PAMBAZUKA NEWS 206: Walter Rodney, the Prophet of Self Emancipation
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 206: Walter Rodney, the Prophet of Self Emancipation
I recently bought a copy of the Pambazuka book "African Voices on Development and Social Justice", and just wanted to let you know what a thought-provoking, interesting and above all motivating book it is! I am a recent anthropology graduate and hope to pursue a career in social justice/development after gaining some further experience and a further postgraduate degree.
Your publication is a real eye opener.
You are hereby kindly requested to submit papers or articles for SAfAIDS News newsletter. The newsletter targets:
- professionals working in the HIV/AIDS sector
- staff in ASOs, NGOs, FBOs, government bodies, UN agencies and universities in the region.
- policy makers.
- Community based organisations
The GenARDIS small grants fund was initiated in 2002 by CTA, IICD and IDRC, to support work on gender-related issues in ICTs for ACP agricultural and rural development. In 2004, Hivos joined the team of sponsoring organisations in time for the second round of the programme. The fund supporters are pleased to announce that the selection of Round 2 GenARDIS grant winners has been completed. As in Round 1, the response was overwhelming, with more than 310 submissions received in a period of 2 months. This provides a clear indication that there still is a real need for support in the field of Gender and Agriculture in the Information Society.
Raabi Yusuf Abdillahi was arrested in January and spent 16 days in Hargeisa central prison for no other reason than the peaceful expression of his political views. Sultan Raabi had advocated a clan gathering to discuss the country’s political future, first at a public gathering and subsequently in a press conference. He was detained although he was never tried or sentenced by a court of law. Government officials told the UN independent human rights expert for Somalia, Ghanim Alnajjar, who met with Raabi Yusuf in prison in February, that he “had been charged with inciting a rebellion”, but no charges were in fact ever brought, nor any explanations given. Asked to report to the central police station in Hargeisa the day after the press conference, he was told on arrival that he was under arrest. His mobile and the keys to his safe were confiscated. He spent four nights in the station, and was interviewed once by officers from the CID who informed him that he was accused of “incitement”, though they gave no details or evidence.
The African Commission on Human and People?s Rights (ACHPR) which is currently meeting in Banjul (The Gambia) will review Egypt?s third State report. On that occasion, the FIDH publishes a report on the death penalty in Egypt in order to draw the attention of the African Commission on the violations of international and regional standards taking place in that framework. The report is the result of an international fact-finding mission which was conducted in November 2004 in Egypt.
I consider that any defendant (Shaik) has a right to present his defence to the court prior to the information being publicised in the Press. Also that highly derogatory comment on an individual on trial be left until after the court has made it's findings. It is right that you plead for freedom of the press. On the other hand, if the press acts irresponsibly then it must expect to be criticised and in the worst case to be muzzled. Suggest it might be good thing if the press looked to reporting accurately within legal and ethical norms - not continously focus on reporting sensational news which may or may not be accurate with a view to expanding own circulation.
I want to make brief comments on World Press Freedom day in relation to Zimbabwe. No matter how Shabir Shaik may have misconstrued his sentence or remarks on him from the media to justify what happens in Zimbabwe as a result is an insult to humanity and the dignity that we talk of in freedom.
To say Mugabe may have gotten up one morning and say enough is enough, for who through? If it was enough for him then he should resign and let someone else run the affairs of the country rather than assign oneself the role of a monarch. I think, irrespective of who Shaik is and where he comes from, his sentiments underline our greater problem of SELF is bigger than EVERYBODY.
Mugabe cannot argue with everybody in Zimbabwe to say he is the best and no one is better than him. That is what lack of freedom to the press means in Zimbabwe, Mugabe taking everything arround him including what to say and when by citizens. It is the freedom of the press, in my opinion, which brings with it the willingness of those in power to bow down to the wrongs committed while in office and resign. Denying press freedom, as is alluded by Shaik, is saying the opposite: Leave us in power and mind your own business. But we say how can we mind our business when our lines of communication cross with yours and yet you do not want us to go and repair the lines in order that we mind our business. How sincere then is the statement mind your own business?
We concede to the fact that some of these business men who fly across Africa are champions in seeding corruption and kill, virtually kill tenets of freedom of the press when they bribe their way into the heart of governance in Africa. This undermines freedom and we mean it sincerely when we say in Zimbabwe Mugabe's action on the media are the last kicks of a dying horse.
We are grateful of what the international community is doing in the fight for World Press Freedom and want to draw their attention to atrocities that took place immediately after the stage-managed-2005 elections, and are still taking place in Zimbabwe. We are loosing count of loss of human life and barbaric action taken against others by Zanu malice directed as vindictive and punitive assaults on freedom against association and belonging. We condemn these.
The IUF is requesting international support for a campaign to free three imprisoned trade union leaders in Eritrea. Tewelde Ghebremedhin, Chairperson of the IUF-affiliated Food, Beverages, Hotels, Tourism, Agriculture and Tobacco Workers Federation and Minase Andezion, secretary of the textile and leather workers' federation, were arrested by security police on March 30 and remain in detention. On April 9, police arrested Habtom Weldemicael, who heads the Coca-Cola Workers Union and is a member of the food and beverage workers' federation executive.
The United Nations top emergency official has told the BBC that there is an historic opportunity to end the 19-year war in northern Uganda. Emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland says northern Uganda is being forgotten by the rest of the world. But speaking ahead of a UN Security Council briefing, he said recent peace contacts must not be squandered.
Each time it gets the opportunity, Sudan restates its opposition to the referral of the Darfur situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC). On 22 April, in Jakarta, the Sudanese minister for foreign affairs told the news agency AP: "The Sudanese judiciary is, and has always been, willing and capable of assuming its responsibilities. The government has brought before the courts persons involved in violations of human rights. Scores of such persons have already been arrested and tried."
Hundreds of poultry, rice and cotton farmers from all parts of Ghana marched through the capital, Accra, demanding fairer trade rules in April. Among the crowd was poultry farmer, Lawrence Agorsor. On leaving the National Parliament of Ghana he declared: "Ghanaian farmers have been too quiet for too long. But not anymore."
On paper it was a mismatch equivalent to Barcelona versus Grimsby Town. Gor-Mahia FC, who lie second in Kenya's premier league and are the only Kenyan side ever to win the African Continental Cup, took on St Johns Sports, a team of young men from Korogocho, a Nairobi slum area. "This game was about depicting the power imbalance in the world, skewed against developing countries", said Peter Aoga from ECONEWS Africa, an NGO working on trade issues. "When we are involved in trade negotiations, we are inexperienced - we don't have the expertise. As much as the developed world says the grounds for negotiations are fair, they are not."
Aid agencies have withdrawn their staff from four refugee camps in eastern Chad following disturbances. UNHCR said the trouble began at Iridimi and Touloum on Monday, when the camp residents refused to take part in a refugee registration exercise being conducted there by UNHCR officials. In nearby Mile and Kounoungou, protests erupted when the camp residents refused to take part in a food distribution exercise which involved verifying the number of people actually present.
Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam is due to receive the inaugural Front Line Award from President McAleese at a ceremony in Dublin's City Hall on Friday morning (May 13th). He was selected for the award because of his courageous and inspiring work for human rights in Sudan, including in Darfur, which led to him being twice imprisoned in the last year. At 11.00 am on Sunday 8th of May he was arrested in the street in Khartoum North, hours before he was due to board a flight en route to Ireland. "The actions of the Sudanese authorities betray their contempt for the protection of human rights," said Front Line Director Mary Lawlor, "this new arrest of Dr Mudawi is a further attempt to silence those who work for the rights of others in Sudan. They will not succeed." Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam is the Chairperson of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO). SUDO, is a voluntary organization created to promote sustainable development and Human Rights. It is engaged in humanitarian activities including providing emergency services in North, South and West Darfur as well as in human rights education and development projects throughout the country.
Are you enthusiastic, energetic and capable of innovative and creative thinking around the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs)? Fahamu is looking for a recruit to work on our use of SMS and other new technologies to support social justice campaigns in the Africa region.
Answering to the News and Information Coordinator, you will:
- Liaise with campaign partners;
- Develop a database of mobile phone numbers;
- Assist in managing an SMS alert system to support the campaign;
- Disseminate information via SMS and email;
- Assist in promotion and marketing of associated services;
- Assist in the research and development of new initiatives.
We urgently need someone who is:
- Tech savvy and aware of the latest ICT developments and their relevance to the African continent;
- Computer literate and comfortable with the use of a computer as an essential tool of everyday life for emailing, internet research, word processing and excel;
- A sound communicator with the ability to write clearly and concisely;
- Able to demonstrate an ability to think creatively;
- Capable of meeting tight deadlines and working under pressure;
- Highly proficient in English (added languages, especially an African language, Arabic or French, would be an advantage);
- Able to motivate and inspire.
Ideally, the candidate will be Cape Town based, although applications will be considered from across the African continent. The candidate will have a university degree in media and communications, development, social science or any other relevant subject. Prior experience in an information, communications or advocacy role will be strongly taken into account.
The job is for a fixed period of six months in the first instance. This is a part time position that we envisage will require a commitment of two-and-a-half days per week. Remuneration will be commensurate with experience.
If you believe you fit the above details please send a one-page covering letter and two-page CV to [email protected] by 23 May 2005. Please note that only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
At least 12.3 million people are trapped in forced labour around the world, according to estimates in a report by the UN agency the International Labour Organisation. More than three-quarters of these are subjected to forced labour by private companies or individuals rather than being victims of the state, the ILO study suggests.
Tanzania will in 2006 officially adopt a new combination therapy for the treatment of malaria to replace SP or sulphadoxine/pyrimethamine, a standard first line drug, which is now ineffective against the disease. "Studies conducted in malaria endemic countries by the [UN] World Health Organization [WHO] have established that the drug is no longer effective," Hussein Mwinyi, the assistant minister for health, said on Wednesday at a news conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial capital.
At least 30 civilians and military personnel suspected of plotting the secession of Katanga Province from the Democratic Republic of Congo have been arrested, Deputy Provincial Governor Chikez Diemu said on Monday. He said judicial and security agents had made the arrests on Friday in the southeastern Katanga town of Lubumbashi. The detainees, he added, were being questioned over their participation in a network "whose aim was to destabilise the Congolese institutions".
Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye appointed on Tuesday Jean Marie Ngendahayo as the minister of interior, ending weeks of disagreement between the president and the former main rebel group, the CNDD-FDD. Ngendahayo is a member of the CNDD-FDD or Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie-Forces pour la défense de la démocratie. His appointment follows talks last week in Pretoria, South Africa, between Ndayizeye and CNDD-FDD leader Pierre Nkurunziza, who is also the minister for good governance in Burundi's transitional government.
Guyanese activist and academic Walter Rodney, the author of ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ was not just a Guyanese figure. He was known worldwide, especially in Africa, where he enjoyed great popularity for his solidarity with the struggles of the working people. This year marks 25 years since his assassination and efforts are underway to commemorate the life of a man who became known as the ‘prophet of self emancipation’.
The year 2005 marks twenty-five years since Walter Rodney was assassinated in
Georgetown, Guyana. Walter Rodney was a tireless champion of the rights of working peoples everywhere and in his short life of thirty eight years he made his mark as one of the pre eminent thinkers of the 20th century.
When one reads his monograph, ‘World War II and the Tanzanian Economy’, (published by Cornell University, African Studies and Research Centre) one can get a sense of the kind of conditions into which Walter Rodney entered this world. This reflection on the war was also contained in a paper delivered by Walter Rodney in London on comparisons between Tanzania and Guyana under colonialism. War and the destruction of human lives by capitalism were constantly on the mind of Walter Rodney.
Secondary Education in Guyana
Walter Rodney was brought into this world in the midst of war, conceived by Guyanese working class activists who were very much part of the anti colonial struggles of the society. Rodney was born on March 23, 1942 in Bent Street, Georgetown, where he grew up and spent his childhood. After attending primary school, he won an open exhibition scholarship to Queen’s College, then one of the elite schools in the colony. Rodney grew up in a time of ferment in Guyana and he paid close attention to what was happening in his society while excelling in every area of life that he participated in. He was involved as a school cadet, as a debater, as a member of the sports team and was known to be a very good bridge and chess player. Rodney came to adulthood when the questions of the centrality of the working people in the future of the country were being debated (with words and with imperial intervention). Both of his parents were active in the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) led by Cheddi Jagan and were outspoken in their opposition to racism, colonialism and imperialism. Walter Rodney often attended political meetings with his mother and went around distributing anti-colonial literature himself.
Walter distinguished himself in high school and in 1960 won another open scholarship, this time to the University of the West Indies (UWI) campus at Mona, Jamaica. In Jamaica, he was an active supporter of Caribbean Unity and he traveled extensively in Jamaica supporting the West Indian Federation during the referendum of 1961. Three years later, he obtained a degree in history with First Class (top) Honors.
While as an undergraduate he was outspoken in the defense of the poor and his activities were monitored by the Jamaican police, who were afraid of the strident defense of the rights of ordinary people. As an undergraduate, he was already writing and contributing to scholarly journals on the issues of slavery and capitalism. In one particular essay entitled, “The Slave,” Walter brought out not only the humanity of the enslaved African, but the capacity to organize and rebel under the most brutal conditions.
Walter Rodney in London
In 1963, he received yet another scholarship, to study African History at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. At that period, the questions of decolonization in all parts of the world were being debated. The legacies of the post war agitation by Africans who were involved in the West African Students Union (WASU) had inspired a spirit of cooperation beyond national boundaries. In London he deepened his understanding of Pan Africanism and was in contact with students from Africa and the Caribbean. C. L. R. James provided the bridge between these communities. James had been a member of the International African Service Bureau (IASB) and had cooperated with George Padmore, W.E. B Dubois, Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah in placing the decolonization question squarely before the British political leaders and peoples. Walter was a member of the group of Caribbean workers and students who studied and debated with C.L. R. James. These study sessions included the cream of the anti colonial youth who were being trained in Europe at that time.
In 1966, at the age of 24, Rodney received his PhD. His doctoral thesis was published in 1970 as ‘A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, 1545-1800’. Because of the scholarly breakthroughs in this study, Rodney’s work was published in the most distinguished Journals of African History and he made a name for himself as a pre - eminent African historian. It was while in London when he married Patricia.
Rodney and Tanzania
His first job in academia was an appointment as lecturer in history at the University of Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania, East Africa. At that time, Tanzania was the Headquarters of the OAU Liberation Committee. In 1964 the Zanzibar revolution had radicalized the politics of East Africa and in 1967 the Tanzanian government launched the Arusha Declaration. Che Guevara had also traveled through Tanzania on his way to fight in the Congo.
Returned to Jamaica
In 1968, he returned to Jamaica to lecture at Mona campus, his old university. Rodney’s second coming to Jamaica coincided with the rise of mass political activity on the island, activity in which he became deeply involved. He worked closely with poor people and “grounded” with Rastafarians in Kingston and other parts of the country. He was constantly under surveillance by the police but was not intimidated. The scholarly work of Rodney increased while he was publishing for journals, but he found time for working with the ordinary people. In this regard, Walter was the quintessential organic intellectual.
Rodney was very popular with the Jamaican masses, but his activism was frowned upon by the middle classes who felt that he was wasting his time with the Rastafari. At that time, the Rastafari were considered “outcasts” and “criminals.” The influence of Walter Rodney on the lyrics of Bob Marley can be seen from reading ‘Groundings’ and listening to the Album ‘Survival’ by Bob Marley. (See Walter Rodney, ‘Groundings With My Brothers’) In seeking to respect the culture of the people, Rodney participated in numerous sessions teaching the history of Africa in poor communities. For this, he provoked the wrath of the Jamaican government, which claimed that he was a threat to national security.
The year 1968 was historic in the uprisings all over the world. Walter Rodney attended the Black Writers Conference in Montreal in October 1968. On his return to Jamaica, the government banned Rodney from Jamaica. The JLP government sent him back to Canada on the same plane on which he had arrived. The ban resulted in major uprisings in Kingston. This was a demonstration of the love that the people had for him.
Students marched on government offices and ordinary people in Kingston, angry at the expulsion of the beloved “Brother Wally,” joined the demonstration, which eventually turned into a popular uprising. The event, which became known as the “Rodney affair,” resounded throughout the Caribbean. Some of the public presentations Rodney gave in Jamaica were published in a small book, ‘The Groundings with My Brothers’.
After his expulsion from Jamaica, Rodney spent time in Toronto, Canada and in this period traveled to Cuba. In early 1969 he returned to Tanzania, where he resumed teaching at the University of Dar es Salaam. At this time, The University of Dar es Salaam was a magnet for all of those in Africa thinking through the issues of liberation and freedom. These ideas were debated at the University of Dar es Salaam. It was in this intellectual milieu when he published his best-known work, ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’. This book broke with the Eurocentric conceptions of African history and immediately the book became one of the most widely-read and influential books on Africa and the third world in general.
In addition to his scholarly pursuits, Rodney was deeply involved in working with those dedicated to freedom and emancipation. He gave classes to the Workers at the Urafiki Textile Mill near the University and traveled on weekends to communal villages. Tanzania was then undergoing a revolutionary experiment, and it also served as the headquarters for many liberation movements from various parts of Africa. Rodney, who considered study and struggle inseparable, was involved in all of these activities.
He was central to the development of an intellectual tradition that became known as the Dar es Salaam School. His numerous writings on the subjects of socialism, imperialism, working class struggles and Pan Africanism and slavery contributed to a body of knowledge that came to be known as the Dar es Salaam School of Thought. Issa Shivji, Mahmood Mamdani, Claude Ake, Archie Mafeje, Yash Tandon, John Saul, Dan Nabudere, O Nnoli, Clive Thomas and countless others participated in the debates on transformation and liberation in the University. He traveled extensively throughout East Africa and was one of the founders of the History Teachers Workshop of Tanzania. This workshop assigned themselves the task of rewriting the text books for high school students in Tanzania. One of the results of these debates was the effort of the World Bank and western donors to prop up a conservative brand of economic theory in the University. By the end of the eighties, World Bank thinkers and consultants were blaming Walter Rodney for the radical thinking in the University of Dar Es Salaam.
Return to the Caribbean.
Walter was a teacher, a political activist, a father and husband. Two of his children, Kanini and Asha were born in Tanzania. His son, Shaka Rodney was born in Jamaica in 1968.
Walter always wanted to return to the Caribbean and he wanted his children to know Guyana. Hence in 1974 he moved with his family back. Initially, he was appointed as Professor of History at the University of Guyana. The government of Guyana, however, canceled the appointment. Because of his independence and clarity of ideas, the government thought that he would leave. Out of paid work, he refused to leave the country. Instead, over the next six years he threw himself into independent research and political organization. He increased his work as an international scholar, teaching and researching on a full time basis. Many did not understand how he could work full time as an activist in the Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) and remain committed as a serious scholar.
Walter threw himself into the study of the Guyanese working people and brought out a study of Guyanese plantations in the 19th century. He was involved in a three volume study of the Guyanese working people but before it was complete, he was assassinated on June 13, 1980. After his assassination, the first volume, ‘A History of the Guyanese Working People’, 1881-1905 was published by John Hopkins University Press. This book provided the historical foundations for the political movement he played a central role in founding and leading until his death, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA). More than anything else, the WPA was committed to the politics of reconciliation among all racial groups in Guyana, beginning with the working people.
