Articles and More!: Africa

Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Death of a Bushman - South Africa

Monday, March 24, 2014

Workers End Strikes in Kenya, Continue Actions in Tunisia, Egypt and South Africa

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Workers End Strikes in Kenya, Continue Actions in Tunisia, Egypt and South Africa

Friday, March 21, 2014

The Roman Empire in North Africa

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

HISTORY OF US SLAVERY IN AFRICA; A Documentary of Enslaved africans loss of identity and culture

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HISTORY OF US SLAVERY IN AFRICA; A Documentary of Enslaved africans loss of identity and culture

Friday, March 14, 2014

Witches and witchcraft in Africa - Truthloader

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Witches and witchcraft in Africa - Truthloader

Friday, February 28, 2014

From Ben Affleck and George Clooney to Madonna and Bono: A scorecard for celebrities in Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya — This Wednesday, Ben Affleck testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as an expert on Africa. Yes, Ben Affleck: actor-director Ben Affleck, Argo Ben Affleck and, lest we forget, J-Lo Ben Affleck. Ben Affleck, whose tuxedo stands a decent chance of being analyzed on live television during the Oscars this Sunday. He was invited to guide American lawmakers on their policy toward the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ridiculous, right? Actually, no. Affleck has been involved in eastern Congo for years now. In 2010, he set up an organization called the Eastern Congo Initiative after making repeated visits to the region. It raises money and funnels it to local civil society organizations. Affleck’s commitment and sustained engagement means that if you’re looking for an advocate who has some clue about what’s actually going on and doesn’t need to take his lines from a teleprompter, you could do a whole lot worse.

If you’re going to be a celebrity with a cause in Africa — and sometimes it seems like the continent has been colonized by the A-Z listers — you could do worse then follow Affleck’s lead. A lot worse.

To help you separate the serious from the silly, we present GlobalPost’s Africa Celebrity Do-Gooder Scorecard.

Note: this list is not exhaustive, as it appears to be an unspoken rule that pretty much every celebrity has to say something about Africa at some point. Feel free to tweet your own suggestions using the hashtag #StarsLoveAfrica.

Ben Affleck – Congo/peace

Score: *****

Quiet commitment, strong focus

He does it quietly (the Affleck name isn’t anywhere to be found on the ECI website) and with an unusual degree of humility for a celebrity. Academics, analysts and self-declared experts may scoff at his credentials but he’s spent time on the ground and has shown commitment over time. He’s cajoled American lawmakers before speaking to Congress in 2012 and when he speaks it attracts attention to a place often ignored.

George Clooney speaking to John Kerry and John Prendergast of the Enough Project after a press conference in Juba marking the beginning of South Sudan’s vote for independence. (Tim Freccia/Enough Project/GlobalPost)

George Clooney – Sudan/peace

Score: *****

Sustained engagement, money where his mouth is

Clooney has shown long-term commitment to Sudan’s restive regions, first in Darfur, then southern Sudan, the disputed territory of Abyei and rebel-held Nuba Mountains. With his own money, he funds the Satellite Sentinel Project [http://www.satsentinel.org/] which tracks and exposes war crimes and human rights abuses along the contested border between South Sudan and Sudan. His protests against President Omar al-Bashir’s regime have seen him (and his father) arrested in Washington.

Mia Farrow takes part in a mass at the Bossangoa cathedral on November 10, 2013. (Matthieu Alexandre/AFP/Getty Images)

Mia Farrow – Darfur/peace

Score: ****

Sustained engagement, emotional investment

The actress and ex-wife of Woody Allen has invested herself in Darfur for years and visited the conflict-riddled western region of Sudan in 2004. She’s also spoken on a range of other examples of mass atrocity and manmade human suffering in Africa and elsewhere, although she’s awfully free and easy with the G-word (genocide, that is). There’s little doubting her sincerity and long-standing commitment, but it also begs the question of how effective celebrity-led advocacy is: after all the years of attention and concern the conflict in Darfur rumbles on regardless.

