Pambazuka News 410: Lessons from Zimbabwe; debates on Obama, Africom, and the food crisis
Pambazuka News 410: Lessons from Zimbabwe; debates on Obama, Africom, and the food crisis
L’Essor and Radio Klédu have been named “Centers of Excellence” in the International Women’s Media Foundation’s (IWMF) new initiative, Reporting on Agriculture and Women: Africa. The goal of the four-year initiative is to enhance news media coverage of agriculture, women in agriculture and rural development in Africa.
For three years, Leylo Mohamud has been working to get her family out of Somalia, a land engulfed in civil war for much of the past two decades. Her prospects dimmed significantly last month. "It is so hard, it breaks my heart," said Mohamud, who lives in the Twin Cities. "I cannot support them and they're going to die without food. I want to bring them here, but I cannot."
Obama represented the best hope for the kind of change that could be achieved through electoral means. This was not merely because he was ‘black,’ but because he was intelligent, calm, organised, and a reassuring campaigner. His victory shows the Left what galvanises popular politics of change. His inauguration, even apart from the historicity of his ‘blackness,’ is being welcomed by the overwhelming majority of the US population as proof of the ‘mystery and majesty’ of electoral democracy. From this the Left needs to learn.
In the wake of Barack Obama’s presidential election victory, Doreen Lwanga considers the state of relations between African-Americans and Africans living in America. The author explores some of the derogatory influences, driven most notably by sections of the Western media, informing negative stereotypes on the part of both black Americans and new Africans, stereotypes that perpetuate misinformed and divisive views within the wider pan-African community. In this historic period of the first election of an individual of African ancestry to the highest seat of US power, Lwanga argues that any residual suspicion and negativity between these two broad groups should give way to lasting solidarity and unity.
Highlighting the persistent divisions in educational opportunity at the heart of the South African schooling system, Neville Alexander outlines a new direction based on the equitable distribution of opportunities for children, a more widespread culture of learning, and adequate institutional support for teaching staff.
Though applauding the success of this year’s record-breaking Stand Up action on global poverty, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem wonders whether revitalising the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will simply amount to lining the pockets of a few individual African recipients in positions of power. Taking up the example of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) in Uganda, the author situates such latent misappropriation of resources within a broader problem of one-time liberation leaders lingering in power. Once a genuine force for changing the system, Yoweri Museveni’s NRM, Abdul-Raheem argues, have now become the system.
"It is hard to think of a figure more reviled in the West than Robert Mugabe. Liberal and conservative commentators alike portray him as a brutal dictator, and blame him for Zimbabwe’s descent into hyperinflation and poverty," writes Mahmood Mamdani. " ... There is no denying Mugabe’s authoritarianism, or his willingness to tolerate and even encourage the violent behaviour of his supporters. His policies have helped lay waste the country’s economy, though sanctions have played no small part, while his refusal to share power with the country’s growing opposition movement, much of it based in the trade unions, has led to a bitter impasse. ... Many have compared Mugabe to Idi Amin and the land expropriation in Zimbabwe to the Asian expulsion in Uganda. The comparison isn’t entirely off the mark. I was one of the 70,000 people of South Asian descent booted out by Idi Amin in 1972; I returned to Uganda in 1979. My abiding recollection of my first few months back is that no one I met opposed Amin’s expulsion of ‘Asians’. Most merely said: ‘It was bad the way he did it.’ The same is likely to be said of the land transfers in Zimbabwe. What distinguishes Mugabe and Amin from other authoritarian rulers is not their demagoguery but the fact that they projected themselves as champions of mass justice and successfully rallied those to whom justice had been denied by the colonial system. Not surprisingly, the justice dispensed by these demagogues mirrored the racialised injustice of the colonial system. In 1979 I began to realise that whatever they made of Amin’s brutality, the Ugandan people experienced the Asian expulsion of 1972 – and not the formal handover in 1962 – as the dawn of true independence. The people of Zimbabwe are likely to remember 2000-3 as the end of the settler colonial era. Any assessment of contemporary Zimbabwe needs to begin with this sobering fact."
Thinking through about how the American left has reacted to Obama's election, Amiri Baraka argues that progressives are in danger of being left behind the masses of people who voted for Obama. Arguing that the "task of the revolutionary is to lead the people by taking what they already know and giving it back to them with the focus of the present the past and the future" Baraka calls for a people's democracy through a new democratic coalition.
Daniel Volman gives us the history and reasons for the creation of Africom, and why it will have disastrous consequences in and for Africa. He looks at Obama's likely support for Africom but also calls on us to engage Obama over the future of Africom.
In addition to writing short stories, John Eppel is also an award-winning poet and novelist. His list of achievements is impressive. His first novel, D.G.G. Berry’s The Great North Road (1992), won the M-Net Prize in South Africa. His second novel, Hatchings (1993), was short-listed for the M-Net Prize and his third novel, The Giraffe Man (1994), has been translated into French. And his first poetry collection, Spoils of War (1989), won the Ingrid Jonker Prize. Other poems have been featured in anthologies that include The Heart in Exile South African Poetry in English 1990-1995 (1996) while his short stories have appeared in anthologies that include Writing Now: More Stories from Zimbabwe (2005).
In a recent interview with , John Eppel spoke about his writing.
Great piece, Herbert Ross, . The political situation on South Africa (SA) is particularly worrying for me and a lot of other Africans. I saw in SA during Mandela's presidency that we were seeing a model form of Governance that would be an excellent example for the rest of Africa... As here was an African nation, run by Africans with a constitution that was the envy of the world. There would have been no more excuses, I thought, by other African heads of states about "democratic" governance, rule of law etc being an imposition by outsiders.
How they (African dictators) love to winge and whine about these "foreign concepts". Lately I have been very disappointed by what has been happening in SA. First the babaric and heinous crimes committed again other fellow Africans recently and now the chisms within the ANC - the tit for tat child like behaviour we see within the ANC Elite. I am totally embarassed by it!!!!!! Hah!! I was actually fooled to think that something that positive can come out of Africa.
As you rightly said, this is a time for SA to re-examine what had happened and to make sure that safeguards are put in place to prevent it happening again. No !! No !! not for Africans!! they just have to go personal on every thing. Attack and kill if they dont get there way. The new breakaway party is being threatend with violence for deciding to separate and yet I heard no statements of restraint from any of the current leaders. Thabo Mbeki may have had his problems, but thats no reason for the ANC to commit suicide by electing someone with attitudes that makes you think you are in another past century in Africa. No what Africa needs is an electorate that is sophisticated enough to boot out the self serving, unscrupolous, dictators where ever they are.
A top-ranking official of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF has publicly admitted that Mugabe is merely the “de facto” and not legally the Zimbabwean Head of State. Zimbabwe’s former ambassador to China and a senior Mugabe aide Chris Mutsvangwa conceded Friday that Mugabe can only become Zimbabwe’s legitimate President when the pending Constitutional Amendment 19 Bill is passed into law.
In recent years developing countries have expanded their government education systems in an attempt to meet the Millennium Development Goals on education by 2015. One consequence has been a dramatic growth in low-cost private education institutions, which are increasingly being seen as a popular alternative to the public education system. Using independent first-hand research, this study investigates the low-cost private education sector in India, Nigeria and Uganda.
Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, leaders of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), appeared in Bulawayo Magistrate's Court this morning before a packed courtroom. They were on trial for charges relating to the combined cases of the 16 October 2008 case and a 19 June 2004 arrest. The state, represented by Mr. Shawarira, was not ready for trial however and so Magistrate Msipa postponed the trial until 22 January 2009.
The Wanjiru Kihoro Fellowship's broad goal is to contribute to the development of a new generation of African women leaders who are dedicated to utilising their voices and experience to futher women's central role in peace building and development work in their country, region and continent. The Fellowship aims to attract applicants who have substantial experience in local community work and who wish to gain international experience to enrich and enhance their skills.
A24 Media is Africa’s first online delivery site for material from journalists, African broadcasters and NGO’s from around the Continent. A24 Media’s business model ensures that all contributors receive a wide and previously unknown exposure to their content, thereby generating sustainable and generous revenues from the sale of their stories on a 60:40 basis in favour of the contributor. Most importantly, the contributor will continue to OWN the copyright of the original footage.
We, the undersigned members of the Name and Shame Corruption Networks (NASCON) Campaign, working with Bunge La Mwananchi, the Goro Goro Campaign (Hosted by the Citizens Coalition for Constitutional Culture – 4Cs) and other Civil Society networks throughout Kenya, Concerned that the current crises facing the Kenyan nation have resulted from a leadership crisis and have caused much suffering to the citizens of this country...
