DG was a code word to indicate papers were for British officers of European descent only
By Ian Cobain
The Guardian, Thursday 28 November 2013
The full extent of the destruction of Britain's colonial government records during
the retreat from empire was disclosed on Thursday with the
declassification of a small part of the Foreign Office's vast secret
archive.
Fifty-year-old documents that have finally been
transferred to the National Archive show that bonfires were built behind
diplomatic missions across the globe as the purge – codenamed Operation
Legacy – accompanied the handover of each colony.
The declassified documents include copies of an instruction issued in 1961 by Iain Macleod,
colonial secretary, that post-independence governments should not be
handed any material that "might embarrass Her Majesty's [the]
government", that could "embarrass members of the police, military
forces, public servants or others eg police informers", that might
betray intelligence sources, or that might "be used unethically by
ministers in the successor government".
To read more....
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Africa and the Future: An Interview with Achille Mbembe
Thomas M Blaser
Africa is a country | November 20th, 2013
Within a short period of time, the global, corporate discourse on Africa has swapped a refrain of hopelessness with a near eschatological discovery of a new el dorado — a place of gold from which global capital hopes to regain its lost mojo. Africa is a Country has debunked the discourse of an ‘Africa Rising’ in several postings, and collectively they make it quite clear that a future in Africa worth striving for is beyond the growth of the GDP, the rise of the ill-defined African middle class or the increase in return on investment.
In the following interview, Achille Mbembe reflects upon the category of the future for Africa, the consequences of global capitalism on the continent, and on Africa’s contribution to an emerging world in which Europe has provincialized itself.
Since 2008, when you initiated the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism (JWTC), you were very much concerned with thinking about the future — why and why now? Is there something about our current epoch that requires us to think about the future?
Mbembe: There were two reasons. The first was that the category of the future was very central to the struggle for liberation if only in the sense that those who were involved in it had constantly to project themselves towards a time that would be different from what they were going through, what they were experiencing. So the political, in that sense, was about a constant engagement with the forces of the present that foreclosed the possibility of freedom, but it was also the political, closely associated with the idea of futurity. And what seems to have happened after 1994 [in South Africa since the first democratic elections after apartheid], is the receding of the future as a temporary horizon of the political, and of culture in general, and its substitution by a kind of present that is infinite and a landing. This receding of the future and its replacement by a landing present is also fostered by the kind of economic dogma with which we live; to use a short term, neoliberalism. The time of the market, especially under the current capitalist conditions, is a time that is very fragmented and the time of consumption is really a time of the instant. So we wanted to recapture that category of the future and see to what extent it could be remobilized in the attempt at critiquing the present, and reopening up a space not only for imagination, but also for the politics of possibility.
To read more...
Africa is a country | November 20th, 2013
Within a short period of time, the global, corporate discourse on Africa has swapped a refrain of hopelessness with a near eschatological discovery of a new el dorado — a place of gold from which global capital hopes to regain its lost mojo. Africa is a Country has debunked the discourse of an ‘Africa Rising’ in several postings, and collectively they make it quite clear that a future in Africa worth striving for is beyond the growth of the GDP, the rise of the ill-defined African middle class or the increase in return on investment.
In the following interview, Achille Mbembe reflects upon the category of the future for Africa, the consequences of global capitalism on the continent, and on Africa’s contribution to an emerging world in which Europe has provincialized itself.
Since 2008, when you initiated the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism (JWTC), you were very much concerned with thinking about the future — why and why now? Is there something about our current epoch that requires us to think about the future?
Mbembe: There were two reasons. The first was that the category of the future was very central to the struggle for liberation if only in the sense that those who were involved in it had constantly to project themselves towards a time that would be different from what they were going through, what they were experiencing. So the political, in that sense, was about a constant engagement with the forces of the present that foreclosed the possibility of freedom, but it was also the political, closely associated with the idea of futurity. And what seems to have happened after 1994 [in South Africa since the first democratic elections after apartheid], is the receding of the future as a temporary horizon of the political, and of culture in general, and its substitution by a kind of present that is infinite and a landing. This receding of the future and its replacement by a landing present is also fostered by the kind of economic dogma with which we live; to use a short term, neoliberalism. The time of the market, especially under the current capitalist conditions, is a time that is very fragmented and the time of consumption is really a time of the instant. So we wanted to recapture that category of the future and see to what extent it could be remobilized in the attempt at critiquing the present, and reopening up a space not only for imagination, but also for the politics of possibility.
To read more...
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
"They Enslaved and Colonized Us, and Now They Want to Judge Us"
By Colum Lynch
Foreign Policy - Tuesday, November 19, 2013
The African Union came to the U.N. Security Council last week in search of a showdown. But its representatives left with little to show for their effort, having failed to persuade the United States and other Western powers to suspend the International Criminal Court's (ICC) prosecution of two African leaders, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, who stand accused of orchestrating a frenzy of mass murder during the country's post-election violence in 2007 and 2008.
Securing a delay in the trial, however, was hardly the point of the exercise. The African sponsors of the resolution, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and the five members of the African Union's ICC contact group -- Burundi, Mauritania, Namibia, Senegal and Uganda -- knew going in that they lacked the votes to prevail in the Security Council. Opposition from the Britain, France, and the United States all but ensured that the initiative was doomed from the start.
The real aim of the AU's offensive was twofold: to register Africa's dismay over the council's refusal to defer to the region's leaders on a highly sensitive issue and to reinforce Kenya's bargaining position on the eve of negotiations at the Hague over possible amendments to the ICC treaty that would prevent Kenyatta and Ruto from having to sit in the Netherlands for a lengthy trial. The Kenyan government is proposing that its leaders be permitted to sit out their trials entirely, leaving their lawyers to represent them instead. (Here's a confidential copy of the main amendments under consideration.)
To read more...
Foreign Policy - Tuesday, November 19, 2013
The African Union came to the U.N. Security Council last week in search of a showdown. But its representatives left with little to show for their effort, having failed to persuade the United States and other Western powers to suspend the International Criminal Court's (ICC) prosecution of two African leaders, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, who stand accused of orchestrating a frenzy of mass murder during the country's post-election violence in 2007 and 2008.
Securing a delay in the trial, however, was hardly the point of the exercise. The African sponsors of the resolution, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and the five members of the African Union's ICC contact group -- Burundi, Mauritania, Namibia, Senegal and Uganda -- knew going in that they lacked the votes to prevail in the Security Council. Opposition from the Britain, France, and the United States all but ensured that the initiative was doomed from the start.
The real aim of the AU's offensive was twofold: to register Africa's dismay over the council's refusal to defer to the region's leaders on a highly sensitive issue and to reinforce Kenya's bargaining position on the eve of negotiations at the Hague over possible amendments to the ICC treaty that would prevent Kenyatta and Ruto from having to sit in the Netherlands for a lengthy trial. The Kenyan government is proposing that its leaders be permitted to sit out their trials entirely, leaving their lawyers to represent them instead. (Here's a confidential copy of the main amendments under consideration.)
To read more...
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Amandla! | Taking Power Seriously | South Africa's new progressive magazine for social justice
The storm after the whirlwind: The ANC after Zuma
The big question for the political future of the ANC and that of South Africa, although it may appear early or some would say premature, is a post-JacobTill death do us part? The future of COSATU
For the leadership of the ANC and SACP an independent and militant worker controlled and independent trade union federation is too dreadful to contemplate–Interview with police Major General Jeremy Vearey
In this extract from a longer interview conducted by Amandla! Vearey outlines a brief history of policing methodology in Cape Town and a critique basedQ & A with Jeremy Vearey
A!: Maybe you'd like to introduce yourself and your capacity. JV: I am Jeremy Vearey. I am also a Major-General in the police service. I am responsible
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
South Africans Didn't Die for This
By T. O. MOLEFE
The New York Times - November 12, 2013
Cape Town — There’s a reason photographers like to take pictures of Cape Town, South Africa’s second largest city, from out over the Atlantic Ocean. From this vantage point, cerulean waters give way to a long line of luxurious sea-facing apartments that hug the Atlantic seaboard. Others nestle on the cliffs of Bantry Bay and overlook the sandy beaches of Clifton. To the left, the harbor, city center and manicured parks nestle at the foot of city’s most famous peak, Table Mountain.
