Helen Suzman, longtime stalwart of the Progressive Party and its various iterations (the Progressive Reform Party, the Progressive Federal Party), passed away on Thursday at the age of 91. Suzman was a long-time thorn in the side of the National Party, and if the Progressives’ anti-Apartheid bona fides have sometimes been overstated, her commitment to changing […]
General Summary: It is nearly impossible to provide a cogent summary of a year in the life of a continent as vast and as diverse as Africa. With more than four dozen nation states, about a billion people, and vast geographic scope, it is impossible and even foolhardy to try to encapsulate the continent with […]
On Sunday Ghanaians will go to the polls again to vote in their country's presidential runoff election after neither of the two main contenders achieved 50% of the vote earlier this month in Ghana's national elections. Nana Akufo-Addo, a lawyer running for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) faces off against John Atta-Mills, a law professor representing the opposition National […]
As if circumstances are not difficult in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the country has now seen a new outbreak of Ebola. The DRC is a country that never seems to catch a break and rarely makes its own good fortune.
Links: International Journal of Socialist Review has put together the “exchange” between respected Africanists Mahmood Mamdani and Patrick Bond over the situation in Zimbabwe that stems from Bond's rigorous response to an article (also included, indeed it is Mamdani's contribution to the exchange) Mamdani wrote in the London Review of Books. You can access other articles on […]
The New Republic has an editorial on the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The editors argue for vigorous action on the part of The West and use as their justification the Rwandan links with the nightmare in the eastern DRC and the West's very inaction during the Rwanda genocide in 1994. Both […]
In an essay specially commissioned by The Mail & Guardian Thabo Mbeki biographer Mark Gevisser reflects on Mbeki's no good very bad year. Gevisser is one of the most astute observers of South African politics, and this piece provides pretty good evidence as to why.
It is probably the first question most people ask when given a thumbnail sketch of the nightmare in Zimbabwe (and, to be honest, in many other places not only in Africa but around the globe): How do people survive? In the case of Zimbabwe, with its inflation in the hundreds of millions (231 million or […]
The Proteas just finished off a historic victory over the Aussies in test cricket Down Under. Beyond the fact that any victory over Australia is worthy of celebration, especially on their home turf where they are fierce, South Africa won by accumulating the second-highest run total for a chasing team in the annals of test […]
With all of the grim economic tidings, both real and perceived, current and forecast, the Western Cape appears to have received some good news. The Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce expects the province to see modest economic growth in the coming year even as the rest of the country faces recession.
Here is a quick tour of stories on Zimbabwe making the news, offered with little commentary: SADC has launched an aid program to deal with Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis. Specific details are scarce, and one wonders if the aid will come with any element of pressure whatsoever. The United States claims that it will not work […]
The Mail & Guardian has published its annual grades for the entire South African cabinet. Here is Part I, and here is Part II. The grades run the gamut from A+ to F- and as someone who has followed the annual grades for years I think it is safe to say that the M&G does […]
At Pambazuka News Rafael Marques de Morais has a pretty savvy commentary on September's elections in Angola. A sample from the introduction: I would like to share with you a perspective on the legislative elections that took place in Angola on 5 and 6 September 2008. These elections are of profound historical significance for both […]
Today's Sunday Washington Post had two articles featuring South Africa. A rather reductionist, simplistic, (and jarringly self righteous) editorial decries South African inaction with regard to Zimbabwe. Yes, we all wish South Africa would do more. But tellingly the editors proffer few concrete solutions and cover ground that has been covered better elsewhere. Meanwhile, at least in part because […]