jobs to stave off the country’s permanent unemployment crisis.

Africa has for a long time been a primary source of natural resources for the European and American markets. China’s strategy is to access resources which have so far not been exploited because they were considered by Western companies to be too small, remote or politically risky. This strategy requires massive investment in mines, oil exploration and auxiliary infrastructure such as pipelines, roads, railways, power plants and transmission lines.

China’s economic expansion in Africa is carried forward by thousands of individual entrepreneurs, a small number of large, state-owned enterprises, and a host of companies owned by provincial and municipal authorities. While small private enterprises dominate investment in commerce and manufacturing, state-owned enterprises typically invest in extractive and infrastructure projects. In integrated investment packages, government institutions and state-owned companies work closely together. The Chinese government’s active involvement in resource extraction is not fundamentally different from the financial, political and military support granted to oil and mining operations by the US, French or South African governments.

The Chinese government does not directly interfere in the investment decisions of the enterprises it owns, but offers support and incentives in the form of finance and diplomatic support. China Exim Bank is a key source of finance for the Africa projects of state-owned enterprises. The Chinese export credit agency was created in 1994 to promote Chinese exports. With new loan approvals of $36 billion, China Exim Bank outgrew the World Bank and all other export credit agencies in 2007. In May 2007, China Exim Bank pledged to commit approximately $20 billion for loans to Africa over the next three years [1]. In comparison, the World Bank approved projects for $4.8 billion for Africa in 2006.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF CHINA’S EXPANSION IN AFRICA

Rapidly growing economic ties with China have contributed to Africa’s strong economic growth in recent years [2]. As a developing country, China can offer experiences and goods that are better suited to the needs of African societies than the advice and products from industrialised countries. For example, China is a world leader in renewable energy technologies, which are essential for rural electrification in Africa. Chinese investment and consumer goods are usually more affordable than Western products. Finally, Chinese loans and aid flows allow African governments to eschew the often dogmatic economic policy conditions of international financial institutions. However, the primary focus of China’s Africa strategy is not on exporting appropriate technologies but on accessing raw materials. It mirrors what has been the dominant approach of Western governments and corporations to Africa’s development for many decades.

Civil society and academic observers have expressed concerns about the impacts of China’s economic expansion on Africa’s governance, human rights, environment, local employment and labour conditions, product quality, and the sustainability of the continent’s debt burden. This paper focuses on the environmental impacts [3]. Concerns over China’s environmental footprint in Africa have arisen for at least four reasons:

- China’s investments in Africa are concentrated in sectors which are environmentally sensitive (such as oil and gas exploration, mining, hydropower, and timber), and in infrastructure projects which help to facilitate environmentally sensitive investments (such as roads, railway and transmission lines).

- While investments in the mining, oil, gas, hydropower and timber sectors generally carry high environmental risks, China’s strategy of making previously inaccessible resources accessible compounds these risks. Chinese investors are developing projects in remote, ecologically fragile regions, in areas that have so far been protected as national parks, and in countries with weak governance structures.

- China’s domestic policies have prioritised economic growth over the protection of the environment, with harrowing results. The Chinese government has set in place laws, regulations and institutions to protect the environment, but with limited success [4]. China risks exporting its domestic environmental track record to other parts of the world through its foreign investment strategy.

- International financial institutions have since the 1990s adopted environmental guidelines and standards to address the environmental impacts of their projects. Major Chinese investors, financiers and equipment suppliers have so far not adopted such standards, or have developed policies which are not necessarily in line with international standards.

Some high-profile examples illustrate the risks created by Chinese investments for Africa’s environment. In Sudan, China Exim Bank is financing the large Merowe Dam Project on the Nile. The dam’s reservoir will displace more than 55,000 people from the fertile Nile Valley to arid desert locations. In violation of Sudan’s environmental law, the project’s superficial environmental impact assessment has never been approved by the Ministry of Environment.

In Gabon, Sinopec explored for oil in Loango National Park until the country’s national park service ordered exploration to stop in September 2006 [5]. Conservation groups had pointed out that oil exploration threatened rare plants and animals, and the environmental impact study had not been approved by the environment ministry. China’s Kongou Dam, which has been proposed to power the Belinga iron ore project in Gabon, could negatively impact the forests of the Ivindo National Park. Sinohydro’s Bui Dam, a project being financed by China Exim Bank, will flood about a quarter of Bui National Park in Ghana. The Lower Kafue Gorge Dam, a Sinhoydro project being financed by China Exim Bank in Zambia, will put additional pressure on the ecologically important Kafue Flats and its national parks.

AFRICAN AND WESTERN REACTIONS TO CHINA’S ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT

African governments of all political stripes have strongly welcomed China’s growing presence on the continent. They have expressed appreciation not only for the economic boost triggered by Chinese investment, but also for the pragmatic and speedy way in which China has delivered aid projects, often irrespective of concerns over corruption and environmental impacts. Sahr Johnny, Sierra Leone’s ambassador to China, summarised a meeting with Chinese investors in 2005 as follows:

‘The Chinese are doing more than the G8 to make poverty history. If a G8 country had wanted to rebuild the stadium, we’d still be holding meetings! The Chinese just come and do it. They don’t hold meetings about environmental impact assessment, human rights, bad governance and good governance. I’m not saying it’s right, just that Chinese investment is succeeding because they don’t set high benchmarks' [6].

African governments have expressed concerns when cheap Chinese investors wiped out local textile (and other) industries, preferred Chinese over African workers, or did not comply with local labour laws. Very few concerns have been recorded regarding the environmental impacts of Chinese investments. In January 2008, Sierra Leone banned timber exports because, as the country’s environment minister said in an interview with the BBC, Chinese and other logging companies were plundering forests with no respect for the law [7]. And a task force of the African Union urged all actors in September 2006 to ‘[e]nsure that China pays more attention to the protection of the environment in its investment practices’ [8].

Since the 1980s, multilateral development banks have adopted safeguard policies that address the social and environmental impacts of their projects. Western financiers are concerned that Chinese banks will take up projects that they rejected because of unacceptable environmental risks. There is ample anecdotal evidence to suggest that borrowing governments use the availability of Chinese funding to pressure other financiers to weaken their environmental standards, or to flout them in specific projects.

In October 2006, then World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz warned:

‘Almost 80 per cent of the world’s commercial banks respect [the Equator Principles] when they finance projects. The large Chinese banks do not apply them. True, they are relatively new to this type of activity in Africa. But they should not make the same mistakes which France and the United States have made in Mobutu’s Zaire… Let’s be honest, this would be terrible, a true scandal [9]."

Around the same time, Philippe Maystadt, the President of the European Investment Bank, criticised Chinese financiers even more bluntly. ‘The competition of the Chinese banks is clear’, Maystadt said according to the Financial Times. ‘They don’t bother about social or human rights conditions.’ The EIB President claimed that Chinese banks had snatched projects from under his bank’s nose in Africa and Asia, after offering to undercut EIB conditions on labour standards and the environment [10].

Maystadt and others recommend that international financial institutions should lower their own standards in response to Chinese competition. The EIB President argued that international financial institutions needed to avoid ‘excessive’ conditions, and had to ‘think about the degree of conditionality we want to impose' [11]. The Chinese financiers’ lack of stringent environmental standards may not only cause serious environmental impacts in specific projects, but also trigger a broader race to the bottom regarding the environmental standards of financial institutions.

EVOLVING ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES

China’s traditional response to concerns about the environmental impacts of overseas projects is that China does not interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries. China’s African Policy of January 2006 stresses that China ‘respects African countries’ independent choice of the road of development’, and will ‘increase assistance to African nations with no political strings attached’ [12]. In response to Paul Wolfowitz’s accusation that China was undermining environmental standards, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson maintained in October 2006:

‘China has adopted the principle of non-interference of other nations’ internal affairs in its foreign relations. China does not accept any country imposing its values, social systems and ideology upon China. Neither will China allow itself to do so to others' [13].

The reality of China’s foreign policy is more complex than public announcements indicate, and has evolved over time. After a string of riots in African countries, the Chinese government seems to be increasingly aware that human rights abuses and environmental destruction in Chinese projects can trigger an unacceptable backlash. President Hu Jintao for example repeatedly urged Chinese businesses to respect local laws during his visit to Africa in February 2007.

Government concerns over the impacts of overseas investments have triggered a series of guidelines regarding workers’ rights, product safety, community relations, and environmental impacts in such projects. In August 2006, the Ministry of Commerce issued recommendations for improving the safety of workers in Chinese overseas investments. It urged Chinese companies to hire local workers, respect local customs and adhere to international safety standards in their projects. The recommendations argue that doing so will serve China’s national interest [14].

In October 2006, the State Council, China’s highest government body, issued nine principles regulating foreign investments of Chinese companies. Among other things, the Council called on Chinese investors to ‘fulfill the necessary social responsibility to protect the legitimate rights and interests of local employees, pay attention to environmental resource protection, care and support of the local community and people’s livelihood cause’, and to ‘preserve our good image and a good corporate reputation’ [15].

China Exim Bank was an early example of China’s effort to adopt environmental guidelines. The bank adopted an environmental policy in November 2004, and made it publicly available in April 2007. The policy states that ‘projects that are harmful to the environment or do not gain endorsement or approval from environmental administration will not be funded’. It stipulates that ‘once any unacceptable negative environmental impacts result during the project implementation, China Exim Bank will require the implementation unit to take immediate remedial or preventive measures. Otherwise, they will discontinue financial support' [16].

In August 2007, China Exim Bank issued more specific guidelines on social and environmental impact assessment. The guidelines require projects to comply with host country policies – but not international standards – regarding environmental assessment, resettlement and consultation. They stipulate an active role for China Exim Bank in monitoring environmental impacts throughout the project cycle, and reserve the right to cancel a loan if environmental impacts are not adequately addressed [17]. Observers agree that China Exim Bank is interested in international good practice in environmental assessment, but does not accept any political obligation to endorse standards drawn up by other bodies.

FROM GUIDANCE TO IMPLEMENTATION

Guidelines indicate the political intentions of the Chinese government, yet compliance is not mandatory. The central government still owns more than 150 large companies but has little control over their day-to-day operations. It has even less influence over the numerous provincial, municipal and private Chinese enterprises which are currently exploring Africa [18]. As a result, there are countless examples of Chinese investments in Africa which contradict the government appeals for a harmonious society and the tenets of corporate social responsibility.

In recent years, Chinese government agencies have created strong incentives for companies to comply with the country’s environmental laws and guidelines. In August 2007, China’s State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA, now Ministry of Environmental Protection or MEP), the People’s Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission jointly prepared a green credit policy. Under this policy, ‘banks will be stricter about lending to companies that do not pass environmental assessments or fail to implement environment-protection regulations’ [19]. In November 2007, 12 Chinese companies for the first time were withheld loans under the green credit policy.

In October 2007, SEPA and Ministry of Commerce announced that they would ban companies which were found seriously violating environmental rules from exporting for up to three years [20]. And in January 2008, SEPA signed a deal with the International Finance Corporation to introduce the Equator Principles – the environmental standards of international private banks – in China [21].

None of the measures adopted by SEPA and other agencies explicitly refer to the environmental track record of Chinese overseas investors. They may even encourage domestic producers to relocate their most polluting operations abroad. Yet if the political will exists, all these measures can be used to strengthen the global environmental performance of Chinese companies.

EXPORTING CHINA’S DOMESTIC EXPERIENCE

Like every government, China tends to export its own development model through its aid and foreign economic policy. Chinese authorities have for example invited several African delegations to visit the Three Gorges Dam as a model for the continent’s energy sector development.

In recent years, the horrendous cost of the Chinese development model to the environment, public health and ultimately the economy has become evident. In 2007 the World Bank documented the alarming price which China pays for its air and water pollution. The Three Gorges Project in particular can no longer serve as an argument for putting growth before the environment. In September 2007, Chinese experts warned that the hydropower dam could ‘lead to [an environmental] catastrophe’ and that ‘the problems are all more serious than we expected’ [22].

Over the years, the Chinese government has taken strong measures to address the alarming environmental destruction. It banned logging in old-growth forests in 1998, strengthened the water law in 2002, adopted a strict law on environmental impact assessment in 2003, and ensured public participation in such impact assessments in 2006. The green credit policy and other measures adopted by SEPA provide the teeth which will enforce stricter compliance of domestic polluters with environmental regulations.

The guidelines adopted by the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce, China Exim Bank and other agencies indicate that China intends to address the environmental footprint of Chinese companies overseas. Yet as happened in Western countries, stricter environmental regulations at home may also motivate Chinese companies to move their polluting operations abroad. This creates risks for regions with weak environmental regulations and enforcement capacities such as Africa.

