South Africa is on the eve of a major broadband infrastructure roll-out. Affordable broadband can have a significant impact on the country’s socio-economic, political, cultural and educational development; but broadband penetration in South Africa lags behind countries with a similar level of development such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Turkey.

"Remember 'We Are the World'?" asked Mahmoud Abdalla, a leader of the Hidareb ethnic community in Eritrea's arid Anseba region along the northwestern border with Sudan, referring to the 1985 hit song by more than 40 top artists. "Remember the 1984 famine in Ethiopia? This region was right in the middle of it." In 1984 Eritrea was part of Ethiopia, where some of the song’s proceeds were spent.

Aid agencies are racing to position food and other relief supplies for some 18,000 men, women and children from Central African Republic who fled to southern Chad, most of whom have taken refuge next to the border. Rains due in the coming weeks will cut access to the refugees, aid workers say. Up to 100 Central Africans continue to pour into Chad each day, fleeing armed attacks on civilians and fighting between rebels and government forces in northern CAR.

Thousands of people associated with a former rebel group in Burundi could threaten the country's new-found peace because they have been excluded from a demobilisation and army integration programme on the grounds they were not actual combatants, according to analysts. Agathon Rwasa, leader of Burundi's Forces Nationals de Libération (FNL), recently handed in his weapons and uniforms to formally start the programme.

After a demanding training session on the soccer pitch, the entire Black Aces football team has squeezed into a small, stuffy room at the club's headquarters in Witbank, a town northeast of Johannesburg, South Africa, for training of a different kind. The men are in various states of repose, leaning back in their seats and resting long legs on chairs, but the air is buzzing with testosterone and the repressed energy of men who are more accustomed to expressing themselves with their feet.

This is a workshop for UN, international and local NGO staff working on economic and gender-based violence programs (enterprise development, vocational training, skills development, micro-finance, agriculture, cash and food for work programs, etc) with displaced and returning populations.

Campaign groups in Cape Town have demanded the release of Zimbabwean civil society and opposition activists, describing their safety as ‘of grave concern’. Calling for South Africa to take action against ‘the Mugabe regime’, the group held a protest outside parliament to make the point that many Zimbabweans are refugees, not just economic migrants.

cc Zionist efforts to keep Palestinian rights off the agenda at the

Outlining the essential differences between the respective approaches of Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah, Issa G. Shivji discusses the gradualist and radical positions of two pillars of the Pan-Africanist movement. Underlining the notion of an independent African state as a ‘national liberation movement in power’ as being at the very core of the movement, Shivji stresses that genuine African nationalism can only ever be Pan-Africanism. As both a head of state and leading Pan-Africanist intellectual, Nyerere found himself supporting contradictory ideas around contesting the imposition of colonial borders while emphasising the centrality of states' sovereignty, Shivji notes. While admitting that he is without a complete answer to the question of what intellectuals' role will be in the development of a new Pan-Africanism for today, Shivji stresses that the challenge will be to push forward a 'new nationalist insurrection', one which perhaps ultimately recognises African unity as a dream rather than a vision.

cc Following the Kenyan Orange Democratic Movement's (ODM) allegations of Agricultural Minister William Ruto's role in a maize scandal, Joachim Omolo Ouko discusses the internal mudslinging and internecine feuding within Prime Minister Raila Odinga's party. Ruto's problems with the party stem from his criticisms of Raila last year, Ouko notes, compelling the prime minister to seek a means of fixing the rift developing with the ODM, particularly as his own son is instead now alleged to be involved in the scandal.

Though confessing that she was originally unconvinced about the call for a seven-day sex fast from the G10 women's coalition, Wandia Njoya discusses her surprise at the chauvinistic and hyper-masculined reaction to the fast from much of Kenyan society. Given that the majority of Kenyan men clearly do not expect sex from their wives every single day, Njoya considers what really informs the sexist outpouring of discontent, concluding that it is ultimately about power and domination. Essentially reflecting the absence of effective leadership on the national political stage, Njoya laments the inability of ordinary men to offer an alternative model of manhood to one which has simply exploited Kenya's people, resources and environment. Stressing that Kenya's men need to grow up for the greater good of the country, Njoya salutes the G10 for exposing the deep flaws of Kenyan masculinity.

