Pambazuka News 366: Zimbabwe: Three strikes but not out
Pambazuka News 366: Zimbabwe: Three strikes but not out
We are pleased to announce the launch this week of the first ever Portuguese language edition of Pambazuka News. Since the launch of the French language edition in January 2007, we have sought to expand the reach of Pambazuka News in other languages. The Portuguese language edition is not only important for enabling those in Lusophone Africa to engage with the pan African social justice movement in Africa itself, but also with the diaspora Africans in Brazil, Portugal and elsewhere. We are still in the process of seeking support to develop an Arabic language edition, and at some point, we hope, a Kiswahili edition.
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Upon a critical review of the political crises emanating from the inordinate delay in the release of the results of March 29th, 2008 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in the Republic of Zimbabwe, we the representatives of the West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF), West African Bar Association (WABA) and the West African Human Rights Forum (WAHRF) in partnership with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) wish to observe the following:
1. For some time now, Zimbabwe has been embroiled in serious socio-economic and political crises, which have been compounded by the refusal of President Robert Mugabe to relinquish power.
2. The independence of the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) has been compromised by the unwholesome interference of government in its statutory functions.
3. The political climate has been charged and made unsuitable for popular participation in governance and development.
We hereby make the following declarations:
1. Demand for the immediate release of the results of the elections as held on 29th March 2008.
2. Urge the winner of the elections to form a government that expresses the will of the people.
3. Call on the government of Zimbabwe to stop State-sponsored hostilities against the people and the human rights community.
4. Demand the release of all those who have been arrested in the wake of post-election demonstrations.
5. Commend the Workers’ Unions in the Southern African region for their steadfastness in disallowing the importation of arms and ammunitions into Zimbabwe.
6. Commend the maturity of the people of Zimbabwe in ensuring that the situation has not degenerated into violent conflicts.
7. Call on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union to rise up and condemn the subversion of democracy and the rule of law by President Robert Mugabe.
8. Call on the peoples of West Africa to identify and stand with the people of Zimbabwe in defense of their democratic rights.
We have thus commenced a programme of activities to sensitize and mobilize popular support of West Africans to intervene constructively in establishing democracy in Zimbabwe.
Dale McKinley analyses the various routes resistance in Zimbabwe has taken, the limitations of the MDC and calls for a "a strategy of well-planned, participatory, inclusive, sustained and combined political and socio-economically-driven mass action".
The character and content of the past and ongoing political, economic, social/humanitarian and (progressive) organisational crisis in Zimbabwe has received huge amounts of analytical and empirical attention from the broad left in Southern Africa and, to a lesser extent, from the global left. Several books, numerous essays/articles, frequent seminars/workshops and countless blogs and emails have been offered on almost every aspect of the crisis. While these efforts have certainly provided much-needed intellectual stimulation/debate, important information, degrees of organisational impetus and knowledge-generation about the crisis, and have often catalysed practical efforts to assist, and be in solidarity with, progressive forces in Zimbabwe, the Achilles heel of the struggle for a new Zimbabwe - the strategy and tactics of resistance/opposition – has, for the most part, been treated as a ‘poor cousin’, forever condemned to sit on the margins of the main ‘conversation’ and struggle.
It is a serious weakness that is not specific to the Zimbabwean struggle (witness the general strategic and tactical disarray of left forces in South Africa in the early-mid 1990s), but it is one that is located within a very specific Zimbabwean context and which has had an adverse impact on the general trajectory of resistance/opposition struggles in Zimbabwe over the last several years. Thus, the main questions that need to be posed are: what have been the main reasons for such as weakness on the strategic-tactical front that have led the struggle in Zimbabwe to its present day strategic cul-de-sac? and, what needs to be done to change that?
IDEOLOGICAL DISCONSONANCE OF THE ZIMBABWEAN LEFT
There has never been any meaningful degree of ideological consonance amongst left forces/individual activists in Zimbabwe. For the first decade or so, the institutional existence and political dominance of a ‘socialist’ political party in the form of ZANU-PF, engendered a ‘civil society’ that was effectively confined to the margins of key political/ideological and social debate and contestation. While opposition to the negative effects of Structural Adjustment Programmes and a subsequent raft of neo-liberal policy prescriptions in the early-mid 1990s fostered union-based, student and other smaller-scale resistance, eventually leading to the formation of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) and then the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the dominant strategy of this accumulated resistance was bounded within a dominant constitutional and legal framework – i.e. to seek, through existing societal and state institutions, an expression of growing popular demands for changing the character and content of those institutions. This strategic orientation, and the tactics employed to pursue it (e.g., the formation of a political party to contest representational power through the existing institutional and legal framework) was understandable given the existence of political-social space at the time, the fact that the MDC was the first, meaningful and mass-based political challenge to the post-independence hegemony of ZANU-PF and the subsequent ‘victory’ of the nascent opposition forces in the constitutional referendum.
However, the ‘spaghetti mix’ (as left Zimbabwean activists have called it) of the MDC meant that once Mugabe and ZANU-PF had connived to steal the 2000 parliamentary elections, and in the process begin to close down the institutional and legal space for political dissent and opposition, there was no dominant ideological foundation to act as the basis for strategic and tactical re-assessment. As a result, the strategic ‘line’ remained the same – to gear up for contestation of the presidential elections in 2002 and continue the demands for a new Constitution, using the MDC as the main driver/vehicle and allied ‘civil society’ formations as fellow passengers,. Tactically, the main emphasis was on using the available (but fast-closing) institutional and legal space to launch strikes and stay-aways (by a diminishing number of employed workers and an increasingly survivalist general population), mobilise international opinion and support and embark on a standard electoral campaign to influence and mobilise support amongst the Zimbabwean population. Under such a strategic rubric though, there was little the oppositional forces could do once Mugabe and ZANU-PF began to unleash their war veteran-driven ‘land reform programme’, youth militias and institutional/legal manipulation as a means of consolidating power (especially in the rural areas) and covering the creeping dictatorship in the cloak of an incomplete ‘national democratic revolution’.
It is testimony to the hope placed in such a strategic line of march by a majority of Zimbabweans, that the MDC’s presidential candidate – Morgan Tsvangirai - only narrowly ‘lost’ the 2002 presidential elections. But Mugabe and ZANU-PF were never going to allow ‘normal’ politics to frame, and decide, the struggle for institutional (state) and representational power and when this election was rigged/ stolen, the oppositional forces fell further into the quagmire of their own ideological and thus, strategic, contradictions. As one grassroots Zimbabwean left activist put it at the time: “It is important to reemphasize that the lack of ideological discipline in the civic movement at the moment subjects it to manipulation in many ways. It allows domination by foreign funding. It also paralyses internal discourse to counter ideological offences by enemies. It creates a base for manipulation for individual pursuits. It remains one of the reasons why penetration of the grassroots has been difficult.” Despite such contradictions, and combined with the intensification of Mugabe/ZANU-PF’s post-election closing down of institutional/legal space for ‘normal’ opposition politics, there remained a dominant belief amongst oppositional intellectuals and activists/leaders that there was no need to change the strategic framework, although there was one call for ‘civil society’ to “break the bond with the MDC” and focus on grassroots “bread and butter” struggles as means to build an independent mass base capable of mounting a “meaningful challenge to the Mugabe dictatorship and neo-liberalism”.
CONSEQUENCES OF STRATEGIC CONFUSION
The continued pursuit, after the 2002 election, by the vast majority of oppositional forces of a strategy of inclusion – i.e., participation in the institutional and representational framework under a Mugabe-ZANU-PF run state combined with occasional, short-lived and largely ineffective spurts of mass action designed to mobilise domestic and international opinion – only served to further splinter such forces and catalyse a growing political disillusionment amongst the general populace. In turn, this paved the way for Mugabe/ZANU-PF to not only survive, but to strengthen their hold on state power, provide new avenues of accumulation for the bureaucratic, managerial and military elite, intensify their onslaught against the remaining little institutional and legal space available for ‘normal’ democratic politics and manipulate racial and ethnic solidarities both internally and regionally. The few (politically and ideologically) left voices that were left in Zimbabwe recognised this. In a stinging 2004 ‘review’, the International Socialist Organisation stated that the opposition had sent, “confusing signals of the way forward and strategy by the leadership to the rank and file ... It was not clear what the decisive grand strategy was – mass action or talks? Where action was done it was done in a half-hearted, half-organized manner with unrealistic illusions of a one – off big bang action to overthrow Mugabe’s dictatorship. This reflected the now overwhelming influence of the party by the cowardly bourgeois and petite bourgeois sections … who were and still are hostile to serious mass action for fear of revolution.”
The impact of such confusion was evident in the late 2004 call by the NCA for a boycott of the upcoming 2005 parliamentary elections, where the stated purpose of the boycott was to pressure the Mugabe government into “meaningful” changes to the Constitution. The NCA claimed that it would, “employ various strategies and there are a number that we are mulling at the moment … boycotting the election is just one option. People can disturb the whole purpose by deliberately spoiling ballot papers or just disrupt the whole process so that it does not even take place… but it will be a matter of strategy”. Not only was strategy becoming confused with tactics, but it was clear that there really was no alternative strategy outside of the now well-worn path of knocking on the door of existent (but now extremely minimalist) institutional and legal space.
Not surprisingly then, the boycott tactic fell apart, the MDC contested the 2005 elections and Mugabe/ZANU-PF (for the third time) rigged and bullied their way to an electoral ‘victory’. And once again, the main voices of the opposition cried foul, threatened all sorts of ‘people’s power’ mass action to bring Mugabe to his knees and turned even further towards the pillar of regional/international opinion. That none of these tactical ‘measures’ effected any meaningful/sustained change in the political and/or socio-economic status quo – such change having now become the sole preserve, even if backward, of the ever-intensifying kleptocratic and dictatorial rule of Mugabe/ZANU-PF - was further confirmation (if ever that was needed) of the strategic bankruptcy of the main opposition forces. The subsequent leadership-dominated in-fighting and occurrence of factional violence within the MDC, eventually leading to a split, was nothing more than the logical outcome of such. Even while record amounts of donor funds found their way into the coffers of a plethora of ‘oppositional’ NGOs, the repressive toll of a rapacious state combined with a precipitous decline in the social and economic fabric of Zimbabwean society ensured that by 2007, over a third of the population resided outside Zimbabwe’s borders, the average life expectancy had nosedived to the late 30s and inflation was running close to 100 000%.
