EDITORIAL: Stephen Lewis, in an extract from his new book, criticises the way women have been left out of the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa
COMMENT&ANALYSIS:
- Issa Shivji laments the lack of a principled vote in the Tanzanian elections
- Organisations resolve to strengthen freedom of expression in Africa
- Pambazuka News Q&A: Swaziland is a tiny kingdom with a big problem
- Ndung'u Wainaina on peace in the Great Lakes
- Durban conference asks how Africa can reclaim the 21st century
LETTERS: Who did the looting in the DRC?
BLOGGING AFRICA: The taste of Africa, the religion of Africa, the debates of Africa...
CONFLICT&EMERGENCIES: Eritrea/Ethiopia border "tense" as UN troops go home
HUMAN RIGHTS: One step closer to justice for Charles Taylor - amputees win Nigerian court case
ELECTIONS&GOVERNANCE: Thirty shot dead in opposition protests
REFUGEES&FORCED MIGRATION: World Organisation Against Torture says it is "gravely concerned" about Sudanese refugees in Egypt - featured in Pambazuka News over the last two weeks
WOMEN&GENDER: Congratulations from around the world over the 15th ratification of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa
CORRUPTION: Is Africa ready for whistle-blower protection?
HEALTH: Human Rights Watch Honors Ugandan AIDS Activist
MEDIA: East African journalists Deliberate on Media and Globalization
FUNDRAISING&USEFUL RESOURCES: Google gets into giving (but only to Americans!)

Given the prevailing economic and social circumstances facing the African continent, exactly how can Africa begin to chart a path for the future? A conference due to be held this weekend in Durban, South Africa, brings academics together to discuss this question and decide exactly how Africa can reclaim the 21st century.

Introduction

The West tried for centuries to impose its models for development on Africa with limited success and without taking into account existing vast differences in culture and politics on the Continent. In this regard, most post-colonial African states adopted Western blueprints in the form of capitalism or socialism with limited trickling benefits to the general populace. It thus seems that Africa is in most cases worse off now than during colonialism despite billions of aid and investment being poured into the Continent. The continent has witnessed the controversy around which agency is more central in driving the development process between state and markets in an environment dominated by foreign actors, especially the Bretton Woods institutions, through their “one-size fit all” policies in addition to a host of imposed conditionalities. While this controversy continues, the socio-economic and political conditions in a number of States continues to deteriorate by the day.

Development paradigms and policies

Since the 1960s Africa has witnessed a contestation or confusion of development agendas, namely, the nationalist agenda of an autonomous development path anchored upon a derigiste economic nationalism in ideological terms on the one hand, and the Bretton Woods institutions propounding a neo-liberal economic adjustment programme premised upon free market enterprise in ideological terms on the other. The former has been and still is deliberately State-centric and encourages State interventionism in economic management. The latter has evolved as a market-driven development strategy and, as such, deliberately set out to roll back the State.

This ideological contestation has forced the Continent’s leadership to embrace several developmental paradigms and policies, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, in support of the two positions. The debate moved towards convergence in 1997 when the World Bank, through the question “Can Africa Claim the 21st Century?” accepted and appreciated the key role of the State in the socio-economic development of their respective countries. In response African leaders fashioned their own developmental paradigms such as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) whose central thrust is collective responsibility towards improving the Continent, including getting directly involved in the search for long-term political stability and sustainable development. Assertive leadership of this responsibility is producing democratic fruits in former troubled nations and regions such as the Great Lakes region, where the return to democracy and constitutional route has resulted in positive socio-economic transformation.

Africa’s Challenges

Political conditions

Africa continues to face political challenges including many politically induced conflicts that have, and will, continue to destabilize both the respective member-State and/or the region. Scarce resources are allocated annually to defense, security and military ministerial portfolios in many African countries as a way of dealing with the prevailing conflicts and/or as a precaution to peace, security and humanitarian concerns, especially in those countries not directly involved in conflict. Post-colonial States have fallen prey to the ploy of destabilization, a factor that scares away both domestic and foreign investors. The prevailing socio-economic conditions have deteriorated in some countries to the point of contributing to the unfolding conflicts. As a result millions of people have been killed, displaced or forced into exile. This development also denies Africa access to its resource – human capital – which is now contributing to global capitalism without any compensation being paid to “our” Continent.

Socio-economic conditions

Africa continues to face unimpressive socio-economic conditions characterized by low economic growths; falling per capita income and life expectancy; rising inflation rates, interest rates and infant mortality rates; deteriorating external and domestic debt stocks; worsening poverty situations evidenced by food dependence, malnutrition and the fact that between 65% to 80% of the Continent’s population is living below the poverty datum line; and lack of access to basic social services (health, education, housing and water).

