In May, Algeria will inaugurate a reserve around a small oasis in the south-west where plants and animals are to be protected in the service of a broader goal. Hopes are that the Taghit National Park will help stop the advance of the Sahara Desert, which already stretches across almost all of this North African country (IPS news).

It remains difficult, if not impossible, to pin particular disasters such as floods and storms to the phenomenon of climate change. For all the advances of scientists, such precise causality cannot be established. Michael Renner posits that climate change or not, “natural” disasters are of course a frequent occurrence. But it is clear that a destabilized climate system, together with other forms of environmental damage, will cause havoc more frequently.

In a bustling Ghana marketplace female entrepreneurs borrow small sums from a micro-finance institution. The loans aren't cheap--annual interest rates are around 36 percent--but a few borrowers explain how the money still helps out.

The International Criminal Court's prosecutor linked Sudan's government to atrocities in Darfur, naming a junior minister as a war crimes suspect who helped recruit, arm and bankroll the murderous desert fighters known as the janjaweed.

ZOA is an international NGO operating in more than 10 countries worldwide. ZOA supports refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees and others affected by conflict or natural disasters. Deadline for applications is Friday 9th March 2007

The global livestock sector is socially and politically very significant, creating livelihoods for one billion of the world’s poor and accounting for 40% of agricultural gross domestic product (GDP). A report by Livestock, Environment and Development Initiative (LEAD) finds that the value of the sector is countered by an often extremely high environmental impact.

A cessation of hostilities in the 20-year civil war between the Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army has expired, with no new deal in sight. BBC reports that both sides have warned that they will retaliate if attacked.

The Zambia association for Research & Development (ZARD) has launched a new website, under its WIDNet Programme. The Women's Information for Development Network (WIDNet) is the place for information on the status of women and girls in Zambia.

Heavily armed gangs, fleeing Haiti's dangerous slums in the face of U.N. peacekeeper raids, have established new bases in provincial areas, creating panic in rural populations, officials and residents say.

Human Rights Watch has released a report - “Keep Your Head Down” Unprotected Migrants in South Africa - in which it details how South African officials involved in the arrest and deportation of undocumented migrant workers often assault and extort money from them, and commercial farmers employing them routinely violate their basic labor rights.

The generation and distribution of power (electricity) is politically and economically driven. It is also surrounded by deception and falsehoods. Tristen Taylor explains why and how.

For too long the issue of energy has been set aside, treated as if it had no influence on how South African society is shaped. And there has been a somewhat valid stereotype that within civil society, energy has been the domain of white environmentalists - aging hippies in sandals going shoo-wah over the teachings of the Dalai Lama and speaking about how we all must conserve electricity, how we all must make sacrifices, whilst black children die in shack fires caused from having to use a paraffin stove because the household electricity lifeline was used up weeks before.

The generation and distribution of power (primarily electricity) does not happen in a political vacuum; it cannot be divorced from the social and economic conditions under which most South Africans labour and starve. In fact, as I will attempt to explain, the generation and distribution of power is informed by social, economic and political realms.

The generation and distribution of energy is a murky topic. Omission, falsehood and deception surround the use of light switches, refrigerators, irrigation pumps and industrial smelters. Mis-information is pumping out faster and harder than a 'six-pack' power station spews out SO2 and CO2.

Who, then, is deceiving us? There are the usual suspects: coal mining companies, government, oil cartels, Eskom (power companies of South Africa), and other assorted free-market robber barons. There are also the traditional flag-carriers of the centrally planned economy. Then there is the environmental movement, which has traditionally refused to see beyond the forest to glimpse human misery and suffering. Without fail, the one lie that all of the above seem to propagate is that there is an energy shortage. It goes like this:

Since we can only generate x amount of power and the practical demand of each and every user is greater than x, x will have to be allocated. Of course, someone will have to make this allocation, and this someone is the state. The state, as a supposed neutral actor and invested with, to quote Max Weber, "a successful claim on monopoly of the legitimate use of force", will decide that industry will get so much power, agriculture so much, and residential users so much. The best allocation of resources will be on the basis of what is deemed in the best interest of the common good. It may be unfortunate that not all of us get the power we want, but that’s life and sacrifices have to be made.

This story is sly and deceiving. To start with, there is no energy shortage in the universe. The universe is awash with energy (all there is, after all, is energy and matter), and energy can neither be destroyed nor created. For the purposes of the human race, there is a virtual limitless amount of energy for the species to tap. And, therein lies the problem. It is not easy to convert energy into power, and part of the struggle of human history has been various attempts to tap into the energy of the universe. This has primarily been achieved through conversion of solar energy into plant and animal energy. This energy chain, like all energy chains, is never 100 per cent efficient. Each time energy is converted there is a certain amount of energy loss. Humans have then eaten plant and animal materials, converting these to human bio-chemical energy. Humans have then used that energy for labour to hunt more animals, grow more crops, build dwellings, and contest for resources - war and conflict. For most of history, the primary source of useable energy has been human muscle and intellect.

