Indigenous foods, neglected and derided by many in the agro and food industries as well as urban consumers, can be an important component in alleviating hunger, malnutrition and protecting the environment, the regional representative for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations told a symposium. A century of globalization has reduced the number of plant species used for food and other purposes from roughly 100,000 to about 30. With the global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, FAO is concerned that the world may not be able to produce enough food to meet demand. Today, an estimated 925 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition, with over 60 percent of them residing in the Asia-Pacific region.

Through the generous support of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, SAHA is able to distribute a limited number of free copies of the project report ‘Transition’s Child: The Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF)’ to interested activists, researchers, NGOs and educational organisations. The report is based on an oral history and document collection project on the South African social movement, undertaken by Dr. Dale McKinley on behalf of SAHA in 2010 - 2011.

The APF was formed in 2000 in direct response to the political and socio-economic conditions in which many poor communities have found themselves in the post-1994 era. The APF brought together community organisations, workers’ groups, activists and individuals to oppose privatisation and fight for free, fair and decent provision of essential services for disadvantaged people of South Africa.

In line with SAHA’s commitment to capture and document neglected histories as well as to create and support awareness of contemporary struggles for justice in the making of democracy in South Africa, the aim of this project was to create a comprehensive and accessible archive on the APF. In addition, the project was an attempt to explore some of the complexities and challenges of recording and archiving the history of social movements, the growth and development of which is often organic and decentralised, and as a result, usually poorly documented.

Along with the report, SAHA has developed an online virtual exhibition on the APF showcasing materials from SAHA’s archival collection on the social movement to ensure that the work is easily accessible on an on-going basis. The virtual exhibition serves as a participatory tool as visitors to the virtual exhibition are encouraged to comment on this telling of the APF’s history, share their memories of the events and issues profiled and thoughts on the issues central to the work of the APF, and contribute new materials to the virtual exhibition. The project report can also be downloaded from the virtual exhibition as well as from SAHA’s main website.

In conjunction with the launch of this report, SAHA has put together a small exhibition on the history of the APF, now on display on level 3 of Museum Africa in Newtown, Johannesburg, until March 2013.

If you would like to request a copy of the report (accompanied by a CD of the virtual exhibition), please email your contact details to [email][email protected] by 21 May 2012.

If you would like to contribute materials (documents, photographs, posters, pamphlets, reports, t-shirts, banners, etc) relating to the APF to the archival collection at SAHA, please email [email][email protected] .

Should you require further information about the project, the report, the physical exhibition or the virtual exhibition, please do not hesitate to contact SAHA on the following details:

Tel: 011 7171941

Fax: 011 7171964

Email: [email][email protected]

Some of our subscribers wrote to us recently to tell us that they did not receive Pambazuka News in full, but rather truncated, with only about one third of the issue visible. Upon investigation, we have found that the majority of these complaints came from those with Yahoo accounts. If you are one of those affected, we recommend that you take this matter up with Yahoo. We are sorry if you experienced this difficulty. Please contact if you wish us to send you a copy as an attachment or to another email service provider that does not interfere with emails.

Editors

The US Department of State’s 2011 Human Rights Report catalogues an ongoing range of abuses and discriminatory treatment directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people worldwide – starkly underscoring what Secretary Hillary Clinton has called '…one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time.' Speaking in Geneva last December, Secretary Clinton noted that, too often, LGBT people remain an 'invisible minority', members of which '…are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed…' while '…authorities empowered to protect them look the other way or, too often, even join in the abuse.'

The film highlights the extent to which the industrial agricultural system ­? and genetically modified seeds in particular ­? has impacted on the enormous agro?biodiversity evolved by farmers and communities around the world.

We call on all governments and citizens of the world to stand with us and express your appeals to Prime Minister Noda before he makes a final decision on the restart of Ohi nuclear power.

The leaders of Gambia and Mauritania recently expressed their concern over the deteriorating security situation in the Sahel region as northern Mali remains occupied by Tuareg and Islamist rebels. In a statement released after a three-day visit by Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh to Nouakchott the two leaders expressed 'their deep concern over the serious threat to peace and stability in the Sahel-Sahara sub-region following the Libyan crisis.' Armed groups, particularly the Tuareg separatist rebels, who seized northern Mali in the wake of a March coup, were boosted by weapons brought back with them from the war in Libya.

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has escaped unscathed from an ambush by al-Shabab fighters during a visit to the al-Qaeda-linked group's former stronghold of Afgoye. Ahmed was making a rare trip out of Mogadishu on Tuesday when the convoy was attacked by gunmen in the Afgoye corridor, a key road about 30km north of the capital.

Libya's former deputy election commissioner says he quit his post because he does not believe the country is ready for next month's elections. Sghair Majeri has told Al Jazeera that 'holding elections by June 19 is a mission impossible' as it is a time-consuming process. However, Libya's Election Commission insists everything is still on track for holding the vote on June 19.

A journalist with one of Malawi's major publishing houses, Blantyre Newspapers Limited (BNL), is languishing in police custody for writing a story on an alleged engagement ceremony involving two women. Reports indicate that the journalist, Clement Chinoko, was arrested on the evening of Saturday 26 May 2012 for penning a story that appeared in The Sunday Times of 20 May 2012. The story stated that two women from Malawi?s southern city of Blantyre had engaged.

Environmental organisation Greenpeace has demanded that the government halts all discussions aimed at expanding nuclear power production in South Africa. 'Greenpeace Africa activists blockaded the premises of the IDC where the conference on 'Nuclear power's future for Africa' was taking place,' the organisation told News24. Police forcibly removed the activists from the premises of the Industrial Development Corporation in Sandton.

In a press release, the Economic Justice Network in Ghana says recent utterances by the Ministers of Trade and Industry, confirm intelligence that the Minister is pushing the Ghana government to sign the Interim Economic Partnership Agreement, IEPA, that was initialled in 2007. 'At a recent public meeting of Ghana-EU Partnership the Minister stated categorically that the benefits of signing the EPAs far outweigh the negatives. This comes on the heels of an interview granted a local newspaper not too long ago where she declared that Ghana will have no alternative than proceed with signature of the IEPA in the light of the lack of progress at the ECOWAS level.'

Donor governments and multilateral institutions have provided grants and loans to private companies operating in developing countries for decades. However, since the 1990s the scale of this support has increased dramatically. In 2010 external investments to the private sector by IFIs exceeded $40 billion. This report assesses whether external (non-domestic) public finance for private investments in the South lives up to promises to provide finance to credit-constrained companies in developing countries and to deliver positive development outcomes.

The UN refugee agency reported on 29 May that the recent fighting in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has left more than 40,000 people internally displaced. UNHCR staff in North Kivu province say most of the internal displacement is taking place in Rutshuru territory, north of the provincial capital, Goma. Between May 10 and May 20, one of UNHCR's local NGO partners registered more than 40,000 internally displaced people in Jomba and Bwesa sectors.

The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) learned today (28 May) that US multi-national seed company Pioneer Hi-Bred has been granted permission by the Competition Appeal Court, to acquire the nation’s last major independent seed company, Pannar seed. The ACB was an intervening party, opposing the merger in the public interest.

The continued stock out of the antiretroviral tenofovir and the failure to advise health workers on how to deal with it is a looming disaster, HIV Clinicians and activists are warning. Reports of stock outs go as far back as October last year with the explanation given that the drug suppliers Aspen and Sonke were not able to meet the demand once they were awarded the tender. Dr Francesca Conradie, President of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society said they had submitted the clinical guidelines for health workers on how to swop out medications in February, but that it has not been ratified by the health department meaning it is not being used.

The makers of this documentary are raising funds online: Born Again in the United States of Uganda is the story of how well financed US evangelicals, fundamentalists and neo conservatives conspired in the incitement of hatred against gays and how this led to the introduction of the ‘Kill the Gays’ bill to Uganda’s parliament. The documentary will explore how the US evangelical right invests heavily in financial and advocacy effort in influencing religious Africans to shun gay rights .

Many victims of police violence during Tunisia’s 2010-2011 uprising have received neither proper care nor effective government compensation for their injuries, Human Rights Watch said. Seventeen months after the start of the revolution that ousted Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali from the presidency, many victims depend on charity and suffer pain, disability, and need, as a result of the state’s failure to provide them with effective redress.

Gambia's immigration ministry said on Tuesday 29 May Guinea-Bissau's former army chief, elections chief and ousted interior minister were being detained 'for security reasons' after fleeing to Banjul. Former army chief Jose Zamora Induta, elections commission chief Desejado Da Costa and Fernando Gomes, who was interior minister in the government overthrown in the country's latest coup last month, fled Guinea-Bissau over the weekend.

The prevalence of drug-resistant HIV strains in Uganda has risen from 8.6 per cent to 12 per cent in the last five years, one of the highest rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a recent study. The PharmAccess African Studies to Evaluate Resistance (PASER) monitoring cohort study report for 2008-2012 found that the prevalence of transmitted drug resistance among people who have never taken life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) medication was substantially higher in Uganda.