Pambazuka News 762: Pushing back: Protests and uprisings against oppression

TE

Why do African countries continue to export raw materials only to buy them back in the form of finished products? It is high time African countries focused their efforts on building up industries, skills and technologies so they can produce their own high quality products, creating much-needed jobs and income for their people.

RBF

Drama unfolded in the Guyanese capital Georgetown as the official commission of inquiry into the assassination of celebrated Pan-African intellectual and activist, Dr. Walter Rodney, handed over its report to the government. The commission has encountered numerous difficulties designed to sabotage its work since inception in 2013. It remains to be seen whether the President of Guyana will release the findings.

BA

Nigerian soldiers are notorious for their brutality against civilians whenever they encounter them. This possibly has something to do with the militarized nature of power in the country since independence. The soldiers hit a new low with the emergence of a video showing a group of cadets thoroughly brutalizing hapless citizens – and enjoying it.

RT

Ethiopia is in the grip of a terrible crisis. The recent widespread popular protests must be understood in the context of an atrociously repressive regime and near total capture of the state by ethnic elites, who are now the sole beneficiaries of national resources. The people are bitter. If this mass frustration is channeled into properly organized popular resistance, Ethiopia could see a revolution.

As this most unfortunate and shameful incident shows, all that talk about the Nigerian military being a disciplined institution is balderdash. What you get, in the end, is a military bursting at the seams with impunity and heavily laden at the top with corruption. This unwholesome, putrid mix is the definite make-up of Nigeria’s military.

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