The fourth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-4) produced by the United Nations Environment Programme was launched on 25 October 2007, with the key message that the world has changed dramatically over the past 20 years. The launch of the report was conducted simultaneously in about 40 cities across the world, including Johannesburg, South Africa and Port Louis, Mauritius. Both countries are members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Following the launch of the groundbreaking Yogyakarta Principles earlier this year, the United Nations will be hosting a panel discussion next month to explore discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The event, which will bring together non-governmental organisations, UN representatives and state delegates, is an initiative co-sponsored by Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

Talk your way out of tensions, that's the message the UN refugee agency conveyed in a recent workshop for community leaders and local authorities in strife-torn eastern Chad. Conflict resolution and peaceful co-existence were the key words in a three-day workshop supported by UNHCR, its partner Eirine and the Association Chefs Traditionnels du Tchad (ACTT) and held in Abéché University earlier this month.

Shocking new details have emerged of the torture and beating of a group of Bushmen in Kaudwane resettlement camp, Botswana. Fifteen men were arrested in late September for hunting, and at least ten of them were tortured. The incidents bring the total number of Bushmen arrested for hunting this year to 53. During this time the government has not issued them with a single permit to hunt on their land, despite Botswana’s High Court ruling in December that its refusal to issue permits was unlawful.

A new project to develop an integrated sugarcane facility in Kenya could be a boost for biofuels production in east Africa. The Ngima Project at Homa Bay on the shores of Lake Victoria (‘‘ngima’’ is the word for ‘‘life’’ in the local Luo language) is looking to foster a dual export and domestic system of sugarcane production, concentrating on both white sugar and biofuel production.

This report published by the European Network on Debt and Development examines China’s role as a donor in Africa. It explores Chinese views on such issues, including their response to concerns expressed about the increased cooperation with Africa. The authors argue that China’s assistance to and cooperation with Africa is changing the rules of the game and threatens to leave by the wayside those governments, institutions and organisations which do not act strategically . Possible ways forward are proposed:

Donor funding for HIV/AIDS has skyrocketed in the last decade: from US$ 300 million in 1996 to US$ 8.9 billion in 2006; yet, little is understood about how these resources are being spent. This paper analyses the policies and practices of the world’s largest AIDS donors as they are applied in Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia.

The Darfur peace talks in Libya may have got off to a disappointing start with a boycott by key rebel factions. But activist Safaa Elagib Adam made sure she was there to push for better representation for women from the outset. As a veteran of the last round of talks in Abuja, the secretary general and gender adviser of the Khartoum-based Community Development Association knows she faces an uphill struggle. She was one of only four women representing civil society last weekend in Libya, and says there were no women on either the government or the rebel delegations.

Reporters Without Borders has condemned information, press and communication minister Toussaint Tshilombo Send’s announcement of a ban on around 40 TV and radio stations five days ago. It has had the effect of silencing four community radio stations based in Kinshasa, while around 200 other community radio stations throughout the country are also threatened.

Daouda Yacouba of the privately-owned fortnightly Aïr Info has been released after being held for six days at police headquarters in the northern city of Agadez. He has not been charged. Yacouba was arrested on 25 October in Ingall, a town to the west of Agadez where he works as the Agadez-based Aïr Info’s correspondent. The police did not explain why he was arrested but they questioned him about his articles and his alleged links with the Tuareg rebels of the Niger People’s Movement for Justice (MNJ).

In a report released by Deloitte, East African mobile operators loose a third of their revenues to governments by way of taxes and other government tariffs. The Deloitte study suggests that if Rwanda for example goes on to impose the proposed 10 percent excise tax on mobile telephones, it would have the second highest tax rate in Africa, behind Uganda

Without new interventions, cases of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in rural South Africa will increase dramatically over the next five years, according to a study. The research was published last week (27 October) in The Lancet. The study, which modelled the effect of various infection control measures on the spread of XDR-TB in the rural community of Tugela Ferry in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, suggests that infection rates will increase from 194 cases in 2007 to an estimated average of 234 cases a year by 2012.

Convened by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) on the 28th of October 2007, civil society groups have called for new forms of corporate governance to develop the ICT infrastructure in Africa. These new forms should “ensure the interests of all stakeholders, but above all, the interest of African consumers and citizens,” the statement insists. The Kigali statement by African civil society delegates, academicians, researchers, consumer interest groups, and internet service providers is made in light of the Connect Africa Summit taking place in that same city on the 29th and 30th of October 2007.

Top Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón has ordered the opening of an inquiry into allegations of genocide in the Moroccan-occupied territory of Western Sahara. The Western Saharan plaintiffs are also looking for accountability for the 542 Sahrawis that Morocco made "disappear" during the war with the Sahrawi pro-independence movement Polisario Front from 1975-1991, according to the group "Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State" (ASVDH).

The South African government has revealed that less than 5 percent of white-owned commercial agricultural land has been redistributed since the demise of apartheid in 1994, making the target of having 30 percent redistributed by 2014 seem almost unachievable.

