|13:45 UK time, Friday, 21 August 2009
wonder if she should have made a fuss at or boycotted the medal ceremony. This could have done for feminism in sport what Tommie Smith and John Carlos did for Black Power at the Olympics in 1968
https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/17/newsid_3535000/3535348.stm
|13:32 UK time, Friday, 21 August 2009
So the row rumbles on over Castor Semenya's physique. The South African athlete has been subjected to degrading speculation about her gender around the world. Some suggest it's an attempt to explain her super-human feats on the track. Others that it's just old-fashioned racism. Now even the Williams sisters have been dragged off the tennis court and onto the world stage of controversy:
https://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-08-20-sa-lashes-out-at-racist-world-athletics-body
Is South Africa the new East Germany?
|15:36 UK time, Thursday, 13 August 2009
Leading the way on the 15h00GMT edition of Focus on Africa this afternoon - a veritable hornet's nest is stirred up in Nigeria. Apparently the head of the human rights commission has come down hard (linguistically) on the country's police for themselves coming down hard (physically) on suspects and civilans. To be honest, questions have been raised for a long time over the conduct of Nigeria's police force, but were brought into sharp focus in the past three weeks during the Boko Haram episode when evidence surfaced that the leader of the sect - Mohammed Yusuf - was killed in police custody. The police had originally said he was killed in a fire fight and not in the custody at all
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePpUvfTXY7w
This raises the question of 'who is policing the police', not only in Nigeria but elsewhere in Africa. Irrespective of whether or not they are guilty of being heavy-handed, the fact that Roland Ewubare has been able to make the allegations are a good indication that civil society is as robust as ever in Nigeria. Interesting in light of what's in the current issue of the BBC Focus on Africa magazine, where we ask if Nigeria is on its way to being a failed state
https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8112800.stm
so perhaps the answer is ..... not really?
|15:25 UK time, Tuesday, 11 August 2009
The US secretary of state is in the eastern DRC today. Africa is one of the recipients of the two-for-one Clinton package. Good deal?
https://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/07/bill-hillary-clinton
|14:58 UK time, Tuesday, 11 August 2009
On Focus on Africa today you'll no doubt hear about how the SPLM in southern Sudan is now making ominous noises about a unilateral declaration of independence from Khartoum. Seems a bit early doesn't it to be digging trenches and firing up the rhetoric what with the referendum only being in 2011? Not so. As luck would have it, I am putting together the latest issue of the Focus on Africa magazine - synergy we call it here at the BBC - and one of the jewels in our crown in the October to December issue is a piece on just this very issue which argues that decisions made in the next six months will determine the future of Sudan. It's crunch time, as they say.
BBC © 2014The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
