Pambazuka News 561: Special issue: 50 years on: Frantz Fanon lives
Pambazuka News 561: Special issue: 50 years on: Frantz Fanon lives
Workers should be ‘centrally involved in leading the national democratic/revolutionary process’ rather than joining labour unions ‘subordinated’ to a national liberation party or post-independence ruling authority, argues Bill Fletcher, in a revisiting of Fanon’s thinking on class struggle and the national project.
Frantz Fanon ‘respected us enough to understand that, as with his observation about every generation having to find its mission, to fulfill it or betray it, the responsibility for that future is no other than ours,’ writes Lewis Gordon.
Not just a brilliant analysis of colonialism and the process of decolonisation, Fanon’s ‘The Wretched of the Earth’ is ‘the heart and soul of a movement’ written by ‘one who fully participated in it,’ writes Orlando Patterson.
The need to revisit Fanon’s work has ‘never been greater’, argues Helmi Sharawi, in an analysis of its relevance to ‘the process of globalisation’ in contemporary Africa.
In the context of revolutions in North Africa, Nigel C. Gibson reflects on Frantz Fanon's interpretations of postcolonial politics.
Writers like Frantz Fanon put pen to paper so that the next generation could understand history and its atrocities, says Fatma Alloo.
Inspired by the revolutionary insights of Fanon, Aziz Salmone Fall proposes ‘pan-Africentrage’: A process of acquiring political and historic awareness of the collective autonomy of the continent by breaking away from dominant capitalism and revaluing our traditions and ways of being in solidarity.
‘Fifty years on, Fanon remains an extraordinary example of an intellectual willing to commit to a living politics waged with and not for the damned of this earth,’ writes Richard Pithouse.
Frantz Fanon is a loved and respected figure all over Africa and Asia. Samir Amin argues that his writing and the choice to join the liberation struggle in Algeria show Fanon was a genuine revolutionary.
Fanon appears more current than ever, writes Mireille Fanon Mendès-France. Thanks to his thought, many people have learnt that the fight for liberty, democracy and human rights is led against local despots and against the tenets of the neo-colonial order which they protect.
The greatest value of the Fanonist thesis, writes Norman Girvan, might lie in its analysis of the ‘psychology of liberation’ at personal level. But the thesis cannot be used as the basis for a theory of the preconditions of successful postcolonial reconstruction.
‘In the fifty years since Fanon’s passing to the other side and since the first publication of The Wretched of the Earth, both continue to live on, challenging us to not give up, to not become complacent, and to take arms, albeit symbolic, social, political, epistemic, and most of all pedagogical ones.’
The their blog for a collection of essays on Frantz Fanon's work and legacy.
Pambazuka News 560: Climate apartheid and the struggle for democratisation
Pambazuka News 560: Climate apartheid and the struggle for democratisation
Artists have been gathering in Toronto to share their varied experiences and talents and to network as people of colour living in the diaspora. Next week they launch a movement billed as a wave of cultural and artistic collaborations.
On the eve of the global 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, Colleen Lowe Morna is in Lusaka, Zambia, where she reflects on the numbers of victims. But she also hears about moving real-life stories, inspiring initiatives and some humour.
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe looks back at the atrocious massacre of the Igbo people of Nigeria in the 1960s and is convinced that the British government was fully culpable. Britain today, he urges, needs to accept this fact and make the long-overdue restitution.
President Paul Biya’s regime has deeply disillusioned the Cameroonian people, writes Peter Wuteh Vakunta. But Biya will not be president forever, so the challenge for Cameroonians is to look beyond the failed leadership and begin to imagine a new future for themselves.
to not want some say
that is where freedom lies
to be always in the moment
some say that is where freedom lies
there is no freedom some say
some say our world is defined
by one creator who has
determined the rules and
regulations that confine our fate
and only inside those boundaries
and under those laws
can the skeleton of freedom be found
some say freedom has no borders
some say freedom has no form
to be fully alive is freedom some say
only in death lies freedom some say
death is an eternal reward or punishment
there is no freedom some say
only a choice of good or evil
freedom some say is the wind
some say freedom is a dream
only those who have never
known freedom
doubt its existence
all others keep trying to know
it again and again
This Al Jazeera article and video looks at the issue of internet censorship. 'Google said that in the first half of 2011, governments requested private data on about 25,440 people from the internet search and advertising company. Eleven thousand of those requests came from the US government...The Electronic Frontier Foundation accuses US and European technology companies of selling surveillance equipment and software to countries including Thailand, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, and China.'
The Constitutional Court has directed a Mail & Guardian application to have a South African government report on the 2002 Zimbabwe general elections made public, back to the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria for further consideration. This decision, says the blog Writing Rights, shows the fragility of legality and the rule of law should the Constitutional Court become pro-executive or pro-wealth rather than stand fearlessly on the side of the Constitution and the people’s right to know.
'We, women and men peasants, pastoralists, indigenous peoples and their allies, who gathered together in Nyeleni from 17-19 November 2011, have come from across the world for the first time to share with each other our experiences and struggles against land-grabbing. One year ago we supported the Kolongo Appeal from peasant organizations in Mali, who have taken the lead in organising local resistance to the take-over of peasants' lands in Africa. Now we came to Nyeleni in response to the Dakar Appeal, which calls for a global alliance against land-grabbing. For we are determined to defend food sovereignty, the commons and the rights of small scale food providers to natural resources.'
A leading US environmental group is opposing the planned purchase of 325,000 hectares of land in Tanzania by an American company. Tanzania’s parliament is debating the government’s willingness to lease the land in the Rukwa and Kigoma regions to Agrisol Energy Tanzania Ltd, which is backed by a consortium of US investors. Opponents charge that the deal amounts to a 'land grab' that would result in the displacement of 160,000 refugees from Burundi, some of whom have lived on the land for 40 years.
The Kenyan police and military should stop using illegal mass-round-ups and beatings as a substitute for proper police investigative work, Human Rights Watch said. Attacks by suspected al-Shabaab sympathizers on the military and civilians inside Kenya do not justify violating the rights of civilians.
Just days after Asmara called for reprimand against Kenya for associating her with Somali rebel group Al-Shabaab, Kenya has filed a case before the UN Security Council's sanctions committee calling for investigations into Eritrea's alleged support to the insurgents. Kenya's UN Permanent Representative Macharia Kamau filed the case days after the Eritrean Foreign minister Osman Saleh wrote to the Council, calling for independent investigations into Kenya's accusations that it was arming the Al-Shabaab in Somalia.
A refugee from Eritrea has obtained an urgent North Gauteng High Court order to force Home Affairs to supply him with application forms and to immediately process his application for travel documents so that he can attend a peace conference in Djibouti next month. Tsehaye Yoel Alem applied for a court order with the help of Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) after being told Home Affairs no longer issued refugee travel documents as the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees no longer provided such documents. He said there was no certainty as to what Home Affairs was doing to reinstate the issuing of refugee travel documents and it in effect meant it was almost impossible for refugees like himself to travel outside SA.
The arrival of seven and a half tons of tear gas to Egypt’s Suez port created conflict after the responsible officials at the port refused to sign and accept it for fear it would be used to crackdown on Egyptian protesters. Local news sites published documents regarding the shipment showing that the cargo that arrived in 479 barrels from the United States was scheduled to be delivered to the ministry of interior.
Two journalists and an administrator for the opposition newspaper 'Notre Voie' have been held by police since they were arrested on 24 November for allegedly publishing false information on President Alassane Ouattara. A Media Foundation for West Africa correspondent reported that publisher César Etou and political desk chief Boga Sivori were arrested in connection with a 21 November article that claimed President Ouattara had acquired luxury Mercedes Benz cars for himself and members of his cabinet.
