The worldwide problem of belief in witchcraft and the appalling human rights abuses to which it leads received a boost in September at the 12th session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva, Switzerland.

The UN Human Rights Council has published IHEU's written statement on witchcraft in Africa. The statement documents the abuse of children and others through accusations of witchcraft and supposed witch "cures". IHEU calls for improved education and policing to eliminate these twin scourges.

In a joint statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council, IHEU has called on the Council to join the fight against the twin evils of those practising witchcraft and those claiming to find and "cure" witches in Africa.

One country that could have made a great impact on the propagation of Humanism as a practical discipline in Africa is Kenya. A country that has been confirmed by archaeologists to be the origin of mankind, (the works of the Leakey family), yet didn’t possess a Humanist organisation, not until 2004.

13-15 June 2007

Nyeri and Isiolo , KENYA

Seminars on World Philosophy Day 2007

The World Social Forum, which took place in Nairobi, Kenya for the first time in Africa, was supposed to be a forum for the voices of the grassroots. But Firoze Manji writes that, despite the diversity of voices at the event, not everyone was equally represented.

As one would expect, WSF was highly heterogeneous. There was a lot going on. At one level no one can deny the diversity of people from all parts of the world. WSF seemingly reflected the heterogeneity of civil society internationally: there were initiatives from grassroots women’s organisations, from feminists, social movements, small and large African organisations, international (or is it ‘multinational’?) organisations, donors and funders, grantees, activists, hustlers and the hassled. There were vociferous anti-capitalists and anti-(capitalist) globalisation meetings and discussions, as one would expect of an event that evolved out of the need to assert an alternative to imperialist globalisations of the Davos kind. And there were those whose politics could reasonably be viewed as part of the civil society infrastructure of modern-day imperial expansion.

Over the recent past, HEUK has been organising conferences, receiving visitors from other humanist groups (IHEU Members) and participating in joint ventures for Africa.

We encourage travel to Kenya, bringing humanism to Africa and promoting the principles as defined in our manifesto: we are in a position to host guests from all over the world.

For Travel Arrangements, contact Samson Mochoge Nyanumba

The Masai Mara is one of the best known and most popular reserves in the whole of Africa. At times and in certain places it can get a little overrun with tourist minibuses, but there is something so special about it that it tempts you back time and again.
Seasoned safari travellers, travel writers, documentary makers and researchers often admit that the Masai Mara is one of their favourite places. So why is that? Perhaps it is because of the 'big skies', the open savannahs, the romance of films like 'Out of Africa' and certainly because of the annual wildebeest migration, the density of game, the variety of birdlife and the chance of a hot air balloon ride.

Lamarck, Darwin, Wallace, Huxley, Haeckel,... Great names of science whose pioneering theories on the evolution of species and natural selection boosted a revolution in the 19th century Victorian science, since they suggested a common ancestor for man and apes, against the biblical conception of one Creation. Ernst Haeckel postulated the existence of an ape-man, Pithecanthropus, who would have inhabited a sunken continent called Lemuria, close to India.

The “Kenyan Culture” is born of myriad sources and influences both new and old. Despite the many and varied influences that have shaped Kenyan society, the culture in Kenya has become truly and purely Kenyan.

If any one thing of Kenya speaks of this unique character, it is the modern melding of traditional societies and culture.