In April of this year, Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika delivered his state of the nation address, entitled “A Promise Delivered.” From what is currently happening in the country (which some observers liken to the ongoing uprising in the Arab world), nothing even remotely resembles the fulfillment of this speech. As far as I can […]
Tonight PBS’ acclaimed “Point of View” documentary series is showing Mugabe and the White African. Here is a description: “Mugabe and the White African, much of which was filmed clandestinely, tells an alarming story from one of the world’s most troubled nations. In Zimbabwe, de facto dictator Robert Mugabe has unleashed a “land reform” program […]
Quoted directly from John Campbell at his Council on Foreign Relations’ Africa in Transition blog: The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has released ten case studies on “Assessing Risks to Stability in Sub-Saharan Africa.” The reports cover Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan and Uganda. The papers, commissioned by the U.S. […]
I question the wisdom of the African Union (AU) to send the South African President Jacob Zuma, who is also the SADC mediator and facilitator on the Zimbabwean crisis, to Libya in an attempt to revive the AU “roadmap” (another AU loaded word) for ending the conflict between Muammar Gaddafi and the anti-Gaddafi uprising. Zuma’s […]
Africa’s last monarch King Mswati III of Swaziland reportedly has cancelled plans for a “silver jubilee” (estimated to be 1.2 million euros) amid warning from the IMF that the landlocked kingdom is teetering on financial collapse. Well, the truth is that King Mswati needs to cancel many things, including: • He should unban political parties, […]
In the highest ever voter turnout, South Africans firmly put the governing African National Congress in charge of the nation’s municipalities, taking 61.95%) of the vote nationally. Did the delivery of basic services like water, housing and jobs influence the way people voted on Wednesday May 18, 2011? Of course it is difficult to tell, […]
The other Africa that you hardly see or hear in the news…a modern Africa with burgeoning middle class. They are entrepreneurs, aspiring minds, and achievement-oriented professionals. Follow the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13332507
Are Museveni’s sins less despicable than Mugabe’s or Kaddafi’s? Yoweri Museveni’s violent response to mass protests in Uganda – sparked by rising food and fuel prices –-is just one of many such traits found in most dictators in the world (if not in Africa). Media reports suggest that Museveni will stop at nothing but a […]
Can the Swazi King withstand the pro-democracy uprising or will he be toppled down? It seems like the Swazi kingdom yesterday spend most of its efforts trying to thwart an Egypt and Tunisia like uprising. Police reportedly rounded up activists, and fired teargas at pro-democracy protestors demanding an end to Mswati’s monarchy in Swaziland’s main […]
When Laurent Gbagbo’s endgame seemed imminent, the U.N. peacekeeping director Alain Le Roy hastily declared that the “war is over” in the western African nation of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), a headline that was splashed across TV screens, newspapers, news radio stations, and social networks around the world. But it turned out that Laurent Gbagbo, […]
The UN here says that the “war in Cote D’ivoire is over”, and apparently Gbagbo is hiding in the basement, negotiating his terms of surrender. What this political exist entail remains to be seen. But it is clear that Gbagbo would probably want a political pact that would protect him and his cronies from being […]
It seems like the Southern African Development Committee is finally getting it as the regional body toughens with Zimbabwe’s Mugabe! In an unusual move, the Southern African leaders issued a communiqué late Thursday, scolding the ZANU-PF government for political violence and the failure to adhere to the 2008 Global Political Agreement for power sharing. One […]
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