Grace Kwinjeh argues that unless the MDC is prepared to “dismantle the exhausted patriarchal model of liberation” the new Zimbabwe will simply be a continuation of the old albeit with different faces.

"I appeal to my fellow war veterans not to let your suffering be used by selfish and greedy politicians who caused your suffering. This will not benefit you at the end of the day. Comrades, you should stand up and be a watchdog of the government. If you do not, you will have fought for nothing," freedom fighter and former independent MP Margaret Dongo. But after first being elected in 1990, Dongo almost didn't make it back into office. She lost in the 1995 elections as an independent candidate after rampant voter fraud in her district had been engineered to ensure her defeat. When she set a nationwide precedent by taking the government to court, many called Dongo "mentally unbalanced" and said she was simply carrying a grudge against President Robert Mugabe.

The Republic of Dongo: Parliamentarian Margaret Dongo, By Joyce Jenje-Makwenda, Zimbabwe History has a way of repeating itself in mysterious ways. The Secretary General of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Tendai Biti recently signed a letter dissolving the Women's Assembly of the party. The same heroic Biti 12 years ago, joined other activists in fighting Zanu PF's intransigence, when the party fired vocal politician Margaret Dongo - from its ranks. With the support of pro- democracy activists Dongo challenged Zanu PF in the Harare South constituency and the courts and won.

Activists united in Harare South to campaign for Dongo, for many reasons with the main one being she had been a voice of reason within the Zanu PF structure saying things (her crude description of Mugabe loyalists) " Mugabe's wives" could not say.

"I'm saying this because I was in that parliament. I endured a lot of hardship under a one-party monopoly. You stand up and try to reason with him, and one tells you, "You are a bitch, go and cook in your house." Or tells you to sit down, that you are a minority..." said Dongo in an interview with Frontline World.

Thus she became a symbol of defiance against a system many feared and at the time thought was invincible, as has been the case with most post-colonial African States. She lit a candle of hope that the one party system could be challenged and dismantled, bringing the possibility of new political organisations with a different value system to that of Zanu PF.
I want to posit here that the Harare South battle should therefore be viewed in the context that it was an extension, of the whole process that led to the formation of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) in 1998 and subsequently the MDC in 1999.

It is however important to rewind this particular tape a little bit to understand the dynamics that played themselves out at the time within Zanu PF and their relevance to the political discourse today, within the MDC. I will use various theoretical positions and traditions to explain Dongo's battle in view of what Lucia Matibenga is up and against in the MDC vis-à-vis the question of intra-party democracy and women's empowerment as a pre- requisite of good governance.

Writing in the Financial Gazette of 11 October, Clemence Manyukwe gave an account of some of the victims of Zanu PF's internal dictatorship among them are Dzikamai Mavhaire and his famous "The President must go" speech, Frederick Shava, and Edgar Tekere. While all these have since been neutralised or silenced none made a mark in our collective conscience the way Dongo did.

The battle in Harare South was important and still has a relevance to us today especially for those whose political activism was then propelled by Dongo's victory. What was the principle behind the overwhelming support for Dongo's battle against the Zanu PF'chefs'? It was a brutal and lonely fight for Dongo. Zanu PF put all its resources in campaigning for Vivian Mwashita who had been Dongo's best friend. They had the control of the media, government resources, top politicians went into Harare South to de-campaign Dongo. Senior Zanu PF female politicians for their own political survival took sides with the men.

It is against this background that Matibenga's battle in the MDC, is important for us activists who were inspired and greatly influenced by Dongo in our political activism. The above scenario is repeating itself in a rather bitter manner. Reading Biti's statement after the High Court ruling on Matibenga's challenge of her committees dissolution, in which he claimed 'victory' and 'vindication', my heart sank. The statement represented several tragedies and dangers for those of who have been engaged in the protracted struggle for democracy.

While our interpretation of the judgement passed by the High Court is that only the Women's Congress can dissolve its leadership, the MDC leadership seems to have their own.

The first concern is to do with moral leadership, what lessons can the MDC learn from the 'struggles within the struggle' during the war of liberation as documented by the late Masipula Sithole? Sithole does not rule out the possibility of conflict in political organisations, however what matters is how the leadership responds and handles the conflict. The 70's 'struggle within the struggle' claimed lives, one of them of highly esteemed politician Hebert Chitepo. How were these developments a precursor of the kind of party Zanu PF is to today? Dictatorship? Violence?

"The Zimbabwe liberation movement has been torn apart by tribalism and regionalism, but rarely will this be admitted in public by the leadership and organisations in question, preferring distant Marxist ideological explanations. Those who may be tempted to think ideology is the answer to tribalism and regionalism will do well to remember that in both 'bourgeois' and 'proletariat' societies, national cohesiveness and consciousness are achieved through power sharing and management of representative institutional structures," wrote Sithole.

In a prophetic letter after the assassination of Chitepo his brother Ndabaningi said, "I cannot be indifferent to the death of a man such as Chitepo for political expediency. It is immoral and wrong. I am in this struggle because of moral quality otherwise I would have nothing to do with it."

Is there a moral value in Matibenga's struggle within the MDC? The late Sithole answers this by saying "In the long run, morally right actions will triumph over politically expedient actions. Just watch and see." Indeed we have not only watched but many of us are victims of that Zanu PF system of dictatorship and tyranny which birthed itself during our liberation struggle.

Still on the leadership question writing after being sacked as South Africa's deputy minister of Health, Nozizwe Madlala – Routledge said in an article entitled " Seeking servants of the people", 'When we choose leaders, we need not give up our own power by putting them on pedestals that distance them from those that they lead. We need not accord them hero worship or fear them so much that we cannot tell them what we think or feel, that we can only tell them what they want to hear. We need not allow them to think they have the last word and that they may not be challenged. True leadership is about giving people the feeling that they can be heard, regardless of who they are and how junior they may be."

