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. 
oil
Leaving oil in the soil
Patrick Bond
2011-08-04, Issue 543
From a wrecked tanker on South Africa’s coast to the forests of South America, Patrick Bond explains why mining oil is a bad idea.
Saving Uganda from its oil
Jason Hickel
2011-06-23, Issue 536
cc SnapparachiOil worth billions of dollars is set to start flowing in Uganda, but the existing framework fails to protect Uganda from being plundered by multinational corporations, Jason Hickel writes.
Why Regime Change in Libya?
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
2011-06-23, Issue 536
cc BRQ NetworkThe reasons for the ongoing bombing of Libya go beyond a thirst for oil and can be found in Gaddafi's long-term 'insubordination' to Western imperialism argues Ismael Hossein-Zadeh.
Liberia, flags of convenience and corporate capitalism
Khadija Sharife
2010-10-21, Issue 501
cc RonnieUsing the example of apartheid South Africa, Khadija Sharife reveals the history of how huge oil companies have used flags of convenience in the shipping industry to secure corporate capitalism.
Shell oil’s ‘licence to kill’?
Abena Ampofoa Asare
2010-10-13, Issue 500
cc Amnesty InternationalFollowing a controversial ruling by US Judge José A. Cabranes of the Manhattan-based federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals that transnational corporations ‘cannot be held responsible for torture, genocide, war crimes and the like’, Abena Ampofoa Asare discusses the challenges for establishing responsibility and valuing human rights over profit.
The bomb culture
Environmental pollution in the Niger Delta
Nnimmo Bassey
2010-10-14, Issue 500
cc Amnesty InternationalNnimmo Bassey examines how minority rights are still not protected in oil-rich regions of Nigeria. Oil companies and the national government could contribute to improving infrastructure and services for communities that are paying the environmental and social price of oil extraction, Bassey argues.
The fateful geological prize called Haiti
F. William Engdahl
2010-02-04, Issue 468
cc M I Geo‘Behind the smoke, rubble and unending drama of human tragedy in the hapless Caribbean country, a drama is in full play for control of what geophysicists believe may be one of the world’s richest zones for hydrocarbons-oil and gas outside the Middle East,’ writes F. William Engdahl. Engdahl adds ‘oil’ to Haiti’s story, highlighting the increasing evidence that behind the rescue mission in Haiti, there perhaps lies a stark ulterior, but familiar, motive.
State and politics: Nigeria’s policy towards the Ijaw
Sabella Ogbobode Abidde
2009-10-01, Issue 450
cc WikimediaThe Nigerian government is bleeding the Niger Delta dry of its oil, but the Ijaw ethnic community that actually owns most of the land is left empty-handed, writes Sabella Ogbobode Abidde in this week's Pambazuka News. Abidde stresses that Niger Deltans cannot be treated in this fashion and that their will must be respected by the central government, arguing that more money must flow back into Ijawland in order to tackle the chronic neglect the region has suffered.
US foreign policy and the Niger Delta conflict
Sabella Ogbobode Abidde
2009-09-24, Issue 449
cc Security WatchThe four-decade situation in the Niger Delta is a ‘crisis that will not go away,’ Sabella Abidde writes in Pambazuka News, which ‘if not properly addressed may reverberate across international systems.’ Given that the Nigerian government has proven itself 'incapable' of solving the problem, Abidde argues the case that ‘the time is now for the international community – especially the United States of America – to step in.'
False pledges to Africa in the crisis
Lee Wengraf
2009-09-17, Issue 448
cc Nick HobgoodWith the prospects for development across the African continent severely undermined by the effects of the global financial crisis, Africa has seen Western countries break promise after promise, writes Lee Wengraf in this week's Pambazuka News. While the US continues to be nowhere near fulfilling its commitment of 0.70 per cent of national income towards foreign aid, it has had no trouble finding funds for militarisation programmes, with some US$500 million available for AFRICOM alone. As imperial competition heightens in the spectre of a global financial crisis, Wengraf writes, it is ordinary Africans who will continue to suffer under a system based on profit.
