The International Criminal Court's prosecutor linked Sudan's government to atrocities in Darfur, naming a junior minister as a war crimes suspect who helped recruit, arm and bankroll the murderous desert fighters known as the janjaweed.

ZOA is an international NGO operating in more than 10 countries worldwide. ZOA supports refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees and others affected by conflict or natural disasters. Deadline for applications is Friday 9th March 2007

The global livestock sector is socially and politically very significant, creating livelihoods for one billion of the world’s poor and accounting for 40% of agricultural gross domestic product (GDP). A report by Livestock, Environment and Development Initiative (LEAD) finds that the value of the sector is countered by an often extremely high environmental impact.

A cessation of hostilities in the 20-year civil war between the Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army has expired, with no new deal in sight. BBC reports that both sides have warned that they will retaliate if attacked.

The Zambia association for Research & Development (ZARD) has launched a new website, under its WIDNet Programme. The Women's Information for Development Network (WIDNet) is the place for information on the status of women and girls in Zambia.

Heavily armed gangs, fleeing Haiti's dangerous slums in the face of U.N. peacekeeper raids, have established new bases in provincial areas, creating panic in rural populations, officials and residents say.

Human Rights Watch has released a report - “Keep Your Head Down” Unprotected Migrants in South Africa - in which it details how South African officials involved in the arrest and deportation of undocumented migrant workers often assault and extort money from them, and commercial farmers employing them routinely violate their basic labor rights.

The generation and distribution of power (electricity) is politically and economically driven. It is also surrounded by deception and falsehoods. Tristen Taylor explains why and how.

For too long the issue of energy has been set aside, treated as if it had no influence on how South African society is shaped. And there has been a somewhat valid stereotype that within civil society, energy has been the domain of white environmentalists - aging hippies in sandals going shoo-wah over the teachings of the Dalai Lama and speaking about how we all must conserve electricity, how we all must make sacrifices, whilst black children die in shack fires caused from having to use a paraffin stove because the household electricity lifeline was used up weeks before.

The generation and distribution of power (primarily electricity) does not happen in a political vacuum; it cannot be divorced from the social and economic conditions under which most South Africans labour and starve. In fact, as I will attempt to explain, the generation and distribution of power is informed by social, economic and political realms.

The generation and distribution of energy is a murky topic. Omission, falsehood and deception surround the use of light switches, refrigerators, irrigation pumps and industrial smelters. Mis-information is pumping out faster and harder than a 'six-pack' power station spews out SO2 and CO2.

Who, then, is deceiving us? There are the usual suspects: coal mining companies, government, oil cartels, Eskom (power companies of South Africa), and other assorted free-market robber barons. There are also the traditional flag-carriers of the centrally planned economy. Then there is the environmental movement, which has traditionally refused to see beyond the forest to glimpse human misery and suffering. Without fail, the one lie that all of the above seem to propagate is that there is an energy shortage. It goes like this:

Since we can only generate x amount of power and the practical demand of each and every user is greater than x, x will have to be allocated. Of course, someone will have to make this allocation, and this someone is the state. The state, as a supposed neutral actor and invested with, to quote Max Weber, "a successful claim on monopoly of the legitimate use of force", will decide that industry will get so much power, agriculture so much, and residential users so much. The best allocation of resources will be on the basis of what is deemed in the best interest of the common good. It may be unfortunate that not all of us get the power we want, but that’s life and sacrifices have to be made.

This story is sly and deceiving. To start with, there is no energy shortage in the universe. The universe is awash with energy (all there is, after all, is energy and matter), and energy can neither be destroyed nor created. For the purposes of the human race, there is a virtual limitless amount of energy for the species to tap. And, therein lies the problem. It is not easy to convert energy into power, and part of the struggle of human history has been various attempts to tap into the energy of the universe. This has primarily been achieved through conversion of solar energy into plant and animal energy. This energy chain, like all energy chains, is never 100 per cent efficient. Each time energy is converted there is a certain amount of energy loss. Humans have then eaten plant and animal materials, converting these to human bio-chemical energy. Humans have then used that energy for labour to hunt more animals, grow more crops, build dwellings, and contest for resources - war and conflict. For most of history, the primary source of useable energy has been human muscle and intellect.

This was the case during the eras of the ancient Greek, Persian and Egyptian societies. It was certainly true during the Roman Empire. All these societies were based upon slave labour as the primary source of energy conversion. Since human beings were the most efficient sources of energy (human beings have the ability for rational thought; they can solve problems; are fairly durable; and can be taught to do things with greater efficiency than a cow or a horse), elite groups used slave labour to build, manufacture and grow the materials needed for those societies to function. The elite classes functioned as managers and grew rich from their exploitation of the labour of others.

Things began to change during the Middle Ages in Europe. During this time, while human power still remained supreme, animal power began to be used more and more frequently in agriculture; wood (plant energy) was beginning to be more and more important, especially in the production of iron and other metals; and water was used in mills for the production of flour, although, slightly later, windmills were used for this purpose. One notable consequence of this ‘new’ strategy of converting energy for human use was the complete and utter destruction of Europe’s forests. This led to what is called an energy crisis and forced European society into a potentially painful situation: find another source of power or undergo an economic collapse and a return to the dark ages. The ultimate solution was coal.

However, the most important lesson that should be learnt from this era, with regard to current energy conversion practices, was the political situation regarding water and windmills. But these two different energy sources were used in two different manners despite having the same primary technological function, grinding grain into flour (Debeir, Deléage, and Hémery). Watermills required access to flowing water and were relatively expensive to build. As the feudal structure of the day controlled access to watercourses and held a great deal of society’s capital, the aristocracy was able to own and control the watermills, thus, locking down an important part of agricultural production for its sole benefit. The peasantry had no access to the watermills, and had to compete in the processing of flour with older, less efficient methods of production. Quite clearly, we can see the link between ownership of energy conversion and socio-economic relationships. As Debeir has stated, "[water] mills were not only a good deal for some, but also tended to bolster an oppressive social structure".

Windmills were another story. Not only was wind part of the commons, and thus a renewable resource accessible to all social classes, it was cheaper to build windmills than watermills. The increasing use of windmills enabled the burghers, cities and peasantry to compete favourably in the production of flour, for which the market was growing as bread became more and more part of the general diet. Windmills also also encouraged competition with the aristocracy in the important realm of agricultural production. This began to have a significant impact in political relations, especially in the contest between free cities and feudal landowners, one of the central conflicts of the Middle Ages. Once again, Debier states:

"Thus windmills were established in the conditions of freedom that opened with the growth of cities, and established a further breach in the lords’ energy monopolies. Although feudal reaction against the new facilities persisted - "The windmill was the commoners’ mill which feudal law tried to take over" - it proved unable to stop the irresistible movement which continued until the dawn of the nineteenth century."

The dawn of the 19th century brought about a major technological, social and economic revolution: the industrial revolution. While the social, political and economic effects of the industrial revolution are well documented, the roles of new sources of energy conversion are often overlooked. Coal was at the heart of the industrial revolution. Basically, coal is plant matter that has decomposed, chemically altered, compressed and hardened over millions of years. Coal is made up of carbon, sulphur, methane, water and various other materials. Essentially, coal is the storage of chemical energy produced via long dead plant photosynthesis. Most of the coal used today was formed during the Carboniferous era (280 to 345 million years ago).

While the use of coal had been around for thousands of years, the industrial revolution mined and used coal to a degree never seen before. A new energy cycle was born with coal (and its offspring, steam), the fossil fuel cycle. Coal was used to drive steam engines, railways, furnaces (purified coal (coke) replaced wood as the primary source of heat for metallurgy), shipping and household heating. It provided such an intense and useful source of energy that the industrial revolution was entirely dependent on the mining, distribution, and burning of coal. It should come as no surprise that this valuable energy resource was not in the hands of the common people although it was they who died of Black Lung, but instead in the hands of the burgeoning, to borrow a phrase from Tom Wolfe, 'masters of the universe' - the capitalist class. While perhaps not of conscious design, there was no way that the windmill story (commoner power equivalent to that owned by the feudal lords) would be repeated with coal. Coal quickly became a privately owned commodity to be sold and traded as necessary, and fortunes were made. This, in turn, meant that the majority of the populace were precluded from control of the energy chain and that the power (both economic and political) of the newly formed capitalist class was further increased. The conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat that has consumed human history since provides the basis of entire branches of philosophy, history and political analysis.

