A pretty good case can be made for the eastern districts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) being the most anarchic and unstable in the world. Perhaps Somalia can stake a similar claim, and stretches along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, but the list of contenders is, in any case, a roster of wretchedness. Rwanda shares part […]
Welcome to the new, much more visually striking Africa Blog. The FPA Blogs have all undergone an upgrade. Forgive us for any glitches in the next few days as we move forward, but we believe this will provide a better, more easily navigable, experience for both readers and bloggers. The vote counting continues in South Africa. […]
Forgive the silence of late. I spent several days in England for a conference and am just now re-emerging. Tomorrow South Africans go to the polls for the fourth time in the democratic era. The Foreign Policy Association has my preview of the election, which is part one of a two-part feature, the second of […]
In an article in The Christian Science Monitor Jean-Marc Gorelick posits that African farmers do not need bailouts, and that their priority is not aid. Rather, the problem with agriculture in Africa is that too many farmers are vulnerable to greedy middle men and to a system stacked against them. A sample: Because the farmers […]
South African golf legend Gary Player has bid farewell to the Masters, at least as an active player. The three-time winner (1961, 1974, 1978) has logged the equivalent of a year’s time (52 years, a week per year) at the hallowed course at Augusta National.
Call me a cynic, but I am always skeptical of national elections: In which the winner emerges with 90% of the vote (and the largest opposition tally is below 5%); that are marred by violence and intimidation; in which most opposition leaders withdraw, stay away, or question the validity of the enterprise; that take place after […]
Joseph Lelyveld is a respected ournalist, editor at The New York Times, and that paper’s one-time southern Africa correspondent based in South Africa. Nonetheless, I’m not sure I entirely embrace the argument expressed in the title of his (otherwise fine) New York Review of Books essay on Mark Gevisser’s A Legacy of Liberation: Thabo Mbeki and the Future […]
Western governments and aid agencies are still skeptical of Zimbabwe, not least because Robert Mugabe is still involved in the country’s coalition government. Meanwhile Mugabe and his once-unfathomable partner in that new government, Morgan Tsvangirai, desperately want those western governments and agencies to give Zimbabwe much-needed aid and to end sacntions. Neither of these positions is irrational. […]
A plaster on someone’s finger is usually hardly worthy of notice, never mind the source of an entire nation’s attention. Yet the recent appearance of a band-aid on Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s right index finger has set off a furious round of concern, speculation, and posturing. Is it the symptom of some sort of infection? […]
So it is official. Jacob Zuma is off the hook, as the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) confirmed the rumors that had been swirling for several days by dropping the charges against the African National Congress (and likely future South African) president. (See the full text of the NPA decision here.) Presumably, then, this long and […]
[Hat Tip to Andrew Sullivan.]
File Under: Color Me Unsurprised. Sudan’s National Electoral Commission has announced that this year’s scheduled presidential and parliamentary elections, mandated by 2005’s Comprehensive Peace Agreements, have been postponed until 2010. Sudan has not had a general election since 1986. Khartoum’s thugs have no interest in giving up power or even in having to have that power […]
Popular from Press
