Britain is joining the latest scramble in Africa – to reverse decades of decay and even the disappearance of large parts of road and rail systems – with a $1bn (£690m) project to rebuild the transport network across the south of the continent. The UK has announced an agreement with eight African countries and the World Bank that will see the reconstruction of 5,280 miles (8,500km) of roads and the rejuvenation of 373 miles of railways, including some new track and the upgrading of border posts.

Hans M. Zell’s is unique and certainly one of the most useful reference resource books on publishing and the book trade in Africa. First published in 1996 under the title: Publishing and Book Development in Sub-Saharan Africa. An Annotated Bibliography (co-edited with Cecile Lomer), this book has filled a gap in the publishing world ever since.

The roll-out of antiretroviral therapy may paradoxically increase stigma, reduce counselling and testing and increase sexual risk-taking, according to the findings of a Tanzania based study published in the online edition of the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.

The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, has condemned the killing of Malagasy broadcast television journalist Ando Ratovonirina and called for improved safety of journalists. “I condemn the killing of Ando Ratovonirina,” declared the Director-General. “Ando Ratovonirina died in the line of duty, while reporting on events that are important for the whole of Malagasy society. His loss is a blow to a profession that is essential to the fundamental human right of freedom of expression, a right that is important to each and every one of us, a right that is vital for democracy and good governance.

The use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) by breastfeeding mothers greatly reduced the risk of HIV transmission to their infants after a 14-week course of infant HIV prophylaxis was stopped, according to a study performed in Malawi and presented to the Sixteenth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) on Tuesday. However, ART use did not significantly reduce transmission risk in mothers with CD4 cell counts above 250 cells/mm3.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to call for proposals for its revamped programme for the publication of text books for use in African universities. The programme was initially introduced as part of a broad set of objectives for achieving greater balance and relevance in curriculum development in African universities by making available to teachers and students, text books that are adapted to the African historical context and the environment of research and learning on the continent.

The book Married But Available is a unique one, unique in the sense that it is first an exposé – a mischievous and daring one for that matter – on the issue of sexuality (in Africa and the discourse guiding research on the issue) and more importantly (at least for the reviewer) a critique of the process of data collection for research in the social sciences. In other words, through an examination of sexuality in Mimboland (a fictional country based on the author’s home country of Cameroon, but which could easily represent any African country), the book addresses the issue of how to or not to undertake social research and examines the consequences, personal and public, of sloppy data collection.

South Africa is home to one of the largest Chinese communities in Africa, estimated at over 300,000. Most have arrived since the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Africa and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1988, many of them as illegal overstayers. There are also an estimated 30,000 Taiwanese, the remainder of a once larger population of over 100,000 established during and after the 1970s, when the apartheid regime established close relations with Taipei.

The maiden Kenya Film and Television awards would be taking place early this year. Stakeholders in the film industry said they are bent on witnessing the event being organized by the Kenya Film Commission. The annual event is to celebrate and recognize excellence in production of local Kenyan movies and stars. At the moment the Commission is receiving entries from prospective award winners.

Activities leading to the 21st edition of the Panafrican Cinema and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), scheduled for 28 February to 7 March in the Burkinabe capital, began here Thursday, according to a press communiqué by the organisers transmitted to PANA. The two-day programme will feature a news conference, an exhibition on the late Senegalese filmmaker, Ousmane Sembène, and a number of films relevant to the FESPACO whose theme is "African cinema: Tourism and Cultural heritages".

Uprootedness, exile and forced displacement, be they due to conflict, persecution or even so-called \'development\', are conditions which characterize the lives of millions of people across the globe. While the international community has largely been concerned with refugees crossing borders to flee persecution, violence, impoverishment and brutal regimes, less attention has been paid to internally displaced populations. This book problematises both policies and rights frameworks in processes of displacement, while bridging the divide that exists between refugee and development induced displacement studies.

Based on personal interviews with Palestinian families, Oroub El-Abed examines the effects of displacement and the livelihood strategies that Palestinians have employed while living in Egypt. The author also analyzes the impact of fluctuating Egyptian government policies on the Palestinian way of life. With limited basic human rights and in the context of very poor living conditions for Egyptians in general, Palestinians in Egypt have had to employ an array of both tangible and intangible assets to survive.

Inviting member states, regional and international organisations, and professional and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in the field of journalism and freedom of expression to nominate candidates for the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize. The US$25,000 award honours a journalist or organisation that has made a notable contribution to the defence and promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially if this involved risk. The prize is awarded every year on World Press Freedom Day. Deadline: January 31 2009

Making Strategic Plans Work introduces an innovative and creative approach to understanding the theory and practice of strategic planning. Based on proverbs and folktales, the book provides detailed analyses of the stages of the strategic planning process - preparation, formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

The village in South Africa’s Eastern Cape where Jonny Steinberg decided to study Aids has no television or internet access. Indeed, it has no electricity. The people believe in divine healers and fear the consequences of treating their ancestors badly. Yet as I read Three-Letter Plague, Mr Steinberg’s revelatory and beautifully crafted book, I was struck by the universal nature of his story.

Zed Books was this week announced as the winner of the prestigious 2008 Pandora Award from Women in Publishing, for ‘a significant and valuable contribution to publishing’. The Pandora Award has been presented since 1981 to an individual or organization for promoting positive images of women in publishing, bookselling and related trades.

The new website is open.

From the publisher of Pambazuka News, Fahamu Books is a list of progressive books that stimulate debate, discussion, analysis and engagement on human rights and social justice in Africa and the global South. They are aimed primarily at activists and a wider audience of academics, students and policy makers.

The website allows you to buy the books and CD-ROMs – and much more. You can look inside the books, read reviews, join online discussions and sign-up for updates.

As a publisher committed to social justice, Fahamu Books is committed to publishing books that address contemporary issues of importance in the building of a progressive pan-African movement. If you would like to submit a proposal for a book, please see our guidelines, or send an email to [email]bookproposals@fahamu.org.

This book traces the economic debates in the ANC from the Freedom Charter, to Morogoro, to the RDP and to the present. It shows that the shift to macro-economic stabilisation in thetransition to democracy in 1994 was due to international pressure and how it changed the trajectory of ANC policies.

This is a story about a house with a history and about the people who lived or worked there. It captures something of the spirit of the times in worlds of politics and development, and it discusses the links which were established between Oxfam GB in Zambia and the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa. Edited by Robin Palmer, Bookworld Publishers, Lusaka 2008: ISBN 9789982240512. Also available from

This Development Dialogue is published on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Genocide Convention, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9th December 1948. On the basis of the normative framework created and more recently also applied in a few cases, the contributions seek to explore further the socio-historical and -political contexts of genocide and mass violence and test the common approaches against analyses of social realities as well as theories. The historical dimension is of significance to many of the chapters, which have a main focus on African cases and contexts. The contributions, which are based on two conferences held in Uppsala in December 2006 and Oslo in November 2007, present scholarly as well as politically and morally guided forms of engagement. This blend seeks to acknowledge the need to unite differently posed concerns and appeals in their common efforts to examine further the notion of genocide (as well as its limitations), with the aim of reducing the risks of history repeating itself. The volume is accessible also for download at the Foundation’s web site:
Revisiting the heart of darkness – Explorations into genocide and otther forms of mass violence. 60 years after the UN Convention. Edited by Henning Melber. Uppsala: The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation (development dialogue, no. 50, December 2008), 302 pp.