President Obiang and the Samba School

Last week, the countries formerly under the reign of the Catholic Kings celebrated their annual week of debaucherous revelry in the lead up to Lent. Yes, it was Carnival time again,…..

1635

4 mins read

March 4, 2013

Oil in the Angolan President’s Family: Keeping it Global

A few months late to this story, the Wall Street Journal published a piece last Wednesday entitled “Angola Wealth Fund is Family Affair.” This was widely reported in the international…..

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1 min read

December 11, 2012

Documentary: Fuelling Poverty in Nigeria

Kicking off with an introduction from Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, the short documentary Fuelling Poverty amounts to a very brief Nigerian Fuel Subsidy 101 course. In thirty minutes, it covers…..

903

2 mins read

September 17, 2012

The world’s media watched (sort of) as Angola votes

The three most interesting things about the recent Angolan elections were: one, that we knew the result before election (the question was by how much). Two, why did the Angolan…..

1 min read

April 22, 2012

Goldman Sachs’s Angolan interests

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Cobalt International Energy, a Houston based company with investments in the Angolan oil sector, for possible violation of anti-corruption legislation. Last week the Financial…..

5 mins read

February 7, 2012

The Two Sudans

On July 6 2011, the world’s diplomatic elite flocked to one of the globe’s most underdeveloped regions to bask in the warm glow of the birth of a new nation……

1 min read

June 15, 2011

'The Oil Complex'

Video of a worthwhile lecture (recorded in February this year) by Berkeley geographer Michael Watts breaking down the workings of the oil industry. In the lecture–titled “Dispossession and Oil Violence”– Watts…..

1 min read

June 13, 2011

The Cost of Oil to Nigeria

“Nigeria is the world’s 8th largest producer of crude oil, yet remains one of its poorest nations — an estimated 70 percent of its 150 million residents live below the…..

Less than a minute read

May 31, 2011

'The Ballad of the Black Gold'

Keeping with the oil theme, here’s Talib Kweli, featuring his frequent collaborator Hi-Tek and Imani Uzuri, from June 2010.

2 mins read

May 31, 2011

OIL

While I was in Toronto with Sean and Tsitsi Jaji for the Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) conference, I checked out Edward Burtynsky’s “Oil” at the Royal Ontario Museum…..