Rescuers are continuing their search in a flooded Tanzanian mine but hopes of finding survivors are fading. Thirteen bodies were retrieved on Monday, bringing the confirmed toll to 19, according to police. Officials say 75 were feared killed when heavy rains flooded narrow mine shafts in the tanzanite mine early on Saturday.

Zimbabwe's opposition has filed a high court application to compel the electoral commission to release the results of the presidential election, the party's lawyers said. The move by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) comes as the ruling party of Robert Mugabe, the president, met on Friday to decide whether to contest a run-off vote.

Reporters Without Borders condemns police use of violence against journalists covering a banned street march against cost of living increases in Dakar yesterday afternoon, and a police raid on a TV station that was broadcasting footage showing how police broke up the protest. “The security forces behaved in a manner unworthy of Senegalese democracy,” the press freedom organisation said. “Erasing pictures of clashes and preventing them being shown on TV is not an effective way of keeping order.

Created in collaboration with Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia, the interactive site is the first of its kind for a truth commission. Its creators hope it will play a key part in Liberia's reconciliation process, bringing video footage of the TRC's work to Liberians around the world. "By hosting videos on our website, we hope to better engage Liberians at home and around the world in the work of the TRC" says TRC Chairman Jerome J. Verdier.

Supreme Court in Burundi has sentenced the former Chairman of President Pierre Nkurunziza's ruling Forces for the Defence of Democracy [FDD] to 13 years behind bars. Hussein Radjabu had been found guilty of attempting to “recruit former rebels with the aim of destabilising the state" and insulting President Nkurunziza, referring to him as an "empty bottle."

Mauritania is often held up as a beacon when it comes to the proportion of women elected to political office - a 20 percent minimum quota was instituted in 2006 - but experts told IRIN once in power many women are still sidelined from taking important political decisions.

It is going to take more than a regime change back home to get the several million-strong Zimbabwean diaspora to return, according to analysts. "It's both the economy and politics," said Mlamuli Nkomo, an expert in Forced Migration at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

The Monam group of rape survivors in the northern town of Bossangoa in the Central African Republic (CAR) does what it can to keep going, but morale is low and money tight. "We've been left to fend for ourselves. We get little help from outside. Many of our members have died," the group's chairwoman, Pelagie Ndokoyanga, told IRIN/PlusNews.

African ministers on Wednesday agreed to tackle rising food prices that have threatened the continent's fledgling stability and economic growth. Although the hike "presents opportunities for increased food production in some of our countries", the phenomenon is not sustainable and has to be tackled, they said.

Pambazuka News is pleased to reproduce for our readers this well received essay by Alice Walker in which she looks at Obama using various lenses such as black feminism and international solidarity while reflecting on race, class and gender

I made my first white women friends in college; they were women who loved me and were loyal to our friendship, but I understood, as they did, that they were white women and that whiteness mattered. That, for instance, at Sarah Lawrence, where I was speedily inducted into the Board of Trustees practically as soon as I graduated, I made my way to the campus for meetings by train, subway and foot, while the other trustees, women and men, all white, made their way by limo. Because, in our country, with its painful history of unspeakable inequality, this is part of what whiteness means. I loved my school for trying to make me feel I mattered to it, but because of my relative poverty I knew I could not.

I am a supporter of Obama because I believe he is the right person to lead the country at this time. He offers a rare opportunity for the country and the world to start over, and to do better. It is a deep sadness to me that many of my feminist white women friends cannot see him. Cannot see what he carries in his being. Cannot hear the fresh choices toward Movement he offers. That they can believe that millions of Americans -black, white, yellow, red and brown - choose Obama over Clinton only because he is a man, and black, feels tragic to me.

When I have supported white people, men and women, it was because I thought them the best possible people to do whatever the job required. Nothing else would have occurred to me. If Obama were in any sense mediocre, he would be forgotten by now. He is, in fact, a remarkable human being, not perfect but humanly stunning, like King was and like Mandela is. We look at him, as we looked at them, and are glad to be of our species. He is the change America has been trying desperately and for centuries to hide, ignore, kill. The change America must have if we are to convince the rest of the world that we care about people other than our (white) selves.

True to my inner Goddess of the Three Directions however, this does not mean I agree with everything Obama stands for. We differ on important points probably because I am older than he is, I am a woman and person of three colors, (African, Native American, European), I was born and raised in the American South, and when I look at the earth's people, after sixty-four years of life, there is not one person I wish to see suffer, no matter what they have done to me or to anyone else; though I understand quite well the place of suffering, often, in human growth.

I want a grown-up attitude toward Cuba, for instance, a country and a people I love; I want an end to the embargo that has harmed my friends and their children, children who, when I visit Cuba, trustingly turn their faces up for me to kiss. I agree with a teacher of mine, Howard Zinn, that war is as objectionable as cannibalism and slavery; it is beyond obsolete as a means of improving life. I want an end to the on-going war immediately and I want the soldiers to be encouraged to destroy their weapons and to drive themselves out of Iraq.

I want the Israeli government to be made accountable for its behavior towards the Palestinians, and I want the people of the United States to cease acting like they don't understand what is going on. All colonization, all occupation, all repression basically looks the same, whoever is doing it. Here our heads cannot remain stuck in the sand; our future depends of our ability to study, to learn, to understand what is in the records and what is before our eyes. But most of all I want someone with the self-confidence to talk to anyone, "enemy" or "friend," and this Obama has shown he can do. It is difficult to understand how one could vote for a person who is afraid to sit and talk to another human being. When you vote you are making someone a proxy for yourself; they are to speak when, and in places, you cannot. But if they find talking to someone else, who looks just like them, human, impossible, then what good is your vote?

It is hard to relate what it feels like to see Mrs. Clinton (I wish she felt self-assured enough to use her own name) referred to as "a woman" while Barack Obama is always referred to as "a black man." One would think she is just any woman, colorless, race-less, past-less, but she is not. She carries all the history of white womanhood in America in her person; it would be a miracle if we, and the world, did not react to this fact. How dishonest it is, to attempt to make her innocent of her racial inheritance.

I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking, person to person, with any leader, woman, man, child or common person, in the world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar their talks. I cannot see the same scenario with Mrs. Clinton who would drag into Twenty-First Century American leadership the same image of white privilege and distance from the reality of others' lives that has so marred our country's contacts with the rest of the world.

And yes, I would adore having a woman president of the United States. My choice would be Representative Barbara Lee, who alone voted in Congress five years ago not to make war on Iraq. That to me is leadership, morality, and courage; if she had been white I would have cheered just as hard. But she is not running for the highest office in the land, Mrs. Clinton is. And because Mrs. Clinton is a woman and because she may be very good at what she does, many people, including some younger women in my own family, originally favored her over Obama. I understand this, almost. It is because, in my own nieces' case, there is little memory, apparently, of the foundational inequities that still plague people of color and poor whites in this country. Why, even though our family has been here longer than most North American families - and only partly due to the fact that we have Native American genes - we very recently, in my lifetime, secured the right to vote, and only after numbers of people suffered and died for it.

When I offered the word "Womanism" many years ago, it was to give us a tool to use, as feminist women of color, in times like these. These are the moments we can see clearly, and must honor devotedly, our singular path as women of color in the United States. We are not white women and this truth has been ground into us for centuries, often in brutal ways. But neither are we inclined to follow a black person, man or woman, unless they demonstrate considerable courage, intelligence, compassion and substance. I am delighted that so many women of color support Barack Obama -and genuinely proud of the many young and old white women and men who do.

Imagine, if he wins the presidency we will have not one but three black women in the White House; one tall, two somewhat shorter; none of them carrying the washing in and out of the back door. The bottom line for most of us is: With whom do we have a better chance of surviving the madness and fear we are presently enduring, and with whom do we wish to set off on a journey of new possibility? In other words, as the Hopi elders would say: Who do we want in the boat with us as we head for the rapids? Who is likely to know how best to share the meager garden produce and water? We are advised by the Hopi elders to celebrate this time, whatever its adversities.

We have come a long way, Sisters, and we are up to the challenges of our time. One of which is to build alliances based not on race, ethnicity, color, nationality, sexual preference or gender, but on Truth. Celebrate our journey. Enjoy the miracle we are witnessing. Do not stress over its outcome. Even if Obama becomes president, our country is in such ruin it may well be beyond his power to lead us toward rehabilitation. If he is elected however, we must, individually and collectively, as citizens of the planet, insist on helping him do the best job that can be done; more, we must insist that he demand this of us. It is a blessing that our mothers taught us not to fear hard work. Know, as the Hopi elders declare: The river has its destination. And remember, as poet June Jordan and Sweet Honey in the Rock never tired of telling us: We are the ones we have been waiting for.

* Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prize winning author. This article first appeared at The Root,

**Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

It’s been more than two weeks since Zimbabweans went to the polls to elect a legislature and President. But instead of the outcome of the elections, Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party led by President Robert Mugabe has delivered harsh crackdowns and stonewalling to the electorate.

Defeat can be hard to accept, “but at the very least, the people of Zimbabwe have the right to know the result of their vote,” says the Executive Director of ARTICLE19, Dr. Agnes Callamard. The government of Zimbabwe is obligated under the International law “to conduct an election and to let the people know those they’ve chosen to lead them.”

ARTICLE 19 urges Zimbabwe’s government to heed the calls of Zimbabweans, the 2008 first extra-ordinary SADC summit of Heads of State and Government, and the international community “to comply with the rule of law and SADC Principles and Guidelines governing democratic elections.”

It is in the interest of Zimbabwe and the southern African region that President Mugabe adheres to electoral procedures as set out in Zimbabwe’s electoral law and release the result of the election immediately. “In the event that a run-off is needed, that must also be conducted according to accepted norms and standards.” ARTICLE19 strongly urges Zimbabwean authorities to back away from chaos and violence and move towards reason and the rule of law in settling the outcome of this election.

