The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) announces its 11th General Assembly which is scheduled to hold in Maputo, Mozambique, from 06 - 10 December, 2005. The theme that has been selected for the Assembly is: Rethinking African Development: Beyond Impasse, Towards Alternatives. The Assembly is expected to attract the participation of up to 500 researchers drawn from different disciplinary backgrounds, coming from across Africa and the Diaspora, and actively engaged in reflections on the development alternatives that could enable the African continent both to overcome its underdevelopment and transcend the current impasse associated with the continued application of problematic developmental models.

This Le Monde diplomatique article sharply criticizes France for its role in Ivory Coast’s war and highlights the country’s interests in its former colony. Since Ivorian independence in 1960, France has maintained a tight hold on the country’s wealth, using one-sided contracts to repatriate 75 percent of the wealth generated there. A strong French military presence has enabled the former colonizer to install regimes favorable to Paris’s interests. The author deplores the lack of reaction to the “almost funny” French government line, deploying 3,800 French soldiers to West Africa “with the ethical purpose of preventing a bunch of machete-waving lunatics from dismembering their own country.”