Actual questions from a South African journalist

The long-held and widespread attitudes some South African journalists share about the struggle for liberation.

South African peacekeepers South African UNAMID forces sing to honor the legacy of Nelson Mandela in North Darfur (UNAMID, via Flickr CC).

Sometimes you have to despair at the state of South African journalism, as what is the result of a mix of factors: ineptitude, juniorization, but also often the result of long held and widespread attitudes journalists share about the struggle for liberation. A journalist called me up and asked me this as a question:

“Mandela was a terrorist, yet he became an hero and international icon. Do you think the media and the way they portrayed him had something to do with this?… Why would the media choose to see the good in what he has done rather than focus on the bad?”

I did point out that reading some history might be a good idea.

Nelson Mandela, Deputy President of the African National Congress of South Africa, addresses the United Nations in June 1990 (UN Photo, via Flickr CC).

Further Reading

Kagame’s hidden war

Rwanda’s military deployments in Mozambique and its shadowy ties to M23 rebels in eastern Congo are not isolated interventions, rather part of a broader geopolitical strategy to expand its regional influence.

After the coups

Without institutional foundations or credible partners, the Alliance of Sahel States risks becoming the latest failed experiment in regional integration.

Whose game is remembered?

The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations opens in Morocco amid growing calls to preserve the stories, players, and legacy of the women who built the game—before they’re lost to erasure and algorithm alike.

Sovereignty or supremacy?

As far-right politics gain traction across the globe, some South Africans are embracing Trumpism not out of policy conviction but out of a deeper, more troubling identification.

From Cape To Cairo

When two Africans—one from the south, the other from the north—set out to cross the continent, they raised the question: how easy is it for an African to move in their own land?