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Articles on Foundation essays Africa

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Kenya’s Supreme Court judges file into the chamber during the opening of parliament. Reuters/Noor Khamis

How Commonwealth countries have forged a new way to appoint judges

The electorate and those involved in public governance should focus more on how judges are appointed. This is because they need to make sure that individuals of the highest quality get the job.
Arthur Lewis’ impossible mission was to make possible Kwame Nkrumah’s famous slogan: seek ye first the political kingdom … Reuters/Sahra Abdi

Ghana: lessons from Nkrumah’s fallout with his economic adviser

Nobel laureate and Kwame Nkrumah’s economic adviser Arthur Lewis saw Ghana as a testing ground for his ideas on economic development. But he was met with fierce resistance.
The climax of popular simianisation was the hugely successful classic of Hollywood’s horror factory, King Kong. Shutterstock

Comparing black people to monkeys has a long, dark simian history

Animalisation remains a malicious and effective form of dehumanisation. Simianisation is a version of this strategy, which historically manifested a lethal combination of sexism and racism.
South Africa is far from being the non-racial, classless society envisaged by 1970s activists. Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi

How the failed ideals of 1970s activists haunt post-apartheid South Africa

The egalitarian society envisioned by political activists and thinkers Rick Turner and Steve Biko has not been realised. But, they continue to inspire critiques of post-apartheid South Africa.
Black students at University of Stellenbosch protest against the institutions’s language policy they say discriminates against them by favouring Afrikaans. Times Media/Adrian de Kock

Why Biko’s Black Consciousness philosophy resonates with youth today

Black youth are grappling with the question of the meaning of freedom in post-apartheid South Africa. They seek an antidote to their reality wherein blackness continues to be mocked and marginalised.
A wooden boat sails on the Congo river against the backdrop the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa. The river flows through both the DRC and Republic of Congo which are in dispute over territory. Reuters/Katrina Manson

Africa’s border disputes are set to rise – but there are ways to stop them

Africa has had border disputes through the millennia. But the continent has its own peculiar problems, most because of colonialism. Luckily, there are examples of good practice to deal with problems.
A sailor walking among African captives in the hold of a slave ship. From the book Revelations of a Slave Smuggler published in 1860. Shutterstock

The story of East Africa’s role in the transatlantic slave trade

The Portuguese slave ship São José, which sank off Cape Town, was one of many vessels that either rounded the Cape or pulled into Table Bay for refreshment during the Transatlantic slave trade.
Eradicating TB across the globe by 2035, as the World Health Organisation hopes to do, will only take place if the global funding and will improves. Supplied

TB is treatable and curable: with the right will it can be eradicated

More than 1.5 million people die of tuberculosis across the world every year. Although testing and screening has improved and more drugs are available, it is not enough to conquer the scourge.
Nigerian youth celebrate presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari’s victory. Youth unemployment will continue to threaten the continent’s growth. Reuters/Goran Tomasevic

Renaissance or mirage: can Africa sustain its growth?

How realistic are expectations about Africa’s economic prospects? There are several reasons why we should be both optimistic and cautious about the continent’s future economic performance.
Most of the migrants desperately crossing the Mediterranean from Africa are refugees. EPA/STR

Without immigrants, none of us would be here

The migration of early Africans into the Middle East, then across the Mediterranean into Europe and Asia – and eventually into the Americas and Australia and the Pacific Islands – is the origin of today’s humanity.

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