Such a state of affairs had led another grassroots activist to offer a belated, but crucial, riposte: “Whilst terms like legitimacy, governance, and constitution are legitimate the ordinary man and woman on the street interprets the crisis more in terms of its socio-economic havoc. Thus we must articulate our agenda in terms of questions of hunger, poverty, wages, availability of ARVs, affordable sanitary pads, student grants, water and electricity cut offs, collapse of municipal services, harassment of cross border traders and vendors, food shortages, transport costs, price increases, access to land and so on. This is the language that will resonate with people’s day-to-day lives.”
2008 ELECTIONS: TAKING DESTINY INTO ZIMBABWEANS’ HANDS
And yet, despite all of this the MDC (now in two parts) and its ‘civil society’ allies returned once again to their chosen strategy. Surely this time, the combination of socio-economic meltdown, changes to the electoral laws, international outrage, regional pressure and ‘mediation’ (despite misgivings about the key role of South African President Thabo Mbeki), factional battles within ZANU-PF as well as the ongoing and increasingly desperate fight for new avenues of accumulation amongst the elites would ‘deliver’ victory to the opposition in the 2008 elections (now combining both presidential and parliamentary voting). And sure enough, by the time the election was over, even the sceptics had been caught up in the euphoria of an expected MDC (Tsvangirai) victory … the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe had finally had their say. The numbers were there for all to see – ZANU-PF had been defeated in the parliamentary elections and Morgan Tsvangirai had either defeated Mugabe or had garnered enough votes to force a presidential run-off. But as the post-election days have gone by, the reality (for the fourth time) has bitten hard – the same reality that was not as clear at the very beginning of the opposition’s strategic sojourn – namely, that Mugabe and ZANU-PF were never going to allow ‘normal’ democratic politics to frame, and decide, the struggle for institutional (state) and representational power. And so it continues.
In a statement issued a few days ago, the MDC said it is time for Zimbabweans to take “destiny into their own hands”. They are right about that. But then they said that the way in which Zimbabweans should do so is to stay at home until the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission releases the presidential results. They are wrong.
The ‘story’ of Zimbabwe’s last decade is, in all respects, a tragic one despite the immense resilience and courage of ordinary Zimbabweans (wherever they are) and the commitment and bravery of innumerable peasants, workers and other activists from all walks of life. Yet, this tragedy is not immutable. Mugabe/ZANU-PF and all of their hangers-on have been on a downward spiral ever since they abandoned the only basis for democratic legitimacy in a capitalist world – the political will and socio-economic well-being of the mass of the workers and the poor. In Zimbabwe, as elsewhere in our world, it has always and forever been impossible to realise and affirm that will through a dominant strategy of struggling on a terrain not of the ongoing making of that mass. Inclusion can only have real and lasting meaning when it is those who are excluded who set the terms.
As Zimbabwe sits on the edge of a precipice that continues to crumble under the weight of its various architects making, the time is ripe for a (re)making of another sort - a strategy of well-planned, participatory, inclusive, sustained and combined political and socio-economically-driven mass action to cut the remaining ground from underneath the shaky feet of the oppressors. After all, it is ground that is only, ultimately, being held up by the that mass. Now is not the time for sitting on the sidelines to wait and hope that the oppressors jump off the precipice. Now is not the time for recycling a tired and failed strategy. Now is not the time for quiet activism. It is time to inspire and lead.
*Dale McKinley is a socialist activist and researcher who is a member of the Anti-Privatisation Forum. He was born and raised in Zimbabwe and spent the first 18 years of his life in Zimbabwe. This article first appeared at
**Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Mary Ndlovu argues that the MDC missed an opportunity to once and for all get rid of Mugabe and return democracy to the people. The likely outcome she argues is an agreement between Zimbabwean elites.
Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has done it again – won an election but failed to dislodge the incumbent from power. Ever since 2000, when they first experienced the dismay of seeing a victory turn to defeat in the hands of authorities, the MDC has been wandering in the wilderness, looking for a policy that can bring success in the face of repression, open violence and electoral fraud. They have vacillated between taking to the courts, calling people onto the streets to protest, and boycotting outright. They have appealed to every international body, both legal and political, but nothing has brought the desired displacement from power of the aged “liberation” leader, Robert Mugabe.
What is wrong? Why has the MDC failed? Could they have succeeded with a different strategy? Should they have boycotted this election as they threatened to do?
CONDITIONS THAT MADE AN MDC VICTORY POSSIBLE
Many commentators warned that MDC could not win the recent election. They said that in spite of the people’s desperation and anger caused by the imploded economy, in the repressive situation where ZANU PF controlled everything, this could not translate into an election victory. Some were insisting until the announcement of the election date that the opposition should boycott the election. But it turned out that no one, including those who had boycotted senate elections, wanted to boycott, at least no one in the MDC party structures. They wanted to stand for office; maybe they would be “lucky” this time. Furthermore, many of the people wanted to vote.
And this time was different. The fated “mediation” by Thabo Mbeki established two important changes: there must be a minimum of visible pre-election violence perpetrated by ZANU PF; and the legislation which had been previously ignored must be adhered to – all results must be posted outside the stations when they had been counted - including the presidential vote. Probably Mbeki assured Mugabe that if these conditions were observed, then he would back the result. All other shenanigans such as a partisan electoral commission, gerrymandering of constituencies, tampering with the voters’ roll, inadequacy of the “indelible” ink, complete manipulation of postal votes would be forgiven in the interests of obtaining another ZANU PF win.
But these two conditions proved fatal to Mugabe and ZANU PF. By mid-morning of the day after the voting it was known that Mugabe had lost – not just the parliament but also the Presidential vote. ZESN observers had the results, MDC had them through their polling agents and through photographs, and it would be next to impossible to deny.
The second condition loosened up the rural vote. No longer intimidated, beaten tortured and burned out of their homes, the disaffected rural voters of Midlands, Mashonaland, Manicaland and Masvingo, who had previously voted for ZANU PF, took courage. Disappointed by the failure of the land reform and the deteriorating standards of living, they voted against Mugabe. They voted out his Ministers, they voted out the old man as President. Faced with a choice of opponents, they opted for Tsvangirai as the man they knew over Makoni, who had no structures on the ground and was tainted by his refusal to make a clean break with ZANU PF.
A ZIMBABWEAN HOUDINI
Since the 29 March elections Zimbabweans dared to hope that Mugabe would concede defeat.
And then what happened? MDC did not count on the Houdini they confronted. Mugabe still had tricks up his sleeves. He really didn’t care what the truth on the ground demonstrated or whether anyone believed the excuses and prevarications. While still in a state of shock, and divided about how to respond to the losses, ZANU PF released the House of Assembly results in a carefully crafted slow drip to keep people in suspense. But it was all a charade – the results were known by anyone who cared to ask.
The MDC were taken in by the “negotiations for a solution” which proceeded parallel to the release of results. Were they genuine or were they a deliberate delaying tactic? Or was it the agenda of one section of a divided ZANU PF? Probably the latter, but Tsvangirai now admits he agreed to many compromises to achieve a negotiated transfer of power. Mugabe rallied his troops at a Politburo meeting on April 4, and then it became clear that no deal would be made. ZANU PF would use all sorts of trickery, even dismantling the Electoral Commission command centre without releasing the presidential results.
The MDC then followed a double-barrelled strategy to get the results released: appeal to the court, and appeal to the SADC Presidents. The court was owned by Mugabe and the statement wrung from a reluctant and divided SADC a week later on April 12 was too little and too late. By then Mugabe had time to muster his shock troops and the retribution was taking place in the villages – burnings of homes, torture, forced meetings to witness atrocities, and a few killings. All of this would render both the results and a run-off second round of presidential voting irrelevant to MDC, as the people would this time be intimidated into either not voting or voting “correctly” to ensure the continuation of Mugabe’s Presidency.
THE INADEQUACY OF THE BALLOT BOX
The MDC have once again been taught a hard lesson: the ballot box is necessary, but is not enough. Where was the “Plan B”, the “defend your vote” campaign? Where is it now, as Tsvangirai shunts from one regional capital to another? Mugabe’s regime is tottering, even as they cling to power. What was needed in order to make it collapse, to deprive it immediately of the support of the police, the army and the civil service, was popular action. MDC had to show its people power outside the ballot box in order to dissolve the feet of sand.
But it did not. Why? Since at least 2002, the MDC has known it has been necessary to have a Plan B. At each election they have insisted that they had one but it has never been implemented.
Were the MDC afraid to get the people out to visibly demonstrate that they had the power in their hands? Were they incompetent to mobilise mass action? Probably a little of both. In the first few days, while people were still waiting for the results, MDC was saying privately and publicly that they could not call for mass action because ZANU-PF wanted to provoke them so that they could declare a state of emergency. They did not want people to suffer. That position looked less and less tenable as Mugabe’s terror began to spread through the countryside, targeting supporters and lower level organisers. It is a tough leadership decision to call the people to action which may put many in danger, but it has to be taken at critical moments. Tsvangirai has confirmed to his critics that he does not have the toughness to rise to the moment. MDC had neither organised the people on the ground nor were they prepared to lead them into the final push.
That last push could not just be taken by elites behind closed doors; nor could it be forced by an international midwife; that last push had to come from a disciplined, organised, people acting together. That action has to be understood by the people, it has to be worked for – it does not just happen. It should have been an integral part of the election campaign strategy, that the people would know what to do when the moment to act came. When the call finally did come, through foreign media, text messages, and some fliers in Harare, it barely reached a disheartened, frightened and confused people. The moment to act was not when elite deal-making had failed, but the minute the result was known and ZANU PF was in shock. The people could have spoken immediately, ZANU PF was divided, and might well have fallen. But the MDC leadership was afraid to call for the required sacrifices, and the moment was missed.
Progress has of course in some way been made. The world has seen, that Mugabe is not wanted by the people of this country; his hypocrisy, deceit and nakedness have been exposed; ZANU PF is further divided in spite of its façade of unity; the SADC establishment has been forced into an open split. But the opportunity to bring a popular party to power through their own struggle using democratic processes has been missed. The transition is now likely to come – and come it must – through the collapse by implosion of ZANU PF and its law enforcement agencies, possibly some open skirmishes and some type of negotiated agreement between elites. It is doubtful whether we have moved much towards any genuine democracy or achievement of social justice for the people. All we can hope is that lessons have been learned by the people and by their leaders and when the next opportunity knocks on the door they will be more ready.
