Pambazuka News 632: Profiting from poverty: African struggles for dignity and freedom
Pambazuka News 632: Profiting from poverty: African struggles for dignity and freedom
The University of Toronto's impositions on the TYP entail a blatant disregard for the struggles of the Afrikan community that founded TYP and all oppressed people who struggle(d) for TYP and continue to fight for access and equity in higher education
Addis Ababa, May 2013. FEMNET (African Women’s Development and Communication Network) and UNDP (United Nations Development Program) launched Women Rising – a documentary on Political Leadership in Africa in Addis in the margins of the AU Summit and during the celebrations of Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance.
With the release of his latest poetry book, entitled ‘Today na Today’, an anthology of poems written in Naija langwej (pidgin English), a waning subsector of Nigerian literature gains a vent
Crawford Young succeeds brilliantly and seductively in inciting a yearning for “another history” of governance in Africa in the last 50 years
The greed of the rich to propagate their interest at the cost of fellowmen in other countries is the root cause of piracy in the Indian Ocean. In a sense, piracy is good for conservation of tuna and other African resources
He survived many battles in his long and eventful life and, when he answered the final call, Chinua Achebe immensely earned the hero’s burial accorded him by an appreciative citizenry
The African humanity currently generates, overwhelmingly, the capital resource that at once sustains it and is exported to the Western world. The notion that Africans are in any way dependent on a European/Western world or any other overseas ‘handout’ is at best a myth, at worst an all-out lie
Pambazuka News 631: Special Issue: AU/OAU at 50, celebration and reflection
Pambazuka News 631: Special Issue: AU/OAU at 50, celebration and reflection
Genuine all inclusive, society-wide, regional, Africa-led strategies are necessary to resolve the crisis in the Great Lakes region rather than billions of dollars in aid as promised by the World Bank and UN leaders
Kenyans must defend the right to protest in all legitimate forms and those who used pigs in the recent Occupy Parliament demonstrations are free to do so, just as those who choose other means have the right to express their views
The upsurge of support in the wake of declaring a state of emergency to combat insurgency opens a much-needed window for Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, to change tactics in administering the country
A reflection on five decades since the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), while the Pentagon and NATO escalate their war drive on the continent
Address by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Dr. Dlamini Zuma to the Third Pan African Parliament
6 May 2013
Africans yearn to come and go within the continent without visas; to work where they like; and expect to be treated as if they were ‘home’ – despite being far away from the territorial limits into which they were originally born
The AU has now entered the new fifth era of delivery and democracy to avoid uprisings and revolutions and to ensure human security by re-inventing Pan-Africanism for 21st century Africa
Food security has been a major concern for Africans over the decades but, surpringly, the OAU/AU did little to support agriculture and other forms of food production. This needs to change, beginning with effective support for the small-scale farmer
Post-independent African leaders have failed to realise the aspirations and hopes of self-determination and unity of the African people. There are five basic steps that AU member states need to take now to put Africans on the path to full integration
This special issue celebrates not only 50 years of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and its successor, the African Union (AU), but also the life of the late Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, a staunch Pan-Africanist. Some of the themes of this issue are set out, as well as future challenges facing the AU and Pan-Africanists
Pambazuka News interviewed various officials of the AU Commission and an Oxfam official about the accomplishments of the AU as well as some of the challenges and future of continental integration. Follow the links below to listen to the interviews:
Deputy Chairperson, H.E. Mr. Erastus Mwencha
Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, H.E. Mrs. Tumusiime Rhoda Peace
In a petition, the organisations say the ongoing widespread and systematic nature of human rights violations in Eritrea underlines the need for continued and urgent action by the African Union
I believe that Tajudeen loved young people because he could see in them the potential to transform society for the better before it transformed individuals for the worse
In accordance with its founding principles, the AU must actively encourage its members to strengthen domestic justice mechanisms and, where they are either weak or blocked politically, to embrace the ICC as a court of last resort
How is it that 50 years on, the OAU/AU has failed in the main objective for which it was founded? Because the United States of Africa cannot be brought about by leaders who are not Pan-Africanists
Given that the roots of so much intra-state conflict is lack of social justice, inequality and marginalisation suffered by different groups, strategies on removing these obstacles and building intra-group solidarity should be the key peace-building pan-African project of the next 50 years
Africa is undergoing an artistic renaissance that could be a part of the African Union’s approach in communicating the aspirations of Africa and Africans, engaging Africans in critical discussion and representing the potential strength in the diversity of the continent
The focus of the next 50 years for the African Union should be to move from being a rigid bureaucracy to an agile organisation, which is able to flex and move at speed in a global society
The African Union must cultivate a united Africa and national governments need to be keenly wary of the divide-and-rule tactics of external powers pursuing selfish interests
The AU is well placed to articulate the Pan-African agenda for the benefit of the people, yet the majority of African presidents are busy with self-preservation and less supportive of initiatives that promote regional and continental integration. When will the Union to stop being a talking and become a serious institution?
There is a need for a cultural rebirth in Africa as part of the radical economic and social transformation of the continent. A new African consciousness that is free from the chains of ‘colonial’, ‘post-colonial’ and ‘decolonial’ must be located in African reference points
In terms of Africa’s decolonisation and integration the OAU and the AU have a mixed score. It is important to allow time for some of the AU’s policies to start biting.
In a personal reflection of the late Dr.Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, a foremost champion of Pan-Africanism in recent years, he is remembered as one who spoke truth to the powerful and the powerless with indefatigable commitment to the poor of Africa
It is time for the African Union to push for cultural diplomacy in the form of a Museum of African Music, Arts and Culture as an entity for both preservation and a celebration of our similarities as well as the richness of our cultural diversity
Pambazuka News 630: Dictators, profiteers and NGOs in Africa
Pambazuka News 630: Dictators, profiteers and NGOs in Africa
Toronto, ON -The Toronto chapter of the Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa (GRILA), will commemorate the African Liberation Day 2013 on Saturday, May 25th 2013 at 5:00 p.m. This will mark the 50th anniversary of the creation of the OAU (Organization of African Unity). This public education event will take place at A Different Booklist which is located at 746 Bathurst (next to the Bathurst Subway station).
In the New Scramble for Africa, the continent is facing the dual threat of militarization and capitalist-driven land grabs. In militarist terms, the US and its European allies are increasingly consolidating their imperialist stranglehold in the region. Under the auspices of the so-called United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), the US is seeking the recolonization of the continent in bid to secure unfettered access to vital resources in the wake of China’s ascendancy in Africa. The bloody military intervention in Libya was swiftly followed by deployment of Special Forces in Uganda, paving the way for militarization in the Central African region and the new escalation by President Obama of America’s two decades old war in Somalia.
In the Sahel region, Mali has suddenly become the centre of a new global “war on terror.” Paradoxically, US-backed, French forces in Mali are fighting the same terrorist bands trained by US and NATO Special Forces, now justifying a full-fledged, neo-colonial invasion of Mali by France. Under the pretext of fighting terror, the French-led militarization strategy in Mali is rooted in AFRICOM’s hegemonic military objectives of securing vital resources, countering China’s strategy and confronting the revolutionary wave sweeping across the continent.
The choice of Mali as a new staging ground for a joint AFRICOM/NATO military offensive on the African continent is not a mere coincidence. With proven oil reserves as well as gold and uranium deposits, resource-rich Mali is strategically located in the heart of the oil-rich Sahel region. Its proximity to oil-rich Libya to the north and the vastly oil-rich, Gulf of Guinea region to the south comprising of oil-producing states of Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and newly oil-rich Ghana, makes it a convenient springboard to direct a new phase of imperialist-driven, military intervention in the continent. Mali is touted as a potential site for AFRICOM’s proposed base in Africa.
In addition to threats posed by AFRICOM/NATO militarization, there is also a growing threat to African food security and prosperity from massive land grabs by external capitalist forces. Africa is being used to bail out the world’s food crisis by secretive, powerful land grabbers seeking control over land and water resources. The new scramble for prime African land erstwhile dubbed the “Great Land Grab,” is driven by biofuel demands in the European Union and other industrialized nations and renewed global attempts to augment food security in other regions of the world, principally in the Persian Gulf and East Asia. The threat posed by AFRICOM’s militarization and ongoing land grabs calls for sustained Pan-African response from the grassroots level to national and continental level. On Saturday, May 25th, 2013, join concerned Pan-Africanists at an African Liberation Day Panel discussion on the unfolding situation in the continent.
Date:Saturday, May 25, 2013
Time: 5pm - 7pm
Location: A Different Booklist -746 Bathurst (South of Bloor), Toronto
Brought to you by the Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa (GRILA – Toronto Chapter) .org Email: [email][email protected], [email][email protected] Phone: (416) 721 – 4531
NOTE: A major international campaign around these issues (Militarization and Land Grab) will be announced the same day.
