Africa United:
not hopeless, not helpless
Failed by development, weakened by corruption and conflict: Chris Brazier explains why African countries' response is to stand together.

Pipedreams and prophecies
A poem with a twist - and art by Mohamed Bushara.

Mwalimu, Mandela and the
long road to peace
Conflict continues in Sierra Leone and Congo, but in war-torn Burundi, a Pan-African peace initiative is breaking new ground. Ikaweba Bunting tells the inside story.

The colours of our future
Is Pan-African unity possible? Assorted views from prominent figures on the continent and in the diaspora, with art by François Thango.

AFRICA - THE FACTS

Impact of angels
Western aid workers may come with good intentions but their all-pervasive presence is damaging Africa, argues Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem.

The heartbreak
Of all AIDS deaths in the world so far, 84 per cent have been in Africa. Since the rest of the world does not seem to care, Africa must fight its own corner, says Ferial Haffajee.

Simply... a history of Pan-Africanism
From slavery to Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah to the Organization of African Unity.

A beautiful balding
A short story by Sindiwe Magona.

Future imperfect
Uniting Africa will not be easy - and may yet be hijacked by the globalizers. Yao Graham demands that ordinary people have a chance to play their part.

It is exactly 100 years since the first ever Pan-African Conference was held in London. That is one justification for this issue but a more important one is that all over Africa people are now talking about the need for an African Union. Though at a time when the only African events reported tend to be disasters, those of you reading this in the West could be forgiven for not knowing that African governments have already committed themselves to a common market, single currency and all-African parliament somewhat along the lines of the European Union.

This time around, there will be more of you reading this issue of New Internationalist in Africa. This is because it is being published as a joint issue with African Agenda, magazine of the campaigning organization Third World Network Africa, based in Accra, Ghana.

The ideas and the history in this issue will be a lot more familiar to African readers than to people in the West. That says a lot about the one-way North-South flow of information - and about the crying need for this kind of collaboration.

Chris Brazier for the New Internationalist Co-operative chrisb@newint.org

Yao Graham for African Agenda and TWN Africa twn@ghana.com