In this Zimbabwean activist’s view todays’ rulers of the country are no different from the colonial settlers. On April 12, Zimbabwean activist Peter Mutasa was presented with the Febe Elizabeth Velásquez Trade Union Rights Prize, which had been awarded to him a year earlier by the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV). With the prize, named after the murdered Salvadoran trade union leader Febe Elizabeth Vélasquez (1962-1989), the FNV honours people who have dedicated themselves in a special way...
In this Zimbabwean activist’s view todays’ rulers of the country are no different from the colonial settlers. On April 12, Zimbabwean activist Peter...
In the 2nd Dulcie September Lecture, Professor Jonathan Jansen, a prominent educationist, argues the murdered ANC Paris representative was consciously forgotten by her own movement because she was a person of integrity and honesty. 1. Until recently, few South Africans knew about a woman called Dulcie Evonne September. In my talks on leadership to companies, universities, churches, NGOs etc. I would often end my talks by putting up three large photos of courageous leaders---Mandela, Tutu, and...
In the 2nd Dulcie September Lecture, Professor Jonathan Jansen, a prominent educationist, argues the murdered ANC Paris representative was consciously...
How much airtime goes in one year, just to find out what is happening to one case of murder of a young man in South Africa? Or rather, times two? It is now two years ago that Tsepo Ndhlovu was killed by police officer Adolph Rikhotso at Groenvlei farm near Mookgophong, formerly Naboomspruit, in northern Limpopo province, on the 11th of March 2020. A quick count of the airtime used to try and break through the mountains of silence surrounding this case amounts to close to a thousand South African...
How much airtime goes in one year, just to find out what is happening to one case of murder of a young man in South Africa? Or rather, times two? It is...
Ghanaian journalists are driving an anti-LGBTIQ campaign that could result in one of the world’s harshest homophobic laws. When Ako* heard that an LGBTIQ community centre was going to open in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, the first thing she did was get herself a date. And then matching outfits.Calling an Uber on the day of the opening, she entered the words ‘LGBT community centre’ – and there it was. In a city of grand mosques and megachurches, there was a tiny point on the map that she felt...
Ghanaian journalists are driving an anti-LGBTIQ campaign that could result in one of the world’s harshest homophobic laws. When Ako* heard that an LGBTIQ...
Russia’ invasion of Ukraine in late February has already caused to two million refugees to flee the country. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees predicts that another four million will be displaced if the conflict continues. Although all neighbouring European Union countries have pledged to accept refugees from Ukraine, as people flee across borders, a complicated story emerges of who are perceived and received as good, bad and ideal refugees in modern Europe. Take Poland — a country...
Russia’ invasion of Ukraine in late February has already caused to two million refugees to flee the country. The United Nations High Commissioner for...
Shantini Naidoo zit tegenover mij aan tafel bij uitgeverij EPO in Antwerpen, de ochtend waarop de Nederlandstalige versie van haar boek ‘Vrouwen, verzet en apartheid’ zal gepresenteerd worden. Na ons gesprek zal ze naar het Krugerplein gaan met enkele mensen van de uitgeverij. Ze voorzien een korte actie om het boek te promoten. Er zijn naambordjes gedrukt om de Antwerpse straatnamen die de onderdrukkers in Zuid-Afrika representeren (Kruger, Delarey, Botha) te vervangen door de namen van de vrouwen...
Shantini Naidoo zit tegenover mij aan tafel bij uitgeverij EPO in Antwerpen, de ochtend waarop de Nederlandstalige versie van haar boek ‘Vrouwen, verzet...
The West is losing ground in Africa, strategically, economically and diplomatically. But are the ones who have stepped in, most prominently China and Russia, any better than the West with its abominable African track record? Bram Posthumus thinks not. Will the continent finally take its destiny in its own hands? Bamako, Place de l’Indépendance, January 2020 . At a stone’s throw from the Institut Français, with its interminable roster of Malian talent showcases, yet another anti-France demonstration...
The West is losing ground in Africa, strategically, economically and diplomatically. But are the ones who have stepped in, most prominently China and...
