Thank you Ndugu Issa. Where in the Blair Commission report do they mention compensation to the Kenyan women raped and brutalised by their "Johnies" and Gurhkahs in the name of Cold War freedom, defense and security. Freedom? All these perorations as these ignored women strive for justice in the shadow of high tech military bases and six star tourist hotels? Africa and the Third World do not need their poisoned chalice of crocodile tears. We have two sayings: those who weep harder than the bereaved and the mouse that bites you then,oh so gently as the old Anglican hymn goes,' soothes your sorrows, heals your wounds and drives away your fears! Yeah man,drives you right into the gulag of dependency by compassion!

Tony Blair talked about the scar on the world's conscience. Wrong again! The wounds of exploitation are still fresh and festering. Instead of 'breaking the chains from our hearts and setting us free' as the 1970s song goes, they're polishing the chains and piling up tons of neo liberal market friendly reports even as school children sit under trees and die of malnutrition thanks to their SAPs. Mothers are dying thanks to their user fee rules. It gets even better, cynical as that may sound. In a recent BBC programme it emerged that one British town had more Malawian doctors than the whole of Malawi. The issue is not compassion, aid, assistance, developement. There have been too many experiments with African lives, too many sheltered dictators,too many donor driven budgets, too many small arms, too many fire brigades translating into too many mice biting. Africans are not victims We are survivors and we are not about to give up. The issue is not compassion: it is LIBERATION and as Mwalimu Nyerere himself said: It can be done.

I speak from the depths of the Temple of Isis, Nzinga,Yaa Asantewa, Me Katilili and Mbuya Nehanda who didnt write books but wrote history. I speak through the spirit in the vocal chords of Miriam Makeba and in the feet of Soundiata Keita, the son of Sogolon who defeated the usurper Soumaoro Kante. Their spirits hover aloft to inspire us not in compassion but in DIGNITY. Hear ye all ye bleeding heart do gooders: It MUST be done. We are our own liberators.

A luta continua!