Togo's Constitutional Court has confirmed that the ruling party won a majority in the 14 October election, after the main opposition party had contested the results, charging fraud. On 30 October the Court said the ruling Rally of the Togolese People party took 50 of 81 seats in the poll, seen as pivotal to the country's regaining favour with the international community after years of isolation.

For the first time since taking up arms almost 20 years ago, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has sent a peace delegation to Kampala. But the rebels and Ugandan government remain poles apart on the key issue of International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments against top LRA leaders.

Hunger and HIV/AIDS are reinforcing each other in Southern Africa, "leading to a potentially tragic new level of famine", says a book published by a regional agricultural think-tank. The World Bank's annual report, released last week, also raises concerns over the pandemic's impact, pointing out that most people affected by HIV and AIDS depend on agriculture.

On the heels of the High Level Panel’s invitation for e-submissions, the AU Monitor urged African civil society and citizens to contribute to the process of a “Peoples’ Audit of the AU”. This week, the AU Monitor brings you the perspective of Charles Mutasa, AFRODAD Executive Director and Deputy Presiding Officer of ECOSOCC, which provides critique and analysis of ECOSOCC, along with a policy brief from AfriMap that provides recommendations for open, democratic and transparent AU policies and processes as well as a call from the Peoples’ Hurricane Relief Fund for the AU to increase its outreach, support and contribution to the African Diaspora.

Furthermore, heeding the call for a written submission before the completion of the panel’s first draft of their report, a joint preliminary civil society statement was formulated and endorsed by over twenty civil society organisations and coalitions working in over thirty countries. The high-level panel extended the days on which they were to convene, according to their working agenda, in order to hear the submission which was presented by a delegation of civil society representatives: myself, Hakima Abbas of Fahamu’s AU Monitor initiative, Eyob Balcha of Afroflag Youth Vision, Faiza Mohamed of Equality Now and the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights Coalition (SOAWR), and Alioune Tine of Recontre Africaine pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme (RADDHO).

During the meeting, we delivered the joint statement and provided reference documentation, including, the CSO Accra communiqué and the executive summary of the report Towards a People-Driven African Union. The floor was then given to each civil society representative to elaborate on the recommendations of the statement based on their areas of expertise. Eyob Balcha delivered a statement from a youth perspective in which he recommended the creation of an AU institutional framework through which the participation of African youth is mainstreamed in continental decision-making processes, including the inclusion of youth representatives in national delegations; the creation of a permanent continental youth body responsible for engagement with sub-regional and national youth initiatives; and the practical implementation of the agreed decisions and provisions of the African Youth Charter.

Following Eyob’s presentation, Faiza Mohamed offered recommendations and insight to the panel from a gender perspective. She recommended that the Commission be provided a mandate to monitor and report on the implementation of AU decisions by member states and that the AU consider imposing sanctions on member states that do not deliver on their commitments to ratify and domesticate the AU/OAU protocols. Also, noting that the Women, Gender and Development Directorate (WGDD) is under-resourced and that it has been a year since the position of director of the Directorate remains vacant, she urged the review panel to investigate the effects of such a lack of leadership on programs. She also recommended that the fifty-fifty gender balance policy of the African Union be strictly and promptly implemented at the Commission and that Member States be urged to consider implementing this gender balance in its representation at the Permanent Representatives Committee and Executive Council of the African Union.

Lastly, Alioune Tine addressed the panel regarding the need for democratic participation and governance with in the African Union. He noted the difficulties civil society have had in accessing important information, in obtaining visas for participation in AU summits and other meetings and the lack of public spaces within the AU compound itself (comparing the space to the United Nations building). He sited as an example of lack of information that, despite his organisation being a member of ECOSOCC, he was unaware, until his arrival in Addis, of the continental elections taking place on Monday October 31st. He noted that an example of successful partnership between civil society and the AU was participation in the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. However, he also noted that the criteria for observer status that requires organisations to be funded with a majority of resources derived from its membership is not realistic for most African NGOs. Finally, Alioune noted that the AU must take into further consideration geographic and linguistic spread in all its meetings so as to ensure that nobody is excluded based solely on our colonial experiences.

As the floor was opened to questions from the panel, further elaboration was requested and provided on access to information via the website, which we considered largely insufficient. For example, amendments to the consultative act are not available on the AU site and the ECOSOCC website is not up to date. In addition, it was noted that the media should have stronger interface with the AU so that information is popularised at the national level not just through the Internet (to which many do not have access) but also through TV, radio and print. The panel was reminded that the legitimacy of civil society is often based on a public mandate and that while we do not equate civil society with citizenry, we believe that a strong civil society interface with the AU will enable greater implementation of decisions at the national level. In addition, the panel were made aware of the public consultations that were held in ten countries in advance of the Accra summit that informed the CSO communiqué from Accra. In terms of ECOSOCC we brought attention to the fact that the Interim President of the General Assembly was not given official space to present her report at the last summit and that such disregard by Heads of States reflects badly on the potential policy influence of the council. More detail was presented regarding SOAWR activities and organisations as an example of how successful civil society engagement can push AU treaty processes forward and drive national implementation. In regard to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, we noted that there is a civil society coalition that has been very active in driving ratification and that complimentarity is needed vis a vis the protocol of the Court and the Commission – indeed, that it is necessary for there to be a thorough review of the complimentarity of treaties and protocols across the board. Lastly we remarked that civil society itself has taken the lead to strengthen our engagement with the AU, citing as an example that the AU Monitor was set up by a range of civil society organisations, though now led by Fahamu, to provide news, information and analysis to a broad range of organisations and citizens across Africa.

The Chairperson noted civil society’s commitment to engaging the audit process and reiterated that further documentation would be welcomed throughout the process. He also ensured us that the recommendations and ideas from civil society and citizens would be duly taken into account in the drafting processes.

Are you a teenager, or do you work with young people? If yes, take a look at the updated website The ‘Auntie Stella’ website is an adaptation of the dynamic interactive tool ‘Auntie Stella: Teenagers talk about sex, life and relationships’ developed by the Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC) in Zimbabwe (see

China has signed its largest single deal in Africa with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): a $5 billion loan to develop infrastructures, mining, bioenergy, forestry and agriculture. Infrastructure Minister Pierre Lumbi said the money will be spent on building roads, railroads, hospitals, health centres, housing and universities.

This position, based in Nairobi, is an exciting opportunity for a person of the Kenyan LGBTI community interested in supporting HIV/AIDS and STI prevention, care and treatment programmes for MSM and LGBTI.

You, our gods of immortals and living Of seas and lands Of all visible and not we beseech, hear our cry this day and come to our rescue.

Our sacred weapons of pleasure are being destroyed by the day rendered useless by our overseeing Lords and Ladies of ancestral descent.

They perform a barbaric operation on our 'flesh of honour' and call it 'Female Circumcision' in the white man's language.
They mutilate our pride and say it is 'tradition' "The initiation to womanhood."

They cut us!
Oh yes, they cut us with the blade.

In the gaze of our fellows, they cut us!
At times in the secrecy of our mother's haven.
They do not concede to the tools, nor words of the physician's for our safety.
To them it has been for ages and tradition dare not be defiled.
They just cut us.

Against our will as they are wont to, for we foresee the agony and anguish.
To these we try to parry but helpless we are.
Our eyes have cried, tears of unending pain and torment They have run dry of water.
Our hearts, laden with loathsomeness we fear may burst.

They cut us! with or without our consent.
Left to bleed by their ignorance sometimes fatal to our existence.
Other times, we become plagued with illness of strange names "Infection" the physician would call it.

Again, they say it delivers us from the hands of promiscuity as we ascend the ladder of womanhood.
Such blasphemy! We think.
As if we are not bound for the act of consummation in our 'married' days.

As we watch our counterparts this day-buried deep in this sin, Sisters whom we term fortunate, cut at childbirth fortunate to have escaped the pain we feel now, we can't but wonder… "Who is fooling who?"

You, our ancestral Lords and Ladies suffer us no more we beg.
What profit do you aspire when our lives are wont to expire in this course of tradition?

Oh! What a shame.
That you who drum to our ears to revere the dignity between our legs become the ones that destroy it.

* Poetry by Chinwe Azubuike | Nigeria. © Chinwe Azubuike

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

None on Record: Stories of Queer Africa Edited by: Notisha Massaquoi & Selly Thiam WE are collecting stories of Africans from the continent and within the diasporic communities that identify as queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (QLGBT).

Forget the Green (Springbok Rugby Special) Revolution – What we need is a Red Revolution “bottom-up, participatory, accountable democracy, worker-control of the product of their labor, the socialization of land, state control and public ownership of the major means of production”

Referring to the Springbok mania that is currently gripping South Africa as "The Green Revolution" is but just another example of how the mass media appropriates the language of justice for ends that have nothing to do with the real issues represented by the struggle lexicon. As the big wigs of world rugby and corporate capital smile to the bank-and the Springbok’s victory shift the focus away from the team’s lily-whiteness, the poorest of the poor, the working class and the rural and township majority return from the merry-making ceremonies to squalid, unsafe and unhealthy living and working conditions. Reality dawns upon them that South Africa and the world is far away from the realization of the real green revolution, which among others entails:

•Sustainable development of communities through equitable allocation and distribution of power, wealth and resources and people’s participation in designing, implementing, evaluating and reviewing policies and programmes geared towards their development.

•A break from policy programmes that sacrifice labor-demands and the welfare and wellbeing of society and the environment to profit-maximization, the deity of economic growth and the tyranny of the market.

•Taking tough measures against the ravages of big industry, high finance and corporate and speculative capital on the ecosystem and the economies and cultures of peoples of the world.

•Zero-waste initiatives promoting recycling, energy conversation and nature preservation, environmental awareness programmes at the grassroots, promoting responsible motoring and encouraging the use of public transport. Making big industry to pay reparation to the communities that are victims of their environmental terror.

This green revolution will not be possible without the red revolution: bottom-up, participatory, accountable democracy, worker-control of the product of their labor, the socialization of land, state control and public ownership of the major means of production(the commanding heights of the economy) and equitable redistribution of the wealth and resources of the land. Only when this is achieved will we do way with unequal social and power relations, and therefore be able to close all the doors of prejudice, which is the foundation upon which true integration and a South Africaness that transcends the boundaries of creed, color, language, ethnicity and gender shall be built. Real integration will be possible when access to quality arts, sports and cultural facilities, social amenities and social services, quality health services and good education does not depend on the socio-economic status, and racial background of individuals or their gender.

In other words, real integration will be realized when all the socio-economic factors and institutional and structural arrangements that work against workers and the rural and urban poor, the women, the disabled and Black people have been done away with. In the absence of these conditions the rainbowism that we suddenly fall in love with when the Springboks lift up the world cup only serve to give people a false sense of unity and one-nationess which ignore class contradictions.

Most importantly, the green revolution rainbowism put the enormous gap in the quality of life of the under-classes and the elites and upper-classes, the laborers and employers, and the poor and the rich under the carpet. This is a typical example of using popular sport as an opium, feeding the masses illusions of joy and happiness that distract their attention from issues such as the lethargic pace of transformation in rugby, the fact that in material and economic terms Black people and the poor have no real stake in rugby or 2010, and that the real beneficiaries in the world cup tournaments are the rich and the propertied. We are made to forget that the chances of poor Black hawkers selling at rugby match in South Africa are zilch as much as they will not be able to be within the reach of the stadiums during the 2010 football world cup.

The phantom display of a nation united behind the green banner and the national flag will not change the fact that invariably South Africa is two worlds in one country: the world of utter want, abject poverty, rampant disease and de-humanizing and brutalizing squalor and the world of raging consumerism, shameless opulence and decadent pomp. As Steve Biko put it, integration cannot be imposed on a people, it will automatically happen when all doors of prejudice have been closed. As of now, we are far from achieving what Biko posited as the struggle’s glittering prize: bestowing upon South Africa (and the world) a more human face.

* Mphutlane wa Bofelo is a creative writer, performance and social critic, and is currently the national General Secretary of the Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa. He writes in his personal capacity.

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

Mary Ndlovu presents some hard truths about life in Zimbabwe and questions those Pan Africanists who fall for Mugabe’s “anti-imperalist rhetoric”. She asks if there is hope? Yes there is but only if Pan Africanism is “turned on it’s head” and “seized by the people” away from leaders not just in Zimbabwe but across Africa who have consistently betrayed the people.

Thanks to Rotimi Sankore for blowing aside the smokescreen which obscures the real issues in Zimbabwe for many well-wishers of a Pan Africanist persuasion. President Mugabe is very clever in his use of anti-imperialistic rhetoric to attract the loyalty of many unsuspecting supporters throughout Africa. It saddens Zimbabweans to see how easily people can be misled by words and ignore the true facts on the ground, thus failing to reach a meaningful understanding of our tragedy. Perhaps their perspective could be improved by a few hard realities:

Zimbabweans have a lower material standard of living now than they have had since the 1940's up to one quarter of the population has fled the country, due either to political harassment and torture or to inability to survive and feed their families tens of thousands of Zimbabweans are dying of treatable diseases because the health system has collapsed teachers earn less than the cost of their transport to work; their monthly salary will buy ten litres of petrol, but none can afford a car chiefs, discredited during the liberation war as supporters of the Smith regime, are being restored and elevated, imposed on the rural population as unelected leaders, and placed on the government payroll a small elite of ruling party cronies, families and relatives, without any evidence of working for it, live at a standard far beyond the expectations of most middle class professionals of the developed world Anyone who wishes to study the situation honestly will have to admit that none of this is caused by western "sanctions".

Our government has systematically destroyed an already troubled economy, for the purpose of staying in power. Rather than respond falling living standards in the 1990's by devising rational policies which could serve the people - or alternatively admitting failure and allowing the opposition to try their own solutions - the government panicked, determined to stay in power at all costs, put politics ahead of economic sense, and the whole descent into repression and chaos resulted.

It is an insult to Zimbabweans to expect that, faced with declining living standards, they would not seek to change a government which might bring them something better. Why should they be used by foreign exploiters - any more than the nationalist movement of the 60's and 70's was being used by communist meddlers?

Here are better explanations of the current Zimbabwean crisis:

There is a shortage of food because government forcibly stopped the most knowledgeable and skilled farmers from growing food there is a shortage of almost everything, including food, medicine, transport, manufactures and services because government has forced everyone to sell their goods and services at less than the production cost people are dying of starvation because government would prefer them to die than to lose control of food distribution to donors Bulawayo, a city of a million people has no water because government, since Independence in 1980, has not constructed a single new source for a population which has multiplied five times; it would prefer to kill a city which has the reputation of being an opposition stronghold those who dare to protest publicly that the situation is intolerable are arrested, battered, tortured, and thrown into lice, flea and excrement infested cells It is also true that there were poor rains in 2007. There have been poor rains before, and much of Zimbabwe is drought-prone. It is the responsibility of governments to deal with this type of problem and develop contingencies. If the government has not found out in 27 years how to deal with recurring drought, then they do not know how to fulfil their responsibilities.

