Thousands of protesters, sporting the yellow colours of Togo’s opposition, took to the streets of Lome on Wednesday accusing France and the international community of closing their eyes to electoral fraud ahead of a key presidential ballot that is less than three weeks away. Angry marchers brandished banners blasting France and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which is helping to organise the 24 April presidential poll.

Tanzania’s government has sent police and paramilitary officers to volatile Zanzibar to harass opposition supporters ahead of elections, an opposition party has claimed. It also accused the government of redrawing constituency boundaries to weaken concentrations of opposition voters. Zanzibar, which united with Tanganyika to form Tanzania in 1964, retains the right to elect its own parliament and president.

A brilliant journal for serious thinkers. I heartily salute all who contribute to this magnificent journal. We must all do whatever we can to sustain this marvellous journal of discussion, debate, reflection and action.

We are a Somali local organization called Somali Human Rights Action working in a central zone of Somalia. As a human rights organization for the last three years, we feel the need to say so much thanks for your continued support in knowledge and all that you have been to us. You have been so helpful to our growth, we express our heart-felt gratitude to you all. I also take the opportunity to all who have made us grow through you.

* EDITORIAL: Patrick Bond and David Moore explain what happened in the Zimbabwean elections and why it matters
* COMMENT AND ANALYSIS: Odenda Lumumba on colonial land dispossession in Kenya and the continued struggle for land rights
- The future of Egyptian politics might be found in popular political initiatives building a social movement for change, says Joel Beinin
- The good and the bad of the papacy in Africa: Editorial comment from Pambazuka News
- Sarah Mukasa explains why she’s glad the Ugandan government banned the play Vagina Monologues
* LETTERS: Mugabe, white supremacy and neo-colonialism
* PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Nobel Laureate Wangari Mathai is elected to the AU’s Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC). Tajudeen Abdul Raheem says it’s a mistake
* AFRICAN UNION WATCH: Charles Mutasa explains the ins and outs of the AU's Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) and its potential for civil society
* Development: 70 civil society organizations meeting in Kenya tell the G8 to make progress on debt…or face protests
* LINKS to the latest news on conflict, human rights, corruption, elections, media, fundraising and more…

Dear Subscriber,

Earlier this week, we were informed by Kabissa, which hosts our mailing list facility, that a spammer appeared to have sent many spam messages to Mailman-related addresses (Mailman is the facility we use for managing the mailing list). If you received unsolicited messages as a result of this problem, the editors of Pambazuka News would like to sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused. We do everything we can to protect your email address and would under no circumstances make public our email list. We are taking actions to ensure that this does not happen again.

Thanks for your patience.

The Editors
Pambazuka News

Around the world representative democracy is no longer the agency of popular will. In the US, elections are controlled by big money. In developing countries, the undemocratic imposition of neo-liberal economic policies has forced governments to dismantle basic services like health and education. But Porto Alegre presents an apparent alternative to the world. With its experiment in participative budgetmaking over the past decade, this city has institutionalised the direct democratic involvement, locality by locality, of ordinary citizens in deciding spending priorities.

What are the sources of 700,000 dead in AIDS yearly in Zimbabwe? I´m referring to article by N. Reynolds (Pambazuka News 200, Letters)

Norman Reynolds responds: The death figure is correct for that year. It comes from an MDC paper written by Eddie Cross in July 2002. He, in fact, predicted that in 2003 one million would die of AIDS given the sharp turn down of the economy, hunger and the already high infection rate. Of these, 750,000 deaths were easily prevented in a normal country. The background data is that, from 1984 to 2001, one million Zimbabweans died from Aids. Since the collapse of the economy, 2001 to 2004, the rate was 170,000 rising sharply each year with poverty and the growing lack of or inability to buy food to around 700,000. That has added another 1.5 million to the total deaths from AIDS. This rising number is awful but has been held back by migration.

Tension eased in Niger on Tuesday as leaders of a three-week-old protest movement against a new tax on basic foodstuffs called off a 24-hour general strike in the interests of peace. Saouna Inoussa, a spokesman for the alliance of 30 civil society groups calling itself the Coalition Against Costly Living, said the stoppage had been suspended “to create an atmosphere of détente”.

The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone may be preparing for the final pullout of its peacekeeping force by the end of the year, but it seems, the mission wants to leave behind a clean record, in so far as sexual exploitation and abuse is concerned. "The mission has embarked on massive sensitisation of the peacekeepers in the area of sexual abuse," says Ansumana Konneh, an official of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone's (UNAMSIL's) civil affairs department.

