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. 
imperialism
What does Gaddafi's fall mean for Africa?
Mahmood Mamdani
2011-09-06, Issue 546
cc V VGaddafi’s fall points to more Western interventions to come in Africa, writes Mahmood Mamdani.
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’.
The chickens are coming home to roost
US credit downgrade
Horace Campbell
2011-08-11, Issue 544
cc TaxBrackets.orgThe 'downgrade of the US credit rating is part of the forward planning by the top capitalists to guarantee the political and military hegemony of the richest one per cent of the US population,’ writes Horace Campbell.
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.
WikiLeaks Haiti: The Aristide files
Kim Ives and Ansel Herz
2011-08-10, Issue 544
cc B P'US officials led a far-reaching international campaign aimed at keeping former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide exiled in South Africa, rendering him a virtual prisoner there for the last seven years, according to secret US State Department cables,' write Kim Ives and Ansel Herz.
US debt ceiling debate and the alternatives
Horace Campbell
2011-08-04, Issue 543
cc P SIn the wake of the passing of the Budget Control Act to prevent the US defaulting on its debts, Horace Campbell stresses the need for progressive people to organise to oppose militarisation, defend livelihoods and social security protection, and chart the path towards alternatives.
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’.
America's role in Somalia's humanitarian crisis
US sends in the marines and more drones
Glen Ford
2011-07-20, Issue 540
cc E IGlen Ford for Black Agenda Radio explains how US militarisation has contributed to the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa.
NATO's debacle in Libya
Alexander Cockburn
2011-07-19, Issue 540
cc S AWith support unravelling from within NATO itself, the organisation’s intervention in Libya is looking increasingly humiliated, writes Alexander Cockburn.
From ‘how could’ to ‘how should’: The possibility of trilateral cooperation
Li Anshan
2011-07-13, Issue 539
cc WikimediaThrough reference to the history of Chinese medical assistance across the African continent, Li Anshan considers the differences in approaches and understandings behind Western and Chinese ‘aid’ and the scope for potential trilateral (West–China–Africa) cooperation.
African transformation: Only in our hands
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe
2011-07-07, Issue 538
cc S MSocial progress and transformation in Africa will be driven by the continent’s people themselves, writes Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe. Africa remains a net exporter of capital to the Western world, just as the remittances provided by Africans abroad far outweigh the ‘aid’ the continent receives, Ekwe-Ekwe underlines.
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.
AU on Libya: Political solution needed
Ruhakana Rugunda
2011-06-29, Issue 537
cc KalliophAt a meeting between the UN Security Council and the African Union High Level Ad hoc Committee on Libya on 15 June, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, Uganda’s permanent representative to the United Nations, gave the African Union’s stand on NATO’s invasion of Libya.
Is the 'global coalition' obstructing Africa’s progress?
Zaya Yeebo
2011-06-30, Issue 537
cc MoghawemtThe ‘global coalition’ is ultimately a mere front for the dominance of Western economic and political interests over genuine democratisation for the peoples of Africa, writes Zaya Yeebo.
Race, class and transformation in South Africa
Sehlare Makgetlaneng
2011-06-30, Issue 537
cc L LHow can the race question not be one of the key issues of concern for those who are for a better life for all South Africans? asks Sehlare Makgetlaneng.
Contextualising Hillary Clinton’s ‘New Colonialism’ remark
Isaac Odoom
2011-06-22, Issue 536
cc US Gov.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton jetted in to Africa recently, holding a press conference in Lusaka where she warned of a ‘new colonialism’ in Africa. Such warnings would be more credible to Africans if the US got its own record straight, points out Isaac Odoom.
Memories on African liberation (1956 - 1975): Part 2
Helmi Sharawy
2011-05-25, Issue 531
cc R OIn Part 1 of this two-part article, Helmi Sharawy took Pambazuka News back to 1950s Cairo, remembering the host of African liberation movements that had offices in the Egyptian city. This week he details the disillusionment that came with the series of post-independence coups, the implications of the 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel and Nasser's eventual death.
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.
