With the Zimbabwean economy’s dollarisation process fuelling persistent inflation in the country, Prespone Matawira discusses the ‘collective hypnosis’ and the mirage of opportunity surrounding the use of the US currency.

Regarding , the only way to eradicate organised crime is from the top, not the bottom as we are being led to believe. Get rid of the organisers (not one token one) and the protectors in whatever place govt. or otherwise and we will get rid of this menace. Other countries are always ready to forego the small fry in order to trap the big wigs, not so us. We kill even innocents in our fake quest to eradicate the menace.

– in all its many forms – is abhorrent to all who believe human life is a gift of God and therefore infinitely precious. Every attempt to intimidate others by inflicting indiscriminate death and injury upon them is to be universally condemned. The answer to Criminal gangs (Mungiki or death squads) however, cannot be to respond in kind, for this can lead to more violence and more terror. Instead, a concerted effort of all people is needed to remove any possible justification for such acts.Acts of violence are criminal acts, and should be addressed by the use of the instruments of the rule of law.

Its saddening to read of by fellow human beings, trying to cover up there sins,why can the same organ of government(the police)do the job they are supposed to do,which is to protect people. It now talks volume when one Kiraithe (police spokesman) say that they dismiss the finding of extra judicial killings, rather than take the opportunity to change now and be judged by history they played a role to change ...

To start with, thanx for the . The past months when ever i saw an article about Zimbabwe it was always about something sad-political violance, cholera, inflation,starvation etc.Its such a relief to read on a positive topic and i do think Oliver "Tuku" has managed to fly the countrys flag high, not only the country's but Africa as a whole because issues he raises are shared by a lot of African cultures.The issue on scantly dressed women in musical videos you touched on does affect me personally, i think us women, are allowing ourselves to be used and we should wage a war against it!

: When Africa finally realizes that if She does what She has done in the past, She will get the same results. Weak leadership is the problem causing corruption and other poor rule of law. Opportunities for the future of Africa have been given only to the elitist. The common man in Africa has been forgotten and no power has been given to him because of the lack of having a democracy that works.

The Travail of Dieudonné is the tale of a triple estrangement. Nyamnjoh’s protagonist is physically separated from his homeland (Warzone), beloved wife (Tsanga) and opulence associated with materialism. The writer adumbrates, ‘Dieudonné misses his home village to the point of tears’. (p. 153) Mimboland, his country of choice, is a dichotomised world where the haves and have-nots cohabitate. While Beverly Hills swims in the niceties of life, Swine Quarter – home to the underprivileged – is likened to a ‘bleeding ghetto’ reputed for its ‘muddy meanders of footpaths and shacks whose walls were delicately sustained by ant-infested wood, human excrement, dog shit…multitudes of rats and cockroaches that celebrated impunity.’ (p. 149)

Lamenting the thin supply of organic African critical and theoretical thinking about the continent, Ronald Elly Wanda argues for the place of African writers in addressing an ‘imposed history’. In light of the understandable tendency of much of the continent’s people to identify more with their own local groups than distant, largely exploitative nation-states, Wanda argues for the need for greater regionalisation as a route towards true independence from colonialism. Underlining the importance of African writers addressing African themes, the author contends that uncovering a genuine spirit of renaissance will only occur when the promotion of African intellectualism is truly normalised.

In his inaugural address as the new chairman of the African Union (AU), Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi has vowed to pursue his vision of a United States of Africa. Gaddafi has been lobbying other African leaders since 2004 to create a United States of Africa and make him the first president. But even on a continent where hunger for power is a status quo, other African leaders appear not to be mesmerised by the political fantasies of the self-declared ‘king of kings’ and ‘leader of the Islamic leadership’, Muammar al-Gaddafi. Among the civil wars, poverty, diseases, and overall African underdevelopment, the new leader of the AU is only interested in his messianic need for a larger political domain where he can implement his despotic rule.

The Africa Democracy Forum (ADF), a network of over 450 democracy and human rights organizations throughout Africa, expresses its solidarity with courageous civil society groups in Zimbabwe as a number of political, social, economic, and humanitarian challenges still face the country’s critical transitional period.

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) will be participating in the International Colloquium on Women’s Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace & Security in Monrovia Liberia, 7th – 8th March, 2009. This event is co-hosted by President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson of Liberia and President Tarja Halonen of Finland. AWDF is proud to be a co-funder and thematic lead for this innovative leadership colloquium. As part of our support for this event, AWDF will be convening a number of activities before and during the International Colloquium, as well as supporting African women leaders from around the continent to attend the Forum.

International NGO Journal (INGOJ) publishes high-quality solicited and unsolicited articles, in English, in all areas of Non Governmental Organization (NGO) activities. INGOJ is founded to publish proposals, appraisals and reports of NGO projects. The aim is to have centralized information for NGO activities where stakeholders including beneficiaries of NGO services can find useful information about ongoing projects and where to obtain particular assistance. Also prospective donors will easily find information about different NGOs and decide which to fund on specific projects.

On 11 February at a ceremony at State House in Harare, presided over by President Robert Mugabe, the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, and the two Deputy Prime Ministers, Thokozani Khupe and Arthur Mutambara, were sworn in. Addressing the small audience of invited guests, President Mugabe said: “I offer my hand of friendship and co-operation, warm co-operation and solidarity in the service of our great country Zimbabwe. If yesterday we were adversaries ... today we stand in unity. It's a victory for Zimbabwe.”

The Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ Kenya) and the Konrad Adenaur Foundation invite contributions to be published in a Special Issue on Electoral Systems Reform in Sub Saharan Africa.

In Guadeloupe and Martinique Africans have been protesting the colonial conditions imposed on them by the French government. These protests turned into rebellions in response to the French military occupation and deployment of troops to contain the people's struggle. The resistance involving more then 2.5 million people, which has been going on for over a month, has not stopped.

Pre-Trial Chamber I at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant against Marshal Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir, the military ruler of Sudan for his role in escalating violence and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Western Sudan. He was accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur since 2003.

This latest policy briefing from the International Crisis Group, says the junta that took control on 23 December 2008, hours after the long-time, authoritarian President Lansana Conté died, is in danger of resorting to repressive measures of its own, as its popular support dives along with the economy. Since there is also a risk of a counter-coup from dissatisfied army elements, a democratic transition at best faces a long and difficult road.

A new report released by the ITUC for March 8, International Women’s Day, has revealed that the pay gap between men and women worldwide may be much higher than official government figures. The report, “Gender (in)Equality in the Labour Market”, is based on survey results of some 300,000 women and men in 20 countries. It puts the global pay gap at up to 22%, rather than the 16.5% figure taken from official government figures and released by the ITUC on March 8 last year.

Taiwan's trade promotion body has recently set up an office in Burkina Faso, the first in West Africa, in an effort to facilitate business exchanges with the African country as well as the nearby region, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official has said.

The 105th Canton Fair, to be held between April and May 2009, has been formally introduced to South Africans in Johannesburg on Thursday by Zhang Zhigang, deputy director of the Committee for Economic Affairs of National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Zhang, also vice president of China Import and Export Fair and chairman of the Council of China Foreign Trade Center, told the meeting that China Import and Export Fair, also renowned as the Canton Fair, is held biannually in Guangzhou every spring and autumn.

The biggest challenge facing China is not slowing growth but unemployment, which could trigger social unrest, a Chinese government minister has said. Commerce Minister Chen Deming told the BBC that when economic growth slowed "the chances of possible social unrest increase as well".

Don't look now, but capitalism - maligned in these bailout-ridden recessionary days - is reshaping Africa inexorably. What is different today is that it is emanating from China and India, rather than from the conventional bastions of capitalist prowess. Devi Shetty, a celebrated cardiac surgeon in Bangalore, brings health relief to India's masses through his Narayana group of hospitals. Some years ago, I witnessed his early experiments with rural telemedicine, especially in the Indian states of Karnataka and West Bengal.

Even though the documents presented by the Indian firm to prove its acquisition of the Nigerian Steel Company was overlooked on Tuesday by the arbitrators that made up the London panel, the Nigerian government is furious at the Indian company over its possession of what is considered a classified document. According to Chief Michael Aondoakaa, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, "The Federal Government’s dispute with Global Steel over Ajaokuta had to do with what the government felt that the contract was entered not in conformity with our laws here.

