Tens of thousands of black Mauritanians living in exile for the past 18 years have officially begun the process of returning home from camps in Senegal and Mali but many said they were concerned Moorish Mauritanians would continue to discriminate against them. “We realize that returning to our country will be hard,” a spokesperson for the refugees, Amadou Wane, told IRIN at a camp in Ndioum, one of 284 village-like sites along the border with Mauritania.

Pastoralists across Africa want their children to have access to education that suits their nomadic lifestyles, representatives of pastoral communities said on 9 July in Isiolo. “The issue of the education curriculum is important to understanding pastoralism; imagine taking a lot of time to teach a child in Mandera [northern Kenya] how to plant beans when that child could be taught how to tan leather, given that it is the available resource,” Ali Wario, Kenya’s assistant minister for special programmes in the office of the president, said.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the head of the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have strongly endorsed a summit to be held later this year aiming to boost information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure in Africa to advance development on the continent. The Connect Africa Summit, will be held in Kigali, Rwanda, from 29 to 30 October.

"Air Info", a bi-weekly privately-owned newspaper in Agadez, about 1,000 km from the capital Niamey, was suspended on 29 June 2007 by the media regulatory body (Conseil Supérieur de la Communication, CSC) for covering the activities of a rebel group in the northern part of Niger. The CSC has also frozen the newspaper's annual subsidy provided by the government to the media under Niger's media law.

Zambia's decision to keep borrowing could slip the country back into indebtedness even before social expenditure improves, civil society activists have warned. Zambia had its US$7.2 billion external debt slashed to about $500 million, as a reward for sticking with economic reforms under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

Africans in the Diaspora have called on all African Diaspora leaders to support the building a strong Diaspora region that will positively influence the creation of an African government for all African people.

The call, which followed a recent failure by the African Union (AU) leaders to unify Africa under one central government, was made by the convenors of the 2007 Pan Afrikan Movement (PAM) Summit, which is holding in Kingston, Jamaica from July 16-18. The Jamaica summit, according to a statement by the conveners, is expected to have African veteran leaders, scholars, activists, faith leaders, dignitaries, entrepreneurs and students in attendance focusing on Pan African unity in the Diaspora.

Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda is to host this years Connect Africa Summit that is to be held from October 29-30 2007. According to a statement issued by the Geneva based International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the announcement was made by ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré at a Press Conference in Geneva, held jointly with the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID).

The ravaging of Africa has been enriching Europe and North America for more than 500 years. First, European empires imposed slavery and colonialism on the continent. After 1945, the United States took over as the dominant neo-colonial power. This is the subject of a 4-episode series written by Asad Asmi and produced by Kristin Schwarz. Twenty-eight activists from 16 African countries were interviewed for the series. The documentary is based on Asad's award-winning article of the same title.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today urged the government of Côte d'Ivoire to take urgent actions to put an end to newsroom robberies after four media companies were raided in a period of two months by armed groups who stole office equipment and documents. "We condemn these attacks, which are creating an environment of fear and panic in the press," said Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa office.

2007 is an important year for the world, as it marks the halfway mark set by governments around the world to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. At halfway, most African countries are off track for achieving the MDGs. The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) believes that governments should urgently translate the commitments they made in 2000 and 2005 into concrete actions.

Seated on beer crates around a cattle kraal on the Wild Coast, a small gathering of tribal elders, headmen and residents this week resolved that their communal land was not on offer for mining. Recent prospecting has revealed a heavy minerals deposit extending 22km from the Mzamba and Mtentu rivers south of Port Edward.

Scientists have found that a relatively new drug is much more effective at treating HIV/AIDS in treatment-experienced patients, but experts in the developing world say it may be too costly for widespread use in resource-poor countries. The research, published in The Lancet last week (6 July) concludes that darunavir-ritonavir, a drug developed to combat HIV that is resistant to other HIV drugs, should be considered as a treatment option for HIV-infected individuals at various stages of treatment.

As part of its Interventions series, CODESRIA invites younger researchers enrolled in post-graduate programmes in African universities or who have completed their doctoral research not more than five years ago to submit essays of between 10,000 and 12,000 words on the subject of the Decolonising the Social Sciences in Africa: The Unfinished Agenda. The deadline for the submission of essays is 15 October, 2007.

The massive popularity of wireless networking has caused equipment costs to continually plummet, while equipment capabilities continue to increase. By applying this technology in areas that are badly in need of critical communications infrastructure, more people can be brought online than ever before, in less time, for very little cost. This book was created by a team of individuals who each, in their own field, are actively participating in the ever-expanding Internet by pushing its reach farther than ever before.

We, the affiliate union leadership of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), meeting at the Quality International Hotel in Harare on 28 and 29 June 2007 to, among other things, discuss the Kadoma Declaration...

Management and Board of the Gender Development Institute (GDI) invites participation in the 4th International Gender Conference. The theme for this conference has been chosen because Sexual and Gender-Based Violence is a major Public Health and Human Rights problem throughout the world.

The purpose of the workshop is to familiarize participants with the situation regarding the underlying social factors that influence prevention, care and treatment practices, such as gender norms, gender-based violence and alcohol and drug abuse in the region, as well as communication approaches to address them.

Vancouver-based Lundin for Africa, the philanthropic arm of the Lundin Group of Companies, has pledged $100 million to the Clinton Foundation's recently announced Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative (CGSGI), which is aimed at alleviating poverty and building sustainable local economies in developing countries. The Lundin for Africa commitment will be aimed, in large part, at approved projects in Africa, where the Lundin Group has significant mining, oil and gas interests.

On the 28th of June an international day of solidarity was held around the world to appeal for setting two Ethiopian civil society leaders free. About 40 committed civil society professionals from the likes of Amnesty International, Civicus and Sangoco and several Ethiopian organisations assembled in front of the Ethiopian embassy in Pretoria to shout, chat and scream for human rights in Ethiopia.

The continuing discrimination and violence faced by women and those living with HIV and AIDS advocates in South Africa is enormous and warrants the attention and action of government officials and the international community.

Chad is failing to protect its civilians from armed groups who kill, mutilate and rape in the conflict stricken central African country, an international refugee body said. In a report released late on Wednesday, the Norwegian Refugee Council said the estimated 172,600 people who have been uprooted by fighting in eastern Chad over the past two years often lack access to water, food and health care.

The impoverished African kingdom of Lesotho has declared an official food crisis after bad harvests left more than 400,000 people in need of food aid, a U.N. agency said. The United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Lesotho's government had declared a food security emergency based on U.N. reports showing a "major food gap" affecting a fifth of the population

Under pressure from the medical community, the Algerian government recently allowed distribution of a new preventive treatment for cervical cancer. A lack of early screening and treatment facilities and an increase in the cancer's prevalence in Algeria drove the Algerian government to register the vaccine as a government programme.

'You have not mastered the white people’s foreign tongue? Then you do not have the right to education in your own country, not even at primary school. You have no right to any worthwhile education, however brilliant you are.' Prince Kum’a Ndumbe III calls on Africans to re-appropriate their own languages or face intellectual genocide.

Lo si kodise bato matoi na bwambo bwa bakala mo na mo ! O si bi te nja we no, sele o ko mbuke ! O ma be o mboa ngo nya wamene, o si bie ndand’a ngo nya mbia, o si bie neni o ma kema no ná o bele ba mbambe bongo e? O pimbedi te, baise, mota ndedi a ma leye oa ngea mboa!

Translation: Do not deafen yourself with the white people’s language all the time! If you do not know who you are, then first be silent! You are truly at home, yet you do not even know how to recite your genealogy. You do not know the words in which to invoke your ancestors! If you are lost, then you may ask. Forgiveness will show you the way home.

So why do I speak Douala in this era of globalisation? But of course I do. It is what keeps me going, walking with my head held high whilst I converse with the West in its languages.

Universities in African countries are still not African universities. Mostly, they are universities in thrall to the foreign, the West, Europe and North America. Their conception, philosophy, orientation and research, even their academic rituals and ceremonies, are more often than not a bad, if not grotesque, copy of the ancient and modern metropoles.

It is imperative that universities in Africa become African universities; that universities in Cameroon become Cameroonian universities. Intellectual genocide has already massacred enough in Africa. It is time to stop.

My argument is neither anti-white nor xenophobic. The issue at stake is how to uncover the mechanisms behind this lethal mindlessness, which is depriving the whole of humanity of precious scientific knowledge acquired by the black peoples over millennia. My discourse also challenges white people to ask themselves: what has it meant to be white for the last five centuries? What are the repercussions for white people themselves, and for others?