To highlight the point, the US was built on the private use of coal. It fuelled the beginnings of an industrial expansion that has lasted until today. Corporations have their origins in the rapid industrialisation brought about through the use of coal and the blood that was shed in producing it. As The Ukrainian Weekly points out:

"In the 19th century, America's industrialisation and dramatic economic development was fuelled, literally, by coal. Coal fuelled the expansion of the railroad into America's undeveloped western states, and in Pennsylvania it fuelled the mighty American steel industry. But extracting coal was dangerous work. Illness, injury and death were common. Several hundred coal miners a year died from methane gas explosions in the mines of the Pennsylvania anthracite region - the same type of explosion that recently killed the miners in Ukraine. Annually, tens of thousands of miners were maimed."

Coal has not disappeared from society as a valuable source of energy conversion. Quite the opposite. About 40 per cent of all electricity generated globally comes from coal-fired power stations with an efficiency of between 30 to 40 per cent; i.e. of one kilogramme of coal used in a power station, 300 grams is used to produce electricity and the remaining 700 grams produces waste heat. Coal is not only an important part of our power generation system, it remains, through its method of use, an important factor in how our societies are controlled and organised. The production and distribution of electricity in South Africa will be discussed later.

While coal remains an important part of the global energy cycle, another fossil fuel has eclipsed it: petroleum or crude oil, also called black gold. Petroleum became increasingly important in terms of the global energy chain throughout the 20th century, reaching a point where our economy is based entirely upon petroleum. About 84 per cent of petroleum extracted is refined into fuels (petrol, diesel, fuel oil, jet fuel, kerosene, and liquid petroleum gas (LPG)), the other 16 per cent is used in the manufacture of material, plastic being the most common. Like coal, petroleum is a finite fossil fuel comprised of decayed organic matter. Furthermore, petroleum is a cheap and effective source of energy.

To understand the extent to which we operate within a petroleum economy, take a look around you. The paper this is written on comes from trees cut down with machinery using petroleum; the wood is transported to the mills via trucks (petroleum again), from the mills to the stores, and from the stores to your office and home. Without petroleum, modern agriculture could not exist. There would be no cars or airplanes, no computers, no modern medicine, no electricity. There would be no plastic materials. There would be no modern economy. We would all be riding horses and to and from our subsistence farms. All of us who are alive now, owe that to the 20th century growth in population made possible by petroleum. Quite simply, if the supply of petroleum dried up tomorrow the world would enter a period of such utter economic collapse; the term 'apocalypse' could be considered an understatement. Many of us would starve to death within weeks.

The petroleum industry is vital to the life of every human being in the modern economy, and, yet, it is a tightly controlled industry with only a handful of key players divided amongst state and private control. Of the ten biggest corporations in the world (as ranked by Fortune 500), five are oil and gas companies with a combined annual revenue of US$$ 1.271 trillion. By way of comparison, South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product is US$215.5 billion. In the global market economy, this translates into an unequal balance of political power.

Not a great deal has changed in the petroleum market since 1900 when Standard Oil controlled 50 per cent of global sales.

Further, control over petroleum resources is vital not only for what is often termed the 'national interest', which actually means the interests of a thin elite class controlling any particular country, but for a country’s economic well-being. Anyone who thinks that America’s current military operations in the Middle East have nothing to with securing America’s long-term supply of petroleum is insane. A recent article in the (UK) Independent on a proposed law to allow multinational companies to drill Iraqi oil states:

"The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude oil, and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972."

Globally speaking, the energy cycle of modern life is dependent on petroleum, natural gas and coal. The global economy is a fossil fuel economy chasing after diminishing reserves with no alternative in mind. The control of this energy cycle is centralised in the hands of the few, with the majority of the world population reduced to mere consumers of energy, at best. Today, there are watermills everywhere and not a windmill in sight.

Part 2 will be published next week and Part 3 on 5th April

* Tristen Taylor is the Energy Policy Officer at Earthlife Africa Jhb. The views expressed in this work are not necessarily those of Earthlife Africa Jhb.

* Please send comments to or comment online at pambazuka.org

South Africa is joining countries such as Brazil, India and Uganda in implementing open-source software in all government departments -- and getting rid of widely used Microsoft Windows desktop programmes that come with expensive licences.

Kwame Nkrumah: From pan-African visionary to one-party state dictator? Peluola Adewale looks back on the legacy of one of Africa's most famous political leaders.

The independence of Ghana on 6 March 1957 was a watershed in the history of Africa, being the first in black Africa. It was a catalyst in the struggle for liberation from colonial rule on the continent. For the African masses one man's stood out, Kwame Nkrumah. Inspired by the independence of India from Britain in 1947, he saw the possibility of defeating imperial Britain with coordinated and consistent political struggle. He thus became a quintessential anti-colonialist. His return to Ghana and formation of the anti-colonialist Convention Peoples Party (CPP) gave radical impulse to the independence struggle and set the stage for the exit of the British colonialists.

Unlike the current generation of African leaders who are mostly only satisfied with earning foreign exchange from the sales of natural resources and self-enrichment, Nkrumah was genuinely committed to using the resources of Ghana for industrial development and economic growth. Ghana was rich in bauxite which could be used to manufacture aluminum, even for exports if there were a reliable power supply. This together with the need to produce electricity for industrialisation informed the Volta Dam project. The project was only half-succeeded, but nobody could reasonably doubt the positive intention behind it.

Nkrumah openly asserted that capitalism was too complicated to achieve the goals of development. But beyond the rhetoric of anti-capitalism and scientific socialism in his celebrated speeches and writings, he never truly cut links with capitalism and imperialism. His socialism was based on the Stalinist Soviet Union model and a utopian African version. This was the undoing that made it impossible to achieve his lofty goals. For instance, his government relied on a bureaucratically run marketing board - a colonial invention - to mobilise the required resources from the sales of cocoa, the country's economic mainstay. This created a more enabling avenue for official corruption than the provision of basic needs and infrastructure development that it was originally designed to achieve.

Nkrumah set up state owned companies and public utilities, apparently to provide some basic needs for the people. But lack of democratic management and control of the companies by the workers themselves bred crippling mismanagement and corruption. They did not only fail to largely achieve their objectives, they became a curse rather than a blessing. Since Nkrumah could only use the revenue from cocoa to bail out public companies, he had to sacrifice poor farmers. The government, through the market boards, reduced the price paid to farmers for cocoa in order to raise more revenue. This was at a period when there was an increase in the price of cocoa on the world market, and farmers expected fortunes. They were thus highly disappointed and demoralised. This culminated in a series of events that made Ghana lose its place as the world's largest producer of cocoa.

The economic downturn created a social crisis that made the government of the self-styled Osagyefo ('the Redeemer') - the once hope of Ghana and beacon of Africa - unpopular. The government's response to the various worker agitations worsened the situation. Rather than mobilising workers and the poor to break completely with capitalism, Nkrumah became dictatorial and took draconian measures against the widespread protest and disaffection to his government. Unfortunately, Nkrumah who had once proclaimed during the anti-colonial struggle, 'if we get self-government, we will transform the Gold Coast (Ghana) into a paradise in 10 years', almost turned the country into hell for workers and opposition alike. He declared strike actions by workers to be illegal, arrested and detained opposition without trial, and declared Ghana a one-party state with him as life president.

There remains no doubt that Kwame Nkrumah was one of the greatest African nationalist leaders. The military coup in 1966 that dethroned him, provided him the opportunity to give more speeches and writings on Africa's development. He was a pan-Africanist, par excellence, with a radical and socialist flavour. However, Nkrumah was not a fully rounded Marxist. This limitation largely contributed to his inability to actualise his objectives and goals.

Their limitations notwithstanding, Nkrumah and his kindred spirits still tower above the current generation of African leaders who have rolled back, the gains of the 1960s that saw massive investment of public resources in developmental projects. The rapacious colonialists refused to develop the continent despite sitting on its fabulous wealth. They only provided infrastructure that would aid exploitation of the resources of the continent. This placed enormous responsibility on the new African leaders after the independence to begin the process of necessary development and develop a welfare state. The idea of a welfare state, built on the Keynesian theory of state interventionism in the economy was fashionable globally in the period after the independence.