*ARTICLE 19 is an independent human rights organisation that works globally to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression. It takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees free speech.

ARTICLE 19 (www.article19.org) is an international human rights organisation which defends and promotes freedom of expression and freedom of information all over the world. It takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Publisher: Riverhead books, 2004.
Hardback 334 pages.

This is why there is hope for Somalia

The novel Links, by Nuruddin Farah, opens with a very arresting line:
“Guns lack the body of human truths!”

Right away we are introduced to a story of guns and concealed truths. To untangle what lies in this statement, we follow the author’s narrative of the wars within a war, and a lost battle. Tension maps every page with each exposition of the dangerous terrain that’s become Somalia, the characters intentions and impenetrable intrigues.

Links is not a one person story. Neither is it just a political one. It is a balanced, gendered one. Each woman, each man, each child is a story. Amidst the violence and senseless horrors experienced by most characters, we are inclined to embrace Rajo, (Raasta) a child who is both vulnerable and legendary. She is seen as “a symbol of peace in war-torn Somalia, the stuff of myth, seen by the city’s residents as a conduit to a harmonious coexistence.” Wise beyond her age, she talks people out of their depression, comforts mothers and gives confidence to the children. “…she gives shape to the links between words and their meanings, and then fits them into chains of her own choosing.” By age four she has figured out what marriage is like. With “a face as ancient as the roots of a baobab,” she is referred to as the “Protected One.”

Rajo is Somalia wearing a dress and a child’s face. As her story unfolds, we find out how she is abducted but not stolen. She has to put up with risks but like enduring hope, she is the sun that rises each day to greet the once beautiful Somali land. There’s little wonder therefore that Rajo actually means hope.

We are also seduced to listen and accept the story of Jeebleh, who returns to Mogadishu after twenty years to pay homage to his mother’s grave and also settle a few scores with one of the bad guys—Caloosha. At the airport, Jeebleh presents his Somali passport. The officer leafs through the pages looking for the visa. It is Jeebleh’s turn to be sarcastic and ask when it has become “necessary for a Somali to require a visa to enter Mogadiscio?” Jeebleh must tread carefully because he is walking on eggs. He cannot tell who is a foe and who is a friend. Nothing is told straight up. He even has to go through a tangled maze to locate his mother’s actual grave. Bile, the good guy is walking on landmines with his trying-to-do-good attitude and actions. Af-Laawe, who has started an NGO to take care of the dead prides in his “Funeral with a difference!” He speaks in metaphors all through the story. He is consistent in not giving clear answers to simple questions.

“How is Bile?” Jeebleh asks Af-Laawe.
“It depends on who you talk to,” Af-Laawe responds.
Later, Jeebleh asks Af-Laawe, “Why the nickname ‘Marabou’?”
“Somebody has been telling you things,” is Af-Laawe’s response.

Behind his back there are rumors that his efficiency and expediency in gathering the bodies into his van is only because he is selling organs of the dead and making huge profits out of calamity.
Within the quandary, Farah goes on to weave a delicate hope. He uses whatever realities are at hand to send a double textured message of hope. For instance, on the collateral damage that’s become Somalia’s rubber stamp, he writes: “A cynic I know says that thanks to the vultures, the marabous and the hawks, we have no fear of diseases spreading.” In another instance, one of Jeebleh’s contacts says, “My cynical friend suggests that when the country is reconstituted as a functioning state, we should have a vulture as our national symbol.” There is irony as well as good hope considering the manner in which the sentence is stated. “…when the country is reconstituted as a national state…” Farah sees the coming into constitutional state Somalia, some day.

And the use of the vulture too must be deliberate. In ancient Egypt—Kemet land, the vulture was the symbol of royal protection won on the foreheads by pharaohs, gods and the goddess Nekhbet. Egypt then was fertile, just and prosperous. Also, the powerful Ghanaian empire before the fatal brush with colonization had the symbol of a vulture. During slave trade, for those who escaped slavery, the vulture acted as a guide to the hills, away from the dogs, the horses and the overseers. For those who collapsed or died along the way, the vulture ate (read cleared) their remains. This gave a certain sense of freedom to those Africans since they believed that the vulture would carry their spirit back to their roots, back home to Mother Africa. Farah’s use of the many deaths and vultures can be interpreted through this original African expression of freedom and return to a desired state. A delicate hope!

The major strength of the novel is Farah’s honesty about the links that break and mend Somalia. The links that are the threads of hope as well as the strands of death, the root cause of the existing chaos threatening to extend to the neighbouring nations, the network of clans and lunatic warlords. Farah merges the landscape of memory and reality to recreate a possible Somalia, scathed but not diminished.

* Mildred K Barya is Writer-in-Residence at TrustAfrica (www.trustafrica.org)

**Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Kuwe nakaThabo,

Siyakubulisa ngesihle samakhosikazi ngolimi lwethu!

