The Sudanese government has ordered some aid agencies to leave the country after an arrest warrant was issued for the country's president, a UN official said. UN spokesperson, Michele Montas, who confirmed the development Thursday, said: " Sudan told up to 10 humanitarian groups to leave the country's Darfur region or cut back on services provided, as well as seized their assets''.

As the death toll from Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak continues to climb, the International Rescue Committee is ramping up its emergency programs to combat the epidemic. “As devastating as a cholera outbreak can be, it’s actually fairly easily avoided and treated,” said Eric James, coordinator of the IRC’s emergency response team in Zimbabwe. “But only about half of the country’s cholera treatment facilities have electricity, so it's very difficult if not impossible to treat people at night requiring things like intravenous lines.”

Police in Zimbabwe have arrested a magistrate who allowed MDC ministerial nominee Roy Bennett to post bail. Other magistrates in the town of Mutare have gone on strike in solidarity with Livingstone Chipadze, officials say. "It is frightening if a magistrate is arrested because he has passed a judgment that is not popular with the state," Mr Bennett's lawyer said. Mr Bennett remains in custody. He was seized on the day MDC ministers joined a power-sharing government.

A UN investigator of extra-judicial killings in Kenya has called for an international inquiry into the murder of two human rights activists. Oscar Kamau Kingara was shot dead along with a colleague hours after a government spokesman accused their group of aiding a criminal gang. A consortium of human rights groups in Kenya says it holds the government responsible for the death.

South Africa says it will take over any land allocated to black farmers which is not being used effectively under a land redistribution programme. The measure, which takes immediate effect, was announced by Agriculture Minister Lulu Xingwana, who warned farmers should "use it or lose it".

A recent study by the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya (FIDA-K) - a women’s rights advocacy organization that works for gender equality through legal aid - reveals that disabled women are up to three times more likely to be victims of physical and sexual abuse than their non-disabled counterparts.

In Bukavu, the main town in South Kivu Province of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Panzi referral hospital receives six to eight women daily who have experienced sexual violence. "At least 60 percent of the women have been sexually violated, probably as sex slaves, through gang rape or through domestic violence," Maria Bard, manager of the hospital's Victims of Sexual Violence Project, said.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has demobilized 880 children associated with armed groups in the volatile eastern province of North Kivu between 30 January and 2 March. Madnodje Mounoubai, spokesperson for the mission, known by its French acronym MONUC, told a news conference in Kinshasa that the great majority of the 839 boys and 41 girls are Congolese, but there are also 31 Rwandans, two Burundians and two Ugandans.

Zambia is to intensify its corruption fight which is aimed at prosecuting all those who plundered and mismanaged public funds. Vice president George Kunda who is also justice minister said Zambia is governed by tenets of laws and that no person whether in the private or public sector is above the law.

Eritrea has arrested up to 54 journalists in a crackdown on media in the Red Sea state, the press watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Friday. The Paris-based body also asked the European Union not to hand over 122 million euros worth of aid due to worsening conditions for political prisoners. "The authorities on 22 February 2009 ordered a raid on the premises of Radio Bana, a small station in the heart of the capital that puts out educational programmes under the sponsorship of the Education Ministry. Its entire staff of around 50 journalists were arrested," RSF said.

The roll-out of antiretroviral therapy has led to a decline of about 50% in adult AIDS deaths in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, over a period of five years, according the findings of a study published in the February 20th edition of the journal AIDS.

Algeria will write off 41 billion dinars in money owed banks by farmers and livestock breeders, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced Saturday (February 28th) at an agricultural conference in Biskra. The announcement is a real lifeline for an Algerian farming community on the verge of collapse. Starting this week, banks will cease any proceedings to recover their debts.

For over 80 years, the relationship between women and international organisations has barely existed in historical records and has been scarcely promoted by the media. Well before the Charter of the United Nations was approved in 1945, and already at the League of Nations, women fought and participated to include demands against discrimination, promoting the legal and social progress of women around the world. The international movement of women that took part in the creation of the United Nations – these “founding mothers” – should get the credit they deserve.

There has been a clamour to tighten up oversight and regulation of Ghana’s broadcasters from unusual bedfellows - the state-sponsored National Media Commission (NMC) and the Ghana Journalists" Association (GJA). The bodies have, in separate initiatives, slammed attempts to "privatise" the state-owned Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and have railed against the practices of commercial radio stations. The trigger for this rare convergence was "unsubstantiated" news reports by two commercial stations, Radio Gold and Oman FM, that publicly backed rival political parties in the run up to the Dec. 7, 2008 national elections.

