Commemorating the 300th Issue of Pambazuka News I first came across Pambazuka News in/around 2003 when I was a graduate student in Boston, Massachusetts. After reading the first issue, I immediately subscribed and forwarded the web link to all students and scholars of Africa at my school. From time to time, I continue to forward specific articles to various people that I know are interested in listening to an African voice published in an African platform. I have never turned back since then.

Pambazuka News has given me a voice, a home, a reflection point and a reaffirmation that my thoughts and believes are not crazy but shared by many individuals in our world. The weekly articles give us a visual picture of “the African” activist through the style of communication that reflects expressions of reality rather than abstract or theoretical imagination of issues concerning civil society in Africa.

Occasionally, other social activists from outside Africa contribute to our discussions on international justice and its impact on Africa and other marginalized groups.

Indeed, Pambazuka News has established itself as an African mouthpiece for social justice for all of civil society. As we move toward the 301st issue, I ask Pambazuka News to help us begin a conversation with our national, sub-regional and regional political leaders. Civil society tends to monopolize concerns for social justice in Africa in Pambazuka News and the current publications in Pambazuka News tend to affirm this trend.

Most of the contributions are from people (myself without exemption) decrying or rebuking the government without an opportunity given to the government to respond in this forum. It cannot be true that there are no individuals within our national, sub-regional and African Union concerned about social justice in Africa. We in civil society do not hold a monopoly of concern for the welfare of Africa. We, therefore, need to make a concerted effort in working with our governments, providing them our ideas and accepting that them and us can richly contribute to shaping the growth and health of Africa and African Unity.

As my friend Chidi Odinkalu once said to me, “If Oxfam has an African Union Representative in Ethiopia, why not us, African organizations and civil society?” I fully agree that, rather than disengaging with our governments, this kind of engagement will help us achieve the transformations for Africa we expect from our leaders.

Politicians come from among civil society, some of whom have been activists before they are transformed into government officials. Let us, therefore, begin a conversation with our governments through Pambazuka News, and if possible, let Pambazuka News establish a regional desk in Ethiopia to capture proceedings as they unfold.

Thank you for the great service Pambazuka News and may you keep it up and strong!

CONGRATULATIONS --- Pambazuka is now a well established newsletter - always very informative and to the point - unbiased and it seems well researched. Keep up the excellent work. It is information worthwhile - seeing it covers the whole continent which is otherwise almost impossible. You - the editor and each and everyone contributing to the newsletter - can be proud of your achievements.
Kind regards

Waltraut Trümper - Namibia.

"Women in South African History by Nomboniso Gasa (Ed) published by HSRC Press, 2007.

Women in South African History traces the lives of South African women from the pre-colonial, pre-union period (mid 18th century) through to the post-apartheid beginnings and present day South Africa. It is written in four thematic parts: Women in the pre-colonial and pre-union periods; Women in early to mid-twentieth century South Africa; War: armed and mass struggle as gendered experiences; The 1990s and beyond: new identities, new victories, new struggles.

The book is a radical departure from the traditional history texts in that it uses a feminist analysis rather than the “more acceptable gender analysis” in it’s approach by examining “the ways in which gender intersects with race, culture, class and other forms of identity and location in South African history“. By including the present as part of history the book shows how the past and present are inextricably linked and thus better examines women’s experiences over the past 300 years. The experiences of women’s struggle and their continuing hazardous journeys towards liberation are expressed through the dual metaphors of “they move boulders” - challenges; and “they cross rivers” - dangers.

Women in South African History goes far beyond the many well known events and periods by feminizing those events and periods where women’s participation has never been acknowledged. In the chapter “Like three tongues in one mouth”: Tracing the elusive lives of slave women in (slavocratic) South Africa, Pumla Dineo Gqola, brings to life the slave women brought to South Africa from South East Asia, East Africa and Southern Africa. Despite the scarcity of historical and biographical narratives, Pumla is still able to document the lives of some slave women and more importantly the ways in which they resisted and revolted against their enslavement and their central role “to the historical constitution of Afrikaner society“. Other examples are women’s mass protests against carrying of passes in Bloemfontein and Potchefstroom in 1913; women’s involvement in the trade union movement during the 1930s; the participation of women in the ANC underground and military wing in the 1950s; township uprisings in the Eastern Cape in the 1970s and 1980s; naked women protests against lack of housing in Soweto in 1990; migrant women in Johannesburg and women learning to live with HIV/AIDS in present day South Africa.

The book concludes with a powerful essay by Yvette Abrahams in which she chronicles her experience of researching and writing on Sarah Bartman. Or rather searching for the REAL Sarah Bartman not the racialised sexualised object constructed by white male fantasies …

“a living specimen of barbaric savage races” one who according to Lindfors [Courting the Hottentot Venus] was willing to collaborate in her own degradation in order to earn more money… she allowed herself to be exhibited indecently to the European public, and she persisted in this tawdy occupation for more than five years….. She may have been the victim of the cruelist kind of predatory ruthlessness, but her collusion in her own victimisation was unmistakeable…."

he concludes

"To put it plainly, she may have engaged in prostitution as well as exhibitionism. Her degradation may have been complete.."

Abrahams tears these racist, sexist texts to pieces written not in the 1800s but in the 1980s. Men such as Lindfors were able to pass these lies off as academic text by so called intellectuals. Abrahams leads us through to the convincing conclusion that Sarah Bartman was a slave - a Khoekhoe slave woman. She does this by connecting her own personal herstory to that of the Khoekhoe. Born in the pre-colonial period of the 1780s, she must have had a Khoekhoe name and the only way she could have lost that name at that time was through slavery. Also the only way for her to move from her home in the Western Cape to England was as a slave. Sarah Bartman lied (that she willingly exhibited herself) because she was a slave and knew very well that her words would not be believed over that of a white man and the consequences of her telling the truth would have been too horrible to contemplate such as life imprisonment and even more degradation and abuse.

