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. 
displacement
Tragic end for Eritrean family's reunion attempt
Mihret Goitom
2009-07-16, Issue 442
cc C T SnowUK-based lawyer Mihret Goitom tells how his sister–in-law’s attempt to escape Eritrea and join her husband ended in tragedy, after she and her children were incarcerated in a refugee camp in Sudan en-route.
The African Group: Friend or foe of Africa's aspirations?
Korir Sing’Oei
2009-07-02, Issue 440
cc United Nations PhotoUnsurprised by the African Group's defence of Kenya at the UN, Korir Sing’Oei considers whether the group's actions should historically be regarded as positive or negative for the African continent it represents. Just as it has often stood in the way of some of the more radical action proposed against human rights violators, the group also has the dubious distinction of regularly championing the right of autocratic regimes in Africa to 'territorial integrity', Sing’Oei notes. In marked contrast however, the African Group has also proven a key advocate for international appreciation of the continent's economic difficulties. Concluding that the African Group should be regarded more as a champion of Africa's development rather than human rights, Sing’Oei cautions that such an approach should not be permitted to jeopardise the creation of a culture of accountability in governance.
The world financial meltdown: What now for African women?
Hilary N. Ervin & Caroline Muthoni Muriithi
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc hdptcarAs the global economic crisis takes its toll on Africa’s fiscal revenues and household incomes, Hilary N. Ervin & Caroline Muthoni Muriithi fear that the continent’s achievements in human rights and development may be reversed, worsening the condition of women already struggling against an ‘entrenched patriarchy’. Despite embracing commitments to gender equity on paper, Ervin and Muriithi say many countries lack the funding and resources to implement policies and legislation. Programmes focused on women, largely funded by multi-lateral donors, are likely to decline as aid dries up the authors warn, while at a domestic level many households will prioritise the education and welfare of sons over daughters, with ‘long-term consequences for overall development’. Calling for the ratification and implementation of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, Ervin and Muriithi suggest that ‘investment in women's livelihoods, particularly in African economies,’ should be ‘a central focus of governments’ economic recovery policies’.
DRC: The future has come and gone
Lansana Gberie
2009-06-04, Issue 436
cc Julien HarneisReturning to DRC for the first time since 1996, Lansana Gberie finds that a little cash comes in handy for dealing with bureaucracy and that it is impossible to get anything done without a ‘fixer’. Considering the conflicts in the country’s history, Gberie notes that in Congo ‘money is always at the centre of the bigger drama of suffering’ and that justice – or the interests of victims of mass atrocities – has had to be subordinated to wider geopolitical interests. Leaving Kinshasa after just over a week, Gberie finds himself feeling that he is ‘in a place whose future has come and gone’.
The KwaZulu Natal Slums Act: Bloody legislation against the expropriated
Richard Pithouse
2009-05-14, Issue 432
cc Arne BoellWith South Africa's Constitutional Court today set to hear the efforts of the Abahlali baseMjondolo shackdweller movement to have the KwaZulu Natal Slums Act declared unlawful, Richard Pithouse reflects on the state's routine willingness to evict occupiers of informal housing in contravention of the protection afforded by the country's constitution. Stressing the destruction engendered through forcing people out of their communities, Pithouse discusses the state's flawed assumption that blindly razing settlements without fully accommodating their inhabitants amounts to progress. Highlighting the similarities of the 2007 Slums Act with apartheid-era legislation, the author criticises a technocratic act that regards the poor as the problem rather than the material and political realities they face, and proposes the implementation of measures aimed at privileging the social value of urban land over commercial concerns.
Kenyan maize scandal causes ODM rift
Joachim Omolo Ouko
2009-05-07, Issue 431
cc E PenceFollowing the Kenyan Orange Democratic Movement's (ODM) allegations of Agricultural Minister William Ruto's role in a maize scandal, Joachim Omolo Ouko discusses the internal mudslinging and internecine feuding within Prime Minister Raila Odinga's party. Ruto's problems with the party stem from his criticisms of Raila last year, Ouko notes, compelling the prime minister to seek a means of fixing the rift developing with the ODM, particularly as his own son is instead now alleged to be involved in the scandal.
