As interesting and necessary as it may be, it seems to me that the current critique of the presence of colonial symbols in our public spaces needs to be, as of this moment, reexamined. Let me emphasize “as of this moment.” I readily acknowledge that there will be some who believe the time has not yet come for internal criticism of a process that remains incomplete and that has even, in a certain sense, just begun. Is there not, as they say, a time and place for everything? Should we not prioritize...
As interesting and necessary as it may be, it seems to me that the current critique of the presence of colonial symbols in our public spaces needs to be,...
A man hired by the Ministry of Defence to clear up after an army exercise in Kenya did not know he was collecting live explosives. The findings of an internal investigation by the British army are damning, Declassifieduk reveals. High up on a hill near Mount Kenya, Irene Kipsuge looks out over a rolling savanna. In the distance lies Lolldaiga, a safari resort where Western tourists pay up to $400 a night to stay in a colonial settler-style house, in the hope of seeing elephants. To her left is Ole...
A man hired by the Ministry of Defence to clear up after an army exercise in Kenya did not know he was collecting live explosives. The findings of an...
Lemekani Nyirenda, a Zambian student recently killed while fighting for Russia in their invasion of Ukraine, was recruited by the infamous mercenary Wagner Group, the Zambian Government has confirmed. Nyirenda’s body arrived in the country on December 11th. While at the airport waiting for the body to arrive Chembo Mbula, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, confirmed that the cost of flying Nyirenda’s body to Zambia were borne by the Wagner Group, a...
Lemekani Nyirenda, a Zambian student recently killed while fighting for Russia in their invasion of Ukraine, was recruited by the infamous mercenary...
The picture frame I see in front of me is made of gold, but the picture it surrounds portrays an invading army. This is a metaphor I often use in my training sessions to empower new migrants and refugees in the Netherlands. I tell them to create their own golden frame. And I convince them that they should never let anyone convince them to believe their frames are made of ash or toilet paper. Teaching people to believe in themselves is paramount, because if they don’t believe in themselves, who else...
The picture frame I see in front of me is made of gold, but the picture it surrounds portrays an invading army. This is a metaphor I often use in my...
Campaigning to become president of Uganda can be very, very dangerous. The People's President, which documents Bobi Wine's epic presidential run, drew thousands of visitors in Amsterdam. Close to 2000 people welcomed Ugandan pop star Robert Kyagulanyi, more famously known as Bobi Wine, after a screening in Amsterdam’s Carré Theatre, while even more attended other screenings across the city. Many of them voted for the documentary, made by Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp. With 9488 votes, The...
Campaigning to become president of Uganda can be very, very dangerous. The People's President, which documents Bobi Wine's epic presidential run, drew...
On October 10th Josep Borrell, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Vice-President, addressed his ambassadors in Brussels. It began most promisingly, with Borrell decrying the number of authoritarian regimes in the world, including those "on our side.” He railed against rising "nationalism, revisionism and identity politics” while acknowledging the presence of more important players on the world stage: Turkey, India, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, and Mexico. He turned...
On October 10th Josep Borrell, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Vice-President, addressed his ambassadors in Brussels. It...
Why do many journalists fill hours of airtime about the British royal family without critically questioning the significance of the institution for its former colonies? Dutch journalist Bram Vermeulen calls upon his colleagues to explore this colonial legacy. Since the death of Queen Elizabeth II, hours of broadcast time have been filled with what anybody could see with their own eyes in recent years, provided you weren't living under a rock. That she had been faithful to her royal duties for...
Why do many journalists fill hours of airtime about the British royal family without critically questioning the significance of the institution for its...
Despite her key role in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, details about Lilian Ngoyi’s life remain sparse. The short paragraphs on her legacy repeat a few well-worn phrases. South Africa’s “mother of the black resistance”, a widow and rumoured lover of Nelson Mandela, and the first woman member of the national executive committee – the core leadership of the African National Congress (ANC), the resistance movement that would later become the government of a democratic South Africa....
Despite her key role in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, details about Lilian Ngoyi’s life remain sparse. The short paragraphs on her...
After the flames that gutted the Jagger Library at the University of Cape Town (UCT) on 18 April 2021 were finally extinguished, the archives were thought to be lost. The Reading Room, where researchers could study some of the rare African books available from the short-loans desk, had been completely destroyed. It was a devastating loss of archival material, much of it irreplaceable. But in the days after the fire, the basements that housed the archives and parts of the African Studies collection...
After the flames that gutted the Jagger Library at the University of Cape Town (UCT) on 18 April 2021 were finally extinguished, the archives were...
Hosted by Musawenkosi Cabe, Radio New Frame unearths the roots of Afrikaans - once the ‘language of the White oppressor’ - and focuses on contemporary Black Afrikaans. The programme also tackles the misconception that Nelson Mandela rejected the use of violence in the struggle against Apartheid. A new book reconstructs his role as commander-in-chief of Umkhonto weSizwe and its war against Africa’s strongest army. Listen here. New Frame is one of our favourite not-for-profit social justice media...
Hosted by Musawenkosi Cabe, Radio New Frame unearths the roots of Afrikaans - once the ‘language of the White oppressor’ - and focuses on contemporary...
Only by grasping the political processes that reproduce death, destruction and destitution will Kenyans finally exorcise the demons of their history. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness in this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” – Ephesians 6:12 The first episode of the popular Netflix series Narcos opens with the title card: “Magical realism is defined as what happens when a...
Only by grasping the political processes that reproduce death, destruction and destitution will Kenyans finally exorcise the demons of their history....
