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Côte d’Ivoire’s elections: Chronicle of a failure foretold

Pierre Sané

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/69838

cc UN PhotoAs Côte d’Ivoire's post-electoral crisis continues, Pierre Sané discusses the circumstances leading up to the contested election results and stresses the need for the country to be left to solve its own problems.

They were to be the elections that would put an end to the crisis, to finally turn the page on Félix Houphouet-Boigny’s inheritance and to set Côte d’Ivoire on the path of peace and development. They were by all means the most at-length and painstakingly prepared African elections, which involved, since the Marcoussis Agreement reached in January 2003,[1] an imposing number of parties: the government, the armed rebellion, the Côte d’Ivoire political parties, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union, the International Organisation of La Francophonie, France, the European Union and the United Nations, not to mention the successive mediators (the Togolese Gnassingbé Eyadema, the South African Thabo Mbeki and the Burkinabe Blaise Compaoré). Never seen before in Africa!

The polling process had been an intricate consensus between all the parties involved, even if there had been slips at each and every stage. From the open air meetings to the population census, from the creation of the polling list to the issue of national identity cards, from the establishment, then re-establishment of the Independent Election Commission to the distribution of polling cards, the whole process prepared and implemented by the authorities, the opposition and the rebels under the watchful eye of the international community was supposed to lead to an indisputable result. Beyond the Elections Act and the constitution, a code of conduct had been prepared by the political parties in order to guarantee compliance with the rules by all those involved in the polling competition… The cherry on the cake was that the United Nations had been called upon to certify the whole process set up. Never seen before in Africa!

Thus, and after the first ballot, all agreed to validate the genuineness of the round, and both candidates undertook to abide by the outcome of the second ballot. However, once it is all done with, we have two winners. This means a failure and a dead-end, which may drive the country to a civil war much more ravaging than the one it went through between 2002 and 2005. And the only outcome for the winner, whichever side it is, will be to have to rule for a long time against the other half of the country. What happened? How did the situation develop and how can it be sorted out? Beyond cutting judgments, partial siding, overbearing orders and threats, it is crucial to reach an unprejudiced post-mortem that will represent a lesson for Côte d’Ivoire and Africa.

An impartial and unbiased observer of the Ivorian political arena and aware that even if I claim my allegiance to pan-Africanism, one should not allow oneself to order the Ivorian authorities around, especially in an Africa where internal disputes are intricate, and where ballot processes manipulations are more than the rule. From what should have been the ‘perfect’ ballot to the present entangled situation, I have identified four anomalies/mistakes which, in my opinion, have led to glitches resulting in the foreseeable failure of the process. This fiasco should of course be blamed on all the parties involved, whether domestic or international.

The first anomaly involves the non-compliance with the agreements endorsed, which, in particular, set out a framework and schedule for the serene organisation and holding of presidential elections. These terms were outlined in the 4th Amendment to the Ouagadougou political agreement,[2] which outlines a framework for the demobilisation, disarmament and weapons storage, defines the provisions for restoring the state machinery and government authorities throughout the country, while planning the end of the crisis.

Article 3 of the amendment highlights that ‘… in order to support the better organisation of the elections, both Parties have agreed to stimulate immediately, and under the ICC [Integrated Command Centre] and the supervision of the Impartial Forces, the disarmament and storage of the weapons of both former confrontational Forces, as well as the demobilisation of the former New Forces troops. In any event, these operations must be completed at the latest two months before the date chosen for the presidential elections.’

The amendment also specifies the regrouping and cantonment of the rebel forces, the dismantling of militia, the payment of demobilisation bonuses, all ‘due to be completed at the latest two months before the presidential elections’. In addition, article 8 of the same Amendment acknowledges that ‘the absence of reunification of the Country and the slow progress of the institutional and political normalisation critically hinder the organisation of fair, transparent and democratic elections’.

It seems that the above provisions, absolutely crucial to holding open ballots, have not been implemented, the rebels refusing to disarm and making the redeployment of the administration and collection by the state of fiscal and customs income uncertain. The recent events (Iraq, Afghanistan) have shown that it is illusory to expect to hold open and transparent elections in areas controlled by armed rebels.

Why did the international community not insist that the rebels comply with the Ouagadougou political agreement and its four amendments, which they themselves signed and endorsed? Why did the United Nations Security Council not order the rebels to disarm, as stipulated in the Ouagadougou agreement that the council endorsed? Why did Blaise Compaoré, the facilitator and a leading figure in the Ouagadougou process, not apply the required pressure to ensure compliance with this crucial provision? And finally, why did the rebels and their political leader, Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, refuse to disarm despite having signed the agreement?

This essential breach of the painstakingly prepared electoral process inevitably would lead to potential violence and intimidation in areas actually controlled by opposition groups in the centre, north and west of the country. The fact that such violence may have affected the validity of the ballot was considered differently by the Constitutional Council and by the representative of the United Nations secretary general in Côte d’Ivoire simply added to the crisis.

As I see it, the second anomaly rests with the composition and operating mode of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). Taking the oath at the presidential palace on 25 February 2010 before the Constitutional Council, and in the presence of the facilitator and of the United Nations representative, its members had ‘committed [themselves] to fulfil their assignment in compliance with the Constitution, and with complete impartiality’.

However, this commission consists of 31 members, 11 representing the constitutional bodies and 20 issued from the political parties and rebel groups. It seems to be a unique situation in Africa that among the 20 representatives of the political parties and rebel groups in the commission, 18 belong to the opposition and two to the party in office! Even supposing that the constitutional bodies delegates (11) are close to the government, it would still only add up to 13 against 18. One way or the other, the ‘independent’ commission is in point of fact controlled by the opposition! Its chair is a senior member of the opposition coalition, and a former PDCI (Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire) minister in the Gbagbo cabinet. Strangely, all its members were appointed by presidential decree! And among the 18 members representing the opposition, six stand for three rebel groups (MPCI, MPIGO and MJP) which merged a long time ago with the New Forces, and eight who come from four opposition political parties (PIT, UDPCI, MFA and UDCY), which at the first presidential ballot only managed a combined score of 3.5 per cent of valid votes, the four others representing the RDR and PDCI. Never to be seen in Africa … or elsewhere!

And still, the 2001 electoral law only made provisions for ‘two representatives of each political party or group with at least one MP at the National Assembly or having won at least one local council election’.[3]

Meanwhile, there had been an attempted coup, an armed rebellion, the dispatch by France and the United Nations of intervention forces, and the instigation of the political ballet leading from Marcoussis to Ouagadougou, via Accra and Pretoria. It is in Marcoussis that such a composition was devised, regardless of the Ivorian constitution endorsed two years earlier by the vast majority of the people, and notwithstanding the most basic impartiality rules.

In addition to this rather odd composition (and probably to limit its consequences), a decision-making module was added, which will definitely lead to a blockage: consensus. This blockage resulted from the disagreement over the way the outcome from several northern districts in the country, from the opportunity to disclose temporary ballot results considering the lack of consensus, and from the removal of authority from the Electoral Commission by the Constitutional Council. It is pursuant to this removal of authority that the IEC chair, a member of the opposition, has hastily and amidst great confusion declared non-consolidated results, and moreover not even validated by all the IEC central commissioners and, most unusually, from the campaign HQ of the opposition candidate, i.e., his own!

Previously, a picture had circulated around the world, that of papers ripped away from the very hands of the IEC spokesperson, a member of the opposition. The perpetrator, an IEC central commissioner and representative of the interior minister, justified his action before the media: ‘The operating mode we mutually agreed upon outlines that before the results are made public, they must be consolidated by the Central Commission. The matter is that Mr Bamba Yacouba’s actions are a blatant breach of the operating mode unanimously endorsed by the IEC’.

It is therefore obvious that the Electoral Commission did not abide by its pledge of impartiality and compliance with the constitution. However, considering its composition, operating mode and the stakes, how could it be otherwise? Can one be both judge and judged? Why should one consider that the results collected and disclosed by the sole chairman of the commission (and the commission has not to date ruled on the issue) are a fair reflection of the electorate’s majority wishes? And, crucially, why was such composition of the Electoral Commission ever imposed?

In any event, the 2008 decree amending the Electoral Code for the end of crisis poll outlines that the final announcement of the outcome is within the exclusive remit of the Constitutional Council, the disclosure of temporary results by the IEC being only one stage in the electoral process. And this is where, in my opinion, rests the third mistake. It is due to the haste of the Constitutional Council. The issue here is not to challenge its legitimacy or the legality of its action. Like anywhere else, its composition and assignments are determined by the constitution. Also, and like anywhere else, its chair is appointed by the executive leader. Arguing that the chair is somewhat close to the president is therefore not admissible. It is the same everywhere.

Just as it is everywhere else, Côte d’Ivoire Constitutional Council is the sole judge of the constitutionality of the laws. It ‘controls the fairness of referendum operations and of the election of the people’s representatives’.[4] It ‘rules on the eligibility of candidates to the presidential and legislative elections, on the disputes linked to the election of the President of the Republic and Members of Parliament. The Constitutional Council announces the final results of the presidential elections’.[5] It is under the provisions of this mandate that the Constitutional Council cancelled the ballot in seven districts (out of the eight challenged), on the grounds of five appeals introduced by candidate Laurent Gbagbo based on irregularities involving ‘the absence of his representatives and delegates in the polling stations; ballot-boxes stuffing; conveyance of records of proceedings by unauthorised individuals; voting obstruction; absence of polling booths; and rigging of valid vote numbers’.

Based on evidence provided to support the demands, the Constitutional Council cancelled the ballots in the relevant districts, and readjusted the results, thus leading to confirm Laurent Gbagbo as the winner.

However, since the decision of the Constitutional Council is final and not subject to appeal, and considering the unusual circumstances, why did the council not take the time to make further enquiries on the demands submitted by candidate Laurent Gbagbo, and maybe even ask candidate Alassane Ouattara to introduce his own queries without challenging non-compliance with the deadlines? Similarly, why did it not order a new ballot in those districts disputed by requesting that the government involve the armed forces and the United Nations troops to guarantee security in the polling stations of these seven districts? Or just cancel the ballot, and hold it again after 45 days as outlined in the decree?

This nevertheless remains a decision by the supreme court of the country, and it is not ours to challenge here as it has happened so often in a number of other African elections, and even elsewhere (such as, for instance, the struggle between George W. Bush and Al Gore in the United States). I can understand that the swiftness implemented aimed at counteracting the chair of the Electoral Commission, but this unavoidably created a suspicion of prejudice.

The last rush and anomaly were of course the official recognition of the outcome by the representative of the United Nations. During a press conference held in Abidjan on 12 November 2010, the United Nations General Secretary Special Representative in Côte d’Ivoire Choi Young-Jin had certified the final results of the first ballot of the presidential election held on 31 October 2010, six days after their announcement by the Constitutional Council. Relying on the five certification criteria (peace, inclusivity, access to state media, finalised polling list and results), the UNOCI leader had considered that the first ballot of the presidential election had been held in ‘an overall peaceful and secure environment despite isolated incidents, in particular intimidation actions and obstruction to free movements in some regions’.

It was the first time in its history that the UNO was entrusted with such a role. Pursuant to the Pretoria Agreements (2005),[6] the Security Council had, through its resolution No. 1765,[7] had entrusted the United Nations general secretary special representative with the exclusive and personal certification mandate. The resolution emphasises that ‘the Certifier must safeguard the legitimate results with honour and determination. He will ensure compliance with the results, that the winner is effectively the candidate who came out ahead, that the results be neither democratically disputed nor subject to compromise.’

Relying on the compliance with the above-mentioned criteria, the certification by the general secretary special representative involves the various stages of the electoral process, the safeguard of ‘legitimate results’ and the prevention of ‘non-democratic disputes’. The crucial issue which requires clarification is therefore definitely the meaning of ‘legitimate results’. Are they interim results? Or final results? Those announced by the Independent Electoral Commission, or those published by the Constitutional Council?

Legitimate means compliant with the law. In this very instance, the legitimacy of results derives, like in any democracy, from the body imparting such legitimacy, i.e., the Constitutional Council. Why did the United Nations secretary general special representative not work on the results proclaimed by the Constitutional Council, and decide to certify them or not, as was the case for the first ballot? In the event of enduring disagreement, why would he not have thoroughly checked the cancellation criteria brought forward by the Constitutional Council, and assessed their validity, and even required, under those exceptional circumstances, that Alassane Ouattara submit ‘democratic divergences’, then transmit a report to the Security Council?

No election is ever perfect, whether in Africa or elsewhere. And nobody can today pretend unequivocally that either won the presidential election, and in particular if the petitions filed were justified or not. This is why a judicial body is the one to which the law confers last resort authority to determine and decide the final outcome of the ballot. During the past decade, many elections in Africa were challenged.

Only the decisions made by the supreme judicial bodies have conferred victory to one of the candidates. Such should have also been the case in Côte d’Ivoire, unless the legitimacy of its Constitutional Council is challenged, which would be against the resolutions of the Security Council on Côte d’Ivoire: They all state that ‘[they] confirm its definite regard for the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and unity of Côte d’Ivoire, and endorse the significance of good neighbourhood, non interference and regional cooperation principles’. Supervision by the United Nations does not in any way affect the Ivorian constitution.

The haste with which the certifier declared a winner undoubtedly contributed to the present deadlock, contrary to what occurred in Guinea where the various bodies took their time, thus allowing the tensions to dwindle.

All these malfunctions have drawn Côte d’Ivoire to the brink of civil war, and the crucial issue now is to avoid it.

How can that be sorted out?

Since the FPI (Ivorian Popular Front) came to power in 2000, one must admit that this party has never been able to run Côte d’Ivoire peacefully. Having suffered a coup, followed by an aborted armed rebellion which led to a de facto partition in 2002, the regime has been imposed by the international community a power sharing arrangement, which has seen its opponents, and even the rebels, exercise part of the power, including control over the Electoral Commission, hence over the election process.

Instead of punishing the rebels and their support, they were offered ministerial jump seats, imposing consecutive prime ministers until appointing the rebels’ leader in the position (expected to be neutral during the oncoming presidential elections). What they did not achieve through armed rebellion was offered to them on a silver tray by the international community, without getting in counterpart disarmament and country reunification.

It is therefore understandable that half of the country, which supported President Laurent Gbagbo, has grown a defiant attitude towards this international community, which hurried to acknowledge the interim results, hence ignoring the democratic process and the constitutional rules of the country. On the other hand, the other half of the country considers that only the involvement of the international community can protect the reliability of the ballot. Henceforth, orders and injunctions can only enhance the divisions that hit the country. As for an armed intervention, and whatever may be the alleged reasons put forward, it would have immeasurable consequences in the whole region. Also, and even if Alassane Ouattara or Laurent Gbagbo were to be in power, they would be disregarded by half of the country and reigning over a ruined community.

What is now an absolute must is a political dialogue, but this time it has to be an internal interchange without interferences or go-betweens. Just let the Ivoirians deal with their own issues!

They are solely responsible for finding a way out of the crisis, and crucially for the future management of their country’s resources – in particular the significant oil reserves which attract a lot of lust as all over Africa.[8]

While awaiting the end of the crisis, it is imperative that everyone is fully concerned with preventing violence on both sides, and ensures that any allegation of human rights violation is subjected to impartial local judicial enquiries, and swift and appropriate punishment. It would indeed be foolish to believe that in such an environment, violence is only on one side. There is no such thing under these circumstances as the ‘good ones’ and the ‘bad ones’. Africa nowadays is subjected to a struggle for power which, beyond the obvious ethnic and religious national divergences, essentially opposes two concepts of society, and which, in simple words, see leaders promoting global liberalism to others, who support a sovereign and socialist pan-Africanism.

As we celebrate 50 years of independence, all Africans should consider what is really at stake through today’s events in Côte d’Ivoire. Gullibility after 50 years is unforgiveable!

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* Pierre Sané is the former Amnesty International secretary general and former UNESCO assistant director general.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] 2003 Marcoussis (France) Agreement
[2] 2007 Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) Agreement
[3] Article 5 of the Law No. 2001-634 dated 09 October 2001, outlining the composition, organisation, attributes and operation of the Independent Electoral Commission
[4] Article 32 of the Constitution of the Côte d’Ivoire Republic
[5] Article 94 of the Constitution of the Côte d’Ivoire Republic
[6] 2005 Pretoria (South-Africa) Agreements
[7] Resolution No. 1765 endorsed by the Security Council on 16th July 2007
[8] ‘It is a promising area, where geological discoveries are quite similar to the significant findings uncovered in neighbouring Ghana’, says Marc Blaizot, geo-science director of the Total exploration and production department. ‘Present knowledge suggests that the reserves could amount to as much as 1.5 billion barrels’. From Jeune Afrique.com, 23rd October 2010.

Cote D’Ivoire: The case against military intervention

Mawuli Dake

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/69852

cc J AThreats of military intervention in Cote D’Ivoire by international parties following Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to step down from the presidency are ‘pushing the country on a treacherous path to a precipice of war’, argues Mawuli Dake.

As the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), France, the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) continue to beat war drums over Cote D’Ivoire, they are pushing the country on a treacherous path to a precipice of war. From all indications, the actions of these international actors are based on two precarious grounds – as though the fact of Laurent Gbagbo’s despicable conduct amounts to an unconditional justification for any form intervention; and as though the most important consideration for African leaders in this crisis is sacrosanct obligation to ‘prove something to the international community’. Could we not be witnessing another historic foreign policy blunder in the making?

Two of Africa’s most respected peace-building and governance organisations – The West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) and the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) respectively, have both expressed serious reservations about the proposed military intervention in Cote D’Ivoire. I cannot agree with them more. There is no question that any attempt to use military force by any party in the impasse will mean another costly war and human tragedy for the citizens of that country and neighbouring countries. It is easy to sit in Abuja, Paris or our various peaceful corners of the world and call for or applaud military invasion of Abidjan, but I wonder if that will still be the case if any of these people have a mother or a child’s life at stake. The sad reality is that it will indeed be a matter of life or death for the many Ivorian families that will be caught in the middle of this fight – as many of the countries pushing for the use of force continue to make arrangements for the evacuation of their citizens in the event of a full blown violence. But what about the millions of Ivorian families that have no one to evacuate them and nowhere to go?

The single most important geo-political foreign policy hindsight of the past decade, arguably, is the lesson not to indulge in a hasty invasion of a foreign country – without counting the cost, absolute necessity to do so; and without a clear exit strategy. It will be unfortunate to repeat the biggest error of the past decade. We can blame Gbagbo – rightly – for the unfortunate situation in his country, but international actors in the crisis must also take some responsibility for their actions that continue to contribute to a poisonous atmosphere that increasingly limits options for non-violent engagement and solutions. How did we so quickly get to a near-consensus view settling an election dispute through war?

BIG MISTEPS BY THE INTERNATIONAL ACTORS

YOU CAN BE THE IMPARTIAL MEDIATOR OR CHOSE SIDES AS AN ALIGNED ACTOR, YOU CANNOT BE BOTH: The AU, UN and ECOWAS have all openly sided with Alassane Ouattara. There is nothing wrong with choosing sides if these bodies believe it is the right thing to do. But it smacks of political naiveté and self-delusion for these institutions to still expect to be seen and treated as neutral mediators by the direct parties in the conflict. They have forfeited their unique status as the rightful arbiters. Their current disposition of alignment while at the same time pretending to be neutral, in fact makes them totally ineffective at both.

GOOD MISSIONS, WRONG EMISSARIES: The AU and ECOWAS did the right thing by dispatching envoys to Cote D’Ivoire to push for a peaceful outcome to the crisis, but appeared to have totally miscalculated in their choice of individual leaders for these missions. The AU’s choice of Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga makes little political and strategic sense – as Odinga was one of the first and vocal proponents for military action against Gbagbo. An act that without question compromises his chances of having the confidence of both parties – a critical condition for a meaningful diplomacy or mediation.

ECOWAS on the other hand could not have made a worst choice. ECOWAS’ three member presidential delegation included Presidents Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, Pedro Pires of Cape Verde and Yayi Boni of Benin. While it makes sense to choose them because they have not expressed any divisive opinions on the situation – and this is not to take anything away from these leaders, the political fact is that none of them have any political or economic clout to either persuade or compel Gbagbo in this matter. The fact that leaders of each of the ECOWAS member countries are presidents does not mean they wield the same influence.

LOUSY DIPLOMACY: There is difference between tough diplomacy and warmongering. From the get go, both the UN and ECOWAS appeared to have failed to put tough but tactful diplomacy front and center of their efforts – opting instead for approaches that are reactionary and incendiary instead strategic and thoughtful. Even to the extent that they appear be in alliance with armed rebels in their joint guarding of Ouattara's base at the Golf Hotel. Hastily threatening Gbagbo with the use of force even before attempting any genuine diplomacy and negotiations was a bad move and has not helped in any way in creating the conditions for a meaningful engagement with the outlawed regime. Sending a delegation with a message of ‘step down or face our military action’ cannot count as a serious diplomatic effort.

WHY MILITARY ACTION IS A BAD IDEA

1) Recipe for human tragedy: No one can predict exactly what will happen in the event of military action against Gbagbo’s regime. But we can be certain about one thing – there will be tragic human cost.

2) This military intervention will be unlike any other that ECOWAS forces have ever engaged in. As stated by Dr Kwesi Aning, peacekeeping analyst at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, ‘Ivory Coast is different from Liberia and Sierra Leone. It is a functioning wealthy country with a strong army, so a force will meet some credible resistance.’

3) It will require long-term commitment of troops and scarce resources – so far there is no strategy on the table that could potentially result in a swift military operation that can ensure a quick transition and stability in Cote D’Ivoire. It will be a misplaced priority to divert the region’s limited resources to sustain a long-term operation of this nature. Wars are expensive and its financial cost is likely to be the most expensive among the various options available to both local and the international actors at this point. There is no indication that the West African countries threatening war will be able or willing to commit the troops needed for such an exercise considering their own internal developments.

4) Neither the regional nor international leaders can demonstrate that they have exhausted diplomatic and non-military options at this point to warrant war.

5) But ending the current impasse will be just the first step of a long process to build once again a united Cote d’Ivoire under one national leadership to which all Ivorians without exception would be loyal.

SOME IDEAS FOR THE PATH FORWARD

– Stop the unnecessary warmongering: War, whether civil or with international forces will not be in the interest of Ivoirians and their country. All parties must thus tone down the agitation for violent confrontation.

– Devise a deliberate diplomatic and mediated strategy: ECOWAS must lead efforts by crafting a non-military strategy that utilises the vast array of diplomatic and economic tools for persuasion, negotiating and compelling Gbagbo step down. Such a strategy must also utilise the experience and influence of some influential former presidents from the region – including Jerry Rawlings, Obasanjo and John Kufuor. Ghana’s John Kufuor showed great leadership as chairman of the African Union during a similar impasse in Kenya.

– Form an International Mediation Team: WANEP recently called ‘for the creation of an International Mediation Team’ comprising the leadership of the various sub-regional and international actors. I will strongly encourage the engagement of the The Elders – as one of the few entities that can be trusted to provide independent and thoughtful guidance to the mediation process.

– Quatarra and his ‘government’ must show leadership and statesmanship, by discouraging any hasty military invasion of their country. It was unfortunate for his appointed Ambassador to the UN, Youssoufou Bamba, to allege genocide in Cote d’Ivoire – a clear insinuation for military intervention. An international invasion, may eventually defeat the headstrong Gbagbo and get them their desire to be installed as a new government, but will have irreparable long term consequences for their people. In addition, they should also be held to the same standards as Gbagbo’s men – with regards to respect for human rights and responsible conduct. He must forcefully discourage the incitement and acts of vandalism from his loyalists – including the armed rebels that are fighting on his side.

– Just as the citizens are increasingly implored to desist from using violence to express or resolve electoral grievances, I believe leaders of the region should demonstrate that same level of restraint.

– Prioritise Ivorian lives above all else and be conscious of the implications of each of the options you consider on the safety and wellbeing of the people.

Not that democracy and elections are less important, but that the lives citizens must be paramount – as all that are bound to be meaningless in war. And not that anyone desires for Gbagbo to get away with his irresponsible and selfish misconduct, but the circumstances may demand some uncomfortable compromises, not because of Gbagbo, but for the many vulnerable families who may unfairly be the victims of doing otherwise. Oftentimes, there is no perfect choice in a messy crisis – but we can always choose the lesser of two evils. And in this case, we may have to explore some difficult approaches, but around the principles of respecting of the will of the people as expressed in the run-off elections and ultimately their lives and safety.

For the sake of sparing Ivorians another costly human tragedy, our leaders must pursue solutions that will not compel Ivorian citizens to have to choose between democracy and their fundamental rights to life and safety. That we can, even in our most difficult times, find solutions- that work, without resorting to violence. That political misfits like Gbagbo will no longer be tolerated in African leadership.

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* Mawuli Dake is the CEO of Africa Group Consult, a premium consultancy firm committed to providing fresh strategic solutions to Africa’s challenges. He was a member of the four member ECOWAS Vision 2020 team, constituted by the president of ECOWAS in 2008 to develop the current vision of the sub-region.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Why do things always fall apart in Africa?

Copycat dictators and cartoon democracies

Alemayehu G. Mariam

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/69854

cc B SAfrica’s central problem is that over the past 50 years of independence, it has been ‘nearly impossible’ to hold the continent’s ‘so-called leaders accountable’, argues Alemayehu G. Mariam.

IVORY COAST, DECEMBER 2010
Laurent Gbagbo says he won the presidential election. The Independent Ivorian Election Commission (CEI) said former prime minister Alassane Ouattara is the winner by a nine-point margin. The African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United Nations, the United States, the European Union all say Ouattara is the winner. Gbagbo is only the latest African dictator to steal an election in broad daylight, flip his middle finger at his people, thumb his nose at the international community and cling to power like a barnacle to a sunken ship.

ETHIOPIA, MAY 2010
Meles Zenawi said he won the parliamentary election by 99.6 percent. The European Union Election Observer Team said the election “lacked a level playing field” and “failed to meet international standards”. Translation from diplomatic language: The election was stolen. Ditto for the May 2005 elections.

THE SUDAN, APRIL 2010
Omar al-Bashir claimed victory by winning nearly 70 percent of the vote. The EU EOM declared the “deficiencies in the legal and electoral framework in the campaign environment led the overallprocess to fall short of a number of international standards for genuine democratic elections.” Translation: al-Bashir stole the election.

NIGER, FEBRUARY 2010
Calling itself the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD), a group of army officers stormed Niger’s presidential palace and snatched president Mamadou Tandja and his ministers. In 2009, Tandja had dissolved the National Assembly and set up a “Constitutional Court” to pave the way for him to become president-for-life. Presidential elections are scheduled for early January, 2011.

ZIMBABWE, MARCH 2008
In the first round of votes, Morgan Tsvangirai won 48 percent of the vote to Mugabe’s 43 percent. Tsvangirai withdrew from the runoff in June after Mugabe cracked down on Tsvangirai’s supporters. Mugabe declared victory. The African Union called for a “government of national unity”. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki mediated and Tsvangirai agreed to serve as prime minister. A stolen election made to look like a not-stolen-election.

KENYA, DECEMBER 2007
Mwai Kibaki declared himself winner of the presidential election. After 1500 Kenyans were killed in post-election violence and some six hundred thousand displaced, intense international pressure was applied on Kibaki, who agreed to have Raila Odinga serve as prime minster in a coalition government. Another stolen election in Africa.

Massive election fraud, voting irregularities, vote buying, voter and opposition party intimidation, bogus voter registration, rigged polling stations, corrupt election commissioners and so on were common elsewhere in Africa including Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria and Egypt. In 2011, “elections” will be held in Chad, the Central African Republic, Malagasy, Uganda, Zambia, Nigeria and other countries. Will there be more stolen elections? One thing is for sure: In January, the Southern Sudanese independence referendum will be held with little doubt about its outcome.

IVORY COAST HEADED FOR CIVIL WAR?
The tragedy about Gbagbo is that the one-time university professor was one of the courageous Ivorian leaders who had struggled against civilian and military dictatorships. He was the chief opponent of Ivorian president-for-life Félix Houphouet-Boigny. Today Gbagbo wants to become Félix Houphouet-Boigny reincarnate. After a decade in power, Gbagbo has become addicted to the sweet life (la dolce vita) of dictatorship. He is said to have the support of the country’s military. He controls the south, and “rebels” are said to control much of the north where Ouattara has his support. To complicate matters, there are reports that rogue remnants of Charles Taylor’s bloodthirsty Liberian army are being recruited by both sides of the crises as a perfect storm of civil war gathers over the Ivorian horizon. Is Ivory Coast headed for a replay of the two-year civil war that began in 2002? Unless Gbagbo peacefully leaves power, it seems inevitable that violence and conflict will again reign in the Ivory Coast destroying thousands of lives and the economy of one of the more prosperous African countries.

The international community led by the U.S and France appears to be orchestrating diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions and a cutoff of access to funds at the regional West African bank to force Gbagbo to step aside. ECOWAS (a group of some dozen West African countries) is said to be considering military action; but there is little evidence that it has an offensive military capability to rout Gbagbo’s troops. Gbagbo has intimated that he will retaliate against immigrants from ECOWAS countries in Ivory Coast should military action be initiated to dislodge him. He remains steadfastly defiant and has escalated the crackdown on opponents. He continues to round up opposition supporters; and street killings, abductions and detentions by the military and armed youth thugs are said to be widespread. Gbagbo has repeatedly claimed that the “international community has declared war” on Ivory Coast and he has a constitutional duty to defend the country against such aggression.

THE LESSON OF IVORY COAST
Informed analysts suggest that Ivory Coast will prove to be a global test case of whether the international community could develop consensus to uphold the outcomes of democratic elections against a defiant African dictator who refuses to leave power peacefully. I disagree for two reasons. First, dictatorships in Africa have always been tolerated by the international community. As in the past, the West will cackle, bray, neigh and yelp about Gbagbo, but at the end of the day they will yawn and walk away shaking their heads and repeating the words of former French President Jacques Chirac, “Africa is not ready for democracy!” Second, the AU and ECOWAS will make sure that nothing is done that will set a precedent for an African dictator being removed from power through international action. These are the same crooks who are today coddling and shielding al-Bashir from prosecution in the International Criminal Court. Today it is Gbagbo; tomorrow it could be any one of them. Africa’s dictators will never, ever allow such a precedent to be established.

THINGS KEEP FALLING APART AFTER ONE-HALF CENTURY OF AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE
Things keep falling apart in Africa because over the past one-half century of independence it has been nearly impossible to hold Africa’s so-called leaders accountable. For fifty years, African “leaders” have been telling Africans and the world that Africa’s problems are all externally caused. Africa is what it is (or is not) because of its colonial legacy. It is the white man. It is imperialism. It is capitalism. It is the International Monetary Fund. It is the World Bank. The continent’s underdevelopment, poverty, backwardness, mismanagement are all caused by evil powers outside the continent. The latest re-invention of the old African Boogeyman is “globalization” and “neoliberalism”, which Zenawi claims has “created three consecutive lost decades for Africa”.

There are indisputable reasons why things keep falling apart in Africa. The major one is the lack of competent leadership with vision, purpose and integrity. Indeed the common thread that sews the vast majority of post-independence African leaders is not steadfast commitment to good governance and democratic practices, but their incredible sense of entitlement to rule forever and ever and ever. In 1964, Kwame Nkrumah invented the whole idea of president-for-life becoming the first certified post-independence African dictator. Many others followed. In 1970, H. Kamuzu Banda of Malawi declared himself ‘President-for-Life”. Jean-Bédel Bokassa, themilitary ruler of the Central African Republic, kicked it up a notch in the mid-1970s. He coronated himself “Emperor”. Idi Amin of Uganda, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Ivory Coast, Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Albert Bernard Bongo of Gabon, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Ismail Omar Guellah of tiny Djbouti, and countless others have clung or continue to cling to power as rulers-for-life. It boggles the mind to call these individuals “leaders”; they are, as the great Afrobeat legend and human rights activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti described them, “animals in human skin”. I would call them hyenas in designer suits or uniforms.

These “animals in human skin” have stoked ethnic and tribal hatred, caused fragmentation and sectarian tensions and have unleashed unspeakable violence on their populations to cling to power in much the same way as the old colonial masters. In Ivory Coast and Nigeria today violent confrontations are being orchestrated by “leaders” along ethnic and religious lines. Just in the past few days, there has been a surge in violence in Nigeria, a country said to be evenly split between Christian and Muslims, with the firebombing of churches. Various scholars have expressed concern over the “heightening of the resurgence of ethnic identity politics in Nigeria” and the rise of armed ethnic militias which not only challenge the legitimacy of the Nigerian state but are also spearheading separatist movements to dismember the Nigerian nation. Given these tensions, more and more “marginalized” Nigerians are said to choose their ethnic identities over loyalty to the Nigerian nation. No doubt echoes of the Biafran War of 1967 reverberate in the minds of concerned Nigerians. Ethnicity and sectarianism are also a core element of the current Ivorian crises. Gbagbo accuses Muslims, who are in the majority in the north, of aiding and supporting the “rebels” who control the region. They have been subjected to attacks and persecution.

As Africa burns in ethnic, political and sectarian fires, the unctuous, hypocritical and self-righteous Western governments frolic in bed with the corrupt dictators in power. They jibber-jabber about democracy, human rights, the rule of law, accountability, transparency and the rest of it, but will gladly hold hands with bloodthirsty African dictators and walk down the primrose path to maintain their oil, mineral and military strategic interests. No Western government involved in Africa will openly admit it, but each and every one of them shares wholeheartedly Chirac’s view that “Africa is not ready for democracy” and that “multi-partyism” is a “kind of luxury,” that is unaffordable by a country like the Ivory Coast (or any other African country for that matter).

