Burundi's district elections, seen as a test of the tiny African country's stability ahead of presidential elections in June, met international standards, European observers said on Thursday. Monday's elections were the first of a series of polls in which the coffee-producer will also vote for representatives to parliament and its next president. District polls are often an indicator of how the rest of the vote will go.

Research by the Berne Declaration and Natural Justice reveals that five recent patent applications by Nestlé on the use of Rooibos and Honeybush are in conflict with South African Law and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This second bio piracy case in South Africa in less than a year again demonstrates how big corporations neglect their obligations to seek prior informed consent and to share benefits when using genetic resources from the developing countries as obliged by the CBD.

The European Union has for years been paying subsidies to the tune of one billion euro annually to industrial fishing companies based in its member states, including companies that have been caught fishing illegally in African waters. "The fact that the EU pays subsidies to vessels fishing in African waters is already a problem because, by doing so, European taxpayers are exacerbating poor African people’s difficulty to sustain livelihoods," Isabella Loevin, member of the European Parliament’s (EP) fisheries committee, said.

Tensions between the European Union and Africa have once again erupted, with Namibia accusing the Brussels elite of resorting to bullying tactics in trade negotiations. In official statements, the European Commission -- the EU's executive -- has consistently argued that the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) it has been hoping to conclude with 47 African countries will bring tangible benefits to the continent. African governments have proven far less enthusiastic about these trade liberalisation accords, with some arguing that they are fomenting divisions among neighbours.

The latest background report from the International Crisis Group, examines Cameroon’s history, its contemporary politics and the relations between its main social groups. The report uncovers points of potential instability and suggests how to tackle them. The country’s history shows a pattern of apparent stability followed by violent crisis. For long periods, problems have been masked but not dealt with, and consequent frustrations have led to explosions of violence.

A contest of competing visions over the future of Agriculture is playing out across Sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers' organizations are lining up against an aid regime that threatens to swamp smallholders with purported "solutions" to which these farmers have not assented and do not desire. The current economic crisis is bringing this situation to a critical point, as transnational corporations seek to capitalize on the current economic downturn, and the ongoing weakness of States whose economies and democratic institutions have withered since the 1980s; under the ministrations of the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO.

On Thursday 27th of May 2010, at around 12 noon, Magistrate Munamato Mutevedzi granted bail in relation to Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Muhambi - 2 employees of the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) organization on the seventh day of their detention. The bail application was observed by many representatives of local non-governmental organisations. It was encouraging to note that, despite the best efforts of the police – particularly Detective Inspector Timothy Chibvuma who is the Officer in Charge of Drugs Section of the Harare Central police station, and the office of the Attorney General – particularly Mr. Bruce Tokwe – the magistrate came to his conclusions on the basis of the law and not external factors.

While Blessing-Miles Tendi’s review of ‘Mugabe and the White African’ fails to acknowledge that not all of Zimbabwe’s white farmers disputed the need for land reform, writes Allison Lobb, he accurately sums up the key ‘white’ problem stalling progress: ‘Becoming “African” is not about economic integration alone – something many white Zimbabweans never grasped. It is also about social, residential and political integration, and about learning local languages.’

‘The Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia needs the support of all African countries for the unparalleled work they are doing,’ writes Kwame Maseko, in response to Andrew Mwangura’s dossier on piracy in last week’s Pambazuka News.

As the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) force becomes ever more active in Somalia, questions must be raised as to the intentions of this militarised organisation, writes Explo Nani-Kofi. Nani-Kofi stresses that the African continent grows ever more vulnerable to a maturing breed of neocolonial occupation based on US-led proxy wars.

As the former French colonies of Africa head to Nice to celebrate the 25th France-Africa Summit at the end of May, Sanou Mbaye questions the enduring legacy they’re honouring. Following decades of political and economic tyranny forged by French politicians, the citizens of former colonies continue to absorb the impact of chaotic and ruinous policies left over from their imperial history. ‘As long as these psychological wounds are not rooted out of black consciousness, the road to mental emancipation will still be a long way off’, Mbaye writes.

