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...
At an emergency meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, on 30 July, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) demanded the “immediate release and reinstatement” of Niger’s elected president, Mohamed Bazoum. He had been held by the military since 19 July. The regional bloc gave the military in Niger a one-week ultimatum to comply and warned it would take all measures necessary – including force – to restore constitutional order. On 28 July, the head of Niger’s presidential guard, General...
At an emergency meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, on 30 July, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) demanded the “immediate release and...
The pathologization of ‘migrants’ in Tunisia and France shows how race and poverty shape our understanding of belonging. On July 5, two Tunisian parliamentarians accused sub-Saharan African migrants of spreading tuberculosis among Tunisians. The parliamentary session was set to discuss the increasing absence of basic medication in Tunisia, an absence that a colleague working for a pharmaceutical company in Tunis attributed to the state’s inability to pay for these medications on the global market....
The pathologization of ‘migrants’ in Tunisia and France shows how race and poverty shape our understanding of belonging. On July 5, two Tunisian...
At the end of May, news spread that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had signed a law that includes draconian new measures targeting the LGBTI community, including life imprisonment and the death penalty. International condemnation was swift, including by the Netherlands. Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Schreinemacher announced the immediate suspension of law enforcement programmes amounting to some €25 million, and that further measures were being looked at. In an...
At the end of May, news spread that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had signed a law that includes draconian new measures targeting the LGBTI...
Henry Kissinger, who sexed up the art of diplomacy in the eight years between 1969 and 1977, will turn 100 in May this year. Given his age, and his long influence on global affairs, several “anticipatory obituaries” have been written. Some laud Kissinger’s role in the shaping of East-West relations while he was in office as US Secretary of State. And many in their commentary on the decades beyond continue to call him a “statesman” . Radical critics have pointed to Kissinger’s ruthless methods –...
Henry Kissinger, who sexed up the art of diplomacy in the eight years between 1969 and 1977, will turn 100 in May this year. Given his age, and his long...
In the 1980s, De Jonge sheltered in the Dutch embassy in Pretoria for two years after being caught smuggling weapons. Years ago, in his home in the centre of Amsterdam, full of masks from Congo, Klaas de Jonge suddenly took off his glasses and tapped his right eye hard. He was recounting the revenge attack by the South African secret service. Pok pok echoed through the room. “That's how I got a glass eye,” he said, dryly. In 1988, in Nijmegen, he had put on a coat that must have been smeared with...
In the 1980s, De Jonge sheltered in the Dutch embassy in Pretoria for two years after being caught smuggling weapons. Years ago, in his home in the...
The Western fetishization of elections unintentionally contributes to the erosion of faith in democracy among Nigerian citizens. [ Link naar tekst in het Nederlands onder dit artikel ] Normally, I see few Westerners in Nigeria, West Africa, where I live and work as a journalist. Once every four years, however, when it is time for presidential elections, the international circus shows up. Observers and journalists fly in to cast their sagacious eye over the electoral process–only to leave again just...
The Western fetishization of elections unintentionally contributes to the erosion of faith in democracy among Nigerian citizens. [ Link naar tekst in het...
For 40 years , western governments have entertained ideas of outsourcing asylum processing and refugee hosting to the global south. It is not a new idea. And neither are the controversies that have accompanied it. Denmark and the UK have been in the news over this issue recently. In January 2023, however, after fierce domestic criticism, the new Danish government announced it had paused its negotiations with Rwanda to bilaterally “transfer” all asylum seekers out of Denmark. Instead it suggested...
For 40 years , western governments have entertained ideas of outsourcing asylum processing and refugee hosting to the global south. It is not a new idea....
From Sudan to the Sahel, Russian President Vladimir Putin is increasingly attributed a leading role in African conflicts. Unjustified, writes Bram Vermeulen. Moscow is merely an asset for isolated warlords. “There is war in Sudan, but why, I've lost track of that for a while,” the late Dutch singer Jeroen van Merwijk sang. “I no longer understand anything when I look at those images. Why don't we do one war at a time from now on?” I was reminded of this song in recent days, when the wildest...
From Sudan to the Sahel, Russian President Vladimir Putin is increasingly attributed a leading role in African conflicts. Unjustified, writes Bram...
On 15 February 2023, Peter Jones, a stalwart of the South African Black Consciousness Movement and confidant of Steve Biko, passed away. The Jones and Biko family and so many others were saddened by the news about his passing. ‘PC’, as he was known, was a comrade since 1969. With Biko, he was a member of the South African Student’s Organisation SASO. From those days onward they intensely worked together in the struggle against apartheid, building organisations for liberation. On 17th August 1977,...
On 15 February 2023, Peter Jones, a stalwart of the South African Black Consciousness Movement and confidant of Steve Biko, passed away. The Jones and...
A packed Studio ZAM at the first, exclusive screening of the documentary Murder in Paris in the Netherlands on Friday 24 March 2023. Filmmaker Enver Samuel, who travelled to the Low Countries for the annual Movies that Matter festival, attended the screening and answered questions from the audience afterwards. Murder in Paris tells the story of ANC representative Dulcie September, assassinated in Paris in 1988, and is inspired by Evelyn Groenink's decades of research into the background of this...
A packed Studio ZAM at the first, exclusive screening of the documentary Murder in Paris in the Netherlands on Friday 24 March 2023. Filmmaker Enver...
At least six African countries have decriminalised same-sex relations in recent years. It seems nonsensical to still frame equal rights for LGBTIQ+ people as ‘Western’. Ugandan President Museveni has said that his country “will not embrace homosexuality and the West should stop seeking to impose its views”. In an article for the organisation’s website, Human Rights Watch’ Director for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program Graeme Reid calls this statement “a false dichotomy” since...
At least six African countries have decriminalised same-sex relations in recent years. It seems nonsensical to still frame equal rights for LGBTIQ+...
A documentary on the murder of South African freedom fighter Dulcie September sparked a conversation between a white student and her black professor. Part 1: The student Josephine Trilling As a female jazz guitarist, I have experienced considerable misogyny. I know what it’s like to have men look you in the eye and tell you with a smug expression: ‘you don’t belong here.’ In this male-dominated profession I have never felt at ease. Their scoffs were a silent demand for me to leave, and their locker...
A documentary on the murder of South African freedom fighter Dulcie September sparked a conversation between a white student and her black professor....
