Foreign Policy Blogs

The State of Zuma's Union

Almost lost in the shuffle of Jacob Zuma’s personal controversies was his State of the Union address, which he delivered on Thursday night.  As one observer has noted, Zuma tried to appropriate Nelson Mandela. That legitimate politics and policies will get buried as the result of Zuma’s indiscretion is precisely the problem with those indiscretions, or at least that is what the concern should be.

 

Author

Derek Catsam

Derek Catsam is a Professor of history and Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. He is also Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University. Derek writes about race and politics in the United States and Africa, sports, and terrorism. He is currently working on books on bus boycotts in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s and on the 1981 South African Springbok rugby team's tour to the US. He is the author of three books, dozens of scholarly articles and reviews, and has published widely on current affairs in African, American, and European publications. He has lived, worked, and travelled extensively throughout southern Africa. He writes about politics, sports, travel, pop culture, and just about anything else that comes to mind.

Areas of Focus:
Africa; Zimbabwe; South Africa; Apartheid

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