African Refoundation

Dar-Es-Salaam
June, 21-26th 2001

African Caravan for Peace and Solidarity
dph

dph

Sheet files

CONTENTS

Dph sheet files 	 page 4

•	1. Reconciliation : justice, memory, fight against impunity 	 page 21

•	2. Territorial management  page 49

•	3. Citizenship 	 page 37

•	4. Information and democracy 	 page 49

•	5. Décentralisation 	 page 59

•	6. Regional Integration 	 page 69

•	7. Lands, soils 	 page 77

•	8. Women : access to politics 	 page 89

•	9. AIDS	 page 99

•	10. Culture of Peace	 page 109

The Dph features in this collection come from a palette of contributors, mostly belonging to networks or organisations – NGOs and associations. The emphasis has been placed on contributions from Africans, with those from outside the continent a minority. As such, this collection is the result of a bet we have made over the past two years to encourage FPH’s African partners to share their experiences and analyses.

We chose the texts based on two criteria : quality and originality of contents. By quality, we mean clarity and the absence of staid, overly academic or bureaucratic language, without obviously falling into the opposite, flightly extreme.

Originality was found in the viewpoint expressed, in the way a specific theme was broached, or in contributor’s particular profile and experience.

The thematic classification was made from a selection of contributions in the Ifrikya database (as the Dph network in West Africa is known), while others come from the Dph database. With a few exceptions, notably education, contributions cover most of the themes cited in the introduction. When we didn’t have adequate material to publish, we chose not to treat the subject, rather than to do it poorly. We trust this gap will be filled in the near future with new, interesting contributions.

No chapter in this collection pretends to present a comprehensive overview of a theme or issue. Much more modestly, we have tried to highlight certain key points, in the hope that these contributions will nourish fruitful debates…

Sidiki Abdoul Daff
Françoise Feugas

1. Reconciliation

Justice, memory, fight against impunity

A few thoughts from the African Collective memory 

Peace is not the absence of war: like health, peace is the principal asset without which one cannot enjoy other possessions. A healthy person is potentially ill but peace, like health, is a positive force, constantly in action. Africans have, on the whole, understood this imperative. There have certainly been tyrants and even genocide here, like elsewhere. But cultural ethnocide, for example has been very rare, as witnessed by the exceptional proliferation of languages. African societies are so strongly integrated thanks to the principle of maximum consensus, very different from the absolute consensus of dictators. Customary law, the body of usage, behaviour, rights and responsibilities imposes itself on everyone, starting with the king. In pre-capitalist agrarian civilisation, where the prosperity of the country depended closely on the land and rural labourers, the absolute social norm was to integrate socially linked groups without loss of substance and energy. From where a culture evolved inclined to peace and preservation of the status quo. This idea is translated into innumerable greetings where the word peace comes back as a leitmotiv : ‘Have you the peace?’ (‘Héré bé?’ in Bambara, ‘Laafi bé mé ?’ in More). The economic imperative has returned therefore to the cultural and ideological sphere to combine firmly the different sectors of society. Hence the horror or repugnance which always inspires disruptive factors of social equilibrium.  In my maternal tongue (San), one says  'If something good came out of conflict, then the dogs would have found it'. 

By contrast, a multitude of proverbs, sayings, tales and stories celebrate union, harmony, the courage of forgiveness which is better than just courage alone, association for peace and solidarity: ' the calabash held by us all can get dirty, but at least it will not break', 'two hands can mutually wash each other', 'if all the sons of the land worked together to block the holes in the broken jar, this could hold the water which we all need' etc. 

Ways of  conciliation 
a.	All symptoms of tension that announce a conflict are regarded as a potential tinderbox and treated as such. This mobilises all the 'white blood cells' of the community like a rapid warning system. Contrary to humanitarian interference, intervention is therefore preventative. It is not the case of firemen racing from one fire to the next. 

b.	In case of conflict, the mediator system is nearly always already in place. The intermediary is nearly always known to all parties and is seldom a single person but a group. These mediators or envoys are sacred: 'lightening does not fall on an envoy', 'bad luck to the population who massacres mediators!' Even delegates from conquering colonial forces have benefited from this imperative rule. Certain socio-professional groups can be delegated by law or usage to this function of mediators, including blacksmiths, the very same people who make arms and are supposed to be commanding the elements; the poet-musicians, masters of speech with destructive and regenerative power. Referees are also legion at different levels of the social structure.

c.	There are no limits to the time spent at this level because the time spent on palavers of conciliation are regarded as a priority investment of society to heal its wounds.  

d.	Numerous procedures and more or less solemn rituals consecrate pacts and accords: special meals, drinks, ablutions, exchange of oaths, sacrifices and exchange of blood. Sometimes the threat of breaking certain taboos, by women for example, is used as an ultimate deterrent to violence. Finally, it can happen that the conflict is reduced to play-acting as a kind of joking. The ideal is to prevent a  tête-à tête or face-to-face between the two antagonists by including them in a larger group. 

e.	In brief, all major conflicts are taken out by diverse means form the setting often falsely identified  as the 'clan', 'tribe', 'cast', or 'race' to be brought in front of the tribunal of equity and human dignity. This is why the feeling of belonging has largely been territorial and not 'racial'. The neighbour of the Mossi (Yaka) enjoys the status of ally. Confrontations were in any case tempered by the slow pace of the technologies used, in particular the means of communication and telephoning. When all means of alleviating or eliminating the conflicts had failed, exodus remained, authorised as of right or imposed as an obligation. 

The territorial reference was therefore decisive. It made both parties nationals of a native soil or kingdom possibly confronting another kingdom. The principle identity was not that of a social group at the heart of an ethnic group or if it was it did not normally lead to suicidal genocide after centuries of historic cohabitation. To exclude a human group on the basis of phenotype or even more do on genotypes impossible to determine, was to exclude oneself from the humanity. Pharaonic texts were already saying 'Do not use violence against men both from the country and the town since they were all born from the eyes of the sun; they are God's troops'. 

What to do in Rwanda ? 

It is very difficult to risk giving advice from so far away. But the name of Rwanda rings in our hearts and what happened there could happen anywhere in Africa. One spontaneously thinks of several possible actions:

-	a solemn Charter: a set of principles drawn from the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial experience, reconstructed gestures and acts with a symbolic character and with the immediate effect of restoring confidence and recreating strong positive images by including the maximum number of people on the platform of minimal consensus of the Charter. Denounce or force an acknowledgement of crimes against humanity and against humans. Restore and honour martyrs from all sides; experiences to transcend;

-	the launch of a civic education programme anchored in culture and historic seams but specially in a programme common to the sub-region to deconstruct the violence- witnesses and guarantors are necessary if they are to be unanimously accepted, coming from inter-African, international and religious spheres, from civilian society and from the depth of popular culture. 

 Joseph KI ZERBO, 18.10.1994 
CEDA=CENTRE D'ETUDES SUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT EN AFRIQUE

NOTES : The author of the article is a historian specialising in Africa, a writer and member of the Burkinan Parliament. The article is an extract from a document sent in reply to an appeal for international contributions launched by the FPH for the organisation of the International meeting on the reconstruction of Rwanda (Kigali, 22nd-28th October 1994) co-organised by the FPH and the CLADHO (Collective of Leagues and Associations for the Defence of Human Rights). 

Sources : 
ORIGINAL TEXT. 

AFRICA ; BURKINA FASO
COLLECTIVE MEMORY;  COLLECTIVE IDENTITY; MEDIATION ; CUSTOMARY LAW ; CONFLICT RESOLUTION  ; EXPERIENCE VALUATION ; PEACE CULTURE  ; PEACEFUL MANAGEMENT OF CONFLICTS.

To act against impunity in order to cure the  memory

Development NGO's engaged in the process of constructing peace across the world sometimes fight on the territory of international law to try and advance it and to reinforce its effectiveness . If international legal tools exist, the same cannot always be said about the political will to apply them, which is often lacking, and it is on this that one has to act.  Amongst other associations, CIMADE intervenes at the heart of the Commission for Human Rights of the United Nations and defends notably the setting up of an International Tribunal on war crimes in ex-Yugoslavia even if many questions are being asked as to its effectiveness. 

Action against impunity is fundamental for curing the memory. In the case of the war in Bosnia and other atrocious conflicts such as in Rwanda and Somalia, it is essential that war criminals and criminal ideologies are judged. In order not to confound a whole generation with the directors who could have diverted them down  murderous paths, it is essential that moments in history are judged and that one can condemn acts, individuals and ideologies in such a way that a cure is possible. 

One sees the importance that this question of impunity assumes in Latin America where violations of human rights have been enormous: a real process of reconstruction  of  society, after a period of dictatorship or war, is only possible when the victims of a condemned system have been recognised as such. Even if all criminals and torturers have not been punished, it is important that the mechanisms of which they have been the instruments are analysed and condemned as such to permit a re-appropriation of the memory and also perhaps to give the victims the opportunity to forgive. One never forgives something which has been erased. It is the drama of Uruguay, of Argentina or even Chile, where, on the part of the new powers in place, there exists a willingness to turn the page and behave as if one could erase it all and start again.   

One can clearly see today the delayed effects of horrors committed during the second world war between Serbs and Croats. As soon as the war had ended, multiple pressures, including the part played by General Tito were enacted in order not to open wounds  and the regime orchestrated a collective amnesia. Morality, suppurating wounds have remained open for 50 years and as soon as they could be expressed after the collapse of the communist system, they resulted in an unleashing of violence and cruelty. It is very noticeable when one goes to ex-Yugoslavia to hear witness's accounts of wanting vengeance for things that happened 50 years ago! They speak as though their own wives or children, husbands or brothers had just been assassinated the day before. The intensity has remained intact. To break with the spirit of vengeance, justice has to be done and the suffering recognised. The  Nuremberg trials judged a small number of criminals but it condemned nazism. There are still nazis on the run here and there but nazi ideology has been judged by history. From this derives the importance of international authorities such as the current tribunal project on war crimes. CIMADE has always supported all organisations which battle against impunity in Latin America. At the present it is examining the nature and means of its contribution to the setting up of such a tribunal on crimes committed in ex-Yugoslavia. For one NGO it is difficult to act on this level. As a member of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights which has itself given a very favourable opinion, CIMADE can make its voice heard. However this is not enough. NGO's can participate in collecting victims' testimonies but all the work of confrontation and verification, which cannot be disputed, requires means and logistics which are not within reach of organisations. These tasks can only be done at the level of the United Nations. 

In Serbia a movement opposed to the war has got together to compile, in a systematic and rigorous manner, information  and witnesses on serious violation of human rights committed since the beginning of the war, notably in Bosnia. The results will be handed to the  Mazoviewczkià Commission. One of the roles of NGO's  is to support such initiatives. 

Claire MOUCHARAFIEH - 25.03.1994 
NOTES : Interview with Geneviève Jacques, General Secretary of ‘CIMADE’, 76 rue de Grenelle, 75007 PARIS. TEL 44 18 60 50 

Sources : 
INTERVIEW. CIMADE=COMITE INTERMOUVEMENT D'AIDE AUX DEPLACES ET AUX REFUGIES. 

WORLD; LATIN AMERICA  ; EX -YUGOSLAVIA 
IMPUNITY ;  INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL; CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY ;  PEACE JUSTICE RELATIONS;  PEACE LAW RELATIONS; RESPECT FOR  INTERNATIONAL LAW ; NATIONAL RECONCILIATION;  COLLECTIVE MEMORY; ECLIPSE OF HISTORIC FACTS ; TEACHING OF HISTORY AND PEACE ; PARDON ; WAR CRIMINAL ; CRIMINAL IDEOLOGY ; AMNESTY 

Memory and its abuse

We have moved on from being a heteronomic society , i.e. having a legitimacy derived from tradition, to an autonomic society, controlled by contracts to which each one of us signs up to or not where memory is ousted to the benefit of certain universal principles of general will. At the same time, even though it appears that memory does not have a dominant role in different spheres of social life in the West, it has been praised for the revelation of a danger undreamed of before the discovery of totalitarian regimes based on the seizure and control of memory. Its praise continued in criticism of Western liberal democracies by aiming at a regime of its obliteration by generating quicker and quicker consummation of information. Yet this systematic praising of memory can in turn become problematic. To understand this, one has to distinguish two phases of memory. 

Morphology of memory
  
Memory is composed of two specific stages; the recovery of memory and its subsequent use. It is so because memory selects. At this stage, forgetting forms part of it in so far as it only has to highlight certain elements which serve to direct the use which we will make of the past. Functionally, there is discontinuity here between the two phases, since the reproach we make to totalitarian regimes is not for the retention of certain elements from the past- like we all do- but to assume the right to control the choice of elements to retain or to have legislated on the use of the past. This is also how abuse of memory works: one of the justifications given by the Serbs for their aggression towards other populations of the old Yugoslavia is that this would be revenge for all the suffering of their past (during the second world war against the Turkish Muslims). 

If the past must rule the present, which of the Jews, Christians and Muslims could renounce their territorial claims on Jerusalem? The cult of memory is an expression of conservatism and overvaluation of identity, the conservation component of all nationalism. One therefore needs an abstract category, a tool of thought permitting the detection of lawful usage and abuse of memory. As a foundation for criticising the use of memory, one needs to make the distinction between several forms of recollection.  

Literal memory and model memory

If an event is preserved by the memory in its literal sense (which does not mean in its truth), it remains an intransitive fact, not reaching beyond itself. The associations grafted onto  it are located in its direct proximity; I extend the consequences of the initial trauma to all moments of existence, I associate everyone who is linked to the initial cause of my pain. One can see that literal memory carries risks. If, without denying the singularity of the event, I decide to use it in general terms, I use it from then on as a model to understand new situations. Psychoanalysis defines neurosis as a release from which the memory unravels the work, because it brings back active but unconscious memories and allows them to be remembered but prevents the recurrence of the suffering and open them up to other possibilities. We therefore go into model memory where, by opening the memory to analogy and generalisation, we make an example of it. In this case, associations evoked are no longer closely related since it is more a question of assuming one's identity than justifying the analogies. Model memory is potentially liberating.

Common usage would designate them by two distinct terms, which would be, for literal memory, as just memory, and for model memory, justice. Justice is born from the generalisation of particular offences and is embodied in impersonal law applied by an anonymous judge. It is the 'generalisation' which permits the creation of the law.

Model memory : memory of the camps

The action of David Rousset illustrates model memory. A past political prisoner deported to Buchenwald, he later wrote several books on the concentration camp experience. But he didn't stop there : in 1949, he published an appeal to past nazi camp deportees to take charge of the enquiry on the soviet camps which were still active. Rousset devoted several years to fighting the communist camps. If he had only used his literal memory, he would have spent his life immersed in the past. By favouring his model memory, he used the lessons of the past to react to the present. Certainly not making the realityof each of these facts disappear, but bringing out similarities and difference by generalising in a limited way. 

Another illustration of model memory : in 1957, a French civil servant, Paul Teitgen, a past deportee of Dachau, resigned from his post of secretary at the Algerian ‘prefecture’; he explained his action by citing the similarity between traces of torture which he found on Algerian prisoners with the torture which he had personally suffered in the cellars of the Gestapo in Nancy. 

Memory yes, like forgetting, but in the service of the law.

Marie Jeanne SIMONI; Claire MOUCHARAFIEH - 22.10.1994 

NOTES : The text from which this article was compiled was originally a communication for the congress ‘History and memory of nazi crimes and genocide’, Brussels, November 1992. The article is an extract from a document sent in reply to an appeal for international contributions launched by the FPH for the organisation of the international meeting on the Reconstruction of Rwanda (Kigali 22nd -28th October 1994) co-organised by the FPH and the CLADHO (Collective of Leagues and associations for the Defence of Human Rights).

Sources : 
PERIODICAL. TODOROV, Tzvetan. Esprit. 199307. 

WORLD 
 PEACE JUSTICE RELATIONS ; COLLECTIVE MEMORY ; OBLITERATION OF HISTORICAL FACTS ; MEMORY JUSTICE RELATIONS ; SELECTIVE MEMORY ; LESSONS OF HISTORY ; MODEL MEMORY.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa
What lessons can we draw from it ?

Hugo Van Der Merwe : My work entails managing research projects which evaluate the work of the TRC and community reconciliation initiatives that operate alongside the TRC. 

David Gakunzi : Can you tell us about the purposes and objectives of the TRC and how these were achieved ? 

HVDM : That is a big question. The TRC was an ambitious project established with the mandate to try to promote reconciliation in South Africa, which primarily focused on gross human rights violations in South Africa during Apartheid. Essentially, it tried to do that by firstly uncovering the truth about abuses and establishing exactly who was responsible and the extent of the abuses. It attempted to establish who should be held responsible at a political level, but also pinpoint individual perpetrators who are responsible for specific abuses. The purpose was on one hand to establish an official record and on the other hand to inform victims' relatives about what had happened to their loved ones, and what circumstances were around the abuses. 

In addition to that it addressed the whole issue of amnesty.  South Africa we got saddled with the burden of amnesty through the negotiated solution/settlement so we had to give effect to the amnesty agreement in our Constitution. This meant people had to apply individually for amnesty for the abuses rather than receive a blanket amnesty. The TRC had to listen to each of those cases were the people were forced to provide full disclosure, to judge whether they were politically motivated abuses, and to uncover in public the truth about these cases. And through this whole process to try and achieve some form of reconciliation - at least to promote dialogue between people and to really look at the truth of South Africa's past. 

DG : The TRC has been criticized as having sacrificed justice for reconciliation, another criticism is that the TRC is built on the Christian sense of forgiveness. What is your view of these criticisms and what is your evaluation of the TRC achievements? 

HVDM : Fundamentally, TRC is based on a compromise of justice because we had an amnesty. Amnesty is a fundamental form of injustice. And in South Africa we had to make the best of that situation.  Not many South Africans wanted a situation of a Nuremberg style trials. Essentially we wanted to move to reconciliation so we tried to find a middle ground between impunity and completely forgetting about the past. It has been a very difficult compromise; and at times difficult for many South Africans to live with. So essentially, yes, we have sacrificed justice to a large extent, and we have tried to develop other forms of justice. The TRC often talks about restorative justice, where instead of punishment we look at reparations, truth and apologies from perpetrators. That has been a partial success  In some cases it has been very significant, very deep and very meaningful to victims, and has produced new truth which we would not have accessed if we had followed a legal process of punishment. 

But on the other hand, most perpetrators have not come forward and most perpetrators have not shown enough remorse or true regret for what they have done.  Most fundamentally, reparations to victims have not been forthcoming from perpetrators and also not from the state. By granting amnesty, the state essentially took over that responsibility. So we have compromised justice in the first place through amnesty, and we have compromised restorative justice through not implementing it sufficiently. 

So there has been a lot of understandable anger at the TRC as a whole and particularly from sections of society who want perpetrators punished. Especially when you see people not showing any remorse for what they had done in the past. There is an understandable public sentiment that people should be punished, that they cannot get away with it. So there is I think serious problems with the way the TRC was conceptualized and implemented. 
In term of the Christian aspect of the TRC, it is difficult to evaluate.  Most South Africans are committed Christians and support the TRC in terms of its philosophy. The symbolic and public support for the TRC was largely gained through that Christian message that was portrayed. It did ring true with people that you did need to talk about apology, confession and forgiveness. As long as it stays at the level of symbolism, however, it ultimately feels quite empty  - when you do not really see confession; remorse and forgiveness taking more practical form through some form of individual reparation and commitment from perpetrators to make good for their past. There have been criticisms from other religious communities that this message was not inclusive enough and therefore that the prayers around the TRC hearings and general language used by the TRC, to some extent, did exclude other people. 

DG : The TRC has achieved some success despite the criticism, what are these successes, and secondly what are the lessons that we can draw from the TRC, in the process of rebuilding a divided society? 

HVDM : I think the successes is firstly in terms of truth. The truth commission has established a fairly comprehensive official record of the past. It's very difficult for people to say ‘no, Apartheid wasn't like that, Apartheid wasn't about gross human rights violations’. White South Africans particularly who have been trying to deny what Apartheid meant, through exposures, through the television, through the newspapers coverage have now seen what apartheid meant to most of South Africans. So I think we have some common basis at least from which to look at the past. We can't say that those were the good old days as some whites would want to say. We have to see it in the stark reality that it was.  This agreement about the past is an important and fundamental basis for reconciliation. While there are so many issues that people disagree about, and not to underestimate these, but also to say that the TRC has moved us to some extent towards the truth, at least towards reducing the number of lies about the past.  

The TRC has also has created more public debate about the victims, about the concept of reconciliation, and while we may not agree with what reconciliation means in South Africa, people now have opinions and there is more public debate about it. It is something everyone engages in and victims particularly have been mobilized.  While previously victims were scattered and not involved in debates, there are now victim voices that engage in public debate about justice, about reconciliation and that is an important step forward. It is difficult because in some communities it has been a sustained voice, while in other communities it has been a voice that came out and has died down. The challenge is to make that a much more sustained process - making people stand up and talk out for themselves. 

COMMENTS : In terms of exporting some of the these lessons to other societies, it is very difficult because people have made superficial judgments, heaping praise on the TRC and jumping to the conclusion that other countries need a similar process. As South Africans we are proud of what we have achieved, we need to say that we have set a certain benchmark and other societies need to do better. We have achieved something and we have also failed in many ways. It is a challenge for other societies to learn from this experience. There are a number of areas one could look at. Issues of how do you uncover the truth about the past, how do you give victims a voice about the past and come to mobilize victims and give them a public voice - how to give them space to tell their stories in public. That is very meaningful for a lot of these victims because their voice was suppressed in the past. It still remains very difficult for them to come out, but the silence has been broken both on local community level and at national level. Some of them spoke at community hearings and some of them in front of the national media.  That needs to happen in any society where there has been civil conflict.  

There is also the issues of how do you promote reconciliation between victim and perpetrator.  There have been some cases where this has happened through the assistance of the TRC.  While only a small proportion of cases, it still significantly.  We need to understand more about how that happens and what the dynamics and difficulties are. At a community level as well, we need to find out more about what constitutes reconciliation - how a community can engage in a process of recovering its own history. At every level, the TRC experienced a mixture of failures and successes, and we need to evaluate both the failures and successes.  There has still not been enough critical reflection yet. Part of the problem is that the TRC has been very effective in promoting itself internationally and had very good media relations. Its success stories are what gets broadcast rather than its failures.  There needs to be a balanced view if we are to learn from this experience. 

GAKUNZI, David ; BEN MESSAOUD, Sonia - 07.05.2000 

Sources :  
Interview with : VAN DER MERWE, Hugo, project manager from the center for the Study of Violence and reconciliation.

Mali's experience in the matter of managing conflicts
The Touareg rebellion

North-Mali corresponds to the geographic area covering the three economic and administrative regions of Tombouctou, Gao and Kidal, in other words, nearly two thirds of the national territory with about 10 % of Mali's population. In the North, the white nomad populations of the Sahara (Touareg and Maure) cohabit with the black crop farming and livestock farming populations. 

Since Mali's rise to independence, this region has endured armed rebellions (1962-64) which the different governments have tried in vain to curb by repression. Since 1972, a persistent drought has established itself in this zone, wiping out the herds which are the most valuable commodity of the nomad populations. Thus, rendered poor, these populations have searched refuge in neighbouring countries, especially Algeria and Libya. In Libya the young have enrolled in the Islamic Legion and have received military and ideological training. Some of these young immigrants formed movements which set off hostilities in June 1990.

 To end the conflict, the government of General Moussa Traoré chose repression, which led to many innocent victims. In 1991, the military government was overthrown and the new government decided to take in hand this problem of the North. It signed a national Pact with the rebels on 11 April 1992 which notably included: the integration of these ex-rebels in the public services (uniformed corps and general administration ) and in socio-economic activities; the reduction in military action in the northern regions; the return of the administration and technical services in the North; the increase in economic activity and the setting up of ambitious socio-economic development programmes for the medium and long term; the return of the refugees; the setting up of a programme of decentralisation.

However, these agreements could not stop a return to violence since some of the rebels insisted on its immediate application, which the government could not do because of a lack of funds. From August 1994 to July 1995 the situation was marked by a return to fighting with demands for payment from civil and rebel populations. It was during this period that the ‘Ganda Koy’ movement (the ‘masters of the earth' ) appeared . It took advantage of the sedentary population's exasperation, fed up at being victims of attacks by 'white' rebels. The crisis took on a racial connotation bringing to the surface conflicting  secular relationships between sedentary-nomad, whites (Touareg and Maure)-blacks. 

Confronted with this very serious crisis which had already got the better of previous governments, the new government of President Alpha Omar Konaré adopted a strategy of treating problems in their entirety both coherently and profoundly with the active involvement of  civilians and  countries close by or further away concerned with the conflict (Mauritania, Algeria and the West African sub-region) and with the support of development partners. 

National mediation was led by civilians through traditional chiefs, religious personalities, worthies and state employees originating from the area and women's organisations. This mediation resulted in the first informal contacts with the rebellion and which set in motion the dynamics of dialogue and official negotiations. Following many encounters, both within and between communities, it was possible to bring about reconciliation, to restore confidence and re-launch economic activities that had been abandoned for over four years. These inter-community meetings bring together communities divided during the conflicts but which often have strong bonds of kinship, proximity, solidarity and complimentarity. These meetings had a great impact on reconciliation, the raising of moral standards and inter-community solidarity. During these encounters, the communities collectively remembered that in their rich history they set up and managed together states such as the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, the Songhaï Kingdom and the Lwillimidère Touareg Confederation of the Niger loop, and that they have always had a culture of peace which they had a duty to preserve. In fact this culture of peace needed to be maintained by its introduction in teaching and education, as well as by the adoption of strong symbolic acts like the 'Peace Flame' organised in Timbuktu the 27th March 1996 for which the fuel consisted of 3000 arms which had served in the war. 

On an international scale, mediation was assured by Algeria and reinforced by recourse to the services of foreign personalities with experience of these matters and with a reputation for neutrality.
This crisis had ramifications almost everywhere since the Maure people (Touareg) are scattered throughout the sub-region (Mauritania, Niger, Burkina, Algeria etc.), which gave this conflict a multinational dimension which the Mali government acknowledged by accepting neighbouring countries as facilitators (Algeria and Mauritania).
 
To end the conflict, the sources of arms provision also had to be cut. Thus, on Mali's instigation, West African countries accepted a moratorium on the manufacture, import and export of light arms in West Africa. 

To consolidate the peace, Mali has launched a diplomatic offensive in the direction of development partners to inform and mobilise them in favour of reinforcing the peace in North-Mali. There was, in particular, co-operation from the Germans, the Swiss, the Canadians and the PNUD. To ensure transparency in financial and material dealings, a sector-based round table on the North was organised. This included all the development partners, civilians, representatives of the rebellion, social partners and state technical services. As a result of this, a transitory programme for normalisation and rehabilitation of the regions of the North was defined for a period of 18 to 24 months. 
 
COMMENTS : A conflict cannot be lastingly resolved by force, only dialogue permits a long-lasting solution to be reached. The effectiveness of this dialogue depends on the integration of all parties concerned by the conflict. Refusing the timid nationalism which often characterises African governments (refusal of foreign interference in internal affairs), the government appealed to its neighbours since this conflict cannot be isolated from its context and there must be a global solution. Civilians, the main victims of the conflicts, must be suitably implicated before, during and after the conflict. For a long-lasting resolution to all conflicts, it is necessary to establish a framework of dialogue between partners. 

Sidiki Abdoul DAFF - 24.03.2001 
CRI=INTERAFRICAN RESOURCE CENTER
CERPAC=CENTRE D'ETUDES ET DE RECHERCHES
 POPULAIRES POUR L'ACTION CITOYENNE

NOTES : This file was based on the proceedings of a forum on governing in Africa, organised by the PNUD, Bamako, 28th-30th June 1999. 

Sources : RÉPERTOIRE DES PROGRAMMES DE GOUVERNANCE EN AFRIQUE : Bonne Gouvernance des Gestion des conflits pour une paix et un développement durable : forum sur la gouvernance en Afrique 
SEMINAR PROCEEDINGS; PERIODICAL. vol. 3. - BAQUE, Philippe, ‘ Nouvel enlisement des espoirs de paix dans le conflit touareg du Mali, Le Monde diplomatique, avril 1995- BOILEY, Pierre, ‘Le conflit touareg du Nord Mali : des responsabilités partagées’, mai 1999 (UNHCR).

MALI.
CONFLICT ;  CONFLICT RESOLUTION ;  NATIONAL RECONCILIATION ; STATE CIVIL SOCIETY RELATION ; CULTURE OF PEACE ; INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ; REGIONAL INTEGRATION.
Mozambican Peace Process : which lessons ?

 David Gakunzi : What are the lessons we can draw from Mozambican reconciliation process ? Secondly, how do you see the question of reconciliation and justice ? 

Alfiado Zunguzi : The main lesson you can draw from the Mozambique and peace process is, first the political will from the leaders. Leaders must be engaged and committed to peace and create that space for peace. In Mozambique. We have Chissano for example who was committed to peace, so this is the first lesson the political will from the government in providing that space for reconciliation to happen.  

The second major lesson that we can learn from the reconciliation process in Mozambique is that communities have a role to play. So reconciliation process is not just an issue to be dealt with by the government or by the political parties, but the communities themselves. So they are the primary actors in the peace process or in the reconciliation process. Unless the communities, themselves are committed to peace and understand the need for reconciliation; the politicians can easily manipulate the people to go again for war. When the politicians realize that they don't have a constituency for war , they don't have other choices than finding mechanisms to establish for peace and reconciliation.  

