Pambazuka News 567: Protests: Is this the democracy we fought for?
Pambazuka News 567: Protests: Is this the democracy we fought for?
Years of interviews, investigative reporting, and analysis of classified US government documents went into a book on right-wing paramilitarism in Haiti.
Until his death on 20 January 2012, Dudley J. Thompson remained a revered leader of the Afro-American diaspora.
Motsoko Pheko responds to reader comments on his article ''
There are at least a million people in the West who live off the aid industry. They have a vested interest in perpetuating it. But it will disintegrate over time and die slowly.
1649 is arguably the most revolutionary year in the history of Barbados. The oppressed Barbadian working class – the white indentured servants and the enslaved black Africans – erupted in revolt against the repressive white slave master class.
The British government, which 46 years ago fully backed the brutal repression of the Igbo secession attempt is now not opposed to the independence of Scotland. For the Scots, Igbos or any other people, the right to self-determination is inalienable.
‘The Mozambique food riots of 2010 and the recent mass protests in Nigeria show that people are capable of forcing governments to back down from enforcing policies that have a negative impact on their lives.’
President Sirleaf won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize and should know that the oppression and exclusion of any group is anathema to Alfred Nobel’s vision of an equal society.
It is an insult to the African Union and to every African that in 2012 a building as symbolic as the AU headquarters is designed, built and maintained by a foreign country – it does not matter which.
North and South Sudan will not find durable peace so long as the marginalised population in the border States continues to die. There must be stability in Abyei, Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, Eastern Sudan and Darfur.
'This ruling is an affront to justice and underscores that these are politicized charges used by the government to intimidate journalists and chill news-gathering activities', said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita.
‘The uprisings in Egypt and everywhere remind us that direct action is an important pillar for the poor and the oppressed all over the world.’
One way of measuring the quality of a democracy is to assess the behaviour of its police. The recent brutal attack on the Unemployed People’s Movement leader Ayanda Kota reveals the sad state of democracy in South Africa.
The shocking news that the former Liberian strongman was indeed a CIA informant in the early years of his rise to notoriety calls into question America’s complicity in Taylor’s destruction of Liberia.
It may appear like business as usual but people do not experience such an outpouring of solidarity and power and remain unchanged. The apathy barrier has been broken and there has been a shift in consciousness.
Because of the outstanding success of the workshops at last year's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., the ASA will welcome proposals for workshops on a wide range of topics to be held on Wednesday, November 28, 2012, prior to the 55th Annual Meeting.
Last year's workshops were organized by the Library of Congress, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, American University; and scholars from the University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health. Topics included health in Africa, governance and development, new technologies in the field of museum studies, and information resources and materials.
To propose a workshop, please visit the to view and complete the application. Submit the completed document as an attachment to [email][email protected] or mail to: Pre-Conference Workshops, African Studies Association, Rutgers University-Livingston Campus, 54 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854. The deadline to submit applications is March 15, 2012. Applicants will be notified of the Program Committee's decision in early April.
The project will bring together a group of ten emerging writers whose writing, it is hoped, will help construct a newer scope of African identity.
OSIWA calls for proposals that seek to:
1. Foster building of strong governance institutions, processes and structures that are transparent, accountable and intolerant of impunity;
2. Build the capacity of civil society organizations and increase citizen participation in decision-making processes and
3. Promote the protection of fundamental rights and citizenship groups exposed to discrimination.
The programs will be implemented in one or more of these countries: Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
Please click on the link provided to access the full Call for Proposals, which contains further links to a detailed strategy to guide the application process and the application documents.
By taking back the commons, thousands of poor and working-class people, together with many middle-class allies, are saying that they no longer want to live in a city which remains segregated.
Oxfam seeks to expand its capacity to hold global multi-lateral institutions and African States accountable to the claims of people living in poverty, suffering and injustice in the African countries we work in. The Pan Africa Programme is a continental public policy advocacy programme with staff in based Nairobi, Hague, Addis Ababa and Dakar. Together with the State of the Union coalition (www.stateoftheunionafrica.net) , we are looking to fill seven exciting vacancies based in Nairobi. Are you ready to act with poor people and their allies to make claims on the global and African policy processes? Are you committed to holding African States accountable to their own decisions within the African Union? We are looking for people like you to fill a total of seven positions. The first three positions will form the Nairobi based secretariat of newly established State of the Union coalition. The remaining four positions will be Oxfam staff working within the Pan Africa programme office in Nairobi, Kenya.
