African people who cross oceans in search for a better life are not desperate. They are hopeful. I used to be ashamed of television images of young African economic migrants, or so-called fortune seekers. In 2013, I was a first year student in Amsterdam. Just like today, the number of black students at the university could be counted on one hand. Like my fellow students, I had a Dutch digital ID, but our perceptions of the world differed enormously. While they were surrounded with successful people...
African people who cross oceans in search for a better life are not desperate. They are hopeful. I used to be ashamed of television images of young...
Much has already been said about President Trump’s fulminating tweet about land redistribution and 'large scale killings of farmers' in South Africa. His racially framed scaremongering, straight from the white supremacist playbook, played into the ‘white genocide’ lie as it ignored the existence of thousands of black victims of crime, including those black workers who still suffer abuse and exploitation on certain farms. The reactions of a handful of South African populist politicians were...
Much has already been said about President Trump’s fulminating tweet about land redistribution and 'large scale killings of farmers' in South Africa. His...
Revisiting the artist’s life and work Last year, a young South African artist at the Ekurhuleni city Thami Mnyele Art Awards ceremony asked, plaintively: “Who was this Thami Mnyele? We have never even seen his artwork.” We therefore welcome the latest edition of ZAM remembering South Africa’s revolutionary artist Thami Mnyele, South Africa |The artist who was not allowed to be , (31 July, 2018), 43 years after his death. For the same reason, though, we need to examine more deeply the assumptions...
Revisiting the artist’s life and work Last year, a young South African artist at the Ekurhuleni city Thami Mnyele Art Awards ceremony asked, plaintively:...
Sometimes it needs a report to arouse a sudden realisation: that European borders are now in Africa. Such is Expanding the fortress, published recently by the Trans National Institute (TNI) and the Dutch Stop Wapenhandel activist group. Okay, we knew that Europe is getting into agreements with African countries to keep those who seek a safe and better future at a distance. To be precise: in Africa. Dutch-Congolese writer and commentator Alphonse Muambi rightly observed in a recent tweet that...
Sometimes it needs a report to arouse a sudden realisation: that European borders are now in Africa. Such is Expanding the fortress, published recently...
According to Kallie Kriel ‘Apartheid was not a crime against humanity.’ The leader of Afriforum, a South African white interest group, made this statement last week in a radio interview. Just days before that, he had raised the alarm about a ‘genocide’ against ‘his’ people at Donald Trump’s White House. Reliable statistics tell us that an overwhelming majority of crime victims in South Africa are black. Asked why he had said that Apartheid had not been a crime against humanity, Kriel said ‘that not...
According to Kallie Kriel ‘Apartheid was not a crime against humanity.’ The leader of Afriforum, a South African white interest group, made this...
Read the full article in Dutch here . In the trenches of the corruption Sometimes things come to us via a detour. And sometimes it takes a while before you understand what these things are. When B. calls me from the Netherlands in early 2015, asking if I still remember such-and-such a friend from the anti-apartheid movement, a fellow activist from Amsterdam, I start reminiscing about the good old days, only to find that he is not in the mood. “He says somebody got killed. A comrade from Port...
Read the full article in Dutch here . In the trenches of the corruption Sometimes things come to us via a detour. And sometimes it takes a while before...
Read the full article in Dutch here . The Force against Zuma’s empire The increasingly loud and growing rebellion against Jacob Zuma's empire in South Africa is supported by a very powerful weapon: the Constitution of the country, once designed, after the demise of apartheid, under the supervision of Nelson Mandela. It is this Constitution that simply won’t allow Zuma and his government to get away with corruption and authoritarianism. In the war that, a la Star Wars, is now fought between a bad...
Read the full article in Dutch here . The Force against Zuma’s empire The increasingly loud and growing rebellion against Jacob Zuma's empire in South...
It’s always nice to be proven right, particularly when it is by actual in-depth research by a specialist investigator in the subject, whose credentials are beyond any doubt. It is however not so nice when the confirmation pertains to one's deepest darkest fears. In this case, the fear that favouring ‘clean’ mining products over ‘blood diamonds’ and other ‘conflict minerals’ may make things worse rather than better. Congolese members of the ZAM network had, for years, expressed doubts with regard to...
It’s always nice to be proven right, particularly when it is by actual in-depth research by a specialist investigator in the subject, whose credentials...
Read the full article in Dutch here . Zuma’s ‘pro poor’ masquerade Only a couple of weeks ago Pravin Gordhan, the former South African finance minister, explained to Evelyn Groenink how anti-colonial thinker Frantz Fanon predicted that the petty bourgeoisie in the post colony situation would position itself as populist champions. “They use ‘pro-poor’ slogans to take control of the state for their own greedy and power-hungry interests,” the minister said. “In reality, this is to the detriment of the...
Read the full article in Dutch here . Zuma’s ‘pro poor’ masquerade Only a couple of weeks ago Pravin Gordhan, the former South African finance minister,...
Read the full article in Dutch here . How the South African students movement was silenced At first the Cape of Good Hope had been no more than a ‘refreshment station’ for the Dutch VOC ships. Then Jan van Riebeeck planted a hedge of bitter almonds around his camp to keep out the 'natives' and it became a colony. Then the colonisers, in an attempt to remove aforementioned natives completely from their privileged existence, adopted the cruel system of internal exile and near-slavery that became...
Read the full article in Dutch here . How the South African students movement was silenced At first the Cape of Good Hope had been no more than a...
Rapes, robberies and deportations carried out by notorious police squad to keep the rubies for MRM-Gemfields alone. The ruby fields of Montepuez in Mozambique, already a terrain of terror at the hands of security forces guarding the wealth to which UK-based gemstone giant MRM-Gemfields has the rights, are now violently being emptied of human beings. Hundreds of Mozambicans, foreigners, artisanal miners and random villagers, told that their presence in the area is ‘illegal,’ have been forcibly...
Rapes, robberies and deportations carried out by notorious police squad to keep the rubies for MRM-Gemfields alone. The ruby fields of Montepuez in...
Read the full article in Dutch here . Searching for the paradise of coffee and milk At first the Cape of Good Hope had been no more than a ‘refreshment station’ for the Dutch VOC ships. Then Jan van Riebeeck planted a hedge of bitter almonds around his camp to keep out the 'natives' and it became a colony. Then the colonisers, in an attempt to remove aforementioned natives completely from their privileged existence, adopted the cruel system of internal exile and near-slavery that became infamously...
Read the full article in Dutch here . Searching for the paradise of coffee and milk At first the Cape of Good Hope had been no more than a ‘refreshment...
ZAM’s partner the African Investigative Publishing Collective asks for international solidarity to protest the internet blackout that is suffocating the southern Cameroon regions since 22 January. The AIPC says that one of its members, veteran investigative editor Chief Bisong Etahoben in Cameroon, has been cut off from its interactions and its transnational investigative projects by the blackout, intended to suffocate protests in Anglophone regions against the mainly Francophone elite. The AIPC...
ZAM’s partner the African Investigative Publishing Collective asks for international solidarity to protest the internet blackout that is suffocating the...
ZAM’s partner the Premium Times in Nigeria is preparing for worst case scenarios in which editor and reporters might get arrested, or even killed, for their critical reporting on failures of their country’s army. A letter from Chief of Staff Tukur Buratai accuses the paper of ‘deep hatred’ for the army and even of ‘unalloyed loyalty to the terrorist cause’ of Boko Haram. “Being labelled a Boko Haram supporter is like a death sentence because Nigerians are really angry with the insurgents,” says...
ZAM’s partner the Premium Times in Nigeria is preparing for worst case scenarios in which editor and reporters might get arrested, or even killed, for...
