The Batsirai Group is a Zimbabwean non-governmental organisation working to strengthen community response to HIV & AIDS. Following a successful two-year placement, the organisation is currently seeking to consolidate its work in promoting community participation within its partner communities and within its own staff. The postholder will also assist in strengthening systems documentation, organisational learning and participatory monitoring and evaluation.

US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice testifies this week on the President's proposed budget before three congressional committees and will soon begin setting the Department's priorities. The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) urges her to set a strategic new direction in refugee assistance by applying the President's forward strategy of freedom to end the "warehousing" of refugees. "The President's budget requests increased spending on Migration and Refugee Assistance, which we applaud. But while we spend millions each year on the care and maintenance of refugee camps -- $147 million in 2003, for example -- we spend very little on programs to extend freedom so that refugees can enjoy their rights," said USCRI President Lavinia Limón. "Languishing refugees need more than subsistence rations; they need to enjoy their rights."

Two books on African women and by African women published this month in France.

* Reines d’Afrique et héroïnes de la diaspora noire.
By Sylvia Serbin - Publishers: Editions Sépia, Paris, 2005

A journalist and historian, Sylvia Serbin lived for 30 years between Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, where she was born.
In her book, 'Reines d'Afrique et héroïnes de la diaspora noire' she writes about the life, glory and predicament of 22 women, all Africans, whether they are from the African continent, from the West Indies or from America. Some of these women are authentic and legitimate queens, such as Zingha, Queen of Angola, Pokou, Queen of Cote d’Ivoire, Queen Ranavalona III of Madagascar while others have made history because of their heroic struggle against racism and discrimination such as the American Harriett Tubman or less known heroines like the Mulatto Solitude who fought the reinstatement of slavery by Napoleon, after it was abolished, and was killed while fighting.

Retracing the life of these African women and their contribution to Africa and to the Black Diaspora, Serbin succeeds in proving how extensive and sophisticated the African civilisations were much before the arrival of the Europeans and much before Africa was depicted as the “Dark Continent”.

Serbin admits that she has put “women” forward, because “women are never mentioned in history or text books” and also because universal history has yet to acknowledge a black female heroine. She reckons that because “in the history of black people, all great figures are men” time has come to know about the women who have contributed to Africa’s legacy.

* Safia
By Safia Otokoré - Autobiography – Publishers: Editions Robert Laffont, 2005

Safia Ibrahim Otokoré is a Somali woman, born in Djibouti in 1969 and married to the African football star Didier Otokoré (today they are divorced).

In 2004 Safia Otokoré, representing the Parti Socialiste (Socialist Party), is elected deputy mayor of the city of Auxerre in the Bourgogne region of France. She is also vice-president of the Regional Council in that region with a portfolio including youth, sports and discrimination. She is president of the European and International Commission for the decentralised cooperation of the Région Bourgogne

'Safia' is her life story as a poor child of a Somali refugee family in Djibouti. She retraces her long struggle to get out of the “misery” she would have been condemned to, if she had not pursued her studies and especially if she had not devoted all her energy to become a competitive sportsperson. In a poignant but lucid manner, she talks about Djibouti, about her family, about her sister Koltoum who was forced into marriage and about female genital mutilation, practised so widely in Djibouti and which she had to go through when only aged seven.

* With thanks to Eva Dadrian for submitting this information.

‘Double aid to halve poverty’ looks likely to be the catchphrase of 2005. We will hear it from Tony Blair’s Africa Commission, from the UN Millennium Project in New York, and from Gordon Brown and other advocates of an International Financing Facility. But can more aid be spent? More precisely, can more aid be spent successfully? Many think not.

The sceptics make five main points.

First, aid has diminishing returns. This is partly as a consequence of other points below. All countries are therefore bound to reach an ‘aid saturation point’ beyond which additional aid has less impact. The evidence is that this point could be reached around 25-30% of GDP, depending on estimates. At the moment, aid already represents 22% of national income in Ethiopia, and 47% in Sierra Leone.

Second, aid flows can cause macroeconomic imbalances. ‘Dutch disease’ is the main risk, where increased foreign exchange flows cause an appreciation of the exchange rate and harm the export sector. Aid can also cause interest and inflation rates to rise, which could have negative effects on private investment. Nigeria suffered from exactly these problems when its long oil boom began, with severe long-term consequences for the agricultural sector.

>>>>>Read the full article by clicking on the link below.

President Olusegun Obasanjo opened a conference to draft changes to the constitution on Monday with a warning that delegates should not question the fundamental unity of Nigeria. “The National Political and Reform Conference is not designed to dismember or disintegrate Nigeria,” Obasanjo told the 400 delegates assembled in the federal capital Abuja. Obasanjo is a retired army general who fought as a military officer against the attempt by the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria to form the breakaway state of Biafra in the 1967-1970 civil war.

The Guinean government has released the news editor of an independent weekly newspaper and the lawyer of an opposition politician who disappeared following last month's assassination attempt on President Lansana Conte after holding them in custody for three days. Benn Pepito, the news editor of La Lance, and Paul Yomba Korouma, a lawyer who had been acting for missing opposition politician Antoine Soromou, were arrested within hours of each other on Wednesday night. They were both freed on Saturday.

"While there is general agreement that trade can be a powerful tool for development, a growing body of literature argues that rapid trade liberalisation does not on its own automatically lead to positive development outcomes. Countries should be able to choose the trade-policy option that best suits their development priorities and needs. Trade liberalisation should not be seen as a substitute for a sound development strategy. Moreover, it needs to be timed and sequenced carefully: there are different optimal degrees of openness at different stages of development, and it is generally agreed that, in order for an open trade regime to bring growth and development, countries must first have certain necessary conditions in place such as healthy economic sectors, potentially competitive producers, reasonably well-developed market institutions, and effective state capacity." This is according to a paper that is a response from leading ACP and EU civil society organisations to some of the key arguments put forward in support of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) as currently envisaged by the EU.

In the 1960s and 1990s, internal strife in Rwanda has caused a mass flow of refugees into neighbouring countries. This paper explores the effect of violent conflict on the reproductive behaviour of affected populations, particularly on the cumulated fertility of Rwandan refugee women and the survival of their children. To this end, the authors use a national survey covering 6420 former refugee and non-refugee households conducted between 1999 and 2001.

International freedom of expression organizations today expressed grave concern about the poor state of freedom of expression in Tunisia, host country for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) which is to be held in Tunis, November 2005. A 60-page report on the state of freedom of expression in Tunisia and the conditions for participation in the WSIS to be held in Tunis, November 2005 has been published today by the International Freedom of expression Exchange Tunisia Monitoring Group, a group of 13 national, regional and international freedom of expression organizations. The report, released to coincide with the second Preparatory Committee for the WSIS, in Geneva 17-25 February, sets out the findings of a mission to Tunisia of freedom of expression groups. It makes a series of recommendations to the Tunisian government to bring the country in line with international human rights standards.

This paper focuses on the importance of according traditional women leaders throughout Africa the same recognition as male chiefs who have been co-opted into new positions of power in their societies. The author, from the Social Science Research Network, explores how, in spite of Ghana's professed commitment to gender equality, pronounced in its domestic law and its international legal obligations, women in Ghana continue to suffer the burden of discrimination. Traditional practices and attitudes toward women throughout Africa have hampered their quality of life, and continue to impair their ability to change that fact by hindering their access to public life.

Between 1997 and 2002, according to a new report from Stats SA, South Africa's official statistics agency, the number of recorded deaths in the age group from 20 to 45 more than doubled, from a little over 100,000 to more than 200,000. Although most deaths likely to be linked to AIDS are officially recorded as due to associated diseases such as TB and pneumonia, the age and disease pattern provides strong evidence of the growing impact of AIDS. Other previous studies, such as those from South Africa's Medical Research Council, have provided similar indications. But the issue is still contentious, as AIDS denialists have used the relatively low numbers attributed directly to AIDS to claim that researchers are exaggerating the problem. The latest issue of the AfricaFocus Bulletin contains postings that examine the issues in detail.

This summary has been prepared for policy analysts working for Oxfam, international, continental and regional networks and allies to inform us on the key deliberations and decisions of the most important decision-making organ of the African Union. It captures key decisions, upcoming dates and opportunities for continental policy development.

The sequence of the Summits is as follows; one week of intense meetings starting with the Permanent Representatives Council (Addis based Ambassadors), Council of Ministers (National Ministers) and the Assembly itself (Heads of States). While the Assembly is the supreme decision making body, the discussions from Ambassador level are important to understand the issues being prioritized and deliberated.

The first briefing on health and HIV/AIDS is reproduced below. The rest of the briefings, including those on food security, refugees, trade and debt, are available through the link below.

1. Health and HIV/AIDS

Permanent Representatives Committee
Ninth Ordinary Session
PRC/Rpt (1X)

On HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other related infectious diseases, the PRC observed;

The need for Africa to take the lead in Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) negotiations to promote access to affordable generic drugs - Africa has to plan properly for dialogue at TRIPs negotiations and other fora;

Assembly of the Africa Union
Fourth Ordinary Session
Decisions and Declarations

Assembly/ AU /Dec. 55 (1V)

CALLS UPON the international community, especially the rich industrialized countries,
to fully fund the Global Fund in line with previous commitments made in this regard, and taking into account the magnitude of the health emergency presented by these diseases in Africa;

URGES Member States to:
Take the lead in TRIPs negotiations and in implementing measures identified for promoting access to affordable generic drugs;
Ensure that every child receives polio immunization in 2005;
Prepare inter-ministerial costed development and deployment plans to address the Human Resources for Health crisis;
Prepare health literacy strategies to achieve an energized continent-wide health promotion endeavour;