Imperialists have been around for at least two centuries. If government has not found out how to deal with modern day "imperialists" (or globalisation) to protect their own people, they do not know how to lead an African nation. No amount of rhetoric is going to change the world order. But the rhetoric, along with the repression that has destroyed the economy, the society and the polity has killed a once vibrant nation full of hope. The dismemberment of families and the moral and material destruction of an entire society may have kept our government in power; it will never solve the problem of imperialism.

It is one thing to analyse what has gone wrong in Zimbabwe. It is quite another to take action which will promote positive change. Zimbabweans once (only seven long years ago) naively believed that leaders in Africa would understand the true nature of the tragedy which has struck us. No longer. It is now crystal clear that they are cast in a similar mould. Problems in their own countries stem from some of the same causes. If other governments in the region faced the same strength of opposition as Zimbabwe did in 2000 and 2002, they might look very similar to ours. We have only to watch the repression of protesters over housing and service provision in South Africa to understand the true position. Yes Mbeki may succeed in forcing some kind of accommodation between the MDC and ZANU PF. It might just improve the sad lot of Zimbabweans in some small way. But let us not fool ourselves into believing that it will promote any kind of social justice.

Opposition parties are cut from the same cloth and in countries where they have gained power have yet to show that they can deliver to the people Our nationalist movements for independence were led by intellectuals, by petty bourgeoisie, by labour aristocrats frustrated by their own lack of opportunity. They gained the support of the peasantry and the workers. But once in power they became distracted by the comforts of office, the self-importance of command and the prospect of fabulous wealth through corruption. Africa as a whole has been betrayed by nationalist movements, by governments, by liberation movements, and even by the new elite- the NGOs. So let us not expect much from our "leaders". They are not going to bring us social justice, whatever elite-pacting may take place in the secret places behind closed doors.

Where, then lies the future? Must we stop hoping and trying? Does Pan Africanism have any role to play? Of course it does. But only if we claim it away from the rhetoricians and the charlatans and the leaders who have betrayed us. We must turn it on its head and seize it for the people. Only through Herculean efforts of the social movements who demand a share of the wealth, and respect and comfort for the people will we make progress. And for this purpose we must form cross-border alliances at grass roots level to counter those alliances of corrupt leaders that the AU and SADC have become.

No one said this could be easy. Just as the liberation struggle was long and hard, so will this one be. But this time we must be more aware of the reality of not just potential but probable betrayal by leaders. We must develop new styles of leadership based on service not power and privilege. Then we can support each other across Africa, and step by careful step build a new Pan Africanism based on social justice for the people.

* Mary Ndlovu is a Zimbabwean human rights activist.

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

The European Commission has issued a communication to the Council and the European Parliament on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), setting out clearly the way forward and the issues at stake to conclude these important trade pacts. The Commission sees full EPAs as essential to enable ACP states to play a full part in international trade.

When it comes to computing power, the gap between Africa and the broadband world is still a Grand Canyon. Only 4% of Africans have access to the internet. They pay the most in the world, around $250-300 a month, for the slowest connection speeds. E-commerce barely exists. Nigeria's 140m-odd people have but a few hundred decently trafficked websites in their domain. Blogging is a vibrant but peripheral activity.

Monday morning, October 22, five men - one of whom was armed - attacked a team of MSF workers travelling in two vehicles by road from Agadez to Dabaga, where MSF has been providing medical care at the local health post since the start of October. Following this violent incident, MSF has decided to cease activities in
Dabaga and the surrounding region because the security situation is preventing the organization from adequately carrying out its work for the people living in this area. Moreover, this incident follows the October 16 theft of an MSF vehicle that was travelling on the same road to Dabaga.

Strong new pledges of commitment to invest in women’s health came from donors, government officials, corporations, foundations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at closing sessions of the landmark Women Deliver Conference, which sought to mobilize political will and investment to reduce pregnancy-related deaths and disabilities worldwide. More than 1,800 participants from 109 countries cheered a final statement from the 70 cabinet ministers and parliamentarians present, who pledged to make achievement of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number 5 (improve maternal health) “a high priority on the national, regional and international health agenda”.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/325/cartoon_43984_maumau.jpgAs the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) prepares to sue the British Government for personal injuries sustained by survivors of the Mau Mau war for independence whilst in British detention camps in Kenya, Mukoma Wa Ngugi unravels the Colonial myths of Christianisation and civilization and exposes the reality of torture, murder, slavery, landlessness, dehumanization and internment.

In February 2008, the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) will file a representative law-suit against Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) in the British High Court on behalf of the survivors of the Mau Mau war for independence.

The KHRC is suing HMG for “personal injuries sustained [by the survivors] while in detention camps of the Kenya Colonial Government which operated” under the direct authority of HMG during the State of Emergency (1952-60).

But to understand the law-suit in all its implications, we have to look at Africa’s historical relationship to the West and separate the image from the reality. The Enlightenment of the 1600’s sought to civilize Africans, introduce reason and logic to them, and equip them with the key to heaven through Christianization. The reality masked underneath this image was one of torture, murder and slavery.

Later, colonialism used the image of a gentle stewardship to guide Africans along until they were civilized. The reality, as the KHRC suit shows, was landlessness, torture and dehumanization, whole population internment, outright murder and mass killings.

For the Westerners and Africans alike who have sought comfort in the images, the reality difficult to take. But the reality has been well documented. Adam Hochschild, writing in King Leopold’s Ghost, estimates that 5 to 10 million Africans died as a direct result of Belgian colonization in the Congo in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. And chopping off hands, quite literally, was a form of public control.

And between 1904 and 1907, 65,000 Herero (80 percent of the total Herero population) were systematically eliminated by the Germans in Namibia. In Algeria, during the war of independence (1954 to 1962), the French routinely tortured and 'disappeared' FLN freedom fighters.

These random examples illustrate an alarmingly simple principle: One nation cannot occupy another and seek to control its resources without detaining, torturing, assassinating and terrorizing the occupied. A modern day example of this principle at work is Iraq today where torture and killings under the occupation of the United States are rampant, even though the U.S. wants to sell an image of spreading democracy.

Colonialism, Legacy and the Mau Mau

In Kenya, British colonialism followed this same principle. Caroline Elkins’ Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag and David Anderson’s Histories Of The Hanged: The Dirty War In Kenya document tortures, hangings rushed through kangaroo courts, detention camps, internments, and assassinations, not to mention psychological warfare through fear and intimidation.

Independence however did not bring justice for Kenyans - certainly not for the Mau Mau veterans. Kenyatta, even before being sworn as president in1963, had denounced the Mau Mau as terrorists. Contrary to British propaganda, Kenyatta was never a member of the Mau Mau. In an interview, Muthoni Wanyeki, Executive Director of the KHRC, said that:

"On coming to power, [Kenyatta] proceeded, through the land ownership policies(and practices) of his government (and himself), to betray everything that the Mau Mau had stood for and to entrench the landholding patterns established under the colony"[1]

It is not a surprise that Kenyatta by the early 1970’s had a few detentions and assassinations under his belt. In the words of politician J.M. Kariuki (assassinated in 1975), Kenyatta created a nation of ten millionaires and ten million beggars. He wanted the Mau Mau platform of Land and Freedom erased from Kenyan memory.

In 1978 President Moi took over when Kenyatta died and continued with the same dictatorial policies. Irony is such that in 1982, Mau Mau historian Maina Wa Kinyatti was imprisoned by the Moi government in the same Kamiti Prison where the British in 1957 hanged and buried the leader of the Mau Mau, Dedan Kimathi, in an unmarked grave.

It was not until the Kibaki government took over in 2002 that the colonial ban on the Mau Mau was removed. Finally in 2007 a statue of Kimathi stands on Kimathi Street, something unimaginable under the Kenyatta and Moi regimes.

But more important than a hero's acre or a monument is a reckoning with the colonial legacy of torture, dehumanization and pauperization. Mau Mau veterans that are still alive, along with their children and grandchildren, live in abject poverty, landless and without formal education.

The past and current Kenyan governments have as yet to ask the British government to at the very least issue an apology for the atrocities committed against the Kenyan people. The Moi and Kenyatta governments, dependent on Western aid and while maintaining a vicious elite system, were not in a position to pressure Britain for an apology. Or even to pressure HMG to reveal the exact location of Kimathi’s grave so that his widow, Mukami Kimathi, can bury him.

This dependent relationship has allowed the British to commit crimes against Kenyans with near impunity. Forty plus years since Kenya’s independence, the British Army still uses Northern Kenya for military exercises. As a result of leaving unexploded munitions behind, “hundreds of Maasai and Samburu tribes people - many of them children - are said to have been killed or maimed by unexploded bombs left by the British army at practice ranges in central Kenya over the past 50 years” the BBC reported [2] With the legal aid of Leigh Day and Co Advocates, 228 survivors took the UK government to the British High Court. In 2002, a settlement was reached in which the UK government agreed to pay 7 million dollars plus legal fees.

Economic Justice and Forgiveness

Eric Williams’ Capitalism and Slavery[3] shows how Western economies grew at the expense of African slave labor. Walter Rodney in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa [4] updates the argument to include colonialism –Europe developed at the direct expense of Africa. Today we find that economic giants, Barclays Bank [5], J.P. Morgan and Chase Manhattan Bank [6] are direct beneficiaries of the slave trade.

