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No shortcuts, no subtitles, no substitutes Reflections on the UDF after 40 years By Allan Aubrey Boesak Hardly a day passes that I am not stopped on the street by someone with almost always two questions, writes ALLAN BOESAK. First, referring to the dire situations South Africans are facing today:…

Editorial By Martin Nicol New Agenda 89 features three articles that look back 40 years to the formation of the United Democratic Front (UDF). It is comforting to look back. We can wonder at the principles, sacrifices – and compromises – made then to forge a united front to stand…

The Institute for African Alternatives and Surplus Radical Books are pleased to invite you to a film screening of “Concerning Violence: Nine Scenes from Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defense” by Göran Hugo Olsson. This event forms part of our African Film Series in which we explore the life and times of important African…

The Institute for African Alternatives and Surplus Radical Bookshop are pleased to invite you to a film screening of “Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man” by Robin Shuffield. This event forms part of our African Film Series in which we explore the life and times of important African revolutionaries and events…

Other Side of the Track: by Clement Du Plessis Surplus Radical Books and the Institute for African Alternatives invite you to join us for a book launch of “Other Side of the Track”, by Clement du Plessis. This event happens on Monday 22nd May 2023, at 6 pm at Surplus…

Climate crisis response plans for hardest hit Southern African countries By Élitz-Doris C. Okwudili Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe have been particularly hard hit by recent powerful cyclones, which left a trail of death and destruction. ÉLITZ-DORIS OKWUDILI tracks the impact of Cyclones Idai and Ana1 and presents the plans designed…

E-Waste Dumping: A brief survey of the laws that apply in East Africa By Elkanah O. Babatunde The use of electronic devices has skyrocketed, which implies an increase in the number of devices that are being thrown away. The result is the production of large quantities of waste, known as…

Climate diplomacy: Harnessing AI for damage mitigation in Africa By Sharon Tshipa The African Union’s Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy and Action Plan (2022-2032) highlights the use of computers and the internet as critical in building climate resilience across Africa. SHARON TSHIPA reviews research on the potential of Artificial…

This Forum is hosted by IFAA and Surplus Radical Books and will be held at the Ashley Kriel Hall, Community House, Salt River Cape Town, on Tuesday 9th May 2023 at 6 pm. Launched at the Rocklands Community Hall, in Cape Town on 20th August 1983, the United Democratic Front (UDF)…

We are taking on water, signals for help are ignored, our leaders have abandoned ship IFAA featured The Raft of the Medusa by French artist Theodore Gericault as the cover picture for the latest issue of its flagship journal, New Agenda. A grim portrayal of human suffering, our aim was…

Beyond the tipping point By Martin Nicol Economists debate the impact on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and whether lost production should be measured in billions or trillions of rands. Ordinary citizens suffer transport disruption, cell phone outages and the closure of government offices, which shut down when the power…

Understanding Ethiopia’s Tigray War Martin Plaut & Sarah Vaughan Publisher: Hurst Publishers, London. 2023, 392 pgs Review by Phillip van Niekerk Understanding Ethiopia’s Tigray War, an account of the conflict and its long and complex historical roots by Sarah Vaughan and Martin Plaut, former Africa Editor of the BBC, was…

Apartheid’s Stalingrad: How the townships of the Eastern Cape defied the apartheid war regime By Rory Riordan Publisher: Jacana, Johannesburg. 2022, R420 Review by Dominique Souchon This book’s subtitle grabs the imagination. Strategies and tactics that organisations developed first in the Eastern Cape to resist the apartheid system were adapted…

Against Decolonisation: Taking African agency seriously By Olúfémi Táíwò Publisher: Hurst, London, 2022. R388 Review by Anye-Nkwenti Nyamnjoh In his book, Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency Seriously, in Hurst publisher’s African Arguments series, the philosopher contends that we should limit our use of “decolonisation” to what he considers its original…

A key theme of Vladimir Putin’s justification for the war against Ukraine is that Russia is threatened by a Nazi regime empowered by NATO who together constitute an existential threat to his country. A year since the beginning of the Russian invasion, IVOR CHIPKIN asks what we should make of…