Pambazuka News 292: Wearing the hijab: choice or submission?
Pambazuka News 292: Wearing the hijab: choice or submission?
A study by the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) Zambia reports on local communities' perspectives of the impact of poverty reduction programmes. Overall, it concludes that PRSP implementation in Zambia, whilst successful in some areas, has in general been weak.
Nigeria has allocated US$25 million to fund the first site of the African Institute of Science and Technology (AIST). Construction of the Gulf of Guinea Institute will begin on 20 February in Nigeria. Its research will centre on several different fields including biological, environmental and mathematical science.
Of the one million people who become new mobile phone subscribers everyday, about 85% live in emerging markets, according to the mobile phone industry body, the GSMA. As the BBC reports, there is growing evidence that mobile phones are more than a fashion accessory and can transform the lives of the people who are able to access them.
The wearing of the headscarf and hijab by Muslim women is increasingly becoming a contentious issue in the West. Halima Zouhar provides some historical context to the headscarf and opinions on why young Muslim women are choosing to cover their heads.
One of the most polemical themes associated with Islam is the status of women. Women are regarded as subaltern beings, deprived of rights, and subservient to men. And the symbol of a woman’s submission is the headscarf. But in fact, the headscarf is becoming more visible these days in this part of the world than it is in the Arab world or in the West. And most surprisingly, it has acquired great ‘popularity’ amongst young women, even those educated and in touch with Western civilisation. What are the reasons driving these women to publicly display their religious affiliation? What does the scarf symbolise? Are these young women searching for an identity? This article analyses these questions.
The removal of the traditional headscarf is relatively recent for the Muslim woman, dating back to the colonial and postcolonial eras. The headscarf did not used to carry the religious dimension currently accorded to it. Although introduced by Islam in the 7th century , it was anyway part of a Muslim woman’s traditional dress. Therefore the question of whether or not it symbolised the subordination of woman did not arise.
The scarf began to be defined as a symbol of the submission of Muslim women during the colonial period. Then, the colonial power, considering itself superior and endowed with a civilising mission to bear on a primitive, backward and archaic population, held it up as a symbol of resistance. The unveiling ceremony in Algiers in 1958 is extremely relevant here:
'13 May 1958, Algiers, the place du Gouvernement: Muslim women climbed on to a podium to burn their veils. The stakes of this staged gesture were measured: the colonial authorities required that Muslim women broke ranks with the struggles of their own people.'
Unveiling the Muslim woman of her headscarf was one of the coloniser’s great challenges: a means of validating his superiority and civilising mission that consisted of the ‘emancipation’ of the Muslim woman, whilst at the same time elevating the model of the Western lifestyle, which the indigenous population was supposed to assimilate. As Edward Said has pointed out, the colonial education system played a major role in assimilation:
'For Barrès, the essence of France is most visible in French schools; thus he says of a school in Alexandria: "it’s charming to see these little oriental girls welcoming and reproducing so vividly the imagination and the melody of the French Isle".'
This influence bore fruit, given that it educated an elite, which knew how to defend, and still defends, the interests of the West in the Arab countries. That elite has retained the Western model as a reference point well after independence, simultaneously disdaining and disregarding the Arab-Muslim tradition, perceived to be a disruptive and restraining force in the process of social evolution and the emancipation of women.
'Two factors render the triumph of orientalism even more evident. In so far as it is possible to generalise, contemporary culture in the Middle East tends to follow European and American models. When Taha Hussein said in 1936 that modern Arab culture was European and not oriental, he was merely putting on record the identity of the natural Egyptian elite of which he was a distinguished member. Likewise today he belongs to the same Arab cultural elite, even though the powerful current of anti-imperialist ideas from the Third World that gripped the region from the early 1950s has blunted the Western edge of the dominant culture.'
Generally during the post colonial period, Arab and Muslim women witnessed their being torn between two different cultural models: one, which fascinated; the other, the heritage of a strong tradition. In this context, there was little real knowledge about the Muslim religion, nor of the status of the Muslim woman at the centre of this religion.
It was not until the next generation of their daughters, that today’s young women, who faced with both the fascination of their parents for Western culture and the scorn attached by the West to Islam, have launched themselves into a quest to understand their religion, and simultaneously their identity, which is a mixture of influences, Eastern nor Western.
From this point on, wearing the Muslim headscarf has proliferated amongst young women: it does not signify the rejection of Western civilisation and a return to tradition, as in many aspects, tradition and religion diverge. Rather, Islam represents a balanced perspective for young people seeking to affirm their identity. The headscarf may represent a challenge to a society wishing to see in the woman wearing it subservience and regression. But this cliché does not correspond to contemporary reality. For in most cases, it is the woman making her own decision, choosing nevertheless to lead an active and independent life. In short, these women are adopting the emancipated lifestyle so revered by the West, whilst at the same time living with the precepts of Islam.
* Halima Zouhar is a post-graduate student at the University of Granada in Spain.
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
This piece was originally written in French and translated by Stephanie Kitchen.
Tajudeen reports back from the launch of the Citizenship Rights in Africa initiative (CRIA) held last week in Kampala, Uganda. If we are all Africans, and recognised as such, then we can stop 'foreignising' people who disagree with us, or referring to other Africans as aliens, or discriminating against fellow citizens as 'indigenes' or 'settlers', and practising other forms of xenophobia that are so rampant across Africa. An African citizenship will, he says, restore to all of us what is naturally ours - being African.
Last weekend I returned to Kampala for a few days. It is always a pleasant return for me in a way I do not or expect to be welcomed to Lagos, or feel very homely in my current abode, Nairobi, now more notoriously referred to as Nairobbery. Kampala is a city bursting with all kinds of construction: roads, hotels, bungalows and shopping malls. It is a frenzy the economics of which I have not been able to understand. They are all ostensibly being built for the Commonwealth Summit (CHOGM) being held in November. No expense is being spared and the government is in overdrive to give all kinds of subsidies and concessions to ensure that all these luxury apartments are completed before the summit begins. In this rush it is strangling the struggling domestic furniture industry because CHOGM builders can go to Malaysia and import all that they need with little or no tax. After the summit what will happen to these hotels? Would a one-week summit generate returns to keep them open forever? It is clear that in spite of all the rush some of them may never be completed, while some may find other uses, and the very big ones like the new Serena Hotel should survive having risen from the ashes of the old Nile Hotel to the status of a hotel 'fit for a Queen'.
My visit was not about touring the dizzy heights of Kampala. I was in town to participate in a launch of a very important campaign sponsored by the Global Pan African Movement (PAM), the International Rights Initiative (IRRI) and Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI): Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative (CRAI).
It is a matter that concerns all Africans. We may call ourselves Ugandans, Nigerians, Malawians or whatever, but are we really citizens? Do we really enjoy the full rights, freedoms and feel the complementary obligation to be loyal and voluntarily discharge our duties towards these states? I am always envious at the rate at which Western governments dispatch airplanes and soldiers to take their citizens out of any conflict situation, whether war or natural disaster, across the world. Hence Westerners are often the first refugees from any theatre of conflict. How many times has an African government mounted the same operation to rescue their citizens?
How many times have we heard any of our numerous diplomatic representatives in Europe or America or even in Africa make any public comment about the treatment of their citizens in the countries they are resident in? But let one Westerner be unfortunately lost in some impenetrable forest anywhere in the world, and the ambassador or high commissioner and the full weight of their propaganda machines - the BBC, CNN, VOA, RFI - would be brought to be bear on all of us; and if it is in Africa our security establishments will do anything to find the missing Westerner yet may not raise a finger for their own citizens. That is why many of our people will not run to the police or the army or 'government people' when they are in trouble.
The one aspect of citizenship that makes news is the now routine arbitrary denial of citizenship to compatriots who may have fallen out with the powers that be. The most recent demonstration of this is the publisher of the only surviving privately owned media in Zimbabwe, and also the proprietor of the Mail and Guardian in South Africa, Trevor Ncube. Because he would not toe the line, the Zimbabwean government refused to renew his passport, denationalised him and rendered him stateless. An older, well-known case is that of Jenerali Ulimwengu, who is the CEO of the Habari Corporation, publishers of several Kiswahili and English language newspapers in Dar es Salaam. Of course there was the more famous case of Zambian President Kaunda who was denationalised by his successor, the little man with even smaller brain, Chiluba, who was later 'discovered' to be of DRC origin himself.
Jenerali and Trevor were at this meeting and gave chilling, if sometimes ridiculous, accounts of the processes leading to their denial of citizenship. Trevor has brothers and sisters who are not in trouble at all, and Jenerali also has siblings who were never the subject of any investigation by the Mkapa government. What is common to both cases is that the matter was purely political. The first time I met Mkapa, it was Jenerali who took me to his house near the Aga Khan hospital in Dar. He was certain that 'he was our man' to succeed President Hassan Mwinyi. Our man indeed!
But Trevor and Jenerali or Kaunda are lucky because their cases became a source of huge embarrassment to their governments who had to back-off either in court or gave in politically. There are millions of people across this continent who are affected. According to the press statement issued at the launch of CRAI:
'Tens of millions of Africans have been victims of the pandemic of statelessness and denial of citizenship. In terms of the number of people affected and the implications for peace and security, it is easily the most serious human security and human rights problem on the continent today.'
It further stated: 'Statelessness and the arbitrary denial of citizenship violate human dignity, undermine the integrity of government and its institutions, dislocate families, destroy the livelihoods of those affected, and render the victims open to further abuses of their rights and lead to war.'
Leading international and African advocacy groups joined the three organisations in launching CRAI. It is a cry for liberty in which all of us have a role to play, either as part of the problem, or as part of the solution. Anyone of us could be a victim. The solution is very simple: accept Africans as Africans and treat them with dignity anywhere they may be as legal African citizens, from Cape Town to Cairo.
If we are all Africans and recognised as such then we can stop 'foreignising' people who disagree with us, or referring to other Africans as aliens, or discriminating against fellow citizens as 'indigenes' or 'settlers', and other forms of xenophobia that are so rampant across Africa. If we disagree we should try to solve them peacefully or understand the basis of our differences without resorting to stripping our opponents of their humanity and citizenship.
Rights should derive from our being human beings and the state has an obligation to protect all of us as citizens regardless of the circumstances by which we come about our citizenship which may include, ancestry, birth, settlement, marriage, migration, naturalization. Conferring African citizenship on all Africans may not solve all our problems but it provides an important legal and political basis for us to hold our governments accountable and enjoy the full rights of political and socio-economic participation wherever we may be without fearing expulsion and statelessness. It will also remove the insult that non-Africans are freer to move around the continent, especially those holding North American and European passports, while Africans are routinely humiliated and treated as 'others'. We are both 'others' abroad and still 'others' in Africa. Do we not deserve a place to call 'ours' where we can enter or leave without hindrance? We may never quite be Nigerians, South Africans or Kenyans, Chadians or any of the other possible colonially-induced artificial creations, but at least we can be who we are: AFRICANS. An African citizenship will restore to all of us what is naturally ours.
* Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is the deputy director for the UN Millennium Campaign in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes this article in his personal capacity as a concerned pan-Africanist.
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
An Alexandria court convicted an Egyptian blogger on Thursday for insulting both Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced him to four years in jail over his writings on the Internet. Reuters reports that rights groups and opposition bloggers have watched Suleiman's case closely, and said they feared a conviction could set a legal precedent limiting Internet freedom in Egypt.
Zimbabwe's police immediately followed a ban on political rallies and protests in the capital’s restive townships by beating up schoolteachers striking over low salaries on Wednesday.
An appeals court has ruled Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo did not have the power to sack his vice-president for joining an opposition party. The court in the capital, Abuja, ruled Atiku Abubakar should remain in his post despite his defection to the Action Congress for presidential polls.
A recent bold statement by UK supermarket Tesco ushering in "carbon friendly" measures - such as restricting the imports of air freighted goods by half and the introduction of "carbon counting" labelling - has had environmentalists dancing in the fresh produce aisles, but has left African horticulturists confused and concerned.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/broadcasts/phumla.jpgPhumla Masuku, the manager of a South African lesbian women's football team speaks to Sokari Ekine from Pambazuka News about the team she founded, . Based in Soweto, the team hs encountered much homophobia and racism, but successfully made it to the international Gay Games in Chicago where they won the Bronze Medal. The music in this podcast is by Freddy Macha.
Kakuma camp in Kenya is one of the oldest and largest refugee camps in the world. The inhabitants of the camp suffer from poor relations with the local population - (the Turkanas), a near total lack of economic opportunity, frequent instances of gender-based violence, crime, and recurrent food shortages.
The Government has expelled more than 1, 000 Ethiopian refugees from Moyale District.They had crossed into Kenya following clan fights in their country. The refugees, mostly children and women, were ordered to leave the country by Wednesday noon. Eastern Provincial Police Officer Mr Jonathan Koskei and the area acting DC, Mr Omar Deja, gave the ultimatum when they addressed the refugees with Ethiopian Government officials on Tuesday.
Attacks on civilians and aid groups have intensified sharply along the Chad-Sudan border in the last two weeks, as the violence in Darfur continues to spill over into its African neighbor.
Cameroonian blogger, reports on one of the most gruelling races in the world – the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope. The post includes a variety of photos from the race.
'600 athletes from about 12 countries will gather in the town of Buea at the foot of Mount Cameroon, West Africa's tallest mountain. for one of the most gruelling but least known extreme sports events in the world; the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope.'
Gambian blogger, Home of the Mandinmores, comments on the Gambian President’s statement that he can cure HIV/AIDS and on US presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
'Will Barack Obama make it to the white house? I dunno. However the fact that despite the odds he is trying to make it there embodies the American ideals so eloquently spelt out in the declaration of independence thus: “that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with inalienable rights”. It is true that for most of its history America hasn’t lived up to this creed and white men have been more equal than all others. Having said that I still believe Obama’s candidacy embodies the ideals behind the American dream: that regardless of race, color, creed, gender or class, anyone can aspire to, and become anything they want to be provided they are willing to work hard for it. That is the appeal of Obama’s candidacy to most of us.'
Everyone is jumping on the Obama bandwagon in one way or the other. I saw a TV interview on You Tube where his “blackness” was being discussed in terms of him being not Black but African which is rather a strange racial differentiation as I thought they were the same thing.
R. E. Ekossa’s Blog comments on Chinua Achebe’s famous Joseph Conrad essay which leads to her reflecting on her relationship with people from the West and she asks the question (in terms of racism) 'who is bad for me?'
'...is it the ones who would be deeply distressed if you suggested that they were racist, but whose lack of curiosity about your world makes them, at best, unwitting co-perpetrators in the crimes that are committed against your people? Do these well-intentioned, law-abiding people who give generously to charities, who dutifully pay the taxes to sustain the governments that allow greedy multinationals to exploit us while claiming to bring development to us - as we are primitive and undeveloped - bear some of the blame for our sorrows? At what point does ignorance become culpable? At what point does it become difficult for me to deal with people who have the time and resources to learn about things, and whose refusal or lack of interest in learning causes them to take decisions that cost lives in places that they neither know nor really care about? When does a person’s lack of knowledge or curiosity about where his coffee or the cotton in his shirt is farmed become dangerous self-absorption, at least from my viewpoint?'
Nigerian blogger, African Shirts posts on the speaking and usage of the English language, something which Achebe has discussed many times and which he touches on in the Conrad essay. Nkem uses the BBC Hardtalk interview with Nigerian Presidential hopeful Orij Kalu and his “butchering” of the English language.
'What seems to have emerged from people's reaction to the Kalu interview is a disdain for English, or the ability to express one's self in English. English isn't Kalu's first language, so he should be allowed to butcher it the way he did - or so goes the thinking. I had two problems with the interview. First, he couldn't express himself, and second, even if he could, he had nothing to express. It wasn't about accent, because if it was, 99% of Nigerians would fall short of whatever glorious standard people imagine I've set.'
The issue of language is a political issue in a country such as Nigeria that has at least 250 languages, so how does one communicate without having a universal language that stands outside of the country. You cannot get 140 million people speaking 250 languages to agree to use one of those as the Lingua Franca of the nation and I have to agree with Nkem’s conclusion.
'People in Nigeria forget that English is not just a colonial imposition, but is the egg that binds Nigeria together. I cannot think of anything else Nigerians have in common. The arbitrary colonial borders do not bring Nigeria together, as there are still vastly varying customs, languages, landscapes, an inexhaustible list of differences. This is Nigeria: a vast piece of land, around which Lord Lugard and his people drew a line, and then asked all the people within that line to speak English. It's the story of Africa, and now we have to deal with it.'
Musings of a Naijaman also comments on Nigeria’s forthcoming elections. This time it is the anti-corruption agency (EFCC) who have submitted a list of “corrupt candidates”.
'Meanwhile in Nigeria, the farce continues - The anti-corruption agency EFCC has now submitted its arbitrary list of "corrupt candidates" to the electoral commission, after a kangaroo panel is set up to vet the list. And just in case the electoral commissioners are in any doubt about how seriously to take it, two of them are arrested by (you guessed it) the EFCC. By using the anti-corruption agency in this cavalier blackmailing way, Obasanjo seems set to do more damage to democracy and the cause of anti-corruption than he realizes. It would all be laughable if not for the fact that at the end of the day, human lives are at stake.'
Black Looks has an expose of US interests in Nigeria and a request made to her by contractors for the US Marine Corp to undertake research on the Ijaw people of the Niger Delta. Black Looks comments on this and a recent report by the Center for International Policy on the 'converging interests of the US and Nigerian governments'.
'Clearly the Nigerian Government is planning on working with the US military in the Niger Delta - whether this will continue in a low profile advisory capacity or escalate into something more is not clear. But the US Marines / US Government are not going to carry out their own research into the region unless they are going to use the information to pursue a specific set of agendas presumably with the knowledge of the present Nigerian regime.'
* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, www.blacklooks.org and is Online News Editor of Pambazuka News.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
The APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize recognizes initiatives that are making it easy for people to start using free and open source software (FOSS). The prize is awarded to a person or group doing extraordinary work to make FOSS accessible to ordinary computer users. The deadline for prize nominations is March 30.
The 20th FESPACO (Pan African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou) takes place between 24th February and the 3rd March in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The name means 'Land of honest men' and was changed from Upper Volta by the late revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara.
Every two years, the desert city of Ouagadougou becomes the centre of Africa film from the continent and diaspora. The festival has grown from its inauguration in 1969 when only five countries were represented (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger and Cameroon) to this year with films from almost every country and the diaspora being represented. Every two years, the desert city of Ouagadougou becomes home to African film from the continent and the diaspora.
In 2005 the South African film DRUM (set around the famous South African magazine Drum, the film is about the forced removals of black people from Sophia Town) took the grand prize. 2005 was also the year when two Hollywood productions were shown, Hotel Rwanda, and the much better Sometimes in April. Both dealt with the Rwandan genocide. Commenting on the 2005 film festival and the lack of availability of African films to both local and the wider global community I wrote:
'The unfortunate thing is that very few of these films will be available to a wider audience outside of the film festival circuit. African films to do not bring in millions of dollars to cinema houses around the world and Africa itself has very few cinemas where films can be viewed by a large number of people. Some of the films may be transferred into video or DVD format but even these are so expensive that only organisations could afford to buy them.
So why are African films so expensive that local African TV stations cannot afford to screen then and individuals like you and I cannot afford to buy them on DVD or videos? That’s if we can find them in the first place. The answer lies with California Newsreel. They own the distribution rights to many African films enabling them charge exorbitant prices to institutions and individuals for screenings and DVDs. Distribution takes place through their Library of African Cinema. For example check their restrictions on the cheapest option 'home videos'.
On a positive note these issues will be addressed this year as part of the thematic discussion 'African Cinema and Culture and Diversity' which will include topics such as the state of African cinema and the issue of distribution.
This year’s talk of the festival is the film Bamako by Malian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako. The film takes a critical look at the World Bank/IMF and their impact on grass roots communities in Africa by putting the institutions on trial with two ordinary people as witnesses.
The film tells the story of Melé—a bar singer—and her unemployed husband Chaka. Their marriage is coming apart. In the courtyard of the house they share with other families, a trial is under way with the World Bank and the IMF, accused of the woes of Africa. American actor Danny Glover, who helped fund the film, has a bit part.
I also looked at the contribution by African women to the festival, starting with Cape Verdian film maker, Claire Andrade’s film Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican? (A Cape Verdean American story) which has been selected to compete for the Paul Robeson Diaspora Prize.
SKFPR? is the largely unknown story about immigrants from the Cape Verde islands in the Fox Point neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island, the second oldest and largest Cape Verdean community in America. The film opened theatrically in the UStates in January 2006 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, to a sold out house. The documentary continued throughout 2006 to receive critical and popular acclaim at theatres, festivals, universities and select venue screenings.
Other African women showing at the festival are Zimbabwean writer, Tsitsi Dangaremgba (Growing Stronger); Rwandan, Jacqueline Kalimunda (Homeland); Algerian, Fatma Zorha Zamoum (Short LA PELOTE DE LAINE).
The Institute of Public Health (IPH), at Makerere University, and the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), are pleased to inform you of an upcoming sub-Saharan Africa regional workshop dedicated toward developing policy communication and advocacy skills among program officials, researchers, and advocates working in the area of gender-based violence. The workshop will take place in Kampala, Uganda, 23 April - 4 May 2007.
I have twisted your words
twisted them into my skin
back and forth, back and forth
like the click, click of a loom
I have twisted your words into my hair and my breasts
twisted them into my tongue and my teeth and my thoughts.
I have platted and woven and burned them into this tapestry until finally I see
there is this image called me.
