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Global South & Transnational Struggles
When the Border Becomes an Algorithm: Rethinking the Durban Declaration, African Mobility and Digital Racism 25 Years after Durban
Global South & Transnational Struggles
Rwanda and the Question of Sportswashing
Arts & Book Reviews
Change Always Comes
Popular Participation & Democratization
After Mekelle: Why I Believe the Tigray Defense Forces Are Likely to Prevail
Popular Participation & Democratization
Soaring Public Debt, Missing Accountability, Brewing Mistrust and Economic Injustice in Kenya’s Political Economy

Popular Participation & Democratization


  • Ouattara and the project of a new constitution

    Eric Edi | Popular Participation & Democratization
    20.10.2016

    Ivory Coast is in crisis. The instability arising from the post-election violence of five years ago continues to deepen. The government is increasingly repressive. Many Ivorians cannot meet the cost of living. Jobs are scarce. Insecurity perpetrated by gangs of unemployed youths makes life uncertain. Yet the government of Alassane Ouattara doesn't seem concerned with any of that. His current project is a new constitution whose barely hidden agenda is to keep him in power beyond 2020.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization

  • Business leadership [re]imagined in an era of major global disruptions

    Paresh Soni | Popular Participation & Democratization
    20.10.2016

    We live in a world which is faced with multiple, interconnected problems, such as climate change and significant environmental degradation, inequality, poverty and food insecurity, but we also have the unique opportunity to redesign and recreate sustainable futures. A whole generation of business education students will need to be engaged to think and act in a way that matches the scale of these challenges. 

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization Business Education

  • Seeds of the Cameroonian popular revolution

    Peter Wuteh Vakunta | Popular Participation & Democratization
    20.10.2016

    President Biya does not live in Cameroon and, therefore, does not know Cameroonians. The absentee landlord spends several months in Europe with no specific agenda in mind. Once back home, he retires to his million-dollar castle to play golf and drink champagne. Biya’s inept governance has brought Cameroon to its knees. Cameroonians should rise up and replace him.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization Cameroon, corruption, Paul Biya

  • Why now more than ever free decolonial education is needed in South Africa

    Mzuziwezulu Zuzo Gegana | Popular Participation & Democratization
    20.10.2016

    For South Africa to dismantle its colonial economic structures it will have to urgently address the knowledge and resources impasse. Through equitable distribution of wealth and resources, free decolonial education should be implemented to cater for the financially excluded Black majority now.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization Apartheid, Racism

  • Ghana Election 2016: Religiosity, austerity, zero-sum politics and democracy triumphalism (Pt.2)

    Francisco Kofi Nyaxo Olympio | Popular Participation & Democratization
    13.10.2016

    In the second and final part of this essay, the author argues that one cannot deny that democratic constitutionalism has had profound impacts in Ghana – civil society activism is flourishing and inculcation of democratic habits has become a normalcy. But the state of transacting political business among the dominant players has grave consequences for trust, solidarity and social cohesion.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization

  • Political will is vital to curb terrorism financing, money laundering and recovery of Africa’s looted assets

    Hawa Noor M. | Popular Participation & Democratization
    13.10.2016

    Africa has lost $1 trillion over the past five decades through illicit financial flows. International mechanisms for getting this looted wealth back exist. While some African countries have often claimed that the existence of tax havens hinders assets recovery efforts, lack of political will has been cited as the key problem.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization

  • DR Congo: On the current debate over a looming crisis of legitimacy

    David-Ngendo Tshimba | Popular Participation & Democratization
    13.10.2016

    Uncertainty hangs over the date of presidential and legislative elections, yet President Joseph Kabila’s term expires on 19 December 2016 and he is not eligible for re-election. The opposition rejects the possibility of Kabila continuing in office as elections are organized. But there is an alternative. The Congolese can forget about elections and instead imagine a different way of organizing their society away from liberal democracy.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization

  • Ouattara’s parody of constitutional change

    Gary K. Busch | Popular Participation & Democratization
    13.10.2016

    Ouattara is trying to achieve in the constitution what he and his rebel allies refused when the change was proposed way back in 2004. There is no sincerity in the current push for constitutional reform. What Ouattara wants is to consolidate state power and make it difficult for anyone else wishing to be president.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization

  • The Rwanda the world doesn't know

    Zahra Moloo | Popular Participation & Democratization
    06.10.2016

    Journalist Anjan Sundaram’s book on Rwanda exposes a terrifying dictatorship at the heart of Africa that few people get to hear about. Paul Kagame has tremendously succeeded – with the eager help of his western backers - to feed the world a carefully choreographed false narrative. His chilling tyranny is so pervasive and entrenched that Rwandans police themselves unbidden.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization

  • Botswana @ 50: The journey has been long, but there’re reasons to celebrate

    John Moreti | Popular Participation & Democratization
    06.10.2016

    Last week, the southern African country which is consistently ranked as the least corrupt on the continent, marked its Golden Jubilee of independence. It’s envoy to Kenya says that democracy, rule of law, good governance, respect for human rights and the promotion of an open and free economy have been the main pillars of Botswana’s  success.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization

  • Consequences of being Cecil John Rhodes

    Sanya Osha | Popular Participation & Democratization
    06.10.2016

    In confronting the historical spectre of Rhodes the youth of South Africa have revisited in a bold and vehement manner the unfinished business of deracialisation and decolonisation.  They are holding the post-apartheid state accountable. The issue now is, how is 350 years of exclusion and dispossession decisively addressed?

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization

  • Ghana Election 2016: Religiosity, austerity, zero-sum politics and democracy triumphalism (Pt.I)

    Francisco Kofi Nyaxo Olympio | Popular Participation & Democratization
    06.10.2016

    Ghana goes to elections in December. In this first installment of a two-part article, the author argues that, like in many developing countries, heightened expectations that democratisation would lead to inclusive and sustainable development have not been realised. Ghana has successfully transformed from authoritarian rule to a fledging liberal democracy, but in the midst of poverty and destitution.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization

  • Somaliland’s sovereignty: Why Woodward is wrong

    Ahmed M.I. Egal | Popular Participation & Democratization
    22.09.2016

    With all due respect to Professor Woodward, one must conclude that he contributes little to a learned examination of the “secessions” of Eritrea and South Sudan, while his admonitions for caution on Somaliland’s quest for international recognition of its sovereignty are based upon little or no knowledge of the country’s history, the merits of its case or its achievements during the last quarter century. 

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization

  • Can you have democracy without democrats?

    Cameron Duodu | Popular Participation & Democratization
    15.09.2016

    In one province in Gabon, the stronghold of President Ali Bongo, the results declared by the Gabonese Electoral Commission indicated  that 99.83% of the electorate turned out to vote, and that 95.46% of them voted for Ali Bongo! The question is: how can we ensure that election results in Africa are not dependent on an electoral commission or constitutional court that is in the pocket of the incumbent?

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization Gabon Democracy, élections, Gabon, President Ali Bongo, Jean Ping

  • The Igbos: Why are they still Biafrans?

    Adagbo Onoja | Popular Participation & Democratization
    15.09.2016

    What might be there in the Igbo gene to account for the dialectics of Igboness in Nigeria: the unchallenged warriors of the Nigerian space in territorial terms but the quickest to get sucked into homeland insularity at the slightest provocation? How could so educated, so successful in business and so globally mobile and established an ethnic group misread the Nigerian text every now and then?

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization Nigeria Biafra war, Igbo

  • Former World Bank expert goes on a hunger strike over racism

    Yonas Biru | Popular Participation & Democratization
    08.09.2016

    I see the idea of walking away from racial injustice head down and shoulder slumped to be beyond comprehension. It is that mentality that has allowed institutional racism in the World Bank to outlast apartheid. As of today, September 8, 2016, I will be on a hunger strike until the Bank fully restores my professional identity, and agrees to redress the irreparable damage it has caused my person and profession.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization North America World Bank, Racism, Jim Yom Kim, Yonas Biru

  • Bata’s footprint in Africa: The dark story of Canadian shoe giant

    Yves Engler | Popular Participation & Democratization
    08.09.2016

    The Toronto-based shoemaker took advantage of European colonialism to rapidly set up across the continent, squeezing out local footwear producers, working with apartheid South Africa and even reaching out to Uganda’s Idi Amin.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization North America Bata Shoe Company, Thomas Bata

  • The Niger Delta: Rites of insurgency

    Sanya Osha | Popular Participation & Democratization
    08.09.2016

    Nigeria’s ruling elites are blithely pursuing a neoliberal path of self-destruction, setting the stage for a national meltdown unless diverted by some miracle. Unaddressed grievances have spawned numerous violent movements actively championing secession of their regions from the federation. The nation-building project has failed. And as no sensible alternative is being offered, the result in the long-run could be utter chaos.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization Nigeria Nigeria, Ken Saro-Wiwa

  • WANTED: Leadership by African women to transform the continent

    Osai Ojigho | Popular Participation & Democratization
    08.09.2016

    Leadership is about how those in top positions exercise power and influence. Leadership must serve both women and men, young and old, the empowered and marginalised, weak and strong, poor and rich. The kind of leadership we need in Africa must be transformative. It must first address the question of inequality, exclusion and identity.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization Sierra Leone Women and leadership

  • Nigeria: Battling corruption to a standstill

    Godwin Onyeacholem | Popular Participation & Democratization
    08.09.2016

    Since assuming office on May 29, 2015, President Buhari has lived up to his campaign promise of tackling corruption headlong and providing a fresh template for instilling transparency and accountability. Nigeria could be a model for fighting this monster that gobbles up some $2.6 trillion annually from the global economy.

    Tagged under Popular Participation & Democratization Nigeria corruption, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria

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