PAMBAZUKA NEWS No. 195’s Editorial on ‘HIV/AIDS - THE DILEMMA OF THE INEVITABLE’ by Kiiza Ngonzi, not only served as an ‘awaking bell’ for all of us Africans grappling with HIV/AIDS and its direct impact on our lives, but threw a real challenge to the strategies we are employing to combat a disease that is already devastating our populations.

Indeed, what a tragedy and an amazing puzzle it is that almost two and half decades since HIV/AIDS hit Africa, Africa continues to be devastated by this determined killer disease. In all our faces, HIV/AIDS is on the rampage, going about its business infecting and killing millions of Africans, old, young, pretty, ugly, big, small, rich, poor, educated, illiterate, urban, rural, professional, unprofessional at free will. To Africans HIV/AIDS seems so powerful that it has overcome our intellect and control, leaving us with our heads buried in the sand.

The impact of HIV/AIDS on our lives can hardly be over-estimated. By this time, there is hardly anyone in Sub Saharan Africa who has not been touched by HIV/AIDS. All of us know what it is to be afflicted by this dreadful disease, because if we have individually not been afflicted, we have had relatives, friends, or colleagues who have been directly or indirectly affected. We have seen it often enough since it killed its first victim in Uganda in 1979, and hospitalized its first patient in Zambia in 1982.

The impact on our social services is already real. Our hospitals are overwhelmed by the numbers of terminally sick and the dying, while our mortuaries and graveyards are littered with the dead.

The extent, magnitude, ravages and devastation of HIV/AIDS is best illustrated by the long term effects on our nations, reflected in the situation of African children. UNAIDS already estimates that there are as many as 11 million orphans in sub Saharan Africa, 1 million of whom are in Nigeria, 890,000 in Kenya and 780,000 in Zimbabwe. South Africa is expected to have up to 1.5 million orphaned children by 2010, while in Zambia 1.8 million children are increasingly vulnerable as HIV/AIDS continues to destroy the traditional family social safety net, causing massive school dropouts and chronic malnutrition.

The overall impact of HIV/AIDS on the African Continent is manifesting itself not only in reduced quality of human life, but dramatically reduced life spans, already believed to have dwindled to a low of 32-37 years of age, compared to an average of 57 in the post independence Africa of the mid 1970s, and 78 years of life in the Western World. This practically means that one has a period of 32 years in which to grow, acquire an education and life skills, develop a career, raise a family and contribute to national development before life terminates. How possible is this? Today, in most of our countries, every child born is assumed to have a significant chance of contracting HIV and dying of AIDS. HIV/AIDS has clearly become a national emergency in most of our countries

And yet HIV/AIDS is a behaviour disease and a human being can control its behavioral spread, and its infection. He/she can refuse to allow HIV into his/her body, and it will effectively stay away and if he/she is already infected, he/she can determine to live with it, hold a dialogue with it, talk to it, agree to accommodate it in his/her body, but ask it to give him/her time to live, to accomplish certain tasks, and together, they can plan to allow him/her to complete his/her career, plan for his/her children, build them a house. This is not possible with a motor or aircraft accident, heart disease, meningitis, cancer, TB, pneumonia, cholera, malaria, even child birth.

But perhaps it is not far fetched to say that the on-going status of HIV/AIDS in Africa is an indicator of a bigger and far deeper problem. As the saying goes, ‘the way you define a problem determines your ability to confront it’. The question is, ‘has Africa defined HIV/AIDS adequately enough to confront it head-on?’

Recently, ten 16-29-year old community outreach volunteers, comprising four females and six males with educational backgrounds of 6th to 12th Grades, spent two weeks walking about markets, schools, churches, streets, bars, taverns and restaurants of Mtendere Compound, one of Lusaka’s largest townships, trying to find out what ordinary community people thought and brought these findings:

1) Whereas most people talked to knew that HIV/AIDS is a killer disease that still has no cure, they had difficulty with its identity, its name, ‘HIV/AIDS’ (Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), which they felt was in itself a contributing factor to its un-halted spread since it is too scientific and therefore, too complicated for the majority of ordinary people to understand.

This was believed to be the reason for a variety of configured nicknames such as Uganda’s ‘Slim Disease’, and Zambia’s ‘Long Illness’ or ‘Kangundende’, which sounded like mockery and ridicule and served to increase stigma. Many said that whereas they could clearly identify other diseases with symptoms specific to them, such as coughing blood in TB or sores on the genitals in syphilis, there were no specific symptoms for HIV/AIDS apart from a variety of so-called ‘opportunistic infections’. Consequently, a lot of people were confused and resort to associating HIV/AIDS with witchcraft, while many others have given up even trying, and resolved to leave ‘HIV/AIDS as a disease like any other, made and sent by God and that if God has determined that one will die from it, it will happen’; while others still said, ‘every one on earth has AIDS; if it is your day it is!’

2) The team further found that our current popular prevention and mitigation strategies against the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS such as ABC (Abstain, Be faithful, and Condomize) and VTC (Voluntary Testing and Counseling) were themselves greatly challenged since a lot of youths strongly believe that:

i) Sex has become just like a game among young people, ‘if you don’t practice sex, then you are left out with this world’;

ii) Condoms cause cancer;
iii) HIV/AIDS test accuracy is questionable. As one 19-year old woman expressed, ‘my brother tested positive at one testing center after testing negative twice at another centre.’;

iv) Rampant/indiscriminate alcohol abuse among the youth does not facilitate abstinence or safe sex;

v) Economic difficulties take far more precedence over a disease.

3) Some cultural/traditional beliefs/practices, many embedded in male supremacy, continue to hamper ordinary people from freely and openly discussing sex with their sex partners. There was no or little evidence to show that society had come to terms with the nature and transmission of this life destroying disease.

4) Some concerned parents and elderly people be-moaned HIV/AIDS sensitization teams which come into communities, talk about the disease and are never seen checking to see if what they preached was being practiced; while yet others blamed the escalating rates of HIV/AIDS infections on indiscriminate distribution of condoms among young people, which was giving them false trust in the power of the condom and eroding and corrupting their morals.

Clearly, HIV/AIDS remains too mysterious for ordinary Africans to understand and to relate to. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for a disease which is destroying life in the millions, hampers people’s ability to dream of the future, and dramatically reduces life spans, to be given tantalizing baptismal or beautiful nick names which only serve to confuse local community people, and limit their ability and efforts to combat the disease.

Indeed, we at MAPODE strongly believe that if Africa is to combat this horror disease, there is absolutely no need for people to be apologetic about it. A disease that, unlike its potential victims has no fear (is brave), is not embarrassed, not hidden, not ashamed, not shy, and has already rendered human sex a ‘life and death’ affair deserves no gentility. Therefore, Trust in love is no longer enough! There is a need to be absolutely sure of safety before one commits themselves to engage in the sex. Authentic safety is a must.

Indeed, we at MAPODE concur with Kiiza Ngozi that if Africa is to combat this horror disease, HIV/AIDS messages need to be communicated in a language best and easily understandable to us Africans who are its hardest hit victims, a task we cannot leave to others to do for us. It is high time we woke up to the truth that HIV/AIDS has also become a source of huge profits for big trans/multi-national industries, and is creating un-precedented employment opportunities for multi-lateral agencies. Therefore, left this way, chances of finding a practical solution within the near future will remain as remote as a pipe dream, a likely replica of our economies already brought to their knees by inappropriate experimental external policies. It is for this reason that we strongly feel that Africa, through its political and community leadership, working together with traditional elders, scientists, spiritual leaders and teachers, are all challenged to demystify and simplify HIV/AIDS so that our people can individually and collectively deal with it head-on rather than continuing to use kid-glove methods. Unless we are content to wait for another two decades!

* Merab Kambamu Kiremire (Mrs.), a Development Worker/Researcher is the Initiator/Director of MAPODE (Movement of Community Action for the Prevention and Protection of Young People Against Poverty, Destitution, Diseases and Exploitation), a Community-based Youth-at-Risk focused Non Governmental Organization (NGO) that implements child/youth prevention and protection programmes in Zambia and Uganda. She was one of the 6 University of Cape Town (UCT)’s African Gender Institute Rockefeller 2004 Associates. Please visit:

The Citizen Lab (www.citizenlab.org), an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada, with the support of Internet services company Tucows, is offering free web blogs to all those working in global civil society with their Civiblog service. The project aims to showcase all communiqué in the sector and to support community in global civil society online. To sign up for a free blog, visit ww.civiblog.org. For more information, contact Jennifer Leonard at [email protected].

Tanzania will this year begin its first field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops. The first plants to be tested will be cotton modified to resist attack by insect pests, including a caterpillar known as red bollworm that feeds on cotton and causes bollworm disease. The plans were announced by Wilfred Ngirwa, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, at an international workshop on GM crops held in Arusha on 7 February.

