Thomas Sankara still casts a long shadow in Burkina Faso.
Wikimedia Commons
Burkina Faso is still in the throes of chaos decades after the assasination of the charismatic president
Idriss Déby, the late former president of Chad.
PASCAL GUYOT/AFP via Getty Images)
Déby’s legacy is one of violent beginnings and fake democratic shows
Modern secession claims find their roots in the Trusteeship System of the UN.
Wikimedia Commons
Colonial powers framed secessionism as a threat to state-building and not as an expression of self-determination
The grand designs of the major political and military actors lack an important ingredient: the views and the hopes of ordinary Somalis.
Getty Images
The political and security order which numerous foreign actors have been investing in has produced marginal benefits for the population.
The Africa Union’s military intervention capacity can benefit hugely from the experience and capabilities of China’s People’s Liberation Army.
EFE-EPA/Michael Reynoldss
The “Chinese Model” for development could be a blueprint for the modernisation and transformation of African economies.
A lorry trailer carries the coffins of the victims of a munitions explosion in Brazzaville, the Congolese capital, in 2012.
Junior D. Kannah/AFP via Getty Images
Data suggests that Africa as a whole suffers a relatively high rate of casualties at munition sites where there are unplanned explosions.
Christof Heyns served as UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions and on the UN Human Rights Committee.
University of Pretoria
From his positions at the United Nations, Professor Heyns made a huge impact on the protection of the right to life and the right of peaceful assembly.
People displaced by the atacks on the town of Palma, northern Mozambique, flee to safety with meagre possessions.
Alfredo Zuniga / AFP via Getty Images
The conflict has put a temporary lid on plans that have been in the making for more than a decade since rich liquefied natural gas reserves were discovered in the Rovuma Basin.
A demonstration in Red Square (since renamed Freedom Square) in the Johannesburg suburb of Fordsburg, South Africa, 6th April 1952.
Photo by Jurgen Schadeberg/Getty Images
When the Truth and Reconciliation was mandated to investigate human rights violations from March 1960, that left twelve years of apartheid rule unexplored.
South African Police Service march to disperse students blocking traffic in Johannesburg, in March.
Michele Spatari / AFP via Getty Images
South Africans deserve a fuller picture of the extent of police brutality, and the level of accountability, especially when people die at the hands of police.
Madagascar’s former president, Didier Ratsiraka.
Francois LOCHON/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Ratsiraka was a national hero and great patriot for some, for others a ruthless dictator.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan attends the funeral of her predecessor president John Magufuli on March 26, 2021 in Chato, Tanzania.
Photo by Luke Dray/Getty Images
Hassan may prove the right sort of politician to usher in a new era of bipartisan politics, less populist and authoritarian and more collegial.
New Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan during her swearing-in.
Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images
Hassan, like Magufuli before her, has taken office without her own political base and will also have to contend with revived factional manoeuvring.
Nigerian security personnel inspect the site of a blast at Nyanya bus station in the outskirts of Abuja
Stringer/AFP via Getty Images
Due to the poor security response of the Nigerian state, insurgency will continue to pose a serious threat to its northeast border communities.
The judicial inquiry into grand corruption heard shocking details of the abuse of power at South Africa’s preeminent spy agency.
Deaan Vivier/Netwerk24/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Globally, intelligence services trade in secrets and conduct covert operations. But this does not exempt them from public scrutiny, parliamentary oversight, and audit processes.
shutterstock
The Constitutional Court judgment is a huge victory, not only for journalists and lawyers who stand to benefit directly and immediately, but for broader society.
Dominic Ongwen (centre) sits in the court room of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, on December 6, 2016.
Peter Dejong/AFP via Getty Images
The International court did not allow Dominic Ongwen’s background to colour the legal determination of his criminal liability.
Dominic Ongwen enters the court room of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, on December 6, 2016.
Photo by Peter Dejong/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Former fighters described Ongwen as a model fighter and an effective commander – but testimony in his trial detailed the former child soldier’s alleged personal role in the rape of underage women.
National Election Board of Ethiopia personnel patrol a warehouse stacked high with boxes of polling kits in Addis Ababa in October 2020.
Photo by Eduardo Soteras/AFP via Getty Images
Ethiopia’s party system is extremely volatile due to the prevalence of weakly institutionalised and fragmented political parties.
Joseph Kazibwe, with his wife Magere, listen to radio updates of the Uganda presidential election result in January 2021.
Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images
For those keen to advance democracy and freedom in Uganda, the starting point is to take in the lessons of history.