Were the Wades ready to call in European troops to back their bid for a new ‘monarchy’? According to influential French lawyer and longtime Wade family confidant Robert Bourgi, the president’s son asked him, on June 27, to get the French Army to intervene in the country.

The political culture of dynasties is very much alive in Africa even where there are no kingdoms.

In Uganda the opposition has claimed that President Yoweri Museveni is grooming his eldest son Lieutenant Colonel Kaneirugaba Muhoozi, 36, to succeed him.

There is no democracy without proper representation. The main goal of any participatory democracy is not to enforce a rule of majority, nor allow for an excessive power of any minority but to establish and protect the rights of all citizens. That goal is also a key element in effective poverty fighting, achieving sustainable development and championing social justice. Proper channels for participating in governance must exist to reflect each public voice and allow for proper balancing of the democratic debate.

It’s that time again. Time to make the obligatory, end of the year “best of” list and please people with my choices and comments or annoy people who didn’t see CDs from their country or by their favourite artists on it.
Well, let’s say for starters that this is a list that contain CDs that I have received this past year. Needless to say, I have not received or reviewed every CD release of African music in the past 12 months. CD sales are down and it harder than ever to get some record labels to send music to radio stations.

After two years of wrangling and political machinations on both sides, Youssou N’dour’s television station; Télévision Futurs Medias, made its broadcast debut in Sénégal on Wednesday.

The license was finally granted after all sided agreed that the station would be a cultural media outlet. People may talk of ministers and other middling functionaries but I am sure that the ultimate decision was left in the hands of President Wade.

Three years ago, on the night of Sunday June 17, 2007, the French police was called to Bidassoa Street, 20th district of Paris for a disturbance of the peace. On arrival, 8 police officers found Lamine Dieng. He was unarmed. Lamine was pinned to the ground by the police officers, handcuffed with one arm over his shoulder, the other bent backwards, and his ankles was tied with a leather strap. Lamine Dieng died that night. He was only 25 years old.

Didier Drogba has been named African Footballer of the Year 2009 by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) with 92 points.

Cheikh Tall is a Partnership Specialist with the US Census Bureau, he joins us to speak on the US Census 2010 and the importance of minority and immigrant community participation and what the Census Bureau is doing to promote and ensure inclusion. This segment was aired on Saturday March 6, 2010 on AfrobeatRadio on WBAI Pacifica Radio 99.5 FM New York.