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Mail & Guardian
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If a state can unilaterally suspend the rights of a racialised group or dump people onto foreign soil, no citizen’s rights are secure

From Rome to Gaza: How power distracts, censors and controls

Palestine today is not merely a geographic site of struggle; it is a mirror reflecting humanity’s oldest contest — between power and truth, silence and expression, spectacle and…

ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa arrives at  the African National Congress party manifesto launch in Durban, South Africa, on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024. Photo: Leon Sadiki/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Unlike the government, we must practise what we preach

Unlike ANC governments, we must practise consistent, inclusive solidarity and internationalism

The psychological bond between a cult leader or personality cult and the followers is strong.

Take action against church capture by cult leaders

The actions of some pastors and bishops are criminal and damage their followers

Tunisian and international observers have dismissed the prospect of systematic fraud in the country’s second free presidential election by universal suffrage.

Will Tunisia continue to democratise?

The approach of presidential elections on September 15 has once again raised the question of whether Tunisia’s nascent democracy will last

Neoliberalism and the march of impunity in Equatorial Guinea (Photo Archive)

Neoliberalism and the march of impunity in Equatorial Guinea

How does the world’s longest serving autocrat remain in power?

Neoliberalism and the march of impunity in Equatorial Guinea (Photo Archive)

Equatorial Guinea’s president to mark 40 years in power

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema’s 40th anniversary in power will be marked by a series of events in three main cities

Gambia’s former president Yahya Jammeh. (Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)

Yes, victims can bring Gambia’s dictator to justice

Gambian President Adama Barrow has said that he will await the report of the country’s truth commission before pursuing Jammeh’s possible extradition

Sadly, though, removing a “Big Man” is not the end of the process of building a democracy but only the beginning.

How democratic revolutions are being subverted in Algeria and Sudan

One of the most misleading myths about African politics is the idea of the all-powerful leader who rules on their own through their cunning and wit

It’s a bad time for Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro. With an election coming up next year, his poll numbers are dropping rapidly. (Nacho Doce/Reuters)

Bolsonaro’s three-month rule a disaster

Even the rats are jumping ship as the economy flounders amid poor governance decisions

Protesters hurl bricks at Togolese security forces during a demonstration against President Faure Gnassingbé in Lomé.

Casualties mount in Togo protests

Opposition ire over the president’s extended term in office spilled over into the streets this week

Ramaphosa said the direct discussions with Zuma would lay the basis for a speedy resolution

Zuma’s recipe: How to make an African dictator

"Perhaps the only factor standing in the way of his dictatorship cake is the absence of enough heat"

AU-backed tribunal jails Chadian dictator Hissène Habré

The trial and judgment on the continent has been hailed by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and other countries and organisations.

Supporters of President Ismaïl Guelleh in 2010 in Djiobuti following Parliament’s approval of the constitutional amendment allowing him to run for a third term.

Djibouti opposition leader vindicated

Weeks before President Ismaïl Guelleh stands for an unconstitutional fourth term, he has lost a “politically motivated” case against his former ally.

With just 531 criminal convictions from the 42 365 complaints, either South Africans are going out of their way to tell a whole bunch of outrageous lies or the state isn’t all that interested in doing something about police brutality.

‘I murdered 18 people for the Pinochet regime’

Suicidal man confesses on a live radio phone-in to participating in the deaths of opponents of the late military dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Pinochet’s men held 29 years after burning activists alive

The case of one of the most notorious torture cases of the 17-year military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet over Chili was reopened in 2013.

President Jacob Zuma laughs after EFF MPs were forced to leave the house.

Zuma: If I were a dictator …

President Zuma has elaborated on what he would do differently if parliamentary democracy did not get in his way so much.

What Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s bad art says about him

What Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s bad art says about him

In some cases the readiness to inflict one’s dearth of artistic talent on a helpless world may be a sign of far worse things to come.

Mbeki’s prescient warning to Bob

The Mail & Guardian reveals a document penned by President Thabo Mbeki in 2001 in which he warns Robert Mugabe over his style of rule.