SIGN PETITION: US Aid to Ethiopia Supports Forced Relocations for Land Grabs
By ACAS | February 2012
The ACAS Task Force on Land Grabs urges you to sign a petition to President Obama and USAID administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah to stop your tax money financing land grabs, forced removals of pastoralist peoples, and “cultural transformation” in Ethiopia. Go to the petition (click on “Petition” tab to see text). This initiative is from […]
Keywords: Ethiopia • land grab
News of ACAS at 2011 ASA meeting
By ACAS | October 2011
Thursday, November 17 at 9:00 pm is the scheduled time for the 2011 ACAS annual meeting, in the Jefferson Room at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel (2660 Woodley Road, NW) in Washington, D.C. in , at the African Studies Association annual meeting. All interested scholars are welcome.
Demand an end to the violence against teachers and students in Haiti
By ACAS | October 2010
We the undersigned are responding to a call for international solidarity sent out by the executive committee of a coalition of education organizations in Haiti after the police killing of a protesting teacher, and signed on Oct. 11, 2010, by the coordinators of the coalition François Mario, CNEH (teachers’ union), Eugène Jean, UPEPH (parents’ organization), and Josué Mérilien, UNNOH (teachers’ union). We stand in solidarity with teachers, students, and parents in Port-au-Prince who are organizing for schooling for Haitian children abandoned by the education system, and for decent living and working conditions for teachers and students. We demand an end to the systematic violence against them.
Call for Papers: “Africa for Sale”: Analysing and Theorizing Foreign Land Claims and Acquisitions
By ACAS | May 2010
While foreign land acquisitions in Africa are no recent phenomenon, the last several decades have witnessed an unprecedented level of large-scale land acquisitions all over the continent; millions of hectares of land in Africa are increasingly claimed by and leased out to transnational entities, government businesses, multinational corporations, and international organisations. Sometimes referred to as “neo-colonialism” due to their resemblance to colonial land exploits, these acquisitions have been largely driven by a global “scramble” for food security and access to natural resources.
US Foreign Aid Bill: $8 billion “shall” go to GMO research
By ACAS | April 2010
The “Global Food Security” bill is back. After its introduction in the Senate a year ago, Bill Gates and Bill Clinton have been quietly pressing for this piece of legislation that aims to fight global hunger with one hand while orchestrating a giant taxpayer subsidy to pesticide and ag biotech companies with the other. The bill, also known as the Lugar-Casey Act — for Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Robert Casey (D-PA) — would refocus aid programs on agricultural development, with a caveat: public funding of genetically engineered (GE) seeds is what this bill means by “agricultural development.”
Bill Sutherland, Pan African Pacifist, 1918-2010
By ACAS | January 2010
Bill Sutherland, unofficial ambassador between the peoples of Africa and the Americas for over fifty years, died peacefully on the evening of January 2, 2010. He was 91. A life-long pacifist and liberation advocate, Sutherland became involved in civil rights and anti-war activities as a youthful member of the Student Christian Movement in the 1930s.
Keywords: Bill Sutherland
Dennis Vincent Brutus, 1924-2009
By ACAS | December 2009
World-renowned political organizer and one of Africa’s most celebrated poets, Dennis Brutus, died early on December 26 in Cape Town, in his sleep, aged 85. Even in his last days, Brutus was fully engaged, advocating social protest against those responsible for climate change, and promoting reparations to black South Africans from corporations that benefited from apartheid. He was a leading plaintiff in the Alien Tort Claims Act case against major firms that is now making progress in the US court system.
Keywords: Dennis Brutus • South Africa
Jennifer Davis awarded OR Tambo order by South Africa
By ACAS | December 2009
Jennifer Davis, Executive Director of Africa Action’s predecessor organizations is set to receive one of South Africa’s highest honors, the Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo.
Keywords: Africa Action • Jennifer Davis
Zimbabwe: Healing, Reconciliation and Reconstruction (Symposium)
By ACAS | October 2009
The Africa Initiative and Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University are pleased to announce a two-day symposium on October 29 and 30, on the theme of healing, reconciliation and reconstruction in Zimbabwe. This meeting brings together key figures from Africa and the United States to deliberate on the question of Zimbabwe’s future, the role of healing in socio-political reconstruction, and the role of democratic institutions and an informed citizenry in a peace process that goes beyond partisan proclivities.
Call for Nominations Bud Day Award: Due October 1
By ACAS | September 2009
Each year, in memory of Warren Bud Day, ACAS honors activist scholarship on Africa with the Bud Day Award. The call for nominations is now open. ACAS asks its current members to submit names and brief bios to Frank Holmquist ([email protected]), the award committee chair. The 2009 award will be presented during the ACAS and African Studies Association meetings scheduled for November 19-22, 2009 in New Orleans.
