African presidents attending the 8th Leon H.Sullivan Summit in Arusha, Tanzania, have cited corruption and poor infrastructure as major obstacle in efforts to raise the quality of life the continent's people. The six presidents are Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Armando Gebuza of Mozambique, Mohamed Abdulaziz of Sahrawi, Omar al Bashir of Sudan and their host President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania.

Africa’s Sahel region is “ground zero” for countries trying to cope with climate change, but sufficient investment in adaptation measures and greater cooperation between neighbouring States means this does not have to lead to conflict, a senior United Nations official has said. Jan Egeland, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser, held talks with officials in Burkina Faso, the first stop on a five-day, three-country mission aimed at spotlighting the effects of climate change, the proliferation of small arms and light weapons and other challenges facing the countries of the Sahel.

China's "new foray" into Africa is attracting wide international attention and contentious debate. China is seemingly engaging Africa on new terms – terms that are not shaped by traditional powers or perhaps not even by Africans themselves. The Centre for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University embarked on this research project, supported by the Department for International Development UK (DFID), to gather information and gain insight into China's aid policies vis-à-vis Africa. The research is intended to inform both Chinese and traditional donor efforts toward the continent.

A key report on intellectual property in Africa, which can show how African firms can retain profits, was launched at the World Economic Forum on Africa on Thursday. Called "Distinctive values in African Exports: How intellectual property can raise export income and alleviate poverty", it was produced by an organisation called Light Years and funded by the Department for International Development in the United Kingdom.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Luanda was closed at the end of May 2008.

In light of this, a number of Angolan and international organizations (working with Angolan partners), wish to state the following:

- We support the concerns raised by numerous voices about the negative consequences of this decision in terms of its potential impact in particular on the human rights protection of the most vulnerable citizens and on human rights defenders in Angola, but also on the various Angolan Government institutions working on human rights programmes; and concretely. We are concerned about the significance of this act in the run-up to elections, a key moment in the country’s history. This process requires the consolidation of peace and democracy, which depend on the respect of human rights – for which international bodies such as the OHCHR make an important contribution;

- We believe that there is a contradiction between the reality of human rights violations in Angola, as identified by national and international bodies (and raised with the Angolan authorities, regional organisations, and international bodies) 1 & 2 and the Government’s position favouring the closure of the UN office;

- We refute the claims made by the government of the Republic of Angola that the UN Office had no legal status in the country. In 2003, the Angola authorities agreed to the continuation of the OCHCR field office (after the departure of the UN peacekeeping mission). In addition, this unilateral decision is in contradiction to the conditions laid out for Angola's membership of the United Nations Human Rights Council;

- We wish to call to the attention of the national and international bodies who represent the future interests of all citizens – in Angola, in those countries that have close bilateral relations with Angola, in Africa and in the world - that ignoring such contradictions and remaining silent when human rights are disrespected, ensuring that human rights issues are not addressed, will only result in future instability and crises. This will sooner or later increase the suffering of all citizens, but especially of the poorest and most vulnerable.

3 June 2008

All I know is that it is an honor to know . Her spirit, words, and actions are inspiring to all she has met both inside and outside Zimbabwe. I hold her in the highest esteem, and know that her vision for lovely Zimbabwe will eventually become the reality.

Great history review of to combat the propaganda of mainstream. I was in a discouraged state about information prior to reading the post.

The U.S. Africa Command, designed to boost America's image and prevent terrorist inroads on the continent, has scaled back its ambitions after African governments refused to host it and aid groups protested plans to expand the military's role in economic development in the region.

In April 2008, after a wave of protests over low wages and high food prices, including an attempt to generate a general strike by many workers and social activists on April 6 and led by workers in the state-run textile industry, the Egyptian government suspended its export of rice and cement in order to meet local demand. This suspension of exports is a response to the failure of the export-oriented economy that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prescribed for Egypt in 1991.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/380/48554kivuitu.jpgShailja Patel shares with Pambazuka News readers her correspondences with Samuel Kivuitu, Chair of the Electoral Commission of Kenya who was at the center of the country's spiral into violence. Kivuiti's reply captures the arrogance that characterizes African leadership throughout the continent.
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At the beginning of this year, I wrote an Open Letter to Samuel Kivuitu, Chair of the Electoral Commission of Kenya. It was picked up by a number of sources, online and off, within and outside Kenya, and widely distributed, forwarded, and republished.

On May 14th, Samuel Kivuitu spoke, for the first time since "The Crisis", at a forum on Post-Election Violence in Nairobi. I arrived early at the venue, and slipped a paper copy of my Open Letter under the blotter where he was going to sit. I'd abridged and updated the letter to reflect our current Kenyan reality. It ends with a plea:

It's not too late, Mr. Kivuitu. To recover your own humanity. To open your eyes to the suffering and longing of this nation. To admit that something went terribly wrong. If you could only rise to the desperate need of this turning point in Kenya's history, you could redeem yourself with the simplest of words:

"I'm sorry."

Those words might be the most revolutionary ever spoken on this continent. They might open the floodgates for every leader, every public servant, to acknowledge their own deep fear, grief, and remorse. To admit fallibility. To take responsibility.

We are still waiting, Mr. Kivuitu, for you to speak.

During the forum, I watched Mr. Kivuitu bluster, blame, deny all culpability for the stolen election that took Kenya to the brink of civil war. In the plenary, I stood up, heart pounding, and said:

Mr Kivuitu, the whole country, from IDPs (internally displaced persons) in camps to affluent residents of Karen and Mountain View, are waiting for the tiniest expression of remorse, regret, from the Electoral Commission of Kenya. As a human being, a Kenyan, can you find it in your heart to offer just three words: "We are sorry," to the people of Kenya?

He couldn't.

Five days later, this arrived in my inbox. It is posted here, and for public distribution, with Mr. Kivuitu's permission.

To: Shailja Patel [email][email protected]

From: S. M. Kivuitu [email][email protected]

Date: 19 May 2008

Dear Madam,

I thank you for your letter dated 14 May 2008 and the concerns you expressed therein.

The Holy Bible has taught me to leave judgment of others to God the Almighty. I do not know if you are the Almighty God or not but you did not seem to be Him when I saw you on 14 May 2008.

You are all the same entitled to your views. I however humbly deny any wrong doing. The laws require that I declare the winner of the presidential elections once the Commission determines the candidate who scored highest, and led 25% of votes cast in his/her favour in 5 provinces. That is all I did. And there was no other candidate or his/her agent seeking me to hold on and re tally – no. After announcing the results a fellow appeared before me and requested me to hand over to him the president's certificate. I told him that that is only done to the winner personally and directly.

The fellow then informed me that Hon. Kibaki was awaiting to be sworn as the President and the Chief Justice was present, duly robed, for the assignment. He requested me to take the certificate there. I had no business retaining the certificate. It was not mine. The law says it be given at the place the President is to be sworn. I obeyed the law and took it there. Commissioners do not count votes.

Commissioners do not tally counted results. They simply verify these. They do this through the Commissioners' senior officers whose competence and integrity you seem to recognize. Commissioners announce the results as presented to them by these officers. Or what else do you suggest they should have done?

My conscience is absolutely clear. I know how dangerous it is to delay announcing the results. There are several interests in the results and all are equally important. I was hurt in 2002 for not announcing results which I had not yet received. I am not a seer, like you seem to be, to be sure that there would have not been deaths if I postponed the announcement of the results.

With my humblest view I do not share the view that people killed others, or destroyed the properties belonging to others, on account of my announcement of the winner. I believe that irrespective of whoever of the two top candidates won, there was going to be violence. That environment was created by the politicians themselves. You seem however to worship them as deities. Secondly, I respectfully believe the killers, who had been already charged with rhetoric, reasoned thus – why did Kibaki or Kalonzo get these votes in our areas? They looked round and saw Kikuyus, Kambas and other "madoadoas" (1)(as they had been told to call them). They reasoned these where the ones who voted thus and they must eliminate them.

Even in poor Coast, suspected "wrong" voters were ordered to pronounce certain words. Once they did not do so like the locals, they were violently evicted and robbed of their properties and raped. Thus the genesis of the tragedy is in our dirty politics and negative ethnicity. It is bad luck we have kind people like you who are too naïve to realize the depth of our malaise. No wonder facile and dishonest assignments that Hassan Omar (2)advanced thrilled some of you. This confirms Kenya is in for hard time for a long while to come.

Have a nice day Ms. Patel.

S. M. Kivuitu (1) Madoadoa - spots (Kiswahili) (2) Hassan Omar Hassan, Commissioner of the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights, condemned Kivuitu and the Electoral Commission of Kenya as delinquent in their duties, at the May 14th forum on Post-Election Violence.

*Kenyan poet, playwright, theatre artist, Shailja Patel, is a member of Kenyans for Peace With Truth and Justice. Visit her at http://www.shailja.com

*Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

http://www.pambazuka.org/

MentalAcrobatics reports back from Japan on the TICAD conference (4th International Conference on African Development) – Mental begins by stating the strange phenomena of holding African conferences in far off places.....
“So here we are at another conference on Africa, full of Africans, held outside Africa at an Asian economic powerhouse. This all sounds very familiar”.
However he then goes on to justify the familiar “talkshop Africa” and the cost of Africans meeting in this instance in Japan. Africa may need African solutions but Africa does not exist in a vacuum outside of the global community....

