He was 8 years old. Just beginning the adventures of his life and enjoying what life offers such as playing ball with his mates. But one day, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels came and abducted him. He became a child soldier. One morning when duty called he responded and went to battle. And the young soldier now promoted to a sergeant, was thrown down by an enormous explosion that shook the ground beneath him. This is one of the stories from a new book by the Association of Volunteers in International Service (AVSI), “Restoring Survivors’ Hope” that unveils the dramatic life of mine survivors in northern Uganda, who have suffered the trauma of mines and war.

A New York court has thrown out legal cases against more than 30 companies, accused of having illegally aided the apartheid-era South African Government. The class-action lawsuits targeted firms including computer giant IBM and banking giant Citigroup. According to the plaintiffs, groups and individuals who suffered under apartheid, the companies supplied oil, money and technology to South Africa.

"It is very clear that the colossal debt stock of the world's impoverished countries - to which category Zambia belongs - owed to the industrialised nations, including those debts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are beyond repayment. Indeed the harsh effects of this huge debt-overhang has not spared Zambia. Our nations have, through further policies of the IMF and the World Bank, been condemned to perpetual debt repayment when it is clear that this is unsustainable. The creditor nations together with the agents of neo-liberal policies - the IMF and World Bank - do not care that the little resources that our poor nations may generate for any little possible investment towards improving health, education and other key social sectors is instead perpetually diverted towards debt repayment. But for how long will this continue?" - From The Post, Zambia.

Ask a typical citizen about ICT policy and s/he will probably reply with a comment like ‘what’s that?’ or ‘who cares?’ Getting involved in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy-making has not been a priority for most people, even those who are generally active in other areas of public policy. It often seems removed from our daily experience, and technically complicated. Yet new communications media are becoming so important that we cannot continue to ignore them. This book from the Association for Progressive Communications takes the mystery out of ICT policy and makes it easier to understand. Key issues are presented and explained clearly and concisely, and a basis is provided for further investigation.

On paper all Namibian parties agree on one issue: the country’s need to address the land reform process.

This seems to indicate that there is a strong likelihood that the ruling South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), which is expected to win the 15 and 16 November general elections, will enjoy nationwide support to redress the country’s land-ownership issue.

Swapo has been in power since 1990 after it won the pre-independence elections held under the United Nations aegis after more than two decades of armed struggle against apartheid South Africa. Namibia became independent on 21 March 1990.

Swapo started addressing the legacy of over 100 years of occupation, first by Germany followed by South Africa, which is manifested by uneven distribution of farm land, in 1992 when it held a consultative conference on land attended by representatives of all Namibian communities.

It is in line with the resolutions adopted at the consultative conference that Swapo subsequently shaped its Land Reform policy passed in parliament. This has seen the acquisition of numerous derelict farms to resettle a number of communities.

In 1994, the government has also allocated N$20 million (at the current exchange rate, one US$ buys N$6.02) annually to acquire land to resettle the landless, a figure which has since grown to N$50 million per year.

This resulted in the buying of some 846,583 hectares on which 6,256 families were resettled. Swapo has promised to increase the number to over 6,436 families within the next five years.

Furthermore, Swapo also intends to increase from N$50 million to N$100 million per annum to acquire yet more land.

The opposition Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) agrees that the land issue has to be addressed, and that “everybody is in favour”.

However, party spokesperson Johan de Waal added that, “there has to be a set of criteria for resettlement and land expropriation.”

He accused government of using an ad hoc criterion to expropriate land, with a result that commercial farmers are stopping farming, creating serious problems to the economy.

Because Namibia’s farms are located in semi-arid land and this requires know-how and financial capacity to explore, the DTA believes government should allocate resources for the education and training of resettled families, lest the farming land becomes unproductive in the long run.

In its manifesto, Swapo promises to do just that – to couple the resettlement programme with training and capacity building in order to promote sustainable land use.

For its part, the National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO) says it would “definitely support” any land reform policy that takes into account several key aspects.

These include the repossession of land owned by the absentee landlords, using legal mechanisms to repossess underdeveloped and under-utilised land, and buying 2,500-3,500 hectares of commercial farms which have been a problem in the past years because of the “willing seller and willing buyer” system.

NUDO feels that not so many farmers have been willing to sell, and thus there should be a fast-track programme geared at distribution and resettlement.

Arnold Tjihuiko, NUDO director of elections, said that his party recognises that the “land issue is very crucial and so it has to be tackled sooner than later.”

“Let us do it early while there is time to do this,” said Tjihuiko, adding that otherwise there could be potential for problems in the long run.

To offset any unproductiveness arising from resettlement of peasant farmers with lack of capacity or resources to farm, NUDO believes resettled peasant farmers should be assisted “to get access to training, credit and markets in order to maintain farm productivity.”

Even the Republican Party, which is mainly white-dominated with about 70 per cent of its executive white (although it claims to be broad-based) agrees land resettlement is important, and it is “definitely in favour of land reform.”

Perhaps, realising it has little chance of winning the election, the RP has been urging Swapo to “urgently come up with a final and sustainable land reform plan which will benefit all of Namibia’s inhabitants.”

They say such a plan should enshrine the very principle of “willing buyer, willing seller” which is contested by other parties because it has not been forthcoming in getting farmers to sell; it should not be applied as a punitive measure or a political football; and crucially landowners should have the right of appeal in a higher court when expropriation occurs and a dispute arises.

Namibians claim there are a lot of farms belonging to absentee landlords, and cases of farmers owning more than one farm up to 10, as well as under-utilised land that government should expropriate and resettle farmers in them.

Now what remains to be seen is whether after the noise and frenzy of the elections all the parties will still remain committed to addressing the land issue. (SARDC)

* SOURCE: Southern African News Features offers a reliable source of regional information and analysis on the Southern African Development Community, and is provided as a service to the SADC region. This article may be reproduced with credit to the author and publisher. SANF is produced by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), which has monitored regional developments since 1985. http://www.sardc.net/Editorial/Newsfeature/04981104.htm

As the Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSIGC) of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) opened its meeting last week in Algiers, Algeria, Transparency International (TI), the leading non-governmental organisation dedicated to fighting corruption worldwide, called on leaders attending the Algiers meeting to ratify the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. TI also called on these leaders to ratify the UN Convention against Corruption as a vital global counterpart to the AU convention, particularly with regards to mutual legal assistance and asset recovery.

A top aide to Congolese President Joseph Kabila resigned Monday after being cited in an investigation into embezzlement of state funds that saw six ministers suspended. Evariste Boshaa, Kabila's chief of Cabinet, resigned to protest the inquiry, Kabila's spokesman, Kasongo Kudura said. Kadura referred to an inquiry launched by parliament into allegation of suspected corruption in several government firms.

Talks are underway in Malawi aimed at easing tensions between President Bingu wa Mutharika and his predecessor, Bakili Muluzi. Analysts say one of the main reasons for the divisions in the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) party has been Mutharika's tough stance against graft, which has seen six UDF officials arrested on charges of corruption and fraud since he took office in May.

Hundreds of Congolese women appealed to their government on Saturday for better protection against gender-based violence, a persistent problem despite the end of years of fighting in the country. "In recent years, young men have taken pleasure in flirting with immoral values," Micheline Ngoulou, who heads the Congolese Association Against Violence Against Women, said. "They used [the] period of chaos to inflict violence against those who are most vulnerable: women."

This paper takes a sustainable livelihoods approach to understanding the relationship between migration and poverty, and it explores the effects of poverty on people's decision and ability to migrate. The paper argues that poverty and vulnerability have two conflicting effects on migration: by providing incentives to migrate, either as a strategy for livelihood diversification or out of destitution; but also by reducing the ability to migrate because the transfer costs involved, in terms of financial, human, physical and social capital, are too high.

The Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) as part of its mandate to support the community and small commercial media in South Africa has initiated a process to develop the skills of such projects to mobilise resources from a range of organisations and structures. To this end, the Agency is now inviting proposals from individuals and organisations to design and implement resource mobilisation workshops.

In 2000 a South African government committee recommended the introduction of a basic income grant (BIG), consisting of a grant of R100 per month for every South African citizen, regardless of age or income level. The idea of basic income emerged as a response to the crisis of welfare states, and yet was relevant to South Africa even though it has never been a welfare state, because the problem of mass structural unemployment it faces has some similarity to the structural problems in Northern welfare states. Extreme poverty and inequality, insufficient administrative capacity, and the existence of a relatively well-developed social assistance system further accelerated demand for the BIG, making South Africa one of the first countries in the world to consider it as a policy alternative This paper produced by the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) attempts to explain the dynamics of the political process that led to the BIG being raised to the level of a 'policy alternative', that is, an option being seriously considered for government action; and explores the eventual consequences of the campaign for a BIG to be introduced.

Incidents occurring in Zimbabwe in the month of September continue to reflect a lack of political tolerance, according to a political violence report from the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. The report said political victimization was relatively high around the opposition MDC's 5th year anniversary celebrations on 11 and 12 September 2004. The month of September also saw a rise in the number of displacements. The cases of displacements recorded in September were the highest since the beginning of the year and are attributed to farm evictions.

A collective effort is needed on behalf of all role-players in order to grasp the opportunity offered by the March 2005 elections in Zimbabwe to end the crisis currently gripping the country, according to a new International Crisis Group report. The report encouraged the African Union to maintain a watchful eye on the human rights situation before the 2005 parliamentary elections, including by sending a team of experts by 1 January 2005 to assess the electoral environment, and support implementation of the SADC principles and guidelines by the Zimbabwe government. For its part the international community should support the efforts of African states and institutions to achieve free and fair parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe in 2005. The ICG report also recommended to the Movement for Democratic Change that it decide to contest the parliamentary elections, even if it is not possible to obtain at this stage absolute guarantees that they will be conducted in a fully free and fair manner.

Tony Blair's Commission for Africa will have little effect unless it tackles global apartheid. So long as global rules are made by a minority, any progress in Africa could be wiped out overnight by changes in currency, trading conditions or security as a result of decisions or neglect by the world's most powerful bodies. Unless Africans have an equal and effective voice in global decision-making, the Commission's work will be forgotten.

All other questions are window dressing.

This Commission would not be necessary if rich countries had been committed to the UN Economic Commission for Africa, founded 1958; the UN Programme for Action for African Economic Recovery and Development initiated in 1986; the Global Coalition for Africa founded in 1990, or the UN Initiative for Africa, launched in 1996. Indeed, the Commission could save money simply by updating the UN Action Plan for African, published in 1991.

The treatment of Africa and its position in global decision-making is in some respects worse than the treatment of the majority in South Africa under apartheid. Although the West condemns racism, and includes Africans and people of African descent at the highest levels of governance, the structures of global decision-making systematically prevent Africa from having an effective say in the economic and political rules which govern their affairs. As a result, African states are often treated like Bantustans, clients of Western powers, and the needs of their people are neglected.

One example of minority rule in global governance is the UN Security Council: 80% of the permanent members are white, representing less than 10% of the world population, and 60% are European. As a result, the Security Council has failed to protect Africans from the scourge of war.

The International Community would not have tolerated genocide in Rwanda if Africa had had a veto in the Security Council. The World Bank and IMF would have done more about aids, debt, famine or declining currencies and commodity prices if Africa had the same votes compared to the US. Nor would Africa have faced steep tariff barriers and dumping if it had the same clout in the WTO as Europe. The G8 would not have let Africa get into its current state if it had been a member.

How the major powers and institutions of global governance allocate and implement budgets, appoint top officials and influence national policies can encourage corruption and make it impossible for citizens to hold governments to account. As the Commission says, transparency can be a powerful mechanism both for enhancing overall delivery by government and the participation of excluded groups. But few global institutions or Africa Desks in the foreign ministries of the rich world are open and transparent.

Giving African nations an equitable and effective say in the major institutions of global governance would address one of the central questions raised by the Commission: if Africa had a veto on the Security Council, IMF, World Bank, WTO, and Bank of International Settlements, it would quickly become a domestic issue for rich countries. They would soon find the political will to make a lasting commitment to Africa's development.

If the Commission is serious about enabling Africa to solve its problems, it will:
- Review Africa's representation on the major institutions of international decision-making
- Advocate equitable representation and powers for Africa in these bodies
- Draw up principles of transparency, accountability, democracy and equitable decision-making for all institutions of global governance, as advocated by the One World Trust.

There are opportunities for reform. This week a UN High-Level Panel will recommend fairer representation for Africa and other Developing Countries on the UN Security Council.

The G8 member states have the power to propose a new global settlement on the basis of our common humanity, in which international decision-making is based on equity, transparency, democracy and accountability. If it does so, the issues facing Africa will remain the common concern of the world. If it does not, the Blair report will join the Pearson Report, the Brandt Report and many other reports in the footnotes of history, as business as usual resumes.

* Titus Alexander is founder of Charter 99 and author of "Unravelling Global Apartheid" (Polity Press/Blackwell, 1996)

* If you agree with these arguments, tell the Commission and give them specific examples about the way in which global apartheid and Africa's position in international decision-making causes harm or hinders progress. If you disagree, join the dialogue at Pambazuka News! Send your comments to

The Commission is holding a series of meetings with Africans throughout the Continent, starting this week, on 1 December, in Dakar, Senegal. Commissioners will also travel to Nairobi (6 Dec); Douala (8 Dec); Lusaka (10 Dec) and Alexandria (14 Dec). These meetings will enable representatives from every African country to comment on the Commission's work, and allow Commissioners to collect new material for their report. The meetings are being organised in partnership with LEAD International www.amref.org/speakforafrica.htm and the Southern African Regional Poverty Network http://www.commissionforafrica.org/getting_involved/consultationdocument.htm

Prepare comments in the form of a brief summary followed by up to 750 words.
Where your submission relates to a particular thematic section of the document, please indicate this in the summary.

Submissions should be sent to the Secretariat to the Commission for Africa by e-mail: [email][email protected]

Mark the Subject 'Submission October-December Consultation' followed by your name or the name of your organisation. http://www.commissionforafrica.org/getting_involved/GettingInvolved.htm

* If you or your organisation has made a submission to the Commission for Africa, please send your contribution to Pambazuka News and we will include it in the newsletter. Send to

Applications are invited from persons living and working in Rwanda to participate in a distance learning course on ‘The role of the media in the genocide in Rwanda’.

The 1994 genocide in Rwanda provides a telling case study of two quite separate roles for media in a conflict situation. The genocide was among the most appalling catastrophes of the 20th century, and media played a significant part both internally and internationally. Prior to the genocide, radio stations and newspapers were carefully used by the conspirators to dehumanise the potential victims, Rwanda's Tutsi minority. During the genocide, radio was used by the Hutu extremist conspirators to mobilise the Hutu majority, to coordinate the killings and to ensure that the plans for extermination were faithfully executed.

While a series of terrible massacres of Tutsi were carried out and as the signs of ever-increasing violence grew, Rwanda was totally ignored by the international media. When the genocide came, the erratic media coverage largely conveyed the false notion of two ‘tribes’ of African ‘savages’ mindlessly slaughtering each other as they had done from time immemorial. As a result, there was little public pressure in the West for governments to intervene.

In this distance learning course you will study these two facets of the media role in the genocide in detail. You will see how easily the concept of free speech and free press in a local situation can be perverted for foul ends. We will ask how this dilemma could be resolved. We will explore the problem of inadequate or even distorted international coverage of crises and conflicts in areas poorly understood by Western journalists. We will consider whether this unfortunate situation can be improved in the future.

The course, developed by Fahamu for UPEACE, will be taught by Gerald Caplan, a Canadian-based public policy analyst and international coordinator of the "Remembering Rwanda" Project. He is also a public affairs commentator and author of "Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide," the report of the International Panel of Eminent Personalities To Investigate the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, appointed by the Organization of African Unity (OAU). He is presently co-editing a book on the Rwandan genocide ten years later.

The course has been developed for journalists and other professionals in the field of media, students of journalism, NGO staff and policy makers, and will lead to a certificate from the University for Peace.

This course is designed to take 10 weeks using an interactive CDROM containing all materials required for the course. You will be guided in your work by a course tutor via email. You will also have an opportunity to discuss your work with fellow students via email.

The course will include a workshop in which all students, as well as the tutor come together for several days of intensive work. There will be a final short period in which students will work independently and submit a final assignment. The topic for this assignment will be determined at the workshop.

Applications are invited from suitable candidates in Rwanda to attend the first course. The distance learning course will begin on 10 January, with a workshop to be held in Butare, Rwanda, on 15-17 March.

Please note that this is a pilot run of the course and that is why it is limited to Rwandan participants. Following the first pilot, the course will be fine-tuned and will be made available at a later date for broader participation from elsewhere in Africa.

Eligibility
Applicants must:
- Have good command of written and spoken English
- Have access to a computer with a CDROM drive (PC or Mac) for at least seven hours a week
- Have an email address (access to the WWW would be an advantage)
- Be living and working in Rwanda

Application process
Applicants should submit a letter, in English, of at least 500 words explaining why this course is important in their work, and motivating why they should be selected. They should submit a summary CV of no more than one page, and provide evidence from their employer/institution that they have access to a suitable computer. Applications should be sent by email only to Fahamu to: [email protected]. Applications should be received by 10 December 2004.

Fees
There are 15 places available. Since it is a pilot course, fees, and costs of attending the workshop in Butare will exceptionally be met by the University for Peace.

"South Africa has slid gently out of the media limelight over the past ten years. Apartheid ensured the country was always in the news, despite the regime’s best intentions. Then the transition from Afrikaner-dominated parliament to parliament of the people kept us enthralled for a good few years. But now South Africa’s trials and tribulations are not substantially different from many other countries. In fact, it has become almost mundane, ordinary. It is this struggle "to learn to become ordinary" that lies at the heart of Achmat Dangor’s latest novel, Bitter Fruit, which was named as one of the five titles on the prestigious Booker prize short list for 2004." - From a review by Richard Bartlett, African Review of Books. Visit the website to read the full review.

African community radio may get a boost from the formation of an international task force to investigate setting up an international fund to underwrite resources for the sector, a meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco has decided. The initiative parallels global initiatives to set up a "Digital Solidarity Fund" that flowed out of last year's United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

The Africa Education Trust is developing a training course to empower African Women involved in community or refugee organisations across England. The course will enable African women to conduct action research into the needs of their community. It will train them to present and articulate their findings and use them to articulate on behalf of African and refugee women at the community, regional and national level.

Africans in the diaspora who are determined to return to their birth places in Africa, including Nigeria, have demanded the provision of dual citizenship from African leaders as a pre-condition for them to return to the continent.

The preliminary findings of a study on child domestic workers in Lesotho, forced onto the job market by poverty and HIV/AIDS, has uncovered the sometimes "highly abusive nature" of their relationship with employers. Commissioned by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender Youth Sport and Recreation, the survey "revealed the serious challenges imposed upon children, as they become more and more reliant on various forms of labour to sustain their poverty- and HIV/AIDS-stricken families," a UNICEF statement said.

The Ethiopian government is taking steps to prevent any abuses of opposition political supporters and has contacted all regions in the country to stress that forthcoming elections should be held in a fair and democratic manner, a spokesman told IRIN. "This is the period of preparation for the election," Zemedkun Teckle said on Tuesday. "Let me assure you, one commitment of the government is to ensure free and fair elections."

Arid Lands Information Network – Eastern Africa (ALIN-EA) has successfully completed a one-year pilot phase of the Open Knowledge Network (OKN) East Africa project. OKN is a global initiative linking marginalized communities and facilitating information sharing through Information Communications Technologies (ICTs). It aims at promoting the creation and exchange of local content by local people in local languages. The network encourages documentation and dissemination of local knowledge beyond the precincts of community boundaries.

The heads of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and World Vision have joined forces to urge a massive increase in donor funds for school feeding - a largely untapped yet effective way to attract children to school and stem HIV/AIDS infections among the young. There is growing evidence linking the level of education to a stable or lower incidence of HIV. For instance, research shows that AIDS spreads twice as fast among uneducated girls in Zambia, while young rural Ugandans with a secondary education are three times less likely to be HIV-positive than those with no education.

Health reforms based on market principles have been introduced widely in both developed and developing countries over the past 20 years. In developing countries, international donors have insisted on health reform as a precondition of providing external aid. The reform packages that have been introduced have been strikingly similar across countries as wide apart as Uganda, Bolivia, and Russia. Uganda embarked on market based health reforms in 1994. These reforms have not only failed to improve health services and the health of the population but have arguably been the key factor behind their deterioration. What can we learn from Uganda's experience?

Search for Common Ground (SFCG) has just made available three of its widely popular radio programs via the World Wide Web. Search for Common Ground-Sierra Leone’s Talking Drum Studio programs Atunda Ayenda, Common Ground News Feature, and Paliment Bol At can now be heard in Krio at www.talkingdrumstudio.org . The new site was created in an effort to reach the Sierra Leonean Diaspora and others with an interest in Sierra Leone.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

We in South Africa needed the support of the international community in our efforts to end the vicious system of racial oppression called apartheid.

We had to have eloquent advocates to tell the world our story and persuade it to come to our assistance. Today we are free and democratic striving to be non-racial and non-sexist. We won a spectacular victory over the awfulness of apartheid a victory that is unthinkable without the support of the international community referred to earlier.

We had none more articulate and with all the credibility and integrity so indispensable than Dennis Brutus to plead our cause. He was quite outstanding and we South Africans owe an immense debt of gratitude.

I join many, many of our compatriots and our friends in the international community as we salute him when he celebrates his 80th birthday. Many happy returns and God's richest blessings broer! Thank you for having been such a stalwart. We owe much to you.

God bless you.

>>>>>>>>>>>

Fatima Meer, Professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban

Denis, we thank you for your 80 glamorous years, a considerable part of them spent leading us in our fight against the injustices that was and still is unleashed upon us. We know your disappointments and we salute you and applaud you for bringing them to our notice. I hope you are spared some score more years to correct the ways that still remain. I am with you in the fight that still remains and I need your commitment and your energy and your integrity. Live on wonderful soldier, live on for South Africa, for all those who continue to be oppressed and deprived and impoverished throughout the world. Live on Denis in spirit, if not in body. Live on, dearest compatriot.

>>>>>>>>>>>

Sean Jacobs, New York University, New York

Vir Dennis Brutus. Waar ek vandaan kom is jy nou al 'n wyse ou man, maar jy laat die laaities moeg lyk. Regte Suid-Afrikaners eer jou.

>>>>>>>>>>

Trevor Ngwane, Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, Johannesburg

unkonka wefusi
umakad' ebona
inkunzi emidwayidwayi
okudala beyidwanguza
yehlula izinhlamvu zamaphoyisa ezomoya
yehlula amaBhunu esiqhingini
igagu umlom' omnandi
umlomo ishoba lokuziphungela
mfoka Bhaduza uthembeni na?
ngoba ozakweni bomzabalazo
sebephenduke amambuka
badla izambane likampondo
kodwa indima singakayiphethi
elikaMthaniya kaNdaba lisaphethwe zinyoni
mana njalo qabane lamaqabane
nwele zimhlophe
isina muva liyabukwa
oMandela bagiya bakushiya enkundleni
kanti baphosisile umgidi awukapheli
umzabalazo usaqhubeka
ithemba alisobe labulala
Dennis Brutus
uyiqhawe lamaqhawe
uyingonyama
mana njalo
ukhule uze ukhokhobe
ubambelele ngezindonga

>>>>>>>>>>>

Center for Economic Justice, Washington/Alburquerque/Johannesburg

What makes Dennis Brutus so unique as an activist and as a human being, is that he has been an inspiration and a source of spiritual strength to so many of us worldwide who are struggling to make the world a just place, including all of us at the Center for Economic Justice. Struggling for justice and humanity is hard work; it is full of setbacks, heartbreak, and loss. It is precisely at the hardest points in our struggle that we think of Dennis. We are inspired by how he keeps doing the most important work in the world with a smile and with kind words for everyone. We are amazed at how strong his spirit is after everything that he has seen and suffered through, especially the betrayal of the hopes of the South African people by persons he had always regarded as comrades. We love you, Dennis!

