Many Maghreb citizens, Islamic scholars and human rights activists have vigorously condemned the stoning death last week of a 13-year-old Somali rape victim judged guilty of adultery. Some have expressed utter astonishment at how such an act of barbarism could be directed at a child in the name of religion.

Kalahari Bushmen who were evicted from their land by the government of Botswana’s former President Festus Mogae have condemned African billionaire Mo Ibrahim and his Foundation for giving Mogae their ‘Achievement In Africa Leadership Award’. The Award will be given to Mogae at a ceremony in Alexandria, Egypt, on Saturday 15 November.

Almost two decades after independence Namibia’s land reform shows positive results and is guided by fair laws, but bureaucracy, slow progress in transformation of land ownership and unclear criteria for expropriation are overshadowing successes. Government plans to spend 370 million dollars over the next 12 years to acquire 10,3 million hectares of commercial farmland to resettle 6,730 families by 2020.

Tens of thousands of refugees at a frontline camp in eastern Congo will be urgently moved to prevent them being caught in crossfire between rebels and the army, aid officials said on Thursday. More than 65,000 civilians who have fled weeks of fighting are camped at Kibati, a few kilometres south of combat lines between Tutsi rebels loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda and government troops.

Reporters Without Borders calls on the authorities to explain the detention of freelance journalist Hadis Mohammed Hadis for the past ten days in Hargeisa, the capital of the northern breakaway region of Somaliland. Hadis was arrested while filming at Hargeisa airport on 3 November, five days after 25 people were killed in a suicide bombing in the city.

In a bid to tackle the problem of electronic-waste (e-waste) in South Africa, the e-Waste Association of South Africa (eWASA) hosted a one-day conference on 7 November 2008 in Johannesburg. The conference was aimed at providing a platform to discuss the successes and lessons learnt while implementing electronic waste (e-waste) management systems. It also served as an opportunity for the project team to report on progress made thus far.

Police have arrested a hospital technician on charges of conducting unauthorised and unsupervised chemotherapy drug trials on cancer-suffering HIV/AIDS patients in a hospital in southern Malawi. Investigations are underway into six deaths among 20 patients being treated for AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma at St Luke's Hospital near Mount Malosa.

Mozambique has seen political stability and economic recovery since the end of its devastating civil war, yet it remains one of the world's poorest countries (168th of the 177 nations on UNDP's 2007 human development index). Average life expectancy is 39 years. Less than half of adults can read and write, and the infant mortality rate is among the highest in the world.

The gay and lesbian community in Senegal last year shattered last year, after the local press published private photos of a gay wedding, causing fierce reactions from the police, religious leaders and ordinary citizens. Now, the community gathers strength to start fighting for gay rights in Senegal.

South Africa's 2009 elections are engaging voters as the country's political landscape is changing and the ruling ANC for the first time may experience a serious challenge. Over 21.6 million South Africans have already registered to vote next year.During the weekend, 19,000 voter registration stations first opened their doors throughout the country to allow for new voters to enrol.

The Zanu PF politburo on Wednesday tasked national chairman John Nkomo to meet disgruntled former PF Zapu leaders today in Bulawayo to find ways of addressing their concerns. Sources in Zanu PF said the politburo made the decision after the ex-PF Zapu leaders at the weekend declared the unity accord with Zanu PF dead and vowed to revive the late Joshua Nkomo-led party next month.

Fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has forced most schools in Rutshuru territory to close, leaving an estimated 150,000 children out of class, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said. "Most children have been displaced," Jaya Murthy, UNICEF communications specialist, told IRIN. "Other children are in the area but unable to attend school."

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government is launching another wave of attacks against the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a spokesman for the opposition party told IRIN, after a much vaunted power-sharing deal appeared to be on the verge of collapse

Under normal circumstances, 14-year-old Paul Katana would be in school, but not today. Katana is instead flagging down vehicles along the Mombasa-Malindi highway, hoping to sell sacks of charcoal he is hawking. About 2km down the road, a young boy watches over his mother's goats, while another is hawking brooms.

Over 500 people from Mauritius, Madagascar, Reunion Island, the Comoros and Seychelles attended the seventh conference on AIDS in Indian Ocean, and shared their growing concern over the impact of AIDS in their respective countries. The Indian Ocean region has been much less affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic than countries in neighbouring Africa, but this could be changing, delegates at the conference in Mauritius from 10 to 12 November heard.

I totally agree with Mukoma Wa Ngugi’s comments especially on solidarity in the essay, . However, I would like to express my disappointment with the double standards the West especially USA has continued to show about human rights.

Imagine it was another country carrying out that genocide in Gaza! To us in the developing worlds this is all the more reason why we need solidarity. The Western world is not for us, the signs are there to see ranging from trade agreements and now to extermination.

The Gaza invasion is a shameful failure of our generation and it will be with us in time come like the Nazi brutality. Who knows may be the Israelis want to inherit Hitler but whatever the case the Israeli leaders are worse than Mugabe.

In response to: : I am opposed to any warlike antagonism and empathetic to any innocent people who are the victims of war anywhere. There is no need to take sides here. The only thing that has to happen is a complete cease fire on all sides.

From where I sit here in Canada and from the news that I have access to I see the instigators as being the radical leaders and their followers who for many years have been lobbing bombs into Israel.

The hate that is and has been openly targeted at Israel which represents the Jewish people of the world comes from the leaders of modern fanatical groups.

Their leadership is the origin of these awful, calamitous death ridden clashes and it is they who should be sought out and destroyed.

Unfortunately these cowards who consider themselves prophets continuously lob bombs into Israel and position their attacks from civilian areas inside their own land. When Israel retaliates it's a disaster for sure.

All leaders from all sides must be brought together immediately to one place and commit to a cease fire on all sides. This needs to be governed by an international body of some sort who will monitor the ceasefire and punish severely anyone who breaks the ceasefire. Anyone connected to breaking the ceasefire must be tried as a war criminal and put away forever. End of story.

We can't take sides because taking sides is a sure fired way of keeping this insanity going. It doesn't matter anymore who started it or what religion you believe in.

INNOCENT PEOPLE ARE DYING AND THAT HAS TO STOP!!!!!!!!

I am a desk editor in a newspaper in Botswana and from my experiences I would say everyone involved in the media especially at editor level should read Pambazuka as often as he/she can.

Pambazuka's analyses and features give an intellectually engaging account of our continent and the African diaspora in a way that not any other freely available source ever does. And it has a particularly African Point of View which is paramount because in these challenging times of information overload, sifting through all data and synthesizing out a particularly African position takes time, it helps to find a website like Pambazuka which gathers all useful writings in one place.

We appreciate it my people. We really do. Keep it up

Former African leaders will attend a peace conference in Nairobi, Kenya under the theme ‘The Kenya we want’ to discuss the political transformation of the country from an ‘ethnic-divisions-ridden state’ into a more tolerant democracy in the region as well as to learn from other countries’ experiences in order to strengthen on-going efforts in national reconciliation and inter-group harmony. Elsewhere, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is holding a three-day seminar on reforming the security sector by initiating dialogue between the policy makers, civil society organisations and international stakeholders and identifying the role of ECCAS in promoting security in the region. Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States, following a similar move by the African Union (AU), has suspended Guinea’s membership to the regional body, in accordance with the provision of the 2001 regional Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, until the return to constitutional order in the country following a military takeover in December 2008. Still in peace and security related news, United States President elect Barack Obama is likely to face challenges in dealing with the United States African Command (Africom) because many African leaders perceive the command as an instrument meant to benefit the United States rather than being a ‘diplomatic, economic and humanitarian aid, aimed at the prevention of conflict’ as touted by U.S military and diplomatic officials.

With the aim of strengthening their effective participation in the AU, UNIFEM organised a consultative and planning forum for regional and sub-regional women’s networks and organisations to increase, among others, knowledge of AU policy and institutional frameworks and to enhance effective participation in policy formulation and implementation by these stakeholders. Meanwhile, the Women’s World Summit Foundation is calling for submission of nominations for its 16th annual edition of the prize for women’s creativity in rural life.

Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, will host the 12th ordinary session of the AU heads of State and Government under the theme ‘Infrastructure Development in Africa’. As African ministers adopted the continent’s Mining Vision 2050, regional economic communities have realised that well managed mineral and mining resources are essential for the continent’s economic growth and have begun to harmonise their mining regulations frameworks.