If capital is to be believed, it is the worker who is the main source of South Africa’s contemporary social and economic problems
The greatest enemy against achievement is negativity. And victory isn’t cheap; it’s accomplished through sweat, tears and braving betrayal from within
What credits one’s life is not how much wealth he has piled up for himself but how good he has done for the rest of humanity. Dr Oladipo Fashina was very careful to ensure that he autographed his deeds with excellence
Youth unemployment and hopelessness pose a serious threat to development and peace in the north. Increased initiatives and budget spending on youth unemployment, poverty alleviation and empowerment programmes are quite positive. If sustained, these programmes could reduce the risk of violence
Some of President Jonathan’s close allies are threatening, or prophesying, violence in Nigeria should he fail to be re-elected in 2015. His opponents are not taking this lightly. This alarming talk is raising political temperatures in the already deeply divided nation
In Africa’s last monarchy – the kingdom of Swaziland, the major question is: for how long multi-party politics should be construed as incompatible with Swazi tradition, when that tradition is static? It appears that Swazi tradition was not only hijacked by the monarchy but has arrested the development of genuine democratic participation of Swazi citizens
The events of 2008 in Zimbabwe led to bloodshed and the present-day Government of National Unity. ZANU PF has exposed its cast-iron willpower to thwart the implementation of any meaningful reforms and the prognosis for the 2013 elections appears bleak
The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide, urges President Jacob Zuma not to sign the Protection of State Information Bill and to send it back to the National Assembly for further revisions that meet the standards of openness and transparency demanded by South Africa's Constitution
It is a woeful tale that exposes the inhuman exploitation of workers and the neglect they suffer from their unions that are meant to agitate for their interests. For how long will this continue?
Wednesday 29 May 2013, a fortnight away, is the 47th anniversary of the beginning of the Igbo genocide. Starting from that fateful mid-morning of Sunday 29 May 1966 and through the course of 44 months of indescribable barbarity and carnage not seen in Africa for 60 years, the composite institutions of the Nigeria state, civilian and military, murdered 3.1 million Igbo people or one-quarter of this nation´s population. The Igbo genocide is the foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa. It inaugurated Africa´s current age of pestilence.
This year´s commemoration will, as in the past, be a day of meditation and remembrance in every Igbo household in Igboland and the Igbo diaspora for the 3.1 million murdered, gratitude and thanksgiving for those who survived, and the collective Igbo rededication to achieve the urgent goal of the restoration of Igbo sovereignty. There will also be lectures, discussions and exhibitions on varying features and phases of the genocide organised by individuals, students, the youth, women, family unions, village, town, district, regional and professional associations.
The 50 million Igbo people heartily welcome all peoples of goodwill across the world to join them in commemorating the 47th anniversary of the launch of the genocide.
* Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of Readings from Reading: Essays on African Politics, Genocide, Literature (Dakar and Reading: African Renaissance, 2011).
‘His detailed plot summaries of the movies in the book are so well written that readers may no longer need to see the films after reading his book’
The principal drivers of the Somali crisis are identifiable foreign powers exploiting the vulnerabilities of the Somali people rooted in clan rivalry, poverty, religion and selfish ambitious personalities
Kenya’s Members of Parliament want a bigger salary. But the country is outraged by this demand. This week, protesters poured out into the streets of Nairobi to say No to the MPs’ greed
Two years after French-led forces brought Allassane Ouattara to power, he is not yet in control of the country. Rebels run a parallel taxation system and looting of the country’s resources is in top gear
There is a clear disjunction between the world NGOs seek to create, and the world their governance structures reproduce
Pambazuka News 629: Imperial agendas, wage slavery and Black struggles
Pambazuka News 629: Imperial agendas, wage slavery and Black struggles
Chinua Achebe’s recent book has revived fierce discussions about the Biafra genocide, the darkest chapter in Nigerian history. The country is still divided over the issue and ‘Biafrans’ want out of Nigeria
The kind of tragic exploitation of workers in Bangladesh is present all over Africa, where people are denied basic labour rights as part of state efforts to attract and retain foreign investment. Militant and sustained efforts are needed to resist this trend
See
South Africa is this week hosting yet another major conference, the World Economic Forum for Africa, amidst increasing evidence that the nation is fast growing as a sub-imperialist power
With the recent loss of 12 South African troops in the Central African Republic and the US bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq, the extent to which an African peace keeping mission will meet a similar fate seems likely
It seems that Kenya’s middle class of shoppers at Java have become complacent with constitutional change at a time when they should be pushing for further implementation of the constitution
The Adilisha Program will be holding a movement building boot camp for activists’ from social justice movements and organisations in Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi.The boot camp being held in Lusaka ,Zambia from May 12 -17, 2013 will facilitate activists' consciousness of their context from a deep analysis and connect what they are doing to the bigger picture or vision of social change they seek to achieve.