Macro-economic fundamentals

African countries are at different levels of economic development, depicting wide disparities in their macro-economic fundamentals. Such development impacts negatively on regional economic development strategies. In addition, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are yet to persuade member-States to move towards the convergence of their macro-economic fundamentals, which are explained by other factors. Of great concern at this juncture is also the duplicity of RECs which makes them both weak and vulnerable to external shocks and influence.

Production structure and trade

Production structure on the Continent has remained largely primary production-oriented, a trend that renders Africa the largest net importer of goods and services from the industrialized nations. This means that the Continent specializes in the production of raw materials, but has no input to global pricing. In addition, countries have, in most cases, competed seriously against each other since failure to diversify the economic base means the production and exportation of similar commodities. Africa’s contribution to global trade remains insignificant – just under 2%. This poses the question as to how long can Africa continue to remain in this position.

Access to international markets

Throughout the Continent market reforms have failed to develop the productive sectors. This has resulted in the underdevelopment of industrialization strategies. Even the religious adoption of Western driven economic reforms have failed to rejuvenate the industrial base of most countries on the Continent. The industrial base remains largely narrow and characterized by mono-commodities for export to the same market. This is more pronounced in Southern Africa where, for instance, Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Namibia produce and export diamonds to the same market. Other common export products include tobacco, copper, fish, tea, coffee, horticulture and cotton. This unfortunately generates less foreign currency necessary to meet national import requirements since the majority of member-States are net-importers. In the process this serves as a constraint to industrial development. At the same time debt service obligations means the availability of fewer resources to support the social sector; the very foundation for building a sound human resource base which is deemed critical for the Continent’s developmental needs.

The debt burden

At a time when the Continent is grappling with many challenges, member-States have accumulated large, but growing external debt which takes away a significant proportion of available resources for debt servicing. Industrial development requires foreign currency which is used to service debt, while sacrificing social service provisions in the process. In addition, no significant innovation is taking place to improve the future prospects of the Continent. A high debt overhang creates uncertainty for both domestic and foreign investors. It is a situation that adversely affects a country’s credit ratings and perception of risks. Furthermore, it limits potentially viable firms from accessing finance from the international capital markets. Moreover, the qualification of most countries to the highly indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative, has failed to extricate the Continent from this position. This means that the debt burden is not only retarding economic growth and development, but it has also become economically exhausting and unsustainable, politically destabilizing and ethically unacceptable.

Aid flows and donor-recipient relations

While industrialized economies pledge to increase aid flow to countries with sound socio-economic policies and democratic practices, in many cases this pledge has come with conditions and selective application. Inter-State relations has come to the fore, raising the question of whether aid is a developmental instrument or a vehicle to globalize capitalism, which is in search of markets. It appears that aid flows have gone beyond the realm of economic policies to include new conditionalities of good governance; respect for the rule of law and the environment; and observance of human rights. In addition, foreign direct investments (FDIs) tend to ignore certain regions. In particular sub-Saharan Africa has remained an unfavourable destination of this capital formation.

The current situation in Africa is not promising in terms of crafting sustainable endogenous policy directions, options and space. Despite decades of implementing developmental paradigms and policies on her own and/or in collaboration with global strategic partners, Africa has remained the poorest region in the world. Indeed, of the 53 countries on the Continent, only 7 countries have graduated onto the globally ranked middle income category (Countries include Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Libya, Mauritius, Seychelles and South Africa [World Development Indicators database, World Bank, July 2005]).

The least developing countries (LDCs) category are of great concern which suffer from huge, but growing external debt overhang and limited capacity to industrialize and generate foreign currency necessary to meet national requirements. To date, Africa contributes less than 2% to the total global market, while it attracts only 2% of the FDIs inflows. In addition, the adoption of Western driven initiatives, presumed to offer lifelines to millions of poverty stricken people in the form of debt relief and free access to European markets under “everything else but arms (EBA)” initiatives, has failed to produce positive tangible results. Similarly, the adoption of neo-liberal policies has also failed to produce a success story to act as a model for policy options. Notable also is the failure of developmental State paradigms and policies to produce success stories. Indeed, Africa has remained stuck in the same predicament of an underdevelopment web characterized by unimpressive socio-economic indicators, unstable political environments and conflict situations, while countries in other Continents are making progress.

While Africa is preoccupied with identifying and correcting policy errors of the past, the formulation of its relations with developed regions is premised within the neo-liberal paradigm despite entrenching weak and vulnerable States towards the ambit of global institutions and agendas. A significant number of States have become increasingly vulnerable to the donor payroll, a development that weakens State capacity to offer alternative policy options, policy space and policy directions. This further exposes the same weak State to the dictates of donors, resulting in a vicious cycle of borrowing, harsh conditions, and unavoidable compromises in terms of a State’s responsibility to its citizens.

