Pambazuka News 830: African youth, where are you?
13 July 2017
CONTENTS: 1.
Features 2.
Announcements
Features
![]() The
economy is destroyed.
Inflation is the highest
in the world. Fertile
land has been left
fallow because the
danger of a violent
death has kept farmers
from tilling their soil.
Food is so scarce and
food prices so high that
onions are cut into
quarters for sale in
markets in Yei! South
Sudan is in desperate
need of leadership.
![]() The 2nd
Kwameh Nkrumah
Pan-African Intellectual
and Cultural Festival
was held in Accra,
Ghana, 25 June to 1 July
2017. The festival
served as a vehicle for
reflection and a
springboard for new
efforts to promote
Pan-Africanism and
transformation of the
African world. Here is
the experience of one
youth volunteer at the
event.
![]() Growing
youth populations are
placing social and
political pressure on
their governments to
address the need for
employment
opportunities. But the
dependence upon foreign
markets for the export
of natural resources and
cash crops
systematically
undermines strategic
planning within the
present world economic
order.
![]() Only a
quarter of Malawian
children who enter
primary school finish
the eight-year course.
And almost 70 percent of
Malawians aged 15 years
and above do not have a
secondary school
education. The numbers
are worse for girls, at
74 percent. This is part
of Malawi’s colonial
legacy.
![]() Betrayal
of the liberation
struggle by
post-independent regimes
and elites in many
African countries is the
reason I am making a
clarion call to civil
society, in particular
my contemporaries, the
youth, and the
electorate to
reconceptualise their
thoughts about state
governance and
leadership. Corruption,
cronyism, looting of the
national purse, state
capture and service
delivery strikes are a
stark reminder of this
reality.
![]() Kenya’s
Cabinet Secretary for
Interior Maj. Gen. (rtd)
Joseph Nkaissery died
suddenly on Saturday, 8
July 2017. Nkaissery is
certainly a notorious
symbol of human rights
abuse and his death
brings to an end one of
the saddest chapters in
Kenyan history.
![]() Instead of
being locked in crowded
camps surrounded by
barbed wire, the 1.2
million refugees in
Uganda are given large
plots of land in
sprawling settlements to
build homes or, if they
like, small farms. If
agrarian life isn’t for
them, they can move
freely around the
country, traveling to
towns or to the bustling
capital of Kampala,
which 95,000 refugees
call their home.
![]() Despite
Kagame’s totalitarian
regime being infamous
for horrendous human
rights abuses inside the
country and in DR Congo,
Rwanda is now a member
of the UN Human Rights
Council. Rwanda has
signaled that it will
use its seat to defend
its friend, the colonial
state of Israel.
![]() Lawyers
should claim their place
in society by espousing
Pan-African ideals. They
should stop defending
and colluding with
corrupt African elites.
A remarkable example is
Henry Sylvester
Williams, the
Trinidadian barrister
who, together with other
Pan-Africanists,
organised the first
Pan-African conference
in London in 1900.
![]() The rules,
institutions and
operations of global
markets, unchanged since
the end of formal
colonialism, are among
the greatest obstacles
to the development of
African countries.
Why we are
unable to honour the
invitation to your
Congress
![]() The South
African Federation of
Trade Unions turned down
an invitation to the
congress of the South
African Communist Party.
SACP is an ally of the
ruling African National
Congress. SAFTU says
SACP is as guilty as the
Jacob Zuma government in
implementing a
neoliberal programme
that is anti-poor,
anti-working class,
pro-capitalist and
anti-socialist.
![]() The call
on Bukola Saraki, the
senate president, to
assume the position of
acting president because
the president and acting
president were allegedly
out of the country, was
not only contrary to the
provisions of the
constitution but had all
the elements of a coup
d'état.
![]() Activists
from anti-capitalist
militant organizations
in North Africa met in
Tunis on 4th and
5th July 2017
to set up the North
African Network for Food
Sovereignty. The network
is a unifying structure
for struggles in the
region and will be
involved in local,
continental and
international
mobilisation.
![]() Imagine if
the media only reported
the good news that
governments and
corporations wanted you
to see, hear and read
about. Unfortunately,
that is not far from the
reality of reporting
about Canada’s role
internationally.
![]() There is
only one reason why the
US is obsessed with
North Korea. It allows
the US to maintain a
massive military
presence in East Asia.
If not for tensions on
the Korean peninsula,
the US would lose its
rationale for its
network of military
bases in the region,
which are primarily
meant to threaten and
contain China.
Announcements
Call for papers
for a special issue of
Pambazuka News
![]() As African
and European leaders
plan to meet in Abidjan,
Cote d’Ivoire, late
November 2017 to assess
the status of the
Africa-Europe
partnership, Pambazuka
News is calling for a
broad range of papers
analysing, from various
perspectives, relations
between Africa and
Europe and how they
might evolve in the
coming decades.
![]() As a way
to reach more people
and to make your
experience with
Pambazuka News better,
we have developed an
android app as another
tool to create a
better reading
experience with mobile
devices. The app will
have periodic updates
to cater for changing
readers' requirements
and experiences.
App download Link
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Henry Makori and
Tidiane Kasse -
Editors, Pambazuka
News
Yves Niyiragira
- Executive Director,
Fahamu
Websites: Fahamu.org, Pambazuka.org
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