Tanzanians did not have much of a choice going into last week’s elections. The contest was between a ruling party heavyweight and a former ruling party bigwig who defected to the oppostion only recently. Nothing earth-shaking in terms of policies. And now that the ruling party has retained the presidency, it is time for it and the oppistion to deliver to the citizens.

In Tanzania, as in the rest of Africa, God is ubiquitous in politics. Victory at elections is attributed to him. While there is nothing wrong about being religious, tying political outcomes to Providence is problematic as it deepens the passivity of citizens and absolves politicians of responsibility to their constituents.

Miracles will not happen on Election Day anywhere in Africa. Important structural changes must be made before a true people’s revolution occurs at the ballot box. From the citizen’s point of view and from the perspective of concerned Africans who are working to realise honest democracy, elections must cease being events and become processes in which the citizen is fully engaged.

It is not enough to have a woman in power. German chancellor Merkel is biologically a woman, but her politics serve the white-male-dominant system.

The problem of increment of fees or commercialisation of education is taking a global character. The capitalist political class and policy makers are offloading the problems of the economy on the workers and working class youth, students inclusive. Yet in Africa, everyone keeps talking about the youth being the future of the continent and about the need to offer them the opportunities they need to succeed.

Circumstances at play in the current political and military crisis raise important questions about the efficacy of the peace building strategy adopted and implemented since 1992. They also raise questions about the responsibilities of both ruling Frelimo and opposition Renamo to maintain peace and stability. What went wrong with Mozambique’s peace building approach?

Hillary Clinton represented the public face of the CIA-Pentagon-NATO campaign of destabilization, bombing and seizure of Libya. After the Libyan government under the late Col. Muammar Gaddafi began a military response to the obvious imperialist-backed war of regime-change, the Clinton State Department engineered the passage of two UN Security Council resolutions which provided a pseudo-legal justification for the massive bombing of the country.

In recent days there have been vicious attacks on and the looting of foreign-owned shops in Grahamstown in South Africa's Eastern Cape. Police have hardly anything to protect those targeted. In this statement, five women give a detailed account of their horrifying experience.

The idea of indigenisation speaks to the need to put in place policies that anticipate trouble ahead both as the Ghanaian economy becomes more dependent on oil and as land resources dwindle relative to the growing population, projected to more than double to 60 million by 2050.

University students in South Africa who recently boycotted classes just before they were due to write their examinations for this year must be congratulated and encouraged. They have brought to the surface a subject which like equitable distribution of land and resources has not been treated with the seriousness it deserves.

Obama has opened an economic and political channel to the White House and it is for Africans and others to exploit the avenue. With slightly over a year to remain as President, it is for the Africans to utilize that platform that Obama has created.

The head of the African Union is a woman. The Prime Minister of Jamaica is female. Brazil and Chile have female presidents. The Vice-President of Zambia is female. Female ministers and powerful officials abound everywhere. Women are rising in power.

Due to a lack of faith in the state’s justice system, an angry mob set four innocent-until-proven-guilty young men on fire three years ago. That same judicial system is living up to the mob’s reasoning by its inability to secure speedy justice for the victims.

Other scientists have proved their scientific theories beyond reasonable doubt. Evolutionists must do likewise. They speak of happenings of millions of years ago. But they fail to show convincingly how scientifically they have reached their conclusions.

Political turmoil is already evident in Uganda ahead of general elections in February 2016, raising some concern about the East African nation that has a history of disputed elections and military takeovers. Various economic and political transitions have left Uganda without a national political and economic model that is people-centered or a political culture of peaceful transition.

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Such acts at IBRD (See have been going on for several years. There is no doubt that the Bank has been mis-using and abusing the special privileges accorded by the US authorities. This cannot be left "as is". The entire grievance process is nothing but a Kangaroo court. The immunity privileges have to be withdrawn. No one is above the law.

This is the best time (election debate time) to put this issue up for the public eye. The Bank only sits up and listens when public pressure is put on them through proper channels. Submit your facts to the TV news stations hosting the debates and all the candidates standing for election.

Joseph Lopez

This Sunday Tanzania goes to the polls to choose a new leader, after a decade under Jakaya Kikwete. What change, if any, could the winner bring? And will it be closer to, or further from, the socialist ideals of Mwalimu Nyerere and the nation’s other nationalist leaders?

That population growth is necessarily a bad thing is no longer a sensible theory. It is labour that creates wealth. African nations that are witnessing a youth boom must concern themselves with how to take advantage of this growth.

September is a sad month for the South African shack-dwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo. A number of their members have been assassinated in recent years by thugs associated with the ruling ANC party. This lecture is a tribute to a fearless Abahlali woman leader murdered last year.

What will it take to make the world shake its head and see that America is a fascist dictatorship, brutalising the world? Why in the arena of global sports is America welcome?