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. 
citizenship
Beyond the genocidal concept of tribal homelands
On the East African Federation
Mahmood Mamdani
2011-07-14, Issue 539
cc Nukta 77'East Africa has two post-colonial traditions of citizenship', writes Mahmood Mamdani: territorial and ethnic. If the region is to have a political federation, it will need to be based on a common citizenship, he argues: 'Which one will it be?'
South Sudan: Rethinking citizenship, sovereignty and self-determination
Mahmood Mamdani
2011-05-04, Issue 527
cc RFTReflecting on the context behind South Sudan's exercise in self-determination and the potential sources of political violence following the country’s independence, Mahmood Mamdani explores Sudan's longer-term historical experience – the role of imposed administrative identities under the colonial system, migration, religion, slavery and the emergence of a politicised Islam – and the contemporary challenges around rethinking political citizenship.
Does Tanzania need dual citizenship?
Chambi Chachage
2009-07-16, Issue 442
cc flickr.comChachage explores whether nationals of a country ought to have the option of dual citizenship, in the third and final part of a series of three articles exploring the idea of dual citizenship with reference to Tanzania. Despite positive arguments in favour of dual citizenship made mostly by communities living in the diaspora, Chachage concludes that a government that cannot even fully grant single citizenship to the ‘majority’ should not be putting resources into granting dual citizenship to a ‘minority’. This, Chachage argues, would allow the growth of first and second class citizenship, which is what independence movements fought to eliminate.
Why I love-hate Euro-America
Chambi Chachage
2009-07-02, Issue 440
cc catface3Chambi Chachage doesn’t hate America, he actually loves it ‘a lot’. It ‘could be a model for deracialising the continents’, Chacage believes, as ‘probably the only habitable continent for humans that is not really seen as a continent that belongs to a particular “race”.’ But says Chachage, America is also haunted by what President Obama describes as the 'original sin of slavery and racism', epitomised by the Atlantic slave trade and the genocide of native Americans. Chacage concludes that what he feels is actually what historian Colin Legum describes as a ‘disappointed love’ – the colonised ‘believe there has been no proper recognition of, nor retribution for, the injury of colonialism’, while the colonisers ‘feel let down because Africa has not lived up to the expectations of European liberal values.’
When do ‘settlers’ or ‘natives’ become ‘citizens’?
Chambi Chachage
2009-07-02, Issue 440
cc ChadicaChambi Chachage explores when and how ‘settlers’ or ‘natives’ become ‘citizens’, in the first of a series of three articles exploring the idea of dual citizenship with reference to Tanzania. Definitions of citizenship in modern nation-states in ‘societies other than Euro-American ones’ were influenced by how the notion developed in Euro-America and how it was ‘selectively applied in the Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America in the context(s) of colonialism, imperialism and developmentalism,’ Chachage argues. ‘It is this colouring that we need to unpack as we trace the historical and political trajectories and implications of the idea and praxis/practice of citizenship in Africa,’ says Chacage.
The Migingo Island dispute and international law
Korir Sing’Oei
2009-06-04, Issue 436
cc Sanjoy GReflecting on the standoff between Uganda and Kenya in the Migingo Island dispute, Korir Sing’Oei considers the nature of each state's claim on the island. With both Uganda and Kenya claiming their right to the island on the strength of colonial-era maps, Sing’Oei states that a resolution on the matter will identify the losing state as having transgressed international law. Pointing out that the Migingo case raises interesting questions around citizenship and Africa's incomplete decolonisation, Sing’Oei argues that greater involvement for the East African Community at large would facilitate dialogue between the two disputing states.
Speaking like Narkissos again?
Godwin Murunga
2009-05-21, Issue 433
cc Wikimedia CommonsIn the wake of Kenya and Uganda's confrontation over the small island of Migingo in Lake Victoria, Godwin Murunga argues that the actions of Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni are very much in keeping with an essentially paradoxical nature. While in broad agreement with Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem's contention that the Migingo conflict should be settled both legally and politically, Murunga stresses that the Ugandan president's default mode is invariably militaristic and rooted in a belief in 'individual destiny'. Suggesting that Museveni's essential narcissism and unerring faith in military solutions completely dominate his political approach, the author argues that it will be the extent to which the Kenyan leadership cares for Kenyans and Ugandans alike which will determine a settlement.
The messiah within: Redeeming the soul of the Kenyan nation
Njonjo Mue
2009-05-14, Issue 432
cc D B KingAs Kenyans struggle to find meaning in the protracted troubles surrounding their body politic, Njonjo Mue challenges the nation’s youth to join an army of ordinary people to fight the good fight and to defend Kenyans’ freedom, dignity, heritage and their children’s future by engaging in brutal self-appraisal and refusing to permit decay. Mue’s article is a call to arms, for men to leave the bars long enough to know what their children will eat for supper, for women to cease their escapism and confront the problems facing Kenya’s communities, and for all Kenyans to individually take responsibility for the future of their country.
Can Africa’s new foundations break the dependency cycle?
Bhekinkosi Moyo
2008-09-17, Issue 399
In a review of the current state of philanthropy on the African continent, Bhekinkosi Moyo argues that African organisations are becoming progressively more autonomous from northern donors and able to pursue their own agendas. With organisations such...
Darfur, ICC and the new humanitarian order
How the ICC’s “responsibility to protect” is being turned into an assertion of neocolonial domination
Mahmood Mamdani
2008-09-17, Issue 396
On July 14, after much advance publicity and fanfare, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court applied for an arrest warrant for the president of Sudan, Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, on charges that included genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Important questions of fact arise from the application as presented by the prosecutor. But even more important is the light this case sheds on the politics of the “new humanitarian order.”...
Politics at stake: a note on stakeholder analysis
Mark Butler and David Ntseng
2008-07-31, Issue 392
People in government, business, and political and civil society organisations routinely talk about 'stakeholders'. They do exercises in stakeholder analysis to inform their 'strategic planning'. Invariably they use the stakeholder language to adverti...
Xenophobia is a global phenomenon
Chengiah Rogers Ragaven
2008-07-17, Issue 389
Xenophobia, refugees and immigration politics in their own right have negative connotations when examined through the lens of universal values, moral truths or scriptural teachings which form the basis of our humanitarian civilization, but when translated and practiced through the lens of racism, religious chauvinism, cultural and ethnic ‘otherness,’ the consequence can be horrendous and catastrophic.
The politics of fear and the fear of politics
Michael Neocosmos
2008-06-12, Issue 380
Reflecting on the causes of the recent xenophobic pogroms in the country, it is striking how most commentators have stressed poverty and deprivation as the underlying causes of the events, writes Michael Neocosmos. Yet it requires little effort to see that economic factors, however real, cannot possibly account for why it was those deemed to be non-South Africans who bore the brunt of the vicious attacks. Poverty can be and has historically been the foundation for the whole range of political ideologies, from communism to fascism and anything in between. In actual fact, poverty can only account for the powerlessness, frustration and desperation of the perpetrators, but not for their target. After all why were not Whites or the rich or for that matter White foreigners in South Africa targeted instead? Of course it is a common occurrence that the powerless regularly take out their frustrations on the weakest: women, children, the elderly... and outsiders. Yet this will not suffice as an explanation.
Obama's Speech and the Black Man's Burden
Paul T Zeleza
2008-03-20, Issue 355
Paul T. Zeleza while recognizing the historic nature and importance of the Obama speech argues that the circumstances that made the speech necessary reveal the extent to which the United States remains an arrogantly racist society
Afro-Venezuelans: An open letter to the Venezuelan National Assembly
Jesús "Chucho" García
2007-12-11, Issue 332
Jesús "Chucho" García calls for a greater recognition of Afro-Venezuelans in the country's constitution.
The Rights of the Forcibly Displaced and the Stateless
The work of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights
Déirdre Clancy
2007-12-12, Issue 331
Déirdre Clancy analyses refugee human rights, statelessness and the African commission.
African women and domestic violence
Takyiwaa Manuh
2007-11-28, Issue 330
The experience of using law to address the issue of domestic violence in Africa contains both positive and negative lessons for gender-equality campaigners, says Takyiwaa Manuh.
Refugees and displaced people in Africa
An interview with the special rapporteur on refugees and displaced persons in Africa
2007-11-13, Issue 328
Bahame Tom Mukirya Nyanduga, commissioner responsible for upholding the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ rights talks to Hakima Abbas about Africa’s commitment to protecting refugees and his belief that democratic states that tolerate diversity do not experience the conflict that generates the displacement of their citizens.