In September 2007, South Africa’s Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka announced that her government was talking with China about moving polluting Chinese companies to South Africa. ‘China needs to send some of its polluting industries elsewhere because it is choking on them’, Mlambo-Ngcuka said. ‘We have the capacity to manage emissions and want to regulate that agreement' [23]. The announcement is reminiscent of a memorandum in 1991 in which the World Bank’s chief economist Lawrence Summers argued that ‘under-populated countries in Africa are vastly under-polluted’, and that the World Bank should be ‘encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the [Less Developed Countries]' [24].

CONCLUSION

China has great strategic interests in Africa, and Africa will benefit from a continued strengthening of its cooperation with China. Such South-South cooperation will promote growth and much-needed investment. However, as China’s domestic experience demonstrates, economic growth should not come at the cost of environmental destruction. As a long-term partner in Africa’s development, China has a self-interest in strengthening the rules on the social and environmental impacts of its overseas projects. China has begun the process of establishing guidelines for overseas investments. Given the speed of its global expansion, these guidelines will need to become more comprehensive, and deepened through binding regulations.

African governments can learn from China’s experience by being selective in the types of investments which they invite, and by making sure that investments do not undermine the long-term environmental foundations of growth and prosperity. Africa’s civil society is taking an active interest in China’s role in the continent, and will continue to monitor the sustainability of Chinese investments.

Western governments will become more credible in expressing concerns regarding the environment and good governance if they uphold and strengthen the standards ruling their own overseas investments. They will need to accept their primary responsibility for addressing global environmental impacts. They should do more to promote standards and technologies which can help reduce emissions at home, in China and in other countries which are currently catching up with Western consumer societies.


*Peter Bosshard is the Policy Director of International Rivers in Berkeley, USA. He coordinates a programme to strengthen the environmental standards of Chinese overseas investments. A longer version of this text is available, in English and Chinese, at http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/2802

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

*For further notes please follow this link:
1 Financial Times (2007) ‘China pledges $20bn for Africa’, 17 May

2 Goldstein, A., Pinaud, N., Reisen, H. and Chen, X. (2006) ‘The Rise of China and India - What's in it for Africa’ OECD

3. For a brief discussion of other impacts of China’s role in Africa, see Bosshard, P. (2007) ‘China’s Role in Financing African Infrastructure’, International Rivers Network

4 See Economy, E. (2007) ‘The Great Leap Backward?’, Foreign Affairs, September/October 2007, for a good summary of China’s environmental problems and their link to inadequate governance structures

5 Centre for Chinese Studies (2007) ‘China’s Engagement of Africa: Preliminary Scoping of African Case Studies’, pp. 94f

6 Quoted in Lindsey Hilsum (2005) ‘We Love China’, in Granta 92, ‘The View from China’

7 ‘Sierra Leone bans timber exports’, BBC News, 15 January 2008, viewed on http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7189204.stm on 16 January 2008

8 African Union (2006) ‘Meeting of the Task Force on Africa’s Strategic Partnership with Emerging Powers: China, India and Brazil’, p. 5

9 Quoted in Les Echos, 24 October 2006 (translated from French by the author)

10 Financial Times (2006) ‘EIB accuses China of unscrupulous loans’, 28 November

11 Philippe Maystadt quoted ibid

12 China’s African Policy, January 2006

13 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Jianchao’s Regular Press Conference on 24 October 2006

14 Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, ‘Dui ‘guanyu jiaqiang jingwai zhongqiye jigo yu re nyuan anquan baohu gongzuo de yijian’ de jiedu’ [Explanation regarding the suggestions for strengthening the human safety and protection of workers for Chinese enterprises and organizations overseas], 31 August 2006, and Gill, B. and Reilly, J. (2007) ‘The Tenuous Hold of China Inc. in Africa’, in The Washington Quarterly, Summer 2007, pp. 37–52, p. 47

15 Guanyu Guli he Guifan Woguo Qiye Duiwai Touzi Hezuo de Yijian, viewed on www.zgbfw.com/info/pump-news-296021.html on October 30, 2007, Principles 5 and 9, unofficial translation

16 China Ex-im Bank’s environmental policy (unofficial translation of the Chinese original). See also Environmental Defense, International Rivers Network, International Civil Society Recommendations Regarding China Exim Bank’s Environmental Policy Based on International Good Practice, September 2007

17 China Exim Bank, Issuance Notice regarding Guidance on Environmental and Social Impact Assessment in China Export Import Bank Projects (unofficial English translation), 28 August 2007

18 Alden, C., (2007) ‘China in Africa’, London/New York, pp. 29f., 58

19 State Environmental Protection Administration, Media News, Blacklist of Polluters Distributed, 6 August 2007

20 State Environmental Protection Administration, News Release, MOC and SEPA Jointly Issued the Circular to Resolutely Prohibiting the Export Activity at the Cost of Damaging the Environment, 31 October 2007, and Xinhua, Supervision of exporters to be tightened, 30 October 2007

21 International Finance Corporation, China EPA, IFC to Develop Guidelines for Groundbreaking National Green Credit Policy, 26 January 2008

22 See Xinhua, ‘China warns of ‘catastrophe’ from gigantic Dam’, in Chinadaily.com.cn, 26 September 2007

23 Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka quoted in Business Report, 1 October 2007

24 Lawrence Summers, The World Bank, Office Memorandum, 12 December 1991

Is Someone Playing with the Darfur Death Toll?

Savo Heleta

2008-05-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/48441

Savo Heleta looks at the ways death tolls are manipulated for political ends and argues the same could be happening in Darfur.



The conflict in Darfur, now in its sixth year, is for a long time one of the prime news around the world. Other conflicts come and go, but Darfur is receiving extensive coverage ever since the American government officials called the conflict genocide in the late 2004.

The fighting in Darfur broke out in 2003, when two rebel groups took up arms against the Sudanese government forces. The rebels, who came from predominantly "African" sedentary tribes, blamed political, economic, and social marginalization and neglect of the region by the "Arab" dominated government of Sudan as the main causes of rebellion in Darfur, the vast western Sudanese province the size of France.

Soon after the rebellion began, the Sudanese government mobilized and armed local militias from Darfur's Arab ethnic groups, called Janjaweed, particularly those without traditional land rights, to fight against the "African" rebels. The Janjaweed are believed to be behind the worst atrocities against civilians in Darfur.

Referring to a 2006 estimate by the World Health Organization, the Western media, politicians, and international humanitarian organizations claim that more than 200,000 people have died in Darfur since 2003. Out of these 200,000 victims, the World Health Organization estimates that about 20% people died from fighting and violence, while 80% died from starvation and diseases. It is estimated that over 2 million people are living in refugee camps in Darfur and neighboring countries after fleeing their homes.

Some organizations, such as the American advocacy group Save Darfur Coalition and the Washington-based and the United States State Department-funded Center for International Justice claimed, without any evidence, that over 400,000 people have died in Darfur.

Recently, John Holmes, a senior United Nations official in charge of humanitarian relief, announced that as many as 300,000 people could have died in the Darfur conflict. Holmes said that the 300,000 total "is not a very scientifically based figure," but a "reasonable hypothesis and extrapolation" from the earlier estimate of 200,000.

Why are these Darfur death toll estimates taken for granted by so many people, media, and organizations in the West? How reliable are these numbers, considering that humanitarian workers, the main source of data used to come up with the estimates, have had only limited access to many areas in Darfur since the conflict began in 2003? Could the death toll be inflated? Would someone purposely exaggerate the numbers?

The Western media, aid agencies, and advocacy groups have exaggerated numbers of war victims around the world on many occasions before.

During the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s, the international aid agencies, the United Nations officials, and the Western diplomats and media had claimed that between 200,000 and 300,000 people had lost their lives in fighting that ravaged the country for four years. The widely accepted figure that almost no one questioned was at least 200,000 dead. The international community and Bosnian politicians had used these numbers for their own purposes all the way until early 2007, when an independent Research and Documentation Center from Bosnia and Herzegovina, after three years of extensive and nonpartisan work, revealed that 100,000 people, civilians and soldiers on all sides, had died in the war. They collected over twenty different facts about each victim, such as people's names, nationality, time and place of birth and death, and circumstances of death.

The Bosnian death toll of 100,000 people is an enormous tragedy, but still it is not the same as 200,000 or 300,000 dead. The aid agencies that came up with the inflated death toll in Bosnia never publicly commented on their exaggeration. The Western media kept quiet or only briefly reported about the new findings. No one has ever apologized for the overstated numbers used for about 15 years. People in Darfur need help. Their suffering and misery should not be used for political campaigning around the world.

Darfur urgently needs peace through a negotiated settlement that can effectively tackle political, social, and economic marginalization of the region, first by the British colonial government and later by the successive post-independence governments of Sudan.

Numbers currently used to portray the death toll in Darfur may be correct. Yet, knowing the record of the international aid agencies, the Western governments and media, and various advocacy groups, it should not come as a surprise if the current estimate of 300,000 dead was exaggerated to serve some hidden purposes outside Darfur.


* Savo Heleta is the author of Not My Turn to Die: Memoirs of a Broken Childhood in Bosnia (AMACOM, March 2008) and a postgraduate student in Conflict Transformation and Management at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

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

South Africa's broken road

Mildred Barya

2008-05-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/48451

In addition to a conflicted identity, Mildred Barya argues that the xenophobic attacks in South Africa and Africa in general can be traced to the Berlin Conference and partitioning of Africa.


Until the colonial borders are removed we will not have lasting peace anywhere in Africa. Nobody is going to deconstruct the existing borders except a group of committed African thinkers and doers. The recent South Africa shame of brother against brother, sister against sister has clearly shown that we need to make the journey to Berlin quickly, to break the curse of borders that was inflicted upon Africa by the white colonialists in 1885.

The time is ripe to reverse the trend before other clean ‘fingers’ catch the infection and oozing pus from the festering, sore fingers. The disease is the same across Africa, it only manifests differently. It happened in Cote d’Ivoire in West Africa, it has happened in Kenya in East Africa, it happened in Rwanda and continues to spill in the Great Lakes Region. It is the same happening in the Horn of Africa, now it is happening in South Africa, soon the entire Africa might begin to smell from these rotting fingers if the African Union leadership and other concerned bodies, concerned people, do not step in to curb the disease and rename the land. It is time for us Africans to change this bloody, brother-sister-hunting course and write our history as Patrice Lumumba dreamt when he said:

“Africa will write its own history, and it will be, to the north and to the south of the Sahara, a history of glory and dignity…it will not be the history that Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations will teach, but that which they will teach in the countries emancipated from colonialism and its puppets.”

South Africa reached pitch fever in its bursting hatred, clearly demonstrating a greater need for us to say; ‘Let there be no more South Africa but a country that accepts all Blacks, no matter where they may be coming from.’ Words alone do not bring a prophecy to pass; we are not in the days of miracles so actions must do. Short of action, South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, must eat the papers on which he wrote Black Consciousness. What is Black Consciousness without the African personality and identity? What is Black Consciousness if it is not all Africa-Black-Inclusive?

It is a big shame that when we were beginning to recognize and celebrate the African presence globally, South Africa announced its own drum beat and danced to a different tune. When we were beginning to warm up to the World Cup come 2010, South Africa proved that it is not worthy to host the cup, that it is not ready, not yet ready. For if many South Africans cannot tolerate their brothers and sisters from the closest, neighbouring countries, how will they consider the people from far off lands? The saying that charity begins at home does not lie. Who will be safe to watch the World Cup in the folds of xenophobia? One would rather go to a less ‘privileged’ but safer country than being caught up in the throngs of xenophobia.

The way South Africa has given vent to reckless violence shows there’s something rotten at the core. We are not witnessing the surfacing of new fear, but a deep decay in the hearts and minds of the killing groups. It is not about hating the other foreigner. If anything, South Africans started with hating themselves. For a long time they have been killing what is considered their ‘own.’ They did not spare Lucky Dube; they do not spare thousands of women and young girls who are raped and murdered everyday, making South Africa one of the most dangerous countries to live in. The killings have been going on, it is only now that they have reached marginal proportions and gained a new definitive target: Black foreigners. Immigrants.

The murderers have forgotten a crucial piece of history: They have forgotten that many Africans wept with the South Africans during apartheid rule. Many African countries mobilized logistical, moral and physical support for the South African struggle. And many Africans left their safe homes to go to dangerous South Africa to fight for the freedom of South Africans. The people from Nigeria, Malawi, Zambia, Ghana, Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Tanzania and several other places actively joined the South Africa struggle with good will and intentions of brother fighting for brother, sister standing by sister. They must rent their clothes now realizing not only the loss of unity that they embraced, but the shame and disgust that come with regression. The pain in a journey back to the broken road.

