The African Union signalled its strongest intention yet to pursue the dream of a United States of Africa by making the proposal the key focus of its upcoming summit scheduled for Accra, Ghana—the cradle of Pan Africanism—in the second half of 2007.

Patrick Bond assesses the aftermath of the World Social Forum, held from January 20-25 in Nairobi. There were some triumphs for social justice, but also some worrying trends that emerged from the forum. Bond examines what it means for the future of the WSF concept.

A mixed message - combining celebration and autocritique - is in order, in the wake of the Nairobi World Social Forum. From January 20-25, the 60,000 registered participants heard the triumph of radical rhetoric and yet, too, witnessed persistent defeats for social justice causes - especially within the WSF's own processes.

* Kenya Social Forum coordinator Onyango Oloo listed grievances that local activists put high atop the agenda: 'colonial era land edicts and policies which dispossessed their communities; the impact of mining and extraction activities on the environment and human livelihoods; discriminatory policies by successive governments that have guaranteed the stubborn survival of pre-colonial conditions of poverty and underdevelopment among many pastoralist and minority communities; the arrogant disregard for the concerns raised by Samburu women raped over the years by British soldiers dispatched on military exercises in those Kenyan communities; … and tensions persisting with neo-colonial-era settler farmers and indigenous Kenyan comprador businessmen in hiving off thousands of hectares of land while the pastoralists and minority communities are targets of state terror, evictions and denunciations.'

* WSF organiser Wahu Kaara: 'We are watching [global elites] and this time around they will not get away with it because we are saying they should cancel debts or we repudiate them. We refuse unjust trade. We are not going to take aid with conditionality. We in Africa refuse to be the continent identified as poor. We have hope and determination and everything to offer to the prosperity of the human race.'

* Firoze Manji, the Kenyan director of the Pambazuka (www.pambazuka.org) Africa news/analysis portal: 'This event had all the features of a trade fair - those with greater wealth had more events in the calendar, larger (and more comfortable) spaces, more propaganda - and therefore a larger voice. Thus the usual gaggle of quasi-donor and international NGOs claimed a greater presence than national organisations - not because what they had to say was more important or more relevant to the theme of the WSF, but because, essentially, they had greater budgets at their command.'

* Nairobi-based commentator Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (also writing in Pambazuka): 'The WSFs show up Africa's weaknesses whether they are held outside or inside Africa. One of the critical areas is our level of participation and preparedness. A majority of the African participants - even many from Kenya itself - were brought by foreign paymasters or organisations funded by outsiders. Often they become prisoners of their sponsors. They must attend events organized or supported by their sponsors who need to put their "partners" on display, and the "partners" in turn need to show their loyalty to their masters.'

* New Internationalist editor Adam Ma'anit: 'The sight of Oxfam-branded 4x4s cruising around flauntingly, the many well-resourced charity and church groups decking out their stalls (and even their own office spaces) with glossies and branded goodies, all reinforce the suspicion that perhaps the WSF has become too institutionalized. Perhaps more worryingly has been the corporate sponsorship of the WSF. The Forum organizers proudly announced their partnership with Kenya Airways. The same company that has for years allegedly denied the right to assembly of its workers organized under the Aviation and Allied Workers Union.'

* Blogger Sokari Ekine ('Black Looks') on the final WSF event: 'Kasha, a Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender and Intersex activist from Sexual Minorities Uganda, went up to the stage and asked to make a statement. She was asked for a copy of what she would be speaking about and gave them her piece. The organisers threw her piece on the floor and refused to allow her to speak. Kasha stood her ground saying she, like everyone else, had a right to speak here at the WSF. Despite the harassment by the MC and organisers, Kasha took the mic and spoke. She spoke about being a lesbian, about being a homosexual. She refuted the myth that homosexuality was un-African. She spoke about the punishment and criminalisation of homosexuals in Kenya, in Uganda, and in Nigeria. She said homosexuals in Africa were here to stay. Homosexuals have the same rights as everyone else and should be accepted and finally that even in Africa Another World is Possible for Homosexuals. Kasha was booed and the crowd shouted obscenities at her waving their hands screaming: "No! No! No!" But she persisted and said what needed to be said.'