In this context, The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) and the African Futures Institute (AFI) are holding a two day conference focusing on the question: “Can Africa (re)claim the 21st Century?” In this spirit there are many questions regarding development that remains unanswered which the conference can raise and provide pointers on. A revisit to developmental paradigms and policies requires further interrogation by African scholars, given the prevailing socio-economic and political conditions prevailing on the Continent. Therefore the conference will bring together various scholars and policy makers from the Continent to discuss these issues.

Building sustainable strong state-citizens relationship offers unique opportunity to empower the organs of the states to become truly African with the “strong” belief that “Africa is for Africans”. This is imperative to mould the pillars of states to uniquely guide socio-economic and political transformation in a manner that facilitates development. In this respect, the conveners are expecting the debate to focus on how Africa should de-industrialize the donor sector and all its tentacles, which for long, has undermined the acceptance of “uhuru” developmental strategies and paradigms on the basis that Africans can not kick-start the developmental steps of their territories without externally driven resources and guidance, a development that demonizes the self-reliance concepts as baseless and unsustainable.

Indeed, as conveners, we will be happy to be associated with the creation of the right attitude in which Africans appreciate that poverty alleviation is in our own interest rather than the donor sector; that externalization of Africa’s resources is the main contributor to the growing external debt overhang; that domesticating Africa’s resources provides the basis for native industrialization strategies; that trade negotiations requires African resources to prepare in consultations of all the constituencies; and that demonisation of self-reliance principles is a “defeatist attitude” based on the “blame game” theory.

Africa has all the right signs for claiming the 21st Century. In this regard, it is imperative for her to exploit every opportunity that arises with positivist attitude. Indeed, the time to lament historical injustices and causal relationships for the present “status squo” is over. It’s high time that Africa realizes that globalization has no room for philanthropic and benevolent gestures, hence the expectation for the right attitude and a continent-orientated policy framework.

* Richard Kamidza is a Senior Researcher at The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), Durban, South Africa

* Please send comments to [email protected]

A firebomb attack on a policeman last Friday was the latest in a series of six similar explosions targeting state institutions that have hit the tiny mountain kingdom of Swaziland in the last month. The attacks have been blamed by Africa’s last remaining ruling monarchy on banned political groups and come at a time when there is growing criticism of King Mswati III’s extravagant lifestyle in parallel with widespread impoverishment and the world's highest known rates of HIV/AIDS infection. Pambazuka News sent some questions on the situation in Swaziland to Bongani Masuku, Secretary General of the Swaziland Solidarity Network, an umbrella body of groups working for democracy in Swaziland. Zimbabwe is not the only problem country in the region, Masuku reveals.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What's the mood like in Swaziland these days with regards to electoral reform and democracy?

BONGANI MASUKU: A mood of both despair and anger is the only way I can try to intrepret the situation on the ground. The people feel a sense of despair, because they, for the meantime, are not able to stop the royal regime bulldozing and imposing its interests on the whole nation, knowing well that it has at its disposal all the instruments of force, whilst the progressive voices have no adequate support to mount a sustained offensive against this, at least for now. The international community is vocal elsewhere - where its own interests are at stake - and silent on Swaziland, where it is not interested or where its interests are best secured by the current regime, which is part of the double standards we see everyday in realpolitik.

The anger is informed by the fact that when all nations of the world are discussing serious ways to develop themselves and confront major issues like poverty, HIV and AIDS, unemployment, human security, sustainable livelihoods, participation of women and economic justice through redistribution, we have a situation in our country where the opposite is true. We are still rooted in backward and primitive ways that safeguard the selfish and greedy interests of a royal minority and their friends, all in the name of culture. We are still unable to enjoy even the most basic rights that other people elsewhere are beginning to take for granted as given and inevitable, such as the right to form and belong to an organisation of your choice, particularly on the basis of shared political opinion.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: A post-9/11 anti-terrorism bill has been tabled again in the Swazi parliament in the wake of two recent fire bombings in the capital, Mbabane. Opposition groups are worried that King Mswati III might use the legislation to stifle dissent. Are there grounds for this concern?

BONGANI MASUKU: Concerns around the Anti-terrorism Bill relate to the fact that the definition of terrorism is not legitimate, neither is it broadly agreed to, but is rather an attempt to stain the legitimate activities of the progressive movement. PUDEMO, together with its youth wing, SWAYOCO, have been the main victims in the past of this label, for obvious reasons. In this regard, the regime is still looking for ways to legitimise its illegitimate attack on the activities of the progressive movement, which have become understood by every democracy-loving person all over the world. It is trying to secure a space in the global atmosphere characterised by insecurity, as a partner in the search for peace, but in the process it is also seeking to use that space to crush the democratic movement. It has used such acts for years, such as the definition of political activities as criminal activities or outlawed/illegal activities. These are the crude methods it has used to maintain itself in power, hence the obvious fact that this is not meant to target some terrorist somewhere, but the "terrorist", as defined by the royal regime.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: The government branded the firebomb attacks as "terrorism". Where they?