Bongo: A part of Franco-Africa dies
Tidiane Kassé
2009-06-18, Issue 438
cc wikimedia.orgThe death of Gabon’s President Omar Bongo on 7 May has sparked a range of reactions, reflecting the dubious legacy of a man who played a central figure in the shady web of political and economic ties between France and Africa. Tidiane Kasse explores what politicians and commentators had to say.
The Ogoni Nine–Shell settlement: Victory, but justice deferred?
Sokari Ekine and Firoze Manji
2009-06-11, Issue 437
With Shell having agreed an out-of-court settlement of $15.5 million with the families of the Ogoni Nine activists killed in 1995, Sokari Ekine and Firoze Manji argue that a victory should not be confused with justice. Though representative of an emerging movement in bringing a multinational to the brink of a trial, the questions over the Niger Delta region and Shell's atrocious environmental and human rights records remain, with the company admitting no liability for its actions. We must continue to support the numerous trials against Shell still carrying on, Ekine and Manji contend, and ensure that widespread discussion helps establish broader justice for the Ogoni people and all those suffering from multinational and governmental exploitation in Nigeria and beyond.
What the US wants from Ghana
Asare Otchere-Darko
2009-06-11, Issue 437
cc flickr.comAn understanding of US interests is crucial for Ghana if it is to capitalise on the immense opportunity provided by the President Obama's July visit, writes Asare Otchere-Darko. Following a deepwater oil find in 2007, Ghana's pending oil-rich status has made it the subject of strategic US energy and military interests, and raising the stakes of Ghana–US relations, Otchere-Darko argues. As the US's preferred physical location for the US African Command (AFRICOM) headquarters and with the superpower concerned not to cede strategic ground to China in the region, Ghana has an unprecedented hand to play in this round of international diplomacy. The task of Ghanaians, says Otchere-Darko, is to ensure that Ghana comes away with concrete deliverables that help meet its own strategic goals, rather than simply being the honoured recipients of President Obama's first visit to Africa.
Distorting Darfur: The international media and Sudan
Afshin Rattansi
2009-06-11, Issue 437
cc flickr.comIn an interview with British television producer Colette Valentine and media consultant Ali Gunn following their visit to Sudan, Afshin Rattansi discusses Western media distortions of actual conditions in the Darfur region. Emphasising that they saw no evidence of genocide and were free to talk to whomever they chose within government camps, Valentine and Gunn state that much of the media's reporting on Darfur is 'cheap and lazy'. The interviewees also report that the International Criminal Court's (ICC) indictment of President Omar al-Bashir has actually increased the president's popularity among the electorate, and that they themselves were confronted over the international media's portrayal of Darfur.
The oil crisis in global context
John Samuel
2008-06-23, Issue 383
We could be on the threshold of a new phase of globalisation, one where there will be a new protectionism, more regional trade and regional economic activism and where governments will be forced to address the problems of the vulnerable middle class and poor, argues John Samuel.
Libya and nuclear energy
Mustafa Adam-Noble
2008-05-27, Issue 375
Libya is getting the backing of Ukraine to build nuclear reactors. Mustafa Adam-Noble looks at the implications of an oil-rich country going nuclear and the possible impact on Libyan people.
Airbus A330-300 to Malabo: Get your ticket to the heart of darkness
AgustÃn Velloso
2008-04-15, Issue 369
Agustin Velloso advices those interested in plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea "to choose one's travel companions for a coup d'état with care."
African voices on AFRICOM
Africa Action
2008-04-01, Issue 363
This Africa Action resource provides examples of statements from African leaders from multiple regions who stand opposed to AFRICOM."The stand that many African countries have taken against the military command is one that needs to be supported and needs to be explained to the U.S...
No to oil for land!
February 2008
Merti Range Users Association
2008-03-06, Issue 353
The following memorandum was prepared by members of the Merti Range Users Association in northern Isiolo, Kenya. It expresses their concern about concessions recently granted to a Chinese company to prospect for oil in the rangelands. It illustrates the potential threats of this kind of external investment on the ecosystem and local livelihoods, and the lack of transparency in the negotiations.