This report provides the first summary by the UN of how climate change, water stress, invasive pests and land degradation may impact world food security, food prices and how we may be able to feed the world in a more sustainable manner. The report examines the need to get smart and more creative about recycling food wastes. While major efforts have gone into increasing efficiency in the traditional energy sector, food energy efficiency has received too little attention.

I was born in the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. I and my nephew were raised by my aunt. The story that I heard from my family was that a few weeks before my dad passed away he gave me to my aunt. I never knew my biological mother but I heard that she died of the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. As I went to school, from elementary to high school everybody used to tell me that something was different about me.

Three weeks after disarmament was officially launched in the border region of Ed Damazin in Blue Nile State, Sudanese officials have discovered that raising money is tough and getting ex-combatants to hand in arms even tougher. The disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme requires US$430 million. A 16 February donor roundtable in Juba, the Southern capital, received pledges for $91 million.

Dance music pumps from large speakers while a half dozen shirtless young men serve drinks at a bar bathed in pink light. It is the last weekend of Gay Pride in Cape Town, South Africa, and men of all ages have come to a "fetish party" to launch a safe-sex campaign, "Play Nice", targeting men who have sex with men (MSM).

cc I am shaken. I am shocked. And that is, apparently, the intent. For all of us to be shaken, for all of us to be shocked and for all of us to hear the threat and heed the warning implicit in last week’s assassinations of Oscar Kamau King’ara and John Paul Oulu of the Oscar Foundation.

Let me be clear about this. I had questions about the Oscar Foundation. Last year, it appeared to me to be one of human rights organisations partisan to the Party of National Unity (PNU). I did not understand when or why it had made the shift from children’s rights work to human rights work more generally. I had questions about the methodology through which it arrived at its figures of disappearances and extrajudicial executions of those supposedly associated with the Mungiki. I remember us all laughing when Professor Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, questioned them as to the sources of their funding, concerns apparently raised with him by the security services. For, unlike many of us within the human rights movement, the Oscar Foundation does not receive grants from the bilateral and multilateral donors or foundations.

But I found some of the ways they did their work innovative, such as running free mobile legal aid clinics in low-income areas; not just in urban areas, but also in rural areas. I knew too of the solid backgrounds of some of its staff and trusted that they – just as the rest of us – had information worth sharing with the UN special rapporteur as to the extent of disappearances and extrajudicial executions in Kenya. And I certainly never imagined – not in my wildest dreams – that their staff would pay the ultimate price for bringing that information forward: death.

I see now that I should have read the signs, the writing on the wall. We all must do so, for the build up was clear. Let me sketch the outline.

There are reports – many reports – from both national and international human rights organisations into the joint police–military operations against the Sabaot Land Defence Force in Mt Elgon. There are denials after denials after denials, and increasingly angrily ones. Finally, there are questions and pressure from governments with whom our government has security agreements and arrangements, and suddenly, a flurry of activity. There is a public propaganda campaign, with a state-sponsored documentary focused on the atrocities and crimes committed by the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF), being aired repeatedly on almost all television channels over several weeks. There is also a parliamentary probe and a joint police–military investigation. What is the verdict? That nothing is wrong, that all the human rights organisations pointing accusing fingers are wrong, that their motivations are baseless and that they don’t care about the atrocities and crimes committed by the SLDF. The verdict is that they don’t care about the people; they simply did it to raise money.

Somehow, the issue dies down.

But then comes the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Post Election-Violence (CIPEV). It is brutal in its treatment of the failures of the state security agencies. It notes that the Administration Police and the Kenya Police Force used such extraordinary force that no less than a third of all deaths are attributed to them. It notes that they also committed crimes ranging from looting to rape. It issues a set of recommendations for security sector reform, including the fast-tracking of investigations into and prosecutions of individual members of the security services who have committed rape.

The response? Pre-emptively, a supposed police oversight body that is not worthy of the name is instituted, along with the creation of a task force to investigate claims of sexual violence, from which all women’s organisations co-opted in quickly resign. There’s silence, then the announcement by the minister of Internal Security of Kenya’s supposed security architecture, a plethora of new laws and policies supposedly addressing the CIPEV report’s recommendations. But not a word about either individual legal or collective political accountability, which the CIPEV report had stressed.

