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. 
inequality
Science, the future, and the revolutionary moment
Review of Michio Kaku’s ‘Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100’
Horace Campbell
2011-06-30, Issue 537
cc JoeMichio Kaku’s new book shows how science and technology are transforming ‘social relations among humans and between humans and the universe,’ writes Horace Campbell, but it fails to convey that ‘[t]echnological revolution by itself cannot change society; it requires the intentional and purposeful intervention of humans to make a break from traditions of slavery, bondage and exploitation.
Why the AU is wrong to hold its summit in Equatorial Guinea
While Equatorial Guinea blows money on the AU summit, it's people live in poverty
Geoffrey Njora
2011-06-23, Issue 536
cc UN multimediaThe 17th African Union Summit takes place from 23 June to 1 July in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Will the African Union violate its own Constitutive Act and policy standards by hosting the summit in Equatorial Guinea? asks Geoffrey Njora.
South Africa: Election triumph for ANC, despite inequality
Hein Marais
2011-06-02, Issue 532
cc Z MFollowing the African National Congress' victory in South Africa's latest local government elections, Hein Marais, author of the new book 'South Africa pushed to the Limit', examines the paradox of a political party that presides over one of the most unequal societies in the world, where close to half the population lives in poverty, and more than a third of workers are jobless – yet triumphs in election after election.
My life as a gay Ugandan
Kasha Jacqueline
2011-02-17, Issue 517
cc WikimediaIn January, a judge ruled in favour of a group of gay individuals stating that all Ugandans, regardless of their sexual orientation, have a right to privacy and dignity. One of the plaintiffs recounted her story to the Kampala Dispatch.
Intellectual property: Pharmaceuticals, public health and subtle exploitation
John Christensen and Khadija Sharife
2010-12-08, Issue 509
cc N GInternational intellectual property rights are increasingly serving the needs of the global pharmaceutical industry, write John Christensen and Khadija Sharife.
Africa’s failings and the global system
Samir Amin
2010-12-08, Issue 509
cc WikimediaAt 79, Samir Amin has lost none of his militancy. A leading thinker around ‘Third World-ism’, close to particular fathers of independence – like Modibo Keita – and the author of some 50 works on politics and economics, he tracks capitalism and international imperialism in all their forms. Interviewed by Christophe Champin, he discusses the last 50 years of relations between African states and the rest of the world.
The promise of the women’s rights protocol
What is right with Africa
L. Amede Obiora and Crystal Whalen
2010-11-25, Issue 507
© SOAWRCommemorating the fifth anniversary of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on Women’s Rights in Africa, L. Amede Obiora and Crystal Whalen stress that ‘the noteworthy lesson is that there is a need to balance campaigning for ratification with a corresponding focus on impactful strategies for domestication and implementation’.
Can South Africans imagine an ‘us’?
Andries du Toit
2010-11-04, Issue 503
© abahlali.orgThe country's economy is ‘a poverty machine’ perpetuating and deepening inequalities that ‘threaten the basis of social stability and growth’, writes Andries du Toit. But in re-imagining South Africa’s future, we need to focus on 'the quality of social relations' and not just ‘material issues’.
Finance, fraud and foreclosure
Horace Campbell
2010-10-28, Issue 502
cc W W WThe ‘failure of finance, insurance and real estate as the basis for economic recovery' is compounded by the reality that as ‘the foreclosure crisis continues, not only will millions in the USA lose their homes, but many countries who have been keeping their reserves in the US dollar will find that their foreign reserves are worthless,’ writes Horace Campbell.
The global capitalist crisis and Africa’s future
Part I
Dani W. Nabudere
2010-09-23, Issue 497
cc A KIf we are to create and provide space and platform for African autonomous thinking on issues of the future of the continent, we have to begin by liberating ourselves from Western ways of thinking and draw knowledge and inspiration from our own heritages, argues Dani Nabudere, in a two-part article based on his inaugural address to the newly formed Nile Heritage Forum on political economy.
Africa and the end of hunger
Eric Holt-Giménez and Raj Patel
2009-07-16, Issue 442
'Africa and the end of hunger' is an extract from Pambazuka Press's groundbreaking new book Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice by Eric Holt-Giménez and Raj Patel. Recommended by figures like Walden Bello and Wangari Maathai, the book is available to Pambazuka News readers at 20% off the recommended retail price of £16.95 and comes with a free ebook copy. Simply enter 56784813 as the discount code when ordering online. The Food Rebellions! ebook is also available on its own for only £5.
