The authoritative electronic weekly newsletter and platform for social justice in Africa

Pambazuka News (English edition): ISSN 1753-6839

CONTENTS: 1. Features, 2. Comment & analysis, 3. Advocacy & campaigns,
4. Books & arts, 5. Letters & Opinions, 6. African Writers? Corner, 7.
Blogging Africa, 8. Emerging powers in Africa Watch, 9. Highlights
French edition

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Highlights from this issue

FEATURES
– Briggs Bomba and William Minter discuss Zimbabwe’s sanctions
– Konstantina Isidoros on Morocco’s mistreatment of Saharawi activists
– Korir Sing’Oei Abraham on the Endorois’ legal victory
– Yash Tandon critiques the World Bank’s notion of ‘quiet corruption’
– In whose interest are the Sudanese elections?
– KANERE’s refugee free press under attack
+ MORE

COMMENT & ANALYSIS
– Chambi Chachage on dispensing ‘survivors’ justice’ in Zanzibar
– Chris Rodrigues responds to Mphutlane wa Bofelo and ‘revolutionary songs’
– South Africa is the ‘next frontier for land invasions’, writes
Grasian Mkodzongi
+ MORE

ADVOCACY & CAMPAIGNS
– Good Vibrations urged to stop support of Clitoraid
– Angolan victims of demolition continue to face severe difficulties

BOOKS & ARTS
– Peter Wuteh Vakunta reviews Ngugi wa Thiong?o’s ‘Dreams in a Time of War’
+ MORE

AFRICAN WRITERS’ CORNER
– Fugisayi Sasa’s poem ‘Mr President’

BLOGGING AFRICA
– Dibussi Tande on the blogosphere’s reaction to the death of Eugene
Terreblanche

EMERGING POWERS IN AFRICA WATCH
– The launch of the China?Africa Joint Research and Exchange Programme

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1 Features

ZIMBABWE: DEMYSTIFYING SANCTIONS AND STRENGTHENING SOLIDARITY
Briggs Bomba and William Minter
In debates about Zimbabwe’s political crisis and the role of the
international community, it is difficult to sort out reality from
rhetorical smoke and mirrors, write Briggs Bomba and William Minter.
The current debate on ‘sanctions’ is a classic example: There is much
strong language for and against, but rarely do debaters bother to say
which measures are actually in place and what specific effects they
have or should have.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63708
******

WESTERN SAHARAN HUNGER STRIKERS: MOROCCO’S TERRITORIAL AND HUMAN
RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Konstantina Isidoros
As 36 imprisoned Saharawi activists continue a hunger strike from
seven Moroccan jails, Konstantina Isidoros writes of the ‘groundswell
of international condemnation of Morocco’s behaviour’. Protesting
against Morocco’s longstanding occupation of Western Sahara and the
human rights abuses suffered by the indigenous Saharawi population,
the hunger strikers’ action represents the latest peaceful challenge
to the Moroccan state’s illegal claims on Western Sahara, stresses
Isidoros, from individuals widely recognised as ‘prisoners of
conscience’.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63707
******

FROM NON-BENEFICIARIES TO ACTIVE STAKEHOLDERS: THE ENDOROIS
Korir Sing?Oei Abraham
With the African Commission on Human and Peoples? Rights (ACHPR)
deciding in favour of Kenya’s Endorois people, Korir Sing’Oei Abraham
hails an unprecedented court victory. The Endorois were forcibly
evicted by the Kenyan government in the period 1974?79, and their
victory suggests positive ramifications for indigenous peoples’ rights
across Africa at large, Abraham argues.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63695
******

‘QUIET CORRUPTION’?: THE WORLD BANK ON AFRICA
Yash Tandon
The ‘Africa Development Indicators 2010’ report, with its emphasis on
the ‘quiet corruption’ of public sector workers supposedly not
fulfilling their roles, is the latest attempt by the World Bank to
wash its hands of its primary role in Africa’s continuing
impoverishment, writes Yash Tandon.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63693
******