Tullow Oil is the latest Africa-focused energy firm to draw Chinese takeover interest, but the $8 billion oil and gas independent, emboldened by its prospects, has snubbed potential buyers, dealmakers say. London-listed Tullow runs oil and gas projects in 23 countries across Africa, Europe, South Asia, and South America.

The Chinese government has pledged a further 2.5 million US dollars to finance work to remove soil from the site where the new Mozambican national stadium is being built. The schedule remains unchanged, that is, that the stadium will be complete before the football World Cup to be held in South Africa, in 2010.

China announced its latest double-digit rise in defence spending on Wednesday but sought to soothe concerns in Asia and the United States by insisting its expanding military posed no threat. The defence budget will grow 14.9 percent for 2009, a parliament official said, maintaining a string of double-figure annual increases, despite a punishing slowdown in the Chinese economy as worldwide demand for its exports sags.

This is a full video confession by a Kenyan Police Officer who witnessed extra-judicial killings of 58 suspects by his colleagues under orders from their superiors. The confessions was taken by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights on June 25th 2008. The officer, Bernard Kirrinya was shot dead in Nairobi on October 16th 2008.

The arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is a victory for the court's top prosecutor. But the chances that the case will ever come to trial are slim. The international arrest warrant issued for Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court is without question a feather in the cap of its top prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

The Sudanese government has ordered some aid agencies to leave the country after an arrest warrant was issued for the country's president, a UN official said. UN spokesperson, Michele Montas, who confirmed the development Thursday, said: " Sudan told up to 10 humanitarian groups to leave the country's Darfur region or cut back on services provided, as well as seized their assets''.

As the death toll from Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak continues to climb, the International Rescue Committee is ramping up its emergency programs to combat the epidemic. “As devastating as a cholera outbreak can be, it’s actually fairly easily avoided and treated,” said Eric James, coordinator of the IRC’s emergency response team in Zimbabwe. “But only about half of the country’s cholera treatment facilities have electricity, so it's very difficult if not impossible to treat people at night requiring things like intravenous lines.”

Police in Zimbabwe have arrested a magistrate who allowed MDC ministerial nominee Roy Bennett to post bail. Other magistrates in the town of Mutare have gone on strike in solidarity with Livingstone Chipadze, officials say. "It is frightening if a magistrate is arrested because he has passed a judgment that is not popular with the state," Mr Bennett's lawyer said. Mr Bennett remains in custody. He was seized on the day MDC ministers joined a power-sharing government.

A UN investigator of extra-judicial killings in Kenya has called for an international inquiry into the murder of two human rights activists. Oscar Kamau Kingara was shot dead along with a colleague hours after a government spokesman accused their group of aiding a criminal gang. A consortium of human rights groups in Kenya says it holds the government responsible for the death.

South Africa says it will take over any land allocated to black farmers which is not being used effectively under a land redistribution programme. The measure, which takes immediate effect, was announced by Agriculture Minister Lulu Xingwana, who warned farmers should "use it or lose it".

A recent study by the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya (FIDA-K) - a women’s rights advocacy organization that works for gender equality through legal aid - reveals that disabled women are up to three times more likely to be victims of physical and sexual abuse than their non-disabled counterparts.

In Bukavu, the main town in South Kivu Province of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Panzi referral hospital receives six to eight women daily who have experienced sexual violence. "At least 60 percent of the women have been sexually violated, probably as sex slaves, through gang rape or through domestic violence," Maria Bard, manager of the hospital's Victims of Sexual Violence Project, said.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has demobilized 880 children associated with armed groups in the volatile eastern province of North Kivu between 30 January and 2 March. Madnodje Mounoubai, spokesperson for the mission, known by its French acronym MONUC, told a news conference in Kinshasa that the great majority of the 839 boys and 41 girls are Congolese, but there are also 31 Rwandans, two Burundians and two Ugandans.

Zambia is to intensify its corruption fight which is aimed at prosecuting all those who plundered and mismanaged public funds. Vice president George Kunda who is also justice minister said Zambia is governed by tenets of laws and that no person whether in the private or public sector is above the law.

Eritrea has arrested up to 54 journalists in a crackdown on media in the Red Sea state, the press watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Friday. The Paris-based body also asked the European Union not to hand over 122 million euros worth of aid due to worsening conditions for political prisoners. "The authorities on 22 February 2009 ordered a raid on the premises of Radio Bana, a small station in the heart of the capital that puts out educational programmes under the sponsorship of the Education Ministry. Its entire staff of around 50 journalists were arrested," RSF said.

The roll-out of antiretroviral therapy has led to a decline of about 50% in adult AIDS deaths in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, over a period of five years, according the findings of a study published in the February 20th edition of the journal AIDS.

Algeria will write off 41 billion dinars in money owed banks by farmers and livestock breeders, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced Saturday (February 28th) at an agricultural conference in Biskra. The announcement is a real lifeline for an Algerian farming community on the verge of collapse. Starting this week, banks will cease any proceedings to recover their debts.

For over 80 years, the relationship between women and international organisations has barely existed in historical records and has been scarcely promoted by the media. Well before the Charter of the United Nations was approved in 1945, and already at the League of Nations, women fought and participated to include demands against discrimination, promoting the legal and social progress of women around the world. The international movement of women that took part in the creation of the United Nations – these “founding mothers” – should get the credit they deserve.

There has been a clamour to tighten up oversight and regulation of Ghana’s broadcasters from unusual bedfellows - the state-sponsored National Media Commission (NMC) and the Ghana Journalists" Association (GJA). The bodies have, in separate initiatives, slammed attempts to "privatise" the state-owned Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and have railed against the practices of commercial radio stations. The trigger for this rare convergence was "unsubstantiated" news reports by two commercial stations, Radio Gold and Oman FM, that publicly backed rival political parties in the run up to the Dec. 7, 2008 national elections.

This report provides the first summary by the UN of how climate change, water stress, invasive pests and land degradation may impact world food security, food prices and how we may be able to feed the world in a more sustainable manner. The report examines the need to get smart and more creative about recycling food wastes. While major efforts have gone into increasing efficiency in the traditional energy sector, food energy efficiency has received too little attention.

I was born in the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. I and my nephew were raised by my aunt. The story that I heard from my family was that a few weeks before my dad passed away he gave me to my aunt. I never knew my biological mother but I heard that she died of the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. As I went to school, from elementary to high school everybody used to tell me that something was different about me.

Three weeks after disarmament was officially launched in the border region of Ed Damazin in Blue Nile State, Sudanese officials have discovered that raising money is tough and getting ex-combatants to hand in arms even tougher. The disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme requires US$430 million. A 16 February donor roundtable in Juba, the Southern capital, received pledges for $91 million.

Dance music pumps from large speakers while a half dozen shirtless young men serve drinks at a bar bathed in pink light. It is the last weekend of Gay Pride in Cape Town, South Africa, and men of all ages have come to a "fetish party" to launch a safe-sex campaign, "Play Nice", targeting men who have sex with men (MSM).

cc I am shaken. I am shocked. And that is, apparently, the intent. For all of us to be shaken, for all of us to be shocked and for all of us to hear the threat and heed the warning implicit in last week’s assassinations of Oscar Kamau King’ara and John Paul Oulu of the Oscar Foundation.

Let me be clear about this. I had questions about the Oscar Foundation. Last year, it appeared to me to be one of human rights organisations partisan to the Party of National Unity (PNU). I did not understand when or why it had made the shift from children’s rights work to human rights work more generally. I had questions about the methodology through which it arrived at its figures of disappearances and extrajudicial executions of those supposedly associated with the Mungiki. I remember us all laughing when Professor Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, questioned them as to the sources of their funding, concerns apparently raised with him by the security services. For, unlike many of us within the human rights movement, the Oscar Foundation does not receive grants from the bilateral and multilateral donors or foundations.

But I found some of the ways they did their work innovative, such as running free mobile legal aid clinics in low-income areas; not just in urban areas, but also in rural areas. I knew too of the solid backgrounds of some of its staff and trusted that they – just as the rest of us – had information worth sharing with the UN special rapporteur as to the extent of disappearances and extrajudicial executions in Kenya. And I certainly never imagined – not in my wildest dreams – that their staff would pay the ultimate price for bringing that information forward: death.

I see now that I should have read the signs, the writing on the wall. We all must do so, for the build up was clear. Let me sketch the outline.

