A book exploring the ways in which HIV and AIDS stakeholders are denying a basic set of human rights to same sex practising people, and potentially jeopardising overall efforts to combat the AIDS epidemic in Africa, was launched in Johannesburg on 15 February at Behind The Mask.

Titled Off the Map: How HIV/Aids programming is Failing Same-Sex Practicing People in Africa, the book, published by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), aims to get some attention to the fact that same sex practising Africans are at increased risk of HIV because of both biological and social vulnerabilities. 'Challenges to the right of freedom of expression, housing, arbitrary arrest, bodily integrity, increase the vulnerability of our community. But still, little attention is paid to this issue', Cary Johnson, IGLHRC senior specialist for Africa said.

In this book various activists from around the continent contributed personal stories while others interviewed people who had HIV/ Aids related stories to tell. The book relates to Aids Law Project’s Jonathan Berger’s research-Re-sexualizing the Epidemic, where he investigated the issue of little funding and public attention paid to the issue.

Judge Edwin Cameron wrote the preface of the book and various activists from the continent contributed stories as they personally relate to them.

'This is a long overdue book calling attention to a serious and neglected issue –with important ramifications for all people working in the HIV/Aids field.' Sofia Gruskin, Director of the program on International Health and Human Rights from Harvard School of Public Health concluded.

Musa Ngubane - reporter for Behind the Mask, South Africa

I have twisted your words
twisted them into my skin
back and forth, back and forth
like the click, click of a loom
I have twisted your words into my hair and my breasts
twisted them into my tongue and my teeth and my thoughts.
I have platted and woven and burned them into this tapestry until finally I see
there is this image called me.

A collision of disguises in fruitless beginnings converge with time to crack silences that live beyond the cacophony of this image
and my step breaks into to reveal the suddenness of something true
I am not your words
I need not answer to those words

Black Label

somebody killed the music and wrote discord and told us all to
make mad noise and like it
crying about the hole in the bucket
so here we are paying to be lulled by some strange tune
you can do this at home in your living room but there’s a TV I presume
streaming in the sub human text
filling the decibel quota so your off spring can develop a catatonic stride
we call it national pride, everything else is nullified
are you up for man-ipulation.
can you ask why, can you ask why?
and then can you look yourself in the eye –

can you ask why, is bush still the president
can you ask why , is bin laden still resident
can you ask why, no African country is holding tight, although we hope South Africa might
can you ask why HIV and internalised oppression has Africa on its knees
can you ask why, this has now become a black disease
and look yourself in the eye if you please

can you ask why black, why white, why coloured
can you ask why we keep the love in the media
selling ourselves this dilution, afraid of the solution
can you ask why and look yourself in the eye.

can you ask why 20% controls 80% and then ask why your mother can’t pay the rent
can you ask why your human family is living street bound
can you ask why there’s no change no change no change,
just some poor fool like me that’s up on a stage
that complains
can you ask why your father shot himself, can you ask why too many have no food, can you ask why
the shits so deep like the nothing that we speak
flagrant testimony of that tired scripture, “its because I’m black you see!”
can you ask why we sit around clamouring to be just like the picture of whitey
I’m talking the material economy and how it’s used you see
and it just so happens it comes with that pristine mentality,
jik clean and pristine
yet I don’t see us taking control of our destinies,
I just keep hearing, what’s that you’re saying,
“it’s because I’m black you see!”

ah but that’s the famous copout for the dropout, for the victim
and though its true
there’s still no excuse for you to think that makes up for exemption from your own redemption
is your life worth a mention? or
are we gonna live in mimicry or find a way to see the change, see the change,
see the change
in you and me
are you ready to ask why, why not,
why you why me
why not change, why not change

can you say ‘I am’
can you say ‘I am the..’
can you say ‘I am the change’
I am the change X5

or are we just ready to toy with the last remains of another idealistic notion and prepare ourselves to grow old in the economic handout game
and call any other aspiration a dream because we’re just to damn lazy to create humanity differently without screaming ‘it’s because I’m black you see!’

So let me get this straight, black means we can’t wake up from a struggle mentality and free ourselves from a victim reality?
oh my brotha what’s that you keep saying “hey man its always been that way!”
when did you give up, how many times have you been bought and
bartered for, oh yes that’s right I forgot there’s no slavery anymore
it’s pussilanimity, voluntary contribution to some more systematic distribution
of bubblegum identity,
division precision
and what’s more an abuse of sameness in the name of
unity for the quick march of your own thoughts to the march of the massive identity the one that’s not about you or me,
getting caught in the PC tradition is getting away with omission
assume the position!

possibility is probability is likely is can be
it’s just up to me
our choice means it could be
should be a different history
wake up from this victim mentality
that’s the control you see

there is no system we are not a part of
there is no difference we cannot be the start of
how we use it is the key and if its gonna harm the one next you
we may as well be the gun or knife and the hynosis too.
because it doesn’t matter what flag you’re flying or what colour your buying
if you’re marching with a deadly compromise you’re just wearing that disguise
the one that we call ‘colonised’
your identity is rooted in the me
the master of your destiny,

otherwise
whose nigger are you,
nigger is the myopic ass with power to change who assumes his future depends on
a handout to getout
of himself/herself/myself/yourself
I said get up! get up

or get down on all fours and drop drawers!
now I ask you does that give the victim in you pause.

can you say change, can you say change
can you say I am the change
I am the change, I am the change

can you ask why
a question is worth a million assassinations
dissertations, simulations, violations and virtual realities
can we give up this disease
no more liberation from the outside
this is an inside story
this is not about glory or dream making
it’s a simple question
of not playing the shame game.