Increased condom use and premature deaths from AIDS-related diseases might be playing more of a role in declining HIV prevalence in Uganda than abstinence and fidelity, according to a study presented at the 12th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston, US.

Food rations for 50,000 refugees in Rwanda will be cut by nearly one-third next month unless donors provide another $2.6 million, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said. Refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi, fleeing unrest and violence, have been pouring into Rwanda over the past year.

Tanzanian foreign minister Jakaya Kikwete has denied accusations by the UN and humanitarian agencies that his government is adopting an increasingly harsh stance towards refugees on its territory. He said Tanzania was still accommodative of refugees and was not planning to expel refugees from Burundi, Congo and Rwanda who make up the bulk of the nearly half-a-million refugees in Tanzania.

One effect of the HIV epidemic in South Africa has been increasing numbers of orphans and of households headed by children. This article from the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand argues that laws which currently prevent child headed households from accessing benefits violate the country's Constitution. It provides a background on child headed households and the South African legal approach towards families, and then examines constitutional obligations on the rights to equality and social security, and children's socio-economic rights, in order to analyse how these obligations relate to the provision of child support grants to child headed households.

More people are affected by the negative impact of poor water supply and sanitation than by war, terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction combined, according to a paper published in this week's issue of The Lancet. Almost 4 000 children are killed everyday by this "silent humanitarian crisis". Dr Jamie Bartram, co-ordinator for the World Health Organisation's Water, Sanitation and Health Programme recommends the dramatic scaling up of efforts, involving the expansion of safe drinking water and sanitation coverage in order to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) water and sanitation target by 2015. Bartram's article in The Lancet is the fifth in a series of papers summarizing the key conclusions of the Millennium Project – a three-year independent advisory effort commissioned by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to review progress of the MDG.

As International Development Ministers prepare to meet in Paris to try to improve the quality of their aid, a joint report from ActionAid and Oxfam [ Millstone or Milestone? What rich countries must do in Paris to make aid work for poor people ]says just one fifth of aid actually goes to the very poorest countries. And only half of this is spent on basic services such as education and health where aid can make a decisive difference in ending poverty. Amongst other things, the agencies accuse rich countries of using aid to reward strategic allies and pet projects at the expense of the neediest countries and tying aid so developing countries are forced to spend it on overpriced goods and services from the donor country, reducing its value for money.

Will they or won't they? This question is on the lips of political observers in Malawi at present, as they wait to see whether substantial numbers of ruling coalition or opposition members will support the country's newest political grouping: the Democratic Progressive Party. At stake is the future of party founder, President Bingu wa Mutharika, who resigned from the United Democratic Front (UDF) earlier this month. The UDF, which only controls 49 of 193 parliamentary seats after last year's general and by-elections, rules Malawi with support from other political parties and independent legislators.

On 17 August 2004, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders meeting in Mauritius adopted the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. "Mauritius Watch" provides a regular, objective and non-partisan assessment of Zimbabwe's compliance with these Principles and Guidelines. In the run-up to the 2005 Parliamentary Elections we note any significant failures to adhere to the SADC standards. This special weekly feature assumes even greater significance as the date of the Parliamentary Elections (March 31) approaches. Email [email protected] with the word 'Subscribe' in the subject to receive the Sokwanele newsletter or visit www.sokwanele.com

The ability to make an international telephone call or send a letter across the world is the direct result of long-established international agreements that set out rules for telephone traffic and postal systems. Since the end of World War II, international cooperation has played an increasingly important role in setting global rules for trade, dispute resolution, and technical compatibility. Globalisation is viewed by many as a threat to national identity, culture, and indigenous business. Yet more effective international cooperation may be the only hope for addressing the most critical problems the world faces today, including massive poverty, environmental degradation, and health crises. And these issues are inextricably tied up with socio-economic development on one level, and national security on another. The result is interdependence of national economies, and interconnectedness of national and international policy-making processes. All of this makes international policy more important than ever before.

Read the rest of this commentary by clicking on the link below. This is the beginning of a commentary that is part of the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), a programme of bridges.org. This is one of a series intended to spark thinking and dialogue on important issues in the field. These short informative pieces give an overview of an international ICT policy issue relevant to African stakeholders, and stir discussion by presenting strong views and provocative questions. Readers are encouraged to respond to the points raised, via email or in the "comments" box under each commentary on the CIPESA website at www.cipesa.org/AfricansCareAboutICTPolicy.

