This report presents the findings of preliminary quantitative and qualitative surveys of workers on commercial farms in the wake of the catastrophic "Land Reform" policy in Zimbabwe. Whilst the companion reports produced from this series of projects have received some attention, this report is the first to deal solely with data gathered from the farm workers themselves.

Former Congolese warlord Laurent Nkunda is ready to face trial for alleged war crimes or go into exile to end his detention without charge in Rwanda, his lawyer said.

A Ugandan preacher with close ties to U.S. evangelicals and President Yoweri Museveni's family said on Friday he planned to organise a "million-man" march in February to support a proposed anti-gay law in parliament.

Fighting in central Somalia has killed at least 138 people and displaced 63,000 others in the last two weeks, a rights group said on Friday. Hizbul Islam and its rival, al Shabaab -- branded by Washington as an al Qaeda proxy in the region -- want to impose a strict version of Islamic sharia law in the Horn of Africa nation that has had no functional central government since 1991.

A pilot drugs supply management project called "SMS for Life" has Tanzania authorities excited over its potential. The project, which brings together IBM, Novartis, Vodafone and the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, taps into a combination of smart technologies to track and manage the supply of anti-malarial drugs.

An Amazigh-language TV channel first proposed three years ago finally hit Moroccan airwaves on January 6th, satisfying a long-awaited demand by a significant percentage of the country’s citizens.

Four of the world’s largest and fastest-growing carbon emitters will meet in New Delhi this month ahead of a January 31 deadline for countries to submit their action plans to combat climate change.

A harmonised draft constitution has now been handed over to Kenya's Parliamentary Select Committee. Influential Christian leaders are warning that the question of abortion could derail the constitutional review process.

Preparations for presidential elections scheduled for the end of February or the beginning of March - elections which have already been postponed numerous times since 2005 - have again reached an impasse in Côte d'Ivoire.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has accused the media and the public of ‘trying and convicting’ Thulani Rudd, accused of murdering the woman she was engaged to, before the investigation has even been completed.

Reporters Without Borders has written, on the third anniversary of Eritrean journalist Fessehaye “Joshua” Yohannes’ death in detention, to Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, asking him to do everything possible to obtain an improvement in the conditions of journalists imprisoned in Eritrea.

A study on African Large-Scale Wind Turbine Market, has found that the market earned revenues of over $148.4 million in 2008 and estimates this to reach $424.3 million in 2015, according to a new analysis from Frost & Sullivan.

Angolan legislators are expected to endorse the new constitution that will strengthen the three decades-long rule of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos. The vote comes earlier than expected as the nation reels from a deadly rebel attack last week. The vote was expected in March.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) “accelerated child survival programme” in 11 West African countries did not save significantly more lives than in areas that were not targeted, says an evaluation published in The Lancet this week - but analysts say this does not mean UNICEF was doing the wrong things.

A study finding that foreigners are about half as likely to fail antiretroviral (ARV) treatment as South African citizens attending the same Johannesburg clinic has challenged widely held assumptions about migrants' ability to adhere to HIV/AIDS drug regimens.

The Centre for African Studies Basel calls for applications for two doctoral positions funded by the Humer Foundation (Humer-Stiftung zur Förderung des wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses). The research is to be carried out within the framework of the interdisciplinary programme "Living the City", which addresses processes of invention and intervention in the dynamics of urbanisation in Africa.

Sharing the faith and optimism of the imprisoned political prisoner Birtukan Midekssa, Alemayehu G. Mariam stresses that Ethiopia's future is in the 'hands, hearts and minds of its people, not in the tea leaves read by the experts'. The battle for Ethiopia's future will be one between 'future-makers' and 'future-takers' Mariam contends, victory in which in the makers will defeat the takers' efforts to oversee a continuation of the past.

Chielo Zona Eze praises Doreen Baingana's 'Tropical Fish: Stories out of Entebbe', describing Baingana as a 'clever wizard who conjures a world of possibilities in the reader’s mind'.

. Edited by Sokari Ekine and featuring contributing chapters from authors such as Juliana Rotich, Ken Banks and Berna Ngolobe, 'SMS Uprising' brings together the experiences of activists using mobile phone technology on the African continent as well as providing understanding of the socio-economic, political and media contexts which activists face. The following article by Sokari Ekine comprises the book's introductory chapter.

Patrick Bond collates excerpts of testimonials about the late Dennis Brutus, ‘a poet whose work will be celebrated forever, and whose wisdom in so many campaigns for social justice will be sorely missed’, from institutions, individuals and the media.

With tens of millions of hectares of land across Africa auctioned off to corporations and governments in secretive deals, in this week’s Pambazuka News Khadija Sharife takes a closer look at a set of agreements between the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) and a group of white South African farmers. Will this partnership come at the expense of local people, Sharife asks, or could it generate models for freeing the continent from food insecurity through the sharing of resources and humanity?