In this Zimbabwean activist’s view todays’ rulers of the country are no different from the colonial settlers. On April 12, Zimbabwean activist Peter Mutasa was presented with the Febe Elizabeth Velásquez Trade Union Rights Prize, which had been awarded to him a year earlier by the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV). With the prize, named after the murdered Salvadoran trade union leader Febe Elizabeth Vélasquez (1962-1989), the FNV honours people who have dedicated themselves in a special way...
In this Zimbabwean activist’s view todays’ rulers of the country are no different from the colonial settlers. On April 12, Zimbabwean activist Peter...
How much airtime goes in one year, just to find out what is happening to one case of murder of a young man in South Africa? Or rather, times two? It is now two years ago that Tsepo Ndhlovu was killed by police officer Adolph Rikhotso at Groenvlei farm near Mookgophong, formerly Naboomspruit, in northern Limpopo province, on the 11th of March 2020. A quick count of the airtime used to try and break through the mountains of silence surrounding this case amounts to close to a thousand South African...
How much airtime goes in one year, just to find out what is happening to one case of murder of a young man in South Africa? Or rather, times two? It is...
What would a borderless world look like? It sounds like utopia but in his essay, South Africa-based Cameroonian thinker Achille Mbeme makes the realities of borders, restrictions and the right to move denied to most people in the world look far more surreal than the alternative. Mbembe identifies three freedoms in liberal thinking: freedom of movement, freedom of capital and freedom of services. Where are the people, he asks. People on the move are seen as a threat to order. The paradox of a...
What would a borderless world look like? It sounds like utopia but in his essay, South Africa-based Cameroonian thinker Achille Mbeme makes the realities...
We are shocked by the assassination of our Ghanaian colleague and investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein Suale. Suale was murdered on Wednesday 16 January, 2019 in Madina, Ghana. He was part of the Tiger Eye and the African Investigative Publishing Collective, both partner organisations of ZAM. He contributed immensely to efforts to sanitise governance in Ghana through his work that has exposed corruption, wrongdoing, conflict of interest, waste, maladministration and outright thievery in this West...
We are shocked by the assassination of our Ghanaian colleague and investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein Suale. Suale was murdered on Wednesday 16...
On Monday 17 December, 2018, our colleague Estacio Valoi and his team were arrested by the Mozambican army. When investigative journalist Estacio Valoi, known for his reports on plunder of natural resources in northern Mozambique, went to report on the situation in conflict-ridden and desperately poor Chitolo village, he and his team found the road blocked by soldiers upon their return. What followed was a day and night of terror for the team of three -with Valoi were USA-based lecturer and Amnesty...
On Monday 17 December, 2018, our colleague Estacio Valoi and his team were arrested by the Mozambican army. When investigative journalist Estacio Valoi,...
At first glance conservative Dutch politician Wybren van Haga and the left wing in the Netherlands have nothing in common. Not when it comes to fighting the global gap between rich and poor (Van Haga’s liberal VVD party, like the UK Tories and the US Republicans, wants that gap bigger); not when it comes to health and education (VVD, again like Tories and Republicans, wants less of that) and certainly not when it comes to migrants coming to the Netherlands. The Dutch left wing stands for...
At first glance conservative Dutch politician Wybren van Haga and the left wing in the Netherlands have nothing in common. Not when it comes to fighting...
The story begins: 'They found her lying on her bed. Washington Mbhozo’s body was on top of hers. He was naked and she was not. It was immediately obvious that she had killed him. She had lodged the knife firmly—expertly even—under his ribs. It had not been so difficult to find the soft spot and drive the knife upwards. Her boy cousins killed goats by slashing their necks—first fondling the pulse and then leaning into the animals. It was always such an intimate embrace. It had been the same when she...
The story begins: 'They found her lying on her bed. Washington Mbhozo’s body was on top of hers. He was naked and she was not. It was immediately obvious...
Twenty years ago, on the eve of International Aids Day, Simon Tseko Nkoli passed away. Simon was a political activist against apartheid and a campaigner for equal rights for LGBTI people. He was imprisoned in the 80s for his participation in protests against white suppression in South Africa. After his release in 1988 he launched the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW). This organisation played a pivotal role in the campaign for the inclusion of an 'equal rights clause' for...
Twenty years ago, on the eve of International Aids Day, Simon Tseko Nkoli passed away. Simon was a political activist against apartheid and a campaigner...
We want to talk about coffee. The reason for this is the Coffee Barometer 2018’s shocking conclusion that Fairtrade does not give farmers an extra penny. Or shocking? An investigation by African and Dutch journalists into practices in the cocoa industry, co-initiated and published by ZAM in 2013, came to the same conclusion. Interviews with 200 farmers in West Africa, supported by data research by Dutch colleagues, showed that Fairtrade was a rip-off of the western consumer, and no good – in some...
We want to talk about coffee. The reason for this is the Coffee Barometer 2018’s shocking conclusion that Fairtrade does not give farmers an extra penny....
On November 18, Lucia Raadschelders passed away in Johannesburg after a long battle with cancer. As a friend of ZAM, Lucia was instrumental in the collaboration between our organisation and the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF). In the early eighties, Lucia joined the Dutch Anti-Apartheid Movement and co-ordinated several youth and women’s campaigns. From 1987 she took part in Operation Vula, an underground ANC project aimed at the intensification of the struggle against apartheid. Running ‘safe...
On November 18, Lucia Raadschelders passed away in Johannesburg after a long battle with cancer. As a friend of ZAM, Lucia was instrumental in the...