Oprah Winfrey poses at the inaugural graduation of the class of 2011 at Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy (Michelly Rall/Getty Images)

Oprah Winfrey – South Africa/education

Score: ***

Big investment showed money can’t buy everything

The television host and actress opened her $ 40 million Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (zero points for humility here) in South Africa in 2007. Within a year it was mired in allegations of sexual and physical abuse. After this rocky start the academy got its house in order and has been doing what it was supposed to do: give poor South African girls the opportunity for a better life.

(Danny Gohlke/DDP/Getty Images)

Bono & Geldof – Africa/ending poverty

Score: **

Aid lobby pioneers, “c###s”

The modern celebrity obsession with Africa, or at least being seen in Africa, can be traced back to Bob Geldof’s 1984 Band Aid song and 1985’s Live Aid concert. The U2 frontman and the Irish rocker have long been outspoken activists and advocates for aid to Africa roping fellow celebrities, the rich and powerful into their efforts. Neither are shy of using Africa to make a bit of cash with Bono and his wife advertising Louis Vitton luggage and Geldof setting up a private equity fund. Their brand of musical money-raising to end poverty rubs a lot of people the wrong way but undoubtedly the most invective-filled response comes courtesy of British comedy writer Jane Bussman whose stand-up show “Bono and Geldof Are C###s” sold out both the Sydney Opera House and London’s Frontline Club last year.

(Amos Gumulira/AFP/Getty Images)

Madonna – Malawi/education

Score: *

Half-baked idea, poorly executed

Oh dear. When faced with a torrent of criticism for her preferential quicky adoption of her first Malawian child, a boy called David Banda in 2006, Madonna set up a charity to build an academy in Malawi to improve the lives of those not lucky enough to be rescued by a global music star. The charity all-but collapsed in a riot of corruption allegations and name-calling. Madonna’s falling-out with Malawi seemed complete when State House called her a “bully” (and much else besides). Others, including writer Binyavanga Wainaina, then weighed in with their own scathing assessments of Madonna’s attempted do-goodery. Today the charity limps on, building primary schools and sponsoring kids in Malawi.

(Tristan Fewings/Getty Images)

Vivienne Westwood – Kenya/fashion (yes, fashion)

Score: *

Wrong-headed

The flame-haired enfant terrible of fashion, dressmaker to the ‘70s punk scene, and designer of vertiginous footware visited a Nairobi slum a few years ago and vamping it up alongside models in a shoot for her Ethical Fashion Initiative, which pays local folk in Kibera to stitch together handbags to sell to wealthy Westerners (for around $ 200). In our humble opinion, it is hard to see how any of this offers the seamstresses of Kibera much more than the opportunity to be the authentically slummy backdrop to a photo shoot.

(Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Elizabeth McGovern – Sierra Leone/Christianity

Score: -

Clueless, embarrassing for all involved

Downton Abbey’s Lady Cora went to Sierra Leone last year as an ambassador for child-sponsoring evangelical Christian charity World Vision. It did not go well. She became a laughing-stock after a journalist from London’s Daily Telegraph invited along to cover her trip reported that she couldn’t tell the difference between Darfur (war-torn western region of Sudan) and Dakar (seaside capital of peaceful Senegal). Nor did she know much about the country she was visiting or the charity she was with. Amanda Taub and Kate Cronin-Furman of ‘Wronging Rights’ comprehensively shredded the whole sorry affair in this article for Warscapes.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/140227/ben-affleck-and-george-clooney-madonna-and-bono-scorecard-celebr

GlobalPost – Home

From Ben Affleck and George Clooney to Madonna and Bono: A scorecard for celebrities in Africa

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Mainland China pillaging Africa like old colonialists: Jane Goodall

By Christophe Beaudufe, AFP
February 19, 2014, 12:13 am TWN

JOHANNESBURG–China is exploiting Africa’s resources just like European colonizers did, with disastrous effects for the environment, acclaimed primatologist Jane Goodall has told AFP.

On the eve of her 80th birthday, the fiery British wildlife crusader is whizzing across the world giving a series of lectures on the threats to our planet.

