News — President

Mohamed Siad Barre (Maxamed Siad Barre) was a military general in Somalia and the country’s third president. He came into power in October of 1969, leading a coup d’état against the elected government. Barre ruled over Somalia until 1991 when he was overthrown by militias, leading the country into a bloody civil war.

Barre was born in Shilabo, Ethiopia, in 1910 to a nomadic family from the Marehan clan. He spent his formative years attending school in Luuq, Italian Somaliland, and Mogadishu for his secondary education. He later joined the colonial police force. After Somalia gained independence in July of 1960, Barre became the Vice Commander of the Somali National Army.

In 1969, Somalia’s President Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke was assassinated, and a military group, the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC), staged a coup d’état, allowing Barre to assume power. Barre dissolved the constitution, parliament, and arrested politicians from the previous regime. The SRC renamed the country The Somali Democratic Republic and declared it a Marxist-Leninist one-party state. Barre adopted scientific socialism based on the teachings of the Quran and Marxism. He tried to rapidly industrialize and modernize the country by creating a new writing system, promoting cooperative farming, and leading an anti-tribal campaign. During Barre’s regime, all of Somalia’s major industries, from farming and oil to banking, were nationalized.

Barre pushed the idea of a Greater Somalia which refers to joining areas that Somalis are indigenous to, which includes Djibouti, the Ogaden in Ethiopia, and Kenya’s North Eastern Province. In July 1977, the Ogaden War broke out after the Barre’s administration tried to unite all these regions into Greater Somalia, starting with the Ogaden. The Somali National Army attacked Ethiopia, which was then under the socialist regime governing the nation. Somali armies were able to capture a significant part of Ogaden, but the war led the Soviet Union to shift their support from Somalia to Ethiopia. After the Soviets’ decision, the socialist world turned its back on Somalia. With the help of 15,000 Cuban troops, the Ethiopians pushed the Somali soldiers out of Ogaden in 1978. Somalia in turn cut its ties with the Soviet Union and switched its allegiance to the United States.

Discontent against the Barre regime grew after Somalia’s defeat in the Ogaden War. With the country’s economic sector crumbling, the entire nation faced a financial crisis, intensified by growing corruption among government officials. Although Barre led an “anti-tribalism” movement early in his regime, he now singled out the Isaaq tribe and subjected them to arbitrary arrests, rape, and torture. He also formed the Red Berets, a paramilitary unit to brutalize other clans. Consequently, many of them formed militia groups often supported by Ethiopia.

By the end of the 1990s the rebel group, Somali National Movement and other armed militias stormed the capital at Mogadishu forcing Barre to flee to Gedo, Somalia in January 1991. Unable to regain control of Mogadishu which was now under the control of the warlord Mohamed Farrah Aideed. Barre fled Somalia for Nairobi, Kenya and then Lagos, Nigeria. He died in Lagos on January 2, 1995 at the age of 85 and was buried in Gedo, Somalia.

It has been a week since the International Criminal Court (ICC) upheld an earlier acquittal of the former President of Ivory Coast, Laurent Koudou Gbagbo, bringing to an end a decade of legal problems for the 75-year-old who had been charged among others with murder and sexual abuse which marked postelection violence.

After the President of the ICC, Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, a Nigerian, declared on March 31 that “[t]he appeals chamber, by majority, has found no error that could have materially affected the decision of the trial chamber,” Gbagbo would have heaved the most profound sigh of relief he has ever managed. He had always maintained his innocence but the alacrity with which Gbagbo was processed for adjudication has been hailed as the best possible way to deal with powerful men whose reigns see unspeakable inhuman offenses.

Gbagbo was freed along with the Minister of Youth during his presidency, Charles Blé GoudéOn Wedne, a man blamed by loyalists of the current Ivorian president, Alassane Ouattara, as the one who led the organizational ground game for offensives against rebel alliances from the north as well as against civilians.

Judge Eboe-Osuji also repealed all the conditionalities attached to letting the men go. But as any observer of the politics in the Ivory Coast could tell you, this is a tense never-before-seen moment that will test the fragile peace in the West African country.

Welcomed home?

On Wednesday, Ouattara announced that Gbagbo and Blé Goudé were free to return to their home country if they wanted to. Ivorian authorities, perhaps in anticipation of the present moment, gave Gbagbo an ordinary passport as well as a diplomatic one, depending on which life he chose to live after the ICC’s proceedings.

Gbagbo’s travel expenses, and those of his family as well, will be paid for by the Ivorian state. But Ouattara’s announcement of these packages mentioned nothing about a 20-year prison sentence that awaits Gbagbo from a case tied to embezzlement. He was tried and sentenced in absentia in 2019. It is also not known if the Ivorian government will agree to Gbagbo’s financial demands in line with his importance as a former president.

Jeune Afrique, the pan-African Francophone magazine, has reported that Gbagbo is asking for “a €14,600 [$17,000] monthly allowance plus another €11,400 [$13,500] for transport, gas, electricity, and telephone bills.” These amounts are the same as what he was entitled to when he was arrested by the ICC in April of 2011.

Campaigners for peace and well-wishers will be gladdened by Ouattara’s commitment to involving the state in receiving Gbagbo. However, the president may be expected to go further than that. Gbagbo’s influence may not be insignificant despite being away for about a decade. In Gbagbo, it is possible for elements antithetic to Ouattara to find renaissance.

Religious and ethnic tensions are still very present too, one cannot forget. Ivory Coast still struggles to define what it means by a nation after 60 years.

There are even grounds to doubt what was heralded as reconciliatory efforts by Ouattara’s government last December when Gbagbo was handed the two passports. An African Intelligence report noted at the beginning of this year that the two men had not spoken, with one man waiting for the other to call.

Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli has died at the age of 61, the country’s vice-president said. He died on Wednesday from heart complications at a hospital in Dar es Salaam, Samia Suluhu Hassan disclosed this in a televised address to the nation late on Wednesday.

The BBC reported last Wednesday that Magufuli has not made a public appearance in some time, prompting Tanzanians to ask for the whereabouts of their president. The opposition leader, Tundu Lissu, said the president was on admission in a hospital due to COVID-19. This is yet to be confirmed. Lissu said that Magufuli was flown to Kenya last Monday but rather quietly. He added that Magufuli may have suffered a cardiac arrest in his illness.

Last year, the Covid-19 skeptic leader declared a “victory” of the pandemic over what he said were the prayers of Tanzanians. Magufuli’s administration had declared that the country was coronavirus-free. This came after the government insisted normal public life would have to go on in spite of the suspected increase in cases leading up to the end of last year. Schools remained open as did churches.

“The corona disease has been eliminated thanks to God,” Magufuli once stated in a speech, apparently because of prayers. The spiritual inclination was not a joke as the government warned the American Embassy in Dar-es-Salaam to stay out of Tanzania’s internal affairs after the American envoy issued a statement in May 2020 claiming that hospitals in the commercial capital were on the verge of collapse due to admitting coronavirus-infected patients.

Magufuli did not only allege foreign conspiracies to undermine his government but also moved to crush faith in Tanzania’s scientific research community. He once stated that “probably, the technicians are also bought to mislead” on infection and mortality rates in the country. 

The head of the national research unit in charge of understanding Tanzania’s case count and kinds of infection was sacked after his outfit was accused of finding coronavirus in goats and pawpaw.

The government then launched an investigation into “criminal possibility at the national laboratory”. While most African countries placed restrictions on public life, Tanzania did not. Apart from full churches and mosques, stadia were also loaded with soccer fans and continue to be.

Seasoned rapper and actor Ice Cube has revealed he is set to meet President Joe Biden to discuss his Contract with Black America (CWBA) plan after his administration reached out to him. The 51-year-old made the revelation during an interview on the Ryan Cameron: Uncensored radio show, saying Biden and his team got in touch with him on Tuesday, February 2, Revolt reported.

“They reached out; we gotta set the meeting,” he said, adding that they’re still planning on what the meeting is going to entail and how they’re going to have it – whether it’s going to be face to face or by zoom. Though the date for the meeting is yet to be set, he said it’s possible they could have it this month.

“I would love to bring some people in; I work with some great experts who know the root of the problem much better than me,” he said. “I would love to bring in the specialists I have and the experts I have to see what we can do to start moving the ball down the field.”

He added: “I’m available… Whenever they’re ready; I’m there. I’m hoping everything will be positive.”

The CWBA was set up by the Straight Outta Compton rapper in August with the aim of “striking at the heart of racism and [presenting] a blueprint to achieve racial economic justice,” according to Independent.

Per the project’s website, the CWBA will “provide conceptual approaches in several areas” including representation, lending, judicial and prison reform, police reform act, among others.

Also in the interview, the Friday actor, born O’Shea Jackson, spoke about the new administration’s endeavors towards helping minorities, saying they are “really into”, adding, “Black people in this country are in a unique position,” The Hill reported.

“There needs to be things as far as specialty programs. You know me, I’m all about reparations. It seems like a bad word to this administration but we gotta change that. We gotta have them speaking about reparations and add some fairness to this system,” he said.

He, however, said the reparations “can come in different forms” such as “programs, grants,” and “tax relief.” “We can figure it out,” he added. “It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. We’ll take something. But you’ve gotta do something.”

In October, Face2Face Africa reported Ice Cube got people on social media – including his fans – disappointed after the Donald Trump’s campaign adviser, Katrina Pierson, revealed the California native was helping them develop their Black Economic Empowerment “Platinum Plan”. He claimed both parties got in touch with him to about his CWBA plan, but the Biden and his team told him they’ll “address” the plan after the election.

Responding to that incident and the criticism that ensued, Cube said: “At the end of the day, whether a Democrat or a Republican is in the White House, they’re still not looking at our agenda in the right way.”

“We still gotta get them to acknowledge and remedy the situation. So, right now, they like to acknowledge but nobody wants to do what it takes to remedy the situation,” he added. “Everybody want to point out, that, ‘Yeah, you guys should be upset about your treatment in America.’”

“But nobody wants to do what it takes to fix it. So, that’s the part that we need to get on these politicians about, and they have the power to. They just won’t do it.”

He also spoke about the historic high Black voter turnout in Georgia’s Senate runoff elections, saying, “I think it’s great. We always show up.” He, however, said more needed to be done to empower Black people in the country.

“We show up for one party right now mainly and so do they show up for us as a whole? You know, not just appointing Black people to positions, but actually giving them the power and incentive to do something for all of us?” he said. “You know, right now, I feel like there’s a lot of symbolism going around, but it’s not a lot of tangibles going around.”

What was intended to be a monumental moment for American Vogue to feature the first Black and Asian woman vice president on its cover has sparked so many controversies. Kamala Harris is the cover story and image for Vogue’s February issue. After the photo was shared by the magazine, many disapprove of the image, complaining about the whole ensemble right down to the lighting used on the shoot.

On Sunday, Vogue tweeted a photo of its cover girl, Vice-President-elect Harris in a Black suit, converse standing in front of a green and pink curtain meant to pay tribute to her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. but social media users were not amused in the least bit.

Another photo which has been deemed a more appropriate fit for Harris and her office showed her in a powder blue Michael Kors suit standing in front of a draping gold curtain. Per CBS, this image was vetted and agreed upon for the feature image of the magazine.

“Aides to Harris and Vogue had the understanding that the blue suit/gold background would be the cover photo. Without telling Harris’ team, Vogue changed it to the pink/green photo which the Vice President-elect’s team did not agree to,” the source said.

Harris’ team was expecting the pink and green background photo to appear in the magazine instead of it taking center stage. Her team asked for a new cover but the issue was sent to the printers in mid-December.

26-year-old photographer Tyler Mitchell, who made history as the first Black photographer to shoot for Vogue’s cover when he shot Beyonce for the September 2018 issue, took the photos of Harris which are now under scrutiny.

Mitchell shared the photo of Harris in the powder blue suit on Twitter and Vogue’s team appreciated his works regardless of the backlash. “The team at Vogue loved the images Tyler Mitchell shot and felt the more informal image captured Vice President-elect Harris’s authentic, approachable nature — which we feel is one of the hallmarks of the Biden/Harris administration,” a spokesperson for Vogue told CBS News.

“To respond to the seriousness of this moment in history, and the role she has to play leading our country forward, we’re celebrating both images of her as covers digitally,” they added.

Critics say Harris’ skin appeared rather ‘washed out’.

One Twitter user said, “Kamala Harris is about as light skinned as women of color come and Vogue still fucked up her lighting,” they wrote about the initial photo shared by Vogue.

Others directed their attacks on Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor-in-chief, stating she “must really not have Black friends and colleagues.”

Wintour herself admitted some time ago that her magazine needed improvement on issues pertaining to Blacks and diversity and took the blame for all the mishaps in that regard.

