BBC’s Special Focus on Africa

To mark 80 years of international broadcasting, the BBC World Service is hosting a day of live programming today. And we’re part of it. During the 5-6pm time slot (that’s 5-6pm GMT; 12-1pm EST) Focus on Africa will take a look at “the creative energy and entrepreneurship coming out of Africa.” Some topics up for discussion are: Whether the world still needs an international broadcaster; What is the role of the BBC?; What are the stories the BBC should cover, and the voices you should hear?; What values and ideas do we all share, and are these the same as our audience?

Sean Jacobs will be guest editing the program (and repping Africa is a Country), looking at the role social media has played in news reporting. He will be joined by blogger Tomi Oladepo.

Twitter handles to follow and participate in the discussion are @BBCAfrica, @BBCAfricaHYS, @bbcworldservice and @AfricasaCountry.

* Update: you can now listen to a recording of the program here.

Further Reading

Slow death by food

Illegal gold mining is poisoning Ghana’s soil and rivers, seeping into its crops and seafood, and turning the national food system into a long-term public health crisis.

A sick health system

The suspension of three doctors following the death of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s son has renewed scrutiny of a health-care system plagued by impunity, underfunding, and a mass exodus of medical professionals.

Afrobeats after Fela

Wizkid’s dispute with Seun Kuti and the release of his latest EP with Asake highlight the widening gap between Afrobeats’ commercial triumph and Fela Kuti’s political inheritance

Progress is exhausting

Pedro Pinho’s latest film follows a Portuguese engineer in Guinea-Bissau, exposing how empire survives through bureaucracy, intimacy, and the language of “development.”

The rubble of empire

Built by Italian Fascists in 1928, Mogadishu Cathedral was meant to symbolize “peaceful conquest.” Today its ruins force Somalis to confront the uneasy afterlife of colonial power and religious authority.

Atayese

Honored in Yorubaland as “one who repairs the world,” Jesse Jackson’s life bridged civil rights, pan-Africanism, empire, and contradiction—leaving behind a legacy as expansive as it was imperfect.

Bread or Messi?

Angola’s golden jubilee culminated in a multimillion-dollar match against Argentina. The price tag—and the secrecy around it—divided a nation already grappling with inequality.