How many international sporting programs would look at a season of nine wins and four losses as a disaster? One such situation is playing out in South Africa, where the Springboks are in England to play the hosts at Twickenham this weekend. From The Mail & Guardian, “The End of a Dismal Year“: A disappointing […]
With the announcement that it plans to lay 2,300 kilometers of fiber-optic cable in the next year, Rwanda has taken the lead in communications technology in Central Africa. Nearly any discussion about Rwanda, whether positive or critical, takes place against the backdrop of the 1994 genocide and the context that created it. This decision marks […]
Time magazine argues in a recent piece on Mugabe that the intransigent president “clings on, but his power is waning.” I have no quarrels with the article, which hits all of the necessary marks in a piece written for a genralist audience that has little background on Zimbabwe (or most any other particular African issue). […]
Piracy in the Gulf of Aden off the Somali Coast continues apace. The Economist tries to figure out what it all means.
Many observers inside and outside of South Africa worry whether the country will be able to pull off the Fifa World Cup in 2010. South Africa will be fine. There will be occasional stumbles, and the masses descending on South Africa will have to deal with periodic glitches that might frustrate those expecting another Germany, […]
Recent rebel pullbacks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have inspired some tepid hope that full-scale chaos is avoidable. But while we all want good news to emerge from the beleaguered Congo, the reality is that good news usually ends up being fleeting. Anneke van Woudenberg, a senior researcher on the DRC for Human […]
Today marks the deadline for the new Congress of the People (Cope) to respond in writing to the ANC's legal demands that the new organization change its name. The ANC's attempts to force a name change from Core strikes me as a petty and frivolous nuisance. It would be hard for the ANC to claim […]
The Movement for Democratic Change's Morgan Tsvangirai does not want further sanctions placed on Zimbabwe. Whatever the country's political situation, which seems likely to remain as fragmented and stalemated as ever, with Robert Mugabe firmly in control, Tsvangirai sees sanctions only doing harm to a populace already suffering deeply. Tsvangirai clearly seems to take into […]
South African politics are nothing if not colorful. Senzo Mchunu, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary general of the African National Congress claims that the Congress of the People's Mosiuoa Lekota needs to stop “urinating” on the ANC.
In an exciting change, the Foreign Policy Association is combining the South Africa Blog with this Africa Blog, which will be the new permanent site of FPA Africa commentary. I will continue to post on South African issues, but this transition will be better for me, as keeping both blogs has not always been easy, […]
It is probably not particularly surprising that the dissidents who broke from the ANC to form the Congress of the People (Cope) are also rethinking the relationship between parties, government, and the state. Cope chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota argued on Sunday in Durban that South Africans should have the opportunity to vote for individuals rather than […]
Is it possible for a honeymoon to end before the wedding vows have been exchanged? Even as the ANC continues to suffer high-profile defections, the Shikota Movement and its Congress of the People (Cope appears to be the new acronym) is rumored to be beset by divisions. Even if we grant the possibility that many […]
What options does the United States have to help address the ugly stalemate in Somalia? Bronwyn Bruton, an International Policy Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has an assessment at the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ Africa Policy Forum.
South Africa's highest court has unequivocally rejected Thabo Mbeki's application to have the decision that effectively cost him his Presidency (or at least provided the excuse for his antagonists to unsheath the knives) reconsidered. The National Prosecuting Authority is appealing the same case, albeit on different grounds, but ultimately, Mbeki's long-shot effort has failed, and […]