The authors examine the past four years of the coalition government through diverse critical lenses. There is no sugar coating

Is Africa really rising?

For whom does it rise?

It rises for neoliberal and neo-colonial African governments selling off large tracts of land to outsiders for food or bio-fuel jatropha while their people go hungry and landless

Ask the widows of the Marikana miners ‘is Africa rising’ or those in the Unemployed Peoples Movement, Abahlali, or those living in the black townships of South Africa and across the rest of Africa

Is Africa really rising for the women and young girls who have been raped in the Congo?

It rises for a small African middle class whilst the 99 percent remain in the rural areas as farmers, unable to get subsidies like their European counterparts whose governments intervene on their behalf

Africa rises for those with forked tongue who ‘talk left and walk right’

Africa is rising for the charismatic Christian preachers engaging in what they call ‘prosperity preaching’ to congregations obliged to pay one tenth of their miserly wages as tithes so the preacher can wear designer suits from Italy

Africa is rising for the continued exploitation of its enormous wealth by MNCs, tax evaders and those who engage in illicit wealth appropriation in a continued (not new) scramble for Africa

Africa is rising for a tiny black elite who believe in NEPAD and market fundamentalism alongside their governments committed to such policies

Africa is rising for those African women who equate economic freedom with the means to purchase Brazilian and Korean weave, false eyelashes and nails in their aspirations to resemble an African Barbie doll

Africa is rising for those few countries who have recently discovered oil: Uganda, Ghana, Ivory Coast – but will their people say the same in 20 years and not meet the same wretched fate as the peoples of the Niger Delta of Nigeria?

Let us not be deceived.

Africans can only rise if the vast majority rise in Pan-African consciousness, towards a socially just economic system that destroys neoliberal capitalism and ALL forms of oppression

Africans can only rise when we cease self-loathing and return to Ubuntu and self-love

African people can only rise in realising this vision.

There are strong reasons for the persistence of the cultural practice of bride abduction in southern Africa and some parts of the world. But the practice violates the rights of the girl child and endangers her future wellbeing. It should be discarded

How will Africans remember President Obama? How can his current visit to the continent create value for African and the American people? Here is some open advice

It would be very interesting to find out which hidden agendas "ART" is pursuing with its lopsided coverage of Angola's success in Venice

Adichie appears to be trying to demonstrate that all novels are full of lies but that readers prefer delightful lies to inconvenient truths. That is why novels sell millions of copies while boring scholarly tomes manage a few hundred copies in sales

With the release of his latest poetry book, entitled ‘Today na Today’, an anthology of poems written in Naija langwej (pidgin English), a waning subsector of Nigerian literature gains a vent

‘His detailed plot summaries of the movies in the book are so well written that readers may no longer need to see the films after reading his book’

Neither money nor political power can earn you lines in English cricket literature that say, ‘He was a mercurial skipper’ who was ‘elected a vice-president of the Nomads’; ‘He was a leading personality in the club’

The question of rape has not received adequate attention in Nigeria. It must be emphasized that women have a right to their own bodies and sexualities

The collection of poems tells a story on many levels. It is an autobiographical account of a black child growing up within the private fostering system. But the story extends back to the lives of the poet’s African grandparents and outwards to the experiences of other immigrants to the UK

On April 14, 2013 at around 17.00hrs, a police officer by the name Martin Kiteu alias 'Kin'gei' attached to Kasarani Police Station, Nairobi, confronted one Kenneth Mwangi, a footballer with Mathare United FC, over an alleged theft of a mobile phone at the Githurai stage. The officer pushed Mr. Mwangi to the ground and shot him fatally and at point blank range three or four times on the jaw, throat and head. This incident was witnessed by several people who were at the scene.

Rights Promotion and Protection Centre (RPP) is deeply disturbed by the level of impunity exhibited by the police and in particular the continuation of the activities of death squads within the Kenya Police. While great strides have been made in creating the necessary legislation to reform the police, there is little reflection of this on the ground and police continue to engage in unlawful killings.

Kasarani Police Station, in particular remains, a major host of the police death squads. The police station also plays host to another policeman known by the nickname ‘Denno’. RPP believes Denno was involved in unlawful shootings in the Kondele area in Kisumu during the 2007/8 post election violence. Other members of this death squad , known by their single names are:- Marel, Maiyo, Fielo and Mutisya.

RPP calls upon all concerned to send a petition to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority to investigate this incident and the continuing operations of death squads in Kasarani and other areas.

CONTACT

Odhiambo Oyoko
Executive Coordinator Rights Promotion and Protection Centre (RPP) Upperhill Gardens, Block D-14, Third Ngong Avenue off Ngong Avenue. P.O Box 4636-00200 Nairobi. Tel: 020 2692071 Cell: 0717 431 738 E-mail: [email][email protected]/[email protected] Website: www.rpprights.org

The poems treat a broad range of contemporary social issues in Nigeria. The author has certainly enriched the literary world

Lamnyam’s book of poems is a tribute to penmanship. She contends that poets are not dead wood, and attributes much leverage to the weight of her pen

Upon the death of an artist society loses sorely. But their works provide a continuing reflection on how to refine ourselves

Setting up a music project in the Saharawi refugee camps in south-west Algeria may not seem to some an obvious priority for a population that relies largely on humanitarian aid for its survival. Yet that is precisely what London-based arts and human rights charity Sandblast has been hard at work doing since early 2010.

Morocco, which militarily controls Western Sahara since its occupation in 1975, is trying to present a false image of the situation in Western Sahara, taking advantage of the military siege and the media blockade imposed on the region.

Music and poetry have been key elements in Saharawi culture since nomadic times, when they were efficient ways of transmitting news and stories, providing entertainment and establishing links among the tribes. After Spain abandoned Western Sahara and Morocco and Mauritania invaded the territory in 1975, music became the voice of the revolution. It played an essential role in the formation and establishment of the new Saharawi Republic and the reshaping of the society. Music, thus, was used by the Saharawis to foster social change.

Until the ranks of the head coaches and upper management in the US National Football League have been thoroughly integrated, Dr. King’s dream will remain a work in progress

The undoubted merit of this book is in its providing of historical depth to understanding the drug menace. But readers should beware of the danger of substituting one’s irritation with some of the awkward policies of western governments with concern for the African predicament.