An international discourse of China-in-Africa has emerged, particularly in Western countries with dense links to Africa: The US, the UK and France. In this article, Barry Sautman and Yan Hairong assert that while China’s presence in Africa should be critically examined, interest in it in the West is skewed by elite perceptions of China as a rival for resources and influence in Africa and as a rising power, with the tone of the discourse far more negative than that accorded to the Western presence in Africa.

‘Many liberation and political movements that valiantly opposed authoritarian regimes often behave in markedly undemocratic ways when in power themselves’, writes William Gumede. In an extract from a new book of essays, ‘The Poverty of Ideas’, Gumede explores the challenges South Africa faces in making the transition from an independence movement political culture to a democratic political culture.

While world leaders and NGO delegates from around the world converged in Copenhagen for the 15th UN climate change conference, thousands of activists, writers, academics and artists gathered at [mp3] features interviews with representatives of different countries across sub-Saharan Africa who were at Klimaforum. Wahu Kaara of the Kenya Debt Relief Network provides a critique of the UN climate change conference and addresses the significance of the Copenhagen mobilisation for movements in Kenya; Demba Moussa Dembélé, from the Jubilee South campaign in Senegal, talks about the need for sufficient funds to flow from the North to the South to compensate for ecological and climate debt; Julia Agwu from the University of Nigeria in Nsukka gives an analysis of gender and climate change and the impacts of climate change on women in Nigeria; and finally, Mabule Mokhine of the Greenhouse People's Environment Centre in Johannesburg explains the process by which land dispossession in South Africa was consolidated at the end of the apartheid and the need for collaborations between global grassroots movements.

Marion Grammer is surprised that Leslie Dikeni’s roll-call of South African intellectuals makes ‘not a single mention of the many so-called “coloured” and Indian intellectuals who were so prominent during the Apartheid years.’

The new year began with a lots of hand wringing, soul searching and even outright anger in the African blogosphere over Umar Farouk Abdul-Mutallab’s Christmas day attempt to bomb a Delta/Northwest Airline over Detroit, and the subsequent inclusion of Nigeria on the US terrorist watch list along with 13 other countries.

Uganda is making global headlines again, this time with a proposed law to execute citizens found guilty of ‘aggravated homosexuality.’Nick young explores the broader gender implications.

Gender Links, a dynamic Southern African NGO based in Johannesburg that promotes gender equality in and through the media, seeks to fill the post of Gender and Media Programme Manager on an initial two year contract basis. All applications must be received by close of business on Friday 15 January 2009. Late applications will not be considered. Candidates from within the SADC region are welcome to apply. GL is an equal opportunity employer.

This book attempts to scrutinize the relationship between criminal justice system and those of non-punitive approaches based on the principle of complementarity and discuss future ways in order to build a bridge across them. Dealing with atrocities many countries in the world have started to look more for mechanisms which deal with acknowledgment, forgiveness and reparation or/and reconciliation.

The World Bank, the IMF and the Ethiopian regime annual development reports have highlighted on Ethiopia’s higher GDP growth rate over the past 10 years, yet the UN development index and other indices [Misery Index] that measure the well-being of people have declined both absolutely and relative to many other African countries. The paradox of acute poverty and declining well-being of Ethiopians is found in various parts of the country and is pervasive across demographic groups.

Medhine is an Ethiopian Asylum seeker; she spent more than a year in the Egyptian Prison for illegal entry to Egypt. During her one year of detention, she lost her young daughter, who was suffering from severe diarrhea and vomiting. EFRR handled this case and tried to release her through submitting several cases to the office of the High General Prosecutor and National Council for Human Rights asking for her release.

The 2009 was a year of darkness, death, displacement, detention and violence against journalists and the entire media fraternity in Somalia, according to the annual report unveiled by the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ).

Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) has launched a report on the state of education in Zimbabwe entitled ‘Looking back to look forward - education in Zimbabwe: a WOZA perspective’. The recommendations contained in the report form the basis of WOZA’s current campaign on education.

Don't miss this excellent opportunity to learn how to respond to the emerging youth market in sub-Saharan Africa through the development of Youth Inclusive Financial Services. This two week course will be offered at the Sustainable Microenterprise and Development Program (SMDP) Ghana in Accra from March 15-26, 2010.

This latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines violent conflict that has claimed several thousand lives in 2009. Inter-tribal fighting, while not a new phenomenon, has taken on a new and dangerously politicised character, with the worst violence in and around the vast, often impassable state of Jonglei.

In order to collect information for his next report, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food launches a call for information on cases that illustrate the links among security of land tenure, access to land, and the right to food. He also intends to organize regional consultations.

The acting chairman of the Guinea's junta, the National Council for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD), General Sékouba Konaté, has vowed to create 'a new peaceful transition authority' that will soon set dates for elections.

Armed Nuer tribesmen killed at least 139 members of a rival tribe in an attack in a remote area of southern Sudan, an official has reported.

Zimbabwe has halted a controversial sale of 300 000 carats of diamonds, but blamed bureaucratic hold-ups rather than a scandal over rights abuses by the military in the diamond fields.