Articles by Pambazuka News
We found 63 results.
How Kenya Confirmed the Deathbed of WTO
Horace Campbell – Pambazuka News,
25 Jan 2016
The outcome of the meeting, the so-called Nairobi Package, was a slap in the face for the peoples of the South. It was especially egregious that the US used the 10th Ministerial, with the help of the Kenyan leadership, to undermine the future of Pan-African trading relations and to drive a wedge between the BRICS societies and those that the US wants to manipulate in the poor countries. The 10th Ministerial has hastened the demise of the WTO.
→ read full articleChildren of South Africa’s Liberation Icons Condemn Israeli Apartheid
Pambazuka News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Mar 2015
It is the Israeli Apartheid Week in South Africa. The children of celebrated liberation heroes have come out to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel, denouncing the Jewish state’s brutal colonial occupation of Palestine. The campaign is supported by 85 South African organizations and institutions.
→ read full articleThinking Frantz Fanon
Nigel C. Gibson – Pambazuka News,
8 Dec 2014
Fanonian Translations In and Beyond ‘Fanon Studies’- Translations are not neutral; they are products of history and are highly charged politically. Yet despite this, Fanon’s thought in his translated works has remained clear, inspiring people from Steve Biko to Abahlali baseMjondolo.
→ read full articleStoning in Somalia: Recent Incidents Highlight Continued Brutality
Pambazuka News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
Call for action from both parties within and outside Somalia to prevent stoning and other form of torture and violence from continuing to cripple the ability of Somali people to lead viable lives.
→ read full articleHigh Time to Build a Movement of Solidarity to End UN Occupation of Haiti
Ajamu Nangwaya – Pambazuka News,
22 Sep 2014
On October 15, the UN occupation force in Haiti will be up for renewal by the Security Council. Urgent and swift efforts are now needed to demand an immediate withdrawal of the decade-old army of occupation that has turned Haiti into a UN colony.
→ read full articleUS, NATO and the Destruction of Libya: The Western Front of a Widening War
Horace Campbell – Pambazuka News,
18 Aug 2014
NATO claimed that its intervention in Libya was a historic success. But three years later, Libya is in complete chaos. Some 1700 militias have a combined total of 250,000 men under arms. Another external intervention seems necessary to stabilize the country. But the US and NATO must never be involved.
→ read full articleThe Paul Kagame Doctrine after 20 Years
Theogene Rudasingwa – Pambazuka News,
26 May 2014
The Kagame Doctrine is a a malignant cancer that spreads day by day. Appeasement and palliative treatment may give us a deceptive and temporary relief. What is needed is aggressive surgery to contain, stop and remove President Paul Kagame and his clique from power.
→ read full articleWhat Is Boko Haram and Whence Did It Arise?
Gary K. Busch – Pambazuka News,
19 May 2014
The terrorist group Boko Haram is a vital element in the fight over state power by various political groups in Nigeria. Both Nigeria’s continued politics of corruption and the Al Qaeda link to Boko Haram point to a grim future of continued insecurity.
→ read full articleRwanda’s Proxy Wars for Imperialist Interests
Samir Amin – Pambazuka News,
19 May 2014
Rwanda, a military dictatorship, plays a key destabilising role in the Great Lakes region to benefit its imperialist partners, US and UK, whose primary interest is the mineral wealth in Eastern DR Congo. Democratic forces should work had to expose imperialist agendas and weaken Western influence in the region.
→ read full articleRwanda: 20 Years of Trying to Cover Up the Truth In Vain
Antoine Roger Lokongo – Pambazuka News,
5 May 2014
Despite powerful backing from the West and strong media influence, there have emerged some important facts which call into question the widely-accepted narrative of what really happened in Rwanda in 1994 and the identities of those responsible.
→ read full articleUganda and the Reconstruction of a Homophobic Colonial Legacy in Africa: Which Way Progressives?
Horace Campbell – Pambazuka News,
24 Mar 2014
African progressives must stand up and speak out against the wave of anti-gay laws now blowing across the continent – aided by American Christian fundamentalists pursuing a white supremacist agenda. The rights of same-gender loving persons are human rights that are inextricably linked with the rights of every person in society.
→ read full articleStraighten Up or You’re Dead: The Case for Black Lesbians in South Africa
Fairuz Mullagee and Ernest Booys – Pambazuka News,
10 Mar 2014
In post-apartheid South Africa, sexual violence has become a socially endorsed punitive project for maintaining patriarchal order. Black township lesbians have not benefited from legal protection because of important weaknesses in the justice system. These need to be addressed.
→ read full articleUganda: Scientific Statement from the Ministry of Health on Homosexuality
Pambazuka News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Mar 2014
A team of top scientists appointed by the government to give an opinion on homosexuality is unanimous that this sexual orientation is natural and has existed in Africa and everywhere in the world since time immemorial. It is strange for President Museveni to claim he relied on this expert report to assent to the draconian anti-gay bill.
→ read full articleA Look at Africa’s Anti-Gay Laws
Denis Nzioka – Pambazuka News,
10 Mar 2014
A trend is forming from African nations – which already criminalize same sex acts, albeit, through laws inherited from colonial masters – to further put in place legislation that amplify, further criminalize and increase punishment for same sex acts.
→ read full articleFighting Disparity: The Dream of Davos Elites
Farooque Chowdhury – Pambazuka News,
24 Feb 2014
The world’s richest nations have admitted that global inequality is appalling. But are they prepared to radically tackle the capitalist system that harbours rich tax thieves and appropriators of labour, who increase their wealth with political favours? A system that safeguards the interests of the minority at the expense of the majority poor?
→ read full articleChina in Africa: Devil or Angel?
Luo Jianbo and Zhang Xiaomin – Pambazuka News,
24 Feb 2014
One of the most outstanding features of China’s policy is its aspiration to promote South-South cooperation and to achieve the renaissance of Asia and Africa. Unlike the former colonial masters, China’s engagement provides Africa with new development opportunities.
→ read full articleRemembering Malcolm X 49 Years On
Ama Biney – Pambazuka News,
24 Feb 2014
Malcolm X, otherwise known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was a fierce African American human rights crusader with an international agenda. Progressive people commemorating his assassination this week [21 Feb 1965] reflect on his legacy to the Black struggle and to all people around the world who are oppressed by imperialism and capitalism.
→ read full articleAre African Conflicts Exclusive to Africans?
Abdul Ghelleh – Pambazuka News,
24 Feb 2014
A Critical Look at the Role of Western Mainstream Media – The Western media misdiagnoses the root causes of African conflicts and reduces them to tribalism and religion as in the respective case of South Sudan and the Central African Republic.
→ read full articleHaiti: Four Years On From the Quake
Ama Biney – Pambazuka News,
20 Jan 2014
The people of Haiti continue to suffer the economic tremors of a post-earthquake reconstruction programme that has failed to transform the lives of the majority of the people, despite the fact that it is the people of Haiti who must not only construct the future of Haiti but also decide that future.
→ read full articleAre USA and NATO Replacing the UN?
Motsoko Pheko – Pambazuka News,
23 Sep 2013
Is the United States of America and its NATO Allies replacing the United Nations? Is this alliance now the supreme world body in international affairs? Is the United Nations going the disastrous end of its predecessor the League of Nations? Should the civilised nations of the world allow the nefarious schemes of these self-appointed police of the world to destroy the world again through disguised colonialism, racism and new imperialism? And enslave other nations especially in the developing world through terrorist militarism?
→ read full articleChávez, Internationalism, and Socialism
Beverly Bell – Pambazuka News,
15 Apr 2013
Economist Camille Chalmers is a leader in Latin American social movements and executive secretary of the Platform for Alternative Development in Haiti (PAPDA) and was interviewed by Beverly Bell. He shares his views on Chávez’s vision of a revolutionary Latin America that sought internationalist solidarity with Haiti, Africa and Asia among other issues.
→ read full articleBRICS Viewed from Russia
Vladimir Shubin – Pambazuka News,
25 Mar 2013
There are some who see BRICS as ‘the Center’s fifth column’ whilst Russia sees it as an alternative centre of global influence despite the differing ideological viewpoints of its member states. Russia is committed to BRICS as a constraint to the ambitions of the USA, NATO and the world reactionary forces behind them.
→ read full articleThe BRICS Come to Durban
Maite Nkoana-Mashabane – Pambazuka News,
25 Mar 2013
Keynote Speech at the BRICS Academic Forum by South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation – The BRICS are catalysts and drivers of a multipolar world, aiming to demolish the hegemony of the West in global affairs.
→ read full articleIntroducing BRICS from above and BRICS-from-below
Patrick Bond – Pambazuka News,
25 Mar 2013
There seem to be three narratives about BRICS. The first is promotional and mainly comes from government and allied intellectuals; the second perspective is uncertainty, typical of fence-sitting scholars and NGOs; and the third is highly critical, from forces sometimes termed the ‘independent left.’
→ read full articleChávez and Nonviolence
Onwubiko Agozino – Pambazuka News,
18 Mar 2013
Hugo Chavez may have helped to inspire social democratic revolutions across South America in preference to the fruitless decades of violent armed struggles.
→ read full articleFrench Imperialism Moves Deeper Into Mali
Abayomi Azikiwe – Pambazuka News,
25 Feb 2013
Despite French military intervention and claims of success in fighting Islamist militias, the conflict in Mali is getting worse. There is also some evidence of imperialist propaganda about the course of events.
→ read full articleCholera and Healthcare in Haiti
Sokari Ekine – Pambazuka News,
25 Feb 2013
The problem with healthcare in Haiti is that there is no system, no structures, no plan – at least not one that has been implemented. The healthcare facilities are wholly inadequate. It is impossible to talk about health care in Haiti without mentioning the 2010 earthquake and the subsequent cholera epidemic which so far has affected 630,000 people and taken the lives of 7,500.
→ read full articleEliminating the Scourge of Female Genital Mutilation
Ruth Njeng’ere – Pambazuka News,
11 Feb 2013
Recent Successes Inspire Hope – A world without FGM is within sight. But more efforts are needed to ensure worldwide legislation against the practice and increased education to attain that goal.
→ read full articleThe Debt Owed to Haiti
Nia Imara – Pambazuka News,
28 Jan 2013
Three years after the unprecedented earthquake in Haiti that extinguished at least 300,000 lives and upended millions more, the world is asking the same questions.Today the question ought not be how much debt the world superpowers condescend to forgive Haiti, nor even how many millions they promise for earthquake relief. Genuine rebuilding must take as its premise that the Haitian people are due a justice at least 200-years-old. Their claims for justice are both legally and morally sound and have been ignored for far too long.
→ read full articleHow Washington Helped Foster the Islamist Uprising in Mali
Jeremy Keenan – Pambazuka News,
28 Jan 2013
How the US and Algeria have been sponsoring terror in the Sahara. On 12 October 2012, the UN Security Council voted unanimously in favour of a French-drafted resolution asking Mali’s government to draw up plans for a military mission to re-establish control over the northern part of Mali, an area of the Sahara bigger than France. Known as Azawad by local Tuareg people, northern Mali has been under the control of Islamist extremists following a Tuareg rebellion at the beginning of the year.
→ read full articleWhy Malawi Can’t Just Legalise Homosexuality
Sitinga Kachipande – Pambazuka News,
17 Dec 2012
The debate about decriminalising homosexuality must be strategically taken to Malawian people. One cannot simply change the law on such a sensitive issue without first addressing attendant social and religious concerns.
→ read full articleLiberal Capitalism, Crony Capitalism and Lumpen Development
Samir Amin – Pambazuka News,
26 Nov 2012
Liberalism creates nothing, in the peripheries of the Global South that agree to submit to it, other than a crony capitalism based on a Comprador State in opposition to the National State committed to sustainable economic and social development.
→ read full articleAFRICOM Preparing For another ‘Humanitarian’ Military Intervention?
Abdi Ali Diriye – Pambazuka News,
5 Nov 2012
Washington’s corporate interests are hidden behind ‘humanitarian interventions’. That is the story of the US involvement in Libya, Uganda, Sudan and other parts of Africa.
→ read full articleRhetoric and Reality of AFRICOM: Lessons from Mali
Abena Ampofoa Asare – Pambazuka News,
1 Oct 2012
What is the value of America’s military and humanitarian interventions? Just look at Mali: Its shattered democracy and roving rebel groups are a troubling picture of an AFRICOM partner state.
→ read full articleHow the Private Sector Didn’t Solve Ghana’s Water Crisis
Judith Amanthis – Pambazuka News,
27 Aug 2012
Government investment, rather than privatisation or international aid, offers the best solution for water services in Ghana.
→ read full articleConfiscation of Condoms from Sex Workers Compromises Public Health
Chi Mgbako – Pambazuka News,
30 Jul 2012
Throughout the world, in countries as diverse as Kenya, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, the United States, and Zimbabwe, police often confiscate condoms from sex workers to use as evidence of prostitution, thereby compromising public health interventions aimed at reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS.
→ read full articleSigns of the Times in Haiti
Nia Imara – Pambazuka News,
9 Jul 2012
The Military, Money, and the Meaning of an Occupation – There are periods in a country’s history when the signs and warnings that that history will soon enter into a dramatically different phase are clear as day. Such is the period today in Haiti, where daily events portend an inauspicious development for the future: the Haitian Army may soon be returning.
→ read full articleThe South Challenges Globalization
Samir Amin – Pambazuka News,
9 Apr 2012
The increased strength of emerging countries of the South confronts the challenges of contemporary globalization.
→ read full articleFanon, Coloniality and Emancipation
Eunice N. Sahle – Pambazuka News,
12 Dec 2011
Fifty years after his death, Fanon remains ‘the entry point in any project geared to the realisation of substantive emancipation, as opposed to elite-led projects,’ writes Eunice N. Sahle.
→ read full articleDemocracy Is More Than Voting and Elections
Horace Campbell – Pambazuka News,
12 Dec 2011
From Egypt to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the people are finding out that the entire process of voting and elections is stacked against change,’ writes Horace Campbell. We need ‘new forms of politics’ to transform our social system.
→ read full articleFrantz Fanon in Africa and Asia
Samir Amin – Pambazuka News,
12 Dec 2011
Frantz Fanon is a loved and respected figure all over Africa and Asia. Samir Amin argues that his writing and the choice to join the liberation struggle in Algeria show Fanon was a genuine revolutionary.
→ read full articleUS Africa Command a Tool to Recolonise Continent
Motsoko Pheko – Pambazuka News,
21 Nov 2011
Africa does not need an American military base on its soil. Would Americans welcome such a foreign base in their land? Motsoko Pheko urges African countries to resist this imperialist move, which is intended to facilitate plunder of their resources.
→ read full articleA History of US-Sponsored Violence in Haiti
Nia Imara – Pambazuka News,
21 Nov 2011
The US has once again succeeded in imposing an illegal and repressive puppet government in Haiti in blatant disregard of the will of the people. But there is still hope that, with collective struggle and a vision, change can occur.
→ read full articleEgypt’s Military Ruler Tantawi and the American Siege of Gaza
Ali Abunimah – Pambazuka News,
12 Sep 2011
Revelations from WikiLeaks – As a WikiLeaks cable reveals, the US was even more actively involved than originally thought in ‘enforcing the siege of Gaza along Egypt’s border’.
→ read full articleLibya: Use of Depleted Uranium, Partition and Regional Risks
Farouk James – Pambazuka News,
25 Apr 2011
In the wake of NATO’s imposition of the ‘no-fly zone’ over Libya on 31 March 2011, there is serious scepticism around the United States Pentagon’s denial of the use of depleted uranium (DU), writes Farouk James. With the US, the UK and France now calling for a full-scale invasion the veto powers of the UN Security Council’s permanent members should be called into question once again.
→ read full articleThe Reconstruction of Haiti: A Record of Failure
Colette Lespinasse – Pambazuka News,
18 Apr 2011
Last March, donors pledged billions of US dollars for the reconstruction of Haiti, after an earthquake devastated the country. But a year later, a group of 40 Haitian organisations finds that ‘nothing significant has really been undertaken’. Instead Haitian players have been excluded from strategic decision-making and the ‘millions of people affected directly or indirectly by the earthquake continue to face the consequences in destitution, and with no support whatsoever.’
→ read full articleTransnational Capitalism or Collective Imperialism?
Samir Amin – Pambazuka News,
28 Mar 2011
Responding to the work of scholars like William Carroll, Samir Amin considers the evolution and shape of globalised capitalism and the extent to which it might be termed ‘transnational’ or ‘collective imperialism’. He stresses: ‘Globalisation is an inappropriate term. Its popularity is commensurate with the violence of ideological aggression that has prohibited henceforth the utterance of “imperialism.”
→ read full articleLet’s Make Female Genital Mutilation a Part of History
Bernadette Sesay – Pambazuka News,
28 Mar 2011
At age 18, I was told the time had come for me to go through Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). I didn’t want to. It was my mother and maternal grandmother’s idea: they’d also been responsible for the initiation of all of my female siblings. My mother cried and pleaded with me, begging me not to bring shame to my family. She told me it was not going to be hard because I was having it done in a hospital. I didn’t know it could be done in hospital; at the time this came as a shock.
→ read full articleThe World Social Forum and the Battle for COP17
Vishwas Satgar – Pambazuka News,
21 Feb 2011
In a world plunged ever deeper into an uncivilised global capitalist condition, the World Social Forum is a crucial beacon of hope. But while news of Egypt and Tunisia’s revolutions electrified activists at this year’s gathering in Dakar, Vishwas Satgar asks whether progressive civil society is powerful enough to organise for a genuine climate change solution at COP17.
→ read full article(French) Capitalisme Transnational ou Impérialisme Collectif?
Samir Amin – Pambazuka News,
31 Jan 2011
Samir Amin pense que le capitalisme est une réalité historique et sociale – et non seulement économique – qu’il importe d’étudier comme un ensemble de sociétés capitalistes à caractère nationale. Cela en dépit la transnationalisation. Et pour lui, «dans l’analyse de ces capitalismes nationaux, aujourd’hui comme hier, l’accent dans la recherche ne doit sans doute pas négliger l’examen des réalités que les firmes capitalistes représentent».
→ read full articleStakeholders in the Côte d’Ivoire Crisis
Sanou Mbaye – Pambazuka News,
31 Jan 2011
What is at stake in Côte d’Ivoire ‘are the consequences of French ongoing colonisation and ruthless exploitation in connivance with unscrupulous local leaders of swathes of west and central Africa’, writes Sanou Mbaye, in an analysis of the five parties affected by the country’s post-election crisis.
→ read full articleTribute to Patrice Lumumba on the 50th Anniversary of His Assassination [17 Jan 1961]
Carlos Martinez – Pambazuka News,
24 Jan 2011
Why was Lumumba killed? Because he was a relentless, dedicated, intelligent, passionate anti-colonialist, Pan-Africanist and Congolese nationalist; because he had the unstinting support of the Congolese masses; because he stood in the way of Belgium’s plan to transform Congo from a colony into a neo-colony.
→ read full articleAfrica: Letter to AU over Homophobia Concerns
AIDS-Free World – Pambazuka News,
17 Jan 2011
We are writing to express our grave concern about the recent escalation of homophobia throughout the African continent. A vocal minority spouting hatred, paranoia, and intolerance is dominating public discourse. In response, increasing numbers of parliaments are attempting to criminalise homosexuality, and increasing numbers of African leaders are publicly endorsing this criminalisation. Currently, over two-thirds of countries in the African Union have legislation that criminalises homosexuality. AIDS-Free World is disturbed by the silence of AU leaders in the face of this discrimination, and we urgently call upon the African Union to hold a special session to address the issue.
→ read full articleHomophobia Plagues Africa
Pambazuka News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Dec 2010
Monday’s [20 Dec 2010] statements by a prominent Ghanaian activist provide further evidence of the alarming homophobia that is sweeping across Africa. Bernice Sam, National Programme Coordinator of WiLDAF (Women in Law and Development) in Ghana argued publicly for the Constitution Review Commission to limit Ghana’s definition of marriage to include heterosexual couples only. Sam then went even further. She was quoted as saying that it will be ‘almost impossible for the act of homosexuality to be considered criminal’ if the constitution is not reworded in this way.
→ read full articleNobel Peace Prize 2010: Norwegian Dynamite
Annar Cassam – Pambazuka News,
20 Dec 2010
New head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjorn Jagland, one-time leader of the Labour Party, one-time prime minister, one-time foreign minister of Norway and currently secretary general of the Council of Europe, is bit of a national joke…. Furthermore, [Wen Huibao, writing in Le Monde 10 December 2010] explains that [Liu Xiaobo] caused a second scandal by publicly supporting George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003, an act of war which was condemned in China, Scandinavia and all over the globe. So the question has to be asked, what links the Nobel Peace Prize with its current laureate’s support for this illegal war in Iraq?
→ read full articleHaitian Diary: SOPUDEP and Local Organisation
Sokari Ekine – Pambazuka News,
13 Dec 2010
As she visits Haiti, Sokari Ekine writes of the history behind the community-run SOPUDEP school, the efforts of local organisations to organise in response to the devastation of the country’s earthquake, a micro-credit scheme and people’s broad lack of faith in the power of the current elections to promote change.
→ read full articleGlobal Currency Wars and US Imperialism
Samir Amin – Pambazuka News,
29 Nov 2010
Samir Amin speaks to Pambazuka News on the misleading rhetoric over the so-called currency war. The real problem, he argues, is the disequilibrium in the global integrated monetary and financial system in which the US insists legitimately on the right to control their currency, but denies the same rights to others, such as China, who seek to do the same. The countries of the global South need to leave the US and its allies to sort out their own problems and concentrate on developing regional currencies and exercising strict control over capital flows, Amin argues.
→ read full articleWhich Way Sudan?
Horace Campbell – Pambazuka News,
29 Nov 2010
A Pan-African Reflection: Is North and South Sudan’s recent agreement to establish a ‘soft border’ between the two areas ahead of a referendum on southern independence ‘another recipe for war?’
→ read full articleInsanity and Robotisation: Militarisation and US Society
Horace Campbell – Pambazuka News,
22 Nov 2010
A rally to restore sanity was held in the Washington Mall on 30 October 2010. Called by two comedians, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, the rally drew over 200,000 persons (CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20021284-503544.html). Another 4 million persons watched this rally on cable television. The escalation of intolerance and use of violent language by the conservative forces gave this rally tremendous importance in the politics of the USA.
→ read full articleThe Art of War Journalism
Mwaura Kaara – Pambazuka News,
22 Nov 2010
Reflecting on how the media and war industries often feed off each other for political and commercial ends, Mwaura Kaara considers the prospects for ‘peace journalism’ that ‘captures the truths as they are without bias or favour’.
→ read full articleThe US, the AU and the New Scramble for Africa
Jason Hickel – Pambazuka News,
8 Nov 2010
The past few years have seen a dramatic up-tick in American diplomatic efforts in Africa, which has coincided with a decisive shift in political rhetoric about the continent. At first glance this might seem like a positive development, reflecting a more progressive attitude toward what has long been considered an unimportant global backwater. But a closer look reveals that American diplomacy in Africa is less about serving the good of African people than it is about securing the interests of private American capital. Nowhere has this been more flagrantly clear than on the lips of Michael Battle, the US ambassador to the AU.
→ read full articleNigeria: Shell Oil’s ‘License to Kill’?
Abena Ampofoa Asare – Pambazuka News,
25 Oct 2010
Following a controversial ruling by US Judge José A. Cabranes of the Manhattan-based federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals that transnational corporations ‘cannot be held responsible for torture, genocide, war crimes and the like’, Abena Ampofoa Asare discusses the challenges for establishing responsibility and valuing human rights over profit.
→ read full articleNew Colonialism: Pentagon Carves Africa into Military Zones
Rick Rozoff – Pambazuka News,
24 May 2010
Under its AFRICOM (African Command) initiative, the US Army is becoming ever more deeply involved in African military affairs across the continent, encroaching on the military autonomy of an increasing number of African nations, writes Rick Rozoff. Pulling African countries’ militaries into its network is not based on altruism, Rozoff contends, but simply reflects the concerns of every military power: ‘The threat and use of armed violence to gain economic and geopolitical advantages.’
→ read full article