With less than one month before parliamentary and presidential elections, Nigeria's Freedom of Information Bill 2004 still awaits presidential assent, human rights groups note. They now urge President Olusegun Obasanjo to make a last effort to secure right to transparency in Nigeria before he leaves office later this month.

Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau, Aristides Gomes, did what most African leaders should give a try - to tender his resignation, especially at a time when his country is hooked up in political, administrative or economic crisis.

Bonkir Benjamin has just begun school at JCC Model Preschool in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba. However, despite his high aspirations, he knows he will probably have to leave the war-torn region if he is to fulfill his dreams.

The Chadian government has accused Sudanese janjawid militiamen of attacking two villages in eastern Chad, killing 29 people. “Today there are between 6,000 and 8,000 more people who are exposed without shelter and who have completely lost everything,” government spokesman Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor told reporters on Monday.

International communications company BT is to invest R20m in education in SA, China and India over the next three years in terms of a partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).

In Malawi – where 16 women die every day giving birth or during pregnancy – the Government has kicked off a United Nations-backed campaign to combat maternal and infant death. “Pregnancy and childbirth are supposed to be joyful occasions,” said Esperance Fundira, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative in Malawi.

CIA and FBI agents hunting for al-Qaeda militants in the Horn of Africa have been interrogating terrorism suspects from 19 countries held at secret prisons in Ethiopia, which is notorious for torture and abuse, according to an investigation by the Associated Press (AP).

A campaign backed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) aiming to help school 450,000 children returning home from displacement camps in the war-torn northern region of Uganda has kicked off. Over the next two years, this scheme will also target 4,500 teachers in 650 schools in the Lango sub-region in northern Uganda.

Food parcels are finally being offered to HIV positive mothers in KwaZulu-Natal who want to exclusively breastfeed their babies as part of a new government policy. In the past, positive mothers were advised to either exclusively formula feed or, in cases where there was no supply of clean water, to exclusively breastfeed to protect their babies from getting HIV.

Educating the boy-child and the grown man would go a long way to ensure that gender equality and women's rights on the African continent were upheld, delegates attending the African Regional Meeting on Gender Justice in Conflict-Affected Countries were told.

Corruption at the highest levels of the Nigerian government is hampering the economy of the oil-rich country at every level, retired general and presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari told United Press International in an exclusive interview from the campaign trail in Port Harcourt.

The Central African Republic faces a growing humanitarian disaster, with the lives of a quarter of its people disrupted by civil and regional warfare, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Wednesday. Although the United Nations appealed in January for richer countries to provide $11.7 million to fund basic health, schooling and water programmes in the impoverished country, only $2.5 million has been pledged so far, the agency said.

The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa requires publication officer based in the Gambia. Closing date for applications is April 23rd 2007. Interviews will be held in Banjul, The Gambia in May/June 2007. Kindly send your application and all relevant documents to [email][email protected]

Women for Women International, a non-profit humanitarian organization, seeks submissions for the Summer 2007 issue of its bi-annual academic journal, Critical Half. The journal is intended to raise awareness and spark debate among a variety of audiences by presenting various perspectives on economic, social, and political issues as they relate to women in international development and conflict and post-conflict societies. Deadline: May 21, 2007

AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) requires an HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Training Co-ordinator. Closing date is 15th April, 2007

The Sudan Open Archive offers free digital access to knowledge about Sudan. The Archive is an expanding, full-text database of historical and contemporary documents, with a linked analytical guide to internet resources.

I am not a psychologist, nor doctor. However, the pain of the amputees and their struggles are unimaginable to me... I simply cannot even begin to understand how difficult their lives must be.

I watched a movie recently, here in the US, about a gentleman in Ghana who, with the gift of a bicycle began a campaign to regain dignity and acceptance for the disabled in his country. He insisted, directly, to these folks to beg no more, but find their abilities and sell their work. Very inspiring, no-excuse approach from another differently-abled person. He, eventually, had gone from living life on crutches with one proper leg, to cycling across his country with a donated bike to show those around him that they can persevere... with one functioning leg.

Through sponsorship of doctors and former atheletes, he was given a prosthetic leg, and shortly after, ran an Ironman triathalon in the US alongside another young man who had two prosthetic legs. Yet he was an extremely functional and inspired young man before even having the new leg! He began his successes with one leg and a bike. Of course, the emotional and post-traumatic psychological hurdles are different for the amputees of Sierra Leone's war.

They have been attacked, mutilated unjustly by some of their own countrymen in a small country. But I believe in the perseverance of the Sierra Leonian spirit! Another reference: When I was a new mother and had psychological needs, I was treated by a young lady by the name of Dr. Gina Patterson. She had no arms below her elbows, and only one natural leg to her knee. Everything else was prosthetic and braces. She was truly quadrapalegic.

But... I have never seen a more charitable, compassionate person! Though I was immediately self-conscientious of my petty problems compared to her inspiring capabilities, she was quick to make me feel that it was okay to be a human with problems that are average that sometimes get the best of us, and she was loving, and supportive in helping me find hope that I had lost... never once being a handicapped lady trying to console a confused person. She was "a rock" and an uplifter!

I would sit in her office in amazement as she handled all of her papers, and WROTE in BEAUTIFUL penmanship with the arms that had no elbows. There is so much hope with an uplifted spirit! I will try to contact her... she was married after my time with her... intending to be a mom! But her name is changed and I have to do some digging to find her. She may be a wonderful resource/inspiration to any interested in the wonders of how she is so much more successful, capable, and compassionate than the average AMerican... with two upper arms, and a thigh, then science's best attempts at replications of legs...

