The Nigerian government is bleeding the Niger Delta dry of its oil, but the Ijaw ethnic community that actually owns most of the land is left empty-handed, writes Sabella Ogbobode Abidde in this week's Pambazuka News. Abidde stresses that Niger Deltans cannot be treated in this fashion and that their will must be respected by the central government, arguing that more money must flow back into Ijawland in order to tackle the chronic neglect the region has suffered.

Ethiopia has been ruled for too long by a dictator who mocks all Ethiopians with puppet elections, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam in this week's Pambazuka News. While Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi talks about the 'moral and prudent' need for a 'single negotiating team' for Africa on climate change, the same demands could easily be made around ensuring a genuinely democratic election in 2010. But if democratic progress is to be achieved in Ethiopia, the author concludes, pro-democracy forces need to draw on the successes of the 2005 election, and not simply support Meles's party's pseudo-participation and 'silly little game of "elections"'.

On 30 September 2009 Kontax – an m-novel created for the Shuttleworth Foundation’s m4Lit project– launches in South Africa, making world history as the first of its kind to be offered in both English and isiXhosa. The m4Lit project, led by Steve Vosloo, 21st Century Learning Fellow for the Shuttleworth Foundation, aims to not only explore the potential for increased reading and writing for 21st century teens through mobile phones, but also to introduce a more interactive style of story writing and publishing that holds appeal to the participatory culture of youth.

‘Our default setting is one that sees the world through white values – unless programmed otherwise,’ writes Lurie Daniel-Favors in this week’s Pambazuka News. With reference to the US legal system, Daniel-Favors argues that ‘white judges have the privilege of acting as though their race and rationale are the default setting from which every other race and rationale deviate’. When white judges ‘use the law to rule in favour of white interests’, their rulings are seen an unbiased application of the law’, says Daniel-Favors. But when judges of colour are confronted with making decisions ‘that might in some way give some benefit to people of colour’ or ‘make a decision that impinges on white freedom’, they face criticism for ‘making decisions based on “race” or “personal” politics’.

It's no wonder South Africa's poorest are angry, MP Khwezi ka Ceza writes in this week’s issue of Pambazuka News – despite earlier efforts to present its struggle against its predecessors as pro-poor, the post-Polokwane administration is beginning to reveal its neoliberal stripes. As an ‘emerging democracy with a painful legacy of deliberate underdevelopment, South Africa cannot rely on the private sector to lift people out of poverty, ka Ceza says. Arguing that left to their own devices, market forces are more likely to exacerbate inequality, ka Ceza calls for the state to ‘be activist in the economic life’ of the country, if it really wants to take a pro-poor stance.

Reflecting on South Africa’s recent wave of protests, Ibrahim Steyn argues in this week’s Pambazuka News that the original source of the country’s ‘social malaise’ is threefold: The difference between legal definitions and grassroots interpretations of socio-economic rights, government pursuit of neo-liberal policies, and the limitations of liberal democratic frameworks for facilitating genuine public participation in decision-making.

‘Translation is what enables the traffic of ideas between languages,‘ Ngugi wa Thiong’o writes in this week’s edition of Pambazuka News. In the second part of a keynote address given at the 6th Pan African Reading for all Conference, wa Thiong’o shares his own experiences of and views on writing both in English and in his mother tongue Gikuyu, and of translating works from one language into the other.

Reading empowers people, Ngugi wa Thiong’o writes in this week’s edition of Pambazuka News, but people need more than access to books, they need access to books in their own languages. In the first part of a keynote speech given at the 6th Pan African Reading for all Conference, wa Thiong’o argues that ‘if you want to hide knowledge from an African child, put it in English or French.’ To ‘know one’s language, whatever that language is, and add others to it, is empowerment, says wa Thiong’o, ‘but to know all the other languages while ignorant of one’s own is slavery.’

The Kibaki administration is ruffled by the United States Government latest actions on Kenya and it has nothing to do with travel bans. Money is at stake and the soft underbelly of the regime is exposed. Although it touts itself as financially self-reliant, in truth the Grand Coalition Government of Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga cannot afford to ignore the International Community and especially the United States’ stated intention of scrutinising all loans and financial programmes for Kenya by the International Financial Institutions.

In this week’s blog review, Dibussi Tande looks at the attacks on demonstrators in Guinea, and a recent survey in Zimbabwe on the performance of the Unity Government. He also reviews a blog on Western Union money transfers on the continent, a recent rant by Namibian ex-president Nujoma in defence of Robert Mugabe, and an organization giving an online voice to war-ravaged communities on Northern Uganda.

Bishop Rubin Phillip testifies to the brutality of the local Sydenham police in attacking Abahlali baseMjondolo members in his and other church leaders' presence. Phillip suggests three main courses of action for how to proceed: 1) the wide publicising of the attack; 2) conveying concerns to political leaders; and 3) donations made to relief funds, such as that administered by the Anglican Diocese of Natal.

Following the attacks and deaths of Abahali baseMjondolo members at the hands of African National Congress (ANC) members at Kennedy Road, S'bu Zikode condemns developments that amount to an attack on South Africa's democracy itself and requests support from other civil society groups.

Appalled by the recent threats to kill human rights defenders made by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, Sam Okudzeto and Maja Daruwala of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) call on the Commonwealth to seek assurances of Gambian and foreign citizens' safety in the country.

The response of Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua's regime to the Niger Delta crisis jeopardises the country's entire existence, writes Sabella Ogbobode Abidde in this week's Pambazuka News. With the president only interested in pursuing brutal, military 'solutions' aimed at completely annihilating 'trouble-makers' in the region, fears around the launch of a full-scale invasion seem set to be realised. Calling for a national sovereign conference to establish a lasting, long-term solution, Abidde stresses that no amount of bombing will ever lead to a sustainable peace.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's refusal to accept the findings of a recent International Crisis Group (ICG) study on his country smacks of a basic contempt for the truth, argues Alemayehu G. Mariam in this week's Pambazuka News. Ethiopia's 'ethnic federalism' policy has proven itself to be of dubious value, the author argues, and is ultimately highly divisive in its politicisation of power, representation and resources along ethnic lines. If it wants to achieve genuine representation and a vibrant democracy, Ethiopia's would do well to follow Ghana's example as a strong and functioning federal system, Mariam concludes.

Willy Jackson

Pierre Calame

In Liberia citizens’ reaction has been mixed to a 16 September UN Security Council decision extending the UN peacekeeping mission (UNMIL) to assist with the planned 2011 presidential and legislative elections.

In the process of defining the target group for the Malawi Social Cash Transfer Scheme (SCTS) the Government had to choose between universal targeting and poverty targeting and between categorical concepts and inclusive concepts. The paper analyses eight target group options ranging from categorical schemes like universal social pensions or child grants to inclusive schemes targeting ultra poor households.

Criticised as system of dividing and ruling people according to their ethnic groups, Ethiopia’s federalism has just become a bone of contention. A recent international report warns if this system, and the resultant lack of governance, continues the entire Horn of Africa could be destabilised.

A technical team from countries in the East African region, which has been meeting in Kampala, Uganda, has agreed on a pact paving the way for free movement of labour in the region. Once the Kampala Common Market Protocol is endorsed, professionals, services and capital owners will be able to move freely in the five countries of the East African Community (EAC).