“These African solutions, however, cannot exist in isolation from the rest of the world. Rather active, positive and accountable engagement with partners is required. These partners may be development organisations such as the numerous UN bodies, these partners could be individual countries, such as Japan and China.”

Maybe he has a point but until we see the G8 meeting in Accra or Windhoek, I am not so sure.

Nigeria, What’s New

http://nigeriawhatisnew.blogspot.com/2008/05/53-nigerians-were-arrested-in-mlaga.html

Nigeria, What’s New reports that 53 Nigerians have been arrested in Malaga following the exposure of a Spanish lottery scam in which 25,000 letters were sent out every day around the world informing people they were winners. Apparently 2 out of every 1000 people responded making the scammers a cool €27million.

Nata Village Blog

http://natavillage.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/05/nata-gets-an-in.html

Nata Village announces the launch of an internet cafe....from small beginnings come great things and now the citizens of Nata village will soon be connected up to the big wide world - “Hallelujah!!! We are 120 miles from a bank and a grocery store but we're getting an internet cafe. Pictured above is the small addition to the Nata Post office. Thanks to Post Net, the government postal service in Botswana, we are getting 4 computers and access to the internet.”

Abagond

http://abagond.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/stereotype/

AbaGond has an interesting post on stereotypes on which xenophobia, racism and other prejudices are built....

“A stereotype is a picture you have in your head about people who belong to a certain race, religion, country or whatever. For example, “Asians work hard”, “Black women are loud-mouths”, “Rich people are stuck up” and so on..... Stereotypes are mostly applied to the sorts of people you barely know. Because if you knew them well enough you would know that the stereotypes are somewhere between useless and wrong”.

Regrets Only, An African Journal

http://reporterregrets.blogspot.com/2008/05/us-counterterrorism-training-program.html

Regrets Only, An African Journal reports that the US counter terrorism programme which targets the Sahel region is finally under way. The initiative is part of the US’s obsession with terrorism on the one hand and policy to find any excuse to have US troops and security personnel stationed in Africa.
“The initiative is a multimillion dollar security training and equipment program to assist Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger in countering terrorist operations.

The program, funded by the State Department and carried out by the Pentagon, got under way this month in Mali and will continue in the other three countries over the next several months.”

* Sokari Ekine blogs at www.blacklooks.org

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

March 2008, the President of the African National Congress of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, led a high level delegation of South African parliamentarians to the site of the victory of the forces of liberation at Cuito Cuanavale in Angola. This visit was linked to the numerous ceremonies in Angola to commemorate the victory Angola, Cuba and the forces of SWAPO and the ANC over the apartheid army. What was significant was that while the leader of the ANC took this much publicized visit to Angola, the present ANC government has not moved decisively to carry out far more public education on what happened at Cuito Cuanavale in 1988. Thousands of youths in Southern Africa do not know what happened at Cuito Cuanavale and the linkage between the decolonization of Southern Africa and this historic battle.

In response to , I would certainly not be surprised. When Secretary General General Ban-Ki-Moon took office at the U.N., he announced that his first priority was, of course, Darfur. Not the Iraq War, not the Afghanistan War, not South Korean farmers committing suicide for lack of tariff protection, but, "of course": Darfur.

[email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

One can understand the rage, pain, and disappointment, that informs Pius Adesanmi’s but a cooler, more dispassionate view of South Africa may have cast more light on the issue For all his preamble about making ‘psychic’ reconnection to Africa and escaping the dominant racial generalisations about Africa in the West, Adesanmi shows a marked inability to escape these very race stereotypes. Perhaps this is part of the point he wishes to make but he shows a surprising willingness to reproduce these stereotypes. When he encounters the squalor and danger of inner city Johannesburg he can only recount his experience in the very race terms he condemns earlier.

Does Adesanmi not know that other cities in Africa and the world have mugging, violence and robbery on an almost equal scale. Has he been to Lagos recently? Yet Adesanmi’s fixation on race – all those inscrutable black faces - does not allow him to recognise or indeed consider the new demographic pressures on the limited public and social infrastructure in Johannesburg; a city that draws poor Africans not only from the immediate surrounding area but also a large regional hinterland extending beyond the Equator. Population pressure on infrastructure in African cities built for small affluent white colonial populations are not new.

Adesanmi then goes on to imply that Nigeria liberated South Africa single handed with little help. This would be news to South Africans and many other Africans. Yes, Nigeria did contribute significantly to the liberation of southern Africa. But its role – somewhat belated - was not the key defining moment for South Africa’s long struggle. The frontline states – particularly Mozambique and Tanzania – contributed more over a longer period. Yes, the struggle to overcome apartheid seized the imagination of young informed Nigerians but it also captured the attention of whole generation of Africans, inspiring music, literature, art and politics across the continent. It did not capture of the imagination of Nigerians alone.

The xenophobia that drives everyday urban life and current disturbances are not a new phenomenon and probably have deep roots in Apartheid South Africa. The South African view of ‘Africans’ who come from north of the Limpopo as ‘black’, physically repellent and possessed of incomprehensible and inelegant languages is not new. Indeed the word ‘ African’ is a historically ambiguous term in South Africa, freighted with all the contempt and violence of Apartheid. The conflicts and competitiveness of post Apartheid South Africa have only added new hostility to old contempt ‘Insider/outsider’ or ‘native/stranger’ strife is one of the perennial and defining binaries of African politics. The fact that Black South Africans have turned on other Africans is a sad surprise – we expected more of them - but, on reflection, it is not a million miles away from the ethnic clashes in Kenya earlier this year or the anti- Ibo pogroms in Nigeria in the 1960’s.

Informed Africans from other parts of the continent should recognise that South Africa – culturally, socially, economically and politically - is very much part of the rest of Africa; challenges, dilemmas and hopes. We should appreciate this even though South Africans seem unable to realise this.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/377/48543leaders.jpg Dieu-Donné WEDI DJAMBA argues that the march toward democracy in Africa is not only under threat by dictators using dictatorial means to stay in power, but also by democratically elected leaders who use democratic processes to cement their hold over power.

Due to the legacy of authoritarian regimes, the Global South is facing a challenge in establishing the Rule of Law. But what raises concerns is that there is a trend toward disregarding pillars of the Rule of Law such as the Constitution or free and fair elections by those who currently rule their respective countries soon after being democratically elected.

Instead of being implemented, the Rule of Law moves one step forward and two steps back, holding back society through anti-democratic practices such as electoral fraud, the violation or the review of the Constitution by the democratic elected leaders.

1. ELECTORAL FRAUD

Change of governments and those in poweris one of the characteristics of democracy and this has to be done through free and fair elections.

With different authoritarian regimes, the Global South witnessed several so-called presidential elections with either a single candidate or many candidates without any chance of winning. An example is Chad where in the 2006 presidential elections; the president was re-elected with ninety nine percent. In Zaire(currently DRC) during Mobutu’s time or in Togo where as the world watched, a military government adopted the façade of democracy. There is the other kind of electoral fraud such as presidential elections in Zimbabwe.

But, if the mass frauds during these elections are organised by those who originally came into power by an anti -democratic way (coup, rebellion, revolution) and try to maintain themselves in power through so-called elections, the Global South faces a new challenge where the democratically elected leaders who once in power do not hesitate to use any illegal practice in order to win elections. The leading maxim seems to be “As I am now here it is forever.”

In this regard. The recent Kenyan crisis is a loud example of the attempt to hold back the Rule of Law by a democratic elected leader.

Indeed Kenya was deeply affected by a bloody crisis that left more than one thousand killed and thousands displaced, churches, shops and houses burned, all caused of an electoral coup by president Mwai Kibaki who came in power in 2002 after democratic elections that ended the long authoritarian regime started with Jomo Kenyatta in 1963 and continued by Daniel Arap Moi in 1978. These last elections took Kenya five years.

2. THE VIOLATION OR REVIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION

As it is well known, in the authoritarian regime, the leader designs the Constitution to meet his political needs.

Unfortunately this practice is becoming more and more prelevant amongst leaders who were democratically. Indeed, in the Global South, the Constitution, one of the pillars of the Rule of Law is coveted by those who have the duty to protect it.

In this regard, last February 2008 the Global South witnessed the violation of the Constitution by the Congolese president democratically elected Joseph Kabila and the prime minister Antoine Gizega who appointed magistrates in violation of the Congolese Constitution .

But the threat is also found in the review of the Constitution which aims to increase the power of the Head of the State or to allow him to remain in power through unlimited terms.

Furthermore, there is currently an attempt to review the Constitution by the dictator of Cameroon Paul Biya the one who has been in power since 1984. The review aims to allow him to be candidate in the next lections. Let us hope he will not succeed. Indeed, despite the fact Biya’s authoritarianism, the people of Cameroon are offering a real opposition to the review of the Constitution.

But the attempt to change the Constitution is not only made by the authoritarian leaders such as Paul Biya in Cameroon, but also by those democratically elected in their respective countries. The review of Constitution was attempted in Nigeria by the now former president Olusegun Obasanjo who tried through Parliament to review the provision limiting the number of terms a president may serve. He failed because the majority in Parliament voted against the amendment.

In addition, the same attempt was made by the current president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez. But contrary to the Nigerian president the president of Venezuela tried to increase his power through a referendum, but still fortunately - he failed.

CONCLUSION

The establishment of the Rule of Law is one of major challenges in the Global South. Unfortunately, while people are focused on achieving this noble objective, others are working to hold back the process.

Therefore, there is a need for the Civil society as a whole to intesify its watch dog role vis-à-vis not only where the Rule of Law still has to be established but also where it has already been established. Indeed, today the Rule of Law is threatened in the DRC, Kenya, Venezuela and Nigeria. Tomorrow may be under threat in other countries.

As the Global South is struggling to end the culture of presidents for life, the slogan “as I am now here it is forever” has to be banned because it is taking the march toward a Rule of Law in the Global South two steps back for every step forward. The end result is gross human rights violations.

*Dieu-Donné WEDI DJAMBA is a lawyer(Advocate) at the Lubumbashi Bar Association a Researcher in Transitional Justice and an Assistant Lecturer in the College of Law in Lubumbashi in the DRC.

*Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

We believe that the violence that South Africa has experienced over the last week is systemic in nature and will not end until the underlying causes of economic distress have been dealt with thoroughly.

South Africa is in a state of emergency because of the failure to address desperate poverty and is in urgent need of a mechanism to begin public discussion on how to ensure dignity for all those who live here.

Even by conservative estimates, over 50% of the South African population experiences dire poverty.

Many of the poor live in townships, and for the most part, what is at stake in these townships is a battle for mere survival in unbearable living conditions. The consequence of this poverty has invariably led to the current outpouring of frustration and rage in various South African townships.

When survival itself is at stake, it is not surprising to see violence against those who can only seem to be a threat to whatever little means of a livelihood there is. There is only one solution, which is to address the underlying economic distress - to address the complete failure of supply-side capitalist economics in South Africa.

To begin, therefore, we call for a Justice and Reconciliation Commission, which cannot be more timely and more necessary - in light of the dashed hopes of those who thought that the new dispensation would provide them with a better life.

We read in the paper that the conflicts in the townships betray the leaders of the struggle in South Africa.

But is it not the other way around; that people feel betrayed because they continue to live in apartheid-like conditions?

In 1997, Professor Mahmood Mamdani and Professor Sampie Terreblanche called for a Justice and Reconciliation Commission, which would focus on the systematic exploitation endured by the majority black population for over 350 years of racial capitalism.

The aim of such a commission is to focus on the systematic character of racial capitalism, which began long before the institutionalisation of apartheid.

The work of such a commission would be both to educate whites, who were the beneficiaries of this exploitative system, as well as to develop a programme of reparations, restitution and, perhaps most important, the establishment of economic measures that could effectively grapple with the devastating institutional effects of an internal system of colonisation.

We are calling for a two-year commission to take up this work. The commission would also explore alternatives to the current Anglo-Americanisation of the South African economy, which has effectively blocked any substantive development of the country.

This commission would focus primarily on the consideration of comprehensive programmes for poverty alleviation. This is not to be confused with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which focused on perpetrators and reparations for individual victims.

Community organisations that have worked tirelessly to develop programmes for restitution and reparation should be seriously considered as part of the democratic discussion of economic reform.

Consultation with economists who are exploring alternatives to capitalism will be vital.

The outcome of the commission would be a comprehensive programme of economic reforms in all basic areas of life: education, housing, health care and land reform.

This report would consider responses to the aggressive Washington Consensus, which pushes a particular programme of supply-side economics that constrains the re-distribution programmes that must be undertaken in the name of restorative justice.

As long as this extreme injustice continues to exist, we are naïve to have any expectation of peace.

Kenya President Mwai Kibaki said on Wednesday that his country has learned its lesson from post-election violence and promised to focus on improving the economy. Kenya, long considered one of Africa's most stable countries, suffered weeks of political violence that claimed at least 1 500 lives after the disputed December general elections.

A Cabinet minister is one of 30 Swaziland businessmen who are to be investigated by the country's main anti-corruption unit over how they amassed their fortunes, the government said on Thursday. "We have handed over 30 names to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and it is up to the commission to conclude its investigations," said government press secretary Percy Simelane.