CULTURA ANGOLANA

Material produzido pelo amigo António Cascais.

Para ler, clique aqui.

Para ouvir, clique aqui.

NA ÁFRICA DO SUL, O RACISMO CONTINUA

Reportagem do Telegraph.

Para assistir, clique aqui.

MANUEL VICENTE E KOPELIPA A CONTAS COM A JUSTIÇA

Texto do Rafael Marques de Morais:


http://makaangola.org/2012/01/manuel-vicente-e-kopelipa-a-contas-com-a-justica/

Kabila declared winner of DR Congo poll - Africa - Al Jazeera English

Kabila declared winner of DR Congo poll - Africa - Al Jazeera English

PROTESTOS EM ANGOLA

reprodução do site Democracy in Africa.

PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTS IN ANGOLA

In recent weeks Angola has been rocked by protests against the MPLA government that have been violently suppressed. Here we provide a summary of recent events based on news stories, eye-witness reports, and blog entries.

Saturday 3 December saw the latest in a succession of youth demonstrations in the Angolan capital, Luanda, which since the start of the year have highlighted poverty and called for President José Eduardo dos Santos to step down after 32 years in office. Saturday’s demonstration began in Cazenga, a neighbourhood that forms part of the expanse of slum housing that is home to most of Luanda’s five million or so residents. The organisers had obtained permits for the march.

A participant in the march wrote on a blog (http://centralangola7311.net/) that at 9 am, when just a small group of demonstrators had assembled in Cazenga, they were attacked by plain-clothes thugs known as “kaenches”, who seized demonstrators’ placards as uniformed police looked on. The march set off around 1 pm and was blocked by a police cordon, but the marchers managed to get around this. They were stopped again at a better-organised cordon some 100 metres further on.

Video taken during the march shows people calling for “health and education” and chanting “Dos Santos, thief, the people don’t want you”. During the stand-off with the police, demonstrators shouted “the police belong to the people, not to the MPLA”, and “the police are hungry, Dos Santos has already eaten”.

At this point, according to the blog, a vehicle, a Toyota Prado, drove into the crowd of demonstrators from behind, knocking over and injuring one man. Demonstrators retaliated by attacking a police car that was behind the Prado, and broke the drivers’ side window. The demonstrators then negotiated with the police and showed them the letter of permission they obtained. The police were unable to produce any written instructions to negate the legality of the march. During this impasse, more “kaenches” started to assemble behind the police lines.

“When their moment came, they acted in a concerted manner: some sprayed the demonstrators’ eyes with a homemade liquid to cause burning and temporary blindness, while others grabbed the demonstrator and laid into him with punches and kicks, one again under the unconcerned eyes of the police,” the blog reports.

According to a witness, the six people leading the march, Carbono Casimiro, Brigadeiro Mata Frakus, Sampaio Liberdade, Libertador, Luamba, Adolfo Pedro, were singled out for beating. They were also sprayed in the face with a substance that caused dizziness and fainting. They were taken to hospital, and returned an hour later. At least three people were seen bleeding as a result of having been beaten by the police.

According to the blog: “Panic set in, and the demonstrators began to stampede, throwing stones and bottles at the attackers. We split up into small groups and went to regroup at Largo de Independência” – a square on the edge of the city centre. The blogger also reports that another group of marchers, who gathered in the São Paulo neighbourhood on the other side of the city centre, also came under attack, and a disabled man was thrown out of his wheelchair.

When a much-reduced number of demonstrators arrived at Largo de Independência, they again came under attack from police.

Four journalists were taken to the Operations Unit of the National Police in Luanda. The Voice of America Portuguese Service named them as Rafael Marques (independent journalist, researcher and blogger), Isabel João and António Paulo (from the paper Novo Jornal), and Coque Mukuta (from Rádio Despertar – the radio station run by the opposition party UNITA). They were later released on the orders of the provincial commander of police. Lisa Rimli, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, was among those sprayed with the noxious substance in the face and eyes.

Pictures and video along with the full eyewitness account in Portuguese can be seen at http://centralangola7311.net/

Before the start of 2011 demonstrations were almost unknown in Angola unless they were rallies organised by the ruling MPLA or the “National Spontaneous Movement”, controlled by the presidency. Despite being aware of profound social inequalities and massive corruption at the top of government, Angolans say the lack of protest action is due partly the political repression of the one-party era, and partly to a fear of violence and disruption borne out of the experience of war.

This year’s wave of defiance has been driven by young people, too young to have clear memories of wartime. It first became visible at a concert in February, when the rapper known as Brigadeiro Mata Frakus – who has remained a central figure in the protest movement – called on Dos Santos to step down. Police intervened to stop a demonstration in March before it got off the ground. Subsequent demonstrations in May, September, October and now December have drawn crowds numbering in the hundreds. Police have not hesitated to arrest and in some cases to beat demonstrators. A group detained without charge in September were eventually released on the orders of the Supreme Court in October.

The protests have aired a number of grievances, including poverty, inequality, lack of social services, and housing demolitions, but the consistent message has been that it is time for Dos Santos to resign.

Horn of Africa Crisis: Drought Zone - Fault Lines - Al Jazeera English

Horn of Africa Crisis: Drought Zone - Fault Lines - Al Jazeera English

POLÍCIA ATACA MANIFESTANTES ANTI-GOVERNO EM LUANDA

Sempre é tempo para publicar notícias relevantes, como a da Agência Lusa sobre a violenta repressão da polícia angolana a manifestantes contrários ao governo.