I did a small exercise with a large, African social group. I asked each one of the members to suggest which country in Africa they would not want to live in. 99 per cent circled South Africa. The most amazing thing is that places like Congo, Sudan’s Darfur, Chad, Somalia, Kenya and Zimbabwe where conflict is ripe and the residents are not just seated on volcanoes but are being boiled and cooked in the lava, many Africans still indicated a willingness to want to live there, to go there and help. To go and suffer with those who are suffering. This gave me hope that there is a revolution and there are Africans keeping true to the revolution, defying fear and other obstacles to fight for justice, progress and African-ness.

South Africa therefore has plunged in a senseless blood-spilling orgy. We cannot understand why this has happened if we do not recognize that a deep Identity crisis is at the bottom of the problem. Many South Africans have never quite accepted themselves as Africans. The logic therefore is simple. They cannot accept others who are Africans. Many South Africans haven’t felt safe in their own skin, in their country, in their own-ness, how then can they accept others? South Africa is warped in denial at many levels, confusion, reckless power and now, a terrible forgetfulness. This is the analysis: It will take a longer time cleaning up the South African psyche and reality than stopping all the violence in Congo and Darfur. The reason is because South Africa seems to be the only country so far that has an in-built denial system. In other countries when things are not going well, the masses and leadership to a large degree generally accept the dysfunctional phases and the need to change. There is a wide acceptability of things having gone wrong. In South Africa what you easily recognize is denial: It is not HIV/AIDS, it is not crime, it is not this and that... This is going to cost South Africa such a huge fortune in terms of time and name clearance.

How do we help South Africa to at least resolve the huge identity crisis and denial syndrome? The answer is in deconstructing and then reconstructing Africa as a whole and within that framework redefining who is a South African. Many of us know that our cultural ties and heritage go beyond colonial borders, yet we continue to wear the colonial blinds. Culture and politics have failed to make the interconnectedness shared among all Africans a check against violence. Perhaps it is time to go scientific. Here is how. If many of us are to do a DNA ethnic make-up test, we would discover various percentages of several ethnic groups that contribute to our genetic profile. This would give us good snapshots of who we are, our ancestry and our identity. We would realize we are yesterday’s people, we are much of today’s people and we will be tomorrow’s people too. In short, to borrow Alice Walker’s new book title, “We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For.” There isn’t going to be a so-called pure South African, the other Mozambican, Malawian, because in truth such identities do not exist, have never existed. They were coined up to suit the colonizers. Centuries down the road we still let them make us, shape us, define us. What more could be wrong with us?

For a start, I think all the so-called South Africans should do a DNA test, government sponsored. It will make us humble and teach us a thing or two about union and diversity which culture and governments have failed to teach us. Because we inherit a unique assortment of DNA from our mothers and fathers, it is possible for one’s DNA results to be different from a family members—even a sibling’s. Does this mean members of a family who discover unique differences and some noticeable similarities as well should pick up guns and fire at one another, in the name of a different DNA composition, one being more Shangaani than Zulu for instance?

Before any peace movement can stop us all from shouting ‘kill the other, kill them all…’ perhaps a DNA is what will save us and show that we have enough of ‘the other’ in us; in our cells, in our genetic make up and ‘bloody’ composition, thus stopping us from wrecking havoc on our selves, the other.


* Mildred K Barya is Writer-in-Residence at TrustAfrica (www.trustafrica.org)

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

Mauritania: Between Islamism and terrorism

John Vincent

2008-05-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/48406

Commentator Armelle Choplin did a real service in pointing out that while Mauritania was the locale of several acts of terrorism, there is no evidence that Mauritanians, including home grown Islamists, support terrorism. That is an important distinction in light of claims by others that Mauritania has become a country of terrorism. Similarly she did well to wonder if the combination of festering social unrest and well funded promotion of Islamic fundamentalist teachings by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf donors may yet produce genuine Islamist domestic terrorism.

There is a serious shortcoming, however, in the her summary of the country's socio-religious evolution since independence. Attributing the early decision to become an Islamic Republic as a move to unite the country's social communities under the banner of Islam was true in its use as a public justification but largely false as to its actual purpose.

First, the major political factions of the dominant white Moors were animated by purely local clan competitions and the then widespread, emphatically secular Arabization movements. Syrian-Iraqi Baathism (which made a point of including Arab Christians) and Egyptian Nassirism (enemy of the Muslim Brotherhood) were the most attractive to the ruling white Moors. Second, being an Islamic Republic was useful in fending off actual "intégristes" (religious fundamentalists) by gaining tight control over the mosques. Third, Mauritanians were already Muslims, so Islam as such required no promotion. Yet unlike Arabized black Moors (Haratins), black Mauritanians remain oriented by language and culture to sub-Saharan Africa and in religious practice to the unique Muslim brotherhoods of Senegal and Mali. So black Mauritanians understood the dominant white Moors were launching an Arabization, not Isalmization, campaign to marginalize their own status and end the use of French in public education, the bureaucracy and military. This struggle became a key feature of Mauritanian political life as the Arabization campaign moved ahead and periodic acts of civil war and suppression occurred, with black Mauritanians steadily losing ground until this came to major crisis with the ethnic cleansing of tens of thousands of black Mauritanians in 1989. Any lingering pretense of unity under the banner of Islam was discarded in favor of a naked political power play and land grab. So yes, religious practice in Mauritania has always been tolerant of diversity within Islam but not so its use as a political facade to mask other purposes by the dominant white Moor elite.

South African expansion

Anton Holberg

2008-05-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/48449

In the essay, Xenophobia and the South African working class, the authors write "...Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia – countries partially deindustrialised by Johannesburg capital's expansion up-continent." Can any further information be given on this crucial matter?

AFH remembers Gabisile Nkosi

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/obituary/48485

It’s with a great sense of loss that Art for Humanity (AFH) reports the tragic death of celebrated KZN artist, Gabisile Nkosi in the early hours of this morning, 27 May 2008. Gabisile was involved with AFH for almost 10 years with her participation in two of AFH’s print portfolio projects. In 2000, Gabisile contributed a linocut, "Break the Silence" which discouraged the practice of polygamy in rural areas to AFH’s “Break the Silence” HIV/Aids awareness print portfolio. In her artist statement, Gabisile emphasized the important role art plays in advocating social issues, “If you want to get a message across, it’s better to do a colourful visual rather than text. As an artist, I feel privileged to play a role in HIV/Aids awareness through the medium of visual art.” AFH treasures the opportunity of having worked with Gabisile. She made such a powerful impact with her capacity as an artist and as an educator in numerous communities. Her passion, kindness and commitment to helping others through art inspired and touched many lives. We will miss you Gabi.

Harris Memel-Fotê, 1930 – 2008

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/obituary/48490

The Council for the development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) regrets to announce, yet again, the death of one of its illustrious members. Harris Memel-Fotê passed away inAbidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, on 11 May 2008, having lost his battle against a prolonged illness that put him in a wheelchair for some time. He was 78 years old.
Harris Memel-Fotê, 1930 – 2008

The Council for the development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) regrets to announce, yet again, the death of one of its illustrious members. Harris Memel-Fotê passed away inAbidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, on 11 May 2008, having lost his battle against a prolonged illness that put him in a wheelchair for some time. He was 78 years old.

Born in Cote d’Ivoire, Memel-Fotê was a panafricanist who paid a high personal price for his commitment to the independence of all Africans. Active in the FEANF (Federation of Students from Francophone Black Africa) movement, he gave up his scholarship from the then French colonial rulers to join Sekou Toure in newly independent Guinea in 1958. He served at successive times as high school teacher in Conakry and Abidjan, and a university professor at the University of Abidjanand the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS, Paris, France).

Renowned sociologist, a member of the Universal Academy of Culture, Harris Memel-Fotê had a rich academic career in France and in Cote d’Ivoire. He was the co-founder of the Institut d’ethno-sociologie in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, and its deputy-director from 1973 to 1976. Harris Memel-Fotê was of the pioneer generation that founded CODESRIA as a contribution to the panafrican ideal. He was a member of the CODESRIA Executive Committee from 1979 to 1981 and President of the Council’s Scientific Committee from 1992 to 1995. He was very widely published. Harris Memel-Fotê is survived by his wife and six children.

Members of CODESRIA interested in sending messages of support and solidarity to Memel-Fotê’s family are invited to do so by e-mail to: executive.secretary@codesria.sn and the Council will arrange to have their messages delivered.

Adebayo Olukoshi

Lindiwe Mazibuko, the first applicant in the landmark Phiri Water Case

2008-05-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/obituary/48405

Last week, 40 year-old Lindiwe Mazibuko, passed away at her home in Phiri after a lengthy illness related to cancer. Lindiwe was the first applicant in the landmark Phiri water rights case. Judgement was recently handed down in this case, in the High Court, in which the pre-paid water meters that Lindiwe had fought so valiantly against, were declared illegal and unconstitutional
COALITION AGAINST WATER PRIVATISATION (CAWP)

STATEMENT 23RD MAY 2008

LINDIWE MAZIBUKO HAS PASSED ON

Lindiwe Mazibuko, the first applicant in the landmark Phiri Water Case, passed away at her home in Phiri

Last week, 40 year-old Lindiwe Mazibuko, passed away at her home in Phiri after a lengthy illness related to cancer. Lindiwe was the first applicant in the landmark Phiri water rights case. Judgement was recently handed down in this case, in the High Court, in which the pre-paid water meters that Lindiwe had fought so valiantly against, were declared illegal and unconstitutional. When the judgement was handed down, Lindiwe, despite her own failing health, was ecstatic. She had fought long and hard with other residents of Phiri to realise the human and constitutional rights to water that had been denied her and her family, simply because they were poor and it is only fitting that Lindiwe was able to witness the victory before she passed on. Lindiwe is survived by her two young daughters, Khosi and Zodwa, as well her large extended family whom she lived with in Phiri.

Lindiwe will be sorely missed by those who knew her and celebrated by the many more who were witness to her brave struggles for the dignity of her and her family as well as all other Phiri residents and poor communities in South Africa. The Coalition mourns her passing and we salute Lindiwe for her unflagging spirit and fight for justice and equality.


HAMBA KAHLE LINDIWE

YOUR STRUGGLE WILL CONTINUE!

Mapambazuko

Anonymous

2008-05-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/48402

Usiku wa dhuluma (The night of oppression)
Usiku wenye giza (The night of darkness)
Usiku mrefu mno (The long long night)
Usiku bila mwisho (The night without end)
Usiku huo (Even such a night)
Mwishowe utaisha (Will finally end)
Jogoo litawika (The cock will crow)
Jua litatoka (The sun will rise)
Mshale wa nuru (The arrow of light)
Utachoma utusitusi (Will pierce the darkness)
Kutakucha (The dawn will break)
Mapambazuko ya siku mpya (The dawn of a new day)
Matumaini ya maisha mpya (The hope of a new life)
Mapinduzi kuleta jamii mpya (The revolution to herald a new society)
Yataondoa usiku wa dhuluma (To drive away the night of oppression)

Courtesy of Vita Books
With thanks to Shiraz Durrani for permission to reproduce the poem by an anonymous author from a collection of poems from Kenya in early 1980s.

Review of Blogs on African Literature

Dibussi Tande

2008-05-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/48407

This week’s blog review will focus on those blogs that deal exclusively or primarily with African literature.

Book SA – News
http://news.book.co.za/blog/

Book SA – News is the official blog of Book Southern Africa which host dozens of blogs by Southern African writers:

“BOOK Southern Africa is a literary news and social network for publishers, authors and the general book-buying and -reading public. BOOK SA reports on local fiction, non-fiction, poetry, biography, book happenings, reviews and more.

BOOK SA is also a free author and publisher website service for those involved in the world of Southern African literature. Our sites' special features help drive information about books throughout the web, attracting new audiences and creating more space for literary endeavours. Our goal is to help build the Southern African literary marketplace to new heights.”

Literary Tourism Blog
http://blog.literarytourism.co.za/

Literary Tourism Blog is another South African blog which is part of the KZN Literary Tourism website maintained by Lindy Stiebel, Professor in English Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Literary tourism is defined here as a literary genre which “deals with places and events from fictional texts as well as the lives of their authors. This could include following the route a fictional character charts in a novel, visiting particular settings from a story or tracking down the haunts of a novelist. Literary tourists are specifically interested in how places have influenced writing and at the same time how writing has created place.”

