The past few month have not been good for longtime African leaders who have been forced to step down, from Robert Mugabe to Hailemariam Desalegn [qualification: in the latter’s case, he is a representative of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, in control of Ethiopia’s government since 1995, but you get the picture]. An upcoming slew of elections in the first half of the year could prove problematic for many more. In Sierra Leone, for one, a new party — The National Grand Coalition — could bring down the hegemony of the Sierra Leone People’s Party, and All Peoples Congress, both of who have have essentially held power exclusively since independence. This election, surely, might become a true test for the strength of the political institutions.

Further north, the “international community” is determined to hold elections in Libya. Sometime in 2018. But in whose interest?

Across the Mediterranean, African migrants, and immigration, are having an outsized impact on the Italian elections.

Speaking of Italy, an anthropologist looks at the economic incentives behind migration of women who end up doing sex work. And how the focus must change in the narrative, if there is to be any success.

This week marked the 133rd anniversary of the Berlin Conference. From the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon to conversations around the Single African Air Transport Market, we find ourselves still coming up against those Berlin Walls erected on the continent then.

Two former US ambassadors to Kenya call for American intervention in Kenya.

“Today, more Congolese are displaced from their homes than Iraqis, Yemenis, or Rohingyas,” and as has been the case historically, external interference continues to destabilize it.

A decade after assault and attacks from the Lords Resistance Army, Ugandan women still carry the burden of trauma.

What Maya Angelou’s time in Egypt says about the Arab-Black solidarity in the 50s and 60s.

And yes; Black Panther is a little anti-Muslim.