“South Africa has a choice in what partners to prioritise. But so too does the United States,” said US Representative John James in a firm voice during a congressional hearing discussing US-South African bilateral relations on 27 September 2023. This issue of choosing partners or sides is not new in the US-South Africa relationship. Despite positive diplomatic relations early on between the US and SA, some of South Africa’s “friendships” led to disagreements. In the mid-1990’s Nelson Mandela adopted a “friends toward all” approach to foreign policy. As a result of this policy, Mandela had a lot of friends including…
Author: King Jaja
Read More
September 18, 2023 at 2:00 a.m. EDTA statue representing Russian instructors belonging to the Wagner mercenary company in Bangui, Central African Republic, on Sept. 5. (Barbara Debout for The Washington Post) Comment on this storyCommentBANGUI, Central African Republic — Since the mercenaries of Russia’s notorious Wagner Group first arrived here five years ago, they have embedded themselves in the security operations and economy of this impoverished but resource-rich country. While operating largely independently of Moscow, the group helped project Russian influence deep into Africa.Now, after the death of Wagner boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin last month in a suspicious plane crash, officials…
Mutiu Adepoju, Nigeria. Picture by: Mike Egerton/EMPICS Sport. Date taken: 22-Dec-1998 by Staff Reporter Wednesday Oct 18, 2023. 15:00 Former Real Madrid midfielder Mutiu Adepoju has backed the current Super Eagles team to win the 2023 AFCON finals.This comes after the West African giants drew 2-2 with Saudi Arabia before defeating Mozambique 3-2 in international friendly matches during the recent FIFA break.Adepoju, who was part of Nigeria’s 1994 AFCON title-winning squad in Tunisia, discussed the Super Eagles’ chances of winning the upcoming tournament.“We have many chances because we have a lot of players in Africa, and our players playing in…
CNN — Afrobeats – the pulsating, fusion sound coming out of West Africa and the diaspora – has been on the rise globally for the better part of a decade. In recent years, the genre has gained a foothold in Western pop culture, and the Grammys are taking notice. Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. recently said that the Grammys were considering adding an award category for Afrobeats. Speaking to reporters in Ghana over the weekend, Mason said he had been meeting with players in the genre to explore the possibility. “We called in producers, songwriters, artists, executives and we…
Palestine have never qualified for the World Cup but have reached three Asian Cup tournamentsAlgeria says it has agreed to host the Palestine national team’s forthcoming football matches following a request from the Palestinian FA.Palestine are scheduled to start their 2026 World Cup campaign in the Asian section next month.Their first qualifier, away to Lebanon on 16 November, will be played in the United Arab Emirates.A ‘home’ match against Australia five days later looks set to be played in north Africa.Following the attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas on 7 October, which left more than 1,400 people dead,…
The United Nations continues to send hundreds of refugees to Rwanda while claiming it is too dangerous for Channel migrants, it emerged yesterday.The UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has battled Britain’s Rwanda asylum deal in court, saying the African nation is unsafe and could deprive migrants of their human rights.But figures obtained by the Daily Mail show the organisation has sent 1,737 refugees to Rwanda since 2019 – including 134 just four months ago – as part of its flagship emergency transit mechanism.The programme has seen migrants from Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Guinea and Mali flown…
Professor Robert I. Rotberg is a long-time CFR member. He is also the Founding Director of the Harvard Kennedy School Program on Intrastate Conflict and President Emeritus of the World Peace Foundation. He is the author and editor of two books about Haiti’s politics and several on Africa. Haiti is in desperate straits. Murderous gangs control 90 percent of the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Since 2022, these gangs have killed nearly 3,000 mostly slum dwellers, kidnapped 1,300 wealthy and not-so-wealthy local inhabitants, and terrorized the city of three million, a quarter of the country’s total. Nearly 200,000 Haitians have been forced…
Lexy Mojo-Eyes, an African fashion ambassador, is the president and chief executive officer of Legendary Gold, the organization that promoted Nigerian designers internationally prior to the year 2000.He discussed his experience as a Nigerian game changer in the fashion industry in an interview with Sunday Sun.Why are you keeping quiet about what you started in the Nigerian fashion scene since you are regarded as the dean of fashion shows in that country?Yes, I played a significant role in developing Nigerian fashion. I gave the entire Nigerian fashion sector a new direction by encouraging them to use locally produced fabrics, accessories,…
In one sense, the ongoing commotion in Nigeria over the educational record of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is entirely about his personal failure to retire nagging doubts among the Nigerian public, and not just the political opposition, regarding the most basic details about his background and identity. Having seen his challenge to Tinubu’s victory at the February polls dismissed last month by the country’s Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT), Atiku Abubakar, the standard bearer of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), promptly took his fight to the United States, where he prayed the District Court for the Northern District of…
Wangari Mathenge 09/10/23 at 07:53 am by admin Wangari Mathenge Colonial Veranda, 2023 About:Wangari Mathenge’s (b.1973, Nairobi, Kenya; based in Chicago, IL) work is dedicated to the investigation and incorporation of an integrated visual testimony of the oft-discounted black female experience within the context of existing simultaneously within two cultures; here, both traditional African society and the Diaspora. Last Night, 2023 Shifting the dialogue around painting and identity, Mathenge’s portraits highlight these silent exchanges and hierarchal dynamics. Often depicting people with whom she has significant relationships, her paintings are realized through structured compositions emboldened…