When Christian missionaries established schools in different parts of East Africa, they constructed the narrative that Black hair was unsightly, ungodly and untameable . In many postcolonial schools this still seems to be the norm. My love-hate relationship with my hair started when I was six years old and my mom chopped off my hair a few days before I joined grade one. I remember crying and pleading with her while equally asking why I couldn’t just go to school with my long hair. Eventually, she...
When Christian missionaries established schools in different parts of East Africa, they constructed the narrative that Black hair was unsightly, ungodly...
This past week was the week of Kenya’s youth, which came out in thousands on the streets of Nairobi to reject austerity, new heavy taxation, and government corruption. What follows is reporter Ngina Kirori’s diary of the protests. Tuesday, June 18 Today is the day that sets the wheels in motion. Citizens are planning to occupy Kenya’s parliament to protest the proposed high taxation that threatens to burden even further the many who are already struggling financially. The dress code for the...
This past week was the week of Kenya’s youth, which came out in thousands on the streets of Nairobi to reject austerity, new heavy taxation, and...
William Ruto has gravely misjudged the nerve of his countrymen. The man who narrowly sailed to Kenya’s presidency in 2022, is trying to shove a sketchy legislative proposal down Kenyan throats. The Finance Bill 2024 aims to raise 346 billion Kenyan shillings to service debt and fund development and has been met with public outcry and widespread protests. The movement to #RejectFinanceBill2024 is being led by media-savvy, urban Gen-Z youth. The demonstrations, which escalated on June 20 with...
William Ruto has gravely misjudged the nerve of his countrymen. The man who narrowly sailed to Kenya’s presidency in 2022, is trying to shove a sketchy...
Kenya protests: Gen Z shows the power of digital activism - driving change from screens to the streets Nationwide demonstrations have erupted in Kenya over a controversial tax bill. The Finance Bill 2024 , initially presented to parliament in May, has sparked discontent with an increase in an array of taxes and levies for Kenyans. The mass protests , initially organised in the capital city, Nairobi, have spread across the country. Demonstrations have taken place in almost every city and major town....
Kenya protests: Gen Z shows the power of digital activism - driving change from screens to the streets Nationwide demonstrations have erupted in Kenya...
In her award-winning thesis, Rachel Dubale reveals how Ethiopian social communal practices that secure financial resources dissolve, as urban development projects rise. In February 2024, Rachel Dubale won Leiden University’s Africa Thesis Award. Dubale, currently in her 20s, completed her research master’s degree in African Studies at Leiden University in 2023. The motivation for her research, titled “They think we can eat the condominium.” Chronicles of Economic, Social and Political Practices in...
In her award-winning thesis, Rachel Dubale reveals how Ethiopian social communal practices that secure financial resources dissolve, as urban development...
Respected South African jurist John Dugard chose law as a weapon against apartheid and genocide. At an age when most people retire, he became UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine. “Meanwhile, racism in Israel has reached a level I have never seen in South Africa.” It is a grey Monday morning as the Peace Palace in The Hague gears up for a historic affair. At the gate, international media have set up their cameras. Expensive cars drive through the front yard to the steps, where ambassadors, diplomats...
Respected South African jurist John Dugard chose law as a weapon against apartheid and genocide. At an age when most people retire, he became UN Special...
[ tekst in het Nederlands hieronder ] In a report for Dutch TV , to be broadcast on Monday 3 June, 2024 , journalist Bram Vermeulen speaks to the South African connections of the newly elected Speaker of Dutch Parliament, a member of Geert Wilders’ PVV. Bosma’s 2015 book on South Africa contains dozens of factual inaccuracies. Shortly after publication, ZAM editor Bart Luirink fact-checked some of them. The newly-elected Speaker of Dutch Parliament, Martin Bosma, a member of Geert Wilders’...
[ tekst in het Nederlands hieronder ] In a report for Dutch TV , to be broadcast on Monday 3 June, 2024 , journalist Bram Vermeulen speaks to the South...
Many Nigerians still believe in witchcraft. Campaigns by evangelists to ‘free from witchcraft attacks’ only strengthen the primitive belief. Helen Ukpabio is the founder of Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries in Cross River State, Nigeria. She is known for conducting public campaigns inciting harassment and violence against those accused of witchcraft. From May 8 through 12, this self-acclaimed evangelist, notorious for witch-hunting, will be ministering at a witch-hunting event in Calabar, Cross...
Many Nigerians still believe in witchcraft. Campaigns by evangelists to ‘free from witchcraft attacks’ only strengthen the primitive belief. Helen...
Their existential reasons for migrating must be addressed. Since the 1980s , migration has been a part of the Nigerian middle-class psyche , catalysed by the usual suspects: high unemployment, security concerns, infrastructure gaps, and poor governance. Migrants tends to be middle-class since one needs resources to migrate. For many young Nigerians, the bloodshed that ended the 2020 #EndSARS protests against police brutality proved to be a decisive factor. Their desire to leave the country...
Their existential reasons for migrating must be addressed. Since the 1980s , migration has been a part of the Nigerian middle-class psyche , catalysed by...
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...