>>>>>>>>>>

Dale Mckinley, Anti-Privatisation Forum, Johannesburg

Comrade Dennis - 80 years young and still going strong, still fanning the flames of resistance, still sharing your words of wisdom and creativity and still a revolutionary. You have taken the words of Che and put them into your heart and into practice - "If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine". You are a true comrade.

>>>>>>>>>>

Firoze Manji, Fahamu, Oxford

Dennis - is it really 80 years? How much we have gained in those years, and sadly how much have we lost. But the best was that those years produced fighters such as you who have held up the flag in Africa and for Africa. You are an example to us all. Keep fighting - onwards to the next 80 years!

>>>>>>>>>>

Jann Turner, Johannesburg

I would love to wish Dennis Brutus a happy birthday. Sunday the 28th of November happens to be a very important day for me too - I turn 40. I'm exactly half his age and I would be proud to accomplish half of what he has done in his life in my own time on this earth.

>>>>>>>>>>

Bill Fletcher, TransAfrica Forum, Washington

Dennis Brutus stands as a tribune of the dispossessed. His willingness to speak out on all cases of injustice, and side with the oppressed makes him the type of person we all wish to emulate. His perseverance, dedication and eloquence have made him not only a hero for the South African freedom struggle, but for all those who struggle for social justice.

>>>>>>>>>>

Njoki Njoroge Njehu & Soren Ambrose, Washington & Nairobi

We offer our heartfelt 80th Birthday greetings to Dennis Brutus. We celebrate you - friend, leader, courageous, poet, internationalist, outrageous, inspirational, unbowed, joyful, unrelenting, always responsive, committed, dignified, revolutionary, fighter for freedom and justice, stalwart for solidarity, and much more. Dennis Brutus, PRESENTE!

We celebrated Dennis' 75th Birthday in Seattle, a few days before the historic collapse of the WTO Ministerial - what a wonderful Birthday present for Dennis?! We are delighted and proud to say that the 50 Years Is Enough Network has already co-hosted, not one but two celebrations, of Dennis' 80th birthday. Both occasions doubled as fundraisers, as Dennis continues to multi-task and to do everything in his power -- including just having a birthday -- to support and build the movements for global justice, and in particular the 50 Years Is Enough Network. Dennis has a created a legacy to be proud of, that is inspiring, and a catalyst for creating that "other possible world."

As we prepare to move back to Africa, we are proud to call Dennis our great friend, a true Mzalendo (combatant/patriot in Kiswahili) for justice, and a brother in the struggle for true liberation for Africa and the world. Where there is struggle, there you will find Dennis. So Dennis, we invite you to Kenya to celebrate your 81st Birthday with those in the struggles there - we will organize appropriate fora for the celebration. Happy Birthday Dennis! And a happy celebration to all those able to be with him as he appropriately marks the occasion in South Africa. Many, many, happy returns. We love you, Dennis! Viva Dennis Viva!!

>>>>>>>>>>

A study prepared for the Bretton Woods Project has found that the Development Gateway, an internet portal on development issues initiated by the World Bank, presents a biased picture of development debates, lacks independence and is inefficient when compared with other similar initiatives. The Gateway seeks to promote sustainable development and poverty reduction through knowledge and resource sharing. Initially conceived and designed by the World Bank, it commenced operations as an independent not-for-profit organisation in July 2001.

The troubles in the Ivory Coast cast a long shadow over the 10th Summit of French-speaking countries (La Francophonie), which took place last week in the city of Ouagadougou, the capital of neighboring Burkina Faso. The summit leaders signed a resolution demanding that all sides in the conflict adhere to the terms of the French-brokered peace accord reached in January 2003 and that "the Ivorian authorities put an end to the incitements to hatred and violence circulated by certain media and to assure the protection of the foreign communities living in the country." Many observers now fear that the crisis has startling similarities to the events of Rwanda ten years ago, argues this commentary from the World Press Review.

This year's Campaign on Violence Against Women has found encouragement in the African Union's Protocol on the Rights of Women. While 31 countries have signed the Protocol, only five have ratified (Comoros, Rwanda, Libya, Botswana, Namibia and Lesotho). While Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have signed the protocol, their presidents are yet to ratify it. The violation of women's rights in East Africa is largely born out of the unequal power relations between women and men. Poverty and conflict fuel ritual murder, gang rape, trafficking in women and girls and mistreatment of widows, among others.

For the past two weeks, the intensified violence in Darfur, Western Sudan, the restrictions imposed on humanitarian aid to 1.4 million people, and the expulsion of senior aid officials from two of the most renowned international humanitarian organisations are the dire result of the past and present failure of the United Nations Security Council, the United States, the international community and the African states.

By refusing to act on the extensive documented evidence of the atrocities, war crimes and human right abuses committed against the black African civilian population of Darfur, the United Nations Security Council has dried its crocodile tears on the empty slogan of “Never Again” that it proclaimed six months ago when commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, and turned its back on the people of Darfur. None of its resolutions on Darfur has made any impact on Khartoum in stopping the violence and the ethnic cleansing in the region. In addition, the United Nations has not put any pressure on Khartoum to fulfil its commitments stipulated in the Joint Communiqué jointly signed with the UN Secretary General in July 2004, regarding the “immediate disarming of the Janjaweed and other armed outlaw groups”.

Have we forgotten the Resolution on the armed conflict in Darfur adopted by more than 100 African human rights organisations during the 34th Session of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights, at Banjul (Gambia)? That was only a year ago, in November 2003.

It is true that collective decision-making is all very well but what do you do when the culprit is part of the collective? When Sudan, for example, sits on the African Union's Peace and Security Council as it debates alleged atrocities by Sudan government-backed militias and then comes to frustrate the efforts of that same Peace and Security Council to monitor the cease-fire in Darfur?

Could it be possible that because we, Africans, do not agree with the policies of Washington, London or Paris, we are ready to sacrifice the lives of our own people and hence reject any human rights resolution condemning an African state? This is exactly what happened at the UN General Assembly in Nairobi ten days ago. A draft resolution which could have denounced the killings and the ethnic cleansing that is still taking place in Darfur was frustrated by developing countries including almost all Islamic and African states. Is Africa saying to Sudan “Maalesh (never mind, in Arabic) - do not “fully and unconditionally respect your obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights as well as other regional and international human rights treaties to which you, Sudan are a State Party”.

The African Summit held in Tripoli (Libya) in October 2004 was claimed to be 'an important step to settle the crisis peacefully' and part of “relentless efforts” to settle the Darfur crisis in order to introduce the best model in facing other African problems. “Global support will be more effective and useful than threatening sanctions." It is said that it is Khartoum's legitimate right to solve its internal crises and no one can contest the Sudanese government's prerogative to deal with issues pertaining to its national security. Yet, time and again, the Sudanese government has proved its inability to finding a peaceful solution to the Darfur problem. Khartoum has made many promises to international visitors, to African leaders, to the UN, but has delivered nothing. It has failed - one would even say “refused” - to rein in the Janjaweed militias that it has unleashed against the black African population of Darfur. It has systematically stopped and restricted the humanitarian efforts. It has expelled aid workers. It has bombed and killed its own citizens. It has blocked all regional and international mediation efforts to solve the crisis.

Whenever confronted with real facts on the ground, the Sudanese government officials are always prompt to deny, reject, accuse, condemn and blame others, yet they have not found a proper answer to the Darfur crisis. When last July, the UN Security Council passed a first resolution condemning the atrocities perpetrated against the people of Darfur, Khartoum was angry. Later in September, the Sudanese vice-president was fuming when the UN Security Council passed yet another resolution on the violence in Darfur. As extraordinary as it may appear, Khartoum is always “right” while the African Union, the United Nations, the international community, the humanitarian organisations, the media and the people of Darfur are always “wrong”.

The Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail says that the African Union (AU) has not fulfilled its commitment towards Darfur, particularly regarding the expansion of forces it promised to send to help in monitoring the ceasefire and protecting civilians. Yet, only a few weeks ago, Khartoum not only imposed “restrictions” on the African Union troops, but also was refusing to allow the same AU troops to fly into Darfur. The Sudanese government's onslaught on the AU does not stop there. Nageeb al-Khair Abdel-Wahab, State Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sudan, has labelled the recent AU report on the renewed clashes in Darfur as “unfair and imbalanced” whereas the report holds all the warring parties - the government, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) - responsible for violating the security and humanitarian protocols signed in Abuja, Nigeria (October 21 to November 10, 2004).

Though western mediators acknowledge that the issues in Darfur “need to be worked out” they fail to understand that these are not “manageable” disputes that can be handled “as they arise”. Time and again, analysts have made it clear that the issues at stake, not only in Darfur or in the South, but in Sudan in its entirety, are related to “structural” matters and to how Sudan can be governed and not who is to govern Sudan. The viable solution to be found needs to be “proactive” and long term so to avoid the recurrence of the problems. A “reactive” and short-term solution would only solve the problem “temporarily”. Sudan has been mis-governed since independence by interest groups and political ideologues that are today trying to keep their hegemony despite and against all common sense. Whether it comes under internal pressure from opposition parties or it concedes to pressure from the international community, Khartoum's position in dealing with its problems is unlikely to change. The government of Hassan El Beshir is determined to maintain its hold on power at any cost and force its policies on the Sudanese people by all means, except national dialogue. Let's be serious. Khartoum is not interested in global support.

Human rights activists, observers, analysts and US officials have all condemned the extremely weak and meaningless United Nations Security Council resolution (Nairobi). Now, Khartoum and the militias it has armed have “carte blanche” to continue their vicious treatment of the black African people of Darfur with impunity. They can kill, burn, rape, displace people, usurp their land and propagate racial hatred in the province.

* Eva Dadrian is an independent broadcaster and Political and Country Risk Analyst for print and broadcast media, who currently works as a consultant for Arab African Affairs (London) and writes on a regular basis for AFRICA ANALYSIS (London), for Al Ahram HEBDO Echos Economiques and Al Ahram WEEKLY (Cairo) and contributes to Africa Service BBC WS (London).

* Please send comments to

The government’s land reform programme requires big spending, close to R2-billion a year. But the total budget for the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs was less than R2-billion this year. A massive R13-billion is needed next year to meet President Thabo Mbeki’s restitution deadline at the end of next year, where land or cash compensation is given to communities dispossessed during the apartheid years.

"I am 22 years old. I have one baby boy, who is 6 years old. Some people don't understand what life really is, but I understand it clearly. Life is about what you know and what you want and what you want to do to get the things you want. In life you experience many things, including painful things. And if you experience painful things you mostly gain and learn a lot. I feel so sorry for people who haven't experienced any pain, because they get hurt easily and by small things." This is part of a life story published on the website of the Centre for Civil Society at the University of Natal to mark the 16 Days of Activism against violence against women and children and World AIDS Day. Read the full story by clicking on the link provided.