This is a black label let’s turn the table people and allow it to enable

African can you say it, I am the change
I am the change, I am the change…x5

Welcome Citizens of the Universe!
Humanity of she
what kind of African are you?
What kind of African am I?
what kind of African makes you African?
what kind of black is that?
what kind of white is this?
what kind of color is coloured?
what kind of woman is this?
what kind of man is that?
anthropometric set work still at work
if we haven’t discovered our unity in diversity
gender equality won’t be a reality if you ask me

political rhetoric makes me fret
makes what determines me a complex no reality
in a political menagerie of constructed identity
inheritance of imperialist mentality
is there an African women free in me?

what kind of woman are you?
does it make you a human too?
what kind of sister makes me a sister?
and not part of the make up of the Mister
the credential of he, does it make me
am I still living with a mindset designed to break me

There are women in parliament
women in business
women in religion
women in decision
yet there’s still not enough of you to make gender equality true
violence against women makes me black and blue
because her bruises are mine too you see
I live in the humanity of she

there are women on welfare, women being batter everywhere
women denied, women with stolen pride, women on the street

women talking other women cheap, women buying images from that nursery rhyme
there are women doing time, women in the home raising their children alone,
women in captivity with the cheque book and the Audi its about the money, is this equality
what kind of gender reality makes us free
What definition satisfies the woman in me

we are living in patriarchal red tape
all it seems to do is change its shape
and women don’t make it easier to take
we perpetuate the ‘bitch’ theme
playing into another male construction
we undermine sisters according to prescription of old ideas
of who we are or she should be
the monopoly of sex
and sexuality
is not about she

Yes, there are women in parliament
women in business
women in religion
women in decision
yet there’s still not enough of you to make gender equality true
violence against women makes me black and blue
because her bruises are mine too you see
I live in the humanity of she.

now you may believe we have
come out and claimed our space
but as long as theirs a woman
who has to fear her bodies reminder of a critical debate
that spells power and hate
and this is not just about rape
its about the dictate of shape
the dictate of the shape of your intellect
that boob job
the blonde, brunette
botox baby
she can’t run the company
accept maybe if she’ll sleep with me
and what about the condom fight

around the husband’s right
do we know how many people we are sleeping with?

Is there a degree that can set free me from my own mentality about me
how much academic rhetoric will destroy the disposition of
invisibility.
if we haven’t discovered our unity in diversity
gender equality won’t be a reality if you ask me

Yes, there are women in parliament
women in business
women in religion
women in decision
yet there’s still not enough of you to make gender equality true
violence against women makes me black and blue
because her bruises are mine too you see
I live in the humanity of she.

* Khadija Heeger is a poet and lives in Cape Town South Africa

The 20th FESPACO (Pan African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou) takes place between 24th February and the 3rd March in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The name means 'Land of honest men' and was changed from Upper Volta by the late revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara.

Every two years, the desert city of Ouagadougou becomes the centre of Africa film from the continent and diaspora. The festival has grown from its inauguration in 1969 when only five countries were represented (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger and Cameroon) to this year with films from almost every country and the diaspora being represented. Every two years, the desert city of Ouagadougou becomes home to African film from the continent and the diaspora.

In 2005 the South African film DRUM (set around the famous South African magazine Drum, the film is about the forced removals of black people from Sophia Town) took the grand prize. 2005 was also the year when two Hollywood productions were shown, Hotel Rwanda, and the much better Sometimes in April. Both dealt with the Rwandan genocide. Commenting on the 2005 film festival and the lack of availability of African films to both local and the wider global community I wrote:

'The unfortunate thing is that very few of these films will be available to a wider audience outside of the film festival circuit. African films to do not bring in millions of dollars to cinema houses around the world and Africa itself has very few cinemas where films can be viewed by a large number of people. Some of the films may be transferred into video or DVD format but even these are so expensive that only organisations could afford to buy them.

So why are African films so expensive that local African TV stations cannot afford to screen then and individuals like you and I cannot afford to buy them on DVD or videos? That’s if we can find them in the first place. The answer lies with California Newsreel. They own the distribution rights to many African films enabling them charge exorbitant prices to institutions and individuals for screenings and DVDs. Distribution takes place through their Library of African Cinema. For example check their restrictions on the cheapest option 'home videos'.

On a positive note these issues will be addressed this year as part of the thematic discussion 'African Cinema and Culture and Diversity' which will include topics such as the state of African cinema and the issue of distribution.

This year’s talk of the festival is the film Bamako by Malian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako. The film takes a critical look at the World Bank/IMF and their impact on grass roots communities in Africa by putting the institutions on trial with two ordinary people as witnesses.

The film tells the story of Melé—a bar singer—and her unemployed husband Chaka. Their marriage is coming apart. In the courtyard of the house they share with other families, a trial is under way with the World Bank and the IMF, accused of the woes of Africa. American actor Danny Glover, who helped fund the film, has a bit part.

I also looked at the contribution by African women to the festival, starting with Cape Verdian film maker, Claire Andrade’s film Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican? (A Cape Verdean American story) which has been selected to compete for the Paul Robeson Diaspora Prize.

SKFPR? is the largely unknown story about immigrants from the Cape Verde islands in the Fox Point neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island, the second oldest and largest Cape Verdean community in America. The film opened theatrically in the UStates in January 2006 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, to a sold out house. The documentary continued throughout 2006 to receive critical and popular acclaim at theatres, festivals, universities and select venue screenings.

Other African women showing at the festival are Zimbabwean writer, Tsitsi Dangaremgba (Growing Stronger); Rwandan, Jacqueline Kalimunda (Homeland); Algerian, Fatma Zorha Zamoum (Short LA PELOTE DE LAINE).

UNESCO will support the refurbishment of Personal Computers as long as they benefit the end-users, adding that in most countries of the world, PC refurbishing initiatives are now active - covering a whole range of tasks from mobilizing donors of second-hand PCs to procurement, refurbishment, transportation, distribution, installation, maintenance and training on the use of refurbished PCs.

In her new book "Child Soldiers in Africa", Alcinda Honwana draws on her firsthand experience with children of Angola and Mozambique, as well as her study of the phenomenon for the United Nations and the Social Science Research Council, to shed light on how children are recruited, what they encounter, and how they come to terms with what they have done.

Birth of a baby must be a blessing event
But mine was nothing short of a curse
Daddy's face didn't shine. Drums didn't make noise
No shots were fired. No ceremony was held
The new born was me. I am a girl
In my culture, gender counts most.
A girl is not as welcome as a baby boy
Raising camel in the rangeland
is family's highest priority
They believe a girl has no hands for that
Harsh combat against the enemies
is family's highest priority
They believe a girl has no heart for that
Reconciliation in the aftermath of a clash
is family's highest priority
They believe a girl has no head for that
At five I had to face the worst
A knife cut across my genitals
A midwife circumcised me
Stitched me. Infibulated me
Where I used to have a clit
I have a black scar now
Why inflict me with this pain?
This real Pain of primitive cultures
In tears I am, at every stage of my life
Mom and Dad, I'm I not a daughter?
Dear Brother, I'm I not a sister?
Dear mankind, wherever you are
I'm I not a human being?
Tears, Tears, Tears

"From Uganda to Guatemala, the book provides shocking case studies of carbon offset project after project that went wrong. Land grabbing, human rights violations and illegal evictions."

According to Tony Blair recently – it is possible to combine having a good time with taking care of apocalyptic climate change. He was responding to criticism that he had set a bad example by jetting off to Florida for the annual Blair family holiday. His answer to the spoil-sport environmentalists was to pay a carbon offset company Climate Care to 'neutralise' the emissions from the air travel. Carbon offsets allow a polluter (Blair in this case) to continue life as usual (flying cheaply) by paying an intermediary (Climate Care) to invest their money (minus administration costs of course) in a project that reduces emissions of greenhouse gases somewhere else. This in turn caused a secondary furore because the concept of carbon offsets is a pretty controversial one. In the background of this media frenzy, the highly respected Dag Hammerskjöld Foundation published their new book “Carbon Trading: a critical conversation on privatisation, climate change and power” edited by Larry Lohmann that does a comprehensive demolition job on Blair's fun-loving approach to the end of the world as we know it.

From Uganda to Guatemala, the book provides shocking case studies of carbon offset project after project that went wrong. Land grabbing, human rights violations and illegal evictions, the collection of essays catalogues the abuses perpetrated in the name of 'saving the planet'. In Uganda, the Dutch FACE Foundation tree-planting project in the Mount Elgon national park is an example of the occupying force that Northern polluters can have in a Southern country. Since 1994 the Foundation have been planting trees on 25,000 hectares of land where the carbon 'rights' have been given over to them for the next 100 years. This is for the primary purpose of offsetting carbon dioxide emissions. The land within the boundaries of the park is hotly contested and 300 families were evicted in 2002. Communities living on the borders of the park who previously relied on the wood, herbs and animals of the forest now risk being shot at by guards if they trespass. The book argues that because land is politically contentious across the South, the exclusion of local people from this resource to protect 'carbon offsets' of rich Northern polluters can only be seen as an exercise in neo-colonialism.

However it is not only the dubious projects that the book takes issue with but also the wider system of carbon trading into which they fit. Carbon trading lies at the heart of the international treaty on climate change – the Kyoto Protocol. It is the mechanism through which corporate polluters and industrialised governments can trade greenhouse gases instead of reducing their own emissions. It works on the same principle as offsets but with the added bonus that countries and companies can trade credits between themselves rather than invest directly in a project. In this way it acts as a kind of currency. The chapter on the history of its birth onto the UN scene from US fossil fuel lobbyists via the Clinton administration is a fascinating insight into the horse-trading and brinkmanship that goes on at international negotiations. It is also a disturbing glimpse into the machinations of corporate power and neoliberal infiltration of the environmental sphere.

