Category: MIL OSI

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Helga Dickow, Senior Researcher at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institut, Freiburg Germany, University of Freiburg

Chad held parliamentary elections in late December 2024. The final results released on 21 January 2025 gave the well-established former ruling party, the Movement Patriotique du Salut (MPS), 124 seats out of 188.

The election marked the end of a four-year transition in Chad following the death of former president Idriss Déby Itno in March 2021. Déby had ruled Chad since 1991. Mahamat Déby Itno assumed power on the death of his father.

The result has meant that Mahamat Déby has given himself a degree of legitimacy as president through elections. He can comfortably remain in power for at least another five or even ten years.

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Read more: Chad’s election outcome already seems set: 4 things Mahamat Déby has done to stay in power

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I have been following Chad’s politics from inside and outside the country for more than 15 years. In my view, Mahamat Déby’s actions during the transition, with the help of the transitional authorities and his late father’s old teams, were aimed at keeping him in power. The December 2024 parliamentary elections were a formality. The poll was not won on polling day. It was clear from the run-up that, as was the case with the May 2024 presidential elections, every effort was being made to minimise the success of the opposition.

Four factors stand out. They are the composition of the electoral authorities, lack of an up-to-date electoral register, violence against dissenting voices, and high costs of participation in the election.

In my view Chadians’ trust in the democratic process has ceased completely. This bodes ill for a country that ranks as one of the poorest. It is also one of the most corrupt. The consolidation of Mahamat Déby’s power could widen the social divide and lead to violent conflict between different groups in Chad, which is highly stratified along ethnic and religious lines.

Dissatisfaction with his decades of autocratic rule characterised Idriss Déby’s reign. Political-military movements challenged him regularly, and the last attack led to his death.

This dissatisfaction will continue and could once again lead to violent conflicts.

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Read more: Chad: promises of a new chapter fade as junta strengthens its hold ahead of elections

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Corruption of the process

Mahamat Déby and the Movement Patriotique du Salut took a number of steps to secure victory in the election.

Firstly, the presidents of the electoral authority ANGE (Agence Nationale de Gestion des Élections) and of the constitutional court nominated by Mahamat Déby were responsible for organising and for validating elections (and will continue to be responsible until 2031). Having been loyal to Idriss Déby and now to his son, they cannot be trusted to be objective and independent in their pronouncements and final decisions.

Secondly, the electoral register was last updated in August 2024. Therefore, young people who had just turned 18 could not vote. In Chad, the majority of the population is under 25. Young people in particular in the south support the opposition.

Thirdly, the transitional regime’s violent crackdown on opposing voices played a role in the final outcome of the election.

The transition was initially characterised by peace talks with the political-military movements and by expanding the security sector to secure its rule. In October 2022, several hundred mainly young people were killed by security forces while demonstrating against the extension of the transition and Mahamat Déby’s candidacy for presidency.

In the intervening period the state took various steps against opposition figures.

In February 2024 Yaya Dillo, a cousin of Mahamat Deby and a potential rival in the presidential elections, was shot dead by security forces.

In May 2024, Mahamat Déby was elected president. In December 2024 he took on the title of marshal – previously held only by his father.

The opposition was also hampered in participating in the poll for financial reasons. Taking part in the elections is expensive. Each candidate in the parliamentary election had to pay 500,000 CFA (US$785) to the treasury. Candidates for the provincial election paid 200,000 CFA (US$314). In poverty-stricken Chad, without regular funding for political parties, it was particularly difficult for smaller parties to meet these criteria.

The situation was different for the ruling party, founded by Idriss Déby. For decades it has benefited from state resources. It is the only party with a nationwide presence. Other parties are mainly active in the regions of their founders.

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Read more: Chad’s Mahamat Deby doubles down on authoritarian rule in wake of election victory

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Resistance

Opposition parties called for a boycott. The Groupe de Concertation des Acteurs Politiques, a coalition of nine parties, criticised the new electoral law and the lack of transparency of the count at the polling stations.