1. The white people’s language is the only language

I address you in French, the white people’s language, here in Yaoundé, capital of Cameroon, in a university environment designed for a small minority, which has no choice but to bend to the omnipresent and manifold power of the Western colonial or postcolonial metropoles. The great majority of Cameroonians will have no access to this debate, articulated in a language that is not their own, and which excludes them from decisions about their own future.

In Africa, the foreigner’s language has become the key to accessing the institutions that govern us, and the decisions that determine our daily lives. Competition to learn this language has become an obsession. For it is essential to be well armed in order to escape the exclusion in which the vast majority of the population finds itself.

The university represents a higher level of this competition to escape. And the language used by the university is one of the first conditions of access. You have not mastered the white people’s foreign tongue? Then you do not have the right to education in your own country, not even at primary school. You have no right to any worthwhile education, however brilliant you are. And that is your bad luck.

You do not want to speak the white people’s language? Then you will remain in your state of barbarism, speaking in your incomprehensible patois, in your dialect that is incapable of embodying thought, in your vernacular language which is barely appropriate for creativity or progress.

The point is that only the white people’s language exists. Their language embodies all thought and outlook on the world. It articulates creation and progress in a universal way – for them, as well as for you, you little niggers thirsty for a place in the sun governed by white people.

There is an urgent need to dismantle the logic that domination is achieved through the command of a foreign language that entails us completely losing the memory of ourselves and becoming incapable of articulating our own thoughts in our own languages.

Cheikh Anta Diop took the trouble to translate Einstein’s theory of relativity into Wolof in order to demonstrate that it is not only in the language of ancient Egypt that blacks are able to master the natural and medical sciences; contemporary African languages are also capable of articulating thought across the academic disciplines.

This does not mean that all school and university textbooks will be available tomorrow in African languages. However, it does signify and reveal the scandal of colonial and postcolonial domination through the imposition of the white people’s language. The way out of this domination and the underdevelopment it engenders is clear.

The direction must be this: Africans must re-appropriate their own languages and use them as basic vehicles for their thinking, production, education, dreams and outlook on the world. It is not only language that is at stake here, but also the survival of the nation, the collective control of the destiny of a people. It is a question of development thought out and directed by a nation, so that it may flourish.

2. Language, scientific heritage and the articulation of thought

No nation has ever developed by eradicating its own language or languages and by swallowing the language of another people without sinking under their enduring domination.

No nation has developed by cutting its umbilical cord with its own intellectual and spiritual heritage; by decreeing that their own heritage, most of all their scientific heritage, is not palpable; and by deciding that abruptly everything must come from outside, from the dominating people, articulated in the language and embedded in the thought of a foreign people. How is it that Africa and the Africans of the 21st century have been made to swallow such a lethal poisonous snake?

Today, universities in Africa have become citadels of foreign domination in which elites are moulded. They are wholly outwardly focused on the dominant countries, today called donors. Africans are educated in these universities, as is the case here in Cameroon, in the white people’s language, thought, philosophy, theology, foreign languages, economics, law, medicine, pharmacy, chemistry, maths, physics and so on.

The European political classes understand the situation so well that they are keen that the best of these African elites are simply integrated into the European metropoles and cast into destructive European globalisation. Given the conditions of underdevelopment and pitiful university salaries, graduates from African universities are applying in great numbers for this new style immigration. Effectively, those who are left behind will have to bear the financial responsibility of educating an elite that Europe and North America will subsequently use to boost their economies. India, with its 700,000 engineers, has, by the way, learned how to apply the breaks to this European bait.

In the universities in most African countries, the African peoples’ thousands of years of scientific heritage is hidden. Access to it may even be forbidden by regulations. It therefore remains almost non-existent for the learner, who will deduce by implication that only white people can be educated, and that the only way of excelling is by becoming their star pupil.

African laureates of these universities, without wanting it or knowing it, therefore become the privileged instruments which perpetrate foreign dominance in their own countries. Without wanting or knowing it, they become the fifth estate, which monopolises political, administrative, financial and military power in their own countries in order to place themselves resolutely at the service of the West. Promotion is only possible for those who accept the logic of this perspective.

African universities can therefore only reproduce a model destined to alienate African peoples for ever, even if from time to time, little steps are made to force a thin layer of Africanness into certain disciplines. But in which academic disciplines will the African scientific heritage, accumulated over so many years, become at least a substantial subject in, if not central to, the teaching and education in our Cameroonian universities?

This is where we are today, and we must recognise that position with humility. That said, contemporary and future academic research has an obligation to collect, assemble and rehabilitate African scientific heritage in every discipline. Politics has the responsibility to encourage, formulate and finance this rehabilitation and to open the doors of schools and universities to our heritage.

This will not only be good for Africans and for the development of Africa. Students and researchers of the donor countries will also benefit because they will finally have recourse to genuinely modern African academic sources. We will at last stop producing bad copies of the academic discourse of others and become creators of science in the world of globalised technology and thought.

3. Foreign languages and education of the ‘illiterate and self-ignorant scholar’

I would like to stress an aspect of foreign languages little discussed in our universities. Foreign languages such as French and English are not just languages of instruction in Africa. They also benefit from whole literature, arts and humanities departments. Students thus specialise in the language, literature, linguistics and civilisation of the languages’ country of origin. In Western universities, European languages such as German, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Latin also have the advantage of research and teaching departments, and a Cameroonian copy of these has been stuck on to our university structures.

I would contend that we are now in an urgent situation, where this African or Cameroonian copy is overwhelming our students. In the European universities, a French student who has for example matriculated to study German has spoken and written his French mother tongue since nursery school, and has command of his language. He thinks in his language and constructs his reasoning in the logic of the French language. He dreams in French and has a distinctly French outlook on the world. The German that he has been learning since secondary school is an opening, an enrichment, which enhances his knowledge acquired in the French learning environment. He will be able to use it in his profession. He will be able to navigate between French and German worlds as an intermediary or a bridge. In the same way, the Japanese student who studies German does not only have perfect command of his Japanese language. He understands the history, literature of Japan, Japanese thought and logic. He is profoundly integrated in his own culture, religious environment and Japanese vision of the world.

The Cameroonian student on the other hand who does a degree in French, English, German, Spanish or Italian is, in the overwhelming majority of cases, an educated person, but illiterate and ignorant of their own Cameroonian language. If they are asked the question, ’What languages do you speak?’ they will regally reply, ‘French’, ‘English’, ‘German’, ‘Spanish’ or ‘Italian’, whatever languages they are taking. To the response, ‘Is that all?’ they will say it is. If they are then asked, ‘Don’t you have a mother tongue?’ they will exclaim, ‘Ah, my patois! I speak a little.’ In most cases however, they will find it difficult to hold a serious conversation or discussion in their language. They will not know how to write or recite a syllable or poem in their own language.

This learned person, illiterate and ignorant of their own linguistic heritage, is, however, called on to graduate in the language, literature, thought and world of the European or North American. They are educated neither in the language, nor the thought, nor the literature, nor the world that correspond to their own sensitivities. This illiterate and self-ignorant educated person will essentially internalise European values and perspectives, thought and logic. They will apply to their future secondary school pupils or students the same Western methods. They will transmit the same logic of academic hierarchy and dominance, perhaps without even knowing it, without even wanting to do so.

We are thus producing in our universities language students graduating in European thought and languages but dangerously ignorant of their own people’s languages and thought. This is a system which is reproducing foreign domination. It is unjustifiable that Cameroonian taxes are financing these cycles of study and it is unacceptable and contrary to all developmental accountability.

In our French and English departments, African authors are certainly studied, but only those who write in the white people’s language, which means books published since the First World War, written by Africans in European languages. The enormous linguistic and literary heritage of Africa in our languages is not considered in those departments, even less so in the German or Spanish or Italian departments. These students will therefore receive their undergraduate degrees, masters degrees and doctorates whilst remaining deeply ignorant of their own languages and literature; in other words, of their own scientific heritage.

How can we expect that an educated class structured in this way can be called on to resolve the problems challenging its own country, Cameroon? How can we expect that an illiterate and self-ignorant educated person will one day claim to successfully drive the future of a nation, as, for example, president, minister, director general, civil servant, managing director, or manager?

4. Language and a change in political course for African and Cameroonian universities

Universities in Africa face the challenge of becoming African universities on African soil. Language is at the basis of everything: all thought, articulation and creation. African languages must make their solemn entry into African universities as languages of instruction, research, and comparative study with foreign languages. European languages must cease to be languages of self-alienation for Africans, languages of domination and structural alienation. European languages must become partner languages in Africa, languages of opening and frank dialogue. These changes must be made progressively, in stages, but it is imperative that they are made.

