Black Looks

• Nigeria ‘celebrates’ 51 years of Independence with new anti-homosexuality bill

  Posted: September 30, 2011, 3:22 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  Nigeria is to mark it’s 51st anniversary of nationhood with the introduction of yet another anti-homosexuality bill. – two previous Bills in 2006 and 2009 were abandoned. The present Bill [Same Gender Marriage Prohibition Bill 2011 - the Bill is published below] seeks to further criminalise anyone who either enters into a same sex marriage or witnesses, supports, aids, a same gender marriage. The penalties are three years imprisonment for entering into a marriage and five years or a fine of N2,000, for witnessing, supporting, aiding such a marriage. For a group witnessing, supporting or aiding there is a fine of N50,000.

  The previous two Bills were abandoned following the statements at a public hearing, of Nigerian human rights activists and their allies, that the Bill was a violation of the rights of individuals and as such not appropriate in a modern democracy. The sponsors of the two previous Bills were never able to explain why they wish to criminalise that which is already criminalised and that explanation is still absent from this bill. Though the 2011 Bill has been watered down it still reinforces the criminalisation of same sex / gender relationships.

  Nigerian human rights activists have come together quickly and published a strong statement condemning the Bill and pointing out the rights of Nigerians as stated in Chapter IV of the Nigerian Constitution and Article 7 of The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

  Already, in 2006, the Special Representative condemned the previous version of this bill in a letter to the Nigerian government. This bill would increase the risk to human rights defenders, and would violate Nigeria’s human rights obligations.

  As citizens and human rights defenders, we demand our rights. As tax-paying Nigerians, we demand the efficient use of our financial resources. We request the Senate to disregard this ominous bill, and consider instead discussing life saving legislation, including the Anti-Stigmatization bill and National Health Insurance bill.

  Statement by

  NIGERIA HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS CONDEMN 2011 SAME GENDER MARRIAGE PROHIBITION BILL

  We, the Coalition for the Defense of Sexual Rights were shocked and deeply concerned by the news published in the Nigerian press about the re-introduction of “A bill for an act to prohibition marriage between persons of same gender, solemisation of same and for other matters related therewith”

  Similar bills appeared before the House in 2006 and 2008 and were critically analysed both times by human rights activists, who articulated the dangers of the bills to a democratic society.

  We wish to remind the parliament that Nigeria is a secular state. This means that the laws of our land cannot and should not be drafted and/or enacted on the basis of a particular religious and cultural value. These values already indicate the diversity of Nigeria as a heterogeneous society–hence our federal system of government.
  
  We as human rights defenders are aware that not a single gay group has asked for the right to marry. Our advocacy is not directed at that. We are advocating for tolerance and respect for everyone irrespective of his or her sex, gender, age, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation and gender identity, etc. These rights are not illusionary. They are rights that Nigeria’s same –sex loving people derive from Chapter IV of the Nigerian constitution, which lists the fundamental rights enjoyed by all Nigerians, including the rights to freedom from discrimination, to personal liberty, to human dignity, and to private life.

  Furthermore, we feel deeply threatened by the proposed paragraph 4(2) of the bill, which provides greater criminal liability to anyone who abets and aids same-sex marriage. An individual would face up to five years’ imprisonment.

  This provision clearly targets the activities of human right defenders, who have a mandate, without limitation, to defend the rights of people regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.

  The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, in its Article 7, specifically provides that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others to develop and discuss new human rights ideas and principles and to advocate their acceptance.”

  The UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on the Rights of Human Rights Defenders has repeatedly expressed concern over attacks on defenders “who are at particular risk, namely those who defend the rights of indigenous people and minorities [and] lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons and women human rights defenders.” (UN Doc A/HRC/4/37, January 24, 2007, at 55).

  Already, in 2006, the Special Representative condemned the previous version of this bill in a letter to the Nigerian government. This bill would increase the risk to human rights defenders, and would violate Nigeria’s human rights obligations.

  As citizens and human rights defenders, we demand our rights. As tax-paying Nigerians, we demand the efficient use of our financial resources. We request the Senate to disregard this ominous bill, and consider instead discussing life saving legislation, including the Anti-Stigmatization bill and National Health Insurance bill.

  Dorothy Aken’Ova:
  darlyndotty@yahoo.co.uk
  +2348034500714

  Akoro Joseph Sewedo:
  sakoro@initiative4equality.org
  +2347066622191

  The Same Gender Marriage Bill [Prohibition] 2011
  An Act To Prohibit Marriage Between Persons Of Same Gender, Solemnization Of Same And For Other Matters Related Therewith
  Sponsors:
  Senator Domingo Obende
  Senator Ehigie Edobor Uzamere
  Senator Adegbenga Seflu Kaka
  Senator Borrofice Robert A.
  Senator Pius Ewherido
  Senator Yusuf Musa Nagogo
  Senator Mohammed Magoro
  Senator Emmanuel Paulker
  Senator George Sekibo
  Senator Eyinnaya Abarbe
  Senator Nenadi E. Usman
  Senator Helen Esuene
  Senator Babafemi Oiudu
  Senator Owremi Tinubu
  Senator Owgbenga Ashafa
  Senator Obadara Owgbenga
  Senator Joshua Dariye
  Senator Saleh Mohammed Sani
  Senator Hope Uzodinma
  Senator Ayogu Eze
  Senator Smart Adeyemi
  Senator Ahmad Lawan
  Senator Igwe Paulinus Nwagu
  Senator Mohammed D. Goje
  Senator Barnabas Gemade
  Senator Boluwaji Kunlere

  BE IT ENACTED by the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as follows:
  1.–(1) Marriage Contract entered between persons of same Gender is hereby prohibited in Nigeria.
  (2) Marriages Contract entered between persons of same gender are invalid and shall not be recognized as entitled to the benefits of a valid marriage.
  (3) Marriage Contract entered between persons of same gender by virtue a certificate issued by a foreign country shall be void in Nigeria, and any benefits accruing there from by virtue of the certificate shall not be enforced by any court of law in Nigeria.
  2.–(1) Marriage entered between persons of same Gender shall not be solemnized in any place of worship either Church or Mosque in Nigeria.
  (2) No marriage certificate issued to parties of same sex marriage in Nigeria.
  3. Only marriage contracted between a man and a woman either under Islamic Law, Customary Law and Marriage Act is recognized as valid in Nigeria.
  4.–(1) Persons that entered into a same gender marriage contract commit an offence and are jointly liable on conviction to a term of 3 years imprisonment each.
  (2) Any persons or group of persons that witnesses, abet and aids the solemnization of a same gender marriage contract commits an offence and liable on conviction to –
  (a) if an individual to a term of 5 years imprisonment or a group of persons to a fine of ₦2,000 or both,
  (b) if a group of persons to a fine of ₦50,000 only.
  5. The High Court of a State shall have jurisdiction to entertain matter arising from the breach of the provisions of this Bill.
  6. In this Bill, unless the context otherwise requires–
  “Marriage” here relates to a legal union entered between persons of opposite sex in accordance with the Marriage Act, Islamic and Customary Laws.
  “High Court” to include High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
  “Same Gender Marriage” means the coming together of persons of the same sex with the purpose of leaving together as husband and wife or for other purposes of same sexual relationship.
  7. This Bill may be cited as Same Gender Marriage (Prohibition) Bill, 2011.
  Explanatory Note:
  This Bill seeks to prohibit marriage between persons of same gender, and witnessing same, and provided appropriate solemnization of the marriage penalties thereof.

• The death penalty in Zimbabwe: A necessary evil?

  Posted: September 30, 2011, 10:35 am by Rumbidzai Dube

  
  
  

  Big thanks to my friend Kirolos Nagy (Nathan) for designing this picture

  In solidarity with the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), one of the organisations fighting for the abolition of capital punishment in America following the terrible fate of Troy Davis on the 21^st of September, I posted on my facebook wall a call for signatures to a petition demanding such abolition in America.My Facebook status read,

   

  “The case of Troy Davis brought home to me that we have a similar situation in Zimbabwe. Although the death penalty has not been executed because currently nobody wants to be the hangman, many are languishing in prisons on the death row, some of whom may be innocent. Let us help our American friends to get rid of their death penalty. We help them today and maybe they will also help us when we begin our campaign to do away with capital punishment in Zimbabwe.”

  One would presume such a petition would receive positive commitments to sign onto the petition but NO, that presumption would be misplaced as mine was. The responses I got back were resounding no no’s. No, we are not going to sign the petition because we do not believe in what it says. No, poor Mr Davis might be one of the few innocent people who got a raw deal from the existence of capital punishment, but in Zimbabwe we need the death penalty and it remains a necessary evil in order to deal effectively with crime. As one person argued “the nature of wickedness and barbaric acts” that certain individuals commit must be punished with the death penalty. One other person argued that only the death sentence was the answer because these people are evil and a life sentence would not serve the same purpose the death sentence does because the evildoers would continue to “use tax payers money in food and “enjoying” life (though with limitations) which they would have brutally denied of their victims.”

  So I ask is the death penalty a necessary evil in Zimbabwe?

  I know the feeling of living in fear of dangerous criminals. I remember the fear that filled Zimbabweans’ hearts when Edmund Masendeke, Elias Chauke and Stephen Chidhumo three of the most notorious criminals to ‘grace’ the Zimbabwean landscape escaped from Chikurubi Maximum Prison in 1995. They were infamously known for murder, rape and armed robbery. Masendeke and Chidhumo were the last 2 people to be hanged in 2004.
  
  Since then the ‘Office of the Hangman’ has remained vacant leaving those sentenced to death waiting on the death row. Civil rights defenders in Zimbabwe have reported that some prisoners have been on the death row for an average of four years with some having been ‘waiting to die’ for as long as 13 years. Meanwhile they live in prison conditions that are unsanitary, harzadous to health and can only be summarised as inhumane and degrading.

  So I ask again what the purpose of a justice system is. Is retribution the goal or is it not rather restoration? Is the goal of justice to punish human error/folly/wickedness or whatever else may have motivated the murder in the worst possible manner available? Is it not rather to condemn the acts committed, punish them but at the same time restore the values of respect for humanity in the perpetrators that they would have lost when they committed these foul acts?

  Why do we have the death penalty in the best place? Are there no other punishments that could serve the same purpose of punishing wrongful acts without giving the impression of being vengeful? Is life imprisonment not punishment enough? So if our version of justice is equal to the murder of those who murder shall we also amputate those who amputate and rape those who rape? Are we serving justice or exacting revenge when we do this? Do we not then lose our humanness and reduce ourselves to the levels of the same criminals that we condemn when we do these things? Are we not ashamed that we could be killing innocent people like Troy Davis?

  In a justice system in a state similar to the Zimbabwean situation where the quality and intensity of investigations is poor, the morale of the police is low, the levels of corruption among the prosecutors and magistrates is high and even the integrity of the judiciary and law profession is compromised then the probability of innocent people being convicted based on circumstantial evidence is high. I guess it is more convenient and comforting for the prosecutor and investigating officer of the murder to go home knowing that they got someone convicted for a murder even knowing that the accused could have been innocent than not to have apprehended anyone in connection with the case at all. So then is human life now less important than a criminal investigator’s ego or promotion? Are we really serving justice when we sentence individuals to death?

  The following excerpts forming the reasoning of the South African Constitutional Court in the case of the State v Makwanyane answer some of these questions for me. In that case the court concluded that the death penalty was a form of inhumane and degrading punishment and treatment in South Africa and since that decision the death penalty was outlawed in South Africa.

