Afrique

Tazartché update

Just when you’d like to put it to bed, the constitutional crisis in Niger continues, weaving like a distracted taxi driver: from sigh to scream and back again. I’ll focus a bit on three events of importance.  After Tandja sent…

Tazartché Death Throes

It seems every time the Nigerien political crisis nears some resolution, it swerves wildly in the other direction. The inevitable end seems to be preordained against President Tandja, barring a true coup d’etat.  But his cadre of supporters, comfortable in…

Mr. Françafrique 1973

This one image sums up the — still — late Omar Bongo Ondimba better than any words could. If you want to see where the postcolonials learned their tricks, look to their models. Omar Bongo (née Albert-Bernard Bongo) was French…