And the rising world power’s involvement on the continent especially raises alarms when it comes to her beloved chimpanzees and wildlife habitats.

During the last decade China has been investing heavily in African natural resources, developing mines, oil wells and running related construction companies.

Activists accuse Chinese firms of paying little attention to the environmental impact of their race for resources.

“In Africa, China is merely doing what the colonialist did. They want raw materials for their economic growth, just as the colonialists were going into Africa and taking the natural resources, leaving people poorer,” she told AFP in an interview in Johannesburg.

The stakes for the environment may even be larger this time round, she warns.

“China is bigger, and the technology has improved … It is a disaster.”

Other than massive investment in Africa’s mines, China is also a big market for elephant tusks and rhino horn, which has driven poaching of these animals to alarming heights.

But Goodall, who rose to fame through her ground-breaking research on chimpanzees in Tanzania, is optimistic.

“I do believe China is changing,” she said, citing as one example Beijing’s recent destruction of illegal ivory stockpiles.

“I think 10 years ago, even with international pressure, we would never have had an ivory crush. But they have,” she added.

“I think 10 years ago the government would never have banned shark fin soup on official occasions. But they have.”

‘Small window of time’

Her organization Roots and Shoots, founded over two decades ago to instill conservation values in children, has also become involved in China.

“We work with hundreds of Chinese children, and they are not different from children we work with here. They all love nature, they love animals, they want to help, there’s no difference because they’re Chinese,” she said.

Young people’s enthusiasm to change the world is a major reason to hope, for this lady with seemingly inexhaustible energy who can still keep an auditorium hanging on her words for more than an hour.

“These young people will become the next parents, the next teachers, the next lawyers, the next business people and the next politicians, some of them.”

“The biggest problem is that people understand but don’t know what to do,” she said.

“If you have one thousand, one million or eventually several million people all making the right choice, all thinking about the consequence of their behavior, then we’re going to see big change.”

Another glimmer of hope is “this amazing resilience of nature,” she continued, citing as an example the China’s Loess Plateau on the Yellow River bouncing back after massive soil erosion.

“It was set to be the biggest totally destroyed ecosystem in the world,” she said.

A US$ 400-million project funded by the Chinese government and international donors introduced better farming methods in the area, which greatly reduced erosion and lifted 2.5 million people out of poverty, according to the World Bank.

“That took a lot of money, but if you look at it now, it’s all green, lush and farmland, and children have come back from the cities. It’s even got a whole area for wildlife,” said Goodall.

“We still have a small window of time to change things.”

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Mainland China pillaging Africa like old colonialists: Jane Goodall

Thursday, January 23, 2014

VIDEO: The cost of political corruption

As former Va. Gov. Robert McDonnell (R) faces corruption charges, here’s a look at other notable bribes in politics — and how much it took for lawmakers to sell out.

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VIDEO: The cost of political corruption

Friday, January 10, 2014

VIDEO: Central African Republic"s President, Prime Minister Resign

The president and prime minister of the Central African Republic have both resigned after months of violence and sectarian tensions in the country.

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VIDEO: Central African Republic"s President, Prime Minister Resign

Friday, December 27, 2013

VIDEO: South Sudan Offers Cease-Fire To Rebels

South Sudan’s government announced Friday it would be willing to accept a cease-fire from the rebel group it is currently fighting.

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VIDEO: South Sudan Offers Cease-Fire To Rebels

Friday, December 20, 2013

Fragile Lull Is Shattered by Clashes in Africa

GENEVA — Spiraling violence between Christian and Muslim militias across the Central African Republic has displaced more than 700,000 people and pushed tens of thousands more into neighboring countries, United Nations aid agencies said Friday. The agencies also reported spreading sectarian attacks and reprisals, some of them targeting children.

International action to quell the violence is urgently needed “to prevent the Central African Republic from plunging into disaster,” Navi Pillay, the top human rights official at the United Nations, said in a statement released Friday. She warned that reports that armed elements from neighboring countries were becoming involved in the crisis added to the risk that it would spin out of control.

