Adekeye Adebajo
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/ 23 May 2008

Reversing the curse of Berlin

”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.

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/ 3 July 2007

Africa’s quest for El Dorado

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.

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/ 18 June 2007

From Rhodes to Mbeki

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.

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/ 30 October 2006

SA at the UN: Don’t believe the hype

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.

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/ 30 October 2006

SA at the UN: Don’t believe the hype

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.

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/ 26 July 2006

A most unsavoury rehabilitation

”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.