I am pleased to announce that I have begun a new regular gig writing about African affairs for the Zurich-based International Relations and Security Network (ISN). I will be contributing to their ISN Insights. My first piece for them, which is on the state of the African National Congress, has been posted. [Crossposted at dcat.]
I’m working on a piece on the elections across Africa but here is a quick roundup: After a turning out in record numbers in Ivory Coast’s presidential elections voters will return to the polls on November 28 for a second round of polling after no candidate successfully reached the 50% threshold. The country’s election commission […]
I’m back from my trip to Israel and am pulling together my thoughts. When I do so, I’ll surely write something and will guide you as to where to read them. I plan to resume normal Africa-related posting duties in the next day or so.
The challenge of being gay and lesbian in Uganda, a highly religious and deeply conservative Christian country, is constant isolation, insults, threats and violence. That’s exactly what a Ugandan tabloid Rolling Stone, an anti-gay newspaper, did when on November 1, 2010 again published pictures of 14 men it identified as the “generals” of the gay […]
Are development charities justified in utilizing dehumanizing images to raise funds for their causes? We’ve all seen it on TV screens, newspaper ads, and probably heard about it on radio talks. As an African living in America it makes me cringe, just like Duncan McNicholl, every time I see a “photo of a teary-eyed African […]
The Voice Of America’s latest Africa News reports the following: the recently released International Monetary Fund (IMF) Regional Economic Outlook suggests that, unless African governments cut spending, they could put their economic growth in jeopardy. According to Antoinette Sayeh, the head of the IMF’s Africa department, although “smart fiscal planning, combined with government spending, helped […]
While I am in favor of the idea of viewing locals as business partners, I take a different attitude with regard to Zimbabwe“Indigenization Plan”, a law that requires locals to own 51 percent of major foreign firms. Why? Nothing new about this approach: Zambia tried and failed. Namibia has been trying it with its land […]
The Zambian Watchdog, an organization owned by private Zambian journalists, is reporting that Zambian police opened fire on a crowd protesting the restoration of the 1964 Barotseland agreement in Mongu, Western Province. Two protestors are feared dead. Three police officers are also reportedly to have been injured. The 1964 Barotseland agreement is an Agreement regarding the autonomy […]
I am off to Israel for eight days and posting may be even lighter than usual. I am giving a paper, “From Apartheid to Liberation: Race, History and South African Historiography,” at a conference, “Concepts of ‘Race’ in the History of the Humanities,” at the University of Haifa. As always, if you are anywhere near […]
The summary of a new report on US policy particularly off the coast of East Africa reads as follows: A new U.S. emphasis on African maritime development — dedicated not only to rooting out piracy but also renovating ports and investing in job creation — could improve African security and economic growth. Not to belabor […]
Finally, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has come to its own sense, and reversed all-together its earlier decision taken in 2008 to establish an award of US$3 million endowment from Equatorial Guinea’s president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, whose government is widely accused of corruption and gross human rights violations. UNESCO’s decision […]
Guinea’s runoff Presidential election, scheduled for October 24, has now been moved to October 31 after skirmishes between police and protesters resulted in two deaths and the replacement of the head of the country’s election commission, Louceny Camara, who had been accused of bias, with Malian official Siaka Toumany Sangare. Or maybe not. My favorite […]
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