These sobering observations were reflected in a statement by the Social Movements Assembly at a January 24 rally of more than 2000: 'We denounce tendencies towards commercialisation, privatisation and militarisation of the WSF space. Hundreds of our sisters and brothers who welcomed us to Nairobi have been excluded because of high costs of participation. We are also deeply concerned about the presence of organisations working against the rights of women, marginalised people, and against sexual rights and diversity, in contradiction to the WSF Charter of Principles.' (http://kenya.indymedia.org/news/2007/01/531.php)

Conflicts included arrests of a dozen low-income people who wanted to get into the event; protests to forcibly open the gates; and the destruction of the notoriously repressive Kenyan interior minister's makeshift restaurant which had monopolized key space within the Kasarani stadium's grounds.

Soweto activist Trevor Ngwane was a protest leader, but after the first successful break-in by poor Kenyans, reported stiff resistance: 'The next day we again planned to storm the gates but found police and army reinforcements at the gates. Those officers carried very big guns. Comrades decided to block the main road until the people were allowed in for free. This action took about half an hour and then the gates were opened. The crowd than marched to the Organising Committee's offices to demand a change of policy on the question of entrance. Another demand was added: free water inside the WSF precinct and cheaper food.'

Although that demand was not met, Oloo gracefully confessed the 'shame' of progressive Kenyans during the Social Movements Assembly rally. WSF logistical shortcomings reflected the Kenyan Left's lost struggles within the host committee, he said. The interior minister ('the crusher') snuck in at the last second, and the Kenya Airports Authority systematically diverted incoming visitors to hotels, away from home stays (2000 of which were arranged - only 18 actually materialized thanks to diversions).

Setting these flaws aside, consider a deeper political tension. For Oloo, 'These social movements, including dozens in Kenya, want to see the WSF being transformed into a space for organizing and mobilizing against the nefarious forces of international finance capital, neoliberalism and all its local neo-colonial and comprador collaborators.'

Can and should the 'openspace' concept be upgraded into something more coherent, either for mobilizing around special events (for instance, the June 2-8 summit of the G8 in Rostock, Germany) or establishing a bigger, universalist left-internationalist political project?

In South Africa, the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) has hosted several debates on this question, with at least four varying points of view emerging. Last July, for example, the great political economist Samir Amin presented the 'Bamako Appeal', a January 2006 manifesto which originated at the prior WSF polycentric event, and which combined, as Amin put it, the traditions of socialism, anti-racism/colonialism, and (national) development (http://www.forumtiersmonde.net/fren/forums/fsm/fsm_bamako/appel_bamako_…).

In support was the leader of the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity, Hassan Sunmonu (also a WSF International Council member). Complaining that 'billions of ideas have been generated since 2001 up till the last Forum', Sunmonu found 'a lot of merit in that Bamako Appeal that we can use to transform the lives of ourselves, our organizations and our peoples.'

But reacting strongly against the Bamako Appeal, CCS student (and Johannesburg anti-privatization activist) Prishani Naidoo and three comrades criticized its 'last century' tone and content, which mirrored 'the mutation of the WSF from an arena of encounter for local social movements into an organized network of experts, academics and NGO practitioners.'

For Naidoo, 'It reassures us that documents like the Bamako Appeal will eventually prove totally irrelevant and inessential to struggles of communities in South Africa as elsewhere. Indeed, the WSF elite's cold institutional and technicist soup, occasionally warmed up by some hints of tired poeticism, can provide little nourishment for local subjectivities whose daily responses to neoliberalism face more urgent needs to turn everyday survival into sustained confrontations with an increasingly repressive state.'

In contrast, Nauvoo and the others, praise the 'powerful undercurrent of informality in the West’s proceedings [which] reveals the persistence of horizontal communication between movements, which is not based on mystical views of the revolutionary subject, or in the official discourse of the leaders, but in the life strategies of their participants.'

