I have never seen my mother cry before. Her grief is unstoppable, cannot be hidden. It seeps through all the walls. My mother, crying for Phiphidi Falls.

A majority of African countries continue to be run by governments of greatly limited democratic clout, writes Ronald Elly Wanda, with multiparty politics and local people’s access to influence severely restricted.

As part of a broader effort to consider who’s who in Tanzanian society, Chambi Chachage discusses the reproduction of the country’s elite class and stresses that if you want to understand the underprivileged, you must also study the privileged.

Cries are not gender-biased; all beings experience sorrow and grief. Nevertheless, this piece speaks to the muted sounds of grief faced by women in all corners of the world; the thundered cries, however mighty, are stifled by the vilest of all. As a black woman there is an absence that is felt, it has always been there, an absence that speaks to black mothers, the divine woman that gets shattered – fragmented and scattered – by darkness and the in-conscience. If only we see the light beyond what veils us and catch a glimpse of love in its essence.

This policy note argues that the effectiveness of monetary policy relies on a viable domestic market for trading public securities, and a commercial banking sector willing and able to lend to the private sector. However, the paper deems that with the exception of South Africa, no country in the sub-Saharan region has these necessary conditions.

This research reveals that Low Income Countries such as Ghana remain under the influence of the Bank, especially regarding the management of their primary industries and natural resources and in relation to the design of sensitive policy areas such as fiscal policy and public sector reform. August 2010.

Horticulture stakeholders are looking to negotiate a trade protocol with the European Union (EU) to graduate from the current Lome Convention. Kenya Flower Council Chief Executive Officer Jane Ngige says they want to amend the Lome Convention – under which the EU provides aid and extends trade and tariff preference to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries – in order to secure market access.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) expects to bring down all trade tariffs under the Free Trade Area (FTA) by 2012, by which time all countries in the region are expected to have liberalised their trade regimes, SADC trade officials have said. The regional bloc says it has liberalised about 85 percent of trade and is now phasing down tariffs for trade in sensitive products, which are expected to be completely removed by 2012.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame won 93 percent of the vote in an election that opponents said was marred by repression and violence. The bush war veteran won 4,638,560 votes from a total of 5,178,492 registered voters in the central African country, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) said.

President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria has been told by his party chairman that he has the right to contest the upcoming January primaries. Okwesilieze Nwodo of the ruling People's Democratic Party however stopped short of giving the president his full backing

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has said Malawi cannot afford life ministers. Swearing in new ministers, some of them returnees into his cabinet, he said nobody should think ministerial posts are for life. He also defended his inclusion of his wife, First Lady, Callista Mutharika, on the cabinet list. "As President, I am in the saddle where I have the opportunity to look at the whole Malawi and the world to correct things. You need to understand that the posts are not your personal possessions," he said at Sanjika Palace in the commercial city of Blantyre.

Five United Nations humanitarian agencies are rushing medical supplies and other materials to northern Cameroon, where the country’s worst outbreak of cholera in six years has already claimed at least 155 lives. Cholera drugs, oral rehydration salts, hygiene kits, surgical gloves, family water kits and educational materials are among the items that have been dispatched, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported today from Yaoundé, the capital.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has begun a major round of feeding for 670,000 children under the age of two and their families in drought-stricken Niger, where as many as eight million people need assistance. People in the West African nation are experiencing severe food shortages as a result of a prolonged drought that has caused crop failure and livestock deaths.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that Madagascar is at risk of a crop-eating locust plague, potentially jeopardizing the livelihoods of 460,000 rural families. An unknown number of immature swarms of Malagasy Migratory Locust have moved out of the country’s south-western corner, where they are usually contained, and have spread to the east and north.

Pressure on African nations for elections - Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo has lashed out at major world powers for putting pressure on African countries to organise elections. "On the issue of elections, I say to many of our friends that nobody can be more concerned than the Ivorians themselves." he said.

The Board of Directors of the World Bank (WB) ap proved a loan of US$ 25.5 million for Mauritania for the additional financing of the programme of urban development (PDU), a source close to the bank announced. These funds will serve to support the efforts of the Mauritanian government to improve the access to basic infrastructures in urban areas, particularly for the disadvantaged zones.

Angolan lawyer Suzana Antonio da Conceiçao Nicolau Ingles, was unanimously elected by the National Assembly as the chairperson of the National Electoral Commission (CNE). She was elected during the third extraordinary session of the National Assembly, led by speaker Antonio Paulo Kassoma.

Niger's National Advisory Council, a legislative organ overseeing the country's transition, is reviewing a draft Constitution aimed at returning the landlocked west African nation to democracy. The document, laid out in 14 titles and 190 articles, is based on the texts of a previous Constitution, in force until the military coup of 18 February that toppled the regime of President Mamadou Tandja.

Angola's ruling party will meet this week to examine a private report accusing members of the president's inner circle of corruption, a spokesman has said. The report, "The Angolan Presidency -- The Epicentre of Corruption", describes how people close to President Jose Eduardo dos Santos have taken control of the economy by securing stakes in firms in sectors ranging from oil to banking.

The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program is an international exchange program that offers practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world the opportunity to spend five months at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), in Washington DC, in order to undertake independent research on democracy in a particular country or region. While in residence, fellows reflect on their experiences; engage with counterparts; conduct research and writing; consider best practices and lessons learned; and develop professional relationships within a global network of democracy advocates.