“What a mess up,” wrote the New York Times contributor Wajahat Ali. “Anna Wintour must really not have Black friends and colleagues. I’ll shoot shots of VP Kamala Harris for free using my Samsung and I’m 100% confident it’ll turn out better than this Vogue cover.”

Former first lady Michelle Obama has expressed her disappointment with an opinion piece about incoming first lady Jill Biden that was published Friday by The Wall Street Journal. The op-ed written by Joseph Epstein argued that Jill should drop “Dr.” from her name when she enters the White House with President-elect Joe Biden.

Jill, who studied at Brandywine Junior College in Pennsylvania, earned a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees before she got her doctorate in education from the University of Delaware in 2007. Epstein’s op-ed suggests that the future first lady should drop the “Dr.” title she uses because her doctorate is not in the field of medicine.

“‘Dr. Jill Biden’ sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic,” Epstein wrote. “Your degree is, I believe, an Ed.D., a doctor of education, earned at the University of Delaware through a dissertation with the unpromising title ‘Student Retention at the Community College Level: Meeting Students’ Needs.’

“A wise man once said that no one should call himself ‘Dr.’ unless he has delivered a child. Think about it, Dr. Jill, and forthwith drop the doc,” wrote Epstein, who began the piece by addressing Jill as “Madame First Lady — Mrs. Biden — Jill — kiddo.”

Epstein’s op-ed about the longtime educator has been criticized by many including women in academia as sexist and disdainful. Michelle couldn’t agree more. In an Instagram post on Monday, Michelle praised Jill for successfully being able to manage more than one responsibility at a time, from her teaching duties to her White House obligations to her roles as a mother and wife during the Obama administration.

“And right now, we’re all seeing what also happens to so many professional women, whether their titles are Dr., Ms., Mrs., or even First Lady: All too often, our accomplishments are met with skepticism, even derision. We’re doubted by those who choose the weakness of ridicule over the strength of respect. And yet somehow, their words can stick—after decades of work, we’re forced to prove ourselves all over again,” the “Becoming” author wrote.

“Is this really the example we want to set for the next generation?” the former first lady asked, adding that Jill will be a “terrific role model not just for young girls but for all of us.”

69-year-old Jill, who hinted recently of plans to continue teaching as a college professor while serving as the first lady, is yet to officially respond to the “misogynistic” op-ed. On Sunday, she however appeared to have commented on it in a tweet. “Together, we will build a world where the accomplishments of our daughters will be celebrated, rather than diminished,” her tweet read.

Women have also taken to Twitter to urge others with degrees to add them to their name. “Are you a woman with a doctorate? No matter your discipline, drop a picture here to show that we are here, we exist, and we won’t drop our title for any mediocre man’s comfort,” Dr. Claudia Antolini, a U.K.-based astronomer with a Ph.D. in cosmology, wrote in a tweet.

Meanwhile, Jill’s husband Biden was on Monday formally elected as president by the Electoral College, which gave him a majority of 306 electoral votes to Donald Trump’s 232.

Exactly five weeks until Ugandans are given the choice to elongate or curtail President Yoweri Museveni‘s 34-year reign, the only female presidential candidate among the 10 looking to unseat the 76-year-old granted a TV interview in which she revealed that her campaign was broke.

On Thursday night, Nancy Kalembe told Ugandans that her campaign had been hit by financial challenges which would mean that she would have to re-strategize but not necessarily pull out of the race. Earlier in the day, she had posted a thread of tweets asking her supporters to chip in through official mobile wallet accounts.

This would not be the first time Kalembe’s presidential hopes have hit a snag due to a lack of funds. In November, the country’s elections regulatory board had to turn her away from a national event after she failed to show evidence of paying the non-refundable 20 million Ugandan shillings, about $5,400, as election filing fee.

But Kalembe seems to have put the embarrassment behind her and wishes to forge on. In a recent interview with Monitor, one of Uganda’s biggest news outlets, the 40-year-old mother of two expressed the desire to see the national conversation focus on the issues that matter to Ugandans although she did not hide her frustrations with how expensive it is to run for the top job.

“Someone recently asked me a question: “You mean you went into elections and do not have money? I believe in order to run for the highest office, one does not need a lot of money, so, if you can help me, please go right ahead. If you cannot, then, please pray for me,” Kalembe told the newspaper.

Kalembe is a deeply religious woman who, on one hand, may appear simply as a product of her religiously conservative East African country. On the other, we are also speaking of a politician who lists faith as one of her seven cardinal points of attention if she should become president.

“My manifesto is hinged on 7 aspects: Faith, family, education, economy, media & communication, arts & entertainment and leadership,” she said in a recent TV interview.

She does not hide the fact that her Christian principles guide her politics. Nonetheless, Kalembe believes the task of putting Uganda to work is a very physicalist exercise of confronting the national debt, unemployment as well as fighting what she has called “artificial poverty”, the state of income and wealth disparities she believes is intentioned by Museveni’s government.

Her philosophical inspiration for politics is José Mujica, Uruguay’s farmer-turned president who became famous for donating the lion’s share of his salaries and instituting pro-poor policies. For most African citizens, Mujica sounds like that which would never happen in their countries, and Kalembe understands the reasons for this severe lack of hope and the pungence of cynicism.

Politics may not have been a turn we are used to for a woman who was once a contestant on Miss Uganda, a one-time actress, and also a former news anchor on Ugandan TV. But stereotypes cannot hold back the ideas she wishes to actualize for the sake of her country. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Population Studies and is capable of espousing her agenda quite clearly.

Running for a job in an African country with 10 other men is its own race but Kalembe promises that does not worry her. She is not one of people’s favorite, frankly. Those berths belong to the incumbent president and Robert Ssentamu, – also known as Bobi Wine – a man who has himself incurred the wrath of power by daring to run for the presidency.

The election is a tall order for Kalembe. But whatever the polls say after January 14, 2021, she would hope she has pushed the boundaries of the imaginable for her nearly 43 million compatriots.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of Ghana will have a second four-year term after the country’s electoral commissioner declared on Wednesday that the 76-year-old had won the December 7 presidential polls.

The president beat the challenge from 11 other presidential candidates among whom included John Dramani Mahama, the man Akufo-Addo succeeded in 2017. Mahama, 62, is yet to concede defeat although the majority of the other contestants have already called to congratulate the president-elect.

Akufo-Addo won 51.59% of the over 13 million votes cast. His closest challenger, Mahama, polled 47.3%. Ghana’s presidential elections are won by the candidate with more than 50% of the valid votes.

The Ghanaian leader will be sworn into his second term on January 7, 2021. Not much is expected to change in Akufo-Addo’s second term but it is certain that he will not count on a lot of help from his party in parliament.

A 46-parliamentary seat lead his New Patriotic Party (NPP) won in 2016 has been cut to naught. Depending on the results of currently contested local government (constituency) elections, the NPP may turn out to be the minority in Ghana’s parliament.

Akufo-Addo has presided over macroeconomic growth that has seen Ghana praised by international development partners. His first term also saw the introduction of free senior high school education in Ghana.

However, the former lawyer has also been accused of doing very little to fight corruption among his appointees. He has also been criticized for appointing close family relatives to top government positions.

The Pentagon said Friday it is pulling most U.S. troops out of Somalia on President Donald Trump's orders, continuing a post-election push by Trump to shrink U.S. involvement in counter terrorism missions abroad.

Without providing details, the Pentagon said in a short statement that "a majority" of U.S. troops and assets in Somalia will be withdrawn in early 2021. There are about 700 troops in that Horn of Africa nation, training and advising local forces in an extended fight against the extremist group Al-Shabab, an affiliate of Al-Qaida.

Trump recently ordered troop drawdowns in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he was expected to withdraw some or all troops from Somalia. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said on Wednesday that the future structure of the U.S. military presence in Somalia was still in debate.

The adjusted U.S. presence, Milley said, would amount to "a relatively small footprint, relatively low cost in terms of number of personnel and in terms of money." He provided no specifics but stressed that the U.S. remained concerned about the threat posed by Al-Shabab, which he called "an extension of al-Qaida," the extremist group that planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States from Afghanistan.

"They do have some reach and they could if left unattended conduct operations against not only U.S. interests in the region but also against the homeland," he said. "So they require attention." Noting that Somalia remains a dangerous place for Americans, he said that a CIA officer was killed there recently.

The acting secretary of defense, Christopher Miller, made a brief visit to Somalia last week and met with U.S. troops.

