Pambazuka News 740: 'Africa rising' as refugees die fleeing to Europe
Pambazuka News 740: 'Africa rising' as refugees die fleeing to Europe
Massive displacement, state and paramilitary violence, assassinations of community leaders, disappearances and an invasion of traditional Afro-Colombian territories by U.S. and other European multi-national corporations who want the land that Afro-Colombians occupy and the minerals beneath the ground, are the new existential threats.
As migrants and refugees continue to die in their efforts to escape from war or simply to better their lives, and as the EU struggles to cope with the continued influx, what can be done to rectify the situation? Should the focus be on the traffickers who are getting rich off people’s misery or the European countries that are struggling with their own crises?
The deafening silence of political, traditional and cultural leaders, who have in the past positioned themselves as the guardians of African culture, on the atrocities arising from circumcision, is surprising.
Govier’s book does a good job of generating anxiety about the future of humanity and of victims, using serious restorative concepts which are very useful in Eastern Africa where there are consistent efforts to rethink the term ‘victim’.
Dear Editor,
Below is my comment on the article written by Sankara Kamara.
The problem with SLPP is that after losing the 2007 election to the APC the party reverted to live in the days of Siaka Stevens. Learning from our history that after Siaka Stevens took the reins of power in the late 60s, the APC fought to dismantle the opposition through an unprecedented violence. In less than a decade of Siaka Stevens and the APC rule, the opposition was completely dismantled and for the following two decades, the political system became a One Party affair. Has Sierra Leone fully recovered from this experiment? In his political slogan for the 2007 election, candidate Koroma preached that the next round of APC rule will be different but only for the country to be fooled. Every policy of the 2000s APC is not only a replica of the 70s, 80s and 90 APC but the new brand of APC leadership has decided to increase exponentially the repressive and corrupt practices of the old.
And so, as the APC has decided to repeat history, the SLPP has followed; fearing the imprisonment and loss of life from false treason trials, the SLPP have become invincible, hoping and praying for another savior to take the APC out. To the average opposition SLPP member in the country, no political pressure will take the APC out of power while on the otherhand, the APC is doing everything in her power to ensure that the savior is not born this time.
I will therefore agree with you in part that SLPP share the blame for the disfunctioning of the democratic system but I don’t believe that the APC will accept the role of a vibrant opposition to make democracy work for the good of the country. The APC leadership will not live with a check their misrule of the country. In our most recent history, Kabba called on the APC in opposition and challenged them to be a functional opposition by putting their house in order when the party was gradually disintegrating from internal squabbles. Will the APC challenged the SLPP to do likewise? Did the country experience any attack on APC offices during the SLPP rule? What justification can anyone give for the attacks on SLPP facilities which have become the order of the day since the APC rule took back power?
Yes, the SLPP has a fault but there is no doubt that the APC has control over the making of a dormant and toothless opposition. A vigorous opposition will only meet with more repressive APC who will careless for the loss of Sierra Leonean life in their determination to hold on to power. Truly, history is been repeated.
John Yanguba, MSCE, PE.
Kairos Palestine statement on continued confiscations of Palestinian land in the Cremisan Valley of the Bethlehem region.
Pambazuka News 743: False fixes: Burkina II, SDGs and the climate
Pambazuka News 743: False fixes: Burkina II, SDGs and the climate
Pambazuka News Team is pleased to announce to its readers and supporters the launch of a new video blog called #PunchBack.
#PunchBack provides comment and analysis of current affairs from a pan-Africanist perspective.
We invite our readers to watch #PunchBack, share the vlog, engage with the issues raised and share your views with us.
A new post of #PunchBack will appear every two weeks in the Comments & Analysis section of your newsletter.
Welcome!
Click on this link to the first post of .
Pambazuka News Team
Swaziland has been an absolute monarchy for decades, but absolute monarch King Mswati III is being pressed by both the country’s democratic movement, the Commonwealth and the EU to discuss democratic reforms.
Europe has come face to face with the world it created, having actively participated in the military destruction of other nations. The fate of the refugees now fleeing their ruined nations is not unlike that of millions of black people in South Africa rendered hopeless by apartheid and its successor ANC regime.
