Word: africa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Kenya was gripped by the kind of fever usually seen only when a Mega Millions lottery jackpot creeps past the $100 million range. In the aftermath of the country's violent political spasm, the mania was perceived as a sure bet on prosperity: the initial public offering of East Africa's most profitable company, the mobile phone service provider Safaricom...
There is real reason for excitement. Much to the surprise of technology analysts, Africa is the fastest-growing mobile phone market on the planet and Safaricom has profited handsomely by catering to customers who don't have a lot to spend. In 2007, the company's pre-tax profit was $370 million, making it what was believed to be the most successful company in the continent outside South Africa. The more stunning figure is its subscriber base - which grew from less than 20,000 in 2000 to about 10 million today, upending the conventional wisdom that sub-Saharan Africans, especially...
Zimbabwe, the physical heart of southern Africa, is once again its political and spiritual battleground. As I write this, President Robert Mugabe is trying to block democratic change that challenges his 28-year rule. But he and his party, the Zimbabwe African National Union?Patriotic Front, do not regard the people's votes as the arbiter of power - or, if they do in theory, they do not accept in practice that they could ever lose an election. In Mugabe's eyes, his right to rule derives from his status as the leader of the liberation movement, the breaker of white...
Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, has always been crucial to the politics of southern Africa. Ruthlessly grabbed by Cecil Rhodes and a ragtag army of white adventurers in the 19th century, it became virtually a European country, the original inhabitants driven from their land and reduced to workers and servants. Although Rhodesia had one of the continent's best-educated African populations, it denied Africans political power. In 1965, after Britain tried to force change on the white settlers, they declared it an independent, white-ruled republic. Black majority rule? "Not in a thousand years," proclaimed the white leader, Ian Smith. That...
...outsiders, the peaceful transitions from white to black rule in Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa were nothing short of miraculous. Many expected that white rule in Southern Africa would end in a bloodbath. But there was a price. While the new rulers accepted the notions of Western-style multiparty democracy, in their hearts the liberation movements did not contemplate that they could lose power at the ballot...