In the conclusion, the book's editor Larry Lohmann gives a stirring analysis of the political dangers of carbon trading by pointing out that in the short life of the climate negotiations, discussion of the precise details of the mechanism has become a “dangerous sideshow”. This has served to distract and confuse environmentalists and policy makers. In fact, for Lohmann, the resignation of policy makers to accept carbon trading as the only show in town is quitters talk. This desperate diplomacy ignores the plethora of existing tried and tested strategies that create dramatic social change. For him change does not occur in small rooms by planners but by move and counter move by all social actors in a slow and painful process of political democratisation of the issues. What climate change needs is a process of “decentring”. Shifting the solutions away from top-down entities such as the World Bank and international diplomacy and more towards grassroots movements that are already making headway on keeping fossil fuels in the ground.

If you thought carbon trading was a dull subject, think again. This book not only demonstrates that it is on the front-line of the conflict with neo-liberalism and corporate power but has infused the issue with the thrill of inspiring social justice movements across the South. If the topic intimidates you, the question and answer style of the book makes it accessible and informal. When you feel you're getting lost, the conversation steps back and gives a chance to reflect and regroup. Plus it's not all doom and gloom, the many strategies Lohmann lays out for tacking climate change from a social justice perspective are inspiring and dare I say they sound like fun! So I guess it all comes down to what your idea of a good time is after all Mr Blair.

You can order the book at

Afrisoc and RSSAF have declined the offer to sell copies of ‘African Perspectives on China in Africa’, published by Fahamu Press, for the following reasons: 1) to facilitate an exchange of ideas rather than an endorsement of any single approach; 2) to emphasise debate rather than commercial transactions; and 3) to comply with the requirements of the event venue that no cash transactions take place. In no way does this represent an evaluation, critique or censorship of the publication in question. Afrisoc and RSSAF encourage the presentation of diverse perspectives, and welcome the participation of all at the upcoming event.

The event China’s Involvement in Africa is the second in a series of panel discussions hosted by the Africa Society and the Rhodes Scholars’ Southern African Forum (RSSAF), two student organisations at the University of Oxford. This collaboration aims to bring the Oxford community together to discuss pressing issues in contemporary African society. Researchers and practitioners are invited to provide diverse perspectives on a specific issue in order to promote debate and facilitate an exchange of ideas.

On 30 January 2007, the event organisers were approached by Fahamu Press about the possibility of promoting their publication ‘Perspectives on China in Africa’ via book sales at the event. After discussion with the organising committee, it was decided that this request would be declined, for the following reasons:

1) It compromised the central purpose of the event: to facilitate the exchange of ideas by promoting a diversity of perspectives. We sincerely hope that the perspectives contained in the book will be raised in the panel discussion. However, we believe that the endorsement of a single book at the event would compromise the neutrality of the panel, given that there are many relevant books on the topic. 2) Commercial transactions, such as book sales, are not currently part of our vision for the panel. This does not rule out that possibility in the future, but multiple books and multiple publishers on a topic would always be offered to promote a diversity of ideas. 3) Our agreement with the event venue, Rhodes House, includes the condition that no cash transactions take place in the building. Book sales would contravene this agreement.

These reasons were openly communicated, and the suggestion that the sale of the book in question was declined for reasons of its content, authors or publisher is an unfortunate misunderstanding.

We deeply regret the misrepresentation of our response as “censorship”, and that those making allegations to this effect did not seek adequate clarification before publishing such erroneous comments. In no way do Africsoc and RSSAF engage in or support censorship, and accusations of such conduct are simply incorrect, misleading, and damaging to the credibility of these student-run organisations.

We believe our decision is fully justified, and indeed crucial to the facilitation of an open exchange of diverse ideas at the event. The planning committee reserves the privilege to decide whether book sales are part of the events we hold.

EDITOR'S RESPONSE: Thank you for accepting our invitation to you to respond to Fahamu's letter about this matter. If the reasons now provided by you had been expressed in the first instance, an entirely different discussion would have ensued.

Instead your committee wrote to inform Fahamu on 30 January that the only reason that the book would not be permitted at the seminar was because - quote:

"Undoubtedly the book enriches dicourse (sic) on this pertinent issue and is a very valuable contribution. We however feel it is (sic) represents one view of the relationship between China and Africa."

Leaving aside, for the moment, the fact that this opinion was formed without evidence (as the book was not yet available in the UK), your current statement is clearly at odds with the committee's original reasons for prohibiting the display of the book. Fahamu sought clarification of your committee's decision and were informed that that the committee stood by their decision. It is not, therefore, entirely accurate to state now that "These reasons were openly communicated" to Fahamu.

