The Future of Diplomacy

Co-authored by Dr Adeoye O. Akinola, Head of Research and Teaching at the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation (IPATC) On 25 February, Nigeria will head to the polls to elect its president. The main candidates: Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, will represent the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the opposition Peoples Democratic …

The 2023 presidential election and the future of Nigerian democracy Read More »

Nigeria faces many internal and external challenges, including insecurity, corruption, high levels of unemployment and declining influence in international affairs. The incoming president will have to grapple with the uphill task of strengthening democracy and enhancing the country’s international stature. READ MORE HERE

Happiness, a 40-year-old immigrant woman, has worked as a domestic worker in South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg, for most of the 19 years she has been in the country. To escape abject poverty, in 2003 she left Zimbabwe without a passport, paying smugglers who bribed border police and who carried her across the crocodile-infested Limpopo …

Postcard from Johannesburg: an immigrant’s tale Read More »

In South Africa, immigrants are often scapegoated as the root of socio-economic problems. In the post-apartheid landscape, Black African immigrants, mainly, from other African countries have been negatively stereotyped as “illegal” and “job stealers” who are “criminal” as well as “diseased”. This attitudinal orientation of hostility against non-nationals in a given population is xenophobia. Read …

5 xenophobic myths about immigrants in South Africa debunked by researchers Read More »

…China’s position on Russia has possibly influenced the stance of some African states, as it is Africa’s largest trade partner, having overtaken the U.S. in 2009. This implies that the abstention of some African states may not necessarily be a pro-Russia stance, but reflects their strong ties with China. On April 11, the African Union …

Zelensky and Africa’s disunity on the Russia-Ukraine crisis Read More »

THE Russia-Ukraine crisis that began on February 24 has divided academics and keen observers of international politics. In a bid to assess the direction of the conflict and its implication for the future of Russia-Ukraine relations, the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Institute for the Future of Knowledge organised a webinar titled, “Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Escalation or …

No consensus on Ukraine crisis Read More »

On February 24, at the time of a United Nations Security Council meeting to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a full-scale attack on the state, claiming that the purpose was the “demilitarisation and de-Nazification” of Ukraine. Russia’s missile attacks have resulted in massive devastation of several Ukrainian cities, such as …

The Russia-Ukraine crisis and the security dilemma Read More »

Despite the ambitions for equal partnership expressed at the recent Africa-EU summit, the outcomes of past summits and pledges give little confidence that we will see the end of an asymmetrical donor-recipient relationship that harks back to a colonial past. On 17 and 18 February 2022, the sixth European Union-African Union summit was held in …

The new scramble for Africa – Antiquated relationship with Europe unchanged while China and Russia show increasing interest in the continent Read More »