Pambazuka
News 831: Biko and the Black world
today
21 July 2017
CONTENTS: 1. Features 2.
Announcements
Features
A lecture delivered at the
University of California Los Angeles
and Freedom Park, 7 July 2017
![]() Forty
years after Steve Biko’s murder in
detention, the world we live in has not
changed fundamentally for Black people.
Regardless of where you reside in the
world, how educated you are, religious,
progressive or nice you may think you
are, if you are Black you are guaranteed
the scorn, humiliation, violence and
death that Biko and others had to
confront.
![]()
A South African court has found a
police officer guilty of shooting dead
17-year-old protester, Nqobile Nzuza.
The judgement sends a strong message
to all police officers who act on the
instructions of politicians to
brutalize unarmed citizens demanding
their rights.
![]()
In response to a protest outside a
white editor’s home, the South African
Editors Forum (SANEF) sought court
orders to stop Black First Land First
activists from harassing, intimidating
and threatening journalists and
editors over their reporting. But
SANEF did not show similar concern
when Black journalists came under
attack. Why the double standards?
![]()
The G20’s Compact with Africa is
meant to force open African doors to
European and generally western
investments. African governments have
been told in no uncertain terms that
for them to receive foreign direct
investments, they must improve
conditions for such investments. Using
its financial muscle the west (through
Berlin) is waging war against Africa.
![]()
In Zambia, as with elsewhere in
Africa, Canada’s mining industry,
foreign policy and neoliberalism
overlap tightly. It is a subject
Canadians ought to pay attention to if
they want their country to be a force
for good in the world.
![]()
No new plantation has succeeded since
independence, either state-owned or
private. But it has not stopped
Frelimo leaders since Samora Machel
from dreaming of giant mechanised
farms funded by hundreds of millions
of dollars from abroad.
![]()
The world changed this past week in
ways that it may take decades to fully
appreciate. With the opening of its
first overseas military base in
Djibouti, China sent an unmistakable
message that its role in the world is
changing. The implications for the
Middle East and Africa are immediate,
but the larger message is that China
is no longer pretending to be an
inward-looking, exclusively Asian
power.
![]() Reparatory
Justice must be the clarion call of the
African Peoples at home and abroad. This
was the Declaration of the 2nd Kwame
Nkrumah Intellectual and Cultural
Festival which was held in Accra from 25
June to 1 July, 2017. The Festival was
hosted by the Institute of African
Studies of the University of Ghana under
the auspices of the third Kwame Nkrumah
Chair, Professor Horace Campbell.
![]()
The moral case for Black reparations
has effectively been made, but the
legal argument has met much
frustration in the courts. The authors
believe that the period after 1808,
when U.S. participation in the
international slave trade was
outlawed, is key to clearing the legal
hurdles to reparations.
![]()
Human beings, including Europeans,
have migrated throughout history and
continue doing so. Migration is,
therefore, not a problem; it is part
of humanity. What is a problem is
failing to understand why people
migrate and using recent refugee flows
from war-torn countries such as Syria,
Iraq and Libya to politicise and
militarise the whole issue.
![]()
Gambians must not forget the
atrocities committed by President
Jammeh’s regime and demand that the
perpetrators of crimes be brought to
justice. The government of President
Barrow should relentlessly pursue and
reclaim all the ill-gotten wealth
accumulated by Jammeh’s family and its
cronies. Any call for unity,
reconciliation and forgiveness will be
meaningless without truth and justice.
![]()
Breaking up Nigeria into several
nations to solve its current problems,
as some people suggest, will not work.
The resulting chaos will be
unimaginable, throwing much of West
Africa into crisis. The better option
is for all Nigerians to commit to work
to build one Nigeria that works for
all.
![]()
Several civil society organizations
have voiced their support for protests
in Morocco and other North African
countries facing growing state
repression, resource theft and
imperialist expansion. They call for
respect for people’s rights and just
development.
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
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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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