South Africa: Year in Review

I have just posted my Year in Review post over at the Foreign Policy Association. Because we have a nice roster of bloggers covering the continent under my watch, I was able to focus this year's post on South Africa's 2011 with some looking forward to 2012.

Happy New Year everyone.

At the FPA Africa Blog

In the long process of restoring normalcy to my parambulating life I am back to regular posting at the Foreign Policy Association's Africa blog. Today I put up two posts. One on the passing of South African cricket legend Basil D'Oliviera, the other on the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I thank you for checking them both out.

Malema and the ANC

I have a longish post, written at 35,000 feet over the heartland on the way to Godless Washington, DC, on the ANC's suspension of ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema over at the FPA's Africa Blog.

Meanwhile next week, on Tuesday and Wednesday I'll be at the Sport and the Global South Conference at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia where I will be on the program. If you are in the greater DC area, swing on by.

The Travel itinerary

I have lots of travel ahead in the weeks to come with little rest in between. Today I depart for New England. I'll arrive in Boston, drive north, take a quick overnight stop in the old home town to stay with my Dad, and early tomorrow morning will head to Burlington, Vermont where I am on the program for the Northeast Workshop in Southern African Studies.

I get home late Tuesday night and the next day head to Chapel Hill, where I will be giving a talk at the Wilson Special Collections Library in a program titled "The Long Road to Parchman: North Carolina and the Desegregation of Interstate Busing." I'll be discussing the Journey of Reconciliation and the Freedom Rides in North Carolina. From there I'll fly straight to the Southern Historical Association's annual meeting in Baltimore.

I'll return from Baltimore for just a few days before heading on to the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) meeting, where I am giving a paper on the 2010 World Cup. Then it's back for a few days before one last trip to Washington, where I am giving a paper on gender, race and South African track and field at the Sport and the Global South Conference at George Mason University. I'll also squeeze a quick trip up to Williams for Homecoming while I'm at it. And it all ends with a socer tournament in Austin.

I've somehow even managed to avoid canceling any classes during this crazy month or so.

Posting will be light, it goes without saying, but I leave you with this assessment of Liberia's fascinating but fraught presidential election.

The FPA Great Decisions National Opinion Ballot: On Somalia

Over at the Foreign Policy Association I assess the Somalia-related questions in this year's FPA Great Decisions National Opinion Ballot.

Julius Malema: Supernova?

Posting has been light lately. Yes there will be a Red Sox postmortem.

In the meantime, I wrote a bit about South Africa's volatile ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema at the Foreign Policy Association today. Go read that.

The Rugby World Cup is Underway

I've written a somewhat lengthy post over at the Foreign Policy Association Blogs about the early days of the IRB Rugby World Cup which is underway in New Zealand. In keeping with my work at the FPA, the focus of my piece is predominantly on the two African teams, Namibia and South Africa, with particular focus on the latter. And in keeping with the history and politics of sport and especially rugby in that country, I talk a bit about the issue of race and transformation and how that issue will linger for some time even if right now the focus should be on the Springboks.

On FPA Blogging (Self Indulgence and All That)

Ok, after a couple of rough weeks I think I am back up and running and blogging at the FPA's Blogs, which, you'll note, have undergone a quite radical format change. I still oversee all of the Africa-related blogging, including writing regularly on African Affairs. But the format is geared toward feeding into one master blog that you can break down into constituent areas rather than emphasizing the constituent areas that can be compiled into a master blog, if that makes sense.

In any case, my meatiest post in a while is up. In it I use the current wave of strikes to explore the state of South African politics and especially the relationship between COSATU and the ANC.

Just Pure Self Indulgence

I'm not posting a ton here, and I'm not great at Twitter, but you might want to follow me there as well @dcatafrica

And of course there is always the FPA Africa Blog where you can see smart dcat.

Off to NYE Shenanigans

Over at the Foreign Policy Association's Africa Blog I have posted my annual "Year in Review."

I am traveling to New England today for eleven days of the Boston-New Hampshire access punctuated by New Year's shenanigans in Boston, a few days in the old hometown, and the American Historical Association annual meeting in Boston, where I am on a panel on the Freedom Rides that will take place before a showing of Freedom Riders. If you're in the Boston area, do swing on by. I'll even sign this if you have a copy. (Prediction: My shamelessness will extend into 2011!)

Happy New Year, everyone!

World Cup Countdown Continues (Continued!)

I am gearing up for the World Cup in a big way. This week I am making as many final preparations as possible. On Monday I head down to San Antonio for a couple of family commitments, and I'll fly from there to Washington and beyond on Wednesday. I will be spending a night in Addis Ababa before flying out the next morning to Johannesburg, landing just a few hours before the crucial opening match of the tournament, pitting South Africa against Mexico in a match that will transcend soccer.

I'll be posting daily at the Foreign Policy Association Africa Blog on not only the tournament itself, but more significantly on the interconnections between race, politics, sport, and nationalism. I am also working on a few other opportunities to write more expansive essays, though the progress on that front has been fitful.

There will, as a consequence of all of this, be a lot more soccer talk around here than usual, though my daily coverage will not appear at dcat. I'm no expert on the Beautiful Game, though I am doing my best to climb the learning curve as quickly as possible. But I hope you'll follow along.

A soccer link for today: The best teams that did not win the World Cup.

FPA Africa Year in Review (Self Indulgence Alert)

Over at the Foreign Policy Association's Africa Blog I have published my (very long) annual Year in Review post. It includes my predictions for 2010 (and an assessment of my predictions for 2009).

Disunity in South Africa (Self Indulgence Edition)

The Foreign Policy Association recently published my latest opinion piece, "Disunity in South Africa." It explores one of my evergreen topics, the possibility that the South African Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) will break away from the African National Congress' (ANC) Tripartite Alliance.

[Cross-posted at the Foreign Policy Association's Africa Blog.]

At the FPA Blogs (Semi-Self Indulgence Alert)

There are a great deal of changes under way at the Foreign Policy Association Blogs. We are consolidating the largest network of global affairs-related blogs into a series of categores. My Africa Blog will now be in the category of "Africa and the Middle East" and will include Africa, Egypt (not up yet), Iraq, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, and Middle East. I will be serving as both Senior Blogger and the Senior Editor for this category. I hope you'll continue to check out my Africa blog, the blogs in my category, and the network as a whole.

The newest addition to these blogs is Reza Akhlaghi, the first addition under my watch. He is our new blogger on Iran and his first post is must-read stuff. Here is my introduction of Reza at the Iran Blog.