AfricaFocus Bulletin
Recent Commentaries by AfricaFocus Editor
(New in 2019)
November 11, 2019 Tanzania: Human Rights Restrictions Mounting
In a joint press release in late October, Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch announced two separately
researched reports concluding that “Tanzania’s repression of the
media, human rights defenders, and opposition parties has
intensified since 2015. … Both reports found that President John
Magufuli’s government has adopted or enforced a raft of repressive
laws that stifle independent journalism and severely restrict the
activities of nongovernmental organizations and the political
opposition.”
October 28, 2019 Africa/Global: Untapped Potential for Africa Climate Actions
From off-grid solar home systems (SHS) to utility-scale solar and
wind installations, the potential for major advances in use of
renewable energy is growing rapidly on the African continent. If
this potential is materialized at a faster pace, Africa countries
could contribute significantly to mitigating the global climate
crisis. This would also reduce the ongoing damage to the
environmental health of their citizens, whether from kerosene lamps
in rural areas or massive coal pollution in South Africa.
October 9, 2019 Africa/Global: Targeting Corporate Shell Games
“Across the world, citizens who want their governments to implement
policies to reduce inequalities, address climate change and looming
ecological disaster, provide better public services and amenities,
ensure social protection, generate quality employment and so on,
are always confronted with one question: where is the money? We are
constantly told that governments cannot afford the necessary
expenditure; that running fiscal deficits will lead to financial
chaos and crisis; and that raising taxes will simply drive away
investment. But this is not just misleading; it is simply wrong.
Governments are constrained in their resources because they tolerate widespread tax evasion and avoidance. ” - Professor Jayati
Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru University
September 18, 2019 Horn of Africa: Interview with Kassahun Checole
For over 36 years, Kassahun Checole has shepherded hundreds of
manuscripts into publication through his twin publishing houses
Africa World Press and Red Sea Press. He is widely respected among
scholars and activists in Africa and around the world as one of the
giants of African and African American publishing. Yet his own keen
insights on Africa´s past and present, particularly on Eritrea and
Ethiopia, are hardly to be found in print or on-line.
September 12, 2019 South Africa: Xenophobia, Deep Roots, Today´s Crisis
“In the early years after I got 'home,' it took me some time to
figure out how to respond to the idea that Africa was a place that
began beyond South Africa's borders. I was surprised to learn that
the countries where I had lived -- the ones that had nurtured my
soul in the long years of exile -- were actually no places at all
in the minds of some of my compatriots. … Though they thought
themselves to be very different, it seemed to me that whites and
blacks in South Africa were disappointingly similar when it came to
their views on 'Africa.' … This warped idea of Africa was at the
heart of the idea of South Africa itself. Just as whiteness means
nothing until it is contrasted with blackness as savagery, South
African-ness relies heavily on the construction of Africa as a
place of dysfunction, chaos and violence in order to define itself
as functional, orderly, efficient and civilised.” - Sisonke Msimang
More on:
politics&human rights|peace&security|health|economy|ict
AfricaFocus Archive:
by date | by place | by topic
September 12, 2019
South Africa: Spotlight on Gender-based Violence
August 12, 2019
Africa/Global: Tax Avoidance 101
August 12, 2019
Africa/Global: #MauritiusLeaks Reveals Tax Dodges
July 29, 2019
Africa/Global: Agribusiness vs. Agroecology
July 15, 2019
Africa/Global: New Horizon for Off-Grid Solar
July 2, 2019
Kenya/Global: Big Victory for #SaveLamu/#deCOALonize
June 19, 2019
AfricaFocus Updates: Sudan, Ebola, Mozambique
May 27, 2019
Africa/Global: World Bank Ramps Up Attack on Small Farmers
May 13, 2019
Africa/Global: Cutting the Costs on Remittances
April 30, 2019
Africa/Global: Fighting Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance
April 15, 2019
Africa/Global: Ebola Resurgence Tests Global Response
April 9, 2019
South Africa: Politicians Scapegoating Immigrants
April 9, 2019
Africa: Migration within the Continent
March 22, 2019
Southern Africa/Global: Cyclone Idai and Climate Justice
March 11, 2019
Sudan: Just Fall, That is All!
February 26, 2019
USA/Africa: From Wakanda to Reparations, Part 2
February 26, 2019
USA/Africa: From Wakanda to Reparations, Part 1
February 11, 2019
Nigeria: Many Candidates, Few Alternatives
January 30, 2019
USA/Africa: Paradigms of Foreign Intervention
January 30, 2019
USA/Africa: China, Bolton, and Jimmy Carter
January 22, 2019
Zimbabwe: Repression & Dreams Deferred, Again
January 8, 2019
Mozambique/Global: Who Pays for Transnational Corruption?
|
