Howls in a hurricane
For South African news media to be ignored is a fate worse than censorship.
Politics
Us and Them: Rape and Racism in India
On December 3, in the Indian capital of Delhi, five men gang-raped a 24-year-old Rwandan woman. They robbed and assaulted her when she was returning to her home in a residential area close to the University of Delhi. The local police tried to keep the assault under wraps. They refused to file a “first information […]
When Nelson Mandela goes
Yesterday we tweeted my friend Herman Wasserman’s guide to the media on how to cover Nelson Mandela’s hospitalization (it’s good advice if you’re a journalist). This morning I asked Nathan Geffen, a South African media activist (and author) whether we could republish here his post on the “when Mandela goes” meme. Geffen is one of the key people […]
Mozambique, the new frontier of global capitalism
What is being cultivated at the new frontier of global capitalism—and for whom?
Renouncing the Rhino
My beef with rhinos is more of a beef with white South Africa as a whole, who are all for saving rhinos but largely silent about inequality, poverty and institutional racism.
Six lessons from Ghana’s 2012 elections
Here's on lesson from Ghana's 2012 election: Not only is Akufo-Addo the Ghanaian Mitt Romney, but the NPP are the Republicans of Ghana
What was Strauss-Kahn wearing?
Euro-American media just can't do right by Nafissatou Diallo, the Guinean hotel worker who accused a prominent French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault in a New York City hotel. Even though she effectively won the case.
First Thoughts on Mali’s Second Coup
Mali's interim Prime Minister is forced out by soldiers. What that means for Mali’s political future is anyone’s guess, but it doesn’t look good.
The Fairtrade Façade
What are we to do, as consumers, if Fairtrade is little more than a marketing gimmick? Should we avoid products marked with its logo? Are we being conned?
Political violence as routine
Most media reports of “political murders” in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa don't situate them in their larger historical context.
Foreign Correspondents and False Notes
Foreign journalists would do well to get their heads around Mali’s crisis, because all signs are that it will be around for a while.
Ghana’s elections: Back to the future
Most of the same issues and personalities that featured in the 2008 elections dominate in the 2012 elections.
Law and Order
The United States' star mercenary, Erik Prince of Blackwater, protects Chinese investment around the African continent.
The Joyce Banda Malawians know
It is becoming apparent that Malawian presidents have one image for the world and a separate one, mostly negative, for the people who actually voted them into power.
The danger of Africans becoming more “like us”
Discussions of the "shifting disease burden" fail to recognize that in the West diabetes or heart disease are not “diseases of affluence,” but diseases of poverty.
Hope Floats
The Globe and Mail's opinion page promotes outmoded and discredited ideas about modernization about African development.
Development always comes with a political agenda
An interview with the leaders of a viral online campaign originating in Norway aimed at exposing European ignorance about the foolhardiness of humanitarianism in Africa.
The View from the Cape
The chance that the lives of South Africa's poor will change for the better without struggle, is slim.
Bono’s Big Ideas for Africa
Please, no more articles claiming to discuss African issues, but which are just rock stars turning up at US universities spouting nonsense.
How to write about children in Africa
Children's Radio Foundation's shows are a testament to children’s capacity to be agents for change and to confront critical community issues themselves.