Two years ago AFFORD initiated a project “Aiding & Abetting: Global Image, Local Damage?” that brought five artists together with different African community groups supporting development in their regions of origin to produce stimulating artwork that told a different story of how Africans support each other in their quest for development & progress. We exhibited this work during the Africa Diaspora & Development Day (ad3) in July 2003 to critical acclaim. AFFORD is keen to build on the success of this project with a second phase, called “Releasing Our African Diaspora Stories” (ROADS). Click on the link to find out more.

With up to a quarter of all Somalis now living abroad and many more having fled their homes within the country, a new Somali saying goes: "We are now a nation of immigrants who depend on other immigrants." Some estimates say that some 23% of Somalia's income has been sent there by relatives now living abroad.

As an open space that brings together social movements, civil society organisations, community based organizations, academics, activists and individuals, under the rubric 'another Africa is possible', ASF is in many ways, a living manifestation of this new fangled Pan-Africanism that has so begun to preoccupy our governments. It is a powerful new movement that can exploit the endless opportunities that exist to begin the process of real development - shifting genuine power and resources back to Africa and entrenching our autonomy and self-determination.

But as we meet to begin to chart ways forward, we must also raise questions about the identity of this Pan-Africanism that is represented this week in Lusaka, and whether in its narrowness, it is in fact ignoring a powerful partner for African development?

The diaspora - Africa's biggest 'aid' donors How wide is the definition of Pan-Africanism at the ASF? If you take African civil society, is it merely civil society in Africa, or is African identity a key factor in defining this entity? In which case space and time become relevant. Surely, the Pan-Africanism that is represented this week cannot be complete, with the old and new African diasporas (both by-products of the very globalization being critiqued this week) glaring absent.

The absence of the African diaspora in all its complexity is partially due to historic factors. Despite the massive contributions the diaspora has been making towards development in Africa, there are still very few structured partnerships with African civil society, community forums and social movements. The diaspora tends to organize itself around identity structures (involving home towns, ethnic groups, alumni associations, etc), formations frequently viewed as regressive and conservative by civil society and social movements. Instead, there has been a tendency amongst African civil society, community forums, and social movements to be more focused on Northern NGOs and agencies.

The absence is also due to a lack of awareness of the dramatic role the African diaspora plays in development. There is need for the ASF to recognise, legitimise and support the self-help efforts of African diaspora groups in contributing to development in their regions of origin in Africa. This will acknowledge the long tradition, going back to the slave trade, of self-help by the diaspora in supporting Africa's development. More recently in the post war period, working in partnership with identity based groups from their villages, home towns, ethnic groups, diaspora organisations have enabled people to take control of their lives.

We should understand the diaspora's historic and continuing contribution to Africa through the transfer of five forms of capital: social (networks, trust), intellectual (skills), political (advocacy), cultural (food, music) and financial (investment, remittances).

Remittances, one element of this diverse diaspora capital pool, has become highly visible and is beginning to form a key discourse of development, with some even calling it a 'new paradigm' of development. But it is not new. There has always been a history of internal remittances in every country, people going to the capital city or from a poorer area to a more prosperous area, or to a neighbouring country and sending money to those relatives they left behind. Globalisation has given this phenomenon a huge dimension. According to the 2004 World Bank Global Development Finance, at $93 billion, remittances now exceed the flow of aid, and are second only to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as a source of external financing. In the African context, over 9 years $28 billion dollars was sent through Western Union alone to Nigeria (Earlier this year at the G8 Summit - a State Department official was quoted as saying that Nigerian diaspora sent $12 billion - this would be about 5% - 10% of GDP. The Bank of Ghana tracked $1.3 Billion between 2002 and 2003, and in Lesotho remittances represent 28.7% of GDP.

Diaspora/African Government Partnerships Increasingly there is recognition of the diaspora as Africa's biggest 'aid donors'. In recent years, some proactive governments and the diaspora have begun to meet to chart a way forward on socializing, not just remittances, but the whole range of capital the diaspora contribute. The Government of Ghana has highlighted the key role that the Ghanaian diaspora does and can play in national development. The Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS), the policy framework for supporting growth and poverty reduction in the short term, identifies the Ghanaian diaspora as a potential source of funds for the GPRS.

Shortly after the turn of the Millennium, the Ghanaian government also held a 'Home Coming Summit' for investment and other exchanges. The Summit was attended by 1600 members of the Ghanaian diaspora. Since then Ghanaian Embassies and foreign missions have tried to help Ghana's diaspora to direct their resources through more formal channels for national development. Examples include the 'A Dollar a month for Ghana' initiative by the High Commission in Sierra Leone, the 'Five Pounds No Balance Police' initiative by the High Commission in the United Kingdom to purchase basic tools for the Ghana Police Service.

Northern NGOs - partnership or cooption? African governments are not the only ones seeking partnerships with the diaspora. Multi-lateral and international agencies have also begun to see the diaspora, and particularly their remittances, as a 'new paradigm' of development. There is obviously no 'newness' in the paradigm of development, but what there is are recently launched attempts by various multilateral and international agencies to 'capture', 'shape', 'control' and 'regulate' remittances for their own purposes, and many times over the heads of those making the contributions. The International Development Committee (IDC), which scrutinizes the work of DFID, the UK government's department for International aid, recently produced a report 'Migration and Development: How to make migration work for poverty reduction': In an otherwise useful report - this sentence stood out and concerned us at the African Foundation for Development (AFFORD):

'(Northern) NGOs and private sector organisations have a role to play too, employing their expertise so that migrants can remit more productively, at the same time getting in at the ground floor of a good business opportunity' (p.120)

There are two parts of that sentence that are loaded. What does it mean by remit more 'productively'? And what does it mean by good business opportunity?

None of us should be against organisations assessing the global environment and seeking to avoid possible threats, whilst capitalising on opportunities. This is natural. But if in seeking to capitalise on a new opportunity, mainstream players once again co-opt and begin to take away real power from people in the developing world, as they have done in the last 30 years, then there is cause for concern.

Such concern was raised at the experts meeting - 'Bridging the Gap: International Migration and the Role of Migrants and their Remittances in Development' organized by Dutch NGO, Novib. Around 40 participants, gathered, many of them carrying out specific advocacy programmes for diaspora/migrant workers originating from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Key objectives of the meeting were to gather issues related to migrant remittances and its role as a tool in development; to formulate recommendations to improve polices and practices around remittances, including workable mechanisms to ensure inclusion of migrants diaspora in policy-making processes around this 'new paradigm' of development. AFFORD posed specific questions to the conference: * who frames the questions around remittances? Those who make the contributions or the multilateral and international agencies who see a 'new' paradigm of development? * Why are the diasporas who are central to this contribution considered 'marginalised' in discussions? * If the relationships involved in remittances are ultimately between the diasporas who remit, the host country they remit from and the homeland country they remit to, where do international NGOs and others add value to this process? * In the research that is badly needed to understand the impact of these remittances, whose capacity will be strengthened - those of the diasporas and their beneficiaries in the South or those of international agencies - who have placed themselves at the centre of this process? * Why did Novib take the lead and place itself at the centre of a conference aimed at bringing together diasporas? * In support of and empowerment of southern initiatives, how has Novib sought to build upon a similar initiative launched in Amsterdam last December by AfroNeth, a Dutch based African organisation, seeking to mobilise and connect the African diaspora in the Netherlands for development purposes in Africa? * Finally, Novib, will take forward some of the outcomes of this meeting to the corridors of power in the EU and elsewhere, why? Does this not disempower diaspora/migrant groups further?

Beyond AFFORD's questions, others were also provoked. For Peter Payoyo from the Philippine Seafarers Assistance Programme, 'the mention of an AfroNeth initiative brought to my mind the Bohol Conference which took place in the Philippines in October 2003 (co-organized by two Novib partners, the AMC and PSAP, together with other NGOs and the Philippine Ministry of Labour).' He openly wandered whether the Novib Experts Meeting would build on the accomplishments of this initiative?

Payoyo's post-conference paper ('Bridging the Gap...a Critical Synthesis') raised further questions, which I will quote at length, given the important points being addressed:

'The immediate position of Novib is furthermore to be seen in Novib's involvement in certain key policy processes that the Meeting was also appraised. Novib was notably a member of the Inter-Agency Remittances Task Force, an international steering group which was set up in the aftermath of the International Conference on Migrant Remittances held in London in October 2003. The other members of the Remittances Task Force, led by the World Bank and the UK's DFID, include the ADB, ILO, IOM, UK ONS, WSBI, CGAP, and the EU. Novib is the only agency that may be considered as "non-governmental" in the context of the composition of this Task Force. Allusion was also made to Novib's involvement in the formulation of an EU-wide 'Directive on Migration and Development' to be released in early 2005.

'There was unease. It was uneasiness about a probable self-anointed mission on the part of Novib to directly represent civil society views and positions in the EU and in the World Bank-led Task Force, as well as in the other fast-multiplying global fora on migrant remittances. This unease was not assuaged by the closing remarks of the Meeting organizer, who called on migrant organizations to unite and get their act together, and flatly denied that Novib was out to grab a space that was reserved for civil society actors, in this case, the diaspora organizations from the developing world.

'In this light, AFFORD's keen observation that Novib's forays into the arena of international remittances could lead to the further disempowerment of migrant groups must be seriously considered and reflected upon. The conceptualization of the "Expert Meeting" as well as the process of selection and exclusion involved in the invitations to Meeting have already revealed a glaring bias against migrant groups and migrant advocates who can claim no expertise in the "new" field of remittance flows, an esoteric field in international development policy that is presently defined not by Novib, and certainly not by the 'diasporas' themselves.

'In a polite gathering, there is no need to insist on something that the host chooses to avoid. So it was that AFFORD's questions, chewed or eschewed by participants who smiled through the proceedings, remained unanswered.'

Peter Payoyo is right. For AFFORD the answers to these questions are important because they go to the heart of how we should all see issues of organic development or non-development. Arguably remittances historically are a form of engagement through which diasporas have sought to respond directly to the needs of their home communities, while avoiding:

a) Their governments (at both ends), b) International/multi-lateral agencies c) And while subverting traditional development paradigms.

That diasporas choose this form of engagement is a powerful comment in itself. By voting with their feet in this way, they are registering dissatisfaction with existing models of development. Remittances are thus an implicit critique of the development models which people in the South are confronted by. Through remittances diasporas have lit a beacon about the agency and resources of ordinary people from the South.

Conclusions: Shifting power to South In recognition of the massive contributions being made by the diaspora and in the drive to more effectively socialise this contribution (particularly remittances), African governments and Pan African institutions like the African Union have begun seeking partnerships with the diaspora. More problematically, as has been pointed out above, multi-lateral and international NGOs have also begun the same process. However, allies on the ground such as civil society groups, community forums and other social movements represented at the ASF have been much slower in recognising and developing such partnerships with the diaspora. The ASF and the participants attending this week need to be challenged to understand and engage with the diaspora and the way it contributes its various forms of capital.

The diaspora has been working, has been learning and building its capacity to contribute to Africa's development. It has shaped its own priorities in response to partners on the ground in Africa, and in response to the wider context provided by governments (at both ends) and the international development sector. It has guarded its autonomy and self-determination jealously. Through its contributions it dispelled the myth that Africans don't have agency, transferred genuine resources, particularly to the rural areas, and has provided an implicit critique of mainstream development models. Its presence enables profound questions to be raised - around issues of Pan African identity, around issues of development, and around issues of partnerships which seek to shift genuine resources and power to Africa, rather than disempowering those partners.

These are issues, some of which are already at the heart of the work of ASF this week. Will the ASF finally rise to the challenge of the diaspora and how we develop new equitable partnerships for Africa's development? Will it finally anchor the civil society movement in Africa along some clear principles and recognise the importance of identity?

Another Africa is possible. But we have to be proactive and seize the opportunities.

Onyekachi Wambu Information Officer, AFFORD (Thanks to Peter Payoyo of the Philippine Seafarers Assistance Programme for permission to quote from his Paper 'Bridging the Gap: International Migration and the Role of Migrants and their Remittances in Development - a Critical Synthesis')

The mild-mannered, soft-spoken UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, has been receiving the unwholesome attention of the triumphalist neo-con fundamentalists and also that of sections of what passes for 'liberal' opinion in the USA, a country that is in the grip of right wing extremism.

The ostensible reason for shooting pointed arrows at Mr Annan are the salacious but very selective revelations emanating from US investigations into the Iraqi Oil for Food programme. The allegations include corruption, diversion of food money into private coffers, fraudulent contracts and all manners of underhand activities by individuals and companies (mostly Western), and others.

These allegations are not earth shattering given what is going on with US mishandling of the Iraqi economy and its vital oil resources since they occupied the country. US companies and principally the notorious Halliburton of the US Vice President Dick Cheney are accused of similar practices. So why is the US so interested in investigating the UN in Iraq without allowing any censure of its own illegal activities in that country?

Even big Western humanitarian agencies that often keep their mouth shut in relation to powerful Western Governments (who were often their biggest Donors or protectors) were sufficiently outraged to break with their unwritten convention (of looking the other way when their governments are misbehaving) and demanded accountability from the US proconsul for Iraq, Paul Bremmer, before he handed over to their crony, Iyad Allawi and other US puppets in the Interim Government of Iraq.

Both Bremmer and the Bush administration treated the request with contempt because they believe they are above the standards of public probity they demand of everybody else, especially those governments or individuals they may not like. Since the US demands accountability from everybody else, who dares demand accountability from the US and its chosen agents? This is why the US has given itself the power to act as global law enforcer but exempts itself from the International Criminal Court. The Americans can fight wars on behalf of the UN but are not bound by UN procedures or resolutions.

The double standard stinks. The attack on the UN has taken an ironical personal turn for Mr Kofi Annan. His son is alleged to have worked for and received payments from one of the companies accused of being involved in the Iraqi gravy train. And because of this Annan's persecutors are demanding that Uncle Kofi should resign. They want him punished for a yet to be proven criminal act by his son. The logic is that because Annan Sr was in charge of the UN and these things happened under his watch he should carry the can. Yet nobody demanded the resignation of Bush for allowing the US to be attacked by not concentrating on his watch! Not even the chiefs or operatives of the various security and intelligence services that failed the country on that fateful day were compelled to resign!

The fact that Bush's family has a long history of juicy business relationship with the Bin Laden family and the obvious conflicts of interest in that was never an issue for US voters who returned Bush to power. The Enron and Halliburton scandals and the personal involvement of senior administration officials, Republican financiers and other supporters have not led to any resignations in the US government.

So why are they calling for Kofi Annan's head?

The reason is not difficult to see. Kofi Annan, like Boutros Boutros- Ghali before him, both of them pro American gentlemen, when they started out, later than sooner, discovered that the credibility of the UN and their own personal credibility demand being able to stand up to the bullies in the US who see the UN as an after-sales service complex for American misadventures. They hounded Boutros-Ghali out of office when he began to resist the US’s more brazen abuse of the UN system and their contempt for multilateral solutions.

When they were sending attack dogs at Boutrous-Ghali, Mr Annan was the master's poodle presented to the world as a 'safe pair of hands', 'moderate', 'sensible' and all the other superlatives used to dress up being 'a house Nigger'. And he seemed to play ball for many years, but over Iraq he began to grumble which became much more open during and after the last UN General Assembly when he declared the war against Iraq and the Anglo-American occupation of that country as illegal.

Consequently the Bush administration and their screaming loony sects decreed an end to his term. Some of the criticisms they are making of Annan today were the same ones many who had opposed his candidacy in 1997 put forward.

For me the biggest stain in his dull bureaucratic career at the UN will remain inaction over genocide in Rwanda which he has been doing everything to atone for in the past few years. However his Rwanda record did not matter then so why now? The answer is simple: Mr Annan is now tired of being 'a House Nigger'. For talking back to his masters they want to banish him from the palace. It is yet another abject lesson for those Africans or other developing world peoples who always want to play it safe and be on the right side of the big powers. You are nothing but a disposable towel to them. You are not any 'special friend' or 'great leader' but a convenient tool and they will get rid of you when you are no longer of service.

A defence of Annan and the UN is a correct thing to do today because those calling for his head and bashing the UN are more dangerous to our world. It is not an endorsement of all Annan and the UN did or did not do but an expression of hope that together the whole world can make the UN be of better service to humanity. It is a proclamation of a fact that is definitely lost on Bush and his gangsters that the US does not own this world. It is a shared universe in which all of us, big and small countries, rich and poor, super power and powerless, are legitimate stake holders whose interests are better served by genuine cooperation, multilateralism and respectful interdependence, than by the bullying by one super power. It is a shared world in which none of us is a tenant to the Americans.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

* Please send comments to

>>>>>SOLIDARITY LETTER

(The following is the text of a petition email circulating on the Internet in support of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan)

Dear Secretary General,
We, a group of concerned young people from across the globe, have watched with dismay the attacks on the integrity and the legitimacy of the United Nations.

During these difficult and challenging times, we stand with you in solidarity against all forces that seek to destroy the organization or undermine the high office of the Secretary-General. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." We believe that you will rise to the challenge and lead the organization out even stronger.

The United Nations, today more than ever before, needs a leadership that is firm and not intimidated into giving up the integrity and independence with which a body like the UN deserves to operate. We the people need to stand up and defend the organization not only against those who are bent on destroying it, but also against those who's actions expose the organization to such critics.

We recognize that giving in to the forces currently calling for your resignation would only serve to undermine the UN as an in dependent organization and would weaken the ability of the UN as a vehicle to work for peace and justice around the world. That is why this cannot be seen as an attack on any one individual, but the UN as a whole. For the UN to continue to play its vital role and to command the respect of the world, it must maintain its credibility by ensuring that those who act in the organization's name do so transparently and with high integrity. We hope that with this full knowledge of the facts, appropriate actions shall be taken to save this essential organization unfounded damage and accusations.

We pledge to do all we can to defend the integrity of the organization in our communities and resist the systematic campaign that seeks to poison public opinion against the organization. We strongly urge you to continue to play your role without fear or favour.
In Solidarity,
Signed:

PLEASE TAKE THE FOLLOWING URGENT ACTIONS:
1. ENDORSE this letter to the UN Secretary General by responding to this with Your NAME and COUNTRY (Add organization if you want) by Sunday. PLEASE SEND IT DIRECTLY TO [email][email protected]
2. FORWARD this email to other colleagues and POST this announcement on your organization's website and list-serves.
3. Shape PUBLIC OPINION in your community and country by raising the issue and challenging the critics. Contribute to media discussions- Radio, Print and TV etc.
4. Our US colleagues should visit the UN Association website and take action:

Africa Action held its second annual Baraza in Washington, DC last weekend, bringing leading analysts and activists from the U.S. and Africa together for two days of discussion on key trends and issues U.S. Africa policy. Following the Baraza, Africa Action staff traveled to Atlanta and New York city with leading civil society leaders from Africa for a range of media and community events focused on analyzing the current state of U.S. policy toward Africa.

Efforts by Nigerian professionals in the diaspora to spearhead a new development initiative for the country received a big boost penultimate Saturday with the establishment of the James Ibori Center for Policy Studies in Madison, USA. The Center, established in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin outreach programme, seeks to halt the downward slide of the nation's economy and reverse the trend of bad governance in Nigeria and indeed, Africa.

Search for Common Ground (SFCG) has just made available three of its widely popular radio programs via the World Wide Web. Search for Common Ground-Sierra Leone’s Talking Drum Studio programs Atunda Ayenda, Common Ground News Feature, and Paliment Bol At can now be heard in Krio at www.talkingdrumstudio.org . The new site was created in an effort to reach the Sierra Leonean Diaspora and others with an interest in Sierra Leone.

“What makes African countries vulnerable to continuing manipulation by former colonial powers is their essentially unviable nature built as they were to serve foreign interests and mostly lacking in organic linkages and legitimacy among the peoples forcibly brought together in these artificial states. But more than the economic linkages, in many countries security and intelligence networks help in retaining metropolitan hold."

This paragraph is the more troubling of several in the ‘New Robes and Old- Fashioned Imperialism’ (Pambazuka News 184, Pan-African Postcard). The situation in the Cote d'Ivoire is nothing made new...it is only a continuation of a struggle never fulfilled.

Let the author make a case for an Africa of "Tribal States" or a Federation of Kingdoms...something without borders drawn in the 1800s.....born of Ancient Kingdoms...many of which imploded and would have been decimated by disease, starvation and infighting.

The fact is that the map was drawn, colonies were bought, traded, carved up and out, and a nationalist wave brought the winds of change that gave us the AU of today.

For many nations to survive they must quickly grasp that the age of Capital States, Dakar, Abidjan, Nairobi, Kinshasa, Dar Es Salaam, Accra, among others has come and gone, well going.

African nations one and all must stand and identify their national interests and find a way to carry internal development out that actually results in an equitable sharing.

The map of Europe, and the Map of the United States are not dissimilar, peoples and regions vastly different were melded together and a Nation created. Many suffered civil and regional wars for decades but a national mission was evident through each creation, and destruction of these societies.

I have lived and worked in former English and French colonies. It is the NATION, separated from the tit of the former master(s) that must be developed. Economic power in all of these countries are based on relationships with former colonial families or business interests. Success and business development are guided by their own societies who still feel that SUCCESS can only be associated with an affinity for French, Arab, English or Portuguese culture, no matter how subtle.

