Pambazuka News 661: In pursuit of justice: CAR, Haiti, Ivory Coast & South Africa
Pambazuka News 661: In pursuit of justice: CAR, Haiti, Ivory Coast & South Africa
South Africa appears poised to reclaim its revolutionary legacy from the clutches of the African National Congress, which has “devolved into a fat and corrupt partner of white capital.” As the Age of Obama nears its end, Black America must also awake from the catastrophe of racial symbolism and self-delusion.
Prosecutors go to bizarre lengths to put Black victims of police gunfire in prison. A young man blinded by a cop’s bullet may spend 35 years in prison. A unarmed, mentally ill man who was shot at by police faces 25 years behind bars because the cops wounded two bystanders. Who cares? “The black misleadership class are unconcerned with the plight of the people who are targeted by the system.
From the more than 1000 workers in the factory, clinical examination suspected possible presence of lung silicosis in 450 of them, prompting around 300 workers to strike for ten days last year
America celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday 20, the first ever public holiday in honour of a Black person. The history of this day is interesting, especially the strong resistance mounted by white politicians on the grounds that a Black person was no that important
Richard Hart was a pioneer in the development of Trade Unions, political parties and organizations in the Caribbean. Although he pursued a career as a solicitor, he is more widely known as a historian and politician. He has written numerous books, pamphlets and papers
Pambazuka News 660: South Sudan at a tipping point and Africa's schizophrenias
Pambazuka News 660: South Sudan at a tipping point and Africa's schizophrenias
The horrendous violence that has torn the lives of South Sudanese in the past three weeks has caught many people by utter surprise. Former Vice President Riek Machar, believed to be leading a rebellion against President Salva Kiir, appears determined to get a favourable political settlement at whatever cost
South Sudan is at a crossroads. The government might have to swallow its pride and reward Riek Machar‘s unconstitutional and deadly political actions. Any attempt to punish him could backfire terribly. But this option has its own dangers as well
The crisis in South Sudan is the outcome of a deadly cocktail of personal ambition, state failure, high level corruption and neglect of service delivery to the people, political manipulation of negative ethnicity and failure to transform a revered liberation movement into an accountable ruling party. To start with, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement should be dissolved
A Chinese company in Madagascar, with strong links to the government, is accused of unlawfully acquiring land, blighting the environment and leaving farmers destitute
The South African sugar giant Illovo has 6159 hectares of sugarcane in Malawi, where it is a monopoly with an annual production of 2.8 million metric tonnes of sugar. The company denies persistent claims that it has grabbed land from smallholder farmers
Western leaders who sow violence around the world to entrench capitalism were full of praise of Mandela as a man of peace. Yet from thousands of miles away, President Obama, who led the charade, decides who dies by the unmanned drone, whether they are at a wedding or funeral, women collecting firewood, infants or the elderly
Oil is big business. In Nigeria, it is the life of the economy, blood as oil pumping through the veins of pipelines. But the Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) that replaced the Joint Venture (JV) agreements between the cash-strapped state hydrocarbon company (NNPC), and oil companies, have facilitated a loss of $5 billion annually from deepwater extraction
There was noticeable evidence last year that the Somali people are ready and willing to rebuild their country after many years of turmoil. External support also improved. But the government of Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud squandered a lot of opportunities
His eminently outstanding scholarly contribution, ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’, is set to be translated into Chinese. The decision is a vindication of Rodney’s scholarship and global vision
Sudan Solidarity Network calls for immediate end of the fighting that has killed hundreds of people and displaced thousands of others in the world’s newest nation
The groups say open and free dialogue that yield a mutually accepted agreement reached through the informed opinion of all the concerned parties, are the only way to resolve the current political differences
Justice Africa calls for support for civil society engagement in transformation processes in South Sudan
The metal wokers union has consistently refused to be used as a rubber stamp to all the anti-worker policies of the South African government that is clearly pursuing policies that have put profits above people, especially workers
The movie serves up a series of perfectly punctuated snapshots of the late stateman’s life. But it lacks the kind of psychological depth befitting a man who was larger than life
The route to time-warmed freedom is still long
And is a thousand Mandela’s resilience strong
The aura of the splendid Cape Mountains
Just lay few metres away from Qunu’s fountains
For here, the great’s remains have been buried
And here, his scepter of freedom’s is carried
In these terrains of bigoted Apartheid, he walked
And here, the towering figure of history has talked
To a people, but all the people of his homelands
For to one brother as to one sister all make bands
And here forever the light of the night has risen
In his long walk to freedom, injustice has fallen
Mourn all nations, if not this peace we butcher
For yourselves, not the dead, and your
Baba John Watusi Branch was and is the spiritual embodiment of an African with profound love, an authentic legacy and an uncompromising loyalty to African people
It is necessary to place the current political crisis in South Sudan within a historical context and accept that if the South Sudanese were able to fight for independence over six decades and unanimously vote for independence in 2011, there is no reason that they cannot vote for peace and stability in 2014