Siloba lincwadi singabomama besizwe seZimbabwe esibhekane lokuhlukuluzeka sidinga uncedo kubomakhelwane.

Ngomgqibelo mhlaka 12 April umntanakho uThabo wezakuleli eleZimbabwe ezoxoxisana loRobert Mugabe. Kasazi ukuthi baxoxisana ngani ngakho ke asisoze sigxile kungxoxo yabo ngoba singayazi njalo lesizatho singasazi ukuthi kungani uThabo waphoqelela wedlula kuleli. Kodwa sizakhuluma ngamazwi aphoswa nguThabo esuka kuleli wathi "inkinga, ziphi inkinga." Lamazwi asicaphula ngakho sicela umkhuze, umbuyise ebuntwini uThabo.

IZimbabwe ibhekane lobunzima lenkinga kwezomnotho, kwezombusazwe, kanye lokungahlaliseki nje jikelele. Kasenelisi njengabomama ukunakekela abantwabethu sibanike ukudla kathathu ngelanga, ukuthola ukudla kunzima konke lokhu uThabo ukutshaya indiva.

Ukhetho esisuka kulo lwengeze ngamandla ukuhlupheka kithi lanxa ukhetho lwaqhutshwa ngokuthula sihlukuluzekile engqondweni ngokwala kukaRobert ukuthi impumelo kamongameli yaziswe uzulu.

Abantu asihlalisekanga ngani ngoba isibalo samapholisa sesandile ezigabeni ikhulukazi emaphandleni lokhu kusenza sidlele evalweni.

NakaThabo siyacela ngesisa umkhuze uThabo ngaloludaba umtshele axwaye ukukhuluma engahluzanga emazwi akhe, asuke asicasule kakhulu. Sicela umkhuze singakamkhuzi thina. Untinte umfazi, untinte imbokodo. Tshela uThabo ame acabange abesekhuluma engabozilulaza phakathi kwamanye amadoda.

Yithi omakhelwane

Women Of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)

Loosely translated into English

Dear Mother of Thabo, We greet you in the name of sisterhood and in our mother tongue (isindebele)!

We are writing to you as mother of the suffering masses of Zimbabwe to ask for your help.

On Saturday 12 April 2008, your child Thabo Mbeki came to Zimbabwe to meet Robert Mugabe. We don't know what they discussed or the real reason he came to Zimbabwe so we cannot comment about that but we want to comment about the words he used when he was leaving.

He said, "There is no crisis in Zimbabwe. We find this has provoked us. Please correct him.

Zimbabwe is in an economic, political and social crisis. We cannot afford three meals a day or even find the basic commodities to feed our children. The political crisis has been worsened by the recent election. Although the election day was peaceful we have been annoyed by the refusal of Mugabe to release presidential results. Socailly the amount of police around the streets and in our rural areas make life very tense.

NaThabo please correct you son about these issues and tell him to refrain from hisrespecting us by his comments.

Please discipline him before we have to do so.

Your neighbours, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
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The AU Monitor and the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) invite research papers for the forthcoming publication “African Perspectives on Aid in Africa” to be published in September 2008. While Africa is the biggest recipient of aid globally, the terms, conditions and principles upon which aid is delivered are rarely defined by the people of Africa for whom, at least rhetorically, this aid is supposed to create positive change. Indeed, recent analysis from Third World Network, highlights the “effect of circumscribing national sovereignty and country autonomy over development policies” “contrary to the stated principles of country ownership and mutual accountability” of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. In light of the September 2008 high-level meetings on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana, Fahamu and AFRODAD seek to publish a comprehensive volume on Aid in Africa from the diverse perspectives of African civil society, social commentators, policy makers, academics and citizens. The “African Perspectives on Aid in Africa” book will uniquely seek to explore the very premise and foundation upon which the concept of aid is based, the history and context of aid, how the emergence of new global powers such as Venezuela and China are redefining aid, related power dynamics and its relation to development, all from the perspectives of Africa. The deadline for submission is May 30, 2008. Please contact us via email at [email][email protected] and [email][email protected] with a one page abstract for your paper and for further information by April 25th, 2008.

In this week’s AU Monitor, we bring you news from the extraordinary summit of heads of state of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to discuss the “deepening tensions in neighbouring Zimbabwe”. The summit, which was attended by eight SADC heads of state, concluded that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) should announce the results as guided by the country’s laws and expressed support for the continued mediation of President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa. However, both civil society and the opposition party have expressed disappointment at the outcome claiming that the summit almost endorsed the ZEC’s delay in announcing the election results, failed to denounce rising violence, the closure of the ZEC command centre and the ban on rallies or to pronounce on the failure of President Mugabe to attend the summit.

As Zimbabwe’s electoral crisis continues, Bronwen Manby analyses the Kenyan post-election crisis in light of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) report of 2006, noting that “had the problems the APRM report then highlighted been tackled, it is possible that the violence and distress of the 2008 crisis could have been avoided”. Indeed, the APRM eminent persons noted “the role of prominent members of the ruling party and high ranking government officials in fuelling the so-called ethnic clashes” with impunity and called for leadership which “recognises the need for dramatic change in a society” that “entails not simply directing change but managing it in a way that ensures broad ownership, legitimacy and self-directed sustenance and replication of change in all associated systems.” Highlighting areas of weakness of the APRM report and process that contribute to the lack of implementation of its decisions, the author notes that the report “does not identify the issues relating to the independence of the Electoral Commission of Kenya” but focuses rather on “the simple fact of holding elections”. Further, she stresses “the gap between the country review report and the programme of action”, the lack of monitoring on reporting related to implementation of the recommendations and the lack of sanctions for failure to act, concluding that without “integration into other national planning systems, debates and oversight mechanisms, the APRM process seems doomed to become little more than a cosmetic exercise without effect in the real world of policy and decision making”.

The Delhi Declaration, adopted at the end of the India-Africa summit, stresses the need for strengthened ties not only at the bilateral level but through India’s strengthened “partnership with the African Union and the Regional Economic Communities of Africa”. Notably, the declaration also urges “the international community to give real and immediate effect to commitments on climate change, especially in the areas of technology transfer, financing and capacity building. There is also need for a closer look at the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime to ensure cost-effective transfer of appropriate and advanced clean technologies to developing countries.” The Declaration also stresses the importance of the development dimension of the Doha Round of trade negotiations at the World Trade Organisation and welcomes “the strengthened engagement, solidarity and cooperation among developing countries in that process”, while Peter Draper claims that “the Doha Round is likely to result in a host of opt-outs for the majority of African states, meaning they will benefit from free trade by being able to export goods more easily to developed countries, but will be protected to a degree from having to reciprocate by opening their markets in a way which would damage them”. The next Africa-India Summit will be held in 2011 in Africa. Meanwhile, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) council, will host the Europe Africa Business Summit on April 28-30, in Hamburg, Germany, “aimed at providing a critical assessment of the current state and future of the European African economic relationships.”

Also this week, representatives of African civil society organisations, regional economic communities, gender experts and policy makers convened to finalize the draft African Union Gender Policy aimed at accelerating “the execution of mandates of the AUC and its organs to promote the social, economic, political and cultural development for continental cooperation and integration”. The final draft of the policy will be submitted to another experts group meeting prior to the joint Economic Commission on Africa/AU Ministers of Gender Conference scheduled for June and will be submitted for adoption by heads of state and government during the June-July AU Summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Finally, a stakeholder consultation was held last week by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission to improve intra-Community movement of citizens and reduce the harassment at the borders. Participants called for “the operationalisation and reinforcement of the pilot committees set up in eight Member States and meant to improve the circulation of citizens and stem their harassment at the borders”. Meanwhile in East Africa, civil society organisations concluded that “the African Court of Justice has failed to make an impact on human rights abuses on the continent, two years after its inception” at the close of a roundtable held in Arusha, Tanzania.

Much of Black America stopped discussing Zimbabwe after its liberation in 1980; at least, we stopped discussing it for a while. After years of regular coverage of the liberation war, details regarding Zimbabwe became harder to obtain as attention shifted to struggles in Mozambique, Namibia, Angola and South Africa. Not to be misunderstood, it was not that facts were being withheld for us here in Black America, so much as we paid less attention to developments, and did not dig for information.

President Robert Mugabe, the leader of ZANU (later ZANU [PF]) was, of course, a hero to so many of us insofar as he was the main, though not only, leader of the liberation struggle. He seemed, at least at first, to be oriented toward the development of an independent and, at least theoretically, socialist-oriented Zimbabwe, with land redistribution, workers’ control, and black power all on the agenda.

So many of us chose to ignore developments, however. We ignored purges that had taken place within ZANU prior to Liberation. We ignored the violent crushing of a rebellion in the early years of the Mugabe administration. We ignored President Mugabe’s adoption of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank formula of “structural adjustment”, despite its economic theory running contrary to a pro-people economic transformation. And, we ignored the fact that the land was not being redistributed. We ignored this and other unsettling matters while the focus of much of Black America was on events unfolding in other parts of Southern Africa.

It was only after the seizures of white farms in 2000 that a new discussion of Zimbabwe emerged, albeit a much distorted one. For many it was as if they had jumped through a time portal between 1980 and 2000, oblivious to the development of the country and the challenges that it had encountered. President Mugabe, it seemed to many, was finally seizing the land and completing Liberation…at least, that is what many of us thought. But what was missing was a broader context to understand developments and too many well-intentioned African Americans interpreted Zimbabwean developments through our lens here on the opposite side of the Atlantic. Instead of reviewing the actual developments on the ground, many of us fell prey to interpreting facts based on what we would have liked to have believed was unfolding rather than what was actually playing out.