Nkrumah is surely rolling in his grave, but would have found his Pan-Africanism still at a loss to unite peoples so divided by the most mundane questions of language, skin colour (shades of brown), or regional feuds left unsettled for 2 centuries. Dr. Abdul-Raheem might also offer a picture of a region or country that went without contact with actual or vestigial contacts to former colonial powers. Is Pan- Africanism a solution when so many states are as colonial as their mates in history?

Africans in the diaspora who are determined to return to their birth places in Africa, including Nigeria, have demanded the provision of dual citizenship from African leaders as a pre-condition for them to return to the continent.

"Welcome to the world of the Contemporary African Diaspora Film Festival. In our reality, people from diverse races, nationalities and backgrounds come together to enjoy important cinematic works of creativity, intellectual expansion, identity, and equality. In this world there are no boundaries around people because they are embraced in a universal understanding of humanity. This is the element of commonality that weaves through this annual event of images from the African Diaspora." This festival runs from 26 November to 12 December in New York. Visit the website for more information.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, 75, died of unknown causes in Paris early on the morning of November 11. Akbar Muhammad, international representative for Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, says that Blacks should not let Arafat's critics cloud their opinions of him. "We [Nation of Islam] have had many meetings with him. I feel that the Africans in the Diaspora, especially those in North America, need to make an assessment of Arafat not based on what we're hearing in the media of the West, but his relationship with Africa and his continuous reach for those who are struggling on the African continent as well as those who are off the African continent," he said.

Africans in diaspora who are determined to return to their birth places in Africa including Nigeria, have demanded the provision of dual citizenship from African leaders as a pre-condition for them to return to the continent. Arrangements have been concluded for the first batch of Africans in the diaspora to embark on a fact-finding tour of three selected African countries which include Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria with the hope of coming back home.

For many Afro-Caribbean children in Britain, Black History Month is a rare chance to learn about their heritage. Throughout October and the start of November, events are held across the UK to mark the annual celebration. But Ken Barnes, who runs a charity called the 100 Black Men of London, wants to change this. "Black history lasts for more than a month," he said. "It should be spread out throughout the year and not just in October - this is something that I am very passionate about."

The Oak Royal Hotel in Tema in collaboration with Education Africa Teaching (EAT), a UK-based organisation helping Africans in the diaspora to trace their roots is hosting 23 Africans in the diaspora who are on a two-week visit to Ghana. The purpose of the trip, the ninth organised by EAT, is to bring peoples of African descent based in the UK to interact with Ghanaians and learn about the African culture and the Ghanaian way of life.

The British high commissioner in Ghana his excellency Gordon Wetherell has indicated that more than 2000 Ghanaians travel to the United Kingdom to study every year. He noted that the number of UK alumni who return to Ghana after their study in UK contribute immensely to community development by fostering and supporting associations such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing-UK (Ghana branch) and the good work they undertake to develop others professionally.

Internet websites on Zimbabwe continue to mushroom as government closes down independent local newspapers to stop the flow of information deemed anti-Mugabe. A group of former Zimbabwean journalists and other professionals now based overseas have launched an independent political website, Zimdaily.com. The website was launched in July and has had a daily publication since then. Owners of the website, who declined to be named for security reasons, said in written response that the website was being run by Zimbabweans in the diaspora.

Early Thursday morning the suffering of President Yasser Arafat of Palestine was brought to an end with the announcement of his death. He never recovered from the coma he had slipped into since last week.

Chairman Arafat as he is more popularly referred to was certainly one of the most recognizable faces of our times, a man who was dodged by death all the time, had many close shaves, was victim of many assassination attempts, and countless poison attempts too. And he survived them all for the more than four decades that he was at the forefront of the struggle for the liberation of his wronged people.

The final hour came on a military hospital bed in Paris. He had survived more than the proverbial nine lives of a cat. Death is a winner in the end. It will take the patient and one by one overwhelms even the doctors too.

The implacable enemies of the Palestinian struggle in Israel and US could not even wait for the final hour before dancing on his grave.

The Zionists have been announcing his death since he arrived in Paris after Israel had 'allowed him' to leave his beleaguered ramshackle office complex in Ramallah where he had been barricaded for more than two years and illegally kept under house arrest in the full glare of the global media by the mass killer, yet-to-be- convicted genocidaire, Ariel Sharon.

Last week, Sharon's patron saint, the newly triumphant George Bush, was ambushed by reporters prematurely asking for his reaction to Arafat's death. You could see the feigned surprise on his face. If it had been in private he would probably have rejoiced since he had deliberately erected road blocks to peace that excluded Yasser Arafat in his so called road map for peace in the Middle East which was a blue print for Sharon's mendacity.

But the televisions were there so Dubya could only, after prolonged seconds, say: MAY GOD BLESS HIS SOUL! We must not forget that this is a very Christian President therefore he was only extending Christian charity for the repose of Arafat's soul. If he had his way with God (I have no doubt he thinks of himself as God's chosen one!) he must be wishing something else.

Ariel Sharon and his goons do not even have to go through the kind of public hypocrisy that Bush went through when Arafat's death was confirmed.

The humiliation they made him and his people suffer throughout his life and more directly in the last three years of besieging his office did not stop with his failing health and even with his death. They have already made it known that his wish to be buried in Jerusalem will not be 'allowed'. Trust these usurpers for originality! They are claiming that the city is a holy sight to bury worthy Kings of Jews! Those privileged kings include disgraced former British Newspaper baron, Robert Maxwell, who died a few years ago in suspicious circumstances. He is buried among the worthy kings for his services to Zionism. Maxwell was a Jew of East European origin yet Yasser Arafat, a Palestinian, cannot decide where he should be buried in the land of his birth inhabited by his people from time immemorial.

Washington and Tel Aviv hawks and their fellow travellers, apologists and the many they confuse with their relentless propaganda are suggesting that the death of Arafat will see a renewal of efforts at resolving the Israeli-Conflict. Why the death of Arafat will bring peace when Sharon and his likes are still very much alive I do not know. Why is the US bent on imposing leaders on other peoples when they reject this in their own country and never dictate the same to Israel? Has it ever occurred to these people blinded by their greed for other people's land that their opposition to Yasser Arafat actually made him a matyr to Palestinians, Arabs and other admirers across the world? His humiliation became the humiliation of a people.

In Bush and Sharon's warped thinking the conflict is down to one man and now that he is out of the way everything should be looking good. One does not need rocket science to see the ruse in this type of argument. Yasser Arafat (with all the twists and turns in his long career as a freedom fighter) among Palestinians and all lovers of human freedom was more than just a man but the symbol of a struggle and the idea that human beings will always resist oppression no matter how difficult the situation. His physical demise will not mean the end of the dream and hope for freedom that he devoted all his life to.

In the pantheons of revolutionary icons Yasser Arafat is in the same class as Nelson Mandela although with different historical methods and outcome but one shared and abiding connection: triumph of hope over despair in search of human liberation. Arafat may not have lived long enough to see a liberated Palestine but that triumphal hour will come certainly in the life of his only daughter, nine year old Zahwa.

For many Africans the Palestinian struggle became twinned to the African struggle against apartheid and colonialism in South Africa and the rest of Africa. Today the Zionists have succeeded in penetrating many African countries (through Security and Intelligence establishments and also financial /commercial inducements). A consequence of this is the re-establishment of diplomatic relations for the state of Israel mostly broken for most of the 1970s and early 1980s. However in spite of the collusion of our state elites (especially insecure presidents who believe only MOSAD and Israeli mercenaries can protect them) the solidarity with Palestine continues to be popular among Africans. As a people who have known (continue to suffer) racism, discrimination, exploitation, extermination , occupation and humiliation on our own lands (past and present) the solidarity is instinctive and independent of whatever any Arab country is or is not doing and what our governments may or may not be up to.

The death of Arafat will not diminish this even if PLO offices have become almost extinct across the continent as Israeli embassies open up behind gilded barriers (like that of their biggest sponsors, USA). The PLO retains special status within the African Union (as it did in the old OAU), including Summits of Heads of State and Governments expressing the collective diplomatic and political position of Africans to stand firmly in support of the Palestinians.

To Chairman Arafat, we say ‘Go well to your maker, brave soldier, you tried your best and acquitted yourself as an unwavering strugglist. Even if your best did not bring freedom to your people in your lifetime, be rest assured that the Struggle continues and the Victory will be yours posthumously.’

Yasser has gone but the Palestinians remain to continue the struggle that he so valiantly served with total dedication. In death as in his life only moral cowards will be indifferent when they hear the name Yasser Arafat. And each time we mention the name Palestine comes to mind and vice versa too. Indeed the struggle was the man and the man was the struggle for a free Palestine.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

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