The return of Patrice Lumumba’s remains must not be an occasion for Belgium to congratulate itself, but for a full accounting of the colonial violence that led to the assassination and coverup. For much of the past year, there have been plans for the sacred human remains of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s first post-independence prime minister, Patrice Émery Lumumba, to finally be returned to his children in Belgium, and then repatriated to the Congo. Originally scheduled for a ceremony on...
The return of Patrice Lumumba’s remains must not be an occasion for Belgium to congratulate itself, but for a full accounting of the colonial violence...
An African hunt for natural resources is one reason for the ongoing war in Eastern DRC. The destruction of the Nande people another. Many reports and books depict the war in the Kivu as greed of the neighboring countries to exploit the minerals. As an example, in an article written by Dr David Himbara, the Rwanda’s Gold Exports fetched US$ 522 Million in 2020, an increase of 754.6%. He further describes how this gold is smuggled from DRC as follows: ‘Rwanda’s gold exports are connected to gold...
An African hunt for natural resources is one reason for the ongoing war in Eastern DRC. The destruction of the Nande people another. Many reports and...
Bij de Belgische uitgeverij EPO verscheen Vrouwen, verzet en apartheid, een reconstructie van een verborgen geschiedenis van moed en volharding, opgetekend door Shantini Naidoo. 14 oktober 1969. Het Zuid-Afrikaanse apartheidsregime start een proces tegen tweeëntwintig activisten wegens het overtreden van de zogenaamde Wet op de Onderdrukking van het Communisme. Met Nonzamo Shantihini Naidoo, Winnie Mandela, Martha Dlamini, Thokozile Mngoma, Rita Ndzanga, Nondwe Mankahla, Joyce Sikhakhana en Shantie...
Bij de Belgische uitgeverij EPO verscheen Vrouwen, verzet en apartheid, een reconstructie van een verborgen geschiedenis van moed en volharding,...
In his new book Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in South Africa Daniel L. Douek presents new evidence that the 1993 assassination of ANC and Communist Party leader Chris Hani cannot be attributed solely to two right wing extremists. There was a broader conspiracy linking the entire Apartheid security apparatus to the killing. A dramatic revelation emerged in early 1997 with the leak of an investigative report compiled by South Africa’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA). It described a broader...
In his new book Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in South Africa Daniel L. Douek presents new evidence that the 1993 assassination of ANC and Communist...
[* tekst in Nederlands onderaan ] This the story of a South African exile, black and lesbian, who who lived on in a Dutch solidarity campaign she started. After 35 years of solidarity the Tania Leon Study Fund comes to an end. Later, when we were past middle age and South Africa had changed into a gentle rainbow nation where the colour of your skin no longer determined where you could go, what you could become and who you could associate with, we would all live out our days in a communal house on a...
[* tekst in Nederlands onderaan ] This the story of a South African exile, black and lesbian, who who lived on in a Dutch solidarity campaign she...
Wat beweegt een mens om zich aan de sluiten bij een gewapende strijd in een ver land? In zijn boek De Koerier van Maputo gaat journalist Jenne Jan Holtland op zoek naar de geschiedenis van Klaas de Jonge, ‘een Nederlander in de Zuid-Afrikaanse revolutie’. Een voorpublicatie. Op mijn hotelkamer gaat de wekker iets voor zessen. Ik neem vlug een douche, rits mijn koffer dicht en loop naar beneden. Daar word ik opgewacht door Klaas de Jonge, de 81-jarige met wie ik naar zuidelijk Afrika ben gereisd...
Wat beweegt een mens om zich aan de sluiten bij een gewapende strijd in een ver land? In zijn boek De Koerier van Maputo gaat journalist Jenne Jan...
18 – 25.10.21 Freedom Lectures | Susan Kigula, the woman who made the death penalty unconstitutional
While on death row in Uganda, Susan Kigula started law. On behalf of 418 inmates Kigula sued the state. In 2009, the countries’ Constitutional Court declared the death penalty unlawful. All cases were reviewed. Kigula was released in 2016. This year’s Freedom Lecture will be delivered by Kigula in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leiden and Enschede. Kigula has been invited to visit the Netherlands by Amsterdam debate centre De Balie and artist/photographer Jan Banning. He is a friend of Kigula since 2011...
