Responsibilities include:
- Participate in the development, programming, testing, debugging, implementation and support of Content Management System (CMS) and other information systems releases, modules and functionalities.
- Independently liaise with users in African UN Information Centre’s (UNIC) to define and specify requirements.
- Prepare technical and user documentation for CMS, as well as training materials and conduct technical presentations.

The editors of Children & Society are planning a Special Issue in Spring 2007 on the theme of displacement and asylum. The guest editors for this Special Issue will include Jason Hart and Jo Boyden. The aim is to produce a collection of essays that between them cover a wide age range; embrace experience in the global South as well as the UK and Europe; address both policy and practice; and offer critical reflection of a more theoretical nature.

Fundraising Trainers Ass. has introduced a fundraising newsletter aimed at sharing fundraising information in Zimbabwe. Contact [email][email protected] to receive a copy.

A second year media student with the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo, was arrested while taking photographs during demonstrations by students at the university campus, according to a release from Misa. The student, Fungai Machirori, had been assigned to take photographs of the demonstration as part of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies' training programme when the police pounced on her for "taking photographs without their consent."

During the Tech forum in Kumasi, Ghana, people showcased some of their work. Henry Addo showcased his Webmark site, a free (open source) online bookmark manager. Henry uses mostly cybercafes to access the web, and used to list his bookmarks on one of the computers in the cybercafe. When he found someone using the computer with his bookmarks, he used to get annoyed. Out of this need, he decided to develop an online bookmark manager.

The Federal Government has approved a directive that only 'Made in Nigeria' software should run on the IT systems of the nation's public offices and institutions. The approval follows an intense lobby by the Nigeria Software Development Initiative (NSDI), an industry lobby group led by CEO of Zenith Bank Plc, Jim Ovia.

'The World Health Report 2006 - Working together for health' contains an expert assessment of the current crisis in the global health workforce and ambitious proposals to tackle it over the next ten years, starting immediately. The report reveals an estimated shortage of almost 4.3 million doctors, midwives, nurses and support workers worldwide. The shortage is most severe in the poorest countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where health workers are most needed.

Zimbabwean women have the shortest lifespan in the world, according to a new report released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday. Neither men nor women in one of the world's fastest shrinking economies are expected to reach the age of 40, according to the 'World Health Report 2006', based on the statistics for 2004.

Can the story of happy return be consolidated into a new beginning or will the present optimism turn sour under the weight of unfulfilled promises? The south is a land for the large part without schools, hospitals, roads, jobs or a working government. Hopes of a new dawn, fuelled by a wealth of oil and gold, are tempered by fears that outbreaks of militia fighting could spill over into renewed conflict if frustration at the slow pace of change continues to fester.

Back in the early 1980s, Leslie Jean-Robert Pean was in a heap of trouble. Flat broke, in bankruptcy court, he had $10 in a savings account and a whole lot more debts than assets. But in 1989, Pean, an economist, landed a job at the headquarters of the World Bank, in Washington, D.C. By the early 1990s, Pean and his family had bought a big house on 3 acres of manicured grounds outside Washington. "Our dream," the World Bank's mission statement says, "is a world free of poverty”. The only trouble, bank investigators say, is that he wasn't focusing so much on helping the poor as he was on helping himself

AIDC seeks a committed activist to serve as the national organiser of our Right to Work Campaign which seeks to address the crisis of mass unemployment by amongst other things having the right to work entrenched in South Africa's Bill of Rights.

Alfredo Jaar's "Rwanda Project: 1994–2000" is a series of photography-based installation works derived from his experiences in Rwanda. He first travelled there in the summer of 1994 while the genocide was still ongoing and overwhelmingly ignored by the international community. It is estimated that almost one million people were killed over a period of three months, from April–July 1994. The Rwanda Project attempts to counter and transform the conventions of photojournalism, which frequently objectifies violence through unmediated images of victimization. Alternatively, Jaar reverses the lens' eye to focus on the eyes of the witnesses and the hauntingly beautiful landscape in which this massacre was enacted as a means of eliciting an emotional response from the viewer.

United Nations relief officials are calling for stepped-up humanitarian and peacekeeping measures to confront hunger and "horrific atrocities" in Katanga in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where fighting between the army and Mai Mai rebels has driven over 150,000 people from their homes in the last six months. Apart from the people who have fled, many others remain trapped or hidden in remote and inaccessible locations, making it likely that the actual figure is much higher than 150,000, OCHA added of the situation around three Katanga sites – Mitwaba, Malemba Nkulu and Dubie. Many of these people are living in appalling conditions with alarmingly high malnutrition and mortality rates.

More than a year after it was signed, Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) is showing signs of strain, says the International Crisis Group (ICG). "While the agreement ended one of Africa’s longest and bloodiest civil wars, it was an agreement between only two parties, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), and continues to lack broader support throughout the country, particularly in the North."

Nigerian police on Wednesday blocked a meeting of politicians who oppose a campaign to extend President Olusegun Obasanjo's time in power, opposition officials said. Police surrounded the conference centre at the Sheraton Hotel in Abuja, where the politicians were scheduled to meet to discuss strategies to prevent Obasanjo from obtaining a third term in office, and stopped anyone from going in. Authorities have in recent weeks stepped up their actions against opposition groups, who accuse the government of becoming increasingly intolerant of dissent, particularly on the controversial question of a third presidential term.

With time fast running out, scepticism is mounting at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that a deal on farm and industrial goods, crucial to an overall global trade pact, can be struck by the end of the month. Diplomats in Geneva say that the deadline - set by trade ministers last December in Hong Kong - looks unattainable and the big question facing the 149-state body is how to prevent a fresh failure from killing off the negotiations completely.

The military has taken control of food production by small-scale farmers in parts of southern Zimbabwe, a rights NGO headed by church leaders claimed on Wednesday. The Solidarity Peace Trust alleged that under the guise of Operation Taguta/Sisuthi or 'Operation Eat Well', launched last year to help revive the agriculture sector, army units have "hijacked" plots and maize harvests in the southern province of Matabeleland, leaving the smallholder-farmers with no income or food.

The formation of the African Union in 2002 reaffirmed the commitment of African political elites to foster a peaceful and safe continent, a commitment fleshed out through the creation of the African Security Council. Later, an African Stand-by Force was established, with the intention of intervening in conflicts and offering civil protection. Against this background, the studies in this book reflect on the current situation as regards defence, military and human security across the African continent.

The past few years has seen the burgeoning of a number of initiatives aimed at opening the fields of creativity, science and knowledge in communities around the world. Practitioners from these movements currently identify themselves as falling within a particular community – 'free and open source software', 'open access', 'open content' and 'open science', amongst others – but they share key processes and values whose common elements are yet to be fully realized. This year's iCommons Summit aims to bring together, in a creative, stimulating and cooperative environment, the pioneers from these communities – to inspire and learn from one another and establish closer working relationships around a set of incubator projects.

Where does the intersection between activism and politics take place? Kayode Fayemi explores this sometimes complex relationship in the context of Nigeria’s fractured political landscape. He concludes: “I believe we can revive the State in a qualitative manner and make democracy more meaningful to our people, provide jobs for the jobless, improve healthcare, modernise agriculture and reclaim our young people from a future of violence, decadence and despair by linking activism to politics and not drawing artificial divisions.”

The topic of my presentation this afternoon gives the impression that there is a difference between activism and politics, and that it requires moving from one to the other. If one follows this line of thought, one might be tempted to assume that the two – politics and activism – are mutually exclusive. There have always been attempts both in recent times and in our not so recent past to make a distinction between those who stand at the barricades seeking change in their quest for a better society and those who wield power in politics in defence of the State. Indeed, theories have been propounded about State-society relations deepening the difference between civil society and political society. Activists are often seen as occupying the moral high ground, irrepressible in their campaign for what they believe in, often living in utopia in the quest of the unattainable and generally cantankerous and obstinate in the pursuit of their beliefs. On the other hand, politicians are seen to be janus-faced – on the one hand, charismatic, visionary, fascinating and sophisticated, and on the other, repulsive, cynical, calculating, and opportunistic. My own interest this afternoon is really not to indulge in any deep philosophical or political arguments about these distinctions many of which you are familiar with but to simply explore – based on my limited experience, the possibilities of harmony in this pseudo-dichotomy – to explain that this pattern of categorizing people is at best a luxury, and at worst irrelevant in our own setting.

I am going to suggest that this pseudo-divide of activism and politics has impeded our abilities to connect with each other and work together towards a more positive future. I am convinced that the structuring of actors on the basis of either/or, and us/them with one of the other being valued more leads to domination and we need to really try as much as possible to avoid such separation and fragmentation and work towards community and cohesion. Consequently, I intend to argue that politics – properly conducted - is a form of social activism and another stage in the struggle to restore the dignity of humankind – an integrated continuum rather than discretely compartmentalised oppositional phenomena, often complicated and contradictory, but mostly in the quest to make a fundamental difference.

Activists have always occupied that realm between the household and the State, populated by voluntary groups and associations, sharing common interests and largely autonomous from the State, but often promoting core values that are consistent with what the State ought to stand for – participatory involvement, transparency, accountability, openness, ownership, legitimacy, equality of opportunities and respect for fundamental human rights.

Many people always ask activists and politicians the same question: Why, with all the callings in this world that could perhaps earn one considerable social, financial and personal security, would anyone want to go into something like activism or politics, particularly in a setting as dangerous as Nigeria, unless one has a death wish? The unvarnished truth is that many activists and, I believe, even politicians love life too much to want to celebrate death. Many activists who make a transition into partisan politics have probably done so for the same reasons they embraced activism. It was not aimless boldness that drew many into activism. It was often a selfish desire to live their lives in freedom, peace and in a democracy that transformed ordinary folks into bold activists against all forms of oppression and in the service of their communities.

This is why perhaps the issue should not be one of transition from activism to politics, but the extent to which we are able to achieve citizen participation in our democracy. Our discussion should really focus more on the making of leaders and citizens in a good society because without direct citizen participation, the legitimacy of our political institutions will continue to decline. It is for this reason that I strongly believe that political leaders – be they politicians or activists should worry because their ability to lead effectively is being seriously undermined by the desertion of average citizens from the public space, deepening the crisis of legitimacy in our State. Yet, this lack of legitimacy cuts both ways. When we the people withdraw our trust in leaders or discountenance politicians, we make our democratic institutions less effective and risk making ourselves ungovernable.

