The Granta Book of the African Short Story introduces a group of African writers described by its editor, Helon Habila, as ‘the post-nationalist generation’. Presenting a diverse and dazzling collection from all over the continent – from Morocco to Zimbabwe, Uganda to Kenya – Habila has focused on younger, newer writers, contrasted with some of their older, more established peers, to give a fascinating picture of a new and more liberated Africa.

Disdaining the narrowly nationalist and political preoccupations of previous generations, these writers are characterized by their engagement with the wider world and the opportunities offered by the internet, the end of apartheid, the end of civil wars and dictatorships, and the possibilities of free movement around the world. Many of them live outside Africa. Their work is inspired by travel and exile. They are liberated, global and expansive. As Dambudzo Marechera wrote: ‘If you’re a writer for a specific nation or specific race, then f*** you.” These are the stories of a new Africa, punchy, self-confident and defiant.

Includes stories by:

Rachida el-Charni; Henrietta Rose-Innes; George Makana Clark; Ivan Vladislavic; Mansoura Ez-Eldin; Fatou Diome; Aminatta Forna; Manuel Rui; Patrice Nganang; Leila Aboulela; Zoë Wicomb; Alaa Al Aswany; Doreen Baingana; E.C. Osondu

Source

The SADC Troika Summit of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation met in Livingstone, Zambia yesterday. The Summit was chaired by Rupiah Banda, President of Malawi, and attended by the heads of state and government of Namibia, South Africa Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The purpose of the meeting was to consider the political and security situation in the region, in particular the republics of Madagascar and Zimbabwe.

On Zimbabwe, the Summit received the report on the political and security situation in the country from President Jacob Zuma. He was commended for the frankness with which the report was presented and also on the work that he has been doing on behalf of SADC.

The Summit noted with disappointment the insufficient progress in the implementation of the GPA, and expressed its impatience with the delays. It also noted with grave concern the polarization of the political environment, characterised by a resurgence of violence, arrests and intimidation in Zimbabwe.

Among the resolutions made was a commitment to the full implementation of the GPA and another to the immediate cessation of violence, intimidation, hate speech, harassment and any other form of action that contradicts the letter and spirit of the GPA.

The Troika Organ also resolved to appoint a team of officials to join the Facilitation Team and work with the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) to ensure monitoring evaluation and implementation of the GPA.

While it is heartening to see that Mr. Zuma’s candid report on Zimbabwe was endorsed by the Troika, previous meetings of regional heads of state and government have made similar resolutions on Zimbabwe without them being translated to reality.

Both the President and Prime Minister have made repeated calls for an end to violence and intimidation with no effect. In fact, the violence has greatly increased. In an article published in Newsday on 22nd February 2011, co-Chairperson of JOMIC is quoted as describing the Committee as a “toothless bulldog” with no legal or statutory powers to implement its resolutions. It will be interesting to see how and if this will change with the appointment of SADC officials to the Facilitation Team.

According to the latest SMS from the MDC, Energy and Power Development Minister Elton Mangoma, who was arrested earlier today, has been indicted to the High Court for trial 18 July. He has been remanded in custody.

Mangoma was arrested earlier this month, released after five nights, and is accused of unlawfully abusing his office as Energy and Power Development Minister by ordering his subordinates to procure five million litres of diesel from a South African company, Nooa Petroleum without following tender procedures.

Nehanda Radio reports that police are also looking for co-Minister of Home Affairs (which controls the police) Theresa Makone with a view towards arresting her.

The MDC speculates that their MPs are being targeted for arrest pending possible elections for Speaker of Parliament next week Tuesday. The voting margins in Parliament are very tight, and the absence of a few MPs on either side could make a difference in the result.

Remind me why we have this inclusive government again?

On Thursday March 17, police banned a Movement for Democratic Change “People’s Peace Rally” which had been planned for Saturday March 19. Speakers at the rally were to include MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai, who is also Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.

Initially, the MDC was defiant about the ban, pledging it would go ahead as planned, and appealing first to the Magistrate’s Court and then to the High Court, both of whom upheld the ban. The ban defied an earlier move by Zimbawe’s President Robert Mugabe to lift an unofficial ban on MDC rallies.

The MDC continued to put up posters advertising the rally – I saw some go up as late as Thursday and Friday. On Friday, the police warned the public not to attend the rally.

