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From Harare to Pretoria: How ZANU-PF’s Dirty Money Is Influencing African Diplomacy.

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  By Youngerson Matete Introduction. In the high-stakes realm of international relations, traditional diplomacy that was once anchored in shared values, ideology, and international law has increasingly been augmented, and at times overshadowed, by wallet diplomacy . This emerging paradigm hinges on the use of financial leverage, strategic investments, control over natural resources, and well-funded lobbying to influence the behavior of other states. From direct monetary inducements to campaign financing and opaque infrastructure deals, economic tools are now deployed not only to pursue national interests but to redraw diplomatic allegiances and reorder global influence. From Israel’s institutionalized lobbying efforts in the West to ZANU-PF’s resource-backed statecraft across Africa, money has become a primary currency in determining who is heard, supported, or sanctioned. Wallet diplomacy shapes UN votes, legitimizes authoritarian regimes, and marginalizes dissenting actors even t...
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The Day of the African Child: Remembering Soweto, Confronting Today’s Struggles.

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By Youngerson Matete.  Introduction: The Legacy of June 16, 1976 On June 16 every year, Africa commemorates the Day of the African Child. A solemn occasion born from the blood-soaked streets of Soweto in 1976. On that day, thousands of Black students in apartheid South Africa took to the streets to protest against the imposition of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in schools. A policy that symbolized the broader, systemic oppression of Black lives under apartheid. The apartheid regime responded with brutal force, killing hundreds of young students, some as young as 12 years old. Among them was 13-year-old Hector Pieterson, whose lifeless body, captured in a harrowing photograph, became a global symbol of youth resistance. The Soweto Uprising was more than a protest against language policy; it was a radical defiance of a racist system by the youngest members of society. Today’s youth in Africa, however, face a different yet equally insidious enemy. The status quo of post-colo...
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