The New Dark Age

9 May 2013 — Pambazuka News

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Pambazuka News (English edition): ISSN 1753-6839

CONTENTS: 1. Features, 2. Announcements, 3. Comment & analysis, 4. Advocacy & campaigns, 5. Letters & Opinions


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1 Features

SOUTH AFRICA’S SUB-IMPERIAL SEDUCTIONS
Patrick Bond

South Africa is this week hosting yet another major conference, the World
Economic Forum for Africa, amidst increasing evidence that the nation is
fast growing as a sub-imperialist power
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/87288
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BANGLADESHI TEXTILE FACTORY COLLAPSE: OVER 800 DEAD, LESSONS FOR AFRICA
Horace G. Campbell

The kind of tragic exploitation of workers in Bangladesh is present all
over Africa, where people are denied basic labour rights as part of state
efforts to attract and retain foreign investment. Militant and sustained
efforts are needed to resist this trend
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/87286
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WHAT’S BEHIND RENEWED ATTACKS ON AFRICAN AMERICAN FREEDOM FIGHTER ASSATA SHAKUR?
Exiled Black Panther Party veteran has lived in Cuba for three decades
Abayomi Azikiwe

On the 40th anniversary of the shooting and capture of Assata Shakur, the
FBI and the State of New Jersey has now placed the African American
revolutionary on the most wanted terrorist list
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/87267
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A CANDID CONVERSATION WITH PRESIDENT KIM ON INSTITUTIONAL RACISM
Justice for Blacks

A year ago, we were hopeful that your presidency would open a new chapter
in overhauling the World Bank’s justice system. But a year later, the
presidential mantle that we had hoped would dismantle the racist
institutional culture seems to be drawn toward the center of gravity of the
status quo
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/87266
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MR NAFIE GOES TO WASHINGTON
Eric Reeves

For Sudan which listed as a sponsor of terrorism and whose president is a
suspected war criminal, the invitation to Washington of Al Bashir’s aide is
an extraordinary reward to a regime that craves nothing so much as
legitimacy, and to a man who is utterly ruthless and savagely cruel
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/87269
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THE OBAMA LEGACY, PT 1 OF MANY
Top ten things Black America will have to show for 8 years of President
Obama
Bruce A. Dixon

When Barack Obama leaves the White House in January 2017, what will black
America, his earliest and most consistent supporters, have to show for
making his political career possible? We’ll have the T-shirts and buttons
and posters, the souvenirs. That will be the good news. The bad news is
what else we’ll have…. and not.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/87265
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DID THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA ENGAGE IN IGBO GENOCIDE?
Emma Enekwechi

Chinua Achebe’s recent book has revived fierce discussions about the Biafra
genocide, the darkest chapter in Nigerian history. The country is still
divided over the issue and ‘Biafrans’ want out of Nigeria
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/87285
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BEYOND JONATHAN’S 5.7 BILLION NAIRA LARGESSE
Uche Igwe

If the Nigerian government is sincere about achieving peace and solving the
recurring problem of electoral violence, it must implement the Sheikh Lemu
Report wholly and not selectively. It must, as recommended, mete out
punishments alongside compensation and adopt preventive measures
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/87268
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2 Announcements
FAHAMU MOVEMENT BUILDING BOOT CAMP, MAY 12-17, 2013, LUSAKA, ZAMBIA

The Adilisha Program will be holding a movement building boot camp for
activists’ from social justice movements and organisations in Lesotho,
Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi.The boot camp being held in Lusaka
,Zambia from May 12 -17, 2013 will facilitate activists’ consciousness of
their context from a deep analysis and connect what they are doing to the
bigger picture or vision of social change they seek to achieve.

Participants will critically analyse their organising strategies and
tactics to develop alternative strategies for effective and creative
organising.It is also expected that the participants will derive approaches
for educating political education and elevation of the voice and leadership
of their constituents.

This will also be a space to examine, reflect and learn why social
movements occur, who joins or support social movements, how social
movements are organised, what they do and what change social movements
bring about. It is expected that this will inspire the participants to
embrace strategies that build collective action.
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3 Comment & analysis

WHY SUPREME COURT OF KENYA DISMISSED RAILA ODINGA’S ELECTION PETITION
Miguna Miguna

The recent ruling by the Supreme Court upholding the election of Uhuru
Kenyatta as president of Kenya has been dismissed by a number of legal
analysts as ‘shallow’, ‘unconvincing’ and based on questionable precedents.
But petitioner Raila Odinga’s former aide defends it
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/87292
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WILL THE JAVA GENERATION PLEASE STAND UP?
Abdullahi Boru Halakhe

It seems that Kenya’s middle class of shoppers at Java have become
complacent with constitutional change at a time when they should be pushing
for further implementation of the constitution
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/87290
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IS AFRICAN PEACE KEEPING MISSION IN DRC DOOMED TO FAIL?
Bu Nizar Visram

With the recent loss of 12 South African troops in the Central African
Republic and the US bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq, the extent to
which an African peace keeping mission will meet a similar fate seems likely
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/87289
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AFRICA MUST BE IN CONTROL OF ITS FORTUNE
Winnie Byanyima

As the World Economic Forum meets in Cape Town this week [8-10 May], they
must commit to implementing programs that will assist the millions being
left behind by economic growth. Otherwise, social and economic progress on
the continent will be undermined
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/87282
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THE PRESIDENT MUST HEAR THIS
Abdulrazaq Magaji

Warnings that there will be war if Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is
not re-elected in 2015 are an anathema to genuine democracy, tolerance and
fair play in Africa’s most populous nation that should be leading by example
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/87280
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WHAT THE OGA AT THE TOP DOESN’T KNOW
Tunde Oyateru

The government should have capitalised on a recent embarrassing incident in
which an official was exposed as incompetent to mount a major PR coup
against its critics. But it is too optimistic to expect state bureaucrats
in Nigeria to see rare opportunities thrust right under their noses
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/87303
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KENYAN WORKERS SHOULD STRENGTHEN SPIRIT OF SOLIDARITY
Julius Okoth

There is a genuine concern that trade unions and its leadership have failed
to protect workers and that trade unions are dens of corruption in Kenya.
There is a need to revive a genuine trade union movement that protects
workers’ rights and promotes workers’ solidarity
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/87281
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WHAT NEW GOVERNMENT SHOULD ADDRESS FIRST AT COAST
Nagib Shamsan

The unresolved land question at the Kenyan coast has continued to stagnate
development, stoke negative ethnicity and create squatters. Successive
governments have displayed lamentable laxity in carrying out the required
reforms. The people need to push the new administration on this urgent
matter
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/87293
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CHALLENGES OF TRANSITION
Wongai Zhangazha

Violence across Africa is often fueled by political elites who try to cling
to power. They play on tribal historic injustices and often leave the poor
to fight each other. Transitional processes in the post-conflict societies
of Kenya and Zimbabwe are yet to fully achieve their goals
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/87295
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MAY DAY AND FAILURE OF THE MAINSTREAM IMMIGRANT RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Ajamu Baraka

The American immigrant rights movement has failed because it allowed itself
to be influenced by the paternalism and conservative politics of the
liberal non-profit industrial complex and the interests of the Democratic
Party
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/87294
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4 Advocacy & campaigns

AFRICAN UNION URGED TO UPHOLD PRESS FREEDOM
Committee to Protect Journalists

New York, May 2, 2013-The Committee to Protect Journalists asks Nkosazana
Dlamini Zuma, chairperson of the African Union, to uphold press freedom by
calling for justice in journalist murders in Africa and for the release of
all imprisoned journalists.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/87297
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KOFI ANNAN SPEAKS OUT AFRICA’S NATURAL RESOURCES
Kofi Annan

See video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHY8WNcVWjc )
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MAYOR WARNED TO HOUSE POOR OR FACE BEING HELD IN CONTEMPT OF COURT
Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa

City cannot ‘throw up hands in horror’ when asked to house the homeless,
Judge says
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/87301
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NIGERIA: JUNE 19 NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION
Ayo Ademiluyi

Mass movement against education cuts, mass unemployment, pro-rich looting
and obnoxious electoral laws
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/87299
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NO TO MILITARY INVASION OF AZUZUAMA COMMUNITY IN BAYELSA STATE
Ayo Ademiluyi

Instead of tackling the underlying causes of restiveness and militancy,
which are mass unemployment and collapse of education, the Jonathan regime
has resorted to brute force
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/87296
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SLEEPING IN THE RAIN
Even snakes treat us with more respect than the City of Cape Town
Abahlali baseMjondolo, Western Cape

‘The City of Cape Town is heartless. They want us to get sick. They want to
punish us for trying to do what’s best for our families, for our children.
But we are not going anywhere’
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/87300
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VIOLATION OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN ETHIOPIA
Arid Lands Institute

Statement delivered at the 53rd ordinary session of the African Commission
on Human and Peoples Rights in Banjul, Gambia
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/87298
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5 Letters & Opinions

‘UNMASKING TERRORISM IN IMPERIALISM AND CAPITALISM’
Tsitsi Dangarembga

Hi Colleagues,

Thank you for this edition [Issue 628]. It brings into the public space a
phenomenon or cluster of phenomena that we have to label appropriately. For
my part I have been calling it ‘existential terrorism’, meaning the terror
that is brought to bear on certain groups by other groups by virtue of the
fact that the former group exists in the relation it does to the former.
Definitions are notoriously difficult, so it is wonderful that we have
found the words to open up this discussion.

Tsitsi Dangarembga
Director
Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA) Trust
(incorporating Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe and Nyerai Films)
Founder International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF)
Harare, Zimbabwe
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