As the UN Reform process proceeds, poverty has grown rather than lessened in much of the developing world, and as AIDS spreads, it is becoming a “women's disease”. These and many other pressing global issues are women's concerns. In this context, women need more space, not less, and more influence in the UN. What “architecture” must be designed or reinforced within the complex system that is the United Nations if we are to reach our agreed goal - both institutional and individual space - to effectively promote women's opportunities worldwide for greater freedom and wellbeing, side by side with men?

Coalition For Peace in Africa (COPA), an organization specializing in capacity building of practitioners in conflict transformation and peace building will from 25th September to 27th October 2006 conduct a five week Advanced Training in Conflict Transformation. The training will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa at the Elijah Barayi Memorial Training Institute.

Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf has dropped his opposition to talks in Sudan with Islamist leaders who control the capital, Mogadishu. He boycotted talks with the Union of Islamic Courts, accusing them of breaking a previously agreed ceasefire.

Three suspects have appeared before a military tribunal in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, facing murder charges over the death of a journalist and his wife eight months ago. The suspects are two policemen and a soldier. They allegedly murdered Franck Ngyke and his wife on 3 November at their Kinshasa residence.

Youths loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo threw up barricades and burned tires in a crowded, poor suburb of Cote d’Ivoire’s largest city on Monday (17 July) as a crucial effort to identify some 3.5 million undocumented Ivorians failed to unfold as planned. The youths, known as Young Patriots, prevented vehicles from circulating in the Abobo neighbourhood and said no hearings to establish citizenship should take place until northern rebels disarmed.

Sixteen-year-old Judy (not her real name) sits in a nightclub sipping beer with two other girls in this coastal resort town popular with foreign tourists thanks to its numerous beach hotels and villas. She is one of a rising number of under-age girls who have taken to commercial sex due to poverty or the allure of easy money from tourists.

Distance education and open learning can be flexible and cost effective. It is particularly important for women and others unable to attend full-time education in rural areas. However, while South Africa has around fifty providers, the rest of sub-Saharan Africa has very few.

Cash benefits for children are reducing the impact of poverty on school enrolment in South Africa. In KwaZulu-Natal, child support grants are helping children, particularly from the poorest families, to be educated. Families receiving such grants are more likely to send their children to school at earlier ages than other equally poor households.

The Kenyan government's directive to have senior officials return luxury cars to cut costs may have been good news to tax payers, but lack of transparency and accountability could undermine the exercise. The government is expected to save about 17 million dollars in running costs, which will be channelled to development projects, from the exercise.

Attending a memoriam for Ghana's Dr Busia, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem describes his reactions to the speech made by Akwais Aidoo, Director of the newly founded TrustAfrica Foundation. There is a need, he suggests, for us to engage - and engage seriously - with our political opponents, rather than merely reacting to them - we may find we are holding both ends of the same stick. Sectarianism has caused too much division in the Pan African movement, and much of it based more on prejudice than a clear understanding of the actual differences - which is needed if we are to influence others holding different political positions to our own.

Accra, the capital city of Ghana, is my favourite city on the west coast of Africa. It is peaceful, fairly well-planned, though it is rapidly growing into a mega city with all the attendant problems of pollution, insufficient infrastructure, extreme poverty amidst riches, slums, etc. It is also badly copying Lagos in ‘go slow’ (traffic hold-ups) on the major roads but thankfully not up to the manic levels yet.

There is also the general friendliness of Ghanaians and Pan Africanist awareness. To many people the obvious pull of Ghana as a whole is because it gave us Kwame Nkrumah. You cannot walk around Accra without feeling the proud heritage of Pan Africanism and the high hopes and dreams that once bestrode this country that blazed the trail of popular struggles for independence. Not only Pan Africanist heroes /heroines and cities are so honoured other icons of Third World struggles like Gandhi, Nehru, Sukano, Ho chi Mi, Castro, etc have streets named after them. Civil rights figures like WEB Du Bois, Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Junior, are all represented in this city of Circles and Statutes.

For those of us who are unashamedly Nkrumahist, Ghana will always mean Nkrumah and vice versa. It also means that, either consciously or unconsciously, we make political choices either for or against political figures and parties in Ghana based upon our loyalty to the Osagyefo. In the pantheons of our hate figures in Ghanaian politics Dr Kofi Busia, a political rival and opponent of Kwame Nkrumah is probably top of the infamous club. The mere mention of his name to many Pan Africanists of the Nkrumahist tradition invites many unprintable reactions. The death of both men many years ago has not diminished the political hostility between their supporters.

Fifty years since Ghana’s independence and more than 6 decades since the political lines were drawn in the epic struggles for independence, several regimes down the line including two failed revolutionary attempts, prolonged military rule and now an increasingly confident democratizing environment, Ghana politics is still very much polarised between the BUSIA-DANQUA group and the ever fractious and sectarian broad Nkrumahist tradition. Not even 20 years of JJ Rawlings’ rule both in its brutal first ten years and authoritarian reluctant democrat of the second decade has changed this division. Broadly even his regime is seen (at least by the Busia-Danquah people) as part of the Left/Nkrumah family not withstanding the fact that at a personal level the Man either hated or is hostile to Nkrumah.

