Novara FM: The New Scramble for Africa in the Vacuum of Empire
Guns for hire in the neocolonial hinterlands.
Tag: Africa
Novara FM: In Search of Red Africa
Kevin Okoth excavates the revolutionary history of a continent to make the case against Afropessimism.
Opinion: On Migration, the Polish Left Has All But Given Up
Dan Davison & Ewa Pospieszyńska
Rather than challenge far-right xenophobia head-on, the Polish left is swerving it, while advising voters to skip the upcoming immigration referendums. This spineless avoidance serves nobody, write Ewa Pospieszyńska and Dan Davison.
Long Read: The Four Neat Tricks Corporations Used to Take Over the World
Claire Provost & Matt Kennard
As the old empires have crumbled, corporations have staged a silent coup against democracy - reaching every corner of the globe.
Analysis: Angolans Are Done With a One-Party State
Joana Ramiro
Next week's election could spell the end of the MPLA's half-century rule, writes Joana Ramiro.
Report: How Europe’s Migrant Crisis Reached the Canary Islands
Eoghan Gilmartin & Tommy Greene
As the world watches the volcanic eruption and tourists return, the Canary Islands have become the latest frontier of Europe’s war on migrants. Tommy Greene and Eoghan Gilmartin report.
The Bastani Factor: Operation Legacy: How the British Elite Re-Wrote World History
Conservatives are obsessed with the idea that the left wants to erase Britain’s history. Yet that’s precisely what happened when its empire collapsed after 1945, as re-writing the past became a matter of state policy executed on an industrial scale. Here Aaron Bastani explains what was called ‘Operation Legacy’ and how those who care about […]
Report: How We Won: The Ugandan Feminists Who Overturned an Anti-Porn Law
Sophie K Rosa
Ending a six-year battle, feminist campaigners in Uganda have overturned a law designed to criminalise pornography, but which ended up criminalising women’s sexuality. While this victory is undoubtedly important, there is a bigger war to be fought, they say.
Opinion: England Is in the Midst of an African Renaissance – but It’s Still Racist As Hell
Kojo Koram
As impressive as England’s current African cultural renaissance is, the goal must ultimately be to create a world free of the painful legacies that produced it, writes Kojo Koram in Contesting Culture, a new series asking who really owns British culture.
Downstream: Why It’s Eco-Socialism or Collapse
Climate change is better understood as climate systems breakdown, and it’s only through the lens of the latter that we can grasp the scale of the crisis ahead. On this episode of Downstream, Aaron Bastani is joined by Mat Lawrence and Laurie Laybourn-Langton to discuss their new book, Planet on Fire: A Manifesto for the […]
Analysis: The Rich Are Skipping the Vaccine Queue. What Are We Going to Do About It?
James Meadway
The coronavirus vaccine was never going to be entirely immune from market forces. But if we’re going to recover from this pandemic, or prevent another, we must radically rethink how we share the fruits of our scientific labours, writes James Meadway.
Novara Docs: Under Threat: the Sengwer Minority
Kenyan authorities and the EU are now negotiating the resumption of a controversial forest conservation project suspended in 2018 due to serious human rights concerns. The Sengwer, one of Kenya’s marginalised minorities, face eviction from their ancestral land. Despite a moratorium on evictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and huge pressure from human rights groups, […]
African Oil in the City: a New Kind of Colonialism
Chloe Farand and Mat Hope
Until the government takes stronger action to regulate the UK’s financial institutions, it is enabling an incredibly polluting form of economic neocolonialism, argue Chloe Farand and Mat Hope.
We Paid Attention to Catalonia’s Independence Bid. Why Are We Ignoring the Crisis in Cameroon?
Ayo Awokoya
Catalonia’s bid to break away from the Spanish government made headlines around the world last October, but little attention has been paid to similar political upheavals across Africa, including an escalating situation in Cameroon which could constitute the country's greatest political crisis in decades.
Zimbabwe in Crisis: Who Will Replace Robert Mugabe?
Ayo Awokoya
Zimbabwe is teetering on the edge of a precipice — and potentially a military coup. The country, long dogged by political turmoil and economic instability, is facing more uncertainty than ever before as infighting within its ruling party intensifies.
Falling Between the Gaps: Two-Tiered Humanitarian Aid System Leaves Non-Refugees Desperate
James Jeffrey
The response to the drought in Ethiopia’s Somali region is under severe strain due to the vagaries of domestic and international humanitarian aid processes that favour refugee drama over the nuances of internally displaced persons.