South Africa's Political Playground

Today the Council on Foreign Relations' "Africa in Transition" Blog published the second of my pieces on South African politics, "South Africa's Political Playground." It was an honor to be able to contribute my thoughts and I especially want to thank John Campbell, who oversees the blog, and Emily Mellgard of CFR who helped steer my work to publication.

The 2014 South African Election

I had a guest post appear on the Council on Foreign Relations Blog "Africa in Transition" today. "The 2014 South African Election: Another ANC Landslide" is the first of two contributions on South African politics that they will publish.

Graceland (and its Controversies) at 25

Over at the Foreign Policy Association's Africa Blog I have a piece on Paul Simon's and Ladysmith Black Mambazo's Graceland at 25 in which I explore the controversies (re-examined in a new documentary that sadly I have not seen) over that album in light of the cultural boycott of Apartheid South Africa.

The Economist v. The Economist

At the FPA Africa Blog I show how The Economist loses a debate against itself (and rather badly) on the issue of South African politics and the ANC. It's a thing to behold.

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.

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.

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.

Me on African Politics (Or: There is No Love Like Self Love)

It's been a while since I posted. All of the usual excuses hold: Travel, family in town, laziness, the new semester is underway. Plus a new one: I am now President of the UTPB Faculty Senate, which has occupied an enormous amount of time already.

In any case, believe it or not I have been using my brain here and there. For example, I am quoted at length in an article in today's Christian Post about the Libya situation. Short version: we need to wait and see before we really know what it all means.

And ISN Insights has published my latest piece, "The ANC: Historical Irony on the Horizon?" In it I explore the current state of South African politics while wondering if President Jacob Zuma is going to face a bum's rush akin to the one that Thabo Mbeki faced in 2007-2008. Zuma was the greatest beneficiary of those events. Will he now find his presidency in jeopardy based on a similar wave of discontent?

Happy reading.

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.

ISN Insights: The ANC (Self Indulgence Alert)

I am pleased to announce that I have begun a new regular gig writing about African affairs for the Zurich-based International Relations and Security Network (ISN). I will be contributing to their ISN Insights. My first piece for them, which is on the state of the African National Congress, has been posted.

[Crossposted at the FPA Africa Blog.]

Self Indulgence Alert: "Stopped at the Try Line? Rugby, Race, and Nationalism in Post-Apartheid South Africa"

Forgive the self indulgence, but Impumelelo: The Interdisciplinary Electronic Journal of African Sports (based at my PhD alma mater Ohio University, but with no history department connections) has published an article of mine that you can actually access (still a too-rare thing for scholarly articles), "Stopped at the Try Line? Rugby, Race, and Nationalism in Post-Apartheid South Africa."

The article has a long history. It began as a seminar paper back when I was a PhD student. I continued to work on the topic and fleshed it out for a conference on South African sport at Stellenbosch University in 2008. Peter Alegi, a renowned historian of African sport who is part of Michigan State University's fantastic African Studies program, (his book, "Laduma!" on the history of South African soccer is an essential work in the field, and his newest book, African Soccerscapes, is sure to achieve the same status), serves as guest editor of this special issue of Impumelelo.

It's proving to be a pretty big summer for me with regard to my work on South African sport. I have an article coming out soon in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs on rugby and soccer in post-1994 South Africa. I have a review essay under consideration elsewhere. A few weeks back I gave a talk at the Newberry Library on race and rugby in South Africa (which uses the same title as the Impumelelo article, but which is in fact a much more expansive project). And of course I will be at the World Cup and will be doing a number of writing projects, scholarly and otherwise, from South Africa.

The opening game of the World Cup will already be in the books two weeks from today.

[Cross-posted at the FPA Africa Blog.]

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.]

South Africa's Election (Part II) -- Self Indulgence Alert

The Foreign Policy Association has published Part II of my analysis of South Africa's elections. (Go here for Part I.)

The South African Elections: Self Indulgence Edition

Tomorrow South Africans will go to the polls for the fourth time in the post-Apartheid era. The Foreign Policy Association has published my preview. This is the first part of a two-part feature. The second half will appear later this week when I assess the immediate aftermath of what could represent a very important thermometer for South Africa's still fledgling, but absolutely vital, democracy.

South African Politics

I have written some of my observations about South African politics at the Foreign Policy Association's South Africa Blog and Africa Blog. Please do check one of them out if you get a chance.

They Like Me, They Really Like Me!: Self Indulgence Alert

The editor of Cape Town's Cape Argus saw my latest Foreign Policy Association think piece and asked for permission to republish it. The Argus is one of South Africa's largest daily newspapers, so naturally I was thrilled to see it appear very prominently on the op-ed page on Wednesday.

Self Indulgence Alert: South Africa's Magnificent Catastrophe

My latest article for the Foreign Policy Association, South Africa's Magnificent Catastrophe, was published last week. In it, I tentatively compare current South African politics to the situation America faced in 1800. Let me know if you think that it works.