*Mary Ndlovu is a Zimbabwean socialist. This article first appeared at
**Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Seth Donnelly looks at the continuing human rights abuses by UN soldiers in Haiti.
Note: the following article is based on a recent investigation carried out in Haiti by a member of the Haiti Action Committee and other US human rights observers in Haiti.
On Saturday, April 11th, a little past 3 p.m., a MINUSTAH (UN) soldier, Nigerian Cpl. Nagya Aminu, was shot and killed in downtown Port-au-Prince. While this killing was widely reported in the international media, what followed the killing was not.
In the immediate aftermath of the killing, at approximately 3:30 p.m. that same afternoon, MINUSTAH troops launched a massive assault on Haitian vendors at the open-air sidewalk market near the main Cathedral in downtown Port-au-Prince - the area where the soldier had been killed.
According to many different street vendors who directly witnessed the MINUSTAH assault, four or five MINUSTAH soldiers emerged from parked trucks near the market and began smashing up the property of street vendors, setting the market on fire, setting off tear gas, and shooting directly at unarmed vendors.
According to one vendor, MINUSTAH soldiers used flame throwers to torch the stalls. He said the soldiers also grabbed hammers and began destroying property. This vendor was hit in the head by MINUSTAH soldiers with these hammers. On April 17th, he showed a member of the Haiti Action Committee and other US human rights observers a massive wound to his head and a blood soaked shirt. He lost consciousness and was taken by a friend to the St. Joseph Hospital nearby.
Another vendor reported that he was shot in the leg by MINUSTAH soldiers and showed his wound to the delegation. He also showed his medical records from the hospital where he had gone to be treated.
Vendors spoke of people killed by MINUSTAH gun fire. According to an officer of the National Association of Vendors, at least three people were shot and killed by MINUSTAH soldiers, who allegedly zipped bodies into bags and took them away. Reportedly, the families could not locate the bodies in the local morgue. A different source indicated that more people may have been killed. The Vendors Association officer also stated that several hundred vendors may have lost their property in the raid.
The National Association for the Defense of Haitian Vendors and Consumers has filed a formal complaint asking the Haitian President to take action and secure compensation for the 263 Haitian vendors whose property was reportedly destroyed by the MINUSTAH troops. Members of the association provided our human rights delegation with a full listing of the names of these vendors, what property they lost, and how much it was valued. For many of these vendors, who live in dire poverty, the loss in property is truly devastating. Additionally, the Association provided us with a list naming seven people who were injured and two killed - Amonese Pierre and Anna Ainsi Connu - by the MINUSTAH troops.
This kind of massive assault by MINUSTAH troops on the civilian population has happened many times before, such as the notorious attack on the people of Cite Soleil on July 6th, 2005. I was part of a small human rights delegation that visited Cite Soleil approximately 24 hours after this attack. We saw firsthand the bodies of murdered civilians, including a mother and her two young children, who community members told us were gunned down by MINUSTAH soldiers. Our delegation later interviewed the military high command of MINUSTAH who reported that the command was unaware of any civilian casualties during the assault.
It is time for the international human rights community to face squarely what has happened in Haiti: a US-backed coup in 2004 that ousted a popular, democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and a subsequent UN occupation (MINUSTAH) authorized by the rich nations on the Security Council. Under this occupation, some 9,000 military and police officers from different countries - ranging from Jordan and Sri Lanka to China and Brazil - are charged with keeping the "peace". These forces have been accused by many in Haiti of targeting Aristide supporters. Indeed, the occupation serves to consolidate the anti-democratic qualities of the coup. Until the international human rights community starts to pay attention to what is happening in Haiti and join in solidarity with the Haitian people, more egregious human rights violations will be perpetrated in the name of "peacekeeping" operations.
Take action to demand that the MINUSTAH soldiers involved in this latest outrage are prosecuted for crimes against civilians!
Take action to demand that the street vendors receive full compensation for what they lost!
Contact:
UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)
Tel: 011-509-244- 0650/0660
FAX: 011-509-244- 9366/67
Or, Fax Office of Secretary General (New York): 212-963-4879
President Rene Preval
Send a fax to 206-350-7986 (a US number) or email to [email][email protected]
Your letter will be hand-delivered to the Presidential Palace in Haiti.
Haitian Ministry of Justice
Tel: 011-509-245- 0474
*Seth Donnelly is a Bay Area High School social studies teacher and a member of the Haiti Action Committee. This article first appeared at www.dissidentvoice.org
**Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
In relation to your recent essay [Congo's rape and sexual violence: UN's delinquency, the UN has long acted as a cover for powerful international actors to have their way - especially in Africa. The latest revelations in this regard concern Rwanda and the actions of the UN's Louise Arbour: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041708D.shtml
simone williams
Pambazuka News 365: South Africa and Zimbabwe - freedom deferred!
Pambazuka News 365: South Africa and Zimbabwe - freedom deferred!
Steve Ouma argues that for the promised social transformation in Kenya to take root, "political class and other parochial interests" have to give way to consensus and truth telling.
The jubilations that followed the announcement of the Grand Coalition cabinet on April, 13, 2008 were expected. In the lips of most Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) supporters the talk was “at least now we shall also share in the National cake” and perhaps not just as “passengers” in government but real actors. Evoking the classical argument of legal theorist Bruce Ackerman, some analysts have argued that Kenya has been in a constitutional moment since the outbreak of the post 2007 election violent protests. My reading is that most of these commentators have not made a full reading of Bruce’s argument- and if they have, then their interpretation of the text is a little off the mark. Bruce argues that constitutional democracy in the United States has evolved along two distinct tracks of lawmaking. One track is that of “normal politics,” the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government make decisions on behalf of citizens in the absence of high levels of citizen engagement. The second track is what he refers to as the “constitutional moments” These are times characterized by sustained citizen engagement and mobilization and demand for social transformation. This track is therefore one of “higher” lawmaking enterprises.
During these constitutional moments, the people themselves assert their supremacy, and demand sweeping changes in the structure of constitutional democracy. When American democracy has functioned on this second, “higher track” of lawmaking -- as when the constitution itself was framed, when the country emerged from its civil war and brought an end to slavery, and when the federal government dramatically expanded its intervention in the national economy during the New Deal of the 1930’s – governing institutions were fundamentally reshaped.
By all measure, the Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s and President Kibaki’s hand shake and the subsequent deal, legal and constitutional changes have not generated such heights. In the recent history though, when Kenya experienced constitutional moments was the case during the 2002 elections and at the National Constitutional Conference held at Bomas of Kenya (popularly referred to as the Bomas conference). Before the conference, Prof. Yash Pal Ghai’s Commission had gone round the country listening to the people. After many years of misrule and oppression Kenyans used the Ghai hearing sessions as moments of reviewing their past and defining the future. Through Ghai and his team they demanded a presidency that did not replicate a god; one who was not above the law or omniscient. As, Barth (2005), notes the Kenyan president is like a Greek god- pompous in benevolence, and lethal in malevolence. On the super-centralized government framework, Kenyans lamented that they work so hard deep in their villages, and generously give unto “Caesar” through exorbitant taxes, but have no say on how “Caesar” shares out the national cake. For this reason they demanded to be allowed to participate more prominently in the way they are governed, and the way their resources should be shared. One cannot side step these moments simply because there was no violence associated with them. These were constitutional moments.
After the 2002 National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) velvet revolution, the clarion call “yote yawezekana bila Moi”( all is possible without Moi), was all over the air and there was increased vigilance by the citizens. In assertion of their supremacy, citizens arrested police caught extorting bribe. Workers in the Export processing Zones took to the streets in March 2003, to claim better wages, collective bargain agreement and justice relation in production. And most important, there was pressure on the NARC administration to fast tract the constitutional reforms- which in their pre-elections pledge, they had promised to do in 100 days. When Bomas re-opened, the debate was robust and unstoppable. Kenyans wanted wide sweeping changes in the structure our constitutional democracy.
The struggle was so intense that it finally polarized the country at the referendum. While there were other issues on which the “NO” and “YES” side differed and put forward passionate arguments amidst propaganda and mudslinging (which are common in vote-wooing campaigns), the subject of the executive and devolution of power was the real water shade. Evidently, most Kenyans wanted and still want a less powerful executive. These were constitutional moments which simply lacked a midwife. It is the frustration and abortion of these moments that created the recipe to the Post December violence pushing t the Country to its death bed.
Kenyans therefore know what they want and have defined it rather well during the 2002 and 2003 “constitutional moments”. These moments have been frustrated by the political class and other parochial interests. It must be in realization of this fact that the president quipped while making his contribution in parliament on the National Accord and Reconciliation Bill 2008 that “even Orengo alone can now write the Constitution”.
With this clarification, what Kenya is going through now can best be described as a moment of liminality. The theorist, Victor Turner (1922-83), introduced this concept in his famous essay “Betwixt and between; the liminal Period in the Rites-de- passage”. His thesis was focused on rites of passage and more so initiation. Turner regarded rites of passage and in particular initiation ritual, as a process of transformation whereby a person moves from one defined state to another, with an intervening period of uncertainty and crisis. It is this state of crisis- liminal stage – that is the focus of the ritual, which seeks to control it and to impose the values of the society upon the wavering individual who for a short but critical period, is in a “gap”. In this “gap” between social status, neither the old nor the new rules apply and the individual is compelled by the society to reflect on her situation, her place in the society and indeed the existence of the society as such.
Going back to the 18th March parliamentary debate ,perhaps this state of Kenya’s liminality was best captured by the Hon. Minister for Justice and Constitutional affairs who in her contribution reminded Members of parliament that the amendments the National Accord and Reconciliation Bill sought to make to the Constitution “is temporary, pending the full review of the Constitution.” The Country is therefore between the new and the old legal order, between authoritarian presidency and another centre of power, between a presidential democracy and parliamentary democracy, between an open and a closed society. One must also recall that the National dialogue Committee is still in session and its Chief mediator, Mr Oluyemi Adeniji, was in the parliamentary gallery on 18th March. What the Committee has been doing is to assist Kenya to reflect on her situation, her place as a member of regional and international community and indeed her own national identity.
The liminal period is also the state of truth telling. Within Victor’s analysis of initiation, it is during their period that the individual is taken through the rigor of community secrets and is invited to understand the truth about the community. Kenya intend to start two truth telling process. One shall be under way soon and that is the Independent Review Committee (IREC) whose mandate is to probe the presidential election fiasco that plunged the country into crisis. The other shall be the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission. The common objective of the two parallel teams is to define the elusive truth. This shall be the most trying moment as truth is ultimately a matter of socially and historically conditioned agreement. This means that what the various parties may see as facts, may well depend on their vantage point of seeing the world.
It is only when this consensus is attained that the country shall move on towards the social transformation that we have been yearning for and create a new moral code and national physique. This new Kenya must be reflected in the new constitution whose time line has now been given as twelve months. Liminality is a creative and critical state of being, it is how best all Kenyan stride through it that shall determine our reintegration amongst ourselves and with the international citizenry.
*Steve Ouma is based at the Faculty of Arts, University of Western Cape, South Africa.
**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/365/47598beat.jpgFurther to the two statements ZADHR issued last week we report a further 81 cases of organised violence and torture which have been seen and treated by members of the Association in the three days ending Monday 21 April 2008. This is not a cumulative total – this is the number of cases seen in these 3 days alone. The total number of cases seen since 1 April 2008 is 323. It seems likely that there are substantial numbers of similar cases occurring across the country which have not presented to ZADHR members and are therefore not represented in these figures.
54 of these cases occurred in Harare, Chitungwiza or Epworth, 20 in Glen View alone. 13 more occurred in Mudzi and Murewa, 4 in Mount Darwin, and 6 in different areas of Manicaland.
By far the commonest alleged perpetrators are now the uniformed forces (ZRP and ZNA).
Fourteen (17%) of these 81 patients were women. They include a 7 year old girl who suffered a fracture of her right radius and ulna on falling down while running after her father who was being chased by members of the security forces, and a 10 year old boy with a probable dislocation of the right elbow resulting from being kicked by a soldier who was trying to kick someone else. One 47 year old woman reported being sexually assaulted.
Soft tissue injuries again predominate, with 6 probable fractures. These include the case of a 39 year old man who was abducted from his home at midnight, was beaten and suffered a fractured left ulna, fractured ribs on the left side, and a pneumothorax underlying the rib fractures. A pneumothorax is when air leaks out of the lung through a hole in the lining of the lung, caused for example by a broken rib, and collects in the virtual space between the linings of the lung and the inner surface of the chest wall. It can rapidly threaten life because it may enlarge and cause collapse of the lung itself and distortion of the large blood vessels arising from and draining into the heart. This patient required a tube to be inserted into his chest to prevent that complication.
4 cases of falanga were recorded. Falanga is torture in which the soles of the feet are repeatedly beaten with a hard object such as a baton or bar. There is often severe tissue damage beneath the skin, within the sole of the foot, which never fully heals, resulting in walking being painful for the rest of the victim’s life.
Physical injuries are the most visible. Many of these patients report extreme psychological stress which itself results in both mental and physical symptoms. The stresses reported include many having had their homes and property completely burnt, being forced to roll in muddy or sewage-containing water, running and hiding in ‘the bush’ from fear of assault, being abducted and detained with beatings continuing over several days with no knowledge of when it will end, and having no knowledge of the safety of spouse or children. One 64 year old man presented with full-blown ‘Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder’, the major manifestation of which was his being incapable of speech.
Some of the reported physical and psychological wounds will take a long time and require much care and attention to heal.
ZADHR condemns the continuing violent assault and torture on Zimbabwean citizens, in particular that allegedly perpetrated by security forces. We continue to appeal to the UN, AU and SADC to engage with the authorities to bring an end to this systematic assault on large numbers of Zimbabweans.
ZADHR further appeals to the Zimbabwe Medical Association, the World Medical Association and other concerned national medical associations to condemn these acts of violence, and engage their Governments in working towards resolution of the crisis in Zimbabwe.
**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/365/47599zimchina.jpgThe Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomes the statement by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman that the China Ocean Shipping Company which owns the An Yue Jiang, has decided to recall the ship because Zimbabwe cannot take delivery of the 77 tonnes of weapons and ammunition onboard.
If true, this is an historic victory for the international trade union movement and civil society, and in particular for the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, whose members refused to unload or transport its deadly cargo.
Today's meeting between the COSATU General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi and the Secretary General of the Movement for Democratic Change, Tendai Biti, confirmed beyond all doubt that the people of Zimbabwe are now facing a massive crisis - a brutal onslaught from a regime that is determined to cling to power by stealing the elections and imposing its will through violence.
In COSATU's view the 'government' of Robert Mugabe is now illegal and illegitimate. Its term of office expired at the end of March when the people voted. Its has refused to release the results of the presidential election and has illegally organised a recount of votes in 23 constituencies in which the ruling ZANU-PF lost narrowly to the MDC, long after the time limit of 48 hours had expired. It has even been 'recounting' the presidential votes in those constituencies before they had been announced.
Combined with this blatant vote-rigging, the ruling party has unleashed a systematic campaign of violence against MDC members and supporters, which has already claimed at least ten lives. Thousands have been displaced from their homes, five hundred injured and hospitalised and these numbers are increasing by the day.
Meanwhile the 'government' is continuing to rule illegally, with the former ministers restored to their posts, even those who lost their seats in the parliamentary elections. COSATU demands that the governments of Africa refuse to recognise this despot who is desperately hanging on to power, and to stop inviting him to meetings of the SADC or AU.
COSATU salutes the stand taken by its transport affiliate SATAWU and other unions around the continent, and now calls upon all its affiliates and Southern African trade union partners, to identify, and refuse to handle, any goods destined for Zimbabwe which could be used to assist the illegal government or be used to oppress the people.
The federation will be holding a meeting with civil society, church and NGO groups on Thursday, 24 April, at which plans will be finalised for a huge protest march in South Africa, in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe, and to demand the removal of the Mugabe dictatorship and the installation of a government elected by a majority on 29 March 2008.
**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Black Perspectives on the South African Human Rights Ruling Against the Forum for Black Journalists
The details surrounding the Forum for Black Journalists (FBJ) and Radio 702's Katy Katapodis showdown have been rehashed in the media ad nauseam and while these may soon be blurry bits of yet another tantalising 'racism' story, what is likely to remain stubbornly in our memories is that the HRC ruled in favour of the complainant. This decision, which made little or no reference to the submissions made at the hearing called by the commission (other than Katapodis'), has been warmly accepted by those who preach the gospel of non-racialism, integration and transformation in the New South Africa.
Mainstream media reports have been inundated with praises, from both blacks and whites, of this essentially anti-black ruling but this is hardly surprising in a white supremacist country where black interests are often shelved and hardly recognised as such. It is even less surprising then that there have been few voices in the media that represent the marginalised black perspective that rejects the decision not only in terms of the immediate consequences for the FBJ and other black organisations but its implications on blackness as a whole. Granted some black organisations have come out with their hands behind their heads desperate to show those who matter that they are the custodians of non-racialism but the conspicuous absence of black voices is hardly a reflection of a blanket acceptance of the HRC's decision. There are quiet rumblings among blacks who are slowly being hit by the hard reality that this decision is perhaps an unapologetic, institutionalised affront on our blackness.
We Write What We Like (wewrite) is calling for contributions on this issue not only to give space to those whose unpopular views have been rejected in the mainstream but to engage black thinkers in a much needed dialogue.
Wewrite is an online journal for black thought, which was launched in 2005.
Send your submissions to [email][email protected] by the 30th of May 2008.
Andile Mngxitama, special issue Editor.
The article and analysis is especially topical [China still a small player in Africa, China's emergence as a key economic player in Africa deserves critical analysis. The writer does well to discuss and put into context China's growing economic interests in Africa.
I believe we are in the midst of a shift in balance of power in Africa with the Chinese coming in as the new kids on the block. Its reported for instance that China lends three times more to Africa than the World Bank. African leaders seem content with dealing with China in comparison to the west. And ex-Botswana president, Mogae has said the Chinese treat them as partners compared to europeans who treat them as surbodinates. However Africa is still simply a source of raw materials for China and a market for Chinese industry unless this relationship is transformed further real partnership will be anything but achieved.
Not surprisingly we have over the last few days received a lot of comments on Zimbabwe. We offer you a sampling.
Commenting on Bill Fletcher's article "Zimbabwe: Black America must not be silent" [http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/47437] Ben Laauwen writes:
"With all due respect, I think that most of the "African Americans" have little more in common with the Zimbabwe population than the colour of their skin. The interest of Americans in the happenings in Africa does not seem go much beyond oil reserves and other resources with every now and than a shipload full of food to silence the collective conscience. The political credibility is even worse. Iraq (middle East in general) and the stance on environmental issues have dented the image of the USA beyond repair as long as Mr Bush occupies the White House. Whenever the UK opens its mouth on Zimbabwe, mr Mugabe gets a fit and -for him- for valid reasons.
The MDC, like them or not, are the only option for the Zimbabweans to get out of the current situation…other than fleeing to neighbouring countries. Their voices are not being heard as many are too scared to go home to vote. Underlying tribal issues are being exploited by Mugabe. The latest is a shipload full of light weaponry has arrived in Durban from China. The shipment is destined for transport over land to Zimbabwe and the SA government seems to approve this. Luckily, our labour unions are making their voices heard and might refuse to handle the containers. Why South Africa as the normal shipping port of arrival for sea transport is Beira in Mozambique?
Generally speaking, America, black or any other shade, has no understanding of the result of forced implementation of the Western democracy model in Africa. In South Africa, we are all watching the close friendship between Mugabe and Mr Mbheki with growing disbelief and suspicion. Many suspect that SA could be next under a continued ANC government. Just watch this space."
But Joanna Tomkins finds merit in Fletcher's analysis and writes:
"I really enjoyed your [Fletcher's] article. I have worked and traveled a lot in Zimbabwe. I don't quite understand why this is the view of African Americans. I'm not African, but I share your view.”
