Comment & analysis

‘…I beat him up, yes, this old man who does not respect his gray hairs. I beat him up because he did ‘waka’ to me and said that he would call police for me. You should thank your God that I did not have my gun with me. I would have shot you and wasted you…’

A most significant news item – significant for developing countries, especially those in corruption-ridden African countries – emerged from Washington, DC, on 5 March 2014.

8 March , 2014 marks the 40th official celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD).

I hate to break it to you, my fellow Africans—continental and diasporic—the world over. I am now convinced beyond all doubt that God has no place in His\Her\Its heart for that segment of humanity called black and, especially, its sub-segment that is resident in the continent of Africa.

It has been 41 years since 20 January 1973 when Amilcar Cabral, founder of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), was assassinated. This was a few months after independence had been achieved in the countries for which he had struggled.

Reading the March 2 editorial in the New York Times on the so-called revolution in Ukraine, I couldn’t help but marvel at how easily elite opinion makers in the U.S.

The South African ‘Sunday Times’ of 9 February 2014 carried an article entitled, ‘Five facts about Nelson Mandela that you did not know’. Two of those facts caught my personal as well as lawyer’s attention.

The official announcement on 22 February that Abdelaziz Bouteflika will now run for a fourth term as Algerian president in the 17 April election has sent one more shockwave through the society.

The twentieth century gives us a bleak past regarding war. The killing fields of Cambodia, the genocide in Rwanda and Srebrenica massacres, the last two under the supervision of the Security Council and peacekeeping forces of the UN peace.

I am fully aware of the significance of Black History Month (BHM) and why in 1926 Carter G Woodson was compelled to initially promote a week in February that would memorialize the achievements of Black people.