Africa could be the breadbasket for the GCC - providing valuable water and food supplies to the entire region, a Bahraini expert claimed. He said the huge continent could be the answer to the region's prayers, since the Gulf is facing massive water shortages and its harsh climate is unsuitable for large-scale agriculture.
In my undergraduate course (Human Rights and Social Change in Sub-Saharan Africa) at Barnard College, Columbia University, I required students to subscribe to and to read Pambazuka weekly. Occasionally we would discuss the readings in class. It was a real success. I was surprised by the number of students who chose the topics of their research papers on the basis of articles they had read through Pambazuka. My main suggestion would be to try to include more news from West Africa. Best wishes and thanks for making Africa so visible to my students.
Most researchers and writers on African affairs, both bourgeois and historical materialist, have recognized the African origins of human society. The contributions of successive African civilizations and cultures have been well documented in various publications. These efforts to re-correct the distortions in the way African history has been narrated and interpreted are important in understanding the significance and character of political events that are occurring on the continent today.
A leading Zimbabwean human rights activist was seized yesterday by suspected secret police, in the most high level abduction operation yet by President Mugabe’s government. Fifteen armed men in civilian clothing burst into the home of Jestina Mukoko, the executive director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, in the small town of Norton 40km west of Harare at 5am, lawyers said.
The situation in Zimbabwe has reached unprecedented levels of crisis. As we have been saying for the last few years, such crisis was climaxing and with a number of possibilities arising. Firstly and most likely was the likelihood of the bourgeois elite politicians in Zanu PF and the opposition MDC uniting together in an elitist government of national unity in which Zanu PF would be the senior partner and MDC the junior around a western and capitalist supported neoliberal economic agenda.
From 26-28 November 2008, the Centre for the Study of Violence of Reconciliation (CSVR) hosted the ‘South African Domestic Violence Act (DVA) Lessons from a Decade of Legislation and Implementation’ conference in Johannesburg. Attended by approximately 120 delegates came together to review the implementation of the DVA over the past 10 years.
FreeDimensional has been asked to help find a candidate for a 6-month all expenses paid residency for a visual artist who has been in distress or censored in some way. This opportunity is in relation to the Bilbao (Anti-) Censorship Festival.
Sokari Ekine review blogs from:
My Nigeria
Moot Box
Africa is a country
Kenya Environment & Political News
Black Looks
Timbuktu Chronicles
Tales from the loo
Following an invitation extended by the Electoral Commission of Ghana, EISA is deploying a mission to observe the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in Ghana, scheduled for Sunday 7 December 2008. The Mission is led by Mr Denis Kadima, EISA Executive Director. It consists of 15 members drawn from civil society organisations (CSOs) from 13 African countries, namely Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Mozambique, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Zambia.
The second edition of Climate Change and supporting website feature a range of articles that encourage the sharing of best practice and the development of new technologies. These initiatives, illustrates the opportunities for business and governments to reduce costs and increase profits while tackling climate change. Separated into four sections, the first three mirrors the thematic building blocks laid out by the Bali Action Plan in 2007, which will be discussed in detail during COP 14 - The United Nations Climate Conference in Poznon, Poland, and in the lead up to COP 15 in Copenhagen.
The North-South Institute is pleased to invite applications for its annual Visiting Researcher position. The Fellowship is named after Professor Emeritus G.K. Helleiner, one of Canada 's leading academics on international development issues, who has dedicated many years to working in Africa and other developing countries and is a founding member and former Chair of the North-South Institute.
The International Coalition on the Detention of Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants has launched the first international newsletter with a focus on global trends in migration-related detention and resources for groups working with detainees. To sign up for the newsletter email: [email][email protected], or visit: http://www.idcoalition.org
The Congress of South African Trade Unions regrets the resignation of University of KwaZulu-Natal physicist, Professor Nithaya Chetty, who, together with mathematics Professor John van den Berg, was facing disciplinary action and likely dismissal on charges of "failing to take due care in communicating with the media, breaching confidentiality and dishonest and/or gross negligence". This related to their public criticisms in the media of the university's academic freedom record
We, the undersigned organizations, register our serious distress and concern on the news received this morning concerning the abduction of Zimbabwe Peace Project Director, Jestina Mukoko. Ms Mukoko was reported as having been forcefully taken from her home in Norton Harare, at 5am, this morning still wearing her nightdress. Her abductors are suspected CIO and police agents.
