Here is a quick survey of Africa-related news stories that have appeared in the last few days: Sierra Leone's voters went to the polls this past weekend and it appears to have gone off with few allegations of improprieties. Hopefully this marks the first small steps in the country's redemption. Sam Dealey, Time magazine's Africa […]
Do you remember the climactic scene from the Wizard of Oz? Dorothy, Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion are trapped by the Wicked Witch and her Praetorian guard. The Witch taunts Scarecrow with fire, as is her wont, and then sets him alight. Dorothy reacts instinctively, grabbing a handy pail of water from the castle […]
Afrifocus has again turned its attention to China's role in Africa. Worth checking out are a Gareth Evans and Donald Steinberg article arguing that China's mindset toward Darfur has changed to the point that “instead of being part of the problem, it could play a significant role in the solution.” If Evans and Steinberg are […]
So what do I wake up to this morning, just a few hours after yesterday's cynical post about Zimbabwe? A report in the Mail & Guardian that Robert Mugabe is nearing a deal that will “end a political crisis in his country.”Naturally, if an agreement, which will largely involve the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and […]
It's tough not to be cynical about Zimbabwe these days. Robert Mugabe's megalomaniacal tyranny has fueled political chaos and violence, the economy is in shambles and looks primed to get worse, people are going hungry in the cities and in the country, and the prospects for improvement would seem to be scant. And yet according […]
Historians of Africa have long tilted against some of the hoariest, most insidious false assertions made about Africa. Three men who were giants in their fields and in Western intellectual life generally embody the representation of Africa as a land without history, and thus as a land unworthy of attempting to understand. In the eighteenth […]
Economic development in Africa can be a daunting concept. Countries with little infrastructural foundation are difficult to penetrate, and one of the key dilemmas comes with where to start. Food security, political instability, military conflict and crime, economic chaos — these problems can make building roads and bridges and phone networks nearly impossible to conceive, […]
The South African wine industry is burgeoning and has been for several years. Wine exported from the fertile terroir of the lush Western Cape vinyards can be found in any city in the United States, and indeed, even in smaller communities the occasional gem can be found with “Product of South Africa” stamped on the […]
I have previously discussed the controversy over changing names of municipalities, streets, and the like in South Africa. These debates tend to be so contentious because they operate at the nexus of history, identity, ethnicity, and mythology, a potent brew anywhere, but particularly pungent in post-Apartheid South Africa. About a year-and-a-half ago I tried to wrestle […]
Uitenghage, and industrial city not far from Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape is South Africa's Detroit. It has long been the center of South Africa's automobile production, with companies such as Volkswagen having a heavy presence. Recent reports indicate that VW is planning to shift production of right-side-drive VW Golf models for the Asia-Pacific region from […]
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has signed into law the Interception of Communication Act, which formalizes the government's ability to eavesdrop on phone conversations, to read people's email and faxes, and generally to facilitate Zimbabwe's full descent into a totalitarian state. The law even requires internet providers to install the equipment to allow the government to […]
The coming weekend's New York Times Book Review includes Walter Kirn's positive assessment of South Africa Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee's new collection of literary criticism, Inner Workings: Literary Criticism, 2000-2005. The concluding paragraph asserts: “Inner Workings is Coetzee's master class, and he honors us, too, by letting us sit in on it, despite our spotty […]
The sometimes problematic nature of China's relationship with Africa is nowhere more stark than in Beijing's engagement with Sudan (see also here, here, here, here, and here). Over at The New Republic Eric Reeves, one of the foremost authorities on the crisis in Darfur, has a piece telling us to be wary of China's support […]
Privation connected to poverty and vulnerability to climate change is wreaking havoc throughout the continent. Lesotho continues to suffer from drought-fueled food shortages. The droughts have also affected Swaziland and South Africa. The economic crisis in Swaziland has led to increased sex trafficking among children as well as women. Informal settlements in Namibia are embody hell on […]
Suffice it to say that one should not turn to ESPN for rugby coverage. Nonetheless this preview should at least give Americans some sense of the favorites heading into this year's World Cup in France. The headline, “All Blacks, Les Bleus and Wallabies are the favorites” is a little misleading. New Zealand, France, and Australia […]