Muthoni Wanyeki argues that “it has to be recognized that the UK (and all ex-colonisers) grew at great human expense and political-economic disruption and exploitation within the ex-colonies. It is on that recognition alone that current debates on 'aid'/'development financing', trade and investment can shift as they need to.” The call for forgiveness and reconciliation then has to rest on the realization that colonialism was first and foremost an exploitative economic relationship.

Because the former colonizers continue to benefit from colonialism, while the victims of colonization continue to live in poverty, the governments of former colonizers have a moral duty to rectify the historical wrong in the present time. On the basis that colonialism as an investment is still paying off, the British cannot argue that they are not personally responsible for atrocities committed by their parents – they have inherited the economic well-being of a colonial system. They need to do right by this history because it is living.

The British government has as yet to issue a formal apology for the atrocities it committed. In the same way that Clinton expressed shame and sorrow for slavery without offering a formal apology, so did Blair for colonialism. One can express sorrow, regret and shame for causing an accidental death, but surely this is not enough for a systematic exploitation that causes millions to suffer and die.

It should be stated clearly that the authoritarian governments of Kenyatta and Moi are guilty of suppressing Mau Mau memory. And that there were thousands of Kenyans who collaborated with the British. But it should also be said that collaborators did not create colonialism, it is colonialism that created its functionaries. The real crime is colonialism.

And because colonialism if we are to be honest with history is a crime against humanity, the British parliament should at the very least pass a bill offering a formal apology to its victims in Africa. And the apology should also make provision for restitution.

Truth, Restitution, Reconciliation and Justice

While revolutionary in attempting to heal a wounded nation, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission undermined the very concept of forgiveness and justice it espoused because it did not demand that the perpetrators address in word and deed the question of restitution. Muthoni Wanyeki on the TRC says that:

Within the human rights movement in Kenya (and in Africa more broadly), the TRC process in SA while hailed for its reconciliation potential has always been critiqued for its enabling of impunity and its lack of direct recognition of, compensation for survivors.

Even though a desired by-product, the struggle against apartheid was not waged solely for blacks to forgive whites, or for whites to ask forgiveness, but to bring economic, social and political equality for all South Africans. So then here is the irony of the TRC – the perpetrators go home to their mansions, the victims back to the township.

To put it differently, after the TRC hearings the victims go back to a life of poverty, they remain without the means to feed, cloth or educate their children. Freedom comes without the content – it’s just a name – it has no meaning. Under these circumstances, forgiveness, healing and justice cannot exist without restitution.

The British government, which had the largest empire in the world, has cause to fear losing the Mau Mau law-suit. Once it begins where it will end? In neighboring Uganda? India? Malaysia? Or Jamaica? And if the British lose, will this set precedence for the victims of French, Belgian or Portuguese colonialism? The British government knows that losing one law-suit will open closed colonial closets all over the world.

It is precisely because this lawsuit has huge implications for the victims of colonialism all over the world that it deserves the support of all those who understand that history is still acting on us and that justice cannot exist without some form of restitution even if it comes in the form of the whole truth.

Identifying the graves of the disappeared, so that their relatives can rest; the numbers of how many killed, so that nations account for their dead; the names of the guilty, so that they may be brought to justice or forgiven; initiating the return of what was stolen: all these issues resonate with formerly colonized peoples.

For Muthoni Wanyeki says that “We see this case as being part of the process of understanding and coming to terms with our past...particularly given that our past impacts so clearly and evidently on our present.” African people in the continent and Diaspora should support the Kenya Human Rights Committee by calling on the British government to account for its torture of Mau Mau detainees.

We have to become each other’s keeper of memory and see each atrocity perpetrated on the other as part our collective memory – whether we identify as Afro-Latino, African American, or African.

We have to make common cause because ultimately the struggle for the truth will not be won because the British High Court finds it just, or because the British Government decides to come to terms with its past, it will be won because victims across Africa, the Diaspora and other survivors of colonial atrocities will make common cause with the Mau Mau struggle and vice versa. Truth will come to light because we will have demanded justice and restitution before offering forgiveness.

It is only when an apology and restitution are offered, and the victim in turn forgives that for both the perpetrator and victim true healing can take place. For me, that is the truth of justice.

Notes

1. Wanyeki, Muthoni (Kenya Human Rights Commission Executive Director). Interview by Author via e-mail. October 15th, 2007.
2. UK pay-out for Kenya bomb victims. July 19th, 2002
3. Williams, Eric. Slavery and Capitalism. New York, Russell & Russell, 1961
4. Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Washington, D.C. Howard University Press, 1981
5. Barclays admits possible link to slavery after reparation call. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2047237,00.html April 1, 2007
6. Corporations challenged by reparations activists http://www.usatoday.com/money/general/2002/02/21/slave-reparations.htm February 21, 2002

* Kenyan writer Mukoma Wa Ngugi is the author of Hurling Words at Consciousness (Africa World Press, 2006) and the forthcoming New Kenyan Fiction (Ishmael Reed Publications, 2008). He is a political columnist for the BBC Focus on Africa Magazine.

