Washington, DC — Freedom House, the washington-based independent non-governmental watchdog, has described 2008 as a year of “regression” for sub-Saharan Africa in its annual report on political rights and civil liberties.Twelve countries – almost one-quarter of the countries on the continent – experienced a decline in 2008, said the report, Freedom of the World.Only four – Zambia, Comoros, Angola and Cote d’Ivoire – made positive gains. Freedom House singled out the gains in political rights in Angola and Cote d’Ivoire, two post-conflict countries, for praise.

“The decline affected several of the continent’s largest and most influential countries and stemmed in part from military coups, ethnic conflict, and violent attempts to suppress civil society,” the organization wrote in the report.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 10 countries were categorized as free, 23 partly free, and 15 not free.Sudan, Equatorial Guinea and Somalia all received the worst possible score. Chad, Eritrea, Zimbabwe and Western Sahara scored only slightly better. All seven countries were described as not free.

Two African countries saw their categories change. Senegal was downgraded from free to partly free because of the “growing authoritarian trend in the policies of President Abdoulaye Wade, exemplified by the postponement of municipal elections.” Mauritania’s category changed from “partly free” to “not free” because of the military coup.

As the world marks the twenty-seventh International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, United Nations figures indicate that in the course of her lifetime, one in every three women is beaten, coerced into sex or abused, by a relative or acquaintance.In Africa , concerns continue to be raised over poor legislation and enforcement to protect women and girls from harm.At the African Development Forum, held in Addis from Nov. 19-21, it emerged that many women do not report cases of violence, particularly those involving intimate partners, for fear of reprisal, which may include economic deprivation, physical abuse, or losing custody of their children.”There is a deep culture of silence where women do not tell about their husbands or partners beating them; they fear that they may stop being provided for, particularly if the man is the bread winner,” says Auxillia Ponga, a gender advisor with the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Given this situation, accurate data on levels of violence against women continent-wide is not available. Where studies have been undertaken, the results are disheartening.A 2005 study by the World Health Organisation found nearly a third of women surveyed in Ethiopia had been forced to have sex against their will within the 12 months prior to the study. The U.N. Secretary-General’s Task Force on women, girls and HIV/AIDS found that young women between 15 and 19 had rates of infection 3.5 times higher than males the same age; the disparity is linked to the greater vulnerability of women in the context of high levels of sexual violence.Participants at the ADF VI released a statement and plan of action outlining a campaign that will seek to encourage survivors of violence to speak out so that comprehensive data can be generated and used to design specific measures to combat the violence that is rampant on the continent.

The ADF VI plan of action, titled “From Commitment to Delivery”, calls for a three-year initiative beginning in 2009 that will campaign door-to-door at the community level to create awareness about the importance of reporting violence.”This campaign recognises that having sound data on all aspects of violence against women is a precondition for establishing the best policies and monitoring the effectiveness of actions,” says the plan of action.The plan also requires countries to reform their laws to ensure they adequately protect women and girls as well as promote gender equality. Progress in this area will be reviewed after three years, where countries that will not have made headway will be required to explain why.

Concerns have been raised that despite most governments on the continent passing legislation outlawing violence against women, implementation remains a key challenge, with authorities citing a dire lack of resources. They allude to a shortage of funds to create awareness among the law enforcement officers, judges and magistrates, as well as educate women on their rights.”The government’s work is to create an enabling environment by passing the laws. It is upon all stakeholders to make sure the law works since governments may not have the necessary resources,” Victor Shipoh, the gender and international affairs director in the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare in Namibia told IPS.

To address such shortcomings, participants called on AU member states to finance and implement a fund for women by 2009 — an African women’s fund was promised in the 2004 Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa. They further supported the creation of a new U.N. agency focused on ending violence against women and promoting gender equality, with a minimum budget of one billion dollars a year.

African governments were urged to increase domestic investments in gender equality and empowerment of women programmes notwithstanding the world financial crisis.”Our governments should not use the financial crisis as an excuse for delayed action, saying they cannot fund gender programmes because of dwindling finances from the donors,” Marren Akatsa-Bukachi, head of the Eastern African Sub-regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women told IPS.

A general feeling resonating from the meeting was that with the current financial crisis, governments are most likely to make budget cuts on what they consider as non-essential areas. Gender equality and economic empowerment, it is feared, may fall under this category.Echoing earlier criticism of current spending priorities on things such as the military, Akatsa-Bukachi said if cuts to budgets were necessary, these should be made elsewhere: “They need to find a way of beefing up domestic resources to fund women empowerment programmes. After all the wealth of a nation is determined not by external resources but by its own national resources.”

Zambia : KITWE police yesterday withdrew the permit issued to the Patriotic Front (PF) to peacefully demonstrate against President Rupiah Banda’s victory in the October 30 elections citing security of the public.And various stakeholders yesterday condemned the riot that disrupted business and left various properties damaged in the city.Kitwe district police chief, Daniel Kasonde said the police had cancelled the PF demonstration which was due to be held tomorrow.Mr Kasonde said the situation was very delicate for an event of that nature to be held.”The current situation is so unstable and tempers among the people are so high,” said Mr Kasonde.Copperbelt Permanent Secretary Jennipher Musonda said some notable opposition political party leaders are alleged to have masterminded the riot that took place in Kitwe yesterday.And Mrs Musonda has urged all peace-loving Zambians to condemn and reject any violence that some politicians may try to fuel in the country.