African language departments in our universities were not created to Africanise our African universities. They are, in the same way as the other departments, products of the logic of a colonial metropolitan university system whereby African languages were studied to win the African soul over to Christianity and the ideology of submission to colonial domination; for purposes of anthropological and ethnological knowledge; and as bridges of communication with the colonised.

African language departments existed in most of the universities of the colonial powers, in Paris, Berlin, Brussels and London. They always had an exotic status and few students. Not much has changed; they are still marginal, precisely as if they were of no national interest!

African language departments in our universities should not be allowed to evolve in a vacuum. The debate on African languages must widen. These departments are called on to develop an academic framework for the study of African languages on a continental scale, in close collaboration with other universities. Equally they must offer services to all our other university departments.

I would propose five step-changes that can be made progressively:

1. Students in French, English, German, Spanish, Italian and other European language departments should include in their courses compulsory and accredited units on African languages and literature. The goal is to help these students read, write and perfect at least one African language, to discover literature in African languages, even if this is not necessarily the student’s local language.

2. Students of all other faculties including science and medicine must include a compulsory African languages module among their courses.

3. The training of teachers in African languages should be accelerated.

4. The number of specialised teaching manuals adapted to teaching African languages in different departments and specific faculties should be increased.

5. There should be systematic use of the internet for academic research, teaching, popularisation and communication of African languages.

These measures will create new jobs for translators and African language primary, secondary and university level teachers, and specialised study of these languages in medicine, pharmacy, physics, chemistry, law, economics and information technology. New publishing houses, specialising in African languages, will publish newspapers, journals and books . Radio, television and the press will generate an increasing need for African language readers and presenters.

For this to happen, all those who understand the link between language and underdevelopment, and language and development must make a sustained effort. We must educate public opinion, those in positions of political, administrative and university authority, and lecturers and students, so that the structure of mental domination in our universities is exposed and the logic of the universities that leads to underdevelopment revealed.

Decision makers will need political courage to orient African universities in this new direction. But for the good of the people this is not a matter of choice. The decision may be deferred for personal political reasons, but it can only be deferred. One day the political and economic shambles and the advanced disintegration of values and perspectives will force the decision makers to act to save the nation.

African languages are a key element in the re-composition of Africans’ personality; for the reestablishment of their psychic and mental equilibrium; and to allow reconciliation with themselves. The introduction of these languages into the school and university systems will permit a redeployment of energies that will lead to a new kind of economic development of our countries, and towards a new balance between the individual and society. It seems to me that this is a direction worth taking.

* Prince Kum'a Ndumbe III is professor at the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon. He is the founding president of the foundation, a cultural development organisation in Cameroon and Berlin.

This article was first published in French by Africavenir and in the French edition of Pambazuka News [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org

The recent national strike in Nigeria ended after only four days. Femi Aborisade argues that despite the sudden surrender of the unions, working class people have shown that they are a force to reckon in the process of policy formulation and implementation.

The four-day general strike in Nigeria has once again demonstrated the potentials of the working class to influence the course of history. President Umaru Yar’Adua admitted this much when he said the strike ‘wreaked havoc on economy and our people’ (24 June 2007). Government offices, private companies, petrol stations, ports, airports, schools and hospitals closed down. Commercial vehicles were off the road and major highways became football pitches for youths. Oil exports in all terminals except one were prevented. In short, the strike ‘paralysed’ Nigeria.

While President Umaru mourned the paralysing effects of the strike on crude oil exports, ordinary people saw in the strike an opportunity to express a striving to free themselves from the shackles of poverty. Over 70 per cent of Nigerians, about 98,000,000 people of a population of 140,000,000, live in extreme poverty, with less than a dollar a day. In the midst of pervasive poverty, former President Obasanjo, in the twilight of his tenure, took the following actions: The prices of petrol, kerosene and diesel per litre were increased by ten Naira (^10.00); petrol (PMS) was raised from ^65 to ^75, kerosene (DPK) from ^54 to ^64 and diesel (AGO) from ^54 to ^64. This amounted to an increase of over 15 per cent in the price of petrol/litre, and about 19 per cent increase in the prices of diesel and kerosene. VAT rate was raised by 100 per cent, from 5-10 per cent. In addition, six companies, including the Port Harcourt Refining Company Ltd (PHRC) and Kaduna Refining and Petrolchemical Company Limited were sold to foreign and local private companies without resolving labour concerns. Public sector employees were also agitating for payment of 15 per cent increase in basic pay, which the former President had granted but never implemented.

The poor perceived government actions as punitive measures to compound their agony. The payroll tax, called PAYE (Pay-As-You-Earn) has recently been changed to 10 per cent of gross pay instead of the previous policy of taxing only basic pay, after making allowances for dependants, children and the aged, etc. There are also the following taxes: National Housing Fund (NHF), 2.5 per cent of salary; Pension deductions, 7.5 per cent; National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), 5 per cent. These add up to 25 per cent of the employee’s pay. Workers earning poverty pay would be hard hit by the increase in VAT because they spend the bulk of their earnings on consumption items. Increases in the prices of petroleum products automatically cause increases in the prices of all other goods and services.

The process of increasing the prices of petroleum products was illegal. The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPRA) was established by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPRA) Act No. 8 of 2003. Section 2 of the Act provides for the membership of the PPRA Governing Board, which includes representatives of organized labour. Section 7 empowers the Board to determine the pricing policy of petroleum products. Paragraph 1 of the 1st Schedule to the Act prescribes that the Board shall take decisions by majority support. The Board never met. It was the Secretariat of the PPRA that unilaterally increased the prices of petroleum products. The increases were therefore illegal.

Besides, there was no economic rationale for the price increases. Nigeria currently produces an average of about 2.6 mbd (of crude oil) and exports about 2.3mbd. (Udo, 2007: C7). The 2007 budget was prepared on the basis of a benchmark value price of US$30 per barrel. With the price in the international market hovering between US$65 and US$70 per barrel, this translates to between US$35 and US$40 per barrel going into the excess crude oil account.

The privatisation of public enterprises, including the sale of refineries, violates the current Constitution of Nigeria, which provides that wealth shall not be concentrated in a few hands and that the State, not the private sector, shall manage the major sectors of the economy. [Section 16 (4)].

The strike was therefore declared to achieve the following: reversal of the N10 increases in the prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene; removal of 100 per cent increase in VAT, from 5-10 per cent; payment of 15 per cent increase in basic pay for public sector workers, and review of the sale of refineries and power generating plants.

The labour movement gave a 14-day ultimatum, which government treated with levity. In fact, spokespersons of the regime threatened that even if labour embarked on strikes and mass protests for ten years nothing would change (The Guardian, 19 June 2007: 2). The Government declared the strike illegal following the judgment of the Court of Appeal in an earlier case where the court held that the Nigeria Labour Congress had no right to call out workers on strike against general economic and political decisions of the Federal Government because such have nothing to do with breach of individual contracts of employment with various employers as envisaged in the Trade Disputes Act.

While the Nigerian labour law restricts the right to strike and the judiciary goes ahead to declare strike action against general economic and political policies illegal, Nigeria is a member of the International Labour Organization, which recognises the right to strike as a fundamental right. The Abolition of Forced Labour Convention No. 105 of 1957 prohibits the use of forced or compulsory labour ‘as a punishment for having participated in strikes’ (Article 1 sub-paragraph [d]). Also, the Voluntary Conciliation and Arbitration Recommendation No. 92 of 1951 states in paragraph 7 that no provision of the Recommendation ‘may be interpreted as limiting, in any way whatsoever, the right to strike’. As a member of the international community, it is incumbent on any country that seeks to acquire the status of a civilised state to give effect to resolutions emanating from an organisation to which it belongs.

In spite of all the pre-strike arrogance of government officials and spokespersons, less than 24 hours to the strike, in a desperate effort to avert the strike, government offered the following concessions: increase in VAT rate from 5-10 per cent was revoked; 15 per cent salary increase to be effected for federal employees with effect from 1 January 2007; the N10 per litre increase on the prices of kerosene and diesel was reversed and reduction of the N10 per litre increase in the pump head price of petrol to N5 per litre.

Labour accepted all the concessions but one, insisting on reversal of the price of petrol/litre to the old rate of N65. The strike then continued until it was called off suddenly with effect from the midnight of 23 June 2007, without winning the demand. Labour capitulated on the basis of a letter by President Umaru Yar’Adua promising not to increase the price of petrol for the next one year. In effect, petrol will continue to sell at N70 per litre. The other concessions contained in President Yar’Adua’s letter included an undertaking to set up expert committees, which would include representatives of labour to examine the issues of petroleum pricing mechanism as well as sale of refineries and power generating plants. Government also undertook not to take any disciplinary action against any worker participating in the strike.

