Algerian foreign minister says African countries and peoples continue to pay a heavy price for colonialismAfrican leaders are pushing to have colonial-era crimes recognised, criminalised and addressed through reparations.At a conference in the Algerian capital, Algiers, diplomats and leaders convened to advance an African Union resolution passed at a meeting earlier this year calling for justice and reparations for victims of colonialism. Continue reading......
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TonnyMy friend Tommy Gee, who has died aged 100, was a progressive colonial service administrator during the 1950s and 60s in Uganda, where his sympathies with the local population won him few friends among the expat community.On Uganda’s independence in 1962 the prime minister, Milton Obote, asked Tommy to stay on to oversee an expansion in education that led to a doubling in the number of secondary schools from 21 to 42 in three years. Later, back in the UK, he became administrative director of the newly formed Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University, after which he helped to...
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Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla quits as MP after being accused of recruiting 17 men who are trapped in war-torn UkraineA daughter of the former South African president Jacob Zuma has resigned as an MP, after being accused of tricking 17 South African men into fighting for Russia in Ukraine by telling them they were travelling to Russia to train as bodyguards for the Zumas’ uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, 43, the most visible and active in politics of her siblings, volunteered to resign and step back from public roles while cooperating with a police investigation and working to bring the men home,...
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Alarming shift since 2010 means planet’s three main rainforest regions now contribute to climate breakdownAfrica’s forests have turned from a carbon sink into a carbon source, according to research that underscores the need for urgent action to save the world’s great natural climate stabilisers.The alarming shift, which has happened since 2010, means all of the planet’s three main rainforest regions – the South American Amazon, south-east Asia and Africa – have gone from being allies in the fight against climate breakdown to being part of the problem. Continue reading......
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Gunshots heard near state buildings as incumbent president and main rival claim victory in first round of electionsSoldiers in Guinea-Bissau have announced they were taking “total control” of the west African country, three days after elections in which the two main presidential contenders claimed to have won.Military officers said they were suspending Guinea-Bissau’s electoral process and closing its borders, in a statement read out at the army’s headquarters in the capital Bissau and broadcast on state TV. They said they had formed “the high military command for the restoration of order”, which would rule the country until further notice. Continue...
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Criminal exploitation, economic opportunism, religious persecution are all factors in a broader picture of insecurity Don’t get The Long Wave delivered to your inbox? Sign up here“If they explain Nigeria to you and you understand it, they didn’t explain it well enough”. So goes the maxim for trying to parse Nigeria’s labyrinthine political dynamics. A security crisis has engulfed the country, catching the attention of the US president in the process. With the help of our West Africa correspondent, Eromo Egbejule, I’ll try to get to the bottom of what is happening. Continue reading......
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