The state of democracy isn’t looking good in southern Africa – but these countries’ Western ‘partners’ don’t really seem to care.
- Professor of World Politics, SOAS, University of London
Three democracies once considered beacons of hope are in varying states of disarray.
It’s long past time the ANC acted to end the Zuma era. But does it have the moral backbone to act?
It’s hard to award a prize to esteemed former leaders when so many are determined to die in office.
The end of Yahya Jammeh should be celebrated, but his democratic neighbours had the strongest of hands to play.
Even ‘madmen’ have their motives for fighting.
A brave foreign policy changed history in Angola and South Africa.
Even after seven years of incompetence and dodgy dealing, Jacob Zuma’s presidency has yet to reach its nadir.
Muhammadu Buhari rode into power on a wave of goodwill – but Nigeria’s troubles just won’t go away.
Technocrats across the African continent are battling to change the direction of corrupt, violent governments
While South Africa voted to chasten the ANC, Zambians endured an election campaign filled with abuse and claims to Godliness.
Robert Mugabe’s indigenisation laws demand that companies operating in Zimbabwe transfer most of their capital into local hands.
A new generation of angry young South Africans seem to have forgotten what made the liberation struggle work.
Once two of the African continent’s most optimistic countries, Zambia and South Africa have sunk to new lows.
African elections and referendums are still a heady mixture of the graceful and the shameless.
Uganda’s president has ruled for three decades – and the opposition is getting stagnant too.
South Africa’s president is direly unpopular and his government on the ropes – but protests against him are just empty symbolism.
Months after an inconclusive election, Croatia has at last picked an almost unknown figure to be its new prime minister: Tihomir Orešković, chief financial officer of a Canadian generic pharmaceutical…
For better or for worse, various countries around the world charted a new course last year. What lies ahead for 2016?
On a recent trip to Zimbabwe, Xi Jinping announced $60bn in development funding. It’s an incredibly ambitious project.
It has been an exciting month for Africa, not least for the highly controversial elections in Tanzania, where the annulment of the entire vote in Zanzibar has played an important role in extending the…
President Buhari of Nigeria has finally named his cabinet. He was either slow, or he was very choosy, or he couldn’t find enough honest people. Certainly his 55th national anniversary speech was full of…
I spent most of August 2015 in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia – a depressing and mournful tour indeed. The place I stayed in South Africa, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, is atypical. I am almost…
If John Garang could see the state of South Sudan today, he would be appalled.
To Palestinian students fed up with Fatah and imprisoned by politics, Africa’s maturing democracies are a source of inspiration.
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