CHINUA ACHEBE AND WHY THINGS ARE IN FREE FALL IN AFRICA
In Things Fall Apart (1959), the great African novelist Chinua Achebe tells the story of the initial encounters in the 1890s between Ibo villagers in Nigeria and white European missionaries and colonial officials. That was the time when things really began to “fall apart” in Africa. The white man “put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” But his depiction could apply to the “falling apart” of many other African societies as a result of contact with colonialism and Christianity. But over the last one-half century, colonialism has become extinct and the white man has “left” Africa. The African leaders who replaced the colonial masters have not hearkened back to pre-colonial Africa and used traditional values and methods to hold the center and keep things from falling apart. Rather, they have followed in the colonial footsteps and lorded over vampiric states which have attenuated and frayed the fabric of the post-independent African societies to ensure their hold on power.

Robert Guest, Africa editor for The Economist, in his book The Shackled Continent (2004), argues that “Africa is the only continent to have grown poorer over the last three decades” while other developing countries and regions have grown. Africa was better off at the end of colonialism than it is today. According to the U.N., life expectancy in Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Mozambique and Swaziland for the period 2005-2010 is less than 44 years, the worst in the world. The average annual income in Zimbabwe at independence in 1980 was USD $950. In 2009, 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollars (with a “T”) was worth about USD $300. In the same year, a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe cost 300 billion Zimbabwean dollars (with a “B”). The tens of billions in foreign aid money has done very little to improve the lives of Africans. The reason for things falling apart in Africa is statism (the state as the principal change agent) and central planning, according to Guest. The bottom line is that the masses of Africans today are denied basic political and economic freedoms while the privileged few live the sweet life of luxury, not entirely unlike the “good old” colonial times.

Guest concludes that “Africans are poor because they are poorly governed.” The answer to Africa’s problems lies in upholding the rule of law, enforcing contracts, safeguarding property rights and putting more stock in freedom than in force. Much of Africa today is under the control of “Vampire states”. As the noted African economist George Ayittey explains, the “vampire African states” are “governments which have been hijacked by a phalanx of bandits and crooks who would use the instruments of the state machinery to enrich themselves and their cronies and their tribesmen and exclude everybody else.” (“Hyena States” would be a fitting alternative in the African landscape.) Africa is ruled by thugs in designer suits who buy votes and loyalties with cash handouts.

Things have fallen apart in Africa for a long time because of colonialism, capitalism, socialism, Marxism, communism, tribalism, ethnic chauvinism… neoliberalism, globalism and what have you. Things are in total free fall in Africa today because Africa has become a collection of vampiric states ruled by kleptocrats who have sucked it dry of its natural and human resources. It is easy to blame the white man and his colonialism, capitalism and all the other “isms” for Africa’s ailments, but as Cassius said to Brutus in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” The fault is not in the African people, the African landscape or skyscape. Africa is rich and blessed with natural and human resources. The fault is in the African brutes and their vampiric regimes.

Achebe took the title for his book Things Fall Apart from William Butler Yeats’s classic poem, which in partial rendition reads:

‘Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, (substitute Africa)
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.’

For what it is worth, my humble view is that the African center cannot hold and things always fall apart because the best and the brightest of Africans lack all conviction to do what is right, while the worst are full of passionate intensity to divide the people ethnically, tribally, racially, ideologically, religiously, regionally, geographically, linguistically, culturally, economically, socially, constitutionally, systematically… and rule them with an iron fist. “Ces’t la vie en Afrique!” as the French might say; but to gainsay Jacques Chirac, “Africa is ready for democracy!” (L’Afrique est prêt pour la démocratie!).

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN ETHIOPIA.

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* This article first appeared in the Huffington Post.
* Alemayehu G. Mariam is professor of political science at CSU San Bernardino.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Ivory Coast Showdown: A Discussion on the Political Crisis in West Africa

Interview with Horace Campbell by Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow

Horace Campbell

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/69826

cc WikimediaIvory Coast’s political crisis remains in a deadlock. President Laurent Gbagbo and longtime opposition leader Alassane Ouattara have each claimed victory in November’s disputed election. Ouattara has received the backing of the international community. Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman speaks with Horace Campbell of Syracuse University and Gnaka Lagoke, an Ivory Coast political analyst.

Amy Goodman: We turn now to Côte d’Ivoire - in English, the Ivory Coast - whose political situation remains in a deadlock following a day of talks with visiting African heads of state. On Monday, a delegation of leaders from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde and Kenya met with both Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and longtime opposition leader Alassane Ouattara. Gbagbo and Ouattara have each claimed victory in November’s disputed election. Ouattara has received the backing of the international community, including the Economic Community of West African States, known as ECOWAS, which has threatened military action if Gbagbo does not agree to step aside.

Gbagbo’s security forces have been accused of orchestrating some 200 deaths, hundreds of arrests, dozens of cases of disappearance and torture in recent weeks. Last week, Ouattara’s appointee to the United Nations warned the standoff has placed Ivory Coast ‘on the brink of genocide’.

There are conflicting reports today on whether Gbagbo and Ouattara will meet face to face. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga says the two have agreed to hold talks, but Ouattara’s camp quickly denied the claim. On his way to the airport, Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma said only that the talks will continue. He was quoted as saying: ‘We have had very, very important meetings, following a mission from ECOWAS and the AU. At this stage, I can only say that the discussions are ongoing.’

The meetings came just one day after President Gbagbo appeared on national television and accused Ouattara of staging a coup and backing foreign military action. Gbagbo said (translated): ‘Let’s not kid ourselves. Let’s not let ourselves be abused by words. It’s about an attempted coup d’état brought in under the banner of “international community”. This action is destined to bring in, by force if they need to, as the leader of this country a man who Ivorians didn’t choose by their votes -as my rival has lost in the presidential elections from November 28, 2010.’

For more on Côte d’Ivoire, Ivory Coast, we’re joined by two guests. Horace Campbell joins us again, professor of political science and African American studies at Syracuse University. His latest book is ‘Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA’. Horace Campbell is joining us today from Syracuse. And joining us from Washington, D.C. is Gnaka Lagoke. He is an Ivory Coast political analyst and runs the website AfricanDiplomacy.com.

Why don’t we begin in Washington, D.C. Talk about the latest, the situation that is taking place right now in the Ivory Coast. President Gbagbo says that the election has been rigged. What is your sense of this?

Gnaka Lagoke: Thanks, Amy. I think it’s a very complicated question, because both sides say that elections -Alassane Ouattara is recognised by international community. And many people close to the president think that if people do the recount, people will find out that there were many electoral protests in the north and that Gbagbo will be seen as the true winner of the election.

I, myself, have seen some conflicting numbers. You know, when I was trying to follow the election after the runoff, I have seen a result coming from the United Nations mission in the Ivory Coast and results coming from other sources. I have seen that, for instance, the number of registers on some electoral list in some parts of the Ivory Coast, the first round and the second round did not match. I have seen that myself. But I cannot say, when - as I speak, that I have seen all the numbers that Gbagbo has truly won the election or Alassane Ouattara has truly won the election. This is what I can say to answer your first question.

Amy Goodman: And who are they both? Who is President Gbagbo? Who is the opposition leader Alassane Ouattara?

Gnaka Lagoke: OK, yeah. Laurent Gbagbo is a freedom fighter. He struggled for 30 years, you know, to bring democracy and freedom in the Ivory Coast. He was the main opposition leader to Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who was a benevolent dictator who ruled the country for 33 years.

And Alassane Dramane Ouattara has a different path. He’s obviously a banker, an economist, who got his Ph.D. at age 30 here in the US. And then, you know, when he became the prime minister of the Ivory Coast in 1990, and I think he was discovered that he could give it a try, you know, to run for president, when he noticed that many people from the north thought that, you know, they could go through him, you know, to access to state power.

So, both - one is a professional politician, Laurent Gbagbo. One is an economist. And both of them are competing and fighting for almost 20 years in the political arena. And both also symbolise the division of the country between the south and the north. And both have different ideologies about governance. Gbagbo is a socialist. Ouattara is a liberal, obviously believes in neoclassical economy, and because when he was the prime minister of the Ivory Coast, he was implementing many policies like proposed by the IMF. So, this is, I think, if I can give you a brief description of both people.

Amy Goodman: And how dire is the situation right now with ECOWAS threatening to engage in military action to force Gbagbo out?

Gnaka Lagoke: Yeah. When I got an opportunity to talk about that on - like, on other shows, I oppose a military intervention in the Ivory Coast, and I think that that was not a good intention, that was not a good decision. People might still come to - might still go to Ivory Coast, you know, to try and take Gbagbo out of power using military intervention, but I think it is a very bad idea, because everybody knows that the seeds of turmoil in our people, you know, that brought Ivory Coast on the brink of a civil war are in every African country, and particularly in Nigeria. And everybody knows that in less than four months Nigerians are going to go to vote. And everybody knows that and the reports support that Goodluck Jonathan is going to try and put an end to the zoning system according to which the north and the south in Nigeria alternate power every eight years.

Now, Ivory Coast is a microcosm of a united Africa. Twenty-six per cent of the population in Ivory Coast come from foreign countries. If you find - if you look at a family in the Ivory Coast, you will see that one parent comes from - how can I say? - from a traditional ethnic group in the Ivory Coast, and the other parent comes from a foreign country. So when you attack Ivory Coast, you’re not just trying to destroy or kill people from Gbagbo’s tribe, but you’re trying to destroy a microcosm of the united Africa. And that’s why I opposed a military intervention in Ivory Coast yesterday, and I oppose a military intervention in Ivory Coast today, and I will oppose a military intervention in Ivory Coast tomorrow.

Amy Goodman: Horace Campbell, you’re a professor at Syracuse University. You have been looking at Africa for many decades. What is your position on what’s happening right now in the Ivory Coast?

Horace Campbell: Well, good morning, Amy. And good morning, my brother.

Gnake Lagoke: Good morning.

Horace Campbell: I think that the discussion is very pertinent to the new challenges for the African peoples, that we must have a higher standard for what is called democracy and people’s rights and peace. And I was very, very intrigued by the fact that my brother said that Gbagbo was a freedom fighter for 30 years. But all over Africa, we have the experience of freedom fighters who come to power, whether they’re in Uganda - Museveni - or in Zimbabwe - Mugabe - or in Eritrea or in Ethiopia. When these freedom fighters come to power, they turn the society into militarised society and use the old discourse of politics of anti-imperialism to maintain themselves in power.

Now, I agree that the question of the Ivory Coast is not about Gbagbo and about Ouattara. The question of democracy in the Ivory Coast is whether all citizens of the Ivory Coast will have the right to participate in the political system. And what is at stake here is the long challenge that people from the north who are considered from Islamic background, whose parents migrated to the Ivory Coast, whether they can participate in the political process and become leaders of the country. Your guest is very right about the ideological and political orientation of Alassane Ouattara, but what that also is hiding is a question of the Islamic question that is in the country, where there are some people from the south that says another northerner cannot become a leader. And that is why, for the past 15 years, there was a struggle in the Ivory Coast over this idea called Ivorité. And Ivorité is simply a shield for xenophobia and the kind of chauvinism that should be opposed by pan-Africanists, by peace-loving persons.

And I agree with your guest that military intervention should be the last resort, but there should be other forms of intervention - diplomatic, financial, even information - so that Gbagbo does not manipulate the position of power to enrich himself and enrich his friends who are using the resources of Ivory Coast to maintain themselves in power.

One of the things we want to stress here is that democracy is not simply about voting in elections. The Gbagbo forces, who were freedom fighters, need to explain to the people of Africa how is it that they made an agreement with Trafigura and Marc Rich to dump toxic waste in the Ivory Coast. So, the democracy is much more [than] about elections and bringing Ouattara to power. And part of the lessons we should learn out of this long process to democratise the Ivory Coast, that is much more than Ouattara and Gbagbo, it’s about democratic rights for the working people, democratic rights for those who work on cocoa plantations, the rights of women, the rights of people of different religious and different ideological orientations.

Amy Goodman: But Professor Campbell, the issue of ECOWAS military intervention, where do you stand?

Horace Campbell: Well, the issue of ECOWAS military intervention is a threat which is being used to present to the government of the Ivory Coast -that is, the illegal government of Gbagbo - that the African society and African peoples will not tolerate illegal hold of power. This is part of the Constitutive Act of the African Union. It is my view that military intervention should be the last resort, that there should be all forms of negotiations and discussions. And the discussions and sanctions should be the ones that are used to bring down the Gbagbo regime.

It is my view also that for four or five months, Gbagbo will not be able to pay the military, that is the backbone of his power, and that the ECOWAS position is a united position of the African Union. And this is only, I hope, a threat, because I agree with your guest that military intervention would complicate the whole region, because there is no society in West Africa that would escape the conflagration of the war. So I do not believe that we should have militarism to bring about democracy in Africa. So, yes, I would hope that military intervention is not what is used to bring about change in the government in the Ivory Coast.

Amy Goodman: And how is it known, Horace Campbell, that Gbagbo actually lost the election, the current president?

Horace Campbell: How is it known that Gbagbo lost the election?

Amy Goodman: Why is it believed that he actually lost the election?

Horace Campbell: Well, it is believed that Gbagbo lost the election because all of the observers and all the information from the African Union, from ECOWAS, from African civil society organisations and the United Nations certified that the election results that Gbagbo lost the election. The only source that says that Gbagbo did not lose the election is Gbagbo himself -

Amy Goodman: Gnaka -

Horace Campbell: - and those spokespersons for Gbagbo outside of the Ivory Coast.

Gnaka Lagoke: Hello?

Amy Goodman: Gnaka Lagoke, you wanted to respond.

Gnaka Lagoke: Yeah, thank you very much, Amy. Yes, Campbell, I know -well, I’ve read the interview you had with Amy, you know, when I was coming to the show, and I’ve seen that, you know, you are very knowledgeable about politics in the world, and particularly like in Africa, but there are a few facts, you know, I think, like, you are misreporting.

Ivorité is - was like a concept that was conceived by Henri Konan Bédié. Gbagbo was accused of surfing on that concept when he came to power, but the reality is this: in 1990, there was also an ideology on behalf of the people who live in the northern part of the Ivory Coast, and that ideology is called the chart of the northerners. If you get a chance to read the book, ‘Côte d’Ivoire-L’Année Terrible 1999-2000’, page 301, you will see the document published in that book. You cannot - when people talk about the northerners in the Ivory Coast, yes, there were some abuses, and even many abuses, against them, the same way the state of the Ivory Coast did abuse some of the citizens in the south, the people coming from Gbagbo’s tribe, people coming from the eastern part of the Ivory Coast. So, because, like I said, Houphouët-Boigny was in power for 33 years and he was succeeded by Henri Konan Bédié, who did not change too much, you know, the policies or the policies of the state towards some citizens in the Ivory Coast. So, yes, Ivorité is a divisive concept. There was also the chart of the northerners.

And Alassane Ouattara, when he was the prime minister of the Ivory Coast, you can see those videos on YouTube, when he was interviewed about that separatist movement of the chart of the northerners, he did not do anything, you know, to distance himself from that concept and that ideology. And then, many believe in the Ivory Coast and, like, even in Africa, that he has also used ethnicity to his advantage.

So now, I am a pan-Africanist, and I believe that if Alassane Ouattara is the winner and is truly the winner of the Ivory Coast, that he should have the right to be the president of the Ivory Coast. But it is a disputed election. And then, when you say that everybody says that Alassane Ouattara won the election, yes, the United Nations and many other observers, but you still have other voices that are not reported in the international media, like there were the African observers. I’m not here to defend Gbagbo’s case; this is not what I’m doing. Gbagbo was a freedom fighter when he was in the opposition and he came to power. He might have miscalculated the power of corporate governance or the power of the imperialism, you know, to try and overthrow him. But when you talk about people in the north who are the victims of everything that is going on in the Ivory Coast, I think that it is too much, and I think that you should put that into context. And this is - things don’t happen - things did not happen like that in the country.

Amy Goodman: Professor Campbell?

Gnaka Lagoke: Alassane Ouattara was banned - Alassane Ouattara was banned from the election, because even though he was born in the Ivory Coast, for more than like 20 years he was known as a citizen of Upper Volta. And then when he came to Ivory Coast, even though Ivory Coast is the land of immigrants, there were people - and it was alleged to be the fear from people in the south, who believe that Alassane Ouattara is going to represent like foreign interests who are coming to come and take over the Ivory Coast.

And I’m not saying, I - I agree that he run for president, but at the same time, like Rawlings said, the president of Ghana - and that was my last statement on this question - that the situation in the Ivory Coast goes beyond an electoral dispute. It is a ‘web’ - and I’m quoting Rawlings - it is a ‘web of ethnic and political complexities’ that need to be handled with diplomacy. So, it’s not just about election. Gbagbo was in power. Alassane Ouattara funded the rebellion to come and overthrow him. So, people in Gbagbo’s camp think that it is injustice done to their leader, that the same way - even if Gbagbo has lost, they think that they should continue doing what they’re doing. So, that’s why the situation in Ivory Coast is very complicated.

Amy Goodman: Professor Campbell, a very quick response and then the significant resignation of Lanny Davis, the corporate lobbyist in Washington, D.C., who was the special counsel to President Clinton when Clinton was president, resigning from or no longer representing President Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast, after he came under enormous criticism. Among those critics were you on Democracy Now! last week.

Horace Campbell: Well, Lanny Davis stepped down because it was embarrassing. And the information about Gbagbo and his violation of the rights of the peoples of the Côte d’Ivoire are well known. And because Gbagbo is now known as a former freedom fighter who is holding onto power, Lanny Davis is correct and is correct to step down. And it is the work of those in the peace movement, those in the progressive wing of the pan-African movement, to stress what are the questions for the people of Côte d’Ivoire and the people of West Africa. The most important questions are the quality of the life of the people of West Africa, peace, reconstruction, health and the web of people’s rights. I do not agree with Jerry Rawlings that this is a web of ethnic politics in the Ivory Coast. This is a web of whether one is able to be a citizen of Côte d’Ivoire regardless of whether their parents or grandparents came from Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Liberia, because all over Africa, we have these questions of citizenship. This is much more similar to the situation in Kenya, where the ruling party held onto power in 2007, 2008, saying someone who’s a Luo from northern Kenya cannot become a president of Kenya.

Now, I agree completely with your guest that Alassane Ouattara represents neo-liberalism in the Côte d’Ivoire. And it is our task in the peace movement to ensure that the struggle against Gbagbo focuses not only on Ouattara, but on citizenship rights, the rights of women, the rights of youth, the right to demilitarise the situation. And this way, I agree with your guest. The challenge is, how can we set up sanctions, information levers and other measures to force the people of Ivory Coast to intervene politically so that this kind of chauvinism and xenophobia, which is exhibited in Ivorité, is banned from African politics, because we see it all over Africa? We see it where the politicisation of ethnicity, the politicisation of religion, the politicisation of region. These are not the central political questions in Africa.

The central political questions in Africa are life, health and the quality of the well-being of the youth. Your guest did not say that for the past 10 years, since 2000, Gbagbo has been in power. While he’s been in power, this same clique that holds onto power, I will repeat, got paid so that toxic waste could be dumped in the Ivory Coast, and hundreds of people died in - and I’d say the quality of life, environmental justice, these are the questions for peace and democracy, not just voting in elections.

Amy Goodman: We’re going to have to leave it there, and I thank you both for being with us. Gnaka Lagoke, a Ivory Coast political analyst, speaking to us from Washington, D.C., his website is AfricanDiplomacy.com. And Horace Campbell, professor of political science and African studies - African American studies at Syracuse University.

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* This interview was conducted by Democracy Now and recorded in video.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

The empire strikes back: France and the Ivory Coast

Gary K. Busch

2011-01-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/69808

cc UN PhotoGary K. Busch examines the current stand-off between Alassane Outtara and Laurent Gbagbo through a neocolonial lens, calling into question the international response to the crisis.

Currently there is an impasse in the runoff of the Presidential elections in the Ivory Coast. The French-linked and funded electoral commission declared that Alassane Outtara won the election while the Constitutional Court declared incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo as the victor. The ‘international community’ of Western countries, NGOs, UN appeasers, and a variety of Francafrique cowards and bed-wetters support Ouattara even though massive fraud has been demonstrated at the polls in the rebel-held North.

This result should be no surprise to anyone. There has been no effective disarmament of the tin-pot rebel warlords of the North and no unification of the country in anticipation of the election. A ‘security’ dividing line between the North and the South has been maintained by the occupying French forces pretending to be UN troops. Even so-called peacemakers like Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso pretend to be neutral. Campaore, an un-indicted war criminal with a track record of subversion, arms smuggling and war profiteering in Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Cost is somehow portrayed as a neutral.

When arms were being shipped to the West African wars by Chirac and Ghadaffi they arrived at their destinations after having passed through the hands of Campaore and Tandja (who both profited on the deliveries). Ouattara, known as the ‘Father of the Rebellion’ in the Ivory Coast was sustained by operating from a safe haven in Burkina Faso when he was not busy maintaining his close personal ties to Sarkozy’s first wife in Paris. There was no mystery about the Ouattara-Campaore joint effort. Several hours of tapes exist which recorded the meetings called by Campaore in Burkina Faso which garnered support for Ouattara among the Northerners and actively plotted with two French military officers sent from Paris to attempt coups against the Gbagbo government.

Voter fraud and deception was the rule in the North for over seven years. Even when the AU originally appointed Charles Konan Banny as the interim prime minister and Thabo Mbeki as the mediator the frauds persisted. Mbeki visited the Ivory Coast and invited the warring factions to meet with President Gbagbo in Pretoria where two sets of agreements were made. These Pretoria Agreements achieved a resolution of most of the outstanding issues between the two sides, because President Gbagbo made concessions to achieve these ends. The most important point made in Pretoria was that there would be disarmament of the rebels.

However, no disarmament took place. The rebels agreed to disarmament plans, schedules and procedures but missed every deadline. They rejected President Mbeki as a mediator because he insisted that the rebels fulfill their agreement to disarm. To this day there has been no disarmament, despite calls by the UN Security Council.

The UN issued Resolution 1633 extended the deadline for the election of a President from October 30, 2005 (as written in the Constitution) for another year on the basis that a free and fair election could not be held under existing conditions and created the post of Prime Minister with elevated powers. It demanded that ‘all the parties signatories to the Linas-Marcoussis, Accra III and Pretoria Agreements, as well as all the Ivorian parties concerned, implement it fully and without delay’. These responsibilities were clearly delineated further on in the Resolution:

‘14. Demands that the Forces Nouvelles proceed without delay with the DDR programme in order to facilitate the restoration of the authority of the State throughout the national territory, the reunification of the country and the organization of the elections as soon as possible;

‘15. Affirms that the identification process must also start without delay…’

Since then there has been no effective progress on disarmament. This is the root of the crisis.

There was a program in place to ‘identify’ Ivorian citizens in an effort to create a current electoral roll. The question of ‘identity’ goes to the heart of the rebellion. Without a solution, there could be no elections and no serious hopes of peace between the armed camps.

Since 1993, when Henri Konan Bédié succeeded Félix Houphouët-Boigny as President, Muslim northerners have struggled to get identity papers; officials have accused them of hiding their foreign origins and abuses linked to constant identity checks have mounted. North-south tensions became personalised in the face-off between Bédié, from the south-west, and Houphouët's former Premier, Alassane Dramane Ouattara ('ADO'), who is both northern and Muslim, and a former International Monetary Fund deputy managing director. Konan Bédié promoted the nationalist concept of Ivoirité and changed the constitution to allow only '100 per cent' Ivorians to stand for the presidency. He claimed that Ouattara's family came from Burkina Faso and that he had faked his identity papers to hide the fact. Security agents carried on tearing up northerners' documents or made it impossible to renew them, effectively depriving them of their nationality. Bédié’s first act as President included expelling 12,000 Ivory Coast residents on the grounds that they were really from Burkina Faso. This was Bedie, not Gbagbo.

Banny's cabinet approved a fresh identification process, together with new identity cards and a new electoral register. Gbagbo and the FPI disagreed with the Banny program because it did not provide for disarmament in advance of the registration. This was insisted on because under the Ivorian Constitution, registration could only legally be conducted by registrars appointed by the Institut National de la Statistique (INS), who would draw up the electoral roll and issue voters' cards. The INS was run by the planning minister, former FPI Finance Minister Paul Bohoun Boubre.

Banny's scheme was being run by an ad hoc Office National d'Identification, which is not provided for by the Constitution. Without disarmament it was not safe for licensed registrars to visit the rebel-held North to examine the documentation of putative voters and citizens. Banny has said that a ‘village council’ could meet and make the necessary identification. Since these councils were dominated and controlled by the local rebel bands, this meant that whoever the rebels said is an Ivorian became one on the spot. Fraud becomes the byword.

In fact this type of fraud was widely reported. The National Assembly announced that the police had brought evidence which showed that the RDR (Ouattara’s party) was ‘selling’ registration documents. The President of the National Assembly, Mamadou Koulbaly, held up the purported registration of a man who claimed to be Ivorian and who used the existing documentation of a man, Sanago Aboubacar, to register. The real Sanago Aboubacar is a FPI delegate from Abobo and was very surprised to see someone else’s face on his identity document. The police reported that these false identification papers were being sold for the sum of 15,000 FCFA by the RDR village councillors in the North. The whole process is in disrepute because no one trained and licensed to perform the process of identification is able to attend these ‘village councils’. Any electoral roll prepared by this process is seriously flawed and incredible as a valid electoral roll.

The nub of the issue is that over half of the rebel forces grouped under the rubric ‘Forces Nouvelles’ are not Ivorians and never were. They were gathered as mercenaries and hired thugs by the French from Burkina Faso, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone and from the assorted other bands of riff-raff engaged in internecine warfare in West Africa. They were transported to the Ivory Coast and armed by the French, with the support and participation of Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso and Toure and Tandja of Mali and Niger.

There has been a peace treaty in place in the Ivory Coast since 2003. During the interval the ‘international community’ has intervened in the political process of the Ivory Coast. It has wrung concessions from Gbagbo and the FPI government and made formal agreements with the rebel bands. To date these commitments by the rebel bands have not been implemented or enforced. The international community has been resourceful in pushing Gbagbo, but has refused to deal in any meaningful way with the rebels. These rebels have not brought good government to their occupied areas. They have destroyed the infrastructure of the North. They have billeted themselves on a resistant population and stolen their houses, cars, children, jobs and opportunities. All of this has been done in defiance of the law, customary traditions and supposed UN standards. They pay no taxes; they pay no rent; they pay no customs duties. And yet, the UN and the international community has done nothing to stop them or to assist the poor, disenfranchised, impoverished and supine citizens of the North.

The rebels steal the cocoa, the cotton, the wood and the wool and make small fortunes, which they bank in Ouagadougou. The international community, to be fair, has no love for the rebels - they have been led in their deliberations by the French, who have a lot at stake in the country.

After 50 years of independence, France still controls most of the infrastructure and holds its foreign currency reserves as part of the 14-nation Franc Zone. The airline, telephone, electricity and water companies, and some major banks, are French-controlled. ‘Accords de coopération’, signed after Independence by the late President Félix Houphouët-Boigny and France's then Premier, Michel Debré, are still technically applicable. France maintains a stranglehold of Ivorian commerce and currency, which vitiates national initiatives towards independence.

This privileged position of France is confirmed by a report from the UN Commission: ‘The testimony we have assembled has also enabled us to see that the law of 1998 concerning rural property is linked to the dominant position that France and French interests occupy in Cote d'Ivoire… According to these sources, the French own 45% of the land and, curiously, the buildings of the Presidency of the Republic and of the Ivorian National Assembly are subject to leases concluded with the French. French interests are said to control the sectors of water and electricity.’ The report only superficially touched on the dominance of French interests in Cote d'Ivoire, but they are not hard to find. Below are some of leading players of the French business class in Cote d'Ivoire:

- Bollore, the leader in French maritime transport and principal operator of maritime transport in Cote d'Ivoire along with Saga, SDV (Switched Digital Video) and Delmas, control the port of Abidjan, the leading transit port in West Africa. Bollore also controls the Ivorian-Burkina railway, Sitarail. Although it has recently withdrawn from the cocoa business, it has maintained its leading position in tobacco and rubber.

- Bouygues (leader in construction and public works) dominates Ivorian construction projects, such as highways or dams, financed by public funds and constructed by the government. Since Ivorian independence it has been the number one company in construction and public works.

- Total (the biggest French oil company) holds a quarter of the shares of the Societe Ivoirienne de Raffinage Oil Refinery (number one in Cote d'Ivoire) and owns 160 petrol stations and controls the bitumen supply.

- France Telecom (seventh in rank among companies in France and leader in the telecoms sector) is the main shareholder of Cote d'Ivoire Telecom and of the Societe Ivoirienne des Mobiles, since concessions were granted in this sector, in the context of the privatisation of public enterprises.

- In the banking and insurance sector, there is the Societe Generale as well as Credit Lyonnais and BNP-Paribas. AXA (the second largest company in France and leader of the insurance sector) has been present in Cote d'Ivoire since the colonial period.

- The most long-established of the French companies in Cote d'Ivoire is the Groupe Compagnie Francaise de l'Afrique de l'Ouest de Cote d'Ivoire (CFAO-CI). It operates in many sectors (cars, pharmaceuticals, new technology, etc). For a long time, CFAO monopolised exports and the retail trade, and its profits (not a single year of loss, since its creation in 1887) led to it being taken over recently by the Pinault-Printemps-La Redoute group.
The presence of French capital is a demonstration of the profitability of Cote d'Ivoire. And although French direct investment is only 3.5-billion Euro - the most profitable former state enterprises having been acquired at knock-down prices - the annual profits from this investment are enormous.

Despite the flight of some French nationals during the rebel war of recent years, French business presence in Cote d'Ivoire has returned and has recovered its former levels.

One of the most important influences in the economic and political life of African states which were formerly French colonies is the impact of a common currency; the Communuate Financiere de l’Afrique (‘CFA’) franc. There are actually two separate CFA francs in circulation. The first is that of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), which comprises eight West African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo). The second is that of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), which comprises six Central African countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon). This division corresponds to the pre-colonial AOF (Afrique Occidentale Française) and the AEF (Afrique Équatoriale Française), with the exception that Guinea-Bissau was formerly Portuguese and Equatorial Guinea Spanish.

Each of these two groups issues its own CFA franc. The WAEMU CFA franc is issued by the BCEAO (Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest) and the CEMAC CFA franc is issued by the BEAC (Banque des Etats de l’Afrique Centrale). These currencies were originally both pegged at 100 CFA for each French franc, but after France joined the European Community’s Euro zone at a fixed rate of 6.65957 French francs to one Euro, the CFA rate to the Euro was fixed at CFA 665,957 to each Euro, maintaining the 100 to 1 ratio. It is important to note that it is the responsibility of the French Treasury to guarantee the convertibility of the CFA to the Euro.

The monetary policy governing such a diverse aggregation of countries is uncomplicated because it is, in fact, operated by the French Treasury, without reference to the central fiscal authorities of any of the WAEMU or the CEMAC countries. Under the terms of the agreement, which set up these banks and the CFA, the central bank of each African country is obliged to keep at least 65 per cent of its foreign exchange reserves in an ‘operations account’ held at the French Treasury, as well as another 20 per cent to cover financial liabilities.

The CFA central banks also impose a cap on credit extended to each member country equivalent to 20 per cent of that country’s public revenue in the preceding year. Even though the BEAC and the BCEAO have an overdraft facility with the French Treasury, the draw downs on those overdraft facilities are subject to the consent of the French Treasury. The final say is that of the French Treasury, which has invested the foreign reserves of the African countries in its own name on the Paris bourse.

The creation and maintenance of French domination of the francophone African economies is the product of a long period of French colonialism and the learned dependence of the African states. For most of francophone Africa there are only limited powers allocated to their central banks. These are economies whose vulnerability to an increasingly globalised economy expands daily. There can be no trade policy without reference to currency; there can be no investment without reference to reserves. The African politicians and parties elected to promote growth, reform, changes in trade and fiscal policies are made irrelevant except with the consent of the French Treasury, which rations their funds.

The key to all this was the agreement signed between France and its newly-liberated African colonies, which locked these colonies into the economic and military embrace of France. This colonial pact not only created the institution of the CFA franc, it created a legal mechanism under which France obtained a special place in the political and economic life of its colonies.
The Pacte Colonial Agreement enshrined a special preference for France in the political, commercial and defence processes in the African countries. On defence, it agreed two types of continuing contact. The first was the open agreement on military co-operation or Technical Military Aid (AMT) agreements, which weren’t legally binding, and could be suspended according to the circumstances. They covered education, training of servicemen and African security forces. The second type, secret and binding, were defence agreements supervised and implemented by the French Ministry of Defence, which served as a legal basis for French interventions. These agreements allowed France to have pre-deployed troops in Africa. In other words, French army units present permanently and by rotation in bases and military facilities in Africa that are run entirely by the French.

In summary, the colonial pact maintained the French control over the economies of the African states; it took possession of their foreign currency reserves; it controlled the strategic raw materials of the country; it stationed troops in the country with the right of free passage; it demanded that all military equipment be acquired from France; it took over the training of the police and army; it required that French businesses be allowed to maintain monopoly enterprises in key areas. It is difficult to imagine what the changes were from colonial rule to today that aren’t merely cosmetic.

The civil war which broke out between the North and the South in the Ivory Coast was largely about the efforts of the Gbagbo government in seeking to achieve real independence - a breakaway from the colonial dominance of the French which controlled almost every aspect of national life. He had the support of the Ivorian people. Now, however, after all the fighting and suffering by both sides, the current policy of Gbagbo seemed to veer away from confrontation to a policy of restoring the status quo ante: French neo-colonialism. This didn’t work. It fostered a level of bitterness and rancour among a people who were watching the yoke placed on their necks again and, despite their current apathy and discouragement after years of fighting and sacrifice, they realised that, North and South, they had nothing to lose by sweeping the board clean of their black Frenchmen and installing genuine Ivorian patriots in their place.

Unfortunately this was not an option in the ballot. The problem with trying to rectify these problems by negotiation was that there has been a government which was at war with itself. After Linas-Marcoussis and the subsequent agreements since 2002, culminating in the Ouagadougou Agreement, the Cabinet has been made up of representatives from the legitimate parties of the past (FPI, PDCI, RDR, PIT) and a bunch of jumped-up warlord rebel parties. Each has had its own ministry or ministries at its disposal. These imposed Cabinet members drew hefty salaries and expenses and rode in chauffeur-driven cars as they plotted the downfall of their Cabinet colleagues and the impoverishment of their fellow citizens. The National Assembly has not been elected since 2000 and many of the delegates are dead, dying or haven’t visited their constituencies in years. They present no hope for the populace.

Just as there is lawless theft in the North, the South is not much better. In the years since the rebellion the power brokers of the South have found an accommodation with the companies that thrive in the harvests of cocoa and coffee. Even more importantly they have taken large pieces of the burgeoning oil and gas businesses, which are expanding rapidly. A new refinery is being built. New pipelines are being connected. The rebels in the North have not had a chance to dine at those tables so feel that what they steal from the public purse is justified in comparison to what the Southern politicians are harvesting. Just as the rebels in the North are not likely to give up their piratical enterprises for a peace and national unity where they go back to being shoemakers and truck drivers; so the fat cats of the South are not going to take the fast money from the business community and put that cash into roads, schools, electricity and hospitals. That is why the election was a sham and without a clear conclusion.

The French, buoyed by their successful intervention in Guinea where they managed to advance their candidate, Alpha Conde, to the Presidency, were sure that their manipulation of the voters’ roll and their protection of the Northern rebel leadership would give them an unassailable lead in the runoff election.

However, the blatant vote-rigging in several Northern constituencies (where more people voted than were on the electoral roll) ensured that a real count could not be made in the requisite period. The Constitutional Court examined the situation and the voting procedures and declared that President Gbagbo was re-elected. This was in opposition to the Ouattara electoral commission which declared their man as the winner. Now there are two presidents. The army remains loyal to Gbagbo, despite tasty offers from the French Army and diplomats to the higher echelons of the army.

The French were able to convince the ‘international community’ that the election results were free and fair. This is, of course, preposterous. In a country divided into two camps, occupied by a group of foreign military ‘peacekeepers’ under the guidance of the former colonial master, and armed to the teeth at the same time, what kind of ‘free and fair’ are they talking about? The French used their influence on neighbouring Francophone states to parrot their conclusions of ‘free and fair’. This is even more bizarre. How is it possible that the un-indicted war criminals of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, who have given open support to the rebel north on behalf of their French masters, are taken seriously by the international community? Their countries are economic basket cases and their leaders are despots that govern without democratic institutions. They survive by French subsidies and what they can steal from the Ivory Coast. The rise of the Assassin of Abidjan, Michèle Alliot-Marie, to the post of Foreign Minister of France gives no comfort to anyone. It was she, as defence minister, who ordered the French soldiers to shoot down unarmed demonstrators at the Hotel Ivoire in November 2006, which killed 68 men, women and children and wounded a thousand others.

This situation cannot last. There are always fears that there will be another military confrontation. The international community has hobbled the military preparedness of the Ivory Coast by sanctions and shooting down the Ivorian Air Force. However, there is no need for violence if the new Gbagbo government decides to take affirmative action in dealing with the rebel North. What is needed is a bloodless and legal retaliation against the current situation. The North survives on the goodwill of the South. The time is ripe for the Gbagbo Government to insist that this is paid for as contracted. Let them shut off the water pipes to the North; let them turn off the electrical power; let them interrupt the communications links to the North; and let them stop the shipment of fuel from the South to the North. The North isn’t paying for them: they are not paying income taxes or corporate taxes and they do not pay customs duties.

Let the government act by shutting down these services to the North. Let the French bring in water, electricity, fuel and telephone links. If they want colonialism let them pay for their colonial ambitions. There is no need for war or conflict. Shut the valves and switches on a commercial basis. That will certainly bring the North and their glove puppeteers to a better understanding. France doesn’t have the funds to do this and desperately doesn’t want Francafrique to be an issue in the electoral campaign. This is the time to act.

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* Dr. Gary K. Busch is an international trades unionist, an academic, a businessman and a political affairs and business consultant for 40 years.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Egypt’s fragile stability

Hany Besada

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/69853

cc B SEgypt’s political stability hangs in the balance following recent parliamentary elections that are widely thought to have reversed any political reforms achieved over the past three decades, writes Hany Besada.

Egypt’s political stability hangs in the balance following recent parliamentary elections that have been widely described as a shambles and a major reverse of any political reforms achieved over the past three decades. The country’s ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), under President Hosni Mubarak, won the elections by a landslide, taking more than four fifths of the 508-seat assembly and strengthening its hold on power ahead of the presidential poll slated for September 2011. The country’s two main opposition parties, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Wafd Party, boycotted the second round of voting, alleging widespread fraud, state interference, voting irregularities, intimidation of their supporters by the government and police, and violence.

While the poll results drained any remaining credibility from the electoral process, it was a gamble the government was prepared to take. The seemingly limited confrontational stance over the past two decades of the banned but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest and most powerful opposition group, have helped it to establish an important foothold not only in the country’s social structure but also in the political landscape, particularly at administrative levels. Yet the Muslim Brotherhood, which had 20 per cent of the outgoing parliament, was left with a single MP in the new assembly, a result that could be seen as part of an orchestrated plan to curb the power and ambition of the regime’s greatest opposition.

The recently contested elections in Cote d’Ivoire and Haiti have taken the lion’s share of press coverage about politics in the developing world in recent weeks, while the predictable parliamentary vote in Egypt went largely unnoticed. Yet the election results in the Arab world’s most populous country are critically important, as they contrast the reality of the one-party political systems that continue to prevail in North Africa with the burgeoning of multiparty democracy in former autocratic regimes across sub-Saharan Africa.

Egypt’s current crisis of governance and the regime’s withering political legitimacy have further fuelled the ongoing debate about the future of the Mubarak presidency that is now being played out both behind the scenes at the NDP’s headquarter in Cairo and in the streets across the country. Recent statements by the ruling party’s head of media to the effect that Mubarak, age 82, will stand for re-election in next year’s presidential elections vie with contradictory reports indicating that Mubarak is grooming his son, Gamal, to succeed him. Such reports coincide with an unofficial campaign and recent petitions calling on Gamal, a senior NDP official, to stand for president, suggesting a succession struggle might be under way within the party itself. Some analysts contend that elements of the ruling elite have come to believe that Mubarak, who has served as president since 1981, can do no more and that his continued grip on power no longer serves their interests or those of the party. Yet Mubarak’s refusal to announce whether he will extend his nearly three decades in power or to designate a successor has fuelled concerns that a succession crisis eventually could lead to political violence and instability not seen since the 1952 revolution that abolished the monarchy and established a republic. Such an outcome could spell disaster for the government’s attempts to attract more foreign direct investment and increase tourism revenues, a lifeline of the Egyptian economy.

After three decades of economic liberalisation, the government continues to struggle to raise investment and savings ratios and has largely failed to reduce the country’s trade deficit. Although the economy expanded at an annual average of 7 per cent in the three fiscal years up to June 2008 – which is the minimum rate needed to reduce poverty levels that now stand at 20 per cent – growth slowed to 4.7 per cent in the year ending June 2009 due to the global economic crisis. Egypt's unofficial unemployment rate of more than 25 per cent and annual population growth of more than 2 per cent contribute to the problem, placing a heavy burden on the government to create employment opportunities for the 750,000 Egyptians who enter the job market annually.

Egypt’s stubbornly high rates of unemployment and poverty in urban slums and rural areas, exacerbated by the global financial and food crisis; the government’s desperate attempts to hold on to power at the cost of eroding its legitimacy and credibility; and the continued division and weakness that plague secular opposition parties all serve as a recipe for political instability and a breeding ground for Islamic fundamentalism among an increasingly disenchanted population. As Mohammed El Baradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and current head of the National Coalition for Change, puts it, ‘Egyptians are known to be patient people. But patience has limits and civil disobedience is our last resort if demands for reform are not heeded.’ With the latest election results and Mubarak's approval ratings among the general public at an all-time low, Egypt’s political stability and future depend on the NDP’s ability to put forth a presidential candidate who can garner the undivided support of the ruling elite and who is genuinely committed to political and economic reform, democratic accountability, and multiparty democracy.

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* Hany Besada is senior researcher, Development Cooperation, at The North-South Institute in Ottawa, Canada.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Tunisia's economic medicine, poverty and unemployment

Basel Saleh

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/69851

cc M CConfronted with corruption and high unemployment, the Tunisian people have taken to the streets in protest. In this article from the Centre for Research on Globalisation Basel Saleh notes the contradictions between a regime considered to be an economic success story and the reality on the ground.

Mass and spontaneous demonstrations erupted on Friday, 17 December in the city of Sidi Bouzid (central Tunisia) when Mohammad Bouazizi, a 26-year-old, doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire after a female police officer slapped and spat on him. The only crime Bouazizi committed was that of being a street vendor selling vegetables and fruits without a permit, in a country where neoliberal economic policies failed to provide economic opportunities to Bouazizi and thousands of others like him.[1] Bouazizi’ s attempted suicide, which comes hard on the heels of police humiliation and confiscation of his only source of income, reveals the utter despair prevalent today among Tunisia’s population, especially college graduates. Twenty-four years of ruthless corruption, dictatorship, and neoliberal economic policies led to wealth being concentrated in the hands of very few people connected to President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his wife’s family.

Bouazizi, a college graduate,[2] was trying to live in dignity and provide for his family by becoming a street vendor, despite living in a country that is considered an economic miracle and one of the African lions by western economic monitors and analysts.[3]

The miserable economic conditions in the interior of the country, lack of employment opportunities and political freedoms pushed Bouazizi, like thousands of other young men and women in the Maghreb countries, to the margins of society. Tunisia’s national unemployment rate, which understates the true unemployment situation, stands at 14 per cent.[4] However, the youth unemployment rate (those between15-24 year-old) is at 31 per cent. The income share of the top 10 per cent is approximately 32 per cent, and the top 20 per cent of the population controls 47 per cent of Tunisia’s income. Tunisia’s inequality is so severe that the bottom 60 per cent of the population earns only 30 per cent (the top 40 per cent take home 70 per cent of the income).[5]

Still, the IMF describes the government management of the economy and the uneven economic growth which benefited mainly northern and coastal cities while marginalising the interior of the country as ‘prudent macroeconomic management’.[6]

The despicable behavior of the police officer described above is not uncommon in Tunisia and is condoned by the police state that ignores basic human rights, shows no respect for the dignity of its citizens, and does not tolerate any signs of dissent. Poverty, unemployment and oppression have pushed yet another young man to commit suicide just a few days later after Bouazizi’s attempt. On Wednesday, 22 December, Hussein Nagi Felhi, also unemployed, unfortunately succeeded in committing suicide by climbing a high-voltage electric power line. He was electrocuted and died on the scene. Witnesses say the young man was shouting ‘no for misery, no for unemployment’ as he climbed the electric pylon.[7]

The epidemic of youth unemployment, inequality, political repression, and lack of any meaningful freedoms inflamed solidarity among the population which took to the streets in spontaneous and unplanned organic protests. Within days of the attempted suicide by Bouazizi and the suicide of Felhi, protests spread across the country and reached the capital Tunis and are still ongoing even in the face of a total national media blackout and police brutality which resulted in the killing of an 18 year-old. This is not the first time the dictator of Tunisia Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has faced street anger over joblessness and economic misery during his 24-year reign, but this is by far the most serious challenge to his rule.

About three years ago in January 2008, his security apparatus crushed protesters in the southern mining town of Redhayef when workers and young people protested wages and unemployment.[8] At that time, over 300 people were arrested as a result of the protests.[9] However, this time the desperation among the population has reached boiling point. Aided by social media, some protesters launched a Facebook page to document riots and share news although the government promptly shuts down any protest-linked websites.[10] The demonstrations are increasing in intensity and show no signs of abating. The protesters are fed up with the status quo of a self-enriching and corrupt ruling family which is the de facto governing system in the Middle East and North Africa.

A WESTERN ALLY: THE HYPOCRICY OF WESTERN NEOLIBERAL AND FOREIGN POLICIES

Respect for human rights and freedom of the press is almost nonexistent in Tunisia. The Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom labels Tunisia as ‘mostly unfree’ and marginally close to being repressed - its lowest score.[11] Transparency International ranks Tunisia among its seriously corrupt nations with a score of 4.3 out of 10 (10 being free of corruption and 1 as most corrupt), and Tunisia is considered ‘not free’ according to THE Freedom House Index.[12] This is no surprise in a country where the government controls almost all aspects of people’s lives. Young people are especially tightly controlled and monitored. Even fields of study in post-secondary education are decided by the government where the Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Scientific Research decides in which field of study students will be placed.[13]

Although the protests that are spreading across the country took on the form of social unrest for the first few days, they rapidly metamorphosed over the last ten days to become a mass political rally by the people. The protesters are now on the streets calling openly for the president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to leave office by holding signs in Tunisian Arabic dialect that read ‘Yezzi Fock’ (Ben Ali, it is enough) which has become the protesters’ political slogan. Labour and industry unions which played an active role in public life since independence from France are also supporting the protesters. President Ben Ali, nearing 80, is very aware of the gravity and the real threat to his grip on power. His first reaction was to preempt the protesters by firing some local officials, replace some ministers in his cabinet, and then immediately promising more investment and job creation, completely oblivious to his record after 24 years in power. When these empty promises failed to deflate the protesters’ anger, he resorted to the routine policies of riot police and explicit threats directed to his citizens.

Facing the most serious unrest in the history of his rule, he took to the airways and gave a televised address in response to the demonstrations. He vowed to punish ‘the minority of extremists’ whom he blamed for the riots (as he calls them) and also indicated that these protests ‘will have a negative impact on creating jobs. It will discourage investors and tourists which will hit jobs’.[14] It appears that the President’s main concern is the tourism industry which is tightly controlled by his family and that of his wife, as revealed by several Wikileaks concerning the economic and financial corruption of the first family.

The Tunisian dictator and his family are touted by Western governments as an example of a stable and progressive North African Muslim nation. The neoliberal economic policies are hailed as prudent and wise by the IMF yet these policies primarily benefited his family, that of his wife in addition to other well-connected wealthy Tunisians. In one incident of corruption revealed by Wikileaks, the son-in-law of the President purchased a 17 per cent share of a bank just before it was to be privatised and then sold the shares at a premium. Readings from Wikileaks US diplomatic cables underscore that success in the Tunisian economy is directly related to connection to the first family. Income and regional inequalities are on the rise in Tunisia. Job creation and widespread prosperity promised by defunct orthodox economic dictates never trickled down to the masses or even materialised for most unemployed college graduates, where net migration has been steadily increasing rising from -16,000 in 1980 to -80,000 in 2005.

The Tunisian government is an important ally for the US in its resource-driven colonial wars with Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. A United Nations report on secret detention practices lists Tunisia as having secret detention facilities where prisoners are held without International Red Cross access.[15] Intelligence services in Tunisia cooperated with the US efforts in the War on Terror and have participated in interrogating prisoners at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan and in Tunisia.

Recent WikiLeaks diplomatic cables reveal that the US not long ago was concerned about the growing anger on the streets and the corruption of Ben Ali and the Trabelsi family (his wife’s family) who treat everything in the country as theirs. A list of WikiLeaks cables from the US Embassy in Tunisia posted on The Guardian newspaper website indicate that the US considers Tunisia as a police state ‘with little freedom of expression or association, and serious human rights problems’, and the Ben Ali family as a ‘quasi mafia’.[16] Nevertheless, the State Department boasts about the active support the Tunisian security forces receive from the US in spite of the Ben Ali’s government record of serious human rights violations.

According to the State Department website: ‘The United States and Tunisia have an active schedule of joint military exercises. U.S. security assistance historically has played an important role in cementing relations. The U.S.-Tunisian Joint Military Commission meets annually to discuss military cooperation, Tunisia's defense modernization program, and other security matters.’[17]

The fate of the protests is unclear at this point. The Ben Ali government is frantic to control the situation by sending police and security enforcements in the cities affected by the protests. The protesters have been peaceful and have not resorted to any violence or destruction of property. Some protesters simply held a loaf of bread and others are simply holding signs that call for jobs and dignity. In the meantime, the IMF is continuing to push Tunisia to more austere economic policies on the expenditure side, recommending that the government ends its support for food and fuel products and reform its social security system, a code word for privatising the pension system in Tunisia which benefits the masses of poor Tunisians.[18]The greatest hypocrisy in all of this is that the IMF recommends these policies in the name of greater employment and growth, which is the IMF’s cut-and-paste recipe for all nations it studies.

In the meantime, the Western international community has been largely silent about the protests. The US corporate-run media is as usual busy selling air time to corporations eager to cash in on the Christmas holiday while simultaneously raising their prices to squeeze more out of their customers.[19]

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal didn’t report on the Tunisian protests at all. The US State Department remains tight-lipped on the issue and has yet to release any statement on the situation. The US government’s deafening silence confirms the inherent hypocrisy in US diplomatic and foreign policy that is widely known, detested, and recently confirmed by WikiLeaks released US diplomatic cables.

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* This article first appeared at the Centre for Research on Globalisation.
* Dr. Basel Saleh is Assistant Professor of Economics at Radford University Virginia.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES:

[1] See Aljazeera story in (Arabic), 23 December 2010: 
http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D2ACC91E-B225-411B-8073-AC6C79845D77.htm
[2] There are conflicting reports on whether Mohammad Bouazizi is a college graduate or not. But most news sources indicate that he is. See: 
http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=123016#axzz19WbaUTRj
[3] ‘African lions’ is a term used by Boston Consulting Group to describe the eight countries driving growth on the continent: South Africa, Algeria, Botswana, Egypt, Mauritius, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. See Florence Beaugé, Economic power of the 'African lions' tallied. , The Guardian Weekly, 10 June 2010: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/09/morocco-southafrica
[4] Julian Borger, Tunisian President Vows to Punish Rioters After Worst Unrest in a Decade. The Guardian, 29 December 2010: 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/29/tunisian-president-vows-punish-rioters
[5] World Bank Indicators: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.1524.MA.ZS/countries/TN?display=graph
[6] Joël Toujas-Bernate and Rina Bhattachary, Tunisia Weathers Crisis Well, But Unemployment Persistsa. IMFSurvey Magazine: Countries & Regions , 10 September 2010: 
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2010/car091010a.htm
[7] Amro Hassan, Tunisia: Apparent Suicide Triggers Youth Protests Against Unemployment. The Los Angeles Times, 23 December 2010: 
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/12/tunisia-suicide-triggers-youth-protests-against-unemployment.html
[8] Human Rights Watch, World Report Chapter: Tunisia, January 2009: http://www.hrw.org/en/node/79260
[9] Amnesty International, Behind Tunisia’s Economic Miracle: Inequality and Criminalization of Protests, June 2009: 
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE30/003/2009/en/2e1d33e2-55da-45a3-895f-656db85b7aed/mde300032009en.pdf
[10] The facebook page for protesters can be accessed via http://www.facebook.com/yezzifock?v=photos#!/yezzifock?v=wall
[11] The Heritage Foundation, 2010 Index of Economic Freedom: http://www.heritage.org/Index/Ranking
[12] Freedom House, Freedom in The World Country Report , 2010 edition: 
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=363&year=2010 , and Transparency International Corruption Index 
http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results
[13] Housa Trabelsi, Unemployment Haunts Tunisia’s College Graduates. The Megharebia, 30 July 2010: 
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/07/30/feature-01
[14] Tunisian President Says Job Riots are not Acceptable. The BBC, 28 December 2010: 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12087596
[15] See United Nations report on secrete detention practices 
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/13session/A-HRC-13-42.pdf
[16] US embassy cables: Tunisia - a US foreign policy conundrum, The Guardian, 7 December 2010:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/217138
[17] Background Note: Tunisia, U.S. State Department, 13 October 2010: 
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5439.htm#relations
[18] See note 4
[19] Matthew Boyle, Wal-Mart Raising Prices on Toys, Squeezing More Out of Holidays. Bloomberg News, 15 December 2010: 
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-15/wal-mart-raised-prices-on-toys-this-month-squeezing-more-out-of-holidays.html

Sudan: Deal improbable, war possible

Current Analyst

2011-01-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/69823

cc UN PhotoAs Sudan approaches its historic referendum on 9 January, Current Analyst discusses the possible range of developments.

The notion of mutual dependence on oil as an asset in the service of averting war has become a comforting but erroneous myth.

‘War possible’ is a very risky statement. To be sure peace means different things in different contexts. Between impossible deal and improbable peace comes a range of what is probable for the next six months.

Risk relevant index changes in Sudan:

INDEX NO. 1

The January referendum for the south will definitely go ahead, however poor and inefficient the process might turn out to be. There are several technical problems surrounding the referendum and everybody knows that. The process is daunting as time and resources are in short supply. But the event will take place. What this probably means is that everybody is ready to accept a sub-standard referendum process. The north cannot stop the southern vote for independence and the south cannot improve the referendum process from what it is right now and both sides seem to agree that even a low-quality referendum is just fine.

INDEX NO. 2

The likelihood of a deal on Abiyei is very limited. Efforts to muster strong diplomatic pressure on the NCP (National Congress Party) will continue to run into difficulties; at best it will be very slow. There is no way the NCP will agree on a parallel referendum on Abiyei. For the top leadership of the NCP, Abiyei is not only a technical embarrassment, it is also politically awkward. President Omar al-Bashir repeatedly indicated that he cannot afford to let the south and Abiyei go at the same time. He has told some friends that he cannot do this, i.e., make a final deal on Abiyei at this point in time. This is unlikely to happen in the coming year at least. The north is prepared only to make a deal on one thing at a time. Any proposal by Thabo Mbeki will not change anything, not to mention his credibility as he lacks the trust of the southerners and Darfurians alike. The international community is not up to the job. The CPA (Comprehensive Peace Agreement) owes much of its success to the aggressive diplomatic engagement of the international community and the united position of the region. In the meantime, they stayed out of engagement; now they crack whips.

A referendum on Abiyei is a distant prospect. President al-Bashir argues that it is impossible for him to do it short of losing power in the north. We are being told that without Abiyei, al-Bashir may lose power in the north and Salva Kiir may lose face in the south. The justification for not agreeing on Abiyei (or for losing power) is not merely flawed or imperfect; it is wrong in almost every detail, and completely wrong at the head. There is no imminent danger of losing power; indeed there is no distant danger. The real problem is the lack of trust. In any case, the referendum for south Sudan will have to go ahead without a deal on Abiyei. The question of Abiyei is at once the most technical and the most fundamental today. Paradoxically, it is not enough to go to war. Southerners are pained but not totally shocked by the deadlock. This alone may not take us to war. But war is probable due to other less publicised but crucial issues.

INDEX NO. 3

War is probable over other disputes. Many would like to argue that both the north and the south will not risk war because of their mutual dependence on oil. As a result, there may be a slight opportunity for cooperation between the north and an independent south Sudan as both countries seek to contain instability along the common border so as to exploit oil and seek the support and friendship of major powers. There are also strong cross-border economic ties and it is likely that the local population will seek to avoid all-out war. Points well made. But the biggest political danger now is that the NCP may not be satisfied by keeping Abiyei as a ransom for southern independence. All indications point to this direction.

INDEX NO. 4

The risk of escalated fighting between south and north Sudan over control of the oil fields will increase a few months after the referendum. No matter what happens after the referendum, the north wants to stick to the status quo for some years to come. The notion of mutual dependence on oil as an asset in the service of averting war has become a comforting but erroneous myth. What then is the truth about the relation between the border, mutual dependence on oil and peace? To answer this we should ask ourselves who controls most of the oil fields. In other words, irrespective of the referendum the status quo and respective areas of influences will remain unchanged for some time to come. So the ransom for southern independence is not only Abiyei but also the disparate oil fields in other border states. In terms of territorial control, the southern army controls most of the areas along the border, mainly agricultural lands and a token of oil-rich spaces, while the northern army as per the CPA controls smaller but oily ground. This sort of argument is seldom heard. In a position statement that is sometimes combative in tone and judgement, the north tells the south that its military will continue to control the oil fields even after the referendum. It is no surprise to find a strain on this. This is the fastest ticket to war.

There is, however, little point in trying to guess at the beginning of 2011 what this complex war situation will be six months into the year. What one can do is to sketch a range of possible and probable outcomes.

INDEX NO. 5

The north will control the oil fields and reinforce and guard them by a conventional military force. This web of military networks will be supported by dissident militias from the south. The Mukhabaraat will definitely be busy on this. At present, none of the protagonists are militarily strong enough to defeat the others without either internal alliances or external intervention. The armed forces of the government of Sudan are not sufficient and strong enough to exert a monopoly of force and sustain it, particularly in southern and central areas of the oil fields including much of Abiyei and Kordofan.

INDEX NO. 6

The southern army will definitely resort to a people’s war, compounded with the parallel mobilisation of the marginalised groups in Sudan. It is likely that Darfurian insurgent groups, including militias from marginalised regions (such as the southern Blue Nile and Nuba mountains), will continue to play a major role in the conflict. Without this support, the south is highly unlikely to be able to reclaim control of the oil fields and surrounding regions. The official military is insufficient in numbers, training and equipment to successfully confront multiple insurgent attacks in key strongholds.

The best interest of both the north and the south lies in peaceful transition, dialogue and political and economic cooperation. The stakes are high; both have every reason to avoid complications. They need each other. However, years of talk about wealth-sharing and post-referendum issues have only generated a mystique of mistrust that chills doubt and freezes confidence. Many tend not to believe anymore in the notion of a new war between north and south. They cannot seem to get enough of the nuances and intentions of the NCP. But it would be silly to pretend that war could be avoided altogether.

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* This article was first published by The Current Analyst.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

South Africa: All the president's men

ArcelorMittal in South Africa

Khadija Sharife

2011-01-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/69824

cc R M IKhadija Sharife examines the twists and turns in the battle over who will mine a rich iron ore deposit in the Northern Cape in South Africa.

Players in South African Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) often use a complex and opaque web of directorships and shareholdings to access lucrative provincial and national tenders.

Since the recession, when BEE deals with firms on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange plummeted from R105bn in 2007 to R20bn in 2009, BEE players have been searching hard and fast to justify their business and its benefits to more than just a small political class. The ANC Youth League under Julius Malema has proposed nationalisation as one way of doing this, going so far as to investigate its viability.

The biggest recent scandal to infect South Africa’s mining industry is that of global steel giant ArcelorMittal's failure to renew mining rights in one of the world’s richest iron ore deposits, for seemingly no reason other than a slip-up. Yet no heads rolled. Instead, what emerged was a BEE deal connected to all the President’s men, including his son Duduzane.

It has all the makings of a thriller: a battle waged between some of the leading multinationals, government corruption, billions for the taking, the resignation of one long-term government official, and the death of another.

Here is what seems to have gone down:

Sishen Iron Ore Mine (SIOC), largely owned by Kumba Iron Ore, is located in South Africa's largest province, the Northern Cape, spanning 30% of the country's land mass area. The mine is said to be the world's most lucrative high-grade iron ore mine. SIOC is the world's fourth largest supplier of sea-borne iron ore. Anglo American owns 64% of Kumba, which it turn owns 74% of SIOC, its main asset.

In 2001, Kumba entered into a special pricing agreement with ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA), the subsidiary of the Luxembourg-based parent company, ArcelorMittal. According to the terms of the agreement, AMSA owned 21.4% of Sishen's shares. The deal allowed for AMSA to receive iron ore at cost plus 3%, providing the company with R5bn ($720m) in value annually at R200 per tonne.

But Kumba was not happy. It wanted to acquire AMSA's shares, which would have granted it monopoly. On the 30 April 2009, AMSA's rights to mine Sishen expired. 1 May was Workers Day - a public holiday – and was followed by the weekend. AMSA failed to file for an extension, even on Monday, allowing their lucrative rights to expire.

Kumba, however, lodged an application for minings rights on 30 April. Kumba executives claimed that sources at the Department of Minerals Resources (DMR) advised them to do so though at no time did they request that the application be processed earlier than required in standard operating procedures. Kumba's SIOC application was electronically logged on the system on 4 May. Each successfully registered application is provided with a unique number, and the first eight digits indicate the date of registration. Kumba's mining rights application, which required 12 months to process, was accepted because the company had not only exploited the area for 50 years but the mine was active and established.

On 4 May, another application was registered in the system by Imperial Crown Trading (ICT), a shell company manned by politically connected BEE players. Kumba was informed by DMR insiders that there was another applicant, despite it being a violation of government protocol. On 2 June 2009, the competing applicant's name was provided: ICT. The application itself was for a prospecting license, requiring just six months to process. While ICT's application was stamped on 4 May, the signature was dated 5 May, and subsequent attachments dated 8 and 9 May.

According to Kumba's complaints in a subsequent judicial review, if the application was only signed on 5 May, it appears impossible for ICT to have lodged a complete and valid prospecting request on 4 May 2009.

Kumba submitted to the court and the DMR that the prospecting license was invalid and that ICT had copied large tracts of SIOC's application preamble. On 30 November 2009, six months after application, ICT was informed they had won the rights to the 21.4% stake in the Sishen mine. On the same day, Kumba officials attended a meeting at the DMR but were not informed of the decision. Several months later, on 4 February 2010, the company was informed after several follow-ups.

The next day, Kumba cancelled the special pricing agreement with AMSA. In December, a DMR official with 13 years experience at the Department, Jacinto Rocha, had put in his resignation. February would be his last month. Rocha has since accused Kumba of "manipulating the administrative system to gain advantage and gratification".

In the South African media, AMSA soon emerged as the victim of ICT. AMSA appeared soon after to find a political solution to their problem: a BEE deal subtly engaging all members via a BEE consortium called Aiygobi, led by Sandile Zungu, one of President Jacob Zuma's BEE advisors. The deal was worth R9.1bn, transferring 26% of AMSA shares to BEE players (75%) and AMSA employees (25%).

Kumba took the case to court, citing numerous irregularities in the application process. Hennie Van Rensburg, the DMR official that had received ICT's application passed away from a heart attack at broadly around the time the case went to court.

But was AMSA really the victim?

ICT will be purchased by ArcelorMittal for R800m, facilitating the transfer of ICT's 21.4% shares to AMSA, and arming the company with connections to the highest BEE and political players in the land. This is dependent on ICT's victory over Kumba, and to ArcelorMittal shareholders giving the green light to the transaction requiring 50% + 1 approval - held up by a 'due diligence' investigation into ICT.

Kumba's legal team has been burrowing. The company revealed to a South African publication Moneyweb that Jannie Vorster, owner of Touchstone Drilling & Exploration, was listed by ICT as "as (a) possible contractor".

Though Vorster's signature was also included by ICT, Vorster himself, as he disclosed to Moneyweb, signed an affidavit stating that his signature was forged and that some of his company's documents were doctored. The publication further noted that a geologist, Ezra Thapelo Nkosi, listed by ICT as having done work for the company, denies having done so.

ICT's prospecting licence is currently being examined by the High Court. Its response is awaited with bated breath, more so given Anglo American's systemically important role in South Africa's mining industry. Meanwhile, given the Mittal family's 52% share in the company, coupled with the fact that AMSA's CEO is unlikely to have accidentally allowed for such rights to expire, it is difficult to assume that the orders were not approved from the top.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) condemned AMSA's subsequent price hike of R600 per tonne, saying "that the South African economy is expected to bear the cost of its commercial error, which in turn will hamper our industrialisation efforts."

Other shareholders in ArcelorMittal South Africa, including Sanlam, are not very happy. The Public Investment Corporation, another shareholder, pulled up the strangeness of the situation in a press statement querying Mittal's inaction and the consequences.

But for AMSA, long receiving artificially-depreciated iron ore at the expense of the national budget and Kumba, this was the ideal solution. ICT's primary intention, which may soon be revealed by the High Court, might have been acquiring assets with the intent of immediately selling it at a premium. ICT's shareholders had been included, "inter alia as participants in the Ayigobi consortium."

According to the DMR, ICT is composed of 240 shares, 120 of which were issued to ICT. The remaining 50% were issued to Jagdish Parekh's Pragat Investments Ltd. Parekh also owns 25% of Ayigobi, alongside Zuma's son Duduzane's Mabengela Investments, which holds 12.5% of the Consortium.

Gugu Mtshali holds 7.5% of ICT and 4.5% of Ayigobi. Also led by BEE advisor Sandile Zungu, a special purpose vehicle called ZICO has 6.5% of shares and the Gupta family's Oakbay Investments, 6.25%. The latter, which has interlocking corporate interests with Duduzane Zuma through holdings in another company called Shiva Uranium, was brought into the BEE mix through their role as 'facilitators', despite the fact that they are naturalised citizens. Zungu, however, has vehemently defended the deal, stating on Talk Radio 702, "am not a new player in the mining industry, nor are the people in the Ayigobi consortium. Our role as a strategic partner should not be undermined."

Parekh became a 50% shareholder in ICT in early April 2009, a month before the application was filed. Parekh and Duduzane Zuma are partners in JIC Mining Services. Guptas' Oakbay Trust owns 61% of JIC. Detai Duduzane Zuma and Atul Gupta are also directors of Dominion Mine, another mine acquired for R280m through Shiva Uranium.

Kumba's chair, another business partner of the Guptas, was said to be opposed to the legal route. Though the R9.1bn has a very lucrative face value, the shares' real value have been capped, limiting AMSA's actual damage. Duduzane - who has since informed the country he will give away 70% of his shares, will take in between R91 - R209m of R916m in AMSA shares. Gupta (R46m- R104m of R458m; and Parekh, R182m-R418m of R1.83bn, with a further cash pay-out of R400m. Over 7% of ICT is owned by founder Phemelo Sehunelo, a seemingly professional player in the BEE game, and an active director of 28 companies.

