Yash Tandon (2008) Ending Aid Dependence. 
Dorothy-Grace Guerrero and Firoze Manji (ed) (2008) China’s New Role in Africa and the South: A search for a new perspective. 
Features
Good, and now back to work
Tim Wise (2008-11-13)
In a November 5 piece digesting the meaning of Barack’s Obama historic election victory, Tim Wise speaks out against those who may cynically downplay the significance of the Democratic victory. Just as he contends that it is useless and profoundly misguided not to acknowledge both the significance of the election and the differences between the Democratic and Republican candidates, Wise argues that the momentum generated by the Obama victory should serve as a powerful motor behind a genuine movement towards increasing racial and social equality in the US.
Obama: History, challenges and possibilities
Bill Fletcher Jr. (2008-11-06)
With Barack Obama safely elected to his country’s highest seat of power, Bill Fletcher Jr. discusses the sense of fear and anticipation to have gripped him as the votes came in. As the wave of post-election excitement inspires the world, the author reviews the key issues revealed by the electoral process requiring attention in the immediate future, and argues that the tide of expectation around the Obama presidency will only be sustained by the regenerative role of grassroots organisational structures capable of educating and mobilising the millions of people seeking a new political direction.
Balkanisation and crisis in eastern Congo
Ernest Wamba dia Wamba speaks to Pambazuka News (2008-11-06)
August saw a fresh outbreak of conflict in the DRC. Since then, approximately 250,000 have been displaced in the eastern part of the country. Following a brief cease-fire declared by the forces under the command of General Laurent Nkunda, fighting again erupted on 4 November. Ever since the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, and the subsequent wars that raged between 1996 and 2002, the country has hardly seen a moment's respite. The Kivu region has been the epicentre of the latest round of fighting. In an interview with Firoze Manji, Ernest Wamba Dia Wamba outlines the conditions necessary for a lasting peace in the DRC.
Weeping for Angola and Angolans
Luíz Araújo (2008-10-30)
With the demolition of the Kinaxixe market ordered by the dos Santos administration, Luíz Araújo highlights the development a new ‘pacific’ civil war in Angola characterised by attacks on personal property and the country’s very social and cultural history. As the author highlights through reference to the non-violent action of his own organisation, SOS Habitat, violence has yet to escalate as those organising victims’ response continue to pursue a pacific approach. But with those responsible for the attacks systematically guaranteed impunity, Angolans will continue to weep under a nominally democratic administration that has revived and intensified the practices of the erstwhile Portuguese colonial government.
Africa and global finance: potential resistance?
Patrick Bond (2008-10-23)
Reflecting on the sustained disproportionate share of pressure directed at the African continent, Patrick Bond asks whether the current economic crisis can offer scope for African countries to renegotiate their position within the global economy. With particular reference to regional heavyweight South Africa, the author argues that the best course of action lies in efforts by civil society activists to lobby for the re-imposition of national exchange and import controls - following the lead of countries such as Malaysia, Chile and Venezuela in recent years – for the overall purpose of advancing ‘deglobalisation.’
Comment & analysis
What the global Left can learn from Obama's victory
Onyango Oloo (2008-11-13)
Through examining the broader context behind the recent US election, Onyango Oloo argues that Barack Obama’s emergence as an exceptional figure of leadership is to a great extent circumstantial. In his timeless historical appeal, the new president-elect merits comparison with Nelson Mandela and will likely be remembered favourably by posterity regardless of the potential ineffectiveness of his policy over the long-term. Situating Obama’s victory within a broader political move across the Americas towards left-wing governance – notably in Venezuela, Brazil, and Bolivia – Oloo contends that the real challenge for forces of the global Left will centre on building on and exploring the successes of a veritable popular movement for democratic reform.
President Obama: America finally grows up
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza (2008-11-13)
In a broad discussion of the political circumstances behind Barack Obama’s election victory, Paul Tiyambe Zeleza argues that the US has finally grown up. This is maturing both in the sense of witnessing the election of an individual of African descent and in ending the forty-year Republican neoliberal hegemony, and is a development reflective in no small part of the Democrats’ ability to articulate a campaign true to contemporary socio-political conditions in the US. For while many challenges will face the administration-in-waiting, Obama’s ability to appeal to a diverse range of voters, Zeleza contends, represents an invaluable means of satisfying cosmopolitan Americans’ desire for renewed global respect.
We are now in charge: ‘That one’, utopia, and Africa
Pius Adesanmi (2008-11-11)
As he explores the general sense of euphoria to have greeted Barack Obama’s election victory in cities around the African continent, Pius Adesanmi considers the significance of the possessive ‘we’ commonly employed in African citizens’ descriptions of the new US president-elect. Deeply constrained by the expectations of some of the less level-headed parts of the US electorate, Obama’s potential pro-Africa posturing may well be limited by the need to remain palatable to the American populace. But if effectively harnessed, the author argues, Obama’s ascendancy represents a genuine opportunity for Africa’s community of conscience to fundamentally redress the anti-humanity, pro-resources plundering of the continent to have characterised Western countries’ and African leaders’ approach over the past five hundred years.
Obama’s economic advisors: Will well-tested enemies of Africa prevail?
Patrick Bond (2008-11-13)
Drawing on examples such as Thabo Mbeki’s role in damaging HIV/AIDS policies in the early 2000s and a current case in a San Franciso court against Chevron for 1998 murders in the Niger Delta, Patrick Bond argues that a similar process of critical treatment is appropriate for Barack Obama’s new leading economic advisor, Paul Volcker. Citing the opinions of a number of prominent political commentators, Bond reviews Volcker’s disastrous economic policy at the end of the 1970s, highlighting the deleterious effect of high US interest rates on developing countries’ debt repayments and economic development. But with Obama set to ‘accelerate Africa’s integration into the global economy’ under Volcker’s influence, the author argues that it is crucial the new president-elect seek alternative economic viewpoints to dominant neoliberal policy less rooted in brutal US national self-interest.
Is Obama screwing his base with the Rahm Emanuel selection?
Stephen Zunes (2008-11-13)
Alarmed with Barack Obama’s choosing of one of most conservative Democratic figures as his chief of staff in the shape of Rahm Emanuel, Stephen Zunes asks whether the new president-elect will see the influence of his progressive base blocked from the White House. While the author underlines that the appointment will scarcely lead to a Clinton-esque centre-right agenda, the promise of change to have featured so prominently throughout Obama’s campaign will only be realised through revitalised efforts on the part of civil society to stem any potential conservative co-opting of the new administration.
KNCHR position on the Waki Report
Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) (2008-11-13)
Following the Waki report on Kenya’s post-election violence, the KNCHR offers its response to the report and its strong opposition to any political attempts to discredit the report’s findings and undermine justice. The KNCHR contends that an informed citizenry represents the last line of defence for democracy against those who abuse power. Keen to see Kenya’s political problems resolved within domestic institutions and mechanisms to avoid the need for intervention by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the KNCHR likewise urges Kenyan parliamentarians to work towards upholding justice and challenging any scope for impunity for those in power.