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- By Nadege Bizimungu
- Politics & Opinion
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.
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- By By Ngina Kirori
- Politics & Opinion
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.
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- By William Shoki
- Politics & Opinion
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.
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- By Job Mwaura, University of the Witwatersrand
- Politics & Opinion
During the ethnic violence in Kenya in 2008, the church in Kiambaa became a symbol of the horror that shook the country. Kikuyu who had sought refuge there were killed on New Year’s Day when Kalenjin youths set the building alight.
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- By Nyoxani Mazive
- Politics & Opinion
In her award-winning thesis, Rachel Dubale reveals how Ethiopian social communal practices that secure financial resources dissolve, as urban development projects rise.
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- By Tjitske Lingsma
- Politics & Opinion
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.”
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- By Bart Luirink
- Politics & Opinion
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.
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- By Leo Igwe
- Politics & Opinion
Many Nigerians still believe in witchcraft. Campaigns by evangelists to ‘free from witchcraft attacks’ only strengthen the primitive belief.
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- By Bart Luirink
- Politics & Opinion
The historiography of the Nederlandsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappij pays scant attention to black workers' resistance to exploitation and oppression.
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- By Sean Jacobs & Kathryn Mathers
- Politics & Opinion
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.
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- By Bart Luirink
- Politics & Opinion
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.
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- By Bart Luirink
- Politics & Opinion
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.
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- By Michael E Odijie, UCL
- Politics & Opinion
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.
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- By Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua
- Politics & Opinion
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has the Constitution on his side if he does not sign a new hate bill into law.
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- By ZAM Reporter
- Politics & Opinion
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.
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- By Evelyn Groenink
- Politics & Opinion
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 refugees.
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- By ZAM Reporter
- Politics & Opinion
South Africa has, again, approached the International Court of Justice and instructed Israel not to attack Rafah and its 1,5 million Palestinian inhabitants.
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- By Henning Melber
- Politics & Opinion
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.
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- By ZAM Reporter
- Politics & Opinion
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.
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- By ZAM Reporter
- Politics & Opinion
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?
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- By Songezo Zibi
- Politics & Opinion
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.
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- By Jill E. Kelly and Liz Timbs
- Politics & Opinion
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- By Emmanuel Mutaizibwa
- Politics & Opinion
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- By Press Release
- Politics & Opinion
