CONTENTS: 1. Features 2. Announcements
Features
Activism and the state: How African civil society responds to repression
David Kode and Mouna Ben Garga
African citizens, activists and organisations are finding new and innovative ways to resist, organise and mobilise in the face of mounting restrictions on their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association.
Fallism and the dialectics of spontaneity and organization: Disrupting tradition to reconstruct tradition
Mphutlane Wa Bofelo
Campaigns demanding the fall of something or someone have been a feature of the South African movements scene in recent times. How far have these campaigns succeeded in articulating and achieving their agendas? The author argues that fallism represents both continuity and discontinuity of the traditions of the historic liberation movements and emergent social movements in South Africa.
Western Sahara: Fighting for freedom in Africa’s last colony
Malainin Mohamed Lakhal
What does it mean to live under colonialism today? Despite numerous UN resolutions affirming the right to self-determination of the Saharawi people, Morocco with international support continues its illegal and atrocious occupation. From about the age of 14, Saharawi journalist and activist Malainin Lakhal has been fighting for his people’s liberation. In Nairobi this week, he told Pambazuka News editor Henry Makori his experience.
Fighting talk: How the people of Western Sahara use poetry for liberation
Esmée Charley and Juliette Holland
Morocco’s vociferous attempts to legitimise its occupation is the foundation of a duplicitous narrative it continues to propagate. Foreign journalists are often banned and censorship of the local press goes so far as to prohibit the printing of the name Western Sahara. This occupation is supported by the so-called leading world democracies such as the US and France. Saharawi cultural activists are fighting this oppression – with their words.
The mobilizing power of art in a time of war
Ayak Chol Deng Alak
In the midst of a civil war in South Sudan, young artists are learning the art of building a social movement, claiming civic space and empowering youth to seize their destiny.
No one will save you: Remembering Kenya’s ‘Karl Marx’
Isaac Otidi Amuke
Student movements in many African countries have historically confronted contradictions of colonial and post-colonial rule. In Kenya, these movements sent generations of young people into the streets, underground, into exile or death. Isaac Otidi Amuke retraces heady years of involvement in student politics, and the rise and fall of arguably the most renowned activist at the University of Nairobi.
Activism and Rwanda’s development model: Diane Rwigara takes a stand
Brandon Finn
The role of the activist within Rwanda is extremely fraught as it involves balancing the desire and need to express oneself in order to build a better future for the country, while entering increasingly dangerous territory for even attempting to do so. Diane Rwigara’s bravery is a call to other activists within Rwanda to begin to assert themselves peacefully on their government, reminding it that they want to be heard, reminding it that they too are part of its developmental project.
#GambiaHasDecided: Reflections on a dramatic transition
Muhammed Lamin Saidykhan
Without the courage and determination of the Gambian people, it is unimaginable that dictator Yahya Jammeh could have been forced out of power at the ballot box and into exile. The Gambia now does feel like quite a different country to the one many oppressed citizens always knew. No effort should be spared to consolidate the gains of democracy for the good of the people.
A certain amount of madness: From endless protests to revolution
Henry Makori
Often too reform-oriented, current activism is incapable of midwifing radical transformation. Today’s activism is only mildly disruptive, is fragmented and addresses symptoms not systems. Its aims are short-term and it doesn't engage the masses. No coherent and convincing alternative visions are proffered. Instead, activists are busy petitioning the same oppressive powers they should be fighting. Entrenched systemic oppression can only be ended by a revolution.
Draft platform of Africana Mass Party
Biko Agozino
Africa needs a democratic revolution led by the working people. For that to happen, the united peoples of Africa must start their own socialist party whose primary goal is to take over state power from the neocolonial bourgeoisie and their imperialist allies. Once in power, the party must embark on a revolutionary programme of actualizing Africa’s unfinished liberation.
The Revolution is always here
Sanya Osha
As long as societies are built on needless greed and exploitation, the seeds of revolution and radical change will always be present - more so in societies where the potential for dissent has not been emasculated by a lifeless, uncritical penchant for “order”, conformism and a culture of silence enforced by the most cynical, most advanced mechanisms and stratagems of power.
Trans-boundary water activism: People’s engagement in managing a critical resource
Abeer Abazeed
In Africa, water activism is characterized by building collective visions and sharing knowledge and experiences about the resource. But targeting state water policies and agitating for reform does not feature much in the objectives of trans-boundary water organizations. So, to what extent do civil organizations have the power to penetrate decision-making processes and ensure formulation of policies that prioritize the people?
Women’s empowerment in Ghana’s shea industry
Alice Mapenzi Kubo
When Ghana attempted to restructure the women-dominated shea industry in line with foreign imposed structural adjustment programmes, the women protested. Since then, technological assistance and other initiatives by the government in collaboration with various knowledge institutions have enabled women shea producers to expand their professional knowledge and networks, and introduced them to new markets.
At the World Economic Forum-Africa Germany pitched a dubious new G20 corporate strategy
Patrick Bond
Last week's World Economic Forum (WEF)-Africa conference in Durban hosted some of the world’s most controversial politicians: not just Jacob Zuma and his finance minister Malusi Gigaba plus regional dictators Robert Mugabe, Yoweri Museveni, King Mswati and Edgar Lungu, but also the most powerful man in Europe, the notoriously-corrupt neoliberal German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble.
Announcements
6th Annual Conference of the Historical Dialogues, Justice, and Memory Network
Present Past: Time, Memory, and the Negotiation of Historical Justice
December 7-9, 2017
Columbia University, New York City
DEADLINE: JUNE 20, 2017
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Henry Makori and Tidiane Kasse - Editors, Pambazuka News
Yves Niyiragira - Executive Director, Fahamu
Websites: Fahamu.org, Pambazuka.org
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