Anglo-American has lost out in their attempt to acquire monopoly of Sishen via Kumba. Nor is ArcelorMittal a white lily – in 2007 it was fined R691m by the South African Competition Tribunal for price-fixing. According to the tribunal: "Price-fixing through the manipulation of supply is without doubt the most egregious contravention of competition law and principles." More recently, the European Commission fined 17 steel makers €518.5m for two decades of price-fixing, with half the fine imposed on ArcelorMittal's subsidiaries.

The Sishen scandal, however, has proved to be an ingenious way for AMSA to retain favourable terms accessing resources well below market price, while getting into bed with relevant parties - all of this, in the name of the poor.

If, according to mines minister Susan Shabangu, where two companies are applying for the same right, the company with the greater BEE presence will win out, one must question as to whether some 'poors' are more equal than others - and whether the poverty is of justice or capital.

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* This article was first published by The Africa Report.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.
* Pambazuka News congratulates Khadija Sharife on being shortlisted in the 2010 FAIR African Investigative Journalism Awards, for her article Treasure islands: Mapping the geography of corruption, which appeared in Issue 492.

South Africa joins Group of Emerging Economic Powers (GEEP)

Rise of African economy to international prominence

Adams Bodomo

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/69855

cc kremlin.ruFollowing South Africa’s acceptance as a full member of BRIC, a group of prominent emerging economic powers, Adams Bodomo considers why the country was selected over other candidates, and what the news might mean for the rest of Africa.

FROM BRIC TO GEEP, A CACOPHONY OF ACRONYMS

On 25 December 2010, South Africa (SA) received a Christmas present from the BRIC, a group of prominent emerging countries that are economic trail-blazers in their own regional blocs, including Brazil, Russia, India and China, as stated by Xinhua News: ‘Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi Thursday said BRIC has accepted South Africa as a full member of the group, which currently includes Brazil, Russia, India and China’.[1]

Goldman Sachs, a global investment company, coined the term BRIC in 2003 as the designation for this group, making use of the first or significant letters of the component country names. With South Africa's presence then, one would think that the name would change to incorporate SA, and indeed the South African minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, among others, has confirmed that it will now be known as the BRICS.

However, this choice of BRICS would not be correct, and the right name should be BRICSA – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, if we stay with this paradigm of choosing first letters of country names to designate economic groups. ‘SA’ would be more representative of ‘South Africa’ in this acronym, as the country is not simply ‘Southafrica’ but South AFRICA! Beyond making better linguistic sense, BRICSA would emphasise the emergence of an AFRICAN economy into international prominence and this must be recognised with the presence of Africa in all aspects of the name. Indeed the South African minister of International Relations and Cooperation emphasised this African inclusion with the following statement: ‘Joining the group is “the best Christmas present ever,” South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told reporters in Pretoria today. “We will be a good gateway for the BRIC countries. While we may have a small population, we don’t just speak for South Africa, we speak for Africa as a whole.”’

I believe, however, that we need a different paradigm of designating these blocs beyond the original Goldman Sachs choice of first letters of country names. Unfortunately, the Goldman Sachs strategy is characterised by lack of foresight to take account of future expansions to include new members. As its stands now, we are already struggling to get a better name, with just the inclusion of only one new member, South Africa. What happens if other members join? Currently, Mexico, Indonesia, and Turkey have also expressed interest in joining BRICSA. What would happen if they joined? Shall we call it BRICSMIT or even BRICSAMIT? Even if we succeeded in choosing one of these names what happens if more countries like Nigeria and South Korea succeed in joining the group in the future? Indeed, worse attempts to propose other acronyms for various economic groupings, such as CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) are on the way.[3] Because of this problem, I propose in this article to call this group, the Group of Emerging Economic Powers, or the GEEP. Since they are now five members, I propose to call the current BRICS, the GEEP5 instead, with possibilities of calling it GEEP6, GEEP7, GEEP8, etc depending on how many countries are in the group. The proposed acronym, GEEP, is presumably superior to the existing acronym, BRIC, because it is not only more amenable to future expansions, but because it indeed describes more aptly what these countries really are in comparison to other existing groups such as the Group of industrialised nations with acronyms such as G7, G8 and G20.

WHY SOUTH AFRICA?

At a more substantial and critical level, however, at least, two crucial questions must be answered to put South Africa's entry into the GEEP in perspective. Why was South Africa chosen over other non-African nations like Mexico, Indonesia, and Turkey, and why did South Africa triumph over other African competitors, especially Nigeria and Egypt, to be selected from the Africa regional bloc to join GEEP4, making it the GEEP5 now?

GEOPOLITICS SUPERCEDES ECONOMICS

In this article, I claim that the answer to the first question is that South Africa was chosen over Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey more for geopolitical reasons than for economic reasons. Here is why: Compared to other non-African applicants to the GEEP4, South Africa pales in comparison to Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey which occupy the 12th, 16th and 17th positions respectively in terms of the countries with the highest GDPs in the world in 2009, according to the CIA World FactBook, one of the most updated websites of economic statistics.[4] With GDPs of approximately US$1.5 trillion,US$1 trillion and US$900 billion, Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey respectively far outpace South Africa with only about US$500 billion in 2009 and standing far below at 26th in the world in terms of GDP. Moreover South Africa pales in comparison to Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey in terms of population. While Mexico had approximately 112 million people in 2010, Indonesia 250 million, and Turkey 77 million, South Africa only had approximately 50 million people in 2010. So why was South Africa chosen ahead of these? The reasons cannot only be economic. Certainly, South Africa was chosen more for geopolitical than for economic reasons. Geopolitical reasons sometimes over-ride the purely economic reasons because of the need for representation from all significant geographical regions of the globe. Africa is a highly significant region in terms of population and in terms of politics at global fora such as the United Nations (UN) where the sheer number of nations and thus voting power from Africa alone make it hard for anyone to ignore Africa. Legitimacy is an important issue in global affairs and any global grouping must seek to be as inclusive as possible to be legitimate. Thus GEEP4 needed desperately to be inclusive and couldn’t have ignored Africa, hence the choice of South Africa over Mexico, Indonesia, and Turkey.

But if South Africa was chosen ahead of these non-African applicants, why at all was it the chosen African country? South Africa is the largest economy on the African continent but it is not by far the largest, so it is not like South Africa doesn’t have credible competitors on the African continent. In Africa two other economies that have expressed interest in joining the BRIC are Nigeria and Egypt. With a GDP of US$470 billion in 2009 Egypt is right on the heels of South Africa as the world's 27th largest economy. Indeed in terms of GDP, Nigeria, with a GDP of US$350 billion in 2009 and occupying the 33rd position globally, is not far below South Africa and Egypt. Moreover, both Nigeria and Egypt with 150 and 80 million people respectively are more populous than South Africa with only 50 million people according to 2010 population estimates. So, again, why was South Africa chosen over Nigeria and Egypt? The reasons are neither purely economic nor purely geopolitical this time; we need to look at what role China is already playing in the GEEP for an answer.

CHINA RULES THE GEEP

The claim in this paper is that the choice of South Africa over Nigeria especially points to the influential role China is already playing and is poised to play in the GEEP, and in the developing world as a whole, especially with regards to its involvement in Africa. The December 2010 admission of South Africa into the GEEP with China as the incoming chair of the group is clearly a clever game of balancing act played by China for people who observe Africa-China relations deeply. Here is why: If we go back in time, since October 2004, we note that China has controversially backed Nigeria in the heated race for an African country to gain a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. Currently South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt are the declared competitors in Africa. China's position to back Nigeria may have worried South Africa, so it is not surprising that this time China has chosen to back South Africa in this other race. It thus achieves a clever balancing act of satisfying both Nigeria and South Africa. It would definitely be Egypt's turn on another occasion.

SOUTH AFRICA, NIGERIA, EGYPT, KENYA AND THE DRC…IT'S TIME FOR AFRICA

In sum, South Africa's 2010 Christmas Day present from BRICS, now rechristened GEEP5 in this paper, was also a present for all of Africa. This is because it acknowledges Africa’s rising prominence, and it is indeed only the beginning of Africa's rise to international prominence. Despite continuing political, social, and financial instability in some African countries (and it is not uncommon to find political, social, and financial problems even in the already industrialised countries), the coming decade, which may be called the ‘twenty teens’ (2010 to 2019), will mark the rise of several major African economies as emerging economic powers in their regional blocs and, indeed, globally. Beyond South Africa, more African economies are capable and destined to improve their GDPs and per capita incomes, thus playing important roles in global economic blocs such as the GEEP. This African renaissance will most likely begin with the prominent economies in each of Africa's five main geopolitical blocs: South Africa in Southern Africa, Nigeria in West Africa, Egypt in North Africa, Kenya in East Africa, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Central Africa. It's time for Africa!

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* Prof Adams Bodomo is director of the African Studies Programme at the University of Hong Kong, China where he teaches courses on Africa-China relations and Africa's experiences with globalisation. He's currently completing a book manuscript to be published as follows: Bodomo, A. forthcoming in 2011. The Globalization of Foreign Investment in Africa: China, Europe and India in Tandem. Casa Africa/Los Libros de la Catarata, Madrid, Spain.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] Xinhua News website: (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-12/24/c_13662138.htm - retrieved December 28, 2010)
[2] CIA World Factbook Website: (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ (retrieved, December 28, 2010).
[3] “…But recently, economist Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs, the man who originally coined the initial term BRICs, has designated what he thinks are the next great emerging market opportunities — Columbia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa. The CIVETS for short.” (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1209661 - retrieved: December 28, 2010). Indeed Jim O’Neill has further cooked up another term: The N-11, standing for the New or the Next 11 emerging countries, and comprising South Korea, Mexico, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Philippines, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.
[4] CIA World Factbook Website: (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ (retrieved, December 28, 2010).

Haitian diary: Struggling and waiting for the third revolution

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/69827

cc HaitianaWriting from Haiti, Sokari Ekine describes the problem of unsanitary conditions, the randomness of the destruction caused by last year’s earthquake, the wounds of people who survived and the possibility of a third revolution to come.

It’s been just over three weeks and I am finally getting a sense of the destruction to the people and the city. My original plan to meet with women organising in the community has fallen short of what I had hoped for due to family crisis, cholera, election protests and now petrol shortages. Still, I feel I have met sufficient community activists to get a sense of the truly amazing work they are doing and I will write of these in my final piece, but the story has changed and that in itself is a Haitian story and in this year, more so than usual. The earthquake is unavoidable and the intensity of the destruction is overwhelming. There is a randomness about the destruction. Whole streets destroyed except for one building and in others the whole street standing with one structure collapsed.

All over there is rubble which in parts occupies half the street and often in competition with the ‘Preval’s International Filth’ - the huge mass of refuse which threatens everyone’s existence except the pigs which grow fat from endless munching. No one should be forced to live in such an environment and no matter how much you try to clean your own patch, and people do this all the time in an almost continuous motion, its going to make very little difference if there is nowhere for the rubbish to go.

The issue of large amounts of street refuse and unsanitary conditions is not peculiar to Haiti by any means. But here it is compounded by the earthquake devastation, the IDP camps and now cholera. And neither here, nor in Nigeria or most other places, is sanitation given the priority it requires. Rea tells me refuse collection and sanitation is used by political opponents to discredit one another. For example in 2002 she was in charge of a cleaning crew. They would go out at night and clean the streets but the next day the streets would be full of refuse again. One particular day they hid and were able to catch the rubbish dumpers who were working for a political opponent in the area.

I call it ‘Preval’s International Filth’ because it’s a reflection of their disdain and disrespect for the Haitian people. Why should cleaning the city be left to a few men and women of the Yele Corps when it is the responsibility of the government and all those driving around in trucks with ‘humanitarian’ signs painted neatly on the side and who control the means to clean up the city. Especially now in the time of cholera. The great white stomping tanks and trucks guzzle the streets. Young men with brown and black faces, their blue helmets bobbing up and down - Brazil, Guatemala, Nepal, Nigeria - holding the grey steel of their weapons in one hand and their crutches in the other, they gaze blankly at the streets below their high top perch.

‘The first to have seen them. Who was the first? The one who received the first slap? They should have known, or at least foreseen the end, to worry that person. Leaving her house? Or rather strolling down the street, looking at the interior of stores not knowing that no one would remember that first day. What was she thinking of? What went on in her head, in her heart? What happened to her body in front of all these foreign beings? She closes her eyes, opens them; was she blind? Her ears perceive the sound of footsteps, this dull sound of boots on the beaten path. She tries to count. One, twenty-five, ten thousand. What does it matter. They are here. Within earshot, the sound gets closer. Motionless, she senses their approach. She wants to run away. But where? The boots walk past her without noticing the presence of the only witness. Anonymous. The boots could care less about this lone blind person, petrified at the corner of a street. The boots could care less about this country. The boots know nothing. They have been sent, they have been given orders, they have embarked on gigantic boats. The boots have left their wives and children behind. Perhaps the boots felt like crying. One must not feel sorry for them. One must remember everything, all of it. For the blind man, they will remain the boots of the first day. Later on, he will no longer hear the sound of the footsteps. His ears will fill up with the noise of guns and shots. Later on, he will understand that his ears had not fooled him. These boots on the damp soil [it was raining that day], the boots were the Other. Maybe on that very same day, did the boots become canons and guns? It is only necessary to determine the exact moment the blind man became aware of the change. At the moment when faking a smile was no longer needed? The day when what had been for so long took place.’ [Jan J. Dominique, Memoir of an Amnesiac]

Tents are everywhere, from huge camps of 10,000, to medium ones, small ones and the occasional single tent alone. Blue and grey tarps [USAID gifts from the American people reminding us of their omnipresence] together with tents of all shapes, sizes and colours are woven into the ruins of buildings, perched on top of buildings and attached to buildings. Recently I received an email from a tent spammer who must have picked up I was in Haiti and sent me a list of tarps and tents at discount prices. This is not how people should be forced to live, even for a short period let alone a year and there is no hope of change on the horizon. I think of other refugee camps like the Palestinian camps in Beirut and the Saharawi’s of Tinduff in the southern Algerian Sahara - both of which have been in existence for 30-odd years. What passes through your mind passes mine…It cannot be possible.

And there are the wounds - amputees with arms, legs, feet and hands missing, scared faces and bodies. Many of the wounds are not visible, like the woman who stands alone on a street by a food vendor. She stands mouthing words silently to herself and waving her arms in gentle movements almost as it they are being pushed into motion by the gentle sea breeze of the night.

It’s easy to forget Port-au-Prince is by the sea. I only spot the occasional glimpse of the grey green waters far away. These are deceptive. The channels in the city which lead to the sea are full of refuse and sewage. Last time I was here we ate lots of fish and seafood. One day we were in a supermarket where there were packets of frozen fish. I asked Rea if there was a fresh fish market in the city. She replied she no longer buys fresh Haitian fish because of the sewage which flows into the sea and the danger of Cholera. Two days later she cooked me fish. That is the nature of this wonderful family. In my own silence like a voyeur of the mind, I wonder what tragedy lies behind the faces of the people who survived. Whose homes survived? Whose didn’t? Who lost loved ones, neighbours and friends. Who are those that face a lifetime of injury and loss. At the school I meet a young girl who was lifted from the rubble after two days. Another whose family home collapsed and they lost everything. Another whose father died and another and another. Some are living in camps, some with family, some far from their destroyed homes, some have gone to the country and never returned.

In Champ Mars lies the remains of the crushed palace looking like a broken wedding cake, alongside which there are thousands and thousands of tents. The ones on the outer parameters facing the main boulevard have set up shops providing barbers, beauty salons, seamstresses, vendors of food and other necessities. Rising above the devastation of Port-au-Prince in twisted irony, the three heros of the revolution remain standing - Toussaint L’Overture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe. Do they speak of a fallen people or to a people on the verge of rising once again? The weirdest structure still standing is the ‘2004’ cone tower soaring above the whole city and built by President Aristide. No one seems to know what exactly it represents but I take it to be a symbol of the ‘second Haitian revolution’ - the flood of Lavalas. It speaks, saying, ‘you are trying to kill us but we are not dead yet, there is a third revolution to come. All we have to do is struggle and wait for that moment which in turn will become a history of this great black country.’

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Sokari Ekine is the author of the award-winning Black Looks blog.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Haiti: No resolution in sight?

Sokari Ekine

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/69858

cc HaitianaStill reeling from the earthquake, hurricane and cholera outbreak, Haiti has had to face fraudulent elections followed by protests. There’s ‘no resolution in sight, other than possibly to cancel the elections altogether,’ reports Sokari Ekine, in this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere.

I recently returned from Haiti and thus the country is still very much in my thoughts. Also next week will mark the one-year anniversary of the earthquake, which killed over 250,000 and destroyed much of Port-au-Prince (the official figure, but I suspect the real number is much higher). The repercussions are still being felt by 1.2 million displaced peoples living in make shift shacks and tents across the city, as well as those who have moved to the countryside or are still staying with friends and or relatives. Their lives have been made worse by the outbreak of cholera, which has so far claimed the lives of over 3,000 people (again this is the official figure) with possibly over 100,000 people who have had the illness. (See my article Haitian diary: survival in the time of cholera for more details on this).

In addition to the earthquake, hurricane and cholera, there have also been fraudulent elections followed by protests with no resolution in sight, other than possibly to cancel the elections altogether. A recent article from Haiti Libre reports that the CEP (electoral council) have said there cannot be a second round before February. I recall one of the major stories on Haitian radio were the elections in Ivory Coast and as one person said to me, ‘Well at least we don't have to deal with two presidents – as if one is not enough of a problem!’

Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela comments on the ‘recount and review’ of the 28 November elections which show massive irregularities – a fact that was apparent to most people even before the voting ended.

‘An independent recount and review of 11,171 tally sheets from Haiti’s 28 November election shows that the outcome of the election is indeterminate. The review, conducted by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), found massive irregularities and errors in the tally. A report detailing the recount’s findings, and methodology, will be made available next week.

‘“With so many irregularities, errors, and fraudulent vote totals, it is impossible to say what the results of this election really are,” said Mark Weisbrot, economist and CEPR Co-Director.

‘“If the Organization of American States certifies this election, this would be a political decision, having nothing to do with election monitoring,” said Weisbrot. “They would lose all credibility as a neutral election-monitoring organization.”’

Haiti, Land of Freedom, by Wadner Pierre, publishes an article on the impact of food aid on human rights in Haiti. The report entitled ‘Sak Vid Pa Kanpe’ which means ‘a sack cannot stand if empty’ refers to the idea that while food aid provides sustenance in the short term, in the long term it is damaging as it fails to provide food security and therefore ‘interferes with basic human rights’.

‘“The realization of the right to food requires more than temporary alleviation of hunger," the report says. It traces U.S. policy towards Haiti over the past several decades and concludes: "While coercing Haiti to nearly eliminate its import tariffs on rice, reduce investments in agriculture, and focus on a few crops for export, the United States gradually increased shipments of its own agricultural commodities to Haiti." ..............The result has been "a disastrous effect on Haitians' ability to produce food for domestic consumption and has created Haitian dependence on the importation of food." In 1986, Haiti produced 80% of the food it consumed. By 2008, that figure was 42%. In the wake of the earthquake and now the cholera outbreak, the gap between local agricultural production and imported aid is widening every more. ........Researchers for the report found that in the region of Hinche, food aid did fill important gaps in people's needs but did not eliminate hunger. Nearly 90% of people responding to the survey - and over 80% of their young children - had gone to sleep hungry in the month before the survey because there was not enough food...............Some 62% of surveyed aid recipients reported that they did not know how to prepare the food because it was unfamiliar while 11% of recipients received food that was inedible; 14% became ill from eating food aid.’

Ezili Danto reports on serial rapist and child molester, Douglas Perlitz, who was sentenced on 22 December to 20 years for sexual abuse of Haitian boys. Though this is an old post, it is an important one and very much worth mentioning. Perlitz founded the Project Pierre Toussaint which provided food, shelter and schooling to homeless boys in Cap Haitian. The abuse took place between 2001 and 2008.

‘This is a truly extraordinary ruling for the Haiti children - for the world's defenseless children living in countries where the wealthier, predatory U.S. sex-tourists hunt, heretofore with almost complete impunity.

‘Judge Arterton also said she read every letter sent. I think the maximum sentence reflected this. USGA, Krishna Patel was slamming! I mean really good in nailing her case! Doug Perlitz's lawyer rambled on, called the children the "scourge of the earth," “below dirt,” and said Haiti was so dark, pessimistic and negative, it contributed to Perlitz's downward spiral into abuse. The man was unnecessarily offensive.

‘It was a privilege and honor to thank the US government team and Rod Khattabi. A true pleasure. They did a spectacular job. It was heartbreaking listening to the children testimony. Six came up from Haiti along with two of the teachers who first listened to them and tried to stop Perlitz. True, true heroes - Margarette Joseph and Robinson Gedeus!!!’

The case is a reminder to be vigilant and insist on accountability in the operations of charities etc working in Haiti and even more so since the earthquake when hundreds if not thousands of NGOs of all shapes and sizes have descended on Haiti over the past 12 months. No doubt there are those who are doing good work but many remain questionable in their motives and actions.

Unfortunately I do not speak French and am therefore not familiar with bloggers from Cote d’Ivoire. However for those interested it’s worth following the Twitter hash tag #civ2010 and also Will Connors (@wconnors), a freelance journalist based in Nigeria who has been tweeting on the post- election violence and political stand-off.

The Egyptian Twitter-sphere has been providing readers with up-to-the-minute accounts of the New Year’s Day bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria and the subsequent street protests by Muslims and Christians coming together and the violent response by the Egyptian police. See hash tags #WeAllCopts and #Egypt, and worth a special mention @MAswad, @RamyRaoof, @Alaa, @Gsquare86, @waelabbas.

Arabaway Arabaway has a number of videos and photos reports protesting against the sectarian violence:

‘Brutal clashes took place today in Shubra, as police cracked down on Coptic protesters (joined by leftists and rights activists). There are around 15 activists kettled as I’m typing now, and at least five in police custody. The Coptic church had a disgraceful role as always today trying to persuade the youth not to protest or attack the regime. The church continues to be a diffuser of dissent. But it’s clear the militancy and resistance of the young Copts cannot be easily contained.’

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Sokari Ekine is the author of the award-winning Black Looks blog.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Education and racism: Defending Brazil’s candace girls

Andréia Lisboa de Sousa

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/69832

cc P A RWhile edicts around the need for non-discrimination and racial equality within Brazil’s education system have changed, the attitudes of figures in positions of educational authority have not, writes Andréia Lisboa de Sousa.

If we minimally reflect on the issue, we will have no difficulty perceiving what the educational system in Brazil is instilling in terms of racism: textbooks, teachers' attitude in the classroom and in moments of recreation, the system points to a brainwashing process of such order that the child no longer recognises herself as being black. And it is these ‘exceptions’ that, appropriately coopted, ultimately affirm the absence of racism and its practices. When, in the opposite case – i.e., for non-acceptance of cooptation and the denunciation of the process of super-exploitation – black is subjected to, immediately there is the accusation of 'reverse racism' (Lelia Gonzalez 1979).

The black intellectual, philosopher and activist Lelia Gonzalez, one of our Brazilian candaces, reminds us that in Brazil, historically, black men and women are in a position of disadvantage in formal education, as well as other spheres of social welfare. The last two presidents of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1994–2001) and Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (2002–10) recognised the existence of a racism that plagues the social fabric, the individual and their interpersonal relations. However, due to the mobilisation around the International the Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women,[1] what perspectives have been placed for black women and young girls, as well as black men and young boys in Brazil?

There has been a significant investment in maintaining the role of black women as being unintelligent, relegated only to housework chores and being commanded by white women. Would the image of the illiterate housemaid, caricatured, animalised, ‘big lipped’ and a ‘coal monkey’ be the only place that society reserves and allows as the place of visibility for the black woman? Despite the efforts of organisations working on human rights, black entities, educators and black researchers engaged in combating racism and prejudice, the book ‘Caçadas de Pedrinho’ (‘Pete’s Hunting’) by Monteiro Lobato has not gone through any rigorous evaluation regarding specifically the issue of race and it was approved by the evaluators of National Library Programme in School (PNBE).

Notably, in 2005 we were led to believe that progress had been made in the book policy of the programmes of the Ministry of Education (MEC) – the National Library Programme in School (PNBE), the National Textbook Programme (PNLD) and the National Book of High School Programme (PNLEM) – to contemplate the principle of respect to ethno-racial diversity. The announcements of these programmes categorically state that ‘it will be excluded from the collections books that do not obey the following rules’ (Edict PNBE/2010), ‘it will be summarily disposed of the works that do not comply with the following criteria’ (Edict PNLD 2010), and ‘All works must conform to legal principles’ (Edict PNLEM 2007).

All these programs mention, among other laws, the National Educational Bases and Guidelines and its amendments and CNE / CP No. 003/2004 of 10.3.2004 and Resolution CNE / CP No. 1, 17/06/2004, which are featured on the National Guidelines for the Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations and the Teaching of Afro-Brazilian and African History. The PNBE’s edict cites the Children and Adolescents Statute and the latter two also cite Law No. 10639/2003, which made compulsory the teaching of History and Afro-Brazilian Culture in the official curriculum of education.

The rules of the National Library Programme in School report explicitly that works that ‘convey stereotypes and preconceptions about social, regional, ethnic, racial, gender condition, sexual orientation, age or language, as well as any other form of discrimination or violation of rights’ will be excluded. Given this political game it is clear that the edicts have been changed in their content, but were not able to change the criteria of the evaluator and therefore did not alter the process and forms for evaluation and selection of racist and prejudiced books.

Thus, in 2010, unfortunately we are faced with the failure of the exclusion criteria of the works submitted to the process of evaluation of these programmes, since both the rules of notice as well as the political position of the Brazilian Ministry of Education run counter to what was proposed and disclosed in their respective announcements. Therefore, there was the need for the National Education Council (CNE) to develop the report CNE/CEB No.: 15/2010, advising on the situation and considering historical, educational, cultural and identity implications for the selection of the book ‘Pete’s Hunting’, due to its explicitly discriminatory and racist content.

What's behind a political book management that makes changes to their edicts and publishes them, making it look like they are complying with the law, but actually produces quite the opposite effect? What's behind the Brazilian publishing cartels controlled by some foreign corporations submitting racist books for selection of the Brazilian Ministry of Education programmes? That is how the white supremacist social power evinces its social power, because in spite of being aware of the rules for book selection, books with racist content are submitted, selected and approved. In fact, these book programmes are used as ideological state apparatus, which demonstrate to efficiently serve the production, reproduction and reinforcement of discriminatory practices, especially towards black girls and young black women.

It should then be asked: Who are these reviewers? How many black experts who specialise in children's literature belong to the evaluation team? What effective changes occurred in the policy of the National Library Programme in School, after the approval of anti-racist legal federal requirements previously mentioned? Yet one must question and investigate: How is the ethno-racial theme being implemented in MEC internal and external instances? How is the budget policy planned to conduct training programmes and training courses and how has the Department of Basic Education prepared our education professionals to deal with education for racial equality?

We need our black specialists not only as part of teams that make up these programmes, but as their managers and coordinators in order to actualise a policy of ethno-racial inclusion and diversity. We also need specialists in teaching materials on this theme, integrating the publishing industry, especially when publishers submit their books to the book programmes.

How can we conceive as normal, natural and legal to buy books that convey openly racist terms as ‘coal monkey’ and ‘stinking black vulture’, as stated in ‘Pete’s Hunting’? If the fact that a character is identified as ‘coal monkey’ does not fit the definition of stereotype and stigma, we must change all the academic literature on the subject. For example, Goffman, Bendelow, Gillian and Williams, Ana Celia da Silva, Esmeralda Negrão, Fulvia Rosemberg, Regina Pahim Pinto, Edith Piza, among other prestigious authors have showed in their studies how prejudice and stereotypes are harmful to children and adolescents. Therefore, taking into consideration to MEC’s decision, the scholarly reference to the subject no longer serves to guide further research and analysis.

If the MEC failed to fulfil the goal of teacher training, if Brazilian universities have not established disciplines for the education of race relations, with some exceptions, where does the certainty that our teachers are prepared to – once a child gets in touch with a racially prejudiced text that has already negatively affected their self-concept and self-image – provide new elements for the non-crystallisation of these stereotypes and their overcoming? Why subject our black children to the painful exercise of reading ‘Aunt Nastasya, forgetful of her many rheumatisms, climbed the tree, just like a coal monkey’?

Why opt for distributing a book that is confirmedly an attack to the image of black women: ‘… nor even aunt Nastasya, who has black flesh’? Why invest in the destructive, shocking and terrorist image ‘… birds, from the stinking black vulture up to this jewel of wings’ and then bet that the teacher will properly elaborate such text in a classroom in a racist society like Brazil?

Undoubtedly, this context is only to show that the traditional tricks of the technologies of power applied by conservative groups who can only see and wish for policies that favour the ‘white’ intelligentsia. Thus, these groups maintain an economic supremacy at the expense of the selection of books paid for with public money, this way spreading a racist ideology, as expressed through stereotyped texts, which are vilifying and disrespectful to the black characters. Now what we can clearly perceive is that managers, technicians and others who are responsible for these book programmes do not take the Brazilian legislation seriously, and take even less seriously an anti-racist education for all. A similar racist situation has been denounced worldwide and lawsuits were filed against the state, for example, in the US (‘From Slave Ship to Freedom Road’[2] by Julius Lester) and in Belgium (‘Tintin in the Congo’[3] – comic strips created by the Belgian Georges Rémi, who used the pen name of Hergé).

Let us hunt, yes, this racism Brazilian-style, and any work that violates human rights and the principle of existence with dignity. Let us question the government officials who play with the Brazilian educational system and not implement an anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-homophobic education in their programmes. Let us hunt white supremacy, spread in positions of power in government bodies, which diverts the focus of discussions about inequalities and rights of Afro-Brazilians. Let us change the unfair economic policy, that does not hesitate when it comes to power, preparation, assessment and distribution of books to schools in the country.

The MEC and educational systems must review their policies of evaluation and selection of book programmes. Furthermore, the MEC must prescribe the participation of researchers, activists and educators who are able to work with the victims of discrimination and stereotyping in pedagogical materials during the whole process of book evaluation and selection. Otherwise, we will not be able to live in a democratic society in which the excluded groups can read books with complex, beautiful, diverse and dream-worthy stories about themselves. Lobato did not allow that Snow White, Cinderella and Uncle Scrooge were the only icons for the juvenile imagination of our children, youth and adults. However, it is true that in the 1930s, the author was not concerned with the valorisation of black children, nor the strengthening of their self-esteem.

Thus what is left for us is to criticise, to protest and to file lawsuits, demanding that the state takes appropriate action in relation to racist books, or we shall have to relinquish once and for all the discourse of valuing diversity and promoting racial equality in education in Brazil. We are entitled to children's literature that places the black character on a par with invention, imagination and the dreamy, smart, rich and diverse characteristics that historically have only favoured the image of white characters. We require that the books sent to public schools are conducive to an aesthetic, ethics and a playful self-image and self-esteem for black children and young black women as well as for white children and youngsters.

We hope for child and youth narratives which are truly configured to positively enrich the imaginary of the reader. We want rich stories and illustrations to read properly and leave us enthralled with the mysteries and secrets, preparing us to deal with life's challenges. We aim at honoured texts that provide ways of interaction and to establish healthy relations with multiple cohabitation as living and nonliving beings forming part of the world we share.

We demand that you, President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, the Minister of Education Fernando Haddad and the Secretary of Basic Education Maria do Pilar Lacerda Almeida e Silva, correct this error and make a commitment with the urgent need to recognise the existence of racism in these books and materials, actively fighting it aligned with what is stated in our constitution. Moreover, we demand that those authorities take proactive positions, forwarding all procedures that may be required by the publishing market, the commission evaluators and the organisation of training courses for teachers, among others.

It is a fact that the first woman elected president of the Federative Republic of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, knows the impact of trauma and stigma that violence, torture and dictatorial Brazil have imprinted in her life. After the death of three women during the dictatorship of the Dominican Republic in 1960, only in 1991 was a campaign of 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women established, beginning on 25 November and ending on 10 December. Definitely we do not aspire to have our black candace girls perverted and violently marked in the classrooms of this country as a ‘coal monkey’ or ‘stinky black vulture’, and not for any other racist terms that should have been already abolished. Rather, we wish that the narratives about our candaces be spread and their diversity through books for children throughout this country.

Let us fight against the violence towards women, youth and children and against the discriminatory content in this ‘Pete’s Hunting’ book. We should not allow that a narrative that appeals to the abominable use of stereotypes, as well as discriminatory texts and illustrations holding the image of black female characters, stain our history of struggle.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* ‘Candace girls’ is a term that means the queen mother and has been used to describe the political-economic, religious, cultural, educational and military queens of the African kingdom of Meroe, well before the Christian era in ancient Egypt, where are located today’s Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt itself.
* Andréia Lisboa de Sousa is a specialist in children’s and youth literature. She is co-author of ‘An Eye on Culture: Views of Afro-Brazilian Studies’ (Ministry of Culture and Federal University of Bahia/CEAO, 2005), which won the National Competition Textbooks on Afro-Brazilian Culture.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

NOTES

[1] On 25 November 1960, three activist sisters (Patrícia, Minerva and Maria Teresa Mirabal, known as Las Mariposas) were tortured and violently killed on orders of Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. On account of this atrocity, during the first Feminist Summit – held in 1981 in Bogotá, Colombia – the Latin America and the Caribbean Day was established to fight against violence against women. In 1999, eighteen years later, the United Nations officially designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
[2] Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/11/father-sues-detroit-district-over-slavery-reading_n_782174.html
[3] Source: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/95785-tintin-to-be-sued-for-being-racist-and-xenophobic.html?p=6&a=95785

Movement Building Boot Camp training programme

2011-01-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/69807

A celebration of the rich and wonderful life of Basil Davidson

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/69867

Treasures we bring: Video testimonies of southern African migrants

2011-01-06

http://www.youtube.com/treasureswebring

Through an initiative by Community Media for Development called 'Treasures we Bring' migrants of all kinds - refugees, economic migrants, students, cross border or from one city to the next - are being invited to share their stories thorough video testimonies about a treasured object that represents where they come from, their journey, their challenges, and their hope for the future.