Last month, Kenya’s most celebrated literary icon, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, gave a series of lectures entitled Re-Membering Africa at the University of Nairobi. Rasnah Warah reports for the Mail& Guardian Online, on this historic moment, marking Ngugi’s first lecture in his homeland in nearly three decades, delivered at the very institution that stripped him of his professorship after he was detained without trial by the Jomo Kenyatta regime in 1977.

In addition to writing short stories, John Eppel is also an award-winning poet and novelist. His list of achievements is impressive. His first novel, D.G.G. Berry's The Great North Road (1992), won the M-Net Prize in South Africa. His second novel, Hatchings (1993), was short-listed for the M-Net Prize and his third novel, The Giraffe Man (1994), has been translated into French. In a recent email interview with Ambrose Musiyiwa for OhMyNews, John Eppel spoke about his writing.

A literary review of prison literature in Kenya provides the reader with an insight into political dissent in Africa and the irony that imprisonment itself becomes a catalyst for radicalisation of the prisoner.

Prison Literature-namely novels, short stories, poems or plays - that delve into the horrid conditions and experiences in prison, has increased immensely. It is a global phenomenon whose importance in examining the struggles in the society cannot be ignored. It would for instance be fallacious and inadequate to study the body that is African Literature without mentioning prison writings and the writers who have been so prolific in prison.

Like any other artistic venture, prison literature is an indicator of the various parameters that govern and shape society. It can on the one hand be closely linked to the democratisation of our society and an indicator that even jail has not and cannot dampen the fury of the pen, on the other hand. A brief explication of these writings indicates clearly that they can also be used to give an adequate, accurate and comprehensive commentary on the socio-economic, political development of Africa and Kenya for that matter. They are an important resource in showing where we are coming from and what sorts of fragments are scattered along the political, economical and social path that we have used.

Further scrutiny reveals that this body of literature is complex and can be classified differently. The two major classifications are the traditional ones namely-fiction and non-fiction. The non-fiction is further sub-divided into those that are mainly historical or just a diary of events. However, whether fictional or non-fictional, these writings capture vividly the horrid and gruesome experiences in the state corridors of silence. These writings can be traced as far back as colonial days in some countries and have become eminent beacons of many other countries and particularly Kenya's post independence histories.

They generally tell where the continent has come from and reached in its quest for justice, upholding the rule of law and ensuring that the fundamental human rights are respected. Prison writings, whether fictional or non-fictional, have become a major source of a vast body of knowledge that tells the African tale.

Kenya's experience can be traced as far back as during the British rule that saw many militant Kenyans agitating for self-determination thrown into jail and detention camps. Graduates of these jails and detention camps captured their experiences on paper and subtly outlined a path that has been followed by subsequent writers. The late J.M. Kariuki was amongst the first Kenyans to capture their horrid experiences in his non-fictional account Mau Mau in Detention back in 1963. Others soon followed suit. Gakaara wa Wanjau, an established writer and publisher, who had the misfortune of being imprisoned in both the colonial and independent Kenya, documented his experience in the British corridors of silence in his book, Mwandiki wa Mau Mau Ithamerio-ine (Mau Mau Author in Detention).

Independent Kenya has however produced more and better works of art that are indicative of many things. The doors were opened by Abdulatif Abdullah, the first post-independence Kenyan political prisoner. Abdulatif was imprisoned by the Kenyatta regime for four years and hard labour after he wrote an article titled Kenya Twendapi (Kenya Where are we Headed), in reaction to the disbandment of K.P.U. While serving his term, he wrote a collection of poems called Sauti ya Dhiki, which ironically won the second the edition of the erstwhile prestigious Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature.

Other writers were later to follow and each chose a unique way to capture the grisly events in jail. The most famous of these writers is Ngugi wa Thiong'o. His activities in the community theatre in Kamirithu led to his detention in 1977. While in Kamiti, he wrote Detained: A Writer's Prison Diary, which is a diversion from his other fictional works. Others, who have contributed a great wealth in this body, include Maina wa Kinyatti, Koigi wa Wamwere and Wanyiri Kihoro more recently. Maina wa Kinyatti perhaps has the highest number of books that vividly describe his harrowing experience. He has a collection of poems A Season of Blood: Poems from Kenyan Prison (1995), his day-in-day-out recollections, Kenya -A Prison Notebook (1996) and a third one that details events covering his arrest, torture and imprisonment called Mother Africa. Wanyiri Kihoro, the Nyeri Town MP has documented his ordeal in Never Say Die, which another writer, the late Wahome Mutahi described as a brilliant piece of work that was the closest work of art that detailed events that want on at the infamous Nyayo House basement cells.

There are hordes of other works that have been written that are largely fictional. Several others have a thrilling fast-paced drama. The East African Educational Publishers, who have a big collection in this area, have listed them under their Spear series. Most of these writings that are largely confessions of erstwhile crooks like John Kiriamiti's My Life in Crime, Kiggia Kimani's Prison is Not a Holiday Camp or Charles Githae's Comrade Inmate, amongst other offer scintillating narratives but they are all shrouded by the gruesome prison experience and the grotesque Mutahi's is shocking. The late Wahome Mutahi's Three Days on the Cross Karuga Wandai's Mayor in Prison and Benjamin Garth Bundeh's Birds of Kamiti are amongst those listed in the spear series in spite of their strong real life experience. Wahome was arrested a few days after he had submitted his manuscript to the publishers and when he was released, the publishers asked him to revise it incorporate other details of his incarceration.

