By recovering and uncovering the links in theory and practice between democracy, human rights, and social justice, Professor Gould’s book opens a gateway into these connections in a way that reclaims democracy by refreshing its emancipatory promises.

More than half a million objects are to be moved to a massive German museum now under construction. Many of these items were looted from Africa and now the argument justifying their continued holding in Germany is that they are shared global heritage. It is unacceptable.

The renewed anti-corruption war in Nigeria will receive a big boost if the Buhari Administration considers examination malpractice as another battle to be won.

The final irony is that the regime’s oppression in Rwanda has proven so successful that the victims of the prevailing tyranny are the ones who call for its perpetuation.

The announcement by the government of Ontario, Canada, that it would introduce regulations to stop the much-maligned stop and search practices by the police is deceptive. No regulations will protect the rights and dignity of Black people and other people of colour who are often targeted. The practice should be stopped.

In Swaziland you can rarely find a company or government parastatal whose board of directors does not include a prince, princess, chief or the king’s business associate. It is an absolute monarchy where one’s opportunities and place in society are almost fully dependent on connections and willingness to comply with the decrees of King Mswati III.

Carl Dix will be leading the #RiseUpOctober - STOP Police Terror & Murder, a mass mobilization in New York City, October 24, 2015. He has played a major role in exposing state-sponsored murder and mass incarceration of Black folks. Carl does not approach these issues from a theoretical perspective. He has experienced, first hand, the violence of occupation and the American empire.

Aylan Kurdi is dead. Many other Aylan Kurdis remain. Our outrage at this callous death should drive us deeper into a politics that calls for a drawdown of the violence in Syria and for a serious peace process in Libya, that forces us to be resolute in our fight against IMF and NATO destruction of societies and states.

Ghana has won the Africa Cup of Nations four times. Gyamfi, himself a very successful player, was coach of the national side in three of those wins. He is a legend.

The people of Mozambique are resisting the controversial agricultural development programme ProSavana, fearing it will cause environmental degradation and social displacement. Protest is targeting the neoliberal model of development that fails to spread benefits beyond elites and investors and instead deepens poverty and exploitation.

As migrants and refugees continue to die in their efforts to escape from war or simply to better their lives, and as the EU struggles to cope with the continued influx, what can be done to rectify the situation? Should the focus be on the traffickers who are getting rich off people’s misery or the European countries that are struggling with their own crises?

Govier’s book does a good job of generating anxiety about the future of humanity and of victims, using serious restorative concepts which are very useful in Eastern Africa where there are consistent efforts to rethink the term ‘victim’.

Kairos Palestine statement on continued confiscations of Palestinian land in the Cremisan Valley of the Bethlehem region.

Governments across Africa are obsessed with foreign direct investment. Yet every year the continent losses billions of dollars through illegal financial outflows connected with FDI. More money is lost through legal transfers of super-profits and foreign investors are responsible for distorting national economies.

Canadian policy in Africa can be summed up in nine words: Do what is good for Canadian-owned mining companies.

There is little doubt that Africa’s fortunes have improved considerably in recent years, although poverty, inequality and resource theft remain widespread. Leaders like Obama who have pledged to support Africa should openly fight the entrenched marginalisation of the continent at global decision-making fora.

President Buhari seems to have embarked on the war against endemic corruption with gusto. His recent appointment of a special advisory anti-graft team of respected Nigerians has met with approval. To truly lead from the front, the president ought to publicly declare his wealth and make other top officials in his administration do the same.

Haiti’s 9 August election was a sham. Although the popular Fanmi Lavalas party of ousted President Jean Betrand Aristide was allowed to contest after 11 years, the ruling party of the Western-backed despot Martelly hired armed goons who disrupted the election throughout the country. There are fears about what will happen during presidential elections next month.

In the midst of an economic crisis, embattled militia, persecuted citizens and fleeing refugees, the world can only watch as Libya disintegrates further. Can this battered and bruised country be saved?

Dear Readers and Contributors

Pambazuka News Team takes its annual break from 17-31 August 2015.

We would like to thank you most sincerely for your continued support that enables us to carry insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses, making Pambazuka News one of the largest and most influential web-based forums for social justice in the Pan-African world.

EDITORS

South Africa’s democratic system, heavily dominated by the ANC, could best be served by a genuinely democratic, mainstream trade union-based party, like Brazil’s Socialist Party. The time for Zwelinzima Vavi's United Front lobby to transform into such a party is now.

By some estimates, Nigeria’s national oil corporation alone has reportedly lost more than $30 billion in oil revenue to corruption in the last five yeas, equivalent to the gross domestic product of more than 30 African countries. In this wide-ranging interview, Prof Wole Soyinka speaks about the lost potential in Africa’s most populous nation and the hope of creating a new society built on people-based values.

The civil society group is concerned that the recent approval is typical of GM decision-making in South Africa, which simply reiterates and summarises information provided by Monsanto, who has a clear vested interest in the approval. The government is under a legal obligation to apply a risk averse and cautious approach, which takes into account uncertainties and the limits of current knowledge about commercial production of GMOs.

What has the "democracy" so praised by the West and its apologists brought Tunisia? And why does the rise of Islamism seem so unstoppable? The answer lies in the way the two trends reinforce each other, even as they ferociously contend for the country's future.