  In arguing that the death sentence gives no room for innocent people to vindicate themselves the Court said,
  “The differences that exist between rich and poor, between good and bad prosecutions, between good and bad defence, between severe and lenient judges, between judges who favour capital punishment and those who do not, and the subjective attitudes that might be brought into play by factors such as race and class, may in similar ways affect any case that comes before the courts. But death is different, and the question is, whether this is acceptable when the difference is between life and death. Unjust imprisonment is a great wrong, but if it is discovered, the prisoner can be released and compensated; but the killing of an innocent person is irremediable. While this court has the power to correct constitutional or other errors retroactively…it cannot, of course, raise the dead.”[Para 54]

  The Bench also refused to be swayed by public opinion as people were also clamouring for the death penalty to be retained and the Court went on to say;

  “The carrying out of the death sentence destroys life, which is protected without reservation under section 9 of our Constitution [the South African Constitution], it annihilates human dignity which is protected under section 10, elements of arbitrariness are present in its enforcement and it is irremediable…I am satisfied that in the context of our Constitution the death penalty is indeed a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. [Para 95]

  In responding to the Attorney General’s argument that the death sentence was the most effective punitive measure without which the criminal justice system would be compromised the Court said;

  “In the course of his argument the Attorney General contended that if sentences imposed by the Courts on convicted criminals are too lenient, the law will be brought into disrepute, and members of society will then take the law into their own hands. Law is brought into disrepute if the justice system is ineffective and criminals are not punished. But if the justice system is effective and criminals are apprehended, brought to trial and in serious cases subjected to severe sentences, the law will not fall into disrepute. We have made the commitment to “a future founded on the recognition of human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence…for all South Africans.” Respect for life and dignity lies at the heart of that commitment. One of the reasons for the prohibition of capital punishment is “that allowing the State to kill will cheapen the value of human life and thus [through not doing so] the State will serve in a sense as a role model for individuals in society.”Our country needs such role models. Reconciliation contains the following commitment: The adoption of this Constitution lays the secure foundation for the people of South Africa to transcend the divisions and strife of the past, which generated gross violations of human rights, the transgression of humanitarian principles in violent conflicts and a legacy of hatred, fear, guilt and revenge. These can now be addressed on the basis that there is a need for understanding but not for vengeance, a need for reparation but not for retaliation, a need for ubuntu but not for victimisation. (Emphasis supplied) [Para 124]

  One thing is for sure, advocating the abolition of the death penalty, does not mean playing down the enormity of the crime being punished. Handing down the death sentence does not guarantee deterrence in crime and no credible evidence to this date has shown that the death penalty ensures reduction in crime rates. In fact studies conducted in the US have shown that crime is higher in states that retained the death penalty and lower in those that abolished it. It is an inhumane act that no government should sustain and it goes against the very moral fabric of society that we condemn in those who commit terrible crimes. No society should uphold it or condone it!

  I cannot understand how Zimbabweans would want to retain the death penalty given our history and our heritage. We inherited the death penalty form the legacy of colonialism and it is one of the evils we should have gotten rid of upon attaining independence. One of the most significant historical accounts in the struggle for independence is the story of Mbuya Nehanda, the great Zezuru Svikiro who resisted the white colonialists and inspired the Shona people to rise and expel the British from the land. She went to her death in defiance, denouncing the British. Her death by hanging at the hands of the British settlers is condemned even today, not just because she was fighting for a good cause but also because they denied her dignity at the moment of her death. Her last words “My bones shall rise” are a source of inspiration, at least to me as I continue the struggle for dignity, equality and freedom that she began. I believe she is turning in her grave when the same noose that sent her to her death bed is still being used to destroy human life, regardless of whether the people getting killed are innocent or guilty.

  Life is life.

• In Disturbia

  Posted: September 28, 2011, 1:14 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  I’ve got to break my mind in like a horse in disturbia.
  Crazy as a hatter. What’s not to be crazy about…
  Even children are given free reign to be indifferent
  Poor things snagged up in viral hand me downs.
  Philip Larkin thought so, “parents, they fuck you up…”
  What do you think of it children? Anything? Anything?
  In disturbia stuff happens. So said Rihanna when in
  Disturbia she showed ways in dingy cellars of bodies.
  I still wonder why you hate Rihanna? Why do you?
  (No, I’m not saying Rihanna is transsexual, she isn’t.)
  I still wonder why you hate transsexuals as you do though,
  I still wonder why voices from outside these four walls
  bring your malicious excesses uninvited but stangely amused,
  I’m still wondering in disturbia where everyone partakes; nobody knows with a dead body dismembered on their doorsteps in rigor mortis where the errant body came from. “It was just, there!”
  I still wonder why you hit me that first day, the second day and then hit me again for staying over.
  In disturbia alkies take part too thinking they matter.
  
  The pest pestering me took his lead yonder where
  Two girls chatter in incessant: “he is, she isn’t” cadences.
  Then came your opportunity: “You are a man, you are a man, you’ve got a dick, you are a man,” he pestered on and on. My attempts to foreclose fell short. He carried on. I got my phone out; dialed 9, 9, 9.
  “So you are calling the police? I’m Anglo Nigerian, living in Jandon.
  I will not spend a moment in custody, can’t one make a mistake?
  You’ve got a dick, you are a man,” said the alkie mega loud.
  “No, I’m not, I’m a woman. No, I don’t & if I did what is it to you?”
  I said still in a state of shock! Tears, tears flow as I breakdown!
  “You’re insane,” was all I could manage before flight.
  “All Nigerians are crazy,” he shouted in my wake.
  The two black girls silenced into cathartic embrace
  As they took stock of what they’ve done, cowering.
  In disturbia I hate that I love you so knowing you
  Admitted you all out hated women like me.
  Only in disturbia can you be asked by a girlfriend:
  “why don’t you get it on with a guy?” she said. “They
  All want you. Everytime we’re out their eyes lock on
  You like you are the precious cargo they’re awaiting.
  The banked up tears began to flow freely.
  I, a lesbian, traumatised by her words; end depressed.
  In disturbia even no response is a response. “Oh he’s
  Sulking!” chipped in a couple as they pass by. What
  Do you say to that on a head filled to bursting?
  That is an uneasy laughing shop of jeers & pokes.
  In disturbia it is assumed my body isn’t mine. I
  Reclaim it mine, my only vessel to the island, “me!”
  I will my own way carve out; mapped for the tour of duty.
  Step away from the gap, step away from the gap, step away.
  Even in disturbia we exist our gender identities:
  Transgender, intersexes, transsexuals, transgenderists, trans everything, we’re all in disturbia loving only as we can in a hateful world.
  We are the tabula rasa of our species, clean slates.
  We can be anything in a quilted bag of identuties even queer is a cauldron called genderqueer & more.
  We are called lazy, we are called crazy in disturbia.
  Working the clubs of Stonewall old and new,
  Working in the forces: army, navy, airforce & police;
  Working the inland revenue for all we can,
  Working pen on paper telling difficult stories,
  Working, working every walk of life; we do our bit.
  Like everyone else before you off in broad daylight.
  There are “decent” folk in disturbia only we get crap
  But somehow we are the only ones still smiling, in
  Disturbia’s disturbing disorder with our scorching tears.

  Mia Nikasimo (c) September 2011

• Visionary and extraordinary woman: RIP Wangari Maathai

  Posted: September 26, 2011, 4:17 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  In her honour let us continue to plant trees, plant seeds of life, plant good governance, plant love of each other

   

  Gukira has an excellent post honouring Wangari Maathai “Wangari’s Daughters”

  Over the past few years, it has been my immense privilege to meet and come to know women I now think of as Wangari Maathai’s daughters: Sitawa Namwalie, Wambui Mwangi, Shailja Patel, Njeri Wangari, Muthoni Garland, Mshai Mwangola—there are many others. I mean daughters in a sense perhaps best expressed in the founding Gikuyu myth: women of consequence who have the power to move and shape nations. Women for whom nations will be named and re-named.

  I think of these women today on learning that Wangari Maathai has died. I think of them not only because of the sense of loss they must be experiencing, but because they are, to my mind, one of Wangari’s most precious legacies to Kenya and to the world. These are, I confess, overly bold claims to make for my friends. But they are claims that need to be made.

• Tabloid bloggers, online vigilantes & sexual violence

  Posted: September 24, 2011, 6:50 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  On Saturday 17th Nigerian blogger Linda Ikeji reported the “gang rape of a young woman of Abia State University” which had been videoed, circulated and broadcast over the internet and is apparently on multiple sites together with an audio version. Linda Ikeji states that she has a one hour video on her laptop plus a 10 minute version on  her phone. She also states that  uploading it on the internet is not an option.

  In the one week since the announcement of the gang rape, under the guise of outrage and desires for justice, the case has become a spectacle played out on Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

  In a recent blog post critiquing the 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria, I made the point that what is often most important in revealing who we are as a nation and people, is how we respond to our realities.  How do we respond to the gang rape of a young woman and one which is subsequently broadcast on various online sites?  Linda Ikeji gave enough graphic detail for all of us to know how the rape scene played out.   Yet some people continue watching and or listening to the video and reporting details of what was said and done?   To do this they would need to search online or ask someone privately for a copy to be sent by email or through their phone or for a link online.    These are not small acts – they are calculated decisions to seek out a video of a gang rape.   Unless you are in a position to possibly identify the rapists and take that information to someone who can act on it then what is your purpose in watching the video other than for self-gratification? Each time the video is watched or listened to or the text read it is a repeat of the rape,  which is exactly the purpose of the video – to continue the humiliation, the subjugation and to relive the rape over and over.

  It is not normal for women to be treated in this way.  The way the video is being circulated is a way of normalising watching violence and playing it out as if it’s some kind of reality show whereby everyone can participate by absorbing and gorging on detail without any sense of social or ethical responsibility.    I am not saying people are not genuinely outraged by the gang rape, they most certainly are but its  a pretense to equate outrage with a justification for watching the video.  This pornographic video has been downloaded 7000+  times from a Nigerian online site and was available until this morning.  How about some outrage against this and the money that is being made from it?   The site has be taken down but those downloads remain.

  Calls through various social media and politicians for the young victim of this heinous act, to come forward and present herself are equally alarming and lack any understanding of the depth of trauma experienced by rape victims as made clear by  Modupe Debbie Aryio of Africans United Against Child Abuse [AFRUCA]

  AS A MENTAL HEALTH PRACTITIONER, PSYCHOTHERAPIST/COUNSELLOR WHO HAS WORK FOR OVER 20YRS WITH TRAUMA VICTIMS, VICTIMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE, DV AND RAPE VICTIMS, I THINK IT IS IMPORTANT NOT TO PUT UNDUE PRESSURE ON THIS YOUNG LADY SO SHE DOES FEEL ADDITIONALLY ‘RAPED’ AGAIN BY ALL THE FURORE THAT SURROUNDS HER. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING AT THIS TIME FOR HER IS TO BE ABLE TO GET THE PSYCHOLOGICAL,EMOTIONAL AND ANY OTHER MEDICAL SUPPORT SHE MAY NEED AS A RESULT OF THIS HORRENDOUS ACT PERPETRATED ON HER. WHILE THE ANGER AND INSTINCTUAL CRY FOR JUSTICE ON HER BEHALF IS
  
  NEEDS TO TAKE PLACE, WE MUST REMEMBER THAT THE MAJORITY OF US ARE COMING FROM A PLACE OF STRENGTH AND WELL BEING. HER EXTREME VULNERABILITY, SHOCK AND FEAR MUST BE RECOGNISED AND UNDERSTOOD. EVEN IN THE WEST WHERE THERE ARE ALL THE SYSTEMS IN PLACE TO PROTECT AND CARE FOR ‘VICTIMS’, THERE IS STILL A LOT OF STIGMA PLACED ON RAPE VICTIMS, WHICH IS WHY MANY OF THEM DO NOT REPORT IT. AND FOR SOME THEY ARE SIMPLY UNABLE TO DEAL WITH THE PSYCHOLOGICAL WEIGHT OF THE EXPERIENCE AND HAVE TAKEN SEVERAL YEARS BEFORE THEY CAN COME TO TERMS WITH IT.

