In the Mozambican province wracked by a violent insurgency, the convenient labelling of those rising up against the predatory elite paints a picture that is far from reality. When the uprising started in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’s northernmost province, in 2017, the insurgents used the only weapons they had: their machetes. And they cut off the heads of local elites whom they accused of being allied to the leaders of the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) in stealing the mineral wealth....
In the Mozambican province wracked by a violent insurgency, the convenient labelling of those rising up against the predatory elite paints a picture that...
Late president John Magafuli never was the anti-corruption saviour international media claimed. Tanzania, a country that produced Julius Nyerere, is a country tottering on the precipice of a pandemic catastrophe. The philosopher-president ruled for 23 years and put the nation on the international map as a frontline state that stood up to Apartheid South Africa and helped liberate modern Uganda by ridding it of Idi Amin. With the abrupt death of its populist president John Magufuli on March 17,...
Late president John Magafuli never was the anti-corruption saviour international media claimed. Tanzania, a country that produced Julius Nyerere, is a...
For more than three decades, ZAM's Investigations Editor Evelyn Groenink researched the murder of Paris ANC representative Dulcie September in 1988. The complex backgrounds of this gruesome act presented in Groenink's book Incorruptible were long ignored. Until now. Before she left for exile in 1973, Dulcie September was a school teacher. A serious one. She cared about her kids, cared so much that one of the reasons she left was that she had been banned from ever teaching in South Africa again. One...
For more than three decades, ZAM's Investigations Editor Evelyn Groenink researched the murder of Paris ANC representative Dulcie September in 1988. The...
Police cabs donated by the Dutch government were identified at the scenes of multiple instances of brutality. In July 2020, the BBC reported that security forces in Uganda may be more dangerous than coronavirus, with coronavirus restrictions in Uganda providing a license for the arbitrary arrests of civilians, journalists and members of the BTQ community. This violence escalated leading up to and in the wake of the elections in January of this year, with reports of human rights violations and...
Police cabs donated by the Dutch government were identified at the scenes of multiple instances of brutality. In July 2020, the BBC reported that...
The relationship between farmers and herders has grown increasingly tense amid contestations over land, crop damage, cattle stealing, and violence. Although the Boko Haram insurgency is the most frequently reported security threat, the farmer-herder conflict is now regarded as the most pressing security issue in Nigeria, causing significantly more casualties than Boko Haram and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. The government’s response has received wide criticism, with many claiming they...
The relationship between farmers and herders has grown increasingly tense amid contestations over land, crop damage, cattle stealing, and violence....
When Catherine Ndlovu looks at Adolph Rikhotso something seems to break. The impenetrable walls she has faced, the closed doors, the unreturned phone calls, made until your airtime runs out, the ‘come-back-later’s’. For months she has walked around with a manila file that contains the details of the death of her son: from the letter her father wrote to the police, to the catering costs for the funeral and the cold words from the death certificate: unnatural causes. Adolph Rikhotso is the policeman...
When Catherine Ndlovu looks at Adolph Rikhotso something seems to break. The impenetrable walls she has faced, the closed doors, the unreturned phone...
‘Why must I know about land’, says Mr Mahlangu, who heads the Agriculture Department’s Waterberg district in Limpopo. ‘Land Affairs knows about land. Whether it’s for building or residential or agriculture. Not us’. I have asked Mr Mahlangu if he is not concerned about the wasted land in his district. There used to be oranges here, after all, and lychees, and watermelons. I describe Groenvlei, midway on Modimolle Road, with its sick chickens, where Tsepo Ndlovu tried to make a living, but also...
‘Why must I know about land’, says Mr Mahlangu, who heads the Agriculture Department’s Waterberg district in Limpopo. ‘Land Affairs knows about land....
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...
