Referendum in Sudan

From January 9 to 15, Sudan held a referendum to decide the faith of the South of the country. The results of the referendum show that the people of the South had voted overwhelmingly to succeed from the north. In this edition of African Perspectives, we spoke with Farid Omar about the larger geopolitical causes and implications of this referendum, the civil war in Sudan, and the prospects for this new country.

Farid Omar is a consultant, freelance writer and researcher at the York Center for International and Security Studies. He recently wrote an article in the Socialist Worker on Sudan and Oil.

Listen to this week's African Perspectives here

Weekly headlines from the African continent (until 15:43)
Interview with Farid Omar (starts at 15:44)

August 1 - Oil Exploitation in Nigeria

In this week's episode, we explored the impact of oil exploitation in Nigeria and the people's resistance to it. The world has been abuzz since April when a blow out from a well started gushing millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. However, since the inception of the oil industry in Nigeria, there has been no concern and effective effort on the part of the government, let alone the oil operators, to control environmental problems associated with the industry. We spoke with Asume Osuoka about the exploitation of oil corporations in Nigeria and we also spoke with Grace Adeniyi Ogunyankin about community resistance to these oil companies, focusing especially on the organizing of women.

We also featured headlines from the continent: constitution in Kenya, extension of UNAMID mission in Darfur, Ugandan bombing arrests, African Union summit, racist kids in South Africa, and oil in Sudan.

To find out more about oil in Nigeria and resistance to it, check out Justice in Nigeria Now and sign a petition telling Exxon to clean its spills in Nigeria.

This episode featured the music of Seun Kuti and Tony Allen.

Listen to this episode here