Pambazuka News 573: Special Issue: Ending violence against women and girls in Africa
Pambazuka News 573: Special Issue: Ending violence against women and girls in Africa
The Africa UNiTE Campaign to End Violence Against Women and Girls aims to create a favorable and supportive environment for governments, in partnership with civil society experts, to be able to fulfill existing policy commitments.
It is only when women start to organise in large numbers that we become a political force, and begin to move towards the possibility of a truly democratic society in which every human being can be brave, responsible, thinking, and diligent in the struggle to live at once freely and unselfishly.
The Economic Governance documentary was produced by FEMNET with support from Trust Africa. It highlights some of the challenges African women traders experience (especially Kenya, Egypt, Zambia, Rwanda & Uganda). It also captures some the best practices that gender lobby groups or governments at regional and national levels are using to successfully mainstream gender in trade arrangements as well as the gaps that hinder mainstreaming of gender in trade agreements.
Pambazuka News 574: Crimes against humanity and the response of Pan Africanists
Pambazuka News 574: Crimes against humanity and the response of Pan Africanists
Sweden, whose citizen has been jailed by Eritrea for more than ten years without charge, has moved to block the flow of diaspora money to the isolated Red Sea nation. Its parliament, Riksdag, is preparing legislation to block a two per cent mandatory tax collected by Eritrea from its citizens living in Sweden. Sweden has been demanding that Asmara releases Eritrean-born Swedish journalist Dawit Isaak who has been in jail since 2001 for being critical of President Isaias Afewerki's government.
In 2009, 37 poor families won the right to receive permanent houses in terms of an order issued by the Durban High Court. The families must now return to court to force the eThekwini Municipality to obey the order. The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) and Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM) are suing the Mayor of eThekwini on behalf the families, who now live in the Richmond Farm Transit Camp near KwaMashu, Durban.
Brazil is supporting the controversial UNESCO-Obiang prize in an attempt to improve relations with President Obiang, but this puts Brazil's own international reputation at stake. Brazil is showing questionable judgment by actively supporting the UNESCO-Obiang prize in an apparent effort to strengthen its relations with the regime of President Obiang, which has accumulated a long list of human rights violations in the course of its 32 years in power, says this article on the EG Justice website.
With 8 March being International Women's Day, March 8 is International Women’s Day, Farm Radio Weekly has stories about four remarkable women. The first story comes from Congo-Brazzaville and follows the achievements of Ms. Yvonne Nsayi. In an isolated village, Ms. Nsayi responded to the need for fresh bread by re-opening a local bakery and turning it into a roaring success. On top of that, she bakes donuts for sale, is a farmer, and a mother of four. She is described as an inspiration for both men and women.
The North Gauteng High Court is to hear an application to compel SA to abide by its legal obligations to investigate and prosecute high-level Zimbabwean officials accused of crimes against humanity. The case, which has been set down for hearing from March 26-30, is the first of its kind in SA. The court would have the opportunity to provide guidance on the scope and nature of the obligations placed on SA by signing up to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The Municipal Services Project, which explores alternatives to privatisation, has a new website which is well worth a visit. It has links to publications, blog posts and a twitter feed.
The Law Society of SA has written to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) raising a concern about South African judges serving on the bench in Swaziland, saying that the Swazi judiciary appeared to be compromising the rule of law. There is a long tradition of southern African judges, especially when retired, serving on the benches of each other’s courts, However, the Swazi judiciary has come in for increasing criticism over the past couple of years, reaching crisis point last year when Judge Thomas Masuku was fired by King Mswati on what were believed to be trumped-up charges.
Some 1,000 Chadian migrants - most of them children separated from their families - are waiting for aid in the village of N’Gbouboua in the Lac region of western Chad having fled Boko Haram-related violence in Nigeria, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). With more arriving each day - some 100 have arrived in the last 48 hours according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) - the food situation is getting desperate, say aid workers.
Thousands of people who have returned to their homes in areas close to Ndélé, in northern Central African Republic's (CAR) Bamingui-Bangoran region, after years of displacement, are living in difficult conditions as the security situation is still precarious, say officials. Between 2009 and 2011, Ndélé was the scene of fighting between government troops and various armed rebels, forcing thousands to flee.
Newly independent South Sudan has some of the highest blindness rates in the world. Endemic diseases that have been stamped out in other post-conflict countries are rife, and the only fully functioning eye centre is in the capital, Juba. 'There is only one ophthalmologist in South Sudan and that's me,' says Wani Mena, who is also the Ministry of Health's representative for eye care and head of the country's main hospital. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends one ophthalmologist for every 400,000 people, while South Sudan has one for more than nine million people.