Participants will critically analyse their organising strategies and tactics to develop alternative strategies for effective and creative organising.It is also expected that the participants will derive approaches for educating political education and elevation of the voice and leadership of their constituents.
This will also be a space to examine, reflect and learn why social movements occur, who joins or support social movements, how social movements are organised, what they do and what change social movements bring about. It is expected that this will inspire the participants to embrace strategies that build collective action.
The recent ruling by the Supreme Court upholding the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as president of Kenya has been dismissed by a number of legal analysts as ‘shallow’, ‘unconvincing’ and based on questionable precedents. But petitioner Raila Odinga’s former aide defends it
The unresolved land question at the Kenyan coast has continued to stagnate development, stoke negative ethnicity and create squatters. Successive governments have displayed lamentable laxity in carrying out the required reforms. The people need to push the new administration on this urgent matter
The American immigrant rights movement has failed because it allowed itself to be influenced by the paternalism and conservative politics of the liberal non-profit industrial complex and the interests of the Democratic Party
Violence across Africa is often fueled by political elites who try to cling to power. They play on tribal historic injustices and often leave the poor to fight each other. Transitional processes in the post-conflict societies of Kenya and Zimbabwe are yet to fully achieve their goals
Instead of tackling the underlying causes of restiveness and militancy, which are mass unemployment and collapse of education, the Jonathan regime has resorted to brute force
New York, May 2, 2013-The Committee to Protect Journalists asks Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, chairperson of the African Union, to uphold press freedom by calling for justice in journalist murders in Africa and for the release of all imprisoned journalists.
Statement delivered at the 53rd ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights in Banjul, Gambia
Mass movement against education cuts, mass unemployment, pro-rich looting and obnoxious electoral laws
‘The City of Cape Town is heartless. They want us to get sick. They want to punish us for trying to do what’s best for our families, for our children. But we are not going anywhere’
City cannot ‘throw up hands in horror’ when asked to house the homeless, Judge says
Hi Colleagues,
Thank you for this edition [Issue 628]. It brings into the public space a phenomenon or cluster of phenomena that we have to label appropriately. For my part I have been calling it 'existential terrorism', meaning the terror that is brought to bear on certain groups by other groups by virtue of the fact that the former group exists in the relation it does to the former. Definitions are notoriously difficult, so it is wonderful that we have found the words to open up this discussion.
Tsitsi Dangarembga
Director
Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA) Trust (incorporating Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe and Nyerai Films)
Founder International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF)
Harare, Zimbabwe
The government should have capitalised on a recent embarrassing incident in which an official was exposed as incompetent to mount a major PR coup against its critics. But it is too optimistic to expect state bureaucrats in Nigeria to see rare opportunities thrust right under their noses
Warnings that there will be war if Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015 are an anathema to genuine democracy, tolerance and fair play in Africa’s most populous nation that should be leading by example
There is a genuine concern that trade unions and its leadership have failed to protect workers and that trade unions are dens of corruption in Kenya. There is a need to revive a genuine trade union movement that protects workers’ rights and promotes workers’ solidarity
As the World Economic Forum meets in Cape Town this week [8-10 May], they must commit to implementing programs that will assist the millions being left behind by economic growth. Otherwise, social and economic progress on the continent will be undermined
When Barack Obama leaves the White House in January 2017, what will black America, his earliest and most consistent supporters, have to show for making his political career possible? We'll have the T-shirts and buttons and posters, the souvenirs. That will be the good news. The bad news is what else we'll have.... and not.
A year ago, we were hopeful that your presidency would open a new chapter in overhauling the World Bank’s justice system. But a year later, the presidential mantle that we had hoped would dismantle the racist institutional culture seems to be drawn toward the center of gravity of the status quo
On the 40th anniversary of the shooting and capture of Assata Shakur, the FBI and the State of New Jersey has now placed the African American revolutionary on the most wanted terrorist list
If the Nigerian government is sincere about achieving peace and solving the recurring problem of electoral violence, it must implement the Sheikh Lemu Report wholly and not selectively. It must, as recommended, mete out punishments alongside compensation and adopt preventive measures
For Sudan which listed as a sponsor of terrorism and whose president is a suspected war criminal, the invitation to Washington of Al Bashir’s aide is an extraordinary reward to a regime that craves nothing so much as legitimacy, and to a man who is utterly ruthless and savagely cruel
Pambazuka News 628: Unmasking terrorism in imperialism and capitalism
Pambazuka News 628: Unmasking terrorism in imperialism and capitalism
The decision by the Jonathan administration to grant amnesty to Boko Haram does not inspire much hope, given that similar steps have not solved the problem of militant groups in the past. A national congress on the future of Nigeria is needed
More international talks on Somalia are lined up; international financial institutions are ready for business with the recovering nation...All this portends good for Somalia and Somalis should not squander this chance to restore their nation to peace and prosperity
How can the German Federal Cultural Foundation believe that 2 million Euros will promote cultural relations with the whole continent of Africa (and not even involve the Africans in the process)?
