Presidents Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Muhammadu Buhari, Macky Sall and former Ghanian President John Mahama at a special meeting of Ecowas on The Gambia.
Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde
SADC’s credibility is at stake. Its lack of political will in acting decisively against despots is at odds with the African Union’s goal of promoting legitimate governance on the continent.
Donald Trump has promised to make America great again.
Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
The Global Trends report provides a useful starting point to reflect on what’s in store for Africa over the next five years. And how the continent should think about responding to its challenges.
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has agreed a truce with opposition Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama.
EPA/Antonio Silva
The main sticking point in the failed efforts at peace is the demand by Renamo that it be allowed to appoint provincial governors in the provinces where it claims to have won an electoral majority.
Ovaherero and Ovambanderu attending a council for dialogue about the genocide of 1904 in Berlin.
EPA/Rainer Jensen
Representatives of Namibian communities affected by the 1904-1908 genocide have filed a class action against Germany in the US seeking reparations for atrocities committed by Imperial Germany
Demonstrators march against corruption in Cape Town. South Africa has some way to go to plug a public accountability deficit.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
South Africa’s end of term report at the helm of the Open Government Partnership shows that it failed to meet key targets it set for itself. But it also shows improvements in some areas.
Nelson Mandela (right), with former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, saw human rights as central to South Africa’s foreign affairs.
Reuters
South Africa’s decision to leave the ICC suggests that its foreign policy is caught in a dilemma between lofty ideas, an unsettled identity crisis, and shifting priorities in a complex world.
A mural depicting populist dictators painted onto remnants of the Berlin Wall in Berlin in 2014.
Henning Melber
The legitimacy and credibility of those in power has been eroded by bad governance, patronage and the obsession to claim an exclusive agency representing the people.
Cyril Ramaphosa celebrates his election as deputy president of South Africa’s embattled governing ANC.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
Cyril Ramaphosa is in pole position to become president of South Africa’s ruling ANC, 20 years after he lost the position by Thabo Mbeki. But, it won’t be easy. Neither will rebuilding the party.
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma (left), who is also the president of the governing ANC, and his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
After two decades of political dominance, the electoral performance of the ANC is at its lowest since it became the governing party of South Africa in 1994. But is the party really unraveling?
Suppoters of outgoing South African public protector, Thuli Madonsela, outside her offices ahead of her last media briefing.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Far from the limelight, South Africa’s public protector has been instrumental in assisting individuals who grapple with unfair treatment from government departments and other public institutions.
Congressman Ron Dellums of California protests in front of the South African embassy in 1984.
Rick Reinhard
Donald Trump’s disregard for Africa and African affairs is worrying. But it also presents a unique opportunity for progressive black leadership to shape US foreign policy.
Fidel Castro poured troops into Ethiopia’s war with Somalia after describing Siad Barre as “above all a chauvinist”.
Reuters/Prensa Latina
Martin Plaut, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Many Ethiopians regard Castro as the man who saved their country. Somalis view him as the man who denied them the Greater Somalia re-union
UK Prime Minister Theresa May can’t rely on her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and others in the Commonwealth for unfettered trade support.
Reuters/Adnan Abidi
Besides worries that Donald Trump might not make Africa a priority of his presidency, his temperament and views bode ill for democracy on the continent.
Supporters of Adama Barrow celebrate on the streets of Banjul.
Thierry Gouegnon/Reuters
The fallout at the meeting of South Africa’s governing ANC clearly exposed how the party’s factionalism has spilled over into government. This is likely to paralyse governance even further.
Demands to recall South African President Jacob Zuma reached a climax at the governing ANC’s national executive meeting.
EPA/Kim Ludbrook
There are early signs of the emergence of a third force for good in South Africa in the likes of the Save SA movement and Socio-Economic Future of South Africa convened by the Archbishop of Cape Town.
N'da Yao Messou is president of a cocoa farmers’ association in Niable, eastern Ivory Coast. Women’s right to development has a long way to go.
Reuters/Thierry Gouegnon
Despite the noble goals of the new South Africa and its ideals of racial harmony, racial tensions remain a major problem in the country. Prejudice and bigotry persists even in universities.
Members of the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa protesting against youth unemployment.
Reuters/Rogan Ward
South Africa’s problem is that its constitution is a perfect brochure of the nation it aspires to be. But the contractors entrusted with its future have an entirely different project in mind.
Yarik Turianskyi is Manager of the Governance and African Peer Review Mechanism Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs and guest lecturer in African Governance and Eastern European Politics, University of Pretoria