About 40 San Bushmen have returned to their ancestral homeland in Botswana following a court ruling that found they were wrongly evicted by the government and could return, a statement said on Tuesday (16 January 2007).

The call for land invasions in Hout Bay by the Congress of South African Trade Union's (Cosatu) Western Cape secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, is irresponsible, illegal and a red flag to investors, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon said on Monday (15 January 2007).

Pambazuka News is participating in the World Social Forum () in Nairobi, Kenya from 20-25 January 2007. With its origins in a meeting of community organisations in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2001, the WSF has grown to become an annual gathering of activists, social movements and progressive groups from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe. Focusing on the global South, the quest to place social and environmental justice, international solidarity, peace and gender equality on the political and media agenda is at the heart of the initiative. This is the first such meeting to be held on the African continent, and tens of thousands are expected to attend.

Pambazuka News is proud to be collaborating with PANOS West Africa (http://www.panos-ao.org/) on media initiatives throughout the forum. These will include: articles, daily news bulletins, participatory video, online broadcasts, and electronic distribution of news and information. For the latest news, views, podcasts and blogs, please visit our dedicated WSF site at http://www.pambazuka.org/blogs/wsf2007/

Additionally, Fahamu will be hosting a delegation of African women's grassroots organisations, in collaboration with the New Field Foundation, and launching two new publications: Grace, tenacity and eloquence: the struggle for women’s rights in Africa (http://www.fahamu.org/pzbook.php), published by Fahamu & Solidarity for African Women's Rights, and African Perspectives on China in Africa edited by Firoze Manji & Stephen Marks and published by Fahamu. (http://www.fahamu.org/pzbook.php)

On 23rd January 2007, Commonwealth women will come together to discuss and debate this critical question at the World Social Forum in Nairobi.

What would the world be like if it was viewed through the eyes of African women? The Gender & Trade Network in Africa (GENTA) will pose this question to more than 65,000 social movements, people dwelling in slums, and world parliamentarians at the World Social Forum to be held in Nairobi Kenya January 20 – 25, 2007 in Kasarani.

A number of civil society organizations keen on engaging the AU around key policy discourses are set to meet in Nairobi for a strategy meeting on January 21, 2007.

The University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education is now accepting applications for its part-time Master's degree in International Human Rights Law for 2007/8 admission. For further information please visit the website at If you have any queries or would like to request a printed brochure, please email [email][email protected]

The so-called “Muslim World” is undergoing change and transition both politically and sociologically. This conference aims to explore the Gulen movement’s past, present and potential-future influence on this transition.

Chadian and Sudanese militias and other armed groups are committing serious human rights abuses against civilians in eastern Chad, and the Chadian government must do more to protect civilians from such abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today (9 January 2007).

An Amnesty International statement claims that the Egyptian authorities were preparing to forcibly return four Tunisian nationals – Ayman Hkiri, Ahamed Lahbib, Mhamed Almadiri and another whose name was unknown. If returned to Tunisia they would be in grave danger of torture, Amnesty added.

Government and Ethiopian forces have captured what they say was a jungle base used by Islamic courts fighters in southern Somalia. A government military commander said on Monday (8 January 2007) that Ras Kamboni was taken after a two-day campaign using ground forces and air support.

With tensions rising between Niger and Burkina Faso as they accuse each other's security forces of crossing the border to rob and harass villagers, local officials in the area met recently to renew a call for a buffer zone. "The situation is very difficult as the exact location of the border has not been agreed on," the governor of the Sahel Region of Burkina Faso, Bila Dipama, told IRIN on Thursday (4 January 2007), a week after the meeting in Burkina Faso's eastern town of Fada.

Chinese Foreign minister Mr Li Zhaoxing will spend more than half of this month in Africa, visiting about a dozen countries. China is making itself an indispensable player in Africa. A recent study indicates that it has overtaken Britain to become Africa's third most important trading partner after the US and France.

International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Managing Director Mr. Rogrigo de Rato will Tuesday (9 January 2007) visit Africa to discuss the problems facing the continent. The visit will afford him the opportunity of directly hearing from African policy makers and opinion leaders on the best way the Fund can be of support to the continent towards reducing poverty.

The Moroccan authorities have called for the jailing of two journalists who published popular jokes about religion, sex and politics. The authorities removed the magazine, Nichane, which means "as it is", from sale last month after Casablanca's state prosecutor took legal action, saying the jokes were an attack on Islam.

During 2006 the number of blogs by Africans at home and in the Diaspora more than doubled. However, they are still the least applied of all the emerging technologies (email, listserves, forums and IM) largely due to cost, slow internet speeds and a general unawareness of the medium. Despite this, African blogs have been able to challenge governments on issues such as corruption, human rights, economic policy and social justice in their respective countries (often anonymously) in ways that could not have been possible without risking arrest or harassment in the past.

Sites such as the ‘Kenyan Mzalendo’ site which was set up to monitor the activities of the Kenyan parliament; ‘Kenyan Unlimited’, a Kenyan community of blogs; and the ‘African Women’s Blogs’ created as a collaborative site for African women bloggers are all examples of innovative uses of blogging technology. Many of the personal blogs have become sites of expertise on technology in Africa (White African), human rights and social justice (Black Looks and This is Zimbabwe), African literature (Wordsbody), political commentary (Chippla’s Weblog and Kameelah Writes); chronicles of the daily activities and lives of HIV/AIDS patients and carers (Nata Village Blog) and many more.

This year’s first roundup kicks off with some commentary on the recent execution of Saddam Hussein as viewed by African bloggers.

Gambian blog, 'Home of the Mandimories' - Barbarity, () is scathing in his criticism of the execution and the reasons behind the war in Iraq and the cost in lives (thousands and thousands of Iraqis and 3000 US soldiers and money ($3trillion to date).

“We invaded Iraq to convict Saddam Hussein, so we could execute him by tying a nose around his neck. What a barbaric act. But hey, it makes for cool television and the ratings are sky rocketing…The lives lost and the dollars spent to get us there? They were totally worth it, weren't they? I mean, s***, even if we don't get another darn thing out of being stuck in this God-forsaken hellhole, we got to see Saddam swingin' from the end of a rope, brother. Woo-HOO. That is what our boy king wanted all along. What a sad act.”

Kenyan blogger, 'Thinkers Room' - (http://www.thinkersroom.com/blog/2006/12/they-shouldnt-have-hanged-saddam/)also disagrees with the hanging but for different reasons:

“Most importantly, Saddam did very many unspeakable things in his long and un-illustrious rule. The only person who knows all the grisly things Saddam Hussein did in great detail is Saddam Hussein. And now that he is dead, all that information is lost as well. There are things that Saddam did that we will now never know. As Saint Peter looks over his books Saddam must be thinking Who’s laughing now?’”

Both points of view are valid, in my opinion, but I would add that the crime Saddam was tried and hanged for was one of the few that did not implicate the US and other Western governments – he should have been tried for the mass murder of 5000 Kurds or his murderous activities during the Iran/Iraq war; he should have been tried in the International Court and not in Iraq. Furthermore, the trial was a sham and the execution disgusting. Thankfully because of the illegal phone video we all got to see what really happened at the moment of death – and who comes out looking like the decent guy in all of this? Saddam who until the end was dignified and somehow the barbarism that surrounded his death made HIM seem the human one! Ironic.

For 'Egyptian Chronicles' - Is This Islamic Ethics (http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2007/01/is-this-from-islamic-ethics.html) the abuse of Saddam Hussein during and after the execution is an:

“…ironically those brain heads made from him a hero and also enforced the division between Sunni and Shiites not only in Iraq but in the Arab world…Brain heads!”

Another major story over the New Year was the invasion by Ethiopia of Somalia to remove the Union of Islamic Courts.

Somali blogger, 'The Voice of Somaliland' - (http://waridaad.blogspot.com/2007/01/by-its-ill-judged-invasion-of-somalia.html) accuses Ethiopia of being an accomplice in Bush’s War on Terror. He believes the invasion is ill-advised and ill-fated and will be resisted by the Somali people and will draw in other countries in the region such as Eritrea.

“The danger this time is that the resistance will draw in other countries. Eritrea, which fought its own costly war with Ethiopia, does not need an invitation to help its enemy's enemy. The UIC is also said to be receiving financial assistance from rich leaders of sympathetic Islamic sects, drawn from such countries as Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Gulf sheikhdoms. And the most explosive fuel will be the involvement of the US on the side of Ethiopia. General John Abizaid, commander for the US central command, is reported to have visited Ethiopia last month, after which Ethiopia moved from providing the Somali government with ‘military advice’ to open armed intervention.”

Once again the US uses proxy armies to fight on its behalf. There are areas of criticism to be levelled at the Union of Islamic Courts but at least in the short term they brought peace and stability where there was chaos, violence and fear during the period of control by the warlords who have now been reinstated, courtesy of Ethiopian dictator, Meles Zenawi, friend to the US and British governments. Maybe in 10 years time when he has completed the massacre of his own people they will want to hang him too like Saddam. But it won’t be for the invasion of Somalia – that would show up their dirty little secret deals with a ruthless leader.

'Ethiopian Politics' - (http://ethiopianpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/01/anti-ethiopian-protests-rock-somali.html) comments on the angry response of Somalis to the invasion by Ethiopia on their country.

'Chippla’s Weblog' - (http://chippla.blogspot.com/index.html) discusses the “Interconnected World” in which we live and the interdependency of governments on each other and of course blogs.

“Governments across the world are realizing how heavily dependent they are on one another. For instance, few governments would be glad to see the United States dollar depreciate rapidly. Not even the Chinese government, which silently aspires to superpower status a few decades from now. Holding about one trillion dollars in foreign reserves (a large percentage of which is in United States dollars—exactly how much, remains a state secret), a rapid depreciation of the dollar would hurt China badly. Poland may bark at and prevent the European Union from signing favorable treaties with Russia. But even Poland knows that there is a limit to how loud it can bark. Heavily dependent on Russia for gas, should Gazprom, the mega Russian gas company, decide to close its gas pipes to Poland, a large number of Poles would be forced to freeze out the winter.”

Unfortunately as Chippla points out, this interconnectedness and interdependency does not translate into a better world – a safer place, a more humane place, a more egalitarian place. On the contrary it is leading to a world of the exact opposite where human rights are being eroded and greed is becoming an acceptable form of behaviour.

'African Media' - (http://africamedia.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/01/de_beers_attack.html) reports on the response of De Beers to an article in the Los Angeles Times which provides context to the movie Blood Diamond. Both the LA Times and the New York Times were pressurised by De Beers lawyers to detract on their statements. Such is the power of De Beers and Diamonds! Below is a sample of the criticisms made and De Beers response:

"The article stated that De Beers is exploring for diamonds on land in Botswana that was formerly occupied by the Kalahari Bushmen. That claim is made by Survival International on behalf of the Bushmen, who were relocated by the Botswanan government, which is partnered with De Beers in a diamond company called Debswana. A De Beers spokesman says that while it has explored in the Bushmen's former homeland in the past, it has never mined there and ‘today has no activity of any sort in the region.’”

The film died – De Beers and the Diamond Cartel fought back - and blood diamonds – well it was just another Hollywood film after all!

'Black Looks' - (http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/01/opening_and_closing_the_gates.html) comments on an expose of the “Dirty Little Secrets” behind the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation by the Los Angeles Times (hopefully the Gates’ wield less power than De Beers and the LA Times will not have to retract it’s investigative report). The Gates’ are busy giving away money to immunize children in Africa and other areas of the majority world and at the same time are investing huge sums of money in companies that operate unethically and irresponsibly in those countries.

“With the right hand, the children of the Niger Delta are being saved from getting polio and measles and with the left hand they are suffering from bronchitis, asthma, eczema, boils and other skin problems as well as cancer due to the continued flaring of 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day in the region by the oil companies, and the pollution of drinking and fishing waters from oil spills and old rotten pipelines that leak oil – both at the expense of the Gates Foundation...

"Oil companies are not the only socially irresponsible organisations associated with the Gates Foundation. Other companies rank high as polluters, as well as the very pharmaceutical companies producing anti-retroviral drugs that are unaffordable to the majority world. Ironic when one of the Foundation’s major donations goes to HIV/AIDS.”

• Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, www.blacklooks.org

• Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Refugees and asylum seekers get a bad press in some sections of the UK media, but one advocacy group is using drama to counter the negative public perceptions. The Actors for Refugees production of The Asylum Monologues has played to more than 2,000 people around England and Wales since opening in London on June 25, 2006 as part of celebrations in the UK marking World Refugee Day.

This research examined the management of IDP’s in Nigeria based on the February/May 2000 communal conflict at Kaduna, Northern Nigeria, as an example and a focus for the study. The research took place against a background of few empirical studies of IDPs in Nigeria specifically within the purview of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

Deciding whether or not to return home 20 years after you've left isn't easy. But this is the dilemma facing 70,000 southern Sudanese refugees who have lived in Ethiopia for two decades. Many have never seen their homeland: they were born and raised in refugee camps.

Moroccan police have violently rounded up more than 430 sub-Saharan migrants since late December and tried to force them over the Algerian border, rights campaigners and support associations have said.

Tuberculosis (TB), malnutrition and African wars were among the top ten most underreported humanitarian stories of 2006, the international aid organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Tuesday (9 January 2006). "We know that media coverage does not generate improvements on its own," said United States MSF executive director Nicolas de Torrente.

The United Nations secretary-general has expressed concern that US air strikes in southern Somalia could increase hostilities and harm civilians. Ban Ki-moon's warning came as The Associated Press news agency reported more US attacks on suspected al-Qaeda fighters in the country on Tuesday (9 January 2007).

I read with great interest the article ‘Niger Delta: Restoring the rights of citizens’ (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/38222) by Ike Okonta on the Niger Delta crisis. One thing, however, left me with some doubt about the explanation provided by the author for a very complex situation.

The author does not mention that one of the MEND requests is that Nigerian authorities release former Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, jailed on corruption charges. His story should be well known in the UK since he managed to escape from house arrest in that country while under guard for money laundering.

It is difficult to believe that such requests can be in line with the principle or idea of "bringing the civic back in".

Probably one of the reasons why Oporoza (or other villages in the Delta) is in the condition described by the author is because the money which was supposed to be used for development was instead used by the Bayelsa (and other state governors) to build mansions in the UK, USA or South Africa, and to build refineries (in the case of Alamieyeseigha) in Latin American countries.

The situation in the Niger Delta is not so clear and the links between so called militant groups and the corrupt government officials is not very well understood. So the claim of MEND militants being political subjects forced to pick up AK47’s to restore their rights as citizens is, in many instances, questionable.

The article ‘Social Movements Set to Assert Their Presence at WSF Nairobi 2007’ () by Onyango Oloo managed to capture all the salient points about the WSF. In a very subtle and diplomatic way he has said loudly what the WSF should not be. This article is a must read for all journalists, whether seasoned or not, in covering the WSF, for it explicitly highlights the who, why, what, where, when and how of the WSF leaving only the fleshing out to the journalists. I highly recommend this article for all.

The Global Africa Foundation in collaboration with the Department of History, Nasarawa State University, Keffi has announced its 3rd Keffi International Conference and call For Papers.

The writer/Editor will be responsible for ensuring that all publications, studies and materials intended for internal or external communications are of the highest professional, editorial standards. He/she will be engaged in the writing, preparation and editorial review of documents produced by Forum staff or commissioned to external experts.

The international community should continue its support for the new government in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to help it overcome serious security and political challenges, the International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels-based think-tank, said on Wednesday (10 January 2007).

Exactly two years ago, the Sudan government and the southern rebels Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) struck a peace accord, halting a bloody north-south war in Africa's largest country. The historic signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) brokered by Kenya in January 9, 2005, in Nairobi, silenced the guns in one of the longest armed conflicts in the continent that spanned over two decades.

Efforts to address the plight of women infected and affected by HIV/AIDS are lagging behind in Ethiopia's profoundly conservative society, while they continue to bear the brunt of the epidemic. "Women are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia, mainly due to a lack of know-how and control over how, when and where the sex takes place, particularly in the rural areas, where culture and religion dominate the rights of women."

Members of the Forum of Rwanda Women Parliamentarians (FFRP) will February 22-23, host an international conference to share experiences with their counterparts from various countries around the world. The disclosure was made January 5 by the Forum president Judith Kanakuze, during a FFRP meeting held at the Novotel Hotel.

Oprah Winfrey could be doing so much more to improve girls' education, said ActionAid after the TV star opened a school for poor girls in South Africa this week. Winfrey used $40 million of her own money to launch the school while the following day Gordon Brown re-iterated his promise of $15 billion aid, promising to make universal primary education a key foreign policy goal.

Underperforming schools in Gauteng and the Free State will remain open, the provincial education departments said on Tuesday (9 January 2007). The [provincial minister] is not closing any schools for non-performance," said the Gauteng education department spokesperson Mbela Phetlhe.

Jinja mayor Mohammed Baswali Kezala has revealed that Asian investors are planning to establish a university in the district. Kezala said the investors are seeking 30 acres of land for the university, adding that municipal authorities were in the process of securing it.

Women who received single dose nevirapine at the time of childbirth had better outcomes from nevirapine-based triple combination therapy if they started antiretroviral therapy more than six months after delivery, US researchers report in the January 11th edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The World Health Organization has issued a call for more pharmaceutical companies to develop d4T and AZT-based fixed dose antiretroviral combinations suitable for use in children of varying ages as part of the drive to expand treatment opportunities for children with HIV in developing countries.

Dr. Seth Owusu Agyei, Director of Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) in the Brong Ahafo Region has stated that he is very hopeful that by the year 2011, the centre would have come out with a malaria vaccine RTS,S, which is currently going through clinical trials, for use in Ghana and across Africa to control malaria.

Agenda will publish a journal focussing on the topic of Women and ICTs in May 2007. This Agenda Journal will explore how women can take advantage of the ICT revolution and what women’s obstacles are to using ICTs.