cc Beginning by praising the work of Rod Hill & Tony Myatt and Ha-Joon Chang, Samir Amin highlights the complete absence of adequate critical reflection across contemporary economics. ‘The true aim of the “science” of conventional economics’, he writes, ‘is simply to divest it of its political aspect and pretend it is something “neutral”, hence “objective”. The result is the annihilation of the capacity for critical thinking and reducing the citizen to being a mere spectator of history.’

The Netherlands is ending its development relationship with seven African countries. The partnership with the DR Congo, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa will be terminated, Dutch newspaper Trouw is reporting. The new list of partner countries contains 15 countries, ten of which are African.

The United Nations refugee agency has voiced alarm at increasing accounts of violence and discrimination in Libya against sub-Saharan Africans in both the rebel-held east and the Government-controlled west, including the reported rape of a 12-year-old girl. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 'reiterates its call on all parties to recognize the vulnerability of both refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and to take measures to ensure their protection,' spokesman Adrian Edwards told a news briefing in Geneva.

Africa faces an unprecedented opportunity to transform itself, says the World Bank. Its new strategy for the continent aims to leverage growing South-South investment to ensure more inclusive development, while identifying five poor states as 'Growth Poles'. The Bank says its new plan will prioritise employment and competitiveness, while also addressing the problems that make African countries particularly vulnerable to disaster, disease and climate change.

The worst-case scenario for Côte d’Ivoire – outside of military intervention – seems to have been ruled out, but the West’s alternative strategy for ousting Laurent Gbagbo – economic and financial sanctions – will also destroy the country, argues Pierre Sané. Is it a question of ‘imposing Alassane Ouattara at all costs’, no matter what the true outcome of the election might have been?

Capturing an online exchange between several young Ethiopians, Elyas Mulu Kiros wonders whether the country’s ruling EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front) party needs to be reformed or deformed.

The wave of arrests in Zimbabwe continued on Wednesday (9 March) when police in Chinhoyi disrupted a workshop and arrested two human rights activists, in a church. The event had been organised by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and the United Church of Christ Zimbabwe (UCCZ).

cc Recognised and supported by an extensive range of governments and countries across the globe, Western Sahara’s colonisation and exploitation at the hands of Morocco must come to an end, writes Peter Kenworthy.

cc Taking inspiration from the late South African anti-apartheid poet–activist Dennis Brutus’s verb-play, Patrick Bond discusses the ‘mubaraking’ currently faced by a number of dictatorships across Africa.

John Kamau travels the Thika-Garissa highway in Kenya and finds a collapsed settlement scheme from nearly 50 years ago that showcases of 'the misuse of power, might and money'.

Redy Wilson Lima, Aquilino Varela, Quintino Tavares

Bia Barbosa

Emir Sader

'As people of faith, we know that the road to democracy and justice is not an easy one. These years of enforced exile have been painful – not only for you and your family, but for the people of Haiti. We join the call from all over the world for this exile to end,' writes the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

If Gaddafi goes, who's going to bankroll the African Union, wonders Gado.

‘The memory of Dennis Brutus will remain everywhere there is struggle against injustice,’ writes Patrick Bond, in a tribute to the late South African poet and freedom fighter, which was presented at the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy in February.

Pierre Sané

Bernard Founou-Thuigoua

Mama, don’t put me under the knife
Give not to culture
A slice of my precious life...

The ‘only existing alternative’ left to South Africa’s poor is to ‘take matters into their own hands’, writes Pedro Alexis Tabensky. And in ‘increasing numbers, and with increasing levels of sophistication, the poor are coming together, ganging up against the common foe responsible for their shameful predicament.’

Equatorial Guinea must amend laws that hinder effective civil society mobilisation and activism inside the country, says by advocacy group EG Justice. The report highlights ‘the gaps that exist between the government’s commitments to regional and international covenants that promote basic civil liberties'.

‘Without doubt’, the crude oil business ‘is the stuff that oils the machinery of despotism’ and that ‘blinds the world to the bloods that flow on the streets as people fight for liberty’, writes Nnimmo Bassey.

cc Has the UN Security Council cynically deflected its responsibility to the International Criminal Court through its referral of Muammar Gaddafi and his regime to the court? Tim Murithi critiques the decision.