The liberation stories of Guinea Bissau
Amilcar Cabral is a household name. But what happened to the young women like Joana Gomes who helped lead Guinea Bissau’s independence struggle?
democracy
The legacy of violence in the struggle for South Africa
An excerpt of an essay, titled “Nongoloza’s Ghost,” in Lapham’s Quarterly. It's published in partnership with Africa Is a Country.
A democracy of chameleons
Malawi is experiencing a crisis over the legitimacy of the democratic state itself.
The mythical black voter
Black Americans are not a unified voting bloc, and it is time to start paying attention.
When things fall apart
The demise of Alassane Ouattara’s presidency in Cote d’Ivoire.
Democracy needs dissent
In a ruling party-dominated Tanzania, opposition parties are flawed but remain critically important.
Liberal democracy has failed in Nigeria
What alternative pathways are available towards accountable governance in Nigeria?
Finding a way through the deluge in Zimbabwe
Public sector strikes place major pressure on the Zimbabwean state, but not enough to effect a meaningful national dialogue on the country's direction.
Between democracy and despotism
South Africa introduces a new law which allows traditional leaders along with third parties to decide for communities, without their consent.
What’s the point of opposition politics in Southern Africa?
Opposition parties, inequality, and the politics of failure in the Southern African region.
Cape Verde’s culture of recalcitrance
The island nation's celebrated political system was never a gift bestowed, but seized through sheer agency and hard-fought autonomy.
The ghost battalion
On the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) the organized force behind the revolutionary uprising in Sudan.
All of them must go
The Hirak, how the current contemporary liberation movement is known, gives Algerians a renewed sense of purpose.
Election frauds and new leaders
Election meddling may have sullied the reputation of Senegal as a beacon of democracy in West Africa, but a popular opposition candidate is giving hope for a new wave of Pan-Africanism in the region.
Tuning surveillance software with African faces
Is Africa following China into a techno-dystopian future?
A poem about the president gets you jailed in Uganda
The charge is "misusing a computer." Dr. Stella Nyanzi remains incarcerated to this day in Luzira Women’s Prison.
Reclaiming the narrative of the Algerian revolt
The outcome of the Algerian revolution should not be pre-determined by a (neo)liberal Euro-American global order. Listen to the people.
The meaning of party politics in Ghana’s urban neighborhoods
Why do so many of the urban poor support John Mahama and Ghana's opposition National Democratic Congress?
Sudan’s national salvation
Omar al Bashir has fallen in Khartoum. Beyond regime change—managed by the military—there's a deeper economic crisis.
The politics of a coup d’etat
Race and geopolitics in the 1966 coup d'etat that overthrew Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana.