Largely in response to the violence that engulfed much of the country in the wake of its hotly contested and vigorously disputed December, 2007 elections Kenya has drafted a new constitution and presented the draft to the public. (You can download a copy here. Hat tip.) Kenya’s Ambassador to the United States, H.E. Peter Ogego […]
The long-awaited Gautrain, which is to connect Johannesburg and Pretoria, will have one of its sections complete by next year’s World Cup. I am a supporter of light rail. And I am all for improving South Africa’s transportation networks, which range from the quite good to the quite abysmal. And a fast, efficient train between […]
Though there has been no announcement of a nuclear deal during Canadian Prime Minister’s (PM) visit to India this week, the two leaders expressed an intention to negotiate one in the near future. Prime Minister Harper said that the two countries have a “prosperous civilian nuclear future” ahead of them. The Indian PM also expressed […]
As a followup to the story about South African mercenaries training members of Guinea’s ruthless junta: The South African government has begun investigations into the matter. Meanwhile the story gets more complicated, and perhaps alarming, as it seems that among the mercenaries is at least one former high-ranking member of the South African Police Services […]
Three stories brought to you by The Archival Platform, an innovative new approach to archives, memory, history and archival-related information and advocacy in South Africa, based at the University of Cape Town. All three stories are related to Southern African heritage sites: The Nelson Mandela Museum in Mthata (formerly Umtata), in South Africa’s Eastern Cape […]
I don’t usually find myself taking Julius Malema’s side, mostly because of style rather than substance, but I think he and I are on the same page on this one. Can we all just stay here in Reasonable Land for a little while and that acknowledge that as bad, foolish, harmful, and shameful as Thabo […]
In a recent Boston Globe op-ed piece HDS Greenway makes the argument that democracy might not be for everybody. Africa only gets peripheral mention in this particular version of a fairly common argument that is probably true as far as it goes. But the problem I always have with these sorts of contrarian exercises is: […]
Is Mali ripe for radical Islamist terrorist exploitation? That is certainly the fear of many in the US and Britain, as well as in Mali itself. A group known as “al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” has been active in Algeria, and the fear is that the organization plans to expand outward toward Mali. Andrew Harding […]
The Washington Post’s David Ignatius casts another vote in support of Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad’s institution building plan. While nothing new, Ignatius’ op-ed provides some interesting context of the state building initiative and distinguishes it greatly from the unilateral declaration of Palestinian independence currently being floated by some PLO members. Ignatius concludes: “Don’t get […]
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh delivered judgment on an appeal brought by 5 former Army officers who were held responsible for the 1975 murder of the founding leader of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Rahman, known hagiographically as Bangabandhu–the Friend of Bengal– was the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh. After electing to switch to a presidential form […]
From February 5-6, 2010, in the dead of the Arctic winter, the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G-7 will meet in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut. The meeting will serve as preparation for the actual G-7 summit to be held in Ontario next summer. The population of Iqaluit is 7,500, the average […]
A new British documentary on the pro-Israel lobby in England should re-title itself to “This Is How Lobby’s Work.” The documentary, aired on the Dispatches program, explores the use of money and luncheons to gain influence in British politics. Well, I hate to break it the show’s producers, but that’s what lobbies do. The Israel […]
The week-old Lebanese government has made it clear that it has no intention of taking up the subject of Hizballah’s arms until the distant future. For now, the matter has been relegated to the abstract and ambiguous category as being part of the “national dialogue”. This is a polite way for the new Hariri government […]
I don’t want to say that the controversy over the vuvuzela at South African football games can be reduced merely to race. But the calls for the banning of the ubiquitous horns from next year’s World Cup shows a remarkable sense of cultural blinders. The latest demand that South Africans yield their own sporting quirk […]
It isn’t easy being a continental superpower. This is a lesson that South Africa learns on a regular basis. By most measures, South Africa is the most powerful country in Africa, which begs the question of what it means to be the most powerful country in Africa. Culturally and economically the country’s influence is pretty […]