A Response to Simphiwe Dana on Language

by Pumla Dineo Gqola, Loudrastress

Although I have written about this topic in the papers before, several years ago in the Mail and Guardian, this post is motivated by Simphiwe Dana’s courageous opinion editorial in this past weekend’s Sunday Times. There are a few aspects of Ms Dana’s argument that I disagree quite strongly with, but I do share many of the concerns that she articulates.

Questions of loyalty in movement building

by Sokari Ekine, Black Looks

How can loyalty become a threat to social movements and how can it be a source of strength? How should movements respond to threats and how do we nurture and build on loyalty from within? What does it mean for the poor? S’bu Zikode, the President of Abahlali baseMojondo, addresses these questions at the University of Chicago which is part of a speaking and solidarity building tour in the US.

Are we not human?

by Sokari Ekine and Mia Nikasimo, Pambazuka

The African Commission on Peoples’ and Human Rights’ (ACPHR), denial of observer status to the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) is a denial of the rights enshrined in the Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights of all Africans who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI). In the denial of rights, the ACPHR effectively removes the citizenship of all LGBTI. If we do not have rights then we are not citizens; if we do not have citizenship then we have been disenfranchised, discarded – we do not exist.

The day the African Commission disavowed humanity

by Fikile Vilakazi and Sibongile Ndashe, Pambazuka

The decision of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to deny observer status to the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) comes at a time when the struggle for visibility, tolerance and acceptance of the fact that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people exist is beginning to gain momentum.

Lesbians can no longer be silent

by Rose Wanjiku, Pambazuka

Recently, I attended a conference session where those gathered were discussing Kenya’s penal code that criminalises homosexuality.

Sadly, the issue was narrowed to gays versus lesbians and it degenerated to an ugly debate when one of the participants snapped: ‘You lesbians have it so easy, nobody bothers about two women living together and displaying affection in public.

“All Elements of Society Are Participating” – Impressions of Cap Haitien’s Movement Against the UN

Media Hacker

CAP-HAITIEN – The first barricade looked harmless enough. Foot-long rocks piled next to each other in a line.

But as the bus driver slowed down, flying rocks landed in the street – thrown by youths crouching in the bushes up the hill.

Aristide Speaks from South Africa

Black Agenda Report

Nicolas Rossier interviews deposed Haitian president

In this frank and wide-ranging discussion, the deposed president of Haiti addresses French racism and those forces in the U.S. and Haiti that oppose his return from South African exile, the devastations his countrymen have endured since his ouster, and the Haitian people’s desire for freedom and self-determination. The upcoming elections, which will once again exclude Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas political party, are a farce. “They are not planning to have free and fair democratic elections. They are planning to have a selection.”

The revolution will not be funded

Hakima Abbas, Pambazuka

The recently concluded mid-term elections in the United States, which quite appropriately came on the heels of their Halloween celebrations, scary as they were, starkly highlighted the buckling of western power among the contradictions of liberal democracy and super-capitalism. The reduction of western aid, induced by the ‘global’ financial crisis, will challenge the perceived dependency between the global North and South. And, with the rise of the economic and political clout of so-called ‘emerging’ powers in the South, the globe is expected to see significant, if not permanent, shifts in societal order.

When Loyalty Becomes a Threat to Society

by S’bu Zikode, Abahlali baseMjondolo

I have been invited by the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative to come to the United States of America to speak, to learn and to share our experiences of struggle in South Africa. I wish to thank the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative for their invitation and for their solidarity with our struggles. Over the last years a number of comrades from our movements have received invitations to travel to other countries to try and build a living solidarity between our different movements.

Criminalising homosexuality in the DRC

by Sokari Ekine, Black Looks

The DRC parliament is presenting debating proposed legislation which will criminalise homosexuality. There are a number of major difference between the DRC Bill and legislation proposed in for example, Nigeria and Uganda which have proposed similar legislation. First the DRC does not presently have any laws on homosexuality and secondly this Bill includes a clause criminalising zooophilia which is directly associated with homosexuality “.