Many well-intentioned supporters of Zimbabwe ignored or were oblivious to the growing protests that had swept Zimbabwe in the 1990s among workers who stood in opposition to the economic policies of structural adjustment that were impoverishing them. We were further prepared to ignore, or forget, that President Mugabe had been quite delayed in taking steps to redistribute the land in the first place, even factoring in that the British and USA reneged on pledges that they had made to subsidize a “willing seller, willing buyer” land transfer. And some of us closed our eyes to who was actually benefiting from land redistribution and who was not.

In 2003, several African American activists - including this writer - penned a letter of protest against the policies of President Mugabe. Each of us had been supporters of ZANU (PF) and had been reluctant to voice public criticisms. Our criticisms were aimed at the repression being conducted against opponents of the Mugabe administration and their supporters. We also questioned how - but not whether - land was being redistributed and who was gaining from this. We made it abundantly clear that our criticisms bore no resemblance, in either form or content, to those voiced by US President Bush and British then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The response we received was, let’s say, quite remarkable. Some pro-Mugabe individuals and organizations, despite knowing the histories and work of the signatories, declared us to be CIA agents and/or agents of the US State Department (a difference without a distinction for our critics). Some people even went so far as to suggest that we were being paid by the Zimbabwean opposition. We were vilified for even questioning what was transpiring in Zimbabwe, even though in some cases we had first hand knowledge of brutal repression.

The other response was just as interesting. Quietly we were applauded by many African Americans who were pleased that someone(s) had spoken up, though they, themselves, were not necessarily prepared to publicly do so. While this was encouraging, it was equally unsettling in that it evidenced a fear within Black America about having a genuine debate on such an important issue.
Nevertheless, in the aftermath of this verbal/written slugfest, little real exchange took place. The atmosphere had become so charged that many people decided that it was not worth saying one more thing about Zimbabwe. Rather, too many of us just sat back and watched in silence.

So, we watched. Colleagues of mine in Zimbabwe, individuals whose progressive work I was familiar with, were jailed and tortured by the Mugabe administration, but I was expected by pro-Mugabe activists in the USA to say nothing, and indeed, to deny everything. Any hint of criticism was immediately construed as allegedly giving aid and comfort to the Bush administration and its mania for regime change. In a brief visit to Zimbabwe I had the opportunity of speaking with a group of Black Zimbabwean trade unionists. I found myself attempting to explain to them why many African Americans were silent in the face of President Mugabe’s repression, or in some cases, actively supported President Mugabe. They shook their heads in collective disbelief.

Over the last two weeks we have seen events surrounding the Zimbabwean election and it feels surreal. I must, however, ask some tough questions. What does it mean that an incumbent administration fails to reveal the ACTUAL election results, yet demands a recount? One need not be a supporter, and I am not, of the principal opposition party in Zimbabwe - the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) under Morgan Tsvangirai - to sense that all is not right with the world following the election. One’s attitude toward the MDC should actually be secondary to whether one believes in the notion of free and fair elections. To put it bluntly, if one is going to call elections, they should be transparent; if one does not want transparent elections, don’t call them in the first place.

The MDC is politically inconsistent, and outside of Zimbabwe there are very mixed feelings about them within Southern Africa. Though originally planned as a labor party, the MDC became a sort of united front of opponents of President Mugabe, ranging the political spectrum from the revolutionary Left to some conservative white farmers. The economic views of the MDC are themselves difficult to ascertain at various moments. But this is a matter for the people of Zimbabwe to resolve. Whether we like or dislike the MDC, or President Mugabe for that matter, holds second place to whether there is a political environment that advances genuine, grassroots democracy and debate in Zimbabwe. If that environment does not exist, then all of the revolutionary rhetoric in the world will not amount to a hill of beans on the scale of things.

The Zimbabwe political crisis threatens to go from bad to worse. A reenactment of the events in Kenya following their stolen election a few short months ago is not beyond imagination. The role of the African Union, and particularly Zimbabwe’s neighbors, becomes all the more important in attempting to resolve the crisis. Threats by Britain and the USA are not only counterproductive, but they are insulting since the administrations of neither country possesse the moral authority to actually entertain or offer a positive solution. But supporting the African Union would be a positive step.

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.

Within Black America, we have to be prepared to have more open and constructive debates without resorting to the “nuclear option.” I have seen a variant of this in the discussions surrounding the candidacy of Senator Obama. Someone voicing a reservation or concern, let alone a criticism, is open to being called everything but a child of God. This infantile approach to controversy WITHIN our community must end; indeed, it must not be tolerated. The stakes are far too high.

Let me apologize to some in advance: I cannot maintain silence for fear of upsetting an opponent. As I said, the stakes are too high.

*Bill Fletcher, Jr. is Executive Editor of The Black Commentator (www.blackcommentator.com) where this article first appeared. He is also a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies and the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum.

