The Senegalese Minister of Agriculture, Amath Sall, has announced that "by 2012, Senegal will not import a single grain of rice." Record harvests in the River Senegal valley indicate the country is on the right course. The Dakar government has intensified its programmes to raise food production in the Sahelian country, with a special focus on rice as a staple food. Especially along the large valley of River Senegal, marking its border with Mauritania, results are now beginning to become visible.

Deposed Madagascan President Marc Ravalomanana will return to the island state under the protection of the 13-member regional body, the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Ravalomanana told a media briefing on 15 April in the capital of Swaziland, Mbabane, that his return would kick-start a national dialogue with his successor, President Andry Rajoelina, in the hope of holding presidential elections by the end of 2009. He did not divulge the date of his return.

Anecdotal evidence that entrenched cultural beliefs among Swazis actively encourage the spread of HIV/AIDS has been confirmed by a joint government and UN report. The study by UN the Population Fund (UNFPA) and Swaziland's Ministry of Health and Social Welfare - The State of the Swaziland Population - echoes warnings by local NGOs that "AIDS cannot be stopped unless there is a change in people's sexual behaviour."

People living with HIV in Uganda's northern region are facing critical shortages of essential medicines. Dr Paul Onek, director of health services in Gulu District, said supplies of malaria, tuberculosis (TB) and antiretroviral (ARV) drugs had all run out. "We last received TB drugs in January for only 400 TB patients."

On 11 April 2009, William Jalulah, the Upper East regional correspondent of the Accra-based "The Chronicle" newspaper, was violently assaulted by supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) for photographing a violent attack. The party supporters also destroyed his digital camera.

The tiny desert town of Abeche, in eastern Chad, offers a curious sight: Sandwiched between the mud huts that most people call home and the compounds belonging to international aid workers is a humble Chinese restaurant catering to Chad's growing population of Chinese engineers and managers. Significantly, no equivalent American-style restaurant is to be found.

Seardel’s decision to close Frame Textiles, with the loss of up to 1400 jobs, illustrates both the deep flaws in SA’s industrial strategy and the futility of trying to insulate the country from the global economic crisis by means of protectionist policies. Frame, the biggest textile operation in southern Africa, has been struggling for years to compete with cheap imports, soaring input costs and — for the past six months in particular — the collapse of export markets globally.

When corporates venture into other countries, the success of their businesses ventures, to a great extent, depends on the quality of services offered by banks and financial intermediaries in those countries. Hence, having a banking partner whose services are reliable is of utmost importance. HSBC, which has been in the forefront of helping Indian businesses find their feet in foreign lands, is of the view that Indian businesses, including SMEs, can look at Mauritius as an investment destination as well as a gateway to other African nations.

The establishment of not-for-profit, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in China is becoming increasingly popular as the necessity of providing private alternatives to social, economic, political, and cultural issues becomes apparent. Indeed, if China is to continue to flourish and expand, NGOs will play a critical role in making sure that it is done in a socially healthy and constructive manner that will be beneficial to all.

The biggest winner at the G-20 summit in London on April 2 was the International Monetary Fund, which received pledges for US$ 1.1 trillion, including US$ 500 billion from member countries and US$ 250 billion through the IMF’s special drawing rights (SDR) currency. But rounding up the cash and overcoming political obstacles within IMF-member countries will be difficult. Despite the summit’s grand promises, some funding details are fuzzy.

The G20 world economic group has being treating Africa with a leper-like caution, reason Africa is yet to qualify to be invited to her fold. In her November 2008 leaders meeting in Washington DC, no African country was invited, even African Union (AU) an organization body of Africa, was not invited, in exception of South Africa who on its own is a full member in the G20 economic group.

The Democratic Republic of Congo was born into crisis and, for its nearly 50 years of existence, it has more or less stayed there. From a civil war that nearly destroyed the newborn nation in the wake of independence, it descended into decades of parasitic rule at the hands of a strongman, Mobutu Sese Seko. As he raided the coffers of state mining companies, the desperate and starving masses occasionally looted what was left of the country’s rotting infrastructure. In 1994 inflation hit nearly 10,000%: small by today’s standard in Zimbabwe, but enough to help end Mr Mobutu’s rule three years later.

The ANC’s T-shirt suppliers are all South African, the ruling party protested yesterday after reports that its election campaign T-shirts, totalling millions of rands, are from China. “We needed two million T-shirts, that was the order. We used the services of a group of people who buy and print them. The suppliers bought the T-shirts, not the ANC,” said ANC spokesperson Jessie Duarte. “All our suppliers are South African. I don’t know anything about the Chinese.”