While politics may have lost its edge globally - suffering a decline, apathy or disinterest, it is also true to say activism is on the rise in the form of single issues pressure groups which have continued to thrive around the world – whether in the form of campaigns like ‘Make Poverty History’ or in the promotion of an international rights regime in the form of an International Criminal Court or a fair trade regime in the world.

Yet even these popular campaigns still suffer from certain limitations in a world that is essentially statist and in which citizens’ rights are better protected locally, even if we subscribe to universal ideals. In our case, it is the belief that another Nigeria is possible – one that embraces democracy, fairness, equity and justice and the possibility of saying what we like, write what we think, participate in the political process without fear of intimidation, make our votes count so that our views will matter. These are the beliefs that have continued to propel the activists that I know in the struggle for a better society.

But let me back up a little and locate this discourse within the context of our recent history in Nigeria as it concerns the relationship between activism and politics in Nigeria. Many will recall that with the sudden demise of the dictator, General Sani Abacha in June 1998, things had begun to look up for the country. We saw the end of military dictatorship in sight. Those of us who were involved in the campaign to restore the mandate of Chief MKO Abiola, the winner of the annulled election of 1993 had expected that it was only a matter of time for Abiola to be installed as President and for him to convene a sovereign national conference. Our focus at the time was not elections, but the institutionalisation of a fundamental restructuring of the Nigerian state and the strategy in the democracy movement was to put pressure on the new military leadership to release Abiola and install him as President. The new military leader, General Abdul-Salami Abubakar was seen as a common sense choice amid a largely obdurate military clique determined to maintain the status quo.

Clearly under pressure locally and on the international scene, he made every effort to win the confidence of the civil society movement by releasing jailed leaders and requesting exiles to return home. And then, all of a sudden Chief Abiola died and this threw us into a deeper quandary in the democracy movement and the country tilted on the precipice. To arrest the religious and ethnic polarisation that had surfaced, General Abubakar went for elections, even at a time that many felt the national question had gone beyond simply organising elections and putting people in authority. Yet, because the military was so despised, the decision coupled with the sudden death of the most legitimate arrowhead of our struggle increased the urge for anything but the military, a mood which we shared but which equally caught us unawares in the democracy movement.

In the ensuing confusion, the central question for us in the democracy movement was: should the democracy community and the human rights movement participate in, or boycott the transition programme announced by General Abubakar? After extensive deliberations, we agreed that the new dispensation required new strategies, which should reflect a balance between principle and pragmatism. Some expressed strong views that the democracy movement’s capacity to influence change would be severely limited if it decided to boycott the transition programme. Equally, others felt that getting involved in the military-directed transition would amount to a betrayal of the last bastion of the people’s defence against oppression – especially as the professional politicians were eager to return to business as usual with the military, without addressing the root cause of the governance crisis in the first place. In the end, there was no consensus on the way the pro-democracy movement should proceed and we only agreed that individuals could participate while letting political groups stay out of the fray.

My own sentiment was with the latter group since I believed that the path, players, processes and patterns of the transition adopted by General Abubakar could only result in neo-militarism rather than a civilian, democratic dispensation. At the time, many of us were fond of saying that the path we were treading was one of transition without transformation. We argued severally that it was wrong to suggest that any opening after Nigeria’s prolonged authoritarian rule was inherently irreversible and would lead to the deepening of democracy without interrogating the nature of the opening itself. We felt at the time that we needed to think more carefully about the implications of what we considered to be a staged-managed democratic transition, especially in a setting where the ethos, language, and character of public discourse remain completely militarised.

Looking back, the civil society leadership may have been correct to be cautious about embracing the military transition of 1999, but I now believe we were tactically wrong for completely eschewing participation in politics. The fact that the military had not responded to a full-scale defeat by the democracy movement could hardly be discounted in understanding the nature of post-military governance. The eventual dominance of the party hierarchy by retired military generals and civilians closely connected to them certainly set the tone for party formation and also resulted in authoritarian presidential governance. Essentially, the nature of that transition ensured a mere reconfiguration of the political space, rather than a transformation of politics.

Given this context, the eventual election of an ex-military General with significant support from the military constituency was seen by many of us in civil society as an extension of continued military rule. The fact that most of the governors elected (save in the South West) were all what we referred to derisorily at the time as “Abacha politicians” was further confirmation to some of us that we had no business being involved. Yet, even with all of this, we could have started the process of organising along political lines, rather than agonising about the dominance of these elements. After all, we were the ones who risked our lives to fight for the restoration of democracy in Nigeria – only to vacate the space when power was literally lying on the streets. Indeed, as Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, recently noted,

“…one ceaseless complaint against the democratic movement is that its protagonists carried out this struggle at immense personal sacrifices of varying dimensions, only to hand over future responsibilities to proven reprobates and opportunists…whatever self retiring principles may have governed the impulses of a number of us in that struggle…we have indeed left the field to brigands, parasites and unworthy custodians of power and authority, including even collaborators, that is those who have not only made such struggles necessary in the first place, but contributed to our personal woes, and even stained their hands with the blood of our fallen comrades.” [1]

So, we ended up having a democracy without democrats and the result is clear before our very eyes. In spite of the current government’s best effort, the crisis of governance remains deep-seated. Yet, for many of our citizens – democracy was supposed to bring the end of military dictatorship in form and content; they hoped that it would bring greater involvement of ordinary people in politics, whether in state institutions or in civil society ones. They hoped for real and immediate dividends in employment, clean water, better shelter, accessible health care, improved education, reliable and consistent power supply, rehabilitated roads and food on the table. Beyond electoral democracy though, it was also obvious that the nation-state has become a source of unending conflict itself. Many Nigerians of unquestionable nationalist credentials had begun to question the very viability of Nigeria, especially if left in the hands of a centralised state. Constitutional reform was therefore seen as a major pivot for creating and sustaining democratic institutions that can address deepening conflict in Nigeria. To our people, the rising disquiet in the Niger Delta and other parts of Nigeria, for example, may not be a sign of a failing democracy but a sign of a maturing democracy that is conflictual and contradictory – which should find its own level through mediation, deliberation and negotiations.

Although the challenge of reforming the State is fundamentally structural, the issue of leadership – particularly how we conceptualise leadership is central to it. For too long, our political culture has perpetuated the myth that strong leaders can bring about change single-handedly – rather than convert the formal authority derived from their electoral mandate into a process of democratic renewal. In my own view, real leadership ought to involve motivating people to solve problems within their own communities, rather than reinforcing the over-lordship of the state over its citizens and to build and strengthen political institutions that can mediate between individual and group interests. The authoritarian residues of politics over the last seven years have achieved the purpose of turning many away from politics even if they are still active in their neighbourhood associations and their community projects. The main challenge of political leadership therefore is to reconnect democratic choices with people’s day-to-day experience and to extend democratic principles to everyday situations in citizens’ communities and constituencies.

Understandably, if you make political discourse more negative as some do – you deliberately turn ordinary people off politics; more people grow cynical and stop paying attention to politics. This experience is not unique to us in Nigeria; in fact it is the crisis that democracy is experiencing all over the world, with low turn out at the polls and scant regard for political leaders. Yet, if we as citizens choose not to play a part in this process of activism in our communities and our State, we will get the politicians we deserve, allow the hijack of the political realm by special interests and ethnic jingoists only keen in the promotion of their narrow agendas.

To avoid this problem, many of us in the Nigerian civil society sought the middle way after the election of the new government in Nigeria in 1999, even as we were lukewarm about the dawn of electoral democracy in the country. We put skills that were abundant in civil society to the service of the new government as a way of helping to bridge the gap between civil society and an elected government. At our own level in my institution - the Centre for Democracy & Development - we became associated with government at several policy and practical levels – assisting with the shaping and running of the Human Rights Violations Investigations Commission (the Oputa Commission); promoting an agenda for constitutional reform, helping with the reform of the security sector and democratic control of the defence and security establishments, building civil society capacity and pursuing issues of transparency and accountability. Our point always was that democracy is not an abstract concept. It must be relevant to people’s lives. If democracy is not capable of curbing corruption, guaranteeing transparency and improving people’s well being and quality of life, it is at best an empty concept, at worst a sham. Poverty and despair, oppression and humiliation, economic and social insecurities are breeding grounds – even if not the only reasons – for violence and conflict and as much as Nigerians want democracy, they also want to see concrete evidence of democracy making a difference in their lives.

My own experience of working with government over the past seven years as an outsider looking in is captured by the African adage that it’s not possible to shave someone’s head in his absence. The wheel of government bureaucracy turns very slowly and frustratingly so if the central actors are not alive to issues of transformation. No matter how good the policies formulated by outsiders are, implementation is key to transformation. It is for this reason that those who want to re-draw the map of Nigeria’s future must return to more solid grounds rather than tie themselves to the apron strings of power-holders that neither have a track record nor demonstrate a vision that they are better than what we can offer our people. This solid ground must be within a larger movement though, one that accommodates the place of political institutions and not simply the celebration of astute individuals as the ultimate panacea to our crisis of governance. The most practical way to link individual choice to collective responsibility is to participate in the institutions that influence our lives. We must ensure that formal and informal institutions are democratised and given more responsibilities for exercising state power. To do it well, we have to see Nigeria as a permanent enterprise that has to be fought over and restructured in order to provide cover for all Nigerians.

This is why I see the debate about whether activists should become politicians superfluous. Important as they are, the institutions of direct state power and electoralism are just the tip of the iceberg in the democratisation complex. Indeed, genuine democracy ought to rest on a much richer ecology of associational and organisational life and should be nourished and reproduced through every-day struggles of the citizens. But when we broadly define these everyday struggles as simply the handiwork of ‘civil society’, we strip it bare of its spontaneity and deeper meaning and romanticise the civil society as the rationally ordered, codified and all-knowing alternative to government and overplay our abilities as activists to counter the inherent inequities of class and markets. Even worse, we are presented or we present ourselves as antidotes to globalisation, which is why causes like ‘Make Poverty History’ have been hugely successful in form but exaggerated in their expectations. The reason for this crisis of exaggerated expectation that activists suffer is not far fetched. The truth is that as long as we live in the post-Westphalian world of sovereign states, we exaggerate the ability of the civil society to stand up to the power of the nation-state or the mega corporations on its own steam.

This is why I am not sure that the solution to the current deficit that our democracy is experiencing can be solved with posing activism as a counterpunch to politics. For autonomous institutions to play a different role in mediating citizens’ democratic choices, their organic development must be combined in a more nuanced manner and a more systematic way with the use of public and state power. The choice is therefore simple: one can continue to snipe on the fringe and complain that government is not listening to the yearning of the people. Alternatively, one can stop agonising about missed policy opportunities and organise in a manner that places citizens as drivers of change in our quest to restore communitarian values and a future of hope and possibilities for our people.

I know the world sees us - Africans - as incurable optimists and hope mongers. The other day, the New York Times, attempting to unravel the roots of the consistent optimism of the average African asked for my thoughts and I argued that while it may be difficult to find a verifiable basis for our collective and individual optimism amid unremitting misery – hope is God’s last bastion for the African, the evidence of the unseen future of a life more abundant – since, for many, things can hardly get worse than they are. [2]

Yet, as I said earlier, this is not bleary-eyed optimism. It is not the optimism that believes that the crisis of governance in our land will simply go away; it is not the hope that we will all be winners of million dollar lottery tickets today. I am talking about the hope of our founding fathers in the struggle for independence and freedom and their unshaken belief in our inalienable right to rule ourselves. It is the hope of the freedom fighters resisting apartheid and racial discrimination in Southern Africa; the audacity of hope and the determination of optimism that led us to resist the military oppression in our land because of our belief that another Nigeria is possible – one that will be accountable to its citizens, legitimate in their eyes, transparent and respected around the world; the hope that allows us to hold our heads high, proud of our accomplishments and contributions to humankind - the hope that help is on the way.

I believe we can revive the State in a qualitative manner and make democracy more meaningful to our people, provide jobs for the jobless, improve healthcare, modernise agriculture and reclaim our young people from a future of violence, decadence and despair by linking activism to politics and not drawing artificial divisions. It seems to me a self-evident truth that where there is no civil society engaged actively in social activism and the promotion of core values in society, there can be no political society and the state runs the risk of decay and illegitimacy. Renewing our democracy through the strengthening of institutions and public participation increases our collective capacity to tackle the major problems facing our society – with a corresponding achievement of individual contentment even as we pursue the common good. This is where we ought to be headed and I am convinced we will get there in our lifetime.

* This is the text of a lecture presented at the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center, Howard University, Washington, D.C., USA on Thursday, March 16, 2006.

* Until recently Director of the Centre for Democracy & Development, Dr Fayemi is an advisor to the Nigerian government on NEPAD and Security Sector Reform and to ECOWAS, African Union Secretariat, NEPAD Secretariat and Economic Commission for Africa. He now aspires to the Governorship of Ekiti State in Nigeria.

References

[1] Wole Soyinka, “A Nigerian Morality Tale”, Foreword in Kayode Fayemi, Out of the Shadows: The struggle for Freedom and Democracy in Nigeria, (Lagos: CDD & BookCraft, 2005), p.viii. Also see an interesting interview with Olisa Agbakoba, former President of Nigeria’s Civil Liberties Organisation in The Guardian (Lagos) on July 20 & 21, 2004 – “I am tired of being an armchair critic”

[2] See New York Times, March 5, 2006 or International Herald Tribune, March 6, 2006

FEATURED: Kayode Fayemi on the imperatives of transition from activism to politics in Nigeria
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Women have not been adequately included in Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement, writes Roselynn Musa
LETTERS: The children of Uganda; Is homosexuality “unAfrican”?; Falling down in Zimbabwe
BLOGGING AFRICA: Blog columnist Sokari Ekine wraps up the blogosphere
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: After Charles Taylor, who will be the next to face justice?
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Northern Uganda deaths worse than Iraq, says report
HUMAN RIGHTS: Export Processing Zones the worst abusers of workers' rights
WOMEN AND GENDER: An open letter to a sister in need in relation to the Jacob Zuma rape trial
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: UK authorities slammed for treatment of immigrants
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Police stop meeting of Obasanjo opponents
DEVELOPMENT: April deal on WTO talks unlikely
CORRUPTION: Britain’s involvement in African corruption criticised
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: The impact of migrating health workers
ENVIRONMENT: Terminator technology stays banned
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Niger says no to BBC famine coverage
ADVOCACY AND CAMPAIGNS: Get on the bus to stop violence against women and children
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: What is a technology activist?
PLUS: Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, seminars and workshops; Jobs; Books and Art.

* French speaking? French friends?

Read the Pambazuka News French edition by visiting Subscribe online at http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/subscribe.php or send an email to [email][email protected] with 'subscribe French edition' in the subject line. Please forward widely!

* Can trade in the era of globalisation be 'just'? Read our issue on the subject (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/240) and send your feedback to [email protected]

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Some 12,000 Burundians who fled a food crisis caused by a prevailing drought in their country have returned home from neighbouring Tanzania, the governor of Burundi's eastern province of Ruyigi has said. Governor Moise Bucumi denied allegations that they had been forced or threatened to return home. "I received reports that they came voluntarily, and I have no reason to doubt them," he said, adding that Tanzania had no reason to force them out, either. "What interest did it have?" he asked.

