Oxford University Press and Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research have announced an ambitious new project, the Dictionary of African Biography, that will include 5,000 entries both online and in print editions. The General Editors of the project are two Harvard faculty, Henry Louis Gates and Emmanuel Akyeampong.
The editors have put the provisional list of entries online where Africanists can nominate candidates for inclusion.
ACAS has four roundtables scheduled for the African Studies Association 2008 Annual Meeting with the theme “Knowledge of Africa: The Next Fifty Years” scheduled for November 13-16, 2008, in Chicago.
Please join us for the following events:
Membership meeting, Friday, Nov 14, 7pm, Meeting Room Parlor E
Agenda:
-Welcome and Announcements (Kris)
–Bud Day Award Chair (Betsy)
-Bud Day Award Announcement (Frank and Don)
-Launch new Virtual Think Tank (Sean)
Open meeting: find out how you can get involved:
Saturday, 4:30-6pm
American Friends Service Committee
c/o Grace Episcopal Church
637 S. Dearborn between Harrison and Polk Streets
(near the conference hotel)
ACAS and Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) 30th Anniversary Party at:
American Friends Service Committee
c/o Grace Episcopal Church
637 S. Dearborn between Harrison and Polk Streets
(near the conference hotel)
Saturday, 6-9pm
*Pan-African dinner and drinks will be served
Thursday, 12:45 P.M. – 2:45 P.M.
Roundtable: ACAS – Thirty Years of Knowledge for Political Action: Historical Reflections
Chaired by David S. Wiley (Michigan State). Panelists include Carol B Thompson (Northern Arizona)
Friday, 10:15 A.M. – 12:15 P.M.
Roundtable: Zimbabwe 2008: What is to be done?
Chaired by Sean H Jacobs (Michigan, Ann Arbor) and panelists Timothy L Scarnecchia (Kent State), Terry Barnes (Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Christopher J Lee (North Carolina at Chapel Hill).
Friday, 5:00 P.M. – 7:00 P.M.
Roundtable: Africom and the Militarization of Africa
Chaired by Daniel H Volman, African Security Research Project. Panelists include Jennifer Davis (Independent Scholar), Horace Campbell (Syracuse U.) and Jesse Benjamin (Kennesaw St.)
Saturday, 9:00 A.M. – 11:00 A.M.
Roundtable: ‘Fighting Words’: Art, Politics, and Social Movements in Africa
Chaired by Kristin A Peterson (Irvine) and panelists Ogaga Ifowodo (Cornell), Gabeba Baderoon (Penn State), Grant Farred (Cornell) and Pius Adesanmi (Carleton).
Jubilee USA Network
212 E. Capitol St., NE, Washington, DC, 20003 * www.jubileeusa.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, June 26, 2008
Contact: Neil Watkins, Jubilee USA, 202-783-0129
Jubilee USA Network Welcomes Senate Foreign Relations Committee Passage of Jubilee Act to Expand, Reform Poor Country Debt Cancellation
Network Also Applauds House Panel’s Authorization of World Bank Funding, Including Significant Calls for World Bank Reform
WASHINGTON – Jubilee USA Network, an alliance of 80 religious denominations and faith-based networks, development agencies, and human rights groups today applauded passage of the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation (S. 2166) by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and passage of legislation to authorize funding for the World Bank (International Development Association), including strong calls for reform at the World Bank.
On Tuesday, June 24, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation (S.2166), and reported the legislation out of committee for consideration by the full Senate. The Jubilee Act would expand debt cancellation to up to 24 of the world’s most impoverished countries, provided that they show their ability to use funds transparently to combat poverty. The legislation also prohibits the US representative at the International Financial Institutions from conditioning debt relief on policy reforms that would deepen poverty or degrade the environment.
Senator Robert Casey, the initial sponsor of the bi-partisan bill said in a statement, “I’m pleased that at a time when nations around the world are suffering and their citizens are dying of hunger, disease and poverty, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recognizes the importance of helping the world’s poorest countries.”
Some improvements were made to the Jubilee Act in committee. An amendment was added urging the Secretary of the Treasury to work for immediate debt cancellation for Haiti in light of the current food crisis. Revised language to discourage so-called “vulture fund” activity (the purchase of sovereign debt at a discount with the intent to litigate) was included. The committee also stressed the importance of funding existing commitments to the international financial institutions.
“We are thrilled to see such strong bi-partisan support for the Jubilee Act in the Senate Foreign Relations committee, and we now call on Senate leaders to move this historic, life-saving legislation quickly towards consideration by the full Senate,” said Neil Watkins, National Coordinator or Jubilee USA Network. “We also welcome strong action by the House Financial Services committee this week to approve funding for the World Bank and to require strong reforms at the institution.”
In yesterday’s House Financial Services Committee action, legislation passed which authorized expanded support for U.S. funding to the International Development Association (IDA) arm of the World Bank, which provides grants and concessional loans to the world’s most impoverished countries.
Jubilee USA Network welcomed in particular three amendments offered by Representative Maxine Waters of California and approved by the committee. The first and second require the Secretary of the Treasury to urge the multilateral development banks to increase significantly their emphasis on food security and agricultural development in developing countries, and to provide immediate debt cancellation to Haiti or an immediate suspension of debt service payments. The third amendment authorizes up to $5 million to assist Liberia in buying back its commercial debt, which would help pave the way towards free Liberia from the burden of repaying debts owed to private creditors and from the threat of vulture law suits.
In addition to the approval of funds, the committee called on the US Treasury Department to advocate for reforms in the way the World Bank conditions its assistance on economic policy reforms. The legislation calls on the US Executive Director at the multilateral development banks to use his/her voice and vote to oppose all conditions other than those requiring budget transparency and accountability, civil society and parliamentary inclusion in economic policy decisions and measures to show that assistance is actually spent on poverty reduction. Similarly, any Country Assistance Strategy developed by the Bank must not undermine a country’s commitment to uphold international conventions, especially those that provide assurances of worker’s rights.
The legislation also calls on the US representative to the multilateral bank boards to work for changes to the World Bank’s Doing Business Report. It calls on the World Bank to cease use of the Employing Workers Indicator in the Report and as part of the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment score until it is changed to take into account the importance of worker’s rights. The legislation also makes it US policy to work for elimination of the Non-wage Labor Cost Index from the report (as it discouraged provision of benefits like health care).
The last section of the bill focuses on reform to the World Bank Inspection Panel, which was created to address the concerns of the people who may be affected by Bank projects and to ensure that the Bank adheres to its operational policies and procedures.
### Jubilee USA Network is an alliance of 80 religious denominations, faith based networks, development agencies, and human rights groups working to create the political will for debt cancellation and more responsible lending for impoverished nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For more information see www.jubileeusa.org
Neil Watkins National Coordinator Jubilee USA Network Direct line: (202) 783-0129 / Mobile: (202) 421-1023 Skype: neil_jubileeusa www.jubileeusa.org
Press Release: Zimbabwe Crisis
June 24, 2008
4pm EST
The Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (ACAS), has published a special issue on Zimbabwe in the ACAS Bulletin. It introduces the issues surrounding Zimbabwe’s March 29 elections and the current political violence leading up to the June 27th Presidential run-off.
The aim of this special Zimbabwe issue is to provide details and analysis often left out of mainstream news sources. The reader will find a variety of articles from different perspectives, by Zimbabwe experts from the fields of political science, sociology, history, and theology, as well as from seasoned Zimbabwe journalists and an NGO worker reporting from the field. The special issue concludes with a historically-inflected editorial on Zimbabwe’s politics of violence, an open letter to Thabo Mbeki, and provides a listing of on-line resources for further research and information.
The issue was edited by Tim Scarnecchia and Wendy Urban-Mead, and contains articles by (among others): Norma Kriger, Jimmy G Dube, Augustine Hungwe, Sabelo J Ndlovu-Gatsheni, David Moore, Amy Ansell, and Peta Thornycroft.
Contact:
Tim Scarneccia
Kent State University
(330) 672-8904
tscarnec@kent.edu
Wendy Urban-Mead
Bard College
(845) 264-1805
wum@bard.edu
Read the issue here | PDF version: https://concernedafricascholars.org/docs/acasbulletin79.pdf
Dear Colleague,
In April we celebrated a key victory when the House of Representatives passed the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation – many thanks to you all for the persistent calls and letters to your representatives. We stand within reach of total victory if we can push the U.S. Senate to pass the Senate version of this historic legislation (Jubilee Act (S 2166)).
The Jubilee Act is a huge step towards breaking the chocking chains of debt that engender endemic poverty in Africa and other impoverished regions of the regions of the world. In addition to expanding debt cancellation to an additional 24 impoverished nations that commit to use the resources to fight poverty, the Jubilee Act also undertakes to reign in the harmful lending practices of the IMF, World Bank and other international financial institutions complicit in Africa’s debt crisis.
The good news is that the Jubilee Act already has bi-partisan support from more than half the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Good as this is, the bill can only move forward if more Senators sign on as co-sponsors.
If you live in Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New York or Oregon – both your Senators have already signed on to the Jubilee Act. You can still get involved by telling your friends and family who live outside these states to ask their Senators to co-sponsor the Jubilee Act.
To find out who your Senator is, go to www.senate.gov. To see if any of your Senators is already a co-sponsor, go to list of co-sponsors.
If your Senator is not yet a co-sponsor please write today and ask them to support the Jubilee Act (S 2166).
Cancel the Debt! End Global Apartheid!
Sincerely,
Staff @ Africa Action
JUSTICE FOR ZIMBABWE
On March 29 the people of Zimbabwe cast their votes for President, Parliament, and local representatives. To date, the results of the Presidential election have not been announced, leading to widespread accusations of vote manipulation. Charges of intimidation and the threat of violence grow daily, while the population suffers from spiraling inflation, commodity shortages, and joblessness. Ultimately, the people of Zimbabwe will determine their leaders, but as concerned citizens we can send a message to the Government of Zimbabwe, the African Union and to the nations of Southern Africa that we stand in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe and that we support their struggle for human rights and justice.
The following Message of Solidarity includes the points outlined in such popular documents as The Zimbabwe We Want, the People’s Convention (February 2008), as well as the platforms of human rights and justice groups in Zimbabwe. We invite you to add your name to the following message.
MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY
HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE FOR ZIMBABWE
The people of Zimbabwe have been betrayed, both by the government that represents them and by Western governments that claim to support their desires for economic development and democracy. Internally, corruption, government mis-management, military excesses, and poor economic decisions have deepened the country’s multiple social and economic crises. At the same time, the post-independence promises made by the international community were not kept and the imposition of World Bank/IMF economic structural adjustment policies further entrenched inequality and reversed the initial gains made by the country. We, the undersigned, support the people of Zimbabwe in their calls for a peaceful resolution to the current crisis.
We urge the Government of Zimbabwe to work towards:
1. A new constitution, a people-driven document that ensures that any elected government runs the country to benefit its people, not the elite.
2. Economic justice, specifically:
* An audit of Zimbabwe’s 4.2 billion dollar debt.
* Repatriation of stolen assets, particularly funds diverted from public coffers to individual accounts in international banks.
* National investments in social development, job creation, and regional economic integration efforts.
3. A national “Truth and Reconciliation” process to begin the healing process. We urge the international community to:
* End the “undeclared economic sanctions.”
* Cancel the colonial debt, including apartheid-related debt, along with debts related to failed structural adjustment policies, following an audit of the country’s national debt.
* Work with the Zimbabwean people to identify and repatriate public funds that have been diverted to private accounts in international banks.
Click here [ JusticeforZimbabwe@transafricaforum.org ] to add your name.
For more information visit us on the web:
www.transafricaforum.org
Africa Action
March 12, 2008
A Key Moment to Act
Support A Strong HIV/AIDS Senate Bill!
Write your Senator Now!
Dear Friend,
On Thursday, March 13th the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will sit to mark up the most important bill in the fight against global HIV/AIDS. Africa Action encourages you to immediately write to your Senator to urge them to support a bill that will make U.S. global HIV/AIDS policy more effective and ensure true U.S. global leadership in the fight against the pandemic.
Last Friday, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden, Jr (D-DE) and Ranking Member Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) introduced the bill S 2731, officially known as the “Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.” This legislation is not only a huge leap forward from Bush’s unproductive policy, which for the past five years severely limited the U.S. response to global AIDS, but it is also a clear testimony that popular pressure works in shaping U.S. policy.
While the current bill is a big improvement over the past 5 years of U.S. global HIV/AIDS policy, several areas still need our strong pushing in order to produce the best possible law. These include:
* Increasing the treatment target to 4 million individuals from the current 3 million;
* Increasing the total funding to $59 billion to meet the public health recommendation of $50 billion for HIV/AIDS programs alone and still include the necessary $4 billion and $5 billion for tuberculosis and malaria programs;
* Integrating HIV/AIDS and reproductive health/family planning programs so that women have easy access to effective HIV prevention services to prevent babies being born with HIV; and
* Removing the requirement that groups must have policies that oppose prostitution to be eligible for U.S. funding. While we do not support prostitution, it is important that our HIV/AIDS policy be comprehensive and reaches out even to prostitutes in order to most effectively prevent the spread of HIV.
The fight against HIV/AIDS remains the defining struggle of our time, as the pandemic claims more than two million lives a year, with more than three quarters of the victims in Africa. The devastating impact of the pandemic on families, communities and nations makes the disease the biggest global threat to human security and development. Only a concerted global effort will succeed in stopping this deadly scourge that has claimed more than 20 million lives globally in the last 3 decades.
As the richest nation in the world, the U.S. must play a leadership role in ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Africa, the hardest hit part of the world is incapacitated to deal with a crisis of this magnitude on its own because of the legacy of slavery, colonialism and current global trade policies and power relations that work together to impoverish and debilitate the African continent. As the chief beneficiary of some of the historical injustices that ruined Africa, the U.S. has not only a moral, but also a historical responsibility to support the African continent in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
It is the complacency of our leadership that resulted in HIV/AIDS blowing out of control to become the menace it is today. This is time to let our leaders know that we care about global HIV/AIDS, we care about the plight of humanity, we care about our Africa brothers and sisters, we care about our fellow Americans who falling victim to this pandemic AND WE DEMAND a bill from senate that will be effective in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Speak out now! – Be heard! – Write to your Senator now!
Sincerely;
Staff @ Africa Action
Africa Action
March 12, 2008
Dear Friend,
Take Action! Call or Write to Oppose Increasing Militarization of Aid to Africa
Tomorrow, AFRICOM will be featured during a hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee, giving us an opening to resist the new U.S. military command in Africa. Please take a moment to pick up the phone and call your Senator or send an email registering your opposition to AFRICOM.
Africa Action has been working with a coalition of organizations including our long-time allies TransAfrica Forum, Foreign Policy in Focus, the Hip Hop Caucus, Africa Faith and Justice Network and others to challenge the Pentagon’s new military command for Africa, AFRICOM.
In our recent Africa Policy Outlook and AFRICOM statement we describe how this development manifests the increasing militarization of U.S. aid to Africa, going even so far as to place U.S. diplomacy and development initiatives under the auspices of the Department of Defense. You can read African voices on AFRICOM on our website. Africa Action has joined allies to launch the website ResistAFRICOM to enhance our campaigning efforts on this important issue and to serve as a central location for advocacy against AFRICOM. Today we invite you to take action – in concert with our allies – and call your Senator to register your opposition to AFRICOM.
President Bush created AFRICOM in 2007, but Congress still needs to fund it. We encourage you to get involved and to tell your member of Congress that you do not agree with the direction of U.S. foreign policy in Africa and that you would rather see taxpayer dollars go toward just security initiatives like ending HIV/AIDS, canceling Africa’s debt, or stopping genocide in Darfur.
You can call now at 202-224-3121 to get the Capitol Switchboard or you can click here and put in your zip code to find the direct number for your Senators, and then feel free to use the script below. Or you can email your representative below. A call will have more impact than an email – so if you can take the time, please make the call. If you are rushing today, and won’t have time to pick up the phone, please take this one-click action.
Thank you, for your commitment to justice and peace in Africa and for taking action on this critical issue.
Peace,
The Staff @ Africa Action
Script for AFRICOM Calls:
Hi, my name is __________ and I am calling to express my concerns regarding the new U.S. military command for Africa – AFRICOM. It is poorly structured and gives unprecedented power to the military. I want to ask ________(name of member of Congress)___________ to make every effort to create more Congressional oversight of the new command and to ensure that diplomatic and development efforts do not fall under the jurisdiction of the military. Thank you!
African Law Student Association, Columbia University and the Center for African Education, Teachers College, Columbia University present the symposium
Critical Connections
Law, Education, Scholarship & Practice: Re-imagining Africa(ns) in light of Global Emigration & Neocolonialism
Critical Connections is a one-day symposium created in collaboration between the Center for African Education, Teachers College and the African Law Student Association of Columbia Law School. The purpose of this symposium is to promote interdisciplinary engagement with the legal, educational, scholarly and practice-based issues affecting the African continent. This year we are paying particular attention to the effect of neo-colonialist policies on the emigration of African peoples on the continent and around the world. Specifically of interest are the connections between such policies and questions of discriminatory immigration laws and trade policies; the movement of refugee populations; xenophobia both in and out of the continent; the development of new legal norms reflecting African cultures and identities; education; the shifting of identities across generations and borders; and the health and well-being of Africans throughout the world.
We invite papers from established graduate students, practitioners, and community-based organizations in a wide variety of disciplines, including education, law, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, African(a) studies, policy, literature, economics, international development and cultural studies. Individual papers, posters and complete panels will be considered. Panels are strongly encouraged that reflect the collaboration between scholars and practitioners.
Those interested in presenting at the symposium should submit a 250-word abstract and a CV by Friday, March 10, 2008 via email to: Mojoyin Onijala, Chair of the Columbia African Law Student Association or Ramatu Bangura, Graduate Assistant at the Center for African Education at criticalconnections@gmail.com. Abstracts can be sent via regular mail to the African Law Student Association, Columbia University, 435 West 116th St., New York, NY 10027-7297.
Critical Connections will be held at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York on April 24, 2008.
The Role of Customary Law in the 21st Century
October 23-24, 2008
New: Conference website: www.customarylawrevisited.com
A Project of the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School The sponsoring organization of African Customary Law Revisited: The Role of Customary Law in the 21st Century invites submissions and participant nominations for a collaborative exchange and discussion at a two-day conference to take place on October 23-24, 2008 in Botswana. The conference working language will be English. The conference will include paper presentations on topics detailed below and will also include working group discussions with a broad range of stakeholders, including, for example, traditional leaders, members of the judiciary, representatives of non-governmental organizations and other interested persons, on topics related to customary law.
Customary law, the traditional law indigenous to a region, continues to regulate many areas of people’s lives in Africa. For example, some African constitutions now enshrine the right to culture and oblige courts to apply customary law where applicable. Elsewhere, constitutional and statutory law have superseded most or all customary law. Yet, even in situations where constitutional law, statutory law and common law have largely superseded it, customary law may nevertheless govern in certain areas, such as family relations. For example, in many places, the requirements for marriage, the rights and duties of husbands and wives, the obligations toward and custody of children, the ownership of property acquired during marriage, and many other aspects of family life are governed by customary law. Moreover, even where conflicting constitutional or statutory law exists, lack of access to legal resources may mean that, as a practical matter, customary law still governs.
Finally, the persistence of longstanding expectations and social practices informed by customary law has given rise to many problems in enforcing contradictory statutory law.
Notwithstanding the significant role customary law continues to play in people’s lives, there has been a notable lack of research and formal scholarly exchange on the topic. As detailed further below, the African Customary Law Revisited conference will attempt to fill this gap by exploring the nature, substance and role of customary law in Africa in the 21st Century.
Transportation to the conference venue, lodging, meals and transportation at the venue will be subject to arrangement between the sponsoring organizations and the event participants.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Twenty papers will be selected for presentation at the conference by a Steering Committee comprised of members from the sponsoring organization. All proposals should include a project description and the applicant’s curriculum vitae. All proposals should be in English with project descriptions not to exceed 1000 words. As publication of selected papers in contemplated, submissions should describe work that has not been previously published.
Possible topics for consideration:
* What is customary law in the 21st Century
* How is customary law ascertained? What are the sources of customary
law? How is it generated? How does it change?
* The history of customary law; customary law and colonialism
* “Procedural” aspects of customary law / Venues to enforce customary law
* Traditional courts and other venues for decision
* The relationship between traditional courts or decision-makers and the
formal court system
* Evidentiary standards and methods of proving customary law
* Codification of customary law
* Substantive areas of customary law For example:
-Land tenure
-Family law
Environmental law
-Chieftancy
-Intellectual Property
-Criminal law
-Gender and customary law
-Customary law and international law
SUBMISSION DEADLINE MARCH 25, 2008. Proposals should be submitted by e-mail to leitnercenter@law.fordham.edu
conference. The papers will be published together in a book after the conference and will be posted on this website. Publication is contingent on producing a final paper of publishable quality.
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
The sponsoring organizations invite nominations of traditional leaders, members of the judiciary or other persons or organizations who may be interested in attending the conference to participate in the working group discussions and discussion of papers. Persons may self-nominate or nominate others with expertise in matters related to customary law.
Nominations should include:
* The title and address of person or organization nominated.
* An explanation of the reasons for the nomination (500-word limit)
including:
* What is the person or organization’s role with respect to customary
law? What is the basis for the person or organization’s expertise in
this area?
* Why, specifically, do you believe this person or organization should
be included in the conference?
* What areas or issues related to customary law would the person or organization be most interested in discussing?
* Submitter information: Your name, mailing address, phone number and e-mail address.
NOMINATION DEADLINE MARCH 25, 2008. Proposals should be submitted by
e-mail to leitnercenter@law.fordham.edu
organizations who are accepted to participate in the conference will be
notified in April 2008.