Reimagining local government in South Africa
If re-municipalization—returning a privatized service to local public control—is to work in South Africa, we need other forms of social contracting between municipalities and citizens.
Politics
Capitalism Mtaani at the Dandora dumpsite
In the third video for our Nairobi edition of Capitalism in My City, Gacheke Gachihi visits a site of environmental injustice.
The United States is not a country
The US federal system is a patchwork of states and territories, municipal and local jurisdictions, each with its own laws and regulations. This complex map provides ample opportunities for shell games of “hide the money.”
Organized irresponsibility
On this week's AIAC Talk, a discussion with historian Adam Tooze on the history and future of the COVID-19 crisis.
Post-apartheid symptoms of morbidity
Ordinary working-class people have been forced to the belief that there can never actually be real solutions; stripped of the confidence that fundamental change can happen.
What happened to land grabs in Africa?
More than a decade since the surge in large-scale land acquisitions worldwide, many land deals remain in limbo. They nonetheless have far-reaching consequences for those who depend on land as foundational to life.
The end of Tunisian democracy?
On this week's episode of AIAC Talk, Will Shoki speaks with Maha Ben Gadha about the changing political landscape in Tunisia.
Not mere intellectual dissenters
Why is South Africa's draft Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill contradicting the constitution and proposing to shield academics and scholars who propagate racist and bigoted ideas?
The secret offshore world of the Kenyatta family
The Pandora Papers connects Kenya's ruling family to secret accounts in offshore companies and tax havens. But, state looting started with Jomo Kenyatta.
EndSARS, workers’ power, and war
The working class that organized #OccupyNigeria should collaborate with #EndSARS. If these two boiling points burn together to produce the fire next time, a new Nigeria will be possible.
Alpha and Omega
AIAC Talk is back, and to kick off our second season we head to Guinea to discuss a crisis of state, institutions and public morality with Siba N’Zatioula Grovogui.
Will Africa be the last oil frontier?
The current run on Africa’s oil resources has strong echoes with the continent’s colonial past. The global movement’s task is to not let corporations get away with it.
A just recovery from COVID-19
COVID-19 exposed and exacerbated inequality and insecurity in North Africa's food systems. But the roots of the current crisis can be found in the legacy of colonialism and new forms of imperialism.
The long term prospects for women’s liberation in Egypt
One year, ten years, one hundred years on, the path for Egypt’s women has not been linear.
After Bouteflika
A 2019 attempt to prolong the regime of Algeria’s incapacitated president Abdelaziz Bouteflika inspired the Hirak protest movement. Bouteflika died on September 17, 2021, but the Hirak marches on around the world
Curing the Sahara blues
Let’s talk about the role Western institutions can play in achieving climate justice in the Sahel.
No two elephants are alike
The July riots in South Africa felt similar to those by Peronists in Argentina in December 2001. But Zuma’s people are moving from a much weaker position.
Israel’s actual relationship with apartheid South Africa
Learn more about historical relationship between apartheid South Africa and apartheid Israel in this short video.
Freedom and the struggle for dignity in South Africa
Within a context of spiraling poverty and inequality in South Africa, the lessons of uprisings in the 1980s are well worth revisiting. For millions of people, their socioeconomic demands remain unfulfilled.
A terrifying vision of South Africa’s future
If South Africa’s Left can’t find a way to channel popular discontentment into the building of mass progressive movements, it will instead morph into anarchy, nativism and, inevitably, authoritarianism.