Current Issue

Mass removal of Rwandans from Ugandan refugee settlements

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/action/65962

Reports reaching IRRI and RLP indicate that on the morning of Wednesday 14th July 2010, OPM Directorate of Refugees and Police officers in Nakivale (Isingiro District) and Kyaka II (Kyenjonjo District) began rounding up Rwandans and forcing them against their will to board trucks to return them to Rwanda.

Reports indicate that those targeted in this manner were lured with the promise that they would be granted refugee status and food. Instead they were met by a large number of Ugandan police who rounded them up and forced them onto trucks. Shots were fired by police. Some individuals appear to have been injured during the process, and in some cases parents were separated from children. Reports further suggest that Rwandan security agents and authorities were present at the scene.

By removing settlement-based Rwandans in this manner, the Ugandan government is in breach of its own Citizenship and Immigration Act, which outlines the due processes by which failed asylum seekers who have exhausted their right of appeal should be deported. It has also violated the obligations created by domestic and international law, including the Constitution, the Children’s Statute and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. These breaches come just days before the African Union Summit on ‘Maternal, Infant and Child Health and Development in Africa’ is due to begin in Kampala.

IRRI and RLP condemn this forcible removal of Rwandans from Ugandan refugee settlements.

We further note that this comes barely a month after our drawing public attention to the fact that many Rwandan refugees and asylum seekers fear persecution if returned to their country of origin (see report titled, “A Dangerous Impasse: Rwandan Refugees in Uganda” available on www.refugeelawproject.org and www.refugee-rights.org) The report made a number of recommendations to the governments of Uganda and Rwanda, and to UNHCR, in order to improve protection for this group of refugees. In particular, it stated that the Ugandan government must scrupulously uphold its international and national legal obligations with regard to the protection of refugees and to the truly voluntary nature of any repatriation.

We therefore call for an immediate halt to the current removal process. We also call on the Ugandan government to ensure that any failed asylum seekers are able to exhaust the appeal processes provided for under the Refugees Act, and, where these routes have indeed been exhausted, that the Government follow due process for deportation as provided for under the Citizenship and Immigration Control Act.

For further information or comments, please contact;
Dr. Chris Dolan, Director, Refugee Law Project,
dir@refugeelawproject.org, +256 414235330/ 343556

or

Dismas Nkunda, Co-Director, International Refugee Rights Initiative,
dismas.nkunda@refugee-rights.org +256 782310404

Fahamu seeks executive director

2010-07-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/65946

After 13 years as founder and executive director, Firoze Manji has stepped down from his role as ED to focus attention on developing Pambazuka News and Pambazuka Press.

We should clarify that Firoze remains as Editor in Chief of Pambazuka News and Pambazuka Press - and he remains a member of staff of Fahamu (letters from many of you indicated that our original advert might have been ambiguous).

The board of trustees of Fahamu is therefore seeking a dynamic, visionary person with a passion for social justice, to lead the organisation, ideally based in Kenya.

If you are interested in applying, please review the job description, person specification and submit the application form by 31 August 2010.

Food sovereignty in Africa: The people's alternative

Mamadou Goita

2010-07-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65933

cc SThe different explanations given for Africa’s current food crisis seem to miss the real causes of the problem. Mamadou Goita does not believe that the crisis is of an economic nature. Rather, it is the endpoint of the dismantling of Africa’s agricultural sector and its linking to the international market and brutal liberalism. Based on an analysis of the political choices that have contributed to the current situation, notably the structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s, Goita proposes solutions and decisions that need to be taken to achieve food sovereignty in Africa.

In Africa as a whole, but particularly the western and central regions, agriculture is the primary occupation for the majority of the populations. Mostly it is practised at a rural subsistence level, by families who combine their knowledge, labour, skills and resources in order to create wealth and produce surplus. Production is, first and foremost, to meet the food needs of the family. However, if there is a surplus produced, this is then used to meet other needs. This differs from private agribusiness, where members are linked through capital (monetary contributions of the sole proprietor, or the partners).

The first chapter of this essay will reflect on agriculture at a global scale, but from the perspective of a specific context. In the second chapter, we will look at the promotion and protection of indigenous produce, in order to achieve food sovereignty in Mali, West and Central Africa. The final chapter will present a framework of solutions to the problems identified.

AGRICULTURE AND ITS CHALLENGES FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Keeping in mind the description we have given above it is clear that agriculture[1] as it is practiced in most of the continent is much more than just food production and economic activity. It has multiple orientations and contributes in many different ways to society’s fundamental aspirations. From the social perspective, subsistence agriculture, as practised in countries like Mali, provides employment, which in turn maintains the social fabric, if it is practised at a family scale.

Culturally, agriculture reflects our diverse tastes in food (our foods according to our tastes and our culture). It also promotes local consumption and agricultural biodiversity. This is one of the primary reasons for valorising local production. These local foods constitute a viable counterfoil to the changing urban dietary trends that are dependent on foreign foods.

At an environmental level, agriculture can contribute to maintaining soil fertility, conserving genetic resources and water quality.

At independence, most African countries strongly advocated for food self-sufficiency through the promotion of indigenous agricultural production. With the introduction of the SAPs (structural adjustment programmes) this policy was abandoned in favour of food security based on the international liberalisation of commodity markets. Under this system, the question of who produces the food becomes of secondary importance.

In Africa, liberalisation implies the political disengagement of the state and the decentralisation of agricultural services. At an economic level, it has to do with development of GMOs (genetically modified organisms), bio-piracy and the privatisation of genetic resources. Lately, we have also seen the development of biofuels. At the social level, we still see high levels of illiteracy among rural farmers, which limits their access to information.

The widespread liberalisation of trade in agricultural goods has had serious consequences for Africa: the worsening of the food situation, as well as the loss of rural jobs; the impoverishment of the peasant populations; and a subsequent spike in the rural urban exodus, which poses a serious threat to political and social stability. A large part of the African population now has limited access to food.

Under these circumstances, it is vital to deepen the analysis and understand all the factors that impact agriculture and rural development policy.

The recent high-level FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) meeting of experts in Rome, under the theme 'Ending hunger by 2050', provided yet another opportunity to demand commitment from the so-called rich nations controlling global capital and destroying African economies to 'save' the continent from starvation. As is always the case with Africa, once again the world is obsessed with addressing the consequences while blatantly ignoring the root causes of the problem.

The food crisis of 2007–08 revealed the lack of coherence between international institutions and states in managing food and agriculture problems. The media focused on two problems at the root of rising food prices.[2] The foremost one related to China and India and their modes of consumption. But as time rolled on, the deeper causes of the crisis became more apparent. It had to do with a boom in production of agrofuels, the insufficient stocks of cereal products in Europe and the US, and financial speculation – an artefact of the neoliberal model that has been applied to food commodities.

China and India are not responsible for the crisis. In the 2007–08 period, these two countries were net exporters of agricultural produce. Their cereal stocks rose by more than 10.9 megatons for China and 7.8 megatons for India. In contrast, the US (with a deficit in fisheries stocks) and the European Union (in cereal stocks deficit) were net importers. Statistics show that the EU and the US are responsible for 94 per cent of the drop in global cereal stocks for the period 2007–08.

The policy of promoting agrofuels in the EU and the US is a key factor in the crisis. The use of maize grew from 12 per cent of total production in 2004 to 23 per cent in 2007, with the goal being 32 per cent in 2008. This growth impacted negatively on the availability of food products, especially maize, with the amount used for ethanol production being greater than the US’s exports.

The EU’s decision to start a biodiesel programme also led to a rise in the price of oil crops. The decision to start producing agrofuels, especially by the EU, attracted speculators to oil crops and maize.

It is clear that the steep rise in prices of agricultural produce is mostly due to insufficient stocks in the US and the EU, the growth of agrofuel production and financial speculation of cereals and oil crops.

In addition to this, we must point to an even older problem: the role of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank in Africa. After the debt crisis of the 1980s, when the prices of raw materials collapsed, the IMF and the World Bank obliged African countries to adopt SAPs, which entailed:

- A reduction of the acreage used for subsistence farming and specialisation in one or two export crops (cotton for Burkina Faso, Mali and Benin, coffee and cocoa for Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, etc). In Mali for instance, cotton production grew from less that 200,000 tonnes to 620,000 tonnes by the end of the 1990s. This growth in production was as a result of expanding acreage and not necessary yield per acre, which remained more or less the same. The country paid a heavy price for this, with an increase in debt and reassignment of technical assistance away from agro-silvo-pastoralism. Cotton was soon the only commodity benefiting from any investment in terms of production and marketing.

The economy became more and more export-oriented, with development strategies based on access to export markets:

- A reduction on technical assistance at the level of producers

- A removal of price-stabilisation mechanisms that had helped to sustain other forms of small-scale production

- An abandonment of policies aimed at self-sufficiency in cereal production

- The brutal opening of domestic markets to external commodities to the detriment of locally produced, and in some cases, strategic commodities, etc.

All these measures, combined with the opening African markets to foreign capital, led to economies becoming extremely fragile and susceptible to the vagaries of the global markets, a big reduction in budgets for social services, a drop in subsidies for local products and the destruction of nascent local, national and sub-regional markets. It also pitted small-scale producers squarely against large multinationals…

African populations are paying the heavy price for these policies that very soon proved to be dangerous. The intransigence of the Bretton Woods institutions destroyed modes of production and, consequently, modes of consumption in African countries as well.

In a destructive process that was roundly condemned by social movements all over, the situation soon became clear for all to see: in one year, the prices of rice and wheat doubled, that of maize rose by more than a third. Cereal stocks dropped to a 25-year low. The price of a meal increased exponentially, and the threat of famine became very real.

Several demonstrations were organised in Africa to protest a situation that was clearly unjust, especially to urban populations: They needed a means of coping with skyrocketing prices of basic goods, including fuel and cereals. Similar demonstrations were planned in Europe, especially France, and these were referred as 'marches for purchasing power'. Even though these marches were different in form, the underlying principle was the same. People wanted a more equitable distribution of national resources. They wanted to bridge the rich–poor divide. They wanted their share of that economic growth that their leaders evoked every year to justify their neoliberal economic policies. Yes, it turns out people other than Africans also want their share of this growth.

Repeated calls for action on the food crisis forced those responsible to come up with new strategies, the ended up producing more negative than positive outcomes. Some of these are:

- The lifting of tariffs on food commodities, notably rice, in most African countries, leading to a great liberalisation of markets
- A pledge of around US$200 million in food aid to Africa by President Bush
- The signing of accords between AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution), FAO, WFP (World Food Programme) and IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development)[3]
- The rice initiative in Mali and other West African countries like Burkina Faso and Senegal, with very little technical support and even less social capital in its implementation
- Irrational decisions taken in certain countries concerning agricultural policy, based on neoliberal principles, 'fast-food' policymaking became the hallmark of this 'artificial crisis'
- Demands by the WTO (World Trade Organisation) for markets to be opened up for greater trade, even if it would be at the expense of poorer countries, and more specifically, women and children
- The frenetic sale of land to foreign investors, better known as the 'land grab', etc.

The sum of these actions is a further attack on the peasant societies who have needed systemic change all along. The current view of the food and agriculture crisis is very reductionist, especially when viewed in the context of the struggles being waged by civil society and social movements:

- It reduces the scope of analysis to the rise in prices of cereal crops
- It constrains the search for solutions to the crisis, by trying to solve urban problems while neglecting those of the rural areas where the real production takes place.

This level of analysis proposed in some quarters prevents a deeper examination of the real causes of the crisis and the possibility of finding long-term solutions to the African food sovereignty question. Granted, there are problems of food sovereignty in Africa. And yes, the rise in prices of certain foods has affected Africa. But the question is how did we end up in this situation? What good decisions need to be taken to emerge from the crisis? These are the key questions that we must seek to answer.

One good result of the crisis is that it unmasked the paradox of Africa’s situation. Most African countries were surplus producers of agricultural commodities prior to December 2007. In February 2008, most of these countries had declared a crisis, either due to official lies regarding food stocks, or speculation on cereal commodities. Either scenario seems plausible.

One can also point to speculation at a global level, and the weakness of the state vis-à-vis private business. Another important factor is the lack of capacity and mechanisms to collect reliable data necessary for planning. It is often the case that states themselves have not taken responsibility for certain key elements of the socio-economic development process.

Mali exemplifies the present paradox. The production of the main cereals (millet, sorghum, maize and fonio) rose every year, except for the 2004–05 harvest year, due to a pest attack. Agricultural production as a whole in all these years was at least 500,000 tonnes in excess of domestic requirements. In 2008–09, cereal production in Mali was 4 million tonnes, and peaked at 6.3 million tonnes in 2009–10, according to official figures from the Ministry of Agriculture.

While it is true that certain regions suffer chronic shortfalls, national production is enough to cater even for these areas. The problem therefore is differentiated access to food for some sections of the population, as well as weak domestic markets for local produce.

In the case of Mali, the problem was clearly not the volumes of food. There were other factors such as:

- Rising cereal prices due to speculation, coupled with low domestic purchasing power
- Changing consumption patterns, with more being spent on imported rice and wheat for bread
- Devaluation of local produce in terms of consumption, and hence less reliance on local expertise used to produce it. Consequently, this led to more reliance on international markets
- Low producer prices, which led unscrupulous traders to start stockpiling and speculating.

Increasing the value of local produce is an important mechanism for preventing such crises, as well as achieving long-term food sovereignty. This is one of the six key principles laid down by social movements who met at Selingue, Mali, on the occasion of the World Social Forum on food sovereignty, 'Nyeleni 2007'. It would be very difficult for any country to achieve food sovereignty without taking this mechanism into account.

For thousands of years, local husbandry has produced thousands of different varieties of plants and animals. All of these varieties have responded to various local requirements in terms of consumption, climates and other traditional forms of use.

In places where traditional agricultural practices still exist, such as Mali, you find dozens of varieties of cereals (millet, maize, wheat, rice, etc), pulses, fruit, as well as other plants that are a product of local innovation and participatory research.

When we talk of 'local produce', we understand 'local' to also refer to localised cultural practices, traditions and markets. Local produce is therefore linked to local development, which in turn impacts on the national. Local produce, therefore distinguishes itself from the 'transnational' – those from places 'other than here'[4] – and that have to do with rampant liberalisation and end up on our plates through practices that destroy our rural economies.

Local produce constitutes one of the most dynamic elements of food consumption on our countries, because they have a way of responding to social evolution given that they are a distinctive part of our individual and collective identities. In Mali, one speaks of the Sarakholé and his 'bassi gnoukou na'[5]; the Malinké and his 'tigudègè na'[6]; the Tombouctoucien and his 'takoula mafé'[7]; and the Minianka and his 'Jawèrè siké'[8], etc. These dishes are cultural markers.

In terms of crops, livestock or other harvest, our sub-region has great potential if these resources are valued and used rationally, and can be spared from food deficit and malnutrition.

Local producers face unfair competition from imports that are often cheaper than local produce as a result of open markets as prescribed by the IMF-imposed SAPs. Subsidies to farmers in the US and the EU drop prices and weaken local markets.

This unfair trade impoverishes our producers and forces local traders to play along and further weaken local markets.

The current EPA (economic partnership agreement) negotiations may deliver the final nail in the coffin in terms of whatever little hope still exists. The ACP (Asian, Caribbean and Pacific) countries have been asked to further open up their markets, knowing very well that they will not able to export their products to northern markets because: a) they do not meet the hygiene and sanitation standards imposed there; and b) they are not state-subsidised and therefore not competitively priced.

In spite of all this, local produce is still overwhelmingly consumed in rural areas. The current food crisis has given an impetus to the consumption of local produce in urban areas. Although it has been significantly weakened, agriculture is based on well-adapted and resilient local varieties.

There are huge risks associated with linking African agriculture to global markets dominated by subsidised produce from the US and the EU. There is also the threat of GMOs and other industrial hybrids that could wipe out tradition systems, but we can still hope.

Without a doubt, radical measures are necessary to safeguard local production and producers, who make up close to 80 per cent of the population in some countries, from utter ruin.

The valorisation of local produce is a must for the entire sub-region, whose economy relies on agriculture. This policy must involve not only production, but also the commercialisation of this produce as well as raising its nutritional profile. The demand for food in African cities presents a unique opportunity for local producers.

Certain women’s organisations and NGOs have been at the forefront of promoting and transforming local produce. But they remain largely unknown because they have tended to focus on niche and elite markets, such as supermarkets, to the exclusion of the masses.

In terms of small business, we have witnessed families marketing some of the produce targeted for family consumption. This has contributed significantly to meeting the food needs of the population.

In spite of the progress that has been made by NGOs like l’Association Malienne pour la Sécurité et la Souveraineté Alimentaire (AMASSA/Afrique Verte Mali), and others, there are still problems that need to be overcome, including:

- A lack of equipment needed to transform local production. Many smaller organisations are unable to acquire, for example, solar driers, without external help. There needs to be a national strategy to deal with this.
- An inability to successfully sell produce due to competition for imported goods that are preferred because of price and availability. In addition, issues of aesthetics such as packaging make the imported goods a preference, especially for women.
- Sadly, packaging of local produce remains a challenge and has not been seen as a priority for these smaller organisations.

Packaging is an important way in which the seller communicates with the buyer. In essence, it is less about having expensive packaging and more about having that which preserves quality and hygiene standards. In local markets you often find recycled packaging – cement bags and plastic wrapping – which does not help to positively present the produce. It is not about buying expensive wrapping that will increase the price of the produce, rather it has to do with clean packaging that is adapted to the produce and is hygienic.

It is a delicate balancing act between good quality packaging (clean, sanitary and protective) and keeping the costs of production low. This will enable local producers to provide goods that are priced suitably for their markets because the consumer price is an important factor when it comes to food sovereignty.

Food safety and hygiene lie at the heart of valorising local produce. One of the arguments for shunning local produce is that it is not hygienically safe. The question then becomes: How can you safeguard your consumers while keeping prices manageable? The produce tests currently being proposed by the National Agency for Food Safety to ensure certification are a good idea. The agency still needs to be adapted to adequately meet the needs of local food processors.

It is, however, still prohibitive to practise individualised certification of products. There is a need for a system that allows for tests based on economies of scale, that is to say, a system where producers are combined and a certification issued for a range of products. This way, the costs of certification are limited, and the consumers are reassured at the same time.

One must add that certification and the testing of foods are not an end in themselves but rather part of a larger strategy to valorise local produce and encourage consumption. It would be more sustainable to sensitise local producers to issues of quality so that these are internalised and implemented in daily practice. Self-regulation in this regard could go a long way in boosting local production and processing.

WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES FOR GREATER VALORISATION OF LOCAL PRODUCE?

The valorisation of local produce is inextricably linked to the broader question of food sovereignty. The solutions we propose go beyond adding value to products. We are proposing mid- to long-term solutions:

- Bolstering family farming so that it performs better and becomes more sustainable. It is important to note that in Africa, family farming feeds the continent
- Strengthening food security, with special emphasis on local produce
- Putting in place mechanisms to support African agriculture (in the from of subsidies for both production and consumption) through investments, water management and other means. It is imperative that we develop agroecological alternatives to the industrial model. African social movements must fight this from of agriculture driven by multinationals and certain rich countries. This form of agriculture is destructive and detrimental to Africa’s predominant mode of production, family farming
- Better organising and managing domestic, local, sub-regional and regional markets for cereals by means of a cereals exchange that works to link producers and consumers and excludes speculation[9]
- Ensuring reasonable producer prices in order to promote investment in farming and enable producers to access basic social services
- Promoting social security for producers and availing disaster relief
- Establishing a fund for the processing and marketing of local produce
- Establishing systems for locally based participatory research and integrating this into the national knowledge repository
- Resolving land tenure and agrarian issues, taking into account the realities of each particular country. It would be important to avoid the system of individual title, which has a tendency to lead to privatisation. It is also necessary to declare a moratorium on the sale of land, which has taken on a worrying dimension in some countries.
- Re-nationalising agrofood industries that are strategic to agricultural development. Industrialisation will be a key determinant for the development of agriculture in Africa.
- Setting in place agricultural policies that are based on food sovereignty and that make all issues related to food human rights issues.

These proposals will contribute to mid- and long-term solutions to sustainable agricultural development in West and Central Africa. We must learn from the past and act fast in order to avoid the inappropriate 'fast-food policy' steps that have been taken by certain countries and their partners.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Mamadou Goita is the executive director of the Institute for Research and the Promotion of Alternatives in Development (IRPAD). He is also chair of the board of AMASSA (Association Malienne pour la Sécurité et la Souveraineté Alimentaire).
* This paper was presented at a colloquium organised by the Gabriel Peri Foundation and the Parti de l’indépendance et du travail-Sénégal on 18–19 May 2010.
* Translated from the French by Josh Ogada.

NOTES

[1] When we talk about agriculture, we refer to the sum total of agro-silvo-pastoral activities including plant and animal husbandry, fisheries and forestry
[2] This section is inspired by an article written by the author (Mamadou Goita) in November 2008 entitled 'The Drama of the Food Crisis'
[3] Bringing together the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller and headed by Koffi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations
[4] 'Home-grown' at a local, regional provincial, national, sub-regional and eventually African continental level
[5] Couscous with Bamanankan vegetable sauce
[6] Bamananaka groundnut sauce
[7] Spaghetti with bolognaise
[8] Millet cakes with bean vegetables and karite butter
[9] Research conducted by Afrique Verte in three Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger), which tested its relevance for the three countries. AMASSA in Mali; APROSSA in Burkina Faso and AcSSA in Niger continued this research.

Africa's market-led development: Pro-corporation, anti-farmer

Richard Jonasse

2010-07-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65932

cc SmoorenburgAs evidenced by USAID administrator Rajiv Shah's recent speech to the US Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC), the US and the Green Revolution's 'solutions' for African agriculture remain more of the same, rooted in a corporate-funded, GMO-oriented and market-based system designed entirely in the interests of Western business. While US development aid fasts becomes simply 'an investment subsidised by US taxpayers with high returns for US corporations', African farmers' groups such as COPAGEN, LEISA and PELUM continue to organise in defence of self-determination and genetic biodiversity, writes Richard Jonasse.

USAID administrator Rajiv Shah recently gave a speech to the US Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) in Washington DC entitled 'Achieving high impact development: a vision for USAID'. Shah's idea of high-impact development was a 'distinctly American' contribution: the 'culture of risk-taking and entrepreneurship'. In a speech heavy with platitudes about American diversity, dedication and empowerment, what was his revolutionary idea for changes at USAID? More of the same:

'We will … focus intently on private enterprise and the power of markets. The resources at our command are a blessing, but they are dwarfed by the enormous power of markets to reach people with products, services, and opportunities.'

This mixture of quasi-religious faith in free markets, and their conflation with democracy, perfectly encapsulates current US (World Bank, IMF, USAID …) development philosophy. USAID no longer provides aid through local governments as it did during the Cold War era. In the post-1980 neoliberal era, its primary activity has been farming out aid via contracts to private corporations. Whether cynical or merely naive, Shaw's speech was designed to reassure the USGLC's members that USAID would continue to serve US interests. Working alongside USAID, the Gates Foundation is also devoted to market-led solutions: providing seed capital for biotechnology development and access to African markets for agribusiness corporations like Monsanto and DuPont, among others.

The current mantra of the Gates Foundation and USAID is that we need 'all solutions' to end Africa's hunger. But their billions in development dollars are in fact funding a very narrow vision, one that directly undercuts a whole host of proven, low input, farmer-led solutions. The mixing of corporate profits with aid and philanthropy has skewed the field towards development that is technology-heavy, resource intensive, expensive for farmers and potentially profitable for agribusiness. With the aid regime's entrepreneurial aid, African farmers get micro-loans linked to the purchase patented hybrid and biotech seeds, chemical inputs and a hearty pat on the back. These farmers need all the luck they can get because these turnkey ‘solutions' prevent them from saving, breeding and sharing locally adapted seeds as they have done for generations.

Entrepreneurial aid promotes a structural transformation for small farmers that systematically pushes sustainable solutions to the margins. The aid regime's solutions are handed down by fiat, backed by billions of dollars, and promote short-sighted solutions. These ‘solutions' leave farmers free to compete only with expensive seeds and fertilizers, and wholly on the terms set up my micro-financiers, leaving all the financial risks of farming to African peasants while the rewards go to profiteers. In Shah's words, it's 'about how we can work better, cheaper, and faster in the pursuit of high impact development.' But the purpose of US aid has been to help US companies ‘penetrate' foreign markets. Development aid is thus an investment subsidised by US taxpayers with high returns for US corporations. The profit-driven version of ‘high-impact, better, cheaper, and faster' agriculture means large industrial agriculture plantations, it means synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, it means biotechnology, it means producing food for global markets and ultimately it means land grabs, water grabs and ecological destruction. This spells potential disaster for the 70 per cent of Africans who make part or all of their income from agriculture.

THREATS TO FARMERS: TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE GREEN REVOLUTION

USAID and the Gates Foundation take the poor state of African agriculture as a sign that smallholder farming is an anachronism that needs to be modernised. But this simplistic assumption ignores the fact that modern Western agriculture has been heavily subsidised, both through price supports and import tariffs, which have allowed the US to become the dominant force in global agricultural markets. But the US model created their agricultural surpluses by following a chemically intensive model that entailed 'farming without farmers'. This model is utterly undesirable in countries where most people still rely on farming for their livelihoods.

As practiced by Gates and USAID, the 'all solutions' approach is an assault on traditional farming that includes, on one end, producing more food through intensive agriculture, and on the other raising the GDP (gross domestic product) of African countries through increased global trade. This is problematic for a number of reasons. First, vertically integrated supply chains (including processors, transport, importers/exporters, supermarket retailers) ensure that middlemen capture most of the value. Second, only large, well-capitalised farms are equipped to produce the quantity and quality demanded by fastidious Northern consumers. Smaller farmers may be absorbed into contract farming schemes controlled by large corporations, but they will lose complete control over what they grow, how and for whom. Finally, while exports may return a portion of the profits, it is increasingly unclear how much food these profits will purchase on the global market. A new report (PDF) by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) shows that food and fuel crises such as the one experienced in 2008 are likely to be recurring phenomena.

Economic partnership agreements (EPAs), land grabs and the cross-border harmonisation of biotechnology regulations support this 'green revolution' and work against traditional farmers. Genetically modified crops contaminate traditional crops through genetic pollution and do not allow saving and replanting seeds. Subsidised fertilizers deplete soils, choke waterways and discourage careful tending of the soil. Deregulated markets and privatisation destroy state institutions, which are often the only support poor farmers have in the face of unstable commodities markets. The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties (UPOV), which was originally established to promote the development of traditional seeds, has been modified in such a way that it can take away farmers' rights to save their own seeds and control their traditional crops.

What these policies do not do is directly end African hunger by strengthening Africa's farmers where they stand. This point was underscored recently when, after the Gates Foundation donated US$270m (with a promise of US$1 billion over the next few years) to CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research), Gates's representatives nixed CGIAR's agricultural biodiversity mega-programme, saying it was unfocused. This logic represents precisely what is wrong with the Gates/USAID approach. Only an 'unfocused' low-tech approach that honours biological and cultural diversity is likely to be successful.

THE BIOTECHNOLOGY PUSH IN AFRICA

USAID and Gates's philosophy is quite simplistic. Where there is hunger grow more food, where there is drought let them grow 'drought tolerant' maize. The motive behind Monsanto's Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) seems to be to cut a faster, better, cheaper path to profitability by genetically engineering a ‘turnkey' solution to hunger in Africa. This is a recipe for reduced agro-biodiversity and the end of traditional farming methods, along with most farmers.

There is no logical reason for the development of biotech agriculture other than the economic pursuit of monopoly control. Biotech crops lack the latitude that evolution and seed-saving provide: the genetic diversity to function across numerous conditions. 'Roundup-ready' crops (immune to the herbicide) lead to roundup-resistant weeds. Bt crops (which produce their own pesticides) lead to Bt-resistant pests, forcing corporations in the West to breed non-resistant ones to prevent the evolution of super-pests (which is unlikely to be done in Africa). The push–pull system of pest control, on the other hand, is cheaper and more effective than bioengineered solutions, and it is something that farmers can do on their own, making it less profitable to seed and chemical producers but more likely to be picked up by farmers. Bt corn has shown, at best, modest yield gains compared with traditionally bred varieties that can be created at a fraction of the cost of biotechnology.

While the introduction of Bt cotton in India has been highly successful for Monsanto, covering nine million hectares in 2009, it has led to health problems and livestock deaths in rural areas and has actually led to increased pesticide usage. Locally adapted, free cotton seeds have all but disappeared over the past few years, leaving genetically modified seeds as the only choice and Monsanto with virtual monopoly control. The former managing director of Monsanto South Asia, T.V. Jagadisan, has stated that foreign investment and multinational corporations are the only forces left that are pushing agricultural biotechnology research in India.

WEMA

The WEMA project began two years ago with a US$47 million grant from the Gates Foundation. The project is coordinated by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) which is funded by Gates, the Rockefeller Foundation and USAID. The AATF negotiates between the technology side and partner countries' agricultural institutions. Having completed field trials in South Africa, the AATF and Monsanto are currently testing WEMA with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), which has been pushing for biotech capacity-building and harmonisation. As the third-largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya remains 'strategically important' for the biotech industry. While KARI supports GMO (genetically modified organisms) adoption, the country has not approved them and there is a widespread mistrust of biotechnology there that recently led to the rejection of a shipment of GM corn from South Africa.

In January of this year, KARI hosted a biotechnology training session on 'Strengthening capacity for safe biotechnology management in sub-Saharan Africa' (SABIMA). The session included Water Efficient Maize, BioCassava Plus, Virus Resistant Cassava, Biofortified Sorghum and GM Cotton. In February, KARI, USAID, CIMMYT and the Gates Foundation broke ground on a four-year, US$40 million biotech Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) project, involving DuPont and Pioneer Hybrid.

With all of this interest and money going into biotechnology as a development tool, one needs to question whether these billions might not be better spent elsewhere. A good deal of human energy and political capital is being spent to push these crops on farmers who do not want them. Doug Gurian-Sherman at the Union of Concerned Scientists points out that a single GM crop can cost as much as US$100 million to produce – not including all of the ancillary costs for regulation and biosafety testing – while low-tech solutions can be produced at 1 per cent of the cost.

A study on maize diversity in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi by the International Maize and Wheat Centre – which developed WEMA – found tremendous variation in varieties that came from different environments. In the sub-Saharan region, planting diverse varieties and intercropping helps maintain agro-biodiversity, which acts as a hedge against unpredictable weather, pests, weeds, viruses, moulds, fungi and even market variability. This legacy is being threatened by the influx of GMOs that spread genetic pollution to nearby crops.

FARMER-CENTRED ALTERNATIVES TO THE GREEN REVOLUTION

The push for sustainable solutions to Africa's hunger is a human rights issue, and farmers need to be allowed a voice in that future. As anthropologist Jan Douwe van der Ploeg writes, '"Freedom from" and "freedom to" are indispensable ingredients of a prosperous farming sector.' But USAID, the Gates Foundation and CGIAR are not asking farmers what they want. This amounts to a well-financed takeover of African agricultural systems, a situation which recently led UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier de Schutter to write:

'[H]ow much is invested in agriculture matters less than the type of agriculture that we support. By supporting further consolidation of large-scale monocultures in the hands of the most powerful economic actors, we risk widening further the gap with small-scale, family farming, while pushing a model of industrial farming that is already responsible for one-third of man-made greenhouse-gas emissions today.'

The hubris behind the mindset that modern technologies, methods and trickle-down capitalism can be parachuted into a complicated ecological and cultural mosaic like Africa seems wilfully obtuse. To get a sense of the poverty of the ‘faster, better, cheaper' approach we need only look to successful solutions that strengthen and sustain African rural communities.

LEISA

The Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) network has been working in West Africa for over 25 years, and more recently in East Africa, in support of small farmers. LEISA promoted rural poverty alleviation by disseminating information on agro-ecological alternatives to high-tech agriculture. One way they do this is through the publication of a quarterly magazine that deals specifically with practical issues that challenge peasant farmers in their daily lives. The most recent issue, for example, dealt with finance problems that small farmers have to deal with, including financial institutions' tying of credit to the purchase of specific inputs, creative ways for communities to share the economic burden of getting through the growing season, and solutions to the problem of safe places for saving money. The previous issue, for example, highlighted livestock practices, promoting their economic importance to peasant farmers all over the world while at the same time pointing out that poorly kept animals produce more methane (a greenhouse gas), while many African systems of husbandry are actually carbon-negative and result in a better recycling of products within the agricultural system. These are practical farmer-centred ideas, not transformative schemes that were cooked up to press peasants into the service of the global economy.

THE TIGRAY PROJECT

A well-known, highly successful example of low-input agriculture is the Tigray Project, which began in 1996 on parched, highly degraded land in Ethiopia. The local Bureau of Agriculture and Development (BoARD) got together with local farmers in four communities and they came up with the following set of solutions, taught through training and follow-up, from which the farmers are free to choose:

• Composting to fertilise fields
• Restricting grazing
• Trench bunds for catching water and preventing erosion
• Planting trees and local grasses
• Rehabilitating gullies
• Creating ponds.

Tigray uses a sustainable growth model that aims to yield benefits over decades. The project promotes the establishment of local rules for resource usage to minimise conflicts over resources. Particular attention and support are given to the needs of woman-headed households. Rather than viewing agriculture as something to move people away from, the Tigray Project considers it the basis of all economic activity. People must feed themselves first, and then turn their attention to activities that will earn money. The main crops for local consumption are cereals, roots, pulses, oil crops and vegetables, but farmers also grow a long list of cash crops that includes bananas, avocados, oil seeds, coffee and a dozen others. Under the programme – which encourages farmers to save seeds rather than purchase them from seed companies – 90 per cent of seeds used by smallholders are the result of seed-saving and sharing, and there is very little use of pesticides. The benefits have been increased harvests, soils and water conservation, healthier crops, rehabilitated fields, increased farmer profits and local autonomy.

CONCLUSION

Even if turning African countries into industrial consumer societies were a rational goal (a dubious notion on many fronts), the Green Revolution/globalisation approach would not work. Western capitalism did not arise through mortgaging its resources and/or purchasing technologies from other countries, nor did it arise on a fast-track five-year plan. It arose through strong government support for the economy and through accessing the resources in the global South (which they continue to do today). The aid regime is offering weakened government institutions and neocolonialism. In Africa, it is offering rural land grabs that force peasant farmers into urban ghettos in cities where employment is scarce.

Farmers groups in Africa are pushing to keep their seeds and rejecting the market-driven Green Revolution because it takes away their power of self-determination. Industrial plantations, infrastructures, laws, economic agreements and technologies meant to promote industrial-export agriculture make successful small farming for local food markets more difficult. Why did the farmers in the Tigray Project choose low-tech solutions when the experts have fertilizer and hybrid seeds to offer? Why did Malian farmers reject hybrid seeds in favour of local village-level crop breeding? It is because they know that the 'faster, better and cheaper' approach is like the mythological fox or wolf or crocodile who tells the passenger he will ferry them across the river only for the passenger to find that they are suddenly at the mercy of the 'saviour' only too late. Faster, better and cheaper development will only benefit crocodiles, wolves, and foxes, while farmers will be threatened by the loss of land, communities, seeds and livelihoods.

Agro-ecological methods alone may not turn Africa into a cornucopia. Climate change and episodic drought, disease and famine will continue to be part of the picture. But sustainable farming, and collective organisations – such as COPAGEN, LEISA and PELUM among others – can provide peasant farmers with information on best practices, they can act collectively to ensure farmers' incomes, they can help keep farmers on their land and they can provide them with 'freedom from' poverty and exploitation and 'freedom to' decide which crops they grow and how.

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* Richard Jonasse works for Food First, focusing on international financial institutions.
* This article was originally published by Food First.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Forget the ICC: Let Africa revive its traditional justice systems

Ronald Elly Wanda

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65955

cc S CSince its creation in 2002, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has worked to bring the perpetrators of some of the most serious crimes to justice. The ICC is currently working its way through five criminal cases in five countries, all African. Ronald Elly Wanda argues that the court’s system of trial and justice doesn’t fit in with traditional African legal systems based in culture, history and community. After years of colonisation by European nations, Africa has become wrought with poverty and illiteracy, leaving the continent in no condition to adhere to international legal standards, writes Wanda. He additionally argues that strong ties to the European community and a tendency to ignore war crimes outside of Africa are further evidence that the resolution of African conflict is better left to African legal systems.

The beginning of June saw Uganda’s capital Kampala, the heartbeat of Africa, play host to the first ever Review Conference of the Rome Statute, which in 2002 gave birth to the International Criminal Court (ICC). This timely event triggered renewed interest in discussions centred on the limits and possibilities of international justice serving African interests. Questions such as 'Is there sufficient gravity for Africans to depend on the International Criminal Court to deliver local justice?' dominated civil talks at malwa (local brew) dens in towns and villages right across the continent.

In East Africa, Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai added to the works. Writing in an East African weekly prior to the conference and in reference to her native Kenya – which saw 1,300 killed and more than half a million internally displaced following the post-election violence of late 2007 – she argued that Africa has leaders that make violence against humanity seem worthwhile. ‘These leaders,’ Maathai observed, ‘mobilized their supporters, mostly from their communities, to go and kill and rape and destroy members of other communities.’ Accordingly, Maathai affirmed that Africans support the ICC in bringing to an end the culture of impunity by holding those who commit such crimes in Africa to account. ‘Impunity,’ noted the professor, ‘not only perpetuates crimes against women, children and other civilians, it teaches successive generations how to continue the violence.’

While it is difficult to fault the professor, my pan-African impulse is very much enticed. From ancient European philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle to notable African thinkers like Cheikh Anta Diop, Dani Nabudere, Ali Mazrui and Archie Mafeje – and undoubtedly many others – runs a thread of universal agreement that the idea of justice inevitably suggests the notion of a certain equality. In Africa this has not been the case.

Given the five centuries of systematic destruction of African communities’ political, cultural, economic and social structures by Europeans, Africa is yet to attain psychological well-being from the sustained assault on its humanity, which continues to this day under different guises, including the ICC’s ‘legal colonialism'. Exogenous forces aside, today’s societies in Africa are also deeply marked by class, ethnicity, gender, religion and other dimensions of difference and inequalities, making injustice instead of justice the norm. The continent has been forced to continue nursing a deep sense of what my good friend Professor Mammo Muchie has termed a ‘wounded psyche’ in its memory, one that keeps attacking the marrow of its social, political and legal confidence.

Since flag independence in the 1960s, African governments have been in a rush to normalise authoritarian rule and human rights abuses under the auspices of maendeleo (development) and economic growth. A short stroll in any African village today confirms that the globalised Western culture of justice delivery or innovation that most African leaders seem to trust has not improved the well-being of our local communities or delivered justice for them. On the contrary, it has often blocked viable indigenous innovation of cultures and suffocated African justice. Here in East Africa, cultures of innovation have largely accrued from the jua kali (informal), and not the formal sector. Indigenous cultural innovations have also been at the centre of development in most highly indebted poor countries (HIPC), such as in Uganda or its slightly richer sister Kenya, notably because of wanainchi (citizens) exceptionally limited access to capital.

As such, when it comes to delivering justice in Africa, we ought to revise our priorities by doing away with existing preconceived ideas that might have worked within the European cultural setting. They have clearly not worked in the face of the socio-cultural heritages of African societies, and neither has the opposite, the Africanisation of Western concepts of justice delivery.

This is because the Western justice paradigm remains retributive, hierarchical, adversarial and punitive and is guided by codified laws and written procedures. On the other hand, African justice systems have always been guided by unwritten laws, traditions and practices like inclusiveness, consultation and consensus. These are learned primarily by example and through the oral teachings of elders. In any legal matter, every adult member of the community gets involved in solving a conflict and they all focus on the need to resolve issues so as to attain peace and social harmony. The community is involved in the entire process, from the disclosure of problems to discussion and resolution, making amends and restoring relationships.

Recently while on a study visit to Iwokodan, an Iteso clan in Kamuge, Pallisa District, north eastern Uganda, I was narrated a story of a land dispute involving two community members – that took 20 years being tossed around courts – which was eventually resolved within days after it was referred back to the clan. In that case an amicable resolution was reached promptly because of elements such as the just act is correctness, the rejection of inequality, reason instead of arbitration, conscience instead of inhumanity and so forth, elements that one find in traditional African justice unlike the existing westernised arrangement. Another example is Rwanda where the re-establishment of its traditional courts (thegacaca) to help deal with the crime of genocide and foster reconciliation between its communities has yielded a positive outcome.

When it comes to international law, it is fair to argue that African states have failed to abide by their international fair trial obligations, probably because these standards have been impractical in the first place, given the realities of poverty, illiteracy and strong cultural beliefs that characterise most of our communities in Africa. As a result, the law applied by the Western-style courts is felt to be out of touch with the needs of most African communities, and coercion to resort to them therefore amounts to a denial of justice.

As for the ICC, we must reject it on the basis that it is an example of legal colonialism by the European Union (EU). Not only does it receive 60 per cent of its funding from the EU, it has also ignored all European or Western human rights abuses in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as human rights abuses by states considered ‘darlings of the West’. Despite over 8,000 complaints about alleged crimes in at least 139 countries, the ICC has started investigations in just five countries, all of them here in Africa. The ICC’s double standards and autistic legal blundering in Africa have derailed delicate peace processes that have instead prolonged devastating civil wars. As David Hoile, author of 'The International Criminal Court: Europe’s Guantánamo Bay?', has observed, ‘the court’s proceedings ought to be questionable given its judges, some of whom have never been lawyers, let alone judges, are appointed as the result of vote-trading among member states.’ Hoile adds, ‘The ICC has engaged in prosecutorial decisions which should have ended any fair trial because they compromised the integrity of any subsequent process. Its first trial stalled because of judicial decisions to add new charges half-way through proceedings.’

The need to emancipate the continent from the ravages of foreign domination and underdevelopment and build a new Africa from the grassroots upwards ought to be concerns for us all. As renowned scholar Dani Nabudere forcefully urges, ‘we must defend African people’s dignity and civilizational achievements and contribute afresh to a new global agenda that can push us out of the crisis of modernity as promoted by the European enlightenment.’

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* Ronald Elly Wanda is a lecturer at Marcus Garvey Pan-Afrikan University in Mbale, Uganda.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Rwandans deserve the pontiff’s apology too

Jean Baptiste Kayigamba

2010-07-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65944

cc D PFollowing the Pope's address to victims of sexual abuse in Ireland, it's time for a specific apology to Rwandans for the Catholic Church's role in the country's 1994 genocide, says Jean Baptiste Kayigamba. The church has actively protected clerics allegedly involved in the genocide, Kayigamba argues, but now is the time for it to break its silence and acknowledge the role of some of its followers in perpetrating one of the worst genocides of the previous century.

These is no single day that passes without new allegations of members of the Catholic Church clergy involved in sexual abuses of young children. Some of these cases extend over decades and cover all the continents. They have shaken the Roman Catholic Church to its foundation and, in some instances, some accusations have pointed to the current pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI, as having played a role in pushing these abuses under the carpet, a charge that the Vatican has vehemently rebuffed.

Some revelations about these scandals initially surfaced in the United States. But this was just a beginning. Others were subsequently reported in South America, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Poland, Spain, Germany, Holland, the United Kingdom and in some African countries.

As the furore gathered momentum, the pontiff, as the church's supreme leader, decided to intervene to stop the mounting criticism that senior members of the organisation – including him – have been involved in cover-ups and the obstruction of justice regarding these abuses. It is in this sense that in March 2010 the Pope issued a lengthy letter to Christians in Ireland.

Addressing the victims of these abuses and their families from Ireland, the pontiff wrote:

'You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated… It is understandable that you find it hard to forgive or be reconciled with the Church. In her name, I openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel.'[1]

The aim of this essay is not to discuss these abuses as such, but to expose what I consider the double standards shown by the Vatican concerning other victims, namely those of the 1994 Tutsi genocide. We all recall that this tragedy took place over 16 years ago in broad daylight.

If he is able to say sorry to the victims of abuses in Ireland, why can’t say the same apology be made to Rwandans who, over 16 years ago, endured the suffering during one of the worst genocides of the last century, a genocide in which a great number of clergymen took part.

During these horrible moments, not only were these churches places where innocent men, women and children had sought refuge, hoping for protection. These sacred places quickly became slaughterhouses. Names like Ntarama, Ngenda, Kibeho, Kaduha, Nyange or Nyarubuye have become the symbols of the heinous crimes that were committed by Christians against Christians, sometimes with the complicity of the local clergymen.

Sixteen years after these atrocities were perpetrated, some of these holy places are still filled with the stench of the corpses of the people who were butchered. The question people continue to ask is how a country where more than 56 per cent claimed to be Roman Catholic could descend into such an unfathomable abyss. What is also shocking is the participation in the mass-killings by a large number of priests and nuns in these crimes.

One of the most cited cases is that of Father Athanase Seromba. According to African Rights, a London-based human rights organisation, at the height of the mass-killings, this 'servant of God' 'used his authority as a priest to disarm local Tutsis and lure them on to church'. African Rights further indicates that 'a large number surrounded the parish and used guns, grenades and machetes to kill the refugees. Seromba gave orders to the killers and shot those who tried to escape.'[2]

It is also alleged that because the marauding Hutu militias could not get into the church, Seromba ordered the demolition of the church while the Tutsi were still inside. Seromba’s involvement has been confirmed by 11 witnesses in his trial at the International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which sentenced him to life in prison.

Writing in the Guardian, Rory Carrol says that 'father Seromba was one of dozens of clerics and nuns accused of atrocities that fled to Europe after a Tutsi force took power in Rwanda following the slaughter. With the Vatican’s help he moved to Italy, ostensibly to study, and under an assumed name, Father Anastasio Sumba Bura, served parish priest in a village near Florence.'[3]

So, why is that soon after the mass-killings in Rwanda in 1994, the Vatican strove to spirit away these clerics who were allegedly involved in one of the worst genocides of the last century, and assisted them in finding refuge in parishes in countries like France, Italy, Belgium and Spain, to name a few.

The case of Seromba is typical of the way the Roman Catholic Church has always endeavoured to help spirit away suspected 'genocidaire' clerics, and provide them with refuge in parishes in a number of European countries. Once discovered by Interpol, it is alleged that the Vatican did everything possible to thwart his extradition to the ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania, by pressurising the Italian government not to hand him over.

In her biography entitled 'Madame Prosecutor: Confrontations with Humanity’s Worst Criminals and the Culture of Impunity', Carla Del Ponte sheds light on the manoeuvring done by the Roman Catholic Church to help Father Seromba evade justice.

After several attempts to have the Italian government arrest Seromba, she was very frustrated and said: 'It’s a scandal. Belgrade has handed over Milosevic, but Rome won’t grant me this arrest.'[4]

It was later suggested by the media 'that the real reason why the government did not execute the arrest warrant [against Father Seromba] was pressure from the Vatican, which had been seeking ways to understate the role some members of the clergy had taken in the Rwanda genocide.' The Vatican had earlier questioned the objectivity of a Belgian court that had found two Rwandan nuns guilty for crimes connected with the genocide.

It's no wonder that every time a Roman Catholic cleric is mentioned in cases of atrocities that were committed in Rwanda, the Vatican belittles what happened and appears to suggest that the individuals concerned are being persecuted for who they are: members of the clergy.

Like Seromba, Father Emmanuel Uwayezu is another priest who was helped by the Catholic network to leave Africa and to settle in Florence, Italy, working as a deputy priest in the parish of Ponzano. Like Seromba, he slightly modified his name to Wayezu. But Interpol later caught him. According to African Rights, Father Uwayezu is responsible for the massacres of more than 80 students aged between 12 and 20 from Kibeho High School in southern Rwanda, of which he was a head teacher.[5]

Nevertheless, Father Guido Engels, the parish priest of Sant’Andrea in Empoli where Uwayezu had been living for over 15 years, defended his innocence, claiming that Uwayezu 'never showed any resentment toward the other ethnic group [the Tutsi]; he constantly preached peace. There was and still is however unfortunately some people who blow on the fire with a spirit that is far from peaceful.'[6]

Very few leaders of the major denominations in Rwanda abstained themselves from taking part or abetting the mass-killings. But the difference is that unlike most of them, the Roman Catholic Church or affiliated organisations have never shown any contrition about the role of its clerics who have been indicted for crimes of genocide or crimes against humanity.

It is alleged that during the trial of two Rwandan nuns in Belgium in April 2001, the Vatican spokesperson Joaquim Navarro Valls questioned 'the objectivity of a Belgian court' that had found the defendants guilty of taking part in the massacre of 5,000 Tutsi refugees at Sovu Monastery in Butare, south of the Rwandan capital Kigali in 1994. He reportedly said: 'The Holy See cannot but express a certain surprise at seeing the grave responsibility of so many people and groups involved in this tremendous genocide in the heart of Africa heaped on so few people.'[7]

Writing for Afrol News, Rainer C. Hennig observed that 'the genocide shook all Christian churches, and provoked reactions of confessing guilty by most of them. Protestant congregations mostly asked Rwandans pardon for the atrocities committed by their members and excommunicated members suspected of forming part of the genocide. Anglican Bishop Samuel Musabyimana – he later died in the ICTR detention in Arusha – was excommunicated as charges against him were well known.'[8]

Alas, the stance of the Vatican and many of its priests before and after the genocide has not evolved very much. There were no known sanctions taken by the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy against fathers like Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, Seromba and others for the gravity of the crimes they allegedly committed. No wonder that during his trial, Seromba reportedly said: 'A priest I am and a priest I will remain.'[9]

Knowing the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church towards the Holocaust and other serious human rights abuses, an apology from the current pontiff over the involvement of members of the church's leadership in the 1994 Tutsi genocide would be mere fantasy.

His predecessor Pope John Paul II had only told Rwandans that 'the Church … cannot be held responsible for the guilt of its members that have acted against the evangelic law.'

But what is more pressing than an apology is for the Roman Catholic Church to reassess its negative role in the sowing of the Hutu extremist ideology largely blamed for the 1994 Tutsi genocide. It is a well-documented fact that shortly before Rwanda’s independence in the early 1960s, the Belgian Governor Jean Paul Harroy and the then Archbishop of Rwanda Mgr Andre Perraudin helped certain Hutu elites to set the MDR Parmehutu Party, the brainchild of the 'genocidal' ideology that became the hallmark of contemporary Rwandan politics.

After over a century of civilisation and enlightenment and given the magnitude of mass-killings perpetrated on such large scale as the 1994 Tutsi genocide, the Catholic Church should at least go back to the drawing board and examine why its evangelisation mission was almost a total failure. How do you explain that those horrors happened in country where over 56 per cent were Catholic?

As Rwandans today show great resolve at working towards national reconciliation and putting this hideous past behind them, the Catholic Church should re-double its energies in preaching the 'good news' based on the love of 'our neighbour', as conveyed by the following excerpt from Matthew’s Gospel about love:

'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? And he said to him: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with your entire mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbour as yourself. One of these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.' (Matthew 22: 36-40).

Nobody expects Rwandans to love each other as indicated in the above scriptures. But at least they should be taught by all institutions, the Catholic Church included, to respect the sanctity of human life. That is where the work of the Roman Catholic Church, which has been involved in many aspects of national life for over a century, enters into play.

However, this cannot be achieved if its leadership – starting from the highest, the Holy See – does not acknowledge its failures and the betrayal of the Rwandan people in an hour of need. It is a well-known fact that the Roman Catholic Church was cosy with successive governments that were butchering its own people and driving thousands of others into exile. It kept silent in the face of these atrocities. In 1994, as indicated in this article, some members of the clergy were active participants in the plan to wipe out one section of the Rwandan population.

It is for this reason and for many more that, as in the cases of sexual abuse that tarred the image of the clergy, that Pope should direct an unambiguous apology to the victims of one of the worst genocides of the last century, the 1994 Tutsi genocide.

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* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] Pastoral Letter of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI to the Catholics of Ireland, 19 March 2010, page 3.
[2] 'Catholics and Collusion in Genocide' by Rupert Short in The Guardian, 21 July 2001.
[3] 'Rwandan Priest Goes on Trial for Genocide' by Rory Carrol in Guardian, 21 September 2001.
[4] Carla Del Ponte. Madame Prosecutor: Confrontations with Humanity’s Worst Criminals and the Culture of Impunity: A memoir (Chuck Sudetic). Milan: Felitrinelli Editore, 2008, page 190.
[5] African Rights. 'Father Emmanuel Uwayezu in Italy. The Massacre of His Students at Kibeho College of Arts, 7 May 1994. Report issued in London/Kigali on May 2009.
[6] Rwanda Genocide: Priest Arrested in Tuscany. Misna, 21 Oct 2009.
[7] Carala Del Ponte. Ibid. p. 190.
[8] Rainer C. Hennig. 'Rwanda. The Cross and the Genocide. The involvement of Christian Societies in the Rwandan Genocide.' In Afrol News, 2001.
[9] Martin Kimani. For Rwandans, the Pope’s apology Must be Unbearable' in The Guardian, 29 March 2010.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

African Rights. Father Emmanuel Uwayezu in Italy. The Massacre of His Students at Kibeho College of Arts. London/ Kigali, May 2009.

Carrol, R. Rwandan Priest Goes on Trial for Genocide. The Guardian, 21 Sept. 2001.

Pastoral Letter of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI to the Catholics of Ireland, 19 March 2010, page 3.

Del Ponte, C. Madame Prosecutor: Confrontations with Humanity’s Worst Criminals and the Culture of Impunity. Milan: Feltinelli Editore, 2008.

Heinig,R. C. 'Rwanda. The Cross and the Genocide. The involvement of Christian Societies in the Rwandan Genocide.' In Afrol News, 2001.

Kimani, M. 'For Rwandans, the Pope’s Apology Must Be Unbearable'. The Guardian, 19 March 2010.

Misna. Rwanda Genocide: Priest Arrested in Tuscany. Misna, 21 Oct 2009.

Short, R. 'Catholics and Collusion in Genocide'. The Guardian, 21 July 2001.

Pastoral Letter of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI to the Catholics of Ireland, 19 March 2010.

Sources and testimonies: A response to Herman and Peterson

Gerald Caplan

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65974

cc M FResponding to Edward Herman and David Peterson's critique of his review of their book, Gerald Caplan continues to challenge the notion that the Rwandan genocide never took place: 'Since the authors and I are never going to agree, the only point of continuing this exchange is not to change each other's minds but to persuade readers whose minds remain open.'

Re: Edward Herman and David Peterson's response to my review of their book for Pambazuka News

In 'The Politics of Genocide', authors Edward Herman and David Peterson turn the entire history of the 1994 genocide of Rwanda's Tutsi on its head. They simply deny that it happened and even argue that the Tutsi were the victimisers, not the victims. What would possess a serious left-winger like Edward Herman to deny one of the terrible tragedies of the late 20th century? (I know nothing of David Peterson.) In my review I documented at length just how dishonest and sleazy their arguments were.

Last week Pambazuka published their reply. Since I labelled Herman and Peterson genocide deniers, it was probably inevitable that they'd reciprocate and even up the ante: not only am I the real denier, I'm a genocide facilitator as well. Since I've spent the past decade immersed in genocide prevention – or so I naively thought – this was the unkindest cut of all, or would have been had it come from a serious and credible source.

Since the authors and I are never going to agree, the only point of continuing this exchange is not to change each other's minds but to persuade readers whose minds remain open. There are many issues I wish I could pursue, where the deceitfulness of Herman and Peterson's approach is flagrant:

- Their insistence that the 1990 invasion of Rwanda by the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) rebels was really carried out by the Ugandan army and not by Rwandans who had once served in the Ugandan army
- Their claim that the Gersony report documenting RPF atrocities around the time of the genocide remains suppressed, though my report on the genocide un-suppressed it 10 years ago
- Their reliance on the Hourigan report to assert that the RPF shot down President Habyarimana's plane in 1994, triggering the genocide; but there is no Hourigan report that anyone's seen which would allow the world to judge its credibility
- The completely bogus way they try to prove that the RPF actually killed more Hutu in 1994 than Hutu killed Tutsi
- Their mind-boggling assertion that in Rwanda in 1994, 'the RPF alone were a well-organised military force'
- Their view that Rwanda's genocide denial laws are somehow illegitimate, while such laws are commonplace across Europe and of course in Israel.

But I think it's best to leave these issues to others. I have been told, for example, that Adam Jones, a genocide specialist who has written prolifically on the subject, intends to address some of these matters. I hope others will jump in as well. I'd like to restrict myself here to one overriding issue – the critical matter of sources.

What has always most mystified me about the deniers is how they simply ignore or reject the vast amount of evidence related to the genocide that points inescapably, overwhelmingly, to a single conclusion: A small group of Hutu extremists organised and executed a plot to annihilate all Rwanda's Tutsi, and came close to succeeding. Among those who have studied Rwanda there are many differences of opinion on various issues within this overall finding, but on the main issue there is almost none. That's precisely why it's become the conventional wisdom. But this is not a manufactured conclusion slickly imposed on the world by the mainstream corporate-controlled media. The very opposite is true.

Let me remind readers again about some of the sources for the version of the genocide that is so widely accepted. We can begin with every one of the handful of outsiders who remained in Rwanda throughout all or most of the genocide, all of whom, on the basis of first-hand experience, share the conventional view. Are they all just dupes of Yanqui imperialism, as deniers recklessly label General Roméo Dallaire, head of the UN military mission to Rwanda? Are they all wrong about what they personally witnessed? By coincidence, I had a meeting last week with James Orbinski, a Canadian doctor who entered Rwanda in mid-May and ran the MSF (Médecins sans frontières) operation there for the next six weeks. He was absolutely incredulous that anyone could deny what he saw happening before his eyes, and which he's written about in his book 'An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-First Century'. Had Orbinski differed from any of the others who had remained – General Dallaire, Phillippe Gaillard of the Red Cross or Carl Wilkens, an Adventist missionary – that would be significant. But isn't it also significant that they all completely agree on the nature of the events they lived through?

Is it not significant that every reporter without exception who spent time in Rwanda during the genocide as well as those who showed up very soon after all agreed on what had occurred? Is there a single outsider, media or otherwise, who witnessed the event and thinks otherwise? How can this not trouble those who repudiate the shared understanding of these witnesses?

In my original review I emphasised the large list of writers on the genocide, from a variety of backgrounds, all of whom accept the conventional version. I named 45 of them, and could have added more. I didn't include those journalists who were actually in the country for part of the genocide, such as Mark Doyle, Nick Hughes and Lindsey Hilsum. I noted that several of today's most vociferous critics of the RPF still accept the reality of the genocide, mentioning Kuperman, Uvin, Prunier, Lemarchand and the late Alison Des Forges (who is shamelessly smeared by Herman and Peterson in a way old Joe McCarthy would have admired).

I could have mentioned others as well, such as Paul Rusesabagina, of Hotel Rwanda fame, who accepts the reality of the genocide despite his weasel words and his hatred of the RPF, or Filip Reyntjens, a rabid RPF-loathing Belgian academic and member of an experts committee named by the Organisation of the African Union to vet my report on the genocide in 2000. Reyntjens, in academic mode, pronounced my draft to be worth about 90 per cent; I was deeply flattered, even reassured. The key findings of that report, 'Rwanda: the preventable genocide', included the existence of a Hutu extremist plot to exterminate all Tutsi, the betrayal and abandonment of the Tutsi by the international community led by France and the US, and the murder by the victorious RPF of perhaps 25,000 to 40,000 non-combatant Hutu before, during and immediately after the genocide.

Are all of these sources, many of whom were witnesses or did original research, to be dismissed out of hand? Is every single one either misguided, deluded, dishonest or a stooge of the Americans?

Let me acknowledge straight out that I made an error in writing that except for two of the 45 writers that I listed, none was cited by Herman and Peterson in their book. As they rightly note in their rebuttal, they actually mentioned seven of the names on this list:

- Gerard Prunier
- Fergal Keane
- Alex de Waal
- Mahmood Mamdani
- William Schabas
- Phillip Gourevitch
- Ingvar Carlsson.

For this foolish error I apologise.

But the slipperiness that characterises so much of Herman and Peterson's scholarship is still very much at play here. For while the seven names can indeed be found in their text – and I should have found them – all are invoked for secondary purposes or, as with de Waal and Mamdani, on Darfur, not on Rwanda at all. It's remarkably brazen of Herman and Thompson to imply that they took these seven authors seriously. They did not.

Let me rephrase my description with precision, as I should have done originally: Every one of these 45 authors (plus those added above) believes that a genocide of the Tutsi took place in Rwanda in 1994, yet this central finding of every one of them is completely ignored and implicitly repudiated by Herman and Peterson. Instead, they rely for their 'evidence' entirely on a small band of like-minded individuals who, often as not, quote each other to bolster their case for rejecting the major conclusions shared by the vast majority of writers on the subject.

Let me also remind readers of the large number of other sources for the genocide, too many for me to even mention here. There are the very large number of survivor testimonies, recounting their unspeakable ordeals during the genocide. Are they all lying? Are they all part of a gigantic conspiracy? When they tell us, as so many do, that they're the only remaining member of a large family, when they describe the rape and torture in vivid detail, are these mere inventions?

Then there are the confessions of large numbers of killers, supplemented by interviews these killers later voluntarily gave to outsiders such as academic Scot Straus and journalist Jean Hatzfeld, and no, it is simply wrong to claim they were all driven by fear of RFP reprisals. There are hundreds of thousands of pages of evidence accumulated by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, describing in great detail how the genocide happened. There is the corroborating testimony of Jean Kambanda, former prime minister of the Hutu extremist government that was orchestrating the genocide. There were the notorious exhortations to hate and murder Tutsi by hate radio RTLM (Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines).

There were the explicit warnings boldly announced by the RTLM and the Kangura newspaper just before the president's plane was shot down that something dramatic was about to happen to him. There were the documented vows of leading Hutu extremists in the Habyarimana government and army that they would never allow the president to implement the Arusha accords; two days before he was murdered he had announced their immediate implementation.

There was the dreaded interahamwe, the ruling Hutu party's wild youth militia who led and carried out so many of the mass slaughters. Were they a figment of everyone's imagination? There are the statements by French soldiers in south-western Rwanda, part of France's Opération Turquoise, expressing their shock that the Hutu they were told were the victims were actually the murderers.

Is every last word of this to be discredited, dismissed, mocked, part of some fantastic American imperialist conspiracy? Are the Rwandan archives that Linda Melvern is mining filled with brilliant forgeries? When Noam Chomsky agreed to write a preface to the Herman–Peterson book, did he know something that allowed him to ignore or disdain all of this evidence?

Fair-minded readers must compare Herman and Peterson's sources with the sources the two men, like all other deniers, choose to ignore. Then you can decide for yourself where credibility lies. This is not a trivial debate. The Rwanda genocide is a landmark of our times. The large majority of scholars who have studied Rwanda have concluded that what happened to the Tutsi in 1994 constituted one of the purest examples of genocide in the 20th century, the 'century of genocide' as it’s often called. To deny the reality of Rwanda is equivalent to denying the Holocaust. Are we all wrong? Have we all been conned by one of the greatest hoaxes of all time? Has American imperialism blinded us all to the hidden truth? Are Herman and Peterson and their small band right and all the rest of us wrong? Follow the evidence and judge for yourself.

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* Gerald Caplan has a PhD in African history. He recently published 'The Betrayal of Africa'.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

On genocide deniers: Challenging Herman and Peterson

Adam Jones

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65977

cc US ArmyFollowing Edward Herman and David Peterson’s challenge to Gerald Caplan's critique of their book 'The Politics of Genocide', Adam Jones provides a powerful riposte to their arguments, emphasising what actually occurred in Rwanda in 1994. 'Herman and Peterson’s attempts to disguise and deny it constitute,' writes Jones, 'the nadir of their respective careers.'

Edward Herman and David Peterson’s response to Gerald Caplan’s review of their book, 'The Politics of Genocide' (8 July), merits a lengthy riposte. I will limit myself to a few comments, pending a closer engagement to follow.

(1) Herman and Peterson contend that mainstream scholarship on Rwanda in 1994, such as Caplan’s, “turns perpetrator and victim upside-down.” In fact, they allege, Hutus were the principal victims of the bloodbath, and the RPF/Tutsis – “the ‘only well-organized killing force within Rwanda in 1994’” – were “both the initiators and the main perpetrators of 1994's mass blood-letting.”

The crucial source they cite in support of this argument is research by Christian Davenport and Allan Stam, notably their October 2009 article, “What Really Happened in Rwanda?” Curiously, though, Herman and Peterson never mention Davenport and Stam’s core finding: that “the vast majority of the 1994 killing had been conducted by the FAR [Rwandan army], the Interahamwe [militia] and their associates.” All three of these Hutu-controlled bodies were apparently quite “well-organized killing force[s],” if they were responsible for “the vast majority” of up to a million murders in a few months. With regard to the RPF, Davenport and Stam claim that it played a “not insignificant role” in the carnage. Certainly, the RPF’s probable tens of thousands of killings in Rwanda in 1994 are significant. But they are hardly justification for flipping the Rwandan genocide on its head, and depicting the RPF/Tutsis as “the main perpetrators” of the killing, as Herman and Peterson do. Indeed, Davenport and Stam’s finding was precisely the opposite.

(Note in passing, however, the fundamental illogic which characterises both Davenport and Stam’s article, and Herman and Peterson’s mendaciously selective use of it. If the Hutu-controlled 'FAR, the Interahamwe and their associates' were responsible for the 'vast majority' of the 1994 murders, and if – as Davenport and Stam also allege, and Herman and Peterson repeat – the majority of those killed were likely Hutus, why on earth would Hutus have been killing other Hutus on such a massive scale, and in such a seemingly systematic fashion? We know that many oppositionist and other Hutus did perish in the genocide. But where is the evidence for such a gargantuan Hutu-on-Hutu bloodbath, with Tutsi victims pushed to the periphery?)

(2) Perhaps the most disturbing passage in Herman and Peterson’s response to Caplan is this: “Would it not have been incredible for Kagame’s Tutsi forces to conquer Rwanda in 100 days, and yet the number of minority Tutsi deaths be greater than the number of majority Hutu deaths by a ratio of something like three-to-one? Surely then we would have to count Rwanda 1994 as the only country in history where the victims of genocide triumphed over those who committed genocide against them, and wiped the territory clean of its ‘genocidaires’ at the same time.”

Of course, no mainstream authority has ever claimed that the Tutsi “victims of genocide” in Rwanda in 1994 were drawn from “Kagame’s Tutsi forces.” The latter were invading from Uganda, as Herman and Peterson themselves emphasize. They were outsiders with no connection to, and apparently no particular sympathy for, the Tutsi civilian population of Rwanda. It was the Rwandan Tutsi population which, by all serious accounts, bore the overwhelming brunt of the Hutu Power genocide.

So Herman and Peterson’s mocking reference to the “minority Tutsi” population supposedly bearing the brunt of the massacres, then assuming “complete control” of Rwanda, is pure sleight-of-hand. To repeat the indisputable: it was the foreign-based RPF that took “complete control” in July 1994 and “wiped the territory clean of its ‘genocidaires’” – not the “minority Tutsi” population of Rwanda, which had been mostly exterminated by that point. By insinuating otherwise – by conflating Rwanda’s civilian Tutsis with “Kagame’s Tutsi forces” – Herman and Peterson none-too-subtly adopt Hutu Power’s justification for slaughtering Tutsi civilians: that they constituted a “fifth column,” indistinguishable from the invading RPF. This casual parroting of the most virulent Hutu-extremist propaganda effectively blames Rwanda’s Tutsis for their own extermination. It is a disgraceful ploy, and by itself it casts Herman and Peterson’s “analysis” into utter disrepute.

(3) Herman and Peterson quote approvingly Allan Stam’s claim that the RPF’s military maneuvers were “staggeringly like the United States invasion of Iraq in 1991.” This is advanced to buttress their (painfully thin) argument that the RPF acted as a US proxy throughout 1994, and after. But if RPF military actions were indeed “staggeringly like” those of the US and its allies in the 1991 Gulf conflict, we must assume that the RPF mustered over half a million troops for its offensive; dropped tens of thousands of tons of bombs on enemy positions and population centers; mounted massed armoured thrusts to overwhelm its opponent; and routed the foe in a mere 100 hours of land warfare. Since none of these remotely obtained in the RPF’s 1994 campaign, an objective observer might rather conclude that in all central respects, that campaign was staggeringly unlike the 1991 invasion of Iraq.

