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Zimbabwe Assesses Mugabe's 28 Years
It’s D-Day in Zimbabwe, and so far there’s been huge turnout from among the 5.6 million registered voters who have been lining up since the still-dark early morning hours. The D could stand either for Democracy or Disaster. Democracy would mean that for the first time in a long time—more than a decade—Zimbabwe would have…
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History Lived, Lessons Learned
Most of us are dead. But five of us are not. We are among the 20 African American women chosen by a group of educators and black history experts to be featured in a traveling exhibition called “Freedom’s Sisters.” And on a Friday night in mid-March at the Cincinnati Museum Center, the five of us…
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Addressing and Undressing the Race Problem
As a journalist, I do not publicly endorse candidates. So, as the black South Africans who had never been allowed to vote in their lives said when the finally could in 1994: My vote is my secret. But as I listened to all the commentary before, and after Sen. Barack Obama’s speech on race, among…
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Mugabeflation and the $2.5 Million Loaf of Bread
Usually when I get an sms (text message) from a young journalist needing to see me, it’s about career advice. But when I get one from a young journalist from Zimbabwe, I know it’s because that young journalist needs bread—and not of the cash kind. Robert Mugabe’s government has clamped down on the independent media…
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Did the Pan-African Dream Die With Apartheid?
Not long ago, I wrote an article for the Paris-based magazine, Africa Report, about the broken ties between African Americans and Africans. I described how the two groups had worked in harmony to end apartheid in South Africa some two decades ago, which raised hopes for a pan-African future. But, I wrote, “The momentum was…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
