Africa

The US Republican Party has become the party of the angry white man (AWM) in the United States, which is a large part of the reason it has had trouble winning presidential elections. There are more female than male voters, and if you add white females to Asians, Latinos, African-Americans, gays and agnostics, you have […]

Africa

Today’s South Africa by the Numbers (with Photos)

Juan Cole

Population of South Africa: 51 million (slightly larger than South Korea) Annual Gross Domestic Product (nominal): $384 billion (in neighborhood of Taiwan, Austria, UAE) Rank among world economies: 29 Rank among African economies: 1 Amount GDP has grown since end of white rule in 1994: 3 times Number of people added to middle class in […]

Africa

Photo of the Day: Apartheid South Africa Sign

Juan Cole

This sign is left over from Apartheid days and is preserved under an awning in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa as a reminder of what was. I photographed it in August, 2012. —— Related video: For more context, the BBC has a minute-and-a-half review of the horrible institution of Apartheid in South Africa:

Africa

Photo of the Day: Mandela Training in Algeria

Juan Cole

h/t Sami Ben Gharbia ‏@ifikra Nelson Mandela training with the Algerian Liberation Front in 1962. The Algerians fought an 8-year war, 1954-1962, to become independent from French imperialism, in the course of which between half a million and a million Algerians died (the population of the country was then 11 million). In 1962, South Africa […]

Africa

Mandela: We want equal Political Rights; When Protest was Outlawed, we chose Sabotage

Juan Cole

Mandela’s declaration to the court as his trial began in Pretoria at the Supreme Court of South Africa on April 20, 1964 I am the first accused. I hold a bachelor’s degree in arts and practised as an attorney in Johannesburg for a number of years in partnership with Oliver Tambo. I am a convicted […]

Africa

United States, Israel opposed Mandela, supported Apartheid

Juan Cole

The attempt to make Nelson Mandela respectable is an ongoing effort of Western government spokesmen and the Western media. He wasn’t respectable in the business circles of twentieth-century New York or Atlanta, or inside the Beltway of Washington, D.C. He wasn’t respectable for many of the allies of the United States in the Cold War, […]

Africa

Kenya’s KTN outshines American Media in Climate Change Coverage: 2013 among 10 Hottest Years since 1850

Juan Cole

Kenya’s KTN television news reports on the Warsaw Climate Conference and on a new report by the World Meteorological Organization showing that 2013 is one of the 10 hottest years since 1850. What struck me is how professional and straightforward the KTN report is. It accurately represents the WMO report and shows its representatives presenting […]

Africa

Club Dead: EU immigration laws turning Mediterranean into Graveyard- Malta PM

Juan Cole

Malta’s prime minister Joseph Muscat said Saturday that the European Union’s inaction on immigration reform is turning the Mediterranean into a graveyard. UPI quotes him as saying: “I don’t know how many more people need to die at sea before something gets done … rules need to change, whether they are tighter or looser is […]

Africa

Whatever Happened to the Somali Pirates?

Juan Cole

With the opening of Paul Greengrass’s film “Captain Phillips,” written by Billy Ray and starring Tom Hanks, the phenomenon of piracy in the waters off the Horn of Africa is back as a topic of discussion. This CNA study by Ghassan Schbley and William Rosenau says that piracy took off after 2006 after the fall […]