On Sunday 18 December the UK newspaper The Guardian headlined that the United Nation’s ban on child labour was a ‘damaging mistake’ . It quoted an array of eminent academics -from ‘across the globe’ the paper said, meaning Denmark, France and Canada- who explained that, if one stops poor families from requesting their children to help out at the farm, one actually doesn’t magically achieve that these same children then go to school instead. “Without the labour of the child, these families may not...
On Sunday 18 December the UK newspaper The Guardian headlined that the United Nation’s ban on child labour was a ‘damaging mistake’ . It quoted an array...
Scroll down for Dutch version 'Dear Sylvana' | Members of the ZAM Team take part in a campaign to support of Sylvana Simons who is targeted by racist and sexist hate speech and threats. Dear Sylvana, You are the target of a hideous racist and sexist hate speech. Almost daily new insults are directed at your person. A 'joke' in a talkshow, a photoshopped KKK lynching on Facebook, a cowardish carnival song. It's difficult to maintain that these are statements by confused loners. We call upon everyone...
Scroll down for Dutch version 'Dear Sylvana' | Members of the ZAM Team take part in a campaign to support of Sylvana Simons who is targeted by racist and...
On Wednesday 2 November TV cameras will cover the streets of Pretoria’s inner city as protestors of many colours and backgrounds will march against the reign of President Jacob Zuma. The hashtag #stopthelooting is uniting even the radical Economic Freedom Front of Julius Malema, whose supporters hail mainly from impoverished black areas, and the still mainly white Democratic Alliance. This is a marked difference from earlier anti-Zuma marches, which were largely white middle-class based. Though...
On Wednesday 2 November TV cameras will cover the streets of Pretoria’s inner city as protestors of many colours and backgrounds will march against the...
Activists climb the Kilimanjaro. The ‘Africa Rising’ slogan, which depicts the continent as one whole happy black-and-gold glob uplifting itself from misery, is old, discredited and serves dictatorial and corrupt African regimes more than anyone else. It is, –according to the latest economic research- also untrue. Africa as a whole is not getting richer , even if some corrupt elites are. Like everywhere else, the gap between rich and poor is widening. Enter “Africans rising.” Africans. Rising . Now...
Activists climb the Kilimanjaro. The ‘Africa Rising’ slogan, which depicts the continent as one whole happy black-and-gold glob uplifting itself from...
The ZAM Team mourns the passing of Fezeka Kuzwayo. She had the courage to fight the powerful. In a poem, published by ZAM in 2009, Fezeka recalled the horror she experienced one night in the house of the man who became president of South Africa. Khwezi, as Fezeka was also known left us last Saturday. We will remember her. I am Khanga I wrap myself around the curvaceous bodies of women all over Africa I am the perfect nightdress on those hot African nights The ideal attire for household chores I...
The ZAM Team mourns the passing of Fezeka Kuzwayo. She had the courage to fight the powerful. In a poem, published by ZAM in 2009, Fezeka recalled the...
Two of our best editors in Uganda recently quit journalism for government jobs. They have been criticised for this. But I understand them. See, I never studied journalism. My jam was human resource management, so don’t be surprised if you see me swap media for HR someday. But I was drawn to print journalism by my passion for the written word and for using it to disseminate information to the public. However, after 12 years of putting myself in the firing line to break some big stories, and being...
Two of our best editors in Uganda recently quit journalism for government jobs. They have been criticised for this. But I understand them. See, I never...
Deputy president of the Banadir Journalists Union in Somalia and ZAM correspondent, Muno Gedi, tried to attend the historical peace summit in her country. But there were roadblocks and she was left sitting next to the radio with her hopes, fears and dreams. There is change in the air. Mogadishu is quiet when I wake up on this Tuesday, without any noise or traffic in the streets. Today there will be no bomb attacks. Police are everywhere. Hotels and institutions are barricaded, on every corner there...
Deputy president of the Banadir Journalists Union in Somalia and ZAM correspondent, Muno Gedi, tried to attend the historical peace summit in her...