Drawing parallels with Israel’s current action in Gaza, Shailja Patel introduces the poem Overheard Over S.E. Asia by the British poet Denise Levertov. Published in her 1972 collection entitled Footprints, Levertov’s poem concerns the US’s use of white phosphorus during the Vietnam war.

"White phosphorus, white phosphorus,
mechanical snow,
where are you falling?"

"I am falling impartially on roads and roofs,
on bamboo thickets, on people.
My name recalls rich seas on rainy nights,
each drop that hits the surface eliciting
luminous response from a million algae.
My name is a whisper of sequins. Ha!
Each of them is a disk of fire,
I am the snow that burns.

I fall
wherever men send me to fall–
but I prefer flesh, so smooth, so dense:
I decorate it in black, and seek
the bone."

* Denise Levertov was a British poet strongly opposed to the Vietnam war.
* Shailja Patel is a Kenyan poet, playwright and theatre artist, whose blog can be found .
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Offering a counterweight to negative images of an aid- and handout-addicted Africa, Mukoma Wa Ngugi discusses and commends the work of the local organisations around the continent. Often operating with minimal funding or media support, these organisations deserve to be the focal point in new approaches of genuinely helping those who help themselves, writes Wa Ngugi.

cc. Highlighting the efforts of the Abahlali baseMjondolo social movement to draw attention to persistent governmental indifference towards the plight of Durban shack dwellers, Toussaint Losier sets the shack fires endured by locals within their broader political context. Directly equating the absence of adequate housing, water and electricity with the early 1990s informal negotiations between the ANC and corporate leaders, the author argues the shack dwellers’ marginalisation to be a direct consequence of South Africa’s post-apartheid neoliberal leanings and the unwillingness of the ANC to make good on its original aims of equitable social redistribution.

cc. In solidarity with Cuba and the Cuban people, Mwandawiro Mghanga argues that Barack Obama should rescind the US’s continued blockade on the Caribbean country as a demonstration of his commitment to fulfilling his campaign promises of more egalitarian policies towards the world’s poor. Cuba’s successes through socialism and its continued efforts to export healthcare support and education around the world in spite of its own constraints, the author contends, merit recognition in the form of normalised trading and diplomatic relations with its rich neighbour.

This is terror
that surpasses words
that extends
the bounds of terrorism
beyond inexpressible
beyond unimaginable
beyond inconceivable

Unspeakable
unutterable
inexpressible

That they who endured so much
should, themselves, inflict so much
should inflict so much pain on others

Anguish beyond words

Israel
Palestine

Palestine

* Dennis Brutus is a veteran of the South African liberation struggle, a leading figure in the global justice movement and a world-renowned poet.
* Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Demba Moussa Dembélé, 2009-01-09

Demba Moussa Dembélé condemns the attacks carried by Israel on Gaza since December 27. He accuses Israel of failing to respect any accords that have been signed in the past while continuing to subject the population of Gaza to endless atrocities and crimes against humanity. He singles out the complicity of the United States and Europe in supporting Israeli actions, and failing to condemn what is going on, and calls for worldwide support and Solidarity for the people of Gaza.

Saving Guinea and Rethinking Africa
Hamadou Tidiane Sy, 2009-01-09

Recent events in Guinea bring about a need to rethink principles of sovereignty and non-interference, as espoused by the erstwhile Organization of African Unity (OAU), and the subsequent stance taken by its successor, the African Union (AU) in 2000, which emphasizes interdependence and more active engagement. Hamadou Sy blames the AU of duplicity in the case of Guinea, reacting now to condemn the coup while not having spoken out in 2003 when then president Conté changed the constitution. As demonstrated by the support of the Guniean people for the coup, there is a need for the continent’s institutions to reinvent themselves in order to serve, first and foremost, the African people.

Guinea: A Double-faceted Coup-d’Etat
Tidiane Kassé, 2009-01-09

Tidiane Kassé does a roundup of news and views about the recent coup in Guinea, which attest to the multiple and opposing views of the change in power. Coups-d’Etat on the continent dating back to the 60s have seen a slide away from democracy intro despotic and oppressive military rule. However, the Mali in 1991, Mauritania in 2005 and now Guinea, have bucked this trend, ushering new and more responsive regimes in these countries. This has stirred a debate between democratic purism that sees military rule as antithetical to its principles, and a more pragmatic view that takes into account the will and the welfare of the people.

