The Independent National Elections Commission (INEC) officials erred in law and in fact by declaring that the Anambra State Governorship election was inconclusive

Campaign groups Greenpeace and the Oakland Institute say work and forest clearing has been conducted in violation of national law, despite fierce local opposition, and would destroy a forested area of vital biodiversity surrounded by protected areas

The December 2013 issue of the Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter is now available: Please help us distribute it, and consider contributing in the future. You can also like our Facebook page, and follow us on Twitter!

"The Bill is an evidence of a growing trend in Africa and elsewhere, whereby governments are trying to exert more control over independent groups using so-called ‘NGO laws’”

Afro-Brazilians who have become part of a minority black middle class may have managed to escape a subaltern position common to most of their peers, but they continue to face racial prejudice, discrimination and distrust in entering the public sector and building a career

‘Emerging regional powers’ in the South have produced powerful finance capitalists such as the Egyptian firm, Citadel Capital that is buying land, rights to water and precious metals. Allied with global governance institutions, such finance capitalists represent greater control over vital resources and distribution routes for private wealth accumulation

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Repossession of land was at the heart of the African struggle for freedom from European colonialism. It is sad that to this day many Africans in ‘independent’ nations still have no access to the most essential resource for human survival

In response to a crackdown on “illegal” immigrants by Saudi Arabia in which many Ethiopians were repatriated, Addis Ababa has imposed an unconstitutional ban on foreign travel for work. The ban is illogical. Better ways of handling the matter abound

Despite government and ruling party hype, South Africa remains a country in which the capitalist class and their small minority of middle class and political hangers-on ride the ‘world class’ gravy train while telling the rest of the people to cram into the ‘third class’ carriages

For the past two decades, Russian language studies has drastically fallen among the African population primarily due to lack of general interest, financial constraints in support for study programs and a lack of consistent interactive cultural activities by the Russian authorities, both Russian and African experts say

Can Pretoria’s delegation to the Conference of the Parties COP19 in Warsaw – the annual UN Framework Convention on Climate Change summit which opened on Monday and closes on November 22 – make a convincing statement that one of the world’s highest per-capita greenhouse-gas polluters is reforming?

The Constitutional Court ruling which deprives thousands of individuals of foreign descent of their Dominican nationality is being implemented. This has created an increasing nationalist and hostile atmosphere where individuals of Haitian descent are particularly discriminated against and at risk of violence and further violations.

Evelyn Mkite is a Fahamu Fellow 2013 based in Cheptais location in the Mt Elgon region in Bungoma County, western Kenya. Her activism work revolves around fighting against child labour in Cheptais with the intent of keeping them in school.

Victor Nee and Sonja Opper’s (2012) book on Capitalism From Below: Markets and Institutional Change in China is an ambitious attempt at explaining, theoretically and empirically, the country’s economic miracle. It is also a bold attempt at prescribing a model for replicating such a success in other reforming countries.

It is difficult to understand why artefacts newly recovered in Nigeria should be exhibited first in Germany and not in the country where they were discovered

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

The definition of black today is from what the founder of Black Consciousness, Steve Bantu Biko, said it was: ‘a reflection of a mental attitude.’ It is different, diversified, multiple and more complicated than what was the case in the 1960s

NGOs need urgent soul-searching. They have hogged public space that they have deprived ordinary citizens of the right to speak for themselves. The Ugandan NGOs have stifled the citizens’ voices.

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To Celestine Edwards

and to Tower Hamlets Council, for their Black History Walks.

PART I

I

He looked like dignity,
The day I saw him speak in Victoria Park.
I was sinking in drink,
Approaching the brink;
The day I stepped out of the dark.

Spoke against human trafficking,
And enslavement by booze.
Made me think again,
Regenerating my brain;
Like a prophet bringing good news.

II

Woke up that day in a Methodist Mission,
Just another impatient sailor.
Heard he'd been a seaman too,
Sailing out from Dominica.

I'd been drinking excessively again,
While waiting for another ship out.
Fighting with the feared killer -
A yellow fever bout.

Walking down Whitechapel Road,
Memories of Ira Aldridge.
He performed at the Pavilion,
Black butterfly on thespian ridge.

From whatever part of the Black world,
We all had crosses to bear.
Ira bore his on the world stage,
In Othello, Macbeth and King Lear.

III

So I wandered around,
What else is there to do?
When not destination-bound.

Past Wiltons the old music hall,
Where the actors blacked up;
I never sat in a Wilton stall.

I meandered amongst the drifters,
Africans, Jews, Russians;
Chinese, Irish and Lascars.

Tramped the many alleys,
By West India Docks;
Trodding with the ghosts of slavery.

Through the streets of migrants and refugees,
Choked with frustration;
Constructed by poverty.

I had too much time to spare,
Lashed by loneliness;
Trapped in alcohols' snare.

IV

Waking that day,
Seemed like any other.
A day to wait,
To dissipate,
Twenty fours of slow replay.
Between the horse and the ass,
No one hears the mule bray.

We woke, ate and left.
Exodus of the ex-men.
En route to vomit,
Some to pickpocket,
Hands swift and deft.
Those sagas of survival;
Who will talk of the men bereft?

Passed by St. Botolphs, Aldgate.
Popular amongst us blacks.
I should have gone in,
Joined in the singing -
But I was in a state.
Head down I plodded on,
Hoping that God would wait.

Must have gone east of there -
Outside the Ragged School.
First schooling for many of us.
Children given care,
Who'd known wear and tear.
God bless you Dr Barnado;
Wish I had a penny to spare.

Then I found myself before him,
Overcome with awe.
Never sobered up so quick!
Life lost it's whim,
Potential slim.
I stepped out of the park,
A new stride in my limb.

PART II

I

I researched the man,
Eager to know of him.
Of how he retained dignity,
Went onward with his plan.

So I asked the temperance people,
The abolitionists too.
Asked a priest from Cheltenham,
A sailor from Newcastle.

Spoke with anti-lynching activists,
Bought papers he edited.
Heard him speak when I could;
I knew his itinerary lists.

So what follows is what I learnt,
Snapshots of a savant.
It's good to have a saviour,
When you're about to get burnt.

II

One of nine children
Born in Dominica
School days in Antigua

After Methodist School
Stowed away at twelve
Time to search and delve

As well as Europe
To North America
Onto it's Southern neighbour

And he read and read
Role model par excellence
For a life not making sense

Spoke in Edinburgh
In Sunderland as well
Chimes of Celestine's bell

Then south to London
To reside in Bethnal Green
Speaking in Glasgow and Aberdeen

He continued to lecture
Survived as a labourer
And a penny pamphleteer

III

Co-wrote a life story -
From Slavery to Bishopric;
Life of Walter Hawkins.
Evidence of his brilliance,
His talents polymathic.

Edited two newspapers -
Lux and Fraternity.
Fought lynching,
Alcohol abuse,
And state brutality.

Preached in Plymouth and Bristol,
The 'Negro Lecturer'.
One summer in Liverpool,
Spoke about the lives,
Of Black and White America.

In his early thirties,
He studied for a degree.
Went to Kings College,
Of London University;
Majoring in Theology.

In his mid-thirties,
He dreamed of being a doctor:
But his body said no.
Conquered by exhaustion,
Returned home to his brother.

Constant lecturing,
Teaching of the Bible.
The body can only take so much.
His dream collapsed;
The hope of London Hospital.

He passed away in Dominica,
Cared for by his brother.
As far as I know,
He left no child;
Neither wife, partner or lover.

I remember him as strong in body -
That legendary laugh.
I eulogise Celestine.
Seems everyone wanted him,
As a member of their staff.

Self-educated man,
Who loved to read and read.
Man on a mission,
Spreading knowledge,
The scattering of seed.

I put away the bottle,
And took up books.
I observed the great eagle,
Helping others;
The starlings and the rooks.

Never meant to go there that day,
Into Victoria Park.
He held his head high,
Gently reasoning;
Devoid of rant and bark.

Celestine, Celestine,
I say your name with pride.
My great conductor,
Who took me on a journey;
Who gave me a ticket to ride.

© Natty Mark Samuels, 2013. African School.

The brazen capture of Abu Anas al-Liby in Tripoli by the US conceals the selective use of counter-terror activities used by western military forces to maintain the War on Terror. Peace activists must intensify their efforts to expose the forces in the West, Qatar and Saudi Arabia who are financing extremists in Africa

Non-governmental organizations and civil society groups read a sinister motive in the government Bill that seeks to restrict funding

African Union Human Rights Memorial Network dialogue in Dakar, Senegal, 11-12 November, examines the role of slavery memorialisation in promoting human rights on the continent

The BRICS coalition is investment-driven and has no real interest in the assertion of powers of the formerly oppressed. The alliance is about firms engaging in advantageous trade deals that further the exploits of corporate shareholders and the possibilities of tapping promising markets

Africa trade unions, led by the Nigerian Labor Congress demanded in solidarity with the Saharawi people that Morocco, a close ally of the United States and France, withdraw its military and security forces from the Western Sahara and hold a referendum on the future of the territory

Kwame Ture was a magnificent communicator in the same league as skilled orators such as Malcom X, Thomas Sankara, Jean Bertrand Aristide, Fidel Castro and Tajudeen Abdul Raheem – who could speak at great length without notes and with amusing wit. Here is a selection of video and audio clips that attest to this

The articles,videos and audios in this special issue highlight the ideological perspicacity of Kwame Ture, aspects of his Pan-Africanist convictions and personal insights by those who had the pleasure of meeting and working with one of the most notable African revolutionaries

15 years after his passing, the greatest memory I have of Kwame is how well he embodied the wide variety of experiences of revolutionary struggle he encountered throughout his lifetime; how well he upheld the highest principles of revolutionary Pan-Africanism in his relationship with people

Freedom for African people was at the centre of the ideology of Kwame Ture. His notion of freedom was linked to the oppression of other peoples around the globe and he worked tirelessly not only for African unity but with liberation struggles in India, Palestine and in Ireland

Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture, 1941-1998) was a history maker but also the product of the long, drawn out, historical struggle of Blacks against the oppression of the Western ruling elites and their economic system

Police summoned Kenya Television Network (KTN, private) journalists, John-Allan Namu and Mohammed Ali, over their report on the Westgate Mall looting by army officers. The network’s CEO, Sam Shollei, has also been summoned.

Why Angola is buying junk military aircraft from Russia, which will require lots of money to service, is puzzling. Who will fly the aircraft? Where is Angola preparing to fight? These and many more questions beg for answers

The U.S. pounced on the small island nation of Grenada like an “elephant on a flea,” 30 years ago, to wipe out the remnants of a revolution. Adding insult to injury (and violation of international law), the U.S. pretended that Grenadians didn’t fight back

The decision by Members of the European Parliament to support a report that is highly critical of Morocco’s human rights violations in Western Sahara is a welcome move. More pressure should be piled of Morocco to end its occupation of Africa’s last colony

Africa Contact demands that Morocco releases activist Sidahmed Lemjayed and 24 other political prisoners from Sale prison in Morocco

While studying at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, Sacks became a leading figure in human rights activism, fighting against apartheid and demonstrating his support for the Johannesburg Jewish community