Pambazuka News 323: Thomas Sankara: Chronicle of an organised tragedy
Pambazuka News 323: Thomas Sankara: Chronicle of an organised tragedy
Some 500 participants are expected to attend the Connect Africa Summit. Participants include the patrons of the initiative, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Ghana’s President John Kufuor, who is also the African Union Chairman. High-level participants include International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré; Chairman of the African Union Commission Alpha Oumar Konare; President of the African Development Bank Donald Kaberuka; and Intel Corporation Chairman Craig Barrett, who is also the Chair of the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development.
UNIFEM, the women’s fund at the United Nations, and the Women’s Funding Network, a global network of 124 women’s funds, have called for greater investment in equal opportunities for women as a key to combating global poverty. The UNIFEM-Women’s Funding Network collaboration is in response to increasing evidence that women hold critical — yet often untapped — potential in helping to improve the economic prospects of communities and societies as a whole. The partnership will centre on a public awareness campaign on October 17, World Poverty Day.
Gender Links is inviting submissions from women and men across Southern Africa who have survived gender violence, or are reformed perpetrators, to tell us their stories as part of this year’s Sixteen Days of Activism on Gender Violence. We will select an assortment of these experiences and life stories to be included in a special series of “I Stories,” that will be published on the GL website and in the mainstream media across the region as part of the campaign.
Two former leaders of Sierra Leone’s Civil Defence Forces (CDF) militia have received prison sentences following their convictions in August for war crimes committed during the country’s decade-long civil conflict. Justice Itoe said that while both Prosecution and Defence had recommended single, “global” sentences, the Court had decided to hand down separate sentences on each count for which the two accused had been found guilty.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/323/43666-remove-RM.jpg“The democratic forces in Zimbabwe will not be sincere if we conclude that the problem of women is the same as that of men. The same stereotypes that should have been buried with past generations are rekindling and this is not an allegation but an honest observation.” Chipo Mutuma warns that unless women’s rights are integrated into all aspects of society in the post-conflict era, “freedom will have to wait for another day”
THE challenge that has affected black people at large and Africans in particular has always been that of gender equity. Like the wording itself, the question of gender has belonged to varying morphology or should I say the various interpretations of that morphology. Words such as gender streamlining, gender sensitivity etc have been used as the rallying call for the fight for the advancement of women in a particular society.
Yet the struggle for the advancement of women has historically and unfortunately been hosted in other more pronounced often generic struggles for emancipation. Thus historically the universal suffrage movement tended to give effect to the rights of the commoner to vote and yet in so doing it became a precursor to the right to be extended to women as well.
Similarly the rights of black women in America in the 1960s found itself concealed if not cocooned or even totally eclipsed in the black consciousness movement of that time which in essence was the debate for the rights of black men to be accepted as equals in the American society……in itself largely androcism and not feministic.
Although women like Rosa Parks became the immediate and posterior symbolism of the struggles of that time her heroism was within the fighting for the generic rights of all black people. Her heroic figure translated later into the change of belief among black American males that black women were in fact capable of equalling them in several spheres of life. Well it came much late in the day though as women in black communities would still be subjected to violence even as America was opening up to Afro-Americans.
Similarly in the Zimbabwean context we have women who have come to symbolise heroic struggles against oppression. Mbuya Nehanda easily comes to mind and so other than iconic figures such as the late Pedzisai Mazorodze, Sally Mugabe, Joice Mujuru, Grace Kwinjeh, Margaret Dongo and others. Their roles mainly were on an agenda that sought to bring change to the entire community rather than one section.
Yet in some instances people often forget to accommodate the other views that they may represent; and to me this is where the feminist agenda comes in. On so many occasions I have had the chance to speak to my cousin Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa on how the issue of women is being tackled in the transitional period between now and the new Zimbabwe given that he is senior in the Movement for Democratic Change.
One of the issues we have touched on is the danger that these issues can easily be diluted or totally forgotten in negotiations as people tend to look specifically at broad themes such as in Zimbabwe's case land; citizenship rights, the economy etc all of which are important but are still not free from the inherent risk that if they do not address the pieces within they will explode with unfulfilled yet important constituent issues that were not addressed on time.
I have two cases in point. The Chilean case and the Iranian case, both of which represent strong women participation during the revolutions yet after the revolution women found themselves worse off than they were during the dictatorships. In Iran women were better during the time of the Shah as he was opening up the space for genuine participation of Iranian women in the governance of the country.
Ironically it was Iranian women who kick-started the revolution that expelled the Shah but as soon as the Islamic Revolution succeeded they found themselves having to operate within the confines of Sharia law that allows them to be killed for adultery while the adulterous man only has to make do with a little canning. It is total injustice and bad salaries for heroes! Similarly I am not so sure whether the issue of women was ever discussed at the Lancaster House Conference.
The delegates were predominantly male and the women cadres were in fact represented by the late Josiah Magama Tongogara for ZANLA and Lookout Masuku and Dumiso Dabengwa for ZIPRA. Worse still ZANU's Women's Wing was a very late phenomenon with the effect that its voice may not have been heard at that time. Issues that purely affected women as represented by cadres and those in war zones were not addressed and the chimbwidos who had ended up carrying unwanted babies from the struggle were left alone, abandoned in a society that quickly developed new stereotypes for women who had participated in the war.
Wearing jeans and trousers for the first time in predominantly black communities they were prostitutes first and foremost and parents discouraged their sons from having affairs with ex-combatants, a problem that later faced Umkhonto we Sizwe women in South Africa in 1994. Those who had babies were worse off as they did not know their babies' fathers. Confined to the unshakable stereotypes of an unforgiving society they found themselves filling beer-halls as prostitutes as they could not get jobs and unlike their male counterparts it was very difficult for one to be employed in the then integrating army or police force if you were a mother.
These stereotypes continue even in this era. The democratic forces in Zimbabwe will not be sincere if we conclude that the problem of women is the same as that of men. The same stereotypes that should have been buried with past generations are rekindling and this is not an allegation but an honest observation. For example it is people's mentalities that those girls and women who are active in politics and Civil society in Zimbabwe and at the Vigil and MDC UK and Ireland here in the UK are loose yet this is an unfortunate stereotype.
We will need an intervention from the Party that recognises this fact and approach issues of equity within this sphere of thinking. One hopes that the leadership of women in the Party will be able to consult widely to get input and then transform that into any post-conflict arrangement that shall emerge through whatever processes. The feeling that one has is that the legacy of the MDC should be that almost every issue was tackled.
This calls us to action and address as a matter of urgency unfortunate abuses that are going on in Zimbabwe as the social fabric falls apart, cases of women who are abandoned by husbands who flee to seek greener pastures but in most cases end up founding other families, cases of daughters who are being sacrificed by families seeking to survive the current scourge of economic hardships and all other related issues.
My feeling is that these things need to be discussed now and not tomorrow; an approach is needed that sets the tone for the future and realistic development of a truly equitable Zimbabwean society which has as its focus the total development of both men and women. Unless this is done it is my feeling that this current transition will be incomplete and total freedom will have to wait for another day.
* Chipo Mutuma is the secretary for the MDC UK and Ireland Women's Branch. She is writes in her own capactity. Email|: chipomutuma at yahoo dot co dot uk
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/323/43667-jena-6.jpgIn the Black American experience the act of defending one's community has always been viewed as subversive and any attempt to assert your own justice in self-defence will be criminalised. The case of the Jena 6 is one that has been repeated throughout the history of Black America from lynching whether as a genocidal act or in this case a symbolic one.
One of the main implications of the case of the Jena 6 is one that has sent countless activists to prison. The implication—if you dare to remove yourself from the role of a victim and attempt to assert justice yourself, you will pay a heavy price. The notion that six young Black men responded appropriately by not allowing an environment of terror to exist in their lives and their community enrages a society that does not want to see Black people recognizing and acting on the understanding that we alone will change our conditions. This case would have made countless people considerably more comfortable if these young brothers did not engage in a physical encounter with the white student. Many would have been appeased if we as a community continue to appeal to a legal system that has made it clear that it doesn't place much, if any value on the lives of Black people.