By telling these stories, the videos aim to show how migrants bring a wealth of diversity, talent, and skills to their new homes, while also sharing the histories of the personal objects that they consider to be treasures.

The recorded videos are uploaded to YouTube and can be viewed, shared and downloaded by other YouTube users. Feel free to comment on the videos and forward the link to your friends and colleagues.

Nigeria: Political financing, incumbency and free and fair elections

Uche Igwe

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/69862

cc WikipediaNigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan is working hard to convince people that he will ‘deliver credible elections’, with the appointment of electoral commissioner Attahiru Jega. But, writes Uche Igwe, ‘a functional system rather than an individual is what is needed’ to sanitise a process that has become ‘a vehicle for electoral fraud’.

Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has promised firmly that he will deliver credible elections in 2011. He seems to be working very hard to convince everyone that he means business. He is often very quick to brandish the impeccable credentials of the electoral umpire in the person of Professor Attahiru Jega. Everyone agrees that Jega is eminently qualified for the position but a functional system rather than an individual is what is needed to sanitise the Nigerian electoral process which has been a vehicle for electoral fraud over the years.

At the core of the malady of our electoral system is our dysfunctional political parties and campaign financing. Political parties are very essential ingredients in a democracy, I agree. I am told they connect (or are supposed to connect) the society to the state. They also serve as a platform (in countries where they function well) for recruiting political leaders for social integration, networking and seek political offices in a modern democracy.

Armed with this background I went to the INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) political party list and I saw 63 parties on the last count. Many of them unknown. A few weeks ago they were 57. The interesting thing however is that many of them have incomplete addresses, no logo, no website and some even have no phone numbers. Yet they are supposed to field candidates in the next coming weeks and win elections. Curiously, they had all their officers’ names well written, often reflecting the geopolitical balance. One will not look far to know that many of these so-called parties exist on papers, among friends and families and dynasties. They are just waiting to collect the INEC subvention, share it and go underground again till the next election. But that is by the way.

President Jonathan recently and rather subtly announced automatic tickets for incumbent governors under the People’s Democratic Party(PDP). Never mind that the party denied it later in the day. But we could see through the ostrich game. Maybe there are serving governors who deserve the ticket or who will emerge as ‘consensus’ candidates but not all of them. Is it therefore fair to give both performing and non-performing governors automatic tickets? What is implication of this to the so-called commitment to free and fair elections? Are free and fair primaries not part of it?

Another issue related to this that is most worrisome is the issue of opaque political financing. I have been told that new electoral law has some clauses on it, but nobody seems to care in Nigeria. Granted, money is essential for democratic competition but it turns out in Nigeria that it is one of the biggest sores on our democracy. Money can distort any electoral process and so the sources of the funds, distribution and management of political funds ought to be made transparent. A president committed to free and fair elections must not ignore this. Cash is a big political weapon for those who have it. Many political entrepreneurs dole out large sums of money, purchase the soul of political parties and expect huge rewards for such investments. Many political aspirants are supported by ‘moneybags’ and power-brokers (a.k.a godfathers) who bank roll their campaigns. These transactions are kept secret and the amounts spent are hardly disclosed. Indeed sponsorship is seen as a business transaction in which a patron must at all costs recover his investments in form of contracts and appointment of cronies into public offices. We have seen situations in the past where a self acclaimed ‘godfather’ imposed an irrevocable payment order (IPO) on a particular state in the south east. This is still one of the key sources of political corruption capable of distorting electoral contests, no matter how well intended they may be.

Political offices are therefore ‘zoned’ to the highest bidder. Any one who is unable to mobilise the huge funds required or convince a ‘godfather’ cannot make any headway. The hazy political financing regime in Nigeria therefore gives undue advantage to incumbents as they will be most likely dipping their hands into public funds to finance their campaigns. At least the so-called security vote. That is a direct way of emasculating opposition and a sure way to democratic caricature.

A time has come to give transparent guidelines both for the financial management of political parties but also for campaign financing. What are the sources of funding? Who are those that donated money? What has been spent and for what? What are the limits? President Jonathan must urge the new INEC to quickly look in this direction. He must lead the way by publishing all the donations he has received so far and who his donors are. His party, the ruling party must energise the contest by rethinking the automatic ticket to incumbents. He must not be seen to condone actions that run counterproductive to positions which he had canvassed openly and upon which the world will hold him accountable.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Uche Igwe is a visiting scholar at Africa Program SAIS, Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Nigeria’s NEITI: After validation, what next?

Uche Igwe

2011-01-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/69822

cc EITIWith Nigeria not yet compliant with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Uche Igwe calls for greater transparency in the country’s extractive industry.

Last October, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) missed an opportunity to join other countries implementing the transparency initiative to be designated as an EITI-compliant country. This was after a committee constituted by the global board of the initiative based in Norway considered a validation report on Nigeria’s implementation progress. At the end of the meeting in Tanzania, NEITI was given a curious close-compliant status and handed a six-month ultimatum to meet certain conditions in order to become an EITI compliant country.

Validation is an independent quality assurance mechanism that evaluates EITI implementation progress in implementing countries and provides such a report to the global EITI. Even though Nigeria signed on to EITI in the last quarter of 2003 and started implementation in 2004, it is not yet compliant according to the laid-down procedures by the global EITI board. Out of 32 implementing countries so far, five countries (Azerbaijan, Liberia, Timor Leste, Ghana and Mongolia) have become compliant. However, countries like Nigeria, Kazakhstan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Peru have achieved the close-to-compliant status. The global EITI mandated NEITI to improve six aspects of its operations before next April in order to be awarded a full-compliant status. The issues raised include a timely completion of 2006–08 audit as well as a modus operandi (charter) for the NEITI board. For a country that was once a poster child of the transparency ‘effort’ in the extractive industry worldwide, this is clearly a less than satisfactory performance. But that is by the way.

The leadership of NEITI is in top gear working on the six issues raised by the global EITI and will most likely meet the deadline to become compliant. No doubt this will be another opportunity for Nigeria to raise its voice on issues of transparency and good governance globally. It will be nice to have something at this point in time that all we hear are tales of woes and massacres, as if our dear nation were turning into a classical Hobbesian state where life is nasty, brutish and short. Pundits are speculating that the momentum that will be raised will slowly disappear and the Nigerian extractive industry will return back to business-as-usual in the hands of inept bureaucrats and dubious multinationals.

Beyond the expected ‘noise’ that will accompany such a feat, what other tangible progress can that potentially or actually lead to in our ‘murky’ extractive industry? Former president Olusegun Obasanjo identified the manifestation of corruption in Nigeria while he spoke at the annual Transparency International (TI) conference in Berlin in 2003. He identified the roots as ‘the collapse of governance, the subversion of due process, the erosion of accountability procedures, manipulation of existing laws and regulations, erosion of public confidence and a culture of contempt for the rule of law’. Symbolically it was in that same meeting that he led Nigeria to sign into the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The implementation of the initiative came like a big bang in Nigeria and many stakeholders were hopeful that light would be beamed to the dark alleys of the Nigerian extractive industry. But indeed very little has happened. The NEITI Act 2007 ambitiously gave NEITI a responsibility, among other things, to ‘eliminate all forms of corrupt practices in the determination, payments, receipts and revenues accruing to the Federal Government from the extractive industry companies’. This objective is at the core of the work of NEITI but seven years after EITI’s implementation in Nigeria the business-as-usual status still remains. NEITI 2005 audit reports confirm that ‘the amount of oil produced (at the well head) is not reliably known. The Department for Petroleum Resources (DPR) has no system of measuring production other than through monitoring terminal receipts. DPR has no data from which possible product losses between production point and the terminal can be estimated, measured or inferred.’ Another curious revelation in the 2005 audit is the management of signature bonuses. The audit clearly states that ‘the management of signature bonus was not transparent’.

Many of these findings were also contained in the landmark 1998–2004 audit carried out by NEITI. An inter-ministerial task team was put together in May 2005, but very little happened. Pundits therefore believe that the forthcoming 2006–08 audit report will have the same lapses as minimal remedial action has been carried out. One key aspect of remediation is the installation of precision meters at flow stations, as recommended by the auditors. Despite intensive advocacy mounted about this and a technical support offer by Norwegian government, the programme did not manage to take off.

The oil and gas industry is the heartbeat of our economy and so any effective reform must have a buy-in of government as the highest level. In the early days of NEITI many of the actions required presidential intervention to elicit adequate compliance on the part of companies. Anything short of that will reduce NEITI to that dog that barks so hard and bites very little.

There is an urgent need to review and amend the NEITI Act to tighten loose ends. For instance, the procedure for the appointment of the executive secretary is faulty. The requisite qualifications are unclear and there is no horizontal accountability. This has given rise to political cronies and clueless individuals to be appointed into such sensitive positions. Sanctions clauses in the act are a slap on the wrist and confidentiality clauses still remain.

The Petroleum Industry Bill contains a few complementary clauses that could strengthen NEITI, but no one can confirm its status as I write. If it has not been passed now, then the likelihood that it will pass this legislative year is slim as lawmakers are now preoccupied with elections. In their haste, they may pass a watered-down version. It was recently revealed that Nigeria has lost US$3.6 billion (550 billion naira) worth of revenue annually as a result of the unpatriotic delay in the passage of the bill. Time is ticking and billions of dollars are leaking away from our national patrimony before our very eyes.

It is my view that revenue transparency cannot be a standalone issue anymore. Every national EITI must reflect domestic realities on the ground and be integrated into country governance and reform programmes, including the budget systems, taxation systems and revenue and public expenditure management systems. NEITI must therefore be seen to affect poverty levels, especially in the Niger Delta region, contribute to conflict reduction and boost national prosperity. It must position itself to become a real harbinger of change in the dark alleys of our extractive industry. This government must rise to its responsibility to raise the bar of political will to implement good governance in a sector that is the only backbone of our national economy. Nigerians are running out of patience!

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Uche Igwe wrote from the Africa programme at Paul H. Nitze (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Court rules that all Ugandans have a right to privacy and dignity

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/69829

The Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Uganda warmly welcomes and applauds today’s decision by High Court judge Justice V.F. Kibuuka Musoke in the case of Kasha Jacqueline, Pepe Onziema & David Kato v. Giles Muhame and The Rolling Stone Publications
Ltd.

Through its members, the Coalition filed a complaint in the High Court against the Rolling Stone. The Court issued an interim order restraining the editors of the newspaper from any further publication of information about anyone alleged to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender until the case could be finally determined.

After an initial postponement, the merits of the case were heard on 23 November, 2010. The final ruling was read today, 3 January 2011. In considering whether the Rolling Stone’s publication of alleged homosexuals’ names, addresses and preferred social hang-outs constituted a violation of the applicant’s constitutional rights, the Court, ruled that:

1) The motion is not about homosexuality per se, but ‘...it is about fundamental rights and freedoms,’ in particular about whether ‘the publication infringed the rights of the applicants or threatened to do
so’.

2) The jurisdiction of Article 50 (1) of the Constitution is dual in nature, in that it extends not just to any person ‘whose fundamental rights or other rights or freedoms have been infringed in the first place,’ but also to ‘persons whose fundamental rights or other rights or freedoms are threatened to be infringed.’

3) Inciting people to hang homosexuals is an attack on the right to dignity of those thus threatened: ‘…the call to hang gays in dozens tends to tremendously threaten their right to human dignity.’

4) Homosexuals are as entitled to the right to privacy as any other citizens. Against the ‘objective test’, ‘the exposure of the identities of the persons and homes of the applicants for the purposes of fighting gayism and the activities of gays…threaten the rights of the applicants to privacy of the person and their homes.’

5) Section 145 of the Penal Code Act cannot be used to punish persons who themselves acknowledge being, or who are perceived by others to be homosexual. The Court ruled that ‘One has to commit an act prohibited under section 145 in order to be regarded as a criminal.’ Clearly this applies only to a person who has been found guilty by a court of law.

In terms of the relief sought by the applicants, the Court issued a permanent injunction preventing The Rolling Stone and their managing editor, Mr. Giles Muhame, from ‘any further publications of the identities of the persons and homes of the applicants and homosexuals generally.’ The injunction thus provides broad protection to other Ugandans who are, or who are perceived to be homosexual, and the ruling provides an important precedent should any other media attempt to publish similar information. The court further awarded UGX. 1,500,000/= to each of the applicants, as well as ordering that the applicant shall recover their costs from the respondents.

The human rights community welcomes this ruling as a landmark in the struggle for the protection of human dignity and the right to privacy irrespective of one’s sexual orientation. According to Professor J. Oloka-Onyango, Director of the Human Rights & Peace Centre at the Faculty of
Law, Makerere University, ‘This ruling serves as an important warning to anyone - Minister, Pastor or Boda-Boda rider - who believes that they can abuse, or threaten to abuse, the fundamental rights of fellow citizens with impunity. It also serves as a wake-up call to media houses that are making a mockery of the principles of freedom of speech and responsible reporting.’

According to Adrian Jjuuko, Coordinator of the Coalition on Human Rights & Constitutional Law, which sponsored the case, ‘The ruling also builds on the earlier High Court decision in Victor Mukasa & Another vs. Attorney General (High Court Miscellaneous Cause No 24 of 2006), and firmly establishes the principle that constitutionally protected rights belong to all Ugandans, whatever their perceived sexuality’.

‘While this injunction is a positive step for gay people in Uganda, the fact remains that the government of Uganda has for long been mute about the discrimination, threats and violence faced by LGBTI people in Uganda,’ said Kasha Jacqueline, one of the applicants and also Director of Freedom & Roam Uganda.

The Rolling Stone is a tabloid which issued its fifth publication on 2 October, 2010. Its front page carried the headline ‘100 Pictures of Uganda’s Top Homos Leak’ which included the words ‘Hang Them!’ Bullet points under the headline read, ‘We Shall Recruit 100,000 Innocent Kids by 2012: Homos’ and ‘Parents Now Face Heart-Breaks [sic] as Homos Raid Schools’.

The paper contained the names and in some cases the pictures and description of where certain activists and human rights defenders live. A §later edition of the newspaper published on 31 October contained a further 17 photos of alleged LGBT people, with personal details of those identified, including where they lived. The Ugandan government made no response following either publication.

The Coalition believes that these developments are not accidental: ‘The climate of fear created by the simple tabling of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in 2009 has already adversely affected not just Ugandan nationals, but also LGBTI asylum seekers. It is really time for the government to explicitly reassure all people in Uganda, wherever they come from, that they intend to protect people against threats and violence regardless of their real or alleged sexual orientation,’ said Dr Chris Dolan, Director of the Refugee Law Project at Makerere University. ‘This important ruling goes at least some way in the
right direction.’

This ruling is a landmark not only for sexual and other minorities living in Uganda, but also an important precedent for other countries facing similar issues of state and media sponsored homophobia. As a Coalition concerned with human rights and constitutional law, we applaud the High Court for taking this principled step. In standing up for the rights of Uganda’s most marginalised they have at the same time strengthened the protection by the law of all people in Uganda.

* For further information on the work of the Coalition, please go to www.ugandans4rights.org or write to us on info@ugandans4rights.org

A tale of meteoric rise to power

Review of Femi Ojo-Ade’s ‘The Obama Phenomenon: Change We Can!’

Peter W. Vakunta

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/69865

Obama as once-in-a lifetime phenomenon; Obama as symbol of success against racism; Obama as personification of nonpareil commitment to community and national service; Obama as conflation of dream and reality; Obama as trail-blazer; Obama as culmination of a historical process – the crystallisation of the dreams of black generations, and Obama as agent of transcendence and transformation in America and the world at large. Such are the themes that constitute the fifteen chapters of this thought-provoking collection of essays that concludes with a poem recounting the telltale history of blacks in Africa and those in the diaspora. ‘The Obama Phenomenon: Change We Can! Essays and Poetry by Black Critics and Creative Artist’ is a tale of the meteoric rise of Barack Hussein Obama to power in the United States of America. Femi Ojo-Ade’s volume addresses three fundamental questions: Who is Barack Hussein Obama? What makes him tick? What does his victory portend for the United States of America and the global community?

Barack Hussein Obama is portrayed as a multifaceted persona in each of these narratives. Genetically, Obama is the product of racial miscegenation. On this subject, Femi Ojo-Ade has this to adumbrate: ‘His uniqueness emanates from the particularity of his birth by an African man married to a white American woman’ (288). Barack Hussein Obama, son of an African from Kenya, was born and bred in the United States of America. His father, Barack, came to America as a student to study at the University of Hawaii where he met Barack Junior’s mother, Stanley Ann, and married her in ‘just a small civil ceremony, a justice of the peace’(Dreams, 22). Obama does not bemoan his bi-raciality. On the contrary, he recognises the synergy inherent in his racial hybridity. Obama comes to terms with his genetic and cultural bipolarity when he notes in his ‘The Audacity of Hope’: ‘I reject a politics that is based solely on racial identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or victimhood generally’ (236). Little wonder that as a product of cultural hybridisation, Obama is preoccupied with the creation of a new American society that will give everyone the opportunity to be themselves without fear of losing their pride or dignity on the basis of physical make-up. As Oluropo Sekoni notes in his essay titled ‘Neither Black nor White Enough: Obama as Forerunner of the Multicultural Leader,’ Obama wants to move America ‘beyond the race society into a post-race ethos, a truly postmodern and multicultural reality’ (235). His commitment to change, inclusiveness and bi-partisanship has remained consistent as evident in his victory speech in 2008: ‘This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace… Yes, we can’ (238). The only reasons that can be advanced for Obama’s electoral victory are his thirst for change and the identification in his singular character of the ingredients for bringing about such a change. In his musings on the extraordinary qualities of Barack Hussein Obama, John Rex Gadzekpo wonders aloud:

‘How many political leaders in living memory can match not only the sartorial but more specially the rhetorical eloquence of this student of great presidents of America and African American heroes? How many world leaders, past and present, have been able to hold out with such aplomb, consistence, rhythm and elegance, without reading from a piece of paper, through major policy and ceremonial speeches full of complicated details, as Obama has done during and after the presidential campaign, especially his swearing-in ceremony, and more recently, in congress during his brilliant defense of the health insurance bill?’ (207)

Barack Hussein Obama’s portrait is that of a man of the people, a man determined not to forget his lowly origins and black race. His overriding attribute as a public persona seems to be his innate capability to bestride the two conflicting worlds without perforce letting either side down. This character trait is grist to the mill of Obama mania. He is a community organiser par excellence who projects beyond the self and embraces his subjects’ egos. In his essay ‘Barack Obama and the Promethean Burden,’ Ade Kukoye observes that the one dominant feature of Barack Hussein Obama is ‘his clinical observation of people and phenomena at all times and in all situations’ (246). He further notes that Obama possesses a singular ability to enter into a dispassionate dialogue with others without necessarily engaging his own emotions in the process. Barack Hussein Obama is endowed with unparalleled talents that have catapulted him onto the pedestal of world renowned freedom fighters, namely Martin Luther King, Jr, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi to name but a few. The spontaneous magnetism that he exudes, the boyish grin, the disarming simplicity, the oratorical swagger that remains in control even at the most trying of times, his calm disposition to provocative taunts, his sensitivity to the role of the underdog, his clear-headed introspection and a healthy sense of humour are attributes of a man called upon to deal with issues of popular destiny. They account for Obama’s meteoric rise on the political horizon. As Kukoye notes pointedly, ’his dramatic emergence on the political scene is the targeted result of a silent, seemingly mysterious preparation’ (245). He hits the nail on the head when his describes Barack Hussein Obama as ‘an enigma, a “living legend”’ (244). These are only the tip of the iceberg of the mountain of stuff that makes the 44th president of the United States of America tick. The Obama phenomenon is all that has been broached above. Sekoni defines the Obama phenomenon as ‘the special circumstances that construct Obama’s political personality, especially as such circumstances relate to Obama’s postmodernist impulse and style’ (233).

When all is said and done, the question that begs to be asked at this juncture is what Obama’s ascendancy to power connotes for America, Africa, and the world at large. Why does it matter that Barack Hussein Obama, an African American, is tenant at the White House today? In an attempt to respond to this nagging question, Femi Ojo-Ade compares Obama to South Africa’s legendary leader, Nelson Mandela, noting that the election of Obama is the crystallisation of the struggles of all black people: ‘Taken in tandem with the liberation of Madiba Nelson Mandela from the apartheid gulag on 11 February 1990, Obama’s victory is one event that makes our struggles worthwhile’ (xiv). This statement foreshadows a process of continuity in the political rise of blacks in America and beyond. The following remark culled from Melise Huggins’ essay titled ‘Barack Obama: Beyond, Between, Betwixt and Parting the Deep Blue Red Sea’ sums up this vision. As she puts it, ‘In essence, Obama is the Black man who accomplishes a lot with great aplomb, charisma, and humble greatness’ (66). One hopes that Obama’s message will make African and other Third World leaders, embroiled in mutual distrust and developmental retrogression, think and change. In the words of Marius Anagonou, ‘As we bask in the sunshine of Obama’s victory, we Africans must think of change on our continent. If he can fulfill his dream, so can we’ (61).

In a race-conscious society like the United States of America, the election of Barack Hussein Obama to the Oval Office must mean different things to different people. To African Americans, the formerly enslaved, this victory symbolises a dream come true. John Rex Gadzekpo observes: ‘Now the storm is real. Obama has been elected president of the greatest power on earth. He is the first president of African origin in a country where his ancestors had been enslaved, and where, at a given moment in the history of that land, people like him could not share the same space with whites’ (190). While most African Americans consider Obama’s presidency as a sort of miracle, an event they never expected would happen in their lifetime, the other side of the racial divide holds a different view. The majority of European Americans and those minorities who did not vote for him look down on his African ancestry, his ‘funny’ name (note that he has been described as a black man with a funny name – ‘Dreams from my Father’, viii), and supposed Muslim religion. Notwithstanding Obama’s mixed racial background, there are Americans that are mentally unprepared to accept the fact that a black person of any type should occupy their sacred White House. The demeaning cartoons and privately shared racist internet messages taken together with public queries of the so-called ‘birthers’ all offer ample testimony. The self-ascribed ‘birthers’ question whether Barack Hussein Obama was born in the United States of America. Lansana Keita opines that ‘Were Obama’s father European instead of African, his persona would not have suffered any such indignities ‘ (225). On the other hand, the influential liberal elements who promoted his candidacy see his unusual cultural experience as a psychological advantage. For those bothered by their conscience in a historically racist society, the election of an African American to the office of president has a cathartic effect, unburdening them of history’s abominable realities, not least of which is the trans-Atlantic trade in human cargo. To Africans who would like to appropriate America’s first black president, there is bound to be disappointment because Obama as president of the United States of America is principally committed to the defense of America’s interests and the projection of American power worldwide.

Regarding Africa, the following excerpt called from a speech Obama made in Ghana makes Africa’s apprehension all the more evident: ‘Africa is part the world, a fundamental part of our interconnected word—as partners with America…Africa’s future is up to Africans’(319). In the final analysis, Africans should not dream of Obama as messiah, as provider of manna from heaven, as solution to their myriad problems symbolised by corrupt and clueless leaders. They as the people must make a change, and make their leaders change. For their part, Africans could benefit from economic and cultural cooperation with Americans. In Other words, Obama’s election could be much more than a source of racial pride for continental Africans. For the United States, Obama’s presidency could be seen as a step in the direction of refurbishing the nation’s global image as a symbol of democratic promise. There is no doubt that in the wake of Obama’s election to the White House, the standing of African Americans in the world will be elevated.

The Obama ascendancy to the White House has mightier ramifications for European countries like France where blacks stand no chance at all at being elected into political office. Again, Gadzekpo’s remarks are an eye-opener: ‘there is no room in the French establishment for an “outsider”, the “other”, especially those from ordinary ranks’ (199). In brief, the prospect of a French Obama is a nonstarter. By way of illustration, Elise Mirette Mbock evokes instances in which French institutions systematically block attempts at creating a formula of equal opportunities, especially in the field of education, the key to the possible making of a French Obama. She notes that ‘Quality education in France, especially access to the so-called grandes écoles, or elite schools, and similar prestigious institutions, is the preserve of children of the rich and powerful, so that they can inherit their parents’ (202). One can only hope that the Obama phenomenon would have a tonic effect in the Hexagone and beyond.

In the guise of a conclusion, ‘The Obama Phenomenon: Change We Can!’ depicts President Obama’s tenure at the White House as one of great expectations. As the world holds its breath in anticipation of the sort of baby his administration will deliver, significant questions continue to linger in the back of the minds of citizens and denizens alike. Does Obama’s tenancy at the White House signify the demise of racism in a race-sensitive America? Could his presidency signal the start to a morally pragmatic solution to the ongoing racial angst that has characterised the history of the US? Should he focus on black–related issues at the expense of political expediency? Given the array of daunting odds he is confronted with, is it safe to perceive him as a one-term president? What is crystal clear in the Obama narrative is the fact that the president is aware of who he is, where is coming from, and where he is going. For those interested in American and, indeed global politics, this book is a monumental document to be perused meticulously. Like the story of his life, it is a complex web intricately woven with variegated strands dotted by smaller details, with contours and detours aplenty, to borrow words from Femi Ojo-Ade (312). The didactic value of this book brooks no questioning.

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* Femi Ojo-Ade’s ‘The Obama Phenomenon: Change We Can! Essays and Poetry by Black Critics and Creative Artists’ is published by Africa World Press, Inc, 2010, 348 pp (ISBN 1-59221-760-5).
* Dr Peter W. Vakunta is professor at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey-California, USA.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father: A story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2004.
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2006.

Captured in poetry and prose

2011 promises to be year of interesting books

Chuka Nnabuife

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/69864

2011 will be eventful in the African books section. Already publishers are introducing books they will release in the first half of the year. Amazon will put out a new anthology containing the works of Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, John Cotzee, Nardine Godimer, Ben Okri and other Caine Prize winning writers. Ngugi wa Thiongo will also come out with a new book due for release in February 2011 on the Amazon list.

In Pambuzuka Press, an about to be released book, No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way, captures the tale of resilience while throwing the reader back to memory of the segregative Apartheid rule in South Africa.

The anthology of factual tales captured in both poetic and prose (media feature report format) narrates the several accounts of Cape Town, South Africa’s Symphony Way pavement dwellers who, like in film story, found themselves catapulted from their hitherto poor settlement to an better developed estate upon the end of the Apartheid only to be pushed out of the houses almost as suddenly as their fortune changed.

The publishers promote the work thus: “This anthology is written by shack-dwelling families in Cape Town who were moved into houses but soon afterwards evicted again. They organised the Symphony Way Anti-Eviction and here write about their experiences.

“Many outside South Africa imagine that after Mandela was freed and the ANC won free elections all was well. But the last two decades have led to increased poverty and inequality. Although a few black South Africans have become wealthy, for many the struggle against apartheid never ended because the ethos of apartheid continues to live.”

The book follows several hundreds of shanty-dwelling families in Cape Town who, early in 2007, were moved into houses they had been waiting for since the end of Apartheid. But soon they were told that the move had been illegal and they were kicked out of their new homes. In protest, they built shacks next to the road opposite the housing project. And, soon a vibrant settlement of hundreds of ramshackle huts inhabited by organised protesting settlers blossomed there. It became known as Symphony Way. Home ground of Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign, whose membership vowed to stay on the road until the government gave them permanent housing. Eventually, the tales from the protesting slum-dwellers turns out a warm, close-knit and eventful one – full of vibrant communal lives, simmering relationships, love, hate and blood ties. The book also rubs off some disturbing feeling that the robust but poor settlement was forcefully moved to make the country host last summer’s football’s World Cup without what the authorities deem and odd sight for tourists.

Promoters’ of the book who inform that its audience target include anthropologists, activists, campaigners, NGO-workers, academics, journalists, commentators state: “This anthology is both testimony and poetry. There are stories of justice miscarried, of violence domestic and public, of bigotry and xenophobia. But amid the horror there is beauty: relationships between aunties, husbands, wives and children; daughters named Hope and Symphony. This book is a means to dignity, a way for the poor to reflect and be reflected. It is testimony that there’s thinking in the shacks, that there are humans who dialogue, theorise and fight to bring about change.

“Two Symphony Way evictees were featured in a Guardian article of 1 April 2010: Badronessa Morris: ‘The police treat us like animals. They swear at us, pepper spray us, search us in public, even children. At 10 o’clock you must be inside: the police come and tell you to go into your place and turn down the music. In my old home we used to sit outside all night with the fire.’

Jane Roberts: ‘It’s a dumping place. They took people from the streets because they don’t want them in the city for the World Cup. Now we are living in a concentration camp.’

No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way set for release in March 2011 is available for ebook order in United Kingdom.

Another up coming book of interest from the same publishers is African Sexualities: A Reader, by Sylvia Tamale. In the work Ms Tamale probes, the peculiar traits of African sexualities with the aim “to inspire a new generation of students and teachers to study, reflect and gain fresh and critical insights into the complex issues of gender and sexuality.”

Promoters say the book seeks to open new frontiers of thinking about African notions of sex. African Sexualities stretches the space to several spheres of multidisciplinary scholarship.

The book with authors who are scholars, researchers, professionals, practitioners and experts from different regions of Africa and Africa’s Diaspora comes in themed sections, all introduced by a framing essay.”

The authors use essays, case studies, poetry, news clips, songs, fiction, memoirs, letters, interviews, short film scripts and photographs from a wide political spectrum to examine dominant and deviant sexualities, analyse the body as a site of political, cultural and social contestation and investigate the intersections between sex, power, masculinities and femininities. The book adopts a feminist approach that analyses sexuality within patriarchal structures of oppression while also highlighting its emancipatory potential.

“As well as using popular culture to help address the ‘what, why, how, when and where’ questions, the contributors also provide a critical mapping of African sexualities that informs readers about the plurality and complexities of African sexualities – desires, practices, fantasies, identities, taboos, abuses, violations, stigmas, transgressions and sanctions. At the same time, they pose gender-sensitive and politically aware questions that challenge the reader to interrogate assumptions and hegemonic sexuality discourses, thereby unmapping the intricate and complex terrain of African sexualities.

“The blend of approaches and styles enhances the book’s accessibility and usefulness for teaching as well as allowing for historical and textual contextualisation.”

It is written for audiences in the higher education and postgraduate levels. Due date of emerging from press is June 2011.

Among other books coming from Pambazuka and Fahamu books are African Women Writing Resistance, An Anthology of Contemporary Voices, an anthology of African-born contributors who “move beyond the linked dichotomies of victim/oppressor and victim/heroine to present their experiences of resistance in full complexity: they are at the forward edge of the tide of women’s empowerment moving across Africa.”

My Dream is to be Bold, a feminist oriented work is among them as well as Dust from our Eyes an Unblinkered Look at Africa, a Joan Baxter tale of the diversity of Africa and the resilience and spirit of its people. From Citizen to Refugee, Uganda Asians come to Britain by Mahmood Mamdani is another nostalgia awakening book to be expected. It dwells on the seriously embattled life of Asians in Uganda during the eventful dictatorial reign of the late Gen. Idi Amin in the 1970s. It is a re-publication of 1972’s original. The author, Mamdani, an eye witness, describes the feelings experienced by Uganda’s Asians and tells of their camps’ political culture.

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* This article first appeared in Compass Newspaper.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Music takes off in southern Africa

Cre8

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/books/69848

Cre8 is a fresh and vibrant music project, which has been launched in various countries across southern Africa. Established in 2009, Cre8 aims to encourage new musicians, and offers existing musicians an opportunity to experience music of a high standard. Through a series of workshops, masterclasses and performances, young musicians cover a mixed genre of styles exposing audiences to both new music and old classics.

The importance of music in societies has long been a topic of both interest and debate. Whilst in some areas it is encouraged and nurtured, in others it is removed from syllabuses and paid little attention to. By offering the younger population an opportunity to experience music in any form, you are sharing with them that music as a career can be sustainable – in effect you are stimulating a future. Within everyone lies the desire to create and awaken the soul through some form of art. Music has always been significant amongst humans as a way of evoking emotions and listening to music can offer an incredible experience, allowing one to become lost in the foreign world of sound. Unlimited musical genres, styles and composers from around the world prove that we cannot escape from including music in some form in our lives, and that there are many ways of interpreting this different language.

Music becomes very worthy in education, supporting so many skills necessary to expanding and developing minds. As a musician at any level, the student must learn self-discipline, expression through sound, enhance technical motor skills, further develop problem-solving skills, learn how to cooperate and collaborate with others and learn how to ignite the creative and critical mind. Most importantly, the student can come away understanding that music offers all those qualities in addition to the enjoyment in listening casually or with great attention. Anyone who is educated in music learns these skills whether they know it or not. People who do not make a career in music but have studied it will take these skills and apply it to their everyday lives and career. Communities both within and outside schools are brought together by the unifying powers of music, the effect music has on our daily lives cannot be measured but can only be recognised by the constant desire to include it in every area of our existence.

In order to try and connect with as many of those interested as possible, Cre8 runs at least two tours annually, which currently include visits to Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In November, as part of Cre8’s second tour this year, Chez Taylor (saxophone, flute, vocals and clarinet) and Chris Francis (piano and guitar) travelled to Gaborone, Harare, Lusaka and Ndola and the Zambezi river to share new ideas and share their incredible talents. Chez and Chris are both currently living in London where they both perform on a regular basis with a range of bands and ensembles. As well as performing, Chez mixes her time with teaching and composing, an example of how many opportunities the music industry can offer. Chez was commissioned by Cre8 to compose a three-movement work for the tour. This would become a piece that would become attached to the project, as an example of how two continents can inspire each other, and another way of encouraging musicians to explore other areas in music.