Laurent Gbagbo, the former president of the Ivory Coast has left the country for The Hague, where the International Criminal Court is investigating alleged crimes committed during post-election violence, an official has said. Gbagbo will become the first former head of state to be surrendered to the ICC.
A meeting organised by an African gay lobby group ahead of an AIDS conference in Ethiopia has sparked a rare spat between the government and religious groups. Religious leaders demand the cancellation of the gathering scheduled for Saturday, organised by African Men for Sexual Health and Rights, saying it would violate the country's conservative culture. State officials, however, are unwilling to budge having lobbied hard to win hosting rights for the influential 16th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa due to start a day later.
Muammar Qaddafi's daughter has urged Libyans to overthrow their new rulers, possibly violating the terms of her exile in Algeria. In an audio message broadcast on Syria's al-Rai television station, Aisha Qaddafi called for a revolt against the men who overthrew her father, the government she said 'arrived with the planes of NATO'.
The Security Council has agreed to extend by another year the arms embargo and other sanctions it has imposed against armed rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for nearly a decade. In a resolution adopted unanimously, the 15-member Council extended the sanctions through 30 November 2012 and asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to renew the mandate of the group of experts monitoring these measures and to appoint a sixth expert – on natural resources – to the team.
The Central African Republic and DR Congo have accused the UPDF hunting down LRA rebels in the two countries of allegedly involving in illegal extraction of timber, gold, diamond and other gems. This is contained in a report by the Brussels based International Crisis Group. The Ugandan military reacted angrily to the accusations, describing the report as a 'hogwash' writing tinged with accounts by 'racist armchair' researchers.
The Burundi Security Council has recommended that the president impose sanctions against media and civil society groups who made comments over September’s massacre in a Gatumban bar that claimed the lives of more than 39 people. 'We recommend the empowered authorities take remedial measures or sanctions against the media and civil society groups who violated the law,' said Major General Pontien Gaciyubwenge, the Burundian minister of defence.
Swaziland spends 4.7 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on paying, equipping and barracking the 3,000 soldiers in its army, and now parliament has passed a US$8 million supplementary budget for the force, provoking a rare public reaction in questioning the role or even the need for an army in view of the deepening economic crisis.
Nearly half a million asylum seekers in South Africa may lose their right to earn a living or study while their refugee status is being determined after indications that the government plans to amend legislation governing those rights. An announcement on 23 November that Cabinet is 'reviewing' the minimum rights of immigrants, including the right to work and study, was followed by a media briefing two days later at which Mkuseli Apleni, Director General of the Department of Home Affairs, suggested that the asylum seeker system was being abused.
Several demolitions of housing near airports in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, have not only displaced hundreds of families but challenged the humanitarian response in urban emergencies. Amid criticism of the way the demolitions were carried out, humanitarian workers say relief aid for urban crises was often not pre-positioned, unlike in rural-based emergencies.
Although there has been considerable progress towards reducing maternal and infant mortality, millions of women and children in Africa are still in need of better health services, food and sanitation. Some 250,000 mothers are estimated to die in Africa every year, leaving behind infants with reduced chances of making it beyond five years of age. Statistics by Save the Children, an international non-government organisation, reveal that African countries claim nine out of ten bottom places in a worldwide maternal health ranking that involves 164 countries.
Civil society leaders in South Sudan are closely watching a legal battle unfolding in Sweden, as prosecutors investigate an oil company accused of involvement in massive human rights abuses here. James Ninrew vividly remembers the day Sudan’s military attacked his community, which had the misfortune of living above vast oil reserves consigned to a consortium led by the Swedish oil giant, Lundin Oil. 'They used helicopter gunships to bomb houses,' he said. Such accusations form part of the basis of a report that has recently prompted Sweden’s public prosecutor, Magnus Elving, to launch an investigation that could lead to a criminal case against Lundin Oil.