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

I was just sent a copy of this statement by the Feminist Political Education Project [http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/47404] and must admit to being more than a little bewildered and shocked by what is suggested in light of recent events in Zimbabwe, by sisters whom I know very well – who are part of the Feminist Political Education Project.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/363/47439women.jpgSisters dare I say, I have worked with you over the years – some of you have mentored me to be the woman I am. I hope that in the interest of fostering a robust debate amongst ourselves as sisters, feminists, comrades in the struggle you will read and understand my response to the positions you have put forward, with a view to promoting holistic transformative politics in our country, not a duplication or reconstruction of the status quo under a different order, in which as women especially are forever held at ransom by elitist, patriarchal notions of what constitutes our liberation.

I hold no brief for Morgan Tsvangirai, neither can I even be classified as some-one who belongs to his 'inner' circle. I respond to fellow sisters on matters of principle as a comrade with a track record and history in the struggle for Zimbabwe's liberation, firstly and as a Feminist who has stood up against male 'bigotry', within the MDC and the broader democratic movement.

Based on these 'credentials' I have no fears or guilt in taking on fellow sisters on -especially when they advance or propagate reactionary views as a way to resolving a crisis that has left us not only scarred but deeply traumatised. What they suggest is a preservation of the status quo! Particularly if those views are then misconstrued as representing the broader Feminist movement in Zimbabwe – I beg to differ.

I will not at this stage go into an intellectual or theoretical discussion on Feminism and its various components and articulations, especially in our Zimbabwean case – that is a subject those of us who claim to be Feminists have to debate at some stage. Of concern for me at the moment is the 'Position Paper.' And wonder whose 'Position', we are debating here while asserting that this 'Position' has nothing to do with us women.

Indeed, it appears from the views put forward to be an implicit acceptance that the democratic will of the people is not paramount, and infers that a group of men (as this is who makes up the political 'leadership') are going to sit around a table and work together in a Transitional Authority for the common good of all Zimbabweans - and this promoted by a group of self-proclaimed feminists, nogal!

How many of our female comrades in the labour, student, constitutional movements or even the church were consulted before such a paper was presented to the world? Do the opinions of these women matter? Or by virtue of belonging to the lower classes in our society they remain excluded and marginalised even in discourse by senior Feminists who purport to be pushing their cause? Not taking into account the fact that the bulk of these women are at the front-line of our struggle as they take Mugabe on daily- they pay with their lives, their homes and their loved ones. The continued refusal by my sisters to acknowledge the existence of these women as leaders in their own right is a cause for concern.

I have argued elsewhere in the MDC Teresa Makone debacle that as women we are not a homogenous group – but there are certain sisters who know better than to be agents of replicating the same patriarchal notions in terms of our participation in the resolution of the Zimbabwean crisis in a way that normalises our second class citizen status. We refuse to be under-dogs in perpetuity!

Can we therefore locate the 'Position –Paper' by fellow Feminists within the context of them using Feminism to fight certain male agenda's? That has nothing to do with us as female comrades, including our sisters, mothers and grand-mothers who continue to suffer under the yoke of Mugabe's dictatorship.

What is suggested also presupposes that Zanu-PF has the capacity to act honestly as a coalition partner - something of which there is absolutely no evidence. This is almost similar to Trevor Ncube's commentary through Ferial Hafferjee's editorial 10 days ago in the Mail & Guardian that suggested a coalition must include 'moderate' Zanu-PF people such as Mnangagwa, Gono and Murerwa! And that there must be a blanket indemnity for Mugabe and his security chiefs – whilst some sort of amnesty may well be negotiated, South Africa's experience as elsewhere shows that immunities from prosecution can, and I would argue must be bolstered by some form of accountability (especially if a line is to be drawn in the sand to avert a repeat performance at a later stage). This need not always mean prosecution, but this potential stick must always be present!

The equating of Tsvangirai with Mugabe in the FePEP statement is, to put it mildly, obscene. Certainly, there is much to be concerned about in terms of internal issues within the MDC, although one could hardly argue that they have operated in normal circumstances. The conflation of concerns and grievances has clouded many people's vision. Certainly, Tsvangirai should look for coalition partners and should draw on expertise within fellow opposition ranks and maybe even ZANU-PF, but it must be on collective acceptable terms - NOT as part of a negotiated settlement, or in this case something that is suggested for imposition as in this statement! The assumption that he will not adopt a constructive conciliatory route unless this is imposed on him is arrogant, patronising and fundamentally undemocratic.

It should also be noted that Tsvangirai is not the MDC and that the MDC is a political movement with structures from ward to national level, to whom Tsvangirai, Khupe and the rest of the top leadership have to account. We have fought and resisted 'Mugabeism', in the MDC – some battles we have lost others we have won. It is the principles around the formation of the party, collective leadership, accountability, transparency and its ultimate goal for total liberation – political and economic justice that puts us in the awkward position always of resisting attempts at subverting the will of the people through the back door.

That will which expressed itself so strongly on March 29 – a will for change some will selectively ignore in pursuit of unpopular agenda's that appease certain elites within ZANU-PF and the ANC Mbeki camp.

