Comment & analysis
RSS FeedSouth Africa: Battle of the egos at Rondebosch Common
Charlene Houston
2012-02-09, Issue 569
People are beginning to search beyond political parties for solutions. The youth are doubtful even of old style community organisations and are now exploring new forms of activism and new vehicles for change.
Ethiopia: Middle Passage to the Middle East
From the International Slave Trade to the International Maid Trade
Alemayehu G. Mariam
2012-01-19, Issue 566
cc L PIn what classifies as modern day slavery, Ethiopian women sent to work in the Middle East have few rights and are subject to widespread abuse.
The Garowe principles: a solution or a deepening of the Somali crisis?
Osman D. Osman
2012-01-19, Issue 566
cc A EA Somali National Consultative Constitutional Conference took place in December 2011 and issued the Garowe Principles. The jury is out on whether the principles will have any impact on the Somali crisis.
Southern Africa: Democracy without the citizens
Ndumba Kamwanyah
2012-01-12, Issue 565
cc T LSouthern Africa’s ‘democracies’ do not produce citizens but subjects controlled by governments due to the hierarchical nature of the region’s politics, which demands obedience. But for how long will this go on?
South Africa: ANC leadership battles should be open and democratic
William Gumede
2011-12-20, Issue 564
cc L DMuch of the infighting in South Africa’s ANC, which is paralysing both government and the party, is the result of outdated codes, traditions and rituals governing the elections of leaders of the party, especially that of the president, writes William Gumede.
Ethiopia’s Awramba Times: More powerful than ten thousand bayonets
Alemayehu G. Mariam
2011-12-08, Issue 562
cc M JTwo weeks ago, Ethiopia’s last independent weekly stopped publication after its managing editor was ‘forced to flee the country’. Zenawi has ‘finally succeeded in smashing and trashing Ethiopia’s free press,’ writes Alemayehu G. Mariam.
New academy to propel women into leadership
Zaya Yeebo and Scholastica Marenya
2011-12-08, Issue 562
cc E BThe Women’s Leadership Academy will mobilise ambitious Kenyan women leaders in every village, town, county and constituency and build their skills to the level where they are able to compete with men for the various political positions in the constitution.
Reorienting Kenyan youth towards constructive change
Zaya Yeebo
2011-12-08, Issue 562
cc K BDo the Kenyan youth understand the anti-colonial struggle of their forefathers? How about neo-colonialism and attempts to re-colonise Africa? Zaya Yeebo writes that serious efforts to jolt the youth into action should go beyond the dollars splurged by the US embassy in Nairobi.
COP 17: A few key issues summarised
Trust for Community Outreach and Education
2011-12-01, Issue 560
cc World BankIn this briefing TCOE, one of the lead organisations in the Rural Women’s Assembly at COP17, sets out some key issues at stake in this week’s climate change conference in Durban.
20 years of 16 days of Activism, how far are we?
Shuvai Nyoni Kagoro
2011-11-30, Issue 560
cc L WOn the 20th anniversary of the global Sixteen Days of Activism on gender violence campaign, Shuvai Nyoni Kagoro asks whether ‘the millions of dollars spent in cash and human time’ have significantly reduced the violence women and other marginalised groups face ‘because of their gender’.
Paul Biya’s rogue governance of Cameroon
Peter Wuteh Vakunta
2011-11-29, Issue 560
cc WikimediaPresident Paul Biya’s regime has deeply disillusioned the Cameroonian people, writes Peter Wuteh Vakunta. But Biya will not be president forever, so the challenge for Cameroonians is to look beyond the failed leadership and begin to imagine a new future for themselves.
Uganda: We need to guard against ethnic polarisation
Vincent Nuwagaba
2011-11-24, Issue 559
cc The long reign of President Museveni has worsened negative ethnicity in Uganda. Vincent Nuwagaba, himself a victim of ethnic prejudice, urges his compatriots to reject the vice and fight for justice for all regardless of ethnic origins.
We are still here
Occupy Cape Town attempts to decolonise Thibault Square
Jared Sacks
2011-11-23, Issue 559
Jared Sacks gives an update on the Occupy Cape Town movement, suggesting that it is also becoming 'about decolonising this city; about reversing the dispossession of Cape Town from its inhabitants and making visible those that become hidden between the skyscrapers'.
Russia's slow engagement hinders marriage
Kester Kenn Klomegah
2011-11-17, Issue 558
cc WikimediaAfrica has 36 embassies in Moscow but, despite long relations with Russia, economic cooperation remains weak, writes Kester Kenn Klomegah. African countries and Russia need to do more to exploit the huge potential the relationship holds.
Swaziland: The time to cross the Rubicon is upon us
Bongani Masuku
2011-11-09, Issue 557
cc Salym FayadBongani Masuku believes that Swaziland has reached a point of no return. The momentum towards democracy and a society free of corruption and royal abuse in the name of culture is irreversible.