  From the place of strength I considered myself to be in, I cannot imagine myself being able to speak of this publicly, certainly not at this point and certainly not in Nigeria.   There are very few support systems in place, if any  and even if there were it would take exceptional strength to speak.  No woman should be pressured into doing this.  And to come out to what?    Who is she supposed to present herself too? The police who only began to investigate the gang rape after it was taken up by a Member of the Federal House of Representatives, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who presented the case to the House.  The police with a reputation for corruption, ineptitude, extra-judicial murder, misogyny, rape and torture?  The Abia State government which is led by a Governor and his wife who have repeatedly dismissed the case and refused to take any action other than making ridiculous statements such as the rape is the work of political protractors and his wife waffling on about the “good” work she is doing for women in her state?  The Abia State university authorities who claim the rapists are not students and do not appear to have done anything to move the case forward?   Even the Member of the House of Representatives, who has offered to protect her [how she will do this?] does not seem to recognise the trauma involved here.

  On Wednesday tweeps began to appear about outing the rapists.  I watched with horror as very soon three names were retweeted from a Nigerian blog  including one photograph taken from a Facebook page. Sometime later  two of those  who had  published the name, clearly realising what they had set in motion,  began to retract by  first deleting the names and sending out panic messages not to harm the men.  Statements such as

   

  “Please do not retweet the names of the ‘suspects’ for the safety of the victim” and “No harassing the suspects until we’ve got double confirmations.  Until then, use these names to try and FIND THE OTHERS!!!!!” “Names are for investigation not lynching. RESTRAIN YOURSELVES PEOPLE!! NO LYNCHING!! LYNCHING IS WRONG!! OBEY THE LAW!! @Sugabelly

  “What’s done is, now we need to make the best of it and refocus on the need for justice for all concerned” , For all the indignation and concern people might have, the best concerted appeal to all should be – No resorting to mob action” @Forakin

  Statements such as “Again, the issue of instant justice stems from the fact that our society does not help guarantee justice when sought” and “if the police & ABSU authorizes had been proactive  rather than in denial the names could have gone straight to them” @Forakin

   

  Fortunately there was some sanity in all the madness  and wise words emerged from the occasional person.

   

  The consequences of irresponsibly rushing to be  social media vigilantes – “cops, judge and jury via social media” slowly became evident as  it  turns out that one of the named men, whose photo was also published,  has been wrongly identified.  The ‘mistake” has been repeatedly tweeted and an apology given by @Sugabelly who had tweeted his name, though not the only one.  And yes men are quick to slag off women  and could care less about our reputations whilst screaming at the first hint of any slight against them. However I dont wish to follow their standards  of conduct and mistaking someone for a rapist is not a small matter.

  We should not forget  too the video has a history  and has been uploaded 7000+ times, passing from computer to phone.  As far as I am concerned they too are complicit in the rape and should face criminal charges. We can start with the  @9jaonline videos, the site which up till early this morning continued to make the video available for download as if this was some make believe Nollywood movie which is vile enough in itself.  [The site and their Twitter account have been removed in the past 6 hours]   It cannot be that difficult to trace the origins and those who have participated in watching it.  @Sugabelly tweeted for them and others to stop posting the video…

  @9janonlinevideos STOP THIS!! STOP posting this video!! Stop trying to profit from the #ABSURape #ABSU @Sugabelly

  “I am so disgusted and horrified by people who are actually trying to PROFIT from the #ABSU rape video by using it too…. @Sugabelly

  The blogger who, as far as I am aware, originally published the names made the ill-considered  decision to publish further photographs, along with Sahara Reporters,  from Facebook pages with the comment:

  Could the photos below be innocent people who have been wrongly accused for the Abia State University (ABSU) gang of 5? If they are, could they report to the nearest police station or better still engage the services of lawyers to file for libel.

  On Wednesday, 21st September, 2011, I took a risk to take this scandalous case to another level by publishing the names as well as the photos taken from Face Book. I was blasted by an aggrieved lady blogger who thought only her had the exclusive right to publish or write or investigate this case. I had made my point. I chose to withdraw the post. I will now go back to remove the password to enable viewers read and properly view these SUSPECTS. Of course, they are alleged rapists. They are only Suspects. And the blogger (whom I had adjudged on her post when she recently celebrated her birthday as the Nigeria’s no 1 blogger) had the unprofessional act to paste a comment on this blog calling me irresponsible. Well,I rest my case. But has the blogger and her fans ever bothered while these suspected rapists haven’t made any statement via their lawyers?

  The justification is about “exposing Nigeria in a bad light” as if such horrendous crimes only take place in Nigeria.  It’s responses like this that “put the country in bad light” not the crimes themselves.    The questions that come to mind are how do we differentiate between playing out a reality show and genuine search for the truth and subsequently justice? What are our responsibilities in our online presence?  How do we stop at crossing the line between sensationalist reporting, self aggrandisement and socially responsible actions?

  Blame the technology?  The templates are technical, the substance is of our own creation whether original or otherwise which in this case is a series of collision movements pushing one force against another.  Social Media as a functional space is  self-censored and self-regulated and with that comes social and ethical responsibilities as reputations are at risk here.  Acting as online vigilantes and challenging people to sue you for libel is just plain wrong. When the vigilantism falls under the headlines “Exclusive” it is not surprising one would be accused of “driving traffic to your blog” – it almost feels like an act of desperation!   Whatever the failings of  the Nigerian police a choice could have been made to pass this information to them or to those House Members who have expressed a willingness to take the case on board.  Alternatively pass the information on to a media network who have the resources and trust to carry out a proper investigation.   This is not withstanding the fact that these exposes may themselves hamper or end up being prejudicial to the case..

  Perhaps thought and a great deal of it should be given to the young woman at the center of this crime and those  insisting on perpetuating the repetitive tabloid outrage need ask themselves whether this is really about her or themselves.  A coalition of groups have announced this morning  that they have found the young woman.  What right do they have to go in search of the young woman and then present us with more lurid  of  details on her emotional and psychological state. If they really wanted to protect her they would have kept their actions quiet instead of adding to the media circus.

  Thoughts on how we as a nation can begin to create safe and supportive spaces for victims of sexual violence and how we can begin to counteract the stigma associated with rape.  So many of us have been raped, sexually abused, fought off numerous attempted rapes and have been subjected to continuous sexual harassment which is normalised to the point that we are not even supposed to speak of it –  at home, at work, at college and in social spaces.

  So perhaps those men so outraged by this awful crime could  look too themselves and begin to address their belief  they have an entitlement to our bodies and the daily sexual harassment  and sexist, misogynist attitudes they have towards women which takes place off and online.   We all  need to call out these acts of online sexual harassment, every time they happen from NOW!

  UPDATE

  Police in Abia State have arrested two alleged rapists “one Zaki and his roommate last night”

• Blue, Black & White: Solo performance on the life of Sir Seretse Khama

  Posted: September 24, 2011, 2:28 am by Sokari

  
  
  

  Blue Black and White: If you are in New York or nearby check and want to give support to a young actor from Botswana then please do check out this solo performance by Donald Molosi of the story of Sir Seretse Khama, the first prime minister of independent Botswana.   There are two shows –  Sun, Oct 23 at 5:00pm & Sat, Nov 19 at 7:30pm [Details here]

   

• links for 2011-09-23

  Posted: September 23, 2011, 5:03 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  • Trend Lines | Africom's Message Evolving, but Mission Unchanged (tags: africa africom militarism)
  • ISLAMIC Supposedly Boko Haram website -  (tags: Nigeria BokoHaram)
  • U.S. building secret drone bases in Africa, Arabian Peninsula, officials say – The Washington Post (tags: militarism africa africom middle_east)
  • President Obama’s Very Own ‘War on Terror,’ Continued | NationofChange (tags: militarism africa)

• The Hypocrisy of the UN and US on human rights & social justice

  Posted: September 23, 2011, 4:12 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  Ugandan LGBTI activist, Kasha Jacqueline speaks at the “UN Summit on Discrimination and Persecution”. – Through her own personal experience as an activist in Uganda, Kasha speaks about the war against the LGBTI community in her country and the hypocrisy and failure of the UN to protect anyone – at least anyone outside of the interest of oil and nuclear weapons.

  Kasha is highly critical of the UN, the invasion of Libya, saying it does not care about her and other activists. Whilst at the conferences she was harassed at the UN building by members of her country. She asks, where was the UN in protecting her and others who are been victimized in the their countries? Where was the UN in the war in northern Uganda? Why does the UN continue to talk about human rights but at the same time happily sit next to world leaders and their governments who are torturing and persecuting their own people [and I would add make selective choices on where to intervene, who to topple based on nothing more than self-interest and greed]. Who holds the UN accountable? She concludes the UN does not care about human rights. She is right and neither does the US.

  What is missing from the Summit are the voices of Americans and people living in the US who have suffered discrimination and persecution, torture and detention, and the many people killed by the state when there is reasonable and in the case of Troy Davis substantial doubt as to his guilt. Kasha speaks of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill which may or may not be dead and buried. The Bill originally called for the death penalty for repeated homosexual offenses but was dropped following outrage from the global community. The US was highly vocal in condemning the possibility of death penalty in Uganda yet the US is one of the few countries along with Saudi Arabia [its ally] Iran[its enemy] China [its competitor in the global market] in the world that continues to issue death warrants EVEN where there is reasonable and substantial doubt. The murder of Troy Davis was the the worst human rights violation – a legalised murder committed by the United States Government – an obscene baying for blood, an act of vengeance against the innocent.

• iPad Apps I will Like to Create (1)

  Posted: September 22, 2011, 12:35 am by Emmanuel Iduma

  
  
  

  Last week, I bought a copy of ‘iPad: The Creative Pro’s Guide,’ which is a special edition of Computer Arts. It screamed ‘design your iPad app’ and I began to speculate on the possibility of learning to use the ‘Apple backend.’ For, as the people at Computer Arts affirm, the iPad and iPhone has brought a new twist to digital art and design (see interesting reports here and here). But, understanding how complex this might be for a person with varied passion and enthusiasm (as I verily am), I figured that it might be useful to state the ideas I have for iPad apps. Who knows, this playful manifesto might be useful for the app-developer who stumbles upon my ideas. And, given how good I am feeling today, I only request for a small mention of my name in the app!

  Here are four ideas that could be wireframed into iPad apps – or thrown into the trash can.

  1. Padrarian – An app that allows users to borrow ebooks from a vast collection for a stipend or no cost at all. Once an ebook is borrowed, it will last for a specific time-span, and the user/borrower can choose from the available timespans (from one week to four weeks). After the selected time elapses, the ebook will be inaccessible. The goal would be to provide users with a library service on the iPad. A website will be dedicated to updating the app (making it up to date with the books on the e-library).
  2. All Reader – An app that enables the iPad to serve as some sort of wireless router, enabling mobile phones and allied devices to access books and readable materials from the (parent) iPad. Such that an iPad can serve a large number of users – the app can be downloaded on other devices, such that the interface of the iPad is replicated on the ‘slave’ devices. The app will be configured in such a way that QWERTY keypads can access the iPad’s interface. The iPad’s wireless service will cover a reasonable range.
  3. Gutenpad – An app that collects a huge amount of book summaries (each book summarized into not more than 750 words) on a wide array of subjects. It will be created for the quick reader, whose list of to-reads is piling each second. The app will be a sort of Project Gutenberg in synoptic form.
  4. iSocial – an app that is a diary of Tweets and Facebook posts. Based on the fact that proposed users of the app are addicted to social networking, it will be necessary a user’s tweets and posts are scarcely (if ever) collaged. Consider the fact that Facebook and Twitter are diaries of some sort – most users use daily. The only difference between a tangible diary and these is that the former has a system of referencing

  I am hoping that in the future – some days, weeks, whenever – I can come up with more ideas, and see where it goes from here. But notice that I am really interested in apps that emphasize on accessibility to the readable material. I might be playing around with the ideas of the apps, but I am dedicatedly serious about emphasizing that more Africans have access to reading platforms.

  That said, leave me to my dreams!

   

• The Blame Game

  Posted: September 21, 2011, 1:17 pm by Rumbidzai Dube

  
  
  

  I have been asking myself why it is that people never want to take responsibility for their own actions especially when the consequences of their actions are negative. Why is it so much easier to find scapegoats and shift the blame on others what is called chipomerwa in Shona, my mother tongue than to face the truth and find ways of dealing with the problem ? Why then is it that people expect problems to disappear yet they have not addressed the part of the problem to which they are the problem? These are questions I have been asking myself every time I think of the economic meltdown that Zimbabwe has undergone and the consequences that the meltdown has had on the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans,especially women and children.

  In 2008; the worst year ever in Zimbabwean economic history since its independence in 1980, the lives of many people were transformed for the worst. The nation was plunged into poverty and the burden of poverty wore heavily on women as the mothers and in some cases sole breadwinners for their families. The food that most people grew up taking for granted was no longer so easily accessible and the content of the basket which was once considered basic consisting of bread, milk, tea-leaves, sugar, margarine, mealie-meal, meat, vegetables, cooking oil, washing and bathing soap and Vaseline became a privilege. Families were forced to eat a single meal each day and the meal would consist of food rich in starch to stave off starvation. Such an unbalanced diet led to increased reports of malnutrition.

  Women with school going children struggled to pay school fees. Some failed to pay the fees forcing the children to drop out of school. In some cases where they could afford the fees, school uniforms were unaffordable so the children were sent to school with no uniforms. At a time when food was hard to get by, healthcare was not a priority, no wonder there was an increase in maternal and infant mortality. Access to proper medical care and medication became the preserve of the affluent.

  In their resilience, women channelled their energy to the informal market and a spring of misikas (vegetable market stalls) and flea markets ironically manned by women became a growing phenomenon as women tried to make ends meet. Some started going to neighboring states to bring any goods that could be sold and the phenomenon of cross-border trading became a house-name in Zimbabwe.

  When social justice movements and watchdogs of democracy spoke their minds against this deterioration in the lifestyle of Zimbabweans, they were thrown into prison cells. The stories of the arrest, detention and harassment of members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) among others hit the headlines.

  But, it is also at that time that the black-market flourished as mainly young men engaged in shady deals madhiri. The field of gold panning chikorokoza and diamond dealing zvengoda made many people rich. But, these fields were the preserve of men as very few women were daring enough to engage in such cutthroat business. So yes, women in Zimbabwe bore the brunt of an economic era that was unregulated and chaotic.

  The question remains how did the Zimbabwean economy collapse? The responses to this question will always vary depending on whom it is addressed to. The general public will say it is because of the corruption by political leaders. Economists and other political analysts will say it is because of the disastrous economic policies and politics that the ZANU-PF government implemented. The ZANU –PF loyalists and party members will say it is because of the sanctions imposed by the West (Europe, Australia and North America) which some of our own (meaning the MDC) supported. The West will say it was the mismanagement of the economy by ZANU-PF especially a disorderly land reform process that destroyed an agro-based economy. Viewed separately each response has a ring of truth. But these responses also reflect certain levels of bias and a failure by each group to appreciate and acknowledge its own role and contribution to the demise of the economy.

  Disastrous economic policies

  Zimbabwe’s involvement in the Coltan War in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between 1998 and 2003 significantly impacted the economy. The military initiative emptied the public coffers. Zimbabwe’s contribution was estimated at 11 000 in human resources and an unaccounted number of war-equipment. Most people viewed the war as unnecessary since the country was not under any strategic threat given Zimbabwe’s geographical positioning from the DRC. A report by the then Finance Minister of Finance Simba Makoni in his briefing to Parliament in August 2000 revealed that government expenditure directed towards the war was over USD $200 million. The reasons for that controversial intervention, the depth of losses incurred and the impact it had on the economy have never been fully accounted for and hence the real details remain mere speculation.

  The disorderly and sporadic land reform process which began in 2000 not only failed to redistribute land equitably, but also removed land from the hands of the white population and placed it in the hands of a few elites. Most of the beneficiaries neither have farming skills nor do they have the business sense of approaching farming at a large scale. Under-utilisation of the land and reduced production destroyed the basis of an economy which was agriculturally based and hence shoved the economy many steps into the dungeons. Zimbabwe used to grow enough food to feed its own people and feed the region as well but now thousands go hungry and each year. The World Food Programme and other relief agencies have had to intervene to feed Zimbabweans.

  It is also true that the widespread mismanagement of funds and excessive spending on luxury vehicles contributed in increasing government expenditure. This milked the government’s revenue and widened the debt deficit the country owed to international monetary institutions. The response of the Reserve Bank, between December 2008 and 2010, to limited foreign currency flows into the formal market with constant devaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar and the printing of higher denomination value bank notes backed by nothing fuelled inflation and completely rubbished our currency. It also promoted speculative tendencies which drove trade in foreign currency to the black market where rates were more lucrative than the formal channels. This caused even greater reduction to the foreign currency flows in the formal market and the result was hyperinflation.

  The corruption that surrounds the mining of diamonds, platinum and other precious minerals has seen the country incurring losses with a few beneficiaries amassing wealth from the country’s resources. The politics of violence and intimidation that the country has experienced since 2000 has also led to its designation as an ‘unsafe tourist destination’ hence reducing the amount of revenue flowing into the coffers through tourism. Hence it cannot be disputed that the ZANU-PF led government played a major role in taking the Zimbabwean economy to the doldrums.

  Sanctions
  The role that Western powers have played to the death of the Zimbabwean economy cannot be dismissed as insignificant. The sanctions imposed by the United States under the banner of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 (ZIDERA) contributed to the economic woes. This Act significantly reduced Zimbabwe’s access to finance and credit facilities. With limited access to foreign currency, inability to apply for debt cancellations, coupled with the global financial crisis, Zimbabwe’s chances of surviving in such harsh conditions were next to nil. This catalysed fuel shortages witnessed acutely in 2008 which in turn catalysed price increases of all basic commodities and significantly made the cost of living higher.

  The EU targeted sanctions which imposed an asset freeze on a few prominent leaders not only failed to serve their intended purpose which was to address the violation of human rights in Zimbabwe but they also fuelled corruption. With their lifestyles demanding huge cash-flows, individuals with political influence whose assets were frozen, simply used their influence to siphon state resources to make up for the financial gap created in the absence of their frozen fat bank balances.

  Absence of the rule of law
  There is nothing wrong with citizens expecting state institutions to enforce the rule of law. Under normal circumstances it is the responsibility of the state to ensure that there is rule of law. However in the absence of effective state institutions and in the absence of sanctions then the resultant end is anarchy. But who is the anarchist? It is the citizens. It is you (who is reading this article) and I. When citizens obey the law because they fear sanctions and act against the same law when the sanction goes away or if there is no one to enforce it, I believe it is their fault if their actions have negative consequences on themselves.

  My point is to ask, how many Zimbabweans will stand and say they never traded foreign currency on the black market because there was no regulation to stop them? How many did not sell whatever they had and which they knew to be on demand at exorbitant prices ignoring the 40% mark-up needed to make a decent profit? How many people pay their domestic workers meagre wages because the Labour court never came knocking on their door? How many Zimbabweans are involved in informal trade yet they have not given a dime to the government in tax returns because the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has not caught them out? How much revenue was lost through tax evasion by Zimbabwean citizens?

  Many argued and will argue of course that paying tax under the previous regime was tantamount to feeding a corrupt government, but how many still evade paying tax with the new inclusive government in place and despite its clear appeal for revenue to get the economy back on track. The private sector has taken to mimicking the exploitative nature of the government, paying employees peanuts despite making mega profits and forcing thousands of skilled labour out of the country in search of greener pastures. So who should be blamed? For the shrinking pool of skilled labour? For the corruption that has become endemic? For the government‟s bankruptcy? For the demise of the Zimbabwean economy?
  
  The reality
  The response I will never get from all the different groups would be; “The Zimbabwean economy collapsed because we all contributed in some way to its demise.” The ‘we’ implies an assumption of responsibility and acknowledgement that everyone is part of the problem. It is not a mere shelving of responsibility on other parties’ shoulders and it is a reflection of honesty. Honesty that speaks of commendable levels of self-introspection and a wish to change the fate of this beautiful country I call home.

  Indeed the government, the Western powers, the politicians and we the people of Zimbabwe have all contributed to our economic woes and until we accept this reality and take concrete steps to solve the part of the problem in which we are the problem then Zimbabwe’s economy shall never rise out of this pit. Zimbabwe is currently rated as the country with the largest diamond deposits in the world. It has gold, copper, coal, platinum, silver and vast amounts of mineral deposits. It has wide expanses of land for agriculture. One of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Victoria Falls, is in Zimbabwe and the country could be bringing in revenue through tourism. Yet this same country ranked 172 out of 191 states on the Human Poverty Index in 2010, 159th on the Ease of Doing Business Index and is one of the lowest ranked countries on the General Inequality Index (GINI).

  People are starving surrounded by arable land and flowing rivers. Scores are unemployed and the government is broke!! This suffering that Zimbabweans are going through could have been avoided and can still be overcome. Accountability for a few hundred diamonds could change so many things. Strategic and well thought out redistribution of land could also make food available on people’s tables. Black empowerment strategies that are reasoned and conscientious of the global market paradigm in which we live would also ensure employment and production of good quality, affordable goods for Zimbabwean people.

  Initiatives that seek to empower grassroots economically targeting women who have proved to be the breadwinners and providers of families in trying times would ease the poverty. The politicians may jump in like bull frogs into hot water, dragging whole nations along and when a whole nation’s legs are burnt then they want to drag it in yet another wrong direction, but the ‘people’ do not have to let them continue doing so. The end to corruption starts with the individual, choosing to be a whistleblower. Choosing not to be corrupt is choosing a transparent nation and possibly a stable economy.

• 419 Reasons

  Posted: September 20, 2011, 9:25 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  In two weeks Nigeria will attempt yet another deception by claiming to “celebrate’ 51 years of independence.  There will be the usual speeches, parades and flag waving by undignified dignitaries.  Bloggers and Tweeps will simultaneously rubbish the country, ask for God’s salvation, pray and claim its not really that bad and continue the search for 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria.  Growth is at 7% but there is no national grid and everyone relies on generators; billions have been made from oil yet the region where it is produced is impoverished.

  Today the country is faced with daily attacks by Boko Haram; religious and ethnic violence in Plateau State; rumblings from ex militants in the Niger Delta; political assassinations and increasing number of kidnappings; the labeling and abuse of children as witches.   Encircling all of  these is the ongoing corruption and here I am not only referring to politicians and civil servants but religious institutions and just about every aspect of life; the persistent decades long crisis in education, health, infrastructure, environmental destruction and the violence of poverty.  Of course none of these are peculiar to Nigeria and there are countries where corruption, poverty levels and violence are far far worse. But I dont want to get into the trap of comparisons. The point is how do we as citizens respond to our realities?  How do we respond to the gang rape of a young woman which is subsequently broadcast on YouTube or the extrajudicial murder of a young man also broadcast on YouTube?

  By launching a campaign on 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria and Nigerians? The campaign takes its name “419” from the financial scams originally associated with Nigeria but copied by fraudsters throughout the world.  The first initiative to “like Nigeria” was the ‘The 419Positive Project’ which invited Nigerians and their friends to come up with “419 positive attributes of Nigerians”.  The “419 Reasons to Like ……..” follows on from this by asking bloggers and tweepers to write positive things about Nigeria which seems to me to be not only a thankless task but given the serious failings and present crises, wholly misdirected.   The energy spent in trying to come up with positive reasons to like a country would be better spent in organising and campaigning around the many problems which are being neglected.    The “419 positives”so far listed such as a Nigerian winning political office in Poland or winning a sporting event, though wonderful personal accomplishments, have no bearing on the shaping of political and economic forces in the country.    There is a political immaturity about the 419 Reasons……. which is little more than a tabloid gimmick with minimal substance in a country which is addicted to corruption, to militarism, to individualism, to religion and hypocrisy.   Though I fully respect her decision to stop writing, how I miss the insight and critical thinking of one of the very few serious Nigerian political blogs, Nigerian Curiosity.

  Nigerian leaders have always viewed criticism as unpatriotic or even treason and many a journalist has paid the price for daring to speak out.   We as citizens should not fall into the same stupor of denial.  To be critical is not a betrayal rather it is our duty as citizens to raise the national consciousness and seriously engage with political processes.

  Take the gang rape of the young woman and incidentally four weeks on and people continue to watch the video.  Abia State University deny the rapists are students. Neither the police nor the State government officials have come out to even make a statement let alone investigate and hopefully arrest the rapists.  Many of the comments on the Facebook page “Nigerians Against Rape” are voyeuristic as people go into detailed discussion on the video – who said what and did what and when and so the rape goes on and on.

  Of course there are positives for instance resistance to violence and militarism or searching for ways to ensure that when women are raped they can expect to receive justice.  Here we can turn to the numerous examples of women who historically have been at the forefront of struggles for social and economic justice such as the market women of Aba and Egbaland,  Ogoni and Ijaw women. But these are not individual achievements they are actions by communities. What would they have achieved by trying to come up with 419 positives instead of facing the colonial state or an occupying army?

  There is something disturbing whereby people feel the need to be liked because of their nationality or person which assumes one can be disliked for the same reason – neither is rational.  419 Reasons….. is an obsession with the self – please please like me because I am a really nice person and I can prove it.  It’s the encounters with people and communities and how we experience each other that influences the way we feel about particular people or groups of people.

   

• “Our Africa” – New critical thinking by African women

  Posted: September 20, 2011, 4:01 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  “Our Africa” is a series of “critical analysis and fresh thinking” by African Women. The essays highlight the key issues facing African women and “the economic and political forces shaping” the continent. The series is edited by Jessica Horn, Jane Gabriel, and Amel Gorani.

  On the launch of the series Mariame Toure Quattara writes on women farmers organising to denounce agricultural policies in Burkina Faso; Amina Mama on how women must and can respond to the impact of growing militarism on our lives; and Jessica Horn reflects on the lives of two African feminists, Kenya’s Wambui Otieno Mbugua and Nigeria’s Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti

  On 30 August 2011 Wambui Otieno Mbugua passed away in her home country Kenya, after a life of dedicated and fearless activism. She may not have been a household name of the variety beamed through our television sets across the globe, although she certainly was a household name in the hearts of many an African activist. And yet the landscape of the battles that she fought and the issues she fought for are now given audience in mainstream policy forums. As a young leader in the Mau Mau rebellion against British colonial rule she risked her life in the name of her people’s freedom, facing sexual violation at the hands of a British colonial officer. She was adamant that silence was not an option, and called for her rapist to be prosecuted. Throughout her life Wambui Otieno continued to question the masculist pen in which the rules of society were written – choosing against the logic of ethnic nationalism to marry a man of a different ethnic group, challenging customary rules that deemed her without a right as a woman to decide on where her dead husband would be buried, and later withstanding public criticism at her decision to choose a second husband decades younger than her. Eulogies by contemporary African activists such as Muthoni Wanyeki – former director of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission – attest to brightness of the flame that Wambui Otieno lit.

  The figure of Wambui Otieno Mbugua evokes the memory of another trailblazer, Nigerian Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. As discussion on the legacy of musician/activist Fela Kuti is revived through the Broadway musical about his life, we are also reminded that it was his mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti who laid the foundations of much of his resistance politics. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was an indefatigable voice against the injustices of her time. In the 1940s she successfully organised the market women of Abeokuta, the city in which she lived, against a tax levied on them by the colonial-backed traditional ruler of Abeokuta (an event framed as the Egba Women’s War). In the same collectivist spirit she co-founded a number of mass-based women’s organisations in Nigeria. In a literal embrace of freedom of movement, she was the first Nigerian woman to drive a car.

• Fear: An Avalanche of the Frantic

  Posted: September 19, 2011, 1:39 am by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  An avalanche of frantic
  Fear besets the mind &
  The animal called Everyone thinks it has
  Found shared knowledge.
  “Everyone knows,” they
  Said & nobody asked me;
  Robbed of reason they
  To ancient beast of fear
  & Act the part to a tee.
  Fear is God, fear is grim,
  Fear is knowledge, fear!
  The root of all evil is the
  Point where fear robs us
  Of reason, of humanity.
  Nobody cares to uncover
  The disorder of daily life
  Instead they call it “Order” to get by. All
  They need is the petulant
  Voice & they run away all
  Knowing; knowing knot!
  Why? They feel a
  Preponderance of the
  Unknown, they feel the
  Sheer smallness of their
  Place in the universes, They feel a Preponderance of frantic Fear altogether at once &
  Think: Does that mean I’m a lesbian? Does it Mean I’m gay? Does it Mean I’m straight? Damn
  You for making me think
  Hand in hand with you lot Fear follows questioning Silence. Fear becomes God over night, oh my God
  Nothing said About, ‘thou shall not use God’s name in vain’. When
  Fear becomes God every
  Thing is in vain…

  Mia Nikasimo (c)

• links for 2011-09-19

  Posted: September 19, 2011, 5:11 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  • On Racial Literacy: "A White Side of Black Britain" Twine shows that living in transracial spaces does not necessarily provide a greater understanding of race and racism. (tags: britain racism Class Gender White_Britain Black_Britain)
  • Difficult love, difficult truth – Mail & Guardian Online: The smart news source Interview with Zanele Muholi on her photography and activism (tags: Queer southafrica photography Lesbian transgender)

• Making a Presence (3)

  Posted: September 17, 2011, 1:42 pm by Emmanuel Iduma

  
  
  

  Change should never be considered in exhaustible parameters; I believe we should be resigned to our inability to measure how we have been besieged (permit me – this is how I often think of it) by the inexhaustibility of the internet, the e-age, and a digital culture. In this concluding post, I will make an effort of contemplating how important it is for African literary outfits to ensure that their outlook is speculatively accommodating of the infiniteness of the internet (‘outfits’ is a necessary word because I advocated in the last post for efforts that look beyond just a web-presence. Not even double-edged seems to be the word anymore; perhaps x-edged, x being a value for infiniteness.)

  Saraba, which I co-publish, is one of the few online literary magazines that is managed by Africans in Africa. This is disconcerting, knowing the huge impact the internet is having on literature and literacy. Although I am inclined to write a piece on the fiery word-war between e-book publishing and traditional book publishing, I am equally tempted to neglect that desire since Africa in many respects is yet to catch up with the requirements of an electronic literary age. Yet for the purpose of a discourse, and perhaps for a prophetic analysis of the future of African e-literature, I point the reader to such pieces on Guardian, Tara Books, The Million (which has a section called ‘the future of books), and Washington Post. I even think the comments that accompany the pieces are equally as important – I find that the war is indeed a war, and hopefully I can make a contribution, however little, to the conversation in my next post.
  
  As I noted, there are few outfits online that seek to encourage the work of emerging writers, or even avenues for established writers to speak directly to their kin. I made an insistent search and found mostly links pointing to Kwani?, Chimurenga, Story Time, New Gong Magazine, Sentinel Nigeria which is not to say I was patient and careful enough (I came across Youthful Malawian Writers for the first time; there must be others out there). And of course there are those other outfits based outside Africa which continue to reflect a consciousness to publishing fine literature from Africa – African Writer, African Writing, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Sentinel UK.

  Aside an x-edged approach, I believe it is important publishers of African literature take notice of other equally important facts. Such as, for instance, the amount of time potential readers spend on other platforms. By Alexa’s Traffic ranking of websites, Google is first, then Facebook, then YouTube, then Yahoo. How do we, as publishers, direct readers to our sites? How will they spend a fraction, however little, of the time they have to spend on the internet (say 13 to 15 hours in a week or more) on our websites? Or how do create our work in a way that appreciates the fact that Facebook is often a first-rate option before any other? Do we make our work as offline as it is online? Would iPad, Kindle, and Nook versions of our magazines be worth a try? So, for instance, we publish Saraba as a PDF magazine, and we get about 300 downloads (excluding the number of people who receive the magazine in a flash disk, or by Bluetooth, etc, etc). This ensures that our readers can read online (since a number of the works in the PDF is also published online) as well as on their computer, on Kindle, and on other apps that support PDFs.

  And because I lately began to see that web optimization is equally as important as content or layout of the website – Saraba ranks close to 11,000,000 in Alexa Traffic Ranking, pitifully – I find it important to consider what is being sought for online (keywords on Google) and finding a way to incorporate it in tags and blog posts. As such, the publisher of online literature in Africa must ensure that the zine is not treated simply as art, or literature. There is the psychology of the internet which must be put into consideration, perhaps an exaptation – as Stephen Jay Gould refers to music in response to the vexed problem of nonadaptative changes – which suggests we have a new behavioural pattern that is not innate in response to the internet. As publishers, we must consider this new form of adaptation, and respond to its challenges. We cannot depend on links on Twitter and Facebook alone to spread our word online – there is the power of search engines which can be used for our benefit. Except, of course, we are only concerned with showcasing the work of new writers that should not be seen, or we want to be visible to a tiny republic.

  But most of what is required needs to be achieved with sizeable income. I do not know of any literary outfit in Africa that makes profit – and I forget to ask Ivor Hartman if the first (print) edition of African Roar made profit (there are indications that it did not, since the forthcoming edition is an e-book). We do not pay our contributors, because there are no sales on the website, not even adverts, which we often solicit for, are yielding fruit. Saraba hopes to apply for a grant next year – but from whom? Most grantors are non-African, and are increasingly hard to find. Not many people donate to the magazine. I can only think of two donations since Saraba was founded (I cannot say for other outfits). While we are intent on publishing print issues, the average amount needed is about five hundred thousand naira (approx. $3,500), and neither myself nor Damilola Ajayi, or any of our editors, can pull off that amount.  I am certain that if this challenge is overhauled, we can make reasonable progress in our work.

  Yet, I am pleased with a number of glimmers that have appeared in the last five years – as a matter of fact, most of us (Saraba, Sentinel Nigeria, Story Time) are less than five years old. But then, there is Naija Stories, which for me represents Africa’s finest attempt to ensure a literary social network. The site appears to be a conversation, an exchange between writers and enthusiasts that otherwise will be sidelined. And there are the contests run by Naija Stories too (I won one of the contests in 2010, and I am shortlisted for the ongoing one; vote for me!).

  The Naija Stories example points to the absoluteness I speak about. My head is swirling with ideas of iPad apps that can help African literature, or how Saraba can be published for Kindle users, or mobile phone literature, etc. etc. More or less, surely can create a keitai shoestsu for Africa? There are infinite possibilities, not infinite challenges.

  The lesson we are learning, those of us whose passion have outlived insufficiency and ignorance, is that with consistency, prolificness, resilience, and foresight, we can create for Africa a contemporarily unique literary experience. We are yet to make a presence; the idea is that we are in motion – making – and we will not stop. As I am write this, I think of those writers who are making the sacrifice – Ivor Hartman, Emmanuel Siguake, Richard Ali, Damilola Ajayi, Myne Whitman, etc. etc. And I am freed from all despair.

   

• Troy Davis: 14 Days in May – The execution of Edward Earl Johnson

  Posted: September 16, 2011, 1:05 am by Sokari

  
  
  

  This was the third time I watched this documentary on the last 14 days in the life of Edward Earl Johnson who was executed in Mississippi’s gas chamber on May 20, 1987. This is a horrific act of cruel and inhumane punishment that has everything to do with vengeance and little to do with justice. The evidence against Edward Earl Johnson was weak and tenuous and further investigation after his execution revealed it was highly unlikely Earl Johnson was guilty. In less than a week a similar fate awaits Troy Davis. To try to stop his execution please sign the many petitions, write emails whatever you can to stop this from happening OR just write to Troy that you care, that he is loved whatever happens! Let this not be the last five days of Troy Davis’s life.

  In this Follow up to 14 days in May – Johnson’s lawyer, Stafford Smith [Reprieve] searches for the truth behind Johnson’s arrest, trial and execution.

  Troy Anthony Davis, his family’s website
  [troyanthonydavis.org]
  NAACP Too Much Doubt Campaign    [www.naacp.org]
  Amnesty International Too Much Doubt Campaign    [www.amnestyusa.org]
  Educators for Troy `Teach Troy Davis’ Emergency
  Curriculum for Educators
  [troydaviseducation.wordpress.com]
  Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
  [www.gfadp.org]
  National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
  [www.ncadp.org]
  Campaign to End the Death Penalty
  [www.nodeathpenalty.org]

  Write to Troy: Send our brother Troy some love and light.
  Troy Anthony Davis, 41, has been on death row in Georgia for
  more than 19 years: Troy A. Davis, 657378, GDCP G-3-79, P.O.
  Box 3877, Jackson GA 30233.

• I Am: When being one’s self is enough – A film by Sonali Gulati

  Posted: September 15, 2011, 8:24 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  The journey home is always fraught with contradictions. The longing for the place you left and the realisation that your imagination was far from the reality; the joy of the familiar and remembrance; the realisation that possibly your home is now somewhere else and breaking away is as difficult as coming home. I Am is a journey home but one which is compounded by the loss of a mother and coming out.

  Trailer for I AM (documentary film by sonali gulati) from Sonali Gulati on Vimeo.

  DIRECTOR’S NOTES

  I started making I Am in 2005. My personal experience of leading a closeted life and my inability to come out to my mother before she died, serves as not only the motivation, but also the starting point for the film. As I began to come out to some of my friends, I noticed that this was not as muted, or invisible, or shameful a subject as I had perceived it to be. I managed to connect with a community of people who were out to their parents, some of whom were even very accepting and understanding. As a departure from my own story, I Am became a portrait of various Indian families, living in India, dealing with having a gay or lesbian family member.

  I knew that I wanted to focus on people living in India, because at the time, lawyers in favor of keeping Section 377 (the law that criminalized homosexuality in India) argued that homosexuality was a western import and that it was not part of Indian culture and history. What was ironic was that they were fighting to keep in place a British law that was exactly that.

  I Am is an innovative film that takes more than simply creative risks. The experience of making this film has shown me the power in representing one’s self and one’s community from the inside, striking a balance between the need to inform and the need to maintain privacy.

• links for 2011-09-15

  Posted: September 15, 2011, 5:02 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  • Cameras Everywhere: Current Challenges and Opportunities at the Intersection of Human Rights, Video and Technology – Global Voices Advocacy (tags: Advocacy Witness humanrights)
  • The railroading of Troy Davis (tags: Troy_Davis Georgia Capital_Punishment)
  • African & Caribbean Filmmakers To Gather In Cuba To Talk Collaborating (Danny Glover Leads Charge) > Shadow and Act | Cinema of the African Diaspora September 12,2011. U.S. actor Danny Glover will lead a large delegation of filmmakers from Africa and the Caribbean to participate in a meeting in Havana on audiovisual production in those regions and their cultural ties and identity. Organized by the Office of the Traveling Caribbean Film Festival, the event will meet next week at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, with debates, panel discussions and presentations on the aesthetic and narrative components of the films in both territories. (tags: Caribbean Arica Film Cuba)

• The beauty of revolution – Steve Biko lives!

  Posted: September 14, 2011, 5:15 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  Two interesing and not unrelated blog posts to mark the 34th anniversary of Steve Biko‘ death. In the first Khadija Patel interviews Andile Mngxitama, South African Black consciousness activists and co-editor of “Biko Lives!” – the mistake is to have believed he died on that day 34 years ago. It is much harder to kill an idea than a person as Andile points out.

  “Steve Biko… we say Biko lives. Steve Biko lives,” insists Mngxitama, “The biggest mistake of the apartheid regime was to think they could kill him and his ideas.” Mngxitama believes Biko himself understood the need for longevity in his ideas when he wrote, “It is better to die for an idea that will live than to live for an idea that will die.” Steve Biko is certainly more than a T-shirt. His were ideas that galvanised the struggle against the apartheid and a realisation of self-worth among black people themselves.

  “Today we see young people outside of the political formation trying to read and understand Biko, try to make sense of Steve Biko in a country which remains basically anti-black. So, from this point of view, it is very clear that Biko lives,” – Read the full interview here

  The second post is less an idea and more a reality is a speech given by Abhalali baseMjondolo President, S’bu Zikode on the progress of post-apartheid south Africa. [A discussion between Zikode and Andile would be an interesting one and I wonder why this has not happened to date especially since Abhalali is a breathing revolution] Much of what Zikode speaks confirms Andile’s comment that South Africa is anti-black – “a white country under black management”
  

  Land has not been fairly redistributed. The economy continues to exclude and to exploit. Millions are without work and millions are working but still poor and without security. Most of the land and the economy remains in the hands of rich whites. They have been joined by some rich blacks but the poor, the majority, remain locked out. The great change we have seen over the past seventeen years has been the change from a white government to a black government but this black government is not a government of the people. It is led by a few wealthy individuals who continue to enrich themselves in the name of democracy. Corruption in governance has become the norm. Politics has become a new economic path and a career for the young members of the ruling party. Politics means access to tenders, access to wealth and control. Politics is not about serving the people.

  We had thought that the new government would replace a system of exclusion and inequality with a just society. But what they have actually done is to simply take their place in that system of exclusion and inequality. They have not tried to transform that system. We are told that now that the system is under black management we are free. We have refused to accept this. When the government celebrates Freedom Day in the stadiums every year we mourn unFreedom Day in the shacks.

• links for 2011-09-14

  Posted: September 14, 2011, 5:02 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  • Robert Fisk – The Age of the Warrior (tags: Terrorism War USA Torture)
  • Stop Sept 21 Execution of Troy Davis! Campaign Just a week to the state murder of Troy Davis - AND NOW HIS EXECUTION HAS BEEN SET FOR WEDNESDAY, SEPTMEBER 21!. 
    TELL THE GEORGIA GOV., LEGISLATURE, PRESIDENT OBAMA, ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDEN, CONGRESS AND THE MEDIA: STOP THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS! (tags: Troy_Davis Capital_Punishment State_Murder Georgia)
  • The march of the neoliberals | Politics | The Guardian Neoliberalism is grounded in the "free, possessive individual", with the state cast as tyrannical and oppressive. The welfare state, in particular, is the arch enemy of freedom. The state must never govern society, dictate to free individuals how to dispose of their private property, regulate a free-market economy or interfere with the God-given right to make profits and amass personal wealth. State-led "social engineering" must never prevail over corporate and private interests. It must not intervene in the "natural" mechanisms of the free market, or take as its objective the amelioration of free-market capitalism's propensity to create inequality. (tags: Neo-liberal UK Politics)

• Making a Presence (2)

  Posted: September 9, 2011, 7:27 am by Emmanuel Iduma

  
  
  

  I remember an argument in my undergraduate philosophy class on the often blurred line between the public and the private. Essentially, we argued that it will be difficult to make an ascertained case for what is aptly defined as public – such as, for instance morality. This, of course, echoes Ludwig Wittgenstein, but as I do not have enough space I will not venture into furthering the argument. In this vein, however, it seems apparent that it is a lie to think it is possible to shield an online representation (a post, an article, even an email) from the eyes of an all-seeing public. This ‘public’  and its omnipresence is even harder to define.

  I am interested in questioning access in this second post of the series. The interesting fact, which makes me elated as well as suspicious, is that the means to access the internet is endless. While more and more people in Africa are accessing the internet (that is, those who have a basic education, whose need extends beyond just feeding, living), it will be interesting to speculate on what such access will mean for African literature online.

  There are indications that Nigeria’s population has favoured its ranking – with up to 37.1% of all internet use in Africa. To use the internet one needs a computer or a phone or tablet, etc. etc. Computers are not widespread as mobile phones (I even think there are more smartphone users in Nigeria than computer users). And so, I prefer to consider the use of mobile phones to access the internet. It sounds better, knowing that phones are not usually gifts from aid organisations, phones are mostly bought by Africans. (Please read a detailed report on Publishing Perspectives where there are facts about access to the internet. I will concern myself with consequential matters).

  Before a person makes a decision to use a mobile phone for other purposes aside making a calling and SMSing, such other purposes must be deemed needful, of course. In some sense, this need arises from the reason why a phone is bought in the first place (networking, communication). But it also extends, I think, to the possibilities surrounding the internet – the ability to be informed, to exchange ideas, and to stay relevant. It is easy to see, then, why Facebook, Google and Yahoo are the three most visited sites in Nigeria. I state, further, that it is clear that Facebook is the first because I believe it is more primary for people to want to remain relevant (after they are fed, that is). Then Google because people are subsequently interested in ideas, knowledge. And Yahoo (Yahoo News too), because email is a good way to receive information,.
  
  Against this backdrop, it is very important that publishers of African literature online approach an audience that has the ability to access. There is the idea of a double-edged approach to publishing. As Cassava Republic’s publishers seem to understand an assault should be made on both e-platforms and via traditional models (I will conclude the series with an emphasis on the prospects and challenges of this).

  And to be wiser, and safer, in thinking electronic, one’s gaze should be averted to the mobile phone as much as it is to the computer. As I noted, the need to communicate and network, especially for the young, extends beyond making calls and texting. There is my status to be updated, an email to be checked, a fact to be confirmed, etc. etc.

  It is clear that publishers might do little or nothing about the quality of access – Lack of widespread broadband and WiFi. I even believe it is a minor concern. What is more important is asserting a presence, making an effort known on all possible e-platforms. This is important because we are often unaware of how many people are watching, since we do not know how many people can see.

  Ah, I almost forgot. I stumbled across this interesting dialogue on Nigeria’s most popular blog. The gist favoured Black Looks. Yay!

   

• On Unpacking the LGBTI Communities: “I matter because I say I do and that all there is to it.”

  Posted: September 8, 2011, 5:28 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  This essay is a response to “Unpacking the LGBTI Communities,” by Audrey Mbugua. I do not know the author of this article personally but I am enamoured by her eloquence with the regards to the positioning of the “tagging” of the “T” onto the LGB. However I do not agree with the exclusions hazarded in the writer’s attempts to unpack the LGBTI community. Sure, according to the author, “[t]he issues concerning LGB people stem from sexual orientation, whereas those of transgender people stem from their gender.^” I almost said as in gender role but no. For me, matters are more personal and so is my gender identity.   I say who I am.  No  matter what the wider communities positions are. I matter because I say I do as an African (Black) transsexual woman (gender identity) who identifies as a lesbian (sexual orientation) and that all there is to it.

  In her article, “unpacking the LGBTI Communities” the writer’s heterosexuality is instantly apparent from the tone of this article but that does not excuse her cavalier attitude towards those transwomen who exercise their choice to be different from the hetero-normative dictat.   Unpacking the LGBTI without considering the fact that some transpeople  do identify as L, G, or B,  is an act of exclusion and the reasoning behind this statement will become apparent in due course. 

  Before we bother ourselves with the confliction of whether we (i.e. the “T“) are lumped together with the LGB or not, we ought to take a mirror, catch our own reflections and ask ourselves: “‘Mirror, mirror, who is the fairest of us all?’ To which our individual response ought to be, ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall; I am the dearest of them all. ’”   A self-referential sense, rather than relegating ourselves as slaves to society’s impositions upon the transgender community by generations of “compulsory heterosexualism” and again within the as in traditional LGB before us.  Perhaps, defining our collective selves as a community and doing so carefully so as to acknowledge the differences at the heart of the transgender communities as opposed to denying its diversity for whatever reason.

  I am aware of the local of the author -Kenya- and that she herself faces a separatist throng within the LGB not to mention the wider community that side steps issues affecting transgender people. I, on the other hand live in London, and trust me when I say that, living in the capital of the United Kingdom is no escape from LGB/heterosexual transphobia be it subtle or otherwise. I am also of the African Diaspora and I have experienced some of the worst instances of discrimination from Africans as well as from Europeans, Americans and Asians of all generations for reasons of my gender identity, my gender expression and my sexuality.
  
