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. 
freedom
South Sudan: Africa’s newest state should sustain the dream
Aloys Habimana
2011-07-13, Issue 539
cc ENOUGH projectSouth Sudan’s independence is ‘a dream come true’ for the country’s people, but ‘to avoid turning that dream into a nightmare, the new nation’s leadership will need to adopt a line of governance that reflects greater commitment to human rights, public freedoms and justice for all,’ cautions Aloys Habimana.
The Secrecy Bill: Speak now or forever be gagged
Dale T. McKinley
2011-06-15, Issue 535
cc M WDale T. McKinley takes a clause by clause look at South Africa’s Protection of Information Bill (POIB) – known publicly as the Secrecy Bill. It is ‘all very real and even more dangerous’, he writes, and South Africans should speak up now before it is too late.
The Prevention of Scholarship Bill
Jane Duncan
2011-06-15, Issue 535
cc M WSouth Africa’s Protection of Information Bill (POIB) – known publicly as the Secrecy Bill – represents the biggest threat to academic freedom since 1994. Yet the voice of universities has been missing from the uproar over the bill, writes Jane Duncan.
Help keep Pambazuka News free and independent
Firoze Manji
Pambazuka News
2011-05-26, Issue 531
Produced by a community of some 2,800 writers, bloggers, activists, intellectuals, poets, artists and representatives of social movements, Pambazuka News is committed to nourishing and supporting the building of a strong, progressive, pan-African social movement for freedom and justice. To do that, writes Firoze Manji, Pambazuka News must remain free and independent. The generosity and solidarity of our community of readers and authors is what makes Pambazuka News possible. Pambazuka needs your support to thrive! If you value what Pambazuka News has achieved over the last 10 years, if you appreciate what Pambazuka News is and does today, make a donation now. Make the donation you can afford. But make it now. http://pambazuka.org/en/donate.php
Pambazuka News: 500 issues for freedom and justice
Firoze Manji
2010-10-14, Issue 500
Pambazuka News has a 10-year track record of publishing articles that present a direct counter to the status quo. Moving beyond its 500th issue and into its second decade, the Pambazuka News community will be able to connect and share information on an unprecedented level, thanks to a forthcoming new web platform. This, believes editor Firoze Manji, makes Pambazuka News well placed to reflect a mood in Africa that is one of ‘discontent, of a search for alternatives to the ideology of looting and personal enrichment’.
Swazis claim their democratic space
Jan Sithole
2009-07-16, Issue 442
cc WikimediaAsking the majority of people around the world what they know about Swaziland, writes Jan Sithole, is likely to draw a blank stare. But Swaziland is a country with a strong history of political struggle against formidable odds. Despite the determined suppression of democratic expression by the country's government, the last few years have seen a resurgence in civil society's drive for greater freedom, something which Sithole hopes will pave the way for progressively greater interest from the international community in coming years.
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.
Promoting women's land rights at the 13th AU summit
Lyn Ossome
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc MaristellaWith Sirte, Lybia, hosting the 13th African Union summit this week, Lyn Ossome of Solidarity for African Women's Rights (SOAWR) challenges African heads of state to keep women's land rights on the developmental agenda. At a time of marked global economic difficulty, women remain acutely vulnerable to unstable food prices and restricted access to land, meaning that African governments must now more than ever challenge discriminatory laws and customs, Ossome argues. If the AU's summit is offer progress, Ossome contends, African heads of state must make strong commitments to policies favourable to women's empowerment such as subsidising non-industrial agriculture and securing women's land tenure.
Still far from the dream of Biko
Reflections on the 1976 youth uprising
Mphutlane wa Bofelo
2009-06-18, Issue 438
cc FikraImprisoned at 17 as an anti-apartheid activist, Mphutlane wa Bofelo emerged even more determined to confront the system. It was the dream of ‘the freedom of our people’ that people act with boldness and bravery, he writes, even though ‘we knew the ultimate price could be death’. Yet 33 years after the 1976 youth uprising, confronting living conditions in Durban’s Kenville squatter camp, wa Bofelo considers why ‘former freedom fighters can sometimes be more vicious in attempts to abort freedom’. As Kenville residents consider class action against the government for decent housing, wa Bofelo wonders why South Africans should have to go to court to secure constitutionally enshrined basics of water and housing. ‘How can you have a sense of self-respect and dignity when you live in opulence but your brothers and sisters… live in squalor?’ asks wa Bofelo. ‘Pity how it seems we joined the struggle to be rich materially but poor in spirit!’
Food crisis: Where is the African strategy?
Mammo Muchie
2008-08-05, Issue 392
“The elevation of an agricultural people to the condition of countries at once agricultural, manufacturing and commercial, can only be accompanied under the law of free trade, when the various nations engaged at the time of manufacturing industry shall be in the same degree of progress and civilization; when they shall place no obstacle in the way of the economical development of each other, and not impede their respective progress by war or adverse commercial legislation.” - Friedrich List, in the National System of Political Economy...
Invoking Mandela: How do we make democracy work for the poor?
Fazila Farouk
2008-07-30, Issue 391
It's just been a few weeks since Nelson Mandela was taken off the United States terrorism watch list. No doubt so that they too could join in the celebrations of this living icon, without the embarrassment of hoisting up a revolutionary....
Mandela on my poster
Bill Fletcher, Jr
2008-07-16, Issue 389
It is humbling and unsettling attempting to appraise the significance of an icon, especially at the time of that icon's 90th birthday. Nevertheless, we must honor Nelson Mandela while at the same time situating him in a broader and complicated context....
Mandela: A diaspora view
Walter Turner
2008-07-16, Issue 389
"I understand that there are South Africans here tonight - some of whom have been involved in the long struggle for freedom there. In our struggle for freedom and justice in the United States, which has also been so long and arduous, we feel a powerf...
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 ...
Mandela as reminder and symbol
L. Muthoni Wanyeki
2008-07-16, Issue 389
Thinking about Nelson Mandela’s birthday, what comes to mind is how I felt—how the world felt—watching his release over a decade ago. Watching him walk down the road, hand in hand with his now ex-wife, Winnie Mandela. Watching South Africa prepare for its first full elections in 1994. Watching him assume the Presidency. Watching him re-marry, this time Graca Machel, the former wife of his slain Mozambiquan comrade, Samora Machel....
A luta continua!
Ruth Castel-Branco
2008-07-16, Issue 389
February 11th 1990—for me, an unforgettable day. I was 7 years old; he had been in prison for 27 years. Sunday morning was just getting started when the phone rang and after a brief conversation, my mother turned around to inform us that Nelson Mandela had been freed. I can remember wondering if I’d heard right. Nelson Mandela? The Nelson Mandela whose face, adorned with the ANC colors, was glued onto one of our empty kitchen cupboards? The ANC leader who had been in jail for more years that my imagination could grasp?...
Zimbabwe: IFJ demands release of foreign journalists held in raid
International Federation of Journalists
2008-04-08, Issue 360
The International Federation of Journalists today accused the authorities in Zimbabwe of intimidation of journalists and called on the authorities to allow media to report freely as tension mounts following the elections for President held last Saturday....