President Obama has been fiercely criticized for his claim at a press conference in Addis Ababa that the Ethiopian government is “democratically elected.” The facts on the ground do not support him. But his message of hope to the continent was well received.

More than 30 poor South African hostel dwellers have been murdered by thugs in recent months, in collusion with the police or without police doing anything to stop the killings and bring the perpetrators to justice. This is one of the clearest indications of the failed South African state.

The tide is beginning to turn toward justice. Despite receiving enormous political, diplomatic and economic support from Western governments, Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front-led government have been subjected to increasing scrutiny and pressure for past and current crimes committed on the African continent.

The dissident Swazi student leader was released on bail after spending 14 months in remand prison for singing a pro-democracy song. He shares his experiences inside prison and his political convictions.

35 years after the union jack came down at Rufaro Stadium, a generation of young Zimbabweans are asking questions about, and forging their own, narratives and are re-imagining Zimbabwe. Who re-imagines Zimbabwe, for whom and for what, are going to be important questions as the country struggles to emerge from crisis.

Recent statements from politicians and government officials give the impression that Germany is preparing to abandon the long-standing practice of denying responsibility for the genocide of 1904-1908 and is now prepared to characterize those wars of extermination as genocide. But has the German government adopted fully a new position?

There is nothing that President Obama told Africans that they did not already know. Crucially, America is a major pillar of world capitalism that is entirely responsible for Africa’s numerous problems. But while Obama sermonised the continent, he conveniently forgot to call to question the predatory global power system.

Although apartheid is a crime against humanity under international law, no one has been prosecuted for it. That means criminals who perpetrated this evil system are still free. It is a problem that South Africa – and the world - needs to address, according to a new book.

Professor Ellis was by far the most accomplished, productive and dedicated scholar of Africa of his generation, and his contribution will remain the gold standard with respect to modern scholarship on Africa.

Last week, President Obama declared that Ethiopia has a “democratically elected government”. That is the country where in May elections, the ruling party won all the 547 seats in parliament, thrashing all the 78 other parties. If there ever has been an election won by one party by 100 percent that is democratic, then there is indeed the famous purple cow that nobody has ever seen or the pink elephant that people like Obama see often.

The young black woman from Illinois, an activist with Black Lives Matter, was stopped for a minor traffic violation, beaten, jailed and found dead two days later in her cell. The official explanation about her death is unacceptable.

In order to understand the broader significance of President Barack Obama’s July 2015 visit to Ethiopia more fully, we must put it in a historical perspective, argues Professor Seifudein Adem, associate director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, United States. Tracing back the history of Ethio-American relationship is one step in that direction.

The rare display of groundedness and humility by a sitting African head of state was enough to catapult Nyerere on to the path to canonization. His daring socialist experiment and the decision to leave office at the end of his term, something that remains difficult for African presidents, are significant highlights of his pro-people politics.

Burundi has received far greater vilification from the West compared to Rwanda which has supported rebels in neighbouring countries and whose government is accused of widespread assassinations and forced disappearances targeting the opposition and the media. Burundi appears to provide perfect cover for the odious Kigali regime and its backers abroad.

In Kenya, Obama pledged over a billion dollars in investments from the U.S. government along with U.S.-based businesses. Half of the investments will go to women and young people to promote entrepreneurship. Yet U.S. policy in Eastern Africa has been militaristic along with extraction of minerals, exploiting labor and agricultural commodities.

The cause of Africa’s underdevelopment is well known: Imperialism. Yet heads of state, ministers and representatives have been strutting on the world stage promising to beat the old horse of poverty to death in Africa. Loaners and donors get on their high horses and with great fanfare issue the same old empty promises, sweep up their old broken promises under the rug and recycle the same old pledges about sustainable development and the rest of their meaningless litany.

In 40 years of self-rule Mozambique has undergone drastic political and economic changes, from a socialist one-party state and to a neoliberal democracy. The people of Mozambique have been plunged into – and survived – a civil war, political crisis and now the neoliberal appropriation with high economic growth but persistent poverty.

While there is real joy that Obama is visiting Kenya, this moment should provide another platform for progressives to push for the demilitarization of the relations with Africa. This calls for the dismantling of the US Africa Command, the withdrawal of the Special Forces from Somalia and the end of drone strikes.

The latest victim in the endless violence in a poor people’s residence in South Africa is a 55-year-old father of five who was chased and shot dead by a lone gunman in broad daylight. As in previous murders, the security forces deployed to the area were nowhere in sight.

José Eduardo dos Santos - who shares with Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema the infamy of being Africa's longest-ruling president - is becoming increasingly tyrannical as his regime faces growing popular resistance. In this open letter, Angolan ward-winning investigative journalist and human rights activist speaks out his mind about the political situation in the oil-rich southern African nation.

July 22, 2015 is President Yahya Jammeh’s twenty-first anniversary in power. To mark this day, the numerous Gambians murdered under the Jammeh regime are crying out for justice in a joint letter to West Africa’s King of Impunity. These victims, who are tired of waiting for justice, have expressed their suffering in the absence of accountability for The Gambia’s violations of human rights, including freedom of expression and press freedom.