South African MPs recently voted overwhelmingly in favour of the ‘Secrecy Bill’ on ‘Black Tuesday’ (November 22), despite objections from civil society, the media and foreign investors. The Bill is said to signal a “dark day for democracy” and a

Read the rest of South Africa’s Secrecy Bill: how problematic? – By Desné Masie »

There was one astounding moment at Chinua Achebe’s Colloquium at Brown University in the US last year when three of the most influential men in the Biafran War came together on the platform – Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the Oxford educated Biafran

Read the rest of Biafra Revisited: civil war leader Ojukwu dies – By Richard Dowden »

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change conference (‘COP 17’) started on Monday 28th in Durban. Whatever South Africa’s contribution to the multilateral debate, the business community remains somewhat uncertain about what the government intends on the home front by

Read the rest of South Africa’s carbon tax debate: Business awaits clarity – By Jolyon Ford, Oxford Analytica. »

The Democratic Republic of Congo is, as this piece is written, conducting its second democratic election since the end of the civil war in 2001. As Marco Jowell reminds us, Congo remains a ‘post-conflict state.’ Meaning, in the language of

Read the rest of African Arguments Editorial: Congo – elections alone will not fix this broken state »

“Men make their own history, “ wrote a famous individual long ago, “but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.”

Read the rest of A View of Abdullahi Gallab’s A CIVIL SOCIETY DEFERRED from a precolonial perspective – By Jay Spaulding »

Songhai Advisory LLP is a bespoke business intelligence consultancy providing critical insight on market opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria is one of only three OPEC member states not to have a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) – the other two being

Read the rest of Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund – planning for a rainy day – By Songhai Advisory »

Forthcoming elections in the Congo will be volatile and will not only set the foundations for the domestic political climate but will also dictate international engagement with the Democratic Republic of Congo for the foreseeable future. It is essential that

Read the rest of DRC: Peacekeeping and politics – MONUSCO is essential but must re-deploy east – By Marco Jowell »

Recently, at the ceremony for the conferment of Nigeria’s highest national honours, a shortage of medals for the awardees seemed a most awkward conclusion to an event that had been trailed by controversy. No matter how the event played out

Read the rest of Nigeria: Jonathan must prove himself against growing tide of discontent – By Ejiro Barrett »

On July 9, 2011, South Sudan became the world’s newest state. If “all dates are conventional” as Burno Latour says, 2011 and 1821 (the date of the ‘creation’ of Sudan under Egyptian rule,) are “a little less so than some.”

Read the rest of A Civil Society Deferred: We – the ‘Sudanese’ – have not been Liberated Yet – By Abdullahi Gallab »

A debate on Abdullahi Gallab’s A Civil Society Deferred It’s a good time to be writing a book about Sudan. Southern secession has brought the country back into the spotlight, which had faded after the initially noisy response to the

Read the rest of A Civil Society Deferred – failure of the Sudanese nation-state – A debate on a book by Abdullahi Gallab »