URGES Member States to intensify efforts towards more effective and well-coordinated implementation of national programmes to promote health systems development as well as improve access to prevention, treatment, care and support; along the “Three ones initiative”; the “3 by 5 Strategy” and Global “Child Survival Partnership”;

RESOLVES to take all the necessary measures to produce with the support of the international community, quality generic drugs in Africa, supporting industrial development and making full use of the flexibility in international trade law and; REQUESTS the AU Commission within the framework of NEPAD to lead the development of a Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa;

CALLS UPON the International Community to match the US$19 billion gap in health financing which the WHO has determined that Africa is not in a position to self finance.

Uganda's authorities have banned the play The Vagina Monologues, due to open in the capital, Kampala this weekend. The Ugandan Media Council said the performance would not be put on as it promoted and glorified acts such as lesbianism and homosexuality. It said the production could go ahead if the organisers "expunge all the offending parts". But the organisers of the play say it raises awareness of sexual abuse against women.

The Rotary Foundation is now accepting applications for the Rotary World Peace Scholarship. Successful candidates would pursue a master's level degree in international studies, peace studies, and conflict resolution at one of the eight Rotary partner universities: University of Bradford, University of California, Berkeley; Duke University; University of North Carolina; Sciences Po; International Christian University; University of Queensland; Universidad Del Salvador.

The University for Peace of the United Nations (UPEACE) is pleased to announce that applications are open for the Master’s in Environmental Security and Peace, which will be launched in September 2005 at UPEACE headquarters in Costa Rica. The Master’s in Environmental Security and Peace is designed to train skilled and motivated people who fully understand these complex issues and their inter-linkages, and who can undertake high quality research and can develop and implement sound management and policy decisions to strengthen environmental security, promote environmental peacemaking and build the foundations for peace worldwide.

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, journalists and media executives, has condemned the intimidation and harassment by the Zimbabwean authorities that has led to a foreign journalist fleeing to South Africa. According to information provided to IPI, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) correspondent for Zimbabwe, Jan Raath, has been forced to leave the country after considerable pressure from the police and out of fear he would be arrested. On 14 January, eight policemen and two government officials raided the offices of Raath, where he worked with a number of other foreign journalists. Over a period of two days, police carried out an intensive search of the offices without the official documentation proving they had legal authorization to carry out the search.

It looks deceptively as if Cote d’Ivoire is at peace again. Many schools have reopened in the rebel-run north and noisy groups of children wearing black and white or gingham check uniforms kick up the dust on their way to class in the morning. But after two and a half years of armed confrontation, the war is far from over. And despite appearances, the schools are not running normally. Classes and exams have been disrupted for three years running and a generation of young Ivorians risks being left out in the cold.

The University of Botswana Academic and Senior Support Staff Union (UBASSSU) has expressed outrage and dismay at the declaration of Professor Kenneth Good as a prohibited immigrant. Good, a political science professor and an independent minded critic of Botswana's democracy, was served with deportation papers on Friday evening and instructed to leave the country within 48 hours. He was granted an extension by the High Court following an urgent application lodged on Saturday.

Benin and Ghana have high maternal mortality rates. 'Near-misses', where mothers survive a potentially fatal crisis, are even more common. Research involving the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine assesses the costs of such emergencies and reveals the important role played by households in financing obstetric services in both countries.

Sajida Khan is a soft-spoken, dignified but intense Durban resident who opposes the World Bank's methane-to-electricity project at the Bisasar Road Landfill. Her passion is fighting - and almost palpably winning, now - against awesome forces, including environmental racism, global warming and international economic power.

It is a story that needs telling. But not before another - more personal - story, one which merges seamlessly with the history of the municipal dump whose closure Khan has been fighting for years.

In 1980, Bisasar Road Landfill in the Indian suburb of Clare Estate officially opened its gates to rubbish-dumping trucks. I was just three years old at the time and living in the suburb next door. During the course of my entire childhood, the Bisasar Road landfill was a regular topic of discussion, as my mother and I made trips to visit my grandmother nearby.

Clare Estate was the bridge between our familial residences. I vividly remember the preparations, as we hit that short stretch. Car windows had to be rolled up. Nostrils had to be squeezed tight with tiny, pincer-gripped fingers. Breaths needed to be held. The stench was reminiscent of my public school toilet on a really hot Durban day.

I would also marvel at the big houses on the hill lining the road on the opposite side of the dump (we lived in a block of flats). They stood majestically like something out of Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, in sharp contrast to the huge stinking dump right in from of them. A few houses were owned by one of the wealthiest Indians in Durban, my mother used to boast, as if they were members of our own family.

