An intelligence document has surfaced claiming that the white establishment through the private sector has a huge influence in the running of the National Treasury and that the history of this influence dates back to the early 1990s when the ANC and the white, apartheid-founding National Party were in negotiations. The white establishment felt it was too risky to leave the running of the government solely in the hands of the ANC.

Many efforts to restore Somalia to stability have proved disastrous precisely because solutions are imposed from outside and do not reflect the realities of the country. Usually there are no mechanisms to involve the Somali people – only warlords, some elites and neighbouring nations are consulted.

The South Sudan state is dysfunctional. Public institutions are weak, while the nation’s oil wealth benefits regional power brokers and local elites. Scavenging foreign profiteers and NGO types retained by the government have dug deep to protect their interests. Peace deals are not enough to heal the troubled young nation.

Dear Editor,

Below is my comment on the article written by Sankara Kamara.

The problem with SLPP is that after losing the 2007 election to the APC the party reverted to live in the days of Siaka Stevens. Learning from our history that after Siaka Stevens took the reins of power in the late 60s, the APC fought to dismantle the opposition through an unprecedented violence. In less than a decade of Siaka Stevens and the APC rule, the opposition was completely dismantled and for the following two decades, the political system became a One Party affair. Has Sierra Leone fully recovered from this experiment? In his political slogan for the 2007 election, candidate Koroma preached that the next round of APC rule will be different but only for the country to be fooled. Every policy of the 2000s APC is not only a replica of the 70s, 80s and 90 APC but the new brand of APC leadership has decided to increase exponentially the repressive and corrupt practices of the old.

And so, as the APC has decided to repeat history, the SLPP has followed; fearing the imprisonment and loss of life from false treason trials, the SLPP have become invincible, hoping and praying for another savior to take the APC out. To the average opposition SLPP member in the country, no political pressure will take the APC out of power while on the otherhand, the APC is doing everything in her power to ensure that the savior is not born this time.

I will therefore agree with you in part that SLPP share the blame for the disfunctioning of the democratic system but I don’t believe that the APC will accept the role of a vibrant opposition to make democracy work for the good of the country. The APC leadership will not live with a check their misrule of the country. In our most recent history, Kabba called on the APC in opposition and challenged them to be a functional opposition by putting their house in order when the party was gradually disintegrating from internal squabbles. Will the APC challenged the SLPP to do likewise? Did the country experience any attack on APC offices during the SLPP rule? What justification can anyone give for the attacks on SLPP facilities which have become the order of the day since the APC rule took back power?

Yes, the SLPP has a fault but there is no doubt that the APC has control over the making of a dormant and toothless opposition. A vigorous opposition will only meet with more repressive APC who will careless for the loss of Sierra Leonean life in their determination to hold on to power. Truly, history is been repeated.

John Yanguba, MSCE, PE.

The deafening silence of political, traditional and cultural leaders, who have in the past positioned themselves as the guardians of African culture, on the atrocities arising from circumcision, is surprising.

Massive displacement, state and paramilitary violence, assassinations of community leaders, disappearances and an invasion of traditional Afro-Colombian territories by U.S. and other European multi-national corporations who want the land that Afro-Colombians occupy and the minerals beneath the ground, are the new existential threats.

The people of Mozambique are resisting the controversial agricultural development programme ProSavana, fearing it will cause environmental degradation and social displacement. Protest is targeting the neoliberal model of development that fails to spread benefits beyond elites and investors and instead deepens poverty and exploitation.

Across South Africa today, women are still often the victims of human rights violations, despite their rich historical and present contributions to public life. Clearly, democracy’s unconscious choices has not radically altered Apartheid’s conscious policy choices.

President Buhari seems to have embarked on the war against endemic corruption with gusto. His recent appointment of a special advisory anti-graft team of respected Nigerians has met with approval. To truly lead from the front, the president ought to publicly declare his wealth and make other top officials in his administration do the same.

The local organizing committee for the August national congress was driven by private gain, abuse of rules set by the global Pan African Movement secretariat and proceeded contrary to the legitimate and moral expectations of Pan African ideals.

There is little doubt that Africa’s fortunes have improved considerably in recent years, although poverty, inequality and resource theft remain widespread. Leaders like Obama who have pledged to support Africa should openly fight the entrenched marginalisation of the continent at global decision-making fora.

The Mangrove Association, bringing together over 100 communities in El Salvador, has sought to create an egalitarian society where local democracy and environmental stewardship are key principles.

Isn’t it a strange paradox that the death of a lion in Zimbabwe galvanizes global solidarity, whereas poor human beings fleeing misery and death are viewed with utter contempt? What is yet to enter the public discourse is the West’s complicity for the circumstances that generate refugees in the first place.

Governments across Africa are obsessed with foreign direct investment. Yet every year the continent losses billions of dollars through illegal financial outflows connected with FDI. More money is lost through legal transfers of super-profits and foreign investors are responsible for distorting national economies.

Three years after the arbitrary executions of nine prisoners in The Gambia, there is still no response for the families. No one knows where the bodies are, whether they were buried or the motive for the extra-judicial killings that shocked the world.

Having successfully advocated for US-led NATO wars in Libya and Syria "to stop the next Rwanda," Power has her sights set on the tiny, impoverished East African nation of Burundi, which has a highly geostrategic border with the resource-rich Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Haiti’s 9 August election was a sham. Although the popular Fanmi Lavalas party of ousted President Jean Betrand Aristide was allowed to contest after 11 years, the ruling party of the Western-backed despot Martelly hired armed goons who disrupted the election throughout the country. There are fears about what will happen during presidential elections next month.

A global committee of activists campaigning for justice for the acclaimed South American intellectual has raised questions about the commitment of the Government of Guyana to let a commission of inquiry set up for the purpose run its course. The committee is concerned that there could be a sinister plot to derail the inquiry.

Baba has seen it all and conquered all. He is one of Nigeria’s most decorated intellectuals and certainly one of Africa’s best gifts to the world. He is a man widely respected across Nigeria and widely honoured abroad.

What has the "democracy" so praised by the West and its apologists brought Tunisia? And why does the rise of Islamism seem so unstoppable? The answer lies in the way the two trends reinforce each other, even as they ferociously contend for the country's future.