G8 and Africa: Some give, plenty of take
Why we shouldn't hitch our wagon to the G8 engine
Yash Tandon
2009-07-16, Issue 442
cc H D SThe media has presented the G8’s L’Alqila summit promise of US$20 billion for food security and agricultural development in Africa as good news, but a closer look at the figures shows that G8 countries actually take much more out than they put into the continent, writes Yash Tandon.
Namibian sellouts: Cashing assets in for crumbs
Henning Melber
2009-07-16, Issue 442
cc A DaviesTwo decades after their country's independence, Namibians inhabit a society that remains one of the world's most unequal, writes Henning Melber. The country's common people are the victims of a rapacious, self-serving elite group which is all too happy to cooperate with foreign corporations to exploit Nambia's natural resources for mutual gain. With Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) earmarked in official thinking as the new means towards 'trickle-down' benefits for all, Melber argues that such schemes are nothing more than a strategy for allowing private capital to generate profit from public property at the wider population's expense.
Landmark ruling allows apartheid victims to sue multinationals
Khadija Sharife
2009-07-16, Issue 442
cc T SlyIn one of the most significant legal rulings in the post-apartheid history of South Africa, victims of apartheid have finally received the green light from a US judge to sue multinational corporations that knowingly aided and abetted the regime. The implications of this ruling are colossal, writes Khadija Sharife, not only for Africa but for the world at large.
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.
Joe Slovo residents let down by court
Kate Tissington
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc Jerome Love‘A better life beckons for the people of Joe Slovo informal settlement,’ the South African government has said, following a decision by the Constitutional Court that the settlement’s 20,000 residents will be evicted to Delft make way for the N2 housing project. Describing the statement as ‘utter nonsense’, Kate Tissington writes a personal reaction to the judgement, which, she argues, ‘has effectively allowed government to get away with a national project that was misconceived from the start’. Relocation from the settlement would ‘severely disrupt the lives of residents’, increasing their commute to work and essential services and damaging the existing community and social networks upon which they rely, says Tissington, pointing to government's failure to understand people’s needs. While it is unlikely that the eviction will go ahead as envisioned, says Tissington, the court’s judgment is ‘technical, cowardly and naive in the face of the obvious’.
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.
Safeguarding women’s rights will boost food security
Mary Wandia
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc Find Your FeetAfrican women play a critical role in ensuring the food security of the continent, writes Mary Wandia in the run-up to the 2009 African Union Summit (24 June-3 July), which has its official theme ‘Investing in agriculture for economic growth and development’. Highlighting that women contribute 60-80 per cent of the labour used to produce food both for household consumption and for sale, Wandia writes that improved women’s ‘access, control and ownership of land and productive resources are key factors in eradicating hunger and rural poverty’. Yet while land is ‘critical for improving women’s, social security, livelihoods and their social status’, culturally embedded discrimination continues to weaken their land rights and livelihood options, Wandia cautions. It is therefore essential, Wandia argues, for governments to ensure that women’s rights are comprehensively addressed in the AU ‘Africa land policy framework and guidelines’, scheduled for adoption at this year’s summit.
The global food price crisis
A critique of orthodox perspectives
Walden Bello
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc joespakeIn an extract from his forthcoming book Food Wars, Walden Bello critiques the orthodox views of economist Paul Collier on the global food price crisis. Collier argues that not enough food was produced to meet increased demand from Asia, thanks to a failure to promote commercial farming in Africa, the European Union ban against GMOs and the diversion of American grain to biofuels production. Bello counters that a globalised system of production has 'created severe strains on the environment', 'marginalised large numbers of people from the market, and contributed to greater poverty and greater income disparities within countries and globally'. Defenders of peasant agriculture, says Bello, blame 'capitalist industrial agriculture, with its wrenching destabilisation and transformation of land, nature, and social relations' for today’s food crises, with 'rates of profit determining where investment will be allocated' rather than the desire to satisfy 'the real needs of the global majority'.
