In a transition marked by solemnity but not despair, the leaders of Mozambique's governing party who survived the October 19, 1986 plane crash that took the lives of President Samora Machel and 33 others quietly agreed that Minister of Foreign Affairs Joaquim Chissano should...

Halfway through the second five-year term of President Chadli Benjedid, Algeria is being pulled in many directions. A relatively liberal and pragmatic regime...

The easy story to file from Zimbabwe on the September 1-7 summit marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Nonaligned Movement was that it was a gathering "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." But viewed in historical perspective, and measured in terms of...

The calls for various forms of economic sanctions against South Africa focus mainly on the immorality of apartheid. The frustration and despair that give...

The twenty-second annual Assembly of Heads of State of the Organization of African Unity was held in Addis Abba, Ethiopia from July 28 to 30. These were some...

I first came to South Africa 20 years ago to report a funeral. Passing quickly through Johannesburg, noting little else except the racial hierarchy outside of the old Lansdowne Hotel- white head porter, Indian deputy, and blacks carrying the bags - I drove to...

The unexpected death of President Ahmed Sekou Toure on March 26, 1984 shattered Guinea's frozen political landscape. What had appeared to be one of Africa's...

In common with other oil-exporting countries, Angola has been shaken by the sharp oil price fall that began in December 1985. The revenue drop is straining an...

The United States imports more than 50 percent of its needs for over two dozen minerals deemed of either "strategic" or "critical" importance to U.S. national defense. Three at the top of the list - chromium, manganese, and platinum - are obtained in...

On January 30, 1986, the fifth annual consultative meeting of the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) opened in Harare. Although the...

When President Reagan took office in 1981, it was generally assumed that his administration would adopt a conservative globalist approach to African issues. For a complex mix of reasons, it did not. Instead, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Chester Crocker...

The People's Republic of Benin (known from independence in 1960 until 1975 as the Republic of Dahomey) is the narrow, tubular state wedged between Nigeria and...