During his last visit to the US Amilcar Cabral asked the Africa Information Service (AIS) to organise a small informal meeting at which he could speak with different black organisations. The AIS contacted approximately 30 organisations and on 20 October 1972, more than 120 people representing a wide range of black groups in America crowded into a small room to meet with Amilcar Cabral. At the meeting, the vitality, warmth and humour of Cabral the person became evident to those who had not met him before.

Guinea has halted Sunday's presidential run-off after days of violence, as the military ruler called for fresh regional mediation to prevent the country heading for a 'dead end'. In a solemn televised address to the nation, transitional leader General Sekouba Konate said the West African country risked a 'grave political and social crisis', reports the Daily Nation.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and his main rivals are expected to formally declare their candidacy for January elections this week and the political temperature is already rising, reports Reuters. From alleged death threats against a presidential aspirant's adviser to calls from the opposition for the date to be postponed, the vote looks set to be just as contentious as previous elections in Africa's most populous nation.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon proposed a new international anti-piracy plan in August, but with rich countries after the oil and fish reserves of Somalia’s internationally recognised waters, Abdulkadir Salad Elmi wants to know who the real pirates are.

Last week, on 7 September 2010, the World Bank finally decided to publish its much anticipated report on the global farmland grab. After years of work, several months of political negotiation and who knows how much money spent, the report was casually released on the Bank’s website - in English only. The report is both a disappointment and a failure.

In an interview with Zahra Moloo, Tony Moturi talks

In conversation with Zahra Moloo, Mohamed Abshir Waldo discusses

Your eyes,
Your faces,
Staring…

On 2002 February,
God did sojourn
Angola
To deliver Savamibi…

I'm walking home on the streets of Enugu from an afternoon of volunteer work in the orphanage, where I draw circles on the children's backs…

Anthony Bulteau

Tontongi

Jill Cottrell Ghai et Yash Pal Ghai

Horace Campbell

Tidiane Kassé

Agnès Mussamba

Macalou Awa Dembélé

Hélène Diouf

Bangou Marimpo et Kanfando Nikiema Azarata

Christine Butegwa

The United Nations declared 2010 the Year of Biodiversity. But 17 years after the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the issue of biopiracy is still pitching North against South. Researchers and activists have coined the term biopiracy, "the theft of genetic resources", to describe corporations’ practice of securing "profitable private monopolies by staking out patent claims on Africa’s genes, plants, and related traditional knowledge", according to the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB), based in South Africa.

South Africa has failed to increase its research and development spending to one per cent of GDP by 2008–09, according to data published by the Department of Science and Technology this morning (9 September). The news, which appears in the country's annual research and development (R&D) survey that tracks public and private R&D expenditure, has disappointed the country's scientists and could set a bad precedent for other African countries.

A set of U.N. goals aimed at drastically reducing poverty and hunger worldwide by 2015 are achievable, despite setbacks caused by the global financial and economic crises, a draft document said. The 27-page draft declaration on the U.N. Millennium Development Goals is expected to be formally adopted at a September 20-22 summit meeting at the United Nations which U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders are expected to attend.

The campaign for Angola's 2012 elections is off to a ill-tempered start with the ruling MPLA party and the opposition UNITA party accusing each other of dirty tactics that threaten a return to violence in the oil producing nation. The polls will only be the second since the end of Angola's civil war that pitted the Russian and Cuban-backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) against UNITA, backed by the U.S. and apartheid South Africa.

The chairman of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) this week told the Bulawayo High Court that only Robert Mugabe as President can call for an election. The ZEC chief was responding to a court application by three MP’s expelled from the Mutambara MDC. Abednico Bhebhe (Nkayi South), Njabuliso Mguni (Lupane East) and Norman Mpofu (Bulilima East) lost their parliamentary seats when the Mutambara MDC sacked them. They responded by filing an application with the High Court to compel ZEC to call for by-elections to fill up the vacant seats.

African journalists have adopted a declaration calling on governments, the African Union journalists’ trade unions and the international community to join forces in promoting the safety and protection of journalists in Africa. The Addis Ababa Declaration was adopted at the conclusion of a two-day regional workshop on the “Safety and Protection of African Journalists” hosted by the African Union Commission and organized by the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) at the African Union Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The head of Guinea's election commission and a senior aide have been sentenced to a year in jail for fraud during June's presidential vote. The verdicts are likely to increase tensions ahead of the 19 September run-off, correspondents say.

The opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has described as 'unrealistic and a recipe for failure' the 2011 general elections timetable, which was released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) showing the staggered elections will be held in January. According to the timetable, the elections will start 15 January with the National Assembly (parliamentary) polls, followed by the presidential poll 22 Jan and the Governorship/State Assembly polls 29 Jan.