On Friday, we sent a text message to our subscribers asking them what the MDC should do about the ban. Over 60% of them advised the MDC should go ahead with the rally.

Along similar lines, several MDC supporters went to the rally despite the ban. Police fired tear gas to disrupt those who had gathered. Others were assaulted by alleged Zanu PF youth. According to the MDC, at least 15 were hospitalised as result. This is consistent with the feedback we received from people in town on Saturday, including:

• Harare is cordoned off by ZRP. No cars are picking or dropping people there.
• MDC T members are being beaten and looted their cash by Zanu PF in front of ZRP.

All of this begs the question, what should the MDC do in an environment in which on paper they are an equal partner in government, with a co-Minister of Home Affairs. But in reality, they are very much junior partners, and some criticise their presence in government as simply legitimising continued Zanu PF domination.

Interestingly, the vast majority (61.5%) of Kubatana subscribers who were answering this question urged the MDC to go ahead with the rally.

Other responses included:

• Take it to the courts – 9.6%
• Street protests – 7.0%
• Wait / reschedule – 7.0%
• Appeal to the region – 5.9%
• Push for new constitution / elections – 3.2%
• Use the media to build support – 3.2%
• Pull out of the GNU – 2.7%

Of course, like the suggestion that the MDC should “just go ahead with the rally despite the ban,” these other ideas also need investigating. If the Magistrate’s court and High Court uphold the ban, what recourse does the MDC have through the courts? If police disrupt a planned peace rally and participants are attacked, what hope is there for street protests? Morgan Tsvangirai had just come back from a four day regional tour – appealing to the region didn’t seem to make much difference. And if you can’t get your so-called partner in government to agree to let you hold a peace rally, how do you ever hope to hold free and fair elections?

There is the idea that the MDC should use the media to build support – if they haven’t been able to do this in the 12 years since they were formed, why will they be able to now?

There is the least frequently suggested idea, that the MDC pull out of the GNU. But that could very well be exactly what Zanu PF is hoping it will do. If the MDC pulls out, then Mugabe would be in his rights to call for new elections. He would tell the region there was nothing else he could do – he had tried his level best, but the MDC pulled out. And therefore, in order to restore legitimacy to the government and allow the people of Zimbabwe their sovereign right to elect their leaders, he had no choice to call for elections. Of course, if the MDC can’t even hold a peace rally, how could elections in this environment ever be free and fair?

Finally, there is the suggestion that the MDC respect the ban and wait or reschedule – which is what it eventually settled on. The MDC has said they will hold the rally this coming weekend instead.

A friend of mine said on the weekend that Mugabe’s got Tsvangirai by the balls. In the process, it’s the people of Zimbabwe who are really feeling the pinch.

The police raided the office of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition on Tuesday 15 March.

“The police, who were armed with a search warrant signed by Chief Superintendent Peter Magwenzi said they were looking for anything subversive such as T-shirts, documents and fliers or anything incriminating.” (ZLHR press release)

You really have to laugh at them – there’s nothing else left to do. This incident reminded me of something I read recently. Some food for thought for civic organisations in Zimbabwe . . .

Faking it

Slobodan Miloševic, Serbia’s warmongering leader during the 1990s, was a master of manipulation in the former Yugoslavia. But, as the endgame approached, even Miloševic lost his touch.

He and his henchmen had little idea how to cope with the mischievous Otpor (“Resistance”), the student movement that proved more effective in energizing opposition to Miloševic than his political foes had ever been. Even as Otpor’s members were arrested and beaten, they mocked the authorities. As one of Otpor’s leaders pointed out later, the regime found itself in a bind. “I’m full of humour and irony and you are beating me, arresting me,” Srdja Popovic said in an interview for Steve York’s and Peter Ackerman’s documentary Bringing Down a Dictator. “That’s a game you always lose.”

In advance of elections in September 2000, the authorities became increasingly enraged at Otpor’s success. Police raided the group’s offices in the Serb capital, Belgrade, confiscating computers and campaign materials.

Otpor exacted sweet revenge. On phone lines which they knew would be tapped, they discussed how they would receive a large quantity of additional supplies of election stickers and other materials at a certain time and day. They invited news photographers to witness the delivery. Then, at the appointed hour, volunteers began unloading boxes from a truck, staggering toward the Otpor office, apparently weighed down by the weight of all the pamphlets and posters.

