With branches in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Senegal, and Kenya, Fahamu primarily engages with civil and human rights organizations through Pambazuka News, an online platform focusing on social justice.
Additionally, they offer online courses on human rights and social justice and employ new technologies, including SMS, for information dissemination, lobbying, and interactions.
[1] Fahamu was established in 1997 by Firoze Manji, an exiled Kenyan activist, to address social justice and civil liberties issues with a focus on Africa.
In 2000, Pambazuka News, an email newsletter providing a platform for discussion and the exchange of information on social justice in Africa, was launched.
The objective of the project was to build the capacity of human rights organizations in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region in the areas of campaigning, organizational, and management capabilities.
Fahamu contributed to SOAWR's efforts to persuade governments to ratify the African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa by publishing several special issues and using them as advocacy tools.
Fahamu also set up a website for the coalition and developed a facility for people to support the protocol using mobile text messaging (SMS).
The AU Monitor website and associated mailing list aimed to strengthen the ability of civil society organizations to engage constructively with the African Union to promote justice, equity, and accountability.
2005 would also see Fahamu's first book publication, African Voices on Development and Social: Editorials from Pambazuka News 2004, by Firoze Manji and Patrick Burnett.
At the tail end of the year, the Nairobi office would explore its mandate in the region with a keen interest in working with social movements.
The mission of the AU Fahamu observer was to analyze the actions and activities of the African Union and to disseminate these analyses as degraded consumer information.
Yves Niyiragira and Winnie Kariuki would render their time as volunteers, helping Stella with logistics and other particulars leading up to the World Social Forum.
This was prompted especially by the need to have an office based in Africa since the Fahamu mandate, as a pan-African organization, was to be primarily dedicated to African issues.
Shortly after the WSF, Fahamu with Tactical Tech facilitated a mobile activist workshop, which attracted IT specialists involved in advocacy from across the continent and beyond.
Initially, the Fahamu Nairobi offices were in Shelter Afrique, Mamlaka Road, and later moved to Peponi Plaza Westlands, where they have been to this very day.
Hakima Abbas joined Stella and Winnie in the Nairobi office in 2007 from Witness in New York; she had also participated in the Mobile Tool Kit workshop as one of the facilitators.
With Alice Nderitu as the Education for Social Justice director, there was a project for community training on leadership, communication, and advocacy hosted by the Center for Multiparty Democracy.
In 2009, discussions centered around the notion of ensuring the successful transfer of oversight and general organizational direction of the organization to African nationals in a sustainable manner.
The executive director at the time, Firoze Manji, believed that the organization should prioritize creating a business model where the sale of books, news material, and advertising space would be the main sources of income.
Pambazuka Press, previously known as Fahamu Books, is a publishing house located in Nairobi, Cape Town, Dakar, and Oxford.
They publish books written by African academics, public intellectuals, and activists on various topics such as human rights, social justice, politics, and advocacy.
In addition to publishing books, Fahamu also produces training materials on CD-ROMs to assist civil society organizations in Africa with promoting and protecting human rights, as well as improving their sustainability and effectiveness.
Fahamu offers training programs and develops materials to strengthen the capacity of African human rights and social justice movements.