Fighting in the capital, Bangui, has forced more than 200,000 residents, or roughly a quarter of its population, from their homes, about 40,000 of them huddling for safety near the airport, now protected by French troops. The others are scattered over about 40 other sites, Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency, told reporters in Geneva on Friday.

Another half-million or more people out of a population of 4.6 million have fled from their homes in other parts of the country, he said, adding a displacement crisis to a list that includes the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Syria and puts 2013 on course to set a record for the number of people displaced by conflict, surpassing the 7.6 million reported the previous year.

Around 75,000 people have fled to neighboring countries, most crossing the Bangui river into Congo, but others have entered the Republic of Congo and a small number have fled north into Chad, Mr. Edwards said.

Seleka, the mostly Muslim rebel force that has controlled the country since overthrowing President François Bozizé in a coup in March, has become an unchecked force, perpetrating massacres and looting across the country, driving thousands of people from their homes.

France has 1,600 troops deployed in the country to help restore order, and the African Union is preparing to nearly double the size of its peacekeeping force to 6,000. But Ms. Pillay warned that Christian militias known as anti-Balaka groups “appear to be getting more heavily armed and organized by the day,” fueling the danger of sectarian violence.

At least 12 Muslims were lynched in Bangui in the last 10 days, according to the United Nations human rights office in Geneva. It said that many more had died in attacks and reprisals in western districts and that a monitoring team in the country had recorded widespread abuses by militia on both sides including sectarian killings, attacks on hospitals, sexual violence and destruction of property.

Some recent attacks showed armed groups had targeted children, Patrick McCormick, a spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund reported, saying staff members had confirmed that 13 children had been killed and 60 had been maimed in Bangui and the nearby town of Boali since early December. “We think these are very conservative figures,” he said.

The United Nations human rights office, acting on a mandate issued by the Security Council this month, is in the process of setting up an international commission of inquiry to investigate human rights abuses. Ms. Pillay said such an inquiry was designed to put perpetrators of human rights violations on notice that “that the international community is committed to holding them accountable.”

NYT > International Home

Fragile Lull Is Shattered by Clashes in Africa

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Passive Resistance in South Africa

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Passive Resistance in South Africa

Saturday, December 14, 2013

With a hole in its heart, South Africa buries Mandela

By Ed Cropley

QUNU, South Africa Sat Dec 14, 2013 7:59pm EST

African National Congress (ANC) supporters dance while holding a cloth with the image of former South African President Nelson Mandela at the Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha December 14, 2013. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

1 of 14. African National Congress (ANC) supporters dance while holding a cloth with the image of former South African President Nelson Mandela at the Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha December 14, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Adrees Latif

QUNU, South Africa (Reuters) – The body of Nelson Mandela arrived on Saturday at his ancestral home in the rolling hills of South Africa’s Eastern Cape and was greeted by singing, dancing locals ahead of the anti-apartheid leader’s state funeral set for the following day.

As the hearse bearing South Africa’s first black president appeared on the horizon, crowds by the road broke into “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika” (God Bless Africa), the evocative national anthem adopted after the end of apartheid in 1994.

“I’m so excited and at the same time I’m so hurt because I’m seeing him for the last time,” said grandmother Victoria Ntsingo, as military helicopters escorting the cortege clattered overhead.

“After his long life and illness he can now rest. Madiba is home. His work is done,” she said, referring to Mandela by his clan name.

Mandela, who died on December 5 aged 95, will be buried on Sunday in his family homestead at Qunu, a hamlet of a few hundred houses 700 km (450 miles) south of Johannesburg.

The state funeral will combine military pomp and the traditional rites of his Xhosa abaThembu clan.

It will be the final act in 10 days of mourning for the “Father of the Nation”, who suffered 27 years in prison before emerging to preach forgiveness and reconciliation in the quest to build a multi-racial democracy from the ashes of apartheid.

Hours before the funeral, Mandela’s friend and fellow anti-apartheid legend retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 82, had initially announced he would not attend, in a row over an invitation that threatened to mar the event.