Anglocamlit
http://anglocamlit.blogspot.com/

Anglocamlit, is a blog on Cameroon Literature in English which showcases works of fiction from Anglophone Cameroon and seeks to eradicate the widely-held view that there is a paucity of literary talent in the English speaking part of Cameroon:

“Is Cameroon Anglophone Literature non-existent? Or is there a thriving literary community in the former British Southern Cameroons which is simply not known on the national and international scene?

This blog will try to answer this question by profiling novelists, poets and playwrights from that former British trust territory, most of whose works are not available out of Cameroon, and have only limited distribution within Cameroon.

The blog will also focus on the emerging third generation Anglophone writers in the Diaspora who are part of what is increasingly being referred to as the Anglophone Cameroon Literary Renaissance.”

Discovery of Gambian Literature & Writing
http://www.gambianliterature.blogspot.com/

Discovery of Gambian Literature & Writing also seeks to introduce the world to the little-known Gambian literature:

“The following information on Gambian Writers (of literary texts) is meant to be shared with those interested in Gambian authors and their works. It is a humble contribution and far from exhaustive. Many thanks to Dr Jean-Dominique Penel, the coordinator and director of the research and to whom this is dedicated, Dr Momodou Tangara and Dr Pierre Gomez (lecturers University of The Gambia), Mr Saihou Bah (Principal Sheick Mass Kah), Ms Isatou Niang and Ms Aissa Dabo (Journalist)”.

Kenyan Poet
http://www.kenyanpoet.blogspot.com/

Kenyan Poet is ”A Kenyan Artistic Space that showcases the best in Kenyan Arts, Music, Creative writing, Spoken Word Poetry, art and book reviews as well as emerging art trends.”

Wordsbody
http://wordsbody.blogspot.com/

Wordsbody is a literary blog maintained by Molara Wood, a Nigerian writer and arts journalist based in London. The blog focuses on the Nigerian, African and international literature.

Poefrika
http://poefrika.blogspot.com/

Described as a “weblog of creative, Africa-inspired writing”, it carries both original poems by its creators (Rethabile Masilo and Phomolo both from Lesotho) and poems published elsewhere.

African Poetry Review (USA)
http://african-poetry.blogspot.com/

African Poetry Review (USA) is a blog run by Mark Lilleleht in Madison, Wisconsin:

“Thoughts on reading, reviewing, critiquing, considering African poetry; playing with poetry from across the Continent; engaging poets working in Africa and abroad; and generally just getting thoughts and knee-jerk reactions into a format that might encourage dialogue. Hopefully fruitful dialogue...”

Scribbles from the Den
http://www.dibussi.com/2008/05/call-for-papers.html#more

Scribbles from the Den announces the call for papers for an “International Conference on New Perspectives in Cameroon Literature?” to take place in Yaounde from 15 to 17 April 2009:
“The general objective of the conference is to revisit Cameroon literature from the 90s onwards. Specifically, it seeks to:
• Foster an understanding of the paradoxes in Cameroon Literature;
• Define the scope of observed shifts, their characteristics and, subsequently, the scope of the “new literature”;
• Question the concept of “national literature” in the face of a production which essentially comes from abroad and in foreign languages;
• Map out the impact of the common national history on past and present literary productions from the two sides of the Mungo River;
• Examine the relation between English and French creative writings.”

* 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 www.pambazuka.org/

Anti-Immigrant Violence in South Africa

2008-05-30

http://www.fsrn.org/content/anti-immigrant-violence-south-africa/2298

More than 18,000 people have fled xenophobic violence around Cape Town since mobs began attacking foreigners and burning and looting their homes and businesses one week ago. Thousands more were chased out of their homes in the central Gauteng Province in the previous week. At least 42 have been killed in and around Gauteng's capital, Johannesburg. Terna Gyuse reports from a shelter in Cape Town.

AU marks Africa Liberation Day

Issue 138, 2008

2008-05-28

http://www.aumonitor.org

As Africa marked the golden jubilee of African Liberation Day on May 25th, the African Union (AU) commission marked the occasion under the theme of "Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation", which will also be the theme of the AU summit to be held in Egypt this June. Concurrently, the committee of twelve African heads of states met in Tanzania to discuss the implementation of a Union government. While only five of the twelve heads of states expected to attend the meeting took part, those absent being represented by senior officials, the mini-summit approved several accelerators including the free movement of people, the establishment of financial institutions, regional infrastructure and African multi-national firms. Following the committee of twelve meeting, President Kikwete of Tanzania, current Chair of the AU, expressed shock at the xenophobic violence in South Africa but underlined that these were not government policy but “acts of vandalism”. This violence, among other events in Africa this year, are occasion for pause during this year’s Africa Day celebrations, according to Faten Aggad, who states that: “Africa Day should not only be a day to celebrate our diversity in the form of diplomatic functions and academic workshops. It should also be a day when we assess our future as a continent. For starters we should reflect on ways to create development-oriented governance systems”. He further assesses the challenges and opportunities of the African Peer Review Mechanism as a starting point for responsive and accountable African governance systems. In this regard, the AU commission will hold an East African meeting on the African Charter on Democracy, Election and Governance in Rwanda from May 29-31 aimed at promoting and encouraging ratification of the Charter. “The popularisation of the Charter and the strategies to mobilise as many signatures as possible during the ratification process are some of the main objectives of organising regional meetings”.

As the African Union prepares for the summit in June, which will take place in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, Francis Ameyibor provides analysis of the expectations and challenges for this meeting. Noting that the summit will be an important indicator of the performance of the new leadership of the commission, he further elaborates that the summit will “confront the adoption and implementation of a more responsive and rights based social policy framework for Africa. Among them are the non-implementation of existing social continental policy standards contained in various AU Decisions and Declarations and the MDGs, poor national and inter-ministerial linkages and inadequate resources.” Further, on “the formation of the Union Government of Africa, it is expected that the Summit would come out with a definite position, and stop the foot-dragging tactics”.

In regard to aid and development, a recent report has revealed that “on current trends the European Union (EU) will have given 75 billion less in aid by 2010 than it promised” and that European governments inflate aid statistics with debt relief and refugee costs. Assessing regional integration in terms of trade and development, Dot Keet notes that “neo-liberalism really narrowed the conceptualisation of regional integration. The World Bank and the IMF were promoting the paradigm called ‘open regionalism’, for and towards ‘global integration’, and this was backed by the EU.” She further asks how Africa can forge external agreements, such as the Economic Partnership Agreements with the EU, when regional protocols on these issues are not in place or have been reinterpreted from their original intention. Also affecting African integration, the European Commission has unveiled plans for a Mediterranean Union, bringing together 44 countries, including Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. This Union is to have a co-presidency from the EU and a Mediterranean country lasting two years.

Lastly, the new commissioner for science and technology, Jean-Pierre Onvéhoun Ezin, plans to include education in the proposed African Science and Innovation Fund, in a move meant to avoid duplication of efforts, but which some fear will diminish resources for science.

Kenya: "But They Never Killed My Spirit"

2008-05-30

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42574

On Sep. 7 last year, as she walked to her home, parliamentary candidate Flora Igoki Terah was attacked and tortured by a gang of five men. Terah's case is one of several case studies highlighted in Amnesty International's 2008 report on the state of the world's human rights, released on May 28.

Kenya: Women absence in the House Committee is a bad image for Parliament

2008-05-30

http://www.awcfs.org/content/view/423/1/

The fact that no single woman MP was elected in the crucial House Committees in the 10th Parliament speaks volumes to an institution that is supposed to pass laws which are amenable to every Kenyan. This is not withstanding that the 10th Parliament will go down in history has having the highest number of women in Parliament and the highest number of Cabinet Ministers.

Mozambique: Zimbabwean women forced to sell sex for food

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/5klvf8

Mother of two Nyasha, desperate to put food on the table for her family back home in Zimbabwe, turned to prostitution in neighbouring Mozambique after being told that it was a surefire way of earning US dollars."The money is little, but if I save it properly I will be able to send groceries that will sustain my family for some days," the 23-year-old told AFP in the central Mozambican town of Chimoio.

North Africa: Sahara tribal women jailed for adultery

2008-05-30

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3615

Pregnant women and single mothers are languishing in a secret detention center in Tindouf, a southwestern province in Algeria, charges Brahim El Selem. "It is made out of mud bricks . . . You can't see the jail because it is a hole between two hills. "El Selem says the women's detention center--which he says he visited three or four times--confines almost 30 women, some with toddlers. The structure's zinc roof provides minimal protection from the Saharan desert heat, he adds.

Burundi: Release civilians detained without charge

2008-05-30

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/29/burund18974.htm

Burundian police and judicial officials should immediately release the scores of persons still detained solely as suspected members of a movement long opposed to the government, Human Rights Watch has said. They should also instruct security forces to cease such arrests. More than 300 alleged members of the Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People-National Liberation Forces (Parti pour la Libération du Peuple Hutu-Forces Nationales pour la Libération, Palipehutu-FNL), many of them civilians, have been arrested throughout Burundi since mid-April.

Gaza: Tutu calls for end to blockade of Gaza

2008-05-30

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/30/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast

Desmond Tutu, the South African Nobel laureate, called for an end to the "abominable" Israeli blockade of Gaza yesterday and condemned a "culture of impunity" on both sides of the conflict. Tutu was in Gaza on a three-day mission, sent by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate the deaths of 18 Palestinians from a single family, who were killed by a wave of Israeli artillery shells in Beit Hanoun in November 2006.

Global: Action demanded for Kenyan detained in Saudi Arabia

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/48488

The Muslim Human Rights Forum (MHRF) is demanding action by the government of Kenya on behalf of a Kenyan national detained without trial in Saudi Arabia since September 2007. The Kenyan Abdullahi Adan Sheikh Ali, 23, a fourth year student at Madina University was detained at Jeddah Airport by immigration officials who told him they wanted to question him about his visa. Efforts by his family in Kenya to establish his whereabouts only bore fruits in December last year when he called to say that he was being held in a jail in Riyadh.
PRESS RELEASE:

Nairobi, May 26, 2008
MUSLIM HUMAN RIGHTS FORUM DEMANDS GoK ACTION ON KENYAN DETAINED IN SAUDI ARABIA.

The Muslim Human Rights Forum (MHRF) is demanding action by the government of Kenya on behalf of a Kenyan national detained without trial in Saudi Arabia since September 2007.

The Kenyan Abdullahi Adan Sheikh Ali, 23, a fourth year student at Madina University was detained at Jeddah Airport by immigration officials who told him they wanted to question him about his visa. Efforts by his family in Kenya to establish his whereabouts only bore fruits in December last year when he called to say that he was being held in a jail in Riyadh.

After the MHRF wrote on October 11, last year to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nairobi regarding the missing man the ministry replied on October 17 2007 saying it was working closely with its embassy in Riyadh to establish the whereabouts of Mr. Ali. And In reply to another letter on January 17,this year the ministry confirmed that the Kenyan Embassy in Riyadh had been informed by the Saudi authorities that Mr. Ali was indeed being held by them "and under investigation."

In a letter to the Permanent Secretary Mr. Thuita Mwangi today, MHRF Chairman Al-Amin Kimathi said the forum was deeply perturbed by the Ministry's satisfaction with the explanation by the kingdom that Mr. Ali had been placed on "a stop list" as the forum had been informed by an official at the ministry, which meant his was "a highly confidential matter that the Saudi authorities could not reveal why and where they were holding him".

Said Mr. Kimathi: It is deeply perurbing to learn that the Kenya government is content to accept that kind of explanation about its own citizen and fail to press the issue any further. We pray that the government has not consented, as it appears to have done, to the subject's detention without trial considering the fact that Kenya is signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which, in article 9, prohibits arbitrary detention".

Kimathi said the Mr. Ali risked permanent disappearance and was exposed to possible torture and inhumane treatment."These and the detention-without-trial are gross violations of his human rights which the government must stand up against and be seen to protect its citizens as it is its constitutional obligation", he added.

The forum said Ali was entitled to consular visitation and the Kenya government through its Riyadh embassy ought to ensure that was granted. Kenya was also entiltled to an explanation about the charges and the circumstances under which the subject was being held, MHRF said adding that the government"cannot be content with such a vague explanation like the one said to have been provided by the Saudis"

MHRF urged the government of Kenya to invoke international law and diplomatic conventions while observing its constitutional obligations to its citizens to ensure due process and a just trial for Mr. Ali "if he is held for any offense or his release and repatriation to Kenya if otherwise".The forum also told the government to provide legal counsel to the detainee as had been done last year to a daughter of a former Kenyan MP when she faced the death penalty for alleged drug trafficking in Malaysia.

Ali who hails from Nairobi's Eastleigh area is married to a Kenyan, Hafsa Sheikh Ali with whom he has two children. His huge family resides in Nairobi.



Contact MHRF
Telephone +254 20-4454445 Nairobi Cell +254 721 324 186

Global: Sixty years of human rights failure – governments must apologize and act now

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/4xnuya

Amnesty International has challenged world leaders to apologize for six decades of human rights failure and re-commit themselves to deliver concrete improvements. “The human rights flashpoints in Darfur, Zimbabwe, Gaza, Iraq and Myanmar demand immediate action,” said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, launching AI Report 2008: State of the World’s Human Rights.

Global: UN to debate sexual violence resolution

2008-05-30

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN048449.html

The U.N. Security Council is to debate a new resolution next month that aims to enshrine sexual violence as a security issue for the first time, senior diplomats said. Backers of the resolution, to be discussed in a session chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on June 19, argue it is needed because sexual violence in conflict zones -- a war crime -- has not often been made a priority.

DRC: Break the Routine on Humanitarian Assistance

2008-05-28

http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/10631/

The international community must move beyond providing immediate basic services and develop a strategy to deal comprehensively with the dynamics of the current displacement crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Despite a precarious security situation, internally displaced people in North Kivu and the communities that host three-quarters of the total displaced population are trying to move forward with their lives, and they are doing so with or without the support of the international community.

Liberia: Relaunched repatriation operation gains momentum

2008-05-30

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/483c1bd44.html

The UN refugee agency has helped almost 900 Liberians return home from other West African countries since resuming a voluntary repatriation programme in mid-April. UNHCR, with aircraft space provided by the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), has flown home 646 returnees from Ghana, 196 from Guinea and 41 from Nigeria since April 13.

North-West Africa: Hundreds of Touareg refugees flee escalating violence

2008-05-30

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78479

Several hundred Malians fleeing fighting between the army and Touareg rebels in northern Mali have crossed the border into Burkina Faso since April, according to the Burkina Faso national commission for refugees (CONAREF). Over 300 refugees, most of them women and children, have been registered in Ouagadougou where they are sheltering in locker rooms in the football stadium, while a further 600 are setting up makeshift shelters in Djibo, 53 km from the Mali border and 205 km north of the capital.

South Africa: Cabinet rules out refugee camps, favours temporary shelters

2008-05-30

http://www.buanews.gov.za/view.php?ID=08053010451007

Government spokesperson Themba Maseko on Thursday ruled out the possibility of large-scale refugee camps for the victims of the recent attacks, saying that government was in favour of smaller, temporary shelters. Mr Maseko, briefing reporters on the outcome of the latest Cabinet meeting, said government preferred to create smaller, temporary shelters that would be more manageable.

South Africa: Temporary refugee camp attacked by police

Statement taken by Alvin Anthony from four refugees

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/48467

At approximately 18.00 hrs on the 28th May 2008, the South African Police Services came into the camp with white tents and commanded the refugees to move to the Disaster management camp set up by the South African Government. The Refugees have made it clear on a number of occasions that they do not want to move to the South African Government camp but have requested that they be attended to by the UNHCR and moved to a safer country.
THE ROSSLYN TEMPORARY REFUGEE CAMP (outside Pretoria) ATTACKED BY SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICES.
28TH MAY 2008 – 20.30HRS.

Statement taken by Alvin Anthony from four refugees who do not wish to disclose their identity.

At approximately 18.00 hrs on the 28th May 2008, the South African Police Services came into the camp with white tents and commanded the refugees to move to the Disaster management camp set up by the South African Government.
The Refugees have made it clear on a number of occasions that they do not want to move to the South African Government camp but have requested that they be attended to by the UNHCR and moved to a safer country. Representatives of the refugees at the camp met with the UN representatives today to put forward their request. The UN promised to come back to them tomorrow with feedback after the UN meets with Home Affairs officials.

The refugees refused to move to the South African Government camp. The police then forced the refugees to move into the Disaster management camp. In the mayhem that followed the police fired rubber bullets and a number of people including two babies were injured with shot wounds. All this happened inside the camp. In their aggression the following types of verbal abuse was directed by the police towards the refugees.

“Funkin kwere kwere go back to your country this is our country” This was said by both white and black police.
“Your Women are bitches, this is our country.”
The abuse, shooting and beating continued and many fled to the bush. Others were forced into the disaster management camp which is alongside the camp with the white tents. They are now locked in what is effectively a prison.

An officer with the name Sambo was extremely aggressive with many xenophobic comments.

The police were commanded by a white police officer who gave the order to shoot.

I arrived at the camp at approximately 19.15hrs and was stopped by a group of four or five officers. A white officer asked me to turn back and leave the camp very aggressively and rudely, I refused saying that I have an arrangement to fetch people and I am going to do so. He eventually allowed me to park and fetch the people I had intended to fetch. I then approached him and asked him for his police identity details. He refused to provide me with them. I told him that this was not acceptable and by law he is obligated to identify himself to me if I make such a request,

The four refugees are well known to me.

They feel extremely angry that having borne the trauma the recent of xenophobic attacks with injury, trauma loss of life and property and having to flee to a camp, they have not been subjected to a vicious violent attack by the South African Police Services.

They call for immediate action to be taken against these police and that their call for transfer to a country that provides them with safety be addressed.

Alvin Anthony – 082 923 3303

South Africa: Western Cape responds to xenophobic attacks

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/43pnsh

As of Tuesday 27 May 2008, there are 20 000 displaced foreign nationals being sheltered in 65 sites across the Western Cape province. The number of those seeking shelter differ greatly from site to site as does the nature of the housing. Communities have opened their halls, mosques and churches to provide shelter and amenities to survivors of xenophobic attacks and those fleeing in fear of being attacked.

Sudan: Aid groups rush to help displaced from Abyei

2008-05-30

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN046988.html

International aid groups are rushing to provide assistance to tens of thousands of Sudanese civilians displaced by fighting in the disputed oil-rich Abyei area before seasonal rains hamper aid flows, aid groups said. Civilians fled the central town of Abyei during over a week of clashes between northern and southern troops earlier in May, prompting fears of further conflict just at the onset of the rainy season.

South Africa we are listening, Africa we are sorry - ANCYL

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/socialmovements/48536

The ANC Youth League, AZAYO, IFPYB, DA Youth, other Faith-Based Youth Organisations, Personalities and the Business Sector today launched a Youth Front Against Xenophobia through a campaign dubbed "South Africa We are listening, Africa we are sorry".
ANCYL Statement, 30 May 2008


South Africa we are listening, Africa we are sorry!


The ANC Youth League, AZAYO, IFPYB, DA Youth, other Faith-Based Youth
Organisations, Personalities and the Business Sector today launched a
Youth Front Against Xenophobia through a campaign dubbed "South Africa
We are listening, Africa we are sorry".

The recent attacks on non-South African Nationals are a worrying development in the light of South Africa preparing for its 15yrs of Democratic Rule. The history of South Africa speaks volumes to the notion of one people irrespective of nationality, ethnicity or religious affiliation. That is why the recent attacks cannot be tolerated or left uncontrolled.

The Youth in its endeavor to bring about change to this situation has brought together a Front of youth practioners in the following areas:

• Politics
• Entertainment
• Business
• Sports

The front will seek to engage in the following activities as part of its contribution to ending the spade of violence in our communities:

DIALOGUE

The focus in this area will be to open up dialogue between residences of the affected communities. The dialogue will seek to involve young personalities who will share their experiences of traveling abroad and how it has impacted on their personalities.

The dialogue will seek to bring to the fore the real issues that are affecting residence in the areas affected by the violence. This is aimed at doing away with the notion that the concern is only for the non-South African Nationalities, but rather to address the concern of the communities as a whole.

The dialogue will seek to promote integration with in these communities with out creating the elusive wall of division.

PETITION

The petition will focus on public education of the South African Laws pertaining to immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. This will be achieved by petitioning the Speaker of Parliament to dedicate a special week of debate in parliament on the above-mentioned process.

The petition will be distributed by the front of progressive youth in the affected communities. Thereafter, the Front will select a delegation to parliament to deliver the petition.

BENEFIT TO THE AFFECTED COMMUNITIES

The benefit will be focusing on edutainment on the effects of Xenophobia. It will also assist the affected communities to deal with the loss of soft goods as part of the violence.

The benefit will be a tool for continued engagement in the South African Communities.

CONCLUSION

The focus of this campaign is to encourage open dialogue amongst young people in South Africa irrespective of their country of origin. The future generations will charge us on how we have been able to resolve the conflict imposed on is by our colonial past.

Last but not least "It's not yet Uhuru", take a moment to think about your national anthem "Nkosi Sikeleli Africa".

Issued by: The Youth Front Against Xenophobia

For more information contact the ANCYL's Media office: Thandiwe Mokaba
- tmokaba@anc.org.za or 079 156 6091

South Africa: Health and human rights groups condemn Cape Town mayor

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/socialmovements/48483

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), AIDS Law Project (ALP) and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) jointly condemn Helen Zille, the Mayor of Cape Town, for her continued insistence on setting up internment camps in remote locations throughout the Cape Town Metro area to deal with the thousands of people displaced by xenophobic violence and harassment over the past two weeks.
Press Release

Contact:
Zackie Achmat, TAC: +27-83-467-1152 (evenings)
Gregg Gonsalves, ARASA, +27-78-456-3848 (days)

Health and Human Rights Groups Condemn Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille for
Promotion of Internment Camps in Current Xenophobic Crisis

(Cape Town, South Africa, 27 May 2008)—the Treatment Action Campaign
(TAC), AIDS Law Project (ALP) and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) jointly condemn Helen Zille, the Mayor of Cape Town, for her continued insistence on setting up internment camps in remote locations throughout the Cape Town Metro area to deal with thethousands of people displaced by xenophobic violence and harassment over the past two weeks.

Based on sound principles of public health and human rights as well as accepted procedures for the management of displaced persons, we are calling for all individuals to be sheltered as close to where theyoriginally resided, so that they can be near their regular health facilities, schools and places of employment. Furthermore, we believe that seeking local solutions for displaced persons can foster voluntary reintegration into communities, which exile to internment camps far from their original homes will simply make more difficult.

Additionally, filling up camps with thousands of people in close proximity is a severe infectious disease risk for diarrhoea, tuberculosis, and other serious infection. Finally, setting up a parallel system of public services in the internment camps, including health and sanitation, is inefficient and will create further stress on normal provision of these services around the city and the province.

We call on Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille and Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool to work together to ensure that displaced persons find shelter as close to their original homes as possible, by opening all public facilities under the jurisdiction of the city and the provinceto temporarily house these individuals as the first step towards community reintegration. The groups are also calling for additional resources to be made available to promote reintegration of displaced persons and their access to essential services as well as to protect their health, safety and well-being. If these demands are not met TAC, ALP and ARASA will consider legal action to ensure that the internment camps are shut down and their inhabitants reintegrated into their local communities of origin in a timeous manner.

South Africa: Mining and dam activists arrested

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/socialmovements/48484

Community members dispersing to their vehicles after a peaceful picket OUTSIDE Anglo Platinum's PPL Mine Property on 27 May were DRAGGED from their vehicles onto the PPL Property by the SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICES. 11 out of the 15 picketers have been arrested and are currently being charged at Mahwelereng Police Station in Mokopane(formerly Potgietersrus), Limpopo.
JUBILEE SOUTH AFRICA
URGENT MEDIA ALERT
27 MAY 2008, 13:15

11 ACTIVISTS WERE DRAGGED TO POLICE VEHICLES INSIDE PPL MINE WHILE
DISPERSING AFTER PEACEFUL PICKET

Community members dispersing to their vehicles after a peaceful picket
OUTSIDE Anglo Platinum's PPL Mine Property today (27 May) were DRAGGED from their vehicles onto the PPL Property by the SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE
Services. 11 out of the 15 picketers have been arrested and are currently being charged at Mahwelereng Police Station in Mokopane (formerly Potgietersrus), Limpopo. Those arrested not only come from Limpopo, but they also come from North West, Gauteng, and Mpumalanga and were on their way home later today after the peaceful picket. Attempts to get further information from Mahwelereng Police Station have not been successful.

These community members – from four provinces - had been attending a meeting since Sunday where they were discussing how dams, mines, and contaminated water supplies are affecting their communities. Environmental Monitoring Group and the South African Water Caucus in conjunction with Jubilee South Africa facilitate the workshop. Four pickets took place, where communities from other provinces showed support for their brothers and sisters in Limpopo. For that peaceful, lawful support they were hit by violations of their constitutional right to assemble and picket.

The picketers had been standing outside the mine gates and were dispersing back to their vehicles as SAPS arrived. SAPS drove directly into the mine gates, parked their vehicles, and chased the dispersing picketers, dragging some of them out of their vehicles. Observers report that 11 people were dragged from OUTSIDE the gates, back inside the mine gates and arrested for trespassing onto mine property. One person arrested was had not even exited his vehicle during the entire picket.

Jubilee South Africa DEMANDS THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE AND DROPPING OF ALL CHARGES as the SAPS have CLEARLY VIOLATED THESE ACTIVISTS' RIGHT TO PEACEFULLY PROTEST.

COMMUNITY MEMBERS ARE BEING HELD AT MAHWELERENG POLICE STATION in MOKOPANE. Members of the public and civil society are asked to call the Mahwelareng Police Station at 015 483 5000 to complain about this violation of rights and demand their immediate release.

For more information please contact: George Dor, Jubilee SA General Secretary (currently at Mahwelareng Police Station) 076 460 9620, Brand Nthako 082 628 1362, December Ndlovu 082 700 7137.

NA GA KE A RONA! THE LAND IS OURS!

South Africa: Refugees to macrh on Monday 2 June 2008

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/socialmovements/48480

All groups representing the displaced refugees will be marching to parliament on Monday 2 June from 10am (keizergracht str - next to CPUT (old Cape Technikon). Memorandum will be handed over at 1115am and march will end by 1230pm. They have asked the Action Forum against high prices to assist with the march. We appeal to all to spread the message and to mobilise as many as possible to come and show solidarity with them.
All groups representing the displaced refugees will be marching to parliament on Monday 2 June from 10am (keizergracht str - next to CPUT (old Cape Technikon).

Memorandum will be handed over at 1115am and march will end by 1230pm. They have asked the Action Forum against high prices to assist with the march. We appeal to all to spread the message and to mobilise as many as possible to come and show solidarity with them. Whoever can help with posters, leaflets, transport, or in any way, please contact us.

The group representing the newly formed Western Cape Somali Association, representing over 10 000, have asked to volunteers for their Bellville co-ordinating office. Offers of assistance may be directed to Hoosein Omar ph 0835087440. (or you could call Mo ph 0822020617).

Mo
for the Action Forum against High prices, low wages and unemployment

Kenya: We have learned our lessons

2008-05-30

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=340409

Kenya President Mwai Kibaki said on Wednesday that his country has learned its lesson from post-election violence and promised to focus on improving the economy. Kenya, long considered one of Africa's most stable countries, suffered weeks of political violence that claimed at least 1 500 lives after the disputed December general elections.

Zimbabwe: EISA statement of support for national & international election observation

2008-05-28

http://www.eisa.org.za/EISA/pr20080523.htm

The government of Zimbabwe has a democratic commitment to ensure the freedom of movement and association of domestic and international election observers during the upcoming second round of the country's presidential election. It is also obligated to ensure the overall transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process through commitments outlined in the Southern Africa Development Community Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections (2004) and the African Union Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa (2002).

Zimbabwe: Opposition head sees role for ruling party

2008-05-30

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL30256769.html

Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party should be reformed, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Friday in a speech that may open the door to a national unity government. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won the March 29 parliamentary election with a slim majority, handing ZANU-PF its worst defeat since President Robert Mugabe led it to power after independence from Britain in 1980.

Nigeria: Anti-graft agency must set the standard for transparency and accountability

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/6o4q44

Respect for due process is a critical element to safeguard the independence and accountability of institutions. The ongoing discussions in the Nigerian Senate on the appointment of Farida Waziri as new head of the country’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, are needed to ensure the EFCC’s ability to fulfil its anti-corruption mandate, said Transparency International (TI), the global anti-corruption organization.

Swaziland: Cabinet minister faces probe over fortune

2008-05-30

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=340527

A Cabinet minister is one of 30 Swaziland businessmen who are to be investigated by the country's main anti-corruption unit over how they amassed their fortunes, the government said on Thursday. "We have handed over 30 names to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and it is up to the commission to conclude its investigations," said government press secretary Percy Simelane.

Africa: Food, water security threaten growth - report

2008-05-30

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN047829.html

Deficient food supplies, inadequate fresh water and geopolitical risks are among the major threats to sustainable economic growth in Africa, a report released on Friday showed. Anger over high food prices has sparked protests in several African countries including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mozambique and Senegal.

Africa: Japan underscores need to invest in Africa

2008-05-30

http://www.afrol.com/articles/29123

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has stressed need to increase international investment in Africa with the primary aim of ensuring peace and security in the impoverished continent. He also promised to increase Japan's cooperation with Africa. Fukuda said this when officially opening a three-day high level Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama where African and Japanese leaders are conferring on how to reach internationally agreed anti-poverty target goals - the so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - by 2015.

Global: IMF 'can't bail out crisis countries'

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/54ruv3

The International Monetary Fund no longer has the financial clout to fulfil its traditional role of lending out money to save crisis-stricken countries, a new Bank of England report has warned. The Bank said in a working paper that the IMF's lending framework "may no longer be appropriate". It coincided with a critical report from the Fund's own Internal Evaluation Office (IEO).

Global: Citizen participation in budgeting: Prospects for developing countries

2008-05-30

http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=2996

Why is budget participation important? How can meaningful citizen participation in budgeting be fostered? This chapter of a World Bank book examines participation theory and case studies from Brazil, India, South Africa, Uganda and the United States. Citizen participation can make local service delivery more effective. Government attitudes and the role of civil society are both key in improving budget participation.

Global: World Bank sets up $1.2 billion facility for food aid

2008-05-30

http://www.bicusa.org/en/Article.3784.aspx

The World Bank has announced that it has set up a financing facility in the order of $1.2 billion to assist with the global food crisis. A week before the United Nations summit on the global food crisis, to be held in Rome, the World Bank has announced that it has set up a "rapid financing facility" to address the immediate needs of the global food crisis.

Africa: Health-e wins global award

2008-05-30

http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20031973

Health-e has won the community media category of the Excellence in Media Award for Global Health, sharing the stage with the Wall Street Journal which scooped the print section. The Washington-based Global Health Council has recognised South Africa’s specialist news service, health-e, in its annual awards for excellence in media.

Africa: Public-private partnerships fail to involve African researchers

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/4h2v68

Public-private partnership organisations (PPPOs) — which focus on African neglected diseases — have failed to change the imperialist research paradigm or involve African researchers on an equal basis, say T. J. Tucker and M. W. Makgoba in Science.

Angola: Should intentional HIV/AIDS infection be a crime?

2008-05-30

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78484

Proposed reforms to Angola's Penal Code have divided opinion in the country about whether HIV-positive people who intentionally infect others with the virus should be punished. The law under discussion calls for a sentence of between three and 10 years in prison for those who knowingly pass on infectious diseases, including HIV.

Egypt: Court upholds HIV sentences, reinforces intolerance

2008-05-30

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/29/egypt18959.htm

A Cairo appeals court’s decision to uphold the sentences imposed on five men jailed in a crackdown on people living with HIV/AIDS underscores the Egyptian government’s dangerous indifference to public health and justice, Human Rights Watch has said. The May 28 ruling upheld the maximum three-year prison terms for each of the five, following a months-long campaign targeting men with HIV/AIDS. A total of nine men have been sentenced to prison so far.

Global: UNICEF reports five million child deaths every year

2008-05-30

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=42593

More than 10 million children around the world die before their fifth birthday every year, according to a new report by UNICEF, the United Nations Children Fund. The report, "The State of Africa's Children 2008," was launched on May 28 at the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Japan. It looks at the successes and failures of governments regarding the health and survival of the children of Africa and is complementary to a broader UNICEF report on the health of the world's children.

Kenya: Boy's suicide reveals gaps in HIV education

2008-05-30

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78456

The recent suicide of a secondary school student in Kenya's North Eastern Province after he was diagnosed as HIV positive has highlighted the shortage of qualified counsellors in the region, and the urgent need to address the misinformation and stigma attached to the virus.

Southern Africa: Oral HIV tests yield accurate results

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/59mywv

Two oral HIV tests have been shown to be highly accurate in a study conducted in Namibia and reported in the May 1st edition of theJournal of Acquired Immunde Deficiency Syndromes. The studies were conducted amongst patients infected with HIV subtype C and the OraQuick test was shown to be 100% accurate with the OrSure test being 98.9% accurate. The investigators believe that oral HIV testing could be used to help diagnose HIV in resource-limited settings, and assist in the gathering of surveillance information.

DRC: CODESRIA: Safeguarding academic freedom in the University of Kinshasa

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/education/48489

The African social science research community has been paying close attention to the evolution of the situation at the National University of Kinshasa. It is now four months since academic activities have been paralyzed as a result of a lecturer’s strike for decent wages. For a couple of days now, students have become prey to the police because they decided to conduct a march to pressure the government to respond positively to the lecturers’ demands.
CODESRIA
Safeguarding Academic Freedom in the University of Kinshasa!

The African social science research community has been paying close attention to the evolution of the situation at the National University of Kinshasa. It is now four months since academic activities have been paralyzed as a result of a lecturer’s strike for decent wages. For a couple of days now, students have become prey to the police because they decided to conduct a march to pressure the government to respond positively to the lecturers’ demands. According to reports that we have received, this situation is worsening by the day, making it impossible to carry on with normal pedagogic activities in this institution of higher learning and research. Worse still, the declining teaching conditions imperil the knowledge production process which is indispensable for development. Meanwhile, the blind intervention by the police endangers the lecturers and students who form the cornerstone of the future of the DRC and of the entire continent.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa is an organization which promotes academic freedom in African universities. It fights so that African scholars and researchers can enjoy best possible working conditions which allow them to function without any external constraints. As it was recalled at the Kinshasa Conference on Academic Freedom in the DRC, jointly organized by CODESRA and the University of Kinshasa in 2004, these exigencies not only include decent conditions for work on the campus, but also the free expression of their thoughts and freedom to undertake research on issues of their choice. Given that the DRC scholarly and research community is one of the most active within CODESRIA, the Council cannot remain indifferent to the degradation of the working conditions to which our Congolese colleagues are subjected. Such silence would run contrary to the principles of academic freedom and solidarity for which our organization has been fighting since its creation in 1973. No university can develop without the guarantee of academic freedom therein, just as much as no democracy can survive devoid of scrupulous respect for freedom of expression. These freedoms constitute the basis upon which scholars and researchers can assume their social responsibility.

CODESRIA and the entire community of African social science researchers exhort the relevant authorities in the DRC to take urgent measures so that academic freedoms may be respected and guaranteed for our colleagues at the University of Kinshasa, and notably for the demands of our Congolese colleagues for better working and living conditions, as well as a raise in their salaries, be met. The Council assures our colleagues of its support in their fight for a properly functioning university, deeply involved in the development of the DRC and of the African continent. The Council also takes this opportunity to call the attention of the authorities to the fact that they would be held accountable for all unfortunate incidents which may result from this crisis.

Colleagues from across Africa wishing to send messages of support to the lecturers and students of the University of Kinshasa are invited to do so by sending an e-mail to the following address:
academic.freedom@codesria.sn .

Gambia: Gay death threat condemned

2008-05-30

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=gambia&id=1871

Gay rights activists have condemned Gambian President Yahya Jammeh`s threat to behead homosexuals. Last week he told a political rally that gay people had 24 hours to leave the country. He promised "stricter laws than Iran" on homosexuality and said he would "cut off the head" of any gay person found in The Gambia.

Nigeria: Fear still lurks among gays

2008-05-30

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=nigeria&id=1872

Reverend Jide Macaulay of House of Rainbow, who is gay, fears for his life following death threats he received after Nigeria’s PM News published his picture alongside an article titled ‘Homosexual Act Not Against Bible’. Written by Samuel Ateba, the story which appeared on PM News’s front page on 12 May followed an exclusive interview that Macaulay had with Mo Abudu’s on A Moment with Mo talk show discussing homosexuality.

South Africa: It's about time our bubble burst

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/3r528n

The Free State students who made the racist video are perhaps breathing a sigh of relief that they’re no longer the centre of the world’s attention. It was too much for them too soon. The world was shocked then too. At least they too know, no matter how revolting their little show, malicious prejudice conflicts with the idea of democracy and they are not alone in harbouring ghastly prejudices. They have something in common with all of us. Even a quiet prejudice seeds it’s acting out in others – its unwitting.

