An in-depth investigation by Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer this week questions whether the Bill & Melinda Gates 'Foundation is doing the right thing with their influential campaigns against poverty, inequality, and climate change. To that, this article casts solid doubt on the value of the Foundation’s work. Band-aids are plastered over complex problems, band-aids that, – at the Foundation's insistence –, have to be sourced from the pharmaceutical industry because developing countries are not...
An in-depth investigation by Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer this week questions whether the Bill & Melinda Gates 'Foundation is doing the right...
The historiography of the Nederlandsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappij pays scant attention to black workers' resistance to exploitation and oppression. In Absent Presences. Decolonizing our Views of the South Africa House and its collections eleven, contributors explore the origins of the archive built around white tribal affiliation. Absent Presences, launched in March 2024, is published on the occasion of the House’s centenary. Contributions by Nathan Tantraal, Ronelda S. Kamfer, Pieter...
The historiography of the Nederlandsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappij pays scant attention to black workers' resistance to exploitation and...
Near the start of the documentary film The Greatest Night in Pop Music, released at the beginning of 2023, the American singer-songwriter Lionel Richie describes how he and Michael Jackson came up with the melody for “We Are the World,” the charity single recorded by American artists in 1985 to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. “We had to identify right away what kind of song do we want.” For the melody, they rejected an r&b ballad or an anthem style, like “The Star-Spangled Banner.”...
Near the start of the documentary film The Greatest Night in Pop Music, released at the beginning of 2023, the American singer-songwriter Lionel Richie...
Will Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo sign a law passed by parliament that will make life hell for LGBTQI+ people? The president seems to be in doubt. Sixteen Ghanaian civil society organisations are calling on him to show courage and refuse to sign the bill. Ghanaian academics are also speaking out. The country’s new anti-homosexuality bill “violates everyone's rights, not just LGBTQI+ people,” writes law professor Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua in this edition of ZAM. We rightly look at Ghana but there...
Will Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo sign a law passed by parliament that will make life hell for LGBTQI+ people? The president seems to be in doubt....
The Cameroonian-born academic’s oeuvre “goes beyond a particularised notion of decolonisation to a universalist recentring of the human,” says Heike Krieger, the chairman of the Holberg committee. Achille Mbembe is one of the most read and cited scholars from the African continent and has received the Holberg Prize for his pioneering research in African history, postcolonial studies, humanities, and social science over the last four decades. Both as an academic and as a public intellectual, he is...
The Cameroonian-born academic’s oeuvre “goes beyond a particularised notion of decolonisation to a universalist recentring of the human,” says Heike...
Make no mistake, the recent decision by French lawmakers to enshrine the right to abortion in the constitution is a historic milestone, especially at a time when this right is under threat in several countries. The main headwind is probably blowing in the United States, where the Supreme Court overturned the famous Roe v. Wade ruling. States can now decide for themselves whether to allow abortion, or not – and many have already criminalised the procedure. French President Macron could well use a...
Make no mistake, the recent decision by French lawmakers to enshrine the right to abortion in the constitution is a historic milestone, especially at a...
A new abolition movement is gaining momentum in the Igbo region of Nigeria, fuelled by social media.The movement fights old home brew systems of slavery. There are global efforts to fight modern slavery, but a few traditional systems still hold strong in west Africa. These include Osu, Ohu and Trokosi. The Conversation Africa’s Godfred Akoto Boafo spoke to Michael Odijie who has researched one of the systems – Osu – and what can be done to finally put a stop to it. What is Osu? Osu is a traditional...
A new abolition movement is gaining momentum in the Igbo region of Nigeria, fuelled by social media.The movement fights old home brew systems of slavery....
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has the Constitution on his side if he does not sign a new hate bill into law. Ghana’s new anti-homosexuality bill infringes several rights and freedoms, not only of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) people but of heterosexuals too. The bill has been in the works since 2021 when it was tabled in parliament as a private member’s bill . The objective of the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill is "to provide for human sexual...
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has the Constitution on his side if he does not sign a new hate bill into law. Ghana’s new anti-homosexuality bill...
This is Tania Leon (1945-1996). Her image graces the door giving access to a building at the health care campus of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam in the South Eastern part of the city. The artwork was unveiled inJanuary, 2024, an event attended by students and friends of the late South African activist. Running away for apartheid, Leon moved into exile in the early seventies of last century. For many years, she was an active participant in Dutch solidarity campaigns with the struggle against...
This is Tania Leon (1945-1996). Her image graces the door giving access to a building at the health care campus of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam in the...
It was a relief to note that most media in the Netherlands managed relatively quickly to move from outrage about what some called a “tribal clash” or a “foreign conflict” between Eritreans in The Hague to the more sensible understanding that the violent protests had targeted the even more violent Eritrean regime, whose agents and militants had assembled in that city to celebrate a special festive day for the dictatorship. It was even better to receive input from expert academics and actual Eritrean...
It was a relief to note that most media in the Netherlands managed relatively quickly to move from outrage about what some called a “tribal clash” or a...
South Africa has, again, approached the International Court of Justice and instructed Israel not to attack Rafah and its 1,5 million Palestinian inhabitants. The significance of South Africa's case before the International Court of Justice extends even beyond the court's clear and urgent judgment to moderate the acts of war and come to the aid of Gaza's residents with medication and food supplies. With this legal intervention, South Africa reclaimed the authority of international law, of...
South Africa has, again, approached the International Court of Justice and instructed Israel not to attack Rafah and its 1,5 million Palestinian...