It seems to me that those who have promoted a 'third way' to date have fundamentally misread the situation as it stands at the moment in Zimbabwe. I see that some are now promoting the argument that the failure of the ZANU_PF rank and file to come out in their large numbers is largely due to Makoni. I'm struggling to find any empirical basis for this assertion. Are the FePEP promoters suggesting Makoni must be the national leader?

My reading of the arguments put forward by comrades on the ground and Zimbabweans in general in not supporting the Makoni project are as follows – he is the only leader with an apparent national profile who does not have a registered political party; a man with less than 8% of the vote? People did not vote for Makoni because they did not trust him, because he comes from Zanu-PF, because his track record in government is nothing to shout home about, and because of his enduring silence regarding human rights violations that have characterised Zanu-PF rule. Those marketing Makoni should have addressed the above concerns as a matter of strategy to appeal to the electorate other than seem to be imposing him through the back-door.

Are these the credentials of a man 'fit to govern'? He may have jumped ship – although he still claims loyalty to the party, but that the current leadership has lost its way. The reality is that Zanu-PF is a ruling party that is dying – at least as a ruling party formation (as UNIP did in Zambia, the MCP in Malawi and KANU in Kenya) - it can limp along for the foreseeable future with an ever decreasing capacity to service its extensive and mutating patronage networks, but it has fundamentally lost its ability to control the support of the people - even though they tried hard to manipulate and buy it in this last election.

What was different this time was the acutely lower levels of violence and intimidation (although it was certainly present) and the small spaces that were opened up for the limited campaigning season. Mbeki has been praised for helping provide the space – but he has disingenuously argued that the only differences outstanding in terms of the mediation process between the MDC and Zanu were procedural. The differences were much more fundamental than that, but once again it was the MDC who was coerced to compromise into participating in elections where conditions were improved, but certainly not free and fair.

Leaving aside the evidently flawed electoral process, the fundamental problem in Zimbabwe remains the concentration of executive powers, which have rendered parliament largely impotent. It was this dilution of power that the MDC sought during the mediation in terms of constitutional changes, but which Zanu-PF failed to follow through on, despite the agreement of its negotiation team!

In this context of trickery and treachery, should we support positions such as the FePEP statement that essentially promote and reward such bad behaviour? There is no 'magical' solution to the situation in Zimbabwe in terms of making everyone happy. Elections mean there are winners and losers. Certainly, particular circumstances may necessitate negotiated outcomes, but negotiating the suggested governance situation (i.e. a TA with equitable representation) in these circumstances sets an awful precedent for the region - one which, in the future, we may see elements of other faltering and failing ruling parties adopting as some kind of survival strategy. If Zimbabwe can do this they may ask, why not us?

Let's not even get into the sycophantic support for SADC's 'mediation' initiative and the assumption that Mbeki has done a good job. Many people strongly believe that he has a great deal of responsibility for the mess the country is now in. The extent to which this is really the case is no longer relevant. He has consistently reinforced a perception that he is biased in favour of Zanu-PF, as have the ANC who continue to refer to Zanu-PF as their 'comrades' in a quirky turn of revisionist liberation history. Mbeki, alas, is simply no longer trusted to be an honest broker by most Zimbabweans and this perception alone disqualifies him from continuing to play this role.

It appears that the FePEP statement is little more than a reflection of desperation and the thinking of an elitist group of women purporting to speak on behalf of a 'majority' that I doubt they have any meaningful contact with. Certainly none can claim electoral legitimacy / representation (at least any more) in terms of popular support. Several work for corporate NGOs and large donor agencies – essentially insulated from the hard realities of life in Zimbabwe or exile. What is suggested is done so from the armchairs of comfortable hotels and NGO boardrooms. It is also very distressing that those who promote such positions appear to also have a certain amount of influence over where donor funds get located and utilised. Many NGOs and individuals have been beneficiaries of the Zimbabwean crisis. Theirs is a 9 to 5 struggle.

There is a very real danger that a 'managed transition' (as suggested) with the window dressing of transitional justice will be little more than an exercise in 'elite pacting', designed to ensure the old wine is decantered in new bottles. I'm afraid the FePEP 'position paper' simply feeds such agendas and does not further a transformative course of action that is so desperately needed.

*Grace Kwinjeh is a Zimbabwean Feminist.

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Wajibu is a journal of social and ethical concern, which has been published in Nairobi, Kenya, on a quarterly basis since August 1985. Wajibu seeks to enlighten people on social, economic, political and spiritual issues that are topical, relevant and of common concern. It wishes to promote dialogue among the various communities in Kenya and seeks to promote values that lead to the building of a just, free and peaceful society.
Wajibu looks for readership among all educated Africans and others who have the interest of our continent at heart. Over the years, our subscribers have mostly been research institutions, universities, seminaries, individual professionals in various fields and a few secondary schools. About 90% have been Kenyan, 5% from other African countries, and the remaining 5% from other continents.

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