Organisations working with indigenous peoples living in forests say the United Nations programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD+) is just another way for big corporates to reap huge profits. REDD+ has been touted as a global scheme to conserve forests, enhance carbon stocks and support sustainable forest management. 'It is a system where you pour a lot of money into forests that will attract powerful international investors who will make big profits,' warned Simone Lovera, managing director of the Global Forest Coalition.
Kenyan doctors are set to go on strike from December 5, saying talks with the government over their terms of service had stalled. The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union accused the government of dragging its feet in starting negotiations. The 2,300 doctors in public hospitals issued a 19-day strike notice. They are demanding a 300 per cent salary increase and hardship allowances.
Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has revealed corruption at the heart of the judiciary and ordered a stop to construction of court buildings until an audit is done. He took journalists on a tour of the Milimani courts, opened only in February, but which have in some instances degenerated with collapsed ceiling and malfunctioning locks. The cost of refurbishing the former income tax department building shot from Sh600 million to Sh1 billion and it took eight years to be completed - after a three-year delay.
At least five activists affiliated with the youth group Girifna were arrested Tuesday (29 November) afternoon in Omdurman, a city in Khartoum State. A member of the group, identified only by initials ME for fear of victimisation, said that among the arrested were leaders and founders of the group.
The State Council on Tuesday (29 November) adjourned till 27 December a case against the military institution to end the practice of virginity tests.The case was filed by a women who was subjected to a virginity test in military prison last March. The victim, Samira Ibrahim, was arrested by military police during a sit-in in Tahrir Square and was subject to a forced virginity test inside the military prison by unidentified military personnel.
The Nigerian senate on 29 November passed a bill prohibiting same-sex marriage. Termed Same-Sex Prohibition Bill, it stipulates a 10-year jail term for offenders. Announcing the passage of the bill, Senate president David Mark said that marriage between same sexes is alien to the Nigerian tradition and against all religious morals.
Cameroon's finance minister and Central Africa's top central banker both said on Monday there would be no devaluation of the CFA franc currency used by 14 states in Africa, denying market rumours. The CFA franc is currently tied to the euro at a fixed exchange rate of one euro to 655.957 CFA francs, with the peg guaranteed by the French treasury.
Despite broad agreement that international development cooperation must become effective in order to achieve its objective of closing the rich-poor gap, the fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4), which kicked off on 29 November in Busan, South Korea, may fall short of marking a genuine 'turning point' for the effectiveness agenda. Some 3,000 delegates including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, high-level government officials from around the world and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are attending the Forum.
In 2007, Robert Amakobe went public and declared that he was HIV positive. He formed the Elwesero Men’s Support Group with other men who were public about their HIV status. Theirs was probably the first men’s HIV support group in Kenya. It has become an important force in diffusing the stigma around HIV and AIDS in their community, reports Farm Radio Weekly.
Over the past week, it's been hard to find articles not looking at the DRC elections through the lens of fear and/of violence. This is in contrast to how Congolese citizen journalists have reported on the elections on their blogs, in their local papers, or on their facebook pages, says blog Africa is a Country. For reports by local journalists outside Kinshasa, read Now AfriCAN (North Kivu), Local Voices (Bunyakiri, South Kivu), Mutaani FM (also in Kivu), Radio Okapi (MONUSCO’s website and radio channel) and Le Congo.
To gain greater insight on the daily challenges faced by urban refugees, Asylum Access conducted a survey of 122 urban refugees in Dar es Salaam. The results are published in a report, 'No Place Called Home', which unveils a stark reality for this population. For example, only 3 per cent of those surveyed have a permit to live outside refugee camps. The remaining participants live in constant fear of deportation back to countries where they face persecution.
International climate negotiators were at odds Tuesday 29 November on how to raise billions of dollars to help poor countries cope with global warming. Details of the tussle over the funding emerged as the UN's weather agency reported that 2011 was tied as the 10th hottest year since records began in 1850. Putting the final touches on what's known as the Green Climate Fund is a top issue at the 192-party UN climate conference.
