Fifty Years Later: Human Rights and Social Reconstruction in Africa

As countries across the continent celebrate 50 years of independence, millions of Africans still face daily violence and human rights abuses. From Guinea to Kenya, Sudan to Zimbabwe, African nations continue to deal with despotic leaders’ attempts to stay in power. Although the American media occasionally provides a picture of violence in Africa, what does life on the ground really look like? Peter Orner and Annie Holmes, co-authors of Hope Deferred, and Patrick Vinck, the director of the Initiative for Vulnerable Populations Project at UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center, will describe two countries, Zimbabwe and the Central African Republic, with strikingly different histories but who are both dealing with crippling poverty and ongoing human rights abuses. They will also offer their thoughts and insights as to what steps the continent must take to move forward. Is it more important to a national psyche to try and convict a former warlord, or should more effort be put into recreating a peaceful society? Can economic growth seriously take hold in a place where corruption and violence is such a large disincentive? Is Africa ready for takeoff, or stalled at the gate?