Because of South Africa’s tortured racial past, we should never underestimate the power that race and ethnicity play in the country’s politics. But South African society, and indeed, African societies generally, should not be reduced to squabbles over “tribalism,” a simplistic reductionism that journalists in particular find seductive. When “tribalism”and ethnicity seem to be the […]
As an FYI, I have added Global News Blog Headlines’ Africa page to the blogroll. Check with them often for up-to-date news and information.
South African sports fans might be the most reactive in the world. Nowhere does national pride (what some might call arrogance) swell so much after a national team win in any of the major team sports. Nowhere does the angst overtake so quickly after one of the teams suffers defeat. Bafana Bafana’s thrilling recent victory […]
The National Prosecuting Authority decision to drop the corruption charges against Jacob Zuma is not quite yet a done deal, though signs still point to Zuma pulling yet another Houdiniesque escape. The pending charges or the decision to drop them have long represented politics by other means, deeply dividing the country and the NPA, and no matter what […]
The United Nations named yesterday the new chairman of the Commission on Population and Development as well as the head of an investigation into allegations stemming from Israel’s recent Gaza Strip operation. Danny Cameron, Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UN, will chair the Commission on Population and Development even though many Arab nations opposed the […]
Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has promised amnesty to those Niger Delta rebels who are willing to lay down arms and stop attacking oil industry installations and personnel. It remains to be seen whether this is a generous act of reconciliation or a desperate trial balloon. What is clear is that the status quo simply cannot prevail.
South Africa is the only African member of the G-20. The Council on Foreign Relations has capsule synopses of each country’s agenda. Here is South Africa’s.
One of the keys to Zimbabwe’s hopes for future success is re-developing the country’s infrastructure. And yet as this IRIN report (which focuses on the cholera epidemic but the larger point holds for the country’s political situation) shows, it is difficult even to come to grips with just how bad the infrastructure has gotten in […]
This Sunday’s New York Times Book Review features focuses on two books on Africa. The Times’ East African correspondent Jeffrey Gettelman reviews the respected Africanist Gerard Prunier’s book Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe. And the Times’ former South Africa correspondent Suzanne Daley takes a look at Mark Givisser’s A Legacy of […]
President Obama arrives in Prague on Saturday on the last leg of his European odyssey in order to participate in an EU-USA summit. The Agenda of his visit is here, it includes lots of the usual formal meetings with the Czech Prime-Minister Topolanek and Czech President Klaus. However as the New York Times reports, the […]
News has broke that the US has signed a deal with Uzbekistan for allowing the transit of non-lethal material through the country and into Afghanistan, with which it shares a border. Interestingly, Kyrgyzstan is now dropping hints that the US can remain at the Manas air base. However, with the increasing political turmoil there, including […]
At Global Post Finbarr O’Reilly finds that beneath the horrors of life in the Democratic Republic of Congo there is real humanity, which he sees revealed in women’s hairstyles. I have to admit, I’m not sure if I find this touching and revelatory, sort of creepy and exploitative, or reductive like the tabloid magazines you find […]
A new study expects summer sea ice in the Arctic to shrink from 2.8 million square miles to a mere 620,000 square miles within 30 years. Average autumn temperatures for 2005-2008 were 5 degrees Celsius above what had been predicted for the year 2070. Conducted by scientists from the Joint Institute for the Study of […]
Signs of recovery in China’s manufacturing sector China’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for March rose to 52.4, up from 49.0 in February. A reading over 50 in the PMI marks an expansion of activity in the manufacturing sector and indicates economic recovery. Output and new orders surged in the manufacturing sector, marking the first improvement […]
Hamas and Fatah agreed to resume reconciliation talks in Cairo at the end of the month, with a tentative date scheduled for April 26. The latest round of negotiations stalled yesterday due to disagreements between the two parties regarding a variety of issues, with some officials even calling the talks ‘unproductive.’