The ICC (International Criminal Court) prosecutor has called for the US military to enforce ICC arrest warrants in Africa, while American officials have declared a new phase of cooperation between the US and the ICC, write Samar Al-Bulushi and Adam Branch. What some see as a solution to the ICC’s lack of enforcement capacity, the authors argue, in fact poses a dramatic danger to peace and justice in Africa and to the future of the ICC itself.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into Kenya's post-2007–08 election atrocities is being dubbed the country’s ‘last hope’ for justice due to a lack of domestic initiatives to deal with suspects, writes Dana Wagner. Amidst high Kenyan and international expectations, can the ICC deliver this justice as a lone and external judicial body?

Malawian gay couple Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza have been sentenced to 14 years of hard labour, after a court found them guilty of sodomy, under criminal code provisions originating from the UK, writes L. Muthoni Wanyeki. ‘The law as it stands may criminalise sodomy and whatever the powers determine to be indecent’, writes Wanyeki, but ‘it is not the business of any state to determine how consenting adults derive sexual pleasure.’ What’s more, Wanykei notes, sodomy is not ‘a sexual practice unique to gay men’, and the right to privacy that heterosexuals currently enjoy should apply equally to homosexuals.

Challenges to the claim that homosexuality is contrary to African values, saying ‘No to xenophobia’, dismissing the prejudices of an American journalist, and calls for the continent’s musicians to be fairly remunerated for the commercial use of their intellectual property are among the inspiring stories presented by Dibussi Tande in this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere.

With this year's African Day having just passed on 25 May, the Nation of Afreeka has drafted its petition to the Kenyan government to recognise the day as a national holiday.

While it was as good as a foregone conclusion that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi would remain in power after the latest Ethiopian 'election', writes Alemayehu G. Mariam, those prone to being dejected should not give up on the struggle for freedom and democracy in the country.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/483/reading_draft_constitution… this , a team from the grassroots organisation

Today -when we hoisted the flag I knew it was done;
Today -when we sung the freedom song;
And raised our banners high;
I knew Uhuru was now!
As my soul rests tonight,
My thoughts run in sight,
I think of the blood they shed;
The years they lost;
I look at you;
And look at me;
My soul needs rest,
Rest from the whirlwind
Rest from the noises
And Rest from the unrests
I am old they say;
Yet spent my youth and days for you;
As my soul rests tonight
My thoughts run in sight,
Looking at the ray in the way
A sight of hope?
A sight of grief?
Who knows?
My sight fails they say;
Women in gowns and sacks;
Men in suits and tatters;
The hunger stricken children with bowls;
Their sullen sunken eyes popping out;
As they hurriedly take images of whom they have become;
I pity our struggle,
I pity their struggle;
They have fought;
They have survived
Others have died
And others hope;
Quantified pain they pay,
Weighty tears they shed
Africa! Africa!
They sigh mournfully
Africa! Africa!
The Land they own
Africa !
Is this the freedom we fought?

30 years ago we walked free
Liberated from Rhodesia, we claimed Zimbabwe
Said goodbye to Ian Smith
Welcomed Robert Mugabe and hope
Ha! Would it not be the joke of the century?
One once said a bitter heart beats to a vindictive heart
The heart of this now malnourished beast
Is the war veteran – Mr Mugabe
Come to save the Zim natives from the white man
As it were – until he lost the plot
You point one finger but
My friend there’s three pointing back
Blame Blair once and we will triple your sentence
How does such a man sleep?
With the pain inside so deep
You can almost forget it;
Suffocate it with arrogance and the over used
My oh so favourite “it was Cecil Rhodes’ fault”
But look into a Zimbabwean child’s eyes and you will remember
That it is not his fault he was born to an AIDS positive teenage mother
And a father she can’t put a finger on
Because she was just another girl on the path of destruction
Used and thrown away
Maybe one day he will forgive you
But today he has to live with the fact that
There is no food on the table
But on Mugabe Avenue – they are feasting
How do you sit next to your mortal enemy?
Share a presidency that was corrupt from the start
How?
How do you share a rotting cake?
Where is new the side when they are both charred?
We will all be tarred with the same brush
All painted damaged goods
Because of one man’s thirst for power
When will it be enough?