http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/africa/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Mon, 01 Oct 2001 15:11:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/1625/baker_bargain/ With all eyes on Israel and the occupied territories, a similar conflict is heating up in North Africa--and the United States is taking the wrong side. Reversing years of U.S. policy, former Secretary of State James Baker III is currently pressuring the United Nations to recognize the Moroccan annexation of Western Sahara. This is a dangerous shift, rewarding aggression while exempting our ally from international law. Since invading Western Sahara in 1975, Morocco has systematically expelled several hundred thousand natives, 160,000 of whom have spent 25 years living in vast desert refugee camps. Almost immediately, the United Nations declared the invasion illegal. But Morocco justified its occupation as part of a quasi-divine reunification of the once-divided nation and instead opted… africa David Sirota Wed, 28 May 2003 17:36:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/448/biowar_and_the_apartheid_legacy/ Just as the threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction now seems a neocon-concocted mirage, word has begun leaking out about the spread of bioweapons far more threatening than anything in Saddam Hussein’s purported arsenal. A two-part story in the Washington Post on April 20 and 21 revealed that biological agents developed by the South African government during its apartheid days have fallen into private hands. Written by Post reporters Joby Warrick and John Mintz, the piece noted that unique, race-specific strains of biotoxins were available on the world market—for the right price or the right ideology. Wouter Basson, the man who directed South Africa’s clandestine bioweapons program, “spoke candidly [to federal officials] of global shopping sprees for pathogens and… technology africa David Sirota Tue, 24 Feb 2004 12:20:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/144/the_art_of_law/ South Africa President Thabo Mbeki will officially open Constitution Hill March 21—Human Rights Day—to coincide with his country’s 10th anniversary of democratic rule. It is the biggest urban renewal project since the end of apartheid and one of the first major public building complexes since the African National Congress took leadership in 1994. Its heart is the Constitutional Court. Through architectural design the building attempts to create a space that is open, egalitarian, diverse, uplifting, undeniably contemporary, African, and—driven by the passion of Justice Albie Sachs—filled with art. Transitional South Africa never looks forward without looking back. In this spirit, new public buildings such as the Apartheid Museum, the Nelson Mandela Museum, the Legislative Buildings for the Northern Cape Province,… civil liberties africa David Sirota Thu, 06 May 2004 14:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/729/genocide_in_sudan/ On the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, another human catastrophe is rapidly accelerating despite full knowledge of the United Nations and Western dem-oc-racies. In April, a U.N. team investigating human rights abuses in the far western Darfur region of Sudan found “disturbing patterns of massive human rights violations in Darfur, many of which may constitute war crimes and/or crimes against humanity.” Based on interviews with refugees along the Chad-Sudan border, the report of this team (along with similar reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch) was available during the annual meeting of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva that recently adjourned. But scandalously, as the commission debated what to do about Sudan and Darfur, the… civil liberties international affairs africa David Sirota Wed, 23 Jun 2004 15:47:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/797/oncoming_catastrophe/ The genocide in the Darfur region of western Sudan is accelerating in ways that are all too predictable. For months, the National Islamic Front regime in Khartoum has waged war, directly and through proxy Arab militias, on the African civilian populations in this region the size of France. (See “Genocide in Sudan,” May 31.) This deliberate, systematic assault on the African tribal groups—primarily the Fur, Massaleit and Zaghawa—is now universally described as the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis. The impending famine, a result of massive violence and the resulting displacement of people, will claim hundreds of thousands of lives. Andrew Natsios, administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has given the grimmest and most persuasive forecast: “We estimate right… civil liberties international affairs africa David Sirota Fri, 27 Aug 2004 08:01:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/980/deathly_silence/ Darfur continues its relentless slide into greater catastrophe, with no adequate humanitarian or diplomatic response on the horizon. More than 100,000 displaced Sudanese have died, and another 2,000-plus die daily. By the year’s end, the death toll could stand at more than 400,000. Conditions in the refugee camps in neighboring Chad range from poor to appalling. Many of the displaced persons—perhaps more than 1 million—have no resources whatsoever and are dying agonizing, invisible deaths. The National Islamic Front regime in Khartoum, which precipitated the genocide in response to the insurgency that began in February 2003, has continued to impede humanitarian relief. They recently grounded U.N. World Food Program planes, even though many children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition may perish… civil liberties international affairs africa David Sirota Thu, 30 Sep 2004 08:00:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/1119/despairing_for_darfur/ While there is growing attention to ongoing genocide in Darfur, this has not translated into either a meaningful international response or an accurate rendering of the scale and evident course of the catastrophe. On September 18, the U.N. Security Council passed another ineffectual resolution, trimmed to avoid a Chinese veto. (China abstained from the resolution, declaring publicly it would veto any future resolution that called for sanctions against Khartoum’s National Islamic Front.) No consequences are threatened in the resolution if Khartoum refuses to rein in its brutal Arab militia forces (the Janjaweed), even though the regime promised as much to Kofi Annan on July 3. Nor is there a mechanism to secure an increase of African Union (AU) forces in… international affairs africa David Sirota Fri, 17 Jun 2005 08:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2168/arrest_the_messenger/ On April 28, the Nigerien government arrested Ilguilas Weila, president of Niger's premier anti-slavery organization, Timidria. Weila, recipient of the international Anti-Slavery Award in 2004, was seized after organizing a public ceremony to free 7,000 slaves in the country's western In Ates region. The ceremony was cancelled and officials charged Weila with spreading false information about slavery in Niger and eliciting illegal funds for Timidria. The first charge was almost immediately dropped, and according to Anti-Slavery International, the London-based organization from which Weila obtained the funds he was alledgedly planning to use illegally, the second charge should soon follow. "We have absolutely no evidence to suggest that Timidria acted illegally when it sought to raise funds," says Romana Cacchioli, Anti-Slavery's… civil liberties africa David Sirota Tue, 29 Aug 2006 07:12:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2803/no_cause_for_celebration/ The big news out of Toronto, where 26,000 delegates met for the biennial AIDS conference in mid-August, was not the work of tens of thousands of activists, social workers, doctors and nurses who continue to challenge governments and serve and treat AIDS patients. Nor was it that 75 percent of those living (and dying) with HIV still have no access to life-saving treatment, or that indigenous art forms are now being used to educate youth across Asia and Africa about sexual health. No, on this sad 25th anniversary of AIDS, the media focused on the charity of Bill and Melinda Gates and the rise of Bill Clinton as self-proclaimed world AIDS czar. No wonder Canada's new conservative prime minister, Stephen… medical and health activism africa David Sirota Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3102/robben_island_singers/ Let's go, let's go and fight; we don't know where we're going, but fight we must," sing Grant Shezi, Muntu Nxumalo and Thembinkosi Sithole, harmonizing around a microphone in a high school auditorium on Chicago's West Side. "Let us take over, take over, they take our country and give us homelands, let us take over, take over, take our country the Castro way... ." These lyrics are among the many that sustained Shezi, Sithole and Nxumalo during their multi-year stay at the infamous Robben Island Prison. As participants in the anti-apartheid struggle, they, along with thousands of other dissidents were jailed in the '70s and '80s on Robben Island, a small rocky island off the southwest coast of South Africa.… africa activism David Sirota Thu, 19 Apr 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3127/globalism_with_combat_boots/ The United States launched a deadly air attack against Somalia last February, using the war on terror as a pretext. The bombings, which killed scores of civilians, were in support of an Ethiopian invasion to oust a Somalieregime composed of "Islamic militants" considered hostile to Ethiopia and reportedly sought by the United States. A convergence of Ethiopian and American interests provoked the air attack that helped rout this leadership, the so-called Islamic Courts movement, and endangered thousands of Somali lives. But it failed to turn-up the targeted Islamic militants. Continuing attempts to flush them out has produced what some critics have called an "African Guantánamo." According to an April 5 Associated Press story, "human rights groups say hundreds of prisoners,… africa military David Sirota Fri, 10 Aug 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3273/risking_everything_for_europe/ Before setting out across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Italy, the Ghanaian human traffickers who had hired Samuel and his two friends to captain the boat in exchange for their passage warned them not to sail with more than 90 immigrants aboard--nor to trust the Libyan police. But under the cover of night, when a freezer truck delivered them to the beach they realized that corrupt local cops had filled the leaky, stolen fishing boat with more than 100 sub-Saharan Africans. Samuel and his friends, fishermen from a coastal village in Ghana, were responsible for reaching European shores, alive. What were they to do now? "If the sun rose and we were discovered, who knows what problems could have… africa europe immigration David Sirota Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:59:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3334/africom_round_one_in_a_new_cold_war/ The forgotten continent of Africa could become the new battleground in the next American conflict. On Feb. 6, President Bush formally established the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), a unified command structure located on the continent. By 2012, the United States wants two dozen bases in Africa to promote U.S. security interests and "the common goals of development of health, education, democracy, and economic growth." Bush announced the creation of AFRICOM a week after Chinese