Indian engineering firm Angelique International will build two hydro power plants in Cameroon as part of a 125 billion CFA francs ($251.5 million) aid deal, the central African country said late on Tuesday. State-owned Export-Import Bank of India will loan the money to Cameroon, the second such deal signed between the Gulf of Guinea nation and Angelique in the past two months.

The world's eyes are on the Middle East, but due south, in the Horn of Africa, Somalia is flaring up once again. The good news is that Somali pirates, who had given the world's navies a lesson in intransigence after brazenly attacking 111 merchant vessels in 2008, have released a Japanese-operated South Korean-owned bulk carrier, as well as a three other ships this week.

The Sino-Indian 'Hand-in-Hand 2008' military exercise that concluded recently at Belgaum in Karnataka may have hit headlines, but is no revelation to those who have observed India's military diplomacy in recent times. China apart, India has engaged many countries this year alone, under the rubric of military diplomacy. While the Navy led the show, with many bilateral and multilateral exercises, the Air Force and the Army too engaged themselves in significant joint exercises.

China has had a number of dealings with South African weapons manufacturers over the past decade, most of which have not resulted in actual weapons purchases. However, several recent Chinese-made military technologies bear suspicious resemblances to their South African counterparts.

Zambia plans to invite bids to explore for oil within six months in the hope of capitalising on what it says is “huge potential” to strike black gold beneath the soil of one of the world’s poorest countries.Already Africa’s biggest copper producer, Zambia’s parliament has approved a legal framework for exploration and the government has held preliminary talks with oil companies ”mainly in Europe and some in Africa”, Kalombo Mwansa told the Financial Times late last year in his last interview as mining minister before switching to home affairs in a new government.

The Congolese authorities are to seek funds from the Leadership for Conservation in Africa (LCA) for the development of ecotourism around the Odzala-Kokoua (PNOK) national park, situated in the north-western part of Congo, official sources in the Congolese capital told PANA.

The Togolese government has increased assistance to the private press to 350 million CFA francs this year from 75 million CFA francs in 2008. The government said on Thursday the assistance would help the press improve performance through several components, namely training and equipment.

The Government requires Sh 32 billion to meet the shortfall caused by a poor harvest, among other things until the end of August. When making the appeal, at Kenyatta International Conference Centre, President Kibaki said an assessment from Kenya Food Security Steering Group indicates that Kenya requires Sh37 billion to meet all the needs of the current food emergency.

President Kibaki has been urged to convene a crisis meeting following a wave of corruption scandals in the country. Officials from the National Anti Corruption Steering Committee said the proposed meeting with all agencies tasked with fighting graft should provide leadership in resolving these scandals.

Tens of thousands of Somalis have gathered at the football stadium in Mogadishu to celebrate the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from the city. The stadium was a former Ethiopian base and Islamist and clan elders called for Somalis to solve their own problems and not resort to more violence.

The leader of South Africa's governing party, Jacob Zuma, is to appeal against a court ruling which resurrected corruption charges against him. Mr Zuma's lawyer said he would approach South Africa's highest court to have the charges dropped. On Monday, the appeals court quashed an earlier ruling that threw out charges in connection with a 1999 arms deal.

Governments around the world tend to force poor people off well located and therefore valuable urban land and into peripheral ghettoes. From New Orleans to Bombay and Johannesburg the story is the same. One motivation for this is to transfer valuable land from the poor to the rich to create a subsidy for elite development at the direct expense of the poor.

The incoming Obama administration will need to put human rights at the heart of foreign, domestic, and security policy if it is to undo the enormous damage of the Bush years, Human Rights Watch said in issuing its World Report 2009. US leadership in promoting human rights will be vital, Human Rights Watch said, because at present the most energetic and organized diplomacy addressing human rights is negative - conducted by nations trying to avoid scrutiny of their own and their allies' abuses.

Ubuntu’s open source project-hosting service Launchpad will release its underlying code as open source software on July 21. The announcement comes via the Launchpad News. The most recent Launchpod podcast talks with Launchpad Ombudsman Karl Fogel about the decision.

