cc. Having closely followed Barack Obama’s electoral success, Raquel Luciana de Souza considers the prospects for a presidential candidate of African descent within the South American giant of Brazil. Scrutinising the historical myth of Brazil’s racial democracy and the supposed absence of formal barriers to Afro-Brazilian social mobility in contrast to the US, de Souza considers the role of the US’s implementation of measures to address socio-racial disparities and the successful struggles of black organisations in framing the broader background behind Obama’s rise.

Dibussi Tande reviews the following blogs:

Kanmi Iyanda
Africans in Minnesota
George Ngwane
House of Chiefs

cc. Caroline MoseBeginning by reviewing the circumstances behind Kenya’s 2007 post-election crisis, Caroline Mose discusses the role of an alternative radio station-led initiative in Nairobi to draw attention to the plight of the country’s internally displaced persons (IDPs). Underlining the social role of Hiphop as a tool of consciousness, Mose considers the significance of Ghetto Radio FM’s ‘Glass House' experience, a six-day event staged at Nairobi’s Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) in which three radio MCs took turns to broadcast continuously with only a daily glass of carrot juice for sustenance. Highlighting the historical marginalisation of much of Kenya’s youth, the author emphasises the ability of the Glass House experience’s participants to force the government into direct contact with the country’s IDPs, and success in driving a conveniently-forgotten issue back into Kenya’s collective memory.

cc. In the wake of Madagascar’s political crisis, Vondrona Miralenta ho an’ny Fampandrosoana (VMLF) calls for a coalition of interests to transcend party differences for the greater good of the stability of the country and the livelihoods of its population. Pointing the finger of blame at all those fighting over previous weeks, the organisation calls upon political parties to renounce false, self-aggrandising declarations and work towards achieving the effective decentralisation of power and preparations for future municipal and presidential elections.

In an interview with the World Press Review, the Zimbabwean author Valerie Tagwira talks about the background to and influences behind her work.

cc. Outlining the essential differences between sex and gender, Audrey Mbugua discusses the damaging general incomprehension of transsexualism within Kenyan society. Drawing upon personal experience of prejudice in the field of work and life at large, Mbugua states that transsexual people deserve the same respect and treatment as any other member of society, and urges those uneducated about transsexuals to think before opening their mouths.

cc. As he laments Bruce ‘The Boss’ Springsteen’s willingness to cuddle up to the Bridgestone tyre corporation and mega-market Wal-Mart, Gerald Caplan explores the exploitative history of Bridgestone and its Firestone subsidiary in Liberia. Alluding to many African countries’ ‘double jeopardy’ in the shape of avaricious leaders and self-interested rich-country policies, Caplan discusses the outrageous working demands imposed upon Firestone’s rubber-tappers, demands which often see workers obliged to draft in unpaid family members in order to fulfil quotas. With the company largely impervious to the campaign of elected union leaders to improve working conditions, the author highlights the struggle of the Stop Firestone Coalition for greater labour equity.

cc. In an emotive piece about a country largely distant in the world’s consciousness, Fernando Gamboa discusses the entrenched hold of the brutal Obiang dictatorship in Equatorial Guinea. Underlining the relentless ability of the presidential clan to systematically plunder the central African nation’s abundant natural resources, Gamboa evokes the shocking practices of torture and robbery imposed upon a long-suffering populace. Situating the country’s demise in Spain’s rushed decolonisation process of 1968, the author appeals to the cultural unity of contemporary Spaniards and Equatoguineans, with a view to fostering greater awareness and international pressure to undermine tacit global support for uncompromising oppression.

cc. With the ‘Waki’ Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence identifying several politically-prominent figures in Kenya, Yash Ghai argues that the Kenyan people will increasingly regard their government as illegitimate if those responsible are not effectively brought to task. Contending that some form of international arbitration is required to make up for the deficiencies of Kenya’s domestic courts, Ghai considers the recommendations of the commission and the composition of a special tribunal, arguing that these will represent a key means of developing ordinary Kenyans’ trust and restoring the country’s international reputation.

The final decisions of the January 2009 African Union (AU) summit, including the assembly decision on the union government, are available to download at The decision on the union government and the election of the Muammar Gaddafi of Libya as chairperson of the AU was the culmination of an ongoing internal struggle between the ‘unionists’ led by Libya and Senegal who want an urgent and deeper continental political union and the ‘gradualists’ that include South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Zambia who argue that it would be impudent to rush into a union government. Indeed, the director of South Africa’s foreign affairs department reiterated that the establishment of a United States of Africa cannot be achieved in one leap but that it is first necessary to strengthen the regional economic communities and to agree on democratic principles and values that would govern the continent, amongst other conditions. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi further warned that the United States of Africa could not be wished into existence but that an integrated economic bloc across Africa must first be built. Whereas Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade declared that the government of the AU would be established by January 2010 while the United States of Africa would be proclaimed in 2017. He added that a group of 20 African countries were ready to go their own way and set up a Federal Union. The African Development Bank launching the report ‘Assessing Regional Integration in Africa III’ in fact made note that many regional economic blocs were hindering regional integration.