Zimbabwe: Mugabe: the Renegade and the Scape-goat
Aminata Dramane Traoré, 2009-01-09

Aminata Dramane Traoré takes on the detractors of Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe. She takes issue with condemnation of Mugabe by the global powers who in her view have no moral standing to do this, accusing them of turning a blind eye their own crimes. She accuses them of throttling the economy of Zimbabwe and causing great suffering in the country, under the guise of pushing for democracy. Nothing in her view, can justify the humiliation of Mugabe and the suffering of his people.

In the usual start to its New Year diplomatic calendar, Chinese foreign minister, Yang Jeichi, has embarked on a four nation African tour. Landing in Rwanda, as the first stop of his visit, the foreign minister was invited to the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, which was funded by the Chinese government to the value of US$8.9 million. As a goodwill gesture the Chinese Embassy in Rwanda

cc. As Obama takes over the presidency of the United States, Horace Campbell contextualizes an Obama presidency in the realities of Africa and the ongoing global finance crisis. He argues that “capitalism should not be reconstituted and rebuilt on the backs and bodies of Africans." For Campbell, the crisis is not simply a cyclical crisis of capitalism; it is a fundamental shift in the global political and economic order. In light of this fast changing world, Campbell is also interested in the possibilities and our responsibilities in bringing about change in and for Africa.

==

Writing at the end of September 2008, the chief policy adviser to the candidate Senator Barack Obama spelt out the foreign policy goals as they related to Africa in this way:

“Barack Obama understands Africa, and understands its importance to the United States. Today, in this new century, he understands that to strengthen our common security, we must invest in our common humanity and, in this way, restore American leadership in the world.

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he has engaged on many African issues. He has worked to end genocide in Darfur, to pass legislation to promote stability and the holding of elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to bring a war criminal to justice in Liberia and to develop a coherent strategy for stabilizing Somalia.”

From this broad outline the adviser (who had been trained in one of the elite African Studies Centers in the United States) went on to outline three goals of the candidate:

One is to accelerate Africa's integration into the global economy.

A second is to enhance the peace and security of African states.

And a third is to strengthen relationships with those governments, institutions and civil society organizations committed to deepening democracy, accountability and reducing poverty in Africa.

THE REALITY

The contradictions between the goals and the stated strategic objective of “investing in a shared humanity” brings to the fore the tensions and contradictions between the campaign of Senator Obama and the mindset of the thinking behind achieving goals for the United States and for the peoples of Africa. Between the time of the statement of this adviser in September and the elections in November, the realities of the global capitalist crisis had become very clear for the citizens of the United States. Citizens of Africa were always aware of the exploitation, hunger and death that came with capitalist relations of production. When Julius Nyerere had called for a revolution embedded in the African values of Ujamaa and self reliance, there was a political and ideological war against the peoples of Tanzania and any society in Africa that dared to be independent. Nationalization of the people’s wealth to ensure equal opportunities was rubbished by US policymakers.

Yet, in ten weeks between September and November 2008, the US government moved to nationalize banks, insurance companies and to invest billions of dollars (to bail out) the automobile industry. When the campaign ended and Senator Obama became President-elect Obama, it became clearer that neo-liberalism was dead or was dying. Neo-conservatives and the gurus of market fundamentalism were on the retreat, but in the Obama transition, there was no real break from the old mindset of US policymakers in relation to Africa. From the names and institutions that appeared in the transition process it was clear that the transition to an Obama Presidency will not, in the short term, reflect the kind of change that was promised in the election campaign. Instead of a future of sustainable peace and transformation, one saw a re-emergence and recycling of the same militarists such as Susan Rice emerging as a top official of the US foreign policy establishment. Lawrence Summers, who wrote the memo that it was more economical to dump toxic waste in Third World Countries, emerged as a major economic adviser.