World Bank partners with Nestlé to ‘transform water sector’
New venture aims to privatise water country by country
Corporate Accountability International
2011-11-03, Issue 556
cc B FThe World Bank's new partnership with corporations aimed at transforming the water sector is 'part of a broader trend of industry collusion to influence global water policy', writes Corporate Accountability International.
Zimbabwean diamond workers treated no different to prisoners
Khadija Sharife
2011-11-03, Issue 556
cc F DEarlier this week, Kimberley Process experts meeting in Congo agreed to allow Zimbabwe to sell diamonds from the controversial Marange fields. Khadija Sharife writes about documents which reveal the conditions that Zimbabwean diamond miners operate under.
The face and challenge of Muslim women’s movements
Salma Maoulidi
2011-10-27, Issue 554
cc A KThe dominant discourse among Muslim women tends to be about dated cultural rules and practices, writes Salma Maoulidi. But activists are now increasingly preoccupied with contemporary questions such as leadership and political participation, as was the case at a recent conference in Istanbul
Cape Town administration violates the rights of the poor
Carmen Ludwig
2011-10-26, Issue 554
cc D RIn July, Carmen Ludwig took part in the World Congress of Education International in Cape Town, speaking to a number of activists and occupants of land. Here are her thoughts.
What now, Libya?
Cameron Duodu
2011-10-27, Issue 554
cc S AFollowing the death of Gaddafi, Libyan communities ‘will have to work together to prevent the nation from disintegrating or being recolonised,’ writes Cameron Duodu.
‘Hope and Challenge’: A little known part of Tunisia's historic election
Amanda Sebestyen
2011-10-20, Issue 553
cc N NIn the run-up to Tunisia’s first free elections on 23 October, Amanda Sebeysten shares the manifesto of a small independent party, linked to an association of unemployed graduates in in Kasserine, a town in the country’s interior which lost the largest number of lives in the revolution.
Kenya and the ICC: The power of apology
Shailja Patel
2011-10-19, Issue 553
cc D DSureta Chana, defence lawyer for victims of post-election violence in the ICC trials, helped prosecute scores of Kenyan’s for sedition under the Moi regime. Shouldn’t she make an apology to the people she herself harmed, asks Shailja Patel.
Occupy Grahamstown: Hope for South Africa’s left?
Ben Fogel
2011-10-20, Issue 553
© abahlali.orgThe Occupy Grahamstown demonstration on 15 October ‘shows that radical students and the poor can form a political alliance based upon equality and solidarity,’ writes Ben Fogel from Rhodes University.
Wangari Maathai is not in heaven
Henry Makori
2011-10-13, Issue 552
cc J WProf Wangari Maathai’s spirit, like those of other great women and men who once walked the land of Africa, will continue to live in our midst, nudging us to overcome our little fears and confront injustice wherever we find it, writes Henry Makori
World Mental Health Day: Appeal for a focus on refugee mental health
Refugee Law Project
2011-10-13, Issue 552
cc UNHCRWith World Mental Health Day marked on 10 October, the Refugee Law Project says more attention needs to be given to the mental health of refugees.
#arevolutionminustheak.47
Charles Nhamo Rupare
2011-10-13, Issue 552
cc R SIf sub-Saharan Africa is to have its own ‘Arab Spring’, we ‘need to organise ourselves not just on social networks but also within our own communities,’ writes Charles Nhamo Rupare.
Making the case for digital activism
Jessica Ann Mitchell
2011-09-29, Issue 550
cc S CAlthough Troy Davis was killed despite massive protests online, digital activism raised public awareness of racism and oppression in the US state of Georgia, writes Jessica Ann Mitchell. This case and others show that indeed digital activism works.
Zimbabwe: The proposed polling station-based voters’ roll
Opportunity and risk
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)
2011-09-21, Issue 548
cc SokwaneleOne of the major features of proposed electoral reforms is the possible introduction of a localised voting system which will be conducted using polling station-based voters’ rolls. ZESN takes a closer look at the benefits and risks of such a system in the Zimbabwean context.
Will the fire in the Israeli embassy spread to the whole region?
Gabriele Habashi
2011-09-22, Issue 548
The fire at the Israeli embassy in Cairo on 8 September probably won’t ‘turn into a bushfire’, writes Gabriele Habashi, but it does give the Egyptian military an excuse for clamping down on protests by ordinary people in the eyes of the international community.
Ethiopia: Violence against women on the rise
Billene Seyoum Woldeyes
2011-09-21, Issue 548
As Ethiopian women’s rights organisations struggle to stay afloat following government legislation that prohibits them from receiving international funding, violence against women continues to rise, writes Billene Seyoum Woldeyes. But in the absence of social and institutional support, where can victims of gender-based violence turn to for help?
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