The current outbreak of homophobia and enactment of laws against LGBTI persons in Africa have their roots in colonialism. African cultures are generally tolerant of difference

The economy of Zambia is in bad shape under the helm of President Michael Sata. Sata’s liability is not in the fact that he is too old, or some of his ministers are ancient, his deficiency is in the fact that he lacks an economic vision for the country

Over sixty percent of Zimbabwe’s population are Christians. However, not all churches are supportive of homosexuality and endorse the Zimbabwe constitution that criminalizes same sex marriage yet disallows discrimination. Meanwhile several politicians make reckless denunciations of homosexuals whilst others quietly indulge in homosexual acts themselves

Why are African political leaders so drenched in opulence while their people are so poor? There are gluttonous heads of state in Africa who fail to emulate the example of the life of Nelson Mandela who was not inspired by greed and materialist accumulation

Freshly smuggled from a gulag in Ethiopia, this is a poignant, albeit long, letter from a journalist of exceptional courage: the brilliant veteran editor Eskinder Nega who is serving an 18-year prison sentence based on trumped-up terrorism charges in reprisal to his 2011 articles about the implications of the Arab Spring in his country

Kwadir Felton, one of Sen. Cory Booker’s constituents, faces 30 years in prison for allegedly assaulting the Jersey City police who shot and blinded him. But Felton can expect no constituent services from Booker. Black people demand next to nothing from their politicians.

Kenya is struggling with a huge public wage bill. Much of the money goes into the pockets of ghost workers and greedy government officials. At all levels, there is breathtaking wastage of taxpayers’ money

The death of jobless youth last weekend brings to the fore the crisis of unemployment in Nigeria. Successive government of Africa’s most populous nation, a leading oil producer, have failed to create jobs. Now the youth need to rise and demand a better life from the rulers

Beyond the ‘moral’ and ‘scientific’ justifications for the draconian anti-gay law in Uganda, a new nationalism is proposed, based not only on a supposed moral purity of Ugandans, and Africans in general, in opposition to the decadence of the whites, but also eugenics. It was the same with German Nazi’s policies of eliminating ‘unworthy lives’

Nigerians and Kenyans have different sensibilities including very different attitudes to the stresses of life, whilst their politicians are very much the same as they continue to line their own pockets

Namibia needs to tackle the problem of gender based violence in the country. A new degree in gender and development studies will assist in grappling with such problems. However, some argue that dealing with the epidemic of gender violence facing Namibia will require more than developing academic programmes

Among the many issues the current national conference in Nigeria should examine is how to equitably generate and distribute wealth as well as redefine the meaning of citizenship

There are three kinds of promises. There are promises made among equals, freely kept and just as freely disregarded with no lasting hard feelings. There are promises the poor are obliged to make to the rich and to the state, which are enforced at gunpoint. And there are promises the wealthy and powerful make to the poor, which are almost invariably broken. Turns out this is a handy guide for which promises the Obama Administration has chosen to kept.

The Nigerian Constitution has signed several international conventions to promote gender equality and women’s rights. However translating this legislation into real life advancements for women is yet to fully materialize.

What is the situation for women in Nigeria today? Where have they come from and how much further do they have left to go before they can stimulate positive transformation for gender rights in their country?

The United States is more than just an ally to fascists in Ukraine and everywhere else; the American South provided an historical model for fascism. The fascist order of the pre-Sixties Solid South was simply a domestic expression of U.S. Manifest Destiny – the national religion. The fascists – both local and imperial – have laid siege to Russia.

The corporate media are a key component of the U.S. imperial machine. Although styling themselves as watchdogs, they are in fact the dogs of war, whose mission is to hide Washington’s aggressions behind a fog of lies. War crimes are committed with impunity in part because presidents get a helping hand from their corporate media partners.

Chokwe Lumumba ran for mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, in order to set in motion a process of ‘social transformation from the ground up.’ He died eight months into his term, but the state refused to do an autopsy. Lots of folks suspect he was assassinated for challenging the ruling order

The release of this former Panther organizer illustrates the injustice of the U.S. political and legal system but also draws attention to the fact that there are many other political prisoners detained inside a country which claims to be the citadel of democracy

The late president of Venezuela was not only a great socialist revolutionary but also a passionate pan-Africanist. On the first anniversary of his passing, his eminent example of the struggle against imperialism is a model for all those who aspire to truly empower themselves and their people