‘Africa Rising’ in Retreat
As the commodity super-cycle’s denouement now makes obvious the need for change, at least it is clear to all that Africans are not lying down.
Politics
The end of the Eyadéma Dynasty in Togo?
Protests against Togo's ruling family aren't unusual, but this time there's a few unusual components, including that the protesters have a clear platform of demands.
Kenya’s return to despotism
Daniel arap Moi perfected rigging and state violence as politics. Uhuru Kenyatta campaigned with them and will extend and complete them in his second term.
Look to Cuba
Cubans are far better prepared than most for public health and climate emergencies. African countries should emulate the island nation in this regard.
The Arab Left at an Impasse
That the recent revolutions failed to transcend political stagnation, is a product of the way neoliberalism functions as an ideology.
The low bar for African elections
Angola is Exhibit 1,000,003 on how and why the West judge some elections "free and fair," and others not.
Voting in Angola
After an 11-year wait to vote in my own country, the whole thing took 3 minutes. One week later I'm still waiting to hear who won.
The dark and white side of conservation
How easily white landowners in Kenya can utilize the trope of "the maddened land invader" to conjure global support for an unequal land system.
Algeria’s Black Fear
In much Algerian discourse, including by its human rights NGO's, black Africans are pathologized as disease carriers.
New ways of being Nigerian
There is a worrisome, undue accent on ethnic and sub-ethnic affiliations deserving scrutiny in Nigeria. Until
How the Nigerian Left imploded
It is difficult to find a credible Left political party or tendency within or outside the existing mainstream political structure in Nigeria.
What about human rights for ‘non-humans’
Human rights cannot offer a framework for humanizing the non-human savage - the non-human black body - because it is not designed to do so.
Elections, amnesia and impunity in Kenya
Peace narratives cover up the need to address historical injustice and end a culture of impunity dating back to the days of Kenya’s first President Jomo Kenyatta and continuing via his son, President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The winner takes all
Paul Kagame has won with more than 90 percent of the vote in 3 successive presidential elections in Rwanda.
What about those Kenyans who could not vote?
Whoever wins the election, must protect refugees agains forced repatriation by the state or spontaneous attacks from partisan electoral violence.
The crisis of the party-state in South Africa
Improving socio-economic conditions may prove to be the precondition for fighting corruption.
The special relationship
South Africa may be Kabila’s closest bilateral ally and represents a key lifeline for his continued grip on power.
South Sudan: the second time as tragic farce
The largest South Sudanese rebel movement is now in a leadership dispute proving more pernicious than Khartoum’s counter-insurgency strategies.
The Namibian debate on German reparations
There are Namibians, including Black Namibians, who resist fully addressing the genocide.
The best hope for Liberian children
Why is Liberia’s Government rushing to sell its public schools to for-profits from the United States?