Succès Masra, leader of Les Transformateurs, a former prime minister who came second in the 2024 presidential elections, also called for a boycott. He accused the government of falsifying the results of the parliamentary election beforehand and of having the final lists saved in a computer. His party did not participate in the poll.

The results of the parliamentary elections presented on 11 January 2025 by Ahmed Barticheret, president of the electoral commission, and confirmed by the constitutional court on 21 January, therefore revealed no surprises.

Alongside the huge victory of the Movement Patriotique du Salut, two other parties not really in opposition won 12 and 7 seats respectively. The other successful parties won just one seat each. Chad has over 300 political parties, of which 38 are represented in the new parliament.

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Read more: Chad presidential election: assassination of main opposition figure casts doubt on country’s return to democracy

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Consequences

Movement Patriotique du Salut has an overwhelming majority in parliament. This means that there are no checks and balances. Like his father, Mahamat Déby can continue to rule without any parliamentary control.

He is already used to that. Since 2021, he has appointed members of the transitional parliament by presidential decree. The few voices of individual members of parliament belonging to the “real” opposition have no influence.

As the low turnout – put at 40% on election day – shows, the majority of voters did not expect the election result to change the political situation. On the other hand, supporters of the ruling party continue to benefit from proximity to power and state resources.

As dissatisfaction continues, the possibility of renewed attacks by dissidents cannot be ruled out. If it is not a military attack, frustrated individuals might try to target the presidency or other symbols of the regime.

In early January 2025 a group of unidentified young people reportedly attacked the presidency. The incident was played down by the government spokesman, leaving plenty of room for speculation.

But it was a reminder that a peaceful future is not assured.

– Chad’s parliamentary election hands Mahamat Déby absolute control. Here’s why it’s dangerous
– https://theconversation.com/chads-parliamentary-election-hands-mahamat-deby-absolute-control-heres-why-its-dangerous-248342

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Awino Okech, Professor of Feminist and Security Studies, SOAS, University of London

Gender-based violence is a major challenge in Kenya, which has recorded a significant rise in deaths of women and girls in recent years.

In January 2024, a coalition of organisations across the east African nation organised multi-city public marches to call for government action against these deaths. A year later, President William Ruto established a 42-member taskforce to address gender-based violence. What is its potential to lead to real change for women and girls? Feminist and security studies professor Awino Okech explores the issue.

What do you make of the Kenyan government’s response to gender-based violence?

Language matters, in my view, so it is important to focus the attention on femicide, which is what triggered recent public conversation in Kenya and is the primary issue at hand.

Femicide is the specific act of men killing women because they are women. Gender-based violence focuses on the gender power relations that create conditions for violence. This does not always result in loss of life. Gender-based violence includes men killed by other men because of their sexuality, widows disenfranchised by property laws, female genital mutilation and forced marriage.

Unlike in the past, Kenya has seen increasing reports of women being murdered. The country doesn’t have a proper data management system for such incidences. Nevertheless, the numbers recorded by organisations such as Femicide Count show the scale of the problem. In 2023 it recorded 152 femicides based on cases reported in the media. Africa Uncensored, an investigative journalism media house, estimates that 500 women were killed between 2017 and 2024. Kenya’s law enforcement agencies recorded 97 cases of femicide between September and November 2024. Globally, UN Women reported that in 2023 alone, one woman was killed every 10 minutes in intimate partner and family-related murders.

What is the likelihood of the presidential working group’s success?

First, at face value, any public action taken by a government to illustrate that it is listening to its citizens is an important first step.

Second, the fact that it is called a “technical working group on gender-based violence” illustrates the potential it has to lose focus on the issue that catalysed its creation – femicide.

Third, there is a history in Kenya of setting up task forces with financial resources largely directed at remunerating members and conducting “consultations”, only to tell the country what was already known. Consultations are critical for legitimacy and a base for action. But there are more expedient ways to do this work.

