There is mounting evidence that the government of Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'adua is set to launch a full-scale offensive in the Niger Delta when a ceasefire declared by rebels ends on Sep. 15. And this time, Nigerian military forces will be using special warships, helicopter gunships and troop transports, and unmanned drone intelligence planes and ships sold to Nigeria by Israeli, Malaysian, Singaporean, Dutch and Russian companies.

People Power: Unarmed Resistance and Global Solidarity
Edited by Howard Clark
Released October 4th 2009
PB / £ 17.99 / 9780745329017 / 230mm x 150mm / 256pp

Land owners at Koya Chiefdom together with chiefdom elders and officials of Quifel have signed a 50 years land lease agreement for agricultural purposes. The ceremony took place at the Roman Catholic Hall in Masiaka on Friday 11th September, 2009 in the presence of officials from Quifel and legal practitioners representing both parties to the agreement.

Njeri Kabeberi is the winner of the inaugural “Prize for Outstanding Commitment to Law and Justice.”Announcing the award, Prof. Lutz Simon, President of the German Chamber of Lawyers said: “The Chamber of Lawyers Frankfurt am Main wishes to honour you for the many years of work fighting for justice, democracy and human rights in disregard of the private and professional drawbacks and threats.”

The Kirwan Institute is hosting its second biannual Transforming Race conference on March 11-13, 2010. The theme of the conference is Crisis and Opportunity in the Age of Obama. It will feature the following three thematic tracks:
* Racial Dynamics and Systems Thinking introducing the theory and application of systems thinking to social and racial justice.
* Race Talk exploring constructive, productive, and inclusive racial dialogues.
* Race, Recession and Recovery focusing on the impact of and solutions to the economic downturn for populations of color. The agenda is still being constructed and we need your input.

The first undersea fibre optic cable, Seacom, reached the east African coast in July 2009. This "Digital Express" is the most important infrastructure investment in eastern Africa since the construction of the Uganda Railway which integrate colonial east Africa into the British Empire.

With East Africa reeling under a severe drought, India offered all possible help and assistance in spurring a green revolution in Tanzania. Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo K. Pinda, who is on a four-day visit to India, held wide-ranging discussions with the External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, where the issue of agricultural cooperation was discussed in detail.

Young men in cars covered in Frelimo posters vandalised the MDM headquarters in Bairro 2, Chókwé, Gaza early Sunday morning. In Changara, Tete, young men in Frelimo t-shirts burned the Renamo headquarters and three houses. It was a violent start to the official election campaign, which began on Sunday 13 September.

The Art and Social Justice conference aims to explore the role and relevance of the arts in addressing issues of social justice. In line with the objectives and principles of the conference organizers, Art for Humanity, the concerns of this conference are primarily directed towards advocacy. The conference serves as a platform for art practitioners and organizations to share experiences drawn from a variety of international contexts to discuss mutual concerns and find solutions to commonly experienced challenges.

5 to 10 October promises to be a stirring week of words, rhymes, performance and ideas, as the 13th Poetry Africa international poetry festival ignites Durban with poetry from around South Africa, Africa, and the world. Hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Centre for Creative Arts, Poetry Africa's intensive week-long programme kicks off with a pre-festival showcase of Durban-based poets at The Workshop Shopping Centre's Amphitheatre on 4 October at 11h00.

The Gulf’s first agricultural investment fund is due to launch next month, focusing on land acquisitions related to cash-crop farming. The US$350 million (Dh1.28 billion) fund, which will focus initially on rice farming in Africa and cereal cultivation in eastern Europe and former Soviet countries, is actively seeking joint ventures with Gulf family-owned conglomerates and sovereign wealth funds.

International PEN's Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) has received disturbing news of the arrest of journalist, filmmaker and talk show host, Kalundi Serumaga, on 11 September 2009. It is reported that he has suffered severe beatings, requiring hospital treatment. PEN urgently calls for the release of Kalundi Serumaga, who appears to be detained solely for having spoken on recent clashes in Kampala and nearby Kayunga.

The ILRF has created the Freedom at Work Toolkit to understanding one of the human rights most widely violated in the workplace: the right to associate freely around the world. Only when this right is in place can we say workers enjoy freedom at work.

The University of Texas, Austin is pleased to announce a three-day conference centered on the theme of “Women, Gender and Sexualities in Africa”. Academic discourses on women, gender and sexualities in Africa have increased by leaps and bounds since the 1980s when they began to establish root as veritable fields of professional, systematic and academic endeavor from March 26-28, 2010. The deadline for submitting paper proposals is November 1, 2009.

Oloiseer Mbattiany provides a detailed account of the ongoing eviction and harassment of pastoralist Maasai communities in Tanzania by the police, with the assistance of a private company.

On Friday, September 11, 2009, in a flagrant abuse of the immense power the people of Kenya have given them, the police at Central Police Station refused to receive our re-notification for peaceful demonstrations on Monday, September 14, 2009. They insisted and continue to insist that they have banned the peaceful demonstrations for security reasons, which they do not specify. This is in spite of the fact they know that we are non-violent agitators for self-determination.

We would like to alert our readers to a correction to a review entitled , published in issue 446 of Pambazuka News. The review was authored by Harry Verhoeven, Lydiah Kemunto Bosire and Sharath Srinivasan, and not simply Bosire, as previously stated in Pambazuka.

From The Local To The Global: Key Issues in Development Studies
2nd edition
Edited by Gerard McCann and Stephen McCloskey
Released October 4th 2009
PB / £ 17.99 / 9780745328423 / 215mm x 135mm / 320pp

The government of Zambia’s decision to further delay the tabling of the proposed Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill and its failure to guarantee the introduction of the Bill in the next parliamentary session represents a huge setback in the nation’s fight against corruption. Indeed, the failure of parliament to enact or even debate this crucial piece of legislation appears astonishing when we consider the revelation of the Ministry of Health corruption scandal earlier this year.

The British oil trader Trafigura has offered to pay out in a historic damages claim from 31,000 Africans injured by the dumping of toxic waste in one of the worst pollution disasters in recent history, the Guardian can reveal. The compensation deal for the victims of toxic oil waste dumping in west Africa – likely to be confirmed imminently – means the full extent of attempts to cover up what really happened can be spelled out for the first time.