This was the case during the eras of the ancient Greek, Persian and Egyptian societies. It was certainly true during the Roman Empire. All these societies were based upon slave labour as the primary source of energy conversion. Since human beings were the most efficient sources of energy (human beings have the ability for rational thought; they can solve problems; are fairly durable; and can be taught to do things with greater efficiency than a cow or a horse), elite groups used slave labour to build, manufacture and grow the materials needed for those societies to function. The elite classes functioned as managers and grew rich from their exploitation of the labour of others.

Things began to change during the Middle Ages in Europe. During this time, while human power still remained supreme, animal power began to be used more and more frequently in agriculture; wood (plant energy) was beginning to be more and more important, especially in the production of iron and other metals; and water was used in mills for the production of flour, although, slightly later, windmills were used for this purpose. One notable consequence of this ‘new’ strategy of converting energy for human use was the complete and utter destruction of Europe’s forests. This led to what is called an energy crisis and forced European society into a potentially painful situation: find another source of power or undergo an economic collapse and a return to the dark ages. The ultimate solution was coal.

However, the most important lesson that should be learnt from this era, with regard to current energy conversion practices, was the political situation regarding water and windmills. But these two different energy sources were used in two different manners despite having the same primary technological function, grinding grain into flour (Debeir, Deléage, and Hémery). Watermills required access to flowing water and were relatively expensive to build. As the feudal structure of the day controlled access to watercourses and held a great deal of society’s capital, the aristocracy was able to own and control the watermills, thus, locking down an important part of agricultural production for its sole benefit. The peasantry had no access to the watermills, and had to compete in the processing of flour with older, less efficient methods of production. Quite clearly, we can see the link between ownership of energy conversion and socio-economic relationships. As Debeir has stated, "[water] mills were not only a good deal for some, but also tended to bolster an oppressive social structure".

Windmills were another story. Not only was wind part of the commons, and thus a renewable resource accessible to all social classes, it was cheaper to build windmills than watermills. The increasing use of windmills enabled the burghers, cities and peasantry to compete favourably in the production of flour, for which the market was growing as bread became more and more part of the general diet. Windmills also also encouraged competition with the aristocracy in the important realm of agricultural production. This began to have a significant impact in political relations, especially in the contest between free cities and feudal landowners, one of the central conflicts of the Middle Ages. Once again, Debier states:

"Thus windmills were established in the conditions of freedom that opened with the growth of cities, and established a further breach in the lords’ energy monopolies. Although feudal reaction against the new facilities persisted - "The windmill was the commoners’ mill which feudal law tried to take over" - it proved unable to stop the irresistible movement which continued until the dawn of the nineteenth century."

The dawn of the 19th century brought about a major technological, social and economic revolution: the industrial revolution. While the social, political and economic effects of the industrial revolution are well documented, the roles of new sources of energy conversion are often overlooked. Coal was at the heart of the industrial revolution. Basically, coal is plant matter that has decomposed, chemically altered, compressed and hardened over millions of years. Coal is made up of carbon, sulphur, methane, water and various other materials. Essentially, coal is the storage of chemical energy produced via long dead plant photosynthesis. Most of the coal used today was formed during the Carboniferous era (280 to 345 million years ago).

While the use of coal had been around for thousands of years, the industrial revolution mined and used coal to a degree never seen before. A new energy cycle was born with coal (and its offspring, steam), the fossil fuel cycle. Coal was used to drive steam engines, railways, furnaces (purified coal (coke) replaced wood as the primary source of heat for metallurgy), shipping and household heating. It provided such an intense and useful source of energy that the industrial revolution was entirely dependent on the mining, distribution, and burning of coal. It should come as no surprise that this valuable energy resource was not in the hands of the common people although it was they who died of Black Lung, but instead in the hands of the burgeoning, to borrow a phrase from Tom Wolfe, 'masters of the universe' - the capitalist class. While perhaps not of conscious design, there was no way that the windmill story (commoner power equivalent to that owned by the feudal lords) would be repeated with coal. Coal quickly became a privately owned commodity to be sold and traded as necessary, and fortunes were made. This, in turn, meant that the majority of the populace were precluded from control of the energy chain and that the power (both economic and political) of the newly formed capitalist class was further increased. The conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat that has consumed human history since provides the basis of entire branches of philosophy, history and political analysis.

To highlight the point, the US was built on the private use of coal. It fuelled the beginnings of an industrial expansion that has lasted until today. Corporations have their origins in the rapid industrialisation brought about through the use of coal and the blood that was shed in producing it. As The Ukrainian Weekly points out:

"In the 19th century, America's industrialisation and dramatic economic development was fuelled, literally, by coal. Coal fuelled the expansion of the railroad into America's undeveloped western states, and in Pennsylvania it fuelled the mighty American steel industry. But extracting coal was dangerous work. Illness, injury and death were common. Several hundred coal miners a year died from methane gas explosions in the mines of the Pennsylvania anthracite region - the same type of explosion that recently killed the miners in Ukraine. Annually, tens of thousands of miners were maimed."

Coal has not disappeared from society as a valuable source of energy conversion. Quite the opposite. About 40 per cent of all electricity generated globally comes from coal-fired power stations with an efficiency of between 30 to 40 per cent; i.e. of one kilogramme of coal used in a power station, 300 grams is used to produce electricity and the remaining 700 grams produces waste heat. Coal is not only an important part of our power generation system, it remains, through its method of use, an important factor in how our societies are controlled and organised. The production and distribution of electricity in South Africa will be discussed later.