Encouragement, acceptance, and more than anything... UPLIFTING is what the amputees need most. And a shoulder ... a rock ... to lean on. But to also uplift them, and let them know that a great life can lay before them as soon as they choose to believe in it! Much love and blessings to the great country and amazing strong spirited folks of Sierra Leone!

Wednesday, 28 March, 2007 will go down as a sad day among social researchers all over Africa and beyond: It was the day Professor Archie Mafeje passed away in Pretoria in what was a most quiet exit that has left the very many among us whom he touched directly or indirectly in a state sadness and anger. Archie Mafeje, the quintessential person of science and one of the most versatile, extraordinary minds to emerge from Africa was, in his days, a living legend in every sense: His knowledge was as vast as his grasp of issues – almost all issues - was breathtaking. His discourses transcended disciplinary boundaries and were characterised by a spirit of combative engagement underpinned by a commitment to social transformation. As an academic sojourner conscious of the history of Africa over the last six centuries, he rallied his colleagues to resist the intellectual servitude on which all forms of foreign domination thrive. He was intransigent in his call for the liberation of our collective imaginations as the foundational stone for continental liberation. In all of this, he also distinguished himself by his insistence on scientific rigour and originality: It was his trade mark to be uncompromisingly severe with fellow scientists who were mediocre in their analyses. The power of his pen and the passion of his interventions always went hand-in-hand with a uniquely polemical style that was hardly meant for those who were not sure-footed in their scholarship. This then was the Mafeje who left us on 28 March, 2007 to join the other departed heroes and heroines of the African social research community: A great pan-African, an outstanding scientist, a first rate debater, a frontline partisan in the struggle for social justice, and a gentleman of great humanitarian principles. We will surely miss his thoughtful insights, his strident rebukes, his loyal friendship, his companionship, and – yes, his wit, humour and expert culinary skills that included an incomparable knowledge of foods and wines from all corners of the world.

Archie Mafeje has fought the battle and run the race successfully; for those of he has left behind, especially those of us whom he inspired, the challenge before us is clear: Keep the Mafeje spirit alive by investing ourselves with dedication to the quest for the knowledge we need in order to transform our societies – and the human condition for the better. In the meantime, our thoughts and solidarity go to the members of his family, including his wife Shahida El-Baz and their daughter, Danna.

"The Independent" newspaper, which was banned by the government for publishing a sex photo of former presidential affairs minister, Willie Knuckles, has been ordered by the Supreme Court of Liberia to return to "status quo ante." The court's latest ruling is a result of a challenge by "The Independent" through its legal counsel, Attorney-at-Law Syema Syrenius Cephus, protesting the government of Liberia's order through the court's system.

Kamilat Mehdi was walking home after dark with her two sisters when a man stepped out of the shadows and threw sulphuric acid in her face. The acid hit the 21-year-old's eyes, nose, mouth, forehead and chest, splashing onto the faces and backs of her sisters beside her, burning flesh wherever it touched.

John Holmes, the United Nations’ Emergency Relief Coordinator, has warned that the international community is dragging its feet on funding for humanitarian operations in Chad and is “underestimating” the scale of the crisis there.

Militias loyal to opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba have been integrated into the national army in Equateur province, in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), United Nations officials said. Two hundred soldiers were signed up on Tuesday in Gbadolite, a spokesperson for the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC), Lt Col Didier Rancher, said on Wednesday. Another 140 are expected to lay down their weapons soon.

A team of parliamentarians from the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF) has expressed concern about the extent of political and ministerial control in Angola's electoral process.

The people of Angola, the government and the international community must pull together to ensure that returning refugees are able to reintegrate and have a sustainable future in their country, a top United Nations (UN) official has said.

World TB Day on March 24 has passed with much fanfare about drug regimes and increases in treatment. But little has been said about the broader health issues that continue to go unaddressed. The symptoms of the health crisis that faces the continent are only partially dealt with.

Health status is influenced by socioeconomic factors as well as health delivery services. In Africa, declining economies and growing poverty levels have led to a drop in the health status of the population. The HIV pandemic, as well as the persistent ravages of diseases such as malaria, has been exacerbated by poverty-associated malnutrition and unhealthy life-styles.

Experiences in Africa thus far continue to manifest the impact of structural adjustment programmes of the past, which failed and were largely discarded, but whose rationale continues to underpin policy-making.

The economic decline, occasioned by these programmes and other systemic factors, has also reduced the resources available for public spending. Along with social services and education, health care has born the brunt of the cut-backs instituted by governments Shrinking budgets, coupled with increased demand for health services and the rising cost of health care have plunged African health care regimes into chaos, necessitating urgent reforms. Sekwat (2003) adds that the inadequate resource mobilization is further complicated by the inefficient use of the existent resources.

The process of privatisation as a means of cutting public spending has an exclusionary effect that runs counter to the drive for equity and social justice. By privatising health services, elements thereof in effect exclude those who are not able to pay for it, and in most instances need it most. Public-private partnerships have met with limited success because of structural incompatibilities between the sectors.

A feature of health care reform in Africa has been the introduction of user fees for services. In this scenario, the cost of health care is shared between the state and the public. The reality is that whereas this has succeeded in raising revenue for the sector, it has placed an even greater burden on the meagre resources of the poor, and completely excluded those without the resources. The fallacy of the approach is evident in studies that have shown an increase in efficiency in health care delivery by measuring the level of waiting lists at health facilities. The reality is that those who cannot afford health care are simply not getting it.

