African progressives must stand up and speak out against the wave of anti-gay laws now blowing across the continent. This assault, fomented by some of the most conservative and racist Christian fundamentalists in America, is an attempt to reconstruct the divisive homophobic colonial legacy in Africa.
The sweeping Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act could bring an end to the resource war that has ravaged the eastern mining regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the last decade and a half.
South Africa is now on its own, for better or worse – without the special grace afforded by a living icon. What are its present internal conflicts and its present geopolitical position? And what can we expect it to be in the coming decade or two?
Those who branded Mandela as a terrorist are now seeking to program the minds of the youth to see him as some sort of messiah, without links to real struggles for peace. But Mandela was very clear that his life was linked to the collective struggles of humans everywhere.
November 10 marked the 18th anniversary of the state execution of writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and the ‘Ogoni 8’. Not long ago, the Governor of our state in Nigeria said to the Ogonis: ‘Why can’t you people move on?’ The simple answer is that since Ken’s death in 1995 nothing has been done to stop the devastation brought about by unwanted, dirty oil extraction in our homeland.
Increased partnerships with the world’s foremost democracy may undermine the democratic process by reducing the importance of public opinion, increasing ‘rent seeking behavior’ in governments, and strengthening autocratic aspects of governments in Africa.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019