In this piece on The Elephant , John-Allan Namu revisits a gruesome chapter in East-African history, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. On 16 May, 2020, exactly 26 years later, one of the prime instigators of this mass murder, Felicien Kabuga, was arrested in Paris, France. The arrest could have happened 17 years ago if Kenyan journalist William Munuhu, who was set to lead Kenyan and US authorities to Kabuga, was not murdered. "Kenyan police first claimed that he had killed himself by lighting a charcoal...
In this piece on The Elephant , John-Allan Namu revisits a gruesome chapter in East-African history, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. On 16 May, 2020,...
I’m a sick man. My liver hurts. Maybe it’s my kidneys. I’m not really sure. I’ll be dead soon. We’re all dying here. The whole city is dying. We are stardust. We are stardust. We are star … dust. I miss my garden. I need to get back to my garden. This is no longer the city I used to love. The stench of death is all around us. It hangs in the air like diseased molecules. Mass graves are being dug in the outskirts of the city, the radio said. Every night, I stand on my balcony and watch my curfewed...
I’m a sick man. My liver hurts. Maybe it’s my kidneys. I’m not really sure. I’ll be dead soon. We’re all dying here. The whole city is dying. We are...
Nigeria had been waiting for it, expecting it, anticipating it. But no one knew exactly as it came in. Only in hindsight would the country piece together the story of an Italian man who arrived by air in Lagos on March 24, infected with SARS-CoV-2. By four weeks later, 1,337 people had been infected, among whom 40 people had died, and 255 people had been discharged from hospital. The number of people released from hospital is encouraging but questions swirling about the virus are prompting concerns...
Nigeria had been waiting for it, expecting it, anticipating it. But no one knew exactly as it came in. Only in hindsight would the country piece together...
'People need help to comply with rules', say ex SA Revenue Service employees. Collecting tax and organising a COVID 19 lockdown have more in common than you’d think. In both cases, people have to be convinced to do something that is considered unpleasant, but that nevertheless needs to be done. In an op-ed published in South Africa , former South African Revenue Services (SARS) officials Ivan Pillay, Sridharan Kesavan* and Yolisa Pikie draw on their experience in getting people to pay their taxes...
'People need help to comply with rules', say ex SA Revenue Service employees. Collecting tax and organising a COVID 19 lockdown have more in common than...
While America’s black people die at 2 to 3 times the rate of the white population, and like a wicked witch suffering from nocturnal insomnia, the Orange Man announces a midnight defunding of fire-fighting WHO, mid-blaze, peak-inferno. I feel frustrated that no matter the slew of impeachable offenses and costly display of unpresidential conduct, Americans continue to pretend they have a person fit to remain in their White House. And in a world joined at the hips by Corona yet severed at the limbs by...
While America’s black people die at 2 to 3 times the rate of the white population, and like a wicked witch suffering from nocturnal insomnia, the Orange...
A response to the Coronacrisis. The threats that are hanging over the African continent with regards to the spread of COVID-19 demand our individual and collective attention. The situation is critical. Yet this is not about mitigating another 'African' humanitarian crisis but to diffuse the potentially damaging effects of a virus that has shaken the global order and put under question the bases of our living-together. The coronavirus pandemic lays bare that which well-to-do middle classes in...
A response to the Coronacrisis. The threats that are hanging over the African continent with regards to the spread of COVID-19 demand our individual and...
It’s going to be terrible, she says. People will be dying in the streets. Have you seen the images from Ecuador? Piles of bodies. It will be like that in Africa. These vulnerable people in their small shacks cannot protect themselves. They don’t even have water. The disease will strike poor people in Africa more than anywhere. It is the eyes that annoy most. Those big, concerned, white saviour eyes. ‘It is as if she actually hopes for disaster, so she can come to save us from ourselves again’,...
It’s going to be terrible, she says. People will be dying in the streets. Have you seen the images from Ecuador? Piles of bodies. It will be like that in...
The Corona virus rages through the world and affects us all. Almost everywhere, people are in a state of readiness and doing everything in their power to protect themselves and their loved ones. The lack of vaccines and medication is cause for great uncertainty. Economies falter. A state of job insecurity and food scarcity—an ever existing daily reality for millions—is now also prevalent in a once prosperous world. Health facilities are buckling under great pressure. Public life is paralysed, often...
The Corona virus rages through the world and affects us all. Almost everywhere, people are in a state of readiness and doing everything in their power to...
‘We are not poor in knowledge (...) It's vital that we pool our intellectual resources’, Patrick Kadima writes in the South African City Press . Calling the coronacrisis a 'test of Africa's solidarity and resilience', a 'safe and healthy and integrated continent can only be realised if African countries (...) build public healthcare systems as a priority'. Tanzania: 'Let's gather and pray' If it comes to this, Tanzania's response to the corona crisis is not very promising. In an article on New...
‘We are not poor in knowledge (...) It's vital that we pool our intellectual resources’, Patrick Kadima writes in the South African City Press . Calling...
It’s ridiculous I know, but I have been reduced to hoping that the lady I met at an agrovet in Nyahururu town last week is right after all, that above all other peoples of the world, God loves Kenyans the most. She made this extraordinary statement when I hesitated to shake hands with her, citing coronavirus fears and pointing to the critical situation prevailing in Italy, which had gone into lockdown in an attempt to contain the pandemic. 'We shall be ok, God will make sure of that because he...
It’s ridiculous I know, but I have been reduced to hoping that the lady I met at an agrovet in Nyahururu town last week is right after all, that above...
Joshua Matshidiso, 68, had both legs amputated due to an infection in 2010. On Monday 30 March, he joined other social grant beneficiaries who rose before sunrise to collect their grants at a nearby retailer pay point in Dunoon, near Milnerton in Cape Town. The SA Social Security Agency (SASSA) had made provision to enable grant beneficiaries to access their funds during the nationwide lockdown to disrupt the spread of Covid-19. Matshidiso arrived at the Dunoon cash payout point at 9am and by...
Joshua Matshidiso, 68, had both legs amputated due to an infection in 2010. On Monday 30 March, he joined other social grant beneficiaries who rose...
On the 60th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre, I woke up long before dawn and drove almost 200km to deliver supplements, medicine and groceries to my ageing mother. The novel coronavirus was on everybody’s mind, believers and sceptics alike. As we kept abreast of the news, sifting out the fake from the real, my siblings and I grew increasingly concerned about Mama’s vulnerability, at 77, to the menacing virus. On this drive, I carried a mask because nobody wants to be the woman who...
On the 60th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre, I woke up long before dawn and drove almost 200km to deliver supplements, medicine and groceries to...
1. In a blog for Africa is a Country , South African author and opinion maker Sisonke Msimang questions the idea that the current corona crisis can bring opportunities for a better and fairer world. Msimang, who delivered the first ZAM Nelson Mandela Lecture in 2019, recalls that black people, as well as women and queer people, do not feel vulnerable for the first time as a group, like many people who grew up in privileged and prosperous countries. 'Those of us who fall outside the bubbles of...
1. In a blog for Africa is a Country , South African author and opinion maker Sisonke Msimang questions the idea that the current corona crisis can bring...
Our friends of Nairobi based The Elephant bring the latest factual updates about the Coronavirus in African countries.
Our friends of Nairobi based The Elephant bring the latest factual updates about the Coronavirus in African countries.
To know whether homosexuality is a matter for the courts, you’d have to look beyond the law itself, to the customs and beliefs of a people. The law will fall or rise to that. And if the people believe homosexuality is a chargeable offence, a parade in the court is likely a charade. The case has been pre-judged, and the sentencing will confirm that. It’s an interesting way to use the law, as a rubber stamp for something the majority already believes, rather than a place for examining the grounds,...
To know whether homosexuality is a matter for the courts, you’d have to look beyond the law itself, to the customs and beliefs of a people. The law will...
In this amazing short video, a Zimbabwean sexworker recalls the frightening expierences with a police officer who pretended to care for her. Sexworkers and their organisations are often overlooked. Moral stigma and religious rightwing pressure groups targeting African governments create huge stumbling blocks for campaigns creating awareness around HIV/AIDS. The Hands Off programme brings together a number of sexworkers’ organisations in their efforts to empower and support local communities....
In this amazing short video, a Zimbabwean sexworker recalls the frightening expierences with a police officer who pretended to care for her. Sexworkers...
What the f...k! US religious right-wingers campaign to stop inclusive sex education in South Africa.
They are talking ‘violations of traditional values’, ‘dangers to children’ and ‘nothing less than soft-porn’. The US religious right is up in arms against the Comprehensive Sex Education material, produced by the South African Department of Basic Education. The purpose of this educational material is ‘to ensure that we help learners build an understanding of concepts, content, values and attitudes related to sexuality, sexual behaviour change as well as leading safe and healthy lives’. Read this...
They are talking ‘violations of traditional values’, ‘dangers to children’ and ‘nothing less than soft-porn’. The US religious right is up in arms...
Reflecting on white joy, black celebration, and the meaning of the Springbok win at the 2019 Rugby World Cup. News24 is one of South Africa’s largest media outlets and Adriaan Basson is its editor. Because of its size and reach, News24 is an important site for shaping public opinion in South Africa. As a result, when Basson shares his opinion, many people listen. My sense of Basson is that he is a good man with good intentions and he wears these intentions on his sleeve when he writes about the...
Reflecting on white joy, black celebration, and the meaning of the Springbok win at the 2019 Rugby World Cup. News24 is one of South Africa’s largest...
Sorrowing over the treatment of migrants, the Cameroonian philosopher calls for Africa to adopt a pro-migration stance, phase out colonial borders and become ‘a vast space of circulation’. In his Ruth First Memorial Lecture* at the Johannesburg Wits Theatre on 3 October 2019, Achille Mbembe reflects on the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa. We must name our times in a way that leaves us with a small window of hope, the hope that not all is lost. Indeed seasons, just like tides, come and go,...
Sorrowing over the treatment of migrants, the Cameroonian philosopher calls for Africa to adopt a pro-migration stance, phase out colonial borders and...
The brutal rape and killing of Capetonian student Uyinene Mrwetyane has given rise to the movement #AmINext. The Capetonian student was murdered on August 24. Her tragic death has once more exposed South Africa as a country where hate crime against women and sexual minorities represents no less than a national crisis. Thousands of South Africans went to the streets countrywide. After a deafening initial silence the government announced new policy instruments to speed up prosecution of suspects. But...
The brutal rape and killing of Capetonian student Uyinene Mrwetyane has given rise to the movement #AmINext. The Capetonian student was murdered on...
In the future, when history is written about Robert Mugabe, it will not be about a black man raised by a single mother, who defied all odds in racially segregated Southern Rhodesia to pursue an education at the highest levels. Neither will it be a history of an articulate black African teacher-turned-politician who spent around a decade in prison for challenging white colonial racism and working for the betterment of black Zimbabweans. It will be for the four decades that Robert Mugabe was at the...
In the future, when history is written about Robert Mugabe, it will not be about a black man raised by a single mother, who defied all odds in racially...
