The intention of this project is to create a Forum that will group the major practising writers on the African continent, and ultimately be in a position to reflect their opinions and interests. At present there is no regular venue for African writers to meet. Gorée Institute, by its location and through its commitment to be a meeting place of minds, is ideally situated to fulfil this function. To start with a database will be established to centralise information about African writers and writing - their bibliographies, the possibilities of publication, translation and distribution of books, etc.

Radio LabourStart is playing all 15 songs from an album produced by the Congress of South African Trade Unions. The songs will be played, three every day, repeated throughout the day. Among the artists featured here are the COSATU Peforming Band, the POPCRU and SADTU Choirs, Ihashi Elimhlophe, Chicco Twala/Nokwazi Dlamini, Busi Mhlongo, Phuzekhemisi, Hugh Masekela, Bambata, Sibongile Khumalo, Jonas Gwangwa, Kutu, Letta Mbulu, Vusi Mahlasela, and Jabu Khanyile.

The Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) invites funding applications from arts and culture organisations, foundations and NPOs, for joint arts and culture projects between Sweden and South Africa for grants for a maximum of three years. The main goal of the Swedish/SA Culture Partnership Programme is to promote freedom of information, freedom of expression, and capacity building through cooperation between the two countries.

"This volume offers access to a unique aspect in the history of the Namibian struggle for self-determination during a crucial period of time. The testimony is aimed particularly to serve a new generation in Namibia, who has not lived through this important part of our history. The re-publication will help them to achieve a fuller understanding of a difficult and bitter time. It will also foster a better and clearer perspective on events in our present societies. Given our current rite de passage or interregnum, the insights presented in these republished texts are more than historical evidence. They offer lessons from the past for the present and the future." - Dennis Brutus

This new publication from HLRN Middle East/North Africa provides a guide to the meaning of the human right to adequate housing as it applies to children. It also serves as a tool for assessing children’s housing rights conditions and addressing problems and violations. Building on the experience and activism of members in India, HIC-HLRN commissioned the initial research from “Haq Center for Child Rights” (New Delhi), in 2002. The present edition updates and adapts al-Atfal wa al-Haq fi al-Sakan for the benefit of the Arabic-speaking public. The book has been designed for use by its members and the public as a reference work, a means for awareness raising and a training manual.

African Agenda is a bi-monthly magazine in English with lead articles translated into French. African Agenda published since 1994 reflects Third World Network's concerns and campaigns around issues of economic policy, sustainable development, trade and investment, gender, environment, politics, culture and civil society. African Agenda provides cutting-edge analysis on economic and social issues.

History is an important element of any undertaking relating to African art and culture and the story of African film, predictably, is the ‘story of the white man’, with the native African as the listener, the audience or an appendix. In African Film, Josef Gugler recovers/re-imagines and re-represents the historical experiences of Africans before, during and after colonialism through a perspective that celebrates the peculiarities and diversity of the continent.

The African Journal on Youth Studies is a biennial journal established to provide researchers, agencies and others related to youth development in Africa and elsewhere the opportunity to report their findings, and exchange ideas among themselves.

In "Homecoming," a collection of essays published 30 years ago, Ngugi wa Thiong'o assessed various forms of violence, some of which he considered justified to achieve social ends and some of which he dismissed as just plain thuggery. Ngugi, who went into exile from Kenya in 1982 to escape political repression, is in the midst of a remarkable homecoming of his own. He has been given a hero's welcome and has seen the political progress that Kenya has made. But on Wednesday night, while Ngugi was resting in a Nairobi apartment between speaking engagements, four robbers barged in and brutalized him, his wife and a friend. So brazen was the attack, some Kenyans have speculated it might have been carried out by former enemies.

July marks winter break for South African students. But in the middle of Orange Farm, an informal settlement about an hour south of Johannesburg that is known for its violent crime and back-breaking poverty, the lights stayed on at Leshata Secondary long after other schools had gone on holiday. On the world's poorest continent, official debates about education reform invariably pivot around money. But as the Association for the Development of Education in Africa has argued, chalk boards are only as useful as the people who write on them are qualified.

