Africa

US begins sending 3,000 troops to Liberia

23 September 2014
The US is sending 3,000 troops to Liberia, west Africa, in the next month. It claims it is to deal with the Ebola crisis, and so far insists that it is just a matter of logistics and engineering.

An empire bathed in blood: when Britannia ruled the waves

23 September 2014
In a desperate bid to head off a Scottish Yes vote, David Cameron evoked a mythical British Empire that had given democracy to the poor and freedom to the slaves. Here Ken Olende looks back at what life was really like when Britannia ruled the waves

State clamps down on the poor as Ebola crisis spreads to Liberia

26 August 2014
Thousands blockaded in slums as west African government can’t cope with epidemic, writes Dave Sewell

International round-up

17 June 2014
French railways at a standstill | Santos re-elected in Colombia | South African miners to settle?

Leading miner arrested in South Africa as bosses face strike wave

11 March 2014
Makhanya Siphamandla, an important leader in South Africa’s national strike of platinum miners, has been arrested and charged with attempted murder.

Diverse sexuality isn't alien to Africa - homophobia is

11 February 2014
Contrary to current stereotypes, Africa has a rich history of same sex relations that was buried by colonialism, writes Ken Olende

New platinum miners' strike panics government in South Africa

28 January 2014
Tens of thousands of platinum miners began an all-out strike in South Africa on Thursday of last week.

Britain's brutal legacy in Kenya

17 December 2013
Fifty years after Kenyan independence Ken Olende looks at the crimes of British colonialism, the Mau Mau rebels who fought back, and their betrayal by Kenya’s new rulers

Nelson Mandela 1918-2013

05 December 2013
Nelson Mandela's fight against apartheid inspired millions of people across the world. Charlie Kimber looks back on his life and the struggle he helped lead

Angolan rulers 'ban' Islam

03 December 2013
The Angolan government is accused of “banning” Islam as a clampdown on the Muslim minority intensifies.

West plans intervention in Central African Republic

26 November 2013
The British press is demanding Western intervention in the Central African Republic (CAR) after stories of atrocities and the threat of genocide.

How West wrecked a continent

26 November 2013
Suggestions on the BBC in a report from Sierra Leone that Africans would prefer a return to colonialism are used to justify Western military intervention. But such intervention has long created the problems it claims to solve

Nigerian military kills hundreds in 'war on terror'

22 October 2013
The Nigerian military has killed over 950 people in custody this year as part of its “war on terror” against Islamist group Boko Haram.

Captain Phillips - a Somali piracy yarn that tries to salve the US’s conscience

22 October 2013
Captain Phillips, a tale of kidnapping on the high seas, promotes its empathy for desperate Somalis—but Dave Sewell says it turns the real villains into heroes

Armed group kidnaps Libyan leader

15 October 2013
Paramilitaries kidnapped Libyan prime minister Ali Zeidan for several hours last Thursday.

Sudan protests defy dictator

01 October 2013
The Sudanese dictatorship has been shaken by the biggest protests since it took power 24 years ago.

Videos from Marikana memorial rally in South Africa

23 August 2013
Speeches by lawyer Jim Nichol and Julius Malema

International Socialist Organisation (Zimbabwe) statement on Zimbabwean elections

07 August 2013
For a good part of his 33 years in power, Robert Mugabe has presided over a ruthless dictatorship.

Kenya's government feels the heat from workers' strikes

16 July 2013
A national strike by teachers in Kenya entered its 22nd day on Tuesday of this week.

Congo—UN steps up ‘offensive’

28 May 2013
The African Union (AU) met last weekend and rubber?stamped a United Nations (UN) plan to intensify its intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo.