A group of conservationists are hoping to keep a track on the elephants in the Samburu National Park in northern Kenya, by using mobile phones, so they can send SMS messages giving their latest location through a SIM card that is fitted after an elephant has been sedated.

The European Union (EU) has fielded one of its largest ever teams of election observers to Ethiopia for the 15 May general polls, the mission chief, Ana Gomes, said. Gomes told reporters on Monday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, that the forthcoming national elections could play a critical role in fostering democracy in Ethiopia and greater stability in the Horn of Africa. The 159-strong observer mission, which would cost about ?2.8 million (US $3.68 million), had some initial concerns over whether the elections would be free and fair, she added.

Burundi's electoral body, the CENI, is preparing an electoral timetable now that President Domitien Ndayizeye has promulgated the country's new constitution and the National Assembly has approved the communal law and electoral code, which are required for the polls due on 22 April. "It [the timetable] needs careful study," Paul Ngarambe, chairman of the National Independent Electoral Commission, or CENI, said at a news conference on Friday in the capital, Bujumbura.

"Glorified secondary schools" is the derisive term coined by Nigerians to describe their country's universities. Classrooms are overcrowded, with many students sitting on the floor during lectures. Libraries lack books, and laboratories are ill-equipped to conduct experiments. "It is not what it used to be in terms of facilities, in terms of teaching aids, in terms of infrastructures. It certainly has deteriorated quite considerably," says Bola Fajemirokun, an environmental activist who graduated from the University of Lagos 20 years ago.

Introducing his report -- "In larger freedom:  towards development, security and human rights for all" -- to the General Assembly, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Member States to adopt this year a package of specific, concrete proposals to tackle global problems and enable the Organization to better respond to current challenges. He said the comprehensive strategy he was proposing "gives equal weight and attention to the three great purposes of this Organization:  development, security and human rights, all of which must be underpinned by the rule of law."  The report was called "In Larger Freedom" because he believed those words from the Charter conveyed the idea that development, security and human rights went hand in hand.  The cause of larger freedom could only be advanced if nations worked together; and the United Nations could only help if it was remoulded as an effective instrument of their common purpose. 

The Ministerial meeting of the Group of 20 developing countries operating in the WTO on agriculture issues concluded on 19 March with the adoption of a Declaration and a press briefing in which Ministers from participating countries took part. The Declaration of the G-20 Ministers called for the elimination of all export subsidies in agriculture within five years. It asked for substantial reductions in trade distorting domestic support by developed countries.

After a decade of civil war between government forces and islamist extremist groups, violence in Algeria has decreased significantly over the past few years. Between 1992 and 2002, fighting and attacks targeting the civil population forced large numbers of Algerians to flee rural areas and find security in nearby urban centres. The actual number of people displaced during the civil war is difficult to assess given the information void that has pervaded the conflict in Algeria since its onset.

Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe has established that transmissions of SW Radio Africa are being deliberately jammed. Although government has denied jamming SW Radio Africa's broadcasts, a report by the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) revealed that the jamming appears to emanate from Zimbabwe using Chinese equipment at Thornhill in Gweru. According to the IBB report, three jammers are being used to jam the three short wave frequencies used by SW Radio Africa. "One kHz tone is used to jam the broadcasts; and is continued till the transmitters become too hot; then 'noise' is used to avoid over driving the jamming transmitters. ...", says the report.

Five South African members of parliament were convicted of fraud on Friday but were spared prison terms in one of the country's highest profile graft cases. The MPs, all members of the ruling African National Congress, were ordered to pay fines of between 40,000 rand and 80,000 rand each and received suspended sentences for their part in a 17 million rand "travelgate" scam.

Despite rapid adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into administration, education, media and several sectors of the economy, the greatest challenge remains on how the image of these new technologies could be altered to please the majority of the local population who still view them as tools designed for the minority elite.

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.
Please click on the link below for more information.

It is with a sad heart that I write to you to express my condolences to you, the Mhone family and all who knew and admired Professor Guy Mhone. We worked with Guy at the University of Zimbabwe from early the early 80s. He was such a soft-spoken, intense and focused gentleman. He was an economist par excellence. I remember our children growing together. I recall moments playing with Tamara Mhone, his beautiful daughter. Our special condolences to the Mhone family. His death will rob many in Africa of such a brilliant person. May his soul rest in eternal peace.

I find your news very useful and it is a worthwhile exercise to educate and inform the citizens of Africa about the realities and challenges facing the continent. Some of us do not necessarily go to workshops and conferences where some of these issues are discussed. Pambazuka has made it possible for us to understand the realities of Africa.

I would like to know how you get your information about countries in Africa. I feel in the case of Namibia that it does not really reflect the situation in our country.

My organization, Breaking The Wall of Silence, deals with the human rights abuses that took place during our liberation struggle while in exile. SWAPO, now the ruling party, committed gross human rights violations against its own members. This issue is not yet resolved. BWS is the only organization in Namibia that deals with the conflicts of the past. It is an organization formed by the survivors of such atrocities. If welcomed to participate in information disemination through Pambazuka then i can give you the background information and our activities aimed at resolving the SWAPO ex-deatinee question. Thank-you and keep up the good work.

Editor's Reply: We get our information from African countries by researching news on the internet and by information that is submitted to us by organisations from around Africa. Our editorials and commentary consist of articles that are either submitted to us or commissioned by us. We have a limited staff component to compile the newsletter which is probably why you feel that we don't cover Namibia as well as we should. Please feel free to submit your news and information to

The United Nations Secretary General has appointed an Independent Expert, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, to lead a global study on Violence Against Children. The Study, rooted in children's human rights to protection from all forms of violence, aims to promote action to prevent and eliminate violence against children at international, regional, national and local levels. The Study is a UN-led collaboration, mandated by the General Assembly, to draw together existing research and relevant information about the forms, causes and impact of violence which affects children and young people (up to the age of 18 years). A major report will be published in 2006 and recommendations presented to the UN General Assembly.

The most frequently violated rights in both 2003 and 2004 were those associated with freedoms of expression, assembly and association, rights and freedoms protected under Section 21 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. according to a report by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum.

The Forum's report said statistics for both years indicate marked increases in violence and other human rights violations associated with elections, by-elections, stayaways and demonstrations by members of civil society.

"The Public Order and Security Act (POSA) was widely used in this respect against citizens demonstrating in support of a new constitution or for food security and affordable food. POSA has been used to arrest and detain hundreds of people in the period under discussion, with the Miscellaneous Offences Act (MOA) serving as a back-up for law-enforcement agents in the on-going harassment of certain members of the public and various political parties."

* To read the report's overview, click on the link below. For a full copy of the report, email [email protected]

As the Indian Parliament prepares to tackle the country’s implementation of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) agreement regulating patents on medicines, Médecins Sans Frontières is urging Indian decision makers to ensure that patients in developing countries will continue to have access to affordable medicines. Visit MSF's webpage and find out more about their Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines.

You will act as the policy focal point for Oxfam GB and support the Sudan Advocacy Co-ordinator to develop and implement a coherent advocacy strategy for Oxfam in Sudan. You will specifically focus on issues of conflict analysis, humanitarian space and the ongoing peace processes. You will collect and analyse information relating advocacy work through liaison with INGO, UN networks, government authorities and other relevant sources.

The International Justice Tribune reports that nearly three years after the official launch of the gacaca, the community courts which were created to prosecute the majority of Rwanda's genocide suspects, the first trials opened on 10 March. Out of the approximately 10,000 local courts, less than 800 have reached the trial stage so far. In January, Domitila Mukantangazwa, executive secretary of the national gacaca service, said that "over a million persons are expected to be tried by the gacaca courts".

The March 2005 issue of the Survivors' Rights International newsletter is now available online at: http://www.survivorsrightsinternational.org. Please visit our web page to read our latest newsletter and press release.

The Millennium Campaign Voices Against Poverty now has a bi-monthly e-bulletin providing the latest on poverty and MDG campaigns from around the world. It also provides a platform to share campaign ideas, updates and events. The Millennium Campaign, a UN initiative, informs, inspires and encourages people's involvement and action for the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals and supports citizens' efforts to hold their governments to account for the Millennium promise. Visit www.millenniumcampaign.org to subscribe to the bulletin and its Inter Press Service Newsletter.

The UK Government is using taxpayers' money in a push to privatise water and sanitation in some of the world's poorest countries, says a new report from the World Development Movement. The report says millions of pounds of aid have been spent employing consultants, often UK companies, to 'advise' developing country governments to hand management of their water to foreign companies.

Despite the documented costs of privatisation to the poor, the UK is leading international efforts to create mechanisms to fund privatisation consultants. "Aid money for the much needed restructuring of water and sanitation provision in poor countries is then only forthcoming if the consultant's privatisation plan is accepted," says WDM. WDM says while there is an urgent need for reforms so that people across the developing world have access to water and sanitation, the debate is over how this could be best achieved. "'Plan A' of donor governments and institutions – water and sanitation privatisation – is failing and will continue to do so for a number of fundamental reasons."

* Compiled from the report by Pambazuka News.

The purpose of this four-year contract position is to provide overall strategic leadership and management in implementing the 2005-2009 PPFN strategic plan: ensuring congruence between the country situation and the plan; facilitating linkages and contacts with government, IPPF, donors, and partners for resources to SRH and PPFN; and supporting PPFN governance and management organs at national and regional levels.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2005, the Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSA) Network and CREDO for Freedom of Expression & Associated Rights have called on the Southern Africa Development Community to live up to its pledge of “ensuring equal representation of women and men in the decision making of member states and SADC structures at all levels, and the achievement of at least 30% target of women in political and decision making structures by the year 2005”. The commitment is contained in the SADC 1997 Gender and Development Declaration. Speaking in Windhoek, Namibia Jennifer Mufune of MISA and Executive Committee member of GEMSA noted that: “It will be exactly eight years in September since the SADC gender declaration was signed in 1997 and still the target has not been achieved by member countries. SADC Heads of State must accelerate work towards this target and put in place infrastructure for its realisation by the time of the SADC summit later this year.”

Published by The Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in collaboration with SAfAIDS (Southern Africa AIDS Information Dissemination Service), this is a 16-page quarterly newsletter on HIV/AIDS prevention programming which aims to promote the worldwide exchange of information and experiences in the field of sexual health and HIV/AIDS.

This USD $1 million Prize is awarded each year to any not-for-profit, civil society or non-governmental organisation based anywhere in the world for their contributions to addressing and progressing economic, environmental and/or social sustainability. Deadline: March 31 2005.

The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children visited ten of the eleven refugee camps along the Chad-Sudan border from January 12-25, 2005, to collect data on the protection of refugee girls and on their access to education in the camps. While the violence continues in Darfur, the more than 200,000 Sudanese refugees who managed to escape into eastern Chad continue to face their own challenges. Women and girls still must endure life-threatening dangers, and numerous barriers exist to education.

Universal, free, primary and secondary education must be provided to all African children, says a new report from Save the Children. "This requires sufficient, predictable funding by donors and governments, and an end to International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies that result in cuts to education spending," says the report, which adds that governments and donors must address the need to improve the quality of education and eliminate discrimination due to ethnicity, gender, disability or HIV/AIDS.

The report says the failure to deliver sustainable development in Africa over the last 20 years has been compounded by a failure to put children at the centre of policy. "African children experience routine violation of their basic human rights. Tens of millions don't get adequate healthcare or education – many none at all. Millions more are victims of conflict, violence and abuse."

'One in Two: Children are the Key to Africa's Future' accused developed countries of under-delivering on their promises to provide aid to the poorest in sub-Saharan Africa.

* Compiled from the report by Pambazuka News. Click on the link provided for the full report.

"The Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) has been observing elections in the SADC Region for the past seven years and in the process has been involved in over 20 electoral processes. The organisation has amassed a wealth of knowledge and experience in the observation of elections in the SADC region and beyond. EISA observer missions gather information for the purposes of assessing and documenting key aspects of the electoral process with a view to promoting peer learning across the region. It is in this spirit that the organisation planned and hoped to observe the 2005 Zimbabwe Parliamentary Elections.

Our interest in observing the election was made known in writing to the Zimbabwean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Following the statement of our intentions, EISA communicated with the said ministry on a regular basis hoping to receive an affirmative response. Unfortunately, an invitation to observe the elections has not been forthcoming."

In eastern Congo's conflict, government troops and rebel fighters have raped tens of thousands of women and girls, but fewer than a dozen perpetrators have been prosecuted by a judicial system in dire need of reform, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on the eve of International Women's Day. The 52-page report, "Seeking Justice: Prosecution of Sexual Violence in the Congo War," documents how the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has taken insufficient steps to prosecute those responsible for wartime rape. Human Rights Watch called on the Congolese government and international donors, including the European Union, to take urgent steps to reform Congo's justice system.

Mikela is a young and vivacious beauty with a unique artistic talent. Her nightmare starts in the open plains of the Tanzanian Maasailand where she experiences female circumcision. The saga of tradition and ensuing events force Mikela to embark on a blinded journey, one that would eventually take her across two continents. As she journeys through life, the emotional scar of female circumcision and later rape, continue to haunt Mikela. Scared by her violation and bad memories, Mikela is unsure about her own emotions as her world seems to be spiraling down an endless dark tunnel.

Following on from previous Refugee Law Project (RLP) updates on the repatriation process for Rwandese refugees in Nakivale refugee settlement in September 2004 the RLP returned to Nakivale to investigate the ongoing repatriation process for Rwandese refugees. As of February 2005, approximately 2300 Rwandese refugees have been repatriated, and 300 Rwandese refugees are registered for repatriation.

Togo's opposition parties have picked septuagenarian politician Emmanuel Bob-Akitani as their joint candidate for next month's presidential election, hoping he will be able to beat the son of the late head of state, Gnassingbe Eyadema. "He is the sole candidate for Togo's democratic opposition to stand against the dying dictatorship," the main opposition party Union of Forces for Change (UFC) said on its website. "He represents the hope of a whole nation."

Services in public hospitals across Burundi continued to be paralysed as an indefinite strike by nurses entered its fifth day on Friday. The nurses are demanding better pay and working conditions. Although nurses have been reporting for duty at most hospitals in Bujumbura, Burundi's capital, they have not been working as normal. "We are working as we would on weekends or on holidays," Melance Hakizimana, chairman of the nurses' trade union, le Syndicat National de Travailleurs de la Sante, told IRIN on Wednesday.

As the Indian Parliament prepares to tackle the country's implementation of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) agreement regulating patents on medicines, Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is urging Indian decision makers to ensure that patients in developing countries will continue to have access to affordable medicines. "MSF has examined the proposed amendments to India's Patents Act of 1970. We believe they will drastically restrict, perhaps even prevent, the production and supply of vital therapies by Indian pharmaceutical companies to other developing countries," said Ellen 't Hoen, director of policy advocacy and research with MSF's Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. Also included here is a two-page letter sent by the UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, Dr. Nafis Sadik, and the UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, to the Prime Minister and the President of India.

President Robert Mugabe's ruling party has used threats and intimidation against opposition supporters ahead of this month's key elections which now cannot be free and fair, said Amnesty International. The London-based rights watchdog, which sent a fact-finding team to Zimbabwe last month, said in a report that, although the level of violence was lower than in the run-ups to previous polls, the playing field was far from level.

On Friday 1st April 2005, debt campaigners around the world will be targeting the representatives of rich creditor countries with a demand for debt cancellation. Organisations and activists, including many involved with the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, are planning to target the embassies of the G7 - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US - calling for full cancellation of the debts of the most impoverished countries. The action comes ahead of the meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington DC on 16th and 17th April. Visit the Eurodad website for more details and a detailed discussion about how the Commission for Africa dealt with the issue of debt cancellation.

Five years after discussions on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, not enough of the agreed actions had occurred for the Kyoto Protocol to be put into practice. During this time, discussions have reduced the positive impacts of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, reducing the potential for developing countries to benefit from future emissions trading. Can the faltering global climate regime still include the needs of developing countries?

Three years after the end of Angola's brutal civil war, the Angolan government is failing to care for the country's huge population of returning displaced persons, Human Rights Watch has said in a new report. Hundreds of thousands of recently returned refugees, internally displaced persons and former combatants face daunting challenges in reintegrating into Angolan society, with little government assistance.