The charitable impulse has a history rooted in ethics. But much of what passes for humanitarianism today is a commercial enterprise, manipulated by market forces of supply and demand. And since the launch of the "war on terror," national security interests and political objectives have increasingly come into play. The Charity of Nations probes the reasons behind governmental and nongovernmental responses to urgent human need. It explains why some crises get the lion’s share of attention and resources, while others are essentially forgotten.

What a joy to open this book and feel the rich uniqueness of Malangatana’s spirit flow over you - the vibrant energy, the colour, the movement, the people and creatures that are undeniably African. Originally published in 1998 in Portuguese by Editorial Caminho (Lisbon), this English translation is a welcome addition to the growing - though still woefully limited – number of monographs on significant contemporary artists in Africa.

Samir Amin's ambitious new book argues that the ongoing American project to dominate the world through military force has its roots in European liberalism, but has developed certain features of liberal ideology in a new and uniquely dangerous form. Where European political culture since the French Revolution has given a central place to values of equality, the American state has developed to serve the interests of capital alone, and is now exporting this model throughout the world. American imperialism, Amin argues, will be far more barbaric than earlier forms, pillaging natural resources and destroying the lives of the poor.

The National Commission on Culture has embarked on a programme to develop a website to market Ghanaian culture. Professor George Hagan, Chairman of the Commission, who announced this at the opening of the 14th Annual Pan African Association of Anthropologists Conference, said the Commission had developed a policy on culture, which, if approved by the Cabinet, could become a useful tool to inform society and help in nation-building.

In an opinion article published by Panos, a leading ICT expert has warned that whilst Africa's urban poor have found innovative ways of using mobile phones at little or no cost, the building of Africa's information society will take more than just giving people access to new communication technologies. The author suggests that only with a change to Africa's culture of secrecy will Africa build a true information society in which vital information is systematically recorded and freely available.

It is difficult to discern the motive behind the republication of Albert Memmi’s classic examination of the political psychology of colonialism. The illustration on the front of this new edition is clearly of white US troops looking down imperiously from their armoured vehicle over a black society, probably Somalia. If the choice of image seeks to suggest that contemporary US interventions are a modern expression of the colonial condition Memmi sought to explore in 1957, with its then sharp contemporaneity yet heavy historical burden, this is clearly mistaken.

Africa has been experiencing higher rates of urbanization than any other continent, and today about one-third of the continent's population live in urban areas. This book examines the affordability of modern energy sources for the poor; the relevance of energy subsidies; the impact of subsidies on public finances; and how electricity tariffs affect the operations of small and medium enterprises, the main source of livelihood for the majority of the urban poor outside the formal economic sector.

This book of poetry by established and younger writers from Ghana represents a rare effort to compile and publish an anthology of contemporary Ghanaian poems. Some of the writers included are Kobena Eyi Acquah, Ama Ata Aidoo, Kofi Awoonor, Kwesi Brew, Gifty Selorn Odoom, Doris Adabasu Kuwornu, Rex Quarterly and Lade Wosornu.

This is a beautifully designed and produced picture biography of Wole Soyinka, published in honour of his 70th birthday in 2004. Soyinka, as a dramatist, poet, novelist, essayist, teacher, political activist and literary scholar, is perhaps Africa's most brilliant cultural ambassador and critic. He is a notable commentator on world affairs, and a Nobel laureate, being in 1986 the first African to win the Nobel Prize For Literature. In 2004, he delivered the BBC Reith lectures. His career as a creative artist began at the age of 23, when his first plays were performed in Ibadan and London. Since then, he has produced an extraordinary body of work: over two dozen plays, novels, autobiographies, hundreds of essays, collections of poetry, two films and an album of satirical songs.

This issue includes:
- The Evils of Globalization
- African Studies in China
- Sudanese Issues