African Affairs

Britain, Hiss- Hiss- History, and the Ni- Ni- Niger Delta

Pius Adesanmi — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:37:55 -0700

“The trouble with the English” stutters Whiskey Sisodia, a character in Salman Rushdie’s famous novel, The Satanic Verses, “is that their hiss- hiss- history happened overseas, so they do- do- don’t know what it means”. read more »

About Ageing...

Wandia Njoya — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:59:31 -0700

Today, my usual Sunday meditations were characterized by a mixture of pride and bafflement at the celebration of Nelson Mandela's 90^th birthday. I am extremely proud of his achievements and his commitment to freedom and humanity that made him survive 27 years in prison. I am also proud that he retired in dignity, rather than waste his legacy and sunset years on fighting with young people over some mediocre patriarchal post otherwise known as the presidency, as Mugabe and other African leaders before him have done. read more »

Third Festival of Negro Arts? By Chika Okeke Agulu

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:10:03 -0700

I understand there are plans to organize the 3rd Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar late next year. Indications are that the current Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade, is spearheading the project. Of course this will, as had the two previous iterations of the festival, provide occasion for amazing events reflecting the rich and diverse cultures of Africa and its Diaspora, as well as intellectual debates on the past, present and future of Africa peoples, societies and states. read more »

Celebrating Madiba: Mandela At 90

Guest Blogger — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:46:40 -0700

Madiba, as former President Nelson Mandela is fondly called in South Africa, is celebrating his 90^th birthday today in his home village of Qunu. read more »

African writing in our time By Mukoma Wa Ngugi

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:56:42 -0700

Each generation of writers is confounded by the simple and clichéd paradox - the more the world changes the more it remains the same. The imagination wants to be freed from the hold of the past, and yet it finds that the present and the material worlds are indelibly tied to that past. I believe it is to this tension that James Baldwin was speaking when he wrote that a writer cannot write outside his or her times.

Transitional Justice in Sexual and Gender-based Violence By Makau Mutua

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:51:31 -0700

It is now fashionable in academic and activist circles to speak of transitional justice in normative, inflexible terms that suggest a utopian certainty. Nothing could be further from the truth. At the outset, we need to understand that transitional justice concepts are experimental - good experiments to be sure - but that they do not offer us tested panacea because they are essentially works in progress. This is not meant to diminish the utility of the concepts or to throw cold water on them as a beachhead for recovering societies with a legacy of traumatic conflict. read more »

The Theodicy of Democracy Stunts African Intellectualism

Wandia Njoya — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:13:27 -0700

Recently, a friend of mine sent me the link to an article in the conservative British newspaper The Times. The article, written by Michael Holman, is entitled "Never Forget How We Created Robert Mugabe." I assumed that it would be another of those written by Western journalists decrying how Zimbabwean women and children are losing their lives due to Mugabe's "anti-imperialism." I was in for a surprise. read more »

Zimbabwe: In Response to My Friend Godwin Murunga, By Ato Onoma

Guest Blogger — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:14:15 -0700

Bwana Murunga I read your very interesting piece, "Is anti-imperialism incompatible with pro-democracy in Zimbabwe?" and readily agreed with your point about anti-imperialism and pro-democracy being compatible. I have always seen the former as primarily meaning the latter. read more »

uMunthu, Peace and Education: On Malawi's 44th Independence Anniversary

Steve Sharra — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:59:38 -0700

One morning at a school near Lake Chirwa in Zomba in 1972, pupils entering their Standard 8 classroom received the shock of their lives. The portrait of then Life President Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda had been defaced. Someone had drawn into the portrait a pair of spectacles, and had written unsavory comments about the then president. The pupils informed the teacher, who informed the school's head. The head immediately convened a staff meeting. After lengthy deliberations, the school administration agreed on investigating to find out who did it. read more »

Is Anti-Imperialism Incompatible with Pro-Democracy in Zimbabwe? By Godwin Murunga

Guest Blogger — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:02:16 -0700

The red flag one is most likely to be confronted with for criticizing the thoroughly illegitimate ‘leader' of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, is imperialism and racism. If you are an African criticizing Mugabe, you are likely to be accused of being guilty of working in cahoots with racist-imperialists. read more »