The Ugandan army announced on Wednesday it had deployed troops along the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following reports of renewed activity by Ugandan insurgent groups based in eastern Congo. "We have made [a] precautionary deployment," Maj Shaban Bantariza, the army spokesman, told IRIN on Wednesday, "especially in areas we think are possible crossing points for some negative elements."

Heavy rains and low turnout cast a shadow over Thursday's second day of Mozambican elections for a successor to President Joaquim Chissano as foreign observers complained they were denied full access to the polling process. National Electoral Commission head Arao Lithure took the unusual step of making a live address on state radio and television to urge Mozambicans to vote, saying they had a right to help determine their country's destiny.

I love international days of this and that. They are such grand occasions for leaders to remember some long forgotten agenda. The charitable among us hope that occasions such as World AIDS day are a sign of things to come. The cynical like me, gnash our teeth as we see the insincere, the hypocritical and the couldn’t-care-less-on-a-good- day-types abuse the spaces that are created. As the world celebrates World AIDS day this year, focusing on women and girls with the slogan, “have you heard me today?” we shall be treated to serious theatrics from coast to coast. We shall be subjected to Kings, Presidents, Ministers and others with power, exhorting women to do more, be involved.

Steven Lewis, God bless his soul, has tried his best to raise awareness of governments about what HIV means to women. From the simple fact that women are more vulnerable to infection, to that we are virtually “conscripted” labour when it comes to home-based care, the man has used everything from cajoling language to the outrageously sounding right wing lingo. My favourite was his assertion at the Bangkok conference in July that if only African governments knew the kinds of problems women have, they would be “howling from the roof-tops”. With all due respect to the UN Secretary General’s envoy, nobody is going to howl from any place except this year on World AIDS day. Beyond that, if you hear much more than a squeak, we as women will be extremely lucky.

There are many reasons why our heads of state and government are neither outraged, nor even see the urgency of the implications of AIDS for women. Lets start with a basic truth that nobody might have cared to mention. Women are not really autonomous human beings with feelings, rights and therefore entitlements. So when we come up with slogans such as, “Did you hear me today?” for World AIDS day, the starting point is problematic. You hear a person. You are obliged to pay attention to what a citizen has to say – if you are a leader. Women have no personhood where I come from. In my language we are called, “madzimai”, (Mothers), vanhukadzi, (female persons – note the pre-qualification). In Ndebele they are called, “abesintwana”, (those who are like children). Word play you might say, but the implications go deeper than that. If a girl gets raped, and the rapist is from the same place and is known, he will be asked if he wants to marry the girl. All he has to do is argue his undying lust and how it over-took him. And for a few hundred dollars, she is his. When a mature woman wants to get married, she doesn’t even have to be in the same room where the negotiations, (yes the haggling over the price of her uterus, just like in a Lagos market), take place. The brothers, father and uncles, and the occasional auntie will do the haggling. They will determine the value of her uterus, of her labour, or however they wish to aggregate it. They get the loot. Woe-betide her if she ever does anything to warrant the return of this money – like refusing to have sex with her buyer. Or refusing to bear yet another child, even if she knows it will endanger her health. And should she die before she has fulfilled the objectives for which the money was paid, the family must provide a substitute wife – her younger sister, or a niece. And some silly person will ask, “without her consent?” Consent is sought from feeling and thinking beings. No sane African leader is about to argue for a review of customary laws and beliefs of this nature. Why should they? It gives them power over the women in their own lives.

Asking “did you hear me today?” assumes the woman has a right to speak to begin with. Can anybody remind me of instances where women’s voices have mattered? In the family so-called “heads of households” views are what matter. Religious leaders remind us about this every time we go to prayers. In the classroom girls sit at the back, put down by cutting remarks from the teacher, “ah Anna, what can you tell us? Haven’t you found a husband yet?” The media hardly quote opinions of nobodies – like women and girls, unless they have done something extraordinary. Researchers tell us that our experiences are “anecdotal evidence”, meaning they are less valid. Once the question is asked, “but is this scientifically proven?” we are silent and silenced. Never daring to speak up again. Only those whose analysis fits in a pie chart, can be quantified and quoted by academics, matter. As someone eulogized a dead woman in Eritrea, “She was such a good woman, she hardly spoke above a whisper”. Who doesn’t want to be remembered as a good person.

We will hear fiery speeches from leaders telling us to change our behaviours and protect ourselves from HIV. Good idea. If only we could be protected from the leaders’ behaviour, that would be even better. Young women in Swaziland need to be protected from their monarch who lines them up each year for a free peep show. If only our leaders would stop testing young women for virginity and exposing them to predators who are looking for virgins to cure their HIV. And oh really if only all our Presidents and Ministers stuck to their first or only wives – wouldn’t that be something to talk about on World AIDS day? I don’t expect any discussion of these issues. These are our private African lives, and our traditions. Don’t anybody dare question them.

This year we will hear leaders telling women to get more involved. They will urge women to support governments by providing (more) home-based care, more, more and more. Haven’t we done enough surely? Who do hospitals release patients to, and tell them, “There is nothing more we can do. Take him home and do your best”. Armed with a packet of pain-killers, two bandages, a bottle of detergent and a plastic bucket the home carer carries her patient back. Ready to give what they call in AIDS speak, “comprehensive care and treatment”? Poor rural women walk up to five kilometres each day, taking care of sick community members. In some cases they have to give them their own meagre provisions, a little gruel here, an old blanket there. All of this without much support from anyone. The occasional NGO will train them in home care, dish out some more bars of soap, and once in a blue moon give a little financial token of appreciation. Certainly our Presidents are not going to howl from any roof-top because this is what poor black women have always done. It is our African-ness they will say. We shall celebrate these women’s burdens as a reflection of our African resilience and resourcefulness.

Ask those of us who have never stood at a bus stop for two minutes to do what these women do and see how we wilt in the sun. Ask them to just sit in a doctor’s room for 15 minutes and the nurse will not hear the end of it – violation of our rights, no way to treat people like us, you think we have time to waste. But village-women? Ah those have a lot of staying power. They persevere against all odds. They have cornered the market on suffering and selflessness. Maybe we should give these women some kind of merit badges? Mr. Kofi Annan, donations please. And when the women have done all the caring for everyone, nobody is there to care for them. If she’s married she will be sent back to her natal family, so that “your own people can see what to do, you cant die in our home”. Her own people equally have no time, inclination or resources to take care of her.

After the banners have come down and the media has moved to the next flavour of the week, international donors and governments will still continue with their gospel of “less government”, and more privatisation. Since the 1970s African governments have groaned under the weight of Structural Adjustment programmes. AIDS is not going to change macro economic orthodoxy. Simply because some nameless and faceless women are having problems is no reason to depart from market fundamentals. No howling from that quarter either Mr. Lewis.

All of these issues are not really new, nor is there a dearth of research or women’s voices. The problem is the world and its leadership does not want to listen because it is not convenient to change the “natural” order of things that we have created.

The bright side of all this is that the World AIDS day speeches will provide much needed light relief in many women’s lives – if one doesn’t get into a coma from anger of course. The good thing about HIV and AIDS is that no matter how much one can speak with a forked tongue the truth is always hanging down like a dirty petticoat. There will be collective laughter when some well known philanderers stand up and tell us all about safe sex. Young girls will titter into their bras watching the local sugar-daddies delivering the Secretary General’s speech with earnest faces. There will be serious ga ga ga, and slapping of each others’ palms at the water well when the village women deconstruct those insincere speeches from women in leadership who normally don’t believe in this “women’s rights business”. But maybe one should not be so cynical. Be grateful for small mercies, my Methodist upbringing reminds me. It is good for women’s rights to be finally “discovered”. Even if the discovery is a century late, and billions of dollars short.

* World Aids Day was on 1 December. Everjoice J. Win is International Women’s Rights Coordinator with Action Aid. She writes in her personal capacity.

* Please send comments to

>>>>>See the HIV/AIDS section for 'Remember the caregivers on World Aids day' by Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda

The Netherlands has extradited a former army officer suspected of having committed atrocities in Rwanda's 1994 genocide to the Tanzania-based UN war crimes tribunal, Dutch prosecutors said. The former lieutenant colonel is suspected of having played a leading role during the 1994 massacres.

Global biodiversity is shrinking at an unprecedented rate and the prognosis given by one of the world's leading conservation bodies, at the opening of a major environment conference, is alarming. One in three amphibians and almost half of all freshwater turtles are threatened, on top of the one in eight birds and one in four mammals known to be jeopardy, said the IUCN at its 3rd World Conservation Congress being held in the Thai capital from Nov. 17-25.

African leaders put final touches on a new, UN-backed peace plan for the troubled Great Lakes countries on Saturday amid fresh allegations of gun-running, abuse and violence in the vast, volatile region. Thirteen heads of state were expected to approve the peace framework - the first step toward stability in an area encompassing Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the close of a summit on Saturday in Dar es Salaam.

The commercial agricultural organisation, Agri SA, has welcomed the South African government's announcement that it would soon reach an agreement with Zimbabwe on land rights for South Africans in that country. SABC radio has reported that Mandisi Mpahlwa, the trade and industry minister, had said negotiations had been finalised and that an agreement was ready to be signed.

Zimbabwean civil society agencies (CSOs) based in South Africa have resolved to join hands to find a common approach to helping refugees who have fled to the country to escape poverty and persecution under Robert Mugabe's government. Of the 3.4 million Zimbabweans (about 25% of the country's population believed to have left the country) an estimated one to two million were living in South Africa, legally and illegally, they claimed.

The Association of Women Engineers, Technicians and Scientists in Uganda (WETSU) is hosting the Gender Advisory Board (GAB) Africa Region Secretariat. The purpose of the Secretariat is to enable the GAB fulfil its mandate in liasing with regional policy makers, researchers, NGOs, UN agencies and all stake holders; and support national governments in implementing the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (UNCSTD) gender recommendations.

Zambia's former president Frederick Chiluba was in the dock last Thursday as a new corruption trial began over the alleged theft of $488 000 (about R3-million) of state funds by him and two businessmen. An immaculately dressed Chiluba sat for more than four hours, hearing evidence by the first three witnesses called to provide testimony on corruption against the three accused.

Reporting directly to the Secretary General and providing administrative and office management assistance for the CIVICUS Secretariat, the incumbent will be responsible for organising day-to-day correspondence; serve as liaison to the Board, other CIVICUS staff and the public; ensure continuity and consistency in representations to various audiences by working especially closely with the offices of Programmes, Finance, Communications and others; and assist with the Secretary General’s internal oversight and co-ordination activities.

A top International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said President Robert Mugabe has had a change of heart and now wants to resume relations with the multilateral financier. In a Press statement after meeting Mugabe in Harare earlier this week IMF director for Africa, Abdoulaye Bio Tchane, said the Zimbabwean leader had assured him he wanted a new and meaningful relationship with the lending institution.

Universal primary education (UPE) could save at least 7 million young people from contracting HIV over a decade. However, without dramatic increases in aid to education, Africa will not be able to get every child into school for another 150 years. This report from the Global Campaign for Education sets out why UPE is crucial to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, and outlines what both rich and poor countries need to do now to enable millions of children to learn to survive.

A three-day nationwide anti-polio immunisation campaign began on Sunday in the Central African Republic (CAR), targeting children aged up to five years. The director of preventive medicine in the Ministry of Public Health and Population, Dr Abel Namssenmo, told IRIN on Sunday the campaign follows a polio outbreak in October from the western province of Mambere Kadei, where 27 cases were reported.

Shame was replaced by solidarity at the launch of an umbrella body of organisations of Swazis living with HIV/AIDS this week. The Swaziland National Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS (SWANNEPHA), comprising 46 organisations with memberships ranging from a handful to over 1,400, aims to reduce stigma and discrimination and "build a positive image of people living with HIV and AIDS".