Bundeh's Birds of Kamiti is a detailed account of his close shave with the hangman's noose. It is a personal account that is gripping and quite emotional. However, these works whether autobiographical or biographical or confessions are representative of pertinent issues. They provide a social commentary that needs consideration. They open new insights for both the authors and society at large. Incarceration did not provide an opportunity for Ngugi to write a prison diary but within this physical prison, Ngugi stumbled upon a non-physical prison, namely language. He sought the refuge in the power of the pen and wrote Detained. He defied the subordination of-physical prison and found refuge in Gikuyu. In cell 16, he wrote Caitaani Mutharabaine (Devil on the Cross) in Gikuyu as a demonstration of his new found freedom and EAEP boss intimated to me that his latest manuscript is being scrutinised.

For others like Maina wa Kinyatti, "writing and reciting poems in solitary confinement under conditions of unendurable physical and psychological torture hardened the heart and steeled the mind to remain steadfast and truthful to the cause". Incarceration has not been limited in Kenya only. Apartheid South Africa jailed writers like Dennis Brutus, who wrote Letters to Martha, the late Alex La Guma amongst others. Jack Mapanje from Malawi, Kofi Awoonor from Ghana, Sherif Hatata and Nawal el Sadaawi from Egypt, and the first African recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Prof. Wole Soyinka have all been imprisoned. They have also served to help raise fundamental questions on the dispensation of justice and the entire process of crime and punishment.

The works, whether biographical like Wanyiri's Never Say Die, which was also nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, or confessions by erstwhile bank robbers or other crooks or other real-life drama experiences, have served as clear indicators that system is rotten and closer scrutiny is necessary.

WHAT DRIVES THEM TO WRITE ?

Could it be the appalling, grotesque, grisly conditions in the state corridors of silence that has kept the number of prison writings growing year in year out or just an insatiable desire to write and keep the tabs? It is certainly this and many other reasons that keeps that pen rolling. A discussion with a number of these writers reveals that it is a combination of these and many other reasons. It is a bottomless pit of stories and the experience cannot be bottled inside. "One normally feels that the story has to be told", comments one writer.

"For many writers", observed the late Wahome Mutahi, who has two books - Three Days on the Cross and Jail Bugs - on prison writing, "Writing about their horrid experiences behind bars is often cathartic". It is a way of telling time to comment on many things that go on both behind bars and outside. Writing is a way of telling the rest of the world, the awful conditions that persist in these places that society places some of its members for correction and punishment. It has been described differently by many writers. It is a place, where like Benjamin Garth Bundeh describes in Birds of Kamiti as a totally new world. "A world of prisoners, of warders, and of the tragic twist of fate. It was a world in which either the spirit was completely broken and degraded, or true courage was born". "When you enter this place", writes Bundeh, "you have to forget everything about the outside world. The dungeon becomes your home and you must survive, smoking is treason here - but we still manage to pass the traffic load of fags and like stone age man, we create fire in these caves". It is a place where the basic instinct of survival reigns supreme.

Writers want to talk about this place where every effort is geared towards removing any trace of humanity that could be remaining to these inmates. Bundeh notes in his non-fictional dossier that after his first night a truer picture started forming. "I saw more people and most of them looked like creatures out of a nightmare. Together with them, we had ceased to be human beings. Our names had been taken away from us. We had been relegated to more numbers in a heap of files. Both the beginning and end of life seemed to have been lost".

They want to narrate about these correctional places that are a law unto them selves. Into the damp mould and stagnation of these tombs, "the warders would from time to time burst in to remind us that unlike free people", inmates "could be tormented again and again, physically and spiritually, subtly and brutally, collectively and individually, day and night. "The warders enjoyed treating us to the choicest of gutter oaths", notes Bundeh. The authorities find several ways to further break and degrade the inmates. There is torture that targets the most vulnerable parts of our bodies and every writer seems to have endured this. The occasional beating is often capped with eating partially cooked food and solitary confinement that many writers argue that it is not different from a shot of L.S.D. or any other hallucinogen. They both degrade people "only that the drugs make one mad more quickly thus removing the utter hopeless".

Besides the deplorable and dehumanising conditions behind bars that most writers want to vividly point out, the other issues that often come out in prison literature appeals to the outside prison conditions. These books, whether fictional or non-fictional all offer important questions that society needs to consider for further scrutiny. In their writings, the writers often want to focus society on the entire system of justice and its dispensation. Many question the whole system of crime and punishment and although some don't ask directly, the effectiveness of the whole system is put to test. Bundeh, who was on the death row and actually witnessed some of his inmates and friends executed packs his narrative with so much energy and emotion that you can feel it deeply and is more direct when he poses these questions.

"I wonder, should any human being be allowed to condemn another human being to death? Should one form of killing be lawful and another one unlawful? Should the law be allowed to take away that which it cannot create? Is there any correlation between the execution of treasonous, murderers or violent robbers and the number of crimes committed? The gallows in Kenya, the guillotine, the electric chair, and firing squads elsewhere - are these deterrents?"

