By Jutta Wolf Courtesy IDN-InDepth NewsInterview
BERLIN/OXFORD (IDN) - Pambazuka News, symbolizing "the awakening on a new era in which the people of Africa will once again assert their determination to control their own destiny", is proudly celebrating its tenth anniversary, looking forward to new initiatives that may contribute to the sustainability of the project -- in times that are littered with multiple hurdles for the media.
"The ten years have been characterised by the growth and spread of Pambazuka News well beyond our imagination," says Firoze Manji, editor-in-chief of the prize-winning pan-African social justice newsletter and website Pambazuka News (www.pambazuka.org), produced by a pan-African community of more than 2500 citizens and organisations -- academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators, with a readership estimated at around 660,000.
Manji, who is also founder and editor-in-chief of Pambazuka Press, the progressive pan-African publisher of voices from Africa and the global south, is a Kenyan activist with more than 40 years experience in international development, health and human rights. He is founder and former executive director (1997-2010) of Fahamu -- Networks for Social Justice, a pan African organisation with bases in Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and Britain.
Following are excerpts from an E-Mail interview IDN-InDepthNews conducted with Firoze Manji during his stay in Oxford (Britain). Manji is Visiting Fellow in International Human Rights at Kellogg College, University of Oxford.
IDN: Who pioneered the idea of Pambuzuka? What motivated them?
Firoze Manji: The idea of Pambazuka News came out of surveys in 1998 that Fahamu carried out of some 120 organisations in eight African countries in which we looked at the training and information needs of human rights and activist organisations. It became clear that while many had email addresses, access to the internet via the worldwide web was slow, frustrating and expensive in most African countries.
There was an appeal from a number of organisations wanting help in obtaining up-to-date information from the internet as well as a demand for help with disseminating information about their own work. We began by doing regular online searches on specific topics and compiling short summaries for these organisations.
But rather than just disseminate information, we thought it would be good to provoke reflections and discussion on critical issues concerning the continent. We saw this an opportunity to use the internet to contribute to the building of a progressive pan-African movement that could challenge those who sought to exploit the continent, its people and its resources, both internationally and locally.
Pambazuka News itself was born in December 2000, initially with an uneasy alliance of other organisations, but political differences soon manifested themselves, leaving Fahamu the task of both raising the resources and managing the e-newsletter. It was only four years later that we established a website. Until then, it was merely an e-newsletter.
IDN: What does the word Fahamu signify?
FM: The word Fahamu means 'understanding' or 'consciousness' in Kiswahili. Fahamu has a vision of the world where people organise to emancipate themselves from all forms of oppression, recognise their social responsibilities, respect each other's differences, and realise their full potential.
The word Pambazuka means 'awaken' or the dawn. Pambazuka News is the awakening on a new era in which the people of Africa will once again assert their determination to control their own destiny.
IDN: Have the ten years been characterized more by success rather than hurdles in achieving your objectives? What would you describe your best achievement?
FM: The ten years have been characterised by the growth and spread of Pambazuka News well beyond our imagination. Today we have . . . over 26,000 and more than 600,000 unique visitors to the website. There are more than 70,000 news items and articles on the website. We have more than 2,500 authors who contribute to Pambazuka News, and we publish every week some 20-30 articles, and some 100 or so links to other websites that carry relevant content.
In ten years we have published 500 issues of the English edition. And more recently we began publishing French and Portuguese language editions. The enthusiasm of the Pambazuka News community has been extraordinary, and it grows constantly.
I think one of the key reasons for our success has been that we have put Pambazuka News at the service of social movements and others bringing about change. Perhaps the best example of this was the support provided by Pambazuka News to the pan-African coalition Solidarity for African Women's Rights (SOAWR - www.soawr.org) who campaigned for the ratification and implementation of the African Union (AU) Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.
Pambazuka News contributed effectively to a campaign that led to more than 25 countries ratifying the Protocol and for the Protocol coming into force. Similarly, we have provided a platform for shackdweller movements, LBGTI groups, women farmers struggling to ensure sustainable agricultural production and biodiversity against the attempts of the international agribusiness attempts to take control of their lives.
IDN: Do your funders leave you a free hand?
FM: We have a very small number of funders -- most of whom are supportive and provide us with the flexibility and creativity that is needed to support social movements.
IDN: Any figure of total revenues? What's the ratio between grants/donations and sales revenues?
FM: Currently we raise about £160,000 a year in grants, about £60,000 from the sale of books, and a smaller amount from donations. Other funds come occasionally in the form of project grants for special initiatives. We are implementing a plan to expand our book publishing programme -- Pambazuka Press (www.pambazukapress.org) -- and other initiatives that will contribute to the sustainability of the Pambazuka project.
IDN: What's the strength of your working journalists? How many employed? How many freelancers?
FM: The vast majority of our articles come from 2,500 writers, academics, bloggers, activists, organisations and movements. In that sense, Pambazuka News is probably the most well established, yet completely unacknowledged, example of citizen journalism -- and the newsletter came into being well before that jargon passed into common usage. Yet it is more than just a site for citizen journalism. Our staff writes only a limited number of articles. The English edition of Pambazuka News is produced by the equivalent of 2.5 full-time equivalent, the French by one full-time equivalent, and the Portuguese edition by 0.5 staff. We simply don't have the funds to employ more staff, nor are we able to pay our contributors.
Note: Firoze Manji has previously worked as Africa Programme Director for Amnesty International; Chief Executive of the Aga Khan Foundation (UK); and Regional Representative for Health Sciences in Eastern and Southern Africa for the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC). He is a former Managing Director of TWIN and TWIN Trading, and served on the Board of TWIN for two years.
He has published widely on health, social policy, human rights and political sciences, and authored a wide range of books on social justice in Africa, including on women’s rights, trade and on China’s role in Africa. He was a member of the editorial board of 'Development in Practice', a founding member of the steering group on the campaign for the ratification of the protocol on the rights of women in Africa (Solidarity for African Women’s Rights), and is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy, Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is Visiting Fellow in International Human Rights at Kellogg College, University of Oxford. He holds a PhD and MSc from the University of London, and a BDS from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. (IDN-InDepthNews/25.10.2010)