The uneasy feeling one gets in supporting Matibenga's cause is of being at war with the leadership with the consequence of serious political backlash.

I want to argue further that the MDC is faced with these problems because of the failure to dismantle the exhausted patriarchal model of liberation as espoused by Horace Campbell and others . A model whose main characteristics are sexism, dictatorship and cronyism, the way the nationalists integrated themselves into the colonial systems, the MDC and other social liberation movements such as the Movement for Multi-party Democracy in Zambia have become hybrids of these models.

Of this system Campbell says, "instead of liberation becoming the foundation of a new social order, the militarist and masculinist leadership turned the victory of the people into a never ending nightmare of direct and structural violence."

The failure to break from colonial and nationalist politics can be described as another instance of what Frantz Fanon called 'false decolonization' or 'political decadence'. "In its beginnings, the national bourgeoisie of the colonial country identifies itself with the decadence of the West. We need not think that it is jumping ahead; it is in fact beginning at the end."

Fanon goes further to say and this explains the prevailing status of the MDC, "It is already senile before it has come to know the petulance, the fearlessness, or the will to succeed of youth."

And so Biti goes further to state in his statement, "Contrary to the opinions of others, the decision was not based on patriarchy, chauvinism or contempt of the feminist movement." What Biti seems not to understand is that the authority he has to actually write this statement derives itself from patriarchal privilege, one that he and his cohort do not have the ideological sophistication to articulate in order to dismantle it. That is the tragedy. Thus the commission investigating the conduct of the women's assembly for instance is made up of three men in a party that is blessed with so many well meaning and capable women. Biti sees nothing wrong with this. Not to mention again that the National Executive and National Council of the party were never informed of this decision.

In fact like Dongo and Mwashita in Zanu PF then, MDC women are placed in the ridiculous situation of acting like wives in a polygamous union. Those in such unions will tell you that when you ' talk too much', you are denied conjugal rights and other benefits until you behave. And so measures are put in place in the MDC system to regulate the behaviour of leaders especially how women respond to patriarchy and chauvinism. Even more telling is the fact that their opinions are regarded as those of 'others' they are not part and parcel of the party's common vision and understanding, of what constitutes intra-party democracy on the one hand the emancipation of women on the other.

The fact that the 'feminist movement' is just another and not part and parcel of the revolution as advanced by great revolutionaries like, Oliver Tambo or Thomas Sankara who said, "May my eyes never see and my feet never take me to a society where half of the people are held in silence.' Or Samora Machel who said, "The idea that we can wait until later to emancipate women is wrong, because it means leaving reactionary ideas to grow so that they are harder to fight later."

The great pan - Africans proposed a liberation model that sought to restore black woman of her dignity so viciously stripped of her by the settler colonialists. Their concept of revolution was not just political for instance placing certain men in power it was also social, meaning a total break-down of all institutions of power and oppression.

Just to advance my thesis further on the relationship between intra-party democracy, women's emancipation and good governance, I will use the example of Mozambique's FRELIMO which has produced not just some of the greatest women in Africa, lets take Graca Machel, but one of the best governments too. Fresh from winning the inaugural 5-million-dollar Mo Ibrahim Award for African Leadership, former President Joaquim Chissano, denounced autocratic rule saying it has no room on the African continent anymore.

For the MDC women I will leave them with the advise of late the nationalist Oliver Tambo to ANC women in 1981, "Women in the ANC should stop behaving like there was no place for them above the level of certain categories of involvement. They have a duty to liberate us men from antique concepts and attitudes about the place and role of women in society and the development and direction of our revolutionary struggle."

And so I will conclude by saying the fact that today when we speak out we are 'othered' called 'whores' and have to defend what we stand for gives us an insight into the 'New Zimbabwe' we are fighting for.

* Grace Kwinjeh is a visiting scholar with the Centre for Civil Society and writes in her personal capacity.

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

Everything small is beautiful these days. NGOs, busy with micro finance and micro politics for the poor, are small, beautiful -- and powerless. Meanwhile, the beast of markets and States can continue to dominate macro economics and politics. This neat division into micro and macro sustains the unjust power relationships that perpetuate impoverishment, inequality and injustice, says John Samuel

Small may seem beautiful. But is this beauty enough to take on the beast? These days there is a great deal of talk about micro-this and micro-that -- as if it were the most desirable thing. But can micro beauty challenge and change the macro beast of market and State? At the core of this is the question is power: what kinds and modes of power relationships shape social and economic policies? How differently does power operate in its micro and macro dimensions? How is power derived and sustained? Our predicament is that power can create the delusion of ‘empowerment’ and the subjugation of the ‘empowered’ at the same time.

Why is it that in spite of all the magic of micro credit and the perceived ‘empowerment’, the poor and marginalised fail to influence the macro politics of Bangladesh or for that matter any country? Why is the celebrated hero of micro credit ending up a zero in the macro party politics of Bangladesh? Why is it that in spite of a long history of ‘civil society’ initiatives and grassroots ‘empowerment’ by organisations like SEWA and many Gandhian organisations in the state of Gujarat in India, thousands of people were massacred in broad daylight, with the complicity of the State? Why does most of ‘civil society’ fail to respond to the uncivil behaviour of organised political forces and State power? Why is it that the so-called ‘social capital’ in southern Italy failed to counter the rise of fascism? This is where we need to understand the limitations of micro politics and micro finance.

The crux of the matter is that it is often macro power relationships and macro economics that call the shots, while micro politics can perpetuate a false sense of power. Micro politics and micro finance may offer a sense of power. But such power is no more than a delusion when it is subservient to unjust power relationships that perpetuate injustice, inequality and impoverishment. Often micro power and micro politics are simply bulldozed or consistently subverted by the macro power of the State and market -- the beasts of macro politics and economics -- deriving their power from a coercive army, a media that manufactures consent, and markets that masquerade as the messiah.

These days we hear a lot about micro finance, micro enterprises, local governance and empowerment at the grassroots level. The new stress on the rights-based approach to development, civil society action, civic virtues, community-based mobilisations and grassroots empowerment all seem to stress largely on micro and very little on macro. Micro is for the poor and excluded and macro is for the rich and powerful. Micro finance and micro politics can be subcontracted to NGOs while macro politics and macro economics will be controlled by organised corporate and market power along with the political elite. This is where the delusions of power and the delusions of development begin.

What is the problem? The problem is that while the so-called NGOs or Civil Society Institutions are busy ‘empowering’ the grassroots, establishing micro finance, strengthening local governance or ‘delivering development’, the organised macro economic and political powers continue to play their power games of macro finance, macro economics and national, international and global governance. They capture markets, natural resources or countries through laws, advertising campaigns, finance capital markets or bombs as and when they like! While every good soul seems to be focusing on the grassroots and local development or empowerment, the rich and powerful seem to be busy capturing markets, consumers and governments.

The logic of this neat division of politics and finance into micro and macro often helps to sustain and strengthen hegemonic and unjust power relationships that perpetuate impoverishment, inequality and injustice. While civil society organisations can claim the ethical or political high ground, they simply fail to influence anything about the war in Iraq or the policies of the World Bank or IMF or for that matter the nature and character of a coercive State, whether in Ethiopia or Zimbabwe or the USA.

So micro finance looks good as long as you ignore the macro finance which drives it. So we can celebrate Grameen and forget about Citibank or American Express or finance capital markets. Micro enterprises look good as long as you ignore macro economics; local governance is a favoured option as long as national and global governance continues unchallenged as the terrain of the political and technocratic elite. While influencing micro power relations and micro politics is a worthwhile effort, it is also a means of creating and sustaining delusions of power when macro politics and macro economics are left to control and manipulate power in business corporations, rich countries and their institutions.

The fact of the matter is that in spite of years of community mobilisation and grassroots empowerment and local governance in many of the countries of Asia (Thailand, Myanmar, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and to some extend Nepal), macro politics is often shaped by a mix of larger political forces and interest groups along with the coercive power of the army. Most of the countries in Africa and Latin America also show the same pattern. In the so-called democracies of Europe and America too the situation is more or less the same. In spite of all efforts, it is State power that decided to launch a preemptive and disastrous war in Iraq.

This is not to argue that micro politics or micro power is not important. On the contrary, micro power and micro politics are very crucial for individual empowerment and women’s empowerment at the level of family, community and local power relations. Indeed, transforming micro politics and the injustice that is embedded in gender relations and challenging feudal power structures and historical marginalisation require change in unjust and unequal relationships within the family and communities. However, the problem is that larger power structures, political forces and corporate interests are so organised in terms of their interests, networks and control over the institutions and interests of the military, market and media. The institutionalised power of macro politics can make the power of micro politics redundant in the larger power play. One of the key reasons for this is that micro politics is most of the time dispersed, disorganised and disoriented in the larger context of the political economy of power and institutions. Hence, micro politics do not translate into collective power that can challenge and change macro power and the institutions that control and reproduce such macro power and macro economies. The key reason for this is the hegemonic power paradigm that influences and shapes power relations.

At any given point of time there is a hegemonic power paradigm that operates through the political economy of institutions, interests, knowledge, technology and State. Even morality and moral tools like human rights are often defined by the political economy of the hegemonic power paradigm. Hence a moral tool like human rights is often misused in the most immoral way by those who control the power paradigm. This paradigm is still controlled by the power of military, media and markets and sustained by the State and its various institutions at the national and international level. While such a power paradigm gives incremental space to civil society or civil society organisations or social movements or NGOs (in the name of human rights or democracy) to influence public policies, this ‘invited’ or ‘designed’ space is largely within the hegemonic power paradigm. That is why such efforts have to depend largely on the goodwill of the media or institutions of the State in spite of and irrespective of their moral and political claims on behalf of the poor or citizens. In fact, one can argue that even such ‘invited spaces’ are little more than accommodative arrangements to create delusions of power for civil society.

Even international campaigns initiated by civil society or INGOs to challenge the politics of the State and market largely depend on the highly corporatised media for attention and legitimacy. Often anything that happens in cities such as Washington, New York, London or Brussels qualifies an action as ‘global’. Anything that appeared on BBC or CNN is ‘global’. Any book that is published in London or New York or reviewed in Time or Newsweek or Economist is supposed to have ‘global’ influence. Any theory or knowledge that is manufactured or processed in the Northern universities or think-tanks is supposed to have ‘global significance’. By the same token cities of the South, knowledge from the South and the media in the South are still ‘local’ or ‘national’. This too creates a false sense of power based on the location and delusions of power. Little wonder then that even civil society or NGO campaigns are vulgarised into cheap media stunts, high-profile seminars and communication circuses in the Northern cities (privileged by the hegemonic power paradigm), based more on brand- building and less on mobilising or transforming political power or power relationships at the micro or macro level.

We must understand the character and nature of the hegemonic power paradigm and challenge and change the very paradigm of the 3 Ms (Military, Media and Market) to reclaim the State as well as governance for the people and the billions of poor and excluded both in rich and poor countries. This requires a much more nuanced understanding about the uses and abuses of power and a political strategy based on a long-term approach to the power paradigm as well as social transformation.

Power is a contested concept, as much as it is about contestations. Power is also a very slippery notion, with multiple manifestations, processes and histories. The notions of ‘Power over’, ‘Power to’, ‘Power within’ and ‘Power with’ often capture different dimensions and modes through which power operates, transforms and manifests itself. Power can have both positive and negative connotations. Power can be visible or hidden. It can have symbolic as well as institutional dimensions. Power is often negotiated through and by different social, political, economic and institutional dimensions as well as through cultural, historical and technological modes. The questions are how power is derived, how it is used, how it is manifested and how it is reproduced or regenerated. The ‘how’ aspect of power is often more important than the ‘what’ and ‘why’ aspects.

Power can manifest itself in terms of aesthetics, coercion, consensus, control or networks. The power to create can in many ways signify the primordial notion of power and often the very basis of the omnipotence of the notion of God is derived from the ‘power to create’. Later on, religions as formal institutions transformed this ‘creative power’ to the ‘power to control’. Power can be termed the process, instruments and ability to create, communicate, choose, decide, influence, convene, sustain, control and destroy. Power has an individual as well as institutional dimension. The personal is indeed political. However, it is the institutions of family, religion, State and market that often define, sustain and reproduce power relationships. Often such institutions legitimise the ‘control’ and ‘coercive’ aspect through ‘power over’. Patriarchy is the most manifested form of power as control. Power is often derived from and through guns as well as gender; books as well as battalions; ethics as well as economics; religions as well as rockets; tactics as well as technology; liberty as well as law; love as well as language; crime as well as punishment; people as well as profits; media as well as mediation; war as well as peace; values as well as visions; community as well as creativity; advocacy as well as armies; missionaries as well as markets and democracy as well as desires. In fact, a hegemonic power paradigm operates through the control of all these modes as well as expressions of power. It operates through the control and coordination of the military, law and order, technology and even the political economy of desire (the manufacturing of new desires and demands through advertisements), democracy (by corporate funding of political parties and political elites), human rights and civil society initiatives (either through State patronage of development aid or through corporate funding). Hence the Knowledge of Power is as important as the Power of Knowledge.

The delusions of power through individual empowerment or through the empowerment of the consumer to choose, through the empowerment of local governance or through the ‘invited’ space for civil society, can give a false sense of hope about the whole project of development and human rights. It is far less complicated to address the micro dimension of power. Hence, the hegemonic power paradigm (which is patriarchal in nature) will not have much of a problem initiating affirmative action in favour of women’s political participation and leadership in local self-government. This is the same for other excluded groups. However, there is tremendous resistance to allocation of 30% or 40% of seats in a nation’s parliament for women or excluded sections.

It is the same with NGOs. As long as NGOs are small and beautiful, the hegemonic power paradigms of the State or market will not have any problem supporting micro credit or micro enterprises. The fact of the matter is that most NGOs or Civil Society Organisations derive power from their institutional sources and through communicative action based on moral premises. However, the very institutional and communicative sources are often located on the periphery of the State, market and media. This is true of fundraising as well as of media strategies. Such a sense of power derived through institutions, networks, communicative action, knowledge and technology can be effective to a certain extent at the very grassroots level through community mobilisation or delivery of the service. With the advent of information and communication technology and media-driven campaign strategies, they may also have a visible presence or profile at the global level. But such presence and ‘invited spaces’ do not necessarily mean the power to influence or change. Because of the very character and nature of the institutional premises, located in markets as well as in the periphery of the State, many such initiatives can at best be progressive reformism or token instrumentalism. Hence, unless such Civil Society Organisations think of a new political strategy as well as political theory and praxis of action at all levels of micro and macro power relationships, the chances of transforming the hegemonic power paradigm are few. In fact, after 25 years, many of the present local and ‘global’ initiatives for change may prove redundant. Many of these small and beautiful efforts and institutions may very well be swallowed by the beasts of market and State.

In fact the major challenge for the present hegemonic power paradigm comes from the emergence of postmodern identity politics. The notion of ‘class’ is getting increasingly mixed with ‘identity’. Unprecedented urbanisation, migration, inequality, combined with the new markers of identity based on location, religion and ethnicity can unleash new political forces that can subvert the present state of the hegemonic power paradigm. This can very well be reactionary political forces as distinct from a progressive or transformative political force. The new identity politics has individual, micro and macro dimensions as well as the subversive capacity through new forms of military action and terror tactics. This poses a great challenge to both the beauty and the beast.

At the moment the beauty and the beast seem to have established a complacent and conciliatory relationship based on mutual benefit and the desire for self-preservation. Such a complacent coexistence of the beauty and the beast creates the delusion of power as well as development as the beast is busy bombing the lives and livelihoods of the people. However, the new identity politics and the new hegemonic power paradigms at the global, national and international level may rock the applecart. The beast may change colour and even language. It may shift its primary location from Washington to elsewhere. However, the beauty cannot afford to be complacent with ‘micro’ power. There is indeed a need to create something big as well as beautiful that is relevant at the local, national and international level.

There is a need for a new renaissance and a new flowering of creativity in the form of new poetry, cultural expression and politics to build a new aesthetics of power and empowerment that can be relevant both at the micro and macro level. Small may be beautiful. But all beautiful things do not necessarily need to be small -- particularly when there is a beast that can easily swallow the small beauties of civil society at their convenience for either breakfast or dinner. We need to outgrow the delusions of power and confront the hegemonic power paradigm by creating new sources of power and politics, through broad-based mobilisations, new forms of communicative actions, new forms of local and international alliances, new forms of knowledge creation, distribution and reproduction and new forms of democratisation. We need a new imagination to go beyond the three-year project cycles or five-year thematic strategies of ‘empowerment’ to build a new vision for a new world -- a just and joyful world -- through new actions and through innovative institutional approaches. Delusions of power lead to delusions of development. And such frustrations may lead development actors to go in search of new approaches and strategies for poverty eradication, without being able to challenge and change the hegemonic power paradigms that perpetuate inequality, injustice and consequent impoverishment.

This piece was first published in InfoChange News & Features, June 2007

* John Samuel is a human rights activist and is currently International Director of Actionaid, based in Bangkok.

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

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/326/nov01_01_gbengasesan.gif, Gbenga Sesan’s blog reports from the Africa Connect conference behind held in Kigali Rwanda. The statistics on Africa’s internet usage and broadband take up is clearly depressing and there is an urgent need for governments to take action as Gbenga writes:

“the two-day event has the opportunity of bringing to the fore, the need for urgent action in meeting Africa’s connectivity needs. The present story is clearly sad — less thank 4% of Africans currently use the internet, and broadband penetration is below 1%! — but with some political will from the governments, innovative business models from the private sector, sustainable and bottom-up action from the civil society, targeted and collaborative research by the academia, news emphasis on the urgency of the task by the media and cooperation (the sincere form, not the usual pity party) from the international community, Africa will be well on its way out of this embarrassing situation”
$3billion has been pledged so far towards connectivity in Africa but as Gbenga states, will he and others walk away from this conference like all the others only to repeat the same words 6 months down the line in yet another conference?

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/326/nov01_02_bintalshamsa.gifMy Private Cashbah writes in favour of socialised medical care in the United States. She compares her medical situation to that of fellow New Orleans blogger who also has cancer. Unlike Bint who has the benefit of medical insurance, “As the Tumor Turns” does not and relies on the public hospital system.

“I'm privileged. I have healthcare coverage. I've had it for several years now. Lymphopo does not. So, while I am able to go to whatever hospital I need in order to get prompt treatment, she has to wait months just to have a basic mammogram at the local public (i.e. free) hospital. I go to see my doctors and if they want me to be seen by another doc or have some kind of test done, as long as it's fairly early in the day, all they have to do is make a single phone call and the hospital will have that other department squeeze me in that day so that I don't have to make a second trip.

At the public hospital, even if she has had all of her tests done by the time her next doctor's appointment is scheduled, if for some reason the test results aren't back or have been misplaced (something that happens with frightening frequency), she can sit there for the hours it takes to go through the check-in procedure only to be told that there isn't anything they can do about it except reschedule her appointment--for another few months later. I know. I've been a patient there.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/326/nov01_03_madkenyanwoman.gifDiary of a Mad Kenyan Woman find herself between a rock and hard place as on the one hand she is tired of “being from the begging bowl people” and the “peculiarly distorting effects of the aid industry”. However as she clearly points out. The “rock” - Kenya is on the verge of elections yet
“our considered response is to regress into ethnic factions whose rhetoric is so predictable as to be actively boring”

On the other hand – the hard place....

“Here’s the problem, though. The part of me that dearly wants to tell the patronising, condescending, pitying, self-indulgent, largely ignorant and frankly annoying western do-gooders that they can shove their plans and projects up the nearest sweet-spot is forced to stop and recognise that I am not about to go and build a school in any rural community anywhere in Africa anytime soon. There we have it: I am not about to do it, and I am not planning on doing it, and they—aforementioned condescending, pitying, etc.-- are. Were I a mother with school-age children in one of these communities targeted by the aid industry, then, what would be more compelling for me—a principled objection by a fellow-African who makes much more money than me but isn’t inclined to share it, or a scheme to build clinics, schools and etc. proposed by foreigners who moreover have the money to back it up? This is not rocket science: principled objections do not pay rents or school feels, ever. Choosing between my principled zero dollars, and the patronising million dollars doesn’t even take a second’s thought—Show Me The Money.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/326/nov01_04_egyptianchronicle…Egyptian Chronicles takes issue with this year’s annual celebration of the Battle of Alamein as all the “usual representatives of Allies and axis countries” attended the event. She is more concerned with those people living today that are suffering from the consequences of WWII namely the landmine victims

“Yes I am talking about the Land Mines victims in Egypt specifically the victims of land mines in the western desert , the place of Alamein battle.
Both parties in the war planted thousands even millions of land mines in our desert during the great war after all it is not there land and it did not and it does still cost anything , you can plant a land mine for 100 $ but if you want to demine a land mine from a specific area you have to pay thousand of dollars , the thing that would be very costly to a country like Egypt , not to mention the advance equipments for demining may not be available to us.
For decades now Egypt has paid a lot from these land mines alone and she has paid heavily till now for decades whether from humanly or economic
Hundred thousands of Egyptians who live in the western desert were either killed or injured badly and suffered till the end of their lives and nobody cared for them ,generations after generations suffered and are still suffering from those hell pieces under their own land.”

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/326/nov01_05_ecwaevangel.gifKid’s Doc in Jos comments on the BBC report “HIV Treatment Failing in Africa” and asks readers if they agree pointing out some facts about HIV treatment
“is it a “failure” that 61% of patients are alive and continuing treatment after two years in a program taking antiretroviral (anti-HIV) drugs?

“The study includes reports published between 2000 and 2007. Do the results take into account any changes in during that time? That is, are programs more or less effective now than they were 10 years ago? Is there enough information to know? Again, I haven’t read it yet but it’s a good question to consider as you read.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/326/nov01_06_civilexpression.g…No Longer At Ease is furious over the report that a French charity took it upon themselves to kidnap 100 children from Darfur and hand them over to French families.

“The people who did this will eventually be freed, France will interfere on their behalf saying that the whole thing was a well intentioned misunderstanding (and perhaps pay some money). The "charity" will also have many chances to repeat the same in other poor African countries. This what the French human rights minister had to say about:
I can understand the families, the French families who wanted to save children. But I don't understand why an association decided, alone, to bring them to Paris. That's why we completely disapprove of this initiative.
What? this is not an "initiative" and the French families didn't want save the children, this is simply criminal. This time they caught it, but I can help but wonder if there has been successful attempts before.

The kids were obviously Muslims but were going to be sold to non-Muslim families, adding to the gravity of what might have been waiting for these poor kids.This is a sad, but expected, climax to the "adopting an African child" fashion in the West.”

One does wonder if this is a first or something that has been taking place over the past months or even years. The audacity and arrogance not to speak of the illegality of removing children against their will and their community. The charity in question should have its status removed and surely there has been a crime committed here that the French courts can prosecute?

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/326/nov01_07_blacklooks.gifAnd… Mngxitama writing on Black Looks considers how important and significant the recent world cup victory by the South African Rugby team the Springboks. Looking at the victory, Andile sees it as a victory against transformation, and a victory of the acceptance of the abnormal as normal in South Africa.

"The national rugby team in its compositions and victories is a perfect metaphor for our country and the place of blacks in it. We cheer for our defeat from the touchlines. Imagine if you knew nothing about SA and watched the world cup on TV, you would be forgiven for thinking that actually we are a white country which has the accident of having a smiling black president.
“South Africa is a white country populated a by an impotent invisible black majority. I wonder what other African countries think about us? And the black Diaspora? What do they think about it? Since 1994, our Rugby team could only produce two black players for the national team. Incredible!
But there is also another element in the picture which can be now be more clearly seen, ours is a country which thrives on superficiality and a devastating lack of a perspective which is centred on the valorisation and well being of blacks. Blacks in this country want to celebrates their “own goals”, to borrow from a sporting metaphor. We are perhaps one of the few peoples on earth who believe we can derive freedom from placating those who stubbornly refuse to give up any of their ill begotten privileges and power. Are we blacks not asking for the contempt of whites, when we fail to exercise the massive political power we currently wield to change things around? But more importantly are we doing posterity a favour?

Just how superficial our so called commitment to transformation is was displayed in the build up to the finals when the Bokke victory was almost certain. Our president apparently told Jake White “forget the politics and win it”, White says that was a “big statement”. Hereby a mandate was given against transformation. The Young Communist League an outfit which purports to be pro poor, also wanted a piece of the cake, they simply anointed the team “Comrade Bokke”.

* Sokari Ekine is online editor of Pambzuka News and author of Black Looks blog: www.blacklooks.org

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

The Mugabe regime’s plans to acquire state-of-the-art anti-riot gear to use against the opposition ahead of next year’s elections have been foiled, the MDC says. Allegations that Zanu PF had made proposals to the South African government to buy US$1,5 million worth of military equipment came to light at a meeting convened by Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi and officials from the main opposition party.

The government has pledged to investigate opposition allegations of state sanctioned violence against its supporters, apparently under pressure from South Africa, which is mediating in the Zimbabwe crisis, to keep the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) at the negotiating table. MDC officials, who attended a meeting with Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi at his offices in Harare yesterday told journalists that the Minister made an undertaking to investigate charges by the opposition of a new wave of Zanu PF attacks against its supporters.

As the Zanu PF power struggle rages on, President Robert Mugabe has all but secured the endorsement he desperately needs to be the party's presidential candidate in next year's elections. What remains is an automatic approval of his candidacy at the party's extraordinary congress in December, it became evident this week.

Nigeria's House of Representatives adjourned for another week on Tuesday as warring sides in the ruling party prolonged a crisis over alleged corruption. Nigeria's lower chamber has been paralysed for weeks since Speaker Patricia Etteh, a former beautician, was found by a House panel to have broken rules in awarding contracts worth $5-million to renovate two official houses and buy 10 cars.

Kenya's electoral commission has named 27 December as the date for elections. Presidential, parliamentary and civic polls will be held simultaneously and are expected to be closely contested. President Mwai Kibaki is running for a second five-year term, having won an election in 2002 to replace former long-time leader Daniel arap Moi.

The World Development Report 2008 calls for greater investment in agriculture in developing countries.The report warns that the sector must be placed at the center of the development agenda if the goals of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are to be realized.

All parties in the Western Sahara dispute are celebrating a new draft resolution unanimously adopted on October 15th by the United Nations General Assembly's Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonisation). At the same time, neither Morocco nor the Polisario Front appears to be backing down from their opposing positions.

Investec is a respected Anglo South African merchant bank listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2002 and said to be worth UK £3.5 billion (about Ksh 472.5 billion). Its Guernsey operation Investec Trust Guernsey (ITG) has become embroiled in Kenya’s Anglo Leasing grand corruption scandal.

n aspiring MDC parliamentary candidate and two other party officials were abducted from their homes Thursday in Chipinge South and are being held at a police post manned by war veterans at Checheche growth point. The opposition officials were bundled into a white B1800 truck with no number plates by six heavily built men in broad daylight. Before startled onlookers could help, the truck was driven away at high speed.

The ‘One Laptop per Child’ initiative, a pioneering project to give children in poor countries access to affordable computers, is in sight of becoming a reality, the United Nations advocate for the world’s most vulnerable nations has said. After watching a special demonstration of the so-called $100 laptop at UN Headquarters in New York, Under-Secretary-General Cheikh Sidi Diarra praised the scheme’s organizers for their efforts to bring the project to fruition given the sceptical response it met with at first.

Somaliland Focus (UK), an organisation set up by returned election observers and members of the diaspora, is concerned about reports that the government in Hargeisa is attempting to silence or subvert the independent human rights network SHURO Net. Reports are that the Somaliland government, particularly the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, and the Human Rights Commission, organised an extraordinary AGM inviting some Shuro-Net members from the regions.

The meeting was held on 24th October and a new Board of Directors were elected by the participants. We are not yet sure how many member organisations participated but according to Zamzam Abdi, the SHURO Net chairperson, the government is trying to get rid of the current BOD and administration and put in their place one selected by the government. The chairperson also informed us that the SHURO Net members in the regions were threatened by the Mayors of their regions that if they did not participate in the extraordinary meeting in Hargeisa, they would not be allowed to work in their regions. Those who refused made their way to Hargeisa and reported the case to SHURO Net office.

The chairperson elected by yesterday's meeting is the head of the programmes at the government-controlled Radio Hargeisa, a civil servant, who is not a member of SHURO Net. The Somaliland Journalist Association (SOLJA) declared that he did not represent them.

It is believed that SHURO Net was targeted by the government because of their calls to abolish the Emeregency Law, and for appealing for the release of prisoners including political prisoners and journalists. The heads of the 30 member organisations of SHURO Net have signed a letter declaring yesterday's meeting illegal.

Somaliland Focus (UK) is concerned that these reports mirror other recent occasions where the government has shown authoritarian tendencies contrary to its push for democratisation which we and others have been so keen to highlight. It does not make the work of organisations such as ourselves who pride ourselves on being international friends of Somaliland an easy one.

Grace Kwinjeh has begun a weekly set of summaries of powerful progressive politics for the Center for Civil Society based in Durban. Below are the links to this week's articles.

Health and Human Rights Abuses in Zimbabwe:

Defending women
http://www.swradioafrica.com/Documents/violence-againstWOZAwomen121007.pdf

Stand-off between MDC and NCA healthy for democracy
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/opinion.htm

Inflation solution lies in politics

Migrant workers worldwide sent home more than US$300 billion in 2006:
http://www.swradioafrica.com/pages/migrantworkers181007.html

Timeline: Zimbabwe's economic decline
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/inflation168.17051.html

New prices still too little
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/page116.htm

Is ZSE bull run losing its steam
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/markets15.17059.html

MDC’s Mbeki talks shocker

In this week's AU Monitor, we bring you news and updates from the Pan African Parliament. Members from the European and Pan African Parliaments met in South Africa to prepare for the upcoming EU-Africa Summit. Parliament leaders stress the need for a strong parliamentary dimension when it comes to policies and decision-making; the development of a joint declaration is also in the works. In other Parliament news, the Pan African Parliament elected the Hon. Malik Al Hassan Yakubu from Ghana as its Fourth Vice-President. Also, the Protocol of the African Court on Human and People's Rights has been ratified by 23 of the 53 member states of the African Union. All state parties are being urged to rectify the Protocol to contribute to Human Rights development and protection in Africa.

In financial news, South Africa is opposed to the new generation issues in the economic partnership agreements (EPA's), including liberalisation of the services sector, investments, competition policy, and intellectual rights. Nkululeko Khumalo of the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA) states, "the coercive approach adopted by the European Union on service liberalisation poisons the negotiating atmosphere". In donor news, at a recent UN General Assembly meeting, Benin's representative Jean-Marie Ehouzou urged UN-led development initiatives to develop international trade strategies in their aid policies in Africa. Ehouzou also criticized developed countries for failing to provide the resources needed to accelerate economic reforms in African countries. Further, The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) held a series of actions that coincided with the International Financial Institution (IFI) meetings in Washington, D.C. Demands from this civil society alliance include greater accountability, transparency and democratic governance in the IFI's. Lastly, in its 300.000 USD pledge to the African Peer Review Mechanism , Italy supports the African continent in managing its own economy and development efforts in the framework of NEPAD.

As the World Bank launches its latest flagship World Development Report, this year on "Agriculture for Development," the Independent Evaluation Group's report clearly acknowledges that the Bank's engagement with the most important sector in its highest-priority region has largely been a failure.

It was a moment more than two decades in the making and when it was over, the United Nations (UN) Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples was passed in the UN General Assembly with only four countries voting against formal adoption of the document-the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. During a press conference a week before the final vote, the African Indigenous Caucus co-ordinator accused Canada of trying to turn African countries against the declaration in exchange for aid dollars.

Mary Ndlovu presents some hard truths about life in Zimbabwe and questions those Pan Africanists who fall for Mugabe’s “anti-imperalist rhetoric”. She asks if there is hope? Yes there is but only if Pan Africanism is “turned on it’s head” and “seized by the people” away from leaders not just in Zimbabwe but across Africa who have consistently betrayed the people.

Thanks to Rotimi Sankore for blowing aside the smokescreen which obscures the real issues in Zimbabwe for many well-wishers of a Pan Africanist persuasion. President Mugabe is very clever in his use of anti-imperialistic rhetoric to attract the loyalty of many unsuspecting supporters throughout Africa. It saddens Zimbabweans to see how easily people can be misled by words and ignore the true facts on the ground, thus failing to reach a meaningful understanding of our tragedy. Perhaps their perspective could be improved by a few hard realities:

Zimbabweans have a lower material standard of living now than they have had since the 1940's up to one quarter of the population has fled the country, due either to political harassment and torture or to inability to survive and feed their families tens of thousands of Zimbabweans are dying of treatable diseases because the health system has collapsed teachers earn less than the cost of their transport to work; their monthly salary will buy ten litres of petrol, but none can afford a car chiefs, discredited during the liberation war as supporters of the Smith regime, are being restored and elevated, imposed on the rural population as unelected leaders, and placed on the government payroll a small elite of ruling party cronies, families and relatives, without any evidence of working for it, live at a standard far beyond the expectations of most middle class professionals of the developed world Anyone who wishes to study the situation honestly will have to admit that none of this is caused by western "sanctions".

Our government has systematically destroyed an already troubled economy, for the purpose of staying in power. Rather than respond falling living standards in the 1990's by devising rational policies which could serve the people - or alternatively admitting failure and allowing the opposition to try their own solutions - the government panicked, determined to stay in power at all costs, put politics ahead of economic sense, and the whole descent into repression and chaos resulted.

It is an insult to Zimbabweans to expect that, faced with declining living standards, they would not seek to change a government which might bring them something better. Why should they be used by foreign exploiters - any more than the nationalist movement of the 60's and 70's was being used by communist meddlers?

Here are better explanations of the current Zimbabwean crisis:

There is a shortage of food because government forcibly stopped the most knowledgeable and skilled farmers from growing food there is a shortage of almost everything, including food, medicine, transport, manufactures and services because government has forced everyone to sell their goods and services at less than the production cost people are dying of starvation because government would prefer them to die than to lose control of food distribution to donors Bulawayo, a city of a million people has no water because government, since Independence in 1980, has not constructed a single new source for a population which has multiplied five times; it would prefer to kill a city which has the reputation of being an opposition stronghold those who dare to protest publicly that the situation is intolerable are arrested, battered, tortured, and thrown into lice, flea and excrement infested cells It is also true that there were poor rains in 2007. There have been poor rains before, and much of Zimbabwe is drought-prone. It is the responsibility of governments to deal with this type of problem and develop contingencies. If the government has not found out in 27 years how to deal with recurring drought, then they do not know how to fulfil their responsibilities.

Imperialists have been around for at least two centuries. If government has not found out how to deal with modern day "imperialists" (or globalisation) to protect their own people, they do not know how to lead an African nation. No amount of rhetoric is going to change the world order. But the rhetoric, along with the repression that has destroyed the economy, the society and the polity has killed a once vibrant nation full of hope. The dismemberment of families and the moral and material destruction of an entire society may have kept our government in power; it will never solve the problem of imperialism.

It is one thing to analyse what has gone wrong in Zimbabwe. It is quite another to take action which will promote positive change. Zimbabweans once (only seven long years ago) naively believed that leaders in Africa would understand the true nature of the tragedy which has struck us. No longer. It is now crystal clear that they are cast in a similar mould. Problems in their own countries stem from some of the same causes. If other governments in the region faced the same strength of opposition as Zimbabwe did in 2000 and 2002, they might look very similar to ours. We have only to watch the repression of protesters over housing and service provision in South Africa to understand the true position. Yes Mbeki may succeed in forcing some kind of accommodation between the MDC and ZANU PF. It might just improve the sad lot of Zimbabweans in some small way. But let us not fool ourselves into believing that it will promote any kind of social justice.

Opposition parties are cut from the same cloth and in countries where they have gained power have yet to show that they can deliver to the people Our nationalist movements for independence were led by intellectuals, by petty bourgeoisie, by labour aristocrats frustrated by their own lack of opportunity. They gained the support of the peasantry and the workers. But once in power they became distracted by the comforts of office, the self-importance of command and the prospect of fabulous wealth through corruption. Africa as a whole has been betrayed by nationalist movements, by governments, by liberation movements, and even by the new elite- the NGOs. So let us not expect much from our "leaders". They are not going to bring us social justice, whatever elite-pacting may take place in the secret places behind closed doors.

Where, then lies the future? Must we stop hoping and trying? Does Pan Africanism have any role to play? Of course it does. But only if we claim it away from the rhetoricians and the charlatans and the leaders who have betrayed us. We must turn it on its head and seize it for the people. Only through Herculean efforts of the social movements who demand a share of the wealth, and respect and comfort for the people will we make progress. And for this purpose we must form cross-border alliances at grass roots level to counter those alliances of corrupt leaders that the AU and SADC have become.

No one said this could be easy. Just as the liberation struggle was long and hard, so will this one be. But this time we must be more aware of the reality of not just potential but probable betrayal by leaders. We must develop new styles of leadership based on service not power and privilege. Then we can support each other across Africa, and step by careful step build a new Pan Africanism based on social justice for the people.

* Mary Ndlovu is a Zimbabwean human rights activist.

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

Onyeka Obasi believes it is up to Africa’s youth to “revive the vision” of the founding fathers of Africa’s Independence – nation building, development and democracy. In this article she assesses the recent PAYLF held in Accra in June this year.

Can Africa survive today with its present leadership? Notably, there has been a dramatic shift in the value system since 1970. Looking at what democracy means in Africa today and tomorrow, one cannot help but think about the dreams of the founding fathers of this great continent. When the Organization of Africa Unity (OAU) was established, African leadership was committed to nation building. Therefore, the future of Africa will be determined by present policy formulation and agenda setting. What has been lacking from development agendas in the African context has been a systematic and unified approach to tackling the continent's challenges. Development goals often have short-sighted projections and do not conceptualize long term plans for the continent's future. A systematic and long term plan for Africa is absolutely essential for the future and the mobilization of Africa's youth is imperative to its inception and execution. It is left for the African Youth to revive that vision, bearing in mind that democracy is crucial for the economy of the continent. Key to achieving this is working towards gaining recognition in the important channels of decision making through organizing and proactive involvement. Enabling youth involvement in African political discourse must entail the appropriate training and education.

It was with this in mind that the first Pan African Youth Leadership Forum (PAYLF) was convened. The week-long, international event, held in Accra from June 18-25, 2007 brought together a diverse group of some of the continent’s committed young leaders and afforded them the unique opportunity to offer their expertise in addressing key issues relevant to the youth, democracy, and development on the continent. The international forum was organized by Friends of Africa International (FAI), an international non profit organization dedicated to promoting social justice, human rights, democracy and good governance in Africa.

During the week-long interactive debates and dialogues with key stakeholders and resource persons, the youth delegates in attendance demonstrated deep and insightful perspectives on youth issues, while offering innovative insights on best practices for promoting democracy and development. The forum concluded with the drafting of a comprehensive action plan which articulates the vision of the youth delegates of the PAYLF and which will guide the future activities of the youth network that was established over the course of the deliberations.

To read the full article, follow the link below.

* Onyeka Obasi is President, Friends of Africa International

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