"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.

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?