Pambazuka News 461: Obama, oil and AFRICOM
Pambazuka News 461: Obama, oil and AFRICOM
If the South African state is a democracy, Michael Neocosmos asks in Pambazuka News, how has it condoned the deployment of violence and murder on the shackdwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, an organisation of the poor that has ‘engaged in peaceful protests’ and ‘advocated peaceful alternatives to the dominant politics’? At the root of the problem of the state reaction to Abahlali, Neocosmos argues, is ‘not simply a failure of democracy, but a systematic failure of citizenship and of the nation.’
Conversations with Writers speaks to Zimbabwean writer Jennifer Armstrong about the influences on her work, from immigration and identity, to Dambudzo Marechera and philosophical theory.
‘I am an angry African,’ Assefa Bequele writes in this week’s Pambazuka News, challenging the continent’s failure to meet its collective responsibilities to children. ‘I will tell you why and what, I hope, we can do to build an Africa fit for children and help nurture an African man and woman that can walk with pride on the world stage’, says Bequele, calling on fellow Africans to ‘have the courage and be the first to speak out and engage in the defence of the inherent rights of all human beings including children’.
Sudan’s oil deposits have made it one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, yet ‘violence, disease and malnutrition’ continue to kill its people, Khadija Sharife writes in this week’s Pambazuka News. With access to natural resources from water to grazing land already at tipping point and cited as a root cause of the country’s conflict, Sharife assesses the role played by the Khartoum government and multinational interests in diverting much needed oil wealth from the Sudanese people.
Dictatorship presents 'a far more perilous threat to the survival of Africans than climate change', Alemayehu G. Mariam writes in this week’s Pambazuka News. But with the widespread acknowledgement that global warming ‘could affect Africa disproportionately’, and that the continent is ‘entitled to assistance to overcome the effects of greenhouse emissions caused by the industrialised countries’, Mariam argues that its dictators ‘are using global warming as their new preferred ideology behind which they can hide and ply their trade of corruption'.
As delegates from 192 countries meet in Copenhagen to discuss a climate deal, Percy F. Makombe says the talks should be about implementing the Kyoto Protocol rather than negotiating a new agreement. But will developed countries commit to adequate reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions?
‘Whatever our culture, we must treat animals in a humane way,’ William Gumede writes in this week’s Pambazuka News, following the recent approval of South African courts for the sacrifice of a bull as part of a traditional thanksgiving ritual. ‘African culture has a long tradition of democratic practices,’ writes Gumede, but it also ‘has some very autocratic practices’ and it isn’t wrong to admit this or to say ‘let’s discard such aspects’.
Crisis Action is an independent, non-profit organisation that works with others to ensure civilians are protected both from and during armed conflict. We are now looking for a creative, effective and dynamic person to head up a new office in Nairobi, Kenya to lead our work towards the African Union.
On behalf of the Pan Africa ILGA part of the global Pan Africa International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA). We write to express our concern about THE UGANDA ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY BILL, NO 18, 2009.
Gambian president, Yahya Jammeh, is once again on the offensive against homosexuality, describing the practice as an act of 'indecency' which has no place in the country's military.
Guinea's military junta has pulled out of crisis talks with opposition groups to wait for the recovery and return of its leader, Captain Dadis Camara, who is receiving treatment in Morocco following an assassination bid.
One year after receiving the Rafto Prize, pastor Bulambo Lembelembe Josué, right, is still fighting to establish a dialogue between the rebel soldiers, government and international forces, and civilians in the Congolese Kivu region.
Few are more aware of the devastating legacy failure will leave than the teams of African negotiators in the Danish capital to hammer out a final position. As talks began on Dec. 7, the Africa Group had put numbers to the hard line taken at a preparatory conference in Barcelona last month.
Zimbabwe’s ruling political party has been accused of launching a "widespread and systematic campaign of rape and sexual terror" aimed at intimidating opponents and voters in the troubled African nation, according to a new report released here.
In the last three decades, changes in the global economy have led to debt and balance of payments crises in many African countries. They desperately needed foreign exchange which they could only get from the World Bank and the IMF. These institutions used this opportunity to expand their influence over the recipients' national policies. This paper discusses country ownership which is a central issue of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.
Mauritanian authorities detained three top businessmen charged with embezzling millions of euros of public funds late on Wednesday in a case that has sparked new political tensions in the desert state.
