Professor Andrew MacLeod is using DNA technology to track down, and hopefully prosecute, foreign aid workers who have sexually abused women and girls in Central and West Africa. ‘Just call me Andrew, no need to call me Prof’. Andrew MacLeod is quick to decline any semblance of formality, when the vestiges of growing up in an African household ensure I call him ‘Professor’ three times in as many minutes into our interview. The man currently defying the ten-hour time difference between Berlin and...
Professor Andrew MacLeod is using DNA technology to track down, and hopefully prosecute, foreign aid workers who have sexually abused women and girls in...
In an urgent call to South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, Artscape CEO Marlene le Roux asks to assist the disabled community in avoiding the Coronavirus. The crisis, Le Roux writes in an open letter, has a devastating impact on the most vulnerable communities in the country, such as the youth and persons with disabilities. “It is incredibly important that as a nation we continue to reach out to these vulnerable persons who have little or no access to services and to provide them effectively...
In an urgent call to South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, Artscape CEO Marlene le Roux asks to assist the disabled community in avoiding the...
The South African Revenue Services (SARS) was probably the greatest success story of the country’s post-Apartheid era. Financial targets were exceeded year after year. SARS became the well from which programs aimed at closing the gap between rich and poor could tap: access to water and electricity, housing, the world's largest rollout of ARVs to people with HIV. Led by a team of former freedom fighters, the service also fought against corruption and abuse of power. The decisiveness with which SARS...
The South African Revenue Services (SARS) was probably the greatest success story of the country’s post-Apartheid era. Financial targets were exceeded...
The hashtag #EndSARS has generated a lot of support on Twitter. Who were the people that joined the online protests? Online activism has played a role in protests all over Africa in the past decade. One of the most recent uprisings happened in Nigeria. Since October, when Nigerians took to the streets in various cities to protest against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), the hashtag #EndSARS has generated a lot of support on Twitter. This police force has been accused of torturing suspects and...
The hashtag #EndSARS has generated a lot of support on Twitter. Who were the people that joined the online protests? Online activism has played a role in...
Fidelia Onoghaife was the senior policy advisor at the Dutch embassy in Nigeria. She was recently dismissed after reporting her boss for leaking sensitive information to Shell about a large corruption investigation. The ambassador was reposted, whilst Miss Onoghaife lost her job. A Dutch court has ruled in her favor saying her dismissal was wrong. This case is another illustration of the gross inequalities that allow for toxic meddling of European companies and governments in African countries. In...
Fidelia Onoghaife was the senior policy advisor at the Dutch embassy in Nigeria. She was recently dismissed after reporting her boss for leaking...
After his victory in 2016, President Akufo-Addo announced that he would clean government. But when the main corruption fighter came too close, he was sent on leave. After his victory in 2016, President Akufo-Addo announced that he would clean government. But when the main corruption fighter came too close, he was sent on leave. Akufo-Addo, head of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), won Ghana’s election convincingly, mainly because of his pledge to fight corruption. He promised to set up the...
After his victory in 2016, President Akufo-Addo announced that he would clean government. But when the main corruption fighter came too close, he was...
The million dollar deals between President Paul Biya and American PR companies In 2020, locking up opposition members and forging ballot papers is passé for dictators. A better strategy is to call in PR companies to boost the reputation of your state abroad. This investigation shows how Cameroonian President Paul Biya uses American companies for that purpose, paid for by the tax money of his own citizens. Public relations-lobbyists do not have the best reputations. Moreover, they are not only there...
The million dollar deals between President Paul Biya and American PR companies In 2020, locking up opposition members and forging ballot papers is passé...
If the coronavirus has taught us anything, it is that not even a pandemic can erase the inherent racism in the Western media and in humanitarian organisations. Western experts and international media are apparently bewildered by COVID-19 figures emerging from the African continent that suggest that African countries might have “flattened the curve” much faster than countries in the West, whose infection and death rates continue to rise. Various theories on why Africans are not dying in large...
If the coronavirus has taught us anything, it is that not even a pandemic can erase the inherent racism in the Western media and in humanitarian...
Transaltion of colloquial terms in this article: keke —tricycle/tuktuk o kada —motorbike taxi cookry —complete meals sold on the street plasas —stew made from green leaves, national dish poda-poda —minivans that function as taxi's kongosabench —a low wooden stool Freetown, fall 2020 I am in the back of a taxi. Approaching a police checkpoint, my eye catches the phrase #Maskup on a billboard towering above the chaotic street in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. You mean #chinmask . In my mind I...
Transaltion of colloquial terms in this article: keke —tricycle/tuktuk o kada —motorbike taxi cookry —complete meals sold on the street plasas —stew made...
Observing the largest gathering of black people I had ever seen in Amsterdam, I realised that their pain was familiar, yet we knew so little of each other, separated not just by geography and language, but also by a suppression of our stories. The Dam square, a major tourist trap in Amsterdam, is one of its busiest locations, often teeming with visitors flowing from the streets of Kalverstraat, Damstraat and Nieuwendijk in the heart of the Amsterdam canal zone. Dam Square is within walking distance...
Observing the largest gathering of black people I had ever seen in Amsterdam, I realised that their pain was familiar, yet we knew so little of each...
Ik ben Zuid-Afrikaanse, maar ik woon in Australië, een van de rijkste landen ter wereld. Zoals veel mensen die in rijke landen wonen, waren ‘eerstewereldproblemen’ mijn grootste zorg aan het begin van het jaar. Ik was druk met het regelen van een nieuw schooluniform voor mijn oudste kind en ik was geïrriteerd door te luidruchtige bouwwerkzaamheden bij de buren. Ik heb urenlang nagedacht over de vraag of ik een opdracht moest aannemen waarvoor ik eigenlijk te lang van huis weg zou zijn. Ik had niet...
