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South Africa

Incoming AU Pres. C. Ramaphosa (l) and outgoing Pres. A. Ahmed

At African Union Summit, Ramaphosa Announces End of Colonialism

By News & Current Affairs

By Global Information Network — A stirring call to action was delivered this week in the august hall of the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, spoken by the incoming AU president Cyril Ramaphosa to distinguished members of the continental body representing over 40 countries. In his presentation at the AU’s 33rd summit, the South African President wove history with commentary into a tapestry of hope for a continent…

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Mmusi Maimane

Liberalism in South Africa isn’t only for white people—or black people who “want to be white”

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Steven Friedman — Liberalism is meant to be about freedom for all individuals, regardless of race. But linking liberalism to whiteness as is happening now is not new in South Africa. Most activists who fought for black freedom dismissed liberalism as a white ideology designed to tame black people, not to free them. This was hardly surprising, since many white liberals spoke and acted as if liberalism was exactly that:…

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R. Drew Smith Professor, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Co-Convener, Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race

National Reconciliation Without Accountability Rings Hollow

By Commentaries/Opinions

By R. Drew Smith Professor, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Co-Convener, Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race — Twenty-five years ago, Nelson Mandela was elected South African president after serving 27 years in prison for leading resistance against racially-oppressive apartheid rule. During that same moment in April of 1994, a horrible tragedy was unfolding further north on the African continent as longstanding ethnic grievances within Rwanda irr

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A relief sculpture of the goddess Mami Wata on the wall of a voodoo temple in Benin.

Mermaids Have Always Been Black

By Editors' Choice

The uproar over Disney casting Halle Bailey as the Little Mermaid overlooks generations of Caribbean and African folklore. By Tracey Baptiste, The New York Times — As a young child growing up in Trinidad and Tobago within sight and walking distance of the Caribbean Sea, I was gripped by the intrigue of mermaids. I was introduced to one version of a mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, whose tale of a magical girl…

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Report by Transparency International sees South Africa top the list of countries where citizens believe the problem has got worse in the last year.

Securing Ramaphosa’s Presidency – At What Cost?

By Commentaries/Opinions

People cherished many expectations for Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency. Many of these were not necessarily realistic and may have derived from a sense of relief in the departure of Jacob Zuma, rather than what may have been possible for Ramaphosa to do. By Raymond Suttner, Polity — In the early months Ramaphosa engendered considerable confidence as a result of his apparently methodical, systematic and measured way of handling his office. This…

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