In the spirit of 1964, Africa must turn indignation into agency and sovereignty into strategy COMMENT | ANDREW PI BESI | I returned from my annual pilgrimage to Rujumbura, undertaken in observance of Christmas, only to be confronted by reports that the United States had, under cover of night, undertaken military …
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COMMENT | ALEX ATWEMEREIREHO | Africa is not a sleeping giant; it is a suffocated one. Its lungs have long been pressed by the weight of imperial duplicity, its arteries drained by extractive economies masquerading as partnerships, and its political spine bent by postcolonial elites conditioned to administer decline on …
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How Old Empires Rebranded Themselves and Learned to Rule Through Chaos COMMENT | ANDREW PI BESI | On Christmas Day in 1497, Vasco da Gama rounded the southern tip of Africa. He named the land he encountered Natalis—Portuguese for Christmas. Today, it is known as KwaZulu-Natal. Da Gama’s voyage opened …
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COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno | Names are more than identifiers; they are carriers of history, culture, and identity. In Europe, names like Mount Olympus, St. Peter’s Basilica, and the River Thames are preserved as markers of cultural heritage and continuity. In stark contrast, Africa’s names, personal and geographical, were systematically stripped …
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COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno | Following my article “How Europe Launched a World Rampage from 1492”, I today explore the hidden agendas behind colonialism and imperialism, and the symbolism that supported their expansion. For too long, the British Empire’s “civilising missions” have been glorified, masking the subjugation and control driving …
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Where colonialism of old was about seizing territory, techno-colonialism controls our daily lives COMMENT | HERMANN HAUSER & HAZEM DANNY NAKIB | In 1853, under orders from President Millard Fillmore, U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew Perry led four warships on a mission to persuade Japan to end its 200-year-old isolationist policy. When …
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Author Guillaume Blanc debunks a colonial myth According to Guillaume Blanc, author of The Invention of Green Colonialism, one of these pitfalls is the idea of an “African Eden” that casts an entire continent as the site of pristine wilderness instead of a region populated and shaped by humans for …
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Kampala, Uganda | PROSSY NANSUBUGA | Over 52,000 Ugandans have petitioned government to rename streets in Kampala and other landmarks in the country that were named by colonialists. In a document addressed to President Yoweri Museveni and Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga yesterday, the petitioners said that the continued display …
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Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The UN’s human rights chief urged countries Wednesday to confront the legacy of slavery and colonialism and to make amends for “centuries of violence and discrimination” through reparations. Addressing an urgent debate on racism and police brutality at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Michelle Bachelet called on countries …
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Amritsar, India | AFP | The Amritsar massacre, 100 years ago this Saturday in which British troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed protestors, remains one of the darkest hours of British colonial rule in India. Known in India as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, it is still an emotive subject …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
