Leaders and representatives of journalists' trade unions, associations and press freedom organizations from 11 countries in Eastern Africa have resolved to carry out an effective and collective campaign against repressive media laws and the culture of impunity against journalists and the media as well as to collaborate to address working conditions of media professionals in the region to enhance quality and ethical journalism.

Cut Off My Tongue explores the truths that shape us as Kenyans - our beliefs, the way we behave and why. It is no ordinary reading of poetry, but a spirited invocation to Africans to colonize and mold their own history. It is a show about land, about tribe, about personal discovery, about identity and relationships. The show makes you think and laugh at the same time. It rants, sweats, breaks into song and dance!

Police in Zanzibar have banned a Muslim group from demonstrating in the islands in support of the recent move by Zanzibar legislators to demand ‘oil and natural gas’ be removed from the list of union matters. The Association for Islamic Mobilisation and Propagation (JUMUKI) had notified the police of their plan to demonstrate Friday in what they termed as “to show our support to Zanzibar government and legislators on ‘oil and natural gas’ issue.”

Zanzibar marks the International Malaria Day this week with a remarkable record of combating the disease in the isles, as medical authorities put emphasis on ‘proper malaria diagnosis before treatment or using medicine.” “Some people including medical practitioners prescribe malaria treatment before diagnosis,” medical practitioners said here yesterday at one-day workshop on “updating journalists about malaria in Zanzibar. Malaria prevalence in Zanzibar has dropped from 40 per cent in 2004 to one per cent or less in 2007, according to Zanzibar Malaria Control Programme (ZMCP) statistics.

Dawit Isaak, a journalist,writer and playwright born 1964 in Eritrea came to Sweden as a refugee from the war in 1987 and became a Swedish citizen in 1992. When Eritrea gained independence, Dawit Isaak returned to his native country and became a part-owner of the country's first independent newspaper, Setit. Dawit Isaak was taken into custody on 23 september 2001. He has not been either charged formally or given a fair trial. Neither his family nor Swedish authorities nor international human rights organizations, International Journalist Association or International PEN have been allowed to visit him.

The accused, Constance Rukia, was taken to court on Monday and charged with assault causing bodily harm (under section 251 of the Penal Code). The case will be mentioned on Monday April 27 at the Chief Magistrate’s Court. So far, COVAW and KHRC are the only organizations that have officially agreed to watch brief for the case and several activists have written statements of support on internet listservs in reaction to the hate crime that happened last week. We would like to see a bigger show of solidarity particularly from within civil society

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the dapper former French finance minister who runs the International Monetary Fund, is finding it hard to conceal a certain swagger in Washington this weekend. If there is one big winner from the wrenching financial crisis of the past year, and the scramble by shell-shocked governments to tackle the turmoil, it is the IMF.

Days after a judge confirmed Shell Oil will stand trial here May 26 on charges it was complicit in the murders of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Nigerian activists, environmental and human rights groups announced they have formed a global campaign to hold Shell accountable and demand that it stop gas flaring in Nigeria.

The board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was meeting on Monday to discuss Zimbabwe, an official said. The IMF’s Africa Department Director Antoinette Sayeh added that the financial institution is satisfied with the progress made so far by the inclusive government and as such it would offer “small, technical assistance” in due course and encouraged other donors to follow suit.

Gender Links, a dynamic Southern African NGO that promotes gender equality through its media, justice and governance programmes, seeks to fill the post of knowledge and training manager for an initial three year period.

Gender Links, a dynamic Southern African NGO based in Johannesburg that promotes gender equality and justice through its media, justice and governance programmes seeks to fill the post of Gender Justice and Local Government Manager on an initial two year contract basis.

South African History Online and the Centre for Sociological Research at the University of Johannesburg issues a call for papers for a conference to be held in September 2009 in Johannesburg South Africa. We are committed to critically engaging with Dadoo's legacy, interrogating impulses of the time that might have been written out of history and crucially wanting to ask if the solutions that Dadoo and his generation sought in building non racialism and socialism have anything to say to the present generation and the striving to build a democracy in the context globally the contemporary configuration of economic and political power relations and locally the legacies of apartheid.

Presidents of oil-producing African countries who are close allies of France are not used to questions being asked about their luxury cars or their homes in chic parts of Paris, but that is changing fast. French anti-corruption activists are trying to prod the justice system into questioning how the leaders of Gabon, Congo Republic and Equatorial Guinea and their families could afford to acquire assets worth tens of millions of euros in France.

Army troops in the Central African Republic killed up to 30 civilians in February in the Ndele region, a BBC investigation has found. Witnesses say the government soldiers shot dead 21 people in the village of Sokumba, about 70km (44 miles) from the border with Chad. Other human rights abuses committed by both the national army and rebels have been reported in the area.

Ivory Coast's ambassador to the United Nations has said his country's much-postponed presidential election will take place by the end of this year. Ilahiri Djedje told the UN Security Council the vote, due since President Laurent Gbagbo's mandate ran out in 2005, would be held by 6 December. Efforts have been continuing to reunify the country after a civil war that left half of it in rebel hands.

Highlighting the relative strength of Kenyans' voting power despite the country's difficulties, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem contends that Nigerians have no illusions around their own votes. With Ekiti State witnessing the re-run of its local election following the Court of Appeal's 17 February 2009 ruling, the State Governor and People's Democratic Party's (PDP) Olusegun Oni faced Dr Kayode Fayemi of Action Congress (AC) on 25 April. Of national significance in potentially denting the PDP's near-monopoly of political power, the determination of electoral monitors to oversee a clean count led to their suffering a brutal attack by PDP thugs while en route back to the state capital Ado Ekiti, an attack observed with amusement by local police. While the intervention of a senior officer stopped the attack, the victims were then ludicrously arrested and detained over a 48-hour period in Abuja. This situation, Abdul-Raheem contends, is tantamount to a June 12 1992 – when Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida oversaw the forceful detention of a candidate he found unpalatable – at state level, the overall responsibility for which must lay at President Umaru Yar' Adua's door.

cc In response to Mahmood Mamdani's article

© In an interview with S’bu Zikode, Richard Pithouse questions the president of South Africa's Abahlali baseMjondolo shackdwellers’ movement about his understanding of a living politics and the considerable struggles faced by the movement. Zikode, the elected leader of the group, discusses the core importance of looking to ordinary people for political direction and beginning within the needs of your community as part of an inclusive approach which embraces debate and differences of opinion. As an antidote to the South African state's domination, Abahlali, Zikode explains, works to challenge the underlying greed advanced by the state's endeavour to sustain social divisions through empowering people to engage and shape the struggle in a way sensitive to the needs and roles of all.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/430/55957_Petina_Gappah_tmb.jpgIn an interview with , the Zimbabwean author Petina Gappah talks about the influences behind her work and the pressure she feels in being published by Faber.

More than 100,000 displaced civilians in Lubero territory in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo desperately need protection from further attacks by Rwandan militias and Congolese forces, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations peacekeeping force and humanitarian agencies to take urgent steps to increase protection and assistance to the civilians at risk.

Guinean soldiers have been implicated in regular acts of theft and violence against businesspeople and ordinary citizens since a new government took power in a military coup in December 2008, Human Rights Watch has said. The new government should put a stop to these attacks and make certain that the police, gendarmerie, and judiciary carry out independent investigations and prosecute implicated soldiers.

On April 8, the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone passed sentences on three former commanders of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), bringing to an end the trials of militia leaders deemed responsible for atrocities committed during the country's bloody civil war, fought from 1991 to 2002. Issa Sesay, the interim leader of the RUF after the death of its founder Foday Sankoh, field commander Morris Kallon and chief of security Augustine Gbao were found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and serious violations of international humanitarian law. The three were slammed with a total of 117 years in prison.

Open source document manager, KnowledgeTree, has released a new community edition of its application with a new text extraction engine and stability improvements. This latest release of the application, version 3.6 Community Edition, also includes a new core API and RESTful interface to improve application integration

The decision by the Washington-based International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) came after a six-year legal battle between a group of Dutch farmers and President Robert Mugabe's government. It finally ruled last week that Mr Mugabe's government had broken a bilateral investment treaty with the Netherlands and awarded the group more than £14 million in compensation.

The authorities in Zimbabwe have continued their persecution of two officials of the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Gandhi Mudzingwa and Kisimusi Dhlamini have been detained under armed police guard in a Harare hospital since 20 April, despite having been released on bail on 17 April.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called for the release of three journalists and the reopening of the private radio Jubbaa in Baidoa, Somalia. “The attacks on press freedom are becoming worse and worse in this country, especially with the Al Shabaab militia who have being doing everything to stifle the media” said Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ Africa Office, “the new government should take the necessary measures to protect journalists in order to guarantee press freedom and freedom of expression”.

Ensuring gender equality and promoting the participation of women in the search for peace in Darfur are among the aims of a new initiative launched by the United Nations in the strife-torn Sudanese region. Under a cooperation agreement announced today, police serving with the joint African Union-UN hybrid operation in Darfur (UNAMID) will team up with the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) to support innovative measures to boost the standing of women in the region.

The number of Mauritanian refugees that have returned home from years of exile in Senegal under a programme launched by the United Nations refugee agency last year has now topped 10,000. Amath Thioye was named the 10,000th returnee and was part of a convoy carrying 360 Mauritanians that arrived in the town of Boghé in southwest Brakna province last week, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Fears are being expressed that another poor rainy season could lead to a 'severe' humanitarian crisis in Kenya. The Kenya meteorological department is predicting the long rains will be poorly distributed and too little. It follows an appeal from the government for food aid for up to ten million people.

This latest policy briefing from the International Crisis Group, argues that the Technical Committee report submitted on 1 December 2008 represents the most promising effort to develop a coherent strategy in the Delta. It urges the government to seize the opportunity for ending armed conflict and beginning longer-term development in the oil-rich region.

World Press Freedom Day on 3 May comes just a few days after the dust has settled on the 22 April South African elections. While some have bemoaned the lack of depth in media coverage, the elections and media coverage have - by and large - been certified as free and fair. But how true is that when viewed through a gender lens? We start from the premise that freedom of expression means that all views and voices are heard.

cc The whole financial system has to be broken down and rebuilt so that finance serves the real economy – and if the private sector does not deliver this, then the government must intervene, Heinner Flassbeck, UNCTAD’s chief economist has said in a wide-ranging interview with Riaz K. Tayob. A recent report from UNCTAD calls for ‘much more regulation’ to avoid ‘excessive speculation’ which treats commodities as an asset class. Flassbeck slates the G20 for its ‘traditional’ approach, which he says does not go far enough to address the misallocation of resources caused by ‘overshooting’ currencies and commodity prices.

The making of a new constitution is slowly turning into one big fight. That our country needs to revitalise itself is in no doubt, and the fact that it needs a constitutional overhaul is also a well known fact. But the road to constitutional reform is full of landmines, and more will be planted if threats by the National Constitutional Assembly and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions are to be taken seriously.

Up to 1.7 million people in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and Asia are at risk of antiretroviral treatment interruption due to the global financial downturn, according to a survey published by the World Bank.The World Bank report Averting a human crisis during the global downturn was published in advance of the World Bank’s spring meeting in Washington DC.

Poor countries, including Kenya, are to receive financial support to develop and diversify exports when the ongoing trade negotiations under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are concluded. WTO members have pledged to assist Least Developed Country (LDC) members in addressing their supply side capacity constraints, as well as the challenges that will occur due to increased competition as tariff rates used to protect their economies drop, once the Doha Round is concluded.

The United Nations anti-racism conference in Geneva concluded its general debate after hearing statements on new forms of racist discrimination and expelling three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for disruptive behaviour. A number of the UN agencies spoke at the five-day Durban Review Conference, which comes to a close tomorrow, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), which warned that saying no to racism in the work is key to promoting respect, tolerance and inclusiveness.

This AfricaFocus Bulletins contains excerpts from two World Malaria Day articles on recent initiatives against malaria, one by Sue Mbaya, Africa Advocacy Coordinator for World Vision, based in Nairobi and one by UNICEF on Children & Malaria. And, from an article about the UN Foundation's "Nothing but Nets" initiative to mobilize individual contributors for supplying bednets.

cc Reflecting on Haiti’s current instability and tumultuous existence, Kimani Waweru provides an historical analysis of the Caribbean island, speculating that the root causes of problems affecting Haiti also transpire in Kenya and much of the developing world. By establishing a correlation between Haitian and Kenyan experiences, the author proposes a need for Kenya to learn from Haiti’s struggle. Despite its remarkable success in being the first Latin American country to gain independence, the first post-colonial nation with a black leadership, and the only country to have gained independence through a successful slave rebellion, Haitians have been subjected to unfathomable duress. Colonialism, slavery, exploitation, invasion, occupation, and corruption in politics have permeated Haiti’s historical landscape. Through the adoption of revolutionary ideology and the elimination of Western rhetoric, which fails to prioritise citizens’ interests, Waweru believes Kenyans can counter imperialism's strength and foster an arena for social justice.