By Aaron Maasho

Ethiopia and Eritrea are still at each others’ throats. The two neighbours fought hammer and tongs in sun-baked trenches during a two-year war over a decade ago, before a peace deal ended their World War I-style conflict in 2000. Furious veRed Sea, UNrbal battles, however, have continued to this day.

Yet, amid the blistering rhetoric and scares over a return to war, analysts say the feuding rivals are reluctant to lock horns once again. Neighbouring South Sudan and some Ethiopian politicians are working on plans to bring both sides to the negotiating table.

Asmara has been named, shamed and then slapped with two sets of U.N. sanctions over charges that it was aiding and abetting al Qaeda-linked rebels in lawless Somalia in its proxy war with Ethiopia. However, a panel tasked with monitoring violations of an arms embargo on Somalia said it had no proof of Eritrean support to the Islamist militants in the last year.

Nevertheless, Eritrea's foreign ministry wasted little time in pointing a finger of accusation at its perennial rival. “The events over the past year have clearly shown that it is in fact Ethiopia that is actively engaged in destabilising Eritrea in addition to its continued occupation of sovereign Eritrean territory in violation of the U.N. Charter,” the ministry said in a statement last month.

The Red Sea state was referring to Addis Ababa’s open declaration in 2011 in which its late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his country would no longer take a “passive stance” towards its rival following Eritrea’s alleged plot to bomb targets in the Ethiopian capital during an African Union gathering of heads of state.

Then foreign minister (and now premier) Hailemariam Desalegn followed up on the rhetoric soon afterwards by disclosing his government’s support to Eritrean rebels. Meles and Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki were once comrades-in-arms, even rumoured to be distant relatives. Ethiopia’s late leader rubber-stamped a 1993 referendum that granted independence to the former province after their rebel groups jointly toppled Communist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam’s military junta two years earlier.

The love affair did not last long. The pair fell out spectacularly after Eritrea introduced its own currency in 1997 and Ethiopia responded by insisting on trading in dollars. Their economic spat aggravated already simmering border tensions, which culminated in Eritrea deploying its tanks months later and occupying hotly disputed territory that was under Addis Ababa’s administration.

Ethiopian troops breached Eritrea’s trenches nearly a year later and retook contested ground - namely the flashpoint town of Badme – before a peace deal was signed. What then followed is the sticking point that remains today. An independent boundary commission awarded Badme to Eritrea in 2002 but the ruling is yet to take effect. Ethiopia wants to negotiate its implementation and warns that delimitation of the border as per the finding would unreasonably split towns and other geographical locations into two.

Asmara on the other hand insists on an immediate hand-over. The bickering has evolved into a proxy war and diplomatic skulduggery as both sides attempt to bring about regime change in the other. But despite the harsh words, mediation efforts are in the pipeline. Deng Alor, neighbouring South Sudan's Minister for Cabinet Affairs, told Reuters on Wednesday his newly-independent country is about to embark on rounds of shuttle diplomacy between the capitals of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Both countries, he said, have given their blessing.

A handful of Ethiopian members of parliament are also devising a similar initiative, local sources say. Addis Ababa has never ruled out mediation. But even though Eritrea publicly dismisses any idea of a thaw in strained relations before the Badme spat is resolved, recent developments might change its mind, some believe.

Ethiopian analysts think Asmara now realises that its neighbour may easily adopt a more belligerent stance following the sudden death of Meles, who they say stood firm against a potential slide towards full-scale conflict. And of course not all Ethiopians express enthusiasm about an independent Eritrea, the creation of which left their country without access to the Red Sea.

Some diplomats say the chances of both sides making drastic concessions from their current positions remain slim. So will the mediation efforts finally yield a deal?

By Cosmas Butunyi

The dust is finally settling on the storm that was kicked off in South Africa by a controversial painting of President Jacob Zuma with his genitals exposed.

The country that boasts one of the most liberal constitutions in the world and the only one on the African continent with a constitutional provision that protects and defends the rights of  gays and lesbians , had   its values put up to  the test  after an artist    ruffled feathers by a painting that questioned the moral values  of the ruling African National Congress . 

For weeks, the storm ignited by the painting  called  ‘The Spear’, raged on, sucking in Goodman Gallery that displayed it and City Press, a weekly newspaper that had published it on its website. The matter eventually found its way into the corridors of justice, where the ruling ANC sought redress against the two institutions. The party also mobilised its supporters to stage protests outside the courtroom when the case it filed came up for hearing. They also matched to the gallery and called for a boycott of City Press , regarded as one of the country's most authoritative newspapers. 