"The G8 registers...poor levels of performance on a broad range of issue areas that demand a much different form of engagement from the institution. Namely, these are commitments that require a large degree of long-term policy-coordination and collective action of the part of the G8 states. As a loosely affiliated organization that does not host a secretariat, the G8 is not well suited to these tasks. This partly explains why large-scale G8 strategies on water and famine and food security, and even the development of the African Peace Keeping Force have attracted little attention from G8 member states, let alone funds." This is according to a G8 Research Group support that tracks the history of the G8's engagement with Africa.

Paul Wolfowitz' nomination as World Bank president was approved by the board 31 March. The approval was a formality after the controversial architect of the war in Iraq received the support of EU countries at a meeting of ministers in Brussels the previous day. Mr Wolfowitz will take over from departing president James Wolfensohn on 1 June. Fears are that Wolfowitz will roll back environmental and social safeguards and push an aggressive programme of liberalisation and privatisation. Peter Bosshard of International Rivers Network expects "more failed privatisations, more corporate welfare, more subsidies for big dams and oil pipelines", according to a report from the Bretton Woods Project, an organisation that monitors the Bretton Woods Institutions.

Despite the Millennium Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, chronic urban poverty is rising. This leaves most slum dwellers unable to access formal housing finance they need to continue to occupy or improve their houses. Few housing initiatives exist to help them generate the income and savings they otherwise require. A new integrated approach for developing a sustainable shelter delivery strategy may offer the urban poor some alternatives to securing adequate housing.

In June 2000, the World Bank approved a loan package worth nearly $300 million to the Chad-Cameroon oil project, the largest oil investment in Africa, following several years of considerable controversy. Within the World Bank, Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) was a strong advocate of the project, according to a new report from Friends of the Earth called 'Pumping Poverty', that examines the role of DFID in oil projects.

The Chad/Cameroon oil pipeline subsequently came online in 2003 and its benefit for the poor has been the subject of controversy and debate, with critics pointing to concerns over corruption and how much of the revenues have filtered through to the poor.

The report says DFID does not share the concerns related to the effect of the project on the poor, citing a comment by UK Secretary of State Hilary Benn in 2004: "DFID is confident that the World Bank's systems for the monitoring and implementation of this project, and for the investigation of any warranted complaints are appropriate."

The example of the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline is provided as a case study in a broader report that investigates the role of British overseas development aid in facilitating oil development. It finds that such aid often serves wealthy corporations, leaving the poor worse off than before and aggravating global climate change.

* Compiled from the report by Pambazuka News.

The Angolan ambassador to South Africa says political conditions in his country "needed to be normalised first", before the government could address the issue of fiscal transparency. In response to comments by Doug Steinberg, the outgoing country director of the development agency, CARE, ambassador Isaac Maria dos Anjos told IRIN that making transparency a condition for holding a donor conference - to help fund Angola's reconstruction effort - was "uncalled for".

In the latest corruption scandal to rock Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo has cancelled the sale of 207 government houses at knockdown prices after discovering that close relatives of his wife and several cabinet ministers were to have been among the beneficiaries of this controversial deal. Obasanjo last week ordered Mobolaji Osomo, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, to cancel the planned sale of these houses on well-to-do estates in Lagos, the commercial hub of Nigeria.

The electoral commission of the Central African Republic (CAR) announced on Sunday that 17 of 105 parliamentary seats were filled during the first round of general elections. The chairman of the Mixed Independent Electoral Commission, Jean Willibiro-Sacko, said the rest would be contested during a second round of elections, set for 1 May. A run-off presidential poll, pitting CAR leader Francois Bozizé against former Prime Minister Martin Ziguelé, will also be held on the same day.

The International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) has opened an internet portal which deals with major themes of international trade in the context of sustainable development. It offers access to websites involved in discussions and decisions regarding intellectual property rights, services, Africa, agriculture and the environment. (Source: SPORE Number 115 February 2005)

* EDITORIAL: In the context of the current neo-liberal grip on higher education, Issa Shivji calls for a new East African discourse rooted in a genuine Pan-Africanism of the people
* COMMENT AND ANALYSIS: Read what supporters of Pambazuka News have to say as the newsletter reaches its 200th edition
* LETTERS: Readers respond on Zimbabwe: It is possible to stand up and so no; SADC leadership has failed Zimbabwe’s people
* PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: The will of the people must prevail in Zimbabwe, states Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
* CONFLICTS AND EMERGENCIES: The latest from DRC, Ivory Coast and Sudan
* ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Zimbabwe goes to the polls – read this seven-day countdown to election day compiled by Pambazuka News
* CORRUPTION: Critics slam British corporate corruption in Africa
* HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: The latest Critical Health Perspectives briefing provides details about what it is like to be a doctor in a government hospital in South Africa
* MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Read about a “News for Peace” publication launched in Rwanda
AND…Internet and Technology, Advocacy and Campaigns, Courses, Job, Fundraising and Books and Art...

Pambazuka News was founded as a platform for social justice in Africa. Since its establishment in December 2000, the newsletter has sought to be a vehicle for commentary, debate and information for those committed to the cause of social justice in Africa. The newsletter is now 200 editions old. This article explains the history of the newsletter, its future plans and contains a listing of messages in support of the newsletter.

>>>>>

Today, more than half of sub-Saharan Africa’s 600 million people still live on less than $1 a day. Two hundred million go hungry every day. This year at least a million Africans, most of them young children, will die of malaria. More than 28 million Africans, many of them young children, are living with HIV/AIDS. Forty per cent of children never go to school in Africa – the only region in the world where the number of children out of school is rising. Malaria, HIV/AIDS and preventable maternal mortality are estimated to kill one million people per year (or 2,800 per day) in Africa. Add to these the numerous ongoing conflicts, each claiming hundreds of thousands of lives every year and there may be justification in characterising Africa as a wasteland of conflict, disease and poverty.

Africa continues to be portrayed as the object of pity, a ‘basket case’, a 'scar on the conscience of the world'. Charity, not justice, governance, not self-determination, appear to be the watchwords of the West. Although the Blair Commission on Africa report calls for 100% debt cancellation instead of debt relief, the fine print makes clear that such cancellation of debt remains, as ever, conditional. Africa faces once again an externally driven agenda for social development that combines a narrowly defined programme of privatisation with a broadly defined program of globalisation – the recipe of structural adjustment programmes and poverty reduction strategy papers that have become so tediously familiar over the last two decades and which, many would claim, have exacerbated the destitution of the region.

But as Nelson Mandela so aptly put it at a public rally in Trafalgar Square, London, in February 2005: ‘Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural, it is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice.’

And that encapsulates the basic premise upon which Pambazuka News was founded - to be a platform for social justice in Africa. Since its establishment in December 2000, Pambazuka News has sought to be a vehicle for commentary, debate and information for those committed to the cause of social justice in Africa.

The newsletter came into existence in response to the demands of human rights and other civil society organisations in Africa where access to the internet – and in particular the worldwide web – was limited, slow and expensive. Fahamu, the organisation that publishes Pambazuka News, and whose mission it is to put the technologies and the resources of the internet at the disposal of the movement for social justice in Africa, responded by providing a service which summarises each week current contents from key websites, lists, and other materials sent to the newsletter for publication. In addition to these summaries, we commission and publish editorials on key issues related to social justice in Africa.

Over the last four years, we have provided a regular stream of information for social justice organisations. The email newsletter now has a subscriber base that exceeds 15,000. Pambazuka News is widely forwarded and reposted, and it is estimated that the newsletter therefore reaches between 60-70,000 people on a weekly basis. This number excludes those who read the newsletter online at (receiving more than 250,000 visits a month) or at Allafrica.com where the newsletter appears in full each week.

Responses from our readers and supporters tell us that we’re doing something right. Pambazuka News, writes one supporter, acts as “a confluence for scholarship and activism that does neither sacrifice the rigour of analysis not the optimism of commitment”. Another reader writes, “Information is power and when you send to us the news it is like you send to us some power, the power to know what's happening”. Lastly, we are told from the DRC that Pambazuka News “allows militants for a better Africa to find and proclaim the conditions of that politics on the basis of fidelity to the daily defense of peoples' rights, people's resistance to inhumanity and thus to the fidelity to the equality of humanity”. You can read the full responses below.

Since our beginnings we have been enthused by the way in which information from the newsletter has been used to advocate, lobby, inform, educate, debate and change. We are proud to have been associated with a variety of advocacy efforts, including the ongoing campaign for the ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and an earlier campaign for freedom of expression

There is much work that needs to be done to optimise the power of information. We plan to expand our readership with French and Arabic editions of the newsletter. Internet access is still extremely low in Africa and we would like to produce audio versions of the newsletter for broadcast via local radio stations. We also hope to expand our use of SMS services to reach those without internet access. This year we have already begun producing a series of ‘social justice readers’ on peace and security, regional integration, gender, trade, debt and the millennium development goals. You can help support us and make these plans possible by donating at http://www.pambazuka.org/en/donate.php

To mark the 200th edition of Pambazuka News, we have published a collection of editorials that appeared in the newsletter during 2004. ‘African Voices on Development and Social Justice’ can be ordered directly from the publishers (see details below) for only US $15. If you can’t afford that, you can always read the editorials for free at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Pambazuka News has been successful because of our readers. So a big thank you and congratulations to you all on this 200th edition.

