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Features
RSS FeedWalter Rodney: 33 years later
The death anniversary of Dr. Walter Rodney is upon us and still no closure
Oscar Ramjeet
2013-06-12, Issue 634
cc W RThe person suspected of killing Rodney is reported to have died in 2002. However the Rodney family and his supporters still want to know who was behind the assassination of this great man
Britain announces compensation for Mau Mau victims
Official government statement read by Foreign Secretary
William Hague
2013-06-11, Issue 634
cc M WGovernment acknowledges that Kenyans were subject to torture and other forms of ill treatment at the hands of the colonial administration, but refuses to accept liability for the atrocities
Tunisia: The rocky road to elections
Farida Ayari
2013-06-11, Issue 634
cc T UTunisians are concerned that the uprising that overthrew the Ben Ali dictatorship has failed to bear any meaningful result. The ruling coalition is only interested in its own survival and national institutions are very weak
The unfinished business of total liberation - Africa’s islands
Akyaaba Addai-Sebo
2013-06-11, Issue 634
cc R AIt is generally held that decolonisation of Africa ended with the fall of apartheid in South Africa in 1994. But the truth is that Britain, France, Spain and Portugal continue to colonise a number African islands
Popularizing new neo-colonial governance processes for African minerals?
An analysis of Canada’s North-South Institute’s ‘Governing Natural Resources for Africa’s Development’ conference
Paula Butler and Evans Rubara
2013-06-11, Issue 634
cc P ZThere seems to be an unspoken foreign goal to prevent control of mining policy throughout Africa from falling into the hands of nationalist, pro-community political forces who will promote a vigorous resource nationalism agenda
Is Kenya the new haven for tax dodgers?
Martin Kirk and Blessol Gathoni
2013-06-11, Issue 634
cc J GThe plan looks fine, but in practice it means Kenya would become a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil haven for tax cheats and money launderers, governed by lax regulation that puts all the power in the hands of the multinational corporations
The war on Africa: U.S. imperialism and the world economic crisis
Mineral resources and the quest for strategic advantage guide western foreign policy on the continent
Abayomi Azikiwe
2013-06-12, Issue 634
cc P ZCapitalism has failed to provide adequate housing, jobs, medical, educational and other services to many people in the West. As well, China’s global influence is rising. These are some of the reasons behind the US quest for mineral resources and strategic dominance in Africa and Middle East
Syria and the sham of ‘humanitarian intervention’
Ajamu Baraka
2013-06-12, Issue 634
cc M LHumanitarian intervention provides the U.S. the perfect ideological cover and internal rationalization to continue as the global ‘gendarme’ of the capitalist order. America should leave the rest of the world alone
AFRICOM Go Home!
AFRICOM out of Germany - NOW! AFRICOM out of Africa - NOW!
2013-06-06, Issue 633
cc J SOn the 50th anniversary of African Liberation Day a group of progressive Pan-Africanists and internationalist activists from around the world declare that the continued military presence of AFRICOM on African soil is profoundly detrimental to the short and long term interests of African people
Kenya truth commission report doctored by State House
Gertrude Chawatama, Berhanu Dinka and Ronald C Slye
2013-06-06, Issue 633
The following statement by three members of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) laments the doctoring of the Land Chapter by the Office of the President. The authors point out ‘the irony of a Commission dedicated to truth, justice, and reconciliation suppressing the voice of a minority in clear violation of agreed upon procedures.’
Algeria: more of the same
Anne Wolf
2013-06-06, Issue 633
cc A ZWith Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika facing ill health, speculations are arising as to whether he will participate in the elections scheduled for next year and whether real change will shift the prevailing status quo whether he stays in power or does not
China-Africa relations: looking beyond the critics
Babette Zoumara and Abdul-Rauf Ibrahim
2013-06-06, Issue 633
cc C AAfrica is lacking a clear and unified policy in terms of how it relates to China. In developing further social, economic and political ties with China, African leaders must develop a coherent and structured plan to promote the interests of Africans
The frontier that drones can never cross
Farooque Chowdhury
2013-06-04, Issue 633
cc V MThe increased use of drones raises not only questions related to efficiency and reliability, but also questions about ethics, human rights, legitimacy, sovereignty, and the morality of war
Haiti: Persecution and death threats to camp activists
Sokari Ekine
2013-06-04, Issue 633
cc D MThree activists – Jean-Louis Elijah Joseph, Esther Pierre and human rights lawyer Patrice Florvilus – are now in hiding and in fear for their lives because of defending the interests of people displaced by the 2010 earthquake
African Liberation Day 2013
Reflecting on the past and planning to accelerate full unification of the peoples
Horace G. Campbell
2013-05-30, Issue 632
cc T DWhile the heads of state busied themselves with neo-liberal discourses about ‘poverty reduction and governance’ at last week’s AU Summit, the intellectuals, activists, artists and writers focused on acceleration of the full unification of the peoples of Africa and the need for concrete steps towards a government that can defend Africans at home and abroad
Africa today: Reflections on resilience
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe
2013-05-29, Issue 632
cc J LThe African humanity currently generates, overwhelmingly, the capital resource that at once sustains it and is exported to the Western world. The notion that Africans are in any way dependent on a European/Western world or any other overseas ‘handout’ is at best a myth, at worst an all-out lie
Contextualizing Gender Based Violence within Patriarchy in Nigeria
Nkiru Igbelina-Igbokwe
2013-05-30, Issue 632
cc UNI Gender based violence is entrenched in the strong patriarchal ideologies of control, subversion and subordination of women and girls. Efforts to resists this has mostly been undertaken at individual level. As a result, patriarchy continues to thrive
What is in a name?