President Hu Jintao landed in Cameroon to start a high-profile, eight-country African tour, during which he signed more than 50 cooperation agreements and pledged to double China's assistance to Africa by 2009. Despite a surge in interest during the Cold War, Africa has never played a… africa china military David Sirota Fri, 14 Mar 2008 06:00:07 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3565/kenyas_indy_media/ While news reports across the world have displayed images of chaos shaking Kenya, an alternative media system driven by ordinary Kenyans is emerging in the East African country to help raise the voices of the seldom heard. The violent aftermath of President Mwai Kibaki's disputed election in December has detonated Kenya's festering ethnic, land and power struggles, leaving hundreds dead and displacing hundreds of thousands. But it has also energized the country's independent media-makers, many of whom see their work as key to overcoming the crisis. Fusing mass communication with political organizing, the Kenya Independent Media Center (IMC) has aired local activists' perspectives on the violence and its root causes. Through its growing network of independent reporters, IMC Kenya aims… africa television media David Sirota Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:21:05 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4273/blue_people_yellowcake/ On Dec. 19, Canadian U.N. diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay, and their driver, Soumana Mounkaila, were abducted in Niger. No information has emerged as to who is behind their disappearance. In mid-January, four European tourists were kidnapped on the Mali-Niger border. These incidents point to the heightened state of tension between the governments of these two West African countries and the nomadic Tuareg people who, for decades, have been struggling for greater autonomy in their ancestral homelands. Despite several peace agreements--the most recent in Mali in July 2008--the situation in both countries remains far from peaceful. Relations are complicated by the fact that the lands over which the Tuareg have wandered for centuries are home to some of the… africa international David Sirota Sun, 08 Mar 2009 11:00:42 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4289/war_crimes_and_double_standards/ New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof--like many of his American colleagues--is applauding the International Criminal Court's arrest order against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for his role in the Darfur conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. In his Thursday column, Kristof describes the plight of an eight-year-old boy named Bakit who blew off his hands picking up a grenade that Kristof suspects was left behind by Bashir's forces operating on the Chad side of the border with Sudan. "Bakit became, inadvertently, one more casualty of the havoc and brutality that President Bashir has unleashed in Sudan and surrounding countries," Kristof wrote. "So let's applaud the I.C.C.'s arrest warrant, on behalf of children like Bakit who can't."… africa international David Sirota Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:00:51 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4304/uncertainty_in_sudan/ KHARTOUM, Sudan--Along a dusty side street in downtown Khartoum, amid shadows of the imposing U.S. embassy and the clamor of the building boom that is remaking the Sudanese capital, sits one of the city's many unpretentious eateries. This particular shop features a banner with a smiling picture of President Barack Obama on the corner of the sign out front. In thick black letters, it reads "Opama." The restaurant owner laments over the misspelling with a chuckle. The company he hired to make the banner made a mistake, he says, refusing to accept payment for two bottles of soda as a gesture of Sudanese hospitality toward foreigners. He expressed hope that Obama would make substantive changes in U.S. foreign policy, and… international africa obama east asia David Sirota Tue, 19 May 2009 11:00:20 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4432/jacob_zuma_sub-saharan_populist/ The anxiety over the selection of Jacob Zuma as president of South Africa obscures a significant milestone: For the first time in decades a sub-Saharan nation has at its helm a champion of the ordinary person. African politics has long been the preserve of aristocrats, soldiers and technocrats. Even with the spread of democratic elections, the region's leaders tend to come from the ranks of soldiers (Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe), family dynasties (Togo, Kenya, Botswana), or university professors, lawyers and economists (Ghana, Malawi, Liberia). Now South Africa--the economic and cultural engine of the African continent, home to its most sophisticated universities, media and corporations--has a former goat herder as its president, a rare African leader with the common touch. Zuma is… africa international politics David Sirota Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:00:16 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5060/high-tech_vs._humane_healthcare/ A woman was being carried down the road in a bed. I have encountered some strange things in South Sudan—seen malnourished children; nearly stepped on a large opalescent snake—but nothing more compelling than this. What impressed me as I struggled to catch up was the speed at which the four men carrying the women were moving, each supporting a leg of a bed constructed of rough-cut wood and a lattice of rope. The little procession walked with fierce determination, despite the sweltering heat and the mud. The rains had turned the red clay into a sea of braided puddles. Finally I did catch up, but only because they stopped at what turned out to be their destination. Adang Ater lived… David Sirota