Third lesson is that culture is an important tool for reconciliation. Although we can find some culture value that promote war, culture can be used as a source for reconciliation. So Mozambique is an example of where the traditional culture mechanism for reintegrating people within the communities were widely used and those are the mechanisms that people should pursue. Through those mechanisms, ceremonies, people felt like they are integrated, and accepted, so there is no need to go fighting. These are some of the major lessons that we can draw from Mozambique and peace process. The culture values that can be used, the communities themselves as a primary source or primary actors in reconciliation and the political will must exist to provide that space for reconciliation at community level to happen.  

If I go to your second question, about justice and reconciliation, that is a most difficult one. Because we have different interpretations of the concept of justice and reconciliation. If you look to Mozambique and say let's do justice, so reconciliation could happen; one would say what do you mean by justice. Some would say that those who committed crimes should be taken to court to face trial and be punished for all of they have done, but if you go back again to the culture, they are more interested in reparation for instance instead of just punishing someone, because they talk more of restoring justice instead of retribution of justice. We have to understand that sense, that feeling of the community. The community wants to be compensated for things that they have lost, not necessarily punishing someone. That is not the objective. We can punish someone but the objective for instance in the traditional legal system is to restore what was destroyed, what was damaged during the persecution of the given conflict. That is the issue we have to deal with.

 David Gakunzi  - 12.07.2000 

Sources :  
Interview with ZUNGUZA, Alfiado , from the Mondlane Foundation.

MOZAMBIQUE
LEADER ; NATIONAL RECONCILIATION ; POLITICS OF RECONCILIATION ; PEACE JUSTICE RELATION ; CULTURE OF PEACE ; REINTEGRATION OF FIGHTERS
Social rehabilitation of child soldiers in Mozambique
Mozambican culture has served as a reference to initiate child soldiers in war; today it can be used to rehabilitate them.

 Mozambique, an old Portuguese colony, acquired its independence in 1976 after a war of independence led by the Liberation Front for Mozambican Independence (FRELIMO). Very soon, the State had to face the Mozambican national resistance (RENAMO) which carried out a bloody civil war for over ten years. In fact this movement was created by the Rhodesian secret service in 1976 to destabilise the new Mozambican regime  and was then supported, from 1980 onwards, by South Africa to the same end. With upheavals intervening in Southern Africa (Rhodesia's independence to become Zimbabwe, the end of apartheid in South Africa), this movement gained total autonomy and transformed itself into an armed political movement with the acquisition of political power as its objective.

Children, choice recruits for the army 
One of the characteristics of this movement was the enrolment of children in its army. Children had an advantage over adults in being able to identify with and mould themselves totally to the new group to which they belonged. As their personalities were still being formed, it was easy to instil in them military values. All during the conflict and especially during the latter half of the 1980's, RENAMO resorted to kidnapping young children, some of whom they submitted to military training and a process of warrior socialisation destined to make them into real combatants. Once 'recruited', the child was severed from its childhood setting  by a major transgression of values transmitted during childhood, which was a way of breaking the transmission of values which parents had started to instil in their children. For example, some children were forced to kill their parents or to assist in their execution. Following that, the children were submitted to a series of painful ordeals to test their physical and moral resistance and at the same time they suffered violent initiation rites which borrowed elements from Mozambican culture. 

Initiation rites to be able to kill without hesitation
 After their first murder, they were entitled to a ritual ceremony, celebrated by a 'curandeiro' 
(traditional medicine-man priest) basing his ritual on communicating with ancestors and spirits. This ceremony was generally followed by festive celebrations. The curandeiros thus initiated the young recruits to all aspects of magical-religious culture, washed them of their guilt and offered them potions or talismans supposed to render them impervious to enemy fire. At the end of this ceremony, the young child officially acquired the stature of adult and 'warrior' which was symbolically marked by bestowing on them special ornaments and magical protection. They could, following that, share in the spoils of war: food, consumer goods, especially clothes, but also women. Many young adolescents were thus 'married' and could eventually acquire several wives. From being pubescent kids, they passed directly into adulthood, having escaped their parents' control. The rite also permitted them to get rid of their guilt for transgressing taboos, notably the murder of their parents

Since then, it seems that violence served both to integrate and to familiarise these children with the suffering of others, even close relations. With regard to the population, the cultural and spiritual dimension was brought to the fore since RENAMO defined itself as the envoy of the ancestors, sent to carry out a 'war of the spirits'. Such a practice resulted in paralysing the peasant population who were faced with children killing and mutilating civilians without showing the slightest hesitation or doubt and completely incapable of seeing reason. Peasants were overtaken by a fearful panic which forced them, in most cases, to flee or prevented them from all capacity to resist.

COMMENTS : The peace accords of 4th Aril 1992 put an end to the war. RENAMO, realising that they could not win this war, converted itself into a civilian political force and participated in the elections. The Mozambican government had to re-educate and rehabilitate these child soldiers. This was the most complex phase since it called on Mozambican culture, certain aspects of which had been negatively used by RENAMO, to dragoon the children into its army. This aspect was not always understood by international organisations who sent battalions of psychologists and psychiatrists, armed with universal know-how which turned out not to be helpful in the case of Mozambique. It was necessary to resort to employing 'curandeiros' who used purification rituals and sacrifices to remove the guilt from these children, the first step in their socialisation. It was also necessary to reactivate a whole collection of procedures for reconciliation and pardons, of which the children were the first beneficiaries.

For this rehabilitation to be effective it was indispensable to have accompanying measures to offer these adolescents, deprived of childhood and the possibility of education and knowing only how to fight wars and ignorant of legal ways of earning a living. It is on this level that the international community could intervene effectively by giving the government substantial financial support.
 
Sidiki Abdoul DAFF - 26.03.2001 
CERPAC=CENTRE D'ETUDES ET DE RECHERCHES 
POPULAIRES POUR L'ACTION CITOYENNE 

Sources : Enfants-soldats et usages de la violence au Mozambique 
REPORT ; PERIODICAL. WEISSMAN, Fabrice ; LEGRAND, Jean-Claude. Françoise SIRONI, Les stratégies de déculturation dans les conflits contemporains, La revue de psychiatrie Nord/Sud, n°12, 1999.. 

MOZAMBIQUE 
CIVIL WAR ; CHILD SOLDIER ; PEACE EDUCATION ; PEACE CULTURE; CULTURE OF VIOLENCE .

Traditional therapies for treating 
children traumatised by war

Child victims of war, in Africa as elsewhere, often present with 'symptoms of psychological post-traumatic problems' according to western psychological terminology: suppression of feelings and avoidance of situations which could remind them of traumatic events, insomnia, incapacity to concentrate, nightmare, lethargy, fear, aggressive behaviour, social isolation, lack of hope for the future etc. 
  
UNICEF, USAID and various other voluntary organisations such as Save the Children and Christian Children's Fund have developed what are known as psycho-social  programmes to help child victims of war. From the time of the first programmes in Mozambique and Angola, the community leader, traditional healers and families have shown that they possessed much knowledge concerning treatment of social wounds resulting from war. Their interventions were based on autochthonous knowledge of the way war affects the spirit and behaviour of individuals as well as common beliefs concerning the way that spiritual forces intervene in such cases.

There exists convincing information coming from more or less everywhere in Africa indicating that modern or western medical help for curing mental problems is not really sought after by Africans who usually have access to local therapeutic techniques. We know from elsewhere that nearly all psychotherapies are potentially effective  when they are practised in the local socio-cultural environment, in the popular ritualistic systems.
  
Anthropological research done in Mozambique and Angola has shown that trauma linked to war is directly associated with the power and anger of the spirits of the dead. The impossibility of providing appropriate funerals during war does not allow these spirits to find their place in the ancestral world and therefore they are considered as being bitter and potentially dangerous, not only for those who killed them but also simple passers-by. 

Individuals who have taken part in war, who have killed or been witness to killings, are considered as being able to 'contaminate' the social fabric. Therefore purification rituals are essential to reintegrate them into the heart of the community.
   
In 1994, during the first project in Angola destined to help children traumatised by war, it was discovered that  children, ex-combatants, victims or witnesses were already helped by autochthonous psychotherapy by traditional healers, in the form of ritual purification ceremonies in which members of the family participated as well as the community at large. During the rituals, the child was purified of the contamination of war and death as well as sins, the sense of guilt and the  wish for revenge for those killed (in the case of child soldiers).  

Each socio-linguistic group possesses its own ritual, but the general idea, the purification ritual process, is common to all. It generally consists of 1)  breaking the link the child had with the past war by burning his clothes, for example, 2) honouring the dead spirits to appease their wrath, 3) purifying the child by making him drink and/or wash himself with certain herbal infusions or sacrificial blood. In some cases, for instance in Angola, the child is not allowed to enter the village, to greet the people and sleep in his own bed until all the purification rituals have been completed. Sometimes food taboos and other forms of ritual restrictions are applied. It is the traditional healer who practises the verbal ritual who has to lift the restrictions. 

When the child is deemed purified, the last phase of the ritual consists of reintegrating him into his community: the villagers then celebrate the child's 'return' with a festive ceremony and he is presented to the chiefs and is seated next to them to signify his change is status  (Okupiolissa ritual  from Huila in Angola).
COMMENTS : These purification rituals concerning children possess the appearance of what anthropologists call 'transition rites'. This means that the child goes through a symbolic change of status, passing from being someone existing in a setting characterised by sanctioned violation of the norm (e.g. murder and war) to that of someone  who must now live in a setting defined by social standards and peaceful behaviour.

Until the transition is complete, the child is considered to be in a dangerous state, a marginal spanning two situations, in a state of limbo and in an ambiguous position. 

It has been reported that the clear symptoms of PTST and other mental problems associated with them disappear shortly after these ceremonies, after which the family, the healers and the local chiefs occupy themselves in building lasting confidence between the traumatised child, members of his family and adults of 'good character'. These ritual interventions also have as their objective the establishment of spiritual harmony, notably between the child and the spirit of his ancestors.  

There is no doubt that these rituals are essential for treating psychosocial and emotional aspects of problems suffered by the children. The reality, however, is that they return to an impoverished environment, having to fight for basic essentials and in the absence, in many cases, of schools, hospitals, the possibility of professional training or job opportunities which would give them hope for a better future. Therefore, even if these rituals are important, they must be accompanied by community development programmes. Sponsors, NGO's and other organisations which provide humanitarian aid to child war victims should work to promote stable, reliable, culturally familiar environments/contexts in which children can develop feelings of competence and security in a more foreseeable world. An informal partnership between traditional healers with their ritual therapies and programmes supported by sponsors, putting the emphasis on the family and the social adjustment of the child could provide a model concerning the way autochthonous  and 'Western-scientific' approaches combine to offer maximum help to children in need. Moreover, such a model of co-operation and sharing of responsibilities serves to validate the autochthonous treatment and beliefs, which have a tendency to stimulate and mobilise the local population who in the end have to develop long-lasting culturally acceptable solutions in order to be able to help themselves. 

Françoise FEUGAS - 30.03.2001 
CRI=INTERAFRICAN RESOURCE CENTER
CITATION

NOTES : Edward C. Green can be contacted at : egreend@aol.com. Alcinda Honwana can be contacted at : honwana@beattie.uct.ac.za.  CA Notes  (on the' connaissances autochtones') are periodic reports on initiatives concerning autochthonous methods in  Sub-Saharan Africa . They are published by the Knowledge and Learning Centre of the African Region, which represents the World Bank in an established partnership with communities, NGO's, development institutions and multilateral organisations. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and must not be attributed to the World Bank group or its partners in the initiative. 

Sources : Utilisation de thérapeutiques autochtones pour soigner les enfants victimes de la guerre en Afrique 
REPORT. GREEN, Edward C. Green ; HONWANA, Alcinda. n°10. 199907. 

AFRICA ; MOZAMBIQUE ; ANGOLA
EFFECT OF WAR ON THE CIVILIAN POPULATION; CHILD SOLDIER ; WAR VICTIM ; PSYCHIC TRAUMA ; PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP ; REHABILITATION OF VICTIMS ; POLITICS OF REINTEGRATION OF COMBATANTS.

2. Territorial Management
A stench of corruption in the Beninese 'House of Justice'

Kossi is a Beninese merchant.  After several months of proceedings, he has just won his case in front of the small claims court. However, the judge's decision is subject to appeal. If his opponent takes the affair to the appeals court, he will not be able to have the judgement carried out. He will then be obliged to wait since all decisions subject to appeal are suspended. In the meantime, his opponent could take advantage of the situation  and put his property out of reach. 

How to advance a case.
The law gives to someone who has won a case a means to stop this eventuality: the provisional enforcement. Kossi therefore solicits and obtains the benefit of this measure. He rubs his hands with glee. But before he can have the signed decision by the tribunal enforced, he has to have the text of the decision signed by the judge and the tribunal clerk . After several attempts, the tribunal clerk explains to him that the text is not yet ready. He then decides to 'make a gesture' to the clerk: he offers him two ten thousand franc notes. He obtains the signed text of the decision the very same day. 

Following the death of his eldest brother, the board of guardians designate  Kokou as administrator of his estate. He transfers the guardians' statement to the tribunal for ratification. The judge, after verification, authorises ratification. After a month, there is no sign of opposition to the ratification. 
 
Kokou then heads for the clerks office at the tribunal to obtain the ratification judgement. The clerk in charge of his case shows him the pile of papers  to type. He would have to wait at least a month for it to be ready. Kokou urgently needs this piece of paper to draw up a maintenance plan and to have access to the dead man's bank account. The latter has left several children  and the situation is becoming serious. Kokou takes out a 5000f note for the clerk to 'buy himself a beer'. He obtains the ratification judgement two days later. 

As principal contact point between users and the law, the clerk's office is an important legal service. The clerk registers the cases, informs the concerned parties on court appearance dates and closures, draws up statements, compiles acts and decisions. Amongst the most frequent users of the clerk's office are lawyers and the agents who work in their chambers.

Excellent relations between clerks and lawyers
In the majority of tribunals in Benin, certain lawyers have special connections with the tribunal clerks. 'We give envelopes at regular intervals to clerks friendly to our chambers. At New Year, during festivities or when the clerk has ceremonies, we will also show him our solidarity', confides anonymously a lawyer's agent.

Result: acts needed by this chamber are delivered quite quickly, court appearances are announced diligently.

For some lawyers who have cases in Northern Benin, this is an excuse to bring back pineapples, fried fish, crabs, spirits and other things to go and distribute to tribunal personnel.

Those who do not know these 'good manners' can waste a lot of time on tribunal business. Many lawyers recognise that they are often or sometimes reduced to making donations to certain clerks. 'You cannot do without them', agrees a lawyer powerlessly. In fact the lawyer who wants to do an effective job, has to have one or two clerks on his side. 'Lawyers are also not saints in this affair. They are the ones who offer us envelopes so that we process their work before that of others', agrees a clerk working in Southern Benin. 

The 'conditioning' of some clerks sometimes even goes beyond giving a helping hand to accelerate the delivery of certificates or the rapid allocation of court appearances. It is with the clerk's office that current case files are kept, where the clerks have the responsibility to look after them. It has already happened that some clerk's agents have shown a lack of discretion. With the complicity of some of those accused and with bribes, some have agreed to make important pieces of evidence disappear and sometimes even a whole file. It has been known for registers to be falsified in some clerks' office services. The accused who are pushed to such acts sometimes intervene at the magistrate level to win a case.

Lawyers by-passed 
It is rare for a judge to encounter someone directly who will appear before him. Very often it is a relation of the accused who arranges the contact. However, it can happen that one party in the case meets the judge directly. A lawyer member of the Bar Council  admits 'One Friday night, at the end of the weekly reunion of the Bar Council, I surprised one of my clients with the magistrate who was in charge of his case; he was coming out of the judge's chambers. The next day, my client came to see me to tell me not to worry about the case, he had already prepared the ground'. It has happened that the client simply says to his lawyer :'I saw the judge who said to conclude in such a way!'. Certain magistrates have opened private judicial offices which officially belong to someone else. It is sometimes there that conclusions are redirected that the accused then has to file officially to the same judge or to another judge belonging to the same network. The accused who knows this circuit no longer bothers to hire a lawyer. He has direct contact with the magistrate who will give his decision. 'It is much more efficient than taking a lawyer' vows a well-connected business man. 'We are the ones taking the decisions', no? confides a magistrate who is surprised that the accused would waste his or her time going to a lawyer. 'With this system, it is the existence of the lawyer's career itself which is threatened,' analyses a jurist. Some professionals do not do things by halves: to give all the assurance to the plaintiff in view of taking their money, certain judges do not even hesitate to hand them the pronouncement of their judgement before announcing it', reports the Supreme Court in its contribution to the general justice report in 1996.  'Magistrates redirect their decisions under the influence of bribes with which they are showered or under the influence of advantages and rewards which they expect' adds the lawyer, Raphaël Ahouandogbo in 'La Nation' of Monday 4th November 1996. 'The possibility of sharing with the victims the damages and interest drives some judges to proceed to an exaggerated evaluation of their damages', continues the same report. The National Insurance and Reinsurance Society (Sonar) has been thus condemned on several occasions to hundreds of millions of CFA francs. Certain magistrates carry some of the responsibility for the financial difficulties which Sonar has known.', analyses an insurance manager. 

COMMENTS : Integrity is only the prerogative of a few 'people of justice'. If justice continues to be handed out in the name of the people, in many cases it is money which determines in which direction decisions are taken. The accused, clerks of court, lawyers and magistrates, no category escapes entirely the influence of money.   

Timothée BADOU - 20.02.2001 
INTERAFRICAN COLLECTIVE OF DWELLERS 
COMMUNAUTE VIVRE ENSEMBLE 

Sources : Visages de la corruption au Bénin 
BOOK. BADOU, Jérôme. BENIN. Agence de presse Proximités. 

BENIN    
CORRUPTION ; LEGAL ACTION  ; ETHICS OF JUSTICE.

Are local authorities always capable 
of taking over from the State?
A Senegalese local official paralyses a town hall by sabotaging its central computer

In Senegal, local authorities have always been hampered by personnel problems. Officials are generally recruited regardless of competence or professional qualification. Granting a post in local administration is more a matter of political vote-catching and social blackmail. It follows that the personnel in local authorities generally come down to a plethora of junior officials with little education, without training and often without a clear job description. The length and progress of the career of an individual is simply a function of his or her constancy and zeal of allegiance with the mayor. Very often the local administration only has one manager on their staff: the general secretary. For a long time this was a state official deployed to direct the local administration. Despite the competence which he brought to the local administration, the general secretary was generally badly thought of and kept at arms' length because he was often seen as the 'eye of the state'. 

With new laws extending decentralisation in 1996, local authorities had henceforth the freedom to recruit or nominate their own general secretary, either from among  civil servants or state officials or from amongst their citizens who, even if they were not employed in the public sector, could be counted as equivalent to a grade A or B by dint of their diplomas. This opportunity given to local authorities to recruit was therefore done under precise legal and regulatory conditions.
 
In the local district of Bignona, the mayor wanted to enact these new directives by nominating a Grade C municipal official as the general secretary. It is true that this official was educated to the highest level among the authority's personnel. At the same time, he had an equally active political notoriety. He was in the mayor's party and of the same political persuasion in the heart of this party . 

To conform with the law, the mayor had notified the prefect responsible for  legal controls. The prefect had given an unfavourable opinion because it violated the decree fixing the conditions and advantages of the post of general secretary . In spite of being reminded of the law, the mayor did not change his mind. Therefore the general secretary was not legally recognised and because of this could not profit form indemnities and advantages linked to his duties. 

A few months later, because of political differences within the party, the mayor decided to dispense with the general secretary's services and return him to his original post at the municipal tax office. In revenge, the official, in a deliberate and planned move, emptied the town hall's computer of its memory, which had more than two years of records of administrative work. He had therefore destroyed the public archives by this action and organised a technical sabotage of the computer and the printer which were both out of order.

In spite of the severity of these acts which amounted to the sabotage of public goods and the voluntary destruction of public archives, simply no measures were taken against this official , either on the legal or on the professional level. 

COMMENTS : When analysing resistance in the matter of decentralisation, it has often be said , in terms of central government, that  a lack of democracy is fed by a need to control everything in a way which is just within a hair's breadth of paranoia. According to the saying 'Centralisation is against decentralisation'. Basically, are local governments, principal beneficiaries of the transfer of skills and power, ready to assume their burden with responsibility and as much efficiency as central government?  Are they really aware of their role and responsibility in changing the mentality and behaviour of their citizens in the light of a lawful state which is prosperous and effective?
 
The present case clearly illustrates the great advance that central government has on local administrations. In fact the state often judges in favour of giving local government responsibilities which do not always correspond to their degree of awareness and understanding of the decentralisation stakes. Maybe the causes of a lot of resistance at central level lie with local governments themselves?  

Also this example shows the complex  and obvious relations that exist between the status of local personnel, the idea of public service and the management of public property by local elected officials and the local administration officials.

It seems that the method of recruitment and the management of the local administrative officials' careers is a determining factor in the ideas that one has of service and public property in Africa.. From the moment that officials are recruited and dismissed on the simple whim of an elected official, that they are 'evaluated and treated' as a function of their personal allegiance to the mayor, there is  good  reason to bet that there never will be development of a good culture of citizen service and public good.
 
This situation is reinforced by the impunity of officials when, with the complicity of elected officials, they develop behaviour and practices in the service or when confronted by public property, contrary to that expected by the law and civic duty.       

Falilou MBACKE CISSE - 05.02.2001 
DIALOGUES ON GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

Sources :  
PERSONAL ACCOUNT ; ORIGINAL TEXT . 

SENEGAL (Bignona).
MUNICIPALITY ; CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY ; PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION  ; PUBLIC SERVICE ETHICS ; PUBLIC MANAGEMENT ; SERVICE PUBLIC MANAGEMENT ; SKILL TRANSFER ; DESTRUCTION OF PUBLIC PROPERTY ;  POLITICAL VOTE-CATCHING.

Diversion, corruption, impunity
and unfavourable economic conditions
Plenty of reasons for not paying local taxes

We are in a discussion group during a training seminar for local elected officials. Rural councillors are exchanging ideas on local finances and local taxes in particular.

A village chief reveals ‘My rural village is situated in the district of  Médina Yoro Foulah in the Kolda region, in Southern Senegal. In 1998 the collection of the local tax by the local authorities came to 2 million CFA francs. This sum was to be deposited in the local treasury in Kolda. To everyone's surprise, the president of the rural authorities simply declared having lost the 2 million in Dakar where he had gone. The president has never to this day been investigated on this matter. In fact our status as subjects does not give us the power, the credibility or the weight to set up a procedure or to ask him for an explanation. and yet, as head of the village, I blamed myself for not being more careful about the money. The following year, after collecting the rural tax from my village, I insisted that the president give me a receipt corresponding to the sum I gave him. I then went to the local treasury in Kolda to check that the president had deposited the taxes. The civil servants there told me that the name of my village was unknown to them and that the rural authority had never deposited taxes corresponding to this village's rural taxes. When I returned to confront the president, he simply confirmed that he had paid them. He was unable to provide any proof of payment. In order to be a victim of these irresponsibilities no longer, I then decided not to pass the rural taxes from my village through the rural authorities. I now pay them directly to the treasury in Kolda, they give me a receipt and I can leave again with peace of mind.’
   
Another village chief goes further. ‘I had to enter into conflict with a rural councillor who in the same way diverted taxes which had been collected. I had collected the rural tax from my village and had given it to one of the rural councillors in the village to deposit. The latter never deposited it in the treasury's office in Kolda as he should have done. I found this out when I requested the receipt which would have well and truly proved that he had deposited the tax in the treasury accounts. The councillor postponed several times the production of these necessary papers. The people ended up finding out that their money had not been deposited in the treasury. It is true that they never accused me personally but I was very embarrassed, particularly as I had to divulge the name of the official who had diverted the money. Since then, the local chiefs who are my contacts with the local people refuse to ask for rural taxes which are being used for personal gain. For the same reason, I no longer insist.’     

‘In my rural community’- adds another village chief, ‘it is not a question of public funds being diverted. It is a lack of return on the taxes, in terms of infrastructure and development. In my village, we managed to wake the population up to the need to pay rural taxes so that the local council could turn its politics into action. We were listened to and the taxpayers had taken the habit of paying their taxes regularly. Only, in return these taxpayers saw no positive outcome of these contributions on their living conditions: the health centres were not functioning, there were insufficient schools and wells, for example. Today our pleas go unanswered and the population has put one condition on the payment of taxes: that their taxes have perceptible and beneficial repercussions on their lives and  that they lead to satisfaction of the general good.’ 

A village chief from the rural parish of Dioulacolon puts forward the lack of resources of villagers. ‘In my village the people make their living essentially from agriculture. In this context, they deal with the Development of Textile Fibres (Sodefitex). Sodefitex is a company which provides the peasants with cotton seed and fertiliser. After the harvest, every peasant weighs his crop. Sodefitex makes a financial evaluation and deducts the agreed advances  owed for the seeds and fertiliser. These economic dealings with  Sodefitex are out of balance now , exacerbated by poor harvests which succeed each other. Hence the peasants enter into a vicious cycle of deficit, of poverty and debt which becomes more and more difficult to break. Especially as Sodefitex is in no mood to change and the state does nothing. With an ever increasing debt weighing us down, we no longer have the resources to meet our basic needs, all the more reason not to pay taxes when we never know for what they are used.’ 

COMMENTS :  The conduct and achievement of the politics of decentralisation require many measures, of which financial means feature prominently. As well as external financial pressure and grants provided by the state, it is essential that local taxes are mobilised for at least two reasons: on the one hand to create  and maintain this umbilical cord between the local authorities and their citizens; on the other hand, to finance the programmes of land development. 

In reality, mobilisation of taxes in Senegal is a real nightmare and the cases outlined brings up three real difficulties:
· The security of funds : cases of diversion of public funds are legionary and are encouraged by their perpetrators' impunity. One sees here the lax manner with which taxes are collected and diverted. The procedures and tax collectors are also not above reproach. 
· The doubtful use made of the taxes collected. It is true that the principle of non-assignment governs the matter, it is no less true that people must feel the fallout of their participation in the public financing of projects. Generally public money is spent on prestige or politics, in the cases where it is not simply diverted. 
· The state of poverty that taxpayers are in is also an important factor. Rural communities are usually inhabited by farmers whose revenues are largely dependant on successive fluctuations and on the market. It follows from all this that taxpayers find it very difficult to meet their fiscal obligations. 
 
NOTES : This article results from group discussions between local elected officials and accountants during a seminar training local officials at Salikegne -  Kolda, organised by the literacy project for local officials and accountants. Téléphone : 00 221 996 12 14  

M. BALDE  ; El Hadji Mohamed DIOP ; Pape Mamadou BA, -  
DIALOGUES ON GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA 
 
Sources :  
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS. 

SENEGAL (Kolda).
DECENTRALISATION ; CORRUPTION ;  LOCAL TAXES ; DIVERSION OF FUNDS 
National commission to fight against corruption in Mali
Malian initiative to eradicate corruption and illicit earnings

The fight against corruption which has paralysed the Malian economy for many years has had a real boost in the last three years. 

Indeed, the insistence on transparency in the management of public affairs which has become a reality with the movement towards democracy together with a willingness by the authorities to achieve economic results in development terms, have set in motion this combat against economic crime. 

This willingness, firmly displayed by the President of the Republic, to take up the resolute fight against the phenomenon, has conferred on this dynamism a new thrust which has been translated into the setting up of a commission, functioning directly under his control, to fight against corruption. Members of this commission nominated by the President have a reputation for integrity and patriotism which gives the commission much credibility. 

This commission works in tandem with state control by proceeding to investigate different cases in greater depth and advising the President on its results. It is important to note here that reports to the President of the Republic by state controllers have described an unsuspected situation of depletion of the country's economy as a result of all kinds of embezzlement, implicating many different players. 

To mark this political will, which is very persuasive, the commission has worked since its inception without taking account of  political persuasion, social class, position in the administrative hierarchy and especially of interpersonal relations which constitute, in this kind of enterprise, reasons to block. 

Thus, all development sectors have been  targets for investigation. From the allocation of public contracts at ministerial level to simple formal controls by police on the street, all sectors have been delved into in order to catch the embezzlers of the national economy.

After less than two years in existence, the results of the work carried out by the commission are enormous. Several national directors of state companies have found themselves in front of the law. We can quote, among others, the directors of the National Tobacco and Match Company, Mali's Telecommunications Company, Mali's Energy Company, the General Directors of Mali's Textile Development Company, the Property Transfer agency and many market operators who were accomplices to these acts. 

The conclusion has been that the majority of directors arrested were high level administrators of the state and militants at the heart of the party in power. None seem to have had much to show for it. Money acquired from corruption and illicit earnings appears to have been used in its entirety or in part to finance the activities of the party in power.

It is still the case that the majority of senior executives will still be in prison for months or have paid high bail to gain provisional freedom. 

Private radio stations and the press are making a big issue of these current 'affairs' thus informing the public and permitting it to follow closely the progress of these cases. 

COMMENTS : By hitting hard at the state level, the politics of fighting corruption in Mali has certainly taken an important step. However, the slowness of judicial procedures in the treatment of cases is rather a limiting factor in the effective application of these politics. The open management of public affairs is a requirement of democracy. As perceived, the fight against corruption becomes an obligation as much for the state as for all participants in national society. Mali's recent experience in this matter shows that it can produce results, but it must be incorporated into the long-term by installing a more permanent commission. 

Sayon KONE - 04.02.2001
DIALOGUES ON GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA  

Sources : 
ORIGINAL TEXT

MALI 
STATE CONTROL ; CORRUPTION ; JUDICIAL ETHICS ; FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION ; DIVERSION OF FUNDS ; ILLICIT EARNINGS .

Democratic Forum for interpellation in Mali
The government listens to the people

 In Mali, the process of democratisation set in motion since 1991 has opened new perspectives on  ways of governing. Thus, after the general elections in 1992, the new national authorities developed initiatives towards changes requested by the people. On such grounds, it was a question of finding alternatives when installing local administrations, notably by reinforcing a dialogue between governors and governed. 

In this context, the 'Espace d'Interpellation Démocratique' (EID) is an exercise in applying the new strategy of communication between Government and People. This permits the governed to question ministers directly since the two parties find themselves in the same room. According to the proceedings, the work of the EID has lasted 10 to 15 hours at a time. This relatively long stretch has not however reduced the interest shown by the population who follow continuously the results of this encounter. 

 EID's experience  already dates back seven years. Therefore, since 1994, it has been organised in Bamako on the 10th December each year in the form of an encounter between members of the government and citizens who address them directly on the subject of cases that preoccupy them. 

The workings of these encounters are organised by a Commission charged with receiving the questions, treating them and planning the order of debate. An Honorary jury composed of national and foreign personalities, including Presidents of Associations for Human Rights in Mali and Burkina, is brought together to help the day's proceedings and to ensure a follow-up of the conclusions and recommendations. The proceedings of this encounter are followed directly by hundreds of citizens who actually make the journey to the venue of the encounter. This encounter is also transmitted live on national radio and television. 

The questions to which the ministers reply cover all aspects of the lives of the population: corruption, the non-application of  court verdicts, the delay in treating cases by administrative services, the non-respect of dates announced for the start of certain projects or development programmes, the transfer of state officials, the lack of authority by the state in the management of certain major national affairs, the treatment of conflicts linked to management of land ownership, etc. 

On the subject of the report-assessment of the Government concerning the execution of EID recommendations one notices that many of the preoccupations that were the subject of questions were effectively taken up by Ministers. However, the Honorary jury who noticed the repeat of certain questions at several successive EID's has launched an appeal to the Government and to questioners to make more of an effort in putting together the EID results. 

Concerning the Year 2000 issue, the organising Commission received more than 240 interpellations 80 of which were classed as having already been covered, i.e. questions already being taken up by different departments, 34 were retained for airing during the proceedings and the rest rejected.

After analysing all the questions submitted to the organising commission, the Honorary jury denounced the lack of classifying criteria in use which prevented some interpellations being retained which the jury considered very pertinent. Members of the jury also equally strongly emphasised in their recommendations the lack of follow-up to recommendations made following each EID. 

The latest issue has thus recommended and obtained form the government, the setting up of a permanent commission  to follow up recommendations made by the EID which, beside the Honorary jury and the organising commission, would also implicate ministers, civilian representatives as well as the interpellators.

Also, taking into account the interest that the population and the government have taken in this event when compared with earlier issues, a recommendation to proceed with the institutionalisation of the EID has been made.

The EID is quite an interesting innovation in matters of democratic dialogue. However, the durability and credibility of the process will depend strongly on the capacity of the different parties involved to adopt the results that ensue and ensure that they are put into place.

COMMENTS : The EID is an exercise which is well appreciated by people on a national scale. Many partners also consider that, on top of private radio and the written press, it constitutes a fitting framework for democratic expression. As well as this appreciation, the EID is an exercise which requires members of the government to listen to the people and justify their actions and permits the citizen to exercise his right to question the government. Nonetheless, if it is true that the EID has strengthened the base of the democratic experience in Mali, it is true to say that the need to inscribe it in a more global dynamism imposes itself more and more, whether it be on the local, regional or national level, in other words open up other forums to local level.

Sayon KONE - 25.02.2001 
DIALOGUES ON GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

Sources : 
ORIGINAL TEXT. 

MALI 
DEMOCRATIC DEBATE; STATE - SOCIETY RELATIONS; PUBLIC MANAGEMENT ; POLITICAL CONTROL  ;  DEMOCRATIC FORUM FOR INTERPELLATION ; CITIZEN PARTICIPATION.

 Corruption in Africa is not inevitable
Examples of ways to fight against corruption

Corruption, defined as 'abuse of public power' has always existed in Africa. At present, the wind of economic liberalism has highlighted the problem. Some in power explain that corruption is the African version of solidarity. However, if one studies the figures for the diversion of public funds, one realises that corruption creates a large gulf between rich and poor. Rampant capitalism shows the two faces of African corruption: the size (the fortunes of African dictators are enormous) and the evasion (these same fortunes are kept in Swiss bank accounts). A certain fatalism has fallen on African populations according to which corruption cannot be overcome as it forms part of the culture. This is explained by the fact that in Africa, mechanisms for  preventing and fighting against corruption do not always exist. What are the means to fight with? Very few African countries possess clear legislation to condemn both the corrupted and the corrupter though it does exist. Let us cite some examples:

- In Burundi in 1987, a financial court was set up to discourage the practice of corruption, but specially to stop the diversion of public funds. Unfortunately this financial court became an instrument of power to punish managers of the outgoing party, that of  Bagaza.  A few years later the financial court fell into oblivion. 

- In South Africa, the South African parliament has created a commission to fight corruption. Deputies are obliged to declare their personal financial transactions which are registered in a public register. The aim of this operation is to reduce opportunities for corruption and trading for favours. 

- Tanzania signed up in its wake by taking the South African system as a model. It is true that the declarations do not form part of an enquiry but it is a sign of political will to encourage a responsible attitude in the African elite.  

- Under Thomas Sankara, in Burkina Faso, the leaders in a popular assembly (popular tribunals) had to account for the management of public finances. This was a powerful means of dissuading against the practice of corruption. 
 
- On the financial backers' side, the OCDE Development Aid Committee, in the convention signed by 34 industrialised countries, declared that corruption of a foreign official would become a criminal offence in these 34 countries. The non-governmental organisation for fighting against corruption, Transparency International (T. I.), uses a participatory method in Africa, with workshops of 'national integrity', which means gathering together all concerned partners: public authorities, business, magistrates, journalists, universities and associations to propose ways of repressing or preventing it. 

COMMENTS : On top of these attempts at fighting corruption, Africa must also be able to put in place tools for suppressing economic crime and laws to enable the confiscation of illegally acquired wealth, since tax evasion is one of the characteristic forms of corruption in Africa. It is equally important to put in place systems for contract bidding in order to avoid bribes. At the same time, the people must be made aware of the devastating effects of corruption and its non-inevitability. The roles of both civilian society and that of the media are equally important in denouncing acts of corruption.  

Tony NSABIMANA - 26.01.2001 
AFRICAN CARAVAN FOR PEACE AND SOLIDARITY
CIMLK=Centre International Martin Luther King 

NOTES : Article written at the time of Dph training organised by CIMLK, 9th-23rd December 2000 at Bujumbura. The author is a young radio journalist.
Sources : Besoin d'Afrique 
BOOK ; PERIODICAL. FOHORINO, Eric ; GUILLEMIN, Christophe ; ORSENNA, Erik. FRANCE. Fayard. 1992. 348 p.. - <DOMMEL, Daniel>, ‘Oui, on peut combattre la corruption’, in <Les cahiers de l'audit>, n°4, 1er trimestre 1999;-’La corruption, cause et conséquence du sous-développement’, Centre international Martin Luther King. 

AFRICA ; BURUNDI ; SOUTH AFRICA; TANZANIA; BURKINA FASO.    
CORRUPTION ; EQUITY ; MORAL STANDARDS IN PUBLIC LIFE ; TAX EVASION ; TRADING FOR FAVOURS ; DIVERSION OF PUBLIC FUNDS ; FIGHTING CORRUPTION. 

When the inhabitants really manage their town
Experience of the participatory budget of 
Porto Alegre in Brazil in relation to Senegal

 During the World Summit on Human Establishments ('Habitat 2') in Istanbul in 1996, which studied the implications of uncontrolled urbanisation, the UN praised the Participatory Budget (PB) running in Porto Alegre, Brazil since 1988 as one of the best practices of urban management in the world. This experience marked the beginning of a period of reflection on management of local communities during a seminar organised by the 'Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Populaires pour l'Action Citoyenne' (CERPAC) in Dakar, February 1999. 

Between direct democracy and representativeness
The participatory budget is a process of direct democracy where the population and the town hall discuss and decide together the receipts and expenses of the parish, opening the door to a democratisation of relations between the municipality and society. In practice, officials, once elected, often escape the control of electors who can only sanction them in terms of their mandate. Therefore to renew the dialogue between electors and the elected, it was necessary to invent and combine several forms of direct democracy where the citizen could not only participate in public management but also control the officials.

In the PB, there is instituted, not only a process of co-management between the population and the municipality, but equally a mechanism of social control of officials. The participatory budget Council set up by the population, manages, together with municipal executive (the mayor and deputy mayor), all the detailed procedure of the project budget which will be submitted to the municipal legislature for adoption. The population organises itself in one of two ways: 

- On a geographical basis by dividing the town into 16 sectors (from 5000 to 300000 inhabitants). These sectors were set up in agreement with the population and its organisations following affinity criteria that could be political, social, etc.; 

-The thematic base is another form of grouping which implicates the population on transverse questions through 5 commissions : - transport and traffic flow; health and social work; education, culture and leisure; economic and fiscal development; town planning and urban development. 

It is a question here of thwarting a tendency to divide into sectors by permitting them to decide with the municipality, not only on investment in the sector or district but also on initial or large-scale work at the whole town level.

The procedure is open to all citizens independently of his or her political, associative or religious affiliations. 

So that the popular participation is not only a consultative process, the decisions defined and taken together by the population and the municipality are explained, informed and published through documents issued each year and widely distributed (Rules and requirements of the Investment Plan) Municipal agents as well as the mayor are required to provide  all relevant information by participating in the sector  and thematic assemblies. 

Another important mechanism is budgetary control. The mayor is obliged to provide the material necessary for an evaluation of the budget carried out. Transparency is therefore at the heart of the process. 

The Brazilian participatory budget viewed from Senegal
It is this experiment that the Cabinet Director for Municipal Planning in Porto Alegre, described to 80 officials, representatives of Senegalese local associations and non-governmental organisations, during the seminar in Dakar. The experiment was seen as a way which should be explored under Senegalese conditions where the local authorities do not want any of this participation, notably in management of the budget. In fact, municipal politics are marked by a total opacity in the matter of management of public finances and by a personalization of power with an omnipotent mayor who distributes jobs and prebends. There is however, at the same time, a very active associative movement  taking over power in local authorities which are incapable of responding to popular demand. If the Participatory Budget results from the political will of municipal executives in Porto Alegre, in Senegal, participation could come from the bottom up through local associations whose actions could take the form of: a refusal to pay taxes, a partial takeover of public services (for example, waste management) or, on the contrary, a deterioration of public works ( digging up the roads to force traffic to slow down, modification of traffic circulation, etc.). A merger of the associative movements and the municipalities is inescapable if one wants to avoid implosion in the towns burdened with conflict. This joint action will be the result of popular pressure on local power until a balance of power emerges, favourable to negotiation. At this level, the determining force is the associative movement representing the people and local officials (municipal councillors and directors of local associations) who could relay the popular pressure to the municipal council. 

COMMENTS : Councillors from all political parties in Senegal, during the seminar of February 1999, all had the same thing to say: 'we represent the people, we defend their interests'. This programme, taken on board by all the players, can be a base for creating an innovative public forum for officials and associations in the matter of local management by placing citizen participation at the heart of the procedure. 

NOTES : This file was based on the proceedings of a seminar organised by CERPAC and the ‘Citizen empowerment’ Network  (Senegal, France and Brazil) on the 15th February 1999 at Dakar. 

Sidiki Abdoul DAFF - 01.02.2001 
CRI=INTERAFRICAN RESOURCE CENTER
CERPAC=CENTRE D'ETUDES ET DE RECHERCHES 
POP. POUR L'ACTION CITOYENNE 

Sources : Quand les habitants gèrent vraiment leur ville 
BOOK. GENRO, Tarso ; DA SOUZA, Ubitaran. France. FPH. 1998. 

SENEGAL ; BRAZIL 
INHABITANT PARTICIPATION  ; URBAN MANAGEMENT ; STATE SOCIETY RELATIONS; MUNICIPALITY ; DIRECT DEMOCRACY ; CITIZEN CONTROL; BUDGETARY TRANSPARENCY ; CO-MANAGEMENT FORUM; CO-PRODUCTION OF RULES ; PARTICIPATORY  BUDGET 

3. Citizenship

Reconstructing citizenship to stop 
the violence in Burundi

How to renew confidence between Burundians after innumerable inter-community conflicts (Tutsi-Hutu)? How to face up to ethnic ideologies of division which have become glaringly apparent both in Burundi and in the region of the Great Lakes? How to eradicate this deadly virus?  What political system can we propose in order to rebuild  society and national communities in peace and solidarity? What sort of political compromise is needed to surmount the divisions? How to integrate traditional values  with universal standards of democracy?

Since independence in 1962, the different constitutions applied have not managed to generate stability and social peace. All these models had in common the non-involvement of the majority of the protagonists, including the rural population and their non-anchorage in the Burundian civilisation.  In fact, Burundi has found itself without a political model. It is important, on the one hand, to define the objectives and necessary requisites for reconstructing citizenship and, on the other hand, to find and implement the mediation methods and practical solutions to conflicts adapted to Burundian and African society.
  
The history and culture of Burundi reinforce the fundamental values linked to political and social organisation, arbitration of conflicts embodied by the whole of the Bashingantahe wise men, the cult of truth and good neighbourliness. As a consequence, it seems to us of the highest importance to start a project looking at democratisation and modernisation of the state incorporating the whole body of cultural traditions. African societies completely shattered by crises need to find again the African spirit of palaver in peace and tolerance.   There is an urgent requirement to resurrect the spirit of counselling by sages for a new form of politics and practice of tolerance, both by dialogue and speaking out on contentious political and social issues, recreating a new spirit of palaver and of tolerance in the service of peace and national reconciliation. In traditional Burundian society, relations between Hutu, Tutsi and Twa, founded on solidarity, friendship and various exchanges, have often been destroyed by crises and replaced by the psychosis of fear, hate and death. The country's hills have, like some urban centres, suffered from what have been called 'ethnic ghettos'.  Only tolerance will be able to destroy this wall of hate and fear. This in fact means returning to the concept of ‘ ubuntu ‘ anchored not only in Burundi but also in Southern and Central Africa. An idea which can be translated by 'goodness, altruism, generosity and no wish for revenge'. 

Only the spirit of preventative dialogue will allow dissipation of  misunderstandings and will lead to restoration of  peace and a reaffirmation of citizenship. The appropriate settings are schools, the family and local associations. This step would aim at consolidating the nation state, a factor for reaffirming citizenship. The Hutu-Tutsi conflict which reached genocide proportions also finds itself to be that of the elite who structured it and backed the ideological contents even though they also became victims. The Burundian Hutu and Tutsi elite should now reach a historic compromise to reconstruct the country. It is important for them to get together and redefine a viable democratic system which will at the same time contribute to the eradication of the ideology of genocide, the development of a culture of peace and the promotion of Burundian citizenship. This cannot be done without the involvement of the rural world which forms the real world. It is therefore essential to engage in meetings between intellectuals and the peasant masses. There is frequently an authoritarian relationship between them, the peasant often retaining the status of underling, especially when it is a case of carrying out development programmes. One must listen to the population and build a new social contract between the national elite and emancipated peasants.

A true revolution of mentalities must intervene to assure peasant emancipation in political, economic and cultural spheres.
  
A few propositions could be followed in making the culture of peace more popular at the level of everyday life:   

-A minimum of  cohesion both at group level and for the whole of society ;

-Respect and acceptance of the other since contempt and fear of differences can lead to deadly conflicts;

-Popularisation of the peace culture 

-The putting in place of a structure of law, charged with regulating life in the community. One of the state's tasks is to make the law respected again as well as public order and civilian peace by putting violence outside the law. Even the state, which has a monopoly on violence when justified, should above all try to manage conflicts by non-violent means, resorting to violence only in exceptional circumstances. 

-Develop and teach the structure and methods of conflict management. If the legal institutions are concerned mainly in the arbitration of conflicts, there are other institutions such as family, school, district and advice from elders which can contribute to solving disputes.
  
Déo NTIBAYINDUSHA - 11.04.2001 
AFRICAN CARAVAN FOR PEACE AND SOLIDARITY
CIMLK=Centre International Martin Luther King  
  
Sources :
WORKSHOP MINUTES: Emile MWOROHA, ‘Journées de Réflexion sur la ré instauration d'une culture de la paix au Burundi’, Chaire UNESCO de l'Université du Burundi, Bujumbura du 5 au 7 Février 2001. 
 
BURUNDI.
CITIZENSHIP ; PEACE CULTURE; STATE SOCIETY RELATIONS ; CONFLICT RESOLUTION; PEACE EDUCATION. 

The Collective fight against 
impunity in Burkina Faso
Civilians mobilise themselves against assassinations organised by the state apparatus

The birth of the collective of mass democratic organisations and political parties, called 'Collective fighting against Impunity'  or simply 'the Collective', is the manifestation of the Burkinian people fed up with totalitarian and repressive shifts in the  IVth Republic. 

In fact, after adoption of a constitution in 1991 following a revolutionary period of eight years, the country was expecting a political life based on respect for the law.  On the contrary, however, a resurgence of typical state violence has been noticed, even stronger than in the exceptional years. We have thus witnessed political assassinations, known by Burkinians as 'accidents'; abuses and severe police repression.

A few examples:
- two pupils killed by bullets fired by forces of order during a protest by secondary school children at Garango in 1996 
-military police battered to death Auguste Pépin Ouedraogo , an employee of the national electricity company 
-in 1992, the leader of the then leading student movement was abducted, tortured and killed. To this day, his parents do not know where his body lies.
- in November 2000, a primary school pupil, barely twelve years old, was killed by a bullet during a school protest in Boussé in an area not far from Ouagadougou. 
-the driver of the younger brother of the President of the Republic, François Compaoré, accused of theft, was abducted and beaten to death by elements of the presidential guard. It was while investigating this flagrant violation of the right to life that the journalist Norbert Zongo lost his own life, burnt to death with three companions in the car which was taking them to the village.

Faced with these violations of personal rights, private organisations including the 'Burkinian Movement  for the Rights of  Man and the People' (MBDHP), 'Association of Burkinian Journalists (AJB), 'Association of young Burkinian Lawyers ', (AJAB), ' General Workers Confederation of Burkina (CGTB) and political parties (Party for Democracy and Progress of the celebrated historian Joseph KI - Zerbo) joined together. They formed a collective to say ‘enough is enough’ and to demand justice since the assassinations were mounting up without their perpetrators being pursued by the law.  

The movement ‘enough is enough’ took the form of meetings, marches, strikes, sit-ins, declarations, dead days called ‘Black Fridays’ or ‘active stoppages’ These actions forced the law to wake up to its responsibilities.  This led to the break-up of the presidential guard composed of military personnel implicated in certain serious crimes, to the judgement and condemnation of the driver's killers, to the creation of several commissions of enquiry including the Commission for National Reconciliation, charged with examining the fatal crimes resulting from political violence and economic crimes (diversion of state funds, fraud, etc.) and that charged with putting into place recommendations proposed by the College of Sages (Commission of religious and traditional wise men for proposing ways of getting out of this crisis) and other commissions. 

Always under pressure from the Collective, the Norbert Zongo affair received special treatment since an examining judge was assigned to the case and benefited from many advantages and freedoms in order to cast light on this assassination. 

To understand the success of the Collective, you have to understand that  Burkinian civilian society has a culture and force of movement when it comes to the general good. By referring to history, one is reminded of the popular uprising of 3rd January 1966, started by the unions and which led to the downfall of the first president  of Burkina Faso, Maurice Yaméogo. This date is still commemorated every year. 

To this must be added an exogenous cause which is the exterior political reporting  and media coverage  of the Collective's actions by Reporters Sans Frontières, an international association of journalists. Besides, Robert Ménard, General Secretary of RSF would be expelled and denied re-entry into Burkinian territory.

COMMENTS : At the picture of the mobilisation of school children which led to the downfall of President Moussa Traoré in Mali, or that of  Ivorians who said no to the dictatorship of General Robert Gueï, African society (and social forces throughout the world) must understand that only their mobilisation can lead to an improvement in the way of governing our societies; only a strong civilian society can legitimately and lastingly influence  politics. The Burkinian experience is an invitation to perseverance for a stronger civilian society both in Africa and the world.  

Kounkinè Augustin SOME - 05.02.2001 
DIALOGUES ON GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

Sources :  
PERSONAL ACCOUNT;  ORIGINALTEXT. 

BURKINA FASO.    
IMPUNITY ; INDEPENDENCE OF THE LAW ;  CIVILIAN SOCIETY; VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
 Beninese network of NGO's for
peaceful and transparent elections
A way of facilitating and controlling 
elections by private citizens

March 1999 : for the first time since the era of democratic revival (in 1990), the Beninese went to the polls to elect their deputies. They would, however, be using the single ballot for the first time. The electoral system had just been revised with an increased crackdown on electoral fraud. 

How to make citizens aware of the contents of the electoral regulations, in particular the voting procedure with a single ballot, in order to try and avoid an increased number of spoilt votes?(in a context where there was growing doubt about the illiterates' ability to use the single ballot paper properly).

How to encourage a massive turnout to register on the electoral roll when many of the population were considering boycotting these elections because they were disenchanted by the many broken promises?

How to ensure that the elections took place in peace and transparency?

In addition to the action taken by the autonomous national electoral Commission (Cena) already overwhelmed by the material organisation of the elections, on top of the loud-mouthing by politicians more concerned with winning the election than in participating in their organisation, the civilian community assigned itself the task of preparing the ground so that the elections could take place in peace and transparency with a high turnout of citizens of voting age. It thus set up the Beninese network of NGO's for peaceful and transparent elections (Le Répat) which was a grouping of associations and non-partisan NGO's, active in the domain of civic education. The network functioned on the basis of a charter passed by the members on 7th February 1999.

Répat initiated several awareness campaigns including: 

-Operation ' Zémidjan ', which consisted of making 1,500 shirts which were distributed to the drivers of motorcycle taxis, commonly called  ' Zémidjans '. On the backs of each shirt were written the consciousness-raising slogans legible by clients and passers-by at a distance of 20-25 metres (if there were no passengers): 'let your neighbour vote for the candidate of his choice' ' Let us vote in large numbers on 28th March', an unusual channel for raising awareness. 

It was with this operation, financed by the  Friedrich Ebert Foundation, that the network launched its activities on 1st March 1999  at the labour exchange in Cotonou. 

- Training of trainers: on 8-9th March 1999, the 'Centre Africa Obota' (CAO) carried out its programme of training trainers who were the organisers of the NGO network members. Two hundred people were given training. 

- Training of presenters on state and local radio : from 11- 12th March, it was the turn of the radio presenters in the national languages to benefit from training in electoral law.

-Broadcasting televised awareness commercials. 

-Itinerant conferences: Approximately forty organisers travelled throughout the remaining four electoral wards for a week and made the population aware of the electoral system.   

- Public-spiritedness weeks : A total of four weeks were dedicated to this activity which led to selected organisers travelling throughout Bembêrêkê (Borgou), Pobè (Ouémé), Savè (Zou) and Aplahoué (Mono). 

-Public awareness broadcasts were made on  Radio Parakou 

-Awareness by radio cassette:  Répat proceeded to duplicate and distribute an album on awareness produced by one of its members called : ' We are all alike' . This album encourages non-violence by the public during the election period. This cassette was played all day long on the radio stations, in restaurants and bars as well as in discos and several other public places.

-Creation of training and awareness materials: Brochures on the voting procedure with a copy of the ballot paper and on election monitoring were compiled. 

-Awareness, monitoring and parallel counting: More than 1000 local observers were trained and deployed from North to South to create awareness in the population (on the electoral system in general and the single ballot paper in particular) and to assure the monitoring and the parallel vote count. Press releases were regularly broadcast on television and radio in relation to the situation at the different voting stations. 

Having launched its activities with a press conference which took place on the same day as the launch, the Liaison Office also organised  a press conference at the end to tell people the results.
In spite of enormous difficulties encountered (difficulties obtaining accreditation and badges from CENA, difficulties running the liaison office without premises because of lack of funds for the rent, difficulties of communicating with office members, inadequate raising of materials and funds),  Répat managed to carry out 15 out of the 25 actions forecast in its programme. This was thanks to the financial aid of the Danish Ambassador in Bénin, the Swiss Cooperation, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. 
This awareness and civic education work resulted in a participation of about 70% of the population in these elections, a negligible number of spoilt votes and most important of all, the elections could be held in an atmosphere of peace and transparency.  

COMMENTS : This experience, considered as fundamental because of the originality of the methods used to create awareness,  obtained some convincing results. Its weakness was, however, the fact that it only really concerned the town of Cotonou, relating especially to the 'zémidjan' experience. 
  
Julien ATTAKLA AYINON - 07.02.2001 
ASSODIV=ASSOCIATION POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT
 DES INITIATIVES VILLAGEOISES 

Sources :  
ORIGINAL TEXT ; PERSONAL ACCOUNT. 

BENIN.   
STATE  PRIVATE CITIZEN RELATION ;  ELECTORAL PROCESS;  DEMOCRATISATION PROCESS; POLITICAL CONTROL ; CIRCULATION OF INFORMATION ; CITIZENSHIP.

	Civilian society  and democratisation in Burkina Faso
The example of the Burkinan  Movement for the  Rights of Man and  Nations 

Since the end of the 1980's, the governments of Black African countries, particularly South of the Sahara, have willy-nilly initiated a relaxation of authority, launching into democratic processes. 

In  Burkina Faso, one of the key figures in the demands for democracy was the movement for the Rights of Man and Nations (MBDHP) which distinguishes itself in the promotion and defence of human rights.

The MBDHP was created at the end of the 1980's in a revolutionary context at a time when expeditious judgements were being handed out by the popular revolutionary tribunals. It was to fight against these  judgements and the degrading and inhumane treatment of Burkinan citizens that certain intellectuals, especially in the university sector, organised themselves into an association to publicly demand the respect of human rights. They started first by standing up to the general psychosis and the atmosphere of suspicion which reigned in the country. They also used the art of writing and speaking to spread a general awareness of the suffering of the population. Even though press freedom was a taboo subject, the Movement managed to get articles published on the current situation on human rights in Burkina. In the years 1990-1991, when the government, affected by the international trend for democracy, created an opening in the direction of democratisation of the  regime, the Movement totally asserted itself in the promotion of human rights. Its members were the first architects in the drafting of the Constitution. Since then, the Movement has used lawful means known to every citizen to make its demands known. Now it fights relentlessly for modification of article 37 of the Constitution which leaves the President of the Republic the right to present himself at election as often as he wants.  

The Movement is now well-established; it fits the role and holds the place of a true representative of the civilian population. 

However, even though Burkina Faso possesses today properly set up, legal institutions, as well as a constitution, it lives marked by impunity and violation of human rights. It still seems to be a country where democratisation resembles Penelope's tapestry. In Greek mythology, Penelope, to escape the solicitations of her suitors during her husband's absence, said she would make her choice when she had finished the piece of tapestry on which she was engaged. Every night, she unravelled the work she had created during the day. 

This tapestry has become the symbol of the job never done. Is Burkinan democracy in this image?

Civilian society must counterattack: by lobbying, intensifying its actions in education and by taking the democratic culture to the rural environment where 70% of the population live. 

Finally, notwithstanding serious political and economic obstacles, the democratic momentum seems irreversible, because the desire for liberation appears unquestionable when carried by the civilian population and the movements for human rights.

T. Luther YAMEOGO- 07.02.2001 
DIALOGUES ON GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

NOTES : The exact theme for this end of cycle memoire is 'Movements for the defence and promotion of human rights and the process of democratisation: the example of  MBDHP '. In fact, as well as being a thesis, this work was prepared as a contribution to the advancement of the current process in Burkina Faso. This is why this memoire has looked into the future with the viewpoint of a sociological enquiry to corroborate the facts and the possible passing at last from democratisation to democracy, a perpetual quest whose history is made of waves which have rolled back and then swollen again to advance. NGO's for human rights have to remain in the avant-garde and be vigilant. 

Sources : 
MEMOIRES. YAMEOGO, T. Luther. Société civile et démocratisation : l'exemple du Mouvement Burkinabé des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples (MBDHP) 

BURKINA FASO 
DEMOCRACY ; HUMAN RIGHTS ; CIVILIAN SOCIETY  ; PEACE ; DEVELOPMENT ; REINFORCEMENT OF CITIZENSHIP ; CIVILIAN PARTICIPATION 

Motivating young people to join 
the fight against AIDS in Africa
A strategy to neutralize the per-diem pathogen 

 In Mali, representatives of NGOs and CBOs (community-based organizations) involved in the fight against AIDS had better be prepared to reach deep into their pockets if they would like to ensure thorough press coverage of a given event. Journalists in that country, not distinguishing at all between events designed to foster the well-being of their fellow citizens and those aiming to further the self-promotion of the organization in question, frequently state matter-of-factly that they won't even lift a pencil unless the organization slips them a rather large sum of money under the table. 