There has been a recent move away from cost-sharing in the form of user fees, which have tended to prevent the poor from accessing health services. Sekwat (2003) points out that user fees have a particularly negative effect on adherence to mid and long-term treatment regimes. This is especially dangerous when dealing with diseases like tuberculosis.

Although a study of health policies in Africa reveals an emphasis on social justice and equity, the realities of implementation have tended to militate against this. Budgetary efficiency has often meant doing only what is possible within budgetary allocations. Health care has frequently received allocations well below the requirements, although countries like South Africa are making positive steps towards improving this. The drive for efficiency in resource utilization has met with limited success because most of the inefficiencies tend to be systemic rather than unique to the health sector.

One noble effort has been to shift more resources to broader basic health-care, with the view to early detection and treatment of health problems before they become more dangerous and costly to treat. However, the problem has been that doing this has necessitated redeploying resources from the secondary and tertiary systems. This problem has recently come up in South Africa where the Western Cape finance department has proposed cutting allocations to two major referral hospitals in order to increase capacity in secondary facilities. Whereas the secondary facilities are better able to serve the community, it substantially strains the tertiary system.

Examples such as the foregoing tend to call into question the ideological underpinnings of health policy. Whereas the provision of basic health care to benefit the poor is beyond reproach as a policy, should it mean that the poor only have access to primary health care? Rather the system should be designed to accommodate all people at all levels. Stierle et al point out the provision of health care to the poor is further hampered by lack of clear definitions of who is 'poor' or 'indigent' and therefore eligible for free health care. These are issues that need urgent attention if the health system is to serve in an equitable manner.

The lack of skilled personnel continues to be a problem in reforming the health sector. Furthermore the ability of the public health sector to retain these personnel is still a major challenge, which can only be overcome through better remuneration and working conditions. Needless to say, this is not achievable unless there is more budgetary allocation to health services.

The process of health care reform requires a multi-sectoral approach and a firm grounding in the broader principles of social justice and equity. Any process of reform needs to be sensitive to the most vulnerable, without creating structural imbalances that negatively impact sustainability.

Futher Reading:

Africa Action position paper: Hazardous to Health

Ambrose,S. 2006. Preserving disorder: IMF policies and Kenya's health care crisis http://www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/B2E65CFE-C098-4281-9FF4-967DFEB22069/0/RC53_INFDoc1.pdf

At last, Guinea's consensus Premier, Lansana Kouyaté, appointed a new cabinet on Wednesday. Interestingly, the new line-up is without a single minister from the former regime headed by the bed-ridden Guinean President, indicating Mr Kouyaté had great freedom in forming his cabinet.

The Government of Zambia has called for the mainstreaming of Internet Governance in the implementation plan of the National Information and Communications technology (ICT) Policy and immediate formation of the National Internet Governance Forum (NIGF) to enable Zambia's full participation in internet governance issues.

In this course, participants will increase their understanding of the psychosocial and mental health issues of refugees and learn how to implement effective interventions. The course will take place June 11- Saturday June 16 (excluding Friday) everyday from 9 am to 5 pm.

This course will introduce participants to the primary elements of the refugee definition and its application and to the rights guaranteed to refugees by International law. The course will take place from Monday June 25- Saturday June 30 (excluding Friday) everyday from 9 am to 5 pm. Deadline for applications is May 11th, 2007.

In an exciting development the Yogyakarta Principles on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity was due to be formally launched on 26th March. In addition, parallel events held during the Council were to enable discussion and analysis of the Principles and their application to issues of sexual orientation and gender identity around the world.

A network of NGOs working in the democracy and good governance field in Zimbabwe is looking for person to fill the field officer position based in Masvingo. The incumbent will be responsible for the provision of information to support the organisation 's education, research and advocacy programme. Deadline for Applications is 20 April, 2007.

The successful candidate will, with other Deputy Directors, support the Executive Director to provide leadership to the Network, within the framework set by the Executive Management Committee. Deadline for applications is 6 April, 2007.

The Alcan Prize for Sustainability is a US$1 million Prize that recognizes organizations demonstrating a comprehensive approach to addressing, achieving and further advancing economic, environmental and/or social sustainability. The closing date is 12 April 2007.

Changemakers' tenth Collaborative Competition is seeking innovative, high-impact strategies to end the corrosive impact of corruption. To enter this competition, participants should document their solution on the Changemakers site. Deadline for entries is May 16, 2007.

The past three weeks have seen an embattled Zimbabwean government unleash terror on its citizens. Mary Ndlovu believes that the last weeks have brought qualitative change to Zimbabwe that spells the end of Mugabe ‘s rule sooner than later. Change is coming, she writes, but it is not likely to bring us close to that goal. Rather it will be the first step of another very long journey.

Three weeks ago an embattled Zimbabwe government declared a ban on public meetings for three months. A week later, when a defiant opposition attempted to hold a prayer rally in a historic Harare suburb, government responded with brutal and calculated beatings of hundreds of opposition supporters, residents and stunned by-standers – resulting in two known deaths and many life-threatening injuries. Since then the world’s press and diplomatic communities have been in an uproar and newspaper editors have fallen over each other predicting the pending demise of Robert Mugabe’s 27 years of misrule.

Has Robert Mugabe’s game finally come to an end? Has he now gone a step too far for even his protectors to tolerate? Will the coming weeks see progress toward the genuine change so many Zimbabweans are longing for?

Opposition leaders have said so – we have reached the tipping point, claims Morgan Tsvangirai. Others are calling it the beginning of the end; Mugabe’s last stand. Not so hasty say the more cautious, it has happened before; we have had massive public protests; we have had government brutality and world condemnation before.

The Zimbabwean people are not ready to face the dangers of extended public protest, they say, and will likely again be cowed by the terror tactics of government. At this point, we do not even have a state of emergency; Mugabe still has many weapons in his arsenal, both literal and figurative. Mugabe may have been weakened, he may be down for the count, but he is not out, and could rise to his feet again.

The past weeks have indeed brought a qualitative change to Zimbabwe, with a significant shift in the balance of power between the forces which keep Mugabe in power and those which wish to remove him. Ultimately a government’s endurance rests on its success in maintaining a productive and healthy economy which delivers at least subsistence to the population. Mugabe has failed spectacularly in this sphere, with the economy in a state of contraction for the past seven years, and in free fall for the past year.

This collapse has effects which undermine his political support. Firstly, it makes it more difficult for him to dispense the largesse necessary to buy the continuing loyalty of the political and security elite, and to keep the lower ranks of the forces in line. Second, it makes the population, which has remained largely quiescent and submissive in the face of oppression, restive and prepared to risk more in confronting a hugely unpopular government which has destroyed their lives. And thirdly it has spill-over consequences in the region which are beginning to annoy and frustrate neighbouring governments.

Perceiving a weakening in Mugabe’s power base, opposition leaders in political parties, civil society organisations, student movements and churches, have taken their cue and demonstrated greater determination and willingness to come together to push him out.

Within the past weeks opposition elements have shown greater cohesion than at any time in the past few years, the people are less afraid, neighbouring governments are at last speaking out on the need for change, and the ZANU PF elite are themselves realising that they do not want Mugabe to continue in power any longer.

Add to this the alienation of the regular police, army and intelligence forces, and the increasing unwillingness of a previously tamed judiciary to play ball, and we do have a recipe for change in the near future. Most critical of these elements in effecting an early change, is the ZANU PF elite.

The opposition would take much more time to bring sufficient pressure to bear, but the ZANU PF hierarchy has seemingly realised that rather than squabbling about succession, their interests will be better served by working together to ditch their unpopular and ageing leader. That may be the only way they can save themselves, their positions and their misgotten wealth.

Certainly, Mugabe will not go easily. He is determined to hang on, and prepared to use any violent means within his grasp. In case the regular police waver in their support, he has side-stepped them by utilising youth militia and party thugs, with or without uniforms, to intimidate opposition forces by brutality, both targeted and indiscriminate.

Now he has declared that the traditionally loyal although also divided war veterans will form a reserve army. And a pact with Angola to provide police to support his rule is rumoured. Dissenters to Mugabe’s continued rule from within ZANU PF have the permanent threat of arrest and punishment for economic crimes dangled over them, and the implied threat of violence as well.

Clearly the food weapon will again be used against any who do not show their loyalty in another year of drought and scarcity. He is a master at splitting any social or political force which he does not control; in Zimbabwe he has split the churches, the political opposition, and civil society organisations; internationally he succeeded in splitting the Commonwealth and now there are signs that the Angolan alliance is an attempt to split SADC. Down he may be, perhaps, but certainly still fighting, with no intention of leaving the ring.

But Mugabe will eventually go, and it appears now that it will be sooner rather than later. If his own party supporters see him as a liability his days are numbered. Their loyalty has for some time been conditional on his ability to protect their criminal activities. With this becoming less and less possible, they have no reason to keep him in place. While it is useless to speculate on the timing, when Morgan Tsvangirai says that he will be gone before the end of this year, it is now believable.

Our focus then shifts to the question of how he will go, bringing us to consider the scenarios which could play out before us. We have reached the time of greatest hope but the time of greatest danger, because the way in which Mugabe goes is of utmost importance to the future of Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans.

There are two major issues – will it be a peaceful change, or will it be violent – and will the change bring progressive forces into power, or will it simply be more of the same?

Mugabe’s use of violence, denying non-violent means of resisting him, tends to provoke violence in response. Although all the opposition forces espouse non-violence, in the face of intensifying, irrational repression, it is possible that groups of dissenters will turn to violence.

The current sporadic use of sabotage tactics against police and civilian targets could be the work of agents provocateurs, but could also be the work of disgruntled opposition elements who want to do anything to express their anger. They are not a threat to the government, as they lack organisation and weaponry, at least at the present moment.

A more serious threat to government would be action by disaffected army units, with or without the connivance of senior military and political figures. Serious fighting could result if the army were to divide into units loyal to Mugabe and units loyal to other factions of ZANU PF, or acting independently. It might well lead to the removal of Mugabe, but could also usher in a period of civil strife and uncertainty such as has occurred in Cote d’Ivoire. It would probably also lead to international intervention of various sorts, which might or might not produce a satisfactory political resolution.

But experience in the rest of Africa shows that once weapons are used to promote the interests of individuals or groups, the results are highly detrimental to civilians at all levels, and the chaos produced is normally long-term, not short-term. Thus civil strife, or even a violent overthrow of Mugabe by his own soldiers can hardly be considered a desirable solution. Fortunately, it does not appear very likely, but is certainly a possibility.

