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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Why Ghana musn’t give in to superstition
Cameron Duodu
2011-11-17, Issue 558
Disturbed by two incidents involving elderly women suspected of witchcraft – one of whom was burnt alive, while the other was denied medical treatment – Cameron Duodu calls for Ghana to value the lives of all its citizens.
Kenya: Dealing with drought
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-08-04, Issue 543
‘Defying the image of Kenyans as a parasitic nation that would gladly stand by and watch fellow citizens die’, Kenyans of various backgrounds have raised ‘in eight days ten times what the Kenyan government had pledged to put towards food distribution to the drought stricken areas,’ writes H. Nanjala Nyabola. Shouldn't the government be doing more?
This thing tolerance
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-07-07, Issue 538
Last year’s backlash against homosexuals in Malawi and Uganda is ‘cause for great concern’, but it shouldn’t be taken as ‘as evidence of the apparently enduring homophobia of African people in general’, argues H. Nanjala Nyabola.
The politics of law: Libya and the West
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-06-29, Issue 537
When it comes to the politics of international law, ‘[t]he case of Libya is a reminder that power matters, as does who wields it and why,’ writes H. Nanjala Nyabola.
On cultural oppression
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-06-16, Issue 535
‘Can African women or women of African descent ever be truly liberated if they never learn to love their hair as it grows out of their head?’, asks H. Nanjala Nyabola.
Changing guard at the IMF
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-06-02, Issue 532
In the wake of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s resignation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), H. Nanjala Nyabola wonders why African governments are not calling for the same withdrawal from the IMF that they push for with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The resurgence of the ‘Hottentot Venus’
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-05-18, Issue 530
Shocked by the publication of an article claiming black women are inherently less attractive than other women, H. Nanjala Nyabola considers Satoshi Kanazawa’s ‘study’ and underlines a key historical parallel.
We don’t buy the government cheese
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-05-12, Issue 529
‘It seems illogical that to me government should be the enemy. Yes it’s good that we’re all questioning them more but there’s a difference between scrutiny and suspicion, and what we seem to have now is more of the latter than the former,’ writes H. Nanjala Nyabola.
Keeping things in perspective
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-05-05, Issue 527
'Bin Laden's death is perhaps the ultimate act of retribution, and no one can fault anyone for seeking that out. But there's a difference between justice and retribution,' writes H. Nanjala Nyabola.
In memoriam: Karen Harrison
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-05-03, Issue 527
Following the death of Karen Harrison, an activist from Glasgow, Scotland, and a mature student at the University of Oxford, H. Nanjala Nyabola pays tribute to ‘one of those special people who dedicated their whole lives to fighting battles that the rest of us are relatively comfortable looking away from’.
Life, death and driving in Nairobi
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-04-20, Issue 526
H. Nanjala Nyabola takes a hectic drive through Nairobi's rush hour traffic and concludes that if Kenyans learnt to treat each other with respect on the roads, then there might be more respect in other areas of life.
How do you solve a problem like Sarkozy?
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-04-12, Issue 525
The French approach to Libya and Côte d'Ivoire shows little understand of the mood of the African people and is more about a futile search for global influence, writes H. Nanjala Nyabola.
Kenya’s silent majority
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-04-05, Issue 524
With the ‘Hague Six’ attempting to drum up domestic support to deflect the ICC (International Criminal Court) indictments over their role in Kenya’s 2007–08 post-election crisis, H. Nanjala Nyabola laments the willingness of the country’s ‘silent majority’ to simply ‘brush the nasty business of the post-election violence under the rug’.
Is there too much special pleading in Africa?
Cameron Duodu
2011-03-31, Issue 523
As evidenced by Ivorians’ experiences in the wake of their country’s disputed election results and the looming threat of civil war, African leaders’ insistence on ignoring pre-established rules severely jeopardises their constituents, writes Cameron Duodu.
Is Laurent Gbagbo ‘pulling a Kibaki’?
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-03-22, Issue 522
Are there clear similarities between leaders’ behaviour in the aftermath of Kenya’s 2007–08 election and the current impasse in Côte d’Ivoire, asks H. Nanjala Nyabola. Is Laurent Gbagbo ‘pulling a Kibaki’?
The 'S' word: The demise of the doctrine of stability in Africa?
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-03-17, Issue 521
Used as an excuse to prop up dicators across Africa, the doctrine of stability has produced instability rather than reducing it. It’s time for the international community to drop the idea, says H. Nanjala Nyabola.
The (not-so) curious case of Colonel Gaddafi
H. Nanjala Nyabola
2011-03-09, Issue 520
Is Gaddafi crazy, as the Western media would have us believe, asks H. Nanjala Nyabola, or merely good at manipulating a deeply flawed system for his own benefit?
