Forty-five activists of Zimbabwe’s International Socialist Organization have been charged with treason for discussing political events in Egypt and other Arab countries. “Zimbabwean prosecutors say socialist Munyaradzi Gwisai and 44 members of his organization watched videos of events in the Mideast and conspired to overthrow President Robert Mugabe and the government,” reports VOA. With the […]
Early this month, in one of my blog entries, I bemoaned the African Union being led by dictators and autocrats. Well, AU is not alone, Libya (of course under Gadhafi) made it to the chairmanship of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Now discussions are underway to expel Libya from the the UN’s top human […]
There is no denying about Colonel Gadhafi’s support for Namibia’s fight for independence! But Honorable Theo-Ben Gurirab’s, the Speaker of Parliament, failure to forcefully denounce Ghadafi’s murderous campaign against protesters leaves much to be desired. The career diplomat and Namibia’s first Foreign Affairs Minister told the Namibian newspaper that “Namibia’s relationship with Libya will remain […]
Information about the uprising underway in the oil-rich Libya is still sketchy (partly due to government control), but signs are proliferating that the Gaddafi regime’s response is turning out to be the most reckless and brutal in comparison to Tunisia and Egypt’s uprisings. On the website of their newspaper, Azzahf Al-Akhdar (Green March), the Revolutionary […]
Stable Dictatorship! What is it? The fear that the chaos engulfing Egypt may provide opportunity to anti-American radical Islamic militants to seize power is prompting some Western pundits, journalists, and the Mubarak regime to frame the solution to Egypt’s current crisis as a choice between “chaotic democracy” or “stable dictatorship.” This discourse is also prevalent […]
I guess nothing here should come as a shock, but the AU’s credibility and relevancy took another nose dive when the organization elected President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea as the new chairman at the January 30 annual summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Nguema Mbasogo was nominated by the Central African region, and […]
My South African sources tell me that former South African President Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid icon, was discharged from the hospital Friday morning after “undergoing what is being described as a “routine checkup” which stretched into a second day. Mandela’s hospitalization prompted fear at home and abroad that the his health may be failing. Good […]
David Kato, one of the gay men whose picture appeared on the front cover of the Ugandan tabloid Rolling Stone, an anti-gay newspaper, was brutally beaten to death with a harmer in his home in Kampala late Wednesday, 26 January 2011. The Associate Press is reporting that a suspect is in custody, and that the […]
Words are out that on the behalf of the South African President Jacob Zuma, the principal mediator representing SADC, envoys arrived in Zimbabwe to patch up a way forward. All bluff making it as if something is being done, but in reality nothing is happening! Neither is the Southern Africa regional bloc’s strategy of appointing […]
Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is reported to have fled the country, a country he ruled for 23 years, amid anti-govt riots over soaring unemployment and corruption. His whereabouts is still unknown, but (as usual) I am suspecting that he may be headed for Europe. Ordinarily I am not a fan of this […]
As the oil-rich Southern region of Sudan votes on a referendum for independence, George Clooney, Google, the United Nations, and the Harvard Human Initiative have jointly launched a Satellite Sentinel Project to watch the border area that splits north and south Sudan. According to a press release, the aim of the Satellite Sentinel Project is […]
I agree with the old adage that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Despite self-congratulatory speeches and political sloganeering, 2010 has not been the best year for Southern Africa in terms of problem solving, innovation, and policy entrepreneurship. Take for example (as I alluded in one of my previous blog entries): […]
There is no doubt in my mind that the United States Embassy cables released by WikiLeaks are very embarrassing for the US, and could have serious consequences for diplomacy and international relations. But from an African perspective, the disclosure of diplomatic cables refocuses attention, and reinvigorates debate, on some of the critical issues affecting the […]
The leaked US embassy cables not only show that the US is concerned about the love affair between African governments and China, but also uncovered secret dealings in smoke-filled rooms between African governments and Beijing. Such back-door-dealings between Namibia and China is one of the latest diplomatic cables to be made public by Wikileaks. If […]
To borrow from William Butler Yeats’s poem, things fall apart; the centre cannot hold, this time in the Ivory Coast despite the recent election designed to reunify the country. A standoff between the incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo and the opposition leader Alassane Quattara is sliding the country back into another civil war. Stubbornly both men […]