From Nobel to Nobel: A letter to Barack Obama
Adolfo Perez Esquivel
2011-05-19, Issue 530
cc TheStirrer‘How can you speak of human rights and the dignity of peoples when you perpetually violate them and block those who don’t share your ideology and must endure your abuses?’, asks 1980 Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel in an open letter to US President Barack Obama.
Côte d’Ivoire: The importance of 11 November 2011
Maurice Fahe
2011-05-12, Issue 529
cc MateusWhile months of political stand-off between two self-proclaimed Ivorian presidents may have come to an end, genuine political and economic liberation for the country’s people is far from being achieved, writes Maurice Fahe.
France must now leave Côte d’Ivoire
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe
2011-05-03, Issue 527
cc WikipediaIn scenes redolent of the kidnapping of Patrice Lumumba and storming of Salvador Allende’s presidential palace, France’s recent activities in Côte d’Ivoire have been purely about establishing self-interested ‘regime change’, argues Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe.
We export food to import food
Nebiyu Eyassu
2011-04-20, Issue 526
cc IRRINebiyu Eyassu cuts through the supposed benefits of foreign agricultural investments - so-called land grabs - for a country like Ethiopia. Far from boosting employment and local food security, land grabs are likely to prop up a discredited government and increase hunger.
Oil politics: Charge them with manslaughter
Nnimmo Bassey
2011-04-14, Issue 525
cc US Coast Guard‘People who have suffered the impact of unjust practices and those who have been victims of abuse from corporate impunity will heave a sigh of relief the day directors of such companies are brought to court from behind their corporate shields,’ writes Nnimmo Bassey, amidst talk that ‘top guns at BP’ may be charged with manslaughter over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
West makes Côte d'Ivoire safe for cocoa chocolate soldiers
Kalundi Serumaga
2011-04-14, Issue 525
cc NestleGiven Côte d'Ivoire’s history, 'Alassane Ouattara’s entry into State House… will no more prove a cure than Laurent Gbagbo’s presidency ever was,’ writes Kalundi Serumaga.
The reconstruction of Haiti: A record of failure
Colette Lespinasse
2011-04-14, Issue 525
cc UN PhotoLast March, donors pledged billions of US dollars for the reconstruction of Haiti, after an earthquake devastated the country. But a year later, a group of 40 Haitian organisations finds that ‘nothing significant has really been undertaken’. Instead Haitian players have been excluded from strategic decision-making and the ‘millions of people affected directly or indirectly by the earthquake continue to face the consequences in destitution, and with no support whatsoever.’
The transformation of the global system and its implications for Africa
Dani W. Nabudere
2011-04-13, Issue 525
cc D PThrough the eyes of protestors who have filled the streets of North African protests, what might a new society look like? Dani Wadada Nabudere, drawing on the meaning of social network use and principles of Ubuntu, explores.
The glossary of greed
Joan Baxter
2011-03-30, Issue 523
cc D AWith the 2011 Forbes List of the world’s billionaires recently released – and acutely aware of the huge volume of unaccounted for money found in offshore havens – Joan Baxter discusses the ‘highly stratified world that has become treacherously top-heavy’.
Côte d’Ivoire: Forces behind the crisis and what’s at stake
Maurice Fahe
2011-03-23, Issue 522
cc RennyAs Côte d’Ivoire’s political deadlock continues, Maurice Fahe discusses the country’s geostrategic importance for the West, the long-term role of foreign multinationals in the country, the political implications of ‘Ivoirité’ and the differences between the current crisis and that of 2000.
Haiti and the endless revolution
Sokari Ekine
2011-03-24, Issue 522
cc L GAristide’s return to Haiti, the West’s war on Gaddafi, AU intervention and protests in Senegal and Morroco are among the stories covered in this week’s round-up of African uprisings, compiled by Sokari Ekine.
Transnational capitalism or collective imperialism?
Samir Amin
2011-03-23, Issue 522
cc A Z RResponding to the work of scholars like William Carroll, Samir Amin considers the evolution and shape of globalised capitalism and the extent to which it might be termed ‘transnational’ or ‘collective imperialism’. He stresses: ‘Globalisation is an inappropriate term. Its popularity is commensurate with the violence of ideological aggression that has prohibited henceforth the utterance of “imperialism”.’