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

* Please send comments to

What is hindering most of the African Elites in the Diaspora from returning home to contribute to the development of their various countries?
What is the future of the continent (AFRICA) when even those sponsored to study abroad refuse to return home to contribute their quota to the development process of their various countries?

"The worst possible outcome of Tuesday’s election would have been that George Bush won with the help of a divided Black electorate. Instead, African Americans reaffirmed the vitality of the Black Political Consensus – our eyes firmly fixed on the prize: peace, jobs and justice. Undeterred by disinformation that insanely (or maybe just inanely) predicted a doubling of Black support for Bush, African Americans placed their numbers and sheer will in the path of the Bush II juggernaut. It rolled over us, by fair means and foul, but our Consensus – the impermeable historical glue that makes African Americans unique in the Diaspora – remained intact."

The African Foundation for Development (AFFORD) has initiated Opportunity Africa, a project to provide a gateway to Africa-related careers, training & education for young people of African descent in the UK. Opportunity Africa’s purpose is to enhance the skills base and job preparedness of young Africans in London for the world of international/Africa-related work.

"The bodies had been whisked away but the dried pool of blood covering the dirt-floor dead end of a twisting alley was a chilling sign of what happened here last week. Residents in the National Fort district, which like most of Port-au-Prince's slums is a bastion of support for former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, gathered around the darkening blood the following day. Some, who were afraid to give their names, said policemen wearing black masks had shot and killed 12 people, then dragged their bodies away. At least three families have identified the bodies of relatives at the mortuary; others who have loved ones missing fear the worst."

"I think that support for Bush for this group of African Americans boils down to the issues of same sex marriage and abortion. This additional support will do little to turn the tide in Bush's favor because it is anticipated that voters aged 18-25 will turn out in record numbers. This group of younger voters almost overwhelmingly support Kerry." Join the debate on www.africana.com about reports that support for George W.Bush amongst African Americans has doubled.

Today the United Nation’s General Assembly will be voting again on an issue concerning Cuba, as it has done for almost four decades now. The subject is the continuing blockade of the small Caribbean socialist nation by its bullying neighbour, the lone superpower (some will say hyper power).

The Assembly will undoubtedly call for the end to this punitive measure on Cuba by the US, not for any act of aggression or intent to do so, but just because Cuba has dared not to organise its society along the cut-throat vulture capitalism of its neighbour. For daring to imagine different worlds, successive US governments since the early 1960s have sought both to eliminate Fidel Castro and destroy Cuba’s socialism. In an enduring victory for common peoples across the world, the big guys have never won in this case!

Before the revolution of 1959 Cuba was a playground to the US. A combination of ideologically driven obsession with regime change in Cuba and nostalgia for US hegemony in the country fuelled by the powerful Cuban-American interests in the state of Florida in particular and across the US has meant that a rational debate on what threat, if any, this small island posed to the US has been almost impossible.

One does not expect that in an election year in which all opinion polls and forecasts predict a very close run between the incumbent hawkish Republican Bushman and his patrician democrat rival, reason can prevail on America’s negative policies against Cuba.

The rest of the world has no vote in the US elections even though its outcome has grave implications for all of us. However, all of us do have a voice in the United Nations even if the UN is a pejorative nomenclature inside the US. That voice should be used to restate again to the US that it cannot claim global leadership and at the same time defy global consensus and civilised standards. It cannot give itself the role of global Sheriff and act like a rogue.

Bush may have cowed many countries and peoples into quiet acquiescence in his irresponsible behaviour internationally but there is a growing concern at its exercise of power without responsibility both within America itself and internationally. The vast majority of the peoples of the world must use today’s vote on the illegal blockade on Cuba to yet again demonstrate to the US that the rest of us will have our say and exercise our right not to be colluders in US brigandage.

The usual suspect client states of the US, most notably Israel, will vote against the censure resolution while most countries of the world will vote for it. A small number may even abstain. Some African countries (a very small minority I am happy to say) in recent years have chosen, out of fear or misplaced loyalties or even diplomatic incompetence by officials, to abstain. Abstinence on such an issue is voting along with US bullying of Cuba.

Unfortunately, Uganda was one of those few African countries that abstained in last year’s vote despite assurances from the highest level to the contrary. Not long ago President Museveni bravely admitted in public that he was hoodwinked by Bush on Iraq and regretted the mistake in supporting the illegal occupation of the country. He needs to correct another US related diplomatic mistake by causing Uganda’s ambassador to the UN to vote in support of the UN resolution calling for an end to the blockade against Cuba.

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

* Please send comments to

Since its inception 17 years ago, Black History Month UK (BHM) has become an important feature on the British calendar and an invaluable way of showcasing the contributions that Africans and people of African descent have made to world civilization. The celebration goes a long way to rectify the popular belief that Africans have no history.

Scheduled to open in the summer of 2005, San Francisco's Museum of the African Diaspora aims to explore and celebrate the history, culture and contributions of African-descended people around the world. "The goal of the museum is to connect people to the stories and experiences of the African diaspora, through exhibitions, presentations, workshops and other activities,'' said Patricia Johnson, the museum's executive director.