Africa Archive

Back in the early ’70s I spent a week at a Sufi-inspired music camp in Marin County, California. It was a typical New Age celebration of the inner spirit, in a setting inspired by the musical and whirling dance traditions of Sufism, the so-called mystical branch of Islam. Back then, the militant form of Islam was hardly a ripple on the water. More than 30 years have since passed, but it was all brought back this week by images in the New York Times showing Somali Sufis gathered around a campfire singing and chanting, much as we did in the […]

In its annual State of the World’s Human Rights report released May 28, Amnesty International emphasized the relationship between economic injustice and human rights, and argued that the decreasing focus on rights, both in principle and in practice, highlights the need for a new approach to the issues. In order to truly — and finally — end the cycle of global rights abuse, AI argues, the world must adopt an approach based on multilateral, multi-stakeholder collaborations that end impunity and the enrichment of the few at the expense of many. AI’s Secretary General Irene Khan sought to rouse action in […]

On the 10th anniversary of Nigeria’s return to civilian rule, Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka lowered the boom on what he called Nigeria’s “sham democracy.” In a scathing interview with the BBC, Soyinka condemned Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo for a variety of sins. The worst was subverting the democratic process that resulted in Obasanjo’s hand-picked successor, Umari Yar’Adua, taking over as president in 2007. Commenting on U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to make his first African visit to Ghana instead of Nigeria, Soyinka said that Ghana was a more appropriate destination because they have been “behaving like civilized human […]