And in a South Africa discussion group, Peter Waterman writes:
“As usual, a sophisticated and sensible analysis by Bill Fletcher.
I take issue with him at one point only: - “There is something that I believe that African Americans can and should do, and in some respects it might represent an important chapter in our continuing relationship with Zimbabwe. This is a variation on a proposal I made once before. We should offer to assist the African Union in mediating the talks toward a peaceful resolution of the on-going crisis. Specifically, the Congressional Black Caucus should contact the African Union and offer to constitute a mediating team to work with the African Union. This should not be interference and should not be construed as interference, but it could be a genuine act of solidarity.'”
In the first place, the AU is going to show little interest in such an approach from the African American Community - however this is defined. It is more likely to be hostile to such.
It would, however, be even worse if the AU embraced such an approach! This because it would represent a success for a civil society lobbying of a bloc of states, and a bloc that has so far portrayed itself as a club of elite statespeople.
I would prefer to see any African American community allying with (not lobbying thus) unions, NGOs, academics and other civil society actors. This could be confined to Africa or, as far as I am concerned, be spread through the South and even be global in reach.
I understand, however, that this particular US community might wish to confine itself to an African constituency.”
And on Gordon Brown, Zimbabwe and British Imperialism, Michael Baingana writes:
The political danger in falling prey to Gordon Brown's imperialistic designs through the MDC is far, far, worse for Zimbabwe and Africa, than tactically foregoing electoral democracy as a means of holding out against Britain. The very last thing Zimbabwe needs at this time, and always, is to fall under a British sponsored MDC government.
Independence is a far greater priority for Africa than "democracy"; in fact without independence, democracy is definitively impossible. And that is the glaring weakness in the MDC option - it is a British puppet party which has been receiving millions in British support to oust Mugabe, so that the Whites can reclaim the land. It is a Trojan Horse.
An MDC government under British patronage (as indeed it would be) would throw Zimbabwe back to the days of colonialism and make a mockery of the Chimurenga (I,II and III) and the millions of lives that have been lost. This is why Mugabe is absolutely justified in saying Tsangirai will never be allowed to rule Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile Patrick Mookeenah writes that:
“Thabo Mbeki is not far from a political suicide. Political mistake on political mistake with his wrong strategy to win Polokwame election last year.”
But we give the last word to Chris Ajuma who responded to Tajudeen Abdulraheem's Pan-African Postcard [http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/47575]. Ajuma says:
Adding your voice to the critics against Mugabe coming from you is good if only to help save the pan- Africanist movement of which you and Mugabe belonged.I mean the more Nkrumahist militant wing that can be distinguished from the more philosophical and liberal nature of African unittary vision embodied by the actions, if less rhetorics of Mwalimu Nyerere.
You are not saying anything new to help us debunk the myth of Mugabe the man and prententer to the redeemer of African colonised pyche. From his dressings Mugabe is a bundle of contradiction. It is laughable how a man who addresses national occasions in a three piece suit in "perfect" English accent can claim to be a redeemer of a colonised psyche! Right the opposite. Mugabe has provided us the challenge to adress some of the disturbing projections made by Frantz Fanon about the malignancy of colonialised psche among Africa's political elite and its leadership in particular.
Why do you illuminate Mugabe's acquisation of seven university degrees as proof of anything positive? Why would anyone pursue 6 bachelor's degrees in humanities when the normal trend would be for a serious scholar scholar to crack a masters and then do a PhD hence attaining academic authority and then move on to publishing?
The parading of Mugabe's six degrees (unless you gave him one I know of only six and they were all by correspondence) are some of the first symptoms of Mugabe's megalomania: a sickness that Zimbabweans and African are paying dearly by the hour. Worshipping of secondary values with foreign origins by African elites is one of the continent's greatest cultural and mental woe.
After 50 years of independence Africa's leading scholars would rather cite a minor fellowship in a foreign university as a sign of achievement as almost more important than their home-based degree.
In a revealing interview with Baffour of New African about 3 years ago I showed a young Kenyan the the cover picture: "He looks more like the president than Mugabe" my cousin said pointing at Baffour's Ghanaian national costume. For a country that's so culturally rich and given the important role of dress identity to the generation of first African-state independent leaders - recall Mwalimu, Kaunda, Nkomo, Mobutu - Mugabe's clinging to his former master's traditional attire attest to his tragic alienation from hiw own culture.
Mugabe is a disjunct from whatever perspective you look at the man. He needs spiritual rehabiliation more than anything else.
"Poetic knowledge is born in the great silence of scientific knowledge" (Aimé Césaire)
Aimé Césaire died on 17 April 2008 in Fort-de-France on the French Caribbean island of Martinique at the ripe age of 94. His life and political choices are truly captured in his friend and surrealist writer André Breton's words: Césaire was the "prototype of dignity".
But, like most brilliantly creative men, he had more than one incarnation. Throughout his long life, Césaire contained the multiple identities of surrealist poet, political playwright, intellectual engagé, politician and anti-colonial crusader.
Aimé Césaire was born in 1913 in the small town of Basse Pointe in Martinique to a lower-middle-class family. He displayed early brilliance and was admitted at the age of 11 to the Lycee Schoelcher in Fort-de-France. After moving to Paris, and studying in the prestigious Lycee Louis Le Grand, he prepared for the competitive entrance exam of the elite École normale supérieure. During this period, many African and Caribbean intellectuals had been recruited under the French colonial policy of assimilation to study at metropolitan universities. The years Aimé Césaire spent in Paris were formative in many ways. There he absorbed French culture, European humanities and learned Latin and Greek; but he also befriended the Senegalese intellectual Léopold Sédar Senghor (with whom he began to study African history and culture), and was exposed in Paris to influences from African-American movements such as the Harlem renaissance. In this intellectually ebullient climate Césaire and Senghor (together with Césaire's childhood friend Léon-Gontran Damas) launched a journal called L'Etudiant Noir (The Black Student) featuring the works of writers from Africa and the Caribbean. The concept of "négritude" - defined as the "affirmation that one is black and proud of it" - was coined by them in the first issue of the journal, although credit is generally ascribed to Senghor alone. Négritude blossomed into a political, philosophical and literary theory that would have repercussions all over the world.
Much of Césaire's later work revolved around the theme of restoring the cultural identity of black Africans. Critiques of négritude have pointed to the essentialism and nativism inherent in the idea that all people of negro descent shared certain inalienable essential characteristics. But négritude went beyond the race-based assertions of African dignity of WEB du Bois or Marcus Garvey, in that it attempted to extend perceptions of the negro as possessing a distinctive personality in all spheres of life, intellectual, emotional and physical. Within the négritude stream, Césaire's life and oeuvre was special and different in its attempt to embrace négritude, Marxism and surrealism all in one. In the early 1940s Aimé Césaire and his wife Suzanne Roussy (Roussi) returned to Martinique and took up teaching posts in Fort-de- France. With other colleagues and friends they launched a new journal called Tropiques. This became a major voice for surrealism which they perceived as the strategy for revolution and emancipation of the mind. Césaire's most renowned works, Les Armes Miraculeuses (Miraculous Weapons) and Soleil cou coupé (Beheaded sun), embraced both surrealism and négritude. But it was his Cahier d'un Retour au Pays Natal (1939) that brought him fame and led André Breton to describe it as the "the greatest lyrical monument of our time". This epic poem depicts in symbolic imagery the degradation of black people and describes the rediscovery of an African sense of self. It provided the all important starting-point for the claiming of a black Caribbean identity.
By the end of the second world war, Césaire - like many young intellectuals of the time - joined the French Communist Party (PCF). He took an active interest in politics, running successfully for mayor of Fort-de-France and was for decades deputy to the French national assembly. He was instrumental in the change of status of the former colonies of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guinea, and Reunion from colony to départements within the French republic. In 1956 he broke away from the Communist Party partly because of its unwillingness to condemn the Soviet Union's intervention in Hungary and partly because of the privileging of proletarian revolution over anti-colonial struggles. Thus while many communist intellectuals in France remained mute, Césaire took a principled stand. He later created his own political formation, the Martinique Progressive Party, and openly supported the candidature of Ségolène Royal in the 2007 presidential election.
Césaire's writings and politics had a deep impact on the francophone colonised world. His Discourse on Colonialism (1950), less known than the writings of his former student Frantz Fanon, argued subtly that colonialism affected the colonised as as much as the coloniser who was dehumanised through the practice of torture and violence. It dealt with issues that would be taken up by postcolonial thinkers in the later 20th century: the importance of an ideology of race and culture that sustained colonial rule anticipated the idea that colonialism is also domination through knowledge. He believed that a revolt of the tiers monde was the only path possible for the creation of a just world. His later works on colonialism were grounded in history. He wrote about Toussaint L'Ouverture's heroic attempt at revolution, about Patrice Lumumba's struggle in the Congo and finally adapted Shakespeare's Tempest to explore the relation between coloniser and colonised. Reading him is a caution against today's tendency to read colonialism as an encounter between cultures or the creation of contact-zones. Reading him serves as a reminder that colonialism was essentially humiliation and pain.
Aimé Césaire never lost his dignity and as a intellectual engagé always took a principled stand, critiquing in the same vein all the avatars of modernity from Marxism to nationalism and colonialism with the trenchant weapon of poetry. He leaves us beautiful words reminiscent of some of Mallarmé's poems, complex and demanding yet conveying a piercing sensation of beauty and depth.
* Nira Wickramasinghe is a professor in the department of history and international relations, the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Among her books are Civil Society in Sri Lanka: New Circles of Power (New Delhi, Thousand Oaks/ Sage, 2001); Dressing the Colonised Body: Politics, Clothing and Identity in Colonial Sri Lanka (New Delhi, Orient Longman, 2003); and Sri Lanka in the Modern Age: A History of Contested Identities (C Hurst and University of Hawaii Press, 2006).
**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to increase the vulnerability of children, the symposium Children and HIV/AIDS: Action Now, Action How is an urgent call to collective action on behalf of children affected by AIDS. The symposium, jointly hosted by CCABA, The Teresa Group and La Casa de la Sal, will provide a two-day forum on August 1st and 2nd, 2008 at the Hotel Nikko M?xico for information sharing, collaboration and networking in order to strengthen the response to children?s needs.
Equality Now, an international human rights organization dedicated to ending violence and discrimination against women globally, is seeking to recruit a Program Officer, who will assist the Nairobi Office Director with program work and specifically in the areas of managing a fund for grassroots activism to end female genital mutilation (FGM), helping draft and publish Awaken, a semi-annual newsletter that addresses FGM, and research and campaign related to the legal defense of adolescent girls in Africa.
“Web 2.0 [is] a venture capitalist’s paradise where investors pocket the value produced by unpaid users, ride on the technical innovations of the free software movement and kill off the decentralizing potential of peer-to-peer production.”
Reading the quote above you get the feeling we are being seriously ripped off but still we all — well a good percentage of the world’s cyber addicts — continue to spend our days on YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and all the copies from all corners of the globe including Africa.
A ship carrying arms, including 3 million rounds of ammunition, bound for Zimbabwe is currently trying to find a way of delivering its deadly cargo. It is highly likely that these weapons will be used to fuel violence, killings and intimidation in Zimbabwe’s growing political crisis. THE ARMS MUST BE STOPPED. Please help stop these arms getting through to Zimbabwe.
In what they are calling Operation Talk Talk African Union (AU) on the delay in issuing the results of the Presidential election held March 29 the militant radical pressure group Free-Zim Youth and Zimbabwe Action Group(ZAG) in a joint operation ambushed H.E Dr Ali Mohamed Shein-Vice of the United Republic of Tanzania in London whilst addressing the Tanzanian diaspora Investment and skills Forum.
Political Studies at Wits University and the Women’s Rights and Citizenship Programme at IDRC are pleased to announce a Research and Training Institute on Women’s Rights and Citizenship, to be held at Wits University from 4-16 August 2008. The aim of the Institute is to deepen the capacity of researchers to deploy feminist theories and methodologies in applied, policy-oriented research. The deadline for applications is Monday May 5 2008.
(i.m. Aimé Césaire, Négritudist)
The windward waves are storming:
black.
The basalt of Pelée is black.
The mourners' blown umbrellas: black.
The massing clouds above them: black.
Umbrella bolls of cotton: black.
The acres of vanilla pods:
all black.
The freshly-mounded soil is black.
The grave's great mouth is shaded:
black.
The ink across your elegies:
jet black.
This too is heaven.
*Stephen Derwent Partington, is the Kwani? poetry editor and a member of the Concerned Kenyan Writers Initiative.
**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Seven African governments and the world's largest banks and construction firms meet in London today to plan the most powerful dam ever conceived - an $80bn (£40bn) hydro power project on the Congo river which, its supporters say, could double the amount of electricity available on the continent.
Increasingly restrictive asylum policies in Europe, as well as a growing emphasis on the return of rejected asylum seekers, refugees and irregular migrants, raise new interest amongst governments and international organizations for processes of return migration. Researchers from CIDIN (Radboud University) and AMIDSt (Amsterdam University) analyzed the return migration experiences of 178 former refugees, rejected asylum seekers and irregular migrants to six countries: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sierra Leone, Togo and Vietnam.
Attempts to use certification schemes to reduce the widespread environmental and social problems caused by growing crops for fuels and animal feeds are bound to
fail, states a new report released today by Friends of the Earth groups. The report is released on the eve of a controversial April 23-24 meeting in Buenos Aires set to discuss the certification of growing soy, a crop expanding rapidly to meet the increasing demand for fuel and the world's most-used animal feed.
Riots in Haiti over explosive rises in food costs have claimed the lives of six people. There have also been food riots worldwide in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivorie, Egypt, Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen. The Economist, which calls the current crisis the silent tsunami, reports that last year wheat prices rose 77 percent and rice 16 percent, but since January rice prices have risen 141 percent.
This latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the conditions for new elections, which are now set to be held on 30 November 2008. However, the competition for the presidency, for which certain politicians appear ready to go to extremes, combined with the proliferation of armed groups and growth of impunity in recent years, present a potentially explosive environment.
Concerns around farm evictions, reports of human rights abuse on farms, and legal access for farm workers, dominated the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) workshop on 18 April 2008 in Pretoria. Titled ‘Farm Dwellers Legal Access Crisis Workshop’, the event brought together representatives from NGOs and government to discuss the difficulties farm dwellers face when accessing legal services.
Stories of the abuse and exploitation of refugees in South Africa abound. In cities and informal settlements across the country, many refugees live in fear of being arrested, attacked and victimised for being ‘foreigners’. Xenophobia has lead to major eruptions in townships such as Atteridgeville, Shoshanguve and Laudium, where community members have turned on and attacked ‘foreigners’, sometimes burning their homes, shops and severely assaulting them.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/365/47643bullet.jpg “Zimbabwe is staring into the abyss. Violence is growing and the people are suffering greatly as a result. It is now vital that we all do what we can to calm the situation.
In particular I join the worldwide calls to stop the supply of weapons to the country - by land, sea or air - until the political crisis is resolved. It is obvious that supplying large quantities of arms at this stage would risk escalating the violence, perhaps resulting in the large-scale loss of life. We should be proud of the African Trade Unions and governments who refused to let the most recent Chinese shipment off-load in their ports but China must now agree not to try and send these arms by air instead.
**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/365/47644muga.jpgThe Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations, supports the efforts of its colleagues in the Lwas Society of East Africa when it hosted an emergency consultation on ‘Africa Taking the Initiative on the Zimbabwe Election Crisis’ held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania on 21st April. The meeting brought together the finest African minds from over 100 civic and legal organisations from all over the continent.
After lengthy discussions on the Zimbabwean situation it was concluded that, in spite of what President Mbeki and Minister Sgaoyoyo Magongo might find politically or personally expedient, it is most definitely a crisis. In fact it is multiple crises of democracy, security, the rule of law, constitutionalism, independence, freedom of speech, safety of people, the role of the police and military and the death free and fair elections. It calls Mugabe’s post election actions simply and clearly a military lead de facto coup d’etat.
Three weeks delay in counting only the presidential vote is a crisis of due process.
Calling for a recount before the result of the count is announced is a crisis of free and fair election law.
Assaulting citizens and killing them on the basis of their vote is a crisis that goes to the heart of democracy – the secrecy of the vote.
Ordering a shipment of arms 2 days after the election in times of peace when no external aggression is present is a crisis of internal repression and of international law.
We concur with the East African Law Society when we say that the Mbeki lead process has contributed to the greatest failure of all – the will of the majority of the long suffering people of Zimbabwe has been systematically and structurally stolen.
We call on the AU to replace the SADC / Mbeki driven mediation process with one of the calibre that was appointed to address the recent problems in Kenya.
We also call on the AU and its Commission on Human and People’s Rights to appoint special rapporteurs to investigate the horrific allegations that are coming from many independent and respected sources of planned and programmed human rights abuses.
We also call on SADC, AU and the world to turn their backs on the so called Mugabe Government and not to recognise its legitimacy. We call on a complete embargo on any form of weapons shipments to be imported to the country and we support the moral courage of the African Trade Unions in preventing the Chinese shipment from landing in Durban and Maputo.
We finally call on our King Mswati III as he meets President Thabo Mbeki to use their collective influence to ensure that the legitimate will of the people of Zimbabwe to elect a government of their choice is restored and respected and reflects the true results of the 29 March elections.
**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/365/47645cross.jpgAs the shepherds of the people, we, Church leaders of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ), the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC) and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), express our deep concern over the deteriorating political, security, economic and human rights situation in Zimbabwe following the March 29, 2008 national elections.
Before the elections, we issued statements urging Zimbabweans to conduct themselves peacefully and with tolerance towards those who held different views and political affiliation from one’s own. After the elections, we issued statements commending Zimbabweans for the generally peaceful and politically mature manner in which they conducted themselves before, during and soon after the elections.
Reports that are coming through to us from our Churches and members throughout the country indicate that the peaceful environment has, regrettably, changed:
Given the political uncertainty, anxiety and frustration created by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC’s) failure to release the results of the presidential poll 4 weeks after polling day:
- Organized violence perpetrated against individuals, families and communities who are accused of campaigning or voting for the 'wrong' political party in the March 29, 2008 elections has been unleashed throughout the country, particularly in the countryside and in some high density urban areas.
People are being abducted, tortured, humiliated by being asked to repeat slogans of the political party they are alleged not to support, ordered to attend mass meetings where they are told they voted for the 'wrong' candidate and should never repeat it in the run-off election for President, and, in some cases, people are murdered.
- The deterioration in the humanitarian situation is plummeting at a frightful pace. The cost of living has gone beyond the reach of the majority of our people. There is widespread famine in most parts of the countryside on account of poor harvests and delays in the process of importing maize from neighbouring countries.
The shops are empty and basic foodstuffs are unavailable. Victims of organized torture who are ferried to hospital find little solace as the hospitals have no drugs or medicines to treat them.
As the shepherds of the people, we appeal:
- To the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) to work towards arresting the deteriorating political and security situation in Zimbabwe.
We warn the world that if nothing is done to help the people of Zimbabwe from their predicament, we shall soon be witnessing genocide similar to that experienced in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and other hot spots in Africa and elsewhere.
- For the immediate end to political intimidation and retribution arising from how people are perceived to have voted in the March 29, 2008 elections and arising from the desire to influence how people will vote in the anticipated run-off in the presidential poll.
Youth militia and war veteran/military base camps that have been set up in different parts of the country should be closed as a step towards restoring the peace and freedom of people’s movement that was witnessed before and during the March 29, 2008 elections.
- To ZEC to release the true results of the presidential poll of March 29, 2008 without further delay. The unprecedented delay in the publication of these results has caused anxiety, frustration, depression, suspicion and in some cases illness among people of Zimbabwe both at home and abroad.
A pall of despondency hangs over the nation which finds itself in a crisis of expectations and governance. The nation is in a crisis, in limbo and no real business is taking place anywhere as the nation waits.
- To, finally, the people of Zimbabwe themselves. You played your part when you turned out to vote on 29 March 2008. We, again, commend you for exercising your democratic right peacefully. At this difficult time in our nation, we urge you to maintain and protect your dignity and your vote.
We urge you to refuse to be used for a political party or other people’s selfish end especially where it concerns violence against other people, including those who hold different views from your own. It was the Lord Jesus who said, 'Whatever you do to one of these little ones, you do it unto me' (Matthew 25:45).
We call on all Zimbabweans and on all friends of Zimbabwe to continue to pray for our beautiful nation. As the shepherds of God’s flock, we shall continue to speak on behalf of Zimbabwe’s suffering masses and we pray that God’s will be done.
We remain God’s humble servants:
The Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ)
The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC)
The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC)
*Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/365/47646slum.jpg Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African shackdwellers' movement reminds us in this statement and call to action that the structures of apartheid are still thriving in South Africa.
On Sunday it will be Freedom Day again. Once again we will be asked to go into stadiums to be told that we are free. Once again we will not be going to the stadiums. We will, for the third time, be mourning UnFreedom Day. Since the last UnFreedom Day we have been beaten, shot at and arrested on false charges by the police; evicted by the land invasions unit; disconnected from electricity by Municipal Security; forcibly removed to rural human dumping grounds by the Municipalities; banned from marching by the eThekwini City Manager; slandered by all those who want followers not comrades; intimidated by all kinds of people who demand the silence of the poor; threatened by new anti-poor laws; burnt in the fires; sick in the dirt and raped in the dark nights looking for a safe place to go the toilet.
We have also opened an office with a library, launched many new branches, opened new crèches, successfully taken Ricky Govender and the eThekwini Municipality to court to stop evictions, taken the province to court to overturn the Slums Act, marched on Glen Nayager and Obed Mlaba, defended all of our members arrested for standing strong in the politics of the poor, organised in support of people struggling elsewhere, received powerful solidarity from other movements and some churches and thought and discussed how to make our own homemade politics, our living politics, into paths out of unfreedom.
It is clear that no one should tell someone else that they are free. Each person must decide for themselves if their life is free. Each community must decide on this matter for themselves. In each community women and men, the young and the old, the people born there and the people born in other places must decide on this matter for themselves.
In our movement we have often said that we are not free because we are forced to live without toilets, electricity, lighting, refuse removal, enough water or proper policing and, therefore, with fires, sickness, violence and rape. We have often said that we are not free because our children are chased out of good schools and because we are being chased out of good areas and therefore away from education, work, clinics, sports fields and libraries. We have often said that we are not free because the politics of the poor is treated like a criminal offence by the Municipalities while real criminals are treated like business partners. We have often said that we are not free because the councillors are treated like the people's masters instead of their servants. We have often said that we are not free because even many of the people who say that they are for the struggles of the poor refuse to accept that we can think for ourselves.
We have often asked that our settlements be humanized, not destroyed. We have often asked that city planning be democratized. We have often asked for an end to wasting money on stadiums and themeparks and casinos while people don't have houses. We have often asked that democracy be a bottom up rather than a top down system. We have often asked the Municipalities and the police to obey the law. We have often asked for solidarity in action with our struggles. We have often offered and asked for solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe and Haiti and Turkey and in all the places where the poor are under attack.
But freedom is more than all of this. Freedom is a way of living not a list of demands to be met. Delivering houses will do away with the lack of houses but it won't make us free on its own. Freedom is a way of living where everyone is important and where everyone's experience and intelligence counts. Every Abahlali baseMjondolo branch and every settlement affiliated to Abahlali baseMjondolo in Durban, Pinetown, Pietermartrizburg and Tongaat has had a meeting to discuss the ways in which they are not free and has written a letter to the whole movement explaining why they are not free. Many new and important issues have been raised. These letters are being collected into a pamphlet that will be distributed and discussed at UnFreedom Day. We invite everyone who wants to think about Freedom and UnFreedom in our country to attend our event.
We welcome the participation of Christian Aid from Wales who have come to learn about our struggle
We welcome the participation of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, our comrades in struggle who are driving all the way from Cape Town to be with us.
We welcome the participation of Bishop Reuben Phillip and the other clergy who have bravely stood with us in difficult times.
At this time we express our solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe suffering terrible oppression in their own country and terrible xenophobia in South Africa. We also express our solidarity with the people battling eviction in Joe Slovo and Delft in Cape Town and the whole Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign as well as the Landless Peoples' Movement and all organisations, big and small, standing up for the right to the city, the humanisation of the rural areas and for justice for the poor across the country. We also express our solidarity with the 1 500 people left homeless in the Jadhu Place settlement on Sunday morning after another of the fires that terrorize our people. We condemn the attempts of the City & the Province to misuse this fire, as the flood in the Ash Road settlement in Pietermaritzburg was recently misused, to advance their shack 'elimination' agenda. We will resist this. We will resist all attempts to turn settled communities into transit camps.
We salute the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union and Bishop Reuben Philip for their active solidarity with the Zimbabwean people. We call on others to follow their example. We call on all clergy to stand with the poor. We call on the South African Municipal Workers' Union to refuse to carry out any instructions to evict the poor from the cities. We call on the Police and Prison's Civil Rights Union to refuse to carry out any orders to assault and arrest the poor for exercising their democratic rights to protest. Solidarity in action is our only hope.
No Land! No House! No Vote! Land & Housing in the Cities! Bottom Up Democracy not Top Down Rule by Councilors!
The rally - Time: 9:00 a.m., Sunday 27 April 2008
Venue: Community Hall, Kennedy Road Shack Settlement, Clare Estate, Durban
*For information or comment please contact: Mr Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Abahlali baseMjondolo Spokesperson, 0797450653 or Ms Zodwa Nsibande, Abahlali baseMjondolo Organiser, 0828302707. You can also visit
**Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
GenARDIS is a Small Grants Fund to address Gender Issues in Information and Communication Technologies for Agricultural and Rural Development in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP Countries). 15 grants @ 7,000 Euro will be awarded. Submission Deadline:June 2, 2008.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) play an important role in addressing these challenges and uplifting the livelihoods of the rural poor. This article explores the potential contribution of ICT to the livelihoods of small-scale farmers and the efficiency of the agricultural sector in developing countries.
The Coalition for an Effective African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Coalition), which comprises African and international non-governmental organisations (NGO) working in and on Africa, individuals and national human rights institutions in Africa, was formed in Niamey, Niger in May 2003 to advocate for an effective and efficient African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Coalition will be holding a panel discussion on the African Court at the Royal Swazi Sun in Ezulwini, Swaziland on 11 May 2008.
The former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour is responsible for covering up the murder of the deceased President of Rwanda, the President of Burundi and many other persons who were assassinated on April 06 1994, a senior attorney with the UN Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has alleged. Lead Counsel Christopher Black who is defending General Augustin Ndindiliyimana, former Chief of Staff of Rwandan Gendarmerie says that Louise Arbour - as Chief Prosecutor of the ICTR conspired with some countries to cover up investigations into allegations against the RPF.
Development dialogue: Education in the New South Africa The DBSA Advisory Unit and Knowledge Facilitation Centre invites you to a viewing and discussion session on the movie ‘Testing Hope: Grade 12 in the New South Africa’, a documentary film by Molly Blank. When: Wednesday, 21 May Time: 10:00 – 13:00, followed by lunch Where: DBSA Auditorium 1258 Lever Road, Midrand RSVP: to [email][email protected] or 011-3133615, by May 15.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have today (April 24) issued a joint statement in support of the strong voice of fellow bishops in Zimbabwe. They have called for greater efforts on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe who are "left even more vulnerable to conflist heaped upon poverty amd the threat of national disintergration. It is therefore crucial that the international community act to bring a mediated settlement to this political crisis so that the social and economic and spiritual crisis of the country can be addressed."
On Saturday, April 11th, a little past 3 p.m., a MINUSTAH (UN) soldier, Nigerian Cpl. Nagya Aminu, was shot and killed in downtown Port-au-Prince. While this killing was widely reported in the international media, what followed the killing was not. In the immediate aftermath of the killing, at approximately 3:30 p.m. that same afternoon, MINUSTAH troops launched a massive assault on Haitian vendors at the open-air sidewalk market near the main Cathedral in downtown Port-au-Prince—the area where the soldier had been killed.
Africa is set to benefit from a comparative study on the BPO (business process outsourcing) industry. Research for the study, commissioned by the International Development Research Council (IDRC), will begin next month with the aim of bridging the gap of insufficient data and statistics on BPO in many African countries.
The Reporting Skills and Professional Writing Handbook (2nd Edition) is a self-study programme based on the best of 10 years' experience working with INGOs, NGOs, GOs and IOs over hundreds of training courses. It's available on CDROM
for convenient desktop study, and, for larger organisations, the Trainer Edition is supported by a complete Training Pack.
The Kanifing Magistrate Court trying Fatou Jaw Manneh, a US-based Gambian journalist for alleged sedition on April 21, 2008 restricted the general public from the trial by ruling that only Manneh's family members and two journalists were to be admitted to the court. Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) sources reported that the ruling followed an earlier application filed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) of The Gambia, Emmanuel Fagbenle.
As the Chinese ship An Yue Jiang and its cargo of arms intended for the Mugabe regime heads for Namibia, the TUC has today (Wednesday) written to the President of the Southern African country urging him to turn the shipment away.
During the Kenya Elections 2007 and after, amateur and professional photographers alike captured powerful scenes of the campaigning, voting and ensuing violence and destruction. The exhibition tells this story through over 150 compelling images, presenting an opportunity for us all to remember and reflect. Exhibition runs Monday to Friday 9am -5pm and on Saturdays 10am-4pm. Closes 10th May 2008.
The global effort to prevent weapons from reaching Zimbabwe during the current crisis is led by Southern African trade unions, NGOs, and church organisations, with support from global civil society--including Avaaz, Oxfam, Amnesty International, and IANSA.
The Nigerian senate has warned Nigerians travelling to and living in South Africa to be wary of incessant attacks, even as it called on the Federal Government to issue a travel advice to all Nigerians travelling to the country. The lawmakers said the travel advice had become necessary in view of the strident attacks on Nigerians in that country.
Globalization has many faces but it essentially refers to the movements of goods, capital (real or financial), and people (skilled or unskilled).To an increasing extent, it refers to growing contacts among people. These movements and contacts bring with them exchanges of ideas and techniques that can promote welfare. This interesting book brings the knowledge and sophistication of first rate economists to the analysis of the globalization of talent and assesses its various and not always obvious consequences.
