Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 2,600 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators who together produce insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses and make it one of the largest and most innovative and influential web forums for social justice in Africa. 
accountability
India's volte-face on Libya: The secret mission
2011-09-06, Issue 546
cc SauravThe recent Paris meet was a grim victory celebration by the NATO powers who wanted non-European poodles on the bandwagon, writes M.K. Bhadrakumar.
How famine makes unscrupulous businessmen fabulously wealthy
Rasna Warah
2011-09-06, Issue 546
cc OxfamThe global aid industry has made a core group fabulously wealthy, writes Rasna Warah.
Corporations, crime, corruption and capital flight
Part 2
Charles Abugre
2011-08-18, Issue 545
cc P HTax avoidance, not developing country corruption, is the biggest source of illicit capital flight, writes Charles Abugre in Part 2 of a four-part series of articles on the flow of ‘dirty money’.
TNCs, transfer pricing and tax avoidance
Part 3
Charles Abugre
2011-08-18, Issue 545
cc TaxBrackets.orgHow do multinationals and unethical companies conceal and move capital abroad? Mostly through manipulating import and export prices, writes Charles Abugre in Part 3 of a four-part series on the flow of ‘dirty money’.
Fighting illicit capital flight
Part 4
Charles Abugre
2011-08-18, Issue 545
cc GenvesselThe illicit extraction, concealment and channelling of capital from poor countries abroad destroys societies and must be curtailed. So how do we do this, asks Charles Abugre in the final article in a four-part series on the flow of ‘dirty money’.
Another vicious attack on CSOs in Africa
Who is next?
Africa CSO Platform for Principled Partnership
2011-08-18, Issue 545
cc TNIThe attack on civil society across Africa ‘is now increasingly becoming bolder, broader and more dangerous. And it is going beyond governments to include regional bodies such as SADC,’ warns Paul Okumu, in a call for all CSOs both in the North and South to ‘strengthen and support the solidarity effort as a matter of urgency’.
Reflections on the Norwegian tragedy
Yash Tandon
2011-08-11, Issue 544
cc R NYash Tandon takes a deeper look at the mass killings in Norway on 22 July. The event, he writes, 'gives us a moment to comprehend the deeper meaning of human existence'.
Defining Zimbabwe's national heroes
Letter to the people of Zimbabwe
2011-08-10, Issue 544
cc G B2011 is a year for all Zimbabweans to begin to challenge those that lead the country and those that insist on imprisoning national consciousness in their versions of heroism and history, says the Committee of the Peoples Charter.
Famine by man not drought
Africa Answerman
2011-08-04, Issue 543
cc A EThe famine spreading across the Horn of Africa is ‘not principally the result of drought’, it’s ‘due to political and social circumstances that if left unaddressed will begin one terrible unending famine capable of wiping out entire populations and massively stressing global resources’, writes Africa Answerman.
Famine in Somalia
The story you're unlikely to hear any time soon
Rasna Warah
2011-08-03, Issue 543
cc OxfamIn the absence of a well-functioning central government, Somalia is in effect being ‘managed and controlled by aid agencies’, writes Rasna Warah. But it’s a story that is unlikely to be told by either the global news networks or the ‘aid workers whose livelihoods depend on donor money that will soon flow into Somalia via Kenya.’
Free trade is not what Africa needs, Mr Cameron
Nick Dearden
2011-07-28, Issue 542
cc DFIDAfrican prosperity relies on a wholesale rejection of the Western free trade model, which was not the view of David Cameron or the delegates he travelled with on a recent trip to Africa.
An African response to ‘There is no alternative’
Revolutions from Tunis to Ouagadougou
Guy Marius Sagna
2011-07-27, Issue 542
cc S RFor the past three decades, neoliberalism has insisted that ‘there is no alternative’ to semi-colonialism and the diktats of the IMF and World Bank. But, writes Senegal’s Guy Marius Sagna, our people ‘have enough common sense to understand that things have to change’.
Monsanto in Haiti
Beverly Bell
2011-07-06, Issue 538
cc WikimediaLast spring, Haiti’s minister of agriculture gave agribusiness giant Monsanto permission to ‘donate’ 505 tonnes of seeds to Haiti ‘to support the reconstruction effort’. A year later, Beverly Bell asks what has become of the seeds that Monsanto gave, and ‘how real was the fear of Haitian farmer organizations that the donation was a Trojan horse?’
Kleptocratic capitalism: Challenges of the green economy for sustainable Africa
Yash Tandon
2011-06-30, Issue 537
cc G LAfrica remains at the mercy of a self-interested international ruling class interested purely in maximising profit at all costs and consolidating its position, writes Yash Tandon. As the continent faces up to the enormous challenge of climate change and the creation of a sustainable ‘green economy’, it must look inwards and draw upon its own expertise and resources and resist the temptation to rely on compromised external ‘experts’, Tandon stresses.
Science, the future, and the revolutionary moment
Review of Michio Kaku’s ‘Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100’
Horace Campbell
2011-06-30, Issue 537
cc JoeMichio Kaku’s new book shows how science and technology are transforming ‘social relations among humans and between humans and the universe,’ writes Horace Campbell, but it fails to convey that ‘[t]echnological revolution by itself cannot change society; it requires the intentional and purposeful intervention of humans to make a break from traditions of slavery, bondage and exploitation.
'Transparency' hides Zambia's lost billions
Khadija Sharife
2011-06-23, Issue 536
cc EITIMining corporations' tax evasion schemes cost African nations billions of dollars each year, says Khadija Sharife.
Tanzania’s first female speaker: Celebrating gender equality?
Salma Maoulidi
2010-11-18, Issue 505
cc Julien HarneisHas Tanzania’s parliament elected Anna Makinda as its first female speaker because she’s the best person for the job, or because it thinks she’s less likely to demand accountability than her predecessor, asks Salma Maoulidi.
Diamonds and disappearing tax revenues
Khadija Sharife
2010-11-18, Issue 505
cc Stewart LeiwakabessyPetra Diamonds, the largest diamond-mining group listed on the UK's Alternative Investment Market (AIM), may deal in the glittering rocks that bring lovers together in holy matrimony. But the company’s activities behind the scenes may just be tearing people – and societies – apart, writes Khadija Sharife.
Africa and the climate finance controversy
Patrick Bond
2010-10-14, Issue 500
cc MickyWill Africa end up paying for technologies that commodify life, or demand reparations for ecological damage done by the North, asks Patrick Bond.
The big squeeze: Geopirating the remaining commons
Pat Mooney
2010-10-06, Issue 499
cc KaibaraAs the UN General Assembly prepares for the June 2012 environmental summit in Rio de Janeiro, the global response to the current set of crises around ‘food, fuel, finance and Fahrenheit’ are giving rise to even greater commoditisation of our lives, writes Pat Mooney. In the face of new ‘shock doctrines’ around agricultural erosion, ecosystem collapse, cultural extinctions and gender ‘disappeareds’, Mooney discusses the supposed therapies and ultimate pay-offs.
Big continent and tiny technology: Nanotechnology and Africa
Kathy Jo Wetter
2010-10-06, Issue 499
cc AJCLDespite supposedly self-evident claims to its ability to solve social and health problems in Africa, developments in nanotechnology should be met with serious critical reflection, writes Kathy Jo Wetter. In a discussion of what nanotechnology is and the risks associated with it, Wetter underlines that the technology offers new opportunities of monopoly control ‘over both animate and inanimate matter’, while government regulations worldwide remain completely inadequate to address its unique risks.
Biopiracy, the intellectual property regime and livelihoods in Africa
Oduor Ong'wen
2010-10-06, Issue 499
cc WikimediaAfrican countries suffer the most from the rapid trend towards the privatisation of African plants, writes Oduor Ong’wen. Even though the patented plant materials often originate in Africa, once they are patented by multinational corporations it becomes virtually impossible to access them for the public good.
The new biomassters and their assault on livelihoods
Jim Thomas
2010-10-07, Issue 499
© S 1Watch out for the new biomass economy driven by large biotech, chemical, forestry and agribusiness companies, says Jim Thomas. The new biomassters are on a global looting spree of the world’s natural resources to feed the consumption and capital accumulation of the industrialised North.
Synthetic biology in Africa: time to pay attention
Gareth Jones and Mariam Mayet
2010-10-07, Issue 499
cc KaibaraSynthetic biology – the design and engineering of biological components that can be used to construct a variety of biological systems – is a hot scientific topic. But with enormous implications for human health, Gareth Jones and Mariam Mayet ask when the very real ethical concerns associated with the technology will be debated.
Pulp fact or fiction?
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) plantation projects
Khadija Sharife
2010-10-07, Issue 499
cc OTHSUsing Norway-based Green Resources Ltd’s plantations as a case study, Khadija Sharife looks at whether clean development mechanism projects like those undertaken by Green Resources in East Africa can actually bring benefits to people on the ground.
Unclean development mechanism
Research notes on resource imperialism in the southern Tanzanian highlands
Blessing Karumbidza and Wally Menne
2010-10-07, Issue 499
cc S S‘The funding of climate change adaptation and mitigation-oriented programmes in Africa has opened up new forms of resource imperialism, extractive investment and land grabbing opportunities, in particular for European and Chinese companies,’ writes Blessing Karumbidza. Land-intensive projects negatively affect the livelihoods of people who rely on land for food and other resources. The case of Idete village in Tanzania, the site of a plantation by Norway-based Green Resources AS, is an example of how supposedly ‘clean development’ projects don’t always benefit the community.
Eco-certification: Who watches the watchers?
Khadija Sharife
2010-10-06, Issue 499
cc W R IWith raised consumer awareness about green issues, forestry companies have
scrambled to acquire environmental certification. But as Khadija Sharife
investigates, the credentials of those who keep an eye on the process is often
murky.
Is seed recuperation possible?
A story from Kathulumbi village in Kenya
Anne Maina
2010-10-07, Issue 499
Residents in the village of Kathulumbi in Kenya are building a seed bank to help strengthen biodiversity and access to uncontaminated seed varieties. Traditional staples like cassava and millet have been largely replaced by more cheaply available genetically modified varieties of maize. By preserving traditional seed varieties, villagers in Kathulumbi want to make seeds affordable, sustainable and more nutritious than their genetically modified counterparts.
Geoengineering the planet: What is at stake for Africa?
Diana Bronson
2010-10-06, Issue 499
© beehivecollective.orgGeoengineering is playing an increasingly more prominent role in northern-led approaches to tackling climate change, writes Diana Bronson, with proponents dismissively oblivious to the social and environmental consequences for populations around the world.
Biotechnology and dispossessions in Kenya
Khadija Sharife
2010-10-06, Issue 499
© S 1Kenya’s agriculture has a history of producing for lucrative exports while the government upholds the marginalisation of dispossessed groups and reports of famines, writes Khadija Sharife. Resources that should be sustainably used to tackle Kenya’s famines are depleted, Sharife argues, as part of a disturbing, broader trend which sees land completely dominated by elite interests and in which ‘[o]wnership that could be allocated to those requiring land for food production is instead shifted to those with capital (foreign) or political access.’