BONGANI MASUKU: While we are not sure about the firebomb, we can only assume that these are the legitimate expressions of accumulated anger by the people and their response to the sustained wave of violence, state terror and naked brutality being meted out by the regime against the people. The people are not limited in the way they respond to state-enforced terror, they respond in the manner they deem appropriate to defend the cause they stand and believe in.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: Swaziland's parliament consists of a 65-seat House of Assembly, 10 of whose members are appointed by the king, and a 30-seat Senate. All the senators are appointed, either by the House of Assembly or the king. In this context, there have been calls for electoral reform. What progress has or is being made in this area?

BONGANI MASUKU: With regard to the reformation of parliament and general electoral reform, what we have seen is attempts to subvert legitimate demands or calls for electoral reform through diversion, confusion and reconfiguration of the people's legitimate intentions to suit the purpose of the regime in seeking to maintain the fundamental bases of the system, but interfere with some of its manifestations in such a way that it appears that there has been a change in the way things are. In other words, the regime seeks to announce change, but resists change in actual fact. It changes the gowns of the rapists and not the character of the rapist, but parades the rapist as a new person. This includes the fact that multiparty democracy is still illegal, the media is still royal-controlled, the judiciary is still royal-stage-managed and all structures of society are still coerced, through overt and covert or subtle means.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: The Central Bank of Swaziland reported in its annual review in September that the economic situation in the country had deteriorated over the last year. Swaziland is believed to have one of the worst rates of child poverty. Why is this?

BONGANI MASUKU: The issue of the deteriorating situation and poverty in the country is a hallmark of the system's generalised crisis levels. Many people have downplayed the extent of the crisis in Swaziland, but daily they are being forced to admit that the country is collapsing, and in the process shaming all those who had always claimed that all is well and that the only problem in the region is Zimbabwe. The royal family has caused so much economic bleeding that the country's economy can no longer take it anymore. The royal parasites are milking the cow to death, hence there is no way it can survive, however fat it is. The country's reserves shall be depleted sooner than many people think and soon, public servants will not be paid, as already many services, particularly public social services have totally collapsed, such as health, education, and basic community needs. The indicators to the extent of the poverty crisis are reflected in the fact of the following; HIV and AIDS levels at 38%, unemployment levels at 40%, high illiteracy levels, high child mortality rates, landlessness and the general state of social conditions of life, as well as the crisis of privatisation and retrenchments.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: A flood of textile imports from China has hit Southern Africa hard. What has been the impact on the labour force in Swaziland?

BONGANI MASUKU: The flood of textile imports from China which has hit Southern Africa have had a dramatic impact on the labour force of Swaziland, hence the closure, if not increased rate of exploitation, in most textile companies. This is related to other matters such as the loss of preferential trade rates in the world market, which have threatened at one point to cost 15 000 jobs in such a small country and in one sector only. But it would be narrow minded to just isolate China, because the fluidity in the global market has imposed a particular amount of fragility, such that poor countries have been the ultimate losers. So it is a combination of factors, amongst others, the disinvestment by rich countries in productive sectors, as well as extreme and unregulated capital mobility, which, together impact negatively on the economic situation in the country.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: What is the path forward suggested by the Swaziland Solidarity Network in terms of moving the country forward?

BONGANI MASUKU: The Swaziland Solidarity Network suggests a process that could move the country forward underpinned by the following factors (our perspectives are underpinned by the historic PUDEMO document, entitled ‘Way forward towards a Constituent Assembly through a negotiated settlement’). In summary they state that:

a) There must be a commitment by the monarchy to a genuine process of fundamental transformation in the form of a memorandum of intent; and to a process underwritten by a credible international organisation to safeguard against the tendency of the royal regime to renege on commitments;

b) This must be followed by a preliminary process, which shall be inclusive of all formations in the country, which is popularly known as the talks about talks on the critical issues facing our country. It is at this stage that there will be formal removal of all laws that militate against democratic progress and free political participation;

c) The next stage should be a negotiation stage, where the actual negotiations about the kind of society Swaziland should be must take place and all stakeholders must agree to a clearly defined process of transformation in political and constitutional terms. The outcome of this process shall include the draft constitution which shall guide the elections of a Constituent Assembly;

d) The Constituent Assembly is the democratically elected body of political representatives, mandated to formally write a constitution for the country;

In broad political terms, this is part of the critical process needed to drive forward the constitutional debate out of the current political quagmire and structural dilemma into which years of royal misrule has plunged our country. However, we also need a clear and workable alternative political process, which seeks to unite all the progressive organisations around a clear and viable framework for fundamental change in Swaziland.

This requires leadership of stature, advanced political and organisational foresight, mass mobilisation and a properly co-ordinated international solidarity movement, to support the genuine cause of the struggling people of Swaziland.

* Interview conducted by email. Please send comments to [email protected]

The Tanzanian National Electoral Commission (NEC) announced this week that general elections will take place on 14 December following the postponement of a 30 October poll due to the death of a presidential running mate. Elections did take place 30 October on Tanzania's semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar, with the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Party for the Revolution) winning the elections. The vote was marred by clashes between security forces and opposition supporters. Issa Shivj assesses the choices available for Tanzanian voters.

‘So my prayer to the socialist god is to get to have the American one-party system in Tanzania. ... So my hope is that you can have another party; you can have two parties in Tanzania, both believing in the essentials of the Arusha Declaration. Then try to see which is going to be more efficient in implementing it. But one socialist party, one capitalist party well, theoretically yes, but I don’t know how it can work.’

Julius Nyerere said this fifteen years ago when the debate on multi-party democracy had just begun and the Nyalali commission (The Justice Francis Nyalali Commission in the early 1990s found that only 20 per cent of Tanzanians wanted to revert to the multiparty political system) was making the rounds of the country to get people’s views. Nyerere went on to draw an analogy with the American system where, he said, there were two parties; ‘but they’re really one party!’ ‘Both parties agree on the basic national objectives. Internally, both of them are highly capitalist. Externally, both of them are imperialist.’ Elsewhere, Nyerere expressed the hope that the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) would split and that you would get two strong parties, both socialist and both nationalist.

The socialist god, fortunately for a few, unfortunately for the many, did not answer any of Nyerere’s prayers. Instead of the CCM splitting into two strong parties, it buried the Arusha Declaration itself, and with it both nationalism and socialism.

Today we have some 18 or so parties with perhaps two or three credible ones. But there is hardly any great difference in their vision, outlook or major policies. All are donor-dependent; all are driven by the neo-liberal policies of liberalisation, privatisation and the enrichment of the minority; the so-called “Washington consensus”; and none has a credible vision of constructing a national, democratic economy and polity in the interest of the large majority. So, when Tanzanians went to the polls in a third multi-party election last weekend, what was there to choose from? For the purposes of discussion we may cluster the choices into three types: the common sense, the pragmatic and the rational. Theoretically, there is also the fourth, the principled choice, based on principles and policies of a party. But this, as I said, was not available. The fourth choice did not exist.

The common sense choice dictates to err on the side of caution. This is best expressed in the old adage, ‘better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t know’. Common sense, however, is not always good sense. If you continue to strengthen the devil you know, there is a likelihood that he may be further emboldened to become even more devilish. These overwhelming electoral victories or what are called “ushindi wa kishindo”, or with an even more ominous connotation, “ushindi wa tsunami”, have their consequences. Few parties, and still fewer individuals, who have got into the political seat with 70-80 per cent vote, can resist the arrogance of power. Self-control in the exercise of power is a rare phenomenon.

The second type of choice is a pragmatic one. Here the voter is moved neither by instinct nor by principles and much less by reason. The motive force is either immediate self-interest - bribes and favours - or a racial, regional, religious or gender prejudice and bias. In our current political scenario, as a matter of fact, the pragmatic choice reigns supreme. We have already seen it in the internal nomination processes of the parties and should prepare ourselves to see more of it during the elections. Supposedly, there are watch dogs like the electoral commissions who are supposed to check such practices. But who watches the watch dogs?

Then there is the third set of choices, which we call a rational choice. In absence of the availability of a principled choice, the most rational choice would be for a political configuration which assures some stability, security, basic freedoms and checks on gross abuse and misuse of power. In our situation, theoretically, it means a union parliament which would have a strong presence of the opposition, over, say, 40 per cent of the seats. As for the presidency, ideally, the winning candidate should end up with slightly over 50 per cent of the votes. In other words, “ushindi wa kishindo: should disappear from our political scene.

Since we are a two-government union, the rational choice would be that different political parties are elected to run the two governments. The constant threat and fear whipped up by some ruling circles and their spokespersons that any party other than CCM forming the Zanzibar government would spell disaster for the union is a political scarecrow. No politician, even with a modicum of political sense, would advocate, and much less attempt, complete independence for Zanzibar. The union question is, in my view, not about secession; it is really about greater autonomy. And as I have always maintained, the union question should be contextualized, discussed and debated within the larger question of the grassroots democratisation of our politics. No people can have democracy for themselves if they are denying democracy to others.

The rational choice is not necessarily a principled choice. One only hopes, that the scenario painted here would create necessary conditions and open up space for the people to discuss and determine the vision and organise themselves to realise that vision. In other words, the rational choice would create an enabling environment for a principled choice.

But the rational choice pre-supposes certain pre-conditions. One is that the elections should be free and fair; free of corruption, rigging and other malpractices. On the part of the ruling party, it means “ushindi wa kishindo” should remain an aspiration. It should not become a coded message for “ushindi wa kishindo” by any means, fair or foul!