The outgoing President of Ghana, John Kufuor, commuted all death sentences in the country. Amnesty International welcomed the action and urged the new President of Ghana, John Atta Mills, to seize the moment and take immediate steps to abolish the death penalty in law.

Three of the world’s leading human rights organisations have lashed out at African leaders for failing to take action in Zimbabwe, in the strongest criticism yet of the ongoing support for Robert Mugabe. The International Bar Association (IBA), Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have this week all released strong statements condemning the continued inaction of African leaders in the Zimbabwe crisis.

Ivory Coast held ceremonies to mark northern rebels officially returning local tax collecting and administrative powers to the central government on Thursday but true reunification and post-war polls remain elusive. Thursday's deadline was the latest test of a troubled process aimed at reuniting the world's top cocoa grower, which was once the region's most stable country but has endured years of crisis since it was divided by a 2002-2003 war.

As the holder of this new and high profile role at the Nairobi Office, you will be central in driving AI’s human rights and growth agenda in Kenya. You will be responsible for providing strategic and political advice to the movement and lead AI’s work in Kenya in conjunction with colleagues at the International Secretariat in London and the Regional Office in Kampala.

You will work as part of a Project Team and in collaboration with youth focused civil society organisations in Kenya you will mobilize young people nation-wide for human rights activism and grow a Youth Network linked to wider AI's Africa Youth Networks.

Zambia's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) received more than 2,000 corruption complaints from the public for 2008, the ACC yearly report states. "The commission investigated a number of cases last year. Arrests were effected and cases brought before the courts of law where sufficient evidence was established," ACC acting director Rosewin Wandi told IPS. "Between 60 and 70 percent of reported complaints were against government officials, while about 20 percent were against officials in the private sector."

The Society for Aids in Africa (SAA) and the International Aids Society (IAS) call on Senegalese government to immediately release and drop charges against 9 men sentenced recently for 8 years each in prison based on sexual orientation. Among those arrested work towards providing critical HIV prevention, care and treatment services among men who have sex with men (MSM).

Thousands of Kenyans who fled their homes following a wave of violence triggered by the disputed general election last year are still languishing in temporary camps. More than 1,500 were killed and another 300,000 displaced in post-election clashes fought predominantly between members of Kenya's two main tribes - the Luo and the Kikuyu.

Reporters Without Borders notes that Nsimba Embete Ponte, the editor of the biweekly L’Interprète, was released on completing a 10-month prison sentence for “insulting” President Joseph Kabila by referring to rumours about his health in a series of articles.

Poverty poses a major obstacle for farmers in Ethiopia to adapt to climate change, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said. "The poor do not have the necessary technology and resources, in terms of money and so on, to be able to change and adapt," Meles told a national climate change conference in Addis Ababa.

As Senegal's parliament prepares to debate possible changes to rape laws, civil society groups say legislative reforms will not be enough to combat sexual violence against women and children. “It is not enough to put rapists in prison and change the laws," Adama Sow of the Senegalese NGO Action Group Against Child Rape (GRAVE) told IRIN. “That is needed, of course...but we also need to change mentalities. If not we will never overcome this problem.”

For the first time in years, John Phiri*, a health extension worker in Malawi's central Salima district, does not have to fill in a stack of forms during his monthly round of collecting data to monitor nutrition levels in the community. Now he whips out his mobile phone and texts the data, including the height and weight of the children in the area, while covering his beat.

The inhabitants of Sam Ouandja, an isolated diamond mining town in the northeast of the Central African Republic (CAR), were exposed to their first ever HIV awareness campaign in 2007. The focus was on HIV testing, but more than a year later, those who tested positive are still waiting for the arrival of HIV/AIDS services.