The violent death rate for northern Uganda currently stands at 146 per week, or 0.17 violent deaths per 10,000 people per day. "This is three times higher than in Iraq, where the incidence of violent death in the period following the allied invasion was estimated to be 0.052 per 10,000 people per day," claims a new report by a coalition of over 50 leading non-governmental organisations, Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda (CSOPNU). Almost two million people have been displaced by the conflict. A staggering 25,000 children have been abducted during the 20-year war. A quarter of the children in northern Uganda over 10 years old have lost one or both parents.

The proposal to establish a Human Rights Commission in Zimbabwe, a body whose mandate will be to investigate and promote human rights issues is an important one. Since the colonial era to the present, Zimbabwe has known no culture of human rights and yet evidence is abound in international law on the universality and the special regime status that the human rights discourse has attained. The question that we ought to ask ourselves as Zimbabweans is whether the ruling ZANU PF elite, that have been the biggest human rights violator since the attainment of independence in 1980 should be the one to spearhead the debate on the establishment of a Human Rights Commission. Phillip Pasirayi from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition assesses the proposal.

Uganda's Ministry of Finance controlled expenditure tightly in the first half of the 2005/6 financial year after donors cut or withheld $73 million in aid, a ministry report says. According to the semi-annual budget performance report, cuts in expenditure mitigated against the shortfall in domestic resources and grants, resulting in a budgetary deficit of Ush127.8 billion ($69 million) against a projected deficit of Ush140.9 billion ($76.1 million).

Accustomed to their age-old freedom to roam, the nomadic pastoralists of Uganda are now having to cope with a law that seeks to settle and ‘modernise’ their communities. Pastoralist societies in Uganda are increasingly facing market-driven demands to ‘settle down’ on a piece of land – pressures that are not only disrupting their centuries-old lifestyle but also taking a toll on the indigenous, long-horned Ankole cows. "Before the idea of owning a box (owning land) came about, our cows used to move freely across boundaries. This was better use of land," says Richard Mugisha from the pastoralist community of Ankole Region in Mbarara District.

Opposition groups on the semiautonomous Tanzanian island of Zanzibar have criticised new legislation that declares all water on the island the property of the government and introduces fees for water, which had been free. "Water in whatsoever form, location or state, including fresh, saline, marine, surface, ground flowing or dormant water bodies and any kind of public water is hereby declared to be owned by the government," said the bill, which also included penalties and possible jail terms for those who waste the precious resource.

The African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in Sudan says it will look into claims that its troops committed sexual abuse in the western region of Darfur. The UK's More4 TV channel last week aired allegations that AU soldiers paid women, some as young as 11, for sex. The AU said the claims were disturbing, but added there had recently been many allegations against its mission - all of which had been found to be baseless. The AU has 7,000 troops guarding some of Darfur's 2 million displaced people.

It is estimated that women and girls in low-income countries spend 40 billion hours every year fetching and carrying water from sources which are often far away and may not, after all, provide clean water. From this standpoint, it is simple to understand that a woman could be empowered by having a nearby pump that conveniently supplies enough safe water for her family. Easier access to such basic services enables women to identify and grasp new opportunities for themselves, to grow in confidence and attain a greater sense of personal dignity.

In January this year, Abshiro Xasan Guleed had just settled into a sound sleep after a long day of work when she was awoken by incessant knocks on her door. Her first thought as a traditional birth attendant (TBA) for the last 15 years, was that the man had come to request her to attend to his wife who was in labour. But when she opened the door after they identified themselves, she got a totally different message. The man had walked more than two kilometres to report to her about his six year-old daughter who had been knifed three times by a man attempting to rape her.

At least 2,000 women demonstrated on Monday in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), in an appeal for peace in the country. "Our objective is to alert the nation and the international community to the new wave of troubles looming ahead," said Georgette Debale, a university lecturer and one of the event's organisers. The demonstration was held in the wake of increased armed banditry and rebellion in the northwest of the country, close to the border with Chad. According to the demonstrators, three rebel groups are now active in the region.

While the human rights situation in Darfur is more and more alarming, FIDH and its affiliated organisation SOAT (Sudan Organisation against Torture) condemn the opposition of Sudanese authorities to the takeover of the mandate of the AU by UN forces and call for the active cooperation of Sudan with the International Criminal Court (ICC), one year after the Security Council referral of the situation in Darfur to the ICC.

Tens of thousands of children living on the streets of Kinshasa and other cities of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) suffer extreme hardship and exposure to daily violence, says a new report from Human Rights Watch. "Turned out of their homes and without family care and support, they are victims of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. With no secure access to food, shelter, or other basic needs, they are exploited by adults, including law enforcement personnel, who use them for illegal activities to the detriment of their health and welfare and in violation of their basic human rights."

The United Nations and international human rights organisations have long campaigned against recruiters of child soldiers, urging their prosecution as "war criminals". But the first break came only last week when the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague decided to arrest Thomas Lubanga, a founder and leader of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC), on charges of conscripting children in the current insurgency against the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). UNICEF has estimated that up to 300,000 children globally are being used by armed rebel groups and military forces in a variety of roles, including as combatants, cooks, porters, messengers, spies and for sexual purposes.

