11 January 2022
Mozambique/Rwanda: As attacks and kidnappings continue, the two countries have agreed to extend Rwanda’s mandate to fight the Cabo Delgado terrorists.
BBC Africa Live 11 January 2022. 14:30
Somalia: The conflict between the President and the Prime minister enters its next phase: The security minister, an ally of the Prime minister, had ordered the spy agency, who’s head is an ally of the President, to hand over the airport’s security to the security ministry. “The agency has instead deployed more security to the Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu”.
BBC Africa Live 11 January 2022. 7:02
10 January
Racisms: The phenomenon is not uniquely western and white, as it is usually and rather monolithically presented. But the question is being opened up and India’s Dalits (‘untouchables’) are, for example, also dealt with in today’s academia as is, to give other examples, racism in China, which is “an independent variation rather than an imitation or reflection of western racism” and “North African patterns of racism do not simply mirror Euro-American racism”. Claiming the term ‘racism’ for use in new contexts should end enduring silences that make the real-life perpetuation of it possible.
https://theconversation.com/multiracism-why-we-need-to-pay-attention-to-the-worlds-many-racisms-173001
Namibia: The joint Germano-Namibian declaration of mid-May 2021 on the 1904-08 genocide has been widely criticised. The negotiations had “disregarded international participation rights” and with the genocide not recognised in legal terms, “reparations were not acknowledged”. Descendants, opposition parties and even leading members of governing SWAPO decried the deal as “betrayal” and it has not been ratified. The former German government refused renegotiations. It is to be seen if the new one will be willing to renegotiate. In any way, descendants will have to participate. The article ends with a quotation from a book on Jewish history and memory by Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi; “Is it possible that the antonym of ‘forgetting’ is not ‘remembering,’ but justice?”
https://theconversation.com/why-reconciliation-agreement-between-germany-and-namibia-has-hit-the-buffers-173452
Uganda: After almost 2 years of closure, schools this morning reopened.
BBC Africa Live 10 January 2022. 6:27
Eritrea: The TPLF via Twitter has accused Eritrea of attacks against its forces in Tigray. Eritrea has not responded to the accusations so far. On the weekend its president Isayas Afwerki said its troops “would prevent any attack on Eritrea as well as any threats to Ethiopia's stability”.
BBC Africa Live 10 January 2022. 5:49
Mali: Bamako in a tit-for-tat reaction to “illegal” Ecowas sanctions (closure of borders, economic sanctions, withdrawal of ambassadors) has said it would close land and air borders and recall its ambassadors.
BBC Africa Live 10 January 2022. 4:47
Mozambique: 24 hour heavy rains, strong winds, thunderstorms have hit Gaza province in the country’s south. Lightening has killed 5. 5,000 houses have been destroyed; 5 health centres are partially submerged. “It is estimated that more than 394,000 people could be affected by floods in the province in the current rainy and cyclone season”.
BBC Africa Live 10 January 2022. 7:25
Higher education inequalities: The article’s author’s research in seven anglophone countries showed that regional inequalities were reduced in the 1960s and 70s but started to grow again from the 1980s onwards. Access to higher education tends to concentrate much more on urban areas nowadays, with children of highly educated parents at a great advantage.
https://theconversation.com/how-place-of-birth-shapes-chances-of-going-to-university-evidence-from-7-african-countries-172442
South Africa: Two political scientists give their interpretation of Ramaphosa’s speech at the January 8th 110th anniversary celebrations of the African National Congress (ANC’s), one saying it failed to inspire, the other that he stamped his uncontested authority on the party.
https://theconversation.com/ramaphosas-anc-birthday-speech-fails-to-inspire-disillusioned-south-africans-174593
https://theconversation.com/ramaphosa-uses-anc-anniversary-speech-to-stamp-his-authority-on-the-party-174597
Lesotho/Literature: The article tells the story of Zakes Mda’s latest novel, Wayfarers’ Hymns, and analyses it, focusing Mda’s reflecting on masculinity based on “the posturing and machismo of the gang warfare”.
https://theconversation.com/book-review-zakes-mdas-subversive-take-on-lesothos-traditions-174063
Sudan: According to doctors, 2 more died and dozens were injured at Sunday’s protests in Khartoum against the military regime. According to police, 86 were arrested on Sunday.
BBC Africa Live 10 January 2022. 11:54