History and current experience shows that so deep are the pains of most of the conflicts experienced in Africa that the popular individualized and rationalistic approaches to healing and transformation simply lack the language and resources to solidly address the challenge of holistic peaceful transformation. “Arts approaches” provide an accessible language, compelling processes that affirm everyone’s creativity and, above all, an inclusive space that enables healing, genuine dialogue and transformation to happen particularly where the violent conflicts and pains are experienced by masses of people. African countries that are victims of conflicts, can use dance and drama to subtly address the issues among community members.

2008 was the Year of African Youth, yet the African Youth Charter, adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in July 2006, has still only been ratified by 13 countries –needing two more ratifications before it can enter into force. In January 2009, the Assembly declared the years 2009-2019 as the decade of youth development in Africa.

Abdul Hamid Adiamoh, managing editor of Today, a privately-owned newspaper who has been in detention since his arrest on June 10, 2009 was on June 12 charged with “ publishing and broadcasting false information”, contrary to Section 181 (A) of the Criminal Code of the Gambia. Speaking with the pro-government Banjul-based Daily Observer newspaper, ASP Sulayman Secka, Public Relations Officer of the Gambia Police Force could not tell whether the journalist was still in police detention or not.

In celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Path out of Poverty Programme we are launching a new campaign: 10 000 olive trees planted at Goedgedacht to support 10 000 children on the Path out of Poverty from 5 POP centres in the next ten years (2018). After ten years we are convinced that the Path out of Poverty offers new hope to rural children who still live their lives without hope for the future.The POP model has been noticed and is now ready to be replicated in other places

AFRODAD, a pan-African regional organization providing research-based lobby and advocacy in issues of Debt, Development Aid and Economic Governance is seeking to recruit a Team of competent people to fill the positions of Executive Director, Policy Advisor on Debt, Policy Advisor on Fair and Transparent Arbitration Mechanisms on Debt; Policy Advisor on Economic Governance and Development Aid. The Team will be based at the AFRODAD Secretariat in Harare, Zimbabwe. Application deadline is 28th June 2009.

Political groups and civil society from Southern Africa issue a call for open and credible talks between the monarch and representatives of the Swazi people

The Centre for Citizens’ Participation in the African Union organised, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Fifth Citizens’ Continental Conference on the 13th African Union (AU) summit themed ‘Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security’. The civil society organisations convened drew up recommendations on issues including agriculture, land management and food security and peace and security on the continent. Meanwhile, the Director General of the Food and Agricultural Organisation, Jacques Diouf called the growing trend of leasing or selling huge and fertile African land to foreign investors for large-scale agricultural projects and biofuel production a form of ‘neo-colonialism’. Indeed as the African Union prepares for its summit in Lybia under the theme ‘Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security’, analysts observe that the export oriented African agriculture of cash crops such as cocoa, cotton and fresh fruits for the international market ‘caters for the foreign consumers more than for the local communities’, which forces Africa states to import subsistence crops like rice, millet, manioc and maize especially from China and the European Union.

Members of the United Nations Security Council delegation recently concluded a visit to Africa aiming to enhance collaboration with the AU to promote peace and security on the continent. Meanwhile, heads of State and government of the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa called on the International Criminal Court to suspend its arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region. Further, Richard Cornwell, of the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, suggests that ‘many of Africa’s states have complex legal codes, but no real rule of law’. Meanwhile, as the Pan African Parliament (PAP), the future legislative body of the AU, held elections, it is suggested that PAP ‘has neither any tangible impact’ on the lives of Africans ‘nor a public profile to speak of’.

Dambisa Moyo argues in her book ‘Dead Aid’ that ‘no country on Earth has ever achieved long-term growth and reduced poverty in a meaningful way by relying on aid’ and that the strategy of aid that has no ‘evidence of working anywhere on Earth’ could not work in Africa. Finally, Asare Otchere-Darkothe of the Danquah Institute examines the reasons ‘why Ghana is now the subject of strategic U.S. energy and military interests which, as far as the Obama administration is concerned, has raised the stakes considerably in Ghana–United States relations’.

Amnesty International’s 2009 Report on the state of the world’s human rights has revealed a staggering evidence of human rights violations purported against LGBTI communities in African states. Nigeria, Uganda and Senegal, according to the report are countries that record the most and worst abuses of human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. It further states that in Nigeria, “human rights abuses against individuals suspected of same-sex sexual conduct continued throughout 2008.”

One of the most important vehicles by which CODESRIA has sought to mobilise national-level research capacities and to channel these into organised reflections has been the National Working Groups (NWGs) which it has encouraged African researchers to organise autonomously on priority themes of their choice. NWGs have been supported by the Council in over forty African countries and have resulted in some of the most interesting studies on politics, economy and society in contemporary Africa.

The close of the entry period for the Champions of Quality Education in Africa competition is just around the corner, so make sure to enter online until June 24th 2009 at You can also nominate yourself or someone you know today. We’re looking to schools, teachers and administrators to find the best practices that are changing lives at the local, district or national levels. And with the help of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, we’re going to help them take it to the next level with networking opportunities and chances for funding.

The 2009 session of the CODESRIA sub-regional methodological workshops will explore the conditions for the employment and validation of qualitative perspectives in African contexts. To this end, the workshops will be open to all the social research disciplines. These disciplines are uniformly confronted with broadly similar difficulties of understanding social reality and the challenges posed by techniques of data collection and analysis, which, on account of their “qualitative” nature, are suspected by some to be seriously lacking in scientific rigour.

AFRODAD a pan-African regional organization providing research-based advocacy in issues of Debt, Development Aid and Economic Governance is seeking to recruit an Executive Director to be based in Harare, Zimbabwe. The Executive Director will be accountable to the Board of Directors for planning and implementation of all program activities; sourcing and management of human and financial resources and will among other things represent the organization at high-level meetings.

Across the continent, African women play a significant role in improving the quality of life of their communities. From grandmothers to young girls, there are women in each country on the continent whose achievements have been stellar, whether in a small community, in their nation or across the continent. Yet many of these women and their achievements go unrecognised and unlauded. This initiative seeks to change this by highlighting the work of African women who are making a difference in the fields of agriculture, business and science and technology either at local or national level.

ITCH Online welcomes contributions from artists and writers to its fourth issue.

Within the framework of its strategy for building comparative knowledge on Africa produced from within the African continent, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) invites proposals from researchers based in African universities and centres of research for the constitution of Comparative Research Networks (CRNs) to undertake studies on or around a variety of themes identified as priority research themes within the framework of the CODESRIA strategic plan for the period 2007 - 2011.

Africa Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA), a UK-based refugee rights organization assisting refugees who seek asylum in Egypt, is seeking a dynamic team-builder with a background in social or community-based work to serve as Psychosocial Team Leader. AMERA requires an intelligent, hard-working person with a commitment to service for vulnerable people, and an interest in finding innovative ways to integrate psychosocial, community and legal aid approached to improving refugees' access to human rights.

Biofuels produced from the crop jatropha may be competing with food production for land and water, according to a new report released by two Friends of the Earth groups as the Jatropha World Summit begins in Ghana. The report – “Jatropha – wonder crop?” – investigates claims made by UK biofuels company D1 Oils about jatropha.

The objective of the PanAfrican Research Agenda on the Pedagogical Integration of information and communication technologies is to better understand how the pedagogical integration of ICTs can enhance the quality of teaching and learning in Africa. The national reports from participating countries are now available.

Sokari Ekine pays her last respects to Fr Gerard Jean-Juste, a gentle man and a liberation theologist who dedicated his life to fight for justice for Haitians in Haiti and the US.

The NEW PATH: AFRICAN FORUM FOR INTELLECTUAL THOUGHT is published quarterly by the African Research and Resource Forum (ARRF) and provides a forum for innovative thinking about our common future and about how we need to tackle the most intractable problems facing Africa today – focusing on Eastern Africa.