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

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the persistent threats to the life of Yaya Dampha, a reporter with the Foroyaa newspaper in The Gambia, after him and two Amnesty International staff were arrested, detained and released for alleged ‘spying’. According to reliable sources from Banjul, plain clothes officers, believed to be agents of the National Intelligence Agency, (NIA), on Sunday, October 14, stormed Dampha’s house in Latrikunda Sabiji, about 20 kilometres from the Capital Banjul.

In this week's AU Monitor, we bring you news and updates from the Pan African Parliament. Members from the European and Pan African Parliaments met in South Africa to prepare for the upcoming EU-Africa Summit. Parliament leaders stress the need for a strong parliamentary dimension when it comes to policies and decision-making; the development of a joint declaration is also in the works. In other Parliament news, the Pan African Parliament elected the Hon. Malik Al Hassan Yakubu from Ghana as its Fourth Vice-President. Also, the Protocol of the African Court on Human and People's Rights has been ratified by 23 of the 53 member states of the African Union. All state parties are being urged to rectify the Protocol to contribute to Human Rights development and protection in Africa.

In financial news, South Africa is opposed to the new generation issues in the economic partnership agreements (EPA's), including liberalisation of the services sector, investments, competition policy, and intellectual rights. Nkululeko Khumalo of the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA) states, "the coercive approach adopted by the European Union on service liberalisation poisons the negotiating atmosphere". In donor news, at a recent UN General Assembly meeting, Benin's representative Jean-Marie Ehouzou urged UN-led development initiatives to develop international trade strategies in their aid policies in Africa. Ehouzou also criticized developed countries for failing to provide the resources needed to accelerate economic reforms in African countries. Further, The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) held a series of actions that coincided with the International Financial Institution (IFI) meetings in Washington, D.C. Demands from this civil society alliance include greater accountability, transparency and democratic governance in the IFI's. Lastly, in its 300.000 USD pledge to the African Peer Review Mechanism , Italy supports the African continent in managing its own economy and development efforts in the framework of NEPAD.

Somaliland Focus (UK), an organisation set up by returned election observers and members of the diaspora, is concerned about reports that the government in Hargeisa is attempting to silence or subvert the independent human rights network SHURO Net. Reports are that the Somaliland government, particularly the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, and the Human Rights Commission, organised an extraordinary AGM inviting some Shuro-Net members from the regions.

The meeting was held on 24th October and a new Board of Directors were elected by the participants. We are not yet sure how many member organisations participated but according to Zamzam Abdi, the SHURO Net chairperson, the government is trying to get rid of the current BOD and administration and put in their place one selected by the government. The chairperson also informed us that the SHURO Net members in the regions were threatened by the Mayors of their regions that if they did not participate in the extraordinary meeting in Hargeisa, they would not be allowed to work in their regions. Those who refused made their way to Hargeisa and reported the case to SHURO Net office.

The chairperson elected by yesterday's meeting is the head of the programmes at the government-controlled Radio Hargeisa, a civil servant, who is not a member of SHURO Net. The Somaliland Journalist Association (SOLJA) declared that he did not represent them.

It is believed that SHURO Net was targeted by the government because of their calls to abolish the Emeregency Law, and for appealing for the release of prisoners including political prisoners and journalists. The heads of the 30 member organisations of SHURO Net have signed a letter declaring yesterday's meeting illegal.

Somaliland Focus (UK) is concerned that these reports mirror other recent occasions where the government has shown authoritarian tendencies contrary to its push for democratisation which we and others have been so keen to highlight. It does not make the work of organisations such as ourselves who pride ourselves on being international friends of Somaliland an easy one.

The ‘One Laptop per Child’ initiative, a pioneering project to give children in poor countries access to affordable computers, is in sight of becoming a reality, the United Nations advocate for the world’s most vulnerable nations has said. After watching a special demonstration of the so-called $100 laptop at UN Headquarters in New York, Under-Secretary-General Cheikh Sidi Diarra praised the scheme’s organizers for their efforts to bring the project to fruition given the sceptical response it met with at first.

Peace talks aimed at ending the four-and-a-half-year conflict in Sudan's Darfur region could be doomed before they begin after the leaders of the two largest rebel groups said they would not take part. Khalil Ibrahim, the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), has joined Abdul Wahid al-Nur, the leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), in refusing to take part in the talks in Libya, which are due to begin on Saturday.

n aspiring MDC parliamentary candidate and two other party officials were abducted from their homes Thursday in Chipinge South and are being held at a police post manned by war veterans at Checheche growth point. The opposition officials were bundled into a white B1800 truck with no number plates by six heavily built men in broad daylight. Before startled onlookers could help, the truck was driven away at high speed.

Youths went on the rampage in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown on Thursday, attacking and looting Lebanese-owned shops after reports a Lebanese man had raped and killed a local woman. Police fired tear gas to disperse crowds of young men who broke into shops in the impoverished and densely populated east end of Freetown, walking out with mobile phones, generators, TVs and radios, a Reuters reporter said.