We need to take a new hard look at the “Arab Revolt” in North Africa, and what it says about what is coming in Africa.
Pro-democracy demonstrators ended Tunisia dictator Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali’s 23-year rule with about 10 days of protests.

They inspired the Egyptians, who took to the streets to end Hosni Mubarak’s 32-year stint at the top. The Egyptian dictator lasted longer than Ben Ali, about three weeks.

Then it was Libya’s turn. The nearly-deranged Col. Muammar Gaddafi has…

Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak’s people might be fed up with him, and have been trying to run him out of town for two weeks now. Of course, when a man is in trouble, the world likes to know “why”. However, news that his net worth is estimated at around $70 billion (http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-rs-319500-crore-mubaraks-net-worth/20110204.htm) requires us to give the…

Two months ago, we examined why there are no Arab democracies (“Why There Are No Arab Democracies; Curse of The Desert”, - Nov. 30, 2010).

The protestors in Tunisia changed that story completely recently when they ousted their corrupt president Zine al-Badine Ben Ali, ending his 23-year strongman rule.

It was the first ouster of an Arab leader by popular protest in recent times. The story now is about how other Arab leaders, all…

It’s time to take a new look at Sudan's President Omar al Bashir.
Anyone who thought he is nothing more than the Butcher of Darfur who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, and a strongman from a by-gone age who wields a stick (I wonder why strongmen like sticks and songs about sticks), and whose government canes women for wearing trousers, should think again.
Those Wikileaked US diplomatic cables claim that good old Bashir has, in his years in power, stolen and stashed away (in Eu…

Christmas has come, and gone. I was born and married into God-fearing families, so I respect Christmas. But only just.
There is a part of me that goes through a lot of pain during Christmas.
First, there are the small things; having to send Christmas cards and reply to good wishes from people whom I don’t really care for. And the cheap decorations in shops, streets, and malls make me sick.
The really tricky bit about Christmas is its politics, particularly in our half-democracies and full-d…

The Economist’s “The World in 2011” edition that has just been published, has a wonderful headline about South Sudan. Anticipating that the South will vote to secede from the larger Sudan in the upcoming January 9 referendum, it writes; “Hello country 193”.

Like other media and commentators, The Economist worries about the kind of country South Sudan will be. Will it go to war with the largely Arab north – or with itself – over its vast oil?
Will its key leaders, Sudan preside…

There were two remotely related events in November. On November 2, the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (most commonly referred to by its short name Rhode Island) in the US voted on whether to change its official name by dropping the words "and Providence Plantations."

To some, the word evokes memories of Rhode Island's prime role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The Rhode Islanders, however, voted overwhelmingly to keep the original name by 78% to 22%.

Supporters of the old…

Recently there was a strange legal fistfight in Kenya. It was a tussle over who had the rights to host “Mulembe Cultural Nights?.

Mulembe Cultural Nights is a pulsating celebration held every year by Kenya’s Luhya’s Community, at which Luhya foods, music, and all things cultural flow. People throw themselves into like it was going out of fashion.

It is huge, so it is good money. Hence the fight.

Mulembe Nights, though, are only a small part of a bigger African “cultural revival…