Clashes between two communities in western Kenya's Rift Valley Province have led to the displacement of thousands of people, the closure of several schools and calls for the government to beef up security. Relations between the Tugen and the Pokot in what is now known as Baringo County have for decades been marked by tit-for-tat cattle raids and the occasional attendant fatality. Over the years, firearms have replaced more traditional weapons, especially among the Pokot. An escalation - in intensity and frequency - of hostilities since January has, according to the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), left more than 7,500 Tugen people displaced from their homes, living either with other members of their community or in rudimentary shelters in the bush.

Since the end of apartheid in South Africa, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities have made unprecedented legal gains under the rubric of the bill of rights. The traditional courts bill threatens to undermine this security for millions of South Africans living in rural areas. The bill is the latest in a series of clumsy attempts to define, regularise and institutionalise the role of traditional leaders. In so doing, the bill undermines the protection afforded by constitutional civil rights.

Kenyan soldiers have killed 14 Al Shabaab fighters after the rebel force launched an attack on a Kenyan warship in the Indian Ocean. Ten other Al Shabaab fighters were injured in the attack, the first major naval operation in recent months. The Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF), which is part of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) contingent, said the Kenyan Naval Ship engaged the militants at an Al Shabaab seaport watch station on Tuesday, 29 May.

Indigenous foods, neglected and derided by many in the agro and food industries as well as urban consumers, can be an important component in alleviating hunger, malnutrition and protecting the environment, the regional representative for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations told a symposium. A century of globalization has reduced the number of plant species used for food and other purposes from roughly 100,000 to about 30. With the global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, FAO is concerned that the world may not be able to produce enough food to meet demand. Today, an estimated 925 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition, with over 60 percent of them residing in the Asia-Pacific region.

Through the generous support of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, SAHA is able to distribute a limited number of free copies of the project report ‘Transition’s Child: The Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF)’ to interested activists, researchers, NGOs and educational organisations. The report is based on an oral history and document collection project on the South African social movement, undertaken by Dr. Dale McKinley on behalf of SAHA in 2010 - 2011.

The APF was formed in 2000 in direct response to the political and socio-economic conditions in which many poor communities have found themselves in the post-1994 era. The APF brought together community organisations, workers’ groups, activists and individuals to oppose privatisation and fight for free, fair and decent provision of essential services for disadvantaged people of South Africa.

In line with SAHA’s commitment to capture and document neglected histories as well as to create and support awareness of contemporary struggles for justice in the making of democracy in South Africa, the aim of this project was to create a comprehensive and accessible archive on the APF. In addition, the project was an attempt to explore some of the complexities and challenges of recording and archiving the history of social movements, the growth and development of which is often organic and decentralised, and as a result, usually poorly documented.

Along with the report, SAHA has developed an online virtual exhibition on the APF showcasing materials from SAHA’s archival collection on the social movement to ensure that the work is easily accessible on an on-going basis. The virtual exhibition serves as a participatory tool as visitors to the virtual exhibition are encouraged to comment on this telling of the APF’s history, share their memories of the events and issues profiled and thoughts on the issues central to the work of the APF, and contribute new materials to the virtual exhibition. The project report can also be downloaded from the virtual exhibition as well as from SAHA’s main website.

In conjunction with the launch of this report, SAHA has put together a small exhibition on the history of the APF, now on display on level 3 of Museum Africa in Newtown, Johannesburg, until March 2013.

If you would like to request a copy of the report (accompanied by a CD of the virtual exhibition), please email your contact details to [email][email protected] by 21 May 2012.

If you would like to contribute materials (documents, photographs, posters, pamphlets, reports, t-shirts, banners, etc) relating to the APF to the archival collection at SAHA, please email [email][email protected] .

Should you require further information about the project, the report, the physical exhibition or the virtual exhibition, please do not hesitate to contact SAHA on the following details:

Tel: 011 7171941

Fax: 011 7171964

Email: [email][email protected]

Some of our subscribers wrote to us recently to tell us that they did not receive Pambazuka News in full, but rather truncated, with only about one third of the issue visible. Upon investigation, we have found that the majority of these complaints came from those with Yahoo accounts. If you are one of those affected, we recommend that you take this matter up with Yahoo. We are sorry if you experienced this difficulty. Please contact if you wish us to send you a copy as an attachment or to another email service provider that does not interfere with emails.

Editors

One month after human rights defender Mr Biram Dah Abeid was arrested, a peaceful anti-slavery march was violently cracked down. Several activists were severely injured and the wife of Mr. Abeid, Leila Mint Ahmed Khliva, was injured by a grenade. Since Mr. Abeid, president of the ‘Initiative de Résurgence du Mouvement Abolitionniste de Mauritanie’ (IRA) was arrested on 29 April 2012, his whereabouts continue to remain unknown.

A Moroccan draft law that seeks to grant members of the armed forces legal immunity for 'military operations' carried out inside the kingdom has sparked criticism by human rights organizations who say it violates the principle of equal justice under law. The 'basic guarantees for the military' draft law states that 'criminal investigation shall not be applied to members of the Royal Armed Forces who are executing the orders of their commanders…during an operation inside the national territories.'

Refugees who have found employment in the booming security industry say the Private Security Industry and Regulation Authority (Psira) is pushing them out of the sector. Psira’s regulations state that only South African identity document holders may be employed by registered security companies.

Fighting that started a month ago between Sudan and South Sudan along the oil-rich Heglig region on the border has provoked increased repression in Sudan, noticeably on the media, report the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), Human Rights Watch, Index on Censorship and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). 'Sudan is cracking down on civil and political rights in the face of conflict and opposition,' says Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. 'But locking up critics and silencing dissent will not solve Sudan's problems.'

Government should revise the Traditional Courts Bill, which activists argue is promoting patriarchal practices in rural areas and also discrimination against women. This article gives the example of The Rural Women’s Movement (RWM), a KwaZulu-Natal NGO, which has in the course of its work with more than 50,000 rural women extensively documented the harsh realities of rural lives under the unaccountable authority of traditional leaders and their institutions of power. 'In a district that cannot be named for fear of reprisal the traditional leader unilaterally controls community resources and access to land. In most instances, where there are projects that rural women have initiated without him, for example a sewing machines project, he tries to undermine the projects and threatens to remove the resources needed for the project.'

Some schoolgirls in Kibera, Kenya's largest slum, are writing down their problems and submitting them to a message box. Schools are using the information to alleviate everything from molestation to family financial pressures. Concerns range from their families' inability to pay school fees to revelations of abuse and neglect. The Talking Box is a program started by Polycomdev, a local community-based organization in Kibera.

A United Nations agency, charged with helping member nations secure their national infrastructures, plans to issue a sharp warning about the risk of the Flame computer virus that was recently discovered in Iran and other parts of the Middle East. The confidential warning will tell member nations that the Flame virus is a dangerous espionage tool that could potentially be used to attack critical infrastructure.

Algeria swore in newly elected MPs on 26 May amidst protests from Islamists alleging electoral fraud. Mohamed Larbi Ould Khelifa presided over the first plenary session of the new People's National Assembly (APN), assisted by two younger MPs, Assia Kenane and Hocine Maaloume. Islamist protesters disrupted the proceedings when 49 Green Algeria Alliance members held up placards and called the May 10th election a fraud, followed by a similar act by the 28 MPs representing the Front for the Protection of Democracy.

‘Politics is the main hindrance for the ICC’ was the main conclusion drawn from ‘Building Restorative International Justice: the ICC of the Future’. The topical debate took place in London at the Royal Commonwealth Society.

At least six ZANU PF activists have reportedly been arrested in connection with the murder of an MDC-T ward official in Mudzi North last Saturday, but already there are concerns that the arrests were simply a ZANU PF ploy to save face, ahead of the SADC summit. Cephas Magura, the MDC-T chairperson for ward 1, Mudzi North, died from injuries sustained during an assault by ZANU PF thugs at Chimukoko Business Centre. The MDC-T had organised a rally there with permission from the police.

Revival of Pan-Africanism Forum presents:

Celebrating the Life of Thomas Sankara with a roundtable discussion on
Revolution and Counterrevolution in Africa

The 25th anniversary of the assassination of Thomas Sankara provides a moment for reflection upon Sankara’s life and his contributions to PanAfrican thought and the relevance of his thinking to the uprisings currently in North Africa and beyond.

Speakers include:

Patricia Daley, Lecturer in Geography at Jesus College, University of Oxford

Jeremy Keenan, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, London School of Oriental and African Studies

Gnaka Lagoke, Founder, The Revival of PanAfricanism Forum

Firoze Manji, Editor in Chief, Pambazuka News

Carina Ray, Department of History, Fordham University

Date: 8 June, 2012

Time: 2.30pm - 6.30pm

Location: Habakkuk Room, Jesus College

For more information, please contact
Joseph Kangah [email][email protected] Amber Murrey [email][email protected] or visit us at www.revivalofpanafricanism.org

The leaders of Gambia and Mauritania recently expressed their concern over the deteriorating security situation in the Sahel region as northern Mali remains occupied by Tuareg and Islamist rebels. In a statement released after a three-day visit by Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh to Nouakchott the two leaders expressed 'their deep concern over the serious threat to peace and stability in the Sahel-Sahara sub-region following the Libyan crisis.' Armed groups, particularly the Tuareg separatist rebels, who seized northern Mali in the wake of a March coup, were boosted by weapons brought back with them from the war in Libya.

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has escaped unscathed from an ambush by al-Shabab fighters during a visit to the al-Qaeda-linked group's former stronghold of Afgoye. Ahmed was making a rare trip out of Mogadishu on Tuesday when the convoy was attacked by gunmen in the Afgoye corridor, a key road about 30km north of the capital.

Libya's former deputy election commissioner says he quit his post because he does not believe the country is ready for next month's elections. Sghair Majeri has told Al Jazeera that 'holding elections by June 19 is a mission impossible' as it is a time-consuming process. However, Libya's Election Commission insists everything is still on track for holding the vote on June 19.