 The controversy  has cooled down now that the newspaper  has  removed the artwork from its website, the gallery pulled it down  after it was defaced. The ANC  has withdrawn its lawsuit.

Throughout this drama, one issue that came up frequently in the huge debate that it kicked off, was the issue of artistic licence, specifically in Africa.

“We say No to abuse of artistic expression”, a placard screamed during one of the protests called by the ANC outside a court in Johannesburg after a case the ruling party had filed came up for hearing.  

In other parts of Africa novelists such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o of Kenya, playwright Wole Soyinka of Nigeria, and poet Jack Mapanje of Malawi have been locked up in the past for their critical writings.  

Where does much of Africa stand when it comes to artists challenging the ethos by which much of the continent is guided?.   What role should art play in African society?   Can art be used in modern Africa to correct ills of society?. What of African playwrights and novelists who have  been thrown behind bars for too much scrutiny of national governments.

By Isaac Esipisu

Although the role of political parties in Africa has changed dramatically since the sweeping reintroduction of multi-party politics in the early 1990s, Africa’s political parties remain deficient in many ways, particularly their organizational capacity, programmatic profiles and inner-party democracy.

The third wave of democratization that hit the shores of Africa 20 years ago has undoubtedly produced mixed results as regards to the democratic quality of the over 48 countries south of the Sahara. However, one finding can hardly be denied: the role of political parties has evidently changed dramatically.

Notwithstanding few exceptions such as Eritrea , Swaziland and Somalia , in almost all sub-Saharan countries, governments legally allow multi-party politics. This is in stark contrast to the single-party regimes and military oligarchies that prevailed before 1990.

After years of marginalization during autocratic rule, many African political parties have regained their key role in democratic politics by mediating between politics and society. Multi-partyism paved the way for genuine parliamentary opposition and the strengthening of parliaments in decision-making. However, several shortcomings still remain: many African political parties suffer from low organizational capacity and a lack of internal democracy.

Dominated by individual leaders, often times lifelong chairpersons and “Big Men”, youth and women remain marginalized within party structures.

There are five main types of political parties: Elite-based; mass-based; ethnicity-based; electoralist and movement parties. The ethnicity-based party seems to be most salient in Africa, while other types, although not completely absent, do not apply to Africa because they demand a high level of bureaucratic organization, professional electoral campaigns or distinct ideological positions.

Political parties in Africa can develop into truly democratic institutions when African leaders begin to promote bureaucratic organization, internal democracy, accountability and transparency.

Some of the shortcomings of African parties can be explained by the fact that most parties are relatively young, specifically designed to contest elections and therefore lack experience on party matters. They are not the product of social interest groups but largely formed by individuals whose main interest is access to power.

That is not the case with South Africa’s ruling Africa National Congress (ANC), which celebrated its 100th anniversary on the 8th of January, 2012.

ANC is among the oldest parties in Africa and since taking power in 1994 the party says it has made big strides in erasing the economic and social injustices caused by decades of oppression of the black majority by a white minority under apartheid.

Underpinning the economy is the most advanced infrastructure on the continent, the strongest banks and a well-developed rule of law and judicial system, making South Africa a stepping stone for investment in Africa's quickly emerging states. One constant factor that has kept the ANC government on the fiscal straight and narrow and reassured investors has been the National Treasury, led since 1994 by just two finance ministers highly praised for their fiscal discipline.

The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Survey ranks South Africa as top in the world for its regulation of its security exchanges, number two in the world behind Canada for the soundness of its banks. It is also one of the easiest places for a firm to raise money by issuing shares.

The ANC, with its many internal problems and criticism of its leadership, has had a hands-off style of leadership when it comes to fiscal and monetary policy, something that many African ruling parties don’t do.

The ANC has also relied on labour for support and is not about to set in place reforms that would loosen one of the world’s most restrictive labour markets, even though economists said changes are needed to make it more competitive.

The ANC has done what many parties write in their manifestos but fail to implement. Do you think Africa needs more hands off parties like the ANC in running their economies? Are well entrenched and older parties good in running economies? What has the ANC done in improving people’s life in South Africa and is it enough?

And Michele Bachmann? Well, “she doesn’t like Muslims,” Paul said. “She hates Muslims. She wants to go get ‘em.” Rick Santorum, too, has a preoccupation with “gay people and Muslims.”

