Back Issues

FEMNET condemns the stoning to death of a Woman in Somali

FEMNET

2008-10-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/action/51620

The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) condemns in the strongest term the stoning to death of Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow a Somalian woman after an Islamic Sharia law court found her guilty of adultery.
Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow, who had been found guilty of adultery, was buried in the ground up to her neck while the men pelted her head with rocks.

FEMNET condemns such acts in the strongest terms and call upon all women activists to condemn this act and demand for total abolition of stoning worldwide.

We further condemn the killing of an innocent child who was shot dead by guards when her parents who are relatives of Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow surged forward to try and rescue Aisho from being stoned to death.

We call upon all Islamic organizations to speak against stoning and actively participate in campaigns to abolish stoning. FEMNET is further disturbed that such act target women and leave out the male culprit.

We Urges the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to mandate the Special Rapporteur on Torture to come up with a lasting solution to such barbaric and inhuman acts.

According to the United Nations Convention against Torture, stoning is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Stoning is against articles 3 and 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of articles 6 and 7 of the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantee the right to life and prohibit torture and inhuman treatment as well as the Second Facultative Protocol to the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights on the abolition of the death penalty.

For further information Contact: Carlyn Hambuba Communication Officer: communication@femnet.oe.ke
TEL: +254 20 2712971/2

Norah Matovu-Winyi
Executive Director- FEMNET



Background
MOGADISHU (AFP) — Thousands of people gathered Monday to witness 50 Somali men stone a woman to death after an Islamic court in the southern port of Kismayo found her guilty of adultery, witnesses said.

Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow, who had been found guilty of extra-marital intercourse was buried in the ground up to her neck while the men pelted her head with rocks.

"Our sister Aisha asked the Islamic Sharia court in Kismayo to be charged and punished for the crime she committed," local Islamist leader Sheikh Hayakallah told the crowd.

"She admitted in front of the court to engaging in adulterous sexual intercourse," he added.

"She was asked several times to review her confession but she stressed that she wanted Sharia law and the deserved punishment to apply."

The execution was carried in one of the city's main squares.
The port of Kismayo was seized in August by a coalition of forces loyal to rebel leader Hassan Turki, and the Shebab, the country's main radical Islamist insurgent organization.

Turki is listed as a terrorist financier by Washington.

The new administration formed there began implementing a strict form of Sharia (Islamic law).

"This afternoon we are telling the people of Kismayo that we are practising a punishment that is rare in this region and was carried out in Kismayo for the first time," Sheikh Hayakallah said.

Cameras were banned from the public stoning but print and radio journalists were allowed to attend.

Book Launch: ‘Ending Aid Dependence’ by Yash Tandon

2008-10-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/51626

Speaker: Yash Tandon, Executive Director, South Centre

Yash Tandon explores the possibilities for change in the architecture of aid in his new book ‘Ending Aid Dependence’. Developing countries reliant on aid want to escape dependence, and yet appear unable to do so. This book proposes ways developing countries can free themselves from aid that has had varying degrees of success. Tandon argues in his book that exiting aid dependence should be at the top of the political agenda of all developing countries.

Tuesday 4 November 2008, 17:00-18:00
At: Chatham House, 10 St James's Square, London, SW1Y 4LE
The book is available from http://www.fahamu.org/publications/item/ending_aid_dependence/

Weeping for Angola and Angolans

Luíz Araújo

2008-10-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/51612

cc JF SebastianThe ‘competent’ authorities of the government of José Eduardo dos Santos recently authorised the demolition of the Kinaxixe market. This architectural landmark in the centre of Luanda was an icon of Angolan urbanisation. Thus the government of this man destroyed the African patrimony inherited through the process of European colonisation, a patrimony with which we helped co-create this nation. The Kinaxixe market represented the cultural process that gave birth to our identity, as well as that of the leader of this government that destroyed it.

The Kanaxixe market was reduced to rubble by the new civil war underway in Angolan territory. This attack on the market is part of the war against all men and women in Angola carried out by agents wielding power promiscuously, and who conduct personal deals to amass fortunes through the use and abuse of this power and the property of the nation. This is a ‘pacific civil war’, as some think based on a lack of information, but one which at various times has been marked with the blood of the many victims of this attack on personal property, mostly urban land, and especially in Luanda. This war is a successor to that which took place between the ‘national liberation movements’, initiated to seize control of the state, which the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola – Partido do Trabalho (MPLA) was able to achieve in 1975.

Few are aware of this land war since up to now only one side has resorted to violence, the plunderers who make use of the authority and arms of the state against the people. The victims have not yet responded by using violence. Their only defence has been public denunciations of these attacks through national and international organisations. The organisation which I lead, SOS Habitat, has been one of the protagonists of this pacific approach to defence resulting, among other things, in defusing the potential for spontaneous violence by the many victims of land grabbing. Despite this, those responsible for these attacks are systematically guaranteed impunity.

Do not forget that the civil war in Angola was based on the legitimacy of a revolution, led by the MPLA, which proposed the end of capitalism in Angola. Long before the Kinaxixe market debacle, the ideals of this revolution had been thrown on the garbage heap of our history by the ex-‘revolutionaries’ who, despite this change in ideology, continue to rule via the domination of state administration by the MPLA. They are unwilling to abandon this inherited one-party dictatorship, despite the fact that it has been unconstitutional since 1991.

The government of José Eduardo dos Santos has destroyed and thrown away the material and cultural wealth of our country. In order to generate wealth for a few individuals, part of the collective memory of Luanda and the entire country has been transformed into historical ruins. Some rich individual or government insider will probably cover the land of the Kinaxixe market with a modern shopping centre.

Before this perpetration, this same government ordered the demolition of the Palace of Dona Ana Joaquina, building in its place a replica of the same building. In indignation over this crime, the MPLA Deputy Lúcio Lara took a piece of rubble from this landmark building into the National Assembly where, in the name of all of us – the millions of victims of this senseless act – he wept. It was a bold form of protest which (from my point of view) contested the actions of the head of his party (the MPLA) and of the dos Santos government. Dos Santos is the individual who is ultimately responsible for the decisions of the government and the state of Angola. He must necessarily be aware of this crime and the impunity with which it took place. But the gesture of the deputy, despite the seriousness it represented, had little impact on the continued impunity with which these types of malfeasances are carried out.

Following this, many houses of the poor were demolished in various Luanda shantytowns and their inhabitants abandoned among the remaining rubble or, under threat of arms of the state, dumped in ‘warehouses of the poor’ such as those the government of the MPLA has erected in Calemba, Zango, and Panguila. These new and emblematic colonial ‘native quarters’ have, paradoxically, been built in Angola following independence. The musical tradition of the common people, which the MPLA used extensively to mobilise the population against Portuguese colonialism has a line that says, ‘they rounded us up in corrals as if we were cattle.’ And now the government of the MPLA, led by José Eduardo dos Santos, is doing exactly the same thing as Portuguese colonialism. These ‘warehouses of the poor’ are a direct manifestation of endo-colonialism (internal colonialism) and the paradigm of urbanisation of the suburbs of Luanda adopted by this MPLA government, to expel the majority of the poor and marginalised population presently living in the capital from the city and outside the reach of basic government services and gainful employment. The phase of planned social apartheid, used by José Eduardo dos Santos to strengthen his regime of endo-colonialism, is now taking form.

At any time other public spaces and many of our homes already marked for demolition may be levelled, with our expulsion serving the private interests of a few. These same few amassed fortunes during the war, even as the war blocked most attempts to promote the general well-being of the population.

Many of our public and private spaces are about to be razed in order to serve or become the property of others for the development – as they see fit – of private projects, allegedly with some public utility, but in the planning of which we have not participated nor have we designated others to participate for us. It is evident that commercial enterprises serve the public in some way and depend on the public for their market. But is it necessary that this ‘public service’ provided by the private sector has to be based on the destruction of our collective property and the expulsion of the rest of us, as is presently taking place?

Various buildings in the city become the object of private appropriation following a predatory stage of negligent and rudderless ‘government management’, leaving them ready to be gutted and turned over to private interests.

The rights and aspirations of all of society are being extinguished in order to build the property base and illicit wealth of the ‘land lords.’ To the detriment of all (but a few), this process makes José Eduardo dos Santos, his agents and clients, co-proprietors of our country (without legal title), transforming it into an immense ‘Fazenda [plantation] Angola,’ which is becoming our collective space of suffering and death. Despite this, it is amazing that this fazenda is still being referred to by these same predacious individuals as a country and state enjoying democracy and the rule of law.

The international community – for whom human rights, the rule of law and democracy are considered essential for human development – is silent in the face of this endo-colonialism. It has become an accomplice rather than run the risk of losing business opportunities with Fazenda Angola. It fears the cooling of relations with the government of José Eduardo dos Santos if it were to contest the predatory crimes that are so abundantly evident. It shamelessly ignores the acts committed against us, as is evident in the praise which it continues to heap on the government of the MPLA led by José Eduardo dos Santos, as the prime minister of Portugal, José Sócrates, recently did at the International Exhibition of Luanda (FILDA). For the representatives of these countries – themselves historical predators of humanity on an international scale – everything is reduced to a question of economic opportunities and modernisation of the market, even claiming it to be a ‘well intentioned’ urban renewal, conveniently ‘understanding’ and accepting the justifications presented publicly to them.

Obviously for those intent on appropriating the state of Angola, the preservation of historical landmarks in the development of Luanda – of its physical configuration, its ancestral buildings and culture as foundations of the Angolan nation – have little interest for the ‘headmen’ of the Angolan ‘democratic market economy,’ presently being built in the mould of colonial economics.

As the history of humanity has long shown, the (persistence of) identifiable values of a dominated society always represent a danger for any dictatorship. These values keep the collective memory of communities alive, sustaining their cohesion and capacity for resistance. Thus in the case of Angola, these values are being erased in order to consequently erase our citizenship, transforming us into zero value in the account ledgers of a political economy which reserves for us a future of docile servitude within a dictatorship of endo-colonialism. This project of endo-colonialism seeks to reproduce in each of us the colonial slave (monangabê) which, in the absence of an irreverent poet like Jacinto, evokes neither lament of the situation nor the rebellion that the process threatens to generate.

If we continue in this direction all we will remember in the future is the work of ‘headman’ José Eduardo dos Santos and of ‘his’ party, the MPLA. The MPLA is the first and principal hostage of the personal hegemony that he exerts over the state and the country. We run the risk of getting to the point where available information will suggest that nothing existed before him and that all that we become, as individuals and as a country, we owe to his predatory saga of material and cultural possessions of the Angolan community. We will thus have the perception that Angola is the invention of José Eduardo dos Santos, which history (if written accurately) will show to be the destroyer of the patrimony and the collective memory of Angola.

If will permits this strategy to be carried to its final consequences by dos Santos and by his principal hostage, the MPLA – once our collective memory has been totally erased – all that will be left of our citizenship will be a shell. We will then, as citizens, be nothing more than an empty casing. Our loss of political space will have reduced us all to the mere appearance of citizens, a state, in fact, in which the majority of us live in the present context. Our situation as citizens, which at the present time is precarious, will, in the gloomy future that the endo-colonialism of José Eduardo dos Santos offers, be one that could result in our being abandoned in ‘warehouses of the poor’ amidst material and cultural rubble. In this Eduardian social apartheid our citizenship will wither away, under guard of a variety of mercenaries using against us the arms of the ‘state’ and Fazenda Angola, despoiled as the land has been and reduced to useless gente gentia, held hostage by the outlaw bands of this dictator.

In response to the invitation of endo-colonialism to develop its project, competent foreign predators have already formed partnerships with Angolan predators by creating companies claiming to be ‘nationalist’, where by co-ownership arrangements the Angolan economic agents own more than 50% of the respective capital. Paraphrasing the Angolan nicknamed the ‘great poet,’ we are objectively faced with the ‘scavenging of the lifeless African corpse’ which denounced the crime, except in this case the scavenging is taking place remorselessly under the direction of José Eduardo dos Santos, heir to the sceptre of Agostinho Neto – poet, physician and the first president of Angola.

If we all cease to struggle, if we anesthetise ourselves with the crumbs that are left on the palace table of the endo-colonial headman or from the fear of seeking freedom, the perverse economic, political and cultural project of endo-colonialism which will restructure the very essence of Angola will be concluded as an extreme but very successful and ‘refined’ violation of our natural condition as humans, free and endowed with basic rights, (theoretically) ‘respected’ in the Eduardian ‘democracy.’

Thus Angola will continue, endo-colonial in nature, to be a great place to live for everyone except Angolans, as denounced by the Angolan singer Dog Murras. As witnessed by its complicity, this situation is not a concern for the ‘democratic humanists’ of the international community, especially in its Angolan manifestation. In particular it does not bother the European states and their commission, whose agents and investors in the Eduardian endo-colonial economy long ago chose to close their eyes in order to satisfy their appetite for petroleum, the expansion of their markets, and the exploitation of other Angolan natural resources. They only see Angola as an el dorado where they can quickly ‘make a killing’ instead of, above all else, seeing our country as a place of human beings equal to themselves.

It seems to me that this will continue until, in another February, we write the names of new heroes in the history of the liberation of Angola. Unfortunately I have a few doubts about this, because our honest and fearless peaceful protests have been of little use. And of even less use still will be, following every new attack, to continue to ‘angelically’ carry to the National Assembly (as did Deputy Lúcio Lara of the MPLA) parts of our demolished lives and soak them with our tears in this ‘cathedral of appearances’ where they present the fantasy of ‘democracy to satisfy the foreigners.’ Mister José Eduardo has declared to us and the world, in all seriousness, that democracy and human rights won’t reduce hunger. Thus in his actions he is being coherent with what he believes.

Having arrived at this point of endo-colonial violence, we can only remind Mr. dos Santos, the headman of Fazenda Angola, along with his employees and the clients of his endo-colonialist project, that they who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. But I also wish, from the depth of my heart, that this harvest will take place through a September of voters rather than a February of heroes which, in reality, is what is being sown by dos Santos’s predatory. Free us, with urgency.

* Luiz Araujo is the director of SOS Habitat, an Angolan NGO.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

When reality contradicts rhetoric: Civilian protection in the DRC

Joseph Yav Katshung

2008-10-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/51613

In September 2005, world leaders at the United Nations endorsed a historic declaration that the international community has a ‘responsibility…to help protect populations from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity’ and expressed a willingness to take timely and decisive action when states ‘manifestly fail’ to protect their own populations from these threats.(1)

Despite the collective shame and regret expressed over genocides and related atrocities, gross violations of human rights, and mass killings continue in the Great Lakes region of Africa and in the DR Congo in particular. Conflict, violence and religious radicalism continue to undermine the maintenance of peace and security and the promotion of human rights in the region. Civilians bear the heaviest brunt of acts of terror, wars, and criminal violence. How best to effectively respond to this threat,is the central question this brief sets out to discuss.

PROTECTING CIVILIANS IN THE DRC: A NIGHTMARE?

A clear picture of civilian suffering in the DRC has just been painted in the second Cross-Cutting Report of the Security Council Report dealing with the Protection of Civilians.(2) It is clear from this report that ‘over the past 14 years, the DRC has experienced continuous instability and a civil war that took an extremely heavy toll on the civilian population. The numbers are vast: from the spill-over from the Rwandan genocide in 1994, to the 1996-1998 and the 1998-2003 civil wars and the ensuing political transitions, millions of civilians died of conflict-related causes and hundreds of thousands of others were displaced. The second civil war alone is estimated to have led to the death of between 3.3 and 5.4 million civilians, which ranks it as the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II. The war involved dozens of rebel groups-both Congolese and foreign, including Rwandan “génocidaires”, the LRA and the Angolan UNITA-in addition to other African countries: Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Sudan, Angola, Zimbabwe, Chad and Namibia.’(3)

Today, the DRC continues to face instability in its eastern provinces and resulting abuse against the civilian population. The primary causes are recalcitrant foreign and Congolese militias (in particular the Rwandan Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR), the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and General Laurent Nkunda’s forces), the resulting controversial relations between the DRC and Rwanda/Uganda, and the lack of discipline and integration within the government’s security forces.(4)

The current situation in the eastern DRC is a tragic part of Africa’s contemporary history, despite international community’s pledge to never let another chaotic situation happen again in this region. It is a failure of governments, international organisations and the UN Security Council to generate the necessary political will to protect the world’s citizens. In this line, the United Nations Mission in the DR Congo (MONUC), the biggest international peacekeeping mission, has been criticised by an increasingly angry population for failing to prevent the advance of rebels led by Laurent Nkunda. There are also reports that hundreds of protesters had attacked the mission's headquarters, saying the UN was not doing enough to protect them. Demonstrators are angry that the 17,000-strong UN force has not better protected them against an offensive by rebel forces.

Against this background, someone can ask if MONUC is really a ‘mission’ or an ‘omission’ in protecting civilians? It is therefore clear that the development of law, norms and political mechanisms to allow collective intervention in crisis situations is of little more than academic value if it is not accompanied by a political will to protect civilians.

WITH POLITICAL WILL, RHETORIC CAN BE TRANSFORMED INTO REALITY

With sufficient political will – on the part of Africa and on the part of the international community – protecting civilians in Africa can be enhanced. Governments must not wait to act until images of death, destruction and mass displacements are shown on TV screens. With political will, rhetoric can be transformed into reality. Without it, not even the noblest sentiments will have a chance of success. Political will is also needed from the international community. Whenever the international community is committed to making a difference, it has proved that significant and rapid transformation can be achieved. Yet significant progress will require sustained international attention at the highest political levels over a period of years.

On a continent where gross human rights abuses and violence are rampant, African leaders have not demonstrated the will to exercise the African Union’s right to intervene to stem gross human rights violations in either a concerted or consistent manner. Yet the involvement of the international community – and of African states in particular – in seeking to promote peace and security remains ad hoc and inconsistent. Generating the political will to protect civilians remains therefore a priority in Africa. With sufficient political will – on the part of Africa and on the part of the international community – protection of civilians in Africa can be enhanced. Genocide and other related atrocities are not only a dark legacy of the past but a threat to the present and future of many societies.

TIME TO DEMONSTRATE THAT CIVILIAN PROTECTION IS A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY

It should be noted that civilian protection is not just a responsibility of the government, armed forces, and other security apparatus but rather a collective and shared responsibility of the state, civil society groups and the international community. In this regard, the responses to protect civilians should immensely benefit from Vaclev Havel’s sagacious words, ‘we live in a new world, in which all of us must begin to bear responsibility for everything that occurs.’(5) Besides a strong commitment, effective civilian protection requires resources. Over time, civilian protection must not only become a norm but also a practice. Its success as a norm will rightly be judged on whether it has reduced the vulnerability of civilian populations to armed conflict, and on the extent to which human rights and humanitarian obligations are observed and enforced. Successful implementation of protection strategies requires the development of a comprehensive and holistic approach to security combined with the necessary political will.

* Joseph Yav Katshung is an associate professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Lubumbashi, an advocate at the Lubumbashi Bar Association and the coordinator of the UNESCO Chair for Human Rights, Democracy, Good Governance, Conflict Resolution and Peace at the University of Lubumbashi, DR Congo.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

(1) Expressed in the United Nation Resolution A/60/L.1 referred to as the 2005 World Summit Document (or, simply, the Outcome Document).
(2) Security Council Report, Cross-Cutting Report, Protection of Civilians, 2008, Number 02, 14 October 2008. This report is available online at http://www.securitycouncilreport.org
(3) Idem
(4) Ibidem
(5) Memorable Quotes and quotations from Vaclev Havel, at http://www.memorable-quotes.com/vaclev+havel,a2181.html (Accessed on 15 August 2007)

Fuelling the future: Activism and the DR Congo crisis

Margot Bokanga

2008-10-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/51595

South Africa’s first democratic election, Nelson Mandela’s liberation, the African National Congress (ANC), AMANDLA, and divestment are words and catch phrases that resonate and are reminiscent of the South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement. Since the end of the apartheid regime and Mandela’s presidency, the story of the South Africa has moved the world. For many social activists, policymakers, and scholars, the success of the anti-apartheid movement South Africa revived faith that local and global activism, diplomacy, international pressure, and strong economic sanctions can foster change. Today, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, former Republic of Zaire, is going through a struggle on its own, an apartheid-like regime influenced by local, regional, and international actors against the Congolese people. However, this conflict is less publicised and when it is narrated it is done in a way that disempowers and leaves the Congolese people without any agency.

Unlike the anti-apartheid movement, the Congo’s struggle against these powers is silent, unnoticed by the world, and does not shake the world system to its core. To many the political challenges, the fragile peace in the Kivus, the looting of Congolese resources, and the deterioration of the Congolese economy, despite the country’s wealth, remain unfamiliar. Although there are many layers to problems faced by the Congo – lack of strong leadership, a state in verge of collapse, lack of state cohesion, lack of infrastructures, looting of resources in the east, and a civil war which has claimed 4 million innocent lives – I believe in a brighter future for the Congo and the African continent as a whole.

As a young Congolese woman, I beg to differ and stand to challenge the lack of political will as a means of influencing policymaking by Congolese leaders and the international community. This is the reason I joined Friends of The Congo to raise awareness on the Congo during ‘The Congo Week’ from 19-25 October. During this campaign – ‘Break the Silence’ Congo Week – 35 countries and 135 university campuses and communities participated in a week of activities in solidarity with the people of the Congo. The purpose of the Break the Silence Congo Week was to raise awareness about the situation and mobilise support on behalf of the people of the Congo. The demand for reform is urgent and palpable; although this reform may seem insurmountable it is how the Congolese people and government manage it that will determine the future of the country. By building partnership with those interested in Congolese affairs, the diaspora, and more importantly Congolese on the ground, I am confident that we can influence foreign policy in the West and policymaking in Kinshasa to serve the interests of the Congolese population regardless of ethnicity, religious background, and region of the country.

In the coming years, it important that the government commit to engage in negotiation to end the conflict in the Kivus, building the economic and political institutions that will move the country forward, as resources can be utilised and economic growth promoted through share government revenues equitably. It will be crucial that our leaders look critically at the methods being employed to solve problems in the Congo as they possesses the seeds of its own destruction. We must learn from past mistakes.