Written as a musical interpretation of what Chez and Chris anticipated from their first trip to Africa, ‘Notes to Africa’ is layered with rich colours and sounds, using the soprano saxophone to create an ambience that is soulful yet charismatic. With strong influences from the American composer, George Gershwin, and irregular, catchy rhythms, there was a confident fusion of Western and African elements that captivated audiences. In Lusaka, local dancers choreographed movements to this work which were then projected behind Chez and Chris at each performance. By mixing both visual and performing arts for this work, audiences and musicians are encouraged to constantly look for new ways of presenting their work and that composing can be another way of making music a sustainable profession.

Audiences were taken through a journey of time and soulful style in each of Chez and Chris’ performances. With a set opening of Liszt’s ‘Liebestraume no. 3’ and Rachmaninoff’s powerful ‘Vocalise’, a beautiful and serene atmosphere was created. Swiftly moving into the more modern well-known traditional jazz standards, and switching between instruments, Chez ended the first half with Gershwin’s emotive and powerful ‘Rhapsody in blue’. With a more modern second half, focusing on the aesthetic interpretations and aimed at a younger audience, there was a range from foot-stomping and funk, to two of Chez’s own compositions, and ending with ‘Notes to Africa’.

In many areas that Chez and Chris visited, there is limited access to both live music and teachers. Here Cre8 lends more focus, offering technical and practical advice to the students they come across. Chez and Chris were greeted with excitement and a constant stream of talent, evoking an energising atmosphere for students to comprehend the knowledge surrounding them.

Ndola is based in the north of Zambia, the home of Zambia’s copper mines. With a small but eager population, there was an overwhelming response to Chez and Chris’ visit. Playing to over 200 children at one venue, followed by masterclasses and workshops with over 60 more, Ndola displayed a strong and confident musical future. The students we met here were focused and determined, with many being self-taught due to the lack of teachers in the area. By interaction with both the musicians, they have come to realise that there are ways of continuing their passion with help from Chez and Chris’ supporting advice.

Halfway through the tour, Chez and Chris visited the Zambezi river, where they experienced not only one of the many beauties of Africa, but also worked with children from Chiawa village. With a focus on making music with no instruments, Chez and Chris attracted over 50 children of all ages to take part in their rhythmic games, singing and dancing. In turn, the children were able to share some of their musical traditions and games, which will be taken back to London classrooms.

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* Cre8 is a non-profit project that is currently run by volunteers. If you would like to become involved in Cre8, or would like to know more about the project and our future plans, please visit www.cre8music.org.
* Cre8 is very grateful to Kenya Airways for making this tour possible and supporting the continued drive to develop the arts within Africa. Kenya Airways operates daily overnight and additional weekend daylight flights from Terminal 4 London Heathrow to Nairobi with over 50 onward connecting services throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Please visit www.kenya-airways.com or call reservations on 020 8283 1818.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

Congolese youth: Be the vanguard of the peaceful revolution

A message for the new year

Kambale Musavuli

2011-01-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/69820

On this New Year’s Day, the Congolese youth of America wishes you a wonderful new year in 2011. May it be a prosperous and successful one that brings us closer to peace in our country.

I write to the youth, men and women to remind you of the prophetic message of our elders who worked tirelessly and made the ultimate sacrifice for us to be called not only African, but also Congolese, united in the effort to rebuild the land of our ancestors.

When Patrice Lumumba sent his appeal to the Congolese youth in the 1960s, he realised that without the youth, the future of the Congo would not be guaranteed. Our youth long asleep, long exploited, he said, must understand their role as the vanguard of the peaceful revolution and the salvation of the Congo.

Living in the United States, we have been able to learn how Dr Martin Luther King Jr., at the age of 26, began his illustrious work for the equality of the black man and woman here in the West. The same is true for our prime minister Patrice Lumumba, at age 34, who embarked upon the task of leading a country the size of western Europe. We cannot forget our brother Steve Biko in South Africa who also fought against the apartheid regime by mobilising the youth in his country and who was assassinated at age 30. I would not do justice to the history of our country if I do not invoke the name of Kimpa Vita, the young Dona Beatriz, who mobilised Congolese against the Portuguese invasion and lost her life in the process. She was only 21 when she was burned alive at the stake.

All these historic examples remind us that today we are also able to create a revival in our country. We can make the Congo a great world power. This will not be easy. We will have many difficulties, but our elders will be there for advice and wisdom. It is our duty we owe our ancestors who, even till death, fought so that we would not lose our land. We in the diaspora are counting on you.

Rest assured that we, your brothers and sisters in the diaspora, and also the many people of goodwill around the world, from China, Canada, Japan, Australia, Belgium, the United States and elsewhere are here to provide you with support, moral as well as financial.

The awakening of the Congolese youth is paramount in achieving a new and prosperous future for not only Congo but also Africa as a whole. The pride of being Congolese should compel us to toil day and night for peace as it will come only through our hands in synergy and unity among us in the Congo and the awaken diaspora.

Congolese youth, the great Congo of today is ours. This gift is not just hereditary, but also because millions of Congolese have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country since 1482. We must do everything in our power to assure that our beautiful Congo remains in the hands of the sons and daughters of the Congo.

Long live the Congolese youth! Long live the Democratic Republic of Congo! Long live Africa and Africans!

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* Kambale Musavuli is spokesperson and student coordinator for Friends of the Congo. He can be reached at kambale@friendsofthecongo.org. You can follow him on twitter @kambale. Visit his fan page at www.facebook.com/kambalemusavuli

Cote d’Ivoire: Why the West wants Ouattara

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/69863

According to the capitalist press, Cote d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbago is a dictator who lost the election to Alassane Ouattara, and the AU (African Union),
ECOWAS (Economic Community Of West African States) and the rest of the world should force Gbago to step down. Except that the election results were declared for Gbago by the country’s Constitutional Court, which is the deciding body, not the purely administrative Independent Electoral Commission. France and the United States, among other imperialist countries, want us to ignore Cote d’Ivoire’s constitution and pick and choose the winner they like. The writer Leo Gnahoua in his article ‘Ivory Coast: Obama is Wrong’ finds a parallel with the Bush vs Gore US election of 2000, which was also decided by a court and not administrators. Would Americans have accepted NATO or UN troops intervening for Gore?

Ouattara is a former IMF (International Monetary Fund) deputy director who was prime minister under President Felix Houphouet-Boigny. Gbago was a leading dissident and political prisoner against Houphouet-Boigny, later founding the FPI (Ivorian Popular Front). Houphouet-Boigny favoured French businesses and helped overthrow his neighbour Kwame Nkrumah, winner of the Lenin Peace Prize and independence hero of Ghana, the first non-Arab African country to be decolonised. Before Cote d’Ivoire’s independence from France Houphouet-Boigny was a French MP leading other African MPs in alliance with the PCF (French Communist Party), but broke with the communists under pressure from socialist Francois Mitterrand (later French President) saying, ‘I, a bourgeois landowner, I would preach the class struggle?’. In 1985 Cote d’Ivoire was the first non-Arab African country to restore ties with Israel.

In 2002 Gbago survived a coup attempt followed by a civil war, when France intervened with troops to get concessions for the rebels while recognising Gbago’s right to be president. Some commentators fear that if Ouattara is allowed to seize power from Gbago he will again favour the IMF and French businesses, whereas Gbago would require competitive bidding in the Ivory Coast’s favour, giving equal opportunity to Chinese and Russian investors. If the AU and ECOWAS intervene in Cote d’Ivoire on behalf of France and imperialism, it could be a dangerous example, threatening the sovereignty of other African countries under international pressure such as Zimbabwe or the Sudan.

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

Educating the UN secretary-general

Aids-Free World

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/69831

Aids-Free World
4 January 2011

Dr. Michelle Bachelet

Under Secretary-General
UN Women

304 East 45th Street

15th Floor

New York, NY 10017

United States

An open letter

Can we help with your biggest challenge: educating the secretary-general?

Dear Dr. Bachelet,

On this, the first working week of UN Women, we write to wish you every possible success. It's a huge task to launch the first new UN agency in decades, but as we told you in our recent meeting, we have great confidence in your distinguished leadership.

The greatest challenges will come from within. And that was demonstrated right at the outset of your tenure, by a classic act of unthinking negligence on the part of the secretary-general himself. Alas, it is all too typical.

In yesterday's issue of UN Wire, the lead story was titled ‘Ban Ki-moon expounds on role of the UN’, described as ‘…closing out 2010 and ringing in 2011’. His views are expressed in an op-ed published in the Sydney Morning Herald of Australia.

The secretary-general speaks of the challenges and struggles of the United Nations as it enters the New Year. It would have been a tremendous opportunity to draw attention to UN Women…after all, the creation of an entirely new agency devoted to half the world's population is something to be noted and celebrated.

But there's not a word on UN Women.

And that's only the half of it. The other half provokes disbelief. In a paragraph that summarises the Millennium Development Goals, the secretary-general of the United Nations lists seven of the eight goals: the only one left out is, astonishingly, the goal on gender equality and the empowerment of women. How is that possible?

Dr. Bachelet, you have your work cut out for you. And your work starts at the top.

Respectfully,

Paula Donovan & Stephen Lewis

Co-Directors, AIDS-Free World
www.aidsfreeworld.org

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Use unhappy youth for peacekeeping force

Anne Khaminwa

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/69830

The recent bombings in Kampala, Uganda, followed by explosions in Nairobi, Kenya, are apparently caused by Somali anger over the posting of African Union peacekeeping troops in their territory. The Somali warlords have decided to take the war back to the home countries of the peacekeepers. While their tactic is clearly one of intimidation, their actions lead one to wonder if civilians in surrounding countries should be put at risk for the sake of keeping the peace in Somalia.

Here in the United States there have been several incidents of young Somali refugees secretly leaving their families and traveling to Somalia to fight in the conflict. Furthermore, recently a young Somali refugee agreed to participate in a terrorist plot to set off a bomb in Oregon. The young refugee was willing to go as far as personally detonating the bomb. Fortunately the plot was set up by the authorities and no one was hurt. It is regrettable that the young refugee would turn on the community that took him and his family in during their time of need.

Americans have been extremely generous to Somali and other East African refugees, giving them a home and the ability to start their lives over after the tragedy of drought and conflict in their home countries. Might these young men eager to go to war provide a solution to the East African bombings?

I propose that the African Union recruit a volunteer peacekeeping force from young Somalis refugees living in the United States. The young Somalis would be trained by the African Union in a suitable third country and then deployed in Somalia. Two birds will be killed by one stone. The young Somalis would have their aggression redirected to a useful cause. They would also be removed from the reach of extremists and the misguided temptation to turn against the country that has done so much for them and their families. The AU would have troops to keep the peace in Somalia and the Ugandan and other soldiers currently serving could be withdrawn and returned to their home countries. This would return peace to East Africa and prevent the Somali crisis from spreading to the neighbouring countries.

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For those who walked the walk

Wangui wa Goro

2011-01-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/69817

For those who walked the walk
Even to the graves of those who fell
Those who held out
When it was easier to stall
those who linked hands
tangibly and intangibly
thank you

They gave birth to courage
And birthed even more seeds of hope
Some times their voices seemed to be flying
on vacuous ears and eyes
But seeding along the way all the same

After all the sweat and tears
A time for joy surely must come
If only for the sake of those who have fallen
for us all to reap
Those ever illusive matunda we were promised so long ago...
they might be over-ripe now had we waited
And maybe this stench is what that is
That maybe we are looking in the wrong place
But should hunt for those germinating seedlings instead or still

Happy 2011

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

People of my Litala (Song of the Rainmaker)

To the Nganyi clan, Luhya, Kenya

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/69866

For centuries we have watched and we have listened. Listened to the wind; watched the flowering and shedding of leaf and shrub. Listened to birdsong; watched the movement of termite. Listened to the croak of frog, watched the movement of the river. Through listening and watching, we have been able to advise; to suggest the time for preparation and the sowing of seed. Our story of weather-telling is very long. My family has been given a crucial task: we are the guardians of sacred knowledge.

I am an Omukimba,
A weather forecaster.
From a clan named Nyganyi,
Of the people called Luhya,
Who live in Western Kenya.

But along came climate change. It brought disruption with it; desperation too. Then the scientist and government man came as well. He who has satellite and computer, I with reed and pot. We sat down together, to educate each other; to discuss, to inform: to talk of time. The old rainmaker and the young scientist. Between ancient knowledge and modern methods, we shall help the people of Kenya.

I am an Omukimba,
A weather forecaster.
From a clan named Nganyi,
Of the people called Luhya,
Who live in Western Kenya

People of my litala, do not worry. We shall adapt, we shall learn to cope. What I have learnt from the modern weatherman I shall tell you. Because of knowledge gathered, of the old and the new, we shall go through. There will be maize, there will be sorghum. The gift from God called rain.

I am an Omukimba,
A weather forecaster.
From a clan named Nganyi,
Of the people called Luhya ,
Who live in Western Kenya

© Natty Mark Samuels, 2010.

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

NOTES
Litala - Village
Omukimba - Rainmaker

Gbagbo, the AU and Côte d'Ivoire

Gado

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/69868

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

How to win an election

Gado

2011-01-05

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/cartoons/69815

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

Zimbabwe: Outstanding issues, restrictive measures and elections

2011-01-05

http://www.idasa.org.za/

If Mugabe were to call an election in 2011, it would be widely viewed as a political attack on South African President Jacob Zuma, says a new political brief from Idasa. 'South Africa and SADC would not support any such movement by Mugabe or Zanu PF. It must be noted that political activity has not been banned, a signal that an election may not be imminent. Finally, if a constitutional referendum is not held before a fresh election, it would likely prove very difficult to mobilise the population.'

Zimbabwe: The evolving public mood

2011-01-10

http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/documents/AB_Zimbabwe_TheEvolvingPublicMood.pdf

At the end of 2010, Zimbabwean citizens remained broadly supportive of power sharing as an antidote to political crisis. But they were increasingly critical of the halting performance of their country’s coalition government. Most people also perceived declining civil liberties and feared resurgent political violence. Yet clear majorities called for constitutional reforms to limit the powers of the presidency and seemingly even for free elections in 2011 to return the country to legitimate rule. These are the major findings of an Afrobarometer survey conducted among a national crosssection of the Zimbabwean adults in late October 2010.

DRC: Drumming for deliverance

2011-01-10

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91558

Slapped into submission by a child soldier, a man thanks the gunmen who have just raped his wife and daughter, now bedraggled and whimpering. Dozens of women in a large circle observe the harrowing scene. But this is theatre - as therapy. The 'stage' is the grounds of the General Referral Hospital of Panzi, in Bukavu, capital of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu province, a facility that specializes in treating survivors of sexual violence, of whom there are a very large number in eastern DRC, where rape is widely used as a weapon by warring groups. The performance brings together both survivors and perpetrators of extreme violence.

Haiti: Sexual violence against women increasing, says Amnesty

2011-01-06

http://bit.ly/gqqtgM

Women and girls living in Haiti’s makeshift camps face an increasing risk of rape and sexual violence, Amnesty International has said in a new report. One year after the earthquake which killed 230,000 people and injured 300,000, more than one million people still live in appalling conditions in tent cities in the capital Port-au-Prince and in the south of Haiti, where women are at serious risk of sexual attacks. Those responsible are predominately armed men who roam the camps after dark.

Kenya: No easy path for disabled women with political dreams

2011-01-10

http://www.ips.org/africa/2011/01/kenya-no-easy-path-for-disabled-women-with-political-dreams/

'People living with disability face all sorts of discrimination. We are discriminated against at job interviews in schools. Every day is a battle to remain positive in the face of a world that is too bent on dismissing those among us that do not meet the standard of what is normal,' explains Mishi Juma, a disabled community leader from the Coast region. In the past, Juma never had a safe space to raise these issues. But all this has now changed. Juma and many other disabled women can now raise their concerns with the newly established Ministry of gender and social development.

Kenya: Public toilets come at high safety risk for women

2011-01-06

http://www.wunrn.com/news/2010/12_10/12_27/122710_kenya.htm

When darkness descends in the ubiquitous slums and ‘informal settlements’ surrounding Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, women who visit and use communal toilets unwittingly become sitting ducks. The dangers are high, for women living in the slums, that they may become targets of youth gangs and individual male rapists. 'I had heard that it was unsafe to visit the (community) toilet alone,' said forty-two year old, Rebecca Nduku, a single mother of three, when she challenged her friend’s ‘I-told-you-so’ warning. Acting against advice, Rebecca suffered irrevocably for throwing caution to the wind.

Namibia: Women in government on the decline

2011-01-06

http://www.wunrn.com/news/2011/01_11/01_03/010311_namibia.htm

Twenty years after independence, representation of women in senior government structures and in Parliament is declining in Namibia. According to the latest demographic survey results of August 2010, out of a population of around two million, women outnumber men 10:9. In 2001, the ratio was 94 males per 100 females. In 2010 Namibia reformed its national gender policy in line with the United Nation’s millennium development goals (MDGs) and its own Vision 2030, a national development policy dissected into five-yearly development plans. It includes the increase of women in decision-making positions in government, the private sector, religious groups and community institutions.

Sudan: The referendum and women's citizenship

2011-01-10

http://bit.ly/fhbEjR

This week, South Sudan is again going to the polls, this time to vote in a referendum on secession from the North. The preliminary result should be known by 15th January, and will mark one of the final stages of the historic 2005 agreement to end the long-standing conflict between North and South Sudan. All eyes will be on this vote, which is widely seen as likely to result in the South’s separation from the North. How will this shape women’s lives in North and South Sudan? asks this article from http://www.opendemocracy.net

Tunisia: Religious coercion threatens Tunisian women

2011-01-10

http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/reportage/2011/01/07/reportage-01

Even though freedom of conscience is enshrined in Article 5 of the Tunisian constitution, which 'protects the free exercise of beliefs with reservation that they do not disturb the public order', a growing number of women experience coercion in religious practices. Rabiaa, in her 30s, is one of them. She admits to wearing Islamic garments out of fear of her husband's violence. 'He threatened to divorce me and to prevent me from seeing my kids if I insisted on my rejection of the veil and cloak,' she told Magharebia.

Egypt: Emergency laws fail to stop terrorism

2011-01-04

http://www.e-joussour.net/en/node/7303

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information has said that the bombing of a church in Alexandria proves that the emergency law imposed on Egypt for 30 years has not provided security and safety to Egyptians. 'This law resulted in nothing but an acute retreat in civil and political freedoms and wasting rights of Muslim and Christian Egyptians.'

Global: Modes and patterns of social control

2011-01-06

http://www.ichrp.org/en/projects/126

A new International Council on Human Rights Policy report looks into the human rights implications of contemporary patterns of social control: how laws and policies construct and respond to people, behaviour or status defined as 'undesirable', 'dangerous', criminal or socially problematic. The report explores how changing ideas of crime, criminality and risk are shaping social policy, why incarceration continues to be a preferred sanction and how contemporary policing and surveillance practices order and organise social relations.

Mauritania: Activists’ trial puts spotlight on anti-slavery law

2011-01-06

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91528

Six anti-slavery activists are in prison in Mauritania in a case rights experts say points to the challenges of ensuring a 2007 law criminalising slavery is more than just words on paper. The six men, members of the Mauritanian anti-slavery group Initiative pour la résurgence du mouvement abolitioniste (IRA), are set to go on trial in the capital, Nouakchott, on 5 January after two postponements. The authorities reportedly said the IRA members attacked security forces; the activists said they were simply demonstrating against slavery.

Rwanda: French court lifts arrest warrants over Habyarimana plane crash

2011-01-04

http://bit.ly/hHDK9A

A French judge placed Rwanda's defence minister and five other aides of President Paul Kagame under investigation in a probe into an attack seen as sparking the African country's 1994 genocide, legal sources said on 16 December. Placing the men under investigation means that international arrest warrants issued for them - which led to Rwanda cutting off diplomatic relations with France in 2006 - can be dropped, reports The Independent.

Rwanda: Rebel Mbarushimana's extradition to ICC upheld

2011-01-05

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12116540

France's highest court has upheld an order to extradite Rwandan rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana to face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC). A lawyer for Mbarushimana said the court had rejected his client's appeal against extradition. Mbarushimana is accused of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, allegedly committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo last year.

Sudan: Activists tell of fight for human rights

2011-01-06

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/abdel-monim-elgak-and-ali-agab-2010-12-24

Sudanese activists Ali Agab and Abdel Monim Elgak were forced to flee their homes for defending human rights. Ahead of the referendum on the future of South Sudan, they spoke to Amnesty International about the challenges they face and what keeps them positive about the future.

Tunisia: Lawyers assaulted for their Sidi Bouzid stand

2011-01-05

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/01/01/tunisia-lawyers-assaulted/

Tunisian lawyers have been making a stand throughout protests in that country - and paying the price for it. The lawyers have been protesting regularly to denounce what happened in Sidi Bouzid and the social situation in Tunisia. This is why the government has decided to ‘punish’ them. Every day, news of the kidnapping, arrest, or assault of lawyers is surfacing on social networking sites, report bloggers via Global Voices.

Zimbabwe: Kimberley Process denies clearing Zim diamond sales

2011-01-06

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news050111/kimberly050111.htm

The international diamond watchdog, the Kimberley Process (KP), has reportedly denied giving Zimbabwe permission to carry on selling diamonds from the controversial Chiadzwa fields. According to the news service for the US based Rapaport Diamond Trading Network (RapNet), a KP representative has refuted the claims made by Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister Gift Chimanikire. 'No decision has been made yet,' said a spokesperson for the new KP Chairman in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Angola: UN reports ongoing expulsions

2011-01-04

http://bit.ly/gSaD50

Citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) expelled from neighbouring Angola continued to arrive in their country of origin this month, with many reporting that they were subjected to mistreatment, including sexual violence, the United Nations humanitarian office said on 29 December. Some 1,355 expellees have arrived in DRC’s Bas-Congo and Kasai provinces since 11 December, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a press release.

Darfur: UN-African mission confirms one case of rape during camp disturbance

2011-01-06

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=37206&Cr=darfur&Cr1=

A human rights team from the joint United Nations-African Union mission verified that one rape occurred when Government paramilitaries and police started shooting in the air at a camp market in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region last month, a UN spokesman has said. Two human rights officers from the mission (UNAMID) were sent to Tawilla camp to verify reports of rapes and other abuses during and after the shooting incident on 25 December.

Egypt: Abuse of asylum-seekers in Sinai must stop, say activists

2011-01-06

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91541

Egyptian activists are calling on the government to take action to save African asylum-seekers from what they call the 'systematic torture' they are being subjected to by their Bedouin captors in the Sinai peninsula who demand thousands of dollars in ransom. 'The government says it does not have information [on this],' said Magda Botrous, a violence and physical safety specialist at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a local NGO. 'But the problem is that the government doesn't try to get the information,' she told IRIN.

Ethiopia: Migrants drown off Yemen as boats sink

2011-01-05

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12108715

Up to 80 African migrants are feared to have drowned off the south coast of Yemen after their boats capsized, Yemeni officials say. The migrants, mostly from Ethiopia, were travelling in two boats which were hit by strong wind and waves, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Global: Blog highlights information on refugees, asylum-seekers, IDPs

2011-01-04

http://fm-cab.blogspot.com/

The Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog is a current awareness service highlighting web research and information relating to refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and other forced migrants. Visit the website for analysis and commentary related to this field.

Mauritania: Refugees in Senegal uncertain about return home

2011-01-05

http://bit.ly/gzVWTO

More than 5,000 Mauritanian refugees, intending to return home following a tripartite agreement between the governments of Senegal and Mauritania and the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), signed in November 2007, have expressed uncertainty in the move, PANA has reported. Mamadou Wane, spokesman for the Steering Committee of Coordination of the Associations of the Mauritanian Refugees in Senegal, said no information had been given to the UNHCR representative in Dakar to assure the 5,000 Mauritanian refugees awaiting repatriation.

South Africa: Fears that SA will deport 1.2-million Zimbabweans

2011-01-05

http://zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=7110&cat=1

South Africa may start deporting more than 1.2 million Zimbabweans in April after they missed a deadline to legalise their residency, Lawyers For Human Rights said. Almost 255,000 Zimbabweans applied to legalise their residency before the 31 December deadline, South Africa’s government said while ruling out an extension to the process. A 'conservative' estimate by Johannesburg’s University of The Witwatersrand is that there are 1.5 million Zimbabweans in South Africa.

South Africa: Uncertain future for undocumented Zimbabweans

2011-01-04

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news030111/uncertain030111.htm

The future of Zimbabweans without legal documentation in South Africa is uncertain, after a brief window to regularise their stay in the country slammed shut last week. The South African government has said more than 232,000 Zimbabweans applied to legalise their stay in the country before the December 31st deadline passed last Friday. This means that an estimated million Zim nationals who live in South Africa have missed this opportunity to apply for relevant work or study permits.

Sudan: Durable solutions elusive as southern IDPs return

2011-01-05

http://bit.ly/gWCb0g

At the end of 2010 at least 4.5 million people were internally displaced in Darfur, the Greater Khartoum area, South Kordofan and the ten states of Southern Sudan. It is thought that in December 2010 there were between 4.5 and 5.2 million IDPs, in the western region of Darfur (where estimates ranged between 1.9 million and 2.7 million), in and around Khartoum, in the state of South Kordofan and in Southern Sudan. In addition, there were unknown numbers of IDPs in the other northern and eastern states.

Tanzania: Workers to protest increased power tariffs

2011-01-05

http://bit.ly/h4hAFZ

Tanzania's umbrella labour union is planning a nationwide peaceful demonstrations to protest the government's decision to hike power tariffs by 18.5 per cent effective 1 January 2011, the body's leadership said. 'As workers we are not convinced with the way the government and the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) decided to increase power tariffs while aware that most of our people are leading miserable lives,' said Nicholas Mgaya, acting secretary general of the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania (TUCTA).

Africa: Reviewing India’s Africa engagement

2011-01-05

http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/18076_1210vines.pdf

The second India-Africa Forum Summit takes place in 2011, three years after the inaugural event in New Delhi. Sub-Saharan Africa’s exports to India have almost trebled over the past five years and Indian-African business links – particularly in energy resources, precious metals and uranium – have boomed. This paper from Chatham House assesses the prospects for the 2011 India–Africa Forum.

Latest Edition: Emerging Powers News Round-Up

2011-01-10

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/emplayersnews/69931

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers.
1. General

Land grab fears for Ethiopian rural communities
The government of Meles Zenawi is pioneering the lease of some three million hectares of land over the next five years, an area the size of Belgium. The policy is targeting massive lowland areas mostly in the west and south-west of the country. These are regions populated by smaller minority ethnic groups. The government denies conducting any repression, and says instead that its policy is aimed at lifting local people out of poverty. Foreign investors in Gambella include Chinese, Indian and Saudi firms. The Saudis alone say they are hoping to produce as much as a million tonnes of rice per year, most of it for their own domestic market. Birhani Fasaha, director of the Saudi Star Corporation, says the country's planned investment in Ethiopia, as well as in a range of other African countries, is a response to Saudi Arabian fears about their own domestic food supply, following sharp rises in global food prices two years ago.
Read More

US urged to ramp up rare earths
A US government report on Wednesday called for urgent action to secure rare earth products at home and abroad, warning that the United States otherwise risked ceding the clean energy boom to China. China produces more than 95 percent of the world's rare earths -- the elements, generally mined, that are crucial in products ranging from iPods to low-emission cars to turbines for wind power. An Energy Department study predicted a "substantial increase" in demand for rare earths as more countries embrace clean technology, even though the United States has limited supply options. "Left unaddressed, this reality will severely hamper the United States' ability to transition to a clean energy economy," said the report, drafted by the Energy Department over the past year.
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China Opens New Markets for Asian Economies
In response to growing labour costs, China is increasingly turning to its neighbours to supply what it once produced locally - raw materials and intermediate goods, such as machine components and parts - to retain its international reputation as the ‘factory to the world’. "With no strong growth in demand from the developed markets, the prescription for Asia is to stoke its own consumption," Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, told IPS. "China will be a huge part of that, with its growth, both overall and in the consumer market."
Read More

2. China in Africa

China to send observers for South Sudan referendum
China says it is sending a delegation to southern Sudan to observe an independence referendum. China’s interest in Africa’s largest country is high and it has been seeking strong relations with officials in both Sudan’s north and south ahead of the vote on Sunday. Sudan is sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest oil producer. Sudan’s oil-rich mainly Christian south is widely expected to choose independence from the mainly Muslim north. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Tuesday that China hopes the vote will be held in a “fair, free, transparent and peaceful atmosphere and that all parties involved should be committed to peace and stability in Sudan.”
Read More

Cameroon takes $743 mln China loan for water project
Cameroon secured a 366 billion CFA franc loan from the Export-Import Bank of China to fund a water distribution project, the government said on Wednesday. The programme will reach 2 million people in the capital city Yaounde and villages along the pipeline, marking a significant infrastructure boost for the central African state in which the United Nations says only half the 19.5 million population have access to clean water. The project should begin in January, Water and Energy Minister Michael Tomdio said on state radio.
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Mali wins $210 mln infrastructure loan from China
West African cotton producer Mali has secured 103.2 billion CFA francs ($210 million) in loans from China to finance road, bridge and telecoms projects, the government said. China has signed a slew of loan deals across Africa in the last few years as it seeks to secure resources to fuel its own dramatic growth. The terms of the loans to Mali were not disclosed.
Read More

Chinese road builder warned over delays
Sinohydro Ltd., a Chinese company constructing the 65.1-kilometre-long Singida-Katesh road to tarmac level has been directed to complete the work according to the terms of the contract or else it should forget about being given construction jobs in the future. Works Minister Dr John Magufuli sounded the warning at the weekend during an audience with staff members of his ministry in Singida Region. He expressed dissatisfaction with the pace at which the road was being constructed by the foreign company, particularly the use of poor and outdated construction equipment. The Singida-Katesh road is scheduled to be completed in September this year, and so far only 51 kilometres had been built.
Read More

Chinese prostitutes resist rescue from Africa
The Chinese government has said its efforts to rescue prostitutes prying their trade on the African continent are proving hard. Eleven Chinese women ruled into the oldest trade in Africa are refusing rescue after being tracked down by police from their home country, the Hong Kong based South China Morning Post reported on Saturday. Police officers from China flew in to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in November last year in the country's first operation to rescue women trafficked to Africa. They found 11 Chinese women who had been promised decent jobs in Paris by traffickers but ended up working in a Chinese-owned karaoke bar in the country's capital Kinshasa, the newspaper said.
Read More

Zambia: Miner gets death sentence for murdering Chinese boss
The Lusaka High Court has slapped a death penalty on a Lusaka Man after he was found guilty of murdering a Chinese boss at Collum Coal Mine in Chongwe district. Pythias Chinene, was charged with murdering Zong Tangku who was his supervisor at the Chinese owned mining farm February 2, 2010.
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Bosses charged in Zambia mine shooting skip court
A Zambian judge has issued arrest warrants for two Chinese coal mine managers after the defendants failed to appear in court on accusations of firing upon striking workers. Xiao Li Shan, 48, and Wu Jiu Hua, 46, have been charged with 12 counts of attempted murder after firing on striking workers. Nearly a dozen miners were injured in the shooting on Oct. 15. They were released on a $10,700 bail in October.
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China Non Ferrous metals to employ skilled Zambians
China Non Ferrous metals Africa will consider employing skilled Zambians when operations begin at its USD 400 million Greenfield open Mulyashi copper mine in Luanshya on the copper rich region this year and encourage skills development. China non ferrous, owners of Luanshya Copper Mine which is developing the open pit mine said while it might seek to outsouce skilled manpower, most of the jobs will be undertaken by Zambians because many of the people working for the company were skilled, given their past experiences with Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines conglomerate.
Read More

China to extend US$10-bln loans to Africa in 2010-2012
China plans to provide US$10-billion preferential loans to Africa in the next two years for the latter's infrastructure construction, according to a white paper on China-Africa economic and trade cooperation released by the Chinese government. Pursuant to the paper, the loans will support the construction of large-scale projects in Africa, including Mauritius Airport and Bui hydropower station in Ghana.
Read More

'African countries invested US$9.33bn in China in 2009'
African countries invested some US$9.33 billion in China in 2009, according to a report published by the Chinese government on China-Africa economic and trade relations. The 29-page report said the investments were mainly in the petrochemical industry, equipment, electronics, transport and communications.
Read More

China unveils white paper on economic, trade cooperation with Africa
The Chinese government Thursday released a white paper on China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, highlighting achievements and a bright future for China and African countries to boost their growth. It was China's first-ever white paper on its economic and trade cooperation with Africa. "Practice proves that China-Africa economic and trade cooperation serves the common interests of the two sides, helps Africa to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals, and boosts common prosperity and progress for China and Africa," said the white paper. The 29-page white paper, released by the State Council Information Office, introduced facts of trade development, investment expansion, infrastructure construction collaboration and other fields of cooperation between China and Africa.
Read More

China Africa trade reaches $100 billion in 2010
China will boost further its already expanding economic ties with Africa, which reached a record two-way volume of more than $100 billion this year, the government said Thursday. Chinese demand for oil, gas, iron ore and other raw materials for its rapidly growing economy has spurred trade and investments in Africa in recent years. A central government report released Thursday said that in the first 11 months of this year, China-Africa trade volume reached $114.81 billion, a 43.5 percent year-on-year increase. That follows a decline in 2009 due to the global financial crisis.
Read More

China remains leader of FDI inflows to SADC in 2010 - report
China remained the leader in terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region during 2010, including signature of a new 79 million U. S. dollars agreement with Angola to supply equipment for the rehabilitation of the Benguela Railway (CFB), a report has said. According to the report by SADC Today issued on Friday, Southern Africa continues to strengthen its profile as an investment destination, attracting major inflows from China in the mining, agriculture, telecommunications and manufacturing sectors.
Read More