Daily Sun (25 June 2007: 6) explains that the role of traditional rulers, particularly the Sultan of Sokoto, was decisive in the sudden capitulation by the top labour leadership. However, there was a division even within the top leadership. As Sunday Punch (24 June 2007:13) reported, a section of the TUC leadership had threatened to call a Press Conference ‘to express a few reservations on the agreement labour reached with government’. Working class youths were angry about the sudden back down by labour leadership: ‘why embark on strike by rejecting the N70/litre price of petrol which government had offered in the bid to prevent the strike taking off, only to turn round to accept what had been rejected?, they questioned.

Dress Rehearsal Strikes

The anger of working class youths against the sudden surrender by national labour leadership is understandable. Weeks and months preceding the strike, there had been series of threats of strike and actual strikes, as dress rehearsals, preparatory to the nationwide strike. These included strikes by Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) workers, Electricity workers, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASSU), and protests against the controversial 2007 general elections organized by the Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO). There were also sabotage activities, bombings and kidnappings by militant groups and mass protests in the Niger Delta against exploitative oil companies as well as threats by self determination groups in the South Eastern part of Nigeria to disrupt the hand over program to a new President if key self determination leaders were not released from detention.

What the foregoing shows is that the working class, in several sectors, had been infuriated and imbued with a fighting spirit to protect jobs and improve their overall living standards. That opportunity to express their anger and reverse the privatization process has temporarily been botched by the shocking compromise and sudden strike call off. But it would be a temporary set back. On the basis of a system of exporting crude oil and importing refined products, we do not need a soothsayer to predict that crises lie ahead.

Gains

Regardless of the weaknesses of the strike, the working class has shown that based on a united force of organisations of the poor, it is a force to reckon with in the process of policy formulation and implementation. The strike represents a message to the ruling class that labour will not just slavishly accept attacks on its rights without a fight. No matter how marginal, the reductions in VAT and prices of petroleum products are gains that could not have been won without a fight. Also, contrary to the threat of applying the ‘no work no pay’ rule, one of the agreements in ending the strike was that no worker would be penalized for having participated in the strike.

Weaknesses

However, the basis of the united platform upon which the strike was called was not brought to bear on the strike sufficiently. Whereas the Federal Government made a concession to implement the 15 per cent increase in basic pay, similar commitment was not extracted from the state Governments. This resulted in the continuation of the strike by State organs of the unions in states like Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, etc - after the nationwide action had been called off (See for example Nigerian Tribune, 26 June 2007: 5). Similarly, ASUU, which had started its strike three months before the nationwide strike, had to continue its strike until 1 July because the agreements reached did not touch on their concerns. In the same vein, though workers in the Niger Delta participated in the strike, some militant groups in the sub region openly dissociated themselves from the nationwide strike on the ground that the plight of the Niger Delta people had never been the concern of organized labour.

Reactive or Proactive Struggles?

The 20 -23 June general strike was a defensive strike. Rather than being proactive, the leadership of the strike was reactive and predominantly economistic. The strike was not aimed at bringing about fundamental changes to the root cause of the problems. Instead of addressing the root cause, the strike was essentially about the effects of government policies.

The behaviour of the leadership of the strike fits into Marx description of non-forward looking trade union leadership:

Trade Unions work well as centres of resistance against the encroachments of capital. They fail partially from an injudicious use of their power. They fail generally from limiting themselves to a guerilla war against the effects of the existing system, instead of simultaneously trying to change it, instead of using their organised forces as a lever for the final emancipation of the working class. (Marx, 1958: 447, cited in Hyman, 1975: 98)

A more pro-active approach would require challenging the policy of reliance on private importation of petroleum products, insistence on investigation of corruption in the management of existing refineries, and advocating local refining through existing and new state-owned refineries.

Central to the fuel crisis in Nigeria is the government commitment to the neoliberal principle of disengaging from economic activity and promoting the private sector in the supply of critical goods. The idea of promoting the private sector, combined with stupendous financial corruption involving about US$550 million in the Turn Around Maintenance (TAMs) of the refineries, results in crippling the state owned refineries, in order to justify reliance on the private sector for importation of petroleum products and sale of the refineries under the guise of inefficiency of state enterprises.

Who Should Control Industries?

As the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, 2001: 7-9) has pointedly posited, the big question for today is: how is industry to be controlled? Given the subsisting capitalist economic structure, the challenge is to interrogate managerial control with a view to accommodating a role for workers who work in each industry, and in the cases of mineral producing areas, the communities, in managing the enterprises. This suggests that working class organizations must reflect and advocate comprehensive solutions to issues regarding production, pricing and distribution of goods in an equitable and ecologically sustainable manner through advocacy of involvement of the trade unions and communities in the running of industries.

Mode of Strike Action and Process of Strike Call Off

That the strike was called off without resorting to the members, organs, and groups that sustained the strike for the period it lasted raises the issue of industrial/trade union democracy. Working class organizations must provide efficient democratic structure and process for carrying on daily struggles for better conditions and pay. The organs that take the decision to embark on strike must also be the ones to decide to call it off. With that kind of perspective, the need for mass protests and rallies rather than a-stay-at-home strike action will be seen.

The stay-at-home strike action renders the rank and file passive participants in the strike process and deprives the strike of the inputs and influence of the members from below in determining the direction of the strike, leaving the decision to call off or continue strike actions to the whims and caprices of the few leaders. In this regard, the Nigerian labour movement has a lot to learn from its South African counterparts that subjected government offers of wage increases to discussions at mass meetings of individual affiliate unions, during a strike that was taking place simultaneously in the two countries.

Indefinite or Limited Strike Action?

The strike also revealed the weakness of ‘indefinite’ strike action. Indefinite strike action is applicable in a situation in which the objective and subjective conditions point to the possibility of the working class taking over political power. Without such a revolutionary situation in existence, the state cannot tolerate ‘indefinite’ action. The situation will have to be resolved one way or the other, in revolutionary change or restoration of political control by the capitalist ruling class. For a working class leadership that completely lacks the perspective of the working class taking power, ‘indefinite’ form of action is a recipe for sudden back down. Therefore, it would be better to base actions on defined, limited number of days or weeks, continuation or discontinuation of action being determined by the mood and preparedness of the working class and the other poor strata, expressed at mass meetings. In other words, an attempt should be made to distinguish the Gramscian moments of ‘war of movement’ (when the actual revolution is ongoing) from moments of ‘war of position’ (when slow but steady preparatory revolutionary work is taking place).

Conclusion

The importance of drawing out lessons of struggles is implicit in a statement by Marx: ‘Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted by the past’ (Marx, 1958: 247). It is hoped the lessons discussed in this paper will benefit future struggles.

* Femi Aborisade is a lecturer at The Polytechnic, Ibadan. He is the coordinator of the Centre for Labour Studies (CLS) & an Associate of the Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

For references, see link below.

Sierra Leone hankers for a transformation most nations in the West enjoy in this modern era: a liberalized and technologically advanced economy within an established democratic order. It is foolish to ignore the notion that development interests and democratic principles are uneasily aligned in Sierra Leone today.

Horrific acts of violence were committed against women and children during and after the wars in the Great Lakes region. Dieu-Donné Wedi Djamba points to the pain and other injustices experienced by survivors in order to sensitise the regional communities and authorities to become involved with the healing process of the thousands of women and children 'so the words "never again" can have a meaning.

We want our dignity back! Time to wipe tears and heal wounds of women and girls, victims of wars in the Great Lakes region.

All societies that have faced mass trauma and violence have certain things in common, including the matter of perpetrators, bystanders and victims. Perpetrators usually argue that they obeyed orders; and that their actions were not of their own volition. Bystanders usually claim ignorance; that they did not know these things were happening; that they were not given proper information; and therefore, that they are not accountable. Most important are the victims, most of whom want to heal; and some of whom may even be prepared to forgive. [1] In brief, all three groups need a space in the new post-conflict era, in order to live peacefully vis-à-vis society and their own consciences.

But in the Great Lakes region, while the perpetrators and bystanders are living peacefully and comfortably, [2] [3] the victims, particularly women and girls, continue to experience the same nightmares. They have paid a heavy price for the deadly wars, which have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, refugees and displacements, mass human rights violations such as rape, torture, and other atrocities, burning of houses and the looting of national resources by the different armed groups. [4] An aftermath does not seem to exist for them. Indeed, the post-conflict period is the equivalent of the period of the actual conflict.

This paper highlights the pain and other injustices experienced by women and girls during and after the wars in the Great Lakes region. The aim is to sensitise the Great Lakes region community as a whole and the region’s authorities in particular to be involved in the healing process of the thousands of women and girl victims of wars in the region; so that the words ‘never again’ can have a meaning.

The time of hurt

Although having different roots in each Great Lakes country, wars are the main time during which women and girls have been deeply hurt. Indeed, rapes, abductions, tortures, mutilations or burying women and girls alive were different strategies used by belligerents in the different wars which have affected the Great Lakes region over decades.

Protected as a weak sex, women and girls become a weapon for belligerents to destroy both enemy groups and civilians. In this regard, Amnesty International USA [5] has pointed out that rape, sometimes by groups as large as 20 men, has become a hallmark of the conflict, with armed factions often using it as part of a calculated strategy to destabilise opposition groups, undermine fundamental community values, humiliate the victims and witnesses, and secure control through fear and intimidation.

Louise Nzigire, a social worker, at Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, stated that rape has been a cheap and simple weapon for all parties in the war, more easily obtainable than bullets or bombs: ‘This violence was designed to exterminate the population’, [6] she added. Juliane Kippenberg, co-author of a 2002 Human Rights Watch report The War within the War on sexual violence against women and girls in the eastern DRC, told IRIN: ‘A lot of women [in eastern DRC] were raped in front of their children. They will be affected.’[7]

Moreover, some survivors of genocide in Rwanda grieve that the rapists told them that they had been allowed to live, but only to die of sadness.[8] But rape is not the only component of the nightmare experienced by women and girls in the region. Sexual slavery, [9] abductions, mutilations, [10] tortures and killings [11] number among this macabre series.

The post-conflict situation

After being deeply affected by several years of conflicts, the Great Lakes region is moving towards peace. There are signs such as the elections in the DRC [12], the peace talks between Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) [13], the peace talks in Burundi between government and the Forces for National Liberation (FNL), the last Hutu rebel group which refused to be involved to the peace process [14]and the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes region, signed in December in Nairobi by 12 countries of the Great Lakes region.[15]

The end of every conflict is the beginning of a new life and a moment of rising hope for many victims of the conflicts. But while others are celebrating the new beginning, women and girls are still carrying the heavy weight of tears, sadness and sorrow. A rape victim in the eastern DRC town of Goma told IRIN [16] how she and her eight-year old daughter were raped by ‘military men’ in front of her husband. The husband later rejected the woman, leaving her deal with her trauma alone.

Jeannette Umurerwa, a widow survivor of genocide in Rwanda said ‘… our past is so sad. We are not understood by society...We are not protected against anything… Widows are without their own families, no homes, or money. We become crazy. We aggravate people with our problems. We are the living dead’.[17]

Furthermore, Consolata, 38, also a genocide survivor and widow says that re-marrying would be impossible for as long as she lives. ‘I was raped several times during the 1994 genocide and I contracted HIV/Aids’, she added.[18]

Moreover, while some are carrying physical and psychological wounds of conflicts, others are experiencing violence in their daily life. Many cases of rape and other violence committed by militia and national army or police against women and girls are reported.

In this regard, Monuc (United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo/Mission des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo), the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC [19], reported that the human rights situation in the country continues to deteriorate, as the army and police perpetrate acts of violence against civilians, and the number of reported rapes surges. Monuc also stated that there have been numerous cases in which Congolese soldiers and police have summarily executed and raped civilians, in some cases with apparent impunity. In western Bandundu Province, a policeman with the National Congolese Police reportedly shot a 60-year old woman when delivering a summons to her daughter who had been raped by another policeman.

Other victims are facing stigmatisation in their society. Human Rights Watch [20] has pointed out that the situation of rape victims is made worse by the stigma that is attached to such violence. In many cases these women and girls are ostracised to the margins of society. In some cases husbands have rejected their wives on learning they had been raped, sometimes on the pretext that the woman must have consented to the sexual relations. Thus the word ‘aftermath’ is an empty one for these victims.

The healing process

The pain and sorrow ruining the daily life of the women and girl victims of wars in the Great Lakes region push them to scream bitterly ’we want our dignity back!’ – the dignity which was taken away from them by rapists, tortures, killers, stigmatisation or insults.

It is time to wipe away the tears and heal the wounds. All those injustices women and girls in the Great Lakes region suffer must be corrected so that the long mourning they bear can end. To do this, those responsible for the mass abuses have to be held accountable in order to break the cycle of violence against women and girls, to send a deterrent message to the potential perpetrators, and to heal the wounds of victims. The second step will be the granting of reparations to the women and girl victims of wars.

Accountability for the perpetrators

Accountability for human rights violations is an important instrument in breaking the cycle of violence and impunity. It is an indispensable component of the process of healing the wounds.[21] In this regard, Alex Boraine argues that legal prosecutions have at least three additional advantages: firstly, prosecutions in most cases prevent high-ranking perpetrators from returning to positions of authority; secondly, tribunals and special courts aim to punish those who bear the greatest responsibility for human rights violations and thus assist in breaking the cycle of collective reprisals; and thirdly, due process avoids summary justice.[22]

In the post-conflict era, accountability for mass human rights abuses can be held through a judicial and a non-judicial process. Indeed, mass human rights violation occurred with the involvement of numerous of individuals. Thus it becomes almost impossible to set a trial for all those who were involved. Only those who bear heavy responsibility can stand trial. But still, it is possible to hold all perpetrators accountable by pressing them to recognise their wrongdoing and to show remorse. This can be done through a non-judicial forum, such as a truth and reconciliation commission.

Through a legacy of conflicts and repressive regimes, the Great Lakes region countries are characterised by a judicial system which is in a state of disarray,[23] or which does not guarantee a fair trial. Meanwhile in many of the countries where truth and reconciliation has not already completely failed, as it has in the DRC,[24] truth commission forums are still debatable.

However, the presence of a special tribune such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the last decision taken by Rwandan government to abolish the death penalty [25] are strong signs of the fight against impunity. Indeed, the abolition of the death penalty from its judiciary arsenal will enable Rwanda to capitalise on the fight against impunity. Countries that reject the death penalty will be able to extradite to Rwanda exiles responsible for genocide and also to carry on with the trial after the ICTR ends in 2010.

But if a step is made in the fight against impunity through the Rwandan case, the Great Lakes region still has a long way to go to end impunity. Indeed, in the DRC, despite the mass human rights violations committed during and after the wars, only some isolated cases of trials are mentioned, while many accused of mass human right abuse are awarded in name of peace.[26] In Uganda, the population is waiting for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate abuses in the government army[27], which is accused of having committed many atrocities in northern Uganda. While in Burundi, an agreement about creating a special criminal tribunal [28] for mass human rights violations was reached, though more still has to be done to establish it. A boost to the fight against violence against women and girls may be expected from the UN, which chose the end of impunity for violence against women and girls as theme for the International Women Day 2007.[29]

Reparations

Granting reparations for past abuses will not bring the dead back to life. Nor will it cancel out the harm already suffered by victims. But it will provide them with some relief.

In this regard, Margaret Mathew[30] argues that reparations should be paid to victims as a form of redress to demonstrate that the state recognises the harm done against them. She has argued for broader rehabilitation programme dedicated to healing communities and strengthening the nation’s social-political fabric.

Indeed, women and girls who have been raped and otherwise sexually abused have been psychologically damaged as well as physically injured by these crimes. Many will never fully recover. A significant number of women and girls have become pregnant as a result of being raped. An unknown number have been infected with HIV, dramatically altering their future lives, livelihoods and prospects.[31]

Therefore, the granting of reparations to those who suffered from past abuses boosts the healing process of their wounds. But to be efficient, the reparation process for women and girls victims of violence in the Great Lakes region must be made at two levels: direct and indirect reparations.

Direct reparations will include the granting of money or rebuilding of housing as compensation, and free medical treatment for those who suffer by trauma or any disease such as HIV/Aids. In this regard, the establishment of a special fund by the Great Lakes region countries is a step to be applauded. This fund can be used to pay compensation to the victims of wars. Indirect reparations will include capacity building for all the victims to empower them to face many challenges arising in their post-conflict life.

Furthermore, there is a need for the Great Lakes region countries to work together in policy making around gender issues. A common policy for all violence against women and girls will show real political will not only to end the current and prevent future violence. This step can also boost the healing process of current victims by seeing through the words ‘never again’ to violence against women and girls.

