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Tag Archives: Africa

Post-Colonial Stability

Two days ago, on March 6, was the fiftieth anniversary of Ghana's independence from Great Britain. If you want insightful commentary on the event, head over to Ethan Zuckerman's post. This lack of anything useful to say is partly because when I think of Independence Day, I think of July 4 as opposed to March [...]

Ghanaian Football and Israeli Flags

Several viewers of the Ghana-Czech Republic game in the World Cup seemed confused as to why Ghanaian player John Pantsil was waving an Israeli flag as the Ghanaians beat the Czechs, 2-0. I have heard many explanations, including one suggesting that it was a repudiation of Holocaust denial!
Since a number of people have been directing [...]

The Deadly Perils of Bad Government in Angola

The New York Times takes a look at the cholera epidemic currently striking Angola. As the article makes blatantly clear, the epidemic is not the result of the Angolan government suffering from a lack of resources - its exports of oil and diamonds support a thriving economy. Rather, the outbreak, which started in February, is [...]

Issues-Based Support in the World Cup

From the New York Times' World Cup blog comes information about a site entitled Who Should I Cheer For?. It purports to tell you which team you should, based a number of non-football related indicators, like human rights, military spending, and the number of multinational companies that call the country home.
Partly because of that last [...]

War? What War?

A few minutes ago, I was looking at the main page of Wikipedia. When I saw that today's featured article was about Sealand, a micronation near to my heart, I thought about writing about it, especially in light of this extremely short but intriguing London Times article.
Then I looked across the page and saw that [...]

Two Perspectives on Panafest

I was a bit annoyed back in August when I read Travis Kavulla's description of his time at Panafest, a biannual festival in Ghana which celebrates pan-Africanism. While I have liked the incisiveness of some of his past writing, this piece took too many cheap shots. For example, his second paragraph:
PANAFEST—not an acronym, but unfailingly [...]

South Africa Disappoints

I fully expected South Africa to give Zimbabwe the loan it is asking for, so the news that the South African cabinet agrees with the loan "in principle" is not really news, as far as I am concerned. Earlier I wrote about my hopes that South Africa would use this opportunity in ensure that Zimbabwe [...]

Mugabe Rebuffed

Last week, reporters at all of the major newspapers wrote articles about Zimbabwe's close relationship with China. These articles were prompted by Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe's visit to China (although it is useful to note that the Christian Science Monitor was writing about this at the beginning of July). Luckily, there is some good news [...]

Where is John Garang?

BBC News reports that John Garang, former leader of the rebels in the southern part of Sudan, is missing after his helicopter failed to return from Uganda. Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Movement recently concluded a peace treaty with the government in Khartoum that appointed Garang vice-president. Sudanese television had earlier reported that he had landed [...]

When Queleas Attack!

BBC News has an article that is an excellent example of how localized crises can have international effects. Large numbers of red-billed Queleas (Quelea quelea), one of the most largest bird species in the world, have been attacking crops in northern Nigeria.
State and local officials say more than 8,000 hectares of crops - mainly millet [...]

Who Cares About Niger?

I was a bit dismayed to see that none of the major American newspapers seem to be taking a look at the current famine in the African nation of Niger. Indeed, the top search for "Niger" on Google News right now refers to Karl Rove and the Valerie Plame investigation. Luckily, the British newspaper The [...]

Iraq versus Africa: The Case for Intervention

James Traub's article in today's New York Times Magazine is an interesting treatment of the problems facing the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Alas, a number of factors (including the corrupt government, a lack of international interest, inaction by locally-based diplomats) cause him to take a gloomy outlook toward the country's future. However, I found [...]

'Brassage' as a Solution to Congo's Chaos

About a month ago, I wrote about the ongoing problems in the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I was disturbed by the suggestion that international aid should go to the Congolese army and the various militias that are causing the region's instability, especially after finding a Human Rights Watch report that [...]

The Importance of the DRC

Curzon at Coming Anarchy points to an Economist article on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I disagree with the article's assertion that stability or the lack thereof in the DRC will make or break Africa (it seems too close to the pre-war claims that a liberated Iraq would bring liberal democratic revolution to its [...]

Fixing Ituri

The New York Times has two articles in today's paper about the turmoil in the Ituri region in eastern Congo, where more than 50,000 people have died. Currently, about 17,000 UN peacekeepers are stationed there as part of the MONUC mission, in an attempt to restore peace and order to the region.
Helene Cooper's Op-Ed [...]

NYTimes: Ghana 'Like Iowa'

Ghana is a good kid in a really bad neighborhood. Its West African neighbors, from Liberia to Sierra Leone to the Ivory Coast, have bred so much fighting in the last 10 years that they make Ghana seem like Iowa.
From today's New York Times editorial page, "A Fragile Success in Africa:"
Ghana does not have insurgents [...]

Peacekeepers from Where?

More proof that Somalia is the very definition of chaos:
East African governments have agreed to send 6,800 peacekeeping troops to Somalia from Uganda and Sudan, rather than from bordering countries.

Anti-Arabism in Israeli Soccer

Haaretz reports on two soccer fans "concerned" about the religion of a Ghanaian player named Ismail Ido, who might join Betar Jerusalem, which describes itself as "Israel's most popular soccer team."
Tell me, why behave this way?"
"What do you mean, why? An Arab at Betar? They tried to bring us a Muslim. We've never accepted one [...]

Border Changing for Peace?

To the Editor:
Re "In Western Sudan, Fear and Despair Are the Ever-Growing Enemy" (front page, Sept. 2):
The endless tragedies and decades of war in Sudan and other African states clearly illustrate the need for border changes in Africa.
Thus begins the most ridiculous letter to the Editor that I have ever read:
Africa's giants - Sudan, Nigeria [...]

Sengalese Veterans for Pension Money

The BBC interviewed a number of Sengalese World War II veterans who helped liberate Paris sixty years ago. The piece detailed the French government's "crystallization" legislation passed at the end of the war, which froze African veterans' pensions and prevented their widows from collecting money after their death. While these laws have been repealed, the [...]

Breaking Conspiracies the Old-Fashioned Way

The Beeb reports that the Ghanian Interior Minister is angry at the refugees in the Cap Anamur case. Reportedly picked up in a rubber dinghy by the German aid ship Cap Anamur, the refugees claimed to be fleeing the upheaval in Darfur. However, the great majority of them were found to be from Ghana, invalidated [...]

Instapundit on Genocide

It is getting increasingly more difficult for me to read conservative blogs. Take, for example, this disingenous post by Glenn Reynolds on the situation in Darfur:
Strange that Kofi Annan is unwilling to call this genocide.
I am not sure where Reynolds got the idea that Annan was the impetus behind a refusal to call the Darfur [...]

Playing Politics with Genocide

I would like to think that Secretary of State Powell's trip to Darfur (NYT, BBC, etc.) will cause the situation there to be thrust into the national limelight, spurring action to prevent what can already be considered a humanitarian crisis, but I think that I know better by now. Consider these three factors:

The Bush Administration [...]

Darfur in The Crimson

With Kofi Annan as the official Commencement Day speaker, it was inevitable that someone would bring up the United Nations's relative inaction in Sudan. The Crimson had two articles about it. While this news article seems to conflate slavery and the conflict in the south of the country with the atrocities in Darfur, this editorial [...]

Radical Islam in Africa

This BBC News article about a group in Northern Nigeria perked my interest. Not only do they call themselves the Taliban (or Taleban, as the BBC spells it) and are led by a man called Mullah Omar, but they have raised an Afghani flag.