It’s time to reckon with the anti-black brutality that defines American policy from Minneapolis to Somalia.
Rediscovered lectures Walter Rodney gave in 1978 in Hamburg shows a reflective intellectual, thinking critically about postcolonial African governance.
As the trajectory of the COVID-19 crisis continues to evolve, the African Union must activate Africa’s global human capital in a think-and-do tank to support the efforts of its member states. Such a mechanism, if done well, can outlast the crisis, strengthen the legitimacy of the AU, and complement future external technical assistance.
For Walter Rodney, underdevelopment is a condition historically produced through capitalist expansion and imperialism. He situates Africa’s underdevelopment within the contradictory process of capitalism, one that both creates value and wealth for the exploiters while immiserating the exploited.
The murders of George Floyd and prove what we already knew—police “reform” has failed.
For Africans watching the unfolding uprising in America, the scenes seem eerily familiar, but disconcerting. Suddenly the tables have turned: America is being described in the same way that many African countries are depicted by the Western media; the US is beginning to resemble a failed African state.
A group of African singers, artists, academics, journalists, civil society and business leaders touched by the tragic killing of George Floyd issued a solidarity statement condemning police brutality and calling for renewed and increased relationship between Africans everywhere and African Americans. They are calling on the public to sign a Change.org petition they have posted.
International solidarity is an important and necessary step in dismantling the institutions of racist state violence, not only in the US, but across the world.
To end racism, we will have to change the structures from which it draws its mandate, and get rid of liberal and right-wing politicians who give it oxygen while we are being asphyxiated.
Professor Makau Mutua’s proposed constitutional amendments targeting the Judicial Service Commission are highly regressive and would neuter the independence of the judiciary.
