By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the new book Writing for Media and Monetising It. ABUJA, Nigeria | 27 April 2025 (IDN) — It’s nothing to laugh off, however tempting. If the movies imitate life, we may not be as far away from an African pope. It happened in The Conclave, […]
The End of Democracy?
By Jan Servaes* BRUSSELS | 24 April 2025 (IDN) — The Trump administration is rapidly destroying American democracy. In previous contributions, based on the writings of Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, we have already warned about this. Recently, professors Jennifer McCoy (of Georgia State University), Rachel Beatty Riedl and Kenneth Roberts (of Cornell […]
When Are You Going to Get a Proper Job?
By Azu Ishiekwene* ABUJA, Nigeria | 4 April 2025 (IDN) — He didn’t say when his father asked him, but I wonder what the old man must think in his grave. Jonathan Power is now 83 and arguably one of Europe’s most widely published columnists. He was a young freelance journalist when his father asked […]
The Impact of Afrikaner Identity and Apartheid Ideology
By Jan Servaes BRUSSELS | 3 April 2025 (IDN) — Although the names of Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, or other (South African) ‘tech billionaires’ are not mentioned anywhere in Eric Louw’s “Afrikaner Identity: From Anticolonial Struggle Through Hegemonic Nationalism to Disempowered Minority,” this book offers an excellent introduction to understanding the ideology and some of […]
Our Divided World: Insights of a Former Diplomat
Jayantha Kottage* Reviews Somar Wijayadasa’s Memoirs CANBERRA, Australia | 22 March 2025 (IDN) — “History repeats itself, but in such a cunning disguise that we never detect the resemblance until the damage is done”, Sydney J Harris Somar Wijayadasa’s memoirs, “Our Divided World: My View from The United Nations” provide a reflective account of global […]
Delcat Idinco: The Voice of The Congolese People
By Kate Janse Van Rensburg* GOMA, North Kivu, DR Congo | 15 March 2025 (IDN) — “Bunduki za Kwetu” [Our Guns] was the last song released by Congolese musician Delphin Katembo Vinywasiki, popularly known as Delcat Idinco or Idengo (31). Hours later, he was shot dead while filming the song’s music video on 13 February […]
The Impact of the Digital Revolution on Culture and Communication
By Jan Servaes* BRUSSELS, Belgium | 12 March 2025 (IDN) — The digital revolution has undeniably transformed the way we communicate and interact. In just under 50 years, we have evolved from a system of basic linear communication to one of complex and intertwined interactions. This digital media ecosystem has diluted structures and contexts, blurred […]
Social Media and Politics in Southeast Asia
By Jan Servaes* BANGKOK, Thailand | 29 January 2025 (IDN) — Southeast Asia exhibits a wide range of political structures, cultural systems, depths of political engagement, and histories. Nearly four decades since the advent of the Internet in the region, the online population has grown substantially, hand in hand with increased government capacity to exert […]
Book Review: Saving the World from Nuclear War
By Eric Ross, University of Massachusetts Amherst* AMHERST, Massachusetts, USA | 6 January 2025 (IDN) — In Saving the World from Nuclear War, Vincent J. Intondi offers a concise yet comprehensive examination of the context and legacy of the June 12, 1982, Nuclear Disarmament Rally. Against the backdrop of a period of heightened nuclear anxiety […]
A Wonderland of Words: The Anaphora to Zeugma
By Satish Padmanabhan* NEW DELHI | 26 November 2024 (IDN) — If you have a bittersweet longing for something absent in your life, or you have experienced something once, loved and lost, and may never experience it again and are left with feelings of love, happiness, sadness, hope, emptiness and desire—and if you speak Portuguese—you […]