At a historic conference in Oslo, more than 100 countries are signing a convention that will ban cluster bombs that are known to cause great damage on civilians. More than 30 African countries are among them. Every country in East Africa, all Western African countries except The Gambia and the large majority of Southern African and the Indian Ocean countries are signing the convention. Only in North Africa and the Horn of Africa, governments will not ban the devastating weapon.
"Slavery is the reality of modern day life. It has evolved in many parts of the world into many diverse and cruel forms", says, new UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery its causes and consequences, Ms. Gulnara Shahinian. "Last year, the world celebrated 200 years of the abolition of the slave trade. However, slavery is not history," warns the UN expert. "Despite significant progress in the fight against slavery in many parts of the world, these efforts seem to be insufficient."
Zimbabwe government announced Wednesday that it will bring to book soldiers who went on a rampage beating up people and looting shops in central Harare, the defence minister told journalists. "A number of properties were damaged, innocent people injured, money, and property stolen. These acts are deplorable, reprehensible and criminal," defence minister, Sydney Sekeramayi told journalists at a press conference.
Botswana's government said Wednesday it would give 370,000 dollars to neighbouring Zimbabwe for cholera and food relief, but that the money was not intended for President Robert Mugabe's regime. "We have no quarrel with the people of Zimbabwe. They are in this because their leadership has failed to form a government. The money is intended for the people and not authorities," said Clifford Maribe, a foreign affairs official.
US district court jury acquitted San Ramon-based Chevron Corporation of complicity in human rights abuses. The case of Bowoto v. Chevron, which pitted Chevron and its relationship with the notoriously violent Nigerian police and military against Nigerians who peacefully protested the destruction of their environment and livelihood by Chevron’s oil production activities. Despite the verdict, corporate accountability advocates vowed to continue the struggle to bring Chevron and other corporations to justice for human rights violations they commit overseas.
Authorities in Zimbabwe have declared a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 550 people to be a national emergency, state media reports. Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said hospitals were in urgent need of medicine, food and equipment and were suffering a critical staff shortage.
Nigerian medical authorities are flying in 100 doses of an antidote to try and stem the deaths of babies poisoned by a contaminated teething syrup. The number of children who have died from kidney failure after being given the tainted paracetamol-based remedy called "My Pikin" has risen to 34.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor has warned the UN Security Council not to shield Sudan's president if the court issues an arrest warrant. Luis Moreno-Ocampo accused President Omar al-Bashir in July of genocide in Darfur - a charge he denies.
Godwin Muti was one of the first people to descend on Chiadzwa when word spread that diamonds had been discovered in the arid and impoverished part of eastern Zimbabwe. Mr Muti, 31, an unemployed father-of-two, was wallowing in poverty. He could hardly pay rent for a one-room house where he lodged in the old township of Sakubva in Mutare city.
Kenya's parliament has set up a committee to review MPs' generous salaries and allowances. This follows a widespread public outcry over a decision by the country's legislators to drop a proposal to tax their allowances.
Is Mozambique an African success story? It has 7 percent a year growth rate and substantial foreign investment. Fifteen years after the war of destabilisation, the peace has held. Mozambique is the donors' model pupil, carefully following their prescriptions and receiving more than a billion dollars a year in aid. The number of bicycles has doubled and this is often cited as the symbol of development. In this book Joseph Hanlon challenges some key assumptions of both the donors and the government
Kenya's anti-corruption watchdog is suing seven current and former members of parliament for taking illegal allowances worth $250,000 (£166,000). Information Minister Samuel Poghisio has denied taking 2.8m shillings ($35,000, £23,000) in 2006 and 2007. Similar allegations have been filed against the assistant defence minister and five former members of parliament.
Nigeria's leading anti-corruption campaigner has in recent weeks been subject to an escalating campaign of harassment, threats, and an apparent attempt on his life, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch called on the Nigerian government to protect the campaigner, Nuhu Ribadu, former chairman of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The Burundian National Assembly adopted important human rights advances in a penal code voted in on November 22, 2008, including abolishing the death penalty and making torture, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity punishable under Burundian law, Human Rights Watch has said.
The Nigerian government should investigate and prosecute those responsible for killing up to 400 people during several recent days of violence in the city of Jos, Human Rights Watch has said. The federal government should immediately establish an independent inquiry to find out who sponsored and carried out the killings, including any members of the security forces who appear to have responded to violence with disproportionate use of forc
How can human rights principles help to focus climate change policymaking? This report from the International Council on Human Rights Policy discusses the human rights impacts of climate change and maps research agendas. It includes Forewords by Mary Robinson and Romina Picolotti.
