On Facebook, a Namibian citizen journalist is reporting that the Ministry of Information has embarked on a nation-wide survey to Namibia’s thirteen political regions to get “people’s opinion on the branding of a new Nationhood and National Pride campaign, dubbed “My Namibia.” No big surprise there! But if this is not a new low for […]
Johannesburg-based writer Christopher Vourlias had a nice travel piece in the Washington Post a while back on Tanzania’s Central Line. Avoiding most of the hoariest cliches of African travel he still invoked the romance of working one’s way across country by train.
According to Reuters, “Repairs to sabotaged oil facilities in the Niger Delta and new production from deepwater projects should help cement Nigeria’s place as Africa’s top crude oil producer, a role it reclaimed this year.” Angola briefly supplanted Nigeria as the continent’s top producer, but all things being equal, Nigeria probably has significant advantages over […]
Unless you are from mars, there is a high chance that you probably heard about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight set of goals-ranging from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education-agreed to by the United Nations to address the needs of the poor countries! Well the world […]
The American Free Press Newspaper is reporting that President Robert Mugabe said on Thursday that foreign investors should embrace Zimbabwe’s equity laws which require them to sell 51 percent stakes to locals or “stay out.” Putting Mugabe’s rhetoric’s aside, I think the idea of viewing locals as business partners makes sense! Whether Aid or business […]
Nigerian politics are at a crossroads. Or perhaps a better metaphor is that they stand teetering on a precipice. With Goodluck Jonathan set to run for re-election (and for his first election on his own since taking over after Umaru Yar-Adua’s death) the precarious wink-and-nod arrangement whereby presidential power alternates between the North and the […]
Apparently, in the bank’s efforts to promote economic growth and regional integration within the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Development Bank has approved a U.S.$ 95.6 million loan for the Nacala Corridor Phase II Road project (NCRP) in Zambia. However, I am not sure about the assertion that “the work will enhance poverty […]
The Foreign Policy Association has published my latest “Viewpoints” article, “On Obama and Africa,” in which I give my take on the Dinesh D’Souza-Newt Gingrich idiocy in which they asserted that Obama is informed by a “Kenyan anti-colonialist world view.” [Cross-posted at dcat.]
Tomorrow I’ll be heading off to Austin for the Cold War Cultures: Transnational and Interdisciplinary Perspectives conference being held at UT Austin. I will give my paper, “Destructive Engagement: The United States, South Africa and the Cold War in the 1980s,” in one of the several Africa-themed panels. If you will be anywhere near Austin, […]
Namibia is bracing for a culture war as Kosie Pretorius, the chairperson and the leader of the Self-Help Trust of Namibia, pushes for Afrikaner traditional authority and a white only museum. Kosie Pretorius whose Monitor Action Group (MAG) political party failed to gain a seat in last year’s election, has been lobbying hard for the […]
Making African history accessible to students below the college level has sadly never been much of a priority in the US. The emergence of Africa Access Review should help.
Celia Dugger has a story in today’s New York Times revealing one of the most vexing difficulties confronting South Africa. On the one hand, minimum wage laws are intended to protect workers from starvation wages (and stand as testament to the strength of South Africa’s labour unions). But on the other hand, enforcement of those […]
In the Pambazuka 2010-09-22, issue 497, Charles Abugre writes a beautiful piece about the Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) success and challenges ahead. His article comes at a time when world leaders are gathering in the Big Apple to review progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. What I like about Charles’ article is that it […]
I cannot imagine the tightrope that Morgan Tsvangirai walks on a daily basis. Tsvangirai, the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC) Prime Minister of Zimbabwe who shares power with Robert Mugabe in little more than theory, knows that the thugs of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) are always just outside the door. The police […]
Independent Online is one of my go-to sources, especially for South African news, because it pulls together the reportage and commentary from the whole array of Independent newspapers, meaning it serves as something of an aggregation source. Well, they are undergoing change, with a new physical appearance and somewhat different interface. It looks better and […]