Back Issues

Book launch: 'African Women Writing Resistance'

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/66786

Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter - September issue

2010-09-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/66775

Fahamu West Africa seeks a project coordinator

Call for applications extended to 15 September 2010

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/66798

MISSION
Fahamu (www.fahamu.org), Regional Office for West Africa, is seeking a regional pan-African campaign Coordinator, to work with Rural Women’s Associations in a campaign to promote family farming and food sovereignty.

The campaign is led by rural women's associations engaged in the practice and promotion of ecological agriculture. It is part of a global pan-African campaign conducted by a coalition of farmers’ organizations, farmers networks and African producers.

The rural women's associations, in a parallel and convergent way with the pan-African campaign, will conduct their own activities according to their needs and priorities. Having an independent yet related campaign, will give them voice and ensure they play a leading role in the pan-African campaign.

The campaign will initially cover West African countries, but shall gradually involve the other regions of the continent.

LOCATION
The Coordinator is based in Dakar, at Fahamu West Africa Office.

JOB DESCRIPTION
Fahamu seeks a Project Coordinator who will be responsible for :
• identification, mobilization, orientation, coordination of activities
• monitoring and evaluation of the campaign
• management and reporting of grants for the campaign
• fundraising for ongoing campaign activities

The Project Coordinator will:
• Work with rural women’s association networks, farmers platforms, producer organizations and potential partners, to develop campaign strategies and ensure their implementation.
• Coordinate, at the regional level, the activities undertaken in the different countries by local associations
• Conduct research to gather relevant information (studies, literature) to establish coherent and strong arguments on the issues and stakes of the campaign
• Develop relevant communication tools for the campaign and advocacy initiatives
• Document, guide, develop training and communication approaches for organizations and networks of women's organizations in order to sensitize and mobilize them
• Recruit and supervise consultants who will develop training modules to be delivered as part of the campaign
• Contribute to the elaboration of a joint advocacy programme for a regional campaign
• Conduct research partners
• Coordinate with other campaigns in order to promote family farming in Africa
• Organize / Participate in coordination meetings, workshops, advocacy and mobilization activities or the campaign
• Write reports of meetings, workshops and other activities
• Produce and coordinate the production of materials to publish in the Fahamu electronic newsletter Pambazuka News and on the site that will be created for the campaign.

QUALIFICATIONS
Fahamu seeks an expert in social sciences (Sociology of development, communication, etc.), fulfilling the following criteria:
• Good knowledge of issues related to agricultural development in Africa
• At least 5 years experience in strategic analysis, development and implementation and project management
• Bilingual in French and English
• Good skills in writing and oral communication
• Excellent organisational and time management skills
• Experience in fundraising
• Demonstrated commitment to social justice movements, including civil society networks
• Experience of working with African civil society, particularly women's organizations at grassroots level
• Computer skills (Microsoft Word, e-mail).
• Autonomy in work and ability to work independently
• Flexibility to travel

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
In recent years, African farmers' organizations have expressed their fears and have developed resistance to agricultural policies oriented towards the world market rather than for local or national needs. In a context marked by multifaceted crises, African governments are more and more involved in these policies inspired and financed by multinational corporations and international institutions. Among other examples is the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa - AGRA).

But according to organizations and African farmers' organizations platforms, agricultural crises Africa is confronting require other solutions. The alternatives they advocate are more focused on the preservation and promotion of family farming that feed, produce surpluses and give them capacities to be competitive in our markets. This approach relies on the development of a peasant endogenous proven expertise, whose relevance depends on understanding the environment and agricultural practices more respectful of the preservation of the ecosystem.

This approach, whose aim is to ensure food sovereignty, is not yet supported by an organized, coherent, popular and well informed mobilization.

Peasant organizations and platforms of farmer organizations in Africa are therefore engaged in a coalition to lead a pan-African campaign to promote family farming through endogenous farmers' experiences based on agro-ecological approaches, as a response to cyclical agriculture and food crises and as alternatives to industrial agriculture oriented towards international markets.

These organizations include, among others, the Network of Farmers Organizations and Producers of West Africa (Réseau des Organisations Paysannes et des Producteurs d’Afrique de l’Ouest - ROPPA), African Biodiversity Network, Daughters of Mumbi / Jubilee South Africa (Kenya), the Coalition for the Protection of African Genetic Heritage (Coalition pour la Protection du Patrimoine Génétique africain - COPAGEN), the Guinean Association for the Relief of Women's Burden (l’Association Guinéenne pour l’Allègement des Charges des Femmes) the Network to Support West African and Tchad Rural Women Citizenship (Réseau d'appui à la citoyenneté des Femmes Rurales d'Afrique de l'Ouest et du Tchad - RESACIFROAT).

As part of a pan-African campaign, associations of rural women will undertake, in parallel, a joint campaign. This will give space and capacities to raise their voices, to highlight issues specific to them, to develop the endogenous practices which they are holders and assert their leadership. Women play key roles in agricultural production, providing 70% of food production, managing nearly 100% of processing activities, being involved in the maintenance of family herd and investing also on markets sales activities. Thus agricultural and food crises have a greater impact on them and install them in situations of extreme insecurity.

Campaign Objectives:
- Document and promote best practices and associated knowledge, known and perpetuated for generations in Africa (agroecology, endogenous production of seeds, etc.), ensuring the continent's food sovereignty
- Change attitudes and perceptions in relation to imposed social development model ;
- To alert decision makers for awareness and better governance;
- Develop practices related to family farming

DURATION OF PROJECT:
3 years

SALARY: GBP 18,000.00 per year

Deadline for applications: September 15, 2010
To apply please submit the following to the address at the top of this document.
- A CV
- A letter indicating your interest in the position, and how your skills and experience fit the criteria required to carry out this role.
- Three references

Availability: Immediate

Send your application to tidiane@fahamu.org.

Fahamu seeks programme officer

Reclaim Project

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/66803

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR THE POSITION OF PROGRAMME OFFICER FOR FAHAMU

Fahamu has a vision of the world where people organise to emancipate themselves from all forms of oppression, recognise their social responsibilities, respect each other’s differences, and realise their full potential. Fahamu is looking for a qualified and passionate Programme Officer.

JOB DESCRIPTION

The Programme Officer will be responsible for the coordination of the Reclaim Project which seeks to support the African LGBTI and sex worker movements, enabling LGBTI and sex worker activists to strategize, gain new knowledge and skills, enhance consciousness, renew inspiration and vision while enhancing their leadership and well-being.

Duties and responsibilities:

• Lead Fahamu’s research and knowledge generation on LGBTI and sex worker issues.

• Develop strategic relations with the media continentally, support communication and outreach strategies for LGBTI and sex worker issues.

• Coordinate the design, development, reviewing and editing of movement building curricula and implement innovative learning methodologies.
• Research and conceptualize ways to further the innovative use of technologies to strengthen LGBTI and sex worker advocacy and human rights protection.
• Strengthen networks of LGBTI and sex worker organizations and activists across Africa with multiple stakeholders including the media and policy-makers through the provision of advocacy platforms at national and continental levels.
• Coordinate training of trainers, workshops and related events.
• Develop online platforms to provide on going support for the movement.
• Ensure timely and accurate planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting of project activities
• Assist in fundraising efforts to sustain the LGBTI and sex worker movements’ actions.
• Represent Fahamu at appropriate forums.

Person specifications:
• Undergraduate degree in a related field
• At least 6 years of experience in human rights and social justice
• Experience working with LGBTI and sex worker communities in Africa
• Experience in research and advocacy
• Experience in course and curriculum development
• Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines
• Willingness to travel extensively throughout Africa

The successful candidate must be:
- An excellent communicator
- Committed to the cause and values of human rights and social justice
- Demonstrate leadership and initiative
- A second AU language

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

A competitive salary and benefit package will be provided. The salary will be dependent on experience, educational background and salary history of the successful candidate.

If interested submit your application letter and curriculum vitae by email to infokenya@fahamu.org Please include “Reclaim Programme Officer Application” in the subject line.

Deadline for application is 24th September 2010. Applications received after this date will not be considered. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

Fahamu is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Fahamu seeks ICT officer

Nairobi, Kenya

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/66806

Fahamu has a vision of the world where people organise to emancipate themselves from all forms of oppression, recognise their social responsibilities, respect each other’s differences, and realise their full potential. Fahamu is looking for a qualified and passionate ICT Officer.

Job Description

The ICT officer will report to the Programme manager and be responsible for:

1. Providing ICT technical support for Fahamu offices.
2. Provide design support for Fahamu’s programs.
3. Create, update and manage the Fahamu website and associated program sites, including but not limited to the AU Monitor and the Emerging Powers in Africa sites, including, where appropriate, the migration of these sites to appropriate content management systems.
4. Create, update and manage partner and associated websites where support is required.
5. Provide advice and support to Fahamu’s program staff and partners to implement new media strategies in human rights and social justice protection and advocacy including where appropriate, through trainings and workshops and development of curricula.
6. Assist in the setting up and maintenance of the Pambazuka platform
7. Assist in the implementation of ICTs for learning including support for Fahamu’s distance learning courses and other online training platforms.
8. Assist in the development and update of Fahamu and partners’ online presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking platforms
9. Provide advice on Fahamu’s database management system.
10. Maintain Fahamu and partners’ listserves and online newsletters.


PERSON SPECIFICATIONS

Essential

• Competence with the following software: Macromedia technologies: Authorware, Flash, ActionScript, LINGO, Adobe Photoshop/PaintShop Pro, and Illustrator, HTML/Scripting languages
• Familiarity with video/sound editing: Adobe Premier, QuickTime Pro, Sound Edit 16/Cool Edit Pro
• Experience of Web development and issues of bandwidth and compatibility
• At least two years experience of developing CDROM and/or web base learning materials
• Experience with Win 98/2000/NT and Mac OS, and general computer hardware
• Competence in developing in Drupal, PHP5, XML and web 2.0 technologies.
• Comfortable with both PC and Mac platforms
• A degree in ICT from a recognized University or equivalent work experience
• Good understanding of design and layout
• Self-motivated/self-starter
• Experience in database management
• A keen interest and experience in innovating new and exciting ways of using ICT for social justice

Desirable

• Qualification in multimedia technologies
• Ability to nurture young activists in using ICTs for social justice
• Ability to provide ICT support to staff and partners with limited ICT knowledge and experience
• Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines
• Commitment to the mission and values of the Fahamu
• Background in publishing

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

A competitive salary and benefit package will be provided. The salary will be dependent on experience, educational background and salary history of the successful candidate.

If interested submit your application letter and curriculum vitae by email to infokenya@fahamu.org Please include “ICT Officer application” in the subject line.

Deadline for application is 24th September 2010. Applications received after this date will not be considered. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

Fahamu is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Towards a new Africa-China partnership

CODESRIA

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/66808

'It is high-time to involve the African scholars in this process, along with their Chinese counterparts,' says Professor Osita C. Eze, Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, and one of the scholars promoting the project on July 10th 2010 at a meeting between African scholars in Dakar. 'If Africa has to become a global player we need to know and enable African policy-makers to know better who our interlocutors of other countries and regions of the world are,' adds Dr. Ebrima Sall, Executive Secretary of CODESRIA; the leading pan-African social science research council and think-tank.

The Nairobi event has been proposed by a Provisional Steering Committee (PSC), in an attempt to lend continental legitimacy to the nascent dialogue between African and Chinese scholars. The PSC represents a group of African scholars who attended the launch ceremony in Beijing, March 31st 2010, of a Joint Africa-China Research and Academic Exchange Program. This Joint Program is one of the innovative measures adopted by the 4th Forum On China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which is the main inter-governmental platform between China and Africa, held in Sharm-El-Sheik, Egypt, last November.

At the Beijing launch ceremony, African scholars supported the proposed mechanism of cooperation with their Chinese colleagues, yet called for wide consultation with their peers in the continent to ensure broad acceptance of the project across the continent. This decision was reached during a private meeting of the African caucus attending the Beijing ceremony. It was also agreed that the PSC would meet in Dakar, at the invitation of CODESRIA, to discuss the future direction and ventures of the new joint institutional mechanism.

Against this background, the Dakar meeting aimed to convene the pan-African gathering of African scholars and think-tanks working on China-Africa relations. Members of the PSC, in addition to Eze and Sall, have been drawn from the various regions of the continent, including: James Shikwati, Director of the Nairobi-based Inter-Region Economic Network; Scarlett Cornelissen, Interim Director of the Centre for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University in South Africa; Adama Gaye, Senegalese journalist and China-Africa Specialist; Professor Mohamed Salih, of the Institute of Social Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands; Dr. Stephen Ngwanza, of the Institute of International Relations of Cameroon; and Dr. Mohamed Benamou, Director of the Center of Strategic Studies of Rabat, Morocco.

Close to thirty African scholars took part in the Beijing ceremony, along with representatives of the African diplomatic community. In addition, Angola 's Joao Manuel Bernardo, the Acting Dean of the African Diplomatic Corps, addressed the gathering. Also present were representatives of the Chinese Follow-up Committee of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation and dozens of Chinese scholars, including Professor Yang Guang, Director-General of the Institute of West Asian and African Studies, of the China Academy of Social Sciences. The event was chaired by Wu Bangguo, an influential member of the China State Council and of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party. The event was supervised by Ambassador Lu Shaye, Director General of China 's Foreign Ministry, and Secretary General of FOCAC.

The Forum on China Africa Cooperation was established in 2000, and has witnessed a rapid growth in economic relations between China and Africa . Yet in recent years, there has been an increased call for an African conceptual response to the challenges and opportunities associated with China 's engagement with the continent. Such emerging academic dialogue is recognised to shown important perspectives.

The Nairobi conference, March 28-30th 2011, will focus on the theme: Towards a New Africa-China Partnership. It will include the formal launching of a Pan-African Forum for Research and Dialogue on Africa-China Relations, in collaboration with Chinese academic institutions. It will seek to build a strong knowledge base on Africa-China relations within Africa, in order to support African policy makers in their engagement with China and the FOCAC.

CONTACTS:

For further information about this event, please contact:

Ebrima Sall
Executive Secretary
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop,
B.P. 3304 Dakar, Senegal
Tel : +221-33 824 03 74
Fax : +221-33 824 12 89
Email : executive.secretary@codesria.sn

Oil-dependency and food: Livelihoods at risk

Tanya Kerssen

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66792

cc M VTanya Kerssen explores how the ‘global pursuit of fossil fuels’ is impacting on communities across oil-rich regions in Africa, and the prospects for food and fuel sovereignty in a world without cheap oil. ‘Ironically, those with the smallest ecological footprint on earth have born the highest cost,’ writes Kerssen, but these ‘beleaguered people – the small farmers, herders, fishers and artisans of the world – could hold the key to a more energy-efficient future.’

The high cost of cheap oil was brought abruptly to light last April when Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig (contracted by BP) exploded 40 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast, causing one of the worst environmental disasters in US history. Lost amidst the speechifying and PR, however, have been the voices of those directly affected: The thousands of families who inhabit some of the world’s richest fishing grounds. Louisiana is the largest supplier of domestic seafood in the continental United States, providing shrimp, blue crab, oysters, crawfish and a variety of marine finfish[1]. For the primarily African-American fishing towns South of New Orleans – struggling for decades to compete against large fishing operations and hit hard by Katrina – the BP spill portends the loss of a traditional, and sustainable, way of life on the water: ‘Take a look out there,’ offered 71-year-old retired oysterman Roger Moliere to the New York Times, ‘See what they’re doing? Sitting, talking, nobody working…Was a time if a man lost his job he could always come down to the bayou and feed his family. But this here, what you got happening now, this here might finish us off.’[2]

Ironically, those with the smallest ecological footprint on earth have born the highest cost of our global pursuit of fossil fuels. These beleaguered people – the small farmers, herders, fishers and artisans of the world – could hold the key to a more energy-efficient future.

ACROSS THE POND: AFRICA’S BLACK GOLD RUSH

The Gulf disaster has also drawn attention to threatened ecosystems worldwide, such as Nigeria’s Niger River Delta – a region devastated by oil spills, waste dumping and toxic natural gas flaring for decades – not to mention the violent repression of affected peoples. Home to 30 million people, the Niger Delta is the world’s third largest wetland; its mangroves provide breeding grounds for 60 per cent of West Africa’s fish stock. Despite tremendous oil wealth, the region is deeply impoverished. Oil facilities have displaced people from the land both directly, by appropriating land and waterways for oil prospecting, and indirectly by despoiling the environment.[3] In 2006, a group of independent experts put the amount of oil spilled in the Niger Delta over the past 50 years at nine to thirteen million barrels of oil.[4] Last year alone, the country reported 2,000 active spills.[5]Except in rare cases, compensation to individuals and communities has been grossly inadequate or nonexistent. The result of this ongoing disaster has been a massive wave of rural to urban migration – swelling the ranks of the urban poor – as well as intensifiying poverty and violence in the countryside.

Without diminishing the severity of the Gulf spill, several observers have pointed out the asymmetrical political reactions to oil disasters in the US and in other parts of the world.[6] Nnimo Bassey, Nigerian head of Friends of the Earth International, explains the sense of frustration: ‘We see frantic efforts being made to stop the spill in the US, but in Nigeria, oil companies largely ignore their spills, cover them up and destroy people's livelihood and environments…This has gone on for 50 years in Nigeria. People depend completely on the environment for their drinking water and farming and fishing. They are amazed that the president of the US can be making speeches daily, because in Nigeria people there would not hear a whimper.’[7] Nigeria is the fifth largest supplier of US oil imports.

Many opponents of the Obama administration’s deepwater drilling moratorium, and of increased regulation of the industry in general, have indicated that rig owners will not risk their revenue stream by remaining in the Gulf in such an uncertain political climate. Rather, they will move their operations, and their jobs, to more ‘business friendly’ waters.[8] With US unemployment teetering into double-digits, this is a sensitive issue indeed. The spill’s damage to fisheries, restaurants and tourism begs a thorny question: Which jobs should be privileged, and which sacrificed? In fact, the number of offshore rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico has fallen by 71 per cent, from 56 to 16, since the spill began.[9] Notably, Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc., the largest US deepwater driller, has begun moving its rig, the Ocean Confidence, to the Republic of Congo. Another of Diamond’s deepwater rigs, the Ocean Endeavor, is being readied for relocation to Egypt.[10]

Presumably, companies are not only put off by the prospect of increased red tape in the US, but also attracted – as they have been for decades – by the limited capacity of African States to regulate extractive activities. To attract foreign investment, most countries in sub-Saharan Africa also enter into generous production-sharing agreements that allow foreign oil companies to turn a relatively small upfront investment in exploration into billions in downstream profits.[11]

Of course, there was already growing interest in African energy resources before the Gulf spill, particularly in the deepwater and ‘ultradeep’ oil deposits off the coast of Angola and, just to the north, in the Gulf of Guinea, passing through the territorial waters of a dozen countries. Oil exploration and production activities are also being ramped up in Sudan, Chad, Uganda, the Republic of Congo-Brazzaville, among others. As reserves elsewhere are depleted, Africa’s oil is increasingly sought-after. Angola has already become the biggest supplier of crude oil to China, the world’s second largest oil consumer after the US.[12] Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to provide 25 per cent of North America’s oil by 2015.[13]

HIGH RISK IN DEEP WATERS

Michael Klare, author of ‘Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy’, argues that the fossil fuels that gave rise to the Industrial Revolution are likely to be exhausted by the end of this century – and sooner in the case of petroleum. With all of the ‘easily accessible’ oil nearly used up, new oil resources will be increasingly costly and difficult to extract, buried deeper underground, and located farther offshore and in more hazardous environments.[14] Of the earth’s deepwater reserves 75 per cent are thought to be located in three regions known in the industry as the ‘Golden Triangle’: The Gulf of Mexico, the coastal waters of Brazil, and 5,000-miles of West African coastline stretching from Senegal to Namibia.[15] Opening up and securing these high-risk reserves offers opportunities for enormous profits. A leaked document published by ProPublica, for instance, shows that BP has been eagerly seeking to expand its deepwater operations and position itself as the ‘leading deepwater company.’[16] Even after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, the company has moved full-steam ahead with plans to sell off US$30 billion in onshore and shallow-water production assets in order to aggressively pursue deepwater drilling in West Africa, Angola, Egypt and, yes, Louisiana.[17]

One particularly attractive piece of deepwater real estate, Ghana’s Jubilee Oil Field located 40 miles from mainland, has drawn dozens of corporate suitors since its discovery in 2007. With an estimated 600 million to 1.8 billion barrels of oil, the Jubilee Field has been called the largest discovery in West Africa in the last ten years.[18] Two companies are leading in exploration and production: Britain’s Tullow Oil and US-based Kosmos Energy. With this first foray into hydrocarbons, many in Ghana are looking at neighbouring Nigeria, the quintessential African Oil State, and fearing the worst. Critics also point to Ghana’s long history of extractive activities and primary commodity exports: Ghana produces gold, bauxite, manganese, diamonds, timber and cocoa, none of which have generated appreciable benefits for the majority of Ghanaians. Even the World Bank, which has heavily promoted foreign investment in mining, has acknowledged that benefits mainly accrue to mine operators, producing little foreign exchange for the country’s development.[19] In addition, Ghana’s human rights ombudsman has documented numerous violations in mining areas including polluting communities’ water sources, deprivation and loss of livelihoods, and violence perpetrated by security agencies contracted by mining companies.[20]

The Jubilee Oil Field, slated to begin commercial production in November 2010, already has government officials and civil society organisations voicing serious concerns, including reported spills. Kosmos Energy is under government investigation for negligence in the spillage of 598 barrels of oil-based mud around its rigs between December 2009 and March 2010.[21] Once production is operational, there are heightened concerns about spills, leakages, atmospheric emissions and waste discharge that may threaten human health, marine life and the fishing-based livelihoods of local people.

There are also onshore concerns. Since exploration began, the area has come under ‘economic siege’, particularly by companies and businessmen seeking land for housing construction and other commercial activities. High rates of in-migration and rapid urbanisation raise issues of sanitation, crime and rising prices.[12]

Despite these many concerns, the development of Ghana’s deepwater oil is advancing rapidly. This fast-track is especially problematic since the country lacks the legal and regulatory framework to deal adequately with its nascent oil and gas sector. Ghana has chosen to accept so-called ‘stabilisation clauses’ in its contracts with companies that lock in current laws and regulations. If the country should decide to strengthen its regulatory framework, companies with existing contracts could claim that the new laws do not apply to them, or require the government to provide financial compensation for the cost of compliance.[13] As foreign companies reap handsome rewards, and Ghana gains uncertain benefits (much of the content of these contracts remains secret), coastal communities are sure to pay the highest cost. At a recent Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) workshop held in the coastal town of Takoradi, representatives of six districts located closest to the oil find responded angrily to refusals to commit part of the petroleum royalties to an environmental mitigation or compensation fund, as is legally required in the mining sector.[24] No such provision has thus far been established for the oil and gas industry.

MILITARISED DEVELOPMENT: SECURITY FOR WHOM?

When it comes to oil, corporate interests are often recast as national security concerns. It was President Jimmy Carter who cemented the connection in his 1980 State of the Union address by stating that any foreign attempt to gain control of Middle Eastern oil would be regarded as ‘an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America.’ The policy, now known as the Carter Doctrine, set a dangerous precedent of using military might to secure ‘strategically important’ resources throughout the world.[25] Combined with the post-9/11 escalation of global counter-terrorism activities, the Carter Doctrine has provided rationale for an increased US military presence in Africa. After a five-year counter-terrorism initiative in West Africa (Operation Enduring Freedom Trans-Sahara) that began in 2002, the Bush Administration announced the creation of a new unified combatant command – US Africa Command or AFRICOM – to ‘promote US national security objectives in Africa and its surrounding waters.’ [26] AFRICOM became an official command on 1 October 2008.

Despite expectations to the contrary, the Obama Administration has opted to continue, and indeed to expand, the unilateral militarisation of Africa through AFRICOM. Budget requests for the 2010 fiscal year submitted to Congress in May 2009 – which include funding for all US arms sales, military training and other security assistance programmes – showed a 300 per cent increase in military financing to sub-Saharan African countries, from US$8.2 million to over US$25.5 million.[27] In view of the tragic history of military repression on the continent, this strategy is cause for concern. In particular, civil society protests in resource-rich areas such as the Niger Delta have been violently repressed by their militaries, often with tacit approval from foreign companies.

The 1995 hanging of Nigerian author and playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa along with eight fellow anti-oil activists – collectively known as the Ogoni Nine – drew international attention to corporate involvement in human rights abuses. [28] Last year, Royal Dutch Shell paid US$15.5 million to settle a lawsuit accusing Shell of complicity in the executions.[29] The settlement was seen as an important, if small, victory for oil-affected peoples. Tragically, however, the persistent quashing of non-violent movements in the Delta has led to the radicalisation of rural youth, the emergence of armed militias and the increased belligerence of the Nigerian State towards affected communities. In another case, the European Commission on Oil in Sudan (ECOS) has accused oil companies of complicity in crimes against humanity in a Southern oil field known as Block 5A. ECOS charges companies with pressuring armed groups to ‘clear the ground’, leading to a wave of repression in which 12,000 people were killed and another 20,000 displaced. Reverend James Koung Ninrew, general secretary of the Nuer Peace Council in Southern Sudan, stated: ‘As soon as the troops secured the area, they moved to the next, systematically, and the companies followed, until the whole area of Block 5A was brought under control. The companies could see the villages still burning.’[30]

OIL AID, FUELING THE ADDICTION

For decades, industrialised countries such as the US, Japan and Europe (and now China and India) have used development assistance as an inducement for poor, oil-producing countries to grant resource access to Western oil companies. When the rise of petro-nationalism in the 1970s threatened the ability of Western powers to fuel their economies with cheap oil, contemporary ‘oil aid’ emerged to help pry open national markets and reverse the trend towards State-owned oil companies.[31] To be sure, military pressure was also used to gain access to coveted oil deposits. But ideological warfare, waged by the influential Washington-based aid agencies, played a paramount role. As part of their conditional lending practices, the World Bank and IMF stepped in to restructure the oil sectors of Third World countries, encouraging them to de-nationalise production and instead focus on attracting and facilitating foreign investors. In the name of economic growth (and debt repayment), South countries were enjoined into the fast and furious exploitation of their natural resources.

Aid to the industry has also taken a more direct form: Subsidies to oil companies bankrolled by taxpayer dollars. A database compiled by Oilwatch International determined that at least US$61.3 billion in public funds were spent globally between 2000 and 2007 to subsidise the oil and gas industry.[32] The US contributed the greatest amount to that pot, with some US$15.6 billion distributed by the US Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the US Trade and Development Agency, USAID and the US Maritime Association.[33] (This is in addition to billions in domestic tax breaks for oil and gas companies.[34]) The single largest multilateral source of oil aid remains the World Bank, which provides financing primarily for large infrastructure and private sector-driven export projects. In Africa’s politically and (environmentally sensitive areas), many projects could not move forward without World Bank support, the mere presence of which acts as risk insurance and helps attract other funding.[35] Despite high-profile fiascos such as the controversial Chad-Cameroon pipeline[36], the Bank continues to lend vigorously for oil development. In 2008, for instance, World Bank lending for fossil fuels increased by 102 per cent – compared to 11 per cent for renewable energy.[37] What's more, by promoting energy-intensive export agriculture, the Bank – in collusion with bilateral agencies including USAID and mega-philanthropies including the Gates Foundation – further entrench oil dependence in the Third world.

FOOD AND FUEL SOVEREIGNTY: A WORLD WITHOUT CHEAP OIL IS POSSIBLE

From the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of Guinea, oil production has been marked by corporate impunity, lack of transparency and undemocratic decision-making, ecological crisis and human tragedy. The root cause of these problems is the massive consumption of oil and oil-based products in the industrialised world for use in manufacturing, transportation and food production. Insomuch as they rely on the burning of fossil fuels, these activities are responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global climate change. Farming accounts for as much as 32 per cent of total emissions, a significant portion of which are created by industrial agriculture through the use of petroleum-based fertilisers, pesticides and forest clearing.[38] The issue of ‘food miles’ – the distance our food travels from farm to table[39] – has been well documented, while new data shows that the production phase accounts for as much as 83 per cent of the average US household’s carbon footprint for food.[40] Changing the way we produce food, therefore, constitutes a necessary step towards reducing oil dependence, its enormous carbon footprint and its human toll.

Food sovereignty, the political project put forward by the international peasant movement Via Campesina, offers a promising road map. Food sovereignty emerged in the 1990s as a critique to the neoliberal vision of ‘food security’ promoted by the World Bank and others, who view agriculture primarily as a source of export earnings – as opposed to local nutrition, livelihood, biodiversity, culture and community well being. This model – which farmer-activist José Bové has called ‘food from nowhere’ – cares little about the displacement of small-scale food producers from their land by oil companies or industrial farms, since cheap food imports are expected to feed the masses. Food sovereignty, by contrast, privileges sustainable, local food production for local consumption, arguing that international trade must come second. And while some will argue that organic production can’t feed the world, numerous studies prove otherwise. [41] [42] [43]

Industrial agriculture may be more ‘efficient’ in terms of labour (output per worker), but its productivity is achieved through massive applications of fossil fuel-based inputs such as tractor fuel and agrochemicals. Small organic farms, however, are generally more efficient in terms of land (output per acre), since they grow a variety of plants and animals, taking full advantage of each ecological niche. Organic farms are more energy efficient, since they rely primarily upon ‘closed-loop’ nutrient cycles – for example, crop nutrients consumed on site by animals may be returned the soil as crop residues or manure to restore fertility. Finally, small organic farms produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions and could even reverse the trend of global climate change through carbon sequestration in trees and soil.[44]

By producing more food with less energy, promoting small-scale organic agriculture may be our best bet for kicking the cheap oil habit, providing livelihoods for millions of smallholders around the world, and cooling the planet for all. This undertaking will require immense political will and a monumental global shift from oil-dependent, export-driven development to a focus on environmental stewardship and food sovereignty. Meanwhile, the small farmers, fishers and herders of the world – those with the smallest ecological footprint – are fighting a multi-front battle for their right to sustainably produce food on the land and waterways.



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* This article was first published by Food First.
* Tanya Kerssen is a Food First fellow.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.


NOTES
[1] Louisiana State University AgCenter: http://bit.ly/9MUwYP
[2] “Delta’s Black Oystermen Seeking Cleanup Work and Clinging to Hope” by Trymaine Lee, New York Times, July 28, 2010: http://nyti.ms/aaQync
See also “Black Gulf Fishers Face a Murky Future” by Brentin Mock, The Root, May 25, 2010:
http://bit.ly/aH9F6d
[3] Niger Delta Human Development Report, UNDP Nigeria 2006. Available from: http://bit.ly/dyjf9M
[4] Niger Delta Natural Resources Damage Assessment and Restoration Project, Phase I Scoping Report,
May 2006. Cited in “Nigeria: Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta” Amnesty International Report 2009. Avail. From: http://bit.ly/bgOudw
[5] “Niger Delta: Towards Containing Spills, Remedying Impacted Sites” the Daily Independent (Lagos) Aug. 1, 2010. Available from: http://allafrica.com/stories/201008020743.html
[6] “The Niger Delta: some perspective on the BP oil spill” The New Statesman, June 14, 2010: http://bit.ly/9XPwVz
[7] “Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it” by John Vidal, The Guardian, May 30, 2010: http://bit.ly/9Tqzja
[8] “Offshore drilling moratorium: good for the Gulf, bad for the economy?” Christian Science Monitor, July 27, 2010. http://bit.ly/bRfOFC
[9] “Diamond Offshore Is Moving Rig to Egypt on Restrictions in Gulf of Mexico” Bloomberg, July 9, 2010: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-09/diamond-offshore-is-moving-rig-to-egypt-on-restrictions-in-gulf-of-mexico.html
[10] “Idled Gulf Rigs Head For Africa” Investors’ Business Daily, July 13, 2010: http://bit.ly/aNE1Yh
[11] Untapped: The Scramble for Africa’s Oil by John Ghazvinian, Harcourt Books 2007.
[12] “Angola becomes China's largest crude oil source” China Knowledge, July 23, 2010: http://bit.ly/aqwjqt
[13] Untapped…p.8
[14] “The Relentless Pursuit of Extreme Energy” by Michael Klare, TomDispatch. May 18, 2010: http://bit.ly/dqAscf
[15] Untapped…p.85
[16] “BP Document: Big Plans for Deepwater Drilling” by Marian Wang, ProPublica Blog, June 28, 2010:
http://bit.ly/daPJV3
[17] “BP’s Dudley Targets Riskiest Drilling After $32 Billion Blowout” Bloomberg Businessweek, July 29, 2010: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-29/bp-s-dudley-targets-riskiest-drilling-after-32-billion-blowout.html
[18] “Ghana’s Big Test: Oil’s challenge to democratic development” Oxfam Research Report. Feb. 2009. Available from: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/ghanas-big-test/
[19] “Ghana’s Big Test…” p.20
[20] “Ghana’s Big Test…” p.9
[21] “U. S. oil company may pay a huge fine for oil spillage off Ghana coast” July 30, 2010. http://ghanaoilonline.org/u-s-oil-company-may-pay-a-huge-fine-for-oil-spillage-off-ghana-coast
[22] “Is Ghana Prepared to Manage the Potential Environmental Challenges of an Oil and Gas Industry?” by Samuel Marful-Sau, Center for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP), University of Dundee. April 21, 2010. Avail. from: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/cepmlp/gateway/index.php?news=30889
[23] “Ghana’s Big Test…” p.31
[24] “Ghana: Storm brews over oil cash” Public Agenda (Accra), Jun 25, 2010. Avail. from:
http://allafrica.com/stories/201006250940.html
[25] “Repudiate the Carter Doctrine” by Micheal Klare, Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF), Jan 22, 2009. http://www.fpif.org/articles/repudiate_the_carter_doctrine
[26] “Africa Command: U.S. Strategic Interests and the Role of the U.S. Military in Africa” by Laura Ploch, CRS Report for Congress, April 3, 2010. www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL34003.pdf
[27] “Obama moves ahead with AFRICOM” by Daniel Volman, Pambazuka News, Issue 461, Dec 10, 2009: http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/60921
[28] The Case Against Shell: http://wiwavshell.org/
[29] “Shell pays out $15.5m over Saro-Wiwa killing” by Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, June 9, 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/08/nigeria-usa
[30] “Oil Consortium Behind War Crimes” by Frank Mulder, IPS News Agency, June 9, 2010. http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=51761
[31] “Aiding Oil, Harming the Climate: A database of public funds for fossil fuels” Oil Change International, Dec. 2007. Avail. from: http://www.endoilaid.org/aidingoil
[32] “Aiding Oil, Harming the Climate…”
[33] “Aiding Oil, Harming the Climate…”
[34] “As Oil Industry Fights a Tax, It Reaps Subsidies” by David Kocieniewski, New York Times, July 3, 2010: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/business/04bptax.html?_r=1
[35] “The World Bank’s Decade for Africa: A new dawn for development aid?” by Korinna Horta, Yale Journal of International Affairs, May 2005.
[36] “Chad's Oil: Miracle or Mirage? Following the Money in Africa's Newest Petro-State” by The Bank Information Center and Catholic Relief Services, February 2005. Avail. from: http://www.bicusa.org/en/project.26.aspx
[37] “World Bank Energy Sector Lending: Encouraging the world’s addiction to fossil fuels” by Heike Mainhardt-Gibbs, Bank Information Center, Feb. 2009. Avail. from: http://www.bicusa.org/en/Article.11033.aspx
[38] ActionAid, Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, May 2009: http://bit.ly/a5rIIt
[39] See, for example, “Food, Fuel, and Freeways: An Iowa perspective on how far food travels, fuel usage, and greenhouse gas emissions” Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, June 2001. http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/ppp/
[40] “Food Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States” by Christopher L. Weber and Scott Mathews. Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 42, no. 10 (2008).
[41] Pimentel et al. 2005. “Environmental, energetic, and economic comparisons of organic and conventional farming systems” Bioscience, Vol. 55.
[42] Pretty et al. 2003. “Reducing food poverty by increasing agricultural sustainability in developing countries” Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, Volume 95, Issue 1.
[43] Rosset, Peter. 2000. “The Multiple Functions and Benefits of Small Farm Agriculture in the Context of Global Trade Negotiations” Development, Volume 43, Number 2.
[44] Vandermeer et al. 2009. “Effects of Industrial Agriculture on Global Warming and the Potential of Small-Scale Agroeclogical Techniques to Reverse those Effects” A report to Via Campesina by the New World Agriculture and Ecology Group. http://viacampesina.net/downloads/DOC/ViaNWAEG-10-20-09.doc

South African strike: Political watershed?

Leonard Gentle

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66783

cc C P HQIn the wake of South Africa’s public sector strike, Leonard Gentle cuts through the negativity towards the strikers presented by much of the media and argues that the situation overall may well prove ‘a watershed in South African politics’. While officialdom has sought to demonise the strikers, their concerns around high interest rates, debt, high costs and inadequate pay may well come to chime with further disillusionment across key components of the ANC’s (African National Congress) base, Gentle writes.

The public sector strike has been suspended. But whether the unions accept the state's latest offer or not, this strike may well be (and these things we are almost always fated to see only in retrospect) a watershed in South African politics.

Firstly, amidst all the media opprobrium and invective against the strikers and the stories of intimidation, there is also a picture emerging of the appalling state of the public sector.

Whilst the very wealthy and even many middle-class people simply avoid much of the public sector, sourcing health services from medical aids and private hospitals, sending their kids to private schools and living in gated communities cleaned by private companies, most other South Africans are dependent on public healthcare, public schooling and other public services. And not only have these been seriously neglected, the very people who must provide the services – teachers, nurses, state clerical workers – are underpaid and angry enough to hold out for a protracted strike in order to get some improvement.

For a number of years now we have been aware of the widespread protests in townships all over the country known as the service delivery revolts. The frequency and spread of these have impacted so much on public awareness that everyone readily fingered a cause and offered a solution. Parties like the Democratic Alliance (DA) blamed a lack of education and corruption in local municipalities, whilst the African National Congress (ANC) government pointed to poor spending capacity at the municipal level and instituted measures to force mayors and local councillors to deliver, even making them sign ‘performance contracts’. On both sides the problem was seen as technical rather than political, as the problem of local authorities and not national government's policy problem, especially with regard to its attitude to public services.

But now we clearly see the problem of public services as a problem of the ANC government’s refusal to invest in public services, particularly the human resources required to make public hospitals and schools function properly.

And it is no good that some sections of the media now start to calculate salaries as a percentage of public sector spending, because service delivery is first and foremost about having the people to deliver the services. No one has yet found a way of improving teaching and nursing without having adequate teachers and nurses.

Public sector expenditure, as a whole, actually declined after GEAR (growth, employment and redistribution) in 1996 and only reached pre-1996 levels again in 2006. There is currently a 40 per cent vacancy rate in public hospitals. And while total healthcare expenditure is of the order of 8 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product), the bulk of this is on private healthcare; public healthcare expenditure has hovered around 3 per cent since 1994. Our infant mortality rate groups us with Cambodia, Cote d’Ivoire and Kazakhstan, as a group of only nine countries whose infant mortality rate is actually increasing.

Despite trumpeting the government’s commitment to education in the form of the education budget being the biggest percentage of the annual budget, classroom sizes have actually increased since the end of apartheid. Under apartheid, schoolbooks were free for black children, at least those who were able to attend school. Today, under neoliberalism parents have to buy these books and pay school fees as well.

The current anger of schoolteachers is patent in their response to the Department of Education’s inflated claims about their salaries in newspaper adverts. Equal Education’s campaign for school libraries has shown up so clearly the massive inequalities between the children of the wealthy and the children of the majority today.

Secondly, the strike did take on a wider political significance in that it revealed shifts within the social base of the ANC and its allies.

Since 1994, the ANC has largely abandoned the working class and urban and rural poor, relying on their liberation credits to sew up their vote whilst implementing neoliberal policies such as the privatisation and commercialisation of public services, the lifting of exchange controls and encouraging South Africa’s biggest corporations to go offshore and become world players.

Instead the ANC has built up an important base of support among the black middle classes in the form of BEE (black economic empowerment) wannabes and the beneficiaries of affirmative action and the ‘greying’ of the public sector. This latter layer of teachers, nurses and municipal clerks in the social services and the like were, in a sense, beneficiaries of the new South Africa, taking over roles and functions from which their parents were excluded.

In the main, this layer was pro-ANC and to the extent that they later felt the precariousness of their new-felt status, it could be blamed on Thabo Mbeki and his ‘class of ’96’ project. They found a common cause alongside others in what was called the ‘alliance of the wounded’ in the campaign to put Jacob Zuma into power.

But the global crisis has begun to bite, not for the super-rich in this country (a Deloitte survey in 2010 indicated that the rich in South Africa have been in the top five countries in the world least affected by the crisis), but for the 1.5 million workers who lost their jobs since 2008, and now the lower-middle classes riddled with debt, high prices and greater intensity of work in poorly resourced public services. A key indicator is the extent of consumer debt – rising to nearly 80 per cent of income by 2009 – and its impact on the living standards of the lower-middle classes.

With South Africa having one of the highest real interest rates in the world (despite the recent drop of the repossession rate to 6 per cent), debt seriously engulfs teachers, nurses and other white-collar workers. The major source of this debt is not discretionary, wasteful credit card expenditure on luxuries, but the necessary expenditure on what can be regarded as essentials, particularly housing. It is significant that one of the key sticking points in the public sector strike was the housing subsidy.

The significance of the public sector strike is that it is these people – the rank and file of NEHAWU (National Education Health and Allied Workers Union) and SADTU (South African Democratic Teachers Union) and the PSL – who took everyone by surprise with their willingness to strike and the desperation with which they refused to back down. It is significant that some of the most recalcitrant strikers were teachers and nurses. It is also significant that the composition of the Independent Labour Caucus (ILC) unions is also white-collar.

COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions), in this regard, has also changed in composition from a largely blue-collar working-class formation in the 1980s and 1990s to the largely public sector, white-collar federation it is today. Although the National Union of Mineworkers is still the biggest single union, the bulk of membership is now drawn from NEHAWU, SADTU, CWU (Communication Workers Union), SAMWU (South African Municipal Workers Union), POPCRU (Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union) and so on. Nearly a third of COSATU’s members now have degrees.

This changing composition of COSATU has seen the centre of gravity of mass struggles shift towards the township poor, who have been those waging service-delivery struggles almost unabated for the last five years. These have been struggles largely waged by the unemployed, the never-employed youth and the ‘grannies’.

We now know that the leaderships of the COSATU public sector unions were drawn into this strike reluctantly. They didn’t want the strike and did little preparation. The main reason for endorsing the idea of a strike was that the ILC had opted for it. Faced with the prospect of being outflanked and fearing the consequences of militant action conducted outside its ranks (this echoed what happened in the 2007 strikes when the doctors carried on striking despite the fact that their union had settled), COSATU unions had little choice but to come out.

This lack of preparation explains much of the desperation with which the strike therefore had to be conducted. There were no ballots amongst members in advance and none of the rounds of local meetings at workplaces to canvass the feelings of members and prepare for sustained action. There was even less of what was always attempted in the past – meetings with communities to explain the aims of the strike and to gain their support.

But what of the state? Why did they not prepare and why did they assume that the unions would simply back down? Unless one goes along with the ludicrous notion that their negotiators were incompetent, it is interesting to speculate on what their motives were for simply declaring that their initial offer was ‘final’.

On the one hand they were party to the feelings of the trade union leaders and knew of their reluctance to strike. Their negotiators clearly knew that the agreement reached after the last public sector strike in 2007 included a compromise to have the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) and that there would be negotiations only in three years’ time (2010), which would be in the year of the World Cup. They therefore had three years of planning to avoid the showdown that transpired. All the parties were happy to allow the negotiations to amble along so that their climax would not to be reached during the World Cup.

WHY THEN DID THE STATE ADOPT SUCH AN INTRANSIGENT STANCE?

One reason is that, economically, they simply didn’t have space to manoeuvre. The global economic crisis, the need to rein in expenditure after the World Cup and so on, would have forced the state to dig in its heels. But why then were the transport and electricity workers able to win 8 per cent? Surely having caved in to that sector, it was unrealistic to expect public sector workers not to regard this figure as the non-negotiable benchmark?

Another reason is that they suspected that the close political partnership between COSATU and the Zuma government (particularly with COSATU being one of the main forces driving Zuma into office) might ensure that the union leadership would give the state’s negotiators an easy ride. Given the initial unwillingness of COSATU unions to consider a strike, they may not have been wrong in this reasoning.

A more likely reason is that the state deliberately sought confrontation. Knowing the political balance of forces within the ANC, knowing that Zwelinzima Vavi and COSATU have become defensive within the ANC after their Polokwane victory (including Vavi having to face possible disciplinary charges), they thought that COSATU would not go for a strike. And if their hand was forced through the initiative of the ILC then the strike would be an opportunity to break the unions quite decisively through a failed strike.

The bellicose language of the Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi (threatening strikers) as well as Zuma, whilst they and the state’s mouthpiece, the SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation), focused on demonising the striking workers in the court of public opinion (note the barrage of visuals of intimidation) seem to support this argument.

But no one took the mood of the strikers themselves seriously, or that of the plight of the lower-middle classes in South Africa driven to despair by high interest rates, debt, high costs and inadequate pay.

There may well be a political price to pay for the ANC, particularly those associated with the Zuma project, in the future. In the short term we may see a new ‘coalition of the wounded’ emerge by the time of the ANC’s presidential elections in 2012. In the mid to longer term we may be seeing the ongoing drip-drip of disillusionment among key sectors of the ANC’s historical base, grow into a political break.

AND WHAT OF THE MEDIA?

In all this there has also been an opportunity for the media to act out its claims to providing the public with information, without kowtowing to vested interests, particularly that of the state.

In the main, however, the media’s coverage of the strike has been in the style of embedded journalism. Volunteers who have gone to state hospitals have been interviewed and given the chance to tell their stories, but not striking workers. The plight of learners missing exam preparations and people being denied emergency services has been highlighted. Economists have been citing figures indicating that service delivery may have to be traded off against salaries.

Whether radio, television or print, they all lined up to condemn the strikers and unleashed a tide of anti-striker sentiment amongst their listeners, viewers and readers.

It is interesting that in the midst of a (legitimate) campaign by the media to defend freedom of expression – a campaign in which the media has set itself up as the champion of the free flow of information and the right of the public to know – these same rights were not extended to the striking teachers and nurses, where the media largely lined up alongside the state to demonise the strikers.

In the 1980s, the mainstream media grappled with their reporting on ‘the riots’ or the ‘unrest’ as the SABC spoke of the anti-apartheid struggle then. Pioneer editors had to hire intrepid black journalists to go behind the burning barricades and hear the stories of activists burning tyres and to bear witness to police brutality.

WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN THE CASE NOW?

How can editors pay lip service to the constitution, including the right to strike, and yet almost universally condemn poor people – poor middle-class people in this case – who are exercising this right?

Slowly, slowly, a new movement begins to peep out from under the skirts of the alliance. Up to now it’s been the very poor, the unemployed, the shack dwellers and backyard dwellers that have been carrying this load. Now the lower-middle classes have begun to join in. It would be wishful thinking to suggest that there is already some kind of common cause between them and the teachers and nurses of the public sector – there has been no evidence of solidarity action so far. But the nature of the public sector strike suggests that that day may not be far off.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Leonard Gentle is the director of the International Labour and Research Information Group.
* This article was first published by the South African Civil Society Information Service.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Media freedom is your freedom (or is it?)

Jane Duncan

2010-09-08

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66781

cc P KWith South African Sunday Times reporter Mzilikazi wa Afrika arrested on Wednesday 4 August following complaints from Mpumalanga province premier David Mabuza, Jane Duncan writes about the alarming questions developing around freedom of expression in the country. But wa Afrika’s experience, Duncan stresses, will be far from alien to many local activists, who will be all too familiar with small-town repression, even if such stories prove to be routinely ignored by the mainstream media.

On Wednesday 4 August, Sunday Times reporter Mzilikazi wa Afrika was arrested at the offices of the Sunday Times newspaper, in response to a complaint laid by the premier of Mpumalanga province, David Mabuza. Many aspects of wa Afrika’s arrest have raised troubling questions about the appropriateness of the state’s actions, and have fuelled speculation that political pressure was brought to bear on the police to act against wa Afrika for his activities as a journalist.

Wa Afrika’s account of his arrest is chilling. What concerned him the most was the fact that he was taken to Mpumalanga to appear in court, which led him to fear that he was going to be killed. His fears were well-founded, as wa Afrika and Mail and Guardian journalist Lucky Sindane were on a hit-list of people targeted for assassination, and two government officials on the list had already been killed.

These events have reinforced already-deep concerns about the state of freedom of expression in South Africa. But there are those who are unsurprised by these events. Many small-town political activists are all too familiar with the treatment wa Afrika was subjected to. These activists are rich repositories of information about small-town repression, and the true state of South Africa’s democracy more generally.

Yet their experiences remain largely unexamined and their insights untapped, owing to the news media’s bias towards news in the major urban centres. As a result, abuses of power in outlying areas often fall under the radar, emerging into public view only when they impinge on events in these news centres.

Activist Seun Mogotji sympathises with wa Afrika. In responding to the journalist’s account of his arrest, he said, ‘I am a victim of that. This is becoming a police state. If the government must be criticised, they must be criticised within the framework of the government. Illiterate people are being brainwashed.’ He related his own story.

Mogotji is local secretary of the SACP (South African Communist Party) in Moutse and spokesperson for the Moutse Demarcation Forum. Mogotji has become the voice of the struggle to resist the imposed incorporation of the area into Limpopo.

The SACP in Moutse has alleged a spate of assaults, cases of intimidation, harassment and wrongful arrests ‘aimed at members of the community who hold different political views than those of police officials’. Mogotji has been arrested several times for incitement to public violence and public violence, but these cases have been dropped. He claims that he has been declined bail for no good reason. In Mogotji’s words, ‘the police punish before they prosecute.’

In one incident, a comrade of Mogotji’s was arrested with him, simply for ‘driving with Seun’. In another incident, he says that a senior police officer told him, ‘they will make sure I lose my mouth if I don’t shut it.’ In yet another incident, he describes how a large contingent of police came to arrest him at his place of work, cordoning off the whole building: as Mogotji commented ‘they wanted it to be like a movie, like wa Afrika’s arrest.’

Mogotji feels that the police have become even more authoritarian under the Jacob Zuma administration. He said, ‘Things are worse under Zuma. I am even missing [former president Thabo] Mbeki.’ He attributes this growing authoritarianism to the Minister of Police Nathi Mthetwa and Deputy Minister of Police Fikile Mbalula's ANC Youth League backgrounds. Given the league’s hostility to the SACP – culminating in its leader Julius Malema recently declaring ‘war’ on the SACP and threatening to ‘beat the dog [SACP] until the owner [Secretary General Blade Nzimande] comes out’ – Mogotji is not surprised that communists are bearing the brunt of the police’s wrath.

Mogotji feels that small-town repression is largely unreported, and attributes this to the shallow ‘telephone journalism’ practiced by many newsrooms. Furthermore, their lack of interest in small-town politics makes them reluctant to invest scarce investigative resources to dig deeper. In spite of these shortcomings, Mogotji feels that the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal will not enhance the quality of journalism as it is designed ‘to make sure that the people shut their mouths’.

Sam Radebe from the Greater Harrismith Socio-Economic Development Forum was also not surprised by wa Afrika’s account of events, given his own long history of conflict with the police, which he related. In 2004, he was part of the service delivery march that led to the fatal shooting of 17-year-old, Tebogo Mkhonza, and which ignited the province in protest action. He and 13 others were charged with public violence and the apartheid-era crime of sedition, simply for having participated in the march, but they were found not guilty.

In October 2009, the community organised a march against poor service delivery, after having notified the municipality of their intention to do so, as required by law. A huge contingent of police was bussed in from neighbouring towns. According to Radebe, ‘on the day of the march, there was a lot of interference from the ANC and the government asking them not to march’. As the march was about to start, the police officer in charge told the convenor that he had received an instruction from the MEC (member of the executive council) for safety and security in the province that the march should disperse in two minutes. The protestors refused, arguing that their march was legal.

While the German public broadcaster ARD was conducting a live interview with the public relations officer of the forum, the police arrested him and other protestors and started beating those arrested. The protestors then became angry and started to riot in a fit of collective anger that spread throughout the township. The ANC offices were burnt down and two ANC councillors were attacked.

This account of events reinforces a key finding of rapid response research into recent protests undertaken by the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Sociological Research, that brutal responses by the police contribute to violence in protests, rather than the protestors being solely responsible.

In April, Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza told a press conference the following: ‘On a daily basis, on a weekly basis I receive reports: intelligence reports with classified information. The reports tell me about your activities [and] about ordinary people doing things… In the service delivery protests, they report who is who.’

These words ring in the ears as Radebe recounts how he is followed everywhere by men in plain clothes, a constant feature of his life since the National Intelligence Agency was dispatched to investigate the 2004 protests.

He has also experienced informal repression. In December 2009, he attended a media conference in Upington organised by the Amandla magazine and the National Community Radio Forum. While at the conference, he was phoned constantly and threatened with legal cases ‘that will see you locked up for fifteen years’ by people who identified themselves only as the ‘law enforcers’.

After returning to Harrismith, Radebe was attacked by four men while walking home, beaten and threatened with a gun by a man who said, ‘you are the one who thinks he knows better about the struggle’. He has opened cases, but these cases go nowhere, while the public violence cases against his comrades move with speed through the system.

Radebe is not happy about the news media’s silence on the threats to activists. While Radebe opposes the establishment of the Media Appeals Tribunal, and is mobilising locally in support of media freedom, he argues, ‘the media must clean its own house, because they do not consider stories from these small towns to be important. There are so many unreported incidents taking place in towns like Harrismith and Warden and the media must dedicate themselves to the lives of the poor. People are being exploited by the police, but the media don’t report on those things. If there is rioting, [only] then they will entertain it.’

Mogotji and Radebe's stories point to growing state authoritarianism and informal repression. Many, many similar stories remain unreported. They are aware of the possible consequences of telling their stories. But they have decided that – in the long run - staying silent is more dangerous than speaking out, as sunlight is the best disinfectant against the rot that is setting in.

The relationship between formal and informal repression is ill-understood. But in the absence of hard evidence of a relationship, what can be said is that the failure to deal with formal repression creates the space for informal repression to take root, as a climate of impunity prevails.

Small towns are particularly susceptible to this rot as economic opportunities are few. Local elites can use their control of what few resources exist to dispense political favours and punish political dissidents. Mpumalanga is the most extreme expression of this rot, but there is no reason to believe that the rot will stop there.

To the extent that the news media have failed to report on the de-democratisation of small towns, they are failing the South African public and even themselves. This failure caught up with them on Wednesday 4 August.

The media are now appealing to the South African public to support their freedom, reinvoking the South African National Editor's Forum (SANEF) slogan that ‘media freedom is your freedom’. According to SANEF, ‘media freedom guarantees your right to know what's going on in your country, and participate fully in the decisions affecting you.’

Activists were among the first to respond to this call, when civil society organisations and social movements released a statement condemning the arrest of wa Afrika. Among the spokespeople were Ashraf Cassiem, whose front teeth were kicked in while resisting an eviction, and Maureen Mnisi, veteran of many arrests and assaults for her activism in the shacks of Protea South.

These activists have proved themselves capable of rising above their reservations about the media's sincerity in professing that media freedom is, in fact, everyone's freedom. They have defended the broader principle of freedom of expression, and media freedom as an instance of that freedom.

In being called on to defend this broader freedom that has been so badly eroded on their watch, will the media finally do the same?

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* Professor Jane Duncan is Highway Africa chair of media and information society, School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University.
* This article was first published by the South African Civil Society Information Service.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Honeymoon ends for South Africa and Rwanda

Dibussi Tande

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66787

cc WECSouth Africa’s post-World Cup return to reality, Rwanda’s displeasure at a UN report accusing its forces of the massacre of Hutu refugees in DRC, and the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS in Swaziland are among the stories covered in this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere, collated by Dibussi Tande.

Postcard Junky

Postcard Junky argues that South Africa’s World Cup honeymoon is over, with old social and political problems taking centre-stage once again:

‘Discontent, malice, fear: they inhabit the air like the smell of a coming storm. Yes, the World Cup honeymoon is over here in South Africa. And Africa’s most turbulent, energetic, and schizophrenic and, ultimately, hopeful democracy is once again lurching about in search of its own identity.

‘The most visible sign of something rotten in the state of Zuma has, of course, been the massive civil service strike that is now entering its third week. More than a million public employees have taken to the streets so far, over demands of increased wages and housing allowances; according to local media, that number is expected to grow this week. There have been ugly reports of clashes between strikers and police; between strikers and those daring to cross the picket line; even between strikers and hospital patients, who have been turned back at healthcare facilities across the country by angry mobs. This is the ugly face of democracy-run-amok – a bitter pill to swallow for those who, having grown with the apartheid struggle, remember the days when labor unions were seen as an important voice of social protest for blacks – one of the few entries into the political space not banned by the apartheid government...

‘The government insists that the strikers’ demands are unreasonable, that they threaten to bankrupt its already overtaxed coffers. (World Cup stadium in Port Elizabeth, anybody?) Meanwhile more reports of government misdeeds: ANC cronies linked to a corrupt waste management deal in Limpopo province; President Zuma’s own son implicated in a scandal involving the South African arm of the steel giant, ArcelorMittal. Bitterness, fear, fury. How quickly the dreams of the World Cup have dimmed and faded, like the last gasps of fireworks bursting over Soccer City six weeks ago. It’s back to the dirty business of politics now, to the trench warfare of negotiated settlements – neither line willing to give an inch.’

Congo Siasa

Congo Siasa challenges some of the arguments put forth by the Rwandan government to rebut the UN report which accuses Rwandan-controlled forces of having massacred Hutu refugees who fled to Zaire after the 1994 genocide:

‘The report's intention is to call for accountability for the mass atrocities committed during ten years of conflict in the Congo, not to single out Rwanda for "acts of genocide." Indeed, Angolan, Burundian, Ugandan, Chadian and Congolese officials are also cited for war crimes in the report. While the systematic massacre of Rwandan Hutu refugees stands out as one of the worst crimes committed during the war and deserves to be highlighted, the press should have put the report in context and highlighted its call for a tribunal and a truth and reconciliation commission.

‘There is no doubt that some Rwandan opposition members will seize this opportunity to resurrect the notion of a double genocide. The comparison is not helpful in the least. Some 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed during the 1994 genocide. This report suggests "tens of thousands" of refugees killed by the RPA in the Congo and probably several times that many died from disease and starvation. However, while the figures of refugees that died were nowhere near as high as those of people killed in 1994 genocide, the systematic nature of the killing is deeply chilling and indicates complicity at a very high level within Rwanda's government...

‘The UN failed abysmally to bring an end to the genocide in 1994. It also failed to separate soldiers from civilians in the refugee camps. These failures will continue to bring shame and discredit to the organization. However, that past mistakes should somehow prevent the UN from criticizing other atrocities does not make sense. We should recall that the massacre of refugees was not carried out in self-defense, nor were the civilians killed by stray bullets; the evidence gathered by the UN investigators suggests that the massacres were systematic and carried out intentionally, in a coordinated fashion. That 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed in Rwanda in 1994, and that the RPA helped bring an end to the genocide should in no way prevent the UN from criticizing them for killing tens of thousands in the Congo.’

For His Glory

For His Glory calls on the world to act in the face of the devastating AIDS epidemic in Swaziland which he compares to ethnic cleansing and genocide:

‘Something is happening in Swaziland, something similar in proportions to the ethnic cleansing which threatened Kosovo and Rwanda which the world needs and must pay more attention to or never again will we as a race ever be able to look in the mirror of our humanity and see humanity, all we would see would be distorted inhumanity, thick skinned enough to let an entire nation evanesce from the face of the earth. HIV AIDS is slowly, deliberately, subtly, fazing, and decimating an entire people with the certainty of a high Richter scale magnitude quaking tsunamis. All of this is happening before the idle watch of the world...

‘Ever since the first Swazi cases of AIDS were reported in 1986, the virus has spread untamed and now 26.1% of the country's adult population are infected, effortlessly making it the highest HIV prevalence rate in the whole world, and the spread is still on like a wild Harmattan fire...

‘Oh how the twin fiend of poverty and HIV AIDS, wedded in polygamous union to ignorance can ravage and decimate a people!!... There is an unfolding tragedy endangering the entire existence of a people before the watch of the world and a selfish King… I personally feel dwarfed by the enormity of the challenge but let it better be said that we didn't succeed, but never that we didn't try...

‘The world must act now or history will judge this generation harshly. We have borrowed this present from our children and we have an obligation to give it back to them better and brighter. Let the international organizations of the world and powers which be, help this nation out of this dark valley of despicable health and economic malaise.”

mzatinkolokosa.com

mzatinkolokosa.com comments on the death of three people in Ndirande, Blantyre, Malawi at the urging of a church leader:

‘The three, Lamece Manda 31, Ettah Manda 27, and 16 year old Annie Manda died after throwing themselves into a fire. Two others—Petro Manda, 25 and Maria Manda, 19–were seriously injured.

‘Police say the family members did this because they suspected their father was casting a spell on them, so they could not find jobs or marry. This information, according to Police, was from a church leader who advised the family members to burn themselves. Something powerful must be at work here, something powerful enough to move a person to kill himself and others. The ages here are of young people....

‘The majority of people in Malawi are young, below 35 years and those between 18 and 35 are struggling to make a life, to get a good education, a decent job and raise a family. Hopelessness can lead to loss of interest in life. But should the youth in Malawi be hopeless? I don’t think so.

‘Every storm, no matter how strong, is temporary. We have loan programmes, we have skills training centres, farming and a strong extended family system that cares for one another. How could these and others fail to save the lives of the Mandas? This is where we need to think anew and seriously about the role of religion in Malawi.’

Ken Opalo

Ken Opalo laments about the poor state of the strategic but neglected Kisumu-Busia Highway in Kenya:

‘It is a key road that links western Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and the eastern DRC to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. But the state of the Kisumu-Busia “highway” does not exemplify its economic importance to the wider east African region. Potholes, dangerously narrow stretches, and encroachment by vendors are some of the many things that are wrong with the Kisumu-Busia highway. The many accidents that occur on the road tell it all.

‘Last Tuesday I witnessed the aftermath of an accident in the town of Ugunja in Ugenya when on a visit to my aunt’s in Got Osimbo. A tanker swerved while trying to avoid oncoming traffic. As always happens, locals rushed to the scene with containers to siphon away fuel. The fuel caught fire and burnt many stalls that line the road in Ugunja town and a section of the famous St. Michael’s Hotel. As far as I know there was only one fatality – thanks to the fact that the tanker was carrying diesel and not the more inflammable petrol. It is not that long ago when similar accidents in Sidindi and Sachangwan caused the death of dozens of people who were trying to loot fuel.

‘I can’t stop asking myself: HOW HARD CAN IT BE? How hard can it be for the four countries that depend on this key road to get their act together and construct a proper road?’

Uganda Journalist

Uganda Journalist says that contrary to the triumphalist discourse coming out of Kampala about recovery in Northern Uganda, the region is still plagued by immense problems:

‘A few weeks ago, the government of Uganda paid supplements to major newspapers publicising their achievements in the recovery plan for Northern Uganda. I took a trip to the north and east with Isis-WICCE an organisation am currently working with to finish my masters.

‘These people's stories tell a different reality. The case is simple; not much on the ground yet to cause celebrations and the waste money to put ads [in newspapers]. That money invested in supplements could have well changed the situation of these people I spoke to and many many others.

‘But since it is election time here “you have to blow the trumpet” even in situations that are dire. These people’s lives show not much has been done for communities that have faced over a decade of conflict especially those people whose bodies were the battle ground of the war – the women!

‘The issues addressing the welfare of ordinary people in the north are still not addressed. Maternal deaths are still high. Uganda loses about 6000 mothers per year due to pregnancy related complications. Recently at the All Africa Anglican Bishops conference in Uganda, the head of UNFPA Janet Jackson put the deaths in a way that I can’t forget. That for every 90 minutes, a time it takes for a football match, a mother dies in Uganda. And for those of us who love football so much it is a comparison that can’t leave our minds. Normalising the situation in northern Uganda will take more than just road construction.’

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* Dibussi Tande blogs at Scribbles from the Den.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

HIV/AIDS: Intellectual property rights or human rights?

Riaz K. Tayob

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66788

cc ErixThere’s been a billion-dollar drop in international aid for developing country HIV/AIDS programmes over the past two years, but levels of HIV infection and mortality from AIDS remain unacceptably high. As rich countries pursue stronger protections for private intellectual property rights, further limiting poor countries’ ability to produce cheaper generic medicines including anti-retrovirals, Riaz K. Tayob considers the impact on social rights to health.

The 18 to 23 July International AIDS Conference held in Vienna this year, subtitled ‘Rights Here, Right Now’ was a platform to raise, yet again, the values-based universal and indivisible human rights and the political commitments that inform our response, globally, to the unacceptable level of new HIV infection and mortality from AIDS. At the same time the shrinking provision of aid to low income countries and persistence of avoidable inequities globally in the progressive realisation of these rights starkly raises the reality of the competition between social rights to health, and private rights to intellectual property.

International aid to developing countries has declined in the past two years, with a fall of US$1.1 billion in high income country support for developing country AIDS programmes between 2008 and 2009, according to UNAIDS and the Kaiser Foundation. At the same time rich countries continue to pursue with vigour stronger protections for intellectual property rights (IPR) – in what is now known as the 'IP Enforcement Agenda’. The effects of strong IPR protection may have been abated in earlier years by aid support for the purchase of patented medicines, but low income countries seeking to meet needs in the current financial squeeze by procuring cheaper options or initiating their own local production of medicines, including of anti-retrovirals, face an unabated challenge to their implementing even those measures that are legal under the World Trade Organisation's (WTO's) Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement.

The fall in funding to AIDS has itself been challenged by many, including the President of the International AIDS Society, Dr Julio Montaner, and Stephen Lewis (former UN special envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa). As Dr Montaner said: ‘International governments say we face a crisis of resources, but that is simply not true: The challenge is not finding money, but changing priorities. When there is a Wall Street emergency or an energy crisis, billions upon billions of dollars are quickly mobilized. People's health deserves a similar financial response and much higher priority.’

At the same time the fall in funding has made very clear the need to implement long-standing calls by progressive civil society to put in place more predictable means of global financing, and for African countries to maximise use of TRIPS flexibilities and to advance local production of pharmaceuticals. Yet is it precisely in this arena that measures are being taken to strengthen and enforce intellectual property rights and reduce the flexibilities needed by developing countries. There have been numerous examples of this, included those reported in prior issues of the EQUINET newsletter.

Measures to reinforce IPRs include those in regional and bilateral agreements provisions that exceed TRIPs requirements and reduce the flexibilities provided by TRIPS (TRIPS plus); and also pressures on African countries not to exercise rights to compulsory licensing or parallel importation. The EU, which stated its commitment to access to medicines, has pursued measures that exceed TRIPs obligations in its trade agreements with developing countries including with India, in spite of an EU Parliamentary resolution on 12 July 2007 (P6_TA(2007)0353) urging it not to do so. There have been seizures in the EU of generic medicines in transit, not destined for Europe, performed at the insistence of EU pharmaceutical companies for allegedly being counterfeit. The EU has contributed to work on anti-counterfeiting legislation in East African countries that has raised new IPR restrictions on legitimate generic medicines, defining them within the scope of counterfeits (see EQUINET Newsletter 111). Similar seizure laws are being supported through a global initiative called IMPACT.

Significantly at the July AIDS conference, attention was also drawn to the use by the USA of its 'Special 301' law which it uses to list and ‘shame’ countries for violating US commercial interests by not providing sufficient protection to IPRs. Health Gap, the Foundation for AIDS Rights and the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS with others have filed a complaint with the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Anand Grover, alleging that use of this law reduces access to medicines in low and middle income nations and violates international human rights obligations.

Global institutions appear to be offering weak protection to developing countries in their efforts to assert their rights, and the rights and flexibilities provided for in global treaties. In the 2006/7, during the WHO's negotiations on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (for so-called ‘neglected diseases’) efforts were made to contain the challenge to IPRs from neglected diseases by including a proposal to limit the scope of the discussion to only 14 diseases, a due process violation as no country proposed this for inclusion in the negotiating text. The IMPACT programme referred to earlier has had an association with WHO (world Health Organization) that was heavily criticised at the 2010 World Health Assembly. The WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), instead of the defending the flexibilities provided in its own instruments through multilateral measures, has allowed the US room for unilateralism on its Special 301 law in a January 1999 dispute raised by the European Community. This was a decision that Chakravarthi Raghavan of the South-North Development Monitor termed as blatantly based on politics, rather than legal interpretation.

Almost a decade since the 2001 Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health made the important step of asserting more clearly the rights countries already enjoyed to promote access to medicines, few countries have been able to use the rights enshrined in it. The Declaration was needed then because poor countries were precluded from using these rights by the rich countries. The cases cited in this editorial suggest that the last decade has been one of countless efforts to restrict and reverse those rights.

This is in a context where the latest WHO treatment guidelines recommend that people with HIV should start treatment earlier, bringing treatment for people in developing countries in line with treatment in wealthy nations, to help prevent transmission of HIV. Of the 14 million people needing treatment, only 4 million currently receive it. While private rights to IPRs are being vigorously enforced, who is vigorously enforcing the rights to life and health of these 10 million people, or the millions more who need medicines for other common diseases, including chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension?

And where will we be ten years from now, with an unabated and expanding IP enforcement agenda? The evidence from recent years outlined here suggests that basing future access to medicines on a benevolent global market, or even one that prioritises human rights in one region over commercial rights in another may be wishful thinking. There seems to be no alternative but for African countries to set a vision, and to develop, negotiate, build space for and implement strategies for their own local production of medicines, to meet their own market and population needs, while simultaneously fending off an IP enforcement agenda that does not meet their interests, in all its guises.

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* This article first appeared in the EQUINET Newsletter 114, September 2010. The full newsletter can be found at http://www.equinetafrica.org/newsletter
* Riaz K. Tayob is SEATINI’s South Africa representative.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Ethiopia: Education or indoctri-nation?

Alemayehu G. Mariam

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66804

cc D H RA new directive from Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education effectively outlaws distance learning and creates a monopoly for state-controlled universities to administer the disciplines of law and teaching, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam. While the official reason given for the sudden change in policy is concern for educational quality, Mariam hypothesises that it will enable the regime ‘to control two of the most important professions that have the greatest impact on the lives of the people’.

THE MINISTRY OF INDOCTRINATION

This past week Ethiopia's Ministry of Education issued a ‘directive’ effectively outlawing distance learning (or education programmes that are not delivered in the traditional university classroom or campus) throughout the country. According to reports, the directive of the Ministry's Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency (HERQA) prohibits enrolment of new students in all distance education programmes. It also creates a monopoly for state-controlled universities to administer the disciplines of law and teaching. There are said to be 64 private institutions serving some 75,000 students throughout the country that are impacted by the directive.

The reason for the sudden and radical change in policy is said to be concern for educational quality. Ministry spokesman Abera Abate painted all private distance learning institutions in the country with a broad brush by categorically condemning them as scams and diploma mills. ‘When the purpose is collecting money, it is not a good purpose. The only issue some universities have is collecting money.’ Of course, the directive does not apply just to ‘some’ universities whose ‘purpose is collecting money’; it applies to all distance education providers in the country.

The response from the various private educational service providers was swift. Wondwosen Tamrat, president of St Mary's College and former chairman of the General Assembly of the Ethiopian Private Higher Education Institutions Association (EPHEIA) described the directive as ‘ridiculous. The [regime's] inability to enforce the quality standards already set should not lead to these kind of measures... We have participated in the legal education reform programmes, and our college issues a biannual law journal...In fact, in this area, it is public institutions that are suffering from a shortage of human resources, rather than the private sector.’ According to Tamrat, ‘two-thirds of the students [in his university] are in the distance education division...If you are not offering this programme, it would mean we would be losing what we have been working for the last 11 years. We have 140 distance education centres all around the country. We have people in all of these centres. We would be losing these.’ Tamrat expects to layoff of more than 800 of his 1,200 employees.

Molla Tsegaye, president of Admas University College, expressed surprise and dismay for the complete lack of consultations in drafting the directive: ‘We did not expect this. As stakeholders in the sector, we should have been consulted before all this.’ Mihreteab Workineh, vice chairman of the 50-member EPHEIA was outraged: ‘Our association sternly objects to this. It is not about public or private institutions, the concern for quality is our concern too. That is why we have already devised an audit mechanism to ensure quality education by private institutions.’

It may be recalled that in August 2009, the regime issued a directive which prohibited university ‘students graduating in the year 2008-2009 from all governmental higher learning institutions from collecting their academic credentials including the student copy until they find jobs which enable them to refund the cost sharing expenses utilized at the universities.’ The Ministry of Education described that effort as a ‘new scheme the government might be able to raise back those expenses and handle human resources going abroad.’[1]

HIGHER EDUCATION PROCLAMATION NO. 650/2009

Wholesale elimination of private distance learning programs by ‘directive’, or more accurately bureaucratic fiat, is a flagrant violation of Higher Education Proclamation No. 650/2009. Under this proclamation, the Ministry of Education and its sub-agencies have the authority to regulate and ‘revoke accreditation’ of a private institution which fails to meet statutory criteria on a case-by-case basis following a fact-finding and appeals process. They have no legal authority to impose a summary wholesale ban of distance learning or other educational programs provided by private institutions. The proclamation requires the ministry to give such institutions a notice of deficiency and adequate time to correct the deficiency before taking de-accreditation action. The ministry bears the burden of proof in showing that a particular private institution is in violation of the proclamation in a fact-finding process that comports with standards of due process. A private institution has the right to appeal an adverse decision by the ministry before it becomes final.

Higher Education Proclamation No. 650/2009, section 71 et seq., provides the statutory basis for the regulation and governance of higher education in Ethiopia. The proclamation aims to ensure ‘accountability’ and requires private institutions to ‘ensure the minimum curricula quality standards,... maintain a readily accessible list of accredited study programmes... and submit detailed plans on education, research and training on a five-yearly basis...’

Section 77 of the proclamation provides that accreditation issued to a private institution ‘shall be valid for three years from the date of its issuance,’ subject to renewal unless there is good cause for denying or withdrawing accreditation. A private institution may lose its accreditation and be legally prevented from providing educational services under section 81 of the proclamation for three reasons: 
The agency may revoke the accreditation of a private institution on any one of the following grounds: a) where it is found that the accreditation has been given on the basis of false information; b) where the institution fails to rectify defects within the time fixed in the warning given by the agency for failure to satisfy the required standards or for contravening the provisions of this proclamation, any other relevant law or regulations or directives issued for the implementation of this proclamation; c) where the institution is dissolved or ceases its operations.