As we look to the future, as Congolese, we must make the rights choices. It is my hope that future generations in the Congo will study and look back at this movement, which is working diligently to raise awareness on issues in the Congo, and be proud that for once in our history there were a group of social activists and leaders who made choice to set our country on the right track. The time has passed for great speeches and promises; it is time for action, a time for concrete deeds that will make a difference in the lives of millions of Congolese. As Nnamdi Azikiwe once said ‘show the light and people will follow.’ And today, change is within our grasp.

* Margot Bokanga is the Council for African Studies graduate assistant, School of International Service, at the American University, Washington, DC.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

China’s mythical military menace

Stephen Marks

2008-10-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/51592

In an engaging piece highlighting the inherent one-sidedness of Western media coverage of China’s presence in Africa, Stephen Marks explores the extent to which the Asian giant’s presence on the continent is primarily visible in its economic and diplomatic links rather than any military presence. While concerns over a so-called ‘Yellow Peril’ are scarcely predominant within US policy circles, the author argues, the Chinese presence on the African continent is primarily characterised as military, a characterisation that belies the essentially economic basis of the country’s relations with African countries. But with Chinese military expenditure now conspicuously on the increase, what will be the consequences for a changing relationship with Africa?

For some time now the press in the global ‘North’ has enjoyed itself making its readers’ blood freeze with scare stories about the impending takeover of poor defenceless Africa by the Chinese ‘Yellow Peril’.

China’s growing African involvement does indeed raise serious issues for Africa’s policymakers and African civil society. But most of the ‘yellow peril’ coverage is so one-sided as to discredit itself. One recent offering however managed to summarise so many misconceptions as to merit special attention, especially as it concentrates on the one area where it is hardest to conjure up a ‘Chinese threat’.

Whatever view one takes of China’s growing economic involvement, there is one area in which China clearly differs from other powers, especially the USA and France. Apart from its participation in UN peacekeeping operations, it has no military presence on the continent, or any naval presence around its coasts.

This makes it harder to raise a scare about the 'Chinese menace' in the military and security sphere than it has been to mobilise fear of a Chinese economic threat. But this has not prevented some from doing their best.

One of the latest offerings in this genre came in the 9 October issue of the Murdoch-owned Weekly Standard, edited by leading neoconservative William Kristol. In ‘The Great Game in Africa: Washington's emerging containment strategy’, Thomas Skypek, a ‘Washington-based defense analyst’, argues that ‘The African continent is quickly becoming a proxy battleground for Washington and Beijing, as the latter's appetite for emerging markets and raw materials grows’.(1)

And Skypek is clear that the response should be military- or at least military-led: ‘While Washington policymakers deny that Beijing's behavior is the rationale for its establishment, it appears as though AFRICOM marks the beginning of a new containment strategy aimed at curtailing Chinese power and influence in Africa.’

Apparently, a problem with China’s growing economic and diplomatic role on the continent is that ‘From a military perspective, this would significantly complicate U.S. counterterrorism operations, as countries loyal to Beijing place new restrictions on the United States. Additionally, China's proliferation of small arms and light weapons to hostile state and non-state actors will only make the world more dangerous’.

In the longer term this raises the risk that ‘the economic competition between the U.S. and China for the continent's critical resources may decidedly advantage Beijing.’ We also learn that:

‘In fact, some of Beijing's neighbors have taken a newfound interest in Africa themselves. In June 2008, Hany Besada writing in the International Herald Tribune chronicled new investments by both Japan and India in Africa. With regard to India, Besada explained, ‘These efforts reflect New Delhi's eagerness, not only to deepen its engagement and raise its profile with the resource-endowed continent, but, more importantly, to catch up with China.’ As the regional balance in Asia continues to evolve, it is likely that Japan and India will undertake peaceful efforts to check China's growth whenever possible.’

Skypek also quotes with approval a claim from the like-minded Heritage Foundation that ‘Beiing's involvement in sub-Saharan African security issues has expanded to peacekeeping operations, exchange programs, and military deployments’ and adds that ‘China has established close military relationships with states such as Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria.’

But these views are regarded as extreme by the US policy mainstream, even though they continue to influence the terms of the debate. As a study prepared for the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, chaired by Senator Jo Biden, put it:

‘In the vocal minority are those who view China as a growing military menace with malign intent. These hardliners have been perceived sometimes by others as agitators whose counsel to treat China as a major threat to U.S. interests is designed to justify huge U.S. military budgets and is more likely to bring about conflict with China than to deter it. The view that has been pursued more openly by U.S. [a]dministrations is one that counsels cooperation and engagement with China as the best way to integrate China into the prevailing global system as a “responsible stake- holder” - a nation that has “a responsibility to strengthen the inter- national system that has enabled its success.” But opponents of this approach typically paint these as the views of “panda-huggers” who, seduced by the potential of the China market, are oblivious to PRC hostile intent, cave in to PRC wishes and demands unnecessarily, and thereby squander U.S. strategic leverage and com- promise U.S. interests. The confrontational and highly-charged dynamic between these two polar views continues to make elusive the kind of pragmatic and reasoned policy discourse that could create greater American consensus on how the United States should position itself to meet the challenges China poses.’(2)

Not surprisingly, China's official statements reflect the 'benign' interpretation of her security policy in relation to Africa. Thus the section on 'Peace and Security' in the January 2006 White Paper 'China's African Policy' indicates nothing more proactive than bilateral military co-operation:

'China will promote high-level military exchanges between the two sides and actively carry out military-related technological exchanges and cooperation. It will continue to help train African military personnel and support defense and army building of African countries for their own security.’(7)

In the same document China also commits itself to support conflict resolution efforts by the African Union (AU) and other regional organisations and urges the UN to do the same, as well as pledging continuing support to and participation in UN peacekeeping operations in Africa. There are also commitments to judicial and police cooperation in combating crime, corruption and illegal immigration as well as closer cooperation in combating 'terrorism, small arms smuggling, drug trafficking, transnational economic crimes, etc.'

In June 2008 China announced that a total of 10,000 Chinese military had participated in UN peacekeeping operations since 1990. As of early 2008 a total of 1,963 Chinese peacekeepers were serving in UN missions, a greater number than any other Permanent Member of the Security Council, though many less than Pakistan or Bangladesh, at around 10,000 each. And China also has two permanent peacekeeping personnel training centres.(4)

While the sceptic could reasonably argue that these pious sentiments are what is to be expected from official pronouncements, available data appears to confirm the official view. One minimal area in which an increased Chinese military interest in Africa would be expected to show itself would be in the number of defence attachés in Chinese embassies.

But while the number of defence attaché offices in Chinese embassies worldwide has almost doubled since 1985, from 59 to 107, in Africa the number increased only from nine to 14. In other words, a majority of China's embassies in Africa do not even have a defence attaché. By contrast, China has a defence attaché in almost every European capital.(5)

In 2005/06 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) naval ships visited six countries, none of them in Africa. China conducted joint exercises with eight countries, none of them in Africa. And China participated in 46 security consultations with other countries, only three of which were with an African country, all with South Africa.(6)

And while high-level exchanges with other armed forces increased significantly between 2001 and 2006, from 174 to over 210, in Africa 'bilateral exchanges have remained stable at an annual average of 26. Beijing has established a permanent military dialogue only with South Africa… Hence, China's military diplomacy in Africa remains modest, and it certainly has not kept up with the impressive number of trade officials posted in African countries to strengthen economic ties in the last few years.'(7)

The apparent exception of South Africa only proves the rule. Contrary to the view which sees China's policy as driven by sympathy for autocratic regimes and suppliers of oil, its closest military links are with democratic South Africa, and not with those countries in which China has the greatest interest as sources of raw materials. And even here the military connection appears to take second place to closer economic and diplomatic links.

'Military co-operation, though discussed at senior levels by both governments, appears not to have produced the same levels of co-operation as found in the diplomatic and economic spheres. Certainly, the spectacle of joint military exercises with the Indian and Brazilian navies agreed at the last IBSA [India Brazil South Africa] summit will raise the stakes for those wishing to achieve a closer degree of co-operation between South Africa and China. Moreover, South African weapons producers are by some accounts in competition with their Chinese counterparts for markets in Africa, including Sudan.'(8)

But what of Skypek’s claim that ‘From a military perspective, this would significantly complicate U.S. counterterrorism operations, as countries loyal to Beijing place new restrictions on the United States. Additionally, China's proliferation of small arms and light weapons to hostile state and non-state actors will only make the world more dangerous’.

Well, it is true that, as the report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pointed out: ‘From 2003-2006, China is estimated to have been the third largest exporter of conventional and small arms to Africa, after Germany and Russia,…’ which sounds serious until we see that the sentence continues ‘… having provided about 15.4% ($500 million) of a $3.3 billion total in global sales to the region during that period’(8, p.112).

Nor does the pattern of China's arms sales indicate a primarily military strategic purpose.

'There is no evidence that China's military aid aims at counterbalancing other powers, such as the United States. Apart from Sudan and Zimbabwe, most countries to have received Chinese aid in the last few years are also supplied by Washington. Moreover, in 2007 Beijing temporarily froze the supply of heavy arms to Khartoum after pressure from the West…. China's military aid programmes cannot be considered to benefit its forays into the mining industry. Between 2004 and 2006, resource-rich Nigeria, for instance, received only half the value of the Chinese military aid provided to Ghana or Uganda. In this period it furnished more military assistance to Angola than to Sudan, even though the security challenges in the latter were much more severe than in the former. Although violence in Somalia threatened China's oil exploration activities in both Ethiopia and Kenya, China only made a commitment to Kenya to help the country in the protection of its border. In conclusion, China does provide military aid, but this does not seem to be driven by a coherent strategy to protect its security interests.'(9)

As to countries ‘loyal to Beijing’ being unwilling to cooperate with Washington’s ‘war on terror’, might Skypek have been thinking of Sudan? If so his view is not shared by the State Department’s 2007 Annual Report on State Sponsors of Terrorism (10), which states:

‘The Sudanese government was a strong partner in the War on Terror and aggressively pursued terrorist operations directly involving threats to U.S. interests and personnel in Sudan. In recent months, Usama Bin Laden and other senior al-Qaida leaders have called for the expansion of AQ's presence in Sudan in response to possible deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur. This has led to speculation that some individuals with varying degrees of association with AQ have taken steps to establish an operational network in Darfur, but there were no indications that AQ affiliated extremists were active there…

‘With the exception of HAMAS, the Sudanese government did not openly support the presence of extremist elements in Sudan. The Sudanese government took steps to limit the activities of these organizations. For example, Sudanese officials welcomed HAMAS members as representatives of the Palestinian Authority (PA), but limited their activities to fundraising. The Sudanese government also worked to disrupt foreign fighters from using Sudan as a logistics base and transit point for Jihadists going to Iraq.’

Nor does there appear to be any more basis to Skypek’s fear that China’s increasing economic involvement in Africa will result in increased influence in the UN. The US Senate report quotes research evidence from Latin America which indicates that increased trade dependence on China does not appear to affect a country’s willingness to vote against the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) interests in the UN.(10, pp10-11)

In any case to quote as Skypek does, the impressive increase in China’s trade with Africa and in its raw materials imports and investments without any comparative context is intensely misleading. The position is put in context by Hany Besada, the scholar Skypek quotes on increased Japanese and Indian investment in Africa. In a joint paper with Yang Wang and John Walley he sums up the situation as follows:

‘Trade between the whole of Africa and China (imports and exports summed) grew from $10.6 billion to $73.3 billion between 2000 and 2007, and between Sub-Saharan [sic] Africa and China from $7 billion to $59 billion over the same period. China is now Africa's third largest trading partner behind the EU and the US. The Chinese FDI stock in Africa has grown from $49 million in 1990 to $2.6 billion in 2006. On the basis of these data, one frequently hears the claim that China is now a dominant influence in Africa. … We suggest that while the annual growth rates of trade and investment flows are high (around 30% per year since the late 1990's), the levels are still considerably smaller than such claims might suggest. China in 2006 accounted for only $520 million of inward FDI compared to a total from all sources of $36 billion, around 1.4% of total FDI inflows to Africa; and only 8.6% of African exports and 9.6% of African imports. African interdependence with China thus remains proportionally smaller than that for most other geographical areas, but is growing rapidly.’(11)

A similar comparative perspective is needed to counter Skypek’s bizarre claim that ‘the economic competition between the U.S. and China for the continent's critical resources may decidedly advantage Beijing.’ China in 2006 received about one third of its oil imports from Africa, representing nine percent of Africa’s total oil exports. The US by contrast took 33 percent. The leading energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie estimates that Chinese companies hold less than two percent of Africa’s known oil reserves.(12)

Wood Mackenzie also estimate that the commercial value of Chinese NOC (national oil companies) oil investments in Africa is just eight percent of the combined commercial value of the IOC’s (international oil companies) African oil investments, and three percent of all investments in African oil. Nor do Chinese oil investments in Africa serve to ‘lock out’ Western oil companies and Western countries from access to that oil. As Erica Downs points out:

‘China’s NOCs are actually expanding rather than contracting the amount of oil available to other consumers through their overseas operations, especially through the development of oil fields that other oil companies are unable or unwilling to invest in…most of the African assets held by China's NOCs are of a size and quality of little interest to international oil companies (IOCs). In fact, many of these assets were relinquished by the IOCs’.(13)

CHINA'S 'ROGUE STATE' ALLIES

Sudan and Zimbabwe have been the two chief counts in the critics' indictment of China's role in Africa. Beijing's initial insistence, under the rubric of non-interference in internal affairs, on vetoing action over Darfur in the UN Security Council, and its provision of a crucial lifeline of support to Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe have together been taken as evidence of a ruthless Chinese determination to pursue its short-term self-interest in pursuit of raw materials and markets in defiance of the consensus of the international community.

But more recently there have been signs of a significant shift in Chinese policy towards these two pariah states. The shift is commonly held to have started with the appointment of Liu Guijin, a veteran diplomat and former ambassador to South Africa and Zimbabwe, as a special representative for African Affairs with particular responsibility for Darfur.

However there is evidence that the appointment was itself the result of a shift already under way. In March 2007, in a move interpreted as a sign of Chinese impatience with Khartoum's unwillingness to implement the 'Annan plan', Beijing announced that Sudan was being removed from the list of countries with preferred trade status, bringing an end to financial incentives for Chinese companies to invest in Sudan.

While maintaining China's opposition to sanctions, Beijing is credited with persuading Khartoum to accept a combined AU/UN peacekeeping force, approved by the Security Council in July 2007, to which China is a major contributor.

Foreign diplomats and experts on Darfur note that Beijing also helped in convincing Sudan to attend negotiations with rebel groups next month in Libya. The U.S. special envoy for Darfur, Andrew Natsios, said this week he was not sure what had pushed Beijing to act more decisively on Darfur in recent months, but ‘China is being constructive, using its leverage with the Sudanese government.’

‘I think the Chinese are like a locomotive that is speeding up,’ he told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. ‘They are doing things we didn't ask them to do.’(14)

There were also reports that China was ending all but humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe.(15) Though the report was officially denied, Liu Guijin was subsequently quoted as saying: ‘China's assistance to Zimbabwe is mainly humanitarian aid, because in terms of other development assistance we still have some difficulties… In the past, China has provided substantial development aid. Now, with the devaluation of the currency and deterioration of the economic situation, the outlook for this aid is not very good.’(16)

Reasons advanced for the change of line include fear of bad publicity marring the forthcoming Olympics, and an increasing realisation that instability and dysfunctional government are an unreliable political framework for China's long-term economic interests. But it remains to be seen how a cooling of China's hitherto unqualified support for these regimes will translate into a positive attitude to internal change.

These policy shifts can be seen as merely reflecting pragmatic changes related to the specific circumstances in these two countries. In neighbouring Chad China has bought oil exploration rights to an extensive area and also promised an oil refinery and a cement factory. In the short run any oil discovered in the Chinese exploration zone will be exported via a World Bank-financed pipeline to the Atlantic. But in the longer run the aim is said to be to link the field up with a Chinese-built grid in Sudan.

In the opinion of the New York Times, 'Beijing's recent diplomatic activity in the region may be explained by these Chinese oil interests as much as by American pressure on China to help stop the killing in Darfur'.(17)

On the other hand, China's policymakers can also be seen as developing their own attitude in line with changing circumstances, as a pure 'non-interference' stance can be seen as actual interference by forces opposed to the regime being assisted, and by neighbouring countries concerned at destabilisation radiating outwards from 'failed states'.

In this connection it is interesting to note that when Russia and China vetoed the US and British move for UN sanctions against Zimbabwe, the Chinese representative was careful to justify his country's position in terms of allowing more time for the AU-sponsored talks to succeed, rather than in simple rejection of interference in Zimbabwe's internal affairs - the argument strongly emphasised by the Russian delegate.(18)

WHY THE SCARE?

So what could be the reason for Washington hardliners to chill our blood with scares about a non-existent Chinese military threat in Africa? Their view is not predominant, as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee report indicates, and should be even less so after the presidential election. But if so why should the coordination of Washington’s African presence be taking place under the military umbrella of AFRICOM? Are there not real and legitimate security issues around Africa’s coasts which do call for action by the international community? And are there not real causes for concern in recent major increases in China’s military expenditure?

To answer these questions we must take a closer look at the possible reasons for China’s low-key military stance in Africa, and the factors that could lead it to change.

* Stephen Marks is the coordinator of the Fahamu China in Africa project.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

References (all urls last accessed 20-10-08)

(1) The Great Game in Africa Washington's emerging containment strategy. Thomas M. Skypek Weekly Standard 10/09/2008 http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/673xzgig.asp?pg=1

(2) 'China's foreign policy and “soft power” in Asia, Latin America and Africa”: a study prepared for the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2008_rpt/crs-china.pdf

(3) China's African Policy http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/zxxx/t230615.htm

(4) Ian Taylor 'The Future of China's Overseas Peacekeeping Operations' http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2374037

(5) Susan Puska 'Military backs China's Africa adventure' Asia Times 8 June 2007 http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IF08Ad02.html

(6) Defence White Paper 'China's National Defence in 2006' http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/book/194421.htm

(7) Jonathan Holslag 'China's next security strategy for Africa' Brussels Institute of Contemporary China studies http://www.vub.ac.be/biccs/documents/Holslag,%20Jonathan%20(2008),%20China's%20new%20security%20policy%20for%20Africa,%20BICCS%20Asia%20Paper,%20vol.%203%20(6)..pdf

(8) Chris Alden 'South Africa and China: Forging Africa's Strategic Partnership' http://www.jamestown.org/china_brief/article.php?articleid=2374252

(9) Bates Gill, Chin-hao Huang & J. Stephen Morrison 'Assessing China's Growing Influence in Africa' China Security Vol. 3 No. 3 Summer 2007 http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/about/pdfs/china-africa.pdf

(10) US Dept of State Country Reports on Terrorism Released by the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism April 30, 2008 Chapter 3 -- State Sponsors of Terrorism Overview http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2007/103711.htm

(11) Hany Besada, Yang Wang, John Whalley China’s growing economic activity in Africa NBER Working Paper No. 14024 Issued in May 2008 http://www.nber.org/papers/w1402

(12) ‘China, Africa, and Oil’ Stephanie Hanson http://www.cfr.org/publication/9557

(13) China Security: The Fact and Fiction of Sino-African Energy Relations Erica Strecker Downs http://www.cfr.org/publication/15191/china_security.html

(14) Antoaneta Bezlova Sudan - showcase for new assertiveness IPS 21 September 2007 http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=39345

(15) Daily Telegraph, 13-08-07

(16) ZimOnline 28 September 2007 http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=2092

(17) New York Times 13 August 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/world/africa/13chinaafrica.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Organizations/W/World%20Bank&_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all

(18) http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/07/11/zimbabwe.sanctions/index.html

Will Jatropha invade Mozambique?

Via Campesina confronts the global agro-fuel industrial complex

John E. Peck

2008-10-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/51617

On 19 October 2008, at the opening ceremony of the Fifth International Via Campesina Conference in Maputo, Mozambique, over 600 representatives from 50-plus countries were gathered to hear a welcome address by the President of the Republic of Mozambique, Armando Emíio Guebuza. While President Guebuza had some encouraging remarks about the future potential of peasant agriculture, his suggestion that Jatropha was a solution for Mozambique's energy crisis was not well received by many in the audience. Jatropha is but one of a whole host of crops (including maize, soya, canola, sugarcane, cassava, sunflower, palm, coconut, and castor among others) now being aggressively promoted as feedstock for the global agro-fuel industrial complex. Such crops, often genetically engineered, grown in monoculture plantations, and destined for export markets, hardly deserve to be called ‘biofuels’ since they have no life-affirming qualities and undermine all the basic principles of food sovereignty.

As the leading umbrella organisation for peasant farmers, fishers, foresters, pastoralists, and indigenous peoples in the world, Via Campesina has been a harsh critic of agro-fuels since their inception. In its 2008 report titled ‘Small Scale Sustainable Farmers Are Cooling Down the Earth’, Via Campesina identifies agro-fuels as but one of several false solutions to the climate change crisis. To quote the report:

‘Leaving aside the insanity of producing food to feed cars while so many people are starving, industrial agro-fuels production will actually increase global warming instead of reducing it. Agro-fuels production will revive colonial plantation systems, bring back slave work and seriously increase the use of agrochemicals, as well as contribute to deforestation and biodiversity destruction.’

Inspired by a similar statement from European counterparts, five US based groups – Rainforest Action Network, Global Justice Ecology Project, Food First, Grassroots International, Family Farm Defenders, and the Student Trade Justice Campaign – issued a call in 2007 for an immediate moratorium on further US incentives for agro-fuels development. Over 50 groups from around the world signed onto this statement in solidarity, including Mozambique's own National Farmers' Union (UNAC), host of the Fifth Via Campesina Conference. Yet, the forces of corporate globalisation are hard at work and have apparently already reached the ear of President Guebuza. Chief among these agro-fuels peddlers is the Nairobi-based Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), bankrolled by the Rockefeller and Gates Foundations and chaired by former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan.

While some leaders, such as former US President George Bush Sr., may argue that the lifestyle of the global North is not negotiable, and the current food versus fuel debate dominating media headlines is hard to ignore. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), food prices skyrocketed 88% worldwide between March 2007 and March 2008, triggering riots in dozens of countries with some demonstrators even being killed in Cameroon, Senegal, and Mozambique. The crisis has been attributed to a vicious convergence of several factors – runaway speculation in commodity markets, weather related crop failures induced by global warming – and, as even the World Bank had to admit, the boom in agro-fuels. The creeping expansion of these green agro-fuel deserts that destroy biodiversity, supplant subsistence production, and siphon off scarce public funds is more a recipe for corporate profit than genuine energy security.

There is a fuel crisis in Africa, yet the continent's own petroleum producers are not even allowed to meet the needs of their own people when corporations based in the North still control the supply chain and find global markets more lucrative. Many of these same oil giants with a horrific track record of violence and corruption – British Petroleum, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell - are now primary investors in the agro-fuels sector, along with other notorious grain, timber, biotech, and finance corporations – ADM, Cargill, Bunge, ConAgra, Dreyfus, DuPont, Monsanto, Syngenta, Marubenji, Tate & Lyle, Weyerhauser, Tembec, Misui, Mitsubishi, JP Morgan Chase, Société Générale, and the Carlyle Group – to name but a few. Other agro-fuels industry cheerleaders with deep financial pockets and cosy political ties include former Florida governor, Jeb Bush, Brazil's former minister of agriculture, Roberto Rodrigues, and the current president of the Inter-American Development Bank, Luis Moreno.

Contrary to their green-washed image, today's agro-fuels industry bears little resemblance to the history behind Rudolf Diesel running his new fangled engine on peanut oil at the 1898 World Exhibition in Paris or the modern image of the do-it-yourself type, pouring recovered restaurant grease into a modified vehicle. Instead, today's agro-fuels industrial complex has been constructed around the same destructive infrastructure and corporate exploitation that dominates other globalised commodities.

To use the US as a case study, the country currently takes up to six gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol, with another 13 gallons as waste. If plans proceed to build more ethanol plants in the Midwest, the Environmental Defense Fund estimates the endangered Ogallala Aquifer could be drained of an additional 2.6 billion gallons per year simply to irrigate and process these agro-fuels. Nearby residents report massive groundwater contamination and airborne pollution from these facilities, including clouds of biotech crop-dust that harm workers and other non-target actors. Even the distillers’ waste, a leftover from ethanol production long touted in the US as a feed supplement for livestock in factory farms, is now being found to be unhealthy for animals. Many of the farmers who invested their life savings to pioneer ethanol cooperatives in the US in the early 1990s have since been driven into bankruptcy or muscled out of the market by agribusiness. There are about 130 ethanol plants operating in the US, but whereas in 2003 over half were farmer controlled, today 90% are in corporate hands.

This consolidation of the agro-fuels industry has been encouraged by massive taxpayer subsidies. In Canada where legislation recently passed requiring a 5% ethanol content in fuel by 2010, agro-fuels boosters now expect to receive $2.2 billion in subsidies. Over ten nations in the European Union also provide various forms of agro-fuels incentives and this translated into a whopping 60% of the EU's entire canola crop going into bio-diesel in 2006. The US alone is spending over $7 billion per year to promote agro-fuels, a subsidy of $1.38 per gallon for ethanol. During the recent US Farm Bill debate ADM and Cargill threatened to import Brazilian ethanol if the White House did not provide sufficient ‘incentives’ to keep domestic agro-fuels globally ‘competitive.’ The upshot was even more taxpayer subsidies for development of cellulosic ethanol and even for the potential use of sugar as another agro-fuels, conveniently coinciding with Monsanto's introduction of GE (genetically engineered) sugar beet. If the US were to meet its proposed renewable energy mandate of 15 billion gallons of ethanol per year, over half of the country's corn acreage would be devoted to energy rather than food production.

Such unrealistic goals mean massive agro-fuels imports from somewhere, and these will also probably be subsidised through the perverse manipulation of carbon credits. Under the Kyoto Protocol, 20% of global energy is to come from renewable sources, including agro-fuels, by 2020. But none of the greenhouse gases linked to the production of agro-fuels will be included in the transport sector, despite the fact that bio-diesel combustion alone generates 50-70% more greenhouse gas emissions than the petroleum it would replace. Instead, agro-fuels will be counted as part of the agriculture, industry, and/or energy sectors. This false accounting gets even worse. Under Kyoto, a country in the North that imports agro-fuels from the South can use them to offset its own greenhouse gas inventory. The upshot is that wealthy polluters are able to out-source green house gases and claim carbon credits by encouraging corporate investment in monoculture agro-fuels plantations half way around the globe.

Where will these agro-fuels carbon credits come from? Brazil already has 6 million hectares devoted to agro-fuels production and plans to increase its sugarcane acreage fivefold to meet expected ethanol export demands. South Africa has set a goal of producing one billion litres of bio-fuel from maize, sunflower, and soya (4.5% of total petrol/diesel demand) by 2013, and the South African-based Tongaat-Hulett investment group has proposed a $200 million renovation of the Hippo Valley sugarcane plantation and Triangle ethanol plant in the Limpopo Valley once the political crisis in Zimbabwe is resolved. Colombia plans to increase its oil palm from 188,000 hectares (ha.) to over 1 million ha, and communities who stand in the way of these expansion plans have already fallen victim to the deadly impact of death squads. Indonesia intends to establish the largest oil palm plantation in the world, 1.8 million ha in Borneo. Dubbed ‘deforestation diesel’, this palm oil bonanza has cleared vast tracts of pristine rainforest, jeopardising biodiversity and indigenous peoples alike. Compared to other agro-fuels fuel stocks, though, palm oil is by far the most productive, generating 6000 litres per ha, versus only 446 litres per ha for soya and 172 litres per ha for corn.

And, then there is Jatropha. India has already earmarked 14 million ha of ‘wasteland’ for Jatropha plantations, while a German consortium is negotiating to purchase 13,000 ha in Ethiopia, including portions of an elephant sanctuary, for the same purpose. As a drought-resistant largely inedible plant that requires little or no inputs, Jatropha can be harvested three times a year. There are already 200,000 ha of Jatropha in Malawi and 15,000 ha in Zambia, most under the control of the UK-based company D1 Oils. Mozambique currently has only one refinery at Busi with a limited production capacity of 10 tonnes per day, but since sugarcane processing takes place for just 160 days each year, consultants argue that the rest of the facility's capacity could be devoted to agro-fuels. Jatropha planting is now underway in four Mozambican provinces: Inhambane, Manica, Zambezia, and Nampula. The impact in Mozambique will likely be similar to that elsewhere, and food sovereignty advocates, such as Ousmane Samake of the Coalition pour la Protection du Patrimoine Génétique Áfricaine (COPAGEN), have already documented how agro-fuels Jatropha plantations encroach on traditional grazing lands, drain groundwater supplies, and exacerbate resource conflicts in Mali.

The world will not be able to escape the food versus fuel debate as long as governments continue to subsidise agro-fuels to the detriment of sustainable agriculture as practiced by millions of peasant farmers. Similarly, the world will not be able to achieve genuine food sovereignty as advocated by Via Campesina without rejecting the agro-fuels panacea offered by the likes of the Gates Foundation, AGRA, and their corporate boosters. The government of Mozambique would do well to heed the call for an outright moratorium on agro-fuels incentives as endorsed by dozens of grassroots organisations around the world, including Mozambique's own National Farmers' Union (UNAC). It is time to end corporate domination over the world's food supply and an essential first step is to dismantle the global agro-fuels industrial complex that would rather feed a gas tank than a hungry child.

* John E. Peck is the executive director of Family Farm Defenders (USA).
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Extractive industries and their socio-economic impacts

Moussa K. Traoré

2008-10-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/51591

Talking about extractive industries in West Africa is both a difficult and delicate exercise in a region where several stages have defined mining’s evolution. For this reason, many laws and regulations have been adopted as a means of harmonising and regulating mineral extraction. At times the laws have proved a deterrent, at others they have been lax, and others still they have been called attractive. Sometimes there has not even been a law and it has been necessary to ‘create’ one according to the demands of the time. This is to say that at certain points laws have been imposed retrospectively, something which a given rise to a host of advantages and disadvantages.

Because mines are not open at the same time and methods differ between them, and with each country wanting to appear more attractive than others, a variety of texts exist about extractive industry, sometimes even to the detriment of mining codes. As a result, the consequences and impacts associated with extractive industries are measured according to each country.

This is important as for many decades extractive industries have been experiencing a rapid expansion to become the main source of state budget contributions. If the bulk of budget revenue were to come from the primary sector (agriculture, cattle rearing, and fishing), this trend would be reversed. Our countries confront many problems in the form of internal and external constraints which impede the momentum of the primary sector.

Revenues provided by the primary sector are however in the process of being substituted by those from extractive industries. It is no secret that these industries are supported by a great many interests, notably those of financiers, with myriad consequences. For this reason, according to the moods of our rulers, establishing extractive industries occurs through a process of negotiations, deals, steps, and interviews which is not always transparent, known far better by administrations than their populations.

With the considerable revenues acquired or anticipated from extractive industries, populations’ expectations of their governments are high. Unfortunately, establishing extractive industries seems in general to be a ‘curse’ for our countries and especially for those zones where the industry operates.

The findings are grim: populations in mining zones suffer, and are hungry and thirsty. Flora and fauna are decimated. The environment is covered (a lunar landscape emerges and settles). Customs and habits begin to break down. Poverty and misery become endemic. Disease and perversion become commonplace. In short, areas under extractive industry see their future mortgaged, giving rise to total disarray.

So, the fundamental questions are the following:
- On what basis and under what criteria and conditions are the big mining companies authorised to establish themselves in our countries?
- What are the actual impacts produced by the establishment of extractive industries?
- What advantages are actually gained by both our populations and governments through the presence of these industries in our countries?
- And what arrangements have been made once these companies have up and left?

All these questions reinforce the essentially delicate and critical aspect of our subject. Because the answers to these questions can be found all around. They are among mining companies, national and international institutions, our peoples, our executives, and our leaders.

OVERVIEW OF THE WEST AFRICAN MINING CONTEXT, WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO MALI

As a reminder, it is worthwhile knowing that mineral extraction in West Africa dates back far further than the 20th century. Mineral extraction has in fact always been undertaken throughout the region under various different traditional forms. From the 6th or 7th empire of Ghana/Ouagadou (which comprised a part of today’s Mali, of Mauritania, and of Senegal), ancient texts spoke of sovereigns adorned with golden ornaments. In Côte d’Ivoire and in Ghana, the empress Pokou of the Baoulés and the Ashanti demonstrated that their people had gold. In Guinea, Mali, and in Senegal, covering the ancient Manding empire, the exploits of the emperor Kankou Moussa have shown the region to be rich in gold. The same was true with regard to the mineral’s use in the Songhai empire (Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Benin, etc.) and the Mossi Kingdom of Yatenga.

This means that throughout West Africa there was a strong gold mining tradition. With the colonial invasion came the establishing of mining companies, meaning that the history of colonisation effectively gave rise to the appearance of mineral extraction under the industrial form that we all know today. It began in anglophone countries, notably in Ghana with Ashanti gold, and in francophone countries in Guinea with iron followed by bauxite.

Following a period of calm between 1960 and 1990, we have witnessed, after some decades, the exponential growth of extractive industries in the West African sub-region. Today in West Africa there is practically no country without its own extractive industry.

For example, in Mali between 1994 and 2007, around 150 operating licences were issued to both national and foreign companies, along with more that 25 certificates for exploitation and more than 200 research permits. Under normal conditions, this growth would be accompanied by a parallel rise in the development of our states and populations, especially those found in mining areas.

The production of gold in Mali has gone from less than half a tonne during the 1980s to more than 50 tonnes in 2007. Income received from mining increased from less than 10 billion in 1995 to more than 300 billion in 2007. The share of mining revenues in the total amount of budget revenues has gone from less than 1% in 1989 to 3% in 1993, then to almost 18% in 2007. In Mali’s case, gold has practically replaced cotton, a phenomenon common across the sub-region. This means that the share of revenues provided by industrial exploitation is replacing that of crops in our states.

Paradoxically, the development of our states seems far from reflecting the amount of revenue acquired. So is it reasonable to ask why the industry is present in our countries? To attempt to answer this question is to try to highlight the impact of mining in our countries. In Mali for example, one sees everybody ask the question: ‘what do we gain from this gold?’

One of the first answers is that, according to a small survey, the same companies originating from the same countries are found under a variety of names depending on the zones of extraction. To avoid being discovered, these companies have employed the tactic of using the name of places of the mineral’s discovery or something else of importance in the society in which it has established itself. In this way, the same company can operate within the same territory without the layman noticing.

The majority of companies that operate in the West African sub-region are all the same. They use all possible combinations from one country to another. The bulk of the companies within the region originate from the following countries: South Africa, France, the USA, Canada, England (with South Africa, the USA, or Canada as intermediaries), Russia, Australia, Switzerland, South Korea, and China.

This point must not obscure the fact that these companies are supported by extensive banking networks, the ramifications of which are everywhere within our countries and extend into the very depths of international institutions.

ECONOMIC IMPACTS ON EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRIES IN WEST AFRICA, ALSO WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MALI

The extractive industry has considerable impacts in our countries, not least on our economies. Its impacts are felt and seen at many levels including employment, government revenues, expropriation of populations, population displacement, health, the environment, education, culture, and life in general.

ECONOMIC IMPACTS ON REVENUES

As regards the impact on revenues, industrial extraction gives rise at once to both positive and negative aspects that need to be identified and understood. Firstly, it is important to know that revenues from industrial exploitation come from:
- Money collected at the time of companies’ creation
- Revenue acquired through issuing permits and licenses for exploration and exploitation
- Customs revenue when the life of the company extends beyond three to five years - income received as part of taking part capital statements made on the World Bank
- Taxes acquired from the salaries of national workers - Certain fees for vocational training, and
- VAT for particular products generally purchased in the national market.

Conversely, there are serious shortfalls on the part of our states due to exemptions, whether full or partial, permanent or temporary. These aspects relate to:
- Property taxes normally taking three years
- Income taxes on industrial and commercial profits taking five to ten years
- Taxes on income securities throughout the duration of the agreement
- Contributions for patents taking three to five years
- Taxes on automobiles taking three to five years
- Taxes on mortmain: three to five years
- Taxes on services: 3 to 5 years
- Registration fees, generally at the research stage is usually 3 to 5 years in the year of production
- Stamp duty: 3 to 5 years
- Taxes insurance: 3 to 5 years
- The deposits on various taxes and fees: 3 to 5 years
- Customs duties on production equipment: 3 to 5 years from the date of acquisition
- Rights to tax imports: 3 to 5 years
- Various community levies: 3 to 5 years
- VAT: 3 to 5 years on imports
- VAT: 3 to 5 years on exports
- Taxes and fees for temporary equipment: 3 to 5 years
- Depreciation of research and development expenses often provided over 10 years
- Costs of restoring site are often left to the whim of the company, even if a tax is expected
- Incentives for reinvestment: can reach 27% to 30% of the value of diamonds from the mine and is generally up to 50% of net income in the form of a provision of a fund for replenishing deposits
- Industrial and commercial income tax: companies usually negotiate this exemption under agreement with governments.

Understood in this sense, one could easily advance the argument that the losses, in terms of revenue, are far superior to the gains for our states. In effect, these various losses could constitute up to 60-70% of the revenues acquired from mineral exploitation during the first three years of industrial exploitation.

In terms of income, industrial exploitations, especially those of the mining companies, redistribute enormous revenues in our countries each year. The Sadiola goldmine for example, in Mali, shed in 1998:
- Around two billion CFA as INPS taxes
- An around one billion CFA fee as a contribution to employees’ training
- More than two billion CFA as IGR (Impôt Général sur le Revenu) on wages
- Nearly five billion CFA as total taxes on wages
- The Sadiola mine, alone contributed nearly 18 billion CFA as redistribution or returns direct to the national economy.

In addition to these official returns, extractive industries contribute, in the localities in which they operate, in the form of infrastructural development, the building of schools, roads, bridges, health centres, the purchase of medical supplies, and sanitation etc.

Extractive industries undoubtedly contribute to the rapid development of the redistribution of revenues in our countries, but the big problem remains in:
- The failure to create activities with greater lifespan for local populations once the industry is gone
- The lack of investment in productive activities for the purpose of enabling local populations to earn decent revenues during the exploitation phase
- The general tendency not to recruit local employees
- The eviction of populations from their homes, forcing them into undesirable, even hostile, areas
- The fact that costs to local populations are generally calculated in the immediate term, while consequences will remain after the industry’s presence ends
- Shortfalls to be faced for future generations are not calculated, nor taken into account in the earnings accrued during the implementation and exploitation phases of mining. Even when imposed by international institutions, as was the case with petrol in Chad, our governments are the first to transgress and to put a foot wrong.

ECONOMIC IMPACTS ON JOBS

In terms of jobs, extractive industries create several forms of employment, such as:
- Direct jobs, permanent or temporary, on site and paid by the companies
- Indirect positions in the form of services offered to the industry by private operators
- The creation and implementation of other services, which can be either formal or informal, where the mine necessitates the displacement of local populations and new needs
- The establishing of infrastructures and administrations accompanying the industry, and that the state itself is obliged to create, produces new permanent jobs.

However, analysis of the impact of extractive industries in terms of jobs must be undertaken in relation to indigenous people. Here we see evidence that:
- 97% of the staff employed by the industry originates from other countries
- Over 60% of staff is not from the producing country/the area in which the industry has been established
- Less than 10% of staff is female. And when women are hired, this is merely in lower posts such as secretaries, cooks, cleaners, etc. As a an example, we can examine all of Mali’s goldmines, which until 2003 had only a single female engineer, whose salary was well below that of her male colleagues. This is despite the fact that several women qualify as engineers in Malian institutions each year!
- With extractive industries, jobs linked with local survival (farming, cattle-raising, fishing, hunting etc.) are lost by local populations with nothing to replace them. The loss is hard and then harder still.

IMPACTS ON EXPROPRIATION

In our countries, the state owns the land, attributing rights of ownership according to circumstances and conditions that it defines.

Despite the fact that our governments have signed up to various conventions related to human rights, and despite the existence of laws to protect the welfare and property of local populations along with laws and customs within our villages and towns, the signing of various agreements on the environment, our constitutions etc., our governments continue to expropriate, often with force, owners of local premises. Many conflicts have arisen from the methods and procedures of expropriation employed, notably from the excessive zeal with which the authorities approach the matter.

In certain cases, despite the steps taken by the companies, greed helps to ensure that the measures of expropriation are discriminatory. For example, in the case of Sadiola, during the census for expropriation, widows were excluded. Such cases are common.

ECONOMIC IMPACT ON DISPLACED POPULATIONS

When the need arises, populations are displaced and evicted without adequate compensation. Equally, in the majority of cases, local populations are not informed or involved save at the last minute of companies’ arrival; studies, contracts, and authorisations are all taken care of without their knowledge. And then a short time prior to a company setting up locally, these populations will be offered new sites of resettlement, compensation for their homes, fields, and pastures etc.

So, at the risk of losing everything, local populations are sometimes forced to accept these proposals. For example, in the community of Sadiola, 43 villages have been directly affected by displacement linked to the establishing of the local mine. In Fourou, for the Syama goldmines, 121 villages were affected, or around 200,000 inhabitants.

Generally, promises made to populations are not kept in full. Schools promised are never built or are built poorly; homes promised are inappropriate for local climates; there is no drinking water or its provision is insufficient; health centres operate to dubious standards; areas designated for cultivation are not replaced; cultivable areas are not provided with equipment; etc.

The displacement and resettlement of populations remains a major headache when extractive industries set up. They are invariably a source of conflict and myriad frustrations. Unfortunately, our authorities involved in developments are simultaneously lax and corrupt, something that further inhibits any chance of an equitable arrangement.

SOCIAL IMPACTS OF MINING IN WEST AFRICA WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO MALI

On the social front, extractive industry has significant impacts on local populations.

SOCIAL IMPACTS ON HEALTH

When establishing themselves, mining companies will generally set up health centres for local residents. Under request from local authorities, extractive industries may also provide, from time to time, a contribution to health centres through donations in the form of ambulances, medical supplies, equipment, impregnated mosquito nets, and vaccinations etc. But generally these centres are poorly equipped and offer the minimum of service, while inside a company’s own hospital one will see range of technical equipment that would scarcely look out of place in a modern Western facility.

During one of our visits to Sadiola and to Syama, doctors were very proud to tell us that it would be possible for them to perform open-heart surgery with their equipment. This is how well equipped an industry hospital can be. But during the same period of time the health centres of both Sadiola and Syama were without essential medicines.

With extractive industries however, particular previously unknown illnesses have proliferated exponentially. For example, in the case of gold, we have witnessed a dizzying increase in the cases of STIs and STDs, of HIV/AIDS, of lung diseases, of cases of diarrhoea, of abortions, etc.

SOCIAL IMPACTS ON EDUCATION

New extractive industries and the resulting displacement of populations are accompanied by the construction of school infrastructure. Within their development programmes, local authorities can likewise seek the support of the industry for the building of classrooms in several of their localities. This was the case at Sikasso, for example.

Generally, schools built are modern and well equipped. In the majority of cases, extractive industries help only during the first few years of their presence, taking care of certain expenses. For example at Sadiola and at Syama, the mine provided support for the salaries of some teachers over a period of several years, purchased supplies and teaching materials for pupils and teachers, provided solar electricity for classrooms to enable students to study during the night, and provided transport funds for students to attend examinations in their final years of schooling.

Under normal conditions the opening of extractive industries should give rise to improved all-round levels of schooling and greater attendance. In reality the opposite is true however. Indeed, due to the high cost of living provoked by the opening of the mines, parents will often take their male children out of school in order to try to get them hired with the mining company. Not being well schooled, these children rapidly swell the number of unemployed once the mine ultimately closes. Young girls are taken out of school by their parents to seek work in the homes of industry employees, or as helpers for their parents. In the long term this situation results in unwanted pregnancies, STDs, STIs, and other diseases.

In the long run we ultimately find evidence that it is the children of industry employees and other workers from outside local communities who do best at local schools. Following the closure of local mines, local populations are left with classrooms with far fewer numbers and with infrastructure requiring money outside of their means. Extractive industries are a problem for children’s success at school in localities where extraction takes place. Once the industry ups and leaves, the localities they leave behind experience human deprivation in terms of low levels of schooling among boys, and even lower among girls.

IMPACTS ON HABITS AND CUSTOMS

Opening extractive industries is often accompanied by a high concentration of other populations of diverse backgrounds. Suddenly people with entirely different cultures, beliefs, traditions, habits and customs are forced to share everything.

Generally, certain trends develop in areas where extractive industries set up. This includes prostitution, an increased number of bars and brothels, higher juvenile delinquency, theft, violence and other unwanted social consequences, along with higher housing cost, and the general cost of living.

The extractive industry can easily be regarded as a monster in terms of its negative social effects. But it is not entirely negative for local populations, being also accompanied by the introduction of particular examples of scientific and technological progress which improve the availability of modern conveniences. Establishing mining companies has for example accelerated the access of the communities of Sadiola and Fourou to new Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and its associated equipment, to banking and financial systems, and to improved road transport.

IMPACTS ON TRANQUILLITY AND HOMES

Statistics are generally not readily available for this particular area. We can however comment that as a result of the establishing of extractive industries social tranquillity is often affected. In terms of people’s homes, a degree of instability exists linked to educational imbalances as a consequence of the prolonged absence of a parent. The cardinal virtues of marriage and educating children are essentially trampled on. Money is the only thing that matters. Everything is done while saying that one day or another ‘I’ll get out of here at the end of my contract.’

Divorce is common, along with alcoholic fathers. Incidents of infidelity increase under the power of money. Particular behaviour becomes no longer socially unacceptable, morally and socially forbidden, or a cause for shame. Money becomes the motor of social life. Working within extractive industry becomes a sort of privilege that places certain men above their peers. Social and moral values disappear.

POINTS OF CONCLUSION

If extractive industries are a source of revenue for our leaders, which they certainly are, they are also capable of being more. Which is why there is great need for civil control of the use and application of revenue generated by extractive industry. A two-way dialogue providing information, in other words communication, would be indispensable in enabling local populations who are victims of the industry to change their fortunes in the face of deteriorating livelihoods.

Certain provisions in the form of a framework for West African countries will allow our states to face up to the power of the mining companies. Many methods, approaches and means are required to put a stop to the current mismanagement of our national resources, starting with the extractive industries. If the companies themselves are united in capitalising on our riches, it is united that we ourselves will learn to profit from our soil and sub-soil.

* Moussa K. Traoré is a Malian economist and financial consultant at the Bureau d’Expertise en Management et Conseils en Entreprise. This article was translated from a piece featured in the 73rd French-language Pambazuka News, originally titled Les impacts économiques et sociaux des industries extractives.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Unearthing scandals within extractive industries

Tidiane Kassé

2008-10-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/51590

Reflecting on an Institut Panos Afrique de l’Ouest (IPAO) training workshop for West African journalists held at beginning of October, Tidiane Kassé provides an introduction to the murky world of extractive industry in the region and the role of the media in informing public opinion.

Many African countries have been said to be geological scandals. But whether bauxite from Guinea, gold from Mali, diamonds from the DR Congo, copper from Zambia or uranium from Niger, the continent’s mineral wealth has served far more to produce multifaceted scandals and tragedies than to promote the development of its people. While shadily generated wealth accumulates, extractive industries produce misfortune over happiness.

In an opaque scene supported by a network of complicity, corruption and widespread governmental inability to implement policies that respect national interests, multinationals plunder the continent. This is a situation that facilitates failing states, but also one where insufficiently informed public opinion about these scandals perpetually inhibits the mobilisation of a defence of national interests. And looting persists with impunity until dramas begin to awaken consciences. It was with the Tuareg rebellion for example that we began to open our eyes to the exploitative conditions around uranium extraction in Niger. We also know that war in Liberia has long been fuelled by ‘blood diamonds.’ Elsewhere, in other forms, African people suffer through living on land deemed ‘too rich for them’ in areas where external appetites are satisfied with little concern for local interests.

To allow ‘access and the dissemination of independent and reliable information to citizens in general and to affected communities in particular, with each step in the exploitation of natural resources (exploration, operations, management and the redistribution of income),’ the Institut Panos Afrique de l’Ouest (IPAO) held a training workshop on extractive industries for journalists from the 6 to the 10 October, at which fifteen journalists from Mali, Niger and Senegal took part. The workshop is part of a programme to promote information on extractive industries, which will be extended by a media campaign in order to offer further information on the subject, and to bring to light issues in a sector whose economic importance is matched only by its various destabilising effects in countries in which it develops.

The campaign supports a theme that will likely form one of the main debates to be raised at the next African Social Forum (FSA), which will be hosted by Niger from 20 to 25 November 2008. This debate has often been problematic at the FSA, but this time should occupy a more important dimension in the level of mobilisation exhibited by Nigerian civil society on the issue of extractive industries. For the training of journalists, experts on extractive industry issues make various resources available to journalists in the effort to help them gain a better understanding of the sector and be better able to inform public opinion.

* Tidiane Kassé is the editor of the French edition of Pambazuka News.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Report on the fourth Kenyan National Youth Convention (NYC)

Yves Niyiragira

2008-10-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/51589

Some four years after delegates met at Bomas to discuss Kenya’s constitutional review, the country’s National Youth Convention descended upon the very same location for the purpose of discussing Kenyan youth’s role and opportunities within the Kenyan state. As in other African countries, the NYC argues, young people in Kenya constitute a majority and deserve greater scope for influencing the direction of their nation and setting the agendas it follows.
It was in 2004 at Bomas in Kenya - a centre of cultural values - that delegates of different interests and aspirations from all over the country met to discuss the country’s constitution review. This 18 – 20 September 2008, more than four years later, close to a thousand young women and men from all provinces and diverse backgrounds of the Kenyan nation convened at the extraordinary session of the National Youth Convention (NYC IV) at the same venue, but this time not for discussing about the constitution review but in order to put together strengths to rebuild their nation and reconcile their communities.
Though there have been some positive changes since the first national youth convention took place in 1997 such as the creation of the ministry of youth and a fund for young entrepreneurs, the recent post-election crisis was the main reason for organising the fourth and extraordinary session of the national youth convention.

According to the statistics of Mars Group Kenya, persons under the age of 35 years make up 79.1 percent of the entire 35,890,645 Kenyan population. However, the same source adds that only six percent of this population - people above 55 years of age - controls the country’s economy and dictates its politics.

After considering how young people were the most vulnerable in the post-election crisis, the ethnic revulsion that intensified its spread among Kenyans, marginalisation of youth in the daily life of the country, growing youth unemployment and lack of access to loans and capitals, youth leaders decided to convene the NYC IV under the motto and theme ‘Vijana Tujipange’ (young people, let us get ready) and ‘Rebuilding our nation...reconciling our communities: The challenges and prospects for young Kenyans’ respectively.

One of the conveners, George G., told me: ‘We want this convention to be a process of involving young Kenyans in rebuilding and reconstructing our country. Kenya has become a role model not only in the East Africa Community, but also in Africa. We want this convention to be a pan-African movement where young people have a role in building their countries.’

To emphasise on the pan-African side of the NYC IV, conveners had invited about a hundred youth from other African countries and the rest of the world to share experiences and learn from each other.

The NYC IV started with many expectations from the participants. They hoped, among other things, to have a clear agenda of youth participation in the country, to be involved in the constitutional review process, to see the National Youth Policy - a bill that seeks to concretise the role of young people in the national agenda - become a reality, to mobilise other youth in the country and to get young people involved in entrepreneurship and other business activities.
Other speakers went further to ask for less government bureaucracy, the reduction of the current 40 ministries to 13, for 60 percent of the government budget to be spent on development projects, for punishment for all civil servants implicated in corruption scandals, and to have a government free from dishonesty.

The convention, carefully organised around seven plenary sessions, six hosted sessions, four track sessions - about Kenya’s current issues - and other open discussions, had on the agenda the concretisation of the role of young people in the national agenda, historical injustices in Kenya, ethnicity and the challenges of nationhood, setting priorities and a rational framework for reconstruction of post-conflict Kenya, evaluation of the National Accord - a reconstruction and reconciliation accord signed after the election crisis - its implementation and the role of young people in the process and the completion of the constitutional review process.

After their deliberations, the NYC IV participants gave a formal announcement that they termed ‘Draft Bomas Declarations.’ Under this document, the delegates reaffirmed that the NYC is the forum and movement of patriotic youth of Kenya, a legitimate forum for consensus building, agenda setting and strategy building for the the country’s transformation into a democratic, just and prosperous nation.

The NYC IV demanded an all inclusive, participatory and democratic constitution making process. Young people, who constitute the majority of Kenya and who will be governed under the forthcoming constitution, must fully participate in the making of that constitution. The NYC declares that while the national accord and reconciliation agreements helped to halt violent eruptions and breakdown of law and order in Kenya, the framework is anti-people, anti-youth and not accountable. The national accord and reconciliation framework must be reconfigured so that it is youth centred and pro-people.

Delegates further stated that the government formed under the national accord framework is anti-people, corrupt and wasteful. The young people of Kenya shall work with all other democratic forces to ensure that Kenya is governed by a clean, lean, just, accountable and responsive government. ‘We here and now as the youth of Kenya declare that we shall not deal with the grand coalition government on a business-as-usual mode’, they added.

The NYC IV was another step forward in democracy in Kenya, the east African region and Africa as a whole, where young people, who constitute the majority in African counties, set the agenda and decide how their countries have to be ruled. It is a process to be encouraged if Africa is to become a democratic continent where the rule of law prevails.

* Yves Niyiragira is from Burundi and started working with Fahamu as a volunteer in the Nairobi office in 2006. He now works on the AU Monitor initiative.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Bantu origins of the Sidis of India

Abdulaziz Y. Lodhi

2008-10-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/51594

Scattered and less known communities of African descent in the Indian sub-continent, Sri Lanka and the nearby islands in the Indian Ocean are generally known as Sidi or Siddi. Their presence in India was first mentioned in colonial annals as a novelty or in Census Reports (Freeman.Grenville 1988:XVII).(1) However, recently several serious studies about their history, social organisation, cultural and economic activity, their military exploits in the various colonial armies and their political participation have been presented at international conferences by both Indian and Western scholars (Indian Ocean Studies Conference 2002, UCLA, Jayasuriya and Pankhurst 2003).(2)

AFRO-INDIANS’ HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Camara (1997) reported the self-identifying ‘Afro-Indians’–Indians of African origin in India–to number about 35,000, who have settled in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka, and in the former Portuguese territories of Daman, Diu and Goa. Today their number is estimated to be 76,000 in Gujarat alone.(3) In Gujarat they are found in the districts of Ahmedabad, Amerili, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Bharuch, Ratanpur, Surendranagar and Cutch. According to the Census Report of India (Naik & Pandya, 1981), Sidis in Gujarat in 1971 numbered about 5,000 and during the past decades their number has increased slightly and has been fairly constant there because of migration, mainly to the Mumbai region.(4) They are normally settled in areas/hamlets/villages of their own but in Ahmedabad, Bharuch and Cutch they live in mixed areas as they do in parts of Andhra Pradesh.

These Afro-Indians are variously known as Sidhi/Sidi/Siddi or Habshi/Habsi in India, Shidi/Shidee in Pakistan and Kaffir in Sri Lanka. It is generally accepted by scholars that these ethnonyms tell us that the Sidis were in the employ of Sayyads, the Muslim rulers of India, and that many of them came from Ethiopia and Sudan in the 1500s as mercenaries and prisoners of war sold as slaves (Pankhurst 2003).(5) The Arabic religious and/or aristocratic title ‘Sayyad’ or ‘Sayyid’is usually given as the etymology of the ethnonyms Sidhi, Sidhdhi, Siddi, Sidi, or Shidi.

My recent research into the etymology of the term Sidi, and its variants, suggests a possible alternative meaning of the term Sidi. Differing from the established Arabic religious and/or aristocratic title ‘Sayyad’, ‘Sayyid’, ‘Seyyid’, Sayed or ‘Syed’ (with the non-emphatic / s / consonant ‘siin’ () (6) ultimately reduced to ‘Sidi’ in many African dialects of Arabic)(7), the term ‘saydi’, with the emphatic /  / consonant ‘saad’ () not reduced, means ‘captive’ or ‘prisoner of war.’

In the past, Sudanese and Ethiopian prisoners of war were sold as slaves to other African rulers who sold them to slave traders who in turn brought them to the Middle East and India. As late as the beginning of the 20th century, in the Ottoman armies there were more than 10,000 African mercenaries spread all over the Ottoman empire. The term Sidi might have been borrowed in India from early Arabic/Ottoman usage. In pre-Ottoman period, African soldiers in India were referred to as Habshi or Habsi).(8) Early African soldiers in India appear to have been mostly freemen and mercenaries, and it has been established that there were several groups of Africans who were traders and sailors who had immigrated to India. Thus all Africans in India were not slaves nor were they of slave descent. However, Sidis in the Portuguese enclaves and most Sidi females in domestic employ in the aristocratic households were probably slaves or of slave origin.(9) Ian Hancock (PC 1996) is of the opinion that many Sidis appear to have deserted the various armies at different times and found refuge among the Gypsy/Roma already in India and also after the Roma came to Europe, and were assimilated. This is sometimes apparent in the physiognomy of some Roma with darker complexion and somewhat woolly hair.

A great majority of the Sidis of India today are Sunni Muslims, and the few Hindus and Christians are found in Daman, Goa and Karnataka.(10) The Karnataka Sidis are descendants of the deserters who left Portuguese Goa and fled to the forest across the border, and they most probably originate in Mozambique and Angola.(11)

The Sidis are loosely organised into mostly endogamous tribes or professional castes. The Royal Sidis are survivors of the former Sidi State of Jafarabad established by the Sidi Naval Chief of Janjira during the time of the warrior King Shivaji of the Maratha in the mid-1600s. These Jafarabad Sidis together with the Royal Sidis in Hyderabad, Aurangabad and the former Sidi principalities of Radhanpur in the Kathiawar region of north Gujarat, and in Sachin near the port of Surat, marry mostly among themselves or with upper class/caste Muslim Indians.(12) In some cases they have special tribal names such as the Tai of Saurashtra, the Shemali of Jambur (probably of Somali origin)(13), the Kafara(14) of Diu (probably from southern Mozambique and/or South Africa) and the Saheli(15) of Daman (probably from the Kenya-Tanzania coast). In a few cases in Cutch they also have traditional Indian caste names such as Sidhi Langa (musicians/drummers), Sidhi Dhobi (washermen) and Sidhi Kharwa (sailors).

The Kafara Sidi of Diu have maintained some of their East African customs and a few linguistic items. Small groups of Shemali Sidis and Saheli Sidis have kept alive some rites and rituals from their East African Bantu past, but otherwise the Sidis are de facto Indians since they speak Indian languages as their mother-tongues and practice mostly the Indian variant of Sunni Islam with the Indian Sufi cult of pir (saint) with rituals and celebrations performed at a dargah (mausoleums, shrine). At these shrines they worship also ancestors and founders of settlements (Patel 1986, Catlin 2002, Basu 2002, and Shroff 2002).(16)

There are several legends about the origins of some early Sidi settlements but so far no contemporary written record has been found to verify their early oral history or substantiate the Sidi claims of various ancestries. However, there are a few early reports by European officials and travellers and one short language study by the explorer Richard F. Burton (1851). According to one commonly accepted legend (Patel 1986), the founder of the Sidi settlement in Jambur in Gujarat is supposed to have originally come from Kano in Nigeria via the Sudan and Mecca after his Hajj pilgrimage. This leader was a wealthy merchant by the name of Bawa/Baba Ghor who first settled in the Rajpipla Hills near Bharuch and Khambat where he developed mining and trade in agate, the precious stone known as akik in India.(17) A certain variety of agate beads are known as Baba Ghori, and another maroon cornelian stone is named after his sister and successor Mai Mariyam, also known as Mai Misra/Mishra.(18)

It appears that a large number of Sidis came, or were brought, to India from different parts of Africa as soldiers to serve in the Muslim armies of the Nawabs and Sultans, hence their Muslim faith and relative absence of the Hindu caste system among them. Many were officials in the Muslim, and later Hindu, armies and as royal bodyguards some of them rose to power in more than one place, such as Jafarabad, Radhanpur, Ahmedabad and Aurangabad. Some were singers and ceremonial drummers. In Gujarat the drummers are known as nagarchi, and the chief drummer had the title of nagarsha(h) (king of drums). In Cutch and Sindh, the Sidi singer-drummers are known as langa (male lango, female langi) and they are prestigious and respectable professionals. It is also claimed by the Shemali Sidi that one of Bawa Ghor's younger brothers was a nagarsha in the former Kingdom of Madhapur, and he is worshipped as one of the several pirs in Jambur.
Some Sidis came to India as special servants in the courts of Muslim Nawabs and Sultans, some came as herbalists and midwives, a few were brought by Indian merchants returning home from Africa, and a few were brought as domestic slaves especially in the Portuguese territories (Shirodkar 1985:27 and passim).

Noble north Indian families had a convention of keeping Habshi, or other non-Indians, as personal attendants since servants having no local social or blood connections or roots guaranteed political loyalty and security (as was the case with the Arab/Omani sultans of Zanzibar whose armed forces and administrative personnel consisted mainly of the Balochi and Makrani of Iran/Pakistan, and Cutchi/Sindhi and Pathan of north-west India). Very few African slaves were brought to the Indian sub-continent to provide cheap labour. Ownership of African slaves was an expensive affair since local Indian feudal practices related to slavery provided abundant indigenous cheap or free labour to rulers, landowners and the upper castes. The rulers of India could also obtain slaves of various categories from other parts of Asia, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. The descendants of these slaves of different origins in most Muslim societies generally cannot be distinguished as racial or ethnic groups or minorities since most of them were employed in the higher administration and the armies, serving different governments and later marrying the natives. As Bates & Rassam (1989) describe it, they were a kind of life-long servants of the ruler, rather than slaves in the Western sense.

SIDIS TODAY

Before the arrival of British rule in India, the Sidis were undergoing a process of assimilation, but the British divide-and-rule policy segregated the Sidi groups from one another and also from the indigenous Indian communities in which they lived. As a result, the Sidis have been ‘re-tribalised’ and have become impoverished in many areas.(19)

Those Sidi settlements in Gujarat that are organised as separate communities with a tribal system existing outside the main political stream and currents of socio-economic development have been classified by the central government as ‘scheduled tribes’ and they get central government support. Jambur Village near Madhapur with its own panchayat (five member leadership committee), a primary school and a shop, was the first Sidi enclosure to get such support (Census of India 1961). Most Sidis in Gujarat are farmers and unskilled workers, but in other regions one finds Sidi doctors, lawyers, policemen, journalists, technicians, teachers, businessmen and landowners. There is an inter-state movement to organise and unite all the Sidi groups and improve their economic conditions and raise their social status. An increasing number of them are realising economic improvement as entertainers in the growing tourist industry.

SIDIS AND LANGUAGE

East African slaves were randomly caught, or were recruited from different tribal lands; they usually spoke related languages and several individuals came from the same area or were members of the same ethnic group. For these reasons they could communicate in an Eastern African language in the beginning, but as mixed groups, small in numbers and spread over wide areas surrounded by large Indian languages with a long tradition, they could not maintain nor transmit their original languages and cultures to future generations. Instead they became Indianised, leaving few African linguistic traces in their speech and cultural registers of terminology. Another factor was Islam, the religion of the politically dominant section of the Indian society with whom the Sidis were initially allied, which became a common denominator of their cultural identification and also facilitated their social and linguistic integration, and economic, political and military success in many areas before the advent of the British colonial rule.

Thus the Sidis today speak Gujarati (or a mixture of Gujarati and Hindi) in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. In the district of Cutch they speak Cutchi (a dialect of Sindhi), and in Daman and Diu they speak the local Gujarati dialects with a few Swahili/Bantu words and phrases. In Sindh they speak Sindhi and also Urdu, and Dakhini in Andhra Pradesh. Other groups of Sidis speak Marathi, Malayalam, Konkani or Kannada according to their region of settlement.

Richard Burton’s wordlist of 1851 is ‘a brief and random lexicon’ (Freeman-Grenville 1988:18) of the Sidi language as spoken in coastal Sindh and Cutch at that time and contains altogether 122 words and phrases, numerals and 22 place names including some tribal homelands; the latter are all derived from languages spoken in Tanzania (Shambaa, Zigua, Ngindo and Yao) which points to the Tanzanian mainland as their original home. In other parts of the Indian sub-continent, some linguistic items from Mozambique (from Makua, Nyanja and Yao languages) and Malawi (Nyanja/Chewa) have been identified.(20)

The following is a short list extracted from Richard Burton’s ‘Sidi’ language (collected in Sindh during 1849-50, and not claimed by him nor by the contemporary Sidis to be Swahili).

Burton’s ‘Sidi language’ Modern/Standard Swahili (based on Zanzibar Town):

moto moto (fire; hot)
komongo chuma (iron, iron bar)
maji maji (water)
nyumba nyumba (house, home)
somba samaki, insi, nswi (fish)
vura mvua (rain)
khundoro kondoo/khondoo (sheep)
mawingo mawingu (clouds)
pinde pinde (bow)
mukoki mkuki (spear)
menu meno (teeth)
nyoere nywele (hair)
muguru mguu (foot)
macho macho (eyes)
devo ndevu, devu (beard)
mototo mtoto (child, son)
baba ya baba (father)
viyakazi (daughter) vijakazi (slave girls, maids)
moya moja (one)
perhi mbili (two), pili (second)
tahtu tatu/thathu (three)
mme nne (four)
thano tano/thano (five)
thandatu sita (six)
fungate saba (seven, week) (Old Swahili ‘fungate’)
mnani nane (eight)
mpya tisa, kenda (nine)
kummi kumi (ten)
akachukola akachukua (he/she took it away)
akaje akaja (he/she came)
akanepa akanipa (he/she gave me)
akabija akauza (he/she sold it)
akafenga akaiba (he/she stole it)

Place names, languages and ethnonyms mentioned by the Sidis of Sindh and recorded by Burton (1851) are:

Lamo (Lamu along north Kenya coast)
Baramaji (Mbwamaji south of Daressalaam)
Kinkhwere (Kinghwele spoken south of Daressalaam)

Whiteley (1969:52) reported ‘…many slaves seem to have come from the coastal areas, and the ‘Sidi’ language appears to have been one they could all speak… Though they include members of some inland tribes, such as Nyamwezi and Sagara, many are easily recognizable as coastal groups, e.g. ‘Dengereko, Makonde, Matumbi, Gindo, Mudoe, Mzigra, etc.’ Mr. R. B. Patel, of Nairobi, tells me that there is still a Swahili-speaking ‘Sidi’ community in Kathiawar, in the remote Gir forest some 200 miles S.W. of Ahmedabad.’ (This Sidi community is in Jambur, the ‘negro village’ with about 150 households, which the present author visited in March 2008.)

Recent fieldwork among the Sidis in Ratanpur and Bhavnagar in Gujarat during January 2007 has yielded only about a dozen Bantu/Swahili single word items and about a dozen phrases and a couple of complete Swahili-sounding sentences, e.g. ‘Ee manamuki, wapi koenda?’ (You young woman, where are you going?). In modern Swahili it would be ‘Wee mwanamke, unakwenda wapi?’ A couple of sentences were of mixed Bantu-Gujarati construction, e.g. ‘Kulya karwa jae!’ (Let us go to eat! Bantu ‘kulya’ = to eat, eating; Gujarati ‘karwa jae’ = let us go to do). One lexical item, ‘injoro’ (curry, gravy) used in Ratanpur, is not derived from any Bantu language but rather from the Ethiopian usage ‘injira’ (or Somali ‘anjera’).(21)

POINTS OF CONCLUSION

In the face of globaliSation which seems to make the world become more inter-connected, ethnicity is increasingly emphasised in many parts of the world where claims to specific local identities and renewed or (re)constructed ethnicities are more loudly presented.

The Sidis of Gujarat in India are a fragmented East African community of mixed ancestry, primarily descendants of Muslim African traders, sailors and mercenaries. A few of them are of slave origin. Today they speak Gujarati and Cutchi with only a few Swahili/Bantu expressions mostly connected with their Sufi ritual dances and music.

A long period of relative Sidi isolation has been broken by both Indian and Western anthropological and historical interest in the various Sidi communities and this has given them a wider recognition both at home and abroad. In the last few years, Sidi cultural societies have been organising international festivals in Gujarat and participating in international cultural gatherings in East Africa with their song and dance troupes that have also been touring the West. These renewed contacts of the Sidis with East Africa have increased slightly the number of Swahili/Bantu word stock in their Gujarati and Cutchi; for example the Sidis, though being culturally and linguistically de facto Indian, are emphasising their African heritage and their entertainment groups are now increasingly using Swahili greetings when addressing their public, and their men dress like the East African Swahili Muslims. An increasing number of Sidi individuals are also involved in modern sports (football) and athletics (running) especially in Pakistan, thus playing the role of an essential factor of Sidi ethnic identity.

Over the course of the last decade, several Western researchers have been emphasising the ‘Africanness’ of the Sidis and have exaggerated their ‘slave origins’ (Kjaerholm 1992, Whitehead 1997 and 1999), an exaggeration which some Sidi groups are capitalising on. Recently a couple of Sidi groups of artists have toured East Africa and Europe on a commercial basis performing Sufi dances and songs with the repertoire in Gujarati and Hindi mixed with some Swahili phrases. It seems, the Sidis are ‘adopting’ Swahili as ‘their’ ancestral language, as many African-American communities have done in the United States. Sufi cult and dance groups (e.g. the ‘Sidi Goma’ and ‘the black Sufis of Gujarat’), healing rituals, spirit possession and exorcism, and annual celebrations, have become objects of historical and social anthropological research mostly supported by Western institutions and they are increasingly becoming exotic tourist attractions.(22)
James Clifford (1997:257) rightly points out that ‘The currency of diaspora discourse extends to a wide range of populations and historical predicaments.’ Many individuals, groups and whole communities of the African diaspora around the world have reconstructed, reinvented and imagined their ancestral homeland,(23) and the Sidis of Gujarat are increasingly perceiving East Africa, misconceiving particularly Zanzibar–the central slave market of the Indian Ocean during the 18th and 19th centuries–as the home of their African ancestors and Swahili as their ancestral language. Globalisation and technological advances have strongly pushed the Sidi communities in the general trend in the world of nations becoming culturally heterogeneous, with minority languages, or minority language use, in some cases playing the role of an essential factor of ethnic identity, whether traditionally inherited or newly constructed.

* Abdulaziz Y. Lodhi is an associate professor in Swahili and Comparative Bantu at the Department of Linguistics & Philology at the Uppsala University, Sweden.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

References:

(1) The Greco-Egyptian maritime manual Periples of the Erithraean Sea written around the first century AD mentions export of slaves from East Africa to the northern shores of the Indian Ocean, but provides no figures. In official Indian annals, the earliest mention of African presence in India is in the person of Jamaliddin bin Yakut, the stable master of Raziya Begum, Empress Radiyya of Delhi (AD 1236-40).
(2) The pioneering works highlighting the African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean and South Asia are by George Shepperson (1968) and Joseph I. Harris (1971/1977), a comparative perspective of which is provided by Edward A. Alpers (2003). CONEXOES Newsletter of the African Diaspora Research Project, Michigan State University, contains reports on extensive ongoing research in the field of African diaspora in general. Another very recent work edited by Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy and Edward A. Alpers (2004) contains a dozen different accounts of various aspects of Sidi history, culture and ethnicity in India.
(3) PC with Miss Farida Sidi of Sidi Goma Al-Mubrik Charitable Foundation, Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India.
(4) PC with various participants of the IOS 2002. In 1853 it was reported by Major Hammerton, the British Consul in Muscat, that ‘a lively slave trade existed between Zanzibar and the Indian states of Cutch and Kathiawar’ (Jayasurya and Pankhurst 2003:10). Since this trade would have by today generated tens of thousands of descendants of those ‘slaves’, it is my contention that such a ‘lively’ trade could not have existed, and that instead there were many East Africans who came to Cutch as sailors and short-term employees of the Cutchi, Sindhi and Kathiawari merchant houses. Moreover, my data collected from the archives of Zanzibar do not support the claims of a lively trade in slaves between East Africa and India during the 1850s. See also Shirodkar (1985) for the Portuguese slave trade between Mozambique and Goa.
(5) Malik Ambar, the ruler of Ahmadnagar during 1601-1626 was of Ethiopian origin and was succeeded by his son. Another African historically noted was Sidi Sayyid, a wealthy ex-slave who in 1573 built the famous Juma Masjid, the great Friday Mosque in Ahmedabad, with the help of African architects and craftsmen (Harries 1998:98). See also several studies by Richard Pankhurst on the Ethiopian diaspora in India. For details on African aristocracies in India see Robbins, Kenneth X. and John McLeod (Editors). 2006. African Elites in India: Habshi Amarat. Ahmedabad. Mapin Publishing Pvt, Ltd.
(6) Lodhi: posting to the forum NAMASKAR-AFRIKANA-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM, 24 September 1998.
(7) The ethnonym ‘Sidi’ was taken from northern India by the British and applied to all Afro-Indians, and today it is used by many Sidis as a surname. Its earliest mention in English is by W. Bedwell in 1615 as a name or title of honour of Africans and African descendents in high position in the Middle East and India (OUP 1919).
(8) The ethnonym ‘Chaush’ used by the Sidis of Hyderabad is a Turkish loan originally meaning ‘military commander’ or ‘officer in charge’. In pre-colonial Swahili one finds chausi, shaushi and bishausi with the same connotations as in Ottoman Turkish and Hindi/Urdu.
(9) Such female domestic servants of African or mixed descent in the aristocratic households were referred to as khadi in Gujarati, which is derived from Arabic khadim (serf) and also loaned into Swahili as khadimu/hadimu.
(10) Lodhi, field notes and PC with Professor Jayanti K.Patel, Dept. of Sociology, Ahmedabad, January 1991. Patel has collected a wealth of sociological and cultural-anthropological material on the Siddi of Gujarat, but almost nothing linguistic. The present writer was given the opportunity to go through Siddi wedding and other songs in Gujarati in which only a few Bantu words were identified. A couple of other non-Indic items appearing in these songs from Jambur which were not of Arabic, Persian or Turkish origin may be of Hausa, Amharic or Somali origin.
(11) It should be noted that most of the Gujarati Sidis I have spoken with categorically claim that they are not of slave descent! They are ‘Badshahi’ i.e. ‘of royal employ’ having aristocratic connections.
(12) This can be compared with the situation in Sri Lanka where in 2001 there was only one reported marriage between two Kafara Sidi partners. All other Kafara marriages involved a non-Kafara partner (PC Jayasuriya, April 2002).
(13) The term ‘Shemali’ seems to be derived from ‘somali’ which is also pronounced ‘shomali’ in various Indic langauges.
(14) The term ’Kafara’ is of Arabic origin meaning ’pagan’ and in the colonial usage of various European languages in eastern and southern Africa, it was borrowed from Swahili to mean ‘negro’ or ‘black’. The British took many southern African Kaffirs to the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius, Seychelles etc after 1847 from Kafraria, the British Cape Colony Reserve near Cape Town.
(15) The term ’Saheli’ is derived from the Swahili word ’mswahili’ originally meaning ’of/from the coast’. It is derived from Arabic swahil (coast) and swahily (of/from the coast).
(16) Updated findings of these four authors are published in Catlin-Jairazbhoy and Alpers (2004).
(17) This stone is known as akiki in Eastern Africa. It is an Arabic loanword both in the Indian and East African languages. For details of this trade, see J. Mark Kenoyer and Kuldip K. Bhan: ‘Sidis and the agate bead industry of Western India’ in Catlin-Jairazbhoy and Alpers (2004:42-61).
(18) According to one tradition in the Dongri district of Mumbai, Mai Misra is called so because she came to India via ‘Misre’ or ‘Misar’ (Egypt).
(19) However, during the early British rule in East Africa, dozens of Cutchi and Gujarati speaking Siddi individuals and families from the ports of Mandvi and Surat immigrated to Zanzibar and Mombasa where they are today completely assimilated into the East African Swahili-speaking coastal Muslim communities. Many more were repatriated by the British and rehabilitated by the various mission stations along the East African coast and converted to Christianity. Descendants of these are today recognised as Christian first language speakers of Swahili in Mombasa, Tanga, Daressalaam and Zanzibar. However, this repatriation did not have any notable impact on India or East Africa and the diaspora in general as it was over the Atlantic in West Africa.
(20) I have recently suggested for Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy (working on the Sidis of Gujarat) and Sabir Badalkhan (working on the Sheedis of Pakistani Baluchistan) the etymology of a couple of ‘Sidi’ linguistic items, among them ‘magulman’ as Bantu ‘magulu mane’, the four legged high drum commonly used during the Sidi Sufi performances. The term ‘magulman’ is also used by the Baluchistan Shidi to refer to the songs sung with this drum, and the performance itself may be called ‘magulman’, which is sometimes pronounced as ‘mugalman’ leading some people to erroneously assume that the drum and the dances are from the Mugal court or period. The phrase ‘magulu mane’ is commonly found in several local languages of Mainland Tanzania such as Zaramo/Zalamo, Shambaa/Shambala, Bondei and Zigua/Zigula, speakers who were part of the East African diaspora to Gujarat via southern Somalia during the first three quarters of the 1800s.
(21) In the about 50 ‘Jikr’ of the Sidi lady Rumanaben Bilal of Ahmedabad collected by Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy, there are many Bantu/Swahili words, phrases and even some complete sentences, most of which are not understood by the Sidis themselves. This linguistic data together with the data from January 2007 will be analysed and published by the present writer in the near future. (22) This phenomenon has been capitalised on by several radio and TV channels such as the private station Talking Africa (June 2002, London) and the BBC which aired a series of programmes in November 2000 and an article entitled ‘The lost Africans of India’ by Andrew Whitehead of The World Today ( BBC News Online Friday 24 November, 2000). This approach has the tendency to formalize a ‘collective memory’ in the words of Robin Cohen (1997).
(23) For a broad history and deeper discussion of these issues, see Sidney Lemelle and Robin D. G. Kelly, 1994.

Alpers Edward A. 2003. The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean: A Comparative Perspective, in Jayasuriya, Shihan de Silva and Richard Pankhurst (Eds.), pp. 19-50.

Basu, Helene. 1994. Habshi-Sklaven, Sidi-Fakiren: muslimische Heiligenverehrung im westlichen Indien. Berlin: Das Arabische bok.

Basu, Helene. 2002. Indian Sidi – African Query. Paper, Indian Ocean Studies Conference, University of California, Los Angeles.

Bates, D. G. and A. Rassam. 1989. Peoples & Cultures of the Middle East. Trenton NJ: Prentice Hall.

Burton, Richard F. 1851. Sindh, and the Races that inhabit the Valley of the Indus, London.
Camara, Charles. 1997. Afro-Indians – a preliminary survey. Conference Paper, The Northwestern Indian Ocean as Cultural Corridor, 17-19 January 1997, Dept. of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, Sweden.

Catlin, Amy. 2002. To tour or To be toured – African Indians at Home and Abroad. Paper, Indian Ocean Studies Conference, University of California, Los Angeles.

Catlin-Jairazbhoy, Amy and Edward A. Alpers (Eds.). 2004. Sidis and Scholars: Essays on African Indians. Trenton, NJ: The Red Sea Press, Inc.

Census of India Vol.5, Part 5B, No.1, 1961. Siddi - a negroid tribe of India. Ethnographic Series, Gujarat.

Census of India Vol.5, Part 6, No.10, 1961. Village Survey Monograph: Jambur. Ethnographic Series, Gujarat.

Census of India. 1981. District census handbook. Village and town directory – Siddi District.
Series 11 Madhya Pradesh, Part XIII-A.

Clifford, James. 1997. Routes: Travels and Translations in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Cohen, Robin. 1997. Global Diasporas: An Introduction. London: UCL Press.
CONEXOES. 1989-91. Newsletter of the African Diaspora Research Project, Vols. 1-3. Dept. of Sociology, Michigan State University, East Lancing.

Freeman-Grenville, G.S.P. 1988. The Swahili Coast - 2nd to 19th Centuries. London: Variorum Reprints. (Ch. XVII The Siddi and Swahili)

Harris, Joseph E. 1977. African presence in Asia: consequences of the East African slave trade. Evanston: University of Illinois Press.

_____________. 1993. (Ed.) Global dimentions of the African diaspora. Washington: Howard University Press.

_____________. 1998. Africans And Their History. New York: Penguin/Meridian.
Jayasuriya, Shihan de Silva and Richard Pankhurst (Eds.). 2003. The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press.

Kjaerholm, Lars. 1992. Så överlevde Indiens negerslavar. Illustrerad Vetenskap 3:46-49, 79. Stockholm.

Lemelle, Sidney and Robin D. G. Kelly (Eds.). 1994. Imagining Home – Class, Culture and Nationalism in the African Diaspora. London and New York: Verso.

Lodhi, Abdulaziz Y. 1992. African Settlements in India. Nordic Journal of African Studies 1(1):83-87.

_____________. African Settlements in India. NAMASKAR-AFRIKANA-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM,
24 September 1998.

_____________. Sidhi, the East African community in Gujarat: Globalization in earlier days and their situation today. Paper presented to the Panel on Globalization and Minority Languages in South Asia, 18th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, 6-9 July 2004, Lund, Sweden.

Misra, Satish C. 1964. Muslim Communities in Gujarat: Preliminary studies in their History and Social Organisation. New York: Asia Publishing House.

Naik, T. B. and G. P. Pandya. 1981. The Sidis of Gujarat (A Socio-Economic Study and a Development Plan).

Tribal Research & Training Institute: Ahmedabad.

_____________. 1993. The Sidis of Gujarat (A Socio-Economic Study and a Development Plan).
Tribal Research & Training Institute: Ahmedabad.

OUP 1919, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, Vol IX Part I, Oxford University Press, London.

Patel, Jayanti K. 1986. African Settlements in Gujarat. India Quarterly, July-Sept.:238-246.

Pankhurst, Richard. 2003. The Ethiopian Diaspora to India, in Jayasuriya, Shihan de Silva and Richard Pankhurst (Eds.), pp. 189-221.

Robbins, Kenneth X. and John McLeod (Editors). 2006. African Elites in India: Habshi Amarat. Ahmedabad. Mapin Publishing Pvt, Ltd.

Shepperson, George. 1968. The African Abroad or the African Diaspora, in T. O. Ranger (Ed.), Emerging Themes of African History. Nairobi: pp. 152-176.

Shirodkar, P. P. 1985. Slavery in Coastal India. Purabhilekh Puratatva 3(1):27-44. State Archives: Panaji, India.

Shroff, Beheroze. 2002. Sidis and Parsis – a film project. Paper, Indian Ocean Studies Conference, University of California, Los Angeles.

Whitehead, Andrew. 1997. Stranded In A Foreign Land – an African community without a past. BBC FOCUS ON AFRICA , Jan-March:28-30.

_____________. 1999. Asian Blacks’ Unique Past Is Ever Present – the other African Diaspora.
International Herald Tribune, April 13.

_____________. 2000. The lost Africans of India. The World Today, BBC News Online, Friday 24 November. Whiteley, Wilfred W. 1969. SWAHILI – The Rise of a National Language. London: Methuen.

Pambazuka News French 75: France and its African past

2008-10-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/summaryfr/51615

Why is France so touchy about its African past?
Mamadou Koulibaly 2008-10-28

Mamadou Koulibaly, president of Côte d’Ivoire’s national assembly takes issue with France’s reticence in confronting the ills of its African colonial past. Unlike other western democracies that have by and large acknowledged their culpability, France continues to fall short of doing this. In July of 2007, Sarkozy gave a speech in Dakar that embodies this inability to speak frankly about France’s African past.


The facts of Sékou Touré’s struggle
Boua Kouyaté 2008-10-28

Boua Kouyaté of Guineenews interviews Hadja Andrée Touré, widow of the late Guinean Leader Ahmed Sékou Touré. She recounts her country and her family’s difficult but proud journey since independence. She points to France’s attempts to hamstring Guinea’s growth and development following her husband’s rebuff of former French Prime Minister de Gaulle, and the need for Guinea to persevere on its path of self-determination.

Pambazuka News Portuguese Editon 9: Mozambique and the earth conference

2008-10-28

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/summarypt/51588

Urban political space in Mozambique
Elisio Macamo - 2008-10-26

Reflecting on social spaces and politics within Mozambican cities and the legacy of the colonial period, Elisio Macamo calls for greater study of the role of urban environments in the development of local political cultures. Citing the example of protestant churches of various denominations in the creation of local responsibilities and identities, the author contrasts this process of self-determination with the ‘culture of dependency’ underpinned by the continual support of the development industry.

Mozambique: Maputo Declaration
Food sovereignty and people’s unity!
Via Campesina - 2008-10-26

A global movement comprised of organisations from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, Via Campesina held its fifth conference from 19 to 22 October 2008 in Maputo, Mozambique. With a base of rural women, small producers, indigenous peoples, descendants of African people, and rural youth group, the movement includes more than 325 delegates from 57 countries, who collectively represent hundreds of agricultural producers. In its fifth conference, Via Campesina reviewed progress made and challenges for the future, arguing for the central importance of unity between marginalised peoples from around the world and need to globalise their struggles.

The world food crisis: a 'silent tsunami'?

Astrid von Kotze

2008-10-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/51596

World Food Day (16 October) has come and gone, completely overshadowed by the global financial crisis. Banks crashing are a priority over escalating food prices and hunger. Only the banks got the 700 billion cash injection to get bailed out; the World Food Programme is still appealing for an extra 700 million to feed the poor and starving. This does not include all those 'normally' underweight children and malnourished anaemic young women. Both cash and food crises are blamed on the poor: there are too many of them, and they can't pay their debts.

The compelling metaphor to describe the global food crisis is as a 'silent tsunami'.(1) This suggests it's a sudden-onset disaster with an indiscriminate impact on all of us, an act of unpredictable and hostile nature that turns into a catastrophe which outstrips our ability to cope and deal with it. If it's a tsunami, a natural hazard, we cannot hold anybody or anything responsible for the crisis and the attention is diverted from discernable decisions and actions taken by real people with identifiable interests. Calling the food crisis a silent tsunami allows us to blame seemingly angry god like forces that punish the world with tidal waves, and the response can be an appeal to some higher order, rather than a confrontation of human failure and action to address the root causes of hunger. While humanitarian emergency food aid bestowed on victims will be necessary in the short term it is clearly not a long-term solution to a food crisis that is not just about rising prices.

The World Bank has warned of political destabilisation, and the World Food Programme is concerned about 'civil strife.' Indeed, people are angry and organising, and the suggestion that this crisis is 'silent' (or sudden) covers up the fact that for the last decade farmers have protested vigorously about the take-overs from agribusinesses that threaten their livelihoods and turn them from stewards of the land into servants. There has been nothing silent about environmentalists' and farmers' vigorous protests against the 'green revolution' with its dwindling of crop-biodiversity, against corporate agriculture based on GM technologies that prevent farmers from saving seeds for future years, against the partnership of Monsanto and Cargill as they began to control seed, fertiliser, pesticides, farm finance, grain collection, grain processing and livestock production. This year alone, poor people and increasingly the middle-classes in many parts of the world have been vociferous as the food riots in Haiti, the protests over food price hikes in Egypt, the strike of bread manufacturers in Sierra Leone have shown. While they may experience the crisis as a disaster they know there is nothing 'natural' about it, and their actions address the perceived culprits behind the misery: agribusinesses, neoliberal policies enforced by governments, and commodity markets.

CROPS FOR CARS AND CATTLE, NOT PEOPLE

And what of those who can afford to grudgingly pay increased prices? Explanations given about recurrent droughts, wars, floods and ensuing food shortages, and the argument that there are simply too many people, seem plausible. The old myths around competition for scarce resources are still peddled and accepted: it's overpopulation and underproduction and hence new technologies and investment into infrastructures are a good idea! Yet in 2007 grain harvests outstripped all previous records and there was at least one and a half times more food available than there was demand for it, and the rate of population growth has actually dropped. (My cynical self mutters about how the surplus of grain in some parts of the world will come in handy and generate a neat profit for corporate farmers when there is a need for food aid elsewhere).

A look at consumption gives a much clearer picture of the truth: some 80% of the world's production is consumed by the wealthiest 20% of the world. In contrast with under-nutrition in the Global South there is obesity: in the USA alone 60% of the population is overweight. When those 20% consumers fill up their sports utility vehicles with bio-fuel it's useful to remember that just to produce 100 litres of ethanol requires more than 240 kilograms of corn, enough to feed a person for a year. Not to mention the large tracts of land used to grow cattle feed so the 20% (and the new rising middle-classes with their appetites for meat) can eat their juicy steaks, and forgetting the land exploited for sugarcane and tobacco so the wealthy few can enjoy their treats. 91% of the planet's 1.5 billion hectares of agricultural land are increasingly being devoted to agro-export crops, biofuels and transgenic soybean to feed cars and cattle.(2)

According to a confidential World Bank report, bio-fuels have forced global food prices up by 75% – far more than previously estimated. This is what metaphors of 'silent tsunamis' hide.
Understanding the food crisis demands a look at issues of unequal distribution, of land-use, of greed, gluttony and deprivation of the basic right to life. Food is not just a commodity to purchase – it is an attitude to each other, the environment, and to our world.

* Astrid von Kotze is the author of Living with Drought: Drought Mitigation for Sustainable Livelihoods (1999).
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

References:
(1) Originally attributed to World Food programme's executive director Josette Sheeran
(2) www.FoodFirst.org

Global: Conflict Diamond Review 2008

2008-10-30

http://www.pacweb.org/e/

"The trustworthiness and reputation of the world's entire diamond industry should not depend on the willingness of NGOs to act as its watchdog." That is the key message in this year's Diamonds and Human Security Annual Review from Partnership Africa Canada. PAC, an NGO leader in the campaign against conflict diamonds, has turned its attention to evidence of a large and growing trade in illicit rough diamonds, running in parallel with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme that is supposed to eliminate the practice.

Open Letter from Maputo: Food sovereignty now!

La Via Campesina

2008-10-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/51604

The entire world is in crisis, a crisis with multiple dimensions. There is a food crisis, an energy crisis, a climate crisis and a financial crisis. The solutions put forth by Power – more free trade, more GMOs, etc. – purposefully ignore the fact that the crisis is a product of the capitalist system and of neoliberalism, and they will only worsen its impacts. To find real solutions, La Via Campesina in this open letter argues we need to look toward Food Sovereignty.
HOW DID WE GET TO THIS STATE OF CRISIS?

In recent decades we have witnessed the advance of finance capital and transnational corporations (TNCs) across all aspects of agriculture and the global food system. From the privatization of seeds and the sale of pesticides, to buying the harvests, processing the food, transporting and distributing it, all the way to retail sale to consumers, everything is controlled by a handful of corporations. Food has gone from being a right of all people, to being just another commodity. Our diets are being homogenized, with food that is bad for you, is priced out of the reach of most people, and makes us lose the culinary traditions of our peoples.

At the same time we are witnessing an offensive of capital for the control of natural resources, the likes of which we have not seen since colonial times. The crisis of the rate of profit has led Capital to launch a privatizing war for the eviction of our peoples, peasants and the indigenous, the theft through privatization of our land, territories, forests, biodiversity, water and mineral resources. It is an aggression against both rural peoples and the environment. The planting of large-scale agrofuel monocultures is an aspect of this war of displacement. It is routinely justified with the false arguments that agrofuels are the solution to the energy and climate crisis. But the truth is that the current dependence on long distance transport of goods, and individual transport of people in automobiles instead of mass transportation, have more to do with these crises than anything else.

Now, with the food and financial crises, everything is getting worse. The food crisis and the financial crisis are linked through financial speculation on the prices of food crops and land, to the detriment of people. Now as the crisis grows, finance capital is more desperate every day, assaulting our government treasuries for their bailouts, which will only force more budget cutting in our countries, and make poverty and suffering even more widespread. Hunger is continuing to grow in our world. Exploitation and all forms of violence, especially directed at women, are on the rise. With the economic recession in rich countries, xenophobia is spreading, with more racism and repression, and the dominant economic model offers ever fewer options to our rural youth.

In synthesis, things are going from bad to worse. Nevertheless, we must recognize that like all crises, this one also generates opportunities. Opportunities for capitalism, which uses crises to reinvent itself and find new sources of profits, but also opportunities for social movements. Among the latter are the fact that the principal theses of neoliberalism are being stripped of their legitimacy in public opinion, and the fact the international financial institutions (World Bank, IMF, WTO) are proving to be incapable of administering the crisis (in addition being among the cause of the same crisis).

This creates the opportunity to eliminate them, and create new institutions to regulate the global economy that serve public interests. It is clearer every day that the TNCs are our real enemies behind these other enemies. It is clearer every day that the neoliberal governments do not serve the interests of their peoples. And it is clearer every day that the global corporate food regime is not capable of feeding the great majority of people on this planet, while Food Sovereignty based on peasant agriculture is more needed than ever. Facing this reality, what do we defend in La Via Campesina?

- Food Sovereignty: getting speculative finance capital out of our food system, and re-nationalizing food production and reserves offer us the only real way out of the food crisis. Only peasant and family farm agriculture feed people, while agribusiness grows export crops and agrofuels to feed cars instead of human beings. Food Sovereignty based on peasant and family farm agriculture offers us a way out of this crisis.

- As solutions to the energy and climates crises: the dissemination of local food systems, that are not based on long-distance transport nor on industrial agriculture, could eliminate as much as 40% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Industrial agriculture warms the planet, and peasant agriculture cools the planet. Changes in patterns of transportation for people and patterns of consumption are additional the steps needed to address the energy and climate crises.

- Genuine integral agrarian reform and the defense of the territories of indigenous peoples are essential steps to roll back the evictions and displacement in the countryside, and to use our farm land to grow food instead of exports and fuels.

- Sustainable peasant and family farm agriculture: only agroecological peasant and family farming can de-link food prices from petroleum prices, recover degraded soils, and produce healthy local food for our peoples.

- The advance of women is an advance for all: the end of all forms of violence against women, including physical, social and other forms. Achieving true gender parity in all internal spaces and organs of debate and decision-making, are absolutely essential commitments to advance at this time as social movements toward the transformation of society.

- The right to seeds and water: seeds and water are sources of life, and are the heritage of our peoples. We cannot permit their privatization, nor the use of GMOs or of terminator technology.

- No to the criminalization of social protest, yes to the UN Declaration of Peasant Rights, proposed by La Via Campesina. It will be a key tool in the international legal system to strengthen our position and our rights as peasants and family farmers.

- Rural youth: We urgently need to open ever more spaces in our movement for the incorporation of the creativity and strength of our rural young people, in their struggle to create their future in the countryside.

- Finally, we are the women and men who produce and defend the food of all peoples.

All the participants in the V Conference of La Via Campesina commit ourselves to the defense of peasant and family farm agriculture, food sovereignty, dignity and life. We offer real solutions the global crisis we face today. We have the right to continue to exist as peasants and farmers, and we have the responsibility to feed our peoples.

We are here, the peasants and family farmers of the world, and we refuse to disappear.

Food sovereignty now! Unity and struggle of the people! Globalize struggle! Globalize hope!

Manufacturing a few millionares in South Africa

Mzimkhulu Nyeka

2008-10-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/51601

In response to: Mbeki, Zuma: a political earthquake : On the eve of the emergence of South Africa as an independent country, Mr. Mandela was summoned to the US embassy where he met with a representaive of the US Chamber of Commerce who instructed him that the US was opposed to the nationalization policy of the ANC. Indeed, the ANC abandoned the principles for which so many paid with their lives.

The ANC government adopted the IMF and World Bank favoured neoliberal economic principles which advocate for privatization, austerity and deregulation of the so-called "free market". These policies have, indeed widened the gap between the rich and poor in the country.

The process of "manufacturing" millionaires was expedited in order to dangle phony possibilities and opportunities to a people emerging from a brutal system that had dehumanized them and systemically ensured that only white people were entitled to citizenship and all the rights that accrue thereof.

The "cadre deployment" system allowed the ANC to appoint only its members to plump positions in the public and private sectors of the economy. This has resulted in the creation of oligarchs who, a decade ago were "revolutionaries" purporting to fight for the "masses". Go figure!

The author neglects this critical and significant development which has resulted in the paralysis of initiative in favor of mediocrity and incompetence. The so-called masses have no jobs, no means of survival while the ANC leadrship swims in milk and honey. Tokyo Sexwale and Cyril Ramaphosa have joined the ranks of the filthy rich in a country that can't afford to feed all its people or adequately take care of its guests and neighbours. I am referring to the xenophobic insanity that targeted fellow African brothers and sisters while the richest immigrants, who come from the west were sipping champagne in the rich white suburbs.

The deposition of Mbeki and the formation of the new party by followers of Terror Lekota, former minister of Defence, will not give rise to any palatable and meaningful change. The squabble among the factions within the ANC is in keeping with the Stalinist tendencies of the organization which have been widely documented. The prospect of senseless violence is looming in the horizon as the fight for the wealth that belongs to all South Africans threatens to engulf the entire country.

One of the major stumbling blocks towards progressive governance is the existence of two constitutions and two constituencies. The ANC abides by, and is loyal to its constitution. Everyone else clings to the hope that the constitution of the country is the supreme document that everyone has pledged allegiance to. Not so! Policies that have national implications are passed during ANC conventions and end up as laws arising from such a charade.

Mr Zuma is not supposed to be under consideration for any national office given his history of breaking the laws of the land. Let's remember that he was fired for corruption by Mbeki. Contrary to what Mr Gumede has stated, Mr Zuma was not exonerated by judge Nicholson. The issue before the judge was whether Mr. Zuma's rights were violated by not allowing him to make representations to the National Prosecuting Authority as required by the constitution in instances where an accused has been previously informed that he would not be prosecuted. Why the judge veered into the internicine strife within the ANC by implicating Mbeki in some conspiracy to have Zuma prosecuted is ludicrous and ridiculous.

South Africa is on an irreversible path to anarchy and self-destruction. The ANC has made sure that it does, so to speak!

In search of sanity

Expatriate Dreamer

2008-10-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/51602

Thank you for profiling my blog, Wandering the World . You're right, Cairo isn't the best place to find anything even vaguely resembling sanity. LOL I have lived here the sum total of two and a half months and was in Kenya and India prior to that. Sadly my sanity was not to be found in either of those places either.

I have chosen not to comment on the political situation here until I am more familiar with it. Any thoughts I chose to share at this early juncture would not be sufficiently informed by my own observations and experiences as opposed to those fed me by various media outlets. I hope you will check back with me in the future.

South Africa: Anti-apartheid writer dies

2008-10-31

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7695536.stm

Prominent South African academic and writer Es'kia Mphahlele has died at the age of 88. He was best known for his autobiography Down Second Avenue, telling of his life as a herdsman, teacher and journalist for the celebrated magazine Drum. It ended with his exile from apartheid South Africa in 1957. He returned 20 years later and became the University of Witwatersrand's first black professor and founded the school's African Literature Department.

When capitalism fails the rich

John Eppel

2008-10-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/51597

When capitalism fails the rich
(it always fails the poor), a jism
reinvigorates the corporate bitch:
let’s call it bow-wow socialism.
Good ol’ Uncle Sam, he saves the big banks
with tax-payers’ money, tax-payers’ sweat;
Wall Street billionaires, give him thanks
for winkling you fraudsters out of debt!
Dogknot socialism for plutocrats,
the broker-dealers’ contingency plan;
ill-gotten gains made by ill-gotten brats
devilling themselves in the frying pan.
Where Bob’s your uncle, the Reserve Bank feeds
cronyism, and the First Lady’s needs.

* John Eppel is a poet, novelist, and short-story writer from Zimbabwe. He won the MNet Prize in 1994 for his novel, D.G.G. Berry’s Great North Road (1992).
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

African blog review – October 30, 2008

Dibussi Tande

2008-10-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/51605

StartupsNigeria

StartupsNigeria takes a look at the impact of Google setting up shop in Nigeria:
“Google’s presence will have a positive impact on Nigeria’s economy via the introduction of new products, services and innovations for both companies and consumers. These products and services will drive the Nigerian market towards competition and thereby make for price reductions on specific technology-related solutions. Possible products will include Google Enterprise Search, Google Apps Security, Compliance and a variety of free software services.
Thus, Nigeria’s ecosystem will improve tremendously as it will encourage technology investments and partnerships between local and foreign companies (especially those that have been skeptical about investing in the Nigerian market).”


Grandiose Parlor

Grandiose Parlor is one of the numerous bloggers who have commented extensively on the arrest of Nigerian blogger, Jonathan Elendu:
“Nigerians are tired and irritated by the Yar’Adua’s administration, whose agenda has remained one of the most guided secrets in national history. Now, it is appearing that a focus of that agenda is clamping down on unfavorable media outlets. Elendu’s arrest follows the closure of Channels TV, another independent media outlet based in Lagos, that was sealed off for suggesting the president might resign from office because of health concerns. Who’s next on the waiting list?
What I can’t fathom is why an administration that speaks some much about attracting foreign investments, and has a negative publicity over the Niger-Delta insurgency, would go ahead under the banner of national security and create additional negative media coverage? It does not make sense. If the government is really concerned about national security, then it is looking in the wrong place. Jonathan Elendu is a small fry, I hope.”


Ayobami Ojebode
Ayobami Ojebode looks at the broader implications of the Elendu arrest, particularly its chilling effect on online journalism:
“Online journalism has been considered the safest form of journalism, the least susceptible to state clampdown. It has negotiated for itself a clear space in the public sphere for citizens’ engagement of government, its actions and policies. This form of journalism is understandably attractive to Nigerians given the experiences of orthodox journalists in the hands of the Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha—Nigerian military dictators who hounded and pounded journalists for nearly fourteen years...
Media scholars and political scientists who support the idea of a free press find in online journalism an avenue for unfettered freedom of expression. Not only this, online journalism has led them to announce and in fact celebrate the death of gate-keeping and censorship… Jonathan Elendu’s arrest by the government of Nigeria should lead theorists to cut short this celebration and rethink the universality of their conclusions.”


Chris Blattman’s Blog

Chris Blattman doubts that the Mo Ibrahim prize can actually serve as a catalyst for good governance and leadership change in Africa:
“Some leaders are motivated by a vision--one that usually includes them at the head of the state--and a measly $5 million won't do much to change that intrinsic, possibly insane, motivation and megalomania. Witness Ugandan President Museveni's ridicule of the Ibrahim prize last year… And don't forget: Presidents fear not just their own skins, but that of their cronies. Why has Mugabe held so tight to the reins of power? His generals and ministers may be giving him little choice. Perhaps the Old Man even cares about their fate.
To treat an autocrat as though he were a greedy schemer and not a man of pride and prejudice is misguided. To treat an autocracy as an individual and not a network of power-brokers is naive.
I'm thrilled that Mogae is getting the money; he deserves it. But let's call it what it is: not an incentive for bad leaders, but a golden handshake for the good ones.”


The Road to the Horizon

The Road to the Horizon provides some grim statistics from war-torn Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) culled from "Living with Fear", a study carried out by the Berkeley-Tulane Initiative for Vulnerable Populations and a host of human rights organizations:

“Here is East Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by numbers:

55%: interrogated or persecuted by armed groups
53%: forced to work or enslaved
46%: beaten by armed groups
46% threatened with death
34%: abducted for at least a week
23%: witnessed an act of sexual violence
16%: victims of sexual violence”


Aloysius Agenda

Aloysius Agenda comments on Rwanda’s decision to change the language of instruction in its schools from French to English:

“In most of French colonies like Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Congo etc. the economic exploitation, human right abuses, political victimisation by neo-colonial regimes and the domination by the aristocratic class, etc., are said to be under the indirect influence of France… The longest serving dictators are all products of French system of governance.

France was implicated in the genocide in Rwanda; French companies have been involved in several scandals among which was that of Elf in Congo etc.

The adoption of English by Rwanda can therefore be interpreted as a clear indication of the rejection of French intrigues in Africa…”

* 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/

The global crisis

2008-10-29

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/51600

By coincidence last weekend saw a long-planned Asian-European economic summit in Beijing, at a time when many world leaders were looking to China to play a key role in saving the world economy.

Thailand’s Premier even called for the Chinese Yuan to be the world’s new reserve currency.

Much mainstream expert comment, while not going that far, nonetheless agreed that China had a key role to play.

‘In many ways, US and European policymakers are doing the opposite of what they advised Asian policymakers to do in 1997-98: do not rescue failing banks, raise interest rates, balance your budget. Millions of Indonesians and Thais would have been better off if their governments had been permitted to do what western governments are doing now. An apology from the west to Asia would not be inappropriate’ said Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of Singapore University’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

In his view the Chinese and Indian contributions to the Beijing summit set an example of maturity and calm. Asian governments had lost confidence in western models of good governance. ‘Asian minds have never been captured by the strange ideological belief that markets know best and government should step aside.’

George Soros agreed that ‘the financial authorities of the developed countries are in charge and they will do whatever it takes to prevent the system from collapsing. They are, however, less concerned with the fate of countries at the periphery. ... The so-called Washington consensus imposed strict market discipline on other countries but the US was exempt from it’.

Countries with large foreign currency reserves, including China, should contribute to a special fund to assist peripheral and emerging economies. ‘The US must show the way in protecting the peripheral countries against a storm that has originated in the US, if it does not want to forfeit its claim to the leadership position’.

Gerard Lyons, chief economist and group head of global research at Standard Chartered Bank , agreed that The financial crisis is likely to test most developing economies. But ‘most Asian economies have resilience from their lack of leverage, with low corporate debt, high household savings and generally low financial leverage. ‘

A more radical analysis came from the Asia-Europe Peoples Forum held in Beijing the previous week, in the form of The Beijing Declaration - The global economic crisis: An historic opportunity for transformation a statement launched by the Trans National Institute and Focus on the Global South.

CHINA AND THE CRISIS

Although China is not itself directly caught up in the credit crunch its export industries are already suffering from the resulting recession along with the rest of the ‘Asian tiger’ economies.

From China to Africa the financial crisis is also worsening the food crisis as governments act to protect national food supplies.

In the industrial powerhouse of South China’s Pearl River Delta, labour unrest continues to mount. In response, local party bosses are said to be considering special measures to assist laid-off workers.

DARFUR KILLINGS

China condemned the killing of five Chinese oil workers in Sudan but confirmed that it would continue to invest in the country, despite earlier speculation that the killings might lead to a shift in policy.

Earlier Liu Guijin, the special Chinese envoy on Darfur said he was continuing to work with Western powers to lessen the fallout from the war crimes charges filed against Sudan's President Omar al Bashir.

ELSEWHERE IN AFRICA

A joint venture company including China Railway Construction Corp was bidding to build a R40bn power plant to boost South Africa’s ailing electricity infrastructure.

Nigerian textile manufacturers complained that Chinese exporters were flooding the market with falsely labelled fake Nigerian textiles.

But in a new twist, as Zambia goes to the polls in its Presidential election both parties are putting out the welcome mat to Chinese investment - a change of heart for the previously anti-Chinese opposition leader Michael Sata.

African summit must be 'decisive' on Zimbabwe: Ban

2008-10-31

http://zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=4897

African leaders must take "decisive" action to end the deadlock between Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday. Both men remained deadlocked over who will control Zimbabwe's powerful home affairs ministry, which oversees the police, despite efforts to end the crisis early this week in a high-level security meeting.

Sadc leaders fail to break Zimbabwe cabinet impasse

2008-10-31

http://zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=4892

Southern African leaders meeting in Harare on Monday have failed to get Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe to agree on who controls the home affairs ministry which has the police and the registrar general's office under its control. Mugabe and Tsvangirai's failure to agree means there is no cabinet deal yet with a Sadc troika comminque expected to be released in the next few hours. A full Sadc summit will be called soon.

US attacks Mugabe for stalling power-sharing talks

2008-10-31

http://zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=4902

The United States says it regrets that the six-week impasse over implementation of a power-sharing agreement for Zimbabwe was not resolved at the recent Southern African Development Community-hosted talks. White House spokesman, Sean McCormack, said the US administration said it was unhappy with President Mugabe’s government for its refusal to implement a genuine and equitable power-sharing deal.

Africa's largest trading bloc

AU Monitor Weekly Roundup: Issue 156, 2008

2008-10-29

http://www.aumonitor.org

Member States from the East African Community (EAC), Southern African Development Community (SADC), and Common Markets of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) met in Uganda to discuss the merger of the three economic blocs and the current financial crisis. Leaders of the three communities signed an agreement defining the roadmap for the project that seeks to create Africa’s largest trading bloc with a combined population of over 527 million people and a combined gross domestic product of $624 billion. The plan will be implemented with the signing of a comprehensive accord within six months. Within a year, the three regional communities will develop a legal framework and measures to facilitate the movement of business people, will have a single airspace and an inter-regional broadband Internet network, and will coordinate regional transportation and energy.

Meanwhile, military and defense officials from the EAC member states attended a seminar in Rwanda, the fourth of the five regional series, to discuss strategies on managing defense and sustainable peace in a democratic society and to formulate the East African defense protocol to further the political integration agenda. Meanwhile, climate experts and ministers of the Economic Community of West African States have committed to coordinate their national efforts to combat climate change as a new report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that ‘warming global temperatures can cut West African agricultural production by up to 50 percent by the year 2020’. SADC, one of many regional and sub-regional organisations invited by Zambia to observe this month’s presidential elections, has sent its electoral observer mission to ensure the promotion of common political values and to observe the management and conduct of the elections.

African ministers responsible for mineral resources met to discuss how African mineral exporting countries can gain optimum benefits from increasing exports and the price boom. They have adopted the ‘Africa Mining Vision 2050’, a document prepared by the African Union (AU) to provide a credible scheme for addressing the various challenges crippling the mining sector. The AU Commission chairperson, while addressing the 9th meeting of the Regional Consultation Mechanisms of the United Nations agencies and organisations working in Africa on food crisis and climate change, called for an urgent review of African agricultural policies to prioritise and better integrate them in national budgets and development interventions. In addition, the department of trade and industry of the AU Commission in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation and the government of South Africa organised the Conference of African Ministers of Industry (CAMI-18) under the theme ‘the Acceleration of Industrial Development of Africa - the need for Value Addition and Industrial Transformation’.

The African Development Bank in partnership with the AU Commission will organise a conference of Africa’s finance ministers and central bank governors to examine the effects of the global financial crisis on African economies and how to mobilise a common response to the crisis. African ministers in charge of public service, at their sixth conference, adopted, among other resolutions, the draft of the African Public Service charter with the amendments for presentation to the assembly of heads of state and government of the AU. African heads of state and government who are members of the African Peer Review Mechanism attended their first extraordinary summit in Benin to further look at the review report on the Federal Republic of Nigeria and to begin examining the report on Burkina Faso. In his introductory statement, the president of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe, recognising that the land issue ‘represents a harsh manifestation of the colonial legacy and the gross historical injustices that shape land ownership patterns in Africa today’, addressed the topic in the context of resource control and management.

Meanwhile, the European Union Commission has expressed their willingness to work with China to develop African infrastructure and to ensure that its natural resources are well managed while identifying and addressing other areas for trilateral cooperation. African Development Bank Group President, Donald Kaberuka, while meeting with non governmental organisations, focused on the impact of Bank operations on the lives of small-scale farmers and rural populations in accessing drinking water, sanitation and electricity.

In peace and security related news, the AU Panel of the Wise welcomed resolutions adopted by the Peace and Security Council of the AU to balance the fight against impunity and the promotion of reconciliation in the Sudanese region of Darfur. The Panel further called on Sudanese parties to extend their full cooperation to the AU, the United Nations and the League of Arab States efforts to restore lasting peace in the region. The organ Troika of SADC heads of State and government met in the Kingdom of Swaziland in an extra-ordinary summit to review and consult on the political and security situation in Zimbabwe, the Kingdom of Lesotho and in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. In the meantime, SADC postponed a crisis meeting on the political instability in Zimbabwe after the government refused to renew the passport of Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai for him to travel to Swaziland. However, crisis talks continued in Zimbabwe in a bid to save the Kenya-style power-sharing deal in danger of collapse over cabinet-sharing disagreements between President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai. A spokesperson for Somali insurgents admitted responsibility for attacks on AU forces, telling local media that they have killed at least seven soldiers, but, the Somali military deny the claim. During a round table discussion of the AU-UN panel on the support of regional peacekeeping operations, the AU was urged to find sustainable mechanisms to support Africa’s mediation, peacemaking and peacekeeping efforts.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights will hold the 44th ordinary session in Abuja, Nigeria from November 10-24, and the Forum on the Participation of NGOs in the Ordinary Sessions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights will be held from the 7-9 of November. In other news, former president Festus Gontebanye Mogae of Botswana is the winner of the 2008 Mo Ibrahim Prize for good governance in Africa. The annual award is given to former sub-Sahara African heads of state or government who were democratically elected and demonstrated good governance.

Finally, a report presented to the second session of the conference of African ministers of culture announced that the great museum of Africa will be built in Algeria and must express the present and the future of Africa’s freedom from colonialism and racism as well as the characteristics that realise African unity.

Africa: MOREMI launches new website

2008-10-30

http://www.moremiinitiative.org/

Moremi Initiative for Women's Leadership in Africa (Moremi Initiative) recently launched its website as part of a re-introduction to partners and supporters. The new website provides an opportunity for visitors and users to learn more about our programs, partnership opportunities and critical issues affecting African women and girls as well as to get involved. Moremi Initiative was launched in 2004, with a mission to engage, inspire and equip young African women and girls to become the next generation of leading politicians, activists, social entrepreneurs and change agents.

Global: Education from a gender equality perspective

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/5nycnt

Over the years, education has focused on access and parity — that is, closing the enrollment gap between girls and boys — while insufficient attention has been paid to retention and achievement or the quality and relevance of education. The primary focus on girls’ access to education may overlook boys’ educational needs. This approach also fails to confront the norms and behaviors that perpetuate inequality. This paper presents the Gender Equality Framework, which has been designed to address this inequality.

Global: Gender in agriculture from a sustainable livelihoods approach

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/57ukgf

This sourcebook combines descriptive accounts of national and international experience in investing in agriculture with practical operational guidance on to how to design agriculture-for-development strategies that capitalise effectively on the unique properties of agricultural growth and rural development involving women and men as a high-impact source of poverty reduction.

Global: Virtual Discussion on gender, peace and security research

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/6727zl

In light of the 8th anniversary of the adoption of UN- Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security; on the second of November, a three-week virtual discussion on "Planning for Action: Good Practices on Implementing UNSCR 1325 on a National Level" will be held. Policy makers, governmental representatives and civil society actors from all over the world are invited to participate and exchange experiences, good practices and lessons learned on implementing UNSCR 1325.

Somalia: Woman executed by stoning

2008-10-31

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7694397.stm

A woman in Somalia has been stoned to death after an Islamic Sharia law court found her guilty of adultery. The woman was buried up to her neck and then pelted to death with stones in front of a large crowd in Kismayo.

Congo: The new exodus

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/6lze6s

Along the red dirt roads looping in and out of the jungle, they trooped in their thousands. The women clutching infants to their chests and balancing rolled-up mattresses, blankets and pots on their heads. Any child old enough to walk carried a jerry can of water or dragged a sack of food.

Nigeria: Can America’s legal system be applied to foreign cases?

2008-10-31

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id= 12522916

Bowoto v Chevron is likely to test how the American legal system can be applied to human rights in other countries. The civil suit is being brought under the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act, one of America’s oldest laws (it was signed by George Washington). The act allows foreigners to bring civil cases before American courts arising from violations of law or treaty anywhere in the world. It was invoked just twice before 1980, when it was used by a victim of state repression in Paraguay.

Zimbabwe: Cleric wins human rights award

2008-10-31

http://zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=4895

An Anglican bishop from Zimbabwe was Tuesday named winner of a Swedish human rights prize for 'having given voice to the fight against oppression.' Bishop Sebastian Bakare was also cited for his work to promote 'freedom of speech and of opinion in a difficult political situation.' He was due to accept the 2008 Per Anger prize at a ceremony in Stockholm on November 10, Johan Perwe of the government agency Living History Forum told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Africa: Somalis demand refugee status

2008-10-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/51610

Some 40 Somalis staying illegally in Nepal for the past three years have demonstrated outside District Administration Office (DAO) Kathmandu Wednesday seeking attention from the government to provide them the status of refugees. The UN refugee agency in Kathmandu has already registered them as refugees and has been extending financial assistance. However, government has not accepted them as refugees.
Somalis demand refugee status

Some 40 Somalis staying illegally in Nepal for the past three years have demonstrated outside District Administration Office (DAO) Kathmandu Wednesday seeking attention from the government to provide them the status of refugees.

The UN refugee agency in Kathmandu has already registered them as refugees and has been extending financial assistance. However, government has not accepted them as refugees.

The placards they carried said if Nepal does not recognise them as refugees, they must be deported to their country.

These refugees pay visa fees and fines to the government out of little money received from UNHCR. Since work permit is not issued, extra earning is impossible, they said.

UNHCR has not given any data as to how many Somalis have been staying in Nepal, but estimates put the figure to be around 70, who are here since 2005.

Somalis demonstrated outside the DAO after police stopped them from entering the office – they had reached there to make an appeal to Chief District Officer Dhruva Sharma for refugee status. nepalnews.com ia Oct 16 08

DRC: Refugee camps 'burned'

2008-10-31

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7702099.stm

The UN says it has credible reports that camps sheltering 50,000 displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been torched. Aid groups say they are struggling to reach an estimated 250,000 people in the region fleeing fierce fighting between government and rebel forces. Intense diplomatic efforts are under way to end the crisis.

DRC: Refugees stream into Uganda

2008-10-31

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81220

Food, water, health and sanitation facilities at several villages on the Uganda-Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border are overstretched as civilians continue to pour into Uganda, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said on 31 October. The agency said the facilities were inadequate for the more than 6,500 people scattered in 12 villages along the border who are being hosted by the local communities.

Global: Call for contributors - Southern Refugee Legal Aid Network

2008-10-31

http://www.fahamu.org/srlan/

The Southern Refugee Legal Aid Network is seeking contributors for its series of reviews of domestic refugee law in countries of the 'global south'. More detail and a list of Southern states with domestic refugee legislation can be found in the attached terms of reference. If you are interested in being a volunteer contributor, please e-mail your CV to marina.sharpe@asylumaccess.org

Declaration of Maputo: V International Conference of La Via Campesina

2008-10-30

http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=13567

We are men and women of the earth, we are those who produce food for the world. We have the right to continue being peasants and family farmers, and to shoulder the responsibility of continuing to feed our peoples. We care for seeds, which are life, and for us the act of producing food is an act of love. Humanity depends on us, and we refuse to disappear.

Namibia: ANC league 'incites Namibian violence'

2008-10-30

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/socialmovements/51608

Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) strongly condemns the extraterritorial hate expression attributed to African National Congress (ANC) Gauteng Province Youth Leader Jacob Kawe over the weekend.
ANC HATE EXPRESSION LESSON FOR NAMIBIAN YOUTH LEAGUE

October 21 2008

Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) strongly condemns the extraterritorial hate expression attributed to African National Congress (ANC) Gauteng Province Youth Leader Jacob Kawe over the weekend. Prominent media reports yesterday quoted Kawe as saying:

“Destroy those political cockroaches, they are in your kitchen [...] We fear no one, not even our leaders, we tell everyone opposing us to go to hell!”

By “destroy[ing] those political cockroaches”, Kawe was apparently referring to supporters of Namibia’s Opposition parties and other Government critics. He reportedly made the incendiary remark on Sunday, October 19 2000, during a public electioneering rally organized by Namibia’s ruling Swapo Party’s youth wing. Kawe and other ANC Youth League members were invited to act as special guests to the said rally. The rally reportedly took place on the premises of Hand in Hand for Children, a German-funded NGO, in the northern section of Windhoek’s Katutura suburb. Windhoek is the Namibian capital.

South Africa’s Gauteng Province, where Kawe and his colleagues hailed from, was recently scene of grisly xenophobic violence perpetrated against mostly law-abiding migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers seeking a safe and better life for their families among South Africans. Dozens of the victims were executed in a most brutal fashion while many others were left homeless and destitute.

“Such xenophobic attacks disturbed the international conscience. Kawe’s hate speech has fuelled fears in human rights circles in this country that the Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL), which hosted Kawe and his delegation, could carry out Kawe’s instructions and attempt to destroy Swapo Party’s political opponents here. Violence is never conducive to free and fair elections. Moreover, in response to Kawe’s incitement to violence, SPYL Secretary Elijah Ngurare reportedly urged his ‘young lions to roar’ presumably against such opponents. Africa has had enough of crimes against humanity”, said NSHR executive director Phil ya Nangoloh.

The remarks by Kawe have the potential of igniting Namibia and of harming the image of popular ANC President Jacob Zuma. Swapo Party Secretary General Ms. Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana announced in Windhoek yesterday that Zuma is expected to arrive in Namibia early next month for talks with Namibia’s ruling Swapo Party leadership.

“Zuma’s visit to Namibia will be closely monitored and from this it will become clearer whether Kawe’s remarks represent a general trend within the ANC or this is an isolated incident”, ya Nangoloh added.

South Africa: Sit-in to support WOZA leaders

2008-10-31

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news301008/rhodesstu301008.htm

South African women’s rights activists, feminists and students are stepping up pressure on their government and parliamentarians to speak out about the increasing repression in Zimbabwe. Women’s groups in Johannesburg and Cape Town coordinated solidarity actions in support of detained WOZA leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu.

Zambia: Email your support for Zambia’s copper tax

2008-10-31

http://www.christianaid.org.uk/issues/powercorruption/actions/zambia.aspx

Zambia’s government has announced plans to get its people a greater share of the country’s vast copper wealth. But with its proposals still in the balance, action is still needed. These plans could provide an extra $415 million of copper revenue, allowing it to triple expenditure on health in a country where average life expectancy is 37. The proposals could net Zambia an extra $415 million in 2008 alone. Add your voice and call on Zambia's biggest copper company, KCM, not to undermine Zambia’s development – and abide by the government’s decision. Email them now!http://www.christianaid.org.uk/issues/powercorruption/actions/zambia.aspx .

Kenya: KPTJ urges full implementation of Waki Report

2008-10-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/51717

While the ODM rejects the Waki Report (Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence), the Kenyans for Peace through Truth and Justice (KPTJ) issue a strongly worded statement urging full implementation of the recommendations.
PRESS STATEMENT


Nairobi, October 30: We note the rare unity of the political class in dismissing the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence as inadequate and flawed. We also note the dismissive attitude of the police force towards the findings of the investigation, as well as the faultfinding by the Attorney General.

The commission chaired by Appeal Court Judge Philip Waki travelled around the country to visit the theatres of the violence, hear oral evidence on oath from 156 witnesses and take sworn (written) testimony from 144 people over four months. This is what the commission found:
1. The violence was initially a spontaneous reaction to the elections results and initially targeted government institutions, such as was the case in Nyanza. The initial intention was not to kill but to expel people and destroy property.
2. After that, the violence took on a more organised form. Politicians and businesspeople organised and planned attacks. The evidence of this was in the warnings people received, the numbers of attackers mobilised and moved, the weapons acquired and the secrecy involved in targeting people of given ethnic groups.
3. The failure by the police to act on intelligence, to be impartial and professional in their work, as well as to respond appropriately only made matters worse. Police used excessive force. There was a discernible breakdown in the chain of command.

Findings:-
a. Deaths
1. The violence claimed 1,133 lives. This contradicts the official police figure of 616.
2. Gunshots were the most frequent cause of death, accounting for nearly four in every 10 deaths (35.7 per cent of total deaths). Police were found to be responsible for all deaths by gunshot. The commission also found that police response was uneven, even where faced with similar situations. In Nyanza and Western provinces, for example, police response was more brutal and the use of force, excessive.
3. The highest number of deaths by ethnicity are recorded as Luo (278); Gikuyu (268); Kalenjin (158) and Luhya (163).

b. Rape and sexual violence
4. Individual and gang rapes, sometimes using objects, were committed in front of families. Men as well as women were targeted based on their ethnicity and political affiliation. Genital mutilation, including castration and forced male circumcision, were rampant.
5. The police told the commission that there were no incidents reported of sexual or gender-based violence. General Service Unit, regular and administration police were however found to have taken part in the rapes (including gang rape) and obstructed reporting and investigations.

c. Official response
1. The Government did nothing to ease the tensions before the elections. It posted 1,600 Administration Police officers to Nyanza because, in the testimony of the Head of the Public Service to the Commission, it was hostile territory.
2. The Commissioner of Police ordered the release of Chinkororo and SunguSungu gangs involved in violence before the elections. Police officers were posted to receive and relay election results in orders clearly outside their call of duty.
3. The National Security Intelligence Service acted suspiciously outside its mandate by seeking 50 accreditations for election observers and conducting opinion polls in order to provide information to the Head of Public Service.
4. The police in North Rift and the provincial administration were unprepared for the violence, raising questions about their coordination with intelligence services. Although the commission noted individual acts of personal courage among police officers in saving lives, the police in North Rift participated in the violence, or were just divided and overwhelmed.
5. The Cabinet security committee never met throughout the election period and after, and there were no joint preparations for what would possibly arise. There were no formal meetings at the national level, raising questions about who was in charge and who was in control of the security apparatus. Variations of this misnomer would be apparent at the provincial level.
6. The police ban on assembly and the ban on live broadcasting worsened the security situation in the country. Further investigations into police use of force and rape as well as records on the use of ammunition and supplies require independent investigators.

d. Impunity
The Attorney General is culpable for promoting impunity. He has been in charge of prosecutions for the entire time that the parliamentary select committee chaired by Kennedy Kiliku and the Judicial Commission of Inquiry chaired by Justice Akilano Akiwumi made recommendations about further investigations and prosecutions for ethnic-based violence. The AG’s role in failing to follow up on the Kiliku and Akiwumi reports is stark. For their part, the police claimed they had not even read the reports.

The recommendations
The political class is distorting the Waki Report to appear as if it only recommends their own punishment. Fortunately, it does more than that. Kenya is much bigger than the 10 or so people on the list of perpetrators that the commission has handed to the Panel of Eminent African Personalities. Given a choice between the 10 suspects and the 38 million Kenyans, our choice is obvious. Let us review the recommendations of the Waki team again ...

1. The police have been severely indicted in this report. To quote, the criminal involvement of the police ranged from “murder to gang rape and looting”. A GSU officer hacked off a man’s hand. They stole and extorted bribes to protect people. The commission recommends that the administration police should be abolished and its officers integrated into the Kenya police Service. These changes are long overdue. From the mediation agreement, Kenya should have an independent police commission by January 2009, the AP review should be complete by now, and the legal and policy reforms to establish an independent complaints and civilian oversight authority should be in place already.
It is unbelievable that the leadership of the police force has not been overhauled in view of these findings. Pending actions include:
· Review of the Police Act and police standing orders;
· Establishing a representative police service commission;
· Launching a modern code of conduct;
· Setting up a statutory Directorate of Criminal Investigations
· Creating civilian oversight on the police.

2. Sexual and gender based violence were pervasive, yet there were no institutions to deal with it at police stations and public hospitals. The commission recommends that a Rapporteur on Sexual Violence (with appropriate powers and staff, reporting to staff) should be appointed to monitor the work of the Gender Commission and gender units in various ministries, and to provide an annual report to Parliament.

3. The partisan involvement of the Head of the Public Service and the provincial administration in the elections and the violence that followed it call for radical institutional reform that goes beyond changing faces.

4. The Attorney General told the commission that he was waiting for evidence to prosecute perpetrators of the violence. He is too closely linked to the culture of impunity and should be relieved of his duties. The commission recommends the creation of a special tribunal to go round the culture of impunity and the AG. The tribunal will try people first and offer them an opportunity to defend themselves. The constitutional amendment Bill has been withdrawn to insert provisions that accommodate the IREC recommendations. This is also the time to include the recommendations on the Special Tribunal.

5. The President and the Prime Minister must provide leadership with respect to speed and efficiency in implementation of commission reports, just as they did with regard to the rapid implementation of the National Accord Bill. Parliament must not shirk its responsibility to pass the following laws as recommended:
a. Special Tribunal
b. International Crimes Bill, 2008
c. Witness Protection Act to be operationalised (can government maintain safety of witnesses)
d. Freedom of Information Bill

6. The Government has the following policy tasks ahead:
a. National Security Policy
b. Conflict and disaster early warning and response systems
c. Joint operations preparedness arrangements
d. Broader participation in the National Security Advisory Council

Our conclusions

1. We are witnessing a situation where the politicians in government are satisfied that they are now sharing power and that it is business as usual. It is disturbing that they prefer to push all issues that contributed to the crisis under the carpet in order to turn such issues into an instrument to access power in 2012.
2. We as Kenyan civil society are certain that the crisis we witnessed is not over. These same politicians will certainly break this country if they go unpunished.
3. We demand the full implementation of the Waki recommendations and immediate disbandment of the ECK. A small team of no more than three people can be appointed by Kenyans to run ECK pending establishment of rules to compose another body.

5. We as civil society are calling on International Community to immediately begin the process of taking perpetrators to the International Criminal Court.
6. We request the International Community not to be complacent or to call this a Kenyan problem requiring a Kenyan solution. These are politicians punishing the rest of the society and refusing to implement these recommendations is not a Kenyan solution.
7. Civil society will soon be contacting the ICC to discuss how to have the perpetrators of violence brought to book.


Signed-
• Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG)
• Awaaz
• Bunge la Mwananchi
• Centre for the Development of Marginalised Communities (CEDMAC)
• Centre for Law and Research International (CLARION)
• Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD)
• Centre for Rights, Education and Awareness for Women (CREAW)
• Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW)
• The Cradle-the Childrens Foundation
• Constitution and Reform Education Consortium (CRECO)
• East African Law Society (EALS)
• Fahamu
• Foster National Cohesion (FONACON)
• Gay And Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK)
• Haki Focus
• Hema la Katiba
• Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU)
• Innovative Lawyering
• Institute for Education in Democracy (IED)
• International Commission of Jurists (ICJ-Kenya)
• International Centre for Policy and Conflict
• Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)
• Kenya Leadership Institute (KLI)
• Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR)
• Kituo cha Sheria
• Mazingira Institute
• Muslim Human Rights Forum
• The National Civil Society Congress
• National Convention Executive Council (NCEC)
• RECESSPA
• Release Political Prisoners Trust
• Sankara Centre
• Society for International Development (SID)
• The 4 Cs
• Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF)
• Urgent Action Fund (UAF)-Africa
And concerned citizens:

Shailja Patel
Mary Onyango
Philo Ikonya

Malawi: Youth form political party

2008-10-31

http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/21349

A new political party comprising of youths has been formed in Lilongwe, Malawi, as the country gears for its elections next year. Interim president of the yet to be registered Peoples Democratic Party Hebrews Misomali said the formation of the new party is the beginning of a new era in the country's politics.

Somaliland: Voter registration begins

2008-10-31

http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/21332

The National Election Commission (NEC) of Somaliland has begun its voter registration exercise in Sahil region for about two weeks now. Over 100 NEC registration out-posts and registration-teams, numbering 1,400 were deployed throughout Sahil's districts. The registration teams are provided with an array of equipment and high-tech gear for registering the adult ‘voting’ population in Sahil who will cast their votes in the next general election and for all coming future elections.

Nigeria: 20 cabinet ministers sacked

2008-10-31

http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/21359

Twenty out of 40 cabinet ministers in Nigeria have been sacked for non-performance. President Umaru Yar'Adua said his decision is to reposition and strengthen his administration for effective service delivery, Presidential Spokesman, Olusegun Adeniyi disclosed on Thursday. According to This Day newspaper, the President after taking a valedictory photographs with the sacked ministers said yesterday’s meeting will be the last for some of them.

Sudan: Lack of trust hampering North -South peace

2008-10-31

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28744

A lack of mutual trust between the signatories remains the main challenge to implementing the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the long-running north-south civil war in Sudan, says a new United Nations report. “This lack of trust consequently permeates into all major pending benchmarks set under the Agreement,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes in his latest report to the Security Council on Sudan, which the 15-member body will discuss next month.

Zambia: Poll gives early lead to populist

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/6lqsmm

Early results in Zambia’s knife-edge presidential election gave a clear lead to Michael Sata, the opposition challenger whose lavish pledges have unnerved investors, for control of Africa’s biggest copper producer. Totals from 19 of the 150 constituencies showed Mr Sata had secured about 60 per cent of ballots cast, with Rupiah Banda, the acting president, trailing on 30 per cent, and the balance going to two other opposition hopefuls.

Ghana: Drug money 'tainting Ghana poll'

2008-10-31

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7695981.stm

Ghana's election campaign could be tarnished by money from West African drug trafficking, an official has said. Kwesi Aning, head of research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, said the "very fabric" of Ghanaian society was under threat. His comments came as the UN warned in a report that West Africa risks becoming an epicentre for drug trafficking from South America to Europe.

Africa: Two migrants die aboard fishing boat to Spain

2008-10-31

http://www.afrol.com/articles/31492

At least two Africa migrants were reported dead after landing in a wooden fishing boat packed with 125 migrants in Spain's canary Islands. Another four migrants were taken to hospital after boat arrived early in the morning at a beach on island of La Gomera, a spokeswoman for emergency services said.

Uganda: Judicial corruption undermines legal system

2008-10-31

http://www.humanrightshouse.org/dllvis5.asp?id=6947

Widespread corruption scandals by judges and magistrates and inappropriate political interference in the judicial systems are denying people their right to a fair and impartial trial, said High Court Judge Stella Arach in an interview yesterday. Arach elaborated that the lower courts are the most affected with many magistrates receiving bribes from litigants.

Africa: Major hydro power station planned

2008-10-31

http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/21342

African leaders are planning to establish a continental hydro power station to harness its huge energy potential. Country representatives attending the 20th Session of the African Hydro Symposium in Zambia said hydro energy is the cheapest and cleanest for the continent.

Africa: Peer review progress, but many miss the meeting

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/5rjn3g

Last weekend, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) was in the spotlight in Benin. From 25-26 October 2008, participating African Heads of State and Government gathered in Cotonou for the first Extraordinary African Peer Review Forum. Most Forum meetings are traditionally held on the margins of busy African Union Summits, where other business frequently intervenes. In Egypt in June-July, Zimbabwe dominated.

Africa: South Africa must address social justice

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/5vfnul

Early in its new democracy, South Africa successfully rose to the challenge of ensuring political justice. It developed a progressive and ground-breaking constitution enshrining rights for all of its citizens. Much attention, debate and litigation has taken place around civil and political rights, and these have been further interpreted and secured.

Global: NGOs call for radical reforms

2008-10-31

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44504

Two weeks before U.S. President George W. Bush hosts an economic summit to address the six-week-old financial crisis that has wreaked havoc on the world's capital and stock markets, a coalition of nearly 600 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from 88 countries is calling for a "fundamental and far-reaching transformation on the international financial and economic system."

Global: OECD calls for aid pledge from donors

2008-10-31

http://www.ipsterraviva.net/europe/article.aspx?id=6691

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría, and the Chair of OECD's Development Assistance Committee, Eckhard Deutscher, have issued a call to the world's main aid donor countries to stand by their development pledges despite the economic slowdown. In a letter to heads of state and government of the countries that are members of the Development Assistance Committee, OECD invites these nations to join an "Aid Pledge" that would confirm existing aid promises and avert cuts in budgets for development aid.

Global: State of the World’s Cities report unveiled

2008-10-31

http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?cid=5979&catid=5&typeid=6&subMenuId=0

According to the newly-released State of the World's Cities report, South African cities top the list of the world’s most unqual cities, followed by Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico. Urban inequalities in this highly unequal region are not only increasing, but are becoming more entrenched, which suggests that failures in wealth distribution are largely the result of structural or systemic flaws.

South Africa: Population outstrips food growth

2008-10-31

http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/21321

The SA Food Cost Review 2007 showed that between 1991 to 2007, food production growth only grew by 10%, while the population increased by 32%, and that increase excludes estimates of between one and 10 million illegal immigrants currently residing in the country. The report, which was compiled by The National Agricultural Marketing Council and the Department of Agriculture, said: “Population growth has outstripped agricultural production, in particular field crop production, by far.

Kenya: Global Fund rejection brings a rethink

2008-10-31

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81188

Kenya will have to find new sources of funding to keep more than 200,000 people on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment after the country's latest bid for support from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was rejected, a senior government official said. "We are too dependent on donor funding for programmes like these [related to HIV, malaria and tuberculosis], which are vital to the health of our people - we must start becoming more self-reliant," Danson Mungatana, Assistant Minister for Medical services, said on 27 October.

Kenya: Isolation wards vital for TB fight

2008-10-31

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81214

Five months after a specialised facility for multi-drug resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients was established at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, the lack of isolation wards is raising concerns. "This is not the best place; TB is a highly infectious disease,” Catherine Koskei, a matron working at the facility, told IRIN. “The patients need to be restricted.”

South Africa: HIV awareness goes mobile

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/5bhrp8

Text messages will be sent to mobile phones in South Africa to encourage people to be tested and treated for HIV/AIDS. Project Masiluleke will send one million texts a day to South Africans after it is launched on 1 December. The messages are written in English and local languages such as Zulu, and will include prompts to call helplines. Many of the messages were composed with the assistance of local communities.

Southern Africa: Swaziland about to eliminate malaria

2008-10-31

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=44387

Hot on the heels of Mauritius, health experts predict Swaziland will be the second country in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to eliminate malaria. Malaria kills more than one million people worldwide most of whom are children under five years and almost 90 percent of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria killed five people last year in Swaziland.

Zambia: Superinfection seen frequently in heterosexual couples

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/5p7klf

Superinfection among heterosexual couples in sub-Saharan Africa may be surprisingly frequent, according to findings from Zambia presented on Tuesday at the 48th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Washington DC. Researchers from the Zambia Emory HIV Research Project presented evidence that 3 out of 34 people among heterosexual Zambian couples were superinfected during the time of the study.

Zimbabwe: Cholera outbreak in Harare

2008-10-31

http://zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=4905

A cholera outbreak has claimed its first victim in Zimbabwe's capital after causing death and illness elsewhere in a country too poor to provide clean water or clear garbage from the streets. Health authorities reported the death in Harare Thursday and said 20 other people had been hospitalized.

Kenya: Nomadic schools for mobile girls

2008-10-31

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=44489

Five years after the introduction of free primary education (FPE) in Kenya, the enrolment of girls in schools continues to lag behind in Garissa, in Kenya's North Eastern region. Most communities living in the North Eastern region are nomadic and semi-nomadic, and depend on livestock for their livelihood.

South Africa: Country needs free universal education

2008-10-31

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81209

The South African government should aim for free universal education, backed up by teacher training so as to make a significant impact on the quality of schooling, said the country's largest public service union. Jon Lewis, spokesman for the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU) said the plan by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to extend free education to 60 percent of schools in 2009 should be applauded, but it was not without glitches.

Algeria: Gays celebrate anniversary in seclusion

2008-10-31

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=Algeria&id=1978

The tenth of this month marked the second anniversary of Abu Nawas which aims to fortify solidarity and provide support to the gay community in Algeria. On that special day this month, the Abu Nawas members intended to use the day to celebrate across ensuring belonging to the Arabic and Muslim world despite the sexual orientation which is largely despised in that environment.

Global: Research shows lesbians to be prone to cancer

2008-10-31

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=health&id=1974

As October marks breast cancer awareness month, a research conducted by lgbthealthchannel website (focusing on gay health and wellness issues) found that lesbians, bisexual women and women who have sex with other women are more likely to develop breast cancer than heterosexual counterparts. The findings emphasise that breast cancer can at times be associated with nulliparity – the state of not giving birth.

Botswana: Bushmen and Survival force De Beers withdrawal from reserve

2008-10-31

http://www.survival-international.org/news/3867

Following pressure from Survival International, De Beers says it has stopped operations on the land of the Kalahari Bushmen in Botswana because those it consulted, including Bushmen living inside the reserve, did not agree with its plan to explore for diamonds near a Bushman community.

South Africa: Mass action against evictions

2008-10-31

http://www.abahlali.org/node/4285

Join Gauteng landless communities (Freedom Park, Protea Glen Bond Houses, Protea South Informal Settlement, Precast-Lenasia Extension 11, Chiawelo, Tembalihle Crisis Committee, Eldorado Park, Harry Gwala Informal Settlement)in a peaceful March demanding free basic services, the removal of the useless ward councillors and a halt to mass evictions.

Western Sahara: New UN resolution gets positive reaction

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/6d3yjj

The United Nations General Assembly's Fourth Committee approved Tuesday (October 21st) a draft resolution that would have parties to the Western Sahara dispute "continue to show political will and work in an atmosphere propitious for dialogue in order to enter into a more intensive phase of negotiations". The Assembly would also support the process of negotiations "with a view to achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution that would provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara".

Malawi: Journalists win awards

2008-10-31

http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/21356

Two Malawian journalists have been adjudged winners of this year`s John Manyarara Investigative Journalism Award in South Africa. Charles Mpaka and Mike Chipalasa both work for Blantyre Newspapers Limited. They won the regional award organized by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa), for their impressive coverage on the country’s leakage of the Malawi School Certificate of Education last year.

Nigeria: Blogger arrested over critical posts, held incommunicado

2008-10-31

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/98035/

The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of International PEN protests the detention of the US-based blogger Jonathan Elendu, who has been held incommunicado without charge in Abuja, Nigeria, since 17 October 2008. There are fears for his health following reports of ill treatment. The WiPC believes that Elendu has been detained for his critical reporting on Nigeria. It calls on the Nigerian authorities to charge Elendu with a recognisable criminal offense or to release him immediately and unconditionally.

North Africa: Maghreb countries perform poorly on Press Freedom Index

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/6m7ksa

Maghreb countries rank low in the newest Press Freedom Index, a worldwide annual report issued by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The 2008 report, made public on October 22nd and entitled "Only Peace Protects Freedoms in post-9/11 world", places Tunisia 143rd out of 173 countries. Although showing modest improvement, moving up two places, Tunisia is still the region's second-worst after Libya (ranked 154th).

Swaziland: Journalists barred from attending meeting on legislators' pay

2008-10-31

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/98045/

On 29 October 2008, Swazi journalists were kicked out of a meeting in which the newly-elected and appointed Members of Parliament discussed their pay. The journalists had been allowed to cover the earlier discussions, but when the legislators began to discuss their pay, the media was shown the door.

Uganda: Attack on media advocate

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/6xcxet

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the attack and attempted abduction of journalist and media advocate Geoffrey Ssebagala by unidentified men in the Ugandan capital, Kampala on Monday and called on authorities to ensure his safety. "The attempted abduction of Ssebagala is no doubt orchestrated by those who feel threatened by his work as a journalist and advocate for other journalists," said Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa Office. "

Morocco: New budget boosts funding for social programs

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/5nnfn4

Morocco's proposed 2009 budget, currently awaiting parliamentary approval, was released on October 20th amid speculation about the impact the global financial crisis may have on the Moroccan economy. Talking about the bill, Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar told the press last week that "the unfavourable international economic situation, marked in particular by dizzying price rises in raw materials and the financial crisis, will have negative repercussions on growth worldwide".

DRC: 'Human catastrophe' grips Congo

2008-10-31

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7701269.stm

Fierce fighting between government and rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo has caused a humanitarian catastrophe, the Red Cross has said. It said the number of displaced people was growing by the hour and that the precarious security situation was making it difficult to deliver aid. Intense diplomatic efforts are under way to end the crisis, which has displaced a total of 250,000 people.

DRC: EU resists calls to send troops to east Congo

2008-10-31

http://euobserver.com/9/27017/?rk=1

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has suggested the EU should do more to help UN peacekeepers in Congo, but there is not enough political will among member states to send an EU battlegroup to the conflict-struck African region. "It's very difficult to say what we can do outside of diplomatic efforts, efforts at persuasion, and efforts so that peace can be achieved by leaning on the two countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda," Mr Kouchner said on Wednesday (29 October).

Global: UK high street banks’ complicity in the arms trade

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/5rtrcp

The arms trade provides the destructive hardware used in conflicts across the world. It undermines development, contributing to the poverty and suffering of millions. A new report by War on Want, Banking on Bloodshed: UK high street banks’ complicity in the arms trade has exposed, for the first time, the extent to which the five main British high street banks are funding this violent trade.

Somalia: Harsh words for Transitional Government

2008-10-31

http://www.ipsterraviva.net/europe/article.aspx?id=6692

Horn of Africa leaders attending a regional summit have lashed out at Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) for failing to restore peace and order in the war-torn country."Failed they have, as can easily be seen in the lack of progress in all areas in government. This is the truth that neither the Transitional Federal Government authorities, nor we, can sweep under the rug," Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister and IGAD chairman told the Oct. 29 summit.

Africa: Global financial crisis will impact telecoms sector

2008-10-31

http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/current1.html

It’s early days but the conventional wisdom so far has been that Africa will avoid the worst of the backwash from the global financial crisis. Its banks are less over-committed as lenders and its relatively small number of consumers still struggle to find credit. However, as everything is connected globally, Africa is bound to take a hit like every other continent and that hit will impact directly on Africa’s telecom’s sector.

Rwanda: Internet cost to drop by 99 percent

2008-10-31

http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/current1.html#internet

Costs of Internet broadband in the country are expected to reduce from $3,000 to $25 for each Megabyte per second a government official has said. Nkubito Bakuramutsa the Director General of Rwanda Information Technology Agency (RITA) said that Rwandans will purchase much cheaper Internet bandwidth after the country's national Internet backbone is connected to the coastal submarine cables expected to be completed by 2010.

Global: Research opportunity for African researchers

2008-10-31

http://www.nsi-ins.ca/english/about/helleiner_2009.asp

The North-South Institute is pleased to invite applications for its annual Visiting Researcher position. The Fellowship is named after Professor Emeritus G.K. Helleiner, one of Canada's leading academics on international development issues, who has dedicated many years to working in Africa and other developing countries and is a founding member and former Chair of the North-South Institute.

General Assembly of the Coalition for an Effective African Court

2008-10-30

http://www.africancourtcoalition.org/listDocuments.asp?page_id=38

The Coalition for an Effective African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights will be holding its General Assembly during the 44th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on 11 November 2008 at, Abuja, Nigeria. The closing date for nominations is 31 October 2008.

South Africa: ARSRC Visiting Fellows Programme

2008-10-31

http://www.arsrc.org/training/fellows/index.htm

The Visiting Fellows Programme has been established to further the ARSRC’s commitment to increase Africa-focused research and publications on sexuality, issues, as well as, build links between scholars and practitioners working in this area in Africa. ARSRC is offering one (1) residential fellowship to a suitable candidate from the southern Africa countries. The fellowships of 1 to 4 months long will be based at the ARSRC’s office in Lagos, Nigeria.

South Africa: Project management training using Open Workbench

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/5fldhm

The course is aimed at those who want to learn how to use a project management tool such as Open Workbench (which is the same type of program such as MS Project) to create project plans on the computer. Delegates will be provided with the Open Workbench program on CD. Visit www.openworkbench.org for more information about the program.

Executie Secretary - Coalition for an Effective African Court

2008-10-30

http://www.africancourtcoalition.org/editorial.asp?page_id=169

The Coalition for an Effective African Court was registered in 2007 as an NGO under the laws of the Republic of Tanzania. To continue the success achieved to date, the Coalition is recruiting an Executive Secretary to provide strategic and operational leadership for this newly registered organisation in Tanzania.

Global: Skills Building Project Leader - Tactical Tech

2008-10-31

http://www.tacticaltech.org/jobs

The Skills Building Project Leader is responsible for the day-to-day project management of Tactical Tech's Skills Building projects, including the development of our toolkits, guides and training for advocates (see www.tacticaltech.org for details of these). Duties include planning, managing finances and negotiating supplier contracts. The role also involves supporting fundraising for future project development and providing strategic input on the application of digital advocacy tools to the broader fields in which Tactical Tech is working.

Sudan: Programme Director - HelpAge International

2008-10-31

http://tinyurl.com/6yeqxe

HAI has been working in Sudan for over 20 years and has provided essential support and services to vulnerable older people and their dependants. HAI is committed to providing a community based approach to address the most pressing needs. As Programme Director, you will be responsible for the development, management and administration of HAI’s programme in Sudan and promote the development of a national capacity to meet the needs of older people. Please email your applications by the closing date of 17 November 2008.

Uganda: Network facilitator - Pamoja Africa

2008-10-31

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/51651

Pamoja Africa is a loose Network (Meta Network) of National chapters (Networks), which in turn consist of Organizations that practice Reflect and other participatory methods in the conduct of their development work. Pamoja requires the services of a competent and visionary person to fill the position of a network facilitator
PAMOJA AFRICA REFLECT NETWORK
CAREER OPPORTUNITY- NETWORK FACILITATOR POSITION

Context
Pamoja Africa is a loose Network (Meta Network) of National chapters (Networks), which in turn consist of Organizations that practice Reflect and other participatory methods in the conduct of their development work. PAMOJA’s core business has always been promoting participatory adult learning: particularly the Reflect approach to learning and social change. PAMOJA being a regional network for adult literacy practitioners has positioned itself in a distinctive niche, both within national and international contexts: PAMOJA promotes adult literacy for lifelong learning that is participatory by doctrine and in practice. Whereas Reflect forms the backbone of PAMOJA’s literacy philosophy, it has evolved into other participatory learning approaches that combine to provide comprehensive empowerment for human development and active citizenship.

This means that PAMOJA will champion an Africa regional advocacy agenda that contributes to placing Lifelong Learning for adults as a Right and as a means for people to live lives of dignity. Pamoja has just developed a five year strategy 2008-2012 to achieve this vision and therefore requires an experienced and visionary person that shares in this enthusiasm and also has the requisite networking skills and relations to bring in the resources required to realise this dream. Pamoja requires the services of a competent and visionary person to fill the position of a NETWORK FACILITATOR.

POSITION: NETWORK FACILITATOR
REPORTS TO: BOARD OF TRUSTEES
NATURE OF APPOINTMENT: CONTRACT(Initially Two years)
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

To oversee and coordinate the operations of this Africa regional network in line with its strategic plans, policies and procedures. The specific duties and tasks (to be undertaken with the assistance of the Secretariat staff) will include but will not necessarily be limited to the following main responsibility and duties:
1) Strengthening the Network through Leading Pamoja’s Fundraising and Partnerships Efforts by taking overall responsibility for fundraising, donor management and reporting systems within PAMOJA AFRICA.
2) Leading the organisation’s advocacy efforts
3) Building the capacity of National Pamojas and enhancing the image of Pamoja as a capacity building institution in participatory approaches
A detailed job description will be provided.

SALARY: Negotiable and based on competence and experience

COMPETENCIES
Resource mobilization and grant management, professionalism and integrity, leadership, good communication (written and oral) skills, teamwork, teambuilding, negotiation, conflict resolution, cultural diversity management, amiable character, and a commitment to continual learning and improvement are required skills.

QUALIFICATIONS AND PERSONAL QUALITIES
Essential:
- Post Graduate-level Degree in Development studies/Social Work/Education/international relations
- At least five years of experience in development sector and at senior position
- Minimum of 5 years experience and a proven record of success in raising funds for non-profit organizations from government and non-government sources.
- Demonstrated experience in developing and implementing fundraising and partnerships strategies covering corporate, government, multi-lateral and NGO revenue streams.
- Successful track record of personally identifying, cultivating and securing relationships with institutional and corporate donors and organizations.
- Demonstrated ability to gain respect and support from various constituencies including staff, national board, donors and partner organisations.
- Demonstrated ability to do high level strategic and hands-on fundraising, networking and partnerships work.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in both English and French

Desirable:
- Development and management experience with NGOs at international level
- Good Computer skills to develop communication materials
- Experience in Advocacy and lobbying
- Experience in training delivery and provision of in-house capacity building support
- Knowledge of relevant international strategies and frameworks in the areas of Adult education development, participatory approaches, sexual health, HIV/AIDS, educational and poverty issues.

Individual must possess business astuteness, be results oriented, have demonstrated analytical skills, be forward thinking and must have an interest and commitment to the leading role of adult educators in international development; excellent inter-personal skills; self-motivated and resourceful; ability to manage and develop multiple objectives and tasks; catalyst with vision to create excitement around PAMOJA’s programmes and goals, and get others to support the organisation. Successful candidate will enjoy working in a multi-cultural environment as part of a growing and developing organisation, and be personally committed to PAMOJA’s mission and values. The network facilitator will be supervising a number of project and network staff.

If you are interested in this position please send your applications by email with the subject” Network Facilitator position” include (i) a one-page cover letter, (ii) an updated C.V. and (iii) full contact details of three professional references.(iv) a summary of projects that you have been involved in directly and fundraised for successfully(V) An essay of not more than 800 words of your vision on how you can strengthen a regional Network in Africa to be a partner of choice in the mobilization of Africa in meeting MDGs through Adult education. The aforementioned should be sent electronically to:
The Human Resource advisor
PAMOJA AFRICA REFLECT NETWORK
Plot 54 Block 254 Gaba Road, Kansanga,
P.O.BOX 10150 Kampala, Uganda.
E-mail: pamoja@pamojareflect.org
Website : www.pamojareflect.org
To reach Pamoja Africa not later than 12th November, 2008
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted

Fahamu