Manifestação em Luanda marcada por incidentes com a polícia

Dezenas de jovens começaram a manifestar-se ao princípio da tarde junto à Praça da Independência, em Luanda, Angola, numa ação que provocou uma resposta musculada da polícia, com recurso a cães e agentes a cavalo.

A ação policial está a ser reforçada por civis que se aproximam dos manifestantes, auxiliando a polícia para tentar impedir o avanço da manifestação.

Iuri Mendes, ligado à organização da manifestação de hoje, disse à Lusa que “foram feitas detenções”, embora desconheça o seu número exato, acrescentando que haverá pelo menos três feridos.

Mendes contesta a atuação da polícia, que “desrespeita o direito de manifestação consagrado na Constituição angolana”: “Em vez de proteger, [a polícia] desrespeita os direitos humanos.”

A agência Lusa tentou obter um comentário dos oficiais da polícia presentes no local, que se escusaram a prestar declarações, alegando estar em curso a operação de controlo da manifestação.

Antes da carga policial os manifestantes gritavam “a polícia é do povo, não é do MPLA” (partido no poder).

Entre os manifestantes está o “rapper” Brigadeiro Mata Frakuz, que já participou em protestos anteriores.

Um dos feridos é um jovem chamado Adolfo, que tinha sido detido numa manifestação a 03 de setembro.

Antes do início da manifestação, Sampaio Liberdade, do Movimento Revolucionário Estudantil, dissera à Lusa esperar duas a três mil pessoas no protesto de hoje.

O movimento de jovens já promoveu desde o início do ano cinco manifestações de contestação ao regime do Presidente angolano, José Eduardo dos Santos, com participações que têm rondado as 500 pessoas.

A 03 de setembro uma manifestação organizada pelo movimento de jovens terminou com a detenção de 21 manifestantes, 18 dos quais foram julgados e condenados a penas de prisão entre um mês e 90 dias, por ofensas corporais à polícia e danos materiais.

Sampaio Liberdade garantiu que as manifestações são pacíficas e que têm vindo a fazer um trabalho de "consciencialização" dos participantes para que "tudo seja feito" para "evitar a violência".

Na organização da manifestação, participam além do Movimento Revolucionário Estudantil, mais amplo, dois movimentos de jovens de caráter local.

EL (CFF)

Para ler no original, clique aqui.

200.000

O diário alcançou os 200.000 acessos há poucos dias.

Há pouco mais de um ano eu havia anunciado o fim do blog.

A saída da África deixava a proposta do diário sem sentido.

Apenas reproduzir reportagens sobre o continente me parecia sem sentido, mas foi o que acabou acontecendo no último ano.

Não resisti.

Era como se eu estivesse intoxicado pelo continente e precisasse de um tempo para (re)descobrir coisas novas.

Postei aqui algumas notícias que achei interessantes e, algumas poucas vezes, escrevi um ou outro post com algo que ainda estava inédito e que por uma razão ou outra acabei não escrevendo em seu devido tempo.

O motivo deste post é para avisar que o Diário da África continuará na blogosfera.

Não direi, mais uma vez, que é o fim, mas uma espécie de hibernação.

As coisas mudam.

O mais importante é que o conteúdo continuará disponível para quem quiser conhecer e/ou relembrar as aventuras dos dois anos vividos em África.

O fato de o diário ter recebido 200.000 visitas em quase três anos de existência me surpreendeu.

Principalmente pelo fato de não estar ligado a nenhum veículo de comunicação.

O blog foi uma evolução dos e-mails que eu mandava para os amigos e a família no Brasil.

O objetivo era contar o cotidiano num novo continente.

As descobertas, os deslumbramentos, o choque cultural.

Vivemos tudo isso e nos encantamos a cada dia.

Aos poucos, foi recebendo mais e mais visitas.

Agradeço a todos os que frequentaram as páginas do diário.

Que os escritos tenham servido de alguma inspiração e despertado o interesse pela África.

Até breve!

CENSURA CIBERNÉTICA

The 10 Tools of Online Oppressors

Digital censorship threatens press freedom, new report shows

New York, May 2, 2011—As journalists increasingly use social media to report breaking news and the number of people with Internet access explodes worldwide, governments are employing sophisticated new tactics to suppress information, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, issued today to mark World Press Freedom Day.

CPJ’s assessment of the 10 prevailing strategies for online oppression and the leading countries utilizing such tactics shows that traditional mechanisms of repression have evolved into pervasive digital censorship. The tools utilized include state-supported email designed to take over journalists’ personal computers in China, the shutting down of anti-censorship technology in Iran, monopolistic control of the Net in Ethiopia, as well as synchronized cyber-attacks in Belarus.

“These techniques go well beyond Web censorship,” said Danny O’Brien, CPJ Internet Advocacy Coordinator and author of the report. “The Internet is being used to spy on writers and sabotage independent news sites where press freedom is most threatened. The aim is not only to censor but to block or disrupt the reporting process and the dissemination of news and information.”

The digital offensive is often coupled with physical intimidation of online journalists. In 2010, CPJ research shows that 69 journalists whose work appeared primarily online were jailed as of December 1, constituting nearly half of all those in prison.

“These sophisticated, often invisible, attacks constitute a new front in the fight for press freedom,” said O’Brien. “Bypassing censorship is important but basic protection of source data and identities should take priority as well. Combined, these digital attacks undermine our universal right to seek information.”

Informação do Comittee to Protect Journalists.

UMA CANÇÃO PARA DÍLI