The politically insitaged violence that rocked Kenya seven years ago is slowly being dumped in the dustbins of history for political expediency. Alleged villains have since paraded themselves around the world as the victims – and won more than sympathy at home and abroad. But the real victims still cry for justice.

Dear Editor,

Ordinarily, I would say police violence is more of a police militarization problem than one of race. However, this is St. Louis County we're talking about here.

There is still Klan activity in STLCO-- white robe-wearing, cross-burning KKK.

Check out the Wikipedia entry for Rosa Parks Highway. That was where the Klan used to participate in the state adopt-a-highway program.

About five months before the Michael Brown shooting, an STLCO PD lieutenant was fired for directing those under his supervision specifically to target racial minorities.

I, myself, was prosecuted for having re-published some of the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. on-line. Here is my crime:

‘[U]nenforceable obligations are beyond the reach of the laws of society. They concern inner attitudes, genuine person-to-person relations, and expressions of compassion which law books cannot regulate and jails cannot rectify. Such obligations are met by one's commitment to an inner law, written on the heart. Man-made laws assure justice, but a higher law produces love.’ --ML K, Strength to Love p. 37

I would like to get this story out. It never drew media attention the way that the shooting did.

I think Alemayehu G. Mariam is the right one to tell the story.

Please forward this on to him.

Thank you.

The eminent Africanist revolutionary Amilcar Cabral declared that: ‘no power in the world will be able to destroy this Cuban Revolution.’ America’s recent decision to resume relations with Cuba proves Empire’s failure to destroy the Revolution. But Cubans must now guard against a capitalist onslaught.

Acclaimed writer and Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul has spent much time traveling in and writing about Africa. But his views of the continent are ignorant and bigoted, like those of most foreign visitors before him. It is disappointing that such a towering literary figure who should know better chooses to see Africa and her people through a lens of racism and colonial prejudice.

Conspiracy theories that Ebola – and HIV – are bio-weapons created by the West to depopulate Africa refuse to die away. Leaks from within Western establishments and the behaviour of these capitlist powers fuel the theories. They are difficult to ignore.

2014 in South Africa was marked by a number of large-scale national scandals. Far more insidious, however, are the small, subtle, everyday distortions or omissions of truth which have become pervasive in our political discourse. These distortions, championed by politicians, characterize the public, the media, NGOs and academia.

Sir Bob Geldof, this is 2014. Your time is up. Go away. Africa does not need stereotype-spewing, self-serving White saviours.

When an African president accused of multiple crimes against humanity walks out of court by orchestrating an unprecedented and audacious obstruction of justice, it is not just a flagrant denial of justice to the thousands of victims. It is an outrage against all humanity. It is an affront to the rule of law. It is the triumph of injustice.

The narrative of“Africa is rising” has been echoing all over the world. A high-level international conference in China discussed what that really means and the role of agriculture and foreign stakeholders to create sustainable development that serves the African people.

While campaigns such as the Golden and Rusty Radiator Awards raise awareness of Western development organizations’ unjust views of the global South, they do not go far enough. Critiques of cliché media representation must be coupled with critiques of fundamentally unbalanced power structures.

Civil Rights leader Rev Edward Pinkney has been sentenced to 30 – 120 months in prison for forging a successful recall petition against Mayor James Hightower. He maintains his innocence in the face of a conviction based on flimsy evidence. The conviction – delivered within a context of heightened anti-racist and anti-capitalist struggle in the US – is seen by many as politically motivated.

The proposed Security Laws (Amendment) Bill 2014 offends the constitution of Kenya 2010 by undermining the sovereignty of the people, the supremacy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

What was Prof Mazrui’s most favorite quote? It was from a book by his mentor at Oxford, John Plamenatz: “The sins of the powerful acquire some of the prestige of power.”

At least eight human rights defenders were brutally arrested and assaulted on 18 December 2014 in Nairobi during a peaceful demonstration against the Security Law (Amendment) Bill.

The 8th Pan African Congress has been rescheduled to March 2015. Writers, researchers, academics and everyone else interested are invited to send in articles covering a broad range of themes.

In December, progressive peoples across the pan-African world remember the birth of Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe. Dearly loved by his people and fiercely hated by his enemies, Sobukwe remains a tower of inspiration for Africa’s total emancipation from the forces of foreign domination.