Dozens of Chinese students who saw little prospect of getting into a top medical school have secured admission by becoming nationals of the tiny west African country of Guinea-Bissau, a newspaper said on Thursday. Among the 112 international students that entered Peking University Health Science Center in 2007 and 2008 were 48 from Guinea-Bissau -- all ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the Shanghai Morning Post said.

A group of Chinese tourists have announced a travelling expedition from Ghana across the Sahara desert to help them learn more about Africa and also promote Ghana and the continent as a good tourist destination for other Chinese. The tourists will also serve as goodwill ambassadors for China by creating awareness among Chinese people about tourism opportunities and investment potentials on the continent.

China’s long-awaited medical reform plan arrived as spring flowers bloomed around Beijing. It consists of two documents: an “opinion on deepening health care reform” from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council; and “key points for implementing medical and health reform (2009-’11).”

Nigeria’s main militant group gave warning yesterday of further clashes with the military in the oil-producing Niger Delta and said it had moved two British hostages “out of harm’s way” in anticipation of unrest. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it would “join the fray” between the military joint task force and youths who it said were protesting against oil giant Royal Dutch Shell in the southern state of Bayelsa.

The American University in Cairo (AUC) Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) is pleased to announce its plans for an additional Graduate Diploma with a Specialization in Psychosocial Intervention for forced migrants and refugees beginning in September 2009.

Since coming to power in 2002, President Kibaki has gazetted the creation of 124 new districts and there are rumours of a possible 15 more being created. Experts speculate the objective is to pre-empt the intended constitutional boundaries review. The ad hoc creation of new districts is a continuation of the government’s political manipulation of local development which in turn undermines the impact of the extensive resources channelled to through the districts and decentralised structures.

cc With Dar es Salaam on the verge of hosting the Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week from Monday 13 April, Issa G. Shivji, Mwalimu Nyerere Professor of Pan-African Studies at the city's university, offers his reflections on the pan-African struggle. Though Africa has undoubtedly suffered from the neoliberal onslaught of the past two decades, Pan-Africanism as a progressive ideology is now firmly back on the historical agenda, Shivji states, uniting in the process the continent's dual quest for unity and liberation.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/427/55474_Paul_Muite_tmb.jpgHaving been credibly informed that his life could well be in danger, Paul Muite considers the implications of his willingness to speak out against the Kenyan government's involvement in the assassinations of Oscar Kamau King'ara and Paul Oulu. With the Kenyan authorities themselves at the forefront of extrajudicial killings and threats, Muite highlights the Kenyan citizenry's complete lack of confidence in the government or police to protect people's rights.

cc Pan-Africanism gave rise to the civil rights movement in the US and to independence and anti-imperialist movements in Africa, writes Salma Maoulidi, but what is Pan-Africanism to the average African today? To a large extent, Maoulidi argues, it remains a global phenomenon that has focused on global political agendas and less so on struggles on the ground. What is missing, suggests Maoulidi, is ‘a popular expression of Pan-Africanism and a matching consciousness such that the concept does not appear surreal, abstract and out of touch with reality and the populace, particularly the youth who are the inheritors of its future.’

cc The Kenyan government must issue orders for the military and police to ‘cease and desist from acts of intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders and to make public the text of such instructions’, Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, has said in a statement issued on 7 April. Alston said that dozens of prominent and respected human rights defenders who provided information to the UN have been targeted in ‘a blatant campaign designed to silence individual monitors and instil fear in civil society organisations at large’, with all indications seeming to point to the fact that the campaign ‘has been carefully coordinated within the government’.

The Refugee Consortium of Kenya writes with concerns on refugees and asylum seekers rights abuses by law enforcement officers and by extension the Government of Kenya.

My had been shortlisted for the SA Blog awards 2009 in the 'politics' category and it recently featured on the Pambazuka newsletter. I am pleased to tell you that my blog has since won the category and I am especially grateful to Pambazuka for bringing the blog to the attention of your vast readership, and for encouraging them to take part in the voting process. This is much appreciated!