Tutu, like Mandela a Nobel Peace Prize laureate but also a vocal critic of the current South African government and of the ruling ANC party, had said he did not receive a formal invite or any indication that he was on the guest list.

But after the government clarified that he was on a guest list and was welcome to come, Tutu’s spokesman said the archbishop would travel early on Sunday to attend the funeral, averting a potential blot on the event.

“GO WELL, TATA”

Earlier on Saturday, the ANC, the 101-year-old former liberation movement to which Mandela dedicated his life, bid its own farewell in a ceremony at a Pretoria military air base.

With revolutionary songs, clenched fists and cries of “Amandla” (Power) in honor of “Comrade Mandela”, it was the most overtly political of all the ceremonies since Mandela’s death.

“Go well Tata, you have played your part,” President Jacob Zuma said in a eulogy that recalled Mandela’s life as a fighter in the armed struggle for freedom as well his later, more widely recognized role as unifier and nation-builder.

“We will always remember you,” he said, before leading the packed hall in spirited renditions of anti-apartheid anthems.

After the ANC send-off, Mandela’s body was flown by military transport plane, escorted by two fighter jets, to Mthatha, the nearest airport to Qunu. Thousands lined the streets as the hearse proceeded through the town.

Mandela’s widow, Graca Machel, and his former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, followed the cortege, looking drained and emotional after nine days of memorials in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

The rites included three days of lying in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, at which more than 100,000 people queued for hours to say a last goodbye.

One of Mandela’s grandchildren, Mandla, thanked those who had come.

“I have witnessed his army. I have witnessed his people. I have witnessed ordinary South Africans who walked this long walk to freedom with him and I can assure the African National Congress today that the future of this country looks bright.”

FLAGS AND FLY-PAST

Sunday’s funeral will be attended by 4,500 people, from family members and national leaders to foreign guests including Britain’s Prince Charles and American civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson.

The Air Force is expected to stage a fly-past, followed by three military helicopters with giant South African flags in tow, an echo of the historic scenes nearly two decades ago when Mandela was sworn in as president.

At a mass memorial in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Zuma was subjected to a barrage of boos and jeers from the crowd, a worrying sign for the ruling party six months before elections.

Although it is widely expected to win, the ANC is losing support even among South Africa’s black majority because of its perceived inability to tackle chronic poverty and joblessness.

Africa’s biggest economy has enjoyed strong growth since the end of apartheid, but unemployment has remained above 25 percent and it remains one of the world’s most unequal societies, with the average white household earning six times more than the average black one.

Besides the booing of Zuma, there has also been a storm of outrage over a sign-language interpreter accused of miming nonsense at the Johannesburg memorial. The signer has defended himself, saying he suffered a schizophrenic attack.

In Qunu too, there were also a few dissenting voices, mainly from those disappointed at being excluded from the funeral of man who to them was a local leader first, and a world leader second.

“Tata Mandela is a man of the people. When he was alive we used to go to his compound. Whatever was going on, we used to go in the compound and it was never a problem for the people of Qunu,” said resident Malibonwe Gamakhulu.

“And today he is dead and we are being pushed out.”

(Additional reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo, Pascal Fletcher, Ed Stoddard and Siyabonga Sishi; Writing by Ed Cropley and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Alison Williams)

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Reuters: Top News

With a hole in its heart, South Africa buries Mandela

Friday, December 6, 2013

South Africa begins life without Nelson Mandela

Floral tributes to former president Nelson Mandela, pile up beneath a statue of Mandela on Mandela Square at Sandton City, in Johannesburg Friday, Dec. 6, 2013. Mandela died Thursday at his Johannesburg home after a long illness. He was 95. (AP Photo/Athol Moralee)

