Politics
The future of Françafrique
Is it France's interests to reform its unequal, exploitative relationship with Africans?
The Other African Election: Sarkozy K.O.’d
What does all that mean for French-African politics? It’s hard to tell what will next emerge from that fetid swamp.
Art and assassination in Angola
A locally produced arts festival creates panic for Angola's authoritarian government, who has, predictably, responded with panic and repression.
No room for ambiguity
Kenyan activists raise their voices, placards and fists over US$500 million allocated but not yet spent for anti-retroviral medications. That’s a lot of money, drugs, and lost lives.
Don’t Talk About Somebody’s Mama
Malians have little patience for Amadou Toumani Touré, Mali’s former president, deposed in a coup on 22 March.
David Cameron’s Libya Doctrine
Britain's secret service, MI5, passed on sensitive information to their Libyan colleagues to torture dissidents.
The verdict on Charles Taylor
A comment on the enigmatic, and ambivalent, presence of rebel leader and former president, Charles Taylor, ten years after he left Liberia.
The Other African election: France’s First Round
Both of the front-runners, incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist François Hollande, have run against FrançAfrique. Easier said than done.
In Praise of Jeffrey Gettleman’s Pulitzer
Pulitzer awarded Gettleman $10,000 for "his vivid reports, often at personal peril, on famine and conflict in East Africa."
Goldman Sachs’s Angolan interests
When the Financial Times commits an entire article to topics Angolan, it fills my Google news alert for a week.
Why is so much coverage of the Mali crisis so bad?
We mean the kind of bad that comes from being caught in a Beckettian loop of either saying nothing at all or having nothing to say.
The War in Mali’s North–To What Effect?
The rebels — that is, the MNLA and their disavowed and dangerous allies — hold Mali hostage.
The good Senegalese woman
Madame Faye Sall is the first woman of Senegalese birth and ancestry to become First Lady of Senegal. Some women in Senegal hope it will affect the debate about women and power there.
Coup d’Etat is the New Black
Military takeovers are happening so quickly and so fast in Africa, and instapundits need back facts. We are here to help. Here are some basic facts about Guinea-Bissau, site of the latest coup d'etat.
Bamako-sur-Seine
A sense of how the Malian diaspora experiences the political tensions and instability back home.
Germany’s Namibian Legacy
Jim Naughtom's images of Herero wearing German colonial outfits, is a powerful and necessary form of post-colonial critique.