A collision of disguises in fruitless beginnings converge with time to crack silences that live beyond the cacophony of this image
and my step breaks into to reveal the suddenness of something true
I am not your words
I need not answer to those words
Black Label
somebody killed the music and wrote discord and told us all to
make mad noise and like it
crying about the hole in the bucket
so here we are paying to be lulled by some strange tune
you can do this at home in your living room but there’s a TV I presume
streaming in the sub human text
filling the decibel quota so your off spring can develop a catatonic stride
we call it national pride, everything else is nullified
are you up for man-ipulation.
can you ask why, can you ask why?
and then can you look yourself in the eye –
can you ask why, is bush still the president
can you ask why , is bin laden still resident
can you ask why, no African country is holding tight, although we hope South Africa might
can you ask why HIV and internalised oppression has Africa on its knees
can you ask why, this has now become a black disease
and look yourself in the eye if you please
can you ask why black, why white, why coloured
can you ask why we keep the love in the media
selling ourselves this dilution, afraid of the solution
can you ask why and look yourself in the eye.
can you ask why 20% controls 80% and then ask why your mother can’t pay the rent
can you ask why your human family is living street bound
can you ask why there’s no change no change no change,
just some poor fool like me that’s up on a stage
that complains
can you ask why your father shot himself, can you ask why too many have no food, can you ask why
the shits so deep like the nothing that we speak
flagrant testimony of that tired scripture, “its because I’m black you see!”
can you ask why we sit around clamouring to be just like the picture of whitey
I’m talking the material economy and how it’s used you see
and it just so happens it comes with that pristine mentality,
jik clean and pristine
yet I don’t see us taking control of our destinies,
I just keep hearing, what’s that you’re saying,
“it’s because I’m black you see!”
ah but that’s the famous copout for the dropout, for the victim
and though its true
there’s still no excuse for you to think that makes up for exemption from your own redemption
is your life worth a mention? or
are we gonna live in mimicry or find a way to see the change, see the change,
see the change
in you and me
are you ready to ask why, why not,
why you why me
why not change, why not change
can you say ‘I am’
can you say ‘I am the..’
can you say ‘I am the change’
I am the change X5
or are we just ready to toy with the last remains of another idealistic notion and prepare ourselves to grow old in the economic handout game
and call any other aspiration a dream because we’re just to damn lazy to create humanity differently without screaming ‘it’s because I’m black you see!’
So let me get this straight, black means we can’t wake up from a struggle mentality and free ourselves from a victim reality?
oh my brotha what’s that you keep saying “hey man its always been that way!”
when did you give up, how many times have you been bought and
bartered for, oh yes that’s right I forgot there’s no slavery anymore
it’s pussilanimity, voluntary contribution to some more systematic distribution
of bubblegum identity,
division precision
and what’s more an abuse of sameness in the name of
unity for the quick march of your own thoughts to the march of the massive identity the one that’s not about you or me,
getting caught in the PC tradition is getting away with omission
assume the position!
possibility is probability is likely is can be
it’s just up to me
our choice means it could be
should be a different history
wake up from this victim mentality
that’s the control you see
there is no system we are not a part of
there is no difference we cannot be the start of
how we use it is the key and if its gonna harm the one next you
we may as well be the gun or knife and the hynosis too.
because it doesn’t matter what flag you’re flying or what colour your buying
if you’re marching with a deadly compromise you’re just wearing that disguise
the one that we call ‘colonised’
your identity is rooted in the me
the master of your destiny,
otherwise
whose nigger are you,
nigger is the myopic ass with power to change who assumes his future depends on
a handout to getout
of himself/herself/myself/yourself
I said get up! get up
or get down on all fours and drop drawers!
now I ask you does that give the victim in you pause.
can you say change, can you say change
can you say I am the change
I am the change, I am the change
can you ask why
a question is worth a million assassinations
dissertations, simulations, violations and virtual realities
can we give up this disease
no more liberation from the outside
this is an inside story
this is not about glory or dream making
it’s a simple question
of not playing the shame game.
This is a black label let’s turn the table people and allow it to enable
African can you say it, I am the change
I am the change, I am the change…x5
Welcome Citizens of the Universe!
Humanity of she
what kind of African are you?
What kind of African am I?
what kind of African makes you African?
what kind of black is that?
what kind of white is this?
what kind of color is coloured?
what kind of woman is this?
what kind of man is that?
anthropometric set work still at work
if we haven’t discovered our unity in diversity
gender equality won’t be a reality if you ask me
political rhetoric makes me fret
makes what determines me a complex no reality
in a political menagerie of constructed identity
inheritance of imperialist mentality
is there an African women free in me?
what kind of woman are you?
does it make you a human too?
what kind of sister makes me a sister?
and not part of the make up of the Mister
the credential of he, does it make me
am I still living with a mindset designed to break me
There are women in parliament
women in business
women in religion
women in decision
yet there’s still not enough of you to make gender equality true
violence against women makes me black and blue
because her bruises are mine too you see
I live in the humanity of she
there are women on welfare, women being batter everywhere
women denied, women with stolen pride, women on the street
women talking other women cheap, women buying images from that nursery rhyme
there are women doing time, women in the home raising their children alone,
women in captivity with the cheque book and the Audi its about the money, is this equality
what kind of gender reality makes us free
What definition satisfies the woman in me
we are living in patriarchal red tape
all it seems to do is change its shape
and women don’t make it easier to take
we perpetuate the ‘bitch’ theme
playing into another male construction
we undermine sisters according to prescription of old ideas
of who we are or she should be
the monopoly of sex
and sexuality
is not about she
Yes, there are women in parliament
women in business
women in religion
women in decision
yet there’s still not enough of you to make gender equality true
violence against women makes me black and blue
because her bruises are mine too you see
I live in the humanity of she.
now you may believe we have
come out and claimed our space
but as long as theirs a woman
who has to fear her bodies reminder of a critical debate
that spells power and hate
and this is not just about rape
its about the dictate of shape
the dictate of the shape of your intellect
that boob job
the blonde, brunette
botox baby
she can’t run the company
accept maybe if she’ll sleep with me
and what about the condom fight
around the husband’s right
do we know how many people we are sleeping with?
Is there a degree that can set free me from my own mentality about me
how much academic rhetoric will destroy the disposition of
invisibility.
if we haven’t discovered our unity in diversity
gender equality won’t be a reality if you ask me
Yes, there are women in parliament
women in business
women in religion
women in decision
yet there’s still not enough of you to make gender equality true
violence against women makes me black and blue
because her bruises are mine too you see
I live in the humanity of she.
* Khadija Heeger is a poet and lives in Cape Town South Africa
It is of utmost importance that if you care to understand what is happening in Guinea, you rely on a news source that will give you a fair and balanced report or analysis of the situation on the ground. Most websites I have read over the past days (I will not name any but if you are Guinean you may be familiar with some of them) have what I call a novel like or surreal depiction of what is happening here. Most of the times the sources cannot even be identified. It feels like these are coffee table discussions that are being reported. They probably have their own anecdotal value but they are everything but news reports.
I recommend to you Reuters Conakry for an example and I actually know the qualified journalist who writes for Reuters (he was arrested a few years back for investigating a high profile story so you may weigh in his professional commitment). Simply google Reuters Conakry and you can read some balanced analysis and perspectives.
Please be careful on reports coming out of RFI or BBC or some other donor country's mainstream news agency. I am not sure about why their reporters carry this one dimensional reporting where serious facts are being omitted. Where reports try to present an idealistic revolution or movement from the people when the fact is that yes, there is a cry for change but what kind of change and for who? Guinea has a rich soil, underexploited with infinite potential, and some people outside of Guinea know it better than those inside; especially the peoples of Guinea. So who wants what for whom and by whom? And it seems to me from calls, chatrooms and discussions that the Guinean Diaspora is somewhat misinformed about what is happening here.
My own thoughts are that the current process is a result of the strike and has forced a dialogue between the government, the workers unions, and leaders of civil society in the presence of international institutions. The victims of 22 January and over the past weeks are unmistakably victims of this push for change, with a military regime or repressive state. However when the attacks and looting turned the strike into a war of classes, between the rich and the poor, not just targeting government officials, and also when the strike exacerbated ethnic tensions the threat of a civil war was serious and insecurity was high. Anyone could pull you out of your car just because you were driving a car, burn the car and take everything you had. This is exactly what was happening. They were attacking people in their homes and out in the streets where there were roadblocks. The declared state of emergency was the most appropriate response to restore civil order and give back the state its authority. After all Conte is still an 'elected' official. And since Monday they are back at the negotiations table.
So Guinea, in my analysis, is going through its own process of transition and change. The region is explosive already. We do not want another Liberia, another Sierra Leone or another Cote d'Ivoire. We have lost over 100 victims. That is too many, but that is in no comparison with over 250,000 in Liberia, 1,000,000 in Rwanda or over 4,000,000 if I am correct in the Great Lakes.
My message to all 'young' Guineans in the diaspora or friends of Guinea: this is a good time to form alliances and build your strategic and collective role in the new leadership and the new Guinea. Guinea needs a new mentality, and a new work culture. The change will happen I believe from within and not without. There is a huge need for dynamism, innovation and integrity. It is taking time but I am witnessing a few young people here demanding their rightful place in the new Guinea. The Forum des jeunes de Guinee, the Alliance des cadres et entrepreuneurs de Guinee, and others... That is a more realistic and positive reporting to me than all the news I read on the various websites. There is hope in Guinea.
* Mariam Yansane is on the Community Council of 'Women of Africa' (www.wafrica.org)
A new report by ICT Africa! explores the impact of ICT on private sector development, and how ICT can contribute to a vibrant SME sector and economic growth in the context of developing economies. The countries covered included Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
I would like also to communicate to you what has been happening in the province of Kongo Central (Bas-Congo). On 31 January, the police fired at a house presumed to be the one to house Ne Muanda Nsemi, leader of the Bundu dia Kongo. He had already called for a ville morte (people to stay home) for 1 February. He was not in the house as he had returned to Kinshasa for the funeral of his sister. Between 1-3 February 2007, in most of the cities of the province, people marched to protest the rampant corruption over the elections of Senators and Governors.
Our country is divided between a minority that has become rich due to being close to the treasury and the large majority that is over impoverished. The minority in the elections have been buying everything. The Presidential guards fired on the marchers. The causalities are now put at 750 dead, many wounded and many have been arrested. The official number is put at 87 dead. The MONUC, that apparently participated also, puts it at 134 dead. Since then, the president has said nothing. One of his advisers has said that the president having received the Bakongo notables of his obedience, why should he speak again? The UNSG has asked for an enquiry into the massacre. A rocket was used, at Moanda, to attack a BDK church where women and children went hiding. Those arrested are not being given a due process trial. An attorney, at Mbanza Ngungu, has suggested to try them in jails to avoid publicity! There is a plan, we are told, to kill the leader of BDK. Please do whatever you can to expose what is happening.
King Baudouin Foundation (KBF) international conference is a prelude to the "Global Forum on Migration & Development" and seeks to identify diaspora/migrant organizations dealing with south-south & north-south international migration. For further information contact: [email][email protected], or visit the website: www.afford-uk.org
This course is designed to support those who would like to teach about the right to food. The teaching that is contemplated may be formal or informal, with people living in poor communities, elementary school students, university courses, government officials, nongovernmental policy advocates, or other kinds of groups. Participants are asked to design their own specific teaching plans. These plans may be based on on-site face-to-face teaching, on-line teaching using the Internet, or a mixture of the two.
Reporters Without Borders have voiced concern about a physical attack on Jean-Bosco Gasasira, the managing editor of the independent fortnightly Umuvugizi, who was beaten unconscious on 9 February in Kigali. It followed months of verbal hostility from the Rwandan government towards the more outspoken, privately-owned media.
Reporters Without Borders have strongly condemned the murder in Baidoa of presenter Ali Mohammed Omar, of Radio Warsan, on 16 February and deplored the “deteriorating security situation” in Somalia which it said was taking a toll on journalists. Omar was shot in the head on his way home.
The first International Conference on Sexual Abuse of the African Child will be held in Nairobi, Kenya from 24 – 26 September, 2007. The conference is opening a Call for Papers for workshops and poster presentations. The aim of the conference is to advance knowledge regarding the various types of sexual abuse and their complexity in the cultural settings of Africa. Papers that address innovative prevention, intervention, and treatment of this problem; networking or collaborative efforts, as well as, research studies on the topic, are being invited. For further information: [email][email protected]
Mali has one of the highest rates of female circumcision in Africa, but organisations working to stop the practice say they are slowly making headway to change attitudes. About 92 per cent of all Malian girls between the ages of 15 and 49 have already undergone the harmful procedure, according to the government.
