The Chimurenga Chronic

If you don’t normally vote, why did you vote this time… Do you really think that a ballot paper is the same as a lottery ticket.”

 

In The End of Elections, Paula Akugizibwe reads Seeing by  Portuguese author Jose Saramago. “Seeing is no Arab spring,” she tells us, the book’s revolutionary rhetoric is merely seasoning to the brew of drama stirred up by a government after residents of its capital city paralysed the democratic system by casting an avalanche of blank votes.

From albocracy (Government by “white” men or Europeans) through plousiocracy (The privileged rule of the wealthy) and  schismarch (one who starts a schism or break-up in an organisation or movement) to Zhdanovism (Rigorous control by the state over cultural issues and the arts)… update your political vocab with Willem Boshoff‘s Dictionary of Elections.  In addition, Vincent Plisson illustrates nationality codes further asking jus sanguinis or jus soli?

Chimurenga ran an excerpt of Equatoguinean cartoonist Ramón Esono Ebalé’s (aka Jamón y Queso) graphic novel, Obi’s Nightmare in the Chronic (July 2014). We’ve just heard that Ebalé was arrested on September 16 in Equatorial Guinea, where he is being held without charge. Sign the petition for his immediate release.

Democracy = “Demonstration of Craze” – Fela Kuti. Flash back to: 

11 Years Of Freedom

Demo crazy!!! 11 years of freedom need the DREAD anal-isis. Deciphering the profanity of the ignominy. What do I think of politicians? Stool, shit, kak, poep, faeces, etc. etc. are euphemisms for them… Listen up, naiers, Holy and Unholy… Ons gaan vi’ julle moer!!!!!! 11 Years!!!

50 Years Of African Decolonisation

“For democracy to root itself in Africa, it needs to be transmitted by institutions and networks emerging directly from the genius, the cultural memory, the creativity of the struggles of the people themselves and their own traditions of solidarity. ” Achille Mbembe.

4 Years Of Manufacturing the Post-Election Peace

In his reporter’s diary of the 2013 election diary, Parselelo Kantai watches as NGOs, the media and the state rally together. The top priority, he observes, was not a faithful determination of the will of the people, but the maintenance of peace and stability.

And looking to the future:

 It’s only a matter of acceleration now

“I think in Africa today this mass, this huge wave of young people which is very important but not controlled or structured by government is in a sort of war with the status quo…. Things have changed. You can no longer decide what information not to disclose. The youth know… ” Youssou N’Dour in conversation with Binyavanga Wainaina.

Cultures and Imaginations of Renewal by Felwine Sarr 

 Speculative Futures and New Imaginaries w/ JP Bekolo, Faustin Linyekula

Also… 

The First Lady Syndrome

 Yves Mintoogue traces the nepotism and political patronage that are the weave in the wig of Chantal “Chantou” Biya, the high-profile half of the predatory presidential couple of the Republic of Cameroon.

And:

 Adewale Maja-Pearce looks at how the Nigerian first lady, or ‘Mummy’ as she is often referred to, is so firmly entrenched in power, she can shut down Lagos in no time for no reason.

How to Approach Heaven

Freedom is enjoyed with others, and not mathematically and proportionally shared with them: it is to each according to his talent and ability.”

Jon Soske delves into the unpublished notebooks and speeches of Albert Luthuli and reveals how the revered leader staked out a position as president of the ANC that would have struck many of his contemporaries as heretical. Today, it has been discreetly forgotten. He rejected the idea of the African majority and the framework of majoritarian democracy in principle… 

As we put food back on the table; asking how we write ourselves and our lives through food, beyond ideas of scarcity, this issue also explores global geopolitics as they are expressed through money exchanges. Additionally, we continue our investigation into higher education across the continent.