Africa Is a Country

Africa’s oldest liberation movement is 100 years old

Africa’s oldest liberation movement is 100 years old

By
Sean Jacobs

Does South Africa's ruling ANC still fight for the same values it championed 100 years ago?

Jubilant crowds listening to the speech of President Nelson Mandela. 10/May/1994. UN photo credit Sattleberger.

This week 100 years ago, South Africa’s current ruling party, the African National Congress, was born. It would go on to dominate resistance politics against Apartheid. Many assume today’s ANC is very different from that of its founders or its high points in the 1950s and later through the 1980s and 1990s. “Does South Africa’s ruling ANC still fight for the same values it championed 100 years ago?” was the theme for Al Jazeera English program, “The Stream.”

The producers invited me help answer this and other questions about the ANC so I traveled down to Washington D.C. The show is presented by Derek Ashong. Remember him? He is also a rapper. He was joined by guest host Latoya Patterson (she’s also a blogger at Racialicious). The show is live, fast paced and incorporates social media. Unfortunately technical difficulties meant it was hard to hear the inputs of the other 2 guests – Keith Khoza, ANC spokesperson, and journalist and commentator Karima Brown – linked to the studio via Skype. The video, above, of the show also includes a 10-minute post-show which was streamed online after the TV channel returned to its regular programming. It’s riveting stuff, if I should say so myself.

Thanks to producer Melissa Giaimo for inviting me. My wife should take credit for suggesting I wear the nice pink shirt.

Watch it here.

 

Further Reading

Not exactly at arm’s length

Despite South Africa’s ban on arms exports to Israel and its condemnation of Israel’s actions in Palestine, local arms companies continue to send weapons to Israel’s allies and its major arms suppliers.

Ruto’s Kenya

Since June’s anti-finance bill protests, dozens of people remain unaccounted for—a stark reminder of the Kenyan state’s long history of abductions and assassinations.

Between Harlem and home

African postcolonial cinema serves as a mirror, revealing the limits of escape—whether through migration or personal defiance—and exposing the tensions between dreams and reality.

The real Rwanda

The world is slowly opening its eyes to how Paul Kagame’s regime abuses human rights, suppresses dissent, and exploits neighboring countries.

In the shadow of Mondlane

After a historic election and on the eve of celebrating fifty years of independence, Mozambicans need to ask whether the values, symbols, and institutions created to give shape to “national unity” are still legitimate today.

À sombra de Mondlane

Depois de uma eleição histórica e em vésperas de celebrar os 50 anos de independência, os moçambicanos precisam de perguntar se os valores, símbolos e instituições criados para dar forma à “unidade nacional” ainda são legítimos hoje.