Private interest, not public voice, governs the immediate future of the DRC - the Democratic Republic of the Congo
There are concrete steps the Congolese political establishment can take to avert post-election violence, if external pressure helps to engender the necessary political will.
South Africa's president has outgunned his young, ambitious rival and cleared the road to re-election. But the struggle between them casts an unforgiving light on aspects of the country's governance, says Roger Southall.
A neglected humanitarian disaster is unfolding in the Sudanese border region of Southern Kordofan. The tens of thousands bombed, displaced, blockaded and starved need the world’s attention, says Gerry Simpson.
The capacity of new or fragile democratic regimes to deliver development is being closely debated as international agencies prepare for a landmark summit in South Korea. The core issue at stake is presented by Alina Rocha Menocal.
"Kenya doesn’t know war. We know war." A fractious mix of violence and politics is unsettling the relationship between east African neighbours and putting more pressure on Somalis living in Kenya. The Somali militia group known as al-Shabaab is often viewed as the source of the problem. But the ro
Somalia's long civil war and political fragmentation define the country to the world. Yet the society also contains potent resources of allegiance and solidarity, says the doyen of Somali studies, Ioan M Lewis.
The rise of the controversial populist Julius Malema is shaking the ruling African National Congress, says Stephen Ellis.
The Libyan war is often portrayed through a “tribal” lens that fails to explain how the country’s tribes coexist with a sense of nationhood, says Igor Cherstich.
The evidence of Nelson Mandela’s membership of the South African Communist Party in the early 1960s is clear. But what needs to be reassessed in light of it? A study of the precise chronology of Mandela’s activism and thinking at the time suggests an answer, says Tom Lodge, author of “Mandela: A C
A decade’s war and a election drowned by violence are a tough legacy. Côte d’Ivoire’s president must be generous to overcome it, says Rinaldo Depagne.
The fate of Egypt across the centuries is indissolubly linked to the river which gives it life. Today, a range of problems - environmental, political, economic - threaten the provision and the quality of the Nile waters. They present another challenge for the young post-Mubarak order, says Vicken