COMMENTS ON 200TH EDITION OF PAMBAZUKA NEWS

1. I consider Pambazuka News an indispensable source of news and analysis for anyone interested in Africa. I've enthusiastically recommended it not only here in Canada but to all my contacts and listservs around the world. It's an invaluable service, and I never fail to put aside time for it each week. I'd be lost without it. – Gerald Caplan

2. Thursday evening/Friday morning is Pambazuka time. A weekly source of information and inspiration, offering a wealth of facts and a variety of opinions on a wide range of relevant issues. Pambazuka News has become a regular part of my intellectual diet in office, through which I access insights into African affairs otherwise difficult to obtain. I am particularly proud to have the honour to be associated as one of the active contributors to this truly African discussion forum. It offers me a forum to share my analyses and views with thousands of committed activists, who all have the people of Africa at their heart and in their mind. - Viva Pambazuka!" - Henning Melber, Research Director at the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala/Sweden

3. On the occasion of the 200th edition of Pambazuka News, I must congratulate you all for your continued commitment and dedication by giving the readers excellent analytical editorials and information, not merely related to Africa, but relevant to the rest of the world, also. – Reggie Gomes

4. I find the Pambazuka News extremely well done. It contains a lot of interesting reading and useful information. Please continue! - Bosse Hammarström

5. I would like to congratulate the editorial team of Pambazuka News on the important land mark of reaching 200th edition. The online magazine has become required reading and a reliable reference point, but above all a very useful forum not just for those who are interested in social justice and social change in Africa but those directly engaged in the struggles. It is an interface between, to paraphrase a Philosopher not often quoted these days, Karl Marx, 'those who interpret the world' and those who have taken up the challenge of 'changing it'. A confluence for scholarship and activism that does neither sacrifice the rigor of analysis not the optimism of commitment. Aluta continua. - Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem

6. Congratulations on reaching the 200th issue of Pambazuka News. Being in the publishing business, I know what it means not only getting material to publish but also getting it right and disseminating it in time to beat the deadlines. All people interested in African issues must, as I do, find Pambazuka News an indispensable resource for clear, concise and engaging discussions as well as background analyses to contemporary African issues. Now that we have published Pambazuka’s editorials for 2004 (African Voices on Development and Social Justice), it is an added resource for researchers and activists wishing to keep up with events. Pambazuka News is to be congratulated for a job well done. - Walter Bgoya, Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, Tanzania.

7. Bon Anniversaire, I'm glad to wish to Pambazuka News many, many good things and a long long life in cyberspace - Your work is very important for me because I have some difficulty to have real information about the human rights situation in the world and you give me more opportunity to express my point of view and to know what others are thinking. Information is power and when you send to us the news it is like you send to us some power, the power to know what's happening. I'm from a French country, but the effort I make to understand what you write and to say what I want to tell makes me so happy, it's a good exercise!!! May God bless all staff of Pambazuka news. Kisssssssssss from Kinshasa in DRC (the heart of Africa) - Christy-A. Masamba

8. There is no richer source of breaking information and analysis about Africa than Pambazuka. Thanks for your 200 gems, they are required reading at our Centre for Civil Society in Durban! - Patrick Bond, director, CCS (http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs)."

9. Pambazuka News is for me a real site of a politics from the point of African peoples, from a distance from African states; it is a site which allows militants for a better Africa to find and proclaim the conditions of that politics on the basis of fidelity to the daily defense of peoples' rights, people's resistance to inhumanity and thus to the fidelity to the equality of humanity. The site allows people to read the infinity of situations facing African peoples in view of sorting out possibilities of the ways out. – Ernest Wamba dia Wamba

10. We have found Pambazuka to be an invaluable source of commentary and news about Africa from an African point of view. We are proud to be associated with your initiative and wish you every success in the coming years. - Sarah Hobson, Executive Director, New Field Foundation