Depending on what remains of the U.S. presence in Somalia when he takes office Jan. 20, President-elect Joe Biden could reverse Trump's draw-down or make other adjustments to reflect his counter terrorism priorities. The U.S. military also has a presence in neighboring Djibouti on the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Rep. Jim Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat, criticized the Trump pullback in Somalia as a "surrender to al-Qaida and a gift of China." Langevin is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee.

"When U.S. forces leave Somalia in response to today's order, it becomes harder for diplomats and aid workers to help people resolve conflicts without violence and loss of life," Langevin said. "With upcoming elections in Somalia and conflict raging in neighboring Ethiopia, abandoning our partners could not come at a worse time."

Langevin said China will use the opportunity to build its influence in the Horn of Africa.

The Pentagon said the draw down in Somalia does not mark the end of U.S. counter terrorism efforts there.

"As a result of this decision, some forces may be reassigned outside of East Africa," it said. "However, the remaining forces will be re-positioned from Somalia into neighboring countries in order to allow cross-border operations by both U.S. and partner forces to maintain pressure against violent extremist organizations operating in Somalia."

It added: "The U.S. will retain the capability to conduct targeted counter terrorism operations in Somalia, and collect early warnings and indicators regarding threats to the homeland."

The nature of the threat posed by al-Shabab and the appropriate U.S. response has been a matter of increasing debate in the Pentagon, which has been looking for opportunities to shift its focus toward China as a greater long-term challenge.

A Defense Department watchdog report last week said U.S. Africa Command has seen a "definitive shift" this year in al-Shabab's focus to attack U.S. interests in the region. Africa Command says al-Shabab is Africa's most "dangerous" and "imminent" threat.

For the first time in Harvard University’s 382-year history, a Black student has been elected to serve as the prestigious educational institution’s student body president. The newly elected president, 20-year-old Noah Harris, is set to be sworn in on December 6 to commence his 2021 term.

Speaking with CBS Boston in an interview, the Mississippi native and junior shared his excitement on his historic milestone, saying it couldn’t have come at a more crucial time considering the recent happenings in the country.

“Me being a Black man from Mississippi is not something that I run from,” Harris, who is majoring in government studies, said. “It was a historic election and for it to come in a year of so many racial injustices with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and people who were taken from our communities, it makes it that much more of a statement on the part of Harvard and the student body.”

He added: “It’s a message to the university that we really have to be conscious about the decisions that we’re making and how we’re standing with all of our students of color and making sure that their college experience and just their livelihoods are as good as possible when a university like Harvard has so many resources.”

Though two other Black students have served as presidents of the school’s Undergraduate Council, Harris is the first Black person to be elected by the student body, according to Hattiesburg American. During his campaign, Harris, together with his vice president, Jenny Gan, centered on areas including diversity and inclusion, improving student welfare as well as mental and physical health. Harris told the news outlet they’re also aiming at better improving and fostering unity among the school’s very diverse communities.

“Harvard’s community specifically, it’s very diverse but it’s kind of diverse in that it has its own separate communities,” he said. “A lot of what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to bring communities together.”

An assistant professor of African and African American studies and social studies at Harvard, Brandon Terry, Ph.D., described Harris as “somebody who has made sure that the relatively privileged student body that we have at Harvard is exposed to and attuned to broader issues of fairness in the larger society.”

“That’s rare as a student body leader,” Terry added. “You can imagine a lot of student body leadership is pretty narrowly inward-focused and you can’t get far by just doing the status quo. He’s somebody who has really broken with that. He seems responsive to a higher calling.”

Terry also stressed how Harris’ historic election reflects the current stance of the school’s student body when it comes to diversity and inclusion.

“I think it reflects a growing interest among the broader student body in taking these questions of diversity and inclusion seriously, not just as an abstract or intellectual puzzle, but as a set of values to be lived in the decisions that they make in their most intimate community,” he said.

“For him, it’s not just that he’s African American. It’s more so that those are the principles he put forward and the substance of his campaign. And to have those principles ratified by the broader student body I think is an important statement, especially in a university that’s often been known for favoring the wealthy.”

A former President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, has been dragged before a commission of inquiry looking into serious allegations of corruption leveled against the controversial 78-year-old who was the country’s president between 2009 and 2018.

But on Monday, Zuma, through attorney Muzi Sikhakhane, sought to challenge the propriety of commission chairman, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, presiding over proceedings. According to the former president’s lawyer, Zondo was already biased against Zuma.

