Blogging Africa: 9 April 2009

April 6 marked the 15th anniversary of the beginning of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, when 800,000 people were murdered over a period of three months.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/427/april08_02_blackstar.gifBlack Star Journal points out one of the lesser known facts around the horrendous killings: It occurred a year, almost to the week, after politicians and dignitaries in Washington solemnly promised 'Never again' while inaugurating the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
He also publishes links to a series of very informative articles and blog posts from the 10th anniversary in 2004 – well worth reading.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/427/april08_03_sociolingo.gifSociolingo’s Africa points to a multimedia campaign, highlighting the thousands of women who were raped and the estimated 20,000 children born as a result.

Intended Consequences, a multimedia film created by MediaStorm from the photographs and video of award-winning photographer, Jonathan Torgovnik, chronicles the lives of these women, many of whom have been rejected by their families, compounding already unimaginable poverty, emotional distress and illness, especially due to high rates of HIV infection from the same attacks that left them pregnant. In the piece, which is viewable both in full and in individual segments dedicated to each of the featured women, their stories are told in their own voices, accompanied by still portraiture and video.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/427/april08_04_chardonas.gifRamblings of a Procrastinator in Accra wonders whether, despite the plethora of films and books on the genocide, the world has really learned from Rwanda and points us to the Kigali Memorial Centre

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/427/april08_05_sukumakenya.gif… month two Kenyan human rights activists were murdered on the streets of Nairobi. Sukuma Kenya remembers one of the activists, his friend, GPO Oulu, in this moving post:

‘Sunday 5 April will mark a month since our brother GPO Oulu was slain in cold blood. GPO was a man who burned with zeal and conviction for the rights of the oppressed and with the dream of a better Kenya. He was a man who even in death remains firmly affixed in the minds of all who knew him.’

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/427/april08_06_nigeriawhat.gifNigeria, What’s New comments on the recent G20 Summit and asks a number of questions on where Nigeria stands in the global economy and the trillions of dollars supposedly allocated for aid to it and other ‘emerging’ countries. As he rightly points out, aid has not worked in the past and besides the monies allocated by the Summit are miniscule anyway:

‘Where does Nigeria and other emerging cess pits stand in this huge pile of cash? History has shown that regardless of the amount of money pumped into developing countries, the infrastructure remains challenging. Getting the cash is easy but the plans and strategy of using it to develop the so-called Third World seemed stunned. G20 my left foot. They have allocated $500bn for the IMF to lend to struggling economies but only $100bn to poor corruption-ridden ones.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/427/april08_07_commentary.gifCommentary SA writes on the trial of ANC president, Jacob Zuma, which has now been cancelled. Although he is disgusted by the freeing of Zuma and questions the future of South African justice he goes on to somewhat contradict himself by stating the NPA ‘had a hard decision to make’:

‘It’s a joke. It’s a cruel and terrible joke of our system where a man can slither free from defending his innocence because of procedural intereference. Two wrongs, Mr Zuma, do not make a right. Ncuka should be investigated, but so too should Zuma. The latter won’t happen, and while it might be the correct procedural course, it only became so due to years of drawn out, overpaid legal battles in which Zuma was able to effectively buy his way out of very real trouble.

‘Secondly, and rather contradicting my little rant there, the NPA clearly had a difficult decision to make here. If they were to ignore this additional evidence, which, when brought to full light, I suspect would certainly impact on Zuma’s case in his favour. This way the procedures of the rule of law are maintained and at least one agency in this horrid mess has their hands relatively clean. One cannot in good conscience continue with the trial when these tapes do nothing but cloud the impartiality of the whole damned investigation.’

As he points out, few South African and non-South African citizens including myself, would agree with his second point, as now we have the spectacle of a future president of South Africa who remains under suspicion for corruption amongst other things.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/427/april08_08_africanloft.gifAfrican Loft comments on a story from Nigeria on the theft of oil from oil pipelines. Apparently the thefts amount to some $1.5 billion annually. An astronomical amount of money, which according to the quoted report, is used to fund armed militia in the Niger Delta as well as force multinationals out of the country. A fact that would not cause too much misery to the many people in the Niger Delta who have seen no benefit from oil exploration:

‘The unrest forces the oil multinationals to leave the Niger Delta. The entrepreneurial bunkers move in and hire the young local out-of-work engineers to handle the ‘cement shack refineries’. The more crude oil refined and sold in black market, the more funds for militia, who then get more daring and violent, which then leads to more multinational leaving town.

‘The hopelessly vicious cycle of violence, theft and slow economic strangulation in the Niger Delta is becoming clearer every day, here’s a sampling of recent events.’

Whilst it is true that enormous amounts of money is being stolen by bunkering (and there is no proof that politicians, traditional leaders as well as militants are not involved in this activity). It is also true that enormous sums of oil money have been stolen by successive governments at all levels. The multinationals are themselves complicit in the violence both feeding it and being directly involved through their actions against protests and the environmental damage they have unleashed.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/427/april08_09_blacklooks.gifBlack Looks reports on the recent Pfizer meningitis trial which has been settled out of court by the Kano State government. Pfizer was sued by Kano State for the unlicensed trial of a meningitis drug Trovan (trovafloxacin) in 200 children in 1996. Eleven children were killed and dozens others suffered side affects and disability as a result. The state has settled for US$75 million instead of the US$2 billion originally sought. Whilst understanding the need for compensation for the families of the children, Black Looks states that it is of utmost importance that multinationals such as Pfizer do not escape justice and be allowed to commit terrible crimes and go free.

While I would not want to be critical of the Kano State government in agreeing to the US$75 million out of court settlement which could see US$35 million going to the families, it is so important in cases like this that multinationals are exposed and made to pay for their actions. US$35 million is a lot of money for the families, but it is a drop in the ocean for Pfizer and we cannot continue to be bought off by the multinationals in this manner. The trial against Shell brought by the Ogoni people begins on the 26 May. It would be extremely disappointing if the plaintiffs in the case were to settle with Shell because no amount of settlement would be sufficient compensation for their role in the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 8 and the environmental damage they have committed against the Ogoni and other people of the region.

* Sokari Ekine blogs at Black Looks
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.