Egypt's main opposition, the Islamic Brotherhood, is again in trouble with their country's security that launched a raid on the movement's main bases in Cairo and the Nile Delta on February 14, arresting and detaining 80 of its members. Human rights and civil society groups have strongly protested the move.
I applaud Mr. Bropleh's article because it hits on the point that in order for us – Liberians - to move forward, we must learn about our past, come to terms with our failures and incorporate the experience of our nation into our vision for the future to make it a unifying national vision.
Two UN agencies have pledged to help poor countries tackle climate change and improve their environmental management skills. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) cemented a bond between fighting poverty and protecting the environment by launching a joint Poverty and Environment Facility in Nairobi.
Kenya has been opening its school doors to more women and creating strategies to spur their interest in math and science. As numbers change slowly, advocates are realizing they face a stubborn foe.
Great piece by Selome Araya. I would like to reproduce it on my website which I will be launching at the end of the month. How can I go about it? Secondly, if I want my pieces to appear on your website, how can I go about it, if it is a possibility?
Editor's reply: You are free to reproduce content from Pambazuka News provided that you always include the source of the article (Pambazuka News) and the URL of the article (in this case:
With your experience of working on development programmes in developing countries, we hope you'll have seen Comic Relief funded projects in action. Now's your chance to play a lead role in developing, managing and evaluating one or more of our grants programmes and driving forward our international grant making strategy
Samir Amin examines the processes and impacts of the World Social Forum and considers whether it is after all a useful forum for popular struggles.
The undeniable success of the World Social Forums (and of the national and regional forums), from their first edition (Porto Allegre 2001) to their seventh (Nairobi 2007) shows that the formula met a real objective need, felt by many militants and movements engaged in their struggles against neo-liberalism and the aggression, including military aggression, of imperialism. In these struggles, movements and militants have much renewed their forms of organisation and active intervention in society.
Yes, the dominant political culture of the left had been marked in the 19th and 20th centuries by practices based on the hierarchical vertical organisation of parties, trade unions and associations. In the circumstances of the period the movements they stimulated – radical and reformist social transformations, revolutions, national liberations – transformed the world, in a direction generally favourable to the working classes. Nevertheless the limits and contradictions specific to these forms of action appeared strongly from the 1980-1990 period. The democratic deficiency of these forms, going as far as the self proclamation of 'vanguards' armed with 'scientific' knowledge and the 'exclusive effective' strategy, are at the root of later disappointments: reforms and revolutions brought to power regimes of which the least that can be said is that they frequently badly kept their promises, often degenerate, sometimes in criminal directions. These failures made possible the return to the offensive of dominant capital and imperialism as from the 1980-1990 period.
The moment of euphoria of capital and imperialism – which went onto the offensive under the banner of neo-liberalism and globalisation – was short lived, 1990-1995. Very quickly the working classes entered the struggle to resist this offensive.
Yes, in general, this first wave of struggle placed itself on the ground of retaliation to the offensive in all its multi-dimensionality: resistance to economic neo-liberalism, to the dismantling of social benefits, to police repression, to the military aggressions of the US and its allies. The chain of these grounds of resistance is continuous, and according to the local circumstances, struggles are deployed mainly on the grounds of the immediate challenge with which people are confronted. In this sense the demand for market regulation, the promotion of women’s rights, the defence of the environment, the defence of public services, for democracy, armed resistance to the aggression of the US and its allies in the Middle East (Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon) are in-dissociable from each other.
In these resistance struggles the peoples have innovated. Many of the old political forces of the organised left remained aloof from these first struggles, timid in face of the aggression, sometimes won over to the liberal and imperialist options. The movement was initiated by the 'new forces', sometimes almost 'spontaneously'. In their deployment, these forces promoted the fundamental principle of democratic practice : refusing the vertical hierarchy, promoting the horizontal forms of cooperation in action. This advance of democratic consciousness must be considered as progress of 'civilization'. To the extent that it is reflected in the social forums, these must therefore be considered as perfectly 'useful' for the development of the struggles in progress.
The resistance struggles have recorded indisputable victories. They have initiated the defeat of the offensive of capital and imperialism. The US project to control the planet militarily, which is necessary to guarantee the 'success' of the globalisation in place, the 'preventive' wars conducted to ensure its effectiveness (invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, occupation of Palestine, aggression against Lebanon) have already visibly held in check the political project of imperialism. The so-called neo-liberal economic and social project, designed to provide a strong and stable base for the accumulation of capital – ensuring the maximum rate of profit at any price – is, in the opinion of the very authorities who are its authors (World Bank, IMF, WTO, European Union), incapable of imposing its conditions. It is 'falling apart': the Doha round of the WTO round is in an impasse, the IMF in financial collapse. The menace of a sudden economic and financial crisis is on the agenda.
The challenge to which the struggling peoples are confronted is entirely situated in the answer they give to the question asked here, in the terms so forcefully expressed by François Houtart, moving up from the collective consciousness of the challenges to the construction of the active social agents of the transformation.
Obviously this challenge concerns, well beyond the forums, the peoples themselves. To what extent does the collective consciousness find its expression in such forums? It is certainly present in unequal degrees of maturity, as always in history, depending on the moments, the places and the movements concerned.
But beyond this, do the forums contribute to the necessary advance of consciousness, to the construction of agents of transformation? To which extent this collective consciousness is reflected within the social forums? We will attempt to reply to this question further on.
Progress is and will be difficult. Because it implies (i) the radicalisation of the struggles and (ii) their convergence in diversity (to use the formula of the World Forum for Alternatives) in joint action plans, which imply a strategic political vision, the definition of immediate and more distant objectives (the 'perspective' which defines the alternative). The radicalisation of the struggles is not the radicalisation of the rhetoric of their words, but their articulation to the alternative project which they propose to substitute for the systems of social power in place: constructing social hegemonies (class alliances and compromises) imposing themselves as alternatives to the social hegemonies in power (those of the alliances dominated by capital, imperialism and the local comprador classes in its service). Beyond a wave of 'coordination' of struggles (or even simply exchanges of views) which does not enable their dispersion to be transcended (and thereby their weakness), convergence can only be the product of a 'politicisation' (in the positive sense of the term) of the fragmented movements. 'Non-political civil society', an ideology imported straight from the US, which continues to wreak devastation, is fighting against this demand.
Convergence in diversity and radicalisation of struggles will find their expression in the unavoidable construction of stages allowing (i) advances in democratisation (conceived as an endless process and not as a 'blueprint', supplied by the model of western representative political democracy) associated with (and not dissociated from) social progress, and (ii), the affirmation of the sovereignty of states, nations and peoples, imposing forms of globalisation which are negotiated and not unilaterally imposed by capital and imperialism. These definitions of the content of the alternative construction are certainly not accepted by all.
Some believe that democracy (multi-party system and elections), be it dissociated from the social question (subject to the working of the market), is better than nothing. However the peoples of Asia and Africa do not appear on the whole inclined to fight for this form of democracy dissociated from social progress (and even in fact associated at the present moment with social regression). They often prefer to rally para-religious/ethnic movements which have very little democracy about them. It may be regretted, but it would be better to ask the question why. Democracy can be neither exported (by Europe) nor imposed (by the US). It can only be the product of the conquest by the peoples of the South through their struggles for social progress, as was (and is) the case in Europe.
The very mention of nation, national independence or sovereignty makes some people’s skin crawl. Sovereignism is almost always qualified as a vice of the past. The nation is to be thrown into the rubbish bin, moreover globalisation has already made it obsolete. This thesis which is popular among the European middle classes finds no echo in the South, nor in the US, nor Japan.
Transformation in stages does not exclude the affirmation of the prospect in the long term. For some, including the author of these lines, this transformation is that of the socialism of the 21st century; others refuse socialism, for them it is henceforth definitively polluted by its practice in the last century. But all the same, even if the principle of convergence is accepted, its implementation will be difficult. Because it is a case of reconciling (i)the advances in democratic practice acquired in and by the struggles (having to abandon the nostalgia for movements commanded by the 'vanguards') (ii)the requirements of unity in action, modest or ambitious depending on the local (national) situations.
The principle of necessary convergence is not accepted by all. Certain so-called autonomist currents, more or less inspired by post-modernist formulations, reject it. The movements they inspire must be respected for what they are, a frontline struggle. Some go as far as maintaining that the movement, although it is dispersed, is constructing the alternative by itself, going as far as claiming that the 'individual subject' is already on the way to becoming the agent of the transformation (the theoretical vision of Negri). However many powerful mass movements engaged in great struggles do not adhere to this theory. It can also be thought that organisations inherited from the past – political parties, trade unions, and so on – are capable of transforming themselves in the direction of the required democratic practice. The thinkers of the autonomist currents affirm they are able to change the world without taking power. History will tell if this is possible, or an illusion.
In any case, whether it is in big organisations or small ones, the conflict opposes the logic of struggle (which insists on its needs) to the logic of organisation (which insists on the interests put into play by the leaderships in place or waiting to seize the leadership, the participation in the dominant power in place, and thereby encourages 'opportunism').
Convergence cannot be constructed at the world or regional levels if it is not first put in place on the national levels because these define and manage the concrete challenges. It is at these levels that the swing in the social and political balance of power in favour of the working classes will or will not occur. The regional and world levels may reflect national advances, no doubt facilitate them (or at least not hinder them), but hardly more.
Advances in the directions opening the way to the construction of the alternative are taking place at the moment in Latin America, in contrast to their absence, or near absence, elsewhere, in Europe, Asia and Africa. These advances, in Brazil, in Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and their visible possible coming success elsewhere – Mexico, Peru, Nicaragua – are precisely the product of the rationalisation of movements having reached the level of an effective critical mass, and their political convergence. These are revolutionary advances in the sense that they initiated the swing in the balance of social and political forces in favour of the working classes. Their success is due to their real practical answer associating the democracy of the management of the movements and the political focusing of their projects, overcoming the dispersion which dominates elsewhere.
Who could deny that the state powers that these advances have produced pose problems; that they risk getting bogged down under the pressure of external constraints and those of the local privileged classes? For all that, should the possibility that these changes (in power!), which open for the mass movements, be spurned? These powers will allow other advances, based on the association (and not on the dissociation) of the affirmation of national independence (vis-à-vis the US), of democratisation and social progress.
Elsewhere the image of reality, despite the struggles, is less promising. In Europe the priority given to the construction of the European Union encourages a slide towards social liberalism, the illusions being kept alive by the rhetoric of the third way, and of capitalism with a human face. Will the 'movement' succeed on its own in overcoming these handicaps? Personally I strongly doubt it and think that decisive changes in the orientation of the political power is a precondition, in particular the break with atlanticism (NATO is the enemy of the peoples of Europe). Others don’t think so. In Eastern Europe, fast on the way to becoming, in its real relations with Germany and Western Europe, the analogue to what was (and still is) Latin America in its relations with the USA, illusions are even greater.
In Asia and Africa we are seeing excesses which we qualify as culturalist and which feed the illusion of supposedly civilizational projects based on para-religious or ethnic gatherings. Here the talk of cultural diversity often comes to the help of this retreat into impasses. This talk is, moreover perfectly tolerated (even encouraged) by the capitalist and imperialist power.
It is necessary to know more at this point – how progressives have asserted themselves in Latin America, to know more about the reasons for the relative stagnation of the movements elsewhere, about their decline or defeat in certain cases. That should be the essential direction for numerous debates, in the forums and elsewhere. The world forums are meeting places and poorly equipped to provide an adequate framework for deepening these debates. The national and regional forums are or could be more suitable.
The proposals drawn up in the Bamako Appeal in January 2006 answered the call to give more importance to deepening the debates of this nature. They are only proposals and not imposed decisions. These were naturally refused on principle both by the extreme autonomist currents and by the mass of apolitical NGOs. But they are making their way elsewhere.
The World Social Forum Charter in no way forbids initiatives of the Bamako type, and the Bamako Appeal was moreover endorsed by Movements’ Assemblies . Nevertheless, this initiative irritated the WSF Secretariat. Why? Perhaps because it does not basically share the proposals contained in this appeal. Should we conclude from this that the secretariat aligned itself with apolitical NGOs (and perhaps the extreme autonomist currents) to close the forum to other currents of action? Who would deny that the document in question – drawn up by 200 participants in one day and a night – points out inadequacies, even contradictions. Should its drafters furthermore be accused of intellectual arrogance, of outmoded vanguardist attitudes, even of dangerous political motives? It would be necessary to show that the extremist autonomist currents produce nothing which is not the spontaneous, eloquent and coherent product of the direct expression of the masses, that the intellectuals who formulate the theses of these currents do not exist. It would be necessary to show that the apolitical NGOs do not hold views which, in fact, have an obvious political sense, in making their own the rhetoric of the system institutions: reduction of poverty, good governance and exacerbated culturalism.
The world forums have a history and a prehistory. They did not appear suddenly without preparation. François Houtart, Bernard Cassen and others have recalled the essential stages of this history, from the anti- Davos in Davos (1999) and other initiatives. The object of this paper is not to propose an assessment of their deployment over the last seven years. Even if one thinks that their success is certain and their impact real (which is our case); nevertheless emphasis must be put not on self-congratulation but on the weaknesses.
The authorities responsible for the actual management of the forums are various (secretariat, international council, leadership of the principal movements and NGOs represented). They are the focuses of power, by definition, as always, and it would be naïve to ignore it. Their often dominant concern is self assessment with respect to internal performance criteria, often of a very banal nature (quantity of participants, number, perhaps quality of the debates, direct material questions of organisation). The real criterion of assessment is external to the forums: do they contribute to facilitating the progress (rather than the stagnation, even the decline) of the struggles? It would be desirable that this dimension of the challenge find a greater echo in the assemblies and meetings organised by these authorities..
Taking the criticism a little further we venture to say that the world forums suffer from a growing imbalance in the presence of their participants. The forums, which are very costly in money and intellectual work, attract more NGOs (sometimes of course devoted to the support of the struggles) endowed with staff and financial means – those of the North, but also, in brutal terms, those of their Southern clientele – than the major movements in conflict. Hundreds of thousands of peasants engaged in fierce struggles, whole peoples confronting the machine guns and bombs of the imperialist occupier, sometimes make their voice heard here and there in a workshop. But many other organisations, sometimes insignificant in the scope of their action, dispose of workshops to make their propaganda. Let us speak frankly: some of these organisations are part of the system constituting safety valves rather than being part of the alternative. These failings of the world forums are also seen in the national forums. But here the immediate proximity of the forces in conflict with the existing order favours, at least potentially, the overcoming of the failings mentioned here.
The reconstruction of a front of countries and peoples from the South is one of the basic conditions for the emergence of another world, one not based on imperialist domination. Without in any way underestimating the importance of the transformations of all types which have originated in the societies of the North in the past and present, up to now these have remained harnessed to the imperialist wagon. One should therefore not be surprised that the great global transformations have originated in the revolt of the peoples of the peripheries, from the Russian revolution (the 'weak link' of the period) to the Chinese revolution and the non -aligned front (Bandung) which, for a moment, obliged imperialism to 'adjust itself' to demands which conflicted with the course of its expansion. This page, that of Bandung and of the Tri-continental (1955-1980), of a multi-polar globalisation, has been turned.
Since the conditions of globalisation in place preclude a remaking of Bandung, the current ruling classes of the countries of the South are trying to join this globalisation, which they sometimes hope to be able to change in their favour, but which they are not fighting. They divide into two groups of 'countries': those which have a national project (the nature of which – essentially capitalist but nuanced by concessions or their absence in favour of the working classes, but nevertheless in open or muted conflict with the imperialist strategies – may be discussed case by case), such as China or the emerging countries of Asia or Latin America; and those which have no project and agree to adjust unilaterally to the demands of the imperialist deployment (in this case they have compradore ruling classes). Variable geometry alliances are in the process of being constituted between the states (the governments), the emergence of which was seen within the WTO. The possibilities which these rapprochements can open up for the working class movements must not be disdained, but examined with open eyes.
Is a front of the peoples of the South, going well beyond the rapprochements between ruling classes, possible? The construction of this front remains difficult, handicapped as it is by the culturalist excesses here referred to, and by the confrontations they entail between peoples of the South (on pseudo-religious or pseudo-ethnic grounds). It would be less problematic if and to the extent that the states having a project would – under the pressure of their populations – evolve in a more resolutely anti-imperialist direction.
That implies that their projects free themselves from the rut of the illusion that resolutely and exclusively 'national capitalist' powers are in a position to influence imperialist globalisation in their favour and to enable their countries to become active agents of imperialist globalisation, participating in the fashioning of the global system, and not unilaterally adjusting to it. These illusions are still great and strengthened by nationalist rhetoric as well as that which encourages the emerging countries in the process of 'catching up' developed by the institutions in the service of imperialism. But to the extent that the facts refute these illusions, new popular and anti imperialist national blocks will be able to clear the way and facilitate the internationalism of peoples. It must be hoped that the progressive forces of the North will understand it and support it.
In conclusion it should be said that the future of the forums depends less on what happens within them than what develops elsewhere, in the peoples struggles and in the evolution of the geo-strategy of states. This does not lead to any pessimism about the forums, but it leads to modesty in assessing their achievements. In parallel then (and not in conflict) with the continuation of the forums militant actions, other forms of intervention are necessary, allowing the deepening of the debates and joint actions.
Since its creation in 1997, the World Forum for Alternatives has been engaged on this path. It is a network of numerous 'think-tanks' directly articulating social and political forces struggling against the system. It attempts to stimulate working groups (and not only exchanges of view) perhaps facilitating joint action fronts. For information: groups of trade unionists ('rebuilding the united labour front'), of peasants’ movements (imposing access to the land for the benefit of all peasants), of non-aligned political forces on the global policies of capital and imperialism, working on questions of international law or the reform of the United Nations system and the economic management systems of globalisation.
Many other national, regional and global networks are deploying praiseworthy efforts in comparable directions. We will not list them at length, but simply recall – as examples - what ATTAC represents in France, or the work of 'Focus on Global South', ARENA and so many others. It would be highly desirable, in the perspective of strengthening the effectiveness of the forums, that a greater presence of these programmes be reflected in the forums.
* Samir Amin is an Egyptian political thinker and is a director of the in Dakar, Senegal. He has written more than 30 books including Imperialism & Unequal Development, Specters of Capitalism: A Critique of Current Intellectual Fashions, Obsolescent Capitalism: Contemporary Politics and Global Disorder and The Liberal Virus. His memoirs were published in October 2006.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
The Sudanese government of Omar al Beshir continues to decline to cooperate with the Human Rights Council. This article argues that this defiance has implications for the concept of sovereignty and intervention when states are victimising their own citizens.
Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on Friday rejected a UN peace force for Darfur and said he would not grant visas to UN rights monitors who want to visit the strife-torn region. He also said that the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, led by Nobel peace laureate and anti-landmines campaigner Jody Williams, would not be allowed to travel to Darfur because its members were biased.
While the international community is looking for ways to prevent further human rights abuses in Africa, especially in Darfur, the government of Sudan has declined to cooperate with the Human Rights Council by refusing to issue the necessary visas for the High-Level Mission to carry out its work inside the country in fulfilment of its mandate. Indeed, on the final day of an Africa-France summit gathering in the Riviera resort of Cannes, Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir justified that decision during a news conference, in the following terms: 'There are members of that delegation who in our view are not impartial therefore it is difficult to say that they will be honest and reflect reality.'
This refusal blatantly breaches the Council’s decision to establish the mission, which was adopted by consensus following intense consultations that included the participation of representatives of the Sudanese government. Under Decision S-4/101, adopted on 13 December 2006, the Human Rights Council established a High-Level Mission to assess the human rights situation in Darfur and the needs of Sudan in that regard. The Council asked the Mission to report to its fourth session, which will start on 12 March 2007.
This development is shocking, considering that such statements and decisions come from the head of an African state where at least 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2,500,000 displaced since 2003 as a result of fighting. Despite repeated pledges to stop the violence, the Sudanese government has utterly failed to do so and political negotiations have stalled. Reasonably, one can argue that the collective shame and regret expressed over the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and the commitment of African states to the promotion and protection of 'human rights, the rule of law and good governance' on the continent as principles and objectives of the African Union have had little or no impact on the gross violations of human rights and mass killings committed with impunity in Darfur.
This case reflects a widely-held view of sovereignty: that allows governments to do essentially what they want within their own national borders. It should provide sufficient cause for a more serious and pragmatic assessment of the practicality of the principles of state sovereignty and intervention. In fact, having experienced genocide in Rwanda more than twelve years ago, what should the world do when a large number of people are victims of violence originating from within their own country?
Weak, failing, failed, and poverty-stricken states often use notional borders to preserve the fiction of effective sovereignty. This is certainly true in the case of Sudan and sets the context in which any discussion of intervention on the continent should be placed. Khartoum’s government is invoking sovereignty, firstly, as a veil to hide its brutal campaign against civilians; and secondly, as a shield to fend off calls for international action to protect its victims. While respect for the sovereignty of Sudan must be upheld as a core principle of international law, general principles of international law and the AU Constitutive Act itself provide for inherent limitations on the exercise of this principle, inter alia, where what is at stake is the protection of citizens from exposure to grave and massive violations of human rights in the absence of the willingness or ability of the state to protect. Therefore, Sudan should be taught that sovereignty, properly defined, is not a defence against demands for redress of breaches or gross violations of fundamental human rights.
The deteriorating situation in Darfur demonstrates how urgent it is for African leaders and the international community to move the debate of sovereignty versus intervention beyond semantics and to reach a consensus on when a defence of 'state sovereignty' is patently unacceptable.
* Joseph Yav Katshung is a human rights lawyer from Congo.
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
We are pleased to announce that Ms Solome Nakaweesi Kimbugwe took office as of 15 February 2007 and will be based at our HQ in Kampala, Uganda.
We are very pleased with this appointment as Solome brings with her unique skills and experience which will be a tremendous asset to AMwA and its future development. We are proud to recruit Solome who is an alumni of the African Women’s Leadership Institute (AWLI), and thus bears testimony to AMwA’s investment in women’s leadership development. Following the AWLI in 2003, she rose through the ranks to head her organisation the Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET). During her tenure as Coordinator, UWONET has grown as an institution and has become an effective voice for women’s rights in Uganda. With her experience, skills and energy, Solome is ready to take on the challenge of heading AMwA, an international organisation.
Pambazuka News 291: Cultural paradigm for Liberia's reconstruction
Pambazuka News 291: Cultural paradigm for Liberia's reconstruction
The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children has released the report "Room to Maneuver: Lessons from Gender Mainstreaming in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations." The report seeks to share lessons and learning on the diverse approaches and methodologies used by various UN agencies to implement former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's directive to mainstream gender in all UN agencies.
Foreign donors gave $70 million on Thursday to help Zimbabwe cope with growing numbers of AIDS orphans in what officials said was a rare show of unity among the government, donors and non-governmental organisations.
Health authorities in Togo are carrying out a vaccination campaign in the north after the first outbreak of yellow fever in that region in more than 20 years. The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed four cases of the disease in the regions of Savanes and Kara in December and January.
Fifty-seven people, including four soldiers, have died since Monday in clashes pitting the army against warriors belonging to the Karamojong community in Uganda's northeastern district of Kotido, the military said.
Members of the small Liberian community in Tel Aviv have appealed to the Israeli government to allow them to extend their stay in Israel. The appeal comes seven months after the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) representative in Israel wrote to all Liberian refugees directing them to return to Liberia by 31 March 2007.
Hundreds of people in Rwanda's northwestern region displaced by floods are suffering from food insecurity, a local government official has said. "The term 'disaster' cannot really capture the suffering of the people here," Pénélope Kantarama, the governor of Western Province, said on Wednesday.
With presidential elections looming, many in Senegal are concerned that the country’s largely peaceful history at the polls is about to be shattered. So far no one has been killed or suffered major injuries ahead of the 25 February vote.
The introduction of tele-medicine facilities in two of Uganda's rural hospitals will close the distance between patients and doctors.
Airtime selling vendors are to be introduced in Nigeria to meet the growing demand by mobile phone users in the country.
UNESCO will support the refurbishment of Personal Computers as long as they benefit the end-users, adding that in most countries of the world, PC refurbishing initiatives are now active - covering a whole range of tasks from mobilizing donors of second-hand PCs to procurement, refurbishment, transportation, distribution, installation, maintenance and training on the use of refurbished PCs.
Increasing computer literacy in Kenya's secondary schools is a prerequisite for improving ITs in the education system, education minister Prof. George Saitoti has said. And if Kenya wants to attain the Millennium Development Goals of reducing literacy levels, the government education policies must embrace the spirit of "technology" by introducing an ICT syllabus in all secondary schools.
Two prominent leaders of the Manasir, one of three groups being displaced by the Merowe Dam in Sudan, have narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by security personnel employed by the Merowe Dam Implementation Unit on 10th February 2007.
The Merowe Dam, funded by the China Ex-Im Bank, is currently under construction on the River Nile, 350 kilometres north of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
Unite States' special envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios said in Washington DC recently that southern Sudan’s leaders were struggling to implement good governance practices, and that there appeared to be substance to allegations that some donor funds that had been allocated to development in the region had been misappropriated.
Global Integrity (GI) director, Marianne Camerer, has said that despite South Africa making notable gains in its fight to stem graft, opportunities still existed for high-level corruption in the country.
With the establishment of the Africa Command (Africom) slated for 2008, the Pentagon is becoming as important a player as the State Department in as far as relations between the US and Africa. This latest move, the details of which are not yet clear, but could involve increased US troop deployments and bases, should be raising more eyebrows than it already has on the continent. This especially so since Africa was previously well covered between the European Command (EUCOM), Central Command (CENTCOM), and the Pacific Command (PACOM).
A worrying aspect to this latest development is that it has received bi-partisan support in Washington. – As Sen. Russ Feingold (D), chair of the Senate committee on Africa puts it, "An Africa Command would help the U.S. military focus on a continent that is essential to our national security…An Africa Command is vital to strengthening our relations with African nations and preventing them from becoming staging grounds for attacks against the U.S. or our allies." This would mark a shift towards increased militarization of the US approach to Africa.
Africom covers countries that have strategic interests for the US in Africa. Nigeria is an obvious choice to fall under the umbrella of Africom as a major supplier of oil to the US. The other countries covered by AFRICOM are Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Morocco. All these countries have indicated some links between internal dissent and Al-Qaeda activity.
The recent events in Somalia involving both the US and Ethiopia have raised interesting questions about the global war on terror, such as the origin of the intelligence reports citing presence of Al-Qaeda, which led to US intervention.
Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq provide valuable lessons about the lasting internal effects of ill-considered external intervention. The latest involvement in Somalia portends to a worrying trend of baiting US intervention by alluding to the presence of Al-Qaeda linked groups. Nigeria, Chad, Algeria and Mauritania are dealing with internal tensions that could be further worsened by US involvement. The potential impact of Africom on democracy in Africa is significant.
In a paper published by the Center or International Policy, Paul Lubeck et al point to the contradictory and flawed reasoning behind seeking to bolster security in Africa as an alternative source of petroleum to replace over-reliance on the Middle-East which is an increasingly unstable supply. The nature of US involvement through Africom could seed the very same tensions and instability that the US is eager to avoid in the Middle East.
The Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI) involves bolstering of continental militaries ostensibly to enable them better deal with “terrorist” activity in their territories. Given the continent’s bad history of militarism and the use of force against citizens, the implications for the future of democracy and civilian rule may be further jeopardized.
Further Reading:
Center for International Policy
The Guardian – US Moves in on Africa
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2009098,00.html
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/mumia-abujamal.jpgListen to radio esssays by activist journalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal "Live from Death Row" in the United States. Abu-Jamal was on death row after having been convicted of the murder of a Philadelphia Police Officer, but is now serving life in Pennsylvania Maximum Security State Prison.
For further information on the campaign to secure Mumia Abu-Jamal's release vist .
Zimbabwe's government "abandoned" its court case against Mail & Guardian chief executive Trevor Ncube on Thursday after it had prevented him at the end of last year from renewing his passport, claiming he was not a citizen of Zimbabwe.
Ncube publishes the Standard and the Zimbabwe Independent in that country.
The High Court yesterday rejected a requirement by the Government that broadcasting houses seek State approval before airing some of their programmes. The landmark verdict was delivered in a case filed six years ago in the Constitutional Court by Nation Media Group, challenging the directive issued by the minister for Information, Transport and Communication at the time.
The Daily Nation reports that at least 10 election petition cases remain unresolved with less than 11 months to the General Election. And as the country moves closer to elections, there are fears that some of the incumbent MPs could take advantage of loopholes in the existing petition laws as a tactic to delay the cases until Parliament is dissolved, thereby allowing them to serve the full five-year term.
China's foray into Africa in search of much needed raw materials, natural resources and new markets for its booming economy has elicited controversy and disquiet amongst African political leaders and policy analysts. Granted that much of the expansion in trade between Africa and China has been in the latter's favour, China's domination of African markets is now being viewed in some circles as some form of " latter day economic imperalism" under which Africa serves as a source of raw materials and provides a market for Chinese end products. But now, South African firms are taking on the dragon in its own turf as this article published recently in the Washington Post shows.
A report by the Center For International diplomacy analyzes the links between the establishment of an African military command (AFRICOM) by the US department of defense and the need to secure strategic oil interests in Nigeria as part of a so-called "Oil Triangle" centered on the Gulf of Guinea. The report raises questions about the US government's Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI).
A report released by the International Crisis Group examines the political crisis faced by Guinea following the appointment of close Conté associate Eugene Camara, as prime minister, and the ensuing opposition strikes that have plunged the country into chaos.
In her new book "Child Soldiers in Africa", Alcinda Honwana draws on her firsthand experience with children of Angola and Mozambique, as well as her study of the phenomenon for the United Nations and the Social Science Research Council, to shed light on how children are recruited, what they encounter, and how they come to terms with what they have done.
In "Female Circumcision: Multicultural Perspectives" Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf (Ed) brings African women's voices into the discussion on female circumcision, foregrounds indigenous processes of social and cultural change, and demonstrates the manifold linkages between respect for women's bodily integrity, the empowerment of women, and democratic modes of economic development.
The following letter, addressed to Jeni Whalan, Convenor, RSSAF, is reproduced here with the permission of the author.
Dear Jeni,
Really glad that you have decided to clarify where Afrisoc and RSSAF lie on this issue and that censorship of the book is not your intention.
Not sure about the portrayal of the book as one sided, but in any case, is this necessarily a bad thing? If you held to this principle, I am not sure whether we would be able to display very many books, including that of the Chinese Government's own perspective on contributing to development in Africa.
I am disappointed that you have held to your earlier decision. Displaying the book should not imply endorsement, the organisers could make this clear and even go as far as disassociating the organisers from the perspectives contained in the book if you feel so strongly. It clearly sets a bad precedence to refuse to display materials that are central to the discussions being planned. The more commercial issues are less controversial given Fahamu's non-profit mission. I am sure you could work out something with Firoze Manji.
I would urge you to reconsider and not block the book from being displayed. In so doing, you would uphold rather than violate a fundamental freedom, the freedom of expression. Perhaps there are other books on China and Africa that could be displayed as well.
I have no vested interests in the book, sit 4,500kms away in Nairobi but feel these small decisions create the climate for more fundamental victories and failures. Closing down the space for any perspective, any view on such a significant development in Africa's political economy will hurt us as Africans and Africanists in the long run.
The Education and Training Unit runs a free website with over 80 guides for development activists in South Africa. ETU is a non-profit training organisation committed to development and democracy. The guides are simple and practical and written by experienced community organisers. The site is used by more than 100 000 people per month from all over the world.
IRIN news reports that the United States has promised to write off US $391 million of debt to help Liberia recover from its 14-year civil war, although this is a fraction of the $3.7 billion that the nation owes international lenders.
Rising levels of rape and sexual exploitation of women and teenage girls in Liberia have sparked concern by both the government and women's rights groups. Despite a peace agreement in 2003, these types of violent abuse were still common, according to Lois Bruthus, head of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia (AFELL), a leading advocacy group.
The Eritrean government and civil society have expressed optimism that efforts to combat female genital mutilation (FGM) were bearing fruit, saying the campaign against the practice was gaining support in rural villages where excision was most common.
At least 30,000 people have been displaced and 60 killed in continuing clashes over land in the western Mt Elgon District of Kenya, the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) said on Wednesday.
The Dutch-based multinational Trafigura has agreed to pay the equivalent of US $198 million to the Cote d’Ivoire government in a settlement over a toxic waste scandal. In exchange, Ivorian officials have agreed to abandon legal action against the company.
Angola appears to be in no hurry to hold its first elections in more than a decade, political observers commented, but many voters are hoping that casting their ballot will translate into improved living standards. President Jose Eduardo dos Santos last week explicitly referred to 2008 as the year legislative elections would be held, with a presidential ballot to follow in 2009.
At least US$62 million is required to repatriate 98,500 Congolese refugees and to provide aid for 1.1 million internally displaced persons in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the United Nations.
The Bishop of Central Tanganyika, the Rt Revd Godfrey Mdimi Mhogolo, has said that the issue of homosexuality was not fundamental to the Christian faith. “We share the sufferings and hurts of the people we serve...We also work for the hope of glory in trying to transform the lives of our people, regardless of their colour, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and social status”, he added.
A number of South African media organizations have agreed that the findings of a research project, saying there is limited coverage, as well as a lack of in-depth reporting about LGBTI issues by media are true. The research was conducted by the
Gay and Lesbian Archives of South Africa (GALA), in conjunction with Community Media for Development (CMFD).
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf described the achievements of her year-old government in recovering from a prolonged civil war and called upon the U.S. and other Liberian partners to drop the debt inherited from past governments, continue security assistance, and step up development assistance, especially road building.
According to a symposium report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Liberian women have identified the enhancement of national security as a key area of focus in the reconstruction of Liberia alongside the revitalization of the economy, strengthening governance and the rule of law, and the rehabilitation of the infrastructure.
According to high-ranking officials speaking at a UNIFEM-sponsored Gender Justice Workshop for South Sudan, the government of Southern Sudan has provided policy instruments designed to protect women and girls and ensure that women's concerns are addressed. What remains to be done is translating these policy instruments into laws and implement them.
Drought cycles are coming more often to northeastern Uganda: every two years instead of every five, according to a Reuters report. This year, crops dried out when the rains failed, leaving about half a million people dependent on United Nations food aid.
Kibera is the de rigeur stop off for caring foreign dignitaries. It reached a worldwide audience as a backdrop to the British blockbuster "The Constant Gardener". Andrew Cawthorne reports for Reuters that any journalist wanting a quick Africa poverty story can find it there in half an hour. And now at least one travel agency offers tours round Kenya's Kibera slum, one of Africa's largest.
Just more than a year after Jakaya Kikwete was elected president of Tanzania his name was mentioned in the halls at the Africa Union (AU) summit in January in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as the possible new chairperson of the AU. As IPS reports, the fact that Kikwete's name was mentioned made delegates take note of the progress Tanzania has made under his leadership , not least towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The school year kicks off in Mozambique with more children enrolling for primary school than ever in the past. But, as Ruth Ansah Ayisi of IPS reports, educational prospects remain bleak for orphans like Regina Massango.
Six Bushmen have been arrested, starved and held for six days after police and wildlife guards accused them of hunting in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana. They were then released without charge. The arrests come only two months after the Bushmen’s landmark court victory.
UK aid agency Oxfam has warned a new humanitarian catastrophe, like that in Darfur, could happen in Chad if ethnic conflict is not brought under control. Inter-ethnic fighting along the border with Darfur has displaced tens of thousands of Chadians in the past year.
I spent New Year with two visiting friends, both of them Ugandan, who have been living outside of the country for most of their lives. One is more Nigerian than I can ever claim to be. He is married to a Nigerian, and I am not. He has lived in the country for the past 30 years, which I have not done. Having left home at 22, I could not go back for a decade and a half. I have never spent more than one month there since 1999, when I was ‘allowed’ back. The other friend crossed over to yankee-land, studied, worked and became famous - though he has never lost his Kabale roots. The former is Professor Okello Oculli and the latter is ‘Mr Terrific’, the hugely popular anchorman of VOA’s mass audience programme, Straight Talk Africa.
We were invited to dinner by an Eritrean sister, the immediate director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Nairobi, Aki Aseghedech, and her visiting brother, the former long-term minister in the EPLF government of Eritrea, Tesfaye. Tesfaye - like a few other prominent refugees from president Afworki’s one-man rule - is now working with the UN.
They say opposites attract in marriage but there are more opposites than cupid could conjure up between these two siblings. Aki is a hot-blooded radical who sometimes makes me seem like a ‘moderate’! But the brother is more sedate - though no less a revolutionary. He is one of those stoics who can keep his brains on ice while his heart is on fire.
You can just imagine the kind of conversation, intellectual and political exchanges around that dinner table that night. Five widely travelled and politically committed Africans, none of them in their country of birth, but feeling no less African. All angry because they know that their individual countries and Africa as a whole can and deserves to do better than it is doing at the moment. Our heated conversations and passionate exchanges over all kinds of topics and themes from the global to the local gave me more hope than anything that although this continent might be down, it is not out: not yet, and it will not be, so long as there are many Africans not giving up on themselves, and on Africa. But it also confirmed to me the necessity to heed Karl Marx’s advice and move from ‘interpreting the world’ to ‘changing it’.
I had promised a friend that I would come to their church. So soon after honking in the New Year, we left Aki’s beautiful home in one of the most posh areas of Nairobi - which residents call Nairobbery - because of the high rate of crime! Since I was the driver, my two guests had no choice but to go to where I was going. And that’s how we arrived at the Parklands branch of the Nairobi Pentecostal Church, joining the faithful in their midnight service for the New Year. There were hundreds of worshippers who had been keeping vigil all night, pouring out their hearts to God in anticipation of good tidings. One would have thought that I, being born a Muslim, would be the most uncomfortable in the church. But thanks to my missionary education, lifelong love of Christmas carols and Christian choirs, I acquitted myself well. But one of my guests was more uncomfortable. He cannot remember when he was last in a church. Just imagine a scenario in which a Muslim was trying to placate the nerves of a person born and christened in a church! But that’s another story, to be continued another time. Anyway, we survived the service.
Okello has again been visiting Nairobi, and we got involved in church-related conversations again. A few days ago, in my office, we were engaged in a half day discussion about God in Africa. A firebrand Anglican reverend, responsible for mobilising 45 million Anglicans on this continent, came to my office to say hello. We were still halloing three hours later. Our discussions soon veered towards the church in Africa. The context is a Kenya that has been gripped by the story of a very popular born-again reverend, Rose Wanjiru whose desire to marry another Charismatic priest from South Africa had been the subject of a very public legal tussle. It turns out that this self-proclaimed bishop has been married before and had children. The husband in question went to court to stop the marriage, and also demand ‘his conjugal rights’ from a woman he had married under customary law and had never divorced! The courts stopped the marriage. The battle continues both in the law courts and the court of public opinion. However it has raised questions about the role of the church, and the ever-growing born-again, Pentecostal charismatic church across the continent.
Okello, our Anglican reverend sister, and I spent hours discussing this. There were no conclusions to our exchanges, though a number of issues are becoming clear. First, the Pentecostals are occupying a vacuum created by the established churches, which focus more on delivering their herd to heaven. Whereas, the Pentecostals offer God’s kingdom on earth. Second, while the established churches preach humility, poverty and guilt, the born-again (or mulekole as they are called in Uganda) preach prosperity and ‘feel good’ ideologies. For instance Bishop Wanjiru admits to fornication, children outside marriage, witchcraft and all kinds of failings, but then says, ‘see what God has done in my life, if I can make it so can you’.
These ideologies offer hope to the hopeless in a way that no government, president or CSO activist can do. We know many of them are fraudulent but their supporters believe they are God’s ‘little angels’ with all kinds of miracle prayers that can solve their immigration problems, marriage and other relationship challenges, barrenness, even HIV/Aids. And even but more importantly: their poverty. They offer bargain priced prosperity, as captured in one of their more popular slogans, 'a giver never lacks'. The more you give to God the more you are entitled to expect. They proclaim ‘Jesus is the answer’; but never quite tell their believers what the question is. What can or should we do about it? It is not enough to say ‘religion is the opium of the masses’, because it is both the rich, the very rich, the poor and poorest who are flocking to be saved. It is not just the ‘uneducated’ masses, but our highly educated and professional classes who are seeking salvation and refuge from the helter-skelter rat race of their lives.
And it is not only these churches that are witnessing revivals, but all religions. Many Muslims are becoming radicalised thanks to Bush and Blair’s ‘wars on terror’, that has made Islam and Muslims targets. Are the manmade problems of the world so out of control that ‘Only God’ can solve them? Or are we inventing God as a shield and convenient excuse to avoid facing up to these problems, both personally and politically? What has God got to do with poverty? What has he got to do with rapacious globalisation, intolerance, Iraq, the Niger Delta, Darfur, Palestine and Lebanon? It is about time God issued a disclaimer!
* Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is the Deputy Director for the UN Millennium Campaign in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes this article in his personal capacity as a concerned Pan-Africanist.
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org
Nigeria’s government says it will ban all political leaders, including Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who have allegedly been indicted by the economic and financial crimes commission (EFCC), from participating in April’s presidential elections.
An American student and his Rwandan colleagues in the U.S. and Rwanda have joined forces to build a public library in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. The American Friends of the Kigali Public Library (AFKPL), a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, is committed to working with the Rotary Club of Kigali-Virunga, Rwanda, to spearhead the construction of the library.
Police in Harare continued Wednesday to hold some 14 students arrested Tuesday for trying to organize a demonstration in the Zimbabwean capital, sources said. Sources in the Zimbabwe National Students Union said the 14 were denied food and legal counsel until late Wednesday.
FEATURES: Doeba Bropleh outlines a new paradigm for Liberia’s reconstruction
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- International NGOs: Mukoma Wa Ngugi examines the threat to African democracies?
- An open letter to President Mbeki from South African feminists
- Selome Araya on the misrepresentation of Africa by the international media and assorted humanitarian campaigns
LETTERS: on the rejection of a new PM by the Guinean people and the furore over China in Africa book
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem writes on religion and the ideology of hope
BLOGGING AFRICA: Harnessing wind power in the Niger Delta and other Nigerian stories
BOOKS & ARTS: Carbon trading exposed and a homage to Nuruddin Farah
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: AU remains hopeful and hesitant
PODCASTS: Live from death row by Mumia Abu-Jamal
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Change or chaos in Guinea?
HUMAN RIGHTS: Rights groups call for Nlandu's release in DRC
WOMEN AND GENDER: Liberian women decry post-war violence
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Liberian refugees in plea to Israeli government
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Nigerian VP to be barred from poll
AFRICA AND CHINA: South African firms take on the Dragon
DEVELOPMENT: AFRICOM – Opening the Third Front
CORRUPTION: “Vulture Funds” threaten Developing World
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: 3GSM Cell-phones to fight AIDS
EDUCATION: Choice between school and survival in Mozambique
ENVIRONMENT: Caught between drought and guns in Uganda
LGBTI: Human rights failures in Nigeria
LAND AND LAND RIGHTS: Dozens killed in Kenya land clashes
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Zimbabwe courts abandon case against Ncube
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Social development portal launched in Kenya
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops and Jobs
A smugglers boat capsized off the coast of Yemen earlier this week leaving at least 30 people dead amid a recent spike in people smuggling across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia. Chief UNHCR spokesperson, Ron Redmond, told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday that at least 30 Somalis and Ethiopians died when the boat – carrying 120 people – foundered as it approached the Yemeni coast on Monday.
A high court judge in London is due to rule whether so-called vulture fund can extract more than $40m from Zambia for a debt which it bought for less than $4m according to a BBC report. There are concerns that such funds are wiping out the benefits which international debt relief was supposed to bring to poor countries.
With one eye on the chaotic and violent land transfers in Zimbabwe which has left the country unable to feed itself, South Africa has sought an orderly redistribution. But even supporters say the reform is failing, with just 4% of white-owned land transferred so far, Chris McGreal reports for The Guardian.
South Africa is overhauling its AIDS strategy in a bid to counter the rise of extreme drug resistant tuberculosis which is proving a serious threat to those suffering HIV/AIDS, a senior official has said.
The head of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Olive Shisana, has called on government to prioritize treatment for HIV-positive teachers and nurses, saying the country cannot afford to let these key service providers die.
The tiny mountain kingdom of Lesotho heads into its fourth general elections on Saturday with the ruling party trying to fight off a concerted challenge from one of its former leading lights.
THE 2007 WORLD Social Forum in Nairobi highlighted some of the strengths--but also problems and limitations--of the international conferences. In fact, questions remain over the future of the WSF, with no meetings scheduled for 2008 and no location announced for the next planned event in 2009.
"From Uganda to Guatemala, the book provides shocking case studies of carbon offset project after project that went wrong. Land grabbing, human rights violations and illegal evictions."