As a general rule here in neighboring Senegal, the stop-AIDS community can thankfully still count on journalists to cover a story without being forced to complement the journalist's regular salary. However, NGOs and CBOs in Senegal find themselves in a situation that is similar in nature to that of their Malian collegues, namely the insidious spread of the per-diem pathogen. Just a few years ago, NGOs and CBOs here could count on public health specialists to share their expertise generously with a view to contributing to the well being of the population at large. The spirit was similar to that of a Red Cross group in rural France, or an Amnesty International community in North Dakota. That has now changed. Even those individuals who regularly receive attractive salaries and enjoy a high standard of living increasingly refuse to share their knowledge unless they are provided with a sizable per diem. This means that those sources of invaluable expertise are becoming inaccessible to financially poorer organizations. It also means that the realm of public health is coming to resemble that of cut-throat commerce, with larger, cash-heavy structures able to squeeze out smaller players by severing their access to needed human resources.

All of this is starting to have an impact on young people interested in working in the area of public health in this country. Against the backdrop of economic crisis, the prospect of receiving a substantial per diem just for showing up at a meeting or training session is most attractive. 

Consequently, we are witnessing a shift in the motivation of those aspiring to join the fight against AIDS. Rather than seeing faces that express a fervent desire to stop the epidemic, one increasingly encounters the sharp-edged glance of expert Monopoly players. The issue of motivation is important for several reasons. One of them has to do with the credibility of HIV-related activities in the eyes of the population. In a region where many doubts continue to exist with regard to the very existence of HIV, the visible commercialization of the stop-AIDS community would only serve to heighten skepticism among those who view the epidemic as a fabrication of white capitalists. Secondly, NGOs and CBOs cannot necessarily bank on a steady stream of funding. There are prosperous times and lean times. Cash-motivated staff cannot be counted on to stick around for richer or poorer. Rather, when the going gets rough they will quickly ask for a divorce and then go apply for a position as a Marlboro marketing advisor, where the pay is better. 

Organizations that are genuinely committed to stopping HIV and alleviating the epidemic's consequences can complain until they are blue in the face about the spreading per-diem pathogen among young talent, but they will fail to contain it unless their strategy addresses young people's long-term financial needs in a viable, visible manner. After all, these young people aspire to at least some measure of financial security, perhaps with a view to starting their own families. What can we do? What is the antidote to the per-diem pathogen? 

Gabriel Diouf has an answer. Mr. Diouf serves as the head of an ultra-dynamic CBO in an impoverished neighborhood of suburban Dakar, as a caseworker in the Poles of Excellence program of the American NGO Africa Consultants International, and as IEC (information, education, communication) specialist for the German development structure GTZ (Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit). In the course of his activities, he frequently organizes coordination meetings / training sessions for members of local CBOs. He says that it is not uncommon to hear that some individuals refuse to attend the sessions, exclaiming, "They're Germans (or Americans) for God's sake; they surely can come up with a per diem!" Mr. Diouf counters that attitude most effectively. First of all, he is a walking example of an individual who got where he is through commitment and hard work. Secondly, he emphasizes the value of training in preparing one's longer-term future. Third, he and the structures for which he works do an excellent job of sharing information on potential funding sources with their committed NGO and CBO partners. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, he can point to numerous concrete examples of individuals who have secured well-paid positions as consultants or as permanent staff after having demonstrated diligence and dedication to the public-health objectives at hand in the course of previous meetings and training courses he has organized. In short, young people see clearly that such an attitude pays, allowing one not only to strike out against HIV, but also to secure one's own financial needs. He demonstrates that those two objectives are anything but mutually exclusive.

COMMENTS : As the stop-AIDS community goes about formulating its strategy to curb the spread of the virus and improve the lives of those affected by HIV and AIDS, we generally focus our attention on dangers and stumbling blocks presented by the virus itself or by a number of socio-cultural phenomena (the vulnerability of women, for example). It is essential that we also devote attention, in a conscious, explicit manner, to certain self-destructive characteristics of the stop-AIDS community itself, such as organizational territorialism and the per-diem pathogen. 

NOTES : Mr. Gabriel Diouf can be reached through <ACI>, B.P. 5270 Dakar, Senegal. Tel (0221) 824 83 38. Fax (0221) 824 07 41. E-mail: aciannex@enda.sn 

Daniel ENGER - 25.01.1999 
GDT=The Global Dialogues Trust 

Sources :  
INTERVIEW ; RESOURCE PERSON. This file sheet is also based on insights gained during a discussion with colleagues from PEACE CORPS / Senegal (DIOP, Arlette and RENIERS, Kathy) and from ACI (DIA, Fatim Louise), as well as on observations collected in Mali and Senegal since early 1996.. 

SENEGAL ; WEST AFRICA ; AFRICA    
AIDS ; HEALTH ; PREVENTION  

4. Information and democracy

The difficult balance between press freedom
and media responsibility

Over the last ten years, the media in Africa have become an effective instrument for change and at the same time a refuge for the opposition faced with abusive power. The new African press has shown great dynamism but the profession of journalist has generally remained badly protected and the professional code of conduct is not often respected. The press often serves as a vehicle for appeals to indiscriminate civil disobedience. International media cross the borders and cover the events in Africa more and more often but following market forces and in relation to the public demand in Western countries. 

Can one leave the role of constructive criticism to the written press, read only by an elite few, and to the electronic media (TV and radio ), watched and listened to by the large majority of the population, the function of indoctrination and propaganda at the service of an abusive power?  Can the media  guarantee a permanent watch over the fate of ethnic , regional and political minorities?  Can the media quash or confirm rumours? An unverified rumour, confirmed by the radio brought thousands of Senegalese out on the streets to massacre Mauritanians. Can the media guarantee a permanent watch over a judicial system which is not always neutral or effective? The role of promoter of human rights and of state law which some want to see taken up by the media , is this compatible with the demands of readers of news highlights, human interest stories, drama, etc ? 

When power is personalised, can the local media do other than praise or criticise those who represent this power? Could the broadsheets survive without more or less hidden subsidies  such as payment by public services of several thousand subscriptions at elevated prices ? Universal rules of communication pressurise editorial staff to give a certain outlook to their papers.  A newspaper which supports a candidate for a position, can it continue to criticise those in power when its candidate takes control? The official media have sometimes been forced, such as in Rwanda, to take a more neutral attitude in respecting the whole population. In the name of press freedom, some extremists have passed from the public to the private sector where they can indulge in extremist rhetoric. Freedom of the press has allowed the creation of radio stations such as Radio Mille Collines. Paradoxically, the powers that be, whether legitimate or abusive, seem to put up with a poor quality free press: they have advantages in terms of image and little real inconvenience.

Churches, political parties, trade unions, NGO's have created or backed many media in the Great Lakes region. Have they, for all we know, favoured discord and violence or have they enriched the social fabric by pointing out interest groups based on something other than ethnic or regional interest? This link with an institution, is it a guarantee of liberty and professionalism? A union with an individual or financial group, does it necessarily signify personal vision and opportunism?  

In Africa, the radio is often the modern vehicle for rumours but it can also, when local, be an instrument of development. Could future Rwandan radio stations subscribe to a few, very few but constraining common rules, for example by agreeing not to transmit public or private messages which could be interpreted as enticement to violence? Could they together transmit some programmes aimed at promoting the state of law and defending human rights under supervision of a tripartite commission: the authorities, radio and ordinary citizens?

Is it a good idea that foreign and neighbouring radio stations send out constructive and practical messages and at the same time, local radio sends out negative messages: warnings and alerts? The listener now often has the possibility of changing station. The recent example in Cambodia with the United Nations radio during the eight months preceding the elections shows that a positive and impartial programme could calm the atmosphere significantly whilst the written press was throwing oil on the fire. 

Communication about development means not only that the media transmit technical information encouraging a better use of natural resources and capital but also that it  gives an opportunity to many involved in development to speak about what they are doing and to express their vision for the future. The aim is a reinforcement of social cohesion and the feeling of belonging to a useful group.   

The serious crisis in Rwanda has generated interest in international public opinion about the Rwandan people. This interest will not be long-lasting but should last beyond the crisis, at least in professional and political circles. Should one try to provide international media, either directly and indirectly with interesting and positive information on the development of the country? Should one give  greater importance to information in the direction of international opinion or await the arrival of passing journalists and then inform them in detail? Will the image of Rwanda in the international press remain one of death? The example of Nigeria shows that such an image can change. At least a million dead during three years of civil war. Who remembers that after 25 years? Will it take 25 years in Rwanda ?

Towards a regional training programme for quality media 
The media in the Great Lakes region can play an important role in favour of peace, reconciliation and long-lasting development. Journalists can produce quality work if they are given good professional training that makes them aware of their role and responsibilities. Can one foresee a training programme for the sub-region alternating with one for friendly foreign nations interested in the development of quality media?

The invasion of journalists and technicians attracted by the smell of death compete to give the inhabitants of the countries of the Great Lakes a partial and grotesque idea of the big international media. Some in-house systematic debate could encourage the setting up of a regional network for providing information covering a wide spectrum of topics, thus contributing to the construction of peace and reconciliation in the region. 

Jean Pierre GONTARD; Claire MOUCHARAFIEH - 22.10.1994 
 IUED=INSTITUT UNIVERSITAIRE D'ETUDES DU DEVELOPPEMENT

NOTES : J.P.Gontard is assistant director of the University Institute of Development Studies (IUED) in Geneva. ‘Seminar on the reconstruction of Rwanda, Kigali, 22nd -28th October 1994’. 

Sources : 
ORIGINAL TEXT. 

RWANDA.
TRANSITION FROM WAR TO PEACE; MEDIA ETHICS ;  MEDIA PEACE CULTURE RELATIONS; INFLUENCE OF MEDIA ON VIOLENCE ; FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ; DISINFORMATION ; POLITICAL POWER; PROFESSIONAL TRAINING ; COMMUNICATION AND DEMOCRACY ; RADIO ; COMMUNICATION AND DEVELOPMENT; STATE MEDIA RELATIONS. 

Methods of inquiry and denunciation of 
violations of human rights in Uganda

During the last thirty years of independence ( 1962-1992 ) the governments that have succeeded each other in Uganda have broken up the social fabric and given an image of a country perpetually faced with violence and the spilling of blood. Thus, 800,000 people have been estimated to have disappeared between 1962 and 1986. In 1986, the government of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) took over the running of the state after five years of guerrilla war. This ended a period of political troubles marked by general massacres, destruction of property, abuse of power, disregard of human rights and the pre-eminence of the law, in violation of the provisions of the Ugandan Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Uganda was a signatory.  

The Ugandan people then insisted that an inquiry be set up to identify the people responsible for atrocities committed, so that they could be punished. A Commission of Inquiry on Violations of Human Rights (CIVHR) charged with registering the crimes committed in the past was therefore set up in 1986. At the same time, the Inspectorate of Government Business (IGB) was created to inquire into crimes committed since 1986.

Composition of the CIVHR
 
The Commission is headed by a judge of the Supreme Court, assisted by five members of the Commission coming from different walks of life. There are 26 personnel in the secretarial office, a legal section and four lawyers headed by a Principal Councillor. This section directs the inquiries, compiles the calendar of hearings and brings formal evidence to the Commission. The investigation section, made up of 22 people, is headed by a superior police officer. This section gathers complaints and ensures a follow-up, registers declarations, identifies witnesses and sets up the case procedures for the prosecution. The Commission carries out its functions under the responsibility of the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

Inquiry procedures 

1) The initial publicity: the swearing in under oath of the members of the CIVHR was the object of a publicity blitz in the media and the population was encouraged to come and lodge complaints. The legal decree giving legal foundations for the CIVHR was translated into all local languages and distributed by regional administrators and village resistance councils in such a way as to reach the maximum number of ordinary citizens. The population was invited to address its complaints to the Commission headquarters in Kampala or with the regional administrators while waiting for the officers heading the investigation to visit. 

Starting in December 1986, the hearings were in public and conducted in great detail: they were followed by all the local and national newspapers and were extensively covered by the media. National television devoted a weekly programme to them which gave the Commission such publicity that practically no-one could pretend not to have heard of its existence.

2) Inquiries and interviewing of witnesses: before bringing the inquiry to a particular region, a group of investigating officers were sent out on location in advance to register the cases and identify witnesses, gather depositions and take samples of all forms of violation of human rights. They would subsequently select different cases from which the law section would choose the most representative, which were then forwarded onto for the attention of the Commission, the remainder consigned to the appendices as untreated cases. Since the start, the Commission has visited 33 regions of Uganda. However, to take an example, out of the 237 files opened by the inquiry section in the Kampala region, only 45 cases have been examined.  

Evidence was also gathered using questionnaires which were sent back by hundreds of witnesses for whom it was impossible to open a file. This information was very useful, however, in compiling the final report. The whole of the country was covered and the selection of different forms of violation was completed. 

3) The people found guilty: during the whole inquiry (6 years) many people have been found guilty of violating Human Rights, including presidents, ministers, state officials, army personnel, police officers and members of certain political parties. Some were openly accused of having killed, tortured and terrorised with total impunity. But in spite of the charges, no explanations were asked for. Even though they were cited by the Commission, many amongst them occupy responsible posts in the present government such as the former minister, Moses Ali, implicated in the assassination of two Somalians in 1971. 

Present violations of human rights
The Inspectorate of Government Business remains inundated by complaints which arrive daily, concerning violations of human rights and corruption, but only a few cases are treated. To ease the work load, the IGB has unloaded some of the cases by delegating them to other ad hoc Commissions of Inquiry including the Public Audit's office. Once again their conclusions have had no repercussions. These inquiries concern mainly cases against the army or high state officials suspected of dubious financial dealings. To this day, all their reports, except one, have been ignored by the government.  

COMMENTS : The Ugandan government (NRM)  is faced with a serious dilemma: on the one hand it is concerned with rehabilitating victims and punishing the authors of violations of Human Rights which has been the political fate of Uganda since the 1960's, hence the setting up of different institutions of inquiry into crimes committed; on the other hand, it wishes to widen its political base which means having alliances with officers who should normally have been pursued and judged. Some people have accused the government of being interested, not so much in establishing justice, as in pursuing its own political survival; others have explained that the NRM was looking to reconcile the immediate necessity of punishing criminals against a long term objective of creating peace and national unity. In practice, the government is above all realist, it knows that the more it pursues people for their misdeeds, the more likely these people will be driven to declare war against the regime. 
 
Véronique RIOUFOL - 19.10.1994 

NOTES : Article compiled from an oral and written interview  with Joan Kakwenzire, historian, member of the Ugandan Commission on Human Rights. (Symposium, Geneva 1992). Text used on the occasion of the ‘Seminar on the Reconstruction of Rwanda, Kigali, 22nd-28th October 1994’. 

Sources : 
SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS. KAKWENZIRE, Joan. Commission internationale de Juristes. 1992. 375 p.. CIJ, BP 160 Cointrin, CH-1216, Genève, SUISSE. Tel (41 22) 788 47 47. Fax (41 22) 788 48 80. 

UGANDA.
TRANSITION FROM WAR TO PEACE ; POLITICAL TRANSITION ; IMPUNITY ; PEACE JUSTICE RELATIONS; PEACE LAW RELATIONS;  HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS; REHABILITATION OF VICTIMS ; LEGAL ACTION ; STATE ARMY RELATIONS; STATE SOCIETY RELATIONS ; POLITICS LAW RELATIONS; TRUTH COMMISSION. 

Bare-foot lawyers contribute to the teaching
of decentralisation in Benin
Do we need to replace official newspapers by paralegals 
to convey the law to rural areas of Benin?

How does the right to development, proclaimed by the African Charter of Human Rights, become effective if the law cannot reach the rural areas of Africa? Two Beninese associations have taken on this task: the Association for the Development of Village Initiatives (ASSODIV) and the Association of Women Jurists in Benin (AFJB).  

ASSODIV, officially created on 12th September 1987, very soon tried to tackle the problems encountered by rural populations in their dealings with administration. It took on the role of lawyer for these people, trying to help them with the various procedures: obtaining identity cards, birth and marriage certificates, etc. From the enthusiasm engendered by this initiative, the idea was born to set up a system of legal services whose main objective was to train paralegals who would then put themselves at the disposal of deprived populations

As for the AFJB, created in Cotonou on 1990, since the beginning, it had the objective of participating in the popularisation of the law in general, aimed particularly at women and children. Thus, since its creation, the Association of Women Jurists in Benin took on an important part of the task of taking cognisance of the rights of women, their 'access to the law' in particular.   

Benefiting from the support and in some cases, the aid of the International Commission of Jurists, ASSODIV and AFJB have invested heavily in the training of paralegals. They use these paralegals as popular educational tools to create awareness in the most disadvantaged populations, gendarmes and policemen who work in rural areas, so as to encourage them to respect human rights.  

On decentralisation, paralegals have become effective carriers of information, relaying official legal sources to their local populations, to whom they bring information on rights and responsibilities mentioned in legislative or regulatory texts. Since the paralegal is 'a community agent' as defined by an  ASSODIV representative ' taught how to simplify things and possessing fundamental grounding in the law and its procedures, he or she is well placed to teach the concept of decentralisation in his or her native environment'. His or her basic role is bring to the rural populations, the necessary information to understand the concept of decentralisation, to explain the texts to them which cover the ideas and methods for bringing about decentralisation. This is what is known as the 'awareness campaign in Benin'. Paralegals, according to the AFJB strategy, 'must help the people avoid the usual legal pitfalls in their everyday lives. The aim is not to make a confirmed jurist out of every peasant'. Paralegals receive two weeks of training which should help them to translate some of the fundamental concepts of the law of decentralisation into the local language. Their efforts are in fact, therefore, limited to explaining the legal texts on decentralisation.  'They deliver their message through conference debates, seminars, interviews, chatting with people and 'mobile clinics''. Sometimes special documents, compiled in the local languages are put at the disposal of the  population literate in their own language. 

Therefore the challenge for institutions teaching paralegals in Benin, which is going to involve all social classes of the population in the management of public matters, is on the point of being raised. From that, as quoted by  M. COSME, responsible for legal affairs at ASSODIV, 'we have created a new start in the domestication of law which will lead, we hope, to the adoption of decentralisation by the people on the ground. We are very conscious that through the programme of popularising the law through paralegals, new ideas are beginning to develop. The people are getting ready to make decentralisation their business'. 

COMMENTS : Paralegal organisations, which have as their objectives the popularisation of the law in parallel with state services, are not yet widespread in Benin. Associations which invest in this area are rare and seriously under-funded. Yet their usefulness in our African countries cannot be seriously questioned. They are the ones who are taking the law to the furthest reaches of our countries; there where official newspapers have not yet penetrated; and even if  newspapers ever do make it there, their usefulness will never exceed that of an ordinary package. So what meaning can we give today to the assumption 'ignorance of the law is no excuse' if no effort has been made to ensure that its recipients know the law? Do we need reminding that numerous authors have already stressed that the picture offered of a 'refusal to develop', often attributed to Africa, is a result of poor knowledge of the rules which govern the functions of public institutions. Paralegal organisations offer an alternative approach to popularising the law which our states would do well to adopt very quickly.

Désiré AIHOU - 02.04.2001 
DIALOGUES ON GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

NOTES : Article compiled from internal ASSODIV and AFJB documents which were presented at the Reunion for Teachers and Institutions for Training Legal Services in Rural Areas, 24th -26th October 2000 at Cotonou and interviews carried out by Désiré AIHOU with representatives from ASSODV and AFJB.
 
Sources : 
PROCEEDINGS OF A WORKSHOP. FRANCE. 

BENIN.
DECENTRALISATION ; ACCESS TO THE LAW ; PARALEGAL; LEGAL TRAINING ; NATIONAL LANGUAGE ; CITIZEN EDUCATION  ;  HUMAN DIGNITY.

Radio listening clubs in Zimbabwe 
in the service of social change

An experiment, at the outset aimed at encouraging the participation of the people in the development process in four rural regions of Zimbabwe, could well have paved the way for the advent of community radio in this country. 

In fact, since their creation in 1988, thanks to an agreement between the Federation of African Media Women-Zimbabwe (FAMWZ) and the state radio (ZBC), the national radio broadcasting network, the radio listening clubs, Development Through Radio (DTR), have  become a powerful force for social change in the hands of women from rural backgrounds who use them to put pressure on the authorities. 

Today there are 45 of these listening clubs in four out of Zimbabwe's nine provinces. The majority of their active members are women who have seized this opportunity to talk about the problems of their everyday lives, to question those running the country and challenge them to provide answers. Thus, after fighting the authorities refusal for many years, the members of the DTR club in Mgomeni succeeded in obtaining birth certificates demanded by the government before being permitted to enter their school age children for exams. Shortly after the transmission of a broadcast on this subject, the minister responsible in fact gave the order on air to issue the certificates. 

The DTR listening clubs have many other successes to their name. In some cases, women have been able to obtain cement to build installations for pre-school children, tyres for making swings and even land to build a community centre. In addition, DTR clubs have played an important role during and after the drought.   

During a seminar held in Harare last May, government representatives, international experts and communications professionals studied the possibility of installing community radio in Zimbabwe. Many women members of the listening clubs also attended this seminar. International participants were said to be impressed by the vast technical knowledge of these women as well as their determination to preserve their principle means of expression and pressure. In fact, strengthened by their collective experience, they did not hesitate to question certain hypotheses advanced by the experts, showing at the same time their ability to evaluate their needs and their ability to express them. Even though community radio is unlikely to be sanctioned in the near future, the government in Zimbabwe  being very reticent still about the idea of losing their monopoly on broadcasting, the holding of the Harare seminar marks a turning point. A working party has been set the task of studying the feasibility of establishing community radio. More importantly, this seminar has proved to international experts that the radio is not just a one-way medium and that Zimbabwean women, as in other countries of the world, can also rapidly become experts capable of taking their destinies in their own hands if they are given the tools to do so.
 
Louise BOIVIN - 02.12.1994 
AMARC=ASSOCIATION MONDIALE DES
RADIODIFFUSEURS COMMUNAUTAIRES 

Sources : 
PERIODICAL. WOMEN'S FEATURE SERVICE. INTERADIO. Vol.6, No 2. CANADA. AMARC. 199401. P.9. AMARC. 3575 Boul. St Laurent #704. Montréal. Québec. CANADA. H2X 2T7. Tel 514-982-0351. Fax 514-849-7129. E-mail: amarcho@web.apc.org. 

ZIMBABWE.
COMMUNITY RADIO  ; WOMEN ; POPULAR PARTICIPATION  ; SOCIAL PRESSURE ; WOMEN AND SOCIAL CHANGE. 

5. Decentralisation

Decentralisation on the grounds of ethnicity
Wolof crop farmers against Peulh cattle farmers

In the context of re-enforcing decentralisation in Senegal, a certain number of laws saw the light of day  in 1996 to give what is commonly called the code of local communities. This code established the principle free administration of local communities and recognised certain activities at each administrative level. Activities of rural communities included deliberation on the 'general plan on land occupation, development projects, housing estates, equipment for the areas allocated to housing  as well as authorisation for installing housing or encampments' and on the 'allocation and de-allocation of land of national heritage'. In Senegal, if one needs a reminder, the rural community is the primordial community. It is generally inhabited by a rural population essentially involved in crop and cattle farming. In other words, the importance of the input of the rural community on the question of land is not without foundation. 

Pata is a vast rural community of 1060 km² in Southern Senegal. This region, also called Le Fouladou, is essentially a Peulh  region. The Peulhs constitute, in terms of numbers, the second largest ethnic group in Senegal after the Wolofs. 

Pata is unusual in that, as well as being Peulh, it is inhabited by a large community of Wolof  crop farmers. The latter migrated from Saloum, a region in Central Senegal, looking for agricultural land. 

This cohabitation between crop farmers and cattle farmers was in essence a source of conflict and tension. On the one hand, the Peulh community complained about the action of Wolofs who always cleared more land to meet their need for acreage. According to the Peulhs, this 'colonisation' by Wolofs who 'came from elsewhere' destroyed their pastures. On the other hand, the Wolofs reproached the Peulhs of releasing their herds onto their peanut fields, thus causing considerable damage. Therefore the two communities glared at each other and often pitched battles ensued. These scuffles continued and were all the more passionate because they led to the loss of human life on both sides.

Faced with such a situation of violence and mutual incomprehension, a dialogue was started between all the ethnic components of the rural community. To prevent further conflicts it was decided that henceforth rural council decisions concerning authorisation of land ownership would be taken with the agreement of the different communities, through their representatives. This rule has therefore become part of local convention. It is precisely this local convention, this consensus, which was breached by the rural council.

Indeed, in 1998 regrettable and tragic events occurred between the two villages of Saré Halèle and Sinthiang Bora, two villages in Pata's  rural community. Saré Halèle, a village approximately twenty kilometres from Pata was created before Sinthiang Bora, a Peul village. After occupying these lands for years, the inhabitants of Saré Halèle watched those from the present Sinthiang Bora install themselves on the sly. Warnings were given to them to leave the area, arguing that it was impossible to share the land, already too small, with another community.

In response to these repeated warnings, the new arrivals obtained authorisation to occupy the land in question, duly provided for them by the rural council. Frustrated and with their pride hurt by the attitude of the rural council which had just violated a 'local law', the villagers of Saré Halèle opposed the installation of  Sinthiang Bora inhabitants who were preparing their land in anticipation of the first rains. Scuffles broke out with tragic results affecting both communities, who blamed each other for the clashes.

Nothing came of it. The sub-prefect's intervention clashed with the stubbornness of the rural council who claimed to be autonomous and the only body competent to solve  problems of land occupation. This tension between cattle farming and crop farming spread very rapidly throughout the district, becoming a powder trail.

COMMENTS : It is good to note that the population have the endogenous means to regulate social tension. It is this awareness and willingness to rule on social conflicts between 'rival' ethnic groups, about which  consensus has been found. What is striking in this experiment is that the populations try to avoid the risk of conflict by preliminary consultation and information so that a better politics of land occupation can be defined and set up. This formula of social consensus or local convention, is an effective means of pacification and development of territory, especially in the rural world. As such, these local conventions must be promoted and encouraged through the politics of decentralisation. 
 
It is essential, in any case, that their credibility and strength not be harmed by the lack of loyalty of one party or by their non-recognition by the administration. 

In Pata, it was the rural council who first weakened these 'nascent institutions'. They violated and put into question an essential right in the preservation of the social peace; probably unconsciously, by ignorance or, as always, for money.

Samba Coumba MBAYE; Pape Mamadou BA, - 
DIALOGUES ON GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

NOTES : Samba Coumba MBAYE is the President of the youth club of  Hamdallah Samba Mbaye. 

Sources : 
PERSONAL ACCOUNT. 

SENEGAL (Kolda).
DECENTRALISATION ; CORRUPTION ; CONFLICT ; LOCAL CONVENTION .

Decentralise to save the unity and integrity
of the National Territory
The rebellion in North Mali

North-Mali corresponds to the geographic area covering the three economic and administrative regions of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal, in other words, nearly two thirds of the national territory with about 10 % of Mali's population A large part of the population is composed of Touaregs and Maures who practice pastoral nomadism across the Sahelian and Saharan regions.

Northern Mali, a disadvantaged and fragile region
North-Mali suffers the effects of unfavourable natural factors, in particular aridity, geographical eccentricity, isolation and under-population. Bad government has, for a long time, worsened the negative effects of these factors. In fact, already in the colonial period, North-Mali was marginalised as this desert zone was of no economic worth to the colonial administration. With independence in 1960, this marginalisation continued as the North was considered to be a faraway zone, poor and under-populated where investment, not immediately profitable, was not justified.

On the military front, the Mali government, on gaining independence in 1960, had to face the Project of the  'Organisation commune des régions sahariennes' (OCRS) which attempted to bring together all Saharan populations (Berber, Touareg and Maure) scattered throughout the Saharan countries including Mauritania, Niger, Libya, Algeria, Upper Volta ( now Burkina Faso) and Morocco.  This project, in its objectives, states as a last resort, the dismantling of certain states including Mali. Faced with this danger, Mali's first governments (1960 to 1991) proceeded to progressively militarise North-Mali where one faction of the population, encouraged by certain states of the Maghreb, took up arms against the central government.

Since 1972, a persistent drought has taken hold of the Sahelian region. These Northern populations who are transhumant livestock farmers have lost their livestock, a symbol of their economic and cultural wealth. National solidarity was well below that expected by the population. Worse still, international community aid was diverted by certain governments. The young in particular found themselves without paid work and without future perspectives. Thousands of young Touaregs then emigrated to Libya where they enrolled in the Islamic Legion and received military and ideological training.

Governmental responses to the Northern rebellion. 
All these factors gave the Northern populations the feeling that they had been abandoned by the state, thus encouraging the emergence of an irredentist movement, generated essentially by the young who began military operations in 1990. Faced with this demand for identity, the response was violent and blind repression. The Northern regions were practically in a state of siege, i.e. a suspension of laws and regulations which became established arbitrarily. But this military option turned out to be  inoperative and the government was obliged to negotiate.
 
These negotiations took place in a context where the Mali people had got rid of the military regime in March '91 and involved themselves in a national debate to construct a lawful state and to strengthen democracy. In the month of April '92, the National Peace Pact with the Touaregs was signed, promising an end to this rebellion which resulted in the exile of hundreds of thousands of Mali Touaregs. The National Pact recommended the integration of ex-rebels in the public services and in  socio-economic activities, reduction in military presence in the Northern regions and the implementation of the programme of decentralisation with a special statute for the Northern regions, etc. 