The second scenario would be one in which opposition forces, acting on their own without support from the ZANU PF hierarchy, but possibly with assistance from within the police and army, were able to pressure Mugabe into resigning or fleeing as he sees his support base melting away. In such a case, opposition forces would be likely to call for international assistance in effecting a transition and holding new elections. A transition which is driven by popular mass action is desirable as it empowers the people to make the leaders accountable to them. Furthermore, it is likely to put in place a system of trial and punishment for perpetrators of violence and exploiters of the nation’s wealth, ending impunity for crimes.

But the truth is that the opposition in Zimbabwe would take many months to organise the people into such a powerful formation. Although the capacity of the combined opposition forces to pressurise Mugabe is probably underestimated, the main goal which unites them is to remove the man himself. Even if they were able to pull off an 'Orange revolution' which is always being held up as a model, their ability to deliver the dreams of the masses of Zimbabwe is highly questionable.

Elements amongst them which show a commitment to genuine participatory democracy and an economy of fair distribution of wealth are very weak. They have not shown that they have the will or the skills to replace a highly corrupt political and government structure which answer to the people’s needs.

Nevertheless, such a people driven change would be the most desirable, simply because it would remove the corrupt power structure of ZANU PF and hold it accountable for the destruction of a once vibrant nation and the immiseration of its people. We live in hope that it would at least produce something better than what we have been subjected to for the past 27 years.

The other likely prospect is a 'negotiated settlement'. This is currently being promoted, not only by Western governments, but also probably by South Africa and the majority of SADC. This position sees the opposition MDC as being too divided and too weak to effect the removal of Mugabe, making factions of ZANU PF opposed to Mugabe’s continuation in power critical to removing him.

The idea is to use some of his immediate subordinates in the party to broker a deal in which Mugabe is persuaded (or even forced) to vacate office in exchange for impunity from any form of accountability for his crimes against his people. Talks between ZANU PF and the MDC on a new constitution and arrangements for 'free and fair' internationally supervised elections in 2008, would follow, resulting in a new government taking office. It would then receive massive support from the IMF to resurrect the economy.

The first scenario is the most dangerous, the second the most desirable, but the third ultimately the most probable. If current reports of 'talks' can be believed, the second 'solution' may already be in process.

Much as we would like to see a change, we should not be fooled into believing that such an outcome will solve our problems. Since it relies on Mugabe’s lieutenants to remove him, it means they will remain in place; but they are equally guilty of the crimes of which he would stand charged. Unless they are also removed, impunity will prevail and they will keep the current corrupt anti-democratic patronage system in place. Moreover, can we trust SADC to supervise a transition? Who will repeal the oppressive legislation which ensured that recent elections could not be fair?

The same people who put it in place? Who will restore citizenship to those Zimbabweans who have been stripped of it and denied their vote? How do we install a new election machinery and overhaul the Registrar General’s electoral roll if ZANU PF leaders remain? And how can we trust those African governments which previously declared obviously flawed elections free and fair to guide us through new elections?

We may wish for a peaceful transition, but are we wise to again allow the perpetrators of massive human rights abuses to go unpunished? Many voices are raised to urge Zimbabweans to allow Mugabe to retire gracefully in order that we gain a peaceful transition. But does this mean we allow the establishment through which he perpetrated the abuses to continue as well? The lessons of history are that when there is impunity abuses continue. Such an outcome does not augur well for the future.

There is a danger in this scenario that we will see a sort of replay of 1979. At that time, when liberation movements had a complete victory over Ian Smith within their grasp, the international community intervened to prevent it, and force compromises whose consequences remained to haunt our independence.

Is this what is happening again? Will Western and Southern African nations intervene to help remove Mugabe himself, enforce compromises in the shape of impunity for perpetrators of human rights abuses, re-establish a safe environment for world and regional capital, and leave the people little better off than before?

The main difference, however, is that opposition forces in 2007 are much further from victory on their own, and history will not wait for those who are unable to seize the moment.

In spite of a history of 'people’s struggle' in Southern Africa, the outcome has almost always been the appropriation of the political process by the few. Deals are worked out between opposing elites which put one or the other or a combination in power.

In general, the need to deal with abuses is swept aside, international capital pours in to revitalise investment opportunities for the world’s entrepreneurs, and the people are fed an illusion that change has occurred.

Sadly, we must accept the truth that progressive forces have not yet evolved sufficiently to achieve power in Zimbabwe or indeed the region as a whole. A non-violent negotiated removal of Mugabe by elites in Zimbabwe and outside will at least break the current impasse.

We can only hope that it will open some cracks which the committed might use to create democratic space. In that space they must continue the struggle to achieve the vision of a just society. Change is coming, but it is not likely to bring us close to that goal. Rather it will be the first step of another very long journey.

* Mary Ndlovu is a Zimbabwean human rights activist.
* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The war in Sierra Leone has been over for five years. However for thousands of amputees 'their personal battles with trauma have exponentially and vicariously intensified as the years have passed'. The amputees’ experiences and nightmares are more emotional and psychological than physical.

The decade long harrowing civil war endured by Sierra Leone might be over as far as the Sierra Leone government and top United Nations emissary Carolyn McAskie responsible for peace-building are concerned. The latter states: 'The war has been over for five years the peace has held, I think that’s a gold standard...there is still a lot to do though.'

President Ahmed Tejan Kabba has publicly told the nation his government is overwhelmed by national priorities. He is therefore unable to address the individual needs of his people therefore they must begin to help themselves.

However for the thousands of amputees living in this tiny nation barely the size of Maine this is an impractical and impossible task. Their personal battles with trauma have exponentially and vicariously intensified as the years have passed. The amputees’ experiences are more emotional and psychological. They suffer a nightmare than their physical wounds can communicate.

Presently, the government is busy with its pending presidential and parliamentary elections just a few months away, and the routine of running the machinery of government.

However these elections are not going to be curative for the thousands of Mamsu Thoronkas and Tamba Ngaujahs that are still languishing in the mundane and elusive wilderness of Sierra Leone, plagued and handicapped in destitution and despondency. They cannot fend for themselves in a country where unemployment is astronomical and finding a job and a home are extremely difficult.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/297/40501_1.jpgThe disturbing and graphic poster images of mutilation and amputation germinated from the seeds of the 1991 civil war that were sown in the eastern border town of Bormaru.

Sierra Leone shares close proximity and commonality with neighbouring Liberia. There, the demonic and diabolic foetus of dehumanisation and shocking brutality were born. Although the rebels, who migrated to Liberia to execute heinous crimes with the aid of Charles Taylor of Liberia, were discounted by the government as mere rabble rousers.

But facts have proved quite the opposite as warnings of possible violence were ignored. Although the Government assured the nation that the dire situation was under control the truth was that innocent and peaceful Sierra Leonean civilians would encounter a bizarre and innovative barbarism seasoned with surgical nightmares.

The psychology behind the amputation of limbs, tongues or ears is a terror wedging campaign to instil phobia and panic on the government and all its citizens. In a previous election the people had voted overwhelmingly for President Kabba. Since they used their hands to vote, dismembering their limbs would prevent them from casting another ballot for a democratic government. Rebel propaganda of fear and panic was to impose their will on the people of Sierra Leone, just like terrorists across the world.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/297/40501_2.jpgMamsu Thoronka - 41 year-old trader, shown in the pictures is among thousands of amputees living in Freetown, Sierra Leone today. She is struggling to support her family of six children on her own. Her husband is in a transition into another relationship and is distant from the family. Welfare services do not exist and no form of help comes from the government:

'On 22 January, 1999 when the capital city Freetown was attacked by rebels, I attempted to take refuge in a building to escape the vengeance of the rebels. But they found me, and put my hand on a table and ready to cut it off with a machete like a butcher would sever animal meat. I begged for mercy asking them to respect God and me being His child.

They told me to point to God with my right hand which they also tried to chop off. They tried three times but failed, the hand of God probably helped or saved me. I still can’t use three fingers on my right hand. The rebels said, “I should get another hand from President Kabba, who has several hands to spare.” I was in agony and the thought of death crossed my mind. I was later taken to hospital but the doctors too had fled for their lives. Freetown was infested with hundreds of corpses scattered all around its perimeter. My dangling left hand held by a film of skin had begun to decay. It took a week before I was able to see a doctor who treated only my wounds.

My husband is still distant, I’m sure he has another wife without my knowledge. I persevere to support my children by buying produce like palm-oil in the countryside to resell in Freetown. My responsibility is too much for me. I cannot afford to pay school fees for my six children, as school fees are beyond my reach. I’m appealing for help from the international community, as my two oldest children have dropped out of school.'

But with her resilience and tenacious spirit Mamsu refuses to give up her fight for survival or self sufficiency. She continues cross border trade between Guinea and Sierra Leone. In Guinea goods are cheaper. But a recent embargo put on Guinean goods could paralyse her main source of livelihood. She still sells vegetables and beans to enable her to buy clothes and household necessities for her large family. Goods and services are now being sold at cut throat prices upcountry than in Freetown. She rears a few chickens for subsistence and sometimes sells some.

'Rebels have threatened to end our lives. They say, if government will not stop talking about amputees and the rebel atrocities that created them, they will get rid of us all. I fear the advent of another war.'

For Mamsu the welfare of her children is paramount in her mind. She is not seeking vengeance or retribution towards her assailants (rebels). She has offered forgiveness to them, despite the institution of the War Crimes Court in Sierra Leone to help bring justice to people like Mamsu. 'I want someone to take care of my children', she prays.

'The former rebel fighters are being well looked after with skills training and free education for their children. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission said, we amputees should get a pension but we have seen nothing.'

A Norwegian charity that helped house her. There is discrimination against amputees at all levels. 'I cannot cook for myself; I have to direct my daughter Bonki to do the cooking for me. When my children run into disagreement in school their peers tell them, “Your mother is a half-person.” It is so demeaning and painful for me since I’m a victim of mere circumstance. We amputees are really discriminated against in Sierra Leone.'

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/297/40501_3.jpgTamba Ngaujah has a similar story to tell the world about his destitution and abandonment by the society that he once served. He had enlisted in the Republic of Sierra Leone Military Forces (RSLMF) to defend his country against all internal and external aggressions, serving his country diligently and honestly to the best of his ability.

While other soldiers deserted from the army, he stayed on to defend his country and people. It was during his line of duty that he was captured by the rebels, at the beginning of the war in 1991. Tamba suffered double amputation in captivity, becoming the first among thousands of amputees. After surviving his ordeal he was kicked out of the Wilberforce barracks where he lived in the military quarters during the heavy rainy season when massive flooding is common. His condition did not prevent the military officials from evicting him from his living quarters.

He is now homeless languishing on the streets with his family parading as beggars. No plans have been made to provide him with alternative accommodation. He is appealing to the international community at least to provide him with shelter considering his current status. Help for amputees is a deplorable and pathetic situation and in fact does not seem to be moving at all.