A clear reading of five subject areas with international relations components in the transition team process indicates that Africa in general is likely to be a minor area of focus in their research process. These areas are:

1. State Department and Foreign Policy

2. International Economic Policy (USAID, World Bank, IMF, Treasury, Commerce, US Trade, OPIC, Ex-IM Bank, Agriculture)

3. Health/Human Services (HIV-AIDS)

4. National Security (DoD, AFRICOM and War on terror)

5. Energy (African oil)

In terms of operation, the team took its findings from each department and developed the Obama’s administration’s first internal white papers for each branch of government. Outside groups and entities with long-term interest in African resources were also submitting white papers on individual subjects into the transition team process. Hence, the final papers of the transition represented a product of both internal research and external contributions.

WHO TRAINED THESE POLICYMAKERS?

From the website of the transition process and the that three persons- Valerie Jarrett, Martin Nesbitt and Dr. Eric Whitaker- are the closest advisers of Barack Obama.

While transition team operatives maintained that US policy towards Africa was at present a low priority (insofar as the US is preoccupied with the crisis of the economy and the questions of war and peace in Iraq and Afghanistan) there is no let up on the ground in Africa in the promotion of US ‘national interests’ through the State Department, the Department of Defense, the Treasury Department, the Department of Energy and a multitude of groups who are supporting AID projects. The day-to-day operations of the US bureaucrats continue to promote the neo-conservative and neo-liberal policies of the western imperial ideation system.

Examples of where these policies are being pursued include: The full speed attempt to militarize Africa under the guise of the so called war on terror. This is manifest in the transition pledge to continue the establishment of the US Africa Command and a US led international naval force off the coast of Somalia.

The second area where this is clear is that despite the fact that neo-liberalism and the market fundamentalism has been discredited in the USA, these policies are still being promoted by the IMF, the World bank and the host of US agencies that are now operating in Africa. In September 2008, when this global capitalist crisis was becoming evident to the world, Alan Greenspan testified before Congress. He said, “I have found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact.”

What Grenspan was politely saying was that the thinking behind the neoconservative oriented economic policies that had been promoted in the United States and overseas is wrong. During the hearing, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), was not satisfied by the use of the word ‘flaw.’ Waxman wanted a stronger term. He then asked Greenspan to clarify his words:

“In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working,” Waxman said.

“Absolutely, precisely,” Greenspan replied. “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.”

This admission that for forty years the underlying assumptions, rationales and thinking which served as the foundation of the economic policies of the United States in the USA and overseas was wrong, must be discussed at every level in Africa. Will African governments be comfortable with accepting this statement that they were being bullied into adopting wrong policies? Or will African intellectuals, trade unionists, policy makers and ordinary citizens redouble the efforts to end the domination of the International Financial Institutions over the lives of the people?

Obama’s policy towards Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) particularly regarding medicines will be important. Already, Democrats in the Congress led by Charles Rangel have said that the USG should not put the interests of IPR holders in US trade agreements, over the human health interests in poor nations.

Will Obama push that position further or will he fight against it?

It now devolves to the oppressed in Africa to join forces with others in the Global South to push for the dismantling of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The dollar as the currency of World Trade is coming to the end of an inglorious period. It is not in the interests of the people of Africa for the Euro and for the European Union to be the beneficiary of the collapse of US capitalism. It is the task of Africans to work for the overthrow of capitalism in Africa and beyond. Capitalism should not be reconstituted and rebuilt on the backs and bodies of Africans. This crisis is not simply a cyclical crisis of capitalism; it is a fundamental shift in the global political and economic order.

While progressive African peoples at home and abroad were excited about the election of Barack Obama, it was clear that the alternatives to US government policies for Africa had to emerge from the combined efforts of the social forces within Africa who had a vested interest in making a break with the plunder and looting of Africa. From the actions and activities of the dominant groups in the United States that interact with the elites of Africa, the emphasis is on the ‘strategic’ resources of Africa, without a real consideration for the quality of lives of the people. Walter Rodney had identified this class of Africans who were allies of imperialism in the book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Since the era of neo-liberalism and IMF structural adjustment, the conception of ‘underdevelopment’ and ‘exploitation’ has been replaced by the language of ‘donor agencies’ partners for development and ‘democratic governance.’ The brightest from the institutions of higher learning were seduced into the multi billion dollar aid sector called the ‘humanitarian’ and ‘non-governmental organization’ sector. Many of these international NGO workers in Africa are now caught at a crossroads where there is fear that ’donor funds’ will be drying up because of the global capitalist crisis.

It is urgent that the progressives on both sides of the Atlantic call for a full exposure of the ‘other flawed’ policies of the United States such as the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Under the Bush administration the apartheid health policies associated with the conservative ideas about reproductive rights have been trumpeted as a success in Africa. So tenacious has been the propaganda about the health policies of the Bush administration in Africa that even within the Obama transition there is an acceptance that the PEPFAR of Bush has been beneficial for Africa. For those who want to continue to accept propaganda that “the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), holds a unique place in the history of public health for its size and scope,” I would only want to urge a read of the book, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present.

Health and peace are inextricably linked in all parts of the world, The African traditional healers, cultural workers and caregivers are joining the mass of 6 billion citizens of the planet earth who are calling for investment in caring, not killing. It is a major contradiction to trumpet the support for the recovery of health delivery services in Africa while supporting the remilitarization of Africa.

Will progressives accept that the US policies were’ flawed’ or symbolic of the structural relations of US imperialism in Africa? One of the by-products of the neo-liberal discourse was the reality that the understanding of imperial exploitation and plunder had been replaced by the new ‘humanitarian imperialism’ that was presented behind the international non-governmental infrastructure. Can the Obama administration justify an Economic Recovery program for the United States of over US $700 billion while advocating the use of ‘market forces’ to shelter the plunder of African resources?

OBAMA MUST REPUDIATE THE PLANNED US AFRICA COMMAND

If the economic and diplomatic policies of the USA prior to Barack Obama had been ‘flawed’, then one needs an appropriate formulation to properly describe the US security policies towards Africa. In December 2008, Larry Devlin joined the ancestors. Before he departed this land, Devlin wrote a book entitled, Chief of Station, Congo: A Memoir 1960-1967. This was a book celebrating the role played by Devlin while he was the Chief of the Station of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There was no remorse in this book about the role of the United States in the destabilization of the Congo subsequent to the assassination of Patrice Lumumba and the support for Mobutu for thirty five years. If anything, Devlin was celebrating the work of the US military and economic agencies. In his logic, everything that the US did during the Cold War was justified in the name of fighting communism.

This logic of Devlin is the same logic of the intellectual institutions of the United States. Peace and conflict resolution centers abound in order to promote the distorted logic of Larry Devlin or other writers who then complain about state failure in Africa. Progressive African Intellectuals must begin to document the criminal actions that perpetuated war and instability in every region of Africa. Not only did the USA support destruction and apartheid under this logic, but today there is support for private military contractors who are operating to protect the oil companies that are polluting Africa’s rivers and communities.

Today the peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are reaping the full harvest of the long term investment in militarism and destruction. Yet, instead of a full retreat from the history of military engagement, the members of the US foreign policy establishment continue to call for the establishment of the US Africa Command. It would appear from the public statements of those around the Obama team that the question of change does not apply to Africa and Africans.

RESIST AFRICOM AT HOME AND ABROAD

This is not to suggest that there are no forces within the United States working to dismantle the plans for the US Africa Command. There is such a force within the broad alliance of activists who are pledged to ensure that the Obama administration abandon the plans for the Africa Command. Thus far, the of one of the most senior lawmakers in the USA there is the declaration that:

In January of 1989, Mr. Conyers first introduced the bill H.R. 40, the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act. He has reintroduced H.R. 40 every Congress since 1989, and will continue to do so until it's passed into law.

This author is calling on all progressives to join in the call to extend this assertion by Conyers so that, in the short run, the government of the United States re-engages with the process of the World Conference against Racism, when it convenes in Geneva in April 2009.

FAILURE, FLAWS OR CRIMES IN AFRICA

It is now clear from the transition team of Obama that there is no new thinking on Africa. On the web site of the Obama election campaign, the adviser on Africa boasted that Obama:

“As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he has engaged on many African issues. He has worked to end genocide in Darfur, to pass legislation to promote stability and the holding of elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to bring a war criminal to justice in Liberia and to develop a coherent strategy for stabilizing Somalia.”

