Dear Pambazuka Reader,

Today, May 25th, is Africa Liberation Day. It is a day to celebrate what has been achieved, and to remind us what is yet to be done.

There is little doubt that political independence brought, for a while at least, progress to our people - a relief from the yoke of colonial domination.

But the movement for liberation has had its setbacks over the last 30 years as the imperialist North, in collusion with African governments, overhauled the entire structure of our economies through structural adjustment programmes. This has enabled finance capital and the giant corporations – the 500-700 oligopolies that control almost every aspect of our lives – to occupy our countries and extract wealth through exploitation of our natural resources, our land and our people. Through the privatisation of the commons they have engaged in massive accumulation by dispossession, leaving millions landless, homeless, unemployed, hungry, sick and angry.

And that anger is being manifested in the new awakenings that we have witnessed in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Côte d’Ivoire, Algeria, Senegal, Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Djibouti, Botswana, Uganda, Swaziland, and South Africa. These awakenings are just one phase in the long struggle of the people of Africa to reassert control over our own destinies, to reassert their dignity, and to struggle for self-determination and emancipation. The governments of the North have not sat silently in the face of these uprisings – witness the invasions of Libya and Côte d’Ivoire, and the attempts to establish compliant regimes in Tunisia and Egypt that have, for the present, been resisted by the mass movements.

The promise of emancipation for the peoples of Africa will depend on ensuring that voices for freedom and justice are heard loud and clear across the continent and around the world.

And that is what Pambazuka News is about – amplifying voices and nurturing solidarity around struggles for emancipation across the continent and throughout the diaspora and the global South. Many alliances and networks have used Pambazuka News to help advance their own campaigns - for example the campaign around the protocol on the rights of women in Africa; the struggle for land and housing by shack-dwellers; the campaign for LGBTI rights; and many more. Their ability to continue to use Pambazuka News as a weapon for justice depends on your support.

Produced by a community of some 2,800 writers, bloggers, activists, intellectuals, poets, artists and representatives of social movements, Pambazuka News is committed to nourishing and supporting the building of a strong, progressive, pan-African social movement for freedom and justice.

To do that, Pambazuka News must remain free and independent. The generosity and solidarity of our community of readers and authors is what makes Pambazuka News possible. Pambazuka needs your support to thrive! If you value what Pambazuka News has achieved over the last 10 years, if you appreciate what Pambazuka News is and does today, make a donation now. Make the donation you can afford. But make it now.

By supporting Pambazuka News you are enabling thousands of social movements and organisations committed to freedom and justice across the continent to be heard in a space that remains free and independent. Join those who are ensuring a free and independent future for Pambazuka News and the movements it supports! Donate on line today at: http://pambazuka.org/en/donate.php and help make Africa Liberation Day a true celebration of emancipation.

Firoze Manji, Editor