Southern Africa Archive

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Though the deal was approved on a Friday night, Ghana’s opposition made sure it wouldn’t be buried. A week ago, lawmakers in the West African country passed a new agreement on military cooperation with the United States. It features terms that have proven controversial, including granting the U.S. access to Ghanaian radio channels and tax exemptions on imported military equipment. Perhaps most importantly, it also gives the U.S. military the “unimpeded” freedom to deploy across the country. “We will […]

In early March, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov embarked on a five-country tour of sub-Saharan Africa. During his trip, Lavrov signed new trade agreements with Russia’s two long-standing partners in southern Africa, Angola and Mozambique. He also strengthened Moscow’s diplomatic ties to Zimbabwe’s new government and highlighted the role Russia could play providing security to several countries facing political unrest at home. Even though Russia’s power projection capabilities on the continent remain limited, the broad range of deals signed by Lavrov suggests that Russia is actively seeking to expand its economic and security influence in Africa, and perhaps reassert some […]

When Hakainde Hichilema, Zambia’s opposition leader, was let out of prison last August, some analysts speculated that the news would herald a cooling of tensions in a country that had struggled to move on from its disputed presidential election in 2016. Hichilema, the head of the United Party for National Development, or UPND, finished second in that race to President Edgar Lungu, who took office in 2015 after the death of his predecessor, Michael Sata. But Hichilema challenged the result, just as he challenged the 2015 by-election that had permitted Lungu to serve out the remainder of Sata’s term. The […]

In late February, South Africa’s parliament overwhelmingly passed a motion seeking to change the constitution in order to allow the government to expropriate land without compensation. The motion came after the ruling African National Congress formally adopted the principle of land expropriation at its party conference in December. South Africa’s new president and the head of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, has since voiced his opposition to the recent spate of unilateral land grabs across the country, or what critics call “illegal land invasions.” In an email interview, John Campbell, the Ralph Bunche senior fellow of African policy studies at the […]

Amid the drama last month of Jacob Zuma’s resignation as South African president and Cyril Ramaphosa’s subsequent inauguration, it was easy to overlook the resiliency of South Africa’s democracy during Zuma’s nine years in power, which were marked by poor governance, corruption and his authoritarian style. By the end, the political opposition, the judiciary, the media and the electorate all successfully exerted pressure on the ruling African National Congress to remove him. Zuma’s departure was a crisis for the ANC, but not for South Africa’s democratic institutions and the rule of law. When it decided that he had to go, […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. What good is an African free trade deal that doesn’t include the continent’s two largest economies? That’s the question economists are asking after both Nigeria and South Africa refrained from joining the 44 countries that signed onto the African Continental Free Trade Area, or ACFTA, during a summit meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, on Wednesday. Though they were not the only holdouts, they were by far the most significant. Taken together, the two countries represent one-third of Africa’s gross domestic […]

In dozens of African countries, laws criminalizing same-sex sexual acts are among the more pernicious holdovers from the colonial era. Even as LGBT rights activists have made considerable gains in securing access to health services and combating specific human rights abuses, decriminalization has remained largely out of reach. Yet in the coming months, judges in two African capitals thousands of miles apart are expected to rule on legal challenges that would help break this deadlock and, in the process, go a long way toward transforming the judiciary from a source of repression into an ally. The cases, in Kenya and […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Two months after U.S. President Donald Trump crudely denigrated African countries during talks with American lawmakers on immigration reform, Rex Tillerson embarked on his first trip to the continent as secretary of state. The five-country tour that began this week was a clear attempt at damage control that also shed further light on U.S. priorities in the region. Before departing, Tillerson announced a new pledge of $533 million for humanitarian assistance in Ethiopia, his first stop, and a host […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Government critics in the Democratic Republic of Congo who insist that “Kabila must go” gained a new ally this week: the government of Botswana. In a statement Monday, Gabarone delivered the harshest criticism Congolese President Joseph Kabila has yet received from another African nation over his country’s recent turmoil, pinning Congo’s multifaceted security and humanitarian crisis on Kabila’s refusal to respect democratic norms. “We continue to witness a worsening humanitarian situation in that country mainly because its leader has […]

On Feb. 16, South Africa’s new president and head of the ruling African National Congress party, Cyril Ramaphosa, delivered his first state of the nation address, which was sharply criticized by the country’s political opposition parties. After finding it easy to capitalize on the scandal-plagued presidency of former President Jacob Zuma, the opposition had its first opportunity to challenge Ramaphosa on his own policies, which were previously not well known. In an email interview, James Hamill, a lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Leicester and expert on South Africa, discusses the current state […]