Press Release from the Hopi Foundation: We are pleased to announce that nominations are now open for the 2013 Barbara Chester Award to Clinicians and Healing Practitioners for their work with Survivors of Torture.
The Barbara Chester Award
The award includes a $10,000 USD cash prize and a silver eagle feather sculpture handcrafted by Hopi artist Floyd Lomakuyvaya.
The sculpture symbolizes an eagle feather of prayer to the Award recipient for continued strength to help heal and bring balance to those in need while protecting them from the challenges of fear and intimidation from any source.
The 2013 Barbara Chester Award will be held in October of 2013. (Location to be determined.)
Deadline Date for Nominations – February 28, 2013
Click here to visit our website for more information about the Award, to view the eligibility requirements, and to access the nomination form.
Cordially,
Monica Nuvamsa
Executive Director, The Hopi Foundation
Robert W. Robin, Ph.D.,
Coordinator, Barbara Chester Award
Thu, October 4 2012 » Press Releases » Leave a comment
by Marc Epprecht – Dept. of Global Development Studies and Dept. of History, Queens University, Canada
Two flags fly side by side over the corner of a quiet tree-lined street and a busy thoroughfare in one of Harare’s inner northern suburbs. There is the red, gold, black and green of Zimbabwe‘s national standard (let‘s not talk of the splash of white just now). But beside it flutters something even more colourful: the international symbol of gay pride. The rainbow flag signifies the diversity of sexual orientation and gender identity within the unity of the whole, humanity, democratic rights and freedoms for all citizens.
It is a remarkable statement of self-confidence by GALZ (formerly Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe), the owner of the property from which the flags have been hoisted. The association itself has been around for over two decades providing social and legal support, counselling, sexual health education, research, and lobbying for sexual minority rights. Its social centre dates from 1996 courtesy of the courage of its founders and the generosity (and discipline) of its principal funders, HIVOS and the Atlantic Philanthropies, notably. GALZ maintains a website and puts out a well-written, sometimes quite combative newsletter/magazine. Among GALZ’ numerous other publications is an overview of the history of same-sex sexuality in southern Africa from pre-colonial times (that is, within traditional African cultures), and a thoroughly referenced legal brief that argued for the inclusion of sexual orientation in the proposed (but eventually aborted) 1999 constitution (GALZ 1999). (Read more…)
Thu, June 21 2012 » Constitution, Human rights, Zimbabwe Review » 1 Comment
Relatives pray outside after visiting detainees inside Lindela Detention Centre, Krugersdorp, South Africa
In association with PASSOP
This report brings to light the discrepancies between the legal requirements around deportation of migrants and the anomalies in its practical application. It is clear from the findings that South Africa is falling short of its lofty legal standards in the manner that the various government agencies are dealing with this huge challenge. The overall picture of abuse, corruption, lack of capacity, and the neglect of the rule of law in this area is a cause of great concern.
In this matter Zimbabwe represents a particular challenge, with Zimbabweans making up the largest number of migrants in South Africa in the context of the crisis that has engulfed that country for over a decade. The hope that the SADC mediated Global Political Agreement would provide the basis for a long-term stabilization in the country is yet to be fulfilled, and South African leadership in this process remains critical. (Read more…)
Tue, June 5 2012 » Diaspora, Human rights, Reports » 2 Comments
Tue, June 5 2012 » Diaspora, Human rights » Leave a comment
'We are all Zimbabweans now' - a novel by James Kilgore
By James Kilgore – Research Scholar, Center for African Studies, University of Illinois, (Urbana-Champaign).
I began my career as a fiction writer in 2003 at the age of 57. I guess you could say my entry into this world of the writer took place under special circumstances. At the time I was in a California prison, adjusting to a new way of life after spending 27 years as a fugitive. Most of that time I’d spent in southern Africa, working as an educator and helping my partner raise our children. By 2003 all of that was becoming distant memories. To make matters worse, the few bits and pieces of information I did get about events in Zimbabwe were hardly cheering. From afar I was witnessing the descent of a country where I had spent most of the 1980s into political and economic chaos.
After awhile I began to realize what was happening in Zimbabwe was not only a struggle about land and political power, it was a struggle over history. Two competing paradigms were vying for hegemony. Robert Mugabe and his inner circle were advancing what Professor Terence Ranger, would later term “patriotic history.” This vision laid all problems of Zimbabwe past and present at the doorstep of British imperialismwith white Rhodesians occupying a special category of surrogate oppressor. Patriotic history constituted a unifying cry, an attempt to capture public memory and divert the attention of Zimbabweans from any authoritarianism, corruption, and divisions along ethnic or class lines. Patriotic history’s “them and us” clearly delineated the fault lines and papered over any curiosity aroused by the memories of individuals who had suffered at the hands of the Fifth Brigade or those who quietly watched their children starve while political leaders drove by in their BMWs. (Read more…)
Fri, May 4 2012 » Creative Writing, History, Zimbabwe Review » 2 Comments
