Africa

For Republicans, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s Middle East policy has been a lightning rod. In addition to Clinton’s email scandal, Republicans have frequently criticized positions the former secretary of state took during the 2010-11 Arab Spring uprising and the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The Arab world’s pundits have their […]

Boston’s Amazigh community came together at Lesley University on Saturday for the eighth annual Amazigh Film Festival, a celebration of Amazigh culture through film. The Amazigh are the descendants of the pre-Arab inhabitants of North Africa (they are also colloquially called “Berbers,” though that term is considered pejorative by some). Today, Amazigh people live scattered across North Africa, […]

Five years ago, Tunisians – after weeks of anti-government protests following the self-immolation of fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi – succeeded in ousting dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. In the months that followed, similar unrest would spread across much of the Arab world, in what came to be known as the “Arab Spring.” Since then, Tunisia […]

In the past two years, the pace of economic growth in Africa has been decelerating while the political space for democratic contestation has been shrinking. Combined, they can be considered to be major drivers behind the intensifying levels of social unrest throughout the continent. While weaker economic expansion can be principally attributed to global headwinds […]

Before the balkanization of the African continent into arbitrary pieces, it was one vast space made up of different cultures and identities. The Berlin Conference of 1884 – 1885 resulted in random demarcations being drawn across the continent to appease the European countries’ colonial interests. The arbitrary lines of yesteryears currently serve as the borders […]

I recently stumbled upon an argument on Facebook that was started by the claim that, from a GDP perspective, Africa was irrelevant on the global scene. It wasn’t an afro-pessimistic jab but a call to action for those who, having fallen under the illusory spell of the Africa Rising narrative, refuse to acknowledge that the […]

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) appears on the brink of another major crisis, just as the country begins to recover from successive decades of war. Presidential elections scheduled for November 2016 look increasingly likely to be postponed by the Congolese government and tensions are fast on the rise. The authorities have cracked down on […]

Earlier this month the Africa Policy Journal sat down with Herman J. Cohen, a former U.S. ambassador to several African countries, advisor to multiple U.S. Presidents, and a 38-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service. During his time in Africa, Cohen developed relationships with African leaders including South African President Nelson Mandela and Libyan leader […]

Africa suffers from a pronounced infrastructure deficit, particularly in energy and transportation. Coupled with burdensome trade regulations, these deficiencies have constrained gains in domestic productivity and present a critical bottleneck to more regional integration. African countries need to focus on constructing efficient and secure national and cross-border physical infrastructure as well as a coherent system […]

Problem Thirty-five percent of women worldwide have experienced sexual violence in their lifetimes[1]. In Nigeria, domestic violence is pervasive across socioeconomic and cultural contexts. Forty-five percent of affected women suffer abuse from their current husband or partner[2]. According to a US Department of State Human Rights Report, the practice of domestic violence has “remained widespread […]

Ban Ki-Moon’s criticism of Morocco’s 40-year “occupation” of Western Sahara during his visit to the territory on March 8, 2016 has sparked the most serious crisis in the region in decades. Morocco denounced the Secretary General’s “biased” rhetoric, and “irreversibly” expelled U.N. peacekeepers stationed in Western Sahara. The U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western […]

The Africa Policy Journal recently chatted with Francis Gatare, the Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda Development Board and a Cabinet Member of the Government of Rwanda. Mr. Gatare was visiting Harvard Univeristy along with President Paul Kagame. He discussed a range of issues including: Rwanda’s emergence from the 1994 genocide and its economic growth trajectory […]