Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian

Independence

latest news & developments
Zimbabwe’s monetary system is marked by a farcical series of failed experiments. Photo: Getty Images
EMMERSON MNANGAGWA

Zimbabwe: Why does the state persist when its outputs are poverty, violence and humiliation

After 45 years of independence, issues such as the disintegration of the country’s monetary system are illustrative of the crisis.

  • Leroy Maisiri
6 min read
An illegal money trader holds out a wad of ZImbabwe dollar notes on January 26, 2022, in the streets of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Inflation is on the rise leading to cash shortages.
BULAWAYO

Zimbabwe’s loan sharks smile as runaway inflation looms again

Well before Zimbabwe’s economy took a hit in the late 1990s, spurring world-record inflation, usury was a part of the daily lives of working-class households in South Africa’s…

  • Marko Phiri
10 min read
Choosing a side: Algerian or Tunisian independence activists posing with their weapons in a maquis near the border, during the Algerian and Tunisian wars of independence in 1955. (Intercontinental/AFP)
ALGERIA

Algerians grapple with ‘shame’ of fathers who fought for colonial France

Both France and Algeria have pushed narratives about the Harkis that are incorrect, the first being that these men joined the French army for ideological reasons

  • Amal Belalloufi
3 min read
A barricade in the road that is on fire is seen in Mbabane, Eswatini, on June 29, 2021. – Demonstrations escalated radically in Eswatini this week as protesters took to the streets demanding immediate political reforms. Activists say eight people were killed and dozens injured in clashes with police. Internet access has been limited while shops and banks are shuttered, straining communication and limiting access to basic goods under a dawn-to-dusk curfew. (Photo by – / AFP)
JUSTICEFORTHABANI

The youth of Eswatini demand change – and they want it now

Unless meaningful change occurs soon, more blood will be spilt on Swazi streets

  • Mlamuli Gumedze
2 min read
During the coup, Obote dispatched one of his most trusted lieutenants, a young Idi Amin, to ransack Mengo Palace, the royal compound in Kampala. Among the items seized were the Kabaka’s collection of luxury vehicles, including four Rolls-Royces. (Image: Nicholas Bamulanzeki)
1961 PHANTOM

The return of Uganda’s royal Rolls Royce

The Kabaka of Buganda’s fleet of Rolls-Royces was seized in a coup nearly 60 years ago. Now his successor has brought the only known ‘survivor’ home

  • Andrew Arinaitwe
3 min read
The United Nations has documented how, on top of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government’s security forces are violating fundamental rights and freedoms.
AFRICA

Nine years later, South Sudan is still a nation in waiting

July 9 marks nine years since South Sudan became independent. But the promise of that independence has yet to be realised

  • Nyagoah Tut Pur
4 min read
Majority rule: Zimbabweans struggled for many years to achieve majority rule peacefully, but faced with a white minority determined to hold on to privileges, the armed struggle became the only option. (Basler Afrika Bibliographien)
1980

Soon we’ll find out who is the real revolutionary: Marley and the birth of Zimbabwe

The iconic concert to celebrate independence in Zimbabwe would prove to contain a warning

  • Percy Zvomuya
10 min read
Kwame Nkrumah pictured with his wife Fathia Halim Ritzk. Along with other first ladies, she was the subject of Dorothy Masuka’s song Ghana. (Bettmann/Getty)
DOROTHY MASUKA
Video

The Nkrumahs’ marriage was no match made in heaven

This almost forgotten song, written at a time when many African countries had gained their independence, can provide hope during our era of persistent xenophobia

  • Charles Leonard
5 min read