Climate gamblers have been led astray since 1997 when the Kyoto Protocol was amended to let corporations buy the right to pollute in exchange for endorsing the treaty. Predictably, Washington has refused to honour this ever since.
China and Japan have taken a decisive step to diversify their reserve holdings away from the dollar. African peoples have a lot of lessons to learn from both the capitalist crisis in Europe and this new financial arrangement.
The ECOWAS Commission has said that it roundly condemns the spate of terror attacks in different parts of Nigeria. It maintained that the attacks by Boko Haram were 'aggravating insecurity among both citizens and visitors'. According to the sub-regional group, the West African leaders have noted with regret that 'the latest deadly attacks in the country’s ancient northern city of Kano on Friday, January 20, 2012 happened in spite of the determined efforts by the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to rein in those behind these attacks.' Nigeria’s violent situation has reportedly featured at the United Nations Security Council.
Wednesday 25 January marked the one-year anniversary since the beginning of 18 days of protests that ousted the previous regime of Hosni Mubarak. Since that day, Egypt remains struggling to see the revolution succeed. Website has a useful timeline of important events throughout the year.
There is no threat, sanctions lead to war and war leads to welfare cuts: These are three of the 10 reasons advanced by the website against possible war against Iran by Western powers.
To thousands of Egyptian revolutionaries, Khadiga Hennawi is mother, says this article on Hennawi, who started out bringing food to protestors camped in the historic square, earned the moniker 'the Mother of Tahrir' by taking care of younger activists, often offering refuge at her home from attacks by security forces. The fifty-nine-year-old divorcee has become a figurehead of the struggle for freedom and democracy.
Joint operations between the police and military are becoming increasingly commonplace. But maintaining a strict demarcation between the police and the military is essential to the protection of democracy.
The international dimension of Liberia’s civil war is rarely given the attention it deserves, writes Boima Tucker on the blog Africa is a Country. 'The fact that Charles Taylor stands on trial for war crimes in Sierra Leone points to it partially, but often not realized are the roles that countries like Libya, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria played in initiating a truly multinational war. Recent revelations by the CIA - which have always been suspected - put the United States’ role in the war at center stage, adding fuel to claims of outside intervention in Liberian politics, since its founding as a Western style nation-state, up until today.'
Allieu Sesay, a broadcast journalist working with Freetown-based Radio Democracy, was reportedly assaulted on 15 January 2012 and briefly detained by some policemen drawn from the Operation Support Division (OSD) of the Sierra Leonean police. Sesay met his ordeal when covering the arrest of Aziz Carew, a constituency chairman of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) at his Fourah Bay home in the east of the capital Freetown. This was after a bye- election which resulted in violence.
Ghana’s President John Atta Mills on 25 January announced a cabinet reshuffle that saw two ministers - Health minister Joseph Yieleh Chireh and Information minister John Tia – lose their jobs. The reshuffle had been speculated about over the past several months following revelations that a leading member of the ruling National Democratic Congress had been awarded millions of dollars in court-approved debt payments that went against the government.
Kenya has been urged to continue providing refuge to Somalis fleeing violence and hunger in their homeland, a US State Department official said. 'We continue to rely on and advocate strongly for the protection of Somalis inside Kenya, that they should not be sent back into Somalia in order to create some sort of a buffer zone,' declared David Robinson, acting assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration. Mr Robinson spoke at a press briefing in Washington Tuesday on the status of the food crisis in Kenya and elsewhere in the Horn of Africa.
The journey Betty Makoni has travelled leaves permanent and visible footsteps. Her poetry book takes a new approach to self-empowerment. Easy to read and yet very powerful for reflection.
World Bank Managing Director Caroline Anstey recently announced a new partnership with Google that will apparently empower citizen cartographers in 150 countries worldwide. This has provoked some concern among open source enthusiasts. The worry is, says this post, that Google will organize crowdsourced mapping projects and use people with local knowledge to improve Map Maker data, which will carry Google licencing agreement restrictions. Does this really empower citizen cartographers?
The confirmation of charges against four Kenyans, three of them wealthy and powerful elites, is welcome news for the victims of the 2007/8 post-election violence. But there are thousands of other perpetrators who are still walking free.
He changed our flag,
With cavalier insouciance,
He stood proudly to brag
While we gaped in stunned trance,
Like a rampant stag,
It was the height of arrogance,
He changes our laws with seeming impunity;
He twists them to suit his ends,
He changes the equation with intractability,
While his puppets amend;
We regress inexorably;
While sycophants defend;
He calls us stupid and drunk,
He's on a power trip,
He’s bitten off a hunk,
His mind has flipped
He's so full of spunk,
He's got a shoulder on his chip;
Absolute power carries great responsibility,
The wielder must beware the craze,
Lest he fall prey to hubristic gravity,
And stumble into an egocentric maze,
Lose touch with reality;
In a narcissistic daze;
He’s the quintessential power tripper,
And it ain’t no joke,
He’s an asset stripper,
A pig in a poke,
He’s an insatiable beak dipper
Never seems to choke,
He’s an illogical skipper,
We’re headed for broke.
Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta distributed close to Sh50 million to mobilise and arm attackers during the post-election violence, according to the ruling of ICC judges. The money was released in instalments through three former MPs from Kiambu and Nakuru counties and former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga. In the ruling delivered on Monday 23 January, the judges pieced together events leading to the revenge attacks on ODM supporters in Naivasha and Nakuru by Mungiki members, who were said to be supporters of the rival Party of National Unity (PNU).
Reporters Without Borders says it welcomes blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad's release late on 25 January under an amnesty announced on 21 January for around 2,000 civilians who had been convicted by military courts during the past year. Sanad, who had been detained for 10 months on a charge of insulting the armed forces, was freed from Cairo's Tora prison late in the afternoon.
Kenya's Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Muthaura step aside from office after ICC pre-trial Judges confirmed charges levelled against them. Mr Kenyatta will however retain his post as Deputy Prime Minister. President Kibaki accepted the decision of the two to step aside and appointed Nairobi Metropolitan Minister Njeru Githae to act as Finance Minister. Internal Security Permanent Secretary Francis Kimemia also takes over Mr Muthaura's duties on an acting capacity.
Alleged brutality by security forces against journalists and proposed draconian legislation against newspapers have plunged Uganda 43 places lower in the latest press freedom ranking by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The Press Freedom Index notes that an increased number of journalists in Uganda reported more acts of violence meted out on them by security agencies. 'Journalists in Uganda were the targets of violence and surveillance during the presidential election in February (2011) and were targeted again during the brutal crackdown on the Walk-to-Work protests later in the year, when dozens of journalists were arrested,' the report indicated.
Last week BBC News reported that 70,000 indigenous people have been forced to relocate in the western Gambella region of Ethiopia to new villages that lack adequate resources for their survival. The land has been signed over to foreign investors, including Saudi Star Agriculture Development Plc, a company owned by Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Al Amoudi. Saudi Star has begun rice cultivation on 10,000ha of land in Gambella and a 10,000ha irrigation project along the already-compromised Alwero River. Only grain that does not meet export requirements will be sold locally.
The Tanzanian government has indicated it was bowing to pressure from medical doctors in public hospitals, who have been on strike to press for improved working conditions. Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda has appealed to the doctors to resume work, underlining his readiness to meet with their representatives in order to work out a lasting solution to their grievances.
The press freedom watchdog, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Tuesday 24 January condemned the killing of Nigerian journalist, Enenche Akogwu, in Kano, northern Nigeria. According to IFJ, Enenche, a reporter with the privately-owned Channels Television station, was gunned down on Friday, 20 January. 'We condemn this latest killing which shows that journalists in Nigeria need adequate protection in the face of increasing risks,' Gabriel Baglo, the IFJ Africa Director, was quoted as saying.
Young people Tweeting from mobile devices are driving the growth of Twitter in Africa, according to How Africa Tweets, new research launched in Nairobi. In the first ever attempt to comprehensively map the use of Twitter in Africa, Portland Communications and Tweetminster analysed over 11.5 million geo-located Tweets originating on the continent during the last three months of 2011.
The International Criminal Court has confirmed charges against four of the six Kenyans suspected of masterminding the post-election violence of 2007/8.
Many Kenyans are heading to the new Republic of South Sudan as investors.
