The first anniversary celebration of the life and legacy of Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, pan-African friend, comrade, brother and inspiration to so many, is to be held in London on:

Date: Saturday 22 May 2010
Venue: Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre,
17 – 25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA
Time: 1pm - 6pm

The celebration is open to the public and all are welcome to attend.

The celebration is jointly organised, in the spirit of Pan-Africanism, by friends of Tajudeen, including his widow Mounira Chaieb, Justice Africa, the Centre for Democracy and Development, the Pan African Development Education and Advocacy Programme, the Royal African Society and Pambazuka News.

The day will comprise speeches on the life and works of Tajudeen, the launch of a book of the compilation of Tajudeen’s postcards entitled , performance poetry and traditional African music and the launch of the Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem Educational Trust.

We welcome all other organisations, groups and persons who wish to join our efforts to honour and continue the work of Tajudeen.

'Forward ever, backward never' Kwame Nkrumah (1909–72)
'Don't agonise, organise!' Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (1961–2009)

Pambazuka Press is thrilled to announce the release of . With the first anniversary of his passing approaching on African Liberation Day on 25 May, 'Speaking Truth to Power' captures Tajudeen's inimitable voice, sharp intellect and irrepressible humour. The following article comprises the preface to the book, written by former secretary-general of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Salim Ahmed Salim in honour of Tajudeen's enormous contribution to Pan-Africanism.

As part of his investigation into the country's post-election violence in 2008, International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's visit to Kenya this week 'will be important symbolically – particularly in terms of how it is received and responded to by the relevant state agencies, departments and ministries', writes L. Muthoni Wanyeki. But will it secure the accountability needed to ensure that this never happens again?

Since the dawn of time, Africans have had a conception of the universe in which there was ‘no separation between spirit and matter’ and it was ‘impossible to develop ideas of domination over nature’, writes Horace Campbell. While this world view was considered ‘backward and primitive’ in comparison with Western materialism and the perceived objectivity of enlightenment approaches, ecological crises and new developments in physics suggest that African theories on ‘the relationship between spirit and matter are not backwardness’ after all.

Concerned by the resurgence of hate speech in Kenya, L. Muthoni Wanyeki decries the negativity directed at the Muslim community in the debate around the Kadhi's courts.

There is much uncertainty around the 2 March arrest of Agathe Habyarimana, widow of former Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana. Following a visit to Rwanda by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Agathe was arrested and subsequently released on bail, writes Horace Campbell, a turn of events that appears but a part of the murky collusion between Rwanda and France around the militarisation of the eastern DR Congo.

The ambassador of the Republic of Congo to Cuba, Pascal Onguemby, rejected the lies included in an anti-Cuba resolution recently approved by the European Parliament. Addressing participants in the inauguration of the Eleventh International Conference on African Culture in the Americas that began today in Santiago de Cuba, the African diplomat spoke on behalf of the ambassadors from Burkina Faso, Cape Verde and Mozambique, as well as the cultural attaché from Angola.

KONI – The Panafrican Alliance of Colombia is a non-governmental organization based in Bogota. In the spirit of pan African solidarity and cooperation, Koni has designed and availed a platform of technologies and tools for the exchange of ideas, methodologies and strategies of development on the African continent, and its Diaspora in Colombia

The Oxfam International Liaison office with the African Union (OIAU) would like to put a call for civil society actors or staff of locally constituted NGOs, and coalitions of organizations who have the mandate and plan to engage the African Union, to be present in Addis Ababa and conduct their work. This secondment call is to enable committed and often disenfranchised communities’ representative to get the opportunity to meet the policy and decision makers at the AU Commission.

Pambazuka Press is planning to publish a Pan-African activists' diary for 2011. The diary will be a handbook of key information about Pan-African history, quotations from thinkers and activists (women and men) in Africa and the diaspora, pictures of critical events in our past, information about key events during 2011, and lots more.

EVENTS

If you would like us to include events – meetings, conferences, festivals, actions, courses, publications etc - that your organisation is planning to hold in 2011, please send details to panafdiary [at] pambazuka [dot] org.

QUOTATIONS

If you would like to suggest quotations for publication in the diary, please send them to panafdiary [at] pambazuka [dot]org. Make sure you include the source of each quote so that those who want to read more will know where to find it.

SUGGESTIONS

If you have suggestions about information you would like to see in the diary, please send them to panafdiary[at] pambazuka [dot] org.

Help make this diary the essential handbook for all activists in Africa and the diaspora. Make sure you get your recommendations in to us by 14 April 2010. Don’t be left out – let us know what events you are planning for 2011.

We can’t guarantee that we will include everything you suggest, but we’ll do our best!

The 2011 Pan-African Diary: the essential tool for freedom and justice!

Pambazuka Press is delighted to announce that Marcelino Dos Santos, Mozambiquan poet, revolutionary and founder of FRELIMO (Mozambican Liberation Front) will launch , edited by Chambi Chachage and Annar Cassam, at the Second Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week (12-15 April 2010).

This week's review of African blogs includes a call to reexamine links between Africa and its diaspora, a lament about technology's negative impact on the Kenyan blogosphere, Ghana's first indigenous language blog and Kenya's very own superhero, Makmende.

Nkrumah Hall – University of Dar es Salaam

- A week of reflections on the 1967 Arusha Declaration
- Hon. Ms Samia Nkrumah will be the guest of honour. She will deliver a lecture on 'Reflections on Osagyefo: Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s Pan-African vision'
- Distinguished 2010 Nyerere lecturer Professor Samir Amin will deliver lectures on 'Crisis of capitalism and imperialism' and 'Exiting from capitalism in crisis: Initiatives in the global South'
- Interactive dialogues on 'The Arusha declaration and socialism and rural development'
- Professor Utsa Patnaik will speak on 'The agrarian question in the neoliberal era'
- Marcelino Dos Santos, Mozambiquan poet, revolutionary and founder of FRELIMO will launch

Following Muammar al-Gaddafi's suggestion of a break-up of Nigeria in the wake of the crisis around Jos, Horace Campbell unpacks the Libyan leader's claims to operate in the interests of African unity.

Pambazuka Press is planning to publish a Pan-African activists' diary for 2011. The diary will be a handbook of key information about Pan-African history, quotations from thinkers and activists (women and men) in Africa and the diaspora, pictures of critical events in our past, information about key events during 2011, and lots more.

EVENTS

If you would like us to include events – meetings, conferences, festivals, actions, courses, publications etc - that your organisation is planning to hold in 2011, please send details to panafdiary [at] pambazuka [dot] org.

QUOTATIONS

If you would like to suggest quotations for publication in the diary, please send them to panafdiary [at] pambazuka [dot]org. Make sure you include the source of each quote so that those who want to read more will know where to find it.

SUGGESTIONS

If you have suggestions about information you would like to see in the diary, please send them to panafdiary[at] pambazuka [dot] org.

Help make this diary the essential handbook for all activists in Africa and the diaspora. Make sure you get your recommendations in to us by 14 April 2010. Don’t be left out – let us know what events you are planning for 2011.

We can’t guarantee that we will include everything you suggest, but we’ll do our best!

The 2011 Pan-African Diary: the essential tool for freedom and justice!

Pambazuka Press is planning to publish a Pan-African activists' diary for 2011. The diary will be a handbook of key information about Pan-African history, quotations from thinkers and activists (women and men) in Africa and the diaspora, pictures of critical events in our past, information about key events during 2011, and lots more.

EVENTS

If you would like us to include events – meetings, conferences, festivals, actions, courses, publications etc - that your organisation is planning to hold in 2011, please send details to panafdiary [at] pambazuka [dot] org.

QUOTATIONS

If you would like to suggest quotations for publication in the diary, please send them to panafdiary [at] pambazuka [dot]org. Make sure you include the source of each quote so that those who want to read more will know where to find it.

SUGGESTIONS

If you have suggestions about information you would like to see in the diary, please send them to panafdiary[at] pambazuka [dot] org.

Help make this diary the essential handbook for all activists in Africa and the diaspora. Make sure you get your recommendations in to us by 14 April 2010. Don’t be left out – let us know what events you are planning for 2011.

We can’t guarantee that we will include everything you suggest, but we’ll do our best!

The 2011 Pan-African Diary: the essential tool for freedom and justice!

As the cultural and political world of the old ruling forces in Nigeria collapses, Horace Campbell calls for the country to look to the work of visionary leaders like the late Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem to create ‘new definitions of independence and emancipation’. Nigerians of all classes should ‘tap into the inherent strength of their linguistic and religious diversity,’ says Campbell, ‘and organise from the grassroots’ to bring about the ‘transformation that the country yearns for’.

While debate on Kenya's constitution could theoretically be open, L. Muthoni Wanyeki laments the lack of honest discussion around taking it forward.

Following the tragic killings of predominantly women and children in Jos, Nigeria, on 8 March's International Women's Day, Horace Campbell honours the memory of the victims along with 'the millions of poor women whose lives are devalued everyday'.

Pambazuka Press is planning to publish a Pan-African activists' diary for 2011. The diary will be a handbook of key information about Pan-African history, quotations from thinkers and activists (women and men) in Africa and the diaspora, pictures of critical events in our past, information about key events during 2011, and lots more.

EVENTS

If you would like us to include events – meetings, conferences, festivals, actions, courses, publications etc - that your organisation is planning to hold in 2011, please send details to panafdiary [at] pambazuka [dot] org.

QUOTATIONS

If you would like to suggest quotations for publication in the diary, please send them to panafdiary [at] pambazuka [dot]org. Make sure you include the source of each quote so that those who want to read more will know where to find it.

SUGGESTIONS

If you have suggestions about information you would like to see in the diary, please send them to panafdiary[at] pambazuka [dot] org.

Help make this diary the essential handbook for all activists in Africa and the diaspora. Make sure you get your recommendations in to us by 14 April 2010. Don’t be left out – let us know what events you are planning for 2011.

We can’t guarantee that we will include everything you suggest, but we’ll do our best!

The 2011 Pan-African Diary: the essential tool for freedom and justice!