cc With Dar es Salaam on the verge of hosting the Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Week from Monday 13 April, Issa G. Shivji, Mwalimu Nyerere Professor of Pan-African Studies at the city's university, offers his reflections on the pan-African struggle. Though Africa has undoubtedly suffered from the neoliberal onslaught of the past two decades, Pan-Africanism as a progressive ideology is now firmly back on the historical agenda, Shivji states, uniting in the process the continent's dual quest for unity and liberation.

Japan, the world's second largest economy, is calling for global initiatives to reactivate financial flows to Africa, including government grants, concessional loans and lines of credit. This is the crux of a message Prime Minister Taro Aso is carrying to the G20 summit in London Thursday, Japan's ambassador Takahiro Shinyo to Germany told German parliamentarians last week.

Capitalism by its very nature encourages and rewards corruption in its many different forms, like low wages, for example. That is corrupt because it robs the worker in Africa of the value of his/her labour and transfers the wealth that that worker produces to the corrupt financial centres in Europe and America. This wealth passes through the hands of an enabling political class that is corrupt in its dealing with the working populations they govern and in its collaboration with the corrupt financial institutions. As Africa embraces free-market neo-liberal (unregulated) capitalism there is an inherent by product of increased opportunities and rewards for corruption

In an open letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Haiti-based hotel owner Richard Morse warns that in its current state, HOPE, a textile act that Ki-Moon has expressed support for, will simply enrich Haiti's wealthy elite, without making any significant difference to the country's poorest. What's more he adds, its likely to spark further migration from rural to urban areas, unless economic growth is also stimulated in the countryside.

Kwantlen Polytechnic University invites you to participate in the Kwame Nkrumah International Conference: August 19-21, 2010 at its beautiful Richmond campus in British Columbia, Canada. The Conference will commemorate the centenary of the birthday of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Africa’s Man of the Millennium, and bring scholars and students from Canada and from the around the world to share research and ideas on Africa’s place in the global community, and to discuss the life, achievements and shortcomings of Africa’s foremost Pan-Africanist.

Following his involvement in a recent joint ECA–CODESRIA conference, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem reflects on his growing convictions around the importance of every individual doing their part to root out corruption in Africa. Suggesting that a collective policy of zero tolerance will be ultimately necessary, Abdul-Raheem urges Africa to look to many Asian countries for examples of how potential punishments can serve as effective deterrents.

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is to launch the Pan African Alliance on E-Commerce to intensify cooperation and initiate common projects of interest in African countries, as part of a two-day workshop on Trade Facilitation and Aid for Trade which ends in Addis Ababa today.

Plans for the JULIUS NYERERE INTELLECTUAL FESTIVAL WEEK April 13th to 17th, 2009 have now been finalised. We are expecting some 35 guests from outside, including, hopefully, Frantz Fanon’s son, Olivier, and Kwame Nkrumah’s son, Gamal. Professor Wole Soyinka will deliver the inaugural Nyerere Annual Lectures, 2009. A strong delegation from our pan-African research organisation CODESRIA is expected.

Financial turmoil is penetrating markets the world over, writes Ronald Elly Wanda. The impact, the author explains, will be seen in east Africa most notably in the fluctuating levels of financial aid, tourism and food pricing. Exploring the current economic situation in the UK and east Africa, Wanda suggests capitalism will never be the same again.

Reflecting on some of the troublesome statistics around maternal mortality for sub-Saharan Africa, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem urges greater support for the continent’s women. Arguing that these statistics need to be humanised to fully illuminate their severity, Abdul-Raheem laments the lottery of geographical proximity in determining people’s access to effective healthcare, along with the tendency of the politically powerful to wholly ignore the needs of their citizens. Stressing that a bleak statistical picture is far more reflective of deficiencies in policy than an absence of resources, the author invites readers to join the UN’s Millennium Campaign.

With Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez having successfully won voters’ backing through a referendum on the removal of official term limits, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem considers the dangers of allowing leaders of revolutionary clout to remain in power indefinitely. As a marked contrast from the country’s former imperially-backed political leaders, Abdul-Raheem points to the Chávez administration’s great achievements in health and education and continuing popularity with the poor. But if democracy is truly to function and sustain itself, the author argues, presidents must not be permitted to simply entrench themselves in power.

Remarking on the apparent strangeness of electing a figure renowned for intolerance towards differences of opinion within his own country and support for militia groups around the world, Tim Murithi stresses that Muammar al-Gaddafi’s new appointment as chairperson of the African Union reflects internal competition within the union over the extent of its influence over its member states. Highlighting African leaders' ambivalence in electing a head of government not known for his commitment to democratic governance, Murithi wonders whether those voting for the Libyan leader were tacitly heralding ‘one of their own’, and concludes by arguing that instead of interminable debates over integration, the continent’s figures of authority should prioritise addressing their peoples’ impoverishment.

 Following the recent attacks on Gaza, Abayomi Azikiwe examines the sentiment of the African-American population against Israeli aggression and the support of this violence by the US. Azikiwe argues that a direct correlation exists between the Palestinian and Arab struggle for independence, the plight for African liberation during colonialism, the Atlantic slave trade, apartheid, and African-American movements in the US. By highlighting the connection between imperialism, colonialism, and Zionism, Azikiwe affirms the need for oppressed peoples worldwide to speak out against Israel’s aggressive policies and actions, and for the media to disseminate accurate information concerning the impact of the Israeli occupation upon the people of Gaza.

Following Muammar al-Gaddafi’s election as the African Union’s new chairperson, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem calls upon the long-time Libyan leader to promote genuine strides towards greater pan-African unity. Noting Gaddafi’s traditional support for minority groups and left-wing political causes across Africa and around the world at large, Abdul-Raheem argues that substantive achievement will rest on the ability of the new leader and the AU to effectively engage with pan-Africanists at all levels outside of the corridors of governmental power.

Reflecting on her visit to Washington during Obama’s inauguration, Karen Chouhan discusses how the new president has transcended traditional divisions around race and gender. Saluting Obama’s campaign for never resorting to personal attacks or disparaging remarks, Chouhan hopes that the momentum generated behind the message of change will bear fruit in the form of progressively greater equal opportunities, opportunities which are the responsibility of all of us to work towards.

A close partner of the UN refugee agency has persuaded some of Spain's top artists to support an exhibition and online auction to raise money to tackle malnutrition among young refugees in four African countries. The Spanish Committee for UNHCR, with the emceeing skills of UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Jesús Vázquez, launched "Refugi@rte" in Madrid last Tuesday.

Keir Thomas, author of numerous Linux how-to books as well as Ubuntu-specific guides, has released a new book called Ubuntu Pocket Guide. The compact 166-page guide to using Linux is available in both printed form as well as a free PDF download.

Ethiopia was never a member of the Casablanca group. And Haile Selassie was not enthusiastic about Nkrumah's call for immediate continental unification. Nyerere offered to delay Tanganyika's independence so that Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika could form an East African federation. That was a Pan-African quest and a realistic approach towards African unity...

While calling on Obama to “pursue a policy change that we can believe in” Tajudeen also argues against our seeing Obama as a messiah who will solve all of the world’s problems. Rather his election should give “both Americans and the rest of us a chance to look at things afresh and probably find a solution that we can all live with even if it may not be perfect.”

Ubuntu’s open source project-hosting service Launchpad will release its underlying code as open source software on July 21. The announcement comes via the Launchpad News. The most recent Launchpod podcast talks with Launchpad Ombudsman Karl Fogel about the decision.