By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 19, 2021
Two weeks ago South Africa’s Constitutional Court sentenced Jacob Zuma to 15 months in prison for contempt of court. He refused to appear at a government enquiry committee that was looking into the corruption that took place during his nine-year rule. The party (ANC) began to run the state as though it was just another arm of the party, and therein lay its downfall.
Continue reading PNM: Avoiding the Pitfall of Decline
By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 09, 2018
Queen Njinga of Africa ruled Ndongo (located in present-day Angola) from 1624-1663. Despite her outstanding accomplishments, “Europeans at the time portrayed her as a bloodthirsty cannibal who thought nothing of murdering babies and slaughtering her enemies.” This is the conclusion that Linda Heywood, a Trinidadian professor of history at Boston University, arrives at in her new biography, Njinga of Angola: African Warrior Queen (2017).
Continue reading Flawed Heroines
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 16, 2017
PART 2
The Anti-Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, offers an excellent exhibition on the life of Nelson Mandela, the most recognizable person of the twenty-first century. On one of the walls there is a quotation that is attributed to Aristotle, the Greek philosopher. It reads: “Good moral character is not something that we can achieve on our own. We need a culture that supports the condition under which self-love and friendship can flourish.”
Continue reading Long Walk to Freedom – Part 2
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 10, 2017
PART 1
I spent four weeks in South Africa and Swaziland at the end of June and the beginning of July. These were some of the most educative and inspiring days of my life. I had followed the South African liberation struggle since the late 1950s when Miriam Makeba sang her freedom songs. In the 1960s I read Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country and cried. Later I read Peter Abrahams Tell Freedom. It did not produce the same emotional impact on me.
Continue reading Long Walk to Freedom
By Dr. Selwyn Cudjoe
December 11, 2016
No one who has followed Caribbean history over the last century could miss Fidel’s important role in helping Caribbean people to access their condition. Fidel had his faults.
However, his achievements surpassed his shortcomings and that is the salient point.
Fidel was to the 20th century Caribbean what Toussaint was to the 18th and 19th centuries. CLR James noted: “Castro’s revolution is of the 20th century as much as Toussaint’s was of the 18th…West Indians became aware of themselves as a people in the Haitian Revolution.”
Continue reading The Challenge of Ideology
By Richardson Dhalai
July 16, 2014 – newsday.co.tt
Public Administration Minister, Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, has advised the nation to embrace the ideals and principles of former South African president, Nelson Mandela, saying “his life principle of ‘Ubuntu’ or ‘I am because you are’ can greatly benefit our nation as it deals with the inequities in our society.”
Continue reading Embrace ideals and principles of Mandela
By Corey Gikes
December 15, 2013
Today we bid final farewell to Madiba Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela, a man whose whole life has been one of sacrifice. So much has been said, so much has written about this moral, political and physical giant of a man who struggled to bring about a society that is equal to all walks of life. His is a life that should serve as a model to those of us who wish to make similar differences in our own spaces.
Continue reading Remember Madiba…All of Him
By Greg Palast
December 13, 2013 – gregpalast.com
I can’t take it anymore. All week, I’ve watched Nelson Mandela reduced to a Barbie doll. From Fox News to the Bush family, the politicians and media mavens who body-blocked the anti-Apartheid Movement and were happy to keep Mandela behind bars, now get to dress his image up in any silly outfit they choose.
Continue reading The Mandela Barbie
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
December 10, 2013
Now that 95-year old Nelson Mandela has died, it is indeed a glorious sine qua non to trace/recount/relive his remarkable/heroic journey from prisoner/revolutionary to President of South Africa.
At the outset, it must be emphasized that the year 1994 was a pivotal, watershed turning-point as the white minority-ruled South Africa joined the civilized nations as a de jure actor on the international stage of democracy.
Continue reading Mandela: From Prisoner to President
By Rick Lyman
December 08, 2013 – nytimes.com
JOHANNESBURG — Nelson Mandela was deeply respected in his homeland, and almost worshiped by many for his definitive role in ending white rule and installing multiracial democracy.
But he was never above reproach, political observers say.
When Andile Mngxitama, a black-consciousness advocate and frequent critic of Mr. Mandela, fired yet another broadside at the former leader before he died — comparing him unfavorably to neighboring Zimbabwe’s authoritarian president, Robert Mugabe — it certainly caught the attention of South Africa’s political class.
Continue reading For Mandela, Reverence, but Criticism, Too