UNESCO's first progress report since the 2000 World Education Forum reveals that more than 70 countries will not be able to attain the goals set at Dakar for 2015, which include acceptable primary schooling for all children, eliminating gender disparities in school, and cutting adult illiteracy by fifty percent.

Tanzanian authorities are disturbed by the increasing number of teachers killed by HIV/AIDS. According to the latest report, between 1996 and 2006, 193 teachers died of HIV and AIDS-related diseases in the country's south-western district of Mbeya alone.

Political analysts say Nigeria's democracy faces a crucial test. Presidential, parliamentary and state gubernatorial and assembly elections scheduled for 14 and 21 April 2007 "must be transparent and credible" if the country and the region are to make progress and to avoid instability and violence.

In an attempt to activate the role of intellectuals in the conflict-ridden Horn of African region, Djibouti will offer a forum to the region's intellectuals to debate and start a dialogue on the region's economic, political and social problems in a conference due to be held in the second half of November 2007.

The UN refugee agency has recently resumed the repatriation of southern Sudanese refugees from the West Nile region of Uganda some six weeks after the programme was suspended due to an outbreak of meningitis.

The recent state visit by Chinese president Hu Jintao has sparked renewed debates among Zambians about whether their country is receiving real benefits from its close economic relations with the Asian giant.

The figures tell the story. In 1990, forests in Mali extended over more than 14 million hectares. But by 2000 they covered 13,117,643 hectares, according to a national report on the state of the environment made public in 2005. This marked a reduction of about seven percent in the West African country's forests, in just a decade.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/broadcasts/marceline.jpgFree Zim-Youth, a group of young Zimbabweans living in the UK, demonstrated outside the South African embassy in central London in protest at the ANC's silence over the Mugabe regime. Commemorating the anniversary of the Sharpeville Day massacre during apartheid rule, the youth group accuse the ANC of betraying the people of Zimbabwe. In this podcast, hear the voices of the protesters and the sounds of the demonstration. To contact Free Zim-Youth email them at [email][email protected]

African leaders sought to hammer out a fresh approach to Zimbabwe's crisis on Thursday as President Robert Mugabe's government was hit with new charges of widespread human rights abuses.

Egyptian security forces broke up an opposition protest in Cairo on Sunday, on the eve of a referendum on constitutional changes which opponents fear will strengthen the ruling party's grip on power.

On a typical weekday in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, a group of women sits chatting under the shade of a tree a few metres away from a long, winding queue of 20-litre plastic containers and buckets. At the head of the queue, a barefooted boy pulls a half-cut container with a rope from a handmade well and pours the water into one container after the other.

Since the beginning of this month there has been all kinds of memorials, lectures, prayer meetings and other kinds of public activities commemorating two-hundred years of the abolition of the cross-Atlantic slave trade in Britain. They have provoked all kinds of reactions and generated a lot of interest, debate, reconstructions and deconstructions.

Unfortunately this is more in the diaspora than across Africa, outside of Ghana which has managed to weave the painful experience into a creative tourism package. In a year in which Ghana celebrates 50 years of independence and is guaranteed to be partying throughout the year, the anti-slavery commemorations have become another value added in a state-sponsored 'feel good' hysteria.

Ghana is not the only country from where slaves were captured and forcibly bounded and hounded on to ships, in chains, transported in the most inhuman conditions to the plantations in the Caribbean and North America, the other Americas and Europe. Nations of East, Central and Southern Africa and other parts of West Africa including present day Senegal and Nigeria were part of this shameful trade that went on for 400 years!

If the history touches all of us why are so many Africans and African leaders not interested in this barbaric experience whose impact continues to reveal itself in the continuing negative image of Africa and Africans in relation to the rest of the world? Slavery was followed by colonialism, which in many ways was a legal distinction without a practical difference in terms of the negative impact on the lives of our peoples. In a sense slavery formally ended in Europe but continued in the colonies.

Maybe one of the reasons Africans are not excited is that slavery reminds us, in too painful ways, of our subjugation, the indignities inflicted on us made more unbearable by the fact that the existence of many of our peoples today whether in Africa or in the diaspora bear too much parallel to slavery.

So for many regardless of the history and legal finesse slavery is not dead, it has mutated into other forms of exploitation and domination in which we still remain bottom of the pile on most indices of human progress. Like chiefs and emperors, kings and other slave dealers of old our Presidents and Prime Ministers preside over a system of power that continues to make our peoples 'hewers of wood and drawers of water', while the riches of this continent continue to be siphoned off by others; content to play junior partners for as long as their grotesque and gratuitous consumption lifestyles and that of their immediate family and hangers-on can be guaranteed.

They will sell anything having already battered their souls. So if they are sleep-walking through all the remembrances of slavery it is because the past is still weighing too heavily on the present and they may be afraid that such events may draw uncomfortable comparison to their collaboration in keeping their peoples in modern slavery in the name of thw free market, privatization, modernisation and globalization.

The slaves were captured in wars, slave raids, and forcibly sold but today we are willingly financing our own slavery. Just go in front of any Western embassy across this continent and see the hordes of our people (mostly young) willing to do anything to get the visa to go abroad. Anywhere will do as long as it is outside Africa, even if the former slaving countries of Europe and America remain favorite destinations! Look at the risks many take traveling, hitch hiking, facing all kinds of abuse, exploitation and indignities to smuggle themselves through the straights of Gibraltar into Spain from North African countries.

Even at the height of slavery millions of our peoples resisted, and many died, in what is euphemistically called the Middle Passage. Many as a result of being thrown overboard due to illness or because they were 'difficult to handle', and many also dived into the sea, preferring to be eaten by sharks, crocodiles and other sea predators than be taken into plantations.

On the plantations resistance was rampant in all forms through culture, the rise of the African churches, music, drums, etc; the most decisive being the successful slave revolt in Haiti. Haiti may be a by-word for all kinds of inhumanities today with the dubious title of 'poorest country in the western hemisphere' but it used to be the prized jewel of slavery economies as the leading sugar cane producer. It has a glorious role in the resistance against slavery which we should not forget. In the jungles of Brazil former slaves established the Zoumbi kingdom after overthrowing slavery.

It is important to remember these struggles because what we are getting through the Western media and the shameful 'cut and paste' uncritical coverage in our tech-dependent and intellectually lazy African media is that the Anti Slavery Society in the UK, the church and missionaries and good people in Europe and America helped to bring slavery to an end.

How come their conscience only woke up after four centuries? And that same conscience did not prevent them from supporting so called 'legitimate trade' (between unequal peoples which echo what we still face today) for another century, and colonialism after that!

Africans need to be aware of their own history to understand how and why we are where we are in order to be able to fashion out the best strategy to lift us up and fulfill the aspirations of our peoples to be rid of poverty, disease, want and shameful misery in the midst of plenty. That was the point that the Young Man, Toyin, from the African Campaigning Group, Ligali, was making when he 'allegedly' disrupted the service last Sunday at Westminister Abbey to which all the great and mighty of that slaving nation (who's Greatness has always been built on iniquities) were gathered.

The Queen, her arrogant but thankfully expiring PM Blair, and the ruling class of Britain, all of them including the church, heirs to slavery and beneficiaries of its illegal and immoral earnings up to now. The Anglican Archbishop, Rowan Williams, is a sincere and frank man who is a pain on the side of the powers-that-be. He was open in expressing remorse and confronting the painful past and the complicity of the British establishment.

But the British PM can only express regret and cannot find it in him to say 'sorry'. But his sorry is meaningless since he has been exposed to be a compulsive serial liar.

The bigger shame is that some African leaders (Museveni being the first to say there was no need for reparations and his current successor in Western adulation, John Kuffour, has loyally joined the queue) and poodle cousins among the few leading black tokens in Blair's government like Baroness Amos (she was in Elmina castle in Ghana recently and all she could say, with all her posh accent, was that the slaves, definitely including her ancestors traveled in 'difficult circumstances'!) think that it is not necessary.

Together with former top guard-dog of Bush, Colin Powell, Baroness Amos led the British and US delegations to the World Conference against Racism in which they tried but failed to scuttle any attempt to link Israeli occupation to racism and apartheid and also seek reparations for slavery. Thy do not need reparations because they have been more than amply rewarded by their House Nigger status. As good Christians, all of them, even if they are not Catholics, have they forgotten the relationship between: confession, resmorse, absolution and forgiveness?

Blair thinks (wrongly again) that he is being smart by stopping short of an apology because of the implication of guilt and subsequent legal obligation to compensate for his ancestors through reparations to the victims. But the issue will not go away even if they are ignoring it now.

When Africa becomes united and more assertive it will no longer be possible to ignore our demands. For me the challenge is to put our house in order first, then reparations will become a mainstream issue. Then issues of debt cancellation, aid and reform of the modern slavery economic system forced on humanity by IMF/World Bank/WTO will not be favors to us but part of the reparations.

The Reparations Movement should not despair. The answer is simple to any member of the Pan African Movement: "Do Not Agonise! Organise!!

* Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is the Deputy Director for the UN Millennium Campaign in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes this article in his personal capacity as a concerned Pan-Africanist.

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

John Holmes, the United Nations’ Emergency Relief Coordinator, has warned that the international community is dragging its feet on funding for humanitarian operations in Chad and is “underestimating” the scale of the crisis there.

Militias loyal to opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba have been integrated into the national army in Equateur province, in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), United Nations officials said. Two hundred soldiers were signed up on Tuesday in Gbadolite, a spokesperson for the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC), Lt Col Didier Rancher, said on Wednesday. Another 140 are expected to lay down their weapons soon.

A team of parliamentarians from the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF) has expressed concern about the extent of political and ministerial control in Angola's electoral process.

The people of Angola, the government and the international community must pull together to ensure that returning refugees are able to reintegrate and have a sustainable future in their country, a top United Nations (UN) official has said.

World TB Day on March 24 has passed with much fanfare about drug regimes and increases in treatment. But little has been said about the broader health issues that continue to go unaddressed. The symptoms of the health crisis that faces the continent are only partially dealt with.

Health status is influenced by socioeconomic factors as well as health delivery services. In Africa, declining economies and growing poverty levels have led to a drop in the health status of the population. The HIV pandemic, as well as the persistent ravages of diseases such as malaria, has been exacerbated by poverty-associated malnutrition and unhealthy life-styles.

Experiences in Africa thus far continue to manifest the impact of structural adjustment programmes of the past, which failed and were largely discarded, but whose rationale continues to underpin policy-making.

The economic decline, occasioned by these programmes and other systemic factors, has also reduced the resources available for public spending. Along with social services and education, health care has born the brunt of the cut-backs instituted by governments Shrinking budgets, coupled with increased demand for health services and the rising cost of health care have plunged African health care regimes into chaos, necessitating urgent reforms. Sekwat (2003) adds that the inadequate resource mobilization is further complicated by the inefficient use of the existent resources.

The process of privatisation as a means of cutting public spending has an exclusionary effect that runs counter to the drive for equity and social justice. By privatising health services, elements thereof in effect exclude those who are not able to pay for it, and in most instances need it most. Public-private partnerships have met with limited success because of structural incompatibilities between the sectors.

A feature of health care reform in Africa has been the introduction of user fees for services. In this scenario, the cost of health care is shared between the state and the public. The reality is that whereas this has succeeded in raising revenue for the sector, it has placed an even greater burden on the meagre resources of the poor, and completely excluded those without the resources. The fallacy of the approach is evident in studies that have shown an increase in efficiency in health care delivery by measuring the level of waiting lists at health facilities. The reality is that those who cannot afford health care are simply not getting it.

There has been a recent move away from cost-sharing in the form of user fees, which have tended to prevent the poor from accessing health services. Sekwat (2003) points out that user fees have a particularly negative effect on adherence to mid and long-term treatment regimes. This is especially dangerous when dealing with diseases like tuberculosis.

Although a study of health policies in Africa reveals an emphasis on social justice and equity, the realities of implementation have tended to militate against this. Budgetary efficiency has often meant doing only what is possible within budgetary allocations. Health care has frequently received allocations well below the requirements, although countries like South Africa are making positive steps towards improving this. The drive for efficiency in resource utilization has met with limited success because most of the inefficiencies tend to be systemic rather than unique to the health sector.

One noble effort has been to shift more resources to broader basic health-care, with the view to early detection and treatment of health problems before they become more dangerous and costly to treat. However, the problem has been that doing this has necessitated redeploying resources from the secondary and tertiary systems. This problem has recently come up in South Africa where the Western Cape finance department has proposed cutting allocations to two major referral hospitals in order to increase capacity in secondary facilities. Whereas the secondary facilities are better able to serve the community, it substantially strains the tertiary system.

Examples such as the foregoing tend to call into question the ideological underpinnings of health policy. Whereas the provision of basic health care to benefit the poor is beyond reproach as a policy, should it mean that the poor only have access to primary health care? Rather the system should be designed to accommodate all people at all levels. Stierle et al point out the provision of health care to the poor is further hampered by lack of clear definitions of who is 'poor' or 'indigent' and therefore eligible for free health care. These are issues that need urgent attention if the health system is to serve in an equitable manner.

The lack of skilled personnel continues to be a problem in reforming the health sector. Furthermore the ability of the public health sector to retain these personnel is still a major challenge, which can only be overcome through better remuneration and working conditions. Needless to say, this is not achievable unless there is more budgetary allocation to health services.

The process of health care reform requires a multi-sectoral approach and a firm grounding in the broader principles of social justice and equity. Any process of reform needs to be sensitive to the most vulnerable, without creating structural imbalances that negatively impact sustainability.

Futher Reading:

Africa Action position paper: Hazardous to Health

Ambrose,S. 2006. Preserving disorder: IMF policies and Kenya's health care crisis http://www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/B2E65CFE-C098-4281-9FF4-967DFEB22069/0/RC53_INFDoc1.pdf

At last, Guinea's consensus Premier, Lansana Kouyaté, appointed a new cabinet on Wednesday. Interestingly, the new line-up is without a single minister from the former regime headed by the bed-ridden Guinean President, indicating Mr Kouyaté had great freedom in forming his cabinet.

The Government of Zambia has called for the mainstreaming of Internet Governance in the implementation plan of the National Information and Communications technology (ICT) Policy and immediate formation of the National Internet Governance Forum (NIGF) to enable Zambia's full participation in internet governance issues.

Two journalists with Zimbabwe's state broadcaster have been criminally charged in connection with footage of diamond trafficking in the eastern Manicaland province, according to Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and news reports.

Illiteracy, hunger, abuse and other challenges confronting rural women around the world will become focal issues at an international conference late next month in South Africa, a South African official said on Thursday.