A third position on WSF politics is the classical socialist, party-building approach favoured by Ngwee and other revolutionary organizers. Ngwee fretted, on the one hand, about reformist projects that 'make us blind to recognize the struggles of ordinary people.' On the other hand, though, 'I think militancy alone at the local level and community level will not in itself answer questions of class and questions of power.' For that a self-conscious socialist cadre is needed, and the WSF is a critical site to transcend local political upsurges.

A fourth position, which I personally support, seeks the 21st century's anti-capitalist 'manifesto' in the existing social, labour and environmental movements that are already engaged in excellent transnational social justice struggle. The WSF's greatest potential - so far unrealized - is the possibility of linking dozens of radical movements in various sectors.

Instead, at each WSF the activists seem to disappear into their own workshops: silos with few or no interconnections. Before a Bamako Appeal or any other manifesto is parachuted into the WSF, we owe it to those activists to compile their existing grievances, analyses, strategies and tactics. Sometimes these are simple demands, but often they are also articulated as sectoral manifestos, like the very strong African Water Network of anti-privatisation militants from 40 countries formed in Nairobi (http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/nairobi/en/viewstory.asp?idnews=838).

These four positions are reflected in a new book released at the Nairobi WSF by the New Delhi-based Institute for Critical Action: Centre in Movement (CACIM) and CCS. The book, free to download at contains some older attempts at left internationalism, such as the Communist Manifesto (1848) and the Bandung Communiqué of the Asian-African Conference (1955), as well as the 'Call of Social Movements' at the second and third Porto Alegre WSF, the 2005 Porto Alegre Manifesto by the male-heavy Group of Nineteen, and the Bamako Appeal with sixteen critical replies.

There are also selections on global political party formations by Amin, analysis of the global labour movement by Peter Waterman, the Women's Global Charter for Humanity, and some old and newer Zapatista declarations. Jai Sen and Madhuresh Kumar of CACIM have worked hard to pull these ideas into 500 pages.

Lest too much energy is paid to these political scuffles at the expense of ongoing struggle, we might give the last word to Ngwane, who reported on his Nairobi debate with WSF founder Chico Whitaker at a CACIM/CCS workshop: 'Ordinary working class and poor people need and create and have a movement of resistance and struggle. They also need and create and have spaces for that movement to breathe and develop. The real question is what place will the WSF have in that reality. What space will there be for ordinary working class and poor people? Who will shape and drive and control the movement? Will it be a movement of NGO's and individual luminaries creating space for themselves to speak of their concern for the poor? Will it be undermined by collaboration with capitalist forces? I think what some of us saw happening in Nairobi posed some of these questions sharply and challenged some of the answers coming from many (but not all) of the prominent NGO's and luminaries in the WSF.'

* Patrick Bond directs the Centre for Civil Society: http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-02/01bond.cfm and is reproduced here with the permission of the author.

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

Eight Burundians have accused the UN Mission to Congo (MONUC) of involvement in the fraudulent registration of non-Rwandans as ex-combatants seeking 'repatriation'. According to the Chairman of the Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission (RDRC) John Sayinzoga, the eight told RDRC officials that some MONUC officials connive with one 'Mama Claude' to 'repatriate' people allegedly from the DRC for US5 per person and a further reward of Frw.10,000, after receiving their 'resettlement package'.

Supporters of African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma have hit back at the South African Communist Party's (SACP) Jeremy Cronin for saying they are unprincipled and inconsistent. "Cronin is one of the people who have consciously continued to lie about Zuma and his supporters since the [Zuma's] rape trial," the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust said.

Allies of Mauritania's ousted leader have united to back a presidential candidate in March's elections. Correspondents say this makes Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, an independent, favourite as the 18-party coalition holds a majority in parliament. Leaders of the military junta which seized power in 2005 are not standing.

The deadline for Nigerians to register for elections has been extended to Friday (February 2) because of a last-minute rush. People queued for hours to beat Tuesday's (January 30) deadline, but officials could not cope with the turnout and a new computerised registration system. On Monday (January 29), workers were given a holiday to register as the voters roll was still some 10m below its 60m target.

Zambia's anti-corruption drive is failing because the government has been concentrating its resources on investigating the corrupt practices of the previous regime, allowing present graft in the public service to flourish, a corruption watchdog said in its latest report.

The United Nations secretary-general’s representative in Guinea-Bissau, Shola Omoregie, has negotiated an end to a 17-day crisis involving the government and prominent politician Carlos Gomes Junior who had sought refuge in the UN building in Bissau. Gomes Junior, chairman of the former ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, previously served as prime minister.

The African Union's (AU) new chairman, President John Kufuor of Ghana, appealed on Tuesday (30 January) to African governments to contribute troops to a planned peace and stabilisation force for strife-town Somalia. "We need 8,000 troops; we only have 4,000 so far," Kufuor said at the end of the AU summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where the pan-African body is headquartered.

Ahead of the Senegalese presidential elections on February 25, ARTICLE 19 publishes a report on the state of freedom of expression in Senegal. The legal, political and institutional framework for freedom of expression in Senegal must be reformed, urges a new report published by ARTICLE 19 just ahead of February 2007 elections. The report outlines key challenges and obstacles to freedom of expression in the lead up to presidential elections.

Ivory Coast's cocoa merchants risk their money and their lives on the road as highway robbers increasingly target their cars to seize cash destined to buy beans, a senior police officer said on Wednesday (31 January). Millions of CFA francs have been stolen from cocoa buyers so far in this 2006/07 season by thieves who stop buyers' cars either by holding up the drivers with guns or by mounting fake police checkpoints and dressing in military uniforms.

Somalia's parliament elected a new speaker on Wednesday 31 January) to replace one ousted over his overtures to Islamist rivals defeated by government and Ethiopian troops during a two-week war in December. Members of parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of Justice Minister Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nuur "Madobe" who takes over from Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, voted out of office Jan 17.

Local government officials in Nigeria's wealthiest oil-producing state have squandered rising revenues that could provide basic health and education services for some of Nigeria's poorest people, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today (31 January). Human Rights Watch found that the government's failure to tackle local-level corruption violates Nigeria's obligation to provide basic health and education services to its citizens.

The African Union has already developed a reputation for charting an ambitious pan-African state-building project, yet very little is understood by policy-makers or citizens of how African countries prepare for the summits and their related ministerial meetings, and how they implement decisions and resolutions made in these fora. This report presents research on the preparations for and conduct of African Union summits.

The Africa Regional Sexuality Resource Centre (ARSRC) calls for applications to its annual Sexuality Leadership Development Fellowship (SLDF) Programme. The Fellowship is scheduled to take place in Lagos, Nigeria from 9 to 27 July 2007. The course provides an academically stimulating environment that promotes cross-cultural sharing of experiences as well as individual study incorporating rigorous intellectual work and strategic field trips and events that brings participants in contact with leaders and organizations in the field of sexuality.

is a beautifully written blog by a South African Gay-identified man who writes about life, his partner, social justice and "We're different and that makes us a good match."

This week he is upset with President Mbeki who he officially declares is a "denialist".

"You have done a lot to get the economy where it is - but you are doing nothing to sustain it. Keeping the crime levels down is one way to keep the economy booming. Crime divides the country. I'm upset with you Mr. President. Without comparing you to any other head of State - but think of the legacy you are leaving as you are about to retire! Like Redi Direko said to you ‘Come on Mr President’ get your act together!"

Gradiose Parlor comments on Nigeria's latest census results for "sparsely populated Bayelsa State" in the Niger Delta and comes up with some interesting figures:

"The total population of Bayelsa state is 1,703,358; it’s the least populated in the nation. Bayelsa received 5,325,414,955.84 (Naira) in May 2004 from the federal account (PDF document); the second highest in the nation. This works out to 3,126.42 Naira per citizen. The highest allocation-per-citizen ratio* in the country. And this is just from federal account, the figure doesn’t include locally generated revenue."

The question is where has all the money gone because it has yet to reach the communities of the State?

"An aside: Maybe he should just send stuff to Mzalendo and KBW and we can spruce it up for him. It pains me to see people who should know better sitting with so much good info. (e.g. hello where is Gladwell Otieno?)."

