Directly following the election of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa in 1994, the U.S. government began to work…
USAID’s Work with an Unsung Hero of the Fight Against Apartheid in South Africa: Dullah Omar
USAID worked intensively with the new South African government after the fall of apartheid in 1994. William Stacy Rhodes was…
Anatomy of an Overthrow: How an African Leader was Toppled
A council of combined security forces known as the Derg staged a coup d’état on September 12, 1974 against Ethiopian…
African-American Ambassadors
(As of April 2016) A Adams, Samuel Clifford Jr. Aggrey, Rudolph Alexander, Leslie M. (pictured with Bill Richardson) B Barnes,…
South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission
After nearly 50 years of brutal apartheid in South Africa, it is almost impossible to imagine how people could coexist…
The Mind of the African Strongman
Back to Diplomats and Diplomacy The Mind of the African Strongman — Conversations with Dictators, Statesmen, and Father Figures “Hank Cohen’s…
Celebrating the Leadership of America’s Ambassadors of African Descent
Ask any five people on an American college campus or maybe even on the streets of any major city, to…
The Search for Peace in Southern Africa – Oil, Angola, and the Proxy Wars
During the Cold War, the United States and the USSR engaged in a zero-sum game throughout the globe; while mutually…
A Never-ending Tragedy — The Onset of the AIDS Crisis in Africa
The spread of AIDS in Africa in the 1980s and 90s presented unique challenges for U.S. diplomats suddenly faced with…
African Wars
Back to Diplomats and Diplomacy African Wars: A Defense Intelligence Perspective “I have never read anything quite like it: It…