The Women's Movement in Ghana has said that it is time for government and the people of Ghana to recognize and support women's struggle for full citizenship on the auspicious occasion of the 50th independence anniversary celebrations.

The Africa Advocacy Advisor will lead in developing and implementing a comprehensive advocacy strategy targeting the main Regional Economic Block in the Area. The Africa Advocacy Advisor reports to the Senior Africa Advocacy Advisor. As a member of the World Vision (WV) Area Office, the Africa Advocacy Advisor also has a dotted line reporting commitment to the Area Director. The Africa Advocacy Advisor is expected to operate with a high degree of independence, under the broad strategic direction of the Senior Africa Advocacy Advisor.

For further information:

VENUE : School of Oriental & African Studies, Main Building , Thornhaugh Street, London WC1.

SATURDAY 24 MARCH, 2pm to 5pm .
1)Background To Kwame Nkrumah's Journey To North America And Europe . Room G52
SATURDAY 31 MARCH, 2pm to 5pm.
2)Kwame Nkrumah in North America And Europe.Room G52, SATURDAY 14 APRIL, 2pm to 5pm.
3)Kwame Nkrumah In Anti-Colonial Movement in The Gold Coast And Politics Until 6 March 1957. Room G52
SATURDAY 21 APRIL, 2pm to 5pm.
1)Kwame Nkrumah As Prime Minister And President Of Ghana. (Room to be announced later)
SATURDAY 5 MAY, 2pm to 5pm.
1)Kwame Nkrumah From 24 February 1966 To 27 April 1972. Room L67
SATURDAY 19 MAY, 2pm to 5pm.
1)Kwame Nkrumah Legacy Politics From 27 April To Today. Room 67

My wife, Sekai Holland, is a 64-year old grandmother. For the crime of being a member of the opposition MDC in Zimbabwe she has suffered one of the most brutal attacks imaginable at the hands of the ZANU PF regime's sadistic thugs.

Sekai's ordeal began when she and fellow activist Grace Kwinjeh went to Harare's Highfield police station looking for those who had been arrested for trying to attend a Zimbabwe prayer vigil last Sunday. When they arrived they were told the others were in the yard at the back, and they were then taken to the yard and locked in with those already detained. Then the beatings started. Initially there was a mass beating of everyone there - over a hundred people who were forced to lie on the ground while they were viciously attacked. Later Sekai and the other members of the MDC leadership were called in one by one to the charge office where they were made to repeatedly run a gauntlet of thugs who beat them mercilessly.

Sekai was first hit in the face, her glasses being smashed to start with. Her earrings and watch were ripped off. Then she was hit with a variety of weapons, including clubs and batons. They kept accusing her of being Tony Blair's girlfriend - to which she responded 'No - he is my son - how can you call me his girlfriend?' That naturally didn't go down well. The beatings went on and on over a period of hours. A woman repeatedly jumped on her with booted feet - fracturing or breaking three of her ribs. Her clothes were covered in blood - both her own and that of others suffering the same brutality. She passed out several times.

At one stage one of the torturers left the room and was then called back by another who said 'What about her legs?'. He then used some instrument to break her leg, after which they forced her to stand up and hobble around on it. When satisfied that they had indeed broken it they left. The team of torturers was apparently trying to break her spirit by inflicting the maximum amount of pain.

From Highfield Sekai was taken first to Central Police Station and then to the suburban Avondale station. At Avondale when she was ordered to get out of the high prison truck she replied that she was unable to do so due to her injuries, so they pushed her out and she fell and landed hard on her head, adding to the injuries she already had.

Sekai spent two full days in detention without medical treatment. She suffered filthy conditions without proper sanitation, and with numerous injuries. When the courts finally forced the police to take the injured for medical treatment, it was first thought that she had a broken arm and foot, as well as the massive bruising over most of her body. Later on they discovered that she in fact had a broken leg not foot, and that she also had three broken or fractured ribs as well as a fractured knee.

I managed to get back to Harare from Tanzania on the evening of the day Sekai was admitted to hospital. The place was still crawling with riot police, and the atmosphere was very tense. However a local human rights organisation, Amani Trust, had managed to negotiate proper treatment for all the injured and Sekai was put into very good medical hands.

A doctor friend of ours from Australia paid her a visit before I arrived. However he was arrested and interrogated by the police for many hours before being released without charge. Apparently they thought he was a journalist. Sekai was in excellent spirits when I finally saw her, in spite of being so sadistically brutalised. She said that neither she nor any of the other leaders she saw being battered uttered any cries - and that must have infuriated the torturers. In the end the sadists were the ones who failed. In frustration they apparently made the bizarre boast that they were being paid a million dollars (admittedly only US$100 or so now) by Reserve Bank Governor Gono to carry out the beatings, plus an extra $100,000 a day for their meal allowances. That gives you an indication of the mentality of those hired by the regime.