The dominant theme in Rodney’s life and work, intellectual and political, is a deep and abiding commitment to the struggles of the working people everywhere for emancipation from all forms of oppression. It was the principle for which he lived, and the principle for which he died. His last major project was the writing of books for children. It was his view that only when children learnt proper history and respect for others that the struggles against racial insecurity could be overcome. Two children’s books were produced. His legacy remains an inspiration to lovers of justice and human dignity the world over.
Walter Rodney was assassinated on June 13, 1980. He had traveled one month earlier to Zimbabwe in Southern Africa to celebrate the independence of Zimbabwe. He had been under house arrest and the political leadership panicked when they learnt that he had met the Prime Minister and leaders of the Zimbabwean struggle.
From 1979 Rodney was under constant surveillance and close colleagues of Rodney were killed in 1979 (Ohene Kahama) and in 1980 (Edward Dublin). Finally, they killed him on June 13; murdered by a bomb concealed in a walkie-talkie. The man who handed the Walkie Talkie to Walter was whisked out of Guyana and protected by international imperialism until he expired nearly twenty years later.
His death shocked Guyanese of all racial groups, women, men, and youth. He had dedicated the latter part of his life to bridging the divisions between the people of Guyana only to end up paying with his life. Rodney was not just a Guyanese figure. He was also known worldwide, especially in the Caribbean and Africa, where he enjoyed great popularity for his solidarity with the struggles of the working people. It was for this reason Eusi Kwayana termed him as the ‘prophet of self emancipation’.
* Horace Campbell is chair of the Walter Rodney Commemoration Committee (http://www.rodney25.org/) Contact [email protected] to find out more about planned events.
* Please send comments to [email protected]
The onslaught of the biotech industry is a modern day scramble for Africa, with genetically modified crops being promoted as the miracle cure to hunger and poverty with little analysis of their long term impact. The people of Africa and their governments must show solidarity, ask questions, and act.
The scramble for Africa is getting hotter today than it may have been during the Berlin Conference at which she was partitioned. The partitioning of Africa sowed the seeds of discord and conflict that we are reaping today. Today, certain concepts have been painstakingly constructed and foisted on the continent. And this has been done in order to have Africa so compromised that she would simply just beg to be colonised once more. We are talking about the onslaught by the biotech industry on the innards of this continent.
The siege is on. Many people imagine that the pressure on Africa to accept genetically modified grains or other crops as food aid ended with the widely known case with Zambia in 2002. That emblematic case rightly showed that every country has the sovereign right to determine what type of food to eat, irrespective of whether it is purchased in the market or is donated as aid. And it demonstrated to the world that the predicted catastrophe of Zambians starving never happened. The country thereafter recorded food surpluses, besides the fact that in the heat of the crisis the shortage was limited to sections of the country and there were supplies in other regions of traditional crops like cassava and millet that simply needed to be procured for the needy areas.
Genetically engineered food has been presented as the ultimate weapon against hunger in Africa and the world. This is also seriously suggested in the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), meaning that this may be the direction efforts will be concentrated in the years to come. African leaders have largely been co-opted into thinking this way because they are warned that since the so-called Green Revolution train left Africa standing at the station they should not miss the gene train. It has been noted that the Green Revolution required extensive chemical and equipment inputs and although food production increased in some areas, small scale farmers were marginalised, the environment took a beating and on the aggregate hunger was boosted in the world.
The next major push has manifested in the presenting of Monsanto’s genetically engineered cotton (Bt Cotton) as the solution. This cotton variety, which has been engineered to withstand certain pests and to be suitable for use of certain herbicides, has been planted in India, Indonesia, South Africa, etc. The biotech industry touts these as huge successes, but there are many reported cases where farmers have recorded lower yields, and have gone into debt. The manifold cases of failure of Bt Cotton are so well documented that we may not need to go into details here. Suffice to say that industry’s underhand push and shove has been vividly illustrated in the bribery scandal that rocked Indonesia where a prominent biotech industry bribed as many as 144 serving and retired government officials in order to have approval for the commercial cultivation of the variety.
Last year, some governments in West Africa pledged to embrace this same variety of cotton. The next point of call of the proponents of Bt Cotton is Tanzania. All these efforts have been made under the direction of the USAID, one of whose major goals is promoting the spread of GMOs in the world and pointedly working to "integrate GM into local food systems."
The push into Tanzania gathered momentum in 2002 when USAID began meeting with Tanzanian scientists to describe the potential of engineered foods. Some of these USA advocates were also the architects of the Memorandum of Understanding signed with Nigeria in 2004 for a biotech programme managed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria.
The interesting thing about the Tanzanian case is that although cotton production was suspended in the southern part of Tanzania because of the spread of redball cotton disease in 1968, the country is currently experiencing cotton production surpluses. When this is coupled with the record low cotton price in the market, it becomes hard to see what arguments could be pushed for the genetically engineered variety of cotton.
Barring a change of heart, the government of Tanzania has already buckled under intense pressure and the country is set to join Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Burkina Faso and Kenya in conducting confined field trials (CFT) for genetically modified crops. These so-called field tests will eventually open the nation’s doors to genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
As already noted, food aid is one of the main vehicles for putting GMOs on the platter of the world. Do we call that charity? Not so. One issue about some of these food aids is that citizens in the recipient country may not even know that their country receives food aid. In 2003 Nigeria received 11000.6 Metric Tons of soy meal as food aid from the United States, under the US title “Food for Progress”. Taking into account that around 60% of soybeans in the US is genetically modified we strongly suspect Nigeria has been receiving GM products without any prior information to the Government, and with our population completely uninformed on this. In 2004 the country was billed to receive 10,500 tons of rice.
People around the world have been vocal is calling for caution in the introduction of genetic engineering in food crop propagation. The biotech industry with their powerful lobby has stoutly resisted compliance with the precautionary principle enshrined in the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety. The precautionary principle as the name implies requires that countries apply caution when considering or opening doors to bringing GMOs into their environment. One of the reasons for this is that the safety of GMOs has not been unequivocally proven.
The biotech industry thrives on subverting the ability of people to protect themselves and their environments. They do this through deliberate contamination and illegal release of genetically modified crops into the environment. In fact, when environments are acutely contaminated, nations have no option but to legalise the illegality. Many suspect that this may have been the case with Brazil. Also, many reports from North America show that when conventional and organic farms are contaminated by genetically modified neighbours, the innocent farmers are made liable and are forced to pay compensations to the polluter instead of the other way round. This is cowboy justice.
The argument usually put forward as a response to the insistence on caution is that GMOs have not harmed anyone. But how can we know that GMOs have not harmed anyone if there are no serious studies on the populations consuming it? How do we prove damage to human health when there is little or no serious research over the toxicological, long term impacts of GM food? How do we know whether an allergy is caused by a GM crop where adequate tests have not been developed to prove the link between the GMO and the allergy? The large number of questions existing over the risks of GM crops clearly show that the world is not ready for its release until the questions are properly answered.
An example of this need is the attitude of the European Commission, which is about to start new studies to examine the potential “cumulative long-term effects” genetically modified (GMO) crops might have on human and animal health in the longer term. This is coming eight years after the EU first allowed biotech crops. If the European Commission is now commissioning such studies, it shows that we still have a lot to learn from the risks of GMOs. And if that is the approach taken by Europeans, we have every reason to pause and think.
But, the biotech industry is like a bull set loose in a china shop and needs all the controls possible. Recent reports of contamination of food supplies with illegal varieties should worry everyone. We refer to the case of Latin America where corn varieties with StarLink which are not authorised for human consumption have been found in food aid sent there in 2002 and also in 2005. Where they cannot deny the presence of the illegal grain the response of the biotech industry has been that the illegal corn is okay for consumption. No apologies.
Africa received huge quantities of corn from the USA as food aid. From reports Africa was the top worldwide recipient of US corn as food aid in 2004. Three African countries, Angola (62.400 MT), Tanzania and Burundi (28.000 MT) were among the top five. Other African countries included Uganda (20.900 MT), and Kenya (13,600 MT). We recall here that after the refusal of GMO grains by Zambia and Zimbabwe the shipments of food aid to these countries in 2003 and 2004 dropped to zero.
The push continues even though proponents like the USAID recognises that GM corn sent to Africa as food aid “would be expected to perform poorly in African growing conditions” and is “not well suited for planting” . Despite this, the maize keeps coming to Africa. If one country rejects it, it is channelled to another.
We have many reasons to worry. Another reason is that the industry does not have GMOs under control and the risks to health and environment are unknown. A few weeks ago it became public that an untested experimental crop, from Swiss agrochemicals multinational group, Syngenta, called Bt10, has been illegally planted from 2001 until 2004 in the USA. This illegal variety contains antibiotic resistance marker genes, which the British Medical Association recommended not to commercialise due to the potential risks for human health. The EU, Japan and South Korea have already protested against this and are taking measures to test the grains in order to isolate and destroy the illegal variety. All Syngenta could say is that their 1000 tons of Bt10 food entered the EU accidentally. Initially Syngenta had claimed that Bt10 and Bt11 (an already commercialised variety of GM cron) were virtually identical, and therefore there were no risks, but later on it was verified as false since Bt10 contained antibiotic resistant marker genes, while that was not the case with the Bt11 type. What other areas have confused the biotech industry?
What measures are taken by our Governments in Africa? Africa continues to be the biggest corn food aid recipient, not only of grain, but also corn soy blend and cornmeal. Are we going to continue to let our population be at risk and consume these GM products?
Genetic pollution is not comparable to oil or other environmental pollution. Chemical pollution may finally dissipate after a thousand or so years, but genetic pollution on the other hand grows exponentially with time. They simply do not diminish. The problem expands.
With the huge contamination of the world’s corn and soya stock and the risk that it may become irreversible, the biotech industry is now seriously working on commercialising GM wheat and rice. Indeed it is reported that China may release GM rice into the market in the next year. With the bulk of rice in Nigeria coming from Asia, it is a matter of time before GM rice from China floods our supply lines. This is inevitable, unless something is done, and quickly too.
Just to think about all this makes us feel really scared about the food that is placed on our plates, and the seeds that we may be planting. If we blindly follow the biotech agri-business path we are bound to find that all traditional food crops will be genetically engineered in no time and as we have seen already, when the plague hits, the chance of recovery will be slim.
This is the time for everyone, Nigerian, Tanzanian, Togolese, Camerounian, or Swazi to stand up and defend our collective right to live in dignity and to choose what seeds to plant and what foods to eat. We cannot afford to place our future in the hand of an industry that has lost control of its Frankenstein. Our governments, if they represent us, must begin now to ask questions, and to act. Tomorrow will be too late.
* Nnimmo Bassey is Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action and Friends of the Earth Africa GMO campaign co-ordinator. An ERA/TWN African Conference was held 21-23 March 2005 on Genetically Modified Organisms in Lagos, Nigeria and drew the attendance of over 50 participants from 16 countries. It focussed on the enormous and unrelenting assault and the real threat of a GMOs invasion of Africa. The conference brought together civil society groups, government representatives, scientists and academia from Nigeria, Africa, and from Asia.
* Please send comments to [email protected]
Fifty years after the first Afro-Asian meeting in Bandung in 1955, leaders from these regions met again to re-establish a spirit of co-operation. The meeting took place at a time of increased trade between countries of the South and when many African countries are starting to adopt “go east” policies. But will the vision of Bandung mean new trade rules based on equity and protection of weaker trading partners?
At the recently concluded meetings in Jakarta and Bandung to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Afro-Asian meeting in Bandung in 1955, the President of Indonesia observed: “ It took fifty long years for this Conference to happen, but Asia and Africa have finally assembled here again.” Reflecting on the achievements of the first Conference (which was attended by, among others, President Soekarno of Indonesia, President Nasser of Egypt, Prime Ministers Chou En Lai and Jawaharlal Nehru of China and India respectively), the President of Indonesia went on to ask:
“Why did it take 50 years - a lifetime - for Asia and Africa to reconvene, after the success of the first Summit in 1955?
We must ask: Does the Bandung Spirit mean the same in 2005 as it did in 1955? If the Bandung spirit has served us well over the years, how can we adapt that spirit to today’s circumstances? And we must ask: now that Asia-Africa spirit is reconvened in great numbers and with robust confidence, how can we make it relevant? Relevant to us, and relevant to the world?
Against this note of expectations, it must be observed that the very fact that the Conference took place - and in a modest if not practical way succeeded in outlining the broad contours of political, economic and social cooperation between the two regions - is an important development. Only time will tell whether the Conference has succeeded in shifting the colonial and therefore contrived patterns of linkages from North-South to Africa-Asia and to South-South.
There can be little doubt, however, that trade and investment ties between Asia and Africa are growing at a faster pace than between North and South. The combined share of Africa and Asia in world trade since the 1990s has risen markedly, from about a fifth to over a quarter of world total. Secondly, trade among developing countries has become the most dynamic component of international trade. In the decade of the 1990’s, for example, trade among them grew at an annual average of 11 percent, by far exceeding the 6 percent growth in world trade. As a result, the share of intra-developing trade has expanded from a modest 8 percent to over 13 percent of the total over the same period. More than 40 percent of their exports of agriculture and manufactured products are now destined for each other’s markets. In consequence, the structure of their trade has altered dramatically: whereas two decades ago, primary commodities accounted for nearly 75 percent of their exports, they now account for less than 30 percent. Even for Africa, there has been a modest rise in the share of manufactured goods.
If Africa’s trade with Asia were to continue to grow at similar rates over the next two decades i.e. at just over 10 per cent annually, a massive diversification of Africa’s trade structure is likely to take place. This will not only significantly lessen its dependence on traditional markets of developed countries but also more importantly, re-orient its trade towards the more dynamic markets of Asia. It is therefore not surprising that an increasing number of countries in Africa are designing strategies and polices to take into account this prospect. Zimbabwe’s “Go East” policy, now reportedly under consideration by other countries in the region, is a good example of this trend. They are grounded in emerging complementarities induced by rapid growth in import demand from Asia and growth of Asian SMEs-led investments in Africa.
It is equally true that much of the expansion in trade, investment and technology transfers is autonomous i.e. market-driven and concentrated in a few sectors and countries. If the benefits of such expansion are to be widely shared, it will in all likelihood require much greater attention and involvement of the policy-makers of the two regions. If the emerging trends are to lead to more fundamental and qualitative changes in economic relations, a structure and a system of cooperation will have to be built away from donor-inspired frameworks of EPAS, AGOA and the like.
Regional and inter-regional efforts at cooperation have so far largely focused on the mutual gains from closer economic relations. Without greater commitment and efforts on the part of the political establishments of the respective continents, however, economic cooperation will, in all likelihood, continue to remain below the potential warranted by their complementarities. The New Strategy of Afro-Asian cooperation must accordingly be based on sustained political commitment to ensure its progress and implementation. This includes as close a harmonization of positions as possible in global negotiations on matters of environment, social justice, reforms of global institutions, international trade, investment and other development issues. At the national level, where the primary impetus for greater cooperation must be nurtured, greater effort needs to be made to raise awareness about the political importance of Afro-Asian cooperation.
Arrangements for improved Afro-Asian cooperation must perforce take into account the striking changes that have taken place in the global economic and political environment over the past fifty years. Many of these changes warrant new approaches and engagement of new actors in driving cooperation: for example, the role of technology, of the private sector and in particular the small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), improved communications and the need for larger markets in the wake of new integrated production and distribution systems all need to be given considerably greater weight and attention than was the case fifty years ago.
The dramatic transformation of many economies in Asia has altered the scope for mutual cooperation distinctly in favor of increased inter and intra–regional cooperation. The emergence of ASEAN, China and India, among others, as important players on the global scene is beginning to reshape economic geography and the quality of trade relations as they intensify their cooperation with each other and with other developing countries. Likewise, rapid growth and demand for the products of Africa has spurred the interests of business and the investment community in Asia to forge fresh links with Africa.
The real challenge before the Afro-Asian policy-makers is to ensure that patterns of Asian-African trade does not replicate North-South linkages: it must, for example, be informed by new trade rules in which the fruits of value chain are equitably distributed; in which dependency of debtor-creditor relationship is largely absent; in which rules of origin encourage investments and technology transfers at source; and in which the weaker trading partners are protected. It is possible to conceive of a new paradigm of economic relations. But is the political leadership in the two regions really prepared to implement the vision of Bandung?
* Chandrakant Patel is the editor of the Seatini Bulletin. Seatini is the Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (http://www.seatini.org/) The latest edition of the Seatini Bulletin, ‘50 years after Bandung, Asia-Africa summit adopts a new pact’, contains a series of articles on the recent Bandung Summit. For more information and subscriptions, contact SEATINI, 20 Victoria Drive, Newlands, Harare, Zimbabwe, Tel: +263 4 792681, Ext. 255 & 341, Tel/Fax: +263 4 251648, Fax: +263 4 788078, email: [email protected]
* Please send comments to [email protected]
The Minister of Education, Ms Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire, has appealed to the Ministry of Finance to provide additional funding to Makerere University to save it from imminent closure. Makerere has become broke and has no money to run the university this and next month.
A meeting recently aimed at checking the ongoing strike action that has paralysed activities at the University of Yaounde I since April 29, has came to naught. The meeting that lasted for over eight hours came to an abrupt end when Higher Education Minister, Prof. Jacques Fame Ndongo, failed to agree with the delegation of the striking students.
I salute this brilliant discussion on a matter I myself had not thought of. As a journalist of 20 years standing in Zambia (15 years in newspapers and five in development communication), now in corporate public relations, I find this most instructive. I hope you are able to indicate which media organisations have taken up and published this piece. Good work!
"The Coalition for Justice and Peace in Somaliland (CJPS) is concerned about the implications for human rights of statements made on 10 May by the Minister of the Interior, Ismail Adan Osman, during a conference to debate a proposed National Human Rights Commission. The comments, given prominent coverage by the local media yesterday, underline the government’s intolerance of criticism, and its determination to control the flow of information that reaches the outside world. The Coalition shares the desire of the government and public in Somaliland to attract international interest and investment. But it believes that sweeping unpleasant facts under the carpet, rather than confronting reality and addressing problems, is detrimental to the interests of Somaliland."
Jubilee South Africa has come out strongly against a deal that would see local South African bank ABSA taken over by Barclays. "All of these and similar actions show that Barclays gave substantial support to the Apartheid regime. This support kept the doors open to international capital and kept mechanised infantry on the move in the townships and neighbouring countries. Pure and simple, this support increased the lifespan of Apartheid." Read the full text of Jubilee's press conference by clicking on the link below.
EDITORIALS: Horace Campbell writes on how Walter Rodney became the ‘prophet of emancipation’
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS: The onslaught of the biotech industry is the new scramble for Africa, argues Nnimmo Bassey
- Chandrakant Patel asks if the vision of Bandung will mean new trade rules based on equity?
LETTERS: Reader views on capitalism as genocide, development pornography and press freedom
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: News on DRC secession, Somalia peacekeepers and the latest from Darfur
HUMAN RIGHTS: Soon-to-be announced winner of human rights award arrested and held in Sudan
DEVELOPMENT: Footballers challenge the G8 in Kenya and chicken farmers demand fair trade in Ghana
ENVIRONMENT: New trade talks threaten environmental laws
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Kenyan and Nigerian first ladies mark press freedom day by storming newsrooms, beating and arresting journalists
ADVOCACY AND CAMPAIGNS: Call for the release of a Coke union worker arrested in Eritrea along with two others.
JOBS: Fahamu seeks advocacy and campaigns coordinator
* Would debt cancellation change your day-to-day life?
World Debt Day 2005 takes place on May 16 and is an opportunity to voice your feelings about how the burden of debt blocks development across Africa. Pambazuka News would like to know how you think debt cancellation would change your day-to-day life. Send your comments to [email protected]
In March Pambazuka News produced a special issue on debt that contained a series of articles addressing critical issues related to debt. You can catch up on the articles in the edition by visiting http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?issue=197
The remaining Angolan refugees at Osire refugee camp do not seem very keen to return to their home country after the war ended in 2002. Although many refugees have volunteered to be repatriated to Angola since the advent of peace, which came about with the death of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi, others are still too afraid to go back. Some refugees who had gone back on repatriation have since returned, claiming that their lives are in danger.
In the run-up to last week's general elections that saw the ruling Labour party maintain a diminished majority, some asylum seekers and refugees in the United Kingdom said they were concerned about the heightened focus on immigration and asylum during the campaigning, saying it fed negative sentiments towards foreigners rather than a better understanding into the reasons why people are forced to seek asylum.
Lack of financial resources, staff, and commitment from key countries, including South Africa, may hamper the World Health Organisation's goal to provide life-long antiretroviral therapy to 3 million people with HIV/AIDS in developing countries by the end of 2005. An Editorial in this week's issue of the The Lancet states that though progress has been made with 720 000 people in developing countries receiving antiretroviral treatment and three times the target number of outlets providing anti-retrovirals, the financial resources allocated to 3 by 5 are below what are needed (US$ 163 million vs 174 million), and the number of WHO staff deployed to the initiative is well below what it should be (112 vs 400).
A new report by the ICFTU on core labour standards in Nigeria, which coincides with Nigeria's trade policy review at the WTO this week, shows serious shortcomings in the application and enforcement of all eight core labour standards, particularly with regard to the lack of trade union rights of workers including the right to strike, discrimination and child labour.
The National Women's Coalition will be hosting an important conference on June 16th and 17th to discuss, among other issues:
- Deliberate on our successes
- Review our challenges in the last three years including funding and the NGO Bill
- Identify opportunities in the operating environment
- Design strategies to manage our diversity
- Work towards the creation of a mass movement of women
- Design strategies for working with donors to encourage fairer funding practices
- Designed strategies to make ourselves more effective and stronger
- Selection of an Steering Committee for the Women’s Coalition
- Brainstorm a broad agenda for the women’s movement in the next three years
If you'd like to attend and get involved please write to Netsai Mushonga at [email protected] for more information. (SOURCE: www.kubatana.net)
This paper from the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa covers the campaign process during the 2005 Zimbabwe parliamentary elections. These elections in Zimbabwe were aimed at offsetting controversies that occurred in the 2000 parliamentary and 2002 presidential elections. Notwithstanding, as campaign issues are not legislated in the Zimbabwe Electoral Act, it was the SADC Principles that provided the basis in creating a peaceful process. This article seeks to examine whether the campaign in the recent parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe conformed to these regional guidelines.
New Field Foundation is seeking a regional program manager to coordinate and support New Field's West Africa grant making program. The regional program manager will develop and implement New Field's program in West Africa, with a focus on social change for rural women and their families in Casamance, Mano River Region, and Burkina Faso.
La Fondation New Field recherche un coordinateur de programme régional pour coordonner et soutenir le programme de subvention de New Field en Afrique de l’Ouest. Le coordinateur de programme régional développera et mettra en oeuvre le programme de New Field en Afrique de l’Ouest, en se focalisant sur le changement social pour les femmes rurales et leurs familles en Casamance, dans la région du fleuve Mano, et au Burkina Faso.
Reporters sans frontières has expressed shock over the abuse of authority displayed by the wives of President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria in assailing and imprisoning journalists in separate incidents on 2 May 2005, in response to critical press reports. "We are stunned that the presidents' wives went so far just to seek personal revenge. We therefore call on [Kenyan First Lady] Lucy Kibaki to apologise to the cameraman she hit, and we call on [Nigerian First Lady] Stella Obasanjo to have the 'Midwest Herald''s publisher released from prison immediately, as such meddling harms the image of their respective countries," RSF said.
On 24 April 2005, Interior Minister Kiridi Bangoura ordered the temporary seizure of issue 2311 of the weekly magazine "JA L'Intelligent", which carried a story and commentary on the health of the president, General Lansana Conte. According to Media Foundation for West Africa-Conakry sources, the magazine's 24 to 30 April edition carried a front page article entitled, "Guinea: the End", and a commentary entitled, "Eaten up with sickness, President Conte still hangs on to power and the country is dying". The magazine was only allowed to reappear on newsstands on 27 April, when the temporary ban was lifted.
Puntland authorities have ordered the immediate closing of the weekly newspaper Shacab for allegedly inciting violence, according to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) sources. The decree, issued after a cabinet meeting on Thursday, cited the government's constitutional responsibility to uphold the unity of Puntland.
This report assesses the UNHCR age and gender mainstreaming pilot project launched in 2004. It provides a strategic overview of the pilot project experience, drawing out findings, good practice, lessons learnt and recommendations for the future. In particular it documents specific learning in terms of the MFTs (Multi-Functional Team), partnership working, methodology, leadership in the field and at headquarters, ownership and accountability. The age and gender mainstreaming pilot involves a massive organisational change exercise.
To commemorate World Press Freedom Day, the Gambia Press Union (GPU) on May 3rd, 2005 launched a "Deyda Hydara Foundation for Freedom of Expression" in memory of Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara who was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on December 16, 2004. According to Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) - Conakry source, the newly elected GPU President, Madi Ceesay explained that the Foundation's main objectives would be to support freedom of expression and media rights in the Gambia and ensure the protection of the lives and properties of journalists who are threatened because of their views.
The International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX), in partnership with the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRInfo), is pleased to announce the launch of the Arabic version of the "IFEX Communiqué" newsletter. Starting this week, the weekly newsletter will be published in Arabic covering free expression news and events worldwide.
This study, published in Demographic Research, examines the extent to which women have control over their sexuality within marriage in Lagos, Nigeria, and its implications for the spread of HIV. Findings from the study show that women have some control over their sexuality, such as during menstruation, breastfeeding, pregnancy and sickness. However, only a few women could negotiate with their husbands to insist on safe sexual practices. Other findings demonstrate that improved socio-economic status increases the likelihood of a woman asserting her reproductive rights; and 18 per cent of those interviewed reported multiple sexual partners.
Wildlife tourism in Kenya generates more than one third of foreign exchange revenue. The livelihoods of many rural Kenyans are connected to wildlife-related policies and businesses. How can the competing demands on Kenya's wildlife be met, while protecting both livelihoods and habitats?
Transfrontier conservation initiatives refer to environmental and wildlife management programmes that cross political boundaries and national borders. The hope is that a combined approach to ecosystem management will produce positive environmental outcomes and benefits for local communities. However, the benefits to communities living in or alongside conservation areas are variable, and often they are not treated as equal stakeholders.
The rising temperatures and recurrent dry spells in Southern Africa points to the impact of climate change and are "cause for concern", a senior scientist told IRIN. Many countries in the region, such as Swaziland and Lesotho, were now entering their fourth year of drought. According to a new Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) report, the 2004/05 season "has been marked by adverse conditions, including erratic rains, intermittent dry spells, and flooding in some areas".
This report from the Global Campaign for Education assesses the aid efforts of 22 industrialised nations belonging to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and grades countries on the quantity and quality of education aid they provide to poor countries. The report finds that rich countries are still falling well short of the financing targets they set themselves. Rich countries need to back the Education for All Fast Track Initiative, and pledge enough resources to expand the FTI to all poor countries that come forward with credible and transparent plans for achieving the education goals.
This paper from the International NGO Training and Research Centre (Intrac) explores the importance of organisational learning in NGOs, drawing on examples gathered from interviews mainly with Northern NGO staff and from an extensive review of the literature. It looks into why NGOs need to provide the motive, means and opportunity for organisational learning, and introduces practical examples of how pioneering NGOs are doing this.
The international development agency ActionAid's Get On Board campaign on Tuesday in Nairobi, Kenya, launched an international drive to overhaul the fight against HIV/AIDS and ensure that funding for the disease helps HIV-positive people, AFP/Yahoo! News reports. The new HIV/AIDS campaign is part of an effort to collect data about the African epidemic and deliver it to the Group of Eight meeting in Scotland in July, according to AFP/Yahoo! News.
A cholera outbreak which has killed at least 42 people and infected almost 1,400 since the beginning of the year in western Cameroon despite government measures to contain the disease, is finally receding, health officials told IRIN on Monday.
Africa faces a US $400 million shortfall in the fight to curb the growing tuberculosis (TB) epidemic that kills more than half a million people each year, the global NGO, Stop TB Partnership, warned on Wednesday. It said $1.1 billion was needed over the next two years to reverse the death toll, which was currently increasing by five percent a year. The disease is the second biggest killer of adults in Africa.
The European Union says it is concerned about the slow pace with which the Government is tackling corruption allegations against its officials. It said it was also troubled by the growing insecurity and the wrangles surrounding the constitution review process. Acting head of delegation Derek Fee singled out recent revelations of corruption in the National Aids Control Council (Nacc), saying: "It makes me wonder if there is any depth to which corrupt individuals will not descend."
The police force ranks highest in corruption and bribery among service providers in Uganda, a new national survey has shown. The National Service Delivery Survey (NSDS) says all institutions in the country asked for bribes. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) conducted the survey in the 56 districts of the country to assess availability, utilisation and satisfaction of service users as a guide for policy makers, implementers and monitors at all levels of governance.
Idasa, the extra-parliamentary Institute for Democracy in South Africa, has opted not to appeal a recent ruling of the High Court on private funding of political parties - at least for now. It will instead focus on encouraging the passage of legislation through Parliament to police the matter.
A book on corruption in Kenya has been launched. Authored by lawyer Peter Anassi, ‘Corruption in Africa: The Kenyan Experience’ dwells on graft in the public and private sectors and details how corrupt deals are executed. It specifically devotes itself to corruption in the police force, local authorities, Judiciary, lands office, immigration, Kenya Revenue Authority and other departments.
As African finance ministers and economic experts gather in Abuja, Nigeria this week for their annual consultations, reports concur in noting improved economic growth for last year and favorable continuing prospects. This summary conclusion, contrasting with media images of unrelieved crisis, reflects both stability in much of the region and increased world demand for African products. However, the average results are accompanied by wide gaps among different countries, with oil-producing countries having the most favorable growth outlook. Growth has been both quantitatively and qualitatively insufficient to create jobs and reduce poverty. The latest edition of AfricaFocus Bulletin contains recent material related to this theme.
In April, Honduras, Rwanda and Zambia all qualified for limited debt cancellation through the current international debt relief scheme (the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative). Whilst welcome, this falls far short of the 100% debt cancellation that Jubilee Debt Campaign is demanding for these and other impoverished countries. And it came only after the countries have implemented harmful 'structural reforms' demanded by creditors. Zambia, for instance, was forced to freeze public expenditure, meaning it could not employ thousands of much needed and qualified teachers.
China's rapid ascension as an influential economic and political force in Africa is raising complex questions concerning the security of the African continent and the future of its people. China's involvement on the continent has increased dramatically over the past several years, fueled by Africa's growing demand for cheap Chinese products and the need for greater infrastructure investment in the African energy and transportation sectors. But will China, with visions of global influence and economic growth, act in a more constructive manner toward Africa, avoiding the mistakes made by its Western predecessor?
The exodus from Togo has slowed to a trickle while hundreds of Togolese refugees have returned home from Ghana, citing improved security in their homeland. Those in Benin, however, say they are not ready to go back to Togo. More than 3,500 refugees are now living in two camps in Benin – Come, which is now full, and Lokossa, where the population is growing steadily.
"We urge our leaders to tell the truth about the evil policies being imposed on our country. We say this because throughout history, there is no problem that has been solved until it has become tangible for all to see. Let's educate our people about the World Bank and the IMF's colonialisation," urges this editorial from Zambia's The Post newspaper.
The SADC Council of Non-Governmental Organizations (SADC-CNGO), constituted by member organisations from Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, met in Johannesburg, South Africa from the 2nd – 4th May 2005 to develop strategies for engaging with broader SADC agenda and to ensure a more systematic and substantive civic participation and involvement in the economic, social and political development in the region.
This Idasa paper attempts to provide civil society organisations with general information on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to help facilitate active and meaningful participation in its processes. Nepad is a relatively recent initiative for the rejuvenation of development on the African continent, arguably still more familiar to Western and African leaders than civil society.
The Central African Republic's electoral commission is due to announce results of run-off presidential and parliamentary elections on 22 May, an official told IRIN on Wednesday. Voters went to the polls on 8 May, for the run-off, to elect a president and 87 out of 105 Members of Parliament. This followed 13 March general elections in which two of several presidential candidates qualified for a second round of voting: President François Bozize and his strongest challenger, Martin Ziguele, a former prime minister.
Misinformed villagers in central Liberia, long accustomed to gifts from power-hungry politicians, have been demanding payment from government officials in return for putting their names on the voters' list for general elections due in October, a local official told IRIN. Some rural folk were so confused by the electoral process that they thought political campaigning had begun already and were demanding cash payments to register for their voter's card, Daniel Weetol, the Superintendent of Bong County, told IRIN.
Riot police arrested more than 100 people at a rally in the oil-rich southeast of Nigeria last weekend organised by a group campaigning for an independent Biafra, according to witnesses and police. Described as a Christian revival meeting, the Sunday rally in Abakaliki, capital of Ebonyi state, was called by the outlawed Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), and featured preachers who prophesised the secession of south-eastern Nigeria and urged the audience of hundreds of people to fight for a separate state, the sources said.
Ongoing insecurity is the cause of deteriorating levels of nutrition among people in the south-central province of Kasai Oriental in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the UN Mission there known as MONUC, reported on Monday. "The worst famine-hit areas in the Sankuru District [in Kasai Oriental Province] include Kole, Tchumbe and Lubefu, located within the 500-km range from [the provincial capital] Mbuji-Mayi," Patrice Bogna, the information focal point for MONUC's Humanitarian Affairs Section, said in a statement detailing the mission's weekly humanitarian highlights.
A peacekeeping force scheduled for deployment to Somalia will be delayed as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) attempts to iron out legal limitations and reconcile the divided transitional federal government (TFG), sources said. "IGAD's charter does not cater for troop deployment, and therefore efforts are underway to have it amended," a senior Uganda government official who preferred anonymity told IRIN on Monday.
This Le Monde diplomatique article sharply criticizes France for its role in Ivory Coast’s war and highlights the country’s interests in its former colony. Since Ivorian independence in 1960, France has maintained a tight hold on the country’s wealth, using one-sided contracts to repatriate 75 percent of the wealth generated there. A strong French military presence has enabled the former colonizer to install regimes favorable to Paris’s interests. The author deplores the lack of reaction to the “almost funny” French government line, deploying 3,800 French soldiers to West Africa “with the ethical purpose of preventing a bunch of machete-waving lunatics from dismembering their own country.”
The Africa Regional Sexuality Resource Centre (ARSRC) in collaboration with Health Systems Trust, South Africa, is pleased to announce the second edition of its annual Sexuality Institute and to invite suitably qualified professionals to apply. The goal is to strengthen African intellectual resources and reshape sexuality research, discourse and action on the continent towards healthy, pleasurable, responsible and respectful sexuality.
A large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the western Sudanese region of Darfur are unlikely to return to their homes in the immediate future, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report to the Security Council, which called for the strengthening of the African Union (AU) mission in Darfur. Over 2.4 million people continue to be affected by the conflict, 1.85 million of whom are internally displaced or have been forced to flee to neighbouring Chad.
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) announces its 11th General Assembly which is scheduled to hold in Maputo, Mozambique, from 06 - 10 December, 2005. The theme that has been selected for the Assembly is: Rethinking African Development: Beyond Impasse, Towards Alternatives. The Assembly is expected to attract the participation of up to 500 researchers drawn from different disciplinary backgrounds, coming from across Africa and the Diaspora, and actively engaged in reflections on the development alternatives that could enable the African continent both to overcome its underdevelopment and transcend the current impasse associated with the continued application of problematic developmental models.
Those who fall behind in the winner take all markets of global competition not only suffer from poverty and poor health, but also lose access to health care and other essential health-producing services. Reversing these trends will require decisive and coordinated action on the part of high-income countries in areas we often do not connect with: debt cancellation, increased development assistance, fair trade policies and global tax reforms.
Crisis Group's Early Warning Resources web page is a one-stop-shop compiling various sources of public information and aiming to provide journalists, analysts and policy makers with forewarning of possible conflicts around the world and information on conflict trends. Early warning includes conflict-related early warning web pages; humanitarian and natural disaster early warning websites; risk analysis websites; Global conflict trend analyses; and Daily news services that provide the most up-to-date information on conflict-related issues.
Thank you for the piece by Gerald Caplan on solidarity in Genocide. That effort of transcending the differences in partial or total annihilation for the sake of an ideology is to be commended, but the effort falls short. The space is too brief to deal fairly with the reasons for this.
Uniquely unique
One should accept that all genocides are both unique and generic. But, the idea that, historically, morally or ethically, we shall one day devise a sort of Richter Scale for genocidal horror is beyond sadness because it would fall into the very system which was inaugurated with the wiping out of Indigenous people, Amerindians followed by ripping Africans away from their homes in ways which can be imagined as similar to current processes in various parts of the Planet.
Hitler's words quoted by Caplan illustrate something deeper. By then, as far as the System was concerned, who remembered the Native Americans, Africans and African Americans as people? The circumstances were different, but the objective was the same: wipe out any obstacle which dares to stand in the way. The difference between Hitler and Capitalism is that the latter does not have a name even though so many crimes have been perpetrated in its name.
It is easier to scapegoat Hitler than, say, institutions which pass today as standing up for humanity. If fidelity to humanity is going to create an unassailable foundation for Never Again, then it should not fear calling for something like Reconciliation with Truth. Such a process principled by a truth process based on an ethic of truth would be organized at a distance from States or institutions deriving their legitimacy from states. It would be rooted in the kind of preoccupation which is highlighted in Caplan's piece.
Governments including Japan, Korea, Mexico and the United States are planning to use new World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations to dismantle a wide range of national laws protecting the environment, social well-being and health, Friends of the Earth International has revealed. A list compiled by the environmental group before trade negotiators met in Geneva in April showed that legislation covering food, fisheries, timber and petroleum production, energy efficiency, chemical testing, recycling and standards in the electronics and automobile industries have all been raised as potential "barriers to trade" in the past few months.
After more than two years of intermittent conflict that effectively split Côte d’Ivoire in half and sparked fears of ethnic cleansing, the country’s 500,000 IDPs may finally have a glimmer of hope for a more peaceful future. However, serious causes for concern remain. Ethnic tensions in the polarised country are acute. Gross human rights violations against civilians, including IDPs, continue to be reported in both government and rebel-controlled areas.
Between 19 and 28 April 2005 UN Member States participated in four rounds of interventions, based on the following four major themes of the Secretary-General's report, 'In Larger Freedom'. These themes were: development, security, human rights and UN reform. The governmental responses to the recommendations in the report were largely void of a gender perspective and, in particular, a focus on women.
Latin American, African and Asian countries have vowed to act to improve the lives of women in the Third World. Members of the Non-Aligned Movement of nations ended their first ever summit on women's rights in Kuala Lumpur by signing a new protocol. The Putrajaya Declaration pledges to do more to protect women from violence, improve their health and education and give them a greater political voice.
Women Organisations For Representative National Conference (WORNACO), an umbrella organisation founded with a mission to dismantle all structures and barriers that promote discrimination against women in Nigeria, recently held a one-day strategic meeting to discuss their engagement with the Confab and to also set agenda for the proposed Women's Summit slated for June 2005. The Convener of WARNACO, Professor Jadesola Akande, Executive Director Women, Law and Development Centre Lagos (WLDCN), chaired the meeting held at the Women Development Centre Lagos, which brought together forty-five participants representing organisations from the six geo-political zones in Nigeria.
The number of allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation made by and about United Nations personnel in 2004 was more than double the number reported in 2003, a development that is deeply distressing, even though contributing factors include clearer reporting procedures and new response measures, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a report to the General Assembly. "The total number of 121 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse registered in 2004 was more than double the 53 allegations reported in 2003. The increase in allegations is deeply troubling," he says.
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 205: World Press Freedom Day
PAMBAZUKA NEWS 205: World Press Freedom Day
I would probably agree with most of Wanda's observations on what is wrong with the "New" South Africa and clearly the answer to his question is that NO the struggle for emancipation is not over yet. However, most people would probably agree with that for one reason or another. Even the most comfortable members of the black elite argue for more transformation rather than less. Even the leader of the ANC, president Mbeki publicly and very consistently calls for "a better life FOR ALL".
There may be some members of the ANC who think they have arrived and we cannot condemn them for that. The fact is that we did not all board this train at the same station nor are we going to the same destination. The maximum programme of the black bourgeoisie (a free and fair democratic system where a national bourgeoisie enjoys the right to exploit its proletariat and its natural resources) may well be the minimum programme of the working class whose station is further down the line. As the South African Communist Party says: Socialism is the future. There are even those who say that in a globalized economy a national bourgeoisie's patriotic spirit is of no value because it is now glorious to be rich, and comprador. That is for the capitalists to sort out among themselves.
The mistake that RE Wanda makes is that he soaks the ANC in red wine, as it were, and tries to render it socialist. Just examine the historical inaccuracy of his assessment that:
"It is clear that the ANC has abandoned its core roots and energy - the poor people. The ANC party was born socialist but later adopted capitalism and endorsed the neo-liberal agenda, whose fruit we know is exploitation of the people. The ANC's economic policy emphasis on market liberalization and tight government control on spending has meant that the working class and poor who are mostly black South Africans have to bear the cost of its conservative economic policy."
I am afraid it is not clear at all. In 1912 when the South African National Native Congress (SANNC), forerunner of the African National Congress (ANC), was founded it was a Pan-African movement representing the rights of all colonial subjects. It was led by chiefs, mission educated elites, village shop-keepers, maize and wool farmers and yes, petitioned the British Empire for the rights of the colonial working class as well.
But was the ANC born socialist? No way! If Cecil Rhodes and his cohorts had not been racist, if the 1913 Land Act had not destroyed the black farming elites in the rural areas, if the colonial society were based on class oppression and not mainly racial oppression there would have been NO NEED for an ANC. If Mahatma Gandhi and Sol Plaitjie had not been forced off the first class carriages because of their dark skins, the colonial working classes would have had to struggle for their rights on their own because the black elites would have been too comfortable from the start. Let us forget about the socialist ANC - it is a figment of our revolutionary imaginations, it has never existed.
It is up to COSATU to continue championing the rights of the South African working class. It is up to the Communist Party to complete its political programme and go beyond the bourgeois democracy that was achieved in 1994 and attain that socialist future. And it is up to the anti-privatization and anti-globalization movements to continue reconnecting poor people to the water and electricity mains by any means necessary, but it is not up to the ANC to build a socialist South Africa, that has never been the ANC programme.
So all those who call themselves socialist should focus their energies on strengthening the Communist Party and not undermining the ANC which has ALWAYS been led by the black elites whose maximum programme has ALWAYS been a capitalist democracy in which their agricultural and commercial interests are not undermined by a racist state. Let us know our history or we shall remain trapped in this old waiting room on this disused railway line complaining about the inefficiency of the national airline.
I read your article in Pambazuka with interest because I think the issues you raise are not solely South Africa (obviously). Maybe my question is too big to answer right now, maybe you can point me in the right direction? In any case, here in Zimbabwe in some high density areas (used to be called townships under Smith) working class Zimbabweans are going several weeks without water whilst those more privileged people in low density areas experience intermittent water cuts. We now see people within these high density areas selling water to those without.
What can we do to change this? How do we apply pressure on a government that has just bought Chinese jet fighters and passenger aircraft yet can't see fit to fix the old water pipes/pumping equipment whose absence leaves people without the fundamental right to clean accessible water? How do we encourage and support working class people to collectively engage in work stoppages to highlight their plight?
And these questions are all framed in a country that is highly repressive.
As you might be able to tell I'm feeling very frustrated today!
UNESCO, through its agency for Science and Technology, The African Network for Scientific and Technological Institutions (ANSTI) is announcing the availability of a self-learning course on how to develop e-content. The course entitled "How to develop electronic Content" version 1.2.1 is a valuable resource for any individual, department or university (or organization) that wishes to develop e-content to complement existing instructional techniques such as face-to-face.
The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) is sponsoring an action-research project that will explore and analyze key trends in funding for women's rights work over the last 10 years. We will explore the causes and impacts of these trends and use this information to answer a fundamental question: What strategies will mobilize more resources for women's rights in the years to come? A critical part of the research is a brief survey that will help us understand your experiences and the funding trends that have affected your organization. Please take a few minutes before May 13 to complete this survey by going to http://surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=324481014000
The International Press Institute (IPI) has announced its decision to honour SW Radio Africa with its 2005 Free Media Pioneer Award. Gerry Jackson, founder and station manager of SW Radio Africa, will receive the prize at an award ceremony on 24 May, during the forthcoming IPI World Congress in Nairobi, Kenya (21-24 May). In Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe's autocratic regime controls both radio and television, and the only independent daily newspaper, the Daily News, has been shut down, the shortwave radio station SW Radio Africa remains a rare independent voice.
Included through the link below are two resolutions adopted by over 60 African NGOs in which they supported the ICC prosecution of persons accused of committing or supporting the commission of crimes in Darfur. The second resolution addressed the growing trend among some African states to use militia groups to fight proxy wars on their behalf. The Resolutions were adopted within the framework of the 37th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights which is currently taking place in Banjul, The Gambia.
Jubilee South Africa has described a Barclays bid for South Africa's ABSA Bank as "an insult to the people of South Africa, especially to those who suffered under the illegitimate Apartheid regime." Jubilee said Barclays was the lead defendant in a lawsuit brought in the United States of America by 87 South Africans (represented by the Khulumani Support Group and other civil society organizations) who had been subjected to gross human rights violations during Apartheid.
This e-discussion is aimed at soliciting views of stakeholders on progress in implementing the Poverty Reduction Strategies Paper (PRSP) approach. The e-discussion, which will be moderated, will be held over two weeks, beginning May 2nd. Lessons, good practice, and recommendations which emerge from the discussion will be considered by World Bank and IMF staff when preparing the 2005 PRSP Review. Please sign up using the following link: http://www.dgroups.org/groups/worldbank/PRSP2005/
The African Union (AU) agreed last Thursday to substantially increase the size of its peacekeeping force in the troubled western Sudanese region of Darfur, officials said. AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit told journalists after a meeting of the pan-African body's peace and security council in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, that the enhanced force would be in place by the end of September.
Sexual and gender-based violence, including rape, is a problem throughout the world, occurring in every society, country and region. Refugees and internally displaced people are particularly at risk of this violation of their human rights during every phase of an emergency situation. Over the past five years, humanitarian agencies have been working to put in place systems to respond to sexual and gender-based violence, as well as to support community-based efforts to prevent such violence.
SchoolNet Namibia http://www.schoolnet.na is taking a bold new step to entice teachers and students into the world of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). SchoolNet has teamed up with Direq International http://www.direq.org, Strika Entertainment http://strika.com and The Namibian Youth Paper http://www.namibian.com.na to produce and distribute Hai Ti!, a comic strip that spreads the word about the ways that computers, FOSS and the internet can transform learners' and teachers' lives.
New Field Foundation is seeking a regional program manager to coordinate and support New Field's West Africa grant making program. The regional program manager will develop and implement New Field's program in West Africa, with a focus on social change for rural women and their families in Casamance, Mano River Region, and Burkina Faso.
La Fondation New Field
INTITULE DU POSTE : COORDINATEUR DE PROGRAMME REGIONAL
La Fondation New Field recherche un coordinateur de programme régional pour coordonner et soutenir le programme de subvention de New Field en Afrique de l’Ouest. Le coordinateur de programme régional développera et mettra en oeuvre le programme de New Field en Afrique de l’Ouest, en se focalisant sur le changement social pour les femmes rurales et leurs familles en Casamance, dans la région du fleuve Mano, et au Burkina Faso.
Four out of every five of the world’s children aged between 10 and 15 are today enrolled in lower secondary education, which is now considered as part of compulsory education in most countries, according to UNESCO’s Global Education Digest 2005. The Digest, published by UNESCO?s Institute for Statistics, presents the latest global education indicators. The figures drop for Africa, however, where although enrolments at secondary level have been increasing by five percent annually since 1998, the lower secondary ratio is still only 45 percent.
A blast that killed at least 15 people in a Mogadishu stadium during a speech by Somalia's transitional premier has raised concern even higher over the viability of ambitious peace and reconciliation plans for the war-shattered nation, analysts said Wednesday.
Students, researchers, professors and leaders of community projects, representatives from government agencies and the private sector will gather in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, from May 16 until May 18, 2005 for a symposium on the theme of linking research on information and communication technologies (ICT's) to development.
On World Telecommunications Day, May 17, 2005, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) in partnership with the Ministry of Works, Housing and Communications (MoWHC) and WOUGNET will host a symposium under the theme "Creating an equitable Information Society: Time for Action ". The objectives of the symposium are to: 1) Raise awareness of the WSIS process and consider ways to incorporate the targets for universal access as outlined in the WSIS Action Plan; 2) Raise awareness of the state of telecommunications in Uganda and assess the problems that stand in the way of achieving the connectivity goals set out in the WSIS Action Plan; 3) Promote awareness of ICTs as a tool for economic and social development.