If the socio-economic development goals of the eight countries that share the Zambezi River basin are to be met, countries along the river should quickly implement plans towards managing water resources in an efficient, effective and sustainable manner. This was the agreement made during the Fourth Zambezi Basin-wide Stakeholders Forum which took place in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe from Nov. 26-27.
This Development Dialogue is published on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Genocide Convention, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9th December 1948. On the basis of the normative framework created and more recently also applied in a few cases, the contributions seek to explore further the socio-historical and -political contexts of genocide and mass violence and test the common approaches against analyses of social realities as well as theories. The historical dimension is of significance to many of the chapters, which have a main focus on African cases and contexts. The contributions, which are based on two conferences held in Uppsala in December 2006 and Oslo in November 2007, present scholarly as well as politically and morally guided forms of engagement. This blend seeks to acknowledge the need to unite differently posed concerns and appeals in their common efforts to examine further the notion of genocide (as well as its limitations), with the aim of reducing the risks of history repeating itself. The volume is accessible also for download at the Foundation’s web site:
Revisiting the heart of darkness – Explorations into genocide and otther forms of mass violence. 60 years after the UN Convention. Edited by Henning Melber. Uppsala: The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation (development dialogue, no. 50, December 2008), 302 pp.
Patrick Bond in this essay argues that while Obama was elected on a platform of change, his cabinet and advisor picks point to a return to domestic Clintonian policy, and an extension of Bush’s foreign policy. Even though Bond acknowledges that “Obama may not run as extreme a militarist regime as Bush/Cheney or as McCain/Palin would have” still, being less militaristic while pursuing a neo-liberal economic agenda does not bode well for the third world.
As Zimbabwe’s ministry of home affairs has become the centre of political attention in the tug of war between Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC and Mugabe’s ZANU PF, what has become of the countries health and education? Silence Chihuri reflects on why the police today matter more than doctors in a country grappling with a cholera epidemic and massive economic meltdown and why home affairs remain the gate keepers of Zimbabwe.
The outbreak of cholera in epidemic proportions has brought Zimbabwe back to the attention of the region and the world. Zimbabwe’s complex emergency, which is now causing so much suffering, taking lives and breaking the society apart at its seams, has been several years in the making. A key factor in creating a perfect environment for the breeding and spread of the cholera bacterium has been the neglect of essential services by the ZANU PF government over the years.
For years Microsoft denied that open source software was a competitor to its business. And then suddenly a year or so ago it began to talk “standards”, “interoperability” and other good things. It even went so far as to give money to open source projects. But, just as we were starting to think that the company was ready for a new course it comes out with a piece of PR that sounds as if Steve Ballmer could have written it himself.
Students at the correspondence-based University of South Africa (Unisa) will be required to sign up for a Microsoft-provided email address before they are able to receive correspondence from the university. The required email address is part of the first phase to build the MyLife portal to foster a “sense of belonging” among students, the university says.
Suspected cumulative cholera cases continue to rise in the nine out of ten Provinces of Zimbabwe. The increase of the outbreak is attributed inter–alia to poor water and sanitation supply, collapsed health system and limited government capacity to respond to the emergency. Trans–border outbreaks are also reported and mainly at the Beitbridge border post in the Matabeleland South of Zimbabwe and Plumtree in Botswana border post.
Due to the absence of clashes as well as patrol operations by MONUC, nearly 65% of the families that fled from Kanyabayonga, 150km north of Goma due to insecurity, have started returning home during the past week. The same situation is happening in Kaina, Lubero, 200km north of Goma. Unfortunately in Kanyabayonga, most of the houses were looted by armed troops who carried away mattresses, blankets, kitchen utensils and many valuables.
Without an effective response to the deepening humanitarian crisis in Somalia, the population there could face "total destitution", said Mark Bowden, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, warning that "this is now a make or break year for Somalia".
Every now and then we put together an issue and the whole editorial team says, “Ah, now this is one satisfying issue” – a short hand way of saying that the essays are deep, urgent, far reaching and also, a sheer pleasure to read. This is one such issue.
The essays are much longer than our usual ones – but we promise they will be worth every minute you spend on them.
