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. 
repression
Egypt: The old repression resurfaces
Sokari Ekine
2011-06-23, Issue 536
cc H HThe situation in Egypt is increasingly complex writes Sokari Ekine, where power still lies with the remnants of the state and military, and the old mechanisms of repression are starting to reappear.
Ethiopia: Press freedom, the law and democracy
Interview with Dawit Kebede
Ron Singer
2011-06-23, Issue 536
cc UN multimediaDawit Kebede, editor-in-chief of Ethiopian newspaper, the Awramba Times, speaks to Ron Singer about the perils of working in the media – from his arrest by the government to his struggle to get a license for a new paper – and his disappointment with US academics’ failure to support Ethiopian democracy.
The lies behind the West's war on Libya
Jean-Paul Pougala
2011-04-14, Issue 525
cc NASAAfricans should think about the real reasons why western countries are waging war on Libya, writes Jean-Paul Pougala, in an analysis that traces the country’s role in shaping the African Union and the development of the continent.
Uprisings, revolution and democracy in Africa
Firoze Manji
2011-04-14, Issue 525
cc S CFiroze Manji, founder and editor-in-chief of Pambazuka News, explores the ongoing uprisings, imperialism’s new outreach, and the possibilities of revolution and democracy in Africa [audio]. He talked with AfrobeatRadio’s Samar al-Balushi and Wuyi Jacobs during his visit to New York to attend the recently concluded Left Forum.
Libya: behind the politics of humanitarian intervention
Mahmood Mamdani
2011-04-06, Issue 524
cc KalliophSeeing the bombing of Libya only as an exercise in saving civilian lives barely scratches the surface, writes Mahmood Mamdani.
North African dispatches: Why Algeria is different
Imad Mesdoua
2011-04-05, Issue 524
cc MagharebiaIn contrast to its North African neighbours, Algeria has yet to see sustained mass protests from a broad base of its population. Imad Mesdoua discusses why this is the case.
North African dispatches: between a rock and a hard place
Imad Mesdoua
2011-04-06, Issue 524
cc FilqImad Mesdoua dissects the politics of Western intervention in Libya. ‘In short, it is far too evident that Western powers are only ready to act decisively when it suits their interests,’ he writes.
Uprising, imperialism and uncertainty
Sokari Ekine
2011-04-07, Issue 524
cc FilqWill the protests across Africa result in real social and political reform, or just a changing of the guard, asks Sokari Ekine.
Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt and Libya: Contested battles for support and attention
Sokari Ekine
2011-03-30, Issue 523
cc AzlsDrawing upon a range of online reflections and social media activity, Sokari Ekine underlines the high stakes and contested understandings around the ongoing crises in Côte d’Ivoire and Libya and Egypt’s ‘post-revolution’ experience.
Côte d’Ivoire, Libya and the 'Arab Spring'
Oliver Kearns
2011-03-31, Issue 523
cc WikipediaThe ‘public narrative of an “Arab Spring” excludes much of the world's population both from public attention and concern and from discussion of what meaningful political change might look like and how it can be supported by people in other places,’ argues Oliver Kearns.
Democratic uprisings brutally suppressed in many African countries
Firoze Manji
2011-03-31, Issue 523
cc B B MNorthern Africa is not the only part of Africa where uprisings are taking place. In countries like Swaziland, Gabon, Cameroon, Djibouti, and Burkina Faso we've seen massive student uprisings and worker demonstrations brutally suppressed in most cases. Editor-in-chief of Pambazuka News Firoze Manji talks to the Real News Network about what's happening in Southern Africa. Watch the video or read the transcript.
Imperialism and Libya: The real reasons behind the invasion
Demba Moussa Dembélé
2011-03-31, Issue 523
cc Nat. GuardThree African nations voted for the UN Security Council resolution that opened the door to the Western military intervention in Libya. Demba Moussa Dembele regrets that South Africa, Gabon and Nigeria provided the votes for the resolution to be passed.
US Military and Africom: Between the rocks and the crusaders
Horace Campbell
2011-03-31, Issue 523
cc Filq'The Western bombardment of Gaddafi’s forces in Libya has become an opportunistic public relations ploy for the US Africa Command and a new inroad for US military stronghold on the continent,' writes Horace Campbell.
Mass mobilisation, ‘democratic transition’ and ‘transitional violence’ in Africa
Michael Neocosmos
2011-03-31, Issue 523
cc C CThe North African protests have renewed enthusiasm for ‘a popularly driven process mass mobilisation’, not only as a means for people to force changes in leadership, but also to ‘demand a greater say in the running of their own lives’. But can the masses sustain their status as 'full-blown political subjects', rather than 'victims' in need of ‘empowerment’, asks Michael Necosmos.
Restitution and recent upheavals in Egypt
Kwame Opoku
2011-03-30, Issue 523
cc T L OThe ‘disorder, revolt or revolution in Egypt’ doesn’t ‘change the nature of the debate on restitution nor does it provide any convincing excuse for the retentionists in the Western world’, says Kwame Opoku.
Opposing Gaddafi’s massacre and foreign intervention in Libya
Horace Campbell
2011-03-24, Issue 522
cc B R Q NetworkUnless Libyans themselves own the struggle against Gaddafi, opponents to his regime may find that even if he has been removed from power, ‘Gaddafism’ will continue – but this time propped up by the West, Horace Campbell warns.
An African solution to the Libyan crisis?
Dibussi Tande
2011-03-24, Issue 522
cc N NBloggers across the continent are dissatisfied, dismayed and disappointed by the Africa Union’s handling of the crises in Libya and in Côte d'Ivoire, writes Dibussi Tande.
The Egyptian youth uprising
Jalil A. Muntaqim
2011-03-23, Issue 522
cc S SUS political prisoner Jalil A. Muntaqim gives a statement of support for Egypt’s youth.
Libya, Egypt, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire: Confusion remains
Sokari Ekine
2011-03-17, Issue 521
Manal & Alaa's bit bucket In this week’s round-up of social media activity around Africa, Sokari Ekine highlights reasons to oppose military intervention in Libya, the politics of a ‘no-fly zone’ and reports of torture of Egyptian activists at the hands of a military previously heralded as a champion of the people’s cause. She also focuses on the Cameroonian government’s Twitter crackdown, planned protests against Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and Côte d’Ivoire’s ongoing post-election crisis.
Togo: Violating the right to information
Bernard Bokodjin
2011-03-17, Issue 521
cc Timo‘In a country where the opposition isn’t strong and structured enough to provide a counterweight to a repressive regime which flouts the principles of democracy and good governance, the media provides a rare space for some amount of freedom of expression. But now, the media have also become part of the Togolese regime’s blacklist,’ writes Bernard Bokodjin.
The problem with Africans and Arabs
Elleni Centime Zeleke
2011-03-16, Issue 521
cc K MThe North African revolts have seen Arab countries portrayed as somehow separate from the rest of Africa. Elleni Centime Zeleke critiques the trend and exposes in whose interests it works.
The ‘mubaraking’ of Gaddafi, Maliki, Mugabe and others
Patrick Bond
2011-03-10, Issue 520
cc markn3telTaking inspiration from the late South African anti-apartheid poet–activist Dennis Brutus’s verb-play, Patrick Bond discusses the ‘mubaraking’ currently faced by a number of dictatorships across Africa.
Silencing the tools of Revolution 2.0
Dibussi Tande
2011-03-10, Issue 520
Dibussi TandeCameroon’s Biya regime has embarked on a ‘futile battle it will never win’, writes Dibussi Tande, following the government's attempt to silence digital activists by banning a mobile Twitter service.
UN Security Council and Libya: courting murderers
Tim Murithi
2011-03-09, Issue 520
cc Wikimedia CommonsHas the UN Security Council cynically deflected its responsibility to the International Criminal Court through its referral of Muammar Gaddafi and his regime to the court? Tim Murithi critiques the decision.
The crisis for US policy in North Africa
Imperial anxieties
Vijay Prashad
2011-03-10, Issue 520
cc tolkien1914‘The slow US support for the uprising in Egypt, the cautious tone with Bahrain and Yemen, and the strident language against Libya are of a piece: The US is not driven by the popular upsurge but by its desire to control the events in north Africa and the Gulf to accord with the three pillars of its foreign policy in the Arab world, writes Vijay Prashad.
Protests across Africa: Different attention for different countries?
Sokari Ekine
2011-03-03, Issue 519
cc AzlsFocusing on Libya, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Gabon and Zimbabwe, Sokari Ekine provides a round-up of international and social media coverage of the multiple sites of sustained protests across Africa and considers the differences in media attention between each of them.
Peace and justice movement should oppose US-led intervention in Libya
Horace Campbell
2011-03-03, Issue 519
cc US Army Those who have solidarity with the Libyan uprising must not only support the people in Libya but also ‘denounce any attempts by the Western forces for military intervention’, argues Horace Campbell, in an interview with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman.
Civil war in Libya: Washington attempting to justify US–NATO military intervention?
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
2011-03-03, Issue 519
cc T UIs Tripoli being set up for a civil war to justify US and NATO military intervention in oil-rich Libya, asks Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya. Are the talks about sanctions a prelude to an Iraq-like intervention?
How Gaddafi nearly took Ghanaian men ‘to the knife’
Cameron Duodu
2011-03-03, Issue 519
cc US ArmyAmidst reports that Ghana is trying to evacuate 10,000 of its citizens from Libya as Arab freedom fighters mistake ordinary black Africans for Gaddafi-hired mercenaries, Cameron Duodu remembers the last time Libya posed a threat to his compatriots.
Smoke and mirrors: The case of Egypt and Ethiopia
Yohannes Woldemariam
2011-03-02, Issue 519
cc defenseimagery.milYohannes Woldemariam draws a comparison between Egypt and the 1974 revolution in Ethiopia. Watch out for the army generals and the role of the US, Woldemariam cautions.