Following the G20 meeting in London last week, Stephen Marks unpacks the spin behind the apparent swelling of financial resources available for a global recovery plan. While the IMF remains free to impose the infamous conditionalities that have been the bane of many of its recipient countries, Marks highlights the glaring irony of an organisation that has long pressured others into reform without ever being subject to self-reflection and change itself. While the motives of each G20 player may differ, Marks writes, China at least has a clear interest in seeing the reforming rhetoric of the meeting turned into genuine action and greater representation for developing nations.

is encouraging people to contact US President Barack Obama to urge him to send an official US delegation to the 20-24 April 2009 Durban Review Conference, the follow-up to the 2001 World Conference on Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance.

cc With African and European ministers set to meet in Brussels on 28 April to assess the progress of the Joint Africa EU Strategy (JAES) adopted in Lisbon in December 2007, Carmen Silvestre emphasises the importance of the meeting for both African and European civil society. Setting out the background to the JAES and Human Rights Dialogue and civil society's participation, Silvestre argues that the meeting represents a key opportunity for groups from both continents to discover areas of common ground and find ways of influencing official strategies and policy.

The lack of strong political institutions and the over-bearing influence of the Executive are reversing Uganda's democratic gains, a new report says.Launched in Kampala, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) country review report remains critical of the 2005 lifting of Presidential term limits particularly the process of removal which coincided with a Shs5 million payment to MPs.

We were advised at the beginning of this week that two prisons in Harare had cut rations to a quarter of what prisoners were meant to receive; two days later, we were told that food had completely run out. There are between 1,300 and 1,500 inmates in Harare Central Prison and without outside help and donations, they may starve. Many in Zimbabwe’s prisons are already dying like flies as a result of food shortages and disease.

'That is our function as writers', says Zimbabwean writer Rory Kilalea, 'to tell it as we see it'. In an interview with Conversations with Writers, Kilalea speaks about authors whose work has influenced him, his central concerns as a writer, and the novel he is currently working on, The Disappointed Diplomat. It is the story of a young man trying to forget his home in Zimbabwe and finding that home is not only a place but a state of mind.

cc Dudu Manhenga is more than just a diva, Prespone Matawira discovers, in conversation with the powerful-voiced Afro-jazz singer following her performance with backing band Color Blu at Harare’s REPS Theatre. Manhenga is a major contributor to the Female Literary Arts Music Enterprise (FLAME), for the development and promotion of women artists. 'The music industry is tough on women, sexism is rife and the economic climate means things are challenging,' says Manhenga. But, she adds, as long as people think out of the box and pull together the ground is fertile for artists to blossom.

cc The US terms of engagement for participation in the Durban Review Conference (DRC), a follow-up to the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerances (WCAR), constitute 'a major setback to the international movement to eliminate racism, xenophobia, colonialism, and imperialism' says activist Kali Akuno. He argues that the Obama administration's revisions to clauses on issues including reparations for the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the genocide of indigenous people in the western hemisphere will simply preserve the status quo ante of race, power and exploitation on a global scale.

cc Mirjam de Bruijn explores the rise of Chad’s global visibility, with a particular focus on the exploitation of the country’s oil reserves and the conflict in neighbouring Darfur. Through an intimate account provided by Nakar Djindil, a Chadian academic and nutritionist, de Bruijn examines the impact of conflict and instability upon the livelihoods of Chad’s citizens. As a result of a system of governance enforced through violence and oppression, the health and psychological well-being of Chad’s people is perpetually threatened. Having personally witnessed attacks and their aftermath, Djindil affirms the severity of President Idriss Déby’s irresponsible and reckless actions. Fear permeates Chadian society, with the country’s citizens facing internal displacement due to the demolition of homes and land, as well as inadequate nutrition caused by soaring food prices and minimal access to cooking supplies.

cc With Zimbabwe in the grip of an economic freefall, Richard Kamidza analyses the country's financial woes and the failure of multiple macroeconomic strategies to revitalise the economy. The collapse of public infrastructure facilities and utilities along with persistent, entrenched difficulties within the education system are just some of the pressing problems the country faces, which combined with its chronic inability to satisfy its population's food needs add up to the most serious humanitarian crisis the country has faced. In light of Zimbabwe's decade-long failure to effectively revitalise its economy through domestic resources, Kamidza argues that the country will indisputably require a financial package backed by other regional and international players, a package that will call upon civil society groups to collectively offer effective monitoring of both the use of economic resources and the move towards genuine political transition.

The African continent has been central to the project of capitalist globalization, and the dominance of Western economic and geopolitical interests continues to profoundly shape Africa's internal dynamics in the postcolonial period. This collection of essays and interviews from leading activists and socialists offers critical insights into class struggle and social empowerment across the continent.