Lots going on in the FPA’s Africa blogging network. In addition to my work here, we have new contributors to the North Africa Blog, which is flourishing these days, Ndumba Jonnah Kamwanya’s Southern Africa Blog continues to cover that vital part of the continent, and we have just started a new Horn of Africa Blog […]
A hearty congratulations to Laura Seay, who many of you know as Texas in Africa, for making the leap to contributing to The Atlantic with a fine piece on the failed assassination/coup attempt in the DRC.
Has the Lost City of Atlantis been found off the Atlantic Coast of Africa near the Canary Islands? Google Ocean seems to lead to that possible conclusion: The perfect rectangle – which is around the size of Wales – was noticed on the search giant’s underwater exploration tool by an aeronautical engineer who claims it […]
Stories from the troubled Zimbabwe suggest that the Zimbabwe government is paying a closer attention to the revolution sweeping across North Africa and Middleast. In response to an anonymous Facebook page called “Zimbabwe Million Citizen March” (which called for a day of rage against President Robert Mugabe’s tyrannical rule), the government went all the way […]
Laurent Gbagbo’s intransigence has quickly gone from the noisome to the deadly to the potentially catastrophic. There are all kinds of signs that Gbagbo has decided “je suis l’etat,” and as a result with each passing day the likelihood of civil war — something with which the mass of Ivorians are all too familiar — […]
Not yet confirmed, but inside sources tell me that mass action days are planned for Zimbabwe (1st or 21st March), Angola (7th March), and Swaziland (1st April). No surprise there! Why? The three countries share something in common: 1. Zimbabwe: Dictatorship, human rights abuses, worse economic condition, and high unemployment rate). 2. Angola: (state-sponsored corruption, […]
Forty-five activists of Zimbabwe’s International Socialist Organization have been charged with treason for discussing political events in Egypt and other Arab countries. “Zimbabwean prosecutors say socialist Munyaradzi Gwisai and 44 members of his organization watched videos of events in the Mideast and conspired to overthrow President Robert Mugabe and the government,” reports VOA. With the […]
Early this month, in one of my blog entries, I bemoaned the African Union being led by dictators and autocrats. Well, AU is not alone, Libya (of course under Gadhafi) made it to the chairmanship of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Now discussions are underway to expel Libya from the the UN’s top human […]
There is no denying about Colonel Gadhafi’s support for Namibia’s fight for independence! But Honorable Theo-Ben Gurirab’s, the Speaker of Parliament, failure to forcefully denounce Ghadafi’s murderous campaign against protesters leaves much to be desired. The career diplomat and Namibia’s first Foreign Affairs Minister told the Namibian newspaper that “Namibia’s relationship with Libya will remain […]
Is Zimbabwe ready for its Tunisia, Egypt, or (hopefully not) Libya moment? Trevor Ncube, the proprietor of M&G Media, owner of the Mail & Guardian, and publisher of Zimbabwean newspapers The Standard, The Zimbabwe Independent, and NewsDay thinks the time might just be right. A Zimbabwean, understandably writing under the cloak of anonymity in The […]
Recent weeks have seen a flurry of diplomatic activity surrounding the African Union, as the body seeks to establish itself as a major player in resolving challenges facing the continent. Earlier this month, the United States inaugurated its largest embassy in Sub-Saharan Africa in Addis Ababa, which will host both the U.S. mission to Ethiopia […]
As was universally expected Yoweri Museveni won Uganda’s election handily. With 68% of the vote Museveni easily outpaced his nearest challenger, Kizza Besigye, who won 26% in polling that Besigye (and many others) maintain was corrupt to the core. The fact that Museveni’s support in recent elections had been waning but this time around that […]
A little while back I wrote the following: Maybe winds of change are blowing inexorably across North Africa and the Middle East. But beware predictions of inevitability. Dictators have a remarkably metronomic tendency to do what it takes to protect their self interest. I would be willing to bet that if the trend of protests […]
Improving conditions in South Sudan in recent years have seen the emergence of a vibrant basketball subculture. These kinds of stories tend to represent dual-edged swords when couched as providing opportunities for people to accept straitened circumstances — the success stories of the few tend to overshadow the realities of the many who do not […]
Information about the uprising underway in the oil-rich Libya is still sketchy (partly due to government control), but signs are proliferating that the Gaddafi regime’s response is turning out to be the most reckless and brutal in comparison to Tunisia and Egypt’s uprisings. On the website of their newspaper, Azzahf Al-Akhdar (Green March), the Revolutionary […]