The commission was not constituted with prosecutorial powers, however, bodies that can prosecute can fall on the commission’s findings. This may be the reason why Zuma’s corner holds reservations over how the Zondo has allowed witnesses whose accounts have implicated the former president in corrupt activities.

Witnesses before the commission have included former cabinet ministers and lawmakers.

Zuma has been accused of corrupt practices relating to the awarding of government contracts. He is also accused of ceding political influence to members of the Gupta family who have been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department over corrupt activities. Some have alleged that the Gupta family was even allowed to appoint ministers and skip due process in transactions with the government.

The former president reportedly refused to answer some questions on Monday leading the legal representative of the commission Paul Pistorius to say Zuma believes the inquiry is a “political conspiracy”.

Zuma’s woes have compounded since he resigned unceremoniously in 2018 due to these very allegations. In 2018, he was charged with 16 counts of fraud, racketeering and money laundering involving an arms deal from the late 1990s that cost $2.5 billion.

Earlier this year, a judge in Pietermaritzburg issued an arrest warrant for Zuma after he failed to appear in court to answer to said charges due to what he said was ill-health.

Political pressure is mounting on the current head of state, Cyril Ramaphosa, from Zuma loyalists in the African National Congress (ANC) who expect him to intervene in Zuma’s troubles.

President Donald Trump continues to refuse to concede defeat in the US presidential election even though major independent media outlets have called the race for Democratic presidential nominee and former vice-president Joe Biden.

Instead, Trump has ranted and raved, in a somewhat predictable fashion, and at one time thrown aspersions on the culture of the American public trusting the media’s tabulations after elections. Mind you, the Associated Press (AP) has been calling elections before the Civil War.

Since it became clear his victory speech a day after November 3 was both severely premature and prophetically-challenged, the president has been raging on about electoral fraud, a charge that is constantly challenged on Jack Dorsey’s Twitter and trashed in America’s courts. So far, Republican attorneys have failed to persuade state justices to treat with seriousness any of the innumerable Hail Mary suits filed to injure the integrity of the election.

At the moment, American institutional democracy is being challenged. But whether or not the system is fortified against a coup d’état is a pronouncement we can make with more confidence after December 14 when all states have ratified their results. For now, we need to caution against alarmism and on the other hand, fight against the good poisoning Trump and his Republican enablers are undertaking.

However, what has become an unfortunate casualty in this political drama is the lack of headlines on how once again, America’s Black people have forced the nation to retake the path to a more perfect union. In the news right now, the dark clouds of a president’s tantrums have overshadowed the meaning of his defeat and the valor of his defeaters.

More than any other racial group, Black people voted overwhelmingly for Biden, a rate that currently stands at more than 87%. From Atlanta to Detroit, historic victories were sealed thanks to mass Black support for the Democratic candidate.

When the dust settles, 2020 will be the biggest utilitarian exercise in American democracy by the number of votes that were cast and by volume of the electorate that participated in the process. We have the president to thank for causing the biggest referendum on an American politician in 120 years. Even though he lost, Trump will have more votes than have ever been cast for an American politician except for Biden.

Across the racial spectrum, there were upticks among all groups as we have never seen before. Soon, we will make a better sense of how things turned out among the racial demographics but we already know that there was a surge in the number from 2016 among Hispanics, who make up 32 million of the US electorate.

The story was no different among Asian-Americans as well as among other minorities including African-Americans. Among white people, the numbers in the south were prominent and as Vox notes, there was an increment from 2016 of white voters in the Rust Belt.

We assume Trump – and we are according to many indications, right – was the reason for the boost in all these demographics. Nevertheless, in analyzing trends, it is better to err on the side of scientific caution. For instance, we are not expected to conflate the value-laden concept of identity and the science of demography.

Identity carries the burdens of values, aspirations, and fears while demographics is the statistical distribution of a given population. A change there does not necessarily cause a change here, nor the other way round. Therefore Trump or better still, the facts of his person and presidency, may have driven people to the polls but these voters were voting in their own self-interest.

Hence, the question is necessary: what was on the ballot for these demographics? In the lead up to the election, various surveys proved quite resourceful in this vein but for me, Pew Research’s partisan breakdown of what and how much matters to Americans stands incomparable as a definer of the times Americans live in.