Several regional leaders attended the swearing in of Morgan Tsvangirai as Zimbabwe’s prime minister in a unity government that is expected to end months of power struggle between the ZANU-PF government and the MDC opposition following contested elections last year. ‘The swearing in of the Prime Minister and the ministers in a unity government in Zimbabwe should be hailed as a landmark in the political development of the country’ notes the African Monitor, while outlining three next steps that are required to meet the needs of the people of Zimbabwe in their estimation. The first is addressing the humanitarian crisis and reconstruction of the country; the second being the creation of a mechanism to mobilize African professional expertise into Zimbabwe to help restore and de-politicize national and local government institutions and to retool these institutions in the next three to five years; and lastly they propose a round table to hammer out how Zimbabwean professionals currently dispersed around the globe can contribute to the reconstruction of their country. While Zimbabwe’s unity government moves forward, the AU chairman sent a team to meet Mauritania’s political stakeholders with a view to resolving the political crisis plaguing the country since military officers overthrew the democratically elected government in August 2008.

African ministers participating in the ‘African Agriculture in the 21st Century: Meeting the challenges, making a sustainable Green Revolution’ conference 'support the call for a uniquely African Green Revolution to help boost agricultural productivity, food production and national food security' and 'support the work of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) in spearheading efforts to achieve a sustainable green revolution, working with African governments, farmers, donors, private sector and civil society'.

Finally, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is inviting participation and input of citizens into the ECOWAS Vision 2020 Project that seeks to provide a reference point for an integrated development approach for the West Africa region.

The Kellogg Brown & Root LLC (KBR Ink) has pleaded guilty to the federal charges that the company bribed Nigerian officials to win contracts. As part of the plea agreement, KBR agreed to pay a $402 million criminal fine. The US Department of Justice accused the Houston-based engineering company of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for its participation in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials to obtain engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts.

Roy Bennett, MDC Treasurer General and Deputy Minister of Agriculture designate has just been abducted by Police from the Law and Order section at Prince Charles airport just outside Harare. The police were led by one Assistant Commissioner Nyongwe. He was taken in a white Toyota with registration number is AAP 4851. We understand that they are taking him to Marondera, where there is notorious torture and interogation base, the same place MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti was taken upon his return from South Africa. Details to follow .

United Nations officials has called on Côte d’Ivoire’s leaders to set a timetable as soon as possible for much-delayed presidential elections so that the vote can take place in the divided West African country in the latter half of this year. The number of identified voters has passed the 4.6-million mark and the operation should be completed by spring if the current trend continues, the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) said in a news release.

President Kgalema Motlanthe on Thursday officially proclaimed 22 April as the date for the country's general election. In a statement issued on Thursday, the Presidency said President Motlanthe had signed the proclamation confirming 22 April as the date on which the national and provincial elections will take place.

Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi has said he would like a United States of Africa to include "Caribbean islands with African populations". Col Gaddafi, speaking in Tripoli as the African Union's (AU) new chairman, said this could include Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. The Libyan leader also sympathised with Somali pirates, describing their actions as self-defence.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has said he will seek a third term in elections in April. "I announce my candidature as an independent," Mr Bouteflika told a crowd of cheering supporters in the capital Algiers. Mr Bouteflika is widely tipped to win the elections.

Detained Zimbabwe Peace Project director Jestina Mukoko has been released into the custody of the Avenues Clinic for medical attention in compliance with Harare Magistrate Gloria Takundwa’s ruling on 11 February 2009.

Morgan Tsvangirai spent his first full day in office visiting political prisoners he wants to see freed from a jail near Harare. The prisoners were given no promises of release, but the prime minister told them their cases would be processed more quickly, his spokesman said. Tsvangirai was sworn in as PM on Wednesday by long-time rival President Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe's new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was set to swear in a new cabinet Friday, bringing his party into a fragile union with long-time adversary, President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe has yet to name the ministers that he will bring to the 15 portfolios reserved for his ZANU-PF party under the unity accord, which is hoped will end nearly a year of political turmoil.

Just a day after Kenyan MPs blocked government attempts to set up a local tribunal to try those who orchestrated the violence that rocked the country last year, mediator Kofi Annan says he will act in the "spirit, letter and intent" of the Waki Report, giving strongest indication poll violence suspects will now face justice at The Hague.