Section 82 of the proclamation further provides appellate procedures to review ‘revocation of accreditation’:

‘1) Any institution may appeal to the Ministry for a review of the Agency's decision on rejection of an application for accreditation or renewal of accreditation or on the revocation of accreditation, within 30 days of the receipt of the decision. 2) The Ministry shall establish an appeal committee to review the decision of the Agency and to make recommendations. 3) The Ministry shall grant the applicant the right to be heard before the final decision is given on the appeal.’

The HERQA ‘directive’ which de-accredits and bans all distance education programmes provided by private institutions is demonstrably violative of the process specified in the proclamation. First, section 81 authorises HERQA to act against private institutions on a case-by-case basis. Second, HERQA can act against a particular institution only after it has made specific factual findings of violations of the proclamation or other law and ‘given a warning’ to the institution. Third, if HERQA does find specific deficiencies, it can only act to de-accredit only if the institution ‘fails to rectify defects within the time fixed in the warning given by the Agency...’ Fourth, any HERQA's de-accreditation decision is stayed or suspended until the particular institution is given the ‘the right to be heard before the final decision is given on the appeal (Section 82).’ All of these mandatory requirements of the proclamation were ignored or disregarded by HERQA when the directive was issued.

By summarily mandating a ban on all private distance education, HERQA has acted ultra vires (beyond their legal powers and authority) in flagrant violation of Proclamation 650. Article 40 of the Ethiopian Constitution guarantees the ‘right of every Ethiopian citizen to own private property,’ which it defines it as ‘any property, both corporeal and incorporeal, produced by the labour, creativity or capital of an Ethiopian citizen, associations of Ethiopian nationals endowed with legal personality by law...’ To enforce the arbitrary and capricious ‘directive’ unconstitutionally deprives the property rights of the owners and operators of private distance education programs without due process of law.

THE POLITICISATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN ETHIOPIA

Many of my regular readers are aware of my interest in Ethiopian higher education. In February 2008, I wrote a commentary entitled ‘Tyranny in the Academy’[2] on the state of academic freedom at the Mekelle Law School following the dismissal of Professor Abigail Salisbury. She had published a commentary which painted a chilling portrait of fear and loathing at that law school. I observed: ‘The recent history of academic freedom and free intellectual inquiry in Ethiopian higher education is deeply scarred by political interference, political correctness, arbitrary purges of professors, harassment and persecution of faculty and students, and general intellectual repression.’

The Salisbury episode, the regime's ‘new scheme’ introduced last August to hold the diplomas of university graduates hostage,[3] and the current directive and other facts reinforce my belief that higher education is overly politicised and manipulated in Ethiopia to ensure the domination and control of the dictatorship. The regime's approach to higher education reminds me of a passage in Dr. Carter G. Woodson book, The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933). Dr. Woodson argued that the greatest danger and challenge for the African-Americans of his day was the risk of indoctrination in the form of education:

‘When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his proper place and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.’

The ruling regime in Ethiopia today is hell-bent to use higher education as a tool of indoctrination for a new breed of ideologues and party hacks that will support it blindly and unquestioningly.

THROWING OUT THE BABY WITH THE BATH WATER

For the past three decades, distance learning has been a valuable educational delivery form even in the most industrialised countries. Today many of the most prestigious universities in the world, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, UC Berkeley and Oxford, offer diverse distance learning courses and programmes in a variety of settings. They maintain educational quality, programme integrity and legitimacy through regional and national accreditation agencies that maintain and enforce rigorous pedagogical standards. High quality standards make the issue of ‘on site’ versus distance learning unimportant. The question is no longer how students learn but what they actually do learn from their courses and programmes. In quality distance programs, the course work and requirements are the same as the campus-based programmes; the only difference is the method of content delivery.

If the aim of the regime in Ethiopia is to ensure high quality of educational content, the proper remedy is to enforce rigorous quality standards as mandated by Proclamation 650, and not to shut down each and every distance-learning programme in the country. By express declaration, the fundamental purpose of the proclamation is to ensure ‘accountability’ and ‘quality’ and weed out the diploma mills and flight-by-night operations from the educational marketplace so that they will not victimise students with phony ‘degrees’. But the problem of quality control is entirely the regime's. In a piece entitled, ‘Internal Quality Care Policy in Ethiopian Universities: Opportunities and Challenges,’ Zenawi Zerihun W. Yohannes of Mekelle University in Ethiopia observed: ‘What is commonly employed in the higher learning institutions in Ethiopia as a way of checking quality is setting minimum standards on the educational process, such as the qualification of the academic staff, the organization of the curriculum, and other resources although differences in implementation and utilisation are reported.’

It defies reason to argue that all private distance education providers in Ethiopia are diploma mills only ‘interested in money’ and therefore deserve to be shut down collectively by disallowing them from enrolling new students. If these institutions are providing education and training to 75,000 students, they must be doing something right. Otherwise, they would have gone bankrupt for lack of students long before a directive is issued to wipe them out. The real question is why the regime has now decided to throw the baby out with the bath water.

WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE GOOSE IS GOOD FOR THE GANDER

It is ironic that the very people who now have decided to throw out the baby with the bath water are themselves graduates of distance learning programmes. Dictator-in-chief Meles Zenawi reportedly obtained a graduate degree from The Open University (OU) in England, a reputable distance learning institution founded and funded by the British Government, while presumably carrying on the affairs of state. OU has an ‘open entry policy’ where traditional admissions requirements are suspended for students to take undergraduate and graduate courses. It is also said that many of the top leaders of the dictatorship obtained degrees and certification from various distance learning programs in academic and non-academic areas such as ‘transformational leadership’.

It has been argued by some that the ban on distance learning in the country is motivated by petty concerns of the regime leaders that wide access to such programmes could somehow cheapen their own distance learning diplomas and degrees. I have seen no evidence to support this view. But the real question for me is a much simpler one: If distance education is good enough for Zenawi and Company, should it not be good enough for the average Ethiopian seeking to improve his/her lot in life? It seems only fair that what is good for the goose should be good for the gander. It is also wise to remember that those who live in glass-houses should be careful not to throw stones. Blanket condemnation of the country's private distance education could invite unwanted attention and scrutiny on the distance education programs the regime leaders claim to have attended to obtain their diplomas and certifications.

THE WORLD BANK SAYS MORE DISTANCE LEARNING INSTITUTIONS FOR ETHIOPIA

The World Bank has emphasised the great need for a network of ‘tertiary educational’ institutions (e.g. private colleges, technical and vocational training institutes, distance learning centres, etc.,) to help support the ‘production of the higher-order capacity’ necessary for Ethiopia's development. In a 2003 sector study entitled ‘Higher Education Development for Ethiopia’, the World Bank recommended expansion of private tertiary institutions be more actively encouraged in order to make the burden of higher education expansion borne by government more bearable. A near term goal might be to double the share of private enrolments from the current 21 per cent to 40 per cent by 2010. To help achieve this goal, the bank team recommends that government provide stronger incentives for the expansion of private tertiary education (e.g., access to land, more generous customs exemptions for the importation of educational materials) and also extend quality-enhancing support to private institutions identified as needing improvement (e.g., participation in the National Pedagogical Resources Center, leadership and management training, creation of a fund for remedial actions). Consistent with the recent Higher Education Proclamation, the bank team recommends that structured quality assurance and accreditation activities be put in place to protect the public from fraudulent and questionable quality providers that may emerge in the midst of rapid private expansion.

Seven years ago the World Bank recommended, ‘A near term goal might be to double the share of private enrollments from the current 21% to 40% by 2010.’ In 2010, Zenawi has decided to reduce private enrolments to zero!

The solution for any educational quality problems that may exist in the distance educational sector in Ethiopia is not to drop a blanket ban on all private institutions, but to create a rigorous quality control process that will ensure the weeding out of diploma mills and fly-by-night operations. As Yohannes of Mekele University noted, the problem is that the regime's notions of educational quality do not go beyond ‘setting minimum standards on the educational process, such as the qualification of the academic staff, the organisation of the curriculum, and other resources.’ It is unfair and a violation of Proclamation 650 to impose collective punishment on all private institutions providing distance learning services for the regulatory failures of the regime or to presumably weed out a few bad operators.

INDOCTRI-NATION, NOT EDUCATION

One of the largest operators of private distance learning programs has argued that ‘the growth of private universities in Ethiopia has contributed to a five-fold increase in the country's gross higher education enrolment ratio’ and has increased the college enrolment rate from ‘one per cent of Ethiopians a decade ago to 5.1 per cent today’. If these data are accurate, the private institutions deserve praise not condemnation and excommunication from the field of higher education.

I believe the regime has a long-term strategy to use the universities as breeding grounds for its ideologues and hatcheries for the thousands of loyal and dependent bureaucrats they need to sustain their domination and rule. The monopoly created for the state in the disciplines of law and teaching (which I will predict will gradually include other disciplines in the future) is a clear indication of the trend to gradually create a cadre of ‘educated’ elites to serve the next generation of dictators to come. It is a well-established fact that the regime has used teachers, particularly in the rural areas, extensively as party recruiters, enforcers and representatives by providing them financial and other incentives. By ensuring access to these disciplines only to ruling party members and supporters, the regime hopes to extend its tentacles to every part of the country. State-certified teachers who are ruling party members could be used to play a decisive role in legitimising the regime and in indoctrinating the youth in the regime's ideology. The fact that teachers are viewed respectfully in rural areas as ‘educated’ persons gives them special advantages in influencing and manipulating not only the young at an early age but also in playing a far larger political role in the community. The politicised role of teachers in the May 2010 election amply testifies to that fact.

Similarly, by monopolising the law discipline, the regime could regulate the training of lawyers and judges who will administer ‘justice’ in the country. Instead of training lawyers committed to the constitution, the rule of law, principles of universal justice and ethical standards, graduates of state-monopoly law schools will largely be party hacks, hirelings and lackeys with ultimate loyalty to the dictator-in-chief. Simply stated, the regime will be able to control two of the most important professions that have the greatest impact on the lives of the people. I will predict that the current trend in tightening control over higher education will continue because it is a central element of the regime's strategy to use higher education as a way of transforming the decades-old bureaucracy and re-creating government in its own image. The regime believes that the only way it can continue to rule indefinitely is by creating its own robotic jackbooted-army of ‘educated’ elites marching in lockstep throughout the bureaucracy to the orders of the dictator-in-chief. It is an exquisitely diabolical strategy, but unlikely to work.

The regime's thinking on higher education is simple: Indoctrinate, indoctrinate and indoctrinate some more until you forge an Indoctri-Nation. It is wise to remember Dr. Woodson's words:

‘When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his proper place and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary...’

That's why I would recommend to anyone concerned about educational injustice in Ethiopia to read Paulo Freire's ‘Pedagogy (teaching) of the Oppressed’.

FREE BIRTUKAN MIDEKSSA AND ALL POLTICAL PRISONERS IN ETHIOPIA..

* This article first appeared in the Huffington Post.
* Alemayehu G. Mariam is professor of Political Science, CSU San Bernardino.

NOTES
[1] http://www.ethiomedia.com/adroit/2740.html

[2] http://almariamforthedefense.blogspot.com/2008/02/tyany-in-academy.html

[3] http://www.ethiomedia.com/adroit/2740.html

Commercialisation is killing Makerere University

Interview with Moses Mulondo

Mahmood Mamdani

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66800

cc WikimediaProfessor Mahmood Mamdani is back in Uganda after more than a decade abroad with his last assignment at Colombia University where he was the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the Department of Anthropology and Political Science. He recently took a position at Makerere University as the director of Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR). Moses Mulondo talked to him about the new challenge, a federal Uganda and South Sudan.

MOSES MULONDO: Why have you chosen to return to Uganda?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: In 2001 I had a meeting with President Yoweri Museveni. East African Affairs Minister Eriya Kategaya and the late James Wapakhabulo were also present. We were discussing regional issues, but at the end of the meeting I expressed concern about declining standards at Makerere University.

I told the president how the commercialisation of the curriculum was undercutting the culture of research and how the university was being destroyed before our own eyes. In response, the president asked me if I would be willing to lead a visitation committee/commission of inquiry. I said I would be happy to do so.

Subsequently I was in touch with Wapakhabulo, but the issue got lost. I then decided that it was better for me to go ahead and do the research myself. That is how I came back to Makerere between 2003 and 2004 to do the research and write the book titled ‘Scholars in the Marketplace’. The research convinced me that Makerere would have to be reformed from within. I felt that as a product of Makerere, one who had benefited from it, I should also play my part in this reform process.

MOSES MULONDO: How?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: I decided to wait until there was a leadership at Makerere University that would be interested in reforms that would halt the deterioration of standards and until a position was open that would give its occupant a strategic role in promoting the culture of research.

So, when the position of director of Makerere Institute of Social Research was advertised, I applied. During the interview, the appointments board asked me whether I had changed my mind and no longer shared the views expressed in the book ‘Scholars in the Marketplace’.

I said no. I said that in fact I applied because I was convinced that Makerere needed reform and because I wanted to make my small contribution in upgrading social research. I said I was happy that the current vice-chancellor, Venansius Baryamureeba, was interested in reforms and had pledged to create an enabling environment for reforms.

MOSES MULONDO: What did your research discover as the major factors causing the declining standards of Makerere University?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Makerere had made two changes. The first was privatisation, which means they agreed to recruit fee-paying students. I thought this was fine because the university needed more funds to finance its activities. The second was commercialisation of the curriculum, which led to introduction of new programmes and courses.

Unfortunately, this process was driven more by the desire to make money than by the urge to provide quality education. In this new culture, anybody could teach anything. These new courses were often being taught by part-time lecturers, based in faculties without the competence to supervise them.

Over time, there emerged two universities at Makerere. One was the formal university where academic staff was appointed through formal procedures by the appointments board and supervised by senate. The other was an informal university where part-time staff hired by course coordinators taught courses more or less unsupervised. There was no check on their quality. That is how the standards of Makerere University went down.

MOSES MULONDO: But it couldn’t have been that alone because the university began declining much earlier. What could be the other factors?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: The whole process was set into motion in the early 1990s when the government succumbed to the pressure of the World Bank to cut funds to the university so as to increase funding for primary education. What the government and the World Bank forgot was that you cannot expand the primary education sector without expanding university education because you need university products in building a strong UPE (universal primary education). The policy itself was wrong.

MOSES MULONDO: Why was it wrong?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: You cannot have a successful UPE without a strong university system. Their policy was wrong because they assumed that you could let a university system collapse and it would not affect the primary system or secondary system or even the economy and other sectors.

A university is like a power-generating plant, generating intellectual power which feeds all sectors of the country including industries, businesses, education, health and indeed all other sectors.

It must be known that the fastest growing economies in the world are knowledge-driven and the fastest growing sectors in these economies are knowledge-driven.

The idea that investment in higher education is unproductive is nonsense. Even the World Bank has realised it and changed its policy. It is time the Uganda government realised that the World Bank was wrong and give university education the priority it deserves.

MOSES MULONDO: How do you see research in terms of the country’s development?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Most people think of knowledge as something you read of in a book. The crucial question is, who writes these books? What is the process that one goes through to produce a book?

A country which wants to lead in anything has to seriously invest in research, otherwise it will be forever dependent on what others produce as knowledge. The problem with depending on other countries’ knowledge is that they don’t face the same problems which we face as Uganda or Africa. It is through your own research initiatives that you can think for yourself.

MOSES MULONDO: What do you think needs to be done for Makerere University to regain its past glory when it was referred to as the ‘Harvard of Africa’?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Makerere University needs to grow its own timber. It means you cannot be like a primary school, which waits for others to train its teachers. You have to train your own lecturers. Makerere needs to put more emphasis on postgraduate studies, PhD programmes. It requires a vibrant culture of research which would shift the focus from looking for answers to learning how to formulate a problem.

MOSES MULONDO: What do you mean by teaching students how to formulate a problem?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Today, the whole teaching focus is on how you solve a problem. The most important thing is to know what the problem is. About 90 per cent of the solution lies in the problem. You cannot import a solution.

I cannot take the design of a Swedish architect to build a house in Uganda. My design must reflect local conditions, use local resources in response to local problems. Anything from the outside must be complementary to this. That is what we call sustainable development. Sustainable development requires research that leads to long-lasting solutions. Research means knowing the society you live in and knowing yourself.

MOSES MULONDO: A lot of volumes of research never get to the public domain for usage. How do you plan to bridge that gap?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Well, we plan to do two things. We plan to address two different audiences. These include the scholarly communities and the public.

We will have seminars for the scholarly communities and we will organise public policy forums on key issues, where we plan bring together policymakers, the media, advocacy groups, religious groups, business; in short, all sectors of society that influence public opinion which ultimately bears on decision-making. This way, we shall be able to inject researched information into the public debate.

MOSES MULONDO: At one time you contested for the Local Council 3 (LC3) position of Makerere and you went through. What prompted you to seek a political office?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: I was convinced, and I still am, that if you do not participate in reforming the institutions under which you live and work, then you will be condemned to live and work in conditions in which you find yourself. Every generation has to come to grips with the legacy left behind by its elders and to decide what it must change and what it will hand over to the next generation.

MOSES MULONDO: Do you think the LC structure is still necessary in Uganda’s politics after embracing multiparty politics?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: I chaired the commission of inquiry into the local government system. Our commission recommended the Resistance Council (RC) system, the predecessor to the current LC system. Even at the time, we were aware that the LC system could develop in different directions, depending on the balance of political forces in the country.

In our report, we pointed out that LCs could become representatives of the people or of the ruling power, that the former would be positive but the latter negative.

MOSES MULONDO: There is pressure that Uganda should embrace the federal system of governance. What are your views?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Time has shown that successive governments in Uganda have tended to monopolise power by undermining the legislature and the courts. This has been true whether the government has been civilian or military, single or multi or no-party.

Democracy requires that power be accountable. We are still in search of institutions that will ensure accountability under our institutions. The time has come to consider federalism – multiple governing structures – as a possible solution to our problems.

MOSES MULONDO: What do you think is the best federal model for Uganda?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: We can learn from others but we cannot blindly import from them. The real question is not whether federalism but which kind of federalism. There are basically two options. There is the ethnic option which colonialism introduced in Africa, where in each federal unit, rights are limited to those considered ‘indigenous’ to those units. This is the system introduced in Nigeria after the civil war. It is also the system introduced by Mobutu Sese Seko in the DR Congo under the name ‘géopolitique’.

Ethnic federalism has tended to create ethnic conflict inside federal units. Instead of holding those in power accountable, it has allowed them to fragment the population into more and more units. The alternative to ethnic federalism is territorial federalism. This is the system you find mainly outside Africa, whether in the US or Canada or in India. Your rights under territorial federalism depend on where you live, not on the ethnic group you come from. This system depoliticises ethnicity.

MOSES MULONDO: So, which one on those two is the best for Uganda?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: In our case, ethnic federalism will be a disaster. Migration is an important part of Uganda’s reality, not just in Buganda but in all parts of the country. Ethnic federalism will disenfranchise all Ugandans who do not live where their parents were born, even if they are native to Uganda. Only territorial federalism will make sure that your rights as a Ugandan are guaranteed no matter where you live inside the country.

MOSES MULONDO: Do you think the idea of curving out southern Sudan as an independent country is a bad idea, as Professor David de Chand, one of the leaders of southern Sudan’s parties, argues?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: I am a Pan-Africanist, a firm believer in African unity. But I do not think that the process of unification is a linear process, whereby you keep on building larger and larger political units, whether by force or by consensus. For unity to hold, consensus is crucial and force is counter-productive.

The unity of Sudan has been based on force, not consensus. If the people of South Sudan vote for independence, we have to respect it, even if we think it would be better for the Sudanese to be one country. Those who think that Sudan should remain united would do well to respect the will of the people of South Sudan and direct their efforts to change that will after 2011.

MOSES MULONDO: From your research what have you found about Sudan’s other problem, the Darfur civil war?

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: My key findings were as follows. One, the civil war in Darfur began in 1987–89, before the present Islamist government came into power. Only those ignorant of history can hold that government responsible for starting the civil war.

The charges of genocide were first made at the reconciliation conference in 1989, before Omar al-Bashir became president of Sudan. Second, the civil war was a result of several factors. The most important of these was the land system created by the British during the colonial period.

The British created tribal homelands called ‘dars’, whereby they gave more land to settled peasants in the southern part of Darfur and none to fully nomadic peoples in the northern part. This became a problem when the four-decade long drought that began in the 1940s led to the expansion of the southern boundary of the Sahara desert, pushing cattle nomads southwards in search of a living.

The result was a land conflict around the good land in the central mountains of Darfur. Then there was the civil war in Chad, where the US, Israel and France supported one side and the Soviet Union and Libya another. When one side was in power in N’Djamena, the other was in exile in Darfur.

It is in Darfur that they organised and armed. In the 1980s, there was no water in Darfur but it was flooded with AK-47s. The big powers were involved in Chad and Darfur before the Islamists came into power in Khartoum.

For them to point the finger in the direction of the Government of Sudan and not to take any responsibility for the bloodshed in Darfur is sheer hypocrisy and political opportunism.

Three, I was struck by the propaganda effort of the American lobby, Save Darfur Coalition. The US government agency, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), found that Save Darfur claims of 400,000 dead in Darfur were a gross exaggeration. More credible figures from the WHO (World Health Organisation) showed that the numbers dead were close to a quarter, and that nearly 80 per cent of these were children and infants who had died of effects of the drought, mainly dehydration.

I also found that Save Darfur propaganda about Arabs in power killing non-Arab Africans out of power was mischievous and misleading. Whereas it is true that the power in Khartoum is mainly Arab, these Arabs are not from the Middle East but they are indigenous Sudanese whose mother tongue is Arabic.

The power in Darfur, however, is not Arab. The Arab tribes of Darfur are among the poorest people in Darfur. No matter what indicator you take, they have the least education and the least representation in government.

Save Darfur and the media linked to it and have painted the civil war in Darfur as an Arab–African war. Unfortunately, our own media has tended to swallow this propaganda. The African Union Commission under former president Thabo Mbeki of South Africa has done valuable service in correcting this distortion over the past few years.



BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* This article was originally published by Sunday Vision.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Vietnam–Africa: Beyond ‘development’ and ‘modernisation’

Horace Campbell

2010-09-08

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66782

cc DalberaFollowing a trip to Vietnam, Horace Campbell charts the country’s history of anti-colonial struggle and its war with the US. At a time of ever greater cooperation in the form of the Vietnam–Africa International Forum, Campbell underlines what the African and Vietnamese people can learn from each other about their respective histories of resistance.

It was in August 1945 that Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese people declared their independence from France. Between 19 August and 2 September 1945, the Vietnamese independence movement consolidated their political hold on the country. When the Japanese surrendered and the clarity of the new era of self-determination was clear to the peoples of Southeast Asia, the Vietnamese independence movement led by Ho Chi Minh read an appeal to the Vietnamese people to rise in revolution. On Sunday 2 September 1945, in front of tens of thousands of people in Ba Dinh square, President Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the declaration of independence: ‘We, the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, solemnly make this declaration to the world:

‘Vietnam has the right to enjoy freedom and independence and in fact has become a free and independent country. The entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilise all their physical and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their freedom and independence…’

That year, there was great optimism that the end of the war would lead to decolonisation in Africa and Asia. At that time, President Ho Chi Minh played a very important role when he became the first person after the war to announce the independence of a colonial country. The Vietnamese victory of the August 1945 revolution had a great influence on the struggles for independence in exploited territories across the world at that time, especially in African countries. Africans who had fought against fascism in all corners of the world were also of the view that Africa should become free and independent. In October 1945, the 5th Pan African Congress was held in Manchester, UK, and the African peoples also demanded self-rule.

Europeans who had fought each other for self-determination refused to accept the idea of the self-rule of oppressed Asians and Africans. The French colonialists who had been humiliated by German fascists refused to accept the declaration of independence by the people of Vietnam, so the people had to reorganise to continue fighting for their independence. They fought for the next 30 years, first defeating France decisively at Dien Bien Fhu in 1954. This battle placed General Vo Nguyen Giap in the history books of great military feats when he crushed the French. After negotiating the Geneva Accords for a peaceful process for the full unification of Vietnam, the US militarists intervened to undermine the independence of Vietnam. Using the anti-communist scare against its own people, the US militarists built up military forces in Vietnam between 1961–75 so that at the height of this militarisation of Vietnam there were over 560,000 US forces along with assorted ‘allies’ from Australia, Canada, Korea and New Zealand. The United States and its allies were decisively defeated in 1975.

WAR AND MODERNISATION

Robert McNamara epitomised the intellectual moderniser who supervised the Pentagon during the war against the Vietnamese people. McNamara went on from the military war against the Vietnamese to supervise the intellectual war when he became head of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) or World Bank. This institution had been created in 1944 as one of the sister arms of the international financial institutions to support US military and financial dominance. At the intellectual level, the ideas of development propagated by the World Bank emanated from political scientists such as Walt Rostow, who later graduated from the academy to become the national security adviser. Rostow was one of the advocates for war and ‘development’, and had written two anti-communist tracts on ‘development’, ‘The Process of Economic Growth’ (1952) and ‘The Stages of Economic Growth’ (1960). Rostow elaborated a vision of development rooted in American history and national interest. In fact, the subtitle of ‘The Stages of Economic Growth’ was a non-communist manifesto. The book was written to oppose the kind of socialist ideas that had inspired the Vietnamese to oppose French and US imperialism.

Rostow and a bevy of ‘modernisation’ theorists supplied the working concepts through which the United States understood its obligations to combat the self-determination project of the Vietnamese people. Clothed in the language of ‘development’, modernisation became the anti-communist doctrine to motivate the US troops. Described as both an ideology and a discourse, modernisation comprised a changeable set of ideas and strategies that legitimised imperial policies disguised as foreign aid and trade but revealing its core element in the doctrines of counterinsurgency in Asia. Among the core precepts was the idea that the state of economic and political relations enjoyed by the United States and the other former colonial powers in western Europe was normative, and that it was in the US national interest, as well as the general interest of all people, that steps be taken to bring the other two-thirds of humanity up to a comparable level. Social science theories explained the causes of Asian, Latin American and African ‘backwardness’ and suggested appropriate remedies. Technocrats and theoreticians such as Rostow and McNamara redefined the Cold War as a contest fought on the terrain of development with military, ideological and economic components.

Guided by the ideas of modernisation and development, the US military mobilised the Western forces to crush the independence of Vietnam. By 1975 the Vietnamese had successfully resisted modernisation and the US bombs that came with development theory.

Since the consolidation of independence and the attempt to build a new society, the Vietnamese nationalists have transformed the society from a poor, underdeveloped state to an integrated, self-reliant economy whose rapid transformation points to the positive possibilities from socialist planning. However, since 1986 when the leaders opened up to Western investors, the Vietnamese economy has been socialist in form but capitalist in content. Over the past two decades the Vietnamese leadership have steered a path similar to that of China, focusing on economic growth. In this period Vietnam recorded sustained GDP (gross domestic product) ’growth’ of 7–8 per cent, making it second in the region after China. Forecasters have observed the trajectory of the Vietnamese ‘socialist-oriented market economy’, and it is estimated that in the next 15 years Vietnam will be in the top tier of the twenty leading economies in the world.

China has been planning for the future when the Chinese ‘socialist oriented market economy’ will be a dominant player in the international system. Vietnamese planners are also aware of the changed international system with the decline of the hegemon and this provided the context for the calling of meetings with Africa. The first Vietnam–Africa International Forum was held in Hanoi in May 2003. At this forum the government of Vietnam set out its national action programme for promoting better relations with Africa. The second international forum was called under the banner of ‘Vietnam-Africa: Cooperation for sustainable development’. This second international forum was called in Hanoi over 17–19 August to discuss the ways in which Africa and Vietnam should interact to promote cooperation. The Vietnamese used the second forum to showcase the rapid transformation of their society, especially the changes in agricultural production and the integration between industrialisation, agriculture and aquaculture.

In the past five years all of the rising and emerging power-houses of the world have been courting Africa and have signed agreements with the African Union. China, India, Brazil, Russia, Turkey, Japan, the European Union and the United States have all seen the importance of Africa in the next 10 years. Korea and Vietnam have not signed formal agreements but have been probing the establishment of new relations with African governments.

WITNESS TO POSSIBILITIES AT THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL FORUM

Unlike other conferences between Africa and other regions, this forum took place not only within the conference hall, but also with a very rewarding field trip to the Haidoung region to see practically what was being done in the rural areas. This visit to a cooperative and to the Field Crop Research Institute pointed to what is possible with a planned integrated agriculture and industrial sector that places the needs of humans at the centre of economic activities. The Haidoung province located in the north delta proved that a society can provide for a better standard of living for people in the rural areas, making available electricity, water, good quality housing, healthcare and food. It shows the success of a society that places human needs before and above the needs for profits. Centuries of experience in wet-rice agriculture and new developments in aquaculture have enabled the cooperatives in this province to achieve a high level of growth and a good standard of living for the people.

On the one-day trip for participants one could see that Angola, Mozambique and Rwanda had developed relations with the agricultural experts from Vietnam. I participated in the visit to the villages and visited the rural farms where the standard of living of the villagers has improved considerably. The Vietnamese hosts were very proud of one cooperative where the members enjoyed high productivity. It was while visiting the cooperative that there were small discussions of the property relations in the village. It was made clear that the peasants had access to the land for working but private property and a market in land had not become dominant in the rural areas. This could not be said of the urban areas as signs of real estate offices were to be seen in Hanoi and in Ho Chi Minh City.

I visited a number of farms, cooperatives and the National Broadstock Center for Fresh Water species in the Northern Province. One of the obvious questions from Africans in this visit to areas of successful aquaculture was how to ensure that there were no mosquitoes with malaria parasites. The Vietnamese proudly revealed that they have not only fought against malaria successfully but have also developed their own pharmaceutical base for the provision of anti-malaria medicines for the people.

At the Field Crop Research Institute one could not help but be impressed by the impressive advances made in the areas of biotechnology with the work being done on food crops. It was not entirely clear how genetically engineered foods in socialist Vietnam were different from the GM (genetically modified) products of the big agribusiness firms of the West. Although this question was posed more than once, the emphasis was on self-sufficiency in food and not on the questions of the long-term consequences of a particular form of genetic engineering. The work on genetic engineering made it easier to see the abundance of fresh fruits in the rural areas. Later one could distinguish between the taste of plantation-type pawpawas and pineapples in the urban areas and the natural fruits eaten in rural communities in the Mekong Delta. The exploitation of new genetic resources and new selection processes for producing fish products was demonstrated in the small farms where there were high levels of production. The Research Institute for Aquaculture as well as the Field Crops Research Institute pointed to not only past socialist planning but future production for the integration of education, science and technology, biotechnology research and increased quality of life for the rural people. Every African minister and diplomat who went on this extensive field trip commented on how much aquaculture planning in Africa could benefit from policies that are geared toward the needs of the poor.

Although since 1987 Vietnam has opened up its market to foreign investment, it is the political organisation for socialist transformation that was evident in the spectacular diversification.

ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION AND REVOLUTIONARY TRADITIONS

Vietnam is in the middle of the tussle between socialist planning and organisation and the heavy power of global capital. The socialist party of Vietnam has been able to show that revolutionary traditions must be made manifest in what is done for the ordinary people, and in the public spaces, the flag of the red star is flown to remind the people of the tradition of revolutionary struggles. Here is a society that still bolds a proud statue of Vladimir Lenin, and with an educational system that serves to inspire within young people the traditions of revolutionary struggles. The four philosophical traditions that are taught to young people – Leninism, Confucianism, Ho Chi Minh’s thoughts and the history of Vietnam – come up against the ideological onslaught from McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Google, the US banks and the military that backs them up. Younger Vietnamese who were born after 1975 are ensnared by the glitz and fashion of an Anglo-American lifestyle without understanding the deep sacrifices that were made by the Vietnamese people to maintain their independence. I spoke to students at the school of diplomacy and the students did not understand the relationships between militarism and ‘development’.

BETWEEN TRANSFORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT

From an African perspective, it was inspiring to see how much the Vietnamese took pride in their struggles for independence along with the determination and resilience that enabled these people to withstand French colonialism and US military aggression. Remembering the more than 3 million Vietnamese who perished at the hands of US bombing campaigns stimulates the drive for economic independence and self-sufficiency. And yet the rise of China as a global power is forcing current Vietnamese leaders to develop strange alliances at the international level. One could see this in not only the tripartite relations with some African states, evidenced in the Vietnam–Japan–Mozambique initiative. There are also efforts by Vietnam to develop good relations with the US in order to be in the good books of the so-called international community.

As a member of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) free trade area, Vietnam is integrated into a region that is the dynamic engine of the world economy at the present moment. The economic growth and changes in Vietnam are comparable to the rapid growth that one has seen in Korea, Taiwan, China, Singapore and countries that have broken from the ideological stranglehold of neoliberalism. Despite their impressive economic growth, all of these societies need to take another look at the long-term consequences of forms of industrialisation that do not consider the long-term consequences for human health and the health of the ecosystem.

INTO THE MEKONG DELTA

Ho Chi Minh City, which was formerly Saigon, reflects the tensions between the capitalist past and the socialist future of Vietnam. This is where there are numerous KFC outlets and where the capitalists of Cholon have taken a stand to build a firm base for the rejuvenation of capitalism in Vietnam. The explosive growth of this city benefits from the rich agriculture base of the Mekong delta. Travelling in the Mekong delta, in the streams and canals, brings out a long history of agricultural expertise of the Vietnamese people. It is in the boats and canoes in the Mekong estuaries that one could reflect on the failing and arrogance of US military planners when they thought they could subjugate the Vietnamese people. During the years of the US military occupation of the southern part of Vietnam, US modernisers undermined the independence of Vietnam and introduced various schemes that were meant to modernise Vietnam. These schemes failed and the brutal face of US imperial ambition was shown by the unrelenting bombing of the people of South Vietnam. The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City not only highlights the failure of the US campaign, but also the solidarity of the people of the world who supported the Vietnamese people to resist this aggression.

BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WARFARE AGAINST THE VIETNAMESE

In the War Remnants Museum there was a full display of the lessons of biological warfare against the people of Vietnam. There was one room of exhibition outlining the impact of the poisons dropped by US forces during the Vietnam War that have left a long-lasting legacy in the countryside. The exhibition at this museum exposed to visitors the impact of the chemical warfare now known as Agent Orange. Dioxin was found in Agent Orange, one of the herbicides sprayed from giant C-123 cargo planes to destroy the forests and fields that gave cover to the Vietnamese people who were defending their independence. The Vietnamese have clarified that Agent Orange – and the dioxin it contained – has seriously damaged the health of those living in the areas where it was used. Millions of gallons of dioxins were sprayed in the Vietnamese countryside and 35 years after the war the harmful effects of this chemical warfare are still evident and are still creating environmental chaos, poisoning the food chain and causing serious concerns over their effects on human health. There are numerous forms of cancer and other diseases that abound in Vietnam today as after effects of the war.

While denying the criminal effects in Vietnam inside of the USA, Vietnam veterans who handled Agent Orange can claim compensation for a whole range of other diseases recognised as being associated with dioxin. These diseases range from skin diseases such as Chloracne through to conditions that affect the nerves and lymphatic glands as well as a range of cancers of the lung, larynx and prostate. The War Remnants Museum exposed the need for a thorough rewriting of the history of the United States. Such a history will place the emphasis on reparative justice so that reparative health and reparative social relations can prevail. The case for reparations and ubuntu was even clearer when one visited the Cu Chi tunnels.

CU CHI

Millions of tons of bombs were dropped on the Vietnamese peoples in one of the most sustained bombing campaigns of any war. The new evidence of the bombings of Cambodia is only one indication of the need for truth and healing in the USA. But if the truth is hidden from the citizens of the USA, the evidence of the bombings is in plain sight in a place such as Cu Chi. Here one can see a community where the remnants of the B-52 bombers have left large craters as if this was a scene from the moon. It is in this region where the people had to be creative and develop skills to escape the rain of bombs, including anti-personnel bombs containing thousands of flesh-shredding darts, white phosphorus incendiary bombs, huge ‘daisy cutter’ bombs that turned jungle into flattened football fields and jellied gasoline bombs called napalm.

The Cu Chi tunnels are 150 square kilometres of underground tunnels showing the ingenuity, tenacity and fortitude of a people who resisted the unrelenting bombings from the US B52 bombers at a time when the US General Curtis Lemay declared that they were going to bomb the Vietnamese people back to the Stone Age.

The burial sites in Cu Chi showed the high price that the people of the south, especially the Cu Chi people, paid for their independence. One-third of the population of this village community was wiped out by the US bombings in an attempt to wipe out communism. Yet there is no hint of bitterness among the Vietnamese people.

In the War Remnants Museum, the Vietnamese not only celebrate their history, they also celebrate the solidarity from people all over the world. There was a prominent display of the six African countries that showed open solidarity with the people of Vietnam. These countries were Algeria, Egypt, Guinea, Congo-Brazzaville, Tanzania and Mali.

SOLIDARITY AND THE TRANSITION BEYOND MILITARISM AND DEVELOPMENT

2 September 2010 is the 65th anniversary of the declaration of independence by Ho Chi Minh. This author wants to use this medium in joining with the celebration of the peoples of Vietnam as they seek to develop a new healthy society. Whether it is the demonstration of the water puppets shows that are clearly linked to aquaculture or the rich religious traditions of the society, the Vietnamese are a proud and resilient people. The history of the struggle of the Vietnamese people is an inspiration for those who want another world beyond capitalism. The failure of the US militarists who believed they could subdue the Vietnamese people is everywhere evident. On the walls of the museum, the Vietnamese display the words of McNamara: ‘We were wrong, terribly wrong, and we owe it to a future generation to explain why.’

