Africa – 5 September 2014

Lesotho PM: I’m safe thanks to SA
Prime Minister Tom Thabane says foreign forces are keeping the peace following the attempted coup.
Embattled Lesotho Prime Minister Tom Thabane admitted to feeling much safer in the presence of South African Police Service and intelligence agency personnel. Thabane is back in his country’s top seat, thanks to foreign security agencies from South Africa.
“It is the police and an element of the intelligence services,” Thabane said in a telephone interview with the Mail & Guardian on Thursday afternoon. “They are not only around my residence, they are all over the country and in police stations where there was instability,” he said. Mail and Guardian.

Complex politics, unchecked army a recipe for disaster in Lesotho
Many have been left wondering why the Lesotho army interferes in politics time and again.
Why Lesotho? As shots rang out in the capital of the mountain kingdom last weekend, many were wondering why interference in politics by the Lesotho army is such a recurring occurrence in the country.
Of the 15 member states of the Southern African Development Community, the tiny Lesotho is the one most prone to coups and attempted coups. Analysts say a largely unchecked military and a complicated electoral system that lends itself to personal rivalry could be the cause. Mail and Guardian

Resisting domestication: The US-Africa Summit and Black America
The 2014 US-Africa Summit was a significant event but left many issues crucial to the advancement of Africans untouched. Key among those unmentioned matters was the importance of continental-diasporan collaboration
The recently passed US-Africa Summit was historic. Not only was it the first time that the majority of African leaders have together converged on the so-called ‘New World’, it provided an opportunity for Africans so forcibly remanded here to reflect anew on our relationship to home. The latter is far more important. Beyond the rhetoric of ‘Africa Rising’—which is really the branding of the often unvarnished attempt to renew a Scramble for Africa—lies the vast majority of Africans who live under siege. Whether it be the militarism on the continent or the xenophobia outside of the continent—where because of neoliberal economic policies many more are forced to reside—the utter contingency of Black life is a blaring reminder of the worse moments of European modernity. Pambazuka

Hitler, Jewish refugees and Tanzanian policies towards Palestine
The current war between Israel and Palestine has once again brought to the forefront a debate about the struggles between the two peoples. The Palestinian/Israel conflict has polarized world opinion. Many countries, particularly African, have had to tread carefully while constructing their policies towards Israel and Palestine. The pendulum has increasingly veered in support of the Palestinian people. Throughout most of the 1960s through 1980s, Tanzania was one of the African countries that supported the Palestinian struggle. This support can be partly attributed to the leadership of President Julius K. Nyerere. Pambazuka