A fire that killed two workers and destroyed a gas exploration rig off Nigeria's south-east coast has gone out after 46 days, Chevron has said. Friends of the Earth, which said this was the world's worst such accident in recent years, welcomed the news. The environmental group has urged Chevron to compensate local Nigerian fishermen for income lost while the fire burned.
Pa Sando, the town chief of Konja, in Grand Cape Mount county in Liberia, looks out across the farmland. 'I used to pick cocoa on this farm for more than 30 years. My grandfather planted it for us,' he says. 'All this area here was mine, and now it's all gone.' The land has been leased by Sime Darby Plantation (Liberia) Inc, owned by the Malaysian-based multinational Sime Darby, to grow trees for palm oil. Sando said he was never asked whether he wanted to give up his land – only that he saw the bulldozers in the bush and then his land was taken.
Public universities in Kenya have become ethnic bastions, reveals a report by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission presented to Parliament on Tuesday. The Big Five ethnic groups in Kenya dominate the work forces of the centres of higher education, the report shows. Although the Kikuyu, Luhya, Kalenjin, Luo and Kamba, make up 66 per cent of the country’s population, they take up 93 per cent of the jobs at Masinde Muliro University, 89.8 per cent at Moi University, 87.3 per cent at Egerton University, 86 per cent at Jomo Kenyatta University, 82.3 per cent at the University of Nairobi and 81.7 per cent at Kenyatta University.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party has accused South Africa of gross interference in the country’s internal affairs. This comes after President Jacob Zuma’s government insisted that its troubled neighbour must institute serious reforms before holding fresh elections. South Africa’s Foreign Affairs minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, told her country’s parliament on Monday that 'our government expects that there would be no deviation from the provisions' of Zimbabwe’s power-sharing agreement. A member of Zanu PF’s top decision-making body, the politburo, Jonathan Moyo, said Nkoana-Mashabane had no mandate to comment on political developments in Zimbabwe.
The Council of Canadians, Food and Water Watch, and Focus on the Global South invite you to virtually Occupy the World Water Forum – a corporate trade show aimed at giving the world’s largest water multinationals privileged access to high-level policy making behind closed doors. Many social justice and environmental groups will be in Marseille to denounce the World Water Forum and promote an alternative vision at the Forum Alternatif Mondial de l’Eau (FAME). You can support our protests virtually from anywhere in the world by occupying the World Water Forum online.
Seven Gambian opposition parties have asked the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to create a level playing field for the 29 March 2012 National Assembly election. The opposition is also urging the IEC to postpone the election for a meeting between them to discuss how to put the right conditions in place for a genuine vote. The demand follows a series meetings of the opposition parties which cited the preamble of the 1997 Constitution that guarantees participatory democracy reflecting the undiluted choice of the people.
Tanzania’s Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda has warned medical doctors in public hospitals to refrain from a nationwide strike saying the government could react with very drastic measures against them. 'At present, we see no reason to apply the force of law. We are trying to do what is humanly possible with a patriotic sense in order to avert a disaster that could affect poor patients whose lives are in the hands of medical staff,' Pinda said at a press conference he called to address the issue.
Following the killing of yet another Somali journalist, Ali Ahmed Abdi, the global media rights body - International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) - on Monday expressed 'total dismay over the serial killing of Journalists' in Somalia, PANA reports. The latest killing followed the 'brutal murder' of another Somali media executive, Abukar Hassan Mahamoud, barely a week ago. According to IFJ, three Somali journalists have been killed since the start of this year and Abdi becomes the 30th journalist murdered in Somalia since 2007.
Nigerian NGO Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a request before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Arusha, Tanzania, asking the court to 'consider the effects of corruption on the poverty level in Nigeria, and whether rising and systemic poverty violates specific human rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.' According to a statement made available to PANA in Lagos on Sunday, the organization told the court that Nigeria has ratified both the African Charter and the African Court Protocol.
The ANC Youth League will want 'radical change' even without its president, leader of the league Julius Malema told radio station Metro FM in an interview on Monday night. Malema was expelled from the ANC last week for bringing the party into disrepute and sowing division in its ranks. 'I've not stabbed a person. I've not been charged with rape. I've not been charged for corruption. I've not been charged for organising factional meetings, and benefiting my own family. I'm not charged about those things. I'm charged about what has been written in the resolutions of the youth league.' Malema added the new league president would have to continue with the resolutions already adopted.
The United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) must be reformed, according to an ANC discussion document on international relations. 'The current global governance regimes remain untransformed and ill-prepared to respond to the systemic challenges that are arising,' the ANC said in new policy papers.
Angola's attorney general has summoned witnesses to testify in a case that implicates some of the top figures in the country's military and security establishment in acts of torture and murder in the diamond fields of north-eastern Angola. The witnesses' hearings will start on 5 March in Luanda. Respondents in the case include General Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias "Kopelipa", Minister of State and head of the Military Bureau in the Angolan presidency, as well as a close confidante and business associate of President José Eduardo dos Santos. The case was brought before the attorney general, on 14 November 2011, by Angolan human rights activist Rafael Marques de Morais, who has been investigating rights abuses connected with the diamond industry since 2004.
At least 77 people in southeastern Africa have been killed and more are still missing as Tropical Cyclone Irina sweeps through the region. The storm struck northern Madagascar more than two weeks ago and has slowly tracked down the west of the country. Torrential rain from the system hit the whole of the island, leading to the deaths of 65 people, weather officials said on Monday. The majority of the deaths occurred in the southeastern district of Ifanadiana. The storm has also affected southern areas of Mozambique and eastern South Africa.
Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika has told foreign donors to 'go to hell', accusing them of plotting with local groups to topple his government. The UK and other donors cut aid to Malawi in 2010, criticising its economic policies. Mutharika said he has intelligence reports that some Western donor nations were working with local non-governmental groups (NGOs) to hold street demonstrations and vigils against his rule.
Zambia environment authorities on Saturday closed a copper mining plant operated by the Mopani Copper Mine company after health complaints from local residents continued to drag the mine. The move was seen by locals as an attempt to crackdown on poor conditions at mines across the country and comes after environmental activists called on the government to enhance oversight on mining operations in the country. The plant, which is controlled by Swiss commodity trader Glencore AG, was placed under the spotlight for its pollution levels.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has condemned an International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued for his defence minister. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Defence Minister Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein as part of an investigation into atrocities in Darfur. Hussein is the latest of several senior officials in Sudan to be indicted by the court in The Hague, which is also seeking the arrest of Bashir on charges of orchestrating genocide.
Eldoret North MP William Ruto has agreed to give up a 100-acre piece of land he is accused of grabbing from an internally displaced person. Ruto has offered to leave the land belonging to Mr Adrian Gilbert Muteshi, who was displaced during the 2008 post-election violence, by April 10. In a concession filed in court on Monday, the Eldoret North MP said that he required two months to remove his properties including fences and hedges from the land.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says its African science programme may be spared in budget cuts brought on by the organisation’s current financial problems. UNESCO cut its science budget by 31 per cent last December owing to a shortfall in funding, which was a result of the United States freezing its contributions to contest a vote to admit Palestine as a member.
Over the last seven years Karuturi Global has acquired rights to 311,700 hectares of land in Gambela and Bako region in Ethiopia for the purpose of agricultural development. But Karuturi’s practices in Ethiopia has also attracted less welcome attention from human rights activists. Investigators from New York-based Human Rights Watch paid a visit to a Karuturi lease area in Gambela in May 2011 where they found that maize, sorghum, and groundnut crops planted by local Anuak farmers had been cleared without consent and residents moved off their land.
South Africa is sneaking E2.4 billion (US$320 million) to Swaziland to help it shore up its ailing economy so that the undemocratic kingdom does not have to instigate political reforms, a Swazi campaigning group claimed. The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) says the loan money is being channelled into Swaziland disguised as cash from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). This way Swaziland gets the money without reforms by King Mswati.
A section of an Egyptian pipeline supplying gas to Israel and Jordan has been blown up in the thirteenth attack on the energy link since January 2011. According to witnesses, the attack on the gas pipeline, which crosses the Sinai Peninsula, occurred on Monday in the Massaeed area west of the Mediterranean coastal town of al-Arish in the northern Sinai.
Kenyan fighter jets have stricken several targets in the southern Somali town of Diff, raising fears of potential casualties, Press TV reports. A Diff resident told Press TV that four warplanes launched raids on Monday 5 March and bombarded training camps of Somali militant group, Al-Shabab in Diff, about 20 km from the border.
On the first anniversary of the dissolution of the State Security Investigation Apparatus, the April 6th Youth Movement (the Democratic Front in Alexandria), issued a statement declaring that they do not see a big difference between the state security apparatus during the regime of Mubarak and the National Security Agency, which is marred by the same shameful practices and the same violations of human rights and suppression of freedoms of activists and revolutionaries and human rights organizations and contributed to the worsening state of security chaos taking place in the country.
