09 June 2022
South Africa: Robert Sobukwe “remains an unsung hero in the epic moral fight against the evil that was apartheid”. In disagreement with the moderates in the ANC who favoured an integrationist and gradualist approach; Sobukwe formed the Pan Africanist Congress in 1959. But in the long run, the ANC proved victorious – and so it was the ANC that wrote the history of resistance against apartheid. When he was finally released from Robben Island, he was successfully “severed from family, friends, medical care and economic opportunities” and died of lung cancer in 1978. Despite his banishment and isolation, 5,000 came to his funeral.
https://theconversation.com/robert-sobukwe-equal-status-in-the-pantheon-of-south-african-activists-is-long-overdue-184393
South Africa: Comair lawyers have requested for the airline to be liquidated, having been unable to find funding to keep it operating. Comair was the operator of about 40% of flights inside South Africa including low-budget airline Kulula.
BBC Africa Live 09 June 2022. 13:01
Nigeria: With violence and conflicts on the increase, a study run by the article’s author with humanitarian agency Mercy Corps found that training local leaders (traditional chiefs, religious leaders, women, youth) in mediation skills improved local conflict resolution and reduced violence. The approach used by Mercy Corps (not only in Nigeria) is “interest-based negotiation” which “encourages parties to find mutually acceptable outcomes by meeting all parties’ interests.” The advantage: such training is relatively low-cost, certainly much lower-cost than intervening militarily.
https://theconversation.com/training-local-leaders-in-mediation-can-reduce-violence-positive-results-in-nigeria-183746
08 June 2022
South African History & Music in Photography: An homage of Mike Ndumiso Mzileni, the “(r)espected elder statesman of press photographers” who has just died at the age of 80 (16th of January 1942-1st of June 2022). Besides news, he photographed music like nobody else.
https://theconversation.com/legendary-mike-mzileni-captured-south-africas-history-and-also-its-musical-stars-184493
Indian Ocean world & novels: The article is about (a book which is about) Amitav Ghosh (India), Abdulrazak Gurnah (Zanzibar resp. UK), Lindsey Collen (Mauritius) and Joseph Conrad (Poland resp. UK) who have “centred the Indian Ocean world in the majority of their novels.” The four authors “reference a different set of histories and geographies than the ones most commonly found in fiction in English. Those are mostly centred in Europe or the US, assume a background of Christianity and whiteness, and mention places like Paris and New York.”
https://theconversation.com/four-novelists-one-ocean-how-indian-ocean-literature-can-remap-the-world-184080
Mozambique/South Africa/USA: The Mozambican government will not be allowed to appeal against its ex-Finance Minister Manuel Chang’s extradition to the USA. Chang, who is accused of corruption, fraud and money laundering has been in prison in South Africa since December 2018 upon a US request “where investors were affected by the scandal.”
BBC Africa Live 08 June 2022. 6:44