The turn to book burning in South Africa
A political culture, often facilitated by social media, has emerged that many people experience as authoritarian and bullying.
Politics
#ThisFlag, social media and political agency in Zimbabwe.
In Zimbabwe, the leap from online conversation to citizen protest has followed the same path as other protest movements around the world.
The Empire Strikes Back
Or how Africa won Euro 2016 for Portugal.
Fed up and not afraid!
Following weeks of public demonstrations against corruption, bad governance and a rapidly deteriorating economy, people all across Zimbabwe heeded a call last week for a nationwide stay-away, in an act of defiance against the government. In recent weeks, protests both within and outside the country have increased in both number and intensity. On Friday July […]
Africa’s austerity apocalypse
The rowing acceptance of what critics of structural adjustment programs have been arguing for decades, (seems to have had minimal impact on the IMF's actions.
The Last Journalists in a Dictatorship
Anjan Sundaram’s Rwanda exists in an authoritarian bubble characterized by fear and repression.
What does Brexit mean for Africa?
The short answer: The UK doesn’t have the same influence on the continent that it did decades ago. And Brexit will be further proof of that.
Africa is a Radio: Episode #17
In the shadow of the Brexit vote, on this episode of Africa is a Radio, we celebrate the UK Afrobeats scene – another homegrown, immigrant enriched culture out of London and its surrounding environs. Along with that, we do the usual visit to the African continent and its diaspora to see what’s going on around […]
What Muhammad Ali Believed
Muhammad Ali's political life was like his boxing career: as frustrating and contradictory as it was principled and selfless.
What African economies need: good, old fashioned industrial policy
In terms of economic development, most African countries are operating below the least developed country income threshold of $1,035 per person. While developing countries in East Asia, most importantly China, have been lifting millions of people out of poverty at break-neck speed, Africa’s poverty rate has barely budged. In 2011, 69.5% of people in sub-Saharan Africa […]
No higher form of hypocrisy
Why is the United States, not a signatory to the Rome Statute, defending the honor of the International Criminal Court?
Is it too late now to say sorry?
The IMF is now acknowledges its neoliberal agenda over the last couple of decades was a mistake. Should we take them at their word.
Kenya’s Refugee “Problem”
The government is using the refugee population as red meat in local politics and a bargaining chip for more international aid.
Racial nationalism and the political imagination
The little-known story of how US-based Pan Africanists responded to white racism and a corrupt school system by founding their own schools in the 1960s and 1970s.
Julius Malema’s Tailored Revolution
The color red, berets, and plain workers’ clothing have all become potent aesthetic symbols for South Africa's EFF.
Intersectionality and Economics
Postcolonial and intersectional theories, the dominant tendencies in student movements, suffer from an absence of economic analysis.
The legacy of Albert Johanneson
Imagine the exposed position black players were in English football in the 1960s: the only black man in the stadium, never mind on the field.
Could Angola have prevented its yellow fever epidemic?
Angola is in the midst of a yellow fever outbreak that has caught worldwide attention. Between December 5, 2015 and Monday of this week the World Health Organization reported 298 deaths and the majority of these have occurred in the capital city of Luanda. While this is the official figure, the actual number of deaths […]
Postapartheid South Africa’s negative moment
The political theorist Achille Mbembe, from the University of the Witswatersrand in Johannesburg, describes South Africa as experiencing a “negative moment.” Though protest and dissatisfaction with the terms of the “new” South Africa have been brewing for some time, there is a strong sense that the black majority is losing patience with the ruling African […]
Fantastically Corrupt
Where did UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, get the idea Nigeria and Afghanistan were the most corrupt countries worldwide and the UK was squeaky clean?