Some four years after delegates met at Bomas to discuss Kenya’s constitutional review, the country’s National Youth Convention descended upon the very same location for the purpose of discussing Kenyan youth’s role and opportunities within the Kenyan state. As in other African countries, the NYC argues, young people in Kenya constitute a majority and deserve greater scope for influencing the direction of their nation and setting the agendas it follows.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/403/DRC_crisis_l.jpgFollowing the at the end of October, Kambale Musavuli discusses the importance of raising awareness around the crisis in the DR Congo. As a Congolese granted asylum in the USA in 1998, Musavuli urges the global community, and African-Americans in particular, to revitalise international attention on the Congo as a means of shedding light on the ongoing conflict and harnessing the potential for strong advocacy relationships.

In a response to Issa Shivji’s featured in Pambazuka’s 400th issue English-language edition, Kwesi Kwaa Prah asks what can be achieved with pan-Africanism as a ‘category of intellectual thought’. Problematising the extent to which pan-Africanism could ever represent a politically neutral philosophy, the author suggests that its proponents can be located across the political spectrum and argues that while colour may have provided a useful racially-based organising tool, it should never override the essential inclusivity of the African identity.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/403/JEM_l.jpgIn his review of recent events in the Sudanese Darfur crisis, Savo Heleta assesses the role of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel group. With its explicit goal of overthrowing the current Bashir regime, Heleta argues, the JEM represents a potentially revolutionary movement, one whose egalitarian, pro-justice manifesto will only come to fruition with the support of a broad range of regional players and influences.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/403/KNCHR_l.jpgLawrence M. Mute’s presentation draws upon Kenya’s experiences as documented by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) in the course of its work monitoring the 2005 Constitutional Referendum and the 2007 General Elections. It explains the basis upon which the national commission is persuaded that it is feasible and legally allowable for hate speech legislation to be enacted in Kenya in a manner that does not violate the constitutional right of Kenyans to the freedom of expression. It outlines the key elements that should be included in hate speech legislation and the manner in which those elements should be framed in order, on one hand, to protect Kenyans against hate speech while, on the other hand, to ensure that their right to express themselves is not undermined.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/403/northern_kenya_l.jpgSurvey… a history of marginalisation and distance from government support, Ahmed Issack Hassan explores the legal and administrative impediments to have plagued the development of the region of Northern Kenya. Citing a litany of human rights abuses and the discrimination faced by inhabitants of the region, the author argues for the need for appropriate and effective legislation and sustained political goodwill from executive and national parliamentary power in the struggle to tackle tyrannical practice.

Highlighting the current lack of an adequate legislative framework around the treatment of asylum seekers in Israel, Anat Ben-Dor describes the Israeli state’s trend towards ‘hot returns’ in its approach to foreign nationals within its borders. Following an initial high court denial of a request for an injunction, the Hotline for Migrant Workers and the Refugee Rights Clinic at Tel Aviv University (TAU) has resumed its calls for the court’s intervention to ensure greater protection of asylum seekers’ rights.

Citing the example of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Joe Contreras explores the degree to which Latin Americans are increasingly keen to mobilise and assert their African roots on the back of a new black consciousness movement stirring in Central and South America. While momentum around black power would not be said to be entirely new in the region, lobbying for community land rights and increased spending to improve living conditions in urban slums and rural villages has gathered pace, driven in particular by its epicentre of Colombia and facilitated by the possibilities for communication and the sharing of experiences through the Internet.

In a wide-ranging discussion of the circumstances behind President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil’s 2007 official visit to Burkina Faso some twenty years after the assassination of Thomas Sankara by the west African nation’s incumbent, Carlos Moore in conversation with the publication Ìrohìn reviews the state of the African continent and the role of nations’ leaders in countries’ development. As Moore cogently argues, in their dealings with Western powers most of today’s African elites function in a self-interested manner entirely consistent with dominant relations of exchange seen as far back as the 15th and 16th centuries, representing the same obstacle to improved livelihoods, wider development and equitable distribution of power they have always done.