  We have to deal with all those transitional issues as the writer catalogues.  We also have lives beyond all those socio-economic determinants and the “go under the scalpel or not” that, the writer claims, members of the traditional LGB do not partake of by choice. This comes as a surprise bearing in mind that drag kings like Ru Paul, Denis Rodman to mention two, became world famous entertainers? Not to mention the throng of straight men that experiment with their gender expression in daily or nightly performance. I am saddened that the only example of a transperson in this article beside the writer seemed to think that distancing herself is sufficient excuse to say the following:

  I am transsexual woman who neither seeks anything from, or gives anything to, the LGB community. As far as I’m concerned, if every LGB vanished from the face of the earth tomorrow, if wouldn’t affect my Transsexualism one iota… I have nothing against LGB people, but their condition has nothing to do with my condition. Frankly, I don’t care what any of these “communities” do. As far as I’m concerned, they’d be better off looking at my example for guidance and support, than I would be looking at theirs. How are communities full of people like this going to benefit me?

  As if the LGB clamour means that the trans “LGB” ought to pretend not to exist. These issues are not up to them nor are they up to the author of this article. One thing I want to get out there if anything is that the traditional LGB possessive defence of the sexuality landscape is redolent with paranoia  that needs to respectfully ask when they do not understand the phenomenology of transsexuality or transgenderism. Striking self-righteous poses without understanding the trans community is as ignorant as a straight mob denying the existential integrity of traditional LGB where even bisexuals can sometimes find themselves grotesquely marginalized within the community.

  I acknowledge the writer of “Unpacking the LGBTI Communities” is Africa-specific. I lend voice to that argument in the sense that I am African too. I certainly don’t have to live my life based on what society, community, neighbour-hood commands members to do, irrespective of which of the many communities I belong to. Why not? I am an individual with a unique ability to make my own choices without having to be force fed by anyone. When a gay man once asked me: “did it hurt?”  I could have been rude but due to passing of time and experience I am beyond being defensive about gender specific curiosities. I faced him calmly in a level headed manner and responded, “No, it didn’t hurt!” He looked puzzled since for him, his penis was his very existence. I had to make him realise that my transition wasn’t just about what genitalia I had but me -my whole person. From the moment I decided to, “go the distance,” pardon the sports-speak it was no longer about personalised pain. As human beings, we give our “pain bodies” too much importance. I can hear that in the “straight transgender-ist” tone of “Unpacking the LGBTI Communities” which itself excludes my trans-difference, threatening to set me of in primordial fear, anger. My right to choose foreclosed in an instance by a presumption concerning how I lead this life of mine. I can also hear my own pain-body but at least I realise it. Not everyone would have the courage to do so with such ill-placed positioning as the writer of “unpacking…” postulates.

  It was about arriving and that arrival wasn’t subject to what my gender expression MUST BE! Apart from the initial “real life test” in which I was required to wear woman’s clothes my choice was for Tran feminism. I chose my position, space and appearances free of “absolutes” and that remains the same as a transsexual homosexual woman. So as transgender people, or transsexuals to be precise, according to the writer, we seem incapable of reason; we are also robbed of our right to make our own choices. She makes the following claim:

  What at times unnerves me is the ridiculous notion that transgender persons are pushing themselves to the homosexual crowd. It needs to be said transgender people are not to blame. It’s the way some gays (especially effeminate gays and butch lesbians) behave that created this problem to begin with… cross-dressing in parties and pride and having boob jobs to get into the she-male porn industry – it was assumed that gay men want to be women and lesbians want to be men. You made transsexuals look like a big joke and as people who capriciously break gender norms for the sake of it.

  This borders on hate speech and I’m saying this as one African transsexual woman to another. It comes across as homophobic and, in trying to defend homosexual transpeople belittles us. Our ability to fight our own fights, make decisions on how we choose to identify, making the assumption that we copy our gay sisters and brothers and in doing so ends up insulting us because of our life choices. That is coming from a transwoman is internalised transphobia. A greater understanding of the issues facing transgender people and how to access transgender resources globally is urgently needed rather than erroneous generalisations that more than likely would lead to confusion. Only last month, I received a hateful comment from a reader who was having difficulties negotiating the difference between transsexuality and transgenderism. The said readers comment went as follows:

  Please do not use TS and TG interchangeably. TSs are mainstream women born with the wrong body and fix it. TGs are men who choose to pretend to be women and love keeping their precious penis for life. TS is a birth defect while TGs are men who lie and pretend to be women and commit sick acts with their penis. Lumping TSs in with TGs is like lumping someone taking pain pills after surgery to a drug addict. TS is a birth defect and a type of mainstream woman, TG is a choice and a type of queer. ALL non-ops MtF TGs are men and NEED to be called male pronouns no matter how much they protest. To call a man who keeps HIS penis for life a she and her is immoral and wrong. ALL TSs need the surgery, while ALL TG men pretending to be women want their penises played with.”

  Did the “TS” in the story have surgery or was in need of it, or were they a TG man living a charade as a woman? If it was a TS, then the gay man was a bigot. If it was a TG, then the gay man did correct in warning the woman about the man pretending to be a woman and was supposed to keep his penis. Of course, any true-TS woman would have punched the f*g, and this person’s “overlooking” is a type of effeminacy – a male homosexual response. A female would have raised hell. But the “TS” must have enjoyed it as the lack of response showed. Any TS who doesn’t speak up EVERY time she is misgendered is not my sister.”

  We do not want to give people confusing information but even with our best efforts some people still have difficulties understanding. According to Emi Koyama quoting Cherrie Moraga:

  In this country, Lesbianism is a poverty-as is being brown, as is being a woman, as is being just plain poor. The danger lies in ranking the oppressions. The danger lies in failing to acknowledge the specificity of oppression

  These days, globally, transgenderism is the new poverty and transsexualism much more so especially if you do not pass. The writer’s failure to realise the diversity of transsexuality and inevitable sexualities of transpeople is such an act. I’m left wondering whether the writer of “unpacking…” fully understands how diverse transsexuality really is and that this goes beyond an assumed “compulsory heterosexuality” that she seems to favour over all else. I have to say that it is unfortunate that she so fleetingly overlooks the diversity at the heart of transsexualism not to mention the greater transgenderism when she claimed that:

  The wanton oversight that defined the LGBTI movement in divisive terms only stands to isolate transgender agency further in a homo-normative enclave. Internalised homophobia is rife but so is transphobia. Passing judgement on transwomen or transmen without fully understanding how gender identity and sexual orientation merge is detrimental to human evolution

  While I believe that subjective narration of transsexual experience is important for a fuller understanding of transsexual individuals and our life experiences in the world I object to sisters or brother who wantonly assume age old compulsory heterosexuality for all. As a transsexual woman who identifies as a lesbian myself I find these implications deeply offensive. The author of  “unpacking…” seems to claim that I do not have freewill or the right to make that choice. Is she saying that any woman has such rights to go outside heterosexuality by the same token or is that particular slur only reserved for transwomen that exercise that right?

  A closer look at “Unpacking The LGBTI Communities” reveals a regressive step backwards instead of encouraging a positive multitude going forward together in her assertions the latter takes precedence. Using the discomfort of a gay man for levity the writer of “unpacking…”quotes the unnamed person as stating the following:

  I dislike transsexuals. I have nothing against them. I just don’t want think they should be put in the same category as the gay/lesbian/bisexual community. Being transsexual doesn’t affect which gender you’re attracted to. I’m not saying they’re bad, I’m just saying that it doesn’t  belong in the classification of sexuality”

  another gay man claimed:

  “Transsexuals being associated with homosexuals make homosexuals look bad.”

  Sexuality fundamentalists or what? And the insults go on. One gay man again, even said, “I hate being put in the same boat as ‘transgender’. However his fears are apparent when he goes to talk about the appearance transwomen, surgical intervention we undergo and his need to keep up with the Joneses as an authentic gay man without noticing the hatred he deplores in the stereotypical view of transgender people. Perhaps all he was saying was like one Nigerian question asked once at an LGBTI conference when he said, “What does transgender mean anyhow?” an opportunity to educate if any but unfortunately the conference ended. We swapped contacts but no comeback took place. Really if people what to know anything about anything transgender include the best route to knowing and then understanding a given subject is to ask questions and follow through. Pandering to stereotypes, assumptions, and swift judgements are founded on dogmatic beginnings and or cultural conditioning. They do not help rather they give way to fascist mindsets where gender diversity ought to reign.

  The writer of “unpacking…” doesn’t specify or directly use lesbian or bisexual voices and at times she seems to stumble into the same stereotyping as the gay men above have done. She does not seem to be able to conceptualise homosexual transsexual women not to mention transsexual men in doing so excludes all other possible ways of identifying as a trans person. If this is the case, what would she make of a gender queer person or an mtf butch or a transdykes? Would she be willing to date an femme ftm, for instance? Trust me, I don’t mean to sound insulting. I am just attempting to map out the landscape that is trans-X-U-all ala Tracy O’Keefe and Katherine Fox of that same title… True transsexuality/transgenderism is about gender identity but everyone also has a sexuality unique to them. In addition, imagine a transwoman and her cissexual woman lesbian partner, do you need to cast aspersions on such healthy relationships because your worldview is so narrow as to recognise such fluidity as diversity is capable of conferring on the human race?

  Nothing is said about the throng of what constitutes transgenderism. Does of “unpacking… ,” for instance, realise that apart from being about gender identity transgenderism actual impacts on the entire human species as in QUILTBAG (coined by Lee Sadie, the interviewer talking to the gender performer, speaker and activist Kate Bornstein) as a featured in DIVA mag where a claim to unify sex, sexuality and gender identities and /gender roles were made in an interview with Kate Bornstein. Diversity comes in different forms and it is not fixed in the way the writer of “unpacking…” and company would prefer. We need to educate ourselves before we can educate others. I so hope she would not want to become the pied piper for the transphobic horde?

  Mia Nikasimo © August 2011

• links for 2011-09-08

  Posted: September 8, 2011, 5:12 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  • Discovered Files Show U.S., Britain Had Extensive Ties with Gaddafi Regime on Rendition, Torture If ever there was a moment for a revolution in our thinking, this is it. We have not understood, for 10 years, much of what the world has been about. We have waged war, and we are continuing to wage endless war in simplistic terms, domestically against our own Muslim citizens, against others, and against huge swaths of countries, now moving, for instance, to the Horn of Africa. We cannot continue in this permanence of combative aggression in our thinking, let alone our actions. And this is an opportunity, I would have thought, that Libya, in what’s being found there, which is essential historic documentation of how we arrived at this pass—it’s essential it be grappled with. (tags: War+Terror Rendition Imperialism revolution)
  • UK aided rendition of Libyan rebel – FT.com High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/821092cc-d713-11e0-bc73-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1XJFPbZ9s
    Britain’s intelligence services are under pressure to spell out the full extent of their links with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s former regime in Libya after it emerged that the UK was complicit in a successful US plot to transfer an Islamist terror suspect to Tripoli seven years ago. (tags: Libya War+Terror Rendition)
  • Perpetual War » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names And today while the majority of Euro-American citizens flounder in a moral desert, now unhappy with the wars, now resigned, now propagandized into differentiating what is, in effect, an overarching imperial strategy into good/bad wars, the US General Petraeus (currently commanding  the CIA) tells us: “You have to recognize also that I don’t think you win this war (tags: 9/11 War+Terror imperialism)

• Making a Presence

  Posted: September 7, 2011, 10:43 am by Emmanuel Iduma

  
  
  

  I have begun a daily routine of collecting links of pages I will like to visit later. The big problem, for me, is that I might not have enough eyes to take in all that is happening on the internet. Too many websites, too many apps, and contributions. This means a lot for various spheres of human endeavour. But I am more concerned with what it means for African literature. I am interested in this consideration for the simple reason that I am African, alive in Africa, and an emerging writer. What I often witness cannot be told on the media, because my experiences and the translation thereof do not undergo editorial processing, or streaming, or politicking. And so, as a writer in Africa, who is also involved in publishing, I have continuously try to figure out what the internet revolution (evolution) means for African literature.