This explanation is very urgent because the mindset of the US militarism is being redeployed in Afghanistan with future military planning for the increased militarisation of Africa. This explanation is also urgent for the African and Vietnamese children who yearn for 'development’ and who associate McDonald’s, Hollywood and Microsoft with development, subtracting the links to McDonald Douglas, Boeing and the legacies of Agent Orange.

Africans have a lot to learn from Vietnam. And Africans have a lot to teach the Vietnamese. One of the things that Africans can teach Vietnamese is that Vietnam cannot go to the same ideas of Walt Rostow and Robert McNamara to provide the basis for ‘sustainable development’. Cooperation between Africans and the peoples of Vietnam in the areas of energy, education, health, environmental repair, aquaculture and agriculture hold great promise. However, this promise must confront the neoliberal ideas that are being packaged by those in Vietnam and those who believe that the future lay with the very same minds that sprayed Agent Orange in Vietnam and experimented with biological agents to aid apartheid.

The boom and expansion of the Vietnamese economy places that society in the tussle between socialist transformation and the re-composition and reconstitution of capitalism in Vietnam. The traditions of Ho Chi Minh run deep and at present it will require a major political upheaval to overthrow the ideas of Ho Chi Minh and capitulate to the ideas of Walt Rostow. I was not sure whether the Vietnamese hosts at the second Vietnam–Africa forum understood that most all of their documents were written in the language of McNamara and Rostow, in the discourse and language of ‘development’.

So just as Vietnamese teach their children about the sacrifice of Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese children need to know about Patrice Lumumba, Queen Nzinga, Mbuya Nehanda, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela and Samora Machel. The younger generation should be made to understand that Vietnamese–African cooperation for transformation in the 21st century is very different from Vietnam–Africa cooperation for sustainable development. There must be an increased quest for the former.

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* 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.

Kenya: Social movements must bring constitution to life

Gacheke Gachihi

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66810

cc B TIt was social movements that mobilised many poor Kenyans to vote in the referendum, and it is social movements that must mobilise to ensure the country’s new constitution fulfils the people’s hopes for a better future, writes Gacheke Gachihi.

There is great hope for many patriotic Kenyans who exercised their democratic and fundamental right to make an appointment with great history, in giving birth to a new constitution, that will create new legal and political frameworks to anchor the struggle of social justice and new democratic state in Kenya.

But the national question for progressive forces after 21-gun salute on 27 August 2010 to promulgate the new constitution is on how to build strong social movements to breathe life into the new constitutional text. As noted before and during this referendum campaign, Kenyans were mobilised individually to come and participate in the referendum vote – as happens every time during the general election.

It was only embryonic social movements like Warembo ni Yes, a young women’s alternative leadership platform created by Bunge La Mwananchi Women social movement that made the critical efforts to mobilise the collective women voters’ constituency in the referendum.

The history and limitation of individualised voters is inherent in representative liberal democracy, and the challenge of social justice activist and progressive political forces after coming of the new constitution is to move from this limitation of individualized voter and sham democracy to values of participatory democracy.

In a participatory democracy, the organised social forces of workers, peasants and women’s social movements participate in referendums or in voting women’s candidates for representation in bourgeoisie parliament. However they must also breathe life into the new constitution – by collective mobilisation and the creation of political consciousness through mass organisation and social movements that advance and anchor social struggle political programmes in demand for people’s livelihoods and access to the rights to food, quality education, shelter, quality healthcare and clean water for all – if the new constitution dispensation is to have meaning for many poor Kenyans living in horrible conditions of neocolonial poverty due to historical exploitation, neoliberal capitalist economic policies and corruption by the ruling political class.

Professor Yash Ghai has argued in an article posted in the Oxford Journal on Transitional Justice (OTJR) debate on the challenges of establishing constitutional order in Kenya that ‘The constitution can’t achieve anything by itself: like Marx’s commodities, it does not have arms and legs, it must be mobilized, acted upon and used’. This political dictum confirms to us that we must construct organic social movements as political, social and economic instruments to be the arms and legs to mobilise and organise the exploited masses to act and use the new constitutional framework to bring fundamental social change in Kenya.

It is good to note here also that the new constitution has not altered the fundamentals of neocolonial political economy that introduced Kenya society to inequality and extreme poverty, although it creates the illusion of a social democratic state, with a progressive bill of rights and economic social rights anchored in the constitution. This is only a token of legalism language, within liberal bourgeoisie democracy that cannot solve the problem of historical exploitation, marginalisation and social inequalities, that manifest in crime, homelessness, unemployment, environmental destruction and poverty-linked disease that is killing our people everywhere, in our slums, estate and villages across the country.

The new ratified constitution indeed has a positive aspect of elite consensus, on structure of devolved political power in the 47 created county assemblies with 15 per cent of the national budget allocated to all the 47 counties collectively as devolved funds. This has created a political space for the right to organise and democratise development in the local level, which progressive forces can utilise to advance the cause of national democratic revolution, from below.

But the opened economic political space calls for alternative political leadership and new strategies for grounding the people’s struggle within the new political environment. This comes with the challenge of building a new democratic institution: To breathe values into these institutions calls for the participation of social movements that will pressure and democratise the state and inject values of patriotism and accountability into the public service. It also requires the development of alliances in county assemblies between the trade unions movement, the women’s movement, the small farmers’ and fishermen’s cooperative movements, as political social forces to revitalise popular resistance. This must be rooted in mass base movement to confront the inherently violent neoliberal capitalism economy that is present phase of imperialism, in today’s Kenyan economy (as Professor Issa Shivji one of East Africa’s original thinkers, and organic intellectuals, has argued in his recent book, ‘Where is Uhuru?’, a reflection on the struggle for democracy in Africa, and the pitfalls of liberal reforms (the third generation or rights-based constitutions) p61. On the question of the irreconcilable contradiction between the rhetoric of constitutionalism and human rights-based constitutions with values of an open, transparent, accountable government, responsible to provide basics needs to its people, that is contradicted by neoliberal capitalism based on marketisation and privatisation of basic needs and withdrawal of state from economic sphere, that undermine the role of developmental state.

The struggle to locate human rights and social justice activism in community grassroots movements will demand new passion, ideas and an alternative strategy in the construction of organic community-based political instruments that will come with new challenges. These will not attract the usual donor funding from neoliberal sources, because the independent strong social movement in grassroots will educate the masses and organise community for popular struggles and livelihoods which sharpen social contradiction that expose the masses to the exploitation of neoliberal capitalism and the political character of donor agencies and non-governmental organisations, that emphasises on divisive project funding and donations to divide and undermine the organic social movement and pacify masses for a limited time, as happened in Latin America in past decades of neoliberal reform era.

The experience in theory and practice of building social movements in Kenya has been tested by Bunge La Mwananchi social activists in community organising on popular resistance, demand for social justice and respect for human rights, which invite progressive social forces, civil society intellectual and Bunge Mwananchi organic intellectual activist to study and have national debate on past political and environmentalist movement, for example, the December Twelve Movement (DTM), which was organised by progressive university intellectual, Mwakenya, from university intellectual, students, workers and peasants. Also on this line is Release Political Prisoners (RPP), Green belt Movement, February 18 (FERA) and Forum for Restoration Democracy (FORD), that championed restoration of neo-liberal multi-party politics in Kenya. Other forms of movements are constitutional struggles such as the National Executive Council (NCEC), which was in the vanguard, and the collective leadership of the National Constituency Assembly (NCA) the constitutional reform movement and many others that have shaped the terrain of political struggle in Kenya.

The study of these movements and discussion and intellectual debate will help the emerging social movements in the new terrain to understand the political mistakes that were made by the leadership of past people’s movements. These can be used to improve theory and political practice and educate cadres of Bunge La Mwananchi social movement and help to clarify the contestation of the movement’s organisational leadership structure, the relation of leadership and masses, the question of movement in relation with political parties, civil society and reform versus revolution, and what is the true nature of peoples democracy.

This study also can help to expose the role of the ruling political class, together with security agencies in Kenya in dogmatising and corrupting the movement’s leadership and donor agencies interests that undermine the collective leadership of the social movement, and organic activities in grassroots, while supporting individualised leadership in form of false internet website human rights activism, with very expensive report writing to donor agencies as political fog that obstructs and slows down the movement building in community-based activities which demand disciplined cadres of community organisers, extensive organised planning participation of grassroots members, and skills in community organising, which is shunned by most mainstream human rights organisations and most of their donors.

This is the challenge that Bunge la Mwananchi social movement has been struggling with and must confront with battle of ideas as it develops and grounds strong community-based social activists and basic movement social structures to anchor the movement’s democratic control from below and mitigates the influence of donors agencies and political class that want to create personality cult political leadership in the movement, in resemblance with their political party leadership that is devoid of citizen participation democratic debate and discussion on many challenges facing the nation.

The implementation of the new constitution will demand an intellectual discourse, debates and Mwananchi discussion to interpret the constitution to reflect the wishes of many poor Kenyans who voted for the new constitution. This must be anchored in grassroots social movements with organic intellectuals being integrated into militant political activism to advance the struggle for social change, and build democratic institutions with democratisation of national resource for access to livelihoods for all.

Lastly the vision statement of 7th Pan-African Congress in Kampala in April 1994 remains again our fresh calling today: As a social movement in Kenya we must ‘Dare to dream the same dream that has always filled the villages, ghettos, townships and slave quarters with hope, that has always animated the spirit of resistance, that has united the oppressed, the dispossessed, and the exploited masses of our people for genuine democracy. We the African people are our own liberators and thinkers whose task is to make a mighty stride towards genuine freedom by any means necessary. Our salvation is in our own hands. Don't Agonise, Organise.’

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* Gacheke Gachihi is a social justice activist and member of Bunge La Mwananchi social movement.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Oil politics: Chasing tar balls in the Gulf of Mexico

Nnimmo Bassey

2010-09-08

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66779

cc L SFresh from a trip to the Gulf of Mexico, Nnimmo Bassey discusses the intertwining of oil and fishing within local livelihoods and suspicions that BP’s post-spill response has been more cover-up than clean-up.

When I headed to the Gulf of Mexico, I had a lot of expectations. Above all, the trip to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama was a quest to see the remains of oil spill that held the attention of the world right from when it erupted on 20 April.

One thing that stood out is that there has been a strong wedlock between the oil and fisheries industry in the Gulf of Mexico. Apart from the strong Vietnamese community in Louisiana who work almost exclusively in fisheries, others are cyclic in working in both the oil and fisheries sectors. Many fisher folks shift into the oil sector during off seasons when fishing is not much of an option.

It was, therefore, not very strange to find them taking up jobs as clean-up agents for BP after the gusher erased any hopes of fishing in the short term and raised huge doubts as to when they will hurl their nets into the Gulf once more. Stories of health impacts are rife, with reports of respiratory and skin diseases routinely dismissed by doctors as being caused by exposure to heat while engaged in the clean-up exercises.

Groups such as the Gulf Coast Fund are said to have offered the clean-up workers breathing equipment, but BP disallowed their use and threatened to fire anyone who used the protective gears. Why would BP do that? To present a picture that the exercise of cleaning the crude was harmless and thus lessen their liability was the routine response.

This pattern has created in the minds of some of the people a conviction that they are so tied to the oil industry that they cannot live without it. This relationship, described by LaTosha Brown of the Gulf Coast Fund as incestuous, is a big impediment to building a critical mass of citizens for the long-term defence of their environment. Brown read this sort of perception as counting of pennies, rather than considering the value of life.

At Port Sulphur, I joined a community meeting in a local church with visiting local council officials from North Slope, Alaska, who are considering allowing oil extraction in their area. The Alaskans heard tales of how the Gulf spill decimated the livelihoods of the local people and how they could not return to fishing just yet due to the fear that their business may be permanently harmed if they introduce polluted fish and shrimps into the market.

SUSPICION REMAINS

There was strong conviction that although BP and the government swear that the coast is all clear of the spills, the chemical pollution of the Gulf will persist. The suspicion exists that BP is merely trying to avoid liability by telling the public that the Gulf is clean without convincing proof. The people believe that a lot of scientists have been bought over and that laboratory results were viewed with suspicion. They cited an example of the announcement that percentages of the crude oil released into the Gulf had been dispersed, evaporated or eaten up by microbes. They were referring to reports such as the one produced by US federal and independent scientists (‘BP Deepwater Horizon oil budget: What happened to the oil?’).

WHO PAYS THE PIPER

‘Whoever owns the laboratory, owns the science,’ one local stated. One of the participants at the meeting was Riki Ott, a marine biologist, fisherwoman and author of ‘Not One Drop’, who was embedded in the post-Exxon Valdez oil spill struggles and who has been in the Gulf of Mexico shortly after the present disaster. In a recent article she wrote in the Earth Island Journal (‘Betrayal and courage in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill’), she posited that BP’s clean-up is more like a cover-up and holding the company accountable will require digging for the truth.

The Gulf of Mexico is said to have over 3,500 abandoned oil wells and about 4,000 oil and gas platforms in the industrial archipelago. All these continue to pose threats.

Most people I spoke with said that leaving the oil in the soil is the ultimate solution to these sorts of incidents. What they could not agree on was what the economic implication would be. They also agreed that the health of the environment directly affects the health of the people.

But I was determined to see some tar balls on the beaches or on the waters somewhere in the Gulf. I was not going to be deterred, even though it was on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Katrina hurricane and it was raining heavily. With an equally determined friend, we drove from New Orleans to Gulfport and to Dauphin Island in Alabama. This island had witnessed a lot of cleaning-up actions and a local fisherman assured me I would see some tar balls here.

We got there, stepped out in the heavy downpour, and walked along the beach. A couple of folks were out fishing and one offered me a catch he did not quite fancy. A few folks were enjoying a swim in the rain. We walked the beaches and searched the earth piled against private property by BP’s bulldozers. My colleague even dug a hole in the sand with driftwood to see if some crude would pop up. I must say that our search did not yield any tar ball. We drove back drenched to our boxers, but assured that we could not have stayed back from our mission for the day.

Yes, we could not spot any tar balls, but Derrick Evans of Gulfport was quick to remind me that when the hurricanes come, many things hidden beneath the surface may show up.



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* Nnimmo Bassey is the chair of Friends of the Earth International.
* This article was first published by Next.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Dodging World Bank schizophrenia

Looting of Africa continues?

Patrick Bond

2010-09-08

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/66780

cc J HFollowing a debate with chief World Bank economist Shanta Devarajan, Patrick Bond decries the bank’s ability to ignore its own research and continue to insist that Africa is growing richer per person. The bank’s emphasis on GDP (gross domestic product) entirely ignores the loss to African societies and environments from raw material extraction, while the ‘talk left, walk right’ stance of so many of its officials smacks of schizophrenia, Bond writes.

The continent’s own elites, together with the West and now China, are still making Africans progressively poorer, thanks to the extraction of raw materials. Reinvestment is negligible and the prices, royalties and taxes paid are inadequate to compensate the wasting-away of Africa’s natural wealth. Anti-extraction campaigns by (un)civil society are the only hope for a reversal of these neocolonial relations.

Though it’s easy to prove, using even the World Bank’s main study of natural resource economics, apparently the looting allegation is controversial. When I made it during a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) interview last week, the World Bank’s chief economist for Africa, Shanta Devarajan, immediately contradicted me, claiming (twice) that I am not in command of ‘the facts’.

Here’s how it went:

PATRICK BOND: ‘Africa is suffering neocolonialism, and that means the basic trend of exporting raw materials, and cash crops, minerals, petroleum, has gotten worse. And that’s really left Africa poorer per person in much of the continent, than even at independence. The idea that there’s steady growth in Africa is very misleading, and it really represents the abuse of economic concepts by politicians, by economists, who factor out society and the environment. And it’s mainly a myth, because, really, the extraction of non-renewable resources – those resources will never be available for future generations. And there’s very little reinvestment, and very little broadening of the economy into an industrial project or even a services economy.’

CBC: ‘Mr Devarajan, how would you respond to that view?’

SHANTA DEVARAJAN: ‘First, I just want to correct one of the facts, which is that the continent is not poorer per person. GDP per capita is not lower today than it was 10 to 15 years ago. In fact, it is considerably higher.’

Here, Devarajan abuses the discussion about African poverty by using the gross domestic product (GDP) measure, even though just seconds earlier I had warned against doing so. African economies suffer extreme distortions caused by the export of irreplaceable minerals, petroleum and hard-wood timber. Were he honest, Devarajan would confess that GDP calculates such exports as a solely positive process (a credit), without a corresponding debit on the books of a country’s natural capital.

Seeking a less-biased wealth accounting – i.e., by factoring in society and the environment so as to calculate a country’s ‘genuine savings’ from year to year – we find that Africa gets progressively poorer. This was demonstrated even in the World Bank’s own book, ‘Where is the Wealth of Nations?’, published four years ago (and still available on the bank’s website).

According to the book’s authors, ‘Genuine saving provides a much broader indicator of sustainability by valuing changes in natural resources, environmental quality, and human capital, in addition to the traditional measure of changes in produced assets. Negative genuine saving rates imply that total wealth is in decline.’

The researchers are conservative in their assumptions, but once they factor in society and the environment, Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, fell from a GDP in 2000 of US$297 per person to negative US$210 in genuine savings, mainly because the value of oil extracted was subtracted from its net wealth.

Even the most industrialised African country, South Africa, suffers from a resource curse: instead of a per person GDP of US$2,837 in 2000, the more reasonable way to measure wealth results in genuine savings declining to negative US$2 per person that year. From 2001, the problem became even more acute thanks to the delisting of the largest corporations from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, which added not just the outflow of mineral wealth, but also of profits and dividends that in earlier years would have been retained in South Africa.

(South African President Jacob Zuma approved these policies, and he is still relaxing exchange controls, thus permitting further wealth outflow. It was the height of United Nations incompetence or irony that Zuma was last week named as co-chair of Ban Ki-moon’s new panel on global sustainability, ‘tasked with finding ways to lift people out of poverty while tackling climate change and ensuring that economic development is environmentally friendly’. And after the United Nations climate summit in Cancún fails in December 2010, a year later Zuma will host the crucial Johannesburg follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol, whose targets of 5 per cent emissions reduction expire in 2012. What might we expect? Beholden as he is to mining/smelting capital, with his son and nephew seeking mineral-tycoon status, Zuma signed the Copenhagen Accord last December. But this mainly confirmed that his climate-vulnerable kin in rural Zululand will suffer so that Melbourne and London shareholders of BHP Billiton and Anglo American can continue receiving the world’s cheapest electricity, from South Africa’s rapidly expanding coal-fired power generators. Just so you are warned.)

As commodity prices soared from 2002 to 2008, the outflow of wealth was amplified. But dating to the independence of so many countries over the past five decades, the story is the same: this is an Africa looted in a manner that even World Bank environmental staff are openly confessing, even if Devarajan has (consciously or subconsciously) ignored their research. Hence it is misleading to the point of mischievousness for Devarajan to contradict my assertion that Africans are getting poorer.

The interview then turned to public policies associated with the looting of Africa:

CBC: ‘The World Bank gets a lot of heat for your structural readjustment programme from some quarters. And that is when you offer to countries interest-free loans but they’re contingent on some pretty severe austerity measures that some people say can be counterproductive because they hurt the economies in question more than they help them. And you’ve been criticized, notably, by economists like Patrick Bond and I’d like you to listen one more time to something he’s told us.’

PATRICK BOND: ‘The World Bank and also the International Monetary Fund, they sort of fooled us, in 2008–09, because they seemed to shift their ideology away from a very hardcore agenda of promoting markets above everything else. And for a time it seems they were promoting government deficits and a Keynesian strategy: government should step in when the private sector fails. But now it seems like it’s back to business as usual, namely export orientation and austerity. And the World Bank, led by President Robert Zoellick who had come from the Bush Administration – he worked for Enron and for Goldman Sachs – this sort of leadership, and the northern orientation and the banker mentality, means that the only way forward is to get away from these institutions, maybe to default on their debt, to kick them out of the country. And Latin America provides a good model for doing both of those things.’

CBC: ‘And in fact some Latin American countries, Argentina, successfully told the institutions like yourself and the IMF to take a hike, and in fact it ended up doing them a lot of good. So how do you respond to someone like Patrick Bond?’

SHANTA DEVARAJAN: ‘Oh I think again that we have to look at the facts. There’s no question that the structural adjustment policies of the 1980s and early 1990s received a lot of criticism. But then ask the question, ‘what changed?’ As I was saying, the growth has accelerated since the 1990s. We can’t hide from that fact. And you look at what changed. And it’s that these countries adopted exactly the Washington Consensus policies in the mid-1990s, the African countries. The difference is that they did it out of their own accord, out of domestic political consensus, rather than imposed from Washington or Paris or London. And I think that’s the point that people are not recognising, that the actual policies that are generating the growth, are actually very similar to what was criticised in the structural adjustment era.’

Again, African GDP growth may have accelerated as commodity prices rose, but Africa became poorer once we calculate the net wealth effect and genuine savings. Devarajan can’t hide from that fact.

To disguise this by saying that structural adjustment did not work before the mid-1990s because it was ‘imposed’ by Devarajan’s colleagues, but did work after the mid-1990s because it was adopted through a ‘domestic political consensus’ is the most bizarre claim I’ve ever heard about African macroeconomics. There has never been a political consensus to structurally adjust Africa, aside from the permanent problem of unpatriotic elites who are more closely allied with Washington, Paris, London, Brussels and Beijing string-pullers than with their subjects (a problem which in his 1961 book ‘The Wretched of the Earth’, Frantz Fanon so eloquently brought to our attention).

The World Bank’s 2006 book mentions one obvious policy conclusion, learning from a country with petroleum resources that did not fall victim to resource curse: ‘Norway has used the flow accounts for energy and greenhouse gas emissions to assess a policy that many countries are considering: changing the structure of taxes to increase taxes on emissions and resource use.’

But liberalisation imposed by the World Bank’s lending staff does precisely the opposite. This is the sort of schizophrenia we have come to expect from bank researchers who arrive at common-sense ‘talk left’ conclusions, such as that extracting resources from Africa leaves the continent poorer. But it is not surprising that Devarajan and World Bank operational staff ‘walk right’ when it counts, in interviews with gullible journalists like CBC’s Mike Finnerty (who failed to follow up on either of Devarajan’s whoppers) and when imposing neoliberal policies on wretched African elites.

In this context, the only encouraging signs are the myriad of challenges to extractive industries by activists who often put their bodies on the line in sites of sustained state and corporate violence, like the eastern DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) where human rights watchdogs struggle to document the murder of approximately five million people, Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond mines, South Africa’s Limpopo and Northwest Province platinum fields and the Eastern Cape’s titanium-rich Xolobeni beaches, the Niger Delta’s oil-soaked creeks and Chad’s oil fields, Firestone’s Liberian plantations, Lesotho’s dams supplying Johannesburg’s hedonistic water consumers and other dam-displacement zones including Gibe in Ethiopia, Mphanda Nkuwa in Mozambique and Bujagali in Uganda, to name just a few.

Because World Bank officials can be counted on to ignore their own research and hence continue promoting non-renewable resource exports; because this arrangement suits multinational corporations and donor agencies; and because African elites will continue taking this advice (often with sweetener bribes as was the case of the African National Congress role in the Medupi power plant controversy, funded by the bank’s largest-ever project loan, for $3.75 billion in April 2010), Africa will grow progressively poorer.

The African networks of civil society which promote ‘publish what you pay’ and other gambits for transparency, participation and human rights should finally come to the realisation that this system of looting is not going to be reformed under the prevailing balance of power, and that much more forceful resistance to extraction is required – and is underway.

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* Patrick Bond directs the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and from September will be on sabbatical at the University of California, Berkeley.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Gates Foundation invests in Monsanto

Both will profit at expense of small-scale African farmers

AGRA Watch

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/66791

cc FSGMFarmers and civil society organisations around the world are outraged by the recent discovery of further connections between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and agribusiness titan Monsanto, writes AGRA Watch. Given Monsanto’s history of disregard for the interests and well-being of small farmers around the world, the foundation’s connections to the company 'cast serious doubt' on its funding of agricultural development in Africa, as well as representing 'an enormous conflict of interests'.

Farmers and civil society organisations around the world are outraged by the recent discovery of further connections between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and agribusiness titan Monsanto. In August, a financial website published the Gates Foundation’s investment portfolio, including 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock with an estimated worth of $23.1 million purchased in the second quarter of 2010 (see the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission). This marks a substantial increase from its previous holdings, valued at just over US$360,000 (see the Foundation’s 2008 990 Form).

‘The foundation’s direct investment in Monsanto is problematic on two primary levels,’ said Dr Phil Bereano, University of Washington Professor Emeritus and recognised expert on genetic engineering. ‘First, Monsanto has a history of blatant disregard for the interests and well-being of small farmers around the world, as well as an appalling environmental track record. The strong connections to Monsanto cast serious doubt on the foundation’s heavy funding of agricultural development in Africa and purported goal of alleviating poverty and hunger among small-scale farmers. Second, this investment represents an enormous conflict of interests.’

Monsanto has already negatively impacted agriculture in African countries. For example, in South Africa in 2009, Monsanto’s genetically modified maize failed to produce kernels and hundreds of farmers were devastated. According to Mariam Mayet, environmental attorney and director of the Africa Centre for Biosafety in Johannesburg, some farmers suffered up to an 80 per cent crop failure. While Monsanto compensated the large-scale farmers to whom it directly sold the faulty product, it gave nothing to the small-scale farmers to whom it had handed out free sachets of seeds. ‘When the economic power of Gates is coupled with the irresponsibility of Monsanto, the outlook for African smallholders is not very promising,’ said Mayet. Monsanto’s aggressive patenting practices have also monopolised control over seed in ways that deny farmers control over their own harvest, going so far as to sue – and bankrupt – farmers for ‘patent infringement.’

News of the foundation’s recent Monsanto investment has confirmed the misgivings of many farmers and sustainable agriculture advocates in Africa, among them the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, who commented, ‘We have long suspected that the founders of AGRA– the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – had a long and more intimate affair with Monsanto.’ Indeed, according to Travis English, researcher with AGRA Watch, ‘The Foundation’s ownership of Monsanto stock is emblematic of a deeper, more long-standing involvement with the corporation, particularly in Africa.’ In 2008, AGRA Watch, a project of the Seattle-based organisation Community Alliance for Global Justice, uncovered many linkages between the foundation’s grantees and Monsanto. For example, some grantees (in particular about 70 per cent of grantees in Kenya) of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) – considered by the Foundation to be its ‘African face’—work directly with Monsanto on agricultural development projects. Other prominent links include high-level foundation staff members who were once senior officials for Monsanto, such as Rob Horsch, formerly Monsanto vice president of International Development Partnerships and current senior programme officer of the Gates Agricultural Development Program.

Transnational corporations like Monsanto have been key collaborators with the foundation and AGRA’s grantees in promoting the spread of industrial agriculture on the continent. This model of production relies on expensive inputs such as chemical fertilisers, genetically modified seeds, and herbicides. Though this package represents enticing market development opportunities for the private sector, many civil society organisations contend it will lead to further displacement of farmers from the land, an actual increase in hunger, and migration to already swollen cities unable to provide employment opportunities. In the words of a representative from the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, ‘AGRA is poison for our farming systems and livelihoods. Under the philanthropic banner of greening agriculture, AGRA will eventually eat away what little is left of sustainable small-scale farming in Africa.’

A 2008 report initiated by the World Bank and the UN, the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), promotes alternative solutions to the problems of hunger and poverty that emphasise their social and economic roots. The IAASTD concluded that small-scale agroecological farming is more suitable for the third world than the industrial agricultural model favoured by Gates and Monsanto. In a summary of the key findings of IAASTD, the Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) emphasises the report’s warning that ‘continued reliance on simplistic technological fixes – including transgenic crops – will not reduce persistent hunger and poverty and could exacerbate environmental problems and worsen social inequity.’ Furthermore, PANNA explains, ‘The Assessment’s 21 key findings suggest that small-scale agroecological farming may offer one of the best means to feed the hungry while protecting the planet.’

The Gates Foundation has been challenged in the past for its questionable investments; in 2007, the LA Times exposed the foundation for investing in its own grantees and for its ‘holdings in many companies that have failed tests of social responsibility because of environmental lapses, employment discrimination, disregard for worker rights, or unethical practices.’ The Times chastised the foundation for what it called ‘blind-eye investing,’ with at least 41 per cent of its assets invested in ‘companies that countered the foundation’s charitable goals or socially-concerned philosophy.’

Although the foundation announced it would reassess its practices, it decided to retain them. As reported by the LA Times, chief executive of the Foundation Patty Stonesifer defended their investments, stating, ‘It would be naive…to think that changing the foundation’s investment policy could stop the human suffering blamed on the practices of companies in which it invests billions of dollars.’ This decision is in direct contradiction to the foundation’s official ‘Investment Philosophy’, which, according to its website, ‘defined areas in which the endowment will not invest, such as companies whose profit model is centrally tied to corporate activity that [Bill and Melinda] find egregious. This is why the endowment does not invest in tobacco stocks.’

More recently, the foundation has come under fire in its own hometown. This week, 250 Seattle residents sent postcards expressing their concern that the foundation’s approach to agricultural development, rather than reducing hunger as pledged, would instead ‘increase farmer debt, enrich agribusiness corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta, degrade the environment, and dispossess small farmers.’ In addition to demanding that the foundation instead fund ‘socially and ecologically appropriate practices determined locally by African farmers and scientists’ and support African food sovereignty, they urged the foundation to cut all ties to Monsanto and the biotechnology industry.



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* Dow Jones Newswires reports that the Gates Foundation has also bought half a million shares in Goldman Sachs during the quarter ended 30 June.
* AGRA Watch, a programme of Seattle-based Community Alliance for Global Justice, supports African initiatives and programs that foster farmers’ self-determination and food sovereignty. AGRA Watch also supports public engagement in fighting genetic engineering and exploitative agricultural policies, and demands transparency and accountability on the part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and AGRA.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Malawi: Beyond reading, writing and empowerment

Thoughts for International Literacy Day 2010

Steve Sharra

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/66784

cc OERWith International Literacy Day having taken place on 8 September, Steve Sharra considers the significance of ‘literacy’ in the Malawian context. Literacy – understood in a broad sense to include more than merely the capacity to read and write – should be at the heart of efforts to improve livelihoods and rights, while the country’s domestic book industry and greater digital resources should be embraced, Sharra contends.

Until I started knocking on people’s office doors to ask about what was being done to celebrate this year’s International Literacy Day in Malawi, 8 September, I hadn’t thought of how differently various people might interpret the concept of ‘literacy’. Picking up the phone to tell a director of a ministry department about what I had come for, one secretary didn’t bat an eyelid to add ‘adult’ to the word. It didn’t matter that I repeated the phrase ‘International Literacy Day’ several times. And she was not the only one. Several people heard it as ‘International Adult Literacy Day’.

Obviously a basic meaning of ‘literacy’ starts out as learning how to read and write, and in Malawian discourse, the type of literacy most commonly heard on the street and across the airwaves is ‘adult literacy’, Sukulu ya Kwacha. No doubt adult literacy is as crucial an issue as emerging literacy, what we teach toddlers in nurseries and Standard 1 classrooms. But literacy is an extremely broad term, and covers probably each and every area that requires specialised knowledge across the breadth of human productivity. Viewing literacy in this manner forces us to consider the importance of learning more complicated knowledge systems beyond the ability to read and write as a child or as an adult literacy learner. It is not enough to know how to read and write; one needs to develop life-long intellectual habits of reading regularly and utilising modern technologies including computers and the internet.

A crucial factor in developing and maintaining such intellectual habits is a thriving book industry. There was a time in Malawi when we had what could be considered a thriving book industry, considering our development stage and years from independence at that time. When I was growing up in the then municipality of Zomba, I had access to four excellent bookshops, and a well-stocked library, within walking distance. A Malawi Book Service bookstore easily competed with a Times Bookshop a stone’s throw away from each other along the M1 road in the centre of town. At Zomba Zero the CCAP Church ran a CLAIM Bookshop not too far from the Times and MBS Bookshops, and straight down the road from Zomba Zero to Chancellor College was the MBS University Bookstore.

It was the same when I travelled to Blantyre, where I was able, in one day, to visit Times Bookshop, Central Bookshop and a few other bookstores and libraries. Even when I travelled to rural parts of Malawi such as Mulanje, Ntcheu or Kasungu, I was still able to find well-stocked bookshops ran by the MBS, CLAIM, or Times Bookshop. Today, only the CLAIM bookshop and the National Library Branch still stand in Zomba. The Malawi Book Service and the Times Bookshop no longer exist. Central Bookshop had two shops in Blantyre and one in Lilongwe. Today two of those don’t exist anymore. When I visited Maneno Bookshop in Lilongwe in June, I saw more books from other countries, and very few from Malawi. It was the same at the lone Central Bookshop at the Chichiri Mall in Blantyre. At Maneno I saw children’s books from Kenya, and almost none from Malawi. At Central Bookshop I was told that people called to ask about the next issue of People Magazine, while stacks of Malawian magazines lay unsold.

There are reasons of political economy and recent socio-economic changes that explain problems in the book industry in Malawi. This is despite the gallant efforts of the Malawi Writers Union (MAWU) and the Book Publishers Association of Malawi (BPAM) to keep book production in the country afloat. The National Library Service has also grown in strength and outreach, as have several efforts by enterprising Malawians who establish private bookshops and open libraries in schools. The last 10 years have seen the introduction of Teacher Development Centres (TDCs) that serve between 10 and 20 neighbouring schools, and libraries are an unfailing feature of these centres.

The most inspiring Malawian success story on the international science and technology circuit, that of William Kamkwamba, owes its origins to a TDC library. It is a pity that none of the bookstores I have visited in Blantyre, Zomba and Lilongwe recently stock Kamkwamba’s co-authored book (with Bryan Mealer) ‘The Boy who Harnessed the Wind’. Kamkwamba’s story always elicits jaw-dropping silence and attention, whether here in Malawi or in the United States. There his book has become a bestseller. I look forward to the day when every young Malawian and school teacher will read the book and feel inspired by how a quest to enhance one’s literacy and knowledge wowed the world.

Part of Kamkwamba’s story was made possible through the power of the internet, in particular Malawian and African bloggers. Digital literacy is a must for any society that wishes to enter the 21st century. Digital literacy involves knowledge of how to use computers, which can start with as simple a step as setting up an email account. It is disappointing that very few Malawian teachers have email accounts, let alone access to the internet. This is understandable for teachers working in the remotest parts of Malawi where trading centres don’t even have electricity. But many centres that have electricity have seen entrepreneurial Malawians set up internet cafes, with internet charges as low as K5 ($0.03) per minute. I know of one teacher who taught in Kasungu in the early 2000s when there was no internet café at Kasungu town. This teacher would take the bus every Saturday morning and go to Lilongwe, a two-hour journey each way, so he could access the internet. But I also know teachers today who reside within walking distance of free internet access, and they have never used it.

Young Malawians, like their counterparts the world over, are taking to the internet and 21st century technology much more rapidly than grown-ups. I know of primary school pupils who have email addresses, and their teachers don’t. It is the same with other educators in the system, and in society at large. Everyone who has a business in Malawi has a cell phone, which they proudly brand on their products, shop walls and in newspaper advertisements. It is still very rare, in 2010, to see Malawian advertisements carrying email addresses and website URLs (uniform resource locators), notwithstanding the proliferation of relatively cheap internet access in cafes across trading centres in almost every district.

This year’s theme for the International Literacy Day is ‘literacy and women’s empowerment’. UNESCO in Paris will on Wednesday 8 September award literacy prizes to women’s projects that are promoting women’s empowerment through literacy. A Malawian group, the Coalition of Women Farmers (COWFA), is this year receiving the 2010 honourable mention of the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy for its Women Land Rights Project (WOLAR).

These Malawian women have charted a new way of looking at literacy. They are challenging our stereotypes of women as helpless, hapless victims who are hopelessly disempowered. They are showing us how empowerment is not a one-way, transmission-style process, but rather a self-motivated aspiration. As Julius Nyerere once wrote, people cannot be developed. They can only develop themselves. It is the same with empowerment. Women cannot be empowered by someone else; they can only empower themselves.

A profile describing the project undertaken by the Coalition of Women Farmers observes that only 4 per cent of Malawian women own land, yet 70 per cent of Malawian subsistence farmers are women. But it is also well-known that Malawian women take up the responsibility of providing food for their families. Given the food crises Malawi has experienced in the first half of this decade, and the surpluses of the last four years, the empowerment of women in land ownership is one way of establishing a social structure that could ensure that food is available to more Malawians throughout the year. Using literacy to achieve that goal reinforces the understanding that reading, writing and numeracy should not be for their own sake, but rather for greater transformation and socio-economic well-being. Literacy is part of the framework within which each of the eight Millennium Development Goals ought to be understood and integrated, if they are to be seen as more than top-down, donor-driven rhetoric.

That is how we ought to look at literacy, and address what many Malawians see as the absence of a reading culture. We should view literacy as a process of not just knowledge consumption but production as well, embracing new technologies to facilitate grassroots participation and promote human dignity, especially that of women, children, and those with special needs. More importantly, we should use modern literacies for the promotion of social justice and uMunthu peace. As we Malawians like to say, ‘kuphunzira sikutha’; learning never ends.

