Somalia has seen renewed international interest this year, with visits from foreign leaders, international conferences on ending piracy and significant foreign investment. Bashir Goth links these developments to the global realization that the world economy suffers from Somali-based piracy, caused by neglect of the Horn of Africa nation during its 20 years of collapse.

On September 13, 2015, President Edgar Lungu announced that he had drawn battle lines with Post Newspapers editor-in-chief Fred M’membe and vowed to ‘take him on’ using his powers as Head of State. In most jurisdictions, including Zambia, what President Lungu issued against the journalist constitutes a criminal offence of threatening or uttering a death threat.

The pyramids of Egypt, erected thousands of years ago, were constructed with a precision that cannot yet be replicated with all the sophistication of today’s technology. Africans must refrain from looking east, west, north or south but inside, for the solutions they seek!

Pambazuka News Team is pleased to announce to its readers and supporters the launch of a new video blog called #PunchBack.

#PunchBack provides comment and analysis of current affairs from a pan-Africanist perspective.

We invite our readers to watch #PunchBack, share the vlog, engage with the issues raised and share your views with us.

A new post of #PunchBack will appear every two weeks in the Comments & Analysis section of your newsletter.

Welcome!

Click on this link to the first post of

Uganda is heading to presidential elections in March. The country seems to have hardly matured as its politicians are pre-occupied with their own interest and not that of the country and its people. Whether President Museveni retains power next year or the opposition unseats him, there is no hope that this state of affairs will change for the better.

A binding international treaty that imposes human rights obligations on businesses would be a monumental step towards protecting peaceful assembly and association rights.

Large billboards at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport welcomed delegates with the beaming face of President Uhuru Kenyatta, the newly-elected Chairperson of the African Peer Review Mechanism Forum. Other costly marketing and logistical activities had already taken place. And then the Kenyan government announced it had cancelled the event.

The renewed anti-corruption war in Nigeria will receive a big boost if the Buhari Administration considers examination malpractice as another battle to be won.

The images of hundreds of thousands dislocated African Americans in public areas, buses and on warships awaiting removal illustrated the national oppressive and class contradictions within the world’s leading capitalist and imperialist state.

Unlike the US or France, Canada is not a leading military force in Africa. But Ottawa exerts influence through a variety of means including training initiatives.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

President Obama has been fiercely criticized for his claim at a press conference in Addis Ababa that the Ethiopian government is “democratically elected.” The facts on the ground do not support him. But his message of hope to the continent was well received.

Chronic underfunding of tertiary education has reduced Nigerian public universities into shameful outfits that are incapable of discharging their responsibilities of teaching, research and community service. The government of President Buhari must quickly raise education funding to 26% of the national budget as recommended by UNESCO.