Market-based conservation has gained a lot of traction over the years, and almost all forms of nature have been commodified. Packaged into sleek financialised terminology such as carbon credits, ecosystem services or species banking, the market has become a supposed panacea for conservation. Yet there is ample evidence that challenges this dominant logic.
Civil society organisations from around the world have insisted that climate change is the biggest and most urgent threat to the Planet. A radical transformation of food systems is needed, away from an industrial model and its false solutions, and toward food sovereignty, local food systems, and integral agrarian reform in order to achieve the full realization of the human right to adequate food and nutrition.
Female Genital Mutilation leads not only to severe physical consequences but also psychological and emotional ones ranging from depression, to lack of self-esteem, isolation, solitude, marginalization, insecurity, memory loss and fear of sexual intercourse to post-traumatic stress disorder. A counseling psychologist working with girls in rural Kenya shares her experiences in this interview.
Isn’t it astounding that political and community leaders can announce plans to address violence in another province while ignoring far more deaths in their own backyard? What exactly is going on here? Could this be part of the rise of Zulu nationalism in South Africa?
Ethiopia's sweeping anti-terrorism law has been used to prosecute journalists and bloggers, opposition politicians, and peaceful protesters. Many have been accused without compelling evidence of association with banned opposition groups.
The pyramids of Egypt, erected thousands of years ago, were constructed with a precision that cannot yet be replicated with all the sophistication of today’s technology. Africans must refrain from looking east, west, north or south but inside, for the solutions they seek!
Prisons should not become a death sentence, but a platform where those who have been found to have offended are rehabilitated so they could later be integrated and play a meaningful role in our society.
It is not easy to know how much a president, or any politician, is worth in Africa. So it was a matter of great public interest when Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, described by his image minders as ‘living an austere and Spartan lifestyle’, recently announced that he owns two inherited mud huts, some cows and a little money. But is that all?
On September 13, 2015, President Edgar Lungu announced that he had drawn battle lines with Post Newspapers editor-in-chief Fred M’membe and vowed to ‘take him on’ using his powers as Head of State. In most jurisdictions, including Zambia, what President Lungu issued against the journalist constitutes a criminal offence of threatening or uttering a death threat.
The leader of the short-lived coup in Burkina Faso, Gen. Gilbert Diendere, is a close ally of former President Compaore who was overthrown by a popular uprising last October. Diendere is a Western stooge as well, with connections with France and the US, the two European powers that have over the years frustrated the Burkinabe people’s struggles for meaningful self-determination.
Despite Paris’s official condemnation of the failed coup in Burkina Faso, and a threat to impose sanctions if the coup leaders did not relinquish power, the incident once again brings to focus decades of French hegemony in ‘independent’ West Africa. Through political, security, economic and cultural ties, France maintains a tight stranglehold in Francophone Africa, both to serve its interests and maintain a last bastion of imperial prestige.
President Obama is disavowing his failed strategy to train “moderate” rebels to fight ISIS, claiming the Republicans made him do it. Under Washington’s plan for regime change in Syria, radical jihadists would be used as the ‘boots on the ground’ for the U.S. in Syria, as they were in Afghanistan. The West’s plans for ISIS and al Qaeda have gone awry, as have U.S. schemes to deploy “moderates” proxies of imperialism.
The much-hyped Sustainable Development Goals to be adopted by the UN summit starting this week in New York will not deliver the new economy that the world so desperately needs. Their creators want to reduce poverty and inequality without touching the wealth and power of the global 1%. They fail to understand a basic fact: Mass poverty is the product of extreme wealth accumulation and over-consumption by a few.
Is President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya plain dumb? It is nearly a month since all public schools shut down following a strike by teachers. National exams are supposed to start next week. Kenyatta’s handling of this crisis, like his performance in previous instances, raises serious questions about the abilities of the man who won a bitterly controversial election two-and-half years ago.
Somalia has seen renewed international interest this year, with visits from foreign leaders, international conferences on ending piracy and significant foreign investment. Bashir Goth links these developments to the global realization that the world economy suffers from Somali-based piracy, caused by neglect of the Horn of Africa nation during its 20 years of collapse.
Across all four countries analysed, the report finds that those who have been or are most affected are women from disadvantaged groups such as ethnic minority women, or those of lower socio-economic status.
