Mutually Assured Survival: Mahmood Mamdaniâs Call to Decolonise the Political and Decriminalise Justice
In âNeither Setter nor Nativeâ, the Ugandan scholar draws valuable lessons from the history of the United States, Sudan, Israel/Palestine, Nuremberg and South Africa.
Mahmood Mamdani. Photo: Mahmood Mamdani/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0
Mahmood Mamdaniâs latest book,
Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities (Harvard University Press, 2020) makes an urgent intervention in contemporary politics. In a searing critique of the nation-state, Mamdani persuasively argues that there will be no decolonisation, no democracy, no peace until we de-link the association between the ânationâ and state power.
Leaders in Africa and around the world give lip service to addressing
underlying causes of terrorism, violent internal conflicts, criminal violence and other threats. In practice,
they prioritize militarized responses that are not only
abusive of human rights but also ineffective and counter-productive.
African conflicts are most often seen in terms of simplistic
narratives and applied to the entire continent. But each country
is distinct. Most are at peace, afflicted not by war and warlords,
but by the less visible kinds of violence that prevail around the
world: violence against women or the everyday violence of crime and
discrimination against immigrants.
AfricaFocus Bulletins with Material on Politics and Human Rights April 19, 2021 Confronting Global Apartheid Demands Global Solidarity http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/ga2104.php
The COVID-19 pandemic has both revealed and deepened structural
inequalities around the world. Nearly every country has been hit by
economic downturn, but the impacts are unevenly felt. Within and
across countries, the people who have suffered most are those already
disadvantaged by race, class, gender, or place of birth, reflecting
the harsh inequality that has characterized our world for centuries. March 8, 2021 USA/Global: Taxing the Tech Giants http://www.africafocus.org/docs21/dig2103.php
How should we determine the corporate tax a big tech company should
Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa gga.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gga.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
As an immunized
muzzukulu prone to the quintessential Uganda pastime of speculation, here we go. Privilege comes with responsibility- ‘to whom much is given, much is required.
What then should we do with our privilege? The answers lay in the collective disgust towards the news of two adult children of Uganda’s eternal minister of Foreign Affairs, Sam Kutesa, being appointed honorary consuls.
If we find this disturbing, it is because privilege that perpetuates privilege stinks, it is the original
‘kuwunya.’
The stink hits hard when we see privilege shaking hands with itself, congratulating itself on collecting more privileges. We, the great-unwashed wanainchi, jeer extravagantly and froth at the mouth because we are not as privileged as Kutesa and his children.