At the top of the list is Mahmood Mamdani's incisive analysis of the struggle for land reform in Zimbabwe.
You will find Amiri Baraka arguing that the left outlook on Obama is wrong-headed and that the left risks being left (pun intended) behind by the people. Amiri Baraka thunders at the left and says “the task of the revolutionary is to lead the people by taking what they already know and giving it back to them with the focus of the present the past and the future.” Along the same lines, you will find, Michael Novick arguing that revolutionary resistance cannot be organized against Obama, or alongside him necessarily, but ahead of him.
In contrast, you will find Patrick Bond deriding Obama on his cabinet picks that seem to be taking him further away from the promise of change, bring on board hawks and the neoliberals.
But just as soon you are done with the Baraka and Novick pieces, Doreen Lwanga will ask you: What of the relationship between Africans and African Americans in the US? No one has really looked at the implications of an Obama presidency in the light of this important relationship, subversive but also fraught with contradiction.
AFRICOM is now official and Daniel Volman provides an invaluable comprehensive background piece. And Jacques Depelchin does the same for the food crisis while contextualizing the crisis in the old days of the invisible hand and in the equally invisible equality promised by globalization.
Silence Chihuri looks at the cholera epidemic, the massive economic meltdown and why home affairs remain the gate keepers of Zimbabwe.
While Neville Alexander and colleagues critique the crisis of education in South Africa.
Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, in the Pan-African Post Card is piercing - as always - cutting through the bubble wrap, this time using Uganda to ask whether we need liberation from the liberators.
And as usual, we have letters, the African blogosphere, and a round up on China in Africa.
But this also reflects the ever growing number of high quality articles being submitted to Pambazuka News, itself a reflection of the growth of critical voices on the African continent.
Can you tell just how excited we are by this issue? Now, be sure to let us know what you thought of it by sending comments to or commenting online at http://www.pambazuka.org/
In an article exploring the history of socio-economic inequality, Jacques Depelchin calls for an interpretation of the current food crisis over the historical longue durée. As a direct consequence of an entrenched, centuries-old capitalist system, the author argues, the market as a ‘modernising’ force has consistently enriched the lives of a few while impoverishing a poor majority. Understanding the food crisis, Depelchin contends, rests first and foremost on re-considering humanity’s relationship to nature and championing historical narratives true to the voices and experiences of the global poorest of the poor.
The benefits of the Bujagali Dam project, now being built by private companies on the Nile River in Uganda, have been overstated and its risks understated, according to a 17-month investigation by the World Bank Inspection Panel. Worse, most of those risks fall on Uganda – one of the world’s poorest countries – rather than the project developers. The result could be a project that fails to fulfill the Bank’s “broad objective of sustainable development and poverty reduction embodied in Bank policy,” the Panel states.
A Zimbabwean human rights activist was abducted from her home at dawn on Wednesday by a group of armed plain-clothes men who identified themselves as policemen. Jestina Mukoko is the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), a local human rights organisation that is involved in monitoring and documenting human rights violations in Zimbabwe.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has today welcomed the conclusion of the first working congress of the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), held in Nairobi, Kenya last week end as a historic milestone in strengthening African Journalists. "IFJ affiliates in Africa have finally realised a long-held ambition to set up their own federation. This will have a tremendous impact on journalists and media in Africa.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the decision by the Central African Republic (CAR) to hold an inclusive political dialogue shortly, but cautioned that the country continues to face political, security and socio-economic challenges. In his latest report to the Security Council on the country made public today, Mr. Ban wrote that the situation in the CAR is being compounded by a weak economy, complex social problems and impunity.
An independent United Nations human rights expert today voiced his deep concern over the diminishing freedom of expression and association in Burundi, warning that violations of these freedoms imperil the rule of law in the African Great Lakes country. “The Government must restore a calm political climate and take all necessary measures to end the harassment and intimidation of journalists and representatives of civil society, trade unions and political parties,” said Akich Okola, the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Burundi.
'Web 2.0 in Africa' is an eight minute Business Africa/CTA video production documenting actual cases on the use of Web 2.0 applications in the development sector, specifically among farmers in Africa. The documentary which highlights the experiences of the interaction with farmers such as BROSDI does in Uganda is available in English and has been translated into Langi (Luo) by WOUGNET/Kubere Information Centre.
Zambia has not been spared by HIV and AIDS. 17 percent of the 12 million Zambians are HIV/AIDS. The government and other stakeholders put concerted efforts to fight this deadly disease. "They were there, when I needed them."Care International is one of the NGOs that have embarked on HIV/AIDS. Care International regional office in the boarder town of Livingstone, is running a Home Based Care (HBC) programme for HIV/AIDS patients. The boarder towns are the most affected areas.
The Botswana President Ian Tseretse Khama has unveiled his government is ready to fund the whole election re-run in Zimbabwe. Speaking on national television, he said Botswana is not part of the quiet diplomacy employed by other leaders saying its time for such tactics fast expired long time ago.
Power-sharing in Zimbabwe is dead and it is time for African governments to oust President Robert Mugabe, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said. After talks with Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in Nairobi, Mr Odinga told the BBC that Mr Mugabe had no interest in sharing power.
As desperate Zimbabweans continue to fight a daily battle to survive, a group of young refugee women have taken their struggle against the Robert Mugabe regime to the streets of South Africa. The group of up to fifty women at a time has been picketing outside South Africa’s Union Buildings in Pretoria since last week, in protest against the ongoing violence and abuse of women by Zimbabwe’s state agents.
CONCERNED about the recent challenges that we have faced as a country and the multiple threats to the well-being of our people and, therefore, determined to resolve these permanently...CONSIDERING our shared determination to uphold, defend and sustain Zimbabwe's sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity, as a respected member of the international community, a nation where all citizens respect and, therefore, enjoy equal protection of the law and have equal opportunity to compete and prosper in all spheres of life.
On Tuesday last week (25/11) Thokozani Mkhotli, from the Arnett Drive settlement in Reservoir Hills, was shot by a Securicor Guard with live ammunition. The bullet entered his left buttock and emerged lower down in the front of his left thigh. The trajectory of the bullet shows clearly that he was shot from behind and from above. Thokozani is 33. He is from Bizana and works as a builder's labourer fixing ceilings.
The Moroccan Ministry of Health called on all artists to help raise public awareness about AIDS, in an effort to curb the spread of the disease. A large number of artists signed the "Artists' AIDS Pact" on World AIDS Day (December 1st).
Leaders from Muslim countries and civil society organisations adopted a new pact on Wednesday (November 26th) in Tunis to promote the rights of youth and to advocate a better role for them in society. The "Tunis Pact" was proposed at the International Conference on Youth Issues in the Islamic World: Present Stakes and Future Challenges, which was held on November 24th-26th in Tunis.
At least 20 people drowned off the coast of Yemen earlier this week and two were reported missing after smugglers carrying them across the Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa forced them to jump overboard in deep water. The boat was reportedly carrying around 115 passengers, mostly Ethiopians.
Tanzania is lagging behind on key development goals for safe water, income and health, even though the east African nation has benefited from a growing economy over the last few years, according a newly released household budget survey. Supported by budding financial markets, the proportion of Tanzania's population living below the poverty line dropped to 33.3 percent last year from 35.7 percent in 2000/01, stated the 2007 survey, which was released by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics.
The European Union is financing ecologically and socially destructive projects in Africa, a Brussels conference has been told. Officially, the Luxembourg-based European Investment Bank (EIB) is committed to using the 53 billion euros (67 billion dollars) it releases each year, to pursue policies that protect the environment and alleviate hardship.
This report argues that while there has been some remarkable progress towards some of the EFA goals since 2000, progress is being undermined by a failure of governments to tackle persistent inequalities based on income, gender, location, ethnicity, language, disability and other markers for disadvantage. Unless governments act to reduce disparities through effective policy reforms, the EFA promise will be broken.
This framing paper for an INEE Policy Roundtable provides analysis, lessons learnt and recommendations on the financing of education in states affected by fragility. The paper focuses mainly on aid to education, but also considers it in the context of domestic financing for education. The authors discuss the current state of financing in terms of both official development assistance and humanitarian funding, focusing on the trends and recent commitments to education.
Growing concerns about the new Burundian Penal Code have surfaced with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community in that country opposing the fact that it criminalises homosexuality. The penal code, which was voted in by the National Assembly on 22 November 2008 abolishes death penalty, makes torture, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity punishable under Burundian law.
The South Africa Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (SA GLAAD) and other gay rights groups will stage a protest outside South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)’s head office on Thursday 4 December. SAHRC has come under fire recently following its alleged silence on the controversial column written by Sunday Sun’s John Qwelane, published in July this year.