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Role
of theatre in SADC
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The book takes a historical
perspective of the role of performing arts in southern African. The
different papers highlight theatre as one of the instruments of
resistance against foreign domination and preservation of African cultural
identity and the efforts to fight off the ideological incursions by
colonial masters in their attempt to influence culture by domination.
The book also looks into the challenges facing the
performing arts in SADC countries. In the introduction, Matusse points
to three obstacles that presently hamper the development of theatre:
lack of training opportunities, funding and infrastructure.
This book provides an invaluable insight into the
situation of the performing arts sector in the region and constitutes a
rare collection of descriptive papers on the role played by theatre in
the different historical periods in SADC.
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Past, Roles and Development of Thea-tre Arts in SADC is
published by the Culture,
Information and Sport Sector. Review
by Antonio Gumende, SARDC.
Can performing arts contribute to
national development in SADC and play a role in regional integration?
A difficult question that a just-released book entitled Past, Roles
and Development of Theatre Artsin SADC seeks to provide an answer
for.
The book represents the first incursion by the
Maputo-based SADC Sector on Culture, Information and Sports to profile
the views of the players in the area of performing arts in the
region.
The book is published in two versions, English and
Portuguese, and was edited by Dr Renato Matusse, the co-ordinator of
the sector. It comes in the wake of the first SADC Arts Festival held
in Maputo in 1997, a memorable celebration of the region’s culture
that was at-tended by more than 500 participants. |
The book is a collection of
commisioned papers written by contributors from the 12 countries that
comprised the regional grouping at the time that Mozambique hosted the
festival.
The 12 papers from academics, art and culture
administrators, playwrights and performers highlight the rich cultural
diversity, profile experiences in the region and "capture the
peculiarities and commonalities of theatre arts in the region" as
well as the challenges they face.
The book is in two parts. It opens with a
collection of speeches delivered during the festival including the
keynote address by President Joaquim Chissano. In his address opening
the festival, Chissano stressed that "cultural expressions
provide occasions for the reinforcement of the identity... of each
nation in the region, which we are building and
consolidating." |
Disparity
in Mozambique's main regions |
Mozambique
National Human Development Report
1999, published
by the UNDP, SARDC
Maputo and the Eduardo Mondlane
University in English and Portuguese.
Review by Renato Pinto.
The
celebrations of the 25 th an-niversary of national independence and
the recent publication of the Mozambique National Human
Development Report 1999 have led Mozambicans to debate their
recent history and face future challenges.
Although Mozambicans agree
that the independence was beneficial to the country, it is believed that along its
process there were some aspects, which have had a negative impact on the
people and the country itself. In fact, President Joaquim Chissano on his
commemorative discourse of the 25 th Anniversary of Mozambique’s Independence
on |
25
June was solemn rather than exultant in tone, detailing the challenges ahead
rather than spelling out the achievements of the past 25 years.
Focusing on Economic
Growth and Human Development: Progress, Obstacles and Challenges,
the
national report reveals that despite their challenges, Mozambicans have succeeded in many
ways. For instance they have succeeded in rebuilding the country after the
appalling independence and civil wars, as well as growing their Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) to an average annual growth rate of 11 per cent between 1996
and 1998.
The report assesses the obstacles that have hindered human development
in Mozambique. It shows that despite |
the
economic growth observed during the last five years, the human
development was slow, reducing its deprivations in only five percent. Over 60 percent of
the Mozambicans, out of an estimated total of 16,99 million people, is currently
living in conditions of absolute poverty.
The main feature of the report, however, lies on the methodology used which
disaggregates the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by province and by
the three major regions of Mozambique, namely North, Centre and South.
This methodology has also pointed out regional discrepancies. In 1998
Mozambique’s GDP was about US$3.9 billion, to which the Northern region
contributed 21 percent, the Central region 31 percent and the Southern region 48
percent. Maputo City alone contributes around 35 percent of Mozambique’s total
GDP |
Situation
of women in southern Africa |
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Beyond Inequalities: Women in Southern Africa is
published by SARDC’s Women in Development Southern Africa
Awareness (WIDSAA) programme and its national partners.
(Review by Diana Mavunduse, SARDC).
Beyond Inequalities: Women in Southern Africa gives a
comprehensive overview of the status of women in 12 of the 14 member
countries of SADC (DR Congo and Seychelles are not yet included),
providing a regional overview and exposing the obstacles to
development at the national and regional levels.
In her foreword to the book, Ambassador Gertrude
Mongella of Tanzania, who was Secretary-General of the Fourth World
Women Conference in Beijing, |
says that the book has provided the region with an
important information tool, which gives a regional perspective of the
status of women in SADC.
This book answers the call from the Beijing
Declaration and the Platform for Action which mandated governments,
the donor community and NGOs to generate and disseminate gender
disaggregated data for planning and evaluation in recognition of the
critical role that accurate, accessible information contributes to
policy-making.
The regional book, which has 13 chapters, looks at
the situation of women in all the 12 critical areas of concern
identified in the global Platform for Action, reviewing issues such as
participation of women in the economic, social, |
political and decision-making spheres, violence
against women and violation of their human rights.
It reviews the situation of women with
disabilities, the girl child, the health and education status of women
as well as their access to information, and coverage by media.
The book highlights a number of important
developments within SADC including the commitment at the highest level
– the Gender and Development Declaration of 1997 and the Addendum on
Prevention and Eradication of Violence Against Woment and Children of
1998 – and the institutionalization of gender in SADC structures. |
The
Zambezi basin most shared in SADC |
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State Of The Environment Zambezi Basin
2000, with a separate summary in English and Portuguese, is
published by the SADC Environment and Land Management
Sector (ELMS), SADC Water Sector Coordination Unit (WSCU),
the World Conservation Union Regional Office for southern
Africa (IUCN-ROSA), the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA)
and SARDC with support from the Swedish International
Devel-opment Agency (SIDA)
This book marks
the first time that an assessment of a single ecosystem has been
undertaken and reported upon in SADC.
While state-of-the-environment reporting in SADC is
relatively new, |
the traditional approach has been to focus on
national boundaries.
The State of the Environment Zambezi Basin 200, to
be launched at the time of the SADC summit in Windhoek, Na-mibia
August, seeks to increase public awareness through the provision of
in-formation, education and participation onenvironment and
development issues in southern Africa. It is also aimed at expanding
regional integration and global cooperation on environmental and
nat-ural resources management.
In his foreword to the report, Mozambican President
and SADC Chair-man, Joachim Chissano says that the preparation of this
report is in line with the SADC |
Policy and Strategy for Environment and Sustainable
Development whose aim is to strengthen the analytical,
decision-making, legal, institutional and technological capacities for
achieving sustainable development.
The Zambezi river basin is the most shared in SADC
and is utilised differently by people living along it. Eight riparian
countries share the Zambezi.
These are Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique,
Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The book shows that
sustainable use and equitable ac-cess to resources can significantly
con-tribute towards poverty alleviation in SADC. |
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Recent
Publications and acqusitions |
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Act Against Child Soldiers in Africa: a Reader
—Bennett, Elizabeth; Gamba, Virginia and van der Merwe, Deirdre.-
2000
Available from: ISS PO Box 1787, Brookklyn Square 0075, Pretoria, SA
Angola Unravels: The Rise and Fall of the Lusaka Peace Process
—Human Rights Watch.- 1999
Available from: Human Rights Watch, 350 Fifth Avenue, New York
10118-3299
or http://www.hrw.org
Angola: From Socialism to Liberal Reforms
—Kaure, Alexactus T.- 1999
Available from: SAPES Books, PO Box MP111, Mount Pleasant, Harare,
Zimbabwe
Canadian Development Report 1999: Civil
Society and Global Change
—Rooy, Alison Van.- 1999
Available from: The North-South Institute, 55 Murray Street, Suite
200, Ottawa, Canada K1N 5M3 www.nsi-ins.ca |
Democracy, Culture and Tradition: On the
Problem of Pre-colonial Rule in the African Debate on Democracy
—Erdmann, Gero.- 2000
Available from: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation, PO Box 4325,
Harare, Zimbabwe
The Effect of Crime and Violence on the Delivery
of Rights and the Creation of Human Rights Culture
—Human Rights Committee.- 2000
Available from: The Human Rights Committee of South Africa, PO Box
32723, Braamfontein, South Africa
Human Development Report 2000
—United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).- 2000
Available from: UNDP PO Box 4775 Harare, Zimbabwe
Human Development Report 1999 Zimbabwe
—United Nations Programme (Zimbabwe).-2000
Available from: UNDP
Monitoring the Process of Regional Integration
in SADC
—Peters-Berries, Christian and Michael, T Marx (eds).- 1999
Available from: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation |
Poverty in Zimbabwe Chapter 1 of the March
1999 Study: The Contribution of German Development Co-operation
Towards "Poverty Reduction in Zimbabwe"
—Fiedler-Conradi, Sabine.- 1999
Available from: German Technical Co-operation, PO Box 2406, Harare,
Zimbabwe
Reporting Elections in Southern Africa: A
Media Handbook
—Chirambo, Kondwani and McCullum, Hugh.- 2000
Available from: SARDC-Sustainable Democracy Programme PO Box 5960,
Harare, Zimbabwe or University of Namibia Department of Information
and Communication Studies P Bag 13301 Windhoek, Namibia
The State of the World’s Children 2000
—United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).- 2000
Available from: UNICEF, 3 United Nations Plaza, New York NY 10017, USA
Social and Economic Rights
—Human Rights Committee (HRC).-1999 October
Available from: HRC |
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