Morocco’s triumphant return to the African Union after a thirty-three-year break marked the culmination of a lengthy and intense diplomatic offensive designed to expand its circle of African allies to key nations…
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Essays
Silence and Denial as Impediments to Peace in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe, 1980-2016
by Terence M. Mashingaidze
Introduction This appraisal is an interlocution of the twin cultures of silence and denial inherent in Zimbabwe’s post-colonial peacebuilding praxis. It evokes the exigency of placing victimhood, rather than political expediency, at the center of the country’s post-conflict architecture. Zimbabwe’s episodic cycles of violence are customarily resolved through state-mediated reconciliation pronouncements (1980), amnesty ordinances (1979, […]
Book Reviews
Review of Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
by Cynthia Alexandre-Brutus
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun offers a heart-wrenching account of the Biafran War (1967-1970), beautifully wrapped in a story of love, loyalty, betrayal, resilience, and hope. She places a human face on a war that has been far removed from historical memory outside of Nigeria. As a result of the massacre of […]
Conflict
Peaceful Negotiations: Implications for the Release of Twenty-One Chibok Girls from Boko Haram Captivity
by Sogo Angel Olofinbiyi
In April 2014, militant Islamist group Boko Haram abducted 276 schoolgirls from Chibok—a town in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria—making global news [1]. Widespread concern generated by the incident soon culminated in a global social media campaign, “Bring Back Our Girls,” with an accompanying Twitter hashtag, #BringBackOurGirls, that featured Tweets from notable world leaders and international […]
Ghana’s 2016 Elections- Restoring Hope in Democracy?
Consolidating Democracy in Ghana: An Overview
by Audrey Gadzekpo
A few days after the December 2016 elections in Ghana, a cartoon appeared in Uganda’s Sunday Monitor depicting a civics lesson in a classroom where the teacher asked the question: What is democracy? The response from the pupils was “Ghana.” This satirical take by a Uganda-based newspaper on the December elections was one of numerous […]
Ghana’s 2016 Elections- Restoring Hope in Democracy?
Assessing the Performance of the First Female Chairperson of Ghana’s Electoral Commission
by Gertrude Dzifa Torvikey
Ghana’s recent presidential and parliamentary elections were presided over by the country’s first female chair of the Electoral Commission (EC). Mrs Charlotte Kesson-Smith Osei, a 45-year-old lawyer who chaired the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) before being appointed in June 2015 to head the EC. Mrs Osei’s replaced Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, who had chaired […]
Ghana’s 2016 Elections- Restoring Hope in Democracy?
‘My Wife, My Sister, My Mother’ : Electing More Women to Parliament in Ghana [1]
by Gretchen Bauer
In Ghana’s 2016 election six more women were elected to parliament than were elected in 2012; this brought the number of women members of parliament (MPs) to 36, or 13.1 percent of the total – up from 30 women MPs or 10.9 percent of the total in 2012. This is a 20 percent increase over […]
Ghana’s 2016 Elections- Restoring Hope in Democracy?
Ghana’s Media Comes of Age in Elections Coverage