According to Tony Blair recently – it is possible to combine having a good time with taking care of apocalyptic climate change. He was responding to criticism that he had set a bad example by jetting off to Florida for the annual Blair family holiday. His answer to the spoil-sport environmentalists was to pay a carbon offset company Climate Care to 'neutralise' the emissions from the air travel. Carbon offsets allow a polluter (Blair in this case) to continue life as usual (flying cheaply) by paying an intermediary (Climate Care) to invest their money (minus administration costs of course) in a project that reduces emissions of greenhouse gases somewhere else. This in turn caused a secondary furore because the concept of carbon offsets is a pretty controversial one. In the background of this media frenzy, the highly respected Dag Hammerskjöld Foundation published their new book “Carbon Trading: a critical conversation on privatisation, climate change and power” edited by Larry Lohmann that does a comprehensive demolition job on Blair's fun-loving approach to the end of the world as we know it.
From Uganda to Guatemala, the book provides shocking case studies of carbon offset project after project that went wrong. Land grabbing, human rights violations and illegal evictions, the collection of essays catalogues the abuses perpetrated in the name of 'saving the planet'. In Uganda, the Dutch FACE Foundation tree-planting project in the Mount Elgon national park is an example of the occupying force that Northern polluters can have in a Southern country. Since 1994 the Foundation have been planting trees on 25,000 hectares of land where the carbon 'rights' have been given over to them for the next 100 years. This is for the primary purpose of offsetting carbon dioxide emissions. The land within the boundaries of the park is hotly contested and 300 families were evicted in 2002. Communities living on the borders of the park who previously relied on the wood, herbs and animals of the forest now risk being shot at by guards if they trespass. The book argues that because land is politically contentious across the South, the exclusion of local people from this resource to protect 'carbon offsets' of rich Northern polluters can only be seen as an exercise in neo-colonialism.
However it is not only the dubious projects that the book takes issue with but also the wider system of carbon trading into which they fit. Carbon trading lies at the heart of the international treaty on climate change – the Kyoto Protocol. It is the mechanism through which corporate polluters and industrialised governments can trade greenhouse gases instead of reducing their own emissions. It works on the same principle as offsets but with the added bonus that countries and companies can trade credits between themselves rather than invest directly in a project. In this way it acts as a kind of currency. The chapter on the history of its birth onto the UN scene from US fossil fuel lobbyists via the Clinton administration is a fascinating insight into the horse-trading and brinkmanship that goes on at international negotiations. It is also a disturbing glimpse into the machinations of corporate power and neoliberal infiltration of the environmental sphere.
In the conclusion, the book's editor Larry Lohmann gives a stirring analysis of the political dangers of carbon trading by pointing out that in the short life of the climate negotiations, discussion of the precise details of the mechanism has become a “dangerous sideshow”. This has served to distract and confuse environmentalists and policy makers. In fact, for Lohmann, the resignation of policy makers to accept carbon trading as the only show in town is quitters talk. This desperate diplomacy ignores the plethora of existing tried and tested strategies that create dramatic social change. For him change does not occur in small rooms by planners but by move and counter move by all social actors in a slow and painful process of political democratisation of the issues. What climate change needs is a process of “decentring”. Shifting the solutions away from top-down entities such as the World Bank and international diplomacy and more towards grassroots movements that are already making headway on keeping fossil fuels in the ground.
If you thought carbon trading was a dull subject, think again. This book not only demonstrates that it is on the front-line of the conflict with neo-liberalism and corporate power but has infused the issue with the thrill of inspiring social justice movements across the South. If the topic intimidates you, the question and answer style of the book makes it accessible and informal. When you feel you're getting lost, the conversation steps back and gives a chance to reflect and regroup. Plus it's not all doom and gloom, the many strategies Lohmann lays out for tacking climate change from a social justice perspective are inspiring and dare I say they sound like fun! So I guess it all comes down to what your idea of a good time is after all Mr Blair.
You can order the book at
Birth of a baby must be a blessing event
But mine was nothing short of a curse
Daddy's face didn't shine. Drums didn't make noise
No shots were fired. No ceremony was held
The new born was me. I am a girl
In my culture, gender counts most.
A girl is not as welcome as a baby boy
Raising camel in the rangeland
is family's highest priority
They believe a girl has no hands for that
Harsh combat against the enemies
is family's highest priority
They believe a girl has no heart for that
Reconciliation in the aftermath of a clash
is family's highest priority
They believe a girl has no head for that
At five I had to face the worst
A knife cut across my genitals
A midwife circumcised me
Stitched me. Infibulated me
Where I used to have a clit
I have a black scar now
Why inflict me with this pain?
This real Pain of primitive cultures
In tears I am, at every stage of my life
Mom and Dad, I'm I not a daughter?
Dear Brother, I'm I not a sister?
Dear mankind, wherever you are
I'm I not a human being?
Tears, Tears, Tears
Job title : Editor in Chief for public broadcasting survey. The Open Society Institute, an international grant making foundation, seeks an Editor-in-Chief for a survey of public service broadcasting in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Department of Politics and International Relations proposes to appoint a University Lecturer in Comparative Politics with special reference to the African Politics. The post is tenable from 1st September 2007 or as soon as possible thereafter and will be held in conjunction with a Tutorial Fellowship at St Peter’s College for which further information is given in Section 8. The closing date for applications is 12:00 NOON (UK time) on Tuesday 6th March 2007. The post-holder will be provided with support facilities and office space in St Peter’s College.
The Community Education Computer Society (CECS), an ICT training NGO, seeks to fill the position of Project Officer and Content Editor on a fixed-term contract basis.
The celebration of one thousand years of the existence of famous Kanem-Borno Dynasty coincides with the one hundred years of the establishment of the city of Yerwa, the capital of modern Borno State of Nigeria. The Organising Committee of the Celebrations is convening an international conference of scholars, both from within and outside, scheduled for August 2007 at Maiduguri.
Amidst debates on whether or not to allow the use of cell phones in schools, the Meraka Institute has put its expertise in information and communications technology (ICT) to work in an effort to use these devices positively in a teaching and learning environment.
Africa’s 53 Heads of State ended their first summit of the year in Addis Ababa with a strong pledge to foster democratic culture and respect for fundamental rights. But these commitments were made beneath an avalanche of concern over an apparent reluctance to reign in errant members complicit in the violation of fundamental rights and freedoms.
In recent times, this concern has revolved mostly around the deteriorating situation in Darfur. The tenuous discussion on Sudan’s suitability to chair the AU and adoption of the charter on democracy at this last summit indicated a renewed but cautious sense of affirmation by the African Union to break new ground. But it also showed the lack of clear determination to reign in members not playing by the rules and violating organizational principles clearly evident in the failure to exert clear demands on Sudan.
The decision to devote the forthcoming summit in Accra to a consideration of the proposal on Pan Africa federalism has reinforced a sense of optimism and steer that the AU is intent on breaking new ground towards consolidating continental unity. Even then, there are serious questions on the viability of some of this and other proposals. The democracy charter has for instance faced reservations from several countries while southern Africa countries have expressed strong sentiment on the union government proposal. In the circumstances, a lot of backroom negotiations will need to take place before harnessing consensus on contested issues.
The recent AU summit took place at a significant moment when the African Union Commission prepares for the homestretch on its current mandate, which expires at the end of the year. A new commission will be constituted in 2008 following the election of new commissioners with a clear mandate to steer the AU into its next phase. The summit was also the penultimate session for the current chairperson, Professor Alpha Konare, whose term expires this September. Professor Konare, a former president of Mali, is not expected to bid for a second term setting the ground for a new set of eyes to steer the organisation’s overall strategic vision and mandate.
AU needs to reflect on its performance as it seizes itself for new demands and expectations and the hankering over Sudan best exemplified the dilemma facing the AU at this critical moment rather than the new thresholds of ambition being set for the organisation. The concern to stave off a diplomatic standoff with Sudan obscured the imperative to reign in Sudan and wrench out clear commitments from Khartoum on Darfur following months of negotiations with the AU.
Hence, even though the new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon described Darfur as “the world’s worst humanitarian disaster” and promised to make it a key priority of his leadership, the AU failed to deal tough with Sudan. Once Sudan’s bid to lead the AU was dispensed with, the Darfur crisis slowly tapered off. Here, the AU was squarely in focus over the limited capacity of its peace monitors to stem the killing and suffering of thousands of civilians in the hands of the government-backed janjaweed militia. Even though the AU has expended much energy in seeking resolution to the Darfur conflict, Africa’s leaders gathered in Addis Ababa could not extricate themselves from their collective failure to exert sufficient political pressure on Sudan. What was clearly worrying though is that as the curtains came down on the summit, no substantive ground was broken to ensure that the ill-equipped AU peace monitors were equal to the task. Neither was the contested question over the deployment of a hybrid protection force involving the African Union and UN within an agreed timetable thrashed out.
The summit also failed to win an unequivocal commitment from Khartoum to halt its military scale-up in Sudan and disarm the janjaweed even as questions abound over whether the membership of a complicit Sudan is not anathema to the AU’s determination to raise the threshold against which its members must be judged by.
Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu was spot on warning that “the African Union [had] before it a stark choice on Darfur. Be bold and stand by the people of Darfur or be weak and stand by the politicians who are making that corner of Africa a graveyard”.
The decision on Sudan’s bid was clearly a bold statement. A Sudanese presidency would have compromised the neutrality and independence of the AU’s operations in Darfur. Alioune Tine, a member of the Darfur civil society Consortium spoke for many when he warned that “African opinion will never accept a choice of Mr Bashir as president of the African Union. Such a move will discredit the institution and diminish the image of the African Union as an independent arbitrator in the eyes of the world”.
In the aftermath of the summit, and in the wake of a multiplicity of new and resurgent conflicts, it is feared that the AU could be fatigued and steer its energy and focus away from its priorities and visioning. In many ways, the new theatres of conflict – Chad, Comoros, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Somalia – have excised the AU’s undertaking to respect territorial sovereignty without being indifferent to systematic violation of fundamental freedoms and rights. This is in sharp contrast to its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) which turned a blind eye to conflicts under the guise of respecting the sanctity of territorial sovereignty and non-interference in the affairs of sovereign states. But a lot more is expected of the AU. The period leading up to the summit showed that the AU is increasingly being called upon to provide leadership in reaching a pedestal where governments respect the organisation’s principles in the best interest of their people.
But now the AU must audit itself to determine whether its structures fit the task before it. The organisation clearly faces a raft of internal institutional challenges which impact on its efficiency and effectiveness. The caveat is that the AU may not live up to the billing due to existing institutional constraints, which potentially impede on its capacity to deliver at this critical moment.
A substantive assessment of the AU contained in a newly published report titled Towards a People-Driven African Union: Current Obstacles and New Opportunities cites some of the internal challenges facing the AU as ” the sheer number of AU ministerial meetings, ordinary and extraordinary summits each year, commission budget shortfalls and multiplicity of national legal frameworks, incoherent institutional arrangements and unclear policies and procedures”.
Significantly, the report which was commissioned by the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP), the African Forum & Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) and Oxfam GB warns that the AU is only as strong as its weakest link. It warns that “most African Governments have not reformed their national institutions and processes to respond to the new continental architecture. Consequently, only a few states prepare adequately by engaging across ministries, national assemblies or civil society organisations for the AU summits”.
The creation of the African Union in 2001 created a renewed sense of optimism, which must continue to inform its future by addressing internal and external challenges, which could potentially undermine its vision.
* The writer is the acting editor/policy analyst of the AU Monitor, an e-communication facility managed by Fahamu
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org