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. 
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George Jackson - 40 year commemoration
Freedom Archives
2011-08-22, Issue 545
August 21st marks the 40th anniversary of the execution of George Lester Jackson. The Chicago- born Jackson would have celebrated his 70th birthday on September 23rd. Jackson was a prisoner who became an author, a member of the Black Panther Party, and co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family prison organization. He achieved global fame as one of the Soledad Brothers before being executed by prison guards in San Quentin Prison. Based on an edited portion of Prisons on Fire by the Freedom Archives (2001) with video editing by Oriana Bolden. George Jackson - 40 year commemoration from Freedom Archives on Vimeo. George Jackson - 40 year commemoration from Freedom Archives on Vimeo.
The struggle to convert nationalism to Pan-Africanism
Taking stock of 50 years of African independence
Issa G Shivji
2011-08-11, Issue 544
cc S KAfrica’s ‘tale of treasures at one end and tragedies at the other cannot be understood’ without ‘locating it in the trajectory of worldwide capitalist accumulation,’ argues Issa Shivji.
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'.
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.
A war criminal in Spain: Tshombe and the Official Secrets Act
Agustín Velloso
2011-08-03, Issue 543
cc WikimediaFollowing a trip to Madrid’s archives, Agustín Velloso uncovers the history of Spain’s relations with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the 1960s and the secret backing given to Moise Tshombe’s ‘subversive activities’, his use of Spanish state resources and institutions and ‘the support of the press and other fascist entities of the time’.
Existential threats in the Caribbean
Democratising politics, regionalising governance
Norman Girvan
2011-07-14, Issue 539
cc WikimediaNorman Girvan examines the politics of the Caribbean through the life of CLR James, the influential Afro-Trinidadian historian, journalist, socialist theorist and essayist.
Santiago’s Festival of Fire
Cubans hug up their Caribbean culture
2011-07-14, Issue 539
cc J EAttending Santiago de Cuba’s Festival of Fire to deliver a lecture on CLR James at a colloquium on Pan-Africanism in the Caribbean, Norman Girvan finds that ‘culture is to Cubans what shopping is to Americans’.
Igboland: Freedom, survival, future
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe
2011-06-30, Issue 537
cc WikimediaForty years on, first and second generations of Igbo ‘removed from their parents and grandparents respectively who freed British-occupied Nigeria in 1960 and survived the follow-up genocide’, are ‘once again tasked and poised to restore’ their ‘lost sovereignty’, writes Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe.
Face to face with the Congo
Part two
Cameron Duodu
2011-06-16, Issue 535
cc WikimediaIn the second part of a two-part article, Cameron Duodu reflects on the exciting and challenging times he had in the Congo in the 1960s and the experiences of George Padmore, Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba in seeking to support Africa’s liberation movements. Part one is available to read at http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73943
Frantz Fanon 50 years on
Richard Pithouse
2011-06-16, Issue 535
cc Wikimedia‘On 6 December 2011, 50 years will have passed since the death of Frantz Fanon. Around the world people are getting together in universities, trade union offices, shack settlements, prisons, church halls, and other places where people try to think together, to reflect on the meaning of an extraordinary man for us and our struggles here and now,’ writes Richard Pithouse.
Re-examining the meaning of 16 June
Veli Mbele
2011-06-15, Issue 535
cc UN PhotoWith the legacy of South Africa's 1976 student uprising marked on 16 June, Veli Mbele writes that education is an area in which the ANC has failed South Africa's young black people. 'The situation is so dire that it gives credence to the theory that it serves the political interests of the ruling party to keep a huge section of the population uneducated and trapped in poverty and ignorance.'
Face to face with the Congo
Part one
Cameron Duodu
2011-06-09, Issue 534
cc J K Cameron Duodu reflects on the exciting and challenging times he had in the Congo in the 1960s.
African awakenings and new visions of solidarity
Firoze Manji, Molly Kane and Pius Adesanmi
2011-06-09, Issue 534
cc M TRecorded on 25 May at Ottawa's Carleton University, the following is a video of a talk led by Firoze Manji and Molly Kane of Pambazuka News and hosted by Pius Adesanmi. The panellists discuss 'African awakenings and new visions of solidarity' to celebrate Africa Liberation Day.
The situation of Africa
Declaration of the Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa (GRILA)
2011-06-02, Issue 532
cc W MThe Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa (GRILA), an organisation consisting of researchers and activists, issued a statement on the situation in Africa on African Liberation Day, 25 May 2011. The statement calls on the peoples of Africa and its diaspora to ramp up resistance, both locally and globally, and to unite on the basis of internationalism and Pan-Africanism.
Tshwane Declaration on Africa Liberation Day
Africa Institute of South Africa
2011-06-02, Issue 532
cc WikimediaWe the 100 plus delegates from various countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, having met in Tshwane, South Africa, over three days to commemorate Africa Liberation Day and deliberate on African affairs and global issues hereby resolved the following Tshwane Declaration.