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

Representing Africa to China and the world

The Africa Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010

Kenneth King

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/66795

cc S MFollowing a visit to the Shanghai Expo 2010, Kenneth King shares his insights into how 'the continent with the largest number of developing countries' represented itself to 'the largest developing country'.

The Shangahi Expo 2010, taking place in Shanghai, China from 1 May to 31 October 2010 is a world exhibition, bring together over 190 countries and 50 international organisations as participants, including 49 African countries and the African Union. Kenneth King reports back on his visit.

The joint Africa Pavilion is one of the largest of those in the entire exposition[1]. It contains 42 separate pavilions related to individual African countries and an additional pavilion associated with the African Union. There are seven other African countries with their pavilions just opposite the great joint one. This is surely a unique and unprecedentedly inclusive opportunity to represent the continent to China and to the wider world over a period of seven months in 2010.

For the growing community of Pambazuka readers (academics, policy analysts, and students) interested in China–Africa relations, this is a rich and fascinating chance to see how ‘the continent with the largest number of developing countries’ represents itself to ‘the largest developing country’. Although the Expo organisers had identified an overall theme – ‘Better City, Better Life’ – what did African exhibitors do with this, and what did they add to the theme for their own purposes? How did African pavilions use the opportunity to present themselves to a massive audience that already by the end of July, the fourth month, had surpassed ten million visitors in this pavilion alone?

Here follow eight comments or propositions about Africa at the Expo. Most of these may not have been apparent to the great majority of pavilion visitors who are intent on getting stamps in their passports and taking photographs. They appear to do little reading of the captions. But for these visitors, the Africa Pavilion is a huge bonus; there are almost no queues, and there are many photo opportunities – from lions and giraffes to the duck-billed platypus or the dragon-like River God of the Zambezi.

First, there are two Africas at the Expo: The 42 African countries in the vast Africa Pavilion, along with the African Union; and then the seven, like Angola, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa who chose to stay outside with their own larger separate pavilions.

Second, the ‘outsiders’ covered most of their own very considerable costs, with their own designers, and could each easily have spent RMB10 million. The ‘insiders’ still had some costs of their own, but the majority accepted the very substantial generosity of the Chinese government, of around US$650,000 per country, and most then chose their lead designers from the list of Chinese service providers. Did this make the Africa Pavilion, with its dramatic, Chinese-designed, rock-face of African profiles at the entry, an aid project to Africa constructed in China?

Third, China clearly wanted this Expo to be as inclusive as possible; hence the 49 countries that were present even included Mauritania, which is not a member of the African Union, and The Gambia which still has diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Fourth, the Africa Pavilion is short on history (especially on links to China and Chinese communities in Africa) and long on culture and tourism. Notable exceptions for an audience which is 99 per cent Chinese are ‘the Chinese Girl’ in the Kenya pavilion with links back to Zheng He’s sailings to the East African coast; in the Zambia pavilion the stunning photos of Mao with Kaunda, and in the Ghana one the brilliant photo of Zhou Enlai playing table tennis with Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana (though there are no captions). Sadly the TAZARA Railway photo has no dates or links to China – even though some visitors tell of working on the line 40 years ago. Other exceptions are the rich urban history of Ethiopia, and the many parallels between the ancient civilisations of Egypt and China.

Fifth, is there a risk that with most of Africa being in one pavilion the myth that Africa is a single country – ‘What’s the capital of Africa?’ – is perpetuated? No! One of the positive messages of the frenzied ‘Stamping of Passports’ is that Africa is a continent of 50+ countries; and it’s a message that the African Union reinforces by insisting that visitors identify an African country on a huge map before they get a stamp!

Sixth, did the African Pavilion, with its acacia trees, giraffes and elephants on the outside, overplay the animals, cultures of exotic peoples and traditional artefacts, and underplay innovation, modernity and scientific research and development? Perhaps yes. But for many countries, it is the former that draw in tourists, and not least to the 26 African countries that are approved tourist destinations for the increasing numbers of Chinese visitors. There are some notable exceptions to this generalisation. And not least Egypt and South Africa which have extraordinarily rich tourist resources on display but demonstrate also the crucial role of creative design and the vital rise of a modern urban economy.

Seventh, a powerful message to many of the Chinese visiting the African pavilions is that Africans in China speak Chinese! In several of the pavilions there are African students from Shanghai’s universities speaking fluent Chinese. One of these, from Cameroon, plays host to audiences at the performances on the Central Stage of the African Pavilion. But many other pavilions have wisely taken advantage of these enthusiastic African ‘ambassadors’ studying in China.

Eighth, and perhaps most important of all, the African pavilions, whether insiders or outsiders, may not all exhibit the Shanghai theme of ‘Better City, Better Life’. But they do something more crucial. They demonstrate in no uncertain terms the art, colour, diversity, languages, friendliness, and sheer beauty of the continent. They speak of an Africa very different from the misrepresentations of Africa as generally poor, hopeless, and war-torn. They tell of a Good Africa, and of the promise of a Better Africa, Better Life.

It is entirely possible that many young Chinese visitors, with their passports more full of African than other stamps, will recall something of these visits, when they are older. Shanghai may well prove to have been the beginning of an awareness of Africa that will result in further study of Africa, in Afro-tourism, or in becoming a young volunteer serving Africa.



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* Kenneth King is international advisor to the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University; visiting professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education; and formerly director of the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES
[1] The wider research project of which this is a part was supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Project No. HKU 750008H)

New African elites: A Tanzanian profile

Chambi Chachage

2010-09-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/66773

cc L GAs part of a broader effort to consider who’s who in Tanzanian society, Chambi Chachage discusses the reproduction of the country’s elite class and stresses that if you want to understand the underprivileged, you must also study the privileged.

This is a synopsis of a larger project of sketching the biographical journey of a class constituting the African elites. It is a self-imposed attempt to make sense of ‘who is who’ in Tanzania – for what and for whom? In other words, it is about how and why new elites (re)shape our society.

As a group, African elites have nationally been influential culturally, intellectually, politically and even economically across four generations. Of course they do not necessarily constitute a class in the Marxian sense so eloquently analysed in Professor Issa Shivji’s seminal book on ‘Class Struggles in Tanzania.’ Rather, in a loose Gramscian sense, it is a slightly differentiated class of traditional vis-à-vis organic intellectuals who contentiously chart the country’s direction(s).

It is not by accident that a son of a pioneer church planter in Tanganyika becomes a leading medical institution builder in Tanzania and his son a key civil society organiser. Similarly, it is not by ‘political accident’ that a son of a civil servant becomes a president and his son an upcoming legal broker-cum-political strategist. Indeed, it is not by ‘accident of birth’ that we talk of ‘political families’ with siblings who run ministries, embassies, universities – and even the United Nations.

Probably wary of ad hominem, we no longer systematically study the African elites. This could be due to the fact that, regardless of Mwalimu J.K. Nyerere’s success in containing the exclusive growth of this group through an egalitarian primary education system, African intellectuals are reproducing themselves as the educated elite. Yes, we are this privileged group. And it is not fun to critically study ourselves. So we study others – those we call the ‘poor’ and ‘marginalised’. As the famous Kiswahili adage goes, ‘mkuki kwa nguruwe mtamu, kwa mwanadamu uchungu’!

In his yet unpublished PhD thesis entitled ‘Socialist ideology and the reality of Tanzania’, Professor Seithy Chachage dedicated a whole chapter to the study of the first of these African elites. He aptly periodises their time as that of the ‘systemization of African civilization’. It contains a biographical analysis of the likes of Paul Bomani who, as I came to know later, was fondly called Kishamapanda – the Trailblazer – by members of a cooperative movement that he led.

Chachage thus describes one of the ‘modern Tanganyikans’: ‘Martin Kayamba, a tall, powerful man, elegantly dressed and well-educated, widely travelled and with fluent command of English; whose father was the first Tanganyikan to be educated in Britain before the German invasion of the country, was a model of “sophistication to which the young men aspired” in the 1920s.’

The same source thus quotes Dr. E.F. Mwaisela from whom we get the name of the famed ward at our Muhimbili National Hospital: ‘The general outlook at present [in 1943] as far as my life is concerned is very gloomy. I have been brought up to such a level in life that I can neither cope with my own people’s life, nor that of a civilized man. To get married to a girl of any reasonable standard, for instance, in order that I should maintain that standard of education I enjoyed in school, is literally to commit suicide.’ Indeed, the educated had started to single themselves out.

When one of the first batches of post-independence educated elites marched to the state house in 1966 in protest against the then national service scheme, they met this stern rebuke from their fellow elite, Nyerere: ‘We belong to the same class of exploiters. I belong to your class. Where I think three hundred and eighty pounds a year (the minimum wage that would be paid in the National Service) is prison camp, is forced labour. We belong to this damned class on top’!

Nyerere thus continued to rant: ‘Everybody in this country is demanding a pound of flesh. Everybody except the poor peasant. How can he demand it? He doesn’t know the language. Even in his language he can’t speak of forced labour. What kind of country are we building?’ What happened afterwards is history. He slashed his presidential salary by 20 per cent. Then he sent students home to their villages and towns. This action remains debatable but the point made is still well-taken.

The children of this generation of yesteryear protestors are now holding business roundtables to chart the future of the ‘market economy’ in Tanzania. Others are running for parliamentary seats with eyes glued to ministerial posts, if not the presidential post. Yet others are in policy dialogues in what we mistake for the civil society busy daydreaming of ushering a mass social movement.

What we are seeing now in Tanzania is a systematic consolidation of new African elites. The passing of the mantle or baton from the previous generations of elites to the current one is more pronounced now than ever, especially in the corporate world and the political arena. But will this (re)production of the educated – indeed the business and political – elite as the driving ‘middle class’ force propel us into the concert of ‘developed countries’? Or will it continue to enrich the few at the expense of the majority and thus further widen the gap between the rich and the poor?

This is what we need to study closely – the nature and purpose of new African elites. If we want to understand the marginalised, let’s first understand the privileged. It’s two parts of the same coin.



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* Chambi Chachage is co-editor of ‘Africa’s Liberation: The Legacy of Nyerere’.
* © Chambi Chachage
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Namibia’s donor-driven democracy: Whose agenda?

Phil ya Nangoloh

2010-09-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/66778

cc UNDPSurveying a range of development-related literature, Phil ya Nangoloh considers the power and politics behind donors’ relationships to southern non-governmental organisations (SNGOs) and the potentially more progressive role of the ‘reverse agenda’.

During the last 30 years or so and since the collapse of communism, expedited by the Gorbachev revolution in the Soviet Union, there has been a great deal of talk by the ‘developed’ Western nations about the need to promote democracy, human rights and good governance (DHRGG) through, inter alia, civil society organisations (CSOs) in the ‘developing’ countries in the global South.

A great deal of financial resources, some say at least US$2.5 billion[1] in official development aid (ODA), has been spent on the DHRGG development agenda since the early 1990s. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says that, in trying to enhance national capacity in the global South, the global northern ODA donors have spent between US$14 billion and US$24 billion worth of technical cooperation programmes in 1999 alone.[2]

But whose agenda is it? Because since the 1990s, democracy has continued unabatedly to be lacking; human rights respect is, for all intents and purposes, non-existent, good and transparent governance is a nightmare and income-poverty and corruption are continuously on the increase in many southern states.

Has ODA really been effective or successful in helping to bring about DHRGG in the developing countries of the global South? Have the developing nations of the southern hemisphere become developed, and, if so, what are the indicia of such development? If not, why not?

A great deal of literature has been emerging during the last 15 years or so. That literature strongly suggests that, in fact, very little, if anything, has been achieved in the DHRGG domain in the ‘developing’ nations of the southern hemisphere. This is in spite of huge amounts of taxpayers’ funds having been spent annually by Western governments, presumably on the DHRGG development agenda. What has gone wrong? I will refer to various literatures on this agenda that I have so far read and I what have personally experienced.

Anthony Beddington of the International Institute for Environment and Development and Roger Riddell of the Overseas Development Institute wrote a paper in 1995 entitled ‘Donors, civil society and southern NGOs: New agendas, old problems’.[3] Does this not strongly suggest new wine in an old bottle? Beddington and Riddell argue that the manner in which Western ODA donors channel huge amounts of funds to certain southern NGOs (SNGOs) raises a whole range of questions: How has ODA been and continued to be channelled? What has been or is the ODA impact on SNGOs? What sorts of SNGOs are being supported? What does this mean for the power relationships between the donors, on the one side, and CSOs, on the other? What does this mean for the institutional and operational independence of the southern CSOs?

Those have been and remain precisely my questions also vis-à-vis the donor-driven DHRGG agenda in Namibia. These are important questions because, as Beddington and Riddell argue, they take us to the heart of the critical question as to how effective Western ODA has been in fostering genuine DHRGG in the global South.

Beddington and Riddell warn that increased ODA funding to SNGOs could lead to increased donor instrumentalisation of SNGOs. The two authors charge that Western ODA donors have been more interested in working together with the SNGOs ‘in order to use them to deliver aid than to strengthen them as representative and vibrant civic organizations’. Beddington and Riddell also argue that Western ODA funding to the SNGOs distort the mandates of those SNGOs in such a way that the latter increasingly reflect donor concerns, rather than their own missions.

It’s no wonder that some, not all, folks in the Namibian government and the ruling Swapo (South West Africa People's Organisation) party often claim, maliciously of course, that whatever, for example, Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights (NSHR)[4] does to promote DHRGG in the country, it is just in order to ‘please donors’. This, at least by implication, means then that NSHR is merely a marionette of Western ODA donor nations in the northern hemisphere. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth!

Echoing the same sentiments as Beddington and Riddell above, another writer, Sara Rich Dorman, richly wrote in 2004 that Western ODA donor nations have committed much time and resources to the DHRGG question in Africa. ‘Yet it is not clear how this concept of “democratization” has helped us to understand African politics, or if donor support for “democratization” has been successful.’ Through her paper, entitled ‘Democrats and donors: Studying democratization in Africa’,[5] Dorman firstly argues that ODA donors have done a disservice to democratisation in Africa because their views of such a democratisation process ‘are ahistorical or decontextualized from the historical and cultural situations’. Secondly, Dorman argues that ‘African NGOs are poorly understood and little studied.’ Hence, Dorman says, ‘assumptions, rather than empirical evidence dominate the donors’ agenda on democratization’. Dorman warns that a partial understanding of both the beneficiary societies and SNGOs leads to inappropriate policy responses by those bilateral and multilateral donors eager to support genuine democratisation in the global South.

In his 2008 paper entitled ‘How to improve NGO effectiveness in development: A discussion on lessons learned’,[6] writer Esra Guler also notes that a great majority of SNGOs largely depend on Western donor funding and that they often face the risk of collapse once these funds cease. Even when funding from such sources continues, Guler warns that the greater dependence on ODA donor nations may also threaten the performance, distort the autonomy and weaken the legitimacy of SNGOs. Therefore, Guler proposes that when mobilising funds, NGO managers need to find an optimum mix of quantity and quality funds in relation to their organisations’ missions and strategies. Guler defines quality funds for NGOs as those which are free from stringent conditions, allocated on programmes rather than projects, not constrained by bureaucratic requirements, predictable and reliable in terms of flow, disbursed timely and based on demonstrated performance.

In what he terms ‘insecurity for SNGOs’,[7] Joel Blackwell explains how Western security agendas have shifted ODA donor priorities, thereby forcing SNGOs to rethink their own agendas in Indonesia. Blackwell warns that, because SNGOs are more reliant on external funding – the majority of which comes from Western ODA governments – ‘this can cause major problems because the foreign aid budgets of those nations are tied to their national interests that rarely coincide with the needs of the Indonesian people’.

Referring to what he describes as ‘unrealistic demands’, Blackwell argues further that ‘the current process for providing developmental assistance lacks long-term sustainability because funding priorities are not always in accord with local needs and programming cycles’. He also says that the insecurity brought about by shifting foreign donor agendas ‘is just one more challenge for NGOs in Indonesia’ and is ‘one more barrier preventing those NGOs from improving the standard of living for all the Indonesian people’.

According to Blackwell,[8] foreign governments are not about to fund ODA programmes that operate contrary to their national interests, and, further, that ‘imperialist notions of telling poorer countries what is best for them, without direct consultation, is no longer a tenable approach to foreign policy’. He therefore proposes that greater dialogue and cooperation between SNGOs and their ODA donors is essential, allowing the Indonesian NGOs to play a more holistic, autonomous and ongoing role in the decision-making process.

In her paper entitled ‘NGOs, foreign donors, and organizational processes: Passive NGO recipients or strategic actors’,[9] Karen Rauh of McGill University also notes that over the past two decades there has been a proliferation of increasingly ‘donor-imposed quantitative, paper-based planning, reporting and accountability procedures’. Rauh says that, despite wide critiques of the inefficiency of these practices, they have been widely adopted by SNGOs. She says that, although these donor-imposed procedures are presumably designed to increase accountability and transparency and guard against the misappropriation of funds, in many cases they have shifted SNGO focus away from their most meaningful work. She warns that this state of affairs leads to the SNGOs increasingly adopting ‘northern’ or ‘corporate’ style practices and agendas and that those procedures have not necessarily resulted in improved efficiency.

Furthermore, Rauh notes that the increasing emphasis on paper-based management tools rewards those SNGOs that produce good documentation, while those SNGOs that lack these skills, but who are, nonetheless, making positive change on the ground, may not be as highly valued by donors. She also notes that, although it is reasonable to expect recipient organisations to have appropriate accountability and transparency measures, ‘current practices have been widely criticized for being extremely time-consuming, difficult to use and for taking time away from important work on the ground’. She, however, also writes that, to a certain extent, a few SNGOs are able to actively resist donor agendas. Quoting from a Zimbabwean activist, Everjoice Win, Rauh says:

‘Development is not about words and procedures. It is about changing the realities of people’s lives. We need procedures, concepts and methods, but only as tools to help us do the work that needs to be done. When development is reduced to fitting things on blue squares, then we create more problems than we claim to solve. When these tools begin to imprison and consume all of our energies, where will we get the extra energy to do real work?’

Referring to ‘power relations’ between donors and SNGOs and citing the works of, among others, Wallace, Bornstein and Chapman (2006), Rauh argues that ‘coercion and compliance’ are important concepts in understanding the relationship between SNGOs and their foreign donors. Donors are in a position of power and they often put conditions, not only on how their aid must be used, but also how SNGO programmes must be implemented. Thus donors not only have control over their funding to SNGOs, but also over the agenda. Hence, coercion and compliance may be considered as direct or indirect use of force.

Rauh also notes that ODA funders often impose their own norms and values on SNGOs, and that their priorities often fluctuate towards those development areas that are currently popular to them domestically. She says that these frequent fluctuations in donor priorities result in increased environmental uncertainty and the implementation of programs that are not addressing the problem. These aspects of power and dependency have resulted in some NGOs shifting their focus from important areas for their beneficiaries towards areas of donor interest that will attract large amounts of funding.

Indian writer R. Upadhayay – with whom I fully agree, albeit for a different reason – writes that SNGOs must be accountable to their beneficiaries and that their activities must be beneficiary-centric and not donor-centric. He also notes that, with huge amounts of donor funding at their disposal, some SNGOs have emerged as powerful lobbyists doing spadework for the donors, rather than their intended beneficiaries.

The Overseas Development Institute (ODI)[10] also argues that as ODA donors continued to apply conditions to funds channelled to SNGOs, a rise in donor funding would increasingly compromise the integrity of the SNGO approaches to development. ODI warns that using SNGOs to help achieve donors' own aid objectives only heightened these concerns.

Furthermore, UNDP’s Mark Malloch Brown brilliantly notes that the asymmetric donor-recipient relationship has profound consequences for success and failure in developing lasting indigenous capacity in the global South.[11] Brown argues that technical cooperation had proven effective in getting the job done, but less effective at developing local institutions or strengthening local capacities, and that it was ‘expensive, donor-driven and often served to heighten dependence on foreign expert and distorted priorities’.

The donor-driven development agenda situation decried above has never been different right here in Namibia. In addition to such a donor attitude, Namibia’s DHRGG agenda is even more hamstrung by the political, historical, cultural and racial character of the country’s population. While the presumed beneficiary of Namibia’s DHRGG agenda is the country’s impoverished population, which is predominantly black, there is deep-rooted feeling among black and indigenous people that most of the ODA funding per capita goes to the white-led and white-controlled CSOs. For example, with a staff complement of no more than seven and which is based in Windhoek, the Namibia Institute of Democracy (NID)[12] nets up to N$4 million annually in core donor funding.[13] NSHR – which is black-led and indigenous and hence more culturally and historically representative of the presumed beneficiaries of the ODA funding and, furthermore, which has a staff complement of slightly over 30 and which runs seven offices countrywide – gets less than N$4 million annually from predominantly Western donor nations.

Firstly, there is nothing wrong, in principle, with being white-led or white-controlled CSOs in a predominantly black population, as long as such CSOs display fearlessness and vigilance and as long as they are institutionally and operationally independent. However, the inherent weakness and vulnerability of white-led or white-controlled CSOs in Namibia’s politically polarised and racially charged society lie in legitimacy and being representative. While they may have huge sums of donor funds at their disposal, they severely lack the historical, cultural and even political legitimacy and representative-ness with respect to the presumed ultimate beneficiaries of such funding: predominantly black Namibians. This state of affairs is as ridiculous as putting a man in charge of a women’s rights organisation!

Secondly, there appears to be a tendency on the part of some, not all, of the Western ODA donors to liberally fund those Namibian CSOs which are less critical or are seen to be ingratiating with the government or the ruling Swapo party. For example, Sister Namibia – an indigenous-led women’s rights organisation which does not, in my view, ingratiate itself with the powers that be – is ever struggling to secure appropriate funding from the ODA donors active in the country. By contrast, the elitist Women Action for Development (WAD), which is a mixed-race-led women’s rights organisation, which, in my view, actively seeks or is widely perceived as seeking to be seen to be working closely with the government or the ruling Swapo party, receives huge amounts of money annually from donors. But is WAD more effective than Sister Namibia? Evidence at my disposal seems to suggest that the contrary is true! The campaigns of Sister Namibia, such as its 50–50 zebra representation in the decision-making processes of the country, have had an enormous impact on government policies.

Thirdly, there appears to be a tendency on the part of certain, not all, donors to publicly shun or not to fund those Namibian CSOs and NGOs in the DHRGG sector, which often deals with so-called politically sensitive or controversial DHRGG issues such as the issue of ‘missing’ persons and the marathon Caprivi High Treason Trial, as well as the issue of the International Criminal Court (ICC). In 2009, NSHR had to tell an ODA donor to ‘take your money’ after the particular donor started patronisingly and arrogantly ‘advising’ NSHR not to criticise both the ruling Swapo party and the former Namibian President Dr Sam Nujoma.

Moreover, all in all, those Namibian CSOs working in the DHRGG domain receive per capita far less from, for example, the US government, than those Namibian CSOs which are active in other domains, such as the HIV/AIDS sector.

Northern donor nations and non-indigenous CSOs in the global South may have the money. However, this does not necessarily mean that they also have the requisite historical, cultural and political vision, mission or strategies to bring about genuine DHRGG in the global South in general or in Namibia in particular. One wonders as to what really motivates the northern donor nations’ agenda regarding the need to promote DHRGG in the South. One is therefore prompted to ask the question as to whether ODA and similar other northern funding of Southern development activities is motivated by diplomacy, philanthropy or reparations for, inter alia, the guilt of colonisation and the slave trade.

So, what is the solution to this quagmire? In his paper entitled ‘NGOs, democracy and sustainable development in Africa’,[14] James Buturo concludes that democracy and sustainable development are two sides of the same coin. The two concepts are underpinned by equality of access to resources, improvement in living conditions and commitment to democratic decision making, and, furthermore, the notion that democracy and sustainable development should promote empowered, self-reliant and free communities which are very much in charge of their own destiny, in partnership with others.

Hence, UNDP’s Mark Malloch Brown strongly advocates for the development of locally owned capacity and a genuinely new vision of capacity development that is firmly founded on genuine ownership by the ultimate beneficiaries of foreign development efforts.[15] Brown says that, because of a growing concern that a lack of local ownership is an important element that undermines the effectiveness of technical cooperation, there is a need to develop better relationships between northern donors and the southern recipients.

As referred to above, ODI welcomes the fact that there has lately been a growing role played by SNGOs called the ‘reverse agenda’.[16]This is a process whereby SNGOs are now increasingly influencing the perceptions of donors and other ODA programmes.

There are a number of ways through which the reverse agenda has manifested itself. For instance, some of the characteristics of the 'NGO approach' to development have gradually been incorporated into mainstream ODA donor architecture.

One manifestation of a growing SNGO reverse agenda is the fact that most donors are now broadening their major aid objectives to include poverty alleviation, environmental protection and democratic participation, as well as strengthening marginal groups such as women and minorities.

Here in Namibia, progressive donors such as the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) have taken up ‘strengthening civil society’ and ‘partner driven cooperation’ as their specific development objectives. The European Delegation in Namibia has also started a highly commendable process of consulting local NGOs and CSOs before designing its Namibia-specific calls for proposal.

The reverse agenda would certainly be doubly beneficial for the ultimate beneficiaries because, inter alia, one of the core objectives of SNGOs has been to empower poor and marginalised people, especially by strengthening the organisations to which poor people belong.

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* Phil ya Nangoloh is the executive director of Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights (NSHR). However, the views expressed in this article are exclusively his own.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] http://bit.ly/aYLVsJ
[2] ‘Overview’, http://bit.ly/axxI25
[3] http://bit.ly/ay0Pzc
[4] http://bit.ly/bKsv6O
[5] http://bit.ly/biZRx7
[6] http://bit.ly/aw9tjA
[7] http://bit.ly/9aKAWR
[8] Joel Backwell (joel_amnesty@hotmail.com) is an Arts/Law student at Monash University, who has recently returned from a year in Indonesia studying and working with local NGOs.
[9] http://bit.ly/9zA5qs
[10] http://bit.ly/aYLVsJ
[11] http://bit.ly/axxI25
[12] http://bit.ly/amZ1pY
[13] ‘Civil Society: Practice what you preach’, Insight Magazine, May 2009, p.22-23
[14] http://bit.ly/9POPoA
[15] http://bit.ly/axxI25
[16] http://bit.ly/aYLVsJ

Elections in Africa: Limits of democratisation

Ronald Elly Wanda

2010-09-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/66774

cc T MA majority of African countries continue to be run by governments of greatly limited democratic clout, writes Ronald Elly Wanda, with multiparty politics and local people’s access to influence severely restricted.

The recent awakening wave of civil society in Africa, especially the confrontational and oppositional segment, is in large measure a response to the declining political capacity of the African state. This is excitedly triggered by the realisation slowly taking place on the continent that democratisation will not come from periodic elections, which political parties have for so long mistakenly viewed as their exclusive domain of operation. Political parties in Africa, instead of being a force for democratisation, have instead been empty vehicles for tribal barons or cabals of kleptocrats without a committed agenda for reform. In East as in West Africa, political parties have been instruments of convenience for powerful individual politicians. Rather than help forge a national consciousness, they’ve led to further fragmentation of the African state.

Thankfully, of late in Africa various sectors of civil society are becoming nurseries for alternative political leadership and clean politics, at the centre of which one finds efforts to address persistent questions of marginalisation, discrimination and exclusion – with demands such as the ‘individual must be given capacity to exercise their vote free from external constraints or threats of non-provision or withdrawal of resources from non compliance with political party demands’ becoming a common feature.

Sadly, equally taking place on the continent is a deceptive electoral phenomena. From Freetown to Cape Town, Kigali to Kumasi, there seems to be a revitalised resurgence of both popular and elite concern, with issues revolving around democracy with referenda and electioneering visibly discernable. It is a prominence that has not been seen since the heady early days of independence in the 1960s or the crusade for multipartism in the early 1990s.

POLITICAL CULTURE

While elections are often a poor guide to a country’s overall state of democracy and civil liberties, and a mere number of them can be deceptive, of late they have gained currency by becoming a regular episode, sometimes even in the unlikeliest of places on a continent once dubbed ‘hopeless’ because of the regularity of its coups and civil wars. In recent years, the culture of elections seems to have infected even the most known of dictatorial leaders – Presidents Omar al-Bashir and Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, alongside others.

In August, Rwanda’s incumbent Paul Kagame was returned to power with a landslide 93 per cent, while in the same month Kenya’s referendum on a new constitution was approved by 67 per cent of votes with 30 per cent objecting. In July, voters on the semi-autonomous Tanzanian island of Zanzibar voted 66.4 per cent in favour of a referendum designed to end the years of political strife that had marred previous elections, while 33.4 percent voted against the power-sharing proposal supported by the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party and leaders of the main opposition Civic United Front (CUF) party in time for the October elections. June saw Burundians also going to the polls. Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, who has ruled the country for 26 years, plans to ask the Ugandan electorate, yet again, for another term next year. Meanwhile in Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan is preparing himself for the country’s elections expected in January, where it has emerged that former Nigerian vice-president Atiku Abubakar and former military leader Ibrahim Babangida are to participate. The presidential nomination by the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) is likely to be contentious owing to an unwritten rule that power should rotate between Nigeria's Christian south and Muslim north every two terms. President Jonathan’s predecessor, UMARU Yar'Adua, who died during his first term, was a northerner, so the next term should be held in reserve for a northern Nigerian.

In Guinea, following two decades of dictatorial rule by Lansana Conté, the army seized power after his death two years ago and has promised a return to civilian rule after elections that they’ve promised soon and in which they have vowed not to contest. The troubled semi-autonomous region of Somaliland has followed Ethiopia in subjecting its citizens to the ongoing electric circuit of elections in Africa. By the end of the year, 48 African countries will have held a referendum of some sort or gone to the polls for a concoction of local, regional or national elections, leading The Economist recently to conclude that ‘it is a big year for the African voter. The electoral calendar has never been so crowded.’

And indeed with slight trepidation, one could be tempted to go a step further than the international weekly magazine and describe, fallaciously, the present developments as constituting a new epoch in African history, an ‘electoral wind of change’ blowing across the continent.

A hasty look at several recent polls shows that too often African referenda and elections are just a travesty. In Burundi the incumbent, Pierre Nkurunziza, with the opposition boycott, won 92 per cent of the vote unopposed, while in neighbouring Rwanda Paul Kagame secured an amazing 93 per cent, in spite of accusations by international observers of also shutting out opposition. In Ethiopia those opposed to Meles Zenawi’s ruling party won just a mere two out of a possible 547 seats. While in Sudan, Africa’s largest country, the size of a quarter of the United States, Omar al-Bashir won against an opposition that had also largely boycotted the event. Sudan is expected to hold a referendum in January 2011 in the southern part of the country, which will decide whether the vast oil- and mineral-rich state – whose political and economic fortunes have largely been determined by the Arab ruling elite in the north – remains united or splits into two distinct countries: the predominantly Muslim and Arab north and the Christian, black south. The irony of it all though, is – while the rest of the country’s population of 35 million holds its breath – this momentous decision will only be arrived at by 51 per cent of the current population living in the southern part, where there are still problems identifying those legible to cast the decisive ballot. Also, boundaries near lucrative oil fields meant to be demarcated before the referendum are yet to be delineated, and President al-Bashir's party has recently indicated that it is in no mood to allow the referendum to take place until the internal border dispute is resolved.

BIG MAN SYNDROME

Too often Africa’s big men still find a way to stay put, regardless of voters’ preference. For instance, just before the Sudanese went to the polls in April, President Omar al-Bashir invested a great deal of time and money in ensuring that there could be only one outcome. Constituencies were comprehensively gerrymandered. Fake parties were created with names that sounded very similar to the real opposition, in order to confuse the largely illiterate voters. Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki – who clung on to power after the elections of 2007 – and Zimbabwe’s hard-man Robert Mugabe – who also refused to go after a clear verdict against him in 2008 – triggered widespread violence in both countries, both eventually accepted power-sharing agreements with the opposition as a face-saving formula. The riggers’ sophistication or lack of is testament not just to their determination to hold on to power, but also to African voters’ growing insistence on having a say in their governance and democratic process. The post-election violence witnessed by Zimbabwe, threats of violence in South Africa, Ethiopia in 2005 and the furious ‘Kibaki asibaki’ orchestras in Kenya in 2007 are constant reminders of the need for ‘free and fair elections’ whose results are incontestable and are respected by all citizens and institutions of democracy.

REPLICA DEMOCRACY

In modern democratic systems of representative governance, which most African countries are struggling to emulate, elections are periodic contests which determine the next set of rulers in a nation-state. In many ways, while the notion of a free and fair election is subject to numerous interpretations, in Africa the majority of elections are yet to be free let alone fair. Most countries in Africa have become formally democratic by legislating multiparty politics, holding elections establishing constitutional courts and adopting new constitutions just to satisfy the requirement for ‘policy-based lending’. The changes that have taken place have largely been cosmetic, and outside the purview of donors it is business as usual.

REFORMS

The regime of deprivation and abuse of civil and political rights effectively continue curtailing the participation of the majority of Africans in the governance process. With only 15 per cent of countries on the continent having adult literacy levels above 50 per cent and abject poverty a norm for the majority of Africans, a fundamental rethinking of the meaning and role of referenda, elections and democracy in Africa ought to be necessary. For a start, the control of electoral commissions should reside with the legislature or judiciary rather than with the executive. South Africa’s participatory and transparent process of appointing commissioners, which has worked well so far, ought to be emulated right across the continent. To reduce desperation and high stakes engendered by the ‘winner-takes-all’ politics, the first-past-the-post electoral system used in many African countries, should, if possible, be replaced by the proportional representation system, which guarantees more opportunities for power-sharing and bargaining among competing parties. Otherwise, the postcolonial state will remain a fundamentally illiberal institution. The challenge for civil society in Africa must therefore be to cultivate a democratic environment by changing the predatory nature of the state first and then engage elections.

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

Defending rivers and rights

Peter Bosshard

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/66790

cc WikimediaAcross the globe, from the floodplains of the Amazon to the foothills of the Himalayas, from Burmese forests to Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, peasant and indigenous communities are fighting against destructive dams. Dams have deprived hundreds of millions of people of their homes, farmlands, fisheries and forests. Millions more are threatened by projects that are planned or under construction, writes Peter Bosshard.

In early September, governments, dam builders, academics and environmental organisations will get together at World Water Week in Stockholm. They will take stock of the experience with big dams and discuss the best ways to plan future water and energy projects. A central question in this debate is whether binding standards or voluntary commitments by the dam industry are better suited to deliver good projects.

Ten years ago, Nelson Mandela launched a new approach to dam building through the report of the independent World Commission on Dams. Under the World Commission on Dams framework, social, environmental and economic interests would be considered equally in the planning of dams. Affected communities would negotiate binding contracts with dam builders and governments to protect their interests. Indigenous peoples would have the right to give or withhold consent to projects on their traditional lands. Affected communities would therefore no longer be passive victims or beneficiaries, but active participants in decisions about dam projects.

Civil society groups, international organisations, some government agencies and banks embraced the new approach. The African Development Bank called the report ‘a major milestone in the assessment of economic, technical, and environmental performance of large dams’, and said it would ‘incorporate the criteria and guidelines’ in its own guidelines for the water sector. In South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Togo and other countries, civil society groups and government agencies initiated national follow-up dialogues to adapt the new framework to their own situations. Several of these dialogue processes are being revived at the 10th anniversary of the World Commission on Dams.

The dam industry and many Southern governments opposed the new approach. ‘We are concerned about the practicality of all affected people being part of the negotiation process’, the International Hydropower Association, a lobby group, commented. “The intent is noble, but the end result would be a lawyer’s dream, diverting resources from the just beneficiaries.” The concern about lawyers’ fees and delays, it should be noted, has never stopped the dam industry from protecting its own interests in binding contracts.

Since 2007, the International Hydropower Association has developed its own environmental guideline, called the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol. The protocol does not recognise the right of indigenous peoples to give or withhold consent for projects on their lands. It does not require that dams comply with national law or international conventions. The protocol instead offers a checklist of social and environmental criteria against which dam builders can voluntarily assess their projects.

The new industry protocol, which will be launched later this year, lags behind existing norms and standards. Since the World Commission on Dams published its report, the right of indigenous peoples to consent regarding projects on their lands has been recognised by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Asian Development Bank and other institutions. In 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples with 144 countries voting in favour. The Declaration explicitly states that ‘no relocation shall take place’ without the consent of the concerned indigenous peoples.

The Wuskwatim hydropower project in Canada illustrates how affected communities can assert their rights. After Canada’s Supreme Court recognised that First Nations need to give consent to projects on their lands, the power utility Manitoba Hydro worked with the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation to develop the project. The size of the reservoir was greatly reduced, and the Nisichawayasihk Cree received ownership of 33 per cent of the hydropower station. Although not perfect, the Wuskwatim deal has the potential to provide real benefits to local people. It was approved by the Nisichawayasihk Cree in a referendum in 2006.

The Maguga Dam in Swaziland shows how affected communities can effectively benefit from dam projects. Poor communities were not involved in the decisions about what kind of water project would be most appropriate for Swaziland. Yet once the new report was published, the project authorities followed its guidelines on sharing benefits. Affected communities received water, electricity, jobs, health services, and assistance in setting up farming cooperatives. They were free to build their new houses as they wanted, and could take grievances to a new dispute resolution process.

A new report published by International Rivers presents other examples of how the rights-based approach to dam building has proven its value in practice. It also documents how ignoring the rights of affected communities has often led to conflict, impoverishment, cost-overruns and delays.

Environmental organisations, governments and dam builders often find themselves in the trenches fighting over mega-projects in Africa, the Amazon, the Mekong Basin and other regions. At the same time, they all have an interest in agreeing on standards and processes that can avoid conflicts and make water and energy projects more sustainable. Projects such as the Maguga and Wuskwatim dams show that there is room for compromise and cooperation. The upcoming World Water Week provides an opportunity for a renewed dialogue about water and energy projects.

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* Peter Bosshard is policy director of International Rivers. The new International Rivers report on rivers and rights is available from their website.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Don't pussyfoot with Bashir, face reality

L. Muthoni Wanyeki

2010-09-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/66772

Nobody could quite believe the evidence of their eyes. Was that really Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir? Surely not. Not on this day, our day. And if it was, obviously he would be arrested.

But our eyes were not lying. It was him, ruining our day, and he was not arrested. He was courteously escorted out of his car and onto the dais.

And President Mwai Kibaki proceeded to rub salt into the wound by recognising him first of all the presidents gathered.

The consternation was palpable among the diplomats, politicians and civil society members present. Ambassadors and high commissioners decided to boycott the state luncheon.

Politicians talked of a citizens’ arrest. Civil society contemplated trying to get court orders for his arrest – but all the judges were at the ceremony.

Statements of protest went out instead. And Bunge la Mwananchi held an impromptu demonstration, urging his arrest – for which two of its members were promptly arrested. So much for the new constitution and for the promise that it would end impunity.

What really happened? Was an invitation just sent to him as a formality, with nobody really expecting him to attend?

Did he decide, given that he no longer gets out and about that much, to attend at the last minute? Reason says he would not have made that decision lightly without being guaranteed that he would be able to return home.

The post-the-fact explanations from head of the civil service Francis Muthaura, who had led the planning for the promulgation, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Moses Wetangula, implied that, whether or not he had taken everybody by surprise, that guarantee had, in fact, been given.

They were unapologetic. Kenya’s security interests in the region supersede both international and domestic law, they said in effect. Unbelievable.

Let us be clear on this. Nobody denies that might is right within the international system. But having said that, the global South, including Africa, is engaged in the international system and working towards equity – whether we are talking about seats on the UN Security Council or voting rights in the international financial institutions or whatever.

And, more importantly, we Africans – when all else has failed, domestically and regionally – ourselves call on the international system.

We have helped shape international law – Africa was fully diplomatically engaged in the negotiations of the Rome Statute, in terms of expert input and advocacy by civil society.

The majority of African states are signatories to the Rome Statute – and nobody arm-twisted them into becoming so. Three of the now five situations before the ICC (International Criminal Court) were state referred.

So let us not now act like we are all helpless victims of the international system, without any agency whatsoever. We are not.

Finally, let us be clear about one fundamental truth. Pandering to injustice will never bring us peace and security – for ourselves or for our neighbours in Sudan.

Our government should apologise to us. It should apologise to the Sudanese, particularly the Darfuris.

It should then make clear, as other African states have done, regardless of the AU decision, that the Sudanese president will be arrested if he shows up here again.

And it should prepare for what it will inevitably have to address post the referendum in Sudan. The South wants to secede. It will.

The North is unlikely to let it go. Let us get ready for what that means instead of pussyfooting around a man who should be facing the full force of the law.

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* L. Muthoni Wanyeki is executive director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.
* This article was first published by the East African.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Somalia: Journalist cruelly murdered in Galkayo

National Union of Somali Journalists

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/66797

Gedi, 25, was attacked by unknown assailants who stabbed him at least six times at the chest and the legs in Garsoor village. He died from his wounds on his way to the General Hospital of Galkayo, according to his colleagues at Radio Daljir. His mobile was stolen.

“We deplore the barbaric killing of Abdullahi Omar Gedi. The Puntland authorities must catch and bring to justice the killers and the brains behind Gedi’s killing,” said Burhan Ahmed Dahir, NUSOJ Puntland Coordinator.

The motive of the killing is still unrevealed and no one was arrested for this brutal act, though the police and Puntland Intelligence Service asked questions pedestrians. “Many crimes against journalists were committed with impunity but this time we will not accept justice to evade. We need justice,” Burhan added.

The slaying is the latest in a string of attacks that have raised grave concerns about press freedom in Puntland. Abdifatah Jama Mire, director of Horseed Radio, is still being detained in Bossasso prison and he is serving 6 years jail sentence.

Gedi, who worked for Radio Daljir branch in Galkayo, is the 3rd journalist to be killed in Somalia in a week in this year. Barkhad Awale Adan, Director of Hurmo Radio, was killed on 24 August 2010 in Mogadishu. Veteran journalist Sheik Nur Mohamed Abkey, who worked for Radio Mogadishu, was kidnapped and murdered on 4 May 2010 in Mogadishu. Abdullahi Omar Gedi was newscaster and reporter.
--
For further information, contact:
National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ)
Taleex Street, KM4 Area, Hodan District,
Mogadishu, Somalia, tel/fax: +252 1 859 944,
e-mail: newsletter@nusoj.org
Internet: http://www.nusoj.org

National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) is a national union representing Somali journalists to promote and protect freedom of the press and the interests and rights of journalists. It is a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), International Freedom of Expression exchange (IFEX), Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) and Eastern Africa Journalists Association (EAJA). NUSOJ is partner with Reporters without Borders (RWB).

South Africa: CoDL condemns proposed media censorship measures

The Conference of the Democratic Left

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/66793

What is all the more odious for the CoDL is that the justifications for these measures are cloaked in politically progressive language. Over the past few weeks, we have heard prominent members of the ANC alliance arguing for the need to prevent sensitive information from falling to the hands of the imperialist powers, thereby making South Africa vulnerable to destabilisation by these powers: hence the need for the Protection of Information Bill. We have heard the ANC and prominent members of the South African Communist Party (SACP) arguing that the Tribunal is needed to correct a neo-liberal orientation in much of the print media, which they ascribe to excessive media concentration and commercialisation, and to discourage journalists from accepting money from politicians to produce biased coverage of those politicians.

There is nothing progressive about censorship. Censorship is incompatible with the democratic left tradition, even of those publications that we find ideologically disagreeable, or even repugnant. The democratic left tradition (as opposed to the authoritarian left tradition) has always promoted openness over secrecy, and freedom of expression over the control of public discourse. Rather, the approach of the democratic left tradition has been to struggle for the conditions in which freedom of expression can be enjoyed by all, and not just by those who own the printing presses. Censorship does not and cannot lead to greater freedom, ever. We distance ourselves from those in the ANC alliance who seek to cloak their censorious objectives in progressive language. Not in our names!

This does not mean that we are happy with the state of media transformation: far from it. As the democratic left, we are painfully aware of the deficiencies of the print media. We cannot say that we have an accessible and representative public sphere. On the whole, the print media do display class biases. Content studies have demonstrated that many newspapers have implicity or, during election time explicitly, supported politically centrist views, while providing scant space for working class views and coverage of working class politics.

But we also recognise that journalists can and do exercise relative autonomy from powerful interests in society. Some of the most important investigative stories of recent times have been broken by the print media. This role must be strengthened, not weakened, which is what will happen if the above measures are implemented, and which we surmise is the true intention of those pursuing these measures. In this regard, we note with alarm that the prime movers for censorship measures in the ANC alliance are those who have been publicly embarrassed by print media coverage. So it is difficult not to conclude that self-interest is driving their actions, rather than more altruistic motives.

Furthermore, as passive complaints’ receiving bodies, Press Councils do not lend themselves to addressing systemic problems in the media. If those who are making these arguments were serious about addressing such problems, they would have pursued anti-trust measures to prevent excessive media concentration and rent-seeking foreign ownership. They would also have implemented the 2002 Stellenbosch resolution of the ANC to establish a publicly funded media system. They would have insisted on legislated levies on the media to fund media diversity. The failure by the ANC government to nurture an independent, broad and thick network of grassroots media, for example, feeds into the maintenance of power by the rulers over the ruled; politicians over subjects in local spaces.

They would have researched and proposed measures to strengthen the control of media workers and users over the Press Ombudsman, drawing on international models to promote media accountability. They would have encouraged journalists to organise as a collective to defend the ethical basis of the craft from governments, media owners and managers and their less ethical peers. Journalistic self-activity and self-organisation is crucial to returning the media back to its democratic role enabling “a people’s frank confession to itself” (in Karl Marx's words). The proponents of censorship have not implemented any of the abovementioned measures. Small wonder that we doubt their motives.

The argument that has been made by the ANC that the Tribunal will not undertake pre-publication censorship is hot air. The net effect of punitive measures, and possible jail terms for journalists will be that they will stop writing things that are critical of the government out of fear of these measures. So journalists will self-censor, which will make pre-publication censorship unnecessary.

We also welcome the fact that the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has condemned the Protection of Information Bill, and taken a more measured approach to the proposed establishment of a statutory Media Appeals Tribunal.

The CoDL also believes that there are deeper shifts at work in South Africa, which are propelling us in the direction of greater centralised control of the media. In the current moment we are poised either to go down the road of the American model of liberal corporate democracy (which is what some in the media want), authoritarian state capitalism along Chinese lines as defined by the ‘Polokwane consensus’ or a renewed journey to build a democratic South Africa informed and imbued with our historical experience of overcoming oppression and injustice; a genuine people’s democracy.

South Africans need to stand up now and defend freedom of expression, call for an accountable and autonomous public media and demand the right for all to know. However, by itself the media question in South Africa is merely the symptom of a larger challenge we all face. Even if the ANC drops the statutory media tribunal proposal and revises other media bills, this is not sufficient to secure a democratic future for South Africa.

The Conference of the Democratic Left is a process where popular movements, organisations and activists are coming together to chart a new path for overcoming inequality and division in our country. A national conference is planned for December 2-5 this year where a platform and strategy for uniting our struggles against neo-liberal capitalism will be developed.

FOR COMMENTS Contact:

Brian Ashley (082 085 7088)
Jane Duncan (082 786 3600)
Mazibuko K. Jara (083 651 0271)
Vishwas Satgar (082 775 3420)

Issued by the Conference of the Democratic Left (URL - http://democraticleft.za.net/)

The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project statement on the public sector strike

LGEP

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/66794

We condemn the government and those in the seats of parliament who decry public sector workers, yet have spent months stalling and being resistant to the requests made by public sector unions. The cost of the World Cup, gladly taken on by government, would have been enough to pay the housing allowance for almost two and a half million workers for five years.

As the LGEP we acknowledge that attempts to stall the strike by bringing in, mostly unpaid volunteers, is crossing the picket line. The burden under which public healthcare workers, doctors and nurses have to carry out their work is unbearable. HIV/AIDS, TB and other infectious diseases are overwhelming our hospitals and clinics. Posts have been frozen for years leading to a shortage of personnel. It is estimated that there is a shortage of more than 80,000 healthcare workers. Public sector doctors often work a 36 hour shift and at current levels there is just 1 doctor for every 3,800 people that use the public healthcare system. Operating theatres and trauma units are often closed due to lack of supplies.

In a country with one of the largest discrepancies between the rich and poor in the world, upholding that quality education and healthcare be accessible only to the rich is an affront on dignity, our history and the majority of people in this country.

The public sector strike has the full support of the LGEP. We call on all queers, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and intersex people across the country to join striking workers in their demands against miserable working conditions and wages.

The way to end the strike and to begin to ensure long-term quality healthcare and education for those in our country is for government to stop the intimidation of strikers, agree to their demands and begin to seriously address the major discrepancies between the private and public healthcare and education systems.



Amandla!

Issued by the:
Lesbian and Gay Equality Project

Contact details:

Natasha Vally Phumi Mtetwa

Communications Officer Executive Director

011 487 3810/1 072 795 9194

Phumzile S. Mtetwa
Executive Director
Lesbian and Gay Equality Project

Tel: +27 11 487 3810/1
Cell: +27 72 795 9194
Fax: +27 11 487 2332 or +27 86 629 6742
Email: phumi@equality.org.za

Physical Address:
36 Grafton Road (Corner Hopkins Str.); Yeoville

Postal Address:
P O Box 27811; Yeoville; 2143
South Africa
Website: www.equality.org.za

V International Awareness Campaign for the Liberation of the Cuban Five

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/66812

On September 12th to October 6th, the V International Awareness Campaign for the Freedom of Antonio Guerrero, René González, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández y Ramón Labañino, the world well known Cuban Five ijunstly imprisoned in the United States.

Twelve years have paseed sin they were incarcerated; separated from their families; psychologically tortured as well as their beloved ones. That it is why we shall join together, onece again, to demand their liberation.

In Mr. Barack Obama`s hands, the Nobel Prize for Peace and President of the country at which they are incarcerated, lays the final solution of this legal case, the longest in the History of US Jurisdiction, the only one being overseen by a United Nations body.


FREE ANTONIO, RENE, FERNANDO, GERARDO AND RAMÓN, NOW!!!



Dr. Rodolfo Puente Ferro
Chairperson
Cuban-African Friendship Society
Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples

Petition against renewal of EU-Morocco Fisheries agreement

Western Sahara Resource Watch

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/66796

To the European Commissioner for Fisheries,

No state in the world has recognised the Moroccan annexation of Western Sahara. Still, the EU is paying millions of Euros annually to the Government of Morocco to allow EU vessels to fish in the waters of Western Sahara. The EU fisheries activities in Western Sahara must immediately come to an end.

Morocco continues to refuse to cooperate with the decolonization process in Western Sahara, thereby defying more than 100 UN resolutions that insist on the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination. Simultaneously, Moroccan authorities commit human rights violations against Sahrawis who voice their political views. No EU states, nor the UN, recognise the Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.

In this context, cooperating with Morocco in exploiting Western Sahara’s natural resources is highly unethical, and clearly jeopardizes the UN’s efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

According to the UN, the natural resources in Western Sahara cannot be exploited without regard to the wishes and interests of the people of the territory. However, the EU is transferring European taxpayers’ money to the Government of Morocco for access to Western Saharan waters, without even consulting the Sahrawi people.

The EU has the legal and moral obligation to stop subverting the UN peace process in Western Sahara, by respecting the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination over their land and their resources.

We urge the European Commission to put an immediate stop to the granting of all licenses to EU vessels fishing in Western Saharan waters, and we demand that no further EU fisheries operations take place in Western Sahara until a peaceful solution to the conflict has been found.

A story of South Asians in Africa

Review of ‘The Karimjee Jivanjee Family: Merchant Princes of East Africa 1800–2000’

Fatma Alloo

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/66789

Gijsbert Oonk, the author, starts the book with an insert of a family tree. This becomes a very necessary tool for readers as we weave through the journey of the prominent Karimjee Jeevanji family on the east coast of Africa. The author is a senior associate professor of non-western history at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He has published various books and numerous articles on the history of the Indian Ocean region, some of which are available at www.asiansinafrica.com.

As one opens this aesthetically well-presented book with an ancient-looking photo of three men in front of a historically prominent Zanzibar door, Hatim A. Karimjee tells us of how he met Gijsbert Oonk, and decided to embark on this journey with him. Hatim A. Karimjee claims that this book is the author’s story, a complete stranger to Karimjee Jivanjee family. Yet 200 years of an entrepreneurial family history could not have been written without the full dedication of the family members and mainly Hatim Karimjee’s ‘life mission’. The book is very appropriately, dedicated to the ancestors who dared to cross the ‘kalapani’ – the dark waters of the Indian Ocean.

The Karimjee family originally came from Mandvi, India. They are Muslim Dawoodi Bohras. This fact becomes important in the book when later on we witness the philanthropic nature of the family following one of the basic principles of Islam. The author describes the book as that of ‘business history, where business, politics, social welfare and family walked hand in hand’(p13).

What is unusual of this family history is the fact that it has survived 200 years of passing down their business ethics through family. The author claims that kings of trade and commerce – such as Tharia Topan (1823–1891), Sewa Haji (1851–1897), Alidina Visram (1851–1916) and Nasser Veerjee (1865–1942) – were there but survived one or two generations only ,and have vanished from economic playing field of East Africa. In 1950s, the Karimjees were referred to as ‘the Merchant Princes of East Africa’.

The second unusual fact is that they availed all their business and family documents to the author so that 200 years of history is documented for future generations of the family. It is indeed unusual for the business community to lay bare their story.

The book is divided into seven chapters. This follows the author’s two basic principles. The first is telling the history of the family. Chapter one sets the scene, while the second tells us of the cultural and economic connections between Asia and Africa and why the Karimjees moved to Africa. The third chapter goes through the business history (1880–1924), while the fourth chapter tells us of the transition from trade to estates. Chapter five gives us a picture of the political turmoil of independence of Tanganyika/Zanzibar and the Arusha Declaration (1964–1990). Chapter six shows us the importance of East Africa in the global economy then, and the role of Asian community, while the last chapter takes us through the 21st century Karimjee family.

The book also follows the author’s second principle, presenting four portraits of ‘historical champions’ as he calls them. Intermittently set between chapters, the author gives us an insight into the personalities who played catalytic roles in the family business and linked it to national politics and the global economy. Two of his champions were knighted by the Queen of England. Through documentation of the portraits we as readers travel through historical times, places and spaces of innovativeness that these charismatic personalities created in their quest for living their full lives.

PORTRAITS

A) Yusufali Karimjee (1882–1966) (Chapter 3)

He was known as the ‘Lion of Zanzibar’ and was instrumental in setting up the Indian National Association of Zanzibar, which was triggered by the 50 per cent increase in customs duty by the British rulers. He was also a bold entrepreneur who did business from Hanover to Japan, and later married a Japanese woman, thus introducing a world citizenry to the Karimjee family. He was knighted by the Queen of England for his numerous philanthropic works and was instrumental in giving the greatest gift, The Karimjee Hall, in 1955 to the City Council of Dar es Salaam while he was a member of Legislative Council. This hall later became the House of Parliament. His son, Abdulkarim (see D below) became an ardent supporter of the independence movement of Tanganyika.

B) Abdalla Mohamedali Karimjee (1899–1978)

He was known as the sisal baron (p18) of Tanga, and received an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) in 1961. He was instrumental in the move of the family from trades to estates (Chapter 4). Charismatic in nature he went to South Africa on a pikipiki (motorbike) to negotiate a family deal with Caltex for the distribution of petroleum in 1924.

He also became a member of the Tanganyika Legislative Council, attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and welcomed Princess Margaret to Tanga in 1956. His second marriage was to a German woman. Since the couple travelled often to Europe, this fact created an issue when the Germans lost the war to the British. Through ‘silent lobbying’, according to the author, Abdallah managed to buy the former German-owned estates taken over by the British Custodians of Enemy Properties after World War II, which were being sold to European companies only – the Kisangara Sisal Estate. He was another member of Karimjee family who internationalised the family and frequented Davos, Switzerland for holidays with his children.

C) Tayabali Karimjee (1897-1987)

Born in Zanzibar, he went to school in Zanzibar. He was known to give away 60 per cent of his earnings to charities, building schools and hospitals in East Africa. He was knighted in 1955 and became a close friend of the Sultan of Zanzibar. He established the prestigious Tayabali Karimjee Cricket Cup and Scout Club with a passion. In 1931, he was nominated the unofficial member of Legislative Council by the Sultan. He walked out of the Legislative Council when it passed the Clove Monopoly Bill on 23 July 1937. He saw the bill as benefiting Europeans to the detriment of Zanzibaris. He also saw the bill separating the financiers (the Asians) from the landowners (the Arabs) in order to control both groups politically as a hidden agenda of the British colonialists. Mass walkout from the Legislative Assembly followed and all shops and businesses closed on that day in Zanzibar.

D) Abdulkarim Karimjee(1906 –1977)

The son of Yusufali Karimjee, he served as deputy Mayor in 1952 and 1956 and Mayor of Dar es Salaam in 1954 and 1957. In 1959 he was he was appointed the Speaker of the Tanganyika Legislative Council. With the independence of Tanganyika, he became the first speaker of parliament, which sat in Karimjee Hall. He presided over the independence ceremony and had gone through a process of a nominated parliament to an elected one, with increased membership from 29 to 81.

From 1961–70, he became the vice chancellor of University College of Dar es Salaam, director of National Development Corporation (NDC) and National Bank of Commerce (NBC) and founded the Tanganyika National Library.

Julius Nyerere, who became the first president of Tanganyika, was a close friend during the independence struggle. He supported Nyerere in his policy of 1967 Arusha Declaration and the 1971 Building Aqcuisition Act. Like Nyerere he believed that ‘the well-to-do and well-educated peoples of East Africa were obliged to share their knowledge and wealth with the disadvantaged people’. The author claims that he ‘foresaw difficult times for Asians in East Africa but he maintained his position of serving the country’. The family lost much of their property and most of them left East Africa. A six-page list of properties owned by the Karimjees is given at the end of the book (pp162-67).

Between 1824–1861, the Karimjees accumulated capital and grew into a prominent trading family. ‘The study of this family demonstrates how Asian families played a vital economic and political role in East Africa’, states the author. He sees this as the advantage of basic research and sets out to balance the ‘economic environment’ and the ‘context of the Karimjee family history’ through out the chapters of the book. The author, very ably, takes us through various historical epochs of East African history – like the transfer of capital of Sultan Seyyid Said from Oman to Zanzibar in 1832 and its impact on commerce; the abolition of slave trade and how it weakened the Sultan’s empire; and how the British and Germans took slices of East Africa and Africa as a whole after the Berlin Conference of 1884. They left Zanzibar and Pemba to be ruled by Seyyid Said but later on declared it a British protectorate. Thus emerged the complex political economy of Zanzibar in the 19th century.

According to the author, ‘The Arabs owned plantations and produced cloves and spices. Some were involved in the caravan trade, collecting ivory from the mainland, and in the slave trade. The Indian moneylenders who neither owned land nor ventured into the interior themselves were half way up the social ladder…’(p14). There is a section in the book dedicated to sisal production when the family moved from the ‘trades to estate’ phase of their development. The turbulent political chapter takes us through the various decrees, the nationalisation phase tied to the socialism phase – ‘Ujamaa’ – of Tanganyika, the union between Zanzibar and Tanganyika, and the formation of Tanzania, giving us insights into how political development affected the lives of not only businesses but also the people that lived through it. Tayabali Karimjee, born and bred in Zanzibar and who had given 60 per cent of his earnings to philanthropic deeds in East Africa, died in Karachi in 1987, with the words ‘I don’t belong here; I am waiting for the bus to Zanzibar’, thus raising the identity question of the east African Asians of today also.

The author also takes us through migration connectivity. In the case of Karimjee family, he talks of the adventurous spirit of the Mandvi sailors, from where the family originated. The seafaring history was indicated by the vastness of dhow building at Mandvi, the booming trade with Aden, Muscat, Mogadishu, Zanzibar and Malindi; it is said that Vasco de Gama used the Mandvi sailors in his journeys. The monsoon winds provided the rhythm of the trade between the continents surrounding the Indian Ocean dating back 2000 years. ‘…Vasco de Gama was surprised to encounter Arabs and Indians in Mozambique, Mombasa and Lindi in 1497’, observes the author.

However it is only in 19th century that South Asians began to settle on the East African coast. The author demonstrates this with maps of settlements in the book, and also documents the first Bohra mosque. In late 19th century the Karimjees established their household at 236 Hurumzi Street, which still stands, now a hotel. They now became settlers and Africa became their home and their future.

The first Bohra graveyard near Mnazi Moja has a tombstone (p31) of Alibhai Karimjee(1851–1883), his wife Fatema (1923), Hassanali Alibhai Karimjee (1872–1918) and Mohamedali Karimjee(1876–1940).

The author analyses the era of trading empire building of the Karimjees between 1880–1924, when political power was in the hands of the Germans, British and the Sultan. In 1832, Seyyid Said made Zanzibar his capital and with him came many Asian traders and financiers from Oman.

Jairam Sewjee was his custom collector who in turn convinced Buddhabhoy Karimjee to explore the opportunities in Zanzibar. In 1839 the British signed a pact with Seyyid Said to engage in trade on the island, thus establishing a consulate which ‘gave Asians a sense of security in dealing with Arab aristocracy’, states the author. He sees this era as having three factors which shaped the history of Karimjee Jivanjee family history: Firstly, the arrival of Europeans opened up trade with Europe. Secondly, Tanganyika became a more stable political economy and adopted legislative order. Thirdly, the contribution of the ‘three great Karimjee tycoons who directed the family to a new level of wealth, political ambitions and charity’.

It is this era which saw extensive property acquirements, including the now Zanzibar People’s Bank which was nationalised from the Karimjees. The most outstanding feature of this building is its door, which is known as the ‘Mona Lisa of the Zanzibar doors’. This building used to belong to the German merchant Rudolph Heinrich Ruete who sold it to the Karimjees. He married the famous Princess Salme who later on wrote the first historical book ‘Memoirs of a Princess’, documenting Zanzibar as it was then.

By now the Karimjees had established an impeccable reputation. With extensive travels by Yusufali Karimjee in Europe, Japan, Germany, Oman and beyond, coupled with home knowledge of marketable products by Hassanali and Mohamedali, the company bagged trading deals with 40–50 European and American companies. This was also the age of philanthropy and in the tradition of the family, adhering in practice to the principle of ‘wealth imposes obligation’.

The book gives details of all the schools, scholarships, public libraries, hospitals, maternal clinics, dispensaries, community centres and institutional support – like the majestic Karimjee Hall in Dar es Salaam – which bear witness to the philanthropic nature of the family philosophy (p127–146). The Raskazone Swimming Club was open to all unlike the European Yacht Clubs, thus attempting to break the racial divide that prevailed then. Yusufali Karimjee, known as the ‘Lion of Zanzibar roars’ is quoted in a press cutting, after a heated debate in the Legislative Assembly as saying to British Governor of Zanzibar, ‘If His Excellency wishes to really benefit the poor natives, we want the duty on rice and khangas reduced’. Yusufali Karimjee also believed that ‘we should not join the white men’s war’ (p55).

From 1925–1963 (p58), the author sees this as an era of movement from the trade dominated economy of the Karimjees to an estates economy. German rule in East Africa was over and the British became custodians of ‘enemy properties’ which were on sale, but only to European buyers. Through quiet diplomacy, Abdalla Mohamedali Karimjee who had married a German settler woman, managed to get six sisal estates in Tanga, feeding Tanga’s economic boom. The Korean War of 1950-53 caused a rise in the price of sisal from 18 to 250 pounds a ton. Tanganyika was the third largest producer of sisal, the white gold of Tanganyika. The Karimjees moved to a new level of entrepreneurship, employing hundreds of workers but with the same benevolence of their basic principle of obligation with wealth, thus building housing, hospitals and schools for the workers’ families.

The author sees the period of 1964–1990 as politically turbulent, and economically declining phase for the Karimjee family. He quotes the film by the Italian Gualtiero Jacopetti which witnesses the political turmoil of the isle of Zanzibar in 1964, and sees the Union with mainland in 1964, the nationalisation phase of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, the Arusha declaration of 1967, as main contributing factors to uncertainties in business community and decline in the economy of the land.

The Karimjees had to diversify into businesses that would sustain them but curtailed most of their activities. They lost all their massive properties through the nationalisation process (p161-7) Most of the family left, except for Abdulkarim Karimjee, who remained committed to the principle of the well-to-do must share their wealth and supported the first president of Tanganyika, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere in his socialist endeavours and Ujamaa policies.

It is also in this period –1968 – that the Karimjee family was excommunicated from the Dawoodi Bohra community. The spiritual leader of the community, His Holiness Seyedna, who was a frequent visitor, was asked to leave Tanzania on 14 August 1968. ‘The government of Tanganyika became seriously concerned when large amount of religious taxes were being collected from the Bohra community and exchanged for gold in order to transfer the funds to Bombay. This went against foreign exchange regulations’ of the country. According to the author, the ‘Karimjee family were blamed for this grave embarrassment’ – thus the excommunication. ‘Abdulkarim as a pious God fearing Muslim was very offended for being blamed for something he had not done and had no control over’ (p129).

The Karimjees had learnt the lesson to ‘stick to knitting’ i.e. do what they know best in times of difficulties and get by. Toyota Tanzania Ltd became their sole business, making them a locally-owned business by a global family. Only Alibhai, Anver and Hatim Karimjee remained with the management calibre to ably run the business and make it viable for the family. In 1987/8 it became the Tanzania ‘Pajero’ (p153). Sales picked up from 350 to 2,000 vehicles by 2005.

To prevent family fragmentation over time, the family established a family council and agreed to publish this particular book for the benefit primarily of the presently globally scattered family to know a shared past. In 1998 a family reunion took place in London, whereby two programmes were also established for the family. One was a three-month study tour for the younger generation to consider a career in family business in Tanzania. The second package is a two-year graduate training, whereby family members would focus on a particular profession within the family business and also learn on the job, thus keeping with the family tradition. The family council also merged six charitable trusts into a single The Karimjee Jivanjee Foundation. (p155). It is to give scholarships to gifted Tanzanian children and to other charities with the principle ‘It is not giving if you profit by the giving’ taken from Rubbaiyat of Omar Khyamm, states the author.

As a reader and living in East Africa with a diasporic background myself, the book spoke volumes on the era of migration and issues of identity. Rich in its Islamic cultural history, the author very ably brings out the tradition of benevolence of the Karimjee family, adhering to a basic principle of Islam. Although capitalist in nature, the family did business with a heart for justice, a rare commodity in today’s practices of the business communities globally.

The book is also very rich in images of the time, thus as a reader one gets a feel of the era. It abounds in visuals: Passport stamps, family portraits, images of cars and buildings, sisal production, stamps (p126) from inauguration of Karimjee Hall. However I would have liked to see more images of the numerous majestic buildings of the family, which were nationalised and some of which are still used as state buildings.

The author also goes further into the family myths and beliefs, such as women not being permitted to wear diamonds following the death of young members of the family, and no keeping of a peacock as a pet for fear that its ego will split the family union. Now when I pass Karimjee Hall in Dar es Salaam, where peacocks abound in its grounds I wonder what the ancestors must be feeling.

Although the author interviewed Fatema Karimjee and has her portrait, and women feature in photographs throughout the book, he does not bring out the contribution of women’s wisdom in the development of the family. The curiosity for us as readers is did women play any role at all or were they just passive members of family? Where are their stories?

The book is aptly dedicated to Karimjee ancestors and published for a generation who shared a past. Let us hope that this life mission of Hatim Karimjee bears fruit in the future generation of Karimjees who not only will continue to stamp their mark on the map of development of East Africa, but also maybe think of documenting the wisdom that women bring to the fold through generations of strong bondage. It is women who culturally hold the thread of not only families but also society in partnership with their male counterparts. As Nyerere once said at the birth of Umoja wa Wanawake (UWT) in Tanganyika: ‘Society will only limp if we do not count and recognize women’s contribution’. We need women’s stories within the Karimjees.

Recently, a number of writings from Asian-African perspectives have been published. For example Madhvani in ‘Tides of Fortune’ (2008), Nanjibahi Kalidas Mehta – the original was in Gujarati in 1967 later translated to English, and Sophia Mustafa’s ’The Tanganyika Way’. Then we have Awaaz magazine from Nairobi, which voices Asian–African stories and recognises their contribution in liberation movements and independence struggles through personalities like Gora Ebrahim, Karim Essak from South Africa, Makhan Singh, the trade unionist, Pinto from Kenya, Sugra Visram of Uganda, Amir Jamal and Alnoor Kassum of Tanzania, to name but a few. We also have a walking exhibition at the Nairobi Museum of how they came in dhows set up by Sultan Somji of Kenya, and the biennial SAMOSA Festival which depicts cultural fusion music, dance, paintings, publications, films and various aspect of Asian-African life in East Africa which takes place in Nairobi.

It could be that now is the beginning of coming of age of a community which so far has engaged in life in East Africa, but has not put down in a concerted way from its own perspective what that life is and how they feel about it. So the fact that it took 200 years before Karimjees could tell their stories is not unusual. What is commendable is the fact that the Karimjee story has been documented. Hopefully, this will inspire many more stories to be told, giving birth to a rich archive of her/stories, besides hi/s/tory!

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Gijsbert Oonk’s ‘The Karimjee Jivanjee Family: Merchant Princes of East Africa 1800-2000’ is published by Pallas Publications, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam (2009), ISBN 9085550270.
* Fatma Alloo is a founder member of TAMWA, the Tanzania Media Women’s Association.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Mbiya's cartoons and illustrations

Mbiya 'Papy' Kabengele

2010-09-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/66770

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* Mbiya 'Papy' Kabengele's work can be found at www.mbiya.blogspot.com.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Going back to the old and proven ways

Response to ‘Decolonising African Feminism’

Godfrey Kahangi

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/66816

Thank you for this insightful article. It is time to be African. Colonisation de-cultured Africans and Africa, but the solutions to our problems should not be sourced from the western world, but necessitate a 'looking back' to the pre-colonial era.

This is necessary for all western impositions on Africa like democracy, human rights, social grace, beauty concepts, business practice, governance and communication.

I experienced some of the conflict resolution methods you highlighted. My aunt was abused by her husband and she came to my home (my dad was the only educated head of family in the urban area) for 3 months. Hat in hand, her husband came and there were a series of family meetings that must have solved the issue, since she went back to her husband about 3 months later. 



We have also adopted the legal mindset of the western world, which assumes, wrongly, that the legal arena is where such disputes are resolved. In Uganda, there is the organization called FIDA that looks after women's relational problems. They have been blamed for always leading their clients to seek divorce. They have also been assumed not to understand the local marriage conditions as there are none who have gone through marriage. This is an example of an NGO that may have digressed from the African way of conflict resolution in marriage.


Am glad that this article highlights a going back to the old and proven ways that have maintained marital harmony within cultures.

Cultural relativism not an effective approach

Response to ‘Decolonising African Feminism’

Awino Okech

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/66815

Cultural relativism has never been a very effective approach to addressing any issue including feminism or women's rights in this instance. It decontextualises and homogenises this thing we call 'culture'. Responding to neocolonialism and problematic developmental paradigms does not need to be done through a retreat to a glorious African past that creates a false opposition between US and THEM.

I know that women's rights activists, organisations and researchers across the continent recognise women's agency and not their victimhood and centralise this in their approaches. It is this agency that has led to the tremendous shifts in women's realities including those that you cite with your article. Whether you attribute this to ‘cultural' support mechanisms or power within is up for debate.
Homogenising all women and all women's rights agencies and approaches into ‘anti-culture', 'lost Africans’, ‘wayward outlaw women’ 'indisciplined activists’ is highly problematic for the very reasons you critique approaches that turn all African women into ‘hapless and voiceless’.

The task of transformation demands an engagement with sites of power and while the notion of 'culture' requires a nuanced analysis it still remains one of those sites that must be approached critically. One of the challenges in addressing your valid concerns about the proliferation of international development NGO's through a ‘anti-culture’ and 'western’ paradigm is the fact that in one full sweep you dismiss hundreds of women's groups and full-fledged movements dotted across this continent working with, for and established by women.

The same way the ‘western’ and ‘culture’ binary must be interrogated is the same way the ‘grassroots’ and ‘urban’ woman division must be re-examined. It is false and belies both the importance of contexts and the intersecting questions of class and ethnicity.

You may want to acquaint yourself with the work of organisations such as GROOTS, AWDF, UAF-AFRICA, POWA, Saartjie Baartman Centre, Isis WICCE, amongst many others that you will not find on the internet. This will allow for a more sophisticated engagement with some of the very important issues you are raising.

Solidarity must include humanity

Shailja Patel

2010-09-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/66777

I support wholeheartedly the right of public workers to strike. The importance of this strike, unprecedented in breadth and scope, and the challenge it poses to the neoliberal state, cannot be overestimated, for South African, continental, and indeed global labour movements.

I do not support:

1) Violent attacks, threats and intimidation by strikers towards those workers who exercise their freedom of conscience in choosing not to down tools.

2) Acts of violence by strikers towards helpless patients in hospitals and learners seeking to attend school.

3) The short-sighted and strategically irrelevant ideology of total shutdown of schools and hospitals by any means necessary. This ideology ignores the reality that these schools however inadequate, offer a measure of shelter and safety for millions of poor and working class children, who would otherwise be at the mercy of rapists, gangsters, and other predators. That these hospitals, however under-equipped, offer the slenderest of lifelines to people with HIV, women about to give birth, accident victims, people with serious illnesses and disabilities, the poor who have no other options in medical emergencies.

It is necessary that our solidarity include our humanity. We cannot call ourselves leftists or socialists if we abandon our moral and political obligation to protect and defend the most vulnerable in our society. Unless COSATU leadership takes immediate and effective action to end these violations by their members, what we see portends an all-too-chilling return to the scenes of the 80s.

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

Helpful material for opposing GMOs

Response to ‘An open letter to Oxfam America on its stance on biotechnology’

Ann Puntch

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/66785

Lost Twilight

Amira Ali

2010-09-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/66771

Muted sounds of inner cries
seen but not heard,
evoked by the teared face of grief,

thirsting for lost tenderness
the delicate quintessence cries
black tears,

manifest of hurt-full pain
from that of beauty, the Woman's face
speakin' but in its lonely-ness
this face,

and to which I wish
I could take on your kohl tears,
instead, all I do is look to my left

stare at the blame
discernin' a face, distanced grey'd veil
a stranger
familiar only by name,

to which I ask
who have you become?
not the one nor the other
yet a man housing the soul of animal,

impaired from the pain of the womb
infinite oblivion vile'n you,
once a hero, man of man
now, source of that of rage,

a witness of voiceless echo
wetted delicate face; mother to all
weakened to hallowed despair.

I argue not against
heav'n's hand or will
but of loss' constant friend,

if only I could share
eye of my eye
and pull you away,

as the sound of your lonely tears
provoke more craze,
anger and blame at you first
then, the stranger that has become
the source of your tendered pain,

Weepin'n feeling
I bellow to the wild heartbeat
to the sound'full of soundless
to the loud echoless
of the voiceless,

to open the mouth,
to tears choking words,
to want to be a voice,
to give back lost words
and that of your soul
that belongs to none of yours,
to restore the feeble'd heart
priced on years, held apart
lifelong,

I fall to you
to wipe tears of years
of each one of
tried of less hoped pain,
to erase black kohl'ed tears
marked that stain
hearts of heart
of silent painful strain,

that which once had
won men its strength and peace
through love of then,
that which now
has lost even its twilight
of back then.

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* afro'disiatic © 2010
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Phiphidi Falls

To the Dzomo la Mupo and the Ramunangi of the Venda, South Africa

Natty Mark Samuels

2010-09-07

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/66776

I have never seen my mother cry before. Her grief is unstoppable, cannot be hidden. It seeps through all the walls. My mother, crying for Phiphidi Falls.

We are Ramunangi. For centuries, our clan has guarded these falls. The pool below and the rock above. Custodians of beauty, caretakers of culture. An Eden of water, for our ancestors to reside in. We think it a privilege to be the watchers of this water. Our prayers to the pool, recitals to the rock. Happily fulfilling our obligations, our ancestors present us with rain and peace

But now tourism has come to torture us. Bringing used condoms and beer cans. The parade of picnic debris. That cursed machine. The only yellow thing we hate. The yellow bulldozer that took a sacred rock, making way, for restaurant and chalet.

They never consulted us. They just go ahead and destroy.

LanwaDzongolo, our sacred rock, where from time passed, till time recent, we have always placed our offerings. We shall no longer walk to that waterside altar, to leave our gifts of grain and beer.

Never seen water, coming from my mothers eye. Nothing to stop it. Not all the traded gold, on all the golden stalls. My mother, crying for Phiphidi Falls.

You see, my mother is a Makhadzi. A respected senior women, entrusted to perform the Thevula – the ritual for rain. Only women. Men can and do attend, but it's the chosen women, who offer and invoke. Will the ancestors still listen, now that LanwaDzongolo is gone? My mother cries for our community. For the road we did not ask for; the chalet we'll never sleep in; the development not of our planning. Don't desert us ancestors: please watch over us Nwali.

This place of beauty, which we have cared for and cherished. There are plants and animals here, which you will not find just anywhere. We are the guardians of this greatness. Like little lighthouses on Mutshindudu River. Making libation with tobacco, our prayers never cease.

Water falls on my mothers face; it cannot seem to stop. Like a tap that doesn't turn the other way. My mother is a strong woman, but she isn't one for aggression and brawls. They say it might come to that. My mother, crying for Phiphidi Falls. This place more precious to her, than all the dresses in all the malls. My mother, crying for Phiphidi Falls.

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* © Natty Mark Samuels 2010.
* Natty Mark Samuels is a poet based in Oxford.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Constitution Revision will not produce desired change, say critics

2010-09-10

http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/sep10a_2010.html#Z3

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition says it is drafting a list of grievances on the ongoing constitution revision and will present a dossier to the select committee leading the process in the next few days. The organization said Thursday it was concerned the results of the outreach may not reflect popular views of members in various communities, as many speakers at the outreach meetings appear to have been coached on what to say.

Mugabe required to consult PM on elections under GPA

2010-09-10

http://www.swradioafrica.com/News090910/Mugabe090910.htm

The chairman of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) this week told the Bulawayo High Court that only Robert Mugabe as President can call for an election. The ZEC chief was responding to a court application by three MP’s expelled from the Mutambara MDC. Abednico Bhebhe (Nkayi South), Njabuliso Mguni (Lupane East) and Norman Mpofu (Bulilima East) lost their parliamentary seats when the Mutambara MDC sacked them. They responded by filing an application with the High Court to compel ZEC to call for by-elections to fill up the vacant seats.

Zimbabwe 'wants normal ties with the West'

2010-09-10

http://zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=6877&cat=1

Zimbabwe wants normal ties with Western powers critical of its policies but will press ahead with a plan to hand control of foreign companies to local blacks, President Robert Mugabe said in a rare interview. Mugabe told Reuters that his government was waiting for positive movement from the United States and European Union to mend ties soured over the last decade by rows over the seizures of white-owned farms for landless blacks and charges of rights abuses and election fraud.

Central Africa: Congo rapes spotlight new 'conflict minerals' law

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/bu7107

The recent mass rapes in a mineral-rich area of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo underscore the urgency of a new U.S. law to certify consumer goods free of "conflict minerals" tied to the violence. The law may be hard to enforce but supporters have high hopes

Gambia: Journalists undergo training on FGM

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/alwsyo

A three-day, capacity-building training on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) for 30 media practitioners across the Gambia got underway in Banjul. Organized by The Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices affecting The Health of Women and Children ((Gamcotrap), with the support of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) joint programme to accelerate the stoppage of FGM, the training is meant to build the capacity of the participants for effective and progressive reporting on the harmful traditional practices and domestic violence.

South Africa: The weakening of women's chances for economic equity

2010-09-10

http://www.sacsis.org.za/site/article/545.1

Women's month in South Africa has come and gone without much fanfare, and perhaps rightfully so, since African women continue to be confronted by institutions, policies and systems within an economy that entrenches patriarchy and a fundamentalist brand of neoliberalism.

Botswana: ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ winners appeal to President over Bushmen

2010-09-10

http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/6433

Over 30 laureates of the Right Livelihood Award, known as the ‘alternative Nobel Prize’, have signed an open letter to President Khama of Botswana urging him to allow the Bushmen access to water. The appeal comes as world experts arrive in Stockholm for World Water Week, and ahead of the Right Livelihood Award conference in Bonn, 14-19th September. It follows the UN’s adoption of water as a human right in July.

DRC: Displacement and discrimination – the lot of the Bambuti Pygmies

2010-09-10

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90354

Conditions in Mugunga camp for displaced people on the outskirts of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Goma are tough, but tougher still are those endured by hundreds of people from the Bambuti Pygmy community living just outside the camp. “We can’t plant seeds here,” said Bambuti chief Mupepa Muhindo, scratching the ground, which is littered with lava from a 2002 volcanic eruption. “It's not possible to cultivate the land.” The Bambuti are believed to be among Central Africa’s oldest inhabitants. For generations they were nomadic forest-dwellers, living off the land, hunting and gathering.

DRC: Rights defender abducted, mistreated

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/c3nwmS

Congolese authorities should open a prompt, impartial, and thorough investigation of the abduction and ill-treatment of a human rights defender in North Kivu province in late August 2010, a coalition of 36 international and Congolese human rights organizations has saidy. The authorities should publicly condemn this act and identify and bring to justice those responsible, the coalition said.

Morocco: Jailed for denouncing corruption

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/cUhbja

Chekib El-Khiari, a human rights defender and journalist, is serving a three-year prison sentence in Morocco after he denounced corruption of some Moroccan officials. Amnesty International believes that Chekib El-Khiari’s conviction is politically motivated and that he is being punished for daring to mention the involvement of high-ranking officials in a drug-trafficking ring. Amnesty International considers Chekib El-Khiari to be a prisoner of conscience, solely detained for his anti-corruption statements and his human rights activities.

Rwanda: Ban’s discussions with Kagame on UN rights report to continue

2010-09-10

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35879

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that he will continue discussions with Rwanda’s President on a soon-to-be released United Nations report on serious human rights violations committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Mr. Ban wrapped up a two-day visit to Kigali, during which he met with President Paul Kagame, Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo and other senior officials to discuss Rwanda’s concerns over the report.

Senegal: Abusive teachers sentenced

2010-09-10

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/09/08/senegal-abusive-teachers-sentenced

The arrest and conviction of seven Quranic teachers who forced boys trusted to their care to beg is a significant move forward for children's rights in Senegal, Human Rights Watch has said. The men were sentenced on September 8, 2010, marking the first application of a 2005 law outlawing the practice; two more men are scheduled to face the same charges on September 9.

Swaziland: Unions condemn 'foot torture' threat

2010-09-10

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11260679

Swaziland unions have condemned the prime minister's suggestion that dissidents should be beaten on their feet with spikes. Barnabas Dlamini also said foreigners who meddled in the affairs of sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch should be subject to the traditional punishment, known as "sipakatane".

Uganda: Investigate 2009 Kampala riot killings

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/bfv6Zg

The Ugandan government has done little to investigate or hold security forces responsible in the year since at least 40 people were killed during two days of civil unrest in Kampala, Human Rights Watch has said. Despite multiple promises from government officials after the September 2009 riots, police investigations have not resulted in prosecutions, and a parliamentary committee tasked with examining the incident has yet to call a single witness.

Eritrea: Refugees embrace life "out of camps"

2010-09-10

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90334

Kibrom Sebhatu, 45, is among hundreds of Eritreans expected to benefit from a recent Ethiopian government ruling allowing Eritrean refugees to live outside the camps. “I am happy that UNHCR [the UN Refugee Agency] and the government of Ethiopia agreed to let us live outside the camps. I hope this will open a new era in Ethiopia-Eritrea relations,” Sebhatu said. He joined the Shimelba Refugee camp, along the border with Eritrea, in 2006, after serving in the Eritrean army.

Kenya: Hidden Voices: Urban refugees

2010-09-10

http://www.theirc.org/kenyafilm

Hidden Voices: Urban Refugees is a video produced by the International Rescue Committee and MediaServe International. The short film highlights the daily struggles facing thousands of urban refugees living in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi. In their own words, the refugees tell of how they face poverty, harassment and violence as they make their way in the urban environment.

Somalia: Deadly fortnight in Mogadishu drives more to displacement

2010-09-10

http://www.unhcr.org/4c86148dbbb.html

UNHCR is alarmed by the further deterioration in the situation in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. Partners report that fighting over the past two weeks between the transitional government and al-Shabaab has cost more than 230 civilian lives with at least 400 people wounded and 23,000 displaced. So far this year over 200,000 civilians are estimated to have fled their homes.

South Africa: Construction suspended, still no official response

Mandela Park Backyarders

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/socialmovements/66813

Mandela Park Backyarders have continued to stop the construction of houses in our community. Because of our efforts, construction has been unable to proceed for over two weeks - since the 17th of August. We have demanded that the MEC for Housing, Bonginkosi Madikizela, come and listen to our grievances. He had promised to come to our mass meeting last Sunday, the 29th of August. He didn't pitch. He again promised to come to our mass meeting on the 5th of September. We now hear that he won't be able to make it. We are still waiting for him.
Through protest, backyarders in Mandela Park have now held up construction of houses in the area for more than two weeks. But we are continuing to face intimidation and repression from SANCO and other unelected leaders in Ward 97.

Mandela Park Backyarders have continued to stop the construction of houses in our community. Because of our efforts, construction has been unable to proceed for over two weeks - since the 17th of August. We have demanded that the MEC for Housing, Bonginkosi Madikizela, come and listen to our grievances. He had promised to come to our mass meeting last Sunday, the 29th of August. He didn't pitch. He again promised to come to our mass meeting on the 5th of September. We now hear that he won't be able to make it. We are still waiting for him.
There can be no development in our communities if there is no meaningful engagement with residents. Madikizela is ignoring our constitutional right to participate in the development of our own communities.
We are also sick and tired because of the corruption in Mandela Park. It is carried out by party-appointed leaders in the area connected with local SANCO boss, Mr Makade, as well as other undemocratic political organisations operating in Ward 97. Residents are not getting houses because of this corruption. The buying and selling of RDP houses is continuing. The placement of 'extra' houses in pathways instead of in demarcated plots is continuing. We know who is doing it but no one is taking action.
Since we have begun protesting, our members have also been threatened, detained, and arrested. These are political cases against us. When we speak up, we suffer repression from political leaders and their police. Just this morning, a backyarder was arrested for “damaging property”. There is no evidence against him. He was arrested because of pressure from SANCO leaders and contractors who are angry about the building delay.
Last night, we had a meeting with local Cllr Mthwalo Mkhutswana. He came to ask us 'what is our problem'. He was getting lots of questions from the media so he decided to talk to us. We presented him with the following demands:
We demand that 50% of all houses built within Mandela Park must go to residents in the area. Only people from outside Mandela Park or people with political connections have benefited from housing construction.
We demand that the MEC must order an independent investigation into corruption in Mandela Park. This investigation cannot be carried out by local leaders as they are the ones involved in these corrupt activities.
We demand that the construction of housing in Mandela Park must employ local residents. A democratic, not a political, process must be used to hire local workers.
We demand an end to the politicised targeting and arrest of backyarders by the Harare Police and the Metro Police. Last year, there were over 20 politicised arrests of our members. All current political arrests against backyarders including cases against Luvo Vanyaza, Sibongile Mhlahlo, and Loyiso Mfuku should be dropped and immediate apologies made to targeted residents and their families.
Mr Mkhutswana responded to our demands saying he can't do anything to help the situation but that he will ask the contractors not to continue building until our grievances are resolved with the MEC. We plan a follow-up meeting with him on Wednesday the 8th of September.
For more information, please contact:

Sluja 0714331101
Khaya 0780241683
Wendy 0769775218
Zuki 0714811745
Loyiso 0737662078
Nosipho 0735878980–
Update: Todays arrested backyarder has now been released without charge. The police were finding it difficult to come up with evidence to charge him with damage of property.


--

Our Website: mpbackyarders.org.za
Email us: admin@mpbackyarders.org.za
Call us: mpbackyarders.org.za/contact-us
Follow us: twitter.com/backyarders
Join us: Backyarders Facebook Page


The Mandela Park Back-Yarders
http://mpbackyarders.wordpress.com

The Mandela Park Back-Yarders is a voluntary nonprofit citizens rights group working for housing rights and against evictions in Mandela Park, Khayelitsha. It is an unfunded community group made up entirely of affect residents and representing the most vulnerable individuals and families living in Mandela Park. We focus on providing legal support for residents, conducting workshops and democratic discussions about housing issues, as well as helping build the community’s negotiation power vis-a-vis housing and other government officials.

Emerging Powers news roundup

2010-09-10

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/emplayersnews/66883

China in Africa
Community up in arms over R1bn BEE deal
As President Jacob Zuma cemented relations with China, the community of Baphalane at Ramokokastad in North West wants him to reverse a R1 billion black economic empowerment deal with the Chinese because it is "fraudulent".
Read More

Zijin Mining drops Platmin Congo acquisition plan
China's Zijin Mining said on Tuesday it had terminated a plan to acquire Congolese copper miner Platmin Congo Limited after the agreement expires. The agreement on the deal expired on August 30, but the conditions for the acquisition had not yet been met, and the involved parties failed to reach an agreement on further extension of the agreement, the company said in a statement posted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Read More

New centre offers sounding board for Chinese firms pursuing African investments
In a move designed to improve Sino-African economic and trade cooperation, the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, an institute under the Ministry of Commerce (MoC), opened the China-Africa Research Centre in August. President of the Academy Huo Jianguo says that the centre aims to provide a theoretical basis for the Chinese government’s Africa-related decision-making. It will also provide consultation services for companies with plans to expand their businesses to Africa.
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China holds workshop on investment in Africa
A sensitization workshop on China's investment infrastructure to promote Chinese projects in Africa was held in Accra on Tuesday. The workshop, which brought together participants from Ghana, South Africa, Mali, Liberia, Uganda and Sierra Leone, served as a platform to exchange views to facilitate deeper understanding of China's investment infrastructure in Africa and discuss how China could improve upon development projects on the continent. Dr. Edward Brown, Director, Policy Advisory Services of the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), said the workshop would prepare the minds of African participants towards this year's Beijing Summit scheduled for September 29.
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China-Africa investment forum opens in Hangzhou
A China-Africa investment forum opened Thursdayin Hangzhou, capital city of East China's Zhejiang province, to push forward the business co-operation between China and African countries. The three-day forum, sponsored by Touchroad International Holdings Group, has more than 100 government officials from 43 African countries and more than 500 Chinese entrepreneurs in attendance.
Read More
S.Africa looks to China for agriculture deals
South Africa will continue talks with China on Tuesday to attract new investment into agro-processing plants and find a market for the country's surplus maize, the agriculture minister said on Monday. South Africa, the continent's largest producers of maize, produced a surplus of about 4 million tonnes for the 2009/10 season, but with limited markets and poor prices has struggled to sell the surplus internationally.
Read More

Standard Bank disappointed by ICBC deal
South Africa's Standard Bank has been disappointed by the revenue so far from its tie-up with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the head of Africa's largest lender told Reuters on Wednesday. Jacko Maree, Standard Bank's group chief executive, also said in an interview at the Reuters bureau in Johannesburg that the bank was in "hiring mode" for skilled bankers, and aimed to double its Nigerian branch network this year. Standard Bank, which is 20 percent owned by ICBC, is targeting the increasing trade flows between Asia and the resource-rich continent. It currently has about 40 bankers working in China with ICBC, but has struggled to generate revenue from the fast-growing Asian country, he said.
Read More
Nigeria embarks on vast free trade zone with China
Nigeria is building a multi-billion dollar free trade zone with Chinese investors on the edge of its commercial capital Lagos to try to develop a local manufacturing base and help reduce its import dependence. The $5 billion first phase of the Lekki Free Zone, a 3,000 hectare site on the eastern fringe of the city, is 60 percent held by Chinese investors and 40 percent by the Lagos state government, the deputy head of the project told Reuters.
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China surges to 5th largest global investor
China bucked international trends in both outbound and inward investment, official figures have revealed. China now ranks as the fifth largest global investor in outbound direct investment (ODI) with a total volume of $56.5 billion, compared to a ranking of 12th in 2008, the Ministry of Commerce said on Sunday.
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India in Africa
SA and India to team up for business into Africa
Speaking after the India-South Africa CEO forum in Johannesburg, Ratan Tata, the chairperson of India's largest industry group Tata, said that the two emerging economies had an opportunity to form partnerships to grow into Africa. "South Africa can be used as a gateway to distribute products to the rest of the continent, owing to it strategic location and knowledge," he said.
Read More

SA and India could reach $10bn trade target early
Speaking at the India Show in Johannesburg, South African President Jacob Zuma said that it was clear that South Africa's relationship with the world's largest democracy was starting to "bear fruit", especially after his official State visit to India in June. During the visit, over 200 business delegates accompanied Zuma and three different memorandum of understanding towards the strengthening of trade ties were signed.
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India may sign trade agreement with SA
India may enter into a comprehensive trade and investment agreement with South Africa to bolster bilateral trade that has grown strongly despite the global slowdown. “We are going to examine a comprehensive economic co-operation agreement with South Africa as it is now our strategic partner,” commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma said at an ’India Show’ organised by industry body CII in Johannesburg.
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India pitches for a stake in Ghana's energy sector
India has sought a greater role in Ghana’s energy sector, pitching for more tie-ups between ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas exploratory and acquisition arm of the state-run upstream major, and oil companies of the African nation. Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma, who visited Ghana as part of India’s “Focus Africa” policy, discussed this in his talks with Ghanaian President John Evans Atta Mills and ministers. Mr Sharma also asked the Ghanaian leadership to ensure gas supply for a 1.15 million tonne per annum ammonia-urea fertiliser plant in India, which is being built at a cost of $1 billion. The project is expected to be completed by 2014.
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India keen to add remedial clause in trade agreements
Wary of third party free trade agreements (FTAs) impinging upon the country’s interests, New Delhi is keen on inserting a remedial clause in all its extant and future FTAs. According to top government sources, India is looking to send out a stern message to its trading partners that if they enter into similar trade agreements with third parties it should not compromise the country’s interests.
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Bank of India seeks go-ahead to buy Kenyan firm
Bank of India has made applications to regulators to be allowed to incorporate as an independent Kenyan bank to pave way for a buyout of a local rival as it races to increase its footprint in the region. The deal will also enable it tap into the growing number of Indian companies with investments in the country.
Read More

In Other Emerging Powers News
Biofuels Companies Buy African Land, Cause Deforestation, Food-Output Loss
Biofuels companies from the U.K. to Brazil and China are buying up large swaths of Africa, causing deforestation and diverting land from food to fuel production, the environmental group Friends of the Earth said.
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Brazil and Africa Rainbow jointly start mining operations at Konkola North
Despite resentments from the miners unions over its investment in Africa’s leading copper producer, Brazil’s and Africa Rainbow Minerals Limited have jointly started mining operations at Konkola North in Zambia with an initial investment of USD 380 million.
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$400m Africa-Brazil cable on its way
Emerging undersea cable operator eFive Telecommunications has appointed Alcatel-Lucent to build a system that will connect the west coast of Africa to South America. It is raising the $400 million (R2.9 billion) needed for the project. eFive Telecommunications was started less than two years ago. Its five major shareholders are young black South Africans, most of whom worked at the Department of Communications at one stage.
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Nigeria May Give Brazil Access to Oil, Gas Deposits Under Hydropower Deal
Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, may grant Brazil access to its oil and gas industry in return for the South American country’s participation in two hydropower projects, the Nigerian vice president said.
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Blogs, Opinions, Presentations and Publications

After the revolution
The success of both India and China in terms of economic growth, technological innovation and their ability to lift millions of people out of poverty, has been met with awe. This being said, neither country boasts a sublime peace between the "haves and have nots". There is still a great deal of social unrest and inequality. But we cannot ignore their achievements and what influenced them writes Saliem Fakir.
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DIANNA GAMES: Rudderless SA risks missing out on new scramble for Africa
President Jacob Zuma ’s visit to China was, by some accounts, a big success. Much was made of the size of the business delegation — about 350 people — and the government team of 13 Cabinet ministers. It was a display of business-government engagement that SA rarely sees. It signalled the type of “SA Inc” image many believe the country should be putting forward in the way most of the countries the president visits are doing. But behind all the warm and fuzzy statements, there is, sadly, no SA Inc. In China, our politicians were calling for the economic giant to invest in South African manufacturing while strikers were pounding the streets.
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Podcasts, Reviews and Interviews
South Africa keen to jump on BRIC wagon
How will the visit enhance China- South Africa economic ties? What are the new features of China's investment in South Africa? Global Times (GT) reporter Yu Jincui talked to He Wenping (He), professor and director of the African Studies Section, Institute of West Asian & African Studies at the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Xu Weizhong (Xu), deputy director of Asian and African Studies Section at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, on the issue.
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BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Compiled by Hayley Herman, programme officer at Fahamu’s Emerging Powers in Africa programme based in South Africa.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Angola: Political debate raises fear of violence

2010-09-10

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE6890D120100910

The campaign for Angola's 2012 elections is off to a ill-tempered start with the ruling MPLA party and the opposition UNITA party accusing each other of dirty tactics that threaten a return to violence in the oil producing nation. The polls will only be the second since the end of Angola's civil war that pitted the Russian and Cuban-backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) against UNITA, backed by the U.S. and apartheid South Africa.

Burundi: Veering off the path of peaceful power-sharing

2010-09-10

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90308

The political climate is growing increasingly antagonistic in Burundi, where many of today’s political parties were yesterday’s rebel groups. A spate of elections designed to entrench stability through pluralism has only made matters worse, say analysts, raising fears that a 10-year-old power-sharing deal is falling apart.

Côte d'Ivoire: ONUCI urges CEI to release electoral schedule

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/cyMzFa

The UN operation in Côte d'Ivoire (ONUCI) has charged the Ivorian Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) to look into the 'imperative job' to release the country's electoral schedule, the spokesperson for the UN operation, Hamadoun Touré said.

Guinea-Bissau: Reform of military at the crossroads

2010-09-10

http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/newrels/guinea-bissau.html

Guinea-Bissau does not make international headlines very often, and when it does, the news is usually pessimistic: turbulence within the small West African country’s army, repeated coups and killings, and growing problems of drug trafficking. Reflecting the frustrations of international donor institutions, the European Union (EU) has just announced that by 30 September it will pull out a small mission that it originally sent to Guinea-Bissau in June 2008 to support reforms of the security sector.

Guinea: Election head convicted of fraud

2010-09-10

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11258839

The head of Guinea's election commission and a senior aide have been sentenced to a year in jail for fraud during June's presidential vote. The verdicts are likely to increase tensions ahead of the 19 September run-off, correspondents say.

Nigeria: Opposition slams January 2011 election date

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/apqyPO

The opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has described as 'unrealistic and a recipe for failure' the 2011 general elections timetable, which was released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) showing the staggered elections will be held in January. According to the timetable, the elections will start 15 January with the National Assembly (parliamentary) polls, followed by the presidential poll 22 Jan and the Governorship/State Assembly polls 29 Jan.

Africa: Agri-projects at ‘unprecedented’ levels

2010-09-10

http://farmlandgrab.org/15178

The number of investment projects in the agricultural sector in sub-Saharan Africa is at “unprecedented” levels, Paul Runge, the MD of Africa Project Access, said at an agriculture investment conference in Durban. “I have never seen a project flow as we have it now,” he said. His company provides assistance to greenfield and brownfield projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa: South Africa misses one per cent science spend goal

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/alPHKe

South Africa has failed to increase its research and development spending to one per cent of GDP by 2008–09, according to data published by the Department of Science and Technology this morning (9 September). The news, which appears in the country's annual research and development (R&D) survey that tracks public and private R&D expenditure, has disappointed the country's scientists and could set a bad precedent for other African countries.

Africa: South still battling North's biopiracy

2010-09-10

http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=52743

The United Nations declared 2010 the Year of Biodiversity. But 17 years after the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the issue of biopiracy is still pitching North against South. Researchers and activists have coined the term biopiracy, "the theft of genetic resources", to describe corporations’ practice of securing "profitable private monopolies by staking out patent claims on Africa’s genes, plants, and related traditional knowledge", according to the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB), based in South Africa.

Global: UN goals to slash poverty, hunger achievable: draft

2010-09-10

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE68902920100910

A set of U.N. goals aimed at drastically reducing poverty and hunger worldwide by 2015 are achievable, despite setbacks caused by the global financial and economic crises, a draft document said. The 27-page draft declaration on the U.N. Millennium Development Goals is expected to be formally adopted at a September 20-22 summit meeting at the United Nations which U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders are expected to attend.

Malawi: Cash transfer programme helps the poorest families survive

2010-09-10

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/malawi_55939.html

For two years, Rozina Chimbalani has struggled to feed, clothe and school the four grandchildren left in her care after her daughter died. Across Malawi, this has been a painfully common story, as for more than two decades HIV has shattered families and left more than a million children orphaned.

Tanzania: Farmers want a piece of the pie from agro-investors

2010-09-10

http://farmlandgrab.org/15048

As large-scale investors’ interest in acquiring vast swathes of land for commercial agriculture in Africa intensifies, farmers believe the time is ripe for the government to press investors to allocate shares to villagers as a corporate social responsibility. Should the proposal be put in place villagers will become shareholders of large-scale commercial farms.

Africa: ARV switch fine for infants

2010-09-10

http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20032918

A South African study has found that antiretroviral therapy which includes a cheaper nevirapine-based regimen was as beneficial to the long-term health outcomes of HIV-positive infants’ as the more expensive Protease Inhibitor (PI)-based regimens currently prescribed. The study confirmed that once tests confirmed that the infants’ immune system had successfully suppressed the HI Virus on the more expensive PI regimen, the child could be safely switched to the more affordable nevirapine based regimen. In fact the study showed slightly better outcomes in the children who were switched compared to those who remained on the PI regimen.

Africa: South Africa becomes a victim of its own ARV treatment success

2010-09-10

http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20032913

Almost a million South Africans are already on lifelong antiretroviral treatment and this number is supposed to triple in the next decade if government keeps to its implementation plan. But the prospect of the South African government being able to meet its target of treating 80 percent of those who need it by 2011 is being threatened by a lack of funds.

Cameroon: UNICEF and partners fight deadly cholera outbreak

2010-09-10

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/cameroon_55953.html

Cameroon is currently experiencing one of its most severe outbreaks of cholera in decades. The epidemic began in May 2010, following the country’s rainy season, and is most prevalent in the country’s Extreme North province. To date, there are some 5,560 reported cases of cholera and 385 deaths, according to the Government of Cameroon.

Global: HIV Vaccine Enterprise sets out road map for next five years

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/chPx0w

Following last year’s positive result from an HIV vaccine trial in Thailand the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise has issued a new scientific plan, calling for a speeded-up effort to test new vaccine candidates in large trials.

Kenya: $60m from Global Fund

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/bY04Pg

The fight against HIV/AIDS in Kenya got a massive boost this week after the Global Fund released $60 million to help the East African country to combat the virus and malaria. The funds were part of the round seven HIV/AIDS funds of which the government had already received $18,343,450, officials said.

Kenya: People with HIV can provide safe, effective community ART management

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/cVGBtQ

Community-based care delivered to adults living with HIV by people living with HIV using mobile technologies provided care as safe and effective as clinic-based care, researchers report in the advance online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. This prospective community randomised clinical pilot study was conducted in villages surrounding a rural clinic in western Kenya from March 2006 to April 2008.

Kenya: Provide treatment for children in pain

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/9RC8B2

Kenyan children in acute and chronic pain suffer needlessly because of government policies that restrict access to inexpensive pain medicines, a lack of investment in palliative care services, and inadequately trained health workers, Human Rights Watch said in a report. The 78-page report, "Needless Pain: Government Failure to Provide Palliative Care for Children in Kenya," found that most Kenyan children with diseases such as cancer or HIV/AIDS are unable to get palliative care or pain medicines. Kenya's few palliative care services provide counseling and support to families of chronically ill patients, as well as pain treatment, but lack programs for children.

South Africa: More intensive screening for TB needed for HIV-positive patients

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/d2N0zF

Many cases of tuberculosis (TB) in patients starting HIV therapy will be missed if screening for the disease relies on 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, investigators from South Africa report in the October 1st edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Uganda: Stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV/AIDS

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/ddsuPl

A young woman in Uganda contracts HIV/AIDS and faces relentless prejudice that alters every aspect of her life. She is only one of the millions of young people whose physical challenges are multiplied by the cruelties of social discrimination.

Zimbabwe: Activists hail male circumcision drive

2010-09-10

http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/sep10a_2010.html#Z4

HIV/AIDS activists in Zimbabwe are hailing the inclusive government for ramping up its male circumcision drive targeting about 1,2 million children and adults with the aim of lowering their chances of contracting the virus that causes the pandemic. The campaign got a major boost Wednesday when the United States Agency for International Development and the John Snow International jointly donated US$1,5 million worth of medical equipment to facilitate 28 000 procedures.

Zimbabwe: Distribution of key school supplies starts

2010-09-10

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35862

A major distribution of school supplies got under way today across Zimbabwe in an effort by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Government and international donors to ensure that every primary school student receives a textbook for all core subjects. All 5,575 primary schools in Zimbabwe will receive the supplies thanks to support from the Educational Transition Fund (ETF), a multi-donor funding mechanism launched a year ago to mobilize resources for the education sector with a view to improving the quality of schooling for the country’s children, UNICEF said in a press release.

Global: United Nations-Iglhrc gets consultative status

2010-09-10

http://ilga.org/ilga/en/article/mB0Vfr21ID

Human rights advocates have commended the stance taken by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), granting the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) a consultative status at its council stating it is as a milestone for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community. The decision made on 19 July 2010 saw IGLHRC become the tenth organisation working primarily for LGBTI human rights, gain such status at the United Nations following solidarity actions of over 200 NGOs from 59 countries who endorsed a letter to all United Nations member states, demanding fair and non-discriminatory treatment.

Kenya: Gays celebrate new constitution

2010-09-10

http://www.mask.org.za/kenyan-gays-celebrate-new-constitution/

Kenya’s Gay community celebrated the promulgation of the New Constitution and applauded President Mwai Kibaki for signing it into law to take effect henceforth. After the promulgation of the new law, the gay community converged in a leafy suburb of Nairobi to launch independent condom and water based lubrication distribution system for the Men having Sex with other Men (MSM) Program, dubbed Safe Sex Express Theme.

South Africa: exploring popular attitudes toward foreigners

2010-09-10

http://www.eldis.org/go/country-profiles&id=55702&type=Document

This report suggests that the racist attacks that occurred in South Africa in 2008 were rooted in the micro-politics of townships and informal settlements. The author argues that violence was used as a means to drive foreigners out of South Africa and thereby decrease competition for jobs and other scarce resources.

East Africa: UNEP backs action on e-waste

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/9Je7Td

Kenya is set to become the first East African nation to develop regulations on the management of electronic waste (e-waste), following a national conference held at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi. The aim is to minimize the impacts of the unsafe disposal of electronic products on public health and the environment.

Global: The people create thousands of solutions to confront climate change!

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/cwD4mJ

Social movements from around the world are mobilizing for the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP 16) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that will take place in Cancun from 29 November to 10 December 2010. The COP 15 in Copenhagen demonstrated governments' incapacity to tackle the root causes of the current climate chaos. At the very last moment, the US undemocratically pushed through the so called "Copenhagen accord", in an attempt to move the debate out of the UN and the Kyoto promises and to favor even more voluntarily free market solutions.

Africa: Buying Africa for a song

2010-09-10

http://farmlandgrab.org/15104

If dodgy emails offering millions in return for your down payment to repatriate a stranded Nigerian astronaut do not tempt you, then maybe this will appeal to your speculative side — a hectare of fertile African land on a 99-year lease — for $1 a year. Think about it: crop prices are soaring, land is appreciating and importdependent rich nations almost guarantee you a never-ending export market. It’s starting to sound like that Nigerian astronaut deal. But this is not a scam.

East Africa: Governments given red card for unjust land, agricultural policies

2010-09-10

http://farmlandgrab.org/15269

East African governments have been criticised for failing to protect their agricultural workers from exploitation, and chided for leasing to foreigners land without the explicit consent of existing users. A regional meeting heard that land deals are often done in secret without informing the current land users, in a manner that causes abrupt dispossession and food insecurity.

Ethiopia: Fear expressed over India’s massive land grabs in Gambela

2010-09-10

http://farmlandgrab.org/15078

Gambela, one of the nine regional states of Ethiopia is fast growing into what the local media has described as “a land grabbing” hub among Indian companies. Gambela’s new tag as a land grabbing hub comes as BHO Agro Plc becomes the third Indian firm to begin operations in the region after two other Indian companies, Karuturi and Ruchi Group, moved into Gambela in 2008 and early 2010, respectively.

Global: World Bank land alert

2010-09-10

http://farmlandgrab.org/15387

Large-scale foreign land deals in developing countries pose “significant risks” to the livelihoods of the rural poor, according to a new report from the World Bank. In the 139-page report, released in Washington, the bank analyses the effects of a worldwide increase in foreign agricultural land purchases in countries with weak land-tenure rights.

North Africa: Egypt signs deal to allow farmland access in Sudan

2010-09-10

http://farmlandgrab.org/15265

Companies access to farm land in Sudan, the first deal of its kind between the two countries, an agriculture ministry official has said. The agreement would allow Egyptian firms to grow crops on 1 million feddans (1.04 million acres) [400,000 hectares] of land, said Saad Nassar, advisor to Egypt’s agriculture minister.

Global: 15 experts for FAO food security panel

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/cquoMF

Ethiopia's Director General of the Environmental Protection Authority, Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, is among the 15 world-class experts named to serve in the Food and Agric Organisation (FAO) food security committee. Egziabher and the other experts will serve in the FAO High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) Steering Committee.

Global: Food security at risk

2010-09-10

http://www.sacsis.org.za/site/article/546.1

The recent Mozambican food and fuel riots raise the spectre, in general, about food insecurity and social unrest in the future. We certainly have the capability to feed all of the world’s population, but the political economy of agriculture, food production and distribution somewhat has a greater influence as to whether people can feed themselves or not.

Global: New EU banking watchdogs could prevent future food riots

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/bBq5aH

The World Development Movement (WDM) has said proposals to establish three new European banking regulators could help prevent food crises, as wheat price rises fuelled by financial speculation trigger bread riots in Mozambique. WDM has been pushing for urgent action to prevent banks and hedge funds engaging in excessive speculation in food derivatives markets, which drove the 2006-2008 food price crisis [1] and is fuelling the recent wheat price spike. Wheat prices have rocketed nearly 70% since January, causing riots in Mozambique this week in which seven people have died.

Guinea-Bissau: Food prices rise

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/bAW3jh

The prices of foodstuffs have risen in Guinea-Bissau since mid-August, the chairman of the Association of Consumers of Goods and Services (ACOBES), Bambo Sanha, has said. The price of a bag of 50 kg of rice, the basic food in the country, increased from 12,000 to 14,000 FCFA, while that of the 50 kg of sugar increased from 15,000 to 27,000 FCFA, he said in Bissau.

Africa: FAJ and AU commit to protecting African journalists

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/9kGW8o

African journalists have adopted a declaration calling on governments, the African Union journalists’ trade unions and the international community to join forces in promoting the safety and protection of journalists in Africa. The Addis Ababa Declaration was adopted at the conclusion of a two-day regional workshop on the “Safety and Protection of African Journalists” hosted by the African Union Commission and organized by the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) at the African Union Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

DRC: Radio station recognized for courageous reporting

2010-09-10

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35877

The United Nations-sponsored radio station based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has the largest Francophone audience in sub-Saharan Africa, is the winner of this year’s Free Media Pioneer award bestowed by the International Press Institute (IPI). Radio Okapi is a partnership between the UN mission in the DRC, known by its French acronym MONUSCO, and the Hirondelle Foundation, a Swiss non-governmental organization (NGO).

Uganda: IFJ condemns attacks against journalists

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/aFs1Zx

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the unwarranted assault of New Vision Photographer, Arthur Kintu, by a businessman and prominent religious leader, Hassan Basajjabalaba which occurred on September, 6th at Namboole while he was covering the elections in Kampala, Uganda.

DRC: UN voices outrage at mass rape by rebels

2010-09-10

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35706

The United Nations is dispatching a senior staff member to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as senior officials express outrage at the recent rape and assault of more than 150 civilians by rebels based in the remote and troubled east of the country. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallström, condemned the attacks, saying they demonstrated the widespread level and systematic nature of sexual violence in the DRC.

Ghana: Dam spill floods kill 17

2010-09-10

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MDCS-896J3Q?OpenDocument

At least 17 people have drowned in northern Ghana in recent weeks after nearby Burkina Faso opened spillway gates to dams following heavy rains, the country's relief agency said on Friday. "As at yesterday, the death toll in the three northern regions stood at 17 and a number of farmlands have been destroyed," National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) spokesman Nicholas Mensah told AFP.

Somalia: UN deplores deadly attack against African peacekeepers

2010-09-10

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35882

The United Nations has voiced its strong condemnation after Friday's terrorist attack at the main airport in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, which has killed two African peacekeepers and several civilians. In a joint statement, the heads of the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) described the attack as a “heinous act of terrorism.”

Sudan: Darfur rebels say attacked by Ugandan LRA

2010-09-10

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE68902U20100910

A Darfur rebel group has said it was attacked by Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army guerrillas in Sudan's west. "A group of LRA attacked our forces in Dafak in South Darfur yesterday," Haydar Galucuma Ateem, vice president of the Darfur rebel Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), told Reuters from Qatar-based peace talks.

Africa: ICTs and the young generation

2010-09-10

http://www.wougnet.org/cms/content/view/561/1/

The impact of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the economic, social, cultural, political and individual spheres of life is widely accepted and recognised world over. ICTs give the young generation a whole range of opportunities; socializing and exposure, employment, getting information, doing research etc. It is widely accepted that the use of ICT can have a major influence on how learners approach learning, now and in the future.

Africa: Mobile phones no silver bullet for Africa, says study

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/aSYbQs

The potential of mobile telephony to transform Africa will only be achieved if the development of other infrastructure keeps pace, says a study. The number of mobile phone subscribers in Africa soared from 16 million in 2000 to 376 million in 2008, with 60 per cent of the population using them in 2008 compared with 10 per cent in 1999.

Africa: New mobile phone application to enable refugees to trace families

2010-09-10

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35884

The United Nations refugee agency is backing a pilot project to use a mobile telephone application to help locate and reconnect refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Uganda with their families. The project will enable refugees to use mobile telephones to register themselves, search for loved ones, and subsequently be able to reconnect through an anonymous database, using SMS or mobile Internet.

Africa: Time is ripe for African innovators

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/cUXawH

Google held a very well attended G-Kenya event for developers. But this has been just one of several things that have been happening on the continent that show a renewed focus on services and apps development. There is fertile ground for African tech innovators but they need to decide what prize they will be seeking, writes Russell Southwood.

Global: In the gender digital divide, women fall behind

2010-09-10

http://bit.ly/dhz0ku

There is a division between men and women, not only in terms of pure economics, but also in the realm of technology. Women’s lack of technological access is caused by many factors, and it will ultimately hurt them. Though there is currently a wide range of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) available, there is still a division of who is allowed access to it. Women are deprived not only economically, but also in terms of information.

CODESRIA: 2010 Gender Symposium

Gender, Migration and Socioeconomic Development in Africa

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/66809

In line with its mandate to promote high-level scientific and academic debates on various aspects of socioeconomic development in Africa, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) hereby announces the 2010 edition of its Gender Symposium which will be held from 24 to 26 November, 2010 in Cairo, Egypt. The Gender Symposium is a forum organised annually by CODESRIA to discuss gender issues and their impacts on the development of the continent. The theme of this year’s edition is Gender, Migration and Socioeconomic Development in Africa.
CODESRIA

2010 Gender Symposium
Theme: Gender, Migration and Socioeconomic Development in Africa
Date: 24-26 November, 2010
Venue: Cairo, Egypt

In line with its mandate to promote high-level scientific and academic debates on various aspects of socioeconomic development in Africa, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) hereby announces the 2010 edition of its Gender Symposium which will be held from 24 to 26 November, 2010 in Cairo, Egypt. The Gender Symposium is a forum organised annually by CODESRIA to discuss gender issues and their impacts on the development of the continent. The theme of this year’s edition is Gender, Migration and Socioeconomic Development in Africa.

For over a decade, the Council has been involved in promoting the gender dimension of all the studies conducted by its research groups. But in recent times, migration has become an important component of the continent’s development process. Migrants contribute substantially to the Gross National Product through their monetary transfers, which exceed official development aid in some countries. They also influence the destinies of their countries in various forms. Moreover, in the context of globalisation, migration and development have become interdependent processes, despite the policies of many countries to control migration flows. Nevertheless, migration is still not integrated into the development plans of most countries; hence, the importance of studying migration in relations to development processes, and revealing its various dimensions.

Specifically, understanding the gender dimension in the process of migration and development is both an essential and urgent exercise. Although migration as a phenomenon is as old as the world and studies on it are not new, researchers only began to interrogate it, especially the gender dimension, in a more systemic way in the mid-80s. But now, female migration has increased substantially at the international level, drawing the attention of not only researchers but also international organisations. According to UN statistics, in 2005, 49.6% of international migrants (about 94.5 million) were women; and with few exceptions (Africa and Asia), female migrants are in the majority, compared to their male counterparts. Increased demand for female labour in Northern countries, the rapid and radical socioeconomic transformations in developing countries, and the persistence and/or resurgence of conflicts in some regions of the world, particularly Africa, are factors which have contributed to this expansion.

As a result, studies and debates on the relationship between gender and migration are also increasing. Yet, the numerous and complex relationships between these two terms continue to raise questions and concerns among researchers, scholars, civil society organisations, human rights groups, and even politicians. The dominant perception of the concept of gender and migration has long remained trapped in an approach that sees female migrants as ’invisible’, ‘passive’, ‘ignorant’ and ‘unproductive’ victims who do not contribute to the development of the economies of their countries of origin or host countries, regardless of their level of education; and hence subjected to various forms of marginalisation, discrimination and maltreatment, the gravest of which is sexual violation

This perspective however began to change with increase in the number of scientific studies on the place and role of female Diasporas in origin and host economies. The 20010 CODESRIA Gender Symposium intends to advance these studies, as it will pay particular attention to the new dynamics caused by the change in the status and profile of female emigration. Participants will also have the opportunity to take a critical look at classical theories and approaches on migration, their objective limits, and the progressive incorporation of gender relations and feminism in understanding the complexity of migration as a global phenomenon.

While studies on the relationship between gender (or rather women) and migration have increased, those addressing the links between gender, migration and development are still scarce, and limited in scope, as they focus more on the ’feminisation of migration’, understood as the increase in number (quantitative) of female migrants and more observable in the economically advanced countries which are usually the target destinations of the migrants. Another premise for the focus of the symposium this year is that the concept of development should consider the contribution of female migrants to wealth creation for the socioeconomic development of their host and origin countries. It should also include the development of female migrants as social beings, through a dynamic process that results in growth, advancement, empowerment and progress. Some studies in the last few years have demonstrated that, in terms of employment, the situations are still very unequal between male migrants and female migrants of working age. The unemployment rate for female migrants, though declining, is allegedly generally higher than that of their male counterparts, and we seem to be moving towards a situation where migration increases women’s autonomy, economic power and social status.

The relationship between gender, migration and development can also be viewed in terms of the empowerment of women. Some works in the field wonder whether female migration is a ticket to women’s empowerment, or another avenue for the violation of the basic rights of women. The complexity of contemporary international migrations is such that the answer is not simple. The predominant perception so far, which the symposium aims to transcend, still remains that which fails to recognise that the profile of female migrants has changed, and that female migration has embraced a number of characteristics that vary according to generations, countries of origin and length of stay in host countries. Understanding the gender dimensions of migration also means focusing on power relations established in the different categories of migrants, between migrants from wealthier social strata and those from poorer social strata.

Issues of social promotion between generations of migrants, autonomy, parity and emancipation will therefore be at the centre of discussions during the 2010 CODESRIA Gender Symposium. Participants are therefore enjoined to consider the different aspects of the issue of gender, migration and development by trying to answer the following questions: How is the gender-based division in the labour market altered by the arrival of female workers of other nationalities?; How do emigrants affect service structures?; What is the relationship between native women and these newcomers as regards the issue of changing ‘female roles?; and many other issues outlined above.

Below are the various sub-themes that would be covered by papers presented during the symposium:
• Migration, gender and development: theories and approaches;
• The feminisation of African migrations;
• Female migrations, sexospecific roles and gender equality;
• Women and forced migrations;
• African female migrants and cash transfers;
• Female migration and human trafficking;
• Migration and the reconfiguration of the labour market;
• Migration and the empowerment of African women;
• Migration, gender, culture and religion;
• Female migration and human rights;
• Women, migration and social protection;
• Gender, migration and social integration;
• Migration, gender and citizenship;
• Female Diasporas and relationship with origin and host countries;
• The impact of male emigration on women;
• Female migrants and the public spaces of origin and host countries;
• Organisational networks of female migrants.

The symposium will be held from 24 to 26 November, 2010 in Cairo, Egypt. Interested prospective participants are hereby invited to send abstracts of the papers they intend to present not later than 15 September, 2010. If selected, the full papers developed out of the abstracts must reach CODESRIA not later than 18 October, 2010 for further review prior to final confirmation of selection.

For more information, please contact:
The 2010 Gender Symposium
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)
BP 3304, CP 18524
Dakar, Senegal
Tel: +221 - 33 825 98 22/23
Fax: +221- 33 824 12 89
E-mail: gender.symposium@codesria.sn
Website: http://www.codesria.org

CODESRIA: The Guy Mhone Conference ‏on Development

The Renaissance and Revival of African Economies

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/66807

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the third Guy Mhone International Conference, under the auspices of its Economic Research Programme. The theme of this year’s conference is The Renaissance and Revival of African Economies. The conference is being convened in the context of the global economic crisis which should prompt a critical analysis of all aspects of socioeconomic development in Africa. The Guy Mhone Conference on Development is organised annually in honour of one of the most distinguished African development thinkers and former member of CODESRIA’s Executive Committee, the late Professor Guy Mhone. This year’s edition of the conference will be held from 20 to 21 December, 2010 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
CODESRIA

The Guy Mhone Conference ‏on Development
Theme: The Renaissance and Revival of African Economies
Venue: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Date: 20 - 21 December, 2010

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the third Guy Mhone International Conference, under the auspices of its Economic Research Programme. The theme of this year’s conference is The Renaissance and Revival of African Economies. The conference is being convened in the context of the global economic crisis which should prompt a critical analysis of all aspects of socioeconomic development in Africa. The Guy Mhone Conference on Development is organised annually in honour of one of the most distinguished African development thinkers and former member of CODESRIA’s Executive Committee, the late Professor Guy Mhone. This year’s edition of the conference will be held from 20 to 21 December, 2010 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Over the past decade, the world economy has experienced many ups and downs. Periods of recession were followed by periods of economic recovery; but while conditions for genuine economic recovery are not yet met, the evolution of the world GDP declined in the second half of 2010. The growth rate of the US dollar is expected to be 2.5% in 2010 and 2% in 2011, following a contraction of similar magnitude in 2009. Similarly, the growth rate would be 1.8% and 1.3% for the euro zone after a -3.9% drop in 2009.

Similarly, African economies were not indifferent to these changes. Periods of growth in crisis were followed by periods of substantial economic growth. After years of pessimism about growth prospects in Africa, optimism is taking over, although the latest post-crisis developments seem to temper this optimism. Growth resumed in most African economies, with encouraging results being recorded in various African countries and increased investment in the sector of telecommunications, infrastructure and financial services benefiting most of the economies. Despite the low penetration rate of new technologies, innovative applications of ICT were identified in areas as diverse as electronic banking, payment systems, agriculture, trade, administration and education. Many of these tools help to improve the business environment by contributing to the development of markets, reducing barriers related to infrastructure and lowering costs. The continued favourable macroeconomic policies, the strengthened judiciary and the improved transparency of national accounts of most countries have led to increased confidence of investors in the continent. Politically, the stability which occurred in many countries, following the decline of social tensions and increased investment in the consolidation of democracy, also contributed to creating an environment that is more conducive to investment.

These positive developments notwithstanding, it is necessary to interrogate the sustainability of this evolution. What are the prospects for the emergence of a number of African economies that will steadily practise appropriate economic policies? Can countries like South Africa, Botswana and Mauritius be driving forces for other poorer countries? Are we faced with a genuine revival of African economies, or is it rather simple economic changes? Do they allow successful cases to speak of a genuine economic renaissance, like political and cultural renaissance? What are the links between them? What were the factors of the growth recorded in many economies on the continent?

As a way of creating an avenue where these and other questions can be answered, CODESRIA has dedicated the 2010 edition of the Guy Mhone Conference on Development to the ‘renaissance and revival of African economies’. Many studies have attempted to explain the factors of this growth. For the most part however, these explanations have failed to go beyond the neoclassical standpoints, while the current dynamics require innovative explanations that could not only provide more convincing working hypotheses but also create new analytical prospects more capable of understanding and responding to major challenges facing Africa.

In terms of major economic groupings, Africa is part of the least developed countries (LDCs), with a population weight of about 18.2%, but with a contribution to world production at the rate of only about 0.5%. The economic and political future of the continent is yet a major challenge for the entire world, as its economic development is a sine qua non for world peace in the years to come. The place of Africa in the global community is defined by the fact that the continent is an important reserve of resources that can serve the entire humanity. Africa is one of the continents most capable of providing the raw materials needed by both developed and emerging countries, as could be seen in the increasing quest for African raw materials by countries like China and India. Thus, a new door of economic opportunity is opened to African countries, but this also implies risks that should not be overlooked. As a result, mismanagement of natural resources in Africa can not only lead to their exhaustion by foreign powers, but also constitute a danger to future generations, not to mention the negative impact on environment and climate.

While the effects of these imbalances are likely to be felt in the long run, there are disturbances that have more immediate impacts on African economies. Among these, the most striking fact is undoubtedly the economic crisis that has been affecting the economies of developed countries since 2008, with its effects on the steady growth of several African countries. Between 2003 and 2008, majority of African economies recorded an average growth rate of 5%. However, because of the decline in economic activities, the continent could only record a 2.8% growth in 2009, compared to 5.7% projected prior to the crisis. Thus, the crisis made Africa lose 120 dollars in GDP per capita. According to estimates by the African Development Bank (AfDB), to catch up and achieve its development goals by 2015, the continent needs 50 billion dollars additional aid per year. Nevertheless, the continent's economies are less harmed than anticipated and the revival seems to be faster on the continent than elsewhere in the world. The forecasts for 2010 and 2011 are rather optimistic, with growth rates ranging from 4.5% in 2010 and 5.2% in 2011, against 4.2% and 4.3% respectively in the rest of the world. Africa can do much better; but to achieve this, it must mobilise more domestic resources to fund its development.

In a long-term perspective, it must be emphasised that structural problems are persistent in most countries of the continent. Despite the steady growth, poverty is still prevailent on the continent, the illiteracy rate is the highest in the world and youth unemployment rate is tending towards the extreme. Moreover, the level of economic development of the continent’s different countries remains very uneven. The economy is still deeply based on agriculture, with 65-85% of African populations active in the agricultural sector, but the added value of products derived from agriculture is comparatively very low. Furthermore, there is yet no integration between African economies. Despite the progress in this area in recent years, there is still a long way to go. In this unfavourable context, Africa should show a deep imagination and ensure that the experiences of the past serve as a lesson and an inspiration towards building a brighter future. In this sense, the conference aims to identify the forces whichhad, in the past, allowed African societies to cope with the challenges they faced, and consider them in its emancipation and economic revival project, yet without neglecting the new situation imposed by globalisation. To this end, extensive research works and refined analyses are necessary in order to arrive at a better understanding of the situation and come up with a brighter outlook for African economies.

During the two-day conference, researchers will be invited to take stock of the evolution of African economies over the past decade and to identify trends for years to come. In doing so, discussions will focus on challenges and structural constraints that the continent will face in the coming decade in particular. A clear vision and critical analyses are encouraged so as to challenge classical theories and analyses promoted by international financial institutions, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the majority of developed countries.

The themes to be covered by the conference include:
1. Competitiveness and revival of African economies;
2. African economies in the face of emerging countries;
3. World trade and the revival of African economies;
4. African agriculture in the face of new challenges posed by the world trade;
5. The industrialisation process in Africa in the face of the challenges of the global economy;
6. The political dimension of the African renaissance and economic reforms;
7. International economic institutions and the revival of African economies;
8. Regional integration and revival of African economies;
9. The renaissance and the revival of African economies in the context of globalisation;
10. Global economic governance and revival of African economies;
11. Pan-Africanism and renaissance of African economies ;
12. The role and place of trade and investment in the renaissance and revival of African economies;
13. The Diaspora and the renaissance and revival of African economies ;
14. Migrations and revival of African economies ;
15. NEPAD and the renaissance of African economies;
16. The revival of African economies and climate change.

Researchers who wish to participate in the conference are hereby invited to submit abstracts of their papers to CODESRIA not later than 30 September, 2010. If selected, the full papers developed from the abstracts must reach CODESRIA not later than 15 November, 2010. Authors of papers selected by an independent selection committee will be informed of the outcome of the process not later than 20 November, 2010 together with information on travel and accommodation.

All abstracts and papers should be sent to:
The Guy Mhone Conference on Development
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)
BP 3304, CP 18524, Dakar, Senegal.
Tel: +221 33 825 98 22/23
Fax: +221 33 824 12 89
E-mail: conference.development@codesria.sn
Website: http//:www.codesria.org/

Global: XXV ILGA World Conference

2010-09-10

http://ilga.org/ilga/en/article/myDYfec13F

The XXV ILGA World Conference will be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, between the 4 and 9 December 2010. The theme of the conference will be “Building the way forward in times of crisis”. In the last few years and since the last World Conference in Vienna in 2008, it has become even more evident that our movement can be very vulnerable to crises, them being political, social, or economic ones. However, unstable conditions can also represent turning points and opportunities for the movement to further the human rights agenda of LGBTI people.

Kwame Nkrumah Pan-Afican Intellectual Cultural Festival

Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/66814

The Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, announces a bi-annual Kwame Nkrumah Pan-Afican Intellectual Cultural Festival to be organized under the auspices of the newly established Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies, in honour of Nkrumah's dedication to a tradition of vigorous and liberating Africa-centred intellectual and cultural activity, such as was outlined in the major address he gave on the occasion of the formal opening in 1963 of the Institute of African Studies. Inspiration for such a festival comes from the example of the Annual Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week of the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, under the auspices of the Julius Nyerere Professorial Chair in Pan-African Studies.
The Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, announces a bi-annual Kwame Nkrumah Pan-Afican Intellectual Cultural Festival to be organized under the auspices of the newly established Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies, in honour of Nkrumah's dedication to a tradition of vigorous and liberating Africa-centred intellectual and cultural activity, such as was outlined in the major address he gave on the occasion of the formal opening in 1963 of the Institute of African Studies. Inspiration for such a festival comes from the example of the Annual Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week of the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, under the auspices of the Julius Nyerere Professorial Chair in Pan-African Studies. Such a festival is certain to provide a critical impetus for the promotion of a major international dialogue on Pan-African thought and struggle. The University of Ghana, through the Kwame Nkrumah Chair, is in a very good position to not merely copy the good example of Dar es Salaam, but to draw on Ghana's multiple connections with the history of Pan-Africanism to fashion a unique programme of intellectual debate and other culturally enriching events that could easily and quickly grow into one of the most significant events on the University's calendar. Unlike the annual Dar es Salaam festival, the Legon festival is to be held once every two years. The idea is to devote each intervening year to finalizing publications and other products from each edition of the festival. This should also allow reasonable time for fund raising and careful planning. Every effort will be made to produce professional audio/video/photo/web-based documentations of each major event for eventual wider circulation.

The maiden edition of the Kwame Nkrumah Pan-African Intellectual Cultural Festival is to be held in September 2010, around the anniversary of Nkrumah’s birthday. Core festival activities will include an international symposium as well as a cluster of other cultural events, such as film shows, literary readings/performances, dramatic musical, and film shows, as well as programmes specially designed for the education and enjoyment of young people.

Uganda: ICON Women in Leadership fellowship

Call for Applications

2010-09-10

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/66885

iCON Women and Young People’s Academy (IWYPLA) is pleased to announce its Call for Applications for the “2010 ICON WOMEN IN BUSINESS TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP FELLOWSHIP” programme.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
2010 ICON WOMEN IN BUSINESS TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME

iCON Women and Young People’s Academy (IWYPLA) is pleased to announce its Call for Applications for the “2010 ICON WOMEN IN BUSINESS TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP FELLOWSHIP” programme.

Are you a woman interested in getting the highest return from your investment?
- Do you want to start a business venture but do not know how?
- Have you already started a business venture?
- Are you wondering how you can balance work and other responsibilities and still lead in this competitive business world?
- Do you want to become a member of a Business Mentoring Network that will support and promote you and your Business?
If any of your answers to these questions is yes then the iCON Women In Business Transformational Leadership Fellowship is the right program for you.
Programme Benefits:
- Fellows are enabled to take charge of their individual business initiatives
- Strategic business networking opportunities with other women entrepreneurs at the national, regional and Global levels.
- Fellows are equipped to cope with greater business and social challenges of today’s competitive business world.
- Access to information on the latest ideas, skills, products and technology to meet today’s business challenges
- Improvement in Business management skills
HOW TO APPLY:
The programme is open to interested African women aged 18 and above. To apply, download the application form and programme flyer from: www.iconwypla.org or our blog:www.iwypla.wordpress.com.
Application forms are also available at our offices: Town House No. 2, Rohi Courts, Kansanga Ggaba Road in Kampala or Plot No 7 Onono Road, Gulu Town, Gulu District, Northern Uganda.
For more info, contact us: Tel: +256-3120261190/414348780 or email: sheilakinaheirwe@yahoo.com

Executive Director - Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA)

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/66801

The Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) is pleased to announce an opening for the position of Executive Director.

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.

Investor and philanthropist George Soros in 1993 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 Soros foundations network to encompass the United States and more than 60 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Each Soros foundation relies on the expertise of boards composed of eminent citizens who determine individual agendas based on local priorities.
OSIWA is a private Foundation which supports, makes grants and advocates for initiatives that promote Open Society values in eight focus countries of West Africa (Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone). OSIWA’s principal niche is to build capacity of West African government institutions and civil society organizations through support to catalytic and innovative initiatives.
OSIWA operates programs around four major strategic pillars, which are Governance; Law, Justice and Human Rights; Health and Development; and Information Technology, Communication & Media. OSIWA has identified the following 5 strategic objectives, which will drive its interventions in 2010-2011: strengthened democratic institutions, processes and structures; reduced levels of impunity; enhanced citizenship and public participation in decision-making; enhanced protection of groups exposed to discrimination; and improved equity and transparency in the management of resources.
The core of OSIWA’s interventions has been built around promoting, strengthening and working towards ensuring credibility in the governance process by promoting transparency and accountability. The Foundation, therefore, pursues efforts to identify avenues for building the capacity of both public institutions and civil society to ensure good governance. OSIWA’s intervention strategies are at three levels: sub-regional based initiatives built around the ECOWAS to cover the countries under its mandate, working mainly at the policy level; using multi-country interventions that cover initiatives across a number of countries, with emphasis on the need to share experiences and address issues of various levels of similarities; initiatives that are supported within a single country or local council, and generally meant to serve as pilot cases for duplication in other countries and local communities, within and outside the area. The sub-regional and multi-country foci have given OSIWA the leverage to widen its program reach to all the countries in the sub-region.
A. Key Duties and Performance Areas

OSIWA leadership and development
• Provide strategic direction and initiative in the development of the foundation, constantly identifying opportunities and threats to the foundation and articulating leadership objectives in relation to these opportunities and threats.
• Conceptualize open society issues and strategies in the Western African context, effectively relating these to African and global trends and dynamics, and interpreting the same in leadership to stakeholders.
• Continually position OSIWA as a leader in promoting open societies in Western Africa, exploiting and developing the foundation’s ability to combine programming approaches ranging from advocacy, convening, grantmaking, capacity building, and work through partnerships.

OSIWA management
• Manage all aspects of OSIWA, including its human and financial resources.
• Assume and responsibly exercise overall legal and executive authority for the offices, programs, positioning, relationships, risks, assets and liabilities of OSIWA in Dakar, Abuja, Monrovia, Freetown and any other site out of which the Board may in future direct the location of OSIWA’s operations or those of its affiliates.
• Manage and develop responsive relationships with the foundation’s stakeholders.
• Report to and closely work with the foundation’s Board of Directors, effectively carrying out the mandate and directions of the Board as developed from time to time.

OSIWA partnerships, networking and communications
• Define and maintain strategic relationships with West African regional and national civil society partners, governments, private sector entities, and other actors relevant for the construction and sustenance of open societies in the region.
• Provide intellectual and strategic leadership and support to the heads of OSIWA spin offs including West Africa Democracy Radio (WADR) and West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI).

OSIWA fundraising and resource development
• Effectively raise resources for the foundation from traditional as well as new donors.
• Maintain strong and mutually enriching relationships with donor organizations working on human rights-related issues in the region.

B. Key Outcomes

An effective and highly dynamic foundation, maintaining its ability to proactively model African leadership on the complex challenges of West African societies today, with respect to the existence and depth of the ideals, institutions, policies, laws, and practice of open society.

C. Person Specifications

• At least a Master’s degree in a relevant discipline, preferably from the social sciences/ humanities or management sciences.
• Senior management experience within a multilateral, and/or donor organization.
• Evidence of creative leadership over at least five years in the not-for-profit sector, including demonstrable exposure to complex questions of leadership in the West African regional context, and a track record of delivery.
• Close knowledge of, and evidence of contribution to, the major discourses in human rights development and public policy in West Africa, including the nexus between these and broader African and international issues.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills;
• Fluency in English and French;
• Role competence as a Representative, including the possession of superior communication skills; ability to effectively operate in relevant regional languages beyond English and French will be a distinct advantage.
• Independent functionality with office computer packages such as MS Word, Excel, Internet and E-mail required.
• Commitment to social justice, human rights, and development.
• Strong ability to inspire others and to work in a team.
• Demonstrated experience in managing inter and intra-organizational relationships in complex organizational environments;
• Capacity to work long hours towards multiple objectives in a pressured environment, and to organize own work as well as information.

Start Date: Immediately

Compensation: Commensurate with experience. Excellent benefits package.

To Apply

Please email resume and cover letter with salary requirements before October 15, 2010 to: humanresources@sorosny.org Include job code in subject line: ED-OSIWA

OR

Open Society Institute
Human Resources – Code ED-OSIWA
400 West 59th Street
New York, New York 10019
FAX: 212.548.4675

No phone calls, please. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for an interview.

The Open Society Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Fahamu seeks ICT Officer

Nairobi, Kenya

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/66805

Fahamu has a vision of the world where people organise to emancipate themselves from all forms of oppression, recognise their social responsibilities, respect each other’s differences, and realise their full potential. Fahamu is looking for a qualified and passionate ICT Officer.

Job Description

The ICT officer will report to the Programme manager and be responsible for:

1. Providing ICT technical support for Fahamu offices.

2. Provide design support for Fahamu’s programs.

3. Create, update and manage the Fahamu website and associated program sites, including but not limited to the AU Monitor and the Emerging Powers in Africa sites, including, where appropriate, the migration of these sites to appropriate content management systems.

4. Create, update and manage partner and associated websites where support is required.

5. Provide advice and support to Fahamu’s program staff and partners to implement new media strategies in human rights and social justice protection and advocacy including where appropriate, through trainings and workshops and development of curricula.

6. Assist in the setting up and maintenance of the Pambazuka platform

7. Assist in the implementation of ICTs for learning including support for Fahamu’s distance learning courses and other online training platforms.

8. Assist in the development and update of Fahamu and partners’ online presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking platforms

9. Provide advice on Fahamu’s database management system.

10. Maintain Fahamu and partners’ listserves and online newsletters.


PERSON SPECIFICATIONS

Essential

• Competence with the following software: Macromedia technologies: Authorware, Flash, ActionScript, LINGO, Adobe Photoshop/PaintShop Pro, and Illustrator, HTML/Scripting languages
• Familiarity with video/sound editing: Adobe Premier, QuickTime Pro, Sound Edit 16/Cool Edit Pro
• Experience of Web development and issues of bandwidth and compatibility
• At least two years experience of developing CDROM and/or web base learning materials
• Experience with Win 98/2000/NT and Mac OS, and general computer hardware
• Competence in developing in Drupal, PHP5, XML and web 2.0 technologies.
• Comfortable with both PC and Mac platforms
• A degree in ICT from a recognized University or equivalent work experience
• Good understanding of design and layout
• Self-motivated/self-starter
• Experience in database management
• A keen interest and experience in innovating new and exciting ways of using ICT for social justice

Desirable

• Qualification in multimedia technologies
• Ability to nurture young activists in using ICTs for social justice
• Ability to provide ICT support to staff and partners with limited ICT knowledge and experience
• Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines
• Commitment to the mission and values of the Fahamu
• Background in publishing

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

A competitive salary and benefit package will be provided. The salary will be dependent on experience, educational background and salary history of the successful candidate.

If interested submit your application letter and curriculum vitae by email to infokenya@fahamu.org Please include “ICT Officer application” in the subject line.

Deadline for application is 24th September 2010. Applications received after this date will not be considered. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

Fahamu is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Fahamu seeks Programme Officer

Reclaim Project

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/66802

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR THE POSITION OF PROGRAMME OFFICER FOR FAHAMU

Fahamu has a vision of the world where people organise to emancipate themselves from all forms of oppression, recognise their social responsibilities, respect each other’s differences, and realise their full potential. Fahamu is looking for a qualified and passionate Programme Officer.

JOB DESCRIPTION

The Programme Officer will be responsible for the coordination of the Reclaim Project which seeks to support the African LGBTI and sex worker movements, enabling LGBTI and sex worker activists to strategize, gain new knowledge and skills, enhance consciousness, renew inspiration and vision while enhancing their leadership and well-being.

Duties and responsibilities:

• Lead Fahamu’s research and knowledge generation on LGBTI and sex worker issues.

• Develop strategic relations with the media continentally, support communication and outreach strategies for LGBTI and sex worker issues.

• Coordinate the design, development, reviewing and editing of movement building curricula and implement innovative learning methodologies.
• Research and conceptualize ways to further the innovative use of technologies to strengthen LGBTI and sex worker advocacy and human rights protection.
• Strengthen networks of LGBTI and sex worker organizations and activists across Africa with multiple stakeholders including the media and policy-makers through the provision of advocacy platforms at national and continental levels.
• Coordinate training of trainers, workshops and related events.
• Develop online platforms to provide on going support for the movement.
• Ensure timely and accurate planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting of project activities
• Assist in fundraising efforts to sustain the LGBTI and sex worker movements’ actions.
• Represent Fahamu at appropriate forums.

Person specifications:
• Undergraduate degree in a related field
• At least 6 years of experience in human rights and social justice
• Experience working with LGBTI and sex worker communities in Africa
• Experience in research and advocacy
• Experience in course and curriculum development
• Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines
• Willingness to travel extensively throughout Africa

The successful candidate must be:
- An excellent communicator
- Committed to the cause and values of human rights and social justice
- Demonstrate leadership and initiative
- A second AU language

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

A competitive salary and benefit package will be provided. The salary will be dependent on experience, educational background and salary history of the successful candidate.

If interested submit your application letter and curriculum vitae by email to infokenya@fahamu.org Please include “Reclaim Programme Officer Application” in the subject line.

Deadline for application is 24th September 2010. Applications received after this date will not be considered. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

Fahamu is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Fahamu West Africa seeks a project coordinator

Call for applications extended to September 15, 2010

2010-09-09

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/66799

MISSION
Fahamu (www.fahamu.org), Regional Office for West Africa, is seeking a regional pan-African campaign Coordinator, to work with Rural Women’s Associations in a campaign to promote family farming and food sovereignty.

The campaign is led by rural women's associations engaged in the practice and promotion of ecological agriculture. It is part of a global pan-African campaign conducted by a coalition of farmers’ organizations, farmers networks and African producers.

The rural women's associations, in a parallel and convergent way with the pan-African campaign, will conduct their own activities according to their needs and priorities. Having an independent yet related campaign, will give them voice and ensure they play a leading role in the pan-African campaign.

The campaign will initially cover West African countries, but shall gradually involve the other regions of the continent.

LOCATION
The Coordinator is based in Dakar, at Fahamu West Africa Office.

JOB DESCRIPTION
Fahamu seeks
- A Coordinator Project who will be responsible for :
• identification, mobilization, orientation, coordination of activities
• monitoring and evaluation of the campaign
• management and reporting of grants for the campaign
• fundraising for ongoing campaign activities

The Project Coordinator will:
• Work with rural women’s association networks, farmers platforms, producer organizations and potential partners, to develop campaign strategies and ensure their implementation.
• Coordinate, at the regional level, the activities undertaken in the different countries by local associations
• Conduct research to gather relevant information (studies, literature) to establish coherent and strong arguments on the issues and stakes of the campaign
• Develop relevant communication tools for the campaign and advocacy initiatives
• Document, guide, develop training and communication approaches for organizations and networks of women's organizations in order to sensitize and mobilize them
• Recruit and supervise consultants who will develop training modules to be delivered as part of the campaign
• Contribute to the elaboration of a joint advocacy programme for a regional campaign
• Conduct research partners
• Coordinate with other campaigns in order to promote family farming in Africa
• Organize / Participate in coordination meetings, workshops, advocacy and mobilization activities or the campaign
• Write reports of meetings, workshops and other activities
• Produce and coordinate the production of materials to publish in the Fahamu electronic newsletter Pambazuka News and on the site that will be created for the campaign.

QUALIFICATIONS
Fahamu seeks an expert in social sciences (Sociology of development, communication, etc.), fulfilling the following criteria:
• Good knowledge of issues related to agricultural development in Africa
• At least 5 years experience in strategic analysis, development and implementation and project management
• Bilingual in French and English
• Good skills in writing and oral communication
• Excellent organisational and time management skills
• Experience in fundraising
• Demonstrated commitment to social justice movements, including civil society networks
• Experience of working with African civil society, particularly women's organizations at grassroots level
• Computer skills (Microsoft Word, e-mail).
• Autonomy in work and ability to work independently
• Flexibility to travel

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
In recent years, African farmers' organizations have expressed their fears and have developed resistance to agricultural policies oriented towards the world market rather than for local or national needs. In a context marked by multifaceted crises, African governments are more and more involved in these policies inspired and financed by multinational corporations and international institutions. Among other examples is the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa - AGRA).

But according to organizations and African farmers' organizations platforms, agricultural crises Africa is confronting require other solutions. The alternatives they advocate are more focused on the preservation and promotion of family farming that feed, produce surpluses and give them capacities to be competitive in our markets. This approach relies on the development of a peasant endogenous proven expertise, whose relevance depends on understanding the environment and agricultural practices more respectful of the preservation of the ecosystem.

This approach, whose aim is to ensure food sovereignty, is not yet supported by an organized, coherent, popular and well informed mobilization.

Peasant organizations and platforms of farmer organizations in Africa are therefore engaged in a coalition to lead a pan-African campaign to promote family farming through endogenous farmers' experiences based on agro-ecological approaches, as a response to cyclical agriculture and food crises and as alternatives to industrial agriculture oriented towards international markets.

These organizations include, among others, the Network of Farmers Organizations and Producers of West Africa (Réseau des Organisations Paysannes et des Producteurs d’Afrique de l’Ouest - ROPPA), African Biodiversity Network, Daughters of Mumbi / Jubilee South Africa (Kenya), the Coalition for the Protection of African Genetic Heritage (Coalition pour la Protection du Patrimoine Génétique africain - COPAGEN), the Guinean Association for the Relief of Women's Burden (l’Association Guinéenne pour l’Allègement des Charges des Femmes) the Network to Support West African and Tchad Rural Women Citizenship (Réseau d'appui à la citoyenneté des Femmes Rurales d'Afrique de l'Ouest et du Tchad - RESACIFROAT).

As part of a pan-African campaign, associations of rural women will undertake, in parallel, a joint campaign. This will give space and capacities to raise their voices, to highlight issues specific to them, to develop the endogenous practices which they are holders and assert their leadership. Women play key roles in agricultural production, providing 70% of food production, managing nearly 100% of processing activities, being involved in the maintenance of family herd and investing also on markets sales activities. Thus agricultural and food crises have a greater impact on them and install them in situations of extreme insecurity.

Campaign Objectives:
- Document and promote best practices and associated knowledge, known and perpetuated for generations in Africa (agroecology, endogenous production of seeds, etc.), ensuring the continent's food sovereignty
- Change attitudes and perceptions in relation to imposed social development model ;
- To alert decision makers for awareness and better governance;
- Develop practices related to family farming

DURATION OF PROJECT:
3 years

SALARY: GBP 18,000.00 per year

Deadline for applications: September 15, 2010
To apply please submit the following to the address at the top of this document.
- A CV
- A letter indicating your interest in the position, and how your skills and experience fit the criteria required to carry out this role.
- Three references

Availability: Immediate

Send your application to tidiane@fahamu.org.

Fahamu