Africa

Come rain or shine, single mother of five, Sylvia Mathebula,* can be found selling fruit and cigarettes at the roadside because it is the only way her family can survive.

The Thigithe River in North Mara, Tanzania meanders through scattered villages and clumps of trees in a vast expanse of land ringed by hills close to the Kenyan border. The Canadian Barrick Gold Corporation operates a notorious gold mine in this region.

On July 9, 2011 South Sudan is expected to become an independent state, Africa’s 54th. Prior to that date, much preparation must be done to establish a vigorous economy, stable government, and peaceful society.

Proposing grandiose solutions without first diagnosing the causes of what ails Africa and her people has never stopped the World Bank, corporations and the odd billionaire from prescribing the wrong medicine for the continent.

More than three years after Kenya’s most recent round of electoral violence ended, the fact that some of the country’s most prominent politicians and public officials were summoned to appear before the ICC last week offers hope that those who masterminded the violence will be brought to justice.

The arrest on April 11 of Laurent Gbagbo, his wife and family and a small circle of “the faithful” in his fortified home in Abidjan brings to an end a five-month standoff between Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara.