The blackouts plaguing South Africa seem to be getting worse. The finger pointing is getting more intense as most everyone tries to apportion or shed blame. And now Business Report wonders if the recent woes in power delivery don't augur poorly for South Africans when the country hosts the 2010 World Cup. There seem to […]
Sasha Chanoff, cofounder and executive director of the humanitarian organization Mapendo International, recently wrote an essential op-ed piece for The Boston Globe debunking the myth of “tribal violence” in Kenya (and elsewhere). Here is the money excerpt: FROM READING recent headlines about Kenya, one would think that the post-election violence is the result of tribal […]
Sorry for the silence the last few days. Life (in this case a trip to see friends in the Rocky Mountains) intervened as it so often does. South Africa's electricity shortages have become increasingly acute, and now her neighbors are scrambling, with mixed results, to fill the void left by Eskom's decision to pull the […]
On the whole I’ve been pretty supportive of condemnation of Robert Mugabe coming from London and especially from Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It is thus disquieting to discover that perhaps Brown's words represent bluster and palaver. When the rubber meets the road, Zimbabweans looking to England to escape Mugabe's noxious kleptocracy are having a tough […]
More Zimbabwe correspondence from my friend. The following are some more of the observations I made during my short holiday in Zimbabwe:- The country still does not have a formal currency. It is still printing and using bearer cheques as legal tender. Besides, the bearer cheques were and continue to be in short supply resulting […]
A friend who works in South Africa but who is a Zimbabwe native visited his family over the Christmas holidays. Before he left I asked if he would send me a report upon his return so readers here can get a sense of things from the perspective of someone who loves his country but laments […]
Thirty years ago this week the South African political philosopher Richard Turner was assassinated in his Durban home. South African History Online (SAHO) has put together a special feature on the anniversary of Turner's shooting. His daughter, the journalist Jann Turner, has included her own personal reflections of her father's life and death and what […]
It appears that some observers are finally beginning to counteract the shallow, facile narrative that overtook the analysis of the events in Kenya over the last couple of weeks. Caroline Elkins’ piece in The Washington Post this past weekend provided a model of how a historical analysis of the current events in Kenya ought to […]
The posting has been light of light because of travel and a conference and the general need every so often to take a break. I will pick the pace back up soon. The Foreign Policy Association published my latest think piece last week, “South Africa's Magnificent Catastrophe,” in which I make some tentative (and merely suggestive) comparisons between […]
At The Mail & Guardian Jean-Jacques Cornish has a feature in which he provides an overview of Africa's 2007. I may as well also remind you of my own South Africa: Year in Review feature for the Foreign Policy Association and this blog.
What does the ANC have in store for it in 2008? The party will have the chance to paint its picture in its traditional “January 8” statement at a gathering in Pretoria to honor the ANC's 96th birthday next week. A day before the newly constituted National Executive Committee will meet. Two key issues will be Thabo Mbeki's lame-duck […]
As Kenya entered the New Year much of the country was on the brink of the very chaos so many hoped that it would avoid as the country continues its tentative but measurable transition to liberal democracy. Even as President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner over challenger Raila Odinga, despite the incumbent having been […]
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