Meet You At The Crossroads is a library of public images of resistance, rebellion, revolt and rebuilding occurring in cities right across the globe, often on the streets; in the public realm. You are invited to send in your images and sign up to receive a weekly public image.
Early morning on day one of the first peasant-organised international conference to stop land grabbing held in Nyéléni, Mali, delegates from more than 30 countries took their seats for the opening ceremony. Delegates strategized late into the nights, resolving to make land rights a reality. On the final day, both exhausted and energized, they read the fruition of their work - the Final Declaration to Stop Land Grabbing.
Legislation and practices aiming to safeguard customary land rights are largely failing to give real decision-making authority to communities affected by large-scale land acquisitions in sub-Saharan Africa, says a recent report by the Center for International Forestry Research. This has seriously undermined the widely anticipated benefits from the recent surge in land-based investments for food, fuel and fiber on the continent.
Since Saturday, 19 November, more than 12 makeshift hospitals have been established in Tahrir Square and floods of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals have swarmed in to offer their services, writes Amani Massoud in relation to the voluntary medical effort to treat those injured in clashes against military rule. 'The swiftness and efficiency with which the hospitals are established and managed bears little resemblance to the make-shift hospitals characteristic of the initial uprising in January. Nine months of experience that followed the beginning of the revolution has made hard-core emergency medics out of young doctors.'
China will increasingly look to Africa over the next decade as the world's most populous nation seeks to ensure it has sufficient food supplies, according to a study. While China has is recent years turned to Africa to secure energy and raw material resources to fuel its rapidly-growing economy, it will soon be for food commodities, according to Standard Bank research analysts Simon Freemantle and Jeremy Stevens.
The Sudanese Ministry of Petroleum has suspended the exportation of the South Sudanese oil through north Sudan till an agreement is reached between the two governments on transit fees, the acting Petroleum Minister in Sudan, Ali Ahmed Osman, has said.
Some European banks are now refusing to lend to firms trading with Africa, threatening growth in the world's poorest continent, a senior official of the African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Tuesday. The reluctance of some banks to make Africa-related loans as Europe's own debt crisis turns them increasingly risk-averse is an ominous sign as it repeats one aspect of the 2008 credit crisis.
A cross-party parliamentary group is urging the Tanzanian government to prosecute those guilty of corruption or bribery over the sale of a BAE Systems air traffic control package. The company, despite not being found guilty of corruption, has agreed to pay nearly £30m compensation to Tanzania. The International Development Committee also wants any others involved in the deal to face prosecution.
Fred Magdoff is professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont and adjunct professor of crop and soil science at Cornell University. As climate crisis threatens millions of people around the world, the latest round of climate talks, COP 17, began in Durban on 28 November. Farooque Chowdhury interviewed Fred Magdoff for about what strategies and tactics people can employ to tackle climate crisis at COP 17 and beyond.
The liberal democratic model imperialist-capitalist countries seek to universalise is 'essentially meant to rationalise, justify and protect and defend private capitalist property' in order to 'reproduce the system of class exploitation,' argues Issa G. Shivji.
On the 20th anniversary of the global Sixteen Days of Activism on gender violence campaign, Shuvai Nyoni Kagoro asks whether ‘the millions of dollars spent in cash and human time’ have significantly reduced the violence women and other marginalised groups face ‘because of their gender’.
Dirty Energy Week has come to an end, but the ‘unity started’ by the event ‘has a great potential to grow and be at the forefront of moving beyond fossil fuels”, says the South African campaign organiser, groundWork.
While NATO and its allies have claimed that Libya is fully capable of handling the trials of former regime loyalists, Franklin Lamb argues that the case of Saif al Islam Gadhafi is too critical to put this to the test.
Nnimmo Bassey's new book 'To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa’, published by Pambazuka Press, shows that exploiting Africa’s resources has delivered huge profits to the North and huge damage to Africa. Overcoming the environment and climate change crises means also addressing corporate profiteering and resource extraction.
