The emerging water crisis in the Nile Basin, a lack of women participating in making a new constitution for Zimbabwe, the dark side of the overseas aid industry in Somalia, and the lengths some politicians will go to to hold onto power in Nigeria are among the stories featured in this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere, from Sokari Ekine.

Following the kick-off of the World Cup last Friday, Sokari Ekine finds herself torn between joining in with the ‘hooray vuvuzela-blowing madness’ and watching the games, or blanking out ‘the whole flag-waving charade.’ Ekine reports back from the African blogosphere with its views on the matter, as well on the unawarded Mo Ibrahim Prize, homosexuality and homophobia in Africa and the Niger Delta Amnesty.

Like many people around the world, Sokari Ekine is ‘elated’ by the news that Malawian couple Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, have been pardoned and freed. But, asks Ekine, ‘How can we claim justice has been done when the law used to convict the couple has not been successfully challenged?’ In this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere, Ekine finds her sentiments echoed by others across the continent.

In this week’s round-up of the best of the African blogosphere, Sokari Ekine remembers Malcolm X on his birthday and calls for solidarity with Malawian gay couple Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, found guilty on Tuesday of ‘unnatural acts and gross indecency’.

There’s a tendency among technophiles and people in the development industry ‘to state the obvious and make it sound incredible’, writes Sokari Ekine, in this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere, but AppAfrica’s insights on Google SMS in Uganda make a refreshing change.

‘Humanitarian intervention’ in Haiti, South African attitudes to HIV/AIDS and condom use, police killings in Lagos and everyday life in the aftermath of an earthquake are among the stories covered by Sokari Ekine in this week’s overview of the African blogosphere.

Morgan Tsvangirai’s contradictory statements on LGBTI rights, Madagascar’s elections and various interpretations of Africa by western visitors are among the topics featured in Sokari Ekine’s roundup of the blogosphere.

Pambazuka News talks to Sokari Ekine, editor of ‘SMS Uprising: Mobile Activism in Africa’. She discusses the role of technology in creating social change and asserts that technology's role is as a tool; it cannot facilitate change on its own: ‘the driving force behind social change is ideas and the search for solutions and easier ways of doing things... Technologies are not developed in isolation to the political, social and economic structures in which we live. They are a reflection of these...’

Fifty years ago, 69 Africans protesting against pass laws were shot in the South African township of Sharpeville. Posts in this week’s round-up of the blogosphere remember the massacre, the life of activist Fatima Meer and bring to mind the continuing struggle for the right to decent housing by shackdwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo. They also include musings on migration, Haiti and headscarves.

Rumours about Nigerian president Yar’Adua, violence in Jos, controversy over what happened to aid money during Ethiopia’s famine in the 1980s and International Women’s Day all feature in Sokari Ekine’s round-up of the African blogosphere. There’s also good news for Zimbabwe, as a documentary about the remarkable singer Prudence Mabhena and her band Liyana scoops an Oscar, with its inspiring story about overcoming the stereotypes around disability.

If Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill is passed into law, the implications for LGBT people, and for the rights of everyone across Africa are ‘horrific’, writes Sokari Ekine. ‘Utterly inhumane’, the bill violates all African Union and International human rights legislation and treaties to which Uganda is signatory, says Ekine, but if it were to be passed, the chances are strong that some of 38 African countries criminalising same-sex relationships would attempt to copy it. Can a new book ‘Urgency Required: Gay and Lesbian Rights are Human Rights’ help to prevent legislation that threatens to cast homosexuals as ‘illegal beings’ rather than human beings?

The encouragement of homophobia by religious groups in Kenya and Uganda, Jacob Zuma’s 'polygamy drama' and the misuse of mobile phones to fuel violence in Nigeria’s Jos conflicts are among the stories covered in Sokari Ekine’s round-up of the African blogosphere.

In this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere, Sokari Ekine is disappointed to find little commentary from Africa on the recent Haiti earthquake. She looks to bloggers in the diaspora instead, to shed light on events and to investigate the historical connections between Haiti and Africa.

The ‘Nigerian bomber’, the attacks on the Togolese football team, LGBTI politics in Africa, the mafia and migrant workers in Italy and a murder in London are among the topics in Sokari Ekine’s roundup of the African blogosphere.

. Edited by Sokari Ekine and featuring contributing chapters from authors such as Juliana Rotich, Ken Banks and Berna Ngolobe, 'SMS Uprising' brings together the experiences of activists using mobile phone technology on the African continent as well as providing understanding of the socio-economic, political and media contexts which activists face. The following article by Sokari Ekine comprises the book's introductory chapter.

Sokari Ekine presents a selection of posts from her favourite commentators on the arts and literature in the African blogosphere.

The rich are swindling the poor in the DRC and Zimbabwe, and no one seems to be in charge of a rudderless Nigeria, writes Sokari Ekine in this week’s roundup of the African blogosphere.

A call for more female leadership across the continent, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS and the trial of Charles Taylor are among the stories in Sokari Ekine’s selection of the best of the African blogosphere for this week’s edition of Pambazuka News.

Uganda’s Anti Homosexuality Bill – and how you can help stop this legislation from being passed, national elections in Niger, violence in Guinea and the impact of rising sea levels on African cities are among the topics in this week’s round-up of the African blogosphere.

The UN World Habitat Day, the attacks against Durban's Abahlali baseMjondolo, the campaign against Nestlé's buying milk from Robert Mugabe and Muammar al-Gaddafi's deal with Europe are among the topics covered in Sokari Ekine's fortnightly round-up of the African blogosphere for Pambazuka News.