Guest Post by Mukoma Wa Ngugi In 1982, as the air force-led coup attempt in Kenya unfolded, we sat glued to our transistor radio listening to the BBC and Voice of America (VOA). In fact, the more the oppressive the Moi regime censored Kenyan media, the more Western media became the lifeline through which we learned […]
There are times we shake our heads or roll our eyes. When we could not invent some of the things that we spot in the media. For some reason especially New York Times journalists can’t help themselves (though there are some exceptions like Lydia Polgreen reporting from Johannesburg). For example, former Times editor Bill Keller […]
In early April CNN‘s website posted a video report on internet fraud in Ghana by its media partners, hipster producers Vice. The program focused on “Sakawa,” a form of internet scamming popular in Ghana, similar to the 419 scam originating in Nigeria. The Vice piece suggested that Sakawa, popular among young men, was out of […]
French, now associate professor of journalism at Columbia University was for many years West Africa correspondent for The New York Times. He wrote an excellent book “A Continent for the Taking” based on his time there and is also a very good photographer. You can see his photography here.
“… The share of the African population dying in wars (including genocides) every year is on the order of .01% over the past four decades, and the percentage of the population composed of refugees was about 0.5% in 2005. This is of no comfort to Africans today who are victims of still much too frequent […]
