South Africa

Nigerian Election

20 February 2023 Nigerian Election By Gwynne Dyer There is something wrong with Nigeria. It is Africa’s most populous country, with a fifth of the continent’s entire population (200 million). It is a major oil producer, pumping 1.5 million barrels a day. But its GDP per capita is slightly less now than it was in …

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Lady Macbeth of Maseru

First there was ‘Macbeth’, the Shakespeare play (1606). It’s a bloody play even by Shakespeare’s demanding standards, with Lady Macbeth as the chief inciter to violence. Then there’s ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’, a short novel by Nikolai Leskov (1865) that was later turned into an opera by Shostakovich. This Lady Macbeth is called Katerina, and …

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Mandela’s Legacy

13 June 2013 Mandela’s Legacy By Gwynne Dyer As I write this Nelson Mandela is still with us. He may even still be living at the end of this year. But this is his fourth hospitalisation in six months, and the prognosis for 94-year-old men with persistent lung infections is not good. How will South …

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