Abrahams again makes the absolute convincing statement without any hesitation or qualification that the “abuse and degradation” of Sarah Bartman was rape. Rape not only of Sarah but of the whole Khoekhoe nation. The white male racist, sexist texts she quotes in her essay are a form of “surrogate violence” against African women, Black women, Khoekhoe women and Sarah Bartman.

“Was it not rape of a symbolic sort to parade the degradation ad humiliation of auntie Sarah before me? Was it not a sexually violent act which expressed male power and my vulnerability to pain? Has not each male author I have brought before you been unable to resist the temptation of demonstrating their psychosexual power and auntie Sarah’s inability to resist?"

"In the place of false witness it is time to speak the truth. I name the posthumous abuse and degradation of auntie Sarah’s body, rape. The rape of her body is a rape of my mind."

As Abrahams writes, Sarah Bartman whose real name, real self was stolen like that of millions of other slaves and their descendants, is dead and therefore can no longer feel the pain. But she (Abrahams) feels it - I feel it and Black women throughout the world feel it. Every racist, sexist, misogynist text by whiteness against Black women is felt by me, by all of us. The symbolism of this sexual violence is explained by a more “refined and broader” definition of rape.

"…the element of sexual abuse are the violation of a person’s integrity by force and/or threat of physical violence, dishonouring the ethic of mutuality and care in relationships of domination, and an infraction of one’s psycho-spiritual-sexual integrity. Sexual abuse is sacrilege of God’s spirit in each of us [Eugene, TM “If you get there before I do: A womanist ethical response to sexual violence and abuse. In J Grant (ed) Perspectives on womanist theology”

In reviewing South African Women in History, I chose to focus on Yvette Abrahams essay because the story of Sarah Bartman speaks to the book as a whole and speaks to me personally. It is both the beginning - pre-colonial and the present, continued racism but always resistance. Sarah Bartman’s agency was expressed in her act of survival against all odds. For me Sarah Bartman, Khoekhoe woman represents the loss that came with slavery and colonialism as well as the struggle for liberation and emancipation.

Women in South African History is a “transdisciplinary” interrogation of events and periods in the history of South Africa from a feminist perspective. The narratives bring to life the daughters of Africa in their quest for emancipation, sometimes at great cost to themselves and their families, particularly their children. But always there is an unflinching determination - choices are laid bare and the choice is still emancipation.

In the last few months we have seen Bush and Blair bragging about how much they have helped Africa, but a closer analysis reveals that for every dollar Africa receives in Aid, the West gets two dollars back through unequal trade. We have also seen an increase in save the African child foundations and celebrate adoption of African orphans etc. On the other hand, we have become so dependent that practically all African governments as part of the national budget include anticipated foreign aid.

Sanusi Ibraheem is the Ag. Executive Director, The Intellectual Group based in Ogbomoso, Nigeria and working on issues around youth development. Saloman Kebede interviewed him on the upcoming “Grand Debate on the Union Government” to be held at the June 2007 summit of the African Union. The interview is part of a series of interviews, to be published in AU-Monitor, of African citizens and civil society leaders on the AU proposal for Continental Government. The interviews were conducted by the Pan Africa Programme of Oxfam in the corridors of a civil society meeting organized by UN-CONGO and FEMNET in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in the week of the 13th March 2007. Emily Mghanga of Oxfam’s Pan Africa Programme edited this interview.

Saloman Kebede: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current proposal?

Sanusi Ibraheem: The strength of the proposal is the fact that Africans will for the first time be uniting, very similar to the European Union. There will be free movement across the continent. Weakness- I hope we will not have weak institutional structures right from the start. That may give room for some lapses, which at the end of the day become too cumbersome. For instance we may be discussing things on the ground that we cannot accommodate.

Saloman Kebede: Should it be adopted in Accra in July 2007, what would you like to see the African Union Commission achieve within the first phase (2007-2009)?

Sanusi Ibraheem: Give room for Civil Society participation in the process before the final adoption. If the reason the government is uniting structures is for the unity of the people of Africa, then the civil society most especially young people should be involved in the process. I hope that the first phase will be able to achieve the resolution of various crises in Africa especially, Sudan, Somalia/Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Congo etc. If we are able to solve these crises, we will have taken the first and most important steps to economic emancipation.

Saloman Kebede: And why would this form of continental union be important to African citizens, particularly the poor and marginalized?

Sanusi Ibraheem: When we adopt freedom of movement, for instance, we benefit from free information exchange and best practices that could be learnt more easily and replicated in various other individual state. This will help us understand that, we are one and not northern African, western African, central African or southern African. The peer review mechanism is a good system to improve on a government weakness. A Continental Union will bring coherency and stability in our countries which is good for our economies and will consequently increase export, and impart more on local production and increase foreign exchange flows into Africa and ultimately will contribute to reducing the number of poor people living in Africa.

Saloman Kebede: How could states and non-states ensure that continental union efforts are transparent, participatory and driven by an appreciation of political and economic rights?

Sanusi Ibraheem: Civil society organizations should be involved and consultations carried out widely across all segments of society. Each State should be encouraged to carry out sensitization workshops on the Union Government Proposal and ensure that all segments of the society buys into it. This will bring a sense of ownership to all Africans and will see that it’s a collective responsibility. While involving all segments of the society in the process encourages the “buy in” needed to drive the process, it will also offer checks and balances on the other hand.

Saloman Kebede: What obstacles must the AU overcome for the continental union to be successful?

Sanusi Ibraheem: Let us do away with the afro-pessimistic attitude in our midst. Many of us strongly doubt the possibility of such a structure working out. Secondly, the intra-region crises should be curtailed if the process must succeed. With the right attitude and a safe environment to operate, there is no limit to Africa’s progress.

Saloman Kebede: In what policy area, would you like to see greater convergence and unity across Africa and why?

Sanusi Ibraheem: The economy. The strength of the economy is vital in the provision of basic needs to our people. We also need to change the political face, particularly in leadership and policy making.

The views expressed here are the perspectives of the interviewee. Sanusi Ibraheem can be reached at Email: Ibghandi2001 at gmail.com

Fifteen national, continental and international civil society organisations hailed the AU Conference of African Health Ministers meeting in Johannesburg South Africa for adopting the Africa Health Strategy: 2007-2015 (AFRICA_HEALTH_STRATEGY_FINAL.pdf). Meeting on the margins of the Conference, the CSO groups commended the ministers for their commitment to a vision of a “prosperous Africa free of its heavy burden of disease, disability and premature death” and to the goal of ensuring “access to essential health care for all Africans, especially the poorest and most marginalized”. They welcomed the recognition of health as a human right, and the need to advance women’s rights and equality, as women not only bear the greatest disease burden but are also primary care givers. The organisations welcomed the recognition that civil society organisations have been given in continental debates and as key players in delivery of health at all levels. ‘We look forward to actions that will turn these fine statements into reality’, they said.

In an unprecedented move, the commissioner for Social Affairs of the African Union, Adv. Bience Gawanas announced in plenary that the AU commission had received a petition from 1000 strong civil society march on the precincts of the conference led by the Treatment for Action Campaign (TAC) and addressed by partners from Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique. The petition called on African governments to move fast to implement the Abuja Declaration on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. Commissioner Gawanas urged the ministers to take into consideration the civil society concerns on the implementation.

In their closing statement on the Conference, the organisations however expressed their regret that the Strategy was silent on the urgent need for rolling out Anti-Retroviral Therapies (ARTs) to all who need them. It is estimated that less than 4% of Africans who need ARTs receive them and most of these are due to the effort of donors rather than governments. An African health strategy, they said, must include at least the:
• Urgent roll out of ARTs to all who need them;
• Right of survivors of sexual violence to Post Exposure Prophylaxis (This was proposed by the Minister of Health from Burundi for inclusion in the strategy document, but it is not clear if this will be in the final text); and
• Right of all pregnant women who are HIV positive to prevention of Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT) therapies (PMTCT is mentioned in the strategy as part of the instruments needed, but not confirmed as a right).

The organisations committed to cooperate with African governments and the African Union to ensure the realization of the right of health for all Africans.

For the final CSO communique please visit

The fifteen civil society organisations are: AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), AIDS Law Project (ALP), Mozambican Treatment Access Movement (MATRAM), International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW), network of Zimbabwean Positive Women (NZPW), Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), Southern Africa Treatment Access Movement (SATAMO), Swaziland Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (SWANEPWA), Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC), Zimbabwe Activists against HIV/AIDS ( ZAHA), and Zimbabwe National Network of People living with HIV/AIDS (ZNNP)

Two developments look set to spur growth of computer use in Africa the medium term. With funding from the US military, there are now two sets of different of battery technologies that have a direct relevance to African conditions. On the computing front, several large global brands are both co-operating and competing to open up low-cost lap-tops for the education market.

Political activists gathered in Algiers to discuss women in the workplace, to identify the issues they face and develop responses and solutions to improve their status and overall integration into the nation's workforce.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/301/violenceagainst-kids.jpg“Your children are not your children
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself
They come through you but not from you you
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you”. [Khalil Gibran, The Prophet].Dikpak Naker on why it is not OK to beat your children.

The other day I was talking to a colleague who is an activist for preventing violence against women. When I asked her if she beats her child, she responded, “I don’t batter him but if he gets out of line, I won’t hesitate to use a slap”. Her response astounded me and led me to start my own experiment of asking friends and colleagues the same question. The pattern continued. Most adults responded by saying that in moderation, beating children was a useful way of guiding their behaviour. Some added qualifiers such as, it has to be part of a larger disciplinary approach or only as a last resort. Nevertheless, many adults felt justified in using violence against children in the guise of controlling their behaviour. Even those that had seen the corrosive effect of the dynamics that lead to violence from a man to a woman, responded with a question of their own: what is wrong with beating children to teach them how to behave? Some asked in genuine bewilderment, while others simply because they couldn’t comprehend relationships with children that does not involve the adult asserting power over children.

Many of us have had years of experience in which we have learned that adults should control children around them and that in that enterprise, beating them is necessary. Most of us have witnessed children being slapped, shouted at and humiliated in the name of ‘discipline’. Perhaps you have survived a childhood where being beaten, silenced and intimidated was normalised and made acceptable by the prevailing value system. If that was the reality you grew up in, why would you come to think otherwise? Why would you abandon everything you have known, to learn a new way of relating with children? Why wouldn’t you ask, with genuine incomprehension, what is wrong with beating children to teach them how to behave?

If you are reading this, it is likely that you may have some personal or professional interest in the issue. Perhaps you work for a child-centric agency where all the literature or prevailing culture declares that beating children is wrong. You may have read the conclusions from the UN Global Study on Violence against Children or many other similar documents that conclude the same thing: that beating children, regardless of what you call it, is wrong. If you are not convinced by the rhetoric that you may have encountered in the usual documents or literature produced by civil society organizations, you are probably not alone. Maybe you do not want to risk your job or appear uncouth by articulating a dissenting point of view in certain circles. This piece is aimed at you. If you have been asked by people who live in your community about what is wrong with beating children, and not been fully sure what to think, this piece is aimed at you.

What I am about to argue is not new. However, what I hope may be compelling is that it emerged from children themselves. Ultimately if you are interested in creating a better world for children, who better to ask how to do that, than the children themselves and the adults who care about them?

We did exactly that in Uganda. We went to five diverse districts, from east to west, north to south. We asked 1400 children and 1100 adults, in many different ways about their thoughts, feelings and experience of violence against children. We asked boys and girls, younger and older, children who were in school and those who weren’t. We sought out children who were living in rural and urban areas, orphans as well as those living with their parents. They said many things about violence against children (see but above all, unanimously they said two things; the violence against children was too much, and that it did not teach children anything except fear and shame.

Ninety eight percent of the children said they had experienced physical violence, a third of these children said they experience it at least once a week. Approximately one in eight said they experience violence on a regular basis from people that are supposed to take care of them; their parents, teachers, neighbours, older siblings, relatives and community members. When children were asked how this violence makes them feel, the response ranged from rage to resignation. In this confidential space, away from the watchful eyes of adults whose approval they needed, not a single child said being beaten filled her with pride or a sense of being loved or cared for.

That may surprise you. After all, have we not trained our children sufficiently to swallow what Alice Miller, the famous pro-child psychologist calls the ‘poisonous pedagogy’; that being beaten is for your own good? It was not unusual for some children to begin that defence in focus group discussions and soon abandon it when they found that we were not there to change their mind. We were there to simply listen and learn from their views. Once the ‘defence’ was deemed unnecessary, authentic feelings and thoughts emerged.

We learned many things about violence against children through this study. The first thing we learned is that children think of violence against them in a very different way than adults. Adults focus on the act while children focus on the experience. What that means is, when an adult is beating a child, they think of it as an isolated incident that is over when the physical act is over. But children learn the fear and the shame of the incident and how the act makes them feel about the person who commits it against them. They learn that people bigger than them can treat them unfairly without there being consequences for the abuser. In an important way, they learn about the nature of power in intimate relationships and that whoever has more of it, prevails. Children learn that the best way to protect themselves from the abuse is to have power over people. We are all familiar with the consequences of that lesson when these children become adults and acquire power.

Secondly, when adults were asked why they beat children, a majority said to guide children and to teach them how to behave. Yet rarely did the adult take the time to talk with the child, discuss what they had done wrong or explain their error. If they did, they are more likely to use an alternative to a beating as a form of punishment. When children are beaten for reasons beyond their comprehension, they rarely learn what was wrong with their behaviour and they certainly don’t learn how to behave better.

Thirdly, adults severely underestimate the emotional response their violence provokes in children. When children feel humiliated, their reaction can range from fury to depression. Because most children do not have the option of expressing their feelings, it ends up being stored within them, wreaking terrible havoc in storage. Children violated over a long period of time can victimise others, behave anti-socially or just withdraw from developing their identity. They may feel hopeless and some may become suicidal. It affects their performance at school and it affects their self-confidence. It affects who they are likely to become.

Fourthly, despite the fact that beating of children is common, more than half of the adults were not sure that beating was creating a desired change in behaviour. Many admitted that often they beat children out of frustration rather than a carefully thought out strategy to teach children something. Many times children are beaten because they are children rather than because of their actions.

Finally, when children’s dignity is routinely insulted they lose trust in adults who make them feel that way. They outwardly learn to fear and internally resent the adult who inflicts violence on them. They develop ways to cope with the violence rather than spend that energy developing their intelligence. They become much smaller individuals than what they could have been.

As we reflected on these things, it became clearer to us how diverse societies have come to legitimise violence against children. The only way we can sustain such patent injustice in our intimate relationship is by refusing to empathise with the child. How else could we live with another human being on a day-to-day basis, while deep in our hearts knowing that we regularly do them injustice? After all, that is the oldest trick in the book for dominating another group of people. We learned about other blatant ways in which adults ignore the evidence in front of their eyes. If beating taught anything to anyone, none would need to be beaten twice or at least repeatedly, and yet that is what continues to happen to children.

Most importantly, we learned from children that beating children is not a harmless vice that parents succumb to and we can turn a blind eye to. The violence has powerful short-term, and profound long-term consequences, not only for the child but also for the entire community (perhaps even entire countries). For these and many other reasons, beating a child is counter-productive. It does not achieve the aim of changing behaviour. It does not help the child learn what was wrong with their behaviour. It undermines their confidence and contributes towards the child learning to trust you less. If you are interested in helping children learn, beating them is the last thing you would want to do.

If you are still reading this, I presume that you are willing to ask the deeper questions. If I can be presumptuous, I would like to ask you the following. How might your possibilities as an adult be different, had you not been beaten and shamed as a child? I wonder what you might have been, had you not been humiliated as a child. Would you persist in believing that it has done you no harm or would you be honest enough to see the injury it might have caused you? Wait! Don’t answer just yet. Let it circle in your head and come back to it when you are about to fall asleep at night…just when you are entering that intimate space and maybe in deeper touch with your heart, and then, answer to yourself as honestly as you can.