11. On March 31, Pambazuka News will release its 200th edition. Their staff deserves a hearty congratulation. Published by Fahamu, the substantive well-written weekly e-newsletter unites civil society across Africa with coverage of regional policy and politics, plus development, gender and human rights issues. Pambazuka means arise or awaken in Kiswahili. Pambazuka now has over 15,000 subscribers across Africa and around the world. If you are a social entrepreneur in Africa--or work on African issues--you should be reading this free newsletter. - Michael Chertok (http://www.socialedge.org/socialsector/)

POEM READ OUT BY HUGH BAILEY, UK MP, AT THE OCCASION OF THE LAUNCH OF ‘AFRICAN VOICES ON DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: EDITORIALS FROM PAMBAZUKA NEWS 2004’

Albert and Elsie Ramsbotton
Went to Scarborough for the day.
A cold wind blew along the beach.
The sky were overcast and grey.

The place was about as miserable
As a seaside place can get.
Their hands were froze, the pubs were closed,
And their fish and chips got wet.

“I’m right fed up with England,”
Said Albert to the wife.
“Let’s take a package to the sun
And see a bit of life.”

They’d only been abroad before
On a weekend trip to Bruges
And that were not to broaden minds
It were more for fags and booze.

It were Elsie’s life ambition
To see a wild elephant
So they safaried to Malawi
Although it broke the bank.

And as they drove around the place
On their big game package tour
They saw the animals had lots to eat
But the people were very poor.

A beggar boy called Cholo
Showed Mrs. R. his stump.
“Get out of it!” said Mr. R.
He gave the lad a thump.

But Elsie’s heart were tender.
She overcame her fears.
“Take this,” she said, “a crust of bread.”
Her eyes were filled with tears.

Then up jumped little Cholo
And this is what he said,
“I want a proper breakfast.
“You can stuff your crust of bread.”

“The bugger’s got no manners,”
Said Albert, quite put out.
He turned bright red. He grabbed the bread.
The little lad got nowt.

But, like us all, the Ramsbottoms
Were kindly folks at heart.
They never thought perhaps they’d got
The horse behind the cart.

When they got home to Yorkshire
Albert went out to get some beer
So Elsie put on t’telly
And this is what she heard:

The news from Africa was bad.
The people had no food.
A church group were protesting
But it wouldn’t do much good.

The vicar guy went on and on
About basic human needs.
It were all above her head
About GMOs and seeds.

But one thing stuck in Elsie’s mind
About the rich world’s aid.
We’ve lent so much to Africa
It’ll never be repaid.

Pambazuka News had summed it up.
With a two liner from a hack,
“For every pound we give to them
Our banks take two pounds back.

Now Albert and Elsie Ramsbottom
Are trying to work out
What death disease and refugees
And life are all about.

So this story has a moral,
Although it’s rather strange you see,
The people who have got to change
Are really you and me.

Hugh Bayley MP
(After Alistair Beaton)

ORDERING INFORMATION FOR ‘AFRICAN VOICES ON DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE’

SPECIAL PROMOTION FOR PAMBAZUKA NEWS SUBSCRIBERS

Readers in Africa can obtain a copy of the book from Mkuki na Nyota Publishers (see below) for US$ 15.

Subscribers elsewhere can buy the book for UK Pounds 10 (normal price 17.95 pounds) for a limited period ­ until 30 April ­ provided you can prove that you are a subscriber to Pambazuka News. You must quote the words "Pambazuka News Subscriber Offer" and include your email address (so we can check whether you are a subscriber) and send your order to [email][email protected]
ISBN 9987417353 304pp. 2005 Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, Tanzania (Editorials
from Pambazuka News series, 1)

North America: $34.95
UK, Europe, rest of the world: £17.95

Ordering information

Africa: $15
Mkuki na Nyota Publishers
PO Box 4246, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Tel/fax: +255-22 2180479
Email: [email][email protected]

North America: $34.95
Michigan State University Press
1405 South Harrison Road
25 Manly Miles Building
East Lansing, MI 48823-5245, USA
Tel: +1-517 355 9543
Fax: +1-517 432 2611, 800-678 2120
Email: [email][email protected]
www.africanbookscollective.com

Dr Yilmaz Akyuz, former Chief Economist of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and currently Senior Research Fellow with the Third World Network, has recommended that the IMF should get out of development finance and return to its original mandate of short-term lending for countries in current account difficulty, according to an article from TWN's webiste. "On its part, the World Bank should become a proper bank again, relieved of its concessional lending window through which it has been able to exercise political influence over the affairs of developing countries." Speaking at a four day strategy meeting in Accra, Ghana, of eighty civil society organisations from across the world, Akyuz explained that the two institutions have strayed far away from their original mandates.