While coal remains an important part of the global energy cycle, another fossil fuel has eclipsed it: petroleum or crude oil, also called black gold. Petroleum became increasingly important in terms of the global energy chain throughout the 20th century, reaching a point where our economy is based entirely upon petroleum. About 84 per cent of petroleum extracted is refined into fuels (petrol, diesel, fuel oil, jet fuel, kerosene, and liquid petroleum gas (LPG)), the other 16 per cent is used in the manufacture of material, plastic being the most common. Like coal, petroleum is a finite fossil fuel comprised of decayed organic matter. Furthermore, petroleum is a cheap and effective source of energy.

To understand the extent to which we operate within a petroleum economy, take a look around you. The paper this is written on comes from trees cut down with machinery using petroleum; the wood is transported to the mills via trucks (petroleum again), from the mills to the stores, and from the stores to your office and home. Without petroleum, modern agriculture could not exist. There would be no cars or airplanes, no computers, no modern medicine, no electricity. There would be no plastic materials. There would be no modern economy. We would all be riding horses and to and from our subsistence farms. All of us who are alive now, owe that to the 20th century growth in population made possible by petroleum. Quite simply, if the supply of petroleum dried up tomorrow the world would enter a period of such utter economic collapse; the term 'apocalypse' could be considered an understatement. Many of us would starve to death within weeks.

The petroleum industry is vital to the life of every human being in the modern economy, and, yet, it is a tightly controlled industry with only a handful of key players divided amongst state and private control. Of the ten biggest corporations in the world (as ranked by Fortune 500), five are oil and gas companies with a combined annual revenue of US$$ 1.271 trillion. By way of comparison, South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product is US$215.5 billion. In the global market economy, this translates into an unequal balance of political power.

Not a great deal has changed in the petroleum market since 1900 when Standard Oil controlled 50 per cent of global sales.

Further, control over petroleum resources is vital not only for what is often termed the 'national interest', which actually means the interests of a thin elite class controlling any particular country, but for a country’s economic well-being. Anyone who thinks that America’s current military operations in the Middle East have nothing to with securing America’s long-term supply of petroleum is insane. A recent article in the (UK) Independent on a proposed law to allow multinational companies to drill Iraqi oil states:

"The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude oil, and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972."

Globally speaking, the energy cycle of modern life is dependent on petroleum, natural gas and coal. The global economy is a fossil fuel economy chasing after diminishing reserves with no alternative in mind. The control of this energy cycle is centralised in the hands of the few, with the majority of the world population reduced to mere consumers of energy, at best. Today, there are watermills everywhere and not a windmill in sight.

Part 2 will be published next week and Part 3 on 5th April

* Tristen Taylor is the Energy Policy Officer at Earthlife Africa Jhb. The views expressed in this work are not necessarily those of Earthlife Africa Jhb.

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

South Africa is joining countries such as Brazil, India and Uganda in implementing open-source software in all government departments -- and getting rid of widely used Microsoft Windows desktop programmes that come with expensive licences.

Kwame Nkrumah: From pan-African visionary to one-party state dictator? Peluola Adewale looks back on the legacy of one of Africa's most famous political leaders.

The independence of Ghana on 6 March 1957 was a watershed in the history of Africa, being the first in black Africa. It was a catalyst in the struggle for liberation from colonial rule on the continent. For the African masses one man's stood out, Kwame Nkrumah. Inspired by the independence of India from Britain in 1947, he saw the possibility of defeating imperial Britain with coordinated and consistent political struggle. He thus became a quintessential anti-colonialist. His return to Ghana and formation of the anti-colonialist Convention Peoples Party (CPP) gave radical impulse to the independence struggle and set the stage for the exit of the British colonialists.

Unlike the current generation of African leaders who are mostly only satisfied with earning foreign exchange from the sales of natural resources and self-enrichment, Nkrumah was genuinely committed to using the resources of Ghana for industrial development and economic growth. Ghana was rich in bauxite which could be used to manufacture aluminum, even for exports if there were a reliable power supply. This together with the need to produce electricity for industrialisation informed the Volta Dam project. The project was only half-succeeded, but nobody could reasonably doubt the positive intention behind it.

Nkrumah openly asserted that capitalism was too complicated to achieve the goals of development. But beyond the rhetoric of anti-capitalism and scientific socialism in his celebrated speeches and writings, he never truly cut links with capitalism and imperialism. His socialism was based on the Stalinist Soviet Union model and a utopian African version. This was the undoing that made it impossible to achieve his lofty goals. For instance, his government relied on a bureaucratically run marketing board - a colonial invention - to mobilise the required resources from the sales of cocoa, the country's economic mainstay. This created a more enabling avenue for official corruption than the provision of basic needs and infrastructure development that it was originally designed to achieve.

Nkrumah set up state owned companies and public utilities, apparently to provide some basic needs for the people. But lack of democratic management and control of the companies by the workers themselves bred crippling mismanagement and corruption. They did not only fail to largely achieve their objectives, they became a curse rather than a blessing. Since Nkrumah could only use the revenue from cocoa to bail out public companies, he had to sacrifice poor farmers. The government, through the market boards, reduced the price paid to farmers for cocoa in order to raise more revenue. This was at a period when there was an increase in the price of cocoa on the world market, and farmers expected fortunes. They were thus highly disappointed and demoralised. This culminated in a series of events that made Ghana lose its place as the world's largest producer of cocoa.

The economic downturn created a social crisis that made the government of the self-styled Osagyefo ('the Redeemer') - the once hope of Ghana and beacon of Africa - unpopular. The government's response to the various worker agitations worsened the situation. Rather than mobilising workers and the poor to break completely with capitalism, Nkrumah became dictatorial and took draconian measures against the widespread protest and disaffection to his government. Unfortunately, Nkrumah who had once proclaimed during the anti-colonial struggle, 'if we get self-government, we will transform the Gold Coast (Ghana) into a paradise in 10 years', almost turned the country into hell for workers and opposition alike. He declared strike actions by workers to be illegal, arrested and detained opposition without trial, and declared Ghana a one-party state with him as life president.

There remains no doubt that Kwame Nkrumah was one of the greatest African nationalist leaders. The military coup in 1966 that dethroned him, provided him the opportunity to give more speeches and writings on Africa's development. He was a pan-Africanist, par excellence, with a radical and socialist flavour. However, Nkrumah was not a fully rounded Marxist. This limitation largely contributed to his inability to actualise his objectives and goals.

Their limitations notwithstanding, Nkrumah and his kindred spirits still tower above the current generation of African leaders who have rolled back, the gains of the 1960s that saw massive investment of public resources in developmental projects. The rapacious colonialists refused to develop the continent despite sitting on its fabulous wealth. They only provided infrastructure that would aid exploitation of the resources of the continent. This placed enormous responsibility on the new African leaders after the independence to begin the process of necessary development and develop a welfare state. The idea of a welfare state, built on the Keynesian theory of state interventionism in the economy was fashionable globally in the period after the independence.

In the present era of neo-liberalism the current corrupt leaders of Africa have embarked on the shameless sale of the patrimony of their nations, built with public resources, to the rapacious capitalists locally and internationally. The new set of African leaders has bastardised the original idea of African solidarity, championed by Nkrumah and others. They have come up with initiatives such as the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD) designed to rely on the exploitation of Africa's resources in the service of the West, and the anti-poor neo-liberal economy, as vehicles for development. With this vicious, anti-poor, pro-capitalism, it is no surprise that the idea of Nkrumahism, despite its limitation, has remained alluring to many individuals, genuinely interested in the development of Africa.

It is possible to state that the shortcoming of an Nkrumahist welfare state was not due to the personal failings of Nkrumah; rather that it arose from his attempt to seek improvement and development within the confines of capitalism. Africa is the weakest link of global capitalism. Here a revolutionary movement could start, with international working class solidarity, that could defeat capitalism and imperialism.

Kwame Nkrumah in his speech, 'I Speak of Freedom: A Statement of African Ideology', spoke of economic cooperation and political union among African countries as the viable means of bringing about full and effective development of the continent's natural resources for the benefit of African people. This statement is still largely relevant today. But to be truly valid, and achieve the desired objectives, such economic cooperation and political union was intended to be built on genuine socialist programme that aimed at formation of socialist confederation, if possible, a federation of Africa in solidarity with the working class internationally. This together with discovery of the first-hand ideas of Marxism as taught by Marx, Engel, Lenin and Trotsky should be the task of workers and poor masses in Africa.

* Peluola Adewale writes for the Socialist Democracy, Lagos, Nigeria

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

The benefits of breastfeeding outweigh the risks of virus transmission from HIV-positive mothers to their children, according to studies conducted in four African nations.

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem returns from a weekend in Accra where they are busy preparing to celebrate 50 years of independence. For Ghana’s ruling party, the New Patriotic Party and President Kuffour, the 50th anniversary celebrations are problematic. How do they celebrate the legacy of Nkrumah and Pan-Africanism when they and their forbearers opposed him and his party, the CPP (Convention People’s Party)? Well, they do so by having the 'mother of all parties' and attempting to make political gain out of the celebrations.

Last weekend I was in Accra to participate in a symposium at the Great Halof the University of Ghana, Legon. It was organised by a coalition of Nkrumahist and other prgressive forces under the aegis of the African People’s Platform.

The choice of the dates (23-24 February 2007) for the two day workshops were not accidental. On 24 February 1966 the government of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, founder, leader of the independent state of Ghana, and trail-blazer of the anti-colonial movement and foremost Pan-Africanist leader of the mid-2oth century and probably most popular of all times, was overthrown in a military coup orchestrated by domestic reactionary forces and their imperialist backers notably the ex-colonial masters, Britain and their American cousins through the CIA. Two monographs compiled by the Socialist Forum of Ghana: 'THE GREAT DECEPTION: The role of the CIA and right wing forces in the overthrow of Nkrumah', and 'FIGHT BACK: A Response to anti-Nkrumah provocations' refreshes our memories about the local and international context of the various challenges that Nkrumah faced both in life and even in death.

