Pambazuka News 320: Standing or falling together
Pambazuka News 320: Standing or falling together
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/320/43382.jpgEvery company, every community, every organisation, every household and every citizen, says Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, should take part in programmes designed to rein in emissions causing global warming. The sentiment may be commendable, but the developed world has not yet taken it to heart sufficiently. Is the same true of the developing world? Four people involved in environmental issues in developing countries around the world discuss the state of things in their country and what they they think needs to change.
What’s happening now?
'Virtually nothing!' is currently being done about climate change in the Arab region, according to Najib Saab, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia (Environment & Development). (As an index of this, his magazine is the only one in the region dealing with environmental issues.) ‘The oil exporters [the rich Arab countries of the Gulf] have a “conspiracy theory” about the issue of climate change', he says. ‘They were made to believe that it has been created to hamper their socio-economic development, by imposing trade restrictions on their main source of income, oil.’
The poor Arab countries of the Levant and North Africa, on the other hand, ‘still view climate change as a luxury they cannot afford'. Throughout the region, energy efficiency measures are almost non-existent.
According to Vasant Saberwal of the Ford Foundation in India, very little is happening at government level in India either. ‘There are plenty of stories in the press about retreating glaciers, increased incidence and intensity of rainfall events and drought, and so on, but there is basically no sign of government interest in the subject or the implications of climate change.’
In Nigeria, according to Nnimmo Bassey of Environmental Rights Action, the main problem is resistance from big corporations, in particular oil companies working in the Niger Delta. Communities are trying to make these companies extinguish their gas flares, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. ‘Currently', he says, ‘it is estimated that about 2.5 billion cubic feet of associated gas is flared daily in the Niger Delta region releasing a cocktail of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane sulphur oxides and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere'. The government has set 2008 as a ‘flares out’ target, but Shell has said that this is not feasible.
‘Local communities and civil society groups such as Environmental Rights Action are working to set up Community Climate Crisis Committees to strategically prepare for introduction of survival and mitigation measures.’ In addition, the Nigerian government and local communities have tree-planting exercises to check desert encroachment and at the same time serve as carbon sinks.
We have already heard the Chinese premier’s public pronouncement on the importance of the issue. Wen Bo, Global Greengrants Fund China Coordinator, reports that the country announced a National Climate Change Program in June, which outlined steps to meet a previously announced goal of improving overall energy efficiency in 2010 by 20 per cent over the 2005 level. Wen Jiabao has also urged local governments to curb excessive growth in energy-intensive and polluting industries by measures such as keeping the credit supply in check, while inefficient facilities in thermal power, steel, alumina, iron alloy and cement sectors have been ordered to be shut.
How effective implementation of these recommendations and directives has been is another matter. There is often what Vasant Saberwal calls ‘the classic disjunction between policy and practice’. He cites an instance of it in India which, he says, has the largest number of CDM (clean development mechanism) projects in operation, and in at least some of these sites there are commitments to planting large numbers of trees, with little to show for it. This disjunction, he believes, ‘represents a core part of the problem of such solutions to global warming: how do you enforce compliance following payment for environmental services?’
Developing countries on the receiving end…
Our respondents were largely in agreement that developing countries will suffer most from the consequences of global warming – and, points out Wen Bo, ‘they are also ill prepared for the coming ecological crisis’.
In Nigeria, the coastal belt is low-lying and parts have a tendency to subsidence. ‘Experts estimate that a cumulative sea-level rise of one metre would result in lands lying within 100km of the coastline going under water’, says Nnimmo Bassey. The Arab region, too, ‘will face immense problems in the form of submersion of more than 18,000km of inhabited coastal areas in addition to all the reclaimed land and artificial islands being built in the Arabian Gulf’.
In Nigeria, there are two other serious problems: ‘northern Nigeria is being threatened by the downward march of the Sahara Desert’, says Bassey, while ‘the threat of erosion of livelihoods through crop failures and land pressures in a fragile economy portends a grave disaster’.
…and contributing to a global solution?
So much for the problems they face. On the positive side, what can developing nations do to help find global solutions?
Najib Saab feels that ‘if governments in the Arab Region offer incentives to their population to build solar systems for water heating and electricity generation and support wind energy, that will be a huge opportunity to build the culture of using sustainable/renewable energy’. He mentions the German model whereby the government supports soft loans for individuals to invest in solar panels and wind energy towers with guaranteed purchase of the power generated and cost recovery in less than ten years.
Nnimmo Bassey has a slightly grander vision: ‘Developing nations have the unique opportunity of showing the world that another path to development is possible. This can be done by pioneering a radical shift from the fossil fuel driven path which has brought us all to the precipice.’
Among other things, he advocates a creative interpretation of the measures currently in use to combat climate change and gives as an example ‘the initiative from Ecuador where the government has said they would want to receive carbon credits for keeping the crude oil in the ground in the pristine Yanusi Park’. To him this seems like ‘a practical solution that would both preserve biodiversity and other resources and reduce the supply of fossil fuel, the biggest culprit in this equation’.
Putting aside self-interest
In view of what we have heard about the current state of affairs, what is the likelihood of developing country governments introducing, and peoples embracing, measures to check climate change? Won’t developing countries argue, for instance, that it’s all very well for the developed world to talk about curbing practices that have been crucial to their own economic and industrial development, now that they have entered a post-industrial phase of development, but why shouldn’t developing countries be at liberty to pursue similar means to prosperity?
For Nnimmo Bassey, this is a legitimate question: ‘The emergence of strong growth in developing nations directly raises the issues of equity and justice. I do not see this as just a matter of global warming but one of basic survival in both divides of the world. The arguments over mitigation costs are real, but they belie the real quest to pursue chosen paths of doing things.’
Beyond the question of what is fair, there is a more urgent consideration: ‘Nations must overcome parochial self-interest,’ he says, ‘and realize that we have just one world’.
Wen Bo feels that ‘developing countries would potentially be willing to adjust their development models provided that they are offered technical and financial assistance’. The real barrier, he argues, is political will. ‘“Having a right to develop” is an excuse to ignite nationalistic feeling and avoid being creative in finding an alternative development path.’
Will the poorest lose out?
At a deeper level, Vasant Saberwal is worried that the solutions being suggested might produce a situation where the interests of India’s elite predominate at the expense of those of the very poor. ‘In the past, conserving the environment has often meant converting grasslands into forest lands within which no grazing is permitted. The problem is that the landless in India tend to survive by grazing small herds of animals on common lands...common lands are being identified across the country as wastelands and handed over to private agencies for the production of biofuels. It’s seen as a win-win situation, given that these lands are “unproductive”. Planting jatropha will not only increase vegetation cover, the argument is that it will also lead to improved revenues for residents through carbon credits and fuel production. The only problem is that these are lands that are currently used by the very poor, and so are not “unproductive wastelands” to start with.’
For Nnimmo Bassey, growth in parts of the developing world and the continued and increasing demand in developed countries for energy to fuel their lifestyles throws up the danger of a resources race. ‘The world’, he argues, ‘is already in a serious crisis. And this will only get deeper unless there is a paradigm shift in our modes of production and relations’.
Overcoming the obstacles
Ultimately, feels Najib Saab, ‘developing countries will seriously join the endeavours to fight global warming only when there is a global consensus on the issue within developed countries. This should be accompanied by a practical implementation mechanism’.
He cites the example of ozone depletion, where the implementation of the Montreal Protocol on eliminating ozone-depleting substances ‘would not have been possible without four factors: scientific consensus, which is now also there for climate change; political consensus on clear targets; developing alternative substances which could perform the function of those phased out, and making them available in the market; and a multilateral fund, which helped developing countries cover the cost of phasing out ozone-depleting substances and shifting to safe alternatives. A similar mechanism should be devised for global warming’.
On an optimistic note, he feels that this consensus is coming, with a change of attitude among the US government and people: ‘The next US administration cannot afford to ignore the impact that [Al Gore’s] advocacy campaign on global warming has made, leading to deep change in American perception of the issue, among the public, industries and decision makers alike. In spite of all their reservations, China and India will also join a global consensus, after negotiating suitable trading terms.’
Wen Bo’s approach to the matter is straightforward: ‘We need to empower people and promote people's power around the world. People will know what is best for themselves and for their own environments; and in most cases, they know better than their own governments.’
Showing foundations the opportunities to engage
What can foundations do here? Wen Bo’s view is that foundations and individual donors should support civil society development in countries like China: ‘building a rich and mature global civil society would help educate and pressure governments to act more rationally and responsibly’. They should also support ‘various kinds of individual projects and efforts in tackling climate change’.
Given the levels of interest that the World Bank and other bilateral donors have in developing the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and other solutions to global warming, Vasant Saberwal’s opinion is that ‘smaller private foundations could probably play a key role in monitoring the impacts of these interventions through commissioned studies’. In regard to his own foundation, Ford, he admits that ‘the Delhi office is not doing much on climate change’ but he sees opportunities. ‘There are very large potential community-level earnings from trade in carbon credits or from other forms of payment for environmental services’, he says, and while this could prove a double-edged sword, in that it will attract the potentially predatory attention of the elite, ‘it could also generate opportunities for building coalitions/consensus across social divisions. I think the Foundation should support some pilots to begin to get a sense of either process’.
In Nigeria, says Nnimmo Bassey, foundations are currently active in working with civil society organisations to increase the level of awareness and discourse on climate change. In addition to this, he feels, ‘foundations should support actions that build knowledge on the challenges, that promote alternative production systems and of course that encourage popular grassroots actions to build adaptation and mitigation mechanisms'. He adds: ‘Alliance’s primary audience is grantmaking foundations - many of which, I'm sure, feel the problems of climate change are too big and overwhelming for them to tackle. Our aim is to show them the opportunities to engage.’
This article was first published in Alliance [http://www.alliancemagazine.org/">
Alliance would like to thank the following for contributing to this article:
Nnimmo Bassey Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action, Nigeria
Wen Bo Global Greengrants Fund China Coordinator
Najib Saab Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia, Lebanon
Vasant Saberwal Program Officer, Ford Foundation, India
* Andrew Milner is the Associate Editor of Alliance.
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/320/43383.jpgVincent Kitio argues that the recurring famine across Africa cannot simply be blamed on a lack of water. On the contrary, he suggests that a number of traditional low cost, water lifting technologies for irrigation, that have been used in various arid and semi-desert regions of the world, would go a long way to alleviate famine across the continent.
Recent images shown on Kenyan television could not fail to move even the most stone-hearted among us to tears. It was heart wrenching to see women hopelessly cuddling the lifeless bodies of their children, victims of merciless famine that swept across the country. Many appeals were made by government, churches, and even the corporate world, to help mitigate against the disaster.
Across the continent and to my home country of Cameroon, a similar event recurs almost every two years. Appeals are usually made by those in authority seeking food to help the victims. These are some the issues that leave me pondering how my fellow learned Africans and I and I can contribute to alleviate the suffering our people have been undergoing.
The problem of recurring famine goes deeper than the often touted reason of lack of water to help grow food or for animal use. The water levels available in Kenya are enough to sustain a hunger-free nation. In some parts of Cameroon, people suffer famine despite that country having the distinction of being home to the wettest climate on earth.
Examples abound of how others have managed to overcome famine. Despite the scarcity of water in semi-desert and arid lands of North Africa, the Arab World, the Mediterranean countries and part of the South East Asia, farmers there enjoy better food security, compare to sub-Saharan Africa. This is not because their economies are better off to enable them to easily pump water for irrigation. Long before the discovery of fossil fuel, most of these countries already enjoyed food security. In fact, in order to cope with the harsh climatic conditions with little rains, inhabitants of these dry lands developed traditional knowledge of water lifting techniques to exploit streams, rivers and underground water for irrigation to increase food production. As a result, farmers are able to harness available water to grow crops and harvest up to three times a year. In this process, all available forms of energy are put into use, such as human power, animal power, water power and wind power, to lift water for irrigation.
These ancient water lifting technologies that have been used in Europe, the Arab World and part of Asia for centuries are still ignored in sub-Saharan Africa. Farming in Africa depends heavily on rainfall and human labour; and therefore, agriculture is vulnerable to the weather. As part of a lasting solution to the recurrent drought and famine, there is a pressing need to document, adapt and transfer these technologies to areas suitable for their application.
Famine in Africa has reached unprecedented and disproportion levels. Images of malnourished children, weak adults and carcasses of livestock are portrayed in the mass media every day. All the sub-Saharan Africa countries are affected by this drought, which many people argue could have been prevented or minimised.
Many attribute the origin of this preventable situation to poor governance, corruption, over population, climate change and dependency syndrome on food aid from foreign assistance. The root causes of famine remain the dependency of African agriculture on the weather, particularly the rain. This heavy dependence not only reduces the number of harvest per year, but also gives little freedom to the farmer for proper planning. Several years ago, rain-fed agriculture was not an issue in Africa, since entire communities could migrate from drought areas to greener pastures. This is no longer the case as no free land is available any more.