Both the troops loyal to the former ruler Muammar Gaddafi and the forces that fought to oust him committed crimes against humanity and war crimes, reports the United Nations-mandated commission of inquiry that probed human rights abuses in Libya. A summary of the findings of the International Commission of Inquiry on Libya says: 'Acts of murder, enforced disappearance and torture were perpetrated within the context of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.'
Pambazuka News 572: Calls for freedom and the drums of war
Pambazuka News 572: Calls for freedom and the drums of war
The Africa Today broadcast for 27 February has interviews with Dr. Nia Imara and Pierre Labossiere of Haiti Action Committee for an update on Haiti eight years after the coup and talks with Nehanda Imara of Communities for a Better Environment on a series of community classes on urban agriculture, the environment, and health.
'Troubled Waters: How Mine Waste Dumping is Poisoning Our Ocean, Rivers, and Lakes' is a new investigative report from Earthworks and MiningWatch Canada that documents how mining companies are using the world's waterways as dumping grounds for their toxic mine wastes. These mine wastes, or tailings, can contain up to three dozen dangerous chemicals, including arsenic, lead, mercury, and cyanide. Each year, mining companies dump over 180 million tonnes of these hazardous mine wastes into rivers, oceans, and lakes
Africa has been the world’s fastest growing region over the last decade in terms of mobile penetration. While fixed line penetration has stagnated at four per cent in the continent, mobile has grown at an astonishing rate to 45 per cent with North Africa leading at 73 per cent. However broadband is lagging behind considerably when compared to other continents.
Namibia’s indigenous Himba and Zemba people of Kaokoland in the far north-west of the country, long thought to be voiceless, isolated and marginalized, are demanding that the Namibian government ends forced land grabbing, halts plans for the Orokawe Dam in the Kunene region, stops interfering in ancestral tribal institutions, provides culturally sensitive schools and allows them to move freely across the border with Angola.
In this article, Leonidas Oikonomakis draws parallels between Greece's economic crisis and the statements of the late Thomas Sankara, who was president of Burkina Faso. Sankara knew all too well that he could not stand alone in his resistance to paying foreign debt and so he pleaded with the other African heads of state to follow his example. In protests against austerity measures in Greece, there are echoes of Sankara's statements.
Every year on 8th March the world celebrates International Women’s Day. This year, celebrate International Women’s Day with the African Women's Development Fund (AWDF) and our partner, Alliance Francaise (Ghana).
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Bikini, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and now Fukushima. Human life cannot co-exist with nuclear power. The best way to prevent more nuclear disasters is to finally put an end to nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Visit this page to find out more.
Although Al-Shabab insurgents announced their withdrawal from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in August 2011, insecurity in the city has continued, as evidenced by the targeted killing of a journalist and a bomb blast in the past week. Abukar Hassan Kadaf, the director of the private Somaliweyn Radio station, was 'killed in front of his home at around Magrib time [sunset prayer, 3pm GMT] on 28 February', according to Ahmed Mahamud, a journalist in Mogadishu. 'Security will not be achieved in government-controlled areas until those who are responsible for attacks on media workers and activists are held to account,' said Michelle Kagari, deputy director for Amnesty International's Africa programme.
Hundreds of families forced from their homes in the 1990s, as well as former refugees, who are living in informal settlements on the outskirts of Bujumbura, the capital, are seeking a lasting shelter alternative to cramped temporary sites. Families were supposed to have been resettled at the Maramvya area in Bujumbura Rural's Mutimbuzi commune, in 2011, where each household would have been allocated a 270 sqm plot. But there have been challenges to the resettlement, according to officials.
With nearly 20,000 Malian refugees now in Burkina Faso, according to Burkina Minister of Communications Alain Traore, and up to 800 more crossing the border each day, the government says it urgently needs more help. The most urgent need is for 'shelter, food and medicine' in the country’s northern Sahel Region, said Denis Ouedraogo, coordinator of the National Commission for Refugees.
Can institutional philanthropy - foundations established by the very wealthy and capitalized by investments in the stock market, hedge funds, and offshore investments - support a movement that challenges the very capitalist economic system that sustains it?
More than 200 people have been killed in a series of explosions triggered by fire at a munitions depot in the Republic of Congo's capital Brazzaville, according to a senior official in the presidency, citing hospital sources. Charles Zacharie Boawo, the defence minister, appeared on national television to urge calm in Brazzaville. 'The explosions that you have heard don't mean there is a war or a coup d'etat,' he said.
An al-Qaeda splinter group has said it carried out a suicide attack on a paramilitary police base in southern Algeria which left 24 people wounded. 'We inform you that we are behind the explosion that occurred this morning at Tamanrasset,' the group told the AFP news agency on Saturday. The statement, sent just hours after the attack, was signed by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA).
A group fighting for a greater share of Nigeria's oil wealth in the country's delta region has claimed responsibility for killing four police officers this week. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in an email it sent to reporters on Friday that it shot the four police officers who were on a boat patrolling the Nembe river in Bayelsa state.
In the context of its president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, stepping down, Yemeni blogger Noon Arabia writes that many analysts agree that the US policy in Yemen has predominantly been viewed from the terrorism prism, but one doesn't need to be an expert to notice that it has not been successful so far and has in fact backfired on the US. The use of drones on Yemeni soil to kill 'suspected' al Qaeda leaders, the unjustified killing of a teenager and many other innocent civilians commonly referred to as 'collateral damage' and the illegal detention of a journalist, has fostered more animosity towards the US.
Mozambique’s Finance Minister plans this year to increase State revenues in order to overcome the growing lack of funding from abroad, Minister Manuel Chang said. 'With that increase in revenue the aim is to establish conditions needed to reduce the budget deficit, increasing the contribution of domestic resources within the State Budget,' the Finance Minister said at the 19th National Public Spending Seminar.
The Arab Spring uprisings last year brought no increase in the number of women in the region's parliaments, a UN report said Friday. At the end of 2011, women accounted for only 10.7 percent of lawmakers in Arab states, barely the same number as before the protests which brought down leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.
On 24 February, at the same time as a British government backed meeting on the fate of Somalia was held, another conference conference was held under the sponsorship of the 'Friends of Syria' grouping. 'This initiative grew out of the failure of the US and other imperialist states to get the UN Security Council endorsement for a war against Syria,' says this article from Worker's World, which draws a parallel between the two meetings.
A total of 27 people have died as a result of a cholera outbreak, the Health Ministry in Sierra Leone has declared. Over 1,000 cases have been recorded in three districts in the northern region of the country - Port Loko, Kambia and Pujenhun. Health ministry officials confirmed that those who have contracted the disease did so from drinking contaminated water.
The ANC released its policy discussion documents in Johannesburg on Monday, saying it would take the country into its 'second transition'. Land reform and adjustments to 'elements of the Constitution' were two of the discussion points mentioned. 'The recommendation in this document expresses the view that the current willing-buyer, willing-seller model tends to distort the land market through inflating the prices of land earmarked for restitution, and this has the dual effect of making land reform expensive and delays the process of increasing access of the poor to land.'
White jelly forming on the top of boiled water, sickness due to the water, land stained black. This Mail and Guardian reports on the devastating effects of acid mine drainage on the town of Carolina and how the town's residents are suffering because of a polluted water supply.
Cosatu is expecting a massive turnout for its national strike on Wednesday, and even hopes organisations outside of its network may spontaneously join in - but the union group has been wary of talking numbers, saying the dual nature of Wednesday's action makes turnout even more unpredictable than is usual in such actions. Based on discussions around labour broking within Nedlac, however, it said it believes unions not aligned with it may join in, as might taxpayer groups concerned about road tolls.
In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...
The new Egypt seems a lot like the old Egypt, especially in terms of its continued control of Nile River water. Last year, the interim Egyptian government said it would oppose an Ethiopian plan to erect a damn along its territory’s Nile water. Egypt claims it cannot give up their share of water, as it could lead to water shortages in the future. But millions of Egyptians suffer from water shortages on a daily basis. Today. Adel Mohamed, blames shortages on new upscale developments being erected for Egypt’s wealthiest people, reports
Soldiers fired a 21-gun salute at the funeral of Odumegwu Ojukwu Thursday as Nigerian leaders paid final respects to the man whose 1967 declaration of Biafran independence sparked a civil war. Forty-five years after he tried to split Nigeria asunder by proclaiming the Republic of Biafra, Ojukwu's coffin was draped in the national colours of white and green at the funeral service in the city of Enugu, attended by thousands.
Senegal opposition candidate Macky Sall has won a major boost in his bid to oust President Abdoulaye Wade in a run-off vote, securing the endorsement of the man who came third in the first round. The west African nation's main opposition movement has also called on its supporters and other failed candidates to rally behind Sall, who will challenge the 85-year-old Wade in the second round election on March 18 or 25. Wade, who has been in power for 12 years, garnered 34.8 per cent of the vote in the first round, but fell humiliatingly short of the majority needed to avoid a run-off.
Nearly one-year on since Samira Ibrahim was subjected to a 'virginity test' by Egypt’s military junta, she returns to court hoping it will see the end to the legal battle. Ibrahim said she is pushing forward 'so no other girls are subjected to this kind of torture and violence in Egypt'.
Liberia’s former football star-turned politician, George Weah, has been reinstalled as the leader of Liberia’s main opposition party, Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) following the expulsion of presidential candidate Winston Tubman. The party has been in crisis since the ruling Unity Party of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf defeated it during the presidential elections last year, making it the second defeat in a row. A statement by the party aid Mr Tubman was relieved of the position as a result of nepotism, corruption, lack of accountability and transparency, and unethical behaviour.
The Botswana Government has snubbed Swaziland’s People’s United Democratic (Pudemo) calls for Swazi MPs to be barred from participating in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum and Pan-African Parliament. Pudemo, Swaziland’s largest opposition, has heightened its campaign against King Mswati III’s reign. The socialist party has been pushing for political and economic reform in Africa’s last standing monarchy. But Botswana’s minister of Foreign Affairs Phandu Skelemani said the government would not interfere with Swaziland’s sovereignty.
Submissions are invited from researchers, activists, academics, and development practitioners. Young professionals from Africa and the Diaspora are particularly encouraged to submit papers that advance new perspectives and approaches.
The Radical History Review seeks submissions for an issue on the global politics of the anti-apartheid movement, 1946-1994. The time frame underlines our sense of the global significance of what we call the Anti-apartheid Era, inaugurated by the postwar United Nations Debates on discrimination suffered by Indians in South Africa and culminating in the post-Cold War transition to democracy in South Africa during the 1990s. As we see it, this anti-apartheid era encompasses the evolution of the United Nations, decolonization, the Cold War, the founding of the non-aligned movement at Bandung, the rise [and fall] of Third World solidarity structures, the US Civil Rights Movements, Left-Leaning Revolutions, human rights politics, upheavals of the global Sixties, and the onset of neoliberal globalization and offers new ways of connecting and contextualizing these various developments.
I come and sit here as often as I can. Beside the lake, under my favourite fig tree. To relax, to contemplate. Or if I have a problem, it is a perfect place to search for solution.
Some call it Nyanza,
Outsider named it Victoria.
We know it as Nnalubaale -
We of Buganda.
I prefer to come at evening time, when the lake is quieter - momentary visits of silence. Enraptured always; by the orange of sunset - the canvas of the Creator.
In my sweet reverie,
It's splendour of colour.
Of the yellow-backed weaver,
The paradise flycatcher.
The kingfisher on the branch, dreaming of barbs and dragonfly. The shy situanga, amongst the reeds; one of the most beautiful of antelopes.
Fisherman on the lake,
Fish eagle above me.
Blessed by panorama,
A cinema called Rift Valley.
There's no place I'd rather be than here. To see a Goliath Heron, prominent on his throne. The spotted-necked otter; the swimming supremo, a connoisseur of crustaceans.
Being a farmer,
This water's everything to me.
The source of my health,
The gift of fertility.
So I think of Katonda, the Creator. And of Mukasa, guardian spirit of the lake. I thank and praise them, for what they continue to give me.
I go to Bubembe Isle,
The shrine of Mukasa.
To say thank you for banana,
For sugar cane and cassava.
I speak through a priest or priestess, who we have titled mandwa. They are members of the Njovu clan, whose totem is the elephant.
I give thanks for nile perch,
And also tilapia.
For the white-sand beach,
And the woodland savanna.
This shrine we call ekiggwa. The residence of the sacred drums. A place of pilgrimage, it's balm of beauty.
The stork and the ibis,
Buffalo and crocodile.
I have a little time now,
So I think I'll sit awhile.
These moments are very precious to me. And when I leave, I feel refreshed, renewed. Walking home, smiling at the thought, of bouncing around with my son.
Whether from Uganda, Tanzania or Kenya; we the people of the lake, are blessed by what Katonda has given us, guarded over by Mukasa.
© Natty Mark Samuels, 2012.
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A leading member of Kenya Indymedia - whose motto was that 'we are servants of the community' - has been gunned down.
Herbert Ekwe Ekwe continues to disseminate his tenaciously held views about what many of us call the Biafran War of the late 1960s. It's important for Pamabazuka readers to know that much of his argument is challenged by most detached students of that terrible war. I hope others will jump into this debate to take on Mr. Ekwe in detail, so let me make only a few points here.
It is regrettable that Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe seems to have become the sole commentator on the appalling pogroms of 1966 and the civil war in Nigeria between 1967 and 1970. He is right that those directly responsible for the series of pogroms against Igbos, or for war crimes, have never been held to account and that Nigerians have not yet come to terms with the history of these events and of the war itself.
I read Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe's essay in your Issue 571 with dismay. It would be hard to exaggerate the horrors of the Biafran War, but Mr. Ekwe-Ekwe does an excellent job of it.
The Obama administration has been complicit in the support for the expansionist policies of Israel. In this current economic and financial crisis a war with Iran will not only be about Iran: It will have global implications.
Two weeks ago the Institute for Race Relations published a letter from Yorshire academics protesting that a contract for housing asylum seekers had been awarded to G4S. The company responded to its critics and in reponse to this, the group have released a further letter. 'We sent our original letter because of sheer outrage that a vast private sector security company feared and distrusted by asylum seekers should be considered as suitable to manage asylum seeker housing. We could see immediately that such a contract would mean up to 900 asylum seekers in Yorkshire facing eviction and displacement over the next few months.'
On the 23 May 2011, 14 men were abducted from their cells by military police at the central prison in Nouakchott, the capital city of Mauritania. All of them were convicted on charges related to terrorism and at least six of the men were tortured while in police custody before their abduction. None of them have been seen or heard from since; no one but their captors knows if they are dead or alive. If they are alive, there are major concerns for their safety.
The Nigerian constitution and laws disadvantage the poor in terms of setting up their own parties to champion issues that are of interest to them. Any talk of electoral reform that does not address this matter will still leave the country’s politics firmly in the hands of the capitalist class.
While genuine historic commitment to transformation and upliftment by South Africa, and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in particular, went 'without saying', it was not clear that the country remained on the path to 'achieving the vision for which so many struggled', said Archbishop Thabo Makgoba.vSpeaking at his inauguration as UWC Chancellor, Makgoba said the fact that economic disparities in South Africa 'remain vast, and are even growing', was 'truly immoral' and a 'scandal'.
At least five Somali-owned shops in Khayelitsha were forced to close recently as the Zanokhanyo Business Association enforced a 2008 agreement that no new foreign-owned shops should operate in the township following the May 2008 xenophobic attacks. The two Somali-owned shops in Harare that stayed open were looted. David Mohamed, owner of Brothers shop in Harare, said he lost all his stock to the thieves.
How it is that a man who gave so much to his people's quest for dignity has become a mere footnote in the contemporary narrative of the liberation struggle?
The World Development Movement has warned that the UK’s new drive to provide aid to Somalia is looking like a ‘cynical’ attempt to grab its oil, rather than being aimed at ensuring a better future for people in one of the world’s poorest countries. A report in the Observer newspaper on Sunday revealed that UK officials have been engaged in secret negotiations with Somali leaders to secure access to the country’s immense oil reserves. The revelation came after the UK announced a large aid package for Somalia, and David Cameron hosted a conference in London last week on the development of the war torn state.
Amidst all the wars, violence, natural catastrophes and personal tragedies that we are surrounded with, pluralistic notions of identity founded on a harmonious blend of universal values with local diversity hold out hopes of a better world.
Insecurity in the north of Central African Republic (CAR) has caused thousands of people to flee their homes. 'Villages have been violently destroyed and looted, including some health centers,' says Pablo Marco, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in CAR. Since the end of January, fighting around Gondava and Ouandago, along the border with Chad, has brought instability to the region. The Chadian rebel group, the Popular Front for Recovery (FPR) is fighting against Chadian and Central African forces. Some 3,000 displaced people have arrived in the villages of Farazala, Ouandago, and Nana-Outa, in addition to the 3,000 people already sheltering in Kabo.
'This joint submission examines the gendered aspects of sexual violence in correctional centres, how rape shapes offenders understandings of gender and sexuality, and how it fuels a cycle of violence both in and out of prisons. We also underscore the connection between HIV and sexual violence in prisons, and highlight the specific needs of male survivors of sexual assault, who are largely invisible in our society.'
Uganda is to set up a new camp to cope with a influx of refugees from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the government has said. At least 100 people a day are now crossing the border to escape an upsurge in violence, Uganda's refugee minister told the BBC. Women said they had been raped by armed militias, who broke into their homes at night and stole food and property. Up to 3,000 people have fled since DR Congo's chaotic elections in November.
Côte d’Ivoire’s national commission of inquiry investigating the 2010-2011 post-election violence should extend its mandate by six months to August 2012, Human Rights Watch said. The extension would better ensure an impartial and comprehensive investigation into crimes committed by all sides, Human Rights Watch said. In meetings with Human Rights Watch, Ivorian civil society representatives, United Nations officials, and diplomats highlighted serious problems with the commission. They cited its failure to include representation from pro-Gbagbo groups and to consult sufficiently with civil society, and said the commission appears to have rushed its work.
Laws of the world never liberated anybody, say Mbuyiseni Ndlozis in a speech during Israel Apartheid week. Governments are not going to listen to the law, nor will companies. We need to break the silence on Palestine in the interests of freedom, justice and equality. Debates about whether Israel is apartheid or not miss the point. It is a system of separateness at the expense of the people of Palestine who are not even allowed to return home. It is a system enough to makes us angry, it is a violation of fundamental values of freedom, justice and equality. The system offends our values. We have to drink from the cup of freedom and have to courage to mobilise for boycotts, disinvestments and sanctions. Only our voices will make governments and companies listen.
The of the Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid newsletter produced by the Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Network is now available on their blog. The latest issue includes the following highlights:
- How to apply for asylum in Brazil
- Practice Advisory on Interim Memo regarding law students, graduates and other representatives appearing before United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
- The importance of psychosocial support in the refugee status determination process
- Asylum approval rate in Japan still shockingly low
- Changes to refugee system in Canada further undermine refugees
- Italy rebuked by European Court after deportations of Somali and Eritrean asylum seekers
- Statement on Kenyan Government plan to relocate refugees back to Somalia
Deportation news
- Syrian refugees in Europe: news from Belgium and Sweden
- Syrians in Jordan: Guests, not refugees
- Democratic Republic of Congo London embassy staff resign and claim asylum
- Open letter from Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers in Djibouti
- Letter from the Rwandan Refugee Community in Zambia to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
- Refugees in Brazil denounce ‘exploitation network’
In addition to these articles, the edition also includes: Request for Sahrawi COI expert; Publications; Country of Origin and legal news; Conferences and courses; Info links; Resources; Vacancy announcements; Announcements; and Scholarships for African Commonwealth candidates for University of Oxford part-time masters in International Human Rights Law.
Visit http://frlan.tumblr.com/ to read the edition.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Senegalese authorities to thoroughly investigate recent attacks on the media and ensure that the press is able report freely on the country's presidential election results and potential run-off. In a statement, the media rights group said it had documented at least 12 incidents of threats and physical harm against journalists reporting on the campaign, Sunday's vote, and its aftermath.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has announced that it would deliver its first-ever verdict, a judgment in the war crimes trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a Congolese accused of participating in the recruitment of child soldiers. 'The verdict in the trial of Mr. Dyilo will be made in open court on 14 March. His trial started in January 2009 and the closing statements were presented by the parties and participants in August last year,' ICC said in a statement.
The government will soon table a Contract Farming Bill in parliament, seeking to enact a law to protect smallholder farmers and rural communities against exploitation by private investors. Principal Legal Officer with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security Audax Rutabanzibwa said in Dar es Salaam over the weekend that among other things, the law will clearly state the kind of crops to cultivate and nature of relationship between private investors and rural farmers.
On a recent hot Saturday afternoon, tempers flared outside a school building in the village of Madina as organizers tried to work out who could and could not attend the meeting inside between the visiting government delegation and community representatives. The meeting's agenda was clear: the activities of Sime Darby Plantation Liberia (SDLP) and their impact on the surrounding land and its inhabitants. One of the most prominent in a club of new, high-profile investors committed to long-term projects in Liberia, SDLP's future activities are meant to bring Liberia billions of dollars in revenue and some 35,000 jobs.
Nigeria has repatriated around 11,000 foreigners mainly from Niger and Chad over the past six months to curb a growing Islamist insurgency, the Immigration services said. 'The latest number of foreigners repatriated as at this morning is 11,000,' immigration services spokesman Joachim Olumba told AFP, updating an earlier figure.
Reporters Without Borders says it is disturbed by Morocco's recent newspaper censorship and attempts to suppress online free expression. Distribution of the leading Spanish daily El PaÃs was again banned on 26 February while two netizens have been given jail sentences in the past few weeks for criticizing the king on social networks.
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Over the past few years, a number of allegations of alleged brutality and the excessive use of force by the Swaziland Police have been made. In the Siteki area, these allegations have recently led to public protests and strikes. It has been reported that four residents of the area have died at the hands of the police. This piece documents testimony from witnesses, friends and family members of the four people who were killed.
Egypt's interim government will have to muster all its skills of persuasion to sell austerity measures to a country weary after a year of political and economic strife, if details emerging on Cairo's planned deal with the IMF are anything to go by. Egypt wants the $3.2 billion IMF accord to help it head off a looming crisis. But in return the IMF wants Egypt to cut its budget deficit.
Kenya needs to get to a point where intra-national identities do not threaten nationhood. It should not matter what tribe, race, religion, gender, class or age one belongs to.
cc K L
cc K LNumbers can be pretty confusing at election time.