At the end of October, this picturesque scene was disrupted by an incursion from the real Cape Town, hidden from view behind the mountain, where the vast majority of the city’s 3.7 million inhabitants live.
To read more...
The New York Times - November 12, 2013
Cape Town — There’s a reason photographers like to take pictures of Cape Town, South Africa’s second largest city, from out over the Atlantic Ocean. From this vantage point, cerulean waters give way to a long line of luxurious sea-facing apartments that hug the Atlantic seaboard. Others nestle on the cliffs of Bantry Bay and overlook the sandy beaches of Clifton. To the left, the harbor, city center and manicured parks nestle at the foot of city’s most famous peak, Table Mountain.
At the end of October, this picturesque scene was disrupted by an incursion from the real Cape Town, hidden from view behind the mountain, where the vast majority of the city’s 3.7 million inhabitants live.
To read more...
Monday, November 4, 2013
Saturday, November 2, 2013
The Dark Side of Chocolate
The Dark Side of Chocolate
Synopsis: Children in Germany eat
chocolate every day of the year. They enjoy the delicious taste of
cocoa, which originated in Africa. But behind the production of their
delicious treats, there is another taste altogether: the taste of child
abusers and child slavery. In this program we will bring the chocolate
makers to book, and confront them with our visual evidence. We will
reveal the conditions under which the apparently innocuous chocolate bar
is produced, and thereafter follow the coco beans’ route from the
plantation to the chocolate bar in Germany, all with the consumer
oblivious to the full story behind what their chocolate bar actually
contains. In the process, those responsible will be held accountable.
"The Dark Side of Chocolate" is a journalistic documentary which will
reveal for the first time on film the hideous truth behind the
manufacturing of German and international chocolate, as sold and enjoyed
in Germany and the rest of the world.
The Dark Side of Chocolate :
Director: Miki Mistrati & U. Roberto Romano |
Producer: Helle Faber
2010
2010
Friday, November 1, 2013
A Bok Review: Music, Culture & Conflict in Mali
Music is Mali’s most famous cultural asset and has shaped the country’s history for centuries. A new book
By Andy Morgan recounts how it has suffered under Islamist occupation.
Think Africa Press | 1 November 2013
Music is the glue that holds Mali together, the bridge that connects
its past with its present, the ink with which its history is written.
Without it, Mali as we know it would not exist.
For centuries, the role of the djeli or griot, a kind of storyteller-cum-singer-cum-poet, has been central to Malian society. In a predominantly oral culture, griots long fulfilled the role of historians. They recorded history through their songs and praises, and passed it down from one generation to the next. In pre-colonial times, every family had its own griot who recounted the family’s past, its births and deaths, its relations with other families, and its connection to the legendary Emperor Sundiata Keïta, founder of the Malian Empire in the 13th century.
Griots are also to thank for perpetuation of the very structure of Malian society. Back in 1235, Sundiata defeated the Sosso king, Sumanguru Kanté, in the Battle of Krina, thus securing the rule of the Mandé people over a large part of West Africa. After the victory, an assembly of nobles set out to create a constitution that would organise the newly-established Mali Empire socially, politically and economically.
To read more...
By Andy Morgan recounts how it has suffered under Islamist occupation.
Think Africa Press | 1 November 2013
For centuries, the role of the djeli or griot, a kind of storyteller-cum-singer-cum-poet, has been central to Malian society. In a predominantly oral culture, griots long fulfilled the role of historians. They recorded history through their songs and praises, and passed it down from one generation to the next. In pre-colonial times, every family had its own griot who recounted the family’s past, its births and deaths, its relations with other families, and its connection to the legendary Emperor Sundiata Keïta, founder of the Malian Empire in the 13th century.
Griots are also to thank for perpetuation of the very structure of Malian society. Back in 1235, Sundiata defeated the Sosso king, Sumanguru Kanté, in the Battle of Krina, thus securing the rule of the Mandé people over a large part of West Africa. After the victory, an assembly of nobles set out to create a constitution that would organise the newly-established Mali Empire socially, politically and economically.
To read more...
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