cc Disillusionment with the failure of the 2008 peace deal is the only point of consensus in Kenya, writes Kwamchetsi Makokha, with Kenyans using their shared sense of despondency to hide their frustrations with the decision to force two ideologically parallel political systems to work together for five years. Outlining the demise of the country’s institutions from the judiciary to parliament, Makokha argues that ‘unless the international community forcefully reengages with Kenya and progressive civil society finds a way to engage the middle class to reflect more on their role in rescuing the country, the future looks bleak’. While those who wish to ‘provide leadership face innumerable risks and palpable threats’, the absence of individuals with ‘unquestionable moral authority in the public sphere… feeds the despondency that has come to characterise Kenya’, Makokha concludes.

In the second quarterly report on the Macau Forum, Lucy Corkin explores developments between China and Portuguese-speaking countries. From China’s burgeoning trade and investment relationship with Brazil and its continued engagement with Angola, Corkin explores Mozambique’s new strategic relationship with Beijing.

Its no surprise that the African Union (AU) can’t persuade people to ratify the when not even the commisioners’ countries are prepared to do so, writes Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem. Although 28 nations have already signed up to the charter, they are not obliged to comply with it unless they ratify it. Nor can the charter come into force until it is ratified by 15 countries, a goal, Tajudeen suggests, that the AU is unlikely to achieve given the lack of ‘political will’.

Philo Ikonya remembers . We might never know, but we need to say we want to know what happened to him, says Ikonya.

cc Kenya is a country of runners, writes Njonjo Mue, but for all its athletic prowess the country has yet to prove medal-worthy in the relay race of building true nationhood. With the baton passed from race leg to race leg, the Kenyan people have seen participation in the race restricted to a select, exclusivist and often brutal few, with many who have sought to champion the right of others to be involved being severely crushed. The finishing line of true nationhood remains a distant dream, with the runners even having dropped the right baton altogether, and if Kenya is not to perish entirely, the race's next leg can only be run by all Kenyans together.

Somalia won pledges of over $200 million from international donors on Thursday,23 April, to support increased security within the country.A total of $213 million (€165m) was committed at a joint United-Nations, European Union and African Union donors' conference in Brussels, with the European Commission pledging €72 million of the figure.

At least 2,400 children have been rescued from ‘hazardous’ work in Zanzibar; the Isles Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Employment, Youths, Children, and Women Ms Rahma Mshangama, has revealed. Officiating at celebration to mark 90 years of International Labour Organization (ILO) at Bwawani Hotel, Ms Mshangama said the children included those engaged in fishing and seaweed farming.

The five East African Community (EAC) partner presidents from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi are scheduled to meet in Arusha to peep into what has so far been achieved in the negotiations for the establishment of the EA Common Market Protocol, envisaged to commence early next year. The EAC Deputy Secretary General (projects and programmes), Ambassador Julius Onen, who has been at the forefront of the negotiations, was optimistic that the talks so far have been encouraging since the first session in November 2008 in Uganda.

Join Friends of Africa International (FAI) and dignitaries from the United Nations, country missions to the UN, NGO representatives, and members of the academia / corporate sector for the presentation of the Africa Vision Awards in celebration of Africa Day. This award is given to those who have demonstrated outstanding vision and rendered exceptional service.

The Ministry of State for Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands is tasked with addressing the ‘unique challenges’ facing its area of responsibility. These challenges have their roots deep in Kenya’s past, and specifically in the creation of the Northern Frontier District by the colonial regime.

African countries are mostly victims of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression in the 1930s, and the developed countries, which are responsible for the current global financial crisis, should take necessary steps to make the crisis duration as short as possible, several African finance ministers have said.

Police are investigating the death of a human rights activist and university lecturer Bantu Mwaura, whose body was found outside his gate at Sunlight estate in Nairobi’s Lang’ata area, on Monday morning. Sources said that family members of Bantu, who was also a renowned thespian, director, poet and storyteller, had reported him missing on Friday. Bantu was a respected poet whose work in English, Kiswahili and Gikuyu has been published in several journals.

On 29th April 2009, Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA), a Pan-African International non-governmental organization based in Kampala, Uganda launched a 3-year project on “The Power of Women’s Leadership and Movement Building: Gender Based Violence and Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Conflict and Post Conflict Africa”. This regional project will be implemented in Central Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Western Africa (Sierra Leone) and is supported by a grant from the MDG3 Fund, an initiative of the Netherlands Government.

4strugglemag is an independent non-sectarian revolutionary voice. We are unapologetically anti-imperialist and solidly in support of progressive National Liberation, especially the struggles of New African/Black, Mexicano/Chicano, Puerto Rican and Native American Nations presently controlled by U.S. imperialism. Reflecting the work and principles of political prisoners held by the United States, 4strugglemag advocates for Justice, Equality, Freedom, Socialism, Protection of our Mother Earth, Human Rights and Peace.

Gender Links, a dynamic Southern African NGO based in Johannesburg that promotes gender equality and justice through its media, justice and governance programmes seeks to fill the post of Research Manager on an initial three year contract basis.

Gender Links, a Southern African NGO based in Johannesburg specialising in gender, media, women’s rights and governance, seeks the services of experienced individuals in SADC countries (Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe,) to serve as field officers for its gender justice and governance programme. The main task of the incumbent, each of whom will be based in their home countries, will be to work with local councils, partners and stakeholders to develop gender and gender violence (GBV) action plans for local government at the district level as well as providing backstopping and support.

Diploma in Refugee Studies (RS) is a one-year programme of study and practical work experience. The first five months of academic training in Prague and Krakow are followed by six months of working at partner institutions in non-industrialized countries and Central Europe.

Zimbabwe's teachers have vowed to go on strike when the new school term begins next week after government reneged on a pledge to increase their salaries. "There has not been any concrete response to address the issue of teachers salaries," Tendai Chikowore, president of the Zimbabwe Teachers' Association told AFP. "We issued an ultimatum to the minister to say if the issues of remuneration of teachers are not addressed before schools open, teachers will not report for work."

An ammunition dump on the outskirts of the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam has exploded killing at least three people. The BBC's Vicky Ntetema in Dar es Salaam says hundreds of people have been injured as they fled in panic. Police say several buildings in the area were set alight by debris from the blasts at Mbagala army base.

In response to Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem's article last week entitled , Kintu Nyago criticises the author's blaming of Kampala for warmongering around Migingo.

cc In the second of a two-part article exploring the implications of the US AFRICOM (the United States Africa Command) programme, Daniel Volman and William Minter continue their discussion of the increasing prominence of the African continent within US strategic interests. Underlining the US' need to prioritise dialogue with African governments and civil society groups over merely assisting repressive regimes and emphasising military-to-military relationships, Volman and Minter argue that AFRICOM's activities should be fully integrated within overall US policy. While Africa's serious conflict-related problems will ultimately not be resolved by external interests, the authors contend, the US needs to take its responsibilities around not inflaming conflict seriously, responsibilities which can only be sustainably fulfilled through genuinely supporting measures to improve African livelihoods.

cc Thoroughly dissatisfied with the persistent failure of Kenya's leadership to rise above its petty squabbles for the country's greater interest, a coalition of women's groups known as the G10 is calling for a one-week sex strike. In a bid to oblige President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to settle their differences once and for all and begin to effectively serve the nation they represent, the G10 will be delivering performance contracts to Kenya's leaders at the end of the week-long strike.

cc Following the director of Kenya's largest referral hospital's blocking of an operation for a transsexual person, Audrey Mbugua argues that the director's actions constitute a basic infringement of a person's human rights. Denouncing the insistence on a 'no objection letter' from the 25-year-old individual's parents as 'insane and barbaric', Mgubua underlines that one does not have to be transsexual to understand the injustices transsexuals face. With anecdotal reports indicating a 97 per cent success rate for male-to-female reassignments and gender-identity disorder well-established within international psychological knowledge, Mgubua emphasises the underlying ignorance informing the director's actions.

The South African government should immediately halt detaining and deporting Zimbabweans from South Africa in violation of the government's recently announced moratorium, Human Rights Watch has said. Police in the town of Musina, close to the Zimbabwean border, continue to detain Zimbabweans at a military base and then deport them.

Most people across Southern Africa, and globally, are feeling the pinch of the current economic crisis. For many families, the escalating cost of food means fewer trips to the grocery store. Yet for social service organisations with many mouths to feed, such as shelters for children or places of safety for women and girls, the economic crisis has hit even harder.
Cindy Dzanya

This 89-page report documents the task force's abusive response to alleged rebel and terrorist activity by unlawfully detaining and brutally torturing suspects.Human Rights Watch found that agents of JATT, as it is known, carry out arrests wearing civilian clothes with no identifying insignia and do not inform suspects of the reasons for their arrest. The agents force suspects into unmarked cars, blindfolded and handcuffed, and take them to JATT's headquarters in Kololo, a rich suburb of Kampala. Many are then taken to military intelligence headquarters in Kitante for further brutal interrogations.

Cash-strapped residents of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city are digging in their heels and refusing to pay utility bills despite the municipality teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. At the heart of the dispute are dismal service delivery and the conundrum of using multiple currencies in an economy that boasts world record inflation.

Based on assessment of all available information, and following several expert consultations, it has been decided to raise the current level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 4 to phase 5. Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world.

A special court in Sudan sentenced a further 11 men to death on Sunday. The alleged members of the Darfur-based armed opposition group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), were found guilty of involvement in an attack against the Sudanese government in Khartoum on 10 May 2008. The attack is reported to have killed over 220 people.

Omar Faruk Osman, President FAJ Tuesday 21 April told a gathering of Human Rights Defenders in Kampala, Uganda, that journalists and media workers in Africa face series of threats ranging from safety and security, repressive laws, oppressive regimes, monopolies, bad labour practices and unfair competition.

Teresa Barros’ problems started last year with the death of her baby. "Our youngest daughter died," Barros (38) explained. "My husband blames me, and now he drinks a lot and picks fights and makes confusion." "My family won’t do anything. They said my other children need their father, and I must stay with him. But it’s desperate, I can’t go on like this," she added.

An influential women rights organisation in Malawi, Women in Law in Southern Africa-Malawi (WILSA-Malawi), is suing the government of Malawi for preventing women from accessing safe abortion. Malawian law prohibits abortion - Section 149 of the country’s penal code says any person who administers abortion shall be liable to imprisonment for 14 years, while Section 150 indicates that any woman who solicits abortion is liable to seven years imprisonment.

A United Nations-backed workshop aimed at identifying ways for West African farmers to limit the damaging effect climate change has on their livelihoods has kicked off in Burkina Faso. West Africa, home to 43 per cent of the total population of sub-Saharan Africa, is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change in the world.

© Poet and performer Shailja Patel celebrates the life of Bantu Mwaura (1969-2009) – Kenyan artist, activist and academic – through a series of reminiscences about what he meant to different people. Mwaura, husband of Susan and father of Makeba and Me Katilili, died on 26 April. ‘He was expression without hindrance; the way Africa used to be. He left behind power and energy; people speaking. In his dreadlocks and movements and smile and dress, Bantu carried an entire people.’

cc Vision 2030 may be a good blueprint for Kenya’s development, but the government must remember that people are more important than plans, Mars Group writes. As politicians shilly-shally in parliament without implementing promised reforms – from civil liberties to the resettlement of IDPs – desperation is setting in among Kenyans too hungry to wait until 2030 for food and jobs.

No-one knows whether the 1964 union between Zanzibar and Tanganyika was dictated by cold war considerations first, with pan-African ideals of unity playing second fiddle to ideology and personal survival, writes Haroub Othman. But what is clear, Othman argues, is that despite Tanzania’s controversial history, the union brought peace and stability to the region, in contrast with the secessionism and violence seen elsewhere. While corrective measures – supported by the people – are required to ensure that it is fit for purpose, the union is a better option than breaking into a federal structure with Kenya and Uganda, says Othman.

Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono, battling to block an investigation into his alleged illegal activities at the bank, has splashed out cash to sponsor a 20 page supplement in the state owned Herald newspaper on Monday. In the advert Gono, who is accused by Finance Minister Tendai Biti of running a parallel government structure, admitted raiding US$18 million that was meant to go into the accounts of tobacco farmers. This he did without their authority. On top of owing wheat farmers US$2 million the governor has already admitted taking more than US$30 million from accounts belonging to the country’s gold mines.