Regionalisation or decentralisation ?
During the negotiations, revolutionary elements secured from the government the principle of special interim treatment of their regions. The interim administrative tools put into place by the Pact in this part of the country anticipated decentralisation. In fact, on the institutional level, they installed in the different divisional sectors, the districts (arrondissements), a 'Comité Transitoire d'Arrondissement' (CTA) which associated with the local population, the local administration of  the parties concerned  through their community leaders. These transitory district colleges have become in North-Mali the first steps in giving responsibility to the communities in the management of their affairs. 

Decentralisation, assuring rural and urban communities very important powers of self-government, self-management and self-promotion, has responded well to a fundamental demand of the rebels. This decentralisation has signified a reduction in centralised power in favour of the regions of the North. 

In fact, the rebellion must also be understood to be a war for better government which could have spread to the rest of the country if nothing had been undertaken. In real terms, the North will be the first experimental ground for the politics of decentralisation in Mali, which will be extended to the whole country later. 

COMMENTS : In many African countries, identity crises, or armed freedom fighters still ravage and governments often refuse to grant the rebellious regions their own statutes under the false pretext of preserving the integrity of the national territory (ex :Senegal and Casamance). Now the Mali experience shows that special statutes or decentralisation are not dangers to national unity even in a context of ethnic plurality and a re-awakening of identity awareness. Decentralisation appeared in Mali as the appropriate political response to this phenomena, a tool to re-enforce national unity by the recognition and appropriate management of local particularities by creating the opportunity for citizens to participate better in the democratic process. The result of this action by the Mali government was an end to the rebellion and the progressive integration of the North, until now marginalised, into a larger whole: Mali.

Sidiki Abdoul DAFF - 24.03.2001 
CRI=Interafrican Resource Center
 CERPAC=CENTRE D'ETUDES ET DE RECHERCHES 
POPULAIRES POUR L'ACTION CITOYENNE

NOTES : This file was based mainly on the acts of a forum on government in Africa, organised by PNUD, Bamako, 28th-30th June 1999. The national pact was signed on the 11th April 1992. 

Sources : Bonne gouvernance et gestion des conflits pour une paix et un développement durable 
SEMINAR PROCEEDINGS ; OFFICIAL TEXT- Texte de loi :Répertoire des programmes de gouvernance en Afrique, PNUD (FGAIII). 

MALI ( Kidal ; Timbuktu ; Gao) 
PEACE AND INSTITUTIONAL REFORM; DECENTRALISATION ; ETHNIC CONFLICT ; CONSTRUCTION OF THE PEACE ; DEMOCRATISATION OF THE STATE
IDENTITY DEMANDS 

Thoughts on decentralisation in Burkina Faso

Characteristics which reveal the paradigms of structural adjustment, democratisation or the idea of underlying good government, are the necessity for African states to assume the elementary tasks of sovereignty that are incumbent on them and to have effective administrations. 

However, this redefinition of the state's role and the structures linking the centre to the periphery, as seductive as it may sound, does not work without giving rise to many questions, notwithstanding the conviction of the backers that decentralisation is the panacea for the exhaustion of the state, and preferences leading to the application of devolution procedures of state functions to local communities which our directors have been so enthusiastic about.

 Africanist researchers remain convinced that the following problems must be taken into account:
- is the more or less organised withdrawal of central power to the minimalist position which is conceded by the dominant ultra-liberal ideology conceivable, if not realistic, in the African context which is largely characterised by the deficit in state institutionalisation, the weakness of local political structures and the inexperience, even non-existence, of local political elites? 
- This being the case, can one decentralise, that is take away from central government, the functions of regulation and redistribution to the benefit of local communities insufficiently prepared to receive them and exercise them without aggravating the socio-economic and ethno-regional in-balances and by so doing, endangering the existence even of the state?
-the participatory (community) management inherent in decentralising politics conducted in Africa, is it a true reflection of the involvement of the people in the affairs of the city? Does it really constitute the melting pot of local democracy and the shaping of a civic conscience or is it just a palliative to the state's disengagement, a way of managing resources adapted to the rigours of re-alignment and therefore whose purpose is to deaden the effects of the budgetary austerity at the heart of the most disadvantaged social classes by giving them the illusion of participating in the decisions which will affect their future?

As far as the Burkinian experience goes, it seems to have found an original way to deal with decentralisation. As other countries in the Southern Sahara, it takes justification in state insolvency but is also relies on incentives from international backers. In spite of these shortcomings, the process takes into account the national and local socio-political and economic realities.

One notices, amongst other things, an increase in forms of expression and of very diverse organisations ('agreements', managing committees, village groups, religious groups) which weaves a dense relational network on which the process relies. 

Surely, the National Commission for Decentralisation (CND) carries out serious and prudent work over the long term but the process must not degenerate into a process of complete breakdown of  state law of which the need has been forcefully restated. To respond to our preceding interrogations, the CND attempts to regulate the apportionment  of financial resources without which the parishes are condemned to stagnation, to see to it that the gap between Ouagadougou and the rest of the country decreases and therefore reduce the disparity between the centre and the outskirts.
 
In other words, the concentration of the essential administrative, financial and political resources must be corrected, failing which there would be a risk of  seeing a worsening  of the conflict between the 'legal' world and the 'real' world, which would be prejudicial to Burkinian democracy. 

COMMENTS : It is without doubt  that the thinking behind decentralisation in Burkina Faso as elsewhere in Africa is influenced by dominant theses on the reduced involvement of the state. Thus decentralisation becomes an instrument of reduction of the weight of the state apparatus in relation to the free market. The managing perspective inherent to this approach gives it a triple objective: more efficient public services, a reduction in public spending by a transfer to decentralised communities and a requirement of greater responsibility  (accountability). 

We show here that  balance between the needs of the state and local potential is done by the test of subsidiarity : who does what better? 

Decentralisation is therefore in itself a challenge in relation to the problems it creates ( training of local elected officials, taxation, allocation of skills ) and tries to avoid a break between the legal world and the real world. Burkinian experience tries to surmount these pitfalls but we think we have progressed from euphoria via disenchantment to a steady optimism. This text is a fine invitation to pursue this thinking. 
  
T. Luther YAMEOGO - 07.02.2001 
DIALOGUES ON GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA
HERMES CONSULTING 

Sources :  
ORIGINAL TEXT. 

BURKINA FASO.
ROLE OF THE STATE. 

Construction process for decentralisation in Mali

 It its independence in 1960, Mali had five fully-functioning parishes and eight of medium function. The  constitution of 1960 decreed that the territorial communities of the Mali Republic were the regions, the circles, the districts, the nomad tribes, the parishes, the villages and the nomad factions. In other words, all administrative subdivisions became administrative communities who would be freely self-administered by elected councils. In practice these guidelines never reached beyond the stage of being declarations of principle, never seeing the light of day except for parishes which, besides, already existed. After the military takeover of November 1968, the municipal councils were dissolved and replaced by special delegations nominated by decree of the executive power. The election of municipal councils did not become standard practice again until after the single party was installed in 1979. 

However, the order of 12th July 1977 covering territorial  and administrative reorganisation of the Mali Republic had previously seen the territorial break-up in creating new regions and new circles, then establishing Barnako as a district, subdivided into six parishes. Administrative constituencies and districts were endowed in the framework of the promotion of participation by the population and of regional and local managers to the design and the setting up of development programmes, of an organ of participation which was the council and an organ of technical programming of development which was the development committee.

The constituency council is presided over by the chief constituency administrator and is composed of elected members and representatives of socio-economic organisations. It appears much more like a consultative body in the sense that it is simply consulted, can issue opinions and make recommendations on the regional development programme. 

It was decided to re-enforce the political role of councils by modifying their composition and by including political officials (development secretary of the single party) and by having an elected official preside over them. These ceased to function as soon as their composition changed and they were presided over by an elected official. 

The third republic, which coincided with the advent of democracy, favoured the setting up of a Mission for Decentralisation and Institutional Reform, charged with a conception of politics of decentralisation and to encourage its setting up. The option of a politics of decentralisation at the national level was based on three major events in the recent history of our country: 

-The National Conference (29th July to 12th August 1991) which recommended lifting all obstacles opposed to the setting up of decentralisation:

-The new Constitution of 25th February 1992 which set down the fundamental principles of decentralisation, stipulated that 'territorial communities be created and administered under the conditions stated by law' and 'communities administer themselves freely by elected councils under the conditions stated by law'. It foresaw, amongst other institutions, the High Council of Communities.

-The problem of the North, i.e., the revolt by the Touaregs against the Malian state, had a  happy outcome with the signature of the National Pact (April 1992), the contents of which were based on the principle of  free administration of the northern regions. 

The strategy for preparing and creating decentralisation in Mali has favoured a participatory and progressive procedure. This participation was translated into different consultations which punctuated every stage. It is thus that land reorganisation, considering the stakes involved, has been the object of consultations organised as much on the national as on the regional and local level. The organisation, presentation and follow-up of these consultations were assured by ad hoc regional structures which reunited representatives at all levels and persuasions including political training. These presentational and consultative structures were broken down to the level of district and even to the village level. Today, decentralisation is an incontestable reality with : the existence of a legislative and regulatory framework; territorial administrative reorganisation which permitted the creation of 682 rural and urban parishes as well as 19 old parishes and the Bamako District ; the holding of parish elections (2nd May and 6th June 1999); the creation of circles and regions as territorial communities (49 circles and 8 regions). The circle council and regional assemblies are in place; the allocation of a grant from the national budget for the start of parishes (2'250 billion F CFA); the training of a pool of general secretaries (699); the existence of a technical document base (laws and decrees, training modules, CD-ROM's and leaflets about parish infrastructures)-the creation of a National Direction of Territorial Communities; the preparation of a mechanism for the financial support of parishes. 

COMMENTS : Preparation for decentralisation was done in a participatory manner. The real players are now installed. The transfer of know-how has begun, requiring a significant programme of communication and strengthening of capabilities. However, like all reform, the setting up of the process of decentralisation encountered certain difficulties including; the refusal by certain villages to join parishes created by 96- 059 law on the creation of parishes in the Republic of Mali; political difficulties linked to the late setting up community bodies (successive postponement of parish elections); the lack of training and information from the different reform bodies; economic difficulties linked to the scarcity of state resources and new territorial communities; the capacity of the state administration to accompany the procedure (devolution); the overlapping of certain community presentations over several parishes; the articulation of sector-based programmes with the politics of decentralisation (decennial  educational development programme, programme of sanitary and social development). 

Sayon KONE - 07.02.2001 
DIALOGUES ON GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

NOTES : Sources not communicated. 

MALI
DECENTRALISATION ; INHABITANT PARTICIPATION  ; DEMOCRATIZATION OF THE STATE ; PROCESS OF DEMOCRATIZATION 

6. Regional Integration

Integration harmed … by two police posts facing each other across the Senegalese-Mauritanian border

Manaél is a Peulh village in the Tambacounda region in Eastern Senegal, situated on the Senegales-Mauritanian border, about sixteen kilometres from Bakel.  
  
One of the unique features about this village which made it stand out was undoubtedly its strong wish for integration. For example, the Senegalese of Manaél had fields on Mauritanian land including the section pf Mauritanian land adjacent to the river which was not populated and which the Senegalese developed and exploited. Similarly, the Mauritanians also had land on Senegalese territory. The populations of both communities crossed the river wherever they wanted, even to go for walks, either on Senegalese or Mauritanian territory. No demarcation was visible, all the more so as each population had relatives on the other side.
 
A Mauritanian fisherman who had settled near Manaél, on the Mauritanian side, had found a ready market in this village for his catch. Once a year he filled his dugout with fish which he offered for free to the villagers of Manaél. In return, these same villagers who went across the border to build the fisherman a house as an act of solidarity and good neighbourliness.
 
Unfortunately, in 1989, on the Northern side of the border, a conflict started between the Senegalese and Mauritanian communities. This conflict, reported by the press, increased in scope and transferred to the capitals of both countries, resulting in many deaths on both sides. In each country, the other country's nationals were set upon, beaten and even killed. An airlift was organised between Dakar and Nouakchott and the survivors repatriated. Following this crisis and for the first time, a border police post was installed at Manaél, facing its Mauritanian counterpart.

Since the crisis and the arrival of the two police posts, nothing has remained the same. One can no longer cross just anywhere. It is obligatory to pass at the two frontier posts. The movement of the two populations has therefore been hampered, making it almost impossible for the Senegalese to exploit the fields on Mauritanian territory and vice versa. An atmosphere of reciprocal mistrust and suspicion now reigns in the region which tends to accentuate and perpetuate the two border posts. 

COMMENTS : As an area where races intermix,  Manaél is one of innumerable centres with a happy experience in the matter of the integration of people. Unfortunately a few jolts of history can sometimes undo certain equilibria and harmonies. These unhappy episodes end up getting forgotten over time, whereas others, equally terrible and regrettable, are just germinating. In Africa, factors for integration are as often found as those for disintegration and alternate in a pernicious cycle which states and people have still not been able to break. This is precisely what happened between Senegal and Mauritania.
 
The frontier posts were established in a time of crisis. Their introduction was justified by the exceptional circumstances of tension between the states but also because armed bands were taking advantage to mount raids.

However, their maintenance to the present day tends to create a situation out of the tensions and insecurity which appears both normal and permanent . It is therefore imperative that a new urge for integration develops. These two posts are there as if to remind the population that nothing will ever be the same as before. Do the states concerned have the capacity to adapt to the situation and to take appropriate action with each change? The pernicious cycle that we have described at least demands such an agreement by the states in the hope of breaking it, 
  
M.NGADJIGO ; Pape Mamadou BA- 
DIALOGUES ON GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

Sources : 
PERSONAL ACCOUNT. 

SENEGAL ; MAURITANIA 
REGIONAL INTEGRATION ; BORDER CONTROL; FREE MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE  

Crossing a border exposes law-abiding 
people to racketeering
The disillusion of a young Malian who believed in the free circulation
 of people and goods in the Economic Community of West African States

'At school they had talked to us about the Economic Community of West African States (CEDEAO). They had explained that this community organisation expressed the wishes of our states to construct an assembly in which the member countries could circulate freely with their goods. 

In 1981, I decided to leave Mali, my native country, to go to Tengrela in the  Ivory Coast republic. I was in the company of thirty six other passengers in a coach. Before we could cross the border, the border guards obliged each one of us to part with 500 CFAF, even though we were within the law. All the necessary paperwork had been provided. When I enquired about the practice, one of the guards tossed me these words :'Even with all the paperwork (identity and vaccination cards, passport) and the photo of Moussa Traoré (President of Mali at the time), you would not pass without paying 500 CFAF’. I asked him if the Ivory Coast wasn't a member of CEDEAO. The guard said yes but also added that it couldn't stop them from taking l500 CFA F from everyone. 

Having arrived in the Ivory Coast, I was able to find work as a shepherd. My employer  had offered me hospitality and was therefore also my guardian. He treated me with care and respect and even agreed to an increase in salary. He explained to me that he also had relatives in Mali. I was therefore accepted without great difficulty. 

After a month in Tengrela, I decided to head for Deneni, still in inland Ivory Coast.
 
Leaving Tengrela, the frontier guards again demanded 500 CFAF even though there is no frontier between  Tengrela and Deneni. I was all the more surprised since we were still inside Ivorian territory. 

It was at this point I understood that there is a difference between the way the Community institutions are presented and the reality on the ground. I no longer had any illusions on the return journey to Mali. 

In fact, on the border, the forces of order asked us to declare the amount of money in our possession. After the declaration, they would systematically search us. If they realised that the amount declared was less than the amount really held, they confiscated the difference without further ado. In other words, whatever sum was withheld, they took a percentage. All valuable items were confiscated. Only the drivers were spared. The solution therefore lay in confiding them your goods and money during the journey.' 

 COMMENTS :To cross a border remains a difficult  and onerous ordeal , even within the CEDEAO caused by the presence of  the forces of order at the crossing points. In fact, the agents of the state devote themselves to swindling travellers without compunction, therefore ruining all dreams of integration.

So even at the heart of the state there is a real contradiction between the highest authorities who define the politics and the junior officers who execute them. The conclusion is simple and general: agents of the state who are stationed at frontier posts are the first obstacles to African integration. They violate and defy community regulations. They are all the more at ease and inclined to go far, always further, when their exactions go unpunished.
 
For a poor little traveller like me, disillusion is bitter and the awakening brutal. And two fundamental questions remain: To whom should one complain? What would result from it?

Pape Mamadou BA ; Ousmane KONARE 
DIALOGUES ON GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

NOTES : Ousmane KONARE, is a young Malian worker from  Diaobé - a Senegalese village in the  Kolda region with a sub-regional weekly  market.

Sources :  
PERSONAL ACCOUNT. 

MALI ; IVORY COAST
REGIONAL INTEGRATION ; IMMIGRATION ; CORRUPTION.  

The maritime environment : an area of 
solidarity but also of conflicts
When migration weakens West African integration

In spite of cultural differences, fishermen have developed, through the years, strong bonds of solidarity. This solidarity is no more evident than when it comes to rescues at sea. How many Gambians have been saved by Senegalese or Senegalese by Guineans, in difficult situations which can sometimes end in drowning, without mentioning the loss of equipment? 

In the history of African fishermen, their oral accounts gives them the opportunity to recall the warm welcome reserved for fishermen on their routes. 

An old Senegalese fisherman, Malick Guèye, originally from Saint-Louis, still talks about the welcome he received in Benin and Nigeria (he will remember it to the end of his days). We should start with this first generation of Senegalese fishermen who in the 1960's went to fish in Benin and then in Nigeria. In the 1970's we still had, in Senegal, a sizeable colony of Ghanaian fishermen who came fishing for long stretches at a time. As well as the solidarity established by and between fishermen, these men passed on their knowledge through migratory cycles. Indeed, migrants transmitted their know-how to the host country. This could involve fishing techniques but also methods and techniques for treating the fish. 

Ghanaian industries specialising in the exploitation of the shark are certainly one of the legacies of temporary and semi-permanent settlements, in the past, by Ghanaian fishermen along our coasts. Such migrations helped construct West African integration through exchanges during their stay in the host country. Some fishermen decided to stay and settled permanently with their families in Guinea, to cite just a few examples.   

Today, however, these migrations have become sources of conflict which are threatening the safety of fishermen. Between Senegal and Mauritania, the arrest of Senegalese fishermen and the inspection of their boats has become commonplace. The Senegalese, who are more and more dependant on the demersal resources of certain countries like Mauritania, are subjected to a double constraint: they need a licence to access the resources of the other country and are obliged to land their catches there.  

Faced with the defiant behaviour of some Senegalese fishermen, Mauritanian coastguards  resort to the use of arms, resulting in the loss of human lives. 

Similarly, between the Congo, Nigeria and Ghana, migrations are the source of strong conflicts insofar as certain authorities do not hesitate to turn back foreigners. 

Some situations help to intensify conflicts between migrants and autochthonous populations. On the one hand, there is a new interest in the fishing industry by countries previously considered as particularly welcoming countries. In general, it would appear to be the countries who traditionally depended on other resources. This is the case for Mauritania and Guinea Conakry who, with a growing number of local fishermen, have decided to develop their local fishing. Some such as Mauritania and Guinea Bissau have set up regulatory systems to conserve their natural resources.
 
On the other hand, the introduction of migrants on the coast complicates the already prickly problem of access to the land by autochthonous populations. This situation also affects operators processing for the regional market. This is the case for Burkinans and Guineans based in the village of Joal in Senegal who are encountering problems when faced with Senegalese processors who regard them as competitors for accessing land which is indispensable for constructing curing ovens. One must remember that there is a large colony of Burkinans and Guineans in this village; they control entire concerns: local processing, transport and marketing in their country of origin.

Finally, the scarcity of resources is so great that it poses a problem for peaceful cohabitation, not only between migrants and natives, but also between fishermen of the same nationality. The conflict which has developed in Senegal since 1979 between Saint-Louisian migrants and Kayar fishermen is proof of this. 
 
 Aliou SALL – 2000/11/02 
CREDETIP 
Sources :
ORIGINAL TEXT.

SENEGAL ; WEST AFRICA
FISHERY ; MIGRATION ; SOLIDARITY ; CONFLICT ; SECURITY ; REGIONAL INTEGRATION  

7. Lands, soils

Conflicts linked to land in Central and West Africa
Even though these regions do not have to administer a colonial inheritance regarding the allocation of land, small farmers often suffer from a lack of land security

 The situation in this part of Africa is very different from that which prevails in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe and South Africa or in Latin America where there has been heavy land colonisation, forcing small farmers and indigenous people from their land. If we stopped at the classic concept of land reform as the action of redistribution of land to the poorest for agricultural needs following land colonisation, one would say that there is no problem in this domain in Central and West Africa. However there is still plenty of work to do since many other situations exist where land suitable for cultivation is in question. 
The following are real cases of conflict, identified on the ground, but which are often found:

 1/ Expropriation for ‘public use’  
Everyone is legally dispossessed of their lands by the state to carry out large public investments. This was the case for the construction of the international airport at Yaoundé Nsimalen in Cameroon where the local inhabitants were opposed to the government because the latter did not offer them compensation. In the same country and for the same reason, the people were opposed to the Prime Minister laying the foundation stone for the construction of a paediatric hospital in the suburbs of Yaoundé where they had been expropriated. 

2/ The superposition of laws and regulations on land ownership  
In every country, several laws co-exist, the traditional and customary,  religious laws and modern law based on that of France or England, depending on each country's history. In principle, in the case of conflict, modern law over-rides that based on religion or custom, but in practice, religious or traditional law often wins. The thinking behind these different laws is not the same and this can cause serious problems in the management of land ownership.  

3/ Land sales  
The rich are buying land with increasing frequency and then register it, thus dispossessing more and more people. These newly rich business men or politicians invest in agribusiness, buying large tracts of land in rural areas and sometimes transforming the small farmers into agricultural labourers on their own land. For a time, nearly all African governments created or encouraged the creation of industrial agriculture companies to develop certain crops such as sugar cane, hevea, oil palm, etc. These companies were often set up on several thousands of hectares of very fertile agricultural land which belongs to autochthonous populations. 

4/ Conflicts between farmers and herdsmen  
In all zones where cattle breeding is very well developed, there are frequent conflicts between crop farmers and livestock farmers. The former often complain that their harvests are destroyed by the latter when they come with their herds. In some places there are conflicts which can lead to the loss of human life.

5/ Conflicts between migrants and autochthones  
In certain regions of Cameroon, there is overpopulation, whereas in others, the population is small in relation to the available land. Some people therefore leave the former and migrate to the latter. This can result from government action (in this way, the government launched a big operation to create pioneer villages by installing families coming from overpopulated zones into new areas by giving them parcels of land to cultivate and live on. However, it consisted of land belonging to autochthonous people); or from civilian authorities. These intrusions do not always work out well, the  original inhabitants usually end up reclaiming their land.

6/ Conflicts concerning protected areas  
Defenders and promoters of the environment have created nature reserves to save plant and animal species in danger of extinction. Unfortunately, there are always autochthonous people living on the boundaries of these vast spaces. To start with, the population exploits resources on unprotected land but as they become scarcer, it does not hesitate to enter protected areas to hunt, which often leads to serious conflict with local administrations.
 
7/Conflicts between foresters and  the autochthonous population  
The end of the Rio conference sounded the death knell of large-scale timber extraction from forested countries. Governments are trying to implement laws and regulations which are unfortunately not always respected, notably the specifications to be met by the lumber companies. This engenders strong reactions from populations opposed to timber cutting. Unfortunately they do not always win the case because they are badly organised or because the public authorities side with the lumber companies which represent the power of money

8/ Opposition between user's and owner's rights
in the old days before the creation of modern states, those who worked the land and exploited it were the legitimate owners. Today, owner rights require registration whose procedures  fringe groups are not inclined to adhere to. In some countries, it is a requirement of ownership to enrich ones land by investing in it, or otherwise risk being dispossessed. This is equally true for cases of expropriation for public use, since compensation is largely based on evaluating the investment put into the land to be expropriated. 

9/ Urbanisation  of towns threatens autochthonous peoples  
The rapid expansion of towns takes place by absorbing neighbouring villages, resulting in expropriation of rural communities. In some cases, they are re-housed elsewhere, sometimes they are given compensation in cash, but it does not always work as they wish. On the contrary, there are currently conflicts existing between local populations and the authorities that date back several years. 

Strategies put in place by civilian authorities vary from one country to another and even between regions in the same country and depending on who is involved.  Certain NGO's and churches put the accent on education and informing the population of their rights at the same time as trying to organise them. Elsewhere, such as in the river region of Senegal, a group of producers, acting as a federation has obtained large areas within the framework of land reform organised in the context of decentralisation. In certain areas, local collectives, through the rural Council insist on being associated with the management of land initially allocated to large hydro-agricultural concerns to assure the defence of the rights of the smallholder. 
In Ghana and  Cameroon, NGO's  play the mediation card. In certain cases of conflict between growers and cattle farmers, joint negotiating committees have been set up. 

 Jeanot MFOU'OU - 19.03.2001 
APM=AGRICULTURES PAYSANNES ET MODERNISATION

Sources :
SEMINAR. Reforma agraria e democracia : a perspectiva das sociedades civis (Rio de Janeiro, 5 May 1998)

CENTRAL AFRICA ; WEST AFRICA. 
AGRARIAN REFORM ; LAND OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT ; ACCESS TO LAND ; POLITICS OF LAND OWNERSHIP ; LAND DISTRIBUTION: SECURITY OF LAND OWNERSHIP

Misunderstanding between the Senegalese state and  peasants on the statute and management of  land
The law on National land

 For more than 30 years, Senegalese law 64-46 of 17th June 1964 poses an intangible principle: all land that is unregistered, or whose ownership has not been transferred to the land registry, within the time delay set by the legislator, is automatically considered as part of the national heritage. These are non-transferable and non-appropriable benefits except when they are the object of declassification following the procedure set down by the law. This law, in reality, was inspired by the African socialism of Senghor, first President of Senegal. The snag is that this law of 1964 seeks to remove land from its customary ownership, thereby giving certain large families more than their fair share. 

An unpopular agrarian reform
This law is in precarious balance with tradition since land is undoubtedly an economic benefit but is also a sacred link between itself and man. Though, in several cases, being traditionally inalienable, it could nevertheless be rented or inherited after death. Inheritors have taken automatic possession. It is this multi-secular action which the law on national heritage has tried to destroy. 

Landowners themselves know that modifying land statutes leads to a shattering of the social fabric because a link exists between land, its function and economic activity and they are seeking to paralyse the application of the law which is all the more easily done because the traditional laws are better known and more accepted by the rural population. 
The state has, however, avoided rushing the peasants to apply this agrarian reform which, contrary to what is happening elsewhere (Latin America, Asia etc.), has not resulted in peasant demands. In certain zones such as the Fouta (Senegal river valley) where a true land owning aristocracy exists, the application of this reform is potentially explosive. The explosion could involve the whole valley, i.e. Senegal, Mali and Mauritania, where the same families are found on both sides of the border. During the colonial period, they were organised in a 'Union des Originaires de la Vallée du Fleuve Sénégal' (UGOVAF) whose objective was the protection of land ownership. Neighbouring Mauritania which had crossed the Rubicon by distributing land to private promoters therefore had to face a bloody crisis in 1989.

The state backs down in the face of custom
Rural communities (collectives) have had difficulties managing land, which was entrusted to them by the state on the basis of this law, on account of a coexistence between this management and custom. In any case, traditional land owning families, by rapidly involving themselves in the ranks of the political party in power, monopolise the direction of the rural councils by cheating at the elections. They then block the application of this law which seeks to deprive them of economic and social power but retains all guarantees by taking possession of the local direction of the party in power. Therefore the party and the government are powerless: continuing the reform means a full frontal attack on the pillars of the party. 

Faced with this situation, the government has opted for survival and has toned down its claim of exclusive management of the land. In fact the traditional management method is overtaking that dictated by the law on national heritage since the 'best law is the one which is the best known'. In any case the president of the rural council recognised this, for on thousands of cases submitted to him, only about ten were ruled on, the rest having been through traditional mechanisms and therefore not recognised by the law. The verdict is that one has to take into account customary laws, which are better known by the peasant masses. 

COMMENTS : rejection of the land management system and the greater power of customary rights constitute an obstacle to development of agro-business. In fact, litigation born from the anarchy reigning in this sector has made investors back off. Hence the Senegal River Valley where the countries of the 'Organisation de la Mise en Valeur du Fleuve Sénégal '(OMVS) have created dams at a cost of billions of francs but does not attract investors since the 'law on national heritage co-exists with local customs and this law does not permit an effective response to the demands of investors. These latter are not philanthropists. They manage risk which they would like to be as small as possible before they commit themselves. It is this which explains why companies ...have not increased in number in the valley.'

To summarise, the land statute and its management method do not yet provide security to investment, which isthe reason why private investors are not jostling into each other in the valley. In fact, peasants who fear being sidelined with the arrival of more affluent producers and the development of agricultural enterprises, have managed to block the privatisation that the state has been seeking to develop in the valley. 

This law also slows down modernisation of the means of production and access to agricultural credit since the land cannot act as a guarantee to the producer when it belongs to the national heritage. 

Today certain organisations such as  the 'Conseil de concertation et de coopération des ruraux' (CNCR) and 'l'Association des Présidents de Conseils Ruraux' (APCR), are asking for a revision of this law which, in the last resort, curbs the development of the rural areas and profitability of projects such as the dams.

