The annual Tri-Nations tournament, pitting the national rugby teams of southern hemisphere powers South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia is now underway. On Saturday New Zealand’s mighty All Blacks, who seem not to be quite as mighty as in years past, defeated the Wallabies of Australia 22-16 in Auckland. Nonetheless, the Springboks still enter as […]
Mauritania had a coup in which its first democratically elected president, President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, was ousted. The new leadership holds an election that the coup-installed leader, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, wins comfortably and by enough of a margin to avoid a runoff. There are allegations of corruption in the voting. The opposition calls […]
Somalia is complex. The situation there seems incomprehensible and hopeless. The logical response, then, is to wash our hands of it and simply try to contain the seemingly intractable problems that characterize basically stateless Somalia in hopes that they do not bleed beyond its borders. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the United Nations’ Special Representative for Somalia, rejects […]
In a Commentary article bound to stir up some controversy, Tod Lindberg puts forward “The Only Way to Prevent Genocide.” A few sample passages (I insert ellipses in brackets to indicate where there are long passages between what I have included): We simply do not have to put up with this. By “we,” let me […]
Firoze Manji, editor-in-chief of Pambazuka News, presents the speech he wishes President Obama had given in Ghana. This is all well and good and unobjectionable. But this is, of course, not the speech that Obama gave and it is usually better to deal with the world as it is than the world as we wish […]
On March 21 celebrated Zimbabwean poet Julius Chingono was briefly detained in Harare. His offense was “reciting offensive literature.” The literature in question was his powerful “My Uniform,” which he read on the capital city’s First Street in honor of World Poetry Day. I reproduce it here: My Uniform When the bread bin is empty I put on […]
In this Sunday’s New York Times Book Review journalist Joshua Hammer gives a positive review to Michela Wrong’s latest book, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower. Here is the lead paragraph: Michela Wrong has built a distinguished literary career telling stories of African corruption and Western complicity. A former Africa […]
Although I entirely disagree with the African Union’s decision not to fall in line behind the International Criminal Court’s indictment of Sudan’s President Omas al-Bashir, I understand the driving sentiment. As a general rule African nation states are wary of being dictated to from the West, and they tend to circle the laager, to appropriate a […]
Nelson Mandela turns 91 this weekend. To commemorate Madiba’s birthday the Mail & Guardian has put together special features on Mandela-related posters during the struggle years, A collection of Zapiro’s M&G Mandela depictions, and Mandela in his own words.
What’s the deadliest place in Sudan? … … The odds are that your answer was immediate, and admit it, quite confident. But the correct answer is not what you think. The deadliest place in Sudan is Jonglei State in South Sudan where more than 1,000 were killed in political violence in March and April […]
One of the fears of the International Criminal Court’s indictment of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir surely was the effect it might have not only within Sudan, but also in the region, where perhaps the indictment would draw sympathy, particularly from citizens of Arab states or from countries with sizable Muslim populations. A recent poll offers […]
Here is a roundup of stories garnering attention across Africa: Charles Taylor unsurprisingly calls the accusations against him that have found him in the dock at the special war crimes trial at the Hague lies and misinformation. Naturally we need to let the process play out. And legal standards of proof are particular. But there […]
I participated in Hillary Clinton’s on-the-record conversation and press briefing at the Council on Foreign Relations today by conference call. It was fascinating even if much of what I heard was boilerplate. What was frustrating, however, was that Clinton virtually ignored Africa, mentioning President Obama’s Ghana speech in passing and then only to draw some […]
President Obama is set to arrive in Ghana this weekend for his first trip to Sub-Saharan Africa. Symbolically this is probably an important moment but in terms of actual policy, or even politics, it probably means very little. Ghana is, as Texas in Africa points out in this smart synthesis of the previews of Obama’s […]