Ethnology museum of Vienna becomes ‘world museum’
Kwame Opoku
2013-05-30, Issue 632
cc K O This latest development is consistent with a trend in the West to justify continued detention in Western museums of artefacts from Africa, Asia and Latin America. The artefacts, mostly acquired through violence, should have been returned to former colonies at independence
Celebrating Tajudeen, the OAU and AU: which way Africa?
Ama Biney
2013-05-23, Issue 631
cc O OThis special issue celebrates not only 50 years of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and its successor, the African Union (AU), but also the life of the late Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, a staunch Pan-Africanist. Some of the themes of this issue are set out, as well as future challenges facing the AU and Pan-Africanists
State of the Union
Dlamini Zuma
2013-05-23, Issue 631
cc L F Address by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Dr. Dlamini Zuma to the Third Pan African Parliament
6 May 2013
The African Union speaks about the 50th anniversary
Aulbrie Sass
2013-05-23, Issue 631
cc WikiPambazuka News interviewed various officials of the AU Commission and an Oxfam official about the accomplishments of the AU as well as some of the challenges and future of continental integration. Follow the links below to listen to the interviews:
Deputy Chairperson, H.E. Mr. Erastus Mwencha
http://youtu.be/W7Ag1CWzpyo
Commissioner for Social Affairs, H.E. Dr. Mustapha S. Kaloko
http://youtu.be/Ipfzeuh6MyA
Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, H.E. Mrs. Tumusiime Rhoda Peace
http://youtu.be/_f2JD0FMjDs
Deputy Head of Communication and Information, Wynne Musabayana
http://youtu.be/7jhgHnumUpY
Oxfam International, Head of Office, Desire Assogbavi
http://youtu.be/kJFndQ6cJ5M
* The interviews were coordinated by Jeff DeKock, Assistant Professor of Communication Arts, Trinity Christian College, and Coordinator of the Semester in Kenya
The Organization of African Unity (OAU)/African Union at 50
The Quest for New Foundations of African Solidarity in the 21st Century
Mehari Taddele Maru
2013-05-23, Issue 631
cc A U The AU has now entered the new fifth era of delivery and democracy to avoid uprisings and revolutions and to ensure human security by re-inventing Pan-Africanism for 21st century Africa
The African Union at 50: Missed opportunities and lessons for the future
Yves Niyiragira
2013-05-23, Issue 631
cc H A Post-independent African leaders have failed to realise the aspirations and hopes of self-determination and unity of the African people. There are five basic steps that AU member states need to take now to put Africans on the path to full integration
Pan-Africanism and African renaissance
More questions than answers as the African Union celebrates 50 years
Antony Otieno Ong’ayo
2013-05-22, Issue 631
cc E C The AU is well placed to articulate the Pan-African agenda for the benefit of the people, yet the majority of African presidents are busy with self-preservation and less supportive of initiatives that promote regional and continental integration. When will the Union to stop being a talking and become a serious institution?
Where is Nkrumah’s United States of Africa 50 years on?
Samwin Banienuba
2013-05-22, Issue 631
cc R A The African Union must cultivate a united Africa and national governments need to be keenly wary of the divide-and-rule tactics of external powers pursuing selfish interests
How far is the United States of Africa?
Motsoko Pheko
2013-05-22, Issue 631
cc E H How is it that 50 years on, the OAU/AU has failed in the main objective for which it was founded? Because the United States of Africa cannot be brought about by leaders who are not Pan-Africanists
Culture and communication as tool of diplomacy
Dele Meiji Fatunla
2013-05-22, Issue 631
cc K G Africa is undergoing an artistic renaissance that could be a part of the African Union’s approach in communicating the aspirations of Africa and Africans, engaging Africans in critical discussion and representing the potential strength in the diversity of the continent
The African Union: is it time for cultural diplomacy to take centre-stage?
Ade Daramy
2013-05-22, Issue 631
cc S H It is time for the African Union to push for cultural diplomacy in the form of a Museum of African Music, Arts and Culture as an entity for both preservation and a celebration of our similarities as well as the richness of our cultural diversity
Development and the double-sided mirror
Tunde Jegede
2013-05-22, Issue 631
cc C H There is a need for a cultural rebirth in Africa as part of the radical economic and social transformation of the continent. A new African consciousness that is free from the chains of ‘colonial’, ‘post-colonial’ and ‘decolonial’ must be located in African reference points
Our future grown in Africa
Agriculture in the African Union
Mbongeni Ngulube
2013-05-23, Issue 631
cc M M Food security has been a major concern for Africans over the decades but, surpringly, the OAU/AU did little to support agriculture and other forms of food production. This needs to change, beginning with effective support for the small-scale farmer