AfricaIs aCountry

Yar’Adua est mort

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Yar’Adua est mort

By
Sean Jacobs

Al Jazeera English is first out of the gate with an analysis of the life of the Nigerian President who died yesterday, but has been bedridden and in hiding for months–first in Saudi Arabia from November last year till February this year and from then at his official residence–while his appropriately named deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, governs the country.

As a result, Yar’Adua’s passing comes as an anti-climax, except his aides and those who were lied about his condition so as to maintain their tenuous access to power and resources and 419 scammers to whom his dead represent new plot twists to their elaborate scams to lure prospective victims to part with their money.

Western media will probably run the usual cliches tomorrow and the day after, so for some real analysis, I’d suggest checking out Nigeria’s vibrant media instead.

Think Next, The Vanguard, The Punch and, of course, This Day. Same for its blogosphere, both inside Nigeria and its diaspora: Naijablog, Nigerianstalk, Loomnie, Akin and Suleiman’s Blog.

Further Reading

The people want to breathe

In Tunisia’s coastal city of Gabès, residents live in the shadow of the phosphate industry. As pollution deepens and repression returns, a new generation revives the struggle for life itself.

After Paul Biya

Cameroon’s president has ruled for over four decades by silence and survival. Now, with dynastic succession looming and no clear exit strategy, the country teeters between inertia and implosion.

Leapfrogging literacy?

In outsourcing the act of writing to machines trained on Western language and thought, we risk reinforcing the very hierarchies that decolonization sought to undo.