In the present era of neo-liberalism the current corrupt leaders of Africa have embarked on the shameless sale of the patrimony of their nations, built with public resources, to the rapacious capitalists locally and internationally. The new set of African leaders has bastardised the original idea of African solidarity, championed by Nkrumah and others. They have come up with initiatives such as the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD) designed to rely on the exploitation of Africa's resources in the service of the West, and the anti-poor neo-liberal economy, as vehicles for development. With this vicious, anti-poor, pro-capitalism, it is no surprise that the idea of Nkrumahism, despite its limitation, has remained alluring to many individuals, genuinely interested in the development of Africa.

It is possible to state that the shortcoming of an Nkrumahist welfare state was not due to the personal failings of Nkrumah; rather that it arose from his attempt to seek improvement and development within the confines of capitalism. Africa is the weakest link of global capitalism. Here a revolutionary movement could start, with international working class solidarity, that could defeat capitalism and imperialism.

Kwame Nkrumah in his speech, 'I Speak of Freedom: A Statement of African Ideology', spoke of economic cooperation and political union among African countries as the viable means of bringing about full and effective development of the continent's natural resources for the benefit of African people. This statement is still largely relevant today. But to be truly valid, and achieve the desired objectives, such economic cooperation and political union was intended to be built on genuine socialist programme that aimed at formation of socialist confederation, if possible, a federation of Africa in solidarity with the working class internationally. This together with discovery of the first-hand ideas of Marxism as taught by Marx, Engel, Lenin and Trotsky should be the task of workers and poor masses in Africa.

* Peluola Adewale writes for the Socialist Democracy, Lagos, Nigeria

* Please send comments to or comment online at pambazuka.org

The benefits of breastfeeding outweigh the risks of virus transmission from HIV-positive mothers to their children, according to studies conducted in four African nations.

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem returns from a weekend in Accra where they are busy preparing to celebrate 50 years of independence. For Ghana’s ruling party, the New Patriotic Party and President Kuffour, the 50th anniversary celebrations are problematic. How do they celebrate the legacy of Nkrumah and Pan-Africanism when they and their forbearers opposed him and his party, the CPP (Convention People’s Party)? Well, they do so by having the 'mother of all parties' and attempting to make political gain out of the celebrations.

Last weekend I was in Accra to participate in a symposium at the Great Halof the University of Ghana, Legon. It was organised by a coalition of Nkrumahist and other prgressive forces under the aegis of the African People’s Platform.

The choice of the dates (23-24 February 2007) for the two day workshops were not accidental. On 24 February 1966 the government of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, founder, leader of the independent state of Ghana, and trail-blazer of the anti-colonial movement and foremost Pan-Africanist leader of the mid-2oth century and probably most popular of all times, was overthrown in a military coup orchestrated by domestic reactionary forces and their imperialist backers notably the ex-colonial masters, Britain and their American cousins through the CIA. Two monographs compiled by the Socialist Forum of Ghana: 'THE GREAT DECEPTION: The role of the CIA and right wing forces in the overthrow of Nkrumah', and 'FIGHT BACK: A Response to anti-Nkrumah provocations' refreshes our memories about the local and international context of the various challenges that Nkrumah faced both in life and even in death.

Amidst the official celebratory mood, the Legon symposium sought to situate the independence struggles and Ghana’s emancipation within the context of: the ideals of the Osagyefo on Ghanaian, African and World politics; The fight for freedom, justice and the continuation of the anti-imperialist struggles today; and the struggles of ordinary peoples for a just new economic and social order. It is part of the many alternative celebrations by Ghanaians who feel marginalised by the official anniversary or are dissatisfied with the Opportunistic politics of the celebrations.

President Kuffour is generally seen as a very decent man especially outside Ghana but even many domestic opponents will give him the benefit of the doubt. However ordinary decency is not enough when it comes to state craft. For instance many Nigerians will attest to former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon’s honesty as a person and swear by his personal integrity even more than 20 years after his overthrow. But in the same breath they will condem the profligacy and crass incompetence of his administration in managing post Civil war Nigeria. There are too many uncomfortable parallels with Ghana’s Mr Nice guy President who overwhelms people with his gentlemanliness!. Politically it is too apologetic to continue to perpetrate the sophistry of ‘the good leader ... bad advisers’ about our leaders. If they are so good how come they surround themselves with ‘bad people’. They choose these advisers so they should have responsibility for accepting or not accepting their advice. The flip side of this of course is the disclaimer by many of these advisers soon after they are booted out of office or the president is shown the back door. They mostly come with claims of ‘we told him but he did not listen’. They never tell the public why they remained with a client who never follow their advice. They are all
guilty of political opportunism and that’s why they can only give excuses for their conducts but no convincing explanations.

President Kuffour and the ruling New Patriotic Party have a wider political problem about celebrating Ghana’s 5oth annivessary. They come from the anti –Nkrumahist tradition of Danquah-Busia political families. Their forebears even opposed Nkrumah and the CPP when he moved ‘THE MOTION OF DESTINY” that heralded the final exit of the British colonialists. They collaborated with imperialism to overthrow Nkrumah thereby orphaning not just Ghana but the African revolution. Ironically Kuffour’s victory is the first time that reactionary political group has ever won a democratic election (Busia’s victory was orchestrated by the military junta). The poachers of independence struggle have now become the game keepers hence their ambiguity and cheap politics about the celebrations.

They are trying to celebrate and have the mother of all parties, make enormous political, diplomatic, commercial, cultural, tourism and all kinds of gains from the land mark but are pained to acknowledge the main architect of not only Ghana’s independence but a man who represents the best in the aspirations of Africans for liberty, freedom and dignity.

It is not a dishonour to Nkrumah but a reflection of the small mindedness of Mr Kuffour’s party because for many people inside and outside Ghana the independence of Ghana was not conceivable without the courageous leadership of the Osagyefo. As Basil Davidson said of Liberation struggles in Portuguese Africa 'no hand is big enough to cover the sky'. Nkrumah does not need governments and presidents to remember him as he continues to be an inspiration for millions of Africans and freedom loving peoples across the world.

It does not mean that Nkrumah did not have his own faults as a person or a leader but he has endured because no one since after him has come near his socio-economic and political achievements for Ghana. For many decades until the latter years of Rawlings’ rule and now Ghanaians did not know power shedding as is common among their richer cousins, oil-cursed Nigeria. When Nkrumah conceived of the Akosombo and the Volta Dam projects they were not meant for Ghana alone but for the whole region. He also did not see it as merely provision of electricity but within a wider industrialisation strategy. This point was discussed in detail by Yao Graham of the Third World Network within the context of energy privatisation in Ghana and the West Coast of Africa.

At the Pan-African level we have not seen another leader who has been so inspiring in his example of complete dedication to the ideals of Pan-Africanism and a better humanity. Many pretenders have come forward and but have not had the staying power of the Osagyefo. Today many of them scramble to be friends of imperialism (now euphemistically referred to as donors, development partners, friends from abroad etc betraying their peoples, Africa and the possibilities of a better humanity at the alter personal power.

It is too petty to deny our nationalist heroes/heroines their place of honor in our history simply because our masters of today were either not born then or played no role in them or were on the opposite side of freedom or even on account of what those nationalist leaders may have become later. History is a lived experience that cannot be erased.

It is not only Kuffour and the ruling party of Ghana that are ambiguous about Nkrumah. Even the former military dictator turned reluctant democrat, Jerry John Rawlings has always been anti-Nkrumah. in typical empty populism he claimed that there was nothing to celebrate in the 5O years of Ghana's independence. He was so much in a hurry not to give any credit to Nkrumah that he even forgot that 20 of the 50 years he was rubbishing were under his misrule. Nkrumah was in power for only 10 years and yet all the other forty years combined have not equalled his record!

There are many 50th anniversaries coming up in the next few years and it would be interesting to see how the present occupants of our state lodges celebrate them . For instance how would President Museveni and the increasingly exclusionist and revisionist NRM government (if they are still in power) celebrate Uganda’s 50th anniversary in a few years time? Would they try to write Obote/UPC out it or downplay his role as the NPP is doing and not succeeding with Nkrumah? How would Guinea mark its 50th anniversary next year, with or without its dead-but-not yet buried military dictator who took over after the death of the radical Nationalist, Ahmed Sekou Toure who was a popular leader but made many mistakes too.

If current leaders are sure of their own loyalties and commitment to the cause of their peoples they will not need to be hunted by the legacy of their predecessors. So unsure of their place in history that some of them like Museveni are beginning to honor themselves with statutes completely oblivious to what happened to other self-worshipping gestures most recently Saddam’s many statutes in Iraq that were pulled down with glee once the myth of immortality with which dictators always decorate themselves.