Congo and Ghana: Early examples of inter-African co-operation
Cameron Duodu
2011-06-02, Issue 532
cc N AAlthough Ghana’s alliance with Congo was ultimately unable to save Patrice Lumumba’s life or avert Mobutu’s 40-year dictatorship, the ‘African Union (AU) would do well to rediscover the spirit of those days, when Africans knew what was good for their continent, and what was not so good,’ says Cameron Duodu.
Algeria: Towards a common history
Smaïl Goumeziane
2011-05-26, Issue 531
cc US ArmyWhile 50 years have passed since Algeria achieved independence from France, Algerians still lack a cohesive historical narrative of their past, writes Smaïl Goumeziane. Though fraught with difficulty, working towards such a history would go some way towards challenging ‘wars of memory’ and ‘selective amnesia’, Goumeziane stresses.
Haiti: Reparations and reconstruction
Horace Campbell
2011-05-19, Issue 530
cc N H LThe process that brought Michel ‘Sweet Micky’ Martelly to Haiti’s ‘presidency was a farce that will 'force popular forces to distinguish between processes of democratisation and pseudo-elections without democratic participation’, writes Horace Campell, in an article on the people of Haiti’s two-hundred year struggle to reconstruct their society.
Constitutional community justice systems in Kenya
Jedidah Wakonyo Waruhiu, Florence Gachichio and Ezra Rotich
2011-05-09, Issue 528
cc O DKenya has for many years been running two legal systems in parallel, the common law and community justice systems. With the country in need of ‘common guidelines’ around the administration of community justice, Jedidah Wakonyo Waruhiu, Florence Gachichio and Ezra Rotich discuss the challenges facing the system.
Politics of the law in Kenya: A historical perspective
Ramnik Shah
2011-05-09, Issue 528
cc WikimediaDespite official rhetoric about the separation of powers, colonial-era judges were routinely ‘used as an instrument of policy’, with this relationship between administration and judiciary essentially sustained after independence, writes Ramnik Shah, in a discussion of Kenya’s post-colonial legal system.
Justice Madan fondly remembered
Ramnik Shah
2011-05-10, Issue 528
cc M MRamnik Shah reflects on the life of Justice Madan, a ‘homegrown Kenyan jurist of the highest order’, and his ‘immense contribution to the political and legal history of Kenya’.
Manning Marable and the march towards a socialist America
Horace Campbell
2011-04-07, Issue 524
cc G LManning Marable, African American activist, scholar and author, passed away on April 1. Horace Campbell pays tribute to a man who dedicated his life to the struggle against oppression.
Manning Marable and Malcolm X
Michael Dyson, Bill Fletcher Jr
2011-04-07, Issue 524
cc WikipediaRenowned African American historian Manning Marable passed away on April 1 at the age of 60, days before the publication of his new biography of Malcolm X. Sociologist Michael Dyson and Bill Fletcher Jr, founder of the Black Radical Congress, discuss Marable’s legacy with Democracy Now! Watch the interview. Read the transcript.
Who said blackness cannot be synonymous with excellence?
Veli Mbele
2011-03-23, Issue 522
cc Frerieke‘The best legacy that we can bequeath to our children and grandchildren [is a] legacy of pride in ourselves, and of excellence,’ asserts Veli Mbele.
The iron heel: Why the US continues to crush Haitian democracy
Ben Terrall
2011-02-23, Issue 518
cc L GRecent Wikileaks cable releases reveal why the US continues to crush democracy in Haiti.
Tshombe, Spain and the DRC's independence
Agustín Velloso
2011-02-10, Issue 516
cc J KSpain’s willingness to allow an exiled Moise Tshombe entry into the country and to turn a blind eye to his criminal record may well have changed the course of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) history, writes Agustín Velloso.
Lumumba, Gbagbo and Ki-moon
Okello Oculi
2011-02-03, Issue 515
cc UN PhotoUN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's failure to understand the workings of communal democracy in Africa put him in a weak position to negotiate for peace in Côte d’Ivoire, argues Okello Oculi.
Black (or White?) History Month
Chika Ezeanya
2011-02-02, Issue 515
cc D CBlack History Month ‘allows Africans to tell their “his-story” starting only from the period when they set foot on the enslaver’s soil and became subjected to his “civilising” efforts', argues Chika Ezeanya.
Rumba, Lumumba and I
Awino Okech
2011-01-20, Issue 513
cc R CAwino Okech outlines how, following the assassination of Lumumba, the stage was set for ‘political patronage and plunder’ – essentially a pact between elites and former colonial masters. But there is still the possibility for latter day Lumumbas to challenge governments.
Patrice Lumumba: The rise and assassination of an African patriot
Cameron Duodu
2011-01-20, Issue 513
cc AzisCameron Duodu remembers working as a journalist in Ghana and documenting Patrice Lumumba’s dramatic rise to power - and subsequent assassination - from afar. In so doing he uncovers why Lumumba is such an important historical figure who 'was not assassinated merely as a person, but as an idea'.