Hair politics and other Weekend Specials
With this, I am bringing back Weekend Special for all those things we don't have the time to blog about or say more than the required 140 characters on Twitter.
Politics
No, Africans don’t remember Margaret Thatcher fondly
Thatcher’s energetic opposition to sanctions and support for right wing forces prolonged the state of violence across the breadth of Southern Africa.
Al Jazeera Goes French
Al Jazeera is planning a French language version of its news network. That means, government funded France 24 will be in direct competition with it for viewership in Africa and amongst the continent's French speaking diaspora.
The story of a lost white boy
The story of Happy Sindane, the lost white boy, who put a lie to South Africa's rainbow shibboleths.
Can African Heads of State speak
Why when African leaders meet Barack Obama, they are received in groups (unlike all other heads of state) and rarely get to speak?
The Steve Biko Party
What has Steve Bantu Biko got to do with partying and spring in the Netherlands?
Whose Commemoration
The trouble with the official Dutch commemoration of the abolition of slavery. It leaves out the descendants of victims altogether.
Egyptian women won’t be blamed for sexual assaults
Also, dispelling the myth that all Arab men systematically oppress and victimize Arab women.
Chinua Achebe The Writer Lives On
To my ear Achebe’s voice is always measured even at its most defiant.
Welcome to Mali
France's intervention never offered a real solution to any of Mali's problems, but created a set of problems to the ones this country would otherwise have faced.
The prerogative of a lame duck President
Why Goodluck Jonathan's presidential pardons are a bad idea.
Another Side of the Story
An interview with the managing editor of "Daily News Egypt," two-years after the Egyptian uprising.
How many Twitter activists make one vote?
The problem with so many Twitter crowd members is they live in their comfort zone and are not about to lift a finger to get out of there.
Who killed Thomas Sankara?
A French Communist MP announced he would press the French National Assembly to create an inquiry commission to investigate the 1987 assassination of Thomas Sankara.
The monster under the house
Elections provide opportunities for national self-examination and renewal, maybe not in Kenya.
The Western Journalist in Africa
The question for Western journalists is this – when it comes to Africa, why do you not tell the whole story of the humanity at work even in times of extreme violence?