Nowhere is the saying: 'never say never' more applicable than in politics. I could not imagine myself attending a political memoriam for Dr Busia despite my tenuous link to him academically through St Peter’s College Oxford of which he remains the most famous Alumni. It became stranger still that I should be attending such an event under the auspices of the Busia Foundation. Yet on Monday 10 July at the British Council Auditorium in Accra I went to listen to the 3rd Annual Memorial Lecture in honoor of Dr Busia organized by The Busia Foundation set up by his aged widow. I have nothing against the family personally. Prof Abena Busia, who is co-chair of the foundation, is a sister I know and respect hugely and her cousin, Nana Busia, is a fellow Pan Africanist soldier. The problem is just inherited political prejudice. What really persuaded me to go was the Guest Lecturer, a senior comrade (even if his perpetual youthful face does not indicate he has become a Mzee too) and Pan Africanist of the same Nkrumahist orientation, Dr Akwasi Aidoo, the Director of the newly launched TRUST AFRICA Foundation. I had to take a second look at the advert when I first saw it in the papers on the morning of the event. Like other Nkrumahists (admittedly few), I later met at the talk I wondered what Akwasi will say about Busia in such a public space that is so tied up to a man we grew to loathe politically? Indeed I felt like a gate crasher at the event.

However I was glad I went. The Lecture was very measured, carefully crafted and calibrated. He began by identifying why we needed to hear about Busia and other leaders who made great contribution to cause of liberating our peoples. One, we did not know the man beyond the prism of those who opposed him because he was a political opponent of Nkrumah and those who lionized him because of that. Two, there is a benign if not a calculated political and intellectual neglect of the man. Three, reaction to Busia was often based on political prejudices without due recognition given to him first and foremost as a credible intellectual who took himself seriously, researched and wrote voraciously addressing what he considered challenges of his time. In particular the man regarded education as key to ending poverty, bringing prosperity and modernizing the society. Finally Akwasi, for the first time, even to the Busia family with whom he has been close for many years, acknowledged his personal debt to Busia who had paid part of his school fees purely out of a chance meeting with the Young Akwasi in his home village. The family was to discover later at his funeral the many people whom Dr Busia had personally helped on the ladder of self-reliance and achievements through education.

Akwasi then sought and succeeded in many ways to take the audience on a journey to meet and get to know Dr Busia. He did not hide his political position and did not shy away from mentioning Busia's controversialist politics be it the aliens compliance act or the devaluation of the Cede, and mother of all, promotion of dialogue with apartheid South Africa, etc. But they were done in measured tones. There was a stage I felt he was being too accommodating but I stayed much longer than I thought I would and learnt to unlearn some of my prejudices about the man. The lecture did begin a necessary interrogation and engagement with our lived political experience that is not just about Busia or Ghana. It goes to the heart of the biggest challenge facing Africa today as we struggle to create a society in which the majority of our peoples are not victims but agents of change and a leadership that is organically linked to serve them and not just rule over them. When we look at the nationalist elite regardless of where they were politically whether as presidents or opposition leaders they took themselves seriously, tried to understand their society, study it and proffer solutions. They were both intellectually and politically much more in charge then than now.

How many of our leaders today, whether holed up in State houses or hankering after same in opposition, can we say are applying themselves both intellectually and politically to the challenges we face? It is not just that they are not thinking but they actively discourage original thinking. Thinking has been contracted out to 'experts' often meaning non-Africans while development is delegated to humanitarian agencies whose stocks rise with every disaster we suffer.

The other lesson I took away from Akwasi’s lecture is the need to engage and engage seriously with even our political opponents, read them and understand why and what we disagree about. Sometimes we may just be holding different ends of the same stick. You will be surprised how much you share with your opponents if you only learn to listen, persuade instead of trying to convert but above all have the humility and the intellectual and political integrity to accept that your opponent may sometimes be right. Politics should be an art of the possible and the possibilities include those who may not agree with us.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

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

FEATURED: If you thought that University education was brought to Africa by the Europeans, you were wrong, writes Paul Zaleza
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Censorship and suppression of freedom of expression by bloggers is becoming rife in Africa, writes Sokari Ekine
- Parties in Nigeria are 'established as coalitions of various factions of regional and economic rent-seekers' according to recent research
- There are lessons from East Timor for failing state of Cote d'Ivoire, warns Juan Federer
LETTERS: Readers pay tribute to Issa Shivji on his retirement
OBITUARY: Africa has lost one of its giants - Chachage. His contribution is celebrated in prose and poetry
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem wonders what Nkrumahists are doing at the Dr Busia's memorial in Ghana
BLOGGING AFRICA: Sokari Ekine rounds up the African blogosphere
BOOKS AND ARTS: New publications about Looting of Congo
AFRICAN UNION MONITOR: As the AU celebrates its 6th anniversary, calls are made for the continents scientific renaissance
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: No agreements on small arms conference while killings on the ground escalate
HUMAN RIGHTS: Human rights defenders in East Africa publish report
WOMEN AND GENDER: Women hail Zimbabwe's domestic violence bill
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Europe seeks African collusion in controlling migration
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: DRC Elections - calls made for delays
DEVELOPMENT: ActionAid exposes corruption of development aid
CORRUPTION: Opportunistic money in creating a new elite in Zimbabwe
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Male circumscision and HIV risk
EDUCATION: Fear of 'language genocide' in South Africa
ENVIRONMENT: Pastoralists organise in week-long meeting
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Egypt printing stoppage in protest against new laws
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Migrant songs hits the internet in Senegal
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops; Jobs.

Racism and mental illness have a long, sad history in South Africa, with the effects of Apartheid still painfully apparent. A spotlight was placed upon the issue of racism, at the World Racism Conference held in South Africa last year. Amongst other things highlighted was the issue of racism towards foreigners from neighbouring states. The increase in the flow of illegal immigrants, since the 1994 elections has led to a rapid growth in local xenophobia toward illegal immigrants.

Government has identified land reform as central to the alleviation of poverty. The programme, begun with the passing of legislation in 1996, has three main elements: restitution of rights through the land claims process; the redistribution of land via acquisition to develop a black farming middle class; and securing tenure for people living on the land of others. The director of tenure reform at land affairs, Sipho Sibanda, admitted that there was a degree of paralysis in government.

Peace talks between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), scheduled to start in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba on Wednesday 12 July, have been delayed, according to a Sudanese official. An official in the office of the southern Sudanese Vice-President said Riek Machar, who is mediating the peace talks, had not returned to Juba yet. As a result the talks could probably start on Thursday 13 July instead.

Riot police in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), fired into the air and used tear gas to disperse demonstrators calling for transparency in the country's general elections, scheduled for 30 July. One demonstrator lost his hand when a tear-gas canister exploded, while a parliamentary candidate was admitted to hospital suffering from tear-gas inhalation after the demonstration on Tuesday.

Political parties are indispensable for making democracy work and deliver. Finding the proper conditions for better internal functioning and effective legal regulation of political parties is of key importance anywhere.

This report is a result of world-wide research and dialogue with political parties as part of International IDEA’s Political Parties’ programme, where International IDEA is working with national and regional research partners to improve insight and comparative knowledge. The purpose is to provide for constructive public debate and reform actions helping political parties to develop.

Political parties researched: Alliance for Democracy; All Nigeria Peoples Party; All Progressives Grand Alliance; and Peoples Democratic Party.

Methodology

Nigeria currently has 33 registered political parties. Some 24 of them were registered just before the 2003 elections, while three were registered in February 2006 after the completion of the research. Most of them are very small and have little impact on the political process. The four parties chosen for this report were selected because they won the largest number of parliamentary seats in the 2003 elections. The desk study phase on the country context and external regulation of political parties drew on an analysis of the country’s constitution and laws, as well as published sources. Unpublished materials—such as party documents, newspaper reports and mimeographs—were also consulted.

Interviews were held with paid, full-time party officials at the party secretariats. The interview process on the internal functioning of the political parties was difficult and time-consuming, since all four parties underwent periods of internal crisis during the research period. Indeed, some of the party offices were closed and under police protection, or were occupied by one faction of the party. The situation improved by April 2005, however, and it was then possible to administer the questionnaires with the help of party staff at their secretariats.

Background

Nigeria is a federation of 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja. It has a presidential system of government with an executive President, a judiciary and a bicameral National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives) whose members are elected. Political crisis during the First Republic led to intervention by the armed forces and a civil war between 1967 and 1970. It also led to 30 years of military rule, except for the four-year period between 1979 and 1983. In 1999, the military government organized general elections and President Olusegun Obasanjo thereafter took office.

The last general elections were in April 2003. The next are scheduled for 2007, because those elected at the state and federal levels have a four-year tenure, with a maximum of two terms for the executive. The human rights situation has improved relative to the period of military rule, but there are still several human rights violations. The population lives in profound poverty, largely due to mismanagement of the economy and widespread corruption. In Transparency International’s last report, Nigeria was ranked sixth from last on the organization’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

The ruling party is the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), whose winner-takes-all outlook, coupled to the authoritarian tendencies of incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo, pose a threat to the country’s democracy. Stability is also threatened by communal clashes, as well as violent insurgencies in many parts of the country.

Nigeria’s first general elections were held in 1960 when the British colonial authorities were preparing to hand over power to a local political leadership under the parliamentary system of government. The second general elections in 1964 were marked by boycotts in many areas. This led to the end of the First Republic in January 1966 and a military takeover of power. The armed forces ceded power to civilians in 1979 under the leadership of President Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Widespread electoral irregularities and other malpractices, however, were decried by opposition parties, as well as by civil society following the 1983 elections. This led to another military takeover in December 1983.

The military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida organised elections in 1992. The elections were inconclusive, however, because the result of the presidential election was annulled just before the vote-counting was completed. A new election was held by General Sani Abacha in 1997, but these too were inconclusive. General Abdulsami Abubakar, who succeeded Sani Abacha, organised the elections that brought the present incumbent, President Obasanjo, into power. President Obasanjo presided over the last general elections in April 2003. Both elections have been generally acknowledged by the opposition parties, civil society, and local and international observers as beset by large-scale irregularities.

During the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida (1985-1993), an eight-year transition programme began. General Babangida went further than the earlier regime in the regulation of political parties, decreeing that only two political parties would be registered. He instructed politicians to choose one of these parties as the platform for the attainment of their political ambitions. His government also wrote the parties’ constitutions, funded them and built offices for them throughout the country.

General Sani Abacha, who succeeded Babangida, registered five political parties. Remarkably, he induced all five parties to adopt him as their sole presidential candidate, but he died shortly thereafter. He was succeeded by General Abdulsalami, who registered three political parties and organized general elections that led to the election of General Obasanjo in 1999.

On the Freedom House World Country Ratings, Nigeria is classified as partly free in terms of political rights and civil liberties. This rating has been unchanged for the past five years.

Regulatory framework

Sections 221-229 of the 1999 constitution make elaborate provision for the registration, functioning, conduct and finances of political parties setting difficult conditions for the registration of political parties. As a result, only three parties were registered to contest the 1999 elections. This was partly because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the country’s election management body, imposed conditions for registration that were more stringent than the provisions of the constitution. The Electoral Act was later amended and the procedure for registering parties was liberalised somewhat. Nonetheless, Nigeria retains a very illiberal regulatory regime for the registration and functioning of political parties.

The effect of these conditions is that parties that emerge must be very big, very rich and have the capacity to bring together money-wielding forces from different parts of the country. In effect, the major factor in party formation is not the aggregation of people with similar ideologies or interests but the establishment of ethnic coalitions led by regional barons with strong financial backing.

Internal functioning and structure

Election of leadership

The most important aspect of the parties’ internal functioning is that the regulatory framework outlined above tends to give rise to a situation in which political ‘godfathers’ play a major role in internal party politics. Parties have formal procedures for the election of their leaders but these procedures are often disregarded; when they are adhered to, the godfathers have means of determining the outcomes.

At the party congresses, leaders are elected and candidates are nominated for elective positions. The elections, however, are usually pre-determined and party bosses tend to have the final say in the selection of leaders. This process leads to the continual internal party crisis that the country has experienced. Party bosses or godfathers are unwilling to allow internal party democracy, a circumstance that leads to frequent conflicts and constrains the development of parties as popular organizations. Indeed, over the years these party bosses have developed comprehensive techniques for eliminating popular aspirants from party posts and for preventing them from being nominated for elective positions.

Techniques for the elimination of popular aspirants

Nigerian parties have a wide range of techniques to eliminate people from party primaries, including the use of power by powerful ‘party owners’, party barons, state governors, godfathers and so on; zoning and other forms of administrative fiat; violence by thugs or security personnel; bribing of officials and voters to support particular candidates; and simply disregard for the results declaring the loser as the winner

Policy development

Given this history, policy development tends to be disarticulated from policy implementation. While formal party structures such as the National Conventions and the National Executive Council have responsibility for policy formulation, the policies that get implemented in practice tend to reflect the desires of godfathers rather than formal party organs. Given this context, Nigerian party life is characterised by a very low level of debate on policy options and by members that are only active during election periods. There is urgent need for Nigerian parties to prioritise the issue of policy development.

Funding

Parties are partly funded by the state. The regulatory framework requires that parties prepare regular audited financial reports. Most party funds, however, come through party financiers and the details of these sums rarely enter the formal process of party accounts. Indeed, the role of money in contemporary Nigerian politics is so overwhelming that it tends to supersede other considerations. Precisely for this reason, the country’s political parties provide only very limited opportunities for marginalised individuals—youths, the poor and women.

Marginalization of women in politics

The marginalisation of women from political power in Nigeria’s patriarchal political system dates back to the colonial era, and women were not allowed to vote in Northern Nigeria until 1976. This marginalization has continued into the Fourth Republic. Of the 11,881 electable positions available during the 1999 elections, only 631 women were in contention. Only 181 of them won (a mere 1.62 per cent of the total positions).

Following the political party primaries for candidates in the 2003 elections, it became evident that the elimination of women through a well-orchestrated process of manipulating the outcome of most primaries was virtually party policy across the board. Indeed, the primaries were a charade because most popular candidates—female and male—were eliminated by party barons and replaced by other candidates who enjoyed the support of state and party executives. Studies of 15 female political aspirants reveal the following means of marginalizing women.

The indigeneity ploy

The 1979 constitution introduced the concept of ‘indigeneity’ into Nigerian public law to guarantee a fair regional distribution of power. Over the years, the principle has been subverted to discriminate against Nigerian citizens who are not indigenous to the places where they live and work. Women married to men who are non-indigenes of their local governments suffer discrimination. In their own constituencies, they are told that by marrying out, they have lost their indigeneity. In their husband’s constituency, they are told they do not really belong because indigeneity is based on the consanguinity principle.

Challenges and opportunities

Nigerian political parties were conceived to be cohesive, national bourgeois parties. Nonetheless, the aim or political project of most Nigerian parties has been the development of a national system for sharing out the ‘national cake’ as a system of patronage. This is why the parties are established as coalitions of various factions of regional and economic rent-seekers. Most party leaders see their political party activity as a means to further their business interests.

Nigerian political parties face two challenges. First, an extremely high level of corruption has made politics a competitive business. Second, the regulatory framework for the establishment of parties should to be changed so that new parties do not have to forge coalitions of the wealthy as a basis for their registration.

About International IDEA

Founded in 1995, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) is an intergovernmental organisation that seeks to promote and develop sustainable democracy world-wide.

About CDD

The Centre for Democracy and Development is a non-governmental organisation which aims to promote the values of democracy, peace & human rights in Africa and especially in the West African sub-region.

The full report is available at the link shown.

*Dr. Jibrin Ibrahim, is Principal Researcher at the Centre for Democracy and Development; Fabian Okoye and Tom Adambara are Research Assistants at Global Rights.

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

The internet and more so blogging has enabled a growth in freedom of speech amongst civil society groups and individual activists and citizens across the continent. In China, Iran and the Middle East the governments have been active in monitoring and restricting access to the internet by it’s citizens. The first African country to ban websites was Tunisia which hosted the second phase of the WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) was held in Tunisia last November. The irony was not lost on many of the participants who held their own workshops and seminars promoting freedom of expression despite threats from government employed thugs. Earlier on March 1st Tunisian journalist Muhammad Abou was arrested and subsequently imprisoned for publishing an article on a banned website where he compared the President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The first reports that the Ethiopian government was blocking blogs hosted by blogger.com came on the 18th May as Ethiopian blogger, Ethiopian Life reported that his blog had been blocked along with a number of others. Later Meskel Square asked “Where have all the Ethiopian Blogspot Bloggers gone?. In addition, Free Our Leaders and Ethiopian Review were also unavailable. In total 75% of Ethiopian blogs tracked on Global Voices are no longer accessible from Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian blogosphere has been one of the most vibrant on the continent and highly critical of the government of Meles Zenawi. Though the government is still denying any involvement in the shut down there is really no other explanation. Ethiopian bloggers in the Diaspora continue to relentlessly attack the tyranny of Zenawi’s government and question the US and other Western countries who continue to support his government. Ethiopia is not the only country trying to prevent African citizens an online presence. RSF reports that the Gambian government has hacked into the website of exiled Gambian journalist, Pa Nderry Mbai, who runs the Freedom Newspaper and posted “a false statement of allegiance to an associate of the president together with the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of all its subscribers, describing them as “informers”(http://www.freedomnewspaper.com/).

The false statement was made worse by the exposure of people’s names and email addresses who had set up user accounts on the site. Mbai’s email and phone number in the US were also published. Those living in Gambia are now at personal risk of arrest and detention by the Gambian government.

The same day, the Gambian police ordered all those “who continually supplied him with information which he used to castigate and vilify the democratically elected government of His Excellency President Alhaji Yahya Jammeh” to report to the nearest police station within 24 hours or face immediate arrest.
The hacking was done from an IP address in Southampton, England.

The implications for activists and dissidents in Africa are obvious. How safe is your personal information? How safe are you? This is especially worrying for those blogging from Ethiopia, Tunisia and Egypt - governments which have arrested and detained bloggers and journalists in recent months. Egypt has been particularly viscious…. in it’s response to bloggers. On May 7th activist and blogger, Alaa Ahmed along with 11 others, was detained in prison by the Egyptian police. They had all been arrested for supporting another group of protestors. According to a Human Rights Watch report, the thousands of police were deployed against protestors proving once again that President Mubarak “is committed to zero tolerance when it comes to peaceful dissent”. Despite the arrests, Egyptian bloggers launched a collaborative campaign against the governments repression and to free the arrested activists and bloggers. Alaa Ahmed was not the first Egyptian blogger to be arrested. Last October, 21 year old activist, journalist and blogger, Abdel Karim Seliman was also arrested and detained for 18 days. His writings were confiscated by the Egyptian state security.

In Zimbabwe where freedom of speech died many years ago, the government is planning to enact legislation that will allow it to monitor the phone calls and mail of anyone suspected of threatening national security or involvement in criminal activities in the country. The Interception of Communications Bill will include the monitoring of email and there is no doubt in my mind that the government will seek ways to block internet usage and particularly blogs from operating within the country. In truth the Bill is simply another tool for the government to continue its repression of the people of Zimbabwe and places Zimbabwean bloggers at an increased risk to their personal safety.

Two African countries that have had relatively free press and freedom of speech, South African and Kenya, are now hinting at curbing free expression. In the case of South Africa the government is proposing legislation that will monitor require mobile phone providers to monitor and intercept phone calls.
The proposed law requires operators Vodacom, MTN and CellC to put in place systems for the interception of cellphone communications, and to keep detailed information of all their clients, as well as phones and SIM cards .

The providers such as Vodocom (http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=17511,1,22) are angry at the legislation which will increase their administration costs on a scheme they say is unworkable. They will face huge fines for not complying with the proposed legislation - the “Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communications Related Information Bill” (http://www.legalbrief.co.za/filemgmt_data/files/RIC%20Bill.pdf) and of course they will loose millions in revenue as their customer base is reduced by as much as 20 million people (http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/article.aspx?ID=BD4A206373).

However from a user perspective the Bill has implications for both privacy and access or use of mobile phones. As always it is the poor that will mostly be affected by this legislation. If you dont have an address, do not work in the formal economy or are an illegal immigrant then under the Bills regulations you will no longer be able to use a mobile phone. The second hand sale of SIM cards which again is used by mostly poor and rural people will be criminalised as failure to report the sale or exchange will result in a prison sentence of up to 12 months.

The governments cites the high crime rate as the main reason behind the legislation. There is no doubt about the high level of crime in South Africa and that mobile phones are used in carrying out many crimes. However it will be the poor, the migrants, the low paid or those employed in the informal sector who will suffer most and become even more disenfranchised from society and not the criminals who as one report states (http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=17511,1,22) can afford to buy SIM cards from a neighbouring country, use them and dispose of them with ease.

Last month the Kenyan Internal Security Minister, John Njoroge Michuki place an advert in the Daily Standard where as Kenyan blogger, Thinkers Room wrote “not so subtly dishes out warnings to radio talk shows, newspapers and Internet bloggers……. Bottom line – bloggers are now on the government radar”. He continues….”I won’t be cowed online but I jolly well will keep a very low profile physically.”