Resisting degradations and divisions
Interviewed by Richard Pithouse
S'bu Zikode
2009-04-30, Issue 430
© Abahlali baseMjondoloIn an interview with S’bu Zikode, Richard Pithouse questions the president of South Africa's Abahlali baseMjondolo shackdwellers’ movement about his understanding of a living politics and the considerable struggles faced by the movement. Zikode, the elected leader of the group, discusses the core importance of looking to ordinary people for political direction and beginning within the needs of your community as part of an inclusive approach which embraces debate and differences of opinion. As an antidote to the South African state's domination, Abahlali, Zikode explains, works to challenge the underlying greed advanced by the state's endeavour to sustain social divisions through empowering people to engage and shape the struggle in a way sensitive to the needs and roles of all.
Is Judgment Day near for Omar al-Bashir?
Kwesi Kwaa Prah
2009-04-30, Issue 430
cc Andrew HeavensIn response to Mahmood Mamdani's article 'Beware of human rights fundamentalism', Kwesi Kwaa Prah questions Mamdani's grasp of history. Taking issue with Mamdani's contention that 'Arabs never constituted a single racial group' in Sudan, Prah argues for the people of Southern Sudan's self-rule and a halt to the 'Arabisation' of Africans.
Ending impunity
Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice (KPTJ)
2009-01-29, Issue 417
In this article, Kenyans For Peace, Truth and Justice (KPTJ) look in great detail at the Waki Report. “The setting up of a Special Tribunal to seek accountability from persons bearing the greatest responsibility for serious violations relating to the 2007 elections” is the most important call by the report. But also constructively criticising the report, KPTJ argues the Waki report stresses reform over a complete overhaul of some of the governnment agencies responsible for the gross crimes against the Kenyan people.
Africa and the fate of MDGs
Mildred K Barya
2008-07-30, Issue 391
When I was young and impressionable I had this grand vision of saving the world. It was so easy to dream up a free and fair world where sanity, justice and good health prevailed. It was even easier to engage in activities that could quicken the comin...
Mandela as South Africa's metaphor
Andile Mngxitama
2008-07-16, Issue 389
Mandela is, in some ways the perfect embodiment of post colonial Africa, a continent blessed with so many possibilities but consistently producing so much disappointment. The African dream of liberation has become a long nightmare. As Mandela turns ...
From frameworks and norms on SGBV to action
FAWE in Sierra Leone
Eileen Hanciles
2008-07-14, Issue 388
FAWE is a Pan- African organization with operations in thirty-five countries in Africa. FAWE Sierra Leone was started in 1995, at the height of the civil war. One of the Chapter’s many emergency intervention which was borne from the determination of women to restore dignity to other women and girls is the programme of assistance to victims of gender –based violence in internally displaced camps, returnees and juveniles in domestic settings. In February 1999, after the allied forces regained control of the capital, it was reported that a number of FAWE school students were raped while the rebels were retreating. As some of these victims had already been subjected to rape in their areas of origin, FAWE decided to address the issue of rape once and for all, break the silence and create a culture that says no to violence against women.
War and sexual based violence in Northern Uganda
Florence Okio
2008-07-14, Issue 388
Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD) became involved in Uganda in 1979. This was immediately after the “Liberation war” which saw the departure of Idi Amin’s regime. The first programme was in the North of the Country based in Gulu district. ACORD was majorly responding to the emergency needs as a result of the war. ACORD has now expanded its programme in the whole of Acholi sub region, Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum and Pader, West Nile sub region, Adjumani and Moyo and the Western part of the country Mbarara programme all under ACORD in Uganda programme. The main intervention currently is focusing on developmental issues and to address the injustices in service delivery by using the right based approach to development as a strategy. ACORD is also engaged in Advocacy and Lobbying for the voice less society in the region to present their issues to the policy makers for a better life. In 2004, ACORD conducted a research to find out the relationship between HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Gender Based Violence. The result of the study showed very strong linkages between the two.
Shattered Myths: The xenophobic violence in South Africa
Nathan Geffen
2008-07-03, Issue 385
On Thursday 22 May, Cape Town changed forever. The xenophobic violence that started 1,200 kilometres away in Gauteng spread to Du Noon township. On Friday the TAC offices began to get reports of violence on trains and Somali shops being looted. The details were scanty, but by Friday evening the consequences became visible even in the affluent city centre. About 150 people sought refuge outside Caledon Square, the city's main police station. Hundreds more gathered at the central train station so they could catch a train to Johannesburg in the morning and then leave the country.
South Africa: We are not like them
Andile Mngxitama
2008-07-03, Issue 385
The sms’s came fast and furious. As furious as the fiery images we were subjected to by our television and our daily newspapers. I dreaded opening a newspaper for days - afraid of being confronted by yet another grisly product of the negrophobic xenophobic violence, which by the end of week three had claimed the lives of about one hundred people and displaced about 100 000, according to some estimates. The mind spins out of its axis, out of the normal.
As the Alexander Township burnt, I was reading text messages from my cappuccino-loving Tito Mboweni-fearing middle class friends.
Is this integration?
Azad Essa
2008-07-03, Issue 385
The barbaric acts of violence against foreign African nationals in South Africa over the past month appears to have drawn to a close. However, thousands remain displaced and face the daunting task of putting their lives back together. Government indecisiveness, continuing xenophobic sentiment and the bitter cold of winter remain sizeable stumbling blocks in advancing the process of their reintegration into South African society. Durban suffered mainly reverberations of the mass violence emanating from Gauteng, but reports of harassment, poor living conditions for displaced refugees and growing fear amongst immigrant communities continue to filter in. What are the underlining issues and are they new? More importantly, how do we move forward? Azad Essa speaks to Pierre Matate, Deputy Chairperson of the KZN Refugee Council, to find out more.
Zimbabwe: hunger, terror, displacement and death
Mary Ndlovu
2008-06-26, Issue 384
Since March, Zimbabwe has had no Parliament, no local government councils, no legitimate executive, and ZANU PF has ruled by decree in response to the orders of the JOC – acronym for the military junta which now controls the nation, along with Mr. Mugabe and Reserve Bank Governor Mr. Gono, who is needed to print money, writes Mary Ndlovu. SADC governments allowed the charade to continue, talked to and dealt with the illegitimate government as if nothing was wrong. If SADC fails in its self-assigned disaster management, if the AU is unable or unwilling to step into the breach - hunger, terror, displacement, and death stare Zimbabweans in the face.
Joint Operational Command's strategy for the Presidential run-off poll
Sokwanele
2008-06-25, Issue 384
On the 21st May 2008 the Solidarity Peace Trust (SPT) released a report titled "Punishing Dissent, Silencing Citizens: The Zimbabwe Elections 2008." The report made it very clear that ZANU PF had embarked on a systematic programme of retributive violence in response to its electoral defeat on March 29th 2008. The report included an evaluation of the violence up until that point based on interviews with 681 people. Sokwanele received similar information at the time that confirmed and supported the information that was published in the SPT report. Our source has recently provided us with more information, this time in relation to JOC's preparations and plans for the Presidential run-off poll.
