In a joint letter, 17 writers from Africa and Europe, many of them Nobel prize laureates, urge the leaders who will gather in Lisbon to address the crises in Zimbabwe and Darfur. Among the signatories figure notable humanists such as Vaclav Havel and Ben Okri, Jurgen Habermas and Woyle Soyinka – the last one is adopted as a patron by our member Ibadan University Humanist Society.