Pambazuka News 738: Unmasking Obama, liars and zionists
Pambazuka News 738: Unmasking Obama, liars and zionists
The mobile revolution. Geopolitical power shifts. A radically altered global economy. The world is changing, and so is the way that people fight for their rights. In order to be effective, Amnesty International’s (AI) International Secretariat needs to change how we work. That’s why we’re opening a hub in Kenya. And why we need your campaigning expertise with us on the ground.
Does the Bible actually condemn homosexuality, as widely believed? How should Christians treat their gay brothers and sisters? What should be the correct teaching about this controversial issue? In this three-part article, a church minister who has considered this matter extensively attempts to answer these and related questions.
The proposed law contravenes provisions of the constitution that require public participation in national affairs, a culture of openness and subordination of the military to civilian oversight.
Last week, President Obama declared that Ethiopia has a “democratically elected government”. That is the country where in May elections, the ruling party won all the 547 seats in parliament, thrashing all the 78 other parties. If there ever has been an election won by one party by 100 percent that is democratic, then there is indeed the famous purple cow that nobody has ever seen or the pink elephant that people like Obama see often.
No American president has the moral authority to lecture Africans about human rights, when America is itself so rife with egregious violations of the rights of Black people and when America supports criminal regimes around the world.
Can you imagine a bunch of white players going to South Africa in the 1980s and partying it up, sending out tweets about how wonderful it is, and basically sending the message that the oppression of Black people in Azania doesn't matter? That it's not important? That's the message the players sent out by participating in the sham trip with zionists.
There is nothing that President Obama told Africans that they did not already know. Crucially, America is a major pillar of world capitalism that is entirely responsible for Africa’s numerous problems. But while Obama sermonised the continent, he conveniently forgot to call to question the predatory global power system.
It is about a month to the 100-day deadline the Buhari campaign set for itself to achieve a raft of pledges made ahead of the March elections. There are notable signs of progress, but the new administration must strive to achieve more for the millions of Nigerians who pinned their hopes on Buhari. The people themselves must remain vigilant.
Although apartheid is a crime against humanity under international law, no one has been prosecuted for it. That means criminals who perpetrated this evil system are still free. It is a problem that South Africa – and the world - needs to address, according to a new book.
The event featured music concerts, exhibitions, poetry, talks and discussions, films and art. The aim of the organizers was to bring together artists to speak in a multitude of voices about what matters deeply to them.
Professor Ellis was by far the most accomplished, productive and dedicated scholar of Africa of his generation, and his contribution will remain the gold standard with respect to modern scholarship on Africa.
As the world order is shifting towards multipolarity and the global economy is changing, Business School education needs a new mindset. The old elitism not only contributed to the global financial crisis but is overall Eurocentric and outdated as it ignores reailies and approaches of emerging nations.
More than 30 poor South African hostel dwellers have been murdered by thugs in recent months, in collusion with the police or without police doing anything to stop the killings and bring the perpetrators to justice. This is one of the clearest indications of the failed South African state.
As of 2014, 86% of the world’s refugees were hosted in developing countries. Despite the existence of clear international refugee law, and plenty of humanitarian posturing, there is in fact growing hostility to refugees in Western countries. The affluent nations owe refugees more than a moral responsibility.
The tide is beginning to turn toward justice. Despite receiving enormous political, diplomatic and economic support from Western governments, Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front-led government have been subjected to increasing scrutiny and pressure for past and current crimes committed on the African continent.
During his recent visit to Washington, the Nigerian president failed to acknowledge human rights violations perpetrated by the country’s soldiers in the ongoing war against Boko Haram. And his defence of Nigeria's draconian law against homosexuality was disappointing.
The dissident Swazi student leader was released on bail after spending 14 months in remand prison for singing a pro-democracy song. He shares his experiences inside prison and his political convictions.
Chronic underfunding of tertiary education has reduced Nigerian public universities into shameful outfits that are incapable of discharging their responsibilities of teaching, research and community service. The government of President Buhari must quickly raise education funding to 26% of the national budget as recommended by UNESCO.
35 years after the union jack came down at Rufaro Stadium, a generation of young Zimbabweans are asking questions about, and forging their own, narratives and are re-imagining Zimbabwe. Who re-imagines Zimbabwe, for whom and for what, are going to be important questions as the country struggles to emerge from crisis.
China's huge infrastructural investments in Africa, the frenzied welcome for Obama to East Africa and the planned visit by Pope Francis to Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic in November are further evidence of Africa rising.