* Dipak Naker, Co-Director, Raising Voices

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Beyond the complex “ethnic, regional and tribal dimensions” to the conflict in Darfur there is also a national and international political aspect that is not always acknowledged particularly in the Western media. Ayesha Kajee explains some of the domestic influences and the role of resources such as oil in the conflict.

Despite a few laudable attempts by serious political analysts to defray the often naïve and sometimes infantile portrayals of the Darfur conflict in the mass media, lazy writers persist in defining the war in Sudan’s westernmost region purely as an ethnic cleansing of Africans by Arab pro-government militias. Some even go so far as to conflate the conflict with the North-South civil war that ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005. That conflict has also often been simplistically defined purely in terms of Muslim Northerners and Christian southerners. While there are complex ethnic, regional and tribal dimensions to the Darfur conflict, there has been minimal acknowledgement that, in appearance at least, all the combatants are Black Africans and almost all are Muslim.

Beyond that, the Darfur conflict has a great deal to do with politics, both domestic and international, an aspect that again, has been systematically ignored or downplayed in the mainstream media. Historically, Darfur has been both marginalised and politically manipulated by the power elites in Khartoum, resulting in severe underdevelopment. With poverty levels exacerbated by cyclical droughts and recurring famine over the past two decades, the nomadic pastoralist ‘Arabs’ in the region competed with the agrarian ‘Africans’ for land; marking the start of conflict between them.

It is worth noting that until the late 1960’s, ‘African’ and ‘Arab’ in Darfur were not ethnic designations but were primarily used to differentiate between the more settled agrarian farmers and the cattle-herding nomads. Generations of intermarriage have made physiognomic distinction between ‘African’ and ‘Arab’ Darfuris virtually impossible. Until politics intervened in 1968, both were equally despised by the Khartoum urbanites as ‘people of the West’, an appellation that stigmatised them as ill-educated, uncouth, poverty-stricken peasants. Organisations such as the Darfur Development Front (DDF) arose as regional bodies striving for socio-economic justice in Darfur.

Domestic Political influences

Although Darfuris contributed to the Ummah Party’s victory at Sudan’s independence in 1956, it was forgotten and neglected until the Ummah Party split before the 1968 elections. Needing a large voting bloc from the west, one faction courted the Darfuri ‘Africans’, including the DDF, while the other wooed Darfur’s ‘Arab’ vote. Electioneering included ethnicised blame games to encourage political allegiance, and promises of government appointments for Darfuri ‘Arabs’ by their rediscovered ‘brothers’ in the capital. Ever since, Darfur has been a pawn manipulated by successive Sudanese governments.

This is still true today. Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP), led by President Omar al-Bashir, is desperate to prevent the independence of the south, which will be decided by referendum in 2011. After all, Sudan’s oilfields, currently al-Bashir’s cash cows, lie in the south. Al-Bashir badly needs Darfur as part of the northern voting bloc in the next national elections, scheduled for 2009, a political consideration that partially explains his reluctance to allow United Nations peacekeepers into Darfur.

But his brutal scorched earth policy in Darfur has exploded out of NCP control and may backfire in a net loss of Darfuri support in 2009. Initially pre-occupied with the civil war between north and south, this government first ignored the rumblings of discontent in Darfur, as far back as the late 1990s. When attacks on government positions intensified, it recruited, mounted and armed disaffected ‘Arab’ militias to suppress the uprisings in Darfur through extreme violence and brutality. Many of these ‘Janjaweed’ militias have rampaged out of control and there are reports that some even operate as cross-border bandits in Chad.

The extreme brutality of the government’s retaliation is partially explained by its desire to eradicate political competition. In particular the NCP fears the influence of its former mentor and spiritual guru, Islamist cleric Hassan al-Turabi, who has been linked to one of Darfur’s three major insurgent groups, the Justic and Equality Movement (JEM). Al-Turabi’s large following not only in Darfur, but in other poor and marginalised regions such as Eastern Sudan, seriously threatens NCP hegemony.

The al-Bashir government’s image has been badly tarnished within Sudan by both the Darfur conflict and its many breaches of the peace agreement with the south. Even with repressive media rules and a widespread network of patronage and clientelism that could facilitate electoral fraud, it may have a tough time garnering the support it needs (from Darfur and other neglected areas) to retain control of government come 2009.

Regional and International Political Influences

Successive aspirant leaders from neighbouring Chad have historically abused Darfur as the staging ground for their power bids. In some cases this was welcomed by whichever regime was in power in Khartoum at the time. When politically expedient, Chadian uprisings initiated from Darfur have variously been supported by Libya, France and the USA respectively. Libyan involvement in Darfur served to heighten ethnic tensions in Darfur, since the Libyans espoused Arab Nationalism, favoured Darfuri ‘Arabs’ and were despised as ‘Arab foreigners’ by locals. During the Cold War, western countries paid Khartoum to use Darfur as a base for supporting Hissan Habre’s regime in Chad. Conversely, the military junta which seized power in 1985, bartered Darfur in exchange for Libyan support in both the 1986 election and the civil conflict with the south. Libya used Darfur to attack the US-supported Habre regime in Chad, which retaliated by arming the nascent Sudan Liberation Army, a rebel group in Darfur. Habre was eventually ousted by current Chadian president Idriss Deby in 1990, who, following the established tradition, used Darfur as his springboard to N’djamena.

The legacy of Darfur’s abuse as an insurgency base surfaced in the heightened ethnic tensions, distrust of foreigners and a proliferation of small arms in the region. This, combined with rising insurgency, provided fuel for the disastrous civil conflict that has displaced up to two million people and killed at least 200,000 others. Though the ready availability of weapons across porous borders has fed the growing appetite of both rebels and Janjaweed in Darfur, government supplies to the Janjaweed have heavily weighted the odds in favour of the latter.

From the start, refugees fleeing the Darfur war have sought refuge among Chadians with whom they share ethnic and economic ties. But recently the conflict has spread into both refugee camps and local villages in Chad and the Central African Republic, rocking the political stability of the entire region. March 2007 saw over 400 casualties from attacks ascribed to cross-border Janjaweed, and aid workers say the incidence and intensity of attacks are increasing.

The Politics of Resources

No consideration of the political underpinnings of the Darfur situation can be complete without a consideration of international interest in Sudan’s immense natural resource base and indeed, that of the region. Given the political environment in the Middle East and the insatiable demand for oil by nations such as the US and China, substantial oil reserves in both Chad and Sudan make them vulnerable to political manipulation from outside. Sudan’s Muglad Basin alone reportedly contains three billion barrels of crude. Both Chad and Sudan have used oil revenues to purchase arms that sustain conflicts within their countries and across borders, a factor that is ignored by most consumers of oil in the region.

The US and Malaysia are the major oil investors in Chad, while China, Russia, France, Malaysia, India and the UK all have interests in Sudan’s oil sector. In addition to oil, Sudan also has gold reserves and arable land suitable for commercial exploitation. Darfur possibly has undiscovered reserves of uranium, bauxite and copper. Geological surveys also imply that Darfur has unexploited oil reserves, which may go some way to explaining the intense and sustained global interest in Darfur over the past few years. There is indubitably a massive humanitarian disaster in Darfur, and the mobilisation of civil society around the globe is warranted and welcome. But it is worth questioning why this tragedy receives concentrated attention from the world’s media and why advocacy for multilateral intervention in Darfur has managed to mobilise millions, including celebrities from every sphere, when similar situations in northern Uganda or Central African Republic get far less coverage.

Politics Within Darfur

While initially the Darfur rebels were able to unite or act in tandem on the basis of common goals (such as socio-economic development for the region), the sustained conflict has led to the split of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) into two major factions. Led by Minni Minnawi and Abdel Wahid al-Nur respectivelty, these factions were split along mainly ethnic lines but often worked cooperatively. Abdel Wahid, an ethnic Fur, command widespread support among the Fur tribes who comprise about quarter of the region’s population. His faction has been pitted against Minnawi’s since Minnawi signed the May 2006 Abuja peace agreement and Abdel Wahid refused to do so. Minnawi, from the Zeghawa tribe, received a senior government position in Khartoum after signing the deal, which has drawn criticism from various rebel factions.

The third major rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Khalil Ibrahim, was also not party to the Abuja agreement. JEM united with SLM splinter groups who were not at Abuja, to form the National Redemption Front (NRF) which continues to fight the government.

Thus, the peace agreement ironically exacerbated divisions among the rebels and in some areas caused intensified conflict between rebel forces, with many civilians caught in the crossfire. Consequently, the civilians who initially supported the rebels with shelter and provisions, now fear the rebel groups as well as the government-backed Janjaweed, particularly if the rebels are ethnically different from themselves.

The Abuja agreement has also been used by al-Bashir’s government as a pretext for bringing numerous police and army personnel and equipment into Darfur, ostensibly to implement the ceasefire provisions, which to date, have been observed in the breach. The government and Minnawi prevented non-signatories from full participation in the Darfur Ceasefire Commission, virtually guaranteeing that it would fail. Attempts by the African Union Mission in Darfur to comply with provisions of the Abuja deal, have compromised the perceived neutrality of the peacekeepers and increased distrust of them. In the last two months, seven peacekeepers have been killed in Darfur.

There is growing international pressure to persuade al-Bashir to allow the implementation of a 2006 United Nations Resolution that calls for a trebling of the under-equipped peacekeeping force, which would see it passing from AU to UN control. Although Khartoum, after much pontificating on Sudan’s sovereignty, agreed to the deployment of a hybrid AU-UN force in November 2006, they have balked at the details and thus far, no UN troops have been allowed into Darfur. This may be due to fears that senior Sudanese officials could be indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes perpetrated in Darfur. It could also be attributed to anxiety that Darfur would use the UN presence to secede, depriving al-Bashir of this constituency in the 2009 elections. Such a situation would likely result in the eventual independence of the south in 2011. That this would pave the way for foreign interests to invest in an independent south and in Darfur, should not be discounted.

Given the complex internal and external political implications of the Darfur conflict, the biggest losers are the Darfuris who have been killed, maimed and driven from their homes and livelihoods. They are the ‘dispensable’ pawns of political manipulators from within and outside Sudan. There is a crying need for multilateral intervention in Darfur, and an enhanced peacekeeping force with a strong mandate to protect citizens would bring much needed stability to the region as a whole. But the potential ramifications of such an intervention merit careful consideration as to the composition of the deployed force and its mandate.

Concomitant with the deployment of more peacekeepers, the international community should be obligated to continue support for a political solution that includes all the major players in Darfur. This is a conflict that requires sustained negotiation and dialogue across the political spectrum in order to produce a lasting peace. The track record of certain western governments with regard to human rights and ethics would render them unsuitable as the primary facilitators of such a dialogue. Therefore the most appropriate brokers would be respected Africans whose eminence inspires confidence in their integrity, leaders who truly care that those who are paying the price of this war are fellow Africans with the inalienable right to the most basic freedoms of peace and security.

* Ayesha Kajee: Programme Head: Democracy and Political Party Systems in Africa at the South African Institute of International Affairs

* Please send comments to

UNHCR and its partners on Monday resumed distribution of urgent aid supplies to thousands of Somalis fleeing a sixth day of heavy fighting in Mogadishu. Describing a scene of growing chaos, a UNHCR staff member in Afgooye, 30 kms west of Mogadishu, said a road linking the two areas had reopened on Monday morning and was filled with a continuous flow of displaced people.

With two-thirds of the world's HIV/AIDS victims living in sub-Saharan Africa, sickness and death is too often a part of doing business in the region. But now micro-finance institutions have found ways to reduce financial risk while attacking new infections.

The rattling sound of galvanized tins has become characteristic of Patience's* daily routine which starts at 4 am every day. Patience (43), a single mother, is one of the many who rush in the early morning to the Zimbabwean capital's Mbare Musika market to buy fruit and vegetables to hawk.

While the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a "bright idea", the "hidden agenda" of western countries makes it impossible for African states like Tanzania to achieve the goals, expounds actor Rashid Mkwinda. He is one of the people whose thoughts IPS canvassed in the streets of Dar es Salaam in a series of random interviews about the MDGs.

The Pan-African Youth Leadership Forum will be a one-week program to be held in Accra, Ghana from 18–25 June 2007. Participation will be limited to 106 delegates drawn from as many as Africa’s 53 countries as possible.

A new document produced by Mkombozi serves as a manual for educators delivering Non-Formal Education (NFE) in Tanzania. Mkombozi is a child-focussed agency based in the north of the country. The authors argue that the Mkombozi NFE principles and practice would be applicable in a schools based context and would be of value to the Tanzanian education system.

The Director of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) Keith Goddard has accused a Zimbabwean daily newspaper, ZimDaily, of irresponsible journalism. This comes in the wake of a string of stories published about the organisation a week ago, first with the newspaper’s reporter Fikile Mapala writing about the sacking of Dumisani Dube, the Information and Publications Manager of GALZ.

FEATURE: Ayesha Kajee – the political underbelly of Darfur
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:-
- Robtel Pailey on Firestone plantation slavery
- Dikpak Naker on what's wrong with beating children
LETTERS: Congratulations on the 300th edition of Pambazuka News from contributors and readers
BLOGGING AFRICA: A round up of the African blogosphere
BOOKS AND ARTS: Review of South African Women in History by Sokari Ekine
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: Interview with Roselynn Musa and commentary on African civil society

PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen asks what next after the Nigerian elections
WOMEN AND GENDER: Text message saves Burkinabe girl from forced marriage
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Government troops battle insurgents in Somalia
HUMAN RIGHTS: Zim activists denied bail
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Consultation on HIV and IDPs starts
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Woman candidate for Mali poll
AFRICA AND CHINA: China feels pressure after attacks
DEVELOPMENT: Africa does not need more western philanthropy
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: HIV puts malaria back in spotlight
EDUCATION: Manual for non-formal education in Tanzania
LGBTI: Media accused of libel and irresponsibility
ENVIRONMENT: Africa’s first wind park in Namibia
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Obasanjo 'ignores' FoI bill
NEWS FROM THE DIASPORA: In defence of the new diasporas and brain mobility
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Setting the digital pace in Nairobi’s suburbs
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops and Jobs

*Pambazuka News now has a Del.icio.us page, where you can view the various websites that we visit to keep our fingers on the pulse of Africa! Visit

Several international aid agencies say they are suspending their work in the town of Um Dukhun in Sudan's Darfur region because of attacks on them. The agencies, which include the UK group Oxfam, Save the Children Spain and the US-based Mercy Corps, said on Monday the decision would disrupt services to 100,000 people, according to a report by Al Jazeera..

Jubilee Debt Campaign is seeking a Policy and Campaigns Officer or Senior Policy and Campaigns Officer to be based at their central London Secretariat (near Old Street). This is a vital, demanding and rewarding role, requiring a deep understanding of the issues and power structures and the ability to persuade and enthuse people. The closing time for receipt of completed application forms is 2pm, Tuesday 8th May, 2007.

A Kigali court has imposed a one-year sentence on Agnès Nkusi Uwimana, the editor of the fortnightly Umurabyo, after she pleaded guilty to charges of “creating divisions,” “sectarianism” and “defamation.” Uwimana had been held since 12 January for writing a column headlined “You have problems if you kill a Tutsi, but you go free if you kill a Hutu.” She recognised in court “the gravity of my writings” and promised to “publish a correction.”

The ethical practice of medical and public-health professionals is increasingly tested by situations of war and conflict. The result – from Rwanda to Abu Ghraib to Libya – can be the violation of medical neutrality. OpenDemocracy's Michel Thieren considers what can be done to uphold professional and humane standards in "dark times".

South Africa has designed a package to lure 35,000 foreign skilled professionals in the coming year to fill the vacuum of skill labour in the country. South African Home Affairs Minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, has disclosed that there are 34,825 quota work permits available in 53 occupations where career professionals are needed.

Right activists in Burkina Faso have been raising concerns over the safety of the West African country’s young talented reggae king, Sam Samsk le Jah, who receives anonymous death threats. The revolutionary singer who anchors a music programme on Radio Ouaga FM is warned to either “stop your silly things on the radio or risk being killed.”

On the Wednesday 25th April, 2007 a group of women numbering 300 plus were assaulted by members of the Police Force in Kano State, Tarauni Federal Constituency while staging a peaceful protest to express concern over the denial of the mandate they gave a female candidate (Saida Sa’ad) who contested the National Assembly elections on the platform of Action Congress (AC).

According to close associates the women comprising all ages and dispositions of women assembled at the Oando petroleum filling station in Tarauni off the Maiduguri highway from where they crossed over obstructed traffic. Just as they assembled a group of military men inquired on the mission of the women. Upon satisfactory explanations these military men volunteered to assist the women by offering protection and warding off youths and any unwanted intruders.

30 minutes into the protest, armed Police men arrived and started dispelling tear gas and shooting in the air hoping to disperse the procession. In the ensuing confusion and Saida attempted to get an explanation canisters of tear-gas were blown not too far from her position. Consequently, Saida who is asthmatic collapsed and was eventually rushed to hospital where she was placed on oxygen. She is still on admission. Other supporter numbering 6 were also adversely affected by the tear gas and rough handling by the Police.

The development was aired on the Hausa service of the BBC.

We will keep you posted on the subject

Four MDC activists facing charges of allegedly petrol-bombing several targets in the country have been denied bail by a Harare magistrate. Bertha Chikururama, Friday Mleya, Raymond Baki and Washaya have been in police custody for the last four weeks. MDC MP for Budiriro, Emmanuel Chisvuure, said the four were denied bail when they appeared before a Harare magistrate on Monday.

Kenya Forestry Service plans to rehabilitate an approximate 2,700 hectares of indigenous forests through an ambitious afforestation programme.The campaign targets water catchment areas within Mount Kenya region, Aberdares, Mau Forest, Cherang’any Hills, Mt Elgon and Western Kenya region, which have in the past been destroyed by illegal loggers.

Civilians fleeing fighting between Congolese government troops and rebel militias in North Kivu Province have been forced to shelter in makeshift camps 100km from Goma town, aid workers said.Thousands of others are living in the bush, hiding during the day and going to their fields at night.

The number of people working in extreme poverty in Africa would increase by 20 percent by 2015, Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), said at the opening of the 11th regional meeting in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. "Most of the work in Africa is of a near-subsistence nature, with more than eight out of 10 workers in the informal economy [operating] with low pay, low productivity and low protection," said Somavia.

A rising incidence of rape in Swaziland, coupled with the world's highest level of HIV-infection, is fuelling a national debate on what punishment should be meted out to rapists, especially if the victims of sex crimes become infected with the disease. "Giving a little girl HIV is like giving her a death sentence," Nonhlanhla Dlamini, director of the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA), told IRIN.

For almost 13 years Maimouna only knew that her parents died of a “blood disease” when she was young. But three months ago she learned that disease was HIV/AIDS - and she is infected too. “I can’t tell my friends. Only my grandmother knows,” the tall, thin girl said after one of her regular check-ups at the Gabriel Toure Hospital in the Malian capital, Bamako.

Small-scale farmers in Malawi are becoming aware that they are bearing the brunt of climate change, which has been adversely affecting productivity, according to a new study by an international aid agency. "Changing rainfall patterns and higher temperatures have forced farmers to shorten the growing season and switch to more expensive hybrid crops," said a report based on the study, 'Climate change and smallholder farmers in Malawi', by Action Aid International.

On 25 April 2007, "The Namibian" newspaper reported that its editor, Gwen Lister, and The Free Press of Namibia, the company that owns and publishes "The Namibian", were instructed to pay N$7 million (approximately US$1 million) to the Palazzolo family, or face legal action in the form of five defamation suits. The family is threatening to sue "The Namibian" especially in connection with a front-page story published under the headline "Mafia linked to Namibian gems" on 23 March.

There are children in Namibia who are out of school for one reason or another, even though education is a human right. This is the view of the Deputy Minister of Education, Dr Becky Ndjoze-Ojo, who was the keynote speaker at the opening on Monday of the Education for All Global Week at the UN Plaza. Hundreds of learners from schools in the capital Windhoek attended the event, which is celebrated in more than 100 countries worldwide.

A world-class education cannot neglect the basics. This is the main reason why the Mauritius ministry of Education has endorsed an international workshop on early childhood care and education held from 18th to 26th of April. Representatives of the educational sector of Sub-Saharan Africa are in Mauritius to try and make Africa move forward in the inclusion of every young child in education.

In February, the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) issued its fourth assessment report on the state of emissions and climate change. According to the world’s leading scientists, there is a 90% likelihood that the global warming we are experiencing is linked to human-induced causes. In essence, it stems from burning fossil fuels. South African industry must become much more serious about its emissions, writes Karen Alsfine for Business Day.

Sudanese authorities are holding up to 100,000 tonnes of sorghum meant for Darfur, alleging that it is genetically modified, the U.N. food agency said on Wednesday. The sorghum, which comes from the United States, is being held up at Port Sudan, a World Food Program spokeswoman in Rome said, adding that laboratory tests had shown it was not genetically modified.

Ethiopian tanks supporting the Somali interim government pounded insurgent positions in Mogadishu on Thursday, intensifying an offensive that has emptied half the city of its people. "We are under heavy artillery and tank shelling. The Ethiopians are using whatever forces and material they have," said a fighter belonging to the capital's dominant Hawiye clan. "This is the heaviest attack we've seen since the war started."

"GBV Offices" reads a small sign on a door of the Rwandan National Police Headquarters. These three letters hold great significance, designating the Gender Based Violence Desk Office, where police personnel are specifically trained to address sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).