World’s largest museum dedicated to African art opens in Cape Town this week

World’s largest museum dedicated to African art opens in Cape Town this week: The world’s largest museum dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora has been unveiled at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, and will officially open its doors to the public on Friday. The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) is the V&A Waterfront’s R500-million project aimed at transforming a nearly 100-year-old concrete grain silo into a cutting-edge museum.

Uganda: Too Old For This

UGANDA

Too Old for This

Ugandans took to the streets in the capital Kampala on Thursday in protest of proposed legislation that would extend the rule of the nation’s longtime president, Yoweri Museveni.

Uganda’s constitution currently bars anyone over 75 years old from running for president, the Associated Press reports. Museveni, 73, has ruled the country for more than 30 years and would be ineligible to run for another term in 2021 unless that clause is removed.

The bill faces hefty criticism from civil society, as well as opposition groups and religious leaders who are calling for a national referendum on the matter before the new law goes into effect. They fear it would allow Museveni to rule for life.

Police responded to protesters Thursday with teargas. Dozens were arrested, including the mayor of Kampala, Erias Lukwago, a prominent government critic. Police also raided two NGOs accused of supporting the anti-government protests.

Ironically, Museveni claimed in the past that problems on the African continent are due to leaders “who want to overstay in power.” He later said he was only referring to those who weren’t democratically elected.

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Tunisia-The Second Battle

TUNISIA

The Second Battle

The Arab Spring of 2011 saw entrenched authoritarian regimes across North Africa buckle under the pressure of popular uprisings.

Six years later, only in Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began, is there a functioning representative democracy after decades of dictatorship, Stratfor comments.

But reforms are still needed to usher this developing nation over the finish line.

Tunisia is the Maghreb region’s most secular state and most ardent proponent of women’s rights, writes the BBC. Both were ideologies spearheaded by the nation’s founding father, Habib Bourguiba.

But progressive social politics come with a brutal authoritarian streak in Tunisia, writes Al-Fanar. Bourguiba often jailed and tortured political opponents, a tactic continued by his successor, President Zine El Abdine Ben Ali, a perceived-reformer turned corrupt autocrat.

Ben Ali was forced to resign in 2011 during the nation’s bloodless Jasmine Revolution, and political elites set about piecing together a democracy where none had existed before.

Political Islam became – and remains – a delicate and divisive issue. Tunisia’s arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, Ennahda, banned under prior regimes, drew support from fringes of society and grew in prominence. The party quickly secured a plurality in the nation’s first free elections.

But in secular Tunisia, the party and its hardline Islamic platform soon faced public condemnation, writes Haaretz.

Rather than digging in its feet and holding on to power, Ennahda learned from the mistakes of other failed Islamic uprisings: It split its religious and political wings. Ennahda now declares itself a party of Muslim Democrats and shares power with secularists, the Economist writes.

Such concessions serve as an example for other Arab states going through democratic transitions. But democratic political parties alone don’t make a successful state.

Tunisia’s economy was left in tatters after the uprising, and the government, preoccupied by constitutional reforms, has been slow to act. Official unemployment rates hover around 15 percent, but analysts say the real amount is far higher. In rural areas, where citizens frequently demand better representation and more opportunity from the nation’s energy companies, unemployment is double the national average, writes Stratfor.

In need of outside loans to stay afloat, Tunis recently pushedthrough a package of austerity measures at the demand of the International Monetary Fund. It will prove to be a tough battle given Tunisia’s strong unions and social welfare state, as well as mass protests against benefit cuts.

After establishing democracy, now the real battle will begin to keep it running.

“This government would be like a war cabinet, in a war against the corruption, against rampant unemployment and a war to save the economy,” said Prime Minister Youssef Chahed recently.

Like the beacon that inspired millions across the region to take to the streets six years ago, many hope Tunisia will be a trailblazer once again and win this war. Observers say at the very least the nation has a fighting chance.

Kenya: The Stunning Do Over

KENYA

The Stunning Do Over

Kenya’s supreme court Friday annulled presidential election results and ordered a repeat poll within 60 days.

It was a precedent-setting step for the country and the African continent, where autocrats keep winning unfair or rigged elections, often to rule for decades, the Guardian reported.

The court found that the “transmission” of the polls to election authorities, not the voting and counting at polling stations, raised concerns.

“Irregularities affected the integrity of the poll,” said Chief Justice David Maraga.

Kenyans – and others watching around the world – were stunned.

“Wow! Big step for the rule of law in Kenya,” tweeted Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth. “And a blow to electoral “’irregularities.’”

But the ruling itself was only part of the surprise. How it came to pass and how politicians responded to it have also been remarkable.

The ruling reflected widespread eyebrow-raising among international monitors, suggesting the court took third-party arguments into consideration.

“As the tallying was going on and forms needed to be uploaded there were some challenges,” EU Election Observer Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, told the BBC.

Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta, who won the Aug. 8 election, criticized the ruling. “Millions of Kenyans queued, made their choice, and six people have decided that they will go against the will of the people,” he said.

But ultimately he accepted the decision, calling for “peace, peace, peace.”

He will now run against opposition leader Raila Odinga for a second time. Odinga received 44 percent of the Aug. 8 vote. He asserted that as many 7 million votes had been stolen, said the New York Times.

It’s possible Kenyatta relented because he was honestly thinking about the violence that might explode if he rejected the court ruling.

Shortly before the election, the Kenyan election commission’s IT expert, Chris Msando, was tortured and murdered. Odinga supporters said Kenyatta was to blame, USA Today explained.

After the Aug. 8 poll, riots resulted in 24 dead after Kenyatta was declared the winner with 54 percent of the vote.

That was tame compared to the contested 2007 election, when more than 1,000 people died and 600,000 were displaced following Odinga’s loss amid irregularities.

Odinga and his followers unsurprisingly reveled in the court’s move but even they were stunned. “For the first time in the history of African democratization, a ruling has been made by a court nullifying irregular election of a president,” he said.

Kenyan human rights activist Tina Alai told the Washington Post that the new election could help her fellow citizens get over ethnic differences that usually result in fighting. Members of the Kikuyu tribe and their allies support Kenyatta, while Luos and their friends vote for Odinga.

If Kenyan elections are free and fair, they “will cease to be the opportunity where politicians can prey on these divisions among us,” she said.

That would be the best result of all.

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