  In these series of posts, I am interested in pointing attention to how creative writing in Africa intersects with the internet. I do not intend to make an exhaustive consideration. Hopefully more writers will think about this intersection, how our art is influenced by it, and how our intention to ‘make a presence’ will continuously shape the manner in which we are read and presented.

  I identify that since we are gingerly coming off print technology (keeping our eyes behind, yet looking forward), there are certain needs that confront us. These are: a literate audience, an audience with the ability to access, and an audience willing to receive a continued online effort. In this part, I will focus on the first, a literate audience.

  I am concerned that the definition of literacy (in response to who is literate?) relies heavily on the written material. However, it is obvious that a person who is literate in the sense that is defined above will find it easy to be literate in an e-sense (as opposed to literacy in the ‘print-sense’). A more complex challenge is the amount of people who can read and write in Africa. Even more challenging is the fact that not enough is being done, especially by governments, to make people literate. Literacy in the print-sense is important, in my view, because of the vast amount of information and knowledge that is available in print, and also, as is now evident, online.

  The point I am making is that whatever move being made in the e-sense must begin with an understanding of how much reception there is. Surely an online literary magazine is fruitless to the person who has never completed a novel. This leads to the idea that literacy can be close-ended and open-ended. In the former, literate individuals are content with their ability to read. They do not retain a hunger which open-ended literates do.

  It is, then, one thing to teach people to read and write and another to keep people reading. ‘Making a presence’ demands that both goals are achieved.

  I propose that the internet is better suited in achieving ‘open-ended’ literacy than print technology. This is because collaboration is a major component of internet use – in the sense that websites are created around comments, Tweets, Facebook Likes, sharing, and so forth. In essence, you read and you write. Print technology only demands for reading.

  But this distinction is important only where people are taught to read and write, and the teaching platform is such that recommends a life of hunger for literacy. If literacy is the goal of education, and if education never ends, literacy should not be one-off. What is necessary is that more avenues are created to offer the possibility of gaining meaning. As such, literacy must be defined around books as well as computers, phones, tablets and apps. The ideal platform that ensures literacy (both open and close ended) is one that seeks to impart knowledge, information and enquiry about the world and one’s place in it.

   

• Interview with Yaba Badoe – Its so easy to be called a witch

  Posted: September 6, 2011, 5:15 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

   

  Ghanaian writer “True Murder” and filmmaker “The Witches of Gambaga“, Yaba Badoe is interviewed by Beti Ellison  [African Women in Cinema Blog].  Yaba discusses how she first visited the village of Gambaga and the long journey to gain the trust of the women and their “protector” and ultimately complete the film.

   

  I first heard about the Witches’ camp at Gambaga in January 1995 when I was covering a story in Tamale for the BBC World Service. I was working as a stringer for the BBC’s Network Africa back then. I returned to Tamale in March of the same year, hoping to make a day trip to Gambaga to interview some of the women living at the camp. It took me a lot longer to gain access to them than I’d anticipated. When I eventually got to interview three of the women’s representatives, I was shocked to discover that two of them actually believed they were ‘witches’. Tia, who told me she’d been wrongly accused of witchcraft, was quickly forced to retract her statement. I was horrified to find that women accused of witchcraft were forced to undergo a trial by ordeal. Depending on how a chicken died – with its wings facing the sky or the ground – you were either a witch or not. I had to spend the night in Gambaga. I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking what would happen to me if I was accused of witchcraft and the chicken test went against me. How would I let my family down south know? It was then, I suspect, that alleged witches became more than objects of my curiosity. Instead they became women I identified with, because I could see that but for an accident of birth, I could easily be one of them…...Continue here

   

   

• links for 2011-09-04

  Posted: September 4, 2011, 5:01 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  • The meaning of 9/11's most controversial photo | Jonathan Jones | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk In the photograph Thomas Hoepker took on 11 September 2001, a group of New Yorkers sit chatting in the sun in a park in Brooklyn. Behind them, across brilliant blue water, in an azure sky, a terrible cloud of smoke and dust rises above lower Manhattan from the place where two towers were struck by hijacked airliners this same morning and have collapsed, killing, by fire, smoke, falling or jumping or crushing and tearing and fragmentation in the buildings' final fall, nearly 3,000 people (tags: 9/11 photography history)
  • Is this Minustah's 'Abu Ghraib moment' in Haiti? | Mark Weisbrot | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The video is profoundly disturbing. It shows four men, identified as Uruguayan troops from the UN mission in Haiti (Minustah), seemingly in the act of raping an 18-year-old Haitian youth. Two have the victim pinned down on a mattress, with his hands twisted high up his back so that he cannot move. Perhaps the most unnerving part of the video is the constant chorus of laughter from the alleged perpetrators; to them, apparently, it's just a drunken party (tags: Haiti Rape UN Minustah)

• Justice or no justice?

  Posted: September 2, 2011, 11:05 pm by Rumbidzai Dube

  
  
  

  Egyptians are angry, so very angry that they are dragging their former president through the criminal courts. The trial of Hosni Mubarak on charges of corruption and for conspiring to kill protestors who are popularly known as the martyrs of the Revolution, made headlines on many news stations across the globe.

  Mubarak denied all charges meaning that his plea was that of not guilty. The implications of that plea are grave. The prosecution has to establish the link between Mubarak’s actions or failure to take action and the crimes that he is said to have committed. That is not an easy task. There is thus no guarantee that the trial will result in a successful conviction because the outcome is based on the evidence. So no matter how much Egyptians may be convinced that Mubarak was corrupt or that were it not for him snipers would never have shot at protestors, their convictions will come to naught if no convincing evidence is put to the judges to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Criminal justice is also slow and very expensive. The hiring of lawyers and the charges of the court could be costly.

  The most worrying element for me is even if Mubarak were to be found guilty the criminal charges against him are specific to particular incidences of corruption and specific incidences of killings. The trial will not likely reveal details of the repression of the regime which must be exposed if Egypt is to move on. The trial will not expose the structures of corruption and so these will remain standing even after Mubarak is convicted. It will not show who was responsible for all the human rights violations that took place in Egypt during Mubarak’s reign. It is with this in mind that I ask myself if the prosecution of Mubarak, his sons and the six associates is the best way for Egyptians to express their anger.

  When crimes are committed and justice is never served, the wounds of those against whom the crimes were committed never heal and that is why transitional justice is relevant. Transitional justice is not just an idea. It is the lived experiences of many countries that suffered under repressive regimes and then found ways of moving forward post-conflict. Transitional justice seeks to help societies to find ways of reshaping them, to prevent recurrence of atrocities committed in the past, to reaffirm victims’ dignity and to expose the truth of what exactly happened because victims have a reciprocal right to know.
  
  By victims I mean the actual people who were killed, beaten, tortured, mutilated, abducted, unlawfully detained, disappeared, harassed, subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment and had all sorts of terrible things done to them. These are the primary victims. I also refer to secondary victims; the people who were close to those who directly suffered. They witnessed the atrocities committed against their loved ones and some of them live even today with the trauma of not knowing the fate of their husbands, sons and relatives.

  I wonder then if a trial that addresses one incident of corruption and the killing of a few protestors during the Revolution is the best answer when so many years of repression remain mystical. Is it not prudent to deal with the issues in a more holistic manner than to focus on a single incident?

  Reconciliation is key if Egypt is to move forward. But there cannot be reconciliation without justice. And that justice cannot be achieved through the trial of Mubarak, his two sons and a few associates for an isolated incident. Justice lies in the nation of Egypt coming together to chart a process in which they will formulate a strategy to deal with their past. Such a strategy must not only focus on addressing the violations committed during the revolution but also the trends of violations that prevailed throughout Mubarak’s rule.

  Truth-seeking must be a central part of that strategy. The victims need to know how certain crimes were committed, who committed them, what happened to their loved ones. In knowing the truth and exposing the systematic way in which certain crimes were committed; history will correctly record the violations and the victims can begin to deal with their losses and come to terms with their experiences.

  Victims must receive reparations. Reparations can be in the form of restitution, compensation or reintegration. Restitution involves restoring the victims to their previous circumstances before the violations were perpetrated against them. Those who lost their jobs or property for merely opposing the regime could be reinstated. Compensation must be given to the victims for the harm they suffered. Such compensation may be in the form of money, goods, symbolic acts significantly recognising the wrongs of the past or some other form such as the building of memorials. Reintegration would be the process of bringing society together, rebuilding trust between individuals who previously were on opposing sides. In the context of Egyptian society it would involve rebuilding relations between the perpetrators and the victims especially the police and the general public, between Copts and Muslims and recent events show the need for mending the relationship between the army and the revolutionaries.

• links for 2011-09-02

  Posted: September 2, 2011, 5:02 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  • Former freedom fighter Wambui dies in Nairobi She first rose to prominence in 1986 following the death of her husband and prominent criminal lawyer SM Otieno when she waged a court battle against the Umira Kager clan over Mr Otieno's final resting place.
    She claimed that he had wanted to be buried at his farm at Ngong on the outskirts of Nairobi but the Umira Kager clan, represented by retired Appeal Court judge Justice Richard Kwach citing longstanding tribal traditions claimed the body. (tags: Kenya FreedomFighter Women)
  • Qwelane Hate Speech Verdict Set Aside for Now | African Activist The South African Equality Court judgement against Jon Qwelane for hate speech against the LGBTI community has been thrown out. According to the ruling, Qwelane gave a reasonable explanation for his absence from the original court proceedings.  (tags: HateSpeech southafrica homophobia)
  • Libyan opposition jails blacks and migrants on suspicion of working for Gaddafi – YouTube (tags: libya Racism AfricanMigrants)
  • Somalia: Global war on terror and the humanitarian crisis The US government’s counterterrorism activities and ‘humanitarian’ assistance in Somalia and the Horn of Africa go a long way towards explaining the region’s entrenched problems, writes Horace Campbell. (tags: somalia famine conflict)
  • To Avert A Bloodbath – Libya And The Press Naturally it is the role of the enlightened West to steer Libya towards democracy. Editors working for the media conglomerate at the heart of the phone hacking police/political corruption scandal – a major attack on democracy and civil rights – presumably perceived no irony in their preaching of 'democracy, and legal freedoms'. Words that should send a shudder down the spines of any Libyan readers. (tags: Libya Media)
  • DSK and the Help We Don't Want to See The implications of Vance's decision are staggering. Are we to understand that even in the face of corroborating DNA evidence, a woman who has lied about being raped in another country can never be the victim of a rape in this country? Is this limited to rape? If Diallo had lied about being robbed in another country, would this make it impossible for a jury to believe that she'd been mugged on a street in New York? (tags: DSK Rape USA)
  • 10 Black Women Making Moves In Film Over the last few months, I’ve read countless critiques of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, a creative work that falls short of providing an authentic black female voice. But unlike many of my peers, I never got upset. Stockett is a white woman, she can only write fantasies of black women’s truth. She owes us nothing. She’s a writer, and she can write as she sees fit.  (tags: blackwomen film)

• “Reflections Unheard”: Black women, Black nationalism and the origins of womanism

  Posted: September 2, 2011, 4:17 pm by Sokari

  
  
  

  The clip below is from a documentary in the making on the origins of” womanism” as a result of tensions between Black feminism and Black Power ideologies in the United States. The project will soon launch a Kickstarter campaign but meanwhile donations to help complete the documentary can be made to YelloKat Productions.

  Should African feminists be having similar discussions – many already believe we should! Whilst the issues raised in the documentary are familiar to many of us, African feminisms are rooted in different political and social contexts and different understandings of feminism. I use the plural “African feminisms” to emphaise that the identity “African” outside of a geographical context is problematic. Simidele Dosekun discusses “the discourse of African authenticity” in her essay “Defending Feminism in Africa”

  However for African feminists like their sisters of colour elsewhere, the focus is on challenging the existing power structures [Western imperial and corporate domination as well as national ones] and local patriarchies which lead to the marginalisation and socio political exclusion of women, LGBTI people, shackdwellers, rural communities and migrant workers to name a few.

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes