Blog
‘You are being lied to about pirates’ - Johann Hari
By ACAS | 5 January 2009
Who imagined that in 2009, the world’s governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy – backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China – is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth. But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people our governments are labelling as “one of the great menaces of our times” have an extraordinary story to tell – and some justice on their side.
...read moreVideo: Confusion over Guinea coup after president dies - Al Jazeera
By ACAS | 23 December 2008
...read moreMugabe’s Endgame
By Clapperton Mavhunga | 18 December 2008
Could it be possible that while the public, the press, and the international community were busy with cholera, the illegal regime in Harare actually declared a state of emergency under cover of a “national emergency” (ostensibly against cholera)? I may not be the only one seeing the reality that what has intensified is not the energy with which Mugabe is combating cholera, but, rather, abducting human rights activists collecting information on human rights abuses and MDC activists.
...read morePolitical poison sickening Zimbabwe : Human Rights Watch
By ACAS | 16 December 2008
‘As the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe spreads across regional borders, southern African governments have come together to discuss a regional strategy to stem the outbreak. But the cholera outbreak and other emergency conditions are symptoms of the broader political crisis in Zimbabwe. There will be no end to the suffering unless regional leaders acknowledge this fact,’ writes Tiseke Kasambalam of Human Rights Watch.
...read more‘So Much to Fear’: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia
By ACAS | 15 December 2008
New from Human Rights Watch: ‘The 104-page report, “So Much to Fear: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia,” describes how the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the Ethiopian forces that intervened in Somalia to support it and insurgent forces have committed widespread and serious violations of the laws of war. Frequent violations include indiscriminate attacks, killings, rape, use of civilians as human shields, and looting. Since early 2007, the escalating conflict has claimed thousands of civilian lives, displaced more than a million people, and driven out most of the population of Mogadishu, the capital. Increasing attacks on aid workers in the past year have severely limited relief operations and contributed to an emerging humanitarian crisis.’
On press freedom in Tunisia
By ACAS | 15 December 2008
Resist Africom: the movie
By ACAS | 12 December 2008
...read more‘A major strategic shift in U.S. attention toward’ Africa: New American Foundation
By ACAS | 12 December 2008
“U.S. arms transfers to Africa are being carried out against the backdrop of a major strategic shift in U.S. attention toward the continent, as embodied in the creation of the Africa Command,” writes the New American Foundation.
...read moreThe risk of wider violence in the Central African Republic is today at its highest point since the coup d’état of 2003.
By ACAS | 9 December 2008
“…the danger of a humanitarian catastrophe and new instability in the country and the wider region is high because both the regime and the main opposition forces see armed conflict as the ultimate way out of the long crisis,” writes the International Crisis Group in a new briefing on the Central African Republic.
...read moreHIV/AIDS: Obama’s easy win
By Kristin Peterson | 9 December 2008
Amid international financial meltdown and recession, the challenge of withdrawal from Iraq and the growing crisis in Afghanistan, there will be few “quick wins” available to President Obama. But fixing the US response to HIV/AIDS is one way he can do a lot of good relatively quickly and begin the move towards a new standard for international engagement. As the world prepares to reflect on its response to the pandemic, it is worth asking what Obama might achieve by World AIDS Day 2009.
...read moreStill Missing: Leading Zimbabwe Human Rights Activist Abducted
By Africa Action | 9 December 2008
Africa Action is concerned about the whereabouts of Justina Mukoko, a prominent civil socity leader in Zimbabwe, reportedly missing for over forty-eight hours. As the Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, Jestina has been instrumental in keeping the world informed of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
...read moreHelping the people of Zimbabwe
By ACAS | 1 December 2008
Understanding the Zimbabwean crises or acting on it, is only part of the story. Meanwhile, people lack access to basic necessities: medicines, health services and food. Here’s some ideas how you can help.
...read moreSomalia: Piracy and the Policy Vacuum
By ACAS | 22 November 2008
“While the responsibility for this crisis [in Somalia] lies first and foremost with the Somali leadership, the international community, principally the U.S. government and members of the UN Security Council, has also failed … They have failed repeatedly to take a principled engagement to solve the crisis, acknowledge the power realities on the ground, support peace negotiations without imposing external agendas, or provide independent humanitarian assistance.” - Refugees International
...read moreUgandan editor wins International Press Freedom Award; wanted by police back home
By Sean Jacobs | 21 November 2008
Today Ugandan editor Andrew Mwenda was awarded a Committee to Protect International Press Freedom Award. Meanwhile back in Kampala police summoned Mwenda for questioning over his magazine’s hard-hitting political coverage.
