The Missionary Position: NGOs and development in Africa

Firoze Manji will be participating in the upcoming thinking africa colloquium.  Sally Matthews recently interviewed Manji about his work and the role of NGOs in bringing about social justice in Africa.

Firoze Manji has recently joined ThoughtWorks as the Director of the Pan-Africanism Institute. Before joining ThoughtWorks, he was the Head of Documentation, Information and Communications Centre, of the Council for Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA ). He is also the founder and former editor-in-chief of the prize-winning pan African social justice newsletter and website Pambazuka News and Pambazuka Press/Fahamu Books, and founder and former executive director of Fahamu – Networks for Social Justice, a pan African organisation with bases in Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and the UK (www.fahamu.org). He has published widely on health, social policy, human rights and political sciences, and pan-Africanism and has authored and edited a wide range of books on social justice in Africa, including on women’s rights, trade justice, on China’s role in Africa and on the recent uprisings in Africa. 

Critics of NGOs: Do NGOs create dependency?

Injairu Kulundu will be participating in our upcoming Thinking Africa Colloquium. Sally Matthews recently interviewed Injairu about her work and the role of NGOs in bring about social justice in South Africa. This is part two of two parts of the interview, the first part can be found her Thinking Africa blog

Injairu Kulundu is a creative practitioner, a politics, drama and arts-based enquirer, a social learning researcher and a singer/songwriter. She has worked with the Tantyi Youth Empowerment Programme, Arkwork Collective and the Environmental Learning Research Centre at Rhodes University. More recently Injairu had extended her praxis as part of the ACTIVATE! Change Drivers team.

The key general challenges facing NGOs working in South Africa today

Injairu Kulundu will be participating in our upcoming Thinking Africa Colliquim. Sally Matthews recently interviewed Injairu about her work and the role of NGOs in bring about social justice in South Africa. This is part one of two parts of the interview.

Injairu Kulundu is a creative practitioner, a politics, drama and arts-based enquirer, a social learning researcher and a singer/songwriter. She has worked with the Tantyi Youth Empowerment Programme, Arkwork Collective and the Environmental Learning Research Centre at Rhodes University. More recently Injairu had extended her praxis as part of the ACTIVATE! Change Drivers team. 

NGOs and Social Movements

Umama- Gladys Mpepho, ngusihlalo wombutho obizwa ngeUnemployed People’s Movement (UPM), enye yemibutho eqhanqalazo eRhini/Grahamstown, eMpuma Koloni. UThembani Onceya, kwintsuku ezidlulileyo ebebambe udliwano ndlebe noMaMpepho malunga nendima edlalwa yimibutho yokuhlala (NGOs) ekuziseni umthetho eMzantsi Afrika.

Ungatsalela iUPM yaseRhini/Grahamstown kwezinkcukacha 0466222318 okanye uthande icandelo labo ku- facebook.

Click here for the English version.

NGOs and Accountability.

Ashley Westaway will be participating in the upcoming Thinking Africa colloquium.  Sally Matthews interviewed him recently about the role of NGOs in Grahamstown and more generally.

Ashley Westaway is the manager of GADRA Education, a Grahamstown based public benefit organisation which provides key education services and advocates for transformation of the school education system. One of its key projects, which is discussed below, is the GADRA matric school which provides matric students with an opportunity to rewrite their matric in order to pass (if they failed the first time) or to improve their results. Ashley is also a research associate of the Environmental Learning Research Centre at Rhodes University. He has written on land reform, rural development and rural politics with a particular focus on the Eastern Cape. He used to work for the Border Rural Committee (BRC).

'If you want to know what NGOs are all about follow the money and you will know':NGOs and Social Movements

Ayanda Kota will be participating in our upcoming Thinking Africa colloquium. He is also involved in the organisation of a workshop on NGOs and Social Movements which will take place on the 26^th of September 2014. Sally Matthews interviewed him recently about UPM, social movements and NGOs.

Ayanda Kota is a member of the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM) in Grahamstown and President of Makana Football Association. He is a campaigner for social justice whose roots can be traced in the Black Consciousness movement. He is also a community development worker for the organisation Masifunde Education and Development Project Trust. He is a die-hard fan of Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and other divas.

Social Movements and NGOs

Gladys Mpepho is the Chairperson of the Grahamstown branch of the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM). Thembani Onceya recently interviewed MaMpepho on the role of NGOs in bringing about social justices in South Africa. This interview was conducted in Xhosa and has been translated. Here's the Xhosa version if you'd like to read it in Xhosa.

You can contact  UPM Grahamstown on 0466222318 or like the Unemployed People’s Movement page on Facebook.