Globalisation is also contributing to the burden of famine: cheap crop imports dominate some local markets to the detriment of local crops. This situation is worsened by the fact that agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa depends heavily on human labour as opposed to mechanisation. As a result, farmers need to provide more and more effort for little output. The application of irrigation methods in African agriculture remains very limited due to the water drudgery associated to it. The percentage of land irrigated in Africa is the lowest of the world.
It is therefore time to seriously explore other alternatives and affordable ways of improving traditional farming systems. Africa is endowed with permanent rivers that flow undisturbed to the sea, passing through hectares of idle lands suitable for agriculture. Using some of these rivers and streams to irrigate lands will be very beneficial to present and future food security in Africa.
The high operational cost of motor pumps to increase productivity through irrigation is simply not affordable to the majority of African farmers, and the high cost of the pump itself is prohibitive. Drilling boreholes is another solution, but again it is very expensive and costly. It is common knowledge that people living in arid land have developed irrigation techniques that have ensured them food security for centuries. This is the case of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and many other Arab States, India, China and Israel, just to mention a few. Fortunately, despite the advance of modern technology, some of this traditional or indigenous knowledge are still in use today after thousands years of operation.
In the city of Medinet El Faiyum, also known as the Garden of Eden, situated 100km south of Cairo, over 40 waterwheels, known as Noria, are used to lift water from the river Nile for irrigation. In this ancient city known as a garden in the middle of the desert, farmers are able to harvest three times a year despite the fact that the region receives only three days of rain a year. In addition, El Faiyum Governorate is considered as the main granary of Cairo. Ef Faiyum waterwheels were introduced several centuries ago by Ptolemic engineers. They are still working today side by side with electric water pumps to grow olives, vegetables, fruits, nuts, sugar cane, rice and wheat.
The Noria, is a simple wooden waterwheel with buckets which use the flow of the river to lift water to an irrigation aqueduct above the river: water by gravity is directed to several farms. The noria works round the clock, seven days a week, all year round, provided that there is a flow of water. This time-tested technology, invented more than two thousand years ago, most probably by the Romans, has survived up until to today because of their efficiency and effectiveness on food security. Thousands of them are still in operation in Spain, Portugal, Syria, Iraq, Mexico, China (in China, they are made out of bamboo tree). The city of Hama in Syria is very famous for its different norias, built along the Orontes River, some of which are still used to irrigate urban agriculture while others, national heritages, attract thousands of tourists every year.
The Romans relied on irrigation systems to ensure food security in the empire. Roman architects and engineers developed different techniques as described by Vitruvius in 01BC in his Ten Books on Architecture to support their agriculture. Some of these irrigation systems have survived up until today. In 1913, Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary gave this definition: 'Noria - a large water wheel, turned by the action of a stream against its floats, and carrying at its circumference buckets, by which water is raised and discharged into a trough; used in Arabia, China, and elsewhere for irrigating land.'
The Norias found in Spain were introduced during the Islamic domination and have double sets of buckets on each side of their rims, other have two wheels on the same shaft. This allowed the system to increase the amount of water lifted. Spanish priests introduced Norias in Mexico during the colonial period. Some of them are still in operation in farms located in the northern part of the county. Their buckets are made of plastic material as oppose to clay pots or wooden buckets.
Another living testimony of this magnificent time tested technology is the largest noria (over 20 metres) known as Al-Mohammediyyah in Hama, Syria. It was the subject in one of the famous American television programme called Ripley's Believe it or Not! It had the title: 'A water wheel on the Ornotes River in Syria is still working, although it was built in the year 1000.'
Some farmers in Hama use Noria in urban agriculture, and occasionally when the water flow is not enough to turn the waterwheel, up to five motor pumps are needed to lift water to the aqueduct. This age-old technology is very much appropriate to the African rural lifestyle, especially with the fuel price increase that is already impacting negatively on the economic growth.
Persian wheel
The Persian wheel, also known as Saqiya, is a water-lifting device made of two gear wheels and an endless chain of pots or buckets, capable of lifting water from both shallow and deep well. The system is powered by one or two animals (donkey, horse, camel, bullock, buffalo). Person wheels have been used since time immoral to supply water for irrigation in Egypt, the Mediterranean countries, India and China.
Animals revolve around the first wheel and generates horizontal rotations, which are transferred into vertical rotations through gears and, bring up the chain of pots (buckets)that carry water from the well and empty into a conduct. Since animals do not like the boring revolution walk, they are blindfold. This technology has been in use for over 2,000 years. An American geographer, who visited Egypt in 1727, estimated that there were over 200,000 Persian wheels in operation driven by oxen for agriculture purposes.
In the region between India and Pakistan, Persian wheels, known as Rahat in Urdu, are traditional tools used for irrigation. Before their introduction in the region, irrigation was a very tedious and inefficient activity, as it is today in rural African countries, where people have to walk long distances to fetch water. The introduction of this technology improved agricultural productivity substantially in medieval India. As a result of a successful rural electrification programme across India, electric pumps are gradually replacing this time tested device. Despite the availability of modern energy, Persian wheels remain popular in the Indian region of Rajasthan. It is estimated that one Persian wheel can irrigate up to one hectare of land.
Sakia
Another water raising device that is worth to mention here is the Sakia. Sakia is an ancient water-lifting technology that has been in used intensively in Egypt, where it originated from time immemorial. The device is efficient and effective widely used in the Nile Valley and Delta. Sakia is made of a large hollow wheel with scoops around its periphery, and water discharges at its centre. The diameters of the Sakia range from 2-5m; and they lift water from 0.8-1.8m respectively.
Sakias originally made of wood, are now made from galvanized sheet steel with gears system that convert the horizontal rotation into vertical rotation. There are mainly powered by animal, but recently some are using electric or gasoline motors. According to the Egyptian Hydraulic Research and Experimental Station, more than 300,000 Sakias are in use in the Nile Valley and Delta mostly driven by animals. A Sakia of 5m diameter will lift around 36m3/h of water, while a 2m diameter model will lift 114 m3/h.
Wind pump
Simple wind pumps as opposed to the sophisticated and costly ones that are occasionally seen in some African rural areas are another appropriate solution for irrigation. In the mountain plateau of Lassithi in Crete, Greece, simple wind pumps have being used for over 400 years to irrigate land that produces crops mainly vegetables, fruits and wheat. These wind pumps, manufactured locally by village craftsmen, were originally made of wood and cloth. Wood was later on replaced by metal steel in order to extend the lifespan. A decade ago, over 10,000 windmills could be found in the plateau, each farmer owning at least one of them to supply water for irrigation. Today, less than 2,000 are in operation, as a result of European Union’s agricultural subsidy policies to purchase farmer’s implements. Traditional windmills are gradually being replaced with electric pumps. Model windmills are sold to tourists as souvenirs. When there is wind, each windmill pumps water from a well to a tank, and the water is later used by the farmer to irrigate their gardens by gravity. African coastal areas and hilly regions with permanent winds are ideal place for the application of this technology.
Conclusion
This clean and affordable technology for water lifting remains unknown to sub-Sahara African farmers. If thousands of them are introduced in the continent along its many rivers and streams to irrigate idle lands, food will be soon in abundance on the local markets, in just three months: the average time to grow and harvest vegetables badly needed to stop the spread of malnutrition.
Food aid should not be seen as a long-term solution, people should be empowered with affordable technologies that can help them to overcome present and future period of food shortages.
All this traditional knowledge of water lifting techniques can be domestically manufactured with local material: no imported part is required, no fossil fuel is needed and human power is saved.
This technology may seem very old, but its efficiency surpasses those of the imported motor pumps. It is regrettable to note that despite the 21st century high-tech society, one in six people have no access to clean water. Therefore any affordable solution that can bring water closer to people should be considered as an innovation rather than an attempt to bring development back.
To make famine history in Africa we need to introduce these affordable, tangible, proven, and traditional knowledge from the arid world to African farmers. The creativity of Africa's informal sector will innovate and adapt the technology to different local social and economic conditions, aiming at ensuring lasting food security.
While exploring modern technology to address the famine situation in Africa, it will be wise to consider the know-how that is in the public domain and does not require any copyright to be negotiated. Since the technologies described here are in operation, as we speak, in Egypt and Syria, it would be highly appreciated if stakeholders in the fight against hunger in Africa visit Medina El Faiyum in Egypt and Hama in Syria to witness how these simple traditional technologies can turn arid land into forest. This will be the beginning of the end of famine in Africa.
* A Cameroonian national, Vincent Kitio is an architect and expert in renewable energy and appropriate technologies for sustainable development, working at the Nairobi headquarters of UN-HABITAT, as an energy advisor.
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Keith Goddard of the organisation Gay and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) suggests that attitudes towards LGBTI rights are a 'litmus test for any democracy'. Human rights must be all inclusive in protecting 'minorities from the excesses of the majority as they protect populations from excesses of the state'.
It is reassuring when one can assume the protection of a large body of international instruments espousing values about rights and freedoms for all members of humanity. But how do these noble documents translate into the lives of ordinary people, in particular the lives of the poor and powerless who need the greatest protection?
They seem particularly abstract and remote at the moment for the lives of most ordinary Zimbabweans, many of whom are struggling to merely survive, or are scrambling to escape from the prevailing political chaos. And in Zimbabwe, it is not only the poor and powerless who are disadvantaged - it is everybody.
The severe deterioration in the human rights record of Zimbabwe has led to a situation where no one’s rights are any longer guaranteed. With the breakdown of law and order, any rights afforded are done so at the whim of the state. Government appears invincible, and no one, inside or outside Zimbabwe, seems able to hold it to account. At present, it appears there is little else that we can do other than sit tight, hope for the best, and when the worst happens, make a plan.
But human rights organisations such as GALZ cannot become dormant; they exist and are responsible for bringing about change for the better.
It is easy to argue that GALZ is unique in that it is the only organisation specifically catering to the needs of LGBTI people in Zimbabwe. Ergo GALZ is too small to make any significant impact within the broader environment. But if GALZ disappeared over night, would it make any noticeable difference?
Luckily, the answer is yes, at least for the few hundred members of GALZ, most of whom, according to an evaluation conducted by the Dutch agency Hivos of the Southern African LGBTI programme, feel that their confidence has been boosted since joining the association. They have ‘learnt something’ and have benefited from the association’s services. But as members of the general population, the quality of life for GALZ members is surely still deteriorating.
Within broader society, GALZ has certainly made significant inroads into being at least ‘tolerated’ within the NGO world, although there is often still a reluctance to mainstream LGBTI issues within these organisations' programmes, not necessarily because of any overt homophobia but because of fears of reprisal from the state.
Marginalising of GALZ is unfortunate, although it does make the organisation even more relevant to those it serves. As far as government is concerned, GALZ is at an impasse and has basically given up.
GALZ may seem small and insignificant but human rights are not about numbers. In fact, human rights exist as much to protect minorities from the excesses of the majority as they do to protect populations from excesses of the state. The struggle for the promotion of a human rights culture is not a linear process. Small and often unforeseen victories often turn out to be as important as any major breakthrough. Just hanging on in there and waiting for a chance to seize is a valid enough reason to exist.
It could be argued that attitudes towards LGBTI rights are a litmus test for any democracy: the burst of government attacks on gay and lesbian people, starting in early 1995, marked the start of a new phase in the serious national decline we now find ourselves in. They ought to have been a warning signal that things were about to get worse.
Human rights organisations should never remain inert, even in the face of apparent demoralising failure to achieve anything positive. They need to be strong, refuse to capitulate and instead espouse a culture of hope, even if this is only among a limited few.
With the worsening humanitarian crisis in the country, GALZ has tried to be imaginative and seek the best ways in which to remain relevant, both to the lives of its members, and within broader society. It has been equally cautious to avoid encouraging feelings of dependency amongst its membership, which in the long term benefit no one.
In recent years, the organisation has also fought against its detractors using the LGBTI issue to deflect attention away from the real problems of Zimbabwe, preferring not to be reactive towards homophobia, but instead proactive in putting out positive publicity about LGBTI issues, albeit it in a limited way.
A welcome break came in 2006 when GALZ was introduced by the Kosmopolis Institute of the University for Humanistics in Utrecht to the 'Capability Approach' developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. This is a conceptual framework which attempts to measure the ability of a human being to enjoy his or her life, both in terms of drawing on what is available within the broader social environment, and in terms of an individual’s personal capacity to benefit from his or her surroundings.
The Capability Approach is not an alternative to the human rights discourse: it could be described as the flip side to the same coin. As its name suggests, the difference lies more in the approach, focusing as it does on the way in which human rights translate into meaningful experience. The ten basic capabilities are particularly relevant to situations where human rights are denied. They help measure an individual’s ability to cope and perhaps even flourish under difficult circumstances. They are summarised as follows:
- Life. Being able to live to the end of a human life of normal length; not dying prematurely, or before one's life is so reduced as to be not worth living.
- Bodily Health. Being able to have good health, including reproductive health; to be adequately nourished; to have adequate shelter.
- Bodily Integrity. Being able to move freely from place to place; to be secure against violent assault, including sexual assault and domestic violence; having opportunities for sexual satisfaction and for choice in matters of reproduction.
