David Olusoga

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As the world loses faith in democracy, leaders of vision are desperately needed

ReflexionesDemocracia

“Across the globe, democracy is in a state of malaise”. That is the bleak assessment of a report from the Centre for the Future of Democracy at Cambridge University. Here in the UK, three out of five of us – 60.3% of the voting population – are unhappy with the functioning of our democracy. The last time we saw comparable levels of dissatisfaction with the way we are governed was during the “winter of discontent” in 1978-79.

And there is plenty more bad news where that came from – bad news for democracy across the globe.

In the US, for the first time ever, the majority lack faith in the democratic system.…  Seguir leyendo »

An exhibition ‘Namibia-Germany: a divided history’, at the German Historical Museum in Berlin examines the history of reconciliation with the former Africa colony. Photograph: -/AFP/Getty Images

MundoÁfricaEuropaUnión Europea, ,

One morning last summer, I was ushered into a little office in the Botswana National Archives. I’d asked the archivists to dig out a document that I had wanted to see for 20 years. After a couple of phone calls, the file was brought in. Near the top of a stack of yellowing papers was a signed, original copy of the Vernichtungsbefehl – the extermination order.

Drafted in 1904, it is an explicit command for the extermination of an entire people. It bore the signature of its author, the German general Lothar von Trotha, and was addressed to the Herero people of Namibia, Botswana’s neighbour to the west, and formerly the German colony of South West Africa.…  Seguir leyendo »