For many years Museveni refused to allow any street to be named after him and also have his picture on the national currency like previouis leaders. But now he has started launching his own statues. May be he does not trust Ugandans to honor him after he leaves office or dies, so he is on a 'DO IT YOURSELF' narcissism. A sage once said: greatness does not abide in how many honors one has BUT IN DESERVING THEM.

Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, is Deputy Director, Africa, UN millennium Campaign and more recently General-Secretary of the Global Pan-African Movement.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

A delegation of concerned press freedom fighters flew to the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to meet the continental body's Chairperson, Alpha Oumar Konaré. Mr Konaré assured the delegation of his office's support for press freedom in the continent.

A Gambian court ordered a month's jail term for 37 Senegalese illegal migrants that had tried embarking for Spain, after they were proven guilty to the charges brought against them.

The government of Liberia revoked the operational license of "The Independent" newspaper in Monrovia for one year. The decision was announced at a press conference in Monrovia by acting Information Minister Laurence Bropleh. Minister Bropleh said the decision was in response to "The Independent's" publication of a photograph showing former Presidential Affairs Minister Willis Knuckles in a sex scene with two ladies.

For the first time during the eight-month disappearance of Chief Ebrima Manneh, a reporter of the pro-government Banjul-based newspaper "Daily Observer", the Gambia Police Force officially denied ever arresting him.

Bringing down the costs of Internet access could set off the same wave of connectivity that has made mobile phone usage commonplace in developing countries, said innovators and corporate leaders from some of the world’s leading technology firms meeting in northern California with government leaders, activists and United Nations officials.

FEATURES:
-In the 200th year since the end of slavery, Bro. K. Bangarah asks who really led the movement for abolition
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Tristen Taylor sheds some light on the politics of electricity supply in South Africa
- The faces are different, but the Nigerian elections are the same old story, says Nnimmo Bassey
- It is 50 years since Ghana's independence. Peluola Adewale appraises Nkrumahism
- John Bellamy Foster issues a warning on US militarism in Africa
LETTERS:
- Nunu Kidane: Somalia and the US peace movement
- Responses to mis-representation in Africa
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem reflects on Ghana at 50
BLOGGING AFRICA: Hotels for single women in Kenya, visas for Africans, and drying frozen fish in Nigeria
BOOKS & ARTS: Lindiwe Nkutha on Palestine and de-colonising the mind with Ngugi
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: News on a human rights book fair

CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Peace-keepers arrive in Somalia
HUMAN RIGHTS: New report on abuse of undocumented migrants in South Africa
WOMEN AND GENDER: Zimbabwean women still far from liberation
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: 25,000 refugees have returned to DRC
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Senegal opposition rejects poll results
AFRICA AND CHINA: China selling off Kenyan oil rights it got for free
DEVELOPMENT: Call to arms over Western governments’ farm subsidies
CORRUPTION: Liberian Ex-President charged with corruption
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Male circumcision and HIV: a broader analysis is required
EDUCATION: Soaring tuition fees deprive Zimbabwean youth of education
ENVIRONMENT: Niger river in intensive-care
LGBTI: Out of the closet in Nigeria
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: The unfinished business of land reform in South Africa
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: AU chief supports press freedom
NEWS FROM THE DIASPORA: Fleeing Haitian gangs set up rural bases
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: South Africa’s government goes Open-Source
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Courses, Seminars and Workshops and Jobs

* Pambazuka News now has a Del.icio.us page, where you can view the various websites that we visit to keep our fingers on the pulse of Africa! Visit

Widely reported as "the first farm expropriation", the Commission on the Restitution of Land Rights recently announced that it had expropriated a 25 200ha farm near Barkley West in the Northern Cape to settle a restitution claim by 471 families.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/broadcasts/segunafolabi.jpgSegun Afolabi, winner of the 2005 Caine Prize for African Writing, the leading literary prize for short stories from the African continent, speaks to Robtel Pailey of Pambazuka News. In the podcast, Segun, from Nigeria, reads an excerpt from his award winning short story 'Monday Morning'. He discusses the impact of winning the prize on his literary success, the situation of publishing in Africa, and the themes of migration, diaspora, memory and loss.

Segun Afolabi's winning story is available in a collection of Caine Prize entries entitled, The Obituary Tango ( , 2006). The story is reproduced in this podcast with the kind permission of Random House.

The music in this podcast is brought to you by Busi Ncube from Zimbabwe and kindly provided by Thulani Promotions.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/293/africanpainters.gif - is a blog on contemporary African art. In this post he features Ugandan artist, Eria Sane Nsubuga and his latest exhibition 'A piece of Sane art'.

'The jovial Nsubuga began commercial art in 1999 at the age of 20. Nsubuga's work isn't the abstract art that is hard to understand...' He says he's inspired by nature and human activity and most of his paintings and sculptures are of flora and fauna. 'People here want to buy art pieces that are overtly explainable. It's European customers that want the complicated art work. That's why my art is plain and simple.'

The post includes a slide show of some of Nsubuga’s works which may be plain and simple but is full of the vibrancy and colours of Africa.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/293/blackhistory4schools.gifBlack History for Schools - is yes a blog about Black History but not just for schools. It mainly focuses on black British history and the Caribbean and also has a resource section and an excellent set of links related to African and black diasporan history. For those readers in London, he alongside Dr Hakim Adi will be at the Institute of Education, discussing ways in which teachers in the UK can mainstream black and Asian history.

'Some of the areas for discussion will stimulate a lot of debate:

How are empire and the struggle for emancipation and reconciliation represented in our teaching and learning about African and Caribbean history and heritage?
What is "black and Asian history" and should it be mainstreamed?
What are the resources and politics involved in moving the subject forward?
How is the legacy of slavery implicated in contemporary constructions of British identity and citizenship?'

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Squatter City - has a report on the local 'fish smoking' industry in one of Lagos’s shanty towns, Makoko. Although Makoko is itself located in one of the many rivers that run through to the lagoons and Atlantic ocean, the fish that is being smoked is imported from Europe.

'50-year-old Ogun Dairo tells me that she's been smoking fish for better than 30 years. She purchases the fish from a local refrigerated warehouse that's also in Makoko, but on dry land. For all of the 30 years she's been in the business, she reports, the fish has been imported from Europe. She buys between five and seven large boxes of fish every day, then she smokes the catch.'

The question is: why is a local fishing community buying frozen imported fish from Europe, smoking it and in some cases exporting it back to the markets of London and other European cities for Nigerian consumers. One of the reasons is that small fisherman and women have been pushed out of business by the commercial fishing trawlers that scoop up huge quantities of sea life (for every 20 tons of fish, 1 ton is dumped dead back into the sea). Another reason is pollution of the rivers from oil from ships and tankers as well as garbage human and animal faeces and other waste that is dumped in the rivers.

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Kenyan Blogger, Thinkers Room - who blogs anonymously under the pseudonym 'M' has a hilarious post on the reported demise of one 'M' reported in a Kenyan newspaper.

'You can imagine my acute consternation! To date no one has had the decency to tell me to my face that I had been shot dead in Athi-River! So I have been happily going around my business alive and kicking!'

He goes on to report by the Kibaki government on their achievements. Under 'women empowerment' they list that women are 'guaranteed at least a third of all public employment opportunities' and that 'mothers and children are recognised as key players in development'.

So, all women and children of Kenya in case you did not know it, you are now empowered and recognised as KEY members of society! Why because Kibaki says so and if he says so then it must be true.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/293/whatanafricanwomanthinks.gifWhat An African Women Wants - posts on the pitfalls of being a single woman traveller in Kenya and trying to get a hotel.

'Eventually, after a great deal of drama which I choose not to go into here, I found myself a decent place to stay at a price I was willing to pay. But the trials of a single woman are far from over.

At the reception, as I sign in:

Guy at the reception: Will your husband be joining you?

Me: No, just me.

Guy: Oh.

Guy creases brow and thinks.

Guy: Who will be paying your bills. (seriously, he asks me this. Yes I know this is Watamum but seriously, he asks me this.)

Me: (trying to be calm. My feet are aching, the rucksack on my back feels like a sack of potatoes.) Me.

