African governments, once the product of our liberation struggles, are ‘more accountable to Northern governments and to the international financial institutions than they are to citizens’, says Firoze Manji.

It’s true that the Ethiopian ‘political opposition is weak and disunited’, but ‘Western governments seem to be conveniently oblivious of the reasons for the disarray in the opposition’, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam.

South Africa’s poor ‘are steadily getting angrier and they are preparing for something.' They have little to lose, except the hope that drives their movements, informed by desire for justice for those 'systematically dehumanised in our country today', writes Pedro Alexis Tabensky.

Almost 10 years after the end of the civil war, Sierra Leone continues to face major challenges of weak governance, widespread poverty and systemic corruption, which undermine sustainable development and long term reconstruction efforts, says the Anti Corruption Resource Centre. Corruption continues to permeate almost every sectors of Sierra Leone’s public life, compromising citizens’ access to basic public services and institutions such as health, education and the police.

The blog Ethiopian Recycler raises a glass to a brewery deal and good governance.

Following the passing of Anthony Enahoro, Okachikwu Dibia salutes his thinking around Nigeria’s composition and laments the disingenuous public well-wishing of friends happy to reject his ideas.

In an interview with Azad Essa for Al Jazeera, Firoze Manji, editor-in-chief of Pambazuka News, discusses the rise in protests across Africa and the extent to which the events inspire people’s demands for greater political representation and self-determination.

As the extraordinary events within North Africa and the Middle East continue, Philo Ikonya stresses that genuine support for people’s freedom around the world must increase.

Following the concerns raised by

A common message through the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East is that leaders must serve the interests of the people or quit, writes Cameron Duodu.

Colleagues! Last February 7-9, 2010, we attended the African Regional Conference on the Rights of Access to Information in Accra, Ghana, hosted by the Carter Center…

I wake to the news
of Egyptian unrest
on calls for freedom
and democracy…

Azad Essa explores the significance of popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia for other African countries.

Recent Wikileaks cable releases reveal why the US continues to crush democracy in Haiti.

‘Tunisia and Egypt are a big “we can do it too,” not just for Swaziland, but for the rest of the African continent and the repressed Arab world,’ according to Swaziland United Democratic Front (SUDF) project coordinator Sikelela Dlamini.

A heated debate is raging in Tunisia over the creation of a special body to monitor the current government. A group of 28 parties and organisations of various political hues on 15 February called for the establishment of the National Council for the Protection of the Revolution, 'in dedication to the principles of the revolution, so as to counter all attempts to abort the revolution and shove the country into a state of vacuum'.

Egypt's key portfolios of defence interior, foreign, finance and justice were unchanged in a cabinet reshuffle, state television confirmed on Tuesday when it broadcast the swearing in ceremony for the new ministers, reports Reuters.

Various campaigns hoping to defy Robert Mugabe’s clampdown on civic action have been launched, trying to encourage Zimbabweans to follow the lead of other African countries protesting against their dictators. The campaigns, launched over email and through the social networking websites, Facebook and Twitter, encourage Zimbabweans to hold peaceful marches calling for Mugabe to step down. The ‘Zimbabwe Million Citizen March’ was launched a week ago, and calls for a mass protest next Tuesday under the theme ‘Power in numbers to remove dictatorship’.

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro has underscored the importance of education in raising the status of women in society and called for greater investment in measures to ensure gender equality, deploring the fact that two-thirds of illiterate adults across the world are female. 'Investing in women and girls is a force multiplier,' Migiro told the opening of the two-week session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women at UN Headquarters.

Pressure piled on President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to defuse rising tension in the country following their standoff over state office nominations and declaration of political warfare by their lieutenants, reports The Standard. There was also fear their disagreement over picking of nominees to key judicial postings and newly created Budget Office would compromise the implementation of the Constitution, and poison the road to next year’s general election.