Among points of interest raised during the discussion were the importance of examining the situation of minorities and vulnerable groups in terms of genocide; the promotion and dissemination of a culture of tolerance worldwide; the role of education campaigns against racial hatred; the strengthening and promoting of national norms and encouraging specific laws on eliminating racial discrimination; and the role of the media in order to promote peace building. A speaker noted that often the lack of political will resulted in too little too late and therefore the focus must lie on preventing human rights violations before they occurred.

'In "search of questions", Namibia's new generation of poets asks its own questions. Acknowledging the achievements of independence and liberation, poetry today claims the right to question the direction in which post-apartheid society moves. Though indebted to the political ideals and visions of the liberation struggle, it has to take account of the fact that times have definitely changed, and society has changed. Yesterday's questions may not all have been answered yet. But of relevance to today's generations are not yesterday's answers but today's questions. As Keamogetsi Molapong's poem puts it, which serves as motto to this anthology: "Questions, asked in past tenses...answers, which have no meaning to many of us...Why should I care for the answer, why?".'

Reporters Without Borders have condemned the announcement by the Zimbabwean government's Media and Information Commission (MIC) on 25 February that it is closing the independent Weekly Times for a year for "violating the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act." "As usual, the Zimbabwean authorities find any old pretext for gagging independent media that might spoil things for them at the height of an election campaign," the press freedom organization said, calling it "the second serious press freedom violation in two weeks," after three foreign press correspondents were forced to flee the country.

Reporters Without Borders has voiced "outrage" at the treatment reserved for the press in Gambia, where President Yahya Jammeh promulgated at least one press law on 28 December without the Gambia Press Union (GPU) - the journalists' union - ever being able to get a copy. "Gambia sinks deeper into darkness and the international community pretends not to see," the press freedom organization said. "Gambia's journalists have learned through the press that, despite the appeals of African journalists and international organizations, the president surreptitiously promulgated a draconian press law without the government seeing the need to tell them for two months."

Biowatch South Africa achieved a major victory last week in a five year battle to gain access to important information about genetically modified (GM) crops in South Africa. The Registrar of GMOs was ordered to release this information to Biowatch by no later than April this year. Acting Judge Eric Dunn upheld the right of access to information, enshrined in the Constitution. He reaffirmed that Biowatch has a Constitutional right to the information, and that access to this information was in the public interest.

The new Mozambique government has probably broken its agreement with the IMF by hiring sufficient teachers, says the Mozambique Bulletin. "All over Africa, the IMF has imposed a cap on government wages of between 7 per cent and 7.5 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product, effectively national income). In nearly all countries, teachers are the biggest part of the wage bill, and by setting the cap as a percentage of GDP, it means the poorest countries, which usually have the biggest educational needs, can hire the fewest teachers. This, in turn, means these countries are less likely to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Initially the Ministry of Education said it needed to recruit a further 10,000 teachers for this year, but because of the IMF cap, the Ministry of Finance only allowed the hiring of 4000. The new Education Minister, Aires Aly, last week announced that the Ministry of Finance will allow him to hire 5000 extra teachers. Read the full newsletter by clicking on the link below.

The Botswana High Court ruled on Monday that Australian-born academic Kenneth Good may stay in the country while his lawyers challenge the constitutionality of a deportation order. President Festus Mogae gave Professor Good, a political analyst at the University of Botswana, 48 hours to leave Botswana two weeks ago for lambasting Mogae's decision to handpick Vice-President Lieutenant-General Ian Khama as his successor.

Some 15 people have died in a cholera outbreak in Malabo, the island capital of Equatorial Guinea, and nearly 1,000 more have fallen ill, officials at the World Health Organisation (WHO) said last Friday. “We have a confirmed epidemic of cholera,” Dr Kalambay Kalula, the WHO representative in Equatorial Guinea, told IRIN by telephone.

UNIFEM and the Southern African Media NGO, Gender Links, are collaborating to run a series of cyberdialogues, in order to: 1) allow people not able to be in New York for B+10 to be kept abreast of issues and to give their comments; 2) use ICT as a medium to reach women around the world and engage them in the B+10 process; 3) reach out to a younger IT-savvy audience globally. Seven real time online chats will be conducted, facilitated out of UNIFEM HQ in NY, beginning on 2 March 2005. Experts will be called on to speak briefly on specific topics and their comments woven into the chats. UNIFEM regional offices, such as the Nairobi office, are deeply involved, providing access to women's organisations and members of the public through cybercafes, the UN complex and other NGO venues. The Regional Programme Director has also succeeded in getting the participation of the World Bank who will also provide a substantial number of access points - they have contacted their global offices with the information and are urging people to log on. For more information about the cyberdialogues, contact Kubi Rama at: [email protected] or [email protected]. You can download the report of the Secretary-General on the review and appraisal of the progress made in national level implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly in 2000, by loading the page http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw49/documents.html
* For a background briefing on Beijing +10 and related links, visit the following web page:
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1665.html

Women have gained ground in the struggle for equality with men over the past 10 years, but serious challenges remain, including the rise in trafficking of women and girls and their disproportionate representation in the ranks of the poor and those infected with HIV/AIDS, senior United Nations officials said on Monday this week. They were addressing the opening session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which this year is conducting a 10-year review of the implementation of the Declaration and Programme of Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing ("Beijing+10").

'Women and the Environment' is a publication that makes the often hidden links between women and the environment visible, with an explicit focus on the gender-related aspects of land, water and biodiversity conservation and management. The United Nations Environmental Programme hopes that 'Women and the Environment' will inspire the environmental and sustainable development community to better understand the importance of gender, and to integrate a gender perspective accross all of its work.

Less than a day after the African Union imposed sanctions demanding a return to constitutional legality in Togo, Faure Gnassingbe stepped down from the presidential post he had assumed after the death of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema three weeks ago. Presidential elections have been promised within two months. As opposition protesters in Lome clashed with police over the weekend, however, it was clear that the coming period is unlikely to provide an easy transition to democracy. This edition of the AfricaFocus Bulletin contains the February 25 press release from the African Union announcing sanctions (now suspended) and a February 19 position paper from a large coalition of civil society and diaspora organizations. Click on the link below to read more.

Algerian authorities have debarred a delegation of the International Union for Human Rights Associations from visiting the country by sending it back from the Algiers International Airport. The joint delegation from the IUHRA, the European-Mediterranean Network for Human Rights, and the Cairo-based Human Rights Research Institute was denied access to visit Algeria.

Based on interim results announced on Tuesday, 91.2 percent of Burundi's estimated three million registered voters polled "yes" for a new constitution that slashes the imbalance of power between the minority Tutsis and the majority Hutus; the country's main ethnic groups. The key elements in the constitution are its power sharing arrangements. The president, to be elected by parliament from the winning political party, must have as one of his deputies someone of a different ethnic group and political party. In addition, the new constitution provides for a 60-percent Hutu 40-percent Tutsi representation in all institutions of government, except the army and the police where the ratio is 50-50. This gives greater power to the Hutu who had, despite their superior number, been the political underdogs of the two ethnic groups.

Electoral campaigns began on Saturday nationwide in the Central African Republic (CAR), with the majority of posters and banners appearing in the streets of the capital, Bangui, belonging to CAR leader Francois Bozize. Presidential and legislative elections, which are scheduled for 13 March, follow decades of political instability and violence.

"The policies designed to 'integrate' Africa into the global economy have thus far failed because they have completely sidestepped the developmental needs of the continent and the strategic questions on the form of integration appropriate to addressing these needs. They consequently have, thus far, not led to higher rates of growth and, their labelling notwithstanding, have not induced structural transformation. Indeed, the combined effect of internal political disarray, the weakening of domestic capacities, deflationary policies and slow world economic growth have placed African economies on a 'low equilibrium growth path' from which the anaemic GDP growth rates of 3-4 per cent appear as 'successful' performance." This is the focus of a paper presented at the conference 'The Agrarian Constraint and Poverty Reduction: Macroeconomic Lessons for Africa', in Addis Ababa on 17-18 December, 2004 and available from the website of the Southern African Regional Poverty Network.

"The G7 has just announced debt reductions of ‘up to 100’ to be negotiated on a 'case by case' basis. Up to 100%" means nothing at all, since any percentage of reduction falls necessarily below 100%. The decision to treat countries 'case by case' will inevitably lead to conditionalities aimed at reducing the effect of whatever reduction is finally conceded. This is unacceptable. Nothing has been done to initiate any real cancellation; no such plan has been drawn up. It is as though the rich countries had tried to agree on a few well-chosen phrases that would commit them to as little as possible. It would be far better if they began by explaining why previous commitments were not kept," write Damien Millet and Eric Toussaint, co-authors of 'Who Owes Who? 50 questions on World debt' (Zedbooks) in this Focus on the Global South Article.

Talk is cheap, but carrying out the promises you make less so. That being the case, has all the talk about ensuring equality between men and women in South Africa resulted in action where it counts most: the allocation of funds along gender lines in the national budget? Nearly a decade ago, the Ministry of Finance promised to provide a breakdown of ways in which the budget promoted gender equality. It still hasn't happened, but finance ministry spokesperson Thoraya Pandy was unable to comment on the reasons for this. "There's a wall of silence on this issue," says Penny Parenzee of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, a Pretoria-based think-tank, noting that this may - at least in part - result from fears that men will lose out in a budget which makes a nod to women's needs."

An American defence contractor, accused of pumping $2 million into the re-election campaign of President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin, has pleaded guilty to charges of overseas bribery. US regulators said Titan Corp made the payments in 2001 at a time when the company was seeking a four-fold increase in the fees it charged for managing a telephone network in the West African country.

The UN Security Council has backed the strong action taken by UN peacekeepers against militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The statement follows the killing of more than 50 militiamen by UN forces in the north-eastern region of Ituri. One of the militias in the region has been blamed for an ambush last week in which nine UN troops were killed.

The latest Refugee status determination (RSD) Updates include:
- UNHCR, refugee advocates warn of a government crackdown on migrants in Malaysia
- Wall Street Journal (USA) column condemns UNHCR for rejecting North Korean asylum-seekers
- Statistical update on UNHCR’s RSD work: More asylum-seekers in Egypt, Malaysia, Cameroon, while backlogs shrink in Pakistan and Yemen.
www.rsdwatch.org is an independent source of information about the way the UN refugee agency decides refugee cases. To receive www.rsdwatch.org email bulletins, send an email to [email protected] with the word “subscribe” in the subject line. To unsubscribe from the www.rsdwatch.org mailing list, send an email to [email protected] with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line. RSDWatch.org is not associated with and does not reflect the views of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

A top militia leader says the Sudan government backed and directed Janjaweed activities in northern Darfur, according to a videotape released by Human Rights Watch. Widely regarded as the top Janjaweed leader in Darfur, Musa Hilal was interviewed over the course of several hours by Human Rights Watch researchers in Khartoum. The Sudan government has said that any atrocities in Darfur are the fault of Janjaweed "bandits" and are the result of recurring ethnic clashes in Darfur in which the government is "neutral." "We now see that the two parties responsible for crimes against humanity in Darfur are pointing the finger at each other," said Peter Takirambudde, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's Africa division. "Musa Hilal is a dangerous man for the Sudanese government. His testimony could be very interesting to the International Criminal Court."

The relationship between many Africans and their governments is only comparable to the disillusion, distrust and suspicion that become the permanent bodyguards of a man or woman who has been jilted too many times.

If care is not taken such a person may not have any successful relationship again even when he or she meets the genuine person. The weight and hang ups of the past are such that they becloud the present and threaten future relationships. The alarm Bells are on 24/7 patrol singing: ‘not again’ or ‘once bitten twice shy’ or any other lyrics that warn against trust and building confidence. Just assume that the current relationship will end in the same bleak alley of past ones, do not raise your expectations and do not expect much. This defensive prop becomes a permanent shield against any disappointment.

Consequently potentially good and rewarding relationships are not given room for nurture and development. However as no human being is an island to himself or herself we are doomed to trust and take risks in sharing our lives with other people because without doing so whatever we may tell or convince ourselves about, our lives may never be complete.

Governments, like partners, are necessary evils. What can you do without them and what can you do with them?

How many Africans will run towards the police, the army or any of our security agencies when they are in trouble? Most of the time we are running away from them because if they are not the source of your problem you may compound your problem by running to them! That's why many Africans talk about ‘The Government’, ‘’Those in power’ or ‘The regime’, instead of ‘Our government’.

The alienation is not just against the coercive organs of the state. Even the civil arms of our governments are as anti people as their security counterparts.

Some years back I was amused by a friend, Dr Patricia Daley, who is a Geography Don at Oxford University (one of only two Black Africans who are full faculty members) when she asked me about the population of Nigerians in the United Kingdom. Apparently in the Census figures she was looking at at the time there were only 150, 000 Nigerians in the Queen's own country! I could not resist laughing because anybody familiar with the demography of Africans in Britain will know that even countries with a much smaller population in the UK than Nigeria (Uganda, Ghana or Sierra-Leone for example) will easily notch up that number and still be counting. So I told her maybe that was the number of Nigerians in Peckham or Dalston alone!

But what the figure showed was that many Africans even though part of Britain's ‘visible minority,’ were absent officially. Even our embassies cannot tell you how many of their citizens are resident in the United Kingdom or any country in the world for that matter. In some countries they do not even know what the actual population is anyway.

Many of these émigré Africans are directly or indirectly running away from their governments, therefore why should they go and register at their embassies or high commissions that they are there?

However Africa is changing and changing for the better and should and would continue to do so in spite of challenges here and there. This process requires new ways and cultivation of new attitudes in dealing with our governments and in the way our governments deal with us. There are good governments in Africa. There are reforming governments in Africa. Bad governance is receding even if at snail speed in some countries.

Look at the recent events in Togo. Baby Eyadema has been forced by sub regional and African consensus, to step down. Two weeks ago I wrote arguing that the military coup that led to him succeeding his could-not-have died-sooner dictator father, should and would not stand. There was no clairvoyance in that certainty. It was based on the good wind of change going across Africa. Because Africa was united in saying ‘No’ the rest of the world had no choice but to follow our consensus.

A few years ago this would not have been possible. Now that it is we should recognise it and work towards making this good practice standard practice. There is no point sniggering at it as many are doing. If we continue to see an unchanging or unchangeable Africa we are both undervaluing our democratic struggles and short charging our gains. Togo shows a new resolve on the part of Africans to enthrone constitutional rule in Africa. Even if Baby Eyadema is to be elected president after the transition it would have been done under the constitution, not military fiat.

We should not be timid or coy about praising our governments when they are doing well. We cannot build and institutionalise responsible government in Africa if we continue in the destructive culture of ‘Us’ and ‘them.’ Confrontation and condemnation should not be our first and only tool of engagement. We should seek co-operation where possible, embrace collaboration when desirable and embark on confrontation where and when necessary. These tactics and the strategies they demand need not be mutually exclusive. All of them are useful and necessary in building sustainable democratic societies and political communities that are at peace with them. We just need to deploy them where and when most applicable, or simultaneously at times.

Too much of our activism, especially in these days of professional foreign-controlled, donor-driven, materially -rewarding NGOism is too skewed in favour of oppositionism instead of positive engagement with our governments and institutions. You need to ask why European and American governments and charities should be arming you, aiding you and building your capacity to confront your own government? Why are they not building the capacity of Africans living in their own countries to be effective citizens where they are? Why should Africans or people of African origin in these countries be marginalised while they are promising you heaven on earth in Africa? Dependence on foreigners or their money will not build Africa. ‘Rome’, they say, ‘was not built in a day’, but the Romans were there and willing to build it.

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

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I have just subscibed to your magazine and am happy that you are tackling an area that has been overlooked for many years - justice for women in Africa. I come from Kenya where oppression of women seems a normal way of life; some of them do not know if things can get better. Your work and our support can bring changes - lets stay focussed and join the struggle.

Amnesty International welcomes the referendum on the Burundian Constitution, likely to be overwhelmingly approved, and urges the Government of Burundi to take all possible measures to ensure that the human rights provisions enshrined in the Constitution quickly become a reality for Burundians. The organisation also strongly encourages politicians vying for the presidency and other public office to adopt and publicly commit to following an explicit human rights agenda in their campaign platforms.

The Coalition on Violence against Women (COVAW) engages chiefs and other local leaders to become women’s rights advocates and resources for victims. The program was formed because of the lack of women’s rights advocates for women who have been subjected to violence. Women who have been abused usually turn either to local hospitals/clinics or to their chiefs. However, none of these groups were able to adequately meet the women’s needs and the Coalition on Violence Against Women wanted to change this. Visit the New Tactics in Human Rights website to view the full story.

SNV Benin provides advisory support to some 30 mostly rural and middle sized municipalities (population 25-100.000) with the objective to strengthen the capacities of the local governments, especially in the fields of planning, local finance and project preparation and management. These activities take up a large part of the programme.

Violence against women, a manifestation of the historically unequal power relations between men and women, today remains one of the primary obstacles to empowering women and achieving peace and security for all. Women have been systematically deprived of knowledge and skills that might help them to become better equipped to protect themselves against violence, including knowledge of the existing laws, religious texts, positive cultural resources, international injunctions on human rights, and the demands made by other women for rights in their community and elsewhere. In the WLP Symposium, speakers will address major challenges to eliminating violence against women and girls and discuss grassroots, national, and regional measures needed to raise awareness, initiate reform legislation, and create synergy for ongoing efforts to prevent violence and to promote women's human rights.

Charities Aid Foundation Southern Africa (CAFSA), in collaboration with its corporate and non profit partners, is pleased to launch Employee Volunteer Week 2005. Visit www.volunteerweek.org.za for more information.

I am an independent filmmaker out of Vancouver Canada. I will be going to Rwanda this May with Canadian Baptist Ministers to film three five minute films raising awareness about AIDS/HIV, Mirco-Enterprise, and Church Leadership. Apart from the volunteer work I will be doing I have had a great desire laid upon my heart to go into a project of more depth. I have been working over the past few months on reading, learning and trying to develop a documentary about the children of Rwanda and reconciliation. My hope in this is to understand and to raise awareness of the struggles these children are forced to face and the amazing bravery to overcome it, so that their stories may not go unnoticed. I am currently in the process of trying to build a story and I am looking for more information with regards to the efforts going on today to bring reconciliation to these children. In addition to that I am looking for interviewees, reconciliation programs in Rwanda and personal stories. If you have any information that can assist me or if you could point me in the direction of who could it would be a big help. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my letter. Contact [email][email protected]

At dawn every morning, a number of women leave Mayo-Madela internally displaced persons (IDPs) camp in search of odd jobs within the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. Those who clean houses earn 150 Sudanese dinars a day (US $0.50). The majority of the women are Dinka IDPs from the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan state, some living in the camp for the past 20 years.

Faure Gnassingbe, who seized power in Togo following the death of his father, has caved in to international demands for quick presidential elections but has said he will not quit until they are held. Riots have erupted on the streets of the capital, Lome, since the army installed the burly 39-year-old as successor to his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled this small West African country with a rod of iron for 38 years until his death on 5 February.

Health and Development Networks (HDN) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for Southern Africa are pleased to announce a forthcoming time-limited structured discussion on: HIV/AIDS AND MOBILE POPULATIONS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA. This discussion will take place on the AF-AIDS electronic discussion forum (eForum) between February - June 2005.

Near hysterical media reports last week reported on a strain of HIV resistant to drugs from three main classes of antiretrovirals. But this article from HIV information site www.aidsmap.com says that perhaps the reason for the reaction to the case- reported in New York - and its reporting lies not in its medical significance, but in its importance to current US debates on comprehensive or abstinence-only HIV prevention. Visit the site to read the full article.

A coordinated monitoring and alert system to track the use of oil revenues should be developed by civil society groups in Chad, says a new report on the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline by Catholic Relief Services.

The report recommends that civil society groups identify existing structures or networks at the regional and local levels that can help disseminate and collect information about project execution to and from the population at large. On an international level, civil society should continue to hold International Financial Institutions, oil companies, and Northern governments to account for their responsibilities with regards the project. The report says the project is "hanging by a thread" and cites "critical loopholes" with regards revenue transparency, accountability and management.

"It is too early to declare Chad's oil project a failure or a success. But, the experience to date confirms the danger of investing in the extractive industries before a country is shown to meet minimum conditions of respect for human rights, fiscal transparency, and demonstrated government capacity to implement pro-poor programs," says the report.

The World Bank financed Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project transports oil from landlocked southern Chad to the Atlantic coast of Cameroon for export. It was billed as the first project to contain significant checks and balances to make sure that oil wealth translated into development.

The Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net) is the world's leading online source of news and information about the role of science and technology in developing countries.

We are looking for a MARKETING OFFICER with at least 2 years experience, responsible for implementing the marketing strategy and news dissemination plans, as well as email and print marketing campaigns, and monitoring statistical data about the use of the website.

You will have a keen eye for detail, excellent communication skills and the ability to work independently and as part of a dynamic team. A science and/or development background is advantageous. The position is based in London.

Please send a covering letter, C.V. and some examples of your work to [email protected] by 04 March 2005

Further details: www.scidev.net/marketing

In September 2004, staff from the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children went on a mission to northern Uganda. One focus of the mission was to look at the education situation in the north given that the region has been and is currently in a situation of violent conflict. With 1.6 million people displaced, learning systems and structures have been altered significantly, even with the Uganda government's pledge of Universal Primary Education (UPE).