Achieving fair growth in South Africa
Mphutlane wa Bofelo
2009-06-25, Issue 439
cc András OsvátDeeply dissatisfied with the South African government's current economic record and policies, Mphutlane wa Bofelo calls on the country's leaders to implement a model of socio-economic redistribution. Rather than pursuing the spending cuts and reduced public sector prescribed by classic neoliberal orthodoxy, the Zuma administration should instead work towards the real and lasting developmental benefits to be found in spreading wealth around, wa Bofelo argues. For if labour and economic disparities simply breed social unrest, wa Bofelo contends, promoting fairer policy will foster social cohesion and people's lasting participation in a genuinely egalitarian society.
Should aid to Africa come to an end?
Dambisa Moyo's Dead Aid has caused a stir but its argument is incorrect
Ronald Elly Wanda
2009-05-21, Issue 433
cc Alessandro PucciDambisa Moyo’s argument that aid is detrimental to Africa’s development has made her a star on the literary and academic circuit, writes Ronald Elly Wanda, but it isn’t true. Moyo’s recent book Dead Aid, Wanda says, makes no ‘correlation between Africa’s development and its accompanying social and historical conditions’ nor does it explore the possibility that ‘exogenous factors have and continue to hamper development in Africa’. If Moyo’s argument that Africa’s culture of dependency is to blame for its woes was true, writes Wanda, the economies of countries which have received virtually no foreign aid – such as Eritrea, Mauritania and Somalia – should have improved notably, which is not the case. The real problem, Wanda argues, is not aid itself but the way in which it is structured and delivered.
Honest anti-racists lose out to Zionist lobby
Gabriel Ash
2009-05-07, Issue 431
Zionist efforts to keep Palestinian rights off the agenda at the Durban Review conference have undermined the efforts of participants to eliminate other kinds of discrimination around the world, writes Gabriel Ash. Nine countries boycotted the entire conference on the basis of anti-semitism, and the official declaration ‘dropped all mention of Palestine, beyond reaffirming the anodyne original declaration’ says Ash. ‘Their sabotage of the conference, their contempt for the work that it embodies, for the principles it represents and the goals it seeks to achieve left a bitter taste in the mouth of every organisation and every human rights worker and activist who was there for honest reasons'.
Zionism: An endless river of blood?
Rabbi Weiss speaks to Riaz Tayob
Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss
2009-04-30, Issue 430
cc Amir Farshad EbrahimiZionism is the root cause of suffering, bloodshed and the rift between Arabs and Jews, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, spokesperson for Neturei Karta International – an organisation that represents anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews – has said. In an audio interview [mp3] with Riaz K. Tayob at the Durban Review Conference, Weiss said that Zionist movement transformed Judaism into ‘a materialistic, political, nationalistic goal’, which presented its critics as ‘anti-Semitic’ or ‘self-hating Jews.’ Speaking of his hopes too see the Palestine question addressed, he added that the Holocaust should not be used to further Zionist goals or to justify the oppression of another people.
Violence against women in Africa: from discrimination to impunity
A call for ratification and implementation of the Maputo Protocol
2008-08-07, Issue 392
African Women’s Day gives us the opportunity to remember that gender-based violence is one of the most serious and widespread violations of the basic rights of women, particularly on the African continent. Gender discrimination is both one of the causes and an aggravating factor of the consequences of violence against women, thus contributing to the perpetuation of impunity of such cases....
An African perspective: Is cyber democracy possible?
Clayton Peel
2008-07-30, Issue 391
Wole Soyinka was addressing a conference on the issue of the ‘brain drain’ from African countries. He remarked on how many of the speakers before him had lamented the flight of millions of Africans to the West and how apparently desperate were these ...
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....
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...
Barack Obama and the New Afrikan “National Question”
Kali Akuno
2008-06-12, Issue 380
Kali Akuno looks at the limits and contradictions of Obama and argues that the progressives have to use a "combined “outside-inside” strategy that seeks to advance a coherent set of principle demands and push him and the forces he has mobilized sharply to the left.
Women, water and sanitation: going the extra mile
Catherine Irura
2008-06-10, Issue 379
This year's African Union Summit, 24th June to 1st July 2008, will be on ‘Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation’. What should African leaders take into account when thinking about how to meet these goals and those of The African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa? Catherine Irura tackes this question.
Gender perspective on water and sanitation
Roselynn Musa
2008-06-10, Issue 379
What does gender have to do with issues of sanitation and water? Roselyenn Musa gives us a multi-faceted gender perspectives that consider the role of African governments, gender awareness and water privatization amongst others. The upcoming mid-year African Union (AU) summit of heads of state and government