...read moreACAS Bulletin 80: Special Issue on the Zimbabwe Crisis - Two
By ACAS | 12 November 2008
Today the Association of Concerned African Scholars (ACAS) is proud to publish a new series of timely essays tackling the ongoing political crisis in Zimbabwe. Edited by Timothy Scarnecchia and Wendy Urban-Mead, the ten analyses presented here delve deep behind the headlines to expose the deeper realities of this protracted issue.
...read moreVideo: Sporadic fighting in Congo
By ACAS | 7 November 2008
...read moreThe Congo Re-erupts: Years of peace-building are at stake
By ACAS | 4 November 2008
The International Crisis Group argues, 'Ending this latest chapter of the Congo war will require sustained and significant pressure by the U.S., China, France, the U.K., South Africa and Belgium, the former colonial power. Specifically, they must demand that Kigali and Kinshasa implement the Nairobi declaration; insist that Mr. Nkunda retreat to his previous deployment points; and require Mr. Kabila to remove all army commanders collaborating with the Hutu extremists.'
...read moreU.S. defense contractors expanding business in Africa
By Daniel Volman | 31 October 2008
“If you look at the record for these programs in terms of teaching respect for human rights, professionalizing militaries, and preparing African armies for peacekeeping operations—all of which are perfectly laudable goals—the end result of the programs doesn’t contribute very much to those,” says Daniel Volman, who directs the African Security Research Project in Washington. “It’s much more likely to be used for purposes not intended by the U.S. government: counter-insurgency warfare, terrorizing populations, repressing internal dissent, etc.”
...read moreCommittee to Protect Journalists: Nigerian government crackdown on journalists, bloggers
By ACAS | 31 October 2008
New York, October 31, 2008—Nigeria’s national security agency today confirmed it is holding a U.S.-based Nigerian blogger in the capital, Abuja. This is the second online journalist held for questioning in the past two weeks. Local journalists told CPJ that the detentions are part of a government crackdown on foreign-based Nigerian political Web sites ever since controversial photos of President Umaru Yar’Adua’s son were published on a popular news blog.
...read moreUnited States and other major powers still doggedly refuse to negotiate their lifestyles.
By James H. Mittleman | 26 October 2008
Writing about the current financial debacle, Thomas L. Friedman holds that in a globalizing world, “we are all partners now.” He hopes that “globalization will saveth.” More than 20 years ago, a global commission headed by Willy Brandt, the former chancellor of West Germany, called for a partnership in international development. What have been the results?
...read moreCall on next US president to fulfill pledges to Darfur
By ACAS | 17 October 2008
To date over 450,000 lives have been lost and over 2.5 million people have been rendered homeless. We cannot be silent witnesses to this atrocious abuse of human rights and outrageous violation of the very sanctity of life! With a new administration coming into the White House in the next few months, we have a historic opportunity to put pressure on the next U.S. president to lead the international community in bringing peace and justice to Darfur and all Sudan.
...read moreWhat Should the United States Do in Western Sahara?
By Jacob Mundy | 13 October 2008
Autonomy is not the most realistic solution for Western Sahara because it will require an expensive international peacekeeping force to guarantee the safety of the population and mutual implementation of the agreement. Considering the lack of resources to stop genocide in Darfur, is there really enough international will for an even more robust intervention into Western Sahara? This, however, assumes Morocco and the Western Saharan independence movement can reach an agreement in the first place. In the case of Israel and the Palestinians, at least there is the fundamental agreement on a two-state solution. In Western Sahara, there is no fundamental agreement.
...read moreAfrica Says No to AFRICOM
By ACAS | 11 October 2008
A top Pentagon official for African affairs insisted on Wednesday that no country on the continent had been asked to host the new United States military command for Africa (Africom), as she began a three-day visit to Angola.
News: US cuts funding for condoms on Marie Stopes clinics
By ACAS | 6 October 2008
The US government is cutting its funding for the supply of contraceptives to family planning clinics run by Marie Stopes International in Africa, alleging that it condones forced abortions in China.
...read moreMcCain, Obama on Africa
By ACAS | 2 October 2008
“While the many challenges faced by Africa—political instability and violent conflict, economic stagnation and poverty, disease and malnutrition—are well-known, Senator McCain has long believed that the continent also holds incredible promise, reminding his audience earlier this year in his speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, for example, that “we must refocus on the bright promise offered by many countries on that continent,” rather than being fixated on its problems,” writes McCain’s Africa adviser J. Peter Pham.