Many books that are non-fictional have a similar trait. The authors are in many instances unwilling guests of the state in their corridors of silence. Most of these authors repeatedly turn to writing as a catharsis. The majority have been thrown behind bars for their political beliefs and in their writings, they have more than once provided new insights into the political machinations of this country. Karuga Wandai, an erstwhile deputy mayor in Thika, provides interesting insights of the "siasa za kumalizana" in the Kenyan political arena in his prison account "Mayor in Prison". Although it is an account of his survival and fight for his freedom, he nonetheless manages to show the country's struggles, transition and some of the central issues that greatly influenced the political under-dealings.

Wanyiri Kihoro, the erstwhile Nyeri Town MP in his biography Never Say Die or Wahome Mutahi's work of fiction Three Days on the Cross capture the dark days in the country's political spectrum. They vividly document their gruesome ordeal in the hands of the state security machinery in the infamous underground cells of Nyayo houses was an experience that couldn't be bottled inside. The other way that many authors have managed to give a commentary on the political manoeuvres has been by giving the politicians central parts in the narratives. They (the characters) have in turn revealed how they manipulated people in society and how laws have been turned to suit a few and how these laws are in turn used against them once they fall out of favour.

* Kimani wa Wanjiru is author of the blog: “Arts and Culure – Kenya” (http://artsculture-kenya.blogspot.com)

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

To call The Black Insider a novel may be somewhat misleading. It is a loosely autobiographical account of the author’s stay in the “Faculty of Arts,” in time of “war.” Barricaded inside his room in the building he shares with an eclectic group of tenants, Marechera comments on the war without, mirroring excellently the one that rages within. The Black Insider captures the profoundness and insanity that characterise much of this author’s work. Despite his erratic style that has the potential to lose the reader in a morass of philosophical musings, we start to see the relationships between colour and space. We see the complexity of understanding and accepting one’s identity as black or white, and the impatience of the rest of the world with the individual who struggles with this process. And so Marechera creates an inside, and an outside, and blacks and whites and we end up with a black insider on our hands, in our lives, in us even, perhaps. And then in typical fashion, that which makes Marechera arguably the problem child of African literature, there is the element of damning everything to hell.

In the end, we are confronted with the explosive violence that characterise the author’s subject matter, the kind of violence that people generally want to sweep under the rug. The cast of characters is superb and profound, alluding to a well-compiled list of authors, philosophers and scientists. There is something in the Black Insider for all.

• Annie Quarcoopome is a Ghanaian and student of Comparative Literature at Williams College. She also is a contributor the the blog Black Looks.

• Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

trek north dromedary on gold
coloured sand my spirit seeks solace dip into the river of
life from delta to source I was the back on
which monuments to honour
the dead were built
on languid afternoon sail south little dhow show me
the tranquillity of your harbours where I may seek
refuge sit by your miradors to watch the world go by
take me with you west wind let me join the regal baobabs' dance and be
seduced by the startling kohl-lined eyes of men turned
maidens turned men I want to stand by the shore as graceful
long-necked women with great fish baskets on
heads arms outstretched teach me to rain dance and to draw and
weave bold mystic symbols on walls and cloths I am the wild laughter of
urchins tripping along valleys and hills
soar east little bird to lush savannah where buffalo sleep I am the gazelle
dreaming swift and magnificent
stand be still at the centre my heart
desires to ask the age-old keepers of the cosmic forests how long
the trees have been weeping tire not little
bird soon you will rest listen to the mighty
oceans sing this land of diamonds is yours mine ours
this land of gold is yours mine ours
this land of silver is yours mine ours I am the potent splendour of a
rock clinging to the earth this is my world welcome
to my world

• Mshairi is a Kenyan poet and blogs at

• Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

A new report by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) analyzes some of the diverse approaches to equity in education and presents a framework for measuring educational equity. Today most experts agree that education systems that are “equitable” provide high-quality education to all children.

Everyone knows it is always the colonialists fault
Our mania for land is no different.
For the past forty years, we have blamed our bad habits on the colonialists.
We lived in a land of guiltless natives before they arrived!
Our fascination with land has joined the rank of one of our vices.
Kenyan vices.
Women, wine and land.
Not necessarily in that order.
We obsess about it, we want it, large tracts of it, small pieces, plots 4m by 4m.
Our fixation has become an irrational passion that we kill for.
Land is a soothing mistress.
A sense of calm soaks those who possess it.
Owning land gives me comfort. I know I won’t fall if I lean back.
My mother the land is there to catch me.
I don’t know how to be any other way.
When people from other states express astonishment at such an attachment, I am equally perplexed that it does not exist in their lives.
How can a person live without this ardor?
Without the satisfaction that comes with possessing your very own piece of land?
At such times I sense myself at an impasse trying to cross an unbridgeable chasm.
Me on this side with my land, and they standing there, puffs of smoke, with no substance at all.

