For a generation now, predatory policing, the war on drugs and the prison state have been government's most frequent intersection with young black Americans. The gossip before this year's State of the Union was that the president would now do by executive order all those good things Republicans have blocked him on the last 3 years. Does that include reining in or rolling back the prison state? Should we hold our collective breath?

Do not expect honesty, accuracy, or even a semblance of reality from U.S. presidents’ reports on the State of the Union. Better to call it the State of Delusion address. So, skip the charade, here are the facts: “The state of the union is not very good for anyone except the ruling 1%.”

Mining companies in South Africa, including Glencore seem to consider the Marikana massacre allows them to ride roughshod over the rights of miners and farmworkers. South Africa continues to have ‘beautiful laws’ that fail to be implemented in the interests of ordinary people

There are many lessons to be learned from the events of 1964 in the Southern states of America when many activists campaigned for political rights for black people. Among them was the valliant Fannie Lou Hamer. Many of those rights are being eroded today in America

Does the African Union confuse the term ‘African Renaissance’ with Pan-Africanism? These terms cannot mean the same thing when the ‘European Renaissance’ brought slavery, colonialism and racism to Africa

Sexual and gender based violence in Uganda fails to be adequately addressed by the Ugandan government that fails to consult with women on this issue. It seems sexual and physical attacks on women are new ‘weapons to discipline women’ in to submission

Trade volumes between China and Africa have increased tremendously in recent years and close ties between the two are growing fast in a number of areas. Whether China will be a catalyst for massive transformation of Africa in the next few decades entirely depends on the strategic decisions taken by African nations

Zambia is not over-populated. On the contrary its small population is an economic disadvantage. A sensible population policy should let the country’s population grow to about 20 million people, after which the government can institute appropriate population control measures

Vibrant student unionism has been repressed in campuses across Nigeria. It is a pitiful state of affairs as university administrators run dictatorships that silence student voices. What societies are these universities preparing the students for?

There is no nice way of stating an ugly truth. As at this writing, the entire continent of Africa, from Cape to Cairo and all points in-between, is under the rule of mendicants enabled by a coterie of intellectuals who are either in profound denial or otherwise think there is something inevitable about Africa’s begging ways in world affairs.

Are all the delays, postponements and deferrals gentle hints and winks that some kind of a political deal has been cut between the ICC, Kenyatta, the African Union and the UN Security Council to eventually let Kenyatta off the hook for 'lack of evidence'?

Ethiopia’s much vaunted recent economic growth belies the reality on the ground. Suggestions of rapid socioeconomic transformation to a middle-income economy are likely to prove fanciful, unless urgent significant national concerns are addressed

It is been a long journey of personal reflection and discovery for the Moroccan filmmaker and human rights activist who now rejects and campaigns openly against his country’s unlawful and brutal occupation of Western Sahara, Africa’s last colony

A new poll shows “Blacks remain more NSA spy-friendly than whites and Hispanics.” Earlier surveys showed Blacks were the ethnic group most willing to go along with Obama’s threatened air war against Syria. What happened to Black progressivism?

When South Africa became democratic and political equality was adopted, little was done for economic equality. That mainly benefitted the already powerful whites. Economic liberalisation coupled with inequality and capitalist competition have engendered massive corruption

Through the years, the discourse about South Sudan has merely focused on power, wealth and armed conflict. The issues of identity, citizenship, unity and constructing the social fabric of the country have never been part of the conversation

The ruling elite in South Africa combines the worst aspects of apartheid and post-apartheid nationalism with pro-corporate neoliberalism. Public interest and participation in the nation's moneyed politics is purely tokenistic

The regime in power in Ethiopia today is orchestrating a full-court press demonization and vilification campaign against Atse Menelik II, the Nineteenth Century Ethiopian emperor whose centennial is being celebrated this year (Ethiopian calendar)

Last week’s appointment of Catherine Samba Panza as CAR’s transitional president, the third female head of state in Africa, raises a glimmer of hope that this troubled nation at the heart of the continent could finally end its long history of coups, political violence, ethnic-based exclusion and grinding poverty

Southern Tanzania’s coal and gas-rich region which is part of the Mtwara Development Corridor is to see the construction of a new railway line from Mtwara to Mbamba-Bay. There are huge hopes that this new Chinese built railway – 40 years after TAZARA, will foster economic development in the region