Reading by Firoze Manji: Tribute to Amilcar Cabral and Ken Saro Wiwa, Monday, 12 May 2014, 18h00, August-Bebel-Institute

On Monday, 12 May 2014 at 18h00 (!), AfricAvenir invites you to August Bebel Institute (Gallery) for an exceptional reading by former pambazuka founder and editor Firoze Manji who will read from the two new books he recently edited: In "Claim no Easy Victories – The Legacy of Amilcar Cabral" numerous thinkers reflect on Amilcar Cabral, one of the most important and influential revolutionaries and independence theorists of the past decades. "Silence Would Be Treason – The Last Writing by Ken Saro Wiwa" features letters and poems world-reknowned writer, poet and environmental activist Ken Saro Wiwa. Two important and fascinating books! Entrance is free.nVenue: August Bebel Institut
Müllerstr. 163
13353 Berlin
030-4692 121/122
S/U Wedding (Ringbahn, U6, Bus 120)
Eintritt freinFiroze Manji
Firoze Manji, is a Kenyan and is Head of CODESRIA’s Documentation and Information Centre. He was the founder and former editor-in-chief of Pambazuka News (www.pambazuka.org) and Pambazuka Press / Fahamu Books (www.pambazukapress.org) (2000-2012), and founder and former executive director (1997-2010) of Fahamu – Networks for Social Justice (www.fahamu.org). He has previously worked as Africa Programme Director for Amnesty International; Chief Executive of the Aga Khan Foundation (UK); Regional Representative for Health Sciences in Eastern and Southern Africa for the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC); and research scientist at Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and is Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford; an Associate Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies (http://www.ips-dc.org); a member of the Council of Advisors of The Rules (www.therules.org); and Board member of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (www.iatp.org).

He holds a PhD and MSc from the University of London, and BDS from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.nThe mentioned books can be bought and signed by Firoze Manji directly on the evening or ordered through AfricAvenir in Berlin via email at gro.rinevacirfa@ofni, Tel.:  +49 (0)30-26934764 and Fax: +49 (0)3212–1258815.nClaim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amílcar Cabral. Edited by Firoze Manji & Bill Fletcher Jr. Dakar, CODESRIA and DARAJA Press, 2013, 518 p., ISBN-13: 978-2869785557 ISBN-10: 2869785550

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS: 
Senai Abraha • Makungu M. Akinyela • Kali Akuno • Samir Amin • David Austin • Ajamu Baraka • Jesse Benjamin • Angela Davis • Demba Moussa Dembélé • Jacques Depelchin • Mustafah Dhada • Jean-Pierre Diouf • Miguel de Barros •Aziz Fall • Grant Farred • Bill Fletcher Jr • Mireille Fanon-Mendès France • Hashim Gibril • Nigel C. Gibson • Patricia Godinho Gomes • Lewis Gordon • Adrian Harewood • Augusta Henriques • Wangui Kimari • Redy Wilson Lima • Ameth Lo • Richard A. Lobban, Jr • Filomeno Lopes • Brandon Lundy • Firoze Manji • Perry Mars • Bill Minter • Explo Nani-Kofi • Barney Pityana • Maria Poblet • Reiland Rabaka • Asha Rodney • Patricia Rodney • Carlos Schwarz • Helmi Sharawy • Olúfémi Táíwò • Walter Turner • Stephanie Urdang • Chris Webb • Nigel Westmaas • Amrit Wilson

2013 marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Amilcar Cabral, revolutionary, poet, liberation philosopher, and leader of the independence movement of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. Cabral’s influence stretched well beyond the shores of West Africa. He had a profound influence on the pan-Africanist movement and the black liberation movement in the US. In this unique collection of essays contemporary thinkers from across Africa and
internationally commemorate the anniversary of Cabral’s assassination. nThey reflect on the legacy of this extraordinary individual and his relevance to contemporary struggles for selfdetermination and emancipation. His well-known phrase “Claim no easy victories” resonates today no less than it did during his lifetime. The volume comprises sections on Cabral’s legacy; reflections on the relevance of his ideas; Cabral and the emancipation of women; Cabral and the pan-Africanists; culture and education; and Cabral’s contribution to African American struggles. A selected bibliography provides an overview of Cabral’s writings and of writings about Cabral.nSilence Would Be Treason: Last Writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa
Ken Saro-Wiwa
Trim. Ken Saro-Wiwa. size: 6.0″ x 9.0″ – Trade Paperback
Page Count: 194; 
ISBN: 2869785577
ISBN-13: 9782869785571


A unique collection of the last writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa that reveals the indomitable mind and spirit of the legendary campaigner for justice in the last months before his execution. The letters and poems collected here are the last writings of a man on trial for his life. They were smuggled out of military detention in food baskets. Nigerian author and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, facing 
execution by the military regime on trumped-up charges, corresponded extensively with Irish nun and solidarity worker Majella McCarron during the last 18 months of his life. Clear and direct, these letters and poems are the last expression of a voice the regime was determined to silence: a voice for indigenous rights, environmental survival and democracy, many of those battles were won despite his death and whose voice comes alive today again in these extraordinary letters. Saro-Wiwa was a leading figure in the world of Nigerian and African letters, as novelist, playwright, non-fiction writer, author of children’s books and television writer. He was also a major figure in Nigerian politics, when his support for the autonomy of his own, indigenous Ogoni people led to his removal from office. Following this Saro-Wiwa threw himself into business to provide the financial basis for the movement which from 1990 
took the shape of MOSOP, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. MOSOP raised not only the issue of indigenous autonomy but also that of environmental survival in the face of massive oil and gas extraction in the Niger Delta and the associated oil leaks, gas flaring and other environmental crises threatening traditional livelihoods in the area. This was a direct challenge to those who benefited from the situation: the oil and gas multinationals and the Nigerian military government.

Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian writer, television producer, environmental activist, and winner of the Right Livelihood Award and the Goldman Environmental Prize, was President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), and led a nonviolent campaign against the environmental degradation of land and waters by the operations of the multinational petroleum industry, especially Royal Dutch Shell. He was an outspoken critic of the Nigerian military government. His execution on 10 November 1995 by the Abacha regime provoked international outrage and resulted in Nigeria’s suspension from the Commonwealth for over three years.