South Africa is a Continent
Jacob Zuma says out loud what most South Africans believe about themselves: South Africa isn’t in Africa. It’s somewhere else. Somewhere better.
Politics
Ayn Rand in South Africa
In its current form libertarianism and its worship of the market is utterly irrelevant to South Africa.
Why didn’t the New York Times publish the exposé they commissioned of virulent racism against Africans in Israel?
We’ve written plenty on this blog about the worsening levels of violent racism against Africans in Israel. This time last year Olufemi Terry reflected on a comment by the Israeli immigration minister: “This country belongs to us, to the white man.” Last summer Miri Regev, an MP, told a rally “the Sudanese are like a […]
Signs the journalism on Africa you’ve just encountered is trash
If more than one of these apply to your media source, you're probably not getting your information from the most reliable place.
The Nobel Peace Prize: Totally irrelevant?
It is worth going through some of the dodgiest choices made by the Nobel committee in the time they've awarded the Peace Prize first in 1901.
Palestine scores
European football officials may have missed it, but Palestine already scored several goals in this season’s UEFA Champions League.
The political arrest of Bandile Mdlalose
Bandile is a giant of the Abahlali baseMjondolo social movement, which agitates for housing for poor, black people,
What the Italian press said about Lampedusa
After the death of at least 130 Somalian and Eritrean migrants off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa, the Italian (and European) press is once again filled with words of pathos: the human tragedy, the pictures of lined body bags and the tears of Lampedusans for those who never reached them.
The Jews of Africa
How some American Zionists make connections between Israel and Rwanda.
In Sudan, “freedom for my mum”
In Sudan, the numbers of women political prisoners are rising, largely because the numbers of women protesting the government and the state are rising. Last week, in response to both economic difficulties stemming from South Sudan’s independence (and loss of oil revenues) and World Bank ‘advice’, the government of Sudan ended gas subsidies. Good ‘economic’ sense? […]
Oscar Pistorius to be allowed to visit ailing Mandela–but without his gun
The visit would be a good opportunity for the nation to collectively heal; after all, both Oscar and Madiba have been through adversity.
Smells like Brazil
Angola spends millions of dollars to host the World Championships in roller hockey (yes). Anyone who think it is a waste of money gets beaten up.
Mapping neoliberalism
if there is any city in South Africa most suited to be labelled the 'apartheid city', it would be Cape Town.
Making sense of the terror attacks in Kenya
Follow these sources (a mix from the blogosphere, Twitter and Facebook, including from some mainstream media sources that aren't that bad) to process the Nairobi mall terror attack.
The Disneyfication of Ellen Sirleaf Johnson
The Liberian president mostly gets away with soft pedal press in the West at odds with how Liberians view her or her legacy.
Rastafari and His Imperial Majesty
It's understandable that Rastafari aren’t critical about Haile Selassie, but the idealization of the monarch and Ethiopia in general can prevent critical analysis.
Criminal Media
South Africa's mainstream media has a blindspot: It mostly covers crime as it affects the suburbs and whites. No wonder the readers are misinformed.
Zimbabwe’s Forgotten 20%
Zimbabwe makes a good story for western writers and readers. The staggering racism of the Rhodesian whites, the heroic liberation uprising, and Mugabe; a freedom fighter not unlike Nelson Mandela, who having spent more than a decade in prison, won the first democratic election and immediately called for racial reconciliation. Then, from the late ‘90s, […]
Elections and Ethnicity in Guinea
There is a certain deja vu about how Alpha Conde stays in power: every time there's an election he exploits ethnic divisions.
“Exceptional kaffirs”
The grumblings of dissatisfaction and anger among black readers over stories about deserving blacks in South Africa.