There are reports – many reports – from both national and international human rights organisations into the joint police–military operations against the Sabaot Land Defence Force in Mt Elgon. There are denials after denials after denials, and increasingly angrily ones. Finally, there are questions and pressure from governments with whom our government has security agreements and arrangements, and suddenly, a flurry of activity. There is a public propaganda campaign, with a state-sponsored documentary focused on the atrocities and crimes committed by the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF), being aired repeatedly on almost all television channels over several weeks. There is also a parliamentary probe and a joint police–military investigation. What is the verdict? That nothing is wrong, that all the human rights organisations pointing accusing fingers are wrong, that their motivations are baseless and that they don’t care about the atrocities and crimes committed by the SLDF. The verdict is that they don’t care about the people; they simply did it to raise money.

Somehow, the issue dies down.

But then comes the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Post Election-Violence (CIPEV). It is brutal in its treatment of the failures of the state security agencies. It notes that the Administration Police and the Kenya Police Force used such extraordinary force that no less than a third of all deaths are attributed to them. It notes that they also committed crimes ranging from looting to rape. It issues a set of recommendations for security sector reform, including the fast-tracking of investigations into and prosecutions of individual members of the security services who have committed rape.

The response? Pre-emptively, a supposed police oversight body that is not worthy of the name is instituted, along with the creation of a task force to investigate claims of sexual violence, from which all women’s organisations co-opted in quickly resign. There’s silence, then the announcement by the minister of Internal Security of Kenya’s supposed security architecture, a plethora of new laws and policies supposedly addressing the CIPEV report’s recommendations. But not a word about either individual legal or collective political accountability, which the CIPEV report had stressed.

Again, somehow, the issue dies down, helped in no small measure by the clamour for individual accountability of politicians for the violence through the Special Tribunal and the International Criminal Court.

But then comes the report of the UN special rapporteur, which finds the Kenya Police Force and the military in Mt Elgon guilty of torture, forced disappearances and systematic extrajudicial executions. The response is predictable: Denial, denial, denial.

And there’s more. The dis/misinformation and propaganda begins. The vice chair and a staff member of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) are accused of being on the Mungikis’ payroll. Then there’s the build up. Matatu operators accuse human rights organisations of not caring about citizens and businesses affected by the Mungikis’ extortion and protection rackets. We are informed that the Mungiki have decided to demonstrate in favour of the implementation of the special rapporteur’s recommendations. The media does not question this, despite the fact that the Mungiki’s spokesperson denies that they are involved and despite the fact that, strategically speaking, it would be ludicrous for the Mungiki to do so at this time. The demonstrations supposedly happen. The supposed government spokesperson parrots the claims, informing Kenya that the Oscar Foundation is raising money for Mungiki through the human rights organisations that support Mungiki. He blithely ignores the facts that: a) the Mungiki make so much money through their extortion and protection rackets that they hardly need external assistance and; b) the Oscar Foundation does not receive external funding. Hours after his statement, the two staff members of the Oscar Foundation are dead.

For the record, the human rights movement has consistently and repeatedly called for the disarming and demobilisation of all armed groups, criminal gangs and militia in this country as per Agenda Item One of the mediation process. It has also said, however, that disarmament and demobilisation will entail far more than a heavy-handed security response. And it has said that even that heavy-handed security response must be within the boundaries of the constitution and the law, not to mention the regional and international human rights instruments we are party to.

If armed groups, criminal gangs and militia still exist in this country, they do so because of their relationships, complex and ever-changing with the political powers that be and the security services that those political powers control. This is obvious. This is why disarmament and demobilisation is so difficult to achieve. And this is why it is simply ludicrous to claim that groups exist because of the ‘support’ they get from the human rights movement.

We are clearly in dangerous times. The Kenyatta and Moi regimes reserved assassinations for those among the political powers that be. Human rights defenders and other intellectuals contended instead with illegal detentions, torture and forced exile. In the Kibaki/Odinga regime, the goalposts have shifted, and shifted backwards. This does not portend well, for any of us.

To his credit, Odinga came out loud and clear following the assassinations, calling for independent, external investigations. We wait to see what Kibaki will do. And that will tell us whether we’re all headed to the grave.

* L. Muthoni Wanyeki is the executive director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC).
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/