The publication of this volume is part of the efforts of the Pan-African Programme on Land and Resource Rights to disseminate a uniquely African voice on matters of land and resource rights. The authors proceed from the understanding that poor Africans are critically dependent on land and other natural resources for survival, but their ability to access these necessities is hampered by inappropriate laws and policies as well as social, political and economic marginalisation.

Arts Council England wants to appoint someone to co-ordinate a range of projects that are being developed in association with the British Film Institute's Black World initiative. "Black World 2005 is a six-month national programme of seasons, events, workshops and critical debates to engage a diverse range of British communities, specifically trageting young people." There will be some project management, but this is primarily a development and liaison role. Time Period: November 2004 through October 2005, part time. Fee: £14,000, plus £1,000 expenses. To Apply: Please write and tell us why you're interested, indicating your relevant experience, along with a CV, by 28 October 2005.

On the fringes of the European Social Forum in London, people of African descent are holding their own conference - and discussing how Africa could benefit from their achievements. Suddenly Africa is wooing its exiles. Some of the continent's best brains, and deepest pockets are in London, Paris or New York, not in Lagos or Nairobi. Best estimates suggest that Africans working abroad send home some $45bn a year.

At the Conference of Intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora in Senegal, UNESCO deputy director in charge of Africa, Nouréni Tidjani-Serpos believes that with the evolution of information and communication technologies, intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora do not need to return home before contributing toward continental development. "It is now possible for members of the African Diaspora to use their knowledge to serve the continent without being physically present. You can, wherever you are, bring something to Africa," he encouraged. For information on the 1st Conference of Intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora:
http://www.panapress.com/dossindexlat.asp?code=eng054

The Kenyan Community Abroad will be holding its fifth Annual Conference and AGM in Nairobi from December 14th to 18th. This will be the first time that the Kenyan Diaspora is holding an event of this magnitude and pomp in Kenya. The event, dubbed the KCA homecoming 2004 will be held at the historic Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi. Being a first of its kind, the forum brings together 400 high caliber Kenyans from across the globe. Kenyan's abroad are ready to show what they are capable of and where they can add value.

In 1969 David Oluwale became the first black person to die in police custody in Britain. Many others have died since then. None of the police officers involved have been convicted of these deaths. In the documentary, Injustice, the families of these victims ask "Why not?". Injustice took seven years to produce and since its launch in July 2001 the police have tried to censor the film. Screenings are currently being held all over the UK.

The self-chosen prophet of the World's self-anointed 'Political God' (paraphrasing President Mugabe's recent blunt remarks at the UN General Assembly) otherwise known as Tony Blair, British Prime Minister, is on a mercy mission to Africa. Yesterday he was in Sudan to add whatever is left of British diplomatic and political pressures and his hugely depleted arsenal of personal influence on the Al Bashir regime to stop killing its own citizens. It is very difficult to know who the Khartoum government really responds to, therefore all kinds of pressure needs to be brought to bear from all corners. Why they would listen to Blair I don't know but it gives good footage for Blair's public at home who have become too suspicious of their Prime Minister.

From Sudan Tony moved on to Addis-Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia and head quarters of the African Union. He is attending a meeting of the Commission that he had set up to advise him on his missionary interest in Africa: Blair Commission for Africa.

It is very unAfrican not to show empathy to a man who had recently been hospitalized (Tony has just undergone a 'minor' heart operation) who cares so much about Africa that he did not put off this meeting even though people would have understood if he did. So I must say Pole, Bwana Blair! Karibu Afrika!

I hope the lights in the various rooms where he would be meeting his African hosts will be brightly lit and he would be putting on the best magnifying lenses that Her Majesty's Health service can provide so that he can distinguish between these Black people in suits! We would not want him to make the same 'mistake' as his hapless Foreign Minister, Jack Straw, who had shaken the hands of President Mugabe at the UN General Assembly apparently without realizing it was him! One would have thought that given the priority the British government had disproportionately given to encouraging 'regime change' in Zimbabwe and demonizing President Mugabe the British Foreign Minister will recognize him, lit room or unlit! Perhaps David Blunket, the British Home Office Secretary and enforcer of tough immigration rules and other authoritarian law and order regulations, is not the only member of the cabinet visually challenged. I am hoping that Mr. Blair, a great believer in spin that he is would have committed to memory the image of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, President Benjamin Mkapa, the ECA Executive Secretary, Dr KY Amoako and other eminent dark people on the Commission that he will be meeting. Maybe they could make it easier for him by wearing nametags!

The Addis meeting is the first the Commission is holding in Africa since Blair set it up. But holding this session in Africa does not detract from the cynicism that has continued to dodge this commission which many believe to be yet another liberal-do-gooder interventionism manufactured in Europe (London, or more precisely NO 10 Downing Street, in this case). Africans did not decide the agenda and terms of reference of the commission. Blair did not bother to ask many Africans if they wanted yet another Commission on the challenges of our development. If analysis, good intentions and promises alone can deliver, every African will be living in paradise. Why did Blair have to set up another Commission when he was one of the G8 leaders who had encouraged Mbeki and Obasanjo and the other so called Group of 5 African states to be running around with NEPAD (KNEEPAD to critics like me) from one G8 meeting to the other. The African leaders are still on their knees while Blair has removed his pad and has now moved on to his own Commission.

The initial cynicism by many was countered by supporters of Blair's missionary activities as too pessimistic and too hypercritical. They also point at the prospect of Britain and Blair (if he is still British Prime Minster) heading both the EU and the G8 next year as providing opportunity to put Africa at the center stage internationally.

I have no doubt that in his own way Blair does care about Africa (after all did he not declare us 'a scar on the conscience of the world' in a famous triumphalist Labour party conference speech a few years ago). It is what that care translates into that worries me. Does he care more for African children and women than he does for those Iraqis that he and his American gangster boss, Bush, are killing everyday in the name of liberation? It should worry us that his tunnel vision of the world is being transplanted on to Africa. This is a man who believes that he is always right and even when he is proven to have lied or be mistaken he (allegedly the most openly religious Prime Minister in modern British politics) is unwilling to say sorry, let alone show remorse and ask for forgiveness. To be fair, many Africans will recognise that 'know all' mentality in many of our own dealers who like to call themselves leaders across this continent.

Therefore even if one is to suspend disbelief for the time being and give the Blair Commission a hearing because it is coming from Blair, the credibility deficit will not go away. Why should Africans and the rest of the world believe in the innate goodness and honest motives of a Prime Minister distrusted by his own party and country? The messenger has become the message.

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

In 1841, the slave ship Trouvadore was lost on a coral reef in the Turks and Caicos Islands, 500 miles south-east of Miami. The slaves, who were bound for Cuba, survived and settled in the British colony, founding Bambarra, a village with an African name. Tim Ecott joined in an expedition which may allow modern-day islanders to trace their heritage back to West Africa. Like most people descended from slaves, the "Belongers" know little of their true history.

Dr. Varela, 28, graduated from medical school two years ago. Of the 25 members of his class, he is one of only three working in Malawi's desperate public-health system as the rest have either already left for foreign posts, or on their way abroad. African governments have been complaining for years about the "poaching" of their doctors and nurses, who are lured abroad to better-paying jobs in less crowded hospitals, and the issue has become a topic of serious debate in the health-care field.

South Africans living abroad and at home are more confident about the country's future, and many South African expatriates are showing increasing interest in owning properties back home. A South African real estate group says this reflects a growing trend among those either wishing to invest in residential property back home or planning to return home in the future.

On Friday, October 8, 2004, Power & Press Freedom in Liberia, 1830-1970: The Impact of Globalization and Civil Society on Media-Government Relations by Carl Patrick Burrowes (2004) will be presented and discussed in Washington, DC. The Writers' Corner provides a forum for prominent authors to debut their most current works on issues pertaining to Africa and the Diaspora.

Ghanaians in The Netherlands have hailed a ruling by the Dutch Supreme Court (Raad van State) terminating exhaustive verification of documents tendered for legalization at the Dutch Embassy in Accra. The court presided by a former Justice minister mr. E. M. H. Hirsch Ballin ruled on two separate cases that the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs is only mandated to check the authenticity of the signature or stamp on the document and not the contents.

Conference on migration opens
Accra Sept. 14, GNA - Ghanaian missions abroad are currently in the process of preparing a comprehensive list of Ghanaian professionals abroad as part of moves to assemble the necessary database to tap their skills and experiences. President John Agyekum Kufuor who announced this said the government has initiated various programmes to help transfer resources and skills from such professional for the development of the country. In a speech read for him at the opening of a two-day conference on Migration and Development in Ghana, the President said: "it will not be possible for this or any government anywhere in the world to stop the migration of its citizens."

"What will be necessary is to evolve various mechanisms, which will make it possible for migration, especially of skilled personnel who have been trained at great expense to be taken in an orderly manner." The President said: "migration is an important policy issue that needs to be managed effectively to enable Ghana tap into the financial resources and skills of non-resident Ghanaians."

The President said a bill was "currently before Parliament to give greater constitutional recognition to Ghanaians in the Diaspora so that they can equally exercise their basic citizenship rights of taking part in the process of electing the government of their country." "We are exploring with other bilateral partners ways in which we can assist in the return of non-resident Ghanaians for varying periods of time to assist with our national development." President Kufuor urged participants to come up with important policies and recommendations to help the country address the problems associated with migration.

The conference would be exploring the multi-faceted issues related to migration and development within the context of the economic and social development of Ghana. It is a partnership initiative between the United Nations Development Programme, Institute of African Studies and the Royal Netherlands Embassy meant to tackle the various challenges associated with migration. The conference would also try to discover the linkages between migration and development and to ensure that migration becomes mutually beneficial to the sending as well as receiving countries.

Mr Alfred Sallia Fawundu, UN Resident Representative in Ghana said there were both positive and negatives sides of migration involving remittances sent form lands from far away to families, friends and other loved ones and the utilization of those monies as part of the survival strategies of the recipient. "In another instance, it brings to mind the brain drain and the spectre of depletion of trained and qualified human resources for development" he added. Mr Fawundu said migration seemed to have significant cultural, socio-economic and political implications, not only for the migrants but also for their respective countries of birth and settlements. According to him, conflicts and wars brought about asylum seekers, and various socio-economic factors closely linked with underdevelopment with serious implications.

Mr. Fawundu said Ghana and other African countries should find ways of striking a balance between the benefits of migration as a survival strategy for people and imperatives of national development. Mr. Arie van der Wiel, the Netherlands Ambassador to Ghana, said governments of migrants and recipient countries must be responsible for addressing the problems of illegal migration together. The Okyenhene, Nana Amoatia Ofori Panyin, who chaired the function, called for greater efforts in addressing the problems of underdevelopment to stem the tide of migration.

In the 1970s, the University of Minnesota's History of African Peoples course had the largest enrollment of any other course like it in the country. "That program today is on life support," said John Wright, assistant professor in the department of African American Studies. "It appears that fewer Black students are encouraged to consider it [African American Studies] as a career option, despite the reality that there are solid professional careers in higher education," he said.

When in 2002 the crumbling Moi and KANU regime in Kenya nominated, with obvious orchestration from President MOI (a.k.a. MY OWN INTEREST), the son of the former founding President, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, as its presidential candidate, I was one of many outside observers who commented that the old Fox was desperate and desperately hanging unto any straws.

Uhuru, the anointed one, was a relative new comer to Kenyan politics and had nothing going for him other than his surname. His first foray into politics was both a personal disaster and comeuppance to Moi/KANU for taking the loyalty of Kenyan voters for granted assuming that the people of Gatundu, the Kenyatta constituency, will vote for anybody or anything, for that matter as long as Kenyatta was the last name. In 1997 Uhuru contested and lost most embarrassingly to a relatively unknown Nairobi architect, Mwihia, in a great electoral upset. Many felt that Uhuru’s political end came from the beginning and predicted his sunset before it even rose.

To choose someone who could not even deliver his father’s feudal estate as a presidential candidate, five years later, was indeed a sign of desperation. Needless to say that Uhuru and KANU deservingly lost that election to an overwhelming desire for democratic change by Kenyans that produced the current multiparty alliance government led by President Mwai Kibaki.

Not a few analysts and observers thought that the unwilling politician (pressed by family, Moi and KANU interests) that Uhuru was he would gracefully retire from politics and go back to the family business that he understood better. But he has hung on and he seems to be gaining both in confidence and acquiring personal political credibility that may yet make him a viable alternative leader for the country. Thanks to the unbridled ambitions of various fat egos in the NARC alliance the Kibaki government is virtually in paralysis and is increasingly forced to rely on KANU direct or indirect support to thwart his alliance partners. The exasperation of the jubilant and triumphalist electorate of 2002 is such that many are beginning to look back at KANU years as probably ‘not too bad after all’. Even those who will not go that far may say with extreme despair that ‘this is not what we expected’ and some will even argue that ‘the new lot are as bad as KANU’. Politics of despair works in favour of a shrewd opposition. Since most of the big parties are in the governing alliance this leaves KANU as the only credible formal political opposition. Uhuru accepted his defeat most gracefully and one must say that even Moi disengaged himself in a surprisingly dignified way much to the pleasant surprise of many critics who thought that the Old man would not go out peacefully. Since 2002 Uhuru seemed to have been putting his personal stamp and authority on KANU in a moderate reform agenda to ease out the Old guard, exorcise Moi’s ghost and also show Kenyans that he is much more than just his illustrious surname.