...read moreAfriPod
By ACAS | 29 September 2008
Peter Alegi, a historian based at Michigan State University in East Lansing, like most Africanists, was frustrated with the way media cover African topics. So he took matters into his own hands utilizing new technologies.
...read moreNew Journal on Law, Social Justice and Global Development
By ACAS | 29 September 2008
The first issue of LGD, Law, Social Justice and Global Development, a new electronic law journal published by Warwick University, is now available online.
...read moreAfrica and the making of adjustment: How economists hijacked the Bank’s agenda
By Howard Stein | 29 September 2008
The failure of development reflects a crisis in the economic theory that has driven the policies that the World Bank has imposed since 1980. Development economist and professor of African studies Howard Stein examines the evolution of policy in the Bank, focusing on how economists became hegemonic. In this essay he details the origin of structural adjustment, tracing its roots back to a set of neoliberal economists who gained influence at the Bank in the late 1970s.
...read moreWest African journalists fight back
By ACAS | 29 September 2008
The Committee to Protect Journalists (which has a dedicated Africa-page on their website) has an update on media developments in West Africa.
...read moreNiger Delta update
By ACAS | 26 September 2008
Nigerian activist Nnimmo Bassey this week told a US Senate hearing on human rights about abuses by security forces working for Chevron Corporation.
...read moreHumanitarian Crisis Deepens as Peace Process Falters in DR Congo
By ACAS | 25 September 2008
Renewed combat in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has caused a drastic deterioration in the humanitarian situation and immense suffering for civilians, the Congo Advocacy Coalition, a group of 83 aid agencies and human rights groups, said today. The coalition called for urgent action to improve protection of civilians and an immediate increase in assistance to vulnerable populations.
...read moreSouth Africa in Africa
By ACAS | 25 September 2008
Tanzanian scholar and social critic Issa Shivji has likened South African capital’s invasion in the rest of the African continent to a “second wave of primitive accumulation.”
...read moreCrisis Group Proposes A New Conflict Resolution Framework for Chad
By ACAS | 25 September 2008
The political and security crisis Chad faces is internal, and has been exacerbated rather than caused by the meddling of its Sudanese neighbours.
...read moreWhat next in South Africa
By Sean Jacobs | 24 September 2008
Sean Jacobs (Concerned Africa Scholars co-chair), writes about the end of the Mbeki-era and its aftermath at The Guardian Online.
...read moreDennis Brutus explains the Mbeki resignation
By ACAS | 24 September 2008
South African poet and activist Dennis Brutus speaks to New York City-based TV news show, Democracy Now!, about the political developments of the last week in South Africa.
New Dictionary of African Biography
By ACAS | 24 September 2008
Oxford University Press and Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research have announced an ambitious new project, the Dictionary of African Biography, that will include 5,000 entries both online and in print editions. The General Editors of the project are two Harvard faculty, Henry Louis Gates and Emmanuel Akyeampong.
...read moreRobert Mugabe’s Legacy
By Sean Jacobs | 18 September 2008
One of the legacies of that time – and a testament of the power of the nationalist narrative that African independence leaders embodied – is that few if any of Mugabe’s present Western critics publicly denounced these murders. Instead he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 and honorary degrees from American universities. …read the rest
...read moreMbembe on Obama and US-Africa Policy
By ACAS | 18 September 2008
Obama has said little about Africa since the start of the campaign. He might not endorse this cynicism, but nor has he indicated a willingness to significantly depart from the outdated view of the continent that has underpinned US policy since the end of the Cold War.
Mahmood Mamdani on “The New Humanitarian Order”
By ACAS | 18 September 2008
On July 14, after much advance publicity and fanfare, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court applied for an arrest warrant for the president of Sudan, Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, on charges that included genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Important questions of fact arise from the application as presented by the prosecutor. But even more important is the light this case sheds on the politics of the “new humanitarian order.”
...read moreDaphne Wysham: World Bank Takes the Money and Runs From Chad
By ACAS | 15 September 2008
Now that the World Bank has announced its withdrawal of support for the $4.2 billion Chad-Cameroon pipeline, I can’t help but remember the eyes of that boy. We were racing back from the Doba oil fields to the Chadian capitol city of N’Djamena in July 2006, traveling by van after dark. We were doing it against all of the advice of our colleagues, but we had a plane to catch early the next morning. There were three of us Americans, traveling with a Chadian activist. And we had spent a longer day than expected interviewing villagers and non-governmental organizations about the Chad-Cameroon pipeline, a high-risk, World Bank-financed oil pipeline project in the southern part of Chad, and its impact.
...read more