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1.	Liberté de la presse : l’année 2008 en chiffres; Press Freedom Round-up 2008
	Author: various	Date Written: 30 December 2008
	Primary Category: Africa General	Document Origin: Reporters Sans Frontieres
	Secondary Category: -none-	Source URL: http://www.rsf.org
	Key Words: iberté de la presse, press freedom, 2008,
	Summary & Comment: Un mauvais climat, mais de meilleurs chiffres ; la répression se déplace sur Internet. Better figures despite a hostile climate and more Internet repression.
2.	La France et l’Afrique francophone: des relations de dépendance
	Author: Darnace Torou	Date Written: 20 December 2008
	Primary Category: Africa General	Document Origin: AfricaFiles
	Secondary Category: Western Region	Source URL: http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=19700
	Key Words: La France, l’Afrique, francophone, relations, dépendance,
	Summary & Comment: "La politique française en Afrique est toujours composée des trois éléments : linguistique et culturel, géostratégique et économique. Ce sont les outils utilisés pour l’exploitation continue des terres africaines." DT Voir la version anglaise : www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=19633
3.	Archbishop Mokiwa new President of the All Africa Conference of Churches
	Author: Press Release, Nairobi	Date Written: 17 December 2008
	Primary Category: Africa General	Document Origin: All Africa Conference of Churches
	Secondary Category: Interfaith Relations	Source URL: http://www.aacc-ceta.org
	Key Words: AACC, Mokiwa,
	Summary & Comment: The 9th General Assembly of the All Africa Conference of Churches in Maputo, Mozambique 7-12 December, 2008 elected Anglican Archbishop Valentine Mokiwa as the new President of the AACCs. The Rev. Dr. André Karamaga is the new AACC General Secretary. DN
4.	Malaria vaccine could be licenced in 2011
	Author: Sola Ogundipe	Date Written: 16 December 2008
	Primary Category: Africa General	Document Origin: Vanguard (Lagos)
	Secondary Category: Health and AIDS	Source URL: http://www.vanguardngr.com/
	Key Words: Africa, health, malaria, vaccine, biotechnology
	Summary & Comment: There is a chance that a vaccine will be licenced as early as 2011 for use against malaria, the number one killer disease in Africa. The vaccine could reduce the incidence of the disease by 50% in children, and is expected to work effectively alongside standard infant vaccines of WHO’s Expansion Programme of Immunization. There is hope in the air. . . . [expand]
5.	News from AEFJN; Nouvelles d’AEFJN
	Author: AEFJN No 29, Brussels	Date Written: 15 December 2008
	Primary Category: Africa General	Document Origin: AEFJN International Secretariat
	Secondary Category: -none-	Source URL: http://aefjn@aefjn.org
	Key Words: News, Nouvelles, AEFJN,
	Summary & Comment: With this last issue of AEFJN News for 2008, may your plans for greater justice, peace and solidarity in Africa and Europe be fulfilled in the coming year. Avec ce dernier n° des Nouvelles d’AEFJN pour 2008, je vous souhaite de pouvoir réaliser vos projets pour plus de justice, de paix et de solidarité en Afrique et en Europe durant l’année nouvell . . . [expand]
6.	France and Francophone Africa
	Author: Darnace Torou	Date Written: 13 December 2008
	Primary Category: Africa General	Document Origin: Africafiles
	Secondary Category: Western Region	Source URL: http://www.africafiles.org/
	Key Words: Africa, Francophone, France, history, neo-colonialism, natural resources, military
	Summary & Comment: Through these keen insights from inside La Francophonie, Torou, an experienced former Chadian diplomat at the UN, and current pedagogue in Toronto, gives an overview of how French methods of domination and control changed at independence time in the early 60's, and continue in more subtle ways up to today. Headings are: 1. Historical backgroun . . . [expand]
7.	African March for dignity : As African Social Forum opens in Niamey
	Author: Suleiman Mustapha , J.Lyndon Ponnie	Date Written: 27 November 2008
	Primary Category: Africa General	Document Origin: Flamme d’Afrique
	Secondary Category: Economic Justice	Source URL: http://flamme.panos-ao.org
	Key Words: Niger, World Social Forum, globalization, subsidies,
	Summary & Comment: The African Social Forum, modelled on World Social Forum, opened Nov 25th in Niamaye, Niger. Anti-globalization was a main theme along with Pan Africanism. There were some initial problems in organzing a huge crowd, especially re translation into English (see second article here) JK.

News from Additional Sources

Pambazuka News :Pan-African Postcard

1. Ghana's electoral run-off
   With Ghana witnessing elections broadly heralded as free and fair, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem considers the country’s enduring two-party political system. Arguing that John Kufuor’s outgoing administration simply owed its electoral success to a fortuitous set of circumstances, the author delves into the country’s post-colonial history and considers the persistence of the Danquah-Busia/Nkrumahist divide in contemporary politics.
2. Education for self-effacement in Kenya
   Considering the ultimate limitations of instructing Kenya’s children in ‘civilised’ acts like eating a banana with a knife and fork at the expense of an education true to the nation’s history, Wangui Kimari wonders whether the current educational system simply upholds students’ self-effacement.
3. Liberation from ‘liberators’?: Uganda and the NRM
   Though applauding the success of this year’s record-breaking Stand Up action on global poverty, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem wonders whether revitalising the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will simply amount to lining the pockets of a few individual African recipients in positions of power. Taking up the example of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) in Uganda, the author situates such latent misappropriation of resources within a broader problem of one-time liberation leaders lingering in power. Once a genuine force for changing the system, Yoweri Museveni’s NRM, Abdul-Raheem argues, have now become the system.
4. Regrets
   J. Douglas Allen-Taylor reflects on the just concluded US presidential election and Barrack Obama’s victory. He ponders the historical significance of an African-American being elected to the White House. Through the lens of his forebears’ experiences as African-Americans and their views of the changing political landscape in the country, he underlines the fact that Obama’s election cannot escape the enduring effects of racial discrimination and segregation on the psyche of the American people.
5. Noisy western diplomats should learn to shut up sometimes
   In this week’s postcard Tajudeen takes issue with what he calls ‘noisy western diplomats’ and their tendency to speak out injudiciously against the misdeeds of African governments. In the same vein, he deplores African envoys for their silence in the face of misrule and injustice on the part of host governments. He calls on African diplomats to stand true to the shared values on human rights, protection of the weak and vulnerable respect for the dignity of Africans, and not to abdicate this role to western diplomats.