Highlighting the persistent divisions in educational opportunity at the heart of the South African schooling system, Neville Alexander outlines a new direction based on the equitable distribution of opportunities for children, a more widespread culture of learning, and adequate institutional support for teaching staff.

With rapidly increasing urban populations, cities in Africa are faced with enormous challenges and will have to find ways to facilitate by 2015 urban services, livelihoods and housing for more than twice as many urban dwellers than it has today. A worrying trend with the African urbanization process is that it is a process rooted in poverty rather than an industrialization-induced socio-economic transition as in other major world urban regions.

This is a Call for Papers on “Political Culture, Governance and the State in Africa”, to be discussed at a DPMF Conference at the end of February 2009 in Nairobi, Kenya. Papers must reach DPMF by 20th December, 2008. A review committee will select papers to be presented at the conference. DPMF will invite to the conference writers of the selected papers and will cover their fare and accommodation. Papers should be emailed to Christine Wangari at: - [email][email protected]

Nearly 15 years since apartheid ended, millions of black South Africans still live in self-built shacks – without sanitation, adequate water supplies, or electricity.

But A Place in the City will overturn all your assumptions about ‘slums’ and the people who live in them.

In this film, shot in the vast shack settlements in and around Durban, members of , the grassroots shackdwellers’ movement, lay out their case – against forcible eviction; for decent services – with passion, eloquence, and sweet reason. The film captures the horrible conditions in which shackdwellers live – but it also captures Abahlali’s bravery and resilience, in a political climate where grassroots campaigners like them are more likely to be met with rubber bullets than with offers to talk.

‘For the first time now’, says S’bu Zikode, Abahlali’s elected leader, ‘poor people have started to speak for themselves. Now, that challenges those who are paid to think for us – who are paid to speak for us.’

At the heart of Abahlali’s struggle is the struggle for meaningful citizenship rights for South Africa’s poor majority. ‘Or does freedom in South Africa,’ asks Abahlali volunteer organiser Louisa Motha, ‘only belong to the rich?’
Made with assistance from Fahamu – Networks for Social Justice through a grant from TrustAfrica.

Edited at VET, Hoxton Square, London
Editor: Duncan Harris
Filmed, produced and directed by Jenny Morgan
© Grey Street Films 2008

Available on DVD: Fahamu ISBN: 978-1-906387-41-9 A place in the city. Profits go to Abahlali and towards production of multiple language versions.

Soliya CEC is an educational services company based in Cairo, Egypt. Soliya uses the latest in Internet and communication technologies to bridge the divide between the "West" and the "Arab & Muslim World". Soliya is looking to hire a Program Coordinator based in Cairo who would play a key role in implementing the Soliya Connect Program and Continued Engagement Activities.

The Government of Liberia, working in cooperation with the John Snow, Inc. Research and Training Institute (JSI R&T) and the Center for Global Development (CGD), is seeking young professionals to serve as Fellows working in various Ministries in Liberia for one year beginning in February 2009. The role of the Fellow will be to provide senior Liberian government officials with effective support in the realms of policy, speechwriting, ministerial coordination and administration (particularly in areas related to economics and finance).

The Government of Liberia, working in cooperation with the John Snow, Inc. Research and Training Institute (JSI R&T) and the Center for Global Development (CGD), is seeking a young professional with a strong legal background to serve as a Law Fellow working in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in Liberia for one year beginning in February 2009. The role of the Fellow will be to provide timely and effective support in a wide range of areas to senior officials in Liberia’s Ministry of Justice. The Law Fellow will work primarily to promote positive change in the Liberian legal and policy landscape.

Zimbabwe’s educational system is now in the morgue. The state of our education system is clear testimony to how self-destructive Zimbabwe has become. In a word, Zimbabwe is structurally deficient and in a desperate need for repair and construction.

Twaweza, meaning "we can make it happen" in Swahili, is a newly established ten-year initiative that seeks to enable people in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to improve their quality of life through a bold, citizen-centered approach to information access and public accountability. Twaweza's core purpose is to enable millions of ordinary citizens in East Africa. Twawea is looking for unusually creative, capable and committed people for the a number of posts.

The 2nd World Congress on Agroforestry will assess opportunities to leverage scientific agroforestry in promoting sustainable land use worldwide. The Congress will serve as a forum for agroforestry researchers, educators, practitioners and policy makers from around the world. We encourage you to submit your abstracts and participate in the conference that will be held in Nairobi (Kenya), from the 23rd to the 28th of August 2009. Deadline for abstracts is 30 November 2008.

Never before has the question of peace and security been more pertinent on the African continent. The increasing militarization of Africa through external and internal forces as well as the rise of unstable democratic arrangements that have disallowed opportunities for expression of dissent and the exercise of freedoms is an indicator of the increasing need for this discourse.

The Board of Directors of UAF-A announces with pleasure and excitement, the appointment of Ms. Jessica Nkuuhe as our new Executive Director. Ms. Nkuuhe will succeed our founder director Ms. Kaari Betty Murungi. Jessica will take over this responsibility on March 1, 2009.

The All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) is inviting Media houses to the largest gathering of the African Church who, together with the Civil Society, will meet in Maputo, Mozambique from 7-12 December, 2008 under the auspices of the AACC 9th General Assembly whose theme will be Africa, Step Forth in Faith.

The 4th WAAD interdisciplinary conference will provide opportunities for constituencies inside and outside the academy—researchers, academicians, practitioners, policy makers, professionals, and students from various disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, pure and applied sciences, professional schools, etc.—to discuss the education of women and girls in Africa and the African Diaspora and explore its relationship to sustainable development in a rapidly globalizing, complex world.

The Chinese Society of African Historical Studies in collaboration with Shanxi University’s School of History and Culture organised a symposium under the theme: Sino-African Relations and the Contemporary World, in Taiyuan on October 15-18, 2008. The Sino-African symposium was of particular importance because it broadened the scope of the society’s activities compared to similar events in the past. It brought together more than 120 participants, including Chinese academics and, for the first time, two African scholars and ten African students in China.

This special issue will focus on the nature of Chinese-Commonwealth relations and the function China is playing in the political and economic development of countries in Africa, South East Asia, and the Caribbean. Contributions are sought on topics such as: the threats to good governance and human rights as a result of China’s policy of ‘non-interference’ in the affairs of foreign states, the economic opportunities and risks of Chinese engagement, the role of the Chinese diaspora, the influence of Chinese-Commonwealth cooperation on the international stage, the views within the Commonwealth of greater Chinese engagement, and the external responses to the deepening relationship. Papers can incorporate specific countries, regions, sectors and/or themes.

Angola is currently experiencing a post-war construction boom, funded largely by the proceeds of its oil exports. Most of the foreign investment is from firms in China, Portugal, Brazil, and South Africa; however, recently there has been something of a scramble as European countries look to capitalise on the perceived opportunities. There is huge demand for housing and transport infrastructure, as well as considerable potential for the development of a hydro-electricity industry.

Under normal circumstances, 14-year-old Paul Katana would be in school, but not today. Katana is instead flagging down vehicles along the Mombasa-Malindi highway, hoping to sell sacks of charcoal he is hawking. About 2km down the road, a young boy watches over his mother's goats, while another is hawking brooms.

Fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has forced most schools in Rutshuru territory to close, leaving an estimated 150,000 children out of class, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said. "Most children have been displaced," Jaya Murthy, UNICEF communications specialist, told IRIN. "Other children are in the area but unable to attend school."

Miriam makeba was an icon who used music to serve Africa and the cause of humanity. The ancestors would be pleased to receive her as a worthy daughter who gave her best. She lived through apartheid, fought it and survived to see a liberated multiracial dsemocratic state, was part of the liberation wars against colonialism across Africa and civil rights in America and she dies after the election of the first Black person to be president of the USA. She will have a lot to report to the ancestors. And how proud they will be that she was on the right side of all these struggles. Go well, Mama Afrika, your memory is forever green and your music everlasting.