part of no part

As the leaders of Africa gather in all their pomp and ceremony, 50 years after the founding of the Organisation of African Unity(OAU), Africans go about their daily struggle to place food on the table. I was starkly reminded of the widening gap between Africa`s political and economic elites and the people living in poverty across Africa, when departing from the Lilongwe airport in Malawi on Friday. The red carpets had been laid out and the entourage of President Joyce Banda was in full preparation for her departure to Addis Ababa, to attend the AU summit. Joyce Banda had been in the news for all the right reasons having sold the presidential jet and a fleet of Mercedes vehicles in order to appease International Donors (Donors make up about 40% of Malawi`s budget and had reduced aid to Malawi by up to 80%), who had objected to the purchase of the jet by her predecessor Bingu wa Mutharika in 2009. This gesture of austerity by the new leader of the struggling East African country ...

South Africa has seen a range of protests over the course of the last decade which points to a growing discontent of the working classes throughout South Africa. According to research conducted by the University of Johannesburg (UJ) entitled, South Africa`s Rebellion of the Poor , protests have grown by an enormous 279% between 2004 and 2012. Their evidence suggests that between 2009 and 2012 there is a significant increase of protests in rural municipalities, with 2012 seeing more than two thirds of all protests taking place in rural areas. The research however points out that these protests are not necessarily linked in any direct or overtly political way and that quite often the participants of these actions are first time participants in organised protest and thus do not necessarily see their actions as a political action. Unfortunately the research does not suggest an alternative to the “non political” nature for their actions, but posits that an urgent question for these strug...