For 5 years, Professor Jonathan Moyo was President Robert Mugabe's strident defender as Information Minister. Today, he is an Independent MP and sitting on the other side of the fence, tearing into the man he loathed, then liked, and now loathes again. On Tuesday night, he spoke to SW Radio Africa's top inquisitor, Violet Gonda. Visit the URL provided for a transcript of the interview.

Following a recent spate of political killings in South Africa's east coast province of KwaZulu-Natal, an independent monitor has called for an overhaul of the police force. The ANC claimed it had lost 11 of its officials since local government elections on 1 March this year. "We have lost many more since the beginning of the election campaign, mostly in former IFP strongholds. The fact that all [those] killed are ANC members, and that all [those] arrested are IFP members can only let us believe that it is an IFP campaign," alleged ANC spokesman Mtholephi Mthimkhulu.

A gunfight that broke out at the headquarters of Egypt's oldest opposition party on Saturday served to underscore the plight of Egypt's political opposition, in a state of disarray since parliamentary elections were held three months ago. "The incident is proof that none of the secular opposition parties are capable of resolving their rapidly growing internal differences," said veteran local journalist Gamal Essam El-Din. "It comes as little surprise that people resort to violence when they're prevented from engaging in free political activism."

Officials from the United Nations and the Burundian government have agreed to terms for setting up two postconflict institutions - one for reconciliation and the other for justice - but opposition leaders have questioned the proposed bodies’ objectivity. A UN delegation from New York met government officials from 26-31 March, after which they issued a joint communiqué announcing the framework for both a truth and reconciliation commission and a special court for prosecuting crimes against humanity committed in Burundi since it gained independence from Belgium in 1962.

Amnesty International needs a researcher to take the lead responsibility for initiating strategy and a program of human rights research and action on designated countries within Eastern Africa by providing country expertise, research skills and sound political judgement.

The second annual Certificate in Youth Participation for Africa's Development Processes will take place in Lusaka, Zambia from the 29th of May - the 9th of June 2006. This leadership training is being offered jointly by the African Youth Parliament (AYP), Young Women in Action (YWA) and the Coady International Institute.

More than three years after war forced it to shut down, the University of Bouake in the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire officially reopened this week, giving new hope to a generation of youth missing out on schooling. Hundreds of hopeful students and dozens of lecturers attended the opening ceremony on Tuesday, which many hailed as a major step towards a return to normal in the north. Several members of the administrative staff had already returned earlier this month.

Kenyan blogger and Africa’s resident environmental guru, AfroMusing (http://www.afromusing.com/blog/?p=211) points to a post on using African deserts as hubs for solar energy. The idea is that the Sahara, which is some 9 million sq km and the Kalahari which is 900,000 sq km, could be used as solar energy farms to supply cheap electricity for the continent. AfroMusing quotes Anatole France, who wrote:

“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.”

This is definitely one technology we should all dream of - dream hard and believe so that it may come to pass.

Nigerian blogger, Oro (http://www.gbengasesan.com/blog/?p=78) introduces yet another web technology innovation - Talkr. Talkr allows bloggers to convert their written posts to podcasts using computer-generated voice.

“I think its a really cool tool for bloggers (and media houses that have compatible websites) to use because we can now conveniently rest, assured that those who may be visually impaired can still have access to news and informative/educative/entertainment (someone tongue-twisted this to read “edu-info-tainment”) resources.”

Ugandan blogger, Undo (http://undo.blogspirit.com/archive/2006/03/30/caliber-swimming.html) takes us on a boat trip to the Kalangala District of Uganda. Kalangala is made up of some 84 islands in Lake Victoria.

“At this point, it became evident that I stop looking back to the reference point of my emergence, to explore something other in these waters, having lost it all…to some aspect of nature…the horizon I had religiously referred to determine my fate...being a collection of wild wave after another offering no comfort when…looking, trying to perceive the existence of a lost piece of existence, I ended up looking at a green embrace like canvas wafting in an endless gesture, fluttering in a slow afternoon wind…ending as a straight lining at the edge of where the water and cloud discreetly met. Marking the beginning of my imagination, replicated on the faces of all that were pondering the distance being lost, making the flat earth theory more pronounced.”

Sotho guest writing on Mzansi Afrika (http://mzansiafrika.typepad.com/mzansi_afrika/2006/04/did_we_steal_yo.html) takes up a comment by another blogger, Juan, responding to Sotho’s previous post entitled “Affirmative action”.

Juan obviously fails to grasp racism or possibly he is just a refusnik and writes:

“How did whites deny them (Black South Africans) education? By tying them up and not allowing them to learn? Since when did it become our responsibility to educate other cultures? Since you advocate so strongly that your culture is equal to mine, give me proof of where you invented something or built something that we can’t or couldn’t?”

Sotho’s response is:

“Black people have undergone quite a lot at the hands of white people. White people have undergone very little at the hands of black people, all over the world, but especially in America and in South Africa. I've always been amazed at how the transition from minority government to majority government did not turn uglier. There's of course the question of farmers getting killed. While that tragedy cannot be overlooked, I'm happy that there has been no all out bloodbath. From 1652 when Jan Anthoniszoon Van Riebeeck arrived till 1994 when Mr de Klerk stepped down, nastier things than you can imagine were meted out to the black population. That's 342 years, Juan, or three centuries and 42 years. And you can't take 12 years (1994 to 2006) of practically no ill-treatment!”

