The Tri-Nations tournament resumes this weekend at Cape Town's Newlands Stadium. The Springboks will clash against the All Blacks in a game both sides will desperately want to win to keep their hopes alive of emerging as the winners of the annual clash of the giants of Southern hemisphere rugby. The home-field advantage will serve […]
The Zimbabwean negotiations continue to provide a constant source of suspense and drama. The recent reports that Mugabe had brokered a deal excluding Morgan Tsvangirai from a new unity government appear to have been the result of confusion (or perhaps represented a trial balloon that lost air quickly upon release). The talks continued through last […]
The international community might not be thrilled with the recent coup in Mauritania, but the country's parliament has given the new military junta its overwhelming support and has asked the rest of the world to recognize the country's new direction. The fact that the military resorted to a coup is still disquieting, but perhaps this […]
Nigeria and Cameroon have come to an agreement in which Nigeria will cede to the former the possibly oil-rich (and long disputed) Bakassi peninsula. Nigeria is not exactly acting merely out of largesse. The international community has engaged in more than its share or arm twisting over the Bakassi dispute, and Nigeria appears to be […]
At The New Republic Richard Just has a long and important review essay on the Darfur crisis. He uses ten books to explore western inaction in the face of what he argues might be the most well-covered ongoing genocide in history. The West is not alone in its inaction, of course. African leaders could have […]
So much for optimism. In a move that embodies the man's hubris, Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party has negotiated a deal with the Movement for Democratic Change. The catch is that he brokered the agreement not with Morgan Tsvangirai's wing of the MDC, which represents the vast majority of the party (and thus at minimum […]
In The Star, Mosibudi Mangene wonders about the state of South Africa's democracy, with Zimbabwe as the looming warning post. The Zimbabwe analogy is, I suppose, a logical one (just as those who wanted to make sense of the Zimbabwe election fiasco looked to Kenya, and those wanting to understand Kenya looked elsewhere as well). […]
An optimistic narrative seems to have taken over the commentary and reporting on Zimbabwe. The Wall Street Journal, for example, trumpets how Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai, and the other participants in the ongoing talks are close to a power-sharing agreement. Some of the hardened cynics writing at The Mail & Guardian have even dared to […]
There is some apparent good news for the South African economy. Business confidence appears to be up marginally since June. Just what impact this will have on the economy at large is far from clear. Nonetheless, since the economic elites outside of government tend to be those who are most pessimistic about South Africa, this […]
The controversy over the role of the elite special investigations unit known as the Scorpions has festered in South Africa since almost the inception of that organization. Because of the way in which the Scorpions have been kept separate from the regular police services there has been considerable tension between the SAPS and the new […]
Is the longstanding animosity between hostile neighbors Ethiopia and Eritrea about to flare again? The Council on Foreign relations fears as much.
Optimists aver that a power sharing agreement might be close in Zimbabwe. I will believe it when I see it. Michael Georgy asks and answers a series of questions speculating about what's next. I hope that the participants can reach an agreement, but the questions that Georgy and no one else has answered are what is […]
On the 10th anniversary of the embassy bombings in Kenya, the government has vowed greater vigilance on the issue of terrorism. Radical Islamist terrorism is likely to be an increasing factor in East African life in the foreseeable future, and it is wise for Kenya to take the issue more seriously, though this heightened awareness […]
The potentially bad news is that there has been a coup in Mauritania. In the country's capital, Nouakchott, General Mohammad al-Abdul Aziz, the head of the presidential guard, and General Mohammad al-Ghazwani, the army chief-of-staff, both of whom had recently been fired have taken control of the presidential palace. Officers seized President Sidi Mohamed Ould […]
The Christian Science Monitor has embarked on a vitally important four-part series on how Kenya stepped back from the brink of catastrophe in the wake of its hotly contested elections in January. The country, which appeared to be a shining example of the successes of liberal democracy in Africa, found itself on the precipice when […]