On a much lighter note, Jimmy Leach of South Africa’s Tribune newspaper has compiled a list of the greatest insults in cricket. My two favorites: Eddo Brandes, the chicken farmer who batted at 11 for Zimbabwe, was surviving in entirely haphazard fashion. The exasperated bowler wandered down the pitch and drolly asked: “Eddo, why are […]
According to journalists and human rights organizations, Gambian authorities are cracking down on free speech and have been engaging in increasing numbers of unlawful arrests, detention, torture and unfair trials. Journalists in particular have felt the repression.
Well, give Khartoum points for chutzpah. The Sudanese government has referred Chad to the United Nations, urging that body to act on alleged Chadian air force incursions into Darfur. I do not even deny that Sudan is probably right on this matter, just that its brazenness in running to a global body whose judgment Sudan […]
The headline to a recent New York Times article, South Africa is Seen To Lag in AIDS Fight, is misleading (something that should come as a shock to no one, least of all anyone who has ever written an article and suggested a headline only to have something wildly misrepresentative appear at the top instead). […]
The annual Tri-Nations tournament, pitting the national rugby teams of southern hemisphere powers South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia is now underway. On Saturday New Zealand’s mighty All Blacks, who seem not to be quite as mighty as in years past, defeated the Wallabies of Australia 22-16 in Auckland. Nonetheless, the Springboks still enter as […]
Mauritania had a coup in which its first democratically elected president, President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, was ousted. The new leadership holds an election that the coup-installed leader, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, wins comfortably and by enough of a margin to avoid a runoff. There are allegations of corruption in the voting. The opposition calls […]
Somalia is complex. The situation there seems incomprehensible and hopeless. The logical response, then, is to wash our hands of it and simply try to contain the seemingly intractable problems that characterize basically stateless Somalia in hopes that they do not bleed beyond its borders. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the United Nations’ Special Representative for Somalia, rejects […]
In a Commentary article bound to stir up some controversy, Tod Lindberg puts forward “The Only Way to Prevent Genocide.” A few sample passages (I insert ellipses in brackets to indicate where there are long passages between what I have included): We simply do not have to put up with this. By “we,” let me […]
Firoze Manji, editor-in-chief of Pambazuka News, presents the speech he wishes President Obama had given in Ghana. This is all well and good and unobjectionable. But this is, of course, not the speech that Obama gave and it is usually better to deal with the world as it is than the world as we wish […]
On March 21 celebrated Zimbabwean poet Julius Chingono was briefly detained in Harare. His offense was “reciting offensive literature.” The literature in question was his powerful “My Uniform,” which he read on the capital city’s First Street in honor of World Poetry Day. I reproduce it here: My Uniform When the bread bin is empty I put on […]
In this Sunday’s New York Times Book Review journalist Joshua Hammer gives a positive review to Michela Wrong’s latest book, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower. Here is the lead paragraph: Michela Wrong has built a distinguished literary career telling stories of African corruption and Western complicity. A former Africa […]
Although I entirely disagree with the African Union’s decision not to fall in line behind the International Criminal Court’s indictment of Sudan’s President Omas al-Bashir, I understand the driving sentiment. As a general rule African nation states are wary of being dictated to from the West, and they tend to circle the laager, to appropriate a […]
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