The Springboks have gotten off on the right foot for taking the Tri Nations competition, defeating their historic foes the All Blacks in New Zealand, 28-19 yesterday. [If anyone knows the best way to watch the matches in the US, where television coverage is a non-possibility from what I can glean, please do let me […]
Five African nations can look forward to faster, more reliable internet service as the result of the work of a private consortium, Seacom, which installed the first undersea fiberoptic cable. The switch went on yesterday in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda and South Africa. Rwanda should join that group in the next couple of weeks.
Beyond the grave human tragedies, one of the most vexing aspects of the AIDS denialism that was too prominent at high levels in South Africa in the decade after 1994 is that South Africa ought to have been the continent’s, indeed one of the globe’s, leaders in anti-AIDS science and technology. The country had the […]
Stories that crossed my desk today with brief commentary as appropriate: At Pambazuka News Lansana Gberie is perplexed by the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s purpose, by its intent, and by the entire outcome of its recent report. It might be worth pointing out at this stage that TRC’s are a useful tool for very […]
I just received the following press release. Rather than try to distill it, I will just share the whole text: NAIROBI – President Kibaki of the Republic of Kenya has announced the appointment of Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat as Chairman of Kenya’s newly-created Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC). The Commission was set up by legislation […]
Here are a few more stories that have caught my eye today: Yesterday Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Public Service, announced that civil servants will receive wage increases with some receiving as much as double their current US$100 allotment, a figure far too low to allow most Zimbabweans to take care of the bare necessities, […]
One of the myriad disputes in Sudan involves the contested Abyei region, which is rich in both oil and farmland and which straddled the North and South that has so long been the epicenter of vicious conflicts. Today the Hague made its binding pronouncement on Abyei, with Khartoum emerging with nearly all of the oil […]
In a bad omen that speaks to the instability that chaotic Somalia is capable of wreaking in East Africa, Kenya’s borders are increasingly vulnerable to incursions from the radical Islamist militia group al-Shabab, which dominates a vast swath of southern Somalia. Kenya has vowed to step up border security, but it is not unreasonable to […]
Do you want some evidence that things in Liberia have improved substantially this decade? The Washington Post travel section featured a quite good William Powers-penned feature about the country this weekend, complete with full travel details.
The Mail & Guardian has a fascinating piece on “The Rise and Rise of the Nelson Mandela Industry.” It is a quite remarkable phenomenon. But also an understandable one, as it blends commerce with the undeniable love of Mandela among South Africans, and as important, among tourists and other visitors to the country. Mandela is […]
Reader pandorasgift directed me to this Christian Science Monitor article about the reception of Michela Wrong’s new book on corruption in Kenya. Booksellers refuse to touch it for fear of reprisals, but it is doing a brisk business among curbside vendors.
On a much lighter note, Jimmy Leach of South Africa’s Tribune newspaper has compiled a list of the greatest insults in cricket. My two favorites: Eddo Brandes, the chicken farmer who batted at 11 for Zimbabwe, was surviving in entirely haphazard fashion. The exasperated bowler wandered down the pitch and drolly asked: “Eddo, why are […]
According to journalists and human rights organizations, Gambian authorities are cracking down on free speech and have been engaging in increasing numbers of unlawful arrests, detention, torture and unfair trials. Journalists in particular have felt the repression.
Well, give Khartoum points for chutzpah. The Sudanese government has referred Chad to the United Nations, urging that body to act on alleged Chadian air force incursions into Darfur. I do not even deny that Sudan is probably right on this matter, just that its brazenness in running to a global body whose judgment Sudan […]
The headline to a recent New York Times article, South Africa is Seen To Lag in AIDS Fight, is misleading (something that should come as a shock to no one, least of all anyone who has ever written an article and suggested a headline only to have something wildly misrepresentative appear at the top instead). […]