In his new book Ending Aid Dependence, Yash Tandon reviews the possibilities for change in the architecture of aid. The author explores the extent to which many developing countries reliant on aid wish to escape dependence, and yet are constrained from doing so. Proposing that moving away from dependence should be at the top of the political agenda of all developing countries, this timely book cautions countries of the global South from falling into the aid trap and endorsing the collective colonialism of the OECD.
Dorothy-Grace Guerrero and Firoze Manji (ed) (2008) China’s New Role in Africa and the South: A search for a new perspective. 
Features
African liberation Movements and the ‘end of history’
Henning Melber (2008-10-02)
In an elegant analysis of the experience of post-liberation struggle southern African governments, Henning Melber explores the degree to which militaristic mindsets of liberation governments have curtailed movements’ ostensible aims for human rights and democratic representation. Through a range of examples including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, Melber demonstrates the persistence of an enduring ‘friend/foe’ dichotomy in post-colonial governments’ political approaches, which in its practical outcome of winners and losers, inhibits the growth of genuine compromise and democratic exchange.
Has PHC become a global orphan?
Anthony Seddoh (2008-09-25)
With progress towards quality primary health care still slow some thirty years after Alma-Ata, Anthony Seddoh writes that an effective global alliance of global and country actors needs to set positive and realistic paths to implement the declaration’s intentions. In light of the continuing absence of a conceptual framework for addressing longstanding debates and organisational issues, the author considers whether primary health care represents a global orphan in need of fresh guardianship.
Freedom of information and the right to know
Stella Chege (2008-09-17)
This year as we celebrate the “Right to know” week from 22nd to 28th September, and the “International Right to Know” day on Sunday September 28th, this special edition of Pambazuka News seeks to examine how the right to enhances democracy and how African countries are faring in the pursuit of the “right to know”....
The right to information in Africa
Mukelani Dimba (2008-09-18)
Despite what has been called an “explosion” in the passage of FOI laws with more than seventy developing countries passing the laws in the last decade, Africa has largely been absent....
Darfur, ICC and the new humanitarian order
Mahmood Mamdani (2008-09-17)
On July 14, after much advance publicity and fanfare, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court applied for an arrest warrant for the president of Sudan, Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, on charges that included genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Important questions of fact arise from the application as presented by the prosecutor. But even more important is the light this case sheds on the politics of the “new humanitarian order.”...
Comment & analysis
The weight of ‘change’?: AFRICOM and the US presidential election
Beth Tuckey (2008-10-02)
With the US-backed AFRICOM programme launched this week, Beth Tuckey exposes the limitations of plan conceived more for the protection of American military interests than African social development. With both Barack Obama and John McCain content to f...
Unchallenged disparities: gender and socio-spiritual disparities during Ramadan
Salma Maoulidi (2008-10-02)
As Muslims globally come to the end of the holy month of Ramadan, Salma Maoulidi explores the continuing spiritual and secular inequalities experienced by Muslim Tanzanian women. Focussing on the gulf between spiritual goals and worldly reality, the ...
Can Africa’s new foundations break the dependency cycle?
Bhekinkosi Moyo (2008-09-17)
In a review of the current state of philanthropy on the African continent, Bhekinkosi Moyo argues that African organisations are becoming progressively more autonomous from northern donors and able to pursue their own agendas. With organisations such...
Ethiopia at the millennium plus one
Mammo Muchie (2008-10-02)
A year on from Ethiopia’s new millennium, Mammo Muchie highlights the country’s historic role as the cradle of African nationalism. Arguing that reparations remain due from the period of fascist Italy’s occupation in the 1930s, Muchie stresses that i...
Struggle with no borders: Capitalism, nationalism and xenophobia in South Africa
Dale T. McKinley (2008-10-02)
In a potent critique of the post-apartheid state and its role in the wave of xenophobic discrimination to have gripped the South African nation, Dale T. McKinley explores the roots of the country’s ‘macro-nationalist paradigm’ and its consequences in...
Statement on the change of leadership of the ANC government
Amandla Publishers (2008-10-02)
Amandla Publishers agrees with Archbishop Emeritus and the Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu that ‘[i]f South Africa was a democracy, there had to be certainty that those who led it were as uncorrupt as possible. It is a court of law that will ultima...