Carpe Diem Ethiopia writes about Ethiopian novelist, Bealu Girma who he finds "extremely challenging":

"For starters, out of his six novels: Kadmas Bashager (Beyond the Horizon), Yehilina Dewel (The Bell of Consciousness), Yeqey Kokeb Teri (The Call of the Red Star), Haddis, Derasiw (The Author), and Oromay ("Now, at this Moment"), I have only read three—Kadmas, Haddis, and Oromay. Second, the novelist's personal life and work deserve separate volumes of their own. Bealu's life and death are of Shakespearean proportions: Julius Caesar comes to mind - much like the Roman emperor's unprecedented expansion of his empire by his sheer ability to bend the will of men, the Ethiopian author reached the apogee of creativity by his ability to gain almost a cult following that allowed him to survive unscathed through much of his career despite his persistently harsh criticism of the societies in which he lived."

Singing SouthAfricanness discusses being a white South African and compares living in the US to SA.

"Quite simply, I feel safer here (New York), and that concerns me when I consider a future at home. I also feel hemmed in by my race at home. The fact that I am white has a very strong impact on how I am viewed, and what is expected of me, and what opportunities are available to me within my own country. Here, that matters less. What does matter is that I do work that people want to know about, and that is important."

Colour in SA has an impact on everyone's lives, opportunities, imprisonment in one's community, economic advantage. All of these also impact on people in the US. Apart from other advantages, part of the reason being white in the US is easier is because as part of the majority population you are less conspicuous?

Nata Village Blog profiles HIV lay counsellor, Kehumile Baganne.

"When I first started working at the clinic, few people came into test. I would only test four people per month. People were afraid in those days and the only ARV's were in Francistown and Gaborone. We weren't even able to offer IPT (prophylaxis for TB) in those days so some of the people here could not access those services. So when IPT came to Nata and the ARV's came to Gweta, people were more willing to test. I do my counseling in a caravan and when we first started everyone was afraid to come to the caravan. Because when someone goes there, they know they have AIDS. They even called me the caravan girl. I didn't like that name at all."

Annie writing on Black Looks writes about her two week experience in Cape Town, a place I have also become familiar with - looking for Africa in downtown Cape Town is not easy:

"I want to be in Africa! CT is very ‘modern.’ Unfortunately, modern also means Western. The two words are synonymous all over the world, but never have I seen it as glaringly as here. Is it not possible to be modern and still retain that special quality of ‘African-ess?’ And this is not me pandering to a stereotyped view of “African-ess” with regards to drums and naked people. This is me re-living my own, PERSONAL, African experience, me chanelling Ghana and my high school with its 60% representation of students from over 20 African countries. This is me remembering the differences and yet that special quality that brought us together, that led us to sing in one another’s languages, that justified our motto: ‘Knowledge in the service of Africa.’ So be on my case all you like, but I do believe there is such a thing as being African, such a thing as being in Africa, indescribable as they may be…but CT leaves me homesick. I wound up in an Irish bar (don’t ask) with a Lithuanian friend who told me how at home he felt in this European-like setting. I hope my smile looked real enough."

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, http://www.blacklooks.org and is Online News Editor of Pambazuka News.

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

Africa’s Foreign Ministers meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, were expected to agree on a draft charter setting out new benchmarks on democracy, good governance and respect for fundamental rights and freedoms.

Ghana has been elected, by consensus, as the new chair of the African Union. Ghana is set to host the next AU Heads of State summit scheduled for July. Ghana’s election averted a potentially embarrassing moment for the AU after Sudan failed to relinquish its bid in spite of widespread disquiet and opposition over its complicity in the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur.

The mythological bird, the “Sankofa” is used as a metaphor for Africa. While it is important for the continent to remember the past it is even more important to look to the future and build on the positive aspects of the past, writes Emira Woods.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the end of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which ripped an estimated 12 million Africans from their homelands and transported them to lives of unspeakable suffering and humiliation in Europe and the Americas. It is important to reflect on this tragic history, but also, like the Sankofa bird, to look towards ways of abolishing the forms of slavery that still ravage lives throughout much of the African world.

Modern-day slavery takes many shapes. In Liberia, the Bridgestone/Firestone Corporation continues to profit from slave-like conditions in their rubber plantation. Firestone's operations force children as young as 11 years old to work in the fields from before the sun rises to the late day. Used as beasts of burden, these kids typically carry two 75 pound buckets of rubber for up to two miles to storage or collection tanks. Should the children refuse to work, their parents risk losing the measly $3.19 daily wage, all while Bridgestone/Firestone announces record level profits for 2005 and the first half of 2006.

In the spirit of Sankofa, an alliance of human rights groups and labor unions is fighting to end this disgraceful abuse, and the International Labor Rights Fund has filed a case against the company.

Trafficking

Another, and perhaps most overt, form of modern day slavery is human trafficking. Throughout the African world women and children face a murderous and exploitative system of servitude. There are the parents in Egypt who reportedly sell kidneys and other body parts to feed their children. And there are the teenagers forced into prostitution working in the “AIDS corridor” running through oil-producing areas of Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad. The millions of impoverished women and children in Africa make easy targets for a growing number of traffickers who push them into unpaid or poorly compensated labor or sexual services. This takes place often through trickery and, at times, kidnapping. In response, the anti-trafficking movement has gained strength and visibility in recent years. This movement which includes survivors is making steady strides to break the chains for women and children around the world.

In the Americas, where wealth is being accumulated into fewer and fewer hands, modern-day forms of slavery are easily visible, from the flower pickers in Latin America to the garment factory workers in Haiti; from migrant workers in fields picking tomatoes in the southern United States to African-Americans locked into poor work conditions with inadequate compensation for their labor. Within the U.S., African girls and women are being enslaved in homes as maids and nannies for diplomats, foreign nationals, and Americans alike. Reports of individuals being held against their will, made to work around the clock for little or no money are becoming increasingly common. Advocates using new strategies and unusual bedfellows from law enforcement are working in the U.S. and around the world to tackle these and other issues of modern-day slavery.

Jubilee Movement

Religious and other groups around the world have united in a Jubilee movement to liberate the African world from another set of shackles – the extreme burden of foreign debt. According to the United Nations, $100 million a day is squeezed out of Africa in debt service payments to the rich world, siphoning off scarce resources needed to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other key concerns of the continent. In exchange, African governments are further enslaved by stringent loan conditions that control everything from inflation rates to wages for teachers and doctors.

Last year, the Bush Administration agreed to a plan to cancel the debts of 18 countries, most of them in Africa. The Jubilee movement is working to build on that precedent by pushing for the cancellation of the debts of 50 or so additional countries that are in desperate need.

The egg of hope in our Sankofa year lies in another commemoration. This year also represents the 50th anniversary of independence for many African states. The movement for change that brought an end to the slave trade culminating in the Emancipation Proclamation’s abolition of legal slavery. The abolitionist movement later inspired a pan-African drive for political independence. It was visionary leaders like Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere, Guinea’s Sekou Toure, Cape Verde’s Amilcar Cabral, and Zaire’s Patrice Lumumba who in turn led a movement to throw off the yoke of colonial slavery. Today we have new inspiring leaders like the many women civil society leaders, cabinet ministers, parliamentarians, and yes even Presidents, reshaping Africa’s political landscape.

This Sankofa year is a vehicle to build movements for peace and justice. There couldn’t be a better time to focus the world’s attention on ending the economic scourge that has drained the African world since the days of legal slavery. Justice for the African world can only come by restoring the dignity of her people, wherever they may live. Seize the Sankofa year. End all forms of modern day slavery and secure reparations for all debts incurred.

* Emira Woods is the co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. She was born in Liberia. See http://www.fps-dc.org

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

We had hoped to send out several issues of Pambazuka News during the World Social Forum. However, it turned out that this was more ambitous than we had imagined, both because of the difficulties of getting access to the internet and because of Pambazuka News staff were tied up with producing podcasts. To make matters worse, there were problems with internet connections during the day yesterday in Cape Town as well as in Nairobi, so we have to apologise for the late delivery of this weeks Pambazuka News. However, we are please to have been able to include copy from the Institute PANOS in West Africa with whom we collaborated during WSF.