Neither money nor political power can earn you lines in English cricket literature that say, ‘He was a mercurial skipper’ who was ‘elected a vice-president of the Nomads’; ‘He was a leading personality in the club’
The bombers may have dreamt of finding the final solution to the domination of their chosen sports by people of African descent
Brutal crimes of violence against women and girls have massively increased and become pervasive in the country.
Whereas Kenya enjoys considerable media freedom, there are frequent reports of threats or harassment of journalists in connection with their work. Media owners violate the labour rights of journalists with impunity
With the violent overthrow of democratically elected President Gbagbo, Ivory Coast has reverted to its old status of a French colony in fact. The hands of French, Western and UN officials drip with the blood of Ivorians
The May 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!
Liberation movements, progressive governments, left parties, peace and anti-war organizations, solidarity coalitions and social justice groups must continue their support and alliances with the Palestinian people, the resistance forces and the progressive states throughout the Middle-East
Nigeria is unworkable as one nation-state because of intractable internal ethnic rivalries and the deeply rooted determination of the north to Islamise everyone.
The workers’ tragedy in Dhaka provides a peek into the landscape of globalization that is mimicked in factories along the US-Mexico border, in Haiti, in Sri Lanka, and in other places that opened their doors to the global garment industry’s savvy use of the new manufacturing and trade order of the 1990s
With the recent discovery of oil in Kenya there needs to be a debate as to whether the country follows the path of Ecuador and Norway and leave the oil in the soil or the environmentally and people damaging path of oil exploration in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
Freedom of the press and the existence of political parties do not exist in Africa’s only kingdom of Mswati III of Swaziland. The fine imposed on the publisher of the Nation magazine by the Swazi High Court continues the suffocation of the Swazi press and journalists.
The US has been practicing diplocrisy in Ethiopia for the past two decades. It has propped up the regime of the late Meles Zenawi with billions of dollars of ‘development’ and ‘humanitarian’ aid while filling the stomachs of starving Ethiopians with empty words and emptier promises.
Pambazuka News 627: Thatcher and Africa, NGOs, racism and rape
Pambazuka News 627: Thatcher and Africa, NGOs, racism and rape
The overwhelming majority of non-governmental organisations do more harm than good to livelihoods and sustainable developments in Africa
Let the government of Nigeria proceed with an amnesty for Boko Haram. But it should also announce a package of compensation for individuals and organizations that suffered injustice at the hands of terror group
The struggle for freedom from colonialism in Kenya was based on the wish to recover lands that had been forcibly acquired by the colonial settlers. After independence, freedom fighters were not given back their land. It remains a crying shame
The collection of poems tells a story on many levels. It is an autobiographical account of a black child growing up within the private fostering system. But the story extends back to the lives of the poet’s African grandparents and outwards to the experiences of other immigrants to the UK
The question of rape has not received adequate attention in Nigeria. It must be emphasized that women have a right to their own bodies and sexualities
The spiritual transition of Cde Gqobose to his Creator and to the ancestors is not to be mourned, but to be celebrated with gratitude to God who lent Gqobs to this family and to South Africa and indeed, to humanity as whole
Massive human rights violations are taking place in the US and contradict American efforts to project itself as a champion of human rights, even as it subverts governments around the world, engages in high-tech terrorism and kills its own citizens
Canada seems to be a quiet and unknown imperialist state. However, it has also invaded and occupied Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia and Haiti alongside pursuing significant mining interests in a number of African countries.
Despite legislation of 2005 and 2012 to ensure the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans are upheld, the World Bank continues to systematically discriminate against Blacks in general and African Americans in particular.
Hagiographic obituaries and analysis of Margaret Thatcher in the US and UK seek to revise the reality that not only was Thatcher a divisive politician but her government laid the ideological foundation for the rampant neoliberalism alongside, racism, militarism, imperialism that exist today.
Multinational used transfer mispricing to avoid paying the government of Kenya nearly US$11 million (EUR8 million) in corporate income tax