The Jena 6 engaged in an act of self-defense and their actions reflect our reality. Lynching, a genocidal act that occurred with the consent of the government, has long been a part of Black Experience in North America.
In a petition submitted to the United Nations in 1951, titled "We Charge Genocide", Paul Robeson and other prominent Blacks, documented that at least 10,000 Black people had been lynched since the abolition of slavery.
The exact number of people murdered can never be known. The horrendous act of lynching did not stop with the Civil Rights movement and our communities remain intimately familiar with the legacy of the noose.
Countless numbers of Black people have been killed throughout recent history with the legal system failing to prevent similar cases from reoccurring.
The call for justice in this case must include the dismissal of all charges against the Jena 6 and the immediate termination of prosecutor Reed Walters. Any call for decreased charges affirms the notion that Black people can do anything to struggle against white supremacy/racism except for physically defending ourselves.
Our history of struggle in North America has always had the importance of defending our lives as a fundamental pillar. The act of defending ourselves as a community has always been criminalized. This process of criminalization is an attempt to dissuade communities at large from becoming self sufficient in their own security. Former Black Panther Party member, Jalil Muntaqim stated, "We are our own Liberators"; our path to liberation must be decided and executed by us in the manner that we determine. It is this act of self-determination that is considered to be the most dangerous by government officials. The legacy of the Black Liberation Movement was rooted in this ideology and was responded to viciously by all levels of law enforcement, which routinely attacked and murdered activists. Thus we have the many political prisoners and prisoners of war in the united states today. Nationally we have a responsibility to call for the freedom of all political prisoners in the united states who have been found guilty of simply defending the lives of Black people.
We are pleased to hear the many calls for people to pay attention to Jena 6s in our own towns. We must recognize that we all live in Jena. The same people who boarded buses from all corners of this country must organize against the mass criminalization of our youth, militarized law enforcement and participate in the work for self-determination and the unconditional release of the political prisoners and prisoners of war in the United States.
Self Respect, Self Defense and Self Determination We will defend our freedom fighters To find out how you can participate in the movement to free political prisoners, please contact:
Jericho amnesty campaign
Hands Off Assata campaign
Free the San Francisco 8 campaign
[email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/323/43668-GALCK.jpgA few months ago the leading dailies reported an event about unknowingly gate crashing a conference on various health issues surrounding the gay population in Mombasa. Apparently, a reporter took a fancy to one of the participants until he realised that ‘she’ was indeed a ‘he’. The media where around to cover some other talk shop in the same hotel and ‘coincidentally’ bumped into this closed door session. Of course this gave rise to much more interesting reportage and the next day an article appeared with the journalists stating their homophobia and reinforcing the Muslim Council’s views that Mombasa should be purged of these mutant humans.
It is no secret that our coast is not only well known for its white sand and plethora of sexy commercial working girls but also for its time immemorial reputation of being a hub of male sex workers (I have been informed that the term, ‘prostitute’ is no longer politically correct as it is too loaded with negative connotations – I wonder when and what they are going to replace ‘CEO’ with). It is also no secret that homosexuality has always been present in all societies for as long back as we have historical documentation but until very recent, eyes, ears and mouths have been shut in Kenya with an attitude that we know exists (big surprise?!) but it’s illegal (bigger surprise?!!) so we’ll just pretend that it’s not there.
Then came HIV and AIDS. People starting dropping dead; mortality rates shot up; orphans increased by the dozen and the President finally declared it a national disaster. The donor dough started to pour in and 4wd sales rocketed.
CODE ECHO: We now have yet another donor epidemic on our hands and many stand to die while others stand to thrive. Proposals are being churned out at unprecedented rates as the body count ticks away. Time is of essence…
While in the northern hemisphere the virus entrenched itself predominantly in minority populations, particularly intravenous drug users and the homosexual population, the virus in our part of the world hit hard and straight at the majority – the heterosexuals. Nobody was immune.
And until recently, not many people were liberal minded or brave enough to talk about sex but this time we had to; for the sake of our sons and daughters. The campaign took all sorts of forms with the cool and famous stating they use protection, to the rich and infamous holding hands and stating that we need to fight this together.
And the dollars continued to flow in...Hold on for a second: donors are always looking for new, unique and creative ideas to throw cash at, and what could fit the tick box more than a homosexual population in a politically and social hostile environment. After all (and rightly so), they too needed public health attention, they too are at risk and perhaps even more at risk. Some have even been brave enough to publicly address this issue and projects and programmes were formed to increase sexual awareness issues amongst homosexual populations and investigate what the rate of incidence might be. Some organisations have even gone as far as to open public drop-in centres. Hands down to them!
Let’s go back to the beginning: until recently, the gay population lived in closets and still continue to; but with an additional extension that is a little more exposed – it’s called, “homo health matters too.” Initially, I was elated to know that even in Kenya where certain populations are persona non-gratis, that at least, they can get the occasional human right.
So out our fellow citizens come to talk about their problems and of course the first thing that happens is the equivalent of a fatwa. Regrettably, this sort of thinking is expected - but what I am really concerned about is the thinking behind those that are supposed to be helping with health issues but also feel that this is a golden opportunity to launch a salvation crusade and not only reduce people’s risk of HIV but also help them to become ‘normal’ again. Unfortunately, I have been privy to several statements from all sorts of medical professionals who ‘feel sorry for them’ because ‘they are not normal’ and ‘if we can just help them to become normal again’ then ‘we might sleep better.’ God, I am told never intended for same sex creatures to indulge in lascivious acts (I can’t quite seem to get that into my cat’s head though who hasn’t quite figured out what to mount, let alone which sex). Perhaps, our dear do-gooders might want to start with their own attitude change before they commence dealing with other people’s medical matters.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/323/43669-Sankara-4.jpgMukoma Wa Ngugi celebrates the lives of Thomas Sankara and Che Guevara, and in doing so, asks us to remember all our other leaders and heroes who died at the hands of colonialism and apartheid.
In April this year, we celebrated 50 yrs of Ghana’s Independence. This October, in addition to remembering the revolutionary promise of Che Guevara executed forty years ago, we will also be remembering that twenty years ago, Thomas Sankara was assassinated – a stark reminder that we are still in the state Odinga Oginga called Not Yet Uhuru. We will be remembering that if Africa suffers today, it is because yesterday its best political minds, and its most fiery and committed sons and daughters were assassinated. All for thirty pieces of silver, for tea, coffee, oil, diamonds, gold, cobalt, uranium and African sweat.
But we should also remember the living. Aziz Fall, the co-coordinator of the International Justice Campaign for Sankara (ICJS) has been receiving anonymous death threats since December 2006. They tell him “stop or be stopped” “commit suicide or face execution” and in the last one, he was informed that his family would be targeted. His crime? Coordinating 22 lawyers dedicated to using legal means to find the truth behind Sankara’s assassination.
The ICJS helped Mariam Sankara, Thomas Sankara’s widow, take her case to the United Nations after, predictably, the legal system in Burkina Faso stalled each time she appeared in court. Finally, in March 2006, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that Sankara’s family has “the right to know the circumstances of his death.” The Committee also argued that failure to correct the natural death entry on Sankara’s death certificate, refusal to investigate his death, and “the lack of official recognition of his place of burial” pointed to “inhumane treatment of Ms. Sankara and her sons” contrary to Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Dictators and your torturers all over the world take note! Article 7 declares: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” In a strange way, the death threats against Aziz further validate the UN ruling.
Victoria Mxenge, Ruth First, Steve Biko, Amilcar Cabral, Samora Machel, Chris Hani, Mhodlane, Kimathi and many others dead at the hands of colonialism and apartheid. But what makes the assassinations of Sankara, Lumumba or Maurice Bishop of Grenada all the more painful is knowing that they were betrayed by those closest to them Then, without exception, they were succeeded by less able people- to say the least. Their successors are egregiously guilty of violently pulling back their societies miles behind the starting line.
After Lumumba, Mobutu –a common thief who under the guise of a shallow nationalism - maimed, killed and stole in the Congo. In Grenada, Bernard Coard’s bloody counter-revolution allowed a predatory U.S. to invade Grenada. And in Burkina Faso, each day we see what President Blaise Compaore has done with the Sankara revolution.
Life expectancy is 47.9 years, adult literacy, 21.8 percent and Burkina Faso now has the dubious distinction of being ranked the 3rd poorest country in the world with 80 percent of its 13 million people living on less than two dollars a day. In November of 2007, Compaore will be running for presidency, again. I say give him five more years to see if he can do it – Let him get Burkina Faso the coveted first place title of poorest country in the whole world!
For a nation to heal, it must know and come to terms with the truth of its past. And it must make good with the promise of that past. In Kenya Dedan Kimathi was hanged and buried in an unmarked grave in Kamiti Prison by the British in 1957 where the post-independence government left him. Having set Kenya on neo-colonial rails and rewarded the collaborators with land, then turned their backs on Mau Mau veterans, both Kenyatta and Moi wanted what Kimathi stood for forgotten. Compaore is afraid of the truth because Sankara is a reminder of how far he has fallen from the promise of the revolution. Compaore knows we know he cannot make good on Sankara’s promise.
We have to remember our dead. But our presidents prefer gold monuments and statues. Sometimes they cultivate heroes’ acres without growing freedom. Better the monument be societies that are free and egalitarian. Instead of grand monuments, it is better we have nations that would welcome the revolutionary dead. Because truth be told, Nkrumah would not have been welcomed to Ghana’s 50 year celebrations. Kimathi would not be welcomed in today’s Kenya and Sankara would be assassinated again in today’s Burkina Faso.
What if Sankara had grown old with us? Would he have become a dictator as we have seen with many? We do not know. But we know how he lived, we know what he died for and his promise. That is what should matter.
Koni Benson, a friend and agitator, named her son Sankara because, she said, “What Thomas Sankara did, tried to do and what happened to him, should not be forgotten. Sankara is the history and the future of the continent. He dared us to invent the future.”
As we remember our dead – Let us also remember the living. We have to dare to dream again. We have to dare to remember the past. And we have to dare to act.
* Mukoma Wa Ngugi is the author of Hurling Words at Consciousness (AWP, 2006) and Conversing with Africa: Politics of Change (KPH, 2003), and editor of the forthcoming, New Kenyan Fiction (Ishmael Reed Publications, 2008). He is a political columnist for the BBC Focus on Africa Magazine where a shorter version of this essay first appeared.
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
The World Bank is preparing to launch its Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) which aims to catalyse the market for carbon emissions credits from avoided deforestation, according to watchdog organization, The Bretton Woods Project. However many forestry experts are unconvinced, given the possibility that this framework will benefit industrial scale logging and in light of previous IFI-induced forestry disasters, for example in the DRC.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/323/43671-Sankara-3.jpgIt is 20 years since a great combatant for African dignity, integrity and human liberation, Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, was assassinated. Widely recognised as pivotal to his death, his incumbent, Blaise Compaoré, meanwhile, has been in power for 20 years. Frequently compared with such dictators as Mbotu at home, his legitimacy resting solely on orchestrating the military coup that murdered Sankara.
On the commemoration the anniversary of his death that will be mourned in Burkina Faso and marked by the popular leader’s supporters throughout the world, Cheriff M. Sy, editor of the progressive and independent Burkinabe weekly political and cultural affairs journal, Bendré, recounts the assassination of one of Africa’s most important independence leaders, and assesses the legacy for his country and continent.
The tragic fate of Thomas Sankara is tied to the struggle for a social democracy. The ‘Africa mafia’, the businesspeople and their collaborators who control Africa, did not like the struggle. Therefore, he had to be exterminated. They found armed hands among the local ranks. The killing machine splurged into motion.
Reflecting on the causes of a dark Thursday
‘In favour of the meandering direction of history, this autocrat heaved himself up to the head of our revolution to choke it from the inside. This high treason was illustrated by his derision of all the organisational principles, the various denials of the noble objectives of the RDP [Rassemblement Démocratique et Populaire: ‘democratic and popular rally’], the personalisation of power, the mystical vision. As for bringing solutions to the concrete problems of the masses, everything engendered demobilisation at the heart of the militant people.’ – Extract from the Proclamation of 15 October 1987
‘People of Burkina Faso…the tragic moments that we lived through on 15 October belong to the exceptional events that often make up the history of the peoples. As revolutionaries, we must have the courage to assume our responsibilities. We did so through the proclamation of the Popular Front. We will continue…with determination, for the triumph of the objectives of the August revolution. This brutal denouement shocks us all as human beings, and me more than most, for having been his comrade in arms, moreover, his friend. For us too, he remains a revolutionary comrade who got things wrong.’ – Extract from the message to the nation delivered by the president of the Popular Front, comrade captain Blaise Compaoré, 19 October 1987
On Thursday 15 October 1987, the democratic and popular revolution in Burkina Faso was brutally arrested on the strike of 4pm. After the onslaught of the kalashnikovs, which lasted all the evening, the signed Proclamation of the Popular Front fell down like thick rain mixed with hail, surprising the RDP militants as much as those uninterested in and distanced from the revolution.
For a while, it had been known that there was a serious crisis in the national revolutionary council. Its principal leaders, formerly united, no longer agreed about orientation and strategy for action. Increasingly, the four historic leaders, Thomas Sankara, Blaise Compaoré, Boukary Lingani and Henri Zongo, appeared to be ‘too many’ to lead the revolutionary movement.
But the serious crisis that shook the RDP leaders remains mainly concealed from the grass-roots militants, to the extent that they will be surprised by the magnitude and the brutality of the October denouement.
Additionally, many sincere militants still regret the outcome of the 15 October, as it has been presented, telling themselves there had been no lack of opportunity for debates about ideas to avoid this tragic event. But those responsible for the coup ran a significant risk by giving Thomas Sankara a voice, because he was such a convincing speaker that he may have emerged victorious.
His same capacity for persuasion led to certain decisions, which have retrospectively been judged as wilful or spontaneous, whereas in his time, he did not receive such constant criticisms. And this same personality trait of the late president saved the skin of more than one soul, whom close collaborators wanted to sacrifice, over-and-over, on the alter of the counter-revolution.
In fact, we can ascertain that the interventions of 15 October and the subsequent adjustments were precisely because the comrades who had started the RDP with Thomas Sankara were already exhausted. They had neither the strength nor the heart to continue. As there were influential enemies within and outside of the revolution, they had no difficulty in rallying to their side a whole world of people to counterbalance the RDP. The invented reasoning of ‘betraying the initial path’ was rapidly conjured up.
Now, captain Thomas Sankara was the first to realise the need to democratise, which he professed in his speech of August 1987 in Bobo Dioulasso: ‘Burkina Faso needs a people of conviction, not a vanquished people subjugated to their fate.’
He thus began the genuine rectification of the RDP, otherwise marked by the release of several political and common law prisoners. The wrongly sanctioned would be able to restart their careers.
But this policy, initiated by Thomas Sankara, was quickly short-circuited by the events of 15 October, and claimed by the Popular Front. The image of Sankara as closed and hostile to openings had to stick.
Things accelerated after the speech of reconciliation on August 87 in Bobo Dioulasso, when Sankara said: ‘in recent years, we have sometimes made errors. They must not re-occur in the scared land of Burkina Faso…we must prefer to take one step together with the people rather than ten steps without the people’.
After this speech, it was necessary for his opponents to take power. Leaving Thomas Sankara time to initiate democratisation of the RDP would deprive them of a justified pretext for the plot.