Africa: Efforts to tackle climate change receive $92 million boost

2008-05-30

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=26854

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Japan has announced a new $92 million initiative to help Africa adapt to global warming. “Climate change is one of the most critical issues that governments and citizens around the world need to address,” said Olav Kjorven, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of Bureau for Development Policy.

Southern Africa: The groundWork Corpse Awards for Worst Corporate Practice on environmental and human rights

Invitation for nominations

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/environment/48486

Corporations are getting away with murder – and like many serial killers they have learned to put on a charming, friendly face. But those who have to live in their backyards know that no matter how much greenwash these corporations might apply, they are still perpetrators of ongoing environmental injustices.
Invitation for nominations for: The groundWork Corpse Awards for Worst Corporate Practice on environmental and human rights

Corporations are getting away with murder – and like many serial killers they have learned to put on a charming, friendly face. But those who have to live in their backyards know that no matter how much greenwash these corporations might apply, they are still perpetrators of ongoing environmental injustices.

Millions of people in Southern Africa suffer from environmental injustice. They face hazards at work and pollution at home. Their land, water, seeds, medicinal plants and other environmental resources, often their dignity and sometimes their lives, are stolen from them – or the people themselves are removed from their land to crowded settlements where water is expensive and sanitation is not provided. This is almost always, directly or indirectly, a result of corporate greed.

The idea of environmental injustice helps us to understand that unequal power relations in society result in the abuse of people and their environments. Many different communities experience this abuse in many different ways.

To highlight these ongoing abuses, groundWork gives Corpse Awards to those Southern African companies globally, and to those international companies in Southern Africa who evidence the worst corporate practice on environmental and human rights. groundWork invites people’s organisations to nominate any business that is currently impacting on their rights. At this point all we require is the name of the business or government (as the supporting actor) and a brief paragraph explaining who is nominating them and why. We need this by 23 June, 2008.

We recognise that corporates are given their ‘rights to abuse’ by governments, so we will welcome nominations for ‘supporting’ actors who facilitate the acts that rob of us our environmental and human rights.

Since 2002, groundWork has held these awards, first in conjunction with CorpWatch and Friends of the Earth International in (2002), and subsequently with the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu Natal. This year’s awards will be co-hosted with the Centre.

What happens next?

Once we have all the names, research will need to be done to put together a comprehensive nomination. How this will be done will be discussed with each group individually. Once the research has been done, the companies nominated will be shortlisted by a panel of judges, who will then visit some of the sites. In November a conference will be convened, culminating in an awards ceremony where people will have a chance to tell their stories to the audience and to the media. A DVD will be made which will include interviews with all the nominating organisations.

What should you do?

Let us have your initial nomination by 23 June, 2008. You can fax it to 033-342-5665, e-mail it to research@groundwork.org.za or post it to P O Box 2375, Pietermaritzburg, 3200.

Central Africa: Land and power: the Case of the Zaghawa

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/4cotfg

Land has often been described as a key motivation for the Arabs and non-Arabs who actively participated in the “Janjaweed” in Darfur and southeast Chad (see article “Darfur: a Conflict for Land” in Alex de Waal (ed.), War in Darfur and the Search for Peace.) One of the primary traits of the Darfur crisis (like the Dar Sila crisis in Chad) can be described as a split between those members of the population with territories (hawakir) due to traditional, mainly pre-colonial land rights and those who have none.

Sierra Leone: Unity Radio exonerated by media regulatory body

2008-05-30

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/94103/

On 21 May 2008, the Independent Media Commission (IMC), Sierra Leone's media regulatory body, cleared Unity Radio, a station operated by the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), of four allegations of misconduct. MFWA's correspondent reported that the decision was made after Unity Radio was forcibly shut down on 8 May on the orders of the Minister of Information and Communication, Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo.

Uganda: Cabinet to delete 'press freedom' from Constitution

2008-05-30

http://www.humanrightshouse.org/dllvis5.asp?id=6631

A Cabinet committee tasked to advise the government on taming critical media is considering a constitutional amendment that deletes the provision on freedom of the press. The sub-committee headed by Public Service Minister, Henry Muganwa Kajura,was formed after three separate Cabinet papers on the management of the media failed to find consensus in Cabinet

Uganda: NAFEO Call on President Yoweri Museveni to respect press freedom

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/48476

The Network of African Freedom of Expression Organisations (NAFEO) has observed the escalating attacks and harassments of press freedom, media and journalists in Uganda. The latest development occurred on April 26, 2008 with the raids by Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) on the offices of privately-owned newspaper "The Independent" and the home of its publisher, Andrew Mwenda.
NETWORK OF AFRICAN FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ORGANISATIONS (NAFEO)

Statement
May 29, 2008
Call on President Yoweri Museveni to respect press freedom

The Network of African Freedom of Expression Organisations (NAFEO) has observed the escalating attacks and harassments of press freedom, media and journalists in Uganda.

The latest development occurred on April 26, 2008 with the raids by Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) on the offices of privately-owned newspaper "The Independent" and the home of its publisher, Andrew Mwenda. After ransacking the two places, the CMI personnel seized various documents and press equipment including lap-top, desktop computers, video-cassettes, flash-disks and CD-ROMs. Apart from Andrew Mwenda, the military agents arrested two journalists of "The Independent" namely Odobo Bichachi and John Njoroge. The three were taken to the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID). They were released on bail a few hours later. The intelligence personnel was searching materials after the newspaper published testimonies of people who have been detained incommunicado and tortured for several years in Ugandan prisons.

NAFEO condemns this assault which is a blatant violation of press freedom. It also denounces the use of seditious and anti-terrorism legislations in order to silence free media by pushing them to a state of self censorship.

As a signatory to most of the relevant international conventions on human rights particularly the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Uganda should give effect to these instruments. We therefore call on the Government of President Yoweri Museveni to:



1. Drop all charges against "The Independent" and its journalists
2. End harassment of journalists and people expressing themselves
3. Return all seized items to the newspaper and its publisher
4. Repeal unlawful legislation that criminalise speech.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Issued by NAFEO, Accra, May 29, 2008

The Network of African Freedom of Expression Organisations (NAFEO) promotes and defends freedom of press and expression in the continent. It was established in October 2005 by several significant freedom of expression Organisations in Africa.

Zimbabwe: Independent newspapers truck torched

2008-05-30

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=18854

A truck carrying 60 000 copies of the most popular Zimbabwean newspaper has been burned out. The driver, Christmas Ramabulana, a South African, and a distribution assistant, Tapfumaneyi Kancheta, a Zimbabwean, were admitted to hospital after the attack. The newspaper, the Zimbabwean on Sunday, was printed in South Africa and the truck crossed the border at Beit Bridge on Saturday.

South Africa: MPs urged to consider wage subsidies for unemployed youth

2008-05-30

http://www.buanews.gov.za/view.php?ID=08053010451005

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has appealed to Members of Parliament to give due consideration to the matter of a wage subsidy for young people, who comprise the bulk of the country's unemployed. Delivering his Budget Vote on Thursday, the minister suggested that, in the light of recent sharp increases of food prices, the oil price hitting record highs, and high unemployment levels domestically, the time had perhaps come to give serious consideration to a proposal he described as "critical".

Burundi: Rebel leader returns home for peace deal

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/48511

The exiled leader of Burundi's last rebel group returned to the capital on Friday to begin implementing a stalled deal seen as the final obstacle to peace in the tiny central African country. Agathon Rwasa, leader of the Forces for National Liberation (FNL), arrived at Bujumbura airport with the South African mediator for talks between his ethnic Hutu group and Burundi's ethnically mixed but Hutu-led government.

Horn of Africa: Deadly blasts hit southern Ethiopia

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/5qpeku

At least three people have been killed after bombs exploded in two hotels in a town in southern Ethiopia. The blasts also injured five other people in Negele Borena, a small town 595km south of the capital, in the Oromo region, police and government officials said on Wednesday.

Nigeria: Group threatens attacks

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/63blde

The foremost Nigerian rebel group has threatened to carry out a series of attacks on oil installations and military checkpoints. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said in a statement on Wednesday that it would carry out car bombings to mark the one-year anniversary since Umaru Yar'Adua was inaugurated as president.

Sierra Leone: War crimes ruling bolsters victim protection

2008-05-30

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/28/sierra18950.htm

The decision by Sierra Leone’s war crimes court to reject sentence reductions for two convicted militia members because they fought for a “legitimate cause” is crucial in ensuring justice for all victims of human rights violations, Human Rights Watch has said.

Somalia: AU troops under fire

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/4n44z3

Ugandan peacekeepers have come under attack in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, with at least 10 people killed in the ensuing gun fight, according to residents and officials. The fighting on Tuesday came a day after anti-government forces attacked an African Union (AU) base manned by Ugandan troops in the capital.

Africa: AU teams up with Microsoft to advance ICT

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/6zba7g

The African Union and Microsoft have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that seeks to catalyse the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the region. The major components of the MoU include ICT capacity building and enhancing technology access — particularly among the young and rural populations.

Africa: Net access for African universities would boost continent

2008-05-30

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/culture/20080529TDY12002.htm

At their next Group of Eight summit in Toyakocho, Hokkaido, in July, leaders of the world's major countries should commit themselves to helping Africa provide low-cost high-speed Internet access. African universities could be the continent's gateways into the global knowledge economy for local diffusion of new technologies. But this potential remains unrealized because universities and research institutes in Africa remain digitally isolated from the rest of the world. This is partly because of government neglect and lack of strategic policies on Internet access.

East Africa: Toll-free Rural phones coming

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/6lv2eq

A toll-free mobile service being launched in selected remote areas in Africa promises to save lives by connecting people with emergency medical cases to health personnel. Under the initiative launched in Nairobi on Wednesday, health workers will also be trained through mobile phone sessions on day to day skills like collecting and sharing basic household health information.

South Africa: No to Xenophobia: Task Team activates cell phone emergency help lines

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/internet/48470

In response to the violence against foreigners, the Western Cape Civil Society Emergency Task Team has activated an SMS emergency system for citizens to respond to the violence. The Task Team, a coalition of TAC and over 20 NGOs, has activated a “NO TO XENOPHOBIA” SMS lines across South Africa. Says Peter Benjamin of Cell-Life: “Almost everyone has a cell phone. South Africa, make your voice heard to counter the violence. Tell everyone that South Africa belongs to all who live in it.”
No to Xenophobia: Western Cape Emergency Civil Society Task Team
Activates Cell Phone Emergency Help Lines

In response to the violence against foreigners, the Western Cape Civil Society Emergency Task Team has activated an SMS emergency system for citizens to respond to the violence.

The Task Team, a coalition of TAC and over 20 NGOs, has activated a “NO TO XENOPHOBIA” SMS lines across South Africa.

Says Peter Benjamin of Cell-Life: “Almost everyone has a cell phone. South Africa, make your voice heard to counter the violence. Tell everyone that South Africa belongs to all who live in it.”

There are four services for concerned South Africans:

FOR INDIVIDUALS:

1. SAY NO TO XENOPHOBIA: To show opposition to the attacks, send an SMS with your name and your location to 38091 (Cost: 50c).

2. REPORT AN ATTACK, an SMS can be sent to 31864 with details. This is a continuously staffed line that will route emergency reports to the authorities. (Cost: Normal SMS rate)

3. DONATE: Send SMS to 38871 to donate R10 for food and blankets. Receiving organization is the Treatment Action Campaign for the Western Cape Emergency Task Team. (Thanks to Integrat).

FOR ORGANISATIONS: For organisations that want to contact their members or constituents, free bulk SMS services are offered. Please contact Cell-Lifeinfo@cell-life.org.za <mailto:info@cell-life.org.za>, 021 469 1111 or076 775 9590. (Thanks to Clickatell).

Thousand of South Africans have expressed their opposition to the violence in marches and have reached out to help in the last few days. The Task Team is committed to enabling all South Africans to use their cell phones to continue to do so in an easy and effective way. Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrica!

Global: Global Peacebuilders online peacebuilding directory

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/5cqeet

Shine an international spotlight on your work by registering. Global Peacebuilders is seeking individuals and groups involved in building the conditions for a sustainable peace to join its online peacebuilding directory.

Global: Science Journalism Award - Call for application

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/5gj6nv

SciDev.Net proudly announces its second joint IDRC–SciDev.Net Science Journalism Award and seeks applications from journalists in all developing countries. The award consists of a six-month internship giving the recipient invaluable journalistic experience and demonstrates SciDev.Net’s commitment to build capacity in science communication across the developing world.

