Abena Ampofoa Asare

Six months after an ill-fated military coup d’état, the news from Mali continues to be distressing.

Forty-five years after the self-proclaimed independence of the Republic of Biafra, Odumegwu Ojukwu, the spokesman and architect of the Land of the Rising Sun, died in a London hospital. Ojukwu’s legacy, like Biafra itself, remains cloaked in controversy.

This past October, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) suspended a three million dollar research prize funded by Teodoro Obiang, one of the world’s worst dictators.

Last month, Judge José A. Cabranes of the Manhattan-based federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a judicial opinion that sent international lawyers, human rights advocates and African environmental activists reeling.

Just as Spain was seizing victory in the 2010 World Cup, bomb blasts ripped through Kampala, Uganda, injuring soccer fans gathered to watch the final game of the first World Cup hosted in Africa. Over 70 people were killed and numerous more were injured.

As state repression has become a marker of life in the Gambia, President Yahya Jammeh’s ballooning authority has been duly noted and criticised by Africa-wide justice mechanisms.