- Senses, Imagination, and Thought. Being able to use the senses, to imagine, think, and reason - and to do these things in a 'truly human' way, a way informed and cultivated by an adequate education, including, but by no means limited to, literacy and basic mathematical and scientific training. Being able to use imagination and thought in connection with experiencing and producing works and events of one's own choice, religious, literary, musical, and so forth. Being able to use one's mind in ways protected by guarantees of freedom of expression with respect to both political and artistic speech, and freedom of religious exercise. Being able to have pleasurable experiences and to avoid non-beneficial pain.
- Emotions. Being able to have attachments to things and people outside ourselves; to love those who love and care for us, to grieve at their absence; in general, to love, to grieve, to experience longing, gratitude, and justified anger. Not having one's emotional development blighted by fear and anxiety. (Supporting this capability means supporting forms of human association that can be shown to be crucial in their development.)
- Practical Reason. Being able to form a conception of the good and to engage in critical reflection about the planning of one's life. (This entails protection for the liberty of conscience and religious observance.)
- Affiliation. Being able to live with and toward others, to recognize and show concern for other human beings, to engage in various forms of social interaction; to be able to imagine the situation of another. (Protecting this capability means protecting institutions that constitute and nourish such forms of affiliation, and also protecting the freedom of assembly and political speech.)
Having the social bases of self-respect and non-humiliation; being able to be treated as a dignified being whose worth is equal to that of others. This entails provisions of non-discrimination on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, caste, religion, national origin.
- Other Species. Being able to live with concern for and in relation to animals, plants, and the world of nature.
- Play. Being able to laugh, to play, to enjoy recreational activities.
- Control over one's Environment:
Political. Being able to participate effectively in political choices that govern one's life; having the right of political participation, protections of free speech and association.
Material. Being able to hold property (both land and movable goods), and having property rights on an equal basis with others; having the right to seek employment on an equal basis with others; having the freedom from unwarranted search and seizure. In work, being able to work as a human being, exercising practical reason and entering into meaningful relationships of mutual recognition with other workers.
Although it is problematic in Zimbabwe to maintain ‘control over one’s environment’, this in no way diminishes the relevance of the other nine capabilities to the work of an organisation such as GALZ. It is precisely because of the lack of political freedoms that Zimbabwe is now in crisis and plunging into deeper decline and poverty and why other measures of progress need to be taken into consideration.
The GALZ social empowerment programmes, Skills for Life and the Women’s Scholarship Programme, are obvious examples of the application of the Capability Approach, although the organisation adopted them prior to its being aware of this philosophy.
Although it could be argued that the 'Positive Image' access to treatment scheme has encouraged dependency, it has nevertheless saved and given extended quality to the lives of those who would otherwise have died of Aids.
It may seem trivial for a philosophy to incorporate the ability to laugh, play and enjoy recreational activities. But in an oppressive political and homophobic climate, merely offering safe space to relax in is not something to be denigrated. The very existence of the GALZ Centre and the safe space it offers is an encouraging symbol of hope, although there are questions about whether it is enough to provide just a place to drink and dance. To balance this, GALZ has now instituted a programme of entertainment, including sporting activities designed to provide greater variety in members’ lives.
In 2006, GALZ started to move away from serious workshops which, in the past, it has felt obligated to provide as part of fulfilling a mandate that was seen as serious. Although workshops still have their place, the more informal, relaxed group discussions have proved highly popular, since most participants see these opportunities to talk and share ideas as liberating and a chance to express opinions freely, and be treated with respect. And just listening to the experiences of others trying to cope with family pressures can be more helpful than a formal workshop on relationships when it comes to dispelling feelings of confusion and doubt.
The emotional development of a human being is as important as his or her physical protection. The increasing professionalism of GALZ’s counselling services means that members are receiving meaningful help in dealing with emotional problems. By the same token, the annual women’s retreat has proved an invaluable space in which women can open up, often about painful emotional experiences, and gain support from others. But it is often the casual conversations in the health department or the recreational activities of a retreat that help the most.
In all, the Capability Approach is proving useful for determining the ability of GALZ members to reach their full capacity as humans, whether or not they are denied fundamental freedoms such as freedom from hunger and freedom of expression. Many members have used GALZ as a stepping stone to make significant improvements in their lives. Those who have escaped and sought asylum elsewhere can be included in this. This is at it should be. In the wider context, if GALZ were to disappear overnight, LGBTI people in the rest of Africa and the world would be devastated: they would have lost a close member of the family and a strong source of inspiration to continue fighting for justice for all LGBTI people throughout the world.
* Keith Goddard is a human rights defender and a member of GALZ Zimbabwe.
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Dibussi Tande is an Anglophone Cameroonian. At least this is the threshold on which he stands in this collection of poetry titled No Turning Back. Yet Dibussi forces us to turn back and look at the pivotal volcanic moments in Cameroon’s history, 1990-1993. During this time, the wind of change which brought down the Berlin Wall and fuelled the Perestroika train reached Cameroon.
The result was not only the launching of the Social Democratic front by Ni John Fru Ndi in 1990, an event which ushered in multi-party politics in Cameroon, but a renaissance of Anglophone Cameroon nationalism, or what became known as 'the Anglophone Cameroon question'.
After over thirty years of a hopeless marriage with La Republic du Cameroun, Anglophone Cameroonians embarked on self-determination amidst arbitrary arrests, civil unrest, death threats, including cultural and political annihilation. The crowning moment of this self-determination was the organisation of the first All Anglophone Conference in 1993.
As a student activist and budding journalist during this historic period, Dibussi captures cadences of this struggle eloquently in this collection of poetry.
As the foremost Anglophone Cameroon playwright, Bate Besong, holds 'A writer with no sense of history is like a sparrow without wings, for the writer must be the visionary of living truth'. The poems in this collection thus frame the individual in a historical sweep of events.
The collection is divided into three sections. The first section is titled Visions. It is George Ngwane, the Anglophone Cameroon Africanist scholar who opined that where the older generation in Cameroon dreamt dreams, the young men of today should see visions. Yes, Dibussi Tande has a vision of a more humane and peaceful Cameroon and Africa. But that peace will definitely come at a price. For example although in the poem, 'Gathering Clouds', the clouds are followed by 'lightening' that 'violently barks' and the speaker sees 'fury in the horizon', one is also aware of the cleansing nature of a violent down pour.
Like James Ene Henshaw’s Fortune Teller puts it in his memorable play, This is our chance, 'A mighty wind shall blow, a great rain shall fall, much harm shall be done. But out of destruction there shall be calm’. This same duality is captured in the title poem of the collection, 'No turning back'. In this poem, the poet holds that 'Stars shine brightest/when the day is darkest'. In fact, Dibussi like Henshaw’s Fortune Teller, concludes this poem with these words:
Tyranny shall glow
And blood will flow
But the dream shall live on
Until freedom is won.
Moreover, a poem like 'Detention Blues', which captures the loss of freedom and torture from soldiers with 'sadistic glee', still ends on an energetic note, 'But our cause had been noble and right'. In addition, another poem 'Liberty city' captures this hopeful vision as the poet declares, 'hold on freedom lover/Darkness would soon be over'.
But Dibussi’s vision for a better world stretches beyond Cameroon. 'El Norte', 'Black Power' and 'Fading Dream' frame the United States as a place with paradoxes that may see Martin Luther King’s dream fade away if the vision of 'Medgar, Martin and Malcolm….(continue to be) devoured'.
The second section of this collection of poems 'Tribulations' is the vantage position from which the poet can be a visionary. The titles are very revealing. The titles range from 'Plunderers', 'Disillusion', 'Betrayed', to 'Democrazy'. With these titles one can easily piece together the story of Cameroon: The ruling president for 25 years and counting, Paul Biya has plundered the nation, the people feel betrayed, disillusion is rampant and 'demoCRAZY' now reigns.
However the third section titled 'Songs of hope' brings the reader back to a vision of hope. These poems return to Dibussi’s main area of focus, Anglophone Cameroon. In the opening poem of the section, 'Broken Dreams', he considers Anglophone Cameroonians in a francophone dominated Republic of Cameroon as:
A minority deprived of its dignity
And callously cheated of its property
The helpless victims of majority rule
It is a situation which Emmanuel Doh has also called 'horizontal colonialism' and according to the revolutionary playwright and poet, Bate Besong, 'the agony of the Anglophone Cameroon question is compounded by the endless uncertainty as to whether there would ever be an end to it'. But it is precisely the end that Dibussi sees in the final poem of the collection, 'We Shall Rise Again'. This is Dibussi’s apocalyptic vision for Anglophone Cameroon:
The mighty Fako mountain
And the crumbling Bismarck fountain
Shall spit out freedom’s fiery venom
That will end this shameful serfdom;
Our Nation shall be born again
And our freedom forever regained.
This poem carries the image and vision of hope that dominates the collection. While the 'crumbling Bismarck fountain' acknowledges our crumbling colonial past, the image of 'mighty Fako Mountain' underscores the potential of postcolonial realities. But what stands out here is that Dibussi sees the hibridity embedded in these two powerful images as the foundation of a new nation, a new nation where Anglophone Cameroonians would not be treated as 'serfs' on their own land and our past will play a role in our present for a wholesome human existence.
However, besides the content, what makes this collection of poems truly memorable is the lucidity with which the poems are rendered. These poems exude the poet’s youthful exuberance at the time that they were written. The poems are very accessible and despite Dibussi’s admiration for the prolific playwright and poet, Bate Besong’s 'Soyinka style' of poetry, Dibussi instead fits into the poetic school of another prolific poet, Niyi Osundare. In an interview, Osundare explained that poems by poets of the generation before him like:
Soyinka, Okigbo, J.P Clark and Kofi Awoonor where extremely difficult, particularly those by Soyinka and Okigbo...When I started writing…I felt it was the duty of the new generation of Nigerian (African) poets to bring poetry back to the people.
With poetry collections like Dibussi’s, poetry readily returns to the people and this is worthy of our attention.
Dibussi Tande: No Turning Back: Poems of Freedom, 1990 – 1993. Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa Publishers. 2007. Available from the African Books Collective and Michigan State University Press,
Works cited
Besong, Bate. “Foreword” “Anglophone Cameroon Literature: is there such a thing”. Anglophone Cameroon Writing, Ed. Lyonga, Nalova, Bole Butake and Eckhard Breitinger. Bayreuth: University of Bayreuth, 1993. 16-18
Doh, Emmanuel, “Anglophone Cameroon Literature: is there such a thing”. Anglophone Cameroon Writing, Ed. Lyonga, Nalova, Bole Butake and Eckhard Breitinger. Bayreuth: University of Bayreuth, 1993. 76-83
Henshaw, E. James. This is our chance: Plays from West Africa. Ibadan: University of London Press, 1956. 14
Ngwane George, Interview with Joyce Ashuntantang, The Herald Newspaper, 1993.
Osundare, Niyi. Interview with Osundare” Presence Africaine 147 (1988). 97
Review by Joyce Ashutantang, Ph.D. (Department of English, University of Connecticut, Greater Hartford, USA).
Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
When Bodies Remember: Experiences and Politics of Aids in South Africa by Didier Fassin, translated by Amy Jacobs and Gabrielle Varro
The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West and the Fight against Aids by Helen Epstein
This guidebook, Claiming Rights, Claiming Justice: A Guidebook on Women Human Rights Defenders, is an important initiative to acknowledge the valuable contribution of women human rights defenders in the promotion and protection of human rights, and to empower them further in their role. It builds on their achievements, including those attained in the framework of the three-year international campaign on women human rights defenders.
On 13 September 2007, Asana Gordon, central regional correspondent of the Accra-based privately owned daily newspaper Daily Dispatch, was barred from covering the Central Regional Health Service awards ceremony to honour stakeholders in the health sector by Clarence Lartey, the public relations officer of the Central Regional Coordinating Council (RCC).
On 23 August 2007, Tendai Murove was charged and convicted, on his own plea of guilt, to contravening section 26(1)(a) as read with section 33 of the colonial Censorship and Entertainment Control Act, after he was found in possession of a six-page letter, allegedly sent to him by a friend. Section 26 prohibits the possession of prohibited articles; while section 33 states the determination of what is indecent, obscene, offensive or harmful to public morals.
Acute water shortages are aggravating the health problems of its 1,500,000 residents.
Thousands of Congolese civilians who were displaced in August by fighting in Sake town, North Kivu Province, are still living in camps out of fear that fighting could resume, a UN official said.
A United Nations-backed Africa communications summit in Rwanda next month will seek to boost high-speed internet access to match the continent's explosive growth in cellphones, officials said on Wednesday. The 'Connect Africa' gathering of African political leaders and international investors to be held on 29 and 30 October 2007 in the Rwandan capital Kigali will be a networking opportunity, not a forum for negotiating new regulations, they said.
The Maastricht Graduate School of Governance wants to strengthen its senior research and teaching capacity in the broad field of governance, policy analysis and political science. We expect the professor to have extensive experience with inter-disciplinary education and research and with inter-faculty cooperation; expertise and international networks in the fields of political science and policy analysis.
Oxfam International is looking for a Campaign Manager to provide overall leadership, vision, management, coordination and strategic direction to the various elements of the Oxfam International Rights in Crisis conflict and humanitarian response campaign. This position will provide overall strategic leadership and coordination to the various elements of the Oxfam International Rights in Crisis campaign.
The capacity of large corporations and business associations to shape patterns of social development and government policy in developing countries has increased significantly in recent decades. This is largely the result of pressures exerted through capital flows; global supply chains; lobbying; the participation of non-state actors in consultation and decision-making processes associated with standard-setting and public policy; the internationalisation of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda; and public-private partnerships (PPP). The open conference, held in Geneva from November 12-13, 2007, will be composed of 26 presentations by scholars and researchers from both the North and the South.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), in cooperation with the UN Department of Political Affairs Mediation Support Unit (DPA/MSU) is seeking Senior Mediation Experts to assist and support the UN’s and its international partners’ mediation efforts. The Standby Team will consist of five full-time senior mediation experts and one full-time team leader. The purpose of the standby team is to assist and support the UN and its international partners with their mediation efforts in the field.The closing date is 30 September 2007.
SNV Netherlands Development Organisation is an international advisory organisation that is dedicated to a society in which all people enjoy the freedom to pursue their own sustainable development. As a Regional Director you will lead and strengthen our regional advisory practices, effectively addressing cross-border opportunities and creating operational synergy. Closing date: September 29, 2007.
Tajudeen Abdul Raheem tries to decide whether politics, the business of political parties and money are in a greater state of disarray in Nigeria or Kenya. Or, who is more politically enterprising between the Nigerians and the Kenyans? Contrary to popular assumptions, it seems East Africa is winning!
I used to taunt political science colleagues in Nigeria that they were political voodoo magicians.
Given the unpredictability of Nigerian politics, and the ease with which the political class changes colours and allegiances from regime to regime, it is difficult to see that there can be any scientific basis for teaching politics in that country.
For instance, there are some people best described as orphans of the Nigerian state. They have been part of government in one way or the other almost all their lives.
Looking at some of the emerging power brokers in Aso Rock today, it would not be correct to say treachery and betrayal do not pay. Because neither have diminished their proximity to power! Some of them are and indeed deserve to be decorated as traitor-generals of Nigeria!
Many of them may not even win elections in their clans. But somehow whether military or civilian, they remain there. It is not science, but the creative art of power that is needed to understand the cabal that Aminu Kano would have described as being ‘consistently inconsistent’!
That’s why I even went as far as to suggest to my tormented fellow political scientists that their political science departments across the country should be closed down on the grounds of 'unfair trade description'. Because they claim to be teaching what is not really there.
But it was not my intention that they should all become jobless. Instead they needed mass retraining in order to be absorbed into Business Studies; since it is not politics that guides politicians, but money.
Therefore the science of Monetics may be more appropriate than political science theories in understanding how the country is governed and mis-governed.
Why bother to teach students democratic theories about parties, groups, elections etc, when political parties do not exist as alternative sets of policies to be canvassed in free intercourse of public debate and policy options, and from which the electorate can choose.
To the extent that there is any political party at all, all the politicians belong to AGIP (Any Government in Power)!
Now living in Kenya, one of the most politicised and ethnicity-obsessed countries in Africa, I am beginning to think that I have probably been most unfair to Nigerian political scientists.
You do not need science to understand Kenyan politics either. But the Nigerians need to come and learn from the masters here. It is pure business and memory-loss that you need to make sense of it at all.
President Museveni of neighbouring Uganda may have thought that he invented 'individual merit' and 'No Party Democracy' - which he imposed for ten years before donor pressures forced him to change tune.
But it is in Kenya where the ultimate privatisation of politics through a veneer of multi-party democracy is really being popularly practised.
For instance, last weekend, President Kibaki finally announced to a bored public that he was going to be standing on the platform of yet another new party (Kenya has more than 100 political parties), called the Party of National Unity (PNU), itself a coalition of 14 of the so-called Kibaki-friendly parties.
The same president had been brought to power on the platform of a coalition of similar parties in 2002. No sooner had they got rid of KANU and President Moi, cracks develop between the main parties in the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC).
It precipitated a parting of ways with prominent leaders like Raila Odinga and Kilonzo Musyoka, who defeated the president and his allies in the constitutional referendum under yet another coalition, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
NARC was a coalition against KANU/Moi and his chosen successor, Uhuru Kenyatta. But ODM was a coalition against KIBAKI that included Uhuru Kenyatta/KANU. It even had the support of the much hated former president, Moi. They defeated the government. The euphoria was such that if elections were held, then they could have chased Kibaki out of the State House.
Elections were not held but the ODM lasted as a united group for much longer than many had predicted.
Eventually the improbable cohabitation of highly ambitious politicians finally gave way to a break-up, that meant Musyoka going away, but the other leaders remaining together.
And this is where the parallel with boardroom dynamics of Kenya political dealers reveal themselves most clearly.
It is in Kenya that I have come to realise that political parties are registered the same way as companies. You declare officials as you declare directors. You choose a name. As long as no one else has not registered it, it is yours.
Even if someone has registered the initials, you can still get it by adding 'K' (Kenya) or some other initial to yours. That’s why you have FORD, Ford K, Ford Asili, FORD people or NARC and NARC-K, ODM and
ODM-K.
Whoever has the certificates 'owns' the party! You do not even have to have members.
The owner needs not be a member of the party. He or she just happens to be the person to have registered it. You then wait until some politician needs the name, and you exchange it for cash!
In their initial triumphalism, the Orange people did not immediately register the ODM. So some smart lawyer beat them to it. They could not get him to relinquish the party, so they registered as ODM-K.
Then Musyoka found that he could not stop the Raila bandwagon for the ODM-k nomination. But he had the four aces. The chap who had registered the ODM-K was the close ally and kinsman who ‘gave him’ the certificate.
Raila and the majority leadership realised that this piece of paper will confer ownership on Musyoka. So they went back to the other dealer, and 'persuaded ' him to ‘give’ the certificate to Raila. He did the 'handover' in public!
So Raila and his allies became 'owners' of the original ODM, while Musyoka pocketed ODM-K.
Kibaki had similar problems and resolved them similarly!
After the exit of Raila and co. from NARC, the remaining NARC rump in government had problems about ownership. Mrs Charity Ngilu (whose National Party of Kenya had been used to register NARC) remains the original registered chairperson of NARC. She has refused to take out the certificate from her handbag.
Pro-Kibaki members of the government, frustrated at Ngilu’s non-cooperation, went ahead to register a new party, NARC-K!
So, you have a situation where most of the politicians, including the President and his leading challengers, are no longer members of the party or coalition that brought them to power.
Kibaki's people felt that NARC is no longer easy to sell to the public, with or without 'K', so they just bought themselves another party from the shelves!
In the new pro-Kibaki PNU coalition of parties - wait for it - is one Mr Uhuru Kenyatta. His faction of KANU and his benefactor, still looking after him, former President Moi, now a leading campaigner for Kibaki - who had defeated KANU and Uhuru!
Now you tell me who is more politically enterprising between the Nigerians and the Kenyans?
Next time you are checking for stocks and shares on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, you may want your financial adviser to check out what possible combination of names of parties are not yet registered, instruct him or her to snap them up, and wait for the next round in the game of musical chairs among the politicians that is bound to happen. Sooner or later, you will cash in your big bucks.
Tajudeen Abdul Raheem is the Deputy Director for the UN Millennium Campaign in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes this article in a personal capacity as a concerned pan-Africanist.
Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
The latest report from the International Crisis Group examines the role of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) in facilitating a negotiated political solution for the increasingly desperate country, which faces elections in six months. Inflation in Zimbabwe is now impossibly high, and a quarter of the population has now fled.
Chinese relations with Africa have grown exponentially over the past decade, writes Lucy Corkin. During the 1990s, Sino-African trade grew by 700 per cent, and many high-level visits have occurred since 1995. Increased political activity has paved the way for the entry of Chinese companies of all sectors into Africa's economies.
Gangs of armed bandits are terrorising the population of the Central African Republic (CAR) as the region is torn apart by violence and lawlessness. The masked outlaws, known locally as 'Zaraguinas', have become stronger and better organised than government forces, leaving local people increasingly vulnerable to grave human rights abuses.
The United Nations has said that it has still not received any offers for some essential units of the hybrid peacekeeping force it plans to deploy with the African Union in the war-wracked Sudanese region of Darfur. Following a meeting with potential contributors yesterday, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) said that there have been no offers so far for the medium utility helicopter units or the medium heavy transportation companies in the force, which will be known as UNAMID.
Senior international development leaders have met at United Nations Headquarters in New York to forge an operational work agenda to boost Africa’s as yet failing efforts to meet the ambitious goals the world has set itself to slash poverty, hunger, maternal and infant mortality, and other social ills, all by 2015.
The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the 1994 Rwandan genocide says it will not succeed in meeting the Security Council-imposed timetable for completing its work unless UN Member States help to arrest suspects still at large, accept the transfer of cases and provide enough funds for it to conduct the remaining trials. In its annual report, covering July 2006 to June this year, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) says it is committed to doing all it can to meet the 'completion strategy', the Council plan under which all trials, excluding appeals, are supposed to be finished by the end of next year.
The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission has called on the last major rebel hold-out group in Burundi to 'resume promptly without condition' its participation in efforts to finally close the chapter on years of ethnic violence in the small Central African country. In July the Palipehutu-FNL, which has not signed peace accords reached with other rebel groups, withdrew from the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism (JVMM) set up to monitor a ceasefire it signed with the Government last year, and UN officials have since called on both sides to refrain from any actions that might lead to a resumption of hostilities.
The humanitarian situation in Ethiopia’s Somali regional state, one of the country’s poorest areas and home to some 4,500,000 people, has deteriorated substantially over the past several months due to on-going security operations, according to a United Nations assessment team that recently visited the region.
At least 200 people gathered outside the Zimbabwe embassy in London, in protest against the repression of labour in Zimbabwe. Several groups including the Trade Union Congress, Action for Southern Africa, the National Union of Journalists and the Zimbabwe Vigil participated to show solidarity with workers. The demonstration took place as ZCTU leaders remained in hiding following their pursuit by state security agents.
Episcopal bishops were tight-lipped on Thursday about meetings with the Archbishop of Canterbury aimed at healing a rift in their Church over the ordaining of gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions. Gay issues are threatening to tear their Worldwide Anglican Communion apart. But there were no reports of progress at the start of a conference in New Orleans of US bishops and delegates from overseas Anglican churches.
A Darfur rebel group has said it was planning an assembly of fighters, supporters and displaced families to work out demands ahead of peace talks with Khartoum set for October. Khalil Ibrahim, head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said he expected more than 2,000 people to attend the meeting in an undisclosed rebel-held area of Darfur on October, 25, two days before the peace talks start in Libya.
African Rights and REDRESS, two human rights organisations committed to ending impunity for serious international crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture, commend German authorities for their decision to arrest Augustin Ngirabatware in Frankfurt, Germany. Ngirabatware was arrested at the request of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which issued a warrant for his arrest in 2001 on charges related to the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda.
Freedom House, together with six of the most prominent human rights organisations in the US, issued a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urging him to demand Sudan’s compliance with the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) ongoing investigation and issuance of arrest warrants. In particular, the group pointed out that the current Sudanese State Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Ahmed Haroun, is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the ICC.
Amina Mama writes, 'As South Africa debates the political challenges associated with the ANC’s year-end conference at Polokwane, this is perhaps a good moment to think beyond immediate struggles and to consider what women have achieved beyond the borders of this country'.
As part of a three-part project with FAHAMU and local partners, CMFD is working with rural women in Southern, East and West Africa to produce radio/podcast prgrammes about women's rights, especially related to rural women. In collaboration with the Rural Women's Movement and Indiba-Africa, an 8-day training took place from 19-26 August 2007. Over the course of the workshop, women from rural communities in Kwa-Zulu Natal and a representative from the Centre for Public Participation planned, researched, conducted interviews, wrote scripts and created a series of features covering a range of issues affecting rural women.
A dramatic 41 per cent decline in HIV prevalence has been reported in pregnant women in Zimbabwe, according to the latest survey done in this population. The results were reported in a poster presentation at the 47th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Chicago this week.
David Martin was a writer and photographer, and later in life, a publisher. He was a rigorous researcher and investigative writer who exposed the calamity and cost of South African economic and military destabilization in southern Africa in the 1980s. He marched with Frelimo into the liberated zones of Mozambique in 1973, where he met the Zimbabwean military commander, General Josiah Magama Tongogara, during the last phase of the liberation war.
Moroccan non-governmental organisations have begun to issue reports outlining their observations of the country's legislative elections on September 7, 2007. The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) wrote in its report that the election laws currently in force contribute to a 'dispersion of votes and the Balkanization of the political landscape; something that could undermine the parliament and the government emanating therefrom'.
The issue of women in parliament has returned to centre stage in Morocco following the country's recent legislative elections. In 2002, women were elected to 35 of the lower house of the Moroccan legislature's 325 seats; on September 7, 2007, only 34 were selected. Only four women managed to transcend the local lists: Yasmina Baddou of the Istiqlal party, Latifa Jbabdi of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, independent candidate Fatiha Layadi and Fatna Lkhail of the Popular Movement.
In many southern countries, monoculture tree plantations are advancing rapidly, causing serious negative impacts on local communities as well as on the environment. In the year 2004, following an initiative of the Brazilian Network against the Green Desert, an organisation with a long track record of resistance to tree plantations, 21 September - national tree day - was chosen as a significant date to commemorate internationally the struggle against monoculture tree plantations.
Heavy rainy season downpours have left areas of eastern Chad flooded and have seriously hampered efforts by UNHCR and other aid agencies to help tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians. The rains have eased over the past week, but flooding continues to cut land access to the Koukou Angarana region in the south-east, and has forced locals and displaced people in the area to head for higher ground.
The newly launched East Africa Organic Standard, designed to boost exports to Europe, could fall at the first hurdle if the largest licensing body in the UK decides in November that air-freighted produce no longer qualifies as organic. African farmers have been highly critical of the UK Soil Association's controversial consultation on air miles, which may result in it refusing to endorse products imported by plane.
When soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army join a United Nations peacekeeping unit in Sudan, early October, they will mark Beijing’s new diplomatic assertiveness. They will also signify a departure from a posture of refusing to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.
Caribbean governments have alleged that the European Union is trying to prevent them from signing trade deals with other poor countries on their own terms. The EU's executive, the European Commission, is hoping to secure a series of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with 76 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries by the end of this year.
Since 2003, Mali is the third-largest producer of gold in Africa. Industrial gold mining has led to much hope for Mali’s economic development : the increase in state revenue should have had a positive impact on social expenditures in the areas of education, health, etc. Moreover, the establishment of a mining industry was expected to bring improvements in the situation of local communities.
Since the formal launching of the new East African Community (EAC) in 2001, the pace of integration has been quickening. The process for a free trade area and customs union between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania began in January 2005, and negotiations to establish a common market between these three countries, with the addition of Rwanda and Burundi, have also been initiated. Political federation is also on the cards.
This paper published by the Inter Parliamentary Union finds that the proliferation of small arms is a major contributer to human insecurity and social unrest. Responsible for the deaths of up to 270,000 people a year in countries officially 'at peace', they also result in five times this number of deaths in situations of war. The role of parliamentarians is critical in turning the tide of global gun proliferation and violence.
Providing secondary education for the rapidly increasing number of primary school graduates is becoming a key policy issue throughout sub-Saharan Africa. This paper by the Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity offers new insights into necessary reforms to expand secondary enrolment. It outlines the current status and structure of provision, and the demographic issues that will influence access.
Conflict-affected fragile states (CAFS) are home to half of the world’s out-of-school population – 39,000,000 children – yet receive only one fifth of total education aid. This paper published by the International Save the Children Alliance argues that, although international donors have declared the right of these children to an education, and recognise the social benefits and protective effects of education, provision for these children remains a low priority for donors.
Ericsson, the world's leading telecommunications supplier, has announced that it is partnering with The Earth Institute at Columbia University to provide connectivity to the Millennium Villages project. The partnership is designed to bring mobile communication and Internet services to approximately 400,000 people in ten African countries where the project is being implemented.
The abrupt 50 per cent sale of Gambia's telecommunications company, Gamtel, and its subsidiary company Gamcel shares last month has been creating row within the government circles, with the government accused of pursuing the challengers of the deal. Already, some heads have started rolling, the minister of forestry and environment being the first casualty. Rtd Captain Edward Singhateh was fired as the general secretary of the ruling APRC of president Yahya Jammeh. Singhateh's dismissal was contained in a mere terse press release issued by the office of the president.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has urged world leaders to 'break their silence' and press the Sudanese government to arrest one of its ministers for alleged war crimes. The comments by Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor, came ahead of a high-level UN meeting on Darfur on Friday.
Somali police have surrounded the offices of an independent radio station in the capital Mogadishu and opened fire on the building, according to station officials. Tuesday's operation came three days after security forces raided Shabelle's offices, detaining 14 members of staff and accusing one journalist of throwing a grenade at police.
Violence erupted in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital just hours after Ernest Bai Koroma, the former opposition leader, was sworn in as the country's new president. At least one person was killed as police fired tear gas at hundreds of looters who overran the outgoing ruling party's headquarters.
Reporters Without Borders condemns a violent assault on Tope Abiola, the deputy editor of the privately-owned Nigeria Tribune daily newspaper, who was beaten unconscious by prison guards and police at Agadi prison in Ibadan (in the southwestern state of Oyo) on 11 September while trying to cover the aftermath of a riot by inmates. “Nigerian journalists are often subjected to violence on the least pretext, without anyone ever being punished,” the press freedom organisation said.
The fight against biopiracy must embrace both legitimate science and social justice if biodiversity itself is not to suffer. Scientists have long been implicated, whether actively or tacitly, in developed countries' campaigns to seek out and secure natural resources to fuel industrialisation and maintain their own living standards.
Zambia and India have signed an agreement that will see India fund Zambian centres to train researchers and the public in information and communication technology (ICT) skills. Peter Daka, the Zambian minister of science and technology, and River Wallang, the Indian high commissioner to Zambia, signed the agreement in Lusaka on 12 September 2007.
Aid donors should re-think their self-appointed role as saviours of the poor, and try more modest and realistic approaches, argues William Easterly. Over the past five decades, the West has donated US$2.3 trillion in foreign aid to poor countries. Most of this money has been funnelled into a series of grand plans to eradicate poverty — plans that have become increasingly high-profile in a bid to attract money from both public and private purses.
Angolan authorities hold that a recent oil discovery in the enclave of Cabinda is up to five times greater than announced by the Australian oil company Roc Oil in August. The gigantic oil reserve could lead to onshore production on the disputed territory. In late August, Roc Oil issued an optimistic press release, saying the Australian company had made an oil discovery enabling it to extract 33,000,000 barrels of oil from the onshore Massambala oil field in Cabinda. Roc Oil's shares immediately rose by 16 per cent.
Under a new education policy, parents or guardians of children will soon face fines or even be arrested for allowing their children to sell in the streets during school hours. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced the measure in early September, which is said to be aimed at increasing school enrolment and curbing child labour.
Somewhere, some time this year, a baby will be born on the 25th floor of a city hospital or the dirt floor of a dark slum shack; a first-year college graduate will rent a cramped apartment in lower Manhattan, and a family of five will finally concede their plot of farm land to an encroaching desert or sea, and turn towards Jakarta or La Paz or Lagos in search of a new livelihood and a new home. The arrival of this family or graduate or baby will tip the world’s demographic scale and, for the first time in history, more than half the human population will live in cities.
A success story, at last: Botswana has lowered the rate of mother-to-child transmission of HIV to less than four per cent, coming close to developed countries that have almost eliminated paediatric Aids. In Europe and the USA, fewer than two per cent of babies with HIV-positive mothers are born with the virus; without intervention, the risk of an HIV-positive pregnant woman passing on the virus to her baby is between 30 and 35 per cent, according to health specialists.
With only 19 per cent of children in school following Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war, the former government began an ambitious project to renovate and build more schools. But while brightly painted blue and white classrooms have already popped up in towns and villages around the country they come at a time when fewer teachers than before are willing to work in them.
Zambia's elderly population are faced with a double jeopardy: they are either shunned by communities as witchcraft practitioners; or, with little or no understanding of the disease, are burdened with caring for HIV/Aids orphans, according to a non-governmental organisation concerned with their well-being.
Unaccompanied children, an average of 14 years old but sometimes as young as seven, are being drawn to South Africa from neighbouring states in the hope of work and receiving an education, according to report published by Save the Children (UK). The report, compiled from a survey of 130 undocumented children in South Africa, said 'there are sufficiently large numbers of children crossing borders unaccompanied to warrant major concern'. An estimated 1,500 underage Zimbabweans enter South Africa each year.
Thousands of school children have been forced to stay at home as schools remain closed due to flooding in eastern Uganda. More than 150 educational institutions failed to open at the beginning of the new term on 17 September after the floods washed away roads, homes, buildings and crops in the region. Education minister, Namirembe Bitamazire, told reporters the Ugandan government was trying to find alternative strategies to allow the schools to reopen, especially in the districts of Amuria, Katakwi, Manafwa and Bukedea.
Nigeria is lagging behind in the provision of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for people living with HIV/Aids, and only one out of five people who need the drugs have access to them, according to a new study. Nigeria has a five-year plan to scale up ARV therapy, aimed at providing one million people with the life-prolonging treatment by 2009, but there are indications that it may not meet that target unless the government provides substantially more resources.
One in every three female Swazis has experienced some form of sexual violence before turning 18, and two out of three aged 18 to 24, according to the first national survey to chart the scope of sexual and other types of violence perpetrated against women and girls, according to the National Survey on Violence Experienced by Female Children and Youths in Swaziland, conducted by the government, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
When the first cases of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) were reported in South Africa in 2006, the World Health Organisation (WHO) urged other countries in the region to improve their laboratory capacity and implement infection control measures. But Malawi still cannot test for the virtually untreatable TB strain. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) strains cannot be treated by at least two of the main first-line TB drugs, while XDR-TB is resistant to most first and second-line drugs, severely limiting treatment options.
In the first case of its kind, a Harare magistrate has tried and convicted a man who was found in possession of a printed email message containing information that was said to denigrate President Robert Mugabe and Vice President Joice Mujuru.
The United Nations and World Bank launched a bid on Monday to strip crooked leaders of the money they steal from poor countries, and to plough the sums into health and development efforts. 'From now on it should be harder for kleptocrats to steal the public's money, and easier for the public to get its money back', said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the world body's agency in charge of the initiative.
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While civil society movements have grown, become more vocal and are leading municipal protests, they pose no immediate threat to the ruling African National Congress (ANC), analysts say. These non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have made their presence felt recently by staging service delivery protests across the country, especially in Gauteng. The government has responded by accusing the organisers of misleading communities, saying development plans were already in place.
A Nigerian governor has sacked the entire 34,000-strong workforce in his state for refusing to heed a call to suspend their one-month old strike over pay, a government spokesperson said on Thursday. Public-sector workers in the south-western state of Oyo launched the industrial action last month to force Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala to pay increases approved by his predecessor.
Veteran award winning reporter Hunter-Gault blends personal memoir with reportage and analysis, to challenge stereotypical reporting of Africa by, primarily, the Western media. It is no secret that media representations of the continent are most often stereotypical or sensationalised, focusing on conflict and disease; and the author sets out to systematically paint a different portrait: one of Africa which shows good, or so-called ‘new’ news.
Pambazuka News 319: Pan Africanism and the Zimbabwe crisis
Pambazuka News 319: Pan Africanism and the Zimbabwe crisis
I have just read the account by Sokari about Randall Robinson's book: Unbroken Agony and I cannot help but wonder how does one collectively keep walking away from one of the most exemplary rupture with dehumanization. The Africans who had been enslaved simply said: NO MORE. Yet, 200 years later, it seems easier to find excuses about why one keeps treating the people of Haiti as if they were not worth anything. Peter Hallward wrote an essay about how the media decide who counts and who does not: almost on the same night Maddie (the child who disappeared while her parents were having dinner) disappeared, a boatload of Haitians on its way to the Turks and Caicos Island capsized. Close to 100 people lost their lives, but, for the international media which decide what is news worthy and what is not, it was as if those lives never even existed. That was at the beginning of May this year. As Peter Hallward points out, quoting from survivors, the boat did not capsize on its own: a coast guard boat did everything to prevent it from getting on shore. I do not think ev en Pbn carried that story at the time. I hope a correction will be made.
I am not saying here that the life of a 3 year old white English child is not as precious as the life of Haitians trying to find a way of making a living in a world context which is dictating that they do not count. In fact, it now turns out, that Maddie may have been the victim of one or both of her parents. One should stop speculations on this particular case right here for the time being, since examples of how uncaring the system has become can be seen everywhere, every day. The tragedy is the extent to which people who see themselves as good people keep acting against their own conscience, whether in relation to one Maddie or to one Haitian.
The way Aristide has been denounced is not unlike the way Lumumba was denounced in the DRCongo, back in 1960-61. Then, too, it was easy, given the media context. In fact, the so-called elite of the Congo did its best NOT to save Lumumba's life, but to make sure that even his body leaves no trace. Today, with Aristide, the denunciation was as virulent and vicious. Someone (from the group of 184) going as far as saying that he is not a Mandela. To which one should say: and a good thing too. There has been one Lumumba, there has been one Mandela, one Aristide. Each one has and is carrying the torch of emancipation as far as he could/can. Isn't the collective task one of making sure that the torch stays alive? Isn't the task one of never letting go of the objective of complete emancipation? What would be the ethical equivalent, in today's world, of what the Africans did in Haiti, from 1791 through 1804? Shouldn't one ask oneself if what kept Aristide going beyond the formalities of being a catholic priest, was a call which has continued to vibrate in Haiti to this day, namely to bring to an end a mentality which continues to rationalize, with impunity, that some lives do not count as much as others.
Thank you Sokari for bringing attention to this unbroken agony.