While on death row in Uganda, Susan Kigula started law. On behalf of 418 inmates Kigula sued the state. In 2009, the countries’ Constitutional Court...
Since 1996 the people in Kivu have not been in peace despite the presence of the so-called UN Peace Keeping Force MONUSCO (United Nations Organization Mission for the Stabilization of the Congo) and a great number of humanitarian organisations. Thousands of people have been killed, houses and other assets have been burned, and people have fled from their homes to more secure areas where they are suffering from malnutrition. The situation has worsened since 2014, particularly in North-Kivu where...
Since 1996 the people in Kivu have not been in peace despite the presence of the so-called UN Peace Keeping Force MONUSCO (United Nations Organization...
A vernacular attempt at a social anthropology of dogs across three countries: Nigeria, South Africa and Canada. I recently moved to a small, cynophilic Canadian city called Kelowna. The first home I visited in this city had a special sofa for dogs. It took me only a few days here to discover that people take their dogs to daycare and that dog doctors are well-to-do. In fact, holding funeral services for demised dogs, adopting stray dogs or financially rewarding lost dog finders are not uncommon...
A vernacular attempt at a social anthropology of dogs across three countries: Nigeria, South Africa and Canada. I recently moved to a small, cynophilic...
Do Not Disturb , the latest of Michela Wrong’s Africa-themed books, is a penetrating examination of a gruesome murder committed in a posh hotel in post-Apartheid South Africa. This country was infamous for chasing African National Congress (ANC) officials and freedom fighters, whom it labelled communists and terrorists, wherever they hid. The boer regime had a special hit squad within its intelligence and security apparatuses that had all the names of the people blacklisted for death. Akin to...
Do Not Disturb , the latest of Michela Wrong’s Africa-themed books, is a penetrating examination of a gruesome murder committed in a posh hotel in...
In 1988, South African freedom fighter and the Paris representative of the ANC, was murdered in front of her office. As is the case for every political assassination, memorialising and spreading the legacy of the murdered person is sine qua non for justice. The process constantly evolves over time and involves actors from different backgrounds who might have never known each other but work together at turning the grievance into a fight. To acknowledge the many lives that Dulcie September had in her...
In 1988, South African freedom fighter and the Paris representative of the ANC, was murdered in front of her office. As is the case for every political...
It would take a liveable basic income grant and a job-guarantee programme with the state and private sector behind it. But it can be done. American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jnr went to Jamaica for a three-week writing retreat in January and February 1967, where he penned an economic manifesto called Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? ‘I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective’, he wrote. ‘The solution to poverty is to abolish it...
It would take a liveable basic income grant and a job-guarantee programme with the state and private sector behind it. But it can be done. American civil...
Op 17 juli verschijnt Niels Posthumus’ nieuwste boek Alle problemen begonnen met van Riebeeck . Het is een fascinerend verslag van een reis door het land en de geschiedenis van Zuid-Afrika. Met het boek plaatst Posthumus een uitroepteken achter een negenjarig correspondentschap voor Trouw en het Financieele Dagblad. Eerder verscheen van zijn hand Liefdes verdriet dat de shortlist haalde van de Brusseprijs. JOHANNESBURG – Om in de Zuid-Afrikaanse sloppenwijk Freedom Charter te komen, moet je een...
Op 17 juli verschijnt Niels Posthumus’ nieuwste boek Alle problemen begonnen met van Riebeeck . Het is een fascinerend verslag van een reis door het land...
One meme that has been circulated widely during the rioting and looting in South Africa is of an evil king – Lord Farquaad from Shrek – standing on his palace balcony, exhorting his troops to go fight for something he wants, saying: ‘Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make’. South Africa’s plunder king and his family, the Zuma’s of Nkandla, and their accomplices in the state, are Lord Farquaad. Having written the textbook on looting – ‘Radical Economic Transformation’ as...
One meme that has been circulated widely during the rioting and looting in South Africa is of an evil king – Lord Farquaad from Shrek – standing on his...
