In ten days Zimbabwe will embark on the process of writing a new constitution. This process will either represent a great step forward for Zimbabwe’s future or will mark President Robert Mugabe’s last intransigent stand. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai knows that his fellow Zimbabweans still live in fear. The question is whether the constitution-writing process […]
Refugees are fleeing strife-torn Somalia for Kenya by the thousands. This strikes me as a recipe for chaos. Kenya’s vast refugee camps, already stretched, will absorb them, but at a tremendous potential cost in health, safety, and lawfulness. The United Nations worries that its food supplies will not be sufficient to cover the needs of […]
President Obama’s speech in Cairo today revealed the difficult balancing act he faces in trying to address conflicts that have generally eluded most American presidents. Reaching out to the Muslim World while condemning Islamic extremism, shoring up alliances while pressing for greater democratization and freedoms, and generally wielding both carrots and sticks is always a […]
Doctors Without Borders has released a report and an accompanying video giving details on the struggles of Zimbabwean expatriates in South Africa.
Although President Barack Obama’s first trip to Sub-Saharan Africa will take him to Ghana, his current trip to Egypt marks his first official visit to the continent as President. There are myriad reasons why, when talking about Africa, people will exclude Egypt. Certainly this blog is overwhelmongly (and largely unapologetically) about Africa South of the Sahara. Some of […]
South African President Jacob Zuma has given his first State of the Nation address and, not surprisingly, economic issues have taken center stage. Will the current slump have an effect on Zuma’s plans? In his speech Zuma promised that the recession will not effect the general direction Zuma plans on taking, but it may slow the pace of […]
Members of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have claimed responsibility for murdering a British hostage in Mali. Edwin Dyer was one member of a group of European tourists kidnapped after attending the African music “Festival in the Desert” near Timbuktu. Radical Islamic groups have been attempting to extend their reach south across the Sahara […]
The latest issue of The Atlantic has a titanic feature on South African President Jacob Zuma. Douglas Foster’s piece is as extensive as anything I have seen in either the United States or the UK.
Final quick hits before I leave Keele in an hour or so: President Barack Obama has the equivalent of the Midas touch for journalists: If he can be associated with an idea, a product, a movement, or whatever it is you are trying to cover, you (and in some cases your topic) have hit the […]
The Guardian Weekend magazine had a nice feature on Desmond Tutu this past Saturday. Tutu is on the receiving end of one of the strangest phenomena in the current political dialogue. When conservatives mention Tutu they almost always do so to criticize him, and they almost always use the same word, referring to Tutu as […]
It is my last full day at England’s Keele University, where I have spent the last month as a fellow at the David Bruce Centre for American Studies. Tomorow I begin a tortuous journey toward London and on Friday I’ll depart Heathrow for my return flight to Texas. I am wrapping up lots of loose […]
Sad news has stricken the African Studies community. Glen Elder, a geographer at the University of Vermont, died of a heart attack while jogging this weekend. He was only 42 years old. I only knew Glen slightly based on interactions I have had with him in his capacity as one of the leading lights in […]
I suppose there will be an element of celebration for the “underdogs” for those inclined to celebrate Darfur’s Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) successfully seizing the town of Umm Baru from the control of Sudanese soldiers. But while I have no problem with categorizing Khartoum as the bad guys in Sudan’s destabilization, it does not […]
The leader of one political party accusing the leaders of another political party of doing grave and deleterious harm to a country’s democracy, as th Congress of the People’s (COPE) Terror Lekota claimed about the African National Congress (ANC) recently, is pretty much par for the course in South Africa and globally. The real surprise […]
In Sunday’s New York Times, Denise Grady has an important feature on the disturbing death rates of women during childbirth and labor, most of which are easily avoidable. Of some 536,000 women who die a year giving birth, more than half live in Africa.