Former African leaders will attend a peace conference in Nairobi, Kenya under the theme ‘The Kenya we want’ to discuss the political transformation of the country from an ‘ethnic-divisions-ridden state’ into a more tolerant democracy in the region as well as to learn from other countries’ experiences in order to strengthen on-going efforts in national reconciliation and inter-group harmony. Elsewhere, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is holding a three-day seminar on reforming the security sector by initiating dialogue between the policy makers, civil society organisations and international stakeholders and identifying the role of ECCAS in promoting security in the region. Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States, following a similar move by the African Union (AU), has suspended Guinea’s membership to the regional body, in accordance with the provision of the 2001 regional Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, until the return to constitutional order in the country following a military takeover in December 2008. Still in peace and security related news, United States President elect Barack Obama is likely to face challenges in dealing with the United States African Command (Africom) because many African leaders perceive the command as an instrument meant to benefit the United States rather than being a ‘diplomatic, economic and humanitarian aid, aimed at the prevention of conflict’ as touted by U.S military and diplomatic officials.

With the aim of strengthening their effective participation in the AU, UNIFEM organised a consultative and planning forum for regional and sub-regional women’s networks and organisations to increase, among others, knowledge of AU policy and institutional frameworks and to enhance effective participation in policy formulation and implementation by these stakeholders. Meanwhile, the Women’s World Summit Foundation is calling for submission of nominations for its 16th annual edition of the prize for women’s creativity in rural life.

Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, will host the 12th ordinary session of the AU heads of State and Government under the theme ‘Infrastructure Development in Africa’. As African ministers adopted the continent’s Mining Vision 2050, regional economic communities have realised that well managed mineral and mining resources are essential for the continent’s economic growth and have begun to harmonise their mining regulations frameworks.

Drawing parallels with Israel’s current action in Gaza, Shailja Patel introduces the poem Overheard Over S.E. Asia by the British poet Denise Levertov. Published in her 1972 collection entitled Footprints, Levertov’s poem concerns the US’s use of white phosphorus during the Vietnam war.

"White phosphorus, white phosphorus,
mechanical snow,
where are you falling?"

"I am falling impartially on roads and roofs,
on bamboo thickets, on people.
My name recalls rich seas on rainy nights,
each drop that hits the surface eliciting
luminous response from a million algae.
My name is a whisper of sequins. Ha!
Each of them is a disk of fire,
I am the snow that burns.

I fall
wherever men send me to fall–
but I prefer flesh, so smooth, so dense:
I decorate it in black, and seek
the bone."

* Denise Levertov was a British poet strongly opposed to the Vietnam war.
* Shailja Patel is a Kenyan poet, playwright and theatre artist, whose blog can be found .
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Offering a counterweight to negative images of an aid- and handout-addicted Africa, Mukoma Wa Ngugi discusses and commends the work of the local organisations around the continent. Often operating with minimal funding or media support, these organisations deserve to be the focal point in new approaches of genuinely helping those who help themselves, writes Wa Ngugi.

cc. Highlighting the efforts of the Abahlali baseMjondolo social movement to draw attention to persistent governmental indifference towards the plight of Durban shack dwellers, Toussaint Losier sets the shack fires endured by locals within their broader political context. Directly equating the absence of adequate housing, water and electricity with the early 1990s informal negotiations between the ANC and corporate leaders, the author argues the shack dwellers’ marginalisation to be a direct consequence of South Africa’s post-apartheid neoliberal leanings and the unwillingness of the ANC to make good on its original aims of equitable social redistribution.

cc. In solidarity with Cuba and the Cuban people, Mwandawiro Mghanga argues that Barack Obama should rescind the US’s continued blockade on the Caribbean country as a demonstration of his commitment to fulfilling his campaign promises of more egalitarian policies towards the world’s poor. Cuba’s successes through socialism and its continued efforts to export healthcare support and education around the world in spite of its own constraints, the author contends, merit recognition in the form of normalised trading and diplomatic relations with its rich neighbour.