On the part of the opposition parties, it means not only to place on offer more democratic political governance, but also, a serious, critical and persuasive analysis of the promises and performance of the incumbent government over the last ten years. It is a telling comment on the opposition parties that so far they have not even been able to tell us what has happened to our society over the last ten years and yet, we feel it in our bones that this country has undergone fundamental changes, not only in its political and economic direction but in its social character. A good political leader is one who can explain systematically what people feel confusedly.

One cannot obviously expect such an analysis from the ruling party. Self-criticism is not, and has never been, a credo of bourgeois parties. They would only provide a score-board with ticks on achievements. It is the opposition which has the duty to raise, at least, question marks. If they fail to do so, then this time around, people would be justified in raising a big question mark against the very system of multi-party politics in Africa.

© Issa Shivji. Shivji is Professor of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

* Please send comments to

The least developed countries in the WTO have made a request to the TRIPS Council to extend the transitional period for their implementing the TRIPS Agreement for a further 15 years after the present transition period expires at the end of this year, reports Third World Network. The formal request for extension was submitted by Zambia on behalf of the LDC members on 13 October and issued as a communication by the WTO Secretariat on 21 October.

Former foes Ethiopia and Eritrea have both moved troops and tanks towards the border in recent weeks, a UN source said on Wednesday, after the world body reported that the situation on the frontier had become tense. A UN statement said on Tuesday UN peacekeepers had altered their description of the situation on the ground to "tense" from "stable", a worrying change to diplomats trying to prevent a resumption of the nations' 1998-2000 war. "We cannot say that the situation is stable," the source at the peacekeeping U.N. Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said on Wednesday, when asked about the change in language.

The conference seeks to:
1) gather further data on the implications and impacts of applying a rights-based approach in practice, and
2) feed this experience into policy and donor debates and communities.

"On at least two recent occasions President Thabo Mbeki is reported to have questioned whether NGOs in South Africa are being manipulated by foreign donors and the extent to which civil society in South Africa is independent. As a network of NGOs committed to democracy and free speech we feel compelled to respond to the President’s attack on the credentials of NGOs. The President’s statements over the past week were made in the context of the upcoming African Union peer review of South Africa and civil society’s push for greater representation on the panel that will review the state of governance in the country. The views expressed by Mbeki reiterate government’s ambivalent line on NGOs, particularly on matters related to contested development strategy and NGOs’ oversight role."

At the launch of SANGONeT's portal on World Development Information Day (WDID), 24 October 2005 - speaking from Seattle in the United States, non-profit online specialist, Michael Gilbert of the Gilbert Center, talked to more than eighty South African delegates located in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town via a digital video conference link, about the practices of Weblogs and Wikis as some of the most exciting new tools to promote leadership and collaboration in development as well as advance alternative views.

Presidential candidate Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has rounded on her rival George Weah for shunning a live public debate with just a week to go until the run-off vote that will determine the next president of war-battered Liberia. Weah, the soccer millionaire and political novice who won the most votes in the first round in October, is set to go head-to-head with Harvard-educated economist and veteran politician Sirleaf at the ballot box on 8 November. But he has declined to take part in a face-to-face debate in Monrovia, scheduled for this week in front of a live audience of 700 people and due to be broadcast on local radio.

Thousands of Zambian demonstrators, many wearing green ribbons and carrying fresh-cut branches as a sign of protest, marched on parliament on 1 November to insist that a constituent assembly be convened to pass a new constitution for the country. The demonstrators, ranging from university students to the clergy and opposition party leaders, braved soaring temperatures to hand out petitions to MPs demanding a bill be passed creating a constituent assembly. They also want the new constitution in place before next year's presidential election - a target President Levy Mwanawasa has said would be impossible to meet.

With less than a year to go before Angola's first post-war elections, there are growing concerns over whether the country is moving quickly enough to be ready in time. The ballot is expected to take place in September 2006, although no exact date has been set, and the president can leave it until 90 days prior to the vote before making the date public. Politicians and members of civil society point out that there has not been much progress in preparation for the poll since the swearing in of the National Electoral Commission (CNE) at the end of August.

Guinea-Bissau's President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira appointed a long-time ally as prime minister on November 3, days after sacking the government of his political arch rival Carlos Gomes Junior. Aristides Gomes, the mastermind behind the campaign that propelled Vieira to the presidency in July, was swiftly sworn into office and promised to mend political fences and the West African nation's ailing economy. "I will form a government of national consensus that reflects all the country's political forces," Gomes told reporters after the ceremony.

On October 26, South African Civil Society Organisations held a caucus to support their government’s position on trade and to make their policy demands. At a meeting that included the South African GCAP arm, SANGOCO, church organizations, and labour movements, and well-known GCAP personalities Chien Yen and Hellen Wangusa, the CSOs stated their demands on Agriculture, Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA), Services, and Development. They demanded that their government must ensure that development policy drives trade policy and not vice versa.