Take his recent frank statement to a KANU meeting apologising to Kenyans for the mistakes and wrongs done by KANU in its 40 years strangle hold on the politics, economy and society of Kenya. According to a BBC report ‘Mr Kenyatta noted a long list of acts KANU could be held responsible for. These included the repression of opposition activists, the lack of government accountability and politically motivated tribal clashes’. Quoting Uhuru directly: "I offer my most sincere apology to all Kenyans for mistakes made during the tenure of our party and call upon our members to join in this apology,"

How many politicians on this continent will be this humble and honest? Would a Babangida in Nigeria who robbed and ruined the country for 8 years and is now clamouring to return to finish his demolition job be contrite enough to say ‘sorry’? Someone who annulled a democratic election and has never explained to the public is now hoping to bribe his way back to power through democracy without remorse or shame or even sense of irony! 10 years after Genocide in Rwanda many MRND leaders and their allies in the clergy and other apologists continue to deny the Genocide and despite many of them professing religious faith have never expressed remorse let alone ask for forgiveness. IN Uganda how many of those anti Museveni Multi partyists who are rightly criticising the government and struggling against its growing excesses have ever taken the time to accept their own past responsibilities?

The queries are endless about the lack of political responsibility by both government and opposition in Africa. Many of our Opposition politicians think all they have to do is just oppose. But the opposition of today could be the government of tomorrow or in some cases were the government of yesterday. What kind of democracy is it that we are trying to build where governments (previous, present or future) do no wrong?

Uhuru’s honest confrontation with the ghosts of KANU past, whatever his motivations, is a breath of fresh air.

I disagree with him when in the same meeting he reportedly insisted that the responsibility is not collective. Politically it was a party based regime therefore KANU cannot claim successes without owning up to the failures too. However I am in full agreement with him in his "… call upon all individuals - present or past... responsible for those acts and omissions which so much aggrieved Kenyans to publicly own up, offer their individual apologies and seek forgiveness from the people of Kenya," How many politicians in government and outside of government will take up the challenge for political responsibility for their actions or inactions?

According to the European Union's profile of Ghana, one-third of the 3 million Ghanaians who live abroad, are in either Europe or North America. According to Netherlands Ambassador to Ghana, Mr. Arie Van Der Wiel, many Ghanaian migrants find their way to their final destinations illegally and are therefore vulnerable to exploitation by migrant traffickers and some employers.

The Pan-African Parliament(PAP) opens an historic session in South Africa, bringing together for the first time elected representatives from Algiers to Antananarivo for debate on African issues. It has 265 members, five from each of the 53 countries. Each delegation must reflect the political diversity of the countries, meaning that members of the opposition must also be included.

"I will create a desk in both the President's Office and Foreign Affairs to coordinate the affairs of Ugandans in the diaspora. I am studying the question of parliamentary representation...and any other areas of Ugandan concentration in the diaspora. On the strategic issues the Movement has been facing." This is according to a recent speech by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

Last week in Nairobi at a summit of the leaders of the East African Community (EAC) countries the envisaged political federation of the region was given a new push. A committee has been set up to look at the modalities and submit its report to an ordinary summit of the leaders to be held November 30 this year.

This is a landmark progressive development with implications for other regions of Africa (ECOWAS, SADC, IGADD, etc) and the whole of Africa through the African Union. It is a good example that should spread and do so quickly. Unfortunately the media in the region and outside of it are not giving the matter the due consideration it deserves.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, a firm believer in the federation, was so incensed by the media's lukewarm attitude that he branded Ugandan journalism and journalists 'useless' for not giving proper coverage to the issue. As a freelance member of the profession I will not go as far as the president who is not known for saying 'room for improvement ' where 'very bad' will fit. I don't think the local media is 'useless' instead I will say that it suffers from two serious (but politically curable) diseases: petty localism and external ideological dependence.

One makes it grab as headlines any local issues no matter how silly. The other makes it victim of 'download the downloadable' from the internet about any other issues that are an 'inch' outside the national boundaries and even more embarrassingly sometimes, national issues outside of the capital city!

In the 1960s the former British colonies of East Africa through the East African Community (EAC) were a beacon of regional integration envied by other regions, not just in Africa but even internationally. This was a period of nationhood and nationalism as former colonies asserted their right to govern themselves and exercise sovereignty over their affairs. Supranational organisations that required loss of sovereignty were not popular. In practice they operated as multilateral bodies cooperating on specified issues rather than integration agencies.

The late AM Babu, a radical icon in African Nationalism from Zanzibar and later a minister for Economic Development in Tanzania after his small island country was united with mainland Tanzania in the mid 1960s, used to reminisce about the early years of the East African Federation and the Pan Africanist dreams that inspired many of them in those days. He told us how ministers from the West European countries used to ask him and his colleagues how they were managing their federation without too much squabbles. These were days when the European Union was little more than a trading cartel around steel. By that time the EAC already had a common educational system and university, a common airline, and a communications and transport system.

Unfortunately, as the crisis of neocolonialism deepened across Africa the real gains of the union, rather than be a continuing source of further integration, became victim of bad politics and governance leading to its break up in the 70s. But even after its break up the remnants of the federation, in spite of division of assets, survived through infrastructure, both human and material. For instance telephones between the three countries remained local but more than this trade, commerce and movement of people have continued to defy the colonial boundaries and the internecine power struggles between the leaders over many years.

Indeed the political instability of a country like Uganda for most of the 70s up to the mid 1980s and Kenya in the Moi years succeeded in creating new regionally aware people who have had to live outside their countries among their neighbours. Many of the leaders were educated in each other's countries and therefore made friends across the region. This people to people contact and the force of interactive economic activities ensured that regionalism continued to survive in spite of the state elite. For instance Museveni remains popular in Tanzania especially in his old University of Dar es Salaam whereas Tanzania’s Benjamin Mkapa is more popular at Makere University. Many of the political leaders and activists were contemporaries at these universities.

After the overthrow of Idi Amin in 1979 mostly through the efforts of the Tanzania Army and Ugandan exile groups based in Tanzania it was hoped that EAC would return to its glory days. But those were times when Kenya was a cold war darling of the West and had delusions of surviving and doing better than her neighbours. So ideological suspicions did not help rebuild the Union. The Obote 2 regime was also too unstable internally to be a credible regional player.

However with relative stability returning to Uganda from the late 80s under Museveni the idea of a renewed EAC began to flourish. Moi's Kenya, though the regional economic power with more to gain from further integration, remained suspicious of its neighbours and for much of the 80s and early 90s Kenya's reluctance slowed the movement back to integration. But Kenya was fast losing its 'oasis in an ocean of crisis' status as Uganda under Museveni became a new darling of the West with Aid money and 'generous' IMF/World Bank facilities turning the once basket case of Africa into another 'miracle'.

At the same time the pressures of globalisation were beginning to take their toll just as the cold war was thawing after the collapse of the Eastern bloc. Like in all regions of the world the East African states were being driven by the forces of economic necessity in a predatory globalisation to move closer to each other. Consequently ideological and political suspicions were thrown aside as new efforts took place to restart the romance long suspended between the states. This culminated in the East African Cooperation treaty.

By this time Museveni's revolutionism that Moi had feared had become an economic counter-revolution with vestiges of his revolutionary past only surviving in his no party movement politics. Tanzania had also abandoned its Uhuru Na Ujama as privatization took roots and historical anti capitalist ideology of the country turned against collectivist solutions deemed socialist. The economic convergence of the states made it easier for them to see and deepen their integration efforts. Collective survival dictates the tempo.

There were cautious steps initially in order to avoid problems of the past and rebuild bridges but progress has been incremental since the late 1990s. The EAC has a parliament appointed from among elected legislatures in all the three countries. It has agreed to set up an East African court. It has signed Custom Union agreements and has a timetable for a common market and monetary Union. The final bloc in its regional integration efforts is a political federation of the states. It has also set conditions under which other states in the region can ascend, to membership. Rwanda, after its elections last year, should not have any obstacles in its ascension to full membership. If Burundi's peace process culminates in an elected government acceptable to the people it should also be able to gain full membership.

The bigger prize should have been the DRC but in the current circumstances one has grave doubts. However some of its regions, especially the volatile Eastern region, are culturally and economically part of the EAC therefore some real politic will be needed to accommodate that reality.

Uganda, that was the bane of the old EAC, has been very upfront and almost impatient in the current drive. In a twist to history, Tanzania that has been the home to both regionalism and Pan Africanism in the region, later became the one slowing down things. This was mainly due to the relative weakness of its emergent bourgeois interests who feared that Kenya capitalists would swallow them up.

There are many challenges ahead but regional federation is indispensable for a Pan African Union envisaged by the Constitutive Act of the African Union.

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

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Due to the humanitarian crisis currently occurring in Darfur, Sudan, the country has been in the headlines recently. Ten years ago, the decade old civil war between the Arab-dominated government in the north and the Christian and animist south caused thousands of children to flee to safety. Although the fighting is over, the children who were brought to the United States five years ago as the Lost Boys and Lost Girls of Sudan, continue to struggle in their new home.