The release of the book, Birgiman Hankaka 1, by Adamu Aliyu Kiyawa, an educationist and veteran radio broadcaster/journalist in Kano recently has provided Hausa readers across the country an opportunity to benefit from the enormous information and knowledge that had hitherto been the exclusive of radio listeners in Kano. The 105-page publication is a reproduction of his popular weekly radio talk show, "Birgiman Hankaka", aired on Freedom Radio Kano, and anchored by the veteran broadcaster in Kano state.

Agenda requests poetry contributions that explore the outcomes of the Nairobi+21 conference, their impact on women’s rights today, 21 years later, and where to from now. As the first international women’s conference on African soil, the Nairobi Conference in 1985 discussed ways to fend for women’s rights and gender equality that would, for the first time, be informed by the agendas of women from the South.

All too often we hear or read horrific stories of children being abducted by pedophiles and shudder at the thought of what these innocent victims must have experienced. Rarely, if ever, do we hear how the terrifying experiences affect these victims as they journey through their lives. Ricky Hunter tells her story of being abducted at age five and how this terrifying ordeal shaped her life from childhood through to early womanhood and beyond.

If I could hang, draw and quarter a song, I would do it to this one.

If I could tie a 50 pound weight around a song and drop it off into the murkiest, most sewage-laden depths of the Indian Ocean, it would be this one.

If I could put a song through a shredder, and put the shreddings through a meat grinder, and put the paste through a blender, and put the result in an incinerator, I would do it, three times over, to Hakuna Matata .

Every gifted African musician who's ever been forced to churn out this festering putrefaction of a lyric, to a bunch of grinning tourists, on a hotel terrace, deserves compensation for psychological damage.

Everyone who's ever lived the reality, the complexity, the day-to-day humanity of East Africa, as opposed to the tourist hotel fantasy package, and then had the tinny simplistic sugary crap of Hakuna Matata forced on their eardrums, deserves a free detox treatment at the spas of the same hotels.

Shailja Patel is currently performing at the Zanzibar International Film Festival. She is suffering an acute case of Hakuna Matata - overload. Visit her at

NEXT APPEARANCES
Zanzibar International Film Festival: July 14-23
ABN-America TV, Talking Drum Current Affairs Show, July 20th, 8pm, CST
Dish Network Channel 749, Super Dish required

Kenyan poet Mukoma wa Ngugi is the author of Conversing with Africa: Politics of Change (KPH, 2003) and the forthcoming A Malignant History: Looking at America (KPH, 2007). His poems and political essays have been published widely. He is the coordinator for the Toward an Africa without Borders Organization. "By turns soothingly tender or implacably harsh, Hurling Words at Consciousness is an unflinching meditation on our globalized inequities. It is thoughtful and richly rewarding."

Edited by M. A. Mohamed Salih this book offers in-depth analysis of parliamentary (legislature) development set in a historical context informed by Africa’s post 1990s democratic resurgence. In particular, it illustrates how African parliaments are caught between the twin processes of being part of the machinery of government while exercising the function of holding government accountable.

London based Global Witness recently published a scathing report entitled Digging in Corruption: Fraud, Abuse and Exploitation in Katanga's Copper and Cobalt Mines. The report documents the corruption, abuse and rank exploitation taking place in the formal and informal mining sectors in Congo's Katanga province (one of the world's richest copper and cobalt producing areas).

The report is yet another lucid documentation of the pilfering of the Congo's wealth. The United Nation's four reports from 2001 – 2003, reports by Human Rights Watch, Fatal Transactions reports, independent journalist Keith Harmon Snow's work and the Congolese parliament's Lutundula Commission Report all clearly identify the link between corrupt Congolese officials and foreign mining companies, mainly from Europe, Canada, United States, Australia, South Africa and of late India and China. Global Witness says the mining sector in Katanga is characterized by "widespread corruption and fraud at all levels." See the reports section of the FOTC website!

The rapid pace at which the wealth of the Congo is being sold at below bargain basement prices is shameless. The rebels, turned so-called politicians, and multi-national corporations are the primary beneficiaries of the Congo resource grab. Gerhard Kemp of the Rand Merchant Bank, of Johannesburg, SA is quoted in the Global Witness report (p.34) saying "The Congo is so rich in mineral wealth, you can't just ignore it. You don't want to be the last guy at this party." Without a doubt this is the greatest land grab party of the modern era.

The South African Mail and Guardian reported that there is an international scramble for the wealth of the Congo and that "billions of dollars will be made." Juxtaposed to the billions to be made and the estimated $1 billion that left Katanga province in 2005, is the unending suffering of the average Congolese. One Congolese miner interviewed by Global Witness says "We know that the Congo is rich. But despite this - we do not even have enough to eat. Only one category of people profits." Congolese live on an average of $100 per year and 80 percent of the population lives on 30 cents per day. The Congo is a classic case of modern day serfdom and the depravity of those seeking to benefit at the expense of others even if millions more Congolese must die. Surely, King Leopold II would have a rye smile on his face knowing that over 100 years later the plunder and pillage that he began continues uninterrupted with impunity.

According to Global Witness, the majority of the contracts signed over the past five years give the Congo less than 25% share and in some cases, significantly less. An example of the type of deals signed is represented by the worlds richest copper mine, Tenke Fungurume; the foreign companies Phelps Dodge of Phoenix, Arizona and Tenke Mining Corp. of British Columbia, Canada own 82.5%, while the Congo owns a paltry 17.5% of its own resources through the parastatal, Gecamines. Many of these contracts are signed for an entire generation, 30 – 40 years, which for all intents and purposes condemn a generation of Congolese to serfdom and poverty, whereby their resources are plundered to benefit foreign corporations. In fact, Global Witness reports that deals signed with Phelps Dodge, Global Enterprises Corporate Ltd and Kinross-Forrest (Kinross Gold Corporation of Toronto, Canada and George Forrest International of Belgium) deliver 70 percent of the Congo's known copper reserves to these foreign corporations.

Should the pilfering continue unchecked, Katanga province will serve as a precursor of what is to come for the entire country. The province is under government control, unlike some of the other eastern provinces embroiled in conflict, yet the people are subject to abject poverty and deprivation. While the world’s eyes are on the upcoming July 30th elections, the wealth is going out the back door at warp speed. This reinforces what Congolese say is the under-belly of the election process whereby the international community is working feverishly and spending heavily to legitimize the current client regime so that the unfettered pilfering of the Congo can continue (See interview with Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja by Pambazuka News).

A window of opportunity exists to break the cycle of pillage of the Congo's human and natural resources; a process, which began in its modern form under King Leopold II of Belgium in 1885, continued under Belgium Colonialism for a half-century and perpetuated for over 3 decades by the Western-imposed and backed dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

The underdevelopment and impoverishment of an entire generation is being carried out while a perverse alliance between corrupt government officials and big business line their pockets. Surely such a proposition is repulsive to any nation or people who claim to be moral, just or civilized. No human rights group or concerned celebrity can claim to be fighting poverty with any moral veracity and be silent or ignore the plunder and rape of the Congo. People of conscience and goodwill can hardly sit idly and do nothing as another generation of Congolese is in the process of being condemned to forced labor, poverty, and mass death. Friends of the Congo

Email: [email][email protected] Voice: 202-584-6512 web: http://www.friendsofthecongo.org The Friends of the Congo (FOTC) is a collaborative effort of people of African ancestry and others of goodwill who believe that the vast potential of the Democratic Republic of the Congo can be realized with strong support from the International community.

Become a Friend of the Congo and change the future of Africa and the African world.

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

The Nairobi-based pan-African gallery, African Heritage, recently won the "Visionary Leadership in the Arts in Africa" award from the continental Pan-African Broadcasting, Heritage and Achievent Awards in recognition of its efforts in promoting African culture globally.

"You will be kept informed as often as is necessary." The Orwellian statement borders on satire, but in fact it comes straight out of the archives of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, from the late 1970s or early 1980s. Radio clips like this fill the air as the audience takes its seats for the Johannesburg Market Theatre's current production of Black Dog Inj'emnyama - a play that stems from that anguished period in South Africa's past.

In recent years, non-governmental organizations have established themselves as fully recognized partners in the Education for All movement. The latest issue of UNESCO’s Education Sector newsletter reports on how civil society involvement pushes the boundaries in education.

The Cape Town Book Fair drew the best from around the world, and showed that South Africa is decidedly on the map as far as being on the cutting edge of cultural and intellectual life is concerned. Being there was to see a new and enlightening phase of our era of liberation. The pariah thing has gone. Smiles and hugs all round.