Zimbabwe: Memo to African Leaders
African civil societies
2008-06-23, Issue 383
Although SADC must be commended for its attempts so far to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe, its effort has not been repaid. The ruling party is effectively refusing to subject itself to a democratic contest, and waging a violent conflict against its citizens, aggravating a humanitarian crisis. As such it has lost legitimacy, triggering a necessary shift in Africa’s stance. Under the Constitutive Act of the African Union, member states are enjoined to “promote and protect human and peoples’ rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights” and the African Union has an obligation “to intervene in a Member State pursuant to a decision of the Assembly in respect of grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.” There is extensive documentation in Zimbabwe today of torture and killing of named individuals by agents of the ruling party and government who have been described and/or identified. African Union engagement, particularly by the Peace and Security Council, is fully mandated by conditions on the ground and is urgently needed.
Zimbabwe: Stop the run-off
Feminist Political Education Project
2008-06-18, Issue 382
The Feminist Political Education Project (FePEP) calls upon all political leaders to stop the 27th of June 2008 Presidential election run-off.
The golden glitter of South Africa is gone
Akwete Sande
2008-06-12, Issue 380
"As for Malawians, talk of regional integration is merely a joke as they visit the holding centre in Blantyre, to see if their relations are among the returnees." Akwete Sande gives a Malawian perspective on the xenophobic violence in South Africa.
Double jeopardy of women migrants
Romi Fuller
2008-06-05, Issue 378
Although often overlooked amidst the shocking images and stories emanating from the xenophobic attacks of the last two weeks, there is a gendered face of xenophobia, says Romi Fuller. Foreign women face the double jeopardy of belonging to and being at the intersection of two groups so vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and violence. This something the country must consider as it moves towards healing and responding to the needs of the injured and displaced.
Women left for dead—and the man who’s saving them
Eve Ensler
2008-05-22, Issue 374
In the Congo, where tens of thousands of women are brutally raped every year, Dr. Denis Mukwege repairs their broken bodies and souls. Eve Ensler visits him and finds hope amid the horror.
Zimbabwe: Women of the world help stop the violence!
Women In Zimbabwe
2008-05-13, Issue 370
As a result the terror campaign by the military and the youth militia, the most affected are women and children as 80% of Zimbabwean women live in the rural areas. This statement urges women in Africa and the world to take action against the Mugabe government.
Urgent action: Stop forced closure of IDP camps in Kenya
National Internally Displaced Persons Network of Kenya
2008-05-13, Issue 370
The National Internally Displaced Persons Network of Kenya is deeply concerned with recent moves by the Government of Kenya to forcibly close IDP camps across the country in violation of the international Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and basic human decency.
Kenya: Violence against women continues
Awino Okech
2008-04-15, Issue 364
On January 5th 2008, after I successfully managed what I will term as a quick escape from Kisumu one of the hardest hit areas (at the time) with the Kenya’s post election crisis; I arrived into a fairly placid Nairobi. The bars were full of people, this in comparison to shut establishments in Kisumu. Middle class Nairobi was mingling as usual!
Zimbabwe should not look to Kenya
Rasna Warah
2008-04-01, Issue 358
Rasna Warah reminds Zimbabweans that Kenya can only be a model of what not to do - the cost in terms of lives, a shattered economy, internally displaced populations, and broken trust is to high a price to pay.
Human Rights defenders role in promoting just peace and democracy
Ndung’u Wainaina
2008-03-13, Issue 354
Ndung’u Wainaina argues that there has to be an unwavering commitment by African societies to human rights - and that part of that vigilance also means protecting human rights advocates who might be under threat from the state or other actors
Tanzania activists and religious communities launch critical mining research
Salma Maoulidi
2008-03-10, Issue 353
Salma Maoulidi looks at the mining research report, "A Golden Opportunity? How Tanzania is failing to benefit from Gold Mining” and argues that it builds a powerful case for continued activism in trade and economic justice in line with various Human rights instruments that call for a country’s wealth and natural resources to benefit primarily local communities.
East African sub-regional women's collective call for peace in Kenya
2008-03-06, Issue 351
The East African sub-regional women's collective calls for a comprehensive peace plan that is cognizant of how violence affects women.
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