Morgan Tsvangirai is threatening to walk out of the negotiations in Zimbabwe if abductions of members of his Movement for Democratic Change continue. In a context within which reason prevails, this would seem a perfectly reasonable stand to take. One assumes, then, that Robert Mugabe will find a way to turn Tsvangirai's stance into an […]
It appears that the ANC is beginning to understand that the Congress of the People is not going away, its leaders and increasingly robust membership is serious, and that COPE will be a factor in the 2009 elections. The ANC believes that COPE might be able to draw about 10% of the popular vote, thus […]
The United Nations, via a statement from Secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, has acknowledged that the peacekeeping mission in Darfur faces “enormous challenges.” This unfortunate, but not unexpected, news allows me the flimsy pretext to remind you of my FPA analysis on Darfur, “‘Never Again,’ Again.”
It is hard not to frame the war of words between the African National Congress and the Congress of the People as akin to the two toughest kids in school meeting up on the playground. The hints of threats pass from the lips of ANC spokesmen even as COPE's people claim not to be at […]
Robert Mugabe is using allegations (most of which appear to be of his own creation) of a plot against ZANU-PF leaders as justification to engage in what The Mail & Guardian is calling “a new, bloody, crackdown” on the opposition. Given that Mugabe and his spokespeople are blaming the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for […]
The Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA; full disclosure — I have been a member since the organization's founding) will be holding a forum with the U.S. Air Force Research Institute on February 13, 2009 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Air Command and Staff College at Alabama's […]
The Atlantic Philanthropies has cast its gaze on South Africa, and particularly on the issues of land reform and protecting the country's rural poor. From this page you can access the (pdf) Atlantic Report, “Lessons From A Communications Campaign For South Africa's Rural Poor.”
I realize that there is little that is funny about the situation in Somalia, including the piracy crisis that is the direct result of the anarchy and statelessness dominating that country on Africa's Horn. That said, is it just me, or does the following headline from the Mail & Guardian seem more like the promotional […]
Want to start a debate among South Africans? Get several of them together and ask what positive developments are likely to spring from the country's preparations to host the 2010 World Cup? Inevitably you’ll get someone passionately telling you that it is nothing more than an ill-fated jingoistic boondoggle while someone else argues as ardently […]
Kgalema Motlanthe has rejected as unnecessary calls for an investigation of the arms deal, which increasingly threatens to undermine the ANC even further at a time when the ruling party needs all the help it can get. It seems certain that between the work of the Scorpions, the investigations of the media, and probes from […]
Not that I’d get my hopes up, but the government and the National Congress in Defense of the People (CNDP), the main rebel militia, are meeting in United Nations-brokered talks to end the fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The events, at UN African headquarters in Nairobi,are being facilitated bu Olesegun Obasanjo, […]
The international community has perked itself up over Zimbabwe again. As the country's post-election chaos swirled the West shook its head and waved its fingers, then the stalemate settled in and by and large Zimbabwe disappeared from the consciousness of most of the world. This is how the world deals with Africa. Today it's Zimbabwe, […]
The Foreign Policy Association has published a lengthy piece that I have been working on for quite a while, “Never Again,” Again: The Darfur Crisis. It is also available in .pdf, with footnotes, here. The opening paragraph: The pattern is relentless, bleak, frustrating, and odiously predictable. The leadership of Sudan and its murderous minions engage […]
If it is true that the Congress of the People (COPE) already has 40,000 members before it has even gotten off the ground (with the caveat being that these numbers come from COPE's own people) , the ANC might need to start worrying at least a little bit. The ANC has name recognition, serious historical […]