Conclusion

After being a war torn and deeply devastated region through several years of conflicts, the Great Lakes region is moving towards peace. But while others are celebrating the new beginning, women and girls are still carrying the heavy weight of tears and sadness.

It is time to heal their wounds and to wipe away their tears. The long mourning must end. To do so, those responsible for violence against women girls have to be held accountable. Reparations have to be granted to those who have experienced harm.

Thus the word ‘aftermath’ may have a meaning for all the women and girl victims of war in the Great Lakes region.

* Dieu-Donné Wedi Djamba is a lawyer (advocate) at the Lubumbashi Bar association in the DRC, an independent consultant in transitional justice, a human rights activist, an assistant lecturer in a college of law in Lubumbashi in the DRC and a writer.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

References: see link below.

At midterm point in the achievement of the Millenium Development Goals by 2015, it seems appropriate to ask why is it that Africa looks set to be a failure, writes Tajudeen Abdul Raheem. The main internal and external obstacles to not achieving the MDGs remain the political will of our leaders and the sincerity of the political leaders of the rich world.

July 7, 2007 marked the halfway point in a journey whose destination and time of arrival was set by 189 heads of state and governments from most countries of the world including all the 53 member states of the African Union. It was a large bus garlanded with hope and lofty aspirations. The leaders invited all the peoples of the world but especially the poor, the marginalised, the sick, mothers and young boys and girls, and the weakest in all states to jump on board with promises that come 2015 the bus will deliver them to a better life and give them more concrete reasons to have faith in leaders, states and society.

They made a solemn declaration: The Millennium Declaration. But they did not stop there because the declaration was transformed into concrete, achievable, measurable; time bound commitments known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

A journey of 15 years which began in 2000 should have reached its midway point by July 2007. Are we halfway to all the targets set in the eight goals?

If we are on target there will be no cause for alarm even though the driver and even some of the passengers may demand more effort to safe more time. There is no harm in arriving early as long as we arrive safely. If we are not in the midway town questions have to be asked why. Did the vehicle have a puncture? Or even worse was it involved in a headlong collision or did it crash? Is the driver ok? Or did any of the passengers fall off or became seriously sick needing emergency attention?

If the bus is still on the road but journeying slowly we have to ask what can be done to make the journey smoother and safer, to catch up for lost time.

The MDGs bus is happily not involved in any serious accident. It is still running across different regions of the world but the roadblocks are more in some places than in others. Even within the same region there are varying speeds because in some parts the drivers seem to dose off whereas in others they are on full alert.

It is in Africa that the bus has been facing many roadblocks. Some of these were deliberately constructed by armed robbers of development (such as inept political leadership, corrupt elite and insensitive government and docile population) while others were artificially created by uncooperative other users of the road (such as rich countries that continue to rob poorer countries through unfair trade and super exploitation of global resources) while some of the obstacles could be the result of what in Hausa is termed ‘gudu ba gyara’ (i.e. ‘speeding without repairs’ or reckless driving).

The general global picture from the recently released UN General-Secretary’s MID term Report shows that Africa is the only continent of the world where the MDGs risk not being met. Unfortunately Africa is the region that needs the MDGs and really more than the MDGs than any other region of the world.

The general picture hides the growing success stories that show that it is not all bad news. There are countries that are doing quite well on a number of the Goals even if they may not meet all of them. Across the continent in education most of the countries have seen huge rises in enrolment into primary schools as a result of debt relief and new prioritisation of the education of our children by many governments.

Uganda for instance, has raised the gear from universal primary education to the secondary level; Kenya is considering same; Malawi has proven that where there is a will there is a way; and even Africa’s notoriously sleeping giant, Nigeria, has reintroduced compulsory universal basic education. On maternal death in child birth, infant mortality and education, Mozambique (returning to peace just in a decade) and Rwanda (that ended genocide only 12 years ago) are making steady progress. Uganda’s pioneering leadership in HIV/ Aids awareness, advocacy, prevention and treatment are catching on in many countries and some of them are actually beginning to do better than Uganda. All these are good news and they show that it can be done and more can be achieved.

Although South Africa is the only African country to have made a promise to achieve the MDGs not in 2015 but by 2014 there are countries (like Botswana, Mauritius, etc.) not thumping their chests who will meet and may surpass them. Given the enormous resources of a country like South Africa it cannot be a congratulatory effort for it to meet the MDGs because it can and should do better. Other resource rich African countries and those with big economies like Nigeria, Kenya, Angola, DRC, Egypt, Libya, should not really be judged by the MDGs because they ought to and should do much better than that. Even the poorer countries like Ethiopia can do better if they set their priority right. IF Ethiopia has resources to occupy another country it can certainly do better at home.

The main internal and external obstacles to not achieving the MDGs remain the political will of our leaders and the sincerity of the political leaders of the rich world.

The covenant on the MDGs was a very simple one. If poor countries deliver on goal 1-7, i.e. hunger, poverty, health, education, governance and rights issues and livelihood, the richer countries will also deliver on Goal 8: improved quality and quantity of aid, debt relief and reform of the unjust global trading system that penalizes the poor and impoverish the poorer countries of the world.

We need to hold our governments accountable for our side of the bargain. But even as we are succeeding in that respect our gains will not translate into sustainable development and social progress if the West and other richer countries of the world do not deliver on their own promise. Mutual accountability of the political leaders of the world to their citizens (who are the passengers on the bus) is what will grease the rusty bolts, service the engine and refuel the MDG Bus at mid term so that it can coast home successfully by 2015.

Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is Deputy Director, Africa, United Nation's Millennium Campaign, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

* Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

This latest International Crisis Group report from the International Crisis Group, examines the strains emerging prior to presidential and legislative elections and the impact they will have on the country’s delicate peace-building. Sierra Leone is still a fragile state in which peace will not be consolidated unless the new authorities tackle sources of popular discontent such as corruption, chiefs’ abuse of power and youth unemployment.

In an effort to strengthen needed capacity, the Open Society Institute Public Health and Information programs are seeking applications from qualified organizations interested in receiving institutional support for their work on access to essential medicines. Grants for up to $75,000, renewable for up to three years, will be awarded to local NGOs with a mandate and demonstrated capacity to advance policy and civil society engagement related to access to medicines in Brazil, India, Kenya, Malaysia, South Africa, and Thailand. Interested organizations should submit an application no later than Monday, July 16, 2007.

A famine is looming in Darfur, according to members of the European Parliament who have just returned from a visit to the war-ravaged Sudanese province. The 785-strong Parliament were due to vote on a resolution urging that European Union governments impose targeted economic and diplomatic sanctions -- such as a travel ban and an asset freeze -- on Sudanese figures implicated in the ongoing violence in Darfur.

Pius Ncube, the outspoken Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo in southern Zimbabwe, has urged President Robert Mugabe to step down -- this as the country faces deepening political and economic woes. cube was launching a report titled 'Destructive Engagement: Violence, Mediation and Politics in Zimbabwe', published by the Solidarity Peace Trust. He chairs this church-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), which aims -- in part -- to further justice and peace in Zimbabwe.

A report by the U.N. Environment Programme, "The Sudan Post Conflict Environmental Assessment", provides an overview of environmental status and issues for Sudan and its territorial waters of the Red Sea. It focuses on linkages between the environment, conflict and the ongoing humanitarian and development programmes.

This report by the African Child Policy Forum examines the extent of harmonisation of national laws relating to children under the umbrella of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This report reviews and analyses how far countries in Eastern and Southern African have gone in implementing the principles of the CRC, and how well they have built the recognition of children's rights into their legal systems.

A twenty-year-old gay man has laid a charge against a Gugulethu police officer, in the Western Cape, who is said to have assaulted and insulted him because of his sexual orientation. Banele Ngwenze-Qhina was walking home with his brother and cousin just after midnight on Monday 23 June when police stopped and started searching them.

The sight that greets visitors to Goz Amir is grimly familiar in eastern Chad. Every single house has been burnt to the ground, giant clay urns used as grain stores are smashed, charred grass marks where homes once stood. It is completely deserted.

comments on a disturbing report from the Times (UK) on Phillip Morris and British American Tabacco (BAT) targeting yourng and children in Nigeria to become smokers.

'Lawyers for Nigeria’s largest state, Kano, will argue today that the tobacco companies sponsored pop concerts and sporting events and, in some instances, gave away free cigarettes, to recruit minors to smoking.'

Nthambazale.blogspot.com reports on new developments in the use of alternative technologies in Malawi.

'In an effort to make engineering relevant to the society, the Electrical Engineering department at the Malawi Polytechnic, has been running the Wireless Network for Health Applications project since mid 2006. This work is being done with collaboration from the Radio Communications Unit, Aeronomy and Radio Propagation Laboratory, Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste, Italy. The goal of this project is to improve the delivery of health services by improving access to information and timely communication through low cost wireless-based communication network and basic telemedicine applications in the city of Blantyre.'

The Concoction - Apparently the US Army and George Bush have been studying the film “Battle of Algiers” to try and find some answers to Iraq – A slight relief in that at least they have moved from the Hollywood film model to something more realistic. However as Concoction states that it’s not as funny as it sounds if one looks at some of the film’s depictions

'...the film opens with a scene in which "Paras" (French paratroopers) brutally torture an old Arab man. The information they get from him will lead them to the hide-out of Ali la Pointe, the last remaining leader (so they hope) of the FLN, the movement they are determined to crush. As they close in on the hide-out, the film retraces how the Algerian revolutionary movement began, showing us some of the routine indignities visited on Arabs by French colonials: a bunch of young French punks trip Ali just for the fun of seeing him take a fall... As the Arabs begin to demand an independent Algerian state and terrorist cells begin to leave bombs in places frequented by the French (the race-track, bars, the Air France office) the colonists (many of them called pieds-noirs because they were born in Algeria) become more and more enraged, attacking even small Arab children trying to sell candy on the street.'

I am not quite sure of the point of this study except possibly that Bush et al are seriously concerned about loosing all control of Iraq and having to do a runner similar to Vietnam.

Nigerian Curiosity comments on a recent interview by former Biafrian leader, Emeka Ojukwu in which he claimed that Igbo’s were not equally Nigerians. Curiosity wonders whether he is once again leading towards the idea of sessession and states:

'In the BBC interview, despite suggesting a separate state for Igbos, he also mentioned that Nigeria could still remain a united nation. These two statements seem contradictory and the article does not elucidate further. Unfortunately, I neither have access to the entire interview and cannot speculate on the intentions behind Ojukwu's statements, nor am I knowledgeable about the context within which they were made. It would be interesting to have a broader understanding of where he is coming from. Nevertheless, I must wonder whether Igbo people feel like second-class citizens in their own country. If so, how is that possible? The Igbo people that I know are successful, industrious, hard working and extremely driven in business, education and any other area where I have had the opportunity to get to know them. I find it hard to believe that in this day and age, Igbos are relegated to second-class status.'

The comments give further insight into the feelings of Igbo people but for many of the civil war generation, there has never been any recognition of the pain and suffering of ordinary Igbo's during the 3 year period.

Voice of Somaliland contends that the root of African problems today ly with the manipulation of the different ethnic peoples of Africa, by African leaders and gives Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi as a prime example.

'Whether we like it or not and whether elected or a despot, a nation has just one leader. In diverse ethnic settings, this person belongs to just one ethnic group. In particular, when the power is snatched by guns, the leader’s fighters are pre-dominantly from his/her ethnic groups. This is the most widely observed scenario in Africa. The worst case is when the ethnic group constitutes the minority group. Since democracy is a majority rule, this minority class will never allow a functioning democracy; always sabotage the interests of the majority, and most importantly always believe in the gun since that is the only way for them to be able to rule. This is the scenario in Ethiopia.'

Rosemary Ekosso comments that the British government’s actions in the Chagos islands as an example of colonial dehumanisation and racism.

'Landgrabbing
A god complex.
Method
Start in 17th and 18th century
First, uproot people from their homeland
Enslave them or otherwise press them into demeaning service
Then ignore them until a rich and powerful country wants their land
Next, turn your beady eye on this land, viewing the human inhabitants as an inconvenient weed on potentially lucrative real estate
Weed the natives out, referring to them as “Tarzan and Man Friday" , thus playing up racist stereotypes of savages who should be divested of their land because you are better at exploiting it.
Then lease the island to the rich and powerful nation in exchange for an 11 million pound discount on Polaris missiles.'

Hallo... Hi, it’s you? ... Oh, yes. Your voice, it sounds different. What’s happening? Ha ha, he he... No, actually, it’s sexier today. I guess father of children is home, that’s why. Ha ha... Mine? No, he is out of the country. You know he is a busy man... Yes, he went to China yesterday. You know, as the president of the country he must travel all the time to encourage investors to come and invest in our country whose rivers never run dry of milk and honey... I am fiiiine! Strong and fat like a white man’s dog. What can eat me, a woman of class?

Don’t talk too much, you friend of mine. Give me the chance to talk. If you don’t shut your mouth I won’t tell you why I called. I will keep mine shut... That’s better. Guess what, friend of my heart. I have some great news meant for your ears only. I spoke to him last night before he left the country. Yes, we are getting the plane. Hurray! We are getting it. Just imagine, you and I in a two-hundred-and-something sitter empty plane. Just the two of us flying to Rome next week... You can’t believe me? You better believe, girl. It’s happening live in this very third world country. You and i next week going for shopping. We shall shop till we drop as they say. No limits. Anything goes.

That perfume you mentioned last week? Yes, I will make sure I buy it. That’s the first thing I want to buy as soon as we touch the soil of Rome. Why not? I heard the likes of all the Hollywood celebrities haven’t heard of it. I was the first one in the whole world to learn about it and I will be the first one on mother earth to wear it. How awesome. Paris who? She does not stand a chance. She hasn’t. I don’t think so. This time I will beat her to it. She is always the first one to get anything that hits the fashion world but this time I give her no slightest chance. I hate that girl... J-who? I don’t even want to hear her name. Both of them come second this time. I told my husband about the perfume and he is sooo excited. He cannot wait. Yes, we were supposed to go earlier but he said there is no fuel so the largest plane in the country is currently grounded. As soon as it’s filled up, we are the first ones to grab it, and that’s exactly one week away...

The new underwear? I heard that J-girl and the Paris one bought it but no worries. We will be the first ones in this part of the world anyway. We must make sure we fill up the whole plane with our shopping bags. That’s why I sweet-talked my husband into diverting the route of the plane to Rome. Ha ha ha. You know the best moment to talk. As soon as, you-know-what, starts talking that’s when I make my demands. Just before he enters. Yes. I simple say, “honey, just hold on a bit. I have something to say.” Before I say it he shouts, “yes, yes. I will do it for you. Anything.” Stop laughing. That’s the trick. Try it with your man and you will get anything you can dream of. Don’t let that thing enter you before you get what you want, he he.

...Hezvo, hezvo, hezvo, don’t tell me. Don’t worry, I will sort it out. He was talking of a school that needs to be built in his constituency. You know he is an MP too. President and MP. I will make sure that the school is not built and the money goes towards your kitchen. You know you need a presentable kitchen. What kind of husband is he? I don’t understand your man. A businessman of his class must know what his woman needs. Never mind. I will deal with it. Leave it to me. A village school is nothing. They can do with learning under a tree using their knees as tables. All the money for that school is going to your kitchen... Don’t thank me. That’s what friends are for.

Yes, I bought the handbag. I used the money meant for sinking boreholes in his constituency... The electric toothbrush? You mean the one we saw when we went to London last time?Yes I bought it. He wanted to build pit latrines for his people and I said, “stop, you don’t own any people except me, your wife. I come first.” I told him they can use the bush for now. After all they have been doing it in the bush for the past donkey years. Nothing new. I can’t brush my teeth with an ordinary toothbrush like a village woman. Next thing people will see me using a stick like a cow herder.

Am I shouting? It’s that minister of agriculture making noise. He is working in my garden. He is cutting my lawn with the lawn mower. He does it twice per week. You should come and see my flowers. He did a great job, that man. Yes. Yes. All the money meant for farmers’ fertilizers went to my garden. I have a fresh garden full of nothing but roses. This minister of agriculture is doing a wonderful job I tell you. If it wasn’t for him I don’t know where my garden would be. Maybe it would be a cheap one like the ones we see in locations when we accompany our husbands to campaigning rallies. My hubby is proud of him. That’s why he chose him when he reshuffled the cabinet. The last one was stubborn. He wouldn’t do my garden. Always pretending to be in a hurry. “Hee, I have to go to my constituency. Hee, this year we need a bumper harvest. Hee, I want to feed every belly in this country with my own hands.” Where in these worlds has someone fed the whole country with his own hands? He was a dreamer and I told my husband to kick him out of office...

