Politics
Eggs and omelettes
The existence of African billionaires are not positive evidence of “Africa rising,” but testament to the extreme inequality characterizing economic growth on the continent.
France in Mali: The End of the Fairytale
This is not a neo-colonial offensive. The argument that it is might be comfortable and familiar, but it is bogus and ill-informed.
Not an African Christmas
If the image of the starving black child has been deemed obsolete, then so has the Western “we” that claimed so much power for itself in the late 1980s.
Why does the BBC care what FW de Klerk thinks?
It's 2012 and FW de Klerk still thinks Apartheid had been beneficial to its black victims. Yet global media treats him like an analyst on South African politics.
François Hollande went to Algeria
Hollande’s visit coincided with a vote in the UN Security Council authorizing ECOWAS intervention in Mali; something Algeria, Mali's northern neighbor, objected to.
Waiting for Superman
The idea that leadership is the panacea to South Africa's varied troubles, is asserted as an almost axiomatic truth amongst South Africa's monotonous punditry.
Woman of the Year
Alice Nkom, the brave, activist lawyer, harassed and imprisoned by Cameroon's repressive regime on the government's actions: "Threats like these show us that the fight must continue.”
We write what we like about Steve Biko
What does it mean for a dead man to live through us, as we chant his name and claim him?
Rethinking mental illness
The diagnostic parameters need to be completely overhauled as they embody a Western mode of understanding which itself is culturally bound.
All the immigrants’ crimes in Italy
The online work of Italian rightwing websites to establish the idea that immigrants are dangerous for the Italian society
Howls in a hurricane
For South African news media to be ignored is a fate worse than censorship.
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?