Politics
The land grabs in Africa you don’t hear about
There's little doubt that Chinese and Arab interests are procuring land in Africa, but a careful review of the evidence suggests also point to local buyers.
A short history of helping far-off peoples
Humanitarian images have obscured the causes and political complexities of disasters, and undermined the agency of their victims — both symbolically and practically.
South Africa, Post-Trauma
To what extent has South Africa and South Africans failed to address the aftermath of Apartheid, the resonances of which can be felt to this day? To what extent are we living in a post-traumatic space?
We will send an insult to your mum
The Mathare Social Justice Center's activists work to shake off the menacing insults of forced evictions, tenure insecurity, police violence and increasing precarity.
The impasse in Zanzibar
After a tough election in Tanzania, won by the ruling party, a constitutional crisis looms in Zanzibar.
A New Day in Côte d’Ivoire?
The incumbent Alassane Ouattara’s electoral sweep might be a good outcome for Côte d’Ivoire.
What is the university for?
We should not be tempted to idealize the university ‘as it was’ – especially in a country like South Africa.
The tyranny of distance, up close
The larger story of the United States’s rapidly expanding military interests and presence on the continent.
Guatemala’s blackface president
Jimmy Morales, Guatemala's new president, is basically a proxy for the country's very powerful lobby of rightwing former military men.
Fallism For What
After the reawakening of South African student activism, what next? It is at the point of the rub between race, class and gender politics that the difficult questions present themselves.
Our Eleven Minute Film about Fees Must Fall
"Shutting Down the Rainbow Nation" lets mostly women students, mostly from Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape, articulate for themselves what is going on in this moment.
We Are Called Those Who Have Come
The fearlessness with which South African students confront their society's contradictions, suggests much more than fees may fall.
The Illusion of South American Unity
Real regional integration would mean both the end of trade barriers and the local subsidies that distort trade flows and prevent competition.