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, leader of the Biafran resistance to the Nigeria state’s genocide against the Igbo people, has passed away.
Civil society in Mozambique has been actively engaging among themselves, with the state, and with investors to improve large scale land transfer governance. The initiatives underway range from: a land forum that brings together the various stakeholders to discuss land governance issues; community land delimitation initiatives by the Rural Mutual Support Organisation (ORAM); more extreme actions where communities have uprooted investors’ eucalyptus plantations and successfully renegotiated the return of their subsistence production land from an investor.
Three journalists have been arrested and detained in Abidjan prison on charges of 'incitement to theft, pillaging and destruction of public properties through the media'.
The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) has recently issued a report that examines four recent detailed studies of countries’ mitigation pledges under the Cancun Agreements, for the purpose of comparing developed (Annex 1) country pledges to developing (non-Annex 1) country pledges. It finds that there is broad agreement that developing country pledges amount to more mitigation than developed country pledges.
Standing across the street from the American embassy in Tel Aviv, more than 200 Eritrean asylum seekers chanted 'Yes to justice! Yes to humanity!', and demanded international intervention to stop torture camps in the Egyptian Sinai. Protests by African asylum seekers in Israel are growing, in the face of increasingly tough policies by the Israelis. 'We’re here to stop this torture and to call the world to be aware of this,' said Habtom Mehari, a 30-year- old Eritrean asylum seeker, at the rally on 25 November.
Poor countries have depended on rich nations to supplement their sector budget without which millions of people would have continued to live in abject poverty. Have the years of funding made these countries any less dependent? Sector budget is aid that is allocated to developing a country’s particular development priorities, which could be in the areas of health, education or even sanitation and housing.
The climate conference in Durban has led some observers to conclude that developed countries are engaged in a form of apartheid against the rest of the world. But Nnimmo Bassey hopes negotiators will heed the voices of the people.
Civil society groups say the Durban conference is shaping up as a clash of paradigms between those who believe that the world needs a science- and rules-based multilateral climate system and those who are seeking to dismantle the existing one.
National media coverage of Kenya’s invasion of Somalia all comes from a single source – the military, writes Henry Makori. No wonder there seems to be so little opposition to the war.
The first Encounter of Filmmakers from Africa, the Caribbean and their diasporas, spanning nine African countries and 18 countries in Latin America, North America and the Caribbean was held in Havana, Cuba, in September.
Sudanese-Italian singer/songwriter Amira Kheir’s ‘mesmerising’ first album ‘comes from a place of gritty determination and commitment by the artist to her art. And it may be that we can all learn something from that determination,’ writes Hannah Gibson.
In [PDF]:
- The Bangkok Principles on the Status and Treatment of Refugees
- African NGO resolution on the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and displaced persons
- Asia Pacific model pledge towards upholding refugee rights worldwide
- MIGREUROP explores readmission instruments
- The situation of refugees in Israel
- Question & answer: the Cessation Clause examined
- The Cessation Clause: a primer
- ECtHR allows extradition to Rwanda of alleged Hutu genocidaire with refugee status in Denmark; UNHCR does not intervene
- ‘Is this Caribbean idyll the worst place in the world to be a woman?’
- WikiLeaks diplomatic cables: a tool for refugee legal aid workers?
- In limbo in Latvia
- Asia Pacific Regional Immigration Detention Working Group workshop
- Country of origin & legal news headlines
- Requests, announcements, publications & opportunities
This year, for the first time, the World Bank dedicated its 2012 annual flagship World Development Report to women as indispensable players in the global economy and launched a media campaign to 'think equal'. But while bold statements and glossy reports paint the picture of benevolent financial institutions throwing money behind the gender justice struggle, the paper trail of IFI investments leads elsewhere - down into mines and barren fields, where big business is reaping private profit at the expense of women's safety, equality and dignity.
AIDC has organised a series of activities at the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, between 1-6 December.
A visit from seasoned advisors...