The waiting police triumphantly moved in to seize the boxes. As they did so, they realised that the cartons were not heavy at all, but strangely light. They were empty – as empty as the police action itself.

Orders were orders, however. The police could not stop confiscating what they had been ordered to confiscate. Under the mocking eyes of reporters and other onlookers, the police impounded a large quantity of empty cardboard boxes.

Source: Small Acts of Resistance – how courage, tenacity, and ingenuity can change the world
Authors, Steve Crawshaw and John Jackon

Full page advert in The Standard newspaper on 13th March 2011:

ATT: Honourable Minister P. Chinamasa
Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs
New Government Complex
Block A 6th Floor

Dear Minister Chinamasa

We write to your attention the fact that Dr. Munyaradzi Gwisai, Hopewell Gumbo, Welcome Zimuto, Antonator Choto, Tendai Mambeyarara and Edison Chakana are being held unjustly in Zimbabwe’s remand prison. The 6 were unjustly arrested while conducting a meeting at the International Socialist Organisation, in which developments in North Africa were shared verbally and visually on the 19th of February 2010, and have been incarcerated since. This group is now charged with treason, which as you know is a serious crime carrying he death penalty. We demand that the 6 be released urgently for the following reasons:

·    The 6 have been incarcerated long enough to allow the prosecution to conduct investigation, and now they are unjustly being denied of their freedom.
·    The charges are frivolous and it is clear to us that watching videos and discussing political developments elsewhere do not constitute a crime.
·    Our constitution allows the freedoms of association and assembly which they were exercising at the time of their arrest.
·    Democracy is not treason.

We would like to protest the subjection of Dr. Munyaradzi Gwisai and his co-accused to inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment at the hands of the police while in custody.

This matter deserves your urgent attention, because justice delayed s justice denied.

Yours Sincerely

Concerned Zimbabweans

Dr. Gwisai and 45 others Detention Timeline

19 February 2011: Dr. Munyaradzi Gwisai and 45 others arrested while watching a video and discussing protests in Egypt and Tunisia. Amongst the 45 are people living with HIV and AIDS, diabetics, students and economic justice campaigners.
19-23 February 20011: Accused held with no access to lawyers, medical  attention and running water.
23 February 2011: The 46 formally charged with treason (a crime that carries the death penalty in Zimbabwe), and make their first court appearance.
24 February 2011: Defence Lawyers, raise concerns around torture and denial of medical attention for the ill, or legal counsel for the group.
Monday the 7th March 2011: Magistrate Munamato Mutevedzi, releases 39 of the 45 due to lack of evidence. Dr. Munyaradzi Gwisai, Hopewell Gumbo, Welcome Zimuto, Antonator Choto, Tendai Mambeyarara and Edison Chakana remain in custody.

Our Appeal
Dr. Gwisai and his 5 colleagues remain in custody for a crime they did not commit or for which they have not been found guilty. We urge you to join the campaign to have the six innocent people freed. You can do so by signing the letter above, cutting it and sending it out to the Minister of Justice. You can also sign an online petition at www.freethemnow.com and be sure to attend their next month court appearance on Wednesday 16 March 2011.

·    Justice delayed is justice denied
·    Democracy is not treason
·    Today its Dr Gwisai, tomorrow it could be you

Help free Dr Gwisai and his 5 colleagues. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. An injury to one is an injury to all!!

Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs
Hon Patrick Chinamasa
Government of Zimbabwe
New Government Complex
P. Bag 7751, Causeway
Harare,
Zimbabwe
Fax: 00 263 4 790901
Salutation: Dear Minister

The Attorney General
Johannes Tomana
Government of Zimbabwe
P. Bag 7714, Causeway
Harare ,
Zimbabwe
Fax: 00 263 4 777049
Salutation: Dear Attorney General

HE Mr Gabriel Mharadze Machinga
Ambassador of the Republic of Zimbabwe
Embassy of the Republic of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe House,
429 Strand,
London WC2R 0JR,
United Kingdom
Telephone:00 44 207 836 7755
Faxes:00 44 207 379 116
Email:zimlondon@yahoo.co.uk