What makes African politics particularly fragile is that African politicians inherited weak superstructures from their former colonial masters and failed to dismantle such structures as their political egos sought to step in to the former master’s shoes
The deaf signer at Mandela’s memorial who confessed to schizophrenia revealed a deep-seated schizoid behaviour among African people. Voices in the heads of African people continue to program Africans to elevate all that is Western; African governments, intellectuals, businessmen, students, teachers and parents continue to suffer from an imitation of all that is non-African and anti-African
It is up to the progressive forces favourable to radical changes within our societies to reconnect with the tradition of organizing and struggle by combining forces and by clearly stating through a clear vision where they would like to take Africa in the decades to come
Among some of the important ways to continue to honour, cherish and act upon Madiba’s legacy are for Africans to stop fighting one another and the white minority to give up their white privileges and economic might
South Sudan is facing a profound crisis of governance within the ruling party and its military wing, the SPLA. Without addressing serious nation-building issues, democratizing the ruling party and opening up the political space, any temporary solutions will only defer the problems to a later date
Looking ahead beyond an end to the current violence, these academics propose measures that would ensure long-term stability of the world’s newest nation
Pambazuka News 659: Nelson Mandela: Human rights & ethics for Africa
Pambazuka News 659: Nelson Mandela: Human rights & ethics for Africa
There is no doubt about the monumental contribution of Nelson Mandela to the freedom struggle in South Africa. But still his personal life and political choices as the first black president raise troubling questions
The East African Community (EAC) modeled on the EU has enormous potential and resources. Resolving political differences and harmonizing with other regional blocks remains the foremost challenges
The axiom ‘African solutions to African problems’ hides complex issues that require untangling as the problems conceal many agendas. Focusing on governance, development and institution-building will assist in future conflict prevention
Debt relief for Sudan gives the Sudanese goverment a lifeline to continue to oppress its people. Yet, the reasons for Sudan’s external indebtedness derive from various forms of corruption that many Western governments turn a blind eye to
Nigerians must demand that their leaders make meaningful the economic, social and political rights of ordinary people as expressed in the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights and Universal Declaration on Human Rights
Nelson Mandela belongs to history now. We should be able to look at his whole life, his whole record in perspective. That perspective ought to include who is praising Nelson Mandela nowadays and why
One the important lessons from the life of Nelson Mandela, a former prisoner, is that ex-prisoners should be given all the support they need in order to make positive contributions to society
Nelson Mandela dedicated the best of his years to the struggle for freedom of his people, whose aspirations are contained in the Freedom Charter of 1955. That struggle is not yet over and the people should not relent
African-American writer and political activist Alice Walker believes President Barack Obama is a huge disappointment especially to black people in the US, many of whom had hoped that a black president would improve their fortunes
After a historic handshake between President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro, relations between the United States and the island nation have been put in the spotlight. Castro was one of five world leaders invited to speak at Nelson Mandela’s memorial, highlighting Cuba’s importance to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
In this interview with Democracy Now! historian Piero Gleijeses of Johns Hopkins University puts the Obama-Castro handshake in context and discusses his new book, “Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for South Africa, 1976-1991.” Gleijeses believes that Cuba had "destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor ... [and] inspired the fighting masses of South Africa."
Those who branded Mandela as a terrorist are now seeking to program the minds of the youth to see him as some sort of messiah, without links to real struggles for peace. But Mandela was very clear that his life was linked to the collective struggles of humans everywhere
The former president’s tirade against the man he foisted on Nigerians is totally uncalled for, considering that Obasanjo’s failed two-time administration laid the foundation for much of the mess Jonathan is busy consolidating
There is growing dissatisfaction and even mistrust of human rights as an instrument for radical social change. What is needed is a revolutionary approach to human rights informed by an analysis of the oppressive, anti-human social/historical context of national and global social relationships
The past 25 years have witnessed fundamental sociopolitical and cultural changes in Sudan. Women have been the terrain of many of the uneasy shifts in the country, even down to their skin, which they are now being encouraged to bleach
Father of the successful African struggle for the restoration of independence in South Africa after centuries of the European conquest and occupation. This resistance is surely one of the momentous liberation upheavals of recent human history. At its apogee, we mustn’t forget, quite a few seemingly influential global public figures and intellectuals had variously dismissed eventual African victory as “impossible”, “couldn’t achieve such a feat”, “[European rule] here to stay”… What a year, this 2013 – Africa and the world have bidden farewell to the dual-colossi of 20th/21st centuries’ African renaissance: Nelson Mandela and Chinua Achebe, Father of African Literature.
* Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is visiting professor in graduate programme of constitutional law, Universidade de Fortaleza, Brazil
The Editorial Team would like to notify our readers, contributors and other partners that Pambazuka News will take a break from December 20, 2013 to January 6, 2014. We will publish the next issue on Thursday, January 9, 2014.
We sincerely thank you all for your generous support for Pambazuka News and look forward to continued collaboration in the coming year.
Happy holidays.
The Editors
Pambazuka News 658: Celebrating Nelson Mandela, the sinner-saint
Pambazuka News 658: Celebrating Nelson Mandela, the sinner-saint
Mandela is indisputably an icon of resistance and his positive legacies should be evaluated alongside his negative legacies
Under Mandela’s presidency, the foundations for an enabling environment for civil society in South Africa were laid and Civicus, the global civil society alliance honours the passing of Madiba who in 2004, bestowed his name to the Nelson Mandela-Graca Machel Innovation Awards
Whilst Mandela's death forces South Africans to reflect on the post-apartheid state he helped create, for the rest of the world Mandela's life and legacy resonate deeply because his progressive nationalism was fundamentally a struggle for human freedom and dignity, for social justice and equality
We owe it to Mandela to assess his qualities as a politician and leader, and his true impact on South Africa, rather than simply remembering what was done to him by others
In Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was an example of the best that Africa has to offer - indeed a giant amongst giants. He was aware that peace and democracy were dangerously threatened by poverty of the people
In this new introduction to Nelson Mandela’s book, Prof Gumede compares the ANC leadership of Mandela’s generation and the situation today. He concludes that in many respects, the liberation party is now a fading memory
Mandela’s greatest contribution is that he tried his best to secure a prosperous and happy future for everyone in South Africa, but the greed of the architects of apartheid backed by the West betrayed him. The victims of apartheid in the end gave far more to “reconciliation” than the perpetrators
The Revolution that Nelson Mandela dedicated his life to so many years ago has not yet been completed. We still inhabit a world in which black people are routinely devalued, denigrated and disrespected
As the world celebrates Mandela, the quintessential public servant who chose the path of principle and integrity over expedience and personal aggrandisement, it must not be forgotten that Africa still crawls with assorted charlatans and tribal plutocrats who should be resisted
The life and struggles of Mandela have important and urgent lessons especially for young people in Africa today. As for his many critics who rightly point out many opportunities the South African icon missed, they should be thankful that he was just a human being who dared to try
Nelson Mandela's passing has drawn responses from throughout the US and the world. To oppressed and working people Mandela was a symbol and example of self-sacrifice and lifelong commitment to revolutionary change.
While climate change was not the issue that defined Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom”, a reflection on his philosophy and life reveals a profound overlap with the principles and commitments of the climate justice movement
The political and economic realities of bringing down carbon emissions are a complex process and the Warsaw talks failed to overcome them. But there is still an opportunity to salvage the trust and ambitions lost at Warsaw
As we evaluate the outcomes of the recent UN climate negotiations in Warsaw, one lesson that we are invited to learn, again, relates to our strategy for getting effective action taken on the ongoing climate catastrophe and other critical environmental problems. Is lobbying elites to change their behaviour an effective strategy for change?
‘The whites of the land’ who rule the Dominican Republic have over time increasingly become the agents of racist propaganda and actions against Haitians, Dominicans of Haitian-descent and Dominicans " accused " of being Haitian
The Dominican Republic, which defines itself in opposition to Haiti, has enraged its Caribbean neighbours by preparing to deport a quarter million residents of Haitian descent. Dominican racial views are well known
Pambazuka News 656: SPECIAL ISSUE: Race relations in Brazil: Speaking truth to whiteness
Pambazuka News 656: SPECIAL ISSUE: Race relations in Brazil: Speaking truth to whiteness
For 50 years, we’ve been campaigning for human rights wherever justice, freedom and truth are denied. We’ve reshaped policies, challenged governments and taken corporations to task. In doing so, we’ve changed thousands of lives for the better. Join Amnesty at our new Secretariat office in Johannesburg and you will too.
A new six-part video series from provides practical tips and insight from activists, survivors and experts on interviewing techniques, creating appropriate questions, safety and security, and the effects of trauma on survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. The video series accompanies our written guide on
A genuine national conference to discuss how to move Nigeria forward is not a silver bullet, but it must also tackle the structures that allow for corruption, abuse of office and impunity to thrive in Nigeria
In the undemocratic state of Swaziland, House of Our Pride (HOOP), an organisation fighting for the rights of Swazi Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people are also ensuring day-to-day care and survival, medical and otherwise, for LGBT people
26 years ago Thomas Sankara was assassinated. The circumstances are yet to be clarified ... But he enjoys ever growing popularity
Racist stigmatization of Africa as a backward land in need of external intervention for its salvation is the justification for the slave trade, colonialism and neo-colonialism. But many Africans today appear to be complacent about this. The war against imperialism is no yet won
The rejection of Cuban doctors upon their arrival by associating them with “slaves” and “domestic servants” reveals the racist and class-based imagery of Brazilian “medical Whiteness”. A national debate is needed to change this pernicious perception of the black person
Black women in Brazil are still the class with least access to social goods and services and are deeply affected by widespread exploitation, discrimination and social exclusion. Their struggles for a politicised and healthy black identity continue
Brazilian authorities have only recently embarked on affirmative measures to redress many years of racist policies that led to limited access to jobs by the country’s large black population. Whether these initiatives will succeed remains to be seen
‘Africa has taught us that songs, music, dance and visual arts are all intertwined. We have learned from Africa that laughs, tears, sweat, aroma, odor, panting, languor and all other senses are part of daily life.’
Brazil conjures up the misleading notion of being a racial democracy, yet its Afro-Brazilian population continues to experience overt and covert forms of racism. In this special two part issue of Pambazuka News we seek to speak truth to whiteness in Brazil which is symptomatic of a global white supremacist thinking, despite the fact that people of colour are the majority in the world
The former rebel movement has renounced the peace deal it signed to end the war in 1992 and has issued a raft of demands to the government, raising fears of resumption of the war. But RENAMO’s problem is its failure to transofrm from a rebel group to a regular political party. FRELIMO is also to blame
Languages
I wish I could talk to you in languages
Touch you in Wolof
Kiss your body in Lingala
Love you in Bambara
I wish I could talk to you in my own voices
And with my music
Those sounds which burn in our soul
So, smiling in Chokwe
Play with you in Swahili
I dream of venting my being
In Fula, Mandang
And after that, loose myself in the between, in your Yoruba
Remember in Umbundo
Come in Kimbundo
But, oh no, I only speak Portuguese
Colonial languages
And the post-colonial conditions
And freedom?
Which language to speak?
Which chant to sing?
Can silence translate it?
Can space contain it?
*Translated from Portuguese by Alyxandra Gomes
The much-hyped defeat of the M23 rebels in eastern Congo means little, unless firm action is taken to deter Rwanda and Uganda, both US allies, from destabilizing of the country.
There is no dispute that this planet is undergoing climate change; indeed, throughout history, this planet has suffered much more serious climatic assaults on its surface and its inhabitants. The science, however, is confused by the allegation that there is GLOBAL warming.
There is almost universal confusion, even ignorance, over the true nature of the NATO intervention in Libya two years ago, carried out in the name of protecting the people against their own government of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Despite South Africa’s liberal constitution, gay refugees and asylum seekers face widespread xenophobia and homophobia that does not allow them to seek stable employment nor receive legal redress when discriminated against
Discourses on climate change and sustainable development in Africa have been hijacked with terminology such as ‘mitigation’ and ‘adaptation’ that need to be questioned
Pambazuka News 655: Arresting climate change, resource grabs and maldevelopment
Pambazuka News 655: Arresting climate change, resource grabs and maldevelopment
Following the outrageous death of Travyon Martin in the US is the murder of Renisha McBride who sought help after a car accident and was brutally murdered. It is now ‘open season on black people’ in America with a black prosecutor, Kym Worthy, who does not inspire justice will be won
The recent abduction of two American citizens near the Gulf of Guinea provides ideological cover for Washington to increase its military operations in Africa. Meanwhile, American looting of oil, natural gas and other strategic resources in the region also continues