The political crisis that had prevailed for some time, as is customary, benefited the military, and from then on, arms had to speak to unlock it. Such have the tactics of politicians in Bukina Faso always been. Thomas Sankara opposed this, asserting that the soldier must ‘live amongst the people’, and preaching ‘a quarter of chicken per day per soldier’.
During regular meetings with their chief, he constantly made this complaint. To which the chief in question responded that he did not see a problem, except that ‘Sankara is opposed to us’. The soldiers replied: ‘why don’t we remove him?’ By force of repetition, he was finally removed on 15 October 1987.
What happened on that day?
According to Gilbert Diendéré’s book, ‘on 15 October, with the meeting of the officers, elements in the palace accused the soldiers of Pô of organising a coup. The atmosphere was heated…we went our separate ways without reaching an agreement…we knew that Sankara had a council meeting at 4pm and we decided to wait for him there…shortly after 4pm, Sankara’s Peugeot 205 and his guard’s car arrived at the pavilion. A second security car went to park a bit further on. We encircled the cars. Sankara was in sports gear. As always, he held his weapon, an automatic gun, in his hand. He immediately shot and killed one of our people. At this time, all the men broke loose, everyone fired and the situation got out of control…after the events, I telephoned the house of Blaise to inform him. When he arrived, he was extremely disappointed and dissatisfied, above all, when he established there had been 13 deaths’.
So the coup was apparently made without the knowledge of Blaise Compaoré! He declared ‘when I arrived at the council, after the shooting and that I saw the body of Thomas lying in the ground, I failed to have a very violent reaction towards his killers. That would undoubtedly have been a monster carnage, which I would certainly not have got out of alive. But when the soldiers provided me the details of the business, I was disappointed and disgusted…when I asked my men why they had arrested Sankara without informing me, they answered me that if they had done so, I would have refused them. And it is true. I knew that my political camp was strong. Thomas did not control the state any longer. I did not need to enact a coup d’état. But, my men became frightened when they learned, after midday, that we would be arrested in 24 hours’.
However, the truth is that on that day, Thomas Sankara was in a work meeting with some of his collaborators in a room at the council. Always in the council, 70 metres away, there was a white [Peugeot] 504 with seven people. A vehicle arrives at the meeting. The few elements of the guard in front of the room do not worry, because the passengers of the vehicle are their colleagues. The vehicle pulls over; the passengers open fire immediately. A police officer and two drivers are shot dead. They collapse. Thomas Sankara is in the room when he hears the shooting. He stands up, his gun in the hand and said to his collaborators ‘stay, stay, they want me!’ Just after crossing the door, he is shot. He collapses. Do they stop there? No. The attackers entered the room and killed his collaborators.
In short, let us suppose – and it is difficult – that the thesis that captain Blaise wanted to impose on the fait accompli were true. Would that however exonerate him? Would he not have been indirectly at the root of the tragic events of 15 October? Is he not the main beneficiary of the plot?
The man, even if he had never been really thirsty for power, as he claims, leaves any observer of political life in Burkina Faso sceptical all the same. Effectively, after 15 October, he proved that the power cannot be shared. The entire cohort of intellectuals that constituted the insurrectionary committee that psychologically prepared for 15 October with a series of filthy leaflets and intrigues of the lowest order will learn this at their own expense. Commander Boukary Lingani and captain Henri Zongo will learn at theirs.
Today, 20 years later, what should we remember?
Beyond the rhetoric, Sankara died because of his patriotic and progressive convictions, but also because he prevented some of his civilian and military comrades and soldiers from eating luxuriously and spending handsomely, to the detriment of the people.
When he arrived, his country was a ‘mournful synthesis of the sufferings of all humanity’, held the world record on infant mortality, and had permanently negative trade and agricultural balances and extremely high public debts. He wanted to make his country a land of dignity and freedom.
Thus courageously, he redefined the sum total of all the possible and the thinkable ways in which the development of a country among the most denuded in world could be envisaged.
On the evidence that underdevelopment and dependency could not be resolved without the integration of the marginalised, he engaged his country in progressive social transformation.
Sankara’s revolution was simple: work more, spend less and spend better, produce more, be concerned with the priority needs of the country. He said ‘our revolution is and must be permanent; the collective action of the revolutionaries to transform reality and improve the concrete situation of the popular masses our country. Our revolution will only have a value, if, looking back, we will be able to say that the people of Burkina are a little happier because they have clean drinking water, sufficient food, good health, education, decent housing and more freedom, more democracy, more dignity. Our revolution will have a right to exist if it can answer these questions concretely.’
Within a few years, he had achieved a qualitative jump for his country. But he remained aware that the essential questions of his people were those of his whole continent and of all the exploited and oppressed people. Pan-Africanist and anti- globalisation activist, he knew how to be the voice of the voiceless.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/323/43671-death-certificate-of-... afternoon, bullets of the assassins shot Sankara dead. He fell, but had had time to sow the seeds and sprinkle them with his blood, time to break a link in the chain and free the oppressed youth of Africa.
He was a precursor of an alternative policy to the dependency and enslavement that the global economic institutions continue to impose by their model of development based on indebtedness.
Most importantly he has contributed to the understanding of his people and all the oppressed that a credible alternative cannot come from outside to save them. It is only by relying on themselves and their intrinsic capacity that they may ‘dare to invent the future’ and find the keys of their development and freedom.
Today, in each of our movements for social, political and cultural advancement, Sankara, the man, lives on in us. He will remain forever in the collective consciousness. He will be an example to those struggling for the liberation of humankind.
Link: Thomas Sankara -
* Cheriff M. Sy is director of the weekly Bendré publication providing information and reflection on Burkina Faso, http://www.journalbendre.net
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
* Translated and adapted from the original by Stephanie Kitchen.
The $600 million West African Gas Pipeline project (WAGP) aims to deliver gas from Nigeria via a 680 kilometre pipeline to a terminal point in Takoradi, Ghana. This pipeline cuts across and impacts communities in the states of Ogun and Lagos in southwestern Nigeria. Local communities and civil society groups in Nigeria, Ghana, Togo and Benin had from the conceptual stages of this project in 2000 at an information consultative workshop hosted by Environmental Rights Action argued that this project would further impoverish them, intensify the degradation of the local environment and divert attention and resources from the very vital issue of gas flare reduction.
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), with headquarters in Ibadan (Nigeria), is seeking candidates for a Manager of the project “Promoting Sustainable Agriculture in Borno State” (or PROSAB) funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and is implemented with a broad range of local stakeholders and regional partners. The position will remain open until a suitable candidate is found.
Gender-sensitive measurements are critical for building the case for taking gender (in)equality seriously, for enabling better planning and actions by gender and non-gender specialists, and for holding institutions accountable to their commitments on gender. This IDS/Bridge Overview Report examines conceptual and methodological approaches to gender and measurements of change with a focus on indicators, examining current debates and good practice from the grassroots to the international levels.
Since 3rd October 2007, the government of Sudan, supported by the Janjaweed militiamen, are conducting massive military operations in Darfur. Deployment of large numbers of government troops was observed all over Darfur. Heavy military equipment and aerial bombardments were used against civilian targets in Haskanita and Muhajariya localities, South Darfur State.
SaferAfrica is proud to partner with the International Quality and Productivity Centre (IQPC) on the presentation of the Practical Solutions To Small Arms Control In Africa 2007 Conference. It will take place from 14 to 16 November 2007 at the Holiday Inn, Pretoria, South Africa. The theme of the conference is how to practically tackle the scourge of small arms and light weapons in Africa.
Oxfam’s Country Programme Managers never cease to amaze. They make decisions that affect the lives of millions in whole countries and provide solutions that bring lasting changes to all sorts of communities the world over. Right now, we’re looking to build a pool of candidates from a wide range of backgrounds with humanitarian and relief experience to take on these roles So if you can bring direction to some of the world’s most challenging environments in humanitarian, development and advocacy work, read on.
This week 125 civil society organizations sent a letter to Dominique Strauss-Khan, the incoming International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director, calling on him to address IMF policies that undermine developing nations' ability to increase health and education spending. The former French Finance Minister was selected to head the IMF starting November 1.
This independent review of land issues in twenty countries in Southern and Eastern Africa is the third since 2004. The idea of conducting a regular review arose in an informal meeting of land rights activists in Pretoria in 2003. They were drawn from NGOs, research and teaching institutions and/ or were working on assignments for international agencies and/ or African governments.
On October 10th, 2007, the World Day against the Death Penalty focuses on the proposed UN General Assembly resolution for a universal moratorium on executions. The proposal would save lives and give the population of retentionist states an opportunity to see for themselves that a pause in death sentences does not lead to higher crime rates.
"Taking a stand against poverty on October 17th - Let us all join hands and say no to poverty" Tajudeen Abdul Raheem argues why we should support of the Millennium Development Goals and join the "Stand Up Against Poverty" Campaign.
Are you one of those overwhelming majority of the peoples of the world who only read of about the Guinness World Records but never has a clue how they are set and have ruled out the possibility of ever setting any of those records? Until last year I had never thought I could be part of the Guinness records myself and doing so for a very worthy cause.
Between 9.00pm (GMT) Tuesday 16th of October and 9.00 pm (GMT) on Wednesday the 17th of October 2007 you could also become a Guinness record holder. All you have to do is join millions of other peoples across the world to beat the record set last year for the largest number of people ever to 'Stand Up against poverty' and in support of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
It all began very humbly last year. The UN Millennium Campaign Communications group had suggested to Guinness that we could set a record of people standing up for a particular cause in a 24 hour period. Guinness had never done that before. So they set a target of 10, 000 across the world. When I heard about the 10,000 target, I was amused because and even boasted to my colleagues that I could raise more than that just by mobilizing my extended family in Funtua, Katsina State, Northern Nigeria! By the 18th of October when the results were announced my boast proved right because almost 50, 000 people stood up in Funtua, the small town where I was born, joining over 3.6 million people across Africa. Interesting even bigger numbers across the world bringing the total to: over 23.5 million in more than 80 countries.
Both the UN Millennium Campaign and its partners including the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) and its various National partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe were pleasantly surprised. Even the Guinness recorders were taken by surprise that so many people could show their solidarity with the poor in such huge numbers.
It is not just the numbers that were staggering but the range of activities and broad coalition of peoples, social classes, individuals, groups and associations that took part: schools, churches, mosques, temples, synagogues, government officials, community groups, professional associations, NGOs, CBOS, , Trade Unionists, Political parties, legislatures including local councillors, etc. They took part in cities, towns, rural areas, hamlets and town halls. at peoples homes, town centres, cinema halls, Theatres, on the streets, parks and Gyms. For instance in Abuja, Nigeria a group of Lepers in an isolated community organized a STAND UP Moment in their community telling the National GCAP Coordinator that no one in authority had ever asked for their view on anything. in Kenya an elderly grassroots mobilize wearing a Sikh-like turban stormed the offices of the Millennium Campaign demanding nothing more than leaflets and banners and went on to stun us by mobilizing over 10, 000 people to Stand up in Kariobangi!
The idea is so simple and at the same time most empowering. You can do it anywhere you are. You are not powerless. You can at least say NO to extreme poverty in the midst of global plenty. More than saying NO you can also support the MDGs as a means of eradicating global poverty and hunger, redressing the imbalances between the rich and poor countries, the rich and the poor in all societies, educating our children , treating and caring for those sick amongst us and all the other goals.
The MDGs have been criticized by many since they were adopted in 2000 but implementing them has led to better living standards for millions who were without hope seven years ago. A disproportionate focus on what has not been achieved may actually make one lose sight of the progress being made and what more could be done. For instance, millions of children who could not have passed by the gates of a school are now in school. In some countries they are moving access beyond primary school to secondary school.
In a country like Kenya the provision of mosquito nets has dramatically brought down the number of people, especially children, dying from malaria. Malawi today is only second to Peru globally in the most dramatic reduction of infant mortality. In the past four years infant mortality has come down by more than a third.
The MDGs are not cocktails that states and communities can cherry pick as they go along. Progress in one goal must demand progress in others if the success is to be sustainable. Hence Campaigners in all our countries have to focus on some of the sad paradoxes. For example, as infant mortality is coming down maternal mortality remains scandalously high in many African countries. How can we achieve the lofty goals on gender and women’s empowerment if so many women continue to die in childbirth?
In general there has been slow and patchy progress in many African countries but this does not mean that the outcome is necessarily doomed. More can be done. But this depends on citizens demanding that their governments meet their commitments made on the MDGs. Seven years may be short but it is long enough for all states to meet these goals if citizens insist and continue to put pressure on the policy makers, whether government or parliamentarians or politicians at all levels. Indifference is the enemy of delivery and a great ally of insensitive politicians.
If you think demonstrations do not make a difference please read Nelson Mandela's LONG WALK TO FREEDOM. Whatever snippets of information that the censors of the apartheid jails allowed to spill in to the prisoners cheered them up. One of the first places that Mandela first visited after his release was London. He had refused to see any body in the official government of Britain instead he had a people’s reception at Trafalgar Square to thank the people of Britain for their demonstrations, pickets, protests in support of the liberation of South Africa.
Every little bit counts. It is the small steps of ordinary people that lead to extraordinary events in human quest for freedom and liberation. Poverty is the greatest enemy of freedom today for more than a billion people mostly in Africa and Asia.
On October 16/17 every one of us will have the opportunity to show how much we care about the poor by Standing Up against Poverty and supporting the MDGs . Help us beat the Guinness record that we set last year. Over 23.5 millions of people participated then. Make it even bigger this year. You can do so anywhere you are. Look at or [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
The International Monetary Fund has warned Congo to beware of the macroeconomic effects of a planned $5 billion loan from China to modernise the vast African country's decrepit infrastructure and mining industry. President Joseph Kabila's government announced plans last month for the huge loan from China, which would be paid back partly in mining concessions and tolls from road and railways.
Amnesty International and ACAT -- Burundi (Action des Chrétiens pour l’Abolition de la Torture) have called on the Burundian government to take immediate action to protect women and girls from rape and other sexual violence in Burundi. Despite the fact that the rape of women and girls is widespread throughout the country, the Burundian authorities have systematically failed to take concrete steps to prevent, investigate and punish these crimes. As a result, perpetrators regularly escape prosecution and punishment by the state and victims are left without protection.
We are pleased to announce a Call for Abstracts for the Reproductive Health in Emergencies Conference 2008 being organised by the RAISE Initiative in collaboration with the RHRC Consortium. The Conference is being held on 18-20 June 2008. Reproductive Health (RH) in Emergencies Conference 2008 will bring together a wide range of actors from the fields of RH in emergencies, reproductive health, humanitarian assistance and development to contribute to the expansion of comprehensive RH services in crisis settings. Abstracts are now being accepted. The due date for submission is January 31, 2008.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has said that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's plan to create a regional lending bank will be beneficial for South America. The former World Bank economist said the Bank of the South, due to be founded in Caracas next month, is an important initiative aimed at helping boost Latin America's development.
On October 15th, a public hearing on the World Bank will take place in The Hague. The hearing aims to raise the debate on the legitimacy of the World Bank and influence the aid distribution process. The World Bank Campaign Europe, a coalition of more than 70 non-governmental organizations, is preparing a public hearing titled “World vs. Bank,” in co-operation with the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal. It will take place on October 15, 2007 in The Hague, Netherlands, at the beginning of the week of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank/IMF.