Again, somehow, the issue dies down, helped in no small measure by the clamour for individual accountability of politicians for the violence through the Special Tribunal and the International Criminal Court.

But then comes the report of the UN special rapporteur, which finds the Kenya Police Force and the military in Mt Elgon guilty of torture, forced disappearances and systematic extrajudicial executions. The response is predictable: Denial, denial, denial.

And there’s more. The dis/misinformation and propaganda begins. The vice chair and a staff member of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) are accused of being on the Mungikis’ payroll. Then there’s the build up. Matatu operators accuse human rights organisations of not caring about citizens and businesses affected by the Mungikis’ extortion and protection rackets. We are informed that the Mungiki have decided to demonstrate in favour of the implementation of the special rapporteur’s recommendations. The media does not question this, despite the fact that the Mungiki’s spokesperson denies that they are involved and despite the fact that, strategically speaking, it would be ludicrous for the Mungiki to do so at this time. The demonstrations supposedly happen. The supposed government spokesperson parrots the claims, informing Kenya that the Oscar Foundation is raising money for Mungiki through the human rights organisations that support Mungiki. He blithely ignores the facts that: a) the Mungiki make so much money through their extortion and protection rackets that they hardly need external assistance and; b) the Oscar Foundation does not receive external funding. Hours after his statement, the two staff members of the Oscar Foundation are dead.

For the record, the human rights movement has consistently and repeatedly called for the disarming and demobilisation of all armed groups, criminal gangs and militia in this country as per Agenda Item One of the mediation process. It has also said, however, that disarmament and demobilisation will entail far more than a heavy-handed security response. And it has said that even that heavy-handed security response must be within the boundaries of the constitution and the law, not to mention the regional and international human rights instruments we are party to.

If armed groups, criminal gangs and militia still exist in this country, they do so because of their relationships, complex and ever-changing with the political powers that be and the security services that those political powers control. This is obvious. This is why disarmament and demobilisation is so difficult to achieve. And this is why it is simply ludicrous to claim that groups exist because of the ‘support’ they get from the human rights movement.

We are clearly in dangerous times. The Kenyatta and Moi regimes reserved assassinations for those among the political powers that be. Human rights defenders and other intellectuals contended instead with illegal detentions, torture and forced exile. In the Kibaki/Odinga regime, the goalposts have shifted, and shifted backwards. This does not portend well, for any of us.

To his credit, Odinga came out loud and clear following the assassinations, calling for independent, external investigations. We wait to see what Kibaki will do. And that will tell us whether we’re all headed to the grave.

* L. Muthoni Wanyeki is the executive director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC).
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Will the Obama-Nation become an abomination if it fails to
stop the bombing of nations? From Gaza to Afghanistan, the
American people must take a stand and tell Obama to forge
a better plan to free the land of Zionist and the Taliban. To
stand up against corporate bailouts while prisons are left out
for change like a business with out clout as 2.3 million prisoners
remain in chains.

Change became a mantra defined on a political precipice
forged in steep words unprecedented by one who won the
right to be the 44th president. Supported by beliefs sold
in edifices of worship bonding the ideals shuttered in the
hearts of the dispossessed whose hope for tomorrow has
not regressed. Yet, time sours faith in hungry bellies as
the unsheltered endure the storms of lies, alibis, and corrupt
government undisguised as the media realized exposing the
truth could result in a covenant Pulitzer Prize.

A future is born with a change of power on this day and in
this hour with an oath of office the Obama-Nation must stand
in allegiance, against torture, Abu Graib, Guantanamo Bay,
rendition and detention just to mention how the U.S. derelictions
became the world’s affliction. Evolving from 8 years of
disconnection, disaffection, humiliation, dissatisfaction with
the Bush administration corporate affiliations that led to U.S.
financial ruination.

The Democrats believe they can, since Obama told them
“Yes We Can”, Americans hope this is not a sham – as
participatory democracy is more than a four-year election,
since each day the Americans should strive for perfection,
healing the planet as they heal themselves of racism, sexism
and capitalist exploitation, to improve America’s place in
the world of nations.

