These days, well-behaved African heads of state are rewarded by Barack Obama with the chance to meet with him in groups of four and have their picture taken with him. It’s like meeting Beyonce, but you get to call it a state visit. That’s what happened on Friday when Malawi’s Joyce Banda, Senegal’s Macky Sall, […]
The boy had lost his brother, and as he wept before Jason Russell’s camera, Jason Russell brushed back the loose strands of his magnificent blond coiffure (who will play him in the movie version?) and told the boy in hushed tones: “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Jason Russell promised the boy that he, Jason Russell, would do […]
By Dan Moshenberg Last week Ingrid Turinawe, the leader of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Women’s League, in Uganda, was sent to the infamous Luzira Prison. Everywhere one looks, there are “infamous” prisons. For the United States, for example, Guantánamo, with its regime of torture and its regimen of violence, is but the tip of […]
I’ve been wondering when The New York Times would do an analysis piece on the political protests in Uganda and what angle they would take. They have now. Reporter Josh Kron (is he new in the region?) writes that at the heart of the political crisis is a personal contest between Life President Yoweri Museveni […]
The Ugandan intellectual Mahmood Mamdani is back in Uganda–since last year he’s been heading up the Makerere (University) Institute of Social Research (MISR) in the capital Kampala–where he has already pronounced on the “consultancy culture” in Ugandan (and continental) universities. Mamdani, once close to Uganda’s Life President Yoweri Museveni (in power since 1986) has also just published […]
Journalist Pascal Zachary–on his blog Africa Works–argues that the protests in Uganda that started April 4, are strategically “ill-timed” and that opposition leader Kizza Besigye (shot in the hand, and in jail at present), while brave, can only take the movement against Life President Yoweri Museveni so far: The [current] protests seem ill-timed. They should […]
In February this year, for the umpteeth time, Life President Yoweri Museveni scored an overwhelming victory in presidential elections in Uganda. Now–with the aid of the country’s police–Museveni wants to destroy and himiliate the only candidate that came to close to making a decent showing, Kizza Besigye. Mainly because the former army colonel and ally […]
Just about this time last year, Uganda lost a priceless part of its cultural heritage when the Kasubi Tombs were burnt down. The tombs were a UNESCO World Heritage Site and were built in 1882 – the burial place of four Buganda kings. Now it seems another cultural site faces destruction. Global Voices reports on […]
The first weekly episode (posted on Fridays) of ‘creative Africa video blog,’ WHAT’S UP AFRICA, was posted online today. It’s the work of Radio Nederlands Worldwide Africa producer, Ikenna Azuike, who also presents. The producers are hyping it as Europe’s first video blog focused on Africa and they promise to bring us “… what’s hip, […]