Though there have been numerous studies on the United Nations, only a few have dealt comprehensively with Africa’s relations with the world body. This book by Issaka Souare attempts to fill this lacuna by providing a systematic assessment of Africa’s relationship with the World body, from its foundation in 1945 to its sixtieth anniversary in 2005. Argues that there have been some real successes in Africa’s relationship with the world body - such as the joint efforts against the Apartheid regime in South Africa - as well as real failures - such as in the genocide in Rwanda.

The dust created by human stampedes still looms low in the air after hastily arranged street protests appeared around Ghana. Scrawled slogans on torn pieces of cardboard read "Africa boycott the World Cup," and "The white man has ruined us again," emphasising the strength of feeling against the obrunis - white people - their alleged discriminators. All of this after losing to Brazil.

I cannot agree more with Tajudeen Abdul-Raheen’s views regarding Africa’s participation in the World Cup. The positive of it especially the 2006 is that all the African countries that were there did play the best they could with Ghana giving excellent account of what African football is all about. Pity, none of them could reach the last stages but Ghana made all of Africa proud by reaching the last 16 group stage. Disparities in terms of economic status is so glaring in the World Cup, the results speak for themselves!

With Brazil failing to ignite the scene and being edged out by a not-so-convincing France spelt disaster for the third and developing world. It is true African players shine as individuals or when they play for their high paying European teams or those adopted (new form of colonialism) by these countries! France is the case in point!

I doubt if honourable Bhamjee’s expulsion has racism undertones, I think he committed big error of judgment, or fell into a trap he should not have. But the speed with which he was dealt with, leaves one wondering if the world body (Fifa) is really this swift and efficient in dealing with misdemeanors in all cases?

I will generally agree that racism is still a huge problem, despite attempts to stem the tide. How do you explain the malicious rumours that circulated in SA this past weekend hinting that “Fifa was going to take the right of hosting the 2010 World Cup by SA away and award it to Australia” because of crime and lack of preparedness etc? Of course LOC CEO, Danny Jordaan dismissed that as “nonsense”, but it makes one wonder who is behind such a rumour.

Zand Graphics Ltd (publishers of Awaaz magazine, Challenge to Colonialism by Zarina Patel and Unquiet - The Life and Times of Makhan Singh by Zarina Patel)cordially invites you to a book launch of Never be Silent - Publishing and Imperialism 1884 - 1963 by Shiraz Durrani on Wednesday 5th July 2006 between 5.30 - 8.00 pm at the Goethe Institute. The launch is kindly sponsored and supported by the National Book Development Council of Kenya (NBDCK).

It is not easy for the African people to see through the pushing and shoving games politicians play. In March, a visitor to Nairobi could struggle to see through the din of anti-corruption calls and demands for President Mwai Kibaki to step down or wait for certain doom and electoral mauling in 2007, reports the East African.

Thank you for a really interesting article, a new contribution to what seems to be a growing area of discussion which uses football as a means of examining the wider forces of globalisation. I covered some research by World Bank economist Branko Milanovic recently which took a slightly more positive view of FIFA's regulation of player movement between clubs and infact looks towards football for possible lessons on how poor countries can harness the forces of globalisation. His paper (http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/docdisplay.cfm?doc=DOC20718&resourc…) looks at the rules FIFA have used to sanction the free circulation of labour (i.e. player transfers) in the club game whilst keeping restrictive rules governing player selection for national team competitions such as the World Cup (i.e. players can only play for the country where they were born). Free circulation of labour, he finds, produced better club teams but also greater inequality between rich and poor clubs. Experience gained by players at club level, however, has helped to reduce inequality and raise standards in the national game, hence the increasingly strong showing by poorer footballing nations in the World Cup. This, Milanovic argues, shows "how forces of efficiency but also inequality unleashed by globalisation can be harnessed by the existence of global institutions to help improve the outcome for poor countries". He doesn't, however, provide a great deal of detail on exactly how this might work. You can read my article at:

The presence of people of African origin in most of the teams guarantees that which ever team or country finally wins, it is very likely that we are going to have Pan Africanist contribution to it, writes Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem. So whatever the outcome, Pan Africanists can still celebrate. But many still wonder why African teams have not made the desired impact, and transformed individual promise and potential into success in the World Cup? Why are we so good at serving others but do not have the same enthusiasm when it comes to serving ourselves? Or framed differently: do we expend so much energy serving others that when it comes to serving ourselves we are too exhausted?

