The influential American scholar falsely attributes to the UN cultural agency UNESCO a mandate it clearly does not have. What is more, he supports an outdate and unfair system that allowed rich countries which financed many explorations and excavations of archaeological sites to loot artefacts.

Attorney General Githu Muigai has armed himself with such massive powers that he has virtually secured impunity for himself and his staff. This megalomania, which flouts the constitution, seems designed to protect the interests of the increasingly tyrannical Jubilee government.

What Nigerian students are is just the beginning of bigger repression that the present governance structure has in store for them.

The “revolutionary” lynching and sodomization of Gaddafi amidst manic chants of “Allahu Akbar”, lauded by many at the time as some sort of a warped triumph of the good of popular will over the evil of dictatorship, was nothing but a gory precursor for the future of the country and the region.

Zambia’s new President Edgar Lungu, elected less than two months ago, collapsed last weekend and was flown out of the country for specialized treatment. In a country that has lost three presidents in ten years, why did the voters ignore reports about Lungu’s poor health?

Ensuring the education of the girl-child must be achieved through a crosscutting strategy that links various development priorities and engages a variety of stakeholders.

LGBTIQ struggles are connected to universal struggles for liberation of people from the hegemony of the white-male capitalist world and its allies. But the oppressor – and even activists – have split this struggle and reduced it to a question of identity.

NGOs and activists need to give themselves a really hard look. They cannot possibly be partners of, and stakeholders in, systems that oppress and dehumanize the large majority of people. They must choose the side of those who are struggling for a better world and against those who want to maintain the existing world. Neutrality is betrayal.

It is very true that decades of organising in Africa have assumed, quite wrongly, that social problems are discrete challenges only facing specific groups – and that they should be tackled as such.

NGOs do a good job, certainly, but they cannot escape the charge that often they are focused on professionalising “development” and people’s struggles through their constant supply of statistics, reports and case studies. Rarely do these organisations tackle entrenched structural injustices underpinning the problems they attempt to solve.

The constitution of Kenya places great importance on citizen participation in their governance. Under the devolved system, county governments should do everything they can to ensure citizen’s voices are taken into account in decision-making process.

The German Foreign Minister recently visited Africa and described Rwanda as an “anchor for stability”. On the contrary, the true characterization of President Paul Kagame’s ruling clique is that the last 20 years have been a reign of terror with a distorted and deceptive narrative that criminalizes and marginalizes Hutus in particular and all his opponents in general.

Another multinational military deployment in Libya is being suggested, following the spread of ISIS violence to parts of that country. But the world must not be railroaded into another UN-supported deployment of troops to back Western military and economic interests in Libya. There should be clear opposition to proxy wars in Libya and for the UN to expose and expel Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia from their mischief-making in Libya.

A coalition of 76 civil society organisations from within and outside Africa has written to the African Union seeking immediate publication of the report of the AU Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan (AUCISS), whose findings they believe will make a critical contribution to the the peace process in the war-torn nation.

For the past decade, Nike has used this annual sacred period of remembrance as nothing more than a marketing tool to sell even more of its obscenely overpriced athletic shoes. But this year the annual release of its Black History Month line of sneakers and apparel was met with righteous indignation.

Just over a month after being elected president on Jan 20, Zambia's new head of state has said he will crush members of the ruling party who will not be happy with his decisions. A Zambian commentator finds this threat disturbing.

It is the Israeli Apartheid Week in South Africa. The children of celebrated liberation heroes have come out to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel, denouncing the Jewish state’s brutal colonial occupation of Palestine. The campaign is supported by 85 South African organizations and institutions.

Tanzania’s general elections are set for October 2015 and the liberation party CCM that has ruled since independence already has 20 presidential aspirants. One of them is the young and ambitious January Makamba, whose announcement to stand for presidency has caused some excitement in the land. What chances does he have?

Four top TV stations have been off air for about three weeks following a dispute with Kenya’s telecommunications regulator over digital migration. The plight of these mainstream media outlets has attracted little sympathy from the public, as Kenyans are increasingly losing confidence in corporate media as reliable allies in their democratic struggles.

A billion indigenous trees of different varieties hold the potential to significantly reduce widespread poverty among Morocco’s farming communities. The government is establishing community tree nurseries. It is an initiative that the people should wholeheartedly embrace.