As the parties to the conflict in Darfur meet in Libya for peace talks, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union issues a communiqué on the implementation process of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed between the Government of the Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army. The communiqué encourages the African Union Ministerial Committee on the Post-Conflict Reconstruction of the Sudan to intensify its efforts by, without delay, visiting the Sudan, issue recommendations on how African Union member States could contribute more significantly to the post-conflict reconstruction and to convene a conference on African involvement in the reconstruction. The communiqué also requests the Commission to appoint a new Special Envoy and to open an African Union Liaison Office in Khartoum, with an office in Juba.
Also in peace and security news, experts have suggested that ECOWAS amend existing instruments for promoting peace and security in West Africa so that they address the realities of the region. Further in regional news, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is developing a food reserve facility to address the food emergencies of the region. Further in SADC news, Munetsi Madakufamba writes about the SADC Free Trade Area (FTA) which is to be launched next year with the hope of removing barriers on all intra-regional trade. The target is to ensure that 85 percent of most intraregional trade is at zero tariffs by 2008. The programme aims to create the FTA in 2008, a customs union by 2010, a common market by 2015 and a Monetary Union by 2018. The author highlights the impetus and challenges of the programme including multiple membership of some States to Regional Economic Communities that are working towards creating, or already have, customs unions.
Moreover in financial news, the African Development Bank (AfDB) approved a US $25 million equity investment to create a fund to develop local currency products. This Currency Exchange (TCX) will be established with a transaction capacity of US $ 1.2 billion. According to the Bank, they will be able to use it as a funding alternative to finance its projects in local currencies and will provide local entrepreneurs with funding in local currency, thereby eliminating the currency mismatches that are typically created between local-currency revenues and foreign-currency liabilities.
In civil society news, the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights, together with the Coalition on Violence Against Women, Kenya, organized a public forum in Nairobi titled “Politically and Powerfully Participating in Elections: Women’s Strategies for change in Kenya, South Africa and Liberia”. Faith Kasiva, the Coordinator for the Coalition of Violence Against Women (COVAW), noted that this public forum comes at an opportune time in Kenya as the elections near and in the wake of a defeated constitutional amendment bill that proposed 50 special seats for women in parliament. Kenya has also not ratified the protocol to the African charter of Human and people’s rights on the rights of women. Commenting on the South African experience, Delphine Serumaga noted that the increased participation by women in decision-making during apartheid forced the government to take the decision on proportional representation. It was observed that women in South Africa are more aware of their rights partly because of the struggle against apartheid where women played an equal role as men. Sharing the Liberia experience, Una Thompson noted that the role of women in the election of the 1st female president in Africa began during the turbulence of the war. Despite the strong party alliances in Liberia, there was national solidarity and more specifically women solidarity and responsibility with an increased percentage of women voting which led to the election of the 1st woman candidate, who is now the president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Speaking on Kenya, Jane Onyango, noted that Kenya has struggled with the affirmative action bill since the early 1990s after the Beijing Women’s conference. The affirmative action bill was shot down in parliament, then came the constitutional amendment bill that proposed 50 special seats for women in parliament and was recently shot down by a male dominated parliament. The bill received opposition from both sides of the house.
As AfriMAP launches reports on the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) in Ghana and Mauritius, Gawaya Tegulle writes that the APRM “is a way of having African leaders compare notes and ensure that they are steering their nations according to a set standard, whose aim is to ensure a democratic, free, prosperous and peaceful continent”, but, argues that the mechanism comes at the wrong time. With African leaders who are intent on consolidating power funding and controlling the process and the review’s methodology being so dense that “by the time a review is completed and implemented, so much water would have passed under the bridge”, the author argues that only a new breed of African leaders will create a successful review.
Lastly, Joan Gathoni writes of the launch of the African Union of Broadcasting (AUB) held in Nairobi during which Chief Executives from media companies across Africa deliberated on common issues and ways of addressing them. The President of the new Broadcasting Union, Ben Egbuna, says the organization “project the true image of Africa”.
The AU Monitor also brings you the agenda of the sixth session of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights as well as the African Union web page on Economic Partnership Agreements.
First, a statement of principles; Every African is obliged to stand up for equality, democracy, human rights and social justice - not just for ourselves as individuals or only in our villages, cities, countries and regions - but for all Africans across Africa regardless of gender, ethnicity, race, political or religious beliefs. These must be the bedrock of genuine Pan-Africanism. All of Africa's anti slavery, anti colonial and liberation struggles regardless of their shortcomings [and yes they had shortcomings] were based on these very principles and the concept of an Africa United for social and economic development is nothing but empty rhetoric if it is not based on them.
Consequently for any body genuinely concerned about the future of Africa there can be no politics of convenience. To be sure, the Zimbabwean crisis is not the only crisis in Africa, and this writer believes that all African's must engage any crisis that endangers the social and economic development of Africa on the basis of the above stated principles - be it in Darfur, DRC - or Zimbabwe.
However, the Zimbabwean crisis is arguably the only ongoing crisis in which one side (the incumbent government) and its supporters have mobilised African support and silenced many by asserting more or less that its critics are sympathisers, supporters or agents of foreign interests and former colonial masters. This has wrongly narrowed the framework of the debate on the Zimbabwean crisis into an oversimplified context of African nationalism and anti colonialism versus imperialism and colonialism. If the name of Africa is being invoked in justification of government policy then Africans must have a position on it. As we sometimes say, you can't call on your people, and not expect your people to call on you.
The above in turn underlines an outstanding feature of the crisis - that the current Zimbabwean government is based on the country's liberation movement - which was supported by the majority of Africans, people of African descent and anti colonialists universally against the undemocratic minority white Rhodesian regime of Ian Smith and its supporters. The Zimbabwean government has re-mobilised this historical support by positioning itself as continuing the liberation struggle to “reclaim our land”.
By framing issues in terms of: Are you for land reform or not? Are you for or against white farmers? Are you for or against colonialism? Are you for Africans or the colonialists? President Mugabe has posed in a more sophisticated way; the rhetorical statement so crudely articulated by George Bush that it eventually backfired - “you are either with us or with the enemy”.
Such “you are with us, or with the enemy” rhetoric regardless of the cause which claims to serve, its sophistication or crudeness is dangerous to human rights, to social justice and ultimately to Africa's development because it suggests that anything can be done in the name of defending 'us' against the alleged 'enemy' or even worse, that anything can be done to alleged 'enemies' in the name of defending 'us'. It also suggests that no wrong can be done in the name of fighting the alleged 'enemy' and ultimately that anything but unquestioning loyalty is betrayal.
The continuously evolving logic of such rhetoric is that the definition of enemy is elastic and 'they' [but not the government] can be held responsible for anything and everything that goes wrong. Any acceptance of such a political philosophy by either African citizens or leaders will stagnate intellectual progress in all fields and place Africa in a state of permanent backwardness.
We must make no mistake about it - all of human progress - in science, technology, the social sciences and politics, philosophy and the arts - is based on challenging and improving the status quo or building on previous 'standards'. Put simply, all of human progress is based on rigorous examination of existing conventional wisdoms and on dissent. Every African and in this case every Zimbabwean must therefore have, and exercise the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, association and assembly without fear of, or actually being beaten senseless, incarcerated or killed. A situation in which people face potential sanctions for not toeing the official line - are assaulted by 'law enforcement' agents merely for singing and dancing [to anti government songs], women are detained for peaceful protests, passports are seized and lawyers are beaten for representing clients is absolutely unacceptable. If it was wrong for minority white regimes to have such policy and practice, it is even more wrong for a black majority government based on a liberation movement to do the same.
Africans cannot accept any policies from people on whose behalf we protested when the same treatment was meted out to them. All Africans must therefore stand firm against any idea that being in 'opposition' means people are not human, or that they are human but don't have human rights. It's a question of principle. All political parties must be aware of the possibility that they will not always be in power - including ZANU-PF. Then they will expect their rights to be defended.
If the state of social and economic development is a key indicator of the state of affairs in a country, a no less important indicator lies in the possibility that all citizens can criticise their government and its policies, offer alternate opinions and ultimately change their government by civil means if that is the wish of the majority. No government - not even the governments of or leaders of liberation movements can arrogate to themselves perpetual wisdom and power.
People can debate indefinitely whether or not the Zimbabwean crisis is as a result of poor government policies, or has been provoked by sanctions and dirty tricks campaigns by 'colonialists' or both. What there is no debate about is that there is a political crisis linked to the apparently indefinite stay in power of President Mugabe. There is absolutely nothing anti Mugabe about anyone wondering if after 20 years as President another Zimbabwean out of its over 12 million citizens - whether from his party or any opposition party - cannot be elected to lead the country.
In Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and other countries leaders of liberation or anti-colonial movement governments have stepped down and are still living - Mandela, Kaunda, Chissano, Nujoma, Mkapa and the list is growing. In Ghana and Zambia where the last African Union and SADC summits respectively held and the Mugabe government made it a point to mobilise its supporters there have been successful changes of the party of government in 2000 and 1991 respectively without the roof caving in on those countries. 20 years is enough for any President to make contributions to the progress of his or her country. Nobody needs foreign governments to tell us that. On the whole African democracy is not perfect but on the balance it is heading in the right direction. Zimbabwe cannot be an exception to this progressive trend.
The African Union under the stewardship of Chairperson Konaré (himself a former leader of Mali that also led by example) has come a long way from the OAU and it must underline this point. It is a sign of progress that the AU leadership and many member governments have so far agreed with African rights campaigners that leaders of countries with unresolved rights and governance issues cannot Chair the AU unlike the days when even the worst of despots like Idi Amin could Chair the former OAU with impunity. The AU and SADC must continue in the spirit of the AU constitutive Acts, SADC Declaration and other key principles and discourage the idea that African leaders must stay in power indefinitely so as to avoid defeat by colonialists. The colonialists have essentially been defeated. That is why the country is called Zimbabwe not Rhodesia, and President Mugabe not Ian Smith has been President for 20 years.
Yes some foreign interests will continue to meddle in Africa, whether directly or through proxies - this happens in almost all parts of the world. But the future of Africa is now in the hands of Africans. Our governments can therefore not adopt the same repressive policies of the colonialists in the name of continuing the fight against them. It is important to emphasise that democracy is imperfect universally and also that the pendulum of power often swings from one end to the other between ideologies, parties, and factions within parties. Parties also evolve and change and what they stand for today may not be what they stood for yesterday or will stand for tomorrow. For example, the world watched in disbelief during the 2000 Bush versus Gore election fiasco in the United States which were it to have happened in Africa under the same circumstances would have been described as “typically African”.
In the spirit of parliamentary democracy with no term limits, former Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher whom presided over the last days of the Rhodesian regime and whom regarded the ANC in South Africa as a 'terrorists' was tempted to go on indefinitely after 11 years as UK Prime Minister until hounded out in tears by anti poll tax mass protests and her own party. Most recently former Labour leader Tony Blair under pressure from his own party and the public barely managed to negotiate a dignified exit after 10 years in office.
In Latin America where some governments would consider themselves as liberation type governments, Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas for instance lost elections in 1990 to openly foreign backed Contra's after coming to power in 1979 on the back of a popular rebellion that overthrew the Somoza dynasty. By the 2006 the Sandinistas had been voted back into power. How may people looking at US politics today would realise that founders of the Republican party in 1854 included anti-slavery activists and that the Democrats now heavily supported by African Americans once benefited handsomely from slave owners. The point here is that majority of African countries have been independent for only between 13 and 50 years and Africans must take a longer-term view of political history.
If despite obviously democratic imperfections many African and non African countries have managed to change leaders and parties of governments without the world coming to an end, there is no reason why it is impossible for Zimbabwe to have a future without President Mugabe in power, or for President Mugabe to live without being in power. Even Ian Smith leader of the Rhodesian government that committed countless atrocities against Africans and swore that Black majority rule would never happen has lived in post colonial Zimbabwe - and is now a grand old man of 88.
There is nothing personal about upholding democracy; the interests of the citizens of a country must always come before that of the leadership of any government. The above underlines the fact that people can also debate without end about whether the Zimbabwean economy is collapsing, has already collapsed, or will never collapse. The fact is that an estimated three million [undoubtedly very Black] Zimbabweans have fled the country with many living as refugees in neighbouring countries. They must be running from something. We now face the debacle of armed racist farmers on the South African Zimbabwe border fulfilling their racist fantasy by being presented with opportunities to hunt down and round up Zimbabweans fleeing across the border in the name of defending South Africa from invading “illegal foreign criminals”. Even if the present Zimbabwean government claims it bears absolutely no responsibility and that drought, withdrawal of credit lines, sanctions or even the cycle of boom and bust that has caused recessions even in advanced industrial economies is responsible for the economic misery, the fact is that it is almost impossible to offer alternatives without being “bashed”.
No one but the government can be blamed for the rash of legislation that has no other role than to contain, intimidate or suppress criticism and peaceful opposition. The laws and policies speak for themselves “Public Order and Security Act”, “Interception of Communications Act” and so forth. How many people demanding uncritical loyalty for the Zimbabwean government would happily live under laws which its just a question of a matter of time before anyone becomes an arbitrarily victim. It makes no difference if the foot in the boot kicking you and your rights into a dungeon is Black or White. A kick is a kick.