Tuesday 27 June was a very disappointing evening for many of us. The disappointment was felt not just on the street of Accra but across the continent and outside also. We were all hoping against hope that the Black Stars will fly in the face of all that experience and instinct dictated. It was a game of David and Goliath. But as in the biblical story, in football unfancied Davids have been known to literally floor many a Goliath. Just look at how many over rated country teams have been humbled in this World Cup. Both Czechoslovakia and Ghana humiliated a USA team, strangely ranked No 2 by FIFA! Maybe FIFA was rating American football, a game in which the last thing they use is their feet and they have to wear helmets!

Last Tuesday was not the Black Stars night. They performed creditably well, held their grounds in spite of being wrong-footed early in the game, fought back spiritedly but could not convert their chances against a Brazilian side that still has lingering doubts whether it is the Brazil that we all take to our hearts. However, it is not the case that Brazil was playing badly; credit must be given to Ghana for playing well.

Now that the last of Africa's hopes in the championship has been extinguished, to fight another day, the tribal character of 'the beautiful game' witnesses a dramatic change of sides by many Africans. There will be no guessing who most Africans will be rooting for now. It's Brazil all the way, failing which, many will root for Argentina. There is a historical, racialist and Third Worldist sentimentality in this transferable adulation. By point of fact, Brazil is a top dog anyday, in poor or bad shape. It is the only team for which nothing short of victory will be considered inglorious defeat. It is the only team that even when it wins (as in the current campaign) there is criticism that it is not doing so in its usual entertaining and robust style! The game may have been invented by the Scots. but the gold-standard bearers in football are not Scots (who can hardly qualify these days) or any of their European cousins. Brazil and the South Americans in general are the teams to beat. So in supporting them, Africans are simply going for the best. But it goes beyond that. Football has meant Pele, and Pele means Brazil to so many generations of Africans. Therefore, regardless of the colour (officially there are over 17 variations of blackness in Brazil), many Africans just believe them to be 'one of us'. But this racial aspect of the game is the most amusing to me. On the strengthof race, just look at most of the teams. It is no longer which team has black players, but which one does not?

Football, and sports in general, is one place where all notions of racial superiority or purity have been exposed as bogus. It is also the place where globalisation expresses its farthest reach. Players are like stocks and shares belonging to no country but the highest bidder, whether club or country! When France won the World cup in 1998 the racist bigot Jean-Marie Le Pen (leader of France's extreme right-wing Nationalist Party) and his supporters could not celebrate because they did not think that the magnificent players led by Zidane (who is still dazzling us in the current campaign) were French enough because of their ancestral origins. It was tough luck to him because the rest of France celebrated Vive la France regardless of the colour ofthe players. They did it for France. In one English League game in recent years, the current League Champions, Chelsea, managed to field a full team with reserve, without a single English man! Just look at the teams and you see Africans or players of African origin playing for all kinds of countries. This is yet another prove that when the rules are clear black people can excel. Open the doors of equality, of access and opportunity,and may the best candidate win. But we have to enter first!

The presence of people of African origin in most of the teams guarantees that which ever team or country finally wins, it is very likely that we are going to have Pan Africanist contribution to it. So whatever the outcome, Pan Africanists can still celebrate. But many still wonder why African teams have not made the desired impact, and transformed individual promise and potential into success in the World Cup?

Why are we so good at serving others but do not have the same enthusiasm when it comes to serving ourselves? Or framed differently: do we expend so much energy serving others that when it comes to serving ourselves we are too exhausted?

In this, the various teams have become metaphors for our countries. They are full of individual stars, with fantastic records at club levels in various non-African countries (mostly European but increasingly the Middle East); but when brought together, they do not perform the same wonders for their countries. There are technical, resource and organisational reasons why this is so, but I see a more fundamental reason: political and ideological orientation of both the players and those who administer sports in our countries. No matter how talented a player is, in football, you are part of a team. We are big on big players and short on team spirit. The success of Ghana so far has been because it has begun building a team, not assemble one in a permanent state of emergency like their Nigerian neighbours who were dispatched from the qualifying series by a less fancied Angola. What is the Pan-Africanist point in all these? One, individualism will not take us to the Promised Land. We need to build winning teams. Two, if Europeans can buy and sell African players, what is stopping an African country, government or entrepreneurs from investing similar resources to build a winning African team? The preparation for the next World Cup should have started four years ago, but it is not too late to begin now.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

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

Alpha Oumar Konare, the Chairperson of the African Union (AU), urged the approval of African diplomatic passports on Wednesday at the opening of the 9th ordinary session of the AU Executive Council in Banjul. Mr Konare stated that “this is a major decision that we need to take, which also meets African populations’ expectations in the implementation of the agreement for the free movement of people and goods”. The Chairperson of the au regreted that some African countries impose visa requirements on heads of state and government or African Foreign ministers and asserted that it was “inadmissible”. He assured that the issuing of these documents would be “strictly monitored”.

The World Cup has excited football fans around the globe, including African people of all nations. But while there are many reasons to be proud, especially of Ghana’s impressive win against America, there are also questions to be asked of the migration that players feel they must undertake to succeed in the football world.

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Ghana’s impressive defeat of the United States last week propelled them to the second round of the World Cup Finals, making them Africa’s only representative in the final sixteen. While Ghana’s success is a tremendous accomplishment for African football, it also provides a time for serious discussion of the difficult issue of labor migration and exploitation that is facing the sport. Of the 23 players Ghana brought to Germany, only 4 are signed with domestic clubs. The other 19 play professionally for clubs in Europe and Israel.

While the personal accomplishments of these athletes should not be disputed, the increasing flight of Africa’s finest players to Europe is indicative of a structural problem in African football. The “muscle exodus” as CAF president Issa Haytou has coined it, has grown tremendously in the past decade, fueled by the nearly 20 to 1 wage discrepancy between African and European clubs.[1] European clubs increasingly use their financial advantage to recruit Africa's best players when they are as young as 14 years old.

Sepp Blatter, the President of FIFA, has characterized the increasing labor migration as a form of neo-colonialism. “I find it unhealthy, if not despicable,” Blatter explains, “for rich clubs to send scouts shopping in Africa, South America and Asia to 'buy' the most promising players there. This leaves those who trained them in their early years with nothing but cash for their trouble. Dignity and integrity tend to fall by the wayside in what has become a glorified body market.” [2]

As the best talent is lured out of Africa, the quality of the sport on the continent is undermined. Local leagues are left with lower standards of play, reinforcing the conception that leaving Africa is the only choice for promising footballers.[3] In addition, African national teams' performance has historically been hurt when European clubs refuse to release African footballers to play for their home countries, fearing injury to their star players. While FIFA regulations now compel clubs to release players, there is a legal battle in the European Court of Justice as to whether clubs can demand monetary compensation for injuries that take place during national competitions.[4] If the legal challenge is successful, the potential financial cost to FIFA could put the current regulations in jeopardy.

By far the most damaging aspect of the current “muscle exodus” is the exploitation of young African footballers by profiteering agents. Youth tournaments held throughout Africa serve as recruitment venues for European agents. Some players, such as the stars of Ghana’s team, end up signing lucrative contracts with European clubs. However, for every success story there are scores of others who are brought to Europe to train and are then abandoned. The economist Wladimir Andreff explains, “Most young players transferred to European professional clubs ultimately do not sign a contract and then are left aside, cut off from their family, friends, and home country, with no source of income and no assistance.” These youth, left in Europe as illegal immigrants with no way to support themselves, in some cases, have even resorted to prostitution to survive [5]. While it is now against FIFA regulations to transfer minors from their home country, the practice continues to exist on the black market. "Non-affiliated football academies" in Africa continue to train and recruit young players for European export, bypassing FIFA regulations [6]. Since ambitious young footballers see moving to Europe as their only chance of success, they are easy targets for such exploitation.

As all of Africa celebrates Ghana’s success, it is an important opportunity to discuss the great potential of truly African national football and the dangers that the current “muscle exodus” poses to this as well as to the athletes themselves. Hopefully the success of Ghana’s national team will challenge the prevailing belief that moving to Europe is the only viable option for aspiring African footballers as well as raise awareness around the injustice that is currently football's status quo.

Matt Bosch is an intern with Fahamu.

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

[1] Andreff, Wladimir. “The Taxation of Player Moves from Developing Countries.” In Rodney Fort & John Fizel, eds., International Sports Economics Comparisons, Westport & London, Praeger 2004 (pp. 87-103).
[2] Blatter, Joseph. “Soccer’s greedy neo-colonialists,” Financial Times. 17 December 2003. London (pp. 19).
[3] Akindes, Gerard, Paul Darby, and Matt Kirwin. “Football Academies and the Migration of African Football Labour to Europe.” Presented at “Soccer, Nationalism, and Globalization.” University of California, Los Angeles. 31 May 2006.
[4] “Sport: Governance of Football Lies at Heart of Charleroi Court Case,” European Report. 12 June 2006.
[5] Akindes et al
[6] Ibid