This reform must take into account certain socio-cultural realities. In practice, each ethnic group in Senegal has its own laws and customs. It will be a question of looking again together at these customary laws  to see which ones can be adapted to modern agriculture. The first step must favour a reflection on the local and traditional practices of land management together with rural organisations, social and ethnic groups specific to the different agro-ecological zones, since all laws must take into account principles which have been adapted to local and sociological realities. 

Sidiki Abdoul DAFF - 21.03.2001 
CRI=INTERAFRICAN RESSOURCE CENTER
CERPAC=CENTRE D'ETUDES ET DE RECHERCHES 
POPULAIRES POUR L'ACTION CITOYENNE 
 
Sources : La coutume, cette muraille de conservatisme 
PERIODICAL. DEMBA FALL, Habib. Le Soleil. 200103. - Cheikh TIAM, ‘le programme de développement de la rive gauche’, Cahiers spéciaux du quotidien Le Soleil, 28 avril 1998- Loi sur le domaine national 64-46 du 17 juin 1964.. 

SENEGAL 
ACCESS TO PROPERTY ; ACCESS TO LAND ; CONCERTATION ; CUSTOMARY RIGHTS ; AGRARIAN REFORM ; CONTRADICTION CUSTOMARY RIGHTS MODERN RIGHTS

Land redistribution in Zimbabwe

The unequal distribution of land between Whites and Blacks in Zimbabwe, a heritage of colonisation, has never been resolved since the independence of former Rhodesia in 1980. Yet, in 1979, Robert Mugabe was already declaring that there would never be peace whilst peasants did not obtain satisfaction on the question of land. Twenty years later, this statement was still valid since the largest portion of arable land was still in the hands of 4800 white farmers practising commercial cultivation and multinational companies, whereas six million black smallholders were sharing the remainder in not relatively infertile 'communal' regions.

This question of land distribution was however at the core of demands by opposition movements which led to independence in Zimbabwe. As tens of thousands of blacks had been chased from their land and relegated to ‘tribal‘ lands by a succession of laws, reaching their peak with the ‘Land Apportionment Acts‘ in 1930, and in 1941 and 1969 with the ‘Land Tenure Act‘ establishing to the Whites advantage an apartheid land ownership system comparable to that instituted in South Africa.

When the  Lancaster House peace accords were signed, important concessions to White power were made on this question, going as far as to include in the new constitution a clause banning all expropriation of land for 10 years. The reason was a pragmatic one: not to follow the Mozambican example of nationalisation and conversion to economic socialism, at risk of destabilising the economy. The land which the Whites wanted to sell would therefore be bought by the state at market prices. 

An initial programme was however put in place for distributing land, financially supported by Great Britain and set to involve 162,000 families (out of approximately one million). But, ten years later, not only had it benefited just a third of them, but worse, according to a report by the fiscal controller of  Zimbabwe, published in 1993, half the redistributed land was in the least favourable regions for cultivation  and because of a shortage of trained peasants and the right infrastructure, it was not well exploited. Out of the 2 billion dollars promised at independence, only 70 million had been spent, Great Britain more or less accusing the government of a lack of transparency in the use of funds. 

In 1997, faced with strong social protest, the president announced a new phase of reform with a programme to move 150,000 families back onto 5 million hectares in 5 years. This measure was not appreciated by the white farmers, nor by donor countries frightened at the idea of a collapse in agricultural production for export, insured essentially by the commercial sector. These interests finally persuaded the government to participate, with representatives of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) at an international conference on land reform and redistribution in 1998, resulting in the promise of financial backing from sponsors on condition that matters unfold in a context of dialogue and openness. 

The majority of donors refused to announce large contributions in favour of the programme, estimated at 40 billion Zimbabwean dollars (1.9 billion US dollars). Their reluctance was the consequence of disquiet about the fact that the government would not indemnify completely the large farmers who were forced to sell their land; it is unlikely, according to them, that the programme will alleviate poverty in the poor 'communal' areas where the majority of the 12 million Zimbabweans live; and finally no measures against corruption had been foreseen.

Great Britain, which helped put the first agrarian plan into operation because it was based on the principal of mutual consent between sellers and buyers, agreed that it was impossible to do the same for the present programme because it ignores fundamental property rights, lacks transparency and does not confront the problems linked to poverty.

According to Mr. Mugabe, the government does not have to pay for lands stolen from the peasants by the British colonialists. It can only recompense the owners for improvements made on their property. The majority of Zimbabweans and economic analysis specialists are especially worried about the effect that the redistribution of land will have on agricultural production, the main economic resource of a country which normally exports supplies to poorer neighbouring countries.

The government has maintained that if small farmers are given enough land and the necessary tools for its cultivation, they can produce as much as the large farms. In fact, black farmers now produce approximately 70 % of Zimbabwe's staple crop, maize. Before independence, the big concerns produced the largest percentage of maize, whereas the small farmers only produced enough for their own needs. However, some economists have predicted that the key sector, tobacco, which has the highest export revenues, risks being badly hit.

These pessimistic predictions have, according to some, been exaggerated by the Whites who are afraid of losing their land and their privileged economic status in a country where 70% of Blacks live below the poverty line. Some of these 1,500 farms which are the object of enforced sales are not found in the fertile region which benefit from heavy rainfall and where most of the cultivation takes place, but in relatively poor and dry regions, even though these are still better than the communal lands where the peasants actually live.

Françoise FEUGAS - 11.04.2001 
CRI=INTERAFRICAN RESSOURCE CENTER
CITATION
ZIMBABWE
STRUGGLE FOR LAND OWNERSHIP ; LAND OWNERSHIP POLITICS ; ACCESS TO LAND ; LANDLESS PEASANT; LAND OCCUPATION; LAND DISTRIBUTION; COLONIALISM ; COLONISATION ; SOCIAL JUSTICE 

Territorial compromise in Benin
Peasants are being dispossessed more and more of their livelihood : the soil

Profiting from the poverty of some peasants, rich merchants and high officials are buying significant areas of land for ridiculous prices. Some farmers are therefore gradually being deprived of their main source of work. As for those who went to the towns to make their fortunes, on their return they have trouble finding land available at an affordable price due to  land speculation. "I managed, less than 5 year sago, a family estate of more than 30 hectares at ZE, in Atlantic county more than 60 km from Cotonou in Benin. Now I only have about 10 left. To help our son Benjamin who must go to Cotonou to pursue his university studies, we have had to sell a larger part of the estate to pay for his  studies and to rent him a small apartment." Morally : the peasant who works with his 3 brothers has thus decided to save the family honour in releasing more than 20 hectares for a sum of 600 000 FCFA. It is a good investment to finance the university studies of one's offspring who in the end could help the whole family. 

Throughout Benin, one comes across thousands of similar cases. In fact, if they are not approached by middle men, it is the merchants and officials themselves who go out into the countryside looking for land to buy or surreptitiously snatch. In the sub-prefecture of ZE, tens of hectares are being offered by poor farmers, especially those who cannot benefit from loans or who find themselves suddenly in trouble (death of near relatives or the preparation of grand traditional ceremonies). The tragedy about this situation is that buyers of land rarely use it for agricultural purposes but hang out to it a long time. This behaviour prevents fit and able people from exploiting, even on a temporary basis, the estate that has been sold. The aim for these buyers is to keep the land as long as possible and finally to divide it into small plots to sell to other officials, less well provided for but who want at all costs to own their own home, a real myth in Benin.
 
M. Jean Ezin, member of a peasant group in TORI (a village situated 45 km from Cotonou), cites the example of the sub-prefecture of Abomey-Calavi, some 23 km from Cotonou, which is in fact completely urbanised now and is sometimes confused with Cotonou, whereas the region used to be part of the granaries of Benin for the production of maize, cassava, peanuts, beans, etc. It is in these situations that it is really impossible to call on the local authorities to put the brakes on this phenomenon where farmers lose their land and are forced, without their consent, to change jobs or even more  seriously, leave the countryside in search of hypothetical employment in the big towns such as Cotonou with the development of semi-urban agriculture for some whilst for others simply to become part of the public transport system by providing  taxi motor cycles called ‘Zémidjan‘, thus contributing to urban pollution.

COMMENTS : The author raises the question relating the important role of land as a necessary heritage for all peasant enterprise. But the author has not really insisted on the role of the peasantry in spearheading the development of state territory. In contrast, we find that in addition to the economic or political role of  the peasantry, links with the soil must be safeguarded so that the granaries do not disappear altogether to the point where one has to import, with all its consequences. It is therefore important to reach a compromise, a balance of production-reproduction between the state and its peasants as a way of land management since attachment to the land is a plus in the fight for survival as much as for the population as for the state.

Also, territory is first a living framework and support for peasant activities. As one reduces human territorial attachment to simple economic habitation, one encourages resistance by the peasants for whom it is more the way to rural exodus with its corollaries. Thus, peasant communities cannot put long-lasting value in the soil and they prosper even less if their right to the land is not guaranteed by the state. We think that giving back confidence to the peasants also involves this necessary territorial compromise.

Gustave  ASSAH - 10.02.1999 
GARED=GROUPE D'ACTION ET DE RECHERCHE 
EN ENVIRONNEMENT ET DEVELOPPEMENT 

Sources : Paysans sans terre 
PERIODIQUE. GLETTON, Michel. Jeune Afrique Economie. N°216. 19960415. 

BENIN. 
SOIL ; PEASANT AGRICULTURE ; FOOD PRODUCING CULTURE ; LAND POLITICS ; UNEMPLOYMENT ; RURAL EXODUS ; RIGHT TO THE SOIL ; LAND SPECULATION 

Does Africa lack willpower?
The basis of fertility in tropical soils: trees, mulch and no ploughing

he degradation of cultivated land in Togo is mainly due to the absence of fertility management. Traditionally, nomadic agriculture was based on leaving forest land fallow to restore fertility to cultivated soil. The abandonment of nomadic agriculture has not been replaced by soil fertility management by those who now cultivate the land. In parallel, cash crop agriculture for export, established during colonisation and continued on de-colonisation, has not devoted much research to the fertility of the soil, which was thought to be unlimited. The agricultural development model based on mechanisation, perfected for temperate soils, was introduced in Togo. The working of the soil (ploughing, weeding etc.) has been popularised and generalised. Even to this day, Togolese peasants insist on weed-free fields and the tractor, to them,  is a sign of, or means of, success and wealth. 

Thus, the tropical forest has gradually shrunk to the benefit of cultivated fields whose soil, exploited in an intensive manner, has become barren and unproductive. Many stretches are now quasi-deserts where nothing grows even with the massive addition of fertilisers. Ploughing in a country where 90% of cultivated soil is sandy has only accelerated this tendency and has resulted in a deterioration in the physical properties of the soil. Rainwater, instead of filtering down, runs off the bare, compacted soil. Erosion is a serious problem and the proper functioning of water channels and  subterranean water sources has been affected.

What is the solution? For the author, a remedy exists. It must be found in the agricultural systems perfected by our ancestors. Analysis of nomadic agriculture shows that it is based on three fundamental principles: trees, mulch and no working of the soil. The author stresses that in this matter, Francophone agronomic research has taken a wrong turn and is lagging far behind research carried out by anglophones. 

The tree is central to nomadic agriculture. As well as the mechanical effects of its roots, it also intercepts nutritional elements from the depths and recycles them and it protects the soil against violent meteorological action. The leaf litter it produces sustains biological life in the soil. Earthworms and termites break up the soil, aerate it and incorporate organic matter, etc. It is on the basis of this system that real tropical agriculture will have to based. All mechanical working of these tropical soils, especially ploughing, must also be banned except for shallow heavy soils.

The reintroduction of trees in agriculture is therefore one of the fundamental conditions for re-fertilising tropical soils. The Ibadan International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (Nigeria) has perfected this system of agroforestry after thirty years of research and experimentation. This involves farming in belts 4 or 5 m wide, separated by tree hedges. Three leguminous forage crops ( Leucaena, glyricidia and griffania) have already been tested. As well as the mechanical effect of the roots, these species have the advantage of fixing atmospheric nitrogen in the soil. Their leaves can be used to feed ruminants. This would permit cattle farming.

In the cultivated belts, another leguminous cover plant, mucuna , planted before the end of the rainy season through the existing crop then keeps the soil covered and protects it through the dry season after the crop has been harvested and prevents the growth of weeds. At the start of the next rainy season, the mucuna is cut down to the ground and the greenery is left as a mulch on the surface. The next crop is sown through the dead plant remains without ploughing.

Mechanisation, adapted to the techniques of agroforestry, inevitable in the end, still has to be invented. The IIAT has already devised a sower for sowing directly through the mulch. Manual sowers are also available and can be made cheaply by local artisans. 

Therefore, in tropical Africa, solutions exist today in the battle against the lowering of fertility of cultivated soil and its breakdown and against the drop in rural populations: solutions that have, in any case resulted from the improvement and adaptation of popular knowledge to the environmental and socio-economic conditions of today.  Now all that  remains is to educate members of the rural community, to make them understand; in brief, to involve them.  

COMMENTS : Agriculture, as it is practised in many African countries today does not manage the fertility of the land being cultivated. Therefore it is not long-lasting, contributing even to the deterioration of cultivated soil, the environment and living conditions of the population who work it. In some tropical countries such as Togo, soil degradation could even seriously hold back development of the country if this is not taken seriously. The author is putting the case for new durable tropical agriculture based on stress, plant mulch and non-working of the soil. One solution offered today is agroforestry. This alternative also offers possibilities for regeneration and maintenance of the fertility of cultivated land and the improvement in agricultural production, the possibility of exploiting timber for domestic fuel and the development of cattle farming.

The only thing remaining for agroforestry to take off is a change in mentality. This is possible if the will is there. 

Rabah LAHMAR - 13.05.1997 

Sources : 
INTERVIEW with André MATHIS. 

TOGO 
TROPICAL FOREST; DEFORESTATION ; FOOD PRODUCTION; NOMADIC AGRICULTURE  ; RURAL AGRICULTURE ; FOOD PRODUCING CULTIVATION  ; CASH CROPS ; SOIL ; SOIL DEGRADATION ; FALLOW GROUND ; BARREN SOIL  ; COMMON KNOWLEDGE  ; SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE ; AGROSILVICULTURE

8. Women

Access to politics

Burundian women in the public sphere

In Burundi, women are and remain the pillars of community life but their access to decision-making leaves a lot to be desired. From the monarchy through the colonial period down to the present day, they have always been separated from the management of the community. Under the monarchy, women played a symbolic role of designating the future king. Indeed, by tradition, the successor had to be born bearing seeds. Therefore, midwives, after the birth, would place a few grains of sorghum in the baby's hands which then gave him the inviolable right to succeed his father.

Another role, no less symbolic, allotted to women at this time, was to look after the royal drum, the symbol of power. Thus, 'Mukakaryenda' ('karyenda's wife') was chosen by the king himself to take care of  'karyenda' : the drum.
 
In only one circumstance have women been able to exercise full power. Thus, when a king died, the mother of the future successor assumed the regency until the latter reached maturity. An example of such a case occurred between 1908 and 1915, when Queen Ririkumutima reigned after the death of King Mwezi Gisabo while waiting for Mutaga Mbikije to reach maturity.
 
In the present day, access to decision-making authority depends, initially, on the level of schooling received, even university. Colonisation having favoured men, men were found in imposing numbers as managers and politicians, to the detriment of women. Women's schooling would follow the need of educated men to marry women who have been to school. Gradually the wish to overcome the mentality which confined women to the household strengthened, even if women did not take their training very far. 

In concrete terms, women's schooling has progressed as follows, according to the planning office and the Department of Primary Education: 
In 1983 : 37.31 % girls; 1987 - 1998 : 44.04 %; 1992 - 1993 : 45.03 % ; 1996 - 1997 : 45.45 %. According to the same source, the number of girls at school declines as the level increases. Thus for the school year 1997-1998, there were 44.9% of girls at primary school, 36.5% girls at secondary school and 26.8 % in higher institutions. 

At Burundi University women are found in all faculties and institutes. however their preferred subjects in most cases are in: the faculty of psychology and educational science, the institute of applied education, the faculties of arts, human sciences, law and economic and administrative science. This reduction has repercussions on the number of women who could have access to decision-making positions. For example, from the time of independence until 1982, no woman was nominated as minister and up until now no woman has reached a high grade in the army. The historic entry of a woman into the Burundian army dates from 1993. Since 1982, two women have been nominated ministers out of a team of sixteen, and in 1987 there were two out of twenty ministers. In 1990, there were two women out of twenty four, two out twenty four in 1993 and one out of twenty two in 1998. There were two women cabinet chiefs out of twenty three in 1993, two out of twenty two in 1998. There were two communal administrators in 1993 out of a hundred and fourteen, one woman ambassador in 1993 and two in 1998. Concerning the participation of women in the National Assembly, the figures there are also very telling: one woman deputy out of forty nine in 1965, six out of sixty five in 1982, ten out of eighty in 1993 and in 1994, nine out of eighty one in 1996, nine out of fifty six in 1997 and seventeen out of one hundred and seventeen deputies in 1998. 

Three women were nominated among the twelve higher councillors of the magistrates court in October 1998, three out of seven in the constitutional court, two out eleven at the Supreme Court, one out of eight at the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic, fourteen out of fifty two at the Appeal Court and Administrative Court, two out of fifteen at the general prosecutor's offices near the Court of Appeal, eight out of forty nine at the High Court...(Sources : Ministry of justice). 

In the administrative sector, according to the Bank of the Republic of Burundi, 39,8% of posts are filled by women. It should be noted, however, that in this bank, women do not yet have access to managerial posts and still  occupy mostly low-ranking posts.

In other banks and financial institutions according to sources: (Banque de Crédit de Bujumbura (B.C.B.)- Banque Nationale de Développement Economique (B.N.D.E.)- Caisse de Mobilisation et de Financement (CAMOFI)- Société Commerciale d'Assurence du Burundi (SOCABU)- Institut Nationale de Sécurité Sociale (I.N.S.S.)- Mutuelle de la Fonction Publique (M.F.P.)) in September 1998, 37% of posts were filled by women. As for accessibility to staff mortgages provided by some commercial banks and financial institutions, only 26% were given to women.
 
It is true to say that there has been a general improvement in the access of women to decision -making positions in relation to their numbers before and after 1982.

However, there is still a long way to go and the first major problem is schooling for girls. Conscious of their fate, women are forming associations to demand their rights, even though men are not helping them in their task. This can be illustrated by the fact that Burundian politicians present at Arusha for the peace negotiations completely rejected the women's request to be represented at these negotiations, only according them the status of simple observers. 
  
NOTES : File compiled during Dph training organised by CIMLK, from 9th to 23rd December 2000 at Bujumbura. 

Epimaque BAMBONEYEHO ; Richard NZISHURA - 07.02.2001 
CIMLK=CENTRE INTERNATIONAL MARTIN LUTHER KING 

Sources : Convention sur l'élimination de toutes les formes de discrimination à l'égard des femmes.
REPORT. SABIMBONA, Sabine et alii.. Burundi. 1999. <NTIBAZONZIKA, Raphaël>, Au royaume des Seigneurs de la lance, de l'Indépendance à nos jours, Tome 2, Bruxelles, DUCULOT, 1992;<MWOROHA, Emile et alii>, Histoire du Burundi : Des origines à la fin du XIXeme siècle, Paris , Hatier, 1987, 272 p.. 

BURUNDI
POWER ; WOMEN ; POLITICAL PARTICIPATION  BY WOMEN ; STATE WOMEN RELATIONS;  CULTURAL CHANGE
FINANCES ; ACCES TO POLITICAL POWER ; EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 

National women's movement to save the peace 
and national unity in Mali

Our organisation calls itself the 'National women's movement to save the peace and national unity in Mali'. It was created during the Touareg  conflict, started in Northern Mali in June 1990 by rebel groups. Following this event, there were several attacks and reprisals between the army and  rebel movements. People were killed and the country nearly descended into civil war. We took part in the Mali national conference in 1991. It was there that we became aware of the political, social, economic and military stakes in this conference and we decided to mobilise the women because we were all originally natives of the North, the area where the conflict started. We have therefore mobilised ourselves and created our organisation.
  
We organised a conference debate among women during which we expressed the wish to organise a study on the northern conflict. 

Swiss collaboration provided funds to enable us to start our activities. We were empty-handed and jumped at every opportunity to go North and speak with our parents and brothers, who had become rebels, to try and re-establish peace. We made contact with the army, the rebel movements and the population at large, and also rebels who had dispersed to other countries such as Algeria. We sent them moving messages to try and make them see reason. We used as a base our positive values of pacific co-existence, those values which link the different communities, to develop messages of public awareness aimed at the different players, to reduce the violence and to bring about more tolerance and solidarity.

The northern part of Northern Mali, where the conflict started, is an area where the settled population and nomadic population have always lived in harmony. But difficult climatic conditions and the different droughts which have hit this area, have made it so that these populations, living under hostile conditions, have developed social standards and tolerance values essential to their survival.   

Each time we addressed messages of peace and organised action to break the violent spirits of the men by appealing to our traditions, they were affected. We saw men shed tears and we saw others bend their heads while we spoke. We broadcast messages on the radio and television, asking the ORTM to help us send them out in the different national languages. These messages were constructed to touch their hearts and minds. We were therefore able to develop important local contacts with the combatants and with those in control of the state who were very sensitive to our initiatives.

The populations were quite reticent at the beginning, but as we evolved, we began to realise how important our action had become and soon reticence turned to membership.

Since the  Baule conference and the fall of the Berlin wall, we have come to realise that conflicts in Africa are becoming more and more often internal. The fundamental reasons are linked to slow advancement of democratisation, injustice and lack of liberty. The problem of changeovers in political power presents itself the most often. Once in power, people do not want to relinquish it; power often becomes a source of income for some leaders.

- (One of Mrs Maiga's two colleagues) : 'The principal cause of conflict is poverty and lack of development. The nomads lost everything they possessed. Many died with their herds, some moved away and yet others changed their way of life. All this creates internal conflicts between us, settled populations and nomads from Northern Mali. We have never experienced a similar conflict within living memory. We are all relatives. They know where our fields are and we know where their pastures are. The great drought has perturbed our way of life and our way of thinking but the movement had the presence of mind to bring men together. We are populations who communicate orally. We always finish by talking round a tent and this is what the women did to create awareness, communicate, educate and call on other women, as women are more sensitive to these problems. As we say at home ' women, being seated, can see the problems more clearly than the men, caught with a gun in their hands'. 

- Mrs Maiga : Now peace has resumed. we are in the process of consolidating this peace, but the arms have not yet been collected and there is therefore a shortfall in relation to this process of peace consolidation. There has been a moratorium on light arms and women have been involved in it. We participated at the first reunion of civilians on the margins of the reunion of experts and Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the CEDEAO at Abuja. It was the women's movement which was invited in the name of Mali's civilian population. We made a declaration of support for the moratorium and agreed that, on our return to our respective countries, we would inform, raise awareness and mobilise the people. 

COMMENTS : A woman who has the courage to come and sit down before men and cry in front of them , that is very important. A woman with the courage to come and solicit something from men makes it very difficult for them to refuse. These are the important aspects that we have identified and have been able to exploit in relation to our social values. There are symbolic gestures which fire the imagination of men. For instance when a woman lifts up her right breast, she is reminding the assembled men of the importance of maternity and life and addresses them as sons of a mother who breast-fed them and who therefore has the right to be listened to when it comes down to protecting life.
Sonia BEN MESSAOUD - 28.11.2000 
AFRICAN CARAVAN FOR PEACE AND SOLIDARITY

NOTES :  Dr. Maiga Mariam Djbrilla is President of  'National Women's Movement to Save the Peace and National Unity in Mali' (MNFPUN). She is also President of the Coalition of Civilians for Peace and the fight against the Proliferation of Light Arms. Her movement has played an extremely important and effective role as mediator in the conflicts in Northern Mali. 

Sources :  
INTERVIEW. DJBRILLA, Maiga Mariam

MALI
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN ; WOMEN ; RESOLVING  CONFLICTS ; WAY OF RESOLVING  CONFLICTS ; WOMEN AND RESOLVING  CONFLICTS; WOMEN AND PEACE      

Women devoted themselves to maintaining and restoring possibilities of communication and mutual recognition, in the midst of armed conflict in Burundi

An armed conflict broke out in Burundi in October 1993. Although many  of the reasons have not been expressed, the conflict was mostly due to  two factors:

- Ethnic: Hutu/Tutsi antagonism
- Partisan: above all the UPRONA party/the FRODEBU party

 These two factors resulted in ferocious slayings on both sides. The  insecurity that accompanied this violence led to considerable numbers of  displaced persons in camps. When the Hutu rebels attacked, the Tutsi  survivors regrouped and when the Tutsi army counter-attacked, the Hutu  survivors regrouped further away. This led to antagonism between the  camps whereas the victims they sheltered lived through the same  suffering and misery. It was all the more unfair and sad as the victims of  one camp had not been displaced by those of the other camp, rather they  were all the victims of external players whose actions concerning them  had not been asked for, and were taken on behalf of an ethnic group they  had not asked to belong to. Most of the inhabitants of these camps were  women and children!

 I belonged to a group of women victims of the same armed conflicts and  suspicion that decided to do something within the limit of our meager  means for our sisters in need.  Conscious that we were ourselves the product of the same society in  contradiction and that our will alone did not constitute a decisive tool for  helping others, we called on external organizations for help to train us to  settle conflicts pacifically. International Alert, Search for Common Ground  and UNIFEM gave us their logistic support and instructors to teach us to  listen, communicate, to convince deeply perturbed people, and also to  understand a conflict before seeking to start to solve it. One week's  training was followed by six months practical work in-the-field before  returning to evaluate the success and problems encountered. The training  lasted two years, though our group continues.

 The strategy in-the-field consisted in first identifying a Hutu camp and a  Tutsi camp whose inhabitants previously lived together. Then, several  times, the whole group, consisting of both Hutus and Tutsis, visited the  women of each camp to become regulars and become accepted as  friends. This period was also useful for identifying women leaders so we  could win them over to our cause, thereby making allies who would train  the others.

 When confidence was restored, we spoke of our visit in the other camp  and we let them spill out their heartaches. Some of them took us aside to  plead for news of a former neighbor who had rendered them service during  difficult times.

 The second stage consisted in asking them whether they wanted to meet  the women of the other camp in a neutral place. At the start of the   meeting, we let the most virulent give vent to their suffering. Then the  most rational spoke which brought the others to see things as they really
 were. Their suffering had no ethnic group. The hunger of a Hutu child is  the same as that of a Tutsi child, their feeling of cold the same, too. The  pain of the loss of a loved one is not conditioned by their ethnic group or  party; a cadaver is a cadaver.

 Then, those who wanted spoke of gestures of solidarity and rescue  shown by the other ethnic group. Emotion played on the heartstrings of  each woman, especially when talking of mothers suckling orphaned  babies left by others, and those who had hidden, fed, saved children,  women, hunted men, etc.

 These acts could be found in both groups.

 This was the moment when the link was made and conversation turned to  the events that had struck them, until they realized that they were all  victims. From here, they slowly progressed to the stage of asking how  they could get by together.

 All this did not occur at once but little by little. Visits were organized  together to return to their abandoned properties, and when two camps  were close together, they carried out activities to earn income with our  help. After two months, some of the women started to return to their  former homes. Our group could then split up, strengthened by the women  of the two original pilot camps, and go on to several other camps. This  women's movement is called DUSHIREHAMUSE (Ally together) and has  spread across a good part of the country.

Marie-Louise SIBAZURI – 10.05.1999

NOTES : Contribution to the preparatory Yin Yang workshop of the Alliance for a responsible, plural and united world during the International Conference of the Hague (May 1999).
  
Sources: 
ORIGINAL TEXT.

BURUNDI.
REFUGEE ; REFUGEES ‘CAMP ; WOMAN ; PEACE STRATEGY ; CONFLICT ; ETHNIC CONFLICT.

A woman councillor in the substructure
of Helderberg

 My name is Norah, my surname is Juries. I'm from the Helderberg Town Council in Cape Town. Heldeberg is actually about 45 Km. out of Cape Town. So it is semi-rural. 

It was very difficult when I entered local government. Now I am one of the decision makers which influence policies for local communities. It's a strange world for woman, but when you're there you realise that you can do it. I have learnt a lot. In future other women must not feel afraid to come, because that is the place (being a councillor) where you can really implement for the people  what they want. You never walk alone if you are a councillor. If you take your community along with their input you will be able to move forward.  As a woman I'm proud to stand here and say that I would not have been proud if I was working as a single person.  When I go out in the evening as a councillor I go straight to my community. There is regularly communication between myself and the community. There is no gap between me and the community. We do work together very much.  

I am enjoying working as a councillor, because I'm not working alone. I'm involving the community in my work. Involving civic structures. I had to empower the local people to participate in local governance. 

But I think women in local government should be trained more. When you move a woman into local government you must make sure that she is trained at the same level as our male counterparts. Because the males are more equipped with other things then we ourselves are not equipped in.  

David Gakunzi : You used to be in civil society and now you are in the power, what is the difference ? 
Now  that I am in government, I came to really understand some realities. Previously I encourage people not to pay rates and taxes now  i have seen why you should pay. If people don't pay rates and taxes the council cannot perform effectively. So the council is building up from what it gets from the people. Now I can go and speak to people about paying rates and taxes and how council can help them. If they don't pay they cannot expect council to help them. It is a give and take situation in council. What I learn in council must go back to the people to train them on what happens in council.

