‘The educated African is the selfish philanthropist. Touched by the turmoil surrounding her, she longs to “do something” to help those in need. But first, her needs must also be met. For how can she help others when she has not yet helped herself?’ writes Neema Ndunguru.

'I was eleven perhaps ten when I met her
When I was introduced to her
She whose voice was rhythmic
In the mountains of Gusiiland
When she spoke, she drew people from far and wide
They came running and walking
Standing and sitting down, listening
To her soothing rhythmic voice…'

The process that brought Michel ‘Sweet Micky’ Martelly to Haiti’s ‘presidency was a farce that will 'force popular forces to distinguish between processes of democratisation and pseudo-elections without democratic participation’, writes Horace Campell, in an article on the people of Haiti’s two-hundred year struggle to reconstruct their society.

With the IMF’s (International Monetary Fund) Dominique Strauss-Kahn in hot water over accusations of sexual assault in a New York hotel, Cameron Duodu revisits the effects of the fund’s structural adjustment programme in his home country of Ghana.

With London's Africa Centre faced with the threat of closure, Chipo Chung stresses that the centre's board ignores 'the social contract between themselves and the community they serve'.

Musa Okwonga performed his poem 'My love' at a memorial service for murdered Ugandan LGBTI activist David Kato on May 18. Originally written for Eudy Simelane, the South African lesbian footballer who was gang-raped and murdered, the poem also features in the forthcoming '.

The fall of apartheid in South Africa has not yielded genuine representation and opportunities for the country’s poor majority, writes Zodwa Nsibande. With political parties happy to remain ‘anti-poor’, it falls upon South Africa’s youth to revolutionise wider society in the struggle for equality and opportunities for all, Nsibande stresses.

I hope Kenya people could , and everything will come down, I can see there still some problems unsolved since the elections in 2008, but I hope reason will prevail in the solution of your most crucial issues.

My solidarity to the people of Kenya gets to you all.

Mahmoud Mamdani

Jacques Depelchin

Charlotte Larbuisson

Five Egyptian political parties and movements have united to form the Coalition of Socialist Forces, they announced in a meeting on 10 May 2011. The newly formed coalition is made up of the Social Party of Egypt, the Democratic Labour Party, the Popular Socialist Coalition Party, Egypt Communist Party and the Revolutionary Socialists. It aims to include under its umbrella other socialist movements in Egypt, which are considered fragmented.

In what is possibly ‘the first session of its kind in Kenya’s election history’, Bunge La Mwananchi (People’s Parliament) brought together aspiring candidates for Kamukunji constituency at a forum where people could question their would-be MPs. The '[t]ime for lethargic service for Political Leaders and Public Officers is up,’ writes Odhiambo Okecth. (Coverage of the debate is available from

Ministers from countries within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) met recently in Lusaka to discuss the progress made towards the proposed tripartite free trade agreement (FTA). The meeting’s discussions centred on the ways to establish a single market by way of a tripartite FTA and thereby promote and attract both cross-border and foreign direct investment. COMESA, SADC and EAC include a total of 26 countries, some of which are already members of more than one of the region’s trade blocs, and a tripartite pan-regional FTA would open up a market of 580 million people.

African leaders have been asked to speed up regional economic integration so the continent can play its rightful role in the global economy. African Union Commission Deputy Chairperson Erastus Mwencha said African states must pay greater attention to economic integration. 'By fostering strong regional trading blocs, African economies could accelerate diversification, generate economies of scale, and mitigate the fallout from any global economic shocks,' he said.

‘How can you speak of human rights and the dignity of peoples when you perpetually violate them and block those who don’t share your ideology and must endure your abuses?’, asks 1980 Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel in an open letter to US President Barack Obama.

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema can only get away with unconstitutional statements calling for black South Africans ‘to take the land without payment’ because there are no social movements strong enough to put his words into action, writes Ronald Wesso.

Morocco's February 20 Movement, which spearheaded demonstrations across the kingdom, is preparing for fresh protests in Casablanca. The next one is set for 22 May in Sebata and Ben M'sik. On 29 May, a demonstration will take place in the city centre. The march will be followed by a five-hour sit-in which the young people describe as a warning to the authorities to meet their demands.

29 May 1966, the Igbo Day of Affirmation, marks both the start of the 1966 genocide against the Igbo people and the day they decided to survive the violence unleashed against them, writes Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe.

Ethiopia’s abortion laws, Uganda’s walk to work campaign, the Zambian Patriotic Front’s new manifesto, why Gbagbo’s statues had to go, Malawi’s ‘grumpy old man in State House’, and the plight of Gambia’s Hassan Touray feature in this week’s review of African blogs, compiled by Dibussi Tande.

The subject of child abuse and its long-term implications in adulthood has been widely studied in literature in different areas of the world and across different cultures, notes this article in the The Arab Journal of Psychiatry about a study that looked at Egyptian university students. It found that a large proportion of the sample reported both child abuse and several long-term pathological consequences of abuse in adulthood. 'The problem seems to be serious in this middle class sample and it remains possible that these problems could be worse in lower social classes.'

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi needs to seriously rethink his ideas around the ‘backwardness’ of pastoralism and the need for ‘modernity’, argues Abebech Belachew.