Fidel Castro’s ‘moral armour’ and courage under fire
In one of the videos of Fidel Castro that have been circulating since the revolutionary leader’s death, a reporter is accompanying Fidel on the plane trip to New York, where […]
Category Archives: Africa
Cultural appropriation, race-baiting, and the power of fiction: in defence of Lionel Shriver
US novelist Lionel Shriver ruffled a few feathers – to put it mildly – when she spoke at the Brisbane Writers Festival in September. Shriver took aim at ‘identity politics’ […]
Selective outrage and class consciousness: taking care with the words ‘we’ and ‘you’
The recent terrorist atrocity in Paris, like that of ten months earlier, has produced a range of political responses. First off the mark were the imperialist politicians. Instantly sensing an […]
The many claimants to the political legacy of Thomas Sankara
(Last in a series based on a visit to West Africa in December and January) At various locations in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, there are monuments to the achievements […]
Agricultural workers and gold miners in Burkina Faso
Notes from a visit to West Africa in January 2015. Fourth article in a series. In the savannah regions of northern Ghana, Togo, and Benin, and southern Burkina Faso, most of […]
The Sahel, the desert, and Tuareg refugees in Burkina Faso
Notes from a visit to West Africa in January 2015. Third in a series of six articles North of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, we entered the Sahel region, the dry plain […]
Grass fires, firewood, and the fires of revolution
Notes from a visit to West Africa, December 2014 to January 2015. Second in a series of six articles Koussoukoingou, Benin, January 5: Everywhere we went in the dry northern regions […]
The slave forts of Ghana – Notes from a visit to West Africa, Part 1
In December and January, I visited Ghana, Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso. The next few posts on this blog will be drawn from the notes I made on that visit. […]
Thomas Sankara and the Black Spring in Burkina Faso
Blaise Compaoré, the president of Burkina Faso who was forced to resign by mass protests on October 31, was more than simply a dictator who had clung to power for […]
The naked class politics of Ebola
Just as a glass prism differentiates sunlight into its component colours, corresponding to the different wavelengths, the Ebola crisis ravaging three West African countries has produced three distinct responses, corresponding […]
A worker at large 