Amidst the official celebratory mood, the Legon symposium sought to situate the independence struggles and Ghana’s emancipation within the context of: the ideals of the Osagyefo on Ghanaian, African and World politics; The fight for freedom, justice and the continuation of the anti-imperialist struggles today; and the struggles of ordinary peoples for a just new economic and social order. It is part of the many alternative celebrations by Ghanaians who feel marginalised by the official anniversary or are dissatisfied with the Opportunistic politics of the celebrations.

President Kuffour is generally seen as a very decent man especially outside Ghana but even many domestic opponents will give him the benefit of the doubt. However ordinary decency is not enough when it comes to state craft. For instance many Nigerians will attest to former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon’s honesty as a person and swear by his personal integrity even more than 20 years after his overthrow. But in the same breath they will condem the profligacy and crass incompetence of his administration in managing post Civil war Nigeria. There are too many uncomfortable parallels with Ghana’s Mr Nice guy President who overwhelms people with his gentlemanliness!. Politically it is too apologetic to continue to perpetrate the sophistry of ‘the good leader ... bad advisers’ about our leaders. If they are so good how come they surround themselves with ‘bad people’. They choose these advisers so they should have responsibility for accepting or not accepting their advice. The flip side of this of course is the disclaimer by many of these advisers soon after they are booted out of office or the president is shown the back door. They mostly come with claims of ‘we told him but he did not listen’. They never tell the public why they remained with a client who never follow their advice. They are all
guilty of political opportunism and that’s why they can only give excuses for their conducts but no convincing explanations.

President Kuffour and the ruling New Patriotic Party have a wider political problem about celebrating Ghana’s 5oth annivessary. They come from the anti –Nkrumahist tradition of Danquah-Busia political families. Their forebears even opposed Nkrumah and the CPP when he moved ‘THE MOTION OF DESTINY” that heralded the final exit of the British colonialists. They collaborated with imperialism to overthrow Nkrumah thereby orphaning not just Ghana but the African revolution. Ironically Kuffour’s victory is the first time that reactionary political group has ever won a democratic election (Busia’s victory was orchestrated by the military junta). The poachers of independence struggle have now become the game keepers hence their ambiguity and cheap politics about the celebrations.

They are trying to celebrate and have the mother of all parties, make enormous political, diplomatic, commercial, cultural, tourism and all kinds of gains from the land mark but are pained to acknowledge the main architect of not only Ghana’s independence but a man who represents the best in the aspirations of Africans for liberty, freedom and dignity.

It is not a dishonour to Nkrumah but a reflection of the small mindedness of Mr Kuffour’s party because for many people inside and outside Ghana the independence of Ghana was not conceivable without the courageous leadership of the Osagyefo. As Basil Davidson said of Liberation struggles in Portuguese Africa 'no hand is big enough to cover the sky'. Nkrumah does not need governments and presidents to remember him as he continues to be an inspiration for millions of Africans and freedom loving peoples across the world.

It does not mean that Nkrumah did not have his own faults as a person or a leader but he has endured because no one since after him has come near his socio-economic and political achievements for Ghana. For many decades until the latter years of Rawlings’ rule and now Ghanaians did not know power shedding as is common among their richer cousins, oil-cursed Nigeria. When Nkrumah conceived of the Akosombo and the Volta Dam projects they were not meant for Ghana alone but for the whole region. He also did not see it as merely provision of electricity but within a wider industrialisation strategy. This point was discussed in detail by Yao Graham of the Third World Network within the context of energy privatisation in Ghana and the West Coast of Africa.

At the Pan-African level we have not seen another leader who has been so inspiring in his example of complete dedication to the ideals of Pan-Africanism and a better humanity. Many pretenders have come forward and but have not had the staying power of the Osagyefo. Today many of them scramble to be friends of imperialism (now euphemistically referred to as donors, development partners, friends from abroad etc betraying their peoples, Africa and the possibilities of a better humanity at the alter personal power.

It is too petty to deny our nationalist heroes/heroines their place of honor in our history simply because our masters of today were either not born then or played no role in them or were on the opposite side of freedom or even on account of what those nationalist leaders may have become later. History is a lived experience that cannot be erased.

It is not only Kuffour and the ruling party of Ghana that are ambiguous about Nkrumah. Even the former military dictator turned reluctant democrat, Jerry John Rawlings has always been anti-Nkrumah. in typical empty populism he claimed that there was nothing to celebrate in the 5O years of Ghana's independence. He was so much in a hurry not to give any credit to Nkrumah that he even forgot that 20 of the 50 years he was rubbishing were under his misrule. Nkrumah was in power for only 10 years and yet all the other forty years combined have not equalled his record!

There are many 50th anniversaries coming up in the next few years and it would be interesting to see how the present occupants of our state lodges celebrate them . For instance how would President Museveni and the increasingly exclusionist and revisionist NRM government (if they are still in power) celebrate Uganda’s 50th anniversary in a few years time? Would they try to write Obote/UPC out it or downplay his role as the NPP is doing and not succeeding with Nkrumah? How would Guinea mark its 50th anniversary next year, with or without its dead-but-not yet buried military dictator who took over after the death of the radical Nationalist, Ahmed Sekou Toure who was a popular leader but made many mistakes too.