Since her admission to hospital Sekai has had surgery to insert pins in her broken leg and arm. That operation went well, but she will need specialist treatment outside the country for the fractured knee.

I think that the regime has massively miscalculated with this brutality. Messages of solidarity have been coming in from all over the world, and I can see this leading to real pressure on the neighbouring African countries who have shielded Mugabe and his regime for so long.

The most moving development of all for us has been to hear of the support coming from so many members of the Australian Aboriginal community with whom Sekai campaigned over the elimination of apartheid and other colonial systems in Africa, and in support of Aboriginal Land Rights back in the
1970s. They say they are not going to let this pass without action that may surprise everyone.

Update 17 March 2007

It was agreed that it was essential to evacuate Sekai and fellow MDC activist Grace Kwinjeh from hospital in Harare to South Africa, where the atmosphere was calmer and safer and where medical facilities were better than in Zimbabwe. Arrangements were therefore made for them to be taken by air ambulance from Harare airport to Johannesburg. However when their ambulance drew up next to the aircraft on the tarmac they were met by members of the CIO (Central Intelligence Agency) who refused to allow them on board. Discussions with our lawyer followed, but he was told that the injured women required a clearance letter from the Minister of Health before they could leave the country. That of course was a total fabrication as there is no such provision in the law or indeed in practice. The ambulance was ordered to proceed under police escort to the Central Police Station.

At Central, the lawyer was advised that the women were not allowed to leave the country but should return to hospital under police escort. No justification or explanation was given. They were taken back to hospital and placed under the guard of four uniformed police officers - two fully armed men and two women. No explanation was forthcoming for another hour or so, at which time they were informed that they were under arrest as they were to be charged with some unspecified offence to be determined in due course by the CID (Criminal Investigation Division of the police).

It should be noted that on the day of their appearance before the court last Tuesday the magistrate ordered that everyone should be released from custody and that no further arrests should be made, and that if the police wanted to proceed against any of those arrested at a later stage it should be by way of summons and not arrest. The treatment they received today is in direct violation of that court order.

Home
I have to draw maps
I have to ride my feet like chariots
I have to see like water
I have to speak like stone and rock
I have to love like mother tongue
I have to wrestle with the bones of my dead
I have to wade through the sand, leap through the dungeons
So I feel
So I feel as I wander through my life
Not knowing me, not knowing now
See my mirrors and my footprints dance,
My mirrors and my footprints dance
Behind me
Me my back to the wind posing
in the cracks of my winded smile
see me search my trembling,
gut my spine a knot, my life not knowing
see my questions barren black shoving marks
against my wall
burning holes in charcoal dreams
I am here but seldom seen
I am here
I am…

I have to draw maps
I have to ride my feet like chariots
I have to speak like stone and rock
I have to see like water
I have to love like mother tongue
I have to wrestle with the bones of my dead
I have to wade through the sand, leap through the dungeon
So I know
So I know the duststamp footfall
A murmuring earth call
Knowing where, knowing how
Knowing me, knowing now
I have to draw maps
To make the swindler mute
To sound the horn
To speak by using my own tongue
And annihilate the mutant words

I have to ride my feet like chariots
To win her back
To find her soles/souls and grow my own
In the new places
I call home

I have to wrestle with the bones of my dead
So I may live here in their stead
Carrying their wisdom on the lean road
Carrying the lesson by which I am lead

I have to wade through the sand, leap through the dungeon
To find her footprint, to find her footprint
To make a footprint, to make a footprint
Of my own
So I will know
That I
am home.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/296/china-africa.jpgPeluola Adewale examines China’s investment expansion into Africa and the impact on local markets and industries. However, alongside this massive investment exists a rising hostility by the Africans workers due to China’s appalling anti-labour practices, low wages and disregard for the environment.

'The need for a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, and establish connections everywhere.' With these words, Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto capture the basis for the expansionist instinct of capitalism. Perhaps, so far in this millennium, no state, the organ of the ruling class of a nation, has more aptly characterized this exposition than China, an ex-Stalinist-Maoist state on the irreversible transition to capitalism.

As for its predecessor, the western imperialism, Africa provides the choicest place for China’s products: oil to fuel its growing economy, natural resources to feed its industries and of course market for its manufactured goods. China dated its relations with Africa to 1956 when it supported liberation movements in the continent - Angola, Mozambique, etc. But that relationship was driven, in that 'cold war' era, by rivalry with both imperialism and Moscow's rival Stalinist regime. Often the Beijing and Moscow elites would back rival liberation movements not for ideological reasons, but to gain points of support. This time around the motivation is primarily business - a classical pursuit of naked economic interest.

With the visit to the Seychelles on 10 February, Chinese President Hu Jintao completed a 12-day tour of Africa. This visit, which had earlier taken him to other seven countries - Cameroon, Liberia, Sudan, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa and Mozambique - was his second to the continent in just nine months and the third since assumed office in 2003. This underscores the strategic importance of Africa to the phenomenal growth of China.

Quest for Africa's natural resources

China, the second biggest consumer of oil after the US, having overtaken Japan, is responsible for 40% of growth in global oil demand. It gets one-third of its imported oil from Africa. This is in addition to raw materials - minerals, farm products and timber - it gets in abundance from the continent. More than 50 per cent of China's investment abroad is in extractive resources and Africa has a fair share of it. It invested hugely in the exploration, production infrastructure and transportation of oil in Sudan. In return it gets almost 80 per cent of the Sudan's oil export. In a similar vein, it imports 25 per cent of Angola's oil. In Nigeria, last year it secured $2.3bn 45 per cent stake in an oilfield which will produce 225,000 barrels per day when coming on stream in 2008.

To guarantee supply of copper from Zambia, on the top of already over $500 million investment in Zambia, China is setting up a new economic partnership zone in Zambia's Copperbelt province expected to draw in $800 million in the next three years. The zone is expected to create 50,000 jobs in addition to 10,000 jobs already created by Chinese investment.

China earns concessions from Africa governments in oil and mining rights through aid, preferential loans and construction projects. At the end of the last November Sino-African Summit, Beijing announced the provision of $5bn in loans and credits for a three year period, the establishment of $5bn China-Africa development fund to encourage Chinese companies to invest in Africa and the cancellation of debt in the form of all the interest-free government loans that matured at the end of 2005 owed by the heavily indebted poor countries and the least developed countries in Africa that have diplomatic relations with China. Five African countries: Gambia, Burkina Faso, Sao Tome, Swaziland and Malawi do not have diplomatic relations with China for recognizing Taiwan, an independent state considered a renegade part by China. While preparing to set for the journey to Africa, Hu announced that 33 African countries would benefit from the debt write-off.

No free lunch

China does not however give free lunch. Its aid also has strings, though of much lesser degree than that of the West, and mostly commercial. For instance, in 2004 China granted Angola a $2bn credit for rebuilding infrastructure destroyed during the civil war, but in return Beijing would receive 10, 000 barrels of oil per day. On top of this was a condition that only 30% of the construction project would be subcontracted to Angolan firms. Similarly, last year after the visit of Hu, China gave Nigeria $2.5bn loan for infrastructure development, but secured an $8.3bn contract for modernization of the Nigeria's primitive railway. The Chinese firm handling what is called a "design, construct and maintain" project said 50, 000 Nigerians would be employed in the work. Ordinarily, this job promise would have been welcome with hurrah, but for the horrid experience of Nigerians working in Chinese companies, which are the worst forms of sweatshops in the country. Also attached to the loan is the control stake of the 110, 000 barrel per day refinery in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria, that has been won by China.

It is not only China that sees the Sino-Africa cooperation as a strategic partnership for development, the African leaders also do. They jointly formed Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which had its maiden summit in 2000. The trade between China and Africa rose from $10bn in 2000 to $55.5bn last year and projected to hit $100bn by 2010. Of course, oil, minerals, other raw materials and Chinese made goods make up most of the trade. Largely connected to this trade, Africa, for instance in 2005, witnessed 5.5% growth in its economy, though concentrated among the mineral-rich countries. Besides, on the surface, the trade is more favourable to Africa which records surplus in relation to China. However, in reality Africa is the net loser. While it imports raw materials particularly oil to enhance its growth, China floods the continent with cheap goods that contribute to killing of local industries, particularly the textile and clothing. This is a major element in the growing hostility against China's presence in Africa, which will be addressed in a greater detail later on.

The West frightened

The West has appeared green with envy on the China's success in Africa. Though it still trails the West in term of investment and trade in the continent, China has overtaken Britain to become Africa's third biggest trading partner after the US and France. This new situation has allowed some African regimes some limited room to play off different foreign powers against one another. The western imperialism is worried about increased diplomatic and economic competition from China as regards access to resources. The US which at present gets 15% of its imported oil from Africa, in the face of the growing geo-political threat to oil supply in the Middle East, has projected to secure 25% of oil import from Africa, particularly the Gulf of Guinea, within a decade. Achieving this target may be threatened by China. But to protect its interest the US has constituted the oil-rich countries in the Gulf of Guinea into what is called Gulf of Guinea Energy Security.

France is also feeling the heat on its tracks. The effect of China on the France’s influence in Africa has become an issue in the on-going campaign for the forthcoming presidential elections. The two leading candidates, Segolene Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy have promised to improve on the relation with Africa where France’s traditional influence has come under threat from China red-hot quest for resources. Apparently trying to incite African leaders against China, French President Jacques Chirac, at this year biennial France-Africa summit in February whose one of the themes was "how to tap and protect Africa's natural resources", admonished, "Africa is rich, but Africans are not. The continent holds one-third of the planet's mineral reserves. It is a treasure trove. But it must be neither pillaged nor sold off cheaply". Good talk! But it is a kettle calling pot black. The West including France is the worst culprit, however not the only one, in rendering Africa underdeveloped and poverty stricken in the midst of its colossal wealth. Right from trans-Atlantic slave trade through the colonial epoch to the current era of neo-liberal capitalism and multinational domination, the West has continued to pillage the resources of the continent.

