It appears that some observers are finally beginning to counteract the shallow, facile narrative that overtook the analysis of the events in Kenya over the last couple of weeks. Caroline Elkins’ piece in The Washington Post this past weekend provided a model of how a historical analysis of the current events in Kenya ought to […]
The posting has been light of light because of travel and a conference and the general need every so often to take a break. I will pick the pace back up soon. The Foreign Policy Association published my latest think piece last week, “South Africa's Magnificent Catastrophe,” in which I make some tentative (and merely suggestive) comparisons between […]
At The Mail & Guardian Jean-Jacques Cornish has a feature in which he provides an overview of Africa's 2007. I may as well also remind you of my own South Africa: Year in Review feature for the Foreign Policy Association and this blog.
What does the ANC have in store for it in 2008? The party will have the chance to paint its picture in its traditional “January 8” statement at a gathering in Pretoria to honor the ANC's 96th birthday next week. A day before the newly constituted National Executive Committee will meet. Two key issues will be Thabo Mbeki's lame-duck […]
As Kenya entered the New Year much of the country was on the brink of the very chaos so many hoped that it would avoid as the country continues its tentative but measurable transition to liberal democracy. Even as President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner over challenger Raila Odinga, despite the incumbent having been […]
SUMMARY: The old Chinese curse declaims “May you live in interesting times.” Times are always interesting in South Africa, and 2007 proved to be one of the most interesting years of all. In South Africa everything is political and politics seems to be everything. In 1999 Nelson Mandela yielded control of the ANC and thus […]
Kenyans went to the polls yesterday to vote in an election in which the battle is both metaphorical — the election has and is going to continue to be closely fought — and literal, as fears of violence pervaded the day yesterday and will hover over the country until and maybe even after the results are known. Exit polls conflict […]
Tomorrow Kenyans go to the polls. In what is becoming an increasingly intense campaign (in what has almost certainly been the most open election in Kenya's history) it appears that the opposition, led by 62-year-old Raila Odinga — a businessman and former political prisoner, is pulling ahead of President Mwai Kibaki, who has held office […]
I want to wish each of you peace, prosperity, and joy during this holiday season. Geseende Kersfees! Sinifisela Ukhisimusi Omuhle! Ikresimesi emnandi!
South Africa is a sport-mad society and 2007 was a year to fuel the country's passions. The Proteas’ participation in the cricket World Cup and the run-up to South Africa's hosting the 2010 World Cup would ordinarily have been the stories of the year, but by winning the Rugby World Cup the Springboks became the […]
John Carlin, former South Africa correspondent for the London Independent attended the ANC's Polokwane conference for South Africa's Independent Newspapers. In a column in that capacity, Carlin brings up a recent article on Zuma in London's Daily Mail. Carlin properly castigates the Daily Mail's predictably retrograde tone: The Daily Mail is a vibrantly successful London newspaper that makes its money […]
Robert I. Rotberg, director of Harvard's Kennedy School Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution and World Peace Foundation president, has an op-ed piece in today's Boston Globe in which he praises those world leaders who have stood up against Robert Mugabe, most notably Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel Great British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He […]
The Mail & Guardian has issued its annual end-of-year grades for South Africa's Cabinet Ministers. Find Part I here and Part II here.
After months of speculation and prognostication and forecasting about what would transpire at Polokwane, over who would win and what would result, over the state of the ANC, South Africa has now entered a new phase in its political development. Jacob Zuma's decisive victory over Thabo Mbeki, his ascension to the top post of the […]
South Africa is far from the only country in Africa focused on electoral politics. Kenya faces a huge moment in its history when its people go to the polls on December 27. Pambazuka News has some of the best coverage of the Kenyan situation, including a lengthy and impassioned analysis from the novelist Ngugi Wa […]