The Hadzabe indigenous people of northern Tanzania are facing a serious threat today. Royals from the United Arab Emirates, along with UAE Safari are actively purchasing Hadzabe lands for a fishing and sport hunting enterprise.

From www.afrol.com - Last year, the Lower Yaida area in Mbulu District- around 200 kilometres west of Arusha - was ceded to an Abu Dhabi-based hunting company known as Tanzania UAE Safari Ltd. A second application was submitted to attain the remaining part of the Lake Eyasi basin in Karatu District. In end-May this year, …

The following article, written by Gwalgen Geordie Dent, was published on May 14 at the Dominion

Canada in the Congo War
Role of mining, resource extraction has been neglected

Even for those who follow world events, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is little known in Canada.

The DRC holds two major distinctions. First, it is the richest country in Africa in terms of mineral wealth: gold, diamonds, cobalt and chromium all exist in abundance. Second, it is the country in which the highest number of people – roughly, 4 to10 million …

“We do not want to be reminded that it is we, the indigenous people, who are poor and exploited in the land of our birth. These are concepts which the Black Consciousness approach wishes to eradicate from the black man’s mind before our society is driven to chaos by irresponsible people from Coca-cola and hamburger cultural backgrounds.” Steve Biko, 1978

From South Africa’s 9/12, a Tribute to Steve Biko
On 12 September 1977, Stephen Bantu Biko, aged 30, died of brain damage from severe beating sustain while in police custody. Steve Biko was a co-founder of the Black Consciousness Movement, …

From Zmag. Africa does not need more Western philanthropy, by Mukoma Ngugi. (April 21, 2007)

Keep this question in mind: What good would it have done the world if Idi Amin had saved a drowning African child?

In addition to providing raw materials, labor, and markets for finished products, Africa also cleanses the conscience of Africanist scholars, evangelists and missionaries, the rock and roll musicians who want to save Africa through orphan adoption, and philanthropists with Mother-Theresa complexes.

But at the top of the pack – Western politicians. …

The bishops of Zimbabwe’s Catholic Church have (apparently unexpectedly) written a letter taking a position on the side of the people and against the current leadership of Zimbabwe.

Among other points, the article states “If our young people see their leaders habitually engaging in acts and words which are hateful, disrespectful, racist, corrupt, lawless, unjust, greedy, dishonest and violent in order to cling to the privileges of power and wealth, it is highly likely that many of them will behave in exactly the same manner. The consequences of such overtly corrupt leadership as we are witnessing in Zimbabwe today will be …

Traditional chiefs meet in Sudan’s Rumbek to restore authority
By Manyang Mayom, www.anyuakmedia.com
March 15, 2007

50 traditional chiefs from the different part of the Lakes State are participating in the First conference traditional authorities in order to discuss the organization of the eroded traditional authorities.

For the first time since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), a conference for the traditional and local cheffery is held in the capital of the Lakes state to restore the authority of traditional chiefs and to rejuvenate support to culture and language and promotion of dialogue and peaceful coexistence amongst different communities.

Southern Sudan constitution …

Rwanda releases genocide prisoners
From Reuters
February 20, 2007

KIGALI, RWANDA — Eight thousand prisoners accused of involvement in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide were released Monday, prompting anger from survivors who fear new ethnic killings.

Rwanda’s prisons have been overflowing with thousands of inmates, some convicted and others awaiting trial in the slayings of an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates by Hutu extremists.

“The group that has been released excludes key masterminds of the genocide,” said Rwanda’s chief prosecutor, Martin Ngoga.

Since a 2003 provisional release decreed by President Paul Kagame, the tiny Central African nation has freed up to 60,000 genocide suspects, including the sick, …

The rights of the Southern Somali indigenous people
By: Mohamed Ahmed, yementimes.com

Somalia’s president agreed last month to a national reconciliation conference to try to end 16 years of anarchy in the war-ravaged country after intense pressure from the EU, USA, AL and UN.

The current proposal is a good thing, but what I suggest to the international community, is not to honor only the armed clans and those who have committed human rights abuses in Somalia. What about the hitherto occupied and victimized Southern Somali indigenous communities? Instead of rewarding only …

Wangari Mathaai: A Global Voice Of Fortitude
By Farah Aziz, Countercurrents.org
24 March, 2007

It had been a hectic day for her, her first day in India, but Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel peace prize, will not undermine any of her priorities. Invited to India by Rajiv Gandhi foundation and Indian council for cultural relations to deliver lectures on linkages between environment, governance and peace, Wangari has little more to say. At Navdanya, she opens up a bit more.

Beginning with biodiversity and the coexistence of natural varieties of seeds, she soon progresses into a wider arena of …

Game parks threaten Africa’s indigenous people: UN
By Laura MacInnis, www.reuters.com
March 20,2007

GENEVA (Reuters) - Indigenous communities in Africa are “on the brink of destruction” due to the expansion of national game parks and insufficient law enforcement, a United Nations expert said on Tuesday.

Rodolfo Stavenhagen, a special rapporteur on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, said reserves in countries such as Kenya and Botswana had disrupted hunter-gatherer and pastoralist populations, such as the Maasai.

Many of the countries have enacted laws formally entrenching the rights of indigenous populations in maintaining their lifestyles and culture, but their governments have done …