And so it continued. But all is not lost as now in 2007 women of Kenya (remember they are now empowered and a Key part of society – see above) hotels are finally beginning to take the single woman traveller seriously!

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Ethiopian blog, Lela-Tensae-ETA Moonlight - celebrates Black History month by posting some “hidden facts about African Americans” – inventors amongst the community.

'They made their way over to the car, and found that it just wouldn’t go. You see, Richard Spikes, a black man, invented the automatic gearshift and Joseph Gammel invented the supercharge system for internal combustion engines. They noticed that the few cars that were moving were running into each other and having wrecks because there were no traffic signals. You see, Garrett A. Morgan, a black man invented the traffic light.'

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Black Looks - comments on the difficultities for Africans wanting to get visas to visit the West.

'Queues! Waking up at the crack of dawn countless times, to get to the American embassy in the capital, to be subjected to hunger, to rain and wind and abusive Ghanaian security guards who can only bully to relieve their sense of powerlessness. But again, I always had at least one of my parents with me…they would miss work for this. And I didn’t have to hustle with public transport, we had a driver........I’m thinking about visas because I wanted to go to London this spring break. My friends are all jetting off to exotic places but I have to get a visa for many of these places. I let slip to my friend that I can’t go to London with her because the British require me to have a visa, although they didn’t need one when they were coming to colonize my country. She asked me if I was bitter. Ha! Do I sound bitter?'

A friend of mine from Nigeria recently visited me in Spain and had to go through a similar scenario with the addition of being told to produce photos of Granada and bring them back to the Spanish embassy on her return as if not she would never be allowed to enter Spain again – work that one out? Needless to say, she has not and will not be taking the photos to the embassy.

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, and is Online News Editor of Pambazuka News.

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at pambazuka.org

This year’s World Social Forum was held in Nairobi Kenya, the first in the African continent. Many who participated in it have written their accounts of the Forum, and the significance to the movement building towards another, a better world. What seemed to be missing from the accounts I’ve read is that while we were in Nairobi, the US bombed the East African country Somalia in what was falsely justified as a move to eradicate Al Queda operatives in the Horn of Africa.

In the many workshops dealing with peace and security held at the Forum, few raised the importance of our presence in Kenya, a country which has played a key role in providing support for US military offensive against neighboring Somalia.

The increasing US military role in Africa should be a concern to all of us and the January 23rd bombing of a defenseless people, while the Social Forum was on its 3rd day, should have raised alarm from the progressive peace movement. US military attack of Somalia should be seen parallel to US aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan.

How then to explain the silence of the US peace movement on Somalia. Perhaps US-based organisations don’t have the proper analytical framework from which to understand the significance of the Horn of Africa region. Perhaps it is because Somalia is largely seen as a country with no government and in perpetual chaos, with 'fundamental Islamic' forces not deserving of defense against the military attacks by US in search of 'terrorists'.

The US has officially made known the intention to have the largest US military presence in Africa, known as AfricCom. The rationale for this of course is to curb further spread of Islamic fundamentalists presence in Sub Sahara Africa which viewed as open ground for possible Al Queda recruitment.

US political and military alliance with Ethiopia – which openly violated international law in its aggression towards Somalia, is destabilizing the Horn region and begins a new shift in the way the US plans to have permanent and active military presence in Africa.

Four days after the bombing of Somalia, one of the largest peace protest was held in Washington DC on 27 January. Somalia remained off the agenda by the expressed intent of the organizers to keep single focus on Iraq and ‘bringing the troops home’.

Does this mean the US public only responds to messages of peace as narrowly defined as securing the safety of US military personnel in Iraq? Visions of the global peace movement cannot be limited the interests and concerns for particular geographic areas and people. What drove hundreds of thousands out to the Washington DC protest in the friging cold weather is beyond self-interest and the concern for all lives, Iraqi, American, Afghani and Somali !

Somalia goes to the relevance (or irrelevance?) of Africa in US history; lack of proper framework from which to understand current political events in the continent and ways of engaging the general public.

It is bad enough that the Washington Consensus views Africa through the lens of national security concerns, or as a source of oil and other minerals. The peace movement, which speaks for all peace-loving people in the US and the world, should maintain a different perspective if we are to move towards the vision that 'another world is possible'.

* Nunu Kidane is Network Coordinator for Priority Africa Network (PAN) based in Oakland, California – [email][email protected]

The objective of this post is to assist, facilitate and secure the management of all Strategic communications related functions attached to the Conference Secretariat and to enable the Executive Secretary of the CS to deliver the services also for other levels of action as defined in the RFM e.g. the Summit level, the Troika as well as on the Ministers level.
For further information contact: [email][email protected]

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/293/slavery_22feb07.jpgBro. K. Bangarah argues that it was a series of military, economic and political forces, as well as the actions of a group of Afrikan activists in Britain that led to the abolition of slavery - and not William Wilberforce. In the first part of this serialised article, Bangarah says Wilberforce merely claimed leadership of the movement.

On 25 March 1807 British imperialism claims to have abolished one of its own institutions. It was an institution that brought with it such a level of human misery that it amounted to an unremitting act of genocide against Afrikan people. The imperialists refer to that genocide as the ‘slave trade’. The first point this raises is evident: British imperialism is so obscenely and profoundly barbaric that it required an act of Parliament to get it to stop kidnapping Afrikan people, chaining and deporting us from our homeland in conditions worse than those suffered by cattle.

The British establishment have totally failed and continue to fail to acknowledge this and their other acts of genocide against Afrikan people as a crime against humanity. Their actions were and are completely and utterly wrong and morally indefensible. In their attempts to mislead Afrikan, British and other peoples of the world, they are trying to claim the credit for bringing this genocide to an end. The truth is that they did not stop kidnapping and deporting our people because they realised how evil and wrong their behaviour was. They did it because they were forced to; the unstoppable forces emanating from Afrikan people determined to liberate themselves from bondage, left them with no other choice.

World military, political and economic forces overwhelmed the institution of slavery

One of the most critical of these forces was the British working classes. They were involved in petitions against the kidnapping and deportation of Afrikan people because they were concerned about the mounting loss of British lives on the high seas and abroad. In order to kidnap and deport Afrikan people from their homes, it was necessary to have able kidnappers; British imperialists called them ‘sailors’. In addition to being evil, theirs was a dangerous occupation, because out of a total of 12,263 kidnappers, 2,643 perished as a direct result of their ‘work’. When the British public learned that almost a quarter of their kidnapper sons were killed or lost (Williams, 1944; Martin, 1999), they engaged in the mass petitioning of Parliament. It was through this process that abolitionists perfected the modern tactics of lobbying Parliament and pressuring MPs (Walwin, 1993).

A few very important forces came via the British enslavers themselves. The older British colonies already had large numbers of enslaved Afrikan people who substantially out-numbered their enslavers (Ferguson, 1998) (James, 1963). Their numbers were in fact the real basis of their enslavers’ prosperity. The existing large numbers was a double edged sword for their enslavers because it meant that it was too risky for them to import any more Afrikan people. The enslaver planters were living on a knife edge, in constant fear of the rebellions and raids mounted by enslaved and marooned Afrikan people. Rebellions whether successful or unsuccessful, could lead to their deaths, the loss of colonial lands and the loss of the stolen free labour of enslaved Afrikan people. Any further importation would simply reinforce the battalions of Afrikan maroon communities and rebel Afrikan people on the plantations. Therefore, if they could prevent further imports to the colonies this would be a good method of preserving their own lives whilst at the same time allowing them to keep control.

They also feared being undercut by competitors from the newer British colonies as well as from other imperialist colonies in the Caribbean. British and French imperialists were constantly warring with each other over Caribbean lands that they each had stolen from the indigenous American Indians (Greenwood, 1980, p. 10-15). In the course of the warring Britain managed to steal two additional Caribbean colonies, Guiana and Trinidad. Both were underdeveloped and desperately needed the labour of enslaved Afrikan people in order to prosper. However, the longer established British colonials recognised that the two new colonies with their virgin soils would offer them stiff competition and they were willing to try any measure that might stave off financial disaster. If they could prevent the new colonies from importing Afrikan people, their position would be protected.

Furthermore, 50 per cent of enslaved Afrikan people kidnapped and deported by Britain were sold to French enslavers and the French ran their sugar colonies more profitably than the British. The importation of more kidnapped Afrikan people meant that the French could undercut the British in the imperialist sugar markets (Ferguson, 1998). This scenario had the added irony that the British trafficking of Afrikan people was helping the French to out-perform them economically. If they could prevent the further importation of kidnapped Afrikan people, they could cut the supply of the much needed Afrikan labour to the French and gain the economic upper hand. In other words, the cutting of the supply of kidnapped Afrikan people would solve all of their major problems in one fell swoop. Therefore, in the spirit of self-preservation, the solution adopted by the older established British enslaver colonists was to join the growing demand to outlaw the process of kidnapping and deporting of Afrikan people to Caribbean colonies.

Another critical force came via the imperialists based in Britain. They were primarily concerned with immediate losses in their own profits and revenue that resulted from the uprisings of enslaved Afrikan people. Additionally that the process of rapid industrialisation, which they were undergoing, would give them a longer term competitive advantage over the other imperialist nations. They therefore had an eye on the potential super profits that could be made from the pending transition from an agricultural based economy relying on enslaved Afrikan people, to an industrial based economy which needed low paid workers. They came to the realisation that giving Afrikan people the illusion of freedom through the paying of wages would make them much richer in the long run. With these changes, even some of the imperialists began to worm to the idea of abolition.

All of the factors mentioned above were far more important contributors to the abolition of the so-called ‘slave trade’ than anything that Wilberforce ever did. They formed part of the range of forces that compelled the British government to change its approach to kidnapping and deporting Afrikan people from their homes. Wilberforce, who was unofficially appointed to his ‘abolitionist leadership’ role by the government, did little more than navigate his way through these forces: it is these forces that drove Wilberforce; not the other way round. Furthermore, an honest analysis reveals that the fundamental cause of all of these forces was the activity and resistance of the Afrikan people.

Afrikan people in Britain drove the diplomatic front for abolition

The first group of kidnapped Afrikan people forcibly deported to Britain, arrived in 1555 (Martin, 1999). By the last quarter of the 18th century, British imperialist kidnapping and compulsory deportation of Afrikan people resulted in 10,000 to 15,000 of London’s 80,000 population being Afrikan people (Martin, 1999). The total population of Afrikan people throughout the whole of Britain was estimated at 20,000 (Martin, 1999). The majority of the Afrikan people in Britain were held captive and enslaved by British citizens. However by employing a variety of ingenious strategies and methods, a small percentage of them managed to procure their personal ‘freedom’.

It is evident that of all of the groups of people in Britain, Afrikan people had the most to gain from the abolition of slavery and the so-called ‘slave trade’. For this reason it is likely that they had a tendency to be amongst the most sympathetic advocates of the anti-slavery cause as well as amongst the most active groups of people fighting for the abolition of slavery. The evidence of their involvement whether enslaved or ‘free’ is scant, but it is possible to trace some of the names of Afrikan people involved in the broad anti-slavery movement in Britain.

There is documented evidence of the involvement of Afrikan people such as Mary Prince, Olaudah Equiano, Ottobah Cuguano, Jonathan Strong, James Somerset, Joseph Knight, Ayuba Diallo, George Bridgewater, Ignatus Sancho, William Davison, Robert Wedderburn, Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, John Ystumllyn, William Cuffay and Julius Soubise. However, this list of names cannot do justice to either the volume or quality of activity that would have been forthcoming from the 20,000 strong Afrikan community based in Britain. It seems that their role has been played down by imperialist ‘historians’.

Some of the Afrikan people named here were involved in important anti-slavery court cases; others wrote and narrated their biographies telling of the brutality they suffered and experienced; others still wrote about the cruelty of slavery and others engaged in revolutionary political activity against the imperialist perpetrators of slavery. They tended to ally themselves with groups of British people who established organisations with a progressive attitude towards the abolition of slavery. Their stories were fed into the organised groupings of which they were part, and then cascaded to the British public at large.

Their stories had a massive impact on the British public, most of whom were ignorant about the evils and injustices of slavery. The evidence provided by Afrikan people in Britain was the crucial spark that ignited mass movements for justice among the working classes. The release of their information raised consciousness amongst the masses of Britons to a point where they began to seriously challenge the British establishment about both the plights of the working classes and the suffering of enslaved Afrikan people. It was therefore the political and diplomatic work of Afrikan people, working in an extremely hostile British environment, which led the national processes that brought about the abolition of slavery and the so called ‘slave trade’. It most certainly was not some character called Wilberforce as some portray.

One of the methods of lying used by imperialism to distort history is simply to omit or prevent the emergence of relevant facts in historical discourse: failing to tell the whole truth. In the case of Afrikan enslavement, an army of imperialist liars presented to us as ‘historians’ have insulted the memory of our Afrikan ancestors who fought for Afrikan liberation in Britain. They have done this by under-representing the contributions of Afrikan people, and by presenting William Wilberforce as some kind of leader in the Afrikan liberation process. Some of these ‘historians’ have taken the lies to even higher levels of distortion by attempting to present Wilberforce as the saviour of enslaved Afrikan people.

Wilberforce: a drug addict and latecomer to the abolition cause

Afrikan people resisted our enslavement from the very first day that European imperialism attempted to steal our people. However, it was not until 1776 that the world began to hear the first openly anti-slavery utterances from the British establishment. This happened when David Hartley condemned the ‘slave trade’ in the House of Commons (Hart, 2006, p. 1). It had taken British imperialism well over 200 years to begin to notice that there might be something wrong with kidnapping, deporting, holding in bondage, enslaving, murdering and otherwise abusing Afrikan people. Another initiative followed in 1783 when the Quakers petitioned parliament against human trafficking (Hart, 2006, p. 1). Wilberforce was not involved in any of these early anti-slavery initiatives.

On 22 May 1787 a group of British people gave themselves the official sounding title ‘The Abolition Society’ and declared their existence to the British establishment. The society gave the outward impression that it was against the enslavement of Afrikan people, although its activities often suggested otherwise. Interestingly imperialism’s ‘great saviour and hero’, Wilberforce was not amongst the original grouping (Hart, 2006, p. 1). Nor did he end up joining the society of his own volition or as a matter of conscience. Instead he was ‘recruited’ and sent into the abolition movement by the then Prime Minister William Pitt (Ferguson, 1998, p. 132; Williams, 1944, p. 123). The fake cover story about his moral and religious conviction compelling him to work for the abolition of slavery was made up later.

The process of recruiting Wilberforce was probably made easier by the fact that he had a related personal vested interest; his family were wool merchants. There is no doubt that he took his family interest seriously since he operated as the official Parliamentary spokesman for the wool industry (Williams, 1944, p. 160). It is likely that he would have perceived the cotton industry, with its abundance of unpaid labour stolen from enslaved Afrikan people, as a rival with a competitive advantage that was unfair even by primitive capitalist standards (Martin, 1999).

The choice of Wilberforce for the anti-slavery ‘moral crusade’ was an interesting one. Throughout his adult life, he is reported to have suffered significant health problems (Howarth, 1973). This is hardly surprising given the fact that he was a known drug addict. Apparently he was a junkie, unable to wean himself off his reliance on hard drugs. British historians inform us that: 'William Wilberforce … took opium every day for 45 years' (Howarth, 1973). This evidence reveals the fact that Wilberforce demonstrated a greater level of commitment to the consumption of hard drugs than he ever did to the abolition of slavery. Evidence concerning whether he took hard drugs more often than he prayed is inconclusive. As if that was not enough, he was also known to indulge in drinking and gambling (Howarth, 1973). The appointment of a known drug addict and apparent drunkard as the champion of the abolition movement suggests that the British establishment had no real intention of abolishing the kidnapping, deporting and enslavement of Afrikan people.

* Bro. K. Bangarah is a member of the Global Afrikan Congress, based in the UK.

* Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org

References

1. Ferguson. James, (1998), The Story of the Caribbean People, Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers
2. Foot. M.R.D., (2002), Secret Lives: Lifting the Lid on the Worlds of Secret Intelligence, Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. Fryer. Peter, (1984), Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain, London: Pluto Press
4. Greenwood. R., & Hamber. S., (1980), Emancipation to Emigration, MacMillan Caribbean
5. Hart. Richard, (1998), From Occupation to Independence: A Short History of the Peoples of the English Speaking Caribbean Region, London: Pluto Press
6. Hart. Richard, (2006), A talk 'The Slaves Who Abolished Slavery', London: Centerprise Bookshop, 11th October 2006
7. Hochschild. Adam, (2005), 'Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels' in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves, Mariner Books
8. Howarth. David, (1973), The British Empire; Volume 2, London: BBC TV Time Life Books
9. James. C.L.R., (1963), The Black Jacobins, Vintage Books
10. Martin. Steve, (1999), Britain’s Slave Trade, Channel 4 Books
11. Schama. Simon, (2006), Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the
12. Walwin. James, (1993), Black Ivory: A History of British Slavery, Fontana Press
13. Williams. Eric, (1944), Capitalism and Slavery, Andre Deutsch

Internet References

1. A Web of English History, http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/adw03/c-eight/people/wilberf.htm
2. Agnes Bronte 1813 - 1892, http://freespace.virgin.net/pr.og/agnes.html
3. Ligali, (Monday 6th November 2006), Set All Free Deny Wilberforce Film Endorsement, http://www.ligali.org/article.php?id=563
4. The Amazing Change, http://www.theamazingchange.com/timeline.html
William Wilberforce 1759-1833, Biography, http://www.brycchancarey.com/abolition/wilberforce.htm

Ngugi wa Thiong’o is a controversial man! I read some chapters from his Decolonizing the Mind and it was deeply thought-provoking. It made me think especially about what I want to call myself. Let me explain. Most bloggers consider themselves authors, writers. I call myself a writer. (A soon to be published African writer! Am I?

I suppose the answer to that would depend on how I define an African writer. For me, anyone who writes and is African, is an African writer. We will not go into what it means to be African because that is a whole different kettle of fish. So if I am African but set my story in space with a Marsian protagonist, I am still an African writer. But if Bill Gates wrote a novel set in Accra with a spear-wielding 'native' that would not make him an African writer. I think this explanation would go down well with most. It’s simply a question of geography and/or race. Or is it? Ngugi doesn’t think so. Indeed according to him, I am not an African writer at all!

'…"the whole uncritical acceptance of English and French as the inevitable medium for educated African writing is misdirected, and has no chance of advancing African literature and culture...until African writers accepted that any true African literature must be written in African languages, they would merely be pursuing a dead end."'

This is a quote from Obi Wali who Ngugi agrees with in his book. Ngugi himself says:

'What is the difference between a politician who says Africa cannot do without imperialism and the writer who says Africa cannot do without European languages?'

So what this means for me, by Ngugi’s assesment of an African who writes in English, is that I am actually an Afro-European writer. As someone who does not identify in any way with Europe, I find this hard to swallow. The implications are a little too disturbing. The category 'African writers' is now reserved for an elite few who can write in their local languages. There is also the practical aspect to consider. How many people can read your local language? For many of us, our languages are not internationally spoken. But Ngugi has stopped writing in English, opting for his mother tongue, Gikuyu. So how does he circumvent the question of practicality? His books are translated. And that is where my problem lies.

Ngugi’s main contention is that language is a carrier of culture. It expresses and communicates ideas in a way in which a foreign language cannot. It also shapes our world view. If there is no word for 'bomb' in your language, chances are you wouldn’t think much about bombs if that was the only language you knew. So clearly the 'African-ness' of your work would be lost if you wrote in English. But think of how much can be lost in translation. Is this all just mental gymnastics then? Is Ngugi talking the talk but not walking the walk? Am I really an African writer, especially since my first language is English? And then there are those writers who would, under my criteria, fall under the category of 'African writer' but say they are not. To what extent does self-definition shape the work you produce?

* Annie Quarcoopome is from Ghana and is studying Comparative Literature in the US. She is a blogger at Blacklooks.org

In a newly published report, ‘Youth in Crisis’ In-Depth, IRIN traces the impact of the events shaping the lives of a generation of youth rapidly reaching adulthood bearing the tragic consequences of their nations’ worst problems - from the illegal forced marriage of teenage girls in Afghanistan and Ethiopia, to the tripling of school fees and the deteriorating education system in Zimbabwe.

Angolans relocated by UNHCR to this refugee settlement are on their way to becoming self-sufficient and even producing surplus crops to help feed the local Zambian population. A total of 4,971 Angolan refugees opted to move to Mayukwayukwa refugee settlement in western Zambia rather than repatriate with other refugees to Angola when the UN refugee agency and the government of Zambia closed Nangweshi Refugee Camp three months ago.

Somalia has welcomed a resolution by the United Nations Security Council authorizing a six-month deployment of African Union (AU) peacekeepers to the Horn of Africa country, which has had no functioning regime in more than 15 years.

A High Court in Britain has rejected the claims of a U.S.-owned debt-collection firm to $42 million of debt from Zambia, but left open the door for the firm to get as much as $10 million to $20 million for the loan, which it purchased from Romania at a discount for less than $4 million.

A swiss entreupeneur is aiming to use satellites to transmit up-to-date educational materials. He aims to establish the technology not through programs run by traditional aid organizations but through a series of self-sustaining businesses.

The African Leadership Institute (AfLI), a not-for-profit network, was established in 2003, following two years of planning, with some seed funding by Novartis International AG. The primary focus of AfLI is to build the capacity and capability for visionary and strategic leadership across Africa, especially among the promising leaders of the future.

Following three attacks by armed fighters in northern Casamance since the start of presidential election campaigns on 4 February, local government officials and supporters of the candidates are concerned that the rebels are trying to undermine Sunday’s vote.

Climate change and the need for alternative energy sources in southern Africa have led experts to develop a new technology to produce electricity with a so-called green tower. The tower is more than one kilometre high and collects hot air sucked up through its chimney, causing large turbines at its base to rotate and generate power.

Tom Thabane's decision to walk out on Lesotho's government four months ago after becoming frustrated with the levels of corruption was vindicated yesterday by election results giving his new party a significant presence in the national assembly.When Mr Thabane quit the Lesotho cabinet to form his own party he said he could no longer stomach government corruption.

A study by international anti-debt campaigners argues that some debts owed by developing countries should not be paid at all. The report says that the Group of Seven (G7) most industrialised nations – Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Britain and the United States – lent money to regimes they knew to be corrupt or repressive in order to buy political allegiance.

'The concern is not my oppression, but the inaccessibility of hijabi bodies and a general discomfort with those who have no problems with visible signs of cultural and religious difference', writes Kameelah Janan Rasheed in recounting her personal experience of wearing the hijab.

I have spun myself into a web of non-stop, albeit non-linear, intertextual journeys and discursive shadow boxing matches towards a coherent narrative about hijab. I feared that in writing about hijab that my thoughts would be so reminiscent of previous works, that my narrative would be surrendered to the museum of embalmed anachronisms and clichés. This fear kept me running as far as my short legs could carry me away from the oppression versus liberation paradigm, and hiding in a dark corner away from self-hating confessionals about the ugliness of Islam.

I am not interested in proving to anyone that I am in fact liberated or that by wearing hijab in America I am engaging in a radical feminist act. Just as I gave up the task of proving my blackness or womanhood years ago to those who were skeptical of my 'credentials', I do not plan to spend time here validating my humanity or agency. Such a task is a distraction. The task here is not to shuck n'jive or discursively gyrate towards a presentation of hijab and myself that will grant me entrance into the feminist or 'mainstream' community. I do not want to spend time convincing people that in fact my hijab is not surgically attached to my scalp.

Nor, do I want to spend energy arguing that there is not a tracker embedded in my hijab that screeches a pronounced 'haraam, haraam' when there is too great of a distance between the said hijab and my head. The task here is to share stories that if nothing else will illustrate that self-elected liberators who are convinced of my oppression are doing more to oppress me than my hijab ever could by fixing me in conceptual incarcerations. In telling me that as a hijabi, I can only represent and ever be seen as the epitome of oppression - the atavistic aberration, then you have succeeded in reifying the patriarchal structures you pretend to despise. You have held me hostage in your imagination and my only key to freedom is to surrender and corroborate your assumptions of my subjugation.

If I tell you that I am comfortable as a hijabi, and do not feel the least restricted, why do you still feel the need to speak down to me as if I am a child? Why do you feel the need to convince that I am living in a matrix where I have managed to confuse liberation with oppression? The question has never been so much 'is Kameelah oppressed'? because when this question is asked I do not believe that there is a genuine concern for my wellbeing. The question has always been twofold: 'Why do you feel it to be your right to tell me how I should live my life? And: 'Why do you even care?' My experiences, that are mine and not to be generalised for other hijabis, have illustrated that the concern is not my oppression, but the inaccessibility of hijabi bodies and a general discomfort with those who have no problems with visible signs of cultural and religious difference.

My childhood and adulthood, neither of which are completed life stages, were full of paradox and alienation as I attempted to navigate what seemed to be rough uncharted territory of a nerdy short black Muslim girl suspended in time and spaces that just could not 'figure me out'. I am the daughter of two black working-class Muslim reverts. I grew up in a small city in northern California where you could count the number of Muslims on one hand. Because being starred at and having rude comments directed at me is a sadistic task I rather enjoy, I then spent four years at a private Catholic school where I was not only one of very few black students, I wandered about as the only Muslim student. Thinking it could not get worst then being called a suicide bomber, or Osama bin Laden's wife, I embarked on another four-year journey at a private liberal arts institution where the number of Muslim students was heartbreaking. While most comments at this institution were reserved for private discussions, the college experience as well as my time in Johannesburg, South Africa provide an opportunity to understand what literally annoyed people about my hijab.

While in Yeoville, a hybrid inner-city/suburb of Johannesburg, I was approached by a man who was intent on liberating me from not only my gender oppression, but from my racial confusion. Apparently, 'I am not free' in hijab and Islam is not an African religion.

I had committed not only the ultimate sin of embracing a faith that 'forced' me to be modest; I had chosen a faith that had no roots in Africa. Let's not bother with the contrary historical facts, as that is the least of our concerns. What I found of the utmost importance in this monologue (yes, because I was unable to get a word in edgeways) was that he conceptualised my channels of freedom via the ritualistic removal of my hijab and his penetration or sexual conquest. I never knew that my freedom toolbox included a penis and an instruction guide - I will keep this in mind.

As he continued to speak in a series of poorly phrased insults, I realised that this was no longer about gender oppression or black authenticity; it was about the politics of accessibility to certain bodies. He repeated almost in a hypnotic fashion, 'I cannot see you…I cannot see your essence'. In wearing hijab, it was his argument that I was making myself inaccessible to men, and particularly to him. Choosing to place myself off the radar was not a choice I could exercise. In fact, I was required to make myself available and accessible to his gaze as well as the gaze of other men.

Thus, the crime I had committed was not one of accepting my subjugation as a Muslim woman and 'confused African woman', but of refusing to situate myself in his myopic discourse of liberation that ultimately puts me at his mercy. If I was mistaken in this assumption, it was further validated by a number of men in Johannesburg and in America who have told me similar tales of my inaccessibility, as a reason why I should not wear hijab. They started with a narrative of genuine concern for my oppression and devolved into a shallow desire for a free pass to accessibility. It was not always about what was said, but the delivery of these diatribes. In many of these situations, these men used aggressive and paternalistic tones. They attempted to silence me by raising their voices. They worked to discredit my line of defense by telling me I did not know enough. Most of all they were surprised that I was able to put together a sentence and to give as good as I was given.

It was a reminder that the covering of my head is not a covering of my mind or my mouth. Now, my mama taught me that in a conversation that I need to speak up irrespective of the genitalia I assume the other person to possess. My dad taught me to do it with tact. I think that while I am better at the former than the latter, it was a necessary lesson. For me, this battle over hijab editorialised by patriarchal not feminist discourses has never been about my liberation or the liberation of Fatima or whatever common Muslimah name you choose to insert here. Really, can men and institutions that consider me less intelligent and inept be that concerned about the death of patriarchy? This battle has always been about the accessibility of certain bodies and a neurotic discomfort with difference. If I can be convinced or forced to unveil and assimilate my discourse and lifestyle someone else can feel comfort. Someone will assume greater access to my body. However, for someone else to feel comfort when they look at me, and secure greater dominion over me, some part of me has to be sacrificed.

I cannot make any conclusive remarks about hijab generally or in my personal experiences. What I can say is that as these discourses about my oppression reach a nauseous height and hegemonic preoccupation in numerous imaginations, I will continue to write. I will not write to prove my liberation, but write to assert my right to exist as I choose without harassment, intimidation and ridicule. People often say, 'well, if you don't want to be singled-out then just don't wear hijab'. I guess while I am at it, I should lighten my brown skin to reach a more appeasing colour? Or give my hips back to mama. Assimilation is not an option. The reality is that, yes, I wear hijab and no, I do not need your approval. While I do not need your approval, I would not mind a little respect.

* Kameelah Rasheed is a Fulbright scholar at Wits University in Johannesburg South Africa. She also blogs at

* Please send comments to edito[email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

A new report by Book Aid International looks at the role libraries in Africa play in relation to two areas: literacy and enabling people to access relevant and useful information to enhance knowledge. Based on a survey of library networks in Malawi, Uganda, Somaliland, Tanzania and Kenya, the study lists findings and key challenges for libraries and information centres in Africa.

A book exploring the ways in which HIV and AIDS stakeholders are denying a basic set of human rights to same sex practising people, and potentially jeopardising overall efforts to combat the AIDS epidemic in Africa, was launched in Johannesburg on 15 February at Behind The Mask.

Titled Off the Map: How HIV/Aids programming is Failing Same-Sex Practicing People in Africa, the book, published by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), aims to get some attention to the fact that same sex practising Africans are at increased risk of HIV because of both biological and social vulnerabilities. 'Challenges to the right of freedom of expression, housing, arbitrary arrest, bodily integrity, increase the vulnerability of our community. But still, little attention is paid to this issue', Cary Johnson, IGLHRC senior specialist for Africa said.

In this book various activists from around the continent contributed personal stories while others interviewed people who had HIV/ Aids related stories to tell. The book relates to Aids Law Project’s Jonathan Berger’s research-Re-sexualizing the Epidemic, where he investigated the issue of little funding and public attention paid to the issue.

Judge Edwin Cameron wrote the preface of the book and various activists from the continent contributed stories as they personally relate to them.

'This is a long overdue book calling attention to a serious and neglected issue –with important ramifications for all people working in the HIV/Aids field.' Sofia Gruskin, Director of the program on International Health and Human Rights from Harvard School of Public Health concluded.

Musa Ngubane - reporter for Behind the Mask, South Africa

Many smaller home-grown initiatives, many of them started by local people in response to an urgent need in their communities, are battling for a share of the millions of donor dollars earmarked for HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment poured into Africa every year, according to a report by Plusnews.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, is urging HIV-positive Burundian refugees in camps in neighbouring Tanzania to return home, where they will have better access to treatment and care.

United Nations agencies and the southern Sudanese government are to establish a task force to monitor cases of sexual abuse and exploitation involving international staff, officials said. Participants at a one-day workshop on the prevention of sexual abuse and exploitation on Tuesday in the southern capital of Juba agreed to launch a public information campaign against the abuse.

A campaigner for transparency in the international oil sector, employed by the nongovernmental organisation Global Witness, was released on bail on Wednesday after she was arrested in the oil-rich Angolan enclave of Cabinda and charged with spying. Dr Sarah Wykes, an experienced researcher into the links between corruption and human rights in resource-rich economies, is not allowed to leave the country and might have to wait for a year for the trial to begin.

Treating genital herpes may slow the progression of the AIDS virus in those infected with both viruses, researchers reported on Wednesday. The test involving 140 women in the West African country of Burkina Faso found that when herpes was being treated with 500 milligrams of the drug valacyclovir twice daily for three months, the women were less likely to shed, or spread, the AIDS virus.

The ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) has won the 2007 elections after it grabbed more than half of the 120 seats in Lesotho's parliament, warding off a strong challenge from a new opposition.

The 2006 Gender Gap report provides a comprehensive guide to how countries measure up in comparison to one another when it comes to addressing the gap between men and women in terms of economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

LGBT activists in Nigeria are conducting workshops to educate the media on how to fairly report on issues of sexual behavior. Executive Director for the International Centre for Reproductive Health (INCRESE), Dorothy Aken’Ova, stated that activists undertook this initiative after observing that the Nigerian media failed to report fairly on sexual behaviour issues contrary to their international counterparts.

Uganda has undertaken educational reforms that will see the country offering free secondary education to 250,000 students. The government programme began on Monday February 19, aiming at getting 90 per cent of children who pass their primary school exams to go on to secondary education.

Swedish freelance photographer Lars Björk was expelled from Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara on the evening of 20 February, a day after his arrest in the territory’s capital, El Aaiún, RSF reports. The authorities made him take the first bus north to Agadir, where he boarded a flight back to Europe.