Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | A Kenyan referee who had been chosen for the 2018 World Cup in Russia has been banned for life after accepting a bribe, an African Football Confederation (CAF) statement said Sunday. Marwa Range was dropped from the World Cup list after a media sting …
Read More »Inside Africa’s real tragedy
THE LAST WORD: How the ideology of a welfare state has destroyed our continent and impoverished its people THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Everywhere I turn these days, Ugandans (and Africans generally) are complaining about the sorry state of our education and healthcare systems. There is a …
Read More »COMMENT: Weaning African leaders off power
Democracy from below could be the antidote to addiction to power by leaders who refuse to leave office COMMENT | KEALEBOGA J MAPHUNYE | Some African countries have recorded democratic victories in the past 12 months. Ethiopia has a new leader whose ascent holds great promise for change, despite the country’s …
Read More »COMMENT: Africa’s path to development
Economists are confident that Africa’s development model will be different from that of East Asia COMMENT | BRAHIMA COULIBALY | Recent projections indicate that several Sub-Saharan African countries will experience robust economic growth over the next five years. By 2023, around one-third of the region’s economies will have grown at an …
Read More »Africa’s need for messiahs
Inside our belief that the salvation of our nations will come from the actions of one great man THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | If you follow discussions on politics in Uganda, or Africa generally, one factor is given as the cause of the slow rate of development – …
Read More »Young women changing the face of African media
Port Louis, Mauritius | AFP | A new generation of 30-somethings with brilliant careers, feminist convictions and, above all, confidence, are spearheading an assault on African media, using social networks as a launchpad. “I do not understand what ‘no’ means,” Peace Hyde, one of the most high-profile members of this …
Read More »Biggest ever cholera vaccine drive underway in Africa: UN
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The biggest cholera vaccine drive in history is under way in Africa aimed at reining in a spate of outbreaks across the continent, the UN and charity alliance Gavi said Monday. More than two million people will receive the oral cholera vaccine as part of …
Read More »THIS WEEK: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf accepts prize for African leadership
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf accepts prize for African leadership Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Pictured), the former President of Liberia, accepted the 2017 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership at a special leadership ceremony in Kigali, Rwanda on April 27. Speaking to guests from Rwanda and …
Read More »COMMENT: African leaders and democracy
Why it is not true that African presidents can do whatever they want, unencumbered by democratic constraints COMMENT | NIC CHEESEMAN | Africa is often imagined to be a place in which presidents can do whatever they want, unencumbered by constitutional or democratic constraints. A large body of literature has developed …
Read More »Africa struggles for weapons against armyworm curse
Kisumu, Kenya | AFP | On farms across Africa, a seemingly innocuous brown and beige caterpillar is waging a silent war, devastating rural incomes and posing a major threat to the continent’s food supply. In just two years, the so-called fall armyworm has colonised three-quarters of Africa, according to the …
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