Recent statements from politicians and government officials give the impression that Germany is preparing to abandon the long-standing practice of denying responsibility for the genocide of 1904-1908 and is now prepared to characterize those wars of extermination as genocide. But has the German government adopted fully a new position?
Pambazuka News 736: Obama in Africa: Embracing thug-rulers or the people?
Pambazuka News 736: Obama in Africa: Embracing thug-rulers or the people?
Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network (PAHRD–Net) has opened a call for nominations for the 2nd Edition of human rights defenders awards. The awards will honor exceptional individuals who peacefully promote and protect universally recognized rights as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Next week, President Obama will visit US client state Ethiopia, ruled by a despotic regime that locks up anyone who dares to speak out against its mass atrocities. Mr. Okello Akway Ochalla, the former governor of Gambella, is one such. His son now appeals to Obama to secure Ochalla’s release from jail.
There is a fund to re-build a hospital in the Gaza strip, damaged in last year's brutal attacks by Israel.
Please click to donate.
With the decision by parliament to remove constitutional term limits to allow Kagame to rule for life, Rwanda has now entered a dangerous period of escalation. Anger, frustration, miscalculation, another wrong decision or unforeseen event could easily trigger another round of devastation.
Thousands of political prisoners, journalists, activists and other citizens languish in Ethiopia's official and secret dungeons. The violently repressive regime has thrown a pall of paralyzing fear over the entire nation. Will President Obama ignore this crying shame when Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn hosts him next week? Will he continue with his policy of parroting high ideals but embracing ruthless and corrupt African strongmen?
Governments around the world are increasing their hostility towards civil society organisations, but at the same time enacting laws and policies that promote business investment. While CSO and profit-driven groups operate differently, and should be treated as such, they play important political and economic roles. Both need government support.
South Africa is failing, as a direct result of the neoliberalism embraced by the ruling Black elite working in cahoots with the white class since the formal end of apartheid 20 years ago. A true transition of power to the people is need.
The current relationship between Africa and Europe may seem to have moved past colonialism, but a dynamic of economic subordination of the first to the second persists. The vision of Eurafrica, in fact, is built on the legacy of colonialism and positions Africans as the eternal Other.
The latest victim in the endless violence in a poor people’s residence in South Africa is a 55-year-old father of five who was chased and shot dead by a lone gunman in broad daylight. As in previous murders, the security forces deployed to the area were nowhere in sight.
South Africa’s ruling party has recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Freedom Charter. That document, conceived by white colonialists, legitimised the white robbery of African land. Liberation icon Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe was spot-on when he described it as “a colossal fraud ever perpetrated upon the oppressed, exploited and degraded people.” That is the Charter's legacy.
José Eduardo dos Santos - who shares with Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema the infamy of being Africa's longest-ruling president - is becoming increasingly tyrannical as his regime faces growing popular resistance. In this open letter, Angolan ward-winning investigative journalist and human rights activist speaks out his mind about the political situation in the oil-rich southern African nation.
The Bt cotton, which has no market, is just a way of getting the GMO foot in the door to pave the way for Bt maize. Most of the money made from Bt maize would exit Ghana, creating more wealth for foreign corporate interests.
July 22, 2015 is President Yahya Jammeh’s twenty-first anniversary in power. To mark this day, the numerous Gambians murdered under the Jammeh regime are crying out for justice in a joint letter to West Africa’s King of Impunity. These victims, who are tired of waiting for justice, have expressed their suffering in the absence of accountability for The Gambia’s violations of human rights, including freedom of expression and press freedom.
This year is the deadline for MDGs, and the global community is set to come up with new set of development goals SGs in September at UN summit in New York. The Addis Ababa 3rd International Conference on Finance for Development held last week laid a foundation for further conversation on how to end extreme poverty and pursue the other post-MDG goals.
Heroes are immortal. They seem more powerful in their spirit than in their mortal life. Their spirits become the fountain of inspiration to conquer the forces of evil, oppression and human destruction. Nana has joined heroes in the spirit world.
Africans have heard plenty from world leaders about the lack of democratic institutions and the human rights abuse in their continent. It is time that the world talks about the absence of democratic principles in the international economic and political order and the prevalence of rampant international racism.
As President Obama pays a visit to demonstrate his commitment to his brothers and sisters in Africa, he should bring with him a renewed commitment to help the continent adapt to climate change.
While there is real joy that Obama is visiting Kenya, this moment should provide another platform for progressives to push for the demilitarization of the relations with Africa. This calls for the dismantling of the US Africa Command, the withdrawal of the Special Forces from Somalia and the end of drone strikes.
Pambazuka News 739: What democracy? Tunisia, Libya and South Africa
Pambazuka News 739: What democracy? Tunisia, Libya and South Africa
The Departments of History and Philosophy; Government, Sociology and Social Work, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados and PANAFSTRAG are pleased to issue a second call for papers for this inaugural international Pan African Colloquium to be held at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados over the period January 12-15, 2016.
The CIHA Blog is looking for a talented freelance WordPress developer with a keen eye for design to update the blog design, customize existing themes to design specification, fix bugs in the back and front-end, and improve usability and site performance.
President Obama has been fiercely criticized for his claim at a press conference in Addis Ababa that the Ethiopian government is “democratically elected.” The facts on the ground do not support him. But his message of hope to the continent was well received.
The families of the 37 mineworkers killed at Marikana on 13 and 16 August 2012 have filed civil claims against the Minister of Police in the High Court in Pretoria. The 37 families are represented by The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), and the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) and Wits Law Clinic.
Soil, not oil is not just an empty slogan but a statement of truth which the world must act upon. Oil is a wasting resource. It has wasted many lives and is now threatening the entire planet.
South Africa’s democratic system, heavily dominated by the ANC, could best be served by a genuinely democratic, mainstream trade union-based party, like Brazil’s Socialist Party. The time for Zwelinzima Vavi's United Front lobby to transform into such a party is now.
African women applaud the new “2030 Agenda” for having the promise of being truly transformative for women and girls around the world. But they are concerned about the lack of commitment by African governments to implement progressive laws, agreements and protocols.
By some estimates, Nigeria’s national oil corporation alone has reportedly lost more than $30 billion in oil revenue to corruption in the last five yeas, equivalent to the gross domestic product of more than 30 African countries. In this wide-ranging interview, Prof Wole Soyinka speaks about the lost potential in Africa’s most populous nation and the hope of creating a new society built on people-based values.
In June Rwandan spy chief General Karenzi Karake was arrested in Britain in relation to war crimes and death of European citizens. A British court this week dropped his extradition case on technicalities. Karake’s boss, Paul Kagame, and his regime in Kigali celebrated the acquittal, but this turn of events only demonstrates that the nexus of money, power and big interests can override the quest for justice.
The civil society group is concerned that the recent approval is typical of GM decision-making in South Africa, which simply reiterates and summarises information provided by Monsanto, who has a clear vested interest in the approval. The government is under a legal obligation to apply a risk averse and cautious approach, which takes into account uncertainties and the limits of current knowledge about commercial production of GMOs.
The White world has justifiably exhibited intense righteous indignation at the depraved slaying of the 13-year-old lion known as Cecil, whose name conjures up the racist namesake who became the arch-colonialist of Zimbabwe. But why is there no similar international furore over the likely politically enforced disappearance of prominent activist and journalist Itai Dzamara?
What has the "democracy" so praised by the West and its apologists brought Tunisia? And why does the rise of Islamism seem so unstoppable? The answer lies in the way the two trends reinforce each other, even as they ferociously contend for the country's future.
The team is headed by Professor Itse Sagay, a prominent professor of law and civil rights activist. The Committee's task is to advise the present Buhari led administration on the prosecution of the war against corruption and the implementation of required reforms in Nigeria's criminal justice system.
In the midst of an economic crisis, embattled militia, persecuted citizens and fleeing refugees, the world can only watch as Libya disintegrates further. Can this battered and bruised country be saved?
Baba has seen it all and conquered all. He is one of Nigeria’s most decorated intellectuals and certainly one of Africa’s best gifts to the world. He is a man widely respected across Nigeria and widely honoured abroad.
Dear Readers and Contributors
Pambazuka News Team takes its annual break from 17-31 August 2015.
We would like to thank you most sincerely for your continued support that enables us to carry insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses, making Pambazuka News one of the largest and most influential web-based forums for social justice in the Pan-African world.
EDITORS