Comment & analysis

Post-conflict South Africa has become an unwanted orphan of International Criminal Law.

The elimination of apartheid was on the agenda of the United Nations from its inception. On June 22, 1946 the Indian government requested that the discriminatory treatment of Indians in the Union of South Africa be included on the agenda of the very first session of the General Assembly.

In a candid admission of the nation’s inability to independently and strategically channel its enormous resources towards advancement, the government of Nigeria announced the decision to privatize the country’s near-comatose refineries by 2014.

Fundamentalism is a widespread problem. It often manifests in a religious context - making it highly visible - but there are plenty of secular fundamentalists too. If we are to understand fundamentalism we should not view it as a religious problem: It is a psychological one.

As an ancient Chinese proverb says: “One generation plants the trees, under whose shade another generation rests”, the generation of Nelson Mandela fought for the political independence we in Africa enjoy today.

Mandela was part of a large number of African militants (some of whom preceded him), who in face of the inhumane and unjust reality of apartheid, decided to take the bull by the horns and unleashed a long struggle.

A petrified world watched as Thamsanqa Jantjie jabbed incoherent fists in the air by way of signing to deaf viewers during the Nelson Mandela Memorial.

As soon as the leader of the Sudan People's Revolutionary Army, (SPLA) John Garang, was killed on 30 July 2005, in a mysterious helicopter crash, while he was returning to his base in Juba, from a trip to Uganda, I smelt a rat.

Thirty-three years after his violent and uninvestigated removal from this planet and from the company of his family, friends, students and compatriots, his comrades and the world community that embraced him, Walter Rodney continues to make history.

The most heartwarming initiative that happened in Mogadishu in 2013 was the start of an inspirational reconstruction momentum thanks to the city’s energetic and ambitious mayor Mohamud Ahmed Nur Tarsan.