Is Cameroon's language policy integrating the nation, as it was intended to do? Or is the approach to language threatening to tear the country apart?

Is the liberation struggle over? If not, what are we fighting? And how can we build a caring society?

'I am an Arab woman of colour, and we come in all shades of anger.'

Nigerian NGO Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a request before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Arusha, Tanzania, asking the court to 'consider the effects of corruption on the poverty level in Nigeria, and whether rising and systemic poverty violates specific human rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.' According to a statement made available to PANA in Lagos on Sunday, the organization told the court that Nigeria has ratified both the African Charter and the African Court Protocol.

Seven Gambian opposition parties have asked the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to create a level playing field for the 29 March 2012 National Assembly election. The opposition is also urging the IEC to postpone the election for a meeting between them to discuss how to put the right conditions in place for a genuine vote. The demand follows a series meetings of the opposition parties which cited the preamble of the 1997 Constitution that guarantees participatory democracy reflecting the undiluted choice of the people.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party has accused South Africa of gross interference in the country’s internal affairs. This comes after President Jacob Zuma’s government insisted that its troubled neighbour must institute serious reforms before holding fresh elections. South Africa’s Foreign Affairs minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, told her country’s parliament on Monday that 'our government expects that there would be no deviation from the provisions' of Zimbabwe’s power-sharing agreement. A member of Zanu PF’s top decision-making body, the politburo, Jonathan Moyo, said Nkoana-Mashabane had no mandate to comment on political developments in Zimbabwe.

Newly independent South Sudan has some of the highest blindness rates in the world. Endemic diseases that have been stamped out in other post-conflict countries are rife, and the only fully functioning eye centre is in the capital, Juba. 'There is only one ophthalmologist in South Sudan and that's me,' says Wani Mena, who is also the Ministry of Health's representative for eye care and head of the country's main hospital. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends one ophthalmologist for every 400,000 people, while South Sudan has one for more than nine million people.

The North Gauteng High Court is to hear an application to compel SA to abide by its legal obligations to investigate and prosecute high-level Zimbabwean officials accused of crimes against humanity. The case, which has been set down for hearing from March 26-30, is the first of its kind in SA. The court would have the opportunity to provide guidance on the scope and nature of the obligations placed on SA by signing up to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

South Africa is sneaking E2.4 billion (US$320 million) to Swaziland to help it shore up its ailing economy so that the undemocratic kingdom does not have to instigate political reforms, a Swazi campaigning group claimed. The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) says the loan money is being channelled into Swaziland disguised as cash from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). This way Swaziland gets the money without reforms by King Mswati.

Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika has told foreign donors to 'go to hell', accusing them of plotting with local groups to topple his government. The UK and other donors cut aid to Malawi in 2010, criticising its economic policies. Mutharika said he has intelligence reports that some Western donor nations were working with local non-governmental groups (NGOs) to hold street demonstrations and vigils against his rule.

The ANC Youth League will want 'radical change' even without its president, leader of the league Julius Malema told radio station Metro FM in an interview on Monday night. Malema was expelled from the ANC last week for bringing the party into disrepute and sowing division in its ranks. 'I've not stabbed a person. I've not been charged with rape. I've not been charged for corruption. I've not been charged for organising factional meetings, and benefiting my own family. I'm not charged about those things. I'm charged about what has been written in the resolutions of the youth league.' Malema added the new league president would have to continue with the resolutions already adopted.

The Botswana Government has snubbed Swaziland’s People’s United Democratic (Pudemo) calls for Swazi MPs to be barred from participating in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum and Pan-African Parliament. Pudemo, Swaziland’s largest opposition, has heightened its campaign against King Mswati III’s reign. The socialist party has been pushing for political and economic reform in Africa’s last standing monarchy. But Botswana’s minister of Foreign Affairs Phandu Skelemani said the government would not interfere with Swaziland’s sovereignty.

Liberia’s former football star-turned politician, George Weah, has been reinstalled as the leader of Liberia’s main opposition party, Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) following the expulsion of presidential candidate Winston Tubman. The party has been in crisis since the ruling Unity Party of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf defeated it during the presidential elections last year, making it the second defeat in a row. A statement by the party aid Mr Tubman was relieved of the position as a result of nepotism, corruption, lack of accountability and transparency, and unethical behaviour.

Senegal opposition candidate Macky Sall has won a major boost in his bid to oust President Abdoulaye Wade in a run-off vote, securing the endorsement of the man who came third in the first round. The west African nation's main opposition movement has also called on its supporters and other failed candidates to rally behind Sall, who will challenge the 85-year-old Wade in the second round election on March 18 or 25. Wade, who has been in power for 12 years, garnered 34.8 per cent of the vote in the first round, but fell humiliatingly short of the majority needed to avoid a run-off.

Soldiers fired a 21-gun salute at the funeral of Odumegwu Ojukwu Thursday as Nigerian leaders paid final respects to the man whose 1967 declaration of Biafran independence sparked a civil war. Forty-five years after he tried to split Nigeria asunder by proclaiming the Republic of Biafra, Ojukwu's coffin was draped in the national colours of white and green at the funeral service in the city of Enugu, attended by thousands.

Mozambique’s Finance Minister plans this year to increase State revenues in order to overcome the growing lack of funding from abroad, Minister Manuel Chang said. 'With that increase in revenue the aim is to establish conditions needed to reduce the budget deficit, increasing the contribution of domestic resources within the State Budget,' the Finance Minister said at the 19th National Public Spending Seminar.

What do Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Japan, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Canada, the Netherlands, the UK, and the USA have in common?

cc K Lcc K L'When you believe so much in something,
When who you are is so tied up in what you do,
What you do begins to redefine who you are'.

Kenya needs to get to a point where intra-national identities do not threaten nationhood. It should not matter what tribe, race, religion, gender, class or age one belongs to.

Egypt's interim government will have to muster all its skills of persuasion to sell austerity measures to a country weary after a year of political and economic strife, if details emerging on Cairo's planned deal with the IMF are anything to go by. Egypt wants the $3.2 billion IMF accord to help it head off a looming crisis. But in return the IMF wants Egypt to cut its budget deficit.