DG. : What are the obstacles for a woman to make power decisions ? 
We are born with a certain culture. So in local government basically most of the men are older than you and you are brought up that you must respect your elderly. Even if I knew that my local comrade is wrong, you are still hold culturally  as a woman to keep quiet. But I fought over the years and i have overcome that. If I want to say something I say it. As a woman if you don't talk you will sit there and people will run over you. For us who are in the leadership now we must show to the men that the days of them telling us how to sit how to do-this and that  is past. If I'm saying that this is right and you are saying this is black I won't be controlled by you to say it is black.  

Our fellow brothers who are sitting with us in the council must just respect us not because we are women but as counter partners, doing the same job representing people on the same level,. Our basic obstacle is that we are still undermined by our fellowmen. So as women who have to stand together . Maybe because I am a very outspoken person, if I want something I will say it but we still get women who are shy, very scared to talk. You can get a good woman who can listen very good, and she won't maybe speak. But when she writes something down on paper then you can see this woman knows what she is talking about. We still have to go through that lots of training. Luckily we are getting a lot of training now. This may be which makes us so more motivated.  
We see the obstacles but we are going around those obstacles because we see our goal is in front. We look straight because we have a purpose, because we have to represent people.  Culturally I still have to respect my culture, I have to respect my fellow males and sisters. So When I go home tonight I have to look my husband in the eyes and he mustn't feel that I want to be the man and the woman of the house. I expect him to respect me and him to respect my stand and the way we were struggling together in the party (ANC) in all these years we have been struggling. 

David GAKUNZI ; Sonia BEN MESSAOUD
AFRICAN CARAVAN FOR PEACE AND SOLIDARITY  

 Sources : 
Interview with Norah Juries, consellor. 

SOUTH AFRICA.
WOMAN AND POLITICAL POWER ; POLITICS : DISCRIMINATION OF WOMEN

9. AIDS

 South Africa wins a battle against the pharmaceutical giants
Pharmaceutical companies give up the court battle against the South African government 
which has authorised the use of generic drugs in the fight against AIDS

The association of pharmaceutical companies has had to give up some very unpopular litigation on 19th April 2001 which it had begun against the South African government seen as guilty of having passed health laws authorising local enterprises to produce or import treatments against AIDS without infringing the patents of large companies. 

To measure the extent of this South African victory which will have implications, not just for the whole of Africa but for all poor countries in general, it is worth remembering that there exists, at the heart of the World Trade Organisation, a series of accords called TRIP's : Trade related Intellectual Property rights, to which countries adhering to the WTO have to submit. Following these accords, it is not possible to produce a drug or buy it abroad without paying royalties to the owner of the invention for 20 years after the date of invention. 

AIDS in Africa: a health emergency even for the WTO
Yet TRIP's foresee exemption clauses: in the case of health emergencies, for example, all governments can resort to obligatory licences which permit the manufacture of products without the inventor's permission and to parallel importation which allows the purchase of a product in the country where it is sold at the cheapest price. It is this exemption clause which the South African government decided to invoke, rightly so, in 1997 to authorise the production and marketing of generic drugs. To put this in context, we should remind ourselves of some unfortunately all too familiar statistics: 35 million people in the world are seropositive, including 25 million in Africa. In the year 2000, 2.4 million Africans died from AIDS: or if one prefers even more shocking figures, 6,000 people die every day from AIDS in Africa.

 There are 1.3 million children infected with HIV of which approximately 1 million of them are African. 

Life expectancy in Africa which not long ago stood at 60 years, has now fallen to 40. 

The country most affected is actually South Africa with 4.7 million seropositive people; in other words more or less 10% of the population.  

AIDS sufferers in Africa and in poor countries in general, cannot treat themselves since the treatment costs are very high: In Europe and the USA, a year of tritherapy costs from $20,000 to $30,000. With generic drugs, the treatment costs less than $400 per year.   

Pharmaceutical companies have dropped their guard against international public opinion which mobilised in favour of access to treatment by all, following a campaign launched in July 2000 after the Durban Conference by South African activists. These include the Treatment Action Campaign whose president, Zackie Achmat, labelled the protectionist organisation defended by the pharmaceutical companies with the epithet "holocaust against the poor". 

‘‘Protection of human lives must come before that of patents' 
In 1997, when they were opposed to the completely new South African laws, the pharmaceutical companies could count on the support of the United States and the European Union. However, as the problem gradually broadened from a strictly regulatory aspect  (respect for TRIPs) to fundamental questions such as the right to health by the most disadvantaged, the industry, accused of weighing profits against health, lost its support. International petitions such as those by Médecins Sans Frontières on the theme 'Protection of human lives must come before that of patents' obtained  270,000 signatures in more than 130 countries; public protests by personalities such as  Nelson Mandela (who created the law) or  Kofi Annan, General Secretary of the UN, finished by discrediting it. 

Without the Pretoria trial, African AIDS sufferers would have had to wait until 2005, the date when the patent lapses on the first drug zidovudine of GlaxoWellcome and when it goes into the public domain, to be treated with a generic drug at a reasonable cost. 

COMMENTS : It is the whole system of intellectual property rights, put in place by the WTO in 1994 with the TRIP accord, which has been put into question by this South African victory. An accord which tries to privatise (to make profitable) all knowledge by licensing it and authorising price-led politics as a function of international force, whereas international public opinion emerged, on the contrary with an 'ecology of knowledge' defending the idea of a public domain of free  information  available to everyone, a basic 'global public good'. 

But the battle against AIDS will require even more effort. Countries in the southern hemisphere will have to define their healthcare policies : production or import of drugs? Generics or drugs under licence?

To resolve the problem of access to drugs by poor countries, the economist Jeffrey Sachs (Harvard University) proposes the creation of an international fund under the auspices of the WHO and UNAIDS, paid for by rich countries and private donors. This fund would buy drugs in bulk under licence in order to reduce the cost without the system itself being under threat during the management of the health crisis. Companies would thus be re-legitimised in their 'ownership' of medicines, in brief, nothing would change very much.

However, after Pretoria, other propositions on the basis of a right to health for all and international solidarity on questions of health will have to emerge since, if a battle has been won, the 'health war' has only just begun...

Françoise FEUGAS - 29.05.2001 
CRI=INTERAFRICAN RESSOURCE CENTER
CITATION 
 
Sources : La nécessaire définition d'un bien public mondial : les firmes pharmaceutiques organisent l'apartheid sanitaire 
PERIODICAL ; DIVERS. BULARD, Martine. Le Monde diplomatique. FRANCE. 2000/01. - RIVIERE, Philippe, 'Après Prétoria, quelle politique contre le SIDA ?', in le Monde diplomatique, 2001/04/20 ;- 'SIDA : les laboratoires abdiquent face à Prétoria', in Le Monde, 2001/04/19 (Avec AFP et Reuters);- LORELLE, Véronique, 'Une étape dans la bataille du tiers-monde pour la santé', in Le Monde, 2001/04/20;- 'Sida : le profit contre la santé', in le Monde, 2001/03/06. http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr. 

SOUTH AFRICA 
PUBLIC HEALTH ; AIDS ; RIGHT TO HEALTH; HEALTH POLITICS ;  PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY ;  WTO ; TRIP's

AIDS : in Congo, seropositive women fight ceaselessly to have the right to live normally

Aline Okongo Disachi, a 52 year old congolese woman, widowed since 1991, sound of limb, is full of energy. Yet she has been seropositive for about ten years. 'I discovered that my husband was ill. I was burying one of my sisters at the time who had also suffered from AIDS. When I discovered this, it was a great shock to me, since I could never imagine that my husband, a doctor, could catch this disease and put my life in danger'. she explains. One year after the death of her husband, tests confirm her seropositivity. For two years, Aline Okongo  was condemned to a life of hell.  

' I then found myself alone. I had four kids whom my in-laws had taken in charge. You see, I was used to living with my children to hear them laughing, running, breaking glasses, fighting ...then all of a sudden, nothing'.

 A big emptiness now existed around her. At school where she taught 'I lost my job and my friends'. In her own family, where she returned after having been thrown out by her landlord: 'They poisoned all those still living with me', explained Aline. 'This is why I said to myself: we must break the silence, show and prove to everyone that AIDS is not only my affair. When I collected my children, I told myself that the virus, which had taken away their father and against which I was fighting, was also waiting for my children. Was I going to keep quiet and let this virus devour my kids?' 

In 1995, with a small group of seropositive women, Aline Okongo started an association ‘Women Plus’ whose first task was to protect the children. "We were already victims but the children mustn't, in turn, become victims out of ignorance." she said. A year later, in 1996 she created ‘Mission for the liberation of people infected by AIDS ( Alpi-Plus )’.  ‘My objective is not to take revenge on one man but to fight the virus. Today if they find out you have AIDS, you are rejected, abandoned, stigmatised. My vengeance is to help the seropositive person to recover his or her dignity. We have the right to live, to work and even to marry, why not, like everyone else. Finally, a maximum number of people must be mobilised to conquer AIDS together'.
 
In the ancient city of Kitambo, in Kinshasa city where the association is based, seropositive women courageously come and confide in the ten or so people who work there. ‘Here we provide a counselling service' explains the president. 'We talk to people who are suffering. We explain to them about the illness since people think that when you fall ill, you die from one day to the next. We explain the different stages of the illness, of seropositivity which can last about ten years, etc. We tell them not to worry too much, they might have a chance of living for a little while yet'.

This advice is accompanied by a treatment based on plants and nutritional advice. ‘As well as modern drugs to help fight opportunistic illnesses, we give the sufferers  Nizhio, which is composed of six plant extracts. With the help of this treatment, our patients regain confidence in themselves'.  

Alpi-Plus also tries to create awareness in populations at risk. 'I explain, using a simple chart, how long it takes for a person who has caught the virus to develop the disease. When I talk about seropositivity, people often don't know the difference between that and the full-blown disease.' says Aline. 'When they look at me and are told that I have AIDS, they have their doubts since I am strong and weigh nearly 100 kilos. We then talk without taboo about sex, abstinence, fidelity, condoms. We talk about the damage done by AIDS by simulating an exercise called "bush fire" where we show, starting with one individual who is ill, how he or she can contaminate a whole community, using the image of a fire which spreads throughout the bush', she further explains.

The message which these women send out to all those living with AIDS is simple. 'I have the virus and the last thing in the world I want to do is transmit it to someone else'. Since May 2000, they have even travelled round the police camps of Kinshasa. 'We invite them to have safe sex. We don't hesitate, for example to invite a policeman to come up and demonstrate the use of a condom. If he hesitates, we take out our material, the wooden penis onto which we apply a condom. It shocks them at first but it is a way of breaking down myths'.  

The women of Alpi-Plus are also aiming at the young, in schools, clubs and churches. In 1999, as a result of an European Union grant, they have toured round 10 schools. They appoint Alpi-Plus ambassadors to spread the association's message. In the Kitambo quarter, the awareness campaign is particularly active. At the beginning of June, in front of tens of young people from 8 to 20 years old, Aline asks: ‘ Who has talked about AIDS with their parents? No-one. And then, at what age do you generally have your first sexual encounter?  At 10,12,13 years old…, reply the young girls in the hall. ‘So, how do you expect there not to be at least 22 million seropositives in Africa?' 

 Godefroid LUMISA BWITI; Aline OKONGO DISACH, - 20010519 

Sources : 
PERIODICAL: Agence des Nouvelles Africaines-ANA-. 

CONGO 
AIDS; PREVENTION ; FIGHT AGAINST DISCRIMINATION ; PUBLIC HEALTH 

Impact of armed conflicts on the spread of HIV-AIDS in Africa

In developing countries in general and in Africa in particular, the form and intensity of the AIDS epidemic are closely linked to poverty, inequality, the destruction of social structure and the uprooting of people. These phenomena are often associated with violence and conflicts. It has now become essential to take into account the AIDS epidemic as one of the major problems that needs treating in a situation of civil crisis, war and emergency. In emergency situations, the question of AIDS is often overshadowed by short-term problems which are urgent and more visible. But acute or latent crises can create conditions of accelerated spread of HIV-AIDS and therefore involves the future health of a whole region. One therefore has to encourage the awareness of the importance of the AIDS question in situations of armed conflict.

The AIDS epidemic spreads along the fault lines of societies. It develops where access to information, prevention, economic independence and respect for human rights is not available to all. To fight against the advancement of the epidemic, it is necessary for the social structure to have relative stability and that society, the state in particular, has the ability to make institutions guarantors of individual rights. At the moment, however, many African countries are faced with numerous political, economic and social crises, thus jeopardising the functioning of institutions. A classification of these crises could be based on their causes; their length and their limitation or otherwise to single concerned population, the displacement of affected populations or the assistance they generate from humanitarian organisations. For each of these situations, there is a corresponding possible level of measures which can be put in place to fight against the AIDS epidemic.

It is often conflicts or political crises on a national or international level which lead to emergency situations. This has been the case in Burundi since 1993, Rwanda in 1994 and in previous years in Liberia, Angola and Mozambique which have all known bloody civil wars.  The Great Lakes Region accounts for more than 90% of the 10 million refugees found on African soil. Rwanda beats the record with 7,450,000 refugees, according to figures compiled by the High Commission for Refugees (HCR ).  

These political crises have first the effect of destabilising the economic and social structure. Everyday life is then dominated by insecurity and violence. Survival strategies aim first at ensuring stability, food supplies and healthcare for the injured. The crisis results in populations migrating, taking refuge in areas where they feel safer. More often than not, they end up confined to refugee camps. The level of risk concerning the transmission of STD and AIDS is raised as a result of sexual violence in times of war. The break-up of matrimonial bonds following death, separation often forcing women, especially widows, to prostitute themselves to provide for their children or to obtain protection in a general atmosphere of violence. The collapse of a pre-existing social structure bringing into doubt the authority of the family over the young on sexual matters, could also contribute to the risk. The frequency of wounds needing transfusions also increase the risk of HIV transmission. Displacement of populations finally creates an inter-mixing of groups with different levels of sero-prevalence, which upsets the epidemiological progression

After the stage when camps are set up, refugees have time on their hands, their basic needs are provided for in large part by the aid agencies. They are then ready to re-establish a social organisation, to participate in setting up services and are more receptive to the provision of information. However, AIDS does not represent a priority problem to refugees keen on regrouping their families, to plan their daily routine and foresee their future.  

On the other hand, displaced civilian populations or refugees are very quickly exposed to stigmatisation and discrimination by local communities and authorities, by dint of their status, ethnic origins or their political or religious affiliations. Enquiries into health problems such as AIDS can encourage this discrimination by providing arguments to justify repressive measures towards them by local military or political powers. In an environment where confidentiality is difficult to assure, humanitarian aid groups hesitate to enquire about questions of sexuality and AIDS, thus risking the creation of prejudice to the people concerned. 
 
 COMMENTS : It has therefore become necessary to understand the role which conflicts have on the transmission of AIDS and to know that the putting into place of preventative actions must take into account both the sexual behaviour at risk and the influence that physical, psychological and material stress caused by the conflicts can have on their behaviour.

Africa has found sufficient energy and tenacity to overcome natural disasters, attacks and social upsets which have marked its history. Will Africa be able to manage the pandemic of AIDS? In what way and according to what timescale?

Déo NTIBAYINDUSHA - 27.03.2001 
CIMLK=Centre International Martin Luther King 

Sources :  
BOOK AND BULLETIN: Urgence, Précarité et lutte contre le Sida en Afrique, Publié par le Réseau Société d'Afrique et Sida, Editions l'Harmattan, 1997. 

AFRICA    
AIDS; CONFLICT; REFUGEE; PUBLIC HEALTH  

Filmmaker Fanta Nacro in the fight against AIDS in Africa 
Nacro's 1998 film ‘Le Truc de Konaté’ (Konaté's Thing)
is a veritable masterpiece

 For those involved in the fight against AIDS in Africa, filmmaker Fanta Nacro of Burkina Faso is an invaluable human resource. She offers a rare blend of talents and experiences and actively puts them to the service of the stop-AIDS community of this continent. 

It is an acknowledged fact that artists can play a highly effective role in communicating urgently needed HIV-related messages. Here in West Africa, young people often cite singers, actors and filmmakers as their primary opinion leaders. Fanta Nacro is a dynamic, respected player in the world of African cinema today. 

Unfortunately, drawing on the creative mastery and charisma of big stars to advance the causes of HIV prevention and of solidarity with those living with the virus has frequently backfired in this region in the past. The reason for this generally has to do with the fact that some of those stars, though certainly well-meaning, have unintentionally communicated harmful messages (such as misinformation about the means of HIV transmission) when addressing the issue of AIDS on stage, sometimes in front of tens of thousands of transfixed young people carefully taking in every word that their idol says. 

There are no such risks when it comes to Fanta Nacro. She understands the epidemic inside and out, largely due to her own hands-on experience while volunteering for prominent NGOs working in the field of HIV and AIDS during her stays in Paris. 

In addition to Fanta's artistic talents and keen understanding of the epidemic, there is another thing that enhances her effectiveness in HIV-related activities in and for Africa: the fact that she's a woman. Half of the over twenty million people living with HIV in Africa today are female, and women's economic, cultural and physiological vulnerability fuels the epidemic in horrific fashion. However, women are dramatically underrepresented when it comes to shaping and communicating messages of prevention and solidarity with regard to HIV and AIDS. 

And finally, Fanta is well-endowed with what is often the most effective and culturally acceptable tool for dismantling taboos pertaining to intimate matters, namely humor. Even in conservative settings in West Africa, one can often venture deep into the land of taboos if one does so with a clever sense of humor. 

Creative talent, mastery of the subject matter (HIV and AIDS), the pen and voice of an informed woman, and a fine-tuned sense of humor -- all of these characteristics are clearly evident in Fanta Nacro's 1998 film entitled ‘Le Truc de Konaté’ (‘Konaté's Thing’). 

Filmed on 35mm in Burkina Faso, this 33-minute piece is entertaining and rich in accurate information pertaining to HIV prevention, especially the use of condoms in avoiding the transmission of the virus. 

The film's story line goes something like this: Diénéba leaves the city where she spent a couple of days. Her cousin Salif bids her farewell and gives her some gifts for the family in the village: cola nuts, loincloths and condoms. Upon her arrival in the village, she gives out the gifts and promises her husband, Konaté (played by the celebrated Burkinabè actor Rasmané Ouédraogo), a wonderful gift for the night... . In the evening she gives him the present -- a condom. Konaté is furious and refuses to change his habits, but Diénéba doesn't give in and refuses herself to him. Konaté goes to his mistress and discovers that he has become impotent. (The mistress, disappointed, exclaims, ‘You promised me a baobab tree, but all I get is a cornstalk. ‘) He turns to his friends for a solution, first under the palaver tree, then with the fetishist. The latter puts forth the message of the spirits: Konaté will only get his virility back if he finds the tree from which came the ‘strange fruit’, the condom. So he goes in search of the magic tree... . 

‘Le Truc de Konaté’ provides an excellent example of a woman (Diénéba) who steadfastly asserts herself when it comes protecting herself from HIV. The film also includes comprehensive information about condoms, including a well-designed condom demonstration. 

Specialists here in Senegal, a country generally considered to be far more socially conservative than Burkina Faso, agree that the film can indeed be used here as well. ‘Le Truc de Konaté’ transcends by far existing taboo barriers in Senegal, but it seems that that is acceptable for two reasons. First of all, the bold, audacious messages are rendered socially innocuous thanks to their humor. And secondly, there is the fact that the film was made in Burkina Faso. Here in Senegal, films from Burkina Faso apparently enjoy some kind of special exemption from conservative parents' censorship of what their children watch on television, perhaps due to cultural affinity and to respect for the Burkinabè film industry. 

In producing her film, Fanta was able to draw on the support of several pillars of the film industry in her country, including the Ministry of Communication and Culture. She also benefitted from collaboration with her country's National AIDS Control Program, PROMACO (structure responsible for the social marketing of condoms), the France-based television station Canal +, and other organisations.

COMMENTS : Fanta Nacro's smashing success with ‘Le Truc de Konaté’ further underscores the fact that all of us involved in the fight against HIV in Africa would be well-advised to foster ever-closer partnerships with the continent's leading artists and ever-greater involvement of influential women in our activities. 

It is our hope that Fanta's film will swiftly be made physically and linguistically accessible to as many Africans as possible. 
Daniel ENGER - 08.01.1999 
GDT=The Global Dialogues Trust

NOTES : For further information on the film, contact: <NACRO, Fanta> at 10, rue des Morands, 93360 Neuilly Plaisance, France. Tel (33 1) 43 00 31 85. Fax (33 1) 43 00 05 81. One can also contact: <ATRIASCOP> at 16, boulevard Jules Ferry, 75011 Paris, France. Tel (33 1) 43 57 17 32. Fax (33 1) 43 55 06 02. 

Sources : Le Truc de Konaté 
VIDEO CASSETTE ; AUDIOVISUAL. NACRO, Fanta. Les films du défi. In drafting this text, I also made use of an article written by Françoise Kaboré entitled ‘Fanta Nacro on a crusade against AIDS’, published in the FESPACO Newsletter, No. 13, June-July-August 1997, p. 7. FESPACO, which has its own web site, is the ‘Festival Panafricain du Cinéma et de la Télévision’, or ‘Panafrican Film and Television Festival’.. 

AFRICA ; WEST AFRICA ; BURKINA FASO    
HEALTH ; PREVENTION ; AIDS ; ART  

10. Culture of Peace

For long-lasting human development in Africa
Interview with Mr. Ali Nouhoum Diallo, President of Mali's National Assembly 

 Mr. Ali Nouhoum Diallo has been President of Mali's National Assembly since 1992, the advent of the IIIè Republic. During the military regime he belonged to a clandestine party which worked for the popular uprising of March 1991. This party, born in 1958, was the Mali branch of the African Party for Independence. In 1968, this became the Mali Workers Party. Mr. Ali Nouhoum Diallo is today one of the founder members of the Mali Alliance for Democracy - African Party for Solidarity and Justice (ADEMA-PASJ), the party in power. We interviewed him on his vision in relation to conflicts in Africa. 

‘The principle cause of wars in Africa revolves around our riches, oil, diamonds. Today, wherever there is oil and diamonds, there is probably a war. Congo Brazzaville, the DRC and Angola have huge natural resources and it is to exploit these natural riches that the whole world is at war: powers the world over intervene one way or another, sometimes to identify diamonds that have come from war zones. 
As long as these riches are not available to those who live on these lands and whilst they don't really contribute to social or human development or to progress, peace, solidarity or to a responsible and united world, there won't be long-lasting human development in Africa. 

Then there are political instabilities in Africa. These manifest themselves in the form that we could call epi-phenomena, but which are really barometers. For example, today schools are bankrupt on the African continent. Everywhere they talk of the ‘blank year’ , of the ‘optional year’  and everywhere the years pass without a planned future. Every time that a blank school year is planned, i.e. diplomas are not validated, every time a year is rendered optional, i.e. only those who are deemed ready are presented at exams, all African schools, at least those in black Africa, break down. They become unemployment factories and the unemployed have training on the cheap. Even academic years are not complete and when they are complete, it is done by artifice. We arrange for the school year to be lengthened, to include the 25 weeks required by UNESCO with such cramming that it is impossible to train them well.  We can cram their brains, and even then...we do not prepare people capable of transforming the world.

Another destabilising factor: in many African countries it is not rare for civil servants to suffer salary delays of 12 months, sometimes even 2 years. Now, work is an essential human dimension and as soon as it stops being a liberating experience, there are problems. In other words, the link between what makes a man live and work has been broken, that is Man's work in Africa no longer feeds him and no longer permits him to flourish. From the moment the father of the family is not valued in the eyes of his children and the mother is no longer valued for her revenues, even when both of them work, then there is a problem.

After all this, is it possible to bring men to peace, solidarity and a sense of responsibility? Shouldn't we start with the schools? Shouldn't mankind mobilise itself today and notice that a whole continent is in the process practically of being marginalised in relation to education, in relation to the deep significance of teaching, i.e. the instrument needed to create a social conscience, a culture of peace, the need for human solidarity? This instrument is not functioning today. We pretend to have schools but the children are not seen to be motivated, happy to go to school and acquire learning. The school master is no longer motivated and happy to transmit his knowledge either. 

The cultures of peace, democracy, compromise or tolerance do however come from school. Even if this school were to start in the family, whether it be done in the sacred forests, in the Madrasa where the Koran is taught, or by ecumenism where today we want religious convergence, whether it is created in church, in general school is weakened. These are my worries, how to stop the war, how to arrange it so that Africa's riches serve human development in Africa? When are the great powers going to stop fixing the price of a barrel of oil, of cocoa, coffee, all primary materials, to stop lowering them or raising them to suit their interests and from there to pit some against others for the crumbs from such riches that we should be picking and that belong to all mankind? 
It is thought that it is the Africans who are fighting each other. It is said that they are savages, that they haven't yet embraced civilisation whereas the poor are but instruments. We let them exterminate themselves and in the meantime we can easily exploit their riches. Then one fine day we see the British army landing in Sierra Leone.....’

NOTES : Mr. Idrissa Sidibé is Vice-President of the Djoliba centre at Bamako. 

BEN MESSAOUD, Sonia ; SIDIBE, Idrissa - 19.03.2001 
DJOLIBA CENTRE 
__________________________________________________________________________________

Interview with : DIALLO, Ali Nouhoum 

MALI. - /CONFLICT ; EDUCATION FOR PEACE ; EDUCATION ; EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE ; PEACE RELATIONS; HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
  
 Fiche : 1

 Interview with Sédick Crombie (Mediation and Transformation Practice, South Africa) 

 DG : Tell me about MTP, the role of such an organization and the importance of training people in conflict resolution and participating in peace ? 
S.C. : Mediation and Transformation Practice, or the acronym MTP, has been doing this kind of work for the past three years. The two directors (Craig Arendse and Sédick Crombie) together with the consultants, have a wealth of experience in this field, easily 40 years. Our areas of expertise are conflict resolution, mediation and training. I think we can make a contribution because it was not so long ago that South Africa came from a system where we also resolved conflict by using force. We have learnt a lot and found that there are other methods of resolving conflict, and our national government is testimony to that. MTP would like to help other countries and communities, which experience similar situations we experienced. It is not to say that in South Africa there are no more conflicts, because the reason why MTP exist is because conflict still exist. We work with various communities, whom at times do not have the necessary skills. After Apartheid the disparity between those that had and those that did not were very big. In order for government to bring those that have been disadvantaged into the mainstream, they need this capacity building programs, training, etc_ to show those communities that have been neglected how to resolve conflict. So what MTP would like to do is to ensure that we share our expertise. I was saying to Lucas (Christian Council of Mozambique) this afternoon that we South Africans always tend to look westwards to Europe and America, but I think charity begins at home and we should start to look more to South Africa and Africa. We should make this a continent that we can all be proud of. This is what our president Thabo Mbeki calls the African Renaissance, for we need to find African solutions to African problems. We as MTP would like to see that we are a part of that (the African Renaissance). The Peace Caravan is actually the vehicle which physically goes through Africa to promote peace, so what better opportunity could MTP have of being part of this. MTP need to utilize the Caravan to meet all those countries, communities, etc. 
D.G. : What do you think is the importance of training people ? 
S.C. : Education and training are major factors which help to ensure that communities resolve conflicts. Without education people tend to make evaluations and have perspectives which are sometimes based on ignorance. This is unfortunately the situation in South Africa and maybe Africa. Only by training and educating people would we bring them in the mainstream, where they will ensure that peace is sustainable. If we don't do that people act on hearsay, on rumors and at the end of the day, they react to that and it always end up violently to the detriment of the country and community. 
D.G. : What are the main lessons that you have learned from your practice ? 
S.C. : People need to talk more about things that are relevant and affect their lives. South Africans can talk a good talk, we like to talk. In order to reach your objectives it is necessary to talk around those objectives, that it does not become a secret. Our government has realized that. Everything in South Africa is transparent. There is not a problem with secrecy as in the past. Some of our previous military installations have slowly scaled down and are allowing the public to have access to them, which is a major shift from the previous system. Transparency, then, is the other major thing that needs to be in our society and thinking. I have heard this week in Mozambique that people say they don't know what government is doing. This is sometimes also the case in South Africa where people say there is not enough transparency and only see representatives and politicians before elections. South Africa's system has changed so much that the politicians are accountable to their constituency which elected them. Communication is therefore another crucial element we need to take note of in Africa. 
D.G. : What can you tell us about the reconciliation process in South Africa ? How is it called a miracle and what is the secret of this success ? 
S.C. : The basic principle was once again to talk, about those things that needed to be talk about. With Nelson Mandela taking the lead in Africa and the Middle East we have taken the example. We sometimes need to talk about things that are sensitive and excruciating to talk about and address it. That is what South Africa has done with reconciliation, it will open up old wounds, mudslinging, yes_ You did this to us etc_ If you don't have this reconciliation you will always have the insecurity, that is, people are scared to talk because it could break the peace. In certain countries like Mozambique it could be a slower process, though South Africa's came at the right time. 
D.G. : Could you say what the success was of the South African process, and also some weaknesses ? 
S.C. : One of the major weaknesses was the calls made by certain groups for guarantees in negotiations. People tried to secure certain things for their specific communities and were not looking at the interest of South Africa as a whole. The nationalist regime (the Apartheid government) brought in certain guarantees for their constituency. The homelands (for black tribes) had a civil service which was ineffective and badly trained but were incorporated into the new civil service. This led to a lot of corruption which is still prevalent today. At the end of the day if you take the sum total of the South African process it should be regarded as a success. South Africa is thankful for where we are today, because the rest of the world wrote us of long ago, saying we will go through a civil war to resolve our differences.