(4) At various points, Herman and Peterson make much of the supposed lightning speed of the RPF victory (“incredible for Kagame’s Tutsi forces to conquer Rwanda in 100 days,” etc.). One hundred days, in fact, can be a very long time in war and genocide. In the 1991 Gulf War, as noted, the Allies crushed Iraqi forces in 100 hours. Many other examples could be cited, from the 1967 Six-Day War in which Israel nearly obliterated the forces of three Arab states, to the six-week blitzkrieg in which the Nazis conquered France in 1940. For Hutu Power to have supervised the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people in three-and-a-half months is surely “incredible” in a moral sense – not that we can expect such an acknowledgment from Herman and Peterson. But it is perfectly credible in a logistical sense, with the target populations utterly defenseless, and prone to be rounded up and slaughtered by the thousands or tens of thousands at a time. That, in any case, is what actually occurred in Rwanda in 1994. Herman and Peterson’s attempts to disguise and deny it constitute the nadir of their respective careers.

Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso
July 14, 2010

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* Adam Jones is associate professor of political science at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Abahlali baseMjondolo's 'Kennedy 12': Trial developments

Lucy Bamforth

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65967

© Abahlali.orgWith Abahlali baseMjondolo's 'Kennedy 12' due to go to court this week, Lucy Bamforth summarises the background to the case, the accusations against the movement's members and the stalling of the trial.

Amid local, national and international condemnation from human rights groups and religious leaders, the court case against a group of Abahlali baseMjondolo residents originally known as the 'Kennedy 13' was slated to begin in Durban, South Africa, on Monday.

What happened instead was just the opposite: Instead of the beginnings of a trial, the court room remained empty of both the accused attackers and key witnesses, prompting the court magistrate to delay the trial to 29 November and reiterate the right to fair and speedy trial proceedings.

The good news is that the five remaining jailed members of the Kennedy 12, a group of 12 Abahlali baseMjondolo residents charged in connection with the attack, were brought to court the next day and released on bail. The other seven members were released on bail in November last year.

On 26 September 2009 a group of about 40 armed men entered the settlement where many of Abahlali baseMjondolo reside and began violently attacking residents' homes, leaving two dead and forcing others to leave their homes for fear of their safety. The name 'Kennedy 12' refers to a group of supporters of Abahlali baseMjondolo and its leaders who were arrested in connection with the attacks, and had lost their homes as a result. Seven of those 12 were released in November, but the remaining five were, until Tuesday, being held without sufficient evidence against them.

Abahlali baseMjondolo says that the attacks were sanctioned by the ANC (African National Congress) in an attempt to intimidate the settlement from continuing to criticise the government, as they have done in the past through constitutional challenges and the exposure of corrupt ANC politicians. The ANC has disputed these claims, and Abahlali baseMjondolo seems to have a right to be suspicious: There were numerous court delays and claims from a government minister that the settlement had been liberated from the hands of the (elected) Abahlali baseMjondolo Chairperson S’bu Zikode, the person who spearheaded the many marches and legal proceedings against the local ANC leadership.

Abahlali baseMjondolo has released a series of statements about the way the police and local government have handled the case (links for which appear at the end of this article), as well as the many calls local and international activists have made to release the Kennedy 12.

Justice on trial: A statement at the commencement of the trial of the Kennedy 12
The Kennedy 12 go to trial today
The Kennedy 12 case postponed - the jailed comrades to be released

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* Lucy Bamforth is a recent journalism and history graduate from Carleton University.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

The Kennedy 12 go to trial today

Abahlali baseMjondolo

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65964

© Abahlali.orgThe following is a press statement from Abahlali baseMjondolo released on Monday 12 July. It details the movement's plans to attend Durban High Court in solidarity with the accused 'Kennedy 12'.

On the 26th of September 2009 a group of forty armed men massed in the Kennedy Road shack settlement, chanted ANC and ethnic slogans and launched an attack on the elected leaders of the Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC), Abahlali baseMjondolo, their families, their comrades and all those who have associated themselves with our movement. They also declared their intention to drive Mphondo people from the settlement. They made it quite clear that their intention was to kill a number of named people including S’bu Zikode.

It was a well planned and violent attack. Intelligence personnel were present in the settlement when the attack was launched. All of the many calls to the police for help were ignored. People fled and people defended themselves as best they could. When the sun came up two people were dead, many more were injured and thousands were displaced. When the police did come to the settlement the attack continued in their presence. The leadership of the KRDC and Abahali baseMjondolo were forced out of the settlement and their homes looted and destroyed.

The ANC leadership in KwaZulu-Natal publicly endorsed the attack on our movement. The MEC for Community Safety and Liaison Willies Mchunu said that the settlement had been ‘liberated’ and that a decision had been taken to ‘disband’ our elected structures. eThekwini Housing Committee Chairperson Nigel Gumede celebrated the attack at a press conference held in the settlement and told the media that the Kennedy Road community was the only shack community that had taken the government to the court. He also said that S’bu Zikode had been running his own authority. And he said that S’bu Zikode had gone against the State President when the President had said that shacks would have to be eradicated by 2014. Gumede said that ‘people will have to be jailed’ for development to go ahead. In fact we had, after four years of struggle and more than a year of negotiation, signed an MOU with the Municipality for the participatory in-situ upgrade of the settlement. They way in which Gumede spoke made it seem that S’bu Zikode was the major threat to the development of shack settlements. He spoke as if S’bu Zikode was a person to be killed.

When Gumede referred to Abahlali baseMjondolo taking the government to court he was referring to our case against the notorious Slums Act in the Constitutional Court. Ten days later we won our case against the Slums Act and the attacks on our movement continued. More homes were demolished and the General Secretary of our Youth League had to flee her home, outside of the settlement, after she was publicly threatened with death when she commented on the judgment on the TV news.

After the attack senior ANC politicians moved quickly to impose an unelected ANC leadership on the settlement. Since then the settlement has never been stable. People have continued to be murdered and to be burnt to death in shack fires. There has been extreme party political corruption in access to grants and to the relief offered after the shack fire. Everything that had been built up by the movement, from the crèche, to the library, safe electricity connections, the community kitchen and organised care for the sick and was destroyed.

Abahlali baseMjondolo wishes to make it clear to the media and to all progressive individuals, organisations and movements in South Africa and around the world that the police investigation into the attack, and the judicial process that has followed it, has been blatantly political. It has not been aimed at finding the truth or achieving justice. It has had one aim and that aim has been to destabilise our movement and to give the ANC the freedom to continue to their criminal attack on our movement. The attackers have never been arrested. No one has been arrested for the demolition, burning and looting of our homes. The Kennedy 12 are among those whose homes were destroyed and possessions looted. No one has been arrested for all the public threats of death that were made against us. No one has been arrested for the banning of our movement from the settlement on the pain of death.

The whole process leading up to this trial has been blatantly political and therefore blatantly corrupt. This is one reason why we issued the call for an independent commission of inquiry that will, in the interests of justice and truth, carefully and fairly investigate the actions of everyone, including the local and provincial ANC, the police, the intelligence services, the prosecutors, the courts and our movement, its various sub-committees and our supporters.

Abahlali baseMjondolo wish to express our deepest gratitude to all our comrades in South Africa, including, especially, our comrades in the Poor People’s Alliance and the church leaders who have stood with us, for their solidarity. We also wish to express the same gratitude to our comrades in Russia, Italy, Germany, England, Turkey, the Philippines, the USA and elsewhere who have written letters of protest to our government and organised protests at the embassies of our government around the world. All of these different people and groups have insisted that there must be a fair investigation into all aspects of the attack (including the initial attack, the looting and demolition of our homes and the violent and police supported expulsion and banning of our movement from the settlement) and that the South African government must conform to its own laws, to international laws and to the basic principles of democracy and fairness in their response to the attack and its ongoing consequences.

In recent days the state has requested an adjournment of the trial. They have consistently used invented delays to distort the judicial process and to keep the Kennedy 12 in jail and to delay their access to bail. They have had ten months to prepare their case and if they are still requesting adjournments at this late stage it is clear to us that they have no case. We have instructed our lawyers to refuse this request for adjournment.

We are not alone in facing repression. All of the poor people’s movements in South Africa have faced harassment from the police over the years. But the form of repression where a movement is attacked by armed civilians mobilised on an ethnic basis and backed by the police instead of being attacked by the police directly is a new form of repression. It is very similar to the way in which the apartheid state tried to undermine the UDF in the 1980s. Recently the Landless People’s Movement has also been under a very similar form of attack in Johannesburg. We continue to seek support from everyone who believes in justice and in the right of the poor to organise ourselves for ourselves. We continue to reject all forms of ethnic politics and to insist on our right to build a politics of and for the poor, and of and for all of the poor, from the ground up.

Abahlali baseMjondolo has become the hope and home of so many in the world. Therefore Abahlali baseMjondolo vows that it will do all that it can to protect and to fight for the advancement of the interests of the shack dwellers and the poor in South Africa and, when we can, to support the struggles of our comrades around the world.

We know very well that in the eyes of the state our real sin has been that we have been operating outside of state control. This is why we were attacked. The ANC refuses to accept the political autonomy of the poor. But everyone can see that the state has failed the poor in South Africa and so we will continue to organise outside of its control and its logic. We will continue to encourage the poor to organise themselves for themselves. Our lives and the lives of our children are at stake. We cannot back down.

Aluta Continua.

For comment please contact:

Bandile Mdlalose, Abahlali baseMjondolo General Secretary: 074 730 8120
Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Abahlali baseMjondolo Spokesperson: 079 745 0653
S’bu Zikode, Abahlali baseMjondolo President: 083 547 0474
Mzwake Mdlalose, Kennedy Road Development Committee Chairperson: 072 132 8458

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* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Justice on trial

A statement at the commencement of the trial of the Kennedy 12

Abahlali baseMjondolo

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65965

@ Abahlali.orgThe following statement was released by Abahlali baseMjondolo on Sunday 11 July in anticipation of the trial against its 'Kennedy 12' at Durban High Court, beginning Monday 12 July.

In September 2009 attacks took place in the Kennedy Road settlement against the leadership of the shack-dwellers' movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo. Those attacks shook our society, and led some to observe that our hard won democracy was under attack. As the trial finally commences on Monday 12 July 2010 against those whom the state has chosen to prosecute in relation to the attacks, we remain deeply dismayed and critical of the fact that no-one has been arrested and charged:

• for launching the attack in the first place;
• for systematically destroying the homes of leaders and members of, Abahlali baseMjondolo, within the Kennedy Road settlement during and after attacks;
• for issuing death threats against leaders and members of Abahlali baseMjondolo;
• for harassment and intimidation of leaders and members of Abahlali baseMjondolo.

Our concerns about the attack in September 2009, and the events that have followed since then - as well as our support for the broader movement of Abahlali baseMjondolo – are matters of public record:

• Immediately after the attack, we issued a statement saying, inter alia: "The militia that have driven the Abahlali baseMjondolo leaders and hundreds of families out of the settlement is a profound disgrace to our democracy. The fact that the police have systematically failed to act against this militia while instead arresting the victims of their violence and destruction is cause for the gravest concern. ... [M]y condolences go out to all those who have lost people whom they love and on whom they depend. It seems that some among the militia that launched the attack on the elected leadership of the settlement may also be among the dead. If, as may well be the case, the militia has been exploited by local elites determined to roll back the development of a vibrant popular democracy, then we will pray for their own healing and for a turn away from violence and lies and towards life and truth".

• Ignoring repeated calls for a comprehensive investigation, the state justice system has only charged people from the settlement itself. They face murder and other serious charges relating to the tragic deaths that occurred after the attack was unleashed on the settlement. In November 2009, we were compelled to issue a further strong statement condemning the travesty of justice in the conduct of the court processes of those accused. Already by then it was clear that "justice has been delayed far beyond the point at which it was clear that it had been denied" and that "what is being pursued in our courts in this instance is a political agenda against Abahlali baseMjondolo".

• Also in the November 2009 statement we declared that: "In light of the fact that this is quite clearly a political trial in which the rules that govern the practice of justice are not being followed, I am now calling for people of conscience outside of the state to join us as we set up an independent inquiry into the attack on Kennedy Road on 26 September; the subsequent demolition of the houses of Abahlali baseMjondolo members, the ongoing threats to Abahlali baseMjondolo members, the role of the police, politicians and courts in this matter". It is critical to note that none of these matters will be dealt with satisfactorily in the upcoming trial.

The charges against the accused are serious indeed, but our faith in the legal process has been sorely tested by this stage. Nonetheless, we call for a fair and proper process and we will pay close and respectful attention to the trial and its outcomes. The demand for fairness is surely the least demand we can make of the justice system of a democracy.

Issued by:
Bishop Rubin Phillip (Diocese of Natal, Anglican Church of Southern Africa).
Church Land Programme.

11 July 2010.

Annexure 1: Democracy Under Attack in Kennedy Road, Durban

I was torn with anguish when I first heard of the unspeakable brutality that has raged down on to the Kennedy Road shack settlement. In recent years I have spent many hours in the Kennedy Road settlement. I've attended meetings, memorials, mass ecumenical prayers and marches. I have had the honour of meeting some truly remarkable people in the settlement and the work of Abahlali baseMjondolo has always nurtured my faith in the power and dignity of ordinary people. I have seen the best of our democracy here. I have tasted the joy of real social hope here.

The achievement of our hard won democracy was a great moment of shared grace. The militia that have driven the Abahlali baseMjondolo leaders and hundreds of families out of the settlement is a profound disgrace to our democracy. The fact that the police have systematically failed to act against this militia while instead arresting the victims of their violence and destruction is cause for the gravest concern. There are credible claims that this militia has acted with the support of the local ANC structures. This, also, is cause for the most profound concern.

I have shuddered to the core as my thoughts have, with those of many others, turned to the attacks on democratic politics unleashed by apartheid and its allies in the 1980s. Once again people have been beaten, had their homes destroyed, been driven from their community and killed for their political views and practices. Once again an armed minority have used violence to implement a ban on a democratic organisation favoured by a majority. Once again there is just cause for deep concern about the role of the police. Once again we in the churches are looking for safe houses for activists, accommodation for political refugees who have fled with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, doctors for the injured and lawyers for the jailed. Horrors that we all believed to have been buried in our past now stalk the present. This is unacceptable. There can be no compromise on this score. I will take my anger and my fear for the future of our democracy to the highest levels of leadership in our country and to our sister churches around the world. I encourage others to do the same.

In 2007 I was part of a group of church leaders that issued a statement testifying to the brutality and political intolerance that the Sydenham Police had unleashed against Abahlali baseMjondolo in our presence. It is clear that the Sydenham Police should not be allowed to police Kennedy Road or to investigate the crimes that have been committed in recent days. A credible and independent force needs to be deployed as a matter of urgency.

It is equally essential that all of our political leaders take immediate steps to distance themselves from the actions of the militia that have seized control of the settlement, that they call party members who have been complicit with this militia to account, and that we all affirm that Kennedy Road and its residents have the same right to democratic practices as everywhere else and everyone else in South Africa. This includes the right to dissent.

Of course my condolences go out to all those have lost people whom they love and on whom they depend. It seems that some among the militia that launched the attack on the elected leadership of the settlement may also be among the dead. If, as may well be the case, the militia has been exploited by local elites determined to roll back the development of a vibrant popular democracy then we will pray for their own healing and for a turn away from violence and lies and towards life and truth.

Many people are asking what they can do. I would like to make three suggestions:

1. It is essential that the attack on democracy in Kennedy Road is widely publicised so that we can all confront what has happened and ensure that it never happens again. We need to give platforms to the victims of these attacks where ever we can.
2. It is also essential that we convey our concerns to our political leaders with urgency and clarity. I will be writing to President Zuma and encourage others to do the same.
3. Many people have fled their homes with nothing but what they could carry. They need urgent financial assistance. I have agreed to co-ordinate a relief fund and donations can be made to: Diocese of Natal Trust Account, First National Bank
Account number: 509 3118 7386; Branch code: 257 355, Midlands Mall Branch, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
A democracy that is not for everyone is a democracy in name only.
29 September 2009
Bishop Rubin Phillip
Anglican Bishop of Natal (KZN) and Chairman of the Kwa Zulu-Natal Christian Council

Annexure 2:

Grave Concerns about the Detention without Trial
of the Kennedy Thirteen:

This Travesty Must End

18 November 2009

After their 6th inconclusive bail hearing today, it is now abundantly clear that the legal process for the Kennedy 13 is a complete travesty of justice. They are scheduled to appear again on the 27th November. By that time, some of accused will have been in prison for 2 months without trial - two months in prison without any evidence being presented to a court and without a decision on bail. This is a moral and legal outrage that amounts to detention without trial by means of delay. In our view, it borders on unlawful detention. I am, tonight, issuing a call for their immediate release - justice has been delayed far beyond the point at which it was clear that it had been denied.

Ordinarily in a case with such serious charges as those put to the Kennedy 13, it is in fact extremely easy for bail to be denied. Usually all that is required is that the prosecution provide the court with some evidence showing that they have, at least, a prima facie case to make in the trial itself. That the prosecution has still not presented any such evidence, despite the magistrate's repeated concessions to give them more time to do so, indicates to us that the police simply have no case to make. What is being pursued in our courts in this instance is a political agenda against Abahlali baseMjondolo.

The Kennedy Thirteen were arrested in the aftermath of the September attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in the Kennedy Road settlement. Abahlali baseMjondolo is highly respected for its courageous commitment to the equality of all human beings irrespective of their origins or position in society. Their recognition of the spark of the divine in every human being has been a prophetic voice calling us to conscience and grace in the moral wilderness of a country that is losing its way.

In April 2007 I visited the Kennedy Six in Westville prison where they held to a hunger strike for 14 days before the murder charges that had been trumped up against them were dropped. In November that year I, along with other church leaders, witnessed and denounced shocking police violence against Abahlali baseMjondolo.

In 2007 I had to put aside some of my exuberant faith in our new democracy as I came to understand that the days of police violence, police lies and wrongful arrest were still being used to silence those with the temerity to speak truth to power. I realised, with a heavy heart, that the days of the political prisoner were not yet over in our country.

The attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo, and the response to the attack by the police and some figures in the eThekwini Municipality and the Provincial Government of KwaZulu-Natal, have been met with grave concern across South Africa and abroad. It is patently clear that there was a political dimension to the attack and that the response of the police has been to pursue that political agenda rather than justice.

I, along with many other church leaders as well as academics and human rights organisations, have called for a genuinely independent and credible inquiry into the attack on Kennedy Road. That call has not been heeded. It has become abundantly clear that the state has taken a political position on the attack and that it has forfeited any claim to neutrality in this matter.

The Kennedy Thirteen have come to court on six occasions to ask for bail. On each occasion a group of people, sometimes wearing ANC colours, some drunk and some armed, have been at the court to demand that bail be denied. The behaviour of these people has been appalling. They have openly made all kinds of threats including death threats. Clergy are amongst those who have been threatened and the apparatus of justice has been allowed to degenerate into what looks to all intents and purposes like a kangaroo court.

On six separate occasions the magistrate has postponed the bail hearing to give the police another chance to gather some evidence that could link the Kennedy Thirteen to a crime. On each of those six occasions the police have failed to produce any evidence linking the Kennedy Thirteen to any crime. Today the bail hearing for the Kennedy Road Thirteen was postponed until the 27th of November.

There were between thirty and forty clergy present at court today, all of us deeply disturbed by this travesty. We are all committed to see this matter through.

I am, tonight, issuing a call for the immediate release of the Kennedy Thirteen from prison on the grounds that justice has been delayed far beyond the point at which it was clear that it had been denied.

In light of the fact that this is quite clearly a political trial in which the rules that govern the practice of justice are not being followed, I am now calling for people of conscience outside of the state to join us as we set up an independent inquiry into the attack on Kennedy Road on 26 September; the subsequent demolition of the houses of Abahlali baseMjondolo members, the ongoing threats to Abahlali baseMjondolo members, the role of the police, politicians and courts in this matter.

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. (Hebrews 13:3)

The Lord will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea. Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD: "The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death." (Psalm 102: 16 – 20)

Bishop Rubin Phillip

Diocese of Natal, Anglican Church of Southern Africa
Chairperson, KwaZulu Natal Christian Council

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The Kennedy 12 case postponed - the jailed comrades to be released

Abahlali baseMjondolo

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65963

© abahlali.orgThe following is a press statement from Abahlali baseMjondolo released on Monday 12 July and detailing the postponement of the trial.

The political interference around this case continued in the lead up to the start of the trial today. The prisoners were not brought to court and the state witnesses were not summoned to appear in court making it impossible for the trial to begin.

Neither the Investigating Officer nor the prosecutor could explain why the prisoners were not brought to the court or why the state witnesses had not been summoned to appear in court.

The magistrate could not understand this and she insisted that everyone has the right to a fair and speedy trial and that these endless delays are not acceptable. She set down the trial for the 29th of November and said that the accused and the witnesses must be summoned to appear in court on that day and that the trial will definitely go ahead on that day. She also said that the five prisoners must be brought to court tomorrow and that they will be released on a bail of R1000 each. The political interference in this case will cost them one more night in Westville Prison but tomorrow they will be free.

This is the first time, since this matter started ten months ago, that a magistrate has acted fairly and in accordance with the law. We welcome this and the fact that the five members of the Kennedy 12 that have remained in prison for ten months without a trial, or any evidence being brought against them, will be released tomorrow.

Our advocated read out a letter to the court from the Investigating Officer which said that the state witnesses had said that they would only be prepared to give evidence if they were given houses. It is clear to us that the state is trying to delay this trial by undermining the court process because they have no evidence against the accused.

We note that only seven members of the ANC, led by the shacklord Zandile Mdletshe, attended the court proceedings today. Slowly but slowly the lies that the ANC have told are being revealed and the truth is remaining. People are no longer interested in being bussed into court by the ANC to attack our movement. They have become aware that they are being abused by the politicians.

There were 150 AbM members in the court and the media was there in full force.

Once again we extend our warm and deep thanks to all the hearts and minds that prayed and struggled with us in the lead up to today.

We are busy organising a welcome ceremony for the five that will be released tomorrow. Bishop Rubin Phillip will be part of the welcoming delegation. Full details will be available from our office later on this afternoon.

For comment or more information please contact.

Bandile Mdlalose, Abahlali baseMjondolo General Secretary: 074 730 8120
Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Abahlali baseMjondolo Spokesperson: 079 745 0653
S’bu Zikode, Abahlali baseMjondolo President: 083 547 0474
Mzwake Mdlalose, Kennedy Road Development Committee Chairperson: 072 132 8458

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Ethiopia: The hummingbird and the forest fire

Alemayehu G. Mariam

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65958

cc A HIf a single hummingbird tries hard enough it has the power to put out a forest fire. As Alemayehu G. Mariam writes, Ethiopian citizens and opposition politicians – the hummingbirds – have become too complacent and uncoordinated to mobilise and end the current dictatorship in Ethiopia. Despite claims that only violence can end the authoritarian rule, Mariam points to the examples of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela as cases where citizens have united for a cause to peacefully end suppression. He also points to periods of history where ‘hummingbirds’ have prevailed, only to take the same road as the ‘forest fire’ predecessors they’ve succeeded. Mariam calls for the need for a united Ethiopian political opposition and citizenry to bring an end to the current dictatorship.

In March 2007, I wrote an allegorical commentary during our grassroots advocacy efforts to pass H.R. 5680 (later H.R. 2003, the 'Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007) entitled 'The hummingbird and the forest fire'.[1] It was a tale which took creative licence on a story once told by Dr Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist and 2004 Nobel Prize laureate for peace. In Maathai's story,

'One day a terrible fire broke out in a forest – a huge woodlands was suddenly engulfed by a raging wild fire. Frightened, all the animals fled their homes and ran out of the forest. As they came to the edge of a stream they stopped to watch the fire and they were feeling very discouraged and powerless. They were all bemoaning the destruction of their homes. Every one of them thought there was nothing they could do about the fire, except for one little hummingbird. This particular hummingbird decided it would do something. It swooped into the stream and picked up a few drops of water and went into the forest and put them on the fire. Then it went back to the stream and did it again, and it kept going back, again and again and again. All the other animals watched in disbelief; some tried to discourage the hummingbird with comments like, "Don't bother, it is too much, you are too little, your wings will burn, your beak is too tiny, it's only a drop, you can't put out this fire."'

In my version of the story, the hummingbird never stopped humming. Indeed, my hummingbird is miraculously multiplied into battalions of young forest firefighters putting out the flames of oppression and dousing out the smouldering ambers of ethnic hatred and division in Ethiopia, while planting the seeds of freedom and democracy. My young hummingbird firefighters take on a single mission: to help build a new democratic society guided by a national vision which embraces the indivisible unity of the Ethiopian people; the territorial integrity of the Ethiopian nation and governance based on democratic principles; and the rule of law and protection of human rights. My hummingbirds totally and completely reject the bankrupt and deceitful ideas of those who claim that Ethiopia is no more than a mishmash of competing and antagonistic ethnic, tribal, linguistic, religious and regional groups who must be kept corralled in their own Bantustan-style homelands or ‘kilils'.

CAN HUMMINGBIRDS REALLY STOP THE FOREST FIRE?

It is often heard in some Ethiopian circles that the efforts of a few individuals or groups will not amount to much in bringing about political change. They say the dictatorship is too rich, too powerful and too entrenched to oppose. Some have given up hope, having surveyed the systematic looting of the country over the past two decades. Others argue for the violent overthrow of the dictators in the belief that those who seized power through the barrel of the gun can be removed only through the barrel of the gun. In other words, fight a forest fire with fire. It is an age-old idea with a predicable outcome: Everybody gets burned in the ensuing conflagration. But suum cuique (to each his own).

History shows that hummingbirds not only can stop fires, they can also start them. The chief architects of the current dictatorship in Ethiopia were originally formed as a small group of ‘ethno-nationalist’ students who were inflamed by what they believed to be injustice and oppression. They were young hummingbirds long before they became old buzzards. As Dr Aregawi Berhe wrote in his recent book: ‘On 14 September 1974, seven university students … met in an inconspicuous cafe located in Piazza in the center of Addis Ababa… The aim of the meeting was to (a) wrap up their findings about the nature and disposition of the Dergue's regime with regard to the self-determination of Tigrai and the future of democracy in Ethiopia, (b) discuss what form of struggle to pursue and how to tackle the main challenges that would emerge, (c) outline how to work and coordinate activities with the Ethiopian left, which had until then operated according to much broader revolutionary ideals.’[2] They set out to ‘dispose’ of the Derg – the military junta that ruled Ethiopia after the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie – and replaced it with a one-man, one-party dictatorship. In other words, Tweedledee replaced Tweedledum!

World history shows that individuals and small groups – the hummingbirds – do make a difference in bringing about change in their societies. The few dozen leaders of the American Revolution and the founders of the government of the United States were driven to independence by a ‘long train of abuses and usurpations’ leading to ‘absolute despotism’, as so eloquently and timelessly expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Their vision was founded not only on the need for independence from the yoke of British colonial rule but also the necessity of perfecting the unity of the American people after independence. They formed a constitution for one nation to be governed under one constitution of the United States of America (which had some significant imperfections), which has endured for 223 years. The Bolsheviks won the Russian Revolution arguably defending the rights of the working class and peasants against the harsh oppression of Czarist dictatorship. They managed to establish a totalitarian system which thankfully swept itself into the dustbin of history two decades ago.

Gandhi and a small group of followers in India led nationwide campaigns to alleviate poverty, make India economically self-reliant, broaden the rights of urban labourers, peasant and women, end the odious custom of untouchability and bring about tolerance and understanding among religious and ethnic groups. He launched the Quit India civil disobedience movement in 1942, culminating in Indian independence in 1947. Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo led the ANC's (African National Congress) Defiance Campaign and crafted the Freedom Charter, which provided the ideological basis for the long struggle against apartheid and served as the foundation for the current South African constitution. In the United States, Martin Luther King and some 60 church leaders formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, becoming the driving force of the American civil rights movement.

Social change depends a great deal on the circumstances of social forces in a given society. Political change in Ethiopia today seems improbable, not because of the invincibility of the dictatorship but because of the lack of unity and commonality of purpose among the opposition. This calls for the establishment of a new political culture of cooperation, collaboration and coalition-building among anti-dictatorship elements, who now seem to have retreated into passive spectatorship of the dictatorship. The political history of contemporary Ethiopia could best be summarised in the words of V.I. Lenin: ‘One man with a gun can control 100 without one.’ There is no doubt that the handful of core leaders of the dictatorship will cling to power at any cost. Though Lenin may be partly right, his empirical observation is countered by the irrefutable logic of the old Ethiopian saying: ‘The gathered strands of the spiders' web could tie up a lion’ ('Dir biaber anbessa biasir'). If 100 unarmed hummingbirds could come together as one with a commonality of purpose and determination, they could overcome one vulture, no matter the width of his wingspan or the sharpness of his claws. In the absence of such a ratio of hummingbirds to vultures and the widespread disillusionment with the dictatorship and disarray in the opposition, the self-empowerment of individuals and action by small committed groups of individuals is one of the most viable means of effecting change and bringing about democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Ethiopia. Simply stated, to bring about change, citizens as individuals must be active by being active citizens.

HUMMINGBIRDS MUST KEEP ON HUMMING

The morality tale of the hummingbird is instructive to all Ethiopians. Despite the ferocity of the forest fire, the hummingbird did not stop carrying its droplets of water. Dictatorships are analogous to a forest fire. They consume everything in their societies. Like the raging forest fire, they also seem unstoppable. But as Gandhi taught, the fires of dictatorship are always stopped by the waterfall of truth and love: ‘When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.’ The reasons are simple.[3] In the end tyrants always fail because though they have guns and tanks, they lack ideas and vision. They lose because they live in a world of darkness and ignorance. They are incapable of transforming themselves or their societies because they are trapped in their own cycle of repression that feeds off their ignorance and wickedness. And like Dracula, the legendary bloodsucker, they can only live on the blood – and sweat and tears – of their victims. They cannot survive otherwise. Dictatorships use brutality because they cannot convince their people with the strength of their political or philosophical arguments, the persuasiveness of their logic or the abundance of their good will. They fail because they cannot withstand the force of truth and always slip and fall on the pile of lies and deceit that is their foundation.

Though dictators are destined to the dustbin of history, they will delay their inevitable rendezvous by proclaiming to be anointed by the masses. They put themselves out as the saviours of the very masses they oppress ruthlessly. They claim to have special qualities that give them the right to rule the masses forever and exhort the ‘herd’ to follow them blindly and unquestioningly. In concluding his May 2010 ‘election’ victory speech (also known as a public demonstration against Human Rights Watch for its critical report), the dictator Meles Zenawi expressed gratitude effusively to the Ethiopian people for reappointing him and his party to complete a quarter-century on the throne. ‘Once again we, over five million EPRDF [Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front] members, on behalf of our martyrs and ourselves solemnly express our gratitude to day, standing before you, the Ethiopian people, who have the sovereign right and power to appoint or dismiss your leaders. We salute you!’ An old Ethiopian saying teaches us to beware of a ‘wolf priest praying in the midst of a flock of sheep’. No doubt the wolf will ‘salute’ and ‘express gratitude’ to every sheep he devours. But do the sheep return the salutation and gratitude?

All of us committed to democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Ethiopia have choices to make and actions to take as individuals. That choice is between good and evil, that is between joining the host of hummingbirds that carry droplets of water to put out the fires set by a ruthless dictatorship, or siding with the wake of vultures that use their enormous wings to fan the flames of ethnic hatred and division to perpetuate themselves in power. Those who play with the fires of ethnic politics to cling to power should beware the backdraft.

FREE BIRTUKAN MIDEKSSA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN ETHIOPIA

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* Alemayehu G. Mariam is a defence attorney and a professor of political science at California State University-San Bernardino.
* This article was originally published by The Huffington Post.
* Author's note: This is my sixth and final commentary on the theme 'Where do we go from here?' following the rigged May 2010 elections in Ethiopia in which the ruling dictatorship won by 99.6 per cent [1]. In this piece, I emphasise the importance of individual commitment and the effort to help establish democracy, protect human rights and institutionalise the rule of law in Ethiopia. I argue that there is today a struggle between a host of hummingbirds trying to save Ethiopia's soul and a voracious wake of vultures that have devoured her body. I predict ultimate victory for the hummingbirds following Gandhi's timeless exhortation that 'There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.'
* Follow Alemayehu G. Mariam on Twitter.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] http://bit.ly/aJBaTb
[2] Aregaw Berhe, A Political History of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (1975-1991) (Los Angeles: Tsehai Publishers, 2009), p. 38.
[3] See footnote 1.

Public money, lost livelihoods and evictions

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65957

© abahlali.orgAshraf Cassiem of the Cape Town-based Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign discusses the impact of the World Cup on South Africa in an audio interview [mp3] with Zahra Moloo. In his view, the country, and especially the poor, stand to lose as a result of hosting the World Cup. He highlights the vast amount of public resources spent on the tournament, the loss of livelihoods by traders and the eviction of the poor from public land adjoining stadium sites as prime examples of this. Cassiem also talks about the Poor People’s World Cup organised by communities, with teams representing, in solidarity, ‘countries in struggles’, such as Palestine, Zimbabwe and Somalia.

* Zahra Moloo is an independent journalist from Kenya, currently based in London, UK.
* This is an independently produced audio piece, which previously featured on the Amandla! radio show at CKUT 90.3FM radio station in Montreal, Canada.

South Africa's World Cup: Misplaced hopes

Phineas Malapela interviewed by Zahra Moloo

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65956

cc Shine 2010In an audio interview [mp3] with Zahra Moloo, Phineas Malapela, unionist and campaigns coordinator for the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) of South Africa, decries the misplaced hopes that hosting the World Cup would bring economic growth and create jobs in South Africa. Instead, widespread corruption and nepotism in tendering processes have resulted in benefits accruing to a few individuals and, of course, FIFA. In the wake of the tournament, the APF is calling for the legacy infrastructure built with public funds to remain in the hands of government and for the benefit of the people of South Africa.

