THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - The African Mirror

May

06

2023

May 3 reflections honouring contributions of journalist victims and friends of the Gambian media

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

WEDNESDAY, May 3, 2023, marked the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day with the global theme, Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as a driver for all other human rights. As a journalist, I have always believed that all other rights are intrinsically linked to the right to express oneself. This year’s theme falls in line with principles I have tried to uphold over the past 24 years. At the start of my journalism career as a cub reporter in 1998, I did not articulate it. Then, I was no activist or human rights defender. NDEY TAPHA…

May

09

2023

By The African Mirror

Sudan’s conflict will have a ripple effect in an unstable region – and across the world

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SUDAN, Africa’s third largest country by land mass, shares borders with seven countries in an unstable region. This means that Sudan’s current conflict will have economic, social and political ripple effects across a number of countries, including the Central African Republic, Egypt, Libya, Chad, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Author JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, Professor, Weber State University The conflict might also affect countries further afield, including the US, Russia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, which have close economic ties with Sudan. It could destabilise the Sahel region and the Horn of Africa and jeopardise US interests in…

May

06

2023

By The African Mirror

Sudan: the longer the conflict lasts, the higher the risk of a regional war

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE 2019 Sudan uprisings that ousted long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir and installed a military-civilian transitional government gave hope that the northern African country could finally transition to democratic rule. The country has been ruled by the military for most of its independence since 1956. Author MAY DARWICH, Associate Professor of International Relations of the Middle East, University of Birmingham But Sudan’s bumpy transition to democracy has come to a complete halt. The country now faces the worst conflict in its history as a full-blown civil war – with external entanglements – looms. The Sudanese armed forces and a paramilitary force…

May

06

2023

By The African Mirror

Honouring contributions of journalist victims and friends of the Gambian media

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

WEDNESDAY, May 3, 2023, marked the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day with the global theme, Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as a driver for all other human rights. NDEY TAPHA SOSSEH As a journalist, I have always believed that all other rights are intrinsically linked to the right to express oneself. This year’s theme falls in line with principles I have tried to uphold over the past 24 years. At the start of my journalism career as a cub reporter in 1998, I did not articulate it. Then, I was no activist or human rights…

May

05

2023

By The African Mirror

Paul Kagame could be president of Rwanda until 2035 – what’s behind his staying power

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

RWANDA’S ruling party, the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), recently concluded its 16th congress. This also marked 35 years of its existence. The centre piece, however, was the election as chairman, yet again, of the country’s president Paul Kagame. With 99.9% of the votes – 2,099 of the available 2,102 votes – Kagame was re-elected and put on course to potentially run for yet another electoral term in 2024. Author DAVID E KIWUWA, Associate Professor of International Studies, University of Nottingham The constitution allows Kagame to seek re-election until 2035. That’s a long way off and he has not indicated when…

May

04

2023

By The African Mirror

World Bank and IMF are Western tools with doomed future

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, stated the obvious at a California conference when she lamented the gradual decline of the US dollar in global trade. Addressing the 2023 Milken Institute Global Conference in the US this week, she said: “There has been a gradual shift away from the Dollar, it was 70% of (world) reserves, now it is slightly under 60% .” ABBEY MAKOE Well, the writing has been on the wall for a long while. The US dollar is certainly losing its once unassailable dominance as a kind of an omnipotent world’s main…

May

02

2023

By AIDAN LEWIS and TOM PERRY

Analysis: Sudan risks long conflict as entrenched rivals struggle for control

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SUDAN'S warring factions are locked in a conflict that two weeks of fighting shows neither can easily win, raising the spectre of a drawn-out war between an agile paramilitary force and a better-equipped army that could destabilise a fragile region. Even with hundreds of people killed and the capital Khartoum turned into a war zone, there has been little sign of compromise between army commander Abdul-Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commonly known as Hemedti. Foreign mediators have struggled to arrest the slide to war: a series of ceasefires brokered by the United States and others…

Apr

29

2023

By The African Mirror

Ruth Weiss, journalist who fought apartheid, finally honoured in South Africa

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

A prophet has no honour in their homeland, goes the biblical adage. But of the many places that journalist, author and activist Ruth Weiss has lived – Germany (where she was born), South Africa, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Britain, Zambia and Denmark – which is her home? On 28 April, South Africa’s president will bestow an Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo on Weiss “for her contribution to the liberation struggle” and shining “the light on injustices in South Africa”. Author MELANIE BOEHI, Chercheuse postdoctorale, Université de Lausanne, Section d'histoire, University of the Witwatersrand This award – a national…

Apr

28

2023

By The African Mirror

South Africans are fed up with their prospects, and their democracy, according to latest social attitudes survey

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE mood among South Africans has soured. The latest findings from the representative survey that’s done every year by the country’s Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) show some disturbing new trends. The most marked are: a decline in levels of life satisfaction as a whole a downturn in people’s views about what lies ahead in their lives a growing sense of despondency, and a declining satisfaction with democracy. Authors JOLEEN STEYN KOTZE, Chief Research Specialist in Democracy and Citizenship at the Human Science Research Council and a Research Fellow Centre for African Studies, University of the Free State BENJAMIN ROBERTS,…

Apr

27

2023

By The African Mirror

Omar al-Bashir brutalised Sudan – how his 30-year legacy is playing out today

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SINCE independence in 1956 the Sudanese have lived through 35 coups, attempted coups and coup plots – more than any other African country. When the 2019 uprising against long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir created a military-civilian transitional government, the Sudanese hoped that their country would transition to democratic rule. But their hopes were dashed in October 2021 when Abdel Fattah al-Burhan led a coup against his civilian counterparts in the transitional government. Author WILLOW BERRIDGE, Lecturer in History, Newcastle University In the latest round of conflict that began on 15 April 2023, civil war looms as the security actors who benefited…