'Sanctions' cannot be blamed for everything. By way of comparison Cuba a country of similar population and even greater anti-imperialist zeal has faced well-documented and comprehensive blockades, sanctions and invasions [not to mention numerous assassination attempts against its leadership] by “foreign interests” over a greater 40-year period and on a scale far surpassing anything Zimbabwe will ever experience. Despite obvious democratic deficits, the Cuban government has won grudging admiration of even its critics because healthy life expectancy in Cuba - at 67 and 70 years respectively for men and women respectively - has risen and been sustained at a level equivalent to and in some cases higher than in the most advanced industrial countries. In Zimbabwe current healthy life expectancy has sunk to 34 years and 33 years respectively for men and women, also making Zimbabwe one of the countries in the world where men are expected to live longer than women.
This is not an endorsement of any section of, or all of the opposition, or even of hypocritical foreign policy from some countries - but rather of the right of all citizens including the political opposition to exist without fear of repression. Just as we know that being a liberation fighter does not guarantee that anyone will be the best possible leader in government, we all know that being an 'opposition' movement or leader is not a guarantee that anybody will do better than those they seek to replace. Regardless, one of the indisputable conditions for the development of Africa is that the principles and culture of democracy must be institutionalised. No one should insult the memory of countless Africans murdered by colonial settlers to facilitate stealing of their land by suggesting repressive laws are necessary to implement or defend land reform. Without doubt land reform is a necessary part of social justice for Africans, but it must be judicious, equitable and transparent land reform based on respect for human rights and the rule of law - not land reform used as a political cudgel to 'bash' all critical voices.
I have heard some people argue that the 'enemies' of Africa now crying about human rights did not burden their conscience with such luxuries when benefiting from 400 years of industrial scale slavery, colonialism and brutal exploitation of Africa and its peoples. In other words, that 'white farmers' deserve some of their own medicine. Not only does such thinking reduce African's to the moral bankruptcy of colonialists, it also fails to understand that it risks granting unlimited and indefinite power to Africa's actual and imaginary liberators such that we may all end up be shackled by them. Africa's liberation movements drew their moral strength from the fact that on the balance, they fought for social justice, human rights, equality and democracy - for all - not for card-carrying members of ruling parties.
The philosophical algebra of this equation is that there should be no expectations that these principles can be discarded as inconvenient while still counting on the unwavering support of all Africans. Africans must therefore unite for social justice and human rights across Africa - including in Zimbabwe. Some people also think that because of either real or imagined 'western' hypocrisy we must always give unconditional loyalty to the Mugabe or any government that claims to be defending Africa against 'imperialism'.
The hypocrisy may be real but our primary concern must be the welfare of Africans, not whether President Bush as part of his politics of convenience - supports the Musharraf military regime in Pakistan which was suspended from the Commonwealth in 1999 for overthrowing an elected government (while simultaneously passing the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Act), or even whether some of the western media engage in 'colonial mentality' reporting which fulfils negative stereotypes of Africa. Our health care system, education, food and overall social justice and development must come first. It is impossible to build on development achievements if everyone must agree with official policy. Regardless of party affiliation nobody's stomach is neutral on the question of hunger. No disease asks for your party card.
While all Africans with any dignity must remain firmly anti-colonial and anti-racist, we must also view with scepticism any blanket anti-western and anti-white rhetoric. Not withstanding that some foreign governments described the ANC and other liberation movements as “communists” and “terrorists” or both, while simultaneously supporting bandit governments such as the Mobutu regime, Africa's anti colonial and liberation movements were supported by millions across the world including from the West. Even some governments such as the Swedish were proud supporters of liberation movements and post independence governments long before it became fashionable to do so.
President Mugabe is a former teacher and one of Africa's most educated and experienced leaders. After over 2 decades in power, he does not really need anyone to tell him that it is not only possible to be in office without being in power; it is also possible to be in power without moral authority. Once any leader anywhere gets to that point it is irrelevant what you claim to stand for. What will become relevant is that you did not stand down when you should have done so - of your own free will - and in the best interests of your people.
*Sankore is a Pan-Africanist and Human Rights Campaigner.
*Comments and responses to
The internationally renowned African scholar Mahmood Mamdani is said to hold the view that the only feature of post-colonialism he is aware of is the post office. He tries to suggest that true Independence as liberation from the structures, contents and ideologies of the colonial era remains a remote goal.
Decolonisation was more so a hand-over of formal political power, while social structures and hierarchies - as well as mindsets - remained largely intact.
Little has changed in terms of a shift in power relations or alternative concepts of power. This includes the political sphere with regard to the character of political dominance. Looking back at the 17 years since Namibia's formal Independence one is tempted to agree with Mamdani's sobering conclusion.
As if to make a point, the current political culture is a far cry from the liberating gospel originally preached. Not that there was - realistically and in retrospective - much to be expected (although we did). After all, more than a century of colonial occupation took its toll. Apartheid was anything but a fertile ground to socialize democrats and to allow for the internalization of fundamental respect for human rights and differing opinions. Nor was the authoritarian organization of the exile situation under the liberation movement Swapo an alternative to repressive control.
The movement's recognition as the sole and authentic representative of the Namibian people by the General Assembly of the United Nations in the mid-1970s was a celebrated diplomatic victory in our ranks and within the supporting solidarity movement. What we then did not realize: it was also a very undemocratic notion, based on exclusion. It handed over the sole power of definition of legitimate Namibian identity to the leadership of one (admittedly by far most relevant) among several organizations. Those not members or followers of Swapo were not entitled to any representation to shape the guiding principles leading into Namibian nationhood.
Despite a constitutional framework, which laid the foundation for a pluralist, human rights oriented and democratic society (as a result also of the international - meaning Western - desire to control and limit social change), Namibia since then became neither more tolerant nor more democratic. Nor did the majority of the formerly colonized population reap any meaningful material benefits from the shift in political power (forget about the fat cats). Poverty remained chronic, so did other forms of destitution. Violence against women and children has abhorrent dimensions, and the self-enrichment by members of the new elite seems to have no limit. Educational services and health provisions deteriorate, and Namibia's rank in international standardized surveys (as problematic and dubious as some of these might be) did not improve. Instead, we are campaigning for a status as an “as if Least Developed Country (LDC)”. What a shame.
Namibia started under a United Nations supervised transition to a sovereign state as the darling of the international community. In the meantime it has become - in the words of Joe Diescho - just another African country; which, of course, it is. The way Diescho uses the image, plays with the existing Eurocentric stereotypes, that this is nothing to be proud of. But did we not have the opportunity to build a society offering reasons for pride, self-respect and confidence as an African country, which used its opportunity to present evidence that this is nothing to be ashamed of or associated with negative stereotypes?
The honeymoon is long over. Hardly noticed, all Nordic states - once the pioneers among the Western countries, which supported Swapo and the Namibian people for the right to self-determination - have reduced diplomatic representation below the rank of ambassadors or even closed their embassies. Their bilateral development cooperation is shrinking continuously. Norway has withdrawn years ago, and Sweden will be closing its offices next year. Finland's ambassador - who dared to publicly share criticism over the government's dubious priorities to engage in a war in the Congo instead of reducing poverty at home - was requested a decade into Independence not to return from his annual leave at home. He was never replaced on an ambassadorial level, nor was the Swedish ambassador whose term ended shortly afterwards. The government seemed not to be bothered by such visible loss of legitimacy among these good friends. Instead, other alliances were consolidated with countries such as Zimbabwe, China, North Korea, Russia and other states hardly known as welfare societies or for their democratic achievements.
Looking at the hype of the last few weeks and months, one has no reasons for optimism. John Makumbe, who was denied to deliver his lecture on Zimbabwe as originally announced on the campus of UNAM, sees the writing on the wall. Let's hope he is wrong. Students only a few weeks earlier felt a need to demonstrate in support of the University's chancellor and Founding Father of the Republic in a political and legal dispute not related to the university at all. Sadly enough, they did not come out as forcefully to defend academic freedom, which was so blatantly violated by the same person, when intervening to prevent the internationally well known Zimbabwean academic from presenting his lecture, thereby making a mockery of the country's highest research and teaching institution's autonomy.
Interesting too is that almost everyone - despite controversial views - seems to accept that the NSHR submission to the ICC touches upon the (undefined) notion of national reconciliation. It does not. It seeks to hold high-ranking office bearers in the former liberation movement accountable for human rights violations within its own ranks. This addresses issues of internal oppression against own members, including rape, torture, execution and murder by neglect. That some among the many victims were suspected to be spies is not the point.
The point is, that many were not, and that the treatment as such violated any minimum standards of a human rights based culture, as the kind of injustice practiced under the Apartheid regime against which we were actually fighting.
Those few hundred who survived the ordeal (while most others did not) have ever since their return in mid-1989 asked for an admission that Swapo did wrong and should deal with the issue instead of sweeping it under the carpet. Seeking to enforce such demands after painful 18 years of denial by trying to use international legal options at hand (even though the effort is doomed to fail for formal reasons) is declared an act of national betrayal and heresy. This merely confirms the misperception among the political rulers that their party organization is in their eyes identical with the nation and the state. They are untouchable and above the law. - Instead of hiding behind such a misleading smokescreen, they should regain legitimacy and moral commanding heights by dealing with the failures if not within the national judicial system then by an honest and fact seeking investigation initiated by themselves. Otherwise the rule of law will soon end as law of the rulers.
Instead, once again, it's the old game of blaming and accusing the messenger for disclosing the worrying moral decay when it comes to the state of the nation. The so-called misguided elements allegedly seeking to orchestrate a vendetta for merely personal frustrations (which these victims undoubtedly and understandably also have) are singled out and blamed. So are those media, which dare to make it a public affair and provide a platform for the dissenting voices in civil society. Far from dealing with the matter, it is dealt with those who dare to join the demands for transparency and accountability through efforts to limit their rights to do so. It is about getting rid of inconvenient truths and their advocates, not about addressing the root causes of the affairs.
Just as with John Makumbe and the likes: prevent them from speaking out, as if this would allow ignoring what is going on. At the end, we might indeed end in a similar state of affairs as his home country, in which so many dedicated citizens were forced into exile once again. This time by those who claimed to have liberated the people. So far, differences do however still remain: Namibia's head of state generously offers one-way tickets to unwanted dissenting voices. They are neither arrested nor killed. Not yet. But his softer approach is already another form of liquidation.
Namibia lacks civility defined as an agreement to disagree agreeably. But Independence is something to fight for, daily and always. Solidarity should be with them, who dare to do so and challenge the sell-outs to individual privilege, who are occupying state power and shy away from taking responsibility in the public interest. Their duty would instead require acting not only in their own interest, but in the interest of all they claim to have liberated. Like in so many other societies, however, those will ultimately have to accept and execute such responsibility themselves, guided by their own convictions and values, against all odds. The fight for ownership over the definition of what is supposed to be acceptable and what not is far from over. It has just started.
* Henning Melber joined Swapo as a son of German immigrants in 1974. He was director of The Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU) between 1992 and 2000 and is currently the executive director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in Uppsala/Sweden.
* Please send comments to
Like the I-phone of the consumer telecommunications industry, Biofuels are the most talked about and most anticipated development in the energy sector. The increased attention on the production and development of Biofuels can be attributed to an international convergence of ecological, political, economic and social factors. Biofuels are not new, they have been used since World War II, but the recent biofuel-convergence has led to a boom in investment; over the past three years alone venture capital investment in Biofuels increased 800%. Moreover, the International Energy Agency predicts that biofuel production would double by 2011.
Biofuels help reduce carbon monoxide emissions, can replace the lead addictives used to increase the octane levels of gasoline and are sulfur free. The two most widely used Biofuels today are ethanol and biodeisel. Ethanol is basically an alcohol derived from the fermentation sugarcane or maize and can be used by itself or blended with petroleum. Biodiesel on the other hand is derived from rapeseed, soybean, jatropha, palm oil and other vegetable oils and can be used directly in diesel engines or blended as well.
Africa is usually last on the list of receiving cutting edge technological investments but in the case of Biofuels, Africa is leading the charge.
Africa
Africa increased ethanol production from 100 million gallons in 2006 to already over 160 million gallons in 2007. The Mozambique Petroleum Company (Petromoc) is partnering with Brazil based INM International to raise over $400 million to invest in biofuel production. In October, fuel stations in Addis Ababa will begin to sell blended fuel, of which 5% will be ethanol. British based Sun Biofuels Plc has invested $20 million in a 9,000 hectare jatropha biofuel project in Tanzania. In Zambia BP is keen to invest in the emerging Biofuels industry and two other companies have already invested 200 million in the sector, according to the Government. The Indian Government has given $250 million to the West African Development Bank for investment in biofuel production and Nigeria plans to build over two dozen ethanol plants with assistance from Brazil by 2010. As Rachel Slater of the Overseas Development Institute has suggested “Africa's biomass production potential is five times higher then that of the UK” and “massive potential is coming out of South Africa”.
South Africa
South Africa's gasoline consumption accounts for 80% of the entire southern Africa region hence is will be a key entrepôt for the development of Biofuels in Africa. South Africa's Biofuels strategy hopes to achieve a market penetration of 4.5% of liquid road transport fuels by 2013.