This includes analysing existing reports, statements and recommendations offered by women’s rights organisation over the decades, including a 2024 statement on ending femicide. An insistence on a large task force in the light of the government’s austerity drive only raises questions about where limited resources should be directed.

Finally, I am concerned that some of the leading voices on femicide in the last 10 years are missing from this task force. It is the activism of the coalition of actors organising under EndFemicideKE that recentred the conversation on femicide with some of the organisations leading urgent response work in their communities. The task force must not ignore this expertise.

What steps should Kenya be taking to address femicide?

1. Invest in programmes that emphasise positive masculinities. This means raising a generation of men whose idea of manhood is not based on hatred of or violence against women. This work is an important counter measure to the growing “manosphere” in Kenya. The manosphere refers to websites, blogs and online forums focused on promoting misogyny and opposition to feminism. These online spaces have grown globally and are viewed as central to grooming men to commit femicide.

2. Increase resources to programmes aimed at women who are at risk of violence. The signs of violence predate the act of violence and murder. Providing resources to create safe physical and online spaces – such as hotlines for women to get the support they need to secure their lives, or effective investigative services – is key. Central to this action is the role of the police service in taking seriously and investigating any claims of potential threats of violence. People need to feel safe going to the police to report threats of harm and have trust in their capacity to deliver justice. This action requires trust building between communities and the police service.

3. Deal with the structural causes of femicide. At the heart of this targeted violence against women are the underlying patriarchal assumptions about how women should act relative to men in society. We cannot ignore the importance of building people’s consciousness about the deep biases they have been socialised to believe in. This work must be led by community champions who value the sanctity of human life.

What needs to be done to hold institutions accountable?

First, the relevant state institutions, such as public hospitals and clinics, the police and judiciary, need money and people with the right skills, so they can intervene in the root causes and symptoms of gender-based violence.

Second, Kenya needs to create a national database on femicide. This would indicate where and how to deploy resources.

Third, there needs to be an annual and public report on the state of gender-based violence that tracks where money has gone, and shows the relationship between actions and outcomes. An initial increase in cases might not indicate failure but rather heightened awareness. With the right interventions, numbers should drop over time.

Fourth, build trust between citizens and state institutions. In December 2024, a peaceful march in Nairobi held during the global 16 days of activism against gender-based violence campaign was teargassed by police. This happened two weeks after the Kenyan president publicly committed to addressing femicide.

The right to peaceful protest is enshrined in Kenya’s constitution. When the police respond with violence to peaceful women protesters talking about the murder of women, how can citizens trust officers’ ability to take dead women seriously?

– Femicide in Kenya: William Ruto has set up a task force – feminist scholar explains its flaws
– https://theconversation.com/femicide-in-kenya-william-ruto-has-set-up-a-task-force-feminist-scholar-explains-its-flaws-248313

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Research Associate, University of Oxford

South African poetry, rich with history, has long been an underappreciated cornerstone of the country’s cultural landscape. But a new free-to-access digital archive is helping change that.

Focused on the poets published by a small but important press in a town called Makhanda in the Eastern Cape province, the Deep South Books and Archive initiative seeks to elevate their voices by offering an archive of background information about their work and lives as well as extensive excerpts from their books. It’s a rare window into a vital but overlooked tradition of South African literature.

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Read more: Podcasts bring southern Africa’s liberation struggle to life – thanks to an innovative new audio archive

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Robert Berold, after spending a decade as editor for New Coin journal, set up Deep South in 1995. For decades he has had a quiet influence on the South African poetry scene. His impulse to publish emerged from a place of need and outrage that some of the talented young black poets he was publishing in New Coin couldn’t get their books published in the new, democratic South Africa.

Many of these poets had been using their words to fight for freedom, while a new generation of young poets was emerging with democracy. Ever since, Deep South has been an important arena where South African poets and their poems could speak to one another.

My work on African literary production shows the importance of small presses in creating local literary ecologies.

For Berold, the mission was always:

To publish what was considered to be innovative and risk-taking South African poetry, regardless of market limitations.