This is terror
that surpasses words
that extends
the bounds of terrorism
beyond inexpressible
beyond unimaginable
beyond inconceivable

Unspeakable
unutterable
inexpressible

That they who endured so much
should, themselves, inflict so much
should inflict so much pain on others

Anguish beyond words

Israel
Palestine

Palestine

* Dennis Brutus is a veteran of the South African liberation struggle, a leading figure in the global justice movement and a world-renowned poet.
* Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Demba Moussa Dembélé, 2009-01-09

Demba Moussa Dembélé condemns the attacks carried by Israel on Gaza since December 27. He accuses Israel of failing to respect any accords that have been signed in the past while continuing to subject the population of Gaza to endless atrocities and crimes against humanity. He singles out the complicity of the United States and Europe in supporting Israeli actions, and failing to condemn what is going on, and calls for worldwide support and Solidarity for the people of Gaza.

Saving Guinea and Rethinking Africa
Hamadou Tidiane Sy, 2009-01-09

Recent events in Guinea bring about a need to rethink principles of sovereignty and non-interference, as espoused by the erstwhile Organization of African Unity (OAU), and the subsequent stance taken by its successor, the African Union (AU) in 2000, which emphasizes interdependence and more active engagement. Hamadou Sy blames the AU of duplicity in the case of Guinea, reacting now to condemn the coup while not having spoken out in 2003 when then president Conté changed the constitution. As demonstrated by the support of the Guniean people for the coup, there is a need for the continent’s institutions to reinvent themselves in order to serve, first and foremost, the African people.

Guinea: A Double-faceted Coup-d’Etat
Tidiane Kassé, 2009-01-09

Tidiane Kassé does a roundup of news and views about the recent coup in Guinea, which attest to the multiple and opposing views of the change in power. Coups-d’Etat on the continent dating back to the 60s have seen a slide away from democracy intro despotic and oppressive military rule. However, the Mali in 1991, Mauritania in 2005 and now Guinea, have bucked this trend, ushering new and more responsive regimes in these countries. This has stirred a debate between democratic purism that sees military rule as antithetical to its principles, and a more pragmatic view that takes into account the will and the welfare of the people.

Zimbabwe: Mugabe: the Renegade and the Scape-goat
Aminata Dramane Traoré, 2009-01-09

Aminata Dramane Traoré takes on the detractors of Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe. She takes issue with condemnation of Mugabe by the global powers who in her view have no moral standing to do this, accusing them of turning a blind eye their own crimes. She accuses them of throttling the economy of Zimbabwe and causing great suffering in the country, under the guise of pushing for democracy. Nothing in her view, can justify the humiliation of Mugabe and the suffering of his people.

In the usual start to its New Year diplomatic calendar, Chinese foreign minister, Yang Jeichi, has embarked on a four nation African tour. Landing in Rwanda, as the first stop of his visit, the foreign minister was invited to the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, which was funded by the Chinese government to the value of US$8.9 million. As a goodwill gesture the Chinese Embassy in Rwanda

cc. As Obama takes over the presidency of the United States, Horace Campbell contextualizes an Obama presidency in the realities of Africa and the ongoing global finance crisis. He argues that “capitalism should not be reconstituted and rebuilt on the backs and bodies of Africans." For Campbell, the crisis is not simply a cyclical crisis of capitalism; it is a fundamental shift in the global political and economic order. In light of this fast changing world, Campbell is also interested in the possibilities and our responsibilities in bringing about change in and for Africa.

==

Writing at the end of September 2008, the chief policy adviser to the candidate Senator Barack Obama spelt out the foreign policy goals as they related to Africa in this way:

“Barack Obama understands Africa, and understands its importance to the United States. Today, in this new century, he understands that to strengthen our common security, we must invest in our common humanity and, in this way, restore American leadership in the world.

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he has engaged on many African issues. He has worked to end genocide in Darfur, to pass legislation to promote stability and the holding of elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to bring a war criminal to justice in Liberia and to develop a coherent strategy for stabilizing Somalia.”

From this broad outline the adviser (who had been trained in one of the elite African Studies Centers in the United States) went on to outline three goals of the candidate:

One is to accelerate Africa's integration into the global economy.

A second is to enhance the peace and security of African states.

And a third is to strengthen relationships with those governments, institutions and civil society organizations committed to deepening democracy, accountability and reducing poverty in Africa.