  

GAKUNZI, David - 14.07.2000 
Organisme :  
Adresse :   

Entretien avec : CROMBIE, Sédick 
Sources :  
ENTRETIEN. 

MOTS CLES 
Mots clés DPH :        
 Fiche : 1

 Interview with the Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius A. Ncube 

 Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, 19th of July 2000 
. By David Gakunzi and Sonia Ben Messaoud 
DG. : What do you think the role the churches should be playing in peace building in Africa ?  
AB. : I think that Africa has to go through a long process. When Africa was divided into 53 countries, this was done in Europe. For the sake of colonization, each country in Europe wanted to take position of a particular area. We were then governed by European powers, like France, Britain, Germany, Italy and so on. When we became independent, we decided to keep those borders, so as to avoid quarreling and fighting. Then the problem came. The problem here was tribalism. The big problem in Africa is tribes. These tribes sometimes take advantage of each other. The bigger tribe wants to take everything, the smaller tribe has nothing. This is a very big problem.  
I was reading a book on Rwanda, the Rwanda crisis is a history of tribalism. People were turned in militia, in camps and after that, a big campaign of hate was launched through radio and about 800 000 people was killed.  
So we haven't learnt to respect minority here in Africa. This is a very big problem. Somehow, we need to learn to respect small groups.  
You have also ruling classes problem. These ruling classes want to cling to power. They don't want to allow others to come in. You take Sudan, it is clear that there is an ethnic and racial problem. There is also a problem of religion. One religion wants to crush another religion and take all.  
Another problem that is causing a lot of sadness is governance. Our governments are not always working for the people. They are working to enrich themselves, to get rich and to get famous instead of uplifting the people. People afterwards become fed up. They say we voted you in, we expected to be helped, but we see we are thinking and becoming worse and worse. So this starts conflicts and sometimes civil war results, because of the unhappiness of the people.  
The people in Africa live also in poverty. There is so much poverty. The people are battling to survive and trying to see how they can get a better life.  
We just need to learn to respect each others as nations. There are some countries that are stronger economically and others that are weaker economically. So we need to come to that level to respect other nations. The big nations should not dominate the smaller nations or weaker nations.  
We as church, we have embarked on the Catholic church, what is called Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, and we analyze things that are injustice in society, economy inequalities, social problems, bad governance, corruption_ We analyze and criticize all this and ask the rulers to deal better with people.  
Even in Mozambique, the church succeeded in stopping the war which was very good. That war killed over a million people in Mozambique from independence time to about 5 years ago. Saint Eugedio community in Rome succeed in mediating for peace in Mozambique. 
We need these people who are good Samaritans. It is people like you who are going to bring peace. But we must have people who will listen. Some people are so fool of power. They want power, power, power. They will not listen to anybody. So this causes a lot of problems.  
We have the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and through it we try to tell the government what his role and what should be corrected. But also at an ecumenical level, the Zimbabwean Christian Council and others Christian body are working together with what they call justice, peace and reconciliation committee. By that way, also, they try and make efforts for peace. It is not an easy thing, but the best we can do is work quietly for peace gradually.  
Sometimes, peace can be brought with one man working very hard. It is a lot of work. You have to run to these people and run to those people and back and forth, and that can be very tiresome. Going back 20 years ago, there was a man that was very good at that, called Kissinger in America. He would go and talk to the Israelites, and then go over to the Palestinians, come back and go back. Sometimes it is tiresome, you feel like saying it is useless.  
Here in Zimbabwe, there used to be bad blood between ZANU and ZAPU. What the churches did through justice and peace with the ambassadors of other countries, was to bring them together, so they would talk. 
It took about thirteen time of efforts to bring them together and finally, they signed an agreement and there was peace. So there has to be people that I concerned about peace like you are.  
Secondly, being an ambassador, persuading both sides all the time until you get an agreement. So at a national level, we have what you call Commission for Justice and Peace. It is in many levels, it is in the parish, it is in the diocese and then at the national level, that's how we try to make efforts for peace. 
DG. : There is a question of culture of violence. People say that the cause of war in Africa is some kind of culture crises or values crises. How do you see and how do you think that problem should be addressed ? 
AB. : Generally, Africans like peace, they don't like fighting and running after each other. They like peace. Sometimes they are encouraged by bad leaders to fight. We have our president here, he is a very nice man when you talk to him, you think he is an angel. What goes on with him and his party ? We don't know.  
He got beaten in the referendum here. There was a vote against a Constitution, that was not for the good of the people. It was going to give him more power, but give the people no power. He has all the power and the rest no power. So they simply voted no, and he got a shock. He thought the elections are lost. He then organize youth all over the place to go and beat up people and burning and so on. It was so bad here in Matabeleland and any case, even if they did that, they will still lose. It was pretty bad in Mashonaland central. They were burning houses. I hope now he is not going to beat up people and burn homes there, because if he is doing such foolish things, we cannot say yes to such foolish things. We have to oppose it as church.  
The problem for us as church, is when you stick out your neck, they can chop your neck, but in the end they won't win anyway. I don't think it is a culture of violence, though there is a cultural crises. I think that is true.  
Africans are an extended family and that extended family is breaking down. The strongest thing with the African was the marriage, the father and mother. Now there is all this modernization and industrialization, what matters now is money. Money has became more important than parents. It is because of that sort of thing, that sort of mentality that some are using little soldiers that are 14 years old, like in Sierra Leone. That is absolutely immoral. What these leaders are doing? Killing little kids, so that they can get into power.  
It is a culture crisis. The African family that was there 50 years ago is no longer there, so things are collapsing. Yet, who teaches the young people, it is the adults. If the adults are giving good values to the youngsters, then the youngsters are going to follow these values. If the youngster are given bad values, they are going to follow that.  
Overall I think no one like quarreling and fighting. We all love peace at one time or another. If there is enough people that work for peace and we convince our leaders in Africa to work for peace, then we shall have peace. That is a very hard task. We are dealing with people running just after money and power.  
This thing about money and power is the biggest problem in Africa, and we are very excited about because we are a very poor continent and we will allow anyone to come and do anything with us as long as they have money. So too many influences come in from every direction, causes a cultural crisis. And this cultural crisis has got ruthless people and people who have got no roots. You have a child growing up who does not know who his father is.  
That is the stage that we are in Africa. And what do we expect will be the values the child have, if he is thought that what is important to be selfish. ‘What comes to me is mine and I don't care about you. You can go and die and I don't care. What matters is me’. It is ‘me generation’. Everything is ‘me, me’. That is what is destroying peace in Africa and in Zimbabwe too. We have to teach people about their rights. 
The usual way the churches call on people and say let's pray for peace and secondly, let us work and try and inform people. We teach people. One of the problem with our people is that they don't know their rights. The main thing is we need to teach people their human rights, they don't know their rights. The tradition in Africa, if I am a king, I am allowed to do anything. I can take your cattle away and you are my subject, there is nothing you can do. If I am the king, I can take your daughter away and marry her even if you don't want. What can you do? I am the king here. So we have these African concepts that the one that is in power has the right to do anything that he wants.  
So we have to teach our people gradually until they stand up, until our people realize that they have rights, and these rights are not given by the king, or by the president. The right is given by God who created each human beings. The president or the king or the prime minister cannot just do anything that he likes to do. That awareness besides prayer which is very, very important is education. We have to educate people to know their human rights.  
Peace is an educational process. We must train our young, the little children about peace. Adults must be train to respect other human being, to know that we are all equal. Some people think that they are superior by nature and they try to stamp on other people and this is a big problem. Sometimes tribes are big problems since they are many, others must do what they say even if it is bad. In South Africa, Buthelezi was throwing his weight around, because he knew the Zulu was the biggest tribe. He was jealous. As long as Mandela was in prison, he was quiet and as soon as Mandela was out, he said we are here, you cannot ignore us. I suppose it is a human nature.  
We have this tribal problem here also. If a job is advertised all the names of the people go to Harare. If it is a Ndebele speaking person from Matabeleland, he will not get that job. It must be someone who is Shona speaking who will get the job.  
There is a constant segregation and oppression by these who are powerful against those who are less powerful, and up and down Africa it is the same thing. People get frustrated and angry because this is passed on from generation to generation, 20, 30, 40 years and people are saying for how long is this going to go on. We have to fight to stop it. We need good Samaritans, apostles and ambassadors for peace that are going to teach people to respect one another. That small men must be respected and not only the big men.  
The best thing to do is to get these organizations fighting for peace together. These organizations are neutral, so they can mediate for peace. In Mozambique, Frelimo was in war with Renamo, there was no mediation, but they got Saint Eugedio community to come and mediate for peace, and that is the only way.  
With these kind of organization, we should come together and find ways to get peace. The problem sometimes on the church side, is that we, bishops, we are not united because some of us are afraid. They think that if I talk too much, I might be in jail or I will be killed. Sometimes we want to be careful and to avoid everything dangerous.

  

 - 19.07.2000 
Organisme :  
Adresse :   

Entretien avec : NCUBE, Pius A. 
Sources :  

MOTS CLES 
Mots clés DPH :        
 Fiche : 1

 Interview de M.H.Ngidi, maire de Johannesburg 

 D.G. : Quel est votre regard et vision de la construction de la paix en Afrique du Sud et dans la région ? 
H.N. : Nous avons tous besoin de la paix. C'est pourquoi nous avons dû lutter pendant de longues années contre un système qui violait notre droit fondamental de vivre en paix dans notre pays. Si nous sommes parvenus à conquérir notre liberté, la paix reste à construire. La criminalité est encore là. Il y a aussi le cri de souffrance des victimes du système d'Apartheid qui demandent réparation.  
Je crois aussi que notre liberté ne peut être entière tant que les pays voisins continueront de souffrir de la guerre et de la pauvreté, comme en RDC. Tant que l'Afrique ne sera pas unie nous n'aurons pas la paix. C'est pourquoi notre président a lancé l'idée de la Renaissance Africaine pour que nous nous levions ensemble pour construire l'unité et combattre le sous-développement, les maladies, le sida... 
Nous aurons la paix si nous prenons la voie de l'unité et du dialogue. Nous devons cultiver l'habitude de nous asseoir ensemble et de parler de ce qui ne va pas. Malheureusement nous n'osons pas toujours dire à haute voix ce que nous pensons. Certains s'imaginent que s'ils font des critiques, ils seront montrés du doigt ou emmenés à Robben Island. Les temps ont changé. La Constitution protège la liberté d'expression de tous les citoyens, y compris le droit de critiquer le chef de l'Etat. Critiquer le chef de l'Etat peut l'aider à rester ancré dans les réalités et lui rappeler que c'est au nom du peuple qu'il doit exercer ses fonctions.  
D.G. : On sent monter aujourd'hui un climat de xénophobie à Johannesburg et dans d'autres coins du pays ? Comment faire face à ce phénomène ? 
H.N. : L'Afrique du Sud n'a pas été construite uniquement par des sud-africains. Dans une de ses chansons intitulée ‘stimela ‘, Hugh Masekela décrit un train qui emmenait les travailleurs des pays voisins vers l'Afrique du Sud. Ce sont ces travailleurs qui ont construit la cité de Johannesburg. J'ai l'impression que nous oublions souvent cela. La ville de Johannesburg est aujourd'hui ce qu'elle est grâce à la sueur de ces gens que nous nous permettons aujourd'hui d'appeler ‘makweri kweri ‘. Notre mouvement de libération a été construit grâce à l'apport des citoyens de la région. Albert Luthulu l'ancien président de l'ANC et Thomas Ngu qui fut secrétaire général de notre mouvement venaient du Zimbabwe. Quant à Clément Kadali qui fut le fondateur du syndicat de l'industrie, il était d'origine malawite. Parmi les co-fondateurs de notre mouvement, il y avait des gens du Zimbabwe et du Botswana. 
Aujourd'hui nous osons refuser aux citoyens de ces pays le droit d'entrer en Afrique du Sud, alors que nous avons le devoir de les protéger. Il nous ont aussi protégé quand nous étions en exil en Angola, au Zimbabwe, au Botswana, au Lesotho, en Tanzanie, au Mozambique. Ils nous ont accueilli non pas comme des réfugiés mais comme leurs enfants fuyant l'Apartheid. Il est temps pour nous de payer cette dette. 
Je soutiens pour ma part votre initiative car elle renforce l'appel du président Mbeki pour la Renaissance africaine et la paix. En venant en Afrique du Sud vous renforcez les organisations travaillant pour la paix. Et notre gouvernement a beaucoup de respect pour ces institutions.

  

GAKUNZI, David - 04.07.2000 
Organisme :  
Adresse :   

Entretien avec : NGIDI, M.H. 
Sources :  

MOTS CLES 
Mots clés DPH :        

   Fiche : 1

 Interview with Sédick Crombie (Mediation and Transformation Practice, South Africa) 

 DG : Tell me about MTP, the role of such an organization and the importance of training people in conflict resolution and participating in peace ? 
S.C. : Mediation and Transformation Practice, or the acronym MTP, has been doing this kind of work for the past three years. The two directors (Craig Arendse and Sédick Crombie) together with the consultants, have a wealth of experience in this field, easily 40 years. Our areas of expertise are conflict resolution, mediation and training. I think we can make a contribution because it was not so long ago that South Africa came from a system where we also resolved conflict by using force. We have learnt a lot and found that there are other methods of resolving conflict, and our national government is testimony to that. MTP would like to help other countries and communities, which experience similar situations we experienced. It is not to say that in South Africa there are no more conflicts, because the reason why MTP exist is because conflict still exist. We work with various communities, whom at times do not have the necessary skills. After Apartheid the disparity between those that had and those that did not were very big. In order for government to bring those that have been disadvantaged into the mainstream, they need this capacity building programs, training, etc_ to show those communities that have been neglected how to resolve conflict. So what MTP would like to do is to ensure that we share our expertise. I was saying to Lucas (Christian Council of Mozambique) this afternoon that we South Africans always tend to look westwards to Europe and America, but I think charity begins at home and we should start to look more to South Africa and Africa. We should make this a continent that we can all be proud of. This is what our president Thabo Mbeki calls the African Renaissance, for we need to find African solutions to African problems. We as MTP would like to see that we are a part of that (the African Renaissance). The Peace Caravan is actually the vehicle which physically goes through Africa to promote peace, so what better opportunity could MTP have of being part of this. MTP need to utilize the Caravan to meet all those countries, communities, etc. 
D.G. : What do you think is the importance of training people ? 
S.C. : Education and training are major factors which help to ensure that communities resolve conflicts. Without education people tend to make evaluations and have perspectives which are sometimes based on ignorance. This is unfortunately the situation in South Africa and maybe Africa. Only by training and educating people would we bring them in the mainstream, where they will ensure that peace is sustainable. If we don't do that people act on hearsay, on rumors and at the end of the day, they react to that and it always end up violently to the detriment of the country and community. 
D.G. : What are the main lessons that you have learned from your practice ? 
S.C. : People need to talk more about things that are relevant and affect their lives. South Africans can talk a good talk, we like to talk. In order to reach your objectives it is necessary to talk around those objectives, that it does not become a secret. Our government has realized that. Everything in South Africa is transparent. There is not a problem with secrecy as in the past. Some of our previous military installations have slowly scaled down and are allowing the public to have access to them, which is a major shift from the previous system. Transparency, then, is the other major thing that needs to be in our society and thinking. I have heard this week in Mozambique that people say they don't know what government is doing. This is sometimes also the case in South Africa where people say there is not enough transparency and only see representatives and politicians before elections. South Africa's system has changed so much that the politicians are accountable to their constituency which elected them. Communication is therefore another crucial element we need to take note of in Africa. 
D.G. : What can you tell us about the reconciliation process in South Africa ? How is it called a miracle and what is the secret of this success ? 
S.C. : The basic principle was once again to talk, about those things that needed to be talk about. With Nelson Mandela taking the lead in Africa and the Middle East we have taken the example. We sometimes need to talk about things that are sensitive and excruciating to talk about and address it. That is what South Africa has done with reconciliation, it will open up old wounds, mudslinging, yes_ You did this to us etc_ If you don't have this reconciliation you will always have the insecurity, that is, people are scared to talk because it could break the peace. In certain countries like Mozambique it could be a slower process, though South Africa's came at the right time. 
D.G. : Could you say what the success was of the South African process, and also some weaknesses ? 
S.C. : One of the major weaknesses was the calls made by certain groups for guarantees in negotiations. People tried to secure certain things for their specific communities and were not looking at the interest of South Africa as a whole. The nationalist regime (the Apartheid government) brought in certain guarantees for their constituency. The homelands (for black tribes) had a civil service which was ineffective and badly trained but were incorporated into the new civil service. This led to a lot of corruption which is still prevalent today. At the end of the day if you take the sum total of the South African process it should be regarded as a success. South Africa is thankful for where we are today, because the rest of the world wrote us of long ago, saying we will go through a civil war to resolve our differences.

  

GAKUNZI, David - 14.07.2000 
Organisme :  
Adresse :   

Entretien avec : CROMBIE, Sédick 
Sources :  
ENTRETIEN. 

MOTS CLES 
Mots clés DPH :        

 Interview with the Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius A. Ncube 

 Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, 19th of July 2000 
. By David Gakunzi and Sonia Ben Messaoud 
DG. : What do you think the role the churches should be playing in peace building in Africa ?  
AB. : I think that Africa has to go through a long process. When Africa was divided into 53 countries, this was done in Europe. For the sake of colonization, each country in Europe wanted to take position of a particular area. We were then governed by European powers, like France, Britain, Germany, Italy and so on. When we became independent, we decided to keep those borders, so as to avoid quarreling and fighting. Then the problem came. The problem here was tribalism. The big problem in Africa is tribes. These tribes sometimes take advantage of each other. The bigger tribe wants to take everything, the smaller tribe has nothing. This is a very big problem.  
I was reading a book on Rwanda, the Rwanda crisis is a history of tribalism. People were turned in militia, in camps and after that, a big campaign of hate was launched through radio and about 800 000 people was killed.  
So we haven't learnt to respect minority here in Africa. This is a very big problem. Somehow, we need to learn to respect small groups.  
You have also ruling classes problem. These ruling classes want to cling to power. They don't want to allow others to come in. You take Sudan, it is clear that there is an ethnic and racial problem. There is also a problem of religion. One religion wants to crush another religion and take all.  
Another problem that is causing a lot of sadness is governance. Our governments are not always working for the people. They are working to enrich themselves, to get rich and to get famous instead of uplifting the people. People afterwards become fed up. They say we voted you in, we expected to be helped, but we see we are thinking and becoming worse and worse. So this starts conflicts and sometimes civil war results, because of the unhappiness of the people.  
The people in Africa live also in poverty. There is so much poverty. The people are battling to survive and trying to see how they can get a better life.  
We just need to learn to respect each others as nations. There are some countries that are stronger economically and others that are weaker economically. So we need to come to that level to respect other nations. The big nations should not dominate the smaller nations or weaker nations.  
We as church, we have embarked on the Catholic church, what is called Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, and we analyze things that are injustice in society, economy inequalities, social problems, bad governance, corruption_ We analyze and criticize all this and ask the rulers to deal better with people.  
Even in Mozambique, the church succeeded in stopping the war which was very good. That war killed over a million people in Mozambique from independence time to about 5 years ago. Saint Eugedio community in Rome succeed in mediating for peace in Mozambique. 
We need these people who are good Samaritans. It is people like you who are going to bring peace. But we must have people who will listen. Some people are so fool of power. They want power, power, power. They will not listen to anybody. So this causes a lot of problems.  
We have the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and through it we try to tell the government what his role and what should be corrected. But also at an ecumenical level, the Zimbabwean Christian Council and others Christian body are working together with what they call justice, peace and reconciliation committee. By that way, also, they try and make efforts for peace. It is not an easy thing, but the best we can do is work quietly for peace gradually.  
Sometimes, peace can be brought with one man working very hard. It is a lot of work. You have to run to these people and run to those people and back and forth, and that can be very tiresome. Going back 20 years ago, there was a man that was very good at that, called Kissinger in America. He would go and talk to the Israelites, and then go over to the Palestinians, come back and go back. Sometimes it is tiresome, you feel like saying it is useless.  
Here in Zimbabwe, there used to be bad blood between ZANU and ZAPU. What the churches did through justice and peace with the ambassadors of other countries, was to bring them together, so they would talk. 
It took about thirteen time of efforts to bring them together and finally, they signed an agreement and there was peace. So there has to be people that I concerned about peace like you are.  
Secondly, being an ambassador, persuading both sides all the time until you get an agreement. So at a national level, we have what you call Commission for Justice and Peace. It is in many levels, it is in the parish, it is in the diocese and then at the national level, that's how we try to make efforts for peace. 
DG. : There is a question of culture of violence. People say that the cause of war in Africa is some kind of culture crises or values crises. How do you see and how do you think that problem should be addressed ? 
AB. : Generally, Africans like peace, they don't like fighting and running after each other. They like peace. Sometimes they are encouraged by bad leaders to fight. We have our president here, he is a very nice man when you talk to him, you think he is an angel. What goes on with him and his party ? We don't know.  
He got beaten in the referendum here. There was a vote against a Constitution, that was not for the good of the people. It was going to give him more power, but give the people no power. He has all the power and the rest no power. So they simply voted no, and he got a shock. He thought the elections are lost. He then organize youth all over the place to go and beat up people and burning and so on. It was so bad here in Matabeleland and any case, even if they did that, they will still lose. It was pretty bad in Mashonaland central. They were burning houses. I hope now he is not going to beat up people and burn homes there, because if he is doing such foolish things, we cannot say yes to such foolish things. We have to oppose it as church.  
The problem for us as church, is when you stick out your neck, they can chop your neck, but in the end they won't win anyway. I don't think it is a culture of violence, though there is a cultural crises. I think that is true.  
Africans are an extended family and that extended family is breaking down. The strongest thing with the African was the marriage, the father and mother. Now there is all this modernization and industrialization, what matters now is money. Money has became more important than parents. It is because of that sort of thing, that sort of mentality that some are using little soldiers that are 14 years old, like in Sierra Leone. That is absolutely immoral. What these leaders are doing? Killing little kids, so that they can get into power.  
It is a culture crisis. The African family that was there 50 years ago is no longer there, so things are collapsing. Yet, who teaches the young people, it is the adults. If the adults are giving good values to the youngsters, then the youngsters are going to follow these values. If the youngster are given bad values, they are going to follow that.  
Overall I think no one like quarreling and fighting. We all love peace at one time or another. If there is enough people that work for peace and we convince our leaders in Africa to work for peace, then we shall have peace. That is a very hard task. We are dealing with people running just after money and power.  
This thing about money and power is the biggest problem in Africa, and we are very excited about because we are a very poor continent and we will allow anyone to come and do anything with us as long as they have money. So too many influences come in from every direction, causes a cultural crisis. And this cultural crisis has got ruthless people and people who have got no roots. You have a child growing up who does not know who his father is.  
That is the stage that we are in Africa. And what do we expect will be the values the child have, if he is thought that what is important to be selfish. ‘What comes to me is mine and I don't care about you. You can go and die and I don't care. What matters is me’. It is ‘me generation’. Everything is ‘me, me’. That is what is destroying peace in Africa and in Zimbabwe too. We have to teach people about their rights. 
The usual way the churches call on people and say let's pray for peace and secondly, let us work and try and inform people. We teach people. One of the problem with our people is that they don't know their rights. The main thing is we need to teach people their human rights, they don't know their rights. The tradition in Africa, if I am a king, I am allowed to do anything. I can take your cattle away and you are my subject, there is nothing you can do. If I am the king, I can take your daughter away and marry her even if you don't want. What can you do? I am the king here. So we have these African concepts that the one that is in power has the right to do anything that he wants.  
So we have to teach our people gradually until they stand up, until our people realize that they have rights, and these rights are not given by the king, or by the president. The right is given by God who created each human beings. The president or the king or the prime minister cannot just do anything that he likes to do. That awareness besides prayer which is very, very important is education. We have to educate people to know their human rights.  
Peace is an educational process. We must train our young, the little children about peace. Adults must be train to respect other human being, to know that we are all equal. Some people think that they are superior by nature and they try to stamp on other people and this is a big problem. Sometimes tribes are big problems since they are many, others must do what they say even if it is bad. In South Africa, Buthelezi was throwing his weight around, because he knew the Zulu was the biggest tribe. He was jealous. As long as Mandela was in prison, he was quiet and as soon as Mandela was out, he said we are here, you cannot ignore us. I suppose it is a human nature.  
We have this tribal problem here also. If a job is advertised all the names of the people go to Harare. If it is a Ndebele speaking person from Matabeleland, he will not get that job. It must be someone who is Shona speaking who will get the job.  
There is a constant segregation and oppression by these who are powerful against those who are less powerful, and up and down Africa it is the same thing. People get frustrated and angry because this is passed on from generation to generation, 20, 30, 40 years and people are saying for how long is this going to go on. We have to fight to stop it. We need good Samaritans, apostles and ambassadors for peace that are going to teach people to respect one another. That small men must be respected and not only the big men.  
The best thing to do is to get these organizations fighting for peace together. These organizations are neutral, so they can mediate for peace. In Mozambique, Frelimo was in war with Renamo, there was no mediation, but they got Saint Eugedio community to come and mediate for peace, and that is the only way.  
With these kind of organization, we should come together and find ways to get peace. The problem sometimes on the church side, is that we, bishops, we are not united because some of us are afraid. They think that if I talk too much, I might be in jail or I will be killed. Sometimes we want to be careful and to avoid everything dangerous.

  

 - 19.07.2000 
Organisme :  
Adresse :   

Entretien avec : NCUBE, Pius A. 
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MOTS CLES 
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 Interview with the Bishop Sengulane 

 DG.: Thanks for accepting to answer our questions and giving your support to the Caravan. The first question is: what do you understand by peace, what is peace for Africa? 
BS.: Peace for Africa is like a seed. It is a treasure that has to be sowed and has to be watered and looked after and we know it is going to produce abundant fruit. Peace is wellbeing for everyone, it has to stay, it has to grow and it has to overflow. So you are being in Caravan over very precious wealth very precious treasure. 
DG.: What do you think would be the role of the church in a process of bringing peace to Africa? 
BS.: The churches are servants of the brink of peace and have no charge but work for peace. It is part of its mandate. It has to make sure that there is a permanent dialogue, a transforming dialogue between the different players in the society. When you have a dialogue, it means that you are not going to demonize anybody. There is nobody that is so stupid that has nothing to contribute to the wellbeing of others and there is no one who is all wise that does not need contribution from other people. So it is important to have a dialogue going on, whether there is a conflict or even beyond a conflict. Secondly is to make sure there is a spiritual dimension, you bring God into this whole process, because you know Africans are profoundly religious, whether they belong to Christianity, to Islam or whatever. They take their faith very seriously, in such a way that it is difficult to separate between sacred and secular. So do not neglect the spiritual dimension of our existence. 
Thirdly, you need to make sure that once an agreement had been reached thre is desarmement. Our continent has been deeply directed into thinking that guns are the answer to so many problems. The armament mentality has been very much institutionalized. We need to disarm people; we need to disarm the hands. Many people have guns in their offices, in their homes, in their factories. You need also to disarm their brains. There are many people that are convinced that they depend on the guns. The way they play, the way they provide toys for children, so we need to look into this area for disarmament. We have in Mozambique this project which is called ‘Turning souls into power shares’, in which we receive guns and we smash them and make them unusable, and in exchange we give people an instrument for production. We take the guns where it can be melted and made into an instrument of production or we give it to a sculpture, so he could do something with that for peace. And for the children, we take their tow guns in exchange for something, so it does not inspire violence. This is one way of disarming. Rather than desarming full stop, which is a negative word we are saying, we are turning your zeal for guns into your instruments for production.  
There is the area for social justice and economic justice. The church has to speak openly about economic justice, recognizing that God is a good mathematician. Before he creates human beings for a particular country, he puts into that country enough resources so that people can live with dignity. The only reason why in our continent there are people suffering of starvation today is bad distribution, either generated by selfishness by people or by ignorance. God has placed on our continent enough resources for all of us to live with dignity. I would like to end the contribution of the church by saying, the church recognizes that God is a wonderful creator of human beings therefore, the sanctity of life is absolutely crucial, the sanctity of all human life. Therefore, we have to say very boldly no one has the right to kill anybody. Going back to what I was saying about dialogue, if your political opponent does not agree with you, improve your argument, don't kill him, don't utter threats, just improve your arguments, no one should be killed. 
DG.: A last question of social values. Some say the wars in Africa are also the crises of values, what can be done? 
BS.: I agree entirely the moral dimension has been very much lacking, we have had a vacuum for many years, because unfortunately our politicians on one hand are politicians made their policies or ideologies to occupy the place of God, and we the man and woman of faith were not bold enough to see the centrality of God in all of this. What we need to do is to bring the alternatives that the gospel provides, to speak very openly of the centrality, of the moral values, and recognize that there is a kind of illiteracy as far as moral values are concerned in some societies. We should not take for granted that people know. We need to go back and say the ABC's of human values are the ones that have a spiritual dimension, a strong spiritual dimension. The African is taking seriously the values from a divine position. We need to see ourselves and be seen with this man and woman of faith. To be seen in theirs and not our souls or interfere but who intervene with the legitimate role and relevant role to play and we pray very much for all this works that's being done. We need to bring prayer as a point to start a point to continue and a point to finish.

 - 14.07.2000 
Organisme :  
Adresse :   

Entretien avec : SENGULANE, bishop 
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