The minister of health? She is doing very well as my nanny. My children are well fed. All my dogs and cats are healthy. I don’t have to worry when I go out of the country for my shopping. I will tell my husband to extend her term... Yes, she is here. She is playing with the kids in the playing room. My worry is the minister of home affairs. That man, I don’t like him. He was here yesterday. I asked him to feed my dogs and he refused. He doesn’t know me well. His stay in government is in my hands. The other one is the minister of information. He sees and talks too much, that man. I don’t like his ugly head. He tells my husband everything. Everything, I tell you. Yes, you are right. I understand. Yes, he banned all the private newspapers. They never stopped writing about my shopping as if I am the only one in these worlds who does shopping.I know. Yes he did well to ban the opposition on radios and TVs. “The first lady is shopping too much. The first lady is shopping too much.” That was their only campaigning tool, my shopping. Nothing else to offer the people of this country.

Hold on, hold on. Just a minute, I need to talk to my other maid. She has just walked in. Hey, who told you to just walk in like a cockroach while I am talking on the phone? Answer me. I told you when I am on the phone I don’t like people sneaking in like snakes, you here me? You better be sorry. Tell me, do you still want to work for me? You keep stealing my dogs’ food...Yes, don’t deny it. You steal it and send it to your village to feed your filthy children. They don’t eat dog food? Are you sure? Don’t open your stinking mouth to tell me your kids don’t eat my dogs’ food. If I find it missing again I will show you the way to your village.

Your pay? I didn’t pay you last month? Look at you. When you came here you were thin like a match stick. Now you have grown fat and you tell me I didn’t pay you last month. The food you are eating in this palace is your pay. You must count yourself lucky you are blessed enough to work for someone like me, the president’s wife. Some people are dying to shake my hand and you shake it everyday. Isn’t that a blessing?

Come here. Come closer. I couldn’t find seven of my under panties. You stole them. I know you did. Lift up your skirt... I am embarrassing you? Is that how you talk to a wife of a great leader? Now, leave. Leave my house. I don’t want to see you.

Sorry my friend. These village girls we employ, they need to be taught who is the mother of the house around here. If you don’t they will enter your pockets. To tell you this girl stealing my underwear is fifty-seven years old you won’t believe me. Yes, fifty-seven. Alright, where were we? Oh, I was talking of my husband’s cabinet ministers. They must work hard and impress me if they want to stay in government. I told my husband his army is eating government money for nothing, and guess what. They now take turns to help the minister of agriculture in my garden. They are busy weeding my flowers with their own hands right now. The other four are out walking my dogs and cats. I told them if they want pay rise this month they must show me that they deserve it. I don’t want my husband’s government to pay people for eating and sleeping.

Oh, yes I still have your birthday in my mind. It’s going to be a great party for you, my dear friend. I can’t let you down. You have been by my side for a long time. I overheard him saying the orphans will receive a donation of US dollars next month from America. That coincides very well with your birthday since it’s also coming up next month. What? Yes...yes...aha. Alright. What I am trying to say is the money is coming straight to my handbag. Don’t worry. I know how to do it. From my handbag it goes straight to buying you the best birthday present a friend has ever received.

Ha ha ha. Winning votes is not a problem my friend. They wanted to vote for the opposition. My husband nearly lost that parliamentary seat until I intervened. Yes, I did. I went there myself and held a meeting with the women of the area. Oh, my ancestors, those women were dirty. I have never seen such dirt in my life. Their dresses and blouses full of breast milk stains. Bare feet. Unkempt hair. You know I used to feel jealous whenever my husband went for campaigns thinking he might be seduced by one of his followers only to realize recently that there is nothing to fear. Little children smelling like toilets at the bus terminus. Running noses. Oh, no I feel like vomiting. I pretended to be strong and sat down with them, carrying their children in my hands and wiping their noses. I think some of those women haven’t washed their babies to this day because they don’t want to wash off the finger prints left by the first lady. I shook their hands too and there is no way they went home and washed the hands shook by the president’s wife, ha, ha.

Oh, yes, I went there to the constituency and injected my magic. I said to the women, “if you want freedom in your houses vote for my husband. I will donate sewing machines to you so that you can start your own small businesses, making your own money.” I gave them some of my second hand underwear and they couldn’t stop ululating. Some of them had nothing under their skirts and dresses and they wore the underwear straight away. Washed them? Does it matter? I don’t need to wash my underwear. I wear a new underwear everyday. I don’t do repeats. Not me. So why wash them? I just gave them away as dirty as they were. Isn’t it a blessing to wear underwear once worn by the president’s wife? Don’t you think it is? Well, be an ordinary woman in the village and you will see what I am talking about.

I haven’t finished. I promised them second hand shoes, washing machines…..yes, washing machines. I know there is no electric power in the rural villages but, you know, you can say anything to impress those women and they never take time to think. Before you finish to say, “washing machines,” they are already ululating.

I told them if they don’t vote for the president they will be in big trouble. I lowered my voice and said to them, “as a woman I am just warning you. My husband knows who voted and who didn’t. He can see it while lying on his back in his own bedroom. There are cameras that he uses to monitor whoever is voting in this country. If you put your X on the wrong place, you will see. Hear it from me, another woman like you. I am the president’s wife but I am also a woman and I don’t want other women to suffer. We must stand against these men.” There was non-stop ululation, singing and dancing. I told them to go and pass on my message to their husbands. Come election results day. My husband had a landslide victory. That’s why those who speak well say behind every successful man there is a woman.

You want to come to the celebrations with me? No problem. We must go and celebrate. It’s great to have a female president on this continent. I will make sure we get a private jet for that one. Females only. All our friends are coming. Drinking and partying all the way.

What? Food and fuel shortages in the country? I don’t care. Teachers and doctors on strike? Well, it’s not my mother and father and sisters suffering. My family is happy and strong. If they fall sick I fly them to my specialist overseas. Yes, I did. All the money meant for teachers and doctors pay-rise, I spent it. I bought my son a toy. He wanted a scooter. Food and fuel? Yes, I bought my girl a very nice baby doll. She is so excited, I tell you. She said I must buy her a pram for it next time and I am targeting the money meant for the new hospital my husband was talking about. I know. The budget is tight but not a big problem to me. That’s why I told my husband to choose a professor of accounts to be the minister of finance. He comes three times per week to help me with my budget. He is staying in the cabinet when the next reshuffling is done. I have already told my husband. He is very happy with him.

Yes, you are very right there. The new Reserve Bank Governor is awesome. I told him about my planned shopping trip. Guess what he said. He said he will print new bank notes just for my shopping. I am getting fresh, untouched, never used currency just to buy my little goodies. There is nothing greater than being the first lady on this earth, especially in this continent. Those who say Heaven is above are liars. It’s right here on this earth, in my kitchen.

Ha, ha, ha. It was very easy for him. He made an announcement that the country needed development funds to create jobs for the youths. The civil servants grumbled and grumbled but he stood his ground. He knew in his heart that he wanted to do something special for his young lady on Valentine’s Day. All those sweet little presents I got he bought them using civil servants’ money after introducing Development tax. Next month he is introducing another levy called Roads Levy. Oh, yes. On paper it’s meant to raise money to replace traffic lights around the country stolen and destroyed by the opposition youths but, you know what. I don’t trust these walls. Let me whisper. The money is actually meant for a holiday for me and my kids. Yes, we are going overseas for three months. We need real money.

Er, my door bell is ringing, my friend. Maybe it’s the minister without portfolio bringing my cup of tea. Ok, better I go. I will ring you again later in the evening. Yes….. Yes. Take care... You too. Oh, before I go, are you busy tomorrow? Ok, I am taking you for lunch.London. Just a simple lunch and we come back. Let’s meet at the airport. Bye.

‘We are late,’ from outside the door of the vendor’s room came the irritating voice of her friend, ‘We need to sell our vegetables while they are still fresh. Mbare Msika market is not near.’ She looked at her young son who was still snoring, covered him with the single blanket they shared, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand as if wiping off the sun’s rays that sniffed with their noses into the square room through the cracked glass of the window and rose carefully from her sleeping mat.

THE END

* Stanley Makuwe was born in Zimbabwe and now lives in New Zealand.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Politics and policy making The fight against human trafficking has become an increasingly salient political issue for governments around the world. In spite of widespread agreement on the need for multilateral cooperation in addressing this problem, its very persistence highlights the important weaknesses that still remain in the identification of appropriate countertrafficking policies. How can national legislation foster a more inclusive approach to trafficking? What are the best methods for adapting to increased global mobility? What has been the role of immigration laws and policies and is a victim-centered approach appropriate?

If you are interested in submitting book reviews related to the theme 'The Politics of Human Trafficking , please contact [email][email protected] Notes for Contributors are available at:

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