Latest media reports about the Mandela SOS music concert reveal that it's not "all systems go" for the concert as reported earlier on Thusanang. According to the Sunday Times, the concert was called off on Friday last week due to contractual problems. The Nelson Mandela Foundation's head, John Samuel, cited the inability of US producers to come to a satisfactory agreement with the foundation as the main reason for the cancellation of the concert. Revenue generated from TV rights from around the world was to be donated to the Foundation and the UN for the fight against Aids.

Edited by Michael Bourdillon
Child labour has received much international attention in recent years, as a form of child abuse that needs urgently to be brought to an end. It is perceived to hinder the rightful development of children, and particularly their education. In Zimbabwe, formalised child labour is not common. Nevertheless, children in a variety of situations have to work for their livelihood. In many cases families, and the children themselves, depend partly on it. Often the schooling of the children depends on the income they earn.

Information is an important resource for human development. Limited access to information and knowledge prevents the full use and potential growth of intelligence in rural people. Sharing Knowledge is a handbook written by Dr. Kingo Mchombu for men and women working in villages, towns and rural areas who wish to transform their communities through information sharing. The author is the Head of the Department of Information and Communication Studies at the University of Namibia and a leading scholar on information and rural development. Sharing Knowledge is published by the Oxfam Horn of Africa Capacity Building Program with the support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

As governments and health officials look for ways to control the spread of HIV/AIDS in developing countries, they should not overlook the influence of communication, according to the authors of a new book, "Combating AIDS: Communication Strategies in Action."

The Southern African Book Development Education Trust, SABDET, has announced that it is partnering the British Council in the UK launch of Africa's 100 Best Books on 30 January 2003. Reading Africa, a briefing and networking event on the 100 Best Books initiative for reading promotion organisations, educationists, booktrade, press and media will be held at the British Council's London headquarters at Spring Gardens.

Names of contracted artists have been released for the exclusive music concert organised to raise awareness and much needed funds for the fight against AIDS, the City Press reports. The concert will be held at Robben Island on February 2, 2003. Musicians from the US, Europe and Africa have been billed to perform in the Mandela SOS Aids benefit concert which will be globally broadcasted.

Volume 61 Number 2/December 01, 2002

The issue includes:
* Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Making of Democracy in Kenya: An Introduction p. 205
James Ogude
* Political Ethnicity in the Democratisation Process in Kenya p. 209
Ken Omolo
* Can Moral Ethnicity Trump Political Tribalism? The Struggle for Land and Nation in Kenya p. 269
Jacqueline M. Klopp

The past decade began with genuine optimism for the world's children. But what has happened since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)? Children's Rights: A second chance looks at the impact that local, national and international policies and practices have had on children over the last decade. As the stories of Liberia, Jorge, Nancy and Mustajab show, the lives of millions of children across the world have barely been touched by the UNCRC. For many the situation has actually got worse. Yet, as this report demonstrates, the four key principles of the UNCRC - non-discrimination, acting in the best interests of the child, survival and development, and participation - remain the key to progress.

It was striking to read Jack Mapanje's deeply impressive collection of 20th century African prison writing at a time when British newspapers were devoting so many columns to the vaporous 'prison diaries' of one Jeffrey Archer. The contrast, not least in the likely respective financial rewards for Mapanje and Archer, is stark, and not one which reflects well on either our society or its values. Jack Mapanje, Malawi's foremost poet, was imprisoned for over 3 years by Life President Banda for his elliptical depictions of life under a brutal dictatorship in his first book, Of Chameleons and Gods. His subsequent, post-prison writing (The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison and Skipping Without Ropes) brilliantly portrayed life in that claustrophobic and fear-ridden society. Gathering Seaweed - whose title is derived from a piece by Nelson Mandela about Robben Island - is a collection of writings by political prisoners from across the African continent. The authors are an interestingly varied lot - prisoners who became presidents (Nkrumah, Kenyatta, Kaunda, Neto, Mandela); politicians (Kariuki, Odinga) who were imprisoned both by colonialists and by ex-prisoner presidents turned jailers; and poets, playwrights, novelists, sculptors, lawyers and political dissidents. Some are writers who wrote in order to survive, creating poems in their heads or writing novels on hidden scraps of toilet paper. Others were activists who wrote simply to record their captivity for posterity. What shines through this book is a common, radical vision of what Africa might and should become.

When the bully started moving in the corner of the playground
the rest of the children didn't really believe him:
He was just one of them,
and if he got to be too much,
he would surely be stopped.

Over the next few months,
the bully began to learn the successful politics of bullying
If you are prepared to follow up your threats
by hitting back at a few individuals
the rest of the kids were intimidated into non action.

Raymond Majongwe, leader of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe recently released a jazz album called Which Way Africa? The creative diversity of voice, lyric and message is absorbing and strongly illustrates the never-say-die spirit of the singer himself. All proceeds from the sale of this CD and cassette tape go to the Suspended Teachers Defence Fund. Email [email protected]

For almost forty years the Socialist Register has brought together the leading socialist writers from around the world to consider themes of vital importance. As new global conflicts are being shaped around questions of race, religion, and nationality, the Register focuses on this theme.

The famously sardonic travel-writer Bill Bryson assures the readers of his African Diary that "in acquiring this slender volume you didn't actually buy a book. You made a generous donation to a worthy cause and got a free book in return." More disappointing than the text's brevity is its tone. African Diary is permeated by a po-faced, gee-whizz sincerity ill-suited to a writer who has made his reputation for being light and wry (and even snide) in droll travel books.

Rhythm and blues singer Shola Ama and Kora award winner Mory Kante have arrived in the country for the long-awaited HIV/AIDS jazz concert at the Fountains in Pretoria. The concert is expected to raise about R100 000, which will be donated towards South Africa's efforts against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The National Association of People Living with AIDS (Napwa) will be the key beneficiary.

In mid-January 2003, Radio Netherlands will be releasing a CDossierTM on Angola, looking at the issues confronting the country in the wake of over a quarter of a century of civil war. It is entitled "Angola: Picking up the Pieces" and contains web, audio and video features with numerous personal testimonies. Among the issues covered are: the origins of the war, human rights abuses, the lasting legacy of landmines, family re-unification and the informal sector. For a full listing, check the web site: http://www.rnw.nl/humanrights/html/angola.html. The CDossierTM is available free of charge as a reference source to academic institutions and non-governmental organisations. The URL for the order form is: www.rnw.nl/cdossier

This book is inspired by written celebrations of Harlem by many creative talents who have lived there. The collection of prose and poetry is from the pens of some of its famous sons and daughters, and others for whom it has been home for some time. Amongst the many contributors are Wole Soyinka, Wale Ogunyemu, Femi Osofisan, Niyi Osundare, Alain Ricard, Mabel Segun and Bode Sowande.

For the first time in their history, Eritreans were engaged, as a sovereign people, in the making of the basic document by which they would be governed. Regarded by Eritreans as the culmination of their legitimate struggle for national self determination, the Constitution became an integral part of this continuous and crucial struggle.

In response to the call of many teachers, critics, researchers, and writers of African literature, this book is being offered as a groundbreaking source that brings together literary practitioners and librarians into a century of conversations.

Nelson Mandela, the former president, announced at the weekend that he will host an exclusive concert featuring some of the world's leading entertainers to raise funds for Africa's millions of Aids victims.

This book exposes the role of the Belgian government, the US government and CIA, the UN, Mobutu and others in the assassination of independent Congo's first leader.