Africa Cup of Nations a tribute to President Nguema?
This video from The Real News reports on how Israel's Knesset has approved plans to jail asylum seekers for the longest period in the western world.
The African Union (AU) Commission has tabled a US$274 million budget proposal for 2012, which African leaders are expected to debate and later adopt. However, questions have been raised that the money is mainly sourced from donor partners, with some African members failing to pay their annual subscriptions. The AU is owed millions of dollars in arrears, forcing the continental body to always extend the begging bowl for its activities.
Advocates for Haitian peasants said a US-based company’s donation of up to 475 tons of hybrid vegetable seeds to aid Haitian farmers will harm the island-nation’s agriculture. The advocates contend the donation is being made in an effort to shift farmer dependence from local seed to more expensive hybrid varieties shipped from overseas. Haitian farmers and small growers traditionally save seed from season to season or buy the seed they desire from traditional seed markets.
Visit the 'Recent Activity' section of Fahamu's Youtube page to view a series of videos showing protesters near place de l'obelisque on January 27 in Dakar, Senegal awaiting the constitutional court's decision on Wade's candidature in February elections.
Who are the global 1%? What companies do they run? How do they escape accountability? Check out the Transnational Institute's powerful infographic displays that expose the social and environmental costs of global corporate power. TNI, as part of its new Corporate Power project, is producing a series of infographics over 2012 that expose the reality of corporate power, and our need to fundamentally change direction. Download and share these infographics, and watch out for new ones over the coming months.
A recent edition of the AfricaFocus Bulletin contain the December speech by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, and the executive summary and key recommendations on US policy from a policy brief from the Friends Committee on National Legislation on the context for Kenya's next elections. Another AfricaFocus Bulletin contains an overview from an International Crisis Group briefing on the ICC and Kenya and the executive summary of the most recent monitoring report from the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation (KNDR) Monitoring Project.
OSISA, in conjucnction with the Africa Foundations of the Open Society network of Foundations (OSF) is hosting a gathering in Cape Town, 22-24 May 2012, entitled the 'OpenForum: Money, Power & Sex: The Paradox of Unequal Growth'. Under the theme, the OpenForum will provide a space to talk about the economic, social and political implications of the emerging world order. It will also provide space for a range of actors - prominent and well known, as well as younger and newer voices - to take a critical look at the factors that will influence the African democracy and governance agenda over the next decade. Bring your ideas, let’s turn them into action!
The Call for Proposals is available at the following link:
Dear Sisters,
Please join us in condemning the stripping of women in Malawi by endorsing the Strip-Me-Not Campaign.
The Strip-Me-Not Campaign is an initiative of the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights [1](SOAWR) Coalition after learning that street venders in Malawi are stripping women and girls wearing trousers and short skirts. The campaign aims at standing in solidarity as African women to offer support to women and girls in Malawi by way of mobilizing many other women from across the African continent to denounce this barbaric act that violates women’s rights.
SOWAR is calling on all women and men of goodwill to endorse the Strip-Me-Not Campaign Statement.
The Statement with all signatories will be delivered to Embassies of Malawi across Africa, Office of the President of Malawi, Ministry of Gender and media houses in Malawi and Africa on 3rd February, 2012.
Your endorsements (name, organization, country and signature) should be sent to [email][email protected] before the end of day on 30th January, 2012.
Kindly circulate this call for action to your various constituencies in your country.
NOTES:
[1] The Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) Coalition is a Pan-African regional network comprised of 39 national, regional and international civil society organisations based in 18 countries, working towards the promotion and protection of women’s human rights in Africa. Since its inauguration in 2004 SOAWR’s main area of focus has been to compel African states to urgently ratify, domesticate and implement the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.
Trade unions are gearing up to advance their fight against the Swaziland regime and the greed of the politicians who voted themselves payoffs and perks worth millions of US dollars. Protestors want the Finance Circular No 1 2010 that authorised the payments scrapped. Swaziland, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, is broke and the government is struggling to pay its bills, including wages of public servants. Seven in 10 of the one million population live in abject poverty, earning less than US$2 per day.
President of the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), Maxwell Dlamini, has been nominated for the 2012 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. The award is presented by Front Line, an Irish-based human rights organisation founded by former director of the Irish Section of Amnesty International, Mary Lawlor. Maxwell Dlamini was detained, tortured and forced to sign a confession by members of Swaziland’s police and security forces during the so-called April 12 Swazi Uprising, a peaceful protest inspired by the Arab Spring that was brutally clamped down upon by Swazi police and security forces.
With the 18th African Union Summit taking place in Addis Ababa, civil society organizations from across Africa are concerned that the summit’s central theme, 'Boosting Intra- African Trade,' risks being overshadowed and will not get the focus needed to tackle this urgent issue. The organizations said that intra-African trade remains weak, making up only 11 per cent of total trade in Africa. Comparatively, in Asia intra-trade represents 52 per cent and in Europe 82 per cent. Failure to invest more in intra-African trade is likely to harm the continent’s development, the groups said.
The South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) continues to be alarmed at the growing number of violent attacks on foreign nationals, of which recent events in Thokozo in Ekurhuleni is an example. The burning down of small businesses in our townships, and the physical and verbal attacks visited upon their proprietors is a shocking indictment of the state of our poorer communities, and the actions of a minority of clearly desperate but misguided people.
Corporate Watch has announced the publication of a clear and concise, 24-page 'Nuts & Bolts' Guide to the ins and outs of the financial sector. From hedge funds to the money markets and derivatives, all of the major players and products are broken down from a critical perspective.
Even as the Occupy movement recedes in size, if not in activism, in the global North, it has, to its own surprise, opened up a new front in Africa's most populous country, Nigeria - where tens of thousands have occupied and paralysed the economy in a protest against the lifting of oil subsidies. The Arab Spring is moving south, thanks to #OccupyNigeria. If nothing else, this movement dramatises the global nature of the new wave of Occupy protests.
This article takes economist Jeffrey Sachs to task for an op-ed article in the New York Times in which he argued that despite continuing demonstrations against the government’s surprise decision on New Year’s Day to halt state subsidies of oil for millions of Nigerians, things aren’t as bad as they seem. 'Sachs had no idea what he was talking about, his knee-jerk response to the crisis celebrated policies of austerity and economic shock, and the Grey Lady gave none of it a second thought. Neoliberalism, it would seem, is alive and well.'
Côte d'Ivoire is abandoning free health care for all after a brief experiment because of skyrocketing costs. 'In nine months the government had to pay 30 billion CFA francs [about US$60 million] under difficult circumstances,' Ivoirian Health Minister Yoman N'dri said in Abidjan on 24 January. As of February, the free service would only be available to mothers and their children.
There are fears of a looming food shortage in Burundi after heavy rains damaged two successive harvests, say officials. 'More than half of the expected harvest was lost in flooding and siltation,' Methode Niyongendako, a consultant with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said. The rains peaked in mid-September and November, exceeding forecasts in terms of volume and frequency, and were the heaviest since October 1961, according to households questioned, added Niyongendako.
The African Union's new chairman faced tough challenges Sunday as UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned that a furious row between Sudan and South Sudan threatened regional security. Thomas Boni Yayi, the president of Benin, vowed to work for peace in his one-year tenure as the 54-member bloc's rotating head, as sideline talks at the two-day summit tried to tackle several hotspots across the continent.
The latest edition of TradeMark Southern Africa is dominated by news reports, speeches and commentaries from the African Union summit in Addis Ababa. It includes the full text of two speeches by Jacob Zuma (at a NEPAD meeting and at an ANC centenary function) and a Goodluck Jonathan speech to the AU plenary where he cautioned against moving too quickly on a continental free trade area. Visit to subscribe to their newsletter.
In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...
Ethiopia is forcibly relocating 70,000 people from Gambella to make fertile land available for foreign investment in agriculture - aggravating current hunger while laying the groundwork for future famine in Ethiopia, as people are losing their livelihoods and being moved to areas where they cannot readily feed themselves. This snapshot video from the Oakland Institute shows the land being cleared and the people that have been evicted.
The UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay has raised concerns about Libya’s armed brigades and the treatment of more than 8,500 detainees, majority of whom are from sub-Saharan Africa. Addressing the UN Security Council on the situation in Libya, Pillay warned that, 'lack of oversight by the central authorities creates an environment conducive to torture and ill treatment'. She urged the Libyan ministry of justice and the prosecutor’s office to take over the detention centres.
The White House has chosen to honour Akili Dada founder and executive director, Dr. Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, as one of fourteen Champions of Change who are leaders in American Diaspora communities with roots in the Horn of Africa. These leaders are helping to build stronger neighborhoods in communities across the country, and are working to mobilize networks across borders to address global challenges. Akili Dada works to empower a new generation of African women leaders.
'Have you heard from Johannesburg?' is a powerful seven-part documentary series that shines a light on South Africa's history and its implications for global change. It was directed and produced by Connie Field and written by Gregory Scharpen, who are both interviewed in this Walter Turner podcast.
Gunmen in Somalia have shot dead the director of a major radio station in front of his home in Mogadishu, colleagues and witnesses said. Hassan Osman Abdi, who headed Radio Shabelle, was stopped by two men as he was entering his gate on Saturday. He was shot several times, according to Mohamed Moalim, a relative who stayed in the area.
Senegal's opposition has called for more resistance to the court approval of President Abdoulaye Wade's bid to seek a highly disputed third term, after a night of riots in the capital, Dakar. Opposition leaders vowed on Saturday to force the president out of office, threatening to march on the palace in a city reeling from violent riots that left at least one policeman dead, according to local media. The ruling sparked fury in the capital, where protesters clashed with police. Anti-Wade protesters threw stones at police who responded with batons and tear gas after the much-anticipated ruling.
A dozen traditional gold mining sites have appeared in recent years in the province of Ganzourgou. Gold panners from all over flock there to work the sites, most often living in the greatest promiscuity, without any infrastructure for sanitation and with no access to public basic services. The miners migrate according to the discovery of new veins of gold, usually moving there from the rural areas of Burkina Faso as well as from neighbouring countries (Togo, Benin, Ghana). Between one quarter and one third of them are under 18.
This video shows the police arresting protestors at a 'Taking Back The Common' protest at the Rondebosch Common on 27 January.
Here's a video from a group called Tidal Waves entitled Rapolitiki (The politician ate the money).
Scores of people were bundled into police vans on Friday when police forcibly prevented organisations from setting up a planned three-day summit on Jobs, Land and Housing on Rondebosch Common as a means of highlighting inequality in South African society. Organisations included Passop, Proudly Mannenberg, Gugulethu Anti-Eviction Campaign, the South African NGO Coalition and the South African Council of Churches. Determination to reclaim the common as a public area nonetheless led to clashes with police who sprayed water cannons loaded with blue dye at the demonstrators, a move reminiscent of apartheid police spraying purple dye on protestors marching to Parliament on September 2, 1989. Rihanna Marthinus, 57, a participant from Mannenberg, said the city had been promising to improve services in Mannenberg for years but nothing was being done.
Visit the website to read about the People's Land! Housing! and Jobs! Summit that was due to take place 27 - 29 January, but instead led to a number of arrests. The summit was to discuss and develop 'a more radical people driven program for the proper integration of our cities and establishing the right of families to a basic income, jobs, economic opportunities, social mobility, housing, land and the right to the city.'
African Union Commission chairman Jean Ping's bid for another term hit a snag Monday after he failed to garner two-thirds majority after four rounds of elections in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Reports from the AU headquarters indicated that the former Gabonese Foreign minister failed to win absolute majority support even after South African rival Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma opted out after three rounds of voting.
Senegalese police have arrested close to a dozen opposition protestors including an outspoken civil society leader as they struggled to get a grip on street protests that have rocked the country following a controversial court ruling. Mr Alioune Tine, the vocal secretary-general of the African Assembly for Human Rights Defence was arrested after he turned himself in to the authorities. The other protestors arrested are being held in Dakar and in several regional headquarters including Thies, 70 kilometres and Kaolack, some 150 kilometres outside Dakar.
Pambazuka News 566: Nigeria's smouldering rage and a new Libya threat
Pambazuka News 566: Nigeria's smouldering rage and a new Libya threat
Zimbabwean exporters must scramble to find new markets or risk commercial peril after South Africa slapped an effective import ban on a raft of products in a bid to protect local producers. South Africa is Zimbabwe’s leading market, accounting for about 56 per cent of all exports with China and the United Arab Emirates coming a distant second at 6 per cent. However, under a deal agreed between the government, labour and business organisations, at least 75 per cent of all procurement in Africa’s largest economy must now come from local companies.