Ethanol Africa planes to open eight maize supplied ethanol plants in South Africa; the first has already been commissioned in Bothaville and the last will be commissioned in 2012. According to Ethanol Africa, the typical Bothaville style plant “will displace 987,500 barrels of oil. At a price of $70/bb, this equates to about R500 million and of wealth that will not leave the country”. South Africa has great potential for energy crop production such as maize because of the large tracks of arable land and suitable climate, but it is not all good news.
According to Mathabo Le Roux writing in Business Day; in South Africa only 10% of the land is irrigated yet it takes up 65% of total water use, so any increase in large scale maize production would affect South Africa's water supply. Moreover, the head of South Africa's Central Bank Tito Mboweni, questioned the wisdom of using maize as the main feedstock for ethanol production in South Africa “That's a doubt in our case because we suddenly have a shortage of maize … also pushing the food prices because or production of ethanol from maize.” There is an overall fear that the increased use of maize based ethanol feedstock will cause a price increase; putting maize beyond the reach of Sub-Saharan Africa's poor, but as Slater suggests “the world maize price does not correlate well with local prices especially in SSA”. For example, according to the United Nations Integrated regional Information Network “South African maize prices have stayed near R600 ($85) per tonne, but in March 2007 increased to R2,000 ($285), still less then the world price of R2,500 ($352).” Although there is a difference between international and South African maize prices, this does not discount the food price inflation.
The Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Program suggested that “In the 12 months between January 2006 and January 2007, the food costs of very poor rural dwellers rose by 9.6% and the very poor urban dwellers by 8.3%. Foodstuffs linked to biofuel production rose by 10.7% (grain), 11.8% (oils) and 12.8% (sugar) in rural areas.” Africa is not alone in dealing with the affects of increase biofuel production.
United States
The US government wants to reduce gasoline demand by 20% by 2010 and biofuel use is a key strategy for achieving the goal. Since 2001 the amount of maize used to produce ethanol has increase 300%. According to the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Program there are presently 78 biofuel refineries under construction; but biofuel production is not the panacea for an environmentally friendly energy consumption strategy for future.
Professor M.A Altieri estimates that dedicating all USA corn and soybean production to biofuel production would only meet 12% of gasoline and 6% of US diesel demand. Moreover, Cornell University professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences David Pimentel, states that “The average U.S. automobile, traveling 10,000 miles a year on pure ethanol (not a gasoline-ethanol mix) would need about 852 gallons of the corn-based fuel. This would take 11 acres to grow, based on net ethanol production. This is the same amount of cropland required to feed seven Americans.” The Other Factors There are other factors at play in the debate about Biofuels such as the refining process. Ethanol attracts water much easier then petroleum therefore the same infrastructure used by petrol refineries cannot be used. Hence Biofuels are usually blended near the end of the supply chain. This means that for Biofuels to become widely available a well developed and efficient downstream petroleum sector must exist which may not be the case in many Sub-Saharan African countries.
The environmental questions cannot be ignores either. Although Biofuels produce less carbon monoxide emissions, replace the lead addictives and are sulfur free, there is a loss in fuel economy. According to F. William Engdahl, ethanol contains at least 30% less energy per gallon then normal gasoline translating into a fuel economy loss of 25% per gallon. Food security is the most controversial issue in the biofuel development debate. In short it is the idea of “food versus fuel” or the competition between the world's one billion drivers and the world's two billion poor. As Slater suggests “filling a petrol tank of a Range Rover will require enough grain to feed one person for one year”.
As the cost per barrel of oil increases the demand for alternative energy source will increase; and biofuel development from crops such as maize, soybeans and sugar are seen as a viable solution. Hence a situation is rapidly developing whereby the price inflation of the world's key food crops will be pegged to the price of oil, and because Biofuels will continue to be an insignificant source of energy when compare to diesel or gasoline we can expect a continue increase in food prices for the foreseeable future, as biofuel refineries absorb the world's surplus grain production.
This year increased maize demand for ethanol was partly to blame for the increase in price of Mexico's basic food: corn flour. In February 2007 thousands of Mexicans marched in Mexico City to protest the 400% increase in Tortilla prices. The key cost in ethanol production is the price of feedstock such as maize and sugar; hence there will be a move towards economies of scale to improve margins and yields which will favour large scale farmers over small growers, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Moreover, large scale maize and sugar farming will lead increased use of water, fertilizer, chemical, pesticides and petroleum which may adversely impact production systems, fertility and biodiversity. Hence what really needs to happen is that we must find a cheap, non-food crop or waste product that is easier to turn into biofuel and blends well with petroleum or diesel.
Conclusion
There remains ample room for debate on the future of Biofuels, especially in relation to Africa. If we look at what is happening in Africa with a historical understanding it is clear that Africa is entering yet another cash crop boom, except this time it is not tea, coffee or cocoa, but maize - food! If selling tea, coffee and Cocoa for the past 50 years has not lifted Africa out of the development quagmire how will placing her food at mercy of commodity traders in Chicago, New York and London be any different?
* Mark J. Sorbara is a freelance writer and researcher on Africa issue.
* Please send comments to [email protected]
Mukoma Wa Ngugi's Article on Political activism (Pambazuka News, Thursday 2 August 2007), which I very much enjoyed reading, reminded me to put my fingers down and share observations from my recent visit to Uganda. In fact it fits very well into Wa Ngugi's observations about the struggle to communicate and realize Pan Africanism for peoples of Africa. I agree for the most part with his argument, that Pan Africanism cannot be left to the elites but should be a people's struggle. However, the case he cites of Cuba and another not mentioned of Tanzania, shows that the elite took the high road of forging national unity among their people higher success. Therefore, I believe the same strategy should be adopted for most of Africa and particularly, my country-Uganda.
First, my disclaimer is that not all African political leaders and elites are doing enough to promote the spirit of Pan Africanism and national unity similar to Fidel Castro or Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. Many of our leaders are in political leadership for their own ideology or their satisfaction, and that partly explains why none of the 53 heads of states could agree to United States of Africa at the recent Accra Summit. However, nor are Africa “people organizations” and ordinary people doing a lot to realize the dream of African unity. In fact there are more Afro-pessimists about African unity than are Afro-optimists, as if this is a new invention. Many Africans move further away from Pan Africanism once they become richer and more exposed to the world outside their own.
In Uganda where I am from, success is measured in terms of who has the most exposure to foreign (read western) culture, material goods or lifestyle. Value is placed on who can purchase the latest Germany Mercedes Benz, the latest Swedish Nokia phone, American jeans, Japanese electronic or who speaks with an American, British accent or French. It is not uncommon to listen to newsreaders imitating a “British Accent” on Uganda airwaves. Little is celebrated of those people in the local manufacturing industries who produce cooking ware, car engines, household equipment, storage containers and farm tools. Little is celebrated of national sports, as most Ugandans associate with European sports clubs. For instance, there are more supporters of England's Manchester United football team in Uganda than are supporters of the national football team, the Uganda Cranes. In fact many Ugandans are quick to purchase Manchester United T-shirts but would not donate a shilling to promote national sports. If you quickly surveyed the Uganda public on their favourite football team, very few people would claim the Uganda Cranes as their favourite team. Ugandans love to consume what they do not produce, and despair what they produce. I returned to Uganda recently after seven years when I left to work and study in South Africa and the United States. Throughout this time, people have told me of the changes in Kampala, and many said I would not recognize the city when I returned. That was partly true because there were more new and celebrated Ugandan musicians, actors and fashion designers than seven years ago. I was amazed that Uganda music has replaced Congolese music as the dominant entertainment on national airwaves, clubs and discotheques. I saw more shops selling African fabric and more Ugandans (particularly women) wearing African clothes, as opposed to the pre-dominant European attire. Of course the European suit and tie is still very popular among men and European skirt and jacket for young professional women. Indeed, there were more designers of African fashion, more enterprising young people in business and more positive outlook on life. However, many of these new developments lack an element of originality or indigeneity and/or are carbon copies of foreign products. For instance, many of the Uganda musicians tend to copy the dressing, dancing and singing style of African American. I am not saying there is anything wrong with African Americans. I am wondering why Ugandans musicians do not promote a “Uganda brand” as a national identity, and strategy for global marketing and competition? It is more likely to find Ugandan entrepreneurs branding their businesses with Europeans names or Europeans cities. For instances, there is an enterprising Ugandan who is one of the pioneers of world-class private boarding secondary schools in the country. His school has branches established across the central region with names such as London College and Paris Campus. One wonders why he didn't continue with the initial naming of branches based on location, such as Kabaka's Lake Campus? Of course the other concern that comes to mind is the kind of identity this school principal is trying to create in these students. Is high-class education only comparable to London or Paris not Uganda? Should these students look toward further education in London or Paris, instead of investing in a higher education in Uganda and participate in national building?
Even Uganda fashion designers feel that tagging western labels onto their products would increase their sales? I went into a store owned by one of the most celebrated Uganda fashion designer to see her “Ugandan brand”. Instead, what I saw were clothes familiar to me from New York City stores and on European fashion runways. I wondered if the 'designer' had not sewed on her own logo on clothes purchased in New York? If not, why did she have to copy New York and European fashion? I am being too hard on her, when it is possible that New York and Europe copied her creations? It was hard for me to buy that reasoning because when I went to another store selling African prints with my mother to buy an African print shirt for my brother, the tailor had sewed on “Calvin Klein” labels. I asked her if Calvin Klein would sew on his clothes “Ugandan” or “Nalwoga” (a random name for a Muganda). She felt that I was insulting her while my mother said I was so “Westernized” in my behaviour. Personally, I thought that I was carrying my Pan African torch by questioning the mentality in Uganda that tends to assume that everything Europeans (read white) is what sells.
Around the same time, I attended another event that made me mad about Ugandans obsessions with the Western hemisphere. It was the unveiling of contestants for the 2007 Miss Uganda beauty pageant contestants at the Kampala Serena International Conference Centre. Contestants were asked questions regarding their dreams, hobbies and their role models. Out of the 27 girls, only two or three mentioned Uganda role models. The rest mentioned personalities mainly in the United States, such as Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson. One contestant went as far to state that her dream was to become that first female president of the United States! Did she know it was Ms. Uganda beauty pageant!
Then again, one cannot blame the entrepreneurs, artists or beauty queens from despising the Uganda brand when the heads of state do not serve by example. When our President's family wants to give birth, a presidential jet flies her to Germany because they do not trust Uganda hospitals. The President does not trust Uganda doctors, even though Uganda-trained medical professionals are sought after the world over. The rich send their children Europe or North America for higher education, instead of investing in Uganda's cheaper and world-class public universities. These destinations are also favoured for shopping and vacation by many “well-to-do” Ugandans, even before they visit a neighbouring African country. Now there is a new trend of Ugandan women flying to the United States to have their babies, so that their children become US Citizens and benefit of the riches of this world”! This behaviour does not convince me that our first priority as Ugandans and Africans is pan-Africanism. We do not invest in the beauty of ourselves, exploring our own surroundings and building our continent before we enrich those economies that we worked so hard to build as slaves. We cannot put our roads, garbage disposal and utilities to proper public consumption yet we are quick to feed the pockets of European and American markets. Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is a highly known public proponent of regionalism, yet the main trade route between Uganda and Kenya via Busia border is full of potholes on either side. In the US, which we Ugandans love to imitate so much, “the-haves” rich do not make a name by consuming Ugandan products. They donate to their Alma meters or to non-profit institutions where they can have their names erected on building and held in memorabilia. Conversely, Ugandans prefer to make a name by spending holidays in the west (even in winter), imitating western accents or clamouring for US passports. Should I be surprised that I am despised at most African immigration points I go through with my Ugandan passport while holders of Europeans or North Americans passports go through with ease, most often without visa? So, Wa Ngugi needs to convince me that surely, the people will lead the Pan African struggle and we do not need strong political leaders to steer the wheel.
* Doreen Lwanga is African Scholar, Researcher and Activist working in the areas of Pan-Africanism, African security, and Higher education in Africa.
* Please send comments to
Musicians from Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe are putting xenophobia on the cultural agenda in a musical initiative to get people talking about discrimination. South Africa, especially Johannesburg, is home to thousands of foreign Africans. Some are refugees, fleeing persecution and seeking asylum; others are looking for work and a better life. Many find that life is not what they expected. They face discrimination from government services, harassment by police and degrading treatment from people, whether in the taxis, schools, shops or streets.
I am reading with delight the article by Issa Shivji on the Silences in NGO discourse and it is a brilliant pieces of work.
However, I feel that we tend to be caught in the same web of silence through our communication. Reading this document I strongly get convince that we are not talking to the people who matter in making things change. We continue talking to the CSO bureaucrats, government, academicians and the same donors who want to perpetuate the silence in the NGO discourse..... (OOPS! I am even doing it now!)
We need to communicate our views to the people and in a language they understand....We need to translate these articles haraka sana in Kiswahili and make them accessible to the wider public in East Africa. I know Issa may have written some in the Kiswahili papers in Tanzania, but we need to move beyond and make people interested in our analysis.