I could never quite work out why rich people would live right across from a refuse dump. Little did my premature mind comprehend that everyone, including the rich Indian, could only live in an area designated under apartheid's Group Areas Act. Since Clare Estate had a large quarry, it was deemed unsuitable for white people. Indians were allocated that area.

A few years after the opening of the dump at the site of that quarry, I remember my mother excitedly telling me that the Bisaser Road facility would be shut and transformed into a park for the community. As a child whose life was spent riding a bike around our tar-covered parking lot the idea of a park in our vicinity was just too thrilling.

Perfume and toxics

It's now 2005 and I'm 27 years old. We live in a non-racial democratic South Africa today. But Clare Estate's notorious dump is still there, although approaching it, I notice something very different.

The stench has changed markedly, into a kind of 'mutant funk', as comedian Jerry Seinfeld describes the combination of body odour and perfume deodorant. Bisaser Road landfill now exudes the stink of dump rot mixed with an artificial sickly-sweet smell, emanating from long 'perfume rods' lining the road on the outer rim of the landfill. These rods were installed to merely mask the fumes arising from the dump; but the effect is quite nasty. Again I pinch my nose.

This time, instead of driving past, I enter one of the Gatsbyesque houses on the hill, Khan's residence. The city councilor in the area had just announced to the media that the landfill was, finally, to be closed. So again, as in my youth, I felt almost ecstatic at the thought of this old dream now coming true.

But there is more to the story than met the nose.

Khan welcomes me warmly into her home. Her lounge is framed by glass doors overlooking the entire landfill below, and beyond to the informal shacks and formal homes directly adjacent to the landfill, and a technikon campus at the bottom end of the dump. Just out of eyesight are two primary schools, a secondary school and a home for the safety of abandoned children, all in close proximity to the Bisaser Road dump.

>>>>>For the full article please click on the link below.

I officially became an African when l visited Nigeria two weeks ago, so I was told. No one is ever considered one until you make this pilgrimage and you have to go there to understand what they mean. So it is in this same spirit that I defend Nigerians, although l never thought that it would ever come to this. The most shocking discovery was that it is the Nigerians who leave the country to pursue greener pastures that give it a bad name with their survival antics. Nigerians on the whole are actually very honest people, with a few rough edges, but honest and very hospitable people. Hard to believe if you have met and dealt with their representatives on the continent.

All this l discovered after chain locking my suitcases with all forms of intricate locks that it would have needed a seminar to unlock. As l tightly clutched my limited hand luggage whilst checking in at the airport l was taken aback by the politeness yet in your face approach. But l was certain l was not going to fall for the famous sleek tongues they use to ensnare their victims…l knew them! I had read up on them! Be aware and be very afraid! But you can only go on for so long until you make up your mind to remember to relax as long as you have your passport and return ticket, which I had to check on so very often to ensure that it was still there. I had spent the better part of the earlier days going through a morning ritual of leaving my room with everything secured back into its cases. But to be honest l came back with everything l was supposed to come back with and very safe and sane and with a deep respect for a people who are unique in their own right, very unique.

But this is not about extolling the virtues of Nigerians but a gaining of an in depth understanding of the impact of HIV/AIDS on this nation and how people relate it to their daily life. To date Africa is the region worst affected by HIV/AIDS, with 70% of the world’s 42 million infected people (29.4 million people).An estimated 25 million people are living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, despite the apparent stabilization in HIV prevalence rates, with a yearly infection rate of 3.2 million Africans – 8,700 Africans every minute! This means that it will take 250 years to wipe out 10% of the world’s population and the “dark continent” will be riddled with bush and veld! Breaking it down further in southern Africa all seven countries have prevalence rates above 17% with Botswana and Swaziland having prevalence above 35%. In West Africa, HIV prevalence is much lower with no country having prevalence above 10% and most having prevalence between 1% and 5%. Adult prevalence in countries in Central and East Africa falls between 4% and 13%. With such figures is there any hope? How come they seem so accurate and so scary yet people seem unmoved?

With this as the backdrop, my visit was to the University of Abuja, to explore young minds and educate them on HIV/AIDS and its impact on their lives directly and indirectly. I also wanted to demystify the raging misconception about the spread of the disease, where they believed that it is those south of the equator that are dying and they were still safe.

I came at them double barrelled and used my experience as an example to give them a visual perception of how a person directly affected by the disease dealt with the emotional as well as financial challenges that go with HIV/AIDS. Personally I had come to the conclusion that the issue of HIV/AIDS is not in its entirety all about death. People die and will continue to die for one reason or the other. But it seems like l have been around AIDS all my adult life. I have watched my friends die, schoolmates wither and disappear for some concocted reason, and my friends’ parents fall sick, become incapacitated, die and be buried. I have played my role in fighting AIDS, worked with organizations with strong HIV/AIDS policies and community HIV/AIDS interventions programs. I have attended HIV/AIDS seminars, workshops on AIDS andlistened to the most moving experiences by victims and activists.

In spite of all this preparation there is nothing that prepares you when AIDS comes home. All l can say is that there’s an aura of hopelessness that settles around your entire being. You know that no matter what you do and will try to do the certainty of losing this person “soon” is written in stone and whatever you do is to just allay the inevitable. I have lost five members of my family within a space of 5 years; siblings aged between 30-45 years who have left behind 12 orphans between them and a series of financial dilemmas in their wake. To top it all,, our mother, who had parents’ worst nightmare of burying their own children, died of it too. If I did not know better I would think it is in the family genes but l will not go into that.

Without going into the details l believed my story represented all the facets of the impact of HIV/AIDS on an individual, a family and a community - both in the short term and the long term. In addition to being a woman, I represent the quota of HIV/AIDS that is affected and afflicted quantitatively and qualitatively by the epidemic. I played and provided the palliative care and in the end lost 5 key people in the family, all in their prime, and was left with the responsibility of looking after orphans. I highlighted the frustrations, accessibility to treatment and services, and this was in Uganda where the level of awareness and palliative care is quite high and l was well placed and privileged.

I then went ahead to create a picture of what the 5% prevalence rate attributed to Nigeria represented. Every time HIV/AIDS was discussed it was in the context of East, Central and Southern Africa, the sub Sahara Africa, which from their understanding, had to a certain extent created a belief that West Africa, the ECOWAS region, was safer. After all they only had to deal with 5% prevalence rates while “sub Saharan Africa” was dealing with 30-40% in the cases of South Africa and Botswana and 10-20 % in the cases of East and Central Africa.

Suffice to say that when it came to unpacking the 5% of 120 million Nigerian people we discovered that these 6 millionHIV positive cases were 5 times more than the 40% HIV/ADS cases attributed to Botswana who according to their total population represented about 400,000.

The aim of my story was to create a wider thinking and the need for a concerted effort and understanding of what the epidemic meant. I wanted these young people to understand that HIV/AIDS is not an issue of promiscuity or homosexuality, or who is sleeping with whom, but an issue that is affecting the very nature of societal progression. I needed them to visualise what would happen in Nigeria in relation to what had happened in South Africa. This was not very far off if they continued to assume and adhere to the current line of interpretation of the information at hand. What l had not counted on was the empathy that resulted from the talk, which was appreciated - but then it defeats the purposes because when people start pitying you they forget that the message was for them.

But my hope was not daunted and I decided to explore the environment of this august academic institution and see where these academic giants resided. What met me were mountainous rubbish heaps teeming with flies, broken sanitation systems and living conditions that defied definition. When it comes to HIV/AIDS, its heterosexually transmittal implications and disproportionate impact on women, the direct association to their living conditions was unfathomable.

It was after this that I realised that we are dealing with a situation beyond our comprehension. We came with pre-packaged information and hoped that these backward people would be grateful that “sons and daughters of the soil” had returned to save them from their lot in life. Here the priorities were very different and way beyond what HIV/AIDS connoted. They believed that it was the duty of the “government” to ensure that they had what they needed. The concept of harnessing their environment and seeing how they could survive with what they had was something they had not considered because they could not do anything about it and after all it was up to the “government” to sort these things out.

This experience informed my next visit to Funtua, Katsina State, Northern Nigeria, it very hot and with a very high Islamic influence. This time l was addressing 14-16 year old high school students and instead of talking at them I decided to have an open discussion. My message was that HIV/AIDS kills and devastates family livelihoods. We looked at its impact on an individual and how it affects his/her ability to do their work and provide for their families and how this translates to the family, the community and the region and the country as well. I kept away from the percentages and the regional subdivisions.

It yielded the same very practical results and intervention methods. In terms of content these children knew that HIV/AIDS was out there and in their communities and they were aware of the rumours. What they wanted to know then was what were they to do in the case of rape, or underage marriages, or access to preventive measures and counselling. All in all what was apparent was lack of access to information about personal hygiene, sexual reproductive health and its relationship with HIV/AIDS, sexual negotiation skills and the power relations within communities imbued with religious beliefs that promotes silence and considers certain topics taboo.

What is the problem? How are we sending out the message and is it getting to the right people? How do we create community ownership so as to overcome highly religious and cultural bottlenecks? How are we developing our communication strategies so as to identify target audiences that would have the ability and capacity to access information and respond to it effectively? One of the challenges has always been the language of communication particularly the use of statistics to explain the gravity of the situation and then using this same format to pass on this information to the affected target audiences. This is one feature that has resulted in the ineffective responses to HIV/AIDS programs. As you read the UNAIDS 2004 report it sounds like a research paper for an academic institution who are being asked to think through their parameters and see how “they” can come up with a course of action.

