Pambazuka News 272: The Politics of Oil and Poverty

Fahamu is seeking a Policy Analyst / Editor to work with its AU-Monitor project. The main purpose of the post is to strengthen the ability of African CSOs to engage constructively with the AU and its organs in the interest of promoting justice, equity and accountability.

FEATURE:
- As in many communities in Nigeria’s oil rich Delta region, most people of Yenagoa live in mud huts. They have no hospitals, no running water, no schools. And there is unemployment too, writes Emira Woods.
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
-Aaron Tesfaye argues that the situation in Darfur is a grim reminder “of the after-effects of colonialism.
- Glenn Brigaldino describes Somalia as a state that only exists on paper, including maps
- Mouhamadou Tidiane KASSE arg...read more

Mouhamadou Tidiane KASSE argues that the implementation of neo-liberal policies and strategies in Africa, which have culminated today in globalisation, resulted in the feminisation of poverty on the continent. “Liberalisation began by hitting social services. Women were to suffer the most from the effects, due to tradition and their social position.”

Today, two concepts stand together. They work in parallel, but also together, since, inevitably, the two situations they encompass feed ...read more

The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) has aggressively extended its authority beyond Mogadishu to vast areas of southern Somalia. One consequence has been a sharp increase in the number of refugees entering Kenya. Glenn Brigaldino describes Somalia as a state that only exists on paper, including maps. “It is most favourably described as a desolate and impoverished place, where a traditional society wildly fragmented along clan allegiances struggles to secure a livelihood.”

One evening in ...read more

About two million people have been driven from their homes in three years of fighting in Darfur. Aaron Tesfaye argues that the situation in Darfur is a grim reminder “of the after-effects of colonialism and hastily cobbled, post-colonial states in Africa that cannot deliver political and economic goods to their people.”

The Darfur tragedy refuses to leave our consciousness, even when newer atrocities in the world present themselves. As the genocide unfolds - more viciously now that the...read more

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