Letters Readers’ views of peace and stability. Indeed, I believe that now is also the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of the protracted and fratricidal war between Sudan and South Sudan, to the path of dialogue and diplomacy.

There would be nothing so satisfying to the spirit or so defining of our African character, than ensuring lasting stability for our continent to prosper. Adopting this as our guiding principle, we will be able to transform the discordant strains of conflict in our continent into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and unity.

itata Claude Buea, Cameroon

ICC articles compelling I write to congratulate the New African team for publishing a compelling series of articles on the activities of the International Criminal Court in the March issue. I have yet to see extensive reporting in other international news magazines and believe the world media to be largely unquestioning and uncritical of this institution. It is clear that the ICC has a track record of selective and politically driven prosecutions and lacks a sufficient measure of accountability and transparency – serious transgressions of international norms that the ICC has seen fit to condemn in others.

One wonders when this lavishly funded Leviathan will turn its attention inward and take action to investigate itself ! I hope New African will continue to update its readership on the important issues raised.

lison Holmes Penang, Malaysia

ICC articles compelling Akua Djanie confuses culture and rights in her “Call me Aunty” article in New African’s May issue. She writes that “the Western world is so obsessed with children’s rights, it forgets their negative effects”. I read the article with interest looking for a nexus between the rights of children and any such negative effects. I found none. Instead the writer draws on cultural differences between her native Ghana and the UK to justify a ridiculous assertion.

The rights of children such as education, protection from abuse, the right to play and the others which she has com-

Ghana Special Report Thabo Mbeki: Is Africa there for the taking? South Africa: Stabbing the messenger Nigeria: ‘We don’t want to be another Greece’

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46th Year March 2012 • N ° 515 Thebestsellingpan-Africanmagazine

International Criminal Court

The ICC debate is still burning: what’s your view?

the cause of youth problems, does not augur well.

But, I love your magazine. Keep up the good work. If possible, please do an article on Thomas Sankara. Not much has been written of this great son of Africa – and if there is, I can't seem to find it in Nairobi!

amuel Njoroge Njeri

Nairobi, Kenya

Africa

ICC vs Africa The scales of injustice

9 7 7 0 1 4 2 9 3 4 0 4 4 0 3

• Euro Zone € 4.50 • UK £3.00 • USA $4.95 • Algeria DA 300 • Angola 700 Kwanza (AOA) • Australia A$ 7.50 • Bahrain BD 2.00 • Canada $6.50 • CFA Zone CFA 2.500 • Cyprus 3.85 • Denmark DKr 35 • Egypt E£ 20 • Ethiopia R 50 • Gambia Da 100 • Ghana GH¢ 5.00 • Indonesia R35,000 • Jamaica $350 • Jordan JD 3.500 • Kenya KShs 300 • Kuwait KD 1.500 • Lebanon LL 7500.00 • Malaysia RM 15.90 • Mauritius MR 150 • Morocco Dh 30 • Nigeria N 500 • Norway NOK 59 • Oman OR2.00 • Qatar QR 20 • Rwanda RWF 3000 • Saudi Arabia Rls 20 Sierra Leone LE 15000 • Singapore $7,50 • South Africa R29.95 (inc. tax) • Other Southern African Countries R 26.30 (excl. tax) • Sweden SKr 33 • Switzerland SFr 8.70 • Tanzania TShs 5,400 • Tunisia TD 3500 • Turkey 10.00YTL • UAE Dh 20 • Uganda USh 8,700 • Zambia K 16000

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mendably availed to her children – but which many other children in Africa and the world have no access to – has nothing to do with a boy calling her by her first name.

Her article is also rather condescending to the UK. We do not like it when a foreigner talks negatively about our culture – former French president Sarkozy’s inflammatory speech in Dakar being a case in point. So what right do we have to question the West and its culture and values? If they wish to be friends with their children, to treat them as their age-mates, that is their own palaver.

I believe that the friendship they speak of is what Akua – sorry, Aunty Akua – calls an open relationship when it comes to her own sons. Akua tries to absolve herself by stating that she is an ordinary African woman. But she is not. The ordinary African woman does not have a voice that is heard internationally. A page or two in a magazine that is read on almost all of the world’s continents requires that she is responsible with what she writes. For thousands of child workers, girls suffering from genital mutilation, boys being beaten by fathers, a statement made without basis, that state intervention is

We are African-Americans I am an African-American man who has been blessed to spend nearly half my working life in Africa. Let me state unequivocally that, no matter what we choose to call or think of ourselves as, we are African-Americans! There is no doubt from the history of our existence that this is a fact. In my case, being born and raised in California is simply an accident of history. My parental roots are from Arkansas and Georgia, and before that, somewhere in Africa. The many so-called slave castles that dot the West African coastline likely hold the key that might unlock the door revealing more specific places of my ancestral beginnings.

To emphasise the point, people like me can call themselves whatever they want. Freedom of speech and thought are worthy values we should always cherish and embrace. But none should blindly assume that we are a people with a nasty, brutish and short history that only began in the cotton fields, sugar cane farms, or plantation houses of Alabama or Antigua. No! We were forced passengers on nicely named ships that bound us like chattels and brought us to new lands – which by sheer dint of will and grace of the Almighty, we have made our homes.

Be proud, but if not proud at least be aware of who you are. You are all AfricanAmericans.

Ken McGhee Takordi, Ghana

Correction South Africa, not yet an ACBF member. Our attention has been drawn to the fact that South Africa is not yet a member of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) as stated in our report on the ACBF’s 2012 Africa Capacity Index Report (NA, May, pp. 58-61). South Africa, we have learned, has expressed interest in becoming a member soon, but has not yet joined. The error is regretted – Editor.

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