If current leaders are sure of their own loyalties and commitment to the cause of their peoples they will not need to be hunted by the legacy of their predecessors. So unsure of their place in history that some of them like Museveni are beginning to honor themselves with statutes completely oblivious to what happened to other self-worshipping gestures most recently Saddam’s many statutes in Iraq that were pulled down with glee once the myth of immortality with which dictators always decorate themselves.

For many years Museveni refused to allow any street to be named after him and also have his picture on the national currency like previouis leaders. But now he has started launching his own statues. May be he does not trust Ugandans to honor him after he leaves office or dies, so he is on a 'DO IT YOURSELF' narcissism. A sage once said: greatness does not abide in how many honors one has BUT IN DESERVING THEM.

Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, is Deputy Director, Africa, UN millennium Campaign and more recently General-Secretary of the Global Pan-African Movement.

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

A delegation of concerned press freedom fighters flew to the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to meet the continental body's Chairperson, Alpha Oumar Konaré. Mr Konaré assured the delegation of his office's support for press freedom in the continent.

A Gambian court ordered a month's jail term for 37 Senegalese illegal migrants that had tried embarking for Spain, after they were proven guilty to the charges brought against them.

The government of Liberia revoked the operational license of "The Independent" newspaper in Monrovia for one year. The decision was announced at a press conference in Monrovia by acting Information Minister Laurence Bropleh. Minister Bropleh said the decision was in response to "The Independent's" publication of a photograph showing former Presidential Affairs Minister Willis Knuckles in a sex scene with two ladies.

For the first time during the eight-month disappearance of Chief Ebrima Manneh, a reporter of the pro-government Banjul-based newspaper "Daily Observer", the Gambia Police Force officially denied ever arresting him.

Bringing down the costs of Internet access could set off the same wave of connectivity that has made mobile phone usage commonplace in developing countries, said innovators and corporate leaders from some of the world’s leading technology firms meeting in northern California with government leaders, activists and United Nations officials.

FEATURES:
-In the 200th year since the end of slavery, Bro. K. Bangarah asks who really led the movement for abolition
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Tristen Taylor sheds some light on the politics of electricity supply in South Africa
- The faces are different, but the Nigerian elections are the same old story, says Nnimmo Bassey
- It is 50 years since Ghana's independence. Peluola Adewale appraises Nkrumahism
- John Bellamy Foster issues a warning on US militarism in Africa
LETTERS:
- Nunu Kidane: Somalia and the US peace movement
- Responses to mis-representation in Africa
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem reflects on Ghana at 50
BLOGGING AFRICA: Hotels for single women in Kenya, visas for Africans, and drying frozen fish in Nigeria
BOOKS & ARTS: Lindiwe Nkutha on Palestine and de-colonising the mind with Ngugi
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: News on a human rights book fair

CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Peace-keepers arrive in Somalia
HUMAN RIGHTS: New report on abuse of undocumented migrants in South Africa
WOMEN AND GENDER: Zimbabwean women still far from liberation
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: 25,000 refugees have returned to DRC
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Senegal opposition rejects poll results
AFRICA AND CHINA: China selling off Kenyan oil rights it got for free
DEVELOPMENT: Call to arms over Western governments’ farm subsidies
CORRUPTION: Liberian Ex-President charged with corruption
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Male circumcision and HIV: a broader analysis is required
EDUCATION: Soaring tuition fees deprive Zimbabwean youth of education
ENVIRONMENT: Niger river in intensive-care
LGBTI: Out of the closet in Nigeria
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: The unfinished business of land reform in South Africa
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: AU chief supports press freedom
NEWS FROM THE DIASPORA: Fleeing Haitian gangs set up rural bases
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: South Africa’s government goes Open-Source
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; 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

Widely reported as "the first farm expropriation", the Commission on the Restitution of Land Rights recently announced that it had expropriated a 25 200ha farm near Barkley West in the Northern Cape to settle a restitution claim by 471 families.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/broadcasts/segunafolabi.jpgSegun Afolabi, winner of the 2005 Caine Prize for African Writing, the leading literary prize for short stories from the African continent, speaks to Robtel Pailey of Pambazuka News. In the podcast, Segun, from Nigeria, reads an excerpt from his award winning short story 'Monday Morning'. He discusses the impact of winning the prize on his literary success, the situation of publishing in Africa, and the themes of migration, diaspora, memory and loss.

Segun Afolabi's winning story is available in a collection of Caine Prize entries entitled, The Obituary Tango ( , 2006). The story is reproduced in this podcast with the kind permission of Random House.

The music in this podcast is brought to you by Busi Ncube from Zimbabwe and kindly provided by Thulani Promotions.

Uganda has just launched a government project to fight poverty. The project is locally referred to as "Bonna Bagaggawale" which literally means "let's all get rich." And to boost this rural financial scheme, government has also introduced a software system known as Loan Performer to ease the rural accounting system.

Kenya's mobile phone users last week breathed a sigh of relief following a ceiling put on interconnection charges between the duopolistic mobile operators, Safaricom and Celtel. The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK),the country's communication industry regulator, capped the charges at Kshs 30 (43 US Cents) per minute.

There was outrage among European oil exploration companies interested in Kenya when it emerged last week that the state-owned National Oil Corporation of China — CNOOC — has quietly put out notices offering to farm out to third parties some of the oil exploration blocks granted to it by President Mwai Kibaki in April last year.