ELECTIONS IN SUDAN: IN WHOSE INTEREST?
Sudan Democracy First Group
( www.flickr.com/photos/steinove/3981021727/ ) With concerns
surrounding Sudan’s ability to deliver free-and-fair elections and
Omar al-Bashir’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) the only party
pushing for an April vote, Sudan Democracy First Group argues that the
US should respect the will of ordinary Sudanese instead of propping up
the status quo.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63706
******

AL-BASHIR VOTES AND AL SHABAB ENTERS KENYA
Gado
Omar al-Bashir’s vote at the Sudanese elections and the response of
Kenya’s immigration services to Al Shabab feature in Gado’s cartoons
this week.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63699
******

REFUGEE FREE PRESS IN GRIM SITUATION
Reporters experience attacks on press freedom and human rights
KANERE
Since the beginning of the year, the situation for the Kakuma News
Reflector has become increasingly precarious, KANERE writes — a
dangerous sign for refugees wishing to exercise their right to a free
press and express their voices through the independent newsletter,
which operates out of Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya. Here
KANERE shares details of how the safety, protection and security of
its journalists in the camp have been jeopardised.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63714
******

THE DEATH OF EUGENE TERREBLANCHE
Choosing mythology and folklore over facts and action
Mphutlane wa Bofelo
The recent murder of Eugene Terreblanche, founder of the white
supremacist Afrikaner Resistance Movement, should have focused the
attention of the world on the exploitative, oppressive and
de-humanising conditions of the landless peasants and farm workers in
South Africa, writes Mphutlane wa Bofelo. But it’s easier for the
country?s elites to blame racism alone for the incident than to
acknowledge the historic links between race and class dynamics and to
tackle the disparities that these have created, he concludes.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63709
******

RACE, LIBERATION AND AUTHENTIC CITIZENSHIP
Liepollo Lebohang Pheko
A discussion with the Afrikaner Resistance Movement?s Andrie Visagie
on live national television has “brought into sharp focus a whole host
of tensions, contradictions and implications of what it means to be a
South African in 2010”, writes Liepollo Lebohang Pheko. Visagie’s
outburst is a reminder, argues Pheko, that this “liberation of ours is
hotly contested, differentially experienced and highly compromised;
the majority are yet to fully move into an encompassing expression of
this citizenship and liberation at all levels and spheres of life.”
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63711
******

MAKING SAFE ABORTION ILLEGAL AND UNSAFE ABORTION LEGAL
Denying Kenyan women basic rights
Mary Wandia
As a range of interest groups clamour for amendments to Kenya’s draft
constitution on the basis of claims that it “legalises abortion”, Mary
Wandia asks them to consider the “sobering facts on abortion, women’s
rights and the status of women?. Voluntary abortion “happens
irrespective of whether laws making it legal or illegal exist”, writes
Wandia, and Kenya’s current legislation simply “makes safe abortion
“illegal” and unsafe abortion “legal”, sentencing poor women and girls
to unnecessary and preventable suffering and death.”
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63710
******

ETHIOPIA: THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH AND?
Alemayehu G. Mariam
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has damned a recent report by
the US Department of State into the country’s human rights practices
in 2009 as “Lies, lies and implausible lies”. Alemayehu G. Mariam
imagines how Zenawi might respond to a sample of the findings included
in the document.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63713
******

ETHIOPIA: ‘C’EST LA VIE? C’EST LA VIE EN PRISON!’
Alemayehu G. Mariam
While many respected sources have raised serious concerns about the
health of Ethiopian political prisoner Birtukan Midekssa, Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi alarmingly continues to insist that her
situation is one of ‘perfect health’, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63697
******

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2 Comment & analysis

DISPENSING SURVIVORS’ JUSTICE IN ZANZIBAR
Chambi Chachage
With Zanzibar in the throes of political instability as its 2010
elections approach, Chambi Chachage calls for a ‘win-win situation’
and draws upon Mahmood Mamdani’s emphasis on ‘survivors’ justice’.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/63700
******

‘BLACK BOERS’ AND OTHER REVOLUTIONARY SONGS
Chris Rodrigues
A hat tip to Mphutlane wa Bofelo (
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/63291 ) for pointing out
the subtext to the ANC’s claim to the “Shoot the Boer!” song, writes
Chris Rodrigues. For is it not the case, as wa Bofelo points out, that
the attempt to establish a heritage status for the song locates the
struggle in the past? And what of the new songs that the poor sing
today, songs like, “Amabhunu amnyama asenzela i-worry” – “Black Boers
cause us worries”? Does this current storm in Julius Malema’s teacup
not also divert attention from this reality?
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/63716
******

SOUTH AFRICA: THE NEXT FRONTIER FOR LAND OCCUPATIONS?
Grasian Mkodzongi
“There is no doubt that South Africa will become the next frontier for
“land invasions”’, writes Grasian Mkodzongi, “the situation in the
country is a ticking time bomb. It’s almost impossible to think that a
system of extreme injustice and poverty reflected across the country
could be sustained forever.”
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/63718
******

WAS TERRORBLANCHE A MUSLIM?
Azad Essa
As racial tensions continue to rise over the murder of Eugene
Terreblanche, Azad Essa writes a satirical piece on reports from the
South African Muslim and Halaal Authority (SAMHA), that they have been
inundated by calls from foreigners asking ?if it was true that
Terrorblanche was Muslim’.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/63717
******

CONFRONTING THE OCCUPATION: HAITI, NEOLIBERALISM AND THE US
Kali Akuno
Fiercely critical of the US’s role and continued presence in Haiti in
the wake of the country’s earthquake, Kali Akuno highlights the
dangers of the supposedly neutral term ‘humanitarian intervention’ and
calls for solidarity with the Haitian people in the face of the
‘militarisation of the relief and reconstruction effort’.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/63698
******

TRIALLING MAJOR HAMZA AL-MUSTAPHA
Sabella Ogbobode Abidde
As Major Hamza Al-Mustapha — a former aide to Sani Abacha — continues
to be held without trial in Nigeria, Sabella Ogbobode Abidde argues
against his indefinite detention. No matter how dubious a person’s
reputation may be, Nigeria needs to move away from the anti-democratic
legal practices that characterised its former military regime, Abidde
concludes.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/63692
******

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3 Advocacy & campaigns

FEMINISTS CHALLENGING CLITORAID
Urge Good Vibrations to drop their support of Clitoraid
It is possible to address the negative effects of female circumcision
without denigrating African women. African women who have undergone
circumcision also deserve integrity and respect! Please sign (
www.thepetitionsite.com/1/feministschallengingclitoraid ) this
petition urging Good Vibrations to drop their support of Clitoraid.
Clitoraid’s humiliating campaign urges supporters adopt African
women’s clitorises.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/63703
******

SOUTH AFRICA: STATEMENT ON THE NATIONAL CRISIS & PROPOSAL FOR A WAY FORWARD
Unemployed People’s Movement
Our country is in crisis. The internal contradictions of the African
National Congress have bought it to the point where it is no longer
able to give leadership to society. It continues to speak the language
of nationalism and national liberation but it has degenerated into an
association of predatory elites hell bent on using the state to
plunder the society. The gap between the ANC’s language and its
practice is now so large that the organisation can no longer speak to
the national interest with any conviction, clarity or credibility.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/63702
******

VICTIMS OF ANGOLA DEMOLITION CONTINUE FACING HUNGER AND HEALTH PROBLEMS
OMUNGA
The march against home demolitions and forced evictions ‘Don’t Push
Down My House’ was scheduled to take place on Saturday April 10, in
Benguela, Angola. In a letter to Omunga, the provincial governor of
Benguela did not authorize the demonstration because ‘the province of
Benguela has not registered demolitions, forced land evictions and
other acts that collide against the law’.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/63701
******

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4 Books & arts

‘I LEARNED THAT OUR LAND WAS NOT QUITE OUR LAND’
Review of ?Dreams in a Time of War: A Childhood Memoir?
Peter Wuteh Vakunta
Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s latest publication, ‘Dreams in a Time of War: A
Childhood Memoir’, is “a treasure-house of childhood memories”, writes
Peter Wuteh Vakunta. “It is an informative and didactic memoir written
with the intent of taking the reader down memory lane. The story of
Ngugi’s travails through life, it lends credence to the wise saying
that epic characters are often associated with humble beginnings.”
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/63715
******

THE SOCIAL LIFE OF ‘MAIDS’
Efua Prah
Efua Prah reviews Francis Nyamnjoh’s ‘Intimate Strangers’, a book in
which ‘we learn and unlearn a lot about human beings and the
solidarities they forge and deny one another’.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/63694
******

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5 Letters & Opinions

IN PURSUIT OF FREEDOM, JUSTICE AND RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT
A response to ‘A long walk from Soweto to Sandown’
Anne Price
Mphutlane wa Bofelo’s article is a “weighty warning about leftist
spin” for those who, “in their naivety and idealism, tend to see
compatriots in anyone who talks the talk”, writes Anne Price, in a
letter addressed to the author.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/63719
******

THE WORLD IS CHANGING, MY FRIENDS
A response to ‘Immodesty, Islam and the gender equity movement’
Elma Doeleman
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this article was written
by a man, writes Elma Doeleman.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/63721
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THE WORLD BANK AND TRANSPARENCY
David Shaman
History suggests that the World Bank’s management believes
transparency is something that should apply to its clients and other
external stakeholders rather than to itself, writes David Shaman. He
invites readers to share their own experiences and observations at his
new blog.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/63722
******

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6 African Writers’ Corner

MR PRESIDENT
Fugisayi Sasa
his mouth is intrusive
invading my conscience
with words
his promises
i believe his tongue
dripping honey is a dagger
through my ears
sirens wailing
in my mind
are relief from
his public addresses
his idle chatter i believed
his voice is the
hyena?s laughter
animals in the night
whose wildness i cannot
hear when asleep in bed
dreaming
of a time before
his mind withered
and let his wide open mouth
spew hollow words
i believe mr president
nobody is tuned in
to your frequency
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/63696
******

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7 Blogging Africa

TERRE NOIRE, TERRE BLANCHE: SOUTH AFRICA IN BLACK AND WHITE
Dibussi Tande
ANC Youth League President Julius Malema’s racial pot-stirring coupled
with the gruesome murder of white supremacist leader, Eugene Terre
Blanche, has led to a rise in racial tensions in South Africa and lots
of soul searching about the future of the ‘Rainbow Nation’.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/63704
******

THE IMAGINATION TO SEE BEYOND CHAOS
Sokari Ekine
Morgan Tsvangirai’s contradictory statements on LGBTI rights,
Madagascar’s elections and various interpretations of Africa by
western visitors are among the topics featured in Sokari Ekine?s
roundup of the blogosphere.
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/63723
******

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8 Emerging powers in Africa Watch

BOOSTING FOCAC’S INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY
The launch of the China-Africa Joint Research and Exchange Program
Sanusha Naidu
Sanusha Naidu writes about the China-Africa joint research and
exchange program that was launched at the end of March by the
follow-up committee of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC),
in partnership with the Institute of West Asian and African Studies
(IWAAS) of the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS).
www.pambazuka.org/en/category/africa_china/63705
******

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9 Highlights French edition

PAMBAZUKA NEWS 141 : LES EXIGENCES D’UN ACC?S ? L’INFORMATION PUBLIQUE
EN AFRIQUE
Acc’s — l’information publique: Une nouvelle urgence pour l’Afrique (
pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/63566 )
Tidiane Kass?

Les Conclusions Régionales et le Plan d’Action pour l’Afrique pour
l?Avancement du Droit d’Acc’s ? l’Information (
pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/63580 )

Sierra Leone: Une expérience pilote de lutte contre la corruption (
pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/63569 )
Jean-Claude Péclet

La d?g?n?rescence de l’ANC ( pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/63568 )
Richard Pithouse

Lutte contre le sida: Quand l?acc?s universel se mue en obstacles
universels ( pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/63570 )
Bamba Youssouf

S?n?gal: Les exigences d?une d?centralisation pour le d?veloppement (
pambazuka.org/fr/category/features/63567 )
Babacar Diouf
******

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ISSN 1753-6839

End of Pambazuka-news Digest, Vol 124, Issue 1