http://africa.foreignpolicyblogs.com The World Affairs Blog Network Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:18:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Carlos Alberto Parreira former and now restored Bafana Bafana coach carries the weight of a nation on his shoulders. South Africa wants to distinguish itself as a World Cup host, and the legions of rabid fans of the national football team hope that Bafana Bafana will perform in such a ... http://africa.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/11/05/meet-the-new-boss-same-as-the-old-boss/ As recently as April and the eve of the South African elections, prominent and controversial former-ANC clergyman-turned Congress of the People-leader Alan Boesak was trying to persuade Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille to abandon her ultimately non-viable party and to join forces with COPE. Zille had no interest of ... http://africa.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/11/04/boesak-cannot-cope/ By now we are all well aware of China's "Scramble for Africa." But did you know that Brazil is also heavily involved with trade and investment across Africa? Many observers fear that the new wave of involvement in Africa will result in another stage of neocolonialism or clientelism. But there also ... http://africa.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/11/04/brazil-antes-up/ South Africa has announced that it will miss a self-imposed deadline of 2014 to redistribute a third of the country's land from white to black farmers. There is much to lament in this decision. Land reform is necessary, many of the black masses have not seen the benefits of the ... http://africa.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/11/04/land-reform-delayed-land-reform-denied/ Presumably bringing to an end one of the more bizarre chains of events in recent African history (and yes, I am well aware of just how brazen that assertion is) President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equitorial Guinea has pardoned the conspirators in the 2004 coup plot in his country. Simon ... http://africa.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/11/03/mann-oh-man/ Let's begin the new week with a roundup of stories from across Africa, with commentary as apropos: Mozambique's voters went to the polls last week and it appears that, as with every national election since independence in 1975, they have returned FRELIMO to power. One voter seems to have captured the ... http://africa.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/11/02/manic-monday-links/ The talks toward creating the unity government in Zimbabwe have stalled again. And the hardliners in Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party appear to be the most interested in ensuring that no long-term agreement is reached, although Mugabe is stirring the pot by hinting that he might replace ministers from the Movement ... http://africa.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/10/28/plus-ca-change/ South Africa's Congress of the People (COPE) appears to be setting itself up as a watchdog for all sorts of political malfeasance and thus to be positioning itself as the legitimate opposition party to the African National Congress (ANC). In recent days COPE has both defended the ANC's Kader Asmal ... http://africa.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/10/28/cope-masters-the-game/ Is the African National Congress' internal reckoning coming? I have for years argued that the ANC's tripartite coalition of the ANC itself, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and the South African Communist Party (SACP) is, in the long run, untenable. The ANC is a party of the ... http://africa.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/10/27/breaking-up-is-hard-to-do-2/ My friend Mark, who has a PhD in history and an emphasis on water issues, and whose name I am not going to release for what I hope are obvious reasons, has this report on the cholera situation there: Although cholera which ravaged Zimbabwe in 2008/9 has been brought under ... http://africa.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/10/23/1574/