Africa

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By honouring Nomarussia Bonase with this award, the jury of the Anne Klein Women’s Award 2017 acclaims the work and commitment of a South African activist who tirelessly advocates for women’s rights, gender democracy, reparation and reconciliation. Nomarussia Bonase is a role model to many.

The NGO Natural Justice and its regional partners, with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, have jointly assisted a number of communities to develop community protocols in the context of extractive industries. You can download them and the project report here.

Nomarussia Bonase was born in 1966 in Apartheid South Africa. Early on, her struggle for equal rights begins. Later she joins the Khulumani Support Group founded by women. A portrait of the winner of the Anne-Klein-Women’s-Award 2017.

Like nobody else Thuli Madonsela stands for the compliance of constitutional maxims in South Africa. In her seven years in the office as “public protector”, she repeatedly uncovered various abuses of powers by the political elite. We talked to the winner of this year’s German Africa Award.

The German politics on Africa was busy on migration and refugee issues in West Africa, especially Nigeria. But the crisis of internally displaced people within Nigeria is far greater. Mausi Segun, Head of Human Rights Watch in Nigeria, warns that the conflict continues to smolder despite.

In many regions of the world the freedom of the Internet is just an illusion. Especially in Arab countries, the neighbouring states of Russia and Subsahara-Africa the year 2015 marked the lowest point for democratic participation and civil liberties.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, explains in this interview with Christine Meissler why he will never give up fighting for democracy and human rights.

Civil society organisations can be a vanguard of progress for the LGBTI community. Despite the growing number of laws and policies impeding LGBTI advocacy, activists and organisations successfully challenge these trends.

The political situation in Zimbabwe is getting worse, the population is protesting with a Stay-Away against corruption, bond notes and a lack of payment. Paula Assubuji, from our office in South Africa, has spoken with Kudakwashe Chitsike about the current situation in the country.

South Africa's democracy was fought hard, the catalog of fundamental rights is now one of the most advanced in the world, but these must be claimed. Our office in Cape Town encourages feminist training, education and self-organization of discriminated groups.

Europe is going through troubled times and more than ever needs new ideas. South Africa born writer Breyten Breytenbach offers an outside perspective on the current state of the European project.

Following peaceful protests against a contested third term of the president, violence has once again escalated in Burundi. Efforts to end the crisis will continue to fail if they ignore the country’s history and its political landscape.

What if a poorer community created its own currency to foster social exchange? We interviewed Ruddick, the founder of the Bangla-Pesa to learn more about his remarkable experiment in community-based money.

Making commons come alive again in everyday life seems like a revolution that can be interpreted through two lenses. Is it a rediscovery of precapitalist and prestate organizational principles or is it a break with the current political order?

In 2005 Black shack revolted because they felt betrayed by the government. After that they started to organize their protest. Their demand for recognition goes beyond the liberal tradition of “inclusion” in a political or legal system.

South Africa is highly dependent on coal but also considered a leader on climate policy. How does it look at the upcoming climate summit in Paris? An interview with Richard Worthington.

In Burundi parliamentary and local elections are held today regardless of criticism and unrest. The incumbent President is running for office for the third time, although he therefore violates the Constitution.

On May 17 is the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia. We document a foto-project by the Women's Leadership Centre in Namibia, which aims to strengthen the resilience of young lesbians through the use of creative forms of expression.

How do you handle such pain? Zandile, a young woman from Capetown, was raped because she is lesbian. Warning for a graphic depiction of sexual violence.