UNDP and UNIFEM have begun working together in Rwanda to open up access to ICTs for women and girls, and to empower them through the use of ICTs, to improve their social and economic rights and build a more secure economic
future for themselves and their families. As the first pilot project of the Digital Diaspora initiative, the Rwanda project is using the technical and market knowledge of Africans in the Diaspora to build the capacity of women’s business-oriented organisations to use ICTs to promote business linkages and influence policy-making, in order to situate women’s issues and concerns at the centre of efforts to reduce poverty.
World Press Freedom Day was marked on May 03. In many countries in Africa journalists continue to be intimidated and jailed for the work that they do. If Africa’s many problems are to be overcome, there must be a recognition that active participation of citizens in shaping policy and decision making is essential to healthy societies.
World Press Freedom Day is usually an occasion where speakers promote the ideas of press freedom, freedom of expression and association. But at his fraud and corruption trial, Durban businessman Shabir Shaik, who is accused of bankrolling South African deputy president Jacob Zuma for his own financial benefit, broke the good tradition and expressed his own particular views on press freedom.
Shaik, angered by weekend newspaper reports that splashed his closing argument on the front pages before his legal team had presented it in court, said he had always wondered why Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe was so negative towards the press. Shaik concluded that after 10 to 15 years of being presented as a demon in the press, Mugabe probably woke up one morning and said “enough is enough”. Referring to Mugabe’s draconian media laws, Shaik said: “As long as you continue with your rubbish all the time I'll be the first to vote for that law.”
Shaik’s statements on press freedom could be easily dismissed as those of a man prone to showboating and with an apparent insatiable hunger to see his name in print. It might be easy to dismiss them if it weren’t for the fact that Shaik is close to the corridors of power and an influential member of his community, even if this influence turns out to be for all the wrong reasons. People with public platforms should know better than to undermine hard won freedoms, especially on a continent where press freedom is in such a shoddy state.
So what exactly is the state of press freedom in Africa on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day 2005? As usual, a host of reports lamenting the poor state of press freedom globally were released by media rights organizations on May 03. The International Federation of Journalists, the world's largest journalists' group, released a report detailing how the four-year old "war on terrorism" is having a devastating impact on civil liberties.
The report said media and independent journalism were not immune from a "pervasive atmosphere of paranoia", leading to dangerous levels of self censorship, while at the same time dissent inside and outside the media were being restricted. The report says governments are increasingly working together through international fora such as the G8 to circumvent national resistance to attacks on civil liberties. Increased police powers and data collection and surveillance "on an unprecedented and global scale have granted extensive new powers to the state."
The authors claim these powers undermine democratic standards, "because they are introduced in covert processes which are largely secret and outside the orbit of parliamentary accountability. At the same time they are leading to the creation of a surveillance society in which the citizen is increasingly accountable to the authorities and the state." The report dubs this process "policy laundering."
These observations make clear that journalists globally now have to cope with new and more insidious threats to their independence. They point to an enormous transfer of power to the ‘security state’ in order to combat a largely fictitious threat under the name of terrorism. Combined with a sycophantic press in many countries, driven by the dictates of commercial interests and mostly reflecting unashamedly a particular type of free market ideology, the danger is that in the face of these new forces, the press will become increasingly more ineffectual and irrelevant.
In Africa, the Committee to Protect Journalists spells out the often desperate situation in which journalists operate on the continent. The overall context is described as being one where there is weak rule of law in many countries, with journalists regularly battling threats and harassment. Journalists who write about corruption or mismanagement are silenced through repressive legislation. “If fewer journalists were killed or imprisoned in Africa than in some other regions in 2004 - two were killed and 19 were behind bars for their work at year's end - the problems they face are insidious and ongoing,” said the CPJ. War and violence remain a major threat to journalists in countries such as Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Somalia, Burundi, Central African Republic (CAR), and even Nigeria. Some of the cases of abuse that took place on the continent in 2004 include:
- In the Gambia, veteran journalist and press freedom activist Deyda Hydara was killed in a drive-by shooting in December, just days after the country adopted repressive media legislation that he had opposed.
- In Ivory Coast, reporter Antoine Massé was fatally shot while covering violent clashes between French peacekeeping troops and demonstrators in the western town of Duékoué in November.
- French and Canadian investigative reporter Guy-André Kieffer was feared dead after he disappeared from the Ivoirian commercial capital, Abidjan, in April.
- Eritrea remained Africa's worst jailer of journalists, with 17 held in secret prisons.
- One journalist was jailed in Cameroon and another in Sierra Leone at year's end
Africa is currently facing a multitude of problems. An HIV/AIDS epidemic is having a devastating impact on the lives of millions of Africans. While it is recovering in parts, the continent suffers from the effects of violent conflict. Hunger and famine are widespread. Maternal and child mortality rates are amongst the highest in the world. The list can go on, but on nearly every social and economic indicator it is Africa that is capable of producing the horrifying statistics which reflect a deep human suffering.
In this context, it is also important to realize that bringing an end to Africa’s problems involves a multi-faceted recognition of the rights of citizens, not least to freedom of expression and freedom of association. These rights are not something that should be instituted once a utopian country or continent is created. They are tied up in solving the problems facing the continent and creating an egalitarian society where the rights of citizens are respected.
As a 2003 petition to African Union Heads of States by a variety of media groups stated: “Active participation of citizens in shaping policy and decision making of their countries is impossible if their own governments continue to deny them the rights necessary to ensure such participation. These include the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association and political participation, as well as media freedom to facilitate a free exchange of information, ideas and opinion.”
* Please send comments to
Press Freedom Links:
http://www.rsf.org/
http://www.cpj.org/
http://www.misa.org/
http://www.article19.org/
http://www.fxi.org.za/
http://www.rap21.org/
http://www.mfwaonline.org/
http://www.jhr.ca/index2.html
http://mediawatch.clickpost.com/
http://allafrica.com/stories/200505030615.html
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/2f3284ed5a4b8b6834eb6a4484212169.htm
http://allafrica.com/stories/200505040274.html
Issa Shivji examines the possibility of Federation of the Great Lakes Region consisting of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC. Such a federation, he states, would boost a genuine Pan-Africanism and contribute towards peace in the region.
The East African Federation is again on the horizon. The timetable is out. The Federation that was much talked about over forty years ago by the nationalist leaders may just come to fruition but under very different conditions. All the peoples of East Africa must debate these new conditions. This time around we should not leave it simply to the states and politicians to unite us. Only if we unite as a people, can we ensure a sustained unity. And as a people we have to widen our horizons to take into account new conditions and possibilities.
There are two new conditions that I would like to raise. First, the original four countries – Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar – which were supposed to be part of the Federation in the early 1960s have contracted to three as Tanganyika and Zanzibar are now Tanzania. As we know, the Union question itself has been a subject of much discussion among us. Do we need to resolve this issue as we enter the Federation?
Secondly, the number of potential members of the Federation has expanded to five. Rwanda and Burundi have not only shown interest but want very much to be part of the process right from the beginning. This is a welcome sign. But we have to go beyond.
We have to think in terms of a Federation of Great Lakes Region (FGLR). The Federation of Great Lakes Region would include the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are many very good reasons why we should think in terms of a greater federation.
The DRC shares longest borders with at least four East African countries, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. It is the richest country in Africa holding the world’s biggest deposits of copper, cobalt and cadmium. DRC has seen no peace as its riches are coveted by imperial powers. Even neighbouring countries like Uganda and Rwanda did not spare DRC. The wars in DRC invariably spill over to the neighbouring East African countries whether this is in the form of hundreds of thousands of refugees as in Tanzania or armed conflicts as in Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.
Both peace and prosperity in this part of the world depend strategically on peace, stability and prosperity in the DRC. It is not possible to secure peace without the DRC being part of a larger political entity.
Within the FGLR, Tanzania can play a stabilizing role while at the same time helping to curb what looks like territorial ambitions on the part of Rwanda. The Great Lakes Region is becoming one of the most militarized zones in Africa as Western powers (including, unfortunately, South Africa) continue to pump arms into the region. Within a larger political grouping, it is perhaps easier and more feasible to control civil wars which have been transformed into border wars between countries.
Within the FGLR, given different sizes and resources of the countries concerned, co-operation is likely to be complementary rather than competitive. First, no single country within FGLR has the potential of becoming a political or economic hegemon, unlike, for example, if DRC were to be sucked into the Southern African orbit. Secondly, culturally we can build on the common linguistic foundation of Swahili as the language is widely spoken in the Great Lakes Region. Thirdly, the uneven industrial development among the potential members of FGLR is not as intense as to pose a threat to a mutually advantageous development. Fourthly, the great lakes, the railways and the harbours on the Eastern seaboard provide an excellent web of transport both within the region and with the outside world. Finally, at this stage, a larger federation which includes DRC is to the mutual advantage of both the East African countries, as traditionally categorized, and the DRC.
As a matter of fact, such a project resulting in peace in this region of Africa would dramatically boost genuine Pan-Africanism and bring the dream of African Unity closer.
Finally, the FGLR would be formidable enough to protect itself from the ravages of imperial exploitation while at the same time pausing no expansionist or military threat to its neighbours.
Conversely, an East African Federation as presently conceived with Rwanda-Burundi in and DRC out, has the potential of dragging in the relatively peaceful East African countries into DRC/Rwanda/Burundi conflicts, in the process weakening both East Africa and DRC. Truly, history has not left us much choice: we either federate and create hopes for peace and prosperity or consume ourselves in incessant fratricidal wars.
The vision of FGLR is feasible. Will our leaders rise to the occasion?
* © Issa Shivji. Shivji is Professor of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.