The time that Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak has spent in a jail in Eritrea, without a trial and without any visits from his family or lawyers, today reached 3,000 days.
Countries taking part in Africa's most detailed survey of research and innovation to date have been given a three-month extension to gather the required data. The extension was granted at a workshop for the African Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (ASTII) initiative that took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last week (30 November – 3 December).
China is continuing to show an interest in developing African research capacity with the announcement of a cooperation programme in science and technology.
A United States couple has been indicted on charges of conspiracy, forced labour, document servitude, which is confiscating someone's passport and visa, and harbouring an alien for financial gain, the Justice Department announced.
This month's deadly bombing of a medical school's graduation ceremony in Somalia will likely reduce the popularity of the country's main Islamist insurgency, despite the group's denial of involvement, say analysts. A civilian uprising against Al-Shabab seems to be under way, with street demonstrations in Mogadishu on 7 December, and in camps for the internally displaced (IDPs) on 8 December.
Sierra Leone has made a strong start in compensating war victims but these are early days: Long-term government commitment and funding is needed, says an NGO which monitors progress in this area.
Aid agencies have been unable to fully meet the needs of tens of thousands of people who have fled inter-communal clashes over natural resources in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
The percentage of HIV-positive mothers who pass the virus to their newborn babies in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Province has dropped by nearly two-thirds since dual antiretroviral (ARV) therapy was introduced for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT).
When an aid vehicle is stolen in the eastern Chad town of Abéché, some people cheer and say the aid organization got what it deserved, according to the French think-tank Emergency Rehabilitation Development (URD), which is preparing a report on the impact of international aid groups on Abéché residents.
Eastern Sudan hosts more than 66,000 registered Eritrean refugees, the first of whom arrived in 1968 during the early years of Eritrea’s war of independence against Ethiopia. These days, Eritrea’s policy of indefinite military conscription, coupled with drought and poor economic opportunities, prompt some 1,800 people to cross into Sudan every month, according to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR.
Every December, the village of Kangete, in eastern Kenya's Nyambene District, gears up for yet another season of festivities - not Christmas, however, but the initiation of hundreds of young men into manhood through circumcision
The role of blood-borne HIV infections from unsanitary healthcare procedures has been underestimated in sub-Saharan Africa's HIV/AIDS epidemic, according to several researchers and epidemiologists.
Mozambique's former rebel movement Renamo has banned its leader, Afonso Dhlakama, from speaking to the press. According to a report issue on 2 December 2009 in the local independent daily "O Pais", Renamo has threatened violence against any reporters who try to visit Dhlakama at his residence in the northern city of Nampula.
Permanent secretary for Media, Information and Publicity George Charamba, has conceded that the state has always had a controlling monopoly of radio services. He admitted to this in an interview with the Herald newspaper where he sharply criticized the continued operation of Voice of America's (VOA) Studio 7 amid allegations by his office that there was a government-to-government agreement between the United States and Botswana.
Stephen Marks compiles a roundup of emerging players in Africa News.
A group of senior officials from China, Africa, and from international organizations involved in health assistance in Africa met in Beijing on December 4-5, 2009 to review China's health assistance to Africa and to discuss opportunities for international cooperation in achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals in Africa.
Pambazuka News 460: Kenya's constitution: Some progress towards democracy and justice?
Pambazuka News 460: Kenya's constitution: Some progress towards democracy and justice?
One of the key settings that is often a point of contact for women, including survivors of violence and HIV positive women, is health systems. It is for this reason that it is critical that an essential package of services delivered should be part of a comprehensive response to the two interlinked crises of HIV and violence against women and girls. What does this entail?
Chenjerai Hove is considered to be one of Zimbabwe´s foremost writers, and a volume of critical essays on all aspects of his work is being planned for publication by Africa World Press in association with Weaver Press. this is a call for proposals for contributions towards this planned critical volume.
The ICC Prosecutor has issued a notice by which he informs victims of alleged crimes committed in Kenya during the post-election violence of 2007-2008 that he will request authorization from Pre-trial Chamber II to open an investigation into such alleged crimes, in accordance with Article 15(3) of the Rome Statute and Rule 50 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence.
10 tactics for turning information into action' will be launched at the Frontline Club in London, December 4. This event will be the first of a series of global screenings of '10 tactics', the documentary film by Tactical Tech. Locations include Nairobi, Kenya; Berlin, Germany; Beirut, Lebanon Sydney, Australia; Upington, South Africa; Tbilisi, Georgia; New Jersey, USA; Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil and Banjarmarsin, Indonesia.
The Story of Cap and Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled, entertaining look at the leading climate mitigation strategy being imposed by elites at the Copenhagen summit and in Washington and most other capitals and financial centers. Host Annie Leonard introduces the people at the heart of this scheme - energy traders and Wall Street financiers.
The Twenty Ten project is inspired by the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the media opportunities this has to offer. It will be the first time that the FIFA World Cup competition takes place on the African continent. Football plays a vibrant part in life in communities across the continent. Taking a cue from this, Twenty Ten aims to give African journalists a voice, both in Africa and worldwide, by offering them an opportunity to express their own views of African reality, as opposed to having to depend on foreign news organizations.
Jacob Zuma, the President of Africa’s most powerful democracy since April 2009, and the recently chosen ‘African President of the Year’ (Sapa 2009), arouses strong passions from his supporters and detractors. A longtime ANC official from a humble peasant background in what is now Kwazulu-Natal province, Zuma was picked by the ANC to be the country’s deputy president under Thabo Mbeki in 1999.
This Bulletin began in response to news reports of “corrective” and “curative” gang rapes of lesbians in South Africa. These were then followed by news reports of a study in South Africa that found that one in four men in South Africa had committed rape, many of them more than once.
Working in the field of violence against women has been quite a journey and experience for me, both empowering and at times very sad. Every year, Gender Links works in partnership with other organisations to provide survivors of gender violence with opportunities to tell their stories. Having participated in this project, I know that by telling their stories, survivors begin a healing process. I also know that each of these stories represent thousands more that never get told.
The Copenhagen summit is set to begin, and all the preparations should have been completed - most of all, a draft of the final outcome. Instead, it seems the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are further apart than they had been, two years ago when the Bali Action Plan, was launched.
The Africa Group took the lead in Barcelona in demanding that there be progress in the Kyoto Protocol group on the numbers for emission reduction by developed countries. They insisted that this group focus first on the "numbers", and then only after that deal with other issues.
HIV/AIDS remains a major health and development challenge in Africa. According to the 2009 AIDS Epidemic Update by the UNAIDS and World Health Organization, 22.4 million Africans live with HIV/AIDS. At least 1.9 million Africans contracted HIV in 2008 and 1.4 million died of AIDS in the same year. Every day in Africa, about 5200 Africans contract HIV and at least 3800 Africans die of AIDS.
This course is an intensive introduction to System Dynamics, a unique framework for understanding and managing complex development problems. Through case studies and practical exercises, the course will equip participants with the knowledge and skills required to effectively understand, map, and analyze complex national and global development challenges using a systemic perspective, and to determine the best approaches to mitigate them.
With the worsening of the global food crisis, general international agreement has emerged regarding the importance of smallholder agriculture in the battle against hunger and poverty. However, public debate has been highly restricted and increasingly dominated by conventional, market-led, and corporate approaches to aid and agricultural development.
For 41 years the Robert F Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights has worked for a more peaceful and just world. On Monday evening in a ceremony at the White House Magodonga Mahlangu and WOZA, represented by WOZA co-founder Jenni Williams, were presented with the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award by President Barack Obama and Mrs Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert F. Kennedy.
Ekklesia is calling on on Christians around the world, and particularly Christian leaders, to oppose the extreme and violent “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” proposed in Uganda by signing this . Ekklesia calls on the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, to end his silence on the matter, to condemn the bill in public and to urge Ugandan Christians to oppose it.
Resource-rich Angola was once known as the scene of Africa's longest-running civil war. Today, life expectancy hovers around 44 years — not unlike that of an average Briton living in the 1800s. Over 70% of the population lives in poverty, and the country has one of the highest child mortality rates in the world. And the nation's lifetime dictator of 30 years, Jose Dos Santos, leader of the liberation-party-turned-permanent-government, the MPLA, does not appear to have lost his lust for the throne.
As Angola celebrates 34 years of independence on 11 November, Khadija Sharife looks at the legacy of war, oil and geopolitics in a country where the future of its chief export, oil, has already been mortgaged.
"We are the children of an illusion that consisted in believing that the independences of our countries signified the end of colonization." -- Interview with Houria Bouteldja, spokesperson of the decolonial movement in France known as the "Mouvement des Indigènes de la République"
A new report entitled: Public Broadcast Services in Africa Series has urged the government of Zimbabwe to commit to media reforms. Citing the highly controversial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which established the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Commission, a body that has immense power to make or break all media in the country; the report, launched in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, urges the government to place top priority in ensuring that: ‘Laws inhibiting the free operations of the media are repealed without delay.’
FAHAMU has joined the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA). ICVA is concerned with refugees around the world and is headquartered in Geneva where it works with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Membership of ICVA has been largely confined to agencies delivering humanitarian assistance but since 2005, NGOs concerned with refugee rights have begun to join ICVA. FAHAMU wants to encourage this shift in direction towards a concentration on refugee rights.
ICVA maintains targeted e-mail distribution lists to share information and analyses of on-going policy processes and debates and to maintain and foster active links and alliances with, and among its members. These lists are also used to solicit NGO input to help ensure a more adequate representation of NGO views on the international level.
One of its targeted mailing lists is open to NGOs who are not members of ICVA. FAHAMU therefore encourages refugee/human rights organizations to subscribe to this list by writing an email to [email][email protected] What you will receive is detailed below. Please indicate that you heard of this invitation through FAHAMU or Pambazuka News.
· Refugee/IDP Issues: ICVA is the focal point for coordinating NGO statements and other input to UNHCR’s governing bodies: the Executive and Standing Committees. ICVA uses this list to ask for volunteers to both draft and provide substantial input to the NGO statements for the two Committees or other meetings UNHCR may hold, and to consolidate NGO input for the Executive Committee’s Conclusions and Decisions. ICVA co-hosts UNHCR’s Annual Consultations with NGOs, and uses this list to engage NGOs in the preparations. Members on this list will also receive messages on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other issues related to forced displacement, which come up in the context of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) or other international policy and coordination bodies like the clusters.
It appears that former president Moi’s tenure at Kiptagich 900 hectares in the Mau may be ending soon. Writing in the Standard on Sunday newspaper, Juma Kwayera claims that the Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s communications office issued a despatch as follows: “On Monday we are sending emissaries to Moi to surrender the Kiptagich Tea Plantation or we take it by force.”
Researchers on Northern Kenya severely contest the Cultural Survival Report to the UN Human Rights Council on the Samburu: The truth will only be known by an Independent Investigation into the Violence in Northern Kenya, says watchdog Mars Group Kenya.
In Mali the government has approved long-term leases for outside investors to develop more than 160,000 hectares of land. Government officials say the country could not develop its cultivable land otherwise, but local farmers say they fear being pushed out.
Madagascar’s opposition has accused the country’s leader Andry Rajoelina of stalling negotiations on forming a consensus government. One of the Indian Ocean island’s two co-presidents accused Rajoelina, who took power in a military-backed coup in March, of denting hopes of restoring constitutional order and winning back frozen donor funds.
Zimbabwe's battered economy is on track to expand for the first time in a decade this year and to grow by 7 percent in 2010 as key sectors such as agriculture and mining start to recover, the finance minister said on Wednesday.
The ruling Swapo has taken a comfortable lead as results of last weekend's national elections continued to trickle in. Also, the opposition Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) is fast emerging as the new official opposition.
The South African government has announced that it will provide treatment for all HIV-positive babies in a significant policy shift for the country which has been ravaged by the pandemic.
Harry Mkandawire, Malawi president Binguwa Mutharika most senior northern region political ally-turned-bitter critic, has accused the president of political intolerance. The Mzuzu Magistrates Court late Monday granted Mkandawire a 300, 000 Malawi kwacha (about US$2,000) bail following his arrest last Friday on allegations that he was inciting violence and using insulting language against the president.
Qaabata Boru, the editor of KANERE Refugee Free Press, writes of a recent assault he suffered and his loss of important personal property.
Michael Keating reviews Fantu Cheru's 'Africa’s Development in the 21st Century: Reshaping the Research Agenda', a book which he regards as inevitably limited by the fact that it is a mere 47 pages long.
Issa G. Shivji writes of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere's conceptions of nationalism in Africa, ideas which encompassed both the political through liberatory principles and the universal through transcending narrow identities. Debates around the economic success of his policies notwithstanding, Nyerere's greatest legacy, Shivji writes, was his sweeping vision of African unity.
Chinese civil society differs from its African counterpart in that its constituent organisations commonly enjoy the direct support of the government in a way that those in Africa do not, writes Yazini April. Greater collaboration between these two parties should at the very least encourage African civil society to follow the Chinese example in becoming genuinely productive, April concludes.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Lamido Sanusi's financial reform, writes Kola Ibrahim, will do nothing more than re-assert the dominance of a rapacious capitalist class in Nigeria. While public ownership of services rooted in the welfare of Nigeria's people remains most desirable, Ibrahim contends, Sanusi and his ilk can be counted on to simply support the entrenched political class.
Nicholas Oloo berates the selfishness of Kenya's leaders and their apparent disdain for the welfare of the wider population.
In light of South Africa's entrenched poverty, William Gumede argues that the country's National Planning Commission must operate 'like the command centre of a country at war'. Tackling poverty and achieving economic progress require harnessing every resource and talent at the country's disposal, Gumede writes, and instilling a culture 'where failure is not an option'.
Following last week's Great Ethiopian Run, Alemayehu G. Mariam discusses an event that is more an act of mass civil disobedience than a running race. Drawing inspiration from Nelson Mandela's success in embarking on a continuous 'long walk to freedom' in South Africa, Mariam stresses that through undertaking its own marathon, Ethiopia will one day complete a route towards freedom, democracy and human rights.
Commenting on the Harmonised Draft Constitution produced by Kenya's Committee of Experts (CoE), Yash Ghai lauds a document envisaging a more open society and considerably enhanced socio-economic conditions for Kenya's people. With little time remaining to consider and scrutinise the draft however, Kenyans must take the opportunity to comment on and shape the document before it returns to the country's parliamentarians, Ghai emphasises.
Having sought clarification from Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos over his involvement in business activities contravening state regulations, Rafael Marques de Morais discusses the broad culture of corruption and questionable practices normalised within the country's government. Considering why the president's dubious actions enjoy the total support of members of the government, Marques de Morais concludes that the answer lies in mutual benefit: 'they do as the president wishes so that they too may act with impunity'.
The causes of world’s ecological crisis can be traced to capitalism, Trevor Ngwane writes in this week’s Pambazuka News, but socialism still needs to give greater weight to environmental considerations – not least because it is the working class which is most vulnerable to the negative impacts of the crisis.
The Lake Kivu basin, which Rwanda shares with the DR Congo, contains vast quantities of methane gas, which can be used to provide desperately needed electricity. But a deadly threat lurks beneath the waters of the lake, as Khadija Sharife finds out in this week’s Pambazuka News.
In this week's emerging powers in Africa watch, Stephen Marks reviews the work of researchers Yoon Park and Barry Sautman who have teamed up to explore the seldom- researched topic of anti-Chinese feeling - and the distinct but interrelated phenomenon of anti-China sentiment - in Southern Africa.
Men and women with disabilities face many challenges in Southern Africa, especially related to discrimination and access to services. For many women, this also means that they face challenges when accessing health care services at one of the times when it is most important – when they are pregnant.
Last year I told my story about how a man in my community had harassed me, until one day he finally beat me so badly I had to go to the hospital, just because I am disabled. This day was a terrible day for me, it even left me with scars. Even worse, for four years after that day, I did not go back to that place. I even left my house there, and went to live with my mother. I did not want to see him or face him.
It is Norwegian interests in the island’s strategic location and offshore oil deposits that are behind Norway’s recent flurry of engagement in Zanzibar’s local politics and peace talks, writes Chambi Chachage in this week’s Pambazuka News.
The Soccer World Cup represents major economic opportunities for South Africa. It represents the possibility of showcasing South Africa to the world, and everything it is possible of accomplishing. However, the less glamorous side is the possible increase in sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
Equatorial Guinea is perhaps the world's most striking example of why oil hurts, rather than helps, many of the countries that have it. In this week’s Pambazuka News, Tutu Alicante and Lisa Misol ask whether the US’s Obama administration will stop the country's President Obiang from sucking its people dry.
For the first time at a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, at CHOGM in Trinidad & Tobago, there was significant representation of GLBTQ (gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender/queer) activists among civil society participants, and a concerted effort to highlight issues of sexual citizenship and rights.