No drama in the Obama-Nation is the expectation, void of
hesitation folk’s anticipation the 44th will elevate the level of
peace dividends given in Clintonques deliberation face to face
with world’s representatives, like ebony and ivory side by side
championing U.S. hegemony in perfect harmony. As Gates
secures the gates of the Pentagon to sustain an imperialist
presence from Iraq to the China sea, who is to believe change
can be conceived with National Security Agency secrets up
their sleeves.

The continued embargo of Cuba and Haiti a scandalous exercise
of power, as Latin America excise North America in its revolutionary
shining hour. Iran seek nuclear advancement as the CIA creeps to
hinder its expansion, an inexplicable situation given the arms race
has moved as far as outer space, continuing to militarily arming
Israel and Taiwan, while North Korea produces nuclear energy the
U.S. attempts to prohibit proliferation not of its control, using
food as a weapon toward an obvious starving nation not keeping with
its humanitarian goals.

Afrika stumbles into the 21st century with corporate proxy wars,
none keeping score as economic devastation brings multiple horrors.
The killing of babies and raping of girls, arming of children leaving
the land trampled with scars. Afrikans hope the Obama-Nation will
plant seeds of democracy, negating the hypocrisy of years of neglect
without regret, and yet, AFRICOM is a serious misstep. While Asians
in Malaysia the largest concentration of Islamic moderation
confounds U.S. inclination to confront jihadist of Al-Qaeda’s
persuasion in its population.

On the home front, Martin L. King Jr., proclaimed we as a people
will get to the promised land, while Malcolm X said it will be
either the ballot or bullet, so could it be hard to understand the
44th like a Manchurian candidate manipulating the political
landscape, permitting the Patriot Act to prohibit progressive or
revolutionary tact believing true liberation after today has become
a point in fact. By virtue of the ballot, the revolution has been high
jacked, the black bourgeoisie has been notified America is now
sanctified and the promised land gentrified as the Obama-Nation is
satisfied. But Cointelpro victims remain classified in prisons, yet
to be rectified with truth and reconciliation, no way to start anew
in the Obama-Nation.

So with a historic inauguration by pomp and circumstances through
crying eyes, a new era to inspire a generation of possibilities
beyond rhetoric. Anxious for the audacity of hope to spring eternal
in humanities fratricidal brotherhood with service to the nation
negating race or class as societies underclass test pomp and
circumstances with stark cold reality of growing unemployment lines
with the economic situation continuing to decline. My warning to all
while the band plays “Hail to the Chief” with a military seven gun
salute, to not become hoodwinked or bamboozled, nor forgo the
political determination to end the embargo of Haiti and Cuba, to
free Puerto Rico and Palestine for this is not the time to recline in
building struggle.

To keep U.S. hands off of Assata, because we gotta free all U.S.
political prisoners in the spirit of knowing We Are Our Own Liberators!

* was 19-years -old when he was arrested. He is a former member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, and is one of the longest held political prisoners in the world. He has spent over 38 years in captivity. Jalil can be reached at: Jalil Muntaqim/A. Bottom, 2311826, 850 Bryant St, San Francisco, CA 94103.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

cc. Dated 19 December 2008 and originally widely published in Arabic following his arrest and torture, Monim Elgak’s letter to Salah Abdullah, the director general of the Sudanese Security and Intelligence service, suggests that his own gross mistreatment while detained is nothing when compared with Sudan at large. Offering a crushing indictment of the Sudanese regime’s oppressive policies and blatant disdain for human rights and freedom of expression, the author writes that redress for his own experiences will only come through the implementation of a restorative package of reforms on the back of sustained political will.

I was only six years old
when they led me to the bush, to my slaughterhouse.
Too young to know what it all entailed,
I walked lazily towards the waiting women.

Deep within me was the desire to be cut,
as pain was my destiny:
it is the burden of femininity,
so I was told.
Still, I was scared to death . . .
but I was not to raise an alarm.

The women talked in low tones,
each trying to do her tasks the best.
There was the torso holder
she had to be strong to hold you down.
Legs and hands each had their own woman,
who needed to know her task
lest you free yourself and flee for life.

The cutting began with the eldest girl
and on went the list.
Known to be timid, I was the last among the six.
I shivered and shook all over;
butterflies beat madly in my stomach.
I wanted to vomit, the waiting was long,
the expectation of pain too sharp,
but I had to wait my turn.
My heart pounded, my ears blocked;
the only sound I understood
was the wails from the girls,
for that was my destiny as well.

Finally it was my turn, and one of the women
winked at me:
Come here, girl, she said, smiling unkindly.
You won’t be the first nor the last,
but you have only this once to prove you are brave!
She stripped me naked. I got goose pimples.
A cold wind blew, and it sent warning signs
all over me. I choked, and my head
went round in circles as I was led.

Obediently, I sat between the legs of the woman
who would hold my upper abdomen,
and each of the other four women grasped my legs and hands.
I was stretched apart and each limb firmly held.
And under the shade of a tree . . .
The cutter begun her work . . .
the pain . . . is so vivid to this day,
decades after it was done.
God, it was awful!

I cried and wailed until I could cry no more.
My voice grew hoarse, and the cries could not come out,
I wriggled as the excruciating pain ate into my tender flesh.
Hold her down! cried the cursed cutter,
and the biggest female jumbo sat on my chest.
I could not breathe, but there was nobody
to listen to me.
Then my cries died down, and everything was dark.
As I drifted, I could hear the women laughing,
joking at my cowardice.

It must have been hours later when I woke up
to the most horrendous reality.
The agonizing pain was unbearable!
It was eating into me, every inch of my girlish body was aching.
The women kept exchanging glances
and talked loudly of how I would go down in history,
to be such a coward, until I fainted in the process.
Allahu Akbar! they exclaimed as they criticized me.

I looked down at my self and got a slap across my face.
Don’t look, you coward, came the cutter’s words;
then she ordered the women to pour hot sand on my cut genitals.
My precious blood gushed out and foamed.
Open up, snarled the jumbo woman, as she poured the sand on me.
Nothing they did eased the pain.

Ha! How will you give birth? taunted the one with the smile.
I was shaking and biting my lower lip.
I kept moving front, back, and sideways as I writhed in pain.
This one will just shame me! cried the cutter.
Look how far she has moved, how will she heal?
My sister was embarrassed, but I could see pain in her eyes . . .
maybe she was recalling her own ordeal.
She pulled me back quickly to the shed.

The blood oozed and flowed. Scavenger birds
were moving in circles and perching on nearby trees.
Ish ish, the women shooed the birds.
All this time the pain kept coming in waves,
each wave more pronounced than the one before it.

The women stood us up but warned us not to move our legs apart.
They scrubbed the bloody sand off our thighs and small buttocks,
then sat us back down.
A hole was dug,
malmal, the stick herb, was pounded;
The ropes for tying our legs were ready.
Charcoal was brought and put in the hole,
where there was dried donkey waste and many herbs—these were the cutter’s paraphernalia.

The herbs were placed on the charcoal,
and we were ordered to sit on the hole.
As I sat with smoke rising around me,
I could hear the blood dropping on the charcoal,
and more smoke rose.
The pain was somehow dwindling but I felt weak
and nauseated.
Maybe she is losing blood? my sister asked worriedly.
No, no. It will stop once I place the herbs, cried the cutter impatiently.

The malmal was pasted where my severed vaginal lips had been,
and then I was tied from my thighs to my toes
with very strong ropes from camel hide.
A long stick was brought and the women took turns
showing us how to walk, sit, and stand.
They told us not to bend or move apart our legs—
This will make you heal faster, they said,
but it was meant to seal up that place.

The drop of the first urine,
more burning than the aftermath of the razor,
passed slowly, bit by bit,
one drop after another,
while lying on my side.
There was no washing, no drying,
and the burning kept on for hours later.
But there was no stool . . .
at least, I don’t remember.

For the next month this was my routine.
There was no feeding on anything with oil,
or anything with vegetables or meat.
Only milk and ugali formed my daily ration.
I was given only sips of water:
This avoids "wetting" the wound and delaying healing, they said.

We would stay in the bush the whole day.
The journey from the bush back home began around four and ended sometimes at seven.
All this time we had to face the heat
and bare-footedly slide towards home . . .
with no water, of course.
We were not to bend if a thorn stuck us,
never to call for help loudly
as this would "open" us up and the cutter
would be called again.
Everything was about scary dos and don’ts.

I stayed on with the other five
for the next four weeks. None of us bathed;
lice developed between the ropes and our skin,
biting and itching the whole day and night.
There was no way to remove them,
at least not until we healed.

The river was only a kilometer away.
Every morning the breeze carried the sweet scent of its waters to us,
making our thirst more real.

The day the cutter was called back
each of us shivered and prayed silently,
each hoping we had healed and there would be no cutting again.
Thank God we were all done
except one unlucky girl
who had to undergo it all again,
and took months to heal.