II
I longed for land of my own even when I was a child.
When I was unhappy, I would dream of running away to my very own secret island.
To live off berries, rabbits and delicious little edible birds, the fruit of the land.
No prizes for guessing where I got those images.
The British are guilty - again.
This time as imperialists.
Enid Blyton, Robinson Crusoe, Paradise Lost, Lassie, Dr Bwana.
A mish mash of sources filling my head with the make believe adventures of white people in the bush.
Continuing the grip on my imagination.

III
But let’s not blame all the British.
The set that came to Kenya is guilty of this particular mania.
Lords and Ladies of the realm, from a tiny island only 244,820 sq. km. with 60million souls.
And those few still managed to own large chunks of it.
Can you imagine what they saw when they came to this country back then?
Miles and miles of empty land, owned by no one?
Would you endure the land lust that gripped them?
They had to have it. And they took it any way they could.
Purchasing it from owners who did not possess it.
Procuring with currency to captivate guiltless natives
Gunning down unyielding resistance
Conjuring up flocks of compliant faithful.
They carved out chunks of that long ago empty land, 100,000 hectares for this Lord, 200,000 hectares for that Lord.
Four of them ended up owning land the size of the original island.
They came and stayed for 120 years.
Enough time to infect us all with the contagion.
Like a genetic fever they passed on their obsession.

IV
After we got most of our land back, at independence, we discovered sadly there wasn’t much of it that was any good.
At least that’s what we were told in school, what was written in our books, what our government officers repeated in board rooms across the country.
What we came to believe.
Some facts and figures about Kenya. It covers 582,650 sq. km.
82% cannot support modern farming. It is incapable of growing cucumbers, carrots, cabbages and lettuce. The terrain is too harsh.
Only 18% of the land is any good.
So we are back to the small island after all.
Soon the new country was gripped by the same land-scarcity-fever of that original small isle.
Too-little-good-land chased by 30 million people growing ever more greedy by the day.
That’s why we kill for it.

V
It was predictable that we would soon start stealing land with the calm soig froid that other people pick pockets.
We even invented a special term for it.
“Land grabbing.”
That’s what we call it.
As if you could snatch a piece of land and carry it, unseen, wrapped up in your pocket.
Vehement denial follows the apprehended land thief when the pilfered land is pulled from its hiding place.
Loud protests of, “It’s mine! Here’s the title deed to prove it!” follow.
And indeed he has a genuine title deed just like yours.
Title deeds have became accidental pieces of paper drawn up by government officials gone seemingly berserk
One as real as another.
There is just one small problem. I am the one who has to pay the loan I borrowed to buy the land in the first place.
I have only reached half way; I still owe another five million shillings!
I can’t very well go to my bank and say, “Sorry I’m not going to be paying that loan now because the land has been stolen.”
I am afraid of looking sloppy.
All those years my mother would have been right.
I am careless after all.
The signs were there early on when I kept loosing my school sweater.
Now I have gone and lost my land!

As part of our special reports from the World Social Forum, conscious musicians Hope Raisers speak to Robtel Pailey from Pambazuka News about their music, justice and the obstacles they face being political artists living in the slums of Nairobi. Music in this podcast is brought to you by Hope Raisers and Freddy Macha.

With recent films, (both long and short feature films) Tunisia will take a big part in the 20 th edition of the "Ouagadougou International Film Festival" (Fespaco) in Burkina Faso. The festival, Africa 's second film festival, which will be held from February 24 to March 3, 2007 , will also feature a round table around the theme: Tunisia 's experience in producing '10 short films ten gazes'.

The 2007 National Arts Merit Awards nominees were announced in Harare on Wednesday (17 January). This year's edition of the awards, to be held on February 4 at the 7 Arts Theatre, has 25 categories with the media awards being the latest addition. In the outstanding musician category, urban groover Rufaro Cindy Munyavi has sprung a surprise by taking on Oliver Mtukudzi, Kireni Zulu and Amai Charamba. Her song, Spare wheel, is also vying for the outstanding album award together with Joseph Garakara's Idya Banana, Alexio Kawara's Tinodanana and Ellen Kupusa Smith's Mbudzi, reports Kubatana.

Trevor Ncube, who is the publisher of the privately owned Zimbabwe Independent and Zimbabwe Standard as well as the Mail and Guardian of South Africa is seeking a High Court order compelling the Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede to renew his passport following his application for Zimbabwean citizenship.

I have just taken delight in reading the article ‘Zimbabwean Literature: A Nervous Condition’ (www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/39141) by Brian Chikwava. Quite by chance I recently discovered Zimbabwean poetry. I speak specifically of the war poems. From there I have also found some wonderful poetry, but keep finding myself coming back to the war time poetry. But the problem is they are so inaccessible and I am battling to go further as I have searched too few bookshops that stock these books and I am afraid they are all so unavailable. I was lucky enough to find “Songs from the Temple” by Emmanuel Ngara and have “And now the poets speak”. I have “Patterns of Poetry” and not that much more and do not know where to go to find more of the poets. I am unable to find “Songs that won the Liberation War” by AJC Pongweni. All this time there has been this incredible poetry written in this country and never really promoted – what a pity. What stunning poetry it is, if you have any information to help me with I would be so grateful.