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?