Who will be able to educate the Obama Presidency that the road to peace in Darfur and in the DRC is linked to demilitarization globally? Obama cannot continue the duplicity of the Bush administration that continues to have security and intelligence sharing with the government of the Sudan while maintaining that it is working to end the genocide in Darfur. Peace in Africa and demilitarization in the United States are two sides of the same coin.

Barack Obama is the son of a Kenyan immigrant. His father met an early demise from the deformed politics of division and manipulation in Kenya. Obama is going into the White House with a keen sense of the realities of the impoverishment of the people of Africa. It is the same Obama who understands that change can only come through organization. After all it was Senator Obama who campaigned on a pledge:

"I don't want to just end the war," he said early this year. "I want to end the mindset that got us into war."

Africans at home and abroad must inspire a new mindset so that all of the differing agencies, foundations and academic institutions in the USA can move to a new vision of relating to Africans as full human beings. By every measure, the victory of Obama is historic. Obama will either be a great President moving the society beyond the traditions of militarism and support for dictators or be another imperial President who happens to have a father from Kenya. The choice is not up to Obama. The choice is dependent on the extent to which the progressive forces use the opening provided by the election of Obama to bring about the change we want.

*Horace Campbell, is professor of African American studies at Syracuse University, and author of .
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices, is now accepting project proposals for microgrant funding of up to $5,000 for new media outreach projects. Ideal applicants will present innovative and detailed proposals to teach citizen media techniques to communities that are poorly positioned to discover and take advantage of tools like blogging, video-blogging, and podcasting on their own. Application Deadline: January 18, 2009.

The Women's World Summit Foundation WWSF cordially invites you to submit nominations for its 16th annual edition of the PRIZE for women's creativity in rural life, honouring creative and courageous women and women's organisations working to improve the quality of life in rural communities around the world.

The Refugee Law Project, Faculty of Law, Makerere University is announcing the vacancy of Legal officer in its Legal Aid and Counselling Department.

The Refugee Law Project, Faculty of Law, Makerere University is announcing the vacancy of SGBV Counsellor in its Legal Aid and Counselling Department.

The Refugee Law Project, Faculty of Law, Makerere University is announcing the vacancy of volunteer counsellor in its Legal Aid and Counselling Department.

A leading Zimbabwean political activist in the UK campaigning for human rights in Zimbabwe has been taken into detention and told he is to be deported on Thursday. Luka Phiri (40) was helping organise a demonstration in London for Tuesday 13th January calling for Zimbabwean failed asylum seekers to be allowed to work in the UK.

The village in South Africa’s Eastern Cape where Jonny Steinberg decided to study Aids has no television or internet access. Indeed, it has no electricity. The people believe in divine healers and fear the consequences of treating their ancestors badly. Yet as I read Three-Letter Plague, Mr Steinberg’s revelatory and beautifully crafted book, I was struck by the universal nature of his story.

The latest UNAIDS Report estimated that 33 million people around the globe are living with HIV; 22 million in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. Around 2.7 million new HIV infections occurred worldwide in 2007. However, encouraging new data suggests there have been significant gains in preventing new infections in several African countries with high prevalence rates.

The new hit being sung by everyone in São Tomé and Príncipe goes like this: "Bleguê Bleguê ... A mi na mecê Bleguê, anda com bebê..." The lyrics, in São Tomé's Forro language, have two simple but important messages: when you go out, always take condoms with you, and when you have sex, always use a condom.

To mark CEDAW’s 30th birthday, we want to celebrate. We want to gather and share stories, testimonies and reflections about CEDAW to inspire women the world over. Tell us your stories of change that show how CEDAW has been used to address injustice and to open up pathways of women’s empowerment. And tell others about us, so they can contribute too.

The Nigerian witnesses and plaintiffs send you their thanks and regards from the Niger Delta. After nearly three months in the San Francisco Bay Area during the human rights trial against Chevron, all of the Nigerians are safely and happily back at home. Although the U.S. jury did not hold Chevron accountable for its actions, it was never refuted in the Northern California District Court that Chevron paid and transported the Nigerian military to the platform in May 1998 and that two people were killed and several others injured by the military and police.