Despite the numerous NGOs in the country, aid is slow to reach the amputees. Even the Human Rights Declaration and The Truth and Reconciliation testament does not seem applicable to them, although a recent UN assessment gives the country high marks for keeping the peace.

What we do to the least of those among us, we have done it to our creator. How long will this peace last that is held by a thread? A nation that does not take care of its disabled or less fortunate subjects is doomed.

A comprehensive reading of the Sierra Leone civil war and its effects on ordinary people can be found in my book: Harvest of Hate- Stories and Essays: “Fuel for the Soul” - published by Publish America 2006. Visit: to read an extract - Harvest of Hate- Mary’s Saga.

*Roland Bankole Marke is a Sierra Leonean writer living and writing in Florida, USA. He is the author of three books: Teardrops Keep Falling, Silver Rain and Blizzard and Harvest of Hate; Stories and Essays – “Fuel for the Soul.” His work has appeared in several publications including World Press.org and Free Press.org. Reach him at [email][email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The latest report from the International Crisis Group, analyses the approaching vote, which is one of the most important challenges the country has ever faced. Success would offer Nigeria the first opportunity to achieve a genuine constitutional succession from one civilian administration to another since independence in 1960, thus consolidating democracy.

As the first feature length film covering the Rwandan genocide, Hotel Rwanda had the opportunity to contextualise the genocide and act as an informative piece of work.

Instead, the producers choose to focus on the drama of one individuals attempt to save a group of people. Thereby they made the film more commercially acceptable. In doing so the truth is compromised and an opportunity missed.

Hotel Rwanda is based on the true story of Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), house manager at the luxurious Hotel des Milles Collines in Kigali, who used his position and influence to save the lives of nearly 1300 victims who had sought refuge at the hotel during the Rwandan genocide.

In what many rank as the most horrifying episode in African history, an estimated 800,000 people, mainly Tutsi, were massacred by their Hutu countrymen in little more than three months between April and July 1994.

Most victims were hacked to death with machetes, spiked clubs or farming implements. A unique and disturbing feature of the Rwandan genocide was widespread popular participation in the killing.

A further 500,000 people died as a result of disease, famine and military action. While over 2,000,000 Hutus fled to neighbouring countries for fear of reprisals when a Tutsi-dominated government was installed by the invading Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) that took control of the country in July 1994.

These casualty figures are enormous if one considers that the population of Rwanda was in the region of 7,000,000 at the start of the genocide and that Tutsis formed about fifteen per cent or just over one million of this total.

At the start of the film, Rusesabagina is depicted as a suave, stylish man. Through a combination of deference, flattery and canny bribery consciously he stores up favours with the rich and powerful and, through his charm and resourcefulness manages to keep the hotel’s clientele happy.

Although Hotel Rwanda is well-intentioned and is moving, even potent, in parts, it has serious flaws and its execution is at times below par. A central weakness of Hotel Rwanda is that the film makes little more than a cursory attempt to explain why the genocide happened or to sketch the political and historical context in which it unfolded.

The film instead focuses on the intense drama around Paul Rusesabagina’s heroic attempts to save his charges. The choice of a strong dramatic centre clearly did not preclude director, Terry George, from also providing sufficient background to make the slaughter more comprehensible to viewers because the film carries a lot of flab.

Simply replacing some of the superfluous and repetitious scenes, especially those involving a frightened and tearful Tatiana, with ones clarifying some of the complexities of the Rwandan situation would have gone a long way toward achieving this objective.

Appropriate contextualization would thus have helped strengthen the flaccid plot line and improved the coherence of the film. This disembodiment of Rusesabagina’s story from the complexity of its context deprives the film of much of its power to provoke, enlighten or simply to raise critical questions.

More importantly, being the first feature-length offering with mass appeal on the genocide, it would not be unfair to regard the film as having some duty to inform, perhaps even educate, viewers to a greater extent than it does. Some people might think that this places an unfair burden on the film-makers but one could argue that Hotel Rwanda is, after all, not a movie viewers are likely to want to see purely for entertainment.

This is not to advocate an overt didacticism but to ask for better contextualisation. Hotel Rwanda’s simplistic approach to the genocide is, in my opinion, more likely to perpetuate than dispel stereotypes of Africa as a place of senseless violence and roiling tribal animosities.

The absence of a well-founded explanation of the genocide is bound to result in many viewers falling back on shop worn, racist conventions of Western attitudes toward Africa. Indeed, the film inadvertently reinforces such mystification. When Dube (Desmond Dube) asks Rusesabagina how such cruelty could be possible, Paul simply replies, ‘Hatred… insanity’, as if the mass killing defies logical explanation.

The failure to contextualise the story properly is symptomatic of a wider problem, namely, the director and script-writers’ flawed commercial strategy for dealing with the challenge of representing the extreme violence of the Rwandan genocide.

Terry George’s overall approach may be summed up as one of evading the key issues at stake in the Rwandan genocide. As Keith Turan, the reviewer for the Los Angeles Times, very neatly put it; ‘One of the ways filmmakers have traditionally tried to make unpleasant scenarios more palatable to audiences is by changing the focus from the awfulness of events to individual acts of bravery, from the complicity of the many to the heroism of the few. Hotel Rwanda saw the opportunity to take this path and did not hesitate’ (Cape Times, 2005).

Many viewers will have been enticed into seeing the movie in the expectation of gaining insight into one of the most heinous crimes of the recent past. Instead they come away with little real insight but a formulaic story about the triumph of the human spirit in which the focus is diverted from the dire human cost of the carnage and the troubling questions it raises, to the noble actions of a single hero.

In celebrating the relatively minor triumph of Rusesabagina’s extraordinary courage, Hotel Rwanda promotes a simplistic morality of good conquering evil and has little of substance to offer by way of elucidating why the greater evil of the Rwandan genocide was possible in the first instance.

This is not to criticise Hotel Rwanda for focusing on an individual, for individual experiences can indeed be a most effective vehicle for illuminating broader social, even global, experiences and truths. The trick in doing this successfully is to bring into a simultaneous frame of reference localized detail and broader social structures and experience.

Hotel Rwanda fails to do this through a lack of proper contextualisation of its subject matter and choosing to focus on a set of experiences that were atypical of the Rwandan genocide. Rusesabagina may well have succeeded in saving all of the refugees at the Milles Collines Hotel but we can’t ignore that about 80 per cent of the internal Tutsi population succumbed in the genocide.

This is also not in the least to argue that the film is not justified in reinforcing the optimistic message that the actions of individuals of conscience can make a big difference, even in the face of overwhelming odds and the most abominable evils imaginable. After all, like its most obvious parallel, Schindler’s List, Hotel Rwanda is based on a true story and the real-life Rusesabagina deserves to be lauded for his bravery, his integrity and his altruism.

But to communicate this message as ineptly as Hotel Rwanda does, represents a missed opportunity to disseminate a cogent understanding of the Rwandan genocide to an expectant world-wide viewership which has had little opportunity of grappling with the meaning of this atrocity through the popular media.

Given its box-office strategy it should not come as any surprise that Hotel Rwanda deliberately shies away from realistic representations of the violence perpetrated during the Rwandan genocide. In an interview in Johannesburg to promote the movie Terry George answered critics of his evasion of graphic violence by making clear that; ‘… there was no way I was going to shoot a bloodfest film with people being hacked to death with machetes... I set out to create a political entertainment story rather than a pornographic depiction of the terror and violence’ (Sunday Times, 2005).

So the only actual killing one sees is a short, indistinct sequence of people being hacked by machete, filmed at a distance and replayed on a tiny television screen by members of the news crew stationed at the Milles Collines.

For the rest, the slaughter is presented indirectly. For example, a few corpses are strewn about the front gardens of houses and Rusesabagina’s blood spattered son serves as evidence of the murder of one of his neighbours.

The high point of horror in the movie does not show actual killing. It occurs when Paul and Gregoire (Tony Kgoroge) encounter the victims of a massacre after being deliberately sent along the ‘river road’ by George Rutaganda. Driving along, their van suddenly seems to hit an exceptionally bumpy and deeply rutted stretch. Thinking that they had strayed from the road, Paul gets out of the vehicle only to fall onto mutilated bodies that had been left lying in their path. The camera then pans upwards to reveal corpses carpeting the outstretched thoroughfare in the gathering light.

Depicting mass violence in ways that do not diminish its reality for the viewer yet do not denigrate victims or trivialize the pain of survivors is one of the core challenges movie-makers of genocide face. Films about mass violence will always raise vexing questions about the ethics of creating entertainment out of mass murder, of appropriate ways of commercializing atrocity, of engaging viewers with visual representations of unspeakable cruelty without desensitizing or alienating them.

Finding a balance between these sorts of tensions lie at the heart of making feature films about genocide. The specific circumstances of the Rwandan genocide demands a degree of engagement with human depravity and mass violence that is lacking in Hotel Rwanda. Terry George gets the balance wrong. There is too much heroism and too little horror in Hotel Rwanda, too much romanticism and too little reality.

Hotel Rwanda has a decided tendency to understate the horrors of the Rwandan genocide and even to romanticize aspects of the story it tells. This is mostly due to a box-office strategy that seeks to make the genocide more tolerable to a mass audience. It is, however, also partly a result of trying to communicate an optimistic message about the ultimate triumph of human benevolence and partly a product of the decision to focus on a case that is unrepresentative of the Rwandan catastrophe.

The tendency for romanticism is nowhere more marked than in the clumsy wrapping up of the story at the end of the film. The improbable saving of the UN convoy from an Interahamwe mob through a fortuitous RPF ambush is inept and the subsequent depiction of an all too orderly refugee camp with its all too ample medical facilities is a good example of the movie’s tendency to underplay the wretchedness of the Rwandan situation. Most conspicuously, however, the film succumbs to a cloying sentimentality with its conventionally Hollywood ending.

Hotel Rwanda could, however, have done a far better job, given the constraints of the medium and the opportunities offered by the Rusesabagina story, of informing a receptive audience about the Rwandan holocaust and of raising consciousness about the scourge of genocide.

The feature film is an extremely powerful medium and the Rwandan genocide a potentially explosive issue but Hotel Rwanda comes nowhere close to fully exploiting their potential.

* Mohamed Adhikari, University of Cape Town

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

Bill Gates is pushing harder than ever for immigration reform that would allow the United States, the richest country on the planet, to skim off the cream of the few educated workers in developing nations.

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The figures tell the story. In 1990, forests in Mali extended over more than 14 million hectares. But by 2000 they covered 13,117,643 hectares, according to a national report on the state of the environment made public in 2005. This marked a reduction of about seven percent in the West African country's forests, in just a decade.