* Zahra Moloo is an independent journalist from Kenya, currently based in London, UK.
* This is an independently produced audio piece, which previously featured on the Amandla! radio show at CKUT 90.3FM radio station in Montreal, Canada.

Gado's cartoons: Zuma's Olympics, Kagame and the media, World Cup ends

Gado

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65978

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2010 United States Social Forum: A summary

Lucy Bamforth

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65961

cc KarpovWith the United States Social Forum (USSF) concluding last month, Lucy Bamforth explores the range of discussions around the contemporary challenges facing the US's African-American community.

The United States Social Forum (USSF) held on 22–26 June 2010 was, by all accounts, a great success with thousands attending. In particular this year’s event attracted many grassroots organisations. In addition, a special initiative to prepare people for the forthcoming World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal, in February 2011 – the Detroit to Dakar initiative – proved to be a great success. Among the many topics this group addresses is that of the discrimination and poverty that affects African-American communities across the US.

Discussions about the current battle for civil rights in America can be seen in seven parts on YouTube. The camera work isn’t fantastic, but the discussions raise some good points about the need for African-Americans to come together to instigate change in their communities and states.

Not every discussion is created equally however. There are exceptional discussions about women’s rights and the work of African-American youths in New Orleans, though part of a discussion led by Black Workers for Justice Chairperson Saladin Muhammad about African-Americans and the economy sounds more like a call to revolutionary uprising than an honest investigation of how African-Americans have been hurt by the economic downturn.

Muhammad raises important points about diversity in the workplace and the need for a labour union that represents the interests of African-American employees, whose experience and history in the workplace deserve the attention of employers. His calls for reparations for African-American victims of Hurricane Katrina are at least worth considering: While it is obvious that Hurricane Katrina hurt every resident of New Orleans regardless of race, the storm exposed the quieted reality that the city had the highest rate of poverty among African-Americans anywhere in the States, rendering them the most vulnerable in the throes of the storm and during the long days after while they waited for aid. In an effort to clean up the wreckage following Katrina, the United States government bulldozed the homes that were beyond repair – many of them in an area of the city home to many low-income African Americans – and moved the inhabitants to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) trailers, some of which were tainted with formaldehyde. That these families deserve reparations from the government is a fair and valid point.

Muhammad’s discussion about the impact of the recession on African-American communities is worth further consideration. The capitalist system works because it exploits the working class, Muhammad reasons, made up in large part by African-Americans. Muhammad suggests that these workers must unite together and cease production of all goods in order to impact the economic system. Such an action could have a serious impact on the economic system and very likely in a harmful way, but the focus should be on improving access to higher education and social programmes to assist low-income African-Americans. It isn’t acceptable that in one of the world’s richest countries 91 per cent of African-Americans will be touched by poverty, but at the same time striving for higher wages is only covering up the larger problem that African-Americans aren’t being given enough opportunities to pursue higher education. A mass national strike is idealistic, but with unemployment rates in the United States touching close to 10 per cent, there is no incentive for employers to improve pay and conditions when they can have their pick of unemployed labourers willing to accept a job.

Efia Nwangaza’s talk about women’s rights, political prisoners and the incarceration of African-American women is certainly worth a listen and her words will likely stay with you long after you’ve closed the browser and walked away from your computer.

Nwangaza begins her discussion by talking about violence against women, socially, economically and politically, both inside the United States and around the world. Violence against women keeps women in a cycle of poverty and has serious implications for her children and her children’s children for decades. While there are conditions that keep women in these positions, Nwangaza argues that African-American communities in the States have dropped the ball in creating programmes and support systems where young African-American women can thrive. Nwangaza doesn’t blame the government or the political system for failing to provide African-American women with opportunities to make a difference, but instead calls upon the community to create opportunities for this community of women.

Nwangaza further goes on to discuss the increased incarceration of African-American women in the American prison system. This group of individuals is currently part of the fastest growing population of prisoners in the system, yet has the least amount of support from their families. When men are imprisoned, argues Nwangaza, their families and friends come out of the woodwork to offer support for their well-being and that of his families throughout his incarceration. Women lack these social supports – their children disappear into the arms of relatives or the foster system and they are left to look after their own health in systems built to look after the well-being of male prisoners. This has to change, says Nwangaza, as women play a vital role in instigating social and political change, and yet stand a chance of facing time in prison for doing so.

The segment about African-American youth is worth watching, not necessarily for thought-provoking discussion but to see the comparison of issues that African-American youth are fighting to change compared to what the current leaders of the movement are fighting for. The segment is more of an update on the actions of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) by one of the group’s members than a discussion about the issues that African-American youth face in Obama’s America. Chief among those issues is that of the return of African-American residents to New Orleans, an issue tied into Saladin Muhammad’s calls for reparations for the way the government has handled post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.

There is also a call for land reclamation, an issue that could perhaps get entangled in an argument for better access to higher education and the economy. ‘Land reclamation’ here refers to physically taking back public housing structures that have been repossessed by banks and are being resold to private buyers. These structures once belonged to African-Americans, argues the speaker – whose name is never mentioned and who doesn’t appear to be on USSF’s event programme for the annual meeting – and are now being sold to private buyers instead of being given back to the people from whom they were taken. This programme is called Take Back the Land and has had successful campaigns waged against Miami and currently has a campaign running in Washington DC, though how long that will continue for is debatable: the local police force doesn’t appear to be pleased by MXGM’s presence on the disputed plot of land.

If anything, these USSF discussions demonstrate the need to carry on the fight for equality. Segregation may be a long-forgotten practice and the country may have an African-American president, but there will always be a need for change.

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* Lucy Bamforth is a recent journalism and history graduate from Carleton University.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

South Africa: Condemn xenophobia unreservedly

Malusi Gigaba

2010-07-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/65943

cc J TResponding to growing rumours of the threat of a xenophobic reprisal accompanying the end of the World Cup, South Africa's Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba seeks to condemn discrimination and animosity towards foreign nationals.

When the dust settles after the 2010 FIFA World Cup, we hear rumours that another more negative and suffocating dust will rise and hit the South African skies in the form of xenophobic violence. When South Africans are done with deploying their positive energies towards ensuring an extremely successful soccer World Cup, the very first in Africa and the most successful ever, they will, rumours abound, be consumed by the fury of the devil and deploy their negative energies towards chasing fellow Africans out of South Africa. As to why this shall happen, and particularly after the World Cup, nobody seems to have an explanation.

Everybody seems to have accepted this line of thinking without asking questions as to the source of these rumours, how they are spread, the modus operandi of those spreading them and the coincidence between the end of the World Cup and the supposed outbreak of this heinous crime. For this is precisely what xenophobia is, a heinous crime we must all, in the name of humanity, condemn unreservedly.

Why are we going to do this? Why are we going to commit this crime against humanity? Why are we supposed to commit it after the World Cup because, logically, we should have done so before or during the tournament.

The hosting of this very first African World Cup has coincided with endless allegations of its imminent failure. If South Africa was not going to fall short on the budget to meet its infrastructure commitments, it was going to fail to meet targets and deadlines. If we were not going to have a crime-infested World Cup, there was going to be a terrorist attack or a calamity of some other sort. One way or the other, the World Cup was going to fail.

Now, what do we have? We are going to rise against fellow Africans who live in our country, chase them out of South Africa, hack those that we will catch up with, burn their houses and shops and commit all sorts of other crimes.

The purpose of these rumours is to snatch away from our hands the victory of successfully hosting the best ever World Cup tournament. It is meant to deny us the right to claim this glory that belongs to us as a people. It is meant to drown the World Cup success in the blood of lies and rumours, if not of criminal violence itself. It is meant to ensure that the successful hosting of the World Cup lies motionless, lifeless and soulless in the coffin designed by vicious rumour-mongers and peddlers of lies.

It is further meant to deny our people their humanity, so that the all-round acclaim they have received from the soccer lovers – citizens of the world who came to our shores to watch the beautiful game – is besmirched with the criminal inhumanity we are alleged to be intending to commit against fellow Africans. We have been praised for being a humane and hospitable people. This we are now to be denied by rumours aimed at tainting us as savage and ferocious animals.

Already we are told that some foreign nationals, informed by such rumours, have packed their belongings and are leaving our country in droves, headed for their countries and many vowing never again to return to this country. This is besides the fact that most of the people leaving the country are seasonal workers who are returning home until there are employment opportunities again.

Suddenly, the pride we felt in being African as we hosted the World Cup soccer tournament dissipates as we face the looming imminence of a savage attack on fellow Africans. The pride we felt when our nation – black and white – united behind both the hosting of the World Cup tournament and Bafana Bafana and the pride we felt when the entire continent stood firm behind Ghana and the collective anguish we felt when the African Black Stars were denied a chance to progress to the semi-finals by the 'hand of the devil' is all about to be undermined by a senseless slaughter of the innocents.

The danger is that such a rumour may eventually turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Otherwise, the peddlers of these rumours and lies who are hell-bent on denting our humanity as a people hope that these rumours and lies, repeated again and again, will eventually become true.

Assuming that this was true, one thing is certain: The government is not going to stand idle and watch innocent lives and people's hard-earned property being destroyed by senseless savagery. Regardless of the basis of these rumours, the cabinet decided long before the World Cup to establish an Inter-Ministerial Committee to combat the outbreak of xenophobic violence after the World Cup. This, our government, is both willing and capable to defend and protect life.

Our constitution enjoins the government to protect life and human rights, be it of South African citizens or foreign nationals in South Africa and be they in South Africa as regular or irregular/undocumented migrants. Nowhere does the constitution discriminate in this regard and elevate the lives and human rights of others above the rest, or say that if you are a migrant then your life is less important and you are less human than South Africans. In regard to human rights, the constitution does not discriminate in any way against human beings, regardless of their social station. In terms of human rights, the constitution regards all of us as human, rather than as this tribe, gender group, religious group, nationality or so on. It treats all of us as equals, and we should endeavour to respect, observe and comply with all its injunctions without fail.

The issue of xenophobia has been regularly discussed in South Africa in recent times because of its regular frequency in our public life. Xenophobia, like racism and tribalism, is an irrational attitude towards another based on such irrational attitudes as jealousy, greed and even artificial and exaggerated differences. It is even fuelled by such illogical arguments as 'foreign nationals steal our girlfriends'.

Immigrants take enormous risks to travel to new destinations and to turn unfamiliar environments into a home, whether temporary or permanent. In these new countries, they always face a series of challenges, which include having to either side-step or overcome irrational prejudices among locals about them, insecurities of the locals about the challenge immigrants bring and the lack of knowledge of their rights and anxieties about claiming those rights.

This is more so for poor and working-class immigrants, without the requisite resources to afford life in affluent suburbs. They inhabit the same living habitat as the poor and working peoples of the host country, where fierce struggles over scarce resources take place daily. That is why all xenophobic outbreaks have been in these communities and not in the suburbs, and this is why they have tended to affect African immigrants in particular. That is also why the worst victims of xenophobic violence are mostly women and children, the most vulnerable amongst the immigrant communities.

In this way, the race, class and gender dynamics so prevalent in South African society play themselves out once more in relation to immigrants. Until we are able to resolve these in South Africa, we will not be able to resolve them among immigrants in South Africa. Yet South Africa is proving a favourite destination country for immigrants of all sorts, particularly asylum seekers and refugees, and this trend is not about to change in the near or even medium-term future.

Harnessed properly, migration – both domestic and international – will yield immense positive results for economic development, national security, social and cultural development, as well as the enhancement of the humanity of South Africans.

So much could be learned by South Africans from fellow African immigrants if only we opened our eyes and hearts to receive them and learn from their entrepreneurship. Rather than complain about immigrant entrepreneurs, South Africans could learn from them about how they thrive under the most adverse conditions. Rather than suppress them, we could learn from them how to enhance cooperatives and SMMEs (small, micro and medium-sized enterprise) in our own country.

Sure, it is true that there are policy gaps that feed into xenophobia. However, these policy gaps do not only relate to international migration policy, but to the entire gamut of policy, be it domestic or international, that must begin to accommodate the realities of international migration dynamics and their impact on South Africa.

Secondly, these policy gaps will not in themselves diminish xenophobia so long as we still find it acceptable to allow petty and artificial differences among ourselves, such as race, tribe, nationality or gender, to define our beings and relations with one another, and that such differences may at times make it permissible for us to engage in physical violence for mutual extermination in the fight over what we regard as scarce resources.

First, race, tribal, national and gender differences are petty differences and secondly, they are not enough to justify violence against one another. We should thus not allow whatever policy gaps may exist in our public policy or any reason such as poverty and service-delivery deficiencies to justify the use of violence against any individual, group of individuals or even institution, public or private.

Xenophobia is criminal inhumanity and must be treated as such. It cannot be justified under any circumstances and no rationale whatsoever can and must ever be used to explain or justify it. We cannot use violence to settle our grievances, no matter how genuine these are. The danger with xenophobia is that it can immediately descend into ethnic violence.

We must bear in mind that almost half of the people that lost their lives during the 2008 criminal xenophobic violence were South Africans killed because of their ethnicity. One can shudder to fathom the consequences of retaliatory violence by their relatives or those of the same ethnic groups against those alleged to have been involved in the attacks. Anarchy would be let loose on our nation.

Because of its danger, that it can turn into a furious conflagration so powerful that can consume all of us, political and community leaders should desist from using xenophobia as a political football. We should all collaborate to calm the situation rather than add fuel to an imminent fire.

Secondly, there are many extensive interventions in terms of public policy in various government departments that are already being developed. For example, the Department of Home Affairs is preparing amendments to immigration policy and legislation with the purpose, among others, of addressing the challenges of economic migration.

There is no doubt that the National Planning Commission will have to begin to encapsulate both domestic and international migration in the country's development plans. This way, the country would demonstrate that it is taking full cognisance of the impact of migration on our development plans, and to make forward planning in this regard. Otherwise, migration will always strike the country like an enigma and the country will continue to fail to manage and harness it for development. What is needed is a proactive migration policy and programme.

Some people have raised the argument that the reason for xenophobia is the crime committed by some foreign nationals. However, the advocates of this argument never explain why does crime committed, for instance, by a Zulu or MoSotho never result in the generalisation that all Zulus or BaSotho are criminals and hence violence must be unleashed against all of them in order to exterminate them and, with them, crime? Would killing all Zulus or BaSotho result in the automatic diminishing of crime? Does it matter that crime has been committed by a person of this or that ethnic, gender, religious or racial group? Shouldn't we treat crime as crime, regardless of who committed it, and rather be firm in the apprehension and prosecution of those charged with crime?

South Africa's justice system is based on the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty' and not on collective punishment. That is why if a person has committed a crime, firstly there is a fair hearing and secondly they are not prosecuted and sentenced together with their families and community members, or members of their ethnic groups.

Furthermore, this argument that foreign nationals commit crime neglects the fact that most crime in South Africa is committed by South Africans, and yet nobody is arguing that all South Africans must be killed and chased out. There are South Africans who commit crimes abroad – in Brazil, Peru, Botswana and others. Yet nobody has suggested in those countries that all South Africans should accordingly be killed or chased out of those countries, or barred from travelling abroad. It is merely a coterie of criminal South Africans who have breached national laws and tainted all South Africans.

After all, crime is not made better by the mere fact that it was committed by a South African and worsened by that it was committed by a foreign national. No woman would find it better that she was raped by a South African and find it worse that she was raped by a foreign national. Herein lies the irrationality of this argument that emphasises the nationality or race of a person in the commission of a crime, rather than the fact that crime is unacceptable and must be combated regardless of who committed it.

In an article that appeared in the ANC TODAY last Friday, Comrade Ngoako Ramatlhodi says:

'Those who taught us always counselled that the national question must at all times remain a permanent agenda item of the revolution. This is so, because a proper understanding of relations between groupings, tribes and nationalities will enable a revolutionary movement to make informed choices in changing and at times adjusting such relationships in order to build a united society. In this context, the most important first step is to acknowledge the existence of the different groupings as postulated, and to accept the fact that they relate to one another through a complex set of unequal relationships. It is this unequal set of relationships that must preoccupy the national question so that we can study and monitor the changes manifesting on a continuous basis. Some changes are subtle and difficult to detect whereas others are spectacular and announce their presence in dramatic fashion.'

In this quote, Ramatlhodi hits the nail on the head, and this would apply equally to the new dynamics spawned by international migration on the national question. The notion of the South African nation as we knew it in the past keeps on changing because new dynamics keep on adding to our nation. Our nation is growing, not merely because of reasons of birth, but also because of reasons of immigration.

Today, we have South Africans drawn from other parts of the African continent, who during apartheid would never have been allowed to take South African citizenship.

Countries that have reaped the most benefits of migration are those that have managed it, and managed it successfully in the national interest and in the interest of social, cultural and economic development, including security.

At the same time, the government is prepared to do all it can and has to in order to protect life, human rights and property – indeed, to protect our constitution.

Various civil society forums have sprung up against xenophobia, and these need to be supported. ANC (African National Congress) branches must be active in these forums and provide leadership in them, without usurping the voluntary nature of these forums. Where there are genuine concerns about the behaviour, conduct and activities of some immigrants, ANC branches which have direct access to all ANC leadership at all levels must channel those concerns accordingly in order to stop negative sentiments developing.

At the same time, the government's Inter-Ministerial Committee Against Xenophobia will only become effective if it can harness the participation of various government departments, both across the national government as well as between the three tiers of government. This should ensure that there is coordinated action on the government's part.

Among other things, this should address the challenge of ensuring that employers desist from employing immigrant workers – be they refugees, seasonal workers (economic migrants) or undocumented migrants – outside the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and thus in contravention of the act in order to maximise profit. Trade unions must intervene in this regard and consider unionising immigrant workers so that they could be protected, and in order to protect South African workers and jobs.

The other challenge must be ensuring the regulation of immigrant business owners so that they charge normal prices and pay tax. This should address the current challenge of businesses owned by foreign nationals springing up everywhere, unregulated, charging abnormally low prices and not paying tax, which displaces local traders.

The media has again come into sharp focus in this regard. It is mysterious how they could peddle rumours with such intensity and fury as though they knew for sure these were true. It could be that because the World Cup is ending on Sunday, new stories and focus are now needed to sell the papers, but how appropriate or responsible is it to do this?

All South Africans are obligated to ensure that we combat xenophobia. A people steeped in the fight against racial discrimination as we are should know better that xenophobia is both irrational and, like apartheid, a crime against humanity. We should thus be very intolerant towards it and, in the name of humanity, condemn and combat it unreservedly.

Those who argue that immigrants should live in camps, like South African exiles lived in camps in exile, are totally missing the point. First, there is a clear distinction between immigrants and refugees. Of course, whilst all refugees are immigrants, not all immigrants are refugees. South Africans had not gone to exile as emigrants, but as freedom fighters there to train for military combat. Such military training could not take place in the townships, villages and towns of the countries that hosted our exiles, but in camps which were suitable for such training.

Even the soldiers of those countries, as well as our own country, do not receive their military training in the towns, townships, informal settlements and villages. They receive such training in the bushes and forests of those countries, just as our own soldiers also do.

On the other hand, the refugees in South Africa are not here to receive military training. They are ordinary civilians seeking protection. Confining them to camps in the bushes would be inhumane. The challenge with refugees is not about them, but our incapacity to master the management of this system and process. This is gradually improving and soon things should improve.

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* Malusi Gigaba is an ANC NEC (African National Congress – National Executive Committee) member and South Africa's deputy minister of home affairs.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Ghana's jungle justice: Reconsidering football investment

Kofi Ali Abdul

2010-07-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/65942

cc D F CBehind the hysteria of Ghana's success at the recent World Cup lies a dubious use of taxpayer money and sense of national priorities, writes Kofi Ali Abdul.

If we fail to be sincere with one another in times of jokes, hopefully we should not be doing the same in a time of seriousness. I still maintain the fact that football is all about entertainment and in national concerns, football should not cloud our common sense of purpose, as is the case now.

To start with, there seems to be too much ado about Ghana and the recent tournament in South Africa for some of us to start asking ourselves some important questions:

- Is Ghana the first country in Africa to be the first ever African country to qualify in the World Cup?
- Was Ghana the only African team that has come so far in the World Cup tournament?
- If I may recall, African countries like Egypt, Morocco, Cameroon and Nigeria have been to the so-called World Cup and failed all along, so it is becoming obvious that frustrations are setting in. When will Ghana start realising that we are just another bunch of jjcs on a fruitless mission?
- How much did it cost the Ghanaian taxpayer for this publicity?
- Could there be any other motive behind the sitting government's effort in spending so much on the tournament for this?
- Now that the hype is starting again about another World Cup tournament in four years' time in Brazil, is this not another excuse to waste and loot the taxpayer's money for another fruitless adventure, and this time start the stealing and looting much earlier?
- In the absence of nothing, everything goes. Is this football fever not another way of preoccupying the oppressed Ghanaians in their daily pains of their heavy burden, just like the drug cocaine helps in falsely relieving the oppressed from an unbearable plight?
- Understanding that the sitting president is one of the religious zombies that live in the hallucinations of spiritual dreams, is this not a way of indulging Ghanaians in his false hopes?
- Could one not liken this to the way our sisters and brothers are electrified by the empty noises led by false prophets that go on with religious delusions?

On another note, the fact that some of us are football fanatics is not enough for lies to be a way of promoting such selfish diseases. Is it not disturbing for us to be told by the NDC (National Democratic Congress) spokespeople within the CPP (Convention People's Party) that Ghana's government made US$50 million as income from Fifa (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) when in reality another version has it that the amount is actually US$15 million? Is it not bad that people of integrity among us will go to the extent of telling us that the income to Ghana is in US$ billions and that there is a line-up of investors in sports manufacturing industries, when this is not the case?

Now in the same Ghana where people in their thousands sleep on the street of the Ghana government, the same government is now running up and down to build a mansion for just one family with the taxpayer's money. Where are those defending and justifying the football lagies of a few people in the name of football as against the lives of some others deep down beneath the earth in Ghana?

It is very important for us all not to make the mistake of misunderstanding the ideals that Kwame Nkrumah died fighting for. Kwame Nkrumah lived for a justice that touches the life of every Ghanaian. The Convention People's Party stands for nothing other than the fight for justice for every Ghanaian. Now that it is appearing that some of us are fighting for the justice of some at the cost of justice for all – in their defence of supporting the privileges of the strong against the right of the weak – our job in mentally reviewing our mission and perceptions is now a challenge. If the CPP must be for every Ghanaian, then everyone must not only be crying at the loss of one of us but also argue against the injustices that breed these things. It was very unfortunate that some of us were carried away at the hour by the euphoria of the football and too deep to the extent of not taking advantage of being there for the needy at the most crucial time. This was indeed an opportunity for us to show Ghanaians that we're the genuine ones for the people, but we lost it. The lessons must be learnt!

If a Ghanaian footballer is allowed the privilege and honour of playing for the Black Stars, is that in itself not good enough? If we are investing the Ghanaian taxpayer's money from the beginning of the tournament to the end, should that not be considered as an investment by every Ghanaian? If each player is now going home with US$100,000 as purported by some, is it not as well for every Ghanaian to be able to tangibly know how much they also earned as the game was actually played in our common name of Ghana?

This phenomenon is exposing certain realities in our lives in Ghana. If a footballer played for Ghana and all the income made from the game is just enough to pay the players, then what kind of business is this? Is this not the same thing that goes with our taxation in which what's collected by government is only enough to meet with the needs of government officials and members of parliament? Is this not the reason why government is quick to tell the citizens that there is no money for anything other than just meeting the selfish needs of upper-class public officials? This stinks! When shall it end?!

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* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

World Cup's aftermath: Creating a progressive legacy

Horace Campbell

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/65968

From the month of June to 11 July 2010, billions of people were treated to the cultural feast of young people participating in the 19th tournament of the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA). This was the world championship for soccer held every four years. In one of the most watched cultural spectacles (with over 700 million watching the final game), the young athletes from Spain emerged as the victors and carried home the World Cup. We congratulate the Spanish team and the Spanish working people who produced this team that defeated the Dutch team 1–0.

Of the 32 states that qualified to compete in this tournament, there were six African states. These six African states brought out the strengths and weaknesses of the preparations of Africans for competitions on the world stage. The major contribution of the World Cup in Africa was the strengthening of cultural pan-Africanism and the deepening of the bonds of solidarity and internationalism. Yet in the midst of this celebration of a cultural feast of people-to-people relations, we were reminded of the negative elements who hide behind religion for destruction. So at the same moment of watching the finals of the World Cup, more than 70 persons were killed in a bomb attack by a group that consider the playing of soccer sinful. The group that claimed responsibility for the bombings in Kampala has banned the playing and watching of the sport. It is this kind of extremism that we consider to be negative and we mourn the Ugandans and others who were killed in the attack on those watching the game in Kampala. These are the same forces who are against the cultural transformation of Africa and other oppressed parts of the world.

This bombing is a reminder that we must work for peace, and that peace must come with social justice.

FIFA AND TRANSNATIONAL CAPTALISM

The World Cup was a splendid example of the dialectics of the positive and the negative. On one side, there was the positive image of young athletes putting out their best in a sport loved by billions. Yet this sport at the international level is controlled by capitalists and a governing body that operates like a bulldozing transnational corporation. When the International Federation of Football Associations was founded in Europe, the game was the sport for the European working classes, with the Latin Americans added in later on. The history of expansion of the tournament beyond Europe and Latin America parallels the history of decolonisation and political independence in Africa and Asia. Because of the demands for inclusion from teams in Africa and Asia, the tournament was expanded to 24 teams in 1982, and then to 32 in 1998. Although this expansion allowed more teams from Africa, Asia and North America to take part, the European region enjoys greater numbers in the tournament.

That the tournament was hosted in Africa for the first time emanated from demands by Africans that the maturity of soccer in Africa deserved international recognition. Many reports from South Africa indicated that the FIFA management treated the South African state in the same way that other capitalist corporations treat governments. Capitalism has gone so berserk in the dying days of neoliberalism that even the mighty government of the United States is reaping the bitter harvest of the destructive capabilities of companies such as British Petroleum (BP), a company that has operated without regulatory supervision for decades. The South African state expended billions for the World Cup and the world will know very soon if the fine statements about support for the development of soccer in Africa will be real. The demand for the investment of resources for local and regional competition, especially for women’s soccer, must continue by those who want to end all forms of discrimination in sports.

While South Africa is basking and celebrating the hosting of a successful tournament, it is important to remind the world that FIFA morphed from a bureaucratic governing body for European football associations into a giant capitalist corporation. This corporation that presents itself as a non-profit foundation organises the sport to support individual capitalists who are involved in every aspect of soccer, from marketing and branding to hosting rights, broadcasting rights and other aspects which turn this sport into a commodity – earning billions for capitalists. Even before the first game was played FIFA said it had made a US$196 million surplus in 2009, as revenues soared to US$1.06 billion. The language of revenues and contracts overshadowed questions of skill, rules and goal line technologies that can assist in the further improvement of the game. Africans were made aware of the importance of goal line technologies when the Uruguayan player Luis Suárez used his hand to block a goal that would have taken Ghana to the semi-finals.

The profits from FIFA are supposed to be distributed to member associations and to developmental projects for the strengthening of the game, so Africans are watching to see how much of the profits from the 2010 World Cup will be reinvested in the sport around the continent. It will require vigilance and constant organising to ensure that the FIFA 'Win in Africa with Africa' initiative for social development and the various ‘Football for Hope’ programmes and centres are not just arenas of the kind of individuals that came to dominate the local organising committee of the World Cup in South Africa.

Thus far, soccer reproduces the hierarchy and the rankings of international and local capitalists. In Europe, the management of soccer is now big business and the marketing of English soccer clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal has been so successful that Africans expend hours deciding which European club they support. The Spanish capitalists have turned clubs such as Barcelona and Real Madrid into major enterprises to the point where these soccer clubs are at the top of the business of marketing and advertising in Spain. In the midst of this capitalist-intensive and profit-driven sport, Africans have been searching for levers for their own self-expression. South Africa tapped into the anti-apartheid pan-African network in order to gain the rights to host the 2010 World Cup. FIFA had decided that the tournament should rotate between continents and when it was the turn of Africa over five African countries were originally in the bid, namely Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Libya and Tunisia. It was the anti-apartheid history and legacies of South Africa that brought the tournament to South Africa. Nelson Mandela was brought out by the political and economic leadership of South Africa to lobby for the World Cup to be staged in the country. When the South Africans organised the African Union behind its bid, an alliance between the African Union and the Caribbean showed a formidable power bloc in cultural politics on the world stage. Mandela travelled to Trinidad, as well as many parts of the world in this international diplomacy of sports.

The state and the capitalists pulled out all of the resources of the society to host this tournament. The working people must now organise to ensure that this state is accountable and that the society provides the same safety and security for workers that was provided for international visitors.

That Nelson Mandela appeared at the closing ceremony was one indication of how the anti-apartheid heritages of South Africa are mobilised to serve the interest of capitalist giants epitomised by FIFA. Mandela had been an active sportsperson who had been associated with the massive campaigns to oppose apartheid in sports. Now that the tournament is over, the challenge is to place equal emphasis on the social and economic scourges of apartheid.

SOUTH AFRICA AND AFRICANS AFTER THE WORLD CUP

After the successful hosting of the World Cup, the peoples of South Africa will have to turn this cultural celebration into a vehicle to strengthen popular forces – the working people and the oppressed. Inside South Africa, the leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) – the ruling party – have abdicated their commitment to real transformation. However, the whole process of mobilising the society for the preparation and hosting of this spectacle created another platform and spaces for people to organise and to make their statement about the priorities of the country. The challenge for the progressive forces is to grasp the positive elements, expose the negative aspects and mobilise anti-racist and anti-capitalist networks that can challenge capitalist oppression more forcefully.

This anti-racist component of the World Cup was one of the most striking aspects of the tournament. To see teams unfurling banners calling on humans to fight racism was a manifestation of the depth of anti-racist struggle in Africa and in all parts of the world. That FIFA in its anti-discrimination platform dedicated itself to fighting against racism was one more evidence that the global anti-racist struggles was gaining ground. However, using the stage of the World Cup to make symbolic statements against racism can only be meaningful when anti-racist sentiments are translated into actions that challenge white supremacy in all its manifestations – whether in education, health, transportation, housing, economic relations and in the cultural arenas of the world. Throughout western Europe, African soccer players are exposed to racist taunts as xenophobic politicians whip up racism to disorganise white workers.

The struggles against xenophobia are worldwide and progressive South Africans must now raise their voices and organise forcefully against any kind of xenophobic division in southern Africa.

BAFANA BAFANA AND BAGHANA BAGHANA

The spontaneous chants of 'BaGhana BaGhana' when Ghana's 'Black Stars' played against Uruguay brought to the forefront the depth of pan-African feelings inspiring a new internationalism. The Black Stars of Ghana acquitted themselves in this tournament. Although they were eliminated by Uruguay in the quarter-finals, they were not disgraced. The shout of 'BaGhana BaGhana' from the stadium showed the depth of the positive vibration, which was echoing to the world. Whether from Haiti, Houston, London or Lagos, millions of Africans rallied behind the Black Stars. The youth development programmes in Ghana, as in the rest of Africa, are now challenged to develop their facilities to nurture the talents that are to be found in every village and town around the continent. But as we could see from this World Cup, talent and skill will be insufficient for this kind of tournament. Steady heads, concentrated minds and discipline are ingredients that have to be developed at all levels of society for Africans to win the World Cup.

SPAIN’S VICTORY AND OUR SOLIDARITY WITH THE WORKING PEOPLES

During the semi-finals, when Spain was playing against Germany, I watched the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel prancing with pride. This conservative chancellor had made herself clearly visible in the official box as one more effort to use the victory of Germany over Argentina to raise her political profile. For this reason, when the game between Germany and Spain came in the semi-finals, my sympathies were with the Spanish players. Knowing full well the present crisis within the Euro zone and the selfish attitude of German bankers and German capitalists, my view was that the victory should not be theirs in order to embolden the German ruling elite. This sympathy for Spain was conflictual because I am aware of how the Spanish treat African immigrants. Moreover, the German team was a truly multicultural one, reflecting a new Germany of Christians and Muslims, Turks and Germans, blacks and whites.

My Spanish sympathy persisted to the finals when on Sunday 11 July the team from Spain met the Dutch at Soccer City in Johannesburg. The quality of the soccer was not that high, and the Dutch team disgraced themselves by trying to use brute force instead of skill.

After two hours, Andrés Iniesta kept his cool, and driven by the spirit of Dani Jarque – a former RCD Espanyol player who passed away last year and with whom Iniesta was good friends – concentrated to bring the ball down and put it into the net. This spirit that drove Iniesta was the spirit of a young man, Dani Jarque, who joined the ancestors at the tender age of 26. When Iniesta scored the goal, he revealed this statement that he wanted to relate to the world about young people who died too early. It was a statement that Africans identify with in all parts of the world, because young Africans are dying both cultural and physical deaths as a result of the capitalist system. Spanish people need to take a cue from the team to work together against the proposed repressive measures that have been contemplated by international bankers to ostensibly rescue their economy.

In Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia and indeed all parts of the world, the collective spirit that was demonstrated in the World Cup must be taken to a new level to organise against capitalism and to truly emphasise that another anti-racist and peaceful world is possible.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Horace Campbell is a teacher and writer. His latest book is 'Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA', published by Pluto Press.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Rape, mob justice, police killings and the Draft

L. Muthoni Wanyeki

2010-07-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/65938

Amnesty International released a chilling report last week on crime and insecurity in Nairobi’s low-income areas.

It focused on what, once pointed out, clearly should have been obvious – women’s vulnerability to sexual violence when living in crowded conditions and sharing communal bathing facilities and toilets.

Heartrending examples were given, one after the other, of women raped, gang-raped and nearly raped simply when trying to stay clean or to relieve themselves.

And equally heartrending examples were given of how they try to manage their insecurity.

One mother, for instance, only bathes while her sons keep watch outside.

Others simply do not bother to leave their 'houses' (if their living conditions qualify as houses) when they need the toilet at night.

They urinate and defecate in plastic bags, which they throw out the following morning.

Why do they have to manage on their own in this way?

They cannot afford even the Ksh5 (6 US cents) to use what toilets do exist as part of the rehabilitation efforts in the low-income areas.

There are no police stations in a number of these areas.

And even where they do exist, many women neither expect security to be provided, nor justice.

Most do not report assaults, fearing retaliation (for they tend to know their assailants).

And those that do report have, for the most part, been let down – reporting rarely leads to speedy arrests, charges or successful convictions.

The report is a terrible indictment of how normalised crime and insecurity have become, and how ineffective our responses to them are. It should not be so.

In many places, it is not so. I spent the week before last in a northern seaside town in Spain.

Above the beaches was a promenade, stretching along the entire bay and up into the hills.

I ran on it every morning, early to avoid the heat, passing other runners, swimmers, walkers, some with their dogs, even some older men fishing.

The runners all acknowledged each other.

It was entirely safe. And it was full in the evenings too, late into the long summer nights – I saw many women alone, of all ages, strolling or going places with intent, dressed for the occasion, all apparently utterly unconcerned about their safety.

This is, actually, how it is meant to be. But this is only how it can be where two conditions exist.

First, that the majority of (young) people (especially young men) have livelihood possibilities.

And second, that states take seriously their raison d’être – to assure citizens of the safety and security of their persons and property, regardless of their economic or other status.

States do so not just from an ethical, human rights or moral perspective, but from an eminently practical one.

They understand that if they fail in this respect, ultimately, citizens will take the law into their own hands, as they have done and continue to do in Kenya, whether we are talking about individual acts of so-called mob justice, the emergence of 'mafias' that start as private-protection rackets but mutate into armed groups and militia such as the Mungiki or the collective arming efforts on both sides of the divide created by the post-election violence.

Citizens taking the law into their own hands is one thing.

The phenomenon can be contained when the state recognises the threat and acts.

The phenomenon spirals out of control when state security agencies themselves begin to take the law into their own hands.

Frustrated by their lack of equipment and resources, or by the failure of the judiciary to act on what they do bring forward, they assume the right of arbitration for themselves.

And extrajudicial executions start to mount. The combination of the two can only, eventually, push states into civil war.

Let us not delude ourselves – the rise of armed groups and militias and the criminalisation of state security agencies with an overall breakdown in law and order are what have led to civil war in every African country that has undergone it.

We have ongoing processes of police and judicial reform.

The reports from the two task forces are ready, with the one on police reform being slowly implemented.

Conditions of work and remuneration of the Kenya police force are being improved – the salary increases announced last week are something that no citizen would have a problem with, unlike the proposal to increase the already outrageous salaries of our parliamentarians.

A bill to establish an accountability and oversight body for the Kenya police force is also ready.

Most important, however, is what the Draft Constitution proposes to strengthen within the criminal justice and human rights system.

The administration police and the Kenya police force will come under one command, enhancing accountability.

They will be prohibited from taking orders of a partisan or political nature from outside that command.

Their recruitment patterns will equitably reflect Kenya’s ethnic diversity.

And, like all state organs, they will be compelled to act in line with the constitution and all the rights outlined therein.

So much for enforcement. On arbitration, the chief justice will be appointed by the president, with parliamentary approval.

All other members of the bench will be appointed by an expanded Judicial Service Commission (with citizen representation), subject to vetting and parliamentary approval – all moves to enhance competence and increase independence.

The Office of the Attorney General will be clearly separated from that of the public prosecutor, with the powers of nolle prosequi removed from the discretion of the attorney general and subjected to the courts’ determination – moves intended to ensure that criminal prosecutions proceed not on a political basis, but rather on the basis of the evidence at hand.

Importantly, standing before the courts has been expanded – not only will survivors/victims of criminality and human rights violations be able to file constitutional references or private prosecutions, but also those representing classes of survivors/victims, as well as those acting in the public interest.

What this all should mean is that the possibilities for following the law in addressing crime and insecurity will be enhanced.

We will no longer have the excuse that remedies do not exist in law.

And state-security agencies will no longer have that excuse either – and passing the buck and the game of 'catch' that our current constitution allows, between the security agencies on the one hand and the attorney general, the director of public prosecutions and the bench on the other, will stop.

And the current losers of this game – ordinary citizens like the terrorised women who spoke through the Amnesty International report – can only be the winners.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* L. Muthoni Wanyeki is executive director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Government must acknowledge & address xenophobia in Cape Town

Social Justice Coalition, Treatment Action Campaign & Equal Education

2010-07-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/65954

1. In 2008 xenophobic violence swept across South Africa, leaving 62 people dead and more than 100 000 people displaced. The State’s reaction was beleaguered by a slow humanitarian response, a lack of information regarding incidents on the ground, and failures to adequately prepare for and deal with mass-displacement; all exacerbated by infighting between the various spheres of government.

2. Xenophobic sentiment, harassment and violence has persisted, albeit in a more sporadic and less organized manner. The biggest crisis in the Western Cape to happen since took place in November 2009 when approximately 2500 immigrants (largely Zimbabweans) were displaced in De Doorns. Since 2008, we have received regular reports of isolated intimidation and destruction of property affecting foreign nationals in areas across Khayelitsha. More recently, rumours have circulated claiming that immigrants would be attacked once the Football World Cup came to a close. The origins of these rumours are uncertain, but it is clear that they are not baseless, as we will illustrate below. The argument that they are self-fulfilling comes as little consolation to the thousands of immigrants around Cape Town and their South African friend’s and neighbours’ who are now living in fear.

3. After an incident in Makhaza in which at least three Somali owned stores were attacked immediately following South Africa’s dismissal from the World Cup last month; The Social Justice Coalition (SJC), Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Equal Education and (EE) decided to run workshops with staff and members to discuss xenophobia and how it could be combated. We have been engaging with broader civil society networks and forums, but our joint work has been limited to Khayelitsha, an area badly affected by violence in 2008 and an area in which we have existing grassroots networks, which enable us to effectively reach the wider community. During this work it was found that fear of attacks after the World Cup was indeed very prevalent (amongst both locals and immigrants), and that many immigrants were being directly and indirectly threatened and intimidated.

4. In addition to trying to prevent violence by encouraging communities to stand against xenophobia, we have been using our networks to monitor xenophobic activity in the community. Regular reports of widespread xenophobic criminal activity began reaching us on Sunday evening. Since then, we have learnt of at least 15 incidents in Khayelitsha, all of which have been reported to Khayelitsha Police and the Disaster Management Centre.

The majority of the incidents entailed the looting of Somali-owned shops by roving gangs ranging from 10 to 30 individuals. This happened in a variety of locations across Khayelitsha, including Kuyasa, R and L Sections, TR, TQ & QQ Sections, M, BM & V Sections, Makhaza 33 Section and SST Section in Town 2. Intimidation - and attacks on the property - of Zimbabwean and Malawian citizens was also reported. In most cases the owners of the shops targeted pre-emptively responded to threats by vacating their homes and premises before the attacks occurred. On Tuesday, almost all Somali owned stores were found to be abandoned.

5. As mentioned, our activities have been largely restricted to Khayelitsha. There have however also been reports of attacks on foreign-owned shops in Wallacedene, Du Noon, Ocean View, Nyanga and Philipi. There has been significant displacement in Cape Town, with nearly 1000 displaced Somalis allegedly looking for sanctuary in Belville after fleeing their homes. This pattern seems to have also extended across the Western Cape, with incidents reported in Grabouw, Klapmuts, Delft, Wellington and Mbekweni. In Mbekweni the attacks were apparently especially serious, and resulted in injury to a small number of foreign nationals and police officers. Daniella Ebenezer - spokesperson for provincial disaster management - said 70 immigrants had sought refuge on Sunday night at the Mbekweni police station and 22 at Wellington SAPS.

6. The Police have in general responded quickly and effectively under difficult conditions to violence in Khayelitsha which has contributed in part to the relative calm Khayelitsha since Tuesday.

7. We are however most distressed by Government’s failure to acknowledge the xenophobic nature of recent attacks and by extension address the fear felt by countless immigrants who have been threatened or directly affected.

8. On 9 July Minister of Police and Convenor of the Inter-ministerial Committee on Xenophobia Nathi Mthethwa spoke at a Xenophobia Summit in Khayelitsha in which he cautioned “that this alarmist phobia by those who fuel these rumours is intended to divert attention of the world from our success and celebratory mood”. On Monday – while attacks were underway - President Jacob Zuma noted that he was "not certain whether there have been threats of xenophobia … there have been rumours that have been reported".

9. In our view, it appears that senior police and the intelligence services have failed to properly brief President Zuma and the cabinet. Many senior officials appear reluctant to use the term “xenophobia” in the hope that this will result in violence subsiding.

10. We call on Local, Provincial and National Government to immediately recognize that individuals around Cape Town and the Western Cape are being targeted based on their nationality. We especially call on President Zuma to lead and support efforts to prevent attacks on stateless people from other African countries. At this time it is inconsequential to question whether the original rumours were devious or based on an illegitimate threat, or whether these acts are being perpetrated out of hate or a desire to opportunistically commit criminal acts. None of this detracts from the fact that a specific group of people is being targeted, and are very much in need of particular protection. The abundance of reports of threats and intimidation, and violent destruction of property belonging to foreign nationals compels Government to recognize this, and plan and act accordingly.

11. The overwhelming majority of people in our communities want safety and security for all and have no desire to harm people from other countries. The World Cup demonstrated several very important facts – government provided leadership and resources, our people responded enthusiastically, crime was curbed, South Africans supported all our African teams and visitors. We must use this unity of purpose to address safety and security for all people irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, class or nationality.

For comment please contact:
Gavin Silber (SJC): 083 777 99 81
Joey Hasson (EE): 082 374 65 55
Mike Hamca (TAC): 082 362 86 51

No woman should die while giving life

East African Caravan on Maternal Health arrives in Kampala on July 14th, 2010

FEMNET

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/65966

East African Caravan on Maternal Health arrives in Kampala on July 14th, 2010

An estimated 536 000 maternal deaths occurred worldwide in 2005. Slightly more than half - 270 000 - of these preventable and unnecessary deaths occurred in the sub-Saharan Africa region alone.

It is unacceptable that mothers and newborns are no more likely to survive today than two decades ago, with prospects worst in countries battling AIDS, conflict and poverty. Little progress has been made in the response to ensure that African women and girls enjoy the right to sexual reproductive health. Consequently, preventable, detectable and treatable obstetric complications-including post-partum haemorrhage, infections, eclampsia, anaemia (exacerbated by malaria and HIV), prolonged or obstructed labour and complications of unsafe abortion account for the majority of maternal deaths.

ABANTU for Development in collaboration with UN Millennium Campaign-Africa, the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), Akina Mama wa Afrika (AmWA), Solidarity for African Women’s Rights Coalition (SOAWR), White Ribbon Alliance and other partners launched an East African Caravan on Maternal Health on 3rd July, 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya. The Caravan then travelled to Arusha and Mwanza in Tanzania, Kigali in Rwanda, and Kabale, Mbarara and Masaka in Uganda. The key message of the caravan echoes the African Union slogan: 'No Woman should Die while Giving Life'! Dr Angelina Dawa of ABANTU who is leading the caravan states that, 'improved health,
including sexual and reproductive health, contributes to economic growth, societal equity, gender equality and democratic governance, thus bringing tremendous benefits to women, families and societies. Reproductive health and rights are instrumental for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).’

In the various cities and towns, the Caravan has held public rallies with women and men, girls and boys, health professionals and policy makers, on the crisis of maternal mortality in Africa, providing information and basic medical services to prevent maternal deaths and morbidity. The caravan also collected real life testimonies of the various human rights violations women endure that result in the high rates maternal mortality and morbidity in the region.

The Caravan officially arrives in Kampala on Wednesday July 14, 2010 at 12:00PM at Mengo Primary School Open Grounds, opposite the Namirembe Diocesan offices close to Sanyu Babies Home. The Caravan will be received by the Right Reverend Wilberforce Kityo Luwalira, Bishop of Namirembe Diocese during a press conference. Remarks will be made by Caravan organizers Dr. Angelina Dawa of ABANTU for Development and Ms. Christine Butegwa of Akina Mama wa Afrika.

The Caravan arrives in Kampala just prior to the 15th Ordinary Session of the Assembly African Union Summit, where the Heads of State will discuss Maternal and Child health and Development in Africa.

For more information, please contact:
Norah Matovu Winyi
African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)
Tel: +256 772 825 829 Email: admin@femnet.or.ke

The scramble for land and environmental degradation in Oromia

London International Oromo Workshop (LIOW)

LIOW Organizing Committee

2010-07-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/65953

“THE SCRAMBLE FOR LAND AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION IN OROMIA: Consequences for the Future”

The 4th annual London International Oromo Workshop (LIOW) conference, held in London, on the 3rd July 2010, attended by researchers, human rights activists, journalists, NGO representatives, and delegates from Canada, USA, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Italy, Africa, France, Switzerland and UK, examined land grabbing and its impact on the environment, food sovereignty and security.
Panellists explored history of land use and abuse in Oromia, drivers of the land grabbing, Ethiopian regime’s land sale policy, mining and environmental degradation, land rights and identity and the threat posed by foreign investment to the future survival of the indigenous population.

Farming practice in Oromia has been in existence for many centuries and is contributing substantially to the global crop biodiversity. The large scale industrial farming practice being expanded in Oromia threatens to wipe out unique produces including coffee, Eragrostis tef /xaafii/, sorghum, and barley.
Ethiopia is the only country that does not allow anyone to see the records of what is being sold and who is buying the farmlands. No consultation takes place with the local farmers on the process of land lease and compensation is nominal if any. The Ethiopian land lease price is by far the cheapest in the world at $1/hectare/year for 100 years. Fertile lands of Oromia, Gambella and Benishangul are exclusively targeted.

Rice and other cereals produced, by investors, in Oromia, are being shipped out of the country for lucrative international markets and consumption by investors as the local farmers and their family suffer from chronic malnutrition and millions survive on food handout from donor countries. The conference concluded there can be no justification for cut flower farming in a hungry country.

Toxic chemicals from open mining pits and flower farming are left untreated to pollute the tributaries and major local rivers essential for the survival of the local population and already causing serious public health problems. Heavy metals like lead and copper as well as toxic chemicals such as sodium cyanide are being discharged directly into rivers used by the locals for drinking. Evidence shows there is no capacity or political will by the Ethiopian state to enforce national regulation or international conventions on the protection of the environment. Research confirms that deforestation, as a result of extensive mining, is leading to worsening of soil erosion.

It was noted that selling off millions of hectares of farmland to foreigners by displacing the local population complicated by political and economic alienation has the potential for a catastrophic social unrest and poses a huge security headache not only for the country but for the whole world.

Overall, evidence presented showed the so called win-win situation is most unlikely to be achievable due to the excess financial muscles of the so called investors who treat food just as yet another commodity and lack of participatory democracy especially in Ethiopia. Participants agreed to co-ordinate their efforts globally to campaign to STOP the land grabbing.

Detailing the unspoken truths of a deadly relationship

Review of 'The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa'

Bill Fletcher, Jr

2010-07-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/65937

I could hardly contain my excitement after reading Sasha Polakow-Suransky’s 'The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa'. So, I got on the phone and called a long-time friend who had been active in the solidarity movements against white colonial/minority rule in Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. He responded: 'Well, didn’t we already know about the connection between apartheid South Africa and Israel?'

What is striking about 'The Unspoken Alliance' is not that it contains the revelation of a complete secret. My friend was correct. Bits and pieces of this story had been public for years, at least in some circles. What makes this book different is both the level of detail and factual disclosure combined with its blunt recognition of a strategic unity between Israel and apartheid South Africa based on a common colonial/settler framework.

Polakow-Suransky provides historical background that may surprise many readers in pointing out that the dominant political forces in Israel, up through the late 1960s, saw themselves as operating within an anti-colonial framework. Israel reached out to many newly independent African states, for example, providing a wide range of types of assistance. While this ‘solidarity’ may not have been driven completely by the noble aims that Polakow-Suransky suggests, it is nevertheless noteworthy. David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir, for instance, saw no inconsistency between advancing a settler project in the Palestine Mandate (the territory occupied by Britain until 1948) aimed at displacing the Palestinian people on the one hand, and positioning Israel as an ally in the struggle for independence on the part of African states. Interestingly, they suggested that they were an outpost not only for the anti-colonial struggle, but also one in the struggle against reactionary Arab regimes.

This paradigm began to change in the context of the June 1967 war between Israel and the Arab coalition of Egypt, Jordan and Syria, and the subsequent occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territories. The situation shifted even further in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War of October 1973, which Israel nearly lost. During those moments Israel made the decision to become a nuclear power and an essential component of their ability to make such a decision was related to the slow but steady construction of an alliance with apartheid South Africa.

Apartheid South Africa, at the same time, was an increasingly isolated state. Interestingly Israel, at least in the early 1960s, joined with most of the rest of the international community, in condemning the system of apartheid. Nevertheless, as Israel began to face international criticism for its role in the 6 Day War and the subsequent occupations, it found itself drawn toward a relationship with the South African regime, a relationship that it entered into somewhat ambivalently and later joined with determination and without apology. One consequence of this developing relationship was the steady decline, to the point of becoming obstructive, of criticisms of the South African apartheid system.

The details of this relationship read like an excellent politico-mystery novel, yet they are documented. With the ascendancy of the more reactionary elements of the Israeli establishment in the 1970s (symbolised by the rise of Menachem Begin), the paradigm of Israel as an anti-colonial outpost was completely jettisoned in favour of an Israel-as-fortress state. This new paradigm was well-suited to justify the alliance with the criminal South African regime.

Striking for any reader will certainly be the discussion of potential cataclysms. Once both Israel and apartheid South Africa achieved nuclear status, they were prepared to entertain the actual usage of such weapons. Polakow-Suransky, in describing the circumstances of the Yom Kippur War, suggests that the Israelis were prepared to use nuclear weapons against the Egyptians and/or Syrians if the USA did not intervene to provide additional military support in order to blunt the Arab assault. Apartheid South Africa, during the 1980s, contemplated using nuclear weapons against those southern African states that supported the national liberation forces of the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania. This latter point helps the reader to better understand the complicated politico-military situation in which the national liberation forces in South Africa found themselves in the late 1980s when negotiations toward the end of apartheid commenced.

Interestingly, Polakow-Suransky ends his book suggesting that while – in his opinion – Israel is not yet an apartheid state, it is well on the road. This was probably the greatest weakness of the book, but a weakness that should not turn the reader away from this work. Israel is already an apartheid state, both in the context of the conditions of the occupation of the Palestinian territories but also with respect to the treatment of Palestinian citizens of Israel. Polakow-Suransky conceptualises apartheid far too narrowly rather than in the manner that the United Nations has defined it, i.e., a system of racist oppression and separation. The South African system was only one possible variation on a theme, not the only apartheid model.

That said, what this book succeeds in doing so well is dispelling the notion of the supposed democratic and moralistic character of the Israeli state. The alliance between Israel and South Africa, as well documented in this book, was not a time-limited aberrant action on the part of an otherwise honourable state. It was a cold, calculated manoeuvre that not only was seen from the standpoint of naked self-interest, but equally from within the context of a growing recognition that two settler states needed mutual protection in a world that was heightening its objections to such social systems.

At a moment of increasing interest in the growth of the boycott/divestment/sanctions (BDS) movement in opposition to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, 'The Unspoken Alliance' becomes that much more important to read. The struggle for Palestinian self-determination involves, among other things, an ideological struggle against the dominant Israeli narrative, a narrative that has suggested that a people on the verge of extermination by the Nazis had the right to seize a territory away from its indigenous population. This narrative, in addition to holding a blind spot to the indignity and injustice within which the Palestinian people have been treated, first by the British colonialists and then later by the Israelis, is premised on the notion of the Israeli state as being grounded on a high moral platform placing it beyond any criticism. 'The Unspoken Alliance' contributes to shattering at least one of the legs upholding that platform.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Sasha Polakow-Suransky, 'The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa' (New York: Pantheon Books, 2010), pp 324, US$27.95, hardcover.
* Bill Fletcher, Jr, is an editorial board member of BlackCommentator.com. He is also a senior scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum, and the co-author of 'Solidarity Divided'.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Credit due but more critical thinking needed

Review of Dani Wadada Nabudere's 'The Crash of International Finance-Capital and its Implications for the Third World'

Martin Williams

2010-07-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/65931

The fallout of the global financial crisis has created an interesting moment of reflection amongst the many commentators who, until two years ago, placed such faith in markets, capitalism and finance. It has also validated many longtime radicals and skeptics, who have happily taken the opportunity to cry out, 'We told you so!'

Dani Wadada Nabudere’s 'The Crash of International Finance-Capital and its Implications for the Third World' is this latter type of work. First published in 1989 as a Marxist analysis of the 1987 financial crisis, Pambazuka Press has recently reprinted it with a new postscript by the author discussing the book’s bearing on the current economic meltdown.

Nabudere certainly has some justification for feeling that his earlier analysis foreshadowed some causes of the current crisis, having identified some of the problems arising from debt securitisation, speculation and the rise of the financial economy at the expense of the real economy in the West. These ideas have almost become clichés now among even mainstream economic commentators, but just two years ago – not to mention two decades ago – they would have been viewed as heterodox, even heretical.

But while Nabudere deserves credit for identifying these issues well before most observers, the analysis through which he arrives at these conclusions is much less satisfying. His argument is not stated very precisely and takes many detours, but as I understand it the main thrust is this: labour productivity in industry in the First World started falling in the 1960s, which reduced capitalists’ ability to make 'super-profits' and led to deindustrialisation. This encouraged capitalists to use financial speculation and the creation of new credit instruments to make money without any connection to productive activity, and this divorce of finance from the real economy was bound to lead to a financial crisis.

Nabudere’s arguments in support of this analysis are often questionable, faulty or incomplete, and sometimes even bizarre. For example, it is true enough that industry’s share of employment and GDP (gross domestic product) in most Western nations has been decreasing in the past few decades, but as a matter of empirical fact labour productivity is not falling. Nabudere simply asserts that it is, and only weakly supports it with spotty, anecdotal and sometimes misleading data. Nor is 'capitalists’ failure to generate surplus value from living labour' at fault, as Nabudere inexplicably argues.[1] Whatever problems capitalists might have in the global economy, it seems absurd to argue that making money from labour is one of them.

Two much better reasons for the relative decline of industry in much of the West are competition from poorer nations with lower wages and the overall transition to service- and knowledge-based economies. However, Nabudere is so intent on seeing events through a narrow, doctrinaire Marxist lens that he effectively blinds himself to these explanations. He does not seriously engage with globalisation, which is astounding for a book that claims to be about the global economy. Doing so would present a more complex picture of industrialisation and deindustrialisation than would be apparent from looking at the West alone, which would complicate his story about the growth of the financial sector.

Likewise, Nabudere dismisses the services sector by treating it as essentially unproductive, on par with financial speculation: It 'may be seen as a sign of progress beyond industry, but in reality it represents a stage in the decline and fall of capitalism'.[2] Nabudere does not give any support for this view, and while the implications of the shift from industry to services can and should be seriously debated, it seems inadequate to reject the entire sector out of hand simply because it does not have the same central place in Marxist theory as industry. After all, Nabudere, myself and probably almost everyone reading this article spend our professional lives producing services. Nabudere’s rigid Marxist approach, and the knee-jerk pessimism that so often accompanies Marxist analyses, can be just as inflexible and limited as the market fundamentalism that it seeks to replace.

Most frustrating of all is that, in spite of its title, the book is almost solely focused on events and trends in rich countries, with the Third World playing only a very peripheral role. There is no serious discussion of non-industrialised countries until the final chapter of the 1989 book, and even the 2009 postscript is largely concentrated on events in the US and Europe. When Nabudere does discuss poor countries, he treats them as essentially powerless and passive victims of events in the rich world. Every setback is a conspiracy by global capitalists, and every government policy – whether import substitution in closed economies or liberalisation in open ones – serves only to further tighten global capital’s grip on poor economies.

It was once true that countries in the Third World had little control over their own destinies and that global capital cared deeply about exploiting African peasant farmers, but we should have learned from the last two decades that this frame of analysis is no longer valid. Today’s major global trend is divergence among the countries that made up what used to be called the Third World – divergence between rapidly growing Asian economies and Africa, but also within Africa. And while global capital is still very interested in exploiting Africa’s natural resources, it seems to have lost serious interest in its peasant farmers and unskilled workers. Their relationship to the world economy is now characterised more by disconnection and marginalisation than by the epic struggle between capital and labour that Nabudere still sees.

I am not trying to say that poor countries’ development is completely unconstrained by outside intervention, nor that multinational companies are no longer exploiting them – international injustice still exists, despite the pre-crisis triumphalism of some neoliberal cheerleaders. But it is not analytically or morally correct to pretend that poor countries have no agency, no control over their own destiny. They certainly do not have enough control, and power is inequitably distributed within them. But this is my point: rather than simply decrying our powerlessness in the face of structural injustice, we also need to think critically about how countries can use what space is available and how to ensure that even the poorest and most marginalised have a fair voice in this process.

In the end though, the truly frustrating thing about reading Nabudere’s book is that, despite its many flaws, his conclusions have held up better in light of recent events than have those of most ‘mainstream’ commentators. Nabudere’s book contains some interesting lessons about the world economy, but for thoughtful readers it will hold even more important lessons about the state of critical thinking on the subject and how we can improve it.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Dani Wadada Nabudere's 'The Crash of International Finance-Capital and its Implications for the Third World' is available from Pambazuka Press.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] Page xiii.
[2] Page 101.

Kenya's constitution: 'Yes' or 'no' on the referendum?

Isaac Newton Kinity

2010-07-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/65935

To Kenyans,

RE: WHERE WILL THE CONSTITUTION BE AFTER THE 'NO' ON THE REFERENDUM?

When the Orange group and the Banana group went for a referendum a few years ago, where the Orange went for a NO , the Banana went for a YES, the NO for the Orange won. After the NO group won, the then draft constitution was dismissed and everything about it went to square one. It was after intensive pressures, a committee of experts was formed to draft a new constitution.

If the NO vote wins on the 4th of August, the debate on the constitution will go to square one. New pressures will be needed to drive the draft once again. No one knows how long it will take to put the issue in motion again. What is certain is that Kenyans will go into the next elections without a new constitution, if the NO vote wins the day on 4th. Today, most Kenyans think that once the No vote wins, the controversial clauses of the Kadhi Court and Abortion will be amended and the constitution will be adopted.

This is not the case. The referendum is about YES or NO to the Draft Constitution and not about YES or NO to the Kadhi Court or YES or NO to Abortion. A YES will mean the constitution draft has been accepted, whereas a No will mean the draft constitution has been rejected. So, if it will be a YES to the Draft Constitution, then the Constitution will be adopted. If it will be a NO to the Draft Constitution, then the entire Draft Constitution will be considered a waste. It may only be useful if a new group of Committee of experts or a group of people appointed afresh to look into drafting a new constitution will deem it fit to adopt certain clauses in the current draft. The choice is for Kenyans. It is Kenyans to choose their destiny. Nevertheless, please vote wisely.

Isaac Newton Kinity
Former secretary general
Kenya Civil Servants Union and
Chairman
Kikimo Foundation for Corruption and Poverty Eradication

Can the octopus predict Uganda’s elections?

Tumusiime K. Deo

2010-07-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/65934

So the animal called the Octopus has performed excellently in predicting the winner of 10/13 World Cup games in South Africa! With such a level of perfection, everyone may soon be calling on prophetic Octopus to predict their future. However, can this magical animal predict the winner of the 2011 Ugandan Presidential elections?

Well, whereas the accuracy of the Octopus may not be in doubt, the necessity of employing this animal may not be warranted especially considering the unfolding events ahead of the much hyped elections. I watched the Police break down a peaceful Democratic Party rally with bullets and tear gas, and wondered whether at this rate it’s not obvious that the opposition is still unwelcome on the country’s political scene. DP President Norbert Mao had just uttered the Party’s old slogan of “DP Egumire” or DP is rock solid, when the anti-riot police pounced on him and his supporters, but why?

I really wonder who gives police such orders to disrupt any opposition rally-they have not done it once or twice but it has now become a routine. So, why would anyone even attempt to contest in an election where they are unwanted? Of course at this rate, we are only going to see more and more clashes as parties attempt to forcefully communicate their agenda to the same electorate competed for by the ruling party. You cannot continue to spray tear gas on unarmed citizens meeting to discuss their political future and expect them to coil back-surely a few stones will be thrown and the when windows are broken or blood is shed, usually the innocent ones suffer-please give us a break.

The opposition parties have been suffocated for many years since the NRM government came to power. They obviously have not yet gathered ample capacity even to traverse to traverse an entire country to sell their agenda. The only tool they have at their disposal, is holding mass rallies where people gather in one place and discuss their issues. I know the ruling party, with representatives down to parish level, has the capacity to do a house to house canvassing of votes-at this, the ground is terribly unleveled. A campaign rally quelled at such a crucial time, equals so many months lost in individual parties’ strategy, but what a shame!

In my view, as long as the pace of alienating political parties remains at the current momentum, the outcome of the 2011 Presidential Elections remains more than obvious. Octopus or no Octopus, as long as the elections are manned with the same ‘scorched earth approach of the Uruguayans against the entire African dream’, the opposition will have no chance of winning the “World Cup” in the present age!

Lumumba's place in DR Congo's history

Melakou Tegegn

2010-07-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/65950

Marking DRC at 50 devoid of the crucial element in its independence and the key link in understanding why the people of DRC are still impoversihed amidst plenty of natural resources, namely the legacy of Patrice Lumumba, is indeed one more tragedy in the already tragic history of that country. It happens that some philosophers were more popular outside their country, but there isn't a single reason for Lumumba not to occupy a place in the history of the DRC. Lumumba was inspiration not only to the Congolese, who had been dehumanized by the cruel rule of Belgium and its monstrous king, Leopold, but also to us Ethiopians who brag about being uncolonised and independent. Pan-Africanism is not just about waving flags and declaring independence. That is past and probably constitutes the initial phase of the emergence of pan-Africanism. Contemporary pan-Africanism should be linked with deconstructing poverty and under-development, a process which is impossible to achieve without freeing the continent from contemporary forms of colonization: namely neo-colonialism and market globalization. Herein lies the legacy of Patrice Lumumba, that fine son of Africa. Africa will rise!!

On June 16

Gcobani KaNgcibi

2010-07-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/65951

Thanks for bringing foward such informative articles. June16 is one of the most important days in our calender in SA. This is one of the most powerful articles I have read in a long time. It dispels all the lies peddled by Jacob Zuma & ANC , about working underground with students. What I like about this work, there references where one can verify these facts. We have not forgoten how the Tombstone at the grave of Hector Perterson, June16 1st victim, was vandalize by night. ANC offered to erect a new one only to put its own colors and emblems of ANC instead of the clenched fist of the BCM and "one azania one nation" slogan that was there before. One does not need a degree to work out who were responsible for vandalism in the first place. Thanks to Mr qekema for being bold in telling the truth with capital T.

World Cup pros and cons

Pat Stevens

2010-07-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/65948

Loss of large chunks of government’s sovereignty to the world soccer body Fifa. This is not a permanent situation but measures put in place for the World Cup, Fifa could claim that given the fact that the World Cup was successful, these measures were necessary. The soccer cynics prophesized that the World Cup would be an unmitigated disaster, they have been proved dismally wrong, so both Fifa and South Africa deserve credit for the success of the tournament. Rapidly worsening income inequality and future economic calamities as debt payments come due. It is a fact that the World Cup has assisted in attracting foreign investment, which may help to alleviate this situation, but I would agree that closing the income gap appears to be an unattainable dream. Dramatic increases in greenhouse gas emissions (more than twice Germany’s in 2006) That’s the price you pay for industrial development, unless like Germany you have the money to put emission controls into place, we’ll just have to learn how to breath more shallowly. Humiliation at becoming the first host to expire before the competition’s second round. Nonsense, the people responded magnificently, and remain proud of Bafana Bafana Soon, it seems, we may add another dose of xenophobia from both state and society. We certainly will, if the press keep reporting that it is going to happen. The 120-year old exploitation remains, Johannesburg companies rip off the region’s resources. This is very true, I addressed it forcefully in British Tribes of Africa, as you may recall. I also covered it in Hero of the Struggle, which goes to the printing press in 4 weeks, I will see you get a copy Professor Bond.

Riots not necessarily about xenophobia

Owen Sichone

2010-07-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/65949

One cannot fault the author for suggesting that poverty and inequality create violent and unhealthy societies, however, just because a riot is provoked by poor service delivery does mean it is not also driven by xenophobia. Jonathan Crush and his colleagues in the Southern African Migration Project have demonstrated the existence of xenophobia in South Africa (where it is violent) and in Zimbabwe and even in Botswana where they do not set people on fire). Xenophobia is not a shanty town problem it is institutionalised in the South African police force, and Immigratio Department of Home Affairs, and yes National Party ideology is partly to blame for the fact that until recently major rugby games were not played in Soweto and white rugby fans had never been there, because they believe it is hostile enemy territory. South Africans (and other nationalities too!)are afraid of the other, who is not always a foreigner and that is the xenophobia we cannot deny.

Praise for Pambazuka News

Hajj Faqir D.A. Haroon

2010-07-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/65947

I am glad to welcome Pambazuka News to Facebook – it is perhaps one of the most if not THE most important source of news of Africa and the diaspora. I suggest everyone take advantage of this great opportunity. We all have so much learn about each other.

Lethal injection and incomplete confession

Charmaine Mandivenga

2010-07-12

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/65922

Lethal injection and incomplete confession
They will never know what’s in my heart
They say it’s just like being at the dentist
Just a prick that will end this

It is not this drug that is killing me
It’s the syringe of truth and unfortunate coincidence
That most prisons are half-filled with black men
A common phenomenon
We are less than a quarter of the population
So tell me if these are not our homes
For like the ships they hold us in bulk
Keeping us in limbo, for we are truly don’t know

Lethal injection and incomplete confession
They will never know what’s in my heart
They say it’s just like being at the dentist
Just a prick that will end this

Yet this affliction is painless
But it tears me to the bottom of my spirit
Leaves no laceration
Yet I bleed like me spirit is being ripped apart
They will ask for a dying wish
And I will desire to tell the jury what I know now
My generation is thus that is being slain
By the Grim’s scythe of
Crack, smack, the click clack
And the bang bang
The few role models we have
Are half-filled with the common illusion
That we will all end up super stars
So I've got my Glock and smack
What now?

Lethal injection and incomplete confession
They will never know what’s in my heart
They say it’s just like being at the dentist
Just a prick that will end this

For it’s not this poison killing
But the pain within
Who will collect my mother’s tears
In their palms, take them away
And make her smile
Keep faith in Jesus used to say
So I accept Jah with all my being and flesh
Mind and once relentless spirit

Lethal injection and incomplete confession
They will never know what’s in my heart
They say it’s just like being at the dentist
Just a prick that will end this

For I have seen these four walls for too long
With any luck I’ll be going home
A place where I will be at peace
And meditate on this life past gone
_
BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Busy waiting to die

Naiwu Osahon

2010-07-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/65936

I have a story I have been trying not to tell for a long time. I don’t know why I have been keeping it to myself really. Maybe I have never had anyone to tell the story, but it had been nagging me all the same. Now I feel I must do something about it, tell someone, anyone, in the hope of a break in my unending painful infliction.

I have long lost hope of ever making it. You know what life is like for anyone, for a man, a poor black man, a semi-illiterate.

Are you listening? It appears you are, so I am going to take you into confidence. I can feel you are warming up to me already. Oh, you have feelings, we are friends, and that is good.

As you already know, I was born some 40 years ago in a village called Osemene deep in the woods of Ngazi. There were 11 children in the family and I was the fifth child. Three brothers and a sister were older than me and a brother and five sisters came after me. My father, an illiterate pagan farmer, died when his youngest child was three and the image she has of him she constructed from recollections of our shabby squalid upbringing.

Our uncle who inherited us had at the time 15 children by four wives. He was not scared, however, by the addition of 14 of us, including my father’s three wives. He put us to work on his farms as soon as we could walk unaided and so I spent my early life digging, planting, harvesting or hunting. I did not know much about schools until I was 16 when many would consider me too old to start school.

Of my three senior brothers, the oldest learnt the carpentry trade as an apprentice. His immediate junior completed secondary school education, and the third graduated from a university where he studied law. They were both helped with the payment of their school fees from the severely depleted resources of our uncle. As soon as our lawyer brother came into a bit of money, he decided to send me and the other siblings to school. I did not let him down, despite my age, but I had to drop out in secondary three when increased family responsibilities began to suffocate him.

Immediately after dropping out of school, I took up employment as a shop assistant to a relation. The pay was poor, N1,800 (naira) a month, but it was some contribution to the fast-dwindling fortune of my brother. I had by then lost all ambition of ever becoming the first doctor from our village. In fact, I had grown into a tall handsome man of 24 and women were beginning to notice me. Needless to say, I was a little reckless as a lover and, of course, I was done unto too by many older, more experienced women. In all, I got a child into the bargain, or at least, I was aware of one, although his mother soon poisoned his mind against me. They say that blood is thicker than water. I am sure he would come to his poor helpless father some day, because I love him very much.

I have been through a lot of pain since those early unpromising years. Nothing has changed even now. The sum total of my life has remained the same, one long boring succession of desolation. I have, over the years, hopped from one lowly job to another and today, at age 40, I am still chasing after an empty, God-forsaken existence. I have tried several times to break out only to get more hurt and frustrated.

Now at last I have a labourer’s job I have kept for nearly nine months, the longest I have been on any job, despite the frequent threats of dismissal. 'These are hard times for business,' my bosses would often say, but they keep their jobs while we lose ours.

I work in Apapa and live on its outskirts, in the heart of the sin city called Ajegunle (or Aje-jungle, to the initiated). Don’t ask me about Ajegunle. It has a mystery all of its own. I know this much though. It is the most neglected, most squalid, most unkempt, most unplanned conglomerate of shanties this side of the universe and the natives have gone past caring. Anything you fancy you can get from fresh human skulls to shit meal from low-down scavenging in dump sites for survival.

I have a room in a crowded wooden shack at one end of the only road, a bumpy, twisting, uncared for death trap of a road, congested 24 hours a day with juju men, tricksters, seven-day adventists, Jehovah witnesses and other hustling miracle pastors, punks, labourers, drug peddlers, cyclists and molues (the latter being the jargon for public pick-up vans). The molues are forever in a mad rush to get to nowhere in particular. The destitutes appear to have all day and all night. Everyone is busy waiting to die.

I have a small drab cell for a room. I have to keep moving my wooden bunk about to dodge the sun and the rains. I used to share the room with a mate, until he was dispatched recently by a firing squad for his part in a wages grab. My playmates now are mostly flies, ants, rats, cockroaches, mosquitoes, lizards and snakes. I don’t know why they put up with me really. My blood must be poison to them now for the muck I have been eating.

On the wall, to the left-hand side of the room, there is a mirror, a small mirror, my significant inheritance from my dead mother. She was very attached to the mirror. She believed it had magic power to attract fortunes to its possessor. It had been in my family for several generations. Do you still wonder why we have always been poor in my family? At my mum’s dying bedside, I swore reluctantly to continue the tradition of keeping the mirror in the family. But often recently, I have hoped that someone would smash it up for me since I have been too chicken to tempt fate.

Dangling from the roof by the door is a tiny juju gourd given to me by my stepfather before his death about 10 years ago. I am supposed to sacrifice a fowl to the gods every so often and I have not done so for years as you can well understand. Every time the juju gourd sways, I fear the gods are rebelling, my ancestors are turning in their graves, but it may have been the wind.

My landlord charges N1,000 a month for my crawl. It has no window. I rely on the rusty perforated zinc roof for ventilation. The door to the room also leads on to the main road. I cook, eat and sleep in the room and considering my destitute situation, it is not altogether uncomfortable but for the permanent traffic noise outside. It is like living in a shallow bunker under a busy motorway and it is so damn irritating at times.

Every work day, I have to be up as early as 5.00am to get to work for 6.30am. Occasionally, I don’t make it and I get a warning or a cut in pay, depending on how late I have been. We close at 5.30pm but I don’t get home until 7.30 – 8.30pm most evenings. I am usually so tired when I get home, I drink gari (made from cassava) for supper instead of a cooked meal. Talking about meals, it is often eba (a little more filling cassava meal) with soup revived to last a week by the constant addition of water.

After meals, I sometimes sit outside my room to experience the speeding and hooting traffic. Normally, it is like the entire public transport system in Lagos has been diverted to Ajegunle.

When I eventually go to bed, I tune the radio up loud to try to combat the traffic noise. Now, I cannot sleep anywhere without a radio blaring.

Well yes, I have a radio. I stole it from my junior brother. He appears to be doing fairly well as a N7,500 (or US$150) a month clerk in one of the ministries. He visited me about two years ago after some 12 years of separation and he brought the radio along with him. One evening he was out for a walk, and I took the radio to hide with a neighbour. I let my brother return home ahead of me to meet a battered door, suggesting that thieves had visited our room in our absence. Of course, only his radio was missing. He left in annoyance that night, swearing never to visit his brother again in Ajegunle.

Sunday is my favourite day of the week. Generally I go to church in the mornings and visit friends or wine palours in the evenings to hustle for free drinks. Clerks are often easy preys on such occasions, especially if there is a woman to impress.

Do you know there are clerks on N7,500 a month who have houses? I know a chap living in Surulere who has three houses of four flats each. Well, I have heard about corruption and so on, but this chap is definitely on N7,500 a month. He works in a government ministry and goes to church regularly. Of course, he is a functionary with access to public funds, and he is not poor on N7,500 a month.

I earn less than a N150 (or US$1) a day and it works out at roughly N5,000 (or $50) a month if I am not fined for lateness or absenteeism. I pay my landlord N1,000 a month for my leaking hell-hole. I am still looking for a roommate to replace my late friend.

I spend an average of N1,800 a month on transportation at the rate of N60 for a normal day return journey. I skip lunch at work most days so as not to spend more than N850 a month at N50 a plate of some shit food not fit for a dog. What is left of my wage I spend at the rate of N375 a week as follows: soup N150 (including N50 meat); gari N50; plantain (one, of N20); rice N80; soap N5; smoke N20; Vicky N30 (to help occasionally with domestic chores); and the law N20 (to guide against molestation).

Vicky has been extremely generous at times, by donating extra time and labour beyond expectation. She refuses to marry me, however, because as she often puts it, I am too wretched.

But wretched people are entitled to some happiness too, aren’t they? We have as much right to this land as the leaders who have selfishly appropriated our commonwealth to themselves, but who will give us the chance? There are thousands of people in this country with lots of money for being relatives of our leaders. There are hundreds of millionaires from being awarded contracts not performed, or for idling around corridors of power. I see more and more new cars gliding past on the highways daily. There are new beautiful, expensive-looking houses everywhere. Obviously, people build them, and people live in them, people who can afford to live in style for doing nothing.

It is a funny country we live in. A few have so much and the rest nothing at all. A few weeks ago, I picked up a dirty, rumpled and dated newspaper from a dustbin, and the first headline I saw was about Nigeria having over N500 billion in circulation in one month. Do you know how much of that money I had in my pocket at the time? Just a rumpled and dirty N5 note. That was all the money I had in the world, and it was still five days to payday.

I do not know a lot of arithmetic but N500 billion for a population of 140 million. I am not even asking for my fair share but surely, am I not entitled to more than N5,000 a month?

I have sometimes toyed with the idea of setting up a business, but how does one go about setting up a business? Can you imagine me, a jejune pauper, walking into a bank and asking for a loan? What would I be offering for security, my rags?

Don’t get me wrong. I have considered banks in my idle moments. I have thought of tunnels to connect my room with bank vaults. In fact, I have dug such tunnels on a number of occasions, only to wake up each time from a dream to find I was still poor.

Why I bother to work I don’t know. Politics sometimes fascinates me. They don’t need special education, do they? Those politicians I mean. Our National Assembly members regularly steal and divert public money into their private accounts in Switzerland. They go on regular overseas tours to transact their private businesses and by accident look in at the United Nations to take instructions on our behalf.

United Nations, that is a big laugh. That is where the elite world is supposed to meet to trash out what to do with the rest of mankind. That is where the big powers hold the whip. Who says might is not right? The United Nations' library must be full now of empty resolutions on Africa’s endless tribal and alien religious wars. Europe toys with the lives of millions of dissipated Africans in their midst, and America breaks international embargoes to prove their might.

Nigeria can’t even produce its own weapons. Some paper tiger. Whites dominate us here and in their countries. They will continue to do just that as long as we continue to have selfish and unimaginative leaders, and wrong national priorities.

I don’t know of any white man who is as poor as I am in Nigeria. That is the honest truth. I have seen so many of them. They all have cars and live in elegant houses. No white man lives in Ajegunle that’s for sure. I know that they live in Apapa. Ikoyi and use several servants.

I applied to work for one once. He took a good look at me and nearly spat on me. I wasn’t smart enough. To think his allowance on his dog could pay my wages 10-fold. In fact, he had two dogs. There were himself, his wife, a daughter of three and the two dogs, and they lived in a huge house of five bedrooms. His take home pay and allowances amount to twice what he pays 130 Nigerians working under him in the factory.

They come all the way from some paradise countries obviously, so we give them more of what they are already used to. Life must be very good for the white man. He dominates all animals on God’s earth, including black men and their progenies.

It reminds me of the giant bees that stung a man to death up on the hills of Jos some while back. Who says that bees are not sensible? They appear more patriotic than we are. Bees have their rules and no one comes from outside their kind to dominate them. With such bees, who needs an army? We could silence racists in our midst today by releasing a few thousands of our soldier bees in their midst. Power to the people, sorry power to the bees, Nigerian giant bees.

I wish I could turn into a bee or even a scorpion to sting our crooked leaders to death. All of them, just as Rawlings did, not too long ago in one swoop in Ghana, to clear the way for the reasonably wholesome society they now enjoy. In fact, I wish I could turn into anything but human. I know someone who was turned into a lizard for taking his neighbour’s wife. My lizard friend was, before his mishap, a journalist with a state newspaper. All effort to convert him to his former self was in vain. He appeared content to remain a lizard. Life of a lizard must be very satisfying. Other than the occasional menace of mammals, lizards have little worries and hardly any responsibilities. They don’t need buses, clothes or women, and do not need to be ruled by dishonest politicians. Is it any wonder that our journalist friend preferred to remain in his lizard bliss? Yes, we lost him to the lizards but I envy his freedom from human needs and our heartless leadership.

Not long ago, I was awake to a radio debate on Nigerian leadership. It wasn’t the first time I had heard people discussing the ills of our society. It had been going on everyday of my 40-year sojourn on earth, but I felt on that occasion that we ought to stop talking and start doing something, perhaps a revolution of sorts, where the rejects in society overturn the ruling class by force of arms or whatever.

A governor buys billions of naira shares for his state while in office and as soon as he leaves office, loots the entire fund plus profits. The president appoints his son as the shadow oil minister to supervise the oil account as a family purse; the second-in-command privatises Nigeria incorporated for himself and trades with funds in his charge for personal gains; the president of the Senate steals N55 million from a poor innocent ministerial nominee up for Senate screening; the National Assembly members pay themselves over N30 million a month for assembling for a few hours a week to brawl and bicker like illiterate savages; and the speaker pockets billions of naira on transportation and exchanges blows with whistleblowers before sacking them from the house. So much greed, so much power in the hands of a thief, in our infantile political jungle. Who voted for these criminals in the first place?

Everyday, I pray to God to give me a chance to live. I wonder if there is God. I am sure those rich people do not pray as hard as I do. Perhaps I ought to have been praying to the Devil. Devils organise happenings don’t they? Don’t believe all that crap they tell you about reward being in heaven. Why are pastors having their own here? I want mine here, as is the case with all our religious leaders and our rogues in government.

I was involved in the hold-up on Ikorodu Road last week. Mr Kadiri’s death was all a mistake really. We didn’t mean to hurt anyone, but Mr Kadiri wouldn’t surrender easily and in the ensuing scuffle, the gun I was holding went off. He died immediately. I was so frightened at first but I soon got over it. It was my first big job and we made N370,000 on Mr Kadiri’s Peugeot.

My share was a clean N75,000. I bought some clothes, an iron bed and a fan from the money. I have now given up the labourer’s work to devote all my energy and time on my new and apparently lucrative job. I have made enough money from previous hold-ups to buy a television set. I am living well now, and my neighbours are beginning to notice.

Vicky now wants to marry me. She packed in two weeks ago. She shadows me everywhere like a tigress watching over her cub. She knows how I make my money. In fact, she was with the police all night yesterday answering questions about my whereabouts. I am a suspect you see. Those clever little men in uniform traced a button found at the scene of the murder to a blood-stained shirt without a (similar) button found in my room. I was tipped off about the impending police raid and wasn’t caught but they took Vicky. Now my pictures are in all the newspapers. The police claim that I might be able to help them in their enquiries.

Vicky I understand was severely tortured yesterday night for refusing to give my hideout away. She was released this morning and she immediately passed the information on to me.

I have begun to grow a beard. I reckon if I can remain in captivity for a week my disguise would grow wild enough to fool the police. There is one big job planned for early next week and I don’t want to get caught before then. I think we would pull the job off neatly. Every detail has been carefully rehearsed over and over again. I would retire after the job. A lot of money is involved, nearly two million naira, out of which I get a third.

I would migrate with Vicky and the money to the Niger to begin life afresh. Open a small shop or a food centre. The food centre idea titillates me more. A chance to make up for the food I have missed in 36 years.

I dreamt this morning that I was tied up with three others to face a firing squad. We were surrounded by thousands of people (men, women and children) surging forward, jeering, booing, crying for blood.

By the time the bullets were finally deposited in my chest and stomach, I was ready. I died still wearing my grin of innocence, admonishing the state for being so impatient and making such a mistake. All I wanted was a small slice out of life and I nearly made it.

Two days before the planned two million naira wages hold-up, I was, with three others, aligned before the arms robbery tribunal, being condemned to die by a firing squad.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Challenging the 'single story' of Africa

Sokari Ekine

2010-07-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/65941

I started this week by thinking there was no single theme but now I see that this week's review is about challenging the 'single story' story of Africa. Starting with a technology post, first from AfroMusing – who discusses the future of tech on the continent – people write books on this so I think this post does well to point out some of the main issues. It is an old post but a discussion which is ongoing and which I should have picked up at the time. Juliana makes five points: the growth of mobile phones and the services provided such as MPESA; technology for social change, with mobile phones, especially SMS, again playing a prominent role; the many tech innovations being developed on the continent so the 'knowledge economy is no longer an enclave of the West'; social networking/participation through blogs, Facebook and Twitter as well as local country-specific social networks; and enabling a much closer relationship between the diaspora and the continent, again through blogs, etc.

'This cultural mashup sees an exciting time revealing itself through the retelling of old stories with technology, breathing a fresh perspective into African identity and self expression online. We already see this with the emergence of African Digital Arts, Animations made in Kenya (Just A Band) Senegal (Tree Lion), and the incredible creativity seen as part of the brand tourism around World Cup 2010 in South Africa. The old memes are almost dead or as Fergie of black eyed peas would say, its so 2000 late. The new meme of Africa is unfolding in front of us. Technologically and culturally the future of Africa is absolutely refreshing.'

SACSIS (South African Civil Society Information Service) – I am relieved the World Cup is finally over. Probably the least exciting and politically charged WC in a long time. How were we in Africa supposed to choose between Spain – a country where racist slogans are an acceptable part of football culture or Netherlands and its Afrikaner connection. Meanwhile after hosting people from across the continent and world immigrants living in South Africa are bracing themselves for another xenophobic onslaught – one minute you are been cheered the next spat on. I picked this post from SACSIS because the post highlights this 'split personality' as well as the 'crude reminders of our [SA] racial and economic inequity'. Fazila Farouk writes from the 'Grahamstown National Arts Festival [NAF]':

'It’s a significant question to ponder. South Africa does, after all, feel like a country suffering from a split personality. April’s racially charged and intensely polarised national identity debate dissipated very abruptly to make way for June’s generous national unity, which, we are told, is giving way to July’s angry xenophobia. What on Earth will we be on about in September one wonders?'

Although the majority of the audience were white and middle-class – and seeking entertainment – black issues were not absent from the festival.

'In both fringe and main events, white audiences flocked to traditional Western performances. Whether it was the tedious tap dancing grannies in Just Tap or the sloppy performance of Carmenby the Cape Town Ballet Company, these shows played to packed houses. It was abundantly clear that conventional expressions of art that support an imperialist culture will continue to thrive in South Africa because they attract a moneyed Western audience… But black issues were not absent from the festival programme. Issues of black identity, the ongoing struggle for recognition, the clash between Western and traditional African culture, the problem of blacks perpetually being trapped in survivalist mode, the extraordinary social challenges heightened by alienation and poverty – these issues were all very common in the programme line up. And, they clearly reflected the marginalised existence of the black life. But white audiences – in Grahamstown for the winter holidays – were in pursuit of amusement and distraction. They were uncommon if non-existent at emotive black performances. '

That African Girl returns to the 'single story' story of Africa. This time it is yet another photo story from the National Geographic's 'Faces of Africa'. Apparently this is the 'real Africa', not the urban spaces and rural communities of farmers and fishermen and women we are all familiar with.

'After clicking through a few more pictures, I became frustrated and had to come back later to read the interview with authors and photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher. After seeing the pictures, it was no longer surprising for me to have encountered people, who upon seeing pictures of skyscrapers, beaches and cars in Africa, ask to see the "real Africa". Or college students who reduce the breadth of African music to "talking drums". It’s true that pictures are just pictures; they are the representations of one person’s perspectives, but pictures tell a story, they are said to be "worth a thousand words". In all the pictures on the website, the only modern element was a "Kalashnikov" rifle in one of the pictures. There weren’t any Malick Sidibe-esque photographs in the bunch.'

Gukira comments on the rumour that Egypt will propose an amendment to the human rights agenda item 'Promotion of cooperation, dialogue and respect for diversity in the field of human rights'. Gukira raises two important points. Firstly, he makes the connection between this proposal and the US states which have banned queer marriage.

'Put otherwise, Egypt wants to follow in the footsteps of the US states that have banned queer marriage and re-instituted discrimination, and in the footsteps of the UN committee that refused to grant IGLHRC "consultative status".'

And secondly, he discusses the relationship between queer rights and human rights.

'Egypt’s actions demonstrate fully and dangerously that the struggle over queer rights is fundamentally a struggle about human rights. And that claims for cultural diversity, so often used by many African nations, are claims that challenge the very idea of human rights by asserting the privilege of culture or national sovereignty over the idea of the human.'

Staying with the 'single story' theme, I have been following DMKW (Wambui Mwangi) and Gukira’s (Keguro Macharia) ongoing Koroga conversation. DMKW describes Koroga as 'another African story' – note the difference between the African story as told by the West and the African story as told by Africans.



'An invitation and a provocation … Koroga is another African story, a story of what we see and how we see, of meetings and transformations, of looking and seeing, of seeing and writing, of speaking into being the worlds we know, and those we are always imagining. Koroga is photographs inflaming poetry, poetry inciting photographs. Koroga is what happens when we see the world on our own terms, in our own languages, in their accents and dances, their hidden smiles and come hither seducations, seducations because we teach the world our pleasures.

'Koroga is what happens when we look at photos of ourselves, read poems about us, get stirred up, and decide to stir around.'

Black Looks publishes a review by Fikile Mazambani of Zanele Muholi’s new book, 'Faces and Phases', a photo documentary of black lesbians lives.

'Muholi’s work is still very cutting edge in Africa and in the world as she continues to bring her matter-of-fact work. In her first publication Zanele Muholi: Only Half The Picture, she commanded our attention by invoking us to think about blackness, the female form and its intertwined sexualities. This time she is bringing the faces of these black female forms, almost as if to say we have faces and we go through phases in life just like anyone else, albeit in a burdensome manner. She is not asking for lofty dreams but is stating that black queers need to live in a homophobic/xenophobic free world where their visibility must be acknowledged. As evidenced by varied subjects in her book, Muholi has covered three continents and found a common bond amongst the black queers. They still face queerphobia and xenophobia, be they in Cape Town or Toronto. My one suggestion to the author would be that, a bit more of a narrative with each image would go a long way. It would afford us the opportunity to reimagine the LGBTI community. It would be interesting to know what these beings have encountered during the different phases of their lives. I know she does not want to exploit them but it may add a certain richness to the book. Other than that, this should be essential reading/viewing for most of us because we are all comfortable with what we do not know or choose not to know. What will we as Africans do? Shall we continue to deny the existence of these members of our society? If we claim to be human rights upholders then we should observe everyone’s right to be who they are.'

Finally, returning to football (soccer), Book Southern Africa publishes an excerpt from 'Amen', a photo essay on grassroots soccer in Africa by Jessica Hilltout. I am slightly cringing at the introduction, but the photos captured bring back the beauty to the game.



'Jessica Hilltout, a nomadic, Belgian-born photographer, loaded sacks of deflated soccer balls onto the roof of a battered yellow Volkswagen Beetle last year and began a seven-month road trip across Africa to document the continent’s love of the game. She found it in villages where children played with joyous abandon on dusty patches of ground, sandy beaches and lush fields, far from the stadiums where Africa’s first World Cup would be held.'

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Sokari Ekine blogs at Black Looks.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

As the BRICs go into Africa, where does South Africa stand?

Janet Szabo

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/65959

Bilateral relations with Brazil are important, something which South Africa has long recognised. This was underscored by the key agreement to strengthen political and economic relations reached during President Lula da Silva’s visit to South Africa in July 2010 as part of what some are calling his Farewell Continental Safari to several African countries. In 2003, the two countries, together with India, formed the India, Brazil, South Africa (IBSA) Forum, which has developed an impressive body of work and trilateral relations.

President Jacob Zuma has in recent months been intensifying his drive to cement relations and attract investors from the IBSA countries. His visit to India in June was designed to deepen the strategic partnership between South Africa and India and strengthen and broaden economic and commercial ties between the two countries. South Africa and India share several common interests, including the reform of the UN and Bretton Woods systems, cooperation in the IBSA Dialogue Forum, the G20 and on Climate Change. South Africa and India also share common positions on international threats to security, including terrorism, religious extremism, trafficking in drugs, small arms and human beings and infectious diseases such as the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

But the big foreign policy question for Pretoria now is how to use its relationship with Brazil and the others to ensure it is drawn more tightly into the sphere of influence occupied by the BRIC nations globally and continentally.

South Africa is also setting its sights on Russia with a visit this week (12-14 July 2010) by International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. The Minister is expected to hold discussions with her counterpart, Sergey Lavrov on a wide range of issues that define South Africa-Russia bilateral relations. South Africa considers the Russian Federation as an important strategic partner in the promotion of development, socio-economic and political progress as well as global stability. In the multilateral arena, both countries support the promotion of equal distribution of power and influence in the global political and economic systems; the primacy of the UN in global security matters; sustainable development; free and fair trade; and an equitable international economic order. The Minister’s visit comes ahead of a scheduled visit by President Zuma in early August. He is expected to round off his contacts with BRIC members with a visit to China later this year.

Though the term BRICs was coined by US bank Goldman Sachs in 2003 as a description of countries with fast-growing economies and markets, it has since become formalised into a coalition of sorts. Its members have met several times over the past year to share views on globalisation, though the extent to which this will become a negotiating body so far seems undecided.

The success of the BRIC nations for the African continent has changed the manner, means and urgency in which other (new and old) partnerships with the continent are being undertaken. It has also put the spotlight on South Africa and its economic position and influence in Africa. With an economy of around $27 billion which accounts for 18% of Africa’s GDP and 27% of sub-Saharan GDP, it is certainly perceived as an economic powerhouse and a powerful African player that must be engaged. Notwithstanding that it is also Africa’s main manufacturer.

While global manufacturing exports have grown by around 6% annually since 2000, Africa has not been able to keep pace. It still relies heavily on exports of raw materials. South Africa is the only exception with a manufacturing sector-to-GDP ratio of 15,9%. As a result, its manufacturers are looking to other markets on the continent and local brands are becoming known in Southern, East and West Africa, and more recently, in the North.

Of all the BRIC countries, China presents the biggest competition for SA in terms of exports of manufactured goods. China’s exports to Africa have increased by about 39% annually since 2000 and they reached $55,9 billion in 2008. By comparison, India’s exports increased by an annual average of 21% to reach $23,2 billion in 2008; Brazil’s exports increased by around 19% annually to $16 billion in 2008; Russia’s by around 25% each year (from a very low base) to $6,3 billion in 2008.

With regard to trade relations with the continent, SA’s total bilateral trade of $5 billion in 1999 put it very much on the same level as China, India and Brazil. But since 2000, it has been slipping significantly. In 2008, SA’s total trade with Africa reached $20 billion, whereas BRIC trade with Africa (excluding SA) soared to $151 billion in 2008.

South Africa has the competitive advantage of longstanding historical ties and geographical proximity to the continent. According to Standard Bank, relative to both GDP and total trade, it is the country most integrated with the rest of the continent. Although in certain contexts this is a moot point since some may argue to the contrary that South Africa is perceived as set apart from the rest given its economic dominance of African markets.

Nevertheless its exports to the rest of Africa have been central to its broader drive to participate in global trade. SA’s exports to Africa have increased from $3,5 billion in 1999 to $12,5 billion in 2008. Most of the exports go to Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya and Angola. These comprise mainly machinery, base metals, transport equipment, chemical products, mineral products and prepared foods (these are similar to China’s exports to the continent). SA has a comparative advantage over countries like Russia, China, India and Brazil in such areas as precious metals, prepared foods, chemical products and works of art according to Standard Bank.

Barely ten years ago, Africa was receiving less than $5 billion in foreign investment a year. However, by 2008 this picture had changed dramatically and the continent was receiving inflows of around $62 billion. The three top destinations for inward investment were South Africa, Morocco and Egypt.

SA’s corporate interest in Africa has grown exponentially over the past years. According to the South African Reserve Bank, direct investment into Africa has increased from $1,6 billion in 2001 to $13 billion in 2008. The investment charge into Africa has been led by companies such as MTN, Shoprite, Naspers and Standard Bank. However, the contribution from small and medium business is also growing, driven by Africa’s growing consumer market. Positive growth projections for this market indicate that there is little likelihood of South African companies being sidelined. More than 70% of Africa’s population is under the age of 50, and by 2030 projections have put the total number of Africans of working age at 1 billion. With a per capita income – in purchasing power parity of $2 241 (according to Standard Bank) - Africa is wealthier than India and getting close to the $3 000 typically associated with rising consumption. Wealth on the continent is very unequally distributed, even though the trend and direction signals a positive outcome.

There are also implications around whether the continent would become the stomping ground for corporates from the South (including the BRIC countries and South Africa) in search of a cheap labour pool and an expanding market base.

While the BRIC countries undoubtedly present challenges for South African companies in certain areas, the country has definite advantages that can be exploited. The growing regional integration and especially the proposed merger of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African community (EAC) can only serve to enhance South Africa’s attempts to broaden co-operation and ties with the rest of the continent. SA’s position can also be a strength as it is viewed by the BRICs as a gateway to Southern Africa and beyond the region and the possibilities for co-operation are compelling. Undoubtedly South African companies will grasp these opportunities and thereby engage the BRICs so as to position SA as a key player in the fast-growing BRIC-Africa business ventures. And all of this would be done as part of strengthening the South-South cooperation.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Janet Szabo is a SABC news researcher based in Johannesburg. She was one of the four journalists that participated in the Journalist study visit to China in April 2010, organised by Fahamu’s Emerging Powers in Africa program.

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

India's Africa policy: Can we do better?

Rajiv Bhatia

2010-07-15

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/65960

On visiting the China Foreign Affairs Ministry website, you can access a document, “China's African Policy.” But if you look for a document on “India's Africa Policy” on our Ministry website, you are unlikely to succeed. Even a phone call to South Block may not help. The reason perhaps is that no such document exists.

Nevertheless, India has a reasonably successful policy towards the African continent, one that reflects a balance between our values and interests. It takes into account the diversity of Africa as well as the policies of other key players — the United States, the European Union, China and Japan.

Evolved over time, this policy owes a lot to Mahatma Gandhi, who became a beacon for Africa; to Jawaharlal Nehru, who left an indelible imprint on India-Africa relations; and to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, who contributed immensely to India's friendship with African countries.

On international fora, India played a leading role in assisting and expediting Africa's de-colonisation process. The help it extended to the African countries in gaining independence and to South Africa in its struggle against apartheid was recognised widely and often. At the root of Nehru's belief was that India's independence would be incomplete without Africa's freedom. As a visionary, he also foresaw and strengthened Afro-Asian unity that led to the Bandung Conference and the birth of non-alignment. Political relations have since been marked by mutual understanding and support.

Later, when parts of Africa were torn by conflict, and restoring and maintaining peace became a priority, India came forward to help in the United Nations peacekeeping missions in Congo, Somalia, Liberia, Burundi and Sudan, among others.

Development has been a pressing need in sub-Saharan Africa. The Indian government has been generous in extending assistance, giving African students access to higher education, mainly under the auspices of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations, and in offering technical cooperation under Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) and related programmes. These have been innovative, though modest, instruments, but their effectiveness lies in identifying Africa's felt needs and our responding to them suitably.

An important element of Africa policy relates to defence cooperation with select countries such as Nigeria, Zambia, Lesotho and Botswana in order to assist their forces through training programmes and exposure to the best practices and professionalism of India's armed forces. Cooperation in the IT, health care, agriculture, mining, small industry, infrastructure and hydrocarbon sectors has been promoted. Another significant aspect has been to cultivate good relations with the Indian diaspora in view of their role as a bridge between host countries and India.

Our Africa policy has laid emphasis, especially in recent years, on expansion and diversification of trade, investment and economic relations. Trade between the two sides stood at $35 billion in 2008. Indian investment in Africa is estimated to be $29 billion at present. Investment from Africa in India is also sizeable.

The presence in Africa of leading members of India Inc — the Tatas, the Mahindras, Ranbaxy, NIIT, and the Bharti; of public sector undertakings — OVL, RITES, Ircon and NSIC; of banks — the State Bank of India, the Bank of Baroda, the Bank of India and ICICI; and contribution by top national business chambers to wide-ranging business promotion have imparted content to India's economic representation there. The best exposition of India's policy, one anchored in Afro-optimism, was articulated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his opening and concluding statements at the historic, first India-Africa Forum Summit held in New Delhi in April 2008. Since then, India's engagement with Africa has clearly become multilayered. It runs at three levels — at the Pan-African level through growing ties with the African Union; at the regional level through Regional Economic Communities; and with all countries at the bilateral level.

From the foregoing, however, we should not conclude that there is no scope for improvement in India-Africa relations. There is. We have been on the right track, but we need to recognise that the unfolding change in Africa is complex, that its pace is rapid and inconsistent, and that competition for Africa's affection and attention has become increasingly severe. Hence there may be need for a fresh evaluation of policy issues and constraints on speedy implementation of past decisions. We need to deepen our engagement with the specific goal of fulfilling Africa's needs and aspirations in accordance with our capabilities and interests. It will require more resources — human, technical and financial — and faster speed and, above all, a change in our conventional mindset.

Two years ago, the government termed Africa “an emerging priority” in foreign policy. Now, in 2010 and beyond, Africa should be treated as one of our key priorities.

Sustained attention to Africa at the political level is essential. Happily, the first half of 2010 witnessed a successful visit by Vice President Hamid Ansari to Zambia, Malawi and Botswana, followed by the first visit to Africa — to Mauritius and Mozambique — by External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna. In the past six months, India has received three African VVIPs, one each from Seychelles, South Africa and Botswana. The momentum should be maintained. In the run-up to the India-Africa Forum Summit in 2011, it will be greatly helpful if our President and Prime Minister visit Africa soon. Close personal relations at the summit level are very important in Africa's political culture.

India Inc. has been on a roll in Africa in recent years. Its profile is set to increase. But Indian companies should follow a path different from that of European and Chinese firms. They would do well to adhere to the basic canons of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and to a partnership-oriented business culture. They must help Africans through value-addition, employment creation and skill development. The Africans expect them to bring new technology and substantial investment in socio-economic development which, in turn, will present attractive business opportunities.

South Block needs to create a new synergy by opening its doors to a small but talented community of Africanists working in the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, the Indian Council of World Affairs, the Association of Indian Diplomats and a few universities. Taken together, they represent valuable expertise outside the government. The External Affairs Minister, fresh from his visit to Africa, might consider convening a roundtable for an informal interaction with select experts. Fresh ideas and advice might be useful as he supervises the preparations for the second India-Africa Forum Summit. The media can help by enhancing the public interest in the continent, following World Cup 2010. Through an increased focus on Africa, they should inform, educate and entertain us. Indeed a few media organisations are already doing so. Developments in Africa are fascinating, besides having a bearing on our national interests. This exciting story is waiting to be told to audiences in India.

A powerful triad of the Government of India, India Inc., and civil society can take the India-Africa relationship to a new level of strength and vitality. Thus, to the query whether India's African policy can do better, the answer is ‘yes, we can.' The question is: do we have the will and the stamina?

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS


* Rajiv Bhatia served as India's High Commissioner to South Africa and Lesotho as well as to Kenya

* This article was originally published in The Hindu

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Pambazuka News 154 : Sénégal : La montée du mouvement citoyen face aux politiques

2010-07-14

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/summaryfr/65945

Document exposes ZANU PF chefs who looted farms

2010-07-16

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news160710/document160710.htm

Recently appointed co-Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone is reported to have asked officials in her ministry to explain why ZANU PF officials and military officers, implicated in the looting of white-owned farms, have not been investigated or arrested. A report in the weekly Zimbabwe Independent newspaper quotes Makone saying she had received a dossier containing ‘a long list’ of cases where officials have either looted property or taken over farms in defiance of court orders. Makone told the paper she was still working on the document and had given a copy to the permanent secretary in the ministry ‘to check what happened to the cases.”

Zimbabwe diamonds deal to allow partial exports

2010-07-16

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10659949

The body overseeing the trade in "blood diamonds" has agreed that Zimbabwe can resume limited exports from new diamond fields in the east of the country. Under the terms of the deal, Zimbabwe will be able to sell some stockpiles. It may be able to resume full exports after a review of conditions at the Marange diamond fields in September.

Zimbabwe: Shut your mouth or else

2010-07-15

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89803

Jairos Mukotosi, 50, is avoiding a team of consultants, sent as part of a parliamentary outreach programme to the Rushinga area of rural Mashonaland Central Province in northeastern Zimbabwe, to find out what people would like included in a proposed new constitution. But for the past two months the members of the youth militia aligned to President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party - have been warning villagers to either shut up or support ZANU-PF's view on the new constitution, which includes no limit on the number of presidential terms that can be served. They have dubbed their operation "Vhara Muromo", or Shut Your Mouth.

Zuma expected to re-engage Mugabe and Tsvangirai on GPA issues

2010-07-16

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news160710/zuma160710.htm

After a month’s engagement with the World Cup, South African President Jacob Zuma is reportedly set to resume his SADC mediation role in Zimbabwe to try and bridge the gap between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai. Talks to iron out outstanding Global Political Agreement issues between Mugabe and Tsvangirai have dragged on since the two leaders agreed to join hands in February 2009 to form the coalition government.

DRC: Getting away with rape

2010-07-15

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=89802

When nine-year-old Jeanne* from North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was raped by a neighbour, her parents were determined he would not get away with it. With the help of an international organization that provides legal services for victims of sexual violence, they contacted the police and got a lawyer. Then the DRC’s legal system kicked in.

Ghana: Progress on women’s empowerment lauded

2010-07-16

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35337

United Nations development chief Helen Clark has lauded the progress made by Ghana towards women’s empowerment and gender equality, one of the eight social and economic objectives known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015. Miss Clark, who is Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), was impressed by the “tremendous amount of activity on the legal framework for women,” she said yesterday as she began her three-day visit to the country.

Indian Ocean Islands: Women join forces for political equality

2010-07-16

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=52156

"Instead of moaning all the time, why don’t you create your own (political) party?" some men asked Brigitte Rabemanantsoa Rasamoelina, a female politician from Madagascar. She accepted the challenge and in February formed Ampela Mano Politika, a political party which started with only 22 female members and now has over 5,000 female members ... and 10 men

Kenya: Living death for poor women sufferers

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/aQK4my

With about 3,000 Kenyan women and girls developing obstetric fistula each year, you might think the government would have a plan to prevent and treat it. Think again. Obstetric fistula is a childbirth injury which results in constant leaking of urine and faeces.

Mozambique: New sex workers’ alliance formed

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/aXK21D

Parliamentarians in Mozambique are currently facing a challenge by an advocacy group new to the country's political scene, on an issue most people are unwilling to even talk about - sex work. The newly formed Mozambique chapter of the Pan African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) are pressing parliament to recognise the rights of sex workers, especially to ensure their health and security.

Zambia: Women welcome equality commission

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/9MpJSC

The Zambian National Constitution Conference (NCC) concluded its business recently with the adoption of a clause for the creation of a Gender Equality Commission. This is exciting news for gender activists who did not think the NCC would accept the clause. The women’s movement, alongside other civil society groups, had refused to participate in the NCC fearing civil society’s voice would not be heard.

Zimbabwe: Southern African Young Women’s Festival (SAYWF)

OSISA

2010-07-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/65986

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and the Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT), in collaboration with young women’s networks and formations in Southern Africa, are hosting a Southern African Young Women’s Festival (SAYWF) in Harare from 24 to 28 October 2010. The Festival is designed to provide space for young women between 18 and 30 years of age, to come together and share experiences, share strategies and energise each other and celebrate their youth and the potential they have to advocate for social justice in their respective communities.
Calling All Young Women in Southern African to 3 Days of Celebration!

Deadline: 15 August 2010.

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and the Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT), in collaboration with young women’s networks and formations in Southern Africa, are hosting a Southern African Young Women’s Festival (SAYWF) in Harare from 24 to 28 October 2010.

The Festival is designed to provide space for young women between 18 and 30 years of age, to come together and share experiences, share strategies and energise each other and celebrate their youth and the potential they have to advocate for social justice in their respective communities.

Activities at the festival will include panel discussions, talent shows, debate contests, inter-generational dialogue sessions, talk shows, music and film shows and many other exciting activities. The platform will also make space for structured training sessions on various key skills including ICTs and life skills, to equip young women with the practical skills they need for effective advocacy for women’s rights. (please indicate the training sessions you would like to attend on the form below). The event is also designed to be a launching platform for the 16 Days national campaigns envisioned to be driven by young women across the region. OSISA and partners will be funding these campaigns.

The festival is organised to respond to the dire need for a safe space for young women in the region to share their own experiences and learn from and encourage each other to engage in activism that transforms their communities. Youth-related spaces are often dominated by young men, and young women hardly have safe spaces and platforms on which to speak about issues that affect them specifically as young women. Yet with challenges such as increasing unemployment, HIV and AIDS and rising levels of poverty, young women are the worst affected. This Festival, which is envisaged to be a biannual event, will provide that much needed space for young women to engage on these and other issues.

Young women from Angola, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe are encouraged to apply to be part of this exciting event! OSISA and partners will cover the full costs, including travel, accommodation, subsistence and training for all selected participants. To qualify, candidates should be between 18 and 30 years, working in organisations/networks and formations committed to social justice and especially women’s rights. University students who provide proof of interest in women’s rights issues will also be considered. Selection will be on a first come first served basis!

To apply fill out and send by email or fax, the Application Form below. Each submitted form should be accompanied by a motivation letter, expressing why you should be selected to participate. The letter should not be more than 1 page.

For more information on this initiative and the Young Women’s Voices: 16 Days Campaigns, please contact: Tsitsi Mukamba at tsitsim@osisa.org or Hilda Makamure hildam@yet.org.zw or youthnow@mweb.co.zw

Or Phone: +27 11 5875000 or +27 836615600 (Tsitsi)
+2634747986 or +263712441032 (Hilda)

Africa: Counter terrorism measures & human rights protection in Africa

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/duRjBU

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights chairman Maina Kiai has trashed the current USA led war on terrorism saying it has led to massive human rights violations and growth of autocratic governments globally.

DRC: ICC orders release of ex-militia chief Lubanga

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/9GycuE

The International Criminal Court ruled Thursday that Congolese militia chief Thomas Lubanga should be freed after his war crimes trial was suspended unless prosecutors mount an appeal within days. Presiding judge Adrian Fulford that Lubanga should be "freed without conditions" as his detention "is no longer fair" given the suspension of the trial.

East Africa: Tanzania lawyer at Rwanda genocide court shot dead

2010-07-16

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10649739

A senior Tanzanian defence lawyer at the UN-backed tribunal for Rwanda has been shot dead outside his home in Tanzania's main city of Dar es Salaam. Jwani Mwaikusa, who also taught law at the University of Dar es Salaam, was killed as he drove into his compound on the outskirts of the town.

Kenya: Hundreds made homeless by mass forced evictions

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/bx9Zf0

Amnesty International has called on the Kenyan authorities to halt the forced evictions in a Nairobi settlement that have left hundreds of families homeless and destitute. A bulldozer from the Nairobi City Council flattened market stalls in Kabete NITD on Tuesday night for the second time this week. On Saturday, authorities had demolished around 100 homes and 470 market stalls.

North Africa: Moroccan activists demand ICC ratification

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/cYOl19

Moroccan activists are pressing law-makers to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), claiming the move would boost human rights and limit government impunity. Even though Morocco's Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER) recommended that the Kingdom accede to the statute signed in 2000, it has yet to be ratified. Concerns have been raised that it contradicts the country's own laws.

Rwanda: Police arrest suspect in Rwisereka murder case

2010-07-16

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10658584

Police in Rwanda investigating the murder of opposition politician Andre Kagwa Rwisereka have arrested a man. The suspect had been a business partner of the dead man, a police spokesman said. He had been seen with Mr Rwisereka in a bar on Monday night, he added.

Sudan: ICC charges Bashir with genocide

2010-07-16

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35293

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a second arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, adding genocide to the list of charges for crimes he has allegedly committed in the war-ravaged Darfur region. The Court’s pre-trial chamber said that there are reasonable grounds to believe Mr. al-Bashir is responsible for three counts of genocide against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups, including genocide by killing; genocide by causing serious bodily or mental harm; and genocide by deliberately inflicting conditions of life meant to destroy each target group.

Swaziland: Children still share jail cells with adults

2010-07-16

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=89827

Swaziland's judiciary is concerned by an absence of detention facilities for children, which forces them to share jail cells with adult criminals. "Do we have facilities for keeping a minor?" enquired presiding High Court judge Thomas Masuku during the recent trial of a 16-year-old boy, when it became apparent that the accused was being held in the same cell as adults in the northern town of Pigg's Peak.

DRC: When thousands suddenly take flight

2010-07-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89844

Tens of thousands of people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have fled their homes amid an army offensive against Ugandan rebels, presenting fresh impetus to humanitarian agencies’ efforts to adapt their response mechanisms to sudden displacement. Local NGOs listed 50,000 displaced civilians who had taken flight since DRC military operations against the Allied Democratic Forces/National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF/NALU) started on 25 June in the North Kivu district of Beni.

Global: Internal displacement: Estimated country numbers from 2001 to 2009

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/d4zxeJ

IDMC has compiled a table showing the estimated numbers of IDPs over the past decade in all the countries which it monitors. The figures include people internally displaced by conflict, generalised violence or human rights violations. They are compiled from the figures published from 2001 to 2009 in IDMC’s annual summaries Internal displacement: Global overview of trends and developments.

Global: Non-state armed groups- Forced Migration Review

Call for submissions

2010-07-16

http://www.fmreview.org/non-state/

While the number of armed conflicts has decreased since the late 1990s, those between national governments and non-state armed groups (NSAGs), or between NSAGs, continue to cause large-scale and prolonged displacement, both internally and to other – particularly neighbouring – states. The FMR Editors are looking for practice-oriented submissions, reflecting a diverse range of opinions but focusing on situations of forced displacement

Kenya: Killing at refugee camp

2010-07-16

http://www.bartamaha.com/?p=31314

Hundreds of refugees have been moved from a camp in northern Kenya after the killing of a teenager sparked riots in the facility and violence between its Sudanese and Somali residents, according to an official. Staff of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, held talks with community leaders in Dadaab to calm and reconcile the refugees following the 13 July killing .

Sudan: Government expels two foreign aid workers

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/b0dIcv

Sudanese government has expelled two foreign employees of the International Organization for Migration working in the country's Darfur region, the agency said Thursday. The organization's Geneva-based spokesman, Jean-Philippe Chauzy, said the Sudanese government gave no explanation for the move. The expulsion order comes days after the International Criminal Court charged Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, with genocide in Darfur.

Uganda: Kampala urged to end "gunpoint" deportations

2010-07-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89847

Uganda has begun “forcibly” deporting hundreds of Rwandans from two southwestern refugee camps, at gunpoint according to one witness, prompting the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to call for a suspension of the operation. Both countries have long tried to rid Uganda of Rwandan refugees who for their part say they do not feel safe going home.

Emerging Powers in Africa News Round-up

Sanusha Naidu

2010-07-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/emplayersnews/65999

General News

Will Japan follow in India and China’s footsteps?
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has announced its decision to buy South Africa’s Dimension Data for $3.24bn. The deal is good news for both parties. Japan will gain greater access to Southern African economies, many of which are benefiting hugely from telecoms liberalisation Read More

World Bank votes $180m for research in Africa
The World Bank has earmarked $180 million for research in technology development in Africa universities. The fund is to be administered through the Africa Technology Policy Study (ATPS)Read More

Siemens to invest €200m to expand African business
SIEMENS is to spend €200m in Africa in the next two years and plans to double to 10% its share of the market in the regions it serves, estimated to be worth almost €30bn a year by 2012. The president and CEO of Siemens, Peter Loscher, said that the investment would focus mainly on expanding its business and sales structures in Africa, where the group was eyeing business in health, renewable energy and infrastructure development Read More

British Duped Ghana Millions Of Dollars In Bauxite Sale To Chinese
Months of investigation has revealed traces of negligence and conflict of interest on the part of officialdom resulting in Ghana losing millions of US dollars over the sale of the Ghana Bauxite Company Limited (GBCL) to Bosai Minerals Group; a Chinese company. Preliminary findings by The Herald put the country’s loss close to $20 million from the sale of 80 per cent shares of TBAC ; majority shareholders -previously British Aluminum Company - to the Chinese group Read More

Green norms for overseas investment soon
The Chinese government will soon come out with environmental protection guidelines for domestic companies planning overseas investments, ministry officials said last week. According to experts, the guidelines will enhance the nation's "soft power" in the global arena and foster more investment deals. Domestic companies that have overseas operations will have to take adequate steps to protect the environment and shoulder more corporate social responsibility (CSR), they said. The new rules will help improve the quality of overseas investments and are called Chinese Overseas Direct Investment Environment Protection Guidelines, said Yang Zhaofei, director-general of the Department of Policies, Laws and Regulations under the Ministry of Environmental Protection. The commerce and environment protection ministries and the China Banking Regulatory Commission are also involved in drafting the guidelines Read More

The world's biggest mine rush
London-listed African Minerals has announced further significant Chinese investment in its Tonkolili, Sierra Leone, iron ore project, now by Shandong Iron & Steel, which plans to put USD 1.5bn into mine and infrastructure development. This will gain the State-owned Chinese steelmaker a 25% equity stake in Tonkolili, and an offtake of 10m tons a year of seaborne iron ore, at discounted rates. The latest deal in West African iron ore, which has captured billions of dollars of mining investment in the past few months, once again illustrates China's long term commitment to financing resources in specified minerals and commodities. At the same time, the deals show that not even the world's biggest mining companies have sufficient individual resources to cover all the risks in these investments. Even the capital required for a new world class iron ore mine seems to be beyond the biggest individual miners Read More

China in Africa
CCB Signs credit facility with Sasol
China Construction Bank, through its Johannesburg branch, signed a 3 year Multicurrency Standby Credit Facility with Sasol (JSE:SOL) at the beginning of June 2010. The facility is in line with CCB's strategy of building a bridge between Sub-Saharan Africa and China Read More

China and Africa envision new security cooperation
Public security conditions in Africa have been stable in recent years. Peace and development have become the mainstream in some African countries. However, abnormal shifts of political power and regional unrest remain in places such as Somalia, Darfur, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Moreover, Africa faces increasing pressure from untraditional security problems such as food safety, terrorism, climate change, proliferation of small arms, and refugees and the spread of disease. African countries need help from the international community to establish and maintain lasting peace and safety. China has always put a lot of emphasis on Africa's security issues and supported African countries and organizations to solve conflicts independently Read More

Chinese bank to support Malawi with $2bn
Malawi may soon find itself a beneficiary to $2 billion to finance agriculture, mining, manufacturing, energy and other projects. The China Import and Export Bank said during its 10-man strong visit to the country. The delegation said that their visit was to explore ‘business ventures and establish lines of communication. Malawi has already benefitted a US$25 million integrated cotton production and processing company in Balaka’ through China Export and Import Bank Read More

African Minerals in $1.5 billion deal with Shandong
African Minerals Ltd has sealed a second investment deal with a Chinese group for its flagship iron ore project in Sierra Leone, selling a 25 percent stake to Shandong Iron & Steel for $1.5 billion. In January, the London-listed company inked a 153 million pounds deal with the China Railway Materials Commercial Corporation -- one of the country's largest steel trading companies -- to help fund the first stage of the Tonkolili project. News of the latest deal, which involves a three-stage investment and an agreement for Shandong to buy 10 million tonnes of iron ore per year at discounted prices Read More

China in Africa - SABMiller
How does one eat an elephant? One bite at a time, goes the popular answer. In a country of 9,6mkm² , 33 provinces and 1,33bn people, SABMiller’s strategy in China is remarkably similar. The group’s trail into Asia began in 1994 when it acquired joint control of the second-largest brewery in mainland China with China Resources, a privatisation arm of the government. The joint venture, CR Snow, had a head start on its competitors as it was only in 2007 that aggressive consolidation began Read More

The Next Empire
All across Africa, new tracks are being laid, highways built,ports deepened, commercial contracts signed—all on an unprecedented scale, and led by China, whose appetite for commodities seems insatiable. Do China’s grand designs promise the transformation,at last, of a star-crossed continent? Or merely its exploitation? Howard French travels deep into the heart of Africa, searching for answers Read More

China's Sinopec reports oil discovery in Nigeria
State-owned Chinese oil producer Sinopec said its Addax subsidiary has struck oil offshore Nigeria after the unit was acquired last year to expand the company's African presence Read More

Zimbabwe President Mugabe invites Chinese businesses to invest in infrastructure
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe urged Chinese businesses to invest in developing infrastructure in the various productive sectors of the economy for the country to develop rapidly and turn its fortunes around. Mugabe made the call when he met with visiting Chinese delegation that is in the country for the 8th session of the Zimbabwe-China Joint Commission. Mugabe said Zimbabwe needs investment in agricultural infrastructure in different sub sectors, namely tobacco, cotton, maize, livestock and horticulture. He said the infrastructure would enable the sectors to expand and meet the domestic and export requirements. The country also needs to revamp the irrigation systems and this required capital Read More

Chinese Co Sues State Insurance Co
China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) Addis Engineering Plc dragged Ethiopian Insurance Corporation (EIC) to court, claiming insurance coverage worth over two million Birr for damages caused to its construction site on a road project in the Afar Regional State two years ago. CRBC Addis is currently undertaking the Serdo-Afdera-Afrarhaik Road Upgrading Project worth 624.5 million Br for which it bought an insurance policy from EIC Read More


Congo says talking to China on land for palm oil
Democratic Republic of Congo is studying a proposal to provide land to China to grow large amounts of palm for oil production in the vast central African country, a government minister told ReutersRead More

India in Africa
Asian giants look to Africa
The announcement by Bharti Airtel of its US$10.7 billion (Dh39.29bn) acquisition of the Kuwaiti company Zain’s African operations was the biggest such deal by an Indian telecommunications company. Providing access to Zain’s 42 million subscribers spanning 15 nations, this expansion announced last month made Bharti Airtel, India’s biggest telecoms operator, the fifth-largest mobile carrier in the world.The much-celebrated deal is also indicative of India’s strident foray into Africa, once dubbed the hopeless continent but now rapidly emerging as a lucrative investment destination for Indian businesses Read More

Neha Chowdhry: Heeding the call of the African continent
With India's markets in the West faltering as a result of the global financial crisis, Indian firms stand to gain by stepping up investments in Africa. Indian investments in Africa need to be honest, to make a business of it,” said Vinod Dhall, director of corporate planning for the Mac Group, which invests in the East African and Tanzanian markets. Dhall has been in Africa for 12 years and has noticed a “changing ethos” in the manner that business is done in Africa Read More

We are poorer than we thought
A new measure of poverty has shown that just eight Indian states have more poor people than 26 of the poorest African nations together. So much for our grand economic success story. Being worse off than Sub-Saharan Africa is serious Read More

SAITEX encourages India-Africa trade
African and Indian companies will meet this year at the Southern African International Trade Exhibition (SAITEX) to further cement trade relations between the two emerging economic powers. SAITEX, the largest international trade show in Africa, takes place at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, near Johannesburg from 25 to 27 July 2010. India is South Africa’s sixth-largest Asian trading partner, with total trade between the two countries reaching $4.4-billion in 2008. Indian companies have returned en masse for this year’s SAITEX, and will be exhibiting on the Indian Pavilion to showcase new products and services [url=http://gazettebw.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7033:-saitex-encourages-india-africa-trade&catid=13:business&Itemid=2
]Read More[/url]

In other Emerging News

Turkish Airlines moving into Africa: will the country emulate China?
Turkish Airlines (THY) is being encouraged to launch services between Istanbul and Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. It is not the first time that the airline has been linked to new African services but on this occasion comes the admission there is a wider agenda involving trade and specifically mining and energy. Could Turkey be about to emulate China, which has been flooding the African continent with executive manpower - especially where there are sparse resources to be mined - using essential air transport as bait? Read More

SA and Brazil pledge to boost trade
South Africa and Brazil pledged to deepen trade and commercial ties in another sign of emerging countries gradually shifting their economic dependence away from rich nations. At the end of a six-country tour of Africa – his 12th trip to the continent – Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva told South African counterpart Jacob Zuma that developing economies had to tear down barriers to trade. Since coming to office in 2003, the former metal worker has worked hard to boost trade between Brazil and Africa to $26-billion, a more than five-fold increase Read More

Lula visit deepens shift in Kenya’s global trade
President Luiz Da Silva’s visit to Nairobi has added fresh impetus to the ongoing shift in Kenya’s choice of economic partners in favour of the world’s emerging powerhouses such as Brazil, China and India, economists said. Kenya is expected to use its growing ties with Brazil to seek affordable technology and loans to build the infrastructure it needs to push economic growth to the double digit levels target required to realise the Vision 2030 development goal Read More

SAfrica farmers get land offers in Africa
A South African farmers group said on Friday it had received fresh offers from African states, including Sudan and Mozambique, to invest in agriculture to grow export crops and some of the deals will be concluded soon. Agri SA deputy president Theo de Jager also said the farmer's group would within the next two months visit China to conclude an agreement over joint investment ventures with Chinese public firms in agriculture on the African continentRead More

Standard Bank plans further expansion in Africa
STANDARD Bank was looking to consolidate its grip in Africa by further expanding on the continent where it already ranks as the largest bank by assets, group CEO Jacko Maree said. The group, whose balance sheet is being supported by a formidable shareholder in the form of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), also wanted to widen its product range to take advantage of Africa’s growing trade with other emerging markets Read More

Iran, Israel take their tussle to Africa
Arch foes Iran and Israel have taken their diplomatic rivalry to Africa, courting the continent with everything from trade to security ties in their search for support in the United Nations. Both nations are sending politicians and business leaders across the continent to forge or revive contacts, clinching a string of deals ranging from arms and agriculture to promises of dams, oil and protection. Although not on the scale of the Cold War-era rivalries that saw Russia and the U.S. fight proxy wars in Africa, analysts say the continent is increasingly important to Iran and Israel and believe countries will take what is on offer from both sidesRead More

Minister Nkoana-Mashabane’s Working Visit to the Russian Federation – 13-15 July 2010
South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane will arrive in Moscow (Russia) on a two-day working visit. In the two days that she will spend in the Russian Federation, the Minister will interact with her counterpart, Minister Sergey Lavrov and discuss a wide-range of issues that define South Africa-Russia bilateral relations. She will also hold bilateral discussions with the Minister of Natural Resources, Mr Yuri Trutnev, in their shared capacities as Co-Chairs of the Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade and Cooperation (ITEC). The visit will seek to secure some form of commitment from the Russians on how to further strengthen and broaden commercial relations; facilitate education and skills development partnerships; strengthen Russian partnership on the African Agenda; and last but not least strengthen partnership and cooperation on multilateral issues Read More

IDC to approach China, India to borrow R40bn
THE Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) was planning an aggressive borrowing initiative to raise R40bn to support a disbursement programme worth R100bn in five years, chief financial officer Gert Gouws said. This was in light of the IDC’s central role in developing SA’s industrial sectors and its commitment to the government’s “new growth path” policy focus ing on employment creation and development of industry. The corporation would “significantly” seek additional funding through debt finance from local and international sources, including lenders from China and IndiaRead More

Naspers buys 28,7% of Russia’s Internet firm
South African media group Naspers will buy more than a quarter of one of Russia’s top Internet firm Digital Sky Technologies in cash and shares as it bulks up its fast-growing Internet unitRead More

World Cup handover puts spotlight on Africa-Brazil ties
When South Africa hands over the task of organising the next World Cup to Brazil, it will be the first time the tournament passes from one emerging nation to another. It will also be a high point for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has made Brazil’s ties with the developing world, especially Africa, a priority of his administration Read More

Blogs, Opinions and Publications
The Challenges of Change: Improving Resource Governance in Africa
When diamonds were discovered in the remote Chiadzwa area of the Marange district, Zimbabwe in 2006, many in the local community considered this as a blessing that would lessen their hardships in tough economic times. Indeed, it is estimated that diamonds from the Chiadzwa fields could provide as much as US$1.2 billion per month in state revenue. However, instead of funding the country’s reconstruction after years of economic collapse, the diamond rush made the people of Chiadzwa one of the latest victims of the so called “resource curse”. Against this background the HBS publication Persepctives examines the transparency issues in three case studies: Zimbabwe and the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Initiative, and the Publish What You Pay Coalition in Tanzania Download here

It’s all down to Africa
Part of the Western world’s emotional response to China’s ‘rise’ has been a general alarm lest the Yellow Peril swarm across Africa in search of loot. It is as if there were a kind of Monroe Doctrine etched upon Western European and American hearts and minds: Africa is the proper sphere of influence of the white-majority Powers, ours alone to lecture, structurally adjust and bless with charity. No sooner does a Chinaman appear upon the savannah (actually, they’ve been around for decades, but few Westerners noticed them before) than we conclude that his ‘insatiable appetite for resources’ has brought him to strip-mine the continent, encouraging dictatorship, rampant corruption and exploitation along the way. Despite its unpromising title—how much longer must we endure Dragon, Tiger and Great Wall clichés?Read More

How China Exim Bank and China Development Bank Contribute to China-Africa Trade
Based on the activity of China’s financiers in Africa, 2010 may prove to be the most remarkable yet for China-Africa economic ties, and China Exim Bank and China Development Bank are setting the pace for another record breaking year in the story of “South-South” trade Read More

Argentina: China’s new Africa?
Being a commodity-hungry emerging power with plenty of cash can be a frustrating occupation sometimes. The goods are out there, the price is right, but getting hold of the stuff (be it oil, copper, wheat…) can be a drag. That’s why China has been building railways in Africa since the 1970s. Now it’s decided to do the same in Latin America. Cristina Fernández, the Argentine president, was hoping to secure a breakthrough on China’s ban on Argentine soya oil imports during her trip to Beijing this week. Instead she sealed a $10bn train deal, the latest step in intensifying trade ties between the two nations Read More

China and the new world order
Austin Thomas challenges the Sierra Leone President to look more closely at how China has developed itself and to draw lessons from it. He argues that If president Koroma really understands change, then let him start by changing the status quo in his government and look for a country that got independence at the same time with Sierra Leone like Singapore and establish diplomatic ties with them. Get them to teach us how they succeeded through the years even though they were like us under colonialism, they work the road of development with casting blame on colonialism. We blame colonialism because we failed Read More

Insight: China’s peaceful development and security diplomacy
In December 2005, China’s White Paper introduced the policy of the “Peaceful Development Road” to replace the previously enunciated policy of the “Peaceful Rise” policy in 2002. The change in nomenclature was deliberate, as Beijing’s leadership wanted to assure China’s neighbors and other Pacific powers that its fast-paced economic growth would not lead to a drastic change in the security environment. China’s stress on “harmonious relations” with its neighbors underlined the importance of concentrating on domestic social and political issues arising from inequities in its globalized economy Read More


Why, then, China did not imperialize/colonise the whole of Africa?
The contrast between Zheng He’s expeditions and Vasco da Gama, and their general behaviour towards the littoral populations, could not have been greater. Although the Ming expeditions were unorthodox in the amount of force they used in their dealings with the petty states around the Indian Ocean rim, they still largely abided by the then prevalent general principle that the big continental states of Asia had no business interfering in the free trade of the Indian Ocean Read More

Podcasts
Bric: The new world order
Brazil, Russia, India and China (Bric) are booming whilst many other countries are struggling economically, or even crashing. When their leaders recently convened in Brasilia for their second Bric summit, they all underlined their commitment to a more democratic global governance. Although Bric started life as just a clever acronym dreamt up by a Goldman Sachs economist, it might be time to start getting accustomed to hearing about Bric in its fullest political expression. Will the emerging powers change the way the world works, or merely grab a bigger share of it? And what future for Brazil on the world's summit? These are some of the questions Empire on Aljazeera attempts to answer and examines the forces already shaping a new world order Watch Here


BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Sanusha Naidu is research director of Fahamu’s Emerging powers in Africa programme.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Gambia: Coup plotters sentenced to death

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/cLw3yq

The High Court in the Gambian capital Banjul passed death sentence on a former head of the country's military. Former Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) Lt. General Lang Tombong Tamba was sentenced on two counts with seven co-accused, including a former Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and a Lebanese born businessman.

Kenya: Government launches sms to stop hate speech

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/c1mXnO

The Kenyan government and telecom companies have a new text service to report hate speech ahead of a referendum on a new constitution. According to NCIC's Millie Lwanga, the free SMS number - 6397 - was established thanks to $700,000 (£459,400) received from international donors, Kenya's Daily Nation paper reports. The National Cohesion and Integration Commission set up after the 2007 post-poll violence in which some 1,300 people were killed, will monitor it.

Rwanda: Opposition election boycott looms

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/axOzLU

The political tension in Rwanda is heightening as a leading opponent of Rwanda's President Paul Kagame on Friday called for a boycott of next month's presidential elections because she and a number of would-be candidates have been barred from standing. Victoire Ingabire, the leader of the unregistered United Democratic Forces party who faces charges of crimes linked to genocide denial, told Reuters Kagame faces little competition and is set to easily secure a second seven-year term.

South Africa: South Africa's public policy clubs of exclusion

2010-07-16

http://www.sacsis.org.za/site/article/514.1

A reminder to the ANC that it needed to deepen democracy in society arrived at the ANC’s Polokwane conference, where one major gripe against President Mbeki was that he had failed to create “policy coherence” amongst the ANC and its alliance partners, let alone the broader society. Mbeki was criticised for insulating public policy through technocratic methods, and failing to build consensus in society beyond the so-called chattering classes. Whilst Mbeki’s vision for a post-colonial society that worked rested on making unpopular decisions, it was at least palpable.

Sudan: A guide to Abyei’s referendum

2010-07-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89832

It looks like a simple enough issue: whether a pocket of land in the middle of Sudan is part of the north or the south. But the Abyei question is key to lasting peace in the country. The last time the area’s residents were denied the right - enshrined in a 1972 peace accord - to make the choice themselves, the backlash helped push the country back into civil war.

Tanzania: Parliament dissolved ahead of general election

2010-07-16

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE66F0MF20100716

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete dissolved parliament on Friday ahead of a general election in the east African country slated for October. Kikwete pledged to continue with economic reforms, foster political reconciliation in the volatile Zanzibar archipelago and tackle corruption. "Based on our achievements of the past five years ... I am confident that the people will acknowledge our work and give us a fresh mandate to rule," he said in an address to parliament.

Africa: Southern Africa grasps trade subsidy nettle

2010-07-16

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE66F0F420100716

Leaders of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) agreed on Friday to reconsider how they share their trade duty revenues, a move that could hit Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho very hard. Tensions have been mounting within the 100-year-old SACU, the world's oldest customs agreement, because of a perception in South Africa, easily its biggest economy, that its customs receipts are bankrolling its four smaller neighbours.

Africa: Widening tax bases "key to development and democracy"

2010-07-16

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=52123

African countries should deepen their tax bases to collect more revenues to finance their development, build state institutions and to improve national dialogue and, more generally, their social contracts with citizens. These are some of the conclusions in two new studies on the taxation systems in Africa.

Global: Is global poverty reduction a myth?

2010-07-16

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52142

When the United Nations hosts a summit meeting of world leaders next September to assess the current state of its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it is expected to single out one of the major "success stories" of the day: a reduction in global poverty. But have there been any real, significant successes in the absolute number of people worldwide who have escaped poverty?

Global: The IMF’s pitiless helping hand

2010-07-16

http://www.asianage.com/opinion/imf%E2%80%99s-pitiless-helping-hand-829

For a while after the global financial crisis broke, we were told that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would change. The Group of Twenty (G-20) meeting in April 2009 provided a massive increase in resources for the IMF to provide lending to countries affected by the crisis. In return, the Fund announced that it was going to be more supportive of enlarged fiscal deficits and other expansionary measures in the face of the crisis, and provide large amounts of funds to developing countries to cope with the situation.

Zambia: Privatization 'like grabbing goods fallen from a truck'

2010-07-15

http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=52102

Zambia has sold more than 262 state-owned enterprises in the past 18 years, with the latest being the beleaguered telecommunications company Zamtel. As the debate continues about whether privatisation is the best policy option for the country, the government has learned from experience and addressed labour concerns more adequately in the most recent deal.

