Call it the century of African women! First, there was the Nobel winner Ma Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the current president of Liberia. Then, there was the grassroots women’s rights activist Joyce Hilda Banda, who was sworn in April 2012 as the president of impoverished Malawi after the death of wa Mutharika . And now, the iron lady of South Africa, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, was elected on Sunday as the first female head of the African Union Commission.
Dlamini-Zuma’s victory comes in the aftermath of a deadlocked leadership contest that had threatened to divide the 54-member AU along Francophone and Anglophone lines. No matter how absurd this sounds, the subtext here is that Dlamini-Zuma, who is from Anglophone South Africa, was mainly supported by English-speaking African countries, and the defeated incumbent Jean Ping, who hails from the French-speaking Gabon, was mainly backed by the French-speaking African countries.
Putting the Francophone and Anglophone politics aside, in my opinion the essence of Dlamini-Zuma’s election is probably not that she is the first female to head Africa’s top diplomatic institution, but more about what she will bring to the position. A veteran ANC activist against apartheid, the 63-year-old ex-wife of South African president Jacob Zuma is widely hailed as an effective and visionary technocrat, qualities that have eluded the AU leadership under Ping. A medical doctor by training, her resume includes: Minister of health in Nelson Mandela’s cabinet, minister of foreign affairs under Mbeki, and minister of home affairs under Jacob Zuma.
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