Two former top executives of the state-owned Kenya Reinsurance Corporation (Kenya Re) who were sacked recently to allow investigations into allegations of financial irregularities in the company may be forced to refund Ksh8.5 million ($121,400) to the corporation.

Thirteen years ago a secondary school in Soweto, South Africa's most populous black urban residential area, was little different from the majority of the country's schools: dilapidated, under staffed and crime ridden, with the vast majority of its students struggling to pass their exams.

An appeals court in Cairo has overturned a prison sentence for an Egyptian journalist convicted of defaming President Hosni Mubarak. Ibrahim Eissa, the editor of the weekly newspaper al-Dustour, had been sentenced to one year in prison for criticizing Mr. Mubarak. The appeals court overturned the jail term but substituted a fine of almost four thousand dollars.

There have been a large number of studies dating back to the late eighties that have looked at the correlation between male circumcision – or lack thereof – and the risk of contracting HIV. The evidence from these studies shows a relatively high reduction in the risk of infection as a result of circumcision. As is the norm, these studies have to different degrees accounted for possible confounding variables, but do not pretend to delve into the broader socio-cultural issues that attend the problem. The studies have been predominantly medical in nature, and there is still a dearth of sociological research on the subject.

In an insightful article published in the Cape Times, Professor Jonny Myers alludes to the element of cultural hegemony underlying the almost casual way in which male circumcision is being mooted. He points to the ease with which groups who have traditionally circumcised males advocate for its cooptation into the AIDS fighting arsenal. Some of the medical evidence on the benefits of circumcision has been refuted, or at least reasonably challenged over in the last few years. Among these was reduced risk of penile cancer, urinary tract infections, sexually transmitted infections, and better hygiene. Today, medical reasons for routine male circumcision are not widely accepted.

To be clear, any intervention that helps the fight against the spread of AIDS merits utmost consideration. However, the more difficult to implement the intervention, the greater the efficacy standard required for it to pass muster.

One still gets the sense of a widely held misconception that those communities that do not practise male circumcision simply ‘neglect’ to do so. In fact, one could argue that not practising male circumcision is characterised by the same level of conviction as practising it. Some communities that do not circumcise males have other rites of passage that serve the same purpose. Introducing male circumcision in populations that do not practise it will require a “de-culturization” of the procedure.

A major obstacle that has characterised the fight against AIDS has been how to change deeply entrenched behaviour. How much more difficult will this be if the behaviour in deeply entrenched in cultural practises. In Western Kenya, for example, where certain communities practise ‘wife inheritance’ it has taken a serious re-orientation of cultural beliefs to make any headway. Furthermore, this has only been successful because sexual relations as a key factor in the spread of the disease are but a peripheral and dispensable aspect of the practise.

Another key consideration is how the underlying assumption that circumcision provides a measure of protection can lead to increased risky sexual behaviour. It is debatable whether the fight against the pandemic has achieved the levels of knowledge and attitudes requisite to reasonable counter this. The most successful communication campaigns have sought to minimize this risk by combining messages, for example, condom-use with abstinence and faithfulness.

Finally, this unfolding debate provides yet another unwelcome detraction from the fact that there still remains a dire need to expand basic health services to the majority who do not have it. This is arguably the biggest factor in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Yet it seems like we are about to ask for these over-stretched and ill-equipped services to add a surgical procedure to their list!

Further Reading:

Circumcision is no silver bullet in Aids fight
(subscription)

Does Cicumcision reduce HIV risks?
http://www.fhi.org/en/RH/Pubs/Network/v20_4/NWvol20-4malecurcumsion.htm

Male circumcision: a role in HIV prevention?
http://www.cirp.org/library/disease/HIV/vincenzi/

AIDS: Male Circumcision ‘is the key’
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Aids_Focus/0,,2-7-659_2044924,00.html

We are pleased to announce that Ms Solome Nakaweesi Kimbugwe took office as of 15 February 2007 and will be based at our HQ in Kampala, Uganda.

We are very pleased with this appointment as Solome brings with her unique skills and experience which will be a tremendous asset to AMwA and its future development. We are proud to recruit Solome who is an alumni of the African Women’s Leadership Institute (AWLI), and thus bears testimony to AMwA’s investment in women’s leadership development. Following the AWLI in 2003, she rose through the ranks to head her organisation the Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET). During her tenure as Coordinator, UWONET has grown as an institution and has become an effective voice for women’s rights in Uganda. With her experience, skills and energy, Solome is ready to take on the challenge of heading AMwA, an international organisation.

Attacks on civilians and aid groups have intensified sharply along the Chad-Sudan border in the last two weeks, as the violence in Darfur continues to spill over into its African neighbor.

The APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize recognizes initiatives that are making it easy for people to start using free and open source software (FOSS). The prize is awarded to a person or group doing extraordinary work to make FOSS accessible to ordinary computer users. The deadline for prize nominations is March 30.

The Institute of Public Health (IPH), at Makerere University, and the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), are pleased to inform you of an upcoming sub-Saharan Africa regional workshop dedicated toward developing policy communication and advocacy skills among program officials, researchers, and advocates working in the area of gender-based violence. The workshop will take place in Kampala, Uganda, 23 April - 4 May 2007.

It is of utmost importance that if you care to understand what is happening in Guinea, you rely on a news source that will give you a fair and balanced report or analysis of the situation on the ground. Most websites I have read over the past days (I will not name any but if you are Guinean you may be familiar with some of them) have what I call a novel like or surreal depiction of what is happening here. Most of the times the sources cannot even be identified. It feels like these are coffee table discussions that are being reported. They probably have their own anecdotal value but they are everything but news reports.

I recommend to you Reuters Conakry for an example and I actually know the qualified journalist who writes for Reuters (he was arrested a few years back for investigating a high profile story so you may weigh in his professional commitment). Simply google Reuters Conakry and you can read some balanced analysis and perspectives.

Please be careful on reports coming out of RFI or BBC or some other donor country's mainstream news agency. I am not sure about why their reporters carry this one dimensional reporting where serious facts are being omitted. Where reports try to present an idealistic revolution or movement from the people when the fact is that yes, there is a cry for change but what kind of change and for who? Guinea has a rich soil, underexploited with infinite potential, and some people outside of Guinea know it better than those inside; especially the peoples of Guinea. So who wants what for whom and by whom? And it seems to me from calls, chatrooms and discussions that the Guinean Diaspora is somewhat misinformed about what is happening here.

My own thoughts are that the current process is a result of the strike and has forced a dialogue between the government, the workers unions, and leaders of civil society in the presence of international institutions. The victims of 22 January and over the past weeks are unmistakably victims of this push for change, with a military regime or repressive state. However when the attacks and looting turned the strike into a war of classes, between the rich and the poor, not just targeting government officials, and also when the strike exacerbated ethnic tensions the threat of a civil war was serious and insecurity was high. Anyone could pull you out of your car just because you were driving a car, burn the car and take everything you had. This is exactly what was happening. They were attacking people in their homes and out in the streets where there were roadblocks. The declared state of emergency was the most appropriate response to restore civil order and give back the state its authority. After all Conte is still an 'elected' official. And since Monday they are back at the negotiations table.

So Guinea, in my analysis, is going through its own process of transition and change. The region is explosive already. We do not want another Liberia, another Sierra Leone or another Cote d'Ivoire. We have lost over 100 victims. That is too many, but that is in no comparison with over 250,000 in Liberia, 1,000,000 in Rwanda or over 4,000,000 if I am correct in the Great Lakes.

My message to all 'young' Guineans in the diaspora or friends of Guinea: this is a good time to form alliances and build your strategic and collective role in the new leadership and the new Guinea. Guinea needs a new mentality, and a new work culture. The change will happen I believe from within and not without. There is a huge need for dynamism, innovation and integrity. It is taking time but I am witnessing a few young people here demanding their rightful place in the new Guinea. The Forum des jeunes de Guinee, the Alliance des cadres et entrepreuneurs de Guinee, and others... That is a more realistic and positive reporting to me than all the news I read on the various websites. There is hope in Guinea.

* Mariam Yansane is on the Community Council of 'Women of Africa' (www.wafrica.org)

I would like also to communicate to you what has been happening in the province of Kongo Central (Bas-Congo). On 31 January, the police fired at a house presumed to be the one to house Ne Muanda Nsemi, leader of the Bundu dia Kongo. He had already called for a ville morte (people to stay home) for 1 February. He was not in the house as he had returned to Kinshasa for the funeral of his sister. Between 1-3 February 2007, in most of the cities of the province, people marched to protest the rampant corruption over the elections of Senators and Governors.

Our country is divided between a minority that has become rich due to being close to the treasury and the large majority that is over impoverished. The minority in the elections have been buying everything. The Presidential guards fired on the marchers. The causalities are now put at 750 dead, many wounded and many have been arrested. The official number is put at 87 dead. The MONUC, that apparently participated also, puts it at 134 dead. Since then, the president has said nothing. One of his advisers has said that the president having received the Bakongo notables of his obedience, why should he speak again? The UNSG has asked for an enquiry into the massacre. A rocket was used, at Moanda, to attack a BDK church where women and children went hiding. Those arrested are not being given a due process trial. An attorney, at Mbanza Ngungu, has suggested to try them in jails to avoid publicity! There is a plan, we are told, to kill the leader of BDK. Please do whatever you can to expose what is happening.

This course is designed to support those who would like to teach about the right to food. The teaching that is contemplated may be formal or informal, with people living in poor communities, elementary school students, university courses, government officials, nongovernmental policy advocates, or other kinds of groups. Participants are asked to design their own specific teaching plans. These plans may be based on on-site face-to-face teaching, on-line teaching using the Internet, or a mixture of the two.

Reporters Without Borders have strongly condemned the murder in Baidoa of presenter Ali Mohammed Omar, of Radio Warsan, on 16 February and deplored the “deteriorating security situation” in Somalia which it said was taking a toll on journalists. Omar was shot in the head on his way home.

Mali has one of the highest rates of female circumcision in Africa, but organisations working to stop the practice say they are slowly making headway to change attitudes. About 92 per cent of all Malian girls between the ages of 15 and 49 have already undergone the harmful procedure, according to the government.