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Pambazuka News has fostered debate about the 'whole spectrum of political colouring' and in so doing played a crucial role in turning ideas into pro-African action, writes Chambi Chachage.

The diaspora has a key role to play in using the resources at their disposal to build the power of Nigeria and the rest of Africa, argues Okello Oculi.

Diop Olugbala (aka Wali Rahman) will be sentenced on Wednesday, 13 October to a possible 10 years in prison for speaking out on behalf of the rights of the black community. A press conference and demonstration will be held prior to Olugbala’s sentencing hearing. Endorsing and participating in Wednesday’s press conference and demonstration will be the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, African Socialist International, Pan Africa of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, Black and Nobel Bookstore, Pastor Donna Jones of Cookman Methodist Church, Top Dollar CEO of the Dollar Boys and Alison Hoehne of the African People’s Solidarity Committee.

The Black is Back Coalition has announced a march and rally on the White House to take place November 13, 2010 beginning in Washington, DC’s historic Malcolm X Park. This will mark the second year in a row that this black coalition will be protesting at the White House while Barack Obama, the first black US President, occupies it.

Following the participation of a diverse range of people at the 2 October One Nation march in Washington DC, Horace Campbell discusses the need for resurgent solidarity, effective challenges to a politics unrepresentative of the needs of the majority and building a new social movement in the US.

After twice postponing the release of its 2009 census results, Kenya has finally revealed that it is home to over 38 million people. Muthoni Wanyeki highlights the sexist and xenophobic elements of the debate on the population figures and calls for Kenyans to resolve their past.

The Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, announces a bi-annual Kwame Nkrumah Pan-Afican Intellectual Cultural Festival to be organized under the auspices of the newly established Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies, in honour of Nkrumah's dedication to a tradition of vigorous and liberating Africa-centred intellectual and cultural activity, such as was outlined in the major address he gave on the occasion of the formal opening in 1963 of the Institute of African Studies. Inspiration for such a festival comes from the example of the Annual Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week of the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, under the auspices of the Julius Nyerere Professorial Chair in Pan-African Studies.

Following the visit of President Omar al-Bashir to Nairobi, L. Muthoni Wanyeki finds Kenya’s welcoming of Sudan’s president ‘unbelievable’.

Following the approval of Kenya’s new constitution, L. Muthoni Wanyeki discusses the constitutional referendum voting process, the road to the new constitution, and what must happen next to ensure the new constitution is observed.

The official outcome of Kenya’s constitutional referendum will not be known until 6 August, but Muthoni Wanyeki outlines three scenarios for what could happen once the final results are announced.

Recent tragedies of domestic violence from within the African community in the United States leave Roland Bankole Marke posing the question: ‘Are Africans losing out on their community-based cultural and spiritual values in pursuit of the American dream that is fast becoming a myth and nightmare rather than a reality for many?’ Marke raises fears that a separation from Africa has weakened the resonation of African culture in the lives of those who have chosen to live outside the continent. Marke warns that the deterioration of African culture is resulting in such societal devastation and must be stopped in its tracks.

New initiatives at the United States’ Department of Defense indicate that the militarisation of the social sciences is high on the agenda of its forward strategy for fighting wars, cautions Horace Campbell. With academics being encouraged to produce intelligence on Africa, ‘[i]ndependent and progressive scholars and activists must intensify the peace work so that there is a new social science infrastructure that can work hand in hand with the revolutionary foment that is brewing’ on the continent says Campbell.

In the wake of a recent Amnesty International report on crime and insecurity in Nairobi's low-income areas, L. Muthoni Wanyeki discusses the problems of safety and the broader context of judicial and police deficiencies which produces them.

The memory and legacy of the late Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is alive in Funtua, Horace Campbell discovers during his first visit to Abdul-Raheem’s homeland. Impressed by the extraordinary work towards providing education through Hauwa Memorial College and the Pan-African Development Education and Advocacy Programme, Campbell calls on Pan-Africanists everywhere to provide support to keep the projects going.

Many Africans in the diaspora were taken from the continent against their will ‘during the long years of the inhumane and barbaric transatlantic slave trade’, writes Beharane Selasie Kabaka. Isn’t it therefore ‘our moral obligation as native Africans to fully accept them if they wish to return’, without subjecting them to bureaucratic procedures for the acquisition of citizenship, Kabaka asks.

The Journal of Pan African Studies (JPAS) invites papers for a special issue on Politics and African Literature. This issue will explore how writers create, address and interrogate Pan-African solidarities through works of fiction, poetry, prose and other communication arts

Ghana’s World Cup victory over the United States was also victory for Pan-Africanism, writes Horace Campbell. With Africans around the world rallying in support of the Black Stars and unified in their celebrations of the win, the team gave us a glimpse of a 21st century continent that is ‘united, strong and peaceful’.

D2D (Detroit to Dakar) is an initiative that has brought together Africa-focused organisations from around the US, to coordinate activities and enhance participation at the US Social Forum in Detroit 22-26 June 2010. The goal of D2D is to promote issues related to Africa and the African diaspora, at the US Social Forum in Detroit while also making strategic links towards the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal in early 2011.The statement that came out of the meeting follows.

As criticisms of President Obama’s war and economic policies mount, the group that first questioned his intentions regarding the concerns of the black community is holding a national Congress to define a black agenda to serve the interests of black people.

Uncertainty reigns around who was responsible for the grenade blasts that killed six people and injured several others at a constitutional meeting in Nairobi’s Uhuru Park, writes L. Muthoni Wanyeki. What is clear, however, says Wanyeki, is that the stakes of the 4 August Kenyan referendum are critically high for the perpetrators. Rightfully, Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission has focused on hate speech in the aftermath of the attacks, but can the crime be addressed with an ever-expanding electronic platform that remains unchecked?