A poster of Nelson Mandela on which mourners have written their messages of condolence and support, in the street outside his old house in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa Friday, Dec. 6, 2013. Flags were lowered to half-staff and people in black townships, in upscale mostly white suburbs and in South Africa’s vast rural grasslands commemorated Nelson Mandela with song, tears and prayers on Friday while pledging to adhere to the values of unity and democracy that he embodied. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Mourners sing and dance to celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela, in the street outside his old house in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, Dec. 6, 2013. Flags were lowered to half-staff and people in black townships, in upscale mostly white suburbs and in South Africa’s vast rural grasslands commemorated Nelson Mandela with song, tears and prayers on Friday while pledging to adhere to the values of unity and democracy that he embodied. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Mourners sing and dance to celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela, in the street outside his old house in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa Friday, Dec. 6, 2013. Flags were lowered to half-staff and people in black townships, in upscale mostly white suburbs and in South Africa’s vast rural grasslands commemorated Nelson Mandela with song, tears and prayers on Friday while pledging to adhere to the values of unity and democracy that he embodied. (AP Photo / Ben Curtis)

A man wears keyrings showing the face of Nelson Mandela taped to his ears to mimic earrings as he and others celebrate his life, in the street outside his old house in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa Friday, Dec. 6, 2013. Flags were lowered to half-staff and people in black townships, in upscale mostly white suburbs and in South Africa’s vast rural grasslands commemorated Nelson Mandela with song, tears and prayers on Friday while pledging to adhere to the values of unity and democracy that he embodied. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

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JOHANNESBURG (AP) â€” What next for South Africa?

This racially charged country that, on Nelson Mandela’s watch, inspired the world by embracing reconciliation in all-race elections in 1994 is again in the global spotlight after the loss of such a towering historical figure. It is a time not just for grief and gratitude, but also a clear-eyed assessment of national strengths and shortcomings in a future without a man who was a guide and comfort to so many.

“It’s a new beginning,” said Kyle Redford, one of many outside the home of the anti-apartheid leader who became the nation’s first black president. “The loss of a legend is going to force us to come together once again.”

He acknowledged that there is a “sense of what next: Where do we go? What do we do? And how do we do it?”

Mandela’s resolve rubbed off on many of his compatriots, though such conviction is tempered by the reality that his vision of a “rainbow nation” failed, almost inevitably, to meet the heady expectations propelling the country two decades ago. Peaceful elections and relatively harmonious race relations define today’s South Africa; so do crime, corruption and economic inequality.

Mandela remained a powerful symbol in the hopeful, uncharted period after apartheid, even when he left the presidency, retired from public life and shuttled in and out of hospitals as a protracted illness eroded his once-robust frame. He became a moral anchor, so entwined with the national identity that some jittery South Africans wondered whether the country would slide into chaos after his death.

“Does it spell doomsday and disaster for us?” retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu asked rhetorically Friday before declaring that no, the country will not disintegrate.

“The sun will rise tomorrow and the next day and the next,” said Tutu, who like Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting apartheid and promoting reconciliation. “It may not appear as bright as yesterday, but life will carry on.”

A series of violent events since last year intensified worries over the state of the nation. The August 2012 shooting deaths of 34 striking miners by police at the Marikana platinum mine recalled, for some South Africans, state killings under apartheid. In February, a Mozambican taxi driver was dragged from a South African police vehicle and later died in a jail cell.

At the same time, tourism surged. Despite labor strife and credit-rating downgrades, resource-rich South Africa hosted Brazil, Russia, India and China at the “BRICS” summit in March. It has the biggest economy in Africa and aspires to continental leadership.

Mandela’s death will not destabilize race relations in the country, contrary to some fears, according to the South African Institute of Race Relations.

“For many years now, South Africans have got along with one another largely peacefully without Mr. Mandela having been active in the political sphere,” Lerato Moloi, the institute’s head of research, said. “In fact, Mr. Mandela’s passing may be cause for many to reflect on the remarkably peaceful and swift racial integration of many parts of society, including schools, suburbs, universities, and workplaces.”

Moloi said in a statement: “Although some of this had started to occur before 1994, as a symbol of racial reconciliation and forgiveness Mr. Mandela will be viewed by many as having played a pivotal role in creating such a society.”

Mandela’s life epitomized the fight for freedom and equality, said Human Rights Watch. It pointed out that South Africa’s education and health sectors are inadequate and the country remains divided by racial separation and deep economic inequality.

“Almost two decades into its democracy, South Africa is not the country that Mandela had said he hoped it would become,” the group said.

President Jacob Zuma evoked the idea of the 95-year-old Mandela as a beacon for the ages when he announced his death on Thursday night.

South Africans, Zuma said, must be determined “to live as Madiba has lived, to strive as Madiba has strived and to not rest until we have realized his vision of a truly united South Africa, a peaceful and prosperous Africa, and a better world.”

Mandela, also known by his clan name Madiba, admitted to weakness and failings, yet rose to greatness in a way that no contemporary or successor could match.

Zuma, for example, has credentials as an anti-apartheid activist who was imprisoned with Mandela. But he and the ruling African National Congress, once led by Mandela, have been dogged by corruption allegations that have eroded support for the government. In the days before Mandela’s death, South African media were filled with reports on the alleged lavish use of state funds for construction at Zuma’s family compound.

The scene outside Mandela’s house embodied the mixed picture in South Africa, where political sparring between the ruling party and the opposition has sharpened ahead of national elections next year, the 20th anniversary of the pivotal vote in which Mandela became president.

Mourners outside the home mingled in an inclusive, celebratory atmosphere that prompted the Rev. Inigo Alvarez, a Catholic priest, to declare: “Now we experience what is South Africa, all kinds of people, all kinds of regions.”

Yet ANC activists in yellow jumpsuits pasted posters on the perimeter walls of the Mandela compound and handed out leaflets presenting the party as the heir to his tradition. In death, Mandela was still drawn into politics.

Associated Press

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South Africa begins life without Nelson Mandela

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — What next for South Africa?

He acknowledged that there is a “sense of what next: Where do we go? What do we do? And how do we do it?”

“Does it spell doomsday and disaster for us?” retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu asked rhetorically Friday before declaring that no, the country will not disintegrate.

Mandela’s death will not destabilize race relations in the country, contrary to some fears, according to the South African Institute of Race Relations.

“Almost two decades into its democracy, South Africa is not the country that Mandela had said he hoped it would become,” the group said.

President Jacob Zuma evoked the idea of the 95-year-old Mandela as a beacon for the ages when he announced his death on Thursday night.

Mandela, also known by his clan name Madiba, admitted to weakness and failings, yet rose to greatness in a way that no contemporary or successor could match.

Associated Press

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South Africa begins life without Nelson Mandela

Saturday, November 30, 2013

South Africa Hotel Offers Fake Slum Experience

(Newser) – Well, this is … interesting: You can now pay half the average South African’s monthly salary—or $ 82 a night—to stay in a slum. Not a real one, as some one billion people worldwide do; instead, Gizmodo reports, South Africa’s Emoya Luxury Hotel and Spa is offering the experience of “a Shanty within the safe environment of a private game reserve.” The fake slum, near Bloemfontein, is offered as tours of actual slums gain popularity.

And though it’s got realistic touches like a “‘long-drop’ outside toilet” and facilities for building your own fire, it’s also “the only Shanty Town in the world equipped with under-floor heating and wireless internet access!,” Emoya’s site notes, adding that the place is “ideal for team building, braais (barbecues), fancy theme parties, and an experience of a lifetime.” Four people can stay in one of the available corrugated-iron shacks, and there’s room for 52 people total, This Is Africa reports, wondering if the offering is “the most tasteless and offensive tourism idea ever.”

World from Newser

South Africa Hotel Offers Fake Slum Experience

Monday, November 4, 2013

VIDEO: Elba Brings Mandela Biopic to Johannesburg

At the premiere for ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom’ in Jo-burg, actors Idris Elba and Naomie Harris walked the red carpet with members of Mandela’s family, his wife Graca Machel, Winnie-Madikizela Mandela and his granddaughter Ndileka Mandela. (Nov. 4)

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