More than the economy, gender politics, climate change, and the macabre headache of the coronavirus, opinions on race divided Red and Blue voters than anything else in 2020. To reiterate, while one-in-ten among Trump supporters said Black people have it a “lot more difficult” than whites, about 74% of Biden voters believed that was the case.

We were more likely than in 2016, to predict correctly who an American was voting for if we knew how that American felt on race. All the noise about polarization happens to be true, sadly.

The tendency to pretend that race does not animate political sensibilities has paid off majorly for Republicans and in part for a Democratic establishment that is not interested in muddying the waters. This is not even entirely about tipping hats to overt racism among the white electorate. Democratic Majority Whip and the South Carolina congressman, Jim Clyburn, the man credited with winning the southern Black vote for Biden during the primaries, blamed Democratic losses in Congress on calls to defund the police even though those calls come from a Black Lives Matter movement Clyburn would on any day support.

Clyburn even told CBS News that the late John Lewis had reservations about calls to defund the police because of what it’d cost the fortunes of the Democratic Party.

Far be it from anyone to challenge the commitments of Lewis and Clyburn to social justice but the two men’s position represents a strategy with the feelings of white conservative voters in mind. Somehow, calling for the demilitarization and the de-escalation of overbearing police authority and reinvesting funds into other social goods necessary to racial minorities is a line too far.

The entire plot of American politics is an unfolding Hegelian history of white people’s sentiments on how much economic and political control they are willing to cede to racial minorities. Embedded in every issue and their deliberations are the facts of racial identity. If there is an end to this Hegelian unfolding, people of goodwill can only believe it is the destination of the constitutional ideal of a more perfect union.

The fullness of the American promise is the perfect union. It is a collective must, a goal meaningful for its own sake. Certainly, one’s race should not stand in the way of their participation.

But race matters in the sacred democratic practice of elections. Between the election of 1932 and that of 1980, three elections stood out for their exceptionally high rates of turnout – 1960, 1964, and 1968. It is certainly not coincidental that the 60s was a watershed decade for African-American civil rights amidst wider counterculture politics.

The only other time Americans trooped to the polls in mammoth volumes were the decades following the Civil War fought over the south’s determination to keep slaves. There too, we can theorize a reaction to whatever racial progress had perceivably been made.

The democratic ambition of a more perfect union has always been on the ballot since Black men could vote. Detractors of this ambition have equally been around, planting impediments anywhere they can.

What we witness with Trump is certainly not an American aberration yet he is unique in what Bernie Sanders calls “the most dangerous American president in our lifetime”. Since the turn of the 20th century, no president has given more fodder to the detractors of the perfect union.

Thankfully, he can now only unleash two months’ worth of loser’s wrath from the highest office. But it is important to remember that in the last four years, Trump has tested America’s democratic resoluteness with every rally, most tweets, and many executive decisions.

When the election came this year, the American president had come to represent a verifiable antithesis of the perfect union. A lifeline was necessary. Something positively different was non-negotiable.

For those who were watching and listening, not because they wanted to “piss off the libs” or hold a middle finger to polite America, Trump left the electorate with no doubt about who he was and no grey patches in his field of black.

It has seemed a trick question for me whenever people have asked if all Trump voters are racists. It is as if one is being dared to see others in the worst light possible. But as journalist Paola Ramos told Christiane Amanpour in the aftermath of the election, 2020 was simply a question of what America chose to be in light of changing demographics.

Biden and Trump, separated only by three years in age, are both white men of when white was unchallenged. But the former was the candidate open to the incoming multicolored American future. He bet on a better for all who do not look like the America in which he grew up.

The US Census Bureau believes in 25 years, non-Hispanic white people will be in the minority in America. This country cannot continue to rely on lifelines and cannot phone a friend.

Whenever Black people have committed to the path of the more perfect union, which is a lifeline for America. But there is no good reason to keep counting on these lifelines. To do so would be out of ingratitude.

In Detroit, Trump’s supporters, mainly white people, descended on ballot-counting centers in the city chanting “Stop the count!” for the very specific reason that the candidate of their choice was on his way out of the White House. Throughout this year, armed militias of white men have brazenly provoked hostilities in support of the man they believe is their savior.

Those are two ways to waste a lifeline but America has been at this in various ways for decades. But could someone remind this beloved country that lifelines are not eternal?