Olivia African Studies 2017

The existence of white privilege is still prevalent in post-apartheid South Africa. In the case of Oscar Pistorius, a paralympic, some claim, “ Pistorius had received preferential treatment as a wealthy, white celebrity .”. Pistorius was originally convicted with culpable homicide of his girlfriend. He was sentenced to 6 years out of the usual 15 for murder in South Africa. Not only was his sentence less than half of prescribed minimum of 15 years but he was released after just 10 months and placed under house arrest. On November 24 the Constitutional Court of South Africa gave Pistorius, who was not present, the minimum 15 year sentence. While his privilege may have earned him leniency previously, the Courts have revised their decision in light of outrage from the public as well as to establish, “...their trust in the justice system..”. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/24/oscar-pistorius-prison-sentence-doubled-south-african-court-reeva-steenkamp

The article I found ties directly into the reading of Short Chapter 6. The article discusses exactly what we covered in class, the long-term effects of colonialism in Africa. As debated in class, it is hard to discern whether the colonization of africa can be considered detrimental to the continent or if there is some positive we can extract out of the circumstances. We concluded on the grey area that lies in between, but this article discusses how the model of being “civilized” and “modern” are directly tied to western powers and influences. The article states, “like most people today, has come to accept that the only metric for measuring modernity is through the western lens. This is the heart of the problem”. The article claims that the root of this problem was the initial pull-out of the colonizers from Africa, and how the remnants leftover in the colonies all had a distinct social, political, and economic structures of their western colonizer essentially “hollowing out” the true

The corruption taking place in the political realm of South Africa can be traced back its colonial roots. Despite the colonization of Africa being extremely brief relative to the Americas, the settlers in South Africa still managed to ingrain deep social, economic and political issues that are reflected in South Africa in the twenty-first century. The corruption of the President Jacob Zuma has been notorious for months and with the 2019 elections gearing up the younger candidates are gearing up to try and snatch power from the established corruption that is clearly existing in the government. The ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) has been in power since South Africa's first free elections in the 1990’s but has clearly been in decline since its first ANC President Nelson Mandela. Younger candidates such as Sindiso Magaqa puts his life on the line to provide a voice and representation for his people in his municipality, which is essentially a strip of restau

The problem of poaching African elephants for their ivory tusks has long affected the elephant population. If we analyze the elephant population by region East Africa has taken a hard hit with their population being, “halved in a decade”. Similarly in Central Africa the illegal killings have still remained very high according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. In a positive contrast the elephant population have stabilized and are on the rise in Southern Africa. This stabilization can be due to the the rise of different countries applying restrictions and laws against ivory markets. Another factor can be due to the an increase in seizures of illegal ivory. Because the world markets including Hong Kong, the US, China and the UK are implementing bans on ivory it has caused a panic in those participating in the illegal ivory trade. This closing of markets and increase in restrictions have initiated a panic in the traders resulting in them trying to sell off as

It's hard to consider a place where an educational opportunity is not equal for boys and girls. Particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa there is a trend in the educational opportunity concerning girls and young women. South Sudan is particularly plagued with this where “three-quarters of girls do not even make it to primary school”. There seemed to be a connection between the countries on the top 10 toughest places for girls to get an education and the situations their citizens faced living in them. Countries that are politically destabilized by war lead to displacement of the citizens in the society. These displaced citizens are at risk for poverty and poor nutrition due to the instability of the nation. These people and families whose lives are being shaken up ultimately affect the young girls who find themselves without an opportunity to attend school and receive a quality education. Girls in these situations are more often then not expected to work which is reasonable if on

        Does anyone else remember that one time Donald Trump enacted a travel ban? While some countries have since been redacted the newest edition to the countries banned from traveling to the United States is Chad. The article explores the possible reasons for the denial of Chadians, and there are not many. The first argument involves a statement saying that "Chad has failed to 'adequately share public-safety and terrorism-related information'". This seems like a counterintuitive statement because the US has made previous statements of their excitement to "expanding the cooperation" with Chad. The article also made a point that "Chad has been one of the more effective US counter-terrorist allies in the Sub-Saharan region for several years". This reasoning seems pretty invalid because the pattern of behavior in Chad in relation to the US has not changed, the only thing that has changed is the President and in turn his interpretations of ties of l