Filipino academic and activist Walden Bello has been named the Outstanding Public Scholar of 2008 by the International Political Economy section of the International Studies Association (ISA). He will receive the award at the group’s annual convention to be held in San Francisco, California from March 26-29, 2008. Special events honoring Bello include a panel on his work on Thursday March 27, 2008 during the annual meeting. On Friday evening, March 28, Bello will join other scholar activists in speaking at a public event at City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Ave, in San Francisco, co-sponsored by Routledge, Taylor & Francis Press.

This article in Human Resources for Health journal presents data on the extent of African health workers’ working in developed countries. It uses destination-country census data to estimate the number of African-born doctors and professional nurses working abroad in the year 2000, and compares this to the stocks of these workers in each country of origin. The paper finds that approximately 35,000 African-born physicians and 70,000 African-born professional nurses were working overseas in a developed country in the year 2000.

Alois Mufundisi, a media professional, earns 200 million Zimbabwean dollars, about 50 U.S. dollars on the thriving parallel market. On paper this amount appears huge, but in real terms it is just enough to buy essential foodstuffs for half a month. He is barely able to keep his three children in school. Seven years ago he could manage without any problem. Now he has to do private jobs to supplement his income.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on Ugandan authorities to put an end to the harassment of journalists in the country after five journalists and editors of the privately-owned Daily Monitor newspaper were charged with defamation after they published stories alleging the government’s Inspector General is involved in a salary scam.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the Institute for African Studies of the Mohammed V-Souissi University are pleased to announce the organisation of an international conference on Academic Freedom and Higher Education Reforms in North Africa in Rabat, Morocco, from 27-28 March 2008.

One of the most important vehicles by which CODESRIA has sought to mobilise national-level research capacities and to channel these into organised reflections has been the National Working Groups (NWGs) which it has encouraged African researchers to organise autonomously on priority themes of their choice. The Council invites proposals for the constitution of NWGs under the 2008 competition for the research grants that are available.

As part of a new UNRISD Fellowship Programme for Researchers from Developing Countries, UNRISD invites applications from African social science scholars, based at an African research institution. The visiting fellows would spend 9 to 12 months working at UNRISD in Geneva. Successful applicants should be engaged in innovative research in the field of Social Policy in Africa. At UNRISD they will continue research in this area, prepare a paper for publication under the UNRISD Programme Paper series and develop ideas for future research.

This document published by the Forced Migration Studies Programme, University of the Witwatersrand, examines South Africa’s response to people fleeing from political crises and economic deprivation in one of its immediate neighbours. It also tests prominent claims made about the nature and scope of migration. The authors conclude that the South African government, media, and civil society should dedicate the material and intellectual resources necessary to develop a human and effective response to the continued arrival of Zimbabweans in South Africa.

According to media reports, the Kenyan Police has used tear gas and live ammunition to fire on the crowds with at least 12 deaths reported in Nairobi and Kisumu. This has led to security restrictions on aid and staff movements hindering assessments and response for most of the week.

Talking compounds is a project aimed at mobilising communities, especially school going children, to identify development issues and concerns in their communities. This year's project to be held in Uganda will involve six International and six Ugandan artists. It will be held between the months of March-April 2008. The artists will attend a monthly market day, visit homes, conduct activities with schools, health centers, administrative units and group excursions. Interested artists please send your application to [email][email protected] not later than 31 January 2008.

On 12 December 2007 – Kenya’s independence day – the Kenya national museums of Kenya decided to paint all its buildings in its corporate colours. That included painting over a landmark mural, that for a year had become one of the main attractions of the museum. Painting of the mural, sponsored by Africancolours, was done by a host of renowned Kenyan artists. A heritage professional, Dr Gonda Geets, who arrived at the museum as the wall with the mural was being painted tried to no avail to stop the destruction of the mural.

A recent seminar held by the Zimbabwean Visual Arts Association revealed that many of the Zimbabwean visual artists hardly use the internet as a way of promoting their artwork to overseas buyers. Fortunately web initiatives such as African Colours (http://www.africancolours.net/) try to fill that gap and offer the possibility to upcoming and confirmed visual artists to showcase their work for a very low fee.

The Network of People living with HIV and AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN) is the umbrella body that coordinates and administers all organizations, associations and support groups of persons living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. NEPWHAN is inviting applications from qualified candidates for the position of Project Accountant. All applications must be received by the 27th of January.

This is the full report of the conference “Promoting Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in Nigeria” which held on the 21 November, 2007 at the University of Calabar Hotel and Conference Centre, Calabar, Nigeria. The conference was organized by the Community Research and Development Centre (CREDC), with support from the Global Greengrants Funds (GGF) and the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) to create awareness on renewable energy and energy efficiency in Nigeria; and to enhance stakeholders’ capacity to advocate for renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Kenyans for Peace, Truth, Justice have received alarming reports from human rights monitors in Nairobi’s low-income areas, who have reported that local political leaders are mobilising gangs of youth to deter attendance to the rallies called by the Orange Democratic Movement on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

“The 2007 post election skirmishes is just a culmination of sustained tension in the community but the extent and impact of damage, looting, raping, sodomy, eviction and killing has never been witnessed before. The country was hosting three presidential candidates from three ethnic tribes Luo, Kamba and Kikuyu. Political tension and envisioned ethnic conflicts was certainly predicted as this was the most hotly contested election in the history of Kenya.

The success of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme which aims to provide free education to every child in Nigeria caused the number of primary school leavers to more than double in 2007, creating a backlog that the secondary education system is struggling to cope with. Over 49,000 children in the northern Nigeria city of Kano who completed primary school in 2006 and wish to attend secondary school may not be admitted due to a severe shortage of trained teachers and classrooms.

The government of Botswana announced yesterday that two cases of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB) have been identified in the country. They are the first cases to be reported in sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa. Two patients with XDR TB have been quarantined at the Princess Marina Hospital in Gabarone.

Maurice Carney analyses the recently-concluded review of Congo's mining contracts and the significance of this process in safeguarding the country's considerable mineral wealth

On par with a resolution to the current conflict in the northeast of the Congo is the mining review process that the Congolese government announced in April 2007. The government initiated a review of some 60 odd mining contracts, established during the period of conflict (1996 – 2002) and the transition (2003 – 2006). The review offers an opportunity for the Congolese government to stop the systematic looting of the Congo. The review is now complete but the government has yet to publish the results. In spite of repeated requests and pressure from civil society to make the review process transparent, the government has kept the process shrouded in secrecy. In early November, the Congolese newspaper, Le Phare [1] published what it claimed to be leaked results of the review, which stated that many of the contracts would be renegotiated or outright cancelled. Reuters [2] also reported that it saw preliminary reports that called for 61 mining contracts to be renegotiated or cancelled. The impact of these news reports was swift and global in scope; publicly traded mining companies with interests in the Congo on the London, Toronto and New York stock exchanges experienced a sudden drop in their stock prices. This provided some insight into the significance of Congo’s resources to investors in the West. Moreover, it begins to explain in part why the Congo, probably more than any other African nation, has been subjected to repeated external intervention. Kwame Nkrumah stated as much in his Challenge of Congo, [3] when he observed that the Congolese peoples’ struggle is both an internal and external one. The forces arrayed against the Congolese are enormous and global in scope. Foreign governments, global mining conglomerates, multi-lateral institutions and local elites all work in concert to control Congo’s fabulous wealth in perpetuity.

Watchdog groups such as Global Witness estimate that 70 percent of Congo’s copper wealth may already by sold-off to foreign mining companies without little discernible benefit to the Congolese people [4]. Billions of dollars have been raised in the financial markets of London, New York and Toronto while the Congolese people suffer from crushing poverty and debilitating and incessant conflict.

According to the Canadian Journal Corporate Knights, some companies stand to gain spectacular wealth at the expense of the Congolese people. Tenke Mining from Canada, who recently merged with the Lundin Group, also from Canada acquired the Tenke Fungurume concession for just $15 million. The mine is reputed to be valued at $60-billion and contains the largest and highest grade of undeveloped copper cobalt deposits in the world [5]. American mining giant Phelps-Dodge, recently bought out by Freeport McMoRan, also has ownership in the Tenke Fungurume deposits. In spite of reports by human rights groups that the contracts around Tenke Fungurume represent one of the most odious in the Congo, the United States government Overseas Private Investment Corporation recently provided risk insurance for Freeport McMoRan’s billion dollar Congolese venture [6].

When Katanga Mining announced its potential merger –worth about $3.3 billion- with Nikanor in early November, its stock price jumped 42 percent. According to Katanga Mining chair, Arthur H. Ditto, the agreement “sets the course to establish one of the largest and most important mining complexes in the world." [7] The remarkable benefits to these companies are clear and unmistakable but when it comes to the people of the Congo, the benefits are hard to find. Corporate Knights says of the Katanga mining agreement with the Congolese government that it “allows a tax regime that appears to offer very little benefit to the Congolese government.” [8] One of the key principals of Katanga mining is Belgian, George Forrest for whom the United Nations prescribed financial sanctions as a result of his participation in the illegal exploitation of Congo’s resources. It was also revealed that George Forrest was a key funder of Joseph Kabila’s political party, People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) during the 2006 elections. [9] In April 2007, the Congolese newspaper “Le Potentiel” reported that Nikanor got the KOV concession located in the Katanga province in 2005 by promising to lend Gecamines, Congo’s state company 24 million Euros. Le Potentiel noted that should Nikanor sell its rights to the KOV concession, its two principles, Bennie Steinmetz and Dan Gertler would stand to pocket 350 million Euros each without producing a single gram of copper [10] . Nikanor executives say the KOV project represents "the highest grade major ore body in the world." This may explain why the listing of Nikanor on the London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) at $1.5 billion represented the largest valuation of any company in history on entry to AIM. Together Katanga Mining and Nikanor have raised over $2 billion for the KOV project, [11]which is about the same amount of the proposed 2007 Congolese government budget.

Clearly with the hundreds of billions of dollars at stake, renegotiation or cancellation of any of the contracts mentioned above is highly unlikely and potentially as risky as the conflict in the east for the Kabila government. The Congolese people are watching to see whose interests the government will serve. The results from the contract review process will serve as one of the key determinants to the relationship between the Kabila administration and the people of the Congo for the duration of his tenure as head of state. However, one must say that there is little chance that Kabila will act in the interest of the people of the Congo. Many observers believe that if it were not for the insistence of long-time nationalist and current Prime Minister who served as Deputy Prime Minister to Lumumba in 1960, Antoine Gizenga the mining review process may not even have been initiated in the first place. Now that the review is complete, the Kabila government finds itself in a quandary regarding the publication of the report’s contents, knowing that the people of the Congo are being vigilant in regard to the future of their country’s wealth.

When one contemplates the corporate and foreign political forces, as have been outlined in this article and elsewhere, surely the most casual observer would say that the die in all likelihood has already been cast for the Congolese people to be impoverished for generations to come. The international finance community is determined to consign the people of the Congo to pauperization, dependency and perpetual supplier of raw materials for the West’s economic benefit. In fact, a key reason Kabila received unconditional support from the West prior to the 2006 elections, is because he had made it clear to them that he would facilitate unfettered access to Congo’s riches and preside over a client regime. Kabila infamously stated “I invited the business community to go into the Congo just like Stanley did way back in the 1800s and I told the business community back then that they had to have a spirit of adventurism - go see what is happening look at the opportunities and of course install yourself.”[12] The arrogance with which these western forces and their local sycophants are moving, one gets the sense that they feel entitled to the wealth of the Congo even as the soil of the Congo is drenched with the blood of its sons and daughters. There is a callous disregard for the at least 4 million Congolese who have perished in the current scramble for the country’s riches. It appears that the devaluation of the African people, the Congolese in particular has been normalized to the point where millions dead and hundreds of thousands of black bodies raped and sexually mutilated while local elites and multi-national corporations enrich themselves hardly register a whimper of indignation or protest.

As people of conscience, we must do our utmost to expose one of the greatest heist of the 21st century and provide solidarity to those Congolese who have been waging a historic fight for genuine independence, democratic rule and control of their country’s resources. Anything less makes us co-conspirators in the devaluing of our self-worth as Africans and the debasing of our sense of dignity as human beings. The words of Che Guevara are ever present and relevant when he asserts, “The Congo problem is a world problem. Victory will be continental in its reach and its consequences and so would defeat.”[13] Should one agree with Guevara, Nkrumah, Fanon and others who spoke of the significance of the Congo to the future of Africa, people throughout the African world must:
1. Aggressively raise awareness about the situation in the Congo
2. Determinedly mobilize global support on behalf of the Congolese people
3. Doggedly resist corporate appropriation of the Congo’s wealth
4. Actively support progressive forces and civil society in the Congo

* Maurice Carney is Executive Director of Friends of the Congo

*Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

* Please click on the link for the article notes

The Government has asked parents displaced by the recent post-election violence to take their children to the nearest school from where they are camping. On Thursday, the Government also directed teachers and other staff displaced by the violence to report to their work stations. Rift Valley PC, Mr Hassan Noor Hassan, told a news conference in Nakuru that only three of 38 districts in the province were not affected by the skirmishes.