Africa

The North Atlantic Put up most Heat-Trapping Gases but Africa has to Deal with the Climate Emergency

By Margaret Kadiri | – The UN climate summit COP26, held in November 2021, focused the world’s attention on the urgent need to tackle climate change and concluded with 197 countries agreeing to the Glasgow climate pact. But opinions on the summit’s success are polarised. We owe a profound gratitude to the developing nations – […]

Israel/ Palestine

How Tutu, de Klerk, and Mandela would end Israeli Apartheid

Jeff Warner

( Mondoweiss) – What does the end of South African apartheid tell us about how Israeli apartheid can end? That sanctions on Israel are required, and that a civil society mass movement is the only way to get there. By Jeff Warner | – With the December 26, 2021, death of Bishop Desmond Tutu, six […]

Christianity

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: father of South Africa’s ‘Rainbow Nation’

The Conversation

By P. Pratap Kumar | – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu has died at the age of 90. Archbishop Tutu earned the respect and love of millions of South Africans and the world. He carved out a permanent place in their hearts and minds, becoming known affectionately as “The Arch”. When South Africans woke up […]

Featured

Desmond Tutu, the Nonviolent Foe of Two Apartheids – South Africa and Israel-Palestine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ofeiba Quist-Arcton reports at NPR that Desmond Tutu has died in Cape Town, South Africa. He was 90. Tutu was an amazingly courageous voice against the white nationalist Apartheid system in South Africa, which segregated Blacks and deprived them of a good education and economic opportunities, and which attempted to […]

Corporate Surveillance

We’re all Palestinians Now: Israel-backed NSO Spyware used against US State Department

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Reuters reports that at least nine US State Department officials had their smartphones hacked by Pegasus spyware, produced by the Israeli-government-backed NSO company. The officials were informed of the hacking of their iPhones by Apple, which is suing NSO, essentially for tortious interference. The State Department personnel were all either […]

Democracy

In Sudan’s new Revolt, Women and Youth will not settle for less than true Democracy

Open Democracy

By Nazik Awad | (OpenDemocracy.net) – Sudan’s coup on 25 October was both highly anticipated and inevitable. For three months, tension between the civilian and military partners that had ruled Sudan since the 2019 powersharing deal had been intensifying. After the 2019 revolution and the fall of former president Omar al-Bashir, political parties and civil […]

Africa

Dune – a prophetic tale about the environmental destruction wrought by the colonisation of Africa

The Conversation

By Oli Mould | – Director Denis Villeneuve’s most recent sci-fi epic is the latest attempt to tell the story of Frank Herbert’s acclaimed 1965 novel, Dune. The film is set millennia in the future when the galaxy is ruled by a class of family Houses. Each house battles for control over the most valuable […]

Democracy

The Sudanese people overthrew dictatorship in 2019; Can the Generals undo the Revolution?

The Conversation

By David E Kiwuwa | – This week the head of Sudan’s Sovereign Council, General Abdel Fattah El Burhan, declared the dissolution of the transitional council, which has been in place since the overthrow of former president Omar el-Bashir in 2019. He also disbanded all the structures that had been set up as part of […]

Africa

Abdulrazak Gurnah: what you need to know about the Nobel Prize winner for Literature

The Conversation

By Melanie Otto | – Abdulrazak Gurnah has been awarded the 2021 Nobel prize for literature. The Tanzanian novelist, who is based in the UK, was awarded the prize for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”. Migration and […]