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Biofuels and neo-colonialism

Seif Madoffe, Salim Maliondo, Faustin Maganga, Elifuraha Mtalo, Fred Midtgaard and Ian Bryceson

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/56727

cc C MunsterAs climate change forces economies around the world to cap carbon emissions, investors are pouring cash into the development of biofuels, as a replacement for fossil fuels. Seif Madoffe writes that this has led to ‘climate colonialism’ – ‘a massive land-grabbing scramble in Africa’, as European companies – some with foreign aid money support – rapidly establish enormous carbon monoculture fields in tropical countries. With reference to the Saadani National Park in Tanzania, Madoffe asks whether it is ethical for rich countries in the North to make ‘renewable’ carbon in places where it has serious negative impacts on poor people and tropical forests that will be cut down to create space for ‘carbon fields’ in monoculture plantations.

We are currently witnessing a new and massive land-grabbing scramble in Africa, unprecedented since the fall of colonialism. The ‘justification’ for this land-grabbing is supposedly that global climate change is threatening the entire world and that therefore huge tracts of land are required for the planting of biological crops which produce ‘biofuels’ which should replace ‘fossil fuels’ so as not to add net carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

But this ignores the underlying fact that the vast majority of carbon dioxide is being produced by rich countries in the North who do not want to reduce their excessive fuel consumption and wastage levels. It is postulated by the proponents of ‘biofuels’ that enormous areas of unused (or under-used) land supposedly exist in Africa, which can be bought (cheaply) by commercial enterprises from the rich countries in the North. The logic is that rich countries can thus ‘buy’ their way out of a situation wherein they would otherwise have to drastically reduce their carbon dioxide production if indeed they really are serious about the threats posed by such emissions.

We shall explain why we consider these neo-colonial proposals for biofuels to be a new form of neo-colonialism – ‘climate colonialism’.

Several questions arise – are there really enormous areas of unused land? No, this is a myth. Should the re-incorporation of carbon into plant material happen where the carbon was emitted originally, or could it be ‘exported’ from one country to another? This raises problems in the context of unequal power relations and unfair commercial deals. Should one make ‘renewable’ carbon in places where it has serious negative impacts on poor people and tropical forests that will be cut down to create space for ‘carbon fields’ in monoculture plantations? Furthermore, should this be done by taking over large tracts of agricultural land in poor countries, using huge quantities of water and polluting the soil, the rivers and coastal ecosystems – for example, giant plantation projects owned by European or American corporations, subsidised by ‘development assistance’ funds?

This scenario requires urgent consideration because European companies – some with foreign aid money support – are rapidly establishing enormous carbon monoculture fields in tropical countries. In Tanzania alone, there are ambitious proposals put forward by more than twenty European companies to establish several sugar, Jatropha and palm-oil plantations in order to produce biofuels. We will elucidate this by examining one such sugar-ethanol example from coastal Tanzania.

In Tanzania, Saadani National Park is situated at the coast, and it serves as an important connection between the coastal environment of the Indian Ocean and inland areas. This National Park is an area with unique fauna and flora. Nearby, in the Zaraninge Forest reserve in Bagamoyo district there is a proposed sugarcane plantation site between the two major rivers of the area, Wami and Ruvu. These rivers provide fresh water to large tracts of natural land and are situated close to the coast adjacent to coral reefs, mangroves and other biologically diverse marine environments. There are several villages inhabited by many thousands of farmers and pastoralists. An enormous 22,000 hectares of this area has been leased by a Swedish company, SEKAB, for the production of ethanol for Sweden, supposedly to make Sweden more ‘eco-friendly’. SEKAB furthermore aims to expand to 400,000 hectares or more to include also areas in Rufiji.

What are the values found in the area that will be destroyed and what are the ecological and social consequences of this, both in Tanzania and in Europe?

SEKAB’s project is one of several that are intended to be located near the coast so that ethanol or vegetable oil may be easily exported by sea. The plantations are also placed where there is good availability of fresh water, and in places remote enough to make it ‘easier’ to marginalise local villagers and move them out of their traditional areas at a low cost to the rich corporations (if indeed any compensation is paid at all).

When a corporation wants to undertake such a huge change in an area, as for instance converting it from tropical forest to sugarcane monoculture, an assessment needs to be done (called ESIA, environmental and social impact assessment) as well as seeking approvals from different levels of the government in the country in question. Such assessments are usually done by consultant agencies, which are often from the same country as the corporation proposing the project.

The ESIA report for SEKAB’s proposed project has been prepared by the Swedish consultant company ORGUT. The report states that the projected plantation area is situated between the two major rivers, Wami and Ruvu, and that the plantation will extract water from Wami. ‘The Wami River is one of the major rivers draining the Eastern Arc Mountains’. The Eastern Arc Mountains are geologically old mountain ranges with unique flora and fauna with exceptionally many endemic species (species that are only found there). It is clear that the amount of water required by SEKAB from the Wami River to irrigate the 22,000 ha sugarcane farm will mean drying up and severe pollution of the Wami River. Most important, animals in the Saadani National Park depend on the river, as do mangroves and fishery resources which will suffer serious impacts due to water shortage and pollution from sugar-cane farming and ethanol processing. The routes used by the animals to approach the sea for salt licks will also be blocked. ORGUT’s report states that: ‘There is incomplete information on the amount of water available in the Wami River’. But the report does not mention the various serious scenarios for the National Park and forest reserve bordering the proposed plantation, the red listed animals there, or the coral reefs, mangroves and fisheries along the coast.

ORGUT’s report is quite extraordinary in its description of flora and fauna in the area which will become a sugarcane plantation. In addition to the Saadani National Park, the Zaraninge Forest reserve, part of Eastern Africa coastal forests which is one of the globally important biodiversity hot spots in East Africa, is located nearby and will be affected if the sugarcane plantation and biofuels factory are established. The area SEKAB wants to acquire consists of a number of forest types from woodlands with African ebony, Acacia and Terminalia, to mangrove forest on the coast and tall forest in the northern part with valuable tree species: ‘Afzelia quanzensis, Pterocarpus angolensis and Dalbergia melanoxylon that are found in the northern part of the Razaba area are valuable timber species and products from these species have a very high market value. However, the species are also threatened by both local and international demand and the abundances of these species in Tanzania have declined dramatically’. The report further states that many rare and endangered tree species occur in the area: ‘Such species include the endemic Encephalartos hildebrandtii (Cycad tree) and important timber trees such as Dalbergia melanoxylon (African ebony) and Trichalysia sp. which are threatened by unsustainable harvesting’.

The value of the timber on the land which has to be cleared for sugarcane production is high. Even before a final decision has been taken by the ministry on whether SEKAB will get a concession, timber is being cut. The sustainable Community Based Forest Management of the area, built up by the villagers, and which used to contribute considerably to the village economy, will now cease. It is unclear how significant the income from this timber is, compared to the future value of the sugarcane production. However, in several other cases, the companies must get a significant amount of money from the timber harvesting alone. In some cases it is likely that it will exceed the future biofuel income from the same areas.

With respect to fauna, ORGUT’s report states that: ‘The project area is potentially rich in wildlife and shares many species with the adjacent Saadani National Park’. The report further states that: ‘The area has high diversity of both resident and migratory bird species with composition and abundance of species changing with seasons due to inter-Africa and Palaearctic migrations. The importance of Makurunge area (also in Bagamoyo district) for bird conservation is indicated by the high abundance of birds observed during the EIA survey’. According to the report, many large mammals are found in the area earmarked for the sugarcane plantation: Lion, leopard, cheetah, sable antelope, wild dog, warthog, duiker antelope, Sykes monkey, black and white Colobus monkey, yellow baboon, elephant, hippo, wild pig, buffalo, reedbuck and others. ORGUT’s report further states that: ‘At least 34 species of mammals occurring in the project area are threatened according to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list’.

According to the report, the area in question has been used by local hunters, small-scale farmers and fishermen for at least 1500 years. There are currently 3 villages in the area with a total of close to 6,000 people (probably an underestimate). A large number of pastoralists also live here, with a cattle population of between 10,000 and 50,000. All these will now be forced out and have to find new grazing lands. We consider their population estimates to be on the low side.

The report further states that ‘HIV/AIDS prevalence is still minimal’. Later in the report, when discussing the consequences of importing workers from the city to the plantation, it is stated that there will be an ‘increase in the risk of communicable diseases (e.g. HIV/AIDS) and (decreased) human health due to increased population of workers and social interaction’.

The energy needs of the local people are met almost entirely by firewood. This will of course become more difficult to collect when large areas have been converted into sugarcane plantations. Homes and livelihoods will be destroyed to give way to ethanol production for the European market. The displaced communities will be forced to clear other woodland areas for settlements, farming, fuelwood and grazing. This kind of deforestation is known as ‘leakage’ in GHG (Green House Gas) terminology, and increases Tanzania’s ‘C debt’ (carbon debt). In addition to this deforestation, organic matter in the soil will also be transformed into carbon dioxide.

All in all, production of biofuels also results in a lot of carbon emissions. Firstly, of course the machinery needed requires a lot of fossil fuel to be produced, transported to Tanzania, to be used in Tanzania. Transport of biofuels to Europe also necessitates the burning of fossil fuel. Secondly, the whole process of producing biofuels involves emission of a lot of GHG. Before harvesting, sugarcane fields are burned to remove litter, leaves, debris, snakes, and rats. This produces not only a lot of CO2, but also other more aggressive GHGs in great amounts. The harvested canes are then pressed and the remaining fibres are burned, producing further GHG. After fermentation, the molasses will most likely be poured out in the Wami River causing a severe pollution problem. The whole process of producing biofuel ethanol this way will cause severe pollution by GHG. Estimates vary (depending on how refined the process might be), but per unit ethanol produced, they range between 17 to 840 times more GHG released into the atmosphere than the amount of GHG that is reduced. Production of biofuels in the way intended by the Swedish company will therefore cause Tanzania to be in a possible carbon debt and thus violate international agreements, such as the Kyoto agreement. Sweden, on the other hand, will be better off because the reduction will happen in Sweden while the increase happens in Tanzania. The actual estimates will depend upon how SEKAB actually practices its use of fuels – they will probably claim to use biofuels to a large extent, but there will still be excessive carbon emission in Tanzania, and ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ may not be the same especially when fossil fuel prices are relatively low, as they are now.

The sugarcane plantation will also be fertilised with enormous amounts of artificial fertiliser. Considerable quantities will leak out into the ocean and will influence life in the coral reefs. Poisonous pesticides will also be used which will subsequently seriously affect harmless and beneficial insects, birds, marine organisms, and also impair human health. We need to remind ourselves that this plantation is placed in the middle of a National Park and a Forest reserve and is near the seashore. The estimated amounts mentioned in the ORGUT report – 3,400 tonnes of di-ammonium phosphate and 5,100 tonnes of urea used on the start-up area of 17,000 ha – will influence the surrounding environment considerably. Soil acidification and atmospheric warming due to emitted nitrous oxide gas are serious pollution impacts. As mentioned above, pre-harvest burning of sugarcane will add tons of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide to the atmosphere. The pollution of the air during sugarcane harvesting in other countries and in similar settings is known to have caused an increase in respiratory health problems among the surrounding communities.

The potential impacts on fisheries along the coast, on the coral reefs and on the whole ecosystem in the adjacent National Park and other areas by an enormous sugar-cane plantation with massive water consumption and leaking of fertiliser and poisonous pesticides have been poorly investigated. If a harbour or pipeline for transporting the ethanol to Sweden is built on the coral reef, it will also add to the negative environmental effects. Reduced fish resources in the polluted water will seriously affect the livelihoods of the fishing communities.

Based on this information, and a lot more throughout ORGUT’s report of 155 pages, what would be the conclusion of the Swedish consultant agent? Well, they state: ‘Although there are some limited negative environmental implications of the project, the project will have significant socio-economic and environmental benefits to the people surrounding the project, Bagamoyo District and the Nation’. This illogical conclusion is a blatant apologist ‘green washing’ attempt.

SEKAB reportedly hopes to acquire 400,000 ha for sugar-cane plantations in Tanzania. The prospect of a Swedish corporation owning and controlling so much land for the benefit of rich Swedish investors, with serious deleterious environmental impacts and at the expense of poor rural people in Tanzania smacks strongly of neo-colonialism. When one considers that the total arable land in Tanzania is a mere three million hectares, SEKAB will have control of more than one tenth of the available land. If each of the 20 biofuel projects already scheduled get even half of the land allocated to SEKAB, it is clear that the Tanzanian rural population will be condemned to eke out their livelihoods in the badlands of the country.

At a workshop organised by HakiArdhi with Oxfam in Morogoro last year, the director responsible for energy in Tanzania was asked by participants whether the government had a policy on biofuels. He informed participants that there was no such policy and that his appearance at the workshop was part of efforts to get input towards the formulation of a Biofuels Task Force that would develop such a policy. Everyone present was shocked that the government, through the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), had already allocated massive tracts of land and apparently signed contracts for biofuel production without any policy support. This serious omission is bound to have significant and far-reaching adverse socio-economic impacts on Tanzania, compounded by the environmental impacts identified above. Evidently the assignment of land delivery duties to the TIC without clear policy guidelines on such foreign investments has aggravated the problem. One may also wonder how the biofuels ‘bandwagon’ fits in to the bigger picture exemplified by the Vision 2025, Mkukuta/Mkuza and Mkurabita strategies for poverty eradication in Tanzania. When TIC and a foreign company have identified a particular area for biofuel production, an application for lease of land has then to be approved by the government. In the case of areas less than 100,000 ha, this may be done at the level of Ministry of lands and human settlement. Larger areas would have to be approved by the president. However, companies may write a series of smaller contracts that add up to a larger total. But areas even very much smaller than 100,000 ha are still very huge indeed and we think it is very unwise to allow one company to control such a big area. It is currently unclear what has actually been approved at the ministry level of the proposed contracts with foreign companies.

There is a set of draft guidelines for biofuels for Tanzania under development. Unfortunately, these guidelines mainly focus on biofuels as a substitute for fossil fuel in Tanzania – which is not what is happening. Foreign companies want to grow biofuels in Tanzania for export (for the reasons mentioned above). The development of these guidelines, and other biofuel frameworks, are supported by 20 million SEK ($3 million) by the Swedish government through SIDA (the Swedish Development Assistance Agency). Who are they assisting: The Tanzanian people or the Swedes? Not surprisingly, these guidelines focus on the possible positive side of liquid biofuels only.

The question is whether it is right for SIDA to support the development of donor-dependent parallel institutions to govern issues of biofuel policy in Tanzania. Shouldn’t existing institutions be supported to strengthen their legitimate roles instead? Is this a sophisticated form of neo-colonialism couched in ‘innocent’ donor platitudes?

‘Eco-friendly’ ethanol fuel for big 4WD Volvos and racy Saabs in Sweden that replaces Tanzanian coastal forests with Swedish-owned sugar plantations, that consumes huge quantities of scarce water, that pollutes soil and coral reefs, and that violates the traditional land-rights of poor people and threatens their food security – what is this if it is not a violation of human rights? Is this a new era of climate colonialism?

POSTSCRIPT

During the February 2009, following the exposure of an initial draft of this article on the Swedish Radio website and interviews on Swedish Radio P1 with Ian Bryceson on 28 January 2009 about the SEKAB project, several debates have followed in various Swedish media, as well as an article on ‘Klimakolonialismen’ (Climate colonialism) by Tor Arve Benjaminsen and Ian Bryceson in the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet (also published on 28 January 2009). The case has also been exposed in several Tanzanian media by other authors. SEKAB has now announced their withdrawal from Africa in a press release on 2 February 2009, referred to in an article in The Sunday Citizen (010309) in Tanzania.

* This article first appeared in the maiden issue of CHEMCHEMI, Bulletin of the Mwalimu Nyerere Professorial Chair in Pan African Studies of the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the Editorial Board of CHEMCHEMI.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

Calling on the Kenyan leadership to be counted

Wangari Maathai

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/56714

cc Amber B CReflecting on Kenyan society's unquestioning acceptance of the police's right to intimidate and even kill those labelled as 'Mungiki', Wangari Maathai considers the dubious culture of impunity around harassing those supposedly in league with the Mungiki sect. With the pervasive demonisation of the Mungiki militia group providing an effective cover for the killing of members of the Kikuyu community – Mungiki and non-Mungiki alike – ordinary citizens are reluctant to speak out, both for fear of being accused of supporting the sect and of the reactions of Mungiki militia to criticism. Calling on the political and religious leadership of the Kikuyu community to face up to the challenge in its midst, Maathai urges the country to heal the growing rift between the community and other Kenyans.

In the course of history everywhere in the world, it is the leadership of the day that guides its people towards peace or war, poverty or wealth, development or collapse, slavery or freedom. And so it is with Kenya's current leadership, a leadership which is failing to see the signs of anger and frustration of those they govern even though the writing is on the wall. Since the rupture over the infamous Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2003, the referendum on the constitution, the general elections and the subsequent fallout from them, Kenya has continued to slide dangerously backwards.

In 2008, thanks to a quick response from the African Union and the international community, Kenya was saved from the brink and a National Accord was arrived at to allow the Party of National Unity (PNU) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) to declare a ceasefire, share power and work towards national cohesion and reconciliation. Kenya was given a new lease of life but since then the leadership has wasted away that second chance as it continues to compete and play politics with only 2012 in mind. In the past, the failure to recognise danger signs were the reason why some people expressed shock and dismay that deadly post-election violence could happen in Kenya in 2007–08. Such people had believed that Kenya was a peaceful country. Unfortunately, that perception was because people ignored the danger signs and lived a lie. To such people the tribal clashes of 1991, 1992 and 1997 were quickly forgotten. Yet during those earlier clashes, as in 2007–08, distress calls to the police for help were ignored. Many people died, and more were maimed, raped and displaced, while much property was destroyed. Again, once politicians shared power and privileges, nobody was held responsible for those crimes. Everything was swept under the carpet and was quickly forgotten. As it turned out, the clashes of the 1990s proved to be rehearsals for the post-election violence of 2007–08 and in all cases the violence was largely directed at the Kikuyu community.

Currently, the danger signs are palpable. Instances of citizens being murdered in cold blood in cases where no robbery is involved, or citizens shouting down leaders at public rallies – such as happened during Jamhuri Day (12 December 2008) and Labour Day (1 May 2009) – or youth uprooting the railway, engaging police in gun battles in rural towns, or engaging in killing orgies of defenceless villagers, are all signs of a society that is falling apart and losing respect for the rule of law. The government knows that the violence and killings are largely perpetrated by members of militia groups, which are created and funded by politicians. Different communities have their militia, which bear different names. The government knows these militia groups and knows that politicians use them to punish and defeat their opponents, especially during elections. If they win elections, the same politicians end up in government and become part of the leadership.

Mungiki, which is currently making headlines, is the militia group from the Kikuyu community. Information about the group is kept secret, but unconfirmed reports indicate that this militia is split into several groups. The original Mungiki members were only interested in pursuing the Kikuyu form of worship, which prays facing Mt. Kenya. This group does not believe in Christianity and calls for the traditional Kikuyu way of life, including practicing female circumcision. Owing largely to its stand on those two issues, the strongly christianised Kikuyu community has been unsympathetic towards this group and has largely demonised the sect. The banning of the sect by the government has criminalised it, and therefore the community and Kenyans in general have tolerated the extrajudicial killing of its members.

The police have taken advantage of this demonisation and criminalisation to kill Mungiki indiscriminately, because they know that they will not be called to account. Why the members of the sect are denied freedom of worship, in a country where everybody else can worship as they please, is not clear. Indeed it is only among the Kikuyu community that worshiping in a traditional way is demonised, criminalised and the killing of followers is tolerated.

The second group camouflages itself as Mungiki but is said to be comprised of militiamen being recruited from thousands of unemployed youth. With the failure of the cash crop economy, impoverishment and the introduction of drugs and illicit alcoholic drinks in the Central region, it has been easy to recruit youth and men into militia groups. Criminality gradually infiltrated some of these militia groups, especially as they sought ways to sustain themselves beyond the handouts from their sponsors. Therefore, they become available to politicians and others for hire. They are the type we encounter protecting grabbed public lands or properties built on stolen land. Sometimes they may receive police protection, an indication of their political patronage.

The third group is claimed to be closely connected to the law enforcement arm of the government and is used to collect information, intimidate and instil fear in citizens, terrorise matatus and silence elements like dissidents, activists and competing elements. It may also provide ‘protection’ or other services for a fee. These are the ones people accuse of hiring police guns to commit crimes.

In some cases the militiamen and the law enforcement arm of the government form a symbiotic relationship, which sometimes goes sour with either of them getting killed. When militiamen are killed they are labelled thieves and members of the Mungiki sect. That is usually an indication that the matter get closed and no further action is expected. Because of the internalised disdain of the Mungiki sect, especially in the Kikuyu community, the expected outcry against their killings has been absent and nobody in the community wants to be seen supporting Mungiki. At the same time Mungiki has instilled so much fear in the community that nobody is willing to speak about them or their actions for fear of immediate elimination.

Therefore, when innocent persons are killed and are labelled Mungiki, death is stoically accepted as the will of God and the community internalises the pain. Killing members of Mungiki, irrespective of their innocence, has became so acceptable that all that police have to claim to literally get away with any murder is to say that the victim was a member of Mungiki. Unfortunately, that has degenerated into acceptance of killing of innocent Kikuyus. Currently this is further degenerating into members of Mungiki turning on the community itself in a cycle of vengeance and tit-for-tat.

The recent murder of the son of the former member of parliament for Gatundu North, Hon. Kariuki Muiruri, painfully exemplifies the tragedy and the dilemma that the Kikuyu community faces. The son was shot dead by a plainclothes policeman, who subsequently walked into a police station and wrote in the Occurrence Book (OB) that he had killed a thief who was also a member of the Mungiki sect! Yet the son was on holiday and the two met casually at a social place. Whatever the circumstances that led to the shooting of the son, this was a case of an innocent young man killed by a policeman who knew that nothing would happen to him if he were to record that the man was a member of the Mungiki sect. But for the fact that the victim was the son of a former member of parliament and a former assistant minister, Muiruri’s son would have joined the list of thousands of Kikuyu youth who have been killed under similar circumstances and labelled thieves and members of the Mungiki sect.

The Mungiki phenomenon, almost like the Mau Mau experience five decades ago, is providing cover for extrajudicial killings, intimidation, harassment, criminalisation and the bashing of the Kikuyu community under the pretence that police are protecting citizens from Mungiki. Sometimes police are fully aware of the activities carried out by this group. The killings in Mathira and Kirinyaga, for example, are said to have been committed with full knowledge of the law enforcement arm of the government. Indeed, citizens claim that distress calls to the police for help were never responded to until the killings had been completed. The extrajudicial killings of innocent Kenyans have been attracting international attention. This is because not only is the state perceived to be failing in protecting its citizens, but the police are being blamed for some of the deaths. Promises to carry out a thorough investigation come to nothing, and nobody has been held to account. After all, the police cannot be expected to investigate and incriminate themselves.

Perhaps militia groups like Mungiki have gotten out of hand. But is the right response to militia groups a license to kill them indiscriminately? We are not in a state of war, and nobody should be killed without following the due process of the law of the land, police excuses for self-defence notwithstanding. Police Commissioner Hussein Ali will find it hard to explain how in his era Kenya has experienced a level of carnage at the hands of the police greater than at any other time, even when compared with the colonial era. When the government sends the message that the Mungiki group should be crushed, it is an endorsement for extrajudicial killings. For their part, the militiamen will subsequently go on a killing spree to avenge members killed. This cycle of death has become a common feature, has instilled fear and has given rise to frustration in the people of Central Kenya.

The way I see it, the political and religious leadership of the Kikuyu community should rise to the challenge facing the entire community. This is a community that suffers from accumulated trauma and frustration extending back to the beginning of the colonial era. From the latest attack during the post-election violence, the community has yet to bury their dead, settle the internally displaced persons (IDPs) and send their children back to school. A culture of Kikuyu bashing, criminalisation and isolation is being perpetrated and is quickly entrenching itself, creating a deep rift between the community and other Kenyans. The fact that this is happening when the national leadership in State House is from the community is doubly tragic. How can they be so bashed, so criminalised, killed, displaced and humiliated when their beloved son is in State House? Will he wait until he or members of his family are touched by the tragedy afflicting the community? If they are now encouraged to turn on each other, there will be no shortage of helping hands, including being given guns to kill their own children! For a country awash with militia groups, these are dangerous signs not only for the Kikuyu community, but for Kenya as a whole. The question I would ask Prime Minister Raila Odinga is, have you not heard the cries or seen the tears of these Kenyans in your capacity as the coordinator of government business? Have you not seen the mourning mothers?

* Wangari Maathai is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the author of The Challenge for Africa.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

Zapiro: ‘Zapping’ for democracy

Annar Cassam

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/56725

cc G RohrigAs South African President Jacob Zuma starts legal proceedings against renowned cartoonist Zapiro, for sketches based on Zuma’s appearances in court on rape and corruption charges in 2008, Annar Cassam writes that she isn’t a fan of some of Zapiro’s work either. Cassam comments on two of Zapiro’s cartoons, one which depicts his own personal angst after having ‘lost faith’ in the ANC, and the other which shows what he thinks lies ahead for the majority of voters who voted for the ANC because of what the leadership promised them. Quoting Nelson Mandela, Cassam speaks of the need for South Africans to combine their ‘collective wisdom’ and the ‘talents and energies’ to address the glaring inequalities together. Cassam argues that Zapiro’s cartoons make a mockery of the aspirations of impoversished voters, and encourages citizens to switch parties rather than work with the ANC, which she argues, ‘remains the most important and the most inclusive organisation for the average South African’.

Jonathan Shapiro, or Zapiro, is a well-known and much admired Cape Town cartoonist whose daily cariacatures in S.Africa's major newspapers are widely read all over the country. His reputation in some quarters is such that the great and the good from all walks of life deeply appreciate being lampooned by him. The one exception is President Jacob Zuma who has started legal proceedings against Zapiro for some extremely offensive cartoons about Zuma's appearances in court on rape and corruption charges in 2008.

Zapiro's work includes comments on the recent general elections of April 2009. The first cartoon in this series (Mail & Guardian, 23 April 2009) shows what he thinks lies ahead for the majority of voters who queued up to vote for the ANC because of what the leadership – here symbolised by the snake's head – has promised them. The second cartoon, Ballot Box Blues (Sunday Times,19 April 2009) depicts Zapiro's own personal angst after having ‘lost faith’ in the ANC.

Once in a while, the Nominations Committee of the Nobel Peace Prize, in its infinite wisdom, chooses as its laureates people who are on the opposite sides of a war or a conflict-torn situation. For example, the 1973 prize went jointly to Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the former representing the USA which had tried for years to bomb a poor and distant Asian country ’back to the stone age’ and the latter representing that country, VietNam,which under communist leadership fought and won a guerrilla war first against the French and then against the Americans.

Similarly, in 1993, the prize was awarded jointly to Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk. The following year, the Nobel people out-did themselves by awarding the 1994 prize to Yasser Arafat, Yitzak Rabin and Shimon Peres. The exact logic behind this type of tandem awarding is difficult to understand for such gestures place the aggressors and their victims on the same level. They also degrade the achievements and the sacrifices of the victims while glorifying their former oppressors for doing nothing more than bowing to the inevitable.

It was Roelf ‘Pik’ Botha, de Klerk's foreign minister, who in a BBC documentary about the end of apartheid shown in 1996, related the friendly advice given to his government by their erstwhile Western allies: ‘You people stink! Get rid of that bad smell of apartheid and then we can associate with you.’

In the case of the Mandela/de Klerk prize, the joint award caused real confusion in the minds of many outside South Africa who were not privy to the intricacies of the political negotiations between the ANC and the white government which went on for four long years before the first democratic elections were held in April 1994.

Many members of the international community were led to imagine that Mandela and de Klerk had descended hand-in-hand from on high on a pink cloud which had landed in South Africa where, magically, the aged freedom-fighter was welcomed home by the big-hearted boer so that they could together live in peace, love and harmony for ever after.

In October 1993, six months before the uhuru elections of April 1994, a high-level ANC delegation, led by Nelson Mandela, came to UNESCO headquarters in Paris to address the executive board, the organisation's policy -making body. The delegation, which included Thabo Mbeki and Bantu Holomisa among others, was very warmly welcomed by the UNESCO audience – but all eyes were on Mandela. He was in excellent form, as elegant, dignified and courteous as ever, but now very much the president-to-be, bearing a palpable aura of calm authority.

In a speech of just 15 minutes, he put to rest the 'pink cloud ' theory in the first sentence and then went on to to explain the changes that were underway and in simple language described where the ANC had come from, the reasons for, and strategy behind its negotiating position and, above all, the ANC's priorities for a post-apartheid society in South Africa. This is what he said:

‘Today, I had lunch at the South African embassy. A few years ago, if the South African ambassador had invited me to his embassy, I would have strangled him to death! But today I can walk into his embassy, sit down and enjoy his meal. What is the reason for that? There are many people who will ask why I had done that.

‘Back in 1986, the ANC decided to take the initiative of getting the government and the ANC to sit down and discuss a peaceful resolution of our problems. We in the ANC thought that it as a waste of the talents and energies of South Africans that we should try to solve our problems through violence. We had been forced to resort to violence because we had no other alternative in our country.

‘But the ANC has produced very far-seeing individuals and they were always concerned that we were not addressing our problems by peaceful methods. We persuaded the govenment under great difficulty because they were faced with this problem where they had fought every election among whites, of course, because up to now only whites in our country can vote. Now they had said in all these elections that they would never talk to the ANC because it was, according to them, a ‘terrorist’ organisation. Now when we approached them, they were faced with the question of losing face. And so it was not easy to get them to sit down with us and address our problems in a peaceful manner.

‘But we exercised sufficient patience and persistence and eventually forced them to sit down and to explore a peaceful settlement with us. But one of the most difficult things in society, in life, is to be able to change existing attitudes among men and women. It is never easy to take society from one point to the other. People get used to a certain approach and even when conditions change, they still stick to that approach. And that is one of the problems that is facing us in our country. We are faced with people on both sides of the colour line, both in the ANC and within the ranks of the government. And this difficulty arises from attitudes of men and women of calibre who are quite bona fide in their attitudes and who believe that the attitude of resistance only is the most correct attitude to adopt.

‘Whereas we are saying let us now shift from a resistance movement to an organisation that is addressing the problems of the people. Because in the next government, we are likely to be the people faced with the responsibility of addressing and solving these social problems.

‘The question of unemployment, which stands now at 50 per cent of the economically active section of our population; 50 per cent are unemployed. We have rising crime of such a nature that we are now regarded as the most violent society in the world. The state of our education....I have just told the director-general that in our country, we have no less than 20,000 young people between 12 and 16 years of age in prison. It is a serious crisis facing us.

‘We have the question of diseases, like AIDS which require to be addressed by us; it is spreading and as you know, no government has the resources to be able to face the question of AIDS, for it attacks the economically active part of the population and it can affect your own economy. And this is happening in the face of a shortage of medical facilities.

‘Our economy is on the verge of collapse; and because of these social problems, it has become necessary for us to shift from being purely a resistance movement to an organisation, which is up-front in addressing the social problems of the country.

‘The government is facing similar problems; not only the government, all the whites in fact are facing similar problems. Since 1948, they have put in power a government that has applied the most brutal form of racial oppression in the history of our country.

‘We have forced them, as the people of South Africa, supported by the international community through sanctions, to abandon apartheid and they now talk of democracy; they have now thrown open their ranks to blacks. They say they are democrats but when you study the actual proposals they make as to what should happen in the future, they remain the same organisation committed to white supremacy.

‘As an illustration, we discussed the question of what type of government we should establish in the future, what type of democracy do we want. Their proposal amounted to this: That, if for example, the African National Congress gets 75 per cent of the total votes cast in a general election and the ruling Nationalist Party of de Klerk get 25 per cent, the ANC cannot take any decision and carry it out, in spite of the fact that they have 75 per cent of the total votes in the country. They cannot take any decision without the agreement of the 25 per cent! That is their concept of democracy. This is just one illustration.

‘Over the last three years we have been fighting to correct this... that what should be done is something which is not novel to South Africa. We do not want any experiments about democracy in so far as South Africa is concerned, concepts which are unknown in the demoratic world. And this is due the fact that we are seeking solutions with people who are used to white supremacy and who have never known and who have no democratic culture.

‘Nevertheless we have made very impressive advances in regard to the unbanning of the ANC, the lifting of the state of emergency, the release of political prisoners, the return of exiles and the repeal of repressive laws. And now we have had two breakthroughs: An agreement to establish the Transitional Executive Council (TEC), which is going to take some functions of government, although the white parliament is still going to remain the parliament of the country. But already the masses of our people are creating institutions of democracy which are beginning to exercise political power. So we have the TEC, which is going to prepare for the forthcoming elections.

And above all, we have set 27 April next year as the date when we are going to hold elections for the whole country, for all the people of South Africa. For the first time, the people of South Africa are going to elect a government of their choice.

In this situation, it is our duty to mobilise all South Africans, black and white, to move forward with us. We are saying let us forget the mistakes of the past, let us work together in order to build a new South Africa.

And that why today, I walked into the South African embassy in response to his invitation to lunch. It has settled very well in my stomach... because it is part and parcel of the strategy we are using to build this new South Africa. We are saying to everybody, whether in the democratic movement or to those who have functioned all their lives as part of the minority and its structures, let us forget the past. Let us put our collective wisdom together and move forward.’

Fifteen years and three elections later, this speech makes fascinating reading. The references to the ‘great difficulties’ the ANC negotiators were facing, the ‘patience and persistence’, the problems in changing ‘existing attitudes..on both sides of the colour-line’ are all examples of Mandela-speak, of his own low-key, understated style. In fact, he was referring to a truly horrendous set of events, which formed the background to the talks between the ANC and the ruling Nationalists.

When these negotiations began in 1990, de Klerk's strategy was to aim for a ‘power-sharing’ arrangement in which his party and his race would keep the upper hand. Accordingly, he set about building an anti-ANC alliance from among the black groups and bantustans created under apartheid, the most prominent of these being Buthelezi's Inkatha movement in Zulu-land.

During the years of exile and imprisonment of the ANC leaders, Inkatha, in keeping with the ‘separate development’ line, had been functioning as an ethno-centric movement for the promotion of Zulu culture. In July 1990, a few months after the release of Mandela and the unbanning of the ANC, Buthelezi launched Inkatha as an anti-ANC political party and within days, Zulu gangs began to raid and attack migrant workers in their hostels and ANC supporters in townships, on commuter trains, taxis and so on. In the Johannesburg urban areas, townships like Sebokong, Thokoza, Boipathong, gave their names to massacres that were presented by the state and the media as being purely ‘black-on-black’ local eruptions between natives. But gradually, the not-so-hidden hand of the state police, security and military arms became visible to all, except to the president of the country.

De Klerk always claimed that he did not know and was thus not responsible for these clashes and attacks but it was under his watch that violence and political assassinations increased massively beween 1990 and 1993, as the Human Rights Commission of South Africa reported. In Kwa-Zulu Natal especially, the nature and scale of the violence against migrant workers and ordinary ANC supporters were such that it became clear that a ‘third force’ was operating across the land – with or without official consent. As it happened, Judge Richard Goldstone's Commission confirmed this in several reports, each more damning than the last, showing how a covert ‘third force’ made up of military intelligence, police and Inkatha elements was out to create chaos and thus endanger the move to democracy.

In April 1993, the country was brought to the edge of the abyss when Chris Hani, general secretary of the Communist Party of South Africa and the most charismatic young leader of his generation of freedom-fighters, was killed in the driveway of his own home. He was shot dead by a Polish immigrant who was waiting for Hani in his car.

The shots were heard by Hani's Afrikaner neighbour, Mrs Retha Harmse, who saw the killer drive away, memorised his registration number and called the police. When the police picked up the killer a few minutes later, they found him with the gun, a 9mm army-issue pistol.

Hani's assassination could have been the beginning of the end of the transition, so devastating was the event for the whole country which suddenly seemed leaderless and lost. In fact, this moment turned out to be the tipping point, both for Mandela and the country, which turned to him to calm the situation. As the storm clouds of fear and rage gathered, he went on national media to ask his countrymen, of all colours, to control their emotions and not to risk actions which would surely destroy their country and their future.

He told them, ‘a white man full of prejudice and hate, came to our country and committed a deed so foul that our whole nation teeters on the brink of disaster. But a white woman, of Afrikaner origin, has risked her life that we might know, and bring to justice, the assassin.’ With these words, Mandela diffused the tension, re-anchored the nation and virtually took over the leadership of the country.

Such were the ‘difficulties’ that Mandela delicately alluded to in his UNESCO speech, a few more of which were yet to come before election day. For example, there was the pathetic gate-crashing of the negotiating venue at the World Trade Centre in Johannesburg, by a few thousand enraged Afrikaner right-wingers and the near-civil war provoked by Buthelezi and his bantustan allies in Ciskei and Bophuthatswana, aided by the usual suspects from the Afrikaner die-hard fringe.

The ANC, now working through the TEC, under the joint authority of Mandela and de Klerk, managed to diffuse these near-disasters and continued to prepare for elections. At the very last hour, Buthelezi too came to his senses and brought Kwa-Zulu Natal on board to take part on 27 April. As a final touch, the ANC's offices in the centre of Johannesburg were bombed three days before, with nine deaths and some 92 injured and 26 April, another explosion was reported at Johannesburg airport.

When 27 April dawned, however, it seemed as though the bloodstained era of apartheid had passed with the night and the real South Africa appeared, in all its colours and shapes, intact and blinking in the cool sunshine, standing for hours in queues that snaked for miles around, chatting and waiting together to vote as to the manner born.

For those privileged enough to have seen this national rite of passage, it was an incomparable and unforgettable experience of emotional intensity and shared awareness. Everywhere one looked, it was the same country but a different place; something had happened; South Africa had changed and so had the world. One was seeing a country ’move from one point to the other’, to use Mandela's words and during those three voting days, it became clear that the whole society, not just the ANC, had made it to the other side, including Zululand.

This moment was, and has since become so special that it is now part of contemporary human memory, a reference point for other such moments of deep mutation elsewhere in the world. For example, on 20 January this year, when Barack Obama became the 45th President of the USA, Americans from all walks of life experienced and expressed the same emotions, the same tears of release and relief, the same feelings of unity and fraternity across the colour-line.

For Zapiro to trash and mock this memory of that first voting day of his country's first democratic elections, as he does in the first cartoon, is an extraordinarily cheap act of contempt. And the contempt is aimed not just at the 2009 elections, the ANC and its leadership, it is above all aimed at the millions of voters who queued, as they have done every five years since 1994, to vote for a better life in their country.

But then, what else would they, or should they, be voting for when 40 per cent of the population lives on less than two dollars a day? The venom in that cartoon makes a mockery of them and their aspirations but perhaps it also shows how much ‘prejudice and hate’ is expressed under cover of the freedom of expression by such cartoonists.

Mandela's speech quoted above is a reminder of the reason behind the ANC's transformation from resistance movement to political organisation and that the principle aim of the struggle against racist rule was to ‘address some very serious social problems’. His priorities for a post-apartheid South Africa had nothing to do with an ‘African renaissance’ (whatever that may mean); these were and remain the obvious and abiding issues of mass unemployment, disease, especially AIDS, violence and insecurity, education and the economy.

In 1993, the unemployment rate was 50 per cent; in 2009 it stands at 41 per cent. (It would be interesting to compare the rate of increase, over the same period, of new millionaires and of new shopping centres in the main cities). As for the AIDS problem, the situation is now much worse, thanks to Mbeki's weird and dangerous theories. Today, 5.7 million are HIV positive and one thousand people die of the disease every day. As for the level of violence and insecurity, the country is still the same violent place it was 15 years ago, except that its national chief of police, a close Mbeki associate, is awaiting trial on criminal charges.

The only way this situation can be changed, as Mandela explained in his speech, is by combining the ‘collective wisdom’ and the ‘talents and energies’ of all South Africans so that together they can address these glaring inequalities. This was the link made by him between democracy and the condition of the country in 1993 and this link remains still. This is the meaning that the voters of South Africa expressed recently in giving 66 per cent of their votes to the ANC.

As can be seen in the second cartoon, the Zapiros of the country have a different concept of democracy. One could call it the ‘free market’ concept, where one chooses a political party as one would select a tube of toothpaste, one out of the many on the shelf. Or to use a more modern metaphor, democracy here means sitting back in your chair and zapping from one party program to another, to see what catches one's fancy or one's mood.

And judging by the quaint ‘ballot box blues’, nothing meets Zapiro's high standards today, having ‘lost faith’ in the ANC. Having patronised it very briefly in the past, he is now blaming the organisation for his disaffection. But in politics as in life, there is no such thing as ‘free faith’ and the right to zap has not been an essential principle in anyone's idea of democracy so far.

The ANC remains the most important and the most inclusive organisation for the average South African, for it holds and ensures his democratic rights for a better life just as it once contained his hopes for victory against apartheid and racist rule. Any attempt to tamper with its identity and de-rail its objectives will produce a strong reaction as Mbeki, and others, can testify.

The ANC, for all its weaknesses, contradictions, and 'strange' cultural customs, is not just one political party among many; it is the only natural resource available to millions of citizens across the land who are still fighting to find their place in the new South Africa. They and their leaders will ‘lose faith’ in it at their peril.

* Annar Cassam is a former director of the UNESCO Bureau, UN Office, Geneva.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

Multinational corporations: The new colonisers in Africa

Lord Aikins Adusei

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/56716

cc flickr.comSurveying a history of exploitation of Africa's people and resources, Lord Aikins Adusei denounces the multinational corporations continuing to plunder the continent's natural wealth. Situating today's ongoing exploitation of African resources within an established tradition of external interference, Adusei decries the ability of corporations to avoid paying taxes and keep dictators indifferent to their citizens' plight in their pocket. But with the emergence of China as a viable funding alternative to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the author concludes that the 'second colonialism' driving Euro-American globalisation may be at an end.

Before the end of the first period of colonialism African nations were properties of their colonial masters who did what they could to rape the continent of whatever resource they deemed good for the development of their citizens in Europe.

Out of nowhere and without any consultation with the people of the African continent, the Europeans met and divided the continent amongst themselves in what has been termed 'The Scramble for Africa'.

Through this scramble France, Britain, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Italy all went on a looting spree, raping Africa of her resources without putting any of the proceeds back for the development of the continent.

When US President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Gambia on 13 January 1943, he was so appalled by the conditions of Gambians that he made this lamentation:

'It's the most horrible thing I have ever seen in my life… The natives are five thousand years back of us… The British have been there for two hundred years – for every dollar that the British have put into Gambia, they have taken out ten. It's just plain exploitation of those people.'

He continued, telling his son Elliot, 'I must tell [Winston] Churchill what I found out about his British Gambia today. This morning, at about eight-thirty, we drove through Bathurst to the airfield.' (Elliott notes that it was here that his father began speaking with 'real feeling in his voice'.) 'The natives were just getting to work. In rags … glum-looking…They told us the natives would look happier around noontime, when the sun should have burned off the dew and the chill. I was told the prevailing wages for these men was one and nine. One shilling nine pence. Less than fifty cents.'

'An hour?' Elliott asked.

'A day! Fifty cents a day! Besides which, they’re given a half-cup of rice. Dirt. Disease. Very high mortality rate. I asked. Life expectancy – you’d never guess what it is. Twenty-six years. Those people are treated worse than the livestock. Their cattle live longer!'[1]

And the exploitation was not peculiar to Gambia. The Gold Coast (now Ghana), Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)), Namibia, South Africa, Congo and Angola all suffered from the same colonial exploitation and underinvestment.

For almost 300 years the Europeans, who were supposedly civilised, devout Christians, irresponsibly looted Africa’s resources and made slaves of its natives without developing their colonies. When the local population protested against this exploitation without reciprocal investment, they were brutally crushed, as happened in the Congo, where King Leopold II of Belgium looted the resources, made slaves and killed close to 10 million Congolese.

In 1904 to 1907 the German, led by Commander-in-Chief Lothar Von Trotha, committed their first genocide of the 20th century by killing 90 per cent of the Herero and the Namaqua people of South West Africa (now Namibia) when the people protested against the exploitation of their resources. And the sad stories of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Namibia, Kenya and Angola, where people were denied access to land, citizenship and basic rights and had to take up arms before they were granted independence, are in many history books. We know how Nelson Mandela (now a hero in Europe) and a number of freedom fighters endured long prison sentences, torture, exile and deaths in the hands of their 'devout Christians' and 'civilised' European colonisers. The idea was that through The Scramble for Africa they had bought Africa and had power to do as they wish, hence the rape, torture, genocide and mass killings.

While Europeans became richer, Africans became poorer. For example, with the looting of the Congo’s resources, enslavement, the amputations of hands and 10 million deaths, Brussels – which now doubles as the capital of the European Union – and Belgium were built.

When they were given their ‘freedom’, the fathers of independence inherited nothing more than empty treasuries. They realised that after more than 300 hundred years of colonial rule their colonial masters had left them nothing; no money and no infrastructure.

This bad situation and their eagerness to improve the lives of their peoples forced them to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank for assistance, and when they went lo and behold their former colonial masters were there waiting for them. The colonisers used their majority votes to dictate to the World Bank and IMF about how these former colonies should be helped. Of the 185 members that make up the IMF, six colonial masters and their allies – comprised of the United States, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France and Italy – control 42 per cent of the votes.

The colonial masters dictated to the IMF and the World Bank that for Africans to be helped, they had to open their economies to allow European corporations in. This underscores the numerous conditionalities that are associated with loans from these institutions. The conditionalities are nothing more than a smokescreen designed to ensure that Europeans never lose their grip on the resources of their former colonies. Some of these conditionalities include instituting secret memorandums of agreement, subsidies to foreign corporations and massive tax concessions (such as income tax, usage fees and property tax) – the primary source of revenue for 'export-oriented', developing countries.

The sad thing is that Africans thought independence would give them respite to develop, but this was never to be as the colonial masters used their corporations and intelligence services to deliver vengeance on the people. They encouraged and financed civil wars, unashamedly polluted rivers, wells and the soil through their oil and mineral activities, deliberately understated their profits and falsified profit documents, as well as undervaluing their goods, indulging in smuggling, theft and the falsification of invoicing and non-payment of taxes, and employing kickbacks and bribes to public officials. They also overpriced projects, provided save havens for looted funds, promoted the sale of guns, overthrew African leaders, supported dictatorships and assassinated those who disagreed with them. We know, for example, the tragedy of Patrice Lumumba and the support the West gave Mobutu.

The corporations forced onto Africa by the IMF, the World Bank, the US and Europe have been implicated in a number of cases for corrupting African leaders and stealing trillions of dollars worth of resources. Global Financial Integrity says that '$900 billion is secreted each year from underdeveloped economies, with an estimated $11.5 trillion currently stashed in havens. More than one quarter of these hubs belong to the UK, while Switzerland washes one-third of global capital flight.' Of this $900 billion, $150 billion comes from Africa.

'The idea that Switzerland has a clean economy is a joke; it is a dirt-driven economy,' says Richard Murphy, director of Tax Research LLP. The Swiss Bankers Association claims that four-fifths of the nation supports banking secrecy, which reveals a society deeply embedded in a culture of impunity and exploitation. The fact is that those who steal must find a way to hide their loot, and Switzerland provides the ideal environment for such crimes to take place. And it is not Switzerland alone that does not have a clean economy. Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg can all be described as vampires.

In her article 'Capital flight: gingerbread havens, cannibalised economies', Khadija Sharife writes:

'This policy is especially lethal for developing countries where the poor are now caught in tax brackets, courtesy of the IMF and World Bank’s structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), instituting policies ranging from “tax holidays” to the privatisation of state services [and] carving out huge slices of natural capital at corporate auctions… Africa has collectively lost more than $600-billion in capital flight, excluding other mechanisms of flight including ecological debt (globally estimated at a potential $1.8-trillion per annum), the cost of liberalised trade (just under $300-billion) … and the list goes on…'[2]

Thus with the support and collusion of the IMF and the World Bank these corporations are paying close to nothing for the resources they take from Africa.

Africa has been labelled the world’s most corrupt region because multinational internal mis-pricing makes up 60 per cent of capital outflow, with corporations declaring profits in tax havens, as opposed to the country of performance. Corporations declare about 40 per cent of their profits in the African countries where they operate, siphoning the rest into their safe-haven accounts in order to avoid paying tax which could be used to eradicate poverty. And this is not the end of the corruption and the story of daylight robbery.

We know how Elf operated as an arm of the French state supporting dictators, looting resources and establishing a flush fund used to bribe African leaders to look the other way while the corporation looted Africa’s oil and gas.

The author of Poisoned Wells Nicholas Shaxson wrote of the subject: 'Magistrates discovered the money from Elf’s African operations supplied bribes to support French commercial, military and diplomatic goals around the world. In exchange, French troops protected compliant African dictators.'

This explains why there are so many more corrupt dictators in French-speaking Africa compared with elsewhere in Africa. Gabon's Omar Bongo, Togo's Gnassingbé Eyadéma, Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko, Guinea's Lansana Conté, Côte d'Ivoire's Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Burkina Faso's Blaise Compaoré, Congo's Sassou Nguesso and Chad's Idriss Déby are some of the compliant leaders who were or have been protected by France. And what happened to the non-compliant African leaders? Your guess is as good as mine. Please find time to read more about Bob Denard, a Frenchman who made a career as a mercenary overthrowing African leaders. French author Jean Guisner says: 'Denard did nothing that was contrary to French interests – and he allegedly acted in close cooperation with French intelligence services'.

In the Elf corruption case André Tarallo, the real boss of Elf-Afrique, 'told the court in June 2003 that annual cash transfers totalling about £10m were made to Omar Bongo, Gabon's president, while other huge sums were paid to leaders in Angola, Cameroon and Congo-Brazzaville. The multi-million dollar payments were partly paid to ensure the African leaders' continued allegiance to France. In return for protection and sweeteners from Elf's coffers, France used Gabon as a base for military and espionage activities in West Africa.'[3]

The real deal is that Elf, Shell, BP and their counterparts in Europe and America pay bribes to African leaders to induce them to look the other way when they plunder resources. Ask any Gabonese or Congolese whether they have benefited from the oil and diamonds and the answer will be a big no. What is so tragic is that the people know they have oil, diamonds and see these companies processing them everyday yet do not know where it goes, who buys them and where the proceeds go.

In the UK former Prime Minister Tony Blair was accused of selling a device based on ageing technology to Tanzania. 'The UK sold a useless air traffic control system to Tanzania in 2001 in a scandalous and squalid deal, the House of Commons was told.' Clare Short, an minister of parliament, said, 'The deal was useless and hostile to the interests of Tanzania.' She continued, 'Barclays Bank had colluded with the government by loaning Tanzania the money, but lying to the World Bank about the type and size of the loan.' Short said, 'Tanzania could have paid much less for the same equipment which cost them £28m'. Shadow International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said 'BAE had used ageing technology and said the system was not adequate and too expensive.'[4]

And it all happened after they had bought Tanzania officials to look the other way while a device based on ageing technology was being sold to the country. BAE colluded with Tony Blair and Barclays Bank to sell a useless commodity at an exorbitant price to Tanzania. This is nothing but a continuation of the contempt and impunity with which Europeans have traditionally treated Africa before, during and after colonialism. BAE is indirectly saying that Africans do not deserve the latest technology even if they pay a cut-throat price. It is also a message to Africans that they must develop their own technology and not rely on the generosity of others.

It is no secret that the Shell oil company colluded with Nigeria's corrupt Abacha regime to steal oil, pollute the country's rivers, wells, creeks and soil and render millions of farmers and fishermen in the Niger Delta jobless. '[Shell] admitted that it inadvertently fed conflict, poverty and corruption through its oil activities in the country. Nigeria contributes to about 10% of Shell's global production and is home to some of its most promising reserves, yet the country is steeped in poverty and conflict.'[5] So Shell, in addition to stealing Nigeria’s oil and polluting its rivers, wells and soils, also promotes corruption, poverty and conflict.

In the DRC about five million people have died in a war, the underlying motive for which is the satisfaction of the West's insatiable appetite for high-quality, low-price cell phones, laptop computers, Playstations, jewels, diamonds and coltan. And in Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin, New York or Washington, who cares about five million deaths anyway? Why has the DRC's war not ended? Who supplies the rebels their arms and who buys the minerals they mine illegally? Why have Ugandan and Rwandan forces crossed several times into DRC? And whose agenda are they pursuing? A report by the UN says it all.

The panel calls for financial restrictions to be levied on 54 individuals and 29 companies it says are involved in the plunder, including four Belgian diamond companies and the Belgian company George Forrest, which is partnered with the US-based OM Group.

The individuals named include Rwandan army Chief-of-Staff James Kabarebe, Congolese Minister of the Presidency Augustin Katumba Mwanke, Ugandan army Chief-of-Staff James Kazini and Zimbabwean Parliament Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, BBC online reported.[6] The report also accused 85 South African, European and US multinational corporations – including Anglo American, Barclays Bank, Bayer, De Beers and the Cabot Corporation – of violating the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) ethical guidelines on conflict zones.

The guidelines they were accused of violating relate to arming Rwandan, Ugandan and Congolese rebels and profiting from their illegal looting of Congo’s minerals, as the following excerpt shows:

'Despite the recent withdrawal of most foreign forces, the exploitation of Congo's resources continues, the report says, with elite networks and criminal groups tied to the military forces of Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe benefiting from micro-conflicts in the D.R.C. "The elite networks derive financial benefit through a variety of criminal activities, including theft, embezzlement, [the] diversion of public funds, [the] undervaluation of goods, smuggling, false invoicing, non-payment of taxes, kickback[s] to public officials and bribery," and added that such pillaging is responsible for much of the death and malnutrition in eastern D.R.C.'[7]

And so while millions die in Africa with the complicity of these corporations, European and North American citizens, with all their hypocrisy, live to enjoy lavish holidays. And when Africans try to reach Europe the citizens say 'Europe is full. No more immigrants.' Where do the queens and kings in Europe get the diamonds and gold that they show off? Is it not from the blood diamonds from Congo, Sierra Leone and other conflict zones in Africa that are smuggled out and sold in Brussels, Zurich, London and New York?

And this is not their only crime. We know how Halliburton established a $180-million flush fund and bought Nigerian officials to secure a $10-billion oil contract. We know Acres International of Canada paid $260,000 to secure an $8-billion dam contract in Lesotho. We know Swiss, British, German and French financial and banking institutions have made fortunes by providing safe havens for funds looted by Abacha, Mobutu, Bongo, Conté, Kenya's Daniel arap Moi and the rest of the dictators in Africa. And it is no secret that Belgium is angry with the DRC government for inviting China into the country because they are privy to and beneficiary of all the daylight robbery going on in the resource-rich but economically impoverished country.

Africans know that these corporations are making fortunes but they see none of the benefits from these fortunes. Ghanaians know gold and diamonds are being mined at Obuasi and Akwatia but they do not know where it goes, who buys them and where the proceeds end up, and the same is true of the oil in Nigeria, Gabon, Cameroon, Algeria, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. And as for the DRC, a nation with one-third of world’s natural resources, the less I say the better.

This corrupt, daylight robbery is what has been promoted as globalisation, with Africa and the Third World being encouraged to join by Europe, America, the IMF and the World Bank. My question is whose globalisation? Is it the globalisation that only those with blue eyes enjoy or what? If the answer is no then the IMF and the World Bank should explain why the world is divided between the 'white haves and the coloured have-nots'. Is this not a second colonialism dressed as globalisation?

Susan Hawley says it all:

'Multinational corporations’ corrupt practices affect the South (i.e. Africa, Asia and Latin America) in many ways. They undermine development and exacerbate inequality and poverty. They disadvantage smaller domestic firms and transfer money that could be put towards poverty eradication into the hands of the rich. They distort decision-making in favour of projects that benefit the few rather than the many. They also increase [the] debt that benefit[s] the company, not the country; bypass local democratic processes; damage the environment; circumvent legislation; and promote weapons sales. Bribes put up the prices of projects. When these projects are paid for with money borrowed internationally, bribery adds to a country's external debt. Ordinary people end up paying this back through cuts in spending on health, education and public services. Often they also have to pay by shouldering the long-term burdens of projects that do not benefit them and which they never requested.'[8]

And in all these, the Western media has kept silent and has not raised a voice against what its governments, intelligence services, corporations and businessmen are doing to Africans. They prefer instead to criticise China for courting the same African leaders Euro-Americans have been protecting for decades. A clear hypocrisy isn’t it? These are the same criticisms King Leopold II levelled against the Arabs who were competing with him for resources and slaves in Congo, and we know what Leopold II, the 19th-century Hitler, did in the DRC in the name of Christianity and 'civilisation'.

With China as a fierce competitor, Africans now have a choice not to go to the World Bank and the IMF for conditional loans. They also have a choice to either give their resources to Chinese companies or European and American cartels. It may be the beginning of the end of colonialism, slavery, instability, dictatorships, corruption and all the ills that Europeans and Americans have been promoting in Africa.

It may be the beginning where Africa’s resources will be bought and payment made to the people and a new chapter that will usher in Africa’s development and close the poverty gap from 5,000 years to perhaps 100, as observed by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

* Lord Aikins Adusei is an activist and anti-corruption campaigner. He blogs at www.iloveafrica2.blogspot.com and can be contacted at politicalthinker1@yahoo.com.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

NOTES

[1] US President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1943, The American Heritage.
[2] www.greenleft.au
[3] The Guardian, November 2003.
[4] BBC News, 31 January 2007.
[5] BBC News,18 June 2004.
[6] BBC News, 21 October 2002.
[7] www.unwire.org
[8] The Corner House, June 2000.

The Migingo Island dispute and international law

Korir Sing’Oei

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/56719

cc Sanjoy GReflecting on the standoff between Uganda and Kenya in the Migingo Island dispute, Korir Sing’Oei considers the nature of each state's claim on the island. With both Uganda and Kenya claiming their right to the island on the strength of colonial-era maps, Sing’Oei states that a resolution on the matter will identify the losing state as having transgressed international law. Pointing out that the Migingo case raises interesting questions around citizenship and Africa's incomplete decolonisation, Sing’Oei argues that greater involvement for the East African Community at large would facilitate dialogue between the two disputing states.

Kenya and Uganda have recently laid claim on Migingo, a tiny islet of Lake Victoria, which has been described variously as ' a rock', 'one hectare of land floating on Lake Victoria' and a 'hostile rock without vegetation'. Both countries claim that Migingo is part of their territory, Uganda based on colonial maps and Kenya on the basis of the same colonial maps and the further claim that the island is inhabited by members of a Kenyan community, the Luo. One hundred and forty million Kenyan shillings (US$2 million) have been allocated for the process of ‘surveying’ to determine the actual ownership of the island. Without going into the merits of expending this colossal amount of funds – which arguably could have found a better use in meeting the dire needs the post-electoral displacements in Kenya – I will attempt to shed light on the international law issues that this dispute raises.

Whose territory Migingo is will soon be determined. Either way, one of the two East African states will be found to have transgressed some aspect of international law. If Migingo is Kenyan territory, Uganda will have violated the principle of respect for territorial integrity provided for in Article 2(4) of the Charter of the United Nations. This provision was reiterated in article III paragraph 3 of the Charter of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Uganda’s action – to wit, hoisting a flag, collecting rent, deploying military police and taxing the inhabitants – may also be interpreted as amounting to acts of aggression, acts which in international law may be legitimately repulsed by Kenya through the use of force based on the doctrine of self-defence in article 51 of the UN Charter. Aggression has been defined as 'The sending by or on behalf of a State of armed bands … against another State.'[1] The same indictment will apply to Kenya if Migingo is found to be Ugandan territory.

The basis of each state’s claim is of greater interest. Both states claim that the colonial maps answer the question definitively. Neither seeks to challenge the efficacy of the colonial borders per se because to do so would mean that they quibble with an important principle accepted by all African states, respect for colonial borders or uti possidetis, which the OAU had embedded in its charter and AU has provided for in article 4 (b) of its Constitutive Act. In Libya versus Chad, a dispute over the Aouzou Strip, the International Court of Justice relied on colonial treaties between Italy, France and Britain to reach the conclusion that the strip was Chadian territory. The International Court of Justice similarly resolved a dispute between Libya and Burkina Faso on the basis of the uti possdetis principle. Happily, neither Kenya not Uganda are contesting this principle, which appears to have acquired customary status, particularly in the practice of African states.

In addition to colonial maps, Kenya’s claim is supported on the grounds that the inhabitants of the island are members of the Luo community. This begs the question of whether the habitation of Migingo by the Luo suffices as proof that the island is Kenya’s merely because the Luo are a Kenyan community. Such a conclusion would invite a serious threat to the stability of African states, where contiguous communities exist in more than one state. To permit this state of affairs would, for instance, legitimise Somalia’s claim on northern Kenya merely on the basis that it is inhabited by members of the Somali community. The second question related to this is a determination of the steps taken by Kenya to establish as a matter of fact that the Luo of Migingo are Kenyan citizens under the Citizenship Act and Chapter 6 of the constitution. To the best of this author’s knowledge, no such inquiry has occurred. To conclude that the Luo in Migingo are Kenyans without due diligence would be problematic and may suggest that Kenyan citizenship is given to groups not individuals; or, alternatively, that all Luo are Kenyans, a serious misnomer, which has global implications.

Assuming that Migingo is Ugandan territory, the status of the Luo inhabitants, who avowedly owe allegiance to the Kenyan state, is an important question. They are not refugees since they are fleeing no persecution in Kenya. One sure fact is that they are exploiting the resources of the lake, which if found to be Uganda’s may make them economic saboteurs, culpable under the criminal laws of that country. In such a case, their call for Kenya to intervene on their behalf would be a call for diplomatic protection. International diplomatic protection is a right of the state, accorded to it by customary international law, to intervene on behalf of its nationals if their rights are violated by another state in order to obtain redress. Its exercise involves the resort to all forms of diplomatic intervention for the settlement of disputes, both amicable and non-amicable, from diplomatic negotiations and the use of good offices to the use of force. As a rule only amicable means will be resorted to. The right to diplomatic protection is a right of states not individuals, unless domestic law grants individuals such a right. The Kenyan constitution does not seem to do this. The state, on the authority of the Nottebohm (Liechtenstein versus Guatemala) case and the factory at Charzow case, has the discretion to determine – independent of the wishes of the injured national – whether diplomatic protection shall take place at all, how far it shall be pursued and what mechanisms will be used.

The dispute over Migingo Island – the one hectare of land floating in Lake Victoria – presents interesting questions of international law, citizenship, regional integration and the incomplete decolonisation project in Africa. Indeed, it is instructive that both countries are seeking answers to this problem from archives in London. Admittedly, the problem is more complex than it may appear on the face of it and must be addressed conclusively and with caution. The cost of resolving this dispute also needs to be seriously considered. The transgressing party must ultimately bear this cost. Involving the East African Community in the process may at least provide space for dialogue between the two countries before the rest of the community’s membership.

* Korir Sing’Oei is a student of international human rights law at the University of Minnesota Law School.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

NOTES

[1] General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX).

DRC: The future has come and gone

Lansana Gberie

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/56726

cc Julien HarneisReturning to DRC for the first time since 1996, Lansana Gberie finds that a little cash comes in handy for dealing with bureaucracy and that it is impossible to get anything done without a ‘fixer’. Considering the conflicts in the country’s history, Gberie notes that in Congo ‘money is always at the centre of the bigger drama of suffering’ and that justice – or the interests of victims of mass atrocities – has had to be subordinated to wider geopolitical interests. Leaving Kinshasa after just over a week, Gberie finds himself feeling that he is ‘in a place whose future has come and gone’.

As soon as I saw the very exact note directing me from the plane through immigration and to the parking lot outside, I knew that even among the awkward spots in troubled Africa, the Congo still remained a special place. Because there was no Congolese mission in Monrovia where I could obtain a visa, my colleagues in Kinshasa had to get me first a ‘Visa Volant’ (or ‘Flying Visa’), a neat, carefully designed and apparently tamper-proof document that looks as official as national paper currencies. It was of course money – US$100 – and I would have to pay another US$60 for the actual visa when I got to the airport in Kinshasa.

My colleague Mirna Adjami, an old Congo hand, had sent me the following note via email a few days before I boarded a Kenya Airways flight to Kinshasa: ‘As you can see from the amount of stamps and signatures needed [on the ‘Visa Volant’], Congo is still in that stage of bureaucracy sadly,’ she wrote matter-of-factly. ‘We'll send a facilitator, Mr. David, who will try to find you as you are making your way to the immigration line… You will exit the airplane onto the tarmac, walk on the yellow striped line to the building, [and] you will have to first present your yellow fever vaccination card, and then you are in the immigration waiting room. Mr. David should find you there and will have the originals with him to give to the agent. From there, he'll bring you to the lounge and he will then take care of getting your baggage – please be sure to keep your baggage tag receipts for him to get your baggage… and then the parking lot [where a car would be waiting.]’

For this occasion, Mr. David had an official title – protocol officer, a grand contrivance meaning only ‘fixer’. He must be superbly experienced, for Mr. David – a young man probably in his late twenties, of medium height and carefully-dressed, with a well-barbered head of hair – picked me out among more than two dozen arrivals in the great Congo heat on the tarmac and, with a smile (as though he had met me before), shuffled me into a cluttered room where several officials sat, busily fidgeting with passports. I am familiar with this scene – Monrovia airport is not much different. But the presence of all those ubiquitous fixers, I told myself, is somewhat new: It must be a purely Congo thing. And there was that seriousness, borne as much out of avarice as of ignorance, that the officials asked for yellow fever vaccination card. I didn’t have it: One doesn’t really get seriously bothered about it in West Africa, except if one looks like a complete stranger. An enlarged visage of the very rotund former President – and the father of the current one – the bovine former gold smuggler and career pseudo-revolutionary Laurent Kabila, is the first to greet the passenger upon arrival, the prominence of the gleaming and unreliable face a reminder, if any were needed, that not much has changed since Kabila’s assassination in 2003.

The airport was not at all a busy place, and the officials seem to have plenty of time on their hands to deal with the two dozen or so passengers from the small Kenya Airways flight. The eyes of the man questioning me glittered when I told him that I did not have the yellow fever vaccination card. He lost control of his smile, which quickly, almost instinctively, became a grimace. He finally told me that this would have to cost me US$60. I protested, told him I had no money, and that in any case asking for the card is pointless because it is of no use whatsoever. We finally settled on US$20 when I insisted that anything more than that would require a receipt. My passport was stamped, and Mr David took me outside to the car in the parking lot. He went back to get my luggage.

I was last in the Congo in late 1996. It was not long after the horrors of Rwanda. The Congo wasn’t really my brief, but while in the region in October that year, the Governor of South Kivu – perhaps on the orders of the ailing, decrepit Mobutu; perhaps not – announced the expulsion of an ethnic group the name of which, once barely known beyond eastern Congo, now had great resonance: Banyamulenge. The Banyamulenge are ethnic Tutsi, and they are a numerically insignificant minority in eastern Congo, their position somewhat analogous to the Mandingo in Liberia. Two years before, hundreds of thousands of Tutsis had been massacred in Rwanda, but the country was now ruled by the minority Tutsi. Meanwhile, thousands of former soldiers of Rwanda (FAR) and the Interhamwe – spearheads of the Rwandan genocide – had moved into vast Congo, reorganised and rearmed with support from Mobutu, and were launching increasingly deadly attacks on Congolese Tutsis (the Banyamulenge) and Rwanda itself. Was another genocide in the making? The region had moved back to the centre of global news interest.

The lines of anxiety ran very deep, touching very powerful nerves across the region and beyond. Rwandan and Ugandan forces intervened with massive force, carefully choreographing their invasion as an internal rebellion led by Kabila, which in quick order overthrew Mobutu and installed Kabila as President of the Congo. A second ‘rebellion’ was soon to happen after the opportunistic Kabila fell out with his Rwandan and Ugandan allies, triggering intervention by several African states and what came to be known as Africa’s first world war. Twelve years on, with more than three million Congolese killed as a result of these conflicts, the Banyamulenge were once again at the centre of events in the Congo.

A few days before I arrived, the powerful Rwandan army had entered eastern Congo and very quickly arrested Laurent Nkunda, a Banyamulenge and leader of the ethnically-based and until then seemingly invincible Congrès National pour le Défense du Peuple (CNDP). Rwanda had been the key backer of Nkunda’s CNDP, which since August last year had renewed attacks against Congolese forces in the Kivu province, routing the rabble of Congolese army contingents, and embarrassing the 7,000 strong UN force in the province. An estimated 250,000 people fled their homes as a result of Ndunda’s attacks, which were characterised by appalling atrocities, including mass rape and widespread looting and massacres. This wave of refugees joined an estimated one million others who had fled the instability in the Kivus.

Nkunda – a swashbuckling former Congolese army officer with the distinctive sharp features of Rwanda’s Tutsi – claimed that the conflict is about defending the Tutsi community from the threat of Rwandan Hutu rebels operating in eastern Congo (reputedly numbering about 6,000), remnants of the Interhamwe and the FAR mentioned above who had come to form the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda FDLR), a claim which carries some justice. But the continuing atrocities had become an embarrassment for Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame; very credible recent reports, in particular one by a UN panel of experts, had detailed extensive links between the renegade Nkunda and Kagame. Britain – Rwanda’s most generous bilateral donor – threatened to cut aid. This made the stubborn Kagame open to mediation efforts by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, and an unexpected (and secret) agreement between the Rwandan and Congolese governments was signed.

The agreement gave Rwanda free pass to deal with the Interhamwe within the Congo itself, with the condition that it helps disarm the CNDP. Suddenly, it seems, the Congolese government had awakened to a stunning fact: The insignificant Hutu minority in the Congo is entirely expendable, and Banyamulenge minority, because of the existence of a Tutsi government in neighbouring Rwanda, is not. That the conflict was also fuelled by the attempts to control the Kivus’ rich minerals – Cassiterite (tin ore), gold, coltan (an essential component of mobile phones) and wolframite (from which tungsten is derived) – is a matter that, in the Congo, is always taken for granted. So once again in the Congo new problems are about the old, and money is always at the centre of the bigger drama of suffering.

Whatever may happen to Nkunda is another matter altogether. Although there was much talk when I was in the Congo that he may be handed over to the Congolese government to be tried, no one I spoke to seriously believed this will happen, and no-one – certainly not the Congolese authorities – was seriously calling for it. Perhaps President Kabila would relish a show trial of Nkunda but he doubtless will cringe at the implication – it would open up demands for more trials.

Not that the Congolese are indifferent to what was going on. There was much optimism following Nkunda’s arrest that peace in the last main violent province in the country was coming. But another trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, that of Lubanga in The Hague, appeared to be faltering rather badly. Lubanga, a former Congolese warlord, stands accused of recruiting child soldiers and other perverse acts of opportunistic and murderous warfare.

But while I was in the Congo, one of the biggest news stories was of a key prosecution witness, an alleged former child soldier who had claimed to have been recruited by Lubanga, recanting his testimony and blaming international NGOs for setting him up to lie about Lubanga. A few days later this same witness re-asserted his former allegation – that Lubanga indeed recruited him as a child soldier – but the damage was done. It is one of the perils of this kind of prosecution, my colleague, a Harvard-trained lawyer told me. Prosecutors like to have sensational witnesses to have a grip on the news cycle (such trials, after-all, are geopolitics of sort) but the law court is a slug – more prose rather than poetry. Childhood memoirs may read very well – notice Ishmael Beah’s very garnished tale about fighting in Sierra Leone as a child soldier, A Long Way Gone – but they are inherently unreliable.

A day after I arrived, my colleague and I visited an old friend in Kinshasa, the heavyweight activist and Congolese patriot Baudouin Hamuli, the director general of Centre National d'Appui au Developpement et a la Participation Populaire (CENADEP). The highly educated and English-speaking Hamuli stayed on in the Congo, after a long study abroad, through all its depredations since the 1980s. Hamuli is from South Kivu, and he is the Congolese coordinator of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region. ‘In more than 12 years we now have the best opportunity to reunite the country and ensure peace. Our key concern now is reintegrating Nkunda’s forces within the Congolese army,’ Hamuli told us. ‘For three times Nkunda refused a comfortable exile in South Africa, but that’s a Rwanda problem now.’ A Rwanda problem, overriding concern for the Congolese, in other words, is peace, something that this blighted, unfortunate country has rarely enjoyed since King Leopold of Belgium conquered it in the nineteenth century, ushering in a reign of terror – for criminal appropriation – that led, by some estimates (including one by the eminent Belgian historian Jan Vansina), to the death of 10 million Congolese.

[In fact the Congolese government announced a new arrest warrant for Nkunda in February, and said it would pursue his extradition. Few took this seriously: At the same time as announcing this new warrant, the Congolese authorities named Bosco Ntaganda, a former aide to Nkunda who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), to face charges of war crimes, deputy commander of joint Rwandan-Congolese operations in eastern Congo. Bosco had ousted Nkunda as leader of the CNDP, and is now cooperating with the Congolese authorities. So now ‘in the interest of peace’, Congo is protecting the notorious Bosco. As always in the Congo, justice – or the interests of victims of mass atrocities, has had to be subordinated to wider geopolitical interest.]

Hamuli had mentioned incorporating the CNDP into the Congolese army. But no one that I met in the Congo had much to say about this army: A bloated and ineffective rabble notorious for its proneness to flight from battle engagement and, of course, looting, raping and pillaging the villages it passes through. A recent census conducted by the European Union put the number of Congolese soldiers (nominally) under the control of the government at 120,000, with 19,000 of them to be retired. The census is part of an elaborate plan to ‘right-size’ the army. At Sun City in South Africa in 2002 (when the Global and All-Inclusive Agreement was signed), all the factional armies – including those of the government – registered as the new Congolese army 300,000 fighters – a fraudulent contrivance which has been one of the main obstacles to the rather half-hearted (and poorly coordinated) security sector reform (SSR) process in the country. In the event, Nkunda’s merely 3,000-strong, well-armed force easily routed vastly bigger Congolese contingents sent against it on many occasions, only retreating after Rwanda’s elite forces entered eastern Congo.

I got these figures from a Western embassy, which is making limited, but significant, investment in the SSR process, mainly in police reform. The project had been going on for about two years, but the embassy official dealing with it did not know the actual figures for Congo’s police. Like most Francophone countries, Congo has two sets of police forces – the national police and the police force for the Ministry of Justice. The two are supposed to play complementary roles, but in the Congo this is part of a very long wish list. Even the actual size is unknown, I was told by a foreign official involved in the process at an embassy reception in Kinshasa. The national police is estimated to be 15,000 strong, a ridiculously small figure for even Kinshasa, which has an estimated population of anywhere from six to eight million.

The European Union, which has a significant presence in Kinshasa, has made police reform a key focus of its involvement in the Congo. We had an hour-long meeting with senior officials at the EU’s massive Kinshasa offices, and another with EU officials and several Congolese chief of police inspectors at a special office for police co-ordination in downtown Kinshasa. They have plans, documents, graphs and maps impressively displayed on walls, budgets here and there, but there appeared very little substantial progress – as they themselves readily admitted, slightly embarrassed about the curious little fact that even the actual size of the Congolese police remains unknown about seven years after the Sun City Agreement was signed. A scheduled meeting with the Congolese Chief Police Officer (incongruously a former army General) did not materialise: He got stuck in the chaos of Kinshasa traffic caused by the flooding that resulted from that morning’s downpour.

It is the enduring pathos of the Congo: The country began as a lie, and has remained, in spite of the reality of immense suffering, as a state something of a myth. The enterprise that began as the International Association for the Civilisation of Central Africa, then later, more fraudulently still, the Congo Free State, was conceived as broad daylight robbery, a brutal money-making venture. It has not changed much from that original conception. Even the current official name, Democratic Republic of Congo, is, as long-term Congo specialist Crawford Young has cautioned, bogus. Youngs calls the ‘democratic’ title ‘a grotesque misrepresentation of political practice’. The previous name, Zaire, was no better, a nonsense contrivance of the kleptocrat Mobutu. For Congo the phrase ‘banalisation of insecurity’ (Crawford Young) feels very apt indeed.

A day after the meeting with the EU officials, I participated in a high profile discussion on police reform. I presented a paper on the experience of Liberia; a day or two before I this series papers had been presented on the (relatively) more successful experiences of South Africa and Sierra Leone. A large number of Congolese police officers attended, including the Police Chief I had not met earlier, as well as dozens of EU police trainers and officials. As I spoke about the challenges faced by the Liberian National Police (LNP) and the poor relationship between them and civilians, the Congolese officers exploded in laughter and applause. I was slightly confused by this, staggered. Later a foreign security expert working in the Congo told me that I had at last given the Congolese police something to cheer: Now they know that they are probably in rather good company and may not be the worst police force in the world, after all!

So that night, in my hotel room in downtown Kinshasa, on the sprawling boulevard celebrating the Congo’s independence from Belgium in 1960 – in an area that, even in its decrepit, unkempt state, with rain water creating huge streams making roads impassable, is still suggestive of French ideas of cafes and wide boulevards – I reflected on some of my meetings in Kinshasa. I kept thinking about a story written by Joseph Conrad, who in 1890 visited the Belgian Congo several times. It was not the famous Heart of Darkness but the more mordant An Outpost to Progress. Getting down the coast, Conrad sees two almost derelict tragic-comic Belgian officials, insignificant men made relevant only by the vast powers behind them, Kayerts and Carlier. Idling one day as usual, they find ‘some old copies of a home paper’. The papers are extravagant about ‘Our Colonial Expansion’, speaking ‘much of the rights and duties of civilisation, of the sacredness of the civilising work, and extolled the merits of those who went about bringing light, and faith, and commerce to the dark places of the earth’. Infected by this propagandistic literature, the very simple and insipid Carlier is heard saying one evening, ‘In a hundred years, there will be perhaps a town here. Quays, and warehouses, and barracks, and – and – billiard-rooms. Civilisation, my boy, and virtue – and all. And then, chaps will read that two good fellows…were the first civilised men to live in this spot!’ The ‘civilisation’ is very accurately described – quays and warehouses (it is a commercial enterprise) and, of course, billiard tables (civilised traders even in the bush must have their recreation!): Perishable items, junk demanding no higher ideals or labour. As we now know, whatever good these things may have done to the likes of Carlier, they were not that helpful to the Congolese.

I was in the Congo for just over a week, and I did not go beyond Kinshasa. As much as I was tempted, looking at the grand Congo River, I did not take the boat across to the more elegant Brazzaville, visible from Kinshasa. With my colleague I checked up a few places I had known in Kinshasa. The first was the huge former presidential palace grounds – complete with zoo and all that – where Mobutu once lived. When Laurent Kabila took over in 1997, he had his allies and troops shoot up most of the animals and barbecued them. The place now looks derelict, a sullen sprawl. The once grand places in Kinshasa, otherwise so lively and bursting, have this feel: Most of Kinshasa from the air has this look of desolation, rather like Pompeii, almost total ruin. In the city, you see the big cars, the UN vehicles, large embassy houses, and all those earnest uniformed foreign officials looking rather like strange creatures from outer space: Connoisseurs of ruin. And as I took the car to the airport – Mr. David insisting on sitting in the front by the driver to protect me from scavenging police and other security personnel – I remembered a line from V.S. Naipaul’s A Bend in the River, which is set in a disrupted Congo of the 1970s. The world-weary and cynical narrator reflects in exhaustion at the sheer phoniness of what he’s seen in places like Kisangani: ‘You felt like a ghost, not of the past, but of the future. You felt that you were in a place whose future has come and gone.’ It is clearly Naipaul’s conclusion, and it rang true then, perhaps truer now.

POSTSCRIPT
Political pronouncements in the Congo, as a rule, should be deemed to be meaningless until proven otherwise; but a few tantalising developments in recent weeks ought to be recorded. On 23 March, the government signed a peace agreement with the political wing of the CNDP rebel group. The agreement provided for the rapid integration of rebels into the FARDC and the creation of a national mechanism for reconciliation – ritual demands. The most important, and therefore most controversial, provision was the agreement’s call for the swift adoption of an amnesty bill, passed by the National Assembly in July 2008, though both parties found it ‘too restrictive’. This is because though the law amnestied all acts of violence and rebellion committed in North and South Kivu since June 2003, it crucially excluded from these categories acts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The Amnesty bill has now been sent to the quaintly-named ‘Commission Paritaire Mixte’ – which is a joint commission of both houses of parliament – to agree on an amendment.

* Lansana Gberie is an academic and writer, and is the author of A Dirty War in West Africa: The RUF and the Destruction of Sierra Leone and Rescuing a Fragile State: Sierra Leone 2002-2008. He is currently based in Liberia.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

Democratising the Internet

Interviewed by Riaz Tayob

Parminder Jeet Singh

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/56720

cc flickr.comIn an audio interview [mp3], Parminder Jeet Singh, executive director of IT for Change, discusses the history behind the US government's supervision of the Internet, the debate around sovereignty over its basic structures, and the global push for a more democratic approach to overseeing the World Wide Web.

* Parminder Jeet Singh is the executive director of IT for Change, an India-based NGO.
* Riaz Tayob is a researcher with Third World Network and undertook this interview in his personal capacity
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

Climate justice: Turning up the heat

Collins Cheruiyot

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/56717

cc OxfamIn anticipation of Denmark's hosting of the United Nations Climate Change Conference – the COP15 – in December this year, Collins Cheruiyot says that now is the time for Africa to be proactive in asserting its right to be heard. Calling upon its leaders to seize the opportunity to represent their continent in Copenhagen, Cheruiyot stresses that Africa must not allow itself to be short-changed on so crucial a challenge.

People talk about the future, yet climate change is claiming lives now, notably in Africa. The nations, governors and those governed must stand up and be counted.

The continent of Africa contributes least to climate change, yet it’s the worst affected. The negative impacts range from the rapid encroachment of desert, extended periods of drought, massive crop failure, and extreme weather conditions like floods, cyclones, extended dry spells, heat waves and severe bushfires. This is, in a nutshell, disastrous and we cannot afford to face such consequences.

In December of this year, global minds will meet in Copenhagen to devise an action plan for addressing climate change for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. The conference will be the latest of the annual UN meetings that stem from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the original summit to coordinate international efforts to fight climate change. The COP15 conference in Copenhagen will attract the world’s environment ministers, as well as more than 15,000 officials, advisers, diplomats, campaigners and journalists. COP15's chances of success have been improved by President Barack Obama's agenda to achieve an 80 per cent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

This is an opportunity that Africa must seize, talk about and be heard on. The right to be heard and the right to be taken seriously must go together this round. Our negotiators should know what is at stake. The time has come when we can no longer be reactive but proactive, whether poor or not. We cannot afford to go on giving excuses that we didn't get that because of that. We as Africans have had a lot from the Slave Trade to colonialism, to structural adjustment programmes, HIV/AIDS and debt, and now climate change.

In April, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US was 'determined to make up for lost time both at home and abroad'. 'The US is no longer absent without leave', she said. On a visit to China, last week Nancy Pelosi, the current speaker of the US House of Representatives, told an audience in the Chinese capital that the two nations – the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases – must work together to fight global warming. 'China and the United States can and must confront the challenge of climate change together', she said at a meeting organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing.

The exclusivity resulting from such a situation is further darkened by the fact that the African continent is overshadowed at the G77; Africa has virtually zero political recognition within international negotiations. Africa has been short-changed and largely overlooked in much of the global discourse and policy developments relating to climate change.

Professor Ian Lowe, an award-winning scientist and the author of a number of books on climate change, said that when he wrote his first book in 1989, Living in the Greenhouse, he summarised what scientists were saying would occur in 2020 if climate change was not addressed. 'Perhaps we can be concerned that that was what the science was saying 20 years ago would be occurring by the 2020s and we are already seeing it in 2009', he said.

Thus the need for action now.

The impact of climate change is and will be terrible. The once mighty Lake Chad is half the size it was 35 years ago. Models predict that sea levels may rise as much as 59cm during the 21st century, threatening coastal communities and leading to the massive displacement of millions of people and the submergence of costal towns. Seawater is becoming more acidic and heat waves more frequent, while warmer temperatures are affecting human health through allergies and malaria as incidences of extreme drought increase. These effects are set at bringing a doomsday to the whole of humanity.

This is not just about climate change but about human rights, justice, political transparency, social responsibility and accountability. But above all, it is about achieving a rule of law that characterises a civilisation, in opposition to the double standards and application of 'rules of the jungle' currently dominant in international relations and global developments.

* Collins Cheruiyot is an intern with Oxfam's Pan Africa Directorate Pan Africa Programme, Nairobi, Kenya.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

They’d love to be in our shoes

Kenyans have benefitted from opportunities countries like Haiti can only dream of

Anne M. Khaminwa

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/56718

cc R MillerHaiti may have been the first black republic, but Anne Khaminwa is unconvinced by Kimani Waweru’s call for Kenya to learn from and emulate its history. Today Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, beset by environmental problems, violence and lawlessness says Khaminwa. Kenyans on the other hand ‘have benefited from education and development opportunities that countries like Haiti can only dream of’. Instead of remaining stuck in the colonial discourse of earlier decades, Kenyans should be fired up with ambition and vision of what we can make of the future given all the opportunities we have already had, Khaminwa argues.

A recent issue of Pambazuka featured an account of an event in Kenya where activist Kimani Waweru introduced a general audience to the history of Haiti. Waweru called on Kenyans to learn from and emulate Haiti’s long history of struggle against the French. Haiti had achieved independence in 1804, bringing an end to slavery and making it the first black republic, presumably in the past half a century.

One has to ask the question though, what good has being first done for the people of Haiti? Today Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the world, whose people endure an oppressive superstitious culture. In order to improve their lot, Haitians find themselves risking life and limb to flee that island nation and reach the United States, Canada and safer parts of the Caribbean. Haitians are well known in the United States for being hard workers, but this is in the context of a Western economic and political system.

The island of Haiti is also beset by environmental problems, including the effects of the deforestation of its mountainous countryside. Without tree roots to hold the soil in place, or foliage to lessen the effects of sun and rain, large areas of the country can no longer support cultivation. Clearly subsistence agriculture cannot be sustained when environmental degradation takes place.

A social climate of violence and lawlessness combined with constant political upheaval make Haiti unfavourable not only for its own people but also for Western investment. Furthermore, past Haitian governments have pursued policies that discouraged foreign investment. In recent years, Haitian immigrants, upon returning to their home country, are often set upon by bandits as they leave the airport. The bandits hope to profit from whatever gifts and funds the immigrants are returning with.

The question is, does racial or ethnic chauvinism offer a better future to a country like Kenya? Note the use of the term ‘better’. One suspects that anti-Western political rhetoric often comes from those who believe that somewhere out there, there is a another path than the one we are currently on. No one ever seems to consider the possibility that change would make things worse and that possibly, Kenyans have one of the best deals out there. What if the problem is, to paraphrase Shakespeare, not in the West but rather in ourselves? Kenyans have benefited from education and development opportunities that countries like Haiti can only dream of. We are so used to hating ourselves and what we have that we don’t seem to realise that others would love to be in our shoes. As a Jamaican once put it, ‘This island is goat space. We are not goats, we are men’. I do not remember where I read this quote but the point is, there are a lot of people out there discontented with their situation. What if in fact what we have is one of the world’s best kept secrets?

Historically, the world’s civilisations have flourished by reaching out across national, ethnic and racial boundaries to benefit from trade and innovative ideas and practices. Does Kenya have a culture that supports and promotes innovation, invention, problem-solving, production, manufacturing, and risk taking? What are our thoughts on equality and fairness? Do we respect each other’s humanity?

Kenyans have been fortunate to receive excellent education and access to Western cultures and economies that allow those who have the chance the ability to be part of the multinational institutions and businesses that dominate the world economy. For a small nation on the edge of the Indian Ocean, Kenya has an impressive level of name recognition around the world. Kenyans have had the opportunity to travel all over the world and benefit from those experiences. Instead of remaining stuck in the colonial discourse of earlier decades, Kenyans should be fired up with ambition and vision of what we can make of the future given all the opportunities we have already had.

The Caribbean and South America are littered with decaying buildings, monuments and indeed entire cities that were once flourishing hives of commerce and civilisation but that have long since fallen to ruin and been swallowed up by the jungle. These were the benefits that Western colonialism brought to their countries. Do we not risk importing the germs of this loss into our country at precisely the time when we are set to benefit most from our encounter with the West? And to what end? So that we may become even more impoverished, oppressed, degraded and downtrodden?

The people of Haiti can trace their African origins to several different countries on the continent. They also count the native Amerindians, the Taino, among their ancestors. The Spanish encountered the Taino when they arrived on the island of Hispaniola (on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated) at the end of the fifteenth century. For some reason, the Taino awakened in the Spaniards such a vicious hatred that they were almost entirely wiped out in the next two decades. The Spaniards then proceeded to import slaves from Northwest Africa and later West and Central Africa to repopulate the territories they had devastated. This would later become the Atlantic Slave trade.

The Haitian Vodun culture commemorates several of these African ‘roots’ in its Radas or branches. The Nago (formerly of Yoruba), the Dahome, the Rara/Allada, the Kongo and the Banda. The Rara/Allada for one were, before their being brought to the Americas as slaves, part of what by all accounts was a sadistic brutal society in Dahomey. Regardless, Africa is of such metaphysical importance to the Haitian vodunists that it is where Ginen their heaven is located, the home to which they believe they will ascend at death. Ginen refers to the Guinea confederacy that for a period brought together several of the nations along the West African coast. Also brought to Hispaniola were Moors, the African allies of the North African Muslims, who had occupied Spain between 800AD and 1492. Safe to say that between the Moors and the Spaniards, there was history.

We may never know exactly why it is that God saw fit to disperse these peoples to the winds with the agency of European intervention. It was Bartolomeo de las Casas, a Spanish priest of the Dominican Order, who recommended to the Spanish Queen Isabella that slaves from Africa be brought to the Americas. Suffice it to say that they were changed by this diaspora. Hadn’t one better be careful about entangling oneself in a history that by God’s grace, one’s predecessors were largely saved from? Given the destructive role that vodun has played in Haiti’s plight, shouldn’t one be even more careful? Don’t we have enough of our own problems?

I recall in African student communities in the US hearing arguments about whether Westernisation was keeping us away from another future. Some mythical unknown present that we could have had if only. One suspects that these discussions were more sentimental than anything, acts of nostalgia by those pining for the homes they had left to pursue a higher education. Do the youth trapped in villages engage in such flights of fancy, or what about the slum dwellers who themselves have only recently fled the countryside? These discussions among those of us who had benefited most from Western development of our countries, flourished in the ignorance many of us had about our own cultures and societies. There are in fact plenty of examples of what happens when black people are left to themselves. Whether it is in Africa, or the blighted inner cities of America, many of which were for a period of time presided over by black mayors, or the American South during the period of Reconstruction, or the banana republics of the Caribbean. Clearly without Western participation, things do not work.

Isn’t it time we owned up to this basic failure on our part, instead of constantly retreating to these mythical fantasies? So far it seems that Kenyatta was right. That the darkness was best left behind and that the future lay in friendship and alliances with those in the international community who were willing to help. Shouldn’t we be thankful we have those opportunities? Isn’t it up to us to make the best of the future with what we have already been given?

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

State-sponsored massacre deepens Delta insecurity

Niger Delta Civil Society Coalition (NDCSC)

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/56723

The Niger Delta Civil Society Coalition (NDCSC) is shocked beyond belief learning of the latest massacre of people and razing to ground zero, communities of the Niger Delta by the President Yar’ Adua-led regime in a ‘democracy’.

The very sick, impotent and illegitimate government of President Ya’Adua – that has hardly moved Nigeria an inch forward in terms of any visible human development – has shown, by its authorisation of the latest massacre and orphaning of further thousands of children in the Gbaranmatu kingdom in the latest inferno, that there is a well-written script and strategy for regimes in Nigeria. They will go to any length, genocide inclusive, to expend the peoples of the region and wipe out their livelihoods, to enable oil that fed their primitive accumulation of wealth, flow without let or hindrance.

The indiscriminate shelling and slaughtering of women, children and helpless seniors in the communities by federal soldiers of fortune, has no doubt put a lid on the mockery public relation exercise, flagged off recently by the president, in the name of amnesty and peaceful settlement in the region.

The cleansing strategy adopted in the wasting of Odi, Odioma, Agge, Umuechem has been repeated in the Gbaranmatu kingdom. All the time, the military makes sure that the number of the raped, slaughtered, maimed and abused are never fully known in order not to horrify a conscious humane world.

The level of human rights abuses in the region by the government and military task forces has assumed a very high level proportion, that merits international attention for necessary action, by way of bringing pressure to bear on an unresponsive illiberal regime, to humanely deal with the legitimate and just demands of the peoples of the region.

The NDCSC maintains and very strongly too, that the conflict in the Niger Delta is about age-long gross and attested violations of cultural, social, economic, political and environmental rights of the minority citizens. It is therefore, beyond the orchestration of criminality and oil bunkering that deflates from the fundamentality and community support for the genuine struggle for social justice.

The orchestration of criminality and greed theory, leaving out friends and members of the regime who drive the arms proliferation and oil bunkering industrial complex for punishment, continue to make the federal government and oil multinationals look good internationally, in the face of human depredation in the region.

Let it not be forgotten that structural violence of the state, linked with inhuman standards of operations of oil multinationals, began the current cycle of violence. The criminal response of the state to what was a peaceful agitation by the Ogoni social movement, led by late Ken Saro-Wiwa, led to a change of strategy by peoples who now genuinely believe that an imposed government holds no measure of security to their livelihood. This has inevitably led to the growing secondary forms of violence, such as hostage taking and destruction of oil facilities.

The NDCSC wishes to strongly draw the attention of the international community and sister democracy movements, to the fact that human needs are continually being frustrated on a large scale by illegitimate federal and state regimes in the Niger Delta. Experience over the decades has shown that the more arbitrary law and order is enforced in the region to control helplessness and frustration, in the midst of abundance and evil governance, the more the helplessness and frustration.

Our genuine fear and concern is that, rather than military massacre to put a lid on demand for just peace; from the humiliation and further loss will spring some other forms of extreme agitation, to continue to emphasise and demonstrate to the world that continues to tolerate competititve authoritarian regimes in Nigeria, that there are features of the regimes in the Niger Delta that are repugnant to justice and human dignity, that are unacceptable to the peoples, and that are worth dying for.

The NDCSC therefore, wishes to renew the demand of the peoples of the region for just peace to mean: demand for sustainable development that has been deliberately kept away from them. They ask that the poor and vulnerable be at the centre of the development process in their communities – also the protection of the life opportunities of future generations and the natural systems on which all life depends.

The NDCSC once again calls on the global civilised nations and democracy movements to take their responsibility to protect human subjects anywhere in the world, including democratic principles seriously, by calling on the illiberal regimes in Nigeria, who are intent on destroying the enormous investment in democracy-building by democracy defenders, to urgently respond to the just demands of the peoples of the Niger Delta, as forced peace will surely compound the avoidable catastrophe waiting to happen in that part of the world.

Signed:

Anyakwee Nsirimovu
Chair, NDCSC

* The Niger Delta Civil Society Coalition (NDCSC)is an umbrella organisation for 300 civil society and community-based organisations in the Niger Delta.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Kenya: A message for Madaraka Day

Not yet uhuru but change is coming

Mars Group Kenya

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/56728

THE PARTNERSHIP FOR CHANGE MESSAGE FOR MADARAKA DAY:
46 YEARS LATER IT'S NOT YET UHURU BUT CHANGE IS COMING.

Madaraka was meant to:
- Give Kenyans sovereignty over their political affairs and their resources
- Give Kenyans a Bill of Rights to be enforced by an independent judiciary
- Create a democratic, prosperous and just nation where the rule of law prevails.

Forty-six years ago today, a handover took place at a ceremony in Nairobi, Kenya, between the British colonial government and an elected government headed by the leader of the Kenya African National Union, Jomo Kenyatta, as Prime Minister of Kenya. That day 1 June 1963 has since then been commemorated annually by Kenyans as Madaraka (Internal Self Government) Day. It is the day that Kenyans knew their independence would shortly come.

Six months later on 12 December 1963 (Jamuhuri or Republic Day), Kenya attained independent dominion status within the British Commonwealth under a constitution that was negotiated and agreed at three multi-party Constitutional Conferences held in London and Nairobi between 1961 and 1963. At the stroke of midnight all eligible persons in the country became citizens of Kenya by birthright – in the case of those born after midnight - by naturalisation or by application.

Jomo Kenyatta remained Prime Minister until December 12th 1964 when further constitutional changes declared that Kenya would henceforth be a Republic with Jomo Kenyatta as the first President of Kenya. Kenyatta was president for 15 years. The Prime Ministership was abolished, and there have only been two more Kenyan Presidents since then – in 46 years – Daniel Arap Moi who was President between 1978 and 2002 (24 years); and Mwai Kibaki who is serving his seventh year as President.

Since that first Madaraka Day, Kenyans have been trying to secure the benefits of internal self-governance, democracy and prosperity for the people of Kenya. Sadly, 46 years later, Kenyans are still suffering from the ills of a colonial like state which instead of healing, feeding, and educating and securing the people; oppresses steals and even kills often and with impunity.

Kenyans know that freedom is not free, and that they have to unite as they did before Independence for freedom. Several times in our history we have been reunited in the push for true Uhuru. Immediately after the first Madaraka Day the struggle to preserve the vision of land and freedom was led by the Kenya People’s Union against KANU, and throughout the 1960s and 1970s by patriots like Pio Gama Pinto, Josiah Mwangi Kariuki and the students and dons of Kenya’s universities. This was defeated by brute force and assassinations.
In the 1980s the resistance to section 2A of the Constitution involved agitation for the end of the one party KANU dictatorship of Daniel Arap Moi. Most recently, there was the rejection of KANU in 2002, and the election of the National Rainbow Coalition which was Kenya’s first pre-election pact coalition government, and which developed an Economic Recovery and Constitutional Reform strategy and plan which was frustrated by selfish political manoeuvre. Today Kenyans are striving to overcome the political, economic and governance crisis which emerged after the botched presidential election of December 27th 2007, and this struggle is assuming a dimension of generational leadership change in the form of a ‘citizens in charge’ movement.

Throughout the darkest days, Kenyans have always known that they are Kenyans and that as such they have rights which are given to them by their Constitution. They have consistently since Independence resisted against a leadership that sought to oppress them as the colonial state did. They have however suffered greatly in this resistance. Many Kenyans have been detained without trial, subjected to rigged trials, exiled, tortured and even been killed and tortured in the past 46 years.

On 12th December 2008, citizens through the Partnership for Change declared that they were going to take charge of democratising and freeing their country for themselves. The Partnership for Change has since November 2008 been implementing a six-point agenda of advocacy and public education on the National Accord, Fundamental Human Rights, the National budget and Debt, Citizens’ Responsibility and Ending Impunity. These agenda items are covered in the National Accord of February 28th 2008, which established the Grand Coalition Government led by President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

WHAT IS THE CONTENT OF OUR NATIONAL ACCORD?

Agenda One of the National Accord:
- Restoration of civil and political liberties
- Cessation of violence against and between citizens.

Agenda Two of the National Accord:
- Resolving the post election humanitarian crisis
- Reconciliation and national healing.

Agenda Three of the National Accord:
- Overcoming the political crisis.

Agenda Four of the National Accord:
- Overcoming long term issues and providing solutions to mass poverty and unemployment, land reform, regional imbalances, and equity
- Addressing national cohesion and reconciliation, transparency and accountability, constitutional reform, institutional reform of Parliament, the Judiciary and the Internal Security Apparatus including the police.

The Grand Coalition Government has failed to keep the timelines and to deliver the National Accord. We believe that implementing the National Accord and the agenda of the Partnership for Change will ensure the delivery of the vision of Madaraka Day and Uhuru. We have committed ourselves to use all our constitutional freedoms to advocate and educate Kenyans on our agenda for the prosperity and freedom of all citizens. In this, as people and citizens of Kenya, we shall act without waiting for the political leadership who have failed us before time and time again.

Recognising that Madaraka Day 1963 made us citizens with inalienable rights, the Partnership for Change shall over the next 6 months up to 12 December 2009 mount a nation-wide campaign to restore the Madaraka Day vision of democratic accountability and urge Kenyans to resist dictatorial impunity. If we succeed, at a minimum the fundamental rights of every Kenyan will be respected and protected by the state and its agencies on pain of prosecution for any one regardless of status, who violates the rights of a Kenyan citizen. Our rights are not negotiable.

The Partnership for Change holds the position that the National Accord and not Vision 2030 is the country’s Blue Print for national development and ultimately salvation. On this 46th Madaraka Day, we restate that the full implementation of the National Accord is non-negotiable and the Grand Coalition government so long as it remains incapable, or refuses, to implement the National Accord has no moral authority to remain in place, bearing in mind it is created by a political pact and not by a democratic election result. To stimulate peaceful and democratic change in Kenya, we shall support people’s struggle and initiatives for a better Kenya in the following ways:

1) We shall work to raise awareness of public resources management discipline in order to identify and secure financial and other resources for the achievement of Agenda 4 of the National Accord. In this regard we are campaigning to rationalise the budget and to achieve at least 60 per cent of the budget is secured for development spending; and are also advocating for a comprehensive external debt relief agreement for Kenya.

2) We shall work and campaign as citizens, educating others and asserting our fundamental freedoms as detailed in Chapter V of the Constitution (Bill of Rights) and in particular calling for the unequivocal and full implementation of the full implementation of the Report of the Waki Commission of Inquiry into the Post Election Violence and the Alston Report to the 11th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Summary and Extra Judicial Killings to end impunity in Kenya and to ensure that for the first time in Kenya’s history since Independence all public institutions and public officials are held accountable, and work to promote and defend human rights.

3) We shall work with grassroots Kenyans to educate Kenyans, organise forums that are driven by the citizens themselves- on how to full participate and consult with each other to participate in decision making, public finance, to protect and preserve democracy, ensure honest and effective representation in Parliament and the local governance structures and indeed all governance structures.

4) We shall advocate for the need for impartial application of the rule of law. Kenyans are born equal, regardless of the political opinion, ethnic origin or social status.

5) We shall develop plans and policies for institutional responses to deal with impunity including enhancing public monitoring and record keeping of the government operations related to public finance management and the as regards the fundamental human rights

6) We shall support the call by the people of Kenya for their immediate democratic re-enfranchisement and their right to an elected government.

WE SHALL ACT FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS AND GROUNDS:

We shall do this because the Grand Coalition Government must be pushed to deliver on its duty to Kenyans as expected in the National Accord. We shall do this because it is our right to demand for the full implementation of the National Accord. Failure to implement the National Accord constitutes grounds for a fresh election, and the Grand Coalition Government has failed in the following respects:

Failure to keep Timelines:

- It has failed to keep the timelines to deliver the promise of the National Accord. Constitutional Review within 12 months has been overlooked hence the stalled institutional reforms in the judiciary, in parliament and the representation of the people, dealing with regional imbalances and the public finance systems;

- It has failed to establish the Special Tribunal for Kenya to punish the persons bearing the greatest responsibility for crimes against humanity committed in Kenya during the post election violence period (December 2007 to February 2008) during which 1,133 Kenyan were murdered and hundreds of thousands were displaced.

- It has failed in 15 months to settle the internally displaced victims of the post election violence leaving hundreds of thousands of Kenyans exposed to untold suffering daily, indefinitely.

Failure to Protect Kenyans and End Extra Judicial Killings:
- It has failed to demobilise militias, and dismantle organised crime syndicates and gangs, which continue to murder, extort and maim with impunity.

- Extrajudicial killings by the Kenya Police continue and no one is being punished for this illegality which has lead to the deaths of hundreds of Kenyan young men and women. Torture of persons in official custody remains a practice within the police and other disciplined forces, and torturers have impunity. Police reforms are still pending and on 2 June 2009 the UN special rapporteur on enforced disappearances shall present a damning report on Kenya. Shockingly during the Madaraka day celebrations, neither the president nor the prime minister had anything to say on this – in prominent attendance at the celebration was the police commissioner who has several times been indicted by independent and official reports. The attorney general who has been described by the UN special rapporteur as the embodiment of impunity remains in office after 19 years, and presumably for life.

Failure to Secure Protection of Law and Access to Justice:

- There have been no efforts to improve access to justice for the majority of the population. Whereas over the past 15 months the Grand Coalition Government increased the administrative districts to over 209; it has failed to provide the people with courts and today there are only 58 High Court judges, and 287 magistrates for a population of 38 million citizens. The backlog of cases according to the Ministry of Justice stands at over 800,000! Forty-six years after independence, Kenyans are denied justice as a majority face criminal charges without any legal aid or assistance by qualified lawyers.

- Prisons were built to hold 16,000 inmates at a time. Today they hold over 64,000 convicts and every day about 45,000 Kenyan citizens are held by the police in cells under inhumane and degrading conditions.

Failure to Address Long Term Issues:

- The Grand Coalition government has failed to tackle poverty and inequality. It has failed to deliver on its promise to generate 740,000 new jobs each year from 2008 to keep up with youth unemployment which is now a national security threat. Training colleges have been shut down for lack of funds while the Grand Coalition government continues to increase recurrent expenditure on hospitality and conspicuous consumption.

- The Grand Coalition government has failed to consolidate national cohesion. It has failed to criminalise hate speech by law and in fact it has allowed politicians and public officers to verbally abuse and scandalize those who point out its faults. The Kiambaa victims’ mass funeral which was avoided by the national and local leadership of the Orange Democratic Movement, and shoddily managed by State House shows how far the nation is from national healing.

- The Grand Coalition government has failed to institute the much desired and needed land reform and is engaged in a sham discussion to shield its members’ vested interest in the status quo where formally public lands remain in private hands illegally; a fact extensively documented by among others the Ndung’u Land commission report of 2004.

- The Grand Coalition government is incapable of fighting corruption and has indeed institutionalized impunity for gross economic crimes by shielding perpetrators from persecution and by incorporating perpetrators of corruption in its highest political and public offices. Today, more than half of the cabinet ministers of the GCG are implicated in grand corruption charges and are yet to be cleared. A corrupt government cannot deliver Agenda 4 of the National Accord.

Failure to control Public Debt:

- The Grand Coalition government has committed 24 per cent of national budget to debt redemption and is increasing our domestic debt from Kshs. 670.8 billion to Kshs. 827.4 billion and since 1963 Kenya has borrowed over Kshs. 1 trillion with little to show for it. It is now imperative that we have full accountability and transparency in our debt. The Partnership for Change shall demand that Kenyans are told whom we owe and for what purpose we owe. We shall campaign that we as a country should undertake no further debts until the government of Kenya accounts to the people through Parliament. A quick look at our statement of external debt reveals huge borrowings and repayment to the tune of over a trillion shillings for development infrastructure that has never been built. Most of the loans did not have proper parliamentary authority and went to private hands leaving Kenyan taxpayer to pay for value un-received. Disturbingly, the Grand Coalition government has made it its policy to borrow to fund its recurrent expenditure.

- The Partnership for Change takes exception with the Bretton Woods institutions, which choose to ignore the public evidence that the Kenyan government is neither transparent nor accountable in public finance management and that there are odious debts on our books. Even though the Partnership for Change alerted the executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as to the presence of odious debt our books, and the history of pathetic management of public resources by Treasury, the International Monetary Fund’s immediate response to this call was to lend the government of Kenya twice the amount it wished to borrow.

The Partnership for Change shall play its role in offering information, organising the people and providing the tools for holding public officials and state institutions accountable so that by December 12, 2009, Kenyan citizens shall have made a breakthrough.

Partnership for Change

Nairobi 1 June 2009

* Mars Group Kenya is a leadership, governance, accountability and media watchdog organisation.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

Statement on economic partnership agreement (EPA) negotiations

Southern and Eastern African Trade, Information and Negotiations Institute

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/56743

STATEMENT TO COMESA SUMMIT ON ESA-EC ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS (EPA) NEGOTIATIONS

1. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is holding its Policy Organs meetings and the 13th Summit of Heads of State and Government in the resort town of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe from the 28th May to 8th June 2009 under the theme Consolidating Regional Economic Integration through Value Addition, Trade and Food Security.

2. From the 2nd - 4th June 2009 the Council of Ministers will be meeting to deliberate on a number of issues affecting the COMESA region, including the current negotiations with the European Union (officially known as the European Community) on concluding Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).

We recall that:

3. The Eastern and Southern Africa Group (ESA) and the European Community (EC) senior officials met in Brussels on 28 April 2009 under the co-chairmanship of H.E Ambassadors S Gunessee and N. Wahab on ESA side as well as P. Thompson, Director, DG Trade on EC side. In their conclusions on the Interim EPAs initialled towards the end of 2007, the officials noted that:

On signature of interim EPA, EC confirmed that provided that an agreement is reached on translation, the interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) could be ready for signature around mid-May 2009. ESA confirmed its decision to host the signature in Mauritius and informed that the issue of the date of signature will be considered at the next ESA Council scheduled for the 4th June 2009 in Victoria Falls back to back with COMESA Summit with a view to agreeing on a mutually convenient date as well as its arrangement for the signing ceremony.

We are concerned that:

4. The ESA countries (as represented by their officials) have confirmed their decision to host the signature of the interim EPAs and that they are already considering discussing the dates of such a ceremony when the outstanding and contentious issues in the interim EPAs have not been addressed and resolved.

5. The contentious issues arising from the interim EPAs include, inter alia, involve far reaching commitments on tariffs reductions the freezing of export taxes that ESA countries have been using, the requirement that ESA countries should not increase duties on products from the EU beyond what they have been applying (standstill clause), liberalising “substantially all trade”, bilateral safeguards (for infant industry protection)-all these issues are still under negotiations. We take the precautionary principle and reiterate that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.

6. The EC has insisted that the first priority should be the signature of the interim EPA. The EU main interest is in market access which they may achieve in interim EPAs. This limits the scope of focussing on the real issues of interest to ESA countries that need attention before the signature. ESA countries should resist the pressure of rushing to sign the interim EPA when it is clear they will be mortgaging national and public assets to the EC.

We urge ESA countries to recognise that:

7. Africa remains a marginal player in world trade (6% in 1980 and 3% in 2008) since the continent’s trade structure still lacks diversity in terms of production and exports. As such, negotiations to further liberalise (after Structural Adjustment Programmes) their economies will be a futile and possible suicidal exercise until certain pre-requisites are met and instituted within their economies. The emphasis on trade liberalisation alone as a means to stimulating growth and development is misplaced.

8. The pre-requisites (as informed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) centre on addressing the structural constraints in ESA countries including

increased public investment in research and development, rural infrastructure — including roads — and health and education
overhauling the basic productive infrastructure to make production more reliable. Power generation, water supply and telecommunications are three key areas that need special attention. In addition, building a competitive manufacturing sector will require the strengthening of the support infrastructure needed for exporting, including roads, railways and port facilities.
encouraging cross-border trade infrastructure. It is unlikely that the manufacturing sector in Africa will grow to a competitive level if it is limited to small domestic markets. The smallness of individual African markets and the difficulty for most firms to access the markets of industrialized countries suggest that in the short and medium term, the expansion of intra-African trade could offer the opportunity to widen markets outside national boundaries. In so doing, some key infrastructure projects could be executed at the regional level, taking into account regional economic complementarities.
development of domestic policy regulatory frameworks to regulate the movement of goods and services in and outside ESA countries. This includes adopting policies that ensure Special and Differential Treatment including the Special Safeguard Mechanism in agriculture, use of tariffs, among other things

9. Trade liberalisation has so far discouraged intra-regional trade in Africa as the reduction of tariffs, which reduce the preference margins given to other African countries, reduce the incentives for intraregional trade.

10. The Cotonou Agreement (that forms the legal basis of negotiating EPAs), recognise that reciprocal agreements (EPAs) with the EC had to foster regional integration and to be based on current integration efforts. However, as the interim agreements have shown, this commitment has been negated as the current configuration of the EPA encompasses a major risk of undermining ongoing regional integration processes.

11. Most countries in the region continue to suffer from food shortages and food insecurity. As a result they have been importing more food and energy (including inflation which was at 10.7% in 2008 up from 6.4% in 2007, the continental average excluding Zimbabwe) into the region. Trade liberalisation will exacerbate the problems of food insecurity.

12. The ESA political leadership have an obligation towards their people and should ensure that whatever decisions they take should not put the lives of people in danger. This means all those targets of reducing poverty, reducing child and maternal mortality and increasing access to education for the people should be used as tools for making informed decisions especially with regards to trade negotiations.

13. Given the above, liberalising ESA economies under the EPAs as already indicated by the interim EPAs will further weaken the countries’ ability to develop and respond to the challenges posed by liberalisation and Limit Africa to the production and export of low value goods (the so-called “poor-country” goods) based on the so-called comparative advantage argument. This is tantamount to condemning the continent and locking it into poverty.

We therefore recommend that:

14. A moratorium be put in place on EPAs negotiations until the ESA countries have put in place adequate institutional mechanisms to deal with trade liberalisation as recommended by the African Union, UNCTAD, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa among others.

15. ESA countries focus on developing its regional market, steps that have already been taken by consolidating the gains of the COMESA FTA, the Customs Union and the move to form a single FTA with the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC)

16. In light of the high food and energy prices, the climate crisis and the current global recession triggered by the financial crisis, ESA countries MUST reverse most of the commitments they have agreed under the IMF/World Bank SAP policies, the World Trade Organisation and the so-called interim Economic Partnership Agreements. This will allow the countries to implement favourable home grown policies that are in tandem with their development priorities

For further Information please contact:
Rangarirai Machemedze
SEATINI
20 Victoria Drive
Newlands
Harare
Zimbabwe
rmachemedze@seatini.org
+263-4-788078
+263-4-776418

Or

Jane Nalunga
SEATINI
Plot 101 Kira Road , Kamwokya
Kampala
Uganda
Jnalunga09@gmail.com
+256-414-540856

* SEATINI is an African regional non-governmental organisation founded in Harare in 1997 to strengthen the capacity of African trade negotiators and other key stakeholders.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

Ethiopia: End hardship for women and children

Donors should challenge government to deliver on aid promises

Ethiopian Women for Peace and Development

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/56722

We want to bring the plight of women in Ethiopia, due to the current economic hardship, to the attention of human rights, humanitarian and peace organisations worldwide.

Ethiopia, a country of 80 million people, is one of the poorest countries in the world. The current economic conditions in the country are alarming. We understand that countries, small and big, throughout the world are affected by the current global economic crises. The current economic conditions in Ethiopia are not created by the global market situation only. It is mostly a result of the lack of good governance, corruption and poor economic and social policies. In the recent years, the gap between the haves and the have-nots has widened extremely. The government tries to convince the public that the economy is growing and gives examples of the construction of high-rise buildings and roads, especially in the capital city, Addis Ababa. These buildings, some of them condominiums, are not affordable for the average citizen. The majority of the people is living in abject poverty and is struggling for mere survival.

Recently, two members of our organisation took personal trips to Ethiopia and witnessed some of the conditions under which women and children live and the hardship they experience in their daily lives. The famine that is affecting close to six million people is hidden from the international community and the public in Ethiopia. It is not discussed widely in the government media. However, thousands of children are dying of famine and malnutrition every day. Even in the capital city, Addis Ababa, the economic situation is unbearable for most people. You hear anecdotes that siblings eat meals in turn – those who ate breakfast are not allowed to eat lunch because parents cannot afford to provide three meals to feed all their children. Thousands of women beg with their children in the streets of Addis Ababa. Young girls are engaged in prostitution, to earn money to feed themselves and their families, which leads to an increase in the spread of HIV virus and other diseases. And yet, one observes the booming of constructions and roads in the capital.

Some women are employed in the construction projects as day labourers. They mix sand and gravel and carry heavy stones and sacks of cement three to four floors up. We are not belittling or condemning their work and we also recognise that the construction industry has given employment opportunity to many women. However, the conditions under which they work are most abusive. What they carry is not only heavy and damaging to their body, but also they work in unhealthy environment and are exposed to hazardous toxic materials.

In an informal discussion with the labourers, one of our members asked few of them why they were engaged in this line of work. They said that it is better to work as a day labourer than working as domestic workers where they were physically and sexually abused. In general, in the cities, women who work outside of their homes are employed as construction workers, day labourers, petty traders, and factory workers. In the countryside, women are still engaged in backbreaking work as they have been doing for generations. They carry loads for long distances, grind grain, till the land, and sustain the household.

The government’s policies on land, agriculture, and trade and the various bilateral agreements it signed have serious impacts on food production and consumption. Ethiopia now produces flowers to earn hard currency. Though export commodities are important, priorities must be given to producing staple crops to alleviate the dire situation of food shortages in the country.

In addition, many question the appropriateness of some of the different bilateral agreements that the government signed under the current economic conditions in the country. It is reported in the Financial Times (Javier Blas, 4 March 2009) that rich business people from Saudi Arabia have leased very large tract of land for rice farming to be exported to Saudi Arabia even in light of food shortage in Ethiopia. Such policy of exporting food to Saudi Arabia while Ethiopians starve indicates the erroneous economic policies that the government pursues.

As a women’s peace and development organisation, we are concerned by the situation of women and children in Ethiopia under the current economic conditions. Due to the government’s strict control of the media, information about the dire conditions of the people is not available. One cannot separate the economic situation from the political situation. The basic tenets of democracy, such as freedom of the press and association, are suppressed after the 2005 national elections. Civic organisation that could have educated the citizenry about their rights and responsibilities are curtailed. Dissent is not tolerated. In plain language, people are scared to criticise the government and question its negative policies. Even the simple complaint about food shortage and the escalating food price is taken as opposing the government.

As stated above, the purpose of this article is to bring the plight of Ethiopian women and children, under the current economic crises in the country, to the attention of the international community. One wonders what the international community would do to alleviate the dire situations of Ethiopian women and Ethiopians in general. Ethiopia is one of the countries in Africa that receive massive foreign aids, estimated to be over two billion dollars every year. For the most part, donor countries have ignored human rights violations by the current regime (despite extensive reports by human rights organisations and civic groups) and pour their money in the country without strict conditions to influence government policies and procedures. The recent anti-NGO law, Charities and Societies Proclamation (CSO law), that the government passed in January 2009, is a good example of suppression of civic societies. However, donor agencies and Western governments did not challenge the government’s actions.

We appeal to human rights, humanitarian and peace organisations to pressure donor countries to reassess their development efforts in Ethiopia. They do not have to do extensive research to know if their development aid has benefited the poor or not. They only have to objectively observe how the poor live in Ethiopia and under what kind of political, social and economic conditions they dwell. A minority of the affluent live extravagantly while the majority flounder in abject poverty. The ‘development aid’ the West pours in the country, without any condition for accountability, transparency, and good governance has failed to fight poverty in Ethiopia.

* Ethiopian Women for Peace and Development is a women’s organisation created by concerned Ethiopian and Ethiopian-American women in 1991.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

Support independence for the people of Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe Communist Party

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/56721

Felix Alain Flémin, secretary general of the Guadeloupe Communist Party (GCP) has called for international solidarity in support of the struggle for independence and self-determination of the people of those Caribbean islands under French colonial dominion.

‘We are a nation whose right to self-determination is not recognised by France. We are looking for international support for the islands to return to the UN list of colonial territories,’ stated Flémin during a recent visit to the Organisation of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa & Latin America (OSPAAAL) headquarters.

Guadeloupe, a small archipelago of the Antilles located some 600km from the South American coasts, was occupied by French troops in 1635 after an extermination war against its native population, the Caribbean Indians. In 1947, the French government succeeded in erasing it from the list of non-autonomous (colonial) territories worked out by the United Nations General Assembly, and turned it into an overseas department of the French Republic.

‘France tries to make-believe that Guadeloupe is not a colony but a French department. Our people has never been consulted about its political status and therefore has not been able to exert its right to self-determination,’ underlined Flémin before a large group of representatives of organisations and political parties accredited in Cuba. He denounced that in the face of the growing nationalist feeling of the population, which is rebelling with increasing force against the ‘unbearable economic exploitation’ to which it is being submitted, France pretends to replace the present population by Frenchmen in order to ensure its permanent dominion of the territory. He explained that the infrastructure is that of a modern, developed country, but it is controlled by France and its inhabitants do not enjoy the same privileges of the French people. ‘As part of that strategy of assimilation, the French are acquiring large extensions of land and other important properties,’ he pointed out. ‘We fight against a brutal assimilation policy. They tell us “you do not exist as people from Guadeloupe, you exist as French people”’. They try to frighten the people telling them they would lose the small or alleged privileges granted by the colonial system, asserted the leader, who took up the GCP leadership in February 2008.

He highlighted the protests that shook the colonial power in Guadeloupe and Martinique – a neighbouring island also ruled by France – which, though motivated mainly by economic claims, could contribute to a favorable climate for the cause of independence in the present circumstances. He denounced that the situation in the island is still tense because the French authorities have ignored the agreements reached with representatives of trade unions and other organisations that took part in the actions. Strikes and protests – though still isolated – are reappearing throughout the territory.

‘We cannot assure that a pre-revolutionary situation exists. We try to create awareness of the need to fight for autonomy, a stage previous to independence. We try to make the people understand that they should not expect any positive change within the present colonial status,’ explained the leader. Flémin, who visited Cuba accompanied by Galou Lafond, GCP foreign affairs secretary, was received at the OSPAAAL offices by Alfonso Fraga, its general secretary; Lourdes Cervantes, head of the political department and Angel Pino, head of the information department. Both Fraga and Cervantes underlined the historical links of OSPAAAL with the Caribbean peoples and confirmed their unconditional support and solidarity with the independence and self determination of Guadeloupe and other territories of the region. ‘There is much political struggle to be developed,’ stated Cervantes. ‘We are committed to contribute to the complex decolonisation process in the Caribbean and that decision was evidenced in a statement of the organisation motivated by the recent protests that took place in Guadeloupe and Martinique,’ she emphasised.

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

Congo will become a catalyst for development

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/56744

Saeanna says Mahmood Mamdani’s article The politics of naming: genocide, civil war, insurgency is an ‘an eye-opener in that it explained how power works and how at the same time power oppresses those who think they have it. I even used the phrase "politics of naming" in my Masters thesis’.

Referring to Ruben Eberlein’s interview with Mahmood Mamdani, prince odengs wants to know why Mamdani doesn’t appear to support calls for intervention from people on the ground in Darfur.

Digital Congo’s letter is ‘an insult to the 5 millions innocent grassroots Congolese people who have perished as a consequence of the ongoing crisis caused by international interferences as well as bad governance and corruption from a few greedy Congolese elites/leadership,’ writes WILPF UK. Digital Congo should be addressing the questions of who Kabila and his government are protecting and who they are accountable to, writes Usafia Mapendo. ‘May God bless the country Congo and the Congolese people!’ writes Antoine Lutumba-Ntumba, while Claver Pashi says ‘Congo will stand up and become a catalyst for development at the center of Africa. That day is not far.’

Independent thanks Gerald Caplan for his ‘constructive stand’ in writing about the Rwandan genocide, but says that many questions remain unanswered, thanks to one-sided information.

Meanwhile, Bisrate Girma writes that the Ethiopian opposition is more undemocratic than the government, and that fair play should apply to both parties.

And finally, Sichone says Ronald Elly Wanda has missed the point made by Dambisa Moyo’s ideas on aid dependency. ‘The culture of aid (and Aid) IS the main exogenous factor, the one that gives us regimes that do not collect tax and do not answer to their citizens. The main challenge is for us all to THINK of the exit strategy from aid and so far the Euro-Americans are saying without aid Africa will die. Is that true? Is it acceptable?’ Sichone asks.

Tributes to Tajudeen continue pouring in

Firoze Manji

Pambazuka News

2009-06-04

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/56535

Tributes to Tajudeen Abdul Raheem, pan-Africanist, fighter, comrade and friend to so many, continue to pour in at Pambazuka News. Since last week, we have received nearly 60 tributes bringing the total to more than 250. Tributes include those from Dismas Nkunda, Norah Matovu-Winyi Executive Director FEMNET, Breyten Breytenbach, Juma V. Mwapachu, East African Community, Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo, Owei Lakemfa, Ibrahim Abdullah, Ama Biney, Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, L Muthoni Wanyeki, Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi and many more. If you wish to contribute, please go to http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/56535

Fr Gerard Jean-Juste (1947-2009)

Sokari Ekine

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/obituary/56724

Fr Gerard Jean-Juste a gentle man, a liberation theologist who dedicated his life to fight for justice for Haitians in Haiti and the US died on Wednesday 27 May. Fr Jean-Juste was constantly harassed by the security forces and imprisoned by Gérard Latortue who, along with the US and France, were responsible for the overthrow of President Bertrand Aristide.

In December 2005, he was diagosed in the US with lymphocytic leukemia but in between his treatments he continued to move between Miami and Port-au-Prince where he was always met with a huge welcome.

I had the honour of meeting Fr Jean-Juste twice in Miami (once before my visit to Haiti and also on my return) at the Veye Yo - the center he opened for Haiti refugees in Little Haiti. He and everyone at the Veye Yo were so welcoming and respectful it was a truly humbling experience. I was unfortunate to miss him in Port-au-Prince due to the August 2007 hurricane and mess-ups with him trying to get to PAP and me trying to get back to Miami. Fr Gerry as he was known, held people together. Every week people would gather and whoever had something to say would stand and speak about their joys, their problems in Miami and in Haiti. Everyone would listen. I cannot imagine the sadness of the people of Little Haiti who were part of his life and they part of his. He will be terribly missed. I do not know how his people will manage.

In this video he explains his decision to start a soup kitchen in Haiti – ‘It was like a cry in my heart. I had to perform a miracle.’ He did!

Interview of Sister Lucy and Kevin Pina on Flashpoints radio - Thursday 28 May. [mp3]

Flashpoints Radio: Haitian community leader and fighter for justice Father Gerard Jean-Juste passes away, we'll hear from friends and colleagues who remember his life and legacy.

* This obituary first appeared in Black Looks.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

Rwanda: Film: Genocidaires face off with their victims

2009-06-05

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=47098

In 1994, hundreds of thousands of Tutsi were slaughtered by their Hutu neighbours, friends, and family members across Rwanda. Nine years later the killers came home from prison to live side by side again with their victims. The complexities of this homecoming are explored in director Anne Aghion’s emotionally powerful film "My Neighbour, My Killer", where, amongst the green hills and tiled roofs of the village of Gafunda, the memories of those horrors resurface as widows shell beans and peel vegetables.

An interview with Brian Chikwava

Mildred Kiconco Barya

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/56713

With this year's Caine Prize for African Writing shortlist now announced, Mildred Kiconco Barya interviews Brian Chikwava, the 2004 winner of the prize. The winner of the 2009 prize will be announced at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, on Monday 6 July.

Brian Chikwava is a Zimbabwean writer. His novel Harare North was published by Jonathan Cape in 2009. He lives in a matchbox-sized flat in London. He eats fish but only on some days. He is also a staggeringly good cyclist.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: Why do you write?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I write because that’s what all bums do when they find a moment of solitude. That was a very useful attitude when I wrote Harare North.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: At what age did you start writing creatively?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I must have been 14 when I attempted a film script. I wrote half a dozen lines and had a sore head. I gave up.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: Describe your writing journey.

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: You could say it’s marked by a lot of groping in the dark, full of grunts and yelps.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: What are the thematic concerns in your writing?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: It’s a mixed bag, I must admit. That’s because I just write what I feel like at the time and never really think too much. Maybe if I look carefully there is a running thematic strand but I don’t want to look yet.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: What inspired you to write Seventh Street Alchemy?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I just happened to have a lot of time on my hands then and was trying to learn the short story form. But I also was surrounded by interesting people.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: How did you know about the Caine Prize?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I heard about it when it was launched at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: What was your initial response when you won the Caine Prize?
BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I calculated the number of rickshaw rides I could afford to have around Covent Garden, London. I remember it was just over 3,000 rides, including a high-quality English whip.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: What has been happening or not happening since winning the Caine?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I’ve been writing Harare North.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: If you were to rewrite your submitted story what would you change?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I’d take out a lot of sloppy writing there.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: How often do you revise or redraft your stories?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: Until I’m bored.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: What’s your take on writing?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I need a long time to think about this.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: How do you deal with a writer’s rejections?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I take a 15km walk, find a bar, buy vodka and talk to a few complete strangers for a while. There is no problem that this cannot solve.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: Apart from writing, what else do you do and why?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I don’t even think I write. I’m always trying to blag my way through things.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: Forty years from now where do you see yourself?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: In heaven, with good old God.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: What’s your best quote?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I stopped having any once I found they were quotes crowding my head and I didn’t have opportunities to use them.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: Which five authors do you admire most and why?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: Every time I come up with five names I feel terminally stupid for having left out this or that author. It’s easier to pick the ones that one loathes.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: List your favourite five books.

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: Ditto.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: What’s your vision?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I’m still working on it.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: What genre do you read most and why?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I read anything and everything that passes under my nose.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: If you were to make a wish right now what would it be?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: To be able to fall asleep at the touch of my nose. I’m a bit of an insomniac.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: If you were to have powers of a genie what two things would you change?

BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I would turn myself into a benevolent dictator and consign a few world leaders to the gulag.

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

Drop

Karest Lewela

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/56715

It’s in the drop
Of water, rain water that turns into a pool
Breeding ground for jealous ambition
The domicile of lost and downtrodden faith

It’s in the drop
Of silence, pin-drop silence that becomes an echo
Laden with guilt from feigned friendships and half-truths
The emptiness out of years of self-patronisation

It’s in the drop
Of a beat, that swells gently into passionate frenzy
Exploring the vulnerability of my frustrations in living
The dance in honor of you and me, oh yes, we the living dead

It’s in the drop
Of one dollar that the world brands as my daily poverty
Yet in my world, my richness is like mood swings
Undulating between 60 and 80 shillings
60’s my mum’s generation; 80’s my generation

It’s in the drop
The beginning of the pool, the echo, the frenzy,
The unlimited potential to redefine universal perspective
Poverty is only the lack of ideas
_
* Karest Lewela is a Kenyan poet and activist for social justice. He is based in Nairobi and is currently the contracting and procurement manager for Kenya Shell Limited.

Niger Delta: The extremities of Nigerian consciousness

Sokari Ekine

2009-06-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/56711

Following the launch of the Nigerian military's latest campaign of violence against communities in the Niger Delta, Sokari Ekine looks at coverage of recent events in the African blogosphere, and finds the response to be ‘disappointingly sparse’. ‘I expected to read that there were Nigerians outraged by this attack on their fellow citizens by the Nigerian military, especially since the Nigerian mainstream media has been uncritical. Unfortunately there wasn’t as much as I had hoped and hope is all too important in the struggle against tyranny,’ says Ekine.

On 13 May 2009, the Joint Task Force of the Nigerian military began its latest campaign of violence against Niger Delta communities. It used ground troops, tanks and helicopter gunships to attack towns and villages in the Warri South West, [Delta State] region. In all, nine towns and villages have been attacked. In addition, over the past week, two towns in Rivers State – Abonnema and Buguma – have also been under attack.

The Niger Delta has been subjected to a continued military campaign since 1990 when the town of Umuechem in Rivers State was ransacked by the militia known as the Mobile Police [MOPO for short). The campaign then became centered on Ogoniland, culminating in the judicial murder of the ‘Ogoni 9’, including Ken Saro-Wiwa. However it was under the civilian government of President Obasanjo that the three states – Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers – became under occupation and the attacks against people and property were escalated.

The latest attacks are the most ferocious to date as bombs were indiscriminately dropped on heavily populated towns and villages with no concern for civilian deaths and injuries. As the government have enforced a media ban, it is difficult to assess the number of deaths and displaced. Estimates on the former range between hundreds and 2,000 (Sahara Reporters) with a further 20,000 displaced people who have had to flee their homes.

In a recent post I made the comment that the response from the Nigerian blogosphere has been disappointingly sparse.

To be frank, I expected to read that were Nigerians outraged by this attack on their fellow citizens by the Nigerian military, especially since the Nigerian mainstream media has been uncritical. Unfortunately there wasn’t as much as I had hoped and hope is all too important in the struggle against tyranny.

Chidi opera reports has a number of reports on the Niger Delta including one which the writers claims that the PDP tried to recruit one of the top militant leaders Mr. Government Ekpumupolo aka Tom Polo.

The whole story sounds very sinister, with former disgraced Bayelsa State Governor of transvestite fame, Diepriye Alamesigha as the contact man. What the story does suggest is that there are communication channels between the militants, the oil companies and the Nigerian military, which on some levels seems rather too friendly for purported enemies.

In a later post, they report that the top positions of the Niger Delta quango – the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC) may not be appointed without the approval of former President Obasanjo. However on 31 May, the blog reports that it will be ‘scaling down its operations for security reasons’.

Throwing more light on this decision, the publisher/editor-in-chief, Mr. Chidi Anthony Opara told one of our network members in Owerri that, ‘It has become necessary to scale down our operations because of the need to protect our network members and contacts, most of whom the security agencies I learnt, have started closing in on.’

Nigerian Curiosity comments on the current ‘fuel crisis and resulting violence in the Niger Delta’. It is not clear but I don’t believe there is a direct correlation between the two. However s/he states:

‘Civil society and ordinary individuals bemoaned the current fuel shortage and groups like the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) took to the streets in protest. The government soon reached out to explain that the shortages stemmed from its attempts to fight the “cabals” (or oil mafia, as some refer to those in control of illegal bunkering) and even the NLC gave some limited/temporary support of the government's efforts.’

This implies that the decision to invade the Warri South West was in order to put a stop to oil bunkering in the area. However as Nigerian Curiosity points out – their are many players in the oil bunkering business – government officials, the military, international business and some of the militants and considers that the focus on MEND is a ‘distraction’.
I strongly believe that just as the government has chosen to put on a show of proving that it will root out militants, it must show the people that it will root out those in control of illegal bunkering, and by that, I mean the domestic and international interests who directly impact and control fuel supply in the country.

Personally, I cannot help but wonder if this war with MEND, at this particular time, is not a diversionary tactic to confuse the issues.

Waffarian has an angry post in which she criticises the Nigerian press for the failure to comment or even report on the attacks and the general lack of interest from the Nigerian public.

‘WHAT IS THE NIGERIAN PRESS DOING? NOBODY KNOWS WHAT IS HAPPENING. IS DELTA STATE NOT A PART OF NIGERIA? WHY IS NOBODY COVERING THIS FUCKING OFFENSIVE THAT THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT HAS EMBARKED ON? WHY DOESN'T ANYBODY KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING? WHY DOESN'T ANYBODY KNOW ANYTHING?

WHY ARE PEOPLE NOT TALKING ABOUT THIS?

WHY DOES NOBODY CARE?

I DON'T GET IT. WHY ARE PEOPLE IN OTHER PARTS OF NIGERIA NOT CONCERNED? I DON'T GET IT...’

Nigeria Whats New? informs us that in February this year, President Yar’Adua made a promise to the UN Human Rights Council that he would not engage in any military action in the Niger Delta for ‘risk of loss of innocent lives’. However he has ignored his promise and now thousands of civilians are under fire.

Civilians are now bearing the brunt of this violence as thousands of villagers displaced and thousands more trapped in the cross fire. Scenes of the unthinkable, Biafra? Former President Obasanjo wrote the militants off as thugs and criminals but now, a war has broken out against the so-called freedom fighters who insist that the region should control its resources totally. The federal government is blaming among many the collaboration of foreign business. There are many questions about this war.

Black Looks also has a number of reports and commentary on the latest military attack against Nigerian people. In ‘Back to the Future’ she reports the statement by Senator from Kebbe, Mohammed Ibn N’Allah, who said 20 million Niger Deltans are expendable in order to save Nigeria.

‘What is happening in the Niger Delta is pure criminality of the highest order, arising from total disregard for constituted authority. In Iraq, thousands of people lost their lives because of an insurrection against the government during the reign of former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein. We can do away with 20 million militants for the rest 120 million Nigerians to live.’

In ‘Truths and Untruths’ she writes:

‘My thoughts are that instead of focusing on the militants, lets look at the Nigerian military state and try and discern a more truthful perspective. What is their record in the Niger Delta? Umuechem October/November 1990; Ilaje community in 1998 (the case against Chevron which took place in December last year); Oleh, Ozoro, and Olomoro towns in Isokoland in 1999; Ogoni between 1990 through to the judicial murder of the ‘Ogoni 9’ in November 1995; Kaiama and Odi towns in January and November 1999; the rape of women by soldiers in Choba (Ikwerre) in 1999; the attacks on communities in Delta state by the Nigerian military on behalf of Chevron in 2002.

These attacks took place before militants took up arms at least on the present scale. The rhetoric coming from the Nigerian military state and its leaders including those in the Niger Delta states is that the militants are a threat to the security and sustainability of Nigeria. But if we are truthful we find that the danger actually comes from the militarisation of Nigeria’s governance, which is only thinly veiled by the second civilian republic. Human rights abuses and collective punishment together with the ongoing partnership between the military state and multinational corporations are a threat to us all. Who knows when it will be your community that is attacked with such wanton display of power and guns.

* Sokari Ekine blogs at Black Looks.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

China- Africa watch news roundup

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/56800

Sanusha Naidu compiles a list of the top stories on Sino-African relations.
[urll=http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3665:chinese-money-kills-democracy&catid=34:news&Itemid=59/]Chinese money kills democracy[/url]
Development aid from authoritarian regimes :An (iron) fistful of help
What China’s Economic Growth Means for the Global Environment
Ethiopian rebels threaten foreign oil companies
The Ultimate Guide to BRIC ETFs
New GRAIN land grab website
Massive sale of Ethiopian farms lands to Chinese and Arabs
Chinese Darfur envoy meets Sudan's Bashir
India to take part in Egypt NAM summit
China Has No Plans to Alter $9 Billion Congolese Deal (Update2)
African Adventure: After Kenya, Essar Telecom Goes To Uganda
Green rules eye Chinese firms abroad
In rural China, a bumper crop of new car owners
China's Contribution to UN Peacekeeping Grows
Made in China, in Africa
Food security or economic slavery?
Foreign investors eye Angola
Gulf investment offers hope for Africa
Chinese Engagement In Nigeria Would Aid The Industrialisation Of The Country'
Mitigating Debt Bomb for Chinese Local Governments
Agricultural Bank of China Plans US, UK Branches
India's Bharti mum on MTN shareholder call
China bank to finance Mozambique?s 1,500-MW Mphanda Nkuwa
India-Nigeria Business Forum to boost trade and investment
Rio Tinto walks away from Chinalco deal
China at the Crossroads

Global: China Dialogue announces new US director

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/56790

Chinadialogue.net, the bilingual Chinese-English website on environment and climate, is delighted to welcome Linden Ellis as United States project director. Linden Ellis will be based in San Francisco and will guide China Dialogue’s future US operations and development. Linden Ellis will be building on the achievements of Kate Cheney-Davidson, China Dialogue’s first US editor.
China Dialogue announces new US director.
June 03, 2009

chinadialogue.net, the bilingual Chinese-English website on environment and climate, is delighted to welcome Linden Ellis as United States project director. Linden Ellis will be based in San Francisco and will guide China Dialogue’s future US operations and development.

Linden Ellis will be building on the achievements of Kate Cheney-Davidson, China Dialogue’s first US editor.

China Dialogue’s founder and CEO, Isabel Hilton said:

“Kate Cheney-Davidson has done a wonderful job of establishing and building China Dialogue’s presence in the US. Her dedication and enterprise have been an inspiration to all her colleagues and we are deeply grateful to her for her contribution to China Dialogue in our critical formative years. We are delighted that she will remain with us in her capacity as a board member.”

“We are also delighted that Linden Ellis will be taking the reins. Linden comes to us from the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC where she has worked closely with Jennifer Turner, a leading expert in the field. Her commitment to, and knowledge of, the issues and the people are outstanding. We look forward to working with Linden on the next phase of developing China Dialogue as the key platform for exchanging ideas and building dialogue and cooperation between China and the world on critical issues of environment and climate change.”

British Embassy says sanctions do not target ordinary Zimbabweans

2009-06-05

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news040609/britembassy040609.htm

The British Embassy has responded to an article published by the state controlled Herald Newspaper, which claimed the UK government had to ‘airlift’ destitute British pensioners from Zimbabwe because western sanctions had destroyed the economy. The Embassy said it was disappointed that The Herald continues to ‘peddle gross distortions and misinformation’.

COMESA mulls rescue package for Zimbabwe

2009-06-05

http://zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=5664

Africa's COMESA trade bloc is preparing a financial rescue package for Zimbabwe to help the southern African nation to rebuild its shattered economy, a senior official has said. Finance ministers from Africa's largest trading bloc met to discuss the package ahead of a heads of state summit this weekend in the Zimbabwean resort town of Victoria Falls, said Chungu Mwila, COMESA's director of investment promotion.

Mugabe acrimony over, says Tsvangirai

2009-06-05

http://zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=5667

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has told the BBC the "acrimony is over" between him and President Robert Mugabe. He made the remarks ahead of a tour of Europe and the US to garner support for his country's four-month-old power-sharing government. He is to meet UK PM Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama, among others.

Zimbabwe to use SA rand permanently

2009-06-05

http://www.africanews.com/site/Zimbabwe_to_use_SA_rand_permanently/list_messages/25209

Zimbabwe's minister of finance, Tendai Biti, has announced that the fragile government of that country is considering the idea of using the South African rand as it's permanent official currency. "We are looking at various avenues and the adoption of the rand is likelihood," he said.

AU Monitor

2009-06-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/aumonitor/56853

Africa: Africa steps up the fight against maternal and child deaths

2009-06-05

http://www.worldywca.org/women_s_news/articles/africa_fight_against_maternal_deaths

The very survival of women and children in Africa may depend on the newly-launched Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA). According to latest estimates by the African Union (AU), over the next ten years there will be 2.5 million maternal deaths, another 2.5 million child deaths and 49 million maternal disabilities in Africa alone if urgent actions are not taken.

Africa: Revitalising underutilised family planning methods

2009-06-05

http://www.comminit.com/en/node/282906/cchangepicks/

This series of seven 8-page briefs, all with the title "Revitalizing Underutilized FP Methods", looks at how the ACQUIRE Project (which stands for Access, Quality, and Use in Reproductive Health) integrated various communication strategies to stimulate authentic community demand for the intrauterine device (IUD) and vasectomy in seven countries – Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Honduras, Kenya, and Uganda.

Cameroon: Bringing rape out of the shadows

2009-06-05

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84670

Talk openly about rape. That is the gist of a new campaign in Cameroon, where according to a study an estimated 432,000 women and girls have been raped in the past 20 years. Some 200 rape survivors gathered on 28 May in the capital Yaoundé, several of the women and girls telling their stories during the campaign’s opening ceremony.

DRC: 3-year old rape victim dies - UN

2009-06-05

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE5540GH20090605

A three-year-old girl has died after being raped by a rebel fighter in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where armed forces are committing increasing numbers of sexual attacks, a United Nations spokeswoman said on Friday.

DRC: Mining interests tied to rape impunity

2009-06-05

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/4029

The period from 1998 to 2003 is known in the Democratic Republic of Congo as The Great War of Africa, Africa's World War and the Second Congo War. Militias and armies from eight neighboring nations plundered the country's eastern provinces in a quest to control copper, gold, diamonds, tin and other high-value minerals to supply India and China's booming markets.

Kenya: Painful tradeoffs

Intimate-partner violence and sexual and reproductive health rights in Kenya

2009-06-05

http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3200

How does intimate-partner violence affect Kenyan women's rights? How can the government, NGOs, and the legal and healthcare systems support abused women? This paper from the Institute of Development Studies explores links between intimate-partner violence and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) rights in Nairobi. Significant gaps exist between formal legal rights and the realities experienced by individuals. Legal reform, improved services for affected women and better coordination among service providers are required.

South Africa: Report shows women migrants continue to live in fear

Romi Sigsworth

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/56761

It has been just over a year since the few weeks of seeming madness in May 2008, when xenophobic violence broke out across South Africa, shocking the nation and attracting international condemnation. However, migrant women in South Africa consider that period as an example, albeit extreme, of what they experience in their daily lives as foreigners in South Africa. Research recently conducted by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) on migrant women in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban – before, during and after the xenophobic attacks in May 2008 – found migrant women’s daily experiences of xenophobia far-reaching.
It has been just over a year since the few weeks of seeming madness in May 2008, when xenophobic violence broke out across South Africa, shocking the nation and attracting international condemnation. However, migrant women in South Africa consider that period as an example, albeit extreme, of what they experience in their daily lives as foreigners in South Africa.

Research recently conducted by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) on migrant women in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban – before, during and after the xenophobic attacks in May 2008 – found migrant women’s daily experiences of xenophobia far-reaching. While both men and women experience some forms of xenophobia - such as lack of housing, healthcare and unemployment, as well as discrimination at the hands of the police and the Department of Home Affairs – some manifestations of xenophobia are particularly gendered.

Foreign migrant women are often more visible, and therefore more vulnerable to exploitation and xenophobia, through various “markers of difference” that set them apart from South Africans, including language, accents, traditional clothing, and cultural practices.

Perhaps most disturbing was the reaction of nurses in a local hospital to a migrant woman giving birth and on whom female circumcision had been performed. The nurses called their colleagues to come over and look at the woman’s genitalia, all the while asking, while the woman was in labour, “What is wrong with this lady? What happened to her?” The migrant woman became a spectacle; her anatomical differences, rather than her welfare, had the attention of the nurses, exacerbating the woman’s discomfort and humiliating her in the process.

The CSVR study found that many foreign women become silent as a measure of safety, choosing not to speak in public for fear of identification as foreign. Migrant women also often have a particular style of dressing that is culturally important to them, which they change as a survival strategy. As one woman explained, “We change our behaviour just to be like the people we live together with here. Because we thought if we continue to dress the same way we did in our country, the people will segregate us.”

As society generally considers women traditional bearers of culture, identity and belonging becomes a distinctly gendered problem for women migrants. Migrant women express a great need to preserve their identity after losing so much through their displacement. However, holding onto their “distinguishing” identity impedes their integration into their new communities.

In many cases, the inability to return home (because of ongoing conflict, violence or political oppression) coupled with the inability to fully and successfully integrate locally means that migrant women feel caught between two systems, unable to fully belong to or identify with either of them.

A sense of safety or insecurity often follows one’s sense of identity and belonging; migrant women in this study spoke of their continual fear, and consequent loss of freedom, in South Africa. Some felt that the only way for them to keep safe was to stay at home, thereby avoiding any interaction with South Africans.

A woman migrant’s relationship with her family also renders her experience of displacement very different to a man’s. Women migrants often face long periods of separation from loved ones, for reasons of family support, security, practicality and even education, resulting in an intense sense of loss.

The impact of xenophobia on children is a primary concern for mothers. Many women cite examples of xenophobic threats or attacks on their children. Mothers felt unable to protect their children from the fear and trauma of these attacks, making them feel derelict in their duties as mothers and powerless to save their children from harm.

Moreover, children noticed the attitudes and attacks directed at their parents and families, and felt the weight and threat of this discrimination. One respondent told CSVR of coming home during the xenophobic attacks in May, greeted by her son with the words, “Mummy you are not dead.”

Women migrants also tend to carry the burden of caring for their families, which, as illustrated above, entails not only economic support, but also psychological and emotional support. The weight of economic responsibility is immense, especially in a context where migrant women struggle to find work amidst widespread discriminatory attitudes and practices.

The power imbalances inherent in any male-female relationship are worse in situations where women are more vulnerable; in this case, migrant women are particularly vulnerable to abuse, not only from South African men, but also from their own husbands. The migrant women in this study explained that in their home countries, cultural laws, families and the community can protect women.

Migrant women often start working and have their own money for the first time. Their husbands can find this situation unfamiliar and threatening, which can result in domestic violence and/or separation. There is little community or family protection for migrant women in South Africa and, because of the inaccessibility of the police, there is no system to report violence against them, making them vulnerable to ongoing intimate partner violence.

As well, many migrant women felt sexually preyed upon by South African men, who exploited their vulnerability as foreign women in an unfamiliar context, often in risky employment, without recourse to the law, and without community support and protection.

Migrant women are, however, surprisingly resilient, clearly evident in their efforts to earn an honest living, educate their children, and provide for their families. Many relatively well-educated migrant women had worked as car-guards in order to make ends meet; some using these earning for further education or to start their own business.

In addition, migrant women employ a variety of coping mechanisms to make life bearable in South Africa. These included belonging to religious groups, as well as family and friends, and support groups accessed through migrant organisations.

Their resilience in the face of such hardship and within such an unforgiving context pays tribute to the strength and perseverance of migrant women in South Africa, despite all the odds.

* Romi Sigsworth is a Senior Researcher with the Gender-Based Violence Programme of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

*The full research report is available from http://www.csvr.org.za or Sufiya Bray sbray@csvr.org.za This article is part of the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service.

Uganda: Physician-lawmaker moves to criminalize FGM

2009-06-05

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/4026/context/cover/

After 500 young women in Uganda endured genital mutilations in the most recent season for the initiation rite, a physician lawmaker here is optimistic about outlawing the practice this year and finding new income for traditional surgeons.

DRC: Human rights defenders under threat - UN

2009-06-05

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31011

An independent United Nations expert has called on the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to protect human rights workers and prosecute those who threaten or attack them. Human rights defenders, including lawyers and members of non-governmental organizations, “face illegitimate restrictions of their right to core freedoms, i.e. freedoms of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association,” said Margaret Sekaggya, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights.

Global: Respect and rights for domestic workers

2009-06-05

http://en.domesticworkerrights.org/?q=node/39

By 2011, the International Labour Organisation will adopt an international standard listing the rights of domestic workers. Domestic/household workers want the right to be treated properly as workers. An ILO Convention would be an important step forward.

Kenya: Reparation for the Mau Mau now!

Online petition

2009-06-05

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/www-khrc-or-ke

The Kenya Human Rights Commission has now documented 40 cases of castration, severe sexual abuses and unlawful detention, which were carried out by officers of the British Government. The actual number of Kenyans who suffered this barbaric treatment at the hands of British officers in fact runs into their thousands. In recent years, following exhaustive research by historians, it has become clear that far from being the acts of a few rogue soldiers, the torture and inhuman and degrading treatment of Kenyans during the Emergency Period (1950s to early 1960s) resulted from policies which were sanctioned at the highest levels of Government in London.

Nigeria: Another delay in the Wiwa v. Shell trial– what does it mean?

2009-06-05

http://tinyurl.com/mrydfe

There has been another delay in the Wiwa v. Shell trial, causing teeth-gnashing by journalists who have dedicated resources to cover the trial, hand-wringing by Ogoni people and human rights & environmental justice supporters worldwide, and head-scratching by nearly everyone else following along.

Nigeria: Old law exhumed by human rights fighters

2009-06-04

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3d93c1a0-493f-11de-9e19-00144feabdc0.html

As Ken Saro-Wiwa stood before the hangman’s noose in Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s oil capital, he spoke not just of his imminent death but also of the campaign against Royal Dutch Shell that had won him international attention. Sentenced to death after a deeply flawed trial, he had come to be seen as a martyr by those opposing alleged abuses involving the oil industry in his country. According to fellow activists, his last words before his execution were: “Lord, take my soul but the struggle continues.”

Chad: Darfur refugees to receive identity cards under UN-backed scheme

2009-06-05

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30994

Some 110,000 Sudanese refugees over the age of 18 in eastern Chad will receive identity cards under a new programme launched with the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “The ID cards are the equivalent of a ‘refugee passport’ allowing free movement within the host country and providing access to some basic services in line with the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention,” agency spokesperson Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva.

Kenya: Relieve Somali refugee crisis

2009-06-05

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/06/04/kenya-relieve-somali-refugee-crisis

The Kenyan government should rapidly fulfill its February 2009 pledge to provide more land for its mushrooming Somali refugee population, and donors should step up their financial support for the refugee camps, Human Rights Watch has said. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced four months ago that Prime Minister Raila Odinga of Kenya had made a commitment to provide land to help relieve congestion in three chronically overcrowded camps near Dadaab in northeastern Kenya. But the Kenyan government has yet to make any land available.

Kenya: Trapped in a metropolis of suffering

2009-06-05

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,626958,00.html

The Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, home to 270,000 Somali refugees, is the world's largest. Created 18 years ago as a stopgap, new fighting is driving thousands of additional refugees into the already overcrowded, overstretched camp.

Nigeria: The case against Shell: the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa

2009-06-05

http://tinyurl.com/o2w6q2

Almost a fifth of the oil imported by the U.S. comes from Africa, and in the decade to come this percentage will rise. The eastern part of Nigeria, from which Big Oil has pumped more than a trillion dollars worth of black gold since the 1960s, remains the poorest part of the country, and one of the most ravaged and polluted on earth. Thousands of gas flares have burned for decades, generating acid rains that have poisoned fisheries and crops.

Zimbabwe: ZADHR Chairperson wins award

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/socialmovements/56798

ZADHR is proud to announce that its Chairperson, Dr Douglas Gwatidzo, is the winner of the 2009 Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights. The Global Health Council selected Dr. Gwatidzo as the winner from the nominees for 2009 in recognition of his and ZADHR's work to advocate for health rights and freedom from torture in Zimbabwe.
ZADHR Chairperson, Dr. Douglas Gwatidzo wins the 2009 Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights

ZADHR is proud to announce that its Chairperson, Dr Douglas Gwatidzo, is the winner of the 2009 Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights.
The Global Health Council selected Dr. Gwatidzo as the winner from the nominees for 2009 in recognition of his and ZADHR’s work to advocate for health rights and freedom from torture in Zimbabwe. The Global Health Council also commended the support that Dr Gwatidzo and other members of ZADHR have provided to beleaguered fellow health workers in Zimbabwe’s collapsed health system, mentoring of young medical students and providing medical documentation and care for victims of organised violence and torture.

The prestigious Award is named after the late Jonathan Mann, a dedicated health and human rights activist, who died in a plane crash in 1998. It is bestowed annually to a leading practitioner in health and human rights and comes with a financial reward. The Award was presented to Dr Gwatidzo at a special Awards Ceremony held during the Global Health Council’s Annual Conference on 28 May 2009.

Africa: Africa labour news roundup

to follow

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/labour/56821

Guinea-Bissau: Candidate shot dead

2009-06-05

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8084525.stm

The security forces in Guinea-Bissau have shot dead a minister and candidate in this month's presidential elections. The authorities say Baciro Dabo died in an exchange of fire when he resisted arrest over an alleged coup plot. But his supporters say he was asleep next to his wife when men in uniform burst into his house at 0400 local time (and GMT) and shot him several times.

Madagascar: Ex-leader rejects jail sentence

2009-06-05

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE5540CB20090605

Madagascar's former leader Marc Ravalomanana rejected on Friday the jail sentence against him for abuse of office and accused the country's army-backed government of flouting rule of law. Exiled in South Africa, Ravalomanana called on the Malagasy people to unite in rejecting the leadership of new incumbent Andry Rajoelina, who led weeks of popular protests against him earlier this year and seized power with military

Liberia: Aid workers 'stole $1m'

2009-06-05

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8084477.stm

A US-based international Christian relief organisation says it believes more than 90% of its aid to Liberia went missing in a massive fraud scam. World Vision's Vice-President Geoff Ward told the BBC the losses came to more than $1m and pledged to make "every effort" to avoid a repeat. A former senior World Vision official in Liberia and two other workers have been charged over the alleged fraud.

Africa: African economist calls for less African aid

2009-06-05

http://www.pri.org/business/Global-Development/less-african-aid.html

Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo argues that stopping most aid to Africa would spur economic growth. Even in the middle of this financial crisis, President Obama and other world leaders still find money in their budgets for foreign aid. In fact, some would argue it’s vital to continue giving financial aid to poor countries at a time such as this. Dambisa Moyo goes the other way.

Côte d’Ivoire: Crisis runs deeper than elections

2009-06-05

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84698

“The crisis in Côte d’Ivoire is deeper than elections,” according to Patrick N’Gouan, national coordinator of a civil society coalition. “Too many people do not eat their fill, cannot educate their children and cannot access health care. All the social and economic indicators have plummeted… We cannot solve all of Côte d’Ivoire’s problems with just politics – and yet this has been the focus of everyone’s energy and resources for the past few years. Meanwhile the people have been sacrificed,” N’Gouan told IRIN on 2 June.

Global: IMF doubles lending to Africa

2009-06-05

http://www.afrol.com/articles/33455

As a response to the global crisis and an increased capital basis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already more than doubled its lending to Africa this year compared to the record year of 2008. The Fund accepts less security, larger budget deficits but also demands shorter repayment terms. At a 'Lending for Africa' seminar at IMF headquarters in Washington this week, the Fund's Senior Advisor Roger Nord revealed that record lending programmes had already been initiated. IMF funding for Africa was on a steep rise since the global crisis had started.

South Africa: Visa waiver 'encumbering Zimbabwean trade'

2009-06-05

http://www.ipsterraviva.net/europe/article.aspx?id=7439

The South African government's removal of visa requirements for Zimbabweans in April was aimed at easing entry for people still reeling from the crisis in Zimbabwe. But, for Alice Kakwindi, Grace Chimhosva and other cross-border traders, entering South Africa has subsequently turned into a nightmare. On the two occasions that they have visited South Africa's border town of Musina since the relaxation of visa requirements, they spent on average 16 hours trying to clear their goods at the Beitbridge border post.

Southern Africa: South Africa ready to tighten screws as EU trade row turns ugly

2009-06-05

http://www.tralac.org/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_news_item&news_id=67686

South Africa was prepared to set up trade barriers with Botswana, Lesotho Mozambique and Swaziland to stop a flood of cheap imports entering the country. Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies sounded the warning after SA’s neighbours broke ranks and signed trade deals in the form of an interim economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU).

Global: Governments need graphic warnings on tobacco packets - WHO

2009-06-05

http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20032327

The World Health Organisation has called for governments to require all tobacco packets to have pictures showing the dangers of tobacco use. According to the WHO website tobacco is the only legalised product that kills when consumed as the manufacture intended. Tobacco has lead to more than five million preventable deaths every year – making tobacco a far worse killer than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

South Africa: TB vaccine trials for babies

2009-06-05

http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84693

A new trial to test the efficacy of a tuberculosis (TB) booster shot for babies is about to start in South Africa, but when your subjects are too young to eat solids, the challenge rises to a new level. Almost 2,800 infants will participate in the two-year trial, in which researchers from the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) hope to prove that a new vaccine can act as a booster shot to improve the efficacy of the only existing inoculation against TB, the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, in use for nearly 90 years.

Zambia: Over 3000 children diagnosed with HIV in Lusaka

2009-06-05

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/5727979B-DD27-4949-9BAE-3D47A6F462B5.asp

Implementing a policy of routine opt-out HIV testing led to the diagnosis of 3000 HIV infections in children admitted to hospital in Lusaka over an 18-month period, investigators report in a study published in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

South Africa: Rape of gay man sparks protest

2009-06-05

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=southafrica&id=2153

Trial for a rape case of a gay man known only as Luanda will be heard on 22 June this year following its postponement on Friday 29 May as two of the three accused did not pitch up. On Friday members of the Western Cape End Hate Alliance gathered outside the Blue Downs Magistrate Court to protest against this homophobic attack and to offer support to the victim. Luanda was allegedly raped and left in the ditch of his eMfuleni township home on 26 April last year.

Uganda: Anti-gay trio declares war on homosexuals

2009-06-05

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=uganda&id=2155

The fight against gay church leaders is on in Uganda, led by top anti-gay Pastors Martin Sempa, Solomon Male and Michael Kyazze. According to media reports these Pastors say they have received about 150 complaints from alleged sodomy victims who claim to have been abused by a number of church leaders.

West Africa: Another blow for Gambian homosexuals

2009-06-05

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=gambia&id=2154

President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia has once again denounced homosexuality at a recent tour in Banjul, suggesting that the practice will not be tolerated in that country. The Gambian President made these remarks at the end of his People’s Tour held in Banjul at the Arch 22nd, an arch built to mark the rise of President Jammeh and his victory which put an end to the democratically elected government in Gambia in 1996.

Africa: New report casts doubt over jatropha

2009-06-05

http://tinyurl.com/oo5x7w

Biofuels produced from the crop jatropha may be competing with food production for land and water, according to a new report released by two Friends of the Earth groups as the Jatropha World Summit begins in Ghana. The report – “Jatropha – wonder crop?” – investigates claims made by UK biofuels company D1 Oils about jatropha.

Global: World Environment Day 2009

2009-06-05

http://www.unep.org/wed/2009/english/content/about.asp

World Environment Day (WED) was established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Commemorated yearly on 5 June, WED is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.

Kenya: Ogiek tribe to become ‘conservation refugees’

2009-06-05

http://www.survival-international.org/news/4621

The hunter-gatherer Ogiek tribe of Kenya could become the latest in the world’s growing tide of ‘conservation refugees’ if Kenya’s government acts on its threat to evict them from their land in the name of conservation. The Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga have said that their government plans to remove the Ogiek from their ancestral land in the Mau forest.

South Africa: Biowatch beats Monsanto!

2009-06-05

http://www.biowatch.org.za/main.asp?show=66

Constitutional Court Justice Albie Sachs has handed down judgment in the Biowatch case. Calling the case “a matter of great interest to thelegal profession, the general public, and bodies concerned with public interest litigation”, Justice Sachs set aside the costs order awarded against Biowatch in favour of Monsanto and further awarded legal costs in the High Court hearings in favour of Biowatch and against the state. The bench of eleven judges was unanimous in its decision.

Africa: Congo delays South Africa farm deal

2009-06-05

http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?ArticleId=1518-25_2524795

The Republic of Congo will delay finalising a multi-million hectare land deal with South African farmers until after a planned July presidential election, Congo Republic's minister of agriculture said. AgriSA, South Africa's main farmers union, has said it had been given tax breaks and rent-free access to arable, poultry and dairy farming on 10 million hectares of Congolese land for 99 years in what would be one of the largest such deals in Africa.

Global: GRAIN launches new website

2009-06-05

http://www.grain.org/nfg/?id=658

GRAIN has launched a new website that offers the most comprehensive information tool on the global land grab for outsourced food production:
http://farmlandgrab.org This new site is an improved version of the site initiated by GRAIN last year, which provides an open, up-to-date and easy to search library of over 800 articles, interviews and reports on farm land grabs around the world published since the outbreak of the food crisis in 2008.

Africa: Green Revolution 'a failure in Africa'

2009-06-05

http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2424

The global food crisis and how to stop hunger from escalating in the midst of the current economic crisis will be the subject of a recent G8 meeting of Agricultural ministers in Treviso, Italy. For now, the G8 and the United States continue to advocate the same disastrous policies that got us into the current mess where 1 billion people lack access to adequate food.

Global: Crossroads at carthage: last chance for the FAO seed treaty?

2009-06-05

http://tinyurl.com/mzh3xx

En route to the twin summits at the end of the year— the food crisis summit in Rome in November, and the climate crisis summit to be held in Copenhagen in December— the meeting of the FAO Seed Treaty (ITPGRFA) is at the critical nexus of the international community’s ability to respond to the food and climate crises.

Global: Tell US Congress not to force GE crops on other countries

2009-06-05

http://oaklandinstitute.org/voicesfromafrica/node/22

An effort to fight global poverty and hunger may become a Trojan horse to force genetically engineered crops on countries and farmers that do not want them. In the Senate, Senators Bob Casey (D-Penn.) and Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) introduced the Global Food Security Act, which increases funding for agricultural research in the developing world, and a companion bill in the House of Representatives is expected to be introduced soon.

Southern Africa: Feeling more food secure

2009-06-05

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84730

Southern Africa's food security has "greatly improved", according to the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS-NET), and unofficial estimates predict a better cereal harvest than last year. "The total regional deficit for the 2009/10 marketing year is projected to be much lower [two million metric tons] than last year [2008], due to improved harvests, especially of maize, particularly in Malawi and Zambia," said the May issue of the FEWS-NET bulletin.

Africa: MRA's Executive Director elected head of IFEX

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/56852

The Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Mr. Edetaen Ojo, has been elected Convenor of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), the largest network of freedom of expression organizations in the world. As Convenor, he chairs the 13-member IFEX Council, the governing body of the Network elected by the general membership.
The Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Mr. Edetaen Ojo, has been elected Convenor of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), the largest network of freedom of expression organizations in the world. As Convenor, he chairs the 13-member IFEX Council, the governing body of the Network elected by the general membership.

Mr. Carlos Cortés, Director of the Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (Foundation for Press Freedom, FLIP) in Bogotá, Colombia, was also elected Deputy Convenor at the General Meeting of IFEX which took place in Oslo, Norway, on June 1 and 2.

The meeting took place as part of the Global Forum on Free Expression (GFFE), which brought together more than 500 journalists, free expression activists and writers in a week-long programme scheduled to end on June 6.

Mr. Ojo won a seat on the IFEX Council, along with six others members, at the council elections held at the meeting after which the new Council elected him Convenor by a unanimous vote to serve a term of two years.

He succeeds Ms Karin Deutsch Karlekar, Managing Editor of the Freedom of the Press Index and Global Internet Freedom Index at Freedom House in New York in the United States, who was first elected as IFEX Convenor in Brussels, Belgium in 2006 and re-elected for another term in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 2007.

Besides Mr. Ojo and Mr. Cortés, other members of the new IFEX Council are: Mr. Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), based in Brussels, Belgium; Ms Aleida Calleja, Deputy President of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), who is based in Mexico; Mr. Joel Simon, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), New York in the United States; Mr. Rohan Jayasekera, Associate Editor of Index on Censorship, London in the United Kingdom; and Ms Barbara Trionfi, Press Freedom Adviser for Asia, Australasia and The Caribbean at the International Press Institute (IPI).

Others are Mr. Arnold Amber, President, Board of Directors of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) in Toronto, Canada; Ms Melinda Quintos de Jesus, Executive Director of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) in the Philippines; Ms Sihem Bensedrine, Secretary General of Observatoire pour la liberté de presse, d'édition et de création (OLPEC) in Tunisia; Mr. Matai Akauola, Manager and Training Coordinator at the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) in the Fiji Islands; Mr. Owais Aslam Ali, Secretary General of the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) in Karachi, Pakistan; and Mr. Eko Item Maryadi, a member of the Advocacy Division at Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (the Alliance of Independent Journalists, AJI) in Jakarta, Indonesia.

IFEX was formed in 1992 in Montréal, Canada, when leading free expression organisations in the world came together to create a mechanism that would improve cooperation, allow for the rapid exchange of information and facilitate joint campaigns on free expression issues. IFEX now has 88 member organisations operating in more than 50 countries.

For further information, please contact:


Ayode Longe
Senior Programme Officer
Media Rights Agenda
Ikeja. Lagos.
Tel: 01 4936033 & 4936034
Fax: 01 4930831
Mobile: 0802 329 8628
E-mail: ayode@mediarightsagenda.org

Ghana: Ruling party distances itself from attack on radio station

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/56792

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) on June 2, 2009, officially denied any involvement of its members in the recent vandalisation of privately-owned Techiman-based Classic FM in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. The regional chairman of NDC, John Owusu Agyeman, told Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) in a telephone interview that no party member took part in the alleged attack on the radio station and therefore called for police investigations into the matter.
Ghana: Ruling party distances itself from attack on radio station

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) on June 2, 2009, officially denied any involvement of its members in the recent vandalisation of privately-owned Techiman-based Classic FM in the Brong Ahafo Region of
Ghana.

The regional chairman of NDC, John Owusu Agyeman, told Media Foundation for
West Africa (MFWA) in a telephone interview that no party member took part
in the alleged attack on the radio station and therefore called for police
investigations into the matter.

MFWA's correspondent on May 28, a group of irate individuals believed to be
NDC supporters stormed Classic FM and injured three people, including two
employees of the station. The incident followed the broadcasting of an
alleged voice recording of Simon Addai, NDC Member of Parliament for
Techiman South constituency. In the playback Addai threatened to 'deal' with
his political opponents, including his recent predecessor for, acts of
corruption.

The correspondent said it took the intervention of the police to save the
station from destruction. The police have launched investigation into the
incident. Supt. S.K. Ntim, has called for more information from the public
to help arrest the perpetrators.

Meanwhile the government has reiterated its commitment to preserve media
freedom. Addressing members of the parliamentary press corps, in Accra,
Zita Okaikwe, Minister for Information, said the NDC government would regard
the media as a partner in development and ensure that press freedom is
guaranteed.

Global: WikiLeaks wins Amnesty 2009 New Media Award

2009-06-05

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/WikiLeaks_wins_Amnesty_International_2009_Media_Award

WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange has won the Amnesty 2009 New Media Award for work exposing hundreds of recent extrajudicial assassinations in Kenya. The award was presented last night at a ceremony in London. Four people associated with investigating the killings have themselves been murdered, including noted human rights lawyers Oscar Kingara and John Paul Oulo, who were assassinated driving to an afternoon meeting at the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights in March.

Kenya: Photojournalist banned by Facebook

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/56757

The first Kenyan photojournalist to win the CNN Multichoice Journalist Award has been banned by social networking site Facebook. Boniface Mwangi who won the CNN Africa Photojournalist of the Year 2008 is starting up a new Facebook profile after his was deleted last week due to his radical status updates. Commenting on the issue he said, “I was removed from Facebook due to controversial updates calling for political change and the youth to stop hero worshiping tribal leaders who have messed up our country.” One of his last comments before his profile was deleted was “Kenyans elect criminals to parliament all you need is money to get elected.” He had over 1,500 friends.
The first Kenyan photojournalist to win the CNN Multichoice Journalist Award has been banned by social networking site Facebook. Boniface Mwangi who won the CNN Africa Photojournalist of the Year 2008 is starting up a new Facebook profile after his was deleted last week due to his radical status updates.

Commenting on the issue he said, “I was removed from Facebook due to controversial updates calling for political change and the youth to stop hero worshiping tribal leaders who have messed up our country.” One of his last comments before his profile was deleted was “Kenyans elect criminals to parliament all you need is money to get elected.” He had over 1,500 friends.

Boniface is known for his crusade against tribal politics. “I see myself as a visual artist using photography as the vehicle for social change in my country, which has experienced a lot of impunity, the latest manifestation being 2007 December’s political convulsions that left over 1,000 dead and half a million displaced.”

Boniface’s post poll chaos photos have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Sunday Times, International Herald Tribune and BBC Focus on Africa Magazine among other publications. Facebook has meanwhile declined to take down several Holocaust denial sites known for their anti- Semitic statements.

Libya: Government nationalises reform media

2009-06-05

http://tinyurl.com/pt6fkt

The Libyan government's decision to nationalise a number of private-owned media outlets a few weeks ago continues to stir reactions in Libya and abroad. The decision, some observers say, deals a blow to the country's attempts to reform. The nationalisation decree included Al Libiya satellite TV channel and Al Libiya and Eman radio stations, as well as Quryna and Oea newspapers, all belonging to Al Ghad Foundation, which is owned by Seif al-Islam Kadhafi, son of Libyan leader Muammar Kadhafi.

Somalia: IFJ condemns kidnapping of media executive

2009-06-05

http://tinyurl.com/qqqr7c

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the kidnapping of Ibrahim Mohammed Ali, also known as Jeekey, the director of Universal television channel based in Garasbaley, Somalia. “We firmly condemn this act of violence which confirms our concern for the safety of our colleagues in Somalia. This climate of terror against the journalists is unacceptable,” declared Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ Africa Office. “Remedial measures are needed urgently to address the situation in this country where journalists continue to pay a heavy price only for doing their work”.

Sudan: Journalists protest press law before parliament

2009-06-05

http://www.ifex.org/sudan/2009/06/03/press_law/

Sudan's draft press law will seriously impede journalists' ability to access and disseminate information if passed, say Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). ARTICLE 19 and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) have also expressed concern about the repressive provisions of the draft.

Guadeloupe: Demand for support for the independence struggle of the Guadeloupe people

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/diaspora/56751

Felix Alain Flémin, secretary general of the Guadeloupe Communist Party (GCP) has called for international solidarity in support of the struggle for independence and self-determination of the people of those Caribbean islands under French colonial dominion. “We are a nation whose right to self-determination is not recognized by France. We are looking for international support for the islands to return to the UN list of colonial territories”, stated Flémin during a visit to OSPAAAL headquarters.
Felix Alain Flémin, secretary general of the Guadeloupe Communist Party (GCP) has called for international solidarity in support of the struggle for independence and self-determination of the people of those Caribbean islands under French colonial dominion.

“We are a nation whose right to self-determination is not recognized by France. We are looking for international support for the islands to return to the UN list of colonial territories”, stated Flémin during a visit to OSPAAAL headquarters. Guadeloupe, a small archipelago of the Antilles located some 600 km from the South American coasts, was occupied by French troops in 1635 after an extermination war against its native population, the Caribbean Indians. In 1947 the French government succeeded in erasing it from the list of non autonomous (colonial) territories worked out by the United Nations General Assembly and turned it into an overseas department of the French Republic.

“France tries to make believe that Guadeloupe is not a colony but a French department. Our people has never been consulted about its political status and therefore has not been able to exert its right to self-determination”, underlined Flémin before a large group of representatives of organizations and political parties accredited inCuba. He denounced that in the face of the growing nationalist feeling of the population, which is rebelling with increasing force against the “unbearable economic exploitation” to which it is being submitted, France pretends to replace the present population by Frenchmen in order to ensure its permanent dominion of the territory. He explained that the infrastructure is that of a modern, developed country, but it is controlled by France and its inhabitants do not enjoy the same privileges of the French people. “As part of that strategy of assimilation, the French are acquiring large extensions of land and other important properties”, he pointed out. We fight against a brutal assimilation policy. They tell us “you do not exist as people from Guadeloupe, you exist as French people”. They try to frighten the people telling them they would lose the small or alleged privileges granted by the colonial system, asserted the leader, who took up the GCP leadership in February 2008.

He highlighted the protests that shook the colonial power in Guadeloupe and Martinique –a neighboring island also ruled by France– which, though motivated mainly by economic claims, could contribute to a favorable climate for the cause of independence in the present circumstances. He denounced that the situation in the island is still tense because the French authorities have ignored the agreements reached with representatives of trade unions and other organizations that took part in the actions, and strikes and protests –though still isolated– are reappearing throughout the territory.

We cannot assure that a pre-revolutionary situation exists. We try to create awareness of the need to fight for autonomy, a stage previous to independence. We try to make the people understand that they should not expect any positive change within the present colonial status”, explained the leader. Flémin, who visited Cubaaccompanied by Galou Lafond, GCP Foreign Affairs secretary, was received at the OSPAAAL offices by Alfonso Fraga, its General Secretary; Lourdes Cervantes, head of the Political Department and Angel Pino, head of the Information Department. Both Fraga and Cervantes underlined the historical links of OSPAAAL with the Caribbean peoples and confirmed their unconditional support and solidarity with the independence and self determination of Guadeloupe and other territories of the region. “There is much political struggle to be developed” stated Cervantes. “We are committed to contribute to the complex decolonization process in the Caribbean and that decision was evidenced in a statement of the organization motivated by the recent protests that took place in Guadeloupe and Martinique”, she emphasized.

Mauritania: Peace pact to be signed Thursday

2009-06-05

http://tinyurl.com/pgof39

The official signing ceremony of the Mauritania peace pact, brokered by African Union Facilitator and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, was postponed from Wednesday to Thursday to give time for the Facilitator to witness the signing, official sources told PANA.

Somalia: Displacement grows rapidly as fighting rages

2009-06-05

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/JBRN-7SQFFH?OpenDocument

The number of Somalis forced from their homes in Mogadishu has now topped 96,000 since the start of fighting between government forces and armed opposition groups on May 8. Out of this latest total of displaced, an estimated 35,000 are still in the city, looking for shelter in more secure areas because they have no means to leave.

Somalia: Rival Somali Muslim groups clash

2009-06-05

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8084872.stm

Heavy fighting has erupted in central Somalia between a pro-government Sufi Muslim group and Islamist hardliners. At least 10 people have been killed in fighting near the town of Webho. The clashes come after the Sufi Ahlu Sunna Waljamea sect pledged to defend President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed at a meeting of moderate Islamic leaders.

Africa: PanAf Project: Phase I National Reports available for download

2009-06-05

http://www.ernwaca.org/panaf/spip.php?article900&id_rubrique=2

The objective of the PanAfrican Research Agenda on the Pedagogical Integration of information and communication technologies is to better understand how the pedagogical integration of ICTs can enhance the quality of teaching and learning in Africa. The national reports from participating countries are now available.

East Africa: Rwanda to Host OLPC Learning Centre for Africa

2009-06-05

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

Rwanda is set to become home to the pilot learning centre for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project in Africa due to its outstanding progress in promoting the child user friendly computer on the continent. The centre to be located at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) to be known as the OLPC Learning Centre will be launched on June 9 and it is aimed at supporting Rwanda achieve its objectives of promoting ICT in Education but also act as a reach out centre for the whole of Africa.

Ethiopia: Study criticises laptops for children scheme

2009-06-05

http://www.scidev.net/en/sub-suharan-africa/news/study-criticises-laptops-for-children-scheme.html

The "One Laptop per Child" (OLPC) scheme, which has sent over a million US$100 laptops to children in the developing world, has been criticised by researchers who found that, unless they are introduced with care, they become little more than distracting toys in the classroom. The study, conducted in Ethiopia, revealed that students wanted more content on the laptops and teachers were not adequately trained on how to make use of them.

Global: Web 2.0 Services 'shutting out developing countries'

2009-06-05

http://appfrica.net/blog/archives/1758

In a particularly infuriating Article, the NewYorkTimes sites developing countries as the toughest places to monetize web traffic for web services like YouTube, Facebook and MySpace. The article makes the argument that countries in South America, parts of Asia and Africa, are particularly hard to monetize due to the increased costs of serving rich media (like video and flash advertisements) to low bandwidth regions of the world.

Africa Synergy newsletter

2009-06-05

http://www.africansynergy.net/

African synergy is focused on facilitating cultural collaboration across Africa - in every way possible. Our goal is to see a decisive break with the legacy of ‘cultural isolation’ between African countries. To this end, we build arts linkages cross Africa - between French, Portuguese and English speaking Africa – the major fault-lines of isolation – as well between the regions of East, West and Southern Africa. African Synergy works through a network of festivals, venues and arts NGOs, comprising 75 cultural operators in 15 countries. We work in partnership.

Africa: Economy and Human Rights, 1

AfricaFocus Bulletin Jun 1, 2009 (090601)

2009-06-05

http://www.africafocus.org/docs09/hr0906a.php

"Our first demand in our new campaign ["Demand Dignity"] is to the G-2 leaders, USA and China. The United States does not accept the notion of economic, social and cultural rights while China does not respect civil and political rights. We call on both governments to sign up to all human rights for all." - Irene Khan, Amnesty International. This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains Ms. Khan's speech at the report launch on May 27, and excerpts from her foreword to the report, which elaborates on the same themes.

Africa: Economy and Human Rights, 2

AfricaFocus Bulletin Jun 1, 2009 (090601)

2009-06-05

http://www.africafocus.org/docs09/hr0906b.php

Amnesty International's report, released in late May, covers economic, social, and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights, stressing the ways in which the global economic recession has exacerbated previously existing patterns of human rights violations. As noted in the launch speech by Amnesty Secretary-General Irene Khan, this marks a new level of emphasis on economic rights for the organization, and is the basis of Amnesty's new global campaign "Demand Dignity."

South Africa: Amandla! News Diary

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/enewsl/56785

The Alternative Information Development Centre (AIDC) is working in partnership with the National Community Radio forum (NCRF) to produce a quarterly Amandla! News Diary. The Diary aims to support community media projects in South Africa to set a progressive news agenda and plan for their current affairs programing/ editorial - supporting them to develop a practice of 'peoples media' rather than aping the commercial and public media (following their stories, angles, and sources).
The Alternative Information Development Centre (AIDC) is working in partnership with the National Community Radio forum (NCRF) to produce a quarterly Amandla! News Diary. The Diary aims to support community media projects in South Africa to set a progressive news agenda and plan for their current affairs programing/ editorial - supporting them to develop a practice of 'peoples media' rather than aping the commercial and public media (following their stories, angles, and sources).

The Diary will contain a calendar of events and commemorations as well as contact detail of relevant sources and will be printed as a poster and sent to all community radio stations (an other media) to display in their newsrooms every 3 months.

Please support this initiative by sending through a list of events/commemorations you think should be covered by community media during July, August, and September 2009. Also send the names, designations, and contact details of relevant comrades/spokespeople/sources that can speak to issues the events highlight. Your events/spokespeople should reach mark@aidc.org.za no later than 12 June.

Africa: CODESRIA 2009 Gender Symposium

Theme: Gender and Sports in Africa’s Development

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/56787

In line with its mandate of developing, promoting, consolidating, and disseminating the highest quality of research on and about Africa, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) will hold a Gender Symposium from November 23rd to 25th in Cairo, Egypt. The Gender Symposium is an annual event that provides a platform for gender-focused debates. The theme for the 2009 symposium is Gender and Sports in Africa’s Development.
CODESRIA Programme Announcement: 2009 Gender Symposium
Theme: Gender and Sports in Africa’s Development
Date: November 23rd-25th, 2009
Venue: Cairo, Egypt.

In line with its mandate of developing, promoting, consolidating, and disseminating the highest quality of research on and about Africa, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) will hold a Gender Symposium from November 23rd to 25th in Cairo, Egypt. The Gender Symposium is an annual event that provides a platform for gender-focused debates. The theme for the 2009 symposium is Gender and Sports in Africa’s Development.

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

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

Different authors have identified different entry points for the developmental project they have in mind for Africa but these differences need not detain us here for now. What is really important to note is that it is inconceivable that the project of democratic development, however defined, can ever be successfully built without a full integration of gender into the equation. And it is precisely here that the deficits have been most in evidence in spite of all official declarations committing governments to the promotion of the rights of women and the equality of men and women. The dawn of the contemporary processes of globalisation initially fuelled widespread optimism that promised new opportunities for the expansion of the frontiers of women’s rights; several years after, this optimism has been tempered and mitigated as much by the disempowering elements thrown up by the global age as by the uneven distribution of the opportunities that have been associated with it. Particularly worthy of note in this regard are the severe limits imposed on the expansion of social citizenship by the neo-liberal ideological and policy moorings of contemporary globalisation. The sporting fraternity as global playing field, has not been spared this chequered character. While sport presents an opportunity for the participation of Africa’s men and women in the development process, locally and with global implications, such participation is not without its own problems, however, that require us to apply the gender lens to the reading of the natural twin processes of play and development, and their applicability and place in the context of Africa.

Sports is an arena that is uniquely gendered, differentiating as it does between men and women, boys and girls, in ways that have largely come to be accepted by many societies. Not only are most sporting activities organised along dual terms, they also set the competitive standards differently according to biological sex, with the female standard usually lower than that of the male. Golf is a case in point; as are field sports such as high and long jump. Over time and with the commercialization of sports globally, this differentiation has translated into a hierarchy in the financial value ascribed to sports where female sports score lower on the financial scale. By the same token, remuneration in the sporting field tends to be lower for females while the males are paid more. Similarly, male sports arguably enjoy more attention and, therefore, reputation and national/continental value than do female sports. And yet for all these differences, the sporting arena retains its attraction for the gendered democratic developmental project. Most sporting activities offer opportunities for inclusive participation irrespective of gender, class, race, literacy, and other otherwise marginalising attributes. A lot of sporting activities have also contributed to the development of individuals, communities, countries, and the African continent in various ways, in recent times. At a political level, sport in Africa has made possible the renewal and expression of a continental African identity, especially with the upcoming Soccer World Cup in 2010, the first Soccer World Cup to be held in Africa. Packaged as a continental event, it has been described as ‘an African journey of hope’ towards freedom from war, tyranny, divisions, hunger, and the denial of human dignity. The 2010 event is important not only because soccer, in some places referred to as football, is a popular sport in Africa and has become an integral part of the African cultural landscape; but also because it arguably enjoys the largest following worldwide, and is immensely economically lucrative. To what extent then, does soccer, and all other sports present as real possibilities for an engendered African developmental project?

A lot of scholarship on sports has focused on its local/global business dimensions; its political importance; and as performance. Research into sports also offers interesting possibilities for exploring intricate gender dynamics in the evolution and development of societies. This is because sport is often played out beyond the confines of the playing fields. Sport, like most aspects of play, is an element of culture with a significant role in the gender socialisation process. As an institution, sport can be analysed and understood in terms of modern democratic societal participation and development, allowing us to reflect on crucial questions of governance, and pertaining to male/female participation and reward accrual that goes beyond materialism; as well as to gendered identity expression, be it masculine or feminine as performed by either or both sexes. Lending sports research a historical dimension holds out interesting possibilities with respect to the socio-cultural adaptation of sport to African societies’ gender dynamics; the exploration of cultural patterns over time; and the possibility of insights into the relationship between children’s play and adult sports and the ramifications, therein, for citizen participation in developmental processes.

Participants in the 2009 CODESRIA Gender symposium would be invited to consider the various dimensions to the landscape of gender and the multifaceted sports arena including athletics, cricket, children’s games in Africa, and ball sports, with a view to reflecting on the possibilities and barriers that have emerged alongside the old obstacles that have persisted in the search for and process towards a gender-inclusive African development project. The symposium will, among other things, assess the:

i) Theories of play and development as viewed from a gendered perspective, including children’s versus adult forms of play;
ii) Gender, Sports and theories of Space in Development terms
iii) Traditional and Modern Sporting Practices – and the interfaces between them – as viewed from a gendered perspective;
iv) Gender, Sports and questions of Audience and Participation
iii) Modes and patterns of the refraction of gender differentiation into local/global sports governance and participation;
iv) The impact of global processes on local struggles for engendering sports ;
v) The Roles of local and/or global civil society in the mobilisation of gendered development through sports;
vi) Sports, Gender and Work
vii) Dialectics of multiple identities and citizenship in the practice of Sports in a global age;
viii) Sports, Gender and Violence
ix) The gendered aspects of Sports as Performance and Spectacle
x) Sports and the Articulation of gendered Identities – including national, cultural, sub-cultural, and literary articulations;
xi) New forms of international commodification of players and their gender Implications;
xii) New forms of trans-national commerce in players and potential players and their Development implications through the gender lens;
xiii) Sports as Global Business and Implications for the Developing world in Gender terms
xiv) Sports, the Media and Gender in Africa’s Development
xv) Re-thinking Gender and Development in a global Sporting age: Alternatives open to women and men in the quest for gender equality.

Participation will be both by expression of interest by those interested in being considered for invitation and direct invitation to CODESRIA scholars working in the field. All those interested in proactively expressing their interest in the symposium are invited to send an abstract of the paper they intend to present not later than 31st August, 2009; if accepted, the full papers developed out of the abstracts must be received by 30th September, 2009 for further review prior to final confirmation of selection from CODESRIA.

For more information on the 2009 CODESRIA Gender Symposium, and to apply, contact:

The 2009 CODESRIA Gender Symposium,
CODESRIA, BP 3304,
Dakar, Senegal.
Tel: +221 – 33 825 98.22/23
Fax:+221- 33 824 12.89
E-mail: gender.symposium@codesria.sn
Web Site: http://www.codesria.org

Africa: CODESRIA Comparative Research Networks (CRNs)

Call for Proposals for 2009

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/56803

Within the framework of its strategy for building comparative knowledge on Africa produced from within the African continent, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) invites proposals from researchers based in African universities and centres of research for the constitution of Comparative Research Networks (CRNs) to undertake studies on or around a variety of themes identified as priority research themes within the framework of the CODESRIA strategic plan for the period 2007 - 2011.
CODESRIA Comparative Research Networks (CRNs)

Call for Proposals for 2009

Within the framework of its strategy for building comparative knowledge on Africa produced from within the African continent, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) invites proposals from researchers based in African universities and centres of research for the constitution of Comparative Research Networks (CRNs) to undertake studies on or around any of the following themes identified as priority research themes within the framework of the CODESRIA strategic plan for the period 2007 - 2011:

1. Re-thinking (African) Development;
2. Re-thinking Democracy (in Africa);
3. Engendering Democracy and Development;
4. Transitions in African Higher Education;
5. Reforming the African Public Sector: Retrospect and Prospect;
6. The Changing Political Economy of African Natural Resources;
7. African Encounters with the Global System;
8. The Popular Arts, Identity and Culture in Contemporary Africa;
9. Health, Politics and Society in Contemporary Africa;
10. Migration Dynamics and the Making of New Diasporic Communities;
11. Changing Rural-Urban Linkages;
12. New Regionalist Impulses in Africa;
13. New Institutions of Transitional Justice;
14. Conflict and Reconstruction in Africa;
15. Law, Politics and Society;
16. State, Political Identity and Political Violence;
17. Political Pluralism and the Management of Diversity;
18. Water and Water Resources in the Political Economy of Development and Citizenship;
19. Ecology, Climate and Environmental Sustainability in Africa; and
20. Transport and Transportation Systems in Africa.

The primary purpose for which the CRNs have been introduced is to encourage the development and consolidation of a comparative analytic perspective in the work of African social researchers. In so doing, it is hoped to establish a strong corpus of comparative studies produced by African scholars and which could help to advance theoretical knowledge and discussion.

The interested researchers are requested to highlight clearly the comparative question which they wish to pursue. Each proposal should include:-an introduction, a problem - a literature review, the objectives of the study - the research methodology - the results - the outline of the proposed budget and time frame knowing that the total duration of the study is 18 months from the date of launch. Furthermore the proposal should indicate, the membership of the network, including the coordinator(s) of the group; the biodata and institutional affiliation of the network members; a copy of the curriculum vitae of the coordinator(s) and members of the network; the budget outline for the activity that is proposed. Apart from the CVs of members of networks, proposals should not exceed 12 pages (font Times New Roman, size 12, line spacing: single).

Authors of proposals submitted for consideration are urged to pay close attention to the comparative methodology which they will be applying and to demonstrate a proper understanding of the challenges of carrying out comparative studies. The independent Selection Committee that will be reviewing proposals received will be mandated to eliminate all proposals that are either silent on the comparative question that will be researched and the corresponding comparative methodology that will be employed or which show an inadequate understanding of the challenges of comparative research.

Each CRN will be entitled to organise three meetings during its lifespan, one methodological; the second to evaluate the progress of the work of the members of the group and the final. Although the budget that will be approved for the CRNs to be supported will vary from group to group, prospective applicants may wish to note for indicative purposes only that the grants that have been awarded by CODESRIA in the recent past have ranged from USD10,000 to USD35,000. Similarly, although no specific format is required for the presentation of the budget for the work that is proposed, authors may wish to note that resources will be allocated by the Council to cover the following costs:

i) a methodological workshop for the members of the CRN;
ii) a review workshop at which the progress of the work of the members of the CRN will be assessed;
iii) the field work to be undertaken by the members of the network;
iv) books to be purchased for the work of the CRN;
v) the honorarium to be paid to the members of the CRN for the work undertaken.
vi) Final workshop

The size of a CRN will vary from proposal to proposal but on average, most of the groups sponsored by CODESRIA have had an average of five to six members. It is advantageous to ensure that a proposed CRN is multidisciplinary in composition, sensitive to gender issues, and accommodating of younger scholars.

For the 2009 competition, CODESRIA will be open to receive proposals up to 30 June, 2009. Notification of the result of the selection exercise will be made by 31 July, 2009. Proposals for the constitution of CRNs should be sent to:

CODESRIA Comparative Research Networks,
CODESRIA,
BP 3304, CP 18524
Dakar, Senegal.
Tel: +221-33825 98 22/23
Fax:+221-33824 12 89
E-mail: crn@codesria.sn
Web Site: http://:www.codesria.org

Global: 3rd edition of the Grand Diplomatic North-South Conferences

2009-06-05

http://www.aceci.org/3GCDNS_UK.asp

From 15 to 18 June 2009, Niger will host the 3rd edition of the Grand Diplomatic North-South Conferences (GDNSC) initiated by ACECI (www.aceci.org). This 3rd GDNSC having as theme "Translate the MDGs into a poverty reduction law ", is co-organised by the National Assembly of Niger, the Consortium composed of civil society organisations and networks, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in cooperation with Niger’s technical and financial partners.

Global: CTA Media4dev seminar

Registration open

2009-06-05

http://annualseminar2009.cta.int/

What is the media’s role in development and how can they take a more meaningful part in helping rural communities in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to achieve the millennium development goals? These are the core issues to be addressed in Brussels, Belgium from 12 to 16 October, when the ACP/EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), together with its partners, will host an international seminar on the "Role of the media in agricultural development in ACP countries".

Global: Fellowships for Threatened Academics: Professors, Researchers and Lecturers

Application Deadline: 15 June 2009

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/56765

The Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) provides fellowships for established scholars whose lives and work are threatened in their home countries. These fellowships permit professors, researchers and other senior academics to find temporary refuge at universities and colleges anywhere in the world, enabling them to pursue their academic work and to continue to share their knowledge with students, colleagues, and the community at large.
Fellowships for Threatened Academics: Professors, Researchers and Lecturers

Application Deadline: 15 June 2009

The Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) provides fellowships for established scholars whose lives and work are threatened in their home countries. These fellowships permit professors, researchers and other senior academics to find temporary refuge at universities and colleges anywhere in the world, enabling them to pursue their academic work and to continue to share their knowledge with students, colleagues, and the community at large.

When conditions improve, these scholars will return home to help rebuild universities and societies ravaged by fear, conflict and repression. During the fellowship, conditions in a scholar’s home country may improve, permitting safe return; if safe return is not possible, the scholar may use the fellowship period to identify a longer-term opportunity.

Read our outreach message in Arabic, Farsi, French and Spanish; review eligibility criteria; and download the application form: http://www.scholarrescuefund.org/pages/for-scholars.php

Partner with SRF and host a scholar: http://www.scholarrescuefund.org/pages/for-hosts.php

General information: http://www.scholarrescuefund.org/

Contact Us at: SRF@iie.org

Global: The Peace and Conflict Review

Volume 3, Issue 2

2009-06-05

http://www.review.upeace.org/

The Spring 2009 issue of the Peace and Conflict Review reflects the growing dialogue between theorists and practitioners, addressing philosophical issues of methodology and socio-political analysis as well as practical ways for protecting human rights and facilitating sustainable and equitable development.

Kilombo Pan-African Community Journal

2009-05-28

http://www.kilombo.org.uk/#/kilombo-home-page/4520316981

Kilombo was set up in the UK in 1997 by African anti-IMF (International Monetary Fund) activists forced into exile in the 1980s. However, when they arrived in the West they found that little or nothing was known about the fierce struggles waged by the African street in opposition to the IMF's structural adjustment policies. This resistance, ruthlessly repressed in large parts of the continent, received little media coverage outside Africa. Kilombo was set up partly to address the lack of reporting of Africa's home-grown struggles for social justice, and partly to provide an independent alternative to the myths and misinformation that pass as news about Africa.

Mining in Africa: Regulation and Development

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/publications/56760

Investigating the impact of the 2003 Extractive Industries Review on a number of African countries, the contributors in this book find that a key dimension of the problem lies in the regulatory frameworks imposed on the African countries by the IMF and World Bank. They aim to convince academics, governments and industry that regulation needs to be reformed to create a mining industry favourable to social and economic development and environmental protection.
Mining in Africa: Regulation and Development
Edited by
Bonnie Campbell
PB / £ 25.00 / 9780745329390 / 215mm x 135mm /288pp
Released June 29th 2009

The continent of Africa is rich in minerals needed by Western economies, but rather than forming the basis for economic growth the mining industry contributes very little to African development

Investigating the impact of the 2003 Extractive Industries Review on a number of African countries, the contributors find that a key dimension of the problem lies in the regulatory frameworks imposed on the African countries by the IMF and World Bank. They aim to convince academics, governments and industry that regulation needs to be reformed to create a mining industry favourable to social and economic development and environmental protection.

The book takes a multidisciplinary approach and provides a historical perspective of each country, making it ideal for students of development studies and development organisations.

Bonnie Campbell is Professor of Political Economy at the department of Political Science at the University of Quebec in Montreal where she heads the Research Chair on Governance and Aid for Development. Her publications include Regulating Mining in Africa: For Whose Benefit?, (Ed.) (2004). She has been a member of the International Study Group of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa on the revision of mining codes in Africa (Addis Ababa) (2007-2009) and the Advisory Group to the Canadian Government on corporate social responsibility in the extractive sector in developing countries (2007).

For further information, to request a review copy or to speak to the author please contact Jon Wheatley atjonw@plutobooks.com or on 0208 374 6424

345 ARCHWAY ROAD, LONDON, N6 5AA
TEL: 0208 3482724 FAX: 0208 348 9133 www.plutobooks.com

Egypt: Psychological Counselor - AMERA

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/56791

Africa Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA), a UK-based refugee rights organization assisting refugees who seek asylum in Egypt, is seeking a dynamic team-builder with a background in social or community-based work to serve as Psychosocial Team Leader. AMERA requires an intelligent, hard-working person with a commitment to service for vulnerable people, and an interest in finding innovative ways to integrate psychosocial, community and legal aid approached to improving refugees' access to human rights.
Psychological Counselor
Job Description
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Sunday 14th of June 2009

Africa Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA), a UK-based refugee rights organization assisting refugees who seek asylum in Egypt, is seeking a dynamic team-builder with a background in social or community-based work to serve as Psychosocial Team Leader. AMERA requires an intelligent, hard-working person with a commitment to service for vulnerable people, and an interest in finding innovative ways to integrate psychosocial, community and legal aid approached to improving refugees' access to human rights.

AMERA is one of the leading refugee rights NGOs in Egypt. Our Egypt office serves more than 1000 refugees each year and involves the efforts of more than 40 staff, interns, and interpreters from Egypt and other countries. AMERA provides legal aid and psychosocial services to asylum seekers and refugees, and it has specialized teams dealing with unaccompanied minors, survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, and community outreach.

Position Description AMERA\'s psychological counseling service aim is to provide emotional support, psycho education and problem solving skills to refugees living in Cairo. Counselors help refugees to improve their well-being, alleviate distress and maladjustment, resolve crises, and increase their ability to live more highly functioning lives in a supportive and confidential environment.

1. The Counselors who work with the psychosocial team, are assigned in-house clients, may go out and work with communities and participate in the development of new mental health services. Types of counseling include individual, couples, family and group counseling.
2. The Counselor will be responsible of conducting psychological assessments to support Refugee Status Determination and Resettlement claims.
3. The Counselor will assist other counselors in their casework supervision, as needed.
4. The Counselor will participate in the provision of continuing education for staff, CBO\'s, partners and other organisations on mental health issues.
5. The Counselor will participate in weekly team and staff meetings, attend to bi-weekly team supervision sessions, and bi-monthly consultation sessions with the Psychosocial Team Leader.
6. The job of the counselor is part-time for 20 hours per week, and s/he works under the day-to-day supervision of the Psychosocial Team Leader. This job description is a general overview and is supplemented by the specific activities and tasks described in the current version of the AMERA-Egypt Strategic Plan.

Requirements
1. English being the official language of AMERA Office, the Counselor must be fluent in both oral and written English.
2. Proficiency in written and spoken Arabic is an asset.
3. A Bachelors degree in Psychology, and a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology is required.
4. Experience working with refugees, immigrants or displaced people preferable.
5. Ability to take initiative and handle responsibility under pressure, but in the context of a collegial environment and in cooperation with other team members.
6. Willingness to work outside the office setting.

Additional Qualification Fluency in additional languages, especially those of East Africa (Amharic, Tigrinya, and Somali) and French.

To apply, email a cover letter (in English) and a complete CV to vacancy@amera-uk.org ccd lorena.guzman@amera-uk.org We regret that, due to the significant number of applications received for vacancies advertised, we are unable to respond to each and every application received. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted to notify them of the next phase in the selection process.

Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Kenya: Head of Policy and Advocacy - ACORD

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/56788

The Head of Policy and Advocacy is responsible for providing strategic leadership, planning, delivery and reporting on ACORD’s thematic work. S/he will coordinate strategic analysis and monitoring of policy issues and provide leadership in the development and implementation of ACORD’s external advocacy and alliance building strategy. S/he shall promote a sound media relations strategy designed to influence internal and external processes and link national to Pan-African initiatives. Closing date for completed applications is: June 19th 2009
HEAD OF POLICY AND ADVOCACY
ACORD HEADQUARTERS- NAIROBI-KENYA

ACORD is a Pan-African Organization working for Social Justice and Development in Africa.

ACORD works in partnership with local civil society and communities and in alliance with other organizations in Africa and the rest of the world.

The Head of Policy and Advocacy is responsible for providing strategic leadership, planning, delivery and reporting on ACORD’s thematic work. S/he will coordinate strategic analysis and monitoring of policy issues and provide leadership in the development and implementation of ACORD’s external advocacy and alliance building strategy. S/he shall promote a sound media relations strategy designed to influence internal and external processes and link national to Pan-African initiatives.

The Head of Policy and Advocacy will have the responsibility for coordinating the development and implementation of the Livelihood thematic program at Pan-African and Global levels and support initiatives at Area Programs level in line with Area Programmes’ strategies and the ACORD Pan-African Programme;

Please find more details on key requirements for the position, required skills and competencies in the detailed job description placed on the ACORD website: www.acordinternational.org

Salary: Commensurate with experience

Closing date for completed applications is: June 19th 2009

Kenya: HIV & AIDS Thematic Manager - ACORD

2009-06-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/56789

The HIV & AIDS Thematic Manager is responsible for coordinating the development and implementation of ACORD’s HIV & AIDS thematic work. S/he will provide technical support to ACORD country and Area Programmes across Africa in relation to HIV & AIDS work. S/he shall actively contribute to define strategies advancing HIV & AIDS work at Pan-African level through research, partnership, alliance building and advocacy initiatives. Closing date for completed applications is: June 19th 2009.
HIV/AIDS THEMATIC MANAGER

ACORD HEADQUARTERS- NAIROBI-KENYA

ACORD is a Pan-African Organization working for Social Justice and Development in Africa. ACORD works in partnership with local civil society and communities and in alliance with other organizations in Africa and the rest of the world.

The ACORD Programming Strategy is organized around 4 themes: i) Livelihoods with emphasis on Food Sovereignty, ii) Conflict, iii) Gender & other forms of discrimination and iv) HIV & AIDS.

The HIV & AIDS Thematic Manager is responsible for coordinating the development and implementation of ACORD’s HIV & AIDS thematic work. S/he will provide technical support to ACORD country and Area Programmes across Africa in relation to HIV & AIDS work. S/he shall actively contribute to define strategies advancing HIV & AIDS work at Pan-African level through research, partnership, alliance building and advocacy initiatives.

S/he shall be responsible for coordination of cross-learning and knowledge generation for thematic alignment in relation to HIV & AIDS strategic priorities across the organisation.

Please find more details on key requirements for the position, required skills and competencies in the detailed job description placed on the ACORD website: www.acordinternational.org

Salary: Commensurate with experience

Closing date for completed applications is: June 19th 2009

Fahamu