Hage Gottfried Geingob served as the third persident of Namibia from 2015 until his death on February 4 2024. He was Namibia’s first prime minister from 1990 to 2002, and served as prime minister again from 2012 to 2015. Geingob was born on 3 August 1941. He joined the ranks of the national liberation movement South West African People’s Organisation (Swapo) during its formation in 1960. As the official statement declared: “The Namibian nation has lost a distinguished servant of the people, a...
Hage Gottfried Geingob served as the third persident of Namibia from 2015 until his death on February 4 2024. He was Namibia’s first prime minister from...
In response to a public outcry New York auction house Guernsey had suspended the sale of 70 personal items belonging to South Africa’s anti-apartheid hero. His identity book and prison letters, his famous Madiba shirts, his walking stick and gifts from US President Barack Obama are some of Nelson Mandela’s personal items that were set to be auctioned om 22 February, 2024. But Guernsey has now suspended the sale without an explanation. In an interview with South Africa’s online platform Daily...
In response to a public outcry New York auction house Guernsey had suspended the sale of 70 personal items belonging to South Africa’s anti-apartheid...
Narnia Bohler-Muller, an international law and human rights law expert, says the South African legal team argued soundly that Israel’s actions in Gaza are genocidal, and tells us who is who in the team. John Dugard Professor John Dugard is an internationally renowned expert in international law and has been cited by academics, practitioners and courts alike nationally and internationally. His experience of sitting on the bench of the ICJ as an acting judge and as a member of a Rapporteur of the...
Narnia Bohler-Muller, an international law and human rights law expert, says the South African legal team argued soundly that Israel’s actions in Gaza...
Ten years after Nelson Mandela’s passing, the Amsterdam Bijlmerbios, in collaboration with ZAM, features the amazing reconstruction of the 1963/1964 trial that convicted Nelson Mandela and his comrades to life imprisonment. In 1964, Nelson Mandela and his co-defendants barely escaped the death penalty. This reconstruction of the ‘Rivonia Trial’ tells a story more relevant than ever. Judge De Wet considered the accusation of high treason to be proven, but ultimately decided not to impose the highest...
Ten years after Nelson Mandela’s passing, the Amsterdam Bijlmerbios, in collaboration with ZAM, features the amazing reconstruction of the 1963/1964...
An official state visit from 18 October 2023 offers a great opportunity to acknowledge the Dutch complicity in slavery and oppression. Remarkably, when the Dutch government and the King recently apologized for the Dutch involvement in slavery, South Africa was not mentioned. Who remembers the history of Indian Ocean slavery? How does this history affect people in current-day South Africa? And why is this history largely forgotten in the Netherlands? For thousands of years, |xam, Khoekhoe, and many...
An official state visit from 18 October 2023 offers a great opportunity to acknowledge the Dutch complicity in slavery and oppression. Remarkably, when...
September 12 marked 46 years since Stephen Bantu Biko was beaten and murdered by the police under the apartheid government. The murder only served to amplify his stature, historical significance and message. This is neither an analysis or critique of his politics, but rather what it means for me. I also want to reflect on why I believe we will be well served as a society to always consider the meaning of black consciousness politics as we fight for a better future. Steve Biko’s black consciousness...
September 12 marked 46 years since Stephen Bantu Biko was beaten and murdered by the police under the apartheid government. The murder only served to...
South African public life is rife with revisionism, often opportunistic. Take the case of Mangosuthu Buthelezi. While South Africa’s Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) is now in decline, between its founding in 1975 and the run up to the first democratic elections in 1994, it played a key, but complicated role in South African politics. For all that time, it was led by Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who as leader of the KwaZulu bantustan at various times collaborated with the apartheid state and the African...
South African public life is rife with revisionism, often opportunistic. Take the case of Mangosuthu Buthelezi. While South Africa’s Inkatha Freedom...
Arusha, the seat of the East African Community Legislative Assembly (EAC), bustles with its sleepy rhythms and cosmopolitan air. I am here to attend the 2nd Africa Drive for Democracy Conference both as a guest and speaker. The Africa Drive for Democracy Elders Retreat and Annual Conference, which took place between 17-21 July 2023 is meant to facilitate dialogue and engage grassroots movements, giving citizens an opportunity to be heard and to collaborate and innovate on strengthening democracy....
Arusha, the seat of the East African Community Legislative Assembly (EAC), bustles with its sleepy rhythms and cosmopolitan air. I am here to attend the...
An obsession with decolonisation freezes African cultures in colonial frames, Nigerian professor Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (Cornell University) argues in a recent interview with the Dutch daily NRC. The basic principles for which Africans are immolating themselves, risking life and limb in standing up to dictatorial/authoritarian regimes and generally insisting that they, too, must be free are shared with other oppressed humanity from Denmark to Myanmar, from Eswatini to China. The discourse on decolonisation...
An obsession with decolonisation freezes African cultures in colonial frames, Nigerian professor Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (Cornell University) argues in a recent...
The House of Guramayle , an Ethiopian LGBT QAI+ platform, condemns the recent escalation in attacks on individuals in Ethiopia based on their real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity. In the last two weeks alone, House of Guramayle and LGBTQIA+ activists have documented over a dozen TikTok videos displaying pictures of people who may or may not identify as LGBTQIA+, including those who live in Ethiopia. Violence against those individuals - killing, burning, beating - is being...
The House of Guramayle , an Ethiopian LGBT QAI+ platform, condemns the recent escalation in attacks on individuals in Ethiopia based on their real or...