Africa’s dictators and paranoid leaders are beginning to discover cyberland where, unlike traditional media (newspapers, radio and TV), freedom of expression is much more difficult to control. Nigeria, has a huge online presence not only from bloggers but from news portals, forums and discussion groups – most of them highly critical of the present government. Two weeks ago, a Nigerian photographer, Jide Adeniyi-Jones, was refused publication of an article by various Nigerian newspapers so he simply sent the article to various bloggers who published it on his behalf. Many dissidents and activists from the Niger Delta and Igboland who are calling for secession already use the internet to publish their writings which would be banned in Nigeria. How long before they find themselves on the governments radar.

* Sokari Ekine is Blogging Africa editor for Pambazuka News

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

My first meeting with Issa Shivji was his book “Silent Class Struggle in Tanzania!, when I was a student of Africa studies in Tokyo, studying African Socialism. I later met him at the University of Dar es Salaam for several occasions during my Ph.D study on the economic liberalisation and the land question in Tanzania. Prof. Shivji was then appointed as the Chairman of the Land Commission in Tanzania. Many of us wondered why him? I remember that I had stimulating discussions on land issues with him at his office in the Land Commission and at his home. I had closely followed the work of the Land Commission, and then a surprise came that a new land policy drafted by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Land Policy was released.

Recently, it was a happy surprise for me to meet Issa Shivji in Pumbazuka news in my office in Harare. His articles on globalisation and liberalisation reminded me of him from old days. This does not mean that Shivji’s thoughts have been stagnating without progress since 1970s. The world surrounding us has greatly changed and so did many of our colleagues around us and ourselves. But Shivji is the Shivji I know. His writings are refreshing than ever. It was as if he was fighting a lonely struggle, but the fact that many people will be celebrating the publication of his new book means that this is not the case.

I congratulate for his past work and his new book, and I will be waiting for his next work.

Mantis Thoughts From a Hot Rock – (http://pearl-island.blogspot.com/2006/07/world-united.html) writing for Reunion Island comments on the passing of the World Cup and the reportage from the local media on the French team. Amidst all the fanfare, Marine Le Pen (the daughter of French National Front leader Jean Marie Le Pen) arrived on the Island.

..”Marine Le Pen - she who be the daughter of the father, arrived amidst the blue football fever to encourage the faithful and probably have a bit of a holiday. What is odd, and strikingly so, is that to an outsider "La Réunion" is the melting pot of seventies pop songs and lacks the racism (so I am informed) of other French departments such as Martinique and Guadeloupe. If so, how does one explain the 8.1% of the vote to the FN in 2002? I dunno! Yet Marine was given an hour of air time on Radio Freedom when she found time to escape the Creolia Hotel and avoid the thirty or so demonstrators who had decided that there are more important things in life than the footie!”

An interesting question, who were the 8.1% of the Island that voted for Le Pen? Were they the same group that supported the French football team? Or as in the case of many people of African decent, the support was not for the French team but rather the 17 African players who were part of France’s 22 man squad?

Alb Sayed - Alb Sayed (http://albsayed.org/2006/07/06/yacoubian-parliament) reports on yet more censorship in Egypt. This time it is an MP, Mustafa Bakry who is asking that some of the scenes in the film “The Yacoubian Building” be cut. Interesting though is that one of the scenes he is wanting removed shows a woman being sodomised by officers in a police station. Alb Sayed reminds us:

….”which is nearly identical to what happened to activist Mohamed elSharqawi. And in this case, I do believe that the whole of Egypt needs to see what our beloved Security Forces and police are doing to people in the police stations. Furthermore we need to realize that while these characters are fictional, the acts are very real”.

The government is therefore calling for censorship of the very acts that it’s own security forces are committing on Egyptians citizens today. Freedom of Expression is being curtailed once again and at the same time Freedom to Abuse by the security forces is continuing unabated and unabashed.

AfroMusing - You Missed This (http://kumekucha.blogspot.com/2006/07/kingsway-house-building-in-nairobi...) has a post on the secrets of “Kingsway House” in Nairobi – which used to house the Special Branch and was thought to be the place where the plot to assassinate Tom Mboya took place.

“One set of secrets that many Kenyans would have liked Kingsway House to reveal, if buildings would talk, was the planning of details that led to the assassination Of Tom Mboya.......There is plenty of evidence to suggest that whoever planned and executed the murder of Mboya had access to impeccable intelligence information. The day before Mboya was assassinated, he arrived at the then main Embakassi International airport from a conference he had been attending in Addis Ababa Ethiopia. The Standard newspaper on the morning of his assassination carried a photograph of Mboya arriving and waving to somebody who must have been at the waving bay in the airport. However, to have planned and executed this assassination, the person or persons who plotted must have had the information about Mboya's arrival back into the country, the day before.”

Nigeria’s Whats New - Nigeria, Whats New (http://nigeriawhatisnew.blogspot.com/2006/07/another-fail-africa-summit-...) comments on the forthcoming “Sullivan Summit scheduled for Abuja from July 17 to 20.” Amongst the participants will be former US President Bill Clinton and Bush hawk now World Bank President, Paul Dr Paul Wolfowitz. What’s New writes:

The same usual suspects are back to milk the Nigerian cow! Have these summits benefited Nigeria or Africa? Poverty, despair and disease is mentioned but not seen. A little bit of effort in stopping and reversing the rot without moving from your opulent mansions is all that is required. Oil, Diamonds, Gold, and many more are plentiful in Africa but in partnership with a rotten few. Africa is still poor and the few are holding a huge number of people prisoner".

The cow is dry – this will end up as another useless, ineffective talking shop that will in no way change Nigeria or Africa in anyway whatsoever.

Trials and Tribulations of a Freshly Arrived Denizen of Ghana - Trials and Tribulations (http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/07/as-week-draws-to-close-in.html) comments on the possibility of an ECOWAS regional police organisation that would be responsible for drug dealing in the region.

“At the sub-regional level, I maintain that there should be an ECOWAS Convention on Combating Drugs in the same manner there is one on small arms to the degree that the Kimberely Process on Blood Diamonds has eventuated from it”

While it is an excellent idea, if such a force is to be created then it should also take on responsibility for combating other cross regional crimes such as trafficking of women and children and sex tourism.

Black Looks - Black Looks (http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/07/953.html) comments on immigration in Europe and the new forms of “migration management” that are emerging such as the creation of a school in Senegal to train young men and women in the hope that they will stay in their country rather than want to go to Europe. Other management methods are the setting up of camps:

“The EU is planning and funding a series of transit camps across the continent and North Africa (from Ukraine to Libya) as part of a holistic “system of control” along with the Schengen agreement, the closing of the two Spanish enclaves in Morocco, Ceuta and Melilla, that will effectively “barbed wire” Europe. The contradiction is that many European countries such as Britain and Spain are in desperate need of increased migration due to falling birth rates and emigration of their own indigenous citizens”

It is also important to note that many of the “migrant management” policies being implemented are racist. Furthermore you cannot stop people from coming by setting up skills acquisition centres in home countries whilst at the same time refusing to cancel the country's debt; providing subsidies to EU farmers at the expense of African farmers; fixing the price of raw materials so low as to further impoverish local people; using child labour; destroying the local environment and of course where do the jobs come from once the skills are acquired?

Women's organisations have hailed the Domestic Violence Bill, saying the proposed law would help curb domestic violence which has resulted in deaths or serious injuries to many people in the country. Musasa Project director Ms Ednah Bhala said the provisions of the Bill were comprehensive enough to deal with domestic violence.

On 6 June 2006, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented his report International Migration and Development to the General Assembly. The report will provide the framework for discussion during the Informal Interactive Civil Society Hearings taking place on 12 July 2006 and the High-Level Dialogue of the General Assembly, being held from 14-15 September 2006. In mid-June, NGLS launched an online call for comments on the NGLS website to create an opportunity for civil society, especially those organizations who were unable to participate in the 12 July Hearings, to provide their views, comments and responses to the Secretary-General's report in order to help support a constructive exchange in the process leading up to the Dialogue.

Providing powerful stories of a range of women who are actively engaged in the response to HIV and AIDS this publication is powerful. Each woman’s story describes her experiences and the AIDS situation in her respective country. Country experiences include Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ukraine, Kenya, Swaziland, Bangladesh, Nepal, USA and Pakistan. These stories emerge from a month long workshop run by CEDPA in October 2005, which aimed to build leadership abilities, technical expertise and programme management skills of women.

President Olusegun Obasanjo on July 6 2006, launched the Computer for All Nigerians Initiative (CANI) aimed at easing access to, and use of computers amongst all Nigerians in irrespective of class, age gender and location. He said the objective of the CANI scheme is to increase computer penetration in Nigeria in line with the National ICT policy, the multi-sectoral reform agenda of government and the realisation of the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals.

Kakamega Forest, the only remaining tropical rainforest in Kenya, is threatened with extinction. The forest has experienced severe degradation during the past three decades. Presently, more than half of the indigenous forest cover is bare. The closed canopy indigenous forest covers a paltry 25 per cent of the gazetted forest area.

Students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) medical school believe they are racially victimised while staff counter that personality clashes and academic rigour are being misconstrued as racism. Over the past three years escalating racial tension at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine has seen black students alleging racial discrimination by Indian academics in the teaching and assessments of students.

Male circumcision could significantly reduce the burden of HIV in Africa, a study suggests. It concluded that the operation could avert about six million HIV infections and three million deaths in sub-Saharan Africa over the next 20 years. "However, people who are circumcised can still be infected with HIV and any awareness campaign would have to be extremely careful not to suggest that it protects against HIV or is an alternative to using condoms."

African political leaders praised Microsoft's support for the region's development of information-technology access and called for greater investment to further expand this reach. Speaking at the start of a two-day conference Microsoft organized to discuss ways to bring more software to Africa, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said Africa was the world's "last frontier in information technology," with just 10% of the Tanzanian population having easy access to computers.

Community Groups met last Friday (July 7) to discuss strategies to counter what is perceived as government ‘propaganda’ plans for the 2007 Bicentenary to 'dishonour' the memory of African people who fought for their freedom and resisted enslavement. To many of the organisations present at the forum with, held at Kingston University, the name itself is offensive and seeks to present Africans as mere victims in what the establishment refers to innocently as the ‘slave trade.’

Edited by M. A. Mohamed Salih this book offers in-depth analysis of parliamentary (legislature) development set in a historical context informed by Africa’s post 1990s democratic resurgence. In particular, it illustrates how African parliaments are caught between the twin processes of being part of the machinery of government while exercising the function of holding government accountable.

Advocates who say black Americans should be compensated for slavery and its Jim Crow aftermath are quietly chalking up victories and gaining momentum. Fueled by the work of scholars and lawyers, their campaign has morphed in recent years from a fringe-group rallying cry into sophisticated, mainstream movement. Most recently, a pair of churches apologized for their part in the slave trade, and one is studying ways to repay black church members.

Nature abhors a vacuum. Wipe out one creature, and another will move in. Jellyfish are taking over. In a region off the west coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean, heavy fishing in recent decades has depleted fish stocks while leading to increased numbers of jellyfish. Their numbers are beginning to "significantly interfere with fishing operations," the researchers report in the July 12 issue of the journal Current Biology.

The Refugee Law Project (RLP) conducted over 100 in-depth interviews in Gulu and Kitgum districts in early June 2006. In a context where nearly all residents of Gulu and Kitgum are displaced, government and humanitarian actors have increasingly sought to target those with the greatest need through the identification of 'vulnerable groups'. This amorphous population has typically included women, children, the sick, disabled and elderly. Taken together, these groups in fact form the majority of the internally displaced population of Northern Uganda, making the term 'vulnerable' almost meaningless.

Swaziland-based ITMC offers dozens of different types of management courses and training to people from all over Africa. These range from Business Management and Project Management through Computer and IT training to Women in Development Action. They continually update course content and develop new courses. See this sight for more information.

After years of receiving international aid, southern Sudan has reversed the trend and announced a donation of $30m (£16m) to the United Nations. The money will build roads in the south, which has little infrastructure and a very low standard of living.

Aids-ravaged Zimbabwe is hoping to double the number of people on antiretrovirals (ARV) in order to reach 70 000 sufferers by the end of 2006, top official, Raymond Yekeye, has said. He said the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria was to bankroll the programme. Zimbabwe last year failed to reach its target to provide ARVs to 100 000 people.

Chopping down the forests for charcoal and fuel wood seems so shortsighted, but until there are alternative sources of energy for Malawi's rural poor, the destruction will continue. Malawi loses about 50,000ha of indigenous forest every year - the highest deforestation rate in the Southern African. The government estimates that just 4 percent of the population has access to electricity; over 93 percent depend on wood fuel.

In a step aimed at ending years of political hostilities, most of Togo’s feuding politicians have agreed on the general lines of a framework for holding free and fair elections. After several months of talks in the divided country, seven of the nine groups taking part signed a deal that aims to steer Togo onto a peaceful path to elections expected at the end of next year.

United Nations chief Kofi Annan has vowed that the international community will do everything in its power to ensure the success of presidential elections due in Sierra Leone next year. Sierra Leone holds its first post-civil war elections early next year, although no date has been fixed yet.

International companies and local elites in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are pocketing revenues from copper and cobalt production instead of sharing it with local communities or spending it to reduce poverty, a watchdog group has said. A new report by the London-based Global Witness says that despite being one of the richest copper- and cobalt-producing areas in the world, the province of Katanga in southeastern DRC remains severely poor and the population has little or no infrastructure or public services.

The Regional Pastoralist Gathering will bring together over 300 members of the pastoralist economy and policy makers from across the Greater Horn of Africa and beyond. The focus will be innovation in the economic, social and political spheres of the pastoralist system, and the gathering will be attended by pastoralist producers, traders and product processing entrepreneurs as well as customary leaders, high level policy makers and opinion leaders.

Evidence is accumulating that the incidence and prevalence of HIV/AIDS in some African countries - notably Kenya and Zimbabwe - is declining. Why? What do these reversals say about the best way forward for prevention on a large scale?

After decades of setbacks in education, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are sending more children to school and taking steps to improve education quality. But the region still needs help from wealthy nations to achieve universal education by 2015, says a global partnership of donors and developing countries. “We have seen that progress is possible when political will and resources come together,” says Desmond Bermingham, the new head of the global compact on education, known as the Fast Track Initiative (FTI).

Uganda has drafted a policy to manage its oil and natural gas resources now that early tests in the Lake Albert region have shown that the country has commercially exploitable reserves. The policy seeks to ensure that the country benefits from any oil reserves that might be discovered, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals Fred Kabagambe-Kaliisa has said.

The Kenyan government's directive to have senior officials return luxury cars to cut costs may have been good news to tax payers, but lack of transparency and accountability could undermine the exercise. The government is expected to save about 17 million dollars in running costs, which will be channelled to development projects, from the exercise.

The Ugandan journalist and broadcaster Andrew Mwenda is in London telling anyone who is prepared to listen that aid has been a disaster for Africa, fuelling corruption and hindering development. For Tony Blair and the G8 leaders who meet next week in St Petersburg, for Bono, Bob Geldof and all the other celebrity campaigners for generosity towards Africa, Mr Mwenda has a curt message: stop the aid and stop the debt relief.

Health officials in Tanzania's semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar have begun spraying thousands of households with a non-toxic insecticide in an effort to control the breeding of mosquitoes that transmit malaria, Africa's top killer. The Zanzibar minister of health and social welfare, Sultani Mohamed Mugheiry, said the support of the entire community was necessary to ensure Zanzibar would be free of malaria by 2008.

President Thabo Mbeki's speech at the ceremony unveiling the emblem for South Africa's 2010 Fifa World Cup, in Berlin on 7 July 2006 spoke of the importance of the tournament to the continent. He said 'the 2010 Soccer World Cup belongs to the many Africans who in many parts of the world engage in a continuous struggle against racism and xenophobia'.

As Africans -- especially those of us who live in the West -- we are uncomfortable with our continent's state of underdevelopment in economic growth and human security. And so it is that wherever there is a gathering of Africans, the conversation is likely to revolve around, politics and the sorry state of our continent.