The dilemma we are finding ourselves in is where outsiders seem to be more concerned about our survival than we are. They seem to set the agenda and communicate it in a language comprehensible to only them. We, the so-called alleviators, are finding ourselves in places conceptually and geographically in our communities where HIV/AIDS is not considered an issue. The information is there, preventive methods there and primary curative remedies there that need to reach the people in need. We need to communicate in a language that is understandable to all so that our effort to save lives and give hope to the young is not wasted.

* Kiiza Ngonzi is HIV/AIDS Program Coordinator for Justice Africa. Justice Africa produces the Governance and AIDS Initiative Bimonthly Issues Brief, an
update on developments relevant to the issues of HIV/AIDS, democracy and
governance in Africa. Visit for more information.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Every genocide is hideous, each in its own grotesque way. Searching for the origins and distinctiveness of the genocidal violence that has convulsed the Sudanese region of Darfur in the last year—leaving tens of thousands dead and perhaps a million people displaced and in danger—we must go to the remotest desert-edge settlements in Northern Darfur near the border with Chad, to the basalt stubs of mountains that march southward until they fuse in the 10,000-foot Jebel Marra massif in the center of Darfur, and to Sudan’s capital in Khartoum, far to the east.

Geography helps to explain much. Darfur is huge and distant from the capital, and events in neighboring Chad and Libya have often exerted more influence over it than the national government, whose ignorance of its western region and indifference to the welfare of its inhabitants spurred a rebellion in 2003, organized by the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

This journey will introduce us to these Darfur rebels, including members of the Fur, Zaghawa, Masalit, and Tunjur ethnic groups, who have been the primary victims of the violence; to their neighbors, the Darfurian Arabs—including the branches of the northern Rizeigat (Jalul, Mahariya, and Ereigat), Beni Halba, and Salamat—some of whom have been recruited to the infamous Janjawiid militia, the perpetrator of the worst massacres in the conflict; and to the Sudanese Government itself, which has suppressed the rebellion with brutal tactics rehearsed in the recently concluded 21-year civil war with southern Sudan.

We will see that the story is not as simple as the conventional rendering in the news, which depicts a conflict between “Arabs” and “Africans.” The Zaghawa—one of the groups victimized by the violence and described in the mainstream press as “indigenous African”—are certainly indigenous, black and African: they share distant origins with the Berbers of Morocco and other ancient Saharan peoples. But the name of the “Bedeyat,” the Zaghawa’s close kin, should alert us to their true origins: pluralize in the more traditional Arab manner and we have “Bedeyiin” or Bedouins. Similarly, the Zaghawa’s adversaries in this war, the Darfurian Arabs, are “Arabs” in the ancient sense of “Bedouin,” meaning desert nomad, a sense that has only in the last few decades been used to describe the Arabs of the river Nile and the Fertile Crescent. Darfurian Arabs, too, are indigenous, black, and African. In fact there are no discernible racial or religious differences between the two: all have lived there for centuries; all are Muslims (Darfur’s non-Arabs are arguably more devout than the Arabs); and until very recently, conflict between these different groups was a matter of disputes over camel theft or grazing rights, not the systematic and ideological slaughter of one group by the other.

As we dig through the layers of causation of this complicated war, we will come to see it as a deeply sad story about the struggles of resilient people, poor even by Sudanese standards, who have been pitted against each other by a forbidding environment, a long history of political neglect, and a ruthless national government.

>>>>Please click on the link below for the full article.

The Darfur Consortium, an umbrella group of more than forty mainly African civil society organizations, along with the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights), has urged the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation in the Darfur region of the Sudan to the International Criminal Court (ICC) without further delay. A Security Council resolution to refer the Darfur situation to the ICC would grant that court jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the atrocities committed in the region. "The restoration of peace in Darfur is not possible unless those responsible for the grave crimes committed there are brought to justice and the damage done to the victims is satisfactorily repaired," said Magdi El Naim, Executive Director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, which is a member of the Darfur Consortium.

Even before the ballots are cast in Zimbabwe's legislative elections next month, controversy has surfaced over the fairness of the poll. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has argued that recent reform of the country's electoral laws has been too little and too late. They contend that repressive legislation governing public assembly and free speech remain on the statute books, and together with growing political violence, will serve to undermine the poll's legitimacy.

Ahlimba has drawn the short straw at this crumbling Togolese school. While her teaching colleagues are on the somewhat unreliable state payroll, she depends entirely on what her pupils’ parents can scrape together for her monthly salary. “I do the same work as the others, but there are some months when I’m not paid at all,” the slender 25-year-old told IRIN.

Sceptics fear that the UK-led move to increase aid to Africa and forgive their debts will only make more money available to corrupt elites. Western governments are increasingly linking aid to good governance, and in particular to efforts to tackle corruption. So, is corruption in Africa getting worse, or just getting more attention? William Kalema, Chairman of the Board of the Uganda Investment Authority, and one of the Commissioners for Africa named by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, is not sure if corruption is worse than five or 10 years ago but says it is certainly more widespread than 20 or 30 years ago.