NEPAD: Good investment for the future?
Okello Oculi
2010-11-04, Issue 503
Attending the NEPAD Forum in Abuja last week, Okello Oculi is disappointed by a lack of enthusiasm for the most interesting ideas raised. Meanwhile, the last-minute trade fair running in parallel to the forum is ‘a success by the mere fact of its taking place’.
Cargo traders, kidnappers and colonisation
Okello Oculi
2010-10-28, Issue 502
Caught up in a riot by passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from China, Okello Oculi connects the event with the flagging fortunes of a town in south eastern Nigeria.
See how the big boys run from the ICC's small axe
Muthoni Wanyeki
2010-10-21, Issue 501
Muthoni Wanyeki discusses the uncomfortable – but necessary – process of the ICC inquiry into Kenya’s post-election violence in 2007–08.
World Cup bomb suspects and human rights defenders
Kimathi's arrest renders Kampala trials a farce
Muthoni Wanyeki
2010-09-29, Issue 498
Kenya must intervene immediately in Uganda's arrest of Muslim Human Rights Forum director Al Amin Kimathi, who was arrested and jailed on his way to observe the trials of eight Kenyans suspected of plotting the bomb attacks in Kampala during the World Cup final. Not only is Kimathi’s arrest unlawful, Muthoni Wanyeki writes, but the treatment of the Kenyan suspects also contravenes human rights.
The Kenyan census and the future
Muthoni Wanyeki
2010-09-16, Issue 496
After twice postponing the release of its 2009 census results, Kenya has finally revealed that it is home to over 38 million people. Muthoni Wanyeki highlights the sexist and xenophobic elements of the debate on the population figures and calls for Kenyans to resolve their past.
Don't pussyfoot with Bashir, face reality
L. Muthoni Wanyeki
2010-09-07, Issue 495
Following the visit of President Omar al-Bashir to Nairobi, L. Muthoni Wanyeki finds Kenya’s welcoming of Sudan’s president ‘unbelievable’.
It’s a new day, the sun is shining, we’ve made it!
L. Muthoni Wanyeki
2010-08-12, Issue 494
Following the approval of Kenya’s new constitution, L. Muthoni Wanyeki discusses the constitutional referendum voting process, the road to the new constitution, and what must happen next to ensure the new constitution is observed.
The new media face of the peace movement
Horace Campbell
2010-08-05, Issue 493
The peace movement in US may no longer be demonstrating on the streets, writes but it isn’t dead, it has simply moved online. Horace Campbell looks at how a new generation of activists is harnessing electronic networks to democratise information and expose attempts by government and corporate interests to control public narrative about war, with reference to 'the game-changing effects of WikiLeaks'.
Beware, they're waiting to subvert the constitution
Muthoni Wanyeki
2010-08-05, Issue 493
The official outcome of Kenya’s constitutional referendum will not be known until 6 August, but Muthoni Wanyeki outlines three scenarios for what could happen once the final results are announced.
Basil Davidson: A revolutionary spirit
Horace Campbell
2010-07-29, Issue 492
History and Africa will always remember Basil Davidson, not just for being a Pan-Africanist and prolific revolutionary scholar, but also for being a humanist, writes Horace Campbell.
As campaigns end, there's a smell of a ‘Yes’ vote in the air
Muthoni Wanyeki
2010-07-29, Issue 492
With less than one week to go before Kenya’s constitutional referendum, Muthoni Wanyeki has the sense that the country is going to give the proposed constitution the go-ahead. Despite an initial dip, over the past month support for the document has risen to ‘well over the 50 per cent plus one mark required for it to pass,’ Wanyeki writes.
AFRICOM, academia and militarising Africa
Horace Campbell
2010-07-22, Issue 491
New initiatives at the United States’ Department of Defense indicate that the militarisation of the social sciences is high on the agenda of its forward strategy for fighting wars, cautions Horace Campbell. With academics being encouraged to produce intelligence on Africa, ‘[i]ndependent and progressive scholars and activists must intensify the peace work so that there is a new social science infrastructure that can work hand in hand with the revolutionary foment that is brewing’ on the continent says Campbell.
World Cup 2010: A reflection
Hard bodies, race and power in the world
L. Muthoni Wanyeki
2010-07-22, Issue 491
The World Cup has come to an end and the vuvuzelas have gone quiet, leaving us to pause and reflect on South Africa’s month under the floodlights on the big sporting stage. L. Muthoni Wanyeki looks back on the competition and the respite it provided from the daily stresses life presents, whilst contemplating what the games have left South Africa and the rest of the world to move forward with into the future.
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