We, the 42 members of 33 organizations participating in the Conference of African Freedom of Expression Organisations held in Accra, Ghana, from October 28 to 30, 2005, under the auspices of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Media Rights Agenda (MRA) and Journaliste en Danger (JED), with sponsorship from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisations (UNESCO);

Concerned by the continued violation of freedom of expression across Africa;

Concerned by the increasing enactment and abuse of repressive media laws in many parts of the continent;

Further concerned by the killings, imprisonments and arbitrary arrests and detentions of journalists and media workers, and the arbitrary suspension and closure of media outlets around the continent;

Gravely concerned by the lack of response of the African Union and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to address these serious violations of freedom of expression;

Recalling the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in October 2002;

Recalling the Resolution on the Mandate and Designation of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression in Africa by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted in December 2004;

Recalling the appeal to the African Union made by more than 100 media and freedom of expression organizations on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day 2005;

Welcoming the commitment and the Statement of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission on World Press Freedom Day 2005 reiterating the importance of freedom of expression and the role of the media;

We call on the African Union to:

1. strengthen the existing mechanisms on freedom of expression in Africa;
2. ensure that the current Special Rapporteur Mechanism is fully independent and is provided with the necessary resources to efficiently execute the mandate;
3. take into account freedom of expression in the peer review mechanism process under the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD);
4. urge African Union members to respect freedom of expression and to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur to address the challenges of freedom of expression across Africa;
5. urge African governments to adopt a Treaty on Freedom of Expression in Africa;
6. urge the African Union to establish as a matter of urgency the African Court on Human Rights and make it operational.

We further call on the African Union to:

1. ensure the release of all arbitrarily detained Eritrean journalists and political prisoners held incommunicado since 2001;
2. ensure that an independent investigation is conducted to probe the murder of journalist Deyda Hydara in the Gambia;
3. closely monitor the situation of freedom of expression in Tunisia and ensure that freedom of expression advocates are protected and prisoners of conscience are freed;
4. take urgent measures to protect journalists and media practitioners in Somalia against the violent attacks and harassment by officials of local authorities and non-state actors.

Done this 30th of October 2005 in Accra

Attached is the list of organizations

* * * * *

Host Organisations

1. Journaliste en Danger (JED)
2. Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)
3. Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA)
4. Media Rights Agenda (MRA)

Participating Organisations

African Organisations
5. AFMF: Africa Free Media Foundation (formerly NDIMA Network for the Defence of Independent Media in Africa)
6. AMDISS: Association for Media Development in Southern Sudan
7. CNLT: National Council for Liberties in Tunisia
8. CREDO: Centre for Research Education & Development of FoX & Associated Rights
9. EFJA: Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association
10. FAMEDEV: Inter-Africa Network for Women, Media, Gender Equity & Development
11. FXI: Freedom of Expression Institute
12. HornAfrik Media
13. NGE: Nigerian Guild of Editors
14. OMAC: Organisation des Medias d’Afrique Centrale
15. OTM: Observatoire Togolas des Medias
16. PIWA: Panos Institute West Africa
17. SCFE: Somali Coalition for Free Expression
18. TAEF: All Africa Editors Forum
19. URATEL: Union des Radios & Televisions libres du Togo
20. WAJA/OJAO: West Africa Journalist Association/ Union des journalistes de l’Afrique de l’Ouest

Non-African Organisations
21. ARTICLE 19: Global Campaign for Free Expression
22. Free Voice
23. IFEX/AMARC: International Freedom of Expression eXchange/World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters
24. IFJ: International Federation of Journalists
25. IMS: International Media Support
26. Index on Censorship
27. OSI: Open Society Initiative - Network Media Program and Justice Initiative
28. CHRI: Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative

Ghana Organisations
29. AI: Amnesty International, Ghana Chapter
30. GCRN: Ghana Community Radio Network
31. CHRAJ: Commission on Human Rights & Administrative Justice
32. Ghana Bar Association
33. Ghana Journalists Association

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appealed to the Government in Zimbabwe to allow the United Nations to provide humanitarian assistance to the country after the authorities rejected the world body's aid amid reports that tens of thousands of people there are still homeless and in need of help. "The Secretary-General remains deeply concerned by the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe," his spokesman said, citing reports of continued suffering months after the eviction campaign that began in May 2005. Mr. Annan reacted with dismay to a decision by the Government to reject offers of UN assistance.

African Refugees - (http://africanrefugees.blogspot.com/2005/10/taste-of-west-africa.html) reports that West African and Sudanese refugees are making their presence felt in the southern Australian city of Prospect. People from Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo took part in a “Taste of Africa” festival of music, an exhibition of arts and crafts and a fashion show and of course food. Sounds much like London in the early 1980s at the height of “multiculturalism”!

Egyptian Person - Egyptian Person (http://egyptianperson.blogspot.com/2005/10/my-opinion-regarding-moharam…) discusses the aftermath of a play in Alexandria that caused rioting amongst the Muslim population. Some people were killed and many injured outside the church where the play took place as people demanded that the church be burnt down. EP describes the mentality of the people calling for the church to be burned down as the same as those that demand the killing of someone who chooses to convert to another religion. She goes on to say:

“(It is) the same mentality that sentenced Salman Rushdy to death because of his book "Satanic Verses", and the same mentality that moves a terrorist. A complex of long-term brainwashing, ignorance, hate, suppression, and an inability to accept the "other". Religion in the Middle East is indeed a perfect tool to control the masses.”

Tunisian blogger – jrayda diaries - jrayda diaries (http://jrayda.blogspot.com/2005/10/ce-nest-pas-de-la-politique.html) has an excellent post entitled “Its Not Politics” (in French) where he questions the debate on Muslim women wearing the veil in so called democracies that claim to uphold freedom of speech and human rights. He raises a number of important questions such as “are there two different freedoms, one the choice to wear jeans and another the choice to wear the veil”? What about the freedom to exercise your religion or freedom to choose what you wear? Why shouldn’t Muslim women wear the veil? Catholic nuns do! What is it that enrages people so much about Muslim women wearing the veil? He describes the reaction of the West to the veil as “a nuclear reaction that risks to explode the planet”. Following on from Muslim women and the veil, he asks why is it that Muslim men are expected to shave their beards whilst orthodox Jews are able to keep theirs? The same applies to Muslim dress – why does it cause such a negative reaction yet people do not react to Jewish attire or Buddhists or any other religious attire? He concludes sarcastically that no it is not politics!

Digital Africa – Digital Africa (http://digitalafrica.blogspot.com/2005/11/congratulations-anna-and-all-…) ask us to join in the one year birthday celebrations of Open Café – who have spent one year of building open source communities in Africa.

Kenyan Pundit - Kenyan Pundit (http://www.kenyanpundit.com/?p=57)
posts Part V of the “Constitutional Referendum” – Devolution in which she shares her notes from a workshop on the constitution. From what I have read in the Kenyan blogosphere, the constitution makes for difficult reading. Her summary on devolution:

“There will be devolved government with one level of devolution (districts). There is no Senate, but a National Forum for District Government whose utility is questionable. Government can suspend district government.”

As the price of oil rises there is a need to find viable energy alternatives. Timbuktu Chronicles - Timbuktu Chronicles (http://timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com/2005/10/palm-oil-biofuel.html) reports on new research which “suggests that Biofuels derived from locally available Palm Oil are a viable option. Vegetable oil is one of the alternatives which can be used as fuel in automotive engines either in the form of straight vegetable oil, or in the form of ethyl or methyl ester...".

Friends of Ethiopia - Friends of Ethiopia (http://friendsofethiopia.blogspot.com/2005/11/eight-die-in-clashes-with…) reports on Tuesdays clashes between riot police and opposition supporters in Addis Ababa which resulted in the death of at least 5 people and injured many others. The riots followed the arrest of 30 taxi drivers who participated in demonstrations against the government and claimed the elections were rigged.

Black Looks – Black Looks (http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks/2005/11/in_1975_freedom.html) returns to Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence by looking at the variety of literature on the contribution of women to that struggle. The poems and writings of Freedom Nyamubaya alongside testimonies of mothers and short stories by Zimbabwean writers.

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks

Zanzibar's President Amani Karume has been sworn in after being re-elected. Mr Karume rejected opposition claims of fraud in Sunday's election in the semi-autonomous Tanzanian islands. The poll was marred by violence by police and members of both parties, but international observers described the vote as generally free and fair. Civic United Front opposition candidate Seif Hamad rejected the results and promised protests. Police cordoned off the CUF headquarters on Wednesday.

Amnesty International is calling on the Egyptian government and candidates contesting Egypt's forthcoming parliamentary elections to put human rights at the centre of their agenda and to commit to promote long-needed reform once in office. The organisation said this was vital for tackling long-standing human rights violations. Despite some limited recent improvements in human rights, the coming elections, due to commence on 9 November, will be held against a background of continuing, widespread violations, including systematic use torture, deaths in custody, impunity for human rights perpetrators, and restrictions on freedom of expression and association. These human rights violations persist despite repeated calls for government action to address them made by UN human rights bodies and both national and international human rights organizations.

Africa may soon become a new front in the struggle against a dangerous strain of avian influenza, National Geographic News reports. In recent weeks the viral strain, called H5N1, has spread to Europe and Turkey from Southeast Asia, where it festered for several years. Now flocks of birds that could carry the microbe are migrating from their breeding grounds in Europe and Asia to winter havens in Africa.
* Related Link
DRC: An epidemic waiting to happen
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30843