Nearly 15 years since apartheid ended, millions of black South Africans still live in self-built shacks - without sanitation, adequate water supplies, or electricity.
Yash Tandon (2008) Ending Aid Dependence. 
Dorothy-Grace Guerrero and Firoze Manji (ed) (2008) China’s New Role in Africa and the South: A search for a new perspective. 
Features
Zimbabwe: Towards a government of national impunity?
Sam Kebele (2008-11-26)
With the rejection by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) (Tsvangirai) of the flawed Southern African Development Community (SADC) plan for a government of national unity, there are signs of further economic collapse, increased repression of civil society and opposition and increasing hunger and death for Zimbabweans. The revived ZANU-PF militarised government under the control of Mugabe and the Joint Operations Command (JOC) - which may well call itself a government of national unity (aka impunity) - is interested only in its own survival and has no solution (or even perhaps desire for one) to the problems facing ordinary Zimbabweans. Sam Kebele looks at where there might be focal points for resistance to this multiple crisis.
Canada in Africa: The mining superpower
Denis Tougas (2008-11-20)
On the strength of sustained financial and diplomatic support from their government, Canada’s mining interests now lead the way in natural resource exploitation on the African continent. In an article revealing the extent of the sector’s grip on natural resources and the African countries in which they operate, Denis Tougas presents a comprehensive overview of the murky world of Canadian mining companies’ operations. With the country progressively resembling a veritable superpower driven by powerful industry associations, the author argues that Canada’s erstwhile image as an innocuous partner in African development need be greatly re-considered.
Good, and now back to work
Tim Wise (2008-11-13)
In a November 5 piece digesting the meaning of Barack’s Obama historic election victory, Tim Wise speaks out against those who may cynically downplay the significance of the Democratic victory. Just as he contends that it is useless and profoundly misguided not to acknowledge both the significance of the election and the differences between the Democratic and Republican candidates, Wise argues that the momentum generated by the Obama victory should serve as a powerful motor behind a genuine movement towards increasing racial and social equality in the US.
Obama: History, challenges and possibilities
Bill Fletcher Jr. (2008-11-06)
With Barack Obama safely elected to his country’s highest seat of power, Bill Fletcher Jr. discusses the sense of fear and anticipation to have gripped him as the votes came in. As the wave of post-election excitement inspires the world, the author reviews the key issues revealed by the electoral process requiring attention in the immediate future, and argues that the tide of expectation around the Obama presidency will only be sustained by the regenerative role of grassroots organisational structures capable of educating and mobilising the millions of people seeking a new political direction.
Balkanisation and crisis in eastern Congo
Ernest Wamba dia Wamba speaks to Pambazuka News (2008-11-06)
August saw a fresh outbreak of conflict in the DRC. Since then, approximately 250,000 have been displaced in the eastern part of the country. Following a brief cease-fire declared by the forces under the command of General Laurent Nkunda, fighting again erupted on 4 November. Ever since the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, and the subsequent wars that raged between 1996 and 2002, the country has hardly seen a moment's respite. The Kivu region has been the epicentre of the latest round of fighting. In an interview with Firoze Manji, Ernest Wamba Dia Wamba outlines the conditions necessary for a lasting peace in the DRC.
Comment & analysis
The limits to policy
Richard Pithouse (2008-11-25)
The rebellions in the ANC against Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma have broken the hermetic seal that had been tightly wound around electoral politics by the dominance of the ANC since 1994. Despite the ongoing debasement of political discourse by Zuma and some of his supporters, a new space is opening in which there can be some discussion of alternatives, argues Richard Pithouse. Although this space remains constrained by all kinds of shared dogmas it is, clearly, important for previously suppressed voices to seize this moment, to use it as effectively as possible and to hold it open for as long as is possible. The debates on the prospects for new and better policies are to be welcomed and we should take them up with vigour. But we also need to be clear sighted about the limits to a conception of politics that focuses on policy without taking sufficient account of the other factors that shape the reality of how things really go down in practice.
Magic markets and voodoo economics
Annar Cassam (2008-11-26)
Annar Cassam takes us through Reagonomics, the World Bank and IMF policies, and the equally bankrupt 'good governance' solutions to Africa's economic woes and the current global financial crisis. She cautions that the neoliberal invisible hand is synonymous with voodoo economics.
The economics of global democracy
Adam W. Parsons (2008-11-26)
Adam Parsons tackles the issue of global inequalities characterized by a crisis of abundance in one part of the world while the other part continues to languish in poverty and want. He questions the irony of half the world starving and suffering from rising food costs while the other half is recording bumper harvests. The recent economic crisis saw western governments summon huge sums of money to bail out financial institutions, and yet there never seems to be the same magnanimity when it comes to addressing the plight of the poor in other parts of the world. He argues that the problem is more to do with equity than with scarcity.
The death of dogma
John Samuel (2008-11-25)
“It is over” - a succinct way of informing the death of a dogma, the greed-driven neoliberal capitalism. On September 15, 2008, that is how one of stockbrokers in Wall Street described the fall of the Lehman Brothers. The fall of the Lehman was a visible signifier of the Tsunami that hit the base of a turbulent sea called the Wall street - the world of high pitched financial trade and investment. It was the story of a disaster foretold. The dogma is dead now under the debris of the famed investment banks. There is no more consensus in Washington. Karl Marx must be laughing in his grave, says John Samuel.
Congo: One hundred years of colonialism, dictatorship and war
Kambale Musavuli and Maurice Carney (2008-11-25)
In this call to action, Kambale Musavuli and Maurice Carney argue that 100 years ago, King Leopold's brutality in the Congo had critics such as Mark Twain up in arms. Today, the brutality which is now corporate sponsored and African led is met with silence. They then invite us to become part of a global movement to break the silence in order to end the violence.
Corruption and poverty in Africa: A deconstruction
Moses Ochonu (2008-11-26)
Moses Ochonu analyses the dominant discourse on corruption in Africa. By challenging conventional explanations and assignations of corruption to the cultural realm, he makes it clear that whereas the phenomenon is by no means endemic to the continent, the effects clearly more devastating in Africa. He advocates for a shift away from deterministic explanations of corruption in Africa, and a move towards a better understanding of the fundamental structural poverty of Africa and the economic disadvantages into which history, geography, and subaltern experiences if corruption is to be addressed in a meaningful way.
The farmers speak!
Nico Bakker (2008-11-26)
In this vivid and personal analysis, Nico Bakker takes us to the 5th Via Campensina International Conference where we meet farmers from all over the world in solidarity as they discuss climate change, GMO's, globalization, food production and prices in their struggle for food sovereignty.
A new day in America: Lessons for Africa
Ross Herbert (2008-11-26)
While looking at positivity of Barack Obama and the xenophobic, class and crass negativity of his opponents such as Hilary Clinton and John McCain, Ross Herberts draws out some must learn lessons for African leaders.