Changes in the status of women are key features of globalization. Some analysts have even concluded that globalization is, in part, feminization. ‘The feminization of what?’ is the question. We are not going to try to answer this question here. Rather, we want to open discussion on how stories about women and globalization relate to the world of activism. What functions do these stories perform for the left? How do they constitute social movements and mask that civil society is not an ideal space; that inequities are often reproduced there?

The question of whether the changes associated with globalization have been aggregately positive or negative for women tends to be one around which activist and civil society politics is mobilized – and key assertions about where our global society is going and how it wants to get there are framed.

Digital divide notwithstanding, hours of web searching every possible combination of key words for ‘women and globalization’ essentially *revealed* that little to no progress of any meaningful kind has occurred over the last 100 years, and that women as a whole remain overwhelmingly powerless, voiceless and victims. The trade in colors, with the image of black and brown women as the “face of poverty”, is particularly robust.

But, can we trust these stories completely? The way power is organized tends to allow –even encourage - relatively well-resourced and socially privileged spokespersons (men and women of various colours) to use popular discourses about the affects of globalization on women. Discourses do things; they have effects. Or, more strongly, people say things in order to achieve things. They offer excuses, assign blame, win support, seize the moment, cast themselves in a particular light, and so on.

Women in the social movements in post-apartheid South Africa provide testimony to the fact that whilst they may form the mass base of the movement they most certainly are not well represented among the leadership ranks. The movements have garnered the support of thousands of poor black women and have through their political action challenged the state’s provision of basic services to the household and raised consciousness around the plight of poor women. Yet within the movements, a male, top heavy leadership speaks on behalf of thousands of poor black women while the added burden of moving much needed gender reform forward is one that falls primarily to women – often finding an uneven, even cold reception from leaderships accustomed to defining gender equality as secondary to class and race struggles.

That inequities are reproduced in civil society – from local to global - raises questions about a left that trades on taking up the plight of women, a left that looks to women’s experiences to legitimize movements, organizations – even activist careers. Commander Esther, Zapatista Army of National Liberation, highlights the contradictions:

“[A]s women, the rich man tries to humiliate us, but also the man who is not rich, who is poor like our husbands, our brothers, our fathers, our sons, our companions in the struggle, and those who work with us and are organized with us. So we say clearly that when women demand respect, we demand it not only from the neoliberals, but also from those who struggle against neoliberalism and say they are revolutionaries but in the home are like Bush.”

In South Africa, the social movements have traditionally been perceived to be the place where poor, black women coagulate to regain their self-respect, their dignity, their strength as a collective and their identity as women. However, this safe space of the movement continues to displace value and repeatedly uses the same oppressive forms of structure and organising. Thus, when women gain it may be merely as a component of other geometries of power, such as unions or civil society organizations - whose decision-making processes and well paid positions are overwhelmingly occupied by men. Some predict that if this were to continue then women will be compelled to reconstitute themselves as a group identity of women that will supplant class interest as the chief medium of political mobilization.

Still, not much is done within social movements to empower women to participate more effectively, so that they can be their own voices and be their own faces and agents of their own experience. For example, often the male leadership simultaneously co-opt women’s powerfully articulated demands for better municipal services while conceiving of and scripting women’s organizational roles as merely supportive. The commitment from the male leadership to the transformation of gender relations appears strategic and limited. As a result, women in the movements are feeling a greater sense of isolation and that their particular issues and their identities as women are being ignored. Ten years on now from the end of apartheid and there is a growing sense that women’s development in the movement - other than what they are able to achieve as individuals – has stalled.

If women consistently fail to escape the everyday indignities of discrimination in social movements, that those movements might unravel under the weight of their contradictions, is not surprising. Among the members of the now frayed and fragmented Concerned Citizen’s Forum [CCF], for example, it was a commonly held perception that, while women are at the forefront of the struggle and many occupy leadership positions in their local branches, there was no development of women in the CCF - other than what they are able to achieve as individuals - and there existed few mechanisms in the social movements leadership structure to encourage active participation of women. Similarly, to date in trade unions, the democratic rights that have been achieved by the unions for women members in the workplace are not paralleled by democratic rights for women within the unions. More insidiously, however, the values and beliefs encountered within the union structures have been of women as inherently subservient, whose issues carried less weight than those of the broader working class struggles.

Cutting into the question of women and the left where we have seems to suggest that one route out of the impass might be to play closer attention to what women can and have achieved (in terms of extracting themselves from their particular experience with a tangle of patriarchal norms and institutions) through acts of individual creativity and innovation. For example, a breaking down and breaking out – moving beyond what seems structurally or organizationally possible within existing hierarchical parameters – has long been the innovative strategy of black women – and a mode of power of the so-called ‘powerless’ more generally. Since their demands have perpetually been left out by feminist movements and movements for racial liberation, it is often individual creativity that has brought about the actual gains that translate into bargaining power and leverage in movements.

In this light, while there is little point to romanticizing the ruptures and border zones of the globalizing world, some analysts point to not yet well understood informal temporary zones and multi-centric functional networks nested within sprawling “scapes” where important social resistance and renewal takes place. That is, beyond totalizing rhetorics and hardened organizational hierarchies of the left there is an array of women’s insurgencies taking place. The widest array of which may be, to borrow Castell’s language, “practical feminists” (2000b: 200).

“Aren’t the struggles and organizations of women throughout the world, for their families (meaning mainly their children), their lives, their work, their shelter, their health, their dignity, feminism in practice…Under different forms, and through different paths, feminism dilutes the patriarchal dichotomy of man/woman as it manifests itself in social institutions and in social practice. So doing, feminism constructs not one but many identities, each one of which, by their autonomous existence, seizes micropowers in the world wide web of life experiences.”

Authors like Saskia Sassen have noted that in the global cities “[t]here is a large literature showing that immigrant women's regular wage work and improved access to other public realms has an impact on their gender relations: Women gain greater personal autonomy and independence while men lose ground.” It may be that we like our stories of women having new freedoms, of gaining ground, to be less messy. We have been trained to see as primary her exploitation in the capitalist labour market. But what if we change the lens from capitalism to patriarchy? And what if we set that picture afloat within a global left that doesn’t value women any more than capitalism does?

The organized left’s skepticism about women’s agency and what can be achieved without being organized tends to operate to script the work of ‘the struggle’ in service of ‘the revolution’ as nobler, more important, more immediately pressing. But the promise that women’s everyday lived indignities will simply evaporate once race and class issues are addressed relies on futurology as vague and discredited as Adam Smith’s invisible hand. Capitalism seems to trade on patriarchy, but so can the left.

We are skeptical about global discourses and politicized terrains that remain dominated by debates that frame women’s autonomy as something won on behalf of women. It renders invisible much of the day-to-day innovation and activity that individual women leverage to incrementally reinvent daily life. More insidiously it co-opts and confiscates the gains made by women in the everyday, attributing it to activists, organized civil society organizations and international development agencies, many of which primarily serve the interests of a narrow band of elite often organized along principles where men are able to move through the ranks leaving the bulk of women behind as shadow workers.

Many of the women who belong to social movements in South Africa often don’t restrict themselves to the work of the organization. Women in the Anti-Eviction Campaign in the Western Cape pointed out that it is not only evictions that they are concerned with. They work in their communities around issues of HIV, poverty, rape, drug-abuse, accessing social grants, teenage pregnancies and access to education for their children. Yet this work is not considered as a form of activism that is altering the political landscape. Rather “strategic” interests of the left are perceived as a more evolved and informed type of activism (where most of the men congregate around) and set in opposition to “practical” issues like daily survival.

With the specter of revolution denied looming intimidating, women are called to justify and rationalize the authenticity of their interests - to stop pursuing those interests and be drawn into the diversionary web of defending them. In her seminal 1985 article Spivak asked the question “Can the Subaltern Speak?” The point was not that movements for social change can somehow ‘get it right next time’ when they speak on behalf of those who have little voice in existing architectures of power. Rather, she wanted to know when and under what conditions will the subaltern speak for themselves?
As Poet Sujata Bhatt has said:

I am Indian, very brown, born in
Malabar, I speak three languages, write in
Two, dream in one. Don't write in English, they said,
English is not your mother tongue. Why not leave
Me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins,
Every one of you? Why not let me speak in any language I like?...

* Saranel Benjamin and J. Zoë Wilson are with the Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, and Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability, York University, Canada. The authors would like to thank Amanda Alexander, Raj Patel and Richard Pithouse for their valuable comments. All errors remain the responsibility of the authors exclusively.

**NOTE TO READERS: the authors would like to invite people everywhere to send their experiences with gender equity in social movements to: [email][email protected] and [email][email protected] Accounts will be compiled, verified and made available to all respondents. Please note if you wish to remain anonymous.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

References

Benjamin, S ‘ “We are not Indians! We are the Poors!” : Investigating Race Class and Gender in Social Movements’ Development Update, Vol 5 No. 2, 2004.

Castells, M. . The Power of Identity. Great Britain: Blackwell Publishers, 2000.

Spivak. G. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” In Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader, pp. 66-111, Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman, eds. Hemel Hempstead & New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1993. (First printing 1988)

Tony Blair urges his people to show the same compassion to the African victims of, what he calls, ‘man-made disaster’, that they have shown to Asian victims of natural disaster.

The small question though is: which man has been responsible for Africa’s man-made disaster? We shall not go too far back into history. Let’s just look at the last two decades and only two major wars – economic and military – which have devastated the continent.

The continent is the most war-torn region in the world. In the last decade, there were 12 wars taking place in 10 countries on the continent. Eleven were supported by the US through arms sales or military training. Many of these wars were offshoots of the Cold War years. According to one estimate, during the Cold War years (1950-1989) US sent some US$1.5 billion in arms and training to Africa. And this trend has not stopped in the post-Cold War period. Africa has yet to reap the so-called peace dividend.

From 1991-1995, 50 of Africa’s 53 countries received military assistance from the US. US arms sales and military training to Africa totaled more than $227 million. And US’s junior partner, UK, follows suit. British arms sales to Africa rocketed from ?52 million in 1998 to ?125 million in 2000 and topped ?200 million in 2001 after the deals with Tanzania to sell ?28 million military air defence and ?100 million to sell Hawk jets to South Africa. Under Tony Blair’s new labour government, military sales to Africa increased from 1.6 per cent of all sales to the Third World to 19 per cent.

Gordon Brown’s compassionate offer to pay 10 per cent of Tanzania’s debt to the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank amounting to some $40 million over the next ten years sits rather awkwardly with $40 million that was spent a couple of years ago to get the radar from a British company with Blair’s support. At the time one British MP, Tony Worthington, commented in the House of Commons: ‘The idea of going to Dar es Salaam to negotiate debt reduction and then agreeing to something that adds $40 million to that debt does not sound like prudence, does it?’ Well, in the imperial mindset, it does.

Arms trade is “good” business. It is “good” economics and “good” politics. It creates jobs, increases profits and ensures a safe continent for Western multinationals to continue siphoning off resources and expatriating super-profits which keep the capitalist engine running. And as a bonus, the military-industrial complex of the West keeps reproducing the dependency syndrome in Africa, caricatured in the African child with a begging bowl.

The aid-dependency syndrome in Africa, which is deployed variously – for domination, for compassion, for humiliation, for intimidation – is an important plank in the relationship between the West and Africa. While we are pilloried with ‘aid-fatigue’ in response to our begging bowl, Western rulers get very angry when some countries (very few indeed and none in Africa) try to extricate themselves from the world wide aid net.

It is revealing that when India refused to accept any aid from the West for tsunami victims, the Western world was outraged. Journalists ridiculed and questioned India’s motives – ambitions of a regional super-power, seeking a seat in the Security Council, acting big brother to neighbouring countries. These are the same people who hardly ever question the motives of Western aid. No, Western aid is out of altruism and human compassion.

Mwalimu (Julius Nyerere) was hated by the West more for preaching self-reliance rather than socialism. If he survived the wrath of the CIAs of this world (unlike Nkrumah) it was perhaps because we never practiced self-reliance and Mwalimu never wrote a book, ‘Self-reliance, the First Stage of Liberation’, the way Nkrumah did, ‘Neo-colonialism: the Last Stage of Imperialism’.

Anyway, so much for the military war. What about the economic war?

For the last two decades beginning with structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) of the 1980s, Africa has been involved in implementing neo-liberal policies handed down by the West through their so-called multilateral institutions. SAPs have devastated the continent. Since 1980 African debt has increased 500%. 313 million Africans lived in absolute poverty in 2001 compared to 200 million in 1994.

Life expectancy has dropped by 15%; literacy rates have fallen. More than 140 million young Africans are illiterate. In ten years, between 1986 and 1996, education spending per capita in Africa has fallen by 0.7% a year. Primary and secondary school enrollment has gone down as parents cannot afford cost-sharing imposed on them. University students have rioted as they find themselves without employment and therefore unable to repay loans. In Tanzania, non-payment of educational loans has been criminalized!

Mr. Blair need not ask which men are behind Africa’s man-made disaster? But can Africa’s men and women swallow the rhetoric of compassion and forget the reality of exploitation?

© Issa Shivji. Shivji is Professor of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

* Please send comments to

The 20th century had been termed the “century of genocides”. In 2004 the first of a series of these turned a hundred years. It reminded us of a history of mass violence directed against specifically defined population groups, which had to a certain extent its origins and roots in the violent expansion of European colonialism. The German empire played a particularly prominent (though by no means exclusive) role during this era of violently imposed foreign domination. 2005 reminds of another such event, when the mass killing in then “German East Africa” (the oppression of the so-called “Maji-Maji rebellion”) turns a century. It can be assumed that this dark chapter in the history of what is euphemistically called “North-South relations” is even less noticed in public debate than the first of its kind a year earlier.

One might assume that it would be part of an established common understanding that what started in early 1904 in the German colonial territory called South West Africa was by standards applicable today a genocide. This, at least, is the conclusion presented by the “Whitaker Report”, adopted as an official document by a United Nations body. It lists the German colonial war of 1904 to 1907 as the first genocide of the 20th century. The most striking phenomenon in dealing with the events a hundred years later is therefore, that in public perception as well as scholarly and political discourse the views still differ fundamentally.

For large parts of collective memory in Germany this chapter is either closed or even forgotten. In contrast to this widespread amnesia or indifference the trauma lives on among parts of the Namibian population. It keeps the generations of descendants to the victims in demand for recognition of and compensation for the crimes committed. As the selectivity of the (non) commemorations during 2004 showed, the legacy and its treatment remain a battlefield. It provided a forum for often uncompromising exchanges on how to come to terms with the past in the present.

In August 2002, the Herero Paramount Chief commented upon the private claims for reparations from the German government and a few German companies, which upon his instructionswere initiated at a US-American Court during late 2001. While doing so, he declared the land question in Namibia to be solely a Herero issue. A spokesperson for the Coordinating Committee for the First Official Commemoration of the Ovaherero Genocide stated two years later that genocide was in Namibia only committed towards the Herero.

Such monopolising claims are tantamount to blatant denial of the sacrifices made by other communities like the Nama. It also makes a mockery of the suffering of the Damara and San. To all these – today even more marginalized – groups this exclusion adds insult to injury and is certainly not conducive to concerted efforts of those to whom justice had been denied for generations. At the same time, it implicitly and ironically also undermines the legitimacy of the Herero case, which otherwise ought to be undisputed and beyond any doubt relevant for coming to terms with the past.

Members of the group tend to brush aside the concern expressed over such monopolisation of the victim status. Instead, accusations of racism and Eurocentrism come in handy to dismiss any discourse on how best an advocacy might be pursued in the interest of more than just one among those groups. The claims to genuine identity and corresponding victim status create an aura of exclusivity and consequently a we-they divide with the rest of the world. This competitive way of pursuing the case prevents any meaningful dialogue. The motives of those, who in such reductionist way seek the recognition so far denied to them, might be perfectly understandable. They want to pursue and achieve in their own view only historical justice. But this prevents wider coalitions and seems to happen at the expense of others, who remain outside of any public interest and are therefore denied recognition as victims.

The Namibian government did address the matter in a different but even less constructive perspective. It kept a demonstratively low profile on the general issue. No government-sponsored initiative took upon itself to prepare any coordinated event to commemorate the dark chapter (and by doing so flag the recognition of the primary resistance during these days as an early part of nation building).

The only official act honoured the centenary with the issuing of a special stamp on Independence Day on 21st March 2004. In the declared spirit of national reconciliation it did not single out any particular group. Instead, the motive chosen was a white dove. This symbolic vagueness denied victims any degree of visibility and confined them to absolute anonymity. At the same time, such evasive symbolism saved the descendants of the perpetrators from any confrontational challenge to deal with the legacy. Namibia’s government also explicitly distanced itself from the initiative by a group of Herero to seek reparations from Germany.

The President and other senior government officials did not follow an invitation to attend the ceremonies in Okahandja, which marked the hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Herero war against German colonial occupation in January 2004. Hifikepunye Pohamba, successor to Sam Nujoma as Head of State, however, did attend the ceremony commemorating the battles in the Waterberg plateau area in mid-August 2004. It remains speculation to what extent this might have been necessitated by the fact that the German Minister for Economic Cooperation, representing the biggest single donor country was one of the main speakers. When the Herero gathered for their annual meeting end of August at the graves of their ancestors, government officials attended the commemoration of the beginning of the armed struggle by Swapo elsewhere. The parallel activities illustrated the contrasting traditions of resistance in a case, where – differently from neighbouring Zimbabwe – the first chimurenga related mainly to other local groups than the second one.

The Namibian government seemed to be almost in silent agreement with those among the German-speaking minority in Namibia and those representing the official position of the German government by treating the centenary almost as a non-issue. The German ambassador to Namibia on occasion of the commemoration ceremony in January 2004 (which in contrast to Namibian government officials he actually did attend) reiterated his government’s position by explaining: “It would not be justified to compensate one specific ethnic group for their suffering during the colonial times, as this could reinforce ethnic tensions and thus undermine the policy of national reconciliation which we fully support.” This sounds sensible but serves as a convenient excuse for no compensation of the descendants who suffered most from direct oppression, defeat and subsequent exploitation and subjugation through the German colonial authorities.

There would be an obvious justification for affirmative action related preferential treatment with regard to a redistribution of the land taken under German colonialism. It should benefit as a priority these communities, who were robbed of their land as a prelude and aftermath to the genocide. But the land issue is treated as if the historical connotations would not offer a direct frame of reference as to who should be entitled to claims and compensated accordingly. This benefits the government’s main clientele living in or coming from the densely populated former Owamboland (north of the zone of direct German occupation), but neither Herero nor Nama, Damara and least of all the San.

In what might be termed a pact among elites, the German government has chosen to opt for the more convenient avenue of playing along with such biased official Namibian policy. Germany’s Foreign Minister had stated as late as 2003 that no apology will be offered, which might be considered of relevance for compensation. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder during his first official visits to African countries in January 2004 – at a time when the genocide turned a century – skipped the former colony and thereby simply ignored the historical part of German-Namibian relations at the centre of the debate in 2004.

The German position took a surprising turn from the previous official denial during a year in which as a positive experience an unexpected number of local, regional and national NGO initiatives raised the issue in Germany by means of lectures, seminars, exhibitions and related public events and hence created some unofficial but visible discourse over the unfinished business.

The Minister for Economic Cooperation attended the ceremonies in August 2004 remembering the biggest military clashes between Herero and Germans taking place a hundred years earlier. In an emotional speech she admitted on behalf of her government guilt and remorse. She stated that the German colonial war a hundred years earlier would qualify from today’s perspective as genocide. Asked for an apology (the word did not appear in the text she read out), she expressed the understanding that her whole speech was an apology. This provoked harsh criticism back in Germany mainly by members of the opposition parties, who accused the Minister for risking an expensive bill for being carried away. There remains, however, so far a lack of visible subsequent consequences, which would indicate that this has resulted indeed in a direct change of policy towards the issues of compensation with any budgetary implications.

Interesting is the fact that the treatment of the historical issue (intentionally or not) remains confined to the colonial chapter. It avoids any references to the subsequent developments in Germany. After all, to reflect upon genocidal atrocities is more than dealing with guilt and remorse (though this in itself would be a perfectly legitimate and sufficient motive to do so). In the Namibian case, this links up with the more specifically German trajectory. The question is, if and to what extent the colonial genocide paved the way for the particular concept of final solution and extinction of the enemy, culminating in the war crimes and the holocaust in the 1940s.

In a colonial situation as it prevailed in Namibia in the early 20th century, the denial of human value to the “uncivilised natives” is predicated in the structurally racist set-up of colonialism. This is even more the case when the aim of colonial rule is not simply control and exploitation of the country, its resources and inhabitants, but rather, settlement by members of the colonising society. The inherent racism of settler colonialism has worked to lower the threshold of mass killings in appalling ways in many cases. The parole “exterminate the brutes” is a simple illustration of this. In Namibia, the ideology and strategy of the genocidal practices applied require us to explore the degree of a specifically German case within the wide range of colonial atrocities and mass violence elsewhere. As evidence shows, there existed continuities in accounts and novels read by a mass readership, in military practice as well as in the activities of specific persons, and in doctrines and routines of warfare that link strategic ideas of decisive battles to the concept of final solution and extinction of the enemy, which came into full effect under the Nazi regime.

Such an approach within a wider context implies the journey into the belly of the beast - “the horror”, as visualised by Mister Kurtz with his last words on his deathbed in Joseph Conrad’s novel “Heart of Darkness”. It was inspired at the end of the 19th century by the excessive atrocities of colonial oppression in the Congo. Such interrogation requires accepting in principle the possibility of a connecting line that might exist in the history of violent expansionism. It demands an exploration, if and to what extent there are more than simply accidental coincidences between the colonial genocide in then “German South West Africa” and the holocaust unfolding “back home” in Germany over thirty years later. Depending on the outcome of such explorations, we need to readjust not only our minds, but also our historical understanding. Maybe the potentially scary implications of such insights are a contributing factor to the fierce resistance among large parts of the German public, to (re) open the chapter and have another look.

More than this: If the Germans would have the courage and honesty to embark upon such an exploratory mission - what should then prevent other former colonial powers to deal with their past in a similar self-critical way? Maybe this dimension is another forceful factor which explains even more so than the possible monetary implications (in terms of reparations) at stake for the German public purse to accept such responsibilities.

There might well exist complicity among the powerful, supported by a fraternity of a core group of European states with a similarly dubious imperialist historical track record. Such complicity, unfortunately, is not met by determined solidarity among the wretched of the earth. As victims they ought to challenge the continued injustices by their concerted and unified efforts to counteract the ignorance and arrogance of those in power on such issues collectively, instead of falling prey (once again) to the old system of divide and rule.

* Dr. Henning Melber is Research Director at The Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala/Sweden and Vice-President of the European Network of Genocide Scholars (ENoGS) established at this Conference. This is a shorter and modified version of a presentation to the panel on “Genocide, Memory and Identity” at the Conference “Genocides: Forms, Causes and Consequences. The Namibian War (1904-08) in historical perspective” organised at the Haus der Kulturen in Berlin/Germany from 13 to 15 January 2005.

* Please send comments to

* EDITORIAL: Henning Melber examines genocide in Namibia in the context of colonial violence and what it means for current generations
* COMMENT AND ANALYSIS: Saranel Benjamin and J. Zoë Wilson from the Centre for Civil Society at the University of Kwazulu Natal critique the role of women in South African social movements
* LETTERS: Subscribers write in about shoes that pinch, walls of silence, women’s day and in memory of Guy Mhone
* PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem finds little cause for satisfaction in Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa report; Issa Shivji critiques compassion for Africa
* CONFLICTS AND EMERGENCIES: The UN is urged to grow teeth on Sudan
* HUMAN RIGHTS: The Zimbabwe NGO Human Rights Forum issues a report on the human rights situation prior to elections
* WOMEN AND GENDER: The Global Campaign for Education slams world leaders for failures on girl’s education
* ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Zimbabwe election news - Amnesty rules out fair poll, monitoring group EISA blocked from poll observation, activist group Sokwanele slams Mbeki over poll comments
* EDUCATION: New report from Save the Children calls for children to be at the centre of policy

>>>>>PAMBAZUKA NEWS TURNS 200! On March 31, Pambazuka News will release its 200th edition. The milestone represents a journey from an e-newsletter with a few hundred subscribers to one with over 15 000 subscribers; from an e-newsletter that nobody knew about to one that is widely distributed on the African continent.

We invite subscribers to celebrate with us and send us a birthday greeting. Tell us about your experience with the newsletter and how you find it of use. Please send comments to [email protected]

"This is a wide ranging informative compilation of essays which offer the very best advocacy for Africa - by Africans."– Glenys Kinnock MEP

Pambazuka News, the electronic newsletter on social justice in Africa, has published an anthology of editorials that provide a perspective on development and social justice in Africa that rarely finds expression elsewhere. The collection constitutes a valuable record of the views of both African civil society activists and academics on key developments and events in the region during 2004, touching on issues of conflict, development, debt cancellation, women’s rights and the role of the international financial institutions in Africa.

SPECIAL PROMOTION FOR PAMBAZUKA NEWS SUBSCRIBERS

Readers in Africa can obtain a copy of the book from Mkuki na Nyota Publishers (see below) for US$ 15. Subscribers elsewhere can buy the book for UK Pounds 10 (normal price 17.95 pounds) for a limited period – until 30 April – provided you can prove that you are a subscriber to Pambazuka News. You must quote the words “Pambazuka News Subscriber Offer” and include your email address (so we can check whether you are a subscriber) and send your order to [email][email protected]

ISBN 9987417353 304pp. 2005 Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, Tanzania
(Editorials from Pambazuka News series, 1)

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai has appealed to the world's eight most industrialised countries for urgent action to save the rainforest of the Congo basin, the world's "second largest green lung" after the Amazon. "We do hope that the G8 leaders will agree on some action, including the conservation of African forests in general but the Congo Basin forest ecosystem in particular," Maathai told a meeting of some 50 environment ministers in Rome.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has condemned "disproportionate" measures taken by a Monrovia court, on 4 March 2005, against the "Forum" newspaper. The court ordered the offices of the privately-owned weekly closed and issued an arrest warrant for the paper's managing editor and other editorial staff for "contempt of court" after they allegedly ignored several earlier summonses. The paper's offices are to remain closed until it pays the US$200 fine ordered by the court.

After learning that a second draconian press law was secretly promulgated on 28 December, Reporters Without Borders reiterated its appeal to the international community to put pressure on President Yahya Jammeh to stop his mounting crackdown on Gambia's news media. "Gambia's president clearly intends to keep tight control on journalists during a period of unrest and in the approach to a crucial election year," the press freedom organization said. "The silence of his African and European counterparts leaves his hands free to turn Gambia into one of the West African countries that most restrict press freedom."

Someone with untreated tuberculosis (TB) will infect up to 14 others over a year. TB programmes must lower barriers to care-seeking to reduce this spread. From patients' perspectives, barriers include treatment costs and travel. Proposed reforms to TB programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, including decentralisation, must consider each country's context to prevent negative impacts on care-seeking and under-funded primary health care services.