Africa Contact partnership seminar 2013: Civic Education

One of the important themes that were debated at Africa Contact’s partnership seminar, held in Johannesburg in April 2013, was Civic Education.

Civic Education is one of the cornerstones of the fight for democracy in many Southern African countries, especially in the rural areas where rights-based consciousness is often lacking. The civic educators – who are often recruited to teach in their own communities – are harassed by local chiefs and meetings are prone to police surveillance, not least because educators link the rights of those they educate with democratization and poverty eradication.

Africa Contact partnership seminar 2013: Working together in and for the future

An important forward-looking issue debated at Africa Contact’s partnership seminar, held in Johannesburg in April 2013, was how the partnership between Africa Contact and its partners should evolve.

Mcebisi Kraai from Masifundise (South Africa) and Africa Contact’s Marie Villumsen gave presentations on Africa Contact’s partnership approach, advocacy and networking.

Kraai argued that shared ideals and networking were vital for a successful partnership

Africa Contact and partners show the way forward at partnership seminar

There was an atmosphere of partnership, solidarity and common purpose at Africa Contact and partners’ 3rd Partnership Seminar, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, between the 4th and 7th of April 2013. An atmosphere that fully lived up to Africa Contact’s slogan “active solidarity with active people.”

“We are the carriers of the dream of a better world,” as Africa Contact’s Head of Secretariat, Morten Nielsen put it at the seminar. ”But we must connect the dreams of today with the struggles of tomorrow and make people see that we all have a common dream of a world where the system works in favour of people. And we mustn’t depoliticise our work when challenging the status quo.”

Homophobia in Africa is ”escalating”

“The abuse is escalating. Recent cases of criminalization of same-sex relationships have worsened a situation already characterized by harassment, humiliation, extortion, arbitrary arrests, judicial violence, imprisonment, torture, hate crimes and honour killings on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity all over Africa,” says a new report by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA).

“Over the past ten years, the focus on equal rights, law reforms, community cohesion, diversity, families and migrations for lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex (LGBTI) Africans has gone from bad to worse.”

Danmarks Indsamling: Send flere penge, det er os der kan gøre en forskel

Da jeg, som hundredetusinder af danskere, sad foran skærmen for at se Danmarks Indsamlings tv-show i går, hørte jeg gentagne gange budskabet om at det er vores velgørenhed, og størrelsen af pengebeløbet, der betyder noget for de ”stakkels” afrikanske børn på flugt som indsamlingen forsøger at hjælpe. ”Tusinde tak for donationerne. Lad dem flyde ind. Og vi taler jo bare på vegne af børnene i Afrika”, sagde programvært Louise Wolff, “der er kun en ægte vinder, og det er børnene i Afrika”. ”Danmark, det er os der kan gøre en forskel her”, sagde sangeren Wafonde.

Hvis vi gi’r en hånd til Afrika…

Den 3. februar afsluttes Danmarks nok mest prominente velgørenhedskampagne, Danmarks Indsamling, en kampagne der støttes af 12 af landets største humanitære organisationer og kulminerer i et TV-show der vises direkte på DR1. Kampagnen er en af mange lignende velgørenhedskampagner der blev til i kølevandet på den meget omtalte og indbringende Band Aid-kampagne.

Alle over 35 husker Bob Geldoffs og det stjernespækkede Band Aids sang ”Do they know it’s Christmas” fra 1984, Michael Jacksons ”We are the world”, og den danske modstykke, Nannas ”Afrika” fra 1985. Alle sange var til støtte for de hungersramte i Etiopien.

Disse kampagners omtalemæssige og finansielle succes, gjorde at de skabte præcedens for de mange lignende velgørenhedskampagner der fulgte efter, der ofte trivialiserede de problemstillinger de hævdede at de søgte at løse.

African awakening: the emerging revolutions

African Awakening is a new book about the 2011 African uprisings that the mainstream media didn’t cover properly, such as the April uprising in Swaziland.

The publisher, Famuna Books and Pambazuka Press, descibes the book as follows:

“What the media has missed – the 2011 uprisings in their African context.
Pambazuka News’s respected writers offer in-the-moment comment and analysis as well as informed reflection. An almanac with its eyes open – Africa’s radical review of the year. The tumultuous uprisings of citizens in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have seized the attention of media analysts who have characterised these as ‘Arab revolutions’, a perspective given weight by popular demonstrations in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria and elsewhere. However, what have been given less attention are the concurrent uprisings in Benin, Gabon, Senegal, Swaziland, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda and in other parts of the African continent.

Homophobia in Africa

Human rights are indivisible and the precondition for any true democracy. The right of any human being to choose their identity, including interpretation of their own gender, and thus to diversity and non-conformity in general, is equally important. Whether the rights of marginalized or minority groups such as homosexuals are protected is therefore a good test of the democratic nature of any nation.

Worldwide homophobia

Homophobia is a global problem. 80 countries around the world criminalize homosexuality, mainly in Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean, and homosexuality carries the death penalty in several countries (mainly in the Middle East and Africa). Other regions, such as Latin America, have also experienced widespread homophobia and homophobia-related killings, but have tried to deal with it through legislation in an effort to protect the rights of homosexuals. Europe also has its share of homophobia, as a survey that found that over a third of all European homosexual youths had experienced bullying at school indicates.

Pre-colonial Africa

Before Africa was colonised, the continent was characterised by a large degree of pluralism and flexibility. The continent consisted not of closed reproducing entities, equipped with unique unchanging cultures, but of more fluid units that would readily incorporate outsiders (even whites) into the community as long as they accepted its customs, and where the sense of obligation and solidarity went beyond that of the nuclear family. An example of such inclusiveness were the Xhosa who limited Xhosadom not along ethnic or geographical lines but along political. All persons or groups who accepted the rule of the paramount chief became Xhosa.

The development of Africa: outsourcing poverty

I asked the question in a previous article, as to whether history showed that humanity is gradually, but irrecoverably, moving forward and becoming more developed, and answered it rather superficially by saying that we are getting there slowly.

But who is getting where and who determines what being developed is? And is development inevitable, as modernization theorists from Rostow to Fukuyama have claimed, as long as the developing nations follow the path of the so-called developed West, is development possible in a more than one way, and is development interconnected or unconnected with European development and wealth accumulation?