Pambazuka reader Farai Kashiri responds to Riaz Tayob’s critique of Moeletsi Mbeki’s AFRICOM address.

In this week’s round-up of the best of the African blogosphere, Sokari Ekine remembers Malcolm X on his birthday and calls for solidarity with Malawian gay couple Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, found guilty on Tuesday of ‘unnatural acts and gross indecency’.

The hijacking of merchant ships by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden has been widely condemned in UN resolutions and news reports, yet illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and the dumping of nuclear and toxic waste in Somali waters by foreign fleets continues to be ignored, writes Andrew Mwangura, in an overview of the origins and scale of piracy in the region.

The construction of the Gibe III mega-dam in Ethiopia at an estimated US$2.1 billion threatens surrounding and down-river ecosystems and resident populations, writes Khadija Sharife. While civil society and members of the international scientific community flag disastrous environmental and human costs of damming the Omo river, the project is being fast-tracked by a convergence of government, foreign corporate and international monetary organisation interest. Sharife names major players and benefactors of the multi-billion dollar project and identifies the nameless thousands whose right to the ‘commons’ is being overlooked.

‘There are few thinking South Africans today who would be prepared to say that they are happy with how things have turned out’ since the fall of apartheid, writes Neville Alexander, ‘Most South Africans, certainly most oppressed and exploited South Africans, feel that they have been, if not betrayed, then certainly misled.’ In a speech given at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on 13 May 2010, Alexander looks at what ordinary citizens can do to find their way back, through discussion and practical action, to a vision of a different South Africa that will enable them to put behind them the ‘barbaric and vulgar universe’ in which they ‘are forced to try to survive with dignity’.

A new argument in ‘restitution discourse’ that the dispersal of cultural artefacts from their country of origin is a ‘process of democratisation’, enabling more people to view objects than would be possible if the items remained in their country of origin, is both flawed and ‘unwittingly dangerous’, writes Kwame Opoku. Moreover, despite historical misperception by ‘retention’ supporters, it is incorrect to claim that calls for repatriation are motivated by amateur cultural enthusiasts with no claim to their own heritage, says Opoku.

Though currently incarcerated in Akaki federal prison, Birtukan Midekssa remains a key figure in the suppressed pursuit for democracy in Ethiopia, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam. Mariam presents Midekssa's concerns and hopes for the future in this interview, hopes which can only be realised by 'fully embracing democracy, human rights and the rule of law'.

Amady Aly Dieng

Ibrahima Bob

CADTM

A group of Ugandan human rights organizations called on the Ugandan authorities to commit to improvements to protect human rights as part of their campaign for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. In a letter sent to the Ugandan government yesterday, the organizations, as part of a wider international coalition working around the Council elections, called for national legislation to comply with core human rights treaties.

The semi-autonomous African archipelago of Zanzibar will hold a July vote on whether to change its constitution to allow rival parties to form coalition governments, after a decade of bitter party politics.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party was expected to convene a crisis meeting of its National Council over the weekend, to deliberate on the continued persecution of Treasurer General Roy Bennett, amongst other issues. On Monday the High Court acquitted Bennett of the cooked-up terrorism charges filed against him. The Attorney General initially said he would not appeal the acquittal in the Supreme Court but after some discussion with various ZANU PF big-wigs, he changed his mind.

The date for Kenya's referendum on whether to adopt the proposed constitution is set for August 4th. Interim Independent Electoral commission Chairman (IIEC), Ahmed Issack, announced the date during a breakfast meeting organized by UNDP on Friday.

As the World Bank reviews its energy strategy and the deadlines for its clean energy targets approach, this paper questions what the World Bank counts as clean energy and whether it reports on its energy lending in an accountable way. The concerns set out below demonstrate the need for a far more rigorous and transparent approach, subject to independent monitoring.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has said his case against perpetrators of Kenya's post-election violence is "unstoppable". Luis Moreno Ocampo said his investigation would last about six months and he intended to prosecute up to six suspects in two separate trials.

Madagascar's leader Andry Rajoelina has said he will not stand in elections to be held later this year, in an attempt to end the country's political crisis. Mr Rajoelina, 35, who seized power in March 2009, has been facing pressure to find a solution to the deadlock.

Sudanese security agents detained opposition party leader Hassan al-Turabi and seized a print-run of the movement’s newspaper, supporters and family members said. Turabi, who was close to Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al- Bashir before a bitter power struggle and split in 1999-2000, was arrested in his house late Saturday, a month after his Popular Congress Party (PCP) contested national elections

Nigeria's ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chair Vincent Ogbulafor has resigned, a few days after he and three others were arraigned on a 16-count fraud charge, the local press reported. The report said Ogbulafor would present his letter of resignation Friday, after addressing the party's National Working Committee in the capital city of Abuja.

A fresh controversy is brewing ahead of a 4 August referendum on a proposed new constitution for Kenya, following the illegal alteration of the draft document to empower the country’s spy agency to curtail person freedoms. Kenya’s Attorney-General Amos Wako has admitted that the country’s spy body, the National Security Intelligence Services (NSIS), had approached his office to insert a new clause, empowering the agency to curtail personal freedoms on national security interests.

The mining and port city of Nouadhibou, 465 kilometres from Nouakchott, on Saturday afternoon was to host rallies planned by both the ruling party and the opposition. The Coordination of Democratic Opposition (COD), an umbrella of a dozen political parties, announced it would hold a big rally on Saturday in Nouadhibou, the economic capital of Mauritania.

President Jacob Zuma continues to express optimism about the negotiation process in Zimbabwe, telling Parliament this week that ''some achievements have been registered''. Zuma, the Southern African Development Community's chief mediator on Zimbabwe, said that country's political rivals had agreed to establish a human rights commission, an electoral commission and a media commission, and that the commissioners - who were respected by most Zimbabweans - had been sworn in.