Freedom for Egyptians (http://freedomforegyptians.blogspot.com/2006/04/for-democracy-and-freedo...) reports on a clash between members of the liberal party Al Wafd, whose headquarters was stormed by “thugs and gang members” - followers of Nomaan Gomaa. Gomaa is the deposed leader of the Al Wafd party and after a 10-hour battle that included gunfire was arrested by police.

“The acting party leader Mahmoud Abaza and prominent member of the party Munir Fahkry Abdel Nur complained that the police looked idly on as Gomaa and his supporters stormed the compound. Nur said: ‘There were 50 policemen this morning and all they did was phone for ambulances as they looked idly on and Gomaa fired his gun.’ Abaza said: ‘It's an act of madness. Someone who is mentally sane does not open fire on journalists simply trying to do their work.’ Gunshots were fired as Gomaa and his gang removed employees of the party and of its official newspaper. Witnesses said Gomaa himself fired shots at Wafd journalists.”

Black Star Journal (http://blackstarjournal.blogspot.com/2006/04/unlike-his-victims-taylor-g...) reports on Charles Taylor’s first day in court in Sierra Leone and lists the 11 charges against him including: use of child soldiers, abduction and forced labour, physical violence, sexual slavery, rape and murder. On suggestions that the trial may be moved to the Hague, he writes:

“Some people would've preferred Taylor be allowed to remain in exile and impunity in Nigeria so as to 'ensure the peace' of Liberia. This was a false choice. Pres. Sirleaf said that the decision to extradite Taylor was a 'hard decision which ensures the long-term safety of the Liberian people and the security of the state.”

Music blog, Sound Roots (http://soundroots.org/2006/04/mondays-mp3-hugh-masekela.html) posts on celebrating the birthday of South African musician Hugh Masekela who was 67 on the 4th April.

“He has worked with many of the greats (Fela Kuti, Paul Simon, Abdullah Ibrahim, Bob Marley, Herb Alpert) and for a time was married to South African icon Miriam Makeba…When you think of Masekela, you have to think not only of his music, but his role as something of an ambassador-at-large for South Africa (and specifically, black South Africa). The stories he tells in his songs capture snapshots of life, past and present, for ordinary South Africans.”

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks,

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Not only Zimbabwe is executing massive eviction campaigns against informal settlers in Southern Africa. The Angolan government has maintained the same policy "for many years," the UN's Special Rapporteur on adequate housing revealed. Citing specific examples, Mr Kothari said that hundreds of families were affected at the end of last year when the Luanda provincial government undertook "forced evictions and demolitions of homes" to implement the governmental housing policy, in the municipality of Kilamba Kiaxi in the Angolan capital.

Three Cabinet ministers in Kenya, separately told anti-corruption czar John Githongo of close links between President Kibaki and a businessman behind an Anglo Leasing type deal who is said to have paid the head of state's medical bills in Britain, according to a report by the Daily Nation. The businessman had reportedly helped the President during the election campaigns in 1997 and 2002, and are said to have helped to meet his medical expenses in the UK following his car crash in 2002 on the election trail.

The worst violation of workers' rights occurs in Africa's export processing zones, trade unions have said. "The practice is also rampant in enterprises operating under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), according to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, African region. "Due to their thirst for unbridled competition, often at the expense of severe social and labour rights, owners and sometimes with the tacit support of public authorities, have remained resolute in their opposition to unionisation," said the organisation's secretary-general, Mr Andrew Kailembo.

The chairman of the University of Ghana's council, has disclosed that the University of Ghana is planning to cut down on the number of students at the university in order to instill discipline and monitor attendance of lectures. This according to him has become necessary because of the findings of the Mfodwo Committee set up to investigate cases of examination malpractices in the university.

United Nations under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Jan Egeland declared the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda "the world's worst form of terrorism" during a visit to a camp for internally displaced persons in Pader District. "Conditions here are totally unacceptable. It has to change, because we believe people have to live a better life and have a better future," he said during a visit to Patongo camp, some 400 km north of the capital, Kampala. Egeland, who is on a four-nation, nine-day tour of conflict- and drought-ravaged East Africa, said there was a need to provide security to the almost two million people living at camps across northern Uganda.

The Tanzanian government will take stringent measures to curb environmental degradation, including the eviction of pastoralists and farmers from protected lands and the prohibition of thin plastic bags, according to the Vice-President. Human activities such as reckless tree felling, use of plastic bags, uncontrolled cattle grazing, invasion of reserved forest areas and mountains were cited as some of the causes of extensive environmental degradation.

The net rate of forest loss in Africa is the second highest in the world, while the continent leads the globe in the frequency of forest fires, FAO told the African Forestry and Wildlife Commission at its meeting in Maputo, Mozambique. Globally, Africa suffered a net loss of forests exceeding 4 million hectares per year between 2000 and 2005, according to FAO. This was mainly due to conversion of forest lands to agriculture. Forest cover went from 655.6 million hectares (ha) to 635.4 million ha during this period.