America is gripped by a deep racial anxiety stoked by strategic political manipulation and fear of rapidly changing demographics. The current system dehumanizes the racial Other. It must be changed.

Political parties must disclose to the nation and to their members the nature and extent of support they receive from external sources to carry out their campaigns. Such support could lead to state capture.

The circumstances under which the charges against Kenyatta have been withdrawn – based on alleged witness intimidation and lack of cooperation by the Government of Kenya – rather than vindicating him, have left many questions hanging over his role in post-election violence.

The Prosecution’s complaints about non-cooperation by the Kenyan authorities is true, but the lack of evidence points more to a failure of the previous investigative strategy of the Office of the Prosecutor. The evidence is out there, the question is why the OTP did not have it before charges were proffered.

In Ethiopia, as in many other countries, violence against women is ingrained in the social fabric. Civil society, governments, and citizens must work together to raise awareness and eradicate sexism and rape culture.

The issue of Black people being victims of systemic brutality, oppression and murder at the hands of the police is not limited to the United States. It is a global problem. If we are ever going to stop this barbaric use of authority to trample the civil and human rights of Black people we must open our eyes to what it happening on an international scale.

The Embassy of the State of Palestine in Tanzania condemns in the strongest terms the Israel’s extrajudicial killing of Palestinian Minister and Head of the Committee against the Wall and Settlements, Mr. Ziad Abu Ein.

When the police are perceived by citizens of colour as the police, jury and executioner, it is time to pull off the Constitution and demand accountability. A peace officer can never bring peace by a trigger-happy use of the implements of war.

Following the second attack in Mandera Town in Kenya in less than two weeks, leading to the death of 36 people, Kenya’s police chief announced his retirement and the Internal Security Cabinet Secretary was removed. But this is not enough to improve security.

Bunge la Mwananchi has revolutionized grassroots politics in Kenya since the 1990s. Against the backdrop of elite politics and entrenched neo-liberalism, the movement has created a critical space for democratic participation from below and its impact has been far-reaching. Part II of this article appears next week.

The American State’s response to the mass discontent in the aftermath of the non-indictment of murderer of Michael Brown demonstrates the heavy-handed use of violence to deny the people the human rights to peacefully assemble and freedom of association. This is consistent with the historical uses of violence to control and suppress opposition.

There is no need for more task forces or advisory commissions. The police must stop killing black people with impunity and nothing will make that less likely to happen than the sight of Wilson and his partners in crime sitting in federal prisons.

The countries reeling under the Ebola outbreak were recovering from prolonged conflict that had destroyed health infrastructures. Additionally, in the 1980s through the 1990s, these countries implemented neo-liberal reforms imposed by IMF and World Bank, whereby welfare systems were abandoned in exchange for donor support.

There is a lot going on in Africa: Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria, the Ebola crisis, armed conflict in South Sudan, rhetoric of ‘Africa arising’, the dramatic exit of Blaise Compaore, presidential elections... Many of these are issues that tend to make people get too serious and stressed. Uganda’s star comedia Anne Kansiime is offering people some respite.

5 December marks the 90th birthday of revolutionary anti-apartheid icon and pan-Africanist Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe. This tribute is an introduction to a new book on him.

Since independence on 28 November 1960, Mauritania has put in place a system of exclusion of its black population, promoting the affirmation of an exclusively Arab identity and the negation of the country’s African foundations

Led by Western self-interest, NATO embarked on a massive military intervention in Libya in 2011 that leaves many lessons for the Global South. Above all stands the lesson that Western military intervention cannot bring about the desired change, but rather creates failed states.

The powerful are now united in a global hegemonic project of neo-liberalism. And everyone else pursues their own profits or growth to the detriment of everything around us under the fundamental capitalist tenet of self-interest.

A World Bank report makes the incredible claim that the South African Treasury has been exceedingly generous in social spending. With that, neoliberals can now justify social spending caps or even cuts. In reality, though, South Africa has the fourth lowest public social spending amongst the world’s largest 40 countries.

To celebrate its 20th anniversary the UN International Tribunal for Rwanda, based in the Tanzanian city of Arusha, has created a documentary, narrated by an American actor, to trumpet its achievements. But to one critic, the ICTR only succeeded in bolstering the Kagame regime through victor’s justice.