THE REALITY

The contradictions between the goals and the stated strategic objective of “investing in a shared humanity” brings to the fore the tensions and contradictions between the campaign of Senator Obama and the mindset of the thinking behind achieving goals for the United States and for the peoples of Africa. Between the time of the statement of this adviser in September and the elections in November, the realities of the global capitalist crisis had become very clear for the citizens of the United States. Citizens of Africa were always aware of the exploitation, hunger and death that came with capitalist relations of production. When Julius Nyerere had called for a revolution embedded in the African values of Ujamaa and self reliance, there was a political and ideological war against the peoples of Tanzania and any society in Africa that dared to be independent. Nationalization of the people’s wealth to ensure equal opportunities was rubbished by US policymakers.

Yet, in ten weeks between September and November 2008, the US government moved to nationalize banks, insurance companies and to invest billions of dollars (to bail out) the automobile industry. When the campaign ended and Senator Obama became President-elect Obama, it became clearer that neo-liberalism was dead or was dying. Neo-conservatives and the gurus of market fundamentalism were on the retreat, but in the Obama transition, there was no real break from the old mindset of US policymakers in relation to Africa. From the names and institutions that appeared in the transition process it was clear that the transition to an Obama Presidency will not, in the short term, reflect the kind of change that was promised in the election campaign. Instead of a future of sustainable peace and transformation, one saw a re-emergence and recycling of the same militarists such as Susan Rice emerging as a top official of the US foreign policy establishment. Lawrence Summers, who wrote the memo that it was more economical to dump toxic waste in Third World Countries, emerged as a major economic adviser.

A clear reading of five subject areas with international relations components in the transition team process indicates that Africa in general is likely to be a minor area of focus in their research process. These areas are:

1. State Department and Foreign Policy

2. International Economic Policy (USAID, World Bank, IMF, Treasury, Commerce, US Trade, OPIC, Ex-IM Bank, Agriculture)

3. Health/Human Services (HIV-AIDS)

4. National Security (DoD, AFRICOM and War on terror)

5. Energy (African oil)

In terms of operation, the team took its findings from each department and developed the Obama’s administration’s first internal white papers for each branch of government. Outside groups and entities with long-term interest in African resources were also submitting white papers on individual subjects into the transition team process. Hence, the final papers of the transition represented a product of both internal research and external contributions.

WHO TRAINED THESE POLICYMAKERS?

From the website of the transition process and the that three persons- Valerie Jarrett, Martin Nesbitt and Dr. Eric Whitaker- are the closest advisers of Barack Obama.

While transition team operatives maintained that US policy towards Africa was at present a low priority (insofar as the US is preoccupied with the crisis of the economy and the questions of war and peace in Iraq and Afghanistan) there is no let up on the ground in Africa in the promotion of US ‘national interests’ through the State Department, the Department of Defense, the Treasury Department, the Department of Energy and a multitude of groups who are supporting AID projects. The day-to-day operations of the US bureaucrats continue to promote the neo-conservative and neo-liberal policies of the western imperial ideation system.

Examples of where these policies are being pursued include: The full speed attempt to militarize Africa under the guise of the so called war on terror. This is manifest in the transition pledge to continue the establishment of the US Africa Command and a US led international naval force off the coast of Somalia.

The second area where this is clear is that despite the fact that neo-liberalism and the market fundamentalism has been discredited in the USA, these policies are still being promoted by the IMF, the World bank and the host of US agencies that are now operating in Africa. In September 2008, when this global capitalist crisis was becoming evident to the world, Alan Greenspan testified before Congress. He said, “I have found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact.”

What Grenspan was politely saying was that the thinking behind the neoconservative oriented economic policies that had been promoted in the United States and overseas is wrong. During the hearing, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), was not satisfied by the use of the word ‘flaw.’ Waxman wanted a stronger term. He then asked Greenspan to clarify his words:

“In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working,” Waxman said.

“Absolutely, precisely,” Greenspan replied. “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.”

This admission that for forty years the underlying assumptions, rationales and thinking which served as the foundation of the economic policies of the United States in the USA and overseas was wrong, must be discussed at every level in Africa. Will African governments be comfortable with accepting this statement that they were being bullied into adopting wrong policies? Or will African intellectuals, trade unionists, policy makers and ordinary citizens redouble the efforts to end the domination of the International Financial Institutions over the lives of the people?

Obama’s policy towards Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) particularly regarding medicines will be important. Already, Democrats in the Congress led by Charles Rangel have said that the USG should not put the interests of IPR holders in US trade agreements, over the human health interests in poor nations.

Will Obama push that position further or will he fight against it?

It now devolves to the oppressed in Africa to join forces with others in the Global South to push for the dismantling of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The dollar as the currency of World Trade is coming to the end of an inglorious period. It is not in the interests of the people of Africa for the Euro and for the European Union to be the beneficiary of the collapse of US capitalism. It is the task of Africans to work for the overthrow of capitalism in Africa and beyond. Capitalism should not be reconstituted and rebuilt on the backs and bodies of Africans. This crisis is not simply a cyclical crisis of capitalism; it is a fundamental shift in the global political and economic order.

While progressive African peoples at home and abroad were excited about the election of Barack Obama, it was clear that the alternatives to US government policies for Africa had to emerge from the combined efforts of the social forces within Africa who had a vested interest in making a break with the plunder and looting of Africa. From the actions and activities of the dominant groups in the United States that interact with the elites of Africa, the emphasis is on the ‘strategic’ resources of Africa, without a real consideration for the quality of lives of the people. Walter Rodney had identified this class of Africans who were allies of imperialism in the book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Since the era of neo-liberalism and IMF structural adjustment, the conception of ‘underdevelopment’ and ‘exploitation’ has been replaced by the language of ‘donor agencies’ partners for development and ‘democratic governance.’ The brightest from the institutions of higher learning were seduced into the multi billion dollar aid sector called the ‘humanitarian’ and ‘non-governmental organization’ sector. Many of these international NGO workers in Africa are now caught at a crossroads where there is fear that ’donor funds’ will be drying up because of the global capitalist crisis.

It is urgent that the progressives on both sides of the Atlantic call for a full exposure of the ‘other flawed’ policies of the United States such as the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Under the Bush administration the apartheid health policies associated with the conservative ideas about reproductive rights have been trumpeted as a success in Africa. So tenacious has been the propaganda about the health policies of the Bush administration in Africa that even within the Obama transition there is an acceptance that the PEPFAR of Bush has been beneficial for Africa. For those who want to continue to accept propaganda that “the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), holds a unique place in the history of public health for its size and scope,” I would only want to urge a read of the book, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present.

Health and peace are inextricably linked in all parts of the world, The African traditional healers, cultural workers and caregivers are joining the mass of 6 billion citizens of the planet earth who are calling for investment in caring, not killing. It is a major contradiction to trumpet the support for the recovery of health delivery services in Africa while supporting the remilitarization of Africa.

Will progressives accept that the US policies were’ flawed’ or symbolic of the structural relations of US imperialism in Africa? One of the by-products of the neo-liberal discourse was the reality that the understanding of imperial exploitation and plunder had been replaced by the new ‘humanitarian imperialism’ that was presented behind the international non-governmental infrastructure. Can the Obama administration justify an Economic Recovery program for the United States of over US $700 billion while advocating the use of ‘market forces’ to shelter the plunder of African resources?

OBAMA MUST REPUDIATE THE PLANNED US AFRICA COMMAND

If the economic and diplomatic policies of the USA prior to Barack Obama had been ‘flawed’, then one needs an appropriate formulation to properly describe the US security policies towards Africa. In December 2008, Larry Devlin joined the ancestors. Before he departed this land, Devlin wrote a book entitled, Chief of Station, Congo: A Memoir 1960-1967. This was a book celebrating the role played by Devlin while he was the Chief of the Station of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There was no remorse in this book about the role of the United States in the destabilization of the Congo subsequent to the assassination of Patrice Lumumba and the support for Mobutu for thirty five years. If anything, Devlin was celebrating the work of the US military and economic agencies. In his logic, everything that the US did during the Cold War was justified in the name of fighting communism.

This logic of Devlin is the same logic of the intellectual institutions of the United States. Peace and conflict resolution centers abound in order to promote the distorted logic of Larry Devlin or other writers who then complain about state failure in Africa. Progressive African Intellectuals must begin to document the criminal actions that perpetuated war and instability in every region of Africa. Not only did the USA support destruction and apartheid under this logic, but today there is support for private military contractors who are operating to protect the oil companies that are polluting Africa’s rivers and communities.

Today the peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are reaping the full harvest of the long term investment in militarism and destruction. Yet, instead of a full retreat from the history of military engagement, the members of the US foreign policy establishment continue to call for the establishment of the US Africa Command. It would appear from the public statements of those around the Obama team that the question of change does not apply to Africa and Africans.

RESIST AFRICOM AT HOME AND ABROAD

This is not to suggest that there are no forces within the United States working to dismantle the plans for the US Africa Command. There is such a force within the broad alliance of activists who are pledged to ensure that the Obama administration abandon the plans for the Africa Command. Thus far, the of one of the most senior lawmakers in the USA there is the declaration that:

In January of 1989, Mr. Conyers first introduced the bill H.R. 40, the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act. He has reintroduced H.R. 40 every Congress since 1989, and will continue to do so until it's passed into law.

This author is calling on all progressives to join in the call to extend this assertion by Conyers so that, in the short run, the government of the United States re-engages with the process of the World Conference against Racism, when it convenes in Geneva in April 2009.

FAILURE, FLAWS OR CRIMES IN AFRICA

It is now clear from the transition team of Obama that there is no new thinking on Africa. On the web site of the Obama election campaign, the adviser on Africa boasted that Obama:

“As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he has engaged on many African issues. He has worked to end genocide in Darfur, to pass legislation to promote stability and the holding of elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to bring a war criminal to justice in Liberia and to develop a coherent strategy for stabilizing Somalia.”

Who will be able to educate the Obama Presidency that the road to peace in Darfur and in the DRC is linked to demilitarization globally? Obama cannot continue the duplicity of the Bush administration that continues to have security and intelligence sharing with the government of the Sudan while maintaining that it is working to end the genocide in Darfur. Peace in Africa and demilitarization in the United States are two sides of the same coin.

Barack Obama is the son of a Kenyan immigrant. His father met an early demise from the deformed politics of division and manipulation in Kenya. Obama is going into the White House with a keen sense of the realities of the impoverishment of the people of Africa. It is the same Obama who understands that change can only come through organization. After all it was Senator Obama who campaigned on a pledge:

"I don't want to just end the war," he said early this year. "I want to end the mindset that got us into war."

Africans at home and abroad must inspire a new mindset so that all of the differing agencies, foundations and academic institutions in the USA can move to a new vision of relating to Africans as full human beings. By every measure, the victory of Obama is historic. Obama will either be a great President moving the society beyond the traditions of militarism and support for dictators or be another imperial President who happens to have a father from Kenya. The choice is not up to Obama. The choice is dependent on the extent to which the progressive forces use the opening provided by the election of Obama to bring about the change we want.

*Horace Campbell, is professor of African American studies at Syracuse University, and author of .
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Thank you Horace Cambell for your great analysis of this important battle against racism and colonialism in your essay, . Viewers can see one great video on the battle at:

I find it interesting that Mukoma Wa Ngugi in ignores the years of radical Muslim attacks on Israelis and Jews world wide. He ignores the stated goal of Hamas and similar organizations to destroy Israel and replace with it with a fundamentalist Muslim state in which Jews would be eliminated.

He ignores the deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians. He ignores the placement of weapons and missile launchers and mortars within populated Palestinian areas.

Of course, he totally ignored the attacks of radical Muslims on other Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan and the attacks of Turkey on Kurds. His article once again demonstrates the double standards and hypocrisy that is prevalent in attacks on Israel for defending itself.

I would suggest that the writer become more informed about the entire history of the region and not engage in half truths and anti-semitism.

In response to Mphutlane wa Bofelo’s : It's a good point that the same ANC office bearers who have failed dismally in service delivery at local government level are likely to be back in their positions in COPE T-shirts - with similarly disastrous consequences. The same thing can be seen in the Western Cape. It IS an important point which gets buried beneath the argument that South Africa will no longer have a one party monopoly on power and that this will be good for democracy.

It may be, but how does it help if SA moves from one party power to two party power, both of whom can't deliver the goods? COPE by and large doesn't seem to be tapping into a new, inspirational leadership - instead its leadership face is made up of those who have held positions elsewhere previously. Nor is it offering inspirational policies.

The authors introduce a new paradigm to study the African state, Fundi wa Afrika. According to this paradigm, the current African predicament may be explained by the systematic destruction of African states and the dispossession, exploitation, and marginalization of African people through successive historical processes: the trans-Atlantic slave trade, imperialism, colonialism, and globalization.

Susie Smith, a pioneer in the fight against HIV and AIDS, worked for Oxfam GB for 30 years. With this prize, Oxfam wants to acknowledge her commitment to sub-Saharan Africa and her constant willingness to challenge conventional thinking. The prize of £3,000 will be awarded for a single piece of writing on HIV and AIDS from sub-Saharan Africa, which has already been published. Any writing – possibly an article, poetry, fiction or a chapter of a book – of up to 10,000 words and published in English since 2006 will be eligible. The judges will focus on the quality of the submissions and on the impact the writing has had. All submissions must be received by March 31st 2009. Please include a cover letter outlining the impact your piece has had. We expect to announce the winner in July 2009. To enter, send your submission, with a cover letter, to: [email][email protected]

The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project has been following the case into murder of Eudy Simelane (31), a former Banyana-Banyana soccer player, and an out lesbian, whose body was found stabbed and mutilated in an open field in Tornado - one of the sections in the Kwa-Thema township - on the 28 April 2008. The LGEP is mobilizing at least 120 people from the East Rand to 'camp' for three days in Delmas (Mpumalanga) for the duration of the trial

This course is an intensive and practical introduction to System Dynamics, a unique framework for understanding and managing complex development problems. Participants will be introduced to a variety of tools, including mapping techniques and the Threshold 21 simulation model developed by Millennium Institute, which will help them to understand the sources of persistent development problems and identify the best approaches to mitigate them. The course is designed for policy advisors, planning technicians, advocacy and civil society groups, policy research institutions, private foundations, and bilateral development agencies.

The leader of Mauritania's opposition Rally of Democratic Forces (RDF), Mr. Ahmed Ould Daddah, has said the outcome of the country's national consultations, held 27 December to 6 January by the ruling junta, is against the principles of democracy and Mauritania's national interest. In a declaration which was made public Thursday in Nouakchott, the RDF leader also said the conclusions reached at the consultations could not guarantee peace and national unity, adding that the consultations were held under an atmosphere of utter confusion.

Apparently drawing inspiration from the success of Ghana's opposition in the recently-concluded parliamentary and presidential polls, Nigeria's main opposition Action Congress (AC) party has hailed the polls, saying they have shown that a ruling party can be defeated in a free and fair election.

As part of its mission to ensure that the Web is available to all, W3C invites participation in a public Workshop on the Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social and Economic Development in Africa in Maputo, Mozambique, on 1-2 April 2009. Participants will explore ways to fulfil the potential of mobile phones as a platform for deploying development-oriented ICT services towards the poorest segments of populations in developing countries, with an emphasis on the African context.

There is confusion in Kenya over how to deal with bodies piled in the town of Eldoret's morgue for more than a year. The deceased died in a church burnt down by a mob during ethnic violence after elections in December 2007. Thirty-seven bodies were to have been buried on Wednesday but after the first 10 were interred they had to be dug up amid furious protests from relatives.

The reopening of schools in Zimbabwe after the Christmas break has been delayed by two weeks. Education Minister Stephen Mahere said teachers needed to mark last year's exams before the new term can begin.