China-Africa trade set to keep on booming in 2011
It has been a bumper year for commerce between China and Africa. The Asian giant is hungry for resources to fuel its expanding economy - and many African nations are determined to feed it in order to trade their way to prosperity. The boom in Sino-African trade has caused concern in some circles - but 2011 is expected to see business between the two hit record levels.
Read More

Chinese firm eyes fruit production in province
The Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) has unveiled what is expected to become a massive investment in fruit production for the Chinese market. The investment involves China cultivating fruit on 500ha of land in the Alfred Nzo municipality. This followed an agreement between the municipality and Shanghai-based Yebo Africa Trading Hall (Yath). The fruit would be sold in the US. “The province’s abundant agricultural land has seen China survey the province for farming business opportunities to supplement its own scarce land resources,” said ECDC spokesperson Ikhona Mvaphantsi. Yath is an entity formed by Chinese businessmen to facilitate trade between Africa and China, and the company would open its doors for trade in March.
Read More

China pledges to Uganda infrastructure and oil industry development
Chinese ambassador to Uganda, Sun Heping, said his country’s assistance to Uganda’s infrastructure and oil industry development will continue. Speaking to a Chinese news agency earlier this week, Heping said: "The Chinese government has attached great importance to the development of infrastructure in Africa, Uganda in particular, and made it one of the key areas of cooperation in the framework of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum.”
Read More

Kenya seeks power, rail deals with China
Kenya has appealed to the Chinese government to offer both financial and technical assistance to the East African Community (EAC) partner states particularly in energy and rail development. The Minister for East African Community Prof Hellen Sambili said on Tuesday that the EAC had identified potential projects for joint promotion such as the proposed East African Power Pool and was therefore looking for support to improve power reliability in the region. "Possible areas of partnership include development of renewable power generation projects such as geothermal and wind plants and cross-border electrification power interconnection," the minister said when she hosted a visiting Chinese delegation in her office.
Read More

Chinese group takes big stake in Wesizwe
WESIZWE Platinum has secured funding of 877m (R6bn) from a Chinese consortium that will take a big stake in the group. It has set up a new special-purpose vehicle to give empowerment investors 6% of the enlarged share issue. Wesizwe shares hit a six- month high on Friday, reaching R2,12 each, on news that the principal asset in the group will be funded to production, which will start in 2013 and reach a steady state of 350000 ounces a year of platinum group metals two years later. The deal will result in the Chinese consortium, comprising the Jinchuan Group, China’s largest producer of nickel and platinum group metals, and the China-Africa Development Fund, buying 45% of Wesizwe and heavily diluting existing investors, something management had to address when considering the company’s empowerment holdings.
Read More

Here’s for scholars keen on Sino-African ties
African scholars interested in the growing relations between their continent and China, will have a chance to debate this important topic at a meeting scheduled for March 28-30 in Nairobi, Kenya. "It is now 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.
Read More

China’s 4G Is Hope Be A Worldwide Standard
China hopes that its own mobile satellite telecommunications technology fourth generation (4G) to become a standard used worldwide, especially in developing markets such as Africa or Latin America, according to industry experts cited today by the official newspaper China Daily. The technology, also known as TD-LTE is being developed in China by state-owned China Mobile, the world’s largest number of users, and can achieve data transmission speeds up to 150 Mb per second. According to a deputy chief engineer of China Academy of Telecommunications Research, Chen Jingqiao, many international operators have contacted the company mentioned, expressing their wish to adopt this technology.
Read More

Coin Suggests Past Chinese-African Trade
Yongle Tongbao coins of 15th century China are back in the news as Chinese and Kenyan archaeologists continue to study the coins as artifacts as they connect the dots regarding past trade between China and the East African region. According to an article posted Oct. 20 on www.AfrikNews.com, “The story of a small rusted coin with a square hole in the middle will certainly rewrite the dynamics of China-Africa relations and give impetus to China-Africa trade.” Professor Qin Dashu of the Department of Archaeology at Beijing University is leading the Chinese team that is working closely with Kenyan archaeologists. According to Qin, “These coins were carried only by envoys of the emperor, Chengzu.” (Chengzu was from the Ming Dynasty.) Qin suggested the coin his team has been studying may have been a gift from the emperor. It was issued between 1403 and 1424, and was discovered recently in the northern town of Malindi, Kenya.
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3. In Other Emerging Powers News

Egypt Calls for Increasing Arab Investment in Africa
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit stressed the importance of increasing Arab investments in Africa to achieve development goals and increase African economies competitiveness, trade volume between Arab and African countries and their exports to Europe, Islamic countries and China. Foreign Minister Assistant Ambassador Sherif Naguib delivered a speech on behalf of Abul-Gheit to the Arab Private Sector Forum for Transport and Movement in the Arab States, which began its work in Alexandria.
Read More

Western Cape keen to triple UAE trade
The premier of South Africa's Western Cape region said yesterday she wanted to treble trade ties with the UAE over the next few years. Helen Zille, who is leading a government and business delegation to Abu Dhabi, said trade between the UAE and the Western Cape was moving in the right direction but not fast enough. "There is enormous potential but it needs to grow faster, especially given that South Africa, and the Western Cape in particular, has such a large capacity and solid fundamentals," she said."The purpose of the visit is to deepen and broaden the opportunities for trade and investment both ways. Abu Dhabi is an international hub and a springboard for further expansion of trade and investment in areas as far afield as Syria, Lebanon and India. We have a well established platform because there is already balanced trade between the Western Cape and Abu Dhabi but we want to extend that substantially".
Read More

S. Korea eyes Africa, other emerging markets to boost trade
South Korea must look for new opportunities in newly emerging markets, such as Africa and South America, to continue expanding its exports, while also seeking to establish a stronger presence in the US$9 trillion global public procurement market, a local trade agency said Thursday. The announcement came as the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) launched a global market forum at a Seoul hotel, offering country- and industry-specific sessions on how to start new businesses in the emerging markets, including China and India, as well as global software and government procurement markets.
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4. Blogs, Opinions, Presentations and Publications

China challenged over Sudan referendum
As South Sudan's referendum on independence on January 9 draws nearer, the international community is preparing for the possible division of Sudan into two independent states. With signs of growing tensions and several issues still to be resolved by negotiations - notably agreements on the demarcation of a north-south border and the distribution of oil revenue - there is a risk of a return to the decades-long civil war fought between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) that was ended by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called Sudan a "ticking time bomb" and launched a fresh diplomatic drive aimed at applying pressure on both sides to avoid conflict. Amid the uptick in high-level diplomacy, however, the role to be played by China remains a crucial but unexplored factor in discussions about the referendum and beyond.
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Continuity and Change: China’s Attitude toward Hard Power and Soft Power
Some observers perceive a change over the past year or so in the priority given to hard power and soft power in Chinese foreign policy. Has there really been a change? From a Chinese perspective, the short answer to this question is that there is both continuity and change. On the continuity side, China’s belief in hard power has not changed much. As a developing country with a hundred-year long humiliating experience in its modern history, China has learned the vital importance of hard power in protecting one’s sovereignty, and has been trying very hard to attain hard power through economic development and military modernization.
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China and India's Growing Energy Rivalry
According to China's Foreign Ministry, there is nothing off the table for Premier Wen Jiabao on his three-day visit to India, which began on Wednesday, Dec. 15. Premier Wen's dialogue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will address obstacles blocking a future China-India free-trade agreement in addition to the simmering dispute over the 90,000-square-kilometer territory of Arunachal Pradesh, which is currently under Indian control and claimed by China. These are important issues hindering better relations between the world's two most populous countries. Conspicuously left out of the dialogue is frank discussion about managing future energy security. This is a significant omission since energy competition will be the most likely cause of serious tension and possibly even war between the two emerging Asian giants.
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N Chandra Mohan: The India-China FDI safari
Since the start of the 21st century, fast globalising corporations from China and India have shown a growing appetite for foreign direct investments (FDI) not just in the developed but also developing world, especially Africa. India’s outbound FDI was as much as $14.9 billion while that of China was three times larger at $48 billion in 2009, according to the UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2010. What explains this surge in investments from these emerging economies? What are the similarities and differences in outward flows from China and India? Professor R Nagaraj of the Mumbai-based Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research in a recent paper “Outward FDI from China and India: an Exploratory Note” observed common motivations for outward FDI: “both the countries are (relative to their size) natural resource poor, for their industrial requirements and national ambitions. Both the countries have a mature industrial base, acquired over five decades of rapid industrialisation.” To rapidly expand their capabilities, they require access to advanced technology markets.
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Decade-old China-Africa Cooperation Forum yields abundant fruits
Big progress in China-Africa economic and trade cooperation has been made over the past 10 years, partly owing to the FOCAC. China's grant assistance, zero-interest loans and preferential loans to Africa all increased by a wide margin. By the end of 2009, China had canceled more than 300 zero-interest loans owed by 35 heavily-indebted needy countries and least developed countries (LDCs) in Africa. Compare to the year 2000 when the forum was first set up, the China-Africa bilateral trade volume boosted from 10.6 billion U.S. dollars to more than 100 billion U.S. dollars this year, an annual growth rate of over 30 percent, making China Africa's largest trading partner. The Chinese government also launched several initiatives to balance the bilateral trade that African countries' exports to China also grew rapidly, from 5.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2000 to 43.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2009.
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Challenges await China this decade
The key to a wise diplomatic strategy for China in the coming decade will be to balance its coexisting four international identities in the face of a decentralized, multi-polar world, experts say. As illustrated in the official guidelines of "major powers are the key, surrounding areas are the first priority, developing countries are the foundation, and multilateral forums are the important stage", China's foreign policy has reflected several elements simultaneously.
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China puts noses out of joint with rare earths policy
The waters of the reservoir at Shangmankeng village in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong used to be clear. Then, a local rare earth mine began dumping mud into the pond, killing all the fish and making the water unfit to drink. Li, a local villager who took pictures of the damage and campaigned against the mining, was viciously beaten by government-hired thugs armed with metal pipes, according to reports by Radio Free Asia. What could have been another obscure struggle over environmental violations in rural China emerged as an issue of global concern in September. A Chinese fishing trawler collided with two Japanese patrol boats near some disputed islands, and the trawler captain was arrested. In retaliation, the Chinese allegedly blocked shipments of rare earth metals to Japan, although this was officially denied. By October, rare earth metal prices had doubled. Rare earth metals have emerged, suddenly and unexpectedly, as an economic, geopolitical and environmental battlefield in the hoped-for green-energy revolution.
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Crouching Lions, Hidden Dragon
The baggage lounge at Addis Abeba’s Bole International Airport is filled with activity as the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Beijing arrives. Young Chinese men, casually dressed in flannel trousers and shirts, gather around the luggage belt, lifting off large suitcases and heavily wrapped boxes. A crowd of these arrivals, perhaps 50 strong, queue up together outside to be collected by a fleet of waiting minibuses. These young men are not tourists. They live in Ethiopia, and more part of the influx of Chinese labour over the past decade that has changed the face of Africa. In countries across the continent, Chinese communities have sprung up. Some are based around the myriad infrastructure projects that the world’s emerging superpower is implementing. Many are simply trading on a small scale, importing buckets and work tools, the low-cost essentials that power rural life on this continent.
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Moises Naim and the $9 Billion Dollar Myth
This week in an Indian opinion piece on India-China rivalry, I read yet another reference to a myth first circulated (I think) by Moises Naim, editor of Foreign Policy, and then picked up by Fareed Zakaria. This is a great story. The only problem is (as I point out in The Dragon's Gift): it never happened.
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US Far Outstrips China in Arms Sales to Dictators
Kristin Jones reports for the South China Morning Post on the surprising result of a new Norwegian study that examined US versus Chinese arms exports. She also quotes some of my reservations on the study's methodology.
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Angola: Dos Santos fixes eye on 2012 poll

2011-01-04

http://www.africareview.com/News/-/979180/1081566/-/i6wrl1z/-/

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos at the end of 2010 gave a state-of-the-nation address to the citizenry in Luanda, a move analysts say was doubtlessly informed by the looming 2012 general election. Dos Santos, who has ruled Angola for 30 years, focused his end-year speech on the polls. Under the terms of the new constitution which was approved early this year, dos Santos will not face a direct presidential election. He will instead be automatically elected from the top of legislative poll lists.

Côte d’Ivoire: IRIN briefing on human rights situation

2011-01-10

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91568

IRIN has produced a series of briefings exploring the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire triggered by contested elections in November 2010. Both Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara are laying claim to the presidency, with Gbagbo refusing to yield to international pressure to step down. The series takes a look at the UN’s position, issues of human rights, as well as the stances of the African Union, ECOWAS, western governments and the EU and World Bank.

Cote d’Ivoire: UN tight-lipped on use of military force

2011-01-10

http://www.ips.org/africa/2011/01/un-tight-lipped-on-use-of-military-force-in-cote-divoire/

As the continuing political stalemate threatens to unleash a civil war in Cote d’Ivoire, the United Nations is taking an increasingly aggressive stance in the widening standoff with the West African nation. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has routinely opted for quiet, low-keyed diplomacy in political trouble spots such as North Korea, Sudan, Palestine and Myanmar (Burma), has been vociferously outspoken in condemning President Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to step down after his defeat in the 28 November elections.

Ivory Coast: African youth express concern at election stand-off

Press Release

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/69856

'The Youth Bridge Foundation and the African Youth and Governance (AYG) Conference is deeply worried about the ongoing post-election conflict in Côte d’Ivoire. YBF and AYG are particularly concerned about the tensed political climate and resultant violence in Côte d’Ivoire with the youth as both perpetrators and victims of the violence.'
Youth Bridge Foundation and the African Youth and Governance (AYG) Conference
Press Release
5 January 2011

PEACE CALL TO THE YOUTH OF CÔTE D’ IVOIRE

‘It is only by being committed to peace that we can give a chance to the youth of today and future generations to thrive and allow the African people to enjoy dignified life experiences.’ - Dr. N'Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba, Professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Ivorian, Daughter of Africa and Patron of YBF

Youth Bridge Foundation and the African Youth and Governance (AYG) Conference is deeply worried about the ongoing post-election conflict in Côte d’Ivoire. YBF and AYG are particularly concerned about the tensed political climate and resultant violence in Côte d’Ivoire with the youth as both perpetrators and victims of the violence.

On the platform of the African Youth and Governance (AYG) Conference- Accra 2009 and again in August 2010, Youth Bridge Foundation and the entire AYG-Conference Community questioned whether the ever increasing youthful population of Africa, currently estimated at 60 per cent of the continent’s total population presents a potential threat to stability or potential resource for development. We agreed that for the youth to be a blessing rather than a curse to the continent, a lot depends on the actions African Governments, politicians, the International Community and the citizenry of Africa take or purposefully refuse to take today to prepare the youth for the future.

Regrettably, the Côte d’Ivoire debacle suggests that we are yet to learn the lessons of the past and failing to provide the right leadership to steer the youth of Africa away from violence and destruction. It was not long ago that Kenya suffered similarly civil strife leading to the death of over a 1000 people mostly young Africans and causing severe disruptions to the economy of Kenya and neighbouring African countries.

Some compelling facts and figures from Sir John Holmes (UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs) in report to the UN Security Council on the electoral conflict in Kenya (2007) is worth recalling in this context. He reported that:

Over 73 per cent of the assault in Kenya was carried out by youth aged 14-29 years.
Economy: (a) The Kenyan State lost US$1.3 Billion (just on production); (b)Tax Revenue: 3-days after the election, the business community lost 2 Billion Shilling (equiv to US$30.42 Million) worth of taxes daily due to the unrest.
Ripple effect of Kenyan’s conflict on Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda was devastating.
Tanzania: Rely on Kenyan’s Ports for transportation of over 90 per cent their daily consumables.
Uganda: with over 80 per cent of Uganda’s imports passing through the Port of Mombasa, Uganda revenue authority reported daily income losses of up to US$600,000.
Burundi: Commercial trade and humanitarian assistance to Burundi rely solely on Kenyan ports.

Having crossed over to New Year 2011, the Youth Bridge Foundation and the African Youth and Governance Conference Community remain:

CONVINCED that Africa’s greatest resource is its youthful population (60 per cent of the continent’s population) and that through their productive participation and positive mobilization, Africans can surmount the continent’s many challenges;

ALARMED by the continuous loss of lives violently and slowly due to lack or inadequacy of medical services, and high sense of insecurity which disproportionately affects the vulnerable (women and children) in Côte d’Ivoire;

NOTE that the protection of lives and access to food and shelter is every Ivorian’s human right;

RESPONDING to the recent charge to African youth, at African Youth and Governance Conference (Accra 2010), as contained in the Communiqué, to resist any form of political or social negative mobilization that contribute to the problems of the African continent rather than solutions;

THEREFORE APPEAL TO:

Young People of Côte d’Ivoire:

1. To be reminded that they have the responsibility to steer Côte d’Ivoire into stability;
2. To remain calm in the light of all the efforts at negotiation and diplomatic talks;
3. To demonstrate that they have a land to cherish, a future to protect, a challenge to overcome but a commitment to build the future today;
4. Not to take up arms and allow themselves to be used for violence;

Youth wings of the two contending political parties particularly the Young Patriots:

Embrace the above appeal and give peace a chance.

All Stakeholders (ECOWAS, AU, International):

Not to give up too quickly on peace without compromising the principles of free and fair elections.

Signed

SETH OTENG
Executive Director
Youth Bridge Foundation
African Youth and Governance Conference Initiative
Accra, Ghana
Websites:www.aygconference.org / www.youthbridgefoundation.net
Email: info@youthbridgefoundation.net
Tel.: +233-302- 938999 / +233-24-3229505

Sudan: Millions vote in South Sudan independence poll

2011-01-10

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/millions-vote-in-south-sudan-independence-poll/

Millions of jubilant south Sudanese started voting on Sunday in an independence referendum expected to see their war-ravaged region emerge as a new nation. People queued for hours in the burning sun outside polling stations in the southern capital Juba, where banners described the week-long ballot as a 'Last March to Freedom' after decades of civil war and perceived repression by north Sudan, reports Reuters. Hours after voting started, the celebratory atmosphere was marred by reports of fresh fighting between Arab nomads and tribespeople associated with the south in the contested Abyei region.

Tanzania: Leader released on bail

2011-01-10

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/2011174634146947.html

Freeman Mbowe, the chairman of Tanzania's opposition party Chadema has been released on bail by a local court, a day after police shot dead two anti-government protesters. After being released along with a group of other opposition legislators and their supporters on Thursday, Mbowe urged his followers to continue to fight for their rights.

Uganda: Elections, oil and transparency

2011-01-06

http://bit.ly/eAuBmS

In February, Ugandans will be going to the polls for presidential and parliamentary elections. It is an interesting time for a changing of the guard in Parliament, as Uganda will soon be the latest oil-producing country on the continent. Already there are concerns over a lack of transparency and government accountability related to oil agreements and revenues. This article from the South African Institute of International Affairs asks what role is Parliament expected to play in holding the Executive to account and ensuring greater transparency in the oil sector?

Zambia: Panji Kaunda under fire over election violence statements

2011-01-04

http://www.lusakatimes.com/2011/01/04/panji-kaunda-fire/

Government has dismissed predictions that this year’s general elections would be the bloodiest ever, describing the prophecy as an attempt to threaten peace and security. And Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) has described the statement from Colonel Panji Kaunda as irresponsible and alarming. Kaunda was on 3 January quoted saying Zambia will experience bloody violence if Government does not put measures in place to stop it.

Kenya: Kosgey on 12 counts for abuse of office

2011-01-05

http://bit.ly/ebSpHZ

Henry Kosgey faces 10 years in jail if he is convicted on 12 charges of abuse of office filed in a Nairobi court last Tuesday, reports the Daily Nation. Each of the 12 charges carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, but if convicted he would most likely be ordered to serve them concurrently. The veteran politician was arraigned in court just hours after announcing that he was stepping aside as minister for Industrialisation following Attorney-General Amos Wako’s authorisation that the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission could arrest and charge him for illegally allowing the importation of an over-age vehicle.

Africa: Made in Africa

2011-01-04

http://www.theafricareport.com/component/content/article/54/3300034.html

While some African companies are nervous about Asian competition on their own turf, the arrival of Chinese industrialists signals an important opportunity for Africa to assert itself while absorbing new technology and expanding the continent’s export capacity from raw materials to finished products. The Chinese are queueing up to start businesses in Africa. 'In France it was so-so,' says Joseph Kosure, the CEO of Kenya’s Export Processing Zones Authority, who is on a worldwide tour to showcase Kenya’s potential. 'The hall was half-full of French businessmen. But in Shanghai, two weeks ago, we had to change rooms! People were standing in the aisles.'

Africa: The European Investment Bank and hit and run development

2011-01-10

http://www.eurodad.org/whatsnew/reports.aspx?id=4329

A new Counter Balance report ‘Hit and run development - Some things the EIB would rather you didn't know about its lending practices in Africa, and some things that can no longer be covered up’ reveals how the European Investment Bank’s use of intermediated loans and private equity funds facilitates corruption and tax evasion. The report concludes that the use of these lending tools in developing countries 'goes against any kind of development logic'.

Global: World trade may have grown fastest in 2010

2011-01-10

http://www.tralac.org/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_news_item&news_id=97357&cause_id=1694

World trade is expected to have grown by more than 13.5 per cent in 2010, the fastest ever in global commerce, according to revised projections made by economists of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). 'This would be the fastest year-on-year expansion of trade ever recorded in a data series going back to 1950,' the WTO noted. The high growth figure, while reflecting higher industrial activities worldwide, is also a result of the severely-depressed level of trade in 2009, when world exports plunged by 12.2%, a WTO release said.

Côte d'Ivoire: Chaos blocks yellow fever vaccination drive

2011-01-05

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/JALR-8CTGQP?OpenDocument

Unrest following Côte d'Ivoire's presidential election is blocking a nationwide vaccination drive against yellow fever, a fatal mosquito-borne disease that is affecting people throughout the country. In the past month 11 people have died in the centre-north departments of Séguéla, Katiola, and Béoumi; two cases of yellow fever have been confirmed and there are a further 21 suspected cases in those departments and in nearby Mankono, according to local health workers and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

DRC: Polio outbreak in Congo puzzles experts

2011-01-10

http://www.scidev.net/en/news/polio-outbreak-in-congo-puzzles-experts.html

An unusually deadly outbreak of poliomyelitis (polio) in Congo has scientists scratching their heads. Close to 500 people were left paralysed and almost 200 succumbed to polio since the outbreak began in October. The viral disease killed around 42 per cent of people infected, unlike typical outbreaks that kill 5–10 per cent. And although the disease usually attacks children under five years of age, most victims in this outbreak were men aged between 15 and 25 years.

Kenya: Silent killer continues to claim children's lives

2011-01-05

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54032

Medical experts have warned that malaria and HIV have monopolised interventions geared towards curbing child mortality in Kenya, thus ignoring the equally deadly killer, diarrhoea. This disease has silently claimed the lives of hundreds of children every year. Cecilia Njambi, a mother of two, lost her first-born son to diarrhoea. 'He hadn’t slept well the previous night and had complained that his tummy hurt. His stool was loose but we weren’t alarmed as no one takes diarrhoea seriously anyway. We just assumed that he must have eaten something that didn’t go down well with him.'

Malawi: Global Fund rejects Malawi's funding proposal again

2011-01-04

http://www.africareview.com/News/-/979180/1081462/-/i6wsdlz/-/

The Global Fund has once again rejected Malawi’s request for funding which it submitted last year amounting to about $560million to support its national response towards HIV/AIDS for a five-year period. Principal Secretary in the Office of the President responsible for HIV/Aids and Malnutrition, Mary Shaba, confirmed the board’s rejection but said the country was still waiting for official communication from the Global Fund on the reasons that led to such decision. However, other reports indicate that Malawi’s proposal was rejected because the country’s laws are rigid and do not favour the marginalised groups. Malawi still criminalises homosexuality and prostitution.

Mozambique: Household welfare and HIV/AIDS treatment

2011-01-10

http://cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/1424730/

Using panel data from Mozambique collected in 2007 and 2008, the authors of this working paper explore the impact of the food crisis on welfare of households living with HIV/AIDS. The analysis finds that there has been a real deterioration of welfare in terms of income, food consumption, and nutritional status in Mozambique between 2007 and 2008, among both HIV and comparison households.

Tanzania: Study confirms rats' ability to detect TB

2011-01-10

http://www.scidev.net/en/news/tanzanian-study-confirms-rats-ability-to-detect-tb.html

Rats that can smell the tuberculosis (TB) bacterium in a sputum sample could be more effective in detecting TB than expensive laboratory tests, a study suggests. The Gambian pouched rat (Cricetomys gambianus), found all over Sub-Saharan Africa, can smell the difference between TB bacteria and other germs found in human phlegm, according to researchers writing in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene last month (December).

Global: Technology no shortcut to good education

2011-01-10

http://edutechdebate.org/ict-in-schools/there-are-no-technology-shortcuts-to-good-education/

There are no technology shortcuts to good education. For primary and secondary schools that are underperforming or limited in resources, efforts to improve education should focus almost exclusively on better teachers and stronger administrations. Information technology, if used at all, should be targeted for certain, specific uses or limited to well-funded schools whose fundamentals are not in question, argues this article.

Uganda: Makerere to change admission system

2011-01-05

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/742833

Makerere University is considering altering its government sponsorship admission criteria to ensure that reasonable numbers of both girls and boys are admitted to each course. The new measures are expected to be in place before Makerere’s admissions in August. They may impose an admission ratio of 60:40 for government sponsorship in humanities (arts) and a 70:30 ratio for science courses, in favour of the less-represented sex in each academic discipline.

Africa: Letter to AU over homophobia concerns

2011-01-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/lgbti/69779

'We are writing to express our grave concern about the recent escalation of homophobia throughout the African continent. A vocal minority spouting hatred, paranoia, and intolerance is dominating public discourse. In response, increasing numbers of parliaments are attempting to criminalise homosexuality, and increasing numbers of African leaders are publicly endorsing this criminalisation. Currently, over two-thirds of countries in the African Union have legislation that criminalises homosexuality. AIDS-Free World is disturbed by the silence of AU leaders in the face of this discrimination, and we urgently call upon the African Union to hold a special session to address the issue.'
AIDS-Free World

23 December 2010

H.E. Dr. Jean Ping

Chairperson

African Union Commission

African Union Headquarters

Addis Ababa

Ethiopia

Excellency:

We are writing to express our grave concern about the recent escalation of homophobia throughout the African continent. A vocal minority spouting hatred, paranoia, and intolerance is dominating public discourse. In response, increasing numbers of parliaments are attempting to criminalise homosexuality, and increasing numbers of African leaders are publicly endorsing this criminalisation. Currently, over two-thirds of countries in the African Union have legislation that criminalises homosexuality. AIDS-Free World is disturbed by the silence of AU leaders in the face of this discrimination, and we urgently call upon the African Union to hold a special session to address the issue.

We do not believe it is the intention of the African Union to condone this homophobia and discrimination, given the strong commitments to human rights and equality enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which states unequivocally that ‘All peoples shall be equal; they shall enjoy the same respect and have the same rights.’ The African Union’s Constitutive Act and the Maputo Protocol clearly enumerate respect for human rights as well, and this year the AU chose to focus on non-discrimination in its celebration of International Human Rights Day.

We also do not believe that it is the intention of the African Union to take a devastating step backwards in the fight against AIDS. Yet that is precisely what will happen if this growing homophobia is not addressed strongly and swiftly. When homosexuality is demonised – whether through hate speech, discriminatory legislation, or criminalisation – lesbians and gays are driven underground into unsafe and often terrifying situations, their prospects of receiving counseling and testing to establish their HIV status diminish drastically, and it becomes virtually impossible to reach them with the information, education, and condoms that can prevent the spread of HIV. We know that rates of HIV amongst men who have sex with men are already higher than rates in the general population. Enabling or sanctioning homophobia will only exacerbate the crisis.

Recent news stories paint a wrenching picture of the tide of anti-gay sentiment rising throughout the continent:

In Uganda, hatred stemming from fear and paranoia is causing individual citizens to attack homosexuals verbally and physically. Most recently, a young journalist outed numerous lesbians and gay men in a tabloid magazine that quickly attracted local and international attention, placing their lives in imminent danger. The newspaper ran photographs of the men and women under the subheading ‘Hang Them.’
Just this month, as Ghana undergoes a constitutional reform process, self-appointed spokespersons have been attempting to limit the rights of the lesbian and gay community in order to ultimately criminalise homosexuality altogether. Without strong leadership from elected officials, these voices may succeed in codifying discrimination within the new constitution.

Reports from Senegal detail beatings and arrests of gay citizens, as well as desecration of their graves.
In Cameroon, women suspected of being lesbian have been targeted for rape and risk losing custody of their children.

The list goes on. Even more frightening is the fact that prominent leaders in Africa have started to respond to this vocal minority, legitimising and sanctioning the bigotry:

In 2009, Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill called for homosexuals to be put to death. The bill has stalled in committee, but Parliamentarian David Bahati is still pushing for it to pass.
In March 2010, Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe stated in a public speech, ‘Those who engage in homosexual behavior are just crazy.’ Mr. Mugabe has previously asserted that homosexuals are ‘lower than dogs or pigs.’ Government-sanctioned homophobia led to a police raid and arrests at the offices of the human rights organisation ‘Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe’ in May of this year.
Also in May 2010, President Mutharika of Malawi pardoned a young gay couple sentenced to 14-year jail terms for ‘gross indecency’ and ‘unnatural acts,’ yet he publicly stated, ‘these two gay boys were wrong - totally wrong’ and did nothing to prevent future detentions. Discrimination continues unabated in the country, and the Malawian parliament just passed a bill to criminalise homosexuality between women as well as men.
In October 2010, Congolese MP Ejiba Yamapia began gathering support for a bill he formulated that would criminalise certain ‘unnatural sexual practices,’ which he described as including same-sex relations.
On November 28, 2010, Kenya’s Prime Minister Odinga stated at a public rally that homosexual activity ‘will not be tolerated,’ and that ‘men and women found engaging in homosexuality will not be spared.’ Mr. Odinga ordered police to arrest and bring criminal charges against anyone engaging in sex with someone of the same gender. Homosexuality remains illegal in Kenya and can result in up to 14 years imprisonment and hard labour.

This week, the United Nations voted to restore ‘sexual orientation’ as a protected category in a resolution condemning extrajudicial, summary, and arbitrary killings. There has been understandable celebration, yet the victory is cruelly marred. With the exception of Angola, South Africa, Cape Verde, and Rwanda, the continent of Africa is not aligned with the majority of Member States. More than half of the nations that voted against the inclusion of sexual orientation were African. The scourge of anti-homosexuality continues to infect the continent.

There is evidence that elsewhere around the world, leaders are starting to realise that discrimination is only coming from a fearful minority, and that most citizens believe in respect for human rights. Leaders are responding accordingly and have stopped casting homophobic votes, as seen in the case of the Commonwealth Caribbean this week: only St. Lucia supported the exclusion of ‘sexual orientation’ as a protected category in the United Nations resolution.

Excellency, in rectifying the silence of the African Union during the early years of the AIDS pandemic, AU leaders rightly spoke out time and again against stigma and discrimination. We hope that sentiment will not be limited to people who are already HIV-positive. Knowing that discrimination increases vulnerability to HIV, we must fight discrimination against all people, including those at risk of HIV as well as those who are living with the virus. It is the only way to stem the tide of the pandemic.

History has shown how difficult it is to undo the damage caused when a minority pushes for institutionalised bigotry and succeeds. Laws in the United States that criminalised sex between people of different races were similarly based on the hatred that stems from fear and ignorance. The world has now seen that once prejudice is legitimised and codified, it is a long and difficult struggle to bring societies back to acceptance, civility, and full recognition of human rights. The toll extracted is immense, both on the individuals affected and societies as a whole, but it is something that enlightened leaders can foresee and forestall.

We therefore call upon the African Union to take immediate action to stop this contagion of homophobia. AIDS-Free World strongly urges the African Union to call a special session as quickly as possible to confront the problem.

Respectfully,

Paula Donovan; Stephen Lewis

Co-Directors, AIDS-Free World

cc: Heads of State, Africa

cc: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

cc: National AIDS Councils, Africa

cc: Country Coordinating Mechanisms, Africa

cc: Professor Michel Kazatchkine, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

cc: Mr. Michel Sidibe, UNAIDS

DRC: UN, government to meet over natural heritage

2011-01-06

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=37204&Cr=democratic&Cr1=congo

The United Nations and the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will hold a meeting to discuss ways of better protecting five sites from the vast African nation that are inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The five sites in danger are Virunga, Garamba, Kahuzi-Biega, and Salonga National Parks, and the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, which are home to a unique range of flora and fauna including the Mountain Gorilla and the Okapi – a forest giraffe only found in DRC.

Kenya: Kenya enshrines the environment in its Constitution

2011-01-04

http://bit.ly/dXX7iJ

There’s a nagging misconception that all significant environmental progress begins in wealthy nations, which then shoulder the noble task of aiding and arm-twisting poor nations to do their share in taking care of the planet. But the developing world doesn’t simply do less of what’s wrong, they also have taken some bold steps in embracing a greener future, writes Jay Walljasper on www.alternet.org Just last month Kenya adopted a 'new constitution' that declares in Article 42, 'Every person has the right to a clean and healthy environment, which includes the right—a) to have the environment protected for the benefit of present and future generations through legislative and other measures.'

Namibia: Namibia embarks on nuclear policy

2011-01-05

http://ipsnews.net/newsTVE.asp?idnews=54037

Namibia is set to develop its rich uranium resources and intends to pursue uranium enrichment locally. It also plans to build its own nuclear electricity plant. Nuclear energy experts from Finland’s Nuclear and Radiation Authority are currently helping the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) to draft Namibia’s first ever nuclear policy, which is to be completed mid-2011, together with relevant laws. Namibia plans to generate electricity from its own nuclear reactor by 2018.