While it can only make murmur on the China's 'encroachment' on its sphere of influence, the West ostensibly hinges its grumble on the Beijing's lack of qualm about dealing with dictatorial regimes rendered pariah by the West like Sudan and Zimbabwe. Of course this does not prevent the West fully backing the oil rich feudal Saudi dictatorship. China a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council has severally prevented sanction against Khartoum for its role in Darfur conflict where government sponsored militia has killed some 200, 000 people and left 2.5 million homeless since 2003. Paul Wolfowitz a former US Deputy Secretary of Defence in the Bush Jnr administration and currently President of World Bank has reportedly accused China of ignoring human rights in Africa. But China is treading the path already charted by the West. Thus, the west does not have moral authority to condemn China's support for repressive regimes. History is replete with several instances of the West supporting repressive regimes all over the world out of economic and strategic interest. The US and Britain have severally vetoed criticisms against the belligerent Israeli government over its repression of Pakistani and Lebanese people. The New York Times in its editorial of February 19, 2007 aptly captured the point, 'China is not the first outside power to behave badly in Africa. But it should not be proud of following the West’s soory historical example'.

Who ruined Africa's local industries?

Inside Africa it is not all a pat on the back for China on its economic expedition in the continent. Workers and poor masses have protested the flooding of Africa with Chinese cheap goods that kills local industry particularly textile and clothing, and makes hundreds of thousands to lose jobs in Zambia, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa and elsewhere in the continent. The opposition has already taken to the street thousands of South African textile workers where about 100 manufacturing units have been closed and close to 100,000 jobs lost. In Nigeria though there has not been political action, textile trade unions have been grumbling over closure of about 100 factories and loss of about 200, 000 jobs in the last eight years.

But can one reasonably blame the collapse of local industry in Africa solely on cheap Chinese goods? Let's take Nigeria as an example. Despite being blessed with the world 10th largest reserve of gas in addition to vast availability of coal and hydroelectric potentials, Nigeria generates only 3,000 MW of electricity. Even recently this dismal output has plummeted to ridiculous 1,500 MW for a population of over 140 million. Yet, the government claimed to have spent over $2bn on the power sector in the last six years. The attendant inadequate and epileptic power supply has meant that companies are run on generating set powered by expensive fuels that are sometimes scarce commodity in spite of the country being the seventh largest producer of crude oil in the world. As a result the cost of doing business is dearly and products are expensive. Yet, the anti-poor neo-liberal economic policies have meant that the purchasing power of workers and poor masses are low. Factories are closed and workers thrown into labour market. In January, Michelin, a tyre manufacturing company that had over 2,000 Nigerian workers in its workforce, announced closure of its operations in Nigeria citing high cost of energy that makes business unprofitable. Chinese cheap apparel has only worsened the situation in textile industry.

Rising hostility against China

But the Chinese anti-labour practices and contemptuous disregards for rights, safety and improved living and working conditions of workers have attracted to the Chinese the deep-seated odium of workers and poor masses in the continent. Chinese companies are characterized by unsafe working conditions and poor environmental practices. In 2005, 51 workers died in explosion at the Chinese run mine in Copperbelt while 5 workers were shot dead during a protest over working condition at the same mine last year. Similarly, in Lagos Nigeria, 29 workers were roasted alive in inferno at a Chinese firm in 2002. The workers in the firm were always locked inside without emergency exit. The affected workers died because they could not escape.

Chinese firms do not respect minimum wage and labour laws of the host country. The workers are usually engaged as casuals on low pay and with no benefits and rights to form or belong to a trade union. Some of the firms also bring to Africa their own low-paid Chinese workers who however earn much more than the average African worker. But it is important for African workers to see that workers in China could be one of their strongest allies, their common enemy is capitalism. Today the Chinese working class is the largest in the world and when it starts to struggle for democratic rights and better living conditions this will be in the interests of workers and poor around the world.

While in Zambia President Hu himself had a taste of bitterness against Chinese by ordinary workers and the poor. To avoid being embarrassed by a planned protest over poor working conditions by workers at the Chinese mine, he had to cancel at the last minute his scheduled visit to Copperbelt province, the economic heartland of Zambia, where china has heavily invested and planned to build a stadium. For the same reason, the University of Zambia was heavily cordoned off with the armed police for the two days the visit lasted.

In the same Zambia, the Chinese investment became an issue in the last year general election with the main opposition leader, Michael Sata capitalizing on the growing hostility against the Chinese. He promised to chase away the Chinese and recognize Taiwan if he won. Though, the incumbent, Levy Mwanawasa won the presidential election, the Sata's party, Patriotic Front, swept the parliamentary seats in Lusaka, the capital, and Copperbelt province.

In apparent attempt to launder its image in Africa, the China on the eve of the last Sino-Africa summit issued 'nine principles' to 'encourage and standardize enterprises' overseas investment'. The principles require Chinese companies operating overseas to abide by local laws, bid contracts on the basis of transparency and equality, protect the labour rights of local employees, protect the environment, etc. But can the Chinese give what they do not have? The Beijing government is undemocratic and does not accord any rights to workers in China. Implementing the 'nine principles' will be a tall order, though they could be forced by circumstance to shift ground to an extent.

Some African leaders like Thambo Mbeki of South Africa have also warned against Africa relations with China assuming colonial relations. Mbeki told a youth conference in Capetown in December 2006 that, 'China cannot only just come here and dig for raw materials and then go away and sell us manufactured goods'. He opined such arrangement could condemn Africa to underdevelopment. However Mbeki himself is not concerned about the plight of African workers, he is worried about the future of the South African ruling class.

Who underdeveloped Africa?

Agreed, on the basis of logic of capitalism, any economy rested on primary commodities, which are usually non-renewable, is doomed. But, it is shameless for any leader of mineral-rich Africa to impute continent's underdevelopment solely to China and other industrialized nation, which need raw materials for their economies. Nigeria, for instance, has realized about $400bn from the sales of crude oil alone since 1958, yet there is nothing to show for it, besides being looted by its thieving capitalist ruling elite. This huge revenue, a study reveals, is six times what the US spent through the Marshal Plan to successfully rebuild the Western Europe devastated by the Second World War. The primitive accumulation was so alarming that the World Bank was forced to reveal in 2004 that only 1 per cent Nigerian thieving elite consumes 80 per cent of the country's oil and gas revenue. If the resources rich countries had used the enormous wealth to provide infrastructure and industrialize, they themselves could as well become net importer of raw materials. China is oil-rich and only import 40 per cent of its oil consumption.

However, it is apposite to state that besides the parasitic nature of African leaders, the western imperialism created the pre-condition for the underdevelopment of Africa. The World Bank that was originally established to assist in reconstruction and development of the war-devastated Western Europe through state interventionist economic model today prescribe to Africa and the third world the market oriented neoliberal economic policies for their development. The African leaders are encouraged by the Western imperialism to cut social spending on basic needs like education, health care, housing etc, and thus left with huge but loose resources for looting. But they are advised to provide infrastructures not for the sake of their populace but in order to make their economies more easily exploitable. In its Newsletter of November 9 2006, the World Bank Group stated, 'Africa is enjoying economic resurgence but a focus on social spending means poverty-stricken lack sufficient roads and communication to attract foreign firms.' The dictate of World/IMF explains why workers and poor masses in Africa have not seen improvement in their living condition despite the increased wealth and economic growth brought about by rise in commodity prices occasioned by China's growth and other factors.

Genuine path to development

To set stage for development the African countries have to commit their huge resources to build viable industrial base that could produce manufactured goods of international standards and engender diversification of economy. But to mobilize adequate resources to finance its industrialization along with the provision of basic needs for its populace, the commanding heights of the economy have to be nationalized and put under democratic management and control of the working masses. This however entails attack on the rapacious interest of multinationals and greed of the local capitalist elite. Therefore, achieving this will require a mass struggle of workers and poor masses of Africa, with the international working class solidarity including with Chinese workers, aimed at defeating capitalism and enthroning genuine socialism on the continent.

* Peluola Adewale writes for the Socialist Democracy, Lagos Nigeria

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

Strife by Shimmer Chinodya is a rich and densely written novel that provides a dark exposé of the tension between modernity and tradition, and deep insights into culture in Zimbabwe in the 21st century.

Strife is a rich and densely written novel that provides a dark exposé of the tension between modernity and tradition, and deep insights into culture in Zimbabwe in the 21st century. Chinodya explores the powerful draw that conflicting ideologies exercise over an emerging middle-class that at once yearns for autonomy and unconsciously desires the irresponsibility of an all-pervading destiny. Tracing the Gwanagara’s roots back over a century, Chinodya interweaves past and the present, juxtaposing incidents never forgotten or resolved, revealing how memory becomes an actor in lived time.

A large family grows up in Gweru. Their father aspires to be an enlightened Christian man; he sees his children through school and college where they do well. But as adults, they are struck by illness. Who is to blame? Who is to cure these ailments? What wrongs have they committed to offend the ancestors? How can atonement be made? Can education, science and medicine provide any solution? Their mother, the moon huntress, seeks out the answers and the cures in traditional beliefs and customs.

Shimmer Chinodya is one of Zimbabwe’s most celebrated post-independence literary writers. He won The Commonwealth Writers Prize, Africa region in 1990, for his critically acclaimed novel, Harvest of Thorns. His works of fi ction include Chairman of Fools (Weaver Press 2005) Dew in the Morning (1982), Tale of Tamari (2004) and Can we Talk and Other Stories (1998), which was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2000. Chinodya has received numerous writing fellowships. From 1995- 1997, he was visiting professor in creative writing and African literature at the University of St Lawrence.

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