In the run-up to the third India-Brazil-South-Africa (IBSA) Summit to be held this month in Delhi, Sanusha Naidu considers the prospects for Chinese integration into a growing pillar of South-South cooperation. Emphasising the extent to which IBSA’s parts far from represent a unified force, the author argues that the bloc’s immediate future lies more in consolidating collaboration between its current members than in being concerned about capturing China’s global leverage.

Exploring the challenges and limitations to have faced Tanzania’s educational development, Salma Maoulidi assesses the progress of various educational initiatives and the prospects for the country’s population. Underlining the importance of the role of both state and non-state actors in Tanzania’s implementation of effective policies, the author argues that putting adult learning and education (ALE) back on the national development agenda will be critical for the country’s negotiation of an ever globalising world.

While exploring Rwanda’s alternative experience of women’s emancipation, Grace Kwinjeh outlines the potential conflict between nationalism and social liberation within many post-colonial African nations. Though post-colonial nationalisms have often amounted to the reinforcing of patriarchal systems of governance and the subordination of women, in Rwanda, the author argues, women’s experience of political representation in a post-genocide society has been more complicated, an experience essentially revealing the role of political systems in determining the levels of freedom and democracy that countries’ citizens enjoy.

Sokari Ekine interviews Tunji Buhari, an environmental campaigns worker for Environmental Rights Action (ERA), Friends of the Earth, Nigeria. Buhari is based in Lagos and has been working with ERA on their anti-tobacco campaign.

In a potent challenge to the Bush administration’s stated aim of increasing security on the African continent, Nunu Kidane argues the US’ sudden interest in the military AfriCOM initiative to reflect both unease over future control of natural resources and the increasing Chinese presence in Africa. As a means of actively opposing the initiative’s progress, the author urges readers to participate in the Resist AfriCOM campaign to say a clear and unequivocal ‘no’ to Washington’s AfriCOM programme.

Reflecting on his time spent in The Marcus Garvey Library in the London borough of Tottenham, Ronald Elly Wanda salutes the legacy of the library’s namesake and his seminal contribution to the pan-African movement. Following his discussion with a local librarian, the author suggests The Marcus Garvey Library to represent a redefinition of the library for the modern age.

Highlighting women’s conspicuous absence in the media coverage, negotiations, and resolutions during the Zimbabwe crisis, Pumla Dineo Gqola outlines the extent to which we have grown accustomed to the near total elision of women’s lives, contributions and agency from significant political events. Drawing upon her recent experiences with a group of South African women on a feminist solidarity trip to Zimbabwe, the author concludes the Mugabe-Tsvangirai power-sharing agreement and its ‘gender neutral’ language to be blind to women’s struggles.

Sustaining South Africa’s Wild Coast (SWC) campaign, a loose coalition of organisations continue to lobby the government to overturn the decision to permit open cast dune mining in the Pondoland Wild Coast region. The SWC argue that not only was the decision-making process flawed but mining in the region would have grave consequences for its ecology. But the campaign continues to face a number of obstacles, from stakeholders with different agendas to accusations of the campaign being ‘a white elitist concern’, to approving authorities lacking sufficient clout to make a difference. Azad Essa speaks to the SWC communications officer, Val Payn, to get a better understanding of the issue.

While underlining Canadian people’s best intentions for the African continent, Gerald Caplan argues that his country and the rest of the Western world should understand that many existing practices around trade, aid, lending, investment, and recruiting in relation to Africa cause far more harm than good. Without an approach that goes beyond mere compassionate humanitarianism, the author stresses that the efforts of millions of courageous African social activists will be in vain.

This article offers a critical perspective on the making of the Kenya post-colony using the example of ‘The Kenya of the North’, a region that has been relegated to the periphery – politically, legally, economically, socially and culturally – in the building of a nation. Using northern Kenya as a case study, the paper asks whether Kenya has ever been inclusive of all its regions and peoples, and whether it has succeeded in building consensus on issues affecting all its citizens, especially in as far as the rule of law, democracy, human rights and their protection are concerned.

After some 35 years imprisonment under solitary confinement in Louisiana’s Angola prison, the Black Panther Albert Woodfox of the ‘Angola 3’ is now up for retrial following the decision that his original case was unfairly assessed. Describing the experiences of two other Black Panthers to have also endured dubious original murder trials within the state of Nebraska, Michael Richardson reviews the evidence withheld from their initial case.