TrainersPod is a media rich support center for organizations in need of support for the development of learning technologies. At TrainersPod you can share your experience in creating e-learning and e-training solutions for the education, business and health care fields. The sharing is mutual in that creators can receive feedback via the blogs and hopeful help disseminate information on advancement in technology and pedagogy.
There is a good deal of reason why we should be perturbed with the rather flippant manner in which the Minister of Science and Technology, Mrs. Grace Ekpiwhre, is treating the issue of the introduction of Genetically Modified Crops (GM crops) into Nigeria's agrarian system. At a two-day round-table meeting with stakeholders on the subject recently, the Minister clearly jumped the gun in announcing that, "the meeting is intended to produce a blueprint for the introduction of Genetically Modified crops into Nigeria.
A shipment of Chinese weapons headed for troubled Zimbabwe will be returned to China because there is no way to deliver it to the landlocked country in southern Africa, China said Thursday. Countries neighboring Zimbabwe refused to allow the Chinese freighter An Yue Jiang to dock at their ports. That followed heavy pressure from African unions, churches and human rights groups, bolstered by behind-the-scenes pressure from the United States.
April is the beginning of the rainy season for the DRC's eastern provinces, a time when perpetually more water gets dumped on an already drenched region. But despite an abundant rain supply and churning rivers, access to clean water has been a persistent problem for this Central African nation. As large as Western Europe, the DRC is still attempting to pick up the pieces after a decade of war and attendant upheaval that claimed the lives of over five million people, according to recent figures from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) relief organisation.
April 25 has this year been declared World Malaria Day. Since 2001, April 25 has been observed as Africa Malaria Day, commemorating the signing of the historic Abuja Declaration by 44 African malaria-endemic countries at the African Malaria Summit held in 2000. Despite all efforts, malaria continues to be a serious public health concern throughout the world. It affects over 100 countries and approximately 40 per cent of the world's population.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s vast tropical rainforest is a true natural treasure, home to over a thousand species of plants and hundreds of species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. The tropical rainforest of the Congo Basin is the world’s second largest, after South America’s Amazon Rainforest. Situated in the heart of the African tropics, the DRC is home to the greatest expanse of rainforest in all of Africa. Unfortunately, the global trend toward tropical deforestation has not left this region untouched.
The International Task Team on HIV-Related Travel Restrictions has pointed out that HIV-related travel restrictions raise serious human rights concerns, including violations of the principles of equality and non-discrimination, freedom of movement, and the right to privacy.
For centuries, Western governments and business interests have viewed the African continent as a source of natural resources ripe for extraction. While states and other dominant actors in the global North have made linking the exploitation of the region’s unmatched natural wealth to human development a public relations standard practice, the economic benefits of mining and other resource industries still flow overwhelmingly away from the African people. This study looks at oil in the Niger Delta.
Central African leaders and the UN have been urged to secure the release of more than 350 men, women and children thought to have been abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in recent weeks. The abductions took place in the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Southern Sudan while the LRA was ostensibly preparing to sign a peace agreement with the Ugandan government.
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) is disturbed by the arrest of prominent and respected radio journalist Abdi Mohammed Ismail, who works for Mogadishu-based privately owned Shabelle Media Network. Abdi Mohammed Ismail, publicly known Abdi Uud, was arrested on 21 April, by recently trained armed forces of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia at Banadir junction of Madina district in Mogadishu. The Transitional Federal Government or its armed forces did not talk about the reason of the arrest.
Renewed fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) North Kivu province has forced the United Nations refugee agency to halt the distribution of aid to internally displaced persons and to call off a drive to register newly displaced people in the Rutshuru area.
African National Congress (ANC) leader, Jacob Zuma has continued his calls for the immediate release of Zimbabwe's presidential results, saying the delays were now unacceptable. This position is far from president Thabo Mbeki's who keeps lenient regarding the crisis.
Civic groups in Zimbabwe have released a document detailing evidence of state-sponsored murder and violence against opposition supporters to southern Africa's chief elections observer. The document handed to Jose Marcos Barrica, Southern African Development Community (SADC) observer mission head, the factual evidence of post-election violence. The evidence included pictures of opposition supporters who were extensively tortured by the military, political activists and Zanu PF youth militias.
The Zimbabwean newspaper claims that Robert Mugabe’s regime has illegally sold US$1 million of ivory as part payment for a shipment of ammunition, grenades and mortars from China. The paper claims that Poly Technologies, a state owned arms manufacturer received payment for the arms on the 1st April, when information began filtering through that Zanu PF and Robert Mugabe had lost the elections. The controversial ‘An Yue Jiang’ ship is said to contain weapons purchased via that deal.
Malawi's opposition party on Thursday endorsed the country's ex-leader Bakili Muluzi as its candidate for next year's presidential election. He won a landslide victory in a United Democratic Front (UDF) convention over the country's Vice President Cassim Chilumpha. The results were read out on Muluzi's Joy radio. Muluzi is likely to face incumbent President Bingu wa Mutharika, whose economic reforms have won praise from Western donors.
Ivory Coast's political parties signed an agreement on Thursday to shun violence, promote fair voting and respect the outcome of a presidential election scheduled for November 30 in the West African nation. Witnessed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the signing of the good conduct code was the latest step towards a national poll that is aimed at unifying the world's top cocoa producer after a 2002-2003 civil war that split the nation.
In less than two months, government officials and Aids activists from around the world will convene in New York to review the global HIV and Aids response. National progress reports, submitted earlier this year, will be compared to targets adopted by the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV and Aids (UNGASS) in 2001.
Morocco's trade unions announced a blanket rejection Monday (April 21st) of the government’s proposals in the third round of negotiations between the two sides. The Democratic Workers’ Confederation (CDT) complicated matters further by tendering its resignation from the second chamber of Parliament on April 19th, in protest at the social dialogue, describing the government’s proposals as "ridiculous".
Europe is negotiating new trade deals with African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries. A true partnership in trade could radically transform the lives of one-third of all people living in poverty, providing farmers and small businesses with sustainable incomes and workers with decent jobs. But Europe is choosing power politics over partnership. Through analysis of the goods, services, investment, and intellectual property chapters of texts concluded last year, this paper draws attention to aspects of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that put future economic development at risk and puts forward positive policy prescriptions.
The only way that the poor, particularly women, will benefit from all the efforts that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has put into improving global trade is to ensure that power inequalities are redressed. This is the comment of Esther Busser, trade policy advisor of the Geneva-based International Trade Union Confederation, who is attending the 12th UNCTAD meeting in Accra, Ghana.
Addressing the issue of resettling the tens of thousands of people displaced in post-election violence will be the first significant test of Kenya's new coalition government. It is no surprise that a quarter of the members of Kenya's new super-sized cabinet are from the Rift Valley - the area worst affected by the post-election violence.
We are citizens drawn from different groupings of grassroot Kenyans meeting under the umbrella of Bunge La Mwananchi. We want to state that the ongoing celebration of the grand coalition is wholly a political class affair that the ordinary Kenyan has no part in. The grand coalition government has concentrated on rewarding regional balance among the political elite without any social balance amongst Kenyans.
Human Rights Watch and the Moroccan Human Rights Association have urged the Moroccan government to protect the rights to privacy and fair trial of its citizens regardless of their sexual orientation. The two organisations also requested that the Moroccan authorities repeal a law that prescribes prison terms for consensual homosexual acts. They have also launched a petition demanding that the government repeal article 489 of the penal code that criminalises homosexuality.
Armed riot police raided the headquarters of Zimbabwe's main opposition party on Friday and detained scores of people in the biggest crackdown on the MDC since elections last month, officials said. The Movement for Democratic Change says it defeated President Robert Mugabe in the March 29 elections as well as ending his party's 28-year hold on parliament.
The World Food Program lacks crucially needed funds to help feed Haiti's poor, and international donors must provide urgent and massive aid, a spokesman for the United Nations agency said on Thursday. "The situation is particularly serious because 56 percent of the Haitian population was already living with less than one dollar a day," the WFP regional public information officer, Alejandro Lopez, told Reuters.
Kenya's rival leaders have embarked on a joint tour of the areas of the country worst affected by violence which followed their battle over disputed elections.
Mwai Kibaki, the president, and Raila Odinga, Kenya’s prime minister, urged ethnic reconciliation as they visited areas in the Rift Valley on Thursday.
A human rights group has accused Ethiopian troops of deliberately "targeting civilians" during a deadly raid on a mosque in the Somali capital Mogadishu that left 21 people dead. But Wahide Belay, a spokesman for the Ethiopian foreign affairs ministry, on Thursday dismissed Amnesty International's report as "total rubbish".
Reporters Without Borders has learned from local sources that Tura Kubaba, a journalist with the Kunama-language service of state-owned Radio Dimtsi Hafash (“Voice of the Masses”), has been detained in Eritrea since the second half of 2006 and disappeared last year within the country’s prison system.
It has been discovered that the law and practice in Mauritius is in breach of the International Labour Organisation's core labour conventions ratified by the country. This revealation was contained in a new report released by the International Trade Union Confederation [ITUC]. The report's publication coincides with Mauritius' trade policy review at the World Trade Organisation.
The Network of African Freedom of Expression Organisations [NAFEO] is deeply concerned about the repression of freedom of expression, including artistic in Cameroon where two renowned musicians continued to linger in jail for singing songs criticising a recent constitutional amendment that allowed President Paul Biya unlimited terms of office.
Heads of state and governments of the 14-member Southern African Development Community [SADC] have resolved their commitment to eradicate poverty "in all its manifestations and dimensions." The SADC leaders outlined their commitment in the Mauritius Declaration adopted in Port-Louis at the end of the regional summit on poverty and development.
After years of delays the Mali national cotton company, Malian Company for Textile Development (CMDT), is on the verge of privatisation with bids for tender just sent out, but the World Bank which backs the privatisation is worried none of the right conditions are in place to make it work.
The victims of human trafficking in Southern Africa are often invisible because many countries in the region have failed to implement laws to combat it, Hans Petter Boe, Regional Representative for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said in his opening remarks at a conference in the South African port city of Durban.
John Holmes, the UN's top humanitarian official, has called on all parties in the Somali conflict to protect civilians amid an increasing trend of indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force against the general population in contravention of international humanitarian law. “Combatants appear to have little regard for the safety of civilians in Mogadishu, where residents have been traumatised by years of violence,” he said in a statement issued on 24 April.