- World Cup 2014: We Can Calculate the Winners Now. Or Not.
December 6, 2013 | 4:35 pm
Here begins the silly season of ignorant prognostication concerning group stage results. Let me get my kicks in early, with sides I know something about, mostly African and North American. It's too late to bet.
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- Looking For Cocaine Terrorists: The 2009 US Drugs Sting in Mali.
December 2, 2013 | 3:05 pm
This story originally appeared in Maghreb Politics Review on December 21, 2009, as "US Arrests Malians in Terror Drugs 'Link'". The claim that Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the FARC are part of a worldwide drugs for terror conspiracy remains active in American press and government, and remains a fantasy that meets the internal needs of the US, while ignoring real issues, like those that precipitated the unexpected collapse of the Malian state in 2012.
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- On Western analysts and the Mali Conflict, April 2012
May 30, 2013 | 3:40 pm
An excerpt from a letter written in 2012. "Two histories are now being written, each a litany of crimes and humiliations suffered, neither accepted as even having occurred by the other. ...if privileged western analysts -- however innocently -- repeat propaganda of one side as 'the background' to this conflict, they help determine the outcome."
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- Death and Career in the “Dark” Sahara: The Sad Fate of Jeremy Keenan
January 4, 2012 | 5:11 pm
People who don't know much about northern Mali would be very poorly served by reading Keenan's increasingly odd writing. Keenan used to be a scholar of some note. But his increasingly unhinged supposition that their hidden hands are behind all that is bad in the west-central Saharan region is simply unsupportable. Why it remains unchallenged is the mystery.
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- “Unrequested fission surplus”: Kent Brockman, meet Jay Lehr
March 15, 2011 | 5:33 pm
"Nobody builds better power plants than Japan, because they are the most seismically active country on earth. They are built to withstand this very earthquake... I am absolutely, 100% confident that they will be able to solve the existing problem of a meltdown, if it is occurring, that they will be able to totally eliminate the escape of any radiation"
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- Niger: Lucky Seven. Can a New President Signal More Responsive Politics in Niamey?
March 11, 2011 | 3:02 pm
Saturday the 12th of March will see second round voting in Niger’s Presidential elections, marking a return to civilian rule and the beginning of the Seventh Republic. It seems certain that front runner and PNDS-Tarayya candidate Mahamadou Issoufou will become…
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- An Echo of New York’s Unfinished Struggles: A. Philip Randolph, Frank Crosswaith and the Socialist Party
March 4, 2011 | 3:14 pm
Here’s a fascinating new article on the history of Harlem activists A. Philip Randolph and Frank R. Crosswaith, and their involvement with the Socialist Party (riven by right and left factionalism) in the 1920s. It places them in contrast to…
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- Libya’s “African Mercenary” Problem
February 20, 2011 | 11:07 pm
As I write this, Saif Gaddafi is speaking to a Libyan people who have seemed to have already moved past his father’s regime. His late and desperate attempt to scare his countrymen into rejecting a revolution which has engulfed his…
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- Niger’s Presidential Elections are Underway
February 1, 2011 | 5:09 pm
The 31st of January saw Niger’s Legislative elections, combined with the first round of the Presidential elections. Results are not yet known, and the top two in the Presidential race will re-run on 14 March. Here’s some tools to follow…
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- A Cairo Revolution
January 29, 2011 | 7:07 pmMarching in Imbaba, Cairo, originally uploaded by RamyRaoof. One overlooked media revelations from the Arab Revolutions of 2011 is the amount of material released with reusable copyright. Ramy Raoof in Cairo is releasing his work with a CC Attribution license,…
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- Shock! South Africa WC not a tourist killing orgy.
June 17, 2010 | 4:29 pm
As I’ll be spending most of this month tied to a TV or radio, I’ve so far noted one shocking fact: The South African World Cup is not riven by crime, corruption, shoddy workmanship, or terrorism. In fact, things are…
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- Niger, Mali: Hunger, famine or both
May 27, 2010 | 7:23 pm
Hopefully by now everyone knows that parts of West Africa, especially pockets of Chad and Niger, are struggling with the worst food shortages since 2005. Alex Thurston reports that international humanitarian agencies, as well as increasingly concerned governments, are now…
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- Niger: Innovative reforms amid famine
May 25, 2010 | 4:14 pmFrom 2005: “Drought has turned farmland into useless dirt…” Image via Wikipedia An unsigned editorial from Le Pays (Ouagadougou): A quite good reflection on the educational and other restrictions coming for future governments in Niger, but tying the famine. The…
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- AQIM: More hostage stories
April 20, 2010 | 7:33 pmPhilomène Kaboré and her husband Sergio Cicala have given interviews regarding their captivity: she having been released some time ago, and he Friday the 16th. They were taken in Mauritania, near the border with Mali, on...
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- Mali: Creeping famine in the north
April 5, 2010 | 3:35 pmIssikta blog republishes an urgent appeal from the mayors of Adielhoc and Tinzawaten communes in Kidal Region, northeast Mali. In a land where seasonally migrating animal herds are the economic foundation, there are reports of %40 of herds starving for...
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- AQIM: Reports of the travels of the Tiloa attackers
March 17, 2010 | 10:11 pmJeune Afrique reports sightings of the AQIM men who attacked the Nigerien army post at Tiloa, in the far north of Tillaberi last week. Apparently the Army knew there was a chance of attack somewhere in the area, having asked for reinforcements two days...
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- Togo: the political class fails its people, again.
March 15, 2010 | 3:01 pm
Jeune Afrique editor François Soudan has a biting new piece on the recent Togolese election. Noting defeated opposition candidate Jean-Pierre Fabre’s neologism “Africaneries” (for “African Inherited rule”, presumably) Soudan turns the tables of blame deftly. “For African oppositions, some of…
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- Niger: Who’s in and out in the Regions?
March 13, 2010 | 1:58 am
As I noted on the 10th of March, the CSRD junta in Niger has replaced all the civilian Region Governors with military men to administer local affairs during the transition. We now have the full list, and while I for one hate to see any military governing, a careful look at the men (all men) coming and going in Niger's Regions gives us an opportunity to examine what's going on behind the scenes, and what it augurs for the future.
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- Niger: Did the coup sink the AREVA deal? No.
March 11, 2010 | 12:02 pmI.S. Gaoh of LE TEMOIN argues that the just announced scaling back of Areva's Imouraren mine schedule shows that backers of the coup (Hama Amadou?) were part of an agreement that AREVA would get a better uranium deal if Tandja was overthrown. This is built on the false assumption that what Tandja said about his deal was accurate, that it was some sort of hardball defense of Niger's interests (a portion of the ore to be sold on the market by Niger, more Nigerien staff). When in fact, the real hardball was likely more cash upfront to Tandja, on top of the 1.2 billion Euros upfront announced. Since the details are not public, we'll never know, unless the CSRD releases them, as they are unlikely to do. This would embarrass Areva (ergo, the French government) and likely mean Niger would have to repay the money Tandja took.
Gaoh then says that the junta must break the deal now, and go after China or other neocolonial patrons to break France's grip before the next (corrupt) government.
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- Togo: Oppostion promises “popular uprising”
March 8, 2010 | 3:46 pm
The headlines from Lome, Togo are tension inducing. For Togolese or those with family there, it must be excruciating. It appears that President and dictator's son Fauré Gnassingbé has been elected, while the main opposition leader vowed struggle: “We will launch a popular uprising until victory is ours.”
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