The Hypocrisy of Kenya's Position on Zimbabwe

Wandia Njoya — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:07:48 -0700

I commend Ndugu Horace Campbell and Ndugu Eusi Kwayana for the best insight I've seen so far into how Africans can view Zimbabwe's crisis. read more »

Struggles Over African Art: The African Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale By Chika Okeke Agulu

Guest Blogger — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:20:01 -0700

For those who have followed the debates around the African Pavilion at the 52^nd Venice Biennale before the exhibition itself, especially those who had no opportunity of seeing the show in Venice, nor of monitoring critical responses to it in the international art media, here are three excerpts from reviews by three major international art magazines: Flash Art, and Art in America and Frieze. These reviews point to the gains and losses of the African project in this year's Venice. read more »

China in Africa By Emmanuel Akyeampong

Guest Blogger — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:04:25 -0700

China has become an important economic resource for Africa in the 21^st century. China's rapidly growing economy has overlapped with an urgent need to diversify African economies, which remain largely based on the export of unprocessed raw materials. China's industries have turned to Africa in search of their mineral and raw material needs. And China has offered Africa the opportunity to develop its infrastructural base to support economic diversification and to improve the transfer of skills in science and technology. read more »

The Curse of Oil Returns and the Search for New Energy Futures

PTZeleza — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:38:54 -0700

Fourteen years ago I had the strange experience of being named by the then Malawi opposition party, the United Democratic Front (UDF), as Shadow Minister for Industry and Energy, strange because I knew nothing about either field. The UDF went on to win the elections thereby ending the thirty-year old dictatorship of President Kamuzu Banda, but I was saved the capricious life of a cabinet minister preferring to continue the far less glamorous career of an academic.

Zimbabwe Burning: Africa Needs to Act by Imposing Sanctions

PTZeleza — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:52:16 -0700

Zimbabwe is burning with unprecedented levels of violence intended to intimidate the population into voting for the octogenarian dictator, President Robert Mugabe, in next week's elections who lost the first round of presidential elections last March to the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai. read more »

Put Your Best Ideas Forward: Kenya Turnaround? By Binyavanga Wainaina

Guest Blogger — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:00:35 -0700

Yesterday I arrived in Kenya, my home when I'm not in the United States. I spent most of my first day back in front of the TV watching our president and our prime minister launch Vision 2030, which is supposed to turn us into Singapore. The document is a supposed compromise between Prime Minister Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement and President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity. I started off my usual cynical self about local politics and was planning to write something about Barack Obama's triumph instead. read more »

Egypt's Never-ending State of Emergency By Mustafa Adam-Noble

Guest Blogger — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:43:44 -0700

Ever since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981, Egypt has been governed under Emergency Law: 27 years worth of "emergencies" constitutionally designated for use only when facing a direct threat, such as a military invasion or a natural disaster. The law, which is supposed to be used in exceptional circumstances, has become the permanent method of governance in Egypt. Interestingly, President Hosni Mubarak has been the country's ruler for all those 27 years.

Pan-Africanists: Our collective duty to Zimbabwe By Horace Campbell and Eusi Kwayana

Guest Blogger — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:03:40 -0700

Zimbabwe, a week before the run off elections for the Presidency, presents many progressive Pan Africanists with a conflict, be it in analysis or action.There are four main competing interests in Zimbabwe, as it is today. First, but not in order of importance are the interests of the ruling party and its supporters. These are followed by those of the Opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its supporters. read more »

Africa's Global Summits: The Rise of the Continent or Back to the Scramble?

PTZeleza — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:05:39 -0700

Hardly a few months now go by without a major summit between Africa and the world's leading economic powers. One and half years ago, in November 2006, there was the glittering Beijing Summit which I wrote about in an earlier blog that brought leaders from 48 African countries to China and signaled to the world China's entry into the world's second largest continent. read more »

Time Mbeki Should Step Down By William Gumede

Guest Blogger — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:20:02 -0700

The cartoonist, aka, Brandon, could not have drawn the nation's collective despair more accurately when he this week likened South Africa Inc to an aeroplane in flames, nosediving out of control, ever downwards to the envitable deadly crash.