Our heads were shaved clean.
The ropes untied, lice dropped at last.
We were showered and oiled,
but most important was the drinking of water.
I drank until my stomach was full,
but the mouth and throat yearned for more.

It was over.
All over my thighs were marks from the ropes,
dotted with patches from the lice wounds.
Now I was to look after myself,
to ensure that everything remained intact
until the day I married.

(The Cut ® 2006 Maryam Sheikh Abdi.)

* Maryam Sheikh Abdi is a program officer for the programme.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

cc. Speaking at the Kenya We Want Conference (4–6 February 2009), Yash Ghai elegantly outlines his views on the historical limitations of Kenya’s constitution and the holistic service it should provide in shaping lives rooted in opportunities, representation, freedom of expression and ‘nation building’. While keen to see the development of a constitution true to these goals, Ghai highlights the inherent complexity of creating such a national document, and concludes that a constitution’s successful implementation ultimately hinges upon a country’s ability to foster popular, representative participation and a culture of genuine respect for the law.

Do you dream of writing but hesitate to start? Are your drawers full of manuscripts you dare not show anyone? Do you tell your kids wonderful bedtime stories and wish you could write them down? Here's the chance to turn your dreams into reality!

A writing workshop is the best way to hone your craft under the guidance of an expert published writer. The deadlines will encourage you to complete your stories, the workshop leader will help you polish them to perfection, and you would join a community of fellow writers. AND you will have the chance to get published by Storymoja, one of the most innovative publishing houses on the Kenyan scene today. What more could you ask for? Sign up now!

DETAILS:

Workshop Leader: Muthoni Garland. Her novella, "Tracking the Scent of My Mother," was short-listed for the Caine Prize for African Writing. One of her children's stories, "Kamau's Finish" is used as supplementary reader in the US and UK, and is available in Uchumi, Nakumatt and most bookshops for only 300/.

Curriculum: Participants will discuss how to write books that excite young readers, and the various forms and age ranges of children's writing. You will also learn and apply such craft elements as character, plot, point of view, description, dialogue, setting, voice, and theme. In addition, writers will work with illustrators on the visual aspect of their books. Each participant will complete at least one publishable manuscript. Storymoja will publish the most promising manuscripts.

When: The workshops begin on Wednesday 25th February 2009.

They will run for two months and end Wednesday 29th April, 2009.

Sessions are every Thursday from 6:00pm to 8:30pm and every Saturday from 9am to 11:30am.

Where: Storymoja offices, off Lower Kabete Road, Spring Valley, Nairobi.

Cost: Ksh 12,000/ each.

If Storymoja publishes your manuscript, half of this (6,000) will be refunded to you as an advance against your author's royalties.

Scholarships: Storymoja is offering four scholarships to exceptionally talented writers who can demonstrate financial need. Please indicate when you register whether are applying for the scholarship and indicate in one paragraph why you are unable to pay the workshop fee.

Registration: please write to by February 18th and include the following:

a. Your name, e-mail and phone number.

b. Your publishing history (newcomers are very welcome!)

c. A short description of what you are hoping to write and/or why you want to attend this workshop. Add a paragraph explaining your financial situation IF you are applying for the scholarship.

d. A 800-word sample of your writing for children.

PLACES ARE LIMITED SO PLEASE SIGN-UP QUICKLY!

If you already have a children's manuscript and you want us to evaluate whether it meets our publishing requirements, please send it to

cc. Developed as a participatory platform in sharp contrast to the general absence of space for political representation in the Kenyan nation, this article traces the history of the Bunge La Mwananchi (Parliament of the People) social movement through its members’ own voice. Set against the backdrop of the intolerant Moi government, Bunge offered a viable alternative to the corruption-riddled and ethno-factional nature of official party politics, and has continued to challenge the excesses of the country’s political class. With a view to further advancing the success of the movement, Bunge calls upon fellow Kenyans to open new chapters around the country and make their voices heard.

Sokari Ekine reviews the following blogs:

Mama Shujaa
ScarlettLion - Uganda
Meskel Square
Afrigadget
Black Looks

cc. Journalist Venance Konan delves into the Côte d’Ivoire impasse and reveals that the interminable delays in setting a date for the elections are due to the machinations of political elites who continue to benefit from the status quo. While various protagonists on the political stage drag their feet, ordinary citizens continue to suffer grinding poverty and the imminent threat of renewed violence. Konan calls on Côte d’Ivoire’s civil society and the international community as a whole to act for the sake of the Ivorian people.

President Hu Jintao is currently on a five nation to Saudi Arabia, Mali, Tanzania, Senegal and Mauritius The visit comes at a time when speculation is rife as to whether China’s Africa engagement, especially delivery of the FOCAC commitments will be threatened as a result of the global financial crisis., President Hu’s visit, - his fourth to the continent since becoming China’s leader - is therefore intended to demonstrate that Africa remains a strategic player in China’s overall foreign policy and to emphasise both to Africa and to China’s detractors that China’s interest in Africa is not

Mugabe had the opportunity to free the masses of Zimbabwe from the oppressive nature of the colonial system, but he blew it . His decision to follow the neo-colonial path and to turn his back on democratization brought Zimbabwe to its knees. It is my hope that the new Prime Minister not make the same mistake. Free elections as the situation in Zimbabwe has brought to the fore is one part of the solution. The other part is immediate legal land reform that recognizes the historical destruction of cultural system of ownership and production of food. Mugabe's failure is his lack of recognition that land reform should have been the backbone of the process of democratic renewal which began with his election. He turned his back on history and the oppressive nature of history. I hope that his successors learn from that mistake.

We are sick and tired of the rhetoric by so called in the diaspora who don't have an idea of how bad the situation on the ground is like. Why don't you Tendai come to Zim just for one week to understand why MDC had to backtrack. Stop writing nonsense and get back to your senses. Stop this rhetoric and join others in contributing positively to the struggling masses...tumira hupfu kumusha wosiyana nokunyora zvisina maturo...

Chinese ambassador to Botswana Ding Xiaowen has assured the country that China’s stable market could be the saving grace for Botswana’s under pressure diamond industry. The representative of the world’s third largest economy, has urged the Botswanan government to turn to the Chinese diamond market.

Chinese President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit to Tanzania will further enhance bilateral economic cooperation and help both countries tide over global financial crisis, said a senior Tanzanian investment official in a recent interview with Xinhua. Emmanuel Ole Naiko, executive director of Tanzania's Investment Center, said Tanzania and China will not only overcome the international financial crisis through cooperation of mutual benefit, but also deepen long-standing friendship between the two countries.

Somali pirates released a Chinese fishing vessel and its multinational crew Sunday from nearly three months of captivity, as Japan announced plans to dispatch two destroyers to the African coast to protect its commercial vessels from piracy, reports said.

The visits by Chinese leaders to African, Latin American and some other nations would promote China's friendship and cooperation with these countries, while Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's latest European trip has boosted confidence in jointly tackling the global financial crisis. Chinese President Hu Jintao will visit Saudi Arabia, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Mauritius from Feb. 10 to Feb. 17. Vice President Xi Jinping left here Sunday morning for official visits to Mexico, Jamaica, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Malta.

The president of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou, inaugurated a Chinese-built project for national radio and television broadcast in the capital city Brazzaville on Thursday, according to reports reaching here. Chinese Ambassador in the central African country Li Shuli attended the inauguration of the cooperation project of 7.5 billion FCFA (15 million U.S. dollars).

The American military helped plan and pay for a recent attack on a notorious Ugandan rebel group, but the offensive went awry, scattering fighters who carried out a wave of massacres as they fled, killing as many as 900 civilians. The operation was led by Uganda and aimed to crush the Lord’s Resistance Army, a brutal rebel group that had been hiding out in a Congolese national park, rebuffing efforts to sign a peace treaty. But the rebel leaders escaped, breaking their fighters into small groups that continue to ransack town after town in northeastern Congo, hacking, burning, shooting and clubbing to death anyone in their way.

WIBG, an open-access, peer-reviewed, online feminist journal, publishes and supports work from around the globe that analyzes and works to change the status and conditions of women in global households, prisons, and cities. We publish interdisciplinary analyses, creative expressions (including film and music), reports from the field, interviews, and artworks that are committed to feminist praxis, understood as analysis and action focusing on the empowerment of women.

The Center for Global Development (CGD), an independent Washington-based think tank, invites applications from leading scholars in developing countries for a visiting fellows program sponsored by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The program offers one-year sabbatical support for a senior researcher from a developing country on leave from his or her host institution.