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Features
RSS FeedLetter from Hugo Chavez to Africa
Late Venezuelan president’s letter to the participants of the Third Africa-South America Summit, Equatorial Guinea, February 2013
Hugo Chavez
2013-04-10, Issue 625
cc Patos 'I won’t tire of repeating that we are one people. We are obliged to find one another, going beyond formality and discourse, in the same feeling of our unity.'
Hugo Chavez’s enduring legacy
Francisco Dominguez
2013-04-10, Issue 625
cc J G M After four decades of repressive political rule, the legacy of Chavez’s government in terms of huge socio-economic benefits to the majority of Venezuelans are remarkable. The forthcoming national elections will decide whether this legacy is upheld and consolidated or defeated by an oligarchic elite aligned to the interests of the US.
Africa can learn from the legacy of Chávez
Ama Biney
2013-04-10, Issue 625
cc R A A Africa today needs five Hugo Chávez’ - one for every region of Africa: North, South, Central, East and West to implement a similar level of socio-economic transformation that Hugo Chávez of Venezuela implemented in his country through peaceful constitutional means as well as in the region of Latin America during his 14 years in power.
Chávez, internationalism, and socialism
Chávez, internationalism, and socialism
Beverly Bell
2013-04-10, Issue 625
cc R H Economist Camille Chalmers is a leader in Latin American social movements and executive secretary of the Platform for Alternative Development in Haiti (PAPDA) and was interviewed by Beverly Bell. He shares his views on Chávez’s vision of a revolutionary Latin America that sought internationalist solidarity with Haiti, Africa and Asia among other issues.
Chávez’s legacy, African solidarity and the African American people
The Bolivarian Revolution reaffirms linkages with oppressed around the world
Abayomi Azikiwe
2013-04-10, Issue 625
cc S M Hugo Chávez’s implementation of the Bolivarian revolution inspired African American people as well as other oppressed people around the globe. They expressed their opposition to ‘the unconscionable low-intensity war that is being waged against the people and national sovereignty of Venezuela since the inception of the Chávez Frias administration.’
Tribute to Chris Hani on the 20th anniversary of his assassination
Carlos Martinez
2013-04-10, Issue 625
cc N N 10 April 2013 marked the 20th anniversary of the tragic assassination of Chris Hani, the legendary freedom fighter and one of the most courageous and talented leaders of the anti-apartheid struggle. Although he was only 50 at the time of his death, Hani’s contribution to the struggle was that of several lifetimes.
The necessity of revolutionary violence in Egypt
Philip Rizk
2013-04-10, Issue 625
cc I K Since the removal of the dictator Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian people envisioned a new socio-political and economic order only to see a reconfigured neo-colonial order with the Muslim Brotherhood at its helm. Consequently ordinary people have met state violence with the necessity of revolutionary violence on the street.
The BRICS and South Africa
William Gumede
2013-04-10, Issue 625
cc C A Assessing the extent to which South Africa’s role within BRICS is an opportunity for it to defend its economic interests and that of other African countries will be a tightrope for the country as BRIC manufactures hurt SA’s domestic sectors
Chinua Achebe: A non-romantic view
Ibrahim Bello-Kano
2013-04-03, Issue 624
cc P C Achebe was certainly a great writer. But not all his works are masterpieces; and the idea that he is the ‘father of African fiction’ is romantic and naïve.
Chinua Achebe as a moral standard
Osita Ebiem
2013-04-03, Issue 624
cc J V Achebe fought to dissipate and disabuse the numerous misconceptions that the rest of the world held about Africa and its peoples. He was an incredible truth teller and moral bearer of our time.
Achebe opened the door for us
Cameron Duodu
2013-04-03, Issue 624
cc T G As a successful author and editor of the influential and prestigious Heinemann Educational Books African Writers’ Series, Chinua Achebe opened the door to many African writers
‘Things Fall Apart’ and the case against imperialism
Sankara Kamara
2013-04-03, Issue 624
cc T G When Chinua Achebe showed the horrors of colonial rule in ‘Things Fall Apart,’ the narrative easily became the African story that impinged itself on our consciousness. The novel epitomized the case against imperialism
The fear of ‘Things Fall Apart’
Chika Ezeanya
2013-04-03, Issue 624
cc Q T Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ brought us face to face with our own story for the first time ever in the history of modern writing. It barely scratched the surface, but it opened the doors in the hearts of many other African writers to start telling their stories.
Experiences from below
Organized grassroots movements and Kenyan elections
Gacheke Gachihi
2013-04-03, Issue 624
cc F F Should social movements take part in national elections they are unlikely to win due to the fierce competition, shameless manipulation of voters by clever politicians and the heavy finances required? Patrick Schukalla sought the views of a Kenyan social justice activist
Maternal health: No doctor on site
Sokari Ekine
2013-04-03, Issue 624
cc B L Contrary to some media reports, Haiti is far from being on the road to recovery. The situation of women’s access to healthcare is particularly terrifying
BRICS lessons from Durban…
If you carve Africa, Africa may carve you
Patrick Bond and Khadija Sharife
2013-03-28, Issue 623
cc B R Just before the BRICS state bureaucrats and corporate interests met in Durban this week to plan how to continue to extract profits, the tragedy of thirteen SA National Defense Force troops in the Central African Republic lost their lives in a vain attempt to safeguard potential mining deals. A different way is needed in which people-led activism challenges and transforms vulture capitalism
Challenges of the BRICS
William Gumede
2013-03-27, Issue 623
cc B R In order to prevent the BRICS from ending up as a talking shop they will have to work hard at forestalling the potential for them to become fierce competitors.
Scramble, resistance and a new Brics non-alignment strategy
Sam Moyo and Paris Yeros
2013-03-27, Issue 623
cc S A It is necessary to pose what role do the BRICS as semi-peripheries play in the internationalization of production; to what extent are they anti-systemic and anti-imperialist? It is necessary to rekindle a new strategy of non-alignment by the BRICS to not only reject the military hegemony of the North, but to enable a larger degree of maneuver for national development.
BRICS cook the climate
Patrick Bond
2013-03-27, Issue 623
cc ES The BRICS are surpassing the US and the EU in terms of emissions of greenhouse gases. The Durban summit was an opportune moment to ask and answer many questions regarding the BRICS’ economic strategies and to radically reduce their levels of emissions.
BRICS grab African land and sovereignty
Tomaso Ferrando
2013-03-28, Issue 623
cc CH BRICS states, except Russia, are enhancing and facilitating land grabs abroad in a way that is inconsistent with their proclamations of sustainable development, cooperation solidarity, and respect of national sovereignty.
From Nepad to Brics
South Africa’s toll at the ‘gateway to Africa’
Patrick Bond
2013-03-27, Issue 623
cc CH The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) that was launched in 2001 is revealing for showing the four other BRIC countries how South Africa seeks to serve as ‘a gateway for investment on the continent.’ From Nepad to Brics, South Africa’s toll at the ‘gateway to Africa’ is high, and there is very little to show for it.
The war against Iraq and the peoples of Africa
Ten years and war implications still pertinent
Horace G. Campbell
2013-03-28, Issue 623
cc CH Many people now understand that the war against the people of Iraq was an imperialist war. This is an important point at a time when the same fabrication of terrorism is being propagated to justify the expansion of the US war and military campaign in Africa.
Water, cholera and silence on shit
Sokari Ekine
2013-03-28, Issue 623
cc B L The state of waste management and sanitation is catastrophic in Haiti after the earthquake. Things are likely to worsen as there are no plans for any improvements. International NGOs are leaving or scaling down – after making their money
Introducing BRICS from above and BRICS-from-below
Patrick Bond
2013-03-20, Issue 622
cc P B There seem to be three narratives about BRICS. The first is promotional and mainly comes from government and allied intellectuals; the second perspective is uncertainty, typical of fence-sitting scholars and NGOs; and the third is highly critical, from forces sometimes termed the ‘independent left.’
The BRICS come to Durban
Keynote speech at the BRICS Academic Forum by South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation
Maite Nkoana-Mashabane
2013-03-20, Issue 622
cc P B The BRICS are catalysts and drivers of a multipolar world, aiming to demolish the hegemony of the West in global affairs.
5th BRICS Academic Forum recommendations
2013-03-20, Issue 622
cc P B The academics believe BRICS have covered significant ground since the inception of the partnership and that they must build upon the progress made by consolidating the agreements reached and the achievements registered and by making further concrete proposals for realising the unfolding objectives of the bloc
BRICS as potential radical shift or just mere relocation of power?
Fatima Shabodien
2013-03-20, Issue 622
cc P B Although at this early stage the BRICS partnership raises more questions than answers, engaged citizens should help shape its agenda. The bloc may well turn out to be one of the single biggest developments of our era
Will SA’s new pals be so different from the West?
Peter Fabricius
2013-03-20, Issue 622
cc P B The debate on BRICS is polarized between pro and anti-BRICS elements represented in the South African government and left-leaning civil society activists and academics. It is uncertain South Africa’s new partners in BRIC will treat the country differently
BRICS and the ANC sell-out to international capital
Patrick Bond
2013-03-20, Issue 622
cc P B The ANC embraced neo-liberal capitalism unreservedly in 1994. Similar to the 1884 Berlin conference, the forthcoming BRICS summit in Durban will seek to divide the continent with one common objective: efficient resource extraction through export-oriented infrastructure for continued capitalist exploitation that will enrich a minority and not the masses.
BRICS: a spectre of alliance
Anna Ochkina
2013-03-20, Issue 622
cc P B The weaknesses and obstacles confronting the BRICS are explored. However, the elites of the BRICS exist comfortably within the prevailing global world capitalist system and remain more of a spectre rather than a real alliance