The New Dark Age

8 May 2014 — 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. Obituaries, 6. African Writers’ Corner, 7. Jobs

 

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1 Features

CELEBRATING THE 20TH BIRTHDAY South Africa’s ‘very good story’ of social democracy needs a few tough-love questions Patrick Bond

 

The ANC will likely win with a landslide once again in the elections held this week, as the country marks two decades of the end of apartheid. But the ruling party’s ‘very good story’ is in reality a tall tale of tokenism http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/91663 ******

 

A NEW MOZAMBICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM IN THE MAKING? An interview with top MDM politician Lutero Simango Lutero Simango

 

Mozambique will hold national elections in October. Politics in the southern African nation has been dominated by two parties, FRELIMO and RENAMO. But now a young party is causing waves across the country, pledging to focus on ‘a development agenda’ http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/91649

 

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MISPLACED OPPOSITION TO THE GRAND ETHIOPIAN RENAISSANCE DAM Minga Negash, Seid Hassan and Mammo Muchie

 

Ethiopia’s dam project has evoked strong rejection by Egypt, which fears for her water-related benefits arising from skewed colonial-era treaties on sharing of the River Nile. However, considering the legal, historical, economical and environmental issues, Egypt’s opposition to the dam is baseless. To avoid water wars, Nile riparian countries need to agree afresh on fair water sharing http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/91657 ******

 

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2 Announcements

 

MAY 2014 ISSUE OF THE FAHAMU REFUGEE LEGAL AID NEWSLETTER

 

The May 2014 issue of the Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter is now available: http://frlan.tumblr.com/post/84538357477/may-2014 Please help us distribute it, and consider contributing in the future. You can also like our Facebook page, and follow us on Twitter! http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/announce/91666 ******

 

CALL FOR ARTICLES: AFRICA AND ITS DIASPORA IN MIGRATION DYNAMICS

 

Pambazuka News proposes to address migration dynamics in a special issue in late June. Analysis may include historical, cultural, economic, psychological, developmental, social, legal and political dimensions of this age-old phenomenon. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/announce/91397 ******

 

PAMBAZUKA SPECIAL ISSUE: AFRICA IN 50 YEARS TIME – INVENTING A NEW AFRICA

 

What kind of Africa do women, youth, trade union activists, environmentalists, human rights, LBGTI and sex worker activists envision? What are the dreams of African writers, poets, scientists, engineers, agronomists, musicians for the continent in 50 years time? Pambazuka would like to hear from you. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/announce/90936 ******

 

PAMBAZUKA NEWS: CALL FOR VOLUNTEER TRANSLATORS

 

Pambazuka News needs volunteers to translate articles. Published weekly in English and French, and every 15 days in Portuguese, our electronic newsletter sometimes translates articles from one language to another. Through this, we aim to break down language barriers, give more audience to relevant analysis for our contributors and encourage exchanges between linguistic communities in Africa and around the world. In this Pambazuka is unique.

 

To deal with our increasing translation needs, we are looking for volunteers to strengthen our team of volunteer translators who assist us in this task and contribute to what Pambazuka is.

 

We engage to sign all translated articles with the name of their authors.

 

If you are a student or professional translator, we are counting on you. Write to the editors at the following address: editor@pambazuka.org

 

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3 Comment & analysis

 

TRADING DAYS Commerce in female genital mutilation Abjata Khalif

 

FGM is illegal in Kenya, but the practice thrives in many parts of the country. In the north where some of the most horrific forms of FGM are conducted, circumcisers have become millionaires operating on the daughters of wealthy Kenyan migrants to Europe http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/91650 ******

 

THRIVING FEUDAL PARA-STATE IN 21ST CENTURY KENYA: THE REAL SERFDOM OF MWEA As narrated by 84-year-old Mau Mau war veteran Isaac Mburu Njoroge Edwin Rwigi

 

The rice farmers of Mwea in central Kenya have lived under oppression since the colonial days when an irrigation scheme was established in the area. Successive governments have ignored their plight. But the people refuse to give up their quest for justice http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/91656 ******

 

STORY OF GOLDMAN SACHS Yazeed Kamaldien

 

The ANC government believes the good narrative of what it has done since taking office is being maligned to unseat the ANC. Goldmans Sachs has also presented a positive review of South Africa’s performance despite its recognition of deep-seated structural inequalities http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/91659

 

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HOW LONG WILL AFRICANS CELEBRATE THEIR LAND DISPOSSESSION? Motsoko Pheko

 

The year 2014 in South Africa marks 100 years since John Dube, Sol Plaatje and three other leaders of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) presented a petition to King George V of England. They were protesting against the colonial land dispossession of the African people of this country which created massive poverty.

 

Britain had in 1913 allocated five million African people 7% of their own land against 93% to its 349,837 colonial European settlers. In this petition the African leaders demanded “…that the natives [indigenous Africans] be put in possession of land in proportion to their numbers, and on the same conditions as the white race.”

 

AFRICAN DEMAND FOR LAND

 

King George V and his British government ignored this petition. This was not surprising. A British colonial official Earl Glen had earlier said, “The Blacks [Africans] are generally looked upon by Whites as an inferior race whose interests must be systematically disregarded when they come into competition with their own and should be governed with a view to the advantage of the superior race. For this reason, two things must be afforded to white colonists obtaining land….The Kaffirs should be made to furnish as large and cheap labour as possible.”

 

In 1902 just seven years before the British formed its colonies of Cape, Transvaal, Natal and Orange Free State into a Union of South Africa in 1909, Cecil Rhodes that arch agent of British imperialism had said, “I prefer land to niggers…the natives are children. They are just emerging from barbarism.” An informed London daily newspaper, however, when reporting the land dispossession of Africans in South Africa, on 20th July 1914, said: “In carving out estates for themselves in Africa, the white races have shown little regard for the claims of the black man. They have appropriated his land and have taken away his economic freedom and have left him in a worse case than they found him….The blacks as compared with whites are in proportion of four to one, but are in legal occupation of only one-fifteenth of their land.The deputation of natives now in England has appealed to the imperial government for protection.”

 

EUROPEAN DENIAL OF DISPOSSESSION

 

All genuine African leaders in Azania (South Africa) have always rejected the land dispossession of their people.When Jan van Riebeeck, a colonialist from Europe told the Khoi Africans to reduce their cattle as there were not enough pastures for the cattle of the colonising settlers and those of the Africans; the leader of the Khoi, Doman asked, “Who then, with the greatest degree of justice should give way to land, the natural owner, or the foreign invader?” Doman added, “If we [Africans], were to come to Europe; would we be permitted to act in similar manner you act here? It would not matter if you stayed at the ‘provision station’ [at Table Mountain on your way to Asia for trade in spices], but you come out here to the interior. You select the best land for yourselves. You never ask us even once whether we like it or not, or whether it will disadvantage us.”

 

For his part when the Boers seized over half of his country, Lesotho, despite the 1843 Treaty between the Basotho and the British government, King Moshoeshoe said, “The white people seem to be bent on proving that in politics Christianity plays no part….It may be you whites do not steal cattle, but you steal whole countries. If you had your wish you would send us to pasture our cattle in the clouds…whites are stealing Blackman’s land in the Cape to here [Free State part of Lesotho] and call it theirs.”

 

LAND IS THE FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE

 

Land was the primary contradiction of the African liberation struggle until it was betrayed by some African leaders in South Africa in June 1955 misled by white neo-liberals masquerading as “communists.”

 

In 1943 the Congress Youth League under the leadership of Muziwakhe Lembede and A.P. Mda launched a manifesto which declared, “The white race, possessing superior military power has arrogated to itself the ownership of land. This has meant that the Africans who had the land before the advent of whites, has been deprived of security which may guarantee or ensure his leading a free and unhampered life.”

 

The constitution of the”New South Africa” has ignored all these facts of colonial history in Azania (South Africa). Section 25(7) is simply a disguised name for the Native land Act 1913. It does not allow land claims by Africans before June 1913.

 

The Mandela-de Klerk “negotiations” were not about land dispossession of the African people. Their main purpose was to save a collapsing apartheid colonial economy. John Pilger in his article entitled “South Africa: the liberation’s betrayal” reminds how in September 1985, the “Freedom Charter” ANC leaders met a group of whites in Lusaka led by the chairman of the Anglo-American Corporation, Gavin Relly. The Chairman said: “The stock market had crashed the apartheid regime defaulted on its debt and the chieftains of the South African capital took fright. Their message to the ANC was that transition was possible, only if ‘order’ and ‘stability’ were guaranteed. This was reference to a ‘free market’ state where social justice would not be a priority.”

 

Prof Sampie Terreblanche, in his book “A History Of Inequality in South Africa 1652-2002” corroborates that the “negotiations” in CODESA in South Africa were not about the liberation of the African people and their repossession of their land and its riches. He writes: “The ANC’s core leaders effectively sold its sovereign freedom to implement an independent and appropriate socio-economic policy for a mess of pottage when it entered into several compromises with its corporate sector and its global partners. These unfortunate ‘transactions’ must be retracted or re-negotiated.”

 

THE MYTH OF FREEDOM

 

Political power without economic power is a myth. Land is life. Life is land. Food, houses, farms, herbs for medicines, animal pastures, gold, diamonds, platinum and other mineral wealth are not in the sky or air. They are in the land. Land is the principal means of producing all the necessities of life. That is why colonialists always target the land of other people. When Cecil Rhodes said, “I prefer land to niggers,” he was making the crude and barbaric philosophy of imperialism very clear.

 

Celebrating “freedom” without the colonially seized land and its riches returning to its indigenous owners is self-cheating. A vote without ownership of land by the dispossessed is political docility.

 

CELEBRATING APPEASEMENT

 

After 20 years of “freedom” and “democracy” in South Africa, Africans are still celebrating appeasement to the forces of colonialism and apartheid. This appeasement has resulted in “two nations” living side by side. One is extremely rich living a first world economy. It is a white minority. The other one is extremely poor living a third world economy. It is an indisputable 79.2% African majority.

 

In the “rainbow nation” Africans are evicted from land with monotonous regularity. They are the most unemployed and unskilled people. Many young women who could have been educated to become medical doctors, engineers, geologists, agric-economists, pilots etc are today suffering the humiliation of living on the proceeds of prostitution. They are now called “sex workers.” In the “New South Africa,” many young African men who joined the armed struggle and fought against the crime of apartheid have been languishing in prisons of the “New South Africa” for twenty years. This is despite the fact that the United Nations declared apartheid a crime against humanity through its International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.

 

The poorest people in South Africa are Africans. Millions of Africans are living in squalid shacks and inhuman squatter camps. They often burn or flood killing many people. Africans live on unhealthy diets. They suffer the shortest life expectancy and highest child mortality.

 

That is why the African petition to King George V in July 1914 demanded “that the Africans [must] be put in possession of land in proportion to their numbers and on the same conditions as the white race.” “Liberation” of a dispossessed people without the return of their land, that is, its resources is a gigantic colonial fraud. Let the dispossessed celebrate land repossession and its riches on 27 April 2015 and be truly liberated.

 

*Motsoko Pheko (Dr) is former member of the South African Parliament and author of books such as “The Hidden Side of South African Politics”, “Towards Africa’s Authentic Liberation” and “100 years of Native Land Act.”

 

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URGENT CALL TO RWANDANS: UNITE, MOBILISE AND ORGANISE FOR A DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION Theogene Rudasingwa

 

President Kagame’s regime is at its weakest since 1994, with little legitimacy among Rwandans and increasingly isolated abroad. This is the time to mobilise and organize to end the suffering of Rwandans. But the people must overcome their seven deadly demons http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/91665

 

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ECONOMIC GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT AND CLASS STRUGGLE IN AFRICA Are the majority of people benefitting from investments and profits? Abayomi Azikiwe

 

Despite claims that Africa is experiencing one of the highest growth rates in the world, growing class divisions and higher consumer prices are having disproportionate impacts on working people and the poor. Under socialism, the wealth generated by African resources and trade would be primarily re-invested in the society http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/91661

 

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AFRICA MONEY-MAKING DEMOCRACY Wairimu Gitau

 

What sense does democracy make for Africa? Has it served the needs of the people? Africa should nurture home-grown democracy from the grassroots, an alternative to governance in partnership with capitalism, whether Western or Eastern. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/91664

 

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NO GOING BACK ON ZIM LAND REFORM Moses Magadza

 

Zimbabwe celebrates thirty four years of independence this year. It is also a time to begin the third Chimurenga (struggle) to advance the ongoing land reform in the country http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/91658

 

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4 Advocacy & campaigns

 

CAN THE HIV EPIDEMIC BE CURBED? William Hennequin

 

With all the progress made so far, and with new scientific evidence and medical tools providing hope that the epidemic can finally be brought under control, there needs to be a sustained effort and a scale up of investment to make this hope a reality. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/91651

 

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G8 NEW ALLIANCE TO RE-COLONISE AFRICA Hamza Hamouchene

 

The New Alliance is likely to exacerbate hunger and poverty through shifting control of the food system away from small-scale farmers and local communities into the hands of big business that will likely invest in lucrative projects such as exporting cash crops http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/91653 ******

 

THE ABDUCTION, KIDNAPPING AND TRAFFICKING OF 234 FEMALE STUDENTS FROM CHIBOK, BORNO STATE Press Release by the Nigerian Feminist Forum

 

It looks unlikely that the Nigerian government is doing everything it can to trace and bring back the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram. In the face of frequent raids by the militant group, the government must do more to secure all citizens http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/91652

 

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5 Obituaries

 

MABEL ROBINSON WILLIAMS, (1931-2014), LEAVES A LEGACY OF STRUGGLE AND COMMUNITY SERVICE Abayomi Azikiwe

 

Along with husband Robert F. Williams they led a campaign for self-defense that shaped the 1960s http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/obituary/91654

 

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6 African Writers’ Corner

 

DEEP INSIDE SAMBISA FOREST Chika Ezeanya

 

This fictional account of the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram terrorist group brings out the intense trauma of the experience. It is appalling that, faced with frequent attacks by the terrorists, Nigerian authorities have done little to protect especially vulnerable citizens http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/91662 ******

 

PEOPLE OF GUINEA, MY PEOPLE Ababacar Fall Barros

 

Thirty years ago, on 26 March 1984, President Ahmed Sekou Toure lay dying. Everybody could agree on one thing and that is that he was a great patriot, a great African and Panafricanist. He was never known to have had castles in Spain, bank accounts in London, Paris, Washington, nor shares in the Tokyo stock exchange. On the controversial issues concerning administrative power, in the context of the cold war and the struggle for the liberation of Africa, (think for instance of “Operation Carlota” and of the assassination of Amilcar Cabral), the debate will rage on for a long time to come. All the prosecutors and all the defence attorneys will have the right to be heard. For this 30th anniversary of his death however, this poem is dedicated to him. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/91655 ******

 

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7 Jobs

 

CAMPAIGNER – NORTH AFRICA Remuneration: #36,240 per annum Location: London, UK. A I Amnesty International

 

( http://careers.amnesty.org ) The mobile revolution. Geopolitical power shifts. A radically altered global economy. The world is changing, and so is the way that people fight for their rights. Our East African regional office will work to ensure respect for human rights, and for equal and just societies throughout a vast and diverse geographical area. You’ll provide the support they need to succeed. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs2/91570

 

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CAMPAIGNER – SUDAN AND SOUTH SUDAN $45,621 per annum Location: Nairobi, Kenya Amnesty International

 

( http://careers.amnesty.org ) The mobile revolution. Geopolitical power shifts. A radically altered global economy. The world is changing, and so is the way that people fight for their rights. In order to be effective, Amnesty International’s (AI) International Secretariat needs to change how we work. That’s why we have opened a Regional Office in Kenya. And why we need your campaigning expertise with us on the ground. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs2/91307

 

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NIGERIA DIRECTOR Remuneration: #Competitive Location: Abuja, Nigeria A I Amnesty International

 

( http://careers.amnesty.org ) The mobile revolution. Geopolitical power shifts. A radically altered global economy. The world is changing, and so is the way that people fight for their rights. In order to be effective, Amnesty International’s (AI) International Secretariat needs to change how we work. That’s why we’ve opening a regional office in Dakar. And why we need your research expertise with us on the ground. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs2/91563

 

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RESEARCH, CAMPAIGNS & COMMUNICATION ASSISTANT Remunaration: $27,784 per annum Location: Nairobi, Kenya A I Amnesty International

 

( http://careers.amnesty.org ) The mobile revolution. Geopolitical power shifts. A radically altered global economy. The world is changing, and so is the way that people fight for their rights. Our East African regional office will work to ensure respect for human rights, and for equal and just societies throughout a vast and diverse geographical area. You’ll provide the support they need to succeed. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs2/91571

 

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RESEARCHER – SUDAN $64,951 per annum Location: Nairobi, Kenya A I Amnesty International

 

( http://careers.amnesty.org ) The mobile revolution. Geopolitical power shifts. A radically altered global economy. The world is changing, and so is the way that people fight for their rights. In order to be effective, Amnesty International’s (AI) International Secretariat needs to change how we work. That’s why we have opened a Regional Office in Kenya. And why we need your campaigning expertise with us on the ground. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs2/91308

 

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RESEARCHER – WEST AFRICA Remunertion: [euro]50,926 per annum Location: Dakar, Senegal A I Amnesty International

 

( http://careers.amnesty.org ) The mobile revolution. Geopolitical power shifts. A radically altered global economy. The world is changing, and so is the way that people fight for their rights. In order to be effective, Amnesty International’s (AI) International Secretariat needs to change how we work. That’s why we’ve opening a regional office in Dakar. And why we need your research expertise with us on the ground. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs2/91564

 

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STARTUP CONSULTANT Remuneration: #Fixed Price Project (to be agreed) Location: Abuja, Nigeria A I Amnesty International

 

( http://careers.amnesty.org ) Amnesty International, made up of millions of individual members and supporters, is a truly global human rights movement.

 

Of people who are passionate about defending human rights for all.

 

Of millions of people who believe the world would be a better place if together we took injustice personally.

 

And by mobilising the humanity in everyone, shining a light on human rights abuses wherever they may occur and speaking truth to power, for over 50 years now we have been making a tangible difference in the lives of those who are denied their basic rights, every hour, every day. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs2/91562

 

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TRANSLATION PRODUCTION COORDINATOR [euro] 38,198 per annum, Dakar, Senegal

 

( http://careers.amnesty.org ) Determined to eliminate injustice and promote equality, Amnesty International is at the forefront of human rights advocacy. But to maximise awareness on a global level, we need to maintain a single and consistent voice. By co-ordinating translation requests across the West Africa region, you’ll help us share vital information. http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/jobs2/91584 ******

 

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