Law

Kwame Opoku comments on the “Songs of Praise” for the British Museum. We have witnessed within the last few days a spate of articles, all praising in fulsome language the British Museum and its director, Neil MacGregor. It can be assumed that the publication of these article within such a short period is no sheer coincidence but part of a carefully orchestrated campaign to boost the popularity of the British Museum and the prestige of its director. But why now? (more…)

Kwame Opoku reviews Ben Macintyre’s article “Let’s all have tickets to the universal museum”, published in Timesonline, July 10, 2008. He concludes that it is one of those articles appearing regularly in Western media, appearing to espouse an internationalism and a universalism that, at first sight would appeal to many persons. However, on reflection, one realizes that, perhaps without consciously desiring to do so, they propagate a very narrow vision of the world and are generally oblivious of the needs and feelings of other peoples and cultures in the world. (more…)

Kwame Opoku comments on the article “How one cultural vision has lessons for the whole world” by Tristram Hunt, a Lecturer in History at University of London. The mentioned article was published in the Observer, July 6, 2008. (more…)

Timothy Perry interrogates the efficacy of PanSALB as a protector of language rights, evaluating in particular the degree to which PanSALB may, or may not, inadvertently lead to ethnic competition or ethnic conflict; and the degree to which its tribulations evince any authoritarian tendencies of the parties in power.
[Full Text Article, pdf]

Neville Alexander explores the meaning, for post-apartheid South Africa, of the historic Brown v Board of Education judment that formally ended segregated schooling in the USA fifty years ago. Written from within the radical tradition of anti-racist struggle, the paper considers the implications of the judgment for the shaping of social identities and education in the ‘new SA’. [full text article, pdf]

The exhibition, Benin, 600 years of Courtly Art from Nigeria, Museum of Ethnology, Berlin, has demonstrated that there are no unbridgeable obstacles to presenting an exhibition which fulfils the demands of a good ethnological presentation of art works and artefacts and also takes into account modern aesthetic requirements of the public that visits such exhibitions. By Kwame Opoku. (more…)

Yav Katshung Joseph argues that as truth commissions multiply around the world it is important to look at their relationship to prosecutions and justice in an immediate and historical sense. Are TRC’s designed to generate more truth, more justice, reparations, and genuine institutional reform? Or are they designed to undermine the State’s and society’s legal, ethical and political obligations to their people? [Pambazuka]

In his interview of January 27, 2008 with Richard Lacayo, “A Talk With: James Cuno”, Cuno, Director of the Art Institute of Chicago, makes many controversial statements. In the following, Kwame Opoku comments on a few of these points. (more…)

The return home of the final piece of the Axum obelisk to Ethiopia is an undoubted victory for Ethiopia, Italy the rule of law and democracy, writes Kwame Opoku. (more…)

As the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) prepares to sue the British Government for personal injuries sustained by survivors of the Mau Mau war for independence whilst in British detention camps in Kenya, Mukoma Wa Ngugi unravels the Colonial myths of Christianisation and civilization and exposes the reality of torture, murder, slavery, landlessness, dehumanization and internment. [Pambazuka]

Edited by Roselynn Musa, Faiza Jama Mohammed & Firoze Manji. The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on Women’s Rights is arguably one of Africa’s most ground-breaking and progressive rights instruments for gender equality in Africa. This book is the product of a conference jointly convened in Addis Ababa by the African Union Women, Gender and Development Directorate and Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR), a coalition of more than 20 gender, human rights and development NGOs. The book is published with the full endorsement and support of the African Union Women, Gender and Development Directorate. [Full E-Book, pdf, 0,9 MB]

Segun Ogunleye. CODESRIA Conference on electronic publishing and dissemination 1st -2nd September 2004, Dakar, Senegal. [Full Text Article, pdf]

Article by Prof. Dani Nabudere, presented at the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Regional Office East and Horn of Africa, African Social Scientists Reflections Part II, Nairobi, Kenya, 2001. [Full Text Article, pdf]

Heinrich Boell Foundation, Conference Documentation, Nairobi, 1-3 April 2002. [Full Text Article, pdf]

By Richard Griggs, Track Two, Vol. 6 No. 2 August 1997, Centre for Conflict Resolution. Africa’s “Achilles’ heel” is its boundaries, argues Richard Griggs - blocking development and perpetuating conflict. Here he calls for a new era of “boundary management”… [Full Text Article, html]

By Prof. Kum’ a Ndumbe III. First Published by DANIDA, 2001. [Full Text Article, pdf, eng, 122KB]