Mali: The great land grab in Mali

2011-01-05

http://farmlandgrab.org/17883

In the last six years, there has been a dramatic increase in foreign investment in land deals across Africa and the Malibya deal - a 50-year lease agreed by the Malian and Libyan Presidents - has become totemic of the fear that this new phenomenon of land grabbing will deprive subsistence farmers of their land and their food, reports The Guardian. Mali is one of the countries most affected by the scramble for land, and Segou, the country’s rice basket, is at the eye of the storm, with buyers from Senegal, South Africa, and Asia, as well as domestic companies snapping up leases on thousands of hectares.

Algeria: Food prices slashed as riots rock country

2011-01-10

http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/01/09/feature-01

Widespread unrest continued to rock Algeria on Sunday (9 January) as protests continued against rising food prices despite government action to stem the riots. The Algerian cabinet agreed on Saturday to lower the custom duties and taxes on sugar and other food stuffs by 41 per cent as a temporary act to cut prices. But the measure, which will last through the end of August, did not end days of conflict in the streets between angry youth and security services.

Global: Record food prices put world 'in danger', says UN

2011-01-06

http://ind.pn/g9UNZG

Food riots, geopolitical tensions, global inflation and increasing hunger among the planet's poorest people are the likely effects of a new surge in world food prices, which have hit an all-time high according to the United Nations. London's Independent newspaper reports that the UN's index of food prices – an international basket comprising wheat, corn, dairy produce, meat and sugar – stands at its highest since the index started in 1990, surpassing even the peaks seen during the 2008 food crisis, which prompted civil disturbances from Mexico to Indonesia.

Global: Saying no to a biomass economy

2011-01-04

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=5F4EBC94BF80D270

The world's biggest corporations are rushing to grab and convert living plant matter - called 'biomass' - into fuel, chemicals, and other profitable products. This new 'biomass economy' represents a trillion dollar industry but it will not feed the people or stop climate change. In order to shed light on this new economy, farm leaders from the Global South participated in a public forum to share their reality and propose alternatives. Presented by Food Secure Canada with: Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, Development and Peace, ETC Group, GRAIN, Greenpeace, Inter Pares, National Farmers Union, Peoples Food Policy Project, The Ram's Horn, Union Paysanne, USC Canada. Eight videos from the forum are available through the link provided.

Zambia: Cassava combating rural hunger

2011-01-05

http://www.ips.org/africa/2011/01/agriculture-cassava-combating-rural-hunger/

In Zambia, a silver lining has emerged for widespread rural hunger and poverty, thanks to homegrown agricultural research. Local scientists have successfully developed four new, early-maturing and high- yielding cassava cultivars in an ambitious research project conducted in the cassava-rich Luapula Province, under the on-going Root and Tuber Improvement Programme (RTIP).

Ghana: MFWA decries 'high-handedness' against Ghana media

2011-01-05

http://bit.ly/hh7qWP

The Accra-based sub-regional rights body, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), has decried the 'high-handedness' of Ghana’s security agencies against media workers while calling on authorities 'to ensure that journalists pursue their legitimate duties without fear or intimidation', PANA reports. MFWA made the call in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Prof. Kwame Karikari, following the arrest and detention of a radio journalist, Issah Murtala Kpambe.

Ivory Coast: Journalists' leaders call for an end to post-election violence

2011-01-06

http://bit.ly/i7Y2G6

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) and the West African Journalists Association (WAJA) have expressed concerns over the political crisis in the West African country of Ivory Coast. According to agency reports, the distribution and publication of newspapers in Ivory Coast have been blocked. Newspapers ideologically allied with the opposition leader, now internationally recognised Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, are not allowed to publish. Two reporters working for Le Mandat newspaper were briefly arrested, at least eight foreign journalists were arrested in different periods, and the safety and security of local journalists have been compromised by the armed forces of both political camps.

Kenya: ICC journalist naming raises debate on post election violence

2011-01-04

http://cpj.org/blog/2010/12/kenyan-radio-station-manager-wanted-at-the-hague.php

Kenyan journalists assumed senior politicians from the ruling party and opposition would be singled out for inciting the public to kill after the 2007 presidential elections - but they were shocked to find out last year that one of their own has been named by the International Criminal Court. While most local journalists supported the decision, some fear the government will use this case as a basis to silence the press. The Information Minister often uses the alleged role played by the local media during the post-election violence as a justification to crack down on the media, the chairman of the Kenya Editors Guild, Macharia Gaitho, said.

Rwanda: Journalist faces 33 year jail term

2011-01-06

http://www.africanews.com/site/Rwanda_Journalist_faces_33yrs_jail_term/list_messages/36926

An editor of an independent newspaper Agnes Uwimana is at the mercy of a Rwandan prosecutor who is pushing for a 33-year prison sentence, according to state radio on Thursday. She has been accused of denying the 1994 genocide and would know her fate on 4 February at the High Court. Uwimana appeared before the country's High Court on charges of negating the 1994 genocide, defaming senior officials - including President Paul Kagame - and disturbing the peace, all through articles published last year, Radio Rwanda reported.

South Africa: SANEF protests the arrest of journos

2011-01-10

http://www.ngopulse.org/newsflash/sanef-protests-arrest-journos

The South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF) has added its voice to those condemning police for arresting two journalists while they were carrying out normal reporting duties. Penwell Dlamini and Antonio Muchave were arrested by Hillbrow police on 29 December. They were detained while covering a story on the eviction of nine families from Regal Court flats in Johannesburg city centre.

Tunisia: Hackers hit Tunisian websites

2011-01-04

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/201113111059792596.html

Online activists have attacked and at least momentarily disabled several Tunisian government websites in the latest act of protest against the country's embattled leadership. As of Monday afternoon, local time, at least eight websites had been affected, including those for the president, prime minister, ministry of industry, ministry of foreign affairs, and the stock exchange. The attack, which began on Sunday night, coincided with a national strike, planned to take place on Monday, that organisers said would be the biggest popular event of its size since Zine El Abidine Ben Ali assumed the presidency.

Tunisia: Social media, traditional press compete

2011-01-10

http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/01/06/feature-02

In the midst of recent protests in Sidi Bouzid, the Tunisian public discovered a new source of information which enabled them to get the latest developments as soon as they took place. Social media sites such as Facebook now compete with professional news organisations, which some observers have criticised for not reporting on the demonstrations.

Tunisia: Wave of arrests of bloggers and activists

2011-01-10

http://en.rsf.org/tunisia-wave-of-arrests-of-bloggers-and-07-01-2011,39238.html

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrests and disappearances of bloggers and online activists across a number of Tunisian cities. The worldwide press freedom organisation has monitored at least five such cases but the list could well be longer. Police arrested the bloggers to question them about hacking into government websites by the militant group Anonymous, several sources told the organisation.

Africa: Petrodollars boost African arms buying

2011-01-04

http://bit.ly/haIwFl

Defense spending in Africa has increased significantly over the last few years, largely because the continent's key oil producers have scored heavy economic gains as crude prices have risen, finds a new survey. The surge in oil revenue 'has provided an opportunity for African governments to support much-needed military acquisition and improvement programs, resulting in defense spending growth that has significantly outpaced that of non-petrostates,' the survey said, as reported by United Press International.

Angola: Angola denies sending mercenaries to Ivory Coast

2011-01-04

http://bit.ly/etGrEM

Angola has denied that mercenaries from the country were operating in Ivory Coast, following reports that defiant strongman Laurent Gbagbo's camp had recruited hired guns from Angola and Liberia. The statement came after the United Nations' top peacekeeper, Alain Le Roy, said last week the UN had confirmed that Gbagbo forces were working with foreign mercenaries in their bid to gain the upper hand in the political stand-off between Gbagbo and presidential rival Alassane Ouattara.

DRC: Uganda seeks cash for talks over DRC's $10bn plunder claim

2011-01-04

http://www.africareview.com/News/-/979180/1082938/-/i6w07mz/-/index.html

The Uganda government is seeking $1 million under a supplementary budget request to parliament to facilitate a meeting with Congolese officials and lawyers – whose country accuses Uganda of war crimes and plunder of its resources. The meeting is slated for later this month in Kampala. DR Congo accuses Uganda of war crimes and plundering its resources when the latter, together with a bevy of regional countries, invaded it between 1998 and 2003. In 1999, Congo took Uganda to the World Court - seeking reparations of between of $6b and $10b - which the court said was a fair claim. The UN court sitting at The Hague, however, gave the countries an option of settling the matter between themselves.

Egypt: Coptic pope urges calm after bomb protests

2011-01-05

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12112217

The head of Egypt's Coptic Church appealed for calm as protesters clashed with police for a third day last week after a New Year's Day blast killed 23 churchgoers. Pope Shenouda III also called on Egypt's government to address Christian concerns about discrimination. Late on Monday, protesters again clashed with riot police in Cairo, demanding protection and justice.

Mozambique: Somali pirates seize Mozambican fishing boat

2011-01-04

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE70002O20110101

Somali pirates have hijacked a Mozambican-flagged fishing vessel about 200 nautical miles (370 km) southwest of Comoros in the Indian Ocean, the European Union's anti-piracy taskforce said at the beginning of January. The capture of the 140-tonne Vega 5 and its 14-strong crew of unknown nationalities is the second successful strike by pirates off the northern tip of Madagascar in a week.

Nigeria: Deaths in central Nigeria clashes

2011-01-10

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/2011182307155898.html

At least 20 people have been killed in clashes in the central Nigerian city of Jos following a protest against the killing of seven Muslims in a nearby village. The violence is believed to have begun after news spread that Muslims had been killed by Christian youths in an attack on a bus. Nigerian soldiers fired into the air to disperse youths burning vehicles and tyres in Jos in protest at the killings, villagers said on Saturday.

Somalia: Russian sailors don’t shoot at sea pirates in Gulf of Aden

2011-01-10

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15814465&PageNum=0

Russian sailors did not shoot at sea pirates in the Gulf of Aden, Navy Commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said in comment on a video clip showing crewmembers of the Marshal Shaposhnikov large anti-sub ship fire at small boats, which presumably belonged to Somali pirates. 'Our sailors would have never opened fire at people at sea. That is an absurdity, which is not worth a comment,' he said. The three-minute video clip posted on the Internet displays firing sailors, a pirate boat and an approaching ship, and missiles flying from the warship.

Rwanda: Fibre optic cable rollout complete

2011-01-06

http://www.africanews.com/site/Rwanda_Fibre_optic_cable_rollout_complete/list_messages/36927

The physical laying of the optic fibre cable in Rwanda, which includes civil works, laying of ducts and installation of the fibre is complete. Patrick Nyirishema,the Deputy Director of Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in charge of Information Technology said. The infrastructure will boost access to various broadband services including fast tracking government initiatives like e-Governance, e-Banking, e-Learning, e-Health, and other applications.

Sudan: Monitoring Sudan's vote via ICTs

2011-01-05

http://www.sudanvotemonitor.com/

Sudan VoteMonitor is a pilot project led by the Sudan Institute for Research and Policy (SIRP) and Asmaa Society for Development, in collaboration with other Sudanese civil society organisations, and supported by eMoksha.org and Ushahidi.com (technical partners). The purpose is to use information and communication technology (ICT) to support the independent monitoring and reporting of the election process and results.

Zambia: Tina Banda, the Facebook agony aunt

2011-01-05

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/12/29/zambia-tina-banda-the-facebook-agony-aunt/

To many people Facebook is a tool to announce what they are doing or what they have done, yet to some Zambians, it is being used as ‘Agony Aunt’ from which they are seeking advice on many social problems affecting them, reports Global Voices. A social work graduate from the University of Zambia, Tina Banda, started a Facebook page called Real Life and Hot Issues Discussion Forum with Tina Banda on which a number of topics are posted everyday and responses given by other Facebook users.

January edition of Gay Kenya available

2011-01-10

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/511/Gay%20Kenya%20Newsletter%20Jan%202011.pdf

The January 2011 edition of Gay Kenya has articles on being gay and being safe, a Kenyan activist who has been granted asylum in the US and the do's and don't's of gay dating sites.

Investigative Journalism Fellowships on HIV/Aids

2011-01-10

http://www.iwmf.org/pioneering-change/hiv-aids-reporting.aspx

The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) is offering 10 journalists fellowships to produce investigative reports on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. The project will offer 10 experienced South African reporters one-on-one coaching with media trainers and stipends to conduct interviews and in-depth research.

Spring 2011 Jefferson Fellowships

'New Challenges for Asia Pacific Security'

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/69859

This program will provide a unique opportunity to explore shifting security dynamics in the Asia Pacific region and to discuss the future of the US role. Visits to Okinawa and Tokyo will provide insight into the sensitivities surrounding the physical presence of US troops and Japan’s renewed debates about its defense strategy given the perceived threat from North Korea and territorial disagreements with both China and Russia.
The East-West Center is now accepting applications for the

Spring 2011 Jefferson Fellowships

Dates: June 5 - 26, 2011

Destinations: Honolulu , Hawaii ; Okinawa and Tokyo , Japan ; Seoul , South Korea ; Beijing , China

Who Can Apply: The Fellowships are open to working print, broadcast, and online journalists in the United States, the Pacific Islands, and Asia. A minimum five years of professional experience is preferred. Applicants must have the ability to communicate in English in a professional, multi-cultural environment.

Application Deadline: Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Theme: 'New Challenges for Asia Pacific Security'

Recent events in East Asia like the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, another Japan-China row over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, renewed conflicts over resources in the South China Sea and the most recent North Korean shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, have highlighted the challenges posed by long-standing tensions in the region and the ability of the major countries to manage those tensions. These events come at the same time that relationships within the region are shifting: China-US relations strained by the rise of China, a resurgent Russia, serious discussion within Japan under a new ruling party about the future of the US military presence in Okinawa, and the beginning of a leadership succession in North Korea.

The U.S. has long played a significant role in Asia Pacific security, including the basing of U.S. military forces in Japan and South Korea. Five of the seven U.S. mutual defense treaties are in Asia and many analysts in the region would argue that U.S. naval forces have contributed to regional security and stability across the Pacific since the end of World War II. But economic, political and security dynamics are changing and countries such as Japan and South Korea are revisiting U.S. alliance arrangements as they assess the future roles of the United States and an emerging China.

This program will provide a unique opportunity to explore these shifting security dynamics in the Asia Pacific region and to discuss the future of the U.S. role. Visits to Okinawa and Tokyo will provide insight into the sensitivities surrounding the physical presence of U.S. troops and Japan ’s renewed debates about its defense strategy given the perceived threat from North Korea and territorial disagreements with both China and Russia. In Seoul participants will see the realities of tensions along the Korean Demilitarized Zone and the discussions within South Korea about how to deal with the North. Finally, the Beijing program will provide a chance to talk with leaders, analysts, young people and others about how China sees these regional security challenges and its role in dealing with them. The program will begin with a week at the East-West Center to discuss these issues with Honolulu-based analysts, military officials at U.S. Pacific Command and with one another.

For more information about the program and how to apply, please visit:
http://www.EastWestCenter.org/jefferson

Program Contact: Ann Hartman, jefferson@eastwestcenter.org

Apply Now! Deadline: Wednesday, January 26, 2011

System Dynamics-based Development Planning Course

6 April - 14 May 2010, Bergen, Norway

2011-01-10

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/69930

This course is an intensive introduction to System Dynamics, a unique framework for understanding and managing complex development problems. Through case studies and practical exercises, the course will equip participants with the knowledge and skills required to effectively understand, map, and analyze complex national and global development challenges using a systemic perspective, and to determine the best approaches to mitigate them. The course is designed for professionals working in the field of development planning, especially policy advisors/analysts, and implementation and evaluation specialists from government institutions, research institutes, advocacy and civil society groups, private foundations, and international development agencies.
System Dynamics-based Development Planning Course
April 6 - May 14, 2010
Bergen, Norway

50-word Summary

This course is an intensive introduction to System Dynamics, a unique framework for understanding and managing complex development problems. Through case studies and practical exercises, the course will equip participants with the knowledge and skills required to effectively understand, map, and analyze complex national and global development challenges using a systemic perspective, and to determine the best approaches to mitigate them. The course is designed for professionals working in the field of development planning, especially policy advisors/analysts, and implementation and evaluation specialists from government institutions, research institutes, advocacy and civil society groups, private foundations, and international development agencies.


Full Course Description

The current global economic crisis, with its impact on trade, food production, energy supply and demand, and amid the growing concern about global warming, are a manifestation of complex development dynamics that we have failed to fully understand.

An increasingly complex and interdependent world demand that we understand how our social, economic, and environmental systems interact, so that we can preempt and mitigate the unintended consequences of policy decisions. It demands experts who think systemically and who combine comprehensive forecasting tools with other skills to develop policies grounded in knowledge of their likely impact decades in the future.

The System Dynamics-based Development Planning Course addresses this need. The course is an intensive introduction to System Dynamics, a unique method for understanding and managing complex development problems. Through case studies and practical exercises, participants will gain the knowledge and skills required to effectively analyze complex national and global development challenges, and determine the best approaches to mitigate them.

The course will also examine the Threshold 21 model, a scenario-playing model that represents a comprehensive and realistic view of how the economic and social relations work, and highlight the key factors that affect our lives and the environment. This framework has received favorable evaluations from UNDP and UNEP, and has been used by governments of many countries to prepare national development plans, especially poverty reduction strategies, and strategies to meet the MDGs.

Who Should Apply
The course is designed for professionals working in the field of development planning, especially policy advisors/analysts, and implementation and evaluation specialists from government institutions, research institutes, advocacy and civil society groups, private foundations, and international development agencies.

Course Fee
The course fee is US$2,730. The fee covers on-campus accommodation, course materials, and administrative fees.

Date
April 6 - May 14, 2010

Location
University of Bergen, Norway

Application Deadline
All applications must be received by January 8, 2010.

Further information
For further information and application materials visit http://www.millennium-institute.org/courses or contact ao@millennium-instititue.org

Women and New Media in the Mediterranean Region

Fez, Morocco - 24, 25, 26 June 2011

2011-01-10

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/69929

With the growing dominance of the Internet, blog, chat and mobile telephony, the great 'big bang' of the new media has begun. Communication is rapidly changing and becoming mobile, interactive, personalized and multi-channel. This extraordinary revolution is affecting the basic structure of Mediterranean societies, especially those in the south.
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
By the Isis Center for Women & Development
http://www.isiscenter.com

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
WOMEN & NEW MEDIA IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION

ISIS CENTER FOR WOMEN & DEVELOPMENT
June 24, 25, 26, 2011 - Fez, Morocco - Palais des Congres

With the growing dominance of the Internet, blog, chat and mobile telephony, the great "big bang" of the new media has begun. Communication is rapidly changing and becoming mobile, interactive, personalized and multi-channel. This extraordinary revolution is affecting the basic structure of Mediterranean societies, especially those in the south, and is raising various discussions and debates that profoundly impact women: the rapid transformation of the boundaries between the public and the private spaces, the relationship between new technology, orality and women’s literature, changes in the relationship between written and oral languages, the increasing use of mother tongues (mainly oral) in the field of education, and the challenges of new transmissions of women’s knowledges.

These issues are the five main axes of the International Congress Forum on “Women and New Media in the Mediterranean Region”, to be held on June 24, 25 and 26, 2011 at the Palais des Congrès, Fez, Morocco:

1. The transformation of the relationship "gender and public space / private space" in the era of new media
2. New media, orality and literature Women
3.Femmes, written languages and mother tongues
4. The new media and education
5. The challenge of new transmissions of women's knowledge

Papers may be in Arabic, French or English and will last 15-20 minutes.

The deadline for receiving abstracts is March 1, 2011.

The successful participants will be notified by March 31, 2011, and the completed papers need to be emailed send before June 1, 2011.

Participants are responsible for their trip and lodging expenses.

Contact Information:

Fatima Sadiqi - sadiqi_fatima@yahoo.fr
Senior Professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies (MA, PhD)
Co-Founder of International Institute for Languages & Cultures (INLAC)
Director of the Isis Center for Women and Development - Fez, Morocco
http://www.isiscenter.com/Presentation.php

500 Years Later: Reverberations of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Call for Papers

2011-01-10

http://www.raceethnicity.org/call4paper5-2.html

Guest editor David Anderson Hooker, Director of Research and Training for 'Coming to the Table: Taking America (USA) Beyond the Legacy of Enslavement', and the editorial staff of Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, invite submissions for the first issue of its fifth volume, entitled '500 Years Later: Reverberations of the Transatlantic Slave Trade'.

Call for Papers

Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts

2011-01-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/publications/69776

Guest editor David Anderson Hooker, Director of Research and Training for Coming to the Table: Taking America (USA) Beyond the Legacy of Enslavement, and the editorial staff of Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, invite submissions for the first issue of its fifth volume, entitled ‘500 Years Later: Reverberations of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.’
Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts

Volume 5, Number 2 (Winter 2012)

‘500 Years Later: Reverberations of the Transatlantic Slave Trade’

Papers must be received by May 15, 2011 to be considered for publication in this issue.

There is little doubt that from its origins in the 16th century through its end in the 19th century the transatlantic slave trade dramatically shaped the trajectories of many millions of lives on at least four continents (Africa, Europe, North America, and South America, and the Caribbean). Whether, in what forms, by what means, and to what effect the slave trade continues to leave social, cultural, institutional, familial and personal impressions in the present day are matters of considerable debate and even tension – in the former slave-trading and slave-hosting nations, in West and Central Africa, but also in countries whose involvement was less obvious.

Guest editor David Anderson Hooker, Director of Research and Training for Coming to the Table: Taking America (USA) Beyond the Legacy of Enslavement, and the editorial staff of Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, invite submissions for the first issue of its fifth volume, entitled ‘500 Years Later: Reverberations of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.’

The Transatlantic Slave Trade most immediately touched societies and lives in France, Great Britain, Portugal and Brazil, the Netherlands, North America, the Caribbean, West Africa and Central Africa. We especially welcome analyses, critiques, reflections, and documentation by activists, community-based organizations, and others living and working in these countries and regions or working on issues that implicate developments and dynamics in these places. Of course, the work of scholars, advocates, activists and practitioners in all disciplines working elsewhere are also welcome.

Topics of inquiry can include but are not limited to:
- In what ways do the effects of the Transatlantic Slave Trade continue to ripple through the lives of particular people, institutions, communities, and societies? With what impact? How do we know?

- What narratives prevail about the linkages between the slave trade and its historical impacts, on one hand, and contemporary racial meanings and conditions, on the other?

- How pronounced are calls for racial ‘healing’ and reconciliation? What are their sources? What efforts have been tried and with what success? Failures?

- Do reparations movements do more good or more harm – under what circumstances and in what respects? What are the potential dangers and pitfalls of demands for reparations for the descendants of slaves? What would a truly beneficial approach to reparations look like?
- How has the slave trade shaped contemporary notions of ‘whiteness’ and ‘blackness,’ whether locally or globally? What effect does it continue to exert on other identities? What reparative work is needed, if any, to fashion more constructive concepts of racial identity and meaning? Or are we at a point in time where notions of race no longer serve a beneficial effect; and, if so, what, if anything would ‘replace race’

- What current efforts seek to link the descendants of former slaves, slave traders, and slave holders? What are their aims, mechanisms, and outcomes?

- What current efforts seek to link former countries and regions that participated most actively in the slave trade? What are their aims, mechanisms, and outcomes?

See our suggested Style Guidelines ( www.raceethnicity.org/styleguide.html) and please feel free to contact our managing editor, Leslie Shortlidge (shortlidge.2@osu.edu), with any questions or concerns about submitting your work.

Submission of artwork for the cover that relates to the theme of the issue is welcome.

See website at http://www.raceethnicity.org/coverart.html for submission guidelines.

Enclaves of Wealth

TWN Africa

2011-01-10

http://www.twnafrica.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&gid=67&Itemid=

This edited volume brings together some of the papers that were presented at a conference organised in Accra, Ghana by Third World Network-Africa (TWN-Africa) and the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) in November 2008, on the theme: ‘Beyond Foreign Direct Investment in Africa’s Mining Sector’. The conference brought together activists from community groups and NGOs, officials from African government institutions as well as intergovernmental bodies and academics to discuss the state of mining on the continent and the experience of two decades of mining sector policy dominated by strategies for attracting foreign direct investment.In total, eight papers are contained in this volume. The first four papers explore various financial aspects of mining sector reform in sub-Saharan Africa.

Social movement struggles in Africa

Review of African Political Economy, Volume 37, Issue 125, 2010

2011-01-04

http://bit.ly/eQrXL6

This edition includes the articles:

- The extraversion of protest: conditions, history and use of the ‘international’ in Africa,
Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle
- Internal dynamics, the state, and recourse to external aid: towards a historical sociology of the peasant movement in Senegal since the 1960s
- Peasant struggles in Mali: from defending cotton producers’ interests to becoming part of the Malian power structures by Alexis Roy.

Click on the link provided to access the journal.

Akina Mama wa Afrika: Call for applications for a consultant(s)

African Women's Leadership Institute Tracer Study

2011-01-10

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/69932

Akina Mama wa Afrika is tendering for applications for consultants to conduct a Tracer Study on the African Women’s Leadership Institute.
Akina Mama wa Afrika

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR A CONSULTANT(S) TO CONDUCT THE AFRICAN WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE TRACER STUDY

Akina Mama wa Afrika is an international Pan–African non-governmental development organisation for African women based in Kampala, Uganda, with a UK/Europe Regional Office in London. AMwA aims to provide development services for African women, serves as a research forum on African women’s issues, and provides a platform for African women to participate in policy and decision-making. AMwA also serves as a networking, information, advocacy and capacity building forum for African women and builds their leadership capacities to influence policy and decision-making.

We are tendering for applications for consultants to conduct a Tracer Study on the African Women’s Leadership Institute.

Closing date for applications: 15th January 2011

AMwA welcomes all applicants and values diversity. Suitable candidates within Africa are strongly encouraged to apply.

Climate Science Research Partnership (CSRP) Fellowships in African Climate Science

2011-01-10

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/511/Call_for_Applications.pdf

African climate researchers and applied scientists are invited to apply for fellowships in African climate science. The fellowships are offered as part of the Climate Science Research Partnership (CSRP) between the Met Office Hadley Centre (MOHC) and the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK government. The CSRP aims are to improve the understanding and prediction of African climate on monthly, seasonal and decadal timescales and to strengthen climate science capacity in Africa.

Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation

Call for members of the International Programme Advisory Committee (I-PAC)

2011-01-06

http://www.esi.ac.uk/espa/about-espa/ipac

ESPA is a highly innovative global research programme designed to provide world-class evidence on how ecosystem services can improve the lives of the world's poorest people. ESPA will invest in researchers around the world to create new knowledge, through excellent interdisciplinary research to be conducted in Africa, South Asia, China and the Amazon Basin. The ESPA I-PAC has a crucial role in providing advice to the Directorate and ESPA's funders to ensure that the programme delivers world class science, meeting the most pressing current policy and evidence needs, and through this has the potential to improve the lives of millions of poor people around the world. I-PAC members will be world-leading researchers, opinion formers and development practitioners selected to provide ESPA with the advice it requires to ensure success.

Post-doctoral Research Associate Vacancy

University of Cambridge Centre of Governance and Human Rights

2011-01-04

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/69775

The University of Cambridge's Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR, www . polis . cam . ac . uk/cghr) is seeking to appoint a post-doctoral Research Associate to work for up to 22 months on our new research project ‘New communication technologies and citizen-led governance in Africa’, funded by the Cairns Family Trust and the Isaac Newton Trust.
University of Cambridge Centre of Governance and Human Rights: Post-doctoral Research Associate
Vacancy

Reference No: ZZ07551

Salary: £27, 319 - £35,646 pa. 


Limit of tenure applies*


Application deadline: Friday 14th January 2011

The University of Cambridge's Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR, www . polis . cam . ac . uk/cghr) is seeking to appoint a post-doctoral Research Associate to work for up to 22 months on our new research project ‘New communication technologies and citizen-led governance in Africa’, funded by the Cairns Family Trust and the Isaac Newton Trust.

The role holder will develop, test and employ a theoretically grounded analytical framework for evaluating whether and if so how information and communications technologies (ICTs) shape processes of social and political change in developing country contexts, drawing upon empirical fieldwork in Africa. The role holder will work closely with the Principal Investigator on writing up findings and preparing publications. She or he will provide support to the management of the project, and will collaborate closely with project partners (see further particulars). The Research Associate will play an active role in building CGHR within the University and the wider research community.
The vacancy is advertised on the POLIS website. Further particulars are available from here (http ://www . polis . cam . ac . uk/dept/jobs/ZZ07551 . pdf)

Two sets of the application documentation should be sent IN HARD COPY to Mrs Lottie Garrett, Department of Politics and International Studies, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge CB2 1RX by Friday 14th January 2011. Interviews will take place in late January or early February. The successful applicants will be expected to start in February. We regret that only applicants short-listed for interview will be contacted.

Informal enquiries concerning the application procedure may be directed to Mrs Lottie Garrett (cahg2@cam.ac.uk). Informal enquiries regarding the research project should be made to the Director of the Centre of Governance and Human Rights, Sharath Srinivasan (ss919@cam.ac.uk).

*Limit of tenure: 22 months.
Closing date: 14 January 2011. Planned Interview dates: late January or early February. 

The University values diversity and is committed to equality of opportunity. The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

Research and Advocacy Assistant

Statelessness Project

2011-01-06

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs/69861

The Equal Rights Trust (ERT) is an independent international NGO whose purpose is to combat discrimination and promote equality as a fundamental human right and a basic principle of social justice. Following the award of a new project grant, the Trust is seeking a Research and Advocacy Assistant to support its Statelessness Projects.
Research and Advocacy Assistant – Statelessness Project

The Equal Rights Trust
£18,000 – 24,000
London

The Equal Rights Trust (ERT) is an independent international NGO whose purpose is to combat discrimination and promote equality as a fundamental human right and a basic principle of social justice. Following the award of a new project grant, the Trust is seeking a Research and Advocacy Assistant to support its Statelessness Projects.

Reporting to the Head – Statelessness and Nationality Projects, the post-holder will be required to coordinate field research, assist with advocacy actions, draft and edit research reports and administrate web content. The successful candidate will be highly motivated, have relevant academic, work and research experience and first-rate organisational skills.

Key responsibilities:

• Coordinating and overseeing global field research on stateless populations, with specific focus on the Middle East and Asia;
• Researching and drafting advocacy submissions, statements, letters and press releases on project activities;
• Administrating ERT’s statelessness website and periodically uploading documents and information onto the website;
• Monitoring national, regional and international media, the work of UN treaty bodies and other international and regional agencies on statelessness related issues;
• Undertaking desk-based research;
• Providing administrative assistance and organising events and travel for ERT’s statelessness projects;
• Liaising with ERT partner organisations and consultants;
• Monitoring progress against project plans and drafting progress reports;
• Developing project funding applications;
• General administrative tasks.
Essential skills and experience:
• A master’s/advanced degree in law or social sciences;
• Knowledge of human rights, equality and non-discrimination law;
• Understanding of refugee, statelessness and migration issues;
• Fluent written and spoken English and the ability to produce high quality written material;
• Experience in conducting field research;
• Excellent organisational skills;
• Excellent IT skills, including familiarity with web content management systems or web editing and strong working knowledge of MS Office and internet packages;
• Excellent inter-personal and communication skills;
• Proofreading and editing experience.

Desirable skills and experience:
• Experience in a similar role;
• Experience in working on refugee, statelessness and migration issues;
• Work and/or research experience in the Middle East and/or Asia;
• Experience in organising events;
• Experience in working on advocacy campaigns;
• Fluency in other languages.

Salary range: £18,000 – £24,000

PLEASE APPLY by emailing a covering letter, a curriculum vitae and contact details for two referees. Applications should be sent by email only, with subject 'Research and Advocacy Assistant' to info@equalrightstrust.org

The closing date for applications is 1st February 2011. Only short listed applicants will be contacted.

Equal opportunities policy

The Equal Rights Trust is committed to a comprehensive policy of Cultural Diversity and Equal Opportunities in which individuals are selected and treated solely on the basis of their relevant merits and abilities and are given equal opportunities within the Trust.

Africa: Pro-WikiLeaks hackers attack Zimbabwe government websites

2011-01-10

http://bit.ly/ft3Zvm

Hacktivists have struck a blow against the regime in Zimbabwe by attacking a number of government websites. The cyber-assault appears to have been in support of newspapers who published secret cables in the ongoing WikiLeaks saga, to the annoyance of the-powers-that-be in the country. Grace Mugabe, wife of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, was recently reported to be suing a newspaper for $15 million after it published a WikiLeaks cable that claimed she has benefited from illegal diamond trading.

Tanzania: WikiLeaks shows fight to stop aircraft sale

2011-01-04

http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=24717

Wikileaks has revealed diplomatic cables complaining of favouritism and suspicion of corruption in the manner Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) went about shopping for jetliners for its ageing fleet four years ago. The newspaper report titled: 'Diplomats Help Push Sales of Jetliners on the Global Market. Tanzania and the Fight to Stop Airbus Sale,' said Boeing executives, at times, were pressed by foreign government officials and airline executives to hire 'agents' or other intermediaries to help deliver a sale.

Zimbabwe: How Mugabe views Zuma

2011-01-06

http://www.newsday.co.zw/article/2010-12-22-how-mugabe-views-zuma

The latest release from the whistleblower website WikiLeaks says President Robert Mugabe regards SADC facilitator to the Zimbabwe crisis South African President Jacob Zuma as a 'man of the people who likes to make promises without necessarily knowing how to fulfil them'. The website also says President Mugabe views former SA leader Thabo Mbeki as a 'great man' who is 'judgmental and calculating and cautious with policies'.

Fahamu