The authoritative electronic weekly newsletter and platform for social justice in Africa
Pambazuka News (English edition): ISSN 1753-6839
CONTENTS:
1. Announcements, 2. Zimbabwe update, 3. Women & gender, 4. Human rights, 5. Refugees & forced migration, 6. Africa labour news, 7. Emerging powers news, 8. Elections & governance, 9. Corruption, 10. Development, 11. Health & HIV/AIDS, 12. Education, 13. LGBTI, 14. Environment, 15. Land & land rights, 16. Food Justice, 17. Media & freedom of expression, 18. News from the diaspora, 19. Conflict & emergencies, 20. Internet & technology, 21. eNewsletters & mailing lists, 22. Courses, seminars, & workshops
Help Pambazuka News become independent. Become a supporting subscriber by taking out a paid subscription. Donate $30 a year (www.pambazuka.org/en/donate.php) .
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Highlights from this issue
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Fahamu Pan-African diary 2011: Call for entries
ZIMBABWE UPDATE: ZANU PF at it again!
WOMEN & GENDER: Gender justice and local government awards
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Senegalese rebels call for negotiation
HUMAN RIGHTS: Ethiopia repression rising ahead of May election
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Kenya IDPs boycott voter registration
EMERGING POWERS NEWS: Emerging powers news roundup
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Annan meets Kenyan president
HEALTH & HIV/AIDS: Burundi gets US$ 135m from Global Fund
CORRUPTION: Strengthening good governance in Egypt
DEVELOPMENT: How can Ghana avoid oil curse?
EDUCATION: Poor governance jeopardizes education
LGBTI: Tsvangirai rejects gay rights move
ENVIRONMENT: Web campaign against Ethiopia?s Gibe III Dam
LAND & LAND RIGHTS: Botswana?s Bushmen mark eight years without water
FOOD JUSTICE: UN recognizes peasant rights
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Nigerian Islamic court bans Twitter feed
SOCIAL WELFARE: Africa still home to two-thirds of world?s slum population
NEWS FROM THE DIASPORA: Haiti: Where solidarity means survival
INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY: Google Code Jam 2010
ENEWSLETTERS & MAILING LISTS: AfricaFocus Bulletin: South Africa:
Coal-fired denialism
PLUS: jobs, fundraising & useful resources, publications, courses,
seminars and workshops
*Pambazuka News now has a Del.icio.us page, where you can view the
various websites that we visit to keep our fingers on the pulse of
Africa! Visit del.icio.us/pambazuka_news
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1 Announcements
AFRICA INITIATIVE PRESENTS ‘AFRICA AND CHINA IN THE 21ST CENTURY?
The Search for a Mutually Beneficial Relationship (Symposium, 8-10 April 2010)
Africa Initiative
The Africa Initiative of Syracuse University (
africainitiative.syr.edu/ ) , in collaboration with Fahamu
Networks for Social Justice ( www.fahamu.org/ ) , will host
?Africa and China in the 21st Century: The Search for a Mutually
Beneficial Relationship?, a three-day symposium from 8-10 April, in
the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The symposium
will feature progressive intellectuals and scholars from North
America, China and Africa, gathering to deliberate on the nature and
future of Sino-African relations. The symposium is free and open to
the public; a full schedule of events will be posted to the Africa
Initiative ( africainitiative.syr.edu/ ) website in the coming
days.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/Announce/63307
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SECOND JULIUS NYERERE INTELLECTUAL FESTIVAL WEEK (12?15 APRIL 2010)
Second Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week (
udadisi.blogspot.com/2009/04/glimpse-of-julius-nyerere-intellectual.html
)
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’
– Launching of ‘Africa’s Liberation: The Legacy of Nyerere’ (
fahamubooks.org/book/?GCOI=90638100929850 )
– The premier of the documentary ‘Walter Anthony Rodney Stories’
– Music, songs and poems by famous performers
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PAN-AFRICAN DIARY 2011: CALL FOR ENTRIES
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!
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2 Zimbabwe update
ZANU PF AT IT AGAIN!
zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=6530&cat=3
The police have for the past two weeks arrested scores of MDC
supporters across the country on trumped-up charges in a worrying
partisan move as cases of Zanu PF-instigated violence against MDC
members are on the increase.
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ZESN?S POSITION ON THE CALL FOR ELECTIONS
www.zesn.org.zw/newsflash_view.cfm?nfid=69
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) a network of 30
nongovernmental organizations promoting democratic elections in
Zimbabwe has noted pronouncements by senior politicians on the holding
of elections in 2011. These calls for elections come amid the
constitutional reform process which has the potential to alter
Zimbabwe?s political landscape.
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ZUMA SAYS GOVERNMENT DIVIDED BY SANCTIONS
zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=6532&cat=1
South African President Jacob Zuma urged Western nations to lift
targeted sanctions against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his
allies, saying they were undermining the nation?s coalition
government. ?We don?t need these sanctions now,? Zuma told lawmakers
in Parliament in Cape Town.
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3 Women & gender
AFRICA: GENDER JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SUMMIT AWARDS
The first ever gender justice and local government summit closed in
Johannesburg on 24 March 2010 with awards to five women and four men
whose work on the ground won the highest accolades from judges and
participants during presentations made earlier this week.
The summit featured 103 entries from ten countries in a variety of
categories including prevention, response, support, individual
innovation, institutional good practices, specific GBV campaigns and
innovative communication strategies.
Under the banner ?score a goal for gender equality, halve gender
violence by 2015? the conference brought together journalists, local
government authorities, municipalities, NGOs and representatives of
ministries of gender and local government.
On the evening of 24 March 2010, Gender Links awarded nine winners and
nine runners up awards at a colourful gala dinner that was held at the
City of Johannesburg offices, Reception Room. Video footage
documenting some of the grassroots initiatives were shown. Footage can
be made available on request.
The judges also made their choice and a winner and three runners up
were awarded. Annex A provides names of all the winners in the
different categories.
Please see here (
www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/475/genderjustice.pdf ) for
full details of the awards and winners.
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ETHIOPIA: MITIGATING RISK OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
27-30 April, Addis Ababa
The Women?s Refugee Commission with support from the U.S. Department
of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration is conducting a
participatory four-day national-level workshop on operationalizing
protection into livelihood and household energy programs for displaced
populations in Ethiopia. The workshop is aimed at staff from
governments, donor agencies, and NGOs working in Ethiopia.
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GLOBAL: CIVIL SOCIETY GROUP TO HELP ADVISE UN ON ROLE OF WOMEN IN
PEACE AND SECURITY
www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33992
The United Nations has invited a newly established group of
independent experts to advise on ways to better protect women in
conflict situations, and to ensure that their voices are heard in
peace processes and that they are included in post-conflict
reconstruction and governance structures.
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SOUTH AFRICA: TREATMENT FIRST, CASE NUMBER LATER
www.buanews.gov.za/news/10/10032614251001
Rape victims will no longer need a case number before getting
treatment at health institutions said Health Minister, Dr Aaron
Motsoaledi. Motsoaledi said when a rape victim arrives at a health
institution, they won’t be asked to produce a case number before being
treated.
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SOUTHERN AFRICA: CELEBRATING LOCAL SUCCESSES AGAINST GENDER VIOLENCE
Communities across Southern Africa are fighting an uphill battle
against gender violence. Among other challenges, economic
inequalities, cultural attitudes, and media stereotypes all hamper
turning the tide. However, looking at the approximately 200
participants from ten countries who took part in the first Southern
Africa Local Government and Gender Justice Summit and Awards held in
Johannesburg 22-24 March, it?s clear that making a difference is more
than possible when individuals, communities, and governments put their
heads and hands together.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/wgender/63316
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4 Human rights
AFRICA: TWO-PRONGED CAMPAIGN AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING LAUNCHED
Campaign against human trafficking – Africa has launched a new
two-pronged campaign to address the challenges of trafficking in
persons, particularly women and children, thr o ugh regional workshops
and the launching of the African Union’s Initiative against
Trafficking (COMMIT) in the Regional Economic Communities (RECs).
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BURUNDI: PREVENT AND PUNISH ?MOB JUSTICE?
www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/03/25/burundi-prevent-and-punish-mob-justice
Mob attacks on suspected criminals in Burundi, often with official
complicity, led to at least 75 killings in 2009, Human Rights Watch
and the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detained
Persons (APRODH) said in a report released today. The government of
Burundi should end official involvement in “mob justice” and should
hold perpetrators accountable, Human Rights Watch and APRODH said.
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ETHIOPIA: REPRESSION RISING AHEAD OF MAY ELECTIONS
The Ethiopian government is waging a coordinated and sustained attack
on political opponents, journalists, and rights activists ahead of the
May 2010 elections, Human Rights Watch said in a report. On May 23,
2010, Ethiopians will vote in the first parliamentary elections in
Ethiopia since 2005, when the post-election period was marred by
controversy and bloodshed.
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GHANA: PAYING FAMILIES TO CURB CHILD TRAFFICKING
www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88521
Eight-year-old Nana Yaw, who is being treated at Central Region?s
Winneba Government Hospital for a severe respiratory infection, was
sold by his mother for US$50 in 2008. For nearly two years his owners
forced him to dive for several hours a day to collect fishing nets in
Lake Volta.
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SOUTH AFRICA: NEED FOR EVIDENCE TO ASSESS WORLD CUP TRAFFICKING CONCERNS
www.issafrica.org/iss_today.php?ID=917
Several anti-trafficking campaigns have been initiated in South Africa
ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup. These campaigns intend to prevent
individuals from being trafficked by raising awareness about this
exploitative practice and providing information about the danger it
presents. Anti-trafficking initiatives are important, but it is
equally important that the information presented in these campaigns is
accurate and based on evidence, rather than merely aiming to instill
fear and outrage.
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UGANDA: BEARING THE PAINS OF DOUBLE DISCRIMINATION
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50795
They endure stigma, discrimination, violence and extreme poverty, but
Ugandan women living with disabilities say the greatest challenge
facing them centres on their reproductive health. “In addition to the
impacts of physical, mental, intellectual and sensor impairments, we
are double discriminated (against), first as women, and then as
disabled,” said Beatrice Guzu, executive secretary of the National
Organisation of Women with Disabilities in Uganda.
******
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5 Refugees & forced migration
KENYA: IDPS TO BOYCOTT VOTER REGISTRATION
As voter registration kicked off all over the country in Kenya, the
Internally displaced people, especially in Eldoret were considering to
boycott the whole process altogether due to what they term as lack of
confidence in the electoral system in kenya.
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KENYA: URBAN REFUGEES FACE HARASSMENT
Tens of thousands of refugees seeking safety in Kenya?s capital
Nairobi are confronted with police harassment, exposure to criminal
violence and a severe lack of livelihoods opportunities says a new
report by the Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG), International Rescue
Committee (IRC) and Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK).
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SOMALIA: CAMP LEADERS ARE DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES
www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88558
Managing camps for displaced people is usually a complex business
involving aid agencies, governments and elaborate coordination
mechanisms. Not in Somalia, however, where years of violence have
forced hundreds of thousands of people to take refuge in remote camps
that are largely inaccessible to agencies or the authorities.
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SOMALIA: DUSTY AND DISORIENTED – ONE WOMAN?S JOURNEY TO DADAAB
www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88537
One minute Halimo Mohamed, 40, was at home with her children, the next
she was on the move, fleeing violence in Somalia’s capital, after her
Karan neighbourhood, in north Mogadishu, was hit by a barrage of
shells, killing dozens and destroying homes, including hers. After
dodging militia, struggling to find food and sometimes being forced to
walk, she and three of her five children finally arrived on 17 March
at Dadaab, a refugee camp in northern Kenya.
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SOMALIA: GOVERNMENT FORCES DEMOLISH IDPS HOMES
Somali government forces have destroyed some 500 homes near the main
airport in Mogadishu, capital of the lawless and war-torn nation,
Somalia, because of security concerns. About 1000 displaced people,
who were demolished their houses on Thursday, are homeless and sitting
the open in the Afisoyoni villag
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SOUTH AFRICA: COURT ORDERS HOME AFFAIRS TO RELEASE AFGHAN FAMILY
The Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday ordered the immediate release
of a family of eight asylum seekers who fled the Taliban in
Afghanistan, after more than four months in detention and numerous
attempts by Home Affairs to illegally return them to Afghanistan. The
two parents, their five minor children, and the oldest daughter?s
fianc?, also a minor, were arrested separately at the OR Tambo Airport
following attempts to join family members in France who were also
refugees.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/refugees/63308
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UGANDA: INNOCENT ROKUNDO, “WILL THEY SEND ME HOME?”
www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88555
Innocent Rokundo, 42, is a Rwandan who has lived in a refugee camp in
western Uganda for the past 15 years. He fled his country during the
1994 genocide with his wife. She returned to Rwanda in 1996, but he
has had no contact with her since.
******
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6 Africa labour news
SOIUTH AFRICA: MINERS STRIKE ENTERS 4TH DAY
af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE62P0BJ20100326
A strike by mineworkers at South Africa’s Gold One stretched into a
fourth day after workers and management failed to agree on a pay rise.
About 1,000 mineworkers at the company’s Modder East mine, some 30km
east of Johannesburg, downed tools on Tuesday night in a wage protest.
******
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7 Emerging powers news
CHINA TO CEMENT GRAND AFRICAN RESEARCH PLANS
China will flesh out the details of its joint research programme with
Africa at a meeting in Beijing next week. The Forum on China?Africa
Cooperation (FOCAC), which includes 49 African countries, plans to
implement several large-scale science and technology projects across
Africa in the next three years
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EAST AFRICA: SANGHI EYES KENYA FOR EXPANSION
Gujarat-based Sanghi Industries, part of the Rs 4,500-crore Sanghi
Group, has bought land in Kenya to build a cement plant, making it the
first Indian company to do so in the east African country. Sanghi
plans to build a 1.2-million-tonne cement plant, along with local
partnership, in a bid to cater to a growing African market and to also
serve neighbouring countries, said people connected with the
development.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/emplayersnews/63309
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EMERGING POWERS NEWS ROUNDUP
In this week’s roundup of emerging actors news, CNN pioneers its
Africa business programme Market Place Africa, China-Nigeria trade
ties continue to strengthen, 60 Indian firms express interest in
Zambia for investing, and BRICs unlikely to push for a new global
reserve currency.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/emplayersnews/63420
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WHAT DOES CHINA WANT?
Today, China is indeed a world power in every sense of the word and it
is unimaginable that up till now, the country is still being referred
to as an emerging economic power. China seems not bothered about the
appellation out of conviction that if she continues with her
developmental efforts and gets more countries, especially those in the
third world, to come along with her in terms of patronage; she too
would continue to be a force to reckon wit
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/emplayersnews/63421
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8 Elections & governance
COTE D’IVOIRE: UN MISSION APPEALS FOR PEACE
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Cote
d’lvoire, Choi Young-jin, has appealed for peace this week in the
run-up to the country’s first presidential elections since 2005.The UN
mission chief made the appeal in a statement on Thursday.
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EGYPT: SECURITY USE FORCE TO DISPERSE ACTIVISTS
af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE62P01420100326
Egyptian state security prevented activists from holding a symbolic
“trial” of Egypt’s ruling party on Thursday, using force to disperse
those who tried to resist, activists said. Security men in civilian
clothes beat some of the activists who gathered to hold the event at a
lawyers’ club south of Cairo.
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KENYA: ANNAN MEETS PRESIDENT
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Thursday in Nairobi met and held talks
with Kofi Annan, a member of the Panel of Eminent African
Personalities and Chief mediator at the 2008 peace talks which ended
the post-election violence in Kenya. Annan, former United Nations
secretary-general, also met Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
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NIGERIA: ACTING PRESIDENT NOMINATES 25 MINISTERS-DESIGNATE
Nigeria’s Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has sent the list of the
first batch of 25 ministerial-nominees to the upper legislative
chamber, the Senate, for clearance. vOut of the 25, three served as
Ministers while four were Ministers of State in t he 42-member cabinet
which was dissolved 17 March.
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RWANDA: OPPOSITION LEADER PREVENTED FROM LEAVING THE COUNTRY
Mrs Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, chairperson of the opposition United
Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi) and candidate in Rwanda’s August
presidential election, was on Wednesday prevented from leaving the
country after she was questioned for several hours at the Criminal
Investigations Department (CID)for alleged comments likely to stir up
hatred and genocide, police sources told PANA in Kigali.
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TOGO: POLICE DISPERSE OPPOSITION DEMONSTRATION
An evening of prayers and chants held in the Togolese capital, Lome,
by supporters of the umbrella opposition group, Republican Front for
Revival and Change (FRAC), was violently dispersed by the security
forces using tear gas.
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WEST AFRICA: TOGO OUTLAWS PROTESTS AGAINST ELECTIONS RESULTS
af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE62P09M20100326
Togo’s government has outlawed further demonstrations against the
results of a March 4 presidential election, which opposition leaders
say was rigged to favour the incumbent. The decree came a day ahead of
a scheduled opposition rally in the seaside capital of Lome,
escalating tensions in the West African state whose election had been
widely seen as a test for regional democracy.
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9 Corruption
EGYPT: STRENGTHENING GOOD GOVERNANCE
Major corruption loopholes are jeopardising Egypt?s attempts to combat
the problem despite the existence of a broad range of anti-corruption
laws and regulations, according to a new report released today by
Transparency International (TI).
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SOMALIA: ‘NO EVIDENCE’ WFP’S FOOD AID DIVERTED
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8588061.stm
The UN World Food Programme has denied a claim that up to half the
food aid to Somalia was being diverted to Islamist militants and
corrupt contractors. WFP officials said there was no evidence to back
up the claim made in a report by a UN monitoring group.
******
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10 Development
AFRICA: CAN GHANA AVOID THE OIL CURSE
blogs.reuters.com/africanews/2010/03/25/can-ghana-avoid-the-oil-curse/
ith a democratic touch rare in a region better known for dictators,
Ghana is asking its citizens what it should do with the windfall from
oil production due to start later this year. In a questionnaire
entitled ?The Use and Management of Oil and Gas Revenues ? A Survey of
Public Choices? posted on the finance ministry website this week,
Ghana says oil-producer nations face major questions.
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AFRICA: LACK OF ADEQUATE INFRASTRUCTURE ‘HINDERS GROWTH’
Malawi has said Africa needs to focus on regional infrastructural
development, in energy and water resources management if the continent
is to realise its true growth potential, PANA reported from here
Wednesday.
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AFRICA: SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME: THE CFA FRANC
www.thefrontiertelegraph.com/content/012908/slavery.html
Welcome to the Communaut? Financi?re de l’Afrique ( CFA ), where this
is how things have been working for over sixty years. The January 2008
edition of the pan-African magazine, New African, reports that “the
tale of this currency is extraordinarily mind-numbing!” and inspires
this special commentary
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GLOBAL: AFRICAN GROUP AT UN CALLS FOR FULFILMENT OF DEVELOPMENT PLEDGES
The African Group at the UN has called for the immediate fulfilment of
all Official Development Assistance(ODA) commitment to Africa. The
group also urged the Group of Eight industrialised countrie (G-8) to
redeem its pledge to double by 2010, official assistance to the
continent.
******
GLOBAL: SOLAR POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
As technological obstacles to the efficient use of solar energy
diminish, economic and political challenges remain to its widespread
adoption by the poor. “The sun occupies centre stage, as it should,
being literally the original source of all energy,” said India’s prime
minister, Manmohan Singh, describing an action plan for India’s
national strategy on climate change, in June 2008.
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GLOBAL: WHITHER AFRICAN COTTON PRODUCERS AFTER BRAZIL?S SUCCESS?
www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=50755
African cotton-producing countries hope that Brazil?s intended
retaliation after its success at the World Trade Organisation?s (WTO)
dispute settlement body will have a positive spin-off for them but
seem reticent about pursuing a similar course of action against the
U.S. for its continued use of subsidies in cotton production.
******
GLOBAL: WORLD BANK AID FOR WATER-DEPRIVED COUNTRIES MISSES MOST
AFFLICTED – STUDY
The world’s most water-deprived countries are also receiving some of
the least help from the World Bank to improve conditions, according to
a study that the bank’s independent evaluators released on Monday. The
study said water shortages, being felt in more than 40 countries, are
at risk of getting worse.
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11 Health & HIV/AIDS
BURUNDI: GLOBAL FUND GRANTS US$ 135M TO FIGHT HIV/AIDS
Burundi will receive a grant of US$ 135 million over the next five
years, under the eighth round of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria, official sources said in Bujumbura. The
funds will be allocated to the “Intensification and Decentralization
Program me for the Fight against HIV/AIDS (PRIDE),” said Burundian
first Vice-President in charge of Political, Administrative and
Security Affairs, Yves Sahinguvu.
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GLOBAL: CIRCUMCISION MODESTLY REDUCES RISK OF MALE-TO-FEMALE HIV TRANSMISSION
www.aidsmap.com/en/news/73AB07DA-D050-4681-A39C-3F3012FD36A2.asp
Male circumcision modestly reduces the risk of an HIV-positive man
transmitting HIV to a female sex partner, an analysis of the Partners
in Prevention study published in the journal AIDS suggests. The risk
of contracting HIV was 40% lower for the partners of circumcised men
than uncircumcised men, but this reduction in risk was not
statistically significant.
******
GLOBAL: WHEN IS WATER SAFE?
www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88508
Diarrhoea- inducing waterborne microbes often go undetected in parts
of the world with the highest rate of under-five deaths from
gastrointestinal infection. According to the UN Children’s Fund
(UNICEF), lack of water safety regulations, inter-ministerial
coordination and surveillance can paint a deceptively benign portrait
of water quality.
******
KENYA: SCHOOLCHILDREN SENT HOME AFTER CHOLERA SCARE
www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88577
Up to 11,000 students from various schools in Msambweni and Kwale
districts on Kenya’s coast have been forced to go home before the
Easter holidays after an outbreak of cholera in the region. Bridgide
Wambua, the Msambweni District Education Officer, told IRIN the
department decided to close down the schools to prevent more students
from contracting cholera and other waterborne ailments that had also
been reported.
******
SOUTH AFRICA: ART GUIDELINES UPDATED
www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20032714
South Africa’s antiretroviral treatment guidelines have been updated.
The guidelines offer a range of improvements over the 2004 guidelines
including new, more tolerable antiretrovirals, immediate ARV treatment
for drug-resistant TB patients and improved prevention of mother to
child transmission procedures.
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TANZANIA: EDUCATION CRUCIAL TO LOWERING HIV PREVALENCE
www.aidsmap.com/en/news/6963E75F-E023-4E3F-B737-FD4E9658C9FE.asp
HIV prevalence among Tanzanians who attended secondary school fell
sharply between 2004 and 2008, while remaining stable among the
country’s least educated people, a new study has revealed. “National
HIV prevalence has fallen recently in Tanzania. However, the
improvements have not been spread evenly throughout the population,”
James Hargreaves, senior lecturer in epidemiology at the London School
of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and lead author of the study, said.
******
UGANDA: WHO CHECKS SMALLPOX REPORTS
The World Health Organisation said today it was investigating reports
of suspected cases of the previously eradicated disease smallpox in
eastern Uganda. Smallpox is an acute contagious disease and was one of
the world?s most feared sicknesses until it was officially declared
eradicated worldwide in 1979.
******
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12 Education
AFRICA: POOR GOVERNANCE ‘JEOPARDISES PRIMARY EDUCATION’
Poor governance and management are jeopardising efforts to provide
quality basic education in seven African countries according to a new
report published today by Transparency International (TI).
******
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13 LGBTI
MALAWI: ACTIVISTS PROTEST IN LONDON
ilga.org/ilga/en/article/mlKxTCJ1bg
African and British human rights campaigners rallied outside the
Commonwealth?s head quarters in London on Monday 22 March. They were
protesting against the prosecution and imprisonment of the Malawian
same-sex couple, Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, on charges of
homosexuality, and against the Commonwealth?s failure to condemn their
arrest and detention in Chichiri prison.
******
SOUTH AFRICA: SOUTH AFRICA ‘NEEDS SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION OF ATTITUDES’
www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=southafrica&id=2537
Commemorating Freedom Day on 27 April, the Lesbian and Gay Equality
Project (LGEP) will be hosting a ?Freedom for all Rally? at the Eudy
Simelane Memorial Park (Kwa ? Thema), celebrating constitutional
freedoms by remembering all victims of hate crimes and demanding full
liberation in South Africa.
******
ZIMBABWE: PM MORGAN TSVANGIRAI REJECTS GAY RIGHTS MOVE
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8588548.stm
Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has joined President
Robert Mugabe in dismissing calls to enshrine gay rights in the new
constitution. “I totally agree with the president,” he said, state
media report.
******
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14 Environment
ETHIOPIA: WEB CAMPAIGN AGAINST GIBE III DAM
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8582682.stm
A group of international campaigners has launched an online petition
against Ethiopia’s huge Gibe III dam project. The group wants to put
pressure on Western donors and banks not to fund the dam, saying it
would destroy the livelihoods of some 500,000 people.
******
GLOBAL: STRENGTHEN MEASURES TO PROTECT FORESTS – FAO
Countries across the globe have been challenged to better manage and
conserve the forests in their areas as one of the commitments to the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to a comprehensive
forest review released today by the Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO), the rate of deforestation has slowed over the last 10 years,
but each year an area roughly the size of Costa Rica is still
destroyed.
******
SOUTH AFRICA: CAMPAIGN AGAINST NEW COAL MINES GATHERS MOMENTUM
towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1898/1/
In an indication that the global climate justice movement is becoming
broader, there is now intense opposition to a climate-destroying
energy loan for South Africa. The campaign?s leaders are community
activists in black townships allied with environmentalists, trade
unionists and international climate activists.
******
////////////////////////////////////
15 Land & land rights
BOTSWANA: BUSHMEN MARK EIGHT YEARS WITHOUT WATER
www.survivalinternational.org/news/5676
As the world marks World Water Day, the Gana and Gwi Bushmen of
Botswana are marking eight years without access to a regular supply of
water in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
******
MALI: THE RIGHT TO FOOD OF 30 PEASANT FAMILIES JEOPARDIZED IN N’TABACORO
Dozens of families on the outskirts of Bamako, the capital of Mali,
are under threat of being evicted from their lands by the Government
in favour of a housing project. The cultivation ban, ordered in July
2009, jeopardizes their right to adequate food. Moreover, if the
eviction is realized, it will hinder the ability of the families to
feed themselves in the long run.
******
SOUTH AFRICA: LAND POLICY TO LIMIT OWNERSHIP
South Africa?s government has drafted a new land policy that proposes
limits to land ownership by its own citizens and foreigners, its Rural
Development and Land Reform Minister has said.
******
////////////////////////////////////
16 Food Justice
GLOBAL: UN RECOGNIZES THE RIGHTS OF PEASANTS
Malian farmers fight for their seeds
www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2828
In an important victory in the global struggle for food sovereignty,
the United Nations recently issued a preliminary recognition of
peasants’ rights. The decision was welcomed by rural social movements
and activists throughout the world as a powerful addendum to the Human
Right to Food (Article 25 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights)-which
defines access to food as a human right, but is silent on the issue of
access and control over food producing resources.
******
////////////////////////////////////
17 Media & freedom of expression
ETHIOPIA: VIOLATIONS OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND ASSOCIATION
This 59-page report documents the myriad ways in which the ruling
Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has
systematically punished opposition supporters. Since the 2005 polls,
the party has used its near-total control of local and district
administrations to undermine opponents’ livelihoods through
withholding services such as agricultural inputs, micro-credit, and
job opportunities.
******
GABON: NEWSPAPER EDITOR AND REPORTER SUMMONED
www.rsf.org/Newspaper-editor-and-reporter.html
Reporters Without Borders is baffled by the fact that Albert Yangari,
the publisher and editor of the newspaper L?Union, and Jonas Moulenda,
one of his reporters, have been summoned three times in connection
with a libel suit brought by Alfred Nguia Banda, the former
director-general of the Gabonese Shippers Council (CGC), which
oversees maritime traffic in Gabon.
******
NIGERIA: ISLAMIC COURT ‘BANS TWITTER FEED’
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8584707.stm
An Islamic court in Nigeria has banned a rights group from hosting
debates on the Twitter and Facebook websites on the use of amputations
as a punishment. The court, in the northern city of Kaduna, backed a
case brought by a pro-Sharia group arguing that the forums would mock
the Sharia system.
******
SOMALIA: COURT VERDICT FREES JOURNALIST, BUT EXPELS HIS FROM TOWN
A radio reporter jailed for a week in Kismayo, was released, but he
was expelled from the town and told not to come back, according to a
statement from the Alshabab authorities. According to The statement
journalist Mohamed Salad Abdulle, working for independent broadcaster
Somali Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) was released but the Alshabab
court has ordered him to leave the town with in 36 hours and told him
not to return.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/media/63310
******
UGANDA: THREE JOURNALISTS ARRESTED
Three Ugandan journalists were arrested by the Police over an alleged
seditious story concerning the Kasubi tomb fire. The three, Dalton
Kwesiga, Ben Byaruhanga and Johnson Taremwa work for The Red Pepper.
Their troubles stem from a story titled ?Police quizzes Mengo
ministers over Kasubi fire?.
******
ZIMBABWE: ZIMRIGHTS FORCED TO ABANDON PHOTO EXHIBITION AFTER LAUNCH
www.swradioafrica.com/news250310/zimrights250310.htm
A photo exhibition organized by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association
went ahead in Harare on Wednesday evening after the High Court ordered
police to return the photographs they had seized the previous day. But
that same evening the police returned to the art gallery to try and
confiscate the pictures again.
******
////////////////////////////////////
18 News from the diaspora
HAITI: WHERE SOLIDARITY MEANS SURVIVAL
towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1897/1/
Perhaps more than anything today, Haiti needs a new macro-economy, one
based above all on meeting the needs of its citizens. Post-earthquake
economic restructuring could include equitable distribution of
resources, high levels of employment with fair compensation, local
production, and provision of social services.
******
////////////////////////////////////
19 Conflict & emergencies
CENTRAL AFRICA: ERADICATING ARMS TRAFFICKING WILL FURTHER PEACE – UN
www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34134&Cr=weapons&Cr1=
The efforts of Central African nations to consolidate peace and
further development are being thwarted by weapons trafficking, top
United Nations officials warned today, calling on Member States to do
all they can to eradicate this scourge. ?Central Africa is awash with
illicit weapons ? exacerbating inter-communal violence, increasing
cross-border crime and threatening ongoing peace and national
reconciliation processes,? Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro
said in her remarks to a debate in the Security Council.
******
GLOBAL: AFRICA LEFT ALONE OVER AFGHAN WAR
Western nations, employing the best equipped armies in the world, are
increasingly dropping their support for UN peacekeeping missions in
Africa, rather focusing their efforts on Afghanistan. Even the Darfur
and Congo crises are neglected.
******
NORTH AFRICA: LIBYA/CHAD: BEYOND POLITICAL INFLUENCE
www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=6561
This latest briefing from the International Crisis Group, examines the
evolution of Tripoli?s policy towards its neighbour from open
imperialism to support in peace negotiations with armed rebels and
with Sudan. Libya has been the most important country for Chad since
Gaddafi came to power in 1969, but its approach has had mixed results.
******
SENEGAL: REBELS CALL FOR NEGOTIATION
Following bloody fighting between Senegalese forces and rebels, in
recent days, the rebel Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance
(MFDC) have issued a statement, calling for negotiations with the
government.
******
SOMALIA: ARMY, AU FORCE MUST SPARE CIVILIANS IN FIGHTING – AMNESTY
www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/60725/2010/02/25-174737-1.htm
Attacks on rebels by government troops and African Union peacekeepers
in Somalia kill and injure many civilians and should be much more
discriminate, human rights group Amnesty International said on
Thursday. Islamist rebels have been fighting the Horn of Africa
state’s fragile government since the start of 2007. African Union’s
(AU) force AMISOM is supporting the U.N.-backed administration, which
controls just parts of the capital, Mogadishu.
******
SOMALIA: THOUSANDS FLEE MOGADISHU “DEATH TRAP”
www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88515
Clashes between government troops and Islamist insurgents have
displaced more than 55,000 people from Mogadishu since the beginning
of February, with many of them heading out of Somalia to neighbouring
Kenya, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
******
UGANDA: ALMOST ONE MILLION AT RISK IN KARAMOJA
www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88569
Thick dust clouds obscure the horizon as the convoy of UN military
observers sets off to patrol the oil-rich, yet desperately
underdeveloped Unity State in Southern Sudan. In these borderlands,
monitoring a 2005 deal that halted decades of war between north and
south is a major undertaking.
******
WESTERN SAHARA: “SAHRAWI PEOPLE MUST DECIDE
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50799
The only solution for the conflict over Morocco’s occupation of the
Western Sahara is to do what the Sahrawi people decide regarding their
future, Zahra Ramdan, president of the Association of Sahrawi Women in
Spain has said.
******
ZAMBIA: FLOODS DISPLACE 800 VICTIMS
Eight hundred people displaced by excessive flooding and intense rains
in Lusaka, the capital of southern African country Zambia. More than
60 families evacuated from their waterlogged shacks to a temporal
resettlement campsite on higher grounds out of the Independence
Stadium in Lusaka Nort
******
////////////////////////////////////
20 Internet & technology
AFRICA: GOOGLE CODE JAM 2010
code.google.com/codejam/africa/
Google Code Jam is a coding competition in which professional and
student programmers are asked to solve complex algorithmic challenges
in a limited amount of time. The contest is all-inclusive: Google Code
Jam lets you program in the coding language and development
environment of your choice.
******
AFRICA: MAURITIUS INAUGURATES UNDERWATER FIBRE OPTICS CABLE
Mauritian Prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, on Wednesday inaugurated an
underwater fibre optics cable called Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION)
in Terre-Rouge, 10 km north of the Mauritian capital, Port-Louis.
******
ZAMBIA: GOVERNMENT?S SMS SYSTEM FOR HIV TEST RESULTS
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50781
HIV-positive Bupe Mwamba, 22, lies next to her newborn baby girl at
the rural clinic she just gave birth in and wonders if her baby is
HIV-positive too. She has been for counselling throughout her
antenatal check-ups and knows there is a chance her baby girl may be
HIV-negative. But it still does not eliminate her fears and anxieties.
******
////////////////////////////////////
21 eNewsletters & mailing lists
SOUTH AFRICA: COAL-FIRED DENIALISM
AfricaFocus Bulletin Mar 23, 2010 (100323)
www.africafocus.org/docs10/coal1003.php
With a request for a $3.75 billion World Bank loan for a new coalfired
power plant, South African political leaders seem determined to
entrench a policy on climate change that disregards clear evidence of
catastrophic consequences, echoing the earlier disastrous policies of
former President Thabo Mbeki on AIDS. But opposition is mounting to
the current plan, which would consolidate South Africa’s Eskom as the
continent’s leading producer of greenhouse gases.
******
////////////////////////////////////
22 Courses, seminars, & workshops
CODESRIA SUB-REGIONAL METHODOLOGY WORKSHOPS FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH IN AFRICA
Session for North Africa
The 2010 session of the CODESRIA sub-regional methodological workshops
will explore the conditions for the employment and validation of
qualitative perspectives in African contexts. To this end, the
workshops will be open to all the social research disciplines.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/63318
******
EU-AFRICA TRADE & INVESTMENT CONFERENCE MAY 2010
eu-africatradeinvestmentconferencemay2010.yolasite.com/
The aim of the conference is to increase trade and investment flows
into Africa and to encourage a transcontinental exchange of knowledge
and expertise.The conference will have as a specific objective,
fostering business to business linkages, and in particular encouraging
technology transfer, joint ventures, manufacturing contracts,
franchising, sub-contracts, financial investments, equipment provision
and inter-regional trade
******
GLOBAL: LLM IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW AND PRACTICE
Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York
www.york.ac.uk/inst/cahr/LLM/llm%20index.html
The Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York (UK)
will be offering a new LLM in International Human Rights Law and
Practice with the possibility of specialising in refugee law begining
in October 2010. The degree aims to combine applied focus (centering
around its international human rights clinic) and international
breadth (involving, for example field work in Malaysia)
******
SOUTH AFRICA: THE 2009 ANNUAL ROSA LUXEMBURG CAPE PARTNERS SEMINAR
ILRIG
For a number of years now, particularly in the period of
globalisation, trade unions have been faced with major challenges
which call for strategic responses. These challenges include building
trade union internationalism in the period of mobile capital,
assessing relations with left political parties as these have been
dragged towards the political centre, tensions between collective
bargaining and defensive struggles and strategic, revolutionary
unionism and so on. This, the first of a new series of Annual
Conferences, hosted by ILRIG and other partners, is an opportunities
for activists and analysts – trade unionists as well as those involved
in social movement campaigns – in South Africa to debate experiences
of organising in South Africa, and elsewhere, whilst hearing of other
forms of trade unionism in South Africa and elsewhere.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/63422
******
TRAINING PROGRAM ON THE EQUAL STATUS AND HUMAN RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN EAST AFRICA
Call for applications
Africa Youth Trust
Africa Youth Trust, in partnership with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute
invites applications for the third Training Program on The Equal
Status and Human Rights of Women in East Africa (EAHUWO). The program
is jointly being undertaken by Africa Youth Trust (Kenya) and the
Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
(Sweden) with sponsorship from the Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency (Sida).
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/courses/63328
******
////////////////////////////////////
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ISSN 1753-6839
End of Pambazuka-news Digest, Vol 122, Issue 2
**********************************************
The New Dark Age 
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