Omotade Aina to lead Carnegie Corporation’s Africa Grantmaking Programs

2008-05-30

http://www.carnegie.org/sub/news/omotade_aina.html

Omotade “Tade” Akin Aina, a sociologist whose well-known work has highlighted the challenges in Africa of urban poverty, governance and development, will join Carnegie Corporation of New York as Program Director, Higher Education in Africa, it was announced today by Vartan Gregorian, president of the foundation. Tade is an experienced foundation executive, whose decade-long tenure in the Ford Foundation’s Nairobi office, has been marked by innovation and visionary leadership.

'On the brink?: endangered archives and endangered languages in Africa'

SCOLMA Conference 2008

2008-05-30

http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/scolma/conference.htm

The conference will be of interest to students, researchers, academics and others working in the fields of history, librarianship and archives. The conference will take places onTuesday 10 June 2008, 10.00 - 17.00, at the British Library Conference Centre, British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB.

Africa: 2008 CODESRIA Gender Symposium

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/48472

Participants in the 2008 CODESRIA Gender symposium will be invited to consider the mixed landscape of gender and citizenship that has been forged out of contemporary globalisation with a view to reflecting on ways of overcoming the new barriers that have emerged alongside the old obstacles that have persisted in the search for a better engendered citizenship. The Symposium will be held in Cairo, Egypt, from 08 – 10 October, 2008.
CODESRIA Programme Announcement: 2008 Gender Symposium
Theme: Gender and Citizenship in the Age of Globalisation
Date: 08 – 10 October, 2008
Venue: Cairo, Egypt.

In the period since the beginning of the 1990s, CODESRIA has been at the forefront of the quest to harness the efforts of African scholars in both extending the frontiers of knowledge production around issues of gender, and doing so in a manner that ensures that for as many scholars as are active in its networks and at other African sites of scholarly work, gender is integrated into their frames of analyses and modes of intervention. This has been done in line with the Council’s institutional commitment, integral to its Charter mandate, to produce knowledge that is not only anchored in the realities of the African continent, but which also contributes to the progressive transformation of livelihoods; the conscious pursuit of gender equality and inter-generational dialogues; and the harnessing of multidisciplinary perspectives. The results which have been accumulated from the experience of the Council and other like-minded institutions have, at one level, culminated in an efflorescence of studies on various aspects of the gender dynamics of development, an expansion in the community of African scholars with an active interest in gender research, the networking of that community on a sub-regional and pan-African scale, and the projection of the voices of its members on a global scale.

At another level, however, few will doubt that for all the progress which has been made in promoting the idea of the centrality of gender to the robustness of any social research and the completeness of any project of social transformation, a considerable amount of work still remains to be done. The challenges that are posed are many but, in summary, could be said to centre around the need to consolidate the many critiques of development that have been made from various gender - and feminist - perspectives into a comprehensive, internally coherent and consistent set of alternatives on the basis of which further advances in theory, method and praxis could be achieved. Engendering African development requires close attention not only to the analytical tools of the researcher but also to the production of a gendered critique of development that questions the very foundations on which socio-economic and political processes in Africa rest. Such a critique is a pre-requisite for the advancement of new theoretical approaches and policy instruments. In sum, what is called for today is a complete paradigm shift for which new scholarship will be necessary.

Different authors have identified different entry points for the developmental project they have in mind for Africa but these differences need not detain us here for now. What is really important to note is that it is inconceivable that the project of democratic development, however defined, can ever be successfully built without a full integration of gender into the equation. And it is precisely here that the deficits have been most in evidence in spite of all official declarations committing governments to the promotion of the rights of women and the equality of men and women. The dawn of the contemporary processes of globalisation initially fuelled widespread optimism that promised new opportunities for the expansion of the frontiers of women’s rights; several years after, this optimism has been tempered and mitigated as much by the disempowering elements thrown up by the global age as by the uneven distribution of the opportunities that have been associated with it. Particularly worthy of note in this regard are the severe limits imposed on the expansion of social citizenship by the neo-liberal ideological and policy moorings of contemporary globalisation.

Concerns with issues of citizenship are as old as the history of political formations. As a research theme, citizenship has engaged the attention of scholars from the earliest beginnings of political community; as a subject for political and policy concerns, it has involved a constant preoccupation with definitions of who a citizen is, what the rights and responsibilities of citizens are, and the nature of the prevailing social contract. Theories of citizenship have proliferated over the years and are as numerous in their particular preoccupations as are the various practices of citizenship that have been developed. But for all the long and rich history behind the concept and practice of citizenship, the task of engendering it has remained both an arduous and unfinished business, characterised by unceasing struggles to lift restrictions against women - and men - that range from the patently patriarchal to the outrightly discriminatory. Thus, while it is true that humanity has come a long way from the time when the idea of the citizen was conceived and operationalised only in exclusive male/masculine terms, progress such as it has occurred has been generally slow, fragmented and uneven as to make the task of engendering citizenship a live one with relevance that is as historical as it is contemporary. Both yesterday and today, therefore, from a gender perspective, the central issues in the engendering of citizenship have included struggles for the expansion of the rights of women; the promotion of male-female equality; the reconfiguration of femininities and masculinities; the reconstitution of the public sphere to enhance the presence and participation of women; the politicisation of the personal; the reform of family law; and the redefinition of the legal requirements for citizenship.

In its historical usages, the theory of citizenship and the practices that developed around it have been predominantly confined to the rights, entitlements, duties and responsibilities of individual members of a given political community. The attributes of citizenship have, however, neither been static nor uniform, or even limited in application exclusively to individuals as opposed to communities; rather, their content and contours have shifted over time in tandem with broad changes occurring in society. As they have developed, global influences have also always been refracted into national-territorial spaces to feed into local struggles over citizenship, propelling its negotiation and renegotiation as part of on-going quests for a redefinition of state-society relations. Similarly, local struggles have resonated in the global arena as to stimulate world-wide movements for the engendering of citizenship. But of all the phases of globalisation which humanity has experienced, perhaps none has excited as much interest in the possibilities it seems to offer for the simultaneous deepening and expansion of the spaces for the exercise of citizenship in general and genderised citizenship in particular than the contemporary one. Underpinned by an information and communications revolution, it appears to promise a more mobile, integrated, and cosmopolitan world with the distinct prospects for the emergence of global citizenship.

Within the context of the opportunities offered by the structures and processes of contemporary globalisation through the creation of borderless spaces that transcend existing national-territorial boundaries, new windows for the exercise of voice, the negotiation of belonging and the expansion of recognition have been opened which have carried direct and beneficial consequences for efforts at redefining citizenship from a gender perspective. In offering new openings for both a redefinition of citizenship and a simultaneous infusion of new gendered contents into it, globalisation has had important empowering benefits both locally and internationally that deserve to be explored further. But contemporary globalisation has also had adverse consequences for struggles at engendering globalisation, these adverse consequences also manifesting themselves as much in local as in global arenas in a variety of forms. Attention has been drawn, for example, to the world-wide deficits in social citizenship that have been in evidence over the last two decades and their manifestation in increasingly feminised forms of poverty.

Participants in the 2008 CODESRIA Gender symposium would be invited to consider the mixed landscape of gender and citizenship that has been forged out of contemporary globalisation with a view to reflecting on ways of overcoming the new barriers that have emerged alongside the old obstacles that have persisted in the search for a better engendered citizenship. The symposium will, among other things, assess the:
i)Theories of local and global citizenships – and the interfaces between them - as viewed from a gendered perspectives
ii)Practices of local and global citizenship – and the interfaces between them – as viewed from a gendered perspective;
iii)Modes and patterns of the refraction of local-level concerns into global processes and struggles around gender and citizenship;
iv)Impact of global processes on local struggles for engendering citizenship;
v)Roles of local and/or global civil society in the mobilisation of gendered citizenship in the context of contemporary globalisation;
vi)Gender ramifications and consequences of the deficits in social citizenship associated with contemporary globalisation;
vii)Dialectics of multiple identities and citizenship in a global age;
viii)Tensions between national-territorial administration and multiple citizenships and their consequences for the quest for an engendered citizenship;
ix)Articulation of gender and citizenship in borderless spaces;
x)Masculinities, femininities, and citizen identities in a global era;
xi)New forms of international commodification of citizenship and their gender Implications;
xii)New forms of trans-national commerce in girl and women citizens;
xiii)Gendered patterns of citizen mobility in the era of globalisation;
xiv)Cultures of Globalisation and their implications for the citizenship of women;
xv)Re-thinking citizenship in a global age: Alternatives open to women and men in the quest for gender equality.

The Symposium will be held in Cairo, Egypt, from 08 – 10 October, 2008. Participation will be both by expression of interest by those interested in being considered for invitation and direct invitation to CODESRIA scholars working in the field. All those interested in proactively expressing their interest in the symposium are invited to send an abstract of the paper they intend to present not later than 30 May, 2008; if accepted, the full papers developed out of the abstracts must be received by 15 August, 2008 for further review prior to final confirmation of selection from CODESRIA.

More information on the 2008 CODESRIA Gender Symposium can be obtained from:
The 2008 CODESRIA Gender Symposium,
CODESRIA, BP 3304,
Dakar, Senegal.
Tel: +221 – 33 825 98.22/23
Fax:+221- 33 824 12.89
E-mail: gender.symposium@codesria.sn
Web Site: http://www.codesria.org

Africa: Communicating Science to Parliamentarians workshop: call for applications

2008-05-30

http://tinyurl.com/6cn9sm

Applications invited from parliamentary staff (researchers, librarians, clerks) who regularly handle science related issues. Members of African parliaments are increasingly required to address the science, technology and innovation aspects of important policy issues, such as climate change, infectious diseases, ICT infrastructure, agriculture and food security, etc.

Global: African Children in Focus: A Paradigm Shift in Methodology

18-19 Sept 2008, Leiden, Netherlands

2008-05-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/48473

"From the late 1990's onwards, the research of children and childhoods has gradually become a topic of study in the social sciences. Children have increasingly come into the limelight as culture makers and not just as extensions to the study of adults. At the same time, African children have remained in the margins of such studies despite the fact that over forty percent of Africans are under the age of fifteen.
18-19 Sept 2008 – 'African Children in Focus: A Paradigm Shift in Methodology and Theory? Interdisciplinary Conference', Leiden, Netherlands.

"From the late 1990's onwards, the research of children and childhoods has gradually become a topic of study in the social sciences. Children have increasingly come into the limelight as culture makers and not just as extensions to the study of adults. At the same time, African children have remained in the margins of such studies despite the fact that over forty percent of Africans are under the age of fifteen. African children are commonly depicted as victims of war, poverty and illness. This conference aims to provide a platform for qualitative studies on African children, paying attention to children's own perspectives, agencies and interdependencies. The conference query centralizes around methodological approaches and theories and wishes to initiate discussions on the following questions:
a) What (interdisciplinary) methodological approaches are best suited to research with children?
b) What theoretical innovations and perspectives emerge from the study of children?

Papers of case studies with African children are welcome, but a reflection on the above questions is required. A selection of papers will be published. The conference is organised by the Netherlands African Studies. (…) The conference language is English."

Conference Organising Committee: Sandra Evers (VU) and Catrien Notermans (RU),
NVAS, P.O. Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden, Netherlands. E-mail:
Conference.Children@gmail.com

Global: PJ Women PeaceMakers Conference

2008-05-30

http://peace.sandiego.edu/events/womenpeace/application.php

This international working conference will probe and address global acquiescence to impunity, gender violence and exclusion that continues to obstruct peacebuilding and deny human security. Dates: September 24 - 26, 2008.

South Africa: African programme on Rethinking Development Economics (APORDE)

2008-05-30

http://www.ifas.org.za/aporde/

The second edition of the African programme on Rethinking Development Economics (APORDE) is about to start in Stellenbosch. This fully-funded training programme (26 participants have been selected via a competitive application process) is a joint project of the dti and the French Institute and Development Agency.

South Africa: Courts and the making of public policy & The Social Contract revisited

2008-05-30

http://www.fljs.org/content.asp?pageRef=5

Chief Justice Pius Langa, Chief Justice of South Africa will deliver this lecture, which will address the relationship between the entrenchment and enforceability of socio-economic rights in South Africa and the fact that the Constitution is best understood as a manifesto for positive transformation towards a truly equal society.

Nurse Education Specialist – Somaliland - THET

2008-05-28

http://www.thet.org.uk/

A Nurse Education Specialist / CPD Coordinator is sought to deliver an 18 month programme of CPD for nurse teachers as well as develop, coordinate and implement CPD programmes for nurses and midwives in Somaliland. The postholder will play a key role in strengthening nursing and midwifery in Somaliland. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the development of human and institutional capacity, crucial for the rebuilding of the health system in Somaliland. Closing date for applications: 13th June 2008. Telephone interviews in the week beginning 16th June 2008.

Fahamu