On World Press Freedom day, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released its annual list of the best and worst countries as it relates to press freedom. The usual suspects, Eritrea and Equatorial Guinea, were singled out in a list of the 10 worst countries for censorship. Many other African countries received failing marks. Since, in most cases, national security… Read more »
As a former Missourian and an Eritrean immigrant, I was heartbroken when I came across the April 15th St. Louis Post Dispatch front page story detailing the statutory rape case against an Eritrean immigrant in St. Louis who impregnated a 12-year-old. As I scanned through the story, I spotted several ambiguous parts which begged for perspective…. Read more »
In the past two months, West Africa has witnessed an unprecedented security threat as several governments were caught in the grips of coups or attempted coups. As Guinea-Bissau soldiers arrest the nation’s Prime minister over a suspected coup, Mali’s new interim civilian president got sworn into office last Thursday, after a 27 days long coup that has puzzled… Read more »
In 2010, Rwanda held an election which came under scrutiny for a media crackdown and the arrest of some opposition candidates. For incumbent, Paul Kagame, however, it was an undoubtable win with an overwhelming 93 percent of the votes. Shortly after that, concerned about the treatment of the media in Rwanda, I met professor Rangira Gallimore, an… Read more »
I’m all for Africans solving their own problems. It has a nice ring to it. “African solutions to African problems.” But what does this self-reliance mean when it relates to violent, murderous lunatics such as Joseph Kony? Obviously, the fact that he has been operating in four different countries–the Central African Republic, Uganda, Democratic Republic… Read more »
Senegal’s New President Despite a notion that Africa continues to be the continent where autocratic regimes forcefully replace each other through bloody warfare, in the past two decades, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, there is a significant increase in the number of democratic countries in the continent. Sure, there are setbacks in… Read more »
At a time when anti-establishment sentiments are high in the United States, many Americans are searching for answers in their constitution, in an effort to turn back the clock to the way things once were. More than 7,000 miles away in Kenya, the mood has been markedly different in the past couple of months. There,… Read more »