DRC: Assessing all aspects of HIV infection

2010-07-16

http://www.unhcr.org/4c3c90d39.html

Josephine is just one of the more than 250,000 people who have been forced to flee their homes in this isolated and chaotic corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The reason for her flight – and that of many others – is one of the world's most ruthless armed militias, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) which is infamous for its attacks on civilians. Thirty-five year old Josephine arrived at the Li-nakofu site for internally displaced person (IDPs) following an LRA attack on her village.

Global: Glaxo, Pfizer JV opens HIV pipeline to generic companies

2010-07-16

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE66F0B120100716

ViiV Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer's joint venture company for AIDS drugs, is opening its entire product line-up to generic drugmakers working in the world's poorest countries. The announcement, on the eve of next week's international AIDS conference in Vienna, means generic companies will be able to obtain royalty-free voluntary licences for all current ViiV products, as well as products still in development.

Global: Turning the page to a new era in HIV prevention research

2010-07-16

http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20032862

A new report from AVAC surveys the state of biomedical HIV prevention research, including the first evidence of vaccine-induced protection in humans and the emergence of ARV-based prevention—and provides strategic recommendations for moving forward in a time of constrained resources and faltering commitment to ending AIDS.

Global: Young people lead "prevention revolution

2010-07-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89833

Across the world, but especially in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, young people are taking action to protect themselves from HIV, says a new study by UNAIDS. "Young people have shown that they can be change agents in the prevention revolution," the agency said in a supplement to the OUTLOOK Report 2010, released ahead of the International AIDS Conference starting in Vienna, Austria, on 18 July.

Malawi: Concerns over cost of new HIV/AIDS treatment regime

2010-07-15

http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=52111

As government implements a new HIV/AIDS treatment regimen according to latest world standards, a major grouping of non-governmental organisations are concerned that the high cost of the new medication will mean government will no longer be able provide free treatment to as many people as before. The Malawi Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (MANET+) advocacy officer George Kampango told IPS that the new drugs, which cost three times as much as the current regime used, will be too expensive for government to manage providing free treatment to the poor and children.

Niger: Health centres focus on treatment of undernourished children

2010-07-16

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/niger_54022.html

When Baraka, a young mother in Guidimouni, southern Niger, took her 13-month-old son Abdul to the local health centre, tests showed that he was suffering from severe acute malnutrition and malaria. He spent a week in an outpatient feeding programme but continued to lose weight.

South Africa: Trauma of children caring for HIV-positive parents

2010-07-16

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=52182

Nine-year-old Nomasonto* had no choice but to switch roles with her mother and care for the HIV-positive woman who gave birth to her. Instead of worrying about homework and going out to play with her friends, Nomasonto’s daily concerns were now a matter of life and death. Suddenly the child had to wash her mother, change and feed her. She even had to take her ill mother to hospital for checkups and to collect her medication.

Zambia: HIV behind bars

2010-07-16

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/07/11/hiv-behind-bars

International AIDS Conferences—like the one planned for next week in Vienna—can be strange affairs. On the one hand, there is a reason to celebrate: Scaled up treatment campaigns have prolonged millions of lives; HIV testing and education are reaching many more. Yet, on the other hand, there is the reality that more than 33 million people are living with HIV worldwide. Despite efforts to expand treatment, nearly three million more become infected each year. In Zambia alone, over one million people are living with HIV.

Zimbabwe: A third of children chronically malnourished

2010-07-16

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89862

Tinashe, a single mother of three living in Mbare township in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, regularly misses a meal so as to stretch her US$90 a month income, and occasionally gives her children food left over from her employers' meals at the middle-class household where she is a domestic worker.

Africa: African students to get common history syllabus

2010-07-15

http://www.afrol.com/articles/36309

In an effort to ensure that African youth learn about their common heritage, the UN, historians, education specialists and governments are now developing a history syllabus for schools across the continent. The new syllabus is to be based on the book entitled "General History of Africa", an eight-volume series written from the African perspective and published by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). It will be the first such programme designed for an entire continent.

Africa: Making education inclusive for all

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/d9o7Hm

Educational inclusion relates to all children accessing and meaningfully participating in quality education, in ways that are responsive to their individual needs. The terms ‘inclusion’ and inclusive education’ are often used in relation to children with disabilities and/or special needs and emerged partly out of debates to reduce their segregation from mainstream schooling.

Africa: Renewing the promise of Education for All

2010-07-16

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=51821

The World Cup is wreaking havoc with a key millennium development goal in South Africa: as the football tournament hit its stride, not a single child across the nation attended school. It's temporary, of course: the winter holiday has been extended so schools are closed during the month-long tournament.

Global: Argentina passes gay marriage law

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/9Bcjsl

Argentina has approved a gay marriage law, making the country the first in Latin America where same-sex couples can wed. Same sex couples will now be granted the same rights, responsibilities and protections that married couples have. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s government supported the bill and defied the Catholic Church’s opposition to the law.

Senegal: LGBT Senegalese speak out

2010-07-16

http://ilga.org/ilga/en/article/mvX9Mbh1Ym

In Senegal, same-sex activity has, since 1965, been punishable by up to five years imprisonment. Enforcement of this law has escalated in the past two years, with the arrests of more than 50 people and trials of at least 16 individuals suspected of same-sex activity or being part of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans community. Simultaneously, state-sanctioned violence and anti-gay rhetoric in the media against individuals believed to be LGBT has increased.

Zimbabwe: First Lady in homophobic tirade

2010-07-16

http://www.mask.org.za/zim-first-lady-spews-homophobic-tirade/

Zimbabwe’s First Lady Grace Mugabe has joined the bandwagon of homophobic leaders after she recently condemned homosexuality as ‘taboo and satanic’.Addressing a gathering in Mashonaland Central at a handover ceremony of foodstuffs in an Orphanage at Madziwa Business Centre, the first lady, not to be outdone by her husband, used the opportunity to divert people’s

Zimbabwe: GALZ duo charged with undermining Mugabe

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/bOfmYt

It does not rain, but it pours for the GALZ duo, who are facing charges of allegedly possessing pornographic material as they are likely to stand trial on a second charge of undermining the authority of President Robert Mugabe. In a letter given to representing lawyers by state prosecutor Memory Mukapa the two Ellen Chademana and Ignatious Muhambi are being accused of contravening Section 33(2) (ii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform Act Chapter 9:23(undermining authority of or insulting President) ARW Section 277(4) &(5) of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act.

South Africa: Does denying the bark mean the dog won't bite?

2010-07-16

http://www.sacsis.org.za/site/article/513.1

For the past three months civil society organisations, academics and even some government officials have been warning that a new round of xenophobic attacks are coming soon after the World Cup has ended. Over the last two weeks, many of these same people have seen their world cup fever give way to a feverish effort to prevent (or at least prepare for) the forthcoming melee. No one has been readying themselves more fervently than migrants, many of whom have started packing and making their way to sites of safety either in South Africa or beyond its borders.

Zimbabwe: Fear drives migrants home

2010-07-16

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=89841

John Muswere, 34, arrived four hours ago at the main bus terminus in Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, after making an unplanned journey with his wife, their three-year-old child and few household possessions from Johannesburg, South Africa, where he spent 18 months working as a mechanic. "I am left with little money on me because I left South Africa in a hurry and before my employer could pay me. All the transport operators are saying my money is too little and I don't know how I am going to leave this place [the bus terminus]," Muswere told IRIN while his wife tried to pacify their wailing child.

Global: Africa looks to vast forests for carbon credit

2010-07-16

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE66F0EY20100716

They inhabit a polluted part of Ivory Coast's main city with few jobs and a swelling population, but residents of Abidjan's slums have a rare respite: a stretch of pristine rainforest. From their wooden shacks and unpainted concrete houses by motorways on the edge of Banco National Park, the millions who live in north Abidjan need no lesson on its worth. "This forest is a great thing," said textile worker Sebastien Coulibaly, 35, in front of the sky-scraping green mass of vines and broccoli-shaped trees.

Kenya: Fighting for Lake Turkana

2010-07-16

http://www.bicusa.org/en/Article.11987.aspx

For the people of northwestern Kenya, fighting to protect Lake Turkana from the Gibe 3 Dam is a fight for their livelihoods and the future of their unique cultures. International Rivers recently took a trip to the area and documented their struggle. International Rivers has produced a short video reflecting the sentiments of the people dependent upon Lake Turkana. They tell a story of impending social and environmental collapse in the absence of the sustenance that the lake provides them. Along with the video, IR released a 13 page report about the lake, the dam, and the communities affected.

Global: Towards a broader view of the politics of global land grabbing

2010-07-15

http://bit.ly/bbAy1f

The phrase ‘global land grab’ has become a catch-all framework to describe and analyze the current explosion of (trans)national commercial land transactions related to the production and sale of food and biofuels. Initially deployed and popularised by activist groups opposed to such transactions from an environmental and agrarian justice perspectives, the significance of the phrase has quickly moved beyond its original moorings, as it gets absorbed into mainstream development currents that push for ‘win-win’ arrangements and a ‘code of conduct’, which is critically examined in this paper.

Mozambique: Eu-brazil biofuels deal: "land-grabbing charter"

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/atuu7i

Friends of the Earth Europe has strongly criticised an agreement expected to be announced today by EU and Brazilian leaders to expand biofuels in Mozambique. The agreement to promote biofuels in Africa to power European cars is described as "immoral and perverse."

Niger: UN rural development arm helping respond to food crisis

2010-07-16

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35328

The United Nations rural development arm is helping to improve agricultural programmes in West Africa’s Sahel region, especially in Niger, which is currently in the throes of a growing food crisis. Recurrent food shortages have impacted the Sahel, a narrow band south of the Sahara desert also including Burkina Faso, Chad, Eritrea, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan. The last severe drought in 2005 resulted in a famine that claimed 1 million lives and affected another 50 million people.

Cameroon: Leading journalist killed in US car accident

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/bUG0Ie

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has added its voice to that of journalists in Africa and around the world who have been shocked by the news of the death of leading Cameroonian journalist Pius Njawe who has been killed in a car accident in the United States. "Pius Njawe was a great friend of press freedom and also a loyal supporter of journalists, not just in Africa, but around the world," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary.

Cote d'Ivoire: Journalists arrested over cocoa story

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/b2hy79

Théophile Kouamouo, the Editor-in-chief of the Ivorian daily 'Le Nouveau Courier' and three of his collaborators are being held in detention at the headquarters of Ivorian judiciary police section in Abidjan, after publishing the results of the investigation carried out by the Prosecutor about alleged fraud and embezzlement in Cocoa and coffee sector.

Global: Thousands of filmmakers to film ‘One Day On Earth’

2010-07-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/media/65989

If you had 24 hours to capture your world on film, how would it look? The One Day on Earth project plans to have this question answered by tens of thousands of filmmakers worldwide. They are inviting global citizens everywhere to tell the story of their world during the 24-hour period of Oct. 10, 2010. Filmmakers will be able to share their videos and perspectives from 10/10/10 on www.onedayonearth.org
World’s Largest Participatory Media Event Invites People to Document Their World in 24 Hours on 10/10/10

Project Partnering with Dozens of Non-profits; More Than 56,000 Students to
Participate Through Project’s Educational Outreach Effort


If you had 24 hours to capture your world on film, how would it look? The One Day on Earth project plans to have this question answered by tens of thousands of filmmakers worldwide. They are inviting global citizens everywhere to tell the story of their world during the 24-hour period of Oct. 10, 2010. Filmmakers will be able to share their videos and perspectives from 10/10/10 on www.onedayonearth.org

The project is free and open to all people, cultures, beliefs and nationalities. More than 1,800 participants in 140 countries have signed up to contribute. Participants range from teenagers that will shoot on their cell phones to Academy Award-nominated documentarians that film with hi-end HD cameras to humanitarian aid workers in some of the most remote regions of the world.
Educators are also using the project to help teach media literacy. More than 65,000 students are participating in One Day on Earth as part of a classroom experience.

Participants range from a remote schoolhouse in Tigray, Ethiopia to a US school for the deaf in Virginia. Educators and students are invited to sign-up for the project’s free educational toolkits at www.101010educate.org

Director/creator Kyle Ruddick and producers Brandon Litman and Michael Klima are working with the United Nations, dozens of non-profit organizations, and NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) to contribute clips that document important social issues impacting the global community.

“One Day On Earth will permit us to view our world through diverse lenses,” said Kathy Eldon, Founder of the Creative Visions Foundation, which is providing fiscal sponsorship for the project. “We hope the tremendous archive of footage gathered will offer a unique, unfiltered perspective on countries and cultures that are often seen only through the eyes of outsiders.”

The documentation of 10/10/10 will be accessible through an online video time capsule and used to create a One Day on Earth documentary film that explores our planet’s identity.

The archive, searchable by topic, popularity and location, will be made available for anyone to navigate and view. Participants who share footage shot on 10/10/10 will be able to freely download content for non-commercial purposes.

About One Day on Earth:
One Day on Earth is a documentary and new media project for filmmakers, journalists, students, educators, and inspired citizens who will film their perspective on the world during the 24-hour period of October 10, 2010. The result will be a unique video time capsule, global online community, and feature length film. A project of the Creative Visions Foundation, One Day on Earth is working closely with the United Nations, foundations and NGOs to document important social issues. More than 1,700 participants and educators representing over 56,000 students have already signed up for the project, including Academy Award nominated filmmakers and internationally recognized humanitarian organizations. Those who wish to support the One Day on
Earth project should visit www.101010donate.org to make a donation.
About the Founders

The creator of One Day on Earth, Kyle Ruddick, and his producing partners, Michael Klima and Brandon Litman, have production offices in both New York and Los Angeles.

Through their Santa Monica, CA production studio, Ruddick and Klima handled large production and post-production duties for a variety of brands and campaigns, including THX and Star Wars Episode 3. Brandon Litman has been Executive Producer for on-air marketing efforts with various television networks. His client roster includes Discovery Channel, FX Networks, the Science Channel and HBO. The three credit the project’svsuccess to the many helping hands around the world that have pitched in.


June 17, 2010
MEDIA CONTACT:
Brandon Litman
press@onedayonearth.org
866-447-1010

Nigeria: African journalists condemn kidnapping of union leaders

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/9091AF

The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the African regional organisation of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), strongly condemned the kidnapping of Zonal leaders of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) on 11 July 2010 as a deplorable and a criminal act that was intended to destabilise NUJ dynamic leadership's commitment to defend journalists' rights and interests.

South Africa: Secrecy Bill - another threat to media freedom

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/9CIl55

The South African government is in the process of passing a law that will limit access to government information undermining transparency, accountability, and media freedom in South African. The Protection of Information Bill allows every organ of state - from government departments and parastatals to the smallest municipality - to throw a blanket of secrecy over its documents. If the law is passed whistle blowers leaking, and journalists reporting, on these documents can face up to 25 years in jail. The Bill goes before parliament this month and civil society are organizing to oppose it's passing.

Uganda: FAJ mourns journalist killed by deadly bomb attack

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/9Kiqkq

The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the African regional organization of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), expresses its abhorrence of the bomb attacks in Kampala, Uganda, last night, in which more than 60 people were killed, including Vision Voice journalist Stephen Tinka. FAJ President, Omar Faruk Osman, strongly condemned these barbaric attacks in the Ugandan capital and conveyed his condolences to the family of late journalist Stephen Tinka, the members of the Ugandan Journalists Union, as well as to other victims and their families who have been tragically affected by these attacks.

Lesotho: UN agency allocates funds for orphans and vulnerable children projects

2010-07-16

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35300

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has signed a cooperation agreement with two organisations in Lesotho under which it will allocate over $1.2 million to boost an integrated social protection system for orphans and other vulnerable children in the country. The groups – World Vision Lesotho and Sentebale – will use the funds for projects that contribute to the achievement of Lesotho’s vision for a society in which all vulnerable children are free from discrimination, live in dignity and have their rights and aspirations fulfilled.

North Africa: Many Tunisians struggle at society's margins

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/baXV5k

The old woman walks on the Tunis street, pulling a trolley made from the remains of a child's pram. She gathers discarded bread and sells it by weight to a livestock feed processor. "I work from sunrise to sunset, summer and winter," Aljia says. On the best of days, the elderly widow makes just one or two dinars. "I do not find pleasure in this exhausting work, but who would provide for me if I stopped moving?" she asks.

Africa: AU campaigns for conflict-free Africa

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/9Rmnuv

The African Union (AU) has named Nobel Peace Prize winners, leading sports personalities and musicians to lead a campaign for a conflict-free Africa, which is expected to climax on 21 September. Former South African President Fredrick de Klerk, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Sou th Africa and wife of South African former President Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel, are among 12 key personalities selected to an advisory board to lead the campaign.

DRC: Oxfam questions military action in DR Congo

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/dAY3TX

Civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are facing an increased risk of rape and forced labour as a result of internationally backed military operations against rebel groups, according to a new report by aid agency Oxfam. The survey of people living in north and south Kivu provinces in eastern Congo found 75 per cent of women felt in more danger than a year ago. This rose to 99 per cent in the parts of south Kivu, which is at the centre of a UN-supported offensive by the Congolese army against the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) and other rebel groups.

Global: $41 million allocated to underfunded crises

2010-07-16

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VVOS-87EL7T?OpenDocument

The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, has allocated some $41 million to underfunded humanitarian operations in nine countries across the globe where people are suffering the effects of hunger, malnutrition, disease, and conflict. The funds made available today will be granted to United Nations humanitarian agencies and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and through them to partner organizations, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to cover funding gaps in key humanitarian projects in the affected countries

Somalia: Uganda willing to send 2,000 more troops: army

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/cNesXF

Uganda can provide 2,000 more troops needed to bring the African Union force in Somalia to its full strength if no other nation volunteers, the army's spokesman said. "We are capable of providing the required force if other countries fail to do so," Ugandan army spokesman Felix Kulayigye said. "I should say, however, that I think it is appropriate that other countries contribute."

Uganda: Twelve now held over attacks

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/c8UsUb

At least five more suspects linked to last Sunday's bombing in Kampala have been arrested bringing the number of suspects in police custody to 12. The police bomb squad was on day four still on its toes as telephone lines were jammed with calls of suspected bombs dumped in several areas, including outside Kampala City.

Africa: Ministers pass ICT directive

2010-07-16

http://www.elearning-africa.com/newsportal/english/news254.php

African countries have to balance their spending on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for education better. Skills development among teachers, which accounts for only 10% of most countries’ ICT budgets, has to be strengthened. Spending on costly hardware, which covers 90% of most countries budgets, should rather be reduced. This is one of the key recommendations of a communiqué released by participants in the Third African Ministerial Round Table on ICT for Education, Training and Development.

Africa: Global Fund Results

AfricaFocus Bulletin Jul 15, 2010 (100715)

2010-07-16

http://www.africafocus.org/docs10/hiv1007b.php

According to a new report from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, the Fund's efforts have contributed to saving an estimated 4.9 million lives by December 2009. The coming years will see even more results, as half of the total disbursements by the Global Fund were delivered in 2008 and 2009. Much of the US$ 5.4 billion of financing approved in Rounds 8 and 9 will reach countries in 2010 and 2011, and will continue to significantly boost health outcomes.

i-ProBono - Connecting the pro bono community

2010-07-13

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/fundraising/65940

Does your organisation need legal help? i-ProBono is a new, free website to connect organisations that need legal assistance with lawyers and students who want to use their legal skills for the public good. Partnered with A4ID, LawWorks and the Bar Pro Bono Unit, i-ProBono has a global network of over 40,000 lawyers. It’s quick and easy for organisations to post projects on the website, ranging from legal advice, to internships, to smaller tasks like translation or research. i-ProBono will match your project instantly with the profiles of lawyers or students who can best assist you and allows you to immediately contact them through the website. It only takes a few minutes to sign up! – or you can contact shireen.irani@i-probono.com

£6,000 ARTE cash prize up for grabs

Pixel Market open for applications

2010-07-15

http://bit.ly/cJ0Vkc

The Pixel Market incorporating The Pixel Pitch and The Pixel Meetings has now opened for applications. We are looking for international projects with stories that can span a combination of film, TV, online, mobile, interactive, publishing, live events and gaming. Applications must be made by the producer of the project and submitted through a production company. Enter now for your chance of winning the £6,000 ARTE Pixel Pitch Prize! Deadline for applications is Friday, 6 August 2010.

Africa: The Annual Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference

2010-07-16

http://diopianinstitute.org/

This year’s conference amends Kwame Nkrumah’s and Cheikh Anta Diop’s challenge to the African Personality—to move beyond mere festivals and cultural celebrations of African identity—to introduce a cohesive Pan-African Personality configured to reflect the distinct cultural character of African aspirations at home and abroad. The Pan-African personality embodies the historical memory, common sense, collective consciousness, artifacts, social institutions, innovations and creative visions of the composite African People.

CODESRIA Sub-Regional Methodology Workshops for Social Research in Africa

Session for North Africa

2010-07-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/65992

The 2010 session of the CODESRIA sub-regional methodological workshops will explore the conditions for the employment and validation of qualitative perspectives in African contexts. To this end, the workshops will be open to all the social research disciplines. These disciplines are uniformly confronted with broadly similar difficulties of understanding social reality and the challenges posed by techniques of data collection and analysis, which, on account of their “qualitative” nature, are suspected by some to be seriously lacking in scientific rigour. Deadline: 6th August, 201 0.
CODESRIA
Sub-Regional Methodology Workshops for Social Research in Africa. Session for North Africa
Theme: Fields and Theories of Qualitative Research
4-8 October 2010, CRASC, Oran (Algeria)

One of the major weaknesses of contemporary social research in and about Africa is its lack of careful attention to epistemological and methodological issues. This weakness has made itself manifest at a time when the increasing complexities of the social dynamics that shape livelihood on the continent and the wider global context call for a greater investment of effort in the refinement of the procedures and instruments of investigation and analyses with a view to achieving a more accurate and holistic assessment of rapidly changing realities. But instead of such an investment of effort, we are increasingly witnessing an astonishing neglect or misapplication of theory and method on a scale and with a frequency that calls for intervention. At one level, the neglect that has taken place has comprised a serious trivialisation of basic research protocols and their reduction to a fetishistic evocation of superficial recommendations thinly disguised with ritualistic appeals to rigour that are not reflected in the analyses undertaken. At another level, methodological issues have simply been instrumentalised in ways that ensure that narrow ideological considerations and pre-determined outcomes take precedence over science. Furthermore, it is not uncommon to come across studies in which methodological questions are outrightly ignored in the name of an alleged specificity or immediacy that amounts to the exclusion of African social realities from universal debates on the validity of scientific frames of analyses. The result is that in those debates, studies produced on Africa come across as a mix of purely literary discourses without an empirical anchorage or anecdotes hidden under a “scholarly” discourse that is not only pretentious but also vacuous. Consequently, the knowledge produced is bereft of heuristic value and simply becomes an element that, wittingly or unwittingly, justifies a predetermined set of economic, political and social policies. This is clearly not an acceptable state of affairs, if only because it impoverishes African social research. It is, therefore, high time that the social research community revisited and discussed the methodological foundations of current knowledge about Africa in order first to put an end to scientific impunity as it manifests itself within and outside Africa, and give a new impulse to the African social sciences through support programmes targeted at younger researchers.

The future of young social researchers begins with an excellent mastery of core research processes and their patient application to concrete situations as demanded by their work in the field, the archives, and the library. Unfortunately, the combination of the prolonged crises in African higher education systems and the poor example set in the writings of an increasing number of Africanists who have succumbed to the temptation to take liberties with methodological rigour mean that younger African researchers are poorly served in matters of training for independent social research. It is for this reason that the CODESRIA Secretariat has decided to convene young African researchers to methodological workshops on epistemological and methodological issues in social research designed to fill the gaps in their formal and informal training. The workshops are meant to serve as a critical space that would offer experience-sharing in the basic epistemological and empirical prerequisites for rigorous scientific imagination. The workshops will not only offer insights into the current state of the art but also provide an occasion for a critical review of contemporary research procedures, tools and theories as seen from an African perspective. The major question which the workshops will address can be summarized as follows: How can the researcher productively establish a link between dominant theoretical approaches and concrete situations in the field whilst simultaneously taking into account the state of knowledge, the techniques to be mobilized, and the evolution of African societies? In answering this question, the workshops will privilege qualitative research methods and tools on the basic premise that the popular tendency to oppose quantitative and qualitative methods is due to a wrong assumption that the former offers an exactness and “hardness” which the latter is supposedly too “soft” and “fickle” to match. Without diminishing the importance of quantitative research and methods, participants in the workshops will be encouraged to explore qualitative methods of capturing African social dynamics which do not always or often find expression, fully or partially, in figures and which are, therefore, lost to those who are wedded to rigid and exclusively quantitative approaches.

The 2010 session of the CODESRIA sub-regional methodological workshops will explore the conditions for the employment and validation of qualitative perspectives in African contexts. To this end, the workshops will be open to all the social research disciplines. These disciplines are uniformly confronted with broadly similar difficulties of understanding social reality and the challenges posed by techniques of data collection and analysis, which, on account of their “qualitative” nature, are suspected by some to be seriously lacking in scientific rigour. Each workshop will have the following concerns at its core:

i) A critical assessment of the distinction between “quantitative” and “qualitative” research with particular attention to the question of measurement in the social sciences. Participants will be taken through presentations and exercises aimed at showing that the mode of processing data that is collected depends both on the field constraints encountered and the paradigmatic options of data interpretation that are available. The procedures for the “quantification” of “qualitative” approaches will also be reviewed through discussions on the distinction between the non-metrical and “comprehensive” presentation of data and the more mathematical renditions favoured by the quantitativists.

ii) A presentation of the methodological principles of “object construction” which enables the researcher to transcend the illusions of immediate knowledge and undertake a hypothetical reconstruction of social reality. This demands that the status of the researcher, as well as the systematic role of theories and tools be subjected to intense epistemological control.

iii) An assessment of various techniques of data collection and “fact-finding” instruments available to the researcher. The usual tools of qualitative research such as interviews, observation, archival studies, and the less usual ones such as photography, will be reviewed, so as to locate their potentiality for construction of successful research projects.

The methodology workshop is designed for doctoral and masters students and young, mid-career African researchers resident in all countries of North Africa. The working language to be employed during the workshop will be Arabic and French.

The workshop will be run by a senior scholar who will work as the scientific coordinator, assisted by a team of three lecturers, all with an acknowledged expertise in the application of social science research methods. Senior researchers wishing to be considered for a role as resource persons are invited to send an application which indicates their interest and includes their current CV and an outline of issues they would like to cover in four lectures of two hours each. The outline submitted should be detailed enough to enable the director of the workshop to compile a syllabus for the guidance of the resource persons and laureates. Apart from the actual preparation of lectures and field visits, the resource persons will also be expected to submit a bibliographic list of texts relevant to the theme of the workshop and which can be made available to the laureates.

Scholars and younger, mid career researchers wishing to be considered for participation in the workshop, are required to submit an application that should comprise the following:

i) A letter of motivation which should also clearly indicate the area of research or topic on which they are working;
ii) A statement of their research project (maximum of three to five pages) stating clearly the problematic that is being addressed, the kinds of field research to be undertaken, the theoretical and methodological framework being used, as well as the methodological and epistemological problems encountered ;

iii) A detailed and up-to-date curriculum vitae;

iv) Two reference letters, one of which must be from the thesis supervisor and the other from the head of the department in which the applicant is registered. The reference letter from the supervisor is expected to address the relevance of the research project, the state of progress of the research and the theoretical and methodological approaches used, as well as the results expected. The reference letter from the head of the department is expected to attest to the qualities and academic potential of the candidate; and

v) A letter confirming the institutional affiliation of the applicant.

All selected applicants will be expected to give a presentation of their proposals to resource persons and other laureates during the methodology workshop.
Applications will be selected on basis of the innovative nature of the research question being addressed, a commitment to gender balance that is central to CODESRIA’s institutional strategy, and the desire for a geographical diversity that will, in itself, constitute an important aspect of the learning experience at the workshops. Applications must be submitted by 6th August, 2010. All applications should be sent to:

CODESRIA Sub-Regional Methodology Workshops,
CODESRIA,
P.O. Box : 3304, Dakar, CP 18524 – Senegal.
Tél. : +221-33 825.98.22/23
Fax : +221-33 824.12.89
E-mail : methodological.workshop[@]codesria.sn
Web site : http://www.codesria.org
&
CRASC
Cité Bahi Ammar Bloc n°1- Es-Sénia – Oran
BP 1955 El M’Naouer
31000 – Oran / Algérie
Tel : 213.41.58.32.77 / 81 / 84
Fax : 231 41 58 32 86
E-mail : methodological.workshop[@]crasc.org

Global: IASFM13: Governing Migration

2010-07-16

http://iasfm.org/

The 13th conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) will be hosted by the Refugee Law Project, Kampala, Uganda from July 3 to 6, 2011. The conference aims to explore key dimensions of the relationship between forms and tools of governance on the one hand and patterns and experiences of forced migration on the other. Under the title ‘Governing Migration’, IASFM 13 will enable a wide-ranging exploration of both the direct and indirect relationships between conflict, governance, forced migration, and transitional justice

Africa Spectrum 1/2010

2010-07-16

http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/afsp

The current issue of Africa Spectrum is now available online. Africa Spectrum was first published in 1966 by the GIGA Institute of African Affairs (IAA) in Hamburg. It is an inter-disciplinary journal dedicated to scientific exchange between the continents. The journal focuses on socially relevant issues related to political, economic and socio-cultural problems and events in Africa as well as on Africa's role within the international system.

Call for Proposal to Evaluate Gender and Women’s Rights programming

OSISA

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/bAxbTK

OSISA seeks the services of a team of consultants to undertake an evaluation of OSISA’s programming in gender and women’s rights in Southern Africa, since its establishment. The evaluation is designed to be an important process that should draw lessons that OSISA ought to learn from its experiences in the past decade, as well as highlight opportunities for the Foundation going forward. The evaluation has two key overarching objectives, namely:

Director, Higher Education Support Program - OSI

2010-07-16

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/66055

The Open Society Institute works to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. To achieve its mission, OSI seeks to shape public policies that assure greater fairness in political, legal, and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights. On a local level, OSI implements a range of initiatives to advance justice, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, OSI builds alliances across borders and continents on issues such as corruption and freedom of information. OSI places a high priority on protecting and improving the lives of marginalized people and communities.

In 1993, investor and philanthropist George Soros created OSI as a private operating and grantmaking foundation to support his foundations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Those foundations were established, starting in 1984, to help countries make the transition from communism. OSI has expanded the activities of the Open Society Foundations to encompass the United States and more than 60 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Each foundation relies on the expertise of boards composed of eminent citizens who determine individual agendas based on local priorities. In addition, over twenty thematic specialist platforms serve as OSI Network Programs frontlining OSI’s engagement with various issue areas.

The Higher Education Support Program (HESP) is one such Network Program. It is supported by the Higher Education Sub-Board (HESB). HESP, through its support to institutions and individuals, promotes the advancement of higher education. HESP provides assistance – both financial and technical – to a network of institutions, ranging from undergraduate universities to doctoral programs and centers for specialized advanced studies. Institutional support tends to focus on sustainable curriculum and faculty development and the improvement of methods of teaching and learning. In the future, an important component of the work of HESP will be to collaborate with the School of Global Public Policy that is currently being established at Central European University. Drawing on the synergistic strengths of both Central European University and Open Society Foundations, the School of Public Policy addresses important contemporary issues in international public affairs.

The Director of HESP will be based in any of the three principal offices out of which Network Programs operate: Budapest, New York or London. S/he will report to the OSI Director of Programs and will work closely with the OSI President.


Responsibilities:
The Director of HESP will:
• Provide strategic leadership in the development of OSI's higher education program efforts.
• Manage the resources, including staff and budgets, of the Higher Education Support Program.
• Serve as program officer for the HESP grants portfolio.
• Serve as OSI’s focal point in networks of relevance to the organization's higher education program objectives.
• Develop, on the basis of priority regions agreed within OSI, cutting-edge programs in new geographies where HESP has not operated before.
• Strengthen OSI's effectiveness in its ongoing programs in the region of the organization’s traditional efforts, including the former Soviet Union.
• Contribute to the conceptual and strategic articulation of HESP as part of a composite OSI intervention in education – an intervention that includes the Education Support Program, Early Childhood Program, Roma Education Fund, the University-based Initiative on Climate Change Adaptation, and the Network Scholarship Program.
• Align, in relevant instances, the higher education support efforts of OSI with the Central European University's School of Public Policy.
• Support tertiary institutions and academics in the defense and enlargement of freedom of inquiry, in the context of initiatives such as the Bologna process, the Dar es Salaam Declaration on Academic Freedom and the Social Responsibilities of Academics, etc.
• Facilitate the work and role of the HESB in the furtherance of OSI's higher education support efforts.


Qualifications:
• A respected leader with a minimum of ten years of involvement in a higher education setting. A research background in higher education policy would be an advantage.
• Advanced academic training.
• Some experience of high-level programmatic work in thematic issues of OSI’s interest, such as human rights, public policy, etc.
• Strong international-level reputation and demonstrable track record as a program innovator.
• Strong program and staff leadership and management record.
• Superior analytical skills and an ability to deal simultaneously with a range of complex thematic issues.
• Superior written and verbal communication skills in English. Additional language skills would be an advantage.
• Willingness and ability to travel extensively.

Compensation: Commensurate with experience.

To apply:
Please send a covering letter, CV and writing sample; with ref: HESP in the subject line to: recruitment-admin@osf-eu.org

Application Deadline: August 31, 2010

Please note:
Due to the large volume of applications expected – only those candidates selected for interview will receive notification.

No phone calls, please. The Open Society Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Regional Coordinator for Africa

London Organizing Committee

The National Olympic Committee (NOC)

2010-07-16

http://bit.ly/aZlyat

The National Olympic Committee (NOC) and National Paralympic Committee (NPC) Services and Relations team is located within the Sports department of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). The team will define the service levels and manage the relationships with the 205 NOCs and 162 NPCs preparing for and sending athletes to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We are looking for a highly motivated and multilingual Regional Coordinator for Africa to contribute to building and managing successful relationships with a number of assigned client groups in order to deliver key services at Pre-Games and Games time. Experience of working in, or closely with Africa is essential

Fahamu