Here’s the clip:

Back in 2002, Mitt Romney welcomed francophone volunteers to the Salt City Olympics with a friendly introductory video he recorded in French. It’s “an incredible experience in your life,” said Romney, who spent more than two years in France as a Mormon missionary in the 1960s. “The kind that you live only once.”

It’s been years since freedom fries and freedom toast were items on the menu at House of Representatives cafes, and bumper stickers proclaiming “Iraq first, France next!” long ago went out of fashion. But AmericanLP, a new, self-identified “progressive” SuperPAC, is betting that the little video message was a blunder.

In a new ad the group is circulating around the internet and running on MSNBC, CNBC, and Bloomberg TV this week, the clip of Romney speaking French is mock-subtitled with a string of past comments — that he has since retracted — on topics including abortion, climate change, and immigration.

The main purpose of the video, according to a press release, is to “mock Mitt Romney and the current state of the Republican Party.” Romney, according to AmericanLP founder T.J. Walker, is “the strongest Republican nominee — the person most likely to beat Barack Obama in 2012 — primarily because he’s not crazy, he’s not a drooling fanatic the way seemingly all the other Republican candidates are.”

The ad also aims to deliver “payback for Republicans mocking John Kerry for his French-speaking abilities in ads” in the 2004 campaign, when Republicans tried to depict Kerry as an elitist who was out of touch with “regular Americans” — a point they drove home by highlighting his ability to speak French and proclaiming that he “looks French.”

Romney video credit: AmericanLPorg/YouTube

Kerry video credit: pkreutzer/YouTube

A month ago, after a series of poor debate performances that culminated in his infamous “oops” gaffe, Rick Perry was on the defensive. “If we’re electing a ‘debater-in-chief,’ don’t elect me,” he told Megyn Kelly on America Live on Nov. 10.

Today, by contrast, in his second new ad of the day, Perry — who trails Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Newt Gingrich in Iowa — is celebrating last Saturday’s ABC News/Yahoo debate in Des Moines.

In the nearly two-minute-long video, titled ‘Momentum,’ Perry weaves together favorable reviews from observers including Chris Cillizza, Larry Sabato, RedState.org, and Tim Albrecht with miscellaneous Iowa-esque imagery and clips of Perry speaking at the debate.

Watch:

Credit: rickperry.org/YouTube

Rick Perry appropriates the idea of political correctness in his latest television ad, a thirty-second video denouncing Washington as “the capital of political correctness, where double speak reigns and the truth is frowned upon.”

“You can’t say that Congressmen becoming lobbyists is a form of legal corruption,” Perry says in the ad. “Or that we give aid money to countries who oppose America. Or that Washington insiders are bankrupting social security.”

Here’s the video, courtesy of rickperry.org:

Credit: rickperry.org/YouTube

The video goes on to outline Gingrich’s potential vulnerabilities, including ethics violations, lobbying profits, flip-flopping on issues, and immigration. Check it out:

Credit: RestoreOurFuture and YouTube.

A day after releasing an incendiary ad condemning gays serving in the military and “Obama’s war on religion,” the Perry campaign has put out a new campaign video, this one focused on his rivals’ stances on the individual mandate.

“We don’t want government-mandated health care,” says a voice-over in the ad:

Yet Newt Gingrich supports it.

And Mitt Romney — he put it into law in Massachusetts.

Worse, Barack Obama forced it on the entire nation.

Rick Perry? He’ll repeal it, starting day one.

The video cuts to Perry, walking through the same scenic outdoor background as yesterday’s ad (though wearing a different jacket), who tells viewers he’s an “outsider” and “won’t let the big government liberals ruin this country.”

Check out the ad, via rickperry.org, below. And be sure to catch his spin-and-grin at the 0:26 mark:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo credit: rickperry.org.

Governor Rick Perry accuses President Obama of leading a “war on religion” in his latest ad, a thirty second spot airing in Iowa that also condemns gays serving openly the military and regulations on school prayer.

“I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a Christian,” says Perry, who is polling at around 11 percent in Iowa according to a NYT/CBS poll released yesterday.

“But you don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know that there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military, but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.”

As President, I’ll end Obama’s war on religion, and I’ll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage. Faith made America strong. It can make her strong again.”

Perry was quick to criticize Obama on Tuesday after he advised U.S. diplomats and foreign aid workers to help “protect the human rights of LGBT persons” abroad.

“Promoting special rights for gays in foreign countries is not in America’s interests and not worth a dime of taxpayers’ money,” Perry said. “Investing tax dollars promoting a lifestyle many Americas of faith find so deeply objectionable is wrong.”

Here’s the Perry’s new ad, via RPerry2012: