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When protesters in Egypt called for a “Million Man March” to mark the one-week anniversary of their Jan. 25 uprising against Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year autocratic rule, they did what many African-American public figures have yet to do: draw on the history and example of the black freedom movement to express support for the ongoing global…

Because of my looks, my religion and my name, I have frequently been mistaken for Arab during my travels throughout the Middle East. It has been a mentally liberating sensation — to leave the racial politics of the United States (in reality, this is simply the process of exchanging the ethnic politics of one land…

Since the days of the pharaohs, observers of Egypt have been hard-pressed to explain why the combination of grinding poverty, explosive population growth, high-level government corruption and repression of political freedom had not reached critical mass and led to an open revolt. No one is asking that now, as mass demonstrations continue to call for…

Edtor’s Note from The Root: As many have noted since this posted, this article was first published in 2005 and was promoted last week in error. If you wish to continue reading, please keep that in mind. By Rick WeissWashington Post Staff Writer Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely…

Haitians in Haiti and expatriates around the world recently marked the first anniversary of the earthquake that wrecked millions of lives and destroyed their country’s capital. From Port-au-Prince to Paris, from Montreal to Miami, Haitians mostly observed the day with prayer. They went to church and attended memorial Masses and other religious services to remember…

This photograph from early 1946 is a rare record of a gathering of the intellectual vanguard of Haiti’s postwar generation. Fiercely idealistic, they had weeks earlier incited five days of massive street protests that caused Haitian President Elie Lescot to resign and flee into exile. They had overthrown, they believed, the cabal of mulattoes and…

Late in 1999 — I can’t remember the exact month or day — my wife and I got one of those middle-of-the-night phone calls. “There’s been a coup. They’re fighting in the streets. Papi has gone into hiding.” This was my first experience with what war could mean for my wife’s parents and our extended…

The current political development in Côte d’Ivoire, and the manner in which it will be resolved, will serve as either a clear indication of how tenuous the democratic process still is on the African continent, or a joyous testament to how far the continent has traveled in its promotion of peace and advancement. I’m sure…

ABIDJAN, CÔTE D’IVOIRE — The local newspapers today are filled with exceedingly violent propaganda. Life in this West African country has been exceedingly tense ever since the Nov. 28 election, which resulted in the swearing-in of two presidents. Newspapers supporting Alassane Ouattara, one of the potential presidents in the contested election, are claiming that Laurent…

By Sudarsan Raghavan KAMPALA, UGANDA — Persecution of gays is intensifying across Africa, fueled by fundamentalist preachers, intolerant governments and homophobic politicians. Gay people have been denied access to health care, detained, tortured and even killed, human rights activists and witnesses say. The growing tide of homophobia comes at a time when gays in Africa…