Mrs Musonda was speaking in Kitwe yesterday evening after inspecting some of the shops that were damaged by youths who were alleged to have been mobilised from Kalulushi by one of the political party officials.”We have information that some taxi drivers and street children were paid by some notable political party leaders to cause the riot. Police are pursuing the issue. This was a paid riot and I urge all peace-loving Zambians to condemn this behaviour. We are a peaceful nation and let us nurture our peace.”However, I would like to assure the Kitwe residents that everything is under control and they should go on with their business. As Government, we are in-charge and we shall not allow anarchy in the country,” Mrs Musonda said.

And Action National Group for Emerging Leaders (Angel) Copperbelt Chapter chairman, Thabo Kawana condemned yesterday’s violence.Speaking in an interview in Kitwe shortly after relative calm had been restored in the town, Mr Kawana said it was unfortunate that people should take advantage of the prevailing political situation to cause confusion in the nation.He said the violent protest by suspected PF cadres was most unfortunate because the arrest of Radio Icengelo station manager, Frank Bwalya by police was something that was done in accordance with the law.

Mr Kawana said as much as Father Bwalya was doing his job as a journalist, people should understand that police were also doing their normal routine job.He said there was need for young people to desist from engaging in acts of violence because property being destroyed was for the betterment of their lives.”Young people should desist from engaging in acts of violence because Zambia is not only for the old generation. It is in fact us the young who should be more responsible, bearing in mind that the future will face us,” Mr Kawana said.

And Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) acting secretary general, Ian Mkandawire condemned the violence and the destruction of public property by suspected PF cadres.

Mr Mkandawire, who advised residents to maintain calm, said resorting to property destruction was not the best way of expressing displeasure because property had nothing to do with the political misunderstanding.

A Kitwe pastor also condemned the rioters who allegedly took part in the looting of shops in the city centre following disturbances over the arrest of Fr Bwalya.

Pastor Godfrey Kafunga of Christian Faith Ministries of Kitwe described the disruption of public services as a sad development which could have been avoided had both parties allowed common sense to prevail.

“That type of expression cannot be allowed to continue, at least not in our land that has been declared as a Christian nation and I hope the authorities will use their powers to ensure culprits are brought to book,” he said.

Opposition Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) Copperbelt provincial chairman, Teddy Kangwa condemned Fr Bwalya for allegedly behaving like a political party cadre when he was a clergyman who was supposed to preach reconciliation, love, peace and unity in the country.

Mr Kangwa commended the police for arresting and detaining Fr Bwalya for allegedly issuing unpalatable, provocative statements aimed at inciting people to rise against the Government.

“As much as we support the work Radio Icengelo is doing, the comments of Radio Icengelo station manager are provocative and have gone to extremes.

“What is happening in other countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda where there are wars started with inciting people by others,” Mr Kangwa said.

He charged that Fr Bwalya was abusing his powers and that if he wanted to join politics, he should come out in the open instead of using his position to fight political battles.

The present generation of Africa’s leadership must re-think and design Africa’s future on the basis of lessons learnt in the past and present. This is to address Africa being the weakest and poorest in the world 50 years after independence, the former President of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa said.He noted that the “tardiness and slow response” of the international community to Africa’s plight, after the post colonial era, has served as a pointer that there was no fundamental interest in the development of Africa.Mkapa expressed these sentiments when he delivered the first in a series of lectures at the eighth edition of the ‘Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lectures’ at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), under the theme, “Rethinking the political, social and economic paradigm of African development”.

The former President, whose first topic on the theme was “skewed relationship with erstwhile colonial alliance”, observed that there has been constant debate on how colonial legacy has benefited the continent, and said at independence, Africa inherited the language and political systems of their colonial masters.

He said that if Osaagyefo Dr Nkrumah were alive, he would have challenged Africa to re-think its political and social identity, stressing that “Nkrumah believed in the African personality and in the dignity of his roots”.

Touching on the devastating effects of the slave trade, he noted that although slavery “is an old institution and did not begin or end in Africa” the continent bore the brunt of slavery.

He said the slave trade took away from Africa some of its best people upon whom the prosperity of the continent rested and that during that “brutal” era, more than 25 million people were shipped off, depriving the continent of its doctors, teachers, farmers and other valuable human resources.

According to Mkapa, colonialisation also destroyed the continent’s existing traditional and democratic structures and that there were clear indications that transparency and accountability were not an anathema of traditional leadership.

He said the colonial educational legacy, also left independent Africa, with very little wherewithal for development and that for instance, the French educational system was mostly based on elitist education irrelevant to the development of the natives, while the British just focused on teaching the indigenes just the basics, those just needed for administrative purposes and “had no intention to turn Africans into black Englishmen”.

He said as a result, the colonial educational systems did not prepare Africans for leaderships that could have empowered them to face developmental challenges.
He cited the example in his native country, then known as Tanganyika, where during that era, only 15 % of the adult population was literate and there were just 3,100 primary schools for a population of nine million.

Mkapa, said although the United Nations called the attention of the colonial powers of deliberately obstruction the education in their colonies, and among other resolutions, called for an increase in the strengthening of the educational systems, “it did not follow through with practical help”.

He said as a result, “the natural instinct of leaders in independent Africa, was to turn to their colonial masters for aid to develop their countries”, after they had also plundered the continent of its vast natural resources.

The former President, pointed out that Africa’s development would have been different if the colonialists had treated Africa with respect and had provided it with the wherewithal to develop its economy.

The Vice-Chancellor of the UCC, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, observed that the colonial era, had dented Africa’s identity and left a “huge psychological scar” and that Africa’s educational system had not done much to remove that scar.