The U.N. agency for refugees has received only a fraction of the funds it needs to help millions of people to return home after the end of Sudan's north-south civil war. Wendy Chamberlin, deputy U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said there was a danger donor countries would not deliver promised funds because the world was focused on helping countries hit by the Asian tsunami crisis.

Congratulations! Yours is the best coverage of African news. The trade liberalisation, gender and AIDS articles were outstanding. For me, personally, they not only inform, but help me to demonstrate that African women are innovative activists for peace, social justice and economic democracy, which are the only ways to bring the HIV/AIDS epidemic under control. Is it possible for you to include e-mail addresses or to provide printer-friendly versions of your postings to download and read at leisure?
EDITOR'S REPLY: We don't include email addresses so as to protect recipients from the threat of spam. But if you wish to contact authors, write to and we'll forward your message. Pambazuka News is distributed as an email in text form, so you should be able to print that out and read it at leisure. So why not subscribe - it's free (although we always welcome donations!).

Omar Bongo and Gnassingbe Eyadema were both born in 1935. They came to power 32 years later in Gabon and Togo respectively; Bongo through constitutional succession, Eyadema by grabbing power in a coup d'etat. Eyadema died in office on 5 February and a few hours later his favoured son, Faure Gnassingbe, seized power with the backing of the army in defiance of the constitution. What would happen in Gabon if Bongo, now 69 and apparently in good health, were suddenly to depart from the scene?

Fortune Hakata dreams of becoming a pilot. Each morning, like any other 14-year-old, he leaves home for school; at the end of the day he makes his way home - to a street corner in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. Together with 53 others, Fortune attends the Presbyterian Children's Club, which offers six years of primary schooling to street kids between the ages of 6 and 14. Each year, with the assistance of sponsors, it facilitates the entry of 18 children into the normal school system.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says it is "outraged" at the closure of the private station Radio Lumière, as well as attempts by Togolese authorities to intimidate private broadcasters that have protested the military's appointment of the late President Gnassingbé Eyadema's son as leader. Earlier in the week, officials cut FM transmissions of Radio France Internationale (RFI), which resumed this morning. However, a France-based RFI reporter remains in neighboring Benin after being denied a visa to enter Togo, according to local sources.

Fewer than one in five companies surveyed could provide a meaningful account of their policy to prevent the trade in diamonds from regions of conflict, states Amnesty International. The disappointing results come more than two years after the diamond industry committed itself to a system of self regulation including the issuing of written warranties and the implementation of a code of conduct in support of the international Kimberly Process Certification Scheme. "The trade in conflict diamonds in countries like Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone, has already led to the destruction of nations and cost millions of lives. Yet for some companies the response has been, 'we are not concerned, there are other things more important in life,'" said Alessandra Masci of Amnesty International.

The African Commission on Human and People's Rights has adopted a report critical of President Robert Mugabe's human-rights record. The report is the result of investigations done three-years ago by the African Union-sponsored Commission. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has circulated the report, adopted last month by the executive council of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights, during the African Union meeting in Abuja, Nigeria.

Many South African children are absent from school because their parents or other family members are affected by HIV/AIDS, according to a report released Wednesday by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Human Sciences Research Council, AFP/News24.com reports. The report, titled "Emerging Voices," describes how children in rural schools "struggle to cope with harsh living conditions brought about by poverty and AIDS," according to AFP/News24.com.

Africa may be totally different today than it was a century or so ago but many girls still face cultural practises that affected their great grandmothers. A lot of these traditional practices often favour men, since most African societies today are patriarchal. Subsequently, an African girl, who is supposed to have a formal education and has been exposed to the more positive aspects of the influences of Western culture, often ends up suffering the same societal inequalities that her great grandmother endured during her time.

The World IT Forum (WITFOR) is coming to Africa for the first time in September, when it will be staged in Gaborone, Botswana. WITFOR is a UNESCO initiative sponsored by the European Union, and will be hosted by the Botswana government, in partnership with the International Federation for Information Processing. The event is expected to attract around 700 decision-makers from around the world, and aims to generate proposals for ICT-based initiatives that will accelerate economic progress in developing countries.

The Foundation for Moral Courage will focus their search for a 20005 candidate for their moral courage awards on the African Continent. "As a frame of reference for this year's candidate, we will appreciate your help in identifying an individual from an African nation who can best be described as unknown or ordinary as opposed to a known political figure. The candidate should have engaged in activities over a sustained period of time in support of human rights, environmental rights, or social activities not attributed to his/her employment, and at great personal risk. Candidates could be volunteers involved in protesting injustice toward individuals, communities or environmental resources. Within this overview, it is probable that your organization will be able to identify and refer to us many well qualified candidates. We should receive your nominations with supporting documentation prior to May 1, 2005, to allow our Board to evaluate the information and make its decision by June 1, 2005. Your thoughts are always welcome. Laurence de Bure Event Coordinator Foundation for Moral Courage 1800 K Street, N.W. Suite 1120 Washington, D.C. 20006 Tel. (202) 429-9320 Fax. (202) 659-2667"

Kenyan Justice Minister Kiraitu Murungi has issued an apology for comments he made which outraged women's groups. On Wednesday, Mr Murungi said donor criticism of the government's fight against corruption was "like raping a woman who is already willing". Women's rights groups had staged noisy protests outside his office, demanding his resignation.

With its focus on employment practices, business and skills development in Africa, this issue of Interim Developments examines Corporate Social Responsibility projects in Africa, internship opportunities for young Africans in the Diaspora, South Africa's international branding campaigns and highlights some of the work of Interims for Development in building the skills and capacity of Africa's professional base.

Every year, thousands of Africans fleeing war and economic hardship make a perilous journey towards the tip of the continent - their sights set on a better life in the regional powerhouse, South Africa. But while South Africa is grappling with the challenge of providing anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) to those of its citizens who are HIV-positive, less is said about how best to treat AIDS in the country's substantial population of refugees and illegal immigrants. As a result, the few who do qualify for ARVs often miss out on the opportunity of taking these life-prolonging drugs - while those who don't find the hardships of migrant life compounded by HIV.

The Five College African Scholars Program invites applications for competitive residency fellowships from junior and mid-level teaching staff employed full-time in African universities. There are two residency periods: mid-January to May 2006 OR mid-August to December 2006. Proposals for the January residency are invited on the topic of Health & Society, while the August residency is open to all applicants with projects relevant to the study of Africa in the humanities and social sciences. The program cannot fund projects in the natural or physical sciences. Proposals should be based on the applicant's current research, which can be completed and prepared for publication during the residency. Three to four candidates will be chosen for each term. Scholars will receive a stipend of $3,000 per month, roundtrip airfare, laptop computer, housing, health insurance, and a modest research allowance. Application deadline: 1 May 2005.

Four organizations have been selected to receive a combined total of nearly $600,000 in grants over the next two years for HIV/AIDS projects under the U.S. Agency for International Development's Community REACH program. The selected projects will focus on providing service delivery to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs). The recipients, all local, nongovernmental organizations, were chosen from over 120 applicants in nine countries. The four Community REACH "Positive Prevention for PLWHAs" grant winners are: Dawn of Hope Ethiopia Association (DHEA), Ethiopia; Fondation Pour La Sante Reproductrice et l'Education Familiale (FOSREF), Haiti; Hodi, Zambia; Reseau Ivoirien Des PVVIH / The Network of Ivorians Living with HIV/AIDS (RIP+), Cote d'Ivoire.

In February 2005 Mr Harm Lux is going to visit Nairobi as well as several other African cities (Lagos, Capetown, Maputo etc) to meet artists, curators and critics. Harm Lux has been working as a curator since 1980 and his main interest is following but also anticipating how our "short life & material orientated culture " changes our life, how discourses and actions affect art & cultural production, how the global culture has an influence on small social networks, and which new ones are coming up. He initiated a few months ago a big research project aiming to bring together artists from all over the world.

The director of an international company that took part in the construction of the Lesotho Highlands water project is to be charged with paying a R1 million bribe to a top water commission official. Raymond Stock, a Lahmeyer International director, allegedly paid the money during the period of 1996-99 to Reatile Mochebelele, the then head of the Lesotho Highlands Water Commission.

Allegations of misappropriation in high places have been a constant theme of Sierra Leone's troubled political history. While the government puts the main blame for the country's long civil conflict on greed for diamonds and foreign interference, its Anti-Corruption Commission points to other causes within Sierra Leonean society. As Sierra Leone puts the conflict behind it, the issue of corruption continues to rankle.

The Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) is launching a commentary and discussion series to spark thinking and dialogue on important issues in the field. These short informative pieces will give an overview of an international ICT policy issue relevant to African stakeholders, and stir discussion by presenting strong views and provocative questions.

Burundian independent radio station Radio Publique Africaine (RPA) has resumed broadcasting after authorities suspended the station on Friday for two days, accusing it of violating the country's press law. Private news agency Net-Press, which was also summarily banned on Friday for seven days following libel complaints, remained shuttered. Local journalists believe that authorities are trying to muzzle the press in the run-up to elections scheduled this year.

Currents, UNIFEM'S electronic newsletter has produced a special Beijing +10 supplement for the January issue which offers relevant information and links in the lead-up to Beijing+10. This week's supplement includes stories on: Beijing+10 and the Commission on the Status of Women;Regional Meetings in Preparation for Beijing+10; New UNIFEM Publication on Linking Beijing, CEDAW and the MDGs; Consultation With Women's Rights Groups; Related Information on the Millennium Summit Review; Related Events; Useful Links.