No image available
/ 19 October 2009
Ten individuals of African descent have previously
been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But none had an opportunity as unique as Barack Obama’s.
It is time for Africans to speak out against Afrophobia and change perceptions of the West.
In light of South Africa’s disappointing decision to refuse the Dalai Lama a visa, many analysts have pushed for a more human rights focus for South Africa’s foreign policy.
”Africa suffers from a curse, invoked in Europe. The Berlin conference of 1884 to 1885 carved Africa up into territories that reflected the compromises of European imperialists rather than the interests of African populations.” Africa is still haunted by border designs concocted at a conference in 19th-century Europe, writes Adekeye Adebajo.
No image available
/ 16 November 2007
Adekeye Adebajo reviews Nigerian writer and political activist Wole Soyinka’s memoirs.
POINT: In the grasping imagination of 19th-century European explorers, Mali’s Timbuktu was a fabled city of gold. This week’s African Union summit in Ghana evokes images of a similarly elusive quest for an African El Dorado. But putting old wine in new bottles will not integrate Africa, writes Adekeye Adebajo.
The greatest imperialist of the 19th century, Cecil Rhodes, had a dream to establish dominion over Africa from the Cape to Cairo. Rhodes’s heirs — the racist governments in Pretoria — historically saw Africa as an area of penetration, exploitation and destabilisation. This was the Africa of ”labour reserves” from which hundreds of thousands of Southern African migrants ventured to South Africa.
No image available
/ 30 October 2006
Winning a two-year non-permanent seat on the 15-member United Nations Security Council from January 2007, with an impressive 186 out of 192 votes, is a great achievement for South Africa. The euphoria has, however, tended to obscure the reality of how limited a role non-permanent members are able to play in council decisions.
No image available
/ 30 October 2006
Winning a two-year non-permanent seat on the 15-member United Nations Security Council from January 2007, with an impressive 186 out of 192 votes, is a great achievement for South Africa. The euphoria has, however, tended to obscure the reality of how limited a role non-permanent members are able to play in council decisions.
”When I won the Rhodes scholarship from Nigeria to study at Oxford University in 1990, an alarmed uncle exclaimed: ”That thing is dripping with blood. Cecil Rhodes was a bloody imperialist!” My thoughts at the time were more practical: to get a good education at a world-class institution,” writes Adekeye Adebajo.