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UK: Chagos Islands - Early Day Motion and debate

2010-03-04

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=40580&SESSION=903

This is a plea to MPs to sign EDM number 960 Chagos Islands, as below as soon as possible, since Jeremy Corbyn has secured a debate on Chagos in Parliament on Wednesday 10 March:
That this House believes that the interests of the Chagossian people and of Mauritius must be fully protected in the proposed Marine Protected Area; urges the Government to withdraw its case from the European Court of Human Rights and to settle out of court, as already suggested by the Court; and requests the Prime Minister to engage with Mauritius and the Chagossians, before the general election, in order to initiate discussion on an overall settlement of the issues, including timetable for eventual transfer of sovereignty of the Outer Islands to Mauritius and provision for a limited settlement on the Outer Islands.

Zimbabwe: Trade unionist under threat

International Union of Food workers

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/action/62761

The General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union (GAPWUZ) in Zimbabwe is again under attack. General secretary Gertrude Hambira is currently in hiding and at least one official under arrest.

On 19 February, Hambira and other union officials were summoned to Police General Headquarters where they were questioned about a documentary, House of Justice, and its accompanying report, If something is wrong: The invisible suffering of commercial farm workers and their families due to "Land Reform". This film was launched under the auspices of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) in November 2009 and has been in the public domain ever since. The film contains farmworkers’ testimonies of murder, torture and violence perpetrated by state agents.

Everyday, since 19 February, police detectives have visited the GAPWUZ HQ to question and harass staff. Gertrude was forced into hiding but police have continued to stalk the unions' staff. On 25 February, two officials were arrested – the assistant general secretary, Gift Muti, and president Manjemanje Munyanyi. Gift Muti was later released but Bro. Munyanyi remains in police custody.

The International Union of Food workers (IUF) has called on the International Labour Organization (ILO) to launch an urgent intervention to protect Gertrude Hambira and the other GAPWUZ staff. In a letter to ILO director general Juan Somavia, IUF general secretary Ron Oswald calls on the ILO office ‘to contact both the President and the Prime Minster of Zimbabwe to convey our concerns and to insist that Hambira is not harmed and her physical and psychological well-being is fully assured’.

Similar messages have also been sent to Zimbabwean missions in several countries and Amnesty International has launched a support appeal which IUF is supporting. Click here to link to the Amnesty campaign and to fax a message to the Zimbabwe government.

Staggering from pillar to post: Zimbabwe's 'unity' government

Mary Ndlovu

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/62770

cc SokwaneleMary Ndlovu paints a desolate picture of the Zimbabwe of now and its political future: ‘The “Unity Government” has stumbled from pillar to post, ending for the time being, paralysed in the intensive or perhaps terminal care unit of the political hospital.’ Ndlovu takes us through the events of the last year and argues that ZANU PF’s tactics have shifted from the defensive to the offensive. Analysing the various options, such as calls for elections now, Ndlovu finds strong reasons to eliminate each. But she ends on a note of hope: ‘Debate on the constitution has… sparked considerable interest and determination to participate. Hopefully… a more active citizenry will eventually evolve, bringing promise of an empowered society which will develop new strategies to put in place a democratic government.’

February 2010 marked one year of Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity. It also marked ten years since the ‘no’ vote in Zimbabwe’s constitutional referendum. Both seemed hopeful events at the time and produced genuine celebrations. But neither has brought the positive results hoped for. The referendum provoked an angry reaction from a Zanu PF determined to hold onto power, resulting in the land invasions, which ushered in a decade of descent into lawlessness, gross misgovernance, violent elections, economic collapse and impoverishment of the people. The ‘Unity Government’ has stumbled from pillar to post, ending for the time being, paralysed in the intensive or perhaps terminal care unit of the political hospital. It was foundered on the rock of Zanu PF’s tenacity when threatened with the prospect of losing power.

A year ago there were not great expectations for this government and many counselled the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) against entering it. Nevertheless, there was hope that some miracle might take place and we could have another chance at putting the nation on the road to economic viability, if not immediate prosperity. In the early days, Zanu PF seemed rather dazed, disorganised and took time to refocus and strategise on how to manoeuvre itself out of the box it found itself in. MDC’s control of the finance ministry stopped Gideon Gono in his tracks, depriving Zanu PF of the bottomless pit of funny money, which kept their patronage activities in place. The ministry of education got the teachers back to work and there was a gradual awakening of the economy. But without substantial financial inputs from international sources, which the -controlled ministries could use to bring some relief to the people and gain the confidence of fence-sitters, it would be unsustainable.

Meanwhile, Zanu PF took as its task to ensure that that foreign assistance, which would enable service ministries to function, would never come. While shouting loudly about ‘sanctions’ being removed, every action of theirs was calculated to make sure they stayed. They developed a strategy consisting of several components:

- Hang onto control of the security forces and the justice system, which are the ultimate power arbiters.
- Use these to harass the MDC at every turn and keep them occupied fire fighting.
- Use these activities also to prevent the restoration of the rule of law. Without a return to the rule of law the necessary inflows of budget support will not come to the MDC.
- Use the Zanu PF majority in the Senate to block any meaningful legislative changes.
- Develop alternative sources of income through exploitation of diamonds and other natural resources such as wildlife.
- Keep SADC (Southern African Development Community) on side by pretending to be negotiating the ‘outstanding issues’ of the GPA, while simply using this as a delaying tactic.

Gradually over the past months, Zanu PF has moved from the defensive to the offensive. They seem to have realised that neither South Africa nor SADC nor the AU is likely to make any meaningful moves to remove them from their illegitimate position of power and now are prepared to brazenly defy everyone.

The Roy Bennett trial on treason charges is only the highest profile of many intimidatory charges against MDC officials and supporters. Some have been acquitted by the courts; others have had their charges withdrawn, while some have received sentences. These threaten the MDC majority in the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, they ensure that the MDC is occupied with such diversions and they also raise the price for those MDC members who are prepared to openly resist Zanu PF intimidation.

Zanu PF has meanwhile ensured that their control of the Senate is maintained, by refusing to appoint MDC governors to provinces according to a formula reached months ago. Governors have little power, but they automatically sit in the Senate. Six MDC governors in the Senate would not give the MDC a majority, but would certainly alter the balance and if some brave traditional chiefs decided to shift allegiance on any key issue, Zanu PF could not be assured of control.

While pretending to co-operate in the constitution-making process, they openly insist that the ‘Kariba Draft’ – which leaves presidential powers virtually intact – must be the only draft to be debated. While others are beginning the process of free debate on all constitutional issues, militia have been remobilised in some rural areas to intimidate and make clear to the people that they must not be heard to support any position other than the Kariba Draft. Meanwhile, the process of constitutional reform has been repeatedly delayed by Zanu PF stalling tactics.

Recently there has been the indigenisation offensive. An act passed by the previous parliament provided for the prohibition of majority ownership of large businesses (over $500,000 in value) by ‘non-indigenous’ persons, but it had not been implemented. The publication by a Zanu PF minister of the regulations to implement the act seems to have taken everyone in the MDC by surprise. But it is a perfect instrument, which fulfils several purposes for Zanu PF at the same time:

- It promises a new source of patronage for Zanu PF cronies and sends the message that enrichment comes through them, not any other channel.
- It prevents the inflow of genuine investment or budget support, which would allow the MDC to facilitate the rebirth of the legitimate economy.
- It puts the MDC and the whole of civil society as well as the private sector on the defensive.
- It creates possibilities for the thugs and party criminals to come to the fore again as they did during the land invasions and the price control mayhem of 2008.

The civil service strike is the icing on the cake for Zanu PF. While it is apparent that their agents are provoking and enforcing to some degree, they did not need to be active in instigating it – the situation did that for them. And the result is the reversal of an important MDC gain: Schools are once again, for the third year in a row, no longer functioning for the benefit of children.

And another bonus if you look at it from a Zanu PF point of view is the disastrous rainy season, which has caused a write-off of crops in many parts of the country. The MDC will have to spend precious funds importing food and distributing it while Zanu PF can still interfere through the use of militia and party thugs.

In the past weeks, intimidation of civil society and media activists has been stepped up again with arrests, threats and even the summoning of WOZA (Women of Zimbabwe Arise) leadership by the two ministers of home affairs. Significantly, it was the MDC minister who was most aggressive in insisting that WOZA was acting outside the law, in spite of court rulings to the contrary; the tone of the meeting was definitely threatening.

And so we find ourselves on the verge of moving back to Zanu PF rule. They have in fact managed to take their half of government and make it work for them, even if it doesn’t work for the rest of Zimbabweans or for the economy as a whole. If the courts or police or businesses or civil service practices are corrupt, that doesn’t matter because ultimately Zanu PF’s entire operation is based on corruption. If they don’t control parliament, it doesn’t matter because they at least have blocking power and that paralyses parliament. Meanwhile, the MDC cannot move because they can’t get sufficient finances on board and they have no access to law enforcement mechanisms. The occasional standard operating procedure from Zanu PF, such as the appointment of commissions and ambassadors, does not change the ultimate power equation.

Any way you look at it, the situation for those who choose to remain outside the Zanu PF ambit is grim. The prospect is for continued poverty, a stuttering economy, a dysfunctional civil service, violence and even chaos. All of which benefit the power elite of the former ruling party.

So what do we do, where do we go, what is to be done? Unfortunately it is not looking like two steps forward, one step back, but the opposite – one step forward, two back. Some are calling for MDC withdrawal; a complete withdrawal this time, not simply ‘disengagement’ or a boycott of cabinet meetings. These people see that the marriage is no longer one of convenience but an arranged marriage, which has not worked out and perpetuates abuse of wife and children. Presumably those who call for withdrawal believe that this would force the hand of SADC and they would have to step in with a new solution. But those who call for MDC withdrawal have failed to show how it would benefit anyone.

Another variation – and this also comes from Jacob Zuma – is to forget about the dispute between the partners in government and go straight for elections. This begs the question of how elections will be run by such a divided government. We have reached the point where external monitors are not enough. We have seen time and time again monitors, in various troubled countries of the world, paper over the cracks in order to avoid chaos and declare elections sufficiently satisfactory to be recognised as legitimate. Even Zanu PF has been calling for elections – which clearly indicates that they intend to ‘win’ them in the same way they have for years – by intimidation, cheating and violence. So unless there will be some kind of international presence to actually conduct the elections – not to mention to police the campaigning which would also prove necessary – the outcome is likely to be more of the same.

Rely on SADC? Certainly experience tells us that this is futile. Those who thought Zuma would be different are already being proved wrong – he does not use a language different from Mbeki’s. Pressure is indeed building within South Africa, but not sufficiently to force Zuma to shift. South Africa’s focus is now to get through the World Cup without disruptions, so we can safely discount any significant initiative and without South Africa neither SADC nor the AU (African Union) or any other international body will act.

Are we in checkmate? No, the king has slipped away again. Marx did not err when he predicted that elites in power do not give it up without a struggle; and this is surely what we are seeing being enacted in Zimbabwe. Once a dictatorship is entrenched in power and is prepared to use violence to sustain it, democratic processes have a poor chance of dislodging it. Have we been naïve? Have we underestimated the strength of the evil we confront? Probably the answer to both is ‘yes’. Democratic processes, however, had to be tried. Now, even with a little (but not much) outside help, it is safe to declare them failed.

So what next? Marx’s solution of armed revolution has not proven to be a satisfactory one by which to bring stability, peace and prosperity. There remain two other options – external intervention or peaceful resistance, or a combination of the two. Zimbabweans have yearned for external intervention from the South, but not even a slap on the wrist has come Zanu PF’s way, in spite of huge provocation and the damage being done to South Africa’s own social fabric by the presence of hundreds of thousands of refugees and economic migrants.

Similarly, peaceful resistance by Zimbabweans has been noticeable by its absence. The MDC has notably not even attempted to mobilise its members to demonstrate their anger, frustration and desperation at the way things are developing, in spite of knowing that they have support from the majority of the people and even many among the security forces. Civil society organisations, too, have failed for the most part to go beyond talk, talk, while enjoying salaries and perks far beyond those of even much of the private sector. Trade unionists are fragmented and disempowered, students have on occasion tried, but generally end up squabbling amongst themselves. Only WOZA has consistently mobilised street protests, yet without support from others they keep a flame alive but cannot make any impact on power relationships. Only if Zimbabweans are themselves prepared to take the risks required, would external forces be pressured to take action. No one says it is easy – but neither is it easy to see your children going without schooling, your middle-aged parents dying of treatable illnesses, entire families going hungry, while the Zanu PF elite display their obscene levels of wealth and have the gall to call it ‘god-given’.

Commentators continue to refer to the ‘squabbling’ of politicians of both parties. This is unfair, without casting blame where it is due. The organisers of the civil service strike have not been strategic enough to direct its effect to the real culprits and hence are likely to make their own situation, as well as everyone else’s, worse rather than better. To be sure, some MDC leaders and members are still more concerned about their own privileges of office, but as a party they have tried to put things right, tried to make the marriage work and been blocked at every turn by Zanu PF’s wily stranglehold on the levers of power and the unwillingness of the arranger of the marriage to come to the rescue.

And so we face an immediate future more cloudy and obscure that at any time in the past years. Zanu PF seems to have weathered the storm clouds around them and blown them back to the rest of us. They will perhaps thrive in the midst of chaos while the nation bleeds.

It is probable that the bleeding will continue for some time. But though prospects for improvement may not be good in the short term, for the medium term, perhaps there is hope. Some civil society activists have been effective in organising, at a local level, around service delivery and many people are prepared to participate at least in holding government accountable at some level. Debate on the constitution has also sparked considerable interest and determination to participate. Hopefully these activities will bear fruit and a more active citizenry will eventually evolve, bringing promise of an empowered society, which will develop new strategies to put in place a democratic government.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Mary Ndlovu is a Zimbabwean human rights activist.
* Read more by Mary Ndlovu.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Criminalising homosexuality: a threat to human rights

Review of 'Urgency Required: Gay and Lesbian Rights are Human Rights'

Sokari Ekine

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/62729

cc S M LeeIf Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill is passed into law, the implications for LGBT people, and for the rights of everyone across Africa are ‘horrific’, writes Sokari Ekine. ‘Utterly inhumane’, the bill violates all African Union and International human rights legislation and treaties to which Uganda is signatory, says Ekine, but if it were to be passed, the chances are strong that some of 38 African countries criminalising same-sex relationships would attempt to copy it. Can a new book ‘Urgency Required: Gay and Lesbian Rights are Human Rights’ help to prevent legislation that threatens to cast homosexuals as ‘illegal beings’ rather than human beings?

Urgency is required at this very moment as the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 is pending before the Ugandan parliament. Same-sex relationships are already illegal in the country under sections 140, 141 and 143, with sentences running from five years to life imprisonment. The laws are based on the British colonial penal code and as such do not specifically name relationships between women, but none the less, lesbians are stigmatised and face similar aggression and malice from society and the Ugandan state. However the Anti-Homosexuality Bill increases in scope both the definition of 'homosexual acts' and the punishment with the death penalty for repeated offences, those who are HIV-positive and for same-sex acts with anyone under 18 years.

Similar to the now shelved 'Same-Sex Marriage Bill' in Nigeria, the bill extends to criminalising anyone who witnesses, supports or associates with people involved in same-sex relationships. Human rights activists and organisations working in the area of sexuality as well as HIV/AIDS organisations are in a perilous position as under the law they will all be criminalised. As the law institutionalises the discrimination of lesbians and gays, they will have no redress either morally or under law if they are physically attacked, raped or discriminated against. They will no longer be human beings but illegal beings. Women will be even more vulnerable to rape as rapists will be able to accuse the woman of being a lesbian and therefore deserving of rape. In a society where to speak out against rape is hard enough, let alone if you are going to be accused of being a lesbian – which is an illegal human being, with a five year prison sentence waiting for you. Even to touch someone in a 'gay' way is punishable.

In short the bill is utterly inhumane and violates all African Union and International human rights legislation and treaties to which Uganda is also a signatory. The horrific implications for LGBT people and in fact the rights of everyone across Africa cannot be underestimated. At this very moment, three gay men have been arrested in Malawi and a mob recently attacked a gay 'wedding party' in Kenya. In Uganda, meanwhile, the despicable behaviour and language of Pastor S reached new homophobic heights when he led an organised anti-gay demonstration with marchers carrying placards 'Kill gays'. The situation is such that if this bill were to be passed, with or without the death penalty, the chances are strong that some of 38 African countries criminalising same-sex relationships would attempt to copy the Ugandan Bill.

'Urgency Required: Gay and Lesbian Rights are Human Rights' is an admirable and timely project in the form of a book, through which the authors provide a comprehensive exploration of the state of LGBT rights worldwide. The book takes as it’s reference point the 2006 Yogyarkarta Principles [1], the premise of which is that gay and lesbian rights are human rights. The book is divided roughly into three sections: a historical perspective and exploration of concepts and terminology around same-sex intimacy and transgender; a discussion on the struggle for 'Gay and Lesbian' rights (LGBTIQ) in Africa, Asia and Latin America; and a section that explores the range of strategies for furthering gay and lesbian rights and equality.

Beginning with a series of essays tracing the historical roots of homosexuality and homophobia in Europe, we follow the changing attitudes from the pitiful pathologising of gay and lesbians as 'sick or perverted' people who had lost all control over their bodies to the point at which decriminalisation is achieved, though not complete acceptance in society.

The discussion raises a number of interesting points which relate to the current homosexuality debate and rampant homophobia being experienced in many African countries. The first relates to language and 'coming out'. Up until the mid 1990s, the word 'homosexuality' hardly existed and homophobia was first used as late as the mid 1960s. It was at the point when homosexual men began to assert themselves and increase their visibility that we find psychology and religious institutions entering the frame.

Secondly, the struggle for homosexual rights, in for example the Netherlands, was a struggle for secularisation against notions of morality by religious institutions on the one hand and criminalisation from state on the other – as late as 1938, castration was legalised for homosexual acts as well as rape. Two of the more engaging chapters in this first section are the ones by Rob Tielman in which he compares homosexuality in Islam, Christianity and Humanism in a Dutch context, and Robert Davidson who uses a Fanonist analysis to examine identity politics.

Tielman’s essay struck me as it speaks to the debate around 'gay imperialism' which uses queerness as a 'symbol of freedom' and a way of rationalising 'restrictive and racist immigration policies in “Western” or “liberal” nations.'[2] He identifies eight paradoxes to examine the contradictions between gay liberation and islamic liberation.

Whilst I agree with most of his observations or paradoxes, such as claims of not knowing any homosexuals simply means one is mixing with a lot of gays and lesbians who are in the closet. Or that the hostility in some countries towards LGBT people can be attributed to language and naming. For example the word gay or lesbian do not exist in many cultures or languages. This does not mean same-sex relations did not take place. It just means they were not named in terms that have come to be associated with Western culture and imperialism.

Tielman just about manages not to fall into the 'gay imperialist' trap by not conflating Islam with cultural traditions and more so by pointing out that some of these cultural traditions 'might' have western colonial origins. But he then goes on to imply that, young Muslim immigrants act out homophobia because they are confronted with open homosexuality as opposed to closeted homosexuality in Muslim countries. This needs further examination on a wider scale as indigenous homophobic youth culture is as much if not more widespread than Islamic and the focus on this group has implied racism and rationalises anti-immigration – read anti-islamic immigration.

The chapter by Davidson, 'Queering Politics, Desexualising the Mind', is by far the most thought provoking in this first section. Davidson makes a compelling argument for applying Queer theory as an alternative to conventional identity. Using Fanon’s theory of 'decolonising the mind' as a way of deconstructing identity in relation to sexuality – which he calls 'desexualising the mind' – he moves away from the binary logic within which most LGBT rights have been fought. In other words, rather than a politics of 'mimicking' where the aim is for the 'Other' – gays and lesbians – to live up to the values of the 'One' – the heterosexual, the goal should be 'to embrace difference and reject assimilation'. Just as colonialism works by imposing its logic on the colonised, so too do 'dominant sexual structures' impose their own sexual rationale on non-hetero-normative ways. This would include for example the rejection of same-sex marriage and categories such as LGBT which fix and control us, by implying that sexuality is not only unchanging but also that one needs to be given specific names based on sexual desire. These categories confuse sexual activity and very often have no meaning in the reality of people's lives.

In the second section of 'Urgency Required', the authors provide a regional analysis, using a mixture of detailed documentary of LGBT movements and struggle, personal stories and reviews of texts. Again the coverage is comprehensive. Importantly, by addressing LGBT rights in a global context including Europe and North America, they are able to highlight areas of common struggle, such as discrimination and social attitudes which impact negatively on LGBT people, as well as those specific to regions. This is important because it avoids the tendency of the international media to demonise particular countries and regions as somehow standing alone in 'homophobia', which – like 'homosexuality' – is a known fact in all countries, cultures and social classes. The distinction between countries and regions is a question of the degree of 'homophobia' and whether or not 'homosexuality' is criminalised.

The final section of 'Urgency Required' focuses on strategies for 'gay liberation' and the work of Hivos in facilitating and supporting the struggles. Although the chapters are written by non-Hivos staff, the essays are uncritical and focus on education through the Gay Games and Outgames. From an African perspective, it would have been useful to have an exploration of Hivos' policy of supporting LGBT activists on the continent and some of the outcomes of the increased visibility provided by the Gay and Out games. It also needed a more detailed examination of local strategies being employed by activists across the continent, as well as the inclusion of more local voices rather than those of Europe. On major criticism is that though the introduction has a section on terminology – 'LGBT' and 'LGBTIQ' 'Queer', the default acronym is 'LGBT', thereby excluding Intersex people in a general sense. By not addressing issues of specific concern to intersex people, they are made doubly invisible. Again this is made more confusing by the title which refers only to 'Gay and Lesbian' rights. It highlights the need to for us to think more critically about language, and how particular words and terminology are exclusive.



BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* 'Urgency Required: Gay and Lesbian Rights Are Human Rights', edited by Ireen Dubel and Andre Hielkema, is published by Hivos. The book can be ordered from Hivos for €15.00 or it can be downloaded.
* Sokari Ekine blogs at Black Looks.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES
[1] Yogyakarta Principles: A universal guide to human rights which affirm binding international legal standards with which all states must comply.
[2] Racism and the Censorship of Gay Imperialism, Alana Letin.

Covering up colonialism's crimes on Diego Garcia

Open letter to Greenpeace UK

Ram Seegobin

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/62731

Mauritian socialist party Lalit de Klas has written to environmental NGO Greenpeace UK, asking it to reconsider its support for plans by the British government to create a marine protected area on the Indian Ocean island of Chagos, where Britain also maintains ‘a polluting nuclear base’ in Diego Garcia. The Chagossians were forcibly removed by Britain and the US and decolonisation of the island should be the first priority ‘for all concerned people’, says Lalit de Klas. ‘After decolonisation, the people whose land and sea it is can decide on how to protect and nurture it best, how to affect a clean-up of the base once it was closed down, and how to re-generate it into the beautiful atoll it once was.’

Dear leaders of Greenpeace UK,

We understand that your organisation has taken a position in favour of the British government’s outrageous plan to create a ‘marine park’ on territory which is not its own, thus tricking ill-informed people into supporting the British state on rather vague grounds of ‘the environment‘, while they are in fact banishing the people who lived there and flaunting the Charter of the United Nations.

We write in order to request you to re-think your position on what would in fact be the British government’s perfidious imposition of a planned Marine Protected Area on part of Mauritius in order to mask the fact that it colonises the land illegally. Britain colonises the Chagos under the name of ‘British Indian Ocean Territory’ (BIOT). This colony is, as far as we know, recognised by no government in the world, except the USA, which has a huge military base on it (at Diego Garcia). The Seychelles government took the British to task, and took those of its islands in BIOT back, so blatant was the theft. The Mauritian government has so far unfortunately been much more servile to its ex-coloniser.

The British government’s plan for a Marine Protected Area is a very weak, grotesquely transparent ruse designed to perpetuate the banning of the people of Mauritius and Chagos from part of their own country. And the UK has the cheek to do this while at one and the same time perpetuating a polluting nuclear base on Diego Garcia, part of this same stolen territory. The timing of their plan is also very humiliating for all those who have fallen into the trap: There is a European Human Rights Court which may soon hand down a judgement in favour of the right to return for Chagossians. Clearly, the British government is preparing a fall-back plan; if they lose the case, then there will be another ‘reason’ for denying the banished people their right of return; another reason for keeping Mauritius from staking its claim under international law.

Surely the point is for environmentalists to get this nuclear base on Diego Garcia, at the very heart of the Chagos, closed down? Not to ignore its existence. Surely the point is for all concerned people to help complete the decolonisation of Mauritius and the Chagos? Not to help in a British cover-up its crimes? After decolonisation, the people whose land and sea it is can decide on how to protect and nurture it best, how to affect a clean-up of the base once it was closed down, and how to re-generate it into the beautiful atoll it once was. And we would hope for ideas and support from Greenpeace, amongst other environmentalists, as to how best to do this.

ILLEGAL ACTS

The British state and the USA not only collaborated in the forcible removal of all the people of the entire Chagos, tricking them first, denying them passage back after medical visits to Mauritius main island, gassing their dogs as a warning, then finally starving them off the islands; the British state and the USA not only illegally plotted so as to dismember a country and hide this from the United Nations Decolonisation Committee, as has been amply made public in the judgements in the court case brought by the Chagossians, but have also set up a huge immensely polluting military base, one of the biggest in the world, a nuclearised base, right there in the same place that the UK now pretends to want to turn into a Marine Protected Area. The USA has even carried out illegal renditions for torture on and around Diego Garcia; after denying this for years, Jack Straw finally admitted it in the British parliament. So, Greenpeace should perhaps bear in mind that these illegal acts do, in time, get exposed and condemned by people.

Greenpeace should dissociate itself from this entire international plot. It is an old plot whose first shady days have gradually been exposed to the public by years and years of active struggle on the part of Mauritian political parties, associations, trade unions and the people displaced from Chagos, with their women at the helm of the demonstrations. Our women members were among those arrested by the police in 1981 at peaceful demonstration in Port Louis. And though the illegal colonisation and the nuclear base have both continued, the conspiracy to remove all the people, and for the UK to steal the islands, and for the US to become a receiver of stolen goods, have been exposed in public in the British courts and in international meetings against US military bases. So, being part of the tail end of this long-term conspiracy will bring shame on organisations like Greenpeace. That individuals fall into this trap is understandable. But for organisations, we are afraid it will be very damaging to your reputation.

PREVIOUS SUPPORT FOR DIEGO GARCIA CAMPAIGN

In the past, Greenpeace has known about Diego Garcia. We would very much like to remind you that in October, 1998, Lalit de Klas [Mauritius' revolutionary socialist party] sent one of our members to have a formal meeting with your organisation at your headquarters in Amsterdam. The Rann nu Diego Committee, a common front of some ten organisations in Mauritius, including one of the two main Chagossian groups, the Chagos Refugees Group, endorsed Lalit’s request for a Greenpeace action on Diego Garcia to oppose the nuclear base there. One of our members, Ms Lindsey Collen, thus had a formal meeting at your headquarters with Ms Stephanie Mills, who she found to be a very capable, dedicated Australian campaign worker for your organisation.

Following this meeting, and following the dossier that we submitted formally at the same time, Greenpeace informed us by email that you had organised for one of your vessels (in a window of opportunity) to take a group of people for an action on Diego Garcia in or around March 1999, in protest against the military base, its nuclearisation, the forcible removals and the continued colonisation of part of Mauritius. We were already discussing how many people, preparing for a campaign to get support from peace and environment organisations worldwide, and thinking up the kind of media plan necessary.

Lalit immediately set in motion a very broad campaign for ‘background support’, which we got from a series of organisations literally all over the world in order to back up the planned action as soon as it would be able to become public. Response from all over the world was very good. The issue was coming up at the right moment. The only thing that prevented the vessel from actually doing this visit, which would have been truly historic, and which would have been one of Greenpeace’s greatest sources of pride as you looked back on your history, was thwarted, we were informed, when the vessel to be used got ‘iced in’ during a trip to the Antarctica in early 1999, and would, by the time it got out of the ice, be too late, as it was already booked for another action afterwards.

Later, in January, 2004, in the outskirts of the World Social Forum meeting in Mumbai, there was a second attempt, this time to ask Greenpeace if you could lead a planned flotilla to Chagos and Diego Garcia, given that the Chagossians had won a court case for the right to return (since overturned – in part by decree in the UK, and in part by a Privy Council appeal judgement last year). This time it was a joint request from the Chagos Refugees Group and Lalit. Greenpeace were unable to do this, but your leaders at the time were aware of the issues involved.

CAMPAIGN CONTINUES

We mention your past links with the Diego Garcia issue because we believe that your position on the Marine Protected Area which the UK is planning is erroneous. The UK is clearly trying to use the ‘environment issue’ as a desperate attempt to continue its continued colonisation of part of Mauritius. Greenpeace should not allow itself to be used this way.

At present our organisation is spearheading a campaign to call on the Mauritian government to do two things:

– Request the UN General Assembly pass a motion for the International Court of Justice at the Hague to give an opinion as to whose territory the Chagos is (the UK accepted compulsory arbitration except from cases put in by Commonwealth countries, and when the Mauritian government some seven years ago threatened to leave the Commonwealth in order to put a binding case, British prime minister Tony Blair just sent new instructions to his UN ambassador to change the exception to include ex-Commonwealth members. This shows the kind of lengths the UK state will go to.

– Request the UN International Atomic Energy Agency to do inspections of Diego Garcia for nuclear materials, given the coming into operation in 2009 of the Pelindaba treaty for a nuclear weapons free Africa.

We would very much appreciate it if Greenpeace could consider supporting these two demands. Both would certainly help the environment of the Chagos, as they both involve exposing then closing the nuclear military base. Just as the UK government is now being exposed for entering illegally into the Iraq War, and Bush and Blair risk charges as war criminals, so in the future the UK and USA may be publicly exposed as illegal occupiers, as warmongers on Chagos, and as polluters of the Indian Ocean with a truly filthy military base.

Because that is what they are.

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* Ram Seegobin, for Lalit de Klas, Mauritius.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

The degeneration of the ANC

Richard Pithouse

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/62733

cc T ISouth Africa’s African National Congress, has degenerated to the point where it poses ‘a clear and present danger to the integrity of society’ writes Richard Pithouse. Whereas empowerment ‘used to be imagined as a collective and political project that could transform society from below’, says Pithouse, ‘it is now understood as a matter of personal incorporation into the minority that is able to profit from an increasingly unequal society.’

The degeneration of the African National Congress has reached the point where it poses a clear and present danger to the integrity of society. Julius Malema is one of the more flamboyant examples of how a movement committed to national liberation has become, in the words of Frantz Fanon, ‘a means of private advancement’. But Malema is hardly alone. The Communication Workers Union is entirely correct to have diagnosed an ‘embedded and deep-seated Kebble-ism’ within the ANC.

In recent days it has been revealed that Nonkululeko Mhlongo, mother of two of Jacob Zuma’s children, has a multi-million rand contract to provide catering services to the KwaZulu-Natal legislature. And Zweli Mkhize’s wife and daughter have just secured a ZAR3 million rand tender from the Department of correctional services. This sort of thing has been going on for years and cannot be ascribed to a few problematic individuals. On the contrary, in cases like the arms deal and Valli Moosa’s double dealing between Eskom and the ANC fundraising committee, the organisation as a whole has been deeply compromised. It has also been collectively compromised by the systemic failure to take a clear position against individuals involved in dubious practices.

It may be true that the fish rots from the head but it is essential that we understand that the degeneration of the ANC is not just a question of the increasing power of a predatory elite within the party. Empowerment used to be imagined as a collective and political project that could transform society from below. It is now understood, at all levels of the party, as a matter of personal incorporation into the minority that is able to profit from our increasingly unequal society. This process does go some way towards the deracialisation of domination, but there’s not much ground for social hope if that’s the limit of our aspirations.

The ANC has abandoned the language of social justice for the fantasy of a post-political language of ‘delivery’. This language assumes that the state only has to meet people’s most basic needs for survival and that this is a simple question of technical efficiency. The first problem with the language of delivery is that delivery itself is often a strategy for containing popular aspirations rather than a strategy for achieving universal human flourishing. Dumping people in ‘housing opportunities’ in peripheral ghettos where there is very little hope for much more than a child support grant and the possibility of a short term ‘job opportunity’ might keep them from blockading a major road, but it is only development in the most perverse sense of the term.

The second problem is that the fantasy of development as a post-political question of government working faster, harder and smarter fails to engage with the deeply political realities that shape any attempt at development. Political decisions have to be taken on questions like whether or not the social value of land and services should come before their commercial value. When the politics of these questions is not addressed, ‘service delivery’ can only be ‘rolled out’ in the margins of society with the result that it itself becomes a process of active marginalisation.

But the inevitably political nature of development is not just about the competing interests of the poor on one side and the rich and corporate power on the other. There is also a politics that plays out between people on the ground and local party elites. Time and again officials, often trying to follow directives from senior politicians in good faith, find that their attempts to implement technocratic development are captured by local party elites and appropriated and redirected for their own purposes. This is not always a case of simple plunder. Often the allocation of housing and services, as well as all the contracts that go with this process, are subsumed into the systems of clientalism and patronage by which the ANC often cements political support within the party at the local level. In many cases development projects justified in the name of meeting the needs of the people become projects that are primarily orientated towards cementing alliances within the micro-local structures of the party. Its ward committees and local branch executive committees are populated by a multitude of mini-Malemas.

In Fanon’s analysis there is, inevitably, an authoritarian underside that accompanies the degeneration of the party into a ‘means of private advancement’. He writes that the party ‘helps the government to hold the people down. It becomes more and more clearly anti-democratic, an implement of coercion.’ A party that says and that must continue to say that it is for the people when in fact it has become a means of private advancement via complicity with domination will inevitably collapse into paranoia and authoritarianism as it tries to square the circle by pretending, to itself as much as anyone else, that private enrichment is somehow the real fruit of national liberation.

In contemporary South Africa it is not at all unusual to find that people live in fear of local councillors and their ward committees and branch executive committees. In fact it is no exaggeration to say that we have developed a two tier political system with liberal political rights for the middle classes and increasingly severe curtailment of basic political rights for the poor.

Poor people’s movements have long been subject to unlawful and violent repression carried out with impunity by local political elites. But as these practices become normalised they are carried out ever more brazenly. The enthusiastic support from key figures in the local and provincial ANC for the attacks on Abahlali baseMjondolo in Durban in September last year stand as one of the lowest points to which the ANC has yet descended in post-apartheid South Africa. But the fate of Chumani Maxwele, the Cape Town jogger on whom the full and at times lunatic paranoia of the ANC descended last week, has done more than any other event to reveal to a wider public the paranoid authoritarianism that is deeply entrenched within the ANC.

Of course there are people and strands within the party that are opposed to the way in which it has become another predatory excrescence on society. But the ANC no longer has any real political vision and is deeply and often violently suspicious of any real politics that emerges from below – be it from within or outside of the party. It can issue statements against corruption but the fact is that the political machine by which it is elected is built on systemic patronage, clientalism and corruption. It cannot oppose any of this without fundamentally opposing what it has become. And it’s not at all clear if there is any real prospect for the organisation to develop a meaningful political vision with which it can mobilise itself against itself – against what the National Union of Metalworkers has called the ‘marauding gang’ that has compromised the ANC at every level. If the task of posing an alternative political vision can be still be taken up effectively it may well fall to those unions, poor people’s movements and churches that have already become the conscience of our society.

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* This article first appeared in The South African Civil Society Information Service.
* Richard Pithouse teaches politics at Rhodes University.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

president sexmachine

Mphutlane Wa Bofelo

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/62760

cc A Gpresident sexmachine
runs out of semen
calls in juju magic
to foster a son like
father like pornstar
overzealous the heir
strips in public
it is not the clothes
that are off but the mind
the naked head gives
another meaning to nudity
groupies throw not their undies in the air
but their brains out of their heads
the hearts are locked
in the wallets
the bluenotes woke up everybody
the blandnotes sends everyone
to endless slumber
the business chamber
is a torture chamber
on the road to damascus
marx the dessident
transfiguers to max the pet
on the johannesburg stock exchange
socialist tongues are strangled
the new booby traps
are the equity shares
sophisticated snares (to) turn
revolutionary firebrands
into business brands
former guerillas into gluttonous
consumerist gorillas
from the khaki
to the gucci
we whistle vivaldi
where we once
chanted amandla
we shout armani

_
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* Mphutlane wa Bofelo is a writer-activist with a passion for using creative education, literature and theatre as tools for transformation and development.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Nigeria's constitutional crisis and US interference

Funmi Feyide-John

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/62744

cc WikimediaWith Nigeria locked in a constitutional crisis, Funmi Feyide-John discusses the role of the US government's interference. While praising the Nigerian government for its ability to calmly transfer power to Vice-President Goodluck Johnson following President Umaru Yar'Adua's absence due to poor health, Feyide-John writes, the US's alleged favouritism towards particular political players risks severely undermining democracy in Nigeria through casting whoever ultimately ends up as president as a foreign puppet. In meeting former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida in Yar'Adua's absence, Feyide-John stresses, the US's actions give credence to suggestions of its intent to secure a Nigerian base for its AFRICOM (Africa Command) initiative and bolster its access to oil, as part of political dabbling which will doubtless have a lasting impact on Nigerian politics.

The ties that bind between Nigeria and the United States of America run deep. In 2009, Nigeria was the third top supplier of crude oil to the United States, but its 'sweet bonny crude' is of the highest quality in the world. Nigeria is the United States's largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa, and the US is also the largest foreign investor in the country. Additionally, the US is home to a growing number of Nigerians in the diaspora, with the most educated group of immigrants in the United States being Nigerians. As such, it is no surprise that the happenings in Nigeria are of particular interest to the US government. However, the ongoing constitutional crisis and political uncertainty revealed the possibility of American interference in domestic affairs. Such interference could have significant consequences for the future of Nigerian democracy and even Nigerian unity.

RECENT DIPLOMATIC ISSUES

Despite the significant relationship between both countries, in recent years that relationship has experienced some strain. After the 2001 terrorist attack on American targets, Nigeria was listed as a country with terrorist ties. There was a strong response and reaction from the then Obasanjo-led government, eventually leading to Nigeria's removal from the questionable list. Since then, the US has issued various travel warnings about Nigeria.

In addition, Barack Obama's decision to make Ghana his first stop in sub-Saharan Africa was considered as a snub by the Nigerian populace. It generated much debate and the ruling party, the People's Democratic Party (PDP), even went as far as accusing Obama of seeking to destabilise President Yar'Adua's administration. The fact that a previous attempt by Yar'Adua to visit the White House was refused only added to the concerns that relations between the countries were deteriorating.

Another source of contention was the recent fallout experienced by Nigeria and Nigerians after a student based in the UK, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, attempted to blow up an American airliner. Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian citizen radicalised in the UK, travelled to Yemen to become a terrorist. Despite the fact that his father warned the US authorities, and that America had enough information to prevent his attempt on 25 December 2009, in the days that followed Nigeria was placed on a 'terror prone' list. The Nigerian authorities vehemently criticised the US placement of the country on the list, with Dora Akunyili, the minister of information, going as far as saying that the list 'discriminated' against Nigerians. Akunyili even asserted that Nigeria's inclusion had 'the potential of undermining longstanding and established US-Nigeria bilateral ties'. The US countered that due to the absence of President Yar'Adua, who left Nigeria in November 2009 for health reasons, their officials had nobody to communicate with.

NIGERIA'S CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

On 23 November 2009, Yar'Adua was rushed to Saudi Arabia for a medical emergency. It was later revealed that he suffered from pericarditis, a hardening in the lining of the heart. This was in addition to a pre-existing kidney condition. For over two months, Yar'Adua's absence raised constitutional questions about how a vice-president can assume the executive power and functions of the president. Section 145 of the constitution was interpreted by many to require the president to issue a letter to the National Assembly asserting intent to temporarily transfer power. However, a court recently ruled that the president is not obligated to formally inform the National Assembly of prolonged absences, thus making the transfer of power automatic when he is away. But, this ruling did not dampen concerns about Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan's ability to act as president and Jonathan himself played it safe.

THE AMERICAN REACTION

During the uncertainty caused by Yar'Adua's absence, the US joined France, Britain and the EU to issue a joint statement that stated:

'We commend [the] determination to address the current situation through appropriate democratic institutions. Nigeria's continued commitment and adherence to its democratic norms and values are key to addressing the many challenges it faces… We are committed to continue working with Nigeria on the internal issues it faces while working together as partners on the global stage.'

A week and a half after this statement, both bodies of the National Assembly, with the support of all state governors, declared Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan Nigeria's acting president. While many appreciated this crafty resolution of a 79-day-long constitutional crisis that was grinding the business of the nation to a halt, the legality of the action became a concern. The US, nonetheless, immediately praised Nigeria for its 'democratic handover' and on the very day that he was declared acting president, Jonathan was visited by the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson.

At an event honouring 50 important Nigerians in Abuja, former American Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice towed the American line, stating:

'I am certain that Nigerians would find within their democratic institutions a way to deal with the current crisis that you have; but with that said, my prayers are with your President and my prayers are with your Acting President with whom I met … and with all of your other leaders who must lead Nigeria through this critical time.'

She continued:

'If we … reaffirm the principle that Nigerian democracy will be strong and honourable and deliver for its people, I am quite certain that we will look back and say "a job well done"'

This encouraging tune soon changed once it was reported that Yar'Adua had returned from Saudi Arabia. Johnnie Carson issued a statement in which the American government expressed its concerns:

'Nigeria needs a strong, healthy, and effective leader to ensure the stability of the country and to manage Nigeria’s many political, economic, and security challenges. Recent reports, however, continue to suggest that President Yar’Adua’s health remains fragile and that he may still be unable to fulfill the demands of his office.

'We hope that President Yar’Adua’s return to Nigeria is not an effort by his senior advisors to upset Nigeria’s stability and create renewed uncertainty in the democratic process … As a nation of 150 million people, Nigeria’s democracy and its continued adherence to constitutional rule should be the highest priority.'

EVIDENCE OF INTERFERENCE

Beyond this and other strongly worded statements, news reports now allege that Yar'Adua's return was spurred by American intervention. Specifically, it appears that American officials advised their Saudi allies to send Yar'Adua back to Nigeria. Because a Nigerian envoy was prevented from seeing Yar'Adua while in Jeddah, America allegedly warned of the 'major international and diplomatic problems' that could arise from that action. Additionally, the air ambulance used to transport Yar'Adua to Nigeria was allegedly provided by an American medical firm.

Furthermore, Johnnie Carson and US Ambasador to Nigeria Robin Sanders held a two-hour visit with former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida while Yar'Adua was in Saudi Arabia. This action has raised ire and suspicion in the press, with reports that the Obama administration wants Babangida to replace Yar'Adua, assuming he resigns or is impeached. A comment by an American spokesperson only stoked the flames when an anonymous State Department official clarified that the US government does not refer to Babangida as a 'former military dictator… We see him as a former head of state [and an] influential leader in the northern part of the country.' The US government officially stated that the visit was to commiserate with Babangida on the recent loss of his wife since he is a former head of state and member of the Nigerian Council of State.

INTERFERENCE COULD BACKFIRE

By dabbling so openly in Nigeria's political affairs, the US will likely increase certain tensions. Specifically, Johnnie Carson's visit to Jonathan on the day he became acting president must be interpreted as the US government's support of the act. While that in itself is not an issue, such support lends credence to the belief among many that the Obama administration disliked President Yar'Adua and his supporters. The continuous statements about Yar'Adua's return by the US only make matters worse because even though Jonathan was made acting president, the constitutionality of that act is in question and has forced the National Assembly and state governors to begin modification of the constitution. The US being seen to take sides will only increase the friction between various interests in the matter.

Additionally, the very public support of Jonathan, and snubbing of Yar'Adua, will serve to weaken whoever eventually becomes president of Nigeria if Yar'Adua were to resign, be impeached or die as president. US dabbling will give opponents of whoever becomes president ample ammunition to accuse that person of being an American puppet. This possibility would not bode well for Nigeria, where politics is a delicate game of tribal and religious concerns and many other crucial factors. A president that is seen as a puppet of anyone, especially a foreign government, will simply be considered a weak leader and will be unable to accomplish much of anything. After Nigeria's experience with Yar'Adua, who was constantly belittled and whose leadership capacity was constantly questioned, a new leader weakened by American interference will be unforgivable.

It must also be mentioned that while Yar'Adua's supporters come from all corners of Nigeria, his primary alliance is to the northern elite, which for a long time has worried that it might lose control of the presidency to a southerner. Although unwritten, there is an understanding among Nigeria's political elite that presidential power will shift from the north to the south every eight years. By snubbing Yar'Adua so publicly and repeatedly, America might force the northern elite to take undemocratic measures in order to ensure their hold on the presidency. This could include a military coup, or, it could encourage the northern elite to place pressure on northern and other politicians to stall the democratic processes being used to iron out Nigeria's political crisis.

Furthermore, while America has historically been popular in Nigeria, its popularity has decreased significantly in the north due to its anti-terrorism campaign, which is seen to be anti-Muslim. American interference in Nigerian affairs would only increase the distrust of northern Muslims, who would see America as working against their interests and kinsman Yar'Adua. This could also be interpreted as a pro-south measure that would trigger some of the very tribal and religious conflict America claims to want to work with Nigeria to end. America's interference could therefore deepen the tribal and religious divides that already result in the loss of lives and property, as exemplified in recent Jos fighting.

The meeting of US officials with Babangida is another very public problem that will call into question whether America's interests actually lie with the Nigerian people. Although the US refuses to acknowledge Babangida as a former dictator, their actions say otherwise. Babangida was previously refused a visa to the US and only recently received one so he could be by his dying wife, who recently lost her battle with cancer in a California hospital. Such duplicity cannot be ignored.

What must also not be ignored is the fact that Babangida is not one of Yar'Adua's staunchest supporters. In fact, when Yar'Adua was announced as the PDP presidential candidate in 2007, Babangida's name was mentioned repeatedly as a northern alternative. Also, Babangida embarrassed Yar'Adua shortly after the Guinean coup of 2008. Sent by Yar'Adua to impress upon that nation's junta that the coup would not be tolerated, Babangida instead returned with praises for the coup plotters. This caused great embarrassment to Yar'Adua and further weakened his position as leader of Nigeria and possibly even the office of the presidency. For America to pay a former dictator and coup supporter a visit of any kind only dispels statements that the US is a supporter of Nigerian democracy and the Nigerian people.

And there is the additional factor of AFRICOM (Africa Command). When America was looking for an Africa headquarters for its military command centre, Yar'Adua, on behalf of Nigeria, rejected outright American overtures to find a home for AFRICOM in Nigeria or within its sphere of influence. While AFRICOM still operates in the waters of West Africa via partnership training programmes with various African governments, it remains an initiative of the US government to find an African location for the outfit. This meeting with Babangida, a former military officer and dictator, raises questions about whether during Yar'Adua's absence and sickness, Babangida and others will be used to improve America's chances at securing a Nigerian base for AFRICOM. Doing so will only further allegations that America is solely interested in Nigeria for its sweet bonny crude oil, to the detriment of the people who are yet to benefit from oil sales, particularly those in the Niger Delta. This could spur a return to the violence in the Delta region, which has slowed down but threatens to erupt again given the current state of political uncertainty in Nigeria.

While the Nigeria–US relationship has suffered some bumps along the way, the recent reports and evidence of American interference in Nigerian politics could present future challenges to that relationship and possibly to Nigeria's future. It remains to be seen whether America's public dabbling in Nigeria's current political insecurity will be a success for American interests in Nigeria and the region. But what is certain is that the risks taken by the US in interfering in Nigerian politics will have a lasting impact on Nigeria now and in the future. The only question is whether this lasting impact will be negative or positive. For Nigeria's sake, one hopes that it will be positive, but only the future will tell.

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* Funmi Feyide-John is a Nigerian lawyer and writer living in Washington DC.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Meles Zenawi: Waiting for Godot to leave?

Alemayehu G. Mariam

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/62759

cc D HAnticipating Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's departure from office is much like waiting for Samuel Beckett's character Godot to arrive, Alemayehu G. Mariam writes – it never happens. Zenawi's preference for mud-slinging over logical debate in the face of criticism means everybody gets covered in mud, Mariam stresses, and merely underlines his administration's determination to rule according to its own greed and fear.

Last week, a couple of interesting political statements grabbed the cyber headlines. One was a truly entertaining piece entitled 'Letter from Ethiopia' by the indomitable Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega. Eskinder’s 'letter' sought to make sense of the power jockeying that is apparently taking place backstage to replace dictator Meles Zenawi. The other was a bombastic speech given by Zenawi to a captive audience in Mekele in observance of the 35th anniversary of the founding of his liberation movement. In that speech, Zenawi unleashed a torrent of vitriol against his opponents and critics to rival Hugo Chavez’s, and indulged in a little bit of megalomaniacal braggadocio and self-glorification for democratising Ethiopia and inundating it with prosperity.

Using the so-called election scheduled for May 2010 as a backdrop, Eskinder crystal-balled the inevitable implosion of the ruling EPDRF (Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front) party and sketched out the qualifications of the motley crew of droll characters standing in line as heirs-apparent to succeed Zenawi on the 'throne'.

'Scratch beyond the surface and the EPRDF is really not the monolithic dinosaur as it is most commonly stereotyped. [It has become] a coalition of four distinct phenomenon: the increasing confusion of the dominant TPLF [Tigrayan People's Liberation Front], the acute cynicism of the ANDM [Amhara National Democratic Movement], the desperate nihilism of the OPDO [Oromo People's Democratic Organisation] and the inevitable irrelevance of the incongruent SEPM [South Ethiopian People’s Movement] (a grab bag of some 40 ethnic groups from the southern part of the country).'

In the battle royale for the 'throne' are a number of goofy and cagey characters, including the OPDO’s Girma Biru who is said to be 'managerially competent' but a dud and a wimp when it comes to formulating a 'grand vision and [lacks] the ruthlessness deemed crucial to keep the EPRDF vibrant and intact'. OPDO chairman Abadula Gemeda, the butt of 'the city’s political jokes', is considered a possible contender and given full credit for his own 'comical intellectual pretensions'. The ANDM’s Addisu Legesse is said to be held in 'particular high esteem' by Zenawi for his servility and slavish loyalty beyond and above the call of duty. Then there is the Svengalian master of intrigue Bereket Simon, whose 'influence is expected to wane once Meles eventually leaves the limelight'. The crocodilian Sebhat Nega, 'kingmaker for two decades', has apparently 'chosen to leave TPLF’s politburo' but remains a member of the Central Committee as puppet-master extraordinaire.

In other words, the politics of 'succession' to Zenawi’s 'throne' has become a veritable theatre of the absurd. The personalities waiting in the wings to take over the 'throne' (or to protect and safeguard it) bring to mind the witless characters in Samuel Beckett’s tragicomedy play 'Waiting for Godot', arguably the most important English-language play of the 20th century. In that play, two vagabond characters anxiously wait on a country road by a tree for the arrival of a mysterious person named Godot, who can save them and answer all their questions. They wait for days on end but Godot never shows up, but each day a young messenger comes to tell them Godot will be there tomorrow. As they wait each day, they try to find something to do. They keep busy chatting, arguing, singing, playing games, swapping hats, taking their shoes off, napping and doing all sorts of trivial things just 'to hold the terrible silence at bay'. Each day, the characters tell each other that they can not go on waiting. They are so tired of waiting day after day that they contemplate suicide. Godot never shows up but the two characters keep returning to the same place day after day to wait for him, but they cannot remember exactly what happened the day before. Godot never comes.

Waiting for Zenawi to leave power is like waiting for Godot to arrive. It ain’t happening. He is not only the saviour and the man with all the answers, he is also the great patron who makes everything work. In his Mekele speech, Zenawi made it clear that he is staying put and the great business of state business will go on as usual, and, but for the wicked opposition elements and pesky critics, how things could really be awesome! But he did not hold back in visiting his wrath on his opposition and critics. With rhetorical flourish, he lambasted his former comrades-in-arms, opposition elements and critics with the Amharic equivalent of 'muckrakers', 'mud dwellers' and good-for-nothing 'chaff' and 'husk'. He accused them of being 'anti-democratic', 'anti-people' fomenters of 'interhamwe'. He called them 'sooty', 'sleazy', 'gun-toting marauders', 'pompous egotists' and every other name than could be pumped out of the Insulto-Matic machine. He repeatedly denounced his opposition for rolling in a quagmire of mud and trying to smear mud on the people. After all that was said in that speech, it was clear that he was the one doing all the mud-slinging and mud-rolling (chika jiraf and chika mab-kwat). (It must have been a bad hair day for him (no pun intended)!)

Zenawi pulled no punches, slamming and vilifying his opponents and critics:

'There are those who maintain an eagle eye on the regime with bitter animosity and sully it by painting and drenching it in soot. Regardless, our country has marched into democracy confidently and irreversibly.

'Anti-democratic and anti-people forces have so much contempt that they badger our uneducated people telling them chaff is wheat. However, our people are used to winnowing the chaff in the wind and keeping the wheat. Our enemies are peddling chaff to the people and trying to find holes to sabotage our peoples’ democracy, peace and development. But since our organization knows that our operation is airtight, we are not concerned.

'The chaff hope to provoke the people into anger and incite them to undemocratically resort to violence. Although they (the "chaff") can not dirty up the people like themselves, they may try to smear the people with mud in the hope of inciting them into lawlessness.'

It was an un-statesmanlike speech, to say the least. But there were a few odd things about the speech itself. Even though the speech was given to a captive audience in Mekele, the clear impression that is created for the listener is that the people of Tigray will be doing the winnowing of the useless 'chaff' from the valuable 'wheat'. The contextualisation of the speech subtly cuts off the people of Tigray from the rest of the country. The incredible amount of venom in the speech could make a snake puke. The allusion-fest to 'mud', 'soot,' 'chaff' and 'wheat', and the thinly veiled ad hominem personal attacks, derision and disparagement of opponents and critics points to a deficit of intellectual discipline and rigour to argue and fiercely debate the issues in the court of public opinion. Instead of name-calling, one ought to use hard evidence and logical analysis to disprove the allegations, contentions or analysis of the opponents and critics. In this regard, there is a rather humorous tu quoque (two wrongs make a right) logical fallacy that infuses the whole speech. Zenawi takes the position that since his critics 'wallow' in mud and keep slinging it at him, it is right for him to wallow in and sling mud and muck back at them while professing to command the moral high ground. In other words, it is right to 'fight mud with mud'. The problem of a mud fight is that everybody gets dirty. It is morally superior and infinitely more pragmatic to fight the 'mud slingers' by slinging back at them, not mud pies, but facts, evidence, data and logical analysis.

The speech is also noteworthy for its self-righteousness, messianic fervour and the dogmatic certitude in the speaker’s rectitude: Everybody is chaff except the winnowed wheat. Everyone is a member of the evil empire except the anointed Jedi knights of the TPLF, who are the guardians of peace and justice in the republic (to borrow from a popular American motion picture 'Star Wars'). Such a Manichean worldview (Weltanschauung) of good and evil and chaff and wheat is symptomatic of narcissistic self-absorption, a behavioural pattern well documented in the psychological literature, and empirically observed in terms of faulty reasoning, acute hostility towards others groups, rigid character attributes and blindness to one’s failings.

The real issue is not about name-calling, mud-slinging or even determining the true bearers of the democratic cross. The real issue is about the accountability of a personalist dictatorship that is sustained through a self-aggrandising oligarchy that now craves a veneer of legitimacy by staging a democratic 'election' for international donors. The fact remains that no amount of mud-slinging, soot-smearing or bombastic speech can mask the true nature of an election in a dictatorship. One can put the finest lipstick on a pig, but at the end of a day the pig is still a pig.

As Zenawi’s speech shows, he exercises absolute imperial power for self-gratification and self-glorification, and his declared aim is to mould Ethiopian society in his own image. His ruling regime fundamentally believes that political power grows out of the barrel of the gun (not from the consent of the people), fully aware of their own feebleness without the gun. Their raison d’être is to amass and centralise political and economic power at all costs and maintain themselves in power by greed, fear and blind ambition.

We fully accept the metaphor of 'chaff' and 'wheat' as a judicious and appropriate way not just to understand Ethiopian politics today but also as a practical way of resolving the crises of confidence in governance and proper determination of leadership succession. It is the right time now to put the metaphor to a real test: Let the Ethiopian people winnow the 'chaff' from the 'wheat' in the calm winds of a genuinely free and fair election in May 2010. That seems highly unlikely; and the chaff that stands in the way of the people 'shall inherit the wind'.

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* Alemayehu G. Mariam is professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and an attorney based in Los Angeles.
* This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

The perils of polygyny

Waheeda Amien

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/62736

cc WikimediaWaheeda Amien argues that while recognising polygyny – the practice entitling a man to more than one spouse – respects cultural and religious rights, this is done to the detriment of individual rights. Not only does polygyny discriminate against women in African and Muslim communities in equality terms, but wives, children and husbands are financially and emotionally affected. Amien, however, does not necessarily advocate monogamy, rather she holds that the aim should be ‘to work toward an egalitarian society where intimate and family relationships are based on an understanding of substantive equality for all involved.’

Polygyny is a practice that entitles a man to have more than one spouse. In an attempt to recognise the cultural and religious rights of different communities, polygyny is recognised as legally valid for African communities in South Africa and may be legal for South African Muslim communities if the Muslim Marriages Bill is enacted in its current form.

Yet, recognition of polygyny has resulted in what Ayelet Shachar calls the ‘paradox of multiculturalism’. While cultural and religious rights of groups are respected, the individual rights of vulnerable members within that group are infringed upon. For instance, polygyny discriminates against the female members of African and Muslim communities because it does not afford them the same right to have multiple spouses.

Furthermore, polygyny impacts on the female members of those communities in a way that negates their right to substantive equality. For example, in the context of intestate succession, it is possible that a polygynous wife who has contributed substantially more to the maintenance or increase of her deceased husband’s estate would have to unfairly share the estate equally with other polygynous wives.

Moreover, the consent of the first wife or existing wives is not required for a man to contract multiple marriages. Therefore, the existing wife’s agency is denied. In the context of Muslim marriages, the existing wife’s choice is further repudiated by the fact that she believes she is unable to exit the marriage without her husband’s consent or the consent of the ‘ulama (learned community) with faskh (annulment). Although Shari’a entitles women to divorce themselves without requiring their husband’s or the ‘ulama’s consent in exchange for returning their mahr (mandatory gift from a groom to a bride) to their husbands – a process named khul’a – many are unaware of their right to do so or have been culturally conditioned to believe that it is wrong to do so.

In 2007, a Malaysian NGO called Sisters in Islam (SIS) conducted an extensive study on the effects of polygyny on all parties involved. The study reveals that not only are wives negatively affected in a financial and emotional manner, children and husbands are also negatively affected on an emotional basis. The study is available at openDemocracy.

The Malaysian study shows that where men are unable to properly maintain their multiple families, women are usually required to supplement the income of the respective households and many comprise the breadwinners of those households. In addition, polygynous wives tend to suffer from depression because they have to deal with the reality that they have to share their husbands’ attention (sexual and otherwise) with other women and other families. Their depression has a knock-on effect on their children who feel neglected by their mothers and become resentful toward their mothers.

In particular, children of first marriages usually experience their parents’ polygynous relationships more acutely than children of subsequent marriages. For instance, they feel the absence of their father and the loss of resources more severely, whereas children of subsequent marriages are always aware that there is another family that they have to share their father’s time and resources with. Nevertheless, the Malaysian study confirms that all children of polygynous marriages usually perpetuate the dysfunctional nature associated with those relationships by not being able to engage in stable relationships of their own later in life.

As for the Malaysian men who were interviewed, the study discloses that they experience polygynous marriages as stressful and would not recommend it for their own sons.

While the above study was conducted in the context of Malaysian polygynous marriages, the lessons learnt are globally applicable and are most likely experienced by polygynous parties in South Africa as well. Perhaps a similar comprehensive study needs to be undertaken in South Africa to determine if the legal framework should be geared towards deterring polygyny instead of encouraging it, as it promises to do within the Muslim context and as is currently the case within the context of African communities.

Although polygyny appears to be permitted by Shari’a provided that a man can treat his polygynous wives justly (Qur’an 4:3), many Muslim scholars argue that Shari’a strongly encourages monogamy. Therefore, a regulated form of polygyny such as is implemented in Pakistan and Malaysia would not be un-Islamic. In fact, Tunisia, which is a Muslim country, has abolished polygyny on the basis that it is religiously justifiable to do so. Tunisia relied on a combination of the Qur’anic verses 4:3 and 4:129, which permits the interpretation that polygyny should not be allowed since a man will not be able to treat his polygynous wives justly.

It cannot be denied that polygyny is inherently discriminatory while monogamy offers the potential of an equal relationship between parties. Yet, infidelity, extramarital relationships, extramarital families and serial polygyny (where spouses in monogamous marriages divorce each other and marry others) can occur in monogamous marriages as well. The problem is thus not the structure of the relationship, but the nature of the relationship. In other words, the patriarchal underpinnings of marital relationships or life-partnerships result in power imbalances and inequality between men and women. The aim should, therefore, be to work toward an egalitarian society where intimate and family relationships are based on an understanding of substantive equality for all involved. This will necessarily entail an equalising of the power relations between men and women in long-term relationships and the availability of equal negotiating tools for both parties.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Waheeda Amien is a lecturer in the law faculty at the University of Cape Town. She writes in her personal capacity.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Private land - no trespassing

Gado

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/62746

Comparative African Perspectives on China and other emerging powers in Africa

Call for Proposals

FAHAMU

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/62769

Comparative African Perspectives on China and other emerging powers in Africa is a research project initiated by FAHAMU, the network for social justice issues. China’s deepening engagement with Africa is receiving increased attention from the global media, public- and private sectors as well as academic research. This should however not overshadow the activities of other emerging powers in Africa, including India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa. This call therefore seeks to develop an African perspective by strengthening the civil society voice in the discourse surrounding the engagement between Africa and these emerging powers.
Comparative African Perspectives on China and other emerging powers in Africa

Call for Proposals

Terms of Reference for In-Depth Thematic Areas

1. Introduction
Comparative African Perspectives on China and other emerging powers in Africa is a research project initiated by FAHAMU, the network for social justice issues. China’s deepening engagement with Africa is receiving increased attention from the global media, public- and private sectors as well as academic research. This should however not overshadow the activities of other emerging powers in Africa, including India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa. This call therefore seeks to develop an African perspective by strengthening the civil society voice in the discourse surrounding the engagement between Africa and these emerging powers. This project aims to achieve this by:
• Enabling research to be undertaken on the political, social, economic and cultural effects of the emerging powers activities in Africa,
• Developing informed discussion and advocacy in Africa surrounding the role and nature of engagement between Africa and the various emerging powers in Africa,
• Enhancing long-term cooperation between researchers, academics, media and activists in Africa and the emerging powers.

2. The Research themes
The primary purpose of this research project is to undertake a comprehensive comparative analysis between one of the following emerging powers and China’s activities in a respective African country:
• India
• Brazil
• Russia
• South Africa
Applicants will choose one of the above countries and provide a comparative perspective with the activities of China in their respective African country. Focus will be placed on one of the following themes:
• Comparative study on trade and investment practices of Chinese TNC’s in Africa and the chosen emerging actor, including corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices,
• Comparative study of the Chinese Diaspora community in Africa with the Diaspora community of the chosen emerging actor in Africa, or migration patterns, and the African response,
• Comparative study of investment practices in one of the following:

1. The agricultural sector, and the effects on land tenure rights

2. The extractive industries, and its environmental and social impact

3. The manufacturing sector, and the effects on local employment
• Comparative study on China’s (changing) stance on human rights and non-interference in Africa and the differences/similarities with the conduct of the chosen emerging actor,
• Comparative study on China’s aid policy to Africa vis-à-vis other Asian and 'Southern' powers, and the older 'Northern' players, and the implications for debt sustainability.
The intention in each of these areas is to identify appropriate and sector-specific policy measures as well as develop opportunities and challenges. This call for proposals therefore aims to:
• Provide an in-depth understanding of the impact of the specific research theme on the recipient African country.
• Evaluate how African governments are responding and ensuring a better co-ordinated response to the engagement within the specific research theme.
• Observe the effect this has for African societies - in particular how Africa’s engagement with emerging powers helps or harms development at the grass roots level.
• Determine a set of recommendations that could be useful for strengthening bilateral and multilateral continental institutions (including the AU, Regional Economic Communities) in stimulating an African strategy in Africa’s engagement with emerging powers in Africa.

3. Call for Proposals
The FAHAMU China/Emerging Powers in Africa Programme therefore invites interested African individuals and institutions to submit proposals in the above thematic areas. There are a total of four research grants to be awarded.

Each proposal should include a brief review of the relevant literature in the thematic area relating to Africa’s engagement with the emerging powers, with particular reference to the relevant case study and where the research will be conducted. A clear outline of the methodology must be provided, including the type of data, availability of information and collection strategy.

Applicants are encouraged to form collaborations. Researcher teams must comprise at most three persons with one identified team leader and at least one female researcher.

This call for proposals is designed to strengthen the capacity and development of researchers and institutions working within their home countries. As a result, and given the total value of each grant, researchers are encouraged to submit proposals relating to their home countries and not apply to conduct research in third countries.

Finally all interested parties are encouraged not to duplicate existing studies. Instead the proposals are designed to assist researchers with seed funding for projects, which offer new insights into the impact of the selected emerging powers, and China, in Africa in each of the thematic areas.
Proposals designed along the guidelines specified below should be submitted to the attention of the Programme Officer, Ms Hayley Herman of the China/Emerging Powers in Africa Programme, FAHAMU, at the following email address: hayley@fahamu.org The deadline for submitting proposals is 19 March 2010.

4. Proposal requirements
Each proposal should include the following:

Background: The policy context of the proposed research.

Objective(s): A brief statement of the specific objectives based on the coverage of the thematic studies mentioned above.

Methodology: A statement detailing how the research objectives are to be achieved, i.e., hypotheses, methods, data collection, data analysis, etc.

Results: Anticipated results and how they might contribute to knowledge, future research and especially public policy.

Statement of qualification and current CVs

Work Programme and Timeline: The brief description of activities and timeline needed for each activity. Total duration of this study is 6 months.

Budget: Estimated expenditure by major line item, e.g., research time, in market travel etc. Total budget should not exceed GBP£4000.

Project leaders must at least fulfil all or some of the following criteria:
a. Completed at least one research project in the proposed thematic area of study;
b. Have a good publication record in the proposed thematic area of study;
Proposals should demonstrate a strong mentoring of young scholars engaged in the discourse surrounding emerging powers in Africa.

5. Conclusion

It is envisaged that the successful applicants will conduct the research over a 6 month period. The call for proposals will close on 19 March 2010. Research will commence following selection process and notification of successful applications. No applications received after 19 March 2010 will be accepted.

All Proposals MUST BE submitted in ENGLISH

The Third Force is gathering its strength

Abahlali baseMjondolo

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/62755

The goal that our attackers wanted to achieve when they ambushed us on the night of 26 September 2009 has not been achieved. A surprise attack was launched against our movement, the spontaneous resistance to the attack was broken by the police, our office was destroyed, hundreds of our members and supporters were chased from Kennedy Road, thirteen of our comrades were jailed and illegally detained and we have been banned from openly organising in the settlement where our movement was founded. But our movement was never just in Kennedy Road. Before the attack there were fifteen settlements affiliated to our movement in Durban and more than 50 branches across Durban, Pinetown, Tongaat, Howick, Pietermaritzburg and Cape Town. The goal of the attack was to destroy our movement to punish us for our victory against the Slums Act, to deny us the victory that we had won to have the Kennedy Road settlement upgraded where it is and to neutralise us before 2010. But our movement still exists. In fact it continues to grow. Since the attack we have launched four new branches and we will launch another four new branches soon.

In Kennedy Road there is no political freedom now. Abahlali is banned from the settlement and if you are thought to remain loyal to the movement there is still a risk that you may be assaulted and that your home will be broken down or burnt. We have always allowed political freedom. When we organised No Land! No House! No Vote campaigns we allowed those residents who wished to support political parties to do so. You are either a democrat or you are not and the only real test of your commitment to democracy is whether or not you allow different views to express themselves. No one can deny that we passed that test. No one can deny that the ANC has failed that test.

All of the services that we provided in Kennedy Road are no longer provided. There is no more Drop-in-Centre for people living with HIV and AIDS, there is no more community crèche, there are no more food parcels for families that are starving, there is no more collectively organised care for the sick. Bread is no longer baked for the hungry. There is no more Operation Khanyisa. Now people just connect how they feel without regard to safety – and now people sometimes have to pay for a connection. Even the hall that we fixed up and maintained so carefully after it had lain desolate for years is sinking back into desolation. The grass has not been cut. Rubbish is rotting everywhere. Those who cannot afford to send their children to private crèches now leave them with gogos who are also busy with fetching water, baking and making beer. The care is not the same. At our crèche we taught English and counting, we gave pills to the children that needed them. We had a full time teacher from the community who took her responsibility as a serious job. She had been on courses on how to teach the small children. It is a strange thing that when we as the poor are allowed to govern ourselves we can do all this. But when the political party that has all the money seizes control of our community because to them it is a rebel community they can’t even run a crèche. It is clear that their agenda starts and ends with maintaining political control over the people.

On 19 February 2010 the Kennedy 12 appeared in court again. This time the magistrate openly admitted that there was massive political interference and pressure on this case. He failed to give details of this interference and pressure. We will look for ways to force this into the open.

The case was remanded until 4 May 2010. If the case does go to trial on 4 May the 5 comrades who are still in Westville prison will have spent 7 months in jail without any evidence being presented to the court to indicate that they are guilty of any crime. They spent two months in prison without a bail hearing. Detention without a trial or a bail hearing is a crime. When they did have a bail hearing at the end of November last year no evidence was brought against them other than that they had been identified in a line-up. That means nothing. Their accusers had been to court six times and had seen them in the dock each time. Before that they were neighbours, some were team mates in the same soccer teams. Some had known each other for twenty years. The issue was never whether or not the accusers could recognise the accused. The issue was whether or not the accusers could bring any evidence against the accused. They have failed to do this. There is still no evidence.

It is clear that we are heading for a political trial. When there is open intimidation in the court – including death threats - when politicians are openly advising the prosecution, and when there are repeated delays that keep people locked up because the IO has ‘forgotten to come to court’, because ‘the typist is unavailable’ or because the prosecutor is ‘unavailable’ (when in fact everyone can see her smoking outside the court) you know that you are not dealing with anything that can be called justice. The police investigator has missed court 4 times. He says that he has forgotten to attend the court but if he cannot even be relied on to remember a court date how can he be relied on to investigate a complex situation like the attack on AbM in Kennedy Road? In the constitution of our movement it says that if someone is elected to a responsible position in the movement and they miss three meetings without an apology then they must lose their position. Surely a police officer who fails to attend the case that he is investigating must be removed from that case?

The normal rules of justice have not been applied in this case. It is no different to how the normal rules about evictions or the right to march are not applied in our case. It is clear that the normal rules are never applied to the poor.

The police and the prosecution are supposed to be working for the public. We are, as we have stated many times, especially when we are arrested for ‘public violence’ when we exercise the basic rights promised to us in the constitution, very clear that we are also the public. If this idea of the ‘public’ has to have any useful meaning it has to mean everyone. But it is very clear that the police and the prosecution are not working for us – they are working for the politicians – for Willies Mchunu and the thugs that were deployed against us. It is clear that the poor in this country are supposed to accept that the normal rules do not apply to us. It is also clear that in this country the mobilised poor, those who have organised themselves to speak and act for themselves, are taken by the politicians to be enemies of this society – the same society that we are expected to guard, clean and build in silence.

It is a disgrace how this case has dragged through 12 appearances. Perhaps they are trying to ensure that we have no money left for a good lawyer when the trial comes.

How are we expected to abide by the law when the state does not? What are we supposed to do when citizens are compelled to respect the law but the state does not? How are we supposed to protect our struggles when the state has no respect for the law? How are we even supposed to get the money to pay lawyers to argue that we too deserve to be treated within the law?

Last year won a great victory in the Constitutional Court. That victory has forced the state to admit that it cannot ‘clear the slums by 2014’ and to promise to meet our demand and to access land and to build houses in the cities. But while we can get a fair hearing in the Constitutional Court there is no fairness lower down. Despite this we believe that power remains with us. When the law can’t be a remedy for us we will use our political power.

The guys in prison are suffering a double victimization. They must endure imprisonment and they must endure the assaults that they are suffering in the prison. Once again their visitors are being chased from the prison at visiting hours – both comrades and family. We have asked Bishop Rubin Phillip to contact the prison authorities on this matter. On Tuesday a group of priests from South Africa and abroad visited the prison.

Things are still difficult for the people displaced in the attacks. They all lost the infrastructure that a person needs for a sustainable life. Many of them lost everything. Many of them are still looking for a safe place to stay.

The attack was meant to destroy our movement -to frighten us back into the dark silence from which our movement emerged. Well we have a very bad news for our attackers and those that have supported them – for people like Jackson Gumede, John Mchunu and Willies Mchunu. The bad news is that since the attack we have formally launched four new branches. We have launched new branches in:

· Hillary

· Cato Crest (Umkhumbane)

· Lindelani (Ntuzuma)

· Port View (Diakonia Avenue, CBD)

We are also preparing to launch three new branches in:

· The Ridge View Transit Camp (Chesterville)

· New Dunbar (Mayville)

· Albert Park

There is also underground organising that we cannot yet speak about.

We don’t go to shack settlements, or blocks of flats, or to the old tin houses or the new amatins to mobilise people. People come to us. They mobilise us to come and share our experience of struggle with them. All we do is to allow ourselves to be mobilised. It is the condition of people’s lives that recruits them to this struggle.

On Sunday we launched a new office in the transit camp in Siyanda B. A few weeks ago we opened our new head office in the CBD. We lost a lot of books in the attack but our library is running again.

Since the attacks we have carried on the work of fighting evictions. Evictions have been stopped in:

· Tumbleweed (Howick)

· Hillary (Durban)

· Motala Heights (Pinetown)

In all these areas the battles are ongoing.

On 17 March 2010 it will be one year since the High Court issued an interdict against the Department of Transport giving them one year to provide permanent housing to the people that it evicted from Siyanda and into the Richmond Farm Transit Camp. But there are no plans yet for housing these people. The court also issued an interdict that forced the Department to provide basic services. But almost a year later there is still no water, there are still no toilets. The court also ordered that there would be a report to the court every three months but there has been no report. The Department of Transport is in contempt of court. We will take this battle up in the streets and in the court. We will demand that the Department be held accountable to the people forced into the Richmond Farm Transit camps like fish into tins and to the High Court.

We are well advanced with plans for more mass action. This will include things like public protest and, in one area, a rent strike. We will announce these actions soon.

About 150 of the people displaced from Kennedy Road are meeting once a week with the exiled but democratically elected Kennedy Road Development Committee. They have formulated the following demands:

1. The right to safe and permanent return to the Kennedy Road settlement.

2. The right to access to nearby land if someone else has built on their land in the interim.

3. The right to full and equal protection from the SAPS for everyone.

4. The right to have the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed between the Kennedy Road Development Committee and the eThekwini Municipality in February last year recognised and honoured as a legally binding document.

5. The right to free political activity for all within the settlement.

6. The right to have the ANC coup recognised as a coup that has no standing. The ANC committee should be set aside and a credible outside organisation should hold a free and fair election for a new committee.

7. The right to have our right recognised to land and housing in the upgrade that was won by our struggle.

8. The right to continue to struggle for the realisation of these legitimate demands in and out of the courts.

9. The right to have the attack and the blatantly unfair and unlawful judicial process that followed it investigated by a credible and independent commission of inquiry.

The situation in Kennedy Road is very bad now. There is no longer any leadership – there is just political control. The demolishing of homes of AbM supporters continues. The outside ANC is no longer in Kennedy Road. The settlement has been left in the hands of the local shebeen owners and the local ANC that perpetrated the attack. It is disgracing how the ruling class overlooks the social needs of people and is just interested in politics – in controlling the people from the top down. The crime rate is now very high in the settlement. The situation is particular dangerous for women. It is also affecting people outside of the settlement. The middles classes near to the settlement are becoming very concerned about the increase in crime.

There are serious debates going on in the settlement. People are asking where Willies Mchunu is now when the community has no leadership and is not safe. In February he promised that he would house people but he can’t fulfil those promises. In fact after we were attacked John Mchunu said that the people would be taken from Kennedy Road to the transit camp in Chatsworth. People are now wondering if in fact it could be that we were attacked so that the land that we had won could be taken back from us.

The state has failed to respond to the worldwide call for an independent commission of inquiry. On Friday Abahlali baseMjondolo will meet with Church Leaders to take forward the proposal for the churches to conduct their own inquiry.

Perhaps because of the escalation of crime in the settlement, and because of how this is now affecting the middle classes nearby the settlement, or perhaps just because some police officers really do want to do their work properly the local police are now, at last, starting to act against the leaders of the coup. On Thursday last week two people – a shebeen owner and well known criminal who were both involved in the attack – were arrested for demolishing a house of an AbM supporters. This is an important break through. Up until now the police have just refused to open cases for people whose homes have been demolished. S’bu Zikode was the only person who succeeded to open such a case. Others were just chased. Mashumi Figlan was badly insulted when he tried to open a case. Mondli Mbiko was promised that a case would be opened but nothing happened. Therefore we welcome these arrests and commend the police. They are a sign that the local police are starting to resist the political pressure and to obey the law rather than the politicians. They are not the first sign. Last week two others, both members of the new ANC committee in Kennedy Road, were arrested for assaulting one of our comrades. If the police can follow the law rather than just taking orders from the ruling party then there are some small but important signs of hope.

The arrested people are:

1. Sizwe Motaung (shebeen owner)

2. Linga ‘Mnqundu’ Hitsa (well known criminal)

3. Zibuyile Ngcobo (Member of the BEC of the local ANC and part of the new ANC committee installed after the coup)

4. Nana Ngcobo (Member of the BEC of the local ANC and part of the new ANC committee installed after the coup)

It is interesting to note that, while we have been rebuilding our movement and looking after the displaced and the jailed, people have been struggling all over South Africa. If we are the third force then it is clear that the third force is everywhere. And if the third force is everywhere then it is clear that the third force is just another name for the organised poor. There is no doubt that the poor will rise again and again. Nothing will make Lanesdowne Road or the Golden Highway safe for the business of the rich for as long as the poor are kept poor. The only question is what will the poor rise for? Will we rise against each other or we will rise against injustice? It is so sad that in Uganda and Kenya the rich and their priests and Maulanas are trying to turn the people against each other. Here in South Africa we commend those who, like Sikhula Sonke, have taken a clear stand against xenophobia and for a struggle that empowers the poor to take back our dignity from the rich in and out of government.

It is also interesting to note that while we have been rebuilding our movement Haiti has been devastated by this terrible earthquake. It is clear that from Haiti to Kennedy Road the poor are not allowed to choose their own leaders and to build their own power. From Haiti to Kennedy Road we are only allowed democracy if voting means that we support one faction of the rich against another. From Haiti to Kennedy Road our political weakness leads us to be vulnerable to disasters like fires, floods and earthquakes. And from Haiti to Kennedy Road disasters are misused to seize even more control over our communities in the name of helping people who have been made to be desperate. For Haiti to Kennedy Road the solution, the real solution, is the political empowerment of the poor by the poor and for the poor.

Our struggle began in 2005 with marches against Yakoob Baig, the Ward 25 councillor. We have heard that his house was recently repossessed by the bank. Two days later one of our members saw him at the Suncoast Casino. The rich think that only they are fully human. They think that only they are real citizens. They think that we are dirty and stupid and that we like living like pigs in the mud. But in fact the only difference between the poor and the rich is that the rich have money and the poor do not. There is no other difference. Some poor people wake up one day and notice that they are rich. Some rich people wake up one day and notice that they are poor. Money can come and it can go but you were still born to the same mother and you still have the same mind. We are issuing a public invitation to Yakoob Baig to come and speak to us if he needs a place to stay. We can show him how to get some pallets from the dump and arrange for some land where he can build a jondolo for his family.

We want to thank all those people around South Africa and around the world who have supported us after the attack. Their investment has not been wasted. Our struggle continues.

Any popular movement that is serious about building the power of the poor and that is serious about demanding the full recognition of the equal humanity of the poor will face many challenges and tests. We have confronted and passed many challenges and tests since 2005. The attack on our movement in Kennedy Road has been the greatest test that we have faced so far. But we have passed it.

For further information please contact:

Mnikelo Ndabankulu: 079 745 0653
Mazwi Nzimande: 074 222 8601

For further information about the specific situation in Kennedy Road please contact Mzwake Mdlalose: 072 132 8458

Support for the displaced:

To offer support of any kind to the people displaced or arrested in the attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in Kennedy Road please contact the Kennedy Road Development Committee via Mzwake Mdlalose. The solidarity fund managed by Bishop Rubin Phillip is still active and open for donations. The details are online at: http://abahlali.org/node/5783

The contrasting legacies of Rashid Kawawa and Akena Adoko

Kintu Nyago

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/62728

cc K BurtisWith the death of both Rashid Kawawa of Tanzania and Akena Adoko of Uganda in January this year, Kintu Nyago compares their legacies. Of Kawawa he says: ' If Nyerere… was the grand architect of Tanzanian nation building, regional liberation and security, then Kawawa was his trusted, skilled, implementing mason.' Of Adoko, however, Nyago is not so praiseworthy. He argues that Adoko's actions were 'selfishly and politically calculated:… intended to retain power… against the wishes of the people of Uganda.'

Though it’s common practice for Africans to gloss over one’s legacy at death, while proclaiming only one’s good record, I will critically assess the twin legacies of Uganda’s Akena Adoko and Tanzania’s Rashid Kawawa, hopefully for the benefit of posterity. Both died in January this year. Having never interacted with them personally, I will not dwell on their personal traits of say being amiable or sociable and so on. My main concern would be with their contributions in the realms of nation building.

Both men lived during, what the Chinese refer to as, interesting times: That turbulent post colonial era when newly independent political elites, without having acquired the required apprenticeship to manage statecraft from a divisive and fleeing colonial master, ended up in charge of the brutal colonial state that reigned over disparate communities.

Inevitably it required considerable political skills and vision to hold together these new countries. Moreover, the new political elite had to do so within a context of locally dependent, underdeveloped economies and an unstable geo-political environment. Indeed, how the Tanzanian and Ugandan political elite responded to these challenges offers interesting case studies of nation building and regional liberation, on the one hand, and of national disintegration and regional destabilization, on the other.

Kawawa and Adoko shared in common, the trait of having submitted themselves to the wills of their political masters from the very start: Tanzania’s Mwalimu Nyerere, in the case of the former, and Uganda’s Milton Obote, for the latter.

If Nyerere, aptly referred to by Ali Mazrui as ‘… a true philosopher, president and original thinker’, was the grand architect of Tanzanian nation building, regional liberation and security, then Kawawa was his trusted, skilled, implementing mason. Kawawa’s imprint is visible for the discerning eye to see in the united Tanzania of today and in the fruits of liberation of the eastern and southern African countries.

Kawawa, an able trade unionist with an humble educational background, was one of Tanganyika’s founding fathers along with Nyerere, who formed the Tanzanian African National Union (TANU). TANU led the Tanganyikans to independence in 1961. Later Kawawa was instrumental in the formation of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) after TANU merged with the Zanzibari Afro Shazi and UMMA parties, headed by Abeid Karume and Abdul Rahman Babu respectively.

Instrumentally, Kawawa was a longstanding secretary general of both TANU and CCM respectively. This was not accidental. It was by design. For he was an intelligent, loyal and hard working party cadre. Indeed, when in 1963 Nyerere temporarily resigned as prime minister in order to devote time to party building, it was Kawawa whom relinquished the mantle to. Kawawa never failed the people of Tanganyika, for he ably held the fort and later handed back power, intact, to his political mentor and boss.

Kawawa was a lead actor in the uniting of the people of Tanganyika and Zanzibar and in the creation of the Tanzanian nation state. In addition he was key in conceiving of and implementing the African Socialist Arusha Declaration and associated Ujaama policies. He was a gifted political communicator, mobiliser and implementer.

As a longstanding Tanzanian minister of defence, he played a pivotal role in the liberation of southern Africa from Portuguese colonialism and white settler autocracy and of ridding Uganda of the Amin junta. It is Kawawa who offered the political guidance over that mammoth task, which led to Uganda’s liberation. For this reason he travelled with the Uganda National Liberation Front leader, Yusuf Lule, to Kampala for Lule’s swearing in as president in early April 1979.

But, Kawawa is also equally associated with the failures of the policies he helped to craft: The collapsing of the Tanzanian economy by Ujaama, for instance, or the return of the Obote and his Uganda Peoples Congress autocracy in Uganda in 1980.

When discussing Akena Adoko’s legacy, it is the period from 1962 to 1971 that I will focus on. During this time, to quote the then Makerere-based Mazrui, he was ‘… the second most powerful civilian in Uganda after the Head of State’. To appreciate this, one needs to recall that he combined the roles of chief ideologue and spymaster of the Obote I regime. Indeed, he was Obote’s first cousin. Against this background, the questions I intend to address are how and in whose interest did Adoko apply this power?

As head of the General Service Unit, Obote I’s security apparatus, Adoko was responsible for Obote’s rehabilitating Idi Amin, who had been recommended for disgraceful discharge by based on his atrocious misconduct in Karamoja. The placement of the army commander, after all, depends considerably on the vetting process of a country’s intelligence organs. Amin’s retention was selfishly and politically calculated: It was intended to retain Obote and Adoko in power against the wishes of the people of Uganda.

Added effects of Adoko’s counsel to Obote, manifest in the latter’s response to the implications of the 1966 Daudi Ochieng parliamentary motion of 1966. In sum, this response deliberately collapsed constitutional rule and disintegrated the Uganda body politic, through the abrogation of the 1962 Lancaster House Constitution. Ironically this had been crafted by Obote and Kabaka Mutesa II. What was also crafted was the arrest of five dissenting cabinet ministers during a cabinet meeting, as well as Amin’s attack of the Lubiri (Mutesa’s Palace) and Obote’s ‘palace coup’, all that year.

One needs to recall that approximately 1,000 people, mostly innocent civilians, were killed in the process. Civil liberties were suspended soon after, through the imposing of Buganda specific emergency regulations. In addition all opposition political parties were banned in 1969 and their leadership were detained without trial. This included Buganda’s leading princes and princesses.

I cannot conclude a discussion of Adoko’s legacy without mentioning his callous justification of these misdeeds on Uganda Television, the numerous public lectures he offered and his verbose 1968 text, ‘Crisis in Uganda’, in which he justified his regime’s misadventures as a ‘revolution’.

Adoko’s ineptness and further disservice to Uganda and the people of Africa is illustrated through his failure to adequately warn Obote of the danger the Amin posed to their regime’s survival. Rather, in typical tragicomic style similar to Emperor Nero and burning Rome, Adoko left or fled Kampala for the January 1971 Singapore Chogm when Amin was on the rampage. Normally, as security chief and lead regime ideologue, he had no business abroad. He should have remained behind to mobilise against Amin’s coup.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Kintu Nyago is the executive director of Forum for Promoting Democratic Constitutionalism in Kampala, Uganda.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

DRC: Dams, rivers and stolen millions

Peter Bosshard

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/62749

cc WikipediaForeign investors are pouring billions of dollars into large extractive projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, writes Peter Bosshard, but in ‘a classic case of the resource curse’, the projects ‘are not promoting the country’s long-term development’, but attracting ‘short-term profiteers, conflict, and corruption’. The World Bank’s rehabilitation of the Inga 1 and 2 hydropower dams are the latest example of this trend.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s bad luck is to be rich in resources. Foreign investors are pouring billions of dollars into large extractive projects such as mines and hydropower dams. In a classic case of the resource curse, these projects are not promoting the country’s long-term development, but attracting short-term profiteers, conflict, and corruption. In the latest example for this trend, the World Bank has just reported huge delays and cost overruns for the rehabilitation of the Inga 1 and 2 hydropower dams. Other projects are being swallowed by the morass of Congo’s resource curse at the same time.

The Inga 1 and 2 dams were built on the Congo River in the 1970s and 1980s as part of a failed industrialisation scheme. Operating at only 40 per cent of capacity, the projects turned into white elephants and contributed heavily to the country’s spiralling debt crisis. As International Rivers’ Terri Hathaway discovered on a visit to the site, the people who were displaced by the dams were never properly rehabilitated, and are still fighting for just compensation after several decades.

In 2003, the World Bank committed US$179 million towards the reconstruction of a transmission line from the Inga dams to Southern Congo. A few years later, the World Bank, African Development Bank and European Investment Bank approved more than US$500 million in funding to rehabilitate the ailing dams on the Congo River.

Rehabilitating existing dams makes sense as long as the use of funds is closely monitored. In 2007, International Rivers called on the World Bank to resolve the outstanding social problems of the Inga dams as part of its work on the new project. Two years later, the Bank informed us that it was indeed gathering information ‘for an appropriate social development plan for the affected communities’ as part of the Inga rehabilitation.

The relatively modest rehabilitation of the Inga dams and transmission lines has already run into serious problems. Around 2002, US$110 million that the World Bank supposedly spent on Congo’s electricity sector went missing. Last year, the Bank had to quietly double its lending for the transmission line. And on 23 February, Reuters reported that the rehabilitation of the Inga dams will be delayed for three years, cost an extra US$300-$400 million, and will be scaled back in scope. In other words, Congo will have to go deeper into debt for a smaller project whose benefits may materialise later. Without going into details, the World Bank blamed the setback on the poor quality of consultants’ studies, implementation problems, and the effects of the world financial crisis.

On the very same day, bad news has reached us regarding two other big projects in Congo. An appeals court in Hong Kong decided that a signature bonus which a Chinese consortium paid when it signed a multi-billion dollar mining and infrastructure project will not go to the DRC’s government, but rather to a vulture fund in the US. This fund bought up debt from the 1980s on which the Congo had defaulted a long time ago, and is also trying to lay its hands on the revenues of the Inga dams. The irony is that US$24 million of the Chinese bonus has already disappeared into private pockets. A commission set up by the Congolese parliament charged that the millions were stolen by representatives of the state’s mining company and local officials.

Also this week, the World Bank’s private sector arm announced that it will not make any new investments in the Congo until a dispute over a mining project is resolved. Last August, the DRC government had cancelled the contract for a US$553 million copper and cobalt project in which the World Bank had invested. ‘If it turns out that contracts cannot be considered binding, that would be concerning to us,’ a World Bank official said, feigning surprise about the lack of legal guarantees in the country.

As always, the details about such fraudulent schemes will not become public. But the big picture behind the daily scandals looks familiar. The elites in poor but resource-rich countries such as the DRC often have no interest in the actual operation of infrastructure or mining projects. This would require a long-term perspective which they cannot afford. They rather try to skim off signature bonuses, bribes and other short-term benefits from an investment as quickly as they can. When new officials assume powerful positions, they also want to take their cuts, and so contracts get suspended, projects are being delayed, legal problems ensue, and the costs go up.

While the Inga 1 and 2 projects are toiling through this morass, power companies, governments and international funders are considering building the huge US$80 billion Grand Inga Dam. This project would divert the Congo River and generate electricity for export to Southern Africa, Europe and possibly the Middle East. Just imagine the feeding frenzy that a honey pot of US$80 billion would unleash within the DRC’s elite and its international cronies.

The Congo’s impoverished, war-ravaged population deserves support. The experience with the resource curse has shown time and again that large, top-down infrastructure and mining projects will not benefit the poor. Modest investments in decentralised infrastructure and in the economic activities of the local population have a better chance at reducing poverty. Rural electrification and support for the people affected by the Inga dams would be a good place to start.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* This article first appeared on the International Rivers website.
* Peter Bosshard is the policy director of International Rivers.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

What is the Tea Party Nation?

Horace Campbell

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/62743

The Tea Party Nation (TPN) has become very vocal in the United States since the capitalist depression. The Tea Party Nation emanates from a number of conservative, white supremacist movements. Since the election of Barack Obama in 2008, they have taken to the street, calling Obama a socialist, saying that he is an illegitimate president, and that he was not born in the US. The Tea Party Nation has tapped into the angry populism of ordinary citizens who are now insecure because of the economic crisis. This insecurity has been reinforced by conspiracy theorists, who claim that the Obama administration will take away the liberty of the ordinary citizen.

The US is the only advanced capitalist country without a public healthcare system. When the Obama administration tabled a healthcare bill, followers of the Tea Party Nation showed up at town hall meetings and declared that the administration was setting up 'death panels'. They used confusion and misinformation to compound the insecurity and fears of the people who were losing their homes and jobs. Conservatives and white supremacists had a field day, and one of the persons who had been promoted as a spokesperson for this movement is the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. Speaking at the Tea Party convention on 7 February 2010, she declared: 'America is ready for another revolution.' At the same convention, Tom Tancredo, who had made his reputation as a politician who has mobilised on the basis of anti-immigration, said that Barack Obama won because 'we do not have a civics literacy test before people can vote.' This was in reference to the era of white supremacist domination when African-Americans did not have the right to vote.

It is important for readers of Pambazuka to understand that the white supremacists in America want to bring back the period of Jim Crow when African-Americans were denied civil rights and did not have the right to vote. These same conservatives are the ones who promote militarism abroad and foment scare tactics about Islamic terrorists. At the Tea Party convention, Tom Tancredo said, 'people who could not even spell the word "vote" or say it English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House.' This was the same politician who had compared the civil rights organisation La Raza to the Ku Klux Klan. He had called this organisation 'a Latino KKK without the hood or the nooses.'

Besides this racist rhetoric, we have had white supremacist groups arming themselves and turning up at meetings with weapons. There are now numerous conservative formations such as the John Birch Society and racists who openly proclaim a rabid conservatism. They have been organising under 'respectable’ fronts such as the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC). At the CPAC convention, Tim Pawlenty, in a bid to whip up conservative hysteria, said that America should be like the wife of Tiger Woods: 'We should take a page out of her playbook and take a 9-iron and smash the window out of big government.' Those who can read the subtext could decipher the racist undertone and the inspiration toward violence behind those words.

In the same week, another conservative, Joseph Andrew Stack, flew his plane into a government building (the IRS building) in Texas. What should we call this? If one followed the logic of the Bush–Cheney period, then the US government should have launched a war on terror to arrest every angry white male such as Joe Srack. Should everyone who had links with him be arrested as a terrorist? We are not suggesting such a course; we are highlighting the lunacy of the US global war on terror and the justification for the Africa Command (AFRICOM).

These conservative and Tea Party rumblings must be followed very carefully by Africans because the conservative, Christian fundamentalists in the US who were against the rights of women and the rights of people with the same sexual orientation are very active as 'missionaries’ in Africa. We have seen the influence of these elements in Uganda, where American conservatives have allies in the Ugandan government who believe that gays and lesbians should be put to death.

The rise of the militarist forces, the white supremacist forces, the sexist forces, and the homophobic forces have sharpened the divide in the US. More and more, the conservative white supremacists are exposing liberals who support institutionalised racism, sexism and US military expansion. There are many liberals who believe in Social Darwinism and the hierarchy of human beings, who are silent in the face of this new right-wing insurgency.

Big capitalists are behind the Tea Party Nation. Tea Party leaders are putting measures in place to avoid the disclosure of their capitalist sponsors. According to news reports from the National Public Radio, the head of the Memphis Tea Party is a capitalist named Mark Skoda. During the Tea Party convention in Nashville, Tennessee, Skoda announced the party’s plans to establish a fundraising machine known as the Ensuring Liberty Corp. The Ensuring Liberty Corp., and a follow-up action committee to be known as the Ensuring Liberty Political Action Committee, will be coordinated to not only raise funds but protect the Tea Party’s behind-the-scenes capitalist financiers.

One section of the media is outlining how certain capitalists are financing the Tea Party movement. These behind-the-scenes operations of the capitalists are reminiscent of the activities of big capitalists in Germany when Adolf Hitler was whipping up racist, anti-Semitic sentiments. The capitalist class in Germany wanted to manipulate the scared German worker who had become insecure because of the capitalist depression and capitalist crisis.

Millions of citizens in the US are now insecure because of the capitalist crisis. Millions are losing their homes because of foreclosure. Unemployment is officially at 10 per cent, but unofficially at 17 per cent. In the midst of this crisis, the US government is spending trillions of dollars to bail out the banks and save the capitalist system. These capitalists are integrated through the Wall Street–IMF–Treasury complex into the military–industrial complex. Militarism in the US is promoted by the system. When there are cuts in everything else in America, the military budget is increased. This militarism, racism and capitalist crisis sharpens the line between revolution and counter-revolution in America.

Barack Obama became president at a revolutionary moment, and counter-revolution has reared its head. Obama, trained as a liberal, is trying to walk in the middle to save capitalism. But the middle ground is being removed by conservative right-wing forces. The reparations, peace and justice movements are the forces who understand the fundamental contradictions of American society. It was this movement that de-legitimised the Bush global war on terror. This movement is daily exposing the militarism at home and abroad, developing new tactics and strategies to fight back against war, racism and repression. So, when Palin says America is ready for another revolution, the Right should be careful what they are calling for.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Horace Campbell is a peace activist who is working to realise the dream of the late Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem of building African unity by 2015.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Campaigning for democracy in Swaziland NOW!

Swaziland Democracy Campaign

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/62747

The SDC is an expression of the just and legitimate struggles waged by the Swazi people in their quest for human dignity, justice, democracy and human rights. It endorses the principle of justice denied anywhere is justice denied everywhere. Further, that the freedom of all the peoples of the world remains incomplete without the freedom of the people of Swaziland.

Our program
In this regard we wish to state that immediate campaigning priorities will be:
• A gobal week of action beginning on April 12, 2010, which will see an intensification of measures to unleash a massive program all over the world focusing on Swaziland.
• An acceleration of a comprehensive boycott of luxury goods of the ruling class and the non-handling of items such as weapons by workers all over the world, that are used to brutalise the people, as well as isolation of members of the oppressive regime from schools and other places where they receive superior attention that those reserved for ordinary people inside the country.
• A global march for democracy in Swaziland, otherwise known as the Swazi Democracy March (SDM), on September 6, 2010, to coincide with the so-called independence celebrations; to raise and popularise the struggle for democracy. This march shall involve people from all over the world joining the Swazi people inside Swaziland for a historic march whose details are yet to be fully released, in order to make the world taste the reality faced by the Swazi people everyday. The SDM shall include fact-finding missions, visits to various areas to assess the conditions in the country and briefings. A huge media contingent from all over the world shall accompany the events.
• Development of a Swaziland Information Bank where we shall deposit and receive information about developments inside the country on a regular basis.
• Establishment of a Swazi Democracy Fund, whose full details shall be released in due course.

All these shall be co-ordinated by a joint co-ordinating team made up of four people from Swaziland and four people from South Africa to constitute a transitional team which shall lead until November 2010, when a proper co-ordination mechanism shall have been determined to lead this initiative and the work involved. The names of the co-ordinators shall be released in two weeks' time, after all mandating processes have been fulfilled.

The crisis deepens in Swaziland
For decades the people of Swaziland have been subjected to inhumane treatment at the hands of an entrenched and ruthless ruling elite. Poverty has continued to ravage the mass of people and especially in the rural areas.
Swaziland has been subjected to the longest state of emergency in the whole world, now having been in place for a staggering 37 years.
Political parties remain banned, opposition parties and movements are proscribed, and the notorious Suppression Terrorism Act is used to prevent any expression of democratic activity.

HIV has destroyed many families and communities. Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV infections in the whole world. Life expectancy has dropped from 65 to 31 in the last 13 years, and the regime remains complacent to its devastating impact.

The cost of education makes it completely inaccessible to many poor communities, forcing many learners to drop out. Women and children's rights are undermined daily, and abuse is commonplace, is often justified in the name if culture.

Recent reports have confirmed arbitrary killings of unarmed civilians by the army and police, and yet no one is held to account. Political activists are regularly arrested, tortured and humiliated.

The recent student struggle is a case in point. In this regard we wish to strongly condemn the arrests and torture of a number of student leaders over the last two weeks, and the forced suspension/expulsion of Bhekie Khumalo, the president of the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS) for raising legitimate student concerns. The regime has closed six tertiary institutions, putting the future of thousands of poor Swazi youth in jeopardy. Of course the children of the ruling elite do not study in the country but are in other parts of the world enjoying their education at the expense of the people of Swaziland.
This endless litany of abuse against the people of Swaziland has been taking place under the noses and the eyes of the world; and the world has largely remained silent.

This must come to an end. It will come to an end

The SDC is a platform for the whole world to do what is right, to defend humanity. It will provide progressive forces of Swaziland, and all peace and democracy loving people around the world, an opportunity to do something practical to raise and amplify the voices calling for democracy in our country.
A joint strategy meeting of civic organisations from both countries has endorsed a Program of Action through which pressure will be mounted on the regime to democratise.

There will be campaigns to put increasing pressure on the regime to force it to respond to the demands for democracy. The strategy meeting recognised the important role that must be played by the Swaziland United Democratic Front working with all those who wish to see a democratic Swaziland.

We are confident that these initiatives will be successful and will be supported globally. Many organisations have pledged their support to the campaign, these include the Southern African Trade Union Coordinating Council (SATUCC) based in Botswana, Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) based in London, and the British Trades Union Congress, and very many individual organisations and activists in other countries such as Denmark, Tanzania and Norway. Unions in South Africa, especially those under the banner of COSATU have fully endorsed the campaign.

This campaign does not seek to replace existing organisations but to compliment their work. In this regard, the demands of the SDC are shared demands among those who have been involved in the struggle for democracy for decades, these include:
• the unbanning of political parties;
• the unconditional return of all exiles;
• free and democratic multiparty elections;
• freedom of the media;
• an independent judiciary;
• an end to abuse of culture and women’s rights.

We also call for the immediate scrapping of the Suppression of Terrorism Act, which makes it a terrorist offense to belong to certain parties and organisations.

We take this opportunity to salute the gallant fighter of the people, Comrade Mario Masuku, president of the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), who was arrested under this act and spent more than 350 days in detention without trial. We salute all those who have been victimised in this manner.
In conclusion, we wish to salute other solidarity structures that continue to do work on Swaziland, the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) based in South Africa, the Swaziland Democracy Watch in Denmark and the Swazi Vigil in Britain. We encourage activists around the world to intensify the call for democracy and assist with all available resources to build unity in action of all forces for change in Swaziland.

We call on multilateral institutions such as Southern African Development Community, the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations to begin to put the issue of Swaziland on their agenda. The SADC in particular must stop awarding King Mswati with leadership positions in the region while he oppresses his people. This is a mockery of the peoples of SADC.
This is a call to action in defence of humanity.


For further information contact: Philani Ndebele on 07694 23565; Venitia Govender 0822223074.

Resist US AFRICOM

University of Sussex Students’ Union

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/62748

University of Sussex Students’ Union Resist US AFRICOM

Proposer: Luqman Onikosi- 3 year, School of Global Studies
Seconder: Lysette Kabeya- Postgraduate, School of Global Studies

Union Notes:

1) That Africa is a continent rich in natural resources, with fertile land that has the potential to sustain the advanced human development of 9 billion people.

2) That in 2001, before September 11th, Vice president Dick Cheney’s report indicated that the growing scarcity of fossil fuel in US would catastrophically impact on American economy and National Security, hence ‘energy security’ and ‘energy panic’.

3) That 2003 Heritage Foundation report states that Africa has vast natural and mineral resources, Africa remains strategically important to the West, as it has been for hundreds of years, and its geostrategic significance is likely to rise in the 21st century

4) That according to the National Intelligence Council (NIC), the United States is likely to draw 25 percent of its oil from West Africa by 2015, surpassing the volume imported from the Persian Gulf

5) That US AFRICOM is established to advance US unilateral National Interest of securing mineral resources in Africa

6) That US AFRICOM aimed is overreaching to the objectives of the Diplomatic Corps, which according to Secretary of Defence Robert Gate, ‘focuses on the three Ds’ Defence, Diplomacy and Development’.

7) That this, according to Congressional Research Service report for Congress in 2009, was due “ increasing importance of Africa’s natural resources” to US National Interest and National Security

8) That the United States using foreign policy of the Global War on Terror as justification to expand its hegemony over Africa

9) That according to Centre for Strategic Leadership 2009 report, China’s population will increase from 123 million to 1.3 billion by 2025

10) That will further increase the demand of the of fossil fuel dependency on Africa

11) That China presently import 3.7 million barrel of oil for its daily consumption of 7.5
million

Union Believes:

1) That US foreign relation with Africa is mostly with African leaders and military dictators who hardly represent the interest of the vast majority of their people

2) That US AFRICOM relations with dictators legitimise regime and oppression of the people

3) That US AFRICOM training of Military personnel in Africa impacts and interferes with the sovereignty of the countries in the continent

4) That areas where US AFRICOM claims that are ‘swamp of terror’ are the key areas where mineral resources lies in Africa

5) That the strife in these areas is a consequence of the result in the oppression of the people whose land and mineral sources are extracted and where not provided with social justice such as the people of Niger Delta, Tuareg of Niger and Kivu region in DR Congo

6) That social justice is the best antidote to terrorism and development and terrorism has to be dealt with providing with people with social justice and human development

7) That presence of US AFRICOM will only advance violence

Union Resolves:

1) That the Union needs to develop solidarity links with All African Students’ Union headquarters in Ghana.

2) That the union should practically support the struggles and campaigns of the people in Africa to oppose AFRICOM

3) That the union should support campaigns group such as Resist AFRICOM

4) That the Sussex Union should work with the Institute of Policy Studies in US for regular update on the development of US foreign policy in Africa

5) That the Union actively participates in any future conference to be organised in Africa on AFRICOM by the All-Africa Students Union (AASU).

Zimbabwe: Youth advocacy officer narrowly escapes death

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/62756

In a typical politically dramatic horror a Youth Alliance for Democracy (YAD) advocacy officer, Tichaona Masiyambiri almost kissed goodbye to life. This followed a Constitutional Making Process civic education programme, currently being carried out by Crisis Coalition in conjunction with YAD and other youth organisation who just like the former are youth committee members of the mentioned coalition.

All hell broke lose when Tichaona had just finished addressing villagers at Nhakiwa Shopping centre. The Zanu PF ward chairman only identified as ‘Gudo’ abruptly appeared with a gang of youths armed with knobkerries, catapults, spears, bows and arrows and ordered all the people to return Crisis Coalition advocacy T-shirts to the distributor before dealing with him. As they were advancing towards Tichaona, he realized that only a retreat was strategic, hence he resorted to it with a lightning take off. This prompted the crowd to disperse haphazardly resulting in serious pandemonium at the shopping centre.

Chaos and anarchy, which prevailed, played a major role in saving Tichaona’s life since some youths targeted participants of the meeting. He was only assured of his life when he bumped into a nearby police post. The moment he got into that post, he became unconscious; having been missed by stones and arrows by inches. It took thirty minutes for the officer in charge to calm the assailants who were demanding Tichaona’s head. The accusation was that priority should be on sanctions since they are hurting people in Uzumba.The thugs shouted that their area could only be targeted by Zanu PF and no one else.

Meanwhile under the same programme YAD held a successful public meeting at Mahuwe shopping centre on Friday last week where about 200 people braved a stormy weather and a lion, which had been seen at the scene the previous night. Basically, this platform was utilized to educate youths on the importance of a constitution, issues, which need to be addressed, and an update concerning the constitutional making process. Under the same banner, YAD will be in Magunje on Thursday. Stay glued to this space for more information.
--
Media and Communications Department
Youth Alliance for Democracy (YAD)
Suite 808
Dolphin House
L.Takawira/Union Ave
Harare
FAX:+263 4 771110
+263 913 022 368;+263 913 663 567

Mega-slumming or mega-tourism?

Review of 'Mega-slumming: A journey through sub-Saharan Africa’s largest shanty-town'

Firoze Manji

2010-03-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/62726

Slum tourism has become all the rage. There has been John Le Carré’s ‘The Constant Gardener’ that made Nairobi’s Kibera famous, Gregory David Robert’s semi-fiction, ‘Shantaram’, set in the slums of Mumbai and a host of others. Adam Parson’s ‘Mega-slumming’ joins the increasingly crowded market place of white people’s perspective of the growing conurbations of third world cities, this time back in Kibera.

‘This is a book’, writes Parsons, ‘about what it means to live in absolute poverty, excluded from any opportunities in the formal economy, and forgotten by all the politicians.’ The book is written engagingly, combining a kind of travel writing with moving stories from different shackdwellers about their daily lives, their experiences and their individual aspirations. Parsons provides a powerful description of the desperation faced by millions who find themselves in a life of insecurity, overcrowding, exploitation, grossly inadequate housing and the appallingly unsanitary conditions that prevail in slums like Kibera. The book provides an overview of the political context as well as a thumbsketch of the macro-economic conditions prevailing, which have influenced the growth of slums around Nairobi.

It is at one level a story about the lives of Kibera residents told through interviews that Parsons conducts with various individuals whom he forms friendships with. But at heart it is also – and perhaps too much – the story of Parsons’ own journey through slum-city. Written as it is for a largely Western audience, there may be the argument that there is an advantage to writing the book in such a way – perhaps enabling the Western reader to see the a different world from their own vantage point.

But that vantage point, I would argue, is one of the reinforcing prejudices that prevail in the West about Africans. One has only to look at the vast amount of literature and publicity material emanating from the West to see how Africans are viewed: They are portrayed as objects of pity, for whom charity is needed. They are not actors or people who determine or influence their own destiny, they are not people who organise and engage in collective political action, they are not the doers, but the done to. And it is this view that prevails here. Littered throughout the book are pictures of children and people posing for a camera destined to evoke the reaction of pity. The book even ends on an appeal for charitable donations to a Dutch charity (I presume to donate to an organisation of shackdwellers would not be appropriate). To be fair, Parsons isn’t alone in portraying Africans in this way: View any of the television programmes and publicity put out by Comic Relief and you will see how the focus is on evoking, as Paulo Freire put it, ‘… False charity [that] constrains the fearful and subdued, the ‘rejects of life’, to extend their trembling hands.’

While it is true that Parsons diligently interviews and faithfully reproduces the voices of individuals he came across on his venture, why is it that he failed completely to meet with and interview members, for example, of Bunge la Mwanchi (people’s parliament) or Bunge’s Women Caucus, Muungano wa Wana Vijiji in Kenya (Kenya Homeless People's Federation) and other collectives who live and organise in Kibera? A little bit of research would, if he had been inclined, have revealed to him that residents of Kibera have organised politically, have given voice to their demands, fought battles to have the right to organise, organised meetings, demonstrations, produced plays, music, poetry and writings of protest. To have portrayed Kibera’s people thus would have, as a minimum, created a response of outrage amongst the readership, but might also have inspired solidarity actions that brought resources and actions directly to these organisations, rather that to some Western charity. To have done so would have broken a long tradition of patronising literature that has so dominated the writings from Western charitable institutions.

I would argue that to provoke only pity and charitable giving is a disservice not only to the residents of Kibera, but also to the reader who is genuinely concerned about the grinding impoverishment of humanity. It provides no guidance on the kind of political actions that could be taken in combination with the citizens of Kibera.

Contrast this book with the writings of Abahlali baseMjondola or the voices of the Anti-Eviction Campaign in Western Cape, and you realise how those who are organising to change their world sounds so different.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Firoze Manji is editor in chief of Pambazuka News.
* 'Mega-slumming: A journey through sub-Saharan Africa’s largest shanty-town' (2009) by Adam Parsons is publsihed by Share the World’s Resources.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Turning backwards to an uneasy past

A review of 'White Gods, Black Demons'

Bella Matambanadzo

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/62737

Librarians the world over will testify that the last decade has generated a broad range of literature on the Zimbabwean question. So diverse are the themes that the categories span everything from revolutionary agricultural models, to contemporary health epidemics, politics, inflation and the rule of law. Something of a boom has occurred in the area of record making about this period of life in the country that has driven texts dealing in either fiction or fact, perhaps even propaganda, to the bookshelves. Judging by literary produce, it is a country that has become all things to all people.

To add to this treasure trove is Daniel Mandishona’s ‘White God, Black Demons’, an anthology of ten short stories published under the Weaver Press stable. Its magic is that it feels startlingly familiar, whatever your politics may be. Each portrait in the 110-page collection is the product of prodigious observation and research, that resembles a return to the 16th century Every (wo)man theatrical genre.

What a reader will cherish is that there is a kind of fidelity about the stories that leaves you knowing it to be true. The characters, and their experiences cut a little too close to the bone. Where else has there been an independent candidate who promises a ‘new dawn’ ahead of a presidential contest held in March, whose results are held back to April?

Every story is preceded by a poignant quotation, a diligently considered phrase that serves as prophetic prelude for the central theme of each tale and reveals the range of the author’s literary template. Take the opening story ‘Smoke and Ashes’ as an example. Heralded by the infamous ‘you won the elections, but I won the count’, quotation of former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza, it is set in the brackets of an election that is held in March and then again in June, in a fictitious thugocracy. It’s a ‘Final Battle for Control,’ where the show down is provided by two silent protagonists, The Man Rumoured to Have Won, and The Man Rumoured to Have Lost. It is told through the eyes of a man and woman whose reunion takes us through their mirrored lives: Same ghetto growing up, same university, and same degree. One chose to stay, the other leaves the country having won ‘papers in a visa lottery’ to live in another land of luxurious. It is an irony of disharmony, at once arcane and obvious. ‘Cities of Dust’ chronicles the horrors and double standards of a smash up operation that sees the townships razed to the ground, while the neighbourhoods of the rich go untouched. Greased palms provide political protection in a commentary about the power of race and class in a society built on failed nationalism.

A corrupt exchange with a government bureaucrat about a farm with fecund soils desired by several ‘chefs’, forms the nub of ‘Kaffir Corn’, a story that ostensibly concerns itself with the abortive hopes of a New Farmer, who having chased away the ‘inflexible Mr. Allan Bradford’, comes face to face with ‘War Vets’ who claim to be the descendents of the original owners of Pangolin Farm, their ancestral land.

An old black and white photograph captures the essence of ‘A Wasted Land’, a story of two failed patriarchs, told by a young boy who within the space of a year survives the tragedy of their double back-to-back deaths. Narrated in a methodical and tempered Richter, it reaches into the experience of a young man of great promise who goes to Britain on a rise, only to return on a fall. Preceded by Cicero’s quote, ‘Laws are silent in war’, both father figures survive the country’s war of liberation, only to die as the fruits of independence are in blossom.

‘A Time of Locusts’ is an intimate tale about young love, innocence, loss, anger and grief. With lyrical simplicity the story stands out in the collection for its internal comprehension of the complexity of human existence and choice. It is also a striking example of how taboo and shame are resolved in a family that suffers a series of disturbingly dark tragedies that can only be put right by an honour killing. It is ultimately a story about the attitude of solution, so evident in Zimbabwe over the last few years.

As a young adult, a dissatisfied man returns home to his father’s deathbed to face the demons that have tormented him in ‘A Secret Sin.’ Previously published by Weaver Press in their 2005 short story collection Writing Now, this story captures the emptiness of the diaspora experience, and the isolation of being at home. It is a nugget of feeling: Dealing with identity and belonging in stirring prose. It also digs deep in the brain of a young man in search of his true place, and never quite finding it.

The lethality of state power is at the heart of ‘Blunt Force Trauma,’ a story that unfolds around a death of a seemingly ordinary man living an ordinary life. As his body lies in the morgue of a crumbling public hospital – a ghost of its former glorious self – awaiting an autopsy, the details of his not so ordinary life come to light in bits and pieces that suggest an assassination. It is a deft account that weaves in side-characters that belong to the criminal underworld and general hoodlum that serve as a smokescreen for a society dealing with gangsterism on a gigantic scale. The interplay between an assault in police custody and an apparent armed robbery where nothing is stolen is in no way febrile. A pedantic, narratorial logic provided by the mechanical notes of a pathology report betray a society dealing with a culture of careless bludgeoning for whom no one is brought to account, ironically by the same cops.

‘Butternut Soup’ is commentary on addictions; TV and religion but also to a failed relationship in a loveless and childless couple. Bound together by a fear of aloneness, they are each other’s hated opium. This is a collection so politically acute and sensitive, that a reader cannot avoid recalling the clear influence of both Chinua Achebe and Dambudzo Marechera in the author’s seamless craft. The stories have a trans-generational appeal. The present can only be understood by turning backwards, to an uneasy past, and imagining the possibilities of a future for the cast of characters that have been frustrated in their dreams. They have flaws, indeed, and live by hope.

But it is the tenderness with which the author deals with each character, relating to his diverse tapestry of protagonists as if they were part of his own, that makes the work a fluent portrait of troubled people in a troubled place. The collection feels as much a product of duty as of imagination. And it has the authority of independence, of one who writes because he wants to and cannot keep it bottled up anymore. It wrestles fiercely with issues of inheritance, identity, class, race and gender.

A complex network of slippery narrators provide all the coda: From a flag planted on a kopje in honour of a distant monarch in 1890 to Independence in 1980. The signifiers that Zimbabwe is the country where, in the main, all the intrigue unfolds, are all there. A cursory reference to Victoria Falls, to Lake Kariba, to POSA (Public Order and Security Act), to a militant women’s rights’ groups in battle with riot police chanting the revolutionary chorus, ‘Zimbabwe ndeyeropa, baba’. Or a porous border leading to a country in the south that is a pot of gold for some, or a site of intolerance for others, who quickly learn that black immigrants can’t ride a rainbow, poor billionaires. And yet readers will be left wondering why an author so capable of dealing deftly with detail has left Zimbabwe unnamed? It is a believability that is at once cruel and comic. Healthy doses of candour give breadth and wisdom, to what is a collection of comic tragedy told with tenderness.

Born in January 1959, Mandishona, an award-winning architect, spent his childhood in Mbare. Raised in the home of his maternal grandparents, his early literary diet included Alfred Hitchcock movies, James Hadley Chase paperbacks and a feast of popular magazines where the short story was a veritable form. Black and white western ‘bioscopes’ also influenced his imagination. Ghetto heroes are the canvas of his work. In his youth he wrote about athletes, crooks and nationalists under the name Daniel Gurajena, in short stories that are among his first body of work, now held at the National Archives in magazines that are out of print.

‘White Gods Black Demons’ is as much a celebration of this first half-century of his life as it is the vast canvass of his personal experience. ‘I am an architect and I enjoy writing’, says Mandishona of his new collection. Expelled from school for habitual acts of truancy, there is something of him in every story, be it the young boy looking for an explanation to a confusing situation in the family, or an adult robbed of his ballot.

And yet, as the lascivious Pastor Johannes Dollar is whisked away in the back of a black Mercedes, leaving his bride to be in tears, a reader will wonder at the possibility of more. Another collection of very Zimbabwean tales soon, or, with the poise and elegance that comes through in this first offering, perhaps the author will have the courage to tackle a first novel.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Daniel Mandishona's White Gods, Black Demons is published by Weaver Press 2009, Harare, Zimbabwe (ISBN: 978 1 77922 087 5).
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Confronting imperialism and neoliberalism

'Where is Uhuru? Reflections on the Struggle for Democracy in Africa'

Vicensia Shule

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/62735

Issa G. Shivji, a renowned scholar and a pan-Africanist, in his book 'Where is Uhuru? Reflections on the Struggle for Democracy in Africa' interrogates the meaning of independence in light of the fact that the socio-economic and political strands in Africa do not show any true signs of it. Edited by Godwin Murunga, the book is divided into six parts with a total of 18 chapters. The book is a collection of conference papers, lectures and articles composed between 1991 and 2006. In such a wide range of years, Shivji eloquently expresses his thoughts on the evils of imperialism and neoliberalism. He discusses pertinent issues concerning ‘independent’ African states, such as constitutional challenges, land disputes, human rights and democracy, as well as the contribution of intellectuals in the struggle against imperialism and neoliberal policies.

Starting with the nationalist movement to neoliberalism (in 'Part 1 Contested Terrain of Democratic Politics', which comprises chapters 1–4), Shivji manages to show the link between the two and negotiates the position of globalisation as imperialism. In well-thought chapters, Shivji demonstrates the challenges which post-independence African leaders who were socialists faced in the process of confronting capitalism. He points out the consequences of ‘surrogate’ regimes in Africa, which were created by an imperial United States of America and its compradors. In the process of imperialism's expansion, some elected leaders were overthrown or assassinated with the assistance of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other imperial forces. In such a scenario, Shivji shows clearly the challenges of confronting a dominant, oppressive system out of a pan-Africanism synergy.

Analysing pertinent issues in law and the constitution (in 'Part 2 The State of the Debate on Constitutionalism', which comprises chapters 5–8), Shivji shows the challenges of the union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Indeed, the arguments which Shivji gave in 2001 become even more valid today when the issue of the Tanganyika and Zanzibar union is up for discussion and perhaps in a more fragile situation than ever before. Looking at it from the historical and legal perspectives, he shows clearly how formal and lawful the union is, though not democratic. In conclusion, Shivji sees federalism as the alterative to this precarious union.



On the challenges of land ownership, Shivji uses 'Part 3 Land: A Terrain of Democratic Struggles' (chapters 9–11), to explicate the scenario. What comes out articulately in this part is the historical approach to the challenges of land ownership in Tanzania from the colonial period, the Arusha Declaration’s Vijiji vya Ujamaa (villagisation) to the era of investors and the free market. The consequences of the inherited laws according to Shivji bring to the fore the current challenges of managing natural resources.

'Part 4 Intellectuals, Biographies and Reminiscences' (comprising chapters 12–15) is one of the most intriguing parts of the book. For example, Chapter 14 discusses the concept of development coined by Edward Moringe Sokoine, Tanzania’s former prime minister. According to Sokoine, it is the development centred on the harnessed cultures of the people, or development from below. Moreover, Shivji regards Sokoine as one of the very few Tanzanian leaders who understood by heart the meaning of people-centred development and how to attain it.

'Part Five' of the book, 'Pan-Africanism or Imperialism?' (containing chapters 16–17), brings on board the whole issue of pan-Africanism and its contemporaneity. Perhaps Shivji is among few scholars who can comfortably argue for the need of pan-Africanism to fight against imperialism. Both chapters show clearly how imperial, manufactured projects such as NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) would scarcely help Africa and would continue to endanger economic independences. It is in chapter 17 where Shivji shows the challenges of globalisation, especially its role as an agent for militarisation. In the last chapter, chapter 18, Shivji calls for intellectuals to lead the way in providing an alternative world view to neoliberalism as 'neoliberalism has utterly failed to provide such a world view' (p. 227).

What makes Shivji’s book more interesting is the approach to the issues and use of language. Such language adds flavour to understanding the key concepts. For example, he uses the term ‘surrogate government’ to describe the kind of governments like that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire, which was imposed by the imperialists. He further describes the international community as a US-led imperial block (p. 56). To make things clear, he defines globalisation as imperialism and uses imperialism to include and mean globalisation (p. 196). The phrase ‘flying our flag’ is used to challenge the concept of independence, being a flag rather than economic independence (p. 196).

Reading Shivji’s arguments on imperialism, neoliberalism and the international financial institutions’ dictatorship, it is interesting to note that he partially discusses the role of culture, especially the arts in the struggle for nationalism, socialism and democracy in Africa. It could be interesting to link Shivji’s discussion on imperialism and neoliberalism with culture, as it is widely accepted that imperialism has produced cultural imperialism and perhaps neoliberalism could have produced cultural (neo)liberalism.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Issa G. Shivji's 'Where is Uhuru? Reflections on the Struggle for Democracy in Africa' is available from Pambazuka Press (Cape Town, Dakar, Nairobi and Oxford, Pambazuka Press, 2007, pp. vi + 246, paperback + free pdf - £16.95, Adobe pdf - £12.95).
* Vicensia Shule is a performing artist working at the Department of Fine and Performing Arts, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Our souls are no longer for sale, Mr Evil

Our spirit is defeating you

Charo Mina Rojas

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/62740

In talking about Haiti, white American televangelist Pat Robertson was partially right. Black people’s souls were compromised by evil. However, there are obvious misleading elements in Mr Robertson's statement.

Number one, not just Haitian people’s souls were compromised, all people’s souls from African ancestry were. In Haiti, in the little corners of Central and South America, in the Caribe, in the United States, Europe and Africa, the souls of my African descendant people in Colombia – all were compromised.

Number two – and here is where Mr Robertson is so wrong – it is not that the black people sold their souls to evil. It is that the evil, colonialism – with the great assistance of religious doctrines – took the souls of African descendant people and traded with them. Then modern evils, post-colonialism and imperialism, have consistently continued the business.

Number three, it is as consequence of colonialist and imperialist evil trade practices, with African descendants souls, that black peoples in all corners are suffering under the most immoral conditions.

Number four, and here is where Mr Robertson and people like him are also so lost, the souls of African descendant peoples could be traded by the evil, but it is the spirit of those peoples that has kept their integrity through the centuries of oppression, discrimination, segregation, and exclusion. It is their spirit that has made them rebel against their oppressors and look for their freedom while in conditions of slavery, their self-determination while under colonisation, their self-assurance and consciousness while under segregation. It is the spirit of those who have been long gone from this material world, that maintains the power of struggle against all new forms of soul-trade and slavery. It is that spirit, our spirit, my spirit, what keep us today fighting for that freedom, against all forms of oppression, colonisation, and their machineries, against those evils.

Get this message evil soul traders: We black peoples, African descendant peoples, African peoples, have our spirit and the spirit of our ancestors intact and strong. We will fight you. We will defeat you. You no longer can have our souls for trade. We know that don’t please you, but we are ready.

Today, my people, Afro-descendants in Colombia, are facing those evils. Economic national and foreign policies; political interest on their ancestral lands and resources; government corruption, impunity and deliberated negligence; violence and mainstream social insensitivity, imperialism, and racism. Today, while burying the bodies of our people assassinated, under the connivance and complicity of those evils, we celebrate the life of their spirits and continue the struggle they and our ancestors planted. We stand up in struggle, as our brothers and sisters around the world. Who is with us?

A sad story that affects thousands of women

Responses to 'Who killed Lillian?'

Caroline & Susan

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/62764

'The story of Lillian is very sad and its just one example of the thousands of women who die at child birth.

'We all need to study the legislation that is already there to take care of such issues and if non exists,then we have a duty to campaign for appropriate intervention from our legislators especially the female ones.

'May the soul of Lillian and her baby rest in eternal peace.'
– Caroline

'It is sad that our people die out of preventable circumstances. The poor continue to be oppressed because they have no voice of their own, yet those that they have choosen to speak for them speak and champion for that which is of no use to the normal Kenya.

'The youth are the most affected and I fret at the future of this country. I long for the day when the youth will arise and say that enough is enough and take up their rightful position to bring the change we desire in this country.

'May the spirit of people such as Lillian not die in vain.'
– Susan

President Zuma, proudly Zulu

A response to 'Polygamy, promiscuity and progressive leadership'

Alfred Mafuleka

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/62745

I wish to challenge the writer of this article, that 'there is still a long walk to freedom for South African women', and argue that the point is overstated to a point of exaggeration.

Yes, Zuma is the president of the Republic of SA, but he is also the citizen (1st one) and an individual, who is not above the law and the constitution. But what most neglect to emphasise is that he also enjoys rights and responsibilities under the same constitution as everybody else. It may be argued if his are more than the ordinary citizen. This is not to protect what indiscretion that he may have been involved in any way, but am concerned about the impression created, and how it relegates other important considerations into non-existence.

President Zuma is not a saint, that must be said upfront, and necessarily may not be without blame.

It is not for us (collective) citizens to judge his apology, belated or not about fathering a child out of wedlock with Sonono Khoza, but that he did apologise should be enough, then its up to the individual and their conscience to forgive him or not.

I dispute the assertion that he 'has taken the country back a few decades..', he did not do this alone, he was aided by a very modern and empowered woman. I support the argument that says 'these women are not without choice', they know what they are doing, either agreeing to marry him or to have a child with him knowingly that he is already married or that they are not one of his wives. The less said about the rape case the better, as the court pronounced itself on that one, what more do we as public must say, if we claim to respect 'Rule of law' and court judgments? The 'shower'-story is one that we cannot carry on harping on, unlike opposition parties who use it for political gains.

Indeed, 'polygamy is not illegal in SA', but this is a life-style of the greater part of the population, if we agree that blacks are the majority in SA, and this calls for the respect of this as a right, that must not be judged according to Western life-style and standards – now if you tell us of Obama and Michelle, you are telling us about people who have long lost their roots, they live according to what American life-style demand, they are as 'American' as Clinton or Jimmy Carter is, despite their colour of the skin. In SA, we do not look up to American life-style.

Zuma is a proud Zulu man and a traditionalist, further a Nationalist! This deserves protection and respect under the constitution as any other norm or practice.

The point is that practice of 'polygamy' should not be confused with 'promiscuity', if we indeed respect those practicing it.

Comparing Zuma and Mandela is just not going to help issues here, even to suggest that they come from the same 'traditional root'”, offers no solace.

I am not here going to pronounce on Zuma’s lessons on abstinence, faithfulness and using a condom as all this is self-evident. My point is the respect that other 'cultures' need same respect as mainstream Western style, and not be confused with derogatory terms like promiscuity.

Now, if you say 'include attitude towards women as a key of leadership' now that would open a can of worms, just look around, how many former presidents, sports stars and other influential people have been implicated for showing and practicing accumulation of numerous women clandestinely?

For answers to all these questions that the writer had asked, we can take up the issue of 'morality', as has been raised by the very same Zuma, look at racial composition of our society, determine how each and every race’s values should be related, what to expect within each, learn more about each and everyone of them and lastly, show unequivocal respect for what is dear to others!

Amandla!

* These views expressed in this letter are personal.

Zimbabwe’s women liberators: An interview with Freedom Nyamubaya

Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/62727

Freedom Nyamubaya is a writer, poet and rural development activist. She cut short her secondary school education to join the Zimbabwe National Liberation Army in Mozambique in 1975. During the war she was one of the few female field operation commanders. Later she was elected secretary for education in the first ZANU Women’s League Conference in 1979. She is a prolific writer, having published two volumes of poetry: On the Road Again (Zimbabwe Publishing House, Harare, 1985) and Dusk of Dawn (College Press, Harare, 1995). More recently her short story ‘That Special Place’ was published in ‘Writing Still’ (Weaver Press, Harare. 2003.). Source: Poetry International

UPENYU MAKONI-MUCHEMWA: Why did you leave school to join Zimbabwe National Liberation Army (ZANLA)?

FREEDOM NYAMUBAYA: There are multiple reasons. First, I didn’t have sufficient school fees. When I was in Mutoko after I finished form two, that’s when I heard about the comrades. I wasn’t the same person; I wanted to do something to change society. I really wanted to be a comrade. At the time, there was a kind of fascination with the war. It was the idea that you could change something.

UPENYU MAKONI-MUCHEMWA: How have your experiences during the Liberation Struggle shaped who you are today?

FREEDOM NYAMUBAYA: I think I’m blessed. If I weren’t in the struggle I wouldn’t be the same person. It was an education in itself; it was managing to live with nothing. For a girl, you are so vulnerable and you learn to be an adult after that. In terms of mindset, I’m quite liberated. I can say what I feel, even when I know it doesn’t change much.

UPENYU MAKONI-MUCHEMWA: Do you think that the situation during the war changed the status of women within our culture?


FREEDOM NYAMUBAYA: I don’t think every woman who went to war is liberated like I am. If you were liberated then you were supposed to be the ones who were, in Shona we’d call them, ‘vane msikanzwa’ because you are asking too much and you are questioning what is right and what is wrong. A lot of women who went into the war are very much inside themselves. They don’t want to be reminded or they are scared or they don’t want anyone to know about it. It’s also got to do with the way we came back. When we came back, the men were heroes, but the women were not heroines. We were called prostitutes and mischievous people.

UPENYU MAKONI-MUCHEMWA: What do you think ordinary Zimbabweans should be doing to bring about their own freedom?


FREEDOM NYAMUBAYA: From an individual perspective you should be a person who has got goals for your life. Any girl or woman should start to think about her life before she thinks about getting involved with another person. In that process you are liberating yourself. You know who you are. If anyone wants to be in your life then you will tell him or her your terms and they will tell you their terms.

UPENYU MAKONI-MUCHEMWA: How did you start writing?


FREEDOM NYAMUBAYA: Before I went to war I wrote a book called ‘Tambudzai’. It was about a lady who had problems; she was fighting all the time. I think I was writing about myself. I sent it to the then Rhodesian Literature Bureau. At the time I felt it was very unfair that I was bright but that my parents could not send me to school. Those who were not bright had parents who had money. I wondered about the justice of God. During the war, I was one of the mischievous ones, because of questioning. When I got there I was sent to prison for assessment so that the comrades could make sure that [Ian] Smith did not send me. But because I was in prison, I was isolated and people did not want to associate with me. So, because I was very lonely I started writing. I wrote poetry and songs. I started a group and we sang Chimurenga songs. Then I started writing because I thought we needed entertainment and we needed to understand more about what we were doing.

UPENYU MAKONI-MUCHEMWA: What experiences in your life have informed the way you write and what you write about?

FREEDOM NYAMUBAYA: The published work is about the war. I write about those things that people don’t talk about. When we talk about war there is so much emotion from the comrades. There were a lot of problems in managing ourselves, especially with [the] women. We needed to understand how to cope with it. I write because I think there’s a gap. There’s very little information on what a day was like in the camps for a woman or what was a day was like for the comrades.

UPENYU MAKONI-MUCHEMWA: What is MOSTRUD, the organisation that you founded, and what projects are you working on?


FREEDOM NYAMUBAYA: MOSTRUD means Management Outreach Training Services for Rural Development. Right now MOSTRUD is involved with youths. We are doing something called talent development. We are in the rural areas, looking at young people who are good at sport or art. We take those individuals and help them to become role models for their communities. There are a lot of youths who for the past ten or fifteen years, have been doing nothing, so they have become gold panners or prostitutes or cross border traders. We are looking to give them alternatives and develop their talents.

UPENYU MAKONI-MUCHEMWA: In 2007, on national public radio, you once expressed a wish to start your own political party. Do you still want to do so?


FREEDOM NYAMUBAYA: I’ve decided to concentrate on things that I can achieve. Politics is no longer about any ideologies, or policies, it’s not about building the country. I would like to be remembered as somebody who contributed to the development of the youth, or the development of Zimbabwe. Or even as someone who contributed to the literature on the war.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* This interview was conducted by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa for Kubatana.net and was originally published on 19 February 2010.
* Kubatana works to harness the democratic potential of email and Internet in Zimbabwe.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

II: Leben Ohne Alltag

(for Ezekiel Brown Alembi) 1960 -2010

J.K.S. Makokha

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/62741

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* J.K.S. Makokha is the Kenyan author of 'Reading M. G. Vassanji: A Contextual Approach to Asian African Fiction' (2009). He teaches courses in African and South Asian literatures at the Institut für Englische Philologie at Freie Universität Berlin in Germany.
* J.K.S. Makokha copyright © 2010
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Trouble

Paula Akugizibwe

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/62734

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Paula Akugizibwe is a Rwandan health and human rights activist.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

African leaders in the eye of the storm

Dibussi Tande

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/62738

The Chia Report comments on the recent political crises in Nigeria and Niger. He argues that Nigerian President Yar'Adua does not have a right to Privacy when it comes to his health:
“I am all for patient rights and privacy. It is absolutely their prerogative, unless…. There is an exception when you are the Head of State. It is the right of the people to know that the President is fit to govern. If he is not, someone else will step up to the plate even as citizens devote time praying for the sick person to recover. This is the part that African leaders are so lacking in. They have so abused of the goodwill of their people that they know that not a soul of good faith is praying for them. They have become an eyesore.”
With regards to the recent coup in Niger, Chia explains why he is in support of the military:
“Democracy is a work in progress. It is so because one elected official can always undo, by some law, what the previous administration may have thought as completed. Therefore, the work is almost never finished because human endeavor can always be improved. This readily explains the beauty of democratic institutions – that if they are created to serve the society, they outlast our individual mortality and allow for the completion or refining of the work that Mamadou Tandja thought he alone could complete in Niger. No one is indispensable, no not one of us. If it takes the military to remind civilian dictators of this truism in Africa, so be it.”

Jimmy Kainja’s Blog observes the tendency of Africans to deify their Heads of State:
“In Africa elected leaders are still treated the same way as dictators before them; they are masters to be feared and revered: demigods to be praised.

Perhaps African democracies must be allowed time to mature given that it was only in the 1990s that most African countries turned democratic after grueling decades of dictatorship which were preceded by another uncomfortable era: colonialism. This is valid point, and must be acknowledged.

However, the biggest mistake that Africa and Africans can make is to use these past experiences as excuse for the continuing treatment of its leaders or rulers, in this case, as demigods...
Walk in every office, bank, shop or any public building in Malawi and you will be greeted by a flamed picture of the president. It was the case under Hastings Kamuzu Banda's presidency; it was the same during Bakili Muluzi's era, and now it is Mutharika turn.

Malawi is a poor democratic country; its constitution guarantees that there will be a different president every ten years, or five years if the incumbent fails to win their second term; and change is a certainty in the case of death of the president. Now, does Malawi have resources to replace all these presidential faces every time there is a change? How much does it cost? Can the government not use this money for better initiatives? Improve the high poverty and illiteracy rates for example.”

Aloysius Agendia reviews the speech made by President Sarkozy during celebrations marking Gabon’s 50th independence anniversary:
“As stated by Sarkozy, France is now for a relation of total transparency. What kind of transparency with regards to the operation of French companies in the African? For example, the French business politician cum lobbyist, Vincent Bollore, an ally of Sarkozy, practically controls the economy of most Francophone African countries…
What kind of transparency when French banks keep billions of stolen state from Africa? The French government is again squashing court cases brought against some African dictators who have illicit funds and property in the country…
Sarkozy talked of equality and mutual respect. This has never been the case as France continues to show total disrespect for Africans among whom are those who sacrificed their lives to save France during WWII. While Sarközy verbally praised the veterans, French veterans continue to live in total affluence and veneration while African veterans continue to languish in misery. The French men even talked of some Gabonese military men going march-past in France as sign of cooperation.”

Kenyanentrepreneur.com laments about falling educational standards in Kenya:
“There was a time in Kenya when education really was a meritocracy and when it was the ticket for many rural Kenyans into a life of urbanization and “modernity”, but is that still the case today? I think those days ended in the early 1980’s and like everything else when Moi took over, things just started going downhill, including education and including a real system of meritocracy.
When I look at people in my parents’ generation (people who went to places like Makerere or to the University of Nairobi, in the 1960’s, 70’s & some younger ones in the early 80’s) — these people were highly skilled, well trained, they spoke perfect English, wrote well, etc, etc…and I’m sorry, but I think the standards have gone down substantially (look at the writing in the Kenyan newspapers today or even when I get emails from young people in Kenya — they can’t write basic English sentences).
Let’s move on to more serious professions like medicine. Honestly speaking, I would not want to go to a young Kenyan doctor today who was just graduating from the University of Nairobi. I don’t think it’s the same anymore, but there was a time when Kenyan doctors were amongst the best in Africa and could hold their own with other doctors from around the world. I’m not sure if that’s true today.”

Rebecca Wanjiku calls for a new approach when advocating for gender equality the use of ICTs:
“Women don't have to be victims anymore; ten years ago, the story was that women don't have access to this and that, men have the power over this and that, this protocol has not been signed among many other issues.
The growth of mobile in Africa has extinguished many of those myths, women have adopted technology, whether they understand what GSM works or not, they know opportunities in mobile money, they operate call kiosks and some of them charge their phones at a fee...while still at home.
I am always inspired when I go to my village and see how mobiles have opened opportunities, with mobile money, you can sell credit, send money, pay bills at the convenience of your shamba, you just need to be shown how it works.
Women are not victims, we take opportunities when presented, and I think the activism now should be on how to identify these opportunities that women can participate in.”

Scribbles from the Den argues that in spite of their constitutional similarities, a Gabonese-type transition may be unlikely in Cameroon, one of the main reasons being that unlike Gabon, Cameroon does not have an heir apparent or dauphin to President Biya:
“Even though Gabon did not have a constitutional successor to President Bongo, it had been an open secret for at least a decade that Ali-Ben Bongo, the President’s son and the country’s defense minister was Omar’s chosen successor; an heir apparent who had the support not only of the ruling PDG party, of which he was a Vice President, but most importantly, also of the military.
[…]
Unlike Bongo’s Gabon, Cameroon’s constitutional vacuum is accompanied by dangerous political uncertainty with no single individual within government circles standing out as a credible successor to Biya, in spite of the different names being regularly bandied around in official and unofficial circles. Similarly, while any CPDM candidate in a post-Biya election will have an automatic edge over all other candidates thanks to the huge resources at the party’s disposal and to the backing of the military which is also supporting continuity just as in Gabon, there is no one within the CPDM with the clout or network to emerge a credible presidential candidate. Hence, Cameroon’s inevitable guerre the succession, which will instantly etch itself onto the country’s well-known geo-political fault lines, will be worse than anything that we witnessed in Gabon. The result might be a remake of the worse days of the “smoldering years” of the early 1990s with the army playing the determining role by either throwing its lot behind a specific candidate, or why not, taking power for itself…

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* Dibussi Tande, a writer and activist from Cameroon, produces the blog Scribbles from the Den.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Blogging on a 'hot topic'

Hayley Herman

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/62742

Prof Deborah Bräutigam’s blog titled 'China in Africa: The Real Story' follows on from her recently released, and highly acclaimed book, 'The Dragon’s Gift'. As the blog’s sub-line suggests the content investigates “the myths and realities of Chinese aid and economic engagement in Africa” and also continues debates presented in her book, specifically addressing the generalisations present within the media relating to China’s activities in Africa, debunking myths surrounding especially Chinese aid to Africa amongst others, and probing into issues that have become more topical in recent times.

The oversimplification of China’s various engagements with Africa becomes all the more clear when one looks into the details provided in media articles and journalist commentaries on the subject. This does not bode well in establishing an objective and accurate assessment of Sino-Africa relations yet the hunger for information on the topic, whether from journalists, researchers or policy makers alike has likely fuelled this development over time. This becomes even more significant as it is largely information that is not easily obtained, forthcoming through formal channels, or accurately verifiable to begin with. Thus it is the publically available publications and reports that play a pivotal role in the global dialogue on and perceptions toward Sino-Africa relations. This is where Prof Bräutigam’s blog seems to fill an important void- the investigation of common assumptions or (mis)representations of China in Africa.

With her well established record on research in the field of Sino-Africa relations, spanning three decades, Prof Bräutigam’s comments on topical issues with authority and vigour. Having commenced with research into this relationship long before the popular attention it now receives, there are few commentators on this subject that can provide this kind of expert knowledge. Not that the blog takes on a clinical approach- actually the opposite- Prof Bräutigam establishes a casual and at times humorous take on the plethora of information available on China-Africa to set the scene for a candid conversation amongst followers on relevant topics and issues at hand.

Yet the review of information made available, whether it be China’s aid figures to Africa- a much touted aspect of global media reports on China in Africa, or thoughts on commentaries released on the topic in general, Prof Bräutigam takes a rather balanced approach in her response to reports from the West, Africa and China. A factual assessment is provided on topics that most China-Africa scholars and commentators continue to grapple with. And with such a vast knowledge, passion and experience in undertaking research on this topic Prof Bräutigam provides a rather refreshing assessment- separating fact from fiction to the best of her ability, yet opening up the issues at hand to debate amongst blog followers. Hopefully more information will also be revealed from followers on other topical issues such as perceptions of the Chinese diaspora in Africa, the distinction between Chinese private and state driven activities in Africa, the issue of Chinese farms in Africa and the use of Chinese labour.

The blog does however provide a greater message and that is the need for accurate assessments, and greater objectivity in the use of data, and sourcing of information, as well as the use of second hand data. Prof Bräutigam explains a trail of misinformation and its rapid ascent to becoming an established “fact”. As the debate surrounding the possible effects and long term implications of China in Africa easily becomes divided into two opposing camps, one supporting the notion of China becoming a new coloniser, and the other suggesting China as an alternative partner to development on the continent, “facts” related to Sino-Africa relations can be misused and misrepresented to prove a point. Instead the need for more thoughtful investigation is suggested through this blog- an exercise that Prof Bräutigam shows can be enjoyable and enlightening. It is hoped that more followers will join in on this important conversation.

The blog is accessible here


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* Hayley Herman is programme officer based with Fahamu’s China/Emerging Powers in Africa Programme.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

South Africa aiming for ‘BRICS’ during recent China visit

Hayley Herman

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/62739

The recent visit to China by South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane showed clearly that the South African government has viewed BRIC as a relevant and strategic grouping, and one which South Africa cannot be excluded from. Yet in order to do join the party South Africa needs to call on its bilateral relations with BRIC countries to make its case for membership.

While South Africa’s GDP and population growth cannot match the impressive growth rates of China, India and Brazil, geopolitics favour South Africa’s inclusion to BRIC, and this was made known during Minister Nkoana-Mashabane’s China visit.

Africa remains an important factor in the economic growth of BRIC. Trade between BRIC and Africa increased from $22.3 billion in 2000 to approximately $162 billion in 2008, while investment into Africa has been spurred by companies in search of natural resources, infrastructure and construction deals and market access. In 2008 Sub-Saharan Africa took 77% of BRIC’s trade to Africa according to a report from Standard Bank.

South Africa has served as a conduit for business into Africa through its financial institutions, long term experience in operating in African markets and its extensive corporate footprint across the continent. Relations between South Africa and China has grown rapidly over the past number of years with China becoming South Africa’s largest trading partner and one of China’s top trading partners in Africa, while South Africa serves as one of China’s largest suppliers of iron ore. Furthermore, China’s Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) acquired 20% of South Africa’s Standard Bank, one of China’s largest foreign investment deals in Africa to date.

Minister Nkoana-Mashabane’s visit built on this established engagement and expressed the South African governments wish to further increase its trade and investment prospects with China while also expressing an agenda that sees South Africa becoming more proactive in its strategic relationship with China. Specifically, mention was made of the need for investment in the area of infrastructure development not just in South Africa, but also throughout the Southern African region. China is seen as a potential partner in financing and constructing infrastructure to facilitate transport in particular. Taking engagement beyond the remits of the provision of raw mineral resources to China, South Africa was vocal in voicing its wish to act as a mineral processing hub for the continent. South Africa will seek investment from China towards these processing plants which will see the country take an active role in providing mineral beneficiation facilities in Africa- thus going beyond the provision of raw materials to fuel China’s domestic demand. Minister Nkoana-Mashabane alluded to the fact that agreements would be signed addressing these issues during President Zuma’s visit to China in the near future.

These actions point to a maturing relationship between South Africa and China and South Africa’s strategic geopolitical position in China’s Africa Policy and more broadly among the BRIC countries and this was highlighted through South Africa’s voicing of its intention to be included in BRIC. The argument for an African country in the group has been ongoing since the first BRIC summit in June 2009. It is argued that membership of an African country would give the group greater representation of the global South and burgeoning south-south relations. South Africa’s representation as a voice of Africa is however a debated subject and one which will undoubtedly be highlighted if South Africa is indeed included in BRIC.

The China visit over the past fortnight has indicated however that the South African government sees a strategic space for itself to be included in BRIC, including the standing it would potentially gain in trade negotiations. The South African government asked for China’s support for its inclusion into BRIC during the visit and will surely be on the agenda for further discussion during President Zuma’s upcoming visit to China.


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* Hayley Herman is programme officer based with Fahamu’s China/Emerging Powers in Africa Programme.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Pambazuka News 136: Education, démocratie et développement en Afrique

2010-03-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/summaryfr/62725

Pambazuka News 28: O legado de Cheikh Anta para todas as Áfricas e a Diáspora

2010-03-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/summarypt/62724

MDC requests SADC to mediate in deadlocked negotiations

2010-03-05

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news040310/deadlock040310.htm

The national executive council of the MDC has resolved that SADC should be called in to mediate in the long running stalemate between parties in the Global Political Agreement. Party spokesman Nelson Chamisa said his party had evaluated the political landscape currently prevailing in the country and found out ‘things were going backwards instead of forward.’

Mugabe 'ready to stand for re-election'

2010-03-05

http://zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=6477&cat=1

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said on Thursday that he was prepared to stand for re-election if asked to do so by his Zanu PF party. "If Zanu PF says yes, I will," 86-year-old Mugabe, who has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980, told journalists in a rare press conference. Elections are due in two years.

Slow reforms will prolong unity government

2010-03-05

http://zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=6474&cat=2

Zimbabwe's power-sharing government looks unlikely to step down in 2011 as planned because it has failed to draw up the reforms needed to ensure free and fair elections, political analysts say.

UK resists Zuma’s pressure on sanctions

2010-03-05

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news040310/ukresists040310.htm

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has insisted that Zimbabwe’s unity government needs to make more progress before targeted sanctions against the Mugabe regime are lifted, resisting pressure from South African President Jacob Zuma.

Zimbabwe: Political and security challenges to the transition

2010-03-04

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6554&l=1

This latest briefing from the International Crisis Group, analyses the situation resulting from the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that broke the stalemate following failed 2008 presidential elections and led to formation of the unity government in February 2009. It concludes that all domestic signatories of the GPA, as well as the South African mediation, must embrace democratic transformation as the vital objective of the transition.

Africa: Africa lax on CEDAW reporting

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/62774

African countries, known for their penchant to ratify international conventions and other instruments, are not doing well when it comes to providing periodical reports on progress made in implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), writes Arthur Okwemba.
African countries, known for their penchant to ratify international conventions and other instruments, are not doing well when it comes to providing periodical reports on progress made in implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Worse yet, though the Unites States prides itself as an industrialised country and a leading democracy, this super power is unable to stand tall at the 54th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) currently underway in New York as it has failed to ratify this cornerstone of women’s rights.

The key focus of this year’s CSW is the fifteen year review of the historic Beijing Platform for Action. “African countries have a very low rating when it comes to the regularity of submitting reports detailing progress,” says Dorcas Coker-Appiah, CEDAW committee member.

Your browser may not support display of this image. Countries are expected to submit their first report one year after ratification and thereafter every four years.

Coker-Appiah cites several reasons for

First, African countries complain they lack technical capacity to put the report together. However, Coker-Appiah says these countries can ask for support from United Nations’ organs such as the Division for Advancement of Women.

“On several occasions when we realise that a country lacks technical capacity to come up with the report, we recommend where they can get assistance,” says Coker-Appiah.

Second, some countries lack documentation related to interventions made by state and other stakeholders. They also find themselves without sufficient data to inform their reporting, especially if they have done little to promote women’s rights. This delays the reporting process.

While agreeing that the CEDAW committee has not been meeting regularly to deliberate on reports submitted, Coker-Appiah says this is not an excuse for not filing regularly. “The Committee now meets three times a year and we do not expect to get such complaints,” she says.

Besides the poor reporting, civil society organisations are disappointed about the many reservations countries have on certain CEDAW articles. Countries in Africa and from other regions have registered reservations mainly on articles two, five, nine and 16, arguing that they conflict with their religion, culture, tradition or national laws.

Article Two calls on State Parties to condemn discrimination against women in all its forms; Article Five calls on State Parties to take all appropriate measures to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women.

Article Nine requires State Parties to grant women equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their nationality; and Article 16 calls on State Parties to take appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations.

These articles are at the core of women’s rights. However, despite the setbacks, non-governmental organisations are using CEDAW as a tool to safe-guard women’s rights and push governments and regional blocks to come up with gender aware instruments.

Emilia Muchawa, Director of Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA) says they have used CEDAW to push for recognition of women’s rights at regional and national levels. “CEDAW informs many of the articles in the South African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development and the African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women, which we vigorously fought for,” says Muchawa.

ZWLA also used CEDAW to challenge the requirement that a woman needs a father’s approval when seeking a passport or other identification documents for her child. They filed the case in the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe arguing that the law is discriminatory and goes against the spirit of the CEDAW. The ruling is yet to be given.

* This article is part of the GL Opinion and Commentary Service that offers fresh news on every day news.

Africa: International bodies kick off discussion on gender parity

2010-03-04

http://tinyurl.com/yhjado9

The UN Millennium Campaign, Femnet and Oxfam GB have announced the commencement of a series of global conversations to discuss the status of the promises world leaders have made to women in the Millennium Development Goals.

Global: Free care for expectant mothers - is it enough?

2010-03-05

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88280

The government of Sierra Leone has announced that from Independence Day (27 April) it will abolish user fees for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under five, but will this, on its own, improve their lot?

Global: Gendered impact of small arms & light weapons - book

2010-03-05

http://tinyurl.com/yktbxs4

Over time, women’s rights advocates have named a host of contributing factors to violence against women. Perhaps none of these has been less explored than the proliferation and unregulated use of small arms and light weapons – until now. A new book, Sexed Pistols: The Gendered Impact of Small Arms and Light Weapons, explores how these weapons impact women and men differently.

Global: Migiro praises women groups for advancing gender equality

2010-03-04

http://tinyurl.com/ya4hyry

Deputy UN Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro has lauded women groups for their achievements in advancing gender equality globally. Speaking at the opening of the 54th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) in New York, Migiro urged the women to move their achievements on gender equality "from commitment to action in several key areas".

Global: Rise and fall of gender empowerment

2010-03-04

http://tinyurl.com/y8wqn4v

The 45-member Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), presiding over one of the largest gatherings of women at the United Nations, listened Monday to dozens of speakers spelling out the successes and failures of gender empowerment worldwide.

Global: Six UN agencies call for intensified efforts to help adolescent girls

2010-03-05

http://tinyurl.com/yjuz3z4

Adolescent girls have often been missing in policy and programming. Yet many believe that their well-being the key to eliminating poverty, achieving social justice, stabilizing the population, and preventing foreseeable humanitarian crises.

Global: Women in prison - Standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners

2010-03-03

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/treatmentprisoners.htm

8. ( a ) Men and women shall so far as possible be detained in separate institutions; in an institution which receives both men and women the whole of the premises allocated to women shall be entirely separate;
23. (1) In women's institutions there shall be special accommodation for all necessary pre-natal and post-natal care and treatment. Arrangements shall be made wherever practicable for children to be born in a hospital outside the institution. If a child is born in prison, this fact shall not be mentioned in the birth certificate.
(2) Where nursing infants are allowed to remain in the institution with their mothers, provision shall be made for a nursery staffed by qualified persons, where the infants shall be placed when they are not in the care of their mothers.

Mali: "Reality check" needed in proposed changes to family code

2010-03-05

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88251

A husband and wife can keep separate homes, but only with the husband’s approval. A divorcée can keep her ex-husband’s name – if he agrees. A girl should be able to marry at 15. These and a dozen other changes to the family code are being proposed by Mali’s top Islamic council, even though they were blocked last August after strong opposition from some Muslim leaders.

South Africa: Beijing+15: Media - a hard nut to crack for women

2010-03-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/62789

Women are yet to make significant inroads into the media 15 years after the Beijing Platform of Action recognised its centrality in advancing women’s rights. Preliminary findings of the 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project conducted by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) suggests that women constitute less than a quarter of those interviewed, heard, seen or read about in mainstream broadcast and print news.
Media - a hard nut to crack for women

By Arthur Okwemba and Colleen Lowe Morna

Women are yet to make significant inroads into the media 15 years after the Beijing Platform of Action recognised its centrality in advancing women’s rights. Preliminary findings of the 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project conducted by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) suggests that women constitute less than a quarter of those interviewed, heard, seen or read about in mainstream broadcast and print news.

Launched during the 54th Commission on the Statius of Women in New York, the initial report comprises results based on a one-day sample of 42 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean Region, Pacific Islands and Europe. It comprises 6,902 news items and 14,044 news subjects, including people interviewed in the news. Data is still rolling in, and input from North America is not yet available.

However, initial results suggest a rise from 17% in the first GMMP in 1995 to 24% of stories including women, still far from the desired 50%. However, the authors of the study are somewhat happy to see some progress, compared to the 1995 to 2000 period when the figure stagnated.

Lavinia Mohr, WACC’s Director of Programmes, spoke during the report launched on Tuesday. “From 2005 to 2010 there is a second change of 3% which shows a pace of progress in gender-balance in the news that has remained persistently slow in the last ten years, but which is more rapid than the rate registered between 1995 and 2000.”

The study found that news stories by female reporters rose from 29% to 35%. This echoes research by Gender Links, a non-governmental organisation working to promote women in and through the media, which found that in Southern Africa women comprise 41% of media personnel, though when South Africa (which has by far the largest media density) is taken out of the equation, the figure falls to 32%.

Journalists like Gertrude Makhafola, who has worked at the South African Sowetan for two years, have passion for the craft. “I love being a journalist,” she says. Yet, like many, she understands the challenges facing women.

“If you come to work one day wearing a skirt or heels, your male colleagues will make statements like ‘I didn’t know you have those assets!’ explained Makhafola. “This goes on everyday and it goes beyond simple compliments…” The research also found that perceptions that women cannot, or should not, cover certain beats or take on certain roles, discourages them from joining, and staying, in the media field.

According to the GMMP report, monitors identified stories mentioning, quoting or referring to relevant local, national, regional or international policy or legislation focused on gender equality or human rights. The found only 9% of stories contain this information, with the majority being in the Middle East (in 19% of stories).

Only 11% of stories in Africa and Asia each, 4% in the Caribbean and Latin America and 1% in the Pacific make mention of such instruments. This supports observations by gender and communication groups on the relative invisibility of human rights and specifically women’s human rights in mainstream media content.

Similarly, in Southern Africa, while 54% of the region’s media indicated they had specific targets for achieving gender equality, no media houses in the study could point to specific targets for ensuring gender equality in decision-making in line with the Southern African Development Community Gender Protocol 2015 parity target. Asked about the target deadline for gender parity, approximately half of respondents did not know. Gender and media activists have their work cut out to popularise such instruments with the media.

On the GMMP monitoring day, only 1.3 % of the stories were on gender, 0.3% on women’s economic participation, 1.2% on poverty and 0.9% on peace related issues. When it came to topics which media gives priority in their news agenda, politics and economy, the numbers of women interviewed or who were the subject of the story was worryingly low. Women as subjects in matters of economy increased marginally from 20% to 21%, while in the area of politics and government from 14% to 18%.

The report suggests that Latin America leads as the region with the highest percentage of stories that challenge stereotypes (14%). In Africa, stories are almost 16 times more likely to reinforce than to challenge stereotypes. Scrutiny at the statistics reveals that stories by female reporters are less likely to reinforce and twice as likely to challenge stereotypes as stories by male reporters.

Teetee Zwane, editor of the Business Desk at the Swazi Observer agrees that women and men bring different perspectives to the table. “Compassionate news has been ignored for a long time. We haven’t had that human feel to news. We need that female voice to push all that into the media.”

She further adds, “No one has had the passion for issues important to women, and without the media creating awareness of these we will be a long way from gender equality. We have pushed these stories (abuse, HIV/AIDS) and are making people aware. But it’s always a female reporter.”

Responding to the global findings launched in New York, Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls of FemLink Pacific: Media Initiatives for Women in Fiji, said the surest way to improve the coverage of women in the media is to institutionalise the issue through the formulation of gender policies to guide the editorial work.

Saniye Gulser Corat, UNESCO’s Director, Division of Gender Equality, Bureau of Strategic Planning warned that if substantive and innovative interventions do not happen now, then it “will take 75 years to achieve gender parity in the media.”

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Arthur Okwemba is a journalist with the African Women and Child Feature Service and Colleen Lowe Morna is executive director of Gender Links. This article is part of the GL Opinion and Commentary Service, produced during Beijing +15.

South Africa: Beijing+15: Time to go back to the streets

2010-03-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/62788

Sitting in my office in Johannesburg reading the daily newspaper published for the Beijing+15 Review at the Conference on the Status of Women in New York, I feel a sense of discomfort, a sense of a world going wrong. First, I read the article ‘Playing it safe or losing ground?’ where we find out that the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, is not present at the meeting. Second, the governments' have agreed to come out with a Declaration after the Review, not an outcomes document.
Time to go back to the streets

By Kubi Rama

Sitting in my office in Johannesburg reading the daily newspaper published for the Beijing+15 Review at the Conference on the Status of Women in New York, I feel a sense of discomfort, a sense of a world going wrong.

First, I read the article ‘Playing it safe or losing ground?’ where we find out that the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, is not present at the meeting. Second, the governments' have agreed to come out with a Declaration after the Review, not an outcomes document.

The difference between the two is that the declaration will reaffirm country's commitments to the Beijing Platform for Action while an outcomes document would have been an audit on how far countries' have come and what needs to be done. How do we hold governments' accountable if there is no audit of what has been achieved and more importantly what has not been achieved?

Cyber dialogues, online thematic chats, accompany the daily newspaper. One of the chat's focused on "Governance: The best man for the job is woman". One of the key statistics debated was that the global representation of women in Parliament has increased from 11% in 1995 (the inception of the Beijing Platform for Action) to 18% in 2010.

An increase of seven percent in 15 years must be acknowledged but is certainly no reason to celebrate. Similarly, preliminary reports from the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) suggest that the representation of women in the global media has gone up a whole three percent in the lasts five years, from 21% in 2005 to 24% in 2010. Indeed, women's representation has increased a whopping seven percent from 17% in 1995 till now.

On another level I am struck by the irony of what the South African delegates to the CSW will be reporting. How far South Africa has come in the last five years? We have a polygamous president who has extramarital affairs from which he has children. Not a poster child for ABC (Abstain, be faithful and condomise) HIV and AIDS Campaign.

The President of South Africa is also one of the chief drivers of moral regeneration of South African society. He does not, however, lead by example.

The question for South Africa is not how far we have come as regards women's rights BUT how far have we retrogressed? Should a President who does not respect women, women's rights and have a clear and principled position on gender equality be a President?

Don't be mistaken I am not in despair about what we have achieved. The gender equality journey is hard and every single gain must be acknowledged. I am thinking about what we need to do to right the world.

The policies, declarations, protocols, outcome documents and legislation are all crucial in this road we are traveling as gender activists. Lobbying governments, global bodies, regional and sub regional bodies to implement and make real the provisions of the all the instruments they signed is still critical.

My sense though is that we have to go back to the streets. The time for activism is nigh. We fight our battles in boardrooms and government corridors. The issue of the representation of women at all levels needs to be back on the public agenda.

We need to march on the streets, outside Parliaments and make our voices heard inside parliaments. New technologies give us the ability to garner support for gender campaigns across the globe. We need global campaigns to keep issues on the agenda all the time.

The time for activism is now! Aluta continua!

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Kubi Rama is the Deputy Director of Gender Links. This article is part of the GL Opinion and Commentary Service, produced during Beijing +15.

Guinea: Ensure redress for stadium massacre victims

2010-03-05

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/03/04/guinea-ensure-redress-stadium-massacre-victims

Guinea's new transitional government should take concrete steps to ensure redress for victims of the September 2009 massacre of more than 150 opposition supporters in a stadium in the capital, Conakry, Human Rights Watch has said in a letter to the new government.

Kenya: ICC official names 20 people most responsible for post-election clashes

2010-03-05

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33952

Following a request for additional information from the International Criminal Court (ICC) earlier this month, its Prosecutor has named the 20 people he says are most responsible for the deadly post-election ethnic violence which swept Kenya in December 2007 and January 2008.

Kenya: Ocampo targets PNU and ODM

2010-03-05

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/-/1064/873470/-/wqkbb4z/-/index.html

International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has accused leaders from across Kenya's political divide and businessmen over their role in the post-election violence. Details of Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s submission to the Pre-Trial Chamber show how the suspects planned and executed what he refers to as a “criminal policy” against civilians.

Namibia: UN says it can act on mass graves

2010-03-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/62717

The United Nations says it will evaluate and refer to a competent authority, which includes the International Criminal Court, any claims of enforced disappearances if there are legitimate grounds for concern. This is contained in the new report released by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
BY: Christof Maletsky*

THE United Nations says it will evaluate and refer to a competent authority, which includes the International Criminal Court, any claims of enforced disappearances if there are legitimate grounds for concern. This is contained in the new report released by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) approached the UN Working Group last year to hold the Namibian Government answerable for the discovery of mass graves it made in September 2008. NSHR claimed it had found several mass graves a few kilometers north of the Namibian border in southern Angola and that such graves were of Namibian and Angolan nationals buried between 1999 and 2002. The human rights group claimed that those buried were rebels and supporters of the Angolan Unita rebel movement who were hunted by soldiers of the Namibian and Angolan armies.

“When there are claims of practices of enforced disappearances which may amount to crimes against humanity, the Working Group will evaluate these claims in the light of the criteria listed in Article 7(1) of the Rome Statute, as interpreted by international and hybrid tribunals and, if appropriate, will refer them to the competent authorities, be they international, regional or domestic,” the UN said in the report.

The Article gives a general definition of the concept of crime against humanity, applicable to all crimes such as enforced disappearance of persons, extermination, deportation or forcible transfer of population, torture, persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender and the crime of apartheid.

When NSHR submitted a dossier to them the Group said there were reasonable grounds to believe that enforced disappearances have occurred and are still occurring on a massive scale in Namibia. It wrote to the Namibian Government informing them that Namibia’s de facto state of emergency was allegedly used to create conditions to perpetrate disappearances and that Windhoek must explain what happened. In its first the communication on June 16 last year the Government requested for more time as the reply needed input from different departments.

The second communication, written three months later on September 24, stated that the Namibian Constitution protected human rights and informed the UN Working Group that there were “enforceable and readily available remedies open to any citizen or resident of Namibia who alleges or feels that any of the rights guaranteed by the Nami-bian Constitution have been violated. It said individuals can seek redress in civil courts or in criminal courts.

“In criminal cases, individuals can lodge complaints with the Police without any expenses involved. Extra-judicial remedies are available through the Office of the Ombudsman at expenses,” the Government informed the UN Working Group. The Government also said Police and other law enforcement agencies give serious attention to the crime of enforced or involuntary disappearances through investigations.

However, NSHR executive director Phil ya Nangoloh told The Namibian that the Police had not taken up their offer to visit the sites where they found the mass graves and to investigate the claims. Government told the UN that Police investigate when they believe that such an act has been committed and that criminal process will be allowed to take its course.

Even if a case is dismissed in a trial, Government said, an aggrieved person can still get an inquest presided over by a judicial officer. “It is clear therefore that Namibia, as a country founded on the principles of the rule of law and democracy, has more than enough remedies available to aggrieved persons,” Government informed the UN. The UN Working Group reminded the Namibian Government of its obligations under the declaration which bars States from permitting enforced disappearances and its obligation to investigate any claims of such cases.

This would include the Government forcing people like witnesses to appear before competent authorities, production of relevant documents, making immediate on-site visits, protection against ill treatment and reprisals and conducting thorough and impartial investigations.

NSHR claimed that 40 men and boys aged between 14 and 56 allegedly disappeared soon after Namibian security forces rounded them up in the Kavango Region between November 27 1999 and December 20 1999.

Another group of 18 members of the Kxoe also allegedly disappeared without trace on August 12 2000 soon after they were detained by the First Battalion of the Namibian Defence Force and Special Field Force members. On August 16 2000 another group of more than 30 Kxoe San villagers allegedly disappeared without trace following sweeps by the Namibian security forces at Chetto, Bwabwata, Omega, Mutjiku and Bagani. They were allegedly accused of collaborating with Unita and the Caprivi secessionist group.

NSHR claimed that individual persons allegedly also disappeared in the Kavango and Caprivi regions during that time.

In 2008 NSHR claimed that they had found gravesites near Oidilona village in the Omulunga area, at Omamwandi village (some 15 kilometres north of the Namibian border), in the bush in the Okakango Kongolo area (10 kilometres north of the Namibian border), in Oluungu forest near Olupale village, in the Odila village area in Angola and one between Ohauwanga and Oshingadu villages.

*Source: The Namibian online, Thursday, February 25 2010

Sudan: EU calls for a review of rights climate for elections

2010-03-05

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/03/02/eu-review-rights-climate-sudan-elections

The European Union Election Observation Mission to Sudan should consider the impact of ongoing human rights abuses and insecurity on the elections process, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the mission on March 2, 2010.

Zimbabwe: Civil society warns of worsening rights abuse

2010-03-05

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news040310/civilsoc040310.htm

Civil society organisations have warned of worsening human rights abuse at the hands of state security agents, explaining that in the last three months there has been an escalation in the number of threats, intimidation and harassment against its members.

Congo: UN launch $59 mln appeal to cover urgent needs of 110,000

2010-03-05

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MUMA-83928P?OpenDocument

Since October 2009 a total of 114,017 refugees have fled armed clashes in Equateur Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and found refuge in the Republic of Congo (RoC). These clashes originated in inter-communal disputes over farming and fishing rights but later widened to other parts of the province.

Southern Africa:Botswana deports DRC refugees

2010-03-03

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/62723

The Government of Botswana has forcibly returned at 4 of the 10 families of the 41 Congolese refugees who fled Namibia last July, a reliable government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
The Government of Botswana has forcibly returned at 4 of the 10 families of the 41 Congolese refugees who fled Namibia last July, a reliable government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. The families of Joel Kabangu, Jean Ilunga, Nzuzi Kwamadio and Bertin Kalumba, numbering altogether 23 souls, have been forcibly repatriated to their war-torn motherland by Botswana authorities in collaboration with the local office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the source said. The deportation of the families severally took place between February 8 and 24 2010. The fate of the remaining 6 refugee families, totalling approximately 19 members, remained in custody a Botswana prison just outside capital of Gaborone.

Meanwhile a Congolese-DRC air force officer informed NSHR over the weekend via satellite telephone that Joel Kabangu and his family were being held in custody at the Ndjili International Airport in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa. The reasons for his detention are not clear and the officer would not elaborate.

The group of Congolse refugees fled Namibia for their lives on July 7 2009 following death threats from Namibian authorities after they spoke out against violations of refugee rights at the Osire Refugee Camp some 220 kilometers northeast of the Namibian capital of Windhoek. The refugees said that, following such threats, they were unable and or unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of the Government of the Republic of Namibia—owing to well founded fear of being persecuted, inter alia, for reasons of nationality or membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

Prior to fleeing Namibia, individual members of the group had received letters from Namibian immigration officials wherein the latter told the former inter alia that their human rights activities at the ORC “constitute a threat to peace and security”. Article 21(1) of the Namibian Constitution, which is the supreme law of the country, guarantees the rights of “everyone” to freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of thought and conscience, freedom of association and freedom of assembly as well as freedom of movement.

Most of the concerned refugees—some of whom have been residing in Namibia for up to 10 years—are members of the Association of the Voiceless (AV), a non-violent organization established at the Osire Refugee Camp (ORC) to advocate respect for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers.

The refoulement of the Congolese went ahead despite reasonable fears of persecution of these refugees and asylum seekers in their country of origin. Hence, NSHR is deeply concerned that the refouled refugees have been put at risk of being arbitrary deprived of personal liberty, of being subjected to summary executions, torture and other cruel and inhuman treatment or enforced disappearance in their war-and-conflict stricken DR Congo.

Approached for comment this morning, an top official at the Botswan High Commission said the High Commission would not deny or confirm the reports at this stage and that the High Commission would first enquire with Gaborone.

* In case of additional comment, please call Steven Mvula or Phil ya Nangoloh at Tel: 061 236 183 or 061 253 447 or 0811 406 888 (office hours) or Cell: +264 811 299 886 (Phil) or E-mail: nshr@nshr.org.na or visit: www.nshr.org.na

Morocco: Strike shuts down public sector

2010-03-05

http://tinyurl.com/yawcb9z

Three major public-sector unions launched a general strike Wednesday (March 3rd) after two months of negotiations with the government reached an impasse. "We're not fans of strike action," Democratic Labour Federation general secretary Abderrahman Azzouzi said, "but after a two-month halt in the negotiation process, we had to do something."

A strategic approach to trade agreements

2010-03-04

http://pragati.nationalinterest.in/2010/03/a-strategic-approach-to-trade-agreements/

Getting the most out of PTAs and economic agreements – There is a question of both the quantity and the quality of human resources needed in economic ministries to meet the challenges of the PTA agenda. Multilateralism is in India’s interest. While there is a case for the PTAs, they should not undermine competency in using the WTO

China in Africa: Debunking myths and debating truths

2010-03-05

http://tinyurl.com/yanumw7

In the context of its ongoing work on new trade and development partners in Africa, the Development Centre hosted a presentation and debate of Asia/Africa expert Deborah Brautigam’s new book The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa. Professor Brautigam began by explaining away the greatest myths surrounding China’s engagement in Africa and ended with a summary of the different approaches to development held by China and traditional donors to the region.

Emerging powers news roundup

2010-03-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/emplayersnews/62812

Emerging Actors

General

Towards a new world order- The West's bullying approach to developing nations won't work anymore More

Mexico, Argentina and Indonesia have expressed interest in associating themselves with the BASIC countries More

Online game seeks to empower Africa More

Asian tree provides low-cost water purification method for developing world More

Somali pirates set to gain from Asia coal boom More

China & Africa

Increasing number of provinces in China are richer than some countries More

Zambian president lists controversial mobile hospitals among projects to be funded by China More

Zambian president on last stop in China More

China strengthening Africa’s infrastructure base More

FOCAC: a win-win for Sino-African relations? More

Metorex Ltd sees prices of the metal rising on growth in China and other developing nations More

Ethio-China Polytechnic Inaugurates Confucius Institut in Ethiopia More

Leading Chinese bus manufacturer will soon introduce a range of high capacity buses into the Nigerian market More

Diamond regains its glitter thanks to Chinese demand More

The Angolan president received the Chinese ambassador in Angola to discusse issues related to the strengthening of cooperation between the two countries More

The number of iron ore and coal ships hired to deliver cargoes to China declined as the country held a weeklong holiday to celebrate the Lunar New Year More

'China-Africa relations based on equality, mutual benefit and common development'? More

Tanzanian Ambassador to China said hat exchange of visits between Chinese and African leaders and officials is one of the cornerstones of China-Africa relations More

A Zambian View on Chinese Firms More

Zambian president Banda courts more Chinese investment More

One of China’s premier investment zones is expected soon to replicate its successful development model near the southern approaches to the Suez canal More

China and Kenya plan to search for ancient Chinese ships wrecked almost 600 years ago off Africa's east coast More

China has cancelled 50 percent of the unpaid loan which Zambia got for the construction of the Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) More

Kofi Annan called on Asia to pay more attention to the impact of its investment in Africa on the continent's economic development More

Quota window on Chinese clothing imports closed before South African state woke up More


India & Africa

India and Africa are committed to learn and gain from each other's developmental experiences and practices, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said More

Indian tourists to South Africa expected to double by 2012 More

South African Tourism’s annual four-city roadshow of India saw 27 of the destination’s leading tourism products conclude business deals with more than 1 200 travel trade representatives More

Investors are questioning if Bharti Mittal 's multi-billion-dollar bid to gain a foothold in Africa is a step too far More

India's top vehicle maker looks to Africa More

Uganda and India leading have joined hands to conduct research into the textile potential of the banana fibre More

Conclave on India-Africa to unlock opportunities for Zambia More

The Indian government is considering setting up SME clusters in Namibia to provide an impetus to Indian SMEs More

African Venture: Promises and Pitfalls of Bharti's Deal with Zain More

Uganda Opens Avenues of Growth for Indian SMEs More


Mauritania approves US$21.8 million India grant More

Trade pact with southern African customs union may get delayed More



Other Emerging Actors in Africa

Plans to build a pipeline from south Sudan to the Kenyan coast were boosted when a Japanese company expressed interest in joining the project
More

South Africa's Tongaat FY earnings up on sugar More

Turkish contractors to expand into India, Central and West Africa More

Russian efforts to acquire oil and gas fields in Africa have yielded little success over the past decade More

Nigerian parliament debates new oil law for Africa's top producer More

South Africa’s state-owned lender is studying investment in a “huge” Botswana coal project to fuel power plants More

Donors after disaster in Uganda included Tullow Uganda, China National Offshore Oil Corporation as well as MTN Uganda More

China, Russia and Iran are to establish a tractor assembly plant in Nigeria More

The Saudi Arabian secret police wrote to the Nigerian mission saying they would now allow access to the leading Izala preacher Ahmad Gummi More

Tunisia to further strengthen Palestinian relations More

The president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, may visit Angola soon More

Plight of local students in Russia More

Russia signs border protection cooperation deal with Angola More

Other Commentaries

The lingering of an absurd imperial reflex More

East African Community not reaping the economic benefits of the Northern Corridor More

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS



* Compiled by Anna Lena Wachter, intern based with the Emerging Powers in Africa programme.

Is there a Chinese model?

2010-03-04

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-03/01/content_9515478.htm

During 2009 there was an upsurge in Chinese academic and journalistic writings concerning the question of a "Chinese model". Since last year Chinese intellectuals have been heatedly debating whether there is such a distinct Chinese model for development - and, if so, what are its contents and is it transferable for other countries?

Japan group eyes oil pipeline plan

2010-03-04

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/73668096-26ee-11df-8c08-00144feabdc0.html

Plans to transform the east African oil sector by building a pipeline from south Sudan to the Kenyan coast were boosted this week when a Japanese company expressed interest in joining the project.

Africa: EISA Pre election assessment mission to the CAR

2010-03-04

http://www.eisa.org.za/EISA/pr20100303.htm

In accordance with its vision of “promoting credible elections and democratic governance in Africa”, EISA plans to deploy a 3 member pre election assessment mission to the Central African Republic (CAR). This forms part of EISA’s election related activities in the CAR which will include the deployment of a continental observer mission to the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections scheduled for April 2010.

Burundi: Tensions high in run-up to Burundi elections

2010-03-04

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88313

As Burundi approaches elections designed to cap the country’s democratic transition after years of civil conflict, there is growing concern about worsening security and limits to political freedom. “The situation is explosive,” Pierre Clavier Mbonimpa, chairman of the Association for the Promotion of Human and Prisoner Rights (APRODH).

Côte d’Ivoire: UN mission highlights next steps to long-awaited elections

2010-03-05

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33977

The United Nations mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) is closely monitoring efforts to establish a government – including an independent electoral commission – and to resume plans for long-awaited elections in the West African country, where a political crisis following the dissolution of the government last month sparked deadly street protests.

Ethiopia: Opposition politician stabbed to death

2010-03-04

http://tinyurl.com/yl42umd

An Ethiopian opposition politician and parliamentary aspirant was stabbed to death Tuesday and a second one seriously wounded when attackers raided their respective homes in Makalle and Axum in Tigray, 783 km north of Addis Ababa, party officials said.

Niger: Junta stops pro-government demonstrations

2010-03-04

http://tinyurl.com/ygma6x6

Niger's ruling Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD) has stopped all demonstrations in support of the military junta which seized power in the West African nation 18 Feb., according to statement from the junta.

Nigeria: Ministers 'barred' from making public comments

2010-03-04

http://tinyurl.com/ydsxe5x

Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has barred ministers from making public comments as the country's leadership crisis continues. The order was sequel to stinging comments by Minister of Information and Communication, Dora Akunyili, on the secrecy surrounding the lingering ill-health of President Umaru Yar'Adua and the clandestine manner in which he was ferried to Nigeria last week, after spending 93 days in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment.

Togo: Hope for the best, prepare for worst

2010-03-04

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88305

More than 3,000 local election observers, 6,000 soldiers, and representatives of international election transparency watchdog groups are scattered across Togo on the eve of a presidential election crackling with tension, yet billed as a "national reconciliation" by its leaders.

Togo: Opposition claims 'irregularities' in poll

2010-03-05

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8548787.stm

The main opposition party in Togo has claimed widespread irregularities in the country's presidential election. People in Togo voted on Thursday to chose a new head of state - five years after hundreds died following the last, disputed election.

Uganda: Pressure mounts to make public oil agreements

2010-03-05

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50548

Uganda’s members of parliament (MPs) are pressurising government to make public details of oil production-sharing agreements it signed with various international oil companies.

Africa: AU/ECA offer recipe for sustained growth, job creation

2010-03-04

http://tinyurl.com/yjapfwn

Progress in sustaining high-level and job-creating growth in Africa will remain unsatisfactory unless bold country specific growth and employment strategies are adopted and implemented with the support of committed political leaders, according to a paper jointly prepared by the Africa Union Commission (AUC) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Africa: Energy shortages 'threaten Africa growth'

2010-03-05

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE6230NZ20100304

Africa's economic growth could be held back for another generation unless global investors help the world's poorest continent to improve its unreliable energy networks, a British minister has said.

Africa: Study says poverty falling faster than thought

2010-03-05

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6230GR20100304?type=marketsNews

Africans are getting wealthier more quickly than previously believed, according to a new study that also suggests the poorest continent's riches are spreading beyond the narrow confines of its elite. "Africa is reducing poverty, and doing it much faster than we thought," the study by U.S.-based economists Xavier Sala-i-Martin and Maxim Pinkovskiy said.

Africa: UNEP says carbon markets in moving forward

2010-03-04

http://tinyurl.com/yh98wxq

Africa has over 120 carbon market projects up and running or in the pipeline,in areas ranging from wind power to forestry schemes, a new assessment, published by the UN Environment Programme, has shown. However, in comparison to the rest of the world, the continent is still lagging behind, with the potential for clean and green energy largely under- exploited.

DRC: IFC halts investments until dispute resolved

2010-03-05

http://www.bicusa.org/en/Article.11789.aspx

After the Democratic Republic of Congo cancelled an IFC backed mining contract over disputed payments, the World Bank arm has declared that it will not begin new projects in the country until the dispute is resolved. The IFC is currently active in nine projects in Congo with a commitment of $104.6 million.

Gambia: $8 million support for agricultural production

2010-03-05

http://www.afrol.com/articles/35529

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has signed a grant agreement of US$8 million with the Republic of The Gambia to improve the production and marketability of livestock and horticulture products, specifically targeting rural women and youth nationwide.

Gambia: IMF ends review of Gambia 's economic performance

2010-03-04

http://tinyurl.com/ya4wcnb

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that Gambian authorities had carried out satisfactory economic policies that have contributed to robust economic growth and low inflation. But it warned that Gambia still remained at high risk of debt distress even after extensive debt relief.

North Africa: Calls grow for Maghreb economic integration

2010-03-05

http://tinyurl.com/yc26s84

Maghreb countries should abandon protectionism in order to boost lagging regional trade, according to participants in a recent conference on economic integration organised by Tunisia's Foreign Ministry. The conference on Maghreb Economic Integration, which was held on February 17th to mark the 21st anniversary of the establishment of the Maghreb Union, was attended by high-ranking Tunisian officials, businessmen and professors.

West Africa: Ivory Coast lays claim to Ghana's oil

2010-03-05

http://tinyurl.com/yb72eh9

A dispute could break out between Ghana and neighbouring Ivory Coast, if immediate steps are not taken to enter into appropriate negotiations to redefine the international boundary between the two nations. Ghana's Western neighbor Ivory Coast is reportedly laying claims to portions of the huge oil wealth in the deep waters of the Western Region of Ghana.

Africa: Tracking the male circumcision rollout

2010-03-05

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88286

Medical male circumcision is now widely recognized as an important HIV prevention tool, and several African countries have included it in their national HIV strategies. IRIN/PlusNews lists the progress of 13 nations in eastern and southern Africa identified as priority countries for male circumcision scale-up by the UN World Health Organization.

East Africa: Improving local access to family planning

2010-03-05

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=50422

A severe shortage of highly-trained medical personnel is one of the many challenges to providing health care at a local level across Africa. Task shifting - permitting less-specialized people to carry out certain functions - is one proposal to over come this, but it is meeting resistance.

Global: UN warns HIV/Aids leading cause of death in women

2010-03-05

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8546655.stm

HIV has become the leading cause of death and disease among women of reproductive age worldwide, the UN programme on HIV/Aids says. At the start of a 10-day conference in New York, UNAids launched a five-year action plan addressing the gender issues which put women at risk.

HIV prevalence strongly linked to poor progress on health MDGs

2010-03-05

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/9DC58FE9-354F-42ED-AEC8-7DD7A913FBA8.asp

Slower progress towards achieving Millenium Development Goals on health is strongly correlated with a country’s burden of HIV disease and non-communicable diseases, according to an analysis by researchers from the London School of Hygiene, Oxford University and the University of California San Francisco published today in PLoS Medicine.

Kenya: Missed opportunities for HIV testing of pregnant women

2010-03-05

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/9978313E-147A-4FDC-8322-CF1763A147D2.asp

Kenyan women are becoming infected with HIV during pregnancy at very high rates, and repeat testing prior to delivery, or at the earliest possible opportunity after birth, should be encouraged in order to reduce mother-to-child transmission, Kenyan researchers reported last week at the 17th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in San Francisco.

South Africa: MCC blocking access to lifesaving meds – HIV clinicians

2010-03-05

http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20032666

HIV stakeholders are calling on the Medicines Control Council (MCC) to speed up the registration of critical anti-HIV medication or face legal action. The Southern African HIV Clinicians Society has sent an appeal to the health minister to intervene and address the MCC registration process which they describe as the single biggest obstacle to getting affordable access to medicines.

Swaziland: Long-distance learning certificate for caregivers

2010-03-04

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50452

Every Tuesday you will find 70-year-old Precious Dlamini under a tree, weighing children and babies from her local community as she monitors their health and nutrition. Though she may not have any official qualifications to do so, Dlamini is a retired teacher, she devotes much of her time to caring for the orphaned children in her community and educating people about a healthy lifestyle.

Uganda: Those who think they have HIV less likely to refer family members for testing

2010-03-05

http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/7B0F912D-77E7-479C-B302-72321CEB1EEC.asp

A study presented at the recent Seventeenth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections founds that Ugandans presenting at a TB clinic grossly overestimated the likelihood that they had HIV. It also found that those who thought they had HIV were significantly less likely to refer members of their household for HIV testing than those who did not think so.

Uganda: Prof. Mamdani back at Makerere University

2010-03-04

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/711008

Professor Mahmood Mamdani has been appointed to head Makerere University Institute of Social Research (MISR). This means the renowned scholar will be returning to the university after 17 years. Mamdani's five-year contract takes immediate effect. He will replace Dr. Nakanyike Musisi who left last year when her contract expired after 10 years of service.

South Africa: Minister slams 'porn exhibition'

2010-03-05

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=southafrica&id=2507

The opening of an exhibition by young, black women artists at Constitution Hill turned sour when Arts and Culture Minister Lulu Xingwana stormed out of the exhibition, calling the work "immoral". Xingwana, whose department gave R300,000 to the Innovative Women exhibition, which was launched in Johannesburg to coincide with Women's Day last August, left before she was due to speak at the opening.

South Africa: Suspended 'lesbian' learners' back at school

2010-03-05

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=southafrica&id=2506

About 27 students, suspended from UMthwalume high school, on suspicion that they are homosexuals, have been allowed back in school. This was a result of a meeting between parents of suspended learners, the school governing body and the Department of Education of Ugu Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal

Uganda: Online protest keeps spotlight on anti-gay bill

2010-03-04

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88275

More than 450,000 people have signed an online petition urging Uganda's parliament to drop a bill that would impose the death sentence for the crime of "aggravated homosexuality" - when an HIV-positive person has sex with anyone who is disabled or under the age of 18.

Uganda: Petition opposing Anti-homosexuality Bill delivered to parliament

2010-03-05

http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=uganda&id=2508

An online petition containing more than 450,000 signatures has been presented to the Uganda Parliament, urging members to withdraw a proposed bill that, if passed, would broaden the criminalization of homosexuality in the East African country and introduce the death penalty in certain cases.

South Africa: Investigate inadequate police response to xenophobic violence

2010-03-05

http://tinyurl.com/ylr2352

The South African authorities must investigate the delayed police response to last month's attacks against refugees and migrants and their property in Siyathemba Township, 80km south east of Johannesburg. The authorities must also ensure that those responsible for the attacks are held accountable.

Africa: 4th CBA conference

2010-03-05

http://community.eldis.org/.59b70e3d/

The 4th International CBA conference (21-27th February) gathered representatives from the developing world to share knowledge and developments in community-based adaptation. The Community Based Adaptation Exchange (CBAX), an IIED and IDS project, collaborated with the AfricaAdapt Network to report from the conference via blogs, photos and videos. The coverage of the event has been hosted on the CBA-X platform.

East Africa: Kenya misses out on carbon trading billions

2010-03-05

http://tinyurl.com/yb9kgu6

Kenyan companies are missing billions of shillings in new revenue because of lack of expertise to develop projects that help reduce carbon dioxide emissions and therefore earn from the global carbon trading market. The global carbon trading market, which rewards projects that help reduce emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, is now worth estimated Sh12.5 trillion ($170 billion), according to industry data provider, Carbin Point, but only a very small fraction of this money, estimated at two per cent, is coming to Africa.

Ethiopian project sets world climate change example

2010-03-05

http://www.afrol.com/articles/35532

A new initiative to bring environmental and financial benefits to local communities in the impoverished highlands of Ethiopia has been announced in Ethiopia. The Humbo Assisted Natural Regeneration Project is Africa's first large-scale forestry project to be registered under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. It will bring both economic and social benefits to poor communities in Ethiopia as well as environmental benefits as the project will cut an estimated 880,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the next 30 years.

Global: Africa lagging behind in development of ‘green’ energy economy – UN

2010-03-05

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33950

Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world in developing renewable energy projects with initiatives aimed at producing clean and ‘green’ energy remaining largely under-exploited, warned a new report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Ethiopia: Struggles against land grabs in Gambella

2010-03-04

http://farmlandgrab.org/11440

Ethiopia is one of the main targets in the current global farmland grab. The government has stated publicly that it wants to provide 3 million hectares of farmland in the country to foreign investors and around 1 million hectares have apparently already been signed away. Much of the land that these investors have acquired is in the province of Gambella, a fertile area that is home to the Anuak Nation.

Mauritius: Chagos marine protection plan condemned as unethical

2010-03-04

http://tinyurl.com/ylnfmlu

Conservationists are at war over a British plan to create a marine protection zone around a large chunk of surviving empire in the Indian Ocean. The zone, twice the size of Britain, would cover much of the Chagos archipelago, one of the most unspoiled coral reef systems in the world.

South Africa: Massive farm failure

2010-03-04

http://farmlandgrab.org/11458

Food security and economic growth are being undermined by the collapse of more than 90% of the farms that the government bought for restitution or redistribution to victims of apartheid. Minister of Rural Development and Land Affairs Gugile Nkwinti also warned that, while the government would invest heavily to rescue these failing farms, it would also crack down soon on foreigners buying up South African land.

Egypt: Blogger tried in military court

2010-03-03

http://www.ifex.org/egypt/2010/03/02/mostafa_military_court/

On 1 March 2010, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) expressed extreme shock at the decision of the military prosecutor to try blogger and student Ahmed Mostafa, 20, in a military court for allegedly publishing false information about the military establishment, after an unusually quick investigation, according to ANHRI lawyers of the Legal Aid Unit who attended the interrogation sessions.

Kenya: ARTICLE 19 recommends changes to new broadcasting regulation

2010-03-03

http://tinyurl.com/ycd5j65

ARTICLE 19 has released its analysis of the Kenya Communications (Broadcasting) Regulations, which came into force in January 2010, and recommends several changes to bring the Law in line with international standards.

Liberia: CEMESP launches 2009 annual press freedom report

2010-03-03

http://www.ifex.org/liberia/2010/03/02/press_freedom_report/

The Center for Media Studies & Peace Building (CEMESP) has launched the 3rd edition of its account of threats to freedom of expression with calls for the government and authorities to recognize and support the inalienable rights of others to dissent.

Sierra Leone: IFJ condemns opposition attacks against journalists

2010-03-05

http://tinyurl.com/ybykj9x

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns firmly the physical assault and violence by security operatives and supporters of the opposition Sierra Leone people’s party (SLPP) in Bo, Southern Sierra Leone against ten journalists.

DRC: Congolese groups demand removal of abusive army commander

2010-03-05

http://tinyurl.com/yg3es7o

Fifty Congolese human rights and civil society organizations, along with Human Rights Watch, have lodged a formal complaint against Colonel Innocent Zimurinda, a senior army officer based in North Kivu province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

DRC: UN plans to end peacekeeping mission

2010-03-05

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8548794.stm

The UN has begun talks with Democratic Republic of Congo on withdrawing its peacekeeping mission - the biggest UN operation in the world. UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said his officials would take a month to assess how the pullout of 20,500 personnel could be carried out.

Somalia: Inter-clan fighting kills 14

2010-03-05

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE62403Q20100305

More than a dozen people were killed and many more were hurt when two clans clashed in central Somalia, residents and community elders said on Friday. The Qubeys clan and the Suleyman sub-clan of the Habargidir clan started fighting the previous day in Amara village, 90 km north of the pirate base town of Haradheeere. The fight was over a dispute over land ownership.

Somalia: Shabab bans UN food aid

2010-03-05

http://tinyurl.com/yd29cfp

Al-Shabab, the Somali Islamist opposition group, has announced it will stop World Food Programme (WFP) operations in Somalia. The armed group said on Sunday that food distributed by the UN agency had disadvantaged local farmers and accused the WFP of being politically motivated.

Sudan: 30 killed in tribal clash

2010-03-05

http://tinyurl.com/yk9kf3p

At least 30 people were killed in Sudan after clashes between two rival tribes in the volatile southern region, witnesses said. Deputy state governor David Noc Marial has said clashes began after armed men from the Dinka tribe's Atuot and Ciek clans clashed in south Sudan's remote area over the weekend.

Uganda: Search on for mudslide survivors

2010-03-05

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/873510/-/122k7x1z/-/index.html

Rescue teams in Uganda are still digging into heaps of mud in an effort to rescue survivors of a landslide that has so far killed 88 people while 400 are still missing. Lack of advanced rescue equipment has complicated the rescue efforts. There are no earth movers on site and some residents are digging with their bare hands.

Digital Africa Summit

2010-03-05

http://www.be-excellent.com/dynamic.php?button=121&section=25

This year's 8th Annual Digital Africa Summit is set to be Africa’s premier ICT business summit, creating more opportunities for learning, partnerships and business, with ICT’s, telephony and broadband being globally recognized as a prerequisite for social and economic development the opportunity to engage positive change has never been greater.

Global: Women & mobile: A global opportunity

2010-03-05

http://www.wougnet.org/cms/content/view/487/1/

Women & Mobile: A Global Opportunity is a study on the mobile phone gender gap in low and middle-income countries. The study report was launched at the Mobile World Congress by Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association (GSMA), Cherie Blair, Founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and Brooke Partridge, CEO of Vital Wave Consulting. The Mobile World Congress was held in Barcelona, Spain, from 15 - 18 February 2010.

Nigeria: SMS Feedback Platform launched for patients

2010-03-05

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

Federal Government has said henceforth, patients attending Federal Government Hospitals can now report on the quality of services through SMS. With the support of MTN and Glo GSM Networks, who are providing the platform with which the service are being provided, the Federal Ministry of Health said it is poised to check the activities of quacks through the Patients' Feedback Platform with the generic shortcode 30500.

Somalia: Mobile transfers save money and lives

2010-03-05

http://tinyurl.com/y9pgeo4

About a year ago, Muqtar Ali's brother was shot dead by gunmen in the busy Bakara market of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, and his $200 in cash was stolen. Ali says that if a new mobile money transfer service unveiled by Somalia's biggest mobile telecoms firm last month had been in place then, his brother would still be alive.

Zimbabwe: National ICT strategic plan launched

2010-03-05

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

The Government has unveiled the National Information Communication strategic plan that will run from 2010 to 2014, and is expected to usher the country into the global information "super highway".

Africa: Education for All?

AfricaFocus Bulletin Feb 28, 2010 (100228)

2010-03-05

http://www.africafocus.org/docs10/educ1002.php

Education - particularly the education of girls - is fundamental to development, and is increasingly recognized as not only a national but also a global responsibility. The recent international effort called the Fast Track Initiative has significantly expanded basic education, notes Oxfam International in a new report.

Global: 2010 Louise Lown Heart Hero Award Call for Applications

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/62776

Every day, around the world, people are working hard to make a difference in cardiovascular health. The most effective work is often not by big organizations or government agencies, but by local individuals working in community programs. The Louise Lown Heart Hero Award was created to recognize individuals and programs for their innovative, preventive approaches to promoting cardiovascular health in low-resource settings.
Every day, around the world, people are working hard to make a difference in cardiovascular health. The most effective work is often not by big organizations or government agencies, but by local individuals working in community programs. The Louise Lown Heart Hero Award was created to recognize individuals and programs for their innovative, preventive approaches to promoting cardiovascular health in low-resource settings.

The award is given to successful grassroots initiatives or programs that creatively respond to the local cardiovascular health needs of the community. These programs focus on building awareness within the community and promoting heart health rather than the use of medical technology.

As a result of receiving the Louise Lown Heart Hero Award, past winners have enjoyed increased global visibility, increased partnerships, and new funding opportunities. The 2008 winner of the Louise Lown Heart Hero Award, Dr. Toakase Fakakovikaetau was featured in Lancet for her work in screening primary school children for rheumatic heart disease and providing early, effective treatment.

Any community-based initiative that promotes heart health is encouraged to apply for the 2010 Louise Lown Heart Hero Award.

Application deadline: 30 April 2010

Award amount: US$2000

Information about the award including who can apply, criteria, and the application are provided below. The information is also available in Word and PDF versions at www.procor.org or by emailing Benn Grover, ProCor Editor, at bgrover@partners.org

Past recipients of the award include the Be-Alive With Your Heart Program (2009), a grassroots effort to promote heart health from childhood to old age in Uganda. Rheumatic Heart Disease Prevention Program in Tonga (2008), which screens primary school children for rheumatic heart disease and provides early, effective treatment; and the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa Children's Programme (2007), which teaches heart healthy practices, such as growing vegetables for their daily meals, to over a million children in rural and urban impoverished settings throughout South Africa. Read more about past recipients at www.procor.org

Dr. Bernard Lown, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, inventor of the defibrillator, and founder of ProCor, created the award in 2007 to honor his wife's lifelong commitment to the rights and wellbeing of others through her work as a social worker, activist, and writer. The award is administered by ProCor.

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Who can apply
Applications are encouraged from community-based programs (non-profit, governmental, or private sector) that have successfully worked to promote heart health in developing countries or other low-resource settings (i.e., disadvantaged communities in developed countries) through innovative, preventive approaches. The Heart Hero Award is not a grant. Applicants should focus on their past accomplishments that deserve recognition, rather than future initiatives that need funding. Programs that are accepted for consideration but that do not receive the award will gain increased visibility through ProCor among a diverse global community committed to sharing knowledge in order to prevent cardiovascular disease.

Examples of eligible initiatives include community programs promoting physical activity, nutrition, or tobacco control; population-based interventions reducing diabetes, hypertension, and obesity; patient-focused clinical programs increasing access to screening, identification, and control of risk factors; advocacy and policy activities; and resource development and dissemination.

Award criteria
Applicants should focus on one specific initiative rather than an organization's entire scope of work. The initiative must:
- Build awareness or support action that promotes heart health.
- Be community-based and innovatively respond to local health needs.
- Demonstrate success.
- Be cost-effective and potentially sustainable.
- Have the potential to be adapted or replicated in other settings.
- Have been in operation for a minimum of one year.

Application process and timeline
- Applications are accepted year-round.
- Deadline for the 2010 award is 30 April 2010.
- Applications are reviewed on a continuous basis by an award committee.
- Applicants are notified whether their program has been accepted for consideration.
- Information about programs that are selected for award consideration may be published in ProCor's email news and discussion forum and website (www.procor.org).
- Funds are provided directly to the organization or individual with primary responsibility for the initiative.

For more information
Contact Benn Grover, ProCor Editor
Email: bgrover@partners.org
Telephone: 1 617 732 1318 ext. 3319

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Application

The following required information may be submitted via fax, postal mail, email attachment, or in the text of a plain text email. Abstracts will not be considered.
- Program title
- Program location (e.g., country, state/province/region, city/town/village)
- Contact person
- Organization
- Mailing address
- Telephone
- Fax
- Email
- Website

Please describe the initiative in approximately 500-1000 words. Applications exceeding the word count requirement will be returned for revision or rejected. The following must be included:
- Program purpose
- Program history
- Local needs that are addressed
- Local partners, resources, sources of support
- Strategies or activities that build awareness of cardiovascular disease and/or support action to promote heart health
- Evidence of success and accomplishments (e.g., statistical data, anecdotal stories, etc.)

References
Please provide contact information for three (3) people we can contact to learn more about your program.

Please read and sign the following
- The information submitted in this application for the Louise Lown Heart Hero Award is accurate to the best of my knowledge.
- If this application is accepted for award consideration, I understand that the references provided above may be contacted for more information.
- The information submitted may be published in ProCor's electronic mailing list and website (www.procor.org), and/or in materials produced by the Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation, and may be edited prior to publication. I understand that the purpose of sharing this information is to promote cardiovascular health.
- I waive and release all claims for any compensation for such use of this information, or for damages, and I hold the Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation and its funders harmless against any and all claims for damages rising out of the use of this information.

Signature: __________________________ Date: _________

Send the information requested to Benn Grover, ProCor Editor.
Email: bgrover@partners.org
Fax: 1 617 277 0347
Mail: Louise Lown Heart Hero Award
Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation
21 Longwood Avenue
Brookline MA 02446 USA

The information in this e-mail is intended only for the person to whom it is
addressed. If you believe this e-mail was sent to you in error and the e-mail
contains patient information, please contact the Partners Compliance HelpLine at
http://www.partners.org/complianceline . If the e-mail was sent to you in error
but does not contain patient information, please contact the sender and properly
dispose of the e-mail.

Running for the lives of Women and Children in North West Nigeria

PADEAP Marathon Challenge 2010

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/62773

Pan African Devevlopment Education and Advocacy Porgramme (PADEAP) Nigeria is situated in Funtua, Katsina State Nigeria. Northwest Nigeria is currently the focus of our work. With an estimated 36 million people, it is one of the most populated zones, yet one of the most neglected in terms of infrastructure. Consequently, the zone has high rates of maternal and child mortality and poverty, low literacy rates and an abysmally large literacy gap between men and women.
PADEAP Marathon Challenge 2010

Running for the lives of Women and Children in North West Nigeria

PADEAP Nigeria is situated in Funtua, Katsina State Nigeria. Northwest Nigeria is currently the focus of our work. With an estimated 36 million people, it is one of the most populated zones, yet one of the most neglected in terms of infrastructure. Consequently, the zone has high rates of maternal and child mortality and poverty, low literacy rates and an abysmally large literacy gap between men and women.

Women and girls in Nigeria face daily challenges in leading healthy, fully productive lives. Nigeria has a 40 percent rate of illiteracy among women and the third largest number of HIV infections. The Northwest of Nigeria now records 1,025 deaths per 100,000 live births, ranking amongst the worst in Nigeria and the world. PADEAP has worked in Northwest Nigeria since 2003 to increase support for women and girls’ education and empower women and their families to improve reproductive health and improve maternal health.

Today, PADEAP Nigeria provides literacy and vocational training skills to women. PADEAP is a registered adult training centre, with 2,145 women having received their basic literacy certificate in the last 4 years.

To improve reproductive and maternal health in a region where 1 in every 10 women dies in childbirth, PADEAP Nigeria works with the local Government hospital and primary health centre to train local women to be qualified birth attendants. The women must first complete their basic and post literacy certificate and priority is given to women from remote villages where no assistance is currently available if women have complications giving birth. We currently have 220 trained birth attendants working in Funtua zone.

PADEAP Nigeria wishes to extend this successful programme. In 2010 we aim to open a dedicated training and support centre for women. We can then offer more classes for basic and post literacy and a practical classroom space for training birth attendants.

Please support this work through our MARATHON challenge 2010. I am running in the Milton Keynes half marathon on the 7th March 2010 and my close friend and PADEAP supporter Ms Joy Otache will be using her place in the London marathon on the 25th April 2010. We need to raise funds now to stop unnecessary deaths in Northwest Nigeria. We will also be running in memory of our Chair for 13 years and friend the late Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, a consistent advocate for maternal heath care, his young sister Asmau who died during childbirth last February and all the women who have died while bringing life into the world.

Thank you
Ms Christine Tominke Olaniyan (Programmes Director)

Please send cheques to PADEAP, Unit 8 Tottenham Green Enterpise centre, Town Hall Approach, London N15 4RX

Global: KCL Peace and Security Fellowships for African Women

Announcement 2010-2011

2010-03-04

http://tinyurl.com/yzq7do4

The Conflict, Security and Development Group (CSDG) at King’s College London together with the Africa Leadership Centre (ALC), is pleased to announce a call for applications for the Peace and Security Fellowships for African Women for 2010/2011. These Fellowships are intellectual and financial awards for personal, professional and academic achievements, as well as the recognition of future potential.

Global: PLURAL+ 2010 Youth Video Festival

2010-03-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/62763

Building on last year’s successful launch of PLURAL+, a youth video festival on migration, diversity and social inclusion, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) again invite the worlds youth to submit dynamic and forward-thinking videos focusing on these issues.
PLURAL+ Organizers Call on World’s Youth to Participate in the Second Youth Video Festival On Migration and Diversity

Building on last year’s successful launch of PLURAL+, a youth video festival on migration, diversity and social inclusion, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) again invite the worlds youth to submit dynamic and forward-thinking videos focusing on these issues.

PLURAL+ 2009 not only provided young people with an effective platform to express themselves on key migration and diversity issues, but also the opportunity to reinforce the belief of the UNAOC and IOM that youth are indeed powerful and creative agents of social change.

Last year’s PLURAL+ participation demonstrated how young people across the world are willing to creatively engage in complex social issues such as migration and cultural inclusiveness, said Marc Scheuer, Director of the Alliance of Civilizations. We were very pleased with the quality and relevance of the entries received, and we are thankful for the commitment of PLURAL+’s partners in supporting the distribution of these videos at festivals, conferences and TV broadcasts around the world.

This year again, young people between the ages of 9 and 25 are invited to submit short videos of one to five minutes in length. The videos should express participants thoughts, experiences, questions and suggestions on migration, diversity, integration and identity, highlighting their realities as well as ideas on developing a peaceful coexistence in diverse cultural and religious contexts.

The aim of PLURAL+ is to ensure youth engagement in these important issues both at local and global levels by mainstreaming their voices through a variety of media platforms and distribution networks (broadcast, video festivals, conferences, events, Internet, DVD) around the world.

We were pleased to see that the PLURAL+ 2009 entrants shared their thoughts, struggles and fears about their identity as youth as well as migrants. The true voice of PLURAL+ is found by listening to a population which is not only entering a new society as a migrant, but entering adulthood as well. said Luca DallOglio, IOM Permanent Observer to the United Nations.

A prestigious international jury will select three winners in three age categories (9-12, 13-17, 18-25). Each winner will be flown to New York and honored at an awards ceremony at the Paley Center for Media later in the year.

In addition, PLURAL+ partner organizations will award other exciting prizes and professional opportunities. These include co-productions and a chance for awardees to gain international exposure by presenting their work at film and video festivals, conferences and events around the world.

The winning videos from the 2009 edition of PLURAL + will be presented throughout the year at several events sponsored by partner organizations such as BaKaFORUM, Anna Lindh Foundation Forum, Chinh India Festival, Roots and Routes Festival, COPEAM Conference, the Royal Film Commission of Jordans Filmmakers Workshop, Havana Film Festivals Red UNIAL, and NEXOS Alianza. In addition, broadcasters such as Aljadeed TV (Lebanon), TV Futura (Brazil), RAI (Italy) and United Nations TV affiliated networks will air the winning videos.

Participants in the 2010 competition should submit their videos between 1 March - 30 June, 2010. Further information including guidelines, rules and regulations, and the entry form can be found at the PLURAL+ website.

International Communications Advisors - Actionaid

2010-03-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/62805

Client: ActionAid
Subject: International Communications Advisors
Closing date: 18th March 2010



International Communications Advisor
£30K - £45K (depending on location and experience)
Various: 1 x Africa (Johannesburg/Nairobi); 1x Europe (London); 1 x Asia (Bangalore/Delhi/Bangkok); 1 negotiable (all must be located in an ActionAid existing office)

ActionAid’s programmes are changing the lives of millions of people and challenging the decisions which keep poor people locked in poverty. Join ActionAid’s International Communications team as an International Communications Advisor and help ensure our external communications and campaigns around the world continue to get the attention and support to make a difference.

Providing communications consultancy and capability development services to our international and national teams, you will deliver strategies and advice, and support the development, implementation and monitoring of plans that increases the quantity and quality of our communications outputs and thereby raise profile and funds.

You are a strategic thinker with high level technical capability in more than one core communications discipline (online/media/brand/publications). You have experience of producing, coordinating and implementing multi-media communication strategies and of working in an international environment.

In addition to your communications expertise you have a track record of capacity building through training, facilitating and coaching, knowledge and experience of organisational development and the gravitas to quickly develop effective working relationships at all levels in a multicultural environment.

To apply for the role of International Communications Advisor go to:
http://actionaid.real-job.co.uk/vacancies/621/
Closing date: 18th March 2010.

We are an equal opportunities employer. We warmly welcome applications from all sections of the community and aim to promote diversity. Reg. Charity No: 274467

Fahamu