His many endeavours as a publisher, editor and teacher have been linked by the effort to rescue from oblivion, to supply context, to indicate points of continuity while insisting on the diversity of the South African experience.

After 30 years of publishing, Berold is now sharing a vast catalogue and archive that would otherwise remain unknown. Even though the African Poetry Digital Portal, hosted by the University of Nebraska in the US, was created as a resource for the study of the history of African poetry from antiquity to the present, it does not give direct reference to particular communities.

In bringing this archive to the internet, Berold is revealing the process and method of how contemporary South African poetry has been shaped into being.

Behind the poems

Much of the archive material is what Berold accumulated in dealing with the poets – correspondence, manuscripts, reviews. This is also physically deposited at the Amazwi South African Museum of Literature. He explains:

I got into correspondence with everyone who sent in poems, trying to give helpful criticism, recommending poets for them to read. There was a certain inappropriateness about this at times, and some arrogance too on my part, but mostly people appreciated the feedback.

The “difficult miracle of Black poetry”, as US poet June Jordan once remarked, is that it persists, published or not, loved or unloved. In racially segregated South Africa during apartheid, publishing spaces were few and far between.

Black poets were often censored, banned or exiled as their work confronted the injustices of a racist system. This digital archive recasts the story of South African poetry as insurgent, independent and driven to define a distinct aesthetic.

Deep South has, furthermore, made a particular impression by fostering a unique aesthetic in South African poetry through its investments in typography and design. As a small, independent press situated away from culture capitals – Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg – it has had the freedom to experiment.

Deep South Books and Archive is therefore a significant tribute to the persistence of South African poetry, despite many historical and structural inequalities. It is a catalogue and a digital archive that provides a unique entry point into modern South African poetry.

Inside the archive

The digital archive’s architecture is simple. The poets are indexed in alphabetical order. Some of the featured names are Vonani Bila, Mangaliso Buzani, Angifi Dladla, Mzwandile Matiwana, Isabella Motadinyane, Seitlhamo Motsapi, Khulile Nxumalo, Mxolisi Nyezwa, Lesego Rampolokeng, Mxolisi Dolla Sapeta, Dimakatso Sedite and Phillip Zhuwao.

Clicking through the carousel of finely designed book covers leads one to excerpts, book reviews, interviews available as PDF files, as well as links to other multimedia resources.

Rampolokeng’s work may be iconoclastic, experimental, unclassifiable but he found a home with this press. He has published several of his groundbreaking collections with them. Defying category, they bend and shift, and culminate into a remarkable linguistic virtuoso. His interviews are an extension of his art, reflexive, autobiographical, and works in themselves.

Unrecognised poets

Then there are poets like Motadinyane and Zhuwao who died far too early, leaving behind only single collections. Luckily, even if their portraits and writings are fragmentary, we’re at least witness to the poetic geniuses that might have been. This is the superpower of this archive, to serve as a memorial for a canon (or collection of literary texts) that wasn’t even close to being fully blossomed.

Historically, canon construction is the work of the few, foremost among them academics who edit anthologies and design syllabuses. Most of these poets do not feature in scholarly journals. As a result they almost exist in the underground, unremarked. Berold, now in his 70s and approaching retirement, has decided to do something about that with a digital archive that surfaces the voices of lesser-known poets.

The lack of recognition for these poets is bothersome for him:

Why nobody in academe has registered the importance of these poets is beyond me. It really makes me wonder whether these professional literary people are able to read.

This is mostly an indictment of systems that undervalue black expression.

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Read more: How women’s untold histories shaped South Africa’s national poet

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This project may be for preservation, but there is another lesson: African literature demands constant acts of recovery. In this case, the internet serves as a kind of rear view mirror, which allows us a backward glance at poets and their works that have been overlooked or underappreciated, forgotten or misunderstood.

– South African poetry has a new digital archive – what’s behind the project
– https://theconversation.com/south-african-poetry-has-a-new-digital-archive-whats-behind-the-project-247599