Ik ben Zuid-Afrikaanse, maar ik woon in Australië, een van de rijkste landen ter wereld. Zoals veel mensen die in rijke landen wonen, waren...
*Dutch translation here. I am South African but I live in Australia, which is one of the richest countries in the world. Like many people who live in rich countries, I began my year concerned about first world problems. I was preoccupied with getting a new school uniform for my eldest child and irritated by a neighbour whose building work was too noisy. I spent hours contemplating whether to take on an assignment that would take me away from home for too long. I did not imagine that within a few...
*Dutch translation here. I am South African but I live in Australia, which is one of the richest countries in the world. Like many people who live in...
Mr. President, I hope this letter finds you and your family well. I would like to write this letter to express my opinion on the current state of affairs in Namibia. I would like to start by telling you a little bit about myself. I was born in Oneumba, a village in Oshikoto region. My father was a clerk at the Nampost branch in Ondangwa (now a farmer) and my mother is a school principal. I grew up in a government house in Ondangwa and I was fortunate enough to attend a private school. I completed a...
Mr. President, I hope this letter finds you and your family well. I would like to write this letter to express my opinion on the current state of affairs...
Great news!!! Hajooj Kuka and the other four artists have just been released from prison after their appeal!!!! The global solidarity really made a difference. Thank you to everyone for your solidarity. There are the remaining six artists from the group who are still in prison, they were imprisoned one week after the group of five, they have also appealed. We need to keep up the pressure for them to be released and the many others who have been jailed for arbitrary and discriminatory reasons in...
Great news!!! Hajooj Kuka and the other four artists have just been released from prison after their appeal!!!! The global solidarity really made a...
What does a world without racism looks like? And how do we get there? Inspired by an Afrofuturistic graphic novel, filmmakers Ikenna Azuike, Soraya Pol and Mette te Velde explore a world beyond them and us. This episode of Dutch VPRO tv's Tegenlicht shows Azuike's personal journey. While reading to his children from the fictional 'De Post-Racistische Planeet', a different world comes to life, a world drawn by artist Brian Elstak and inspired by Afrofuturism. The expert interviewees in the...
What does a world without racism looks like? And how do we get there? Inspired by an Afrofuturistic graphic novel, filmmakers Ikenna Azuike, Soraya Pol...
Fire flickered from the matches in the crowd, jostling alongside the young men that had gathered below the steps of one of Benin’s most recognisable landmarks, the Martyrs Square monument, which commemorates victims of a French coup d'état attempt in 1977. 40 years after that attempt, the crowd of young Beninese men had congregated in the West African capital of Cotonou in August 2017 to rid the region of a symbol of its French colonial era: by burning banknotes of the CFA franc, the France-backed...
Fire flickered from the matches in the crowd, jostling alongside the young men that had gathered below the steps of one of Benin’s most recognisable...
The Mnangagwa regime responds to protests with violence and the arrests of activists and journalists. A call for solidarity with those fighting for social justice has gained the support of many. With hyperinflation, mass unemployment and increasing violence under the guise of corona lockdown policies, many Zimbabweans now say: enough is enough. The Mnangagwa government, welcomed after the fall of Robert Mugabe in November 2017 as a new promise for the country, has now lost its credibility. Emmerson...
The Mnangagwa regime responds to protests with violence and the arrests of activists and journalists. A call for solidarity with those fighting for...
Amid the furore about #cancelculture it may be appropriate to commemorate the outrage that targeted Achille Mbembe, Cameroonian historian and social scientist, and a profound thinker and visionary, earlier this year. People who equate Mbembe's stance against the occupation of Palestine territories and his support for a boycot of Israel with anti-semitism then campaigned to withdraw his invitation to speak at a cultural festival in Germany. Fortunately, scholars worldwide, among whom, many in...
Amid the furore about #cancelculture it may be appropriate to commemorate the outrage that targeted Achille Mbembe, Cameroonian historian and social...
A German conservative politician has accused the Cameroonian historian and social scientist of antisemitism and demanded that an invitation for him to speak at a cultural festival in Germany be withdrawn. This is an edited excerpt of an interview with Achille Mbembe conducted by culture journalist René Aguigah for Deutschlandradio Kultur. René Aguigah: How would you describe your relationship with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement? Achille Mbembe: I bet those who accuse me are...
A German conservative politician has accused the Cameroonian historian and social scientist of antisemitism and demanded that an invitation for him to...
Zindzi Mandela, the 59-year-old daughter of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, has died. She was born in the year of the Sharpeville massacre, when South African police shot 69 peaceful demonstrators protesting against the Apartheid pass laws. Her father was already in prison for six years. As a teenager, Zindzi joined the struggle against white minority rule, often at her mother's side. In 1985, she made a momentous speech at the Jabulani stadium near Soweto. In that speech Zindzi read a letter from her...
Zindzi Mandela, the 59-year-old daughter of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, has died. She was born in the year of the Sharpeville massacre, when South African...
‘Sandwich’ helps tech giants avoid tax in Africa via the Netherlands and Ireland. Google's office at the airport residential area in Accra, Ghana, sits inside a plain white and blue two-storey building that could do with a coat of paint. Google, which made more than US$ 160 billion in global revenue in 2019, of which an estimated US$ eighteen billion in ‘Africa and the Middle East’, pays no tax in Ghana, nor does it do so in most of the countries on the African continent. Google Street View of the...
‘Sandwich’ helps tech giants avoid tax in Africa via the Netherlands and Ireland. Google's office at the airport residential area in Accra, Ghana, sits...