At a time when the world is largely embroiled in conflicts, triggering human catastrophes of alarming proportions, a myriad of lights-of-hope are flickering in various corners of the planet in search for peace and stability. One such light is currently flickering in Harare through a child-oriented project titled “Peace In Our Communities”, 22 September to 14 October 2007, at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the President of the Republic of Niger to intervene to put an end to the repression on the media after the recent arrest of Ibrahim Manzo Diallo, the editor of a private newspaper accused of “working with Radio France Internationale” and the detention of journalist Moussa Kaka on charges of endangering the safety of the state for suspected links with Tuareg rebels. He faces life imprisonment.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the Senegalese authorities for the release of Moussa Guèye, Editor of the private daily newspaper L’Exclusif, detained for four days after the publication of articles having allegedly offended the President of the Republic and his Principal Private Secretary. Another journalist of L’Exclusif, Justin Ndoye is wanted by the police.
The United Nations Special Envoy to Darfur has called for an end to the “vicious cycle of violence” engulfing the war-torn Sudanese region ahead of major peace talks later this month, warning that any delay to the negotiations between the Government and the rebels would only lead to further bloodshed.
Voicing his concern at escalating tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on the two East African neighbours to show maximum restraint and abide by the accords that ended their border war seven years ago. Of particular concern are “recent shooting incidents, as well as the building up of military forces in the border area,” according to a statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson.
The United Nations refugee agency has condemned the recent deportation of at least 15 Ethiopian refugees by the authorities in Sudan, calling it a breach of the country’s international legal obligations. Sudanese officials handed over the refugees to Ethiopian authorities at the Metema border crossing, about 500 kilometres southeast of Khartoum, on 27 September, but the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement issued in Geneva that it had only learned of the deportations this week.
The United Nations refugee agency is working to register displaced people fleeing confrontations between the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and troops of ex-General Laurent Nkunda in the volatile North Kivu province, where human rights abuses such as rape are reportedly on the rise. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported today that it has started registration of all internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the five camp sites in the Mugunga area some 15 kilometres west of Goma. Over 27,500 internally displaced have been identified.
The United Nations refugee agency today announced the end of an organized repatriation programme which over the past three years has brought nearly 5,000 Congolese refugees home from the Central African Republic (CAR). The last convoy traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) this weekend carrying just over 130 returnees leaving the CAR capital Bangui. In total, 4,994 Congolese refugees have returned home from CAR.
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks a Postdoctoral Fellow for a two year, fixed-term, renewable appointment with its Environment and Production Technology (EPT) and International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) divisions.
In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, first published in 1899 and years later subject to a polemical but much-needed critique by one of Africa’s most prolific writers, King Leopold’s colonial project in the Congo is described as “the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience.” More than a century later, writes Zahra Moloo, after a protracted war in which an estimated 4.2 million citizens perished and the nation’s stability was invested in the UN’s largest peacekeeping force to date, Conrad’s oft-repeated phrase is, tragically, just as pertinent.
The Center for Reproductive Rights along with partners filed the first human rights legal challenge to a faith-based sex-education program based in the U.S. The program, TeenSTAR, promotes abstinence, discourages the use of contraception, reinforces gender stereotypes, and fosters discrimination against the LGBT community. If the case is successful, it could lay the groundwork for more successful challenges against similar faith-based programs (including those funded by the U.S.-government) in other countries around the world.
The MDC has demanded compensation from the Robert Mugabe regime now that terrorism charges have been dropped against dozens of activists who spent nearly four months in custody. Supporters of the opposition party were rounded up in raids in March when the police claimed to have thwarted plans for a campaign of petrol-bombings. The arrests came days after security forces broke up a planned opposition rally and assaulted MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and scores of supporters and party officials.
Doris Lessing, author of dozens of works from short stories to science fiction, including the classic ‘The Golden Notebook,’ won the Nobel Prize for literature on Thursday. She was praised by the judges for her “scepticism, fire and visionary power.” Because of her criticism of the South African regime, and its apartheid system, she was prohibited from entering the country between 1956 and 1995. Lessing, who was a member of the British Communist Party in the 1950s, had also campaigned against nuclear weapons.
Environmental groups in Gabon demanded on Thursday the government reveal the terms of a $3 billion iron ore mining deal with China, saying they feared the huge project could damage an area of virgin forest. The project, awarded to state-owned China National Machinery & Equipment Import & Export Corp., is for the construction of an big iron ore mine in the Belinga mountains of Gabon's remote northeast Ogooue-Ivindo province. The Chinese group expects to complete the mine in three years.
An expanded World Bank malaria program has shown major progress in fighting the mosquito-borne disease, but more funding is needed if a target of reducing the disease by 75 percent by 2010 is to be reached, the bank's head for Africa said on Thursday.
Former rebels in southern Sudan have withdrawn their members from a national coalition government, party officials said on Thursday, to pressure their northern partners to reignite a stalled peace process. "The SPLM (Sudan People's Liberation Movement) has recalled all ministers and presidential advisers from the government of national unity," SPLM Secretary-General Pagan Amum told reporters in the southern capital Juba.
Dissident Congolese general Laurent Nkunda has called for a fresh ceasefire, claiming that the army's artillery fire in North Kivu province was hitting civilians. Government forces have retaken several villages from troops loyal to Nkunda, according to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), MONUC.
The history of African Europeans is little known, but this is beginning to change as more research is conducted on the subject. In this essay, Onyekachi Wambu, film maker, journalist, and editor of the recently published, Under the Tree of Talking featuring several African intellectuals including Chinua Achebe, Ali Mazrui, Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Chinweizu, William Gumede, Wangui wa Goro, Kimani Ngoju, Martha Chinouya, Eva Dadrian, Marianna Ofosu and others, explores the work of black writers in Britain since the 18th century.
While the Zimbabwean crisis is deepening, the continued focus on the description of the crisis at the expense of finding solutions to it has been unhelpful, writes Trevor Ncube. That the main protagonists in the crisis have dug themselves into entrenched positions from which they are unwilling or incapable of extricating themselves also is unhelpful.
The African Business Leadership Conference 2007 will be held in Accra, Ghana, October 17-19, 2007. Among the renowned speakers at the conference, writes Carole Muchendu, will be Jerry Vilakazi, whose passion for transformation, social equality and the economic development of the entire African Continent is evident in his current role as CEO of Business Unity of South Africa (BUSA).
The Kenyan government's free antiretroviral (ARV) programme has reached more than 160,000 people in need of the life-prolonging therapy, but experts say unless this momentum is accompanied by an equally aggressive treatment literacy campaign, widespread drug resistance could result. "The ARV programme has not been well-matched with [a] crucial treatment literacy campaign," said Ken Odumbe, ActionAid Kenya's HIV coordinator for Western and Nyanza provinces, which have been hit hard by the pandemic.
A new Ugandan pharmaceutical factory has begun producing antiretroviral medication drugs locally, something the government says will significantly increase the number of HIV-positive people accessing the life-prolonging drugs across the country and the East African region. The US$38 million factory is the first in Africa to produce full triple-therapy generic antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), and is based in a suburb in the south of the capital, Kampala.
The Legaletlwa High School has opened a new computer centre to allow school going kids access to the web. The centre was opened by the Minister of Public Service and Administration, Ms Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi. Present at the launch of the centre were Mec of education in Limpopo Dr Aaron Motswaledi, Mayor of greater Sekhukhune municipality His Excellency Namane Masemola, Makhuduthamaga mayor Queen Mkhabela, and the Chief Executive Officer of TSS (Tactical Software Systems) Mr. Danny Mackay.
The High authority of audio-visual and communication (HAAC) of Togo has criticesed the use of SMSees in Togo's election campaign. In a watershed decision the High Court on Tuesday denounced the publication of short messages by a member of the RPT which is the rulling party in Togo to send SMS messages to potential voters.
Telecommunications equipment supplier Ericsson in partnership with Columbia's University's Earth Institute has set aside Sh600 million to connect African villages to the information super highway.
Institutions of higher education around the world are embracing the concept of online education as technological developments continue to cement their role in global development. The United Nations University has also embraced the idea of providing online education through the Global Virtual University (GVU), currently headquartered at GRID-Arendal in Norway. Launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in September 2002, the UNU-GVU offers short and masters-level online courses in environment and development issues.
Algerian political parties and independents have been busy putting the finishing touches on their candidate lists for the November 29th local elections. The possibility of greater flexibility in governing at the local level has sparked more interest in the elections.
Tens of thousands of uprooted people have welcomed plans for the creation of a UN-mandated multi-dimensional mission to protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid in volatile parts of Chad and Central African Republic. But many fear it will come too late to prevent more attacks on refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs).
Six Bushmen have been arrested for hunting in New Xade resettlement camp, according to First People of the Kalahari, a Bushman human rights organisation. The latest arrests bring the total number of Bushmen arrested for hunting since last year’s landmark court ruling to at least forty-eight, with most being arrested since June this year.
With the view to preserving the history of black gay people in South Africa, Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (formerly Gays and Lesbians Archives of South Africa [GALA]) published a book entitled Till the time of trial – The Prison letters of Simon Nkoli. The book was launched a week ago in Johannesburg at Constitution Hill. While celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action contributes to the development of human rights and democracy in the country by sharing its archived information about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) affairs with communities.
The Johannesburg Pride week took off at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, on Monday 01 October with educational workshops by gay and lesbian organisations such as OUT LGBT-Wellbeing (OUT), Forum for Empowerment of Women (FEW), Behind The Mask (BTM) and some other affiliates. Sexual and mental health, sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community and voluntary testing were central issues of discussion leading to the Johannesburg Pride Parade.
One of Africa's largest rubbish dumps is harming the health of children living nearby and polluting the Kenyan capital Nairobi, according to a report from the UN. The study, commissioned by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), based in Nairobi, found that half of 328 children tested near the Dandora dump had amounts of lead in their blood exceeding internationally accepted levels.
The last of the 3,200 miners trapped deep in a South African gold shaft for more than 24 hours has been rescued. Buyelwa Sonjica, South Africa's minister for minerals and energy, said that the operation finished on Thursday as the last group was brought to the surface.
Mounting tensions in the oil-rich Abyei region are the most dangerous threat to reignite that war, as the latest report from the International Crisis Group, Sudan: Breaking the Abyei Deadlock,* demonstrates. It examines the dispute over Abyei, the most volatile aspect of the CPA, the deal that ended the country’s twenty-year civil war in which over two million people died. The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) is violating the CPA by refusing the “final and binding” ruling of the Abyei Boundary Commission, leaving an administrative and political vacuum.
Researchers in six African countries can now better protect their rights and benefit from the commercialisation of their research as a result of a project to improve their countries' capacity to address intellectual property issues.
In 1997, the first regional Climate Outlook Forum (COF) took place in Zimbabwe. Forums have since been created in East and West Africa, providing seasonal climate forecasts for each region. The COF forecasts predict rainfall 3–6 months in advance. Initially, efforts to use forecasts were not promising, with inaccuracies leading to lack of trust.
Two Egyptian rights activists, Mohammed al-Dereini and Ahmed Sobh, have been arrested and detained for promoting the rights of the country’s Shi’a minority and criticising the prevalence of torture in Egyptian prisons. Mohammed, who heads the Supreme Council for the Care of the Prophet’s Family, was taken away from his home by security agents before dawn on Monday. Ahmed, the Imam of Ali Center for Human Rights, was arrested on 28 August but was not questioned by the state prosecutor until 29 September.
Pambazuka News 322: South Africa: Silencing the right to speak
Pambazuka News 322: South Africa: Silencing the right to speak
Sept. 30 march for disappeared Haitian fighter for human rights Haiti demonstrations : demand safe return of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sept. 30, 2007 - Haitians are assembling beginning 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning at Place des Martyrs in the capital city, for the annual mass march to commemorate the US-backedmilitary coup that overthrew Haitian democracy and President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on September 30, 1991.
A call for papers has been issued for Labour Crossings: World , Work and History, an international conference to be held at University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa from Friday 5 September to Monday 8 September 2008, and organised by the History Workshop and the Centre for Sociological Research, South Africa, in association with the International Association of Labour History Institutions and the International Conference of Labour and Social History.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/322/blogs_01_africanloft.gifOlu... Akindutire of celebrates Nigeria’s 47th year of independence and asks “Nigeria at 47: Who are our heroes?” and lists 10 of his. A somewhat strange list that includes, Mungo Park, four head’s of state (3 rolled into one) and possibly the strangest of all “the British business men called colonialists”!
He does however include Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka but what about Fela and his mother Mrs Fumilayo Ransom Kuti who fought throughout her life for women’s rights? At number 10, Akindutire remembers the real heroes, those
“unsung or sometimes popular heroes who for one reason or the other became victims of the failed Nigerian project, the millions who died in the civil war and other religious or political riots in Nigeria; those felled by armed robber’s, militant’s, (occultist’s) and or assassin’s bullets; those felled by accidental discharges at check points and those who died as a result of extra-judicial killings or from political scheming and schisms; those who died because of inadequate, unavailable, unaffordable or untimely medical care; those whose careers were either truncated or compromised as a result of inefficient systems or parastatals”
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/322/blogs_02_blogazette.gifThe Blogazette has a more interesting question of Nigeria’s 47th anniversary – “Nigeria must stop killing poets and other citizens”
“On October 1, 2007, Nigeria celebrates 47 years of independence from British rule. Many in Nigeria and elsewhere will be asking themselves what the independence has been all about. If Nigeria were a man who had set forth from home at the age of twenty-one to lead an independent life, should he, forty-seven years later appear unable to function with maturity, certainty and fairness? More importantly, should he have the blood of his offspring on his hands?”
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/322/blogs_03_bwie.gifWomen in Europe report back on the Black Women in Europe Congress being held in Vienna last week. From her account the conference was a success with much bonding of women and also the fact that the event was reported in the local Austrian press.
“Emotions ran high as discussions and debates revealed our deep desire to participate in a dialogue about what it means to be a Black Women in Europe. I wept because I was so overwhelmed at the amount of abounding love, and the intense feeling of belonging. This is something Black Women in Europe seldom feel.”
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/322/blogs_04_sociolingo.gifSociolingo reports from Namibia and Senegal on indigenous language policies in schools. In Namibia children will be taught in their mother tongue from Grade 1-3 and from there on English classes will be taught in English but mother tongue languages will continue to be taught as a subject. In Senegal no decisions have been taken as yet except to say that children should “be able to learn in their own languages”.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/322/blogs_05_sasucks.gifWhy South Africa Sucks . For those who doubt there are still left over racists lurking on the streets (well behind their 10ft fences in urbanland or in other shady places – this blogger reminds us of the myth rainbow nation/people in post oops – apartheid South Africa.
“Ever so often, we get comments from readers of this blog, who froth at the mouth because we are so "racist". A friend of mine wrote the following piece and he emailed it to me today.....I reckon he succinctly sums up the bottom line. To those bleeding hearts who flatly refuse to acknowledge the hard facts about SA - take note. Thanks Fred.
Everything in South Africa is so politically correct, that very few Whites want to face up to the fact of what is really happening in our beloved country!
Answer the following questions and you will realise why South Africa is fast becoming another African basket case country.”
His solution? “If each of us must seize the opportunity to take active steps to make the necessary changes, we are all destined to be slaves under depraved politicians in our own fatherland.”
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/322/blogs_06_kubatana.gifhttp://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/322/blogs_07_youmissed.gifKumaKucha – You’ve Missed This reports on the outcome of an election rally in Uhuru Park, Nairobi following which violence erupted in the informal settlement of Kibera.
“I was very disappointed with the violence that erupted again in Kibera when Mr. Money bags Livondo decided to move with his entourage of vijana na Kibaki to Kibera after holding a rally at Uhuru Park…..I do not support political violence in any form or from supporters of anyone even my favorite Presidential candidate. I also agree that it is every ones constitutional right to vie for a civic or parliamentary seat anywhere in this Country. Freedom of movement is also every Citizen’s right.”
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/322/blogs_08_sudanese.gifSudanese Thinker links to “two new excellent blogs on Sudan”.
“Anyways, today I want to bring your attention to two excellent blogs which don’t contain the usual and annoying inaccuracies you see elsewhere.
Andrew Heavens, a journalist, has been writing a nice series of short posts at his blog. He’s now based in Sudan. Rob Crilly is also a journalist who travels to Sudan quite often. In fact he just returned from Darfur back to Nairobi recently. They’ve got some good stuff and by going through their posts, one can observe they have a deep understanding of what’s happening.”
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/322/blogs_09_committee.gifCommittee To Protect Bloggers has been reactivated after a year’s hiatus due to lack of funds. The aim of the CTPC is
“devoted to the protection of bloggers worldwide with a focus on highlighting the plight of bloggers threatened and imprisoned by their government. We support the right of bloggers, regardless of professional status or engagement in activism, to speak and we do so regardless of their ethnicity, national origin, religion or political beliefs.”
The CTPC can also be found on Face Book causes at http://www.blacklooks.org
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
The position will be based in Lusaka, with extensive travel to 16 project sites in Lusaka and all the provinces and will be housed within the Broadcasting Programme of MISA Zambia.
For further information Email: [email][email protected]
I do want to commend Henning for his piece on Namibia and what is being lost in the process of clamping down on those who are seeking to heal the wounds of a liberation process which has maimed, tortured and killed some of the best among Africans.
Thank you Henning for pointing out what more could be lost if we do not raise the same voices which led to removing the shackles of apartheid. As I see it, the way truth and reconciliation processes have been dealt with, especially from the South African example, have left a lot to be desired. I am not interested in going through a step by step analysis of what was wrong. One could go for a long time. For those who are interested in seeing how a novelist has offered his view on how to go about healing, I recommend Ayi Kwei Armah's Healers which came out in 1978 as a disguised response to Chinua Achebe's things Fall Apart.
Armah's Healers, I am sure, will have its detractors, but it shows that the only way to heal from any wound, however deep is to go back to the most positive values of our societies, unflinchingly and without fear. Unfortunately, fear is one of the emotions most easily used and abused by those who want to insist on only one truth, their own.
Yet, healing, the desire to heal, like love, is one of the most universal emotions. Leaders who would lead their people toward reconciliation and healing would bring out all the burried truths which, like all truths, sooner or later, shall come out anyway. Such leaders should let go of their own fears or shame. Fears of being accused of being weak, shame of knowing specific cases of people who should never ever been tortured, maimed or killed.
To heal is probably one of the most difficult things to do because, given the dominant mindset, it is perceived as a sign of weakness to accept that something wrong has been done to oneself or to others. The dominant mindset stresses power through relentless violence. The enslavers and then the colonizers used to remind themselves that the only thing Africans understood was violence and brutal force. The more brutal the better. The dominant mindset can be seen at work in the Middle East, in Darfur, in Irak. It is highly contagious, especially among those who end up exercising state power. I remember reading about someone who had been in Robben Island (No it was not Mandela) and who had written a piece in a philosophy journal. His main point was that thefight against apartheid was a double fight: one to free the whites from themselves and then to free the blacks from the yoke of apartheid.
The equation has not changed: one has to continue fighting to free those who are in power to free themselves from how they have come to define power in the very same way as the previous holders. Real, deep, lasting healing can only happen as far away from the shackles of state power. If state or parastatal rationale is brought to bear it will derail any serious attempt to heal. Healing can only happen if all sides let go of habits and difinitions which are antagonistic to healing.
Can one heal without the help of state power? Indeed, the only way to heal is without the help of state power.
I shall stop here because it is my sense that Henning has touched upon one of the rawest wounds not just left over from colonial rule, but from way way back, from many layers. In that spirit, would it be wrong to suggest to the scandinavian countries which decided to pull away from Namibia that there are other possibilities (and, who knows, maybe they are doing it), such as encouraging European nations, the Vatican, the US, Arab nations which benefited from Atlantic and Oriental slavery to acknowledge what happened as a crime against humanity. The size of which is difficult to measure, except by going through a healing process where the primary concern is to heal from the mindset which developed out of the consequences (the benefits) of the crime. If it is started as a genuine process, then it could lead to real, deep and long lasting healing. Not just for Africans, not just for the victims, but for all humanity.
Thank you again Henning.
The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), the government of Uganda and Microsoft have signed a letter of intent pledging to set up a local economic growth software centre within twelve months and a software development programme for the country. The pact was signed by Uganda's minister of Information and Communication Technology Dr. Ham Mukasa Mulira, Dr. Geoffrey Mariki, the UNIDO representative for East Africa and Mr. Louis Otieno, the Microsoft general manager for East and Southern Africa.
The South African E-government Learning Network workshop was held recently in Pretoria to learn about Legislative framework that governs ICT, Framework gap analysis, Feedback on the implementation of the frameworks and the way-forward for ICTs in South Africa. 'we are here to learn and understand ICT legislation, to improve service delivery and ensure compliance' said Lufuno Raliphana, director at the Department of Public Service and Administration.
Over 500,000 people in Ghana's rural and peri-urban communities are benefiting from the establishment of about 69 Rural Business Centres (RBCs) aimed at connecting the communities to the outside world and also to educate them on the uses and benefits of ICTs. The centres, established under the Ghana Telecom's eCommerce and Renewable Energy (eCARE) programme has been running since 2003 with just about three of such centres piloted as at 2005.
Deputy Director (Communications and fundraising)
AFRA is an independent progressive Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), working with rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal on land rights and rural development issues.
CIVICUS seeks to recruit Associates for its Civil Society Watch Programme (CSW).
Growing evidence shows that getting and keeping young people in school, particularly girls, dramatically lowers their vulnerability to HIV. By itself, merely attending primary school makes young people significantly less likely to contract HIV. When young people stay in school through the secondary level, education’s protective effect against HIV is even more pronounced.
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and Independent Advocacy Project (IAP) have called on the African Union and all African governments, including Nigeria and South Africa to act immediately to demand that the Sudanese government, armed groups and Janjawid militia in Darfur and eastern Chad to halt attacks against civilians and humanitarian agencies.
Good journalism can shape public opinion and act as a lever for policy change. It can raise awkward questions and champion the views of poor people. At a time when the world is struggling to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, this PANOS report argues that many international donors are yet to appreciate that a vibrant, independent media sector is essential for development and needs support.
Commonwealth presidents and prime ministers, who meet every two years in a CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) almost always say something about human rights. But there are huge differences between comments which are banal, and commitments which lead to specific action by the Commonwealth Secretariat and member governments.
The International Women’s Media Foundation seeks proposals for a research consultant to conduct a needs assessment of the current news media environment with respect to agriculture, rural development and women in Africa. The needs assessment is an integral part of the first phase of a four-year project that the IWMF will conduct among news media organizations in Africa.
Calls for increased participation of women in policy-making decisions are on the rise as world leaders prepare to attend an international meeting on climate change to be held at U.N. headquarters. Most governments have largely failed to consider the gender aspects of climate change, women leaders representing numerous civil society groups told reporters at a recent news conference.
A high-level dialogue entitled Mobilizing Aid for Trade: Focus African countries will take place in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, the 1st and 2nd of October 2007. This event is organized by the African Development Bank, the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in cooperation with the World Bank and hosted by the Government of Tanzania.
We are appalled and deeply disturbed by the unprovoked violent and aggressive action of the SAPS at the public gathering organised by Abahlali baseMjondolo held in Sydenham, Durban on 28 September.