Pambazuka News 475: Angola: The politics of demolition and eviction
Pambazuka News 475: Angola: The politics of demolition and eviction
Mrs Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, chairperson of the opposition United Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi) and candidate in Rwanda's August presidential election, was on Wednesday prevented from leaving the country after she was questioned for several hours at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID)for alleged comments likely to stir up hatred and genocide, police sources told PANA in Kigali.
The African Group at the UN has called for the immediate fulfilment of all Official Development Assistance(ODA) commitment to Africa. The group also urged the Group of Eight industrialised countrie (G-8) to redeem its pledge to double by 2010, official assistance to the continent.
Burundi will receive a grant of US$ 135 million over the next five years, under the eighth round of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, official sources said in Bujumbura. The funds will be allocated to the "Intensification and Decentralization Program me for the Fight against HIV/AIDS (PRIDE)," said Burundian first Vice-President in charge of Political, Administrative and Security Affairs, Yves Sahinguvu.
Malawi has said Africa needs to focus on regional infrastructural development, in energy and water resources management if the continent is to realise its true growth potential, PANA reported from here Wednesday.
Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has sent the list of the first batch of 25 ministerial-nominees to the upper legislative chamber, the Senate, for clearance. vOut of the 25, three served as Ministers while four were Ministers of State in t he 42-member cabinet which was dissolved 17 March.
Tens of thousands of refugees seeking safety in Kenya’s capital Nairobi are confronted with police harassment, exposure to criminal violence and a severe lack of livelihoods opportunities says a new report by the Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG), International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK).
The World Health Organisation said today it was investigating reports of suspected cases of the previously eradicated disease smallpox in eastern Uganda. Smallpox is an acute contagious disease and was one of the world’s most feared sicknesses until it was officially declared eradicated worldwide in 1979.
South African President Jacob Zuma urged Western nations to lift targeted sanctions against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his allies, saying they were undermining the nation’s coalition government. “We don’t need these sanctions now,” Zuma told lawmakers in Parliament in Cape Town.
The police have for the past two weeks arrested scores of MDC supporters across the country on trumped-up charges in a worrying partisan move as cases of Zanu PF-instigated violence against MDC members are on the increase.
Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has joined President Robert Mugabe in dismissing calls to enshrine gay rights in the new constitution. "I totally agree with the president," he said, state media report.
The UN World Food Programme has denied a claim that up to half the food aid to Somalia was being diverted to Islamist militants and corrupt contractors. WFP officials said there was no evidence to back up the claim made in a report by a UN monitoring group.
An Islamic court in Nigeria has banned a rights group from hosting debates on the Twitter and Facebook websites on the use of amputations as a punishment. The court, in the northern city of Kaduna, backed a case brought by a pro-Sharia group arguing that the forums would mock the Sharia system.
A group of international campaigners has launched an online petition against Ethiopia's huge Gibe III dam project. The group wants to put pressure on Western donors and banks not to fund the dam, saying it would destroy the livelihoods of some 500,000 people.
Welcome to the Communauté Financière de l'Afrique ( CFA ), where this is how things have been working for over sixty years. The January 2008 edition of the pan-African magazine, New African, reports that "the tale of this currency is extraordinarily mind-numbing!" and inspires this special commentary
Mob attacks on suspected criminals in Burundi, often with official complicity, led to at least 75 killings in 2009, Human Rights Watch and the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detained Persons (APRODH) said in a report released today. The government of Burundi should end official involvement in "mob justice" and should hold perpetrators accountable, Human Rights Watch and APRODH said.
The Ethiopian government is waging a coordinated and sustained attack on political opponents, journalists, and rights activists ahead of the May 2010 elections, Human Rights Watch said in a report. On May 23, 2010, Ethiopians will vote in the first parliamentary elections in Ethiopia since 2005, when the post-election period was marred by controversy and bloodshed.
This 59-page report documents the myriad ways in which the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has systematically punished opposition supporters. Since the 2005 polls, the party has used its near-total control of local and district administrations to undermine opponents' livelihoods through withholding services such as agricultural inputs, micro-credit, and job opportunities.
Rape victims will no longer need a case number before getting treatment at health institutions said Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi. Motsoaledi said when a rape victim arrives at a health institution, they won't be asked to produce a case number before being treated.
The only solution for the conflict over Morocco's occupation of the Western Sahara is to do what the Sahrawi people decide regarding their future, Zahra Ramdan, president of the Association of Sahrawi Women in Spain has said.
They endure stigma, discrimination, violence and extreme poverty, but Ugandan women living with disabilities say the greatest challenge facing them centres on their reproductive health. "In addition to the impacts of physical, mental, intellectual and sensor impairments, we are double discriminated (against), first as women, and then as disabled," said Beatrice Guzu, executive secretary of the National Organisation of Women with Disabilities in Uganda.
HIV-positive Bupe Mwamba, 22, lies next to her newborn baby girl at the rural clinic she just gave birth in and wonders if her baby is HIV-positive too. She has been for counselling throughout her antenatal check-ups and knows there is a chance her baby girl may be HIV-negative. But it still does not eliminate her fears and anxieties.
The world's most water-deprived countries are also receiving some of the least help from the World Bank to improve conditions, according to a study that the bank's independent evaluators released on Monday. The study said water shortages, being felt in more than 40 countries, are at risk of getting worse.
African and British human rights campaigners rallied outside the Commonwealth’s head quarters in London on Monday 22 March. They were protesting against the prosecution and imprisonment of the Malawian same-sex couple, Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, on charges of homosexuality, and against the Commonwealth’s failure to condemn their arrest and detention in Chichiri prison.
The efforts of Central African nations to consolidate peace and further development are being thwarted by weapons trafficking, top United Nations officials warned today, calling on Member States to do all they can to eradicate this scourge. “Central Africa is awash with illicit weapons – exacerbating inter-communal violence, increasing cross-border crime and threatening ongoing peace and national reconciliation processes,” Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said in her remarks to a debate in the Security Council.
Three Ugandan journalists were arrested by the Police over an alleged seditious story concerning the Kasubi tomb fire. The three, Dalton Kwesiga, Ben Byaruhanga and Johnson Taremwa work for The Red Pepper. Their troubles stem from a story titled ‘Police quizzes Mengo ministers over Kasubi fire’.
As voter registration kicked off all over the country in Kenya, the Internally displaced people, especially in Eldoret were considering to boycott the whole process altogether due to what they term as lack of confidence in the electoral system in kenya.
Following bloody fighting between Senegalese forces and rebels, in recent days, the rebel Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) have issued a statement, calling for negotiations with the government.
Somali government forces have destroyed some 500 homes near the main airport in Mogadishu, capital of the lawless and war-torn nation, Somalia, because of security concerns. About 1000 displaced people, who were demolished their houses on Thursday, are homeless and sitting the open in the Afisoyoni villag
Eight hundred people displaced by excessive flooding and intense rains in Lusaka, the capital of southern African country Zambia. More than 60 families evacuated from their waterlogged shacks to a temporal resettlement campsite on higher grounds out of the Independence Stadium in Lusaka Nort
A photo exhibition organized by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association went ahead in Harare on Wednesday evening after the High Court ordered police to return the photographs they had seized the previous day. But that same evening the police returned to the art gallery to try and confiscate the pictures again.
Togo's government has outlawed further demonstrations against the results of a March 4 presidential election, which opposition leaders say was rigged to favour the incumbent. The decree came a day ahead of a scheduled opposition rally in the seaside capital of Lome, escalating tensions in the West African state whose election had been widely seen as a test for regional democracy.
Egyptian state security prevented activists from holding a symbolic "trial" of Egypt's ruling party on Thursday, using force to disperse those who tried to resist, activists said. Security men in civilian clothes beat some of the activists who gathered to hold the event at a lawyers' club south of Cairo.
A strike by mineworkers at South Africa's Gold One stretched into a fourth day after workers and management failed to agree on a pay rise. About 1,000 mineworkers at the company's Modder East mine, some 30km east of Johannesburg, downed tools on Tuesday night in a wage protest.
ith a democratic touch rare in a region better known for dictators, Ghana is asking its citizens what it should do with the windfall from oil production due to start later this year. In a questionnaire entitled “The Use and Management of Oil and Gas Revenues – A Survey of Public Choices” posted on the finance ministry website this week, Ghana says oil-producer nations face major questions.
South Africa's antiretroviral treatment guidelines have been updated. The guidelines offer a range of improvements over the 2004 guidelines including new, more tolerable antiretrovirals, immediate ARV treatment for drug-resistant TB patients and improved prevention of mother to child transmission procedures.
Male circumcision modestly reduces the risk of an HIV-positive man transmitting HIV to a female sex partner, an analysis of the Partners in Prevention study published in the journal AIDS suggests. The risk of contracting HIV was 40% lower for the partners of circumcised men than uncircumcised men, but this reduction in risk was not statistically significant.
HIV prevalence among Tanzanians who attended secondary school fell sharply between 2004 and 2008, while remaining stable among the country's least educated people, a new study has revealed. "National HIV prevalence has fallen recently in Tanzania. However, the improvements have not been spread evenly throughout the population," James Hargreaves, senior lecturer in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and lead author of the study, said.
Dozens of families on the outskirts of Bamako, the capital of Mali, are under threat of being evicted from their lands by the Government in favour of a housing project. The cultivation ban, ordered in July 2009, jeopardizes their right to adequate food. Moreover, if the eviction is realized, it will hinder the ability of the families to feed themselves in the long run.
As the world marks World Water Day, the Gana and Gwi Bushmen of Botswana are marking eight years without access to a regular supply of water in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
African cotton-producing countries hope that Brazil’s intended retaliation after its success at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) dispute settlement body will have a positive spin-off for them but seem reticent about pursuing a similar course of action against the U.S. for its continued use of subsidies in cotton production.
With a request for a $3.75 billion World Bank loan for a new coalfired power plant, South African political leaders seem determined to entrench a policy on climate change that disregards clear evidence of catastrophic consequences, echoing the earlier disastrous policies of former President Thabo Mbeki on AIDS. But opposition is mounting to the current plan, which would consolidate South Africa's Eskom as the continent's leading producer of greenhouse gases.
Commemorating Freedom Day on 27 April, the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP) will be hosting a “Freedom for all Rally” at the Eudy Simelane Memorial Park (Kwa – Thema), celebrating constitutional freedoms by remembering all victims of hate crimes and demanding full liberation in South Africa.
Attacks on rebels by government troops and African Union peacekeepers in Somalia kill and injure many civilians and should be much more discriminate, human rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday. Islamist rebels have been fighting the Horn of Africa state's fragile government since the start of 2007. African Union's (AU) force AMISOM is supporting the U.N.-backed administration, which controls just parts of the capital, Mogadishu.
Reporters Without Borders is baffled by the fact that Albert Yangari, the publisher and editor of the newspaper L’Union, and Jonas Moulenda, one of his reporters, have been summoned three times in connection with a libel suit brought by Alfred Nguia Banda, the former director-general of the Gabonese Shippers Council (CGC), which oversees maritime traffic in Gabon.
China will flesh out the details of its joint research programme with Africa at a meeting in Beijing next week. The Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which includes 49 African countries, plans to implement several large-scale science and technology projects across Africa in the next three years
As technological obstacles to the efficient use of solar energy diminish, economic and political challenges remain to its widespread adoption by the poor. "The sun occupies centre stage, as it should, being literally the original source of all energy," said India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, describing an action plan for India's national strategy on climate change, in June 2008.
Google Code Jam is a coding competition in which professional and student programmers are asked to solve complex algorithmic challenges in a limited amount of time. The contest is all-inclusive: Google Code Jam lets you program in the coding language and development environment of your choice.
Poor governance and management are jeopardising efforts to provide quality basic education in seven African countries according to a new report published today by Transparency International (TI).
Major corruption loopholes are jeopardising Egypt’s attempts to combat the problem despite the existence of a broad range of anti-corruption laws and regulations, according to a new report released today by Transparency International (TI).
Western nations, employing the best equipped armies in the world, are increasingly dropping their support for UN peacekeeping missions in Africa, rather focusing their efforts on Afghanistan. Even the Darfur and Congo crises are neglected.
Countries across the globe have been challenged to better manage and conserve the forests in their areas as one of the commitments to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to a comprehensive forest review released today by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the rate of deforestation has slowed over the last 10 years, but each year an area roughly the size of Costa Rica is still destroyed.
Up to 11,000 students from various schools in Msambweni and Kwale districts on Kenya's coast have been forced to go home before the Easter holidays after an outbreak of cholera in the region. Bridgide Wambua, the Msambweni District Education Officer, told IRIN the department decided to close down the schools to prevent more students from contracting cholera and other waterborne ailments that had also been reported.
Thick dust clouds obscure the horizon as the convoy of UN military observers sets off to patrol the oil-rich, yet desperately underdeveloped Unity State in Southern Sudan. In these borderlands, monitoring a 2005 deal that halted decades of war between north and south is a major undertaking.
Diarrhoea- inducing waterborne microbes often go undetected in parts of the world with the highest rate of under-five deaths from gastrointestinal infection. According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), lack of water safety regulations, inter-ministerial coordination and surveillance can paint a deceptively benign portrait of water quality.
In this week's roundup of emerging actors news, CNN pioneers its Africa business programme Market Place Africa, China-Nigeria trade ties continue to strengthen, 60 Indian firms express interest in Zambia for investing, and BRICs unlikely to push for a new global reserve currency.
Today, China is indeed a world power in every sense of the word and it is unimaginable that up till now, the country is still being referred to as an emerging economic power. China seems not bothered about the appellation out of conviction that if she continues with her developmental efforts and gets more countries, especially those in the third world, to come along with her in terms of patronage; she too would continue to be a force to reckon wit
For a number of years now, particularly in the period of globalisation, trade unions have been faced with major challenges which call for strategic responses. These challenges include building trade union internationalism in the period of mobile capital, assessing relations with left political parties as these have been dragged towards the political centre, tensions between collective bargaining and defensive struggles and strategic, revolutionary unionism and so on. This, the first of a new series of Annual Conferences, hosted by ILRIG and other partners, is an opportunities for activists and analysts - trade unionists as well as those involved in social movement campaigns - in South Africa to debate experiences of organising in South Africa, and elsewhere, whilst hearing of other forms of trade unionism in South Africa and elsewhere.
Reflecting on Jos, Joseph Kaifala writes: ‘Africa has always received recognition for the compassion and love of its people, in spite of all other negative issues. To fight for tangible things within human control is a different matter altogether, but to murder in the name of God is a vein assumption of demi-godly role that no one should be allowed to proclaim.’
In response to Richard Dowden’s article , Sza Sza Zelleke writes: ‘It is clear that guns, and the men who sell food aid to buy them, are not the solution to Africa’s problems. What Africans needs is more accountability and less arms.’
At the Nation Media Group’s recent Pan-African Conference in Kenya, L. Muthoni Wanyeki watched a distinct animosity between the African private sector and African civil society come to a head. She saw an African private sector rejecting any value of civil society and a civil society believing that the private sector could and should do more. She argues that a way forward needs to be found: 'We cannot work at cross-purposes forever and turn round and round on the same spot while all around us Africans die of hunger.'
The recent US bill aimed at achieving peace in Uganda by militarily eliminating the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is rigorously critiqued by Samar Al-Bulushi. It is a bill, she argues, that will serve to prop up Uganda’s government. Al-Bulushi highlights the questionable origins of the bill: It is a response to the calls of a few US organisations – who coincidently emerged at the same time as AFRICOM – for peace in Uganda rather than the Ugandan people, who advocate non-violent paths to finding peace. She goes on to emphasise the vagueness of the US’s strategy to bring about this peace. And she aptly points out that, in supporting the Ugandan government, the US is buffering a regime that not only has a poor human rights record, but has actively prevented peace in Uganda. Al-Bulushi concludes that ‘Propping up a militaristic regime risks not only exacerbating the conflict, but also deflecting attention away from crucial discussions and demands for internal reform.’
Ashwin Desai’s recent ‘backhanded swipe’ at South African shackdwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo in his eulogy to Fatima Meer is ‘not only uncalled for, it is also completely inaccurate’, writes Jared Sacks.
Why hasn’t Pambazuka News covered the violation of human rights during the recent demolitions and land evictions in Lubango municipality in Angola, Rosario Advirta asks. If there is silence even in the independent media, says Advirta, then ‘injustice and repression will probably grow'.
As important as China’s investment in African manufacturing is, writes Deborah Brautigam, I don't believe I say anywhere in my book ‘that it has been higher than China's investment in mining over the past five years.’
As the Senegalese president’s ‘Monument of the African Renaissance’ nears completion, the 164-foot statue in Dakar demonstrates Abdoulaye Wade’s need ‘to imprint his legacy on a continent that hasn’t fully captured the extent of his genius’, writes Amy Niang. The monument ‘sparked debate in Senegal and internationally, not least because of the colossal financial, political and aesthetic scandal it has proved to be,’ says Niang. But its construction also symbolises the failure of opposition, civil society and other social forces to champion the needs of Senegalese people who would have preferred to ‘see their health, education and basic living problems addressed’.
Freedom songs ‘speak to the pertinent issues of the time, expose the excesses and injustices of the system and the comfortable beneficiaries and supporters of the system, and point to the type of society the people envisage and the means to attain it,’ writes Mphutlane wa Bofelo. That is why South Africa’s new political elite is ‘stunting’ the ‘creative imagination and revolutionary rhythm by harping on “yesterday's” songs’, says Bofelo, so that it can deflect the growing anger among the masses about the failings of their leadership back onto the ‘remnants of the old order’.
Pambazuka Press is planning to publish a Pan-African activists' diary for 2011. The diary will be a handbook of key information about Pan-African history, quotations from thinkers and activists (women and men) in Africa and the diaspora, pictures of critical events in our past, information about key events during 2011, and lots more.
EVENTS
If you would like us to include events – meetings, conferences, festivals, actions, courses, publications etc - that your organisation is planning to hold in 2011, please send details to panafdiary [at] pambazuka [dot] org.
QUOTATIONS
If you would like to suggest quotations for publication in the diary, please send them to panafdiary [at] pambazuka [dot]org. Make sure you include the source of each quote so that those who want to read more will know where to find it.
SUGGESTIONS
If you have suggestions about information you would like to see in the diary, please send them to panafdiary[at] pambazuka [dot] org.
Help make this diary the essential handbook for all activists in Africa and the diaspora. Make sure you get your recommendations in to us by 14 April 2010. Don’t be left out – let us know what events you are planning for 2011.
We can’t guarantee that we will include everything you suggest, but we’ll do our best!
The 2011 Pan-African Diary: the essential tool for freedom and justice!
The latest in a series of brutal, forced evictions in Angola took place earlier this month when riot police swept through a provincial capital, Lubango, killing seven people, including four children between four and twelve years old.
'How is India’s relationship with Africa different?', asks Sanusha Naidu. She demonstrates that the latest conclave on the India-Africa Project Partnership – during which India emphasised its focus in Africa to be on capacity building, training and private sector development – revealed that African delegates felt that India is more a stakeholder than a shareholder on the continent. But Naidu suggests that Africa needs to critically examine India’s involvement. She concludes that: ‘For there to be an effective partnership, developing a dialogue between civil society, government and business would be a valuable platform to make this engagement different from the others.’
It is curious that natural disasters are unpredictable and governments establish early warning systems and trigger mechanisms to respond quickly when they happen to mitigate its effects, writes Luis Samacumbi. For the demolition of Lubango, one or the other mechanism was implemented but the disaster was caused by a decision without weighing the consequences of such an act. If it were possible such disasters would be avoided. In the case of Angola disasters are created.
http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/475/63298_demolition_tmb.jpgSeven people are said to have been killed and 2,000 homes destroyed in a new wave of large-scale demolitions in the Angolan city Lubanga, as part of a government clearance programme to make way for public construction or infrastructure projects, writes Sylvia Croese. Local non-governmental organisations report that almost 3,000 families have been evicted and temporarily accommodated in schools and stadiums before being forcibly transferred to Tchavola, an area 9km outside of Lubango city centre, where they are expected to rebuild their lives. So far, only 700 tents have been distributed to provide temporary shelter for the families in Tchavola, where there is no basic sanitation and little access to electricity, food or blankets. A demonstration in solidarity with the victims of the demolitions was planned for 25 March.
Following Muammar al-Gaddafi's suggestion of a break-up of Nigeria in the wake of the crisis around Jos, Horace Campbell unpacks the Libyan leader's claims to operate in the interests of African unity.
International sporting events have become fertile ground for human trafficking. The documented patterns of flagrant trafficking of children and women for sexual and labor exploitation at these events create a dire picture. “More than 500,000 international visitors are expected in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, and more than 500 criminal gangs are estimated to be involved in human trafficking for the sex trade in South Africa.”
The inability of the regional military command in Jos to curtail the recent killings reflects not just a professional problem, but ‘deeper systemic social failure’, writes Kola Ibrahim. Although the armed forces are ‘prepared to undertake foreign military operation in the interests of the capitalist ruling class and imperialist forces under the guise of peace-keeping’, argues Ibrahim, they ‘can hardly defend public safety’. What’s really needed, says Ibrahim, is for security forces to be democratised and made accountable to the masses, but ‘it will take a pro-poor government that emerges from a people’s movement to do this’.
In a tongue-in-cheek reflection, Azad Essa reviews the revelations of a secret dossier on Julius Malema apparently found in the abandoned mines of Diepklip.
With Meles Zenawi comparing the Voice of America (VOA) Amharic radio service with the infamous Radio Mille Collines in operation during the Rwandan genocide, Alemayehu G. Mariam argues that the Ethiopian prime minister should apologise. Such outrageous, nonsensical accusations represent nothing more than an attempt to divert attention from the recent aid-for-arms scandal, Mariam stresses.
‘This House believes that Namibia is a shining example of post-colonial peace, democracy, and development.’ This was the topic of a debate held in the Houses of Parliament in London on 18 March, where Henning Melber was invited to speak against the motion. The opinions in Melber's speech closely reflected those expressed in his article ‘
Fifty years ago, 69 Africans protesting against pass laws were shot in the South African township of Sharpeville. Posts in this week’s round-up of the blogosphere remember the massacre, the life of activist Fatima Meer and bring to mind the continuing struggle for the right to decent housing by shackdwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo. They also include musings on migration, Haiti and headscarves.
The , in collaboration with Fahamu Networks for Social Justice, will host ‘Africa and China in the 21st Century: The Search for a Mutually Beneficial Relationship’, a three-day symposium from 8-10 April, in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The symposium will feature progressive intellectuals and scholars from North America, China and Africa, gathering to deliberate on the nature and future of Sino-African relations. The symposium is free and open to the public; a full schedule of events will be posted to the Africa Initiative website in the coming days.
Pambazuka News 476: Between patriarchy, pornography and pleasure
Pambazuka News 476: Between patriarchy, pornography and pleasure
Nkrumah Hall – University of Dar es Salaam
- A week of reflections on the 1967 Arusha Declaration
- Hon. Ms Samia Nkrumah will be the guest of honour. She will deliver a lecture on 'Reflections on Osagyefo: Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s Pan-African vision'
- Distinguished 2010 Nyerere lecturer Professor Samir Amin will deliver lectures on 'Crisis of capitalism and imperialism' and 'Exiting from capitalism in crisis: Initiatives in the global South'
- Interactive dialogues on 'The Arusha declaration and socialism and rural development'
- Professor Utsa Patnaik will speak on 'The agrarian question in the neoliberal era'
- Marcelino Dos Santos, Mozambiquan poet, revolutionary and founder of FRELIMO will launch
Pambazuka News 474: The failures of Nigerian democracy
Pambazuka News 474: The failures of Nigerian democracy
As Namibia marks two decades of independence on 21 March, Henning Melber takes stock of what liberation has meant for the country’s socio-economic and political landscape. Namibia is still one of the most unequal societies in the world, writes Melber, and there’s little evidence of strong political will to improve the living standards of formerly marginalised people. With solidarity ‘only visible among the haves, aiming to protect their old and new privileges’, says Melber, not everyone will have reasons to celebrate this Sunday.
It has been called the “new Great Trek” by South Africans who remember their history. Presently, over 30-million hectares in almost 30 African countries have been auctioned to a host of corporations and governments, from China — housing one fifth of the world’s population on 8% of the world’s arable land — to oil-rich, water-poor Gulf nations.
The Congolese conflict is considered the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, and the deadliest since World War II. Since 1998, more than six million people have died as a result of this war. Over two million people have been forced to flee their homes, and some 400,000 Congolese have sought refuge in neighboring countries. Hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been kidnapped, raped, and tortured.
Nigeria has recalled its ambassador to Libya after leader Muammar Gaddafi suggested Nigeria be divided into two states - one Christian and one Muslim. The foreign ministry said the Libyan leader's statement was "irresponsible". Earlier in the week a senator had called Col Gaddafi a "mad man".
Africa’s economic future and the challenge of uniting people and nations drew eminent politicians and scholars into a historic public debate in Nairobi. They examined the role of a free Press in Africa, debated the path to regional integration and spoke out on the continent’s quality of leadership as the curtain rose on the Nation Media Group’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
Nigeria's acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, has dissolved the country's cabinet. Mr Jonathan became acting president in February amid the continuing illness of President Umaru Yar'Adua.
Zimbabwe's leaders have agreed to a "package of measures" to help rescue its fragile unity government, South Africa's President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday. Regional mediator Zuma met President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in Harare on Wednesday and Thursday to solve problems that risked unravelling a power-sharing deal meant to rebuild Zimbabwe from economic ruin.
Zimbabwe's central bank governor on Thursday attacked as "reckless" a drive by President Robert Mugabe's party to force foreign-owned companies to cede majority shareholdings to local black businessmen
On Tuesday, March 16, thousands of Nigerians marched on the capital, Abuja, to show their frustration with the woes that continue to besiege the country. This sort of protest has not been a common feature of the Nigerian political scene – at least not in this decade– though this demonstration is one of several that have taken place this year.
Ethiopia has admitted it is jamming the Voice of America's (VOA) broadcasts in Amharic, accusing the radio station of engaging in "destabilising propaganda".
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Ethiopia had been testing jamming equipment, although there had been no formal decision to bloc the US station.
South African President Jacob Zuma has survived a vote of no-confidence called by opposition parties. The vote - the first such move since the ANC came to power in 1994 - was defeated by 241 votes to 84 with eight abstentions.
Sudan has signed a ceasefire with a major Darfur rebel group, the second deal in recent weeks, leaving just one band of rebels in open conflict. The Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) - a newly formed umbrella group of 10 movements - signed the framework deal paving the way for further talks.
The African Union has put sanctions on Madagascar's leader Andry Rajoelina, after he failed to meet a deadline to set up a unity government. Mr Rajoelina and 108 of his backers will face travel restrictions and have any foreign assets frozen, the AU said.
At least two protesters have been shot dead by Ugandan police after they tried to stop the president from visiting the site of a fire at a royal mausoleum. The protesters booed President Yoweri Museveni and set up a barricade to stop him from reaching the tombs at Kasubi.
Many Africans blame themselves for climate change even though fossil fuel emissions there are less than 4% of the global total, a new survey suggests. The report, the most extensive survey ever conducted on public understanding of the issue, found that others blamed God for changes in weather patterns.
Kenyan farmer Zack Matere pulls his mobile out of his pocket holds it up and takes a couple of photos. "It seems they have come back and are digging here again." He is referring to a group of people who have encroached on a water catchment area and are endangering the whole community's water supply.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has in recent months stepped up targeting tourists and aid workers for murder and kidnapping in Mali, Niger, and Mauritania, Human Rights Watch has said. AQIM should immediately and unconditionally free hostages in its custody and end attacks on civilians, Human Rights Watch said.
The thickest book on secondary school teacher Hellen Ndalama